The Scoop on Granny

Name:
Cathi

Status:
Dreaming of the mountains...


Who is Granny?

I'm the incredibly blessed mother of 9, "Granny" to 16, and wife of "The Papa," the knight-in-shining-armor whose loving support has made it possible for me to stay home and give my life to mothering, homemaking, and 26 years of homeschooling. Life at Granny's House is full of laughter, friendship, books, music, lively debate, writing, and good things to eat. My days are made even more meaningful by coming alongside other moms, giving them the support and encouragement that I lacked as a young mother and helping them to network with each other in ways that strengthen homes and families. A few times a year I board a plane to visit my "away" kids, to attend the birth of a grandchild, or to enjoy some lazy days with my best friend, but I always love coming back to...Granny's House.

My Complete Profile

On Granny's Calendar
  • August 15 - SAC Day begins
  • August 16 - Sam is 7!
  • August 20 - Kristen's birthday
  • August 30 - THE WELTYS ARRIVE!
  • Sept 3 - FAMILY PICTURES
  • Sept 3 - Chris' birthday
  • Sept 5 - Henry is 9!
  • Sept 7 - Isaac is 10!
  • Sept 17 - The Papa's birthday
  • Sept 23-30 - Granny and Papa go to Hawaii
  • Sept 26 - PawPop is 88!
  • Sept 29 - Tim is 15!
  • Oct 2 - Cheyenne's birthday
  • Oct 4 - Liam is 5!
  • Oct 7 - John Caleb is 17!
  • Oct 18 - Tony's birthday



  • Email Granny!


    Get your own calendar



    Granny Cares
  • Care Calendar
  • Agape Pregnancy Help Center San Antonio
  • World Vision

  • Granny Cooks (and Eats)!

  • The Pioneer Woman Cooks
  • Once a Month Mom
  • $5 Dinners
  • Full Bellies, Happy Kids
  • A Year of Crockpotting


  • Granny's House (and yours!)

  • Simple Mom
  • The Nesting Place
  • Between Naps on the Porch
  • The Inspired Room



  • Granny gets around...
  • A Holy Experience
  • MommyLife
  • Confessions of a Pioneer Woman
  • Preschoolers and Peace
  • Breathing Grace
  • theMangoTimes



  • Granny stays informed...
  • Real Clear Politics
  • Fox News
  • Drudge Report

  • Granny Thinks...
  • Al Mohler
  • Between Two Worlds
  • Blog and Mablog
  • First Importance
  • Equipping the Saints
  • Desiring God

  • Granny says you may go to...
  • PowerLine Blog
  • Michelle Malkin
  • SteynOnline
  • WSJ Opinion Journal Best of the Web
  • GetHuman
  • Home School Legal Defense Association

  • Granny goes to the movies...
  • Netflix
  • Rotten Tomatoes
  • ScreenIt.com

  • Granny is watching!
  • Blue Pencil Editing
  • SPOGG
  • Mighty Red Pen
  • Conjugate Visits

  • Granny smiles at...
  • Purgatorio
  • ScrappleFace
  • LarkNews
  • Sacred Sandwich


  • Thursday, October 01, 2009
    Of horses and legs...
    What does Scripture mean when it says the Word is "alive"?

    All my life I've heard people of good intentions say it means that, unlike any other book, a passage from the Bible can mean something different every time you read it. But I don't happen to believe in a God whose Word changes its meaning every time it speaks...rather, I believe that as *I* am changed, sanctified, I understand it at new levels and that it never fails to speak the very same message to the very different circumstances of my life.

    Last night, sitting in the recliner that has pretty much been my home since June 5, I became acutely aware of the state of my muscular atrophy. Oh, I'd long recognized the sorry state of my quads--they've been cut into so many times in the past six years it's a wonder there's any tissue left there at all. But last night I suddenly realized that I have almost no calf muscle left, either. And no one has put a scalpel anywhere below my knees!

    There are all kinds of exercises to build up your calves, but the truth is that most people get all the exercise they will ever need just by walking or running. Trouble is, I don't do much walking these days, and haven't really done much of it in years. I can sure see it in my calves...and that makes me feel pretty crummy. The state of my legs in general makes me feel pretty bad, even when they're not causing me pain. Not just pretty bad, but embarrassed as well.

    I don't know how many times I've read the Bible all the way through, and I've certainly read through the Psalms many more times than that, so there's no telling why this passage never really stood out to me:

    His delight is not in the strength of the horse,
    nor his pleasure in the legs of a man;
    but the LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him,
    in those who hope in his steadfast love.

    Psalm 147:10-11

    I ran across these verses while reading one of my current books, The Pleasures of God by John Piper. After spending some time speaking of the intersection of love and fear, Piper returns to the question implied in the first part of the passage.

    Now we must ask why God does not take pleasure in horses and legs as it says in verse 10:

    His delight is not in the strength of the horse,
    nor his pleasure in the legs of a man.

    The point here is not that strong horses and strong legs are bad. After all, God made them. In fact...he rejoices in the strength and freedom of mighty horses. For example, he asks Job,

    Do you give the horse his might?
    Do you clothe his neck with strength?
    Do you make him leap like the locust?...
    He paws in the valley, and exults in his strength,
    He laughs at fear, and is not dismayed;
    he does not turn back from the sword...
    he cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet.
    He smells the battle from afar,
    the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.

