Today is the kids playing outside in a violet covered backyard.  Jonathan just threw dandelions and his plastic golf bag in the back of his little car and said, "bye Sisser!".  Dorathea feeds the bunny with her cowboy boots on.  The bunny sits up on her hind feet, she knows what's coming.  Ted works on homework, and I laundry, and lunch, and homeschool away the day.  Hopping on Craigslist a lot in between to look for greener pastures.

  We finished "The Wizard of Oz" this morning for school.  My little ones. three and five eagerly waited on the couch for the end of the story.  By the time we closed the book the Cowardly Lion had become king of the beasts, the Scarecrow ruler of Oz, and the Tin Man ruler of the munchkins, and of course Dorothy is home.

I am praying for my own little lion as he has been pluaged with fear lately.  Afraid of the toothbrush, his hair being washed (or his face being wiped), and especially his biggest nemesis, the t-shirt being pulled over his head.  "My eyes!"  he cries as if they will fall out.  Unfortunately these are all things I have to do for him, so Ted and I get to be the torturers daily.  I pray over him knowing that though he feels like a cowardly lion that his is really a "strong and courageous" boy who can't see his own courage yet.

Me I'm feeling a little like Dorothy myself.  I pray for "no place like home" and God whispers, "I have given you all things to enjoy".

1 timothy 6:17 "Charge those who are rich in this present world that they not be haughty, nor have their hope set on the uncertainty of riches, but on the living God, who richly provides us with everything we need and  enjoy; 18that they do good, that they be rich in good works, that they be ready to share, willing to communicate; 19laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may have of life that is life.

 I never have understood why Dorothy is so set on going back to brown Kansas that she doesn't fall in love with the Oz colors around her.  The Blue Munchkinland, Emerald Oz, and Red Kingdom of Glinda.  I look around me and see the colors of Oz; purple carpeted backyard, bright green trees, blue sky.   I am rich, and well cared for.  "I see color, I hear the mantra whispered, "I provide, I provide, I provide," and,  "consider the lilies", He laughs and says "see how richly I provide, you little faith".


 Maybe Dorothy couldn't help being a Kansas girl it was her home sweet home.  Me I believe I might be from a place like OZ where colors are brighter, home is a wonderful world,  and I have my own family of funny Lion, loving Tinman, and bright Scarecrow.  Each of us rich in our own special way.  Each courageously seeking "life that is life".

Jonathan just handed me the dandelions.  "Fow ew bobby", he grins.  There's no place like home.

-Allison