LEARNING TO RIDE!
We had an adventurous evening tonight. We took Myah, Joel & their two bikes along with Kiana barefoot in the stroller, over to the local highschool parking lot for some riding lessons. Before we went, Evan double-checked the air pressure in the tires and took Myah's training wheels off....
Evan started with Joel and I had the video tape rolling. Joel has been learning to peddle for some time now, but never really had it conquered. I'm afraid we don't have much room in our yard to ride bikes without needing to use the road, so he doesn't get a whole lot of practice time. He did great! By the end of the night, he was going all over the place. His only issues were a couple of spills when he turned the handle bars too tightly and was going too fast to control it.
Myah's turn! She took right off. After Evan ran around with her a few times, he let her go and go she did! She was beaming the whole way! The only thing she really struggled with was getting the peddle in the right place to get started. I had put long pants and long sleeves on her thinking she would be the one taking the spills, and poor Joel is the one who ended up with skinned knees. (His training wheels didn't work quite as well as I thought....) Overall, it was a fun, successful night!
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
LONG TIME NO BLOG...
Sorry, it's been a while. We've had a lot going on in our personal lives this past week and a half. Lots of exciting things and maybe a great opportunity! Evan and I have lost some sleep over this situation, but now things seem to be out of our court and into someone else's. I'm not ready to share this excitement quite yet, but after we know one way or another -- whether it's really going to happen or not, I'll share the whole story with you. I think God is up to something, and this definitely could be his way of answering some prayers! And if not, that's ok, too.
Sorry, it's been a while. We've had a lot going on in our personal lives this past week and a half. Lots of exciting things and maybe a great opportunity! Evan and I have lost some sleep over this situation, but now things seem to be out of our court and into someone else's. I'm not ready to share this excitement quite yet, but after we know one way or another -- whether it's really going to happen or not, I'll share the whole story with you. I think God is up to something, and this definitely could be his way of answering some prayers! And if not, that's ok, too.
Sunday, May 21, 2006
MY EVER-EXPANDING BOOK PILE
It seems I must be queen of starting books and not finishing them before I get hooked on another book. Right now, I feel like I'm in the middle of reading so many books, I can't even keep track of them all at the moment! It's not that I don't want to finish them, or that I even lose interest in them, I just get overly excited about starting another one, that I sometimes forget about what I was in the middle of! (Call me blonde, I guess!) :) This past week, I picked up Joyce Meyer's "Enjoying Where I Am On the Road to Where I am Going." Yup, I'm hooked again. My trouble is lack of time! I'm working very hard at reading through the Bible in a year this year, and enjoying that immensely, but as a busy mom, I'm lucky if I get time beyond that reading to read anything else with any sort of commitment! More for my sake than yours, here's my current book pile list. These are books I have started and not totally finished within the last 6 months or so:
* "Be Fruitful and Multiply" by Nancy Campbell
* "Believing God Devotional Journal" by Beth Moore
* "Enjoying Where You Are On The Way To Where You Are Going" by Joyce Meyer
* "Revolution in World Missions" by K.P. Yohannan
* "Blessing Your Children" by Jack W. Hayford
* "Jesus Freaks II" by D.C. Talk
It's terrible, I know! I have enjoyed what I have read out of each one of these! I just need to discipline myself to keep reading! :) I guess I'll make my first priorities the ones in my side-bar for now. Guess I better quit blogging and start reading!
It seems I must be queen of starting books and not finishing them before I get hooked on another book. Right now, I feel like I'm in the middle of reading so many books, I can't even keep track of them all at the moment! It's not that I don't want to finish them, or that I even lose interest in them, I just get overly excited about starting another one, that I sometimes forget about what I was in the middle of! (Call me blonde, I guess!) :) This past week, I picked up Joyce Meyer's "Enjoying Where I Am On the Road to Where I am Going." Yup, I'm hooked again. My trouble is lack of time! I'm working very hard at reading through the Bible in a year this year, and enjoying that immensely, but as a busy mom, I'm lucky if I get time beyond that reading to read anything else with any sort of commitment! More for my sake than yours, here's my current book pile list. These are books I have started and not totally finished within the last 6 months or so:
* "Be Fruitful and Multiply" by Nancy Campbell
* "Believing God Devotional Journal" by Beth Moore
* "Enjoying Where You Are On The Way To Where You Are Going" by Joyce Meyer
* "Revolution in World Missions" by K.P. Yohannan
* "Blessing Your Children" by Jack W. Hayford
* "Jesus Freaks II" by D.C. Talk
It's terrible, I know! I have enjoyed what I have read out of each one of these! I just need to discipline myself to keep reading! :) I guess I'll make my first priorities the ones in my side-bar for now. Guess I better quit blogging and start reading!
