this girls got talent

Found this on YouTube just now, and had to share it with you. What an amazing voice. I guess she posts every sunday and her songs are amazing. Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjMRf4egAyA

Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Just finished "Tess of the D'Urbervilles" by Thomas Hardy. very good book. Written during a very interesting time in Europe's history, when the Evangelicals were gaining strength and titles and religion were beginning to lose strength especially among the educated. Tess's story is a tragedy. At times I felt like I could bare it anymore, but Hardy had made her such a lovable heroine that I couldn't but it down. The books subtitle is "A Pure Woman". Which is many ways she was night. But this was mostly by means out of her control. In all other ways she was a "pure" woman. Faithful, honest, hardworking, valiant, etc... I wonder if Hardy was pointing his figure at the church for writing off those of unfortunate circumstance. Or, what he perceived as their inability to be flexible. Showing what he felt where the wrongs with the Letter of the Law. It is fairly sinicle towards the evangelical movement. He writes alot of it up to emotional conversions with little weight and as I said perviously, rigid, unforgiving, law.
Tess's story ends in the only way approperiate for her time. She is caught between two "sins" with no way out but her demise.
Overall I really enjoyed the story. He rambled a bit at times, but I just skimmed over the landscape descriptions. I really enjoyed the detail he payed to the life and ways of life. Like the back sleeve adequately says, "Hardy poured all of his profound empathy for both humanity and the rhythms of natural life..."
Mom tells me there was a mini series made on the book, so I'm looking forward to looking that up.
I would recommend this book.

New, New, New

So we've moved into our new digs. Loving the trailer. The only two rooms that feel squishy are the kitchen and the bathroom. Other than that we are sailing with lots of room. We've had a good week to get settled in. We were so tired after the move that its taken this long to recover. Next week starting Monday, though, Jon starts volleyball and all the students come and life immediately gets busy. Its going to take some determination on my part to figure out how to do this family and the volleyball together with grace. I'm really praying God puts some creative ideas, abundance of patience and grace to give110% to my husband and kids. I know this is what God has asked us to do, School and Volleyball, so I want to trust He has a plan to make it work. All I can do it rely on Him in all things. Like Jim Elliot said, "He is no fool who gives up what he can not keep to gain what he can not lose." I'm giving up my husband, my supposed stability, all the other stuff in life I want control of, so that I can lean completely on Christ and gain eternity, and true joy in Him.
All things for Christ.

Packing...Again

We packed up dad and moved him at the beginning of July and now we are packing ourselves up. Too much packing for one summer. I am not motivated at all. The task a head looks too large and overwhelming. I packed some boxes today, but I kinda held out for tomorrow. Jon will be able to help and I'm hoping that we can motivate each other. With both of us working our every morning, it makes for a late start to the day, but I don't wan to give it up. When we get to Caronport Jon will move his workout to later on in the day. Anyways, I don't even know which room to attack tomorrow. Jon wants to do his books and office, so maybe I'll help him there...if he'll let me. I hope we have enough storage room in the trailer. I'm getting a little worried about that. Jack and Cheri have offered that we store some stuff at their place for the year.
Right now I'm too exhausted to think about it anymore. I'm going to hope there is something decent on TV and plunk myself down in front of the brain sucking thing. I don't care if it eats my grey matter tongiht...I'm too tired to care.

Running

I've started jogging. I can't believe I can actaully do it. Its amazing what your body can do if you decide to push it. I'm excited to get better and run further. Its a nice change, and I new way to push myself. After I ran yesterday I was not as sore as I had been before.
Anyways, God has given us amazing body. I want to use my body to give Him glory. Even this running has pointed to back to God. He really is in all things, if we are looking.

Lord give me patience

Lord give me patience to be in the days and things infront of me now. So not being always waiting for what will come next. But to be obedient and honour You in the moments I have been given.
All things for Your glory

A 4 mile walk and the good John Piper

Yes, I walked 4 miles today. Kept up a good pace. forgot to take my drink of water before I left so i was pretty thristy by the time I got home. It feels so good to accomplish a good walk. I listened to one of John Piper's sermons in a series on marriage he did this year. It was called Forgive and Forbearance. So good. Its so amazing how he works the work of Chirst into every sermon. What hit me the most? Well I think if I were to choose one thing it would be that, we must live with the cross formost in our minds, because it will change everything. He said something like, the day he leaves the cross to look or focus on something else Noel (his wife) suffers. Like, if I could only remember what I have been forgiven of, if I could only seek to always live the example of Chirst, than my marriage would always glorify God. He admitted that of course this is impossible because we are not made prefect yet, but it is the standard Chirst asks of us to be reaching towards.
Oh and the other thing was to always remember that I am Holy, Chosen and Loved!
Okay got to go. Got to go spend some time with my husband!

