Old English Poetry that Ever Rings True

Unpacking CHRISTmas decorations with the big kids today, I ran across a poem that I really like. For those of you who didn't grow up on King James' English, take heart...this really is worth wading through to find the meat of what was meant. Enjoy!

The True Christmas
by Henry Vaughn

The brightness of this day we owe
Not unto music, masque, nor show,
Nor gallant furniture, nor plate;
But to the manger's mean estate.
His life while here, as well as birth,
Was but a check to pomp and mirth;
And all man's greatness you may see
Condemned by His humility.
Then leave your open house and noise,
To welcome Him with holy joys,
And the poor shepherd's watchfulness
whom light and hymn from heaven did bless.
What you abound with, cast abroad
To those that want, and ease your load.
Who empties thus, will bring more in;
But riot is both loss and sin.
Dress finely what comes not is sight,
And then you keep your Christmas right.

Wonderful Windy West Texas

I grew up in West Texas; I should be used to windstorms. However, this lonely hill top we live on has taught me a lot about the power of the One who makes the wind blow wherever He wishes! We were enjoying a typical morning when Taylor sent me a message saying that the cold front we are expecting was on it's way, pushing a lot of wind in front of it. (Translation: please brave your way outside and rescue anything that's blowing around and cover the water faucets we should have covered two days ago. Thanks! ) So, leaving Daniel to sleep on his mat in the house, the big kids and I went out to brave the blast, which Taylor informs me is gusting up to 45 miles per hour. :) The kids picked up their toys and put them in the barn while I took the mail out to the mail box. When I came back, Glory bravely threw herself on top of the laundry basket while I stuffed clothes under her to keep them from blowing away. By this time, Levi was tired of standing up, so I sent him to sit on the porch with the dog out of the wind. As soon as we had rescued the laundry, I sent the kids inside and fed the chickens and drained the water hoses. We are now all back inside the calm of the house, four kinds of tired and hair standing up like we had volunteered for a science demonstration. Whew! Scripture tells us to be content with such things as we have; I suppose that includes the wind - which we definitely have our share of!

Of Big Kids and Bunk Beds

In preparation for Daniel joining in the kids' room sometime this winter, our big kids got new beds...of which they are very proud. I had to stay outside their door and watch them sleep a bit that first night amazed at how much God has grown them up! Also, since it's been way too long since Dan got his picture up here, I added one of him and me! :)

That Sneaky Serpent

Just before lunch today, while working in my office I began to hear a buzzing kind of noise. I got up and listened to my computers to determine if one of the fans were humming a bit loud...nope. Then came the dreadful feeling that I was going to have to venture outside. As I walked around the side of my office I heard the buzzing sound got louder. I glanced under my office and saw the cat sitting there which is not too unusual. The cat and the buzzing sound meant one of two things: 1) he caught some sort of cricket that was vainly trying to get out of his mouth; or 2) he found a snake (a rattlesnake of course!).

In this part of Texas, there was no need to take any chances. I immediately ran into the house and grabbed the shotgun. With no verbal communication, Alesha knew what that meant. She put the kids inside on a mat and had them stay there. My office is raised between 4"-8" off the ground so generally I can see under it, but the rattling sound was coming from behind some grass weeds such that I could not see it. We poked and prodded the hiding snake from one end of the office to the other. ... To make a long, 45 min episode a bit shorter, we corralled the snake, with much effort, near an outside corner of the office. Then using a long PVC pipe I pushed it out into the open and pinned it down with my pipe. Meanwhile, my father-in-law shot at it with his revolver (since the snake was only 2 ft from my office and 12 ft from the propane tank, we did not want to use the shotgun). After wounding him, I took a hoe and chopped his head off. The battle was over.

As usual, during and after a fight with a rattlesnake I must think of my real enemy, Satan. See my other post. This time though was the first time that the head was preserved enough to watch it continue to bite at the air, or dust, or anything else that the snake thought it could inflict harm upon. Though Satan has lost the war, and Jesus is proved vicorious over sin and death and hell, that evil Serpent continues to slither his way into our lives just to cause us a bit more pain and suffering. Or perhaps we see the wiggling decapitated body and choose to stay away from it, but forget to consider that it can do no more harm, but rather the head, still biting in the wind, will strike at any unsupsecting victim.

Well, that was my adventure and those are my thoughts!
Enjoy!

Election Post

Hmmm, I wonder if Alesha even knows who won the election yet. I would not know either if it were not for someone already telling me.
Here are my two most enjoyed election posts:
http://stufffchristianslike.blogspot.com/2008/11/432-election-post-you-have-to-write.html
and
http://thepoint.breakpoint.org/2008/11/politics-and-th.html

Enjoy!

Trusting My Father

Here's a recent picture of Daniel and his Papa! :) I love the strength of the one and the comfortable helplessness of the other. TRUST. It's awesome! :) This weekend I thought quite a bit about my Fathers...my earthly father had chest surgery this past Monday, which, thanks to my heavenly Father, seems to have gone very well. One lobe of his lung was removed; the two cysts they found do not seem to be cancerous. At this point, it seems to be a wonderful report and Daddy is doing well. Through the waiting and suspense of all this, though, I have been thinking some about prayer. As Christians, we are given an amazing opportunity. Since we have surrendered all we are to Christ, God can now see His Son when he looks at us instead of seeing who we used to be. Because our sin is then out of the way, we have an audience before the all-powerful, all-wonderful Creator of Life. Even more amazing, we don't come as slaves, but as dear children as we pour our requests and our fears at His feet. Unbelievers don't have this position. They are loved as much, but have no access into His presence since they have rejected the access He has provided through Christ. What do they do then, in stressful circumstances? They can try to solve them by themselves, but soon they will come to problems bigger than their solutions. They can hope things all work out, but deep in their soul they know they have no control. If this is you, you do not have to stay in this position! God is waiting and eager for your love and your trust! TRUST. This brings me to what I've been thinking the most about. I have been ashamed over the past few days at how in spite of my prayers, worry has ruled where peace should have. I AM a Christian! I HAVE this hope that the world does not! It is not the fault of my Father, Who has promised me His perfect peace, but with me, who like Peter, started to sink in the waves that faith would have easily held me above if my eyes would have truly been on Christ. Graciously, like with Peter, my Lord is always there to reach out His hand, even when my fear rules over my faith. As I look at my husband with our young children, and hear him stare them in the eyes and say, "Trust me", when they have to walk with him through something scary, I know that my Father says the same to me. :)

Fairy Tales

I was reading a book about the Chinese people, Christianity, and Communism. There was a comment in the book that Chinese people rely heavily on pictures and symbols to convey meaning. For example, a man has a old, beautiful, 200 year old tree in his yard. Someone (not his friend) may come along and cut down the tree. The meaning: leave town or your family roots will die when I kill or hurt you. (Remember, that Chinese families are only allowed to have one child, so if a son dies then that is the end of his family heritage.) In other cultures, I think that speaking in analogies is common also.