Friday, May 19, 2006
REFLECTIONS ON OUR FIRST YEAR OF HOMESCHOOLING
Ahhh...that wonderful word homeschooling. As this post will mostly reflect on the academic slice of homeschooling, I do realize that there is so much more to homeschooling than academics... it's all a part of the training that God has called us to give our children. We chose to homeschool for many reasons, one of which we believe that character development, a firm knowledge of Jesus Christ, and a desire to live out his Word every day are key things we want our children to learn on a daily basis. We want to have control over the people who influence our children at this tender age. We want to know exactly what they are being taught as truth really is TRUTH and based on God's Word. Children are so easily influenced, and they need a good foundation before they can stand up to the world. Yes, we want our children to make a difference for Jesus, but we feel the best way to help them know how to do this is to give them a good, godly foundation here at home first. Remember, too, this is OUR family's calling. Not everyone may be called to homeschool.
When I look at homeschooling from this big perspective, it encompasses every area of their lives. Daily living, chores, how to get along with others, what it means to obey God and His Word, in addition to the academic part of homeschooling. Academics are really such a small percentage of what I see our task of homeschooling to be, and yet, it's the easiest to get caught up in because the world says that's the main part we should worry about.
Keep in mind, kids who are in school for academics, can still be "homeschooled" in all these other areas. Our family has just chosen to intertwine them all, at least for this season of our lives.
Having said all that, my reflections from this point on will be in regards to the academics of our first year. As students all around us are counting down till the day they get out of school, I am trying to determine what is best for our family this summer in regards to this area of academics. I have already packed some of our stuff away, but we are still plugging along with our Math & Phonics, which I think I'm going to try to keep up with on a somewhat regular basis this summer. Maintenance is the word I have in mind.
We definitely had our ups and downs this first year, but looking back, it was a great experience. We had lots of fun together, and made it through the days of frustration. Some weeks we just had to set things aside and "take a break", while other weeks, we chugged on.
At the beginning of the year, my first frustration was with our curriculum, which now, by the way, I have really grown to like! :) I just had to learn how to adapt it to Myah's learning style. We use Horizons Phonics and Math, which was very overwhelming at first. Her Phonics lessons could be up to 6 pages long! Once I got past the whole mindset of having to finish every blank on every page & finish 5 lessons per week, we learned to really enjoy this curriculum. I just had to loosen up! There are so many ways to adapt the lessons provided in this curriculum. We would make games out of it, change a particular section and do it on the whiteboard, and always try to bring in real life examples on it. We did a lot of things orally that would have taken 10 times as long to have her sit and write down all the answers. We are now to the point, where we can fly through a lesson together where she gets practice on all the concepts, but maybe not in the "sit and finish the worksheet" kind of way, as that is NOT her learning style. Horizons makes it easy to adapt their lessons in this way because they offer such a variety of things to do.
The following resources are a sampling of things that were fun and helpful to us this year:
* Horizons Mathematics
* Horizons Phonics and Reading
* A Reason for Handwriting
* The World God Made (Christian Liberty Press - Science)
* Brain Quest
* Disney Animal & Nature Discovery Cards
* 100 Words Kids Need to Read by 1st Grade (Scholastic) -- we used these for our sight words
* What Shall I Do Today? (Usborne books - Art)
* Christian Liberty Readers
* The Little Kids Adventure Bible
* Jesus Wants All of Me (My Utmost For His Highest for Children)
Another thing we really enjoyed doing was bringing school into our daily living. Evan had Myah doing subtraction by figuring out distances from one location to another -- and this at 9:00 at night! They would check the mileage on the van when we left a certain location and then again when we got home -- a great way to live out a story problem! Nature walks are another thing we really enjoy doing as a family, and are a great way to learn more about God's beautiful creation. Myah has also enjoyed doing nature sketches. She'll go outside, pick a bug or a flower and draw it on paper.
