Living Sermon

Here is my dad's sermon that I promised a few posts ago. This sermon has really blessed me, and I hope it blesses you as well! Have a great day!

Thanksgiving Sermon

Since  it's finally handiwork weather, we've been listening to read-alouds and sermons. The height of fun. ; ) Here's my favorite sermon currently, especially applicable to Thanksgiving season. I hope you are as blessed by it as I was!

Joys and Adventures 2.0

This blog post has that strange title; because, well, this is the second time I've written a post like this. ; ) I particularly like the word “adventure” to describe things that are less than comfortable or kinda’ quirky because of G.K. Chesterton’s awesome quote, “An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered.” So, here it is—what’s been happening in my life.

Joy:

Starting the week out by witnessing the baptism and covenanting of several children and families! The ever growing circle! : ) The testimonies were so encouraging as they reminded us all of the Good News once again. I was particularly blessed to hear the testimonies of an older couple who came to the Lord late in life and the testimony of a young boy whose faith is very real despite all he has gone through. (His father is AWOL, so he knocked the socks off a Christian family friend by asking him to stand in and baptize him. So amazing!)

Adventure:

Doing the famous take-two-trips-to-go-somewhere-because-Dad-took-the-van-to-work. This time the car was my aunt’s and the destination was DQ to celebrate her birthday. Only problem—just as the second ice cream expedition was starting out, the car decided to quit moving and start smoking. We jumped out and were very grateful that it had broken right in front of our house.

Joy:

Salvaging the party!! The first expedition took a cab home bringing a DELICIOUS ice cream cake with them, and we gave her the gifts we had made to show our appreciation for her. Betsy Bea and I had so much fun making this card together. ; ) I think our aunt really enjoyed her day!

Adventure:

Scurrying to finish dinner in time so my sisters and I could visit with friends during Dad and Paul’s Bible Study.

Joy:

The amazing fellowship of sisters in Christ! We talked, did some handwork, and laughed a lot. We only got shushed about twice, which is banner for a lot of wound up girls. ; ) On our way home, Dad and Paul informed us of their tradition for after Bible Study—shakes. A very good tradition indeed.

Adventure and Joy:

The library!!!! It’s a mixed blessing but a blessing indeed! Here’s a picture of my latest finds. I’ll be sure to report back on them later. ; )

There have also been some other great movies that aren’t pictured here, mostly because I didn’t bring them home myself. We got to see the 1950s version of the movie “Anastasia” starring Yule Brenner and Igrid Bergman. Fascinating!! (My sister is now researching the Romanovs. Good ol’ Aimee.) ; ) My younger sisters brought home “Big Hero 6”. What a fun movie! (Does anyone else think Tadashi Hamada is just the best?)

Joy:

Getting some editing done! The next three parts of “The Twin Arrows” are nearly ready to go up on Noble Novels! (Speaking of that story…would anyone like to read more on here?)

Adventure:

Getting blood drawn for the first time ever! Pearl’s doctor offers free testing for T1D since we’re close relatives of a patient, so all of us kids got tested on the same day. I didn’t watch any of them, since I was really scared of it. It didn’t hurt at all; but for some reason I almost passed out, almost threw up, and could barely walk out of the doctor’s office. Yeah, that was scary.

Joy:

The Goodwill trip afterwards! That was really, really fun! I found Aimee the world’s best linen skirt and the world’s best denim shirt. Yours truly is an awesome shopper. *crows like Peter Pan does when he’s super proud of himself* *head-cuffs herself for being so weird*

Adventure:

Trying on autumn boots. There were two pairs—brown suede for $10 and brown leather for $6. I had to try. I never knew boots could be so hard to get on and off!! (Cinderella’s shoe was actually a glass boot, FYI.) Yours truly cannot, at this time, walk in heels. It was hilarious; but hey, I tried! ; )

Joy:

Making deviled eggs with my “baby sister”. She is awesome at peeling eggs!!

Adventure:

Dropping one of said eggs and calling our dog Ella over to eat it. She haunted me for the rest of the cooking time, and I had to make sure that the plate of finished eggs was beyond her reach on the table. ; ) She has good taste.

Joy:

Doing “baby” sister’s hair. We had a funny time to start with—I did it like Anne Shirley’s just for fun. It was amazing how poufy I could get it! Then after some calming down time, I tied a pink scarf-headbandy-thingy around her head and secured it with bobby pins. It took two tries, but she was such a princess the rest of the day.

