Yet Sovereign Mercy Calls

How oft, alas, this wretched heart
Has wandered from the Lord,
How oft my roving thoughts depart,
Forgetful of His Word.

Yet sovereign mercy calls, "Return!"
Dear Lord, and may I come?
My vile ingratitude I mourn;
O take the wanderer home.

And canst thou, wilt thou yet forgive,
And bid my crimes remove?
And shall a pardoned rebel live,
To speak thy wondrous love?

Almighty grace, thy healing power,
How glorious, how divine!
That can to life and bliss restore
So vile a heart as mine!

Thy pardoning love, so free, so sweet,
Dear Saviour, I adore;
O keep me at thy sacred feet,
And let me rove no more.

Anne Steele bio here.
Music composed, performed by Benj Pocta here.
Our church sings this with strings and piano accompaniment - it is indescribably beautiful!

What I've Been Busy With This Week:

http://www.star-telegram.com/825/gallery/767501.html

After a week of building rockets and learning about space, we took the campers to launch their rockets in a near-by parking lot on campus. The local media (paper and CBS affiliate station) were there for the launch, which was a surprise to me (we were not told until we got to the launch site) but very exciting for the campers, who all vied for interviews and photographs. Media fascination begins very young, obviously. As for me, I was able to successfully avoid the cameras, although my supervisor and co-worker were not so fortunate. :)

Why God Doesn't Fully Explain Pain

One of the reasons God rarely gives micro reasons for his painful providences, but regularly gives magnificent macro reasons, is that there are too many micro reasons for us to manage, namely, millions and millions and millions and millions and millions. -John Piper
read the post in it's entirety here.

A Day at The Dallas World Aquarium

We took the time during a visit with family from out-of-town to spend a day at the aquarium. It was their first time and our second (after 7 years). This is only a small sampling of all that we saw there.

You start by going up to the third level and following the spiraling walkway down. Along the way you encounter the animals.

Above is the waterfall at the beginning of the walk.

Some flamingos on the way.

A view of the waterfall from the second level.

The huge 22,000 gallon salt water tank from an above ground view. You can see the people in the tunnel below if you look closely.

The tunnel through the tank. A very popular place for both kids and adults as it provides a great view of the various sea life in the tank, with sharks being the most popular attraction (and the shark feeding the most anticipated).

One of many aquariums.

This makes me think of Finding Nemo. :)

Other than the penguins and sharks, the octopus has to be one of the main attractions at the DWA. Adults and children alike all pushed and crowded around this exhibit.

Not sure where the intrigue and curiosity over the octopus comes from. Maybe an obsession with sea monsters?

Manatees at the aquarium like to put on a show for their audience. They swam to the window, turned somersaults (imagine an animal weighing well over a ton doing that on land!) and occasionally flicked their tails to the people watching from the above ground level.

Aquarium manatee cam here.

My beautiful mom and sis.

Howler monkeys. They are much quieter than their name suggests.

Sea otters are ugly but fascinating. They are big on hamming it up for their visitors. They had to be the most visitor-conscious, ego-driven animals there! :)

Aquarium otter cam here.

Sisters having fun (as usual)
:)

At the Zoo: Penguins

At the Zoo: Birds

At the Zoo: African Savannah

At the Zoo: Primates

photos by Landon

Kathryn at 6 mos.

An Update (for those who still read this blog - if there are any left)

It's been awhile since my last update here. I haven't even posted pictures of my adorable niece (new ones to be posted asap). You know I must be a little overwhelmed to not have new pictures of her on here. :-)

It's been a crazy summer, much busier than I had expected it to be when May was ending and I was anticipating my summer break. This is the first week that I have not had anything on my calendar since the start of summer, but it too has been interrupted by a family visit so I remain very busy in spite of the break. It's not as though it has been a bad kind of busy - it has been a lot of fun as we have made trips to the zoo, the aquarium, the movies (my last visit to a movie theater was over a year ago), the park, and so forth. I'm enjoying it to the full as next week I begin my summer job which will last the entire month of July. Hopefully I will become better organized with my time so that I can better keep up with emails and blogging this month. In the meantime,
I have quite a bevy of pictures to share with you to make up for my sparse posting...

Happy 4th!

photo by Landon

Just for Jacob:

Big thanks to Jacob for pointing out that someone important was missing from the photographs below: our family photographer, Landon. Poor guy is always behind the camera, but he does sometimes get caught in front of the lens as well as behind. :-)

Also, my dad was missing below as he did not attend the concert since he was on his way to California that day. I meant to mention that, forgot, then didn't feel like going in to edit my post. Lazy me. :-)

Concerts in The Garden

Parker looks serious.

