random pics and a hilarious video clip

I'm busily packing for a camping trip.  Thankful that we have beautiful weather, and the means to go camping!

Just a quick post; be sure to get to the end and play the video clip.

204. God safely getting this family of 7 moved from Washington to Texas (a few pics of our trip)



205. lizzards



206. Blue skies and puffy clouds


207. whale rock



208. fishin' blues



209.  bell ringer silliness




Be filled with joy in this moment; that's what counts, the right now.

It's Monday, Sunday was yesterday

It is finished.  Do we now forget the Gift?  It is easy to slip into old life habits, pre-resurrection doubt and hopelessness. 

Can we remember what He does for us weekly?  It takes effort, watching, counting, taking note.  Asking and allowing Him to break our hearts for what breaks His.  I want those tears.

194. Mwangaza Children's Choir
195. African drum beat
196. dancing Baby K.
197. baby blowing raspberries

Last night concert by Ugandan orphans, Mwangaza Children's Choir.  Our five boys sit entranced.  Tender asks if we will get a chance to dance - he raises his hand in worship for the first time.  Beautiful. 

There is a little girl, I know she tugs at Man's heart.  A tall, thin young man boy holds my attention.  What do we do now?  When we know the need we must act.  How do we act for greatest impact? 

198. crickets chirping in the dark
199. fat, green caterpillars - boy delight
200. fuzzy orange and black caterpillars doing back bends

Yesterday school time the boys found miracles in the grass.  Caterpillars.  Do you know what it takes for a caterpillar to be reborn as a moth or butterfly?  It takes a Creator.  Evolution could not have done this.

The green guy with the yellow horn on his rumpus is 3 inches long - that's really long for a thing you find in your grass that's not a snake. 

Our schooling yesterday consisted of spelling word games on
http://www.spellingcity.com/
This is a free spelling site.  You get an account, create your word lists under list management, then your learner can choose to learn the word definitions, play spelling games, or even take a quiz. 

We then did magazine picture writing.
The boys each cut 5-10 pictures from magazines, then used those to write a story.  This makes writing so much easier for EQ, providing him with ideas as opposed to free writing.  You can put the pictures in an envelope and your learner can pick them without looking, or you can just turn them upside down, or let your learner choose the pics he/she wants to write about. 
If your learner is not yet a writer have him/her tell you a story using the pictures - you can even type up their story as they tell it, then they can glue the pictures in the sensible spots.

Science:  Square Yard Exploration
Mark off a square yard of, well yard, outside.  Give your learner a magnifying glass, clipboard with paper and pencil and set them down to observe their square yard.  Count and draw or describe bugs, flowers, dirt, rocks, you get the idea.   This is how my guys found their amazing caterpillars.

201. EQ reading to  Molly and Butterscotch under the trampoline
202. tomato sweat

The above bowl of good stuff is what typically gets set out along with dinner, that way everyone gets some healthy yum, and nobody leaves the table hungry.

203. Mushroom and Sausage Goodness

Chop up two portobello mushrooms and one onion.  Saute in olive oil.  Remove.  Add 1 or 2 pounds of nitrate/nitrite free sausage to the pan (most grocery stores have a carcinogen free sausage, right along with the other).  Cook meat, add shrooms and onions back in, add a jar of marinara sauce, some fresh basil if you have it, some sea salt.  Serve it over rice or pasta. 

Worship, let me count the ways

187.

The joyful tradition of coloring eggs.

188.


Gathering with our missional family.

 189.


Dad's that can get the silly on.

190.  little girls

191. Saturday soccer games

192. Resurrection Sunday service at Church with over 10,000 people gathered!

193.  Banana Easter Cake

Recipe courtesy of Epicurious.com

Banana Layer Cake w/Cream Cheese Frosting

2 1/4  cups cake flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2 or 3)

1/4 cup buttermilk

1 tsp plus 1 Tbl vanilla

1 1/2 cups butter at room temp.

1 1/3 cups sugar

2 large eggs

2 8oz packages cream cheese at room temp.