Adventure:

Going outside to finish my sweeping job (just a teeny bit of the porch left to do!) and discovering that a neighborhood cat had decided to kill a pigeon in front of our front door. Fortunately, no carcass but lots of feathers everywhere! I felt like a Pixar character.

Joy:

The clean porch!!! So beautiful!!! Why don’t I do this more often?!!!

Adventure:

Discovering that on my regular posting day there was again no time to write a tome of a blog post. Sigh. So, I’ll be honest—I’m writing this on a Saturday and scheduling it for Monday so I can at least look like I’m on top of things. ; )

Joy:

Banana cake with chocolate drizzle this morning. Wow. Yum. (I get more creative when we haven’t grocery shopped in a bit.) ; )

And One More JOY:

Psalm 71:14-16. “But I will hope continually, and will praise You yet more and more. My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness and Your salvation all the day, for I do not know their limits. I will go in the strength of the Lord God; I will make mention of Your righteousness, of Yours only."

A Camping We Did Go

Last weekend, my family and I had the awesome adventure of going to our church's family camp together! Since it was an hour or so north of here, we got to enjoy a taste of greenness once again. The best parts, though, were sharing a cabin duplex with Perry and Tyler (and the BABIES!!!!!!) and getting to know our church family better.

After packing way too much clothing; gathering card games; baking and popping food (I made these cookies and popped four huge batches of popcorn. I even used up all the coconut oil and melted the lid just to make it more fun.); finishing up the sermon (Dad did that part. We only pack things and melt things.); collecting random forgotten things; and smashing it into the back of the van (Paul saying his typical, "Hey guys, don't open that one door. Everything will come out.), we started off on our adventure. Wow, that was a run-on sentence if ever I saw one!

Some of my lovely road-trip buddies. (My angel mother is in the passenger seat, but since she is shining like the sun you can't tell she's there.) We are veteran road-trippers now from our move down here last winter, so an hour doesn't feel like much. ; ) Dad had an awesome time pointing out real and imagined landmarks to us, and we kept ourselves clapping and bouncing with the PianoGuys.

The rest of my lovely (????) buddies. Weird angle because I'm sharing a seat with them, but you get the idea that it was pretty fun. ; ) (Oh, is Paul an angel too? I'll leave that for you to decide... No, he is an angel for sharing a seat with all the copious amounts of bedding we brought.)

 A little while later (we used to drive this far to go grocery shopping). we arrived at Friendly Pines just in time to throw everything into the cabin and run off to the cafeteria for dinner. After that came a chapel session, organizing our cabiny-messy-thingy, and games in the cafeteria until the wee hours of the morning.

Next morning we all walked to church. (It should always be this way, shouldn't it?) It was beautiful outside!!! At just about every session of chapel our family enjoyed mixing with Perry and Tyler's little family and the H. family as well.

Our fantastic little neighbors. They were the best thing about the weekend!! Unfortunately, they were so cute that we had a really hard time not laughing out loud during the sermon.

Especially when this one sneezed so hard he almost fell over...or when his older brother dumped a toy dump truck load of dirt into my lap...or when the camp cat startled one of them out of their wits when it came scampering by. Yeah, pretty cute. ; ) Don't you just love those funny eyes???

The theme of the weekend was revival, and Dad chose a really amazing aspect of the whole topic for his sermon Saturday morning. I HIGHLY suggest you listen to his sermon "Don't Lose Heart". It was very encouraging!!! (Special thanks to Anna for taking the picture because I couldn't see Dad very well through some people's heads.)

Saturday is probably everyone's hands-down favorite day of camp. That's because of....

FIELD GAMES!!!! I watched the first few games from the sidelines, but after a while I wished I had joined in. ; ) This game was a crazy relay race of trying to bat a balloon down the field without popping it. Add to that an ornery breeze and some surprisingly sharp grass--you get the picture. ; )

Another great one was passing a hula hoop around a circle of people without letting go of each other's hands. That was pretty crazy, but a high-five to everyone who managed it especially those wearing skirts.

We didn't get pictures of my favorite relay race (also the first game I played), but it was pretty fun/funny! All of us players threw our shoes in a huge, stinky pile at one end of the field and lined up on the other. You've probably guessed the objective--run across the field, find your shoes, cram them on, and make it back to your team without them falling off. There were some pretty hilarious stunts too, like my brother-in-law throwing his best friends' shoes out of the pile so they would have to go farther to find them. Thumbs up, Tyler! It was pretty hard to find my shoes (since apparently brown is the most common color); and I found myself wishing for one of the first times ever that I had flip-flops. ; ) I'm not sure how the scoring came out, but my team was awesome!! ; )

The tug-o'-wars were awesome!! This picture is kids against adults. You'll find me on the kids' side because this was taken before a couple of older girls and I realized that we belonged on the other team. ; P We lost the first one since our church is mostly children, but we won the second! ; )

That's my little buddy!

