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Grace abounds……or finding grace……or gracefully searching…..

June 27, 2009 by Edie Wadsworth 20 Comments

My way of saying ‘bird watching’ or ‘linky love’. Please name this post. You must use the term ‘grace’ in your entry. I will use this post a few times a month to show you great stuff I’ve found on the internet, but you must help me name it. Come on, be creative. Or at least enjoy these links!

1. I will certainly be ordering this sign. I found it here. Great blog too!

2. I went to a homeschool conference yesterday for the sole purpose of buying books without tax or shipping and at 10-20% off. I took Nicholas and the girls with me. Nicholas was wearing a DEEP cut V-neck t-shirt with a skull on the front. He had his hat on sideways and wore Caiti’s very large white sunglasses. Did I mention this was a homeschool conference? Yeah, I was sure we were gonna be kicked out. But I managed to buy this book. You MUST read this if you interested in education. My blog friend Jessica introduced me to this Thomas Jefferson Education with this audio file. PLEASE, you must listen and read. It will change the way you look at your children’s education.

3. My friend Patty has a blog. And she is such a good writer and such a good mother and such a good friend. She brought me the yummiest plate of chocolate chip cookies last week and sends me the sweetest, encouraging emails. You’ll love her writing, especially this post she wrote on ‘Daughters’.

4. Most of you know of my love for the christian talk radio show, IssuesEtc. Steve and I subscribe to the show through iTunes (or our iPhones) and listen ‘on demand’ (whenever we want). I usually listen in the mornings when I’m doing morning chores or as I sit and watch the kiddos play in the pool. This show has radically changed my life. It’s intensely Christ-centered and cross-focused and has been a major part of my on-going ‘educational pursuits’. Their one year anniversary (of producing the show on their own) is this Tuesday. We’re planning to celebrate with them ‘online’ since we procrastinated too long to fly to St. Louis. They recently interviewed Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller on Evangelism based on an article he wrote on the topic. Fascinating stuff! You may listen here.

5. And last but not least, my favorite ‘painted patio furniture’ link from my recent link party was Mandi’s. You’ll love her and her blog! Thank you Mandi and thanks to all of you who participated.

~~Update on the Verity: I followed them to lunch yesterday but I did have a legitimate reason: Taylor forgot his swim trunks. I gave a few last hugs and left, before I cried again. They made to SC and seem to be doing just fine. Breathe. Just breathe. Emme has decided to wear The Verity t-shirt to bed every night until they get home…..so we’ll remember to pray for them. Not that there was any danger in this momma forgetting!

I promise to stop stalking them now, but I’m so happy that one of my blog friends might be able to ~~spy on~~ see them in Ohio.

The Verity goes on tour….in a city near you!!

June 25, 2009 by Edie Wadsworth 13 Comments

It is my distinct privilege and honor to introduce you to The Verity, a christian rock band consisting of 5 bright and charming young men from Morristown, Tennessee.

My son, Taylor, whom you’ve heard lots about, is the lead singer, guitar player, songwriter and self-proclaimed ‘dad’ of the group (shown center). You also know Andrew well from my blog posts. The boys are all listed at the bottom of this picture. They leave tomorrow for a ten day tour of the eastern US. They will be traveling with another band but there won’t be any parent chaperones. I’ve asked them to guest post so that you will remember to pray for them(and their parents) while they’re gone. Please show them some love in the comments section! I know they look all grown up but there will be some worried mamas here at home while these boys are venturing into the treacherous waters of manhood.

Hello to all my beloved moms’ blogger friends. As you have figured out by now we are leaving for a ten day tour tomorrow morning! We are extremely excited to do this, it has been a work in progress for awhile and it feels great to actually be doing something that we have only talked about since the band started. We just wanted to take the time before we leave to thank you all for the support and we ask that you continue to pray for us daily while we are gone and on the road!

We are still booking some dates for the end of July and the first week of August so if you know of any churches or venues that are looking for a christian band then let us know! Also if you live near a venue that we are playing at on this tour then come out and see us and say HEY! Thanks for everything!!

