Welcome to our world, little one

We have a new niece!! Her name is Emily, I think. At 5 pm it was Isabella, when we left the hospital at 9 pm. it was Emily. We will see if the name sticks tomorrow.

This is the grandkid #23 in Sky's family that we were all waiting for.

The neat part of this story, is that she has 3 older brothers and is the first girl for sister-in-law Bridgette.
The totally hilarious part of the story is that Bridgette traveled here to So. Ca from Central Ca to be here for the baby shower thrown in her honor. It's tomorrow afternoon. Her water broke this morning. And her husband was at home in Central Ca. She is hoping to blow the joint by tomorrow afternoon and take baby Emily to her own shower.
The typical part of the story is that various members of the family went out to eat in her honor. Because, that is just what we do. It's tradition, we like to eat together.

Welcome baby Emily! She is just beautiful, we held her minutes old. Bridgette's mom, sisters and a sister-in-law were all present for the birth, since her hubby had to miss it. Grandma got to cut the cord. Bridgette had a great labor, she made it look way too easy, didn't even break a sweat. While the Dr. took care of baby Emily, Bridgette ate...two dinners. Cuz, that is what we do...

It's not just me, computers are challenging

This is roll on the floor funny, at least to someone like myself. I really have a hard time with computers. Every month I do record keeping for our homeschool, and every month, Sky has to walk me through my "save as" dilemma. I make a record for one of the girls, and then attempt to copy it to a new file and then I delete learning that is different, keep what is the same. Every month I am unable to do it on my own and have to ask Sky. It is so bad, that as I go to save it, I get tense trying to remember how to do it, knowing I am not going to be able to do it. It took me a good 6 months to remember how to send a file over the internet. My sidebar, I am supposed to be able to change the photos in and out easily. I can't. I did the family photo on the bottom, somehow, but messed up the box underneath...and can't change out the ones on the top.

So, for those of you like me, I offer you this from youtube. You are not alone bloggy- computer- challenged friend. Found this at Chili's place, I don't know how she found this, but I am glad she did.

Home on Sunday

Last night as the rain was pouring down on our roof, I thought I had been a little too quick to crow about spring arriving at our house, and posting this photo. We left for the meeting this morning scrambling to find coats that will reflect water and trying to remember where oh where did I leave my umbrella? Left the meeting to see a perfect, blue, crisp day. I love Southern California! I would post y'all a picture, but it would look exactly like the one I linked to from the other day. I am sitting here looking out our big living room window at that exact view, listening to a bird sing like mad in the tree.

The "girls" are having a ball out back digging for worms.

I went to pick Amie up at her class today, she was having a rough time of it-we could not find her art work or the 2nd part of her snack that she had set aside to take home. Her teacher tried to reason with her about it, but Amie looked up at her, eyes brimming over with tears...lip starting to quiver. And she caved, like a house of cards...she grabbed the entire bag of goldfish crackers, and put it into Amie's arms. Sky and I had a good laugh over that, it's a boost to know we aren't the only push-overs in her world.

Have a wonderful Lord's day, my bloggy friends! Stay warm, everyone not here...

"You crown the year with Your goodness, And Your paths drip with abundance. They drop on the pastures of the wilderness, and the little hills rejoice on every side. The pastures are clothed with flocks; The valleys also are covered with grain; They shout for joy,
they also sing."
Psalm 65:11-13

Better than the chicken dance...

link for "thriller"wedding video
Had to link this, have to say my wedding reception was a little blase' in retrospect.

If you are my age, I know you are dancing along in your head.

Did your school cancel classes and show MJ's video in the multi purpose room? Mine did.

yet, another reason I homeschool, because after all, our lunch runs to Mcdonald's after the library are still more educational.

p.s. speaking of chicken dances, I am sitting here at the laptop, facing a wall of windows into our backyard. Every few seconds, a different chicken goes streaking across my span of view with the other 4 hens in hot pursuit. Seems they found a piece of bread and are taking turns plague-ing the life out of she-who-has possession. This has been going on for 5 minutes. They cannot stop running long enough to eat the bread before it gets snatched away, and the chase resumes.
It's just really funny.
really.
I guess you have to be here....

file under randomless musings

bowl of comfort part II

this is a continuation of this post here.

