Benjamin episodes...

Benjamen says no, he's not a girl, or a boy, he's an onion.

daniel's freind, Austin, comes over for supper...ben thinks his name is "Awesome"

Dud: Have you ever tasted coffee?
Ben: no.
Dud: Do you know what it tastes like?
Ben: coffee tastes like apple cider.

Some nights, when Ben says his bedtime prayers, he likes to pray for "lots an lots of people." So we pray for the whole family, then the extended family, then people who work with my dad, then Daniel's friends, nina's friends...etc... until we tell him its time for him to go to sleep. Well, tonight we were going through itc people, and he tells me, "when kippany takes her glasses off, she looks like Tabi. And when jamie takes off her glasses, she looks like..." so i let him look at the pictures on the wall and was like jamie doesn't have glasses... then i made some comment about maybe tiffany looked like daniel...and he goes, nina's friends, like danielle...that's like daniel like danielle sounds like daniel...

so yeah...he keeps me laughing!

count your many blessings!

this is not all from today....but it made me happy!
- a long letter from megan!
- a literature discussion on the nathaniel bowditch book
- getting a 45 minute piano lesson instead of the usual 30 minute...
- the lab girl at goldie bringing her daughter in to work...and two people guessing [wroong] at whose kid she was...
- kip calling to talk to nina, but she wasn't home, so kip talked to me!
- being online at the same time as megan!
- juggling a restless david and trying to type...

then a few happy ben things...
- ben telling me the back wheels on the vacuum cleaner look like a corvette *whatever*
- ben bringing mama a pine cone and when she asks him what she should do with it, he tells her to hold it until it makes a mess everywhere....

i like this song...

The chimes of time ring out the news, another day is through.
Someone slipped and fell, was that someone you?
You may have longed for added strength your courage to renew.
Do not be disheartened, I have news for you.
It is no secret what God can do, what he's done for others he'll do for you.
With arms wide open, he'll pardon you, it is no secret what God can do.

There is no night for in his light you'll never walk alone.
Always feel at home, wherever you may roam.
There is no power can conquer you while God is on your side.
Just take him at his promise, don't run away and hide.
It is no secret what God can do, what he's done for others he'll do for you.
With arms wide open he'll pardon you, it is no secret what God can do.

The fate of the balloon

nina heard tremendous wailing from outside...so, she ran out there to find ben holding a limp balloon. He was very upset that it had popped...for your information...the helium has already long been gone. He's crying...and then nina suggested that we put it in the trash can and give it to the garbage man when he comes. A smile cracks on ben's face through his tears. That's a good idea.
Later he told me, "the sad thing is that the pokey thing on an acorn popped my balloon, but the happy thing is that i put it in the trash can and the garbage man is gonna put it in the truck, and the big thing is gonna smoosh it. that's the happy part."

This week....

the blues from this week...
- when the only orange shirt you own is way big around, and totally looks aweful...
- when you can't seem to ever find time for a good QT
- hearing that grandma's not doing so well
- wishing i could manage my time better and get things done in less time.
- no one wanting me to read Bowditch aloud on the way to Georgia
- when your siblings don't make their beds
- when the other people's laundry is piling up (the clean loads) and it doesn't seem to bother them...
- when people are already thinking about Christmas...and you really don't want the year to go by that fast, so as a result, don't want to hear about Christmas yet.
- when people visit your blog, but don't leave a comment...

but no, I'm not sad! I know I''m happy....
- when God gives you the power you need to play your piano piece so well.
- listening to david’s gibber
- thinking about what will be coming in the mail very soon…
- when the air feels orange
- playing the piano *a lot*
- a kinda lazy saturday morning…
- reading IN THE ARENA by Isobel Kuhn
- trying to let it sink in that God is so good to me. SO GOOD.
- mama taking be to see the floats on campus...and what impressed him wasn't the floats...but the handful of 4-wheelers
- having mysteries to figure out
- marvelling over the fall colors
- seeing old friends that you haven't seen in a long time
- someone wanting to lern spanish with you
- hanging out with hannah all afternoon!
- nina making really really good bread for us
- awesome p b and j's! oh, yah! homemade peanut butter and homemade strawberry jelly on fresh homemade bread!