Pain

Pain. I'm am feeling alot of pain. The last two days I have been having my chest pain again. I don't know what I'm eating that could trigger it. Its just so intense. I really need to get to the bottom of it, because I just don't know when it will start up. I read this verse in my devotions yesterday,

Yet, You are He who brought me forth from the womb

You made me trust when upon my mother's breast

Upon You I was cast from birth

You have been my God from my mother's womb.

Psalm 22.9,10

Every breath I have taken has been given to me by His hand. My life has always been relient whole on Him. From my birth to my death and each day in between. So even this I can carry because it is from Him. In all things may He be glorified.

Packing

We have come to Melfort to help Dad pack up the house and move him into the apartment they are going to rent for a while. The apartment is considerably smaller than the house and this has required that we down-size the belongs of my parents. We are having a very big garage sale. I guess Melfort people do garage sales, thursday, firday, saturday. Crazy I know, but i guess what ever works. We are doing it Thursday friday evening and all day saturday. Hope we can make a little bit of money for Dad.

So I'm hopfully learning how to pack now so that when I have to do it to my stuff at the end of the summer, I'll have some idea of what I'm doing.

Jon is outside cutting the grass, what a nice guy, cutting his father-lin-law's grass. Boys did I hit the jack-pot when I fell in love with him!

Okay well that's what's going on at the Chalmers'.

Hoping to take a road trip out the Calgary this month some time. I have my doubts whether that will happen but who knows I may be surprised!

write a song

So, I was telling Jon yesterday that I wanted to write a song. Being the very supportive husband that he is, he began to think up ideas for me. One of these inspiring thoughts was, "the Simpson's never grow up...that would be a great line Amie, you've got to use that." I ask you how int he world am I going to put that into a song? Jon thought it was very porfound though. Funny guy!
I think that when I first starting writing I was just doing it because it was so natural. Now it seems like when I go to write a song I have to work so hard to get my words out. I want to say something so badly but I can't find it. I wonder if I wouldn't have this problem if I had never made my first record. Like now there is some kind of pressure. Maybe I just have to rediscover the joy of writing for its own sake.
I've been learning so much about the Soveriegnty of God lately and love the thought that God holds all things in His hands, and love how the bible just makes so much more sense with God at the center instead of me. So I would love to write about that but to get my thoughts together seems impossible.
Well, I guess if I'm going to say I believe all things are in God's hands then I should believe that if He has a song for me I'll get it some time. And if not...well I guess I'll be thankful for all the other things He has blessed me with.

recent project

I love going to quilting shops and looking at all the beautiful fabric. When I find something I really like I buy a little piece. So I had found these fabrics in different places and decided it was time to use them. So this little bag was created. I had no idea what the bag was going to look like when I started but luckily it all worked out. I even figured out how to line it. I love creating things. Jon is laughing because I have too many bags and this is the second one I have made in the last month. I think I'm going to make some book marks with the scraps I have left over.

Actually my original plan was to cover my bible with the blue fabric but I decided against that. i don't have a hard cover and I thought it would probably just fall off of it all the time.

so that's it...I can't think of anything else to say.