One of my favorite parts of teaching her this year was to pick certain things from the Bible and study it. We studied the Fruits of the Spirit, the Lord's Prayer, the 10 Commandments as well as the NT commandments that Jesus gave us. Not only did we try to memorize all these things, but we also tried to really learn what they mean and how they impact our lives as followers of Jesus. Not only did we spend time learning how to pray, but also how to "listen" to Jesus. We learned Scripture verses for each letter of the alphabet up to "W", I think, and now she has these all hung up around her bedroom. My only regret here is that I didn't make her learn the references at this point. I think we'll go back and do that next year, though. Wish I would have done it all at once! Don't get me wrong, we don't have these concepts down, but she was at least introduced to them on her level, which was my goal.
So...changes for next year. I want to try to be even more diligent about incorporating school into every day living. I want to have more of a system set up for household chores. I want to be more willing to set "my" work aside and how I think things should be done in order to provide more learning opportunities for my kids to learn how to do things. I want to find that balance between challenging her and pushing her too hard. Most of all, I want to be even more consistent on teaching all my children about Jesus, to have a love for God's Word as well as what it means to have a relationship with Him. I want them to have such a love for prayer and God's Word above all else in this world. My prayer is that God will give me wisdom to know how to accomplish HIS will for my children...not my own will. One step at a time....
Ahhh...that wonderful word homeschooling. As this post will mostly reflect on the academic slice of homeschooling, I do realize that there is so much more to homeschooling than academics... it's all a part of the training that God has called us to give our children. We chose to homeschool for many reasons, one of which we believe that character development, a firm knowledge of Jesus Christ, and a desire to live out his Word every day are key things we want our children to learn on a daily basis. We want to have control over the people who influence our children at this tender age. We want to know exactly what they are being taught as truth really is TRUTH and based on God's Word. Children are so easily influenced, and they need a good foundation before they can stand up to the world. Yes, we want our children to make a difference for Jesus, but we feel the best way to help them know how to do this is to give them a good, godly foundation here at home first. Remember, too, this is OUR family's calling. Not everyone may be called to homeschool.
When I look at homeschooling from this big perspective, it encompasses every area of their lives. Daily living, chores, how to get along with others, what it means to obey God and His Word, in addition to the academic part of homeschooling. Academics are really such a small percentage of what I see our task of homeschooling to be, and yet, it's the easiest to get caught up in because the world says that's the main part we should worry about.
Keep in mind, kids who are in school for academics, can still be "homeschooled" in all these other areas. Our family has just chosen to intertwine them all, at least for this season of our lives.
Having said all that, my reflections from this point on will be in regards to the academics of our first year. As students all around us are counting down till the day they get out of school, I am trying to determine what is best for our family this summer in regards to this area of academics. I have already packed some of our stuff away, but we are still plugging along with our Math & Phonics, which I think I'm going to try to keep up with on a somewhat regular basis this summer. Maintenance is the word I have in mind.
We definitely had our ups and downs this first year, but looking back, it was a great experience. We had lots of fun together, and made it through the days of frustration. Some weeks we just had to set things aside and "take a break", while other weeks, we chugged on.
At the beginning of the year, my first frustration was with our curriculum, which now, by the way, I have really grown to like! :) I just had to learn how to adapt it to Myah's learning style. We use Horizons Phonics and Math, which was very overwhelming at first. Her Phonics lessons could be up to 6 pages long! Once I got past the whole mindset of having to finish every blank on every page & finish 5 lessons per week, we learned to really enjoy this curriculum. I just had to loosen up! There are so many ways to adapt the lessons provided in this curriculum. We would make games out of it, change a particular section and do it on the whiteboard, and always try to bring in real life examples on it. We did a lot of things orally that would have taken 10 times as long to have her sit and write down all the answers. We are now to the point, where we can fly through a lesson together where she gets practice on all the concepts, but maybe not in the "sit and finish the worksheet" kind of way, as that is NOT her learning style. Horizons makes it easy to adapt their lessons in this way because they offer such a variety of things to do.