The rest of the weekend consisted of more hanging out (I did a little exploring with my friend Hannah and chatted some with her older sister), chapel sessions (I loved the history of the laymen's revival), an amazing bonfire (S'mores. That's what we exist for.), and amazing games in the cafeteria. (Some of my family members brought crafts to do with everyone, but I never got around to doing them.) Those times of all sitting around together laughing and talking or trying to beat each other at Dutch Blitz were my favorite times of all. That's when I got to know people (and sometimes got to beat them too!). ; )

Hanging out with the H. girls was my younger sisters' favorite thing about their first family camp (that they can remember, at least). I got to hang out with them a lot of the time which was so much fun! We visited their favorite spot at camp (nicknamed "the L tree"  for it's unusual shape), visited each  other's cabins (this picture was taken in ours), and sat together during church and the group picture. ;)

Altogether, it was an amazing time of fellowship and learning from God's word! And I highly suggest you all check out my Dad's sermon. ;)

Good Days

Summer is leaving, and I'm not very sorry at all. Next comes good weather, our church's family camp, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas. What's not to like? Still, these days have been good, and there is plenty to be grateful for...

I'm grateful for...

• The weather. I already mentioned it, but it's worth saying again. This Northwestern girl isn't quite done acclimatizing, so the cool(er) weather is a welcome relief. ; )
• Birds. I peeked out the window the other day and saw pigeons and some little brown birds (yeah, I don't know their name...) gathered together in our front yard. I had never realized before that there are beautiful birds even here! I'm just used to seeing gray mourning doves and nothing else. ; )
• Old pictures. The other day I was working on the huge project of putting eight years' worth of pictures on a USB drive. It was so wonderful to remember the times we've been blessed with. I found I had even forgotten some of the things we had done earlier this year, and it was very nice to be reminded. It also amazing to see how much my wonderful nephews have grown!
• Books to read... I've been reading so much lately it's been a ton of fun! Reviews coming when I can. ;P
• I've also been doing a lot of reading for our history studies. We are learning about Egypt right now, and I'm so excited to see how the Exodus fits into everything. 
• Christian movies. It seems like there have been a ton more good ones coming out lately than ever before. I got to see "War Room" earlier this month and absolutely loved it!!! It was very encouraging and inspiring, and I can't wait for the rest of my family to see it so we can discuss it. ; ) My dad bought "Polycarp", and the older ones in our family watched it together. It was a slower movie than I am used to, but it was very good!
• Nephews! Since their little family moved out, we haven't gotten to see them as much; but Perry sends enough pictures and hilarious stories to keep us alive until their next visit. ; )
• How much faster chores are lately. That sounds really weird, but now that I'm a "big girl" chores that were painfully slow to do in that past get done in a snap. So much more free time... ;P
• Shortbread--three flavors--plain, spiced, chocolate. 'Nuff said.
• Music playing all over the house. Sometimes three different songs at once because everyone has their own mp3 player. ; ) Walk into the kitchen--encouraging Christian music that we all love. Walk into the girls' room--very lighthearted and slightly romantic. ; ) Walk into the boy's room--inspiring, majestic, heroic movie music. Yeah, it's pretty fun. ; ) My favorite song right now is "After the Last Tear Falls" by Andrew Peterson. (The version from 2014 is awesome, but so is the older one too. Pick your favorite.) ; )
• Ants. Yeah, really, I'm grateful for our ant invasion! It gave Buddies a project to do when she ran out of schoolwork, and she was so cute and "adult" doing it. She had me help her handle the vacuum a bit, but she mostly did it all by herself. She found where they were coming in and was full of ideas to block the hole, get ED (she meant DE for diatomaceous earth) or poison for them, etc. After a while, she decided she needed a break, and we had popsicles together. ; )
• Inspiration. The little people in my family (soon I'll have to call them "medium people" because they are only getting bigger) are so hilarious and inspiring. Together we discussed what it would be like to have a world completely made of chocolate, or bagels, or noodles. ; ) I made them a pretend newspaper the other day using some of their ideas, and it was so much fun.
• Direct access to my Maker. Anytime I need to talk, He's there!

Today, what are you grateful for?

Memories of His Mercy

"Let us remember the loving-kindness of the Lord and rehearse His deeds of grace. Let us open the volume of recollection, which is so richly illuminated with memories of His mercy, and we will soon be happy."