But when I hear an analogy or some other word picture, I am usually too dense to figure out what the meaning is behind the story unless someone gives me a clue. I wonder how many other people (particularly Americans) do not pay attention to the meanings behind a story (especially when the story does not have "real" characters). We have fairy tales of the ToothFairy, Santa Claus, etc, and then there are make-believe movies, which we have learned to not believe. There are fiction novels which are not true, however many fiction writers write with an underlying purpose in mind. So basically, we do not like to put a lot of thought into anything unless it comes from our own experiences or perhaps for academia. But how do we know when something REAL comes our way?

Jesus also spoke using simple word pictures to make the connection to greater things. He spoke of hidden treasures (Matthew 13), lost sheep (Matthew 18), seeds bearing fruit(Matthew 13), and unfaithful workmen (Mark 12). We can come up with some simple moral for each of his "stories", but the main point of these was not in a simple moral for everyday life, rather it was for us to know and understand who he is and what our relationship with him should be. He gave these to us to know how we may enter into the kingdom of heaven. So if all that you know are the simple morals that Jesus taught, then you are truly missing out. Please search out the truths in the parables of Jesus. A few hours of searching now may save you a lot of heartache in the future!

-Taylor

The Day the Bubble Burst

Yes, I work for a financial software company, but this post has very little to do with the current financial markets (though link below may be helpful if you are an investor). Today, Glory spent the last part of her quiet time with me in my office. While I worked, she also worked on another computer practicing her hand-eye coordination by moving the mouse cursor over a digital piece of bubble wrap and then by clicking it she could "pop" the bubble.

Now this may seem silly, but we actually had a good learning experience. Some times I would start a pattern of bubbles to pop and she would have to finish the pattern. Other times, she practiced spelling short words by popping the appropriate bubbles.

For those of you who need some bubble wrap, but do not have any currently in stock, then here is a cheap substitute: http://www.therightfoot.net/mystuff/whatever/swf/bubblewrap.swf.

Enjoy!
P.S. - Thanks for the webpage Granny B!

All Kinds of Smiles

I thought you might want to listen in on a conversation Glory and I had while playing with Daniel last night.

Me: Soon, Glory, Dan will learn how to smile at us! Can you help me teach him how to smile?

GH: Yeah!!! He can learn all the kinds of smiles!

Me: All kinds? What kinds are there, Glo?

GH: (Smiling like anybody should know a simple thing like smile classification,)
1) Thank You Smiles
2) Camera Smiles (remember, she just turned 4)
3) Teach-the-Gospel Smiles!

Now, to fully appreciate that last category, you need to know our shy little Glory, who by nature tends to give people a cold stare and hope they go away instead of saying hello. You also need to know her Papa, who works with her often on being friendly "so that people will know that Jesus loves her and that Jesus loves them, too". So, smile for the LORD today!

Done!

Today my thesis was officially approved by the Graduate School, and (as far as I can tell) I have fully met the requirements for my M.S. Math degree. You can even access my thesis from the TTU Library here: http://etd.lib.ttu.edu/theses/available/etd-09302008-094035/.

For those of you close enough to come to the commencement ceremonies, don't bother. We decided to forsake the official event and use that time and money to go see family in Houston.

Now it is time for a poll: What subject shall my PhD be in?
Enjoy!

Editor's Correction:

Well, I feel better about my linguistic intuition now! Thanks to Tim's comment on my previous post, "Dreaming of Good Literature", I found that "snuck" is indeed an acceptable past tense of sneak. However, it has not always been so. According to http://dictionary.reference.com, the word has truly "snuck" into accepted English vocabulary over the past hundred years, coming to the point of almost replacing it's predecessor, "sneaked", especially for the younger generation of writers. So...now you know...whether you wanted to or not! :)

Working myself out of a job

Glory made lunch for us yesterday! I helped her extremely minimally...in fact, with the exception of getting things out of the tall freezer and setting the temperature on the toaster oven, all I did was coach her verbally. Her masterpiece consisted of fish sticks and frozen vegetables, served with ranch salad dressing used as fish stick dip. (I still prefer ketchup, but I think she has invented a new favorite for her Papa!) She's getting so big! Her "helping" is really starting to be HELP! :)

Dreaming of good literature

Levi has started asking to take a book to nap,which we usually allow, since it tends to help him be quiet, aiding in his actually falling asleep. Falling...the book, that is...usually somewhere on his upper body, where he let it drop as he lost consciousness. Taylor sneaked in to check on him the other day and had to leave promptly so his laughter would not wake him up. (Though it probably wouldn't have, since dropping the book on his face didn't seem to faze him any. :)

P.S. I just learned something: Spell-check, and my old Webster's dictionary inform me that "snuck", as in the past-tense of sneak, just aren't proper English - regardless of the fact that it has sounded just fine to me for the past 20-something years. Good old West Texas English...it'll get ya every time. :)

Black Jack of Belarat*

Ok, so he was not really black, instead he was a medium grey, but he surely was a rat.

Sometime this last winter, various "critters" attempted to make their home under our box-barn. It had always been undesirable, but it became absolutely unacceptable a few weeks ago when we found a snake quartering under there. After killing the snake, I poured a small concrete footing to keep these "critters" out. Evidently, one rat remained trapped under there and eventually dug his way out. Upon seeing his hole, we tried to get him out but we were not successful. This morning, Pascal made a bunch a racket in the box-barn and came out triumphantly with a large rat. However, both Pete and Pascal have learned that it is more fun to play with their prizes than to actually kill them, so I carefully placed several lead pellets in his mid-rear section. I do not think that he suffered much at all.

I covered up his hole, so that hopefully we can be a happy, "critter" free family again.
Enjoy!

* Can you guess where "Black Jack of Belarat" is from?