I was relating a story we have as a read-aloud in our home...when I left the story in my last post; the villagers in the Kingdom of the One True King had worked hard to get the foreigners in the neighboring land to feel comfortable in their village, and to move into the village so they would be happy under the rule of the One True King...

Well, one day the One True King came to visit the village, he was surprised to find that the foreigners had overtaken the village, but he recognized the faces of many subjects though they were dressed as the others. He asked what had happened and was astonished and grieved after hearing their 'plan'. He explained that by changing the village to make the foreigners feel more at home, and in making things less different so the foreigners didn't have to feel like they had to give up very much to come to the king,-all the villagers had done was allow themselves to be swayed into conforming to their ways. He wanted others to come to the Kingdom out of love. He did not like what he saw in the village that day.

During my highschool and college days, I worked in a Christian bookstore. (a fun place to work, especially if you like to read!). We had a special section of the bookstore where awards, stickers and toys for giving out as prizes for Sunday school were kept. We called these items "Jesus junk" and "holy hardware". Not flattering, I know..but yet an apt description, and we all knew it. These toys were various cheap plastic toys, things such as bracelets, combs, coin purses, etc. with the name of Jesus stuck on it somewhere, or His picture, or a cross or something. My point is that these items were not special, they were mostly junk and stamping the name of Jesus on them did not change what they were or add any value to them.

These stories warn us to be careful of embracing the world, in hopes that the world will feel more comfortable, more welcome, more at home. We watched this occur, in varying degrees over years at our (former) home church. The common reason offered was for outreach to the 'youth' in the community. The parties, and eventual club hangout...to me hinted of the plastic with the name of Jesus stamped onto it somewhere.
I think we need to be wary of maintaining or developing a taste for the plastic, a 'Jesus-lite' product that does not ruffle, fits into this california-cool-christian lifestyle and does not ask a choice to be made between serving the world or serving the Lord.

How does a young person (or how do we, for that matter?) learn the value of inheritence over the bowl of soulish comfort if they are never taught to confront their own soul-life, how to die to self so Jesus can have the victory? If we are not equiped to run the race as Paul exhorted us? How does the soothing message, "you are special, and God loves you very much" prepare anyone or warn anyone away from becoming profane like Esau and despising our inheritence?

It is easy and even natural to prefer the sugary imitation syrup to the real thing. The real thing can go down a little bitter sometimes, it requires a dying to self, a dying often to the preferences we naturally enjoy, even sometimes the way of life we would enjoy. That which is imitation is an easily-made, man-made substance,-manufactured in a day. That which is real is organic, and takes a lifetime to produce. -and I admit, too, sometimes I steer first for the "lite", it does go down much easier...

We are able to enjoy Christ today as the promised land, we are not meant to merely occupy and amuse ourselves in a shallow way until we die and go to heaven. All we have to do is step in and enjoy Christ in a real way, enter into His rest fully. Our enjoyment of Christ today is a foretaste of the enjoyment of the coming kingdom. How sad if we, or our children settle for the imitation now, running the race poorly, wandering in the desert, unable to deal with the giants in the land, weak-baby-christians.

I read somewhere this quote "my daily struggle is not between the world and I, but between me and the Lord." The struggle comes down to how much I love my soul-life and will I choose the bowl of comfort, or if I will step forward and choose the inheritence.

"let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us," Hebrews 12:1

"He who finds his soul-life shall lose it, and he who loses his soul-life for My sake shall find it." Matthew 10:39

"And do not be conformed (fashioned) according to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and well pleasing and perfect." Romans 12:1

"as it is written, Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated". Romans 9:13

An inheritence for a bowl of comfort

A few years ago, we did a unit study on Little House in the Big woods. For a math project, we made blueberry pancakes and taste-tested several "flavors" of syrup (all imitation) plus one "real" maple syrup. We made bar graphs and recorded everyone's favorite. I was very surprised to find that all of the children but 1 (we had another family over for the fun) preferred the imitation syrup. I was a little flabbergasted. Afterall, real maple syrup was a very big treat. Upon reflection, it made sense. Our children had grown up knowing nothing else but imitation syrup, so-to them, syrup was supposed to taste the imitation way. It was what they were used to. It was was they liked. It was what their taste buds looked forward to.

