a visit from the Jehovah's Witnesses; my brother's birthday

Yesterday when I was arriving home, my husband and I found 2 Jehovah's Witnesses at our door. I was thinking that I didn't want to speak with them because I had a sack of hot take-out food in my hands. But then I realized that I needed to put aside my selfish desires and speak to them if they wanted my time. So we spent a few minutes talking to them on the steps. I can only hope that I said something that might stick with them so that at some point, they will think about who God really is. I was reading online about how to witness to JW's but there are so many different opinions. I pray that God will do for these women what He did for me: give the Grace to escape the delusion and see Him as God. When I first started to come to Jesus, I had some heretical notions that I needed help in letting go of. Of course, i wasn't involved in an organization that controlled me, such as the JW's...but I still was pretty confused and stubborn in holding on to ideas of who God was based on my own preferences. God showed me that I had to rely on the Bible as the standard for truth. (A good reliable translation!!!)

Other than that, yesterday was my middle brother's birthday and we had a really fun birthday party for him. My daughter had so much fun. She was saying, "party, party, party!" and she got some plastic zoo animals to play with. She wore the sweetest dress, a very spring-y dress of white cotton eyelet lace fabric. It was sleeveless but came down almost to the feet. Totally sweet! My whole family seemed to be in an extra-jolly mood so we enjoyed the time very much. I will always remember how much I have enjoyed my family and how grateful I am to God for allowing us (sinners though we are) to have the capacity to bond and enjoy such sweet companionship. There really isn't anything to compare in the realm of human relationships, except perhaps when you marry and when you bear your own children. Blood is indeed thicker than water. I have one friend who I love like family but we never seem to go beyond a certain distance of "mine" and "yours". We never really become enmeshed as family do.

Shay!

Last night, my daughter did something super cute. She's only 2 years old so whenever she does really clever things, I'm just amazed by it. So last night when I was busy in the kitchen, I noticed that she had grabbed my crochet hook out of the afghan I was working on. Then I saw that she was repeatedly putting the hook in and out of the afghan. I asked her, "Are you crocheting?" She looked up with a big smile on her face and said, "Shay!" Then she kept repeating "shay" while putting the hook in and out of the afghan. I thought it was so cute. I had the presence of mind to film a little bit of it since my video camera was within reach. Someday, I will share that with her to encourage her to learn to crochet.