On-going Discussion

As you may (or may not) know, my husband and I are conservative Christians, in a changing denomination, who pastor (he pastors, I attend), a fairly conservative small church in small town Ontario.

We believe very much in keeping the bible first and foremost in life. Jim holds a somewhat harder line than I do. AND for the most part I really appreciate his strong stand on things...because he makes me think about what I believe and why things are important and so forth.

One of our on-going differences is in how we look at praise and worship music. Jim says that MOST people learn their theology best from the songs that we sing and that therefore any songs that we sing MUST at all times teach good biblical values without having any shading in them. I tend to think that the spirit and meaning of the song is just as important and sometimes that things don't always have to be so black and white. We often have slightly heated discussions about what is and what is not a good song.

We were discussing a song the other day "Come, Now is the Time to Worship" Personally I really like this song UNLESS it is played by a band that overdoes it (as in plays the course over and over and such like).

These are the lyrics

Phillips Craig Dean Lyrics - Come Now Is the Time to Worship Lyrics

Come, now is the time to worship.
Come, now is the time to give your heart.
Come, just as you are, to worship.
Come, just as you are, before your God.
Come.

One day every tongue will confess
You are God.
One day every knee will bow.
Still the greatest treasure remains for those
Who gladly choose you now.

Come, now is the time to worship.
Come, now is the time to give your heart.
Oh, come.Just as you are to worship.
Come just as you are before your God.
Come.

One day every tongue will confess
You are God.
One day every knee will bow.
Still the greatest treasure remains for those
who gladly choose you now.

(Repeat)

Come, now is the time to worship.
Come, now is the time to give your heart.
Come, just as you are to worship.
Come, just as you are before your God.
Come.

Oh, come.Oh, come.Oh, come.
Worship the Lord.Oh, come.

Come, come, come...

The line that Jim objects to is "Come, just as you are to worship". He says it should be changed to "come, as through Christ to worship". I have to admit (horrors! I"m admitting to something), that he does have a point... that people CAN NOT come to God just as they are. The God calls people to him through the working of the Holy Spirit, and they can't come except by the saving power of Christ....but I still think the song over all confesses the needfor and the salvation of Christ.

The focus, to me, of the song is reminding people that we MUST worship God. That we must WORSHIP God at all times, and now is good time to start. That people eventually will realize that God is God. Do I query that "we choose God" line? Yes, because I firmly believe that I can't choose God if he didn't predestine (make the choice for me) long before I even thought about making the choice for him.

I guess what it comes down to.... do we through a whole song out because of one line that is questionable? Where does one draw the line in the sand?

Today's Reading

Today I read from a couple of different psalms.

Psalm 52

1Why do you boast of evil, O mighty man?
The steadfast love of God endures all the day.
2Your tongue plots destruction,
like a sharp razor, you worker of deceit.
3You love evil more than good,
and lying more than speaking what is right.
Selah

4You love all words that devour,
O deceitful tongue.

5But God will break you down forever;
he will snatch and tear you from your tent;
he will uproot you from the land of the living. Selah

6The righteous shall see and fear,
and shall laugh at him, saying,
7"See the man who would not make God his refuge,
but trusted in the abundance of his riches
and sought refuge in his own destruction!"

8But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God.
I trust in the steadfast love of God forever and ever.
9I will thank you forever,
because you have done it.
I will wait for your name, for it is good,
in the presence of the godly.

and Psalm 57

1Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me,
for in you my soul takes refuge;
in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge,
till the storms of destruction pass by.
2I cry out to God Most High,
to God who fulfills his purpose for me.
3He will send from heaven and save me;
he will put to shame him who tramples on me. Selah

God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness!

4My soul is in the midst of lions;
I lie down amid fiery beasts--
the children of man, whose teeth are spears and arrows,
whose tongues are sharp swords.

5Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
Let your glory be over all the earth!

6They set a net for my steps;
my soul was bowed down.
They dug a pit in my way,
but they have fallen into it themselves. Selah

7My heart is steadfast, O God,
my heart is steadfast!
I will sing and make melody!
8Awake, my glory!
Awake, O harp and lyre!
I will awake the dawn!
9I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples;
I will sing praises to you among the nations.
10For your steadfast love is great to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the clouds.

11Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
Let your glory be over all the earth!

I read these two Psalms and I thought...wow...the first shows how the righteous know the folly of trusting in one's own thing. How in some ways we can laugh at the foolishness of those who do trust in their own thing and give no real thought to God. Though I must say personally, a good part of me weeps for those who just don't know the richness of knowing God.

The second Psalm just spoke to my heart today. Reminding me that I do need to call upon God for mercy. That I do need to praise God at all times, in various ways, that showing God's glory is a huge part of what I am to do in my daily life as a believer. I give thanks to God for all the mercy he shows me because I so often fail to do what he has called me to.

Do these Psalms speak to you at all?

I'm still in shock

I found out by reading my hubbie's blog that a church in Texas let an atheist join their fellowship. you can read about it here. This to me seems so very wrong. The pastor of that "church" says that he is building connections. I read that and I think...yeah..building connections with what Satan?

The church, yes I know, the church visible does not only contain Christians BUT!!!! It is considered to be a representative of God. How can one justify letting someone join your church who doesn't even think that God exists? Isn't that a paradox?

And the church that I am a member of, the denominational body has ties to this church. It just makes me shudder and wonder if anyone in the higher ups will see how very wrong this is and sever connections with the PCUSA. I really, really hope so.

Enough of being in shock, and yes I know, in today's day and age I probably shouldn't be so shocked, but I am, and it makes me just a teeny bit angry that people think that this is okay, because we are "building connections" after all. They are impunging the HOLINESS of God by doing this.

Makes me think of the last sermon I heard my hubbie preach. He's going through the 10 commandments right now and the last one was on "do not kill". One line he used made an impact on me. We must be careful about how we treat others, because how we treat them is how we are treating God. (my paraphrase) That sat with me and I asked him about it later. He said that we are made in the image of God so when we treat others poorly, we are treating God poorly. It makes it even more important how we treat others in the body of Christ. Fellow Christians have CHRIST residing IN THEM. So when we treat them poorly then we are right away treating Christ poorly. Makes me really think about how I live my life and treat other folks then.

I don't know. All this stuff seems jumbled. I want to be angry at the pastor of this church that allowed an atheist to be come part of the visible body of Christ. it's so wrong. But then I think, if I'm so angry with him, then I'm being angry with Christ. How do I then separate the two? All I can see is that I can be angry about the action and the effect that it has, but I still need to see the pastor as a man who has made a grievous error in judgement and pray that he sees the error of his ways. I can also I suppose write to the head offices of my denomination and say hey guys...take action on this. Don't allow our body of believers to be associated with this sinful action. That I think is the best approach I can do to continue treating the image of God properly. What think you?