~Alistair Begg

Do Not Grow Weary

"And you will arrive in heaven used up. And He will give you a whole new you. And He'll say, "Well done, good and faithful servant. You used yourself up for Me just like I did for you." ~Daddy, on having a servant's heart and not growing weary of giving yourself

I'm so grateful for good family conversations. It interrupted the beginning of algebra, but what I did learn was more important. ; )

In the "Out"

The restaurant was crowded with a myriad of hungry people and at least six television sets blaring away. We were scheduled to meet some friends there to share dinner, and when we arrived we scattered throughout the various booths they had reserved for us. One of them was already packed with four young adults, but they managed to squeeze in a couple of my siblings. The littlest girls joined their little friends in another, and my dad and mom sat with the adults. There was one booth left for three more people—those of us who were in the “out”.

My two middle sisters and I looked each other over. There was no more room for us with the young adults, none for us with the little girls, and we certainly weren’t adults. We had as much fun as we could muster staring each other and trying to catch snatches of the conversation in that wildly fun booth.

One of the dads walked by with an extra piece of pizza and kindly asked us if we wanted it because if not he would give it to the big kids. We said we didn’t want it, and he carried it away. I wasn’t a big kid? After all I was older than at least three of the young adults in that booth.

A few of the friends left and my middle sisters took the opportunity to take their places for the last remaining moments at the pizza place. I was all alone.

It really was all right. Our friends were so sweet to buy us pizza, and I had a great time just being near them. It still bothered me though, as have other experiences a lot like this.

Looking back (hindsight is always 20/20), I’ve realized a few things I should have thought of…

1.      Pizza is awesome. Nuff said.

2.      We should have had more fun. My middle sisters and I could have stopped staring at each other and came up with a crazy story idea or something.

3.      There are always other people in the “out” too. I should have realized that my middle sisters probably felt the same way I did and found ways to encourage them.

4.      When people leave me out they don’t usually mean anything by it. There really was no more room in that booth. When my sisters joined them—hooray for them!

5.      That dad didn’t mean anything by his words. I was told twice that day that I looked younger than I actually am. : ) (And I should take that as a compliment…)

6.      I can join the adults! In this case there wasn’t room for me, but sometimes they have more interesting and encouraging things to say than do those of my peer group.

7.      God is always there. Somewhere in C.S. Lewis’s revolutionary essay “The Weight of Glory” he mentions that in heaven we will be famous. Not famous with other people—no, everyone is equal—but famous with God. How beautiful is that? I can be fully known by Him and never forgotten!

So next time I am “in the out”, I need to remember that there are always things to do and people to love there too. : )

Encouragement for Today

Yes, this is me sharing another post. ; ) It's really encouraging and fits with the theme of this blog very well. Enjoy and have a very great day!

http://onlyonedayliketoday.blogspot.com/2015/05/do-little-things-with-great-love.html

A Whirlwind Weekend

Last weekend (and the two weeks leading up to it, might I add) was a whirlwind of preparations, practice, and finally the big day of our performance in the chorale! I thought I would share with you some of the things I am thankful for from the Christian Heritage Conference.

 

I'm thankful for...

Parents who were willing to take the plunge to spend the time, money, and effort on getting us to this great event. They trotted us around to stores so we could find clothes for the chorale, took us to several extra practices, and actually waived the usual school schedule so we could practice our brains out.

All our friends from church and the church universal who practiced with us and shared their unique versions of jokes.

A mom who was willing and able to cook tons of food, put up with 2 3/4 teenage girls asking for clothing advice, and stay up 'til two Thursday night/Friday morning making sure everyone had socks and the like.

The neighbors' cows (with the sheep leading!) being driven down the road in front of our house. That broke up the routine of a very busy day and gave us something to talk about.

A big sister who loaned me one of her denim skirts for the weekend.

A dad who got up at four thirty on Friday morning to drive us there. (For four hours, starting out in the fog to boot!)

A "baby" sister who kept asking her highly intellectual equivalent of "Are we there yet?"

GPS.

Those cool name tags that you just have to snap yourself with every year. (For old time's sake.)

This year's amazing, inspiring speakers--Ken Ham, R.C. Sproul Jr., and Israel Wayne. There were many more, but those are all the ones I heard between being in the chorale and arriving a little late. : ) I enjoyed hearing Mr. Ham's behind-the-scenes on his recent debate with Bill Nye. Mr. Wayne gave a historically interesting and inspiring talk called "What About Socialization?" where I learned that the most important thing in a child's life is that their heart belongs to their parents. (He was mainly talking to the parents but I found some application.) : ) He did a great job considering the fact that he had bronchitis, a sinus infection, an ear infection, and had visited urgent care the night before.