Thesis

Wednesday morning I went to defend my thesis. Everything went as good as can be expected. I was asked to add one sentence to my Abstract, which I promptly did and my advisers approved. So I am now technically finished with my MS degree (though I will not be officially done until the end of the semester). It is very relieving to have this task completed, and we are very thankful to the Lord for his help during all of this. Surely He was with us on Wed. because many more things could have gone wrong, but did not.
Enjoy!

Sorry for not giving a Daniel update sooner...we were busy enjoying him and forgot that there were those out there waiting for more pictures. He is doing really well in all respects and has a wonderful habit of sleeping for six hours at a time, which makes for an almost sane Mama! :) Our friends have been wonderful to bring supper over every other day for the past two weeks, which has been a big help...although I think my husband is afraid that perhaps I have completely forgotten how to cook. :) Glory had her fourth birthday just after we brought Daniel home; so between the birthday commotion, Grandmothers coming and going, and just the excitement of finally having Dan, it's taken us this long to settle into any sort of "normal". (Whatever that is.) Yet, we feel extremely blessed that God has given us the opportunity to run this race and pray for His grace to help us finish it well!

Meet Dan Courage

On Saturday, August 23rd at 12:51am, Daniel Courage Hollingsworth was born. He weighed in at 8 lbs. 1 oz. and was 20 3/4 inches long. Comparatively, he was shorter than Levi, but outweighed his older brother by 2 oz. Glory and Levi met Daniel later that morning and took a liking to him immediately. I have heard of children being jealous of their newborn sibling, but we have not yet witnessed that. After Glory got over the shock of us being in the hospital she became the delighted little "mama". Levi on the other hand was just proud that he could touch Daniel "gently"; he did have fun counting Daniel's ears, and eyes (again, remembering to be "gentle").

We are all doing well, and expect to return home on Sunday. We appreciate your prayers as we help this little child grow in the strength of the Lord Jesus.
Enjoy!
Taylor
P.S. - We have (and continue to get more) pictures. We have yet to determine how we will share them, but if you are interested then let one of us know.

The "LAZY" Struggle

In engineering (especially including computer programming), I think that to some degree part of our job is to help people be "lazy" by simplifying basic or repetitive processes. The definition of lazy can varying here depending on context and/or relative positions or views. Let us also be clear that the "lazy" that I am speaking of is not intended as the stubborn sort of lazy where someone will not do something because they simply do not want to. Rather I am speaking of lazy in terms of effectiveness or efficiency. For example, have you ever used a calculator find the square root of a number or to multiply two large numbers, or perhaps you have used a computer to balance/track your checkbook, pay bills, online, manage income and expenses for a business, or make future projections based on some data (many online services, like bill pay, like to substitute "convenience" for "lazy", but do not be fooled, I am speaking of the same thing). These are quite useful tools, but there is a drawback...

Simple users of the tools can abuse the tools by using them to replace higher order processes, like thinking, reasoning, and debate. Have you ever met a high school student who needed a calculator to subtract 40 from 100? I have. My point here is not to pick on our educational system, but to consider how much technology is too much.

Think of it this way, we have three basic economic classes: upper/wealthy, middle, and lower/poor. What would happen if we could group people into these same groups in terms of knowledge. Assuming that our technology aides the upper knowledge class, how does it impact the middle and lower classes. Which class is growing faster due to technology?

Enjoy!

Network Administrator

When working (or playing) on the internet have you ever received a message that reads something like, "...please contact your network administrator..."? If you use the internet, then I am sure that you have received this message at some point (whether you actually read it or not is a different story). When I read this type of message or when my wife says that she got this message I get a big lump in my throat and my palms begin to get a bit shaky and sweaty. Why? Because, as of a few weeks ago I became the Network Administrator for our little wireless network for the house!

Theoretically, this is a simple job: keep the internet server running; turn on the internet; turn on the wireless router...OH! but it is SO much more complicated than that! Here is my latest episode...

I rearranged my office to accommodate a new computer that I plan to use for my WTC teaching work. On Thursday afternoon, the internet seemed sluggish, but still functional. I checked our wireless internet connection and it still showed 3-4 bars of reception (the max available). On Friday, it was unreasonably slow and it was all that I could do to stay at work. By Saturday, then connection was dropping about once an hour. So I rebooted the internet server, checked all my settings and tried again. It was going OK...for a while...argh! Today, Monday morning the connection was still slow and still dropping. So I put my Network Admin. hat on again and moved my wireless internet connection modem over about 2 feet. I now have high internet speeds again...go figure.

Enjoy!

Amish Computer Virus

My heart sank as I read the spam that began, “By opening this e-mail, you have activated the Amish computer virus.” Then I realized that not only was my computer in jeopardy, so was my reputation, as it continued, “Since the Amish don’t have computers, this works on the honor system. Please delete all your files. Thank you.”

Tracie Walker

Reader’s Digest, August 2008, p. 163

(While this may be funny to you it is really funny to the people that I work with. Many of our programmers are Amish!)

Enjoy!

Office Space

For the past several months, Taylor has been working from home, using my brother's large travel trailer as an office. However, as of last week, he now has a real building! From the outside it looks like an innocuous little wooden building - from the inside, (despite the unfinished wooden walls) it is beginning to look more like a space station - complete with three computer monitors and and the flashing blue lights of a wireless router. (So much for country living as we knew it. ) We bought the building unfinished and have been working hard to get it office-worthy. Taylor wired it while I helped insulate the walls. We later both worked on getting insulation and plywood on the ceiling. My parents gave us a used window-unit air conditioner that they weren't using, for which we are VERY grateful. It is still a long way from being the nicely furnished room which we hope it to be someday, but at least he can work in it comfortably. I'll try to get some pictures of the progress inside at some point.