Thanks to Kim

Kim over at The Upward call had this posted on her site. I liked this quick quiz. :)

You Are Sunrise

You enjoy living a slow, fulfilling life. You enjoy living every moment, no matter how ordinary. You are a person of reflection and meditation. You start and end every day by looking inward. Caring and giving, you enjoy making people happy. You're often cooking for friends or buying them gifts. All in all, you know how to love life for what it is - not for how it should be.

What Time Of Day Are You?

Well...we have a new requirement

It seems that Christian blog roll has added a new requirement to it's list of things it would like to see in it's blog membership.
1. a weekly update
2. new members must have been writing for at least one month before joining.

Okay...I'm already a member....so the second requirement isn't a stresser... but the once a week thing..ah...it's summer! I have more to do than update my blog every week! I have a busy boy, camping, vacations, canning, gardening.... and so forth!

Should I stress about this?

Naw... i don't have time to do that! (very big grin)

I will just leave this all in God's hands and do the best I can. :) If I get booted, well...then I get booted...I suppose I can always reapply right? At least I hope so. Anyways, that's my weekly thought I suppose... :) Keep well all!

Found a new way to type things

Geese swimming birds singing cool breeze blowing, but warm sunshine dogs walkingchatting boy...

Went for a walk this morning with Justin and the dogs. It was so nice out. Occassionally we'd get a bit of a cool breeze, but the sun was shining, the dogs were well-behaved, Justin was happy and the birds were singing. We even saw the resident Canada Geese at the pond. Justin would chat up a storm as he saw new things. We walked the trail and then through town on the way home (that way we avoided the cool breeze blowing in our faces).
Sassy chased a squirrel. Riley woofed at Bandit.
Life was very nice for us on our walk.

Gardening

Yesterday I worked outside in the yard. I turned over our veggie gardens, mixed the compost, cleaned up flower beds, and emptied the fish pond. It felt so good to be out there doing stuff! Oh, before I forget, I also worked on digging out the roots of the lilac tree that has been making a mess of our lawn and one flower garden. Got just a tiny bit done and then I ran out of energy to do that. Digging in clay soil is hard! I am pleased though that I got most of the roots out of the flower garden, getting the rest out is going to be a huge chore though.

Anyways, I got to thinking today about how hard it is to keep things nice - in the yard, the gardens, the home and so forth. Got to thinking about how sin invades every part of our lives.

Genesis three says:

17 To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,'
"Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.

18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.

19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are and to dust you will return."

Because of sin, God made the ground work against man-kind. The ground became cursed. We read later in scripture that the earth groans for the return of God to earth. It's like everything is waiting for God to make it all right again. Sometimes I long for that too. And yes, I know, I should long for it all the time. There is a part of me though that says...God...wait just a while longer...I have a son I want to watch grow, a husband that I love to watch learn new things, a dog that I want to see finish an agility title and... (the list could just go on).

But after my hard work of yesterday, and knowing that the ground is cursed because of my sin, because of the sin of all mankind....and how it groans for the Lord's return. It makes me think I'm just a tad bit selfish to want all my things, when the Lord's return will make all things right again. No more groaning, no more hard work, just good relationship with God again. My...won't that be a wondrous thing? :)

Unhappy son...

So this weekend Jim and I spent Friday night at his mom's place in London so that we wouldn't have to get up so early on Saturday to get to the trial on time.

Justin was feeling healthy so we got him in for his last set of baby shots. This of course, turned him into a somewhat unhappy child. He wanted to be cuddled, got a set of the sniffles (not sure if it's a cold or prelim to more teething), and didn't sleep worth a diddle Friday night.

Eva told me to sleep and that she would take care of him. Which was nice of her. She just figured..why should both of us be awake when I have a trial to run on the morrow? Good point, but I still think she's a sweetie! :)

Right now Justin is lying in bed...tired as all get out...but basically crying away his life because he doesn't want to go to bed. He wants momma to walk him until he falls asleep...but I know that if I do that...he'll wake up as soon as I lie him down and I'll have to start all over-again. And this momma is tired and wants her little boy to sleep tonight...not be up all the time wanting to be cuddled. :) Makes me feel like a mean momma writing this.... (tell me I'm not a mean momma...really)

This weekend was good/bad. It was mixed with worry for my boy not acting himself. But mixed is was my enjoyment for how well Sassy did at her trial (and spending good time with Jim and other dog people). If you want to know the scoop on that you'll have to go to my other blog for that.

Oh before I forget...a couple of people just made my day by telling my how great they think Sassy is. They just think she is an awesome dog! :) And to top it off... one of those ladies let me say hi to her Border Terrier and told me a bit about them. I have a bit of a long distance love affair with this very cute breed of dog. Not entirely sure at this point that I'd want to own one...but there is something about them that I just really like. Independent minded cuteness....wrapped in a terrier (go after vermin) body.

An update! 12 minutes later....Justin sleeps!!!! AND he sleeps soundly enough that I could put his blanket on over top of him to keep him warm and snuggly!!! YES! I am not a bad mean mommie!!!! My boyo is resting well! YEAH!!! God is good! (and yes, he's good even if he doesn't help my boyo sleep!)

Are You Surprised?

You Are a Jam Cookie

On the outside, you project a straight-laced, innocent vibe. But on the inside, you're complex, exotic, and full of flavor.

What Kind of Cookie Are You?

Thorns?

I've been attending a bible study group on Wednesday mornings. It is held at the Chrisitan Reformed Church down the street from us. It is part of Coffeebreak ministries. They provide child care services as well. What we have been studying this session is a series on "Comfort".

One of the areas we talked about was how to handle Stuff in our lives that we don't want in our lives.

For instance Paul talks, in 2 Corinthians 12, about a thorn in the flesh. "

1I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. 2I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven--whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. 3And I know that this man was caught up into paradise--whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows-- 4and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. 5On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. 6Though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. 7So to keep me from being too elated by the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

I've been thinking a lot about that, because I have things in my life that I really wish weren't there. And since really reading this and thinking about it, I have come to understand that if I didn't have this "stuff" I would be so much more reliant upon myself. Because of this "stuff" I know the importance of daily devotions, I know the importance of saying "God I can't handle this, here... you take it", I know the importance of having good Christian friends and so forth.

Then this morning I read from Deuteronomy 8

1"The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers. 2And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every wordthat comes from the mouth of the LORD. 4Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. 5Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the LORD your God disciplines you. 6So you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him.

It just seemed to all pull together a bit more for me. God gives us "stuff" in our lives that we need to deal with. This "stuff" tests us. It shows where our hearts truly lie. Do our hearts lie with our "stuff" or do they lie with God?

My prayer is that more and more, that my heart will lie with God and with the things of God and not with my "stuff". Sometimes I fear that I am far, far away from that point. But through God's help...I'm getting closer.

God is So Cool

So I was reading in a magazine the other day. Go figure eh...me reading! :)

Anyways, the mag was called "mothering: natural family living" It was an article on caring for premature babies.

