While Entering Church

O my God, I am a sinner, and yet I am not a sinner.  Alone and apart from Christ, I am a sinner.  But in my Lord Jesus Christ and with Him, I am no sinner.  I firmly believe that He has destroyed all my sins with His precious blood.  The sign of this is that I am baptized, cleansed by God's word, and declared absolved and freed from all my sins.  In the sacrament of the true body and blood of my Lord Jesus Christ I have received as a sure sign of grace the forgiveness of sins.  This He has won and accomplished for me by the shedding of His blood.  For this I thank him in eternity.  Amen

                                                                                                      Luther's Prayers

Finally, Our Latest Family Picture

O'Briens 2011

So here is our lastest family photo.  We ( I ) never "got it together" enough to get a formal family photo while Seth was here, but a friend of mine was kind enough to come over and take one for us.  And here are other random pictures she took in the slide show below.  I have a new "therapeutic" activity to add to my list; there's gardening, puzzles, sewing & crafts and now playing with Movie Maker.  I am certainly an amateur, but this is addicting and fun. The pictures are not perfect or edited but neither are we : )  Enjoy.

Seth's Smallest Fan

This is one of my favorite pictures!  I seem to have a lot of pictures of Molly and Seth lately.  Molly thinks so highly of Seth and Seth just loves his little sister. By the time Seth is back home Molly will be quite a bit older, so it's fun to capture these two on camera now.

Seth is in Hawaii right now and will be deployed to Afghanistan in May.

To be a Mother.............

I know this is kind of long reading, but it is good reading!

"To be a Mother is to be the sacrament--the effective symbol--of place.  Mothers do not make homes, they are our home; in the simple sense that we begin our days by a long sojourn within the body of a woman; in the extended sense that she remains our center of gravity through the years.  She is the very diagram of belonging, the where in whose vicinity we are fed and watered, and have our wounds bound up and our noses wiped.  She is geography incarnate, with her breasts and her womb, her relative immobility, and her hands reaching up to us the fruitfulness of the earth......................" 

"..........You are not only a link with something.  You are the thing itself; and you are the sacrament, the instrument, by which we learn to love the things that are.  Your body is the first object any child of a man ever wanted.  Therefore dispose yourself to be loved, to be wanted, to be available.  Be there for them with a vengeance.  Be a gracious, bending woman.  Incline you ear, your heart, your hands to them.  Be found warm and comfortable, and disposed to affection.  Be ready to be done by and to welcome their casual effusions with something better than preoccupation and indifference.  It isn't a matter of how much time; only how much intensity....................."

R.F.Capon

Bed and Board

My Oldest and My Youngest

Molly & Seth

Someone took a sweet picture of Seth and Molly. The first couple of days Seth was home Molly would hardly leave his side.  Even when Seth was catching up on sleep, she would sit on the bed and play or read a book by him.  Molly is sure enjoying Seth being home.

 
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!            Psalm 133:1

Home Again!

Seth is home!!!
It's 2:00 in the morning and we are all wide awake around here-all except for Molly.  Everyone waited for Dad, John & Pete to come home from the airport with Seth.

Obrien Sons

Seth is home on a twenty day leave before being stationed in Oahu, HI. for three years. 

Just for Fun.................

Cousins Lily and Molly 

Steve's brother Daren is an amazing photographer.  He took this picture of the girls at a wedding rehearsal for Megan (Steve's sister).  They were the flower girls.  I love the looks on their faces.

Little Flower Girls

Below is a song I've been enjoying lately.  I told my kids I bet they could do this song.  And they did - very quickly!  The link isn't our children yet.  But as soon as they record it I will post that.  John has changed it a little as far as the music, but the harmonies I just love!

Jesus Messiah