Piano Restoration...sort of

Some time ago we were given an old Hammond piano. Now that we are a bit more settled we hired a piano tuner to come out and see if our piano could be fixed. He looked it over thoroughly and decided that it might not be worth our money. :-(

We guessed that the piano was built some time in the 1920s. I talked with him about taking it apart and putting an electric keyboard in it. He said that was a great idea and offered some suggestions on when to start. So I began taking it apart yesterday. Currently, I have all the keys out and a space cleared for the keyboard. (see pics)

Now I need to find a keyboard to fit in the spot. I will let you know how it goes.
Enjoy!
Taylor

The great breakfast struggle

When I was growing up, most breakfasts followed a common theme - some sort of bread with peanut butter and milk, eaten on the way out the door. My mother is a wonderful cook, but Daddy has never had any interest in eating breakfast, so there wasn't much use making an elaborate meal out of it. Consequently, I came into marriage being reasonably equipped to cook for my beloved...but NONE of my armory of recipes included breakfast ideas. I like hot cereal, so the first year of our marriage, my menu looked like this:

Day 1: Oatmeal
Day 2: Sweetened rice
Day 3: Toast and jelly
Day 4: Corn Meal Mush

Unfortunately, this is the way Taylor remembers that menu:

Day 1: Mushy stuff
Day 2: MORE Mushy stuff
Day 3: Toast and jelly
Day 4: Mushy stuff Again!!!???

Anyway, I've now spent bits and pieces of the last 5 yrs. hunting for other options to breakfast. :) I was really excited today to find a GRANOLA recipe that did NOT require remembering to stir the stuff every 5 minutes for over an hour! This one cooks for less than 10 minutes in a pot on top of the stove, dump it out and let it cool! Hey...this is almost as easy as making "mushy stuff", and I hope it will go over better with one very important diner around here. :)

- P.S. If anybody else is curious, comment and I'll post the recipe.

Wrecking Ball

For those of you who do not know, Levi is a "sturdy" kid. Though he is two years younger than Glory, he is only about 4 pounds less than she is. Mind you, he is not fat, but solid. Much of his weight is in muscle. The other day, I caught him in his "wrecking ball" position. This is where he puffs up his chest, sometimes he then bows his head a bit, and then he charges in whatever direction he is facing (this is a happy/fun game for him). One time I was tossing a ball at him and it bounced off of him and left him unphased. The next time, his Auntie M happened to be in the way...she barely maintained her balance (I do not think that he saw her since his head was down that time).
It is cute now, but what do we do 10 years from now?
Is it too late to change his name to Samson?
Enjoy!
Taylor

Male and Female He created them...

For those of you who were worried we might never update the blog again, SORRY! We have not moved to a third world country without internet access, we've just been busy somehow. Anyway, here are some pictures of the two kids we've been watching grow up before our eyes. (Which is primarily what we've been doing instead of blogging.) Ever since Levi has been born, we have laughed at how much he is NOT his sister. Now that he is a couple of months away from his 2nd birthday, I continue to be amazed at the wonderful gulf between the our sweet girl and our little man. As we once heard a parent say, "I agree with Eve when she said after giving birth to Cain, 'I have gotten a man from the LORD.'" Here she held this tiny, helpless little life, but she knew that THIS was a MAN in the making. :)

Out to Lunch

I have received a few comments about not keeping the blog more updated. Sorry about that...real life tends to get in the way of blogging life. Additionally, I am now teaching an internet-based class for WTC, so, in addition to my software testing job, I have been busy writing notes for my students every day of the week. Due to all of this internet activity, I have decided to take a "computing sabbatical" every Lord's Day...this means that I do not touch the computer for at least 24 hours. No computer, no blog.

Alesha has been kept quite busy taking care of three kiddos and myself. Maybe sometime in August we will pick it back up again.

Enjoy!
Taylor

If the Lord be God...

God's prophet, Elijah, once posed this to the children of Israel: "How long halt ye between two opinions? If the LORD be God, follow Him. But if Baal, then follow him." (1Kings 18:21)

I think this question was also written for me. The context is a bit different, for I am not wavering between worshiping the LORD, (Jehovah) and another god. I am certain that the LORD is God. I know that He is the creator of all that is, and as such deserves my reverence. Additionally, He is the only Savior of my soul, and therefore is deserving of my love. The emphasis that caught my attention in this verse made it read like this:"If the LORD be God, Follow Him." This is what I make of it...If I know that "the LORD is God" in all the glory that could possibly be captured in that word, why do I continue to weigh decisions by what my extended family, friends, etc. will think, instead of being open to His will? (Even as I type, the stubborn part of my brain is muttering things like, "Yes, but 'safety is found in a multitude of councilors.' And, "But you DO want God's will in your life! If you post this, everybody will think that you aren't following Him..." See...there it goes again, trying to make me wonder what you guys will think of me instead of following Him first. :) Usually, (I hope), another part of my brain is able to kick in and squash this kind of thinking before it goes too far and the decision is decided by better reasons than "opinion polls". What bothers me, though, is that if I know that the LORD be God, why do I waste time worrying about the reaction of PEOPLE, who are not God? (I welcome all comments, but I'm not expecting a painless, 3 step process for mortifying the flesh...just thought you might want to look inside my brain. :)

Levi, eat your broccoli!

O.k. , so we didn't really make him eat the whole thing. In actuality, he was supposed to be posing with the broccoli, so y'all could see the wonderful head the Lord grew for us in our garden this year. By the way, Taylor has my internet set up now, so I can e-mail from home...yeah!!!! Hopefully, this will mean the blog will be updated more often, but we'll see. Somehow, I don't always seem to make time for computing. :)

Yikes!

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words... these two may be worth more than that. For anyone who is curious for a more verbal explanation however, This is Levi, our dear son, during the twenty minutes that followed finishing up a piece of "Emergency Chocolate Pie". (This is no culinary masterpiece: it was instant chocolate pudding poured into a store-bought graham cracker crust with a handful of crushed macadamia nuts thrown hastily onto the top. Sorry Granny B - I know this ruins my reputation as a chef, but I only had ten minutes. :) At least Levi didn't object.

House Pictures!

Sorry for the LONG wait...here are a few pictures of the house...I haven't figured out yet how to insert words between the pictures, so I'll have to do all my explaining down here.

The first picture is of the living room. (Note the front door).

The second pic. is what you see if you turn around 180 degrees from where you were standing for the first picture. (The kitchen and living room is a common area - separated only by a long island.) The dining room is also connected by a wide doorway. Though it's harder to find a piece of wall to put a bookshelf on, we like the one-room living space concept a lot. It keeps people from hiding in their own little corner and forces them to act like family. :)

Next is another picture of the kitchen (I left out the view of the sink, which looks through an opening into the dining room. The sink is quite pretty - it was the mountain of dirty dishes sitting inside it that wasn't so picture-worthy. This is a similar concept to why there is no picture of the master bedroom/laundry folding factory. :)

The next two pics. are the kids' room and the bathroom respectively. (I know you could have probably figured that out. )

Finally, the laundry room which opens onto the kitchen...Please oogle over the wonderful heavy-duty pantry shelves Taylor built for me! ........And Last but not least, the ever-present heap of boxes that I still have to find something to do with! :) Thanks for taking my "tour"!

the Serpent

When most people think of a serpent in a Biblical context, the appropriate analogy of the devil or Satan comes to mind; many may even think of the serpent in the Garden of Eden. Every time that I kill (or have to dispose of) a (rattle)snake the same imagery comes to mind and I will share it with you.