"Remarkably, a recent study led by Dr. Ludington-Hoe showed that when mothers of twins Kangerooed their babies simultaneously, the temperature of each breast adapted to regulate the temperature of the baby closest to it. This phenomenon, called breast biosynchrony, means that one breast might become warmer to help a baby whose body temperature needs to be higher, while the other breast might remain at the same temperature, or even grow cooler, if the infant on that breast is already warm enough."

(p. 44, Caring for your premature baby by Christine Gross-Loh)

When I read this I thought...wow....God is so cool. Like who would have thought about making a momma's body in such a way that a wee little baby could be cared for by his momma like that? And to be able to care for two different babies at the same time with such a intimate level of care...giving each just what it needs. I was just SO amazed by that.

It just shows how God cares for even the tiniest among us. :)

St. Patrick's Day

Christ shield me this day:
Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every person who thinks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in the ear that hears me


Taken from: http://www.catholic-forum.com/Saints/saintp01.htm

How Irish are you?

You're 25% Irish

You're not Irish. Not even a wee bit. Not even on St. Patrick's Day!

How Irish Are You?

Rome???

You Belong in Rome

You're a big city girl with a small town heart Which is why you're attracted to the romance of Rome Strolling down picture perfect streets, cappuccino in hand And gorgeous Italian men - could life get any better?

What City Do You Belong In?

I like what this guy said.....

I was over at doxoblogy and I found this piece that he had written on being Reformed. I'm just going to excerpt part of it, you can go there yourself to read the rest.

So what does it mean to be Reformed? Well my answer is going to be very simple. Being Reformed is being convinced of a Biblical set of truths. These truths are Justification by Faith Alone, Salvation by Grace Alone, the Sufficient Sacrifice of Christ Alone, the Final Authority of Scripture Alone, and a God who Alone deserves and receives all glory in, from, by, and through His creation.

Sola fide-We are declared righteous by our Holy God upon our act of Biblical Faith.
Sola Gratia-Even our Faith is a gift from God who owes us nothing.
Souls Christus-Christ alone merits our salvation for us through His perfect life and sufficient death, burial, and resurrection.
Sola Scriptura-The scriptures are the divinely inspired, inerrant words of God.
Soli Deo Gloria-God alone gets the glory for our salvation because it is He alone who has foreknown, elected, predestined, created, redeemed, called by the Gospel, regenerated, given faith, is keeping, and will one day glorify us.

I thought it summed up things rather well. Sometimes I have a hard time putting into words what makes me different as a believer than say my mennonite believer friends. I do know that I've gotten into some interesting conversations with them in the past. I just liked this post because it made it more clear to me, so this way, if I get into "interesting conversations" again, hopefully I'll be clearer at explaining the importance of believing ALL of God's word, and how everything in my life is dependent upon God...even my faith in him.

Help comes from many places...even men with beady eyes! :)

Today's meditation

I read this passage this morning Mark 12

1And he began to speak to them in parables. "A man planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a pit for the winepress and built a tower, and leased it to tenants and went into another country. 2When the season came, he sent a servant to the tenants to get from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 3And they took him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4Again he sent to them another servant, and they struck him on the head and treated him shamefully. 5And he sent another, and him they killed. And so with many others: some they beat, and some they killed. 6He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.' 7But those tenants said to one another, 'This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.' 8And they took him and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. 9What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. 10Have you not read this Scripture:

"'The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
11this was the Lord's doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes'?"

Made me think of how often the messengers of God are killed. God sends out people time and time again, and they all get killed or beated or set away, by the very people God is trying to communicate with. And then he sends his most precious messenger...and he is destroyed as well.

Not only did this actually happen physically...but it also happens mentally and emotionally. Christ was crucified, he was dead. he was alive again. he rose and is now sitting besides God in heaven.

But his people, who call upon his name, are being martyred around the world daily. People are harassed, beaten, sued, denied jobs, driven out of their homes, just because they believe in Christ and have the "audacity" to tell others about it. God sends these people out. he's given all believers the ability to tell others about him, and it's something he actually tells us to do. Unfortunately many of us are too afraid to do anything about it, but we still need to. We can't let .. oh i want to say we can't let the world win... but that's not what I mean. We can't let all those lost souls perish for the want of hearing God's word.

We need to be obedient to Christ.

It's like those servants who were sent out. They knew what happened to the previous servants...beaten or killed. They still obeyed the will of their master. As Christians today, we can't let the fear of loss of position, money, life, liberty, and so forth stop us from heeding the word of our risen Lord and Saviour.

Your thoughts?

Contrariness

So I was reading from Leviticus 26 this morning

23"And if by this discipline you are not turned to me but walk contrary to me, 24then I also will walk contrary to you, and I myself will strike you sevenfold for your sins.

These lines are repeated throughout this chapter. God calls the people to heed his voice, to walk the way he told them to. They don't. He punishes them in order to correct their ways. He then tells them what he will do if they continue to walk away from him.

It just struck me at God's patience. He didn't go AH!!! Enough of this!!! and just turn and walk away. He persisted in disciplining and calling his people back to him. How it must have grieved his heart to see his people persist in their evil ways.

This after reading yesterday from Deuteronomy 5 after God had given them the 10 commandments

24And you said, 'Behold, the LORD our God has shown us his glory and greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire. This day we have seen God speak with man and man still live. 25Now therefore why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear the voice of the LORD our God any more, we shall die. 26For who is there of all flesh, that has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of fire as we have, and has still lived? 27Go near and hear all that the LORD our God will say and speak to us all that the LORD our God will speak to you, and we will hear and do it.'

28"And the LORD heard your words, when you spoke to me. And the LORD said to me, 'I have heard the words of this people, which they have spoken to you. They are right in all that they have spoken. 29Oh that they had such a mind as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants[e] forever!

The people had PROMISED to follow God, to obey his word. They knew that if they did so, God would have things go well with them. It goes to figure that if they didn't, well then things wouldn't go so well. But all that God did to them was an effort to turn them back to him, an effort to help them keep their promise to him.

I don't know about you, but when someone breaks an important promise to me once, okay, I'll forgive them and try to help them keep it the next time, the second time around I'm a whole lot less likely to do that. And yes, that's the sin in my life, and it just shows the greatness of God. But this just makes me go WOW! God really loves his people. God really wants his people to do right.

It just fills me with amazement at the Lord God that I serve.

Almost 50

1. What time did you get up this morning? first time: 330 to give sons med and nurse him, second time:645 to change son and get him and myself ready for the day.

