They're memorizing too

Emery and Matt have gotten Eph 6:1-3 and Col 3:20 down!

If you can't understand her, she's saying Eph 6:1-3. Her voice is gone because of many, many nights of crying...did I mention, many, many nights?

Col 3:20 - piece of cake.

Angelology at its highest

Here are a couple of recent conversations with the kids.
Andrew: Does Satan smell good or bad?
Me: I don't know.
Andrew: I think he smells bad. And his breath stinks. He doesn't brush his teeth because he doesn't obey his parents.

Me: Will you promise me that you'll never grow up?
Emery: (silence with a little smirk)
Me: Emery! Will you promise me?
Emery: Noooooo because tomorrow I'm going to grow up and be a mommy.

And here are a couple of quotes from The Law of Kindness by Mary Beeke.
"Ladies, try with ALL YOUR MIGHT to keep up your physical appearance." The caps were mine. Isn't that the funniest way to encourage women to do that? That is the last thing I think of doing with all your might.

"Physically, we are the giants in marriage, but God commands us to be gentle giants. We are to be the head not the fist. As the head, you have eyes to admire your wife and see her needs, you have ears to listen to her, lips to compliment and kiss her, and a brain to understand her and think about what matters to her. So if you're the head, act like it; don't act like a fist!" Her husband wrote the chapter on how to be a kind husband.

And lastly here's Andrew finishing up his latest verse, Phil 2:3-5:

On fire!

I don't know how this has happened, but in less than 1 month, I have finished 5 books! Crazy. I know I have gone years without reading that many in the past. Here's the latest 3:
I just devoured this book - Flags of Our Fathers. It's a story about the 6 men pictured raising the flag during the battle of Iwo Jima. I've been to the Memorial at Arlington Cemetery in Washington, DC and was impressed with this image (we even have pictures of being there!) but had no idea about the story behind it. Tragic, amazing, and very informative all at the same time. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in WWII history.This book was a freebie from the Desiring God conference. I had never heard of Gordon Cheng who's from Australia. Cheng defines encouragment as speaking the truth in love. He asks a very good question - how is your encouragement Christian? Or are your words basically the same as an atheist's encouragement? He brought up a lot of good thoughts about encouragement.

• "Christians who love to encourage others in a Christian way will be reading their Bibles...praying about them, asking advice, and above all boldly speaking about what they think and why they think it. This is speaking the truth in love."
• "Now when that day of judgement comes we will have reached the goal of all encouragement. That day will likewise spell the end of all discouargement...Judgement, therefore, is the thing that ultimately shapes our encouragement...The other side of this warning is that what we now do and say as Christians will have eternal value."

Cheng does a good job of being very practical. He also emphasizes the need for EVERY Christian to encourage one another and not just the pastors and leaders of the church. It's a pretty light read and yet has both substance and application to it.
D.A. Carson's book was basically an exposition of 1 Cor 1-4 and 9. At its core, it was very simple - the gospel should be at the center of our lives and ministry. But as we know, that simple statement goes far deeper than we realize. Carson warns us who assume this truth in our lives:

• "I fear that the cross, without ever being disowned, is constantly in danger of being dismissed from the central place it must enjoy, by relatively peripheral insights that take on far too much weight. Whenever the periphery is in danger of displacing the center, we are not far removed from idolatry."

He also exhorts us to bring the gospel to bear in our hearts and show how that gospel changes lives.

• "Christian leaders today not only must teach the gospel, but also must teach how the gospel works out in daily life and conduct. And that union must be modeled as well as explained."
  

Simple statements, profound implications.

Snowed in

We woke up today to a nice dusting of snow. It's been a tad cold lately, highs around 18. And since the 2 little ones have been a bit sick, I decided to stay home and help out a bit.While Sandy went to Bible study, we played some Junior Scrabble (otherwise known as Scribble Scrabble) and Sorry. Have you ever tried playing board games with toddlers? Man, that's an exercise in patience. As usual, I have none.Has Matt changed at all in the last 2 years? He seems to smile the same, look the same, act the same...
Emery has not quite been her bubbly self. But we noticed today that molar #3 has just cut to the surface. 1 more to go and then maybe we can all get some sleep!

Handy Manny

I am not (for those of you who have little kids, you know who I'm talking about). Bob Villa, I am not. But I decided to replace some sink faucets (for the first time) in the kids bathroom.One of the sinks had a little leak. And the one handle style was difficult for the kids to not scald themselves. So we went from the above sink to...It only took 3 trips to the hardware store (2 of which were completely unnecessary), 2 phone calls to friends for advice, and 1 small inadvertent fountain from the sink (oops, forgot to turn the shut off valve once). We decided not to keep the fountain. But we have 2 working faucets! Praise God!

Reunited

and it feels so good. That's right, the family is back together - praise God! Here's a quick recap of the week in CA:The trip started out a little rough. Matt got sick and no one really slept well.But the weather was nice and warm in the 80's. Good times with grandma.
Matt celebrated 4 years at Chuck E. Cheese.
They enjoyed the park with grandpa and Tobie (the newest member of the family).
Lastly, they had fun with cousin Natalie. But as nice as the trip was, it's even better to be together again!

1 more day!

Well, I've almost made it. Somehow, Andrew and I have managed to survive the week without Sandy, Matt and Emery. And we've also managed to eat at least 1 veggie and fruit a day too! On top of that, we've only done fast food twice - that's pretty much how I cook for the kids. Also, during the week I managed to finish a couple of books.

I finished reading the Purity Princple again. This is a good annual read for me. You can never be committed enough to purity.

And I also read a fun book and learned a lot more about WWII. I'm not a history buff, but I'm starting to get more interested. We're not quite done with the first month of the year and I've managed to start the year off well - 2 books done, 10 more to go!