Joleyn Larson Photography & Design

We are looking foward to meeting you. As you can see, when we are playing at the Erlenbusch home, we tend to get a little messy. Since you are white, along with Stew, I think you are going to hear “oh Man, not again!” a lot from the mommy with the brown hair and the good treats. don’t worry, she doesn’t really care if we track mudd prints all over her floor and her white carpet, in fact I hear her singing a lot as she mops the floor and scrubs the spots…something like this to the tune of I’ve been working on the railroad…… “oh these dogs are going to get it, all the live long day. Oh I love these dogs so much, as I wipe the dirt away. Can’t you see puppy paw prints going around the living room? Don’t you love these dogs so much, Oh my yes I do! Sara can you mop? Sara can you scrub? Sara can you vacum up the mud? Pick up doggy poop, play the squeeky race, they all just want to lick my face! Oh I love them, yes I do…my favorite dogs, sid, Charlie and Stew!!!!!! (((and Marley more…) So with that, we are going to go see if we can get in a quick game of the squeek race and maybe even get a dingo to..But we wanted to show you how much fun you will have. And if your mom says you are too tiny to play, we can strap a back pack on Charlie and he can bring you along

We love you, Your cousins,
Stewart, Sid-Vicious and Charlie Chuck-Chuck

Another monday morning, and I have my entire upstairs in a huge mess. What started as a “lil” project has catapolted into an entire upstairs overhaul. I sold my furniture in January thinking we needed a little change…well 7 weeks later and still no furniture to sit on…I’ve repainted the entire upstairs/dining room, entry way…and now our bedroom. Hey we had all this empty space out in the living room, so now our bedroom sits out there, while my paint dries and carpet dries….it’s been fun feeling inspired again, to something new, but wow…if you could see the space now! You’d all laugh out loud. It’s driving me crazy! Pretty much everything has been put on hold for this project….I just hope the furniture people don’t call today, to tell me they are delivering our new stuff!!! Oh, what fun.

Man, what happens when I start to tackle the basement? Anyone want to come help?

Just a quick update, to let you know our goings on these past couple of weeks….the reason, I’ve been so distance from computer.

Connecting with God — “And the God of all Grace will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast“ 1 Peter 5:10

When we feel broken and worn out God is there to restore – it’s His area of expertise! His grace will make our hearts strong, steady and ready to face any difficulty. Together we will find encouragement through God’s tender love and grace.

My two cents: I had the most amazing experience last year. I had gone alone, and was basically with God….and WOW! Refreshed, renewed and more. I was so amazingly blessed…and now look forward to this years weekend because it’ll be that much more wonderful — I’ll be sharing it with family and friends this time.

by Carol Wimmer

When I say…
“I am a Christian” I’m not shouting “I’m clean living”
I’m whispering “I was lost, Now I’m found and forgiven.”

When I say… “I am a Christian” I don’t speak of this with pride.
I’m confessing that I stumble and need Christ to be my guide.

When I say… “I am a Christian” I’m not trying to be strong.
I’m professing that I’m weak and need His strength to carry on.

When I say… “I am a Christian” I’m not bragging of success.
I’m admitting I have failed and need God to clean my mess.

When I say… “I am a Christian” I’m not claiming to be perfect,
My flaws are far too visible but, God believes I am worth it.

When I say… “I am a Christian” I still feel the sting of pain..
I have my share of heartaches, so I call upon His name.

When I say… “I am a Christian” I’m not holier than thou,
I’m just a simple sinner Who received God’s good grace, somehow!

A note from the auther:
My heart was heavy as I wrote the poem, When I say, “I am a Christian. ” The year was 1988. I had begun to sense an increasing societal resentment toward the attitude of self-righteousness that has been adopted by so many Christians. I knew such behavior was and is a perversion of Christianity. Thus, the sentiment of the poem was born out of my personal awareness of this perversion and the heartache it can cause in our pluralistic society.

I jotted down my thoughts with an inner determination to define the Christian spirit as I wished to experience it. The resulting words formed a reflection of me and the reputation I hoped to secure for myself. Four years later, I sent the poem to 5 different publishers. As a result of its first publication in 1992, someone placed the poem on the Internet where it miraculously began taking on a life of its own.

From Manila to South Africa; Australia to Singapore; Finland to Bahrain—I’ve received e-mails from people all over the world who express a common desire to walk humbly with God. Therefore, I owe a sincere “Thank You” to the unknown person who originally posted the poem on the Internet and the countless number of readers who have subsequently passed this simple expression on to others.