2. Diamonds or pearls? not really into jewellry, love a necklace my hubbie got for me though, just don't wear it due to son

3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? Eight below

4. What is your favorite TV Show? NCSI, CSI: MIAMI, CSI: New York etc.

5. What did you have for breakfast? depends on the day, often egg and cheese sandwich

6. What is your middle name? Full name: adriana henrietta

7. What is your favorite cuisine? whatever tastes good

8. What foods do you dislike? food with cumin or curry in it

9. Favorite Potato Chip? Plain rippled

10. What is your favorite CD at the moment?

11. What kind of car do you drive? 1998 Mazda Protege

12. Favorite sandwich? Meat and cheese (ham, turkey, chicken, egg)

13. What characteristics do you despise? Cruelty

14. What are your favorite clothes? Jeans and t-shirts

15. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation where would you go? Alaska

16. What color are your eyes? blue

17. Favorite Brand of Clothes? Thrift store

18. Where do you want to retire to? farmland

19. Favorite time of day? what? um... I like the whole day.

20. Where were you born? Palmerston

21. Favorite sport to watch? sports? watch them??? Oh yeah..the olympics

22. Whom do you least expect to respond to your tag? have NO idea how to do tags

23. Person you expect to send it back first? See above

24. Coke or Pepsi? Neither .... water!

25. Are you a morning person or night owl? morning fer sure

26. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share with everyone? Justin has FIVE teeth, he's almost over being sick!

27. What did you want to be when you were little? A veterinarian.

28. What is your best childhood memory? Fishing with my dad.

29. What are the different jobs you have had in your life? Pig farm worker, library assistant, newspaper delivery, stock person, fast food, special needs worker, counsellor for disabled people, wife, mother

30. Nicknames: Annetty, 'nets, aunt, Annette, etc.

31. Piercings? used to, not anymore

32. Ever been to Africa? No

33. Ever been toilet papering? Of course not

34. Been in a car accident? Yes, next question please

35. Favorite day of the week? Wednesday or Friday

36. Favorite restaurants? east side marios, mcginnis landing,

37. Favorite flower? NOT roses

38. Favorite flavor of ice cream? vanilla with chocolate chunks

39. How many times did you fail your driver's license? uh...two or three times

40. Before this one, from whom did you get your last e-mail? trains.com

41. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? no clue, can't imagine doing that

42. Bedtime? right now? 9 or 10 pm, before the boy, 11

43. Who are you most curious about their responses to this questionnaire? All of them

44. Last person you went to dinner with? My hubbie

45. What are you listening to right now? son crawling around under the computer

46. What is your favorite color? Blue I suppose.....

47. How many tattoos do you have? None

48. How many people are you sending this e-mail to? Zero, it's a blogpost

49. What time did you finish this email? 716 a.m.

Hmmm...

So, I wasn't sure what to title this blog entry so I'm just going with the hmmmm.. aspect of things. :)

For those who know me fairly well, I've always, well okay, not ALWAYS, but since just before my teens, have been a person with a fairly active fantasy life. I have Stories in my head almost all the time.

God has, over the years, taught me that this isn't such a good thing for me. :) So, over the years, I've been fighting this influence/tendency in my life. I want to be a solid Christian woman, a woman whose focus is on the things of God, and being distracted by mental imagery and stories detracts from that.

People have told me I should write these stories down....but I hesitate at this point to do that because these stories I don't want to make more real or give a reason to even more further be developed. Some stories...like the ones I tell Justin when I'm walking the floor with him, those I would have no problem writing down. But my own head stories...those I don't want give more life to. (hope that makes sense)

I've learned when I"m lying in bed at night to talk with God rather than lull myself to sleep with a tale or two. I"ve learned to memorize scripture and to contemplate what I've read in the bible or a good book. And doing this works at certain times but not always.

I delve into reading fantasy, murder mysteries and good non-fiction (yes, occasionally I read bad non-fiction too...but I tend to get bored with that after a while). I just love reading. BUT I was lying in bed this morning realizing that when I'm working on house work or walking the dogs or just doing stuff that it's a great deal harder for me to turn from stories.

It's led me to ask...what do people think about? How do people keep their minds busy when they are doing stuff? Surely not everyone does as I do and turns to stories to keep themselves entertained? (not sure that the word I want to use). But what do people think about? Like you can't think about the weather, or dog training stuff or whatever all the time.... so what do people do?

Sometimes I think that if I don't figure out what I can think about when I"m doing mundane stuff, that I will never get these stories out of my head. That they will always be a pervasive influence in my life that I do not NEED to have in my life anymore. I know at one point they were an excellent coping mechanism and helped me learn lots of dealing with life and people, but I don't NEED them anymore so how do I lessen their impact in my daily life?

Anyways, if you'll have any answers out there in computer land....feel free to share them.

A First for me!

So Jim went out the other day and picked up a battery for my car. He didn't install it due to not feeling well, a ton of snow sitting on my car and being otherwise busy. He told me it was easy to do.

So this morning, after walking the dogs and discovering that Justin was still sleeping, I thought I'd give it a whirl.

Asked Jim what the first step was and checked in with him occasionally BUT>>>>> (drumroll please).... I CHANGED MY OWN CAR'S BATTERY!!!! Jamie runs again!

WooHoo!!! Wow...I felt so competent by the time I was done. :) I couldn't get the plastic casing around it again, but I did make sure that the plate thingey across the top was as tight as I could get it, (and then Jim double-checked it), but it's in, the car works again! YEAH!!!! :) I even took her out for a test drive, and other than the shift being a bit sluggish...which I think is because of the cold weather and not being driven for a couple of weeks, everything worked great!

Justin has been sleeping lots today. He amazed me when he slept through company. He is usually up and hollering HEY!!!! You're doing something!!! I'm sure it's fun!!! I want to play too!!! (that is of course putting my language abilities into his crying abilities). :) He slept through...I was pleased and he was MUCH happier when he finally did get up. He's starting to act more like himself which is rather cool to see.

Our First Big Sickness

So my boyo Justin has a big ear and throat infection. We took him to emerg on Tuesday morning with a 102 temp. He was lethargic and not acting himself.

He is now taking amoxicillin three times a day, as well as advil to keep his temperature down. He needs to take it for 10 days. He is, I must say, pretty good about taking his meds though so that is SO much nicer.

He is NOT a happy camper...except occasionally when it seems we have our boyo back. But it doesn't take long and he's tired and cranky and just needing to cuddle. His temperature goes up and down seems at time to have no rhyme or reason for it.

I feel so badly for him, and I can't make him better. The best I can offer him is prayer and physical support. Kinda like God....he makes me an offer of Christ, he turns my heart to him, he gives me all kinds of support and waits for me to turn to him for help. I don't know...the analogy might not fit the best...but for now it works for me. :)

Anyways, lack of sleep is driving me to bed early so talk more another day.

Beverly Crusher

Your results:
You are Beverly Crusher

A good physician and a caring parent. You are devoted to your children and to your occupation.

Click here to take the Star Trek Personality%

He's slowly learning

So this is day two of a new routine for Justin. He still wakes up twice at night, but now I don't nurse him until the second time he awakes up. I"m hoping that soon he'll learn that waking up at 130/200 a.m. gets him nothing but cuddles and that he can just sleep through. :) By the time 500 a.m. rolls around though he is VERY hungry. So I feed him then, and he goes back to bed until at least 700 a.m.

