Fun times..

The second week of the month is always busy for us. Gunnar has a couple board meetings and Grace and I end up carpooling with him and spending time with family and friends.

Wednesday we were able to attend the Chapel park day. We went to Chollas Lake. Grace had a great time playing with her friends and feeding the ducks.
After the park we hung out at my parents while Gunnar and my dad went to a baseball game.

Song for today

One of the things I love about music, and hymns in general is the timeless element. I so enjoy spending time with the elderly people at church and singing with them. One of my favorite ladies is mostly blind so she can't read, but she knows the songs by heart. She and Grace love singing together.

At night when I put Grace down I sing her the song "Thank you Lord". The chorus says:

Thank you Lord, for saving my soul
Thank you Lord, for making me whole
Thank you Lord for giving to me,
Thy great salvation so rich and free.

It always calms her down, especially in the middle of the night. I have memories of my mom singing that song to me when I was little, and am glad I can pass that on to my daughter.

Yesterday we were playing and she was giving me a hug. She said "I am the mommy and you are my baby" She was patting me on the back and started singing "Thank you Lord, for saving my soul." It was so cute. I hope that she will have a daughter someday and be able to pass along the song, and the thought.

Thank you, Lord.

Song for today

I had lots of plans this week. As happens regularly, a lot of my plans don't work out as I thought they would. To be totally honest, I don't like it when my plans don't work out. I prefer to have the universe revolve around me.

Just kidding.

Kind of. :)

Unfortunately, disappointment is part of life and something that has to be dealt with.

I knew I was going to have a busy couple days, so I wrote a post about a song. But that was based on the plans, I had made, not on what actually happened. Yesterday morning before we headed out for a busy day, (and shortly after all my plans got switched around) I had a couple minutes to practice the piano. As usually I went for the song the book was open to. Right away I knew I was going to have to write a new post becuase that was exactly needed to hear.

All the way my Savior leads me;
What have I to ask beside?
Can I doubt His tender mercy,
Who through life has been my Guide?
Heav’nly peace, divinest comfort,
Here by faith in Him to dwell!
For I know, whate’er befall me,
Jesus doeth all things well;
For I know, whate’er befall me,
Jesus doeth all things well.

All the way my Savior leads me,
Cheers each winding path I tread;
Gives me grace for every trial,
Feeds me with the living Bread.
Though my weary steps may falter,
And my soul athirst may be,
Gushing from the Rock before me,
Lo! A spring of joy I see;
Gushing from the Rock before me,
Lo! A spring of joy I see.

All the way my Savior leads me
O the fullness of His love!
Perfect rest to me is promised
In my Father’s house above.
When my spirit, clothed immortal,
Wings its flight to realms of day
This my song through endless ages—
Jesus led me all the way;
This my song through endless ages—
Jesus led me all the way.

I get sucked into the trap of thinking that I am the one leading my life. I think I am in control. Then when things don't work out the way I think they should, I am upset. This is such a wrong (and for the most part, unproductive and painful) way of thinking.

Jesus is the one who is leading my days. I want Him to be leading my days. After all, His plans are better than my plans. He knows where I need to go. I love the line at the beginning "Can I doubt his tender mercy, who through life has been my guide?" I can say that his is so true in my life. God has been so merciful to me. Throughout my life I have seen that over and over again. Why am upset when things don't go my way? His way has never failed me, why should I doubt now?

I want my "song in endless ages" to be "Jesus led me all the way". That means following him one step at a time. That means when my plans say one thing and his plans say another I should go with His plans. And as my dad would say, I should do it with a "happy on my face". He "gives me grace for each new trial", so why do I question or doubt?

This is the thought I am clinging to today.

Jesus, lead me all the way.

Random....

A couple random things...

I think I have referenced the motor home in our front yard. It belongs to a couple from our church, and another friend from church, David, is living in it. I call him our squatter. He spends most of his time at work or with his girlfriend, so we don't see him too much. Someone told me that you know you are a redneck when someone lives in your front yard, but I am trying not to take it too much to heart.

The shade structure is a huge help with the hot cars. Grace used to cry every time we put her in the car becuase it was so incredibly hot. Yesterday as we were heading to the car, she said "Thank you, thank you thank you mommy for the shade on the car." Gunnar bought Grace a kickboard with her new pool. He took her "surfing". She was so proud of herself.


The animals are all still alive, which I think is pretty much the main goal. Notice the cat by the ball. So far they are getting along okay. We will see how it goes at the cats get older.
Grace and I have gotten back into going to the library. I am so glad that Grace loves book! She will sit on the couch and look at her books and "read" them aloud to herself while I get stuff done around the house.

San Diego Fair

Every year since Grace was born we have gone to the fair. Seeing as this is our 3rd year, I think it is officially a tradition.

We went to the fair Saturday evening. Gunnar bought Grace a new pool (becuase the old one had sprung a leak), and he wanted Grace to try it out before we went. Consequently, by the time we got to the fair, she was exhausted, and refused to smile in any pictures. So she really didn't have a horrible time (as her facial expressions would express), she was just really tired.

As it was the last weekend of the fair, it was super crowded, so we didn't stay too long. We did check out the garden displays (my favorite) and spent a lot of time in the livestock exhibits. Aside from the horrible stench, the livestock were fairly interesting. Grace got to pet a lamb, and Gunnar called it a goat (we think he might have offended the little girl who owned it). I actually thought it was kind of a glimmer of hope that we have not completely embraced our country folk side. With the motor home in the front yard, I continually look for signs that we are indeed not total rednecks!

Checking out the garden exhibits.

We parked in the parking far far away and rode the shuttle. It was a double decker bus and we got to ride on the top, which I found very exciting. It was open to the wind and as Grace put it "My hair is CRAZY".

