Growing Up

First of all, thanks for your prayers! We're feeling a little better today and finally slept decently last night. On different note, my baby boy lost his first tooth yesterday! Doesn't seem too long ago that he was just getting his first teeth!

I reminded him that he was going to get a new tooth where the old tooth had been and he replied, 

"I hope it's a gold one!

Psalm 63

Remember in the last post where I said Christian and I were tryyyying not to get the twins' "cold"? Well, we failed. We have both been completely flattened this last week. Whereas last week I felt like southern Nevada, this is what I currently feel like...

This cold is not an ordinary cold. It's affecting each of us in our family differently- for me it means that I have a constant tickle in my throat which means a constant cough which keeps me from sleeping much at all. It means a very sore throat that often feels like someone is choking me as it just gets tighter and tighter. My voice sounds harsh. At least I can't yell at the kids. I went in to the doctor this morning, who couldn't really tell me what was wrong- probably a virus, but maybe bacterial? So I came home with antibiotics, cough syrup with codeine, and an inhaler. Oy. I've been drinking probably 4-5 liters of water a day- not including all the tea, which for me borders on the miraculous (normanlly I struggle to get even 1 liter down!). But it's become a necessity- the only thing that can help me stop my coughing fits. I know I'm not exactly in the "Valley of Death" per se, but I want so much to need God and His Word like I need my water bottle these days. I know I need water, but when I'm feeling good, I'm more than happy to fill my thirst with coffee or tea or smoothies- instead of going for the pure good stuff. I want this prayer of David's to be my prayer:
O God, you are my God,
earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you,
my body longs for you,
in a dry and weary land
where there is no water.
I have seen you in the sanctuary
and beheld your power and your glory.
Because your love is better than life,
my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live,
and in your name I will lift up my hands.
My soul will be satisfied as with the
richest of foods;
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
On my bed I remember you;
I think of you through the watches of the night.
Because you are my help,
I sing in the shadow of your wings.
My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.

Southern Nevada

No, we're not on a road trip. But have you ever driven through the southern part of Nevada? On our honeymoon we attempted to drive (in an old, beat up truck/camper) from Yosemite all the way to the north rim of the Grand Canyon in one day. Wow, that was slow. I remember getting excited when I saw a bush a mile or two away on the side of the road. Or if there was a small hill. By the time we got to Cedar City, UT at sunset, right after a monsoon rain, it seemed we were in Paradise (no, we didn't make our destination that day- the Motel 6 was too inviting after spending a few days in the camper!)! I feel like in "our seven's" journey right now we're going through southern Nevada, plodding along, trying to find a measure of joy in the "bushes" we come along. The twins have had colds for about forever and the rest of us (me and Christian) are tryyyyyying to not catch it, while losing more and more sleep every night due to the little stuffy noses. Penny the rabbit did not work out, due mostly to miscommunication with her original owners (or else she reverted to poor behavior in a major way with the move) and my not wanting to take the time to re-train her. So we bribed the kids with Pizza Hut to not be too mad at us and gave her to our neighbors. Christian also decided after MUCH processing and trepidation that what I need (me, not the kids) is a puppy. I could go on for a long time about that, but I won't. So, come March we'll be seeing what puppies are available as well as getting a few little chickies to get our flock back up. Sounds like a good time for Spring break. Anyway, here are a few pictures of our most recent "bushes"...
              

The twins play a real game for the first time- on their own teams.

T wears a "helmet" and makes me smile.

 I make tea. And coffee. And drink EmergenC.

P's indoor cayenne plant has a couple good peppers on it!

The girls go through the boys' dress up tub. Spiderwoman and Mrs. Incredible?