I have to admit...he's not always impressed with not getting up before 7. My long term goal though, is to back to my routine of walking the dogs at 6/630 before he gets up for the day, and having him be able to stay in bed would help a lot with that. So he will need to learn to fit into our family life a bit more, rather than have us run to his schedule. He's old enough now to learn some of these things now anyways. :)

Well, i'm off to walk the dogs, my little screamer seems to have fallen back to sleep! Go figure that one eh?

Nerdiness Levels

73% scored higher (more nerdy), and
27% scored lower (less nerdy).

What does this mean? Your nerdiness is:

Not nerdy, but definitely not hip.

I read this yesterday

I read this yesterday when I was doing my devotions from Matthew 27.

51And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. 52The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, 53and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. 54When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, "Truly this was the Son of God!"

I find it interesting how people will question the facts of Christ's death. They say it couldn't have happened, or that it wasn't important since Jesus was merely a good man, or that the bible is wrong or... whatever reasons they give. It makes me wonder why or how they could say this, especially when I read how the events surrounding his death caused eyewitnesses to be filled with awe and to know that Jesus was indeed the Son of God. If eyewitnesses believed it, and they were there to experience it all, then who are we to argue with historical fact and say oh.. it couldn't possibly be true? Seems a bit trite to me. Like we don't believe it so we'll just ignore anything that suggests it could be True. Jesus is indeed the son of God. He was also the Son of Man. God and Human in one. It is awe-inspiring to imagine it, even more so to believe it.

That's all my thoughts for this early morning. :)

My Boyo is Teething

AH... teeth... so useful for so many things... eating, nibbling, sampling things, biting... just to name a few.

My boyo got his first teeth when he was 4.5 months old, and now he's just over 7 months and he's getting his top two teeth. He's finding the process to be a bit of a challenge. He's had two poor nights of sleep (which means his mommy's is also getting two poor nights of sleep). Advil and Tylenol help, but not completely. he's got all this extra fluid in his body so he gets all stuffed up and can't breathe properly.. especially if his Mommy has let him cry for a bit. It's been a rough couple of days, but we'll get through this. Hopefully by the end of today both teeth will have broken the skin and the worst of the pain will be gone.

It has one added side affect. It has pushed up his weaning schedule just a tad. He's been doing well eating solids (except when he's not feeling up to par). He does well drinking from a bottle (and those he can bite to his heart's content). :) So it's just a matter of giving him those more than giving him mommy.

I can fully see myself not nursing him during the day at all within two - three weeks and saving the nursing for at night and early morning. Must admit... I"m rather looking forward to that. :) BUT we'll see how it goes. For if Justin catches another cold, or life gets too hectic... then it's best to just let him have mommy (according to all the experts), but hopefully no colds or hectic lives. :) We'll see what God has in store for us.

My Dad

Jim, Justin and I went up to see my father yesterday in Palmerston hospital.

It's hard to describe the difference, but Dad looks MUCH better this week. It's like he's improved so much since last week it was really heartening to see. :) yet what the difference is, I can't really say. he just looks SO much better.
He wasn't wearing just hospital clothes so that might have made a difference, but I think it was more than that. He just looked better.

Dad was able to hold Justin for abit until Justin said.. enough of this I want DOWN!!!!! (he squirmed lots and lots)

He did a one point get this real "deer in the headlights" look about him. But for most of the visit he was able to chat, and connect with the different people who came into to see him. He was able to ask good questions of the nurse who came to give him his antibiotics, and he was even able to help turn on his "pic-line" (not sure if I"m calling it the right thing or not).

Dad mentioned that his days and nights are a bit mixed up. He wants to sleep days and be up at night. I asked if the doc would be able to help him with that OR if he thought it was something he just needed to deal with. He thought it was just something he just needed to deal with.

He stood while I was there, using the walker which was good to see. He seems a bit stronger, but not as strong as what.. almost a month ago now when he was in Palmerston hospital.
From what I understand from overheard conversation.. he is getting better physio now which is a good thing. He can't feel anything with the clots in his lungs so... that's a really good thing. Doesn't mean that they are gone, but it does mean that the blood is flowing well enough.

Okay...what's next for dad? Next week Thursday he has an early morning appointment in Kitchener to get fluids drawn to see if all the infection is cleared out of his body. If so, then he is on for surgery on Feb. 27. If for some reason the infection is not gone...I have NO clue what that would mean. I figure that's for dad to ask.. and for him or mom to tell me later on. But the assumption is that it will be all cleared up. :) (prayer is good here) :-)

Dad had lots of company today. Cor Poot was there when we arrived, Ben and Rient Luesink, Mr. Cooper and Tante Josie's dad, Angela (a girl they met in hospital) and I think there was someone else but can't recall who. So a busy day for dad, and he was still looking good by the time we left again.

I think that is it.

Never realized before

So, I"ve been learning to read the bible every day on my computer. Makes it easy to have things sent to me, but I still find it a bit odd to read on the computer. I have to talk a lot with God for his word to impact me when I read it this way. I'm getting better at it with his help. I have passages sent to my from http://bibleplan.org

ANyways, I was reading from Genesis 12 this morning.
"37And the people of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. 38A mixed multitude also went up with them, and very much livestock, both flocks and herds. 39And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough that they had brought out of Egypt, for it was not leavened, because they were thrust out of Egypt and could not wait, nor had they prepared any provisions for themselves."

And this verse caught my eye: 38A mixed multitude also went up with them, and very much livestock, both flocks and herds.

This caught my eye because I've never really seen before that God had this bigger picture in mind. I've always thought that after the plagues were over the Egyptians hated the Israelites so much that they shoved them off and that just the Israelites were redeemed from slavery. But then I read this verse and I see these Egyptians travelling with them. And when I read later in Chapter 13 that all who travelled with them had to redeem the firstborn, whether man or beast. See here what they needed to do:

11"When the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and your fathers, and shall give it to you, 12you shall set apart to the LORD all that first opens the womb. All the firstborn of your animals that are males shall be the LORD's. 13Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. Every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem.

Anyways, it just makes me think of how God's plan is for the whole world. That yes, in the Old Testament he focused on his chosen people, but even then, those who were not his people who followed him, he still used and taught and accepted. It paved the way it seems to me, for his total inclusion in the New Testament.

I don't know, I'm probably not wording the thoughts in my brain very well, and may indeed end up reposting them when I'm feeling more alert. But I just thought this was cool. The Israelites are running from the Egyptians because they are an anthema to them because of all the plagues, and yet some Egyptians chose to travel with them. Chose to leave with the Israelites .. I'm not sure why, but the Israelites had stated all along that they were leaving so they could worship their God. Makes me wonder if some of the Egyptians had also learned to worship God.

Neat thought for me for the day anyway.