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

I have been reading a non-fictional book in the evening and grew tired of its weight (not physical weight) and yesterday I read this classic by one of my favorite authors. What a joy Jane Austen's works bring me. I love the style of laugugue, the customs and the behaviours of the time in which she wrote.
Northanger Abbey is believed to be her earliest work although it was not publish until after her dealth in Decemeber 1817. In it she uses her favorite theme, mainly, the danger of imagination uncontrolled by reason. As the author of the introduction so adiquitely says, "The heroine's, Catherine Morland, folly lies not in indulging a taste for meladromatic fiction but in imposing it value on the life around her." Actually, Jane Austen evidently had a distaste for the "melodramatic" fiction of her time. And it is thought that is novel was a reaction to it. The Heroine is by no means prefect and although the novel ends well for the heroine and hero, there is something very undramatic about the conclusion. This disappointed me for a while, but in reading some reviews and understanding more the intentions of the author I now value the work in greater degree.
I do not claim to be an expert on Jane Austen or hre work, but my humble observation is that she must have been a modest person herself to prefere the heroine whose life is believable and whose character is not flawless. As said ealier she continued in many of her novels to return to the theme of being controlled by reason. The characters in her novels that are to be disliked usually are without reason. Fluster, chattering, vain, overly imaginative women who have little time to think rationally.
Something I enjoy about her work is the timelessness of it. Although written almost 200 years ago, her characters have resinence with me. For example how are woman falls in love seems to have changed little. What will humble a man, the hurt that can be afflicted by words, the jealousy, the gossip, the enjoyment of nature, and more. The human race changes so little. I guess that why the bible is still so relavent today. "There is nothing new under the sun"
Overall I would recommend this book as a delightful read. Not a challenging read in anyway. Although is does challenge ones vocabulary at times.

Aways Learning

I have started reading "Desiring God' again and am amazed at how little I know about this God I serve and love. One of Piper's assertions is that God is Supremely Sovereign. Which I believe but to really believe this you have to believe that God has purposed everything. That nothing can stop His plans and will.

"God says, ' My counsel will stand and I will accomplish all my prupose.' Therefore Job says, 'No purpose of your can be thwarted.' His purposes encompass all things, including sin. Thus the crucifixtion of Chirst was the will of God, even though it was the greatest sin ever committed. 'The lot is cast i the lap, but every decision is from the Lord.(proverbs 16.33)' "

So that's a lot to swollow. This next quote kinda clarified things for me. "How can God be happy and decree calamity? Consider that he has the capacity to view the world through two lenses. Through the narrow one hei s greived and angered at sin and pain. Throught the wide one he sees evil in relation to its eternal purposes. Reality is like a mosaic. The parts may be ugly in themselves, but the whole is beautiful." Piper's main assertion is,

"The chief end of God is to glorify God and enjoy himself forever."

It would be unrighteous of God to value anything more than what is supremely good, whick of course is Himself. So if God plans all of history, the good and bad, and values himself above all, all of history must be good from the view point of an all-knowing and all-righteous God.

So, when I look at my life I feel so much more hope. I can see in the past how God has put things together in my life and how he has asked me to be pained at times. And all this ulitmately brought Him glory...the story of my life is obviously still playing out, but I can rest in the assurance that God would not let my life be wasted because he longs for His own glory through all things. I can only pray that in death and life I can point to Him more and more. ( actually i don't have to hope because He will make it happen whether I want to or not)
I mean the death and resurrection of His son is the first and foremost moment in history that I must glorify God for in this life time.
So I will read on and hopefully learn more about as Piper as, "the cheif end of man is to glorify God by enjoying him forever."
I hope this hasn't been too confusing. Obviously I don't have all my thoughts together. But as I am reminded regularly, life is a journey and to God be the glory for the grace to grow and learn in progressions.

Getting There

Being here at Mom and Dad's has made me realize how much more confident I have become as a parent. I remember being here on past occasions and feeling lost with out my schedule, not wanting to go alone places with the kids, needing them to have thier nap at regular times. But this time I feel so much more relaxed. Elijah has become so much easier to take places, and Grace, well she's a 18 month old that wants to touch everything, but I guess I've just come to grips with the fact. I wish I had given myself more time to grow. I tend to think I have to be good at something right away, and if I'm not I get frustrated, but its taken me 3 years to get to this point. I got to let myself be a work in progress. So now as I look at the parts of my life that aren't complete or perfect I need to be patient. Take a deep breath Amie, there are days and months to come!