Happy moments. . .

. . .when I get all of today’s work done.
. . .I get some good time on xanga.
. . .remembering the old kids book about a fat man’s club who stole the atlantic ocean and put it in their basement.
. . .benjamin brushing my hair for me and telling me he was going to make it look like a chicken.
. . .finally mailing off two letters today
. . .figuring out the big unexplainable, totally clueless mystery…well, we didn’t figure out, it waited til the proper time and then revealed itself…but until then, it really had me lost!
. . .david, who cannot talk, but totally can tell you what he wants. He makes me laugh!

Ogden Nash

A few random Ogden Nash poems that I really like. He's cool.

The Ostrich
The ostrich roams the great Sahara.
Its mouth is wide, its neck is narra.
It has such long and lofty legs,
I'm glad it sits to lay its eggs.

Guppies
Whales have calves,
Cats have kittens,
Bears have cubs,
Bats have bittens,
Swans have cygnets,
Seals have puppies,
But guppies just have little guppies.

Celery
Celery, raw
Develops the jaw,
But celery, stewed,
Is more quietly chewed.

The Abominable Snowman
I’ve never seen an abominable snowman,
I’m hoping not to see one,
I’m also hoping, if I do,
That it will be a wee one.

The Centipede
I objurgate the centipede,
A bug we do not really need.
At sleepy-time he beats a path
Straight to the bedroom or the bath.
You always wallop where he’s not,
Or, if he is, he makes a spot.

Fleas
Adam
Had'em

The Catsup bottle
First a little
Then a little

Eels
I don't mind eels,
Except as meals,
And the way they feels.

The Fly
The Lord in his wisdom made the fly
And then forgot to tell us why.

The Hippopotamus
Behold the hippopotamus!
We laugh at how he looks to us,
And yet in moments dank and grim,
I wonder how we look to him.

Peace, peace, thou hippopotamus!
We really look all right to us,
As you no doubt delight the eye
Of other hippopotami.

The Porcupine
Any hound a porcupine nudges
Can't be blamed for harboring grudges.
I know one hound that laughed all winter
At a porcupine that sat on a splinter.

The Termite
Some primal termite knocked on wood
And tasted it, and found it good!
And that is why your Cousin May
Fell through the parlor floor today.

Kitten
The trouble with a kitten is THAT,
It eventually becomes a CAT.

The Lllama
The one-L lama, he's a priest
The two-L llama, he's a beast
And I would bet a silk pajama
There isn't any three-L llama

Billboard
I think that I shall never see
A billboard lovely as a tree;
Indeed, unless the billboards fall
I'll never see a tree at all

The Panther
Except that it hasn't been peppered.
Should you behold a panther crouch,
Prepare to say ouch,
Better yet, if called by a panther,
Don't anther.

camping!

So, where have I been? Camping. Absolutely. This was actually the first time I’ve ever been camping. So deprived… I’d slept “under the stars” in our back yard, and in the Reeves back yard…but never actually “gone camping.”

A blessing is…
- a good camp fire
- realizing half-way through the night that I was sleeping in an upside-down “mummy” sleeping bag…
- everyone going swimming…and it being the middle of october…
- realizing that i was wearing a t-shirt, a sweat shirt, a heavy, lined coat, a very heavy denim jacket, sweat pants, jeans, a hat, gloves, socks and sandals…
- a tire swing!
- biking all over the campground
- feeling the WARM lake…(duke energy uses lake keowee’s water as its for coolant for its nuclear reactors…so it usually stays warm through october they say)
- an awesome QT sitting on a rock right by the lake, with my feet in the water, and the waves lapping through my crocs…
- walking up and down the beach in the water and praying and getting the feeling that God has heard
- laying on the ground under nina’s hammock
- after a while of thinking and praying in spanish, having to fight back the spanish and search for the english word…
- consuming massive amounts of chocolate…
- listening to steve pettit again…
- blaring charlie miller’s instrumental piano hymn arrangements with the windows down…and the guy in the car next to us rolling up his windows… lol
- seeing God’s HUGE spread of stars
- actually seeing a shooting star!
- reading Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by the campfire since nina wasn’t there
- david’s “constable hat”


and then a few that were not from the camping trip…
- polly, lizza, and elizabeth (my three favorite characters!)
- free bacon and sausage pizza
- trying to figure how to write bubble letters with chalk…so writing a to z names of friends then dudley complaining of graffiti all over the patio…(I couldn’t think of any good friends for w…and z…and o…q? u? v? I couldn’t even think of a good one for i…
- zeez and i swapping bibles