Life is interesting

My son has recently...at 6 months, 3 weeks of age, discovered the joy of STANDING!!! Woohoo!!!!! He pulls himself up on EVERYTHING, me, the furniture, the toys, the crib, you name it he has it nailed. He's also learned to come to me when I say Justin, come to mommy. Now that is fun to watch. He even walks abit using one of his toys, he just has a blast.

Tonight we played ball with the younger dog Sassy. Sassy hasn't decided if Justin is a good thing in life or not, so I try to take moments to encourage her to like him and not be jealous of him. He often helps me feed the dogs, touch the dogs, and so forth. Well tonight we played ball. Sassy jumped and fetched. Justin giggled and laughed. And Sassy got more wired and eager to play. Fun to watch, and hopefully will imprint good thoughts on Saasy's brain.

He is just so very much fun! so bright and into absolutely everything. Godis so gracious in allowing us to raise him thus far.

Can You Believe It?

The Phillistine You scored 32% Pride, 15% Envy, 60% Ambition, and 37% Deceitfulness!

You are the Phillistine, a citizen of a nation that rivaled Israel. You inhabited the land of Canaan (i.e. the promised land) before the Israelites decided to roll through and claim the land for themselves. In many respects, you had much in common with the other settlers in the land of Canaan. You were a humble farmer, attempting to eke out a decent living in a harsh world. You had a great love for the land and the people around you. People in the community could always count on you for comfort or support. However, unlike the other settlers in this area, you were quite ambitious. So ambitious, that you wanted to defy the armies of God and challenge them for their claim to the promised land. You are not one to be deceptive, so you usually challenged the armies of God directly and made no effort to cover up your dislike for them. In the 21st century, you continue this pattern of behavior in your dealings with other people. There's nothing wrong with ambition per se, but when ambition puts you in opposition to God, well then, that makes you a biblical villain.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 8% on Pride You scored higher than 10% on Envy You scored higher than 60% on Ambition You scored higher than 33% on Deceitfulness

Link: The Which Biblical Villain Are You Test written by MetalliScats on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

just a short chat

The boy is sitting in my lap so I can't write too long today. :) Blessing in disguise maybe? :)

Anyways, my hubbie seems to be getting either more confident in his abilities or just braver or something...but today he changed the oil in the car! My car to be exact..it's a mazda protege. He's never struck me as the car-type...and here he is getting more into getting car things done. I think it's totally cool. :) And I love watching his sense of accomplishment. :) It's fun.

The boy...he gave me three good nights of sleep last week. I had SO MUCH ENERGY!!!! I Cleaned the basement!!!!! It was so nice having my energy back!!! :)
...but last night he was up to his old tricks of...MOMMMY....I CAN"T SLEEP ALONE......MOMMY!.... COME...... So i'm just a bit tired of him today. But overall he's a good boy.

Oh...update on Dad. Called my mom this morning, seems he might be let out to Palmerston hospital this week. He's doing okay..mom says he has lots of ups and downs and doesn't look forward to being in hospital for three months. It'll be nice when he's back up to Palmerston though.

Anyways, the boy wants to be off doing stuff so I'll be off too.

My Dad

So, My dad has been in hospital since Dec. 12. He went in for surgery on his hip. He had two hip replacements done about 5-6 years ago. The one went well, the other has been a problem since day one.

The doctors discovered about two months ago that the surgery was done incorrectly which led to an infection in his bones, the pin was loose and so forth. Therefore TWO surgeries would be needed to correct the problem. The first to clean up and heal the infection, the other to do a proper hip replacement.

It has not been easy for my parents. Dad hates not feeling well, and doesn't do well being confined to a bed or wheelchair. BUT they were making the best of it. Well, then Dad got a clot in his leg. Not a good thing, but deal-with-able. BUT the clot decided it didn't want to stay there and part of it moved to his lung. NOT such a good thing. Dad thought he was going to die, and apparently he is one of the lucky ones, most folks die within the first hour of getting a pulmonary embolism. God must have further need for him here on earth...that is all I can credit it too. It is a bad clot...affected his left lung very much so, and his right lung just a bit. This is serious stuff.

I hate seeing them like this. I really wish it wasn't so. His second surgery has been put off until he is all healed up from the clots. They have him on meds that he tends not to do well on, so life won't be very fun for him for the next while. And then another surgery to look up against. God is being leaned on very much by my family. Please, if you read this, keep us in your prayers.

Harry Potter Quiz

Okay...this one I just LOVED who I turned out to be. :) Made me Laugh Out Loud!

You scored as Albus Dumbledore. Strong and powerful you admirably defend your world and your charges against those who would seek to harm them. However sometimes you can fail to do what you must because you care too much to cause suffering. Albus Dumbledore 90% Ginny Weasley 90% Remus Lupin 75% Harry Potter 70% Severus Snape 70% Draco Malfoy 70% Hermione Granger 60% Sirius Black 50% Ron Weasley 45% Lord Voldemort 0% Your Harry Potter Alter Ego Is...? created with QuizFarm.com

Anger Management?

I can't say I really liked this quiz...but I did like the picture it came up with for me. :)

You scored as your super fine. your great you deffenetly dont have anger management problemes!keep it up! your super fine 65% fine 45% Anger Problems BIG time! 20% **Do you have anger management problems?** created with QuizFarm.com

What is your model of the church?

I thought this quiz was interesting

You scored as Herald Model. Your model of the church is Herald. The organization of the church is much less important than the urgency of announcing the Good News of salvation to all the world. The Holy Spirit moves the individual to belief in Jesus Christ and to do the will of the Father by sharing this message with others. As with other models, the narrowness of this model could be supplemented by drawing on other models. Herald Model 84% Mystical Communion Model 84% Sacrament model 83% Servant Model 61% Institutional Model 39% What is your model of the church? [Dulles] created with QuizFarm.com

Well, well, well

So my hubbie was an absolute sweetheart today. Despite not feeling well, he took our son Justin with him to London while he ran some errands with his mom. He gifted me with four hours alone in our home. FOUR WHOLE HOURS COMPLETELY TO MYSELF! Did I use the time wisely??? Not sure, I cleaned out the guinea pigs, had a VERY long bath (yes, I know a huge water waster that was!), read a couple of books, did a load of laundry and walked the dogs. It was a nice afternoon. :) I had hoped to do some scrapbooking but I got hungry so I make myself a small meal instead.

So anyways, he gets back with the boy, he's all tired and achy feeling and looking, and when he's like that I can't do anything to make him feel better. Sometimes I feel so helpless to help him feel better! The best I can do is offer him support and prayer and let God heal him and rest him up.

