The CHALLENGE

April 26th I took on the challenge with a fellow blogger to write a corresponding word to go with a letter of the alphabet. I decided to make my challenge to use a word from the Bible and write a scripture verse to go with it. Part of the challenge was to say why I chose that particular word and for the first two letters my reason was because I liked the music of that particular group. For 26 days, just noticed how my challenge began on the 26th, these were the words and groups I came up with:

A - ABBA
The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” Romans 8:15

ABBA - cuz I love their music. :-)

‎B - BREAD

"I am the Bread of Life." John 6:48
Bread - I love their music too!

C - CARPENTER'S

"Is not this the carpenter's son? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas?" Matthew 13:55 KJV
The Carpenters - I absolutely LOVE their music!

D - DOORS

"the pure gold basins, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, dishes and censers; and the gold sockets for the doors of the innermost room, the Most Holy Place, and also for the doors of the main hall of the temple." 1 Kings 7:50

The Doors. J

E - EAGLES

‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Exodus 19:4

The Eagles

F - FAITH

He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this “hill”, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew 17:20

Can you guess? Faith Hill (ok, so it’s a mountain! Lol)

G - GRANT 

‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the LORD Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the LORD Almighty. Haggai 2:9

”Do you see it? Huh, huh? Amy Grant

H - HILL

You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Isaiah 55:12

There ya go again…see it? Hillsong.

I - ICE

The breath of God produces ice, and the broad waters become frozen. Job 37:10

ICE CUBE

J - JARS

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 2 Corinthians 4:7

Jars of Clay

K - KISS

She Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth— for your love is more delightful than wine. Song of Solomon 1:2

KISS

L - LIMP

Every hand will go limp; every leg will be wet with urine. Ezekiel 7:17

Appears to be appropriate for the music of, Limp Bizkit

M - MERCY

have mercy on me, Lord, for I call to you all day long. Psalm 86:3

MercyMe

N - NO

No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval. 1 Corinthians 11:19

No Doubt

O - OCEAN

"Praise the LORD from the earth, you great sea creatures and all ocean depths," Psalm 148:7

Ocean was a gospel rock band formed in 1970 in London, Ontario, Canada. They are best known for their million-selling 1971 single "Put Your Hand in the Hand"

P - PRINCE

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

PRINCE

Q - Queen

Now the king was attracted to Esther more than to any of the other women, and she won his favor and approval more than any of the other virgins. So he set a royal crown on her head and made her queen instead of Vashti. Esther 2:17

Queen

R - Righteous

Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. 1 John 3:12

Righteous Brothers

S - SPICE

[ Jesus Has Risen ] When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. Mark 16:1

The original Spice Girls

T - THIRD

He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, Luke 24:46

Third Day

U - USHER

A gift opens the way and ushers the giver into the presence of the great. Proverbs 18:17

Usher

V - VINES

The fig tree forms its early fruit; the blossoming vines spread their fragrance. Arise, come, my darling; my beautiful one, come with me.” 

Song of Solomon 2:13

The Vines…You know, Pastor, no really they are an Australian group.

W - WHO

Job 38

The LORD Speaks

 ¹ Then the LORD spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:

 ² “Who is this that obscures my plans with words without knowledge? 
⁵ Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! 
   Who stretched a measuring line across it? 
 ⁸ Who shut up the sea behind doors 
²⁵ Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, 
²⁸ Who fathers the drops of dew? 
²⁹ Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens 
³⁶ Who gives the ibis wisdom
³⁷ Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? 
   Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens 
⁴¹ Who provides food for the raven 

The Who

X - XERXES 

I would have been fine with my original word for "X" but the Good Lord gave me a new word. "Xerxes"
"Before a young woman’s turn came to go in to King Xerxes, she had to complete twelve months of beauty treatments prescribed for the women, six months with oil of myrrh and six with perfumes and cosmetics." Esther 2:12

Oh yeah, I want to be pampered like this! LOL....

SO my group is XTD-Xerxes The Dark http://www.xerxes-band.tk/

Y - YES
Just came home a short time ago from decorating my table for the Tea in the morning. I have my word for "Y".
"But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one." Matthew 5:37 NKJV
A lesson for each of us to learn when our plate is full. ;-)
Without a doubt my group is "YES".
I've seen all good people, Roundabout.

Z - Zac

When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zac, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” Luke 19:5

Zac Efron

It was the Start of Something new for Zacchaeus.

There you have it. My list of words from A-Z with verses from the Bible and names of a musical group or musician. You know, sometimes you may start something one way and without realizing it it turns out to be something completely different? I enjoyed coming up with this list for the 26 days I did it. They say it takes 30 days for anything to become habit. This exercise helped me to realize how much I do enjoy writing and since I've always wanted to start "blogging" this helped me jump in to that. 
Maybe it is "The Start of Something New."

Some of my Favorite things...Writing

The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible.  

