And we all survived! We are thankful for family, friends and food. This was my first thanksgiving without my Grandma but it was sweet to eat at her table, to use her dishes and especially to use the rooster to hold our rolls!
Friday, November 28, 2008
Our First Thanksgiving to Host
And we all survived! We are thankful for family, friends and food. This was my first thanksgiving without my Grandma but it was sweet to eat at her table, to use her dishes and especially to use the rooster to hold our rolls!
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Our conversations lately...
Last night at bedtime:
Me: Good night, Burrito. May the Lord bless you and keep you and make His face shine upon you and give you peace.
Burrito: Mom, when I was a little baby I had 22 firesticks (do you remember what firesticks are?) in my hand and I set Mimi's house on fire.
Me: You set Mimi's house on fire with 22 firesticks?
Burrito: Yes, but it was accidentally. (I didn't even know he knew this word!) And then I called 911.
Me: And then the firemen showed up?
Me: That's good. Okay, now go to sleep.
Burrito: Okay Mom, night night.
Me: Good night, Burrito. May the Lord bless you and keep you and make His face shine upon you and give you peace.
Burrito: Mom, when I was a little baby I had 22 firesticks (do you remember what firesticks are?) in my hand and I set Mimi's house on fire.
Me: You set Mimi's house on fire with 22 firesticks?
Burrito: Yes, but it was accidentally. (I didn't even know he knew this word!) And then I called 911.
Me: And then the firemen showed up?
Burrito: Yes, the firemen showed up and I was scared of them but then I wasn't scared of them because they're not scary.
Me: And then what happened?
Burrito: They came in the house and sprayed all the fire out. Callie (the cat) almost caught on fire but she didn't.
Burrito: They came in the house and sprayed all the fire out. Callie (the cat) almost caught on fire but she didn't.
Burrito: Okay Mom, night night.
______________________________
This morning at breakfast:
Burrito: Mom, I want hot lunch. Judge has hot lunch at school everyday. (hot lunch is catered in lunch from different places like Chick-Fil-A that has to be ordered a month ahead)
Me: I know you want hot lunch but I think the reason why Judge has hot lunch everyday is because his mom just had a baby and babies are a lot of work and she probably doesn't have time to make him a lunch everyday so she orders him a hot lunch.
Burrito: Mom, I want a baby sister!
______________________________
______________________________
Here are some funny pictures of our trip to Mardel's the other day. The boys love to listen to the headphones in the music department and John and I were totally cracking up at them. Noodle was listening to the Chris Tomlin CD Hello Love which has this song called "Jesus Messiah" that we love to sing on the radio. He knows the words well and was singing loudly the words, as he could not hear just how loud he actually was with those headphones on. And Burrito was listening to the latest Third Day CD Revelation and was dancing all around. It was a funny moment but also a sweet one to us because we just love that our boys love to sing to the Lord.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
What Is It Like To Be A Christian?
Burrito brought this home from school the other day and I thought it was cute....I realize it borders on being cheesy...yet I am like that nasty, gooey pumpkin that I refuse to stick my hands into! But Christ did that for me and you on the cross.
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!
Philippians 1:5-8
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
A Shout Out to Julie
If you read my post about how I met and fell in love with John, you will remember our friend Julie. Well Julie, this post's for you. No one but you will appreciate this picture:
We were visiting friends Saturday evening and we were just a few blocks from this place, so being the spontaneous girl that I am (yeah right!), I suggested to John we stop by for old time's sake. You see, Julie, John and I met up here once and if I remember correctly, went over to John's apartment afterwards. This was way pre-love affair with John but I love going back to this area where John once lived and hearing of all the places he frequented. I have always compartmentalized John in a sense: there's the John Rutherford that was Julie's friend from home and there's the John with whom I am married. So this John Rutherford from before is always so mysterious and intriguing to me. He gets a kick out of it too!
And Julie this is a double ode to you because this was a total spontaneous act. You know, spontaneity is not exactly my middle name and for you, well it's a lifestyle! Which is something I totally love about you....so don't be so discouraged that you don't always have it all together. We went to this place at 9:00 pm, which in my time is early, but in kid time, not so much. But it was so fun! John and I had coffee and the boys ate pancakes. We were out late, but it was time change weekend, so it really was an hour earlier, right??? In fact, we had so much fun that we determined to make it a family tradition. I love these full circle experiences!