My boy is growing and developing. I find it hard to figure him out, one day he'll happily sleep for me, and other days....it's like dragging nails across aboard to get him to rest. he gets himself rather overtired sometimes. Tonight I let him cry for a bit. He was acting so tired but wanting to see everything he was! All those AH! AH!!! sounds he makes. And reaching and being so determined to get what he wants. For instance tonight he discovered that if he pushes off of one side of the tub, and reaches up he can get his hands on top of the tub, then he can pull himself up to a standing position. Granted Mommy is right there to stablize him (lest he bonk his head), but WOW!!! He is standing and being a strong tall boy and he gets SO very excited. He gets mad though when there is water in the tub and he can't get the grip that he wants. He tries and tries and then AHH!!!! MOMMMY!!!! He cries and looks so plaintive.... then we call the bath quits and get ready for bed.

It amazes me sometimes that God brought this little fellow into our lives. Ps. 139 says that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. I see this little boy and I can't help but see the truth in that statement. :) God knows us right from the beginning. Sometimes I wonder what God's plan is for our son's life. I just pray that God will draw our son into relationship with him and that as he does so, that Jim and I are able to nurture that relationship. Time will tell.

Oh, Marlene from church stopped in this morning. I like her, she is a neat lady. Anyways, I was telling her this morning that even though it has taken me almost 6 months to come to this conclusion that I will do my best to raise this boy and not worry about what everyone else has to say about it. Justin is an odd boy in someways...as in his lack of sleeping! And his lack of being on a schedule. But he is our boy, and I can afford to be flexible with him since I don't have to head off to work. I can work my day around his needs. I think that this is a much healthier approach for me to take. :) And yes, at some point Justin will be told...No, you can't do that now, mommy has to do thus and such. But at this point in his life he doesn't quite understand that. :) So we work with where he is at and go from there.

Enough for today, time for this tired momma to head off to bed.

Found this

I found this at another site and thought I'd post it here.

Your Hidden Talent

Your natural talent is interpersonal relations and dealing with people. You communicate well and are able to bring disparate groups together. Your calming presence helps everything go more smoothly. People crave your praise and complements.

What's Your Hidden Talent?

Quiz

I was working on putting together the newsletter for our church and I found this quiz.

http://www.pastors.com/article.asp?ArtID=3281

I did okay, but not as good as I thought I would. How will you do in separating tradition from fact?

Royal Winter Fair

One of the things that Jim and I do on an annual basis is to attend the Royal Winter Fair in Toronto. Jim takes a week off work and we head up to T.O. We use that week to also catch up with some friends that live up there. Lots of fun!

One friend just recently got married. It was odd to stay there with another man in the house. BUT it was also really nice to get to know him a bit. He's a neat-nik! First guy I met who was like that! It was funny how we could just put a dish down and it would immediately be tidied up. :) He treats my friend REALLY nicely which was so cool to see. They did most of their dating on-line. It was nice to have another couple who did that, for that is how Jim and I handled a great deal of our relationship prior to marriage. I really believe that sometimes God intervenes in our lives in ways that we don't expect. Who would have thought that computers could be used to bring people together? :) God uses the intellect of mankind in strange and interesting ways.

We stayed with them from Monday night to Friday morning. And then we moved over to another friends and stayed with them for the weekend. Nice to visit with both.

The fair! Man, almost forgot to write about the fair. :) We spent three actual days at the fair, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday. We had hoped to meet up with my youngest brother on the Friday when they were having the holstein calf shows. But to our dismay it was impossible to find him in all the bustle. On Saturday we went to one of the paid shows. We saw a really cool horse display "Les chevaus 'Alexis" (or something along that line). It started off really slowly with a beautiful white horse doing dressage moves, but then showed horses running free and obeying voice and whip commands only. Way cool! I could easily watch them again. The main event was a Canine-Equine Event though. Both the horses and the dogs did really well.

Okay...most of them did. There was an English bulldog who thought that attacking the barrels was a the thing to do! It was funny. Not good for winning the round BUT a real crowd pleaser.

I remember the first time I saw the Superdogs http://www.superdogs.com/ They had an staffordshire terrier that had been trained in interrupt the show by stealing various items from the ring...and how much fun it was to watch him. My guess is that he can do it anymore due to the Ontario restrictions on staffies and the like.

it was a lot of fun at the fair watching the various shows, going around the different vendors and just relaxing with each other. Justin was funny. He rode around in a backpack and he would get so tired and need to sleep and then he would spot some cute looking lady and get all happy and chatty that he would forget to sleep. Sometimes he got a bit grumpy but overall he was a really good little boy. It seemed a bit odd caring for a baby while trotting around the fair. He got fed (he is nursing) in all kinds of interesting locations... and only once was I stared at for doing so.

Well, that's all I think for the day. Next year another week at the fair...Yahoo!

I"m Linus

You are Linus!


Which Peanuts Character are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

What freaks people out

I find it interesting how different people are freaked out by different things. Freaked out might not be the right term, but, it works for me.

For instance, I am part of a newsgroup for guinea pig owners. I am CONSTANTLY amazed at how people agonize over what to feed their piggies, and oh no...how do I cut their toenails....and my piggie grumbled at me this morning...what ever did I do wrong? Don't get me wrong, I care about my piggies, I want them to healthy and hearty and all that, but I don't agonize over them. I cut their nails, and if I draw a bit of blood... flour stops the bleeding in time. I assume they know what is healthy or not for them to eat. I don't take them to the vet the moment they stop looking quite right. And yet, other people just agonize over these things.

Similarly Jim and I went camping this past week with out boy Justin. He is just 3.5 months old now, and camping we went. The sheer number of people that were simply amazed that we would do that astounded me. It's like how could you do that? What if he gets cold? What... what and so forth. I find it quite fascinating at times, and I will admit, at other times it is quite irritating.

When I gave some thought to that, I realized that I want people to be as relaxed about the same things that I am relaxed about, and tense about the same things that make me tense. :) Like for the life of me I can't understand why people like rollercoasters. It's like "ah, ick!" I don't always show the patience and understanding that I should when people are different than I expect them to be. Something I need to work on.

But then I need to realize that in God we are "fearfully and wonderfully made". God made us who we are, gave each of us different gifts and abilities. Each one of us somehow shows who God is. Does sin get in the way? Indeed it does. It makes us fearful about things we aught not fear, It makes us focus too strongly on other things (i.e. the health of piggies as opposed the need for sinners to be saved) and it creates all kinds of problems.

In Jeremiah 9 this morning I read that what God delights in is the people who understand and know him. This is what he wants people to care about, to boast about. The fact that they know and understand God. This is what our focus is to be on. If we don't, if we as a people turn from God then we deserve the punishment that God metes out to us.

Therefore, even though it still amazes me what stresses people out, I have to always remember thatwhat delights God is my understanding and knowing him.

Taking a Break

It has been an interesting couple of weeks.
Katrina blows through and makes a mess of things in the states. On the news we see pictures of the horrible destruction caused by this hurricane. New Orleans is mostly underwater. People are acting like the sinful people that we are...looting, shooting, giving authorities lots of attitude, showing their racial and economic biases, not caring for others properly and so forth. But we are also starting to see more of the better side of mankind...people coming out and providing care for the less fortunate, dogs and cats being rescued, clean-up has started. It is good to see that starting to come out as well. It's hard just seeing all the bad things that people can do being displayed in the media.