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

2 large bananas

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease and flour 3 eight inch cake pans, or two 9 inch cake pans.  Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and 1/2 tsp. salt in medium bowl.  Mix mashed bananas and buttermilk and 1 tsp. vanilla in small bowl.  In large bowl cream 1/2 cup butter and sugar.  Add eggs, beat after each one.  Add dry ingredients alternately with banana mixture.  Beat just until blended after each addition, ending with dry ingredients.  Divide batter into pans.

Bake about 20 minutes for 8" pans or 26 minutes for 9" pans, check with toothpick. 

Cool on rack about 10  minutes, then turn out of pans and let cool completely.

Beat cream cheese and 1 cup butter until creamy.  Beat in 1 Tbl vanilla, and pinch of salt.  Gradually beat in powdered sugar. 

Place one cake layer on tray, frost top lightly, slice bananas on top.  Frost the bottom of the next layer lightly and plop it on top of the first layer; do that again if you have three layers.  Frost the whole cake.  Decorate with peeps if you have them.

Can be made a day ahead of time, just remove from refrigerator and let sit for one hour before serving.

Crucifixion

Perfect Lamb crucified and I put Him there.

A perfect Creator, just and slow to anger demands, deserves perfect atonement.  Unblemished man born of woman without sin.  The screen God sees me through; the lens of the Great I AM, and i am pardoned. 

Why such extreme payment?  It is true, yes?, that the punishment is commiserate with the elevation of the one sinned against.
Lie to parent = spanking
Lie to friend = friend lost
Lie at school = expulsion
Lie in court = jail
Sin against our Creator = hell

Our kids continue lighting candles in the evening as we are drawn towards Sunday.

Tonight we will add the cross.

185. still warm chocolate chip cake, served on Grandma's apple plates

186. a Father who sees my heart, beyond my actions and despite myself

Darkness settles

Is joy born from the absence of, or the addition of, particular circumstances? 

If joy only comes when there is no lack, illness, loss, empty cupboards, starving children, then joy would not be found in those living in such depravity, but Joy is found there.

If joy is a side effect of health, prosperity, materialism, well fed children, then the 1/3 majority of us should burst with excess joy. 

Depression settles on me with no warning, no rhythm or invitation, it arrives without color or fanfare. 
It just falls down
pushing hard my weak spots.
My shoulders struggle this week.  Passover jubilation subdued, my footfalls heavy as we follow Him these 7 days of this Holy week.

I did not wish for darkness, I can't chase it away.  I drag along in faith, knowing the depression will lift, as suddenly as it dropped. 

I like those things that are explainable.  Pain is not so vague, it has knowable cause.  Depression just comes to my door and i am broken. and ashamed.

Those who have never known depression can't imagine its weight.  There is no talking it away, no bribing it, eating it to oblivion, even praying does not seem effective in the moment - and it is in the moment when help is needed. 

I am sorry, I tell my children, this too shall pass.  And it does.  Tender One is most swayed by my emotions, as my sails settle and the sun comes again, he lightens and comes back to us. 

Why is joy not my default setting?

Number worthy

172. a mother and family shining in the hellish places (please visit them in Haiti at their livesayhaiti blog on the right)

173. a mother/dreamer making ready to go to South America boldly asking "are you called to stay home?"

174. John Piper Desiring God - see his site, it's excellent

175. a writer exploring word lists to create a Eucharistic life

176. humble worship leader, bare feet, eyes down, voice lifted up pulling tears down my face on Sunday (see Todd Agnew in my music playlist, Grace Like Rain is especially good)

177. boys unafraid of fish slime

178. brothers with front porches and rocking chairs in their future

179. medical professionals in the family, and rescue dogs

180. future country singing star, or possibly a yodeler. 

181. keeping momma safe

182. big boys, with big hearts open to adding three more boys to an already full family

183. 5 boys willing to soften and reform a family

184. the FTD flower guy from Ethiopia

Children? and some ideas for Tuesday

My friend, Ann, over at A Holy Experience has a post from 3/15/11 that was a timely reminder for me, poor me.  Oh I get so stuck on myself sometimes! 