A thought and a quote

The other night I was just thinking, how simple it would be if I could just know what God has for my life. You know…twenty years from now, will I be a homeschooling mom somewhere…or will I be living in some foreign country working at an orphanage…or will I be in some other missionary position… or does God have “behind the scenes” work for me to do…Living the uneventful life of a prayer warrior yet just as active for the Lord…then I was thinking it would be easier to prepare for my life if I knew what I was going to be doing…but, then I thought of a quote from Amy Carmichael… I’ve really been thinking on it a lot…she once said:
“Home, with all it prohibitions and opportunities to die daily offered far greater training than any Bible school curriculum.”
So, it reminded me to be making the most of my time right now. To be willing to learn the lessons God has for me to learn right now. To live the mundane, but live it with the Creator of the spectacular!

A few insights from my Spanish today...

Amazing the insights you get when you start learning another language!
Such as, a few things that I’ve found…in Spanish, the word for a “fly” is a “mosca.” Now, when I heard this, the first thing that came to my mind was…well, that makes sense! I guess a little fly would be a—mosquito!
Today, I was studying and came across a flash card for housewife, or homemaker. The Spanish…el ama de casa. Which is literally a house lover!
I love learning Spanish!

Current poitically correct WGPL words...

Today, as Peter and I were working on cleaning up the kitchen, we were discussing the current politically correct words to use around our house…you know everyone generally has a certain word that they use a lot...well, there four at our house that are used a lot. A whole lot! Definitely, random, massive and majorly. Incase you haven’t noticed, I definitely use them a lot. 
Well, so we decided that until we were done cleaning the kitchen, we were going to use at least one of the four words in every thing we said. Not necessarily in every sentence, but at least once a paragraph. It was rather interesting….and definitely very funny. Definitely.

Oh, today I was looking up a ton of quotes…I wanted enthusiasm quotes, and ended up going off and finding a ton of really good quotes on various things…but I saved them all on the other computer...so I’ll have to post them another time…

An awesome day!

Yes, not getting much sleep and being sick and it being a Monday…would normally make for a very hard day. But today was not normal. Mama declared a quiet time for the whole house from one to two, and the options were reading or sleeping. The idea probably was that we would get to work after an hour or so… Having gotten less than six hours of sleep last night, I definitely chose the sleeping. I’ve not taken a nap in the middle of the day for probably several years…today I slept for over three hours.
Then, after I got up, I was kind of scared…like, was I now gonna have to do all the work that I normally would have been doing that whole time? So, I asked my mom…she says, well what have you done? I did just algebra and I worked for an hour on my magazine. She says, just go get your record sheet and write sick by anything you didn’t do. That’s not something I can let you do everyday, but today, I will permit it.
Praise the Lord! That was so cool!
Then she hands me a book. Go read, she says… I can do that! I read for about an hour and a half. It felt so good! For so long we have just been busy, busy, busy; running, running, running; everywhere at the same time, not a chance to slow down. But, this weekend was so relaxed! Then to have a relaxed Monday like this…Its not a reality to live this way long, but boy does it feel good every once in a while to taste simplicity!

The idea was that I would post a blessing list…but for some reason…the morning after you stay up and do pretty much nothing…you don’t feel like staying up really late was a blessing…cause really I didn’t do anything…oh well, there blessings to be found…

· praying for friends
· david asking me to read him God Made
· good God discussions at midnight
· the seattle space needle
· leaving to go to walmart past my bedtime
· daniel
· reading acts 1this morning together
· looking forward to a nap opportunity after lunch
· the grascals
· writing letters to friends ( even though I can’t mail them today….but that’s
definitely not on my blessings list…I’ve had this thing for several years
now against postal holidays…)
· when someone special happens to call on our internet answering machine…and then staring at their special phone number for a while…because its there on the screen…

Blessings!