Ok music fans…I figured it out.
We now have some of your favorite songs on the blog!
You can even click on the song you want to hear. You don’t have to wait.

Don’t forget to leave your comments…I love reading them.
The link is at the bottom of each post.

{heart} ya
Joleyn

Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos :: Synopsis :: A tribute to classic film and true romance, Love Walked In tells the story of two women – one older, one younger – and the unexpected ways in which their lives are forever changed by chance.  For thirty-one-year old Cornelia Brown, life is a series of movie moments, and “Jimmy Stewart is always and indisputably the best man in the world, unless Cary Grant should happen to show up.” So imagine Cornelia’s delight when her very own Cary Grant walks through the door of the hip Philadelphia café she manages. Handsome and debonair, Martin Grace sweeps Cornelia off her feet, becoming Cary Grant to Cornelia’s Katharine Hepburn, Clark Gable to her Joan Crawford. Meanwhile, on the other side of town, eleven-year-old Clare Hobbes must learn to fend for herself after her increasingly unstable mother has a breakdown and disappears. With no one to turn to, Clare seeks out her estranged father, and when the two of them show up at Cornelia’s café, the lives of Cornelia and Clare are changed in drastic and unexpected ways. A cinematic and heartfelt debut that pays homage to the classic Cary Grant/Katharine Hepburn romantic comedy The Philadelphia Story, Love Walked In is sure to win over critics and readers of contemporary fiction.

How can you find true contentment?

(1) Seek it. Make contentment a daily choice. Come to the place where you really believe that more doesn’t equal happier. To find contentment – simplify!

(2) Say it. Cultivate the ability to say, ” I have enough.” Push back from the table and say, ” I’ve had enough.” Stand with the surprise bonus in your hand considering what you might buy and say, ” I have enough; Lord, how can I use this for You?”

(3) Settle it. David writes, ” If riches increase, do not set your heart upon them” (Ps 62:10). Don’t let your income dictate your lifestyle. Choose a realistic level of living and don’t compromise by spending more just because more arrives. If you don’t choose your lifestyle the world will choose it for you, and it’ll probably be one beyond your means. Let your lifestyle be biblically based; make it eternally focused!

Consider this: if all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the world represented eternity, then you could say that one grain of sand represents your lifespan. Now think: you’re over here grinding your one grain day and night to get everything you can out of it, while ignoring all the beaches of eternity that God has in store for you. Not too bright, eh? To be content, focus on eternity. Let enough be enough. Paul did! He said: “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.” Contentment is something you learn; you have to work at it – daily!

A harvest is never instant; it demands time. Let us not become weary in doing good for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we not give up. galations 6:9

The seed of God’s word can fill our stomachs and give us immediate satisfaction and still not produce a harvest–that’s when we eat it but don’t sow it.

Why have many of us read books on forgiving people, know the teachings were true and right, cried over them, marked them up with our highlighters, yet remain in our bitterness? Because we ate the seed instead of sowing it. Why have we repeatedly heard how Christ has forgiven our sinful pasts and sobbed with gratitude over the grace of it, yet we remain in bondage to condemnation? Because we ate the seed instead of sowing it.

God’s Word is meant to be applied to our reality. It’s supposed to be lived out on daily basis.
We can “Amen!” the pastor as he preaches sacrificial love. We can walk to the car and comment on the great sermon he gave, drive home, and march in as mean and cold as the person who pulled out of the driveway. We decide surely God did not mean us to apply His truth to our reality because He knows how difficult this or that person is to love. What just happened? We ate the seed instead of sowing it.

Then we charge God with unfaithfulness when we don’t get the harvest He promised–even though he tells us many times that harvest is sown, not eaten as seed. We have to get down on our knees in the hardship of our circumstances and apply God’s Word to the most difficult places, believing God will bring a harvest. Forgiving others, for instance, is a beautiful theology but a difficult reality. Those who apply it have a harvest for the rest of their lives. We were meant to eat from the sheaves, not from the seeds.

Don’t give up when we don’t see an immediate result from the acts of obedience. Sowing the seed of God’s Word is a terribly difficult situation. It’s not easy! But God promises you–that if you do, you will receive a harvest–not just a harvest of any kind but a harvest of shout hallelujah joy! He who promised is faithful.

Faith and patience as we wait. As we obey God and look for the first sprouts of harvest.

My notes from the study: stepping up–a journey through the Psalms of Ascent by Beth Moore.