Reading

As I said recently I'm deciding to read more. I've just picked up this book. Its about, as far as I can tell, how we live with different ethnic groups and how we see and define ourselves by our ethnicity or not. I love the topic, I love her insights. I don't love the main character, who is a self-absorbed art professor, who neglects his wife, and enjoys looking at other women. There are actually two families that are profiled in this book, one, the family of the main character. They are loud, disorganized, combative with their words and disjointed. The other of the rival art professor, whose family is Christian, relaxed, welcoming, and enjoy each other. (Unfortunately most of the novel so far is given to the first.) The first has a white father and black mother and the second family is wholly black. Anyways, the main character's wife, whom is black, has a lot of ideas about how people look at her and how is is expected to act in return. Sometimes she is right and other times she is wrong. Their youngest son was decided, that although the family lives in a small college town outside Boston, he speaks ghetto, and dresses ghetto, and believes everyone is looking at him negatively. Anyways, all that is very intreaging to me and I want to see if especially and mother and son are freed from their some times self imposed stereo-types. I have one other problem with the book though. The characters swear a lot. In movies this doesn't bother me so much, but when you are reading a book, you have to say the words and I'm not really comfortable with that....so I don't know whether to put it down or not. All this reminds me why I love to read literature from the 1800's - they can introduce revolutionary ideas in elegant under the radar kind of ways. I have a Jane Austen novel waiting for me to read...so should I put this one down for Jane or not. I don't know...I really want to see where she is going with the racial thing.

Okay I've probably bored you all to death...

will it happen?

Not if I have anything to do with it. My son will do nothing that is suggested to him. No that's not true he will willing eat anything with a sugar value over 90%. But peeing on the potty or riding a bike...not going to happen. He got on because we put Grace on and he was upset because she was on the bike he won't ride. Jon thought he could push him for our walk today, but down the road a bit he decided that he had had enough and got off and refused to get back on. Jon, wanting him to enjoy his bike, thought that if he pushed the bike on our walk he might eventually want to get back on, but no, Jon push, carried and rode the bike for the whole walk, Elijah refusing with every suggestion, that he did not want to ride his bike. What a funny kid. We really have just learned that if its not important we can't push him to do it. Jon even bought him a horn for his bike, but no enticing will do.

Amie and Liz

Love this picture. 1994. New Years eve. We are looking good. I think I've got red long underwear on with my dad's work overalls. Those were the days. I wish I could remember this moment. its nice to have the picture, is confirms that it actually happened. 1994 was the winter before I went to Equador. I probably was fund raising at the time and had my head full of the big things I imaged were to come that coming summer. Ah, to be 15 again. No, I take that back. I definitly don't want to be 15 again.

anyways, I love you Liz. take care of those two boys of yours, I'm coming to see them soon.

Church...

...was empty today. A lot of people were away. Infact my kids were the only ones there. Which kinda sucks because everyone knew it was Elijah making all the noise. I made the mistake of giving Elijah some skittles during the worship. He could not sit still after that. My mistake! Mom came and spoke about her walk. She really challenged me to rethink the amount I give to the unfortunate in the world. It is easy for me to make excuses about buying things, when I really know that money is not mine to spend on whatever my heart desires.

Out little church is very good at giving finacially. We support a whole array of missionaries and they pay us way more than they should be able to for a church of their size. No, giving is definitly not a problem at our little church.

I

Tired/Spring (couldn't decided which to go with)

I'm tired. I've been staying up too late. I need to go to bed at 10:00pm or a few nights of 11:00-12:00 I'm a reck.

the weather has been really nice lately and it was been nice to get the kids outside more often. I love the spring. I really like the smells, the mud, the lack of snow, and the warm weather that doesn't yet require shorts or a heavy coat. Yes, spring and Fall would have to be my favorite seasons of the year.

Mom is coming to the church tomorrow. I hope someone is there to hear her. She doesn't care though, as long as she can tell someone. She is very humble but excited about the whole thing.

I know she can do it. Its amazing how much she has done already. I always think, even just thinking up the idea of walking that far and being willing to do it is more than I would have ever done. I guess that's why god asked her to do it.

Okay like I said I'm tired and 10:00pm is rolling around, so I'm going to go andhit the sack.

tomorrow is Sunday. Big day for the Chalmers family. Lots to do.

We and they did good!

We went to town today after Mom and Dad left at noon. Needed our food for the week. Anyways, I would say it was the best trip to town we have ever had. There was no screaming in the check out line in Extra foods, there was no screaming when the kids were told they could not have something at Walmart. I only changed one dirty diaper, and to top it off the kids food was not wasted at DQ. They ate well, they sat well, and they behaved well. We even enjoyed their company! Now that sounds awlful, but I'm hoping that on occasion, any of my readers with children betweent he ages of 1year to 3 years old, may understand. I was even strong enough to order a salad at DQ instead of a burger. And I enjoyed it. Their honey mustard dressing it very good! So overall, it was a excellent trip to town that I will relish for months to come, since likely it will be the last for months to come. :)