And of course Elijah...what else needs to be said? :)

Graphic Design by the Young Boys

The boys have the advantage of having our old computer in their room, so they get the fun of playing on the Paint program. I think given the choice Anne would prefer paper any day, so it works. These are mostly by Peter, though I'll throw in Elijah's as well... Just a side note on Elijah. He cracks me up with all the funny things he says and I'm kicking myself that I haven't written any of them down for way too long! One of his funny "things" is that when he wants to add something to his Amazon.com wish list (i.e. Mama doesn't have the heart to say "No way!"), he just has to draw a picture that tells him what to look for. For instance, the other day he wanted to add a toy to his list, but couldn't think of what. So he took off with paper/pencil and came back with, "I want a toy spider that sticks out it's tongue and catches things with it." Funny, I couldn't find that on Amazon, so he settled for adding a batman costume to his list. Anyway, I'll title these how the boys did:

ASDR

Church

Christmastime

 Bow and Aroww

Elijah Swords

Elijah Swords2

FGF Flight

 Football

Gommack

 I Love Monkes

Peter's Plane

Scene1

Silly

Space

 Stars

 The Nile River

Yikes! 

(I believe it's an alien coming out of a hole, not a cycops-turtle/bug. Either one, though, I suppose is "Yikes!")

Food For Thought

For those of you who don't follow my friend Brittany's blog...I don't know anything about this pastor, but I think he has some interesting thoughts...

-Aimee

 

Pastor Chuck Baldwin 

Here is an excerpt from Pastor Chuck Baldwin's commentary on the South Carolina primary election. Read the whole thing here for his take on the various candidates. Really, do! (Most of the emphasis added below is mine)

"Whether a candidate for public office is a Mormon, Catholic, Baptist, Presbyterian, or Pentecostal is absolutely immaterial to whether or not I vote for him or her. The primary responsibility of a President (or any other civil magistrate) is to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States and to secure the rights and liberties of the American citizenry. That’s it! It is no skin off my nose where he or she goes to church, or even if he or she goes to church. It doesn’t matter to a tinker’s dam whether they quote scripture or claim to be a Christian. What matters is that he or she honors their oath of office to defend the Constitution and the people’s liberties.

And as everyone should know by now, Mitt Romney’s track record in Massachusetts, from a constitutional point of reference, is absolutely abysmal. In fact, Romney’s Massachusetts’s health care monstrosity was the model for ObamaCare. In almost every discernable constitutional criterion, Mitt Romney falls short. And that’s why I won’t vote for Mitt Romney! In fact, I won’t vote for Mitt Romney for the exact same reason I won’t vote for Newt Gingrich. (To his credit, however, at least Mitt Romney doesn’t have a passel of bimbos hiding under his bed.)

I have said it all over America, and I’ll say it again: I would rather vote for an unbeliever who will preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States than vote for a believer who will not preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.

Next, let’s talk about Ron Paul. Many Christians all over America have foolishly rejected the candidacy of Ron Paul. They have done this for reasons which I will outline here.
“Ron Paul is not pro-life,” many Christians purport.
Of course, this statement is laughable. As a long-term US House member from Texas, Ron Paul has repeatedly introduced the Sanctity of Life Act. The so-called pro-life GOP in Washington, D.C., had several opportunities to pass this Act when it held power in both houses of Congress and the White House from 2000-2006.
Had it passed, Paul’s Sanctity of Life Act would have done two things: 1) it would have declared unborn babies to be human beings under the law, 2) it would have removed abortion from the jurisdiction of the Court under Article. 3. Section. 2. of the US Constitution. This would have effectively overturned the infamous Roe. v. Wade Supreme Court decision.
As an OB/GYN physician, Dr. Paul has never performed an abortion; but he has delivered more than 4000 babies; he has repeatedly introduced the Sanctity of Life Act in the US Congress–but he’s not “pro-life”?
Newt Gingrich, as speaker of the House, did absolutely nothing to defund Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers domestically and internationally from receiving US taxpayer dollars. In fact, while Gingrich was Speaker of the House, taxpayer funding for abortion providers increased dramatically! Neither has he ever supported or promoted the Sanctity of Life Act, but since he “says” he’s pro-life, many Christians vote for Gingrich and not Paul?
Is something wrong with this picture or what?

