Well, there’ve been some interesting things going on in the Basham’s hill country home lately. Sorry it’s taken me a while to get these photos uploaded. About two weeks ago, I kept smelling an odd smell, like something burning. It was the same smell that I noticed when I turned the oven on and Leslie had put Mitchell’s plastic “Old MacDonald Farm tractor” in the broiler without my knowing it! Yep, it was tractor toast. This time, however, the oven was off. We checked all the outlets, nothing. Finally the smell was strong enough that we tracked it down. Leslie had gingerly hung the pair of plastic shoes that decorated my baby shower cake after Laci’s birth on top of our living room lamp’s light bulb! Thankfully, they didn’t catch anything on fire. By the time I found them, they were smoking. Where I had put them for her to find, I’ll never know. I still need to put Leslie’s baby shower stuff in my scrapbook, much less Laci’s! For those of you who think I’m organized, think again! Just see the photo below for proof that I still have room for plenty of improvement in that area!

Notice the burned place on the upper left hand corner. I was supposed to write her name and date of her birth there…oh well.

I don’t know why the next picture is so purpley, I guess I did something wrong when taking it! Anyway, it touched my heart to see Lauren having her own devotions. Terry and I have a private devotions, and then I have a devotion time with the kids from the monthly booklet, Keys for Kids, while they eat breakfast, but we don’t make a private time mandatory for the kids. We mostly do this because our parents didn’t force us to have a quiet time with God as children, but they set the example and that’s more important anyway. Lauren is using a small devotional book for kids, called “A Daily Adventure with God” that we purchased from some evangelists visiting our church. They are small books that walk you through a particular book of the Bible. Lauren’s was John. If your interested, here’s the info:

She doesn’t do this faithfully every morning, but I want to encourage her for trying! Praise the Lord!
While Lauren was having devotions, Mitch (and Leslie) were helping me by making my bed. They wanted to surprise me, and they sure did! What a blessing! I didn’t know Leslie was involved until I saw in the photo that she was sticking her head out from under the bed!

Psalm 127:3 says Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. Sometimes, I don’t feel like they are much of a reward, but the Bible says they are! When I feel that way, I remember days like the one pictured above, and it changes my outlook. I remember how fast they are growing up, and that this is my one chance to put into them what’s right. Pray for me, that I will instill the right things into my precious “rewards”.