I'll probably have some wi-fi while I'm gone, but I got myself a large stack of library books and some magazines for our vacation, so I won't be on-line quite so much in the next week or so. But don't give up on me! Check back! Maybe I'll post a photo or two.
Packed to the gills, hoping that cargo thingie doesn't go flying off the top of the van, everyone's asleep but me so I guess I'd better head that way. Tomorrow's a big day!
Ciao for now!
A new favorite snack around here is peanut butter balls! My friend likes to add rice krispies and dip hers in chocolate, but I keep mine simple for everyday snacking.
1/4 c honey (or corn syrup)
1 c peanut butter
1 c dry milk powder (more or less, make it so you can form the mixture into balls)
Combine, make into balls. EAT!
He had a total hip replacement and so far, things took good. He's in a lot of pain, but he had no blood clots, which was the main concern.
What a relief!!!
Hubby's taking what we call "my precious" (remember Gollum from Lord of the Rings?) to the nearby city where a church member is having a life-threatening surgery. Please pray for the man having this surgery, whose name is Jim.
As I was saying, we tend to fight for the right to the MacBook and he's taking it today! So no checking blogs for me today, no posting...but that's OK I guess because maybe I'll actually get some housework done. Especially because instead of going to see family and driving for a total of 6 days, we're going here:
www.ouraycolorado.com
Check this out! We're camping for a few days, then as a reward for my longsuffering at the campground, going to a two bedroom suite with a kitchen and satellite TV!
If you've checked my blog lately, you'll know things have been difficult, so once we made the choice not to take sweet baby girl back to see family (not an easy decision), I feel like I actually have something to look forward to!
The planning begins!
There are few things more beautiful than a nursing baby...
This has been so difficult lately. I've decided to put the breaks on the Anger study I was doing and go back to the basics.
About four or five years ago I was very convicted that I had never read the Bible in its entirety. There were unfamiliar Old Testament books I had never even glanced at. I have a good friend, as you know, who is a devout Muslim and she knows her Koran backwards and forwards, and here I was, a child of the true and Living God, and there were portions of His letter to us that I didn't even know! So I got started with books I had never read before.
Since the order of scripture is not necessarily inspired, it didn't matter much to me how I read the different books, but I started in the Old Testament since I had read the New Testament completely. I put a little mark in my table of contents after I'd finished a book.
I read the entire Bible in a little over a year. I have since done one other one year Bible plan, so in total I've read through the entire thing twice.
Now I'm going to try for three times. It doesn't matter how long it takes me, I'm just going to pick a book and read it like I did the first time. It's very easy for me to get bogged down in studies and reading what other people wrote, so we'll see how this works.
I am going to start looking at a study soon for our ladies' Bible study in the fall called Seeking Him by Nancy Leigh DeMoss. It deals with personal revival, and we all know how much I NEED THAT.
We live in a place with very little diversity, with the exception of some Latino folks, and it's important for my children to know that Jesus loves people of all nationalities and cultures. He will have a multitude from every tribe, tongue, and nation as His people.
So I like to expose my children to books that don't only have white Americans as their main characters.That's why I like Ezra Jack Keats, who won a Caldecott Award for his picture book, The Snowy Day, which features a little African American boy named Peter.
The Ezra Jack Keats foundation website explains how the idea for books about Peter were born:
"In the two years that followed, Keats worked on a book featuring a little boy named Peter. An article Keats had clipped from Life magazine in 1940 inspired Peter. “Then began an experience that turned my life around—working on a book with a black kid as hero. None of the manuscripts I’d been illustrating featured any black kids—except for token blacks in the background. My book would have him there simply because he should have been there all along. Years before I had cut from a magazine a strip of photos of a little black boy. I often put them on my studio walls before I’d begun to illustrate children’s books. I just loved looking at him. This was the child who would be the hero of my book.
"The book featuring Peter, The Snowy Day, received the prestigious Caldecott Award for the most distinguished picture book for children in 1963. Peter appears in six more books growing from a small boy in The Snowy Day to adolescence in Pet Show.
"In the books that Keats wrote and illustrated, he used his special artistic techniques to portray his subjects in a unique manner. One of these was his blending of gouache with collage. Gouache is an opaque watercolor mixed with a gum that produces an oil-like glaze.
"The characters in Keats’ books come from the community around him. Many of his stories illustrate family life, the simple pleasures and more complex problems, that a child often encounters in his daily routine. To create his books, Keats drew upon his own childhood experiences, from having to flee from bullies to taking a ribbing from his pals for liking girls. But these are also the experiences of almost all children growing up in neighborhoods and communities in many parts of the world. This commonality explains the continuing popularity of Keats’ books and characters."
We've checked out every Keats book we can get our hands on. I love the pictures and that little boy is just adorable.
We have tried this, then stopped, tried again, then stopped. We have lots of good ideas and great intentions, most notably doing our Truth and Grace Memory System from the Founders Press (www.founders.org) and reading Catherine Vos' beautiful written The Child's Story Bible with the children. We've tried doing it before bed, at the breakfast table, at the lunch hour...nothing is consistent. I know that family devotions are not a "magic bullet" for well-behaved children and personal spiritual growth (of course, I know they help...), but I so want to do them. I also don't want to nag my husband about it, either, but as I get to feeling despondent about the health of the church, I want to pour a love for Christ into my children even more.
I need thoughts, ideas, comments, experiences! Bring it on!
I mentioned in a comment a few days ago that there has been very little discussion of what it means to be a pastor's wife. So I emailed Focus on the Family with some thoughts and they responded:
"It was thoughtful of you to send us your feedback concerning the amount of resources you have found that address the needs of pastors' wives. We are pleased that you brought it to our attention. The suggestions and various ideas we receive from our listeners are of great interest to us and often prove to be useful. We have passed along your observations and blog site to our Ministry Outreach department for consideration.
"Again, thanks for contacting us. If we can be of further assistance in any way, please do not hesitate to let us know. May the Lord richly bless you and your loved ones in the days ahead."
We'll see if anything happens. Maybe a magazine article or radio show or on-line discussion will develop from this. Who knows? In the age of the internet and instant information, anything is possible and everything's worth a try.
For those of you who aren't pastor's wives, there are some things you should know about how to encourage your pastor's wife.
1. She's not perfect either.
2. There are things that go on in the life of the church that you know nothing about but are huge burdens for her to bear.
3. She'd like friends, too.
4. So maybe you should call her for a playdate or over for dinner.
5. Pray for her that she would not get bitter or resentful.
6. You don't have to act "all spiritual" around her.
7. She does a lot that no one sees and she certainly isn't getting paid for it.
8. Unless she's in a megachurch, her family doesn't have a lot of money, probably less than you make.
9. She has times of spiritual dryness, too.
10. Sometimes she wonders if it's worth all the hassle, worth the toil it can take on her husband and children.
So the next time she does something that bugs you, remember these things and pray for her instead of complaining.
