In Christ Alone

I have this song on my play list up above. I would love for you to click on it and listen to it. I cannot sing this song without
weeping for joy. The words carry such meaning and truth. When I hear the last two verses at church, I want to say YEE HAW or WHOO HOOO! I want to burst forth in praise and wave my hands and jump for joy. But I remain subdued for the better of the group and jump up and down with joy inside. :) But I truly do wonder: Why is it ok to get all excited about a football game, but not about Jesus? I'm all for a few whoo hoo's at church now and then; as long as they are orderly whoo hooos. :)


In Christ Alone


In Christ alone my hope is found;
He is my light, my strength, my song;
This cornerstone, this solid ground,
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My comforter, my all in all—
Here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone, Who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones He came to save.
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied;
For ev'ry sin on Him was laid—
Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain;
Then bursting forth in glorious day,
Up from the grave He rose again!
And as He stands in victory,
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me;
For I am His and He is mine—
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

No guilt in life, no fear in death—
This is the pow'r of Christ in me;
From life's first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No pow'r of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home—
Here in the pow'r of Christ I'll stand.

Enchanted Revisited

This should be an interesting school day. :)I was told "The man who holds your heart must be very lucky indeed!"

Mama That Wrinkle......

Anna was studying my face oh so affectionately. She stroked my face with her finger and followed a certain "pattern" a few times and then got a sweet smile and said,
"Mama, that huge wrinkle on your face forms a perfect heart!"

uh.... gee thanks.....I think.

I guess if I have to be noted for wrinkles, at least they form perfect hearts. :)

The Inaugaration Through The Eyes of Little Girls

These are the notes the girls took during the Inauguration:



Erika:

I heard songs and music and preaching and yelling. I saw thousands of people. I saw Barack Obama and his wife and Bush and his wife. I thought it was good, I though it was going to be fast. I heard that a woman got hit by a train.
I saw prsident Obama coming in. I saw people wearing hats and I saw Mrs. Obama give a present to Mrs. Bush.
I saw Obama give a speech and people watching from his school. I saw a woman making popcorn.(that was mom) :)
I heard Obama say that "my fellow president, I stand before you. I thank President Bush. So it is understood, I will prosper the nation, to day I say to you this day we come to proclaim. We understand we have been given for us, they fall and die. They work for us to be free. Every where we look there is work to be done.


Anna:

Well, we just heard a 60 year old woman got hit by a train. Miss Obama gave Miss Bush a box. In the box was a journal and a pen to write her experience in the White House. Mr. Obama just got out of a big car. It is cold, but most people don't care how cold it is. The Obama's car is 6 feet tall! This is the 2nd youngest president in History. Well this is a change~! Mr. Bush is moving to Texas!

I saw millions of people all waiting for Mr. Obama. Some people have been there for a whole day! I also saw African people. They wore funny looking clothes.I heard a man say, "Hear Oh Israel the Lord our God, The Lord is One". I do not get it. We are not Israelites!

I saw Mr. Obama get sworn in. And they had a parade with Brithsh soldiers. "The Red Coats". Did you know that men have guns in their shirts?

Obama said that we are free and some celebrate, some work their hands raw. All this we can do and we will.


Sarah:
I saw thousands of people waiting, cheering, singing and talking to each other. I saw lots of police cars and soldiers. I even saw the children of Barack Obama. I saw people reporting things. I heard Obama make his speech, a lady sing, a man pray and another girl talk. I heard people singing and cheering.
I was thinking, "Wow! What a lot of people!"I was thinking I would like to live in the White House. I was thinking, a soldier could kill the president but I don't think they would. I was thinking, "Why would they go to church on Tuesday?"
I was thinking "What is Obama going to do first?" Mom says she doesn't think it will be good.
I heard that a woman got struck by a train. I saw the president and his wife get in a car. Mom told me the soldiers have weapons.
I was thinking, "I can't believe all those people waited since yesterday!"I couldn't believe people came from all over the world. I can't believe how many people came out of one door!