The following resources are a sampling of things that were fun and helpful to us this year:
* Horizons Mathematics
* Horizons Phonics and Reading
* A Reason for Handwriting
* The World God Made (Christian Liberty Press - Science)
* Brain Quest
* Disney Animal & Nature Discovery Cards
* 100 Words Kids Need to Read by 1st Grade (Scholastic) -- we used these for our sight words
* What Shall I Do Today? (Usborne books - Art)
* Christian Liberty Readers
* The Little Kids Adventure Bible
* Jesus Wants All of Me (My Utmost For His Highest for Children)
Another thing we really enjoyed doing was bringing school into our daily living. Evan had Myah doing subtraction by figuring out distances from one location to another -- and this at 9:00 at night! They would check the mileage on the van when we left a certain location and then again when we got home -- a great way to live out a story problem! Nature walks are another thing we really enjoy doing as a family, and are a great way to learn more about God's beautiful creation. Myah has also enjoyed doing nature sketches. She'll go outside, pick a bug or a flower and draw it on paper.
One of my favorite parts of teaching her this year was to pick certain things from the Bible and study it. We studied the Fruits of the Spirit, the Lord's Prayer, the 10 Commandments as well as the NT commandments that Jesus gave us. Not only did we try to memorize all these things, but we also tried to really learn what they mean and how they impact our lives as followers of Jesus. Not only did we spend time learning how to pray, but also how to "listen" to Jesus. We learned Scripture verses for each letter of the alphabet up to "W", I think, and now she has these all hung up around her bedroom. My only regret here is that I didn't make her learn the references at this point. I think we'll go back and do that next year, though. Wish I would have done it all at once! Don't get me wrong, we don't have these concepts down, but she was at least introduced to them on her level, which was my goal.
So...changes for next year. I want to try to be even more diligent about incorporating school into every day living. I want to have more of a system set up for household chores. I want to be more willing to set "my" work aside and how I think things should be done in order to provide more learning opportunities for my kids to learn how to do things. I want to find that balance between challenging her and pushing her too hard. Most of all, I want to be even more consistent on teaching all my children about Jesus, to have a love for God's Word as well as what it means to have a relationship with Him. I want them to have such a love for prayer and God's Word above all else in this world. My prayer is that God will give me wisdom to know how to accomplish HIS will for my children...not my own will. One step at a time....
Thursday, May 18, 2006
GREAT BIBLE CURRICULUM -- FREE!!
I just wanted to share these websites with you. Whether you are looking to teach the Bible to your homeschooled children, or needing a curriculum for church, you may want to check these out. Calvary Chapel is known for teaching the Bible verse by verse, and they also try to incorporate this in the Sunday School as well. These are their websites available to anyone at no cost. You can print them and use them!
OLD TESTAMENT
NEW TESTAMENT
These are designed for the story to be read directly from the Bible, and then use the puzzles, color pages, word searches, etc. as a review for understanding. What a great way to get in depth knowledge of God's Word and also a great layout for reading the Bible to our children! Check it out!
I just wanted to share these websites with you. Whether you are looking to teach the Bible to your homeschooled children, or needing a curriculum for church, you may want to check these out. Calvary Chapel is known for teaching the Bible verse by verse, and they also try to incorporate this in the Sunday School as well. These are their websites available to anyone at no cost. You can print them and use them!
OLD TESTAMENT
NEW TESTAMENT
These are designed for the story to be read directly from the Bible, and then use the puzzles, color pages, word searches, etc. as a review for understanding. What a great way to get in depth knowledge of God's Word and also a great layout for reading the Bible to our children! Check it out!
Monday, May 15, 2006
HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!
To the two most special moms in the world -- mine and Evan's. :) Thank you for sharing your hearts, your lives and your love with us. Your generosity, smiles and laughter are in our hearts every day! Thank you for your daily prayers and how you have taught us so much over the years. We miss you both dearly living so far away. Please know how much you are LOVED & APPRECIATED!
XXXXXOOOOO From all of us -- Evan, Terri, Myah, Joel & Kiana
To the two most special moms in the world -- mine and Evan's. :) Thank you for sharing your hearts, your lives and your love with us. Your generosity, smiles and laughter are in our hearts every day! Thank you for your daily prayers and how you have taught us so much over the years. We miss you both dearly living so far away. Please know how much you are LOVED & APPRECIATED!