-Taylor and Dibbs

Jun 24 2009 6:30P

FBC Youth Building-Blitz Week Morristown, Tennessee

Jun 25 2009 6:30P

FBC Youth Building-Blitz Week Morristown, Tennessee

Jun 26 2009 6:00P

The Channel w/ Standing Small Greeneville, South Carolina

Jun 27 2009 6:00P

The Rock w/ Standing Small Crossville, Tennessee

Jun 28 2009 6:00P

River Hills Christian Church w/ Standing Small and The Color House Loveland, Ohio

Jun 29 2009 7:00P

The Bean Coffeehouse w/ Standing Small and The Color House East Peoria, Illinois

Jun 30 2009 8:00P

Ignite Center w/ Standing Small and The Color House Green Bay, Wisconsin

Jul 1 2009 7:00P

The Nite Light Cafe w/ Standing Small and The Color House Berwyn, Illinois

Jul 2 2009 4:15P

Cornerstone Festival-New Band Showcase!! Bushnell, Illinois

Jul 24 2009 6:00P

D’NOW in Grainger County-We will put the Church name up soon!! Grainger County, Tennessee

Jul 25 2009 6:00P

D’NOW in Grainger County-We will put the Church name up soon!! Grainger County, Tennessee

Jul 31 2009 6:00P

Harvest Outreach Youth Event White Pine, Tennessee

Aug 5 2009 7:00P

Loudhouse Coffee Greenbrier, Tennessee

I know I’m no martyr but Taylor is taking my car (above) and I’m driving his car(below).

For 10 days. My car has been plagued with funny smells before which you can read about here, but I’m very afraid of my car returning with a curious 10day-sweatyboy-DIDSOMETHINGDIEINHERE?-smell. This, along with ‘will he eat one piece of fruit while he’s gone?’ is what keeps me up at night.

Nicholas Wadsworth interviews Taylor and Dibbs

I pray for your safety. I hope you have fun. I’m so proud of what you’ve made of your life. I’ll be counting the days till you’re back home. May God give you grace for your journey. My love to you today, everyday, and always.

Mom.

P.S. Showers and clean underwear are your friends. ‘Just say no’ to Andrew and Jay.

You can follow The Verity on twitter here.

You can follow Taylor on twitter here.

Today is June 24th and I’m…..

June 24, 2009 by Edie Wadsworth 12 Comments

….moving things around…..creating spaces that inspire me and cleaning up dust bunnies in the process. The ones I can see…..in my bedroom….and the ones

I often forget….in my heart.

I’m thinking about my life and finding so many reasons

to be thankful. I’m worrying…..about Taylor and ‘the boys’ taking their 10 day tour

…..in my car……praying for safety and anticipating this journey as his rite of passage

into the world of manhood and adventure…..

and wishing I could stow away in his guitar case….if only for a day.

This little boy that has become a man nearly always

reminds me of you—-something in his smile, I guess.

I’m dreaming…..of books I’ve yet to read and places I’ve yet to visit

and standing quietly over the memories of books and places and people that have changed my heart forever. I’m longing……for more time, for more patience, for the gentleness of heart to lead my children to life abundant.

But then my thoughts freeze.

When I think of you.

The kind and humored spirit whose life marks my soul forever.

Whose death changed me forever.

And who, in his deliberate choice to laugh…..

when life constantly brought him tears……

is my teacher always.

Happy Birthday Daddy. Your children miss you. Your grandchildren

would make you proud.

Your tears were not in vain.

Painted Patio Furniture: "Blue and Improved"

June 22, 2009 by Edie Wadsworth 43 Comments

Edited to add: I recently did a link party for patio furniture and I thought it’d be fun to add it to Kelly’s party too. Hope you enjoy the links. Thanks for visiting!

Welcome to my 2nd Linky Party which I shall call ‘Painted Patio Furniture: Blue and Improved’. This patio set that I rehab-ed today is almost 15 years old and has been painted 4 times. Today the color of choice: aqua. I seem to be obsessed with blue lately as you can tell from this post. I am also excited to be joining ‘Metamorphosis Monday’ hosted by Susan from Between Naps on the Porch—a new blog to me! Make sure and visit her site too.