Guess how the boys passed their time?
(we had a lot of it - 3 hours to be exact!)

But it was worth it!

The conductor sometime during the concert.

And the music in full swing! It was the night of Big Band and Swing favorites.
Crowd pleasing still, some 60 years later.

The place was packed.
The actual lawn stretched out much farther from where we were, which was close to the stage. I was really surprised at how many people still enjoy Big Band music.
I have enjoyed it for many years and am loving the huge resurgence it is making.

A great highlight of the evening was to see couples young and old hit the street swing dancing during the concert.
(note to self: take lessons before next year's' concert)

The evening concluded with a magnificent display of fireworks. Even Kathryn enjoyed them, reaching up her little arms and trying to touch them.

What a great beginning to summer!

Kathryn at CITG

Kathryn was an absolute angel the whole time. She even seemed to enjoy it as much as we did, though probably for different reasons...

Kathryn and Mimi spent a lot of time together

playing

laughing

getting sleepy

and the orchestra was already into it full blast by now. She was totally unfazed...

...as you can see

Isn't she precious?!

Concerts in The Garden

Random photos

Landon, the official photographer for this blog (and yes, that means that I steal his pictures for publishing on here, lol) uses Canon while Trent prefers Nikon. I believe this leads to some friendly photo rivalries. ;-)

Concerts in The Garden

Here Lexi takes a picture of the photographer:

The photographer takes a picture of Lexi and Mom:

Sculpture of a... Cowgirl?

Videographer

Concerts in The Garden

A crowd gathers in the gardens. We were early enough to snag a lawn area in front of the stage. It's a small area which is "first come first serve", then there are reserved tables, then another lawn area which is farther away from the stage.

While we picnicked the old fashioned way (on blanket covered grass), some people picnicked in quite the modern way:

A miniature picnic table! What will they think of next?! :-)

Here Ashley walks up the grass aisle. I don't even want to know how Landon got this angled shot from the ground. ;-)

Concerts in The Garden

And the girls occupied themselves with this adorable bit of entertainment:

Concerts in The Garden

This is what the boys did while waiting for the concert lawn to be opened:

New Reading Statistics

From a Random House/Zogby poll:
Despite the growing availability of other formats for reading-such as online or with an e-book reader or PDA-- the vast majority of readers still like to read the old-fashioned way - 82% said they prefer to curl up with a printed book over using the latest in reading technology, a new Random House/Zogby poll shows. Women (85%) are more likely than men (79%) to say they prefer reading printed books. Reading printed books also has greater appeal among older respondents, although it is by far the preferred method among all age groups.

Just 11% of respondents said they are comfortable reading books in other formats, such as online or with an e-book reader or PDA. Men (13%) are more open than women (8%) to reading books in other formats, as are 13% of those younger than age 30, compared to just 6% of those age 65 and older.

And yes, most of the polled readers admitted to judging a book by it's cover.

Read the rest here.

Reflections at The End of Another School Year

Yesterday was my last day teaching and now we are (finally!) on summer break. It was pretty crazy and we simply let the kids party all day (which is more tiring to teachers than when we are learning - go figure!). At the end of the day I had to face saying a permanent goodbye to half of my class, those who are moving on to a new location in the fall. I hate this part every year. I didn't think I would miss my "teacher testers" (class trouble-makers), but you know, I think I will. I find it interesting that those who are hardest to deal with are usually the most loving overall towards their teachers. They would come in all excited in the mornings, wanting to give me a big hug and tell me about anything special they might have done between the time I had sent them home and they returned, as opposed to my well behaved children who calmly walk in and could care less for the teacher's notice. Funny, huh? Anyway, as I spent some time with a parent picking up his child yesterday afternoon (a tester child), I noticed that he kept dropping hints that referred to his wife being by herself and having to care for their four children on her own. The light began to dawn and I began to think quickly of a tactful way to ask if they were separating. Sure enough, the dad is moving to another part of this area. Suddenly I felt a rush of sympathy for my little problem student. No wonder he had been so difficult this year. All the turmoil and frustrations he had witnessed at home influenced his behaviour when he was me. He was only trying to express his hurt and confusion. If I could only take back our spring semester, I would have be a more understanding, patient teacher with him. I would have spent more one-on-one time with him, hugged him more often and tried to make school time a joy for him, as it must have been the one stable event in his unstable life. One thing I have learned is to not just assume that the child is at fault for their behaviour, but to try and understand if there is more at work than what I can see. I do sincerely regret my missed opportunities with that little boy. God help me to learn from the mistakes that he graciously shows me I have made.