XXXXXOOOOO From all of us -- Evan, Terri, Myah, Joel & Kiana
SING A NEW SONG!
One of my favorite old time hymns is "Amazing Grace", which I imagine much of the population will agree with me on. It's irreplacable! This newer song is a rendition of this hymn, and it's one of my current favorite worship songs. I love the Psalms where they talk about singing new songs to the Lord! This encourages each generation to get creative and worship the Lord according to their own personal heart. (Psalm 96:1, 98:1) This song is sung by Todd Agnew, and it's called "Grace Like Rain". Enjoy the lyrics! They aren't that much different than the original! :)
GRACE LIKE RAIN
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now I'm found
Was blind but now I see so clearly
Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah, all my stains are washed away, washed away
'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed
Chorus
When we've been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun
We've no less days to sing Your praise
Than when we first begun
Chorus
Chorus
One of my favorite old time hymns is "Amazing Grace", which I imagine much of the population will agree with me on. It's irreplacable! This newer song is a rendition of this hymn, and it's one of my current favorite worship songs. I love the Psalms where they talk about singing new songs to the Lord! This encourages each generation to get creative and worship the Lord according to their own personal heart. (Psalm 96:1, 98:1) This song is sung by Todd Agnew, and it's called "Grace Like Rain". Enjoy the lyrics! They aren't that much different than the original! :)
GRACE LIKE RAIN
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now I'm found
Was blind but now I see so clearly
Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me
Hallelujah, all my stains are washed away, washed away
'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear
And grace my fears relieved
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed
Chorus
When we've been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun
We've no less days to sing Your praise
Than when we first begun
Chorus
Chorus
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
PRAYER TIME
It seems I have slid a bit backwards in this area of my life. It's so easy to be focused when I'm in the middle of a challenging Bible Study, but as soon as we finished our last Beth Moore study as a group, I sort of let things go a bit. After some time on my knees asking the Lord's forgiveness and help to get back on track where He wants me to be, I feel revitalized! It's such a daily commitment, and I don't doubt that God allows some rest periods where we aren't so in depth in our study time, but I'm feeling called back to that place once again.
I'm not sure if I shared with you about my prayer cards or not, but I'm wanting to start posting some weekly prayers in my sidebar that I use to pray for my family. I have a flip-card system, held together by a key-ring type clasp. For weeks and weeks I prayed for God to teach me to pray. I still pray this prayer because I know I will never learn all there is about prayer, but one thing He led me to is this flip-card system. It includes different sections: Repentance, Personal, Family, Evan, Children, Extended Family, Other People(this section includes people who don't know Jesus that we are praying will come to know Him), etc. I also hope to add sections according to what I feel God is teaching me at the moment. I had one called "Believing God" when I was in the middle of that Bible study, and now I'm creating a section called "Serving". I also hope to keep adding more and more prayers to the sections that are already existing. I have little tabs on the ends of them that make them easy to find each particular section. The prayers in each section are mostly taken from Scripture and turned into prayers. I also have taken portions from other resources such as Stormie O'Martian's "Power of a Praying Parent, Wife & Woman" series. My grandma also sent me some flip cards called "The Keys to the Kingdom" which had different prayers on them for a husband and children. I'm slowly learning there is nothing more powerful in this world than prayer. We do not have time NOT to pray!
I hope that by taking the time to post these, that you may find them somewhat helpful in your own prayer life. Change the names of my family members to the names of your family members. I encourage you to start your own flip-card prayer system. It has changed my prayer life! Now when I tell someone I will pray for them, they get added to my cards, and I don't forget to do it. For some reason a journal just didn't work as well for me.
I leave you with this challenge today, which is just as much for me as it is to you. Take at least 15 minutes of the 24 hours God has given you in each day to lift your family up in prayer. (It's amazing how fast that time will go once you get started!)Get on your knees before our Savior and lay the most precious possessions God has given you in His hands. There is nothing in this world that could possibly be a better gift than time spent in prayer for our loved ones. It WILL change their lives...and ours!