This beautiful before-storm sky is a beautiful backdrop for my ‘before’ picture.

So, how does one solicit the appropriate help for such a project, you ask?

All it takes is a little good food. A little gourmet on Father’s Day.

And they come running. Or spraying.

And less than an hour and a half later: voila!!!! Blue and improved. I give you:

Retro Patio

And these children enjoyed some pool time AFTER I read them the ‘pool rules’ which you can

read here. ‘Hank’ is the 50 pound 7 month old golden retriever.

My patio is a plethora of colors……

as are my legs.

My trusty side-kick Nicholas aka Nick aka JohnnytheNightStalker then began using the ‘dropcloths’ from our project to create this suburban cul-de-sac art creation. He requested us to sit in as ‘props’. And I’m a little bit scared to inform you that he’s starting a blog. Consider yourself warned.

Now it’s your turn. Please, pretty please, show us your patio. If it’s fantastic, show us and we’ll oooooo and ahhhhhh and if it needs work, show us and we’ll tell you where we bought our blue spray paint. K?

Father’s Day Weekend

June 21, 2009 by Edie Wadsworth 8 Comments

I love holidays. All of them. And you can bet your bottom dollar that holidays will find us ‘hunkered down’ at the ranch (ie. suburban home on a cul de sac), cooking all manner of yummy treats, and taking full advantage of family time. Father’s Day is an especially fun one because it coincides with the US Open. In summary, we have watched golf (ie.Tiger), consumed generous amounts of food, read some good books, and made every attempt not to leave the house.

And if you had this guy

with these particular forearms……hanging around your kitchen, you wouldn’t want to leave either. (I admit that I share Pioneer Woman’s obsession with forearms)

My feeble attempts at family photos were met with much resistance.

Even the dog resisted.

So I settled for a few candid shots of the backyard antics.

A little soccer.

A little Yoga.

And a whole

lot of

tomfoolery.

Father’s Day Menu (made by yours truly and kicken-nicken)

Grilled Filet

Corn on the Cob

Spinach Stuffed Tomatoes

Shitake Mushrooms with Creamy Stone Ground Grits

Zucchini Salad

Key Lime Pie (I’d tell but I’d have to kill you)

Happy Father’s Day, honey!

You are the key lime to my pie….

the HD to my TV…..

the avocado to my homeade salsa!

We love you and thank God for your presence in our lives!

We also would like to wish Grandpa Eddie a Happy Father’s Day! We can’t wait to see you.

Reminder: Tomorrow I hope to host a Linky Party on Painted Patio Furniture. If it rained all weekend at your house (like it did at mine) just show us what you plan to do. Painted planters or other garden ‘stuff’ is fair game. I may not post the Linky party until later in the afternoon, so you’ll have plenty of time get those posts ready.

The Hidden God

June 18, 2009 by Edie Wadsworth 4 Comments

Repost from December 20, 2008. And coming soon: A guest post by Taylor Riden (from The Verity—that’s my son ya know), and Painted Patio Furniture Linky Party on Monday June 22nd. Get busy now!

Caiti (now 16) at age 4

I’ve been reading a lot about the topic Christless christianity and how our inborn sinful nature is always bent towards self. We are by nature self-centered, self-focused and our perspective is always self oriented and is always distorted. Man’s natural theology is, in Lutheran circles, called a theology of glory. The rich man and Lazarus would be a good example. The rich man seemingly had ‘it all’. He wore the finest garments, drank the finest wine and ate gourmet food. Lazarus, in contrast, is a poor beggar who waits for the crumbs to fall from the rich man’s table. Based on just what you know on the surface, who is favored by God? We would often naturally conclude that the rich man must be favored by God. And we would almost always, at least in our minds, say “Well, surely Lazarus has done something to deserve this”.