The best and most effective way to kill a snake is to separate its head from its body. This will render the snake swoon or dead...almost. For a considerably long time after the head is cut off, that deadly snake will be far from harmless. In my short career of snake killing, I have had the snake head vigorously attack the pointed end of my hoe as I am dealing a final fatal blow; if left alone the snake body (and likely the head) will wiggle for several hours after it has been decapitated; also, I had seen a rather large snake (perhaps 5' or more) blown into three pieces (via shotgun) with its full-grown head with less than 2 inches of body attached to it continue to run away and be completely undeterred in its mission. This last snake (see previous post) was no different. Though I must be getting more accustomed to wounding the snake enough to separate and quickly crush its head, I still shutter at its lethality and its devotion to thrive under fatal circumstances; additionally, the wiggling body is a constant reminder. Once the head is properly disposed of the body is harmless, but it has far from ended its actions.

This picture is more than one of the death of a single snake, more so it reminds me of the evil and sin in our/my own heart as characterized by the devil. The book of Genesis tells me that the offspring of Eve, that is Jesus Christ, will crush the head of the serpent. In other words, Jesus Christ, will/has completely and utterly destroyed Satan. Satan knows that his time is limited and that he has lost the war in eternity by shedding the blood of Jesus. However, Satan still continues to wiggle and fight for anything that he can get and though he will lose in the end, he will make our life full of fear and misery by wiggling his harmless, dead, (spiritual) body.

-Taylor

Snakes

It is that time of year again...actually, it is a bit early, but with this warm weather the rattlesnakes are coming out to enjoy the day also. So let me tell you about our first encounter this year:

It was a nice, but warm (~90*) day today and as soon as the sun went down a cool breeze came in. The dogs (and cat) were very excitable this evening. We called the dogs in around 9pm because Pete was circling the house...probably looking for trouble to dig up (pun intended). Pascal (the cat) stayed outside and did not want to come in yet. Alesha went out to hang some more clothes (with Pascal around, she feels reasonably safe since he can see creepy things in the dark better than we can). Alesha came back in, but Pascal wanted to stay out. We had our windows open to feel the breeze come through the house. Alesha went to the window and heard a strange, but somewhat familiar sound, but she did not think, "Snake!" (keep in mind that our new house makes many interesting sounds that we constantly mistake for other things...in fact, just now (I thought) I heard Levi crying in bed, but no, it was just the water heater screaming quietly in its closet). Alesha stepped outside on to our porch to listen to the sound better; she saw Pascal about 10 feet away staring at the house and the strange yet familiar sound made complete sense. It was a rattlesnake! So I got the gun, and blew him in half on the 1st shot (yea!...I do not consider myself a very good shot...especially, when trying to hit a skinny piece of rope laying next to my new house). I took another shot at the snake, because I really wanted the head separated from the body. Eventually, I used a hoe to finish him off. It was all quite an exciting evening. I saved the body...well, what is left of the body for the kids to play with in the morning. ;-)

Enjoy!
Taylor

"Just for Thank You..."

Glory and I had a fun conversation the other day, and I thought you might want to listen in...

• Glory: "Mama, I'm gonna turn on the light - is that O.K.?"

• Me: "No, let's leave it off for now; it's pretty bright in here. We have to pay money to use that light, but we can use the skylight for free.

• Glory: (confused look)

• Me: "Do you have to pay for the sunshine, Glory?"

• Glory: "Yes."

• Me: (Laughing a bit), "Who do you give the money to?"

• Glory: "the LORD"

• Me: (Laughing a bit harder), "No, Glory, the Lord doesn't make us pay for the sunshine. He gives it to everybody for free. We do give money to the Lord, though, you're right..."

• Glory: (interrupting my explanation), "Yeah, just for THANK YOU!"
  

---I pray that I will continue to remember the graces the Lord has given so freely, and truly remember that the money we offer for His use IS a token THANK YOU for the sunshine, and the rain, the springtime and the harvest that He faithfully continues to give to us - for free.

Blogging @ Home

Well, I have some good news for those of you who want more detailed information per blog entry...this may be one of my last entries! Yup, it is possible that Alesha will be slowly taking over the blog. We are trying out a new wireless internet connection offered by our cell phone provider. It offers reasonably high speed access that I may be able to use for my work (the intent of my job is that I work from home, but this has never been realized since I required high speed access with minimal latency far out of town...this rules out DSL, cable, and satellite). Currently, I am trying out the wireless access to see if it will meet my work needs (I have 15 days to use and abuse it). If it is acceptable, then we will have to figure out some way for me to work from a currently only two-bedroom house...details, details. A perk of having this internet capability at home is that we can use it for personal use (as long as it does not interfere with my work). So here we go, Wireless Internet, on trial!

For those of you techies, our provider uses CDMA instead of GSP (?). If you know anything about it, then I would like to hear from you. I really want to push this connection to the limit during my trial period so that there are fewer surprises later on.

Enjoy!
Taylor

Welcome Home!

As soon as we get the place cleaned up a bit (i.e. no more boxes to unpack), then we will get you some pictures from the inside.

-Taylor

A Pounding

(Ooops! I forgot to get a picture of the house from the outside. Check back later.)

Last Lord's Day (March 9th), we received a "pounding" from our friends. Now this may not seem like something desirable so I will explain.

As I understand it, several generations ago, when a teacher, preacher, or new family came to a community the neighboring people would throw a "pounding" for the new person/family. Typically, some random day when the family was fairly recently settled in their home, guests would begin to arrive. Lots of them. All at the same time. This would happen near dinner time.

You may be able to imagine the overwhelming anxiety that the lady/cook could be feeling at this point in wondering how she is going to feed so many guests. Given that she was new to the area, it is also likely that her pantry was filled enough for her family, but certainly not enough to sustain many guests (keep in mind that the food for the family was cut down to the necessities during the move, and there was no Walmart to be able to quickly restock the pantry, the restocking would be done over several seasons).