Family self portrait while waiting for the bus.

Part of our family tradition has become to take a picture of Gunnar, Grace and a cow. Here they are this year.

Last year

The year before...she was so TINY!

4th of July

First of all, let me just say, I love holidays! I don't know why holidays are sooo much better than regular days, but they are!

So of course I was excited about the fourth of July. We had the kind of holiday that I enjoy, one packed with good food, family and friends. And cute clothes. That is always a plus. For some reason, since the birth of Grace, I have been much more into dressing for the occasion. I have not broken out the super duper matching clothes quite yet, but I am close. I will have to wait for a really good holiday for that. Maybe Thanksgiving, my favorite holiday of them all.

Anyways, back to what we did yesterday. My parents came up in the morning. As always, it is so nice to see them and spend time with them. Grace always gets so excited to see them, it is really cute. Our friend David was here hanging out as well. Grace spent the morning getting us all to sing "Jesus loves me" while she banged on the piano, reading books with Grandma and Grandpa and going in the kiddy pool.

She took a nap after lunch, and after an out fit change (and taking a couple pictures) we headed off to holiday festivity #2.

She even had patriotic shoes, thanks to my cousin Amy's girls.

We headed over to our friends Bay and Teri's house. Their son Will is one of Grace's favorite friends.
Bay and Gunnar went to high school together (oh way back in the day). Their other high school buddy Mike was also there. The three of them rarely all get together, so they really enjoyed spending some time hanging out.
Will has this super cool little car. Is has a gas pedal that makes it go and everything. Grace got to take a turn in it and loved it! She was actually kind of a speed demon. This should probably scare us.
After bbq and lot of time hanging out, we headed to watch the fireworks. We were at a great spot where we should have been able to see two sets of fireworks, but alas, the weather was not it our favor. The fog had rolled in and although we were able to hear the boom, we weren't able to see any fireworks.

Here is the group waiting around for the fireworks to start. Bay's sister Katie joined us.

Grace wanted to wear her new shirt again this morning, and since I only took a few pictures yesterday, I decided to take some more this morning.

She is really into her teeth for some reason. I am not sure why.
Gunnar just got Grace that bench for our little patio, it is super cute. There is a scene from Noah's ark on the back part.

I love her hair bows!

Little Sparkler

The kittens are doing well, growing fast. There is Grace looking at Oreo (above) and wishing Tuna would want to sit on her lap (below).

One of my favorite new tricks that Grace does is her Auntie Ann impersonation. She sticks her stomach out as far as she can, and puts her hands on her back and waddles around. On occasion she will even stop and give her belly a good rub!


I hope you had a great 4th of July!
Hurray for the USA!

Thursday's Hymn

I have decided to start a new feature on my blog. I am taking one day a week (hopefully Thursday) to focus on a hymn that means something to me, or that God has used in my life. I have been thinking about doing something like this for a while, and have decided to go for it. Recently I had a conversation with one of Gunnar's sisters (Thanks, Michelle) about writing down some things I have learned or experienced, and so hopefully I will be able to do at least some of that through this.

Why not just write a boring paragraph you can ignore while looking for cute pictures of Grace? Don't worry I will be doing some of that. :) But, why songs? In the Bible God tells his people to set up giant stones are reminders of the great things He has done for them. Huge boulders so they will not ever forget what he has done. Songs in many ways have been like those standing stones in my life as mile markers for where God has brought me.

There has always been a lot of music in my life. I grew up singing hymns, then hymns in Spanish, then "coritos", then more traditional Spanish music, then back to hymns, then to Mexican music, then to contemporary music in English and now, in this last year back to hymns.

This last year as I have been enjoying embracing my hymn heritage I have been struck by so many of the beautiful words that I had forgotten.

So I hope that the songs encourage you as they have encouraged me. Also, I am trying to come up with a title for this weekly post so if you think of anything, please leave me a comment and let me know.
The hymn for today is Trust and Obey. This week I have been struggling with feeling like so many of the choices that I have made to follow Christ have put me in an isolated place. I was feeling lonely and misunderstood. I know that if I had to do it over again I would probably do the exact same thing, but for some reason I was doubting weather or not all the hard work was worth it. Wouldn't it just be easier to go with the flow and be like everyone else? I know that thought is wrong on so many levels, but that is where I was earlier this week.

I sat down to practice the piano, and the book was open to Trust and Obey. As I started playing it struck me! That is the answer! It was right there in front of me! Trust and Obey. I had been doing the obeying part. That had been ingrained in me at an early age (thanks, mom and dad!)
My actions were there, but that wasn't enough. My altitude was all wrong! I had forgotten about trust.

God's word is absolutely trustworthy. Doing what He says will pay off. If not in the immediate (although a lot of times it does) it will absolutely pay off in the long run. I can trust in His sovereignty and I can trust in His love for me and His love for those around me!

I felt as if I weight had been lifted off me. It is so simple really, yet again and again I loose sight of the goal.

Here are the words to the song. Thanks for reading!

Trust and Obey

When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word,
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will, He abides with us still,
And with all who will trust and obey.

Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

Not a shadow can rise, not a cloud in the skies,
But His smile quickly drives it away;
Not a doubt or a fear, not a sigh or a tear,
Can abide while we trust and obey.

Not a burden we bear, not a sorrow we share,
But our toil He doth richly repay;
Not a grief or a loss, not a frown or a cross,
But is blessed if we trust and obey.

But we never can prove the delights of His love
Until all on the altar we lay;
For the favor He shows, for the joy He bestows,
Are for them who will trust and obey.

Then in fellowship sweet we will sit at His feet.
Or we’ll walk by His side in the way.
What He says we will do, where He sends we will go;
Never fear, only trust and obey.