A few more church picnic shots....

Church Picnic Dessert Contest

This year, our church picnic planners (Kevin & Carole, Jason & Andrea, Eric, Bruce and Matty) included a dessert contest in the activities of the day. Laura immediatly wanted to enter, and we began poring over cookbooks to find just the perfect dessert for her to enter. In the end, we decided on a "tried and true" favourite - Valentines Chocolate and Berries". The name really doesn't do it justice as it's one of the most luscious things I've ever tasted - and I don't usually like chocolate desserts. So, she entered, and to her great amazement and delight - she tied for second place! Hurray, Laura!
The whole things was done in such a fun way - thanks for entertaining us, guys :)

I do have more church picnic pics to come - but I wanted to get these ones in first :)

M' Boys

We had 2 exciting events in our family in the last few weeks - Luke graduated from Grade 8 and Caleb turned 9. I'm still finding it hard to swallow that our boys are growing up.......sigh......but, swallow it I must, since there's just no stopping them! And that's a good thing. The Lord is making fine young men out of our boys and we trust Him to direct them as they grow and mature.

Luke had his graduation at our homeschool year-end bbq. It was a nice, quiet event - without the busyness and fatigue that usually accompanies our year-end formal programs. As a family, we were able to focus on Luke's step from elementary school into highschool. Our camera battteries died, but we've gotten some of these pics from from my parents and Rich's folks - trust the grandparents to get better shots of their grandson!

Luke's good friend Benj graduated with him - congrats, Benj!

And then came Caleb's party. His originally scheduled party, on his actual birthday, had to be cancelled b/c poor Caleb came down with the stomach flu! He was remarkably patient though (or just too sick to care!) and didn't even flinch when I called all his friends to tell them not to come. However, we managed to reschedule for last Friday and the boys had a terrific time!

Pin the soccer ball on the goal and a water-fight (of sorts) were enjoyed by all. I didn't warn the parents ahead of time about the possibility of the boys getting wet, so I didn't dare let them have a free-for-all water fight. Instead, Luke and his friend Josh became the targets in the yard, while the boys threw water balloons at them from the deck :)

Over the Kitchen Sink

APPETITE

Quite some time ago I was having a discussion with a Christian lady who was a part of the library committee for her church. She had noticed a book that Luke was reading and asked about it. It was one of the books from the Binding of the Blade series and Luke was totally engrossed in it; that pleased her. She said she loved to see young people reading and enjoying it. I had to agree. We covered some common ground concerning our love of books and our passion to see the next generation share that love. But then she said something that left me feeling irked, at first; then kind of angry. She said, "I think it's ridiculous to fill our church libraries with commentaries and study books. No one is actually going to read those. Especially the kids - they want novels so that's what we have to give them. Let's just get them reading."

My love for reading started way back.........well, way back when I learned to read. I'd pick up almost anything in the house and give it a try. My Dad loves books as well and filled the bookcases in our house with novels to commentaries to encyclopedias. I don't know about my brothers and sisters, but I probably picked up most of what we owned and browsed through it at one time or another. I read parts of Josephus; paragraphs from Matthew Henry; poured over the animal encyclopedia set; and read the whole of Little House on the Prairie. More than anything else, my dad encouraged us to read missionary stories. And I'm thankful for it all. Each different type of writing served to whet my appetite for more and also increased my understanding.

This is my experience. I'm not saying we all have to offer Josephus to our kids and pray they'll love it. But I think we're cheating our kids if all we offer them is simple novels. Novels are fun - I gravitate towards a good novel and I also think that they can be used to do more than simply entertain. I really believe they have a place in teaching as well. But, in my experience, when I went through a stage in my early teens of "feeding" myself only novels - when I quit reading the missionary stories and instead "fed" on romances and mysteries........then I found it harder to read God's Word. I found it nearly impossible to really focus on a study book. I'd been dumbed down and lost the discipline of study reading. And that's a shame. By God's grace and through much prayer and concentration I came back to loving a study book and being able to concentrate on harder reading, but it took time.

I want my kids to love the Lord above all. I want them to be able to read His Word, love it and concentrate on it. I want them to hunger after it - to desire the pure milk of the Word, like Yvetta (still!!!) loves to nurse :) I want them satisfied with what He can give them - and thrilled by the real life stories of men and women who are giving their lives for Him and living a much greater adventure than any fictional character ever could. If I feed them fluff - and only fluff - I can't expect them to want more. They'll be satisfied with fluff. I think of Yvetta - I wouldn't dream of feeding her only what she has a natural taste for. She isn't "into" many veggies right now, but I give them to her anyway b/c she needs them to be healthy. My kids need good, inspiring, Christian reading, listening and watching to be spiritually healthy.

These are the gifts Rich brought home for us from Banner. I'm thankful that my kids also have a dad who loves to read and to share that love with them. Don't underestimate the power of a good book! (even the occasional book, or story on CD, or story told or read by you, if your kids aren't big readers) It can be used mightily to point your child to Christ and to shape his/her dreams for the future. Give them dreams that are bold and courageous for the Lord!

Home

This is not the post I meant to write, but it's the post that I have time for :) I just don't have time to write "stuff" anymore, though my mind is always full of things I'd like to get down on paper. But, since I want to be able to look back on this blog in years to come as a "scrapbook" of the various stages of life in our family, I'll settle for the pictures with few words of explanation - hence, these pics that kinda speak for themselves:

Here he is - the man of the house, known affectionatly as: Hon, dear, daddy, dadda and now dad (said in a deep voice that still takes me by surprise sometimes ;) I love watching him work. I love watching him deep in thought, surrounded by books, Bible in hand, head often bent in prayer.
Some munchkins who are playing house under the surround seat on our deck. Notice the railing that Rich put up recently - keeps these little ones safe - and keeps me from worrying!

My sewing project. These 2 loved to pull up their chairs and watch me :) Trish - you'd be proud of me - I kept at it while Rich was away last week and almost had it done. And then my ancient sewing machine bit the dust :( I was expecting it. The motor got noisier and noisier until it sounded like a machine gun - the boys even wanted to use it in the audio story they're creating as a sound effect! I worried what the passers-by would think since I had the window open while I worked.

True to family form, here's our latest "underwear on the head" kid. I think they've all gone through this stage :)

Rich and the kids engrossed in something on the laptop after soccer one evening. Don't you just love these warmer evenings that stay light so long?! We're really enjoying using our deck in the evening now, rather than just during the day.

You know what they say about kids and boxes!