We were visiting friends Saturday evening and we were just a few blocks from this place, so being the spontaneous girl that I am (yeah right!), I suggested to John we stop by for old time's sake. You see, Julie, John and I met up here once and if I remember correctly, went over to John's apartment afterwards. This was way pre-love affair with John but I love going back to this area where John once lived and hearing of all the places he frequented. I have always compartmentalized John in a sense: there's the John Rutherford that was Julie's friend from home and there's the John with whom I am married. So this John Rutherford from before is always so mysterious and intriguing to me. He gets a kick out of it too!
And Julie this is a double ode to you because this was a total spontaneous act. You know, spontaneity is not exactly my middle name and for you, well it's a lifestyle! Which is something I totally love about you....so don't be so discouraged that you don't always have it all together. We went to this place at 9:00 pm, which in my time is early, but in kid time, not so much. But it was so fun! John and I had coffee and the boys ate pancakes. We were out late, but it was time change weekend, so it really was an hour earlier, right??? In fact, we had so much fun that we determined to make it a family tradition. I love these full circle experiences!
Monday, November 3, 2008
General Halloween 2008 Fun
UPDATED: Please see the bottom of this post if you are not familiar with what Reformation Day is.
There were so many fun, Fall/Halloweeny/Reformation Day activities I thought I would just throw them all into this one post.
Burrito had a Reformation Day party at his school on Halloween Day and the kids were allowed to wear a costume either depicting something from God's Creation or a Bible character. In his class there was a dinosaur, ladybug, elephant, King David, Moses, an angel, the boy who fed 5,000 and Burrito was of course, a frog! Noodle went with me to be my helper at the party and even donned his lion costume for the costume parade! He so wants to be like his big brother!
**October 31 would be better celebrated as Reformation Day, not Halloween. If you are not familiar with Reformation Day it celebrates the day that the Reformation began in Europe with Martin Luther posting his 95 theses on the Wittenburg church door in protest to the selling of indulgences.
Martin Luther as a monk struggled to find peace with God. As a monk he would dedicate himself to fasting, flagellation, long hours in prayer, pilgrimage and constant confession. Even with all of that he still didn’t feel at peace with God. He was ordered to pursue an academic career and in doing so studied Scripture in depth.
It was actually in his tower experience when he rediscovered and believed the Biblical gospel. He described that light broke upon him when reading Romans 1:17.
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith,” (ESV).
It is in the Gospel, (Romans 1:16), that righteousness is revealed. Luther had been struggling to be righteous based on his own merit, but he continually failed. It dawned on him that this righteousness God freely gives to those who believe in the Gospel. The sinner is declared righteous by God through faith, not works. It is accomplished by the work of Christ’s death upon the cross, not by our work or us keeping the Law.
The Apostle Paul describes to the Church at Corinth:
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God, (2 Corinthians 5:21, ESV).
The word righteousness once made Luther feel nothing but dread, but after realizing this central truth of Scripture his perspective changed, he said:
“I extolled my sweetest word with a love as great as the hatred with which I had before hated the word ‘righteousness of God.’ Thus that place in Paul was for me truly the gate to paradise.”
We can celebrate on Reformation Day the same truth that Luther rediscovered then: that salvation is by faith alone through grace alone.
Main doctrines that Luther also taught:
1. Sola Fide - “Justification by faith alone”
2. Priesthood of All Believers - we can go directly to God for the forgiveness of sin, (Hebrews 4:16).
3. Sola Scriptura - Scripture alone - (2 Timothy 3:16).
4. He also embraced the doctrine of predestination, though that is more readily identified with John Calvin.
When he was confronted at the Diet of Worms, opened on January 22, 1521, and was challenged to retract his writings, Luther prayed about his response. The following day he replied:
“Since your most serene majesty and your high mightinesses require of me a simple, clear and direct answer, I will give one, and it is this: I can not submit my faith either to the pope or to the council, because it is as clear as noonday that they have fallen into error and even into glaring inconsistency with themselves. If, then, I am not convinced by proof from Holy Scripture, or by cogent reasons, if I am not satisfied by the very text I have cited, and if my judgment is not in this way brought into subjection to God’s word, I neither can nor will retract anything; for it can not be right for a Christian to speak against his country. I stand here and can say no more. God help me. Amen”
Amen indeed!
There were so many fun, Fall/Halloweeny/Reformation Day activities I thought I would just throw them all into this one post.