Joyfully, as the guests arrive, each had a large pot or basket of food; so to the lady's delight there is no lack of food during the dinner party. After the meal and social activities were over, the guests would leave. After the guests were gone, there would be several bags, pots, jars, and other containers left behind. Each would be filled with something like flower, cornmeal, yeast, nuts, berries, dried fruit, etc. (this is of course my guess of what the contents were, but there might have been other useful items such as nails, screws, staples,...!). The contents of each container would weight about one pound.
(Now you know.)

In our particular "pound party", guests came dressed in some western attire and they also brought some much needed rain! (We have not had rain since early November.) Since our house was recently constructed the nearest 20+ feet around our house was dirt, and the guests came just as the rain began. Everyone was very muddy upon entering the house, but they shucked their muddy boots at the entry (I sure am glad that we did not put carpet there!) and seemed to have a great time.

Well that was our "pounding".
Enjoy!
Taylor

Stop and smell the roses???

Get Glory out of the hospital; move in to the new house; comfort Levi (he has been a bit insecure since Glory was in the hospital); train Levi (he is growing so fast!); comfort Glory (being in the hospital for 9 days is also traumatic); plumb in a gas line; build pantry shelves; host a pounding (more about this in the next blog); catch up on class work; push back my thesis defense until the summer; comfort Alesha (she is pregnant you know); learn how to drive the Jeep; any thing else...oh yeah, somewhere in all this fun I have to earn an income! :-)

And now you all want me to update the blog too!

When you do as the song goes, "read your Bible, pray everyday," then all these things seem to fall in to place.

Praise God for His bountiful grace to sinners like me!
Taylor

Just another day in West Texas...

National Weather Service Warning:
20 FOOT WINDS OF 20 MPH OR GREATER...MINIMUM RELATIVE HUMIDITY OF 10 PERCENT OR LESS...AND VERY HIGH FIRE DANGER...THESE CONDITIONS...WHEN COMBINED WITH THE VERY DRY FUELS AND VERY HIGH FIRE DANGER...WILL CREATE A FAVORABLE ENVIRONMENT FOR RAPID FIRE GROWTH AND SPREAD THIS AFTERNOON.

Notice that there is no rain in sight. I do not think that it has rain here since last October or November.

When the Weather Channel shows its wind speed it is typically very conservative, but here is what they mean to say:
20+ mph wind = don't go outside!
15-20 mph wind = bearable, but still very annoying
10-15 mph wind = what most people consider to be a windy day, but to us here in West Texas it is just another day full of dust in yer teeth!

Enjoy!
Taylor

A Return to "Normalcy"

Yeah, right! What is "normal" anyway?

We are out of the hospital. Glory is doing fine. She was a bit traumatic upon leaving the hospital, but she is doing much better now. The grass fire ended up being closer than 1 mile from our house, but all is well. I am headed to class in a few minutes (waiting in the van until the parking police leave so that I can park on campus "after hours"), Alesha is home working on setting up the house, we are waiting to close our mortgage deal and be fully settled in our new home. Levi really likes running around the house hearing himself echo (without any furniture the house is very echoy), but his is also a bit insecure. Perhaps in about a month we will have everything back in order...or under construction again, whichever comes next.

I am off to class. I will try to get some pictures up and more postings soon!
Enjoy!
Taylor

The Hospital Adventure, part VII

Yea! Glory's chest tube is out!

Now everything is not all back to normal and may not be for some long time. One doctor commented that it may take until mid-April before both lungs were completely normal again.

We will remain at the hospital for a bit longer, while the doctors monitor Glory's vital signs.

In the meantime, as we eagerly await to move into our house on Monday...we are hearing reports of a very large grass fire consuming much of the area of southern Snyder (the last report I received was that the grass fire was about 2 miles from our house).

The Lord's will be done in all things,
Taylor

The Hospital Adventure, part VI

Greetings, friends. Glory is still recovering and we will likely be here through the weekend, which is what we would have expected. We do hope to see some more progress and therefore a glimmer of hope in leaving soon, but thus far she is steady in her fluid output. Talking with Dr. Kerr, this means that her pneumonia is still active and hurting her body. The longer we are here in the hospital, the greater the chances become of some other complication arising. So while I have been mentioning Glory's progress, we still do have some great concerns for her well being.

Additionally, Glory has been hurting more. Not with some great dramatic pain, but I am told that the chest tubes are very uncomfortable. We are currently considering if and what stronger pain medications would be acceptable for her.

Finally, Alesha and I are slowly wearing down. Alesha more so than myself, but then Alesha is caring for the little baby in her womb too. I have not been able to discuss with her our future plans to remedy this, but I do know that the Lord Jesus will give us strength to over come and wisdom to know what to do...it seems to be our turn to listen to him, and then obey*.

*Dear sinner, have you learned to obey the voice of the great Physician? Have you felt how comforting his tender, loving hands can be on your soul? Even in times of difficulty, he can bring relief. If not, or if you are confounded as to how we are doing so well mentally in this trying time, then please let me know and let us reason together about the wonderful grace of Jesus, or else I pray that the hound dog of heaven shall pursue you.

In the comforting care of the Creator of life,
Taylor

The Hospital Adventure, part V

For the past two days, Glory has been feeling much better. She has had several visitors and her room looks like a festive event more than a hospital room. We are glad to see Glory walking around some also.

Recently (since yesterday evening), she has been having some additional pain in her back and side. There could be several reasons for this. We are hoping that this extra pain is due to her greater mobility, but there could be other confounding issues too. There is still a significant amount of air in her chest cavity that needs to come out and she is still pumping out about 100cc of yucky fluids a day.

Again, we are very thankful for Glory's desire to get up and walk around (this will help get more fluids out of her body), but we are also not a little concerned about her pain.

-Taylor

P.S. - These posts may be a bit sporadic the next couple of days as I will be working and traveling between here and Snyder a lot to get our house complete.

Oh, by the way...

...we are moving today.
(The house that is.)

The Hospital Adventure, part IV

7:20am
My mornings are getting later and later, so I guess that this is a good sign. Glory is now on a regular schedule of pain relief medication. This has really helped her "feel" better.