The curriculum hall--especially the Lamplighter booth! Do you think they know that all the beautiful books spread out draw me in? A scratch and dent copy of Comfortable Troubles came home with me. : )

The wonderful performers who blessed us with their music before the sessions and during the Family Night. We were treated to music from bluegrass to classical and even got to witness a skit on homeschooling. I most enjoyed the family with the adorable triplets and the Dunn Mountain Boys. (Not to mention the people I know and was there to cheer for!)

The Fellowship Dinner where we split up by regions and got to meet new people in our general area. Aimee and I gained a new pen-pal, and Paul found that boys universally love computer coding and animal trapping.

Chorale practices!!! (You knew this was coming.) This was our main reason for going, actually, and it was very rewarding. The two directors and the piano player worked together to make sure we sounded amazing. They handled us in a sometimes hilarious and sometimes serious way. I'll never forget having to practice putting the 's' on the end of a word on the next one and repeating "endle--ssbe" over and over. The words of the songs were very beautiful, and they didn't neglect talking about them either. There was even a complete Gospel presentation mixed in with the technical work.

All the little children. The adorable little girl who smiled at us while we tried to listen to a session, the chunky baby boy who greeted us with the universal salute of a finger up his nose, and the curly headed tot who waved goodbye to me as their family's van left the parking lot.

Food, glorious food! Especially the ham sandwiches.

The marvelous friends who decided to finance two hotel rooms for our family on Friday night. (We are thanking God for you! You know who you are.)

The comforts of said hotel room and the family party we had that night. Popcorn, Studio C episodes, and lots of laughter combined to make that night memorable.

Breakfast the next morning with about twenty other homeschoolers in the tiny hotel breakfast room. : ) 'Nuff said.

All the wonderful volunteers, the Craig and Bradrick families, and everyone else who made sure this conference happened.

A gigantic-ly tall "little" brother to escort me places. We did four flights of stairs together.

Elevators and escalators so you don't have to do four flights all day!

A "baby" sister who wore black and white just to match our performance clothes. So sweet!

Comfortable black shoes to wear on those crowded risers. I'm afraid the abundance of sopranos and altos squished the guys so hard that some had to share music. : )

The performance! The members of the audience I talked to later said it was wonderful, but I know the best part was being up there in the midst of the choir singing out God's praises at the tops of their lungs. The words were so beautiful, and when I sang "I could feel God's pleasure."

The funny dynamics of trying to fit 250+ young adults into the hallway behind the stage. I knocked the doorstop loose twice moving around people, so my gigantic-ly tall "little" brother and one other young man had to help we with it since it was a particularly rebellious doorstop. : )

The ending session and the congregational singing afterwards. Gotta' love the universal church!

Goodbyes with our new pen-pal.

Dinner on the long drive home and the awesome discussions about vision, roles, and so on that were held above the sound of the pounding rain.

Sleep. : )

Church the next morning where our favorite 93-year-old man accompanied the song he was leading on the piano. : )

 

Altogether it was an encouraging, exciting weekend, and I'm so grateful that I got the chance to praise God in song with so many other brothers and sisters.

So Many Blessings

I really appreciated this post: http://youngkeepersofthehome.wordpress.com/2014/02/21/a-homemakers-heart/. It encouraged me to realize just how much I've been blessed with. For starters, I got to help my five-year-old sister write various birthday cards and letters. In a letter to Grandma she said about her nephew, "He was really small; he was like a gigantic tortilla." Whatever that's supposed to mean. : )

Godly Womanhood

"Godly womanhood ... the very phrase sounds strange in our ears. We never hear it now. We hear about every other type of women: beautiful women, smart women, sophisticated women, career women, talented women, divorced women. But so seldom do we hear of a godly woman - or of a godly man either, for that matter. We believe women come nearer to fulfilling their God-given function in the home than anywhere else. It is a much nobler thing to be a good wife, than to be Miss America. It is a greater achievement to establish a Christian home than it is to produce a second-rate novel filled with filth. It is a far, far better thing in the realms of morals to be old-fashioned, than to be ultra-modern. The world has enough women who know how to be smart. It needs women who are willing to be simple. The world has enough women who know how to be brilliant. It needs some who will be brave. The world has enough women who are popular. It needs more who are pure. We need women, and men, too, who would rather be morally right than socially correct."
― Peter Marshall