Our children are not for us, it is not their job to bring us pleasure, to lighten our load, to fill me up.  I am for my children, the sheep momma for the lambs, not the lamb for the sheep.  I am to nurture, protect, direct; and if I am filled along the way it is because I'm fulfilling my purpose, not because my kids have filled me.  

169. Yo hunting turtles all in a row

170. EQ the bird watcher

If I set my barometer on the winds and storms of my five children I will explode.   So I continue my hunt for gifts, stacking them up, counting them, looking back on them - trophies on my wall.

To keep my storm clouds busy we have been mapping our clothing on a wall map.

As the kids fold their laundry they check the tags for made in..., then stick a pin in that country.  In a week or two we will begin learning about the countries our clothing comes from.  Who makes our clothes, where does the cotton come from, how much are the workers paid, how old are the workers, what distances are the raw materials and finished products transported?

In honor of Passover the kids made a basket garden.  We are stetting off on a tradition of following Jesus as He made His way to the cross.

We lit one candle last night, tonight we will add another candle and light both, each night adding a candle until Resurrection Sunday.  We read the beautitudes from Matthew 5. 

Note the flat stone with the little round one in front, that is our tomb - the boys will roll it aside on Sunday.   At A Holy Experience Ann is offering her book, Trail To The Tree, for free download; we are using her book as a guide. 

171. boys who are excited about Jesus

A weekend full

161. freckles on noses

Spunk does have freckles, the cutest being the one on the very end of his nose.

162. soft breezes through filmy curtains

163. Yo finding the point where choice can make all the difference



Yo has a notch missing from his ear.  When he was younger a knife slid off a shelf in the family's hut and cut his ear; his first dad used a hot onion poultice to "heal" it.  

The other day Yo, who opens slowly, shared that in Ethiopia he was always so hungry that before entering the school building he would scrounge in the trash cans outside and eat the banana and orange peels he found there.  The peels!  Have you ever in your life been that hungry? 

164. a fruit bowl that never runs empty

165. boys that help carry in the groceries and put them away - without being asked

166. honeysuckle everywhere, sweet intoxication

A bit o'green

167. green

This weekend was the BPMS150.  Which translated means the Houston to Austin 150 mile ride for MS research.  There were 13,000 riders, yes - 13,000!  Two of them are our friends.  Men who rock!

Multiple Sclerosis has touched our lives; I am proud to have friends ride for a cure.

We went to Bull Creek and the boys swam, until the Brat Pack showed up and took over the rope swing:

This big dog, pit bull type, was so fun to watch.  He jumped, swung and dropped into the water over and over and ....yep, again. 

The cook had the day off, so wise Man stopped in for fine dining at Chili's.  The crew voted for dessert for dinner! 

168.  being blessed to buy our boys dessert for dinner on occasion

Passover begins tomorrow. 

Tonight would be the last supper as Christ ate the Passover supper with His disciples.  The Jewish day runs sunset to sunset, most calendars mark the beginning of Passover as sunset tonight through tomorrow.  Enjoy your dinner with thoughts of the Last Supper and the coming crucifixion and resurrection in mind.   We will be intentional each day of this week leading up to the ascension, Easter Sunday, or more aptly Resurrection Sunday.  The year of Christ's crucifixion the calendar was different from 2011;  He was on the cross on a Thursday, in the tomb that night, rose on the Sunday following the Sabbath (Saturday), thus fulfilling the prophecy of rising 3 days and nights after being crucified.  That year the Passover began on a Wednesday. 

It is hard to combine traditional calendars and what we use today, but the dates are not as important as taking the time to remember, and to teach your kids to remember. 

Jesus told us to keep the Passover, so starting this year we will begin a tradition of honoring this Jewish Holy time. 

John 14:27 NLT
I am leaving you with a gift - peace of mind and heart.  And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give.