Barack Obama said we are equal and we are free. The still waters of peace. Our nation is at war. The time has come to re establish child hood. This is the journey we look for now. We will build the road and electricity. We are ready to lead once more. :)

Watching The Inauguration

One of the things we were discussing today while watching the inauguration was transition of power. We talked about how in many countries in the world transition of power is brought on by force, by war, and the previous leader may be imprisoned or executed. The girls watched a picture of the new first family and the old first family embrace and the new first lady give the old first lady a gift.
We talked about how a very powerful leader, just willingly walked away from his office and handed his authority to the new powerful leader, caused by the will of the people in which he leads. Whether you like the choice of our new president or not, it is an amazing thing to watch.

FROM THE GIRLS:

So far the most exciting part of watching the inauguration has been when they showed a little boy near the Washington Monument doing the exact thing Sarah was doing from the comfort of her own home. Watching the Inauguration with a Periscope. :)
"Look Mommy! He has a periscope just like us!" :)


From Mom:

We were watching the car pull up with George Bush and Barack Obama. I told the girls, if that were me, I wouldn't want to get out of the car! What a responsibility!
Then I asked:
What would be the first thing you would do if you were in office?

The girls :

Sarah: I would have a PARTY and get 4 dogs and feed all the poor people.
Anna: I would work for animal rights and endangered animals. People use fossil fuels and destroy animal habitats.
Erika: I would make it cheaper for people to fly here from far away.
Mom: I would make it easier for people to come to our country, who want to be a part of America and be a part of this great country. Most of us descended from immigrants after all. :)

I Get It!

We have been on an "Enchanted Kick" around here..... This a.m. I was singing, "How Do You Know He Loves You... How Do You Know He Cares?.....

Sarah said, "How do you know?" So I repeated what my own dear husband said this morning when I was happily serenading him this a.m.

"For God demonstrated His love to the World like this.... He GAVE His Only Begotten Son".
So I sang to her, "That's how we know He loves us! That's How we know, HE CARES!"

Her response: "I get it!" :)

Enchanted

Last night for our movie night, we watched "Enchanted".
It is a movie based upon the Musical.
The story line is, a Princess in cartoonland gets banished to New York and continues to behave with the innocence like the cartoon princesses, and as the story unfolds, the prince comes to life as does the wicked step mother etc.

Remember Sleeping Beauty and the old woman with the apple? That scene comes to life with the woman and the apple.

Well, it sent Sarah in for a couch dive, scared her to death. When it was bedtime, she went to sleep but awoke scared and had to sleep with mommy and daddy . :) After alot of talking and praying she finally went to sleep. I woke up tired and needed COFFEE! STRONG COFFEE!

Well, this a.m. Sarah was all rested and the Fairy Princess in her came to life. Right now she is "cleaning the castle", singing, "While your cleaning don't stop singing"!
(WITH SOME DANCING AND TWIRLS THROWN IN FOR DRAMATIC EFFECT)
She didn't eat her morning apple. She chose yogurt instead. LOL

The Sentence Of The Day

Here are the girlies taking a crack at diagramming a most wonderful sentence. :)

There You Go Mr. Chicken Legs!

Hmmmm..... morning games of backgammon can be quite competitive around here. Sarah and Daddy were playing a fierce game this a.m. Daddy said, "your move!" She moved alright and said, "There you go Mr. Chicken Legs", to which we both started laughing......
Can this sweet little girl who greets her sister with such affection Call DADDY MR. CHICKEN LEGS?


YES! But only during Backgammon. :)

Here is daddy giving his best Chicken Yard Rooster Look! Isn't he charming? From this look can you guess who won?


In case you guessed wrongly:

Chicken Pox

Anna is reading a book about 3 girls. She got very excited when the chapter was called "Chicken Pox". After a couple of pages she came to me and said, "Mom, there isn't ANYTHING in this chapter about a chicken!" :)

Erika's Creative Math Answers

2 boys have 3 donuts. If they were to share the donuts evenly, how many donuts will they have? (paraphrased by mom)

Erika's answer: 1 each.

I asked her: How did you come up with 1 each? That only equals 2 total and there are 3.

Her answer:

They gave the other one away!