Yesterday, we saw several visitors. First, Pa and Grandma Miller came by with lots of gifts from different people. (I am not one for "lots of gifts" being needlessly wasted, but Glory really reacted well to them.) When she saw all of the people that were considerate of her*, it seemed to give her that "feel good" sort of feeling. She sat up (past her nap) and played for a couple of hours. Levi came and I had a great time seeing him again. He and I walked all around the hospital, played in the playroom, and overall had a wonderful time together. (I was very sad to see him leave.)

When Glory woke up she had another visitor. It was a dog. I cannot recall the name of the ministry, but they were allowed to bring a dog in to help cheer up the patients. Glory seemed to like the dog, but she did not think that it was as unusual as I did. (Glory is around dogs all the time, so dogs in the hospital is no big deal, right?) Then my cousin David stopped by to see Glory. By this time Glory was feeling much better and wanted to go see this "playroom" that Levi and I played in all afternoon...you see, no one had told Glory that there was a playroom in the hospital! Also understand that getting approval to go wander around is not trivial either, but at the time we had a great nurse who worked with the doctors to allow Glory to be disconnected from several of her "wires" to make the trip to the playroom easier. Thus I carted Glory around the playroom in a wagon while we visited with David and his friend.

Last night was Alesha's turn to stay up with Glory. Talking with her this morning, she reported that Glory slept quite well.

*By the way, we do check our e-mail, and several people are communicating with Glory via our e-mail. It is nice, because she can read (and respond) to the e-mails when she is feeling good. So feel free to e-mail Glory through one of us and we will pass the message on and you will likely receive a response. (This was Auntie M's idea and Glory has communicated with quite well with her for some time now.)

"Sometimes I feel discouraged,
And think my work's in vain,
But then the Lord, my Shepherd,
Revives my soul again."

Enjoy!
Taylor

The Hospital Adventure, part III

6:30am
We are now on "the floor". The room is much larger and will accommodate guests (and sleeping parents) better than the ICU. Glory's side and the right side of her chest, mostly in the back, are hurting fairly regularly now. I am told that this is partly because she is starting to feel the pain of the tube in her chest better because she is not as exhausted as she was when she first came in. Last night we had some difficulty going to sleep*, but by 2am she was too tired to care about the pain in her side and slept through until now.

Not much else is going on now. We are just waiting, watching, and playing with Glory. Glory's Uncle J has been a regular visitor. We are expecting to see Pa and Grandma Miller later today. I know that we will all be very glad to see Levi. Glory has asked about him, and I sure to miss his hugs. Also with the Miller's visit we will get some much needed supplies ( new clothes!).

Oh! One last thing. We do have a room phone now and hope to have our cell phone charger later today. We would be glad to hear from you.

enJOY!
Taylor

A Father's Hand

This morning as I watched Glory sleep with my hand on her chest I began to think about the part of her body that is in such distress: her lungs. I looked at her chest. I looked my hand. I watched her breathe. I felt her chest raise and lower with each breath. I then realized that her lungs, both of then, could probably rest fairly easily in the palm of my hand. Then I pictured her lungs resting in my hands and wondered what they would look like and what I could do with them. It did not take long to realize that there is absolutely nothing that I could physically do to help my child, but there is someone who can. There is someone who knows exactly what is going on inside Glory Lynn and he knows exactly what she needs. He has Glory's precious life in his caring hands.

I have read about many different gods in my short life and I have sought after some of them. But only one of them has the strong, yet tender hands of my God, my Savior, and my Lord. My God is a God whom I serve. I have yielded my life and all of my desires to Him. My only desire is to do what he asks of me. This is why I call him, Lord.

So as I sit here I think about people in a similar situation who begin to wonder, "Why has God done this? Why does he allow this to happen to me?" I do not wonder at this. Primarily, because I am confident in my God that he is still in control of life and will take or leave Glory's life according to his divine purposes. However hard that may be, we are accepting of this. Second, God did not create sickness, disease, and suffering of any kind. These sort of "evils" have happened because we (man) has decided to live without God. Suffering, death, and all manner of evil entered this world only AFTER man, Adam, chose to leave God. In other words: after SIN. Now that sin has entered the world, we all be bear its burden, because in all honesty, "none is good...no, not one"!

Sin and disease may take a hold of Glory for now, but we rest assured that the Lord Jesus Christ has the final say in issues of life and death. Dear reader, I do not know you nor where you stand with my God, but I would plead with you to consider where you stand. Where will you be if you were do die tomorrow, and then how do you know if what you are believing is true?

I thank you again for you prayers, and in turn I will be praying for each of you that you also learn of your wretchedness and then seek resolution with the forever assurance of the only true God in the Bible.

-Taylor

The Hospital Adventure, part II

It is 4:40am and everything seems to be going well. I woke up from my first straight 8-hour sleep in 4 days at 4:00am. I was leaving Jeremy's place at 4:09am and arrived at the hospital around 4:20am to find my family sleeping. There is a cot in Glory's room to sleep in, but with Glory, nurses, and "beep, beeps" it does tend to keep you up at regular intervals. Evidently, Glory would not go back to sleep without having Alesha nearby, so Alesha is curled up at the end of Glory's bed...very cute indeed, but it doesn't make for a very good night sleep. Tonight she will go to a friend's house to get a better rest and I will stay here at the hospital. David, our friend and doctor recommended to me that, since we will be here for many days, that we should alternate getting rest outside of the hospital.

It seems that Glory's white blood cell count is up. This is a good indicator that the antibiotics are doing something good against the pneumonia. One of the hardest parts about Glory recovery is to watch and even encourage here to cough. Coughing will help get the "junk" out of her lungs, but coughing is very painful for Glory (and Papa).

Oh, about the not getting 8-hours of sleep at night comment above: since Glory has been coughing (last Tuesday...before we were in the hospital), she had been waking up coughing and one or both of us would go to her and encourage her to go back to sleep. My typical nightly schedule was to check on Glory at 7pm (bedtime), 11pm, 3am, and 7am. Alesha checked in on Glory more often though.

We are hoping to move out of the ICU and on to "the floor" early this morning. (Some one who understands hospital talk should better describe to you what "the floor" really is, but I will give it a try.) The Floor is what you may think of as a "normal" hospital bedroom where visitors would come and see you. After a pregnancy, it is where you would go to see the mother and baby. The patients on the floor are not in critical condition and do not need to be monitored as closely as in ICU. We have enjoyed our time with the staff (and the unmonitored fridge with lots of chocolate milk!) here in the ICU, but we will be glad to move out. I will let you know what it is like when we get there.