“I cannot support Ron Paul because he says he doesn’t know whether homosexuality is a sin or not,” say many Christians.
Most readers know that I have been a minister of the Gospel for over 35 years. My convictions regarding the sinfulness of homosexuality are well known. I say that so you understand where I’m coming from when I say that whether or not Ron Paul has a personal question as to whether homosexuality is a religious or biological issue has absolutely nothing to do with his fitness to be President of the United States. Absolutely nothing! We are electing a commander-in-chief, not a theologian-in-chief.

Dr. Paul’s personal religious belief is not the issue. The issue is his fidelity to constitutional government. What Christians seemingly do not understand is that constitutional government does more to protect their God-given Natural rights than all of the religious rhetoric of all the politicians of the entire country put together!
Dr. Paul understands the nature of government and the nature of liberty. And he is committed to returning government to its rightful jurisdictional authority Dr. Paul knows that the states and local communities are the best protectors of the liberties and the values of the people–including the values relating to aberrant sexual behavior within those communities and states–NOT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. (Listening to many so-called “conservatives,” one may get the idea that they would be fine with doing away with independent statehood altogether and letting the central government in Washington, D.C., run everything. Thankfully, our Founding Fathers were a wiser lot and emphatically left the bulk of governing authority to the states.) For example, if the State of Nevada wants to legalize prostitution, that’s Nevada’s business. And if Montana wants to make prostitution illegal, that is Montana’s business. If Florida wants to make medical marijuana illegal, that’s Florida’s business. If, however, Montana wants to legalize medical marijuana, that’s Montana’s business. Frankly, it is none of Washington, D.C.’s business either way! Ron Paul understands that.
Look at all the federal mandates that states and communities are implementing contrary to the values and belief systems of the citizens of the respective states and communities. That would not happen if Washington, D.C., would butt out of our affairs and let us govern ourselves. And if Massachusetts and California want to deprive their citizens of their God-given liberties, the people of those states can either remove those governments from power or move to a State where liberty is protected. But at least there would be some states standing in liberty to which one could go. As it is today, the entire country is under the heavy hand of usurpation and oppression due to the fact that, outside of Ron Paul and a few others in Washington, D.C., hardly anyone inside the Beltway believes in constitutional government.

Plus, look at the inconsistency of trying to elect civil magistrates by some sort of religious litmus test: Dr. Paul has been married to his wife, Carol, for over 50 years without the first scandal involving immoral activity, but because of a personal question regarding a religious issue, many Christians cannot vote for him? But Newt Gingrich can have so many extramarital affairs that he probably cannot even count them all, and yet his personal view of religion and morality are found acceptable to many Christians?
Is something wrong with this picture or what?
“I can’t vote for Ron Paul, because he is ‘anti-Israel,’” many Christians say.
Here are the facts: Dr. Paul has a Jeffersonian philosophy regarding foreign entanglements. He believes that we should trade freely with all nations, have diplomatic relations with all nations, and live at peace with all nations as much as is possible. He believes that Israel is a sovereign state and, therefore, has the right to determine its own affairs without Washington, D.C., dictating how, when, and what Tel Aviv can and cannot do for its own peace and security. He believes we need to butt out of everybody’s business and let sovereign states conduct their own internal affairs. He believes the US military should be used to protect the territory and people of the United States of America and should not be the world’s policeman or the puppet of the Security Council at the United Nations. But somehow, that is an unspiritual philosophy and many Christians can’t support him?
Newt Gingrich wants to continue the Wilsonian foreign entanglement philosophy by continuing to send troops to fight undeclared, unconstitutional wars; by continuing to entrap and enrage foreign capitols into conflicts that only serve the interests of international bankers and the military-industrial complex; by continuing to use Israel as a puppet to provoke conflict in the Middle East that only serves the purpose of advancing an international New World Order, and somehow this is seen as “spiritual” by many Christians who will support and vote for him?
Is something wrong with this picture or what?
If the Republican Party has a death wish, they will nominate Newt Gingrich as their Presidential candidate. Gingrich is a snake-oil salesman; his words are absolutely meaningless; he has the morals of an alley cat; and he will sell America’s sovereignty to an international New World Order and turn our country into a police state. Christians, of all people, should know better.
Newt Gingrich? Really?"