It seems I have slid a bit backwards in this area of my life. It's so easy to be focused when I'm in the middle of a challenging Bible Study, but as soon as we finished our last Beth Moore study as a group, I sort of let things go a bit. After some time on my knees asking the Lord's forgiveness and help to get back on track where He wants me to be, I feel revitalized! It's such a daily commitment, and I don't doubt that God allows some rest periods where we aren't so in depth in our study time, but I'm feeling called back to that place once again.
I'm not sure if I shared with you about my prayer cards or not, but I'm wanting to start posting some weekly prayers in my sidebar that I use to pray for my family. I have a flip-card system, held together by a key-ring type clasp. For weeks and weeks I prayed for God to teach me to pray. I still pray this prayer because I know I will never learn all there is about prayer, but one thing He led me to is this flip-card system. It includes different sections: Repentance, Personal, Family, Evan, Children, Extended Family, Other People(this section includes people who don't know Jesus that we are praying will come to know Him), etc. I also hope to add sections according to what I feel God is teaching me at the moment. I had one called "Believing God" when I was in the middle of that Bible study, and now I'm creating a section called "Serving". I also hope to keep adding more and more prayers to the sections that are already existing. I have little tabs on the ends of them that make them easy to find each particular section. The prayers in each section are mostly taken from Scripture and turned into prayers. I also have taken portions from other resources such as Stormie O'Martian's "Power of a Praying Parent, Wife & Woman" series. My grandma also sent me some flip cards called "The Keys to the Kingdom" which had different prayers on them for a husband and children. I'm slowly learning there is nothing more powerful in this world than prayer. We do not have time NOT to pray!
I hope that by taking the time to post these, that you may find them somewhat helpful in your own prayer life. Change the names of my family members to the names of your family members. I encourage you to start your own flip-card prayer system. It has changed my prayer life! Now when I tell someone I will pray for them, they get added to my cards, and I don't forget to do it. For some reason a journal just didn't work as well for me.
I leave you with this challenge today, which is just as much for me as it is to you. Take at least 15 minutes of the 24 hours God has given you in each day to lift your family up in prayer. (It's amazing how fast that time will go once you get started!)Get on your knees before our Savior and lay the most precious possessions God has given you in His hands. There is nothing in this world that could possibly be a better gift than time spent in prayer for our loved ones. It WILL change their lives...and ours!
Friday, May 05, 2006
PICTURE THIS....
I'm up on the top of a laddar trying to pay attention to the detail of painting the trim around a window. Evan is on the other side of the house doing the same thing. Myah has paint all up the back of her pants. Joel is screaming, "MOM!" Glancing over my shoulder, I see Kiana in a sea of charcoal colored paint. She had tipped a gallon over on top of her legs and shoes. Her hands were black, her shirt was streaked and there was a lake in the middle of the grass! Looking back, I wish I had my camera....
I'm up on the top of a laddar trying to pay attention to the detail of painting the trim around a window. Evan is on the other side of the house doing the same thing. Myah has paint all up the back of her pants. Joel is screaming, "MOM!" Glancing over my shoulder, I see Kiana in a sea of charcoal colored paint. She had tipped a gallon over on top of her legs and shoes. Her hands were black, her shirt was streaked and there was a lake in the middle of the grass! Looking back, I wish I had my camera....
Thursday, May 04, 2006
VULTURES AND EAGLES
Just got my newsletter from Timothy Stuen Ministries. We enjoy reading these. He opened this one with a comparison of eagles and vultures. This quote struck me, and I thought I'd share it. If it sparks your interest, check out their website. You can sign up for their free newsletter as well.
"While vultures hover over dead prey and fight amongst who will get a piece, the eagle is seeking out something for himself with life in it. In Luke 17:37 the BIble says, "Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together (NKJV)." I believe that God is looking for some spiritual eagles in this hour that will consume and reflect the very life and essence of Christ. We must cease contending for denominational differences and divisive doctrines and begin to focus on Jesus and the kingdom that He is building. This kingdom consists of all tribes, tongues, and nations and has one thing in common. Its citizens deeply love God and desire to see Him glorified in and amongst all the earth."
Just got my newsletter from Timothy Stuen Ministries. We enjoy reading these. He opened this one with a comparison of eagles and vultures. This quote struck me, and I thought I'd share it. If it sparks your interest, check out their website. You can sign up for their free newsletter as well.