"And when the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the field; but Jacob was a quiet man, dwelling in tents. Now Isaac loved Esau because he had a taste for game, but Rebekah loved Jacob. And Jacob cooked a stew. And Esau came in from the field, and he was faint. And Esau said to Jacob, Let me swallow down some of the red stew, that red stew there, for I am faint. Therefore his name was called Edom. And Jacob said, First sell me your birthright. And Esau said, I am now about to die. Of what use then is this birthright to me? And Jacob said, First swear to me. And he swore to him and sold his birthright to Jacob. And Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew, and he ate and drank and rose up and went away. Thus Esau despised his birthright."
Genesis 25:27-34

I noticed in this account, much about "taste". The story of this family centers around preferential love,natural preferences and taste. Esau, it would seem, was a man who indulged his natural tastes, his wordly enjoyments, that which pleased his natural likes. And the parents likewise, chose to favor the son who pleased their own preferences and natural affections.

Hebrews 12:16
"Lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one meal gave up his own birthright."

"Profane"- bebelos: one who either was or ought to have been debarred from the threshold or entrance of a temple. Unhallowed, the opposite of "hieros"-sacred.

Essau's birthright was the double portion of land, the priesthood, and the kingship. This also included the promise of God to Abraham regarding the good land and the blessing to all the nations through his seed. This promised good land and blessing are Christ. (Gen. 12:3, Gal. 3:14)
As Christians, born of God, we are a type of firstfruits of His creation (James 1:18) sons of God (Romans 8:14) and" heirs of God...-joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him that we may also be glorified with Him." Romans 8:17. Hebrew 12:23 speaks of the church of the firstborn.

The promised land, the good land is a type of Christ. In the old Testament, Christ is portrayed by different types; the unleavened bread, the passover lamb, the manna, and the rock that was struck and flowed with living water.

We as Christians are meant to enter into this promised land. After being redeemed by the passover lamb, enjoying Christ as our manna in the wilderness and being saftisified with Christ as the living waters, we are meant to enter into Christ as the good land. It is common to confuse the good land as a type of heaven, but if we follow the type given in the Old Testament, the good land was was filled with pagan tribes and idols and the people had to fight against them after they entered in. Heaven will not be filled with pagans and idols...these things represent frustrations in life that keep up from possessing the land. In Phillipians 3:8 Pual writes of obtaining Christ, gaining Christ, laying hold of Christ; when we are doing this, we are possessing the promised land. The promised land was for enjoyment, we are meant to enter in and enjoy Christ.

Essau was profane for giving away his birthright. The Children of Isreal during their journey to the promised land longed for the leeks and garlics of Egypt and wished to turn back. As Christians, I wonder how easy it is to give away our birthright of the goodland for a bowl of natural, soulish comfort? The children of Isreal remembered the tastes that they enjoyed and were used to, they began to complain of a diet consisting of manna only and wished for the good things they liked to eat in their old life.

At our house, we have a set of books called "Pearables-character building kingdom stories" that we read to our children. One of the stories is called "The conquered Village" The story is about a land of the One true King and a village near the border of the kingdom. The people of the One True King's land were different from the people of other lands in their speech, (only speaking what is kind and true to each other) clothing, music, and training of their children. They could see that the foriegners in the land bordering them would be so much happier if they would have The one true king rule their lives, so they set out to sway the people into the kingdom. So, to let the foreigners feel more comfortable in their land, they began to play the foreign music, dress like the foreigners and train their children in the same manner as the foreigners. All so the foreigners would feel more comfortable in their land, hoping they could sway the foreigners to follow the King, hoping the foreigners would feel comfortable enough to stay and live in the village.
Part II tomorow...

From our front porch

This weekend has been beautiful here is So. Ca! And warm, spring is finally here!

I had to take a photo of the view from our front porch on Sunday. The days here lately have begged for excuses to be outside.

A thought for the day;

"In your quiet time you've touched, perhaps in the Gospels, the Saviour's life...and His life has once again touched yours. You've poured out your heart's concerns, perhaps through the Psalms, and you, like their writers, rise up better, strengthened for one more day, at peace, content, ready to focus on others and serve them for Christ's sake."
-Elizabeth George, Life Management for Busy Women pg.27