JPEG of the Week

~Raking the Leaves, Central Texas Style~

~it sure is nippy when it's 80 degrees~

~all 27 of them...~

Pitch Boy...and a Chance to Win!

Let's start with a couple of dates I need you to remember...


November 16th.

November 17th.

Okay, first the 16th. You have from now until the 16th to head over to the Jump Start blog and enter for a chance to win one of these great prizes!
Prizes
50 winners will receive a copy of JumpStart Escape From Adventure Island
3 GRAND PRIZE WINNERS will receive a family Escape Pack (over $1000 value)!
1 Nintendo Wii Console
1 copy of JumpStart Escape From Adventure Island
$250 in spa gift certificates
1 JumpStart branded flip camera
3 lifetime JumpStart memberships (1 for winner, 2 to share)
500 virtual coins for JumpStart.com
4 JumpStart pirate hats & 4 JumpStart kids T-shirts

Cool beans, huh?

And then the 17th.

That's the day that the newest of the JumpStart Wii compatible games comes out in stores. I had 5 of 8 review the game for me and videotaped what he thought of the experience to share with you. Now let's keep the FTC happy, shall we, and let you know that, yes, JumpStart did send us the game to review, and so, yes, this would be considered a compensated review. The game will retail for $29.95 in stores. Is everyone happy? Do you feel the blush of full disclosure? Good.

On to 5 of 8's review:



5 of 8 took this review pretty seriously. He considers this something of a career. He is an experienced gamer, after all. As he played the game, he kept remarking about features he wanted to include in his review. And he practiced some...in the mirror...and with his older brother...and was very concerned about the way I was going to edit his commentary.

After all, an on-camera talent needs to monitor their image....

BedHead--The Ultimate

It must have been a wild night in the crib...

Because this is the hair style we woke up with the next morning...

...and when I say 'we', I mean it in the royal sense...as in, this is the natural state in which Princess 7 of 8 arose from her slumber.

Very 'Sleeping Beauty', don't you think?

Wordful Wednesday, 1 of 8 Style

I'm trying to get better at sharing.
I really am.

But when it comes to my Canon, I'm a little, uh, careful.

As in, Canon 40Ds are expensive. And it was for my anniversary. And I'm a little intense about my cameras.

But every now and then I do try to let one of the older kids do a little shutterbug action. I was being very brave and very unselfish the other day when I let 1 of 8 click off a few frames.

Which was worth it.

For example:

I love the way she captured 8 of 8's constant motion and ever-present (mostly) smile.

And then she snapped this one of 2 of 8:

So sharing can be a good thing.

As long as I make her keep the strap around her neck. And I don't let her move. And I ask her fourteen times if she is hanging on to the camera.

She's So Continental....

Our Thanksgiving plans include frantically scrubbing down the house so as not to gross out The Boy who is coming to see 1 of 8 over the turkey holiday.
One of my brothers has some slightly more, ah, cultured plans.

As in, he's taking his family to France.

They are the cool ones in the extended family line.

No offense, Other Brother.

But we gotta admit, Middle Brother got the cool going on with the French Thanksgiving and all.

Although I still say that Thanksgiving '05 when Other Brother and family and Mike and I and the kids grilled steaks on the island was pretty cool as well.

Anyway.

So 6 of 8 hears of the French Thanksgiving plans and that her cousins will be going all continental on us.

"Oh," she breathes. "They are going to France. I've always wanted to go to France."

She's six years old. Six. And apparently she has wanted to go to France her whole life.

"I so badly want to go to Paris. It's my favorite city in the whole world."

Next to Dallas, apparently. Because the last time we were in Dallas, she told me she was a Dallas Girl.

"Paris. I wish I was going there."

I ask her why she would want to go to Paris.

She looks down her nose at me and says, "The food. The food is amazing. Paris has the best food in the world." She says this as if I am a cretin.

And how does she posses such epicurean knowledge at such a young, tender age, you might ask? How does she know that all her life she has wanted to dabble in the culinary delights of Paris?

By watching Ratatouille, of course.

Cultured, we is. Cultured we aim to be.

A Frog Apart...

I'm no judge of frog flesh, so I suppose I wouldn't know one way of the other.

But my sons assure me that this is Burt, a frog they rescued earlier in the summer.

They say that he is now living in the front yard, housed in our sprinkler valve box.
Except that they also tell me he is a toad, not a frog.

They tell me they know this is Burt because he has some distinguishing characteristics.

Which is funny.

Because, to me, he looks very similar to the other two frogs toads living in the sprinkler valve box. But I don't have the depth of reptile relationship with him that the boys do. So I suppose I should just trust their identification process.

And, besides, I want to be very supportive of Burt as an Octamom pet. Because any creature that lives in the sprinkler valve box and feeds itself and deals with its own litter box needs is a great Octamom pet candidate.

I'm all about self-sufficient, outside living pets.

Burt, you rock.

Sunday Selah

How beautiful on the mountains

are the feet of those who bring good news,

who proclaim peace,

who bring good tidings,

who proclaim salvation,

who say to Zion,

"Your God reigns!"

Isaiah 52:7

When I went to shop for shoes to wear with my wedding dress, nigh over twenty years ago now, I was inundated with choices.

White, strappy heels. White satin ballet flats. White pumps. Many, many choices.

All for something that would not really show under the voluminous length of my wedding gown. But still an important consideration as it would be those shoes that would transport me through my wedding day.

And how much more careful consideration needs to go into the footwear adorning the Bride of Christ.

Because when we shod our feet in the readiness of the gospel of peace, we are preparing to head out into a world that will require some heavy marching and dangerous terrain.
Ballet flats just won't do.
We go to the world longing for peace and ready to do battle for souls. We go as a warrior bride.

And as befitting that call, the Bride of Christ wears combat boots.

Throughout history, wars have been lost over the poorly shod feet of an army's soldiers. Frostbite has lamed a battalion, trench foot has crippled many a regiment. When we find ourselves on the field of spiritual warfare, our message must be protected against frigid reception and swamps of muddy sin. We march into the middle of such conditions, but we must somehow maintain the clarity and health of our good news.

Combat boots it is.

There will come a day when we come through a gate made of pearl. We will be wrapped in a wedding gown of purist white of a fabric woven from the righteous deeds of the saints. And as we remove our shoes, eager to walk on holy ground, we take off a pair of mud-spattered, well-worn boots, our transport through the battlefields of the spiritual. That which has been our transport now becomes our testimony. May the combat boots of the Bride earn us the words, "Well done."

Selah.