On the ground, in the air,
I find blessings everywhere!

* a glass of chocolate milk
* asking deep questions
* talking to friends that you haven't talked to in forever
* being online all day
* when friends call you back
* having work done well
* when your friends start posting happy lists too
* David's smile
* a car ride with Nina
* good message from Mitch Miller
* Phase Diez (phase 10 played with UNO cards)
* when your friends call you back
* when your friends post on their blogs
* when your sister lets you talk to her friend with her
* when Benjamin asks you ever so politely if you'll change his diaper
* when your brothers are all really happy cause Clemson won the football game
* when people just stop by your house and stay and talk for an hour and a half. I love it when people do that!!!

Xanga

So you know...I've been posting a whole ton on my xanga site. I have xanga.com/carrie_belle I try to remember to post it on this blog too, but I don't always...Like I just realized that I posted at least 5 times today on my xanga and not once on my blogspot...so, lets see...if I'm quiet, go over there,...and there'll probably be something there,...

Philippians 2

This morning I was reading Philippians 2. This is one of my mom’s favorite Bible passages, so I’ve heard it all my life. Sometimes when you read familiar passages, things don’t sink in…you’ve heard it so many times that you just recite it as you read along and it just doesn’t effect you. This time was different. I read the first two verses…
“Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.”
I guess I formed a paraphrase from this that got beyond the familiar words.
“If there is encouragement in Christ, be of the same mind; if there is any fellowship of the spirit, be united in spirit; if any affection and compassion, be intent on one purpose.”
For some reason, that means more to me. I can hear the spirit of the verse that way.

The Blessing

Benjamin asks if he can thank the Lord for the food. Papa said he could, so he bows his head.

Thank you for the food, and please keep it safe and help it to not get sick. Amen.

Not sure where he got that from...but it was very cute.

Benjamin

Today is Benjamin's birthday! I cannot believe that he is three now!
So, here are 10 things that I like about him:

1 He tells me that he loves me.
2 He is very polite.
3 He is very verbal.
4 He loves to cuddle.
5 He appreciates what I do for him.
6 He says and does the cutest stuff.
7 He thinks he's a big boy, but will let me help him.
8 He loves water.
9 He says David is his best friend.
10 He knows that God made him.

All your Anxiety

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about different songs…what song do I feel like right now…that sort of thing…and a song that I’ve been thinking about more and more is “All your Anxiety.” I don’t know it very well, but the words are really good!

Is there a heart o’er bound by sorrow?
Is there a life weighed down by care?
Come to the cross, each burden bearing,
All your anxiety--leave it there.

All your anxiety, all your care,
Bring to the Mercy seat, leave it there;
Never a burden He cannot bear,
Never a Friend like Jesus.

That’s a pretty good hymn! What song do you feel like right now?

Template

You like it? I haven't quite decided on everything...but its a change....tell me what you like...or don't like...
I'd love to know!

Isaiah 26:3

Amazing sometimes how a verse can be significant to one person…but not to another…but its even more significant when the same verse is significant to two people. Last night Nina and I got into a really deep discussion, but afterwards, I felt a real prayer burden. The kind of things you can’t fix yourself, you can only take them to the Lord and leave them there. Then today I was reading and I came to Isaiah 26:3. “The steadfast of mind Thou wilt keep in perfect peace because he trusts in Thee.” That verse had been very significant to Megan, but I really didn’t know where in Isaiah it was. It meant a lot to me as I read it, and underlined it…but then I realized it was the same one that Megan had showed me! That was very cool. muy chido…

Bread for the Birds

I was reminded the other day of something really cute my cousin said. We had some old bread that was dried out and we were gonna tear it up into pieces and give it to the birds…it was then that the five year old goes, “Be sure to tear it into little pieces, cause if you don’t, the birds’ll choke!”