"While vultures hover over dead prey and fight amongst who will get a piece, the eagle is seeking out something for himself with life in it. In Luke 17:37 the BIble says, "Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together (NKJV)." I believe that God is looking for some spiritual eagles in this hour that will consume and reflect the very life and essence of Christ. We must cease contending for denominational differences and divisive doctrines and begin to focus on Jesus and the kingdom that He is building. This kingdom consists of all tribes, tongues, and nations and has one thing in common. Its citizens deeply love God and desire to see Him glorified in and amongst all the earth."
FAMILY NIGHT -- Asparagus and Ticks!
Last night, we decided to venture out on a search for asparagus. It grows wild near our house, and over the past couple of years we've been able to find some "hot spots" and pick some. We were only able to get enough for one meal last night, but as always, our adventures are a fun time to bond and laugh together.
Before we even left the house, I had my socks pulled up over top of my jeans, and no, I was NOT trying to make a fashion statement. It's tick season out here, and I have this horrible thing with ticks. Unfortunately, I'm trying ever so desperately to not pass this fettish on to my kids, so I'm learning to keep my fears and ee-bee-jee-bees of them to myself. (How's that for a word?? Guarantee I didn't spell it right....) The first place we stopped to pick asparagus, we found about ten -- our total for the night. No ticks! Our second stop, which is usually our gold mine for asparagus, we found none, and picked off about 5 ticks before we got in the van. When we got home, everyone stripped down for a tick check. Evan had 2 more, and Myah had one crawling on her T-shirt. Honestly, I didn't do so bad with it this year. None were stuck, and I didn't find any crawling in the sheets this morning.
On our walks, we observed a dragonfly, a beaver, a sandhill crane, ducks, pheasants, dead trees killed by lightening and various song birds. Family night turned into a science lesson. (I don't know how many questions Evan answered about ticks!) We all had a great time. We even crammed together to take this photo to remember the experience. I told Evan I want to try to take a family photo once a month, along with a picture of the two of us. We normally take so many of the kids that we get left out, and I want to have pictures of us as well.
Looking forward to eating our asparagus for dinner....even if it is less work to buy it at the grocery store!
Monday, May 01, 2006
RECIPE EXCHANGE
If you haven't noticed by my frequent recipe posts, I love recipes. Especially over the past 4 years, I have really gotten into cooking and trying new things. (What else is there to do in MT in the middle of winter when you don't have the funds to go skiing and you have a tribe to feed????) For about 3-1/2 years now, I have organized a recipe exchange over e-mail. It started as a way to stay in regular contact with my close friends, but really expanded, and now there are many people whose faces I've never met participating! We take breaks now and then, and are just coming back from about 5 months off.
Here's how it works. At the beginning of every month, I send a theme to everyone on my list. They have one month to respond back to me with a recipe of that theme. Then, at the end of the month, I compile them and send all the recipes out! It works great, and has been my main source of recipes for years now. I have gained so many wonderful recipes from doing this because people tend to share their family favorites.
I thought I'd throw the offer out there to anyone who may want to join us as we start up again. If you're interested in participating, just leave your e-mail address in my comment section and I will add you to my list! It's a lot of fun!
If you haven't noticed by my frequent recipe posts, I love recipes. Especially over the past 4 years, I have really gotten into cooking and trying new things. (What else is there to do in MT in the middle of winter when you don't have the funds to go skiing and you have a tribe to feed????) For about 3-1/2 years now, I have organized a recipe exchange over e-mail. It started as a way to stay in regular contact with my close friends, but really expanded, and now there are many people whose faces I've never met participating! We take breaks now and then, and are just coming back from about 5 months off.
Here's how it works. At the beginning of every month, I send a theme to everyone on my list. They have one month to respond back to me with a recipe of that theme. Then, at the end of the month, I compile them and send all the recipes out! It works great, and has been my main source of recipes for years now. I have gained so many wonderful recipes from doing this because people tend to share their family favorites.
I thought I'd throw the offer out there to anyone who may want to join us as we start up again. If you're interested in participating, just leave your e-mail address in my comment section and I will add you to my list! It's a lot of fun!
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