Little Girls Have Never Changed

I was reading this passage from the book of Job:
Job 41:1-5
Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishook, or press down his tongue with a cord?
Can you put a rope in his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook? Will he make many pleas to you?
Will he speak to you soft words? Will he make a covenant with you to take him for your servant forever?
Will you play with him as with a bird, OR WILL YOU PUT HIM ON A LEASH FOR YOUR GIRLS?

Little girls have been trying to lead animals on leashes since the beginning of time. :)

What Is It About Schedules?

After vacation time and the Chaos that Christmas brings, we were very happy to get settled back into a real scheduled day. For whatever reason, it seems when something is WRITTEN DOWN and on the WALL, the kids just seem to thrive. They LOVE seeing Lists of things to do and they love following time charts.

I am abit free spirited myself, but have come to appreciate the SCHEDULE. It is true that I get more done when I write it down and try to stick to it. Of course we are not perfect at it, and of course there are exceptions to the rule, such as Doctor appts., illness, field trips etc. But overall, schedules cause us to thrive with happy hearts.

The girlies and I sat down a couple of days ago to discuss family responsibilities, school work, fun time etc. This is what we all came up with together. I have to say, it works like a charm.
We made a school schedule, then a fun time schedule (not all done every day) and a Chore schedule (not all done everyday) The goal is to get them to be prepared if they see something out of place, to just take care of it without being asked. Also, to time THEMSELVES on things like computer time. So far, the minute timer has been in use for things like blogging and webkins.


Anna prefers to do outside type chores and Erika prefers inside. Sarah likes both, so we tried to make things to their liking. It cracked me up watching them pick things they actually enjoy doing, and then divvy up the rest between them.

In the afternoons, I want them to enjoy trying new things AND do old things, so we even put a time schedule on that ...... What resulted? Each of them had computer time, each tried playing a musical instrument, 2 spent time playing with animals and trying to be "goat whisperers", and there was time spent having fun.

When it came time for dinner, Erika very excitedly started to help. She chopped walnuts and an onion for me, and has claimed the kitchen just like a grown up girl~!
If I'm not careful, she will be kicking me out of my domain soon... LOL

For The Sake of His Great Name

For those of you who read this blog, I'd love to point you to another blog in my side bar. It is called, "For the Sake of His Great Name". Wayne, Hillary and Adelaide Denny made the trek to Paris France and are attending Language school before setting of to Senegal as Missionaries. Wayne will be teaching in the bible school in Senegal.

Please keep them in your prayers and follow their blog for updated information and lots of fun along the way. Hillary is a great blogger and I really enjoy reading about the great adventures of Wayne and Hillary.

Their little girl Adelaide is now 2 and loads of fun to read about.

Praise the Lord for technology used right. Many times when our missionaries leave, we get short snippits of news here and there and sometimes none at all for long periods of time. New technology helps us to keep in contact, and as stateside believer's we can feel a greater part of the ministry we pray for. I think it can also help our friends to not feel so isolated.

So if you read something from them, leave them a friendly message. I'm sure they would love it. :)

A New Guitar

I found this guitar at a great price. Erika has been wanting a guitar for a long time, and we can all learn to play it. I remember a little bit, but not enough to really play, so now we need a good cord book and we will have Music class! :)
Here are a couple of pics of Erika with the guitar. It really has quite a good sound.




As I was cleaning up abit this a.m., I heard Erika in the bedroom strumming away, the same strum the same sound and same note, but singing a most wonderful song she made up from the bottom of her heart.

"I Praise You Lord" "I thank you Lord", "I thank you for my Family"
"I Praise You Lord" I thank you Lord......

It was all just really sweet. :)

Little Girl Mischief?????

I was just notified of a little girl who decided it would be great fun to take her leg off, place it on the sidewalk and hide behind the brick mailbox, so the innocent woman walking her dog could get the shock of her life. :)

This little girl proceeded to let me know the woman's response which went something like "OH MY G--!"AHHHHH!!!!!

This certain little girl won't be doing that again, I hope. :)

The Last Funny of the Year......maybe.......

Erika just asked, "Do we have any chop sticks?"

I said, "Yes, but what do you need them for?"

She has been knitting and I thought she might need them for something different.....