~Vladimir Nabakov

My first blog I wrote last week I wasn't sure what I would have to write about but writing is one of my favorite things to do. I have even come up with certain topics I would like to write about and will proceed to do that in the coming weeks. I will share:
"Some of my Favorite things" and will share 12 of my Favorite Things. Last week I started with "Books" and I should have shared my 12 favorite books so I will blog about those another time.
This week is the second of My Favorite things...Writing
A few of my other favorite things include...Cooking...Sewing...and I will share 8 more too.
Other topics include:
The Power of Oprah.
State of the Union.
Children, the only thing on earth we can take to heaven.
Taking care of ourselves.
Children belong to God.
Experiencing a little bit of heaven on earth.
Caring for our parents.
Debra's Poem.
So I have a dozen blogs lined up to share with you.


One of my friends recently shared in her blog that she was born "for such a time as this." She was talking about being able go from journaling on her own to writing her thoughts and sharing them with others through "blogging." Well, she's nearly 10 years younger than I am and I recall at her age I did a lot of writing. I didn't quite journal faithfully but I had events that happened in my life that I wrote about hoping to be an encouragement to others. My last major writing took place in 2000 when the reality of my childbearing years were completely over. There's something else to write about as well as the various stages in a woman's life.

This same friend, after hitting a wall for writing, recently was given the challenge from the Lord to blog from A to Z. She encouraged others to share their word for the letter of the day and why. I took up the challenge but I would use the Bible to choose my words from and would include a scripture verse that used that word. Quite by accident when I went to write "the why" I chose that particular word the first two days turned out to be names of music groups. So there began my challenge to find the word and post the scripture verse and name a music group or musician. That second day when I discovered my challenge I was so excited that I stayed up till 1am going through the alphabet finding the word and scripture verses and coming up with the corresponding music group. Through the days I did change the some verses and then I would find a better group to name. It was a challenge and I enjoyed it throughly. It was also through this exercise that helped to encourage me to finally start blogging. I've been wanting to do it for a few years but I guess I was waiting for life to slow down. That hasn't happened yet so I figured I might as well just jump into it.


I have enjoyed reading my friend's blogs. She is an incredible writer and one day she will be a published author. Her stories are amazing from writing about spiders to cats and she has a line of children's stories she could write about and is off to a good start. I don't aspire to be a writer like that although I would love to write a book with my husband about marriage and family. I do have a book in the making with my husband so hopefully that will be done within the next year.


So there you have it. My love of writing. Catch up with me next week. I will post my words from A to Z with scripture verses and music groups.

Some of my Favorite things...Books.

I know every book of mine by its smell, and I have but to put my nose between the pages to be reminded of all sorts of things.  ~George Robert Gissing


My favorite quote from the book "Cheaper by the Dozen":


Mailman: All those kids yours? 
Frank Gilbreth: Oh, these aren't so many. You ought to see the ones we left behind.
Mailman: How you ever feed 'em? 
Frank Gilbreth: Oh, they come cheaper by the dozen.


This movie was based on the Gilbreth family and was one of the books that helped me have some sort of organization to raise my large family. The other book I depended on was the biography Susanna Wesley the mother of John and Charles Wesley. Susanna was the 25th child of 25 children in her family. She married Samuel Wesley and gave birth to 19 children. “…although she never preached a sermon or published a book or founded a church, (she) is known as the Mother of Methodism. Why? Because two of her sons, John Wesley and Charles Wesley, as children consciously or unconsciously will, applied the example and teachings and circumstances of their home life.”
I would hope that what my children learned while raising them in the home they would apply the examples and teachings of how they would live their lives once out on their own.


Frank B. Gilbreth was a pioneer in Motion Study and used his techniques to teach his children the "one best way" to do just about everything. You would be surprised to know that his wife, Lillian E. Gilbreth, came up with the idea of creating apartment sized kitchens where you could stand in one area and take as few steps as possible. To be able to reach for a pot in the cupboard, turn to get an item out of the refrigerator and then place it on the stove to cook a meal all in just a few steps. Lillian discovered this by moving the appliances in her own "huge" kitchen to discover the "one best way" to cook. I absolutely LOVE this book "Cheaper by the Dozen" and encourage everyone with children to read it also! 


Another great book is by Emilie Barnes, "More Hours in My Day." This helps you to discover the chores children are capable of doing for various ages. I also had a booked that helped me organize my cleaning schedule but lost the book and my index cards and ever since I've never been able to get back on track. I can't even remember the name of the book and wish I could find that book. I know it has a blue cover and it's somewhere......in my house. 


There is a sequel to "Cheaper by the Dozen" by the title of "Belles on Their Toes" and movies were made on each of these books. I'm not talking about the 2003 version with Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt, these movies were made in the 1950's. I don't want to give away the plot to either of these books so find them and read them for yourself and read them to your family. "Little House on the Praire" books were a favorite of mine as a young girl and I read them to my children. They are a good read for young families and if you have the opportunity to visit the state of Missouri you must go to Mansfield, Missouri and see where Laura Ingalls wrote the Praire books. Oh, the stories I could share with you about the places I have taken my children.


Here I sit in my Blog Corner of the World. I'm not sure what I'll do with this Blog Corner, I don't have enough "Hours in My Day" and I haven't learned the "One Best Way" to do everything. I do know when it comes to raising children and making purchases..."They Come Cheaper by the Dozen!"