A theology of glory likes to ‘figure God out’ and likes to use logic to determine how things are between God and I. Don’t we often think this about those who do not seem to have God’s favor in this life? “Well, God must be trying to teach them something.” If we’re blessed and making moral improvement, we must be ‘right’ with God. And if not, the opposite must be true. But as you know, in death the rich man finds himself in hell and Lazarus is comforted in the bosom of Abraham. So can I look at my circumstances in life and tell how it is between God and I? How does God show His favor to those He loves? And how can I know if I have His favor? God hides His glory behind the weakness of the cross. And he shows His favor to us through the death and resurrection of His own son for our redemption. And I know I have His favor because I receive the gifts He has given in faith and thanksgiving. I am favored by God because of Jesus. Thus, a theology of the cross……interprets everything in my life……the blessings, the suffering, every circumstance through the perfect suffering of Christ on my behalf.

God’s ways are hidden and paradoxical:

1. God hides His glory in the mundane elements of bread and wine. Jesus has withdrawn His visible presence from the earth. He is now the hidden God and we must depend on His word to know what He is about. So when God says “Take eat, this is my body”, He is hidden, in-with-and under the bread. We don’t ‘see’ Him there and it seems impossible to me that He is there. So I must trust His very own words and find comfort in His hidden presence in His Word and sacrements.

2. He hides His glory in the weakness of a baby. When He comes to earth, He does not come in glory but in the flesh. The very incarnation of Christ is so incredible to me. How can this be? It was scandalous then and seems scandalous now and so unlike how I would have chosen to reveal myself to the world. The smallness of God in a lowly manger on a lonely night greeted by mere animals and born of the travail and sweat of childbirth. This is God? Yes, this is the very essence of the truth of God. Humbled. Lowly. With His glory hidden. To bring to us our very salvation.

3. He hides Himself in our vocation. God achieves His means of serving and taking care of us through the hiddenness of others doing their vocation. So God hides himself in : a mother making dinner for her family; a father going to work everyday to provide; a doctor using his skills and knowledge to effect healing; a teacher teaching multiplication to her students; the garbage man collecting the trash. It all ‘looks’ and ‘seems’ so mundane…..but that is God at work in the world. Serving and taking care of His people.

So we must take heed to let the theologian of glory in all of us be crucified with Christ. We must accept God’s ways as mysterious and hidden; as not yet revealed. Whether our circumstances bring us joy or suffering, our posture to God should be one of repentance. We must learn to view our lives through the lens of the cross. For in him are hidden all treasures of wisdom and knowledge. (Col. 2:3) He will come in glory someday and we await that day with great anticipation. But until then, He has hidden Himself in things that might seem ordinary and even mysterious to us: words, water, bread and wine.

Luther said that Our Lord does not want to be found outside Christ….so he hides Himself in order to be found only in the grace and mercy of Christ. He seldom comes where we expect or look for Him: in victory and glory and glitz. He comes where we do not expect him: in suffering, in shame, in humility, as a baby, in His word, in the water of baptism, in the elements of the Lord’s Supper. God wants to be found in the words of the promise in Christ that give new life. If we find Him outside of Christ, we find Him in wrath.

The ‘hidden’ God is hidden in Christ….come to us in the flesh to bear our sin and be our Savior and who says “I am the way, the Truth and the life and no man comes to the Father except through Me.”

Much of what goes on in modern Christianity seems very Christ-less; alot about ‘me’ instead of Christ ‘for me’. We are favored by God because of Christ alone.

I credit the rare and sound doctrinal teaching of Issues, Etc, its’ host Todd Wilken and an article he wrote on this subject, and their many scholarly guests. I can’t seem to find the segment where these ideas were presented but I think the guest was Pastor Bill Cwirla. I listened to this segment just this morning on Children and Worship and it was quite enlightening. Bookmark their site and listen ‘on demand’ while you do your morning chores! I’ve been listening to this internet radio show for 3 years now and there is nothing else like it. They cover current issues in the news, current trends in christianity and sound Biblical doctrinal teaching. Maybe you could listen while you paint your patio furniture!! Just a thought.