She said, "My lips are really sore and dry."

OHHHHH, that is "chap stick" you want. LOL

My Special Anna Time

Every month I spend one on one time with each of the girlies. It is New Year's Eve, the LAST possible day to spend time with Anna. The other girl's already had their time.
So she and I set out to Walmart to use her gift card. She was so joyful, she grabbed my hand and didn't let go nearly the whole time we were in Walmart and she TALKED, and TALKED.... she had this big smile on her face and was so proud picking out her things.

It is fun spending one on one time with the girls. Their little personalities just come out and the dynamic is so different when they are alone vs. when they are all together.
She didn't need to compete to talk, and that is probably good, because she had so much to say, I don't think her sisters would have been able to squeeze a word in. :)

After getting our Walmart Shopping done, we went to get goat feed and then stopped at Wendy's so she could get some lunch. She got a new favorite purse from Gramma this year and when we left Wendy's, she forgot it.

When we got home, she was looking everywhere for it, so we went back and luckily somebody had turned it in.

What I did notice, was when it came time to ask the clerk if they had found her purse, she was really shy and afraid to ask. She wanted me to ask. I remember working on these skills with the boys long ago. Anna reminds me so much of Chuck when he was her age. It took alot to learn to buy things and speak clearly etc. She did wonderful though and as she gets more experience, she'll do even better.

We had a really sweet enjoyable afternoon together.

Anna purchased a "Paint by the Number" set, and a "Pottery Wheel" to make clay pottery. She has already tried it out and she and Sarah had a good time trying to make a cup. LOL

Anna finally came in and announced, "I made a great CAVE!" LOL

So What Are Your New Year's Traditions?

When the boys were little, we spent time with some friends who were WAY FUN. We were sad when they moved away. One of the things we did together, was to fill up a room with balloons, like over a hundred. We would stick candy and gum in the balloons before blowing them up all the way and money in others. Then, at midnight, we threw a roll of quarters, dimes and nickels into the balloon room and sent all the kids in there for a "balloon fest". What they got was theirs to keep! It was REALLY FUN!

We haven't done the balloon thing with the girlies, but it did cross my mind this year.
Instead, we are going to do "The Minister's Cat". At about 10:00, you sit in a circle and a person starts "The Minister's Cat was a...." and then you start with an A adjective to describe the minister's cat. When everybody has exhausted the A, you go on to B, then C.... until you get through the alphabet or midnight comes. :) It really is a fun game and the adjectives the kids come up with are pretty funny.

"The Minister's Cat was an Angelic Cat" "The Minister's Cat was an Angry Cat" etc.

The girls have been practicing, so I'm curious about tonight to see what they come up with.

Gettin' Ready For The New Year!

The Countdown has begun..... 3,2,1, NEW YEAR 2009!!!!!

I can't believe it is almost 2009! Where did 2008 go? For that matter where did 2000-2008 go? I'm still remembering Y2K!
ALOT has happened since then.....

In Y2K, I had one graduate living on his own. 2 seniors in high school and 1 junior in high school. I had no hopes of ever having a girl in our home besides me, even the dog was a boy! We purchased a bunny, named her CLEO and she turned out to be a boy and had to be renamed CLEVON..... I was alone! I loved raising boys and never even thought about girls.

8 years later...... We are a house of girls and now MIKE is the one who is on his own...he is the lone male of the house; but we all adore him. That means he gets LOADS of hugs and attention. :)

I have so many loose ends to finish before the new year begins and so many "New Year's Resolutions" that were never met. However, It is NOT too late! I can add them to this year's New Year's Resolutions!

So what are your resolutions this year?
I like resolutions because they help us to set goals, even if we don't meet the goals. If there is no goal to meet, we definitely won't strive to meet it...... :)

This year, my ULTIMATE earthly goal will be to keep up with my personal filing....
My personal spiritual goal will be to spend more time studying my bible and praying.
My mothering goal will be to begin to teach the girlies to cook and sew.
My schooling goals will be to get them to SPELL with accuracy.....
I also plan to kiss my husband more and see my grandkids more.

I have loads of resolutions but..... I'd like to know yours. :)