Thank you for your prayers. We are joyful to have the one true God, the Lord Jesus Christ to be in complete control of our life, and we fully accept the lot that he has for us.
***(more on this later)

-Taylor

The Hospital Adventure, part I

We finally did it (and just in time too)! Glory had been battling with flu-like symptoms for 11 days. While this may seem like a long time, we had reports that this year's flu was lasting 9-10 days. So on day 12 of Glory's flu we decided to take her into the clinic to have Dr. Dave examine her. The last 3-4 days of the flu she had been having a severe cough and it did not seem to be getting better.

Praise God that we took her when we did! It appeared that Glory had a significant amount of fluid in her lungs. (David told me that it is not uncommon for pneumonia to follow the flu.) We were sent off to the Snyder ER where Glory was put on a ambulance on its way to Lubbock for further care. This indeed was another blessing, because we would really have rather stayed in Snyder, but upon arriving at the Children's ER and eventually the ICU (Intensive Care Unit), we realized that this was a good decision. The nursing staff and facilities were wonderfully prepared to handle young children...hence "pediatrics".

Dr. Tiva (that is not really his name, but that is what he goes by...it is MUCH easier to say) and his staff did a great job with Glory. The Lord truly did bless us all when Dr. Tiva inserted a larger chest tube to pull excess air out of Glory's chest...hmmm, perhaps I should back up a bit...after several x-rays and a CT scan, we saw that Glory had three major issues:
1) her right lung had caved-in
2) it was being squished by some air that had leaked out of the lung after her severe coughing (there was evidently a hole in her lung)
3) her lungs have a bacterial infection...pneumonia
...so when the chest tube was put into Glory, several "bad" things could have happened, but by the wonderful love of God one of the best things did happen...the air came out and her lung expanded back to its normal size (or at least mostly normal size).

Now Glory and Alesha are sleeping well and we will just have to wait and see how well/fast Glory will recover from her pneumonia. Also, please pray that the hole in her lung will heal soon. Assuming all things go well, we are looking at spending the next week in the hospital, but it can very easily be longer.

We are very thankful at the quick diagnosis and progress that Glory has had these last 12 hours and we are looking forward to shining God's light to the people whom we get to interact with while at the hospital.

-Taylor
Posted at 3:30am

Colors

Well, the floor man is sick so the electricians are installing the hardware. Countertops are in place too. This should be the last time we see the house "under construction" before they move it. When I go up next week it should be finished and possibly loaded on the truck to move on Wednesday morning.

-Taylor

Toys for Tots

Since Feb 1st, Alesha and/or Glory have been sick...or at least not 100%. Currently, Glory seems to have the flu...fever and aches a lot. Levi and I have had to manage on our own...we took the girls to the grandparents so that we would not have to do too much house work! ;-)

Also, perhaps to cheer everyone up a bit, I decided to buy a toy. This toy is a 1979 Jeep CJ. It needs some cosmetic reconditioning, but it does seem to run well. Levi, Alesha, and I think that it is great...Glory has been too sick to comprehend its full benefits. At one time, Alesha and I agreed that it would be nice to have a small vehicle for me to putter back and forth to work in since we live so far out of town, then Alesha and the kids would have a ways to also get into town for various activities. Well, over time this thought evolved into a Jeep, so after looking into it and praying about it some we found one and got it. (Please pray that Lord Jesus helps it to run well and for me to not roll it over.)

-Taylor

More Pictures

Well the house is coming along...SO SLOWLY!!!...it seems. Here is a picture of the stain...not too exciting, but it is progress. The painting is done and on Monday the flooring and countertop people are scheduled to come.

What is exciting is that Samsung could not figure out what was wrong with our camera...so they gave us a new one. It is newer and more high-tech than our previous one so that is a plus, but I am fearful that it is too good for us in our rugged lifestyle, but we will see if Alesha can handle all of the added features...including the touch screen...oooo, scary!

-Taylor

Graduation Deadlines

Well, we are going to try to make something else happen in the next month...graduate. No, the actual graduation will not happen until May when I finish my last class, but a bigger stumbling block is finishing and defending my thesis. There are lots of deadlines and they are coming fast. In fact the 1st one is today! I probably will not mention much about my thesis progress here in the blog, but if you want to know where I am at then here is a link to the graduation deadlines: Master's Thesis Deadlines.

-Taylor

Water, Foundation, and Cabinets

This week saw a lot of progress on the house and land. The cabinets and all interior woodwork should be completely installed by the end of this week. After the painters, flooring, and countertops will be next.

Back in Snyder, the foundation for the house was put in place. Now the concrete must dry...being as cold as it is, it should only take about 200 years to fully harden (some sarcasm). Also, we have our water lines about 95% in place. I say only 95% because I broke one of the lines trying to clean up with a grubbing hoe, and then I cross threaded the PVC threads with the copper threads...oops! However, all of the lines are buried now.

One thing did have to be sacrificed though, the Box-Barn is back to running off extension cord power. I had to move the breaker box to align with the trenches that I dug and then my wiring did not reach, and doing exterior electrical work in 30 degree weather was not motivating. Also, the only thing that NEEDS power in the Box-Barn currently is the deep freezer...everything else will have to wait.

I will try to get some pictures for you next week.
Enjoy!
Taylor

And the band played on...

...but if you were there, then you might have wished us to stop!

As Alesha's family is talented in singing, much of my family chose the instrumental route. So every year we play through some Christmas music. This year was Glory's 1st year to play her own instrument...an accordion given to her by her Granny B. Alesha played the piano/keyboard. I played the harmonica and aided Levi in playing the drums.

-Taylor

P.S. - Perhaps when Alesha takes over this blog in about a month you will get more details, but for now you must accept a sketchy outline of our activities. Enjoy!

Newsletter / Christmas Card

By the way, if you did not get a newsletter from us, then please let us know so that we can add you to our address list. You may also go here to download your own copy: http://hollingsworthsonline.googlepages.com/newsletters.

Under Construction

Well, the inside is finally showing some big changes: walls, texturing, cabinets (coming soon!), etc. The exterior has been painted, but with the wrong color, but we will leave it this beige-ish color in exchange for a $500 credit from the builder to make some more cabinets for Alesha. (Exterior painting is easy, so we can do it ourselves if we do not like the color once everything is all done.

-Taylor