Burrito had a Reformation Day party at his school on Halloween Day and the kids were allowed to wear a costume either depicting something from God's Creation or a Bible character. In his class there was a dinosaur, ladybug, elephant, King David, Moses, an angel, the boy who fed 5,000 and Burrito was of course, a frog! Noodle went with me to be my helper at the party and even donned his lion costume for the costume parade! He so wants to be like his big brother!
For the actual Halloween night festivities, we went to our friend AW's house for pizza and trick or treating. Can you believe it took 2 hours for the pizza to come? Are there really that many pizza eaters on Halloween night? Despite the late consumption of dinner, the boys did great and had a lot of fun. John had to teach the 3 boys Halloween etiquette because at the first few houses they just walked right in! They apparently went to the right neighborhood, as they received several large normal-sized candy bars! Yummy! This loot that they acquired should last us until next Halloween!
**October 31 would be better celebrated as Reformation Day, not Halloween. If you are not familiar with Reformation Day it celebrates the day that the Reformation began in Europe with Martin Luther posting his 95 theses on the Wittenburg church door in protest to the selling of indulgences.
Martin Luther as a monk struggled to find peace with God. As a monk he would dedicate himself to fasting, flagellation, long hours in prayer, pilgrimage and constant confession. Even with all of that he still didn’t feel at peace with God. He was ordered to pursue an academic career and in doing so studied Scripture in depth.
It was actually in his tower experience when he rediscovered and believed the Biblical gospel. He described that light broke upon him when reading Romans 1:17.
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith,” (ESV).
It is in the Gospel, (Romans 1:16), that righteousness is revealed. Luther had been struggling to be righteous based on his own merit, but he continually failed. It dawned on him that this righteousness God freely gives to those who believe in the Gospel. The sinner is declared righteous by God through faith, not works. It is accomplished by the work of Christ’s death upon the cross, not by our work or us keeping the Law.
The Apostle Paul describes to the Church at Corinth:
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God, (2 Corinthians 5:21, ESV).
The word righteousness once made Luther feel nothing but dread, but after realizing this central truth of Scripture his perspective changed, he said:
“I extolled my sweetest word with a love as great as the hatred with which I had before hated the word ‘righteousness of God.’ Thus that place in Paul was for me truly the gate to paradise.”
We can celebrate on Reformation Day the same truth that Luther rediscovered then: that salvation is by faith alone through grace alone.
Main doctrines that Luther also taught:
1. Sola Fide - “Justification by faith alone”
2. Priesthood of All Believers - we can go directly to God for the forgiveness of sin, (Hebrews 4:16).
3. Sola Scriptura - Scripture alone - (2 Timothy 3:16).
4. He also embraced the doctrine of predestination, though that is more readily identified with John Calvin.
When he was confronted at the Diet of Worms, opened on January 22, 1521, and was challenged to retract his writings, Luther prayed about his response. The following day he replied:
“Since your most serene majesty and your high mightinesses require of me a simple, clear and direct answer, I will give one, and it is this: I can not submit my faith either to the pope or to the council, because it is as clear as noonday that they have fallen into error and even into glaring inconsistency with themselves. If, then, I am not convinced by proof from Holy Scripture, or by cogent reasons, if I am not satisfied by the very text I have cited, and if my judgment is not in this way brought into subjection to God’s word, I neither can nor will retract anything; for it can not be right for a Christian to speak against his country. I stand here and can say no more. God help me. Amen”
Amen indeed!
Burrito's First Field Trip....To the Pumpkin Patch!
Here are some fun pictures documenting Burrito's first field trip ever. His class went to visit a local pumpkin patch last Monday and had a blast. We even had some cooler weather that day so it felt like fall outside. The kids played on a hay maze, went on a hayride to feed cows and donkeys and a goat, and ran around chaotically. I think they had fun. Me....I was worn out!
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Can you guess???
Can you guess, according to my 4 yo Burrito, what a firestick is???
Let me give you a hint: it looks like this!
Yes, that's right. A cigarette really should be known by its more common name, a firestick. Both of my boys have seen these laying on the ground and have inquired as to what they are. I don't think I have ever given them a name, and I have certainly not called them a firestick. I've always explained that people put them in their mouths and they are really bad for you and they stink and are disgusting. If I start early, maybe they will never try them, right?
Though the thought has crossed my mind that we will encounter someone smoking one and my boys will exuberantly exclaim, "Eeeww! That's disgusting!" Maybe I should be embarrassed, or maybe not. After all, they are telling the truth.
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