New Family Pix

We went out to Buffalo Park this morning to take some family pictures! I had some fun with a free online editing program and here are my favorites! I suppose, actually, that the individual shots of the kids are at home, not the park. Mom and Dad, let me know if you want prints of any of them. :)

The Needy God

 Here is the last of Christian's classes (except for the one he has to re-record since his technologically-challenged wife messed up :) ). He spends the first half (or more) discussing how God needs nothing outside of Himself, and then the rest of the class solving the riddle of how God is needy. It was pretty convicting, I must admit.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1JIbPi1fQI&feature=plcp

Keeping Up

We have arrived. The busiest time of the year. From now through the first freeze (end of September-ish) life is craaaaazy. And we're not even really involved with anything outside of our home! Here are a few things we've been up to:
-School. We're a week and a half through school and I haven't yet forgotten a day of school with Elijah! But today isn't over... This year we have kids in 5th grade, 3rd grade, Kindergarten and wishful-thinking pre-school.
-The garden. Harvest time is in full force. It's not the harvesting that's so crazy, but the putting everything to good use. Really, what can I do with 8 large cabbages? Lots of kraut? Salad? Fried? They're all good, but there's just. so. much. Tomatoes, peppers, beans, chard, carrots, cucumbers, broccoli, zucchini, cauliflower, cilantro... at least we have a little reprieve before the winter squash will be ready! :) We have been blessed with a GREAT monsoon season this year to boot.

I'll be the first to admit that the first tomato I ever grew, I thought it was an oregano plant that tasted disgusting, so I uprooted it and threw it away. After that, I discovered a small tomato growing on it. Ha!  And I can't even take credit for these!

 The first harvest of beans-we just last week finished our last frozen bag from last year!

-Chickens- our new birds have started to lay, so we're getting about 7 eggs a day so far. It's fun finding all the little half-size eggs waiting for us!
-Goats- I have deposits on all the babies- they'll go to their new homes in about 3 weeks! I'm also ready to sell Nellie, she's such a brat on the milk stand. I have someone interested in her, but I'd like to find a good replacement for her first. Bilbo is no longer so manly as he once was. Livestock, even goats, are not for sissies. Christian and I are on our own for giving the next round of shots...
-Visions. I'm getting the itch to paint. It's getting itchier every day. Number one on the priority list is the hall, and maybe the wall in the dining room. I might be spending my exercising money on new curtains for the dining room doors...

Oh yeah! I wanted to find a way of identifying our glasses, so I'm not washing 30 a day. So I thought I'd make personalized coasters. I couldn't figure out how to make them sturdy enough that the glasses wouldn't slide off. While I was trying to figure that out, the inspiration to use our back-splash ledge hit. And now I don't have to worry about spilling on the coasters or having them slide around all the time! If you're curious, all I did was tape the pictures to squares of cardboard- I didn't want to go too crazy with tiles and all that if it doesn't end up being helpful.

-Planning. September's going to be a little crazy with Christian going to Ohio to visit his brother and his family, my going to the women's retreat, C. taking a couple people on an extended tour of the Grand Canyon area (including Lake Powell, Bryce Canyon, etc.), and Anne's birthday, and of course numerous dental appointments...and school. And more harvesting.
-Pictures. Oh, wait. Nope. We haven't been taking very many pictures. Sorry!
May you enjoy the rest of your week in the bounty the Lord has provided for you!

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." James 1:17

What a boy

Every other week or so Elijah gets the urge to create a new "peleg" (peg leg). This version is cut out of cardboard, taped onto a stick and that taped around his leg. He has also tried an orange cone (like ones used in PE), just a stick, a paper towel roll... pretty much anything he can find that's relatively straight. He has even made a parrot out of paper and taped it to a pencil which he stuck in the collar of his shirt. Hahaha! I'm sure God must have great things in store for this boy!

This is what happens when Elijah is feeling particularly helpful and decides to get the twins dressed!

He has just started Kindergarten. He was terribly excited to start, because he couldn't wait to be able to write the word "Transformers"! Since he already knows how to write his letters from last year, he pretty easily (with Mama giving spelling advice) wrote out TrAnsformErs" as soon as we were done with his lessons...now what are we going to strive for? Only God knows.

The Next Two

Here are Christian's next two classes...

Work as Worship:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u2pA69nnz0&feature=plcp
This class is held in a different location, due to a possible gas leak in the church- it's more informal and at one point my kids stomp through the room to get into a different room to watch a movie with the babysitter. :) Despite the distractions, it's still worth a good listen.


Humility in Glory
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6wdC_k_MVc&feature=plcp
How can someone "take pride" in their work without being proud? How do glory and humility work together? God takes on both characters and we are His image-bearers, so... listen to the class and hear Christian's thoughts on it.