    (Job 39:19-25)

    Clearly God exults in the strength of the horse that he alone has made. Job can't take credit for any of the horse's wonderful powers. No, the point is not that this glorious animal is bad. The point is this: in the day of battle, men put their hope in horses instead of putting their hope in God. But Proverbs 32.:31 says, "The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the LORD." Therefore Psalm 20:7 says, "some boast in chariots, and some in horses; but we boast of the name of the LORD our God." And Psalm 33:17 says, "The war horse is a vain hope for victory, and by its great strength it cannot save."

    God is not displeased with the strength of a horse and the legs of a man as good things that he has made. He is displeased with those who hope in horses and in their legs. He is displeased with people who put their hope, for example, in missiles or in makeup, in tanks or tanning parlors, in bombs or body-building. God takes no pleasure in corporate efficiency or balanced budgets or welfare systems or new vaccines or education or eloquence or artistic excellence or legal processes, when these things are the treasure in which we hope, or the achievement in which we boast. Why? Because when we put our hope in horses and legs, then horses and legs get the glory, not God. [emphasis mine]


    The Word is alive! All my life I've read these verses and never had the ears to hear what it was saying to me. Still, God doesn't give up on me...He gives me circumstances that will allow His Word to speak to me where my ears have been stopped up.

    I've never owned a horse and probably never will, so I'm not really tempted to put my literal hope in one. But I do own a pair of legs that used to serve me well and are now largely lifeless. I've been putting a lot of hope into the return of their usefulness through surgery and exercise. And I'd be lying if I said I don't want God to answer my prayers for strong, healthy legs. That would give me a lot of pleasure. I want to be increasingly aware, however, that HIS pleasure is "in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love." If He chooses to restore my strength, wonderful! But may I ever have my eyes on the eternal and put fearing and hoping in Him above all else.

    That kind of life has legs.

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    has spoken at 6:34 PM
    3 Backtalks to Granny





    Granny's Mission Statement
    "...Tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might, and the wonders that he has done....that the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, that they may arise and tell them to their children."
    ~Psalm 78:4-6

    My Focal Passage for 2011...
    Philippians 2:5-11

    5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,

    6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,

    7 but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

    8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

    9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,

    10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

    11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

    ~Philippians 2:5-11 (ESV)


    Oxymoronica...

    "The vanity of being known to be trusted with a secret is generally one of the chief motives to disclose it."

    ~Samuel Johnson


    [Oxymoronica, n., A compilation of self-contradictory terms, phrases, or quotations; examples of oxymoronica appear illogical or nonsensical at first, but upon reflection, make a good deal of sense and are often profoundly true.]


    Books on the iPhone, the Kindle, or on the nightstand...


  • The Good Husband of Zebra Drive, Alexander Mccall Smith
  • The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions, Arthur G. Bennett, editor



  • Books finished in 2011...

  • Oxymoronica, Mardy Grothe
  • Some Sing, Some Cry, Ntozake Shange, Ifa Bayeza
  • English Society in the Eighteenth Century, Roy Porter
  • One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are, Ann Voskamp
  • His Word in My Heart, Janet Pope
  • The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot
  • Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
  • Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi
  • Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God, John Piper
  • Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything, Joshua Foer
  • Blue Shoes and Happiness, Alexander McCall Smith
  • The Red Queen, Philippa Gregory
  • Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, Eric Metaxas
  • The Confessions of Saint Augustine, St. Augustine
  • Complete Poems and Selected Letters of John Keats, John Keats
  • Unfamiliar Fishes, Sarah Vowell
  • Words That Work, Frank Luntz
  • NurtureShock: New Thinking About Children, Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman
  • Poke the Box, Seth Godin
  • Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It, Gary Taubes
  • A Patriot's History of the United States, Larry Schweikart and Michael Allen
  • Song of Saigon: One Woman's Journey to Freedom, Anh Vu Sawyer
  • The Artistic Mother: A Practical Guide for Fitting Creativity into Your Life, Shona Cole
  • The Politically Incorrect Guide to English and American Literature, Elizabeth Kantor
  • The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris, David McCullough


  • Oh, the thinks you
    can think...
  • Tapestry of Grace
  • Anatomical Charts
  • America's Library
  • George Washington's Mount Vernon - Virtual Mansion Tour
  • Thomas Jefferson's Monticello - Virtual Mansion Tour
  • Hurricane Demo

  • Oh, the places we'll go...
  • The Alamo
  • Majestic Theater
  • The MAiZE
  • Magik Theatre
  • Sheldon Vexler Children's Theatre

  • Granny always says...
    For those of you studying or interested in the Rom...
    Yoo-hoo! Calling Cindy Sheeeeeeehaaaaaaan............
    Mark Steyn recalls:Half a decade or so back, I wro...
    Our youngest grandson, Judah, delighted when he sp...
    Sunday snippets...
    Growing in the gospel means seeing more of God’s h...
    But really, it's for your own good:
    Food for thought...
    When we can't be content with God's natural order,...
    Oh but still, let's get ourselves a system like th...

    Granny used to say...
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    Grace Notes

    "Were the whole realm of nature mine
    That were a present far too small...
    Love so amazing, so divine
    Demands my soul, my life,
    my all!"