The whole family caught a cold! Boy was that a tiring couple of weeks. Justin ended up sleeping with his mamma because he was so raspy sounding for a few days. All seems better now though. :) This was through all the big hoopla about the hurricane which made it all seem worse too. Not always sure why things work out like that, but when you are feeling bad yourself, when bad things happen to other people it likes...man...the whole world is crashing in. :) Good time to remind oneself that God indeed is in control of all that happens.

We finally had a chance to go camping! Justin was a good camper. :) That was so nice to learn and to see. Things went well. We didn't go far from home because it was a first go for us, and since it went so well we are feeling much better about going farther away in a couple of weeks. My hubbie is part of the Magical Flying Camper Club on-line. He has lots of fun chatting with all these camper people and they are having a thanksgiving get-together so he said "won't it be fun to join them?" So that is where we are headed for the thanksgiving weekend. I hope he won't expect me to do lots of socializing....I camp to get away from it all too...but some socializing is fun too! Just not 24/7! I do expect it will be a good amount of fun though.

Friday afternoon Justin got his first set of shots. He was not impressed after it was over. He liked meeting the doctor, and didn't notice the first shot, but the second one just made him hollar! He really needed to be with his mamma that night! Good thing that God made us people that need to be in relationship with each other. He made the lack of sleep that night worthwhile for me in that I was able to comfort and care for my little boy. But all was well in the morning...good enough that we went to our annual church fair. It was a good day. Lots of people that we knew met him for the first time so that was fun.

Today is the 55th anniversary at my parent's church. Since Jim is their moderator he will be preaching there. It means an early start for us. It should be a good time. We are part of the Reformed Church of America denomination. Here is their website: www.rca.org It is interesting to be able to look back to see what God has done over the years with his people. Makes me wonder sometimes where he will take us in the future. We do as a people though, need to stay focused on staying true to his word. There are things in the church that I find really troubling, and it is my constant prayer that we would return to the truth of God's word. That we would return to being a people of prayer, a people who live in the joy of fearing God. If we don't, I really wonder what will happen to this denomination in the future, and what it means to our witness to the world at large. But today is day to celebrate what God has done for us! Let us rejoice in that! And pray for future celebrations!!!!

This Weekend

Ah... I had a lovely weekend. It's been a busy summer with Justin being born. The hubbie and I both have summer birthdays, and we hadn't had a chance to celebrate them with all the busy-ness so... I took it upon myself to have a celebration weekend.

I emailed all our buddies and invited them up for a Satuday night bash. Boy...did we have fun. It was so good to see them. And they just loved our little boy Justin. He got held and passed around and he slept and smiled and was just a good little boy. It had been a long time since some of the friends were up this way so it was so much fun to just relax with them all. What a total blast we had. Way too much food!

Then on Sunday he got baptized. The whole family, well, okay..the whole family that lives close enough to come, came. We had a good dinner. It was weird doing the baptism. Anyone who knows me, knows that I hate sitting near the front in church. I like sitting midway to the back OR up in the balcony. Well...I had to sit third row from the front. The parents insisted. The hubbie insisted. I was unimpressed. I felt like everyone was watching me. And apparently they were because they all commented on how well Justin behaved during the service (he slept it away). Jim (my hubbie) is also our pastor. He got to baptize his own son which was way cool. He had trouble holding him for the baptism part because Justin is so long and not an in-active baby at all when held flat. :) But no-one fell! Even though this momma had to restrain herself from intervening. :) Even some of Jim's family came too which was really nice. It's good to get to know the hubbie's side of the family too. Nice people.

God was very gracious to me this weekend in letting it be such a nice one. All praise be to him!

Twisting Things

One of my favourite things to do is to read. I love reading...I must read something everyday or the day doesn't seem finished. I tend to read either good christian books - right now I'm reading through two - the Joy of Fearing God and Total Truth. Both are fascinating. I am also reading a fiction work by Mercedes Lackey. It is a fantasy book.

For my devotions I am going through the book of Jeremiah. Interesting book. I"m learning things I didn't expect to. Anyways, what struck me the other day was In jeremiah 8:8-9
8"How can you say, 'We are wise,
and the law of the LORD is with us'?
But behold, the lying pen of the scribes
has made it into a lie.
9The wise men shall be put to shame;
they shall be dismayed and taken;
behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD,
so what wisdom is in them?

People hear the word of God, they read it, and then they twist to their own satisfaction. The nation of Israel liked to say thet they knew God but they did their own thing. They had God, and then they had all these other gods/idols/images that they worshipped.

I remember reading that, and then in this book that I'm reading I read something similar. "It says, have no other God before me, but....it doesn't say anything about having other gods in reserve." This was a quote from one of the characters in the book. It really showed me what people do when they twist the words of our living Lord and Saviour.

Our God is a holy God. He is the only God out there. We, as people, as a sinful fallen people, can make up as many gods as we like, it doesn't change the fact that God is God is God. And we can't change that or make it any different. God says worship me alone. Doing anything else is simply just wrong...it goes against what God tells HIS people to do.

We must be careful to follow his word and to not make it say what we want it to. No twisting of scripture is okay. We must learn from the past. God punished the Israelites for twisting his word and for turning away from him. He will not hesitate to do so again. Be aware that our God is a holy and righteous and the ONLY true God.

Dependancy

One of the hardest things that people have to learn is how to properly depend on others.

I've been reading Jeremiah lately for my devotions and it keeps popping up over and over again, about how Israel and Judah decided to turn from God and to turn back to the ways of Egypt and the worship of false gods. They did not choose to depend on God for everything, they chose to depend on themselves and idols of their own making. This of course, caused God to turn from them in anger, he indeed poured out his wrath upon them. BUT>>>> he only did so after he called and called for the people to return to him.

I see this tendency in my own life as well. Having a baby by c-section really made me aware of it. I so much like doing things for my ownself, in my own way and time, and having a wee one dependant upon you for everything, and being unable to do my own thing in my own time, and having to ask my parents for assistance in just getting meals and laundry done.... it's been a struggle. And then when I struggled with baby blues....having to say God help me with this, I can't get through these thoughts on my own.... IT"S HARD. BUT I must also say, it is worth it. Worth it from my parents joy in being able to spend LOTS of time with their new grandson. Worth it from knowing that by turning to God in my need brings him joy as well. So despite the challenges of needing to be humble enough to ask for help, comes good things.

I look at the larger world today, the Canadian government legalizing same-sex marriage because it's a "human rights issue", people fighting for jobs, people hurting each other, people saying the God isn't real,..... these are all symptons of individuals saying....let me do it my way. Let me make the choices. Let me stand on my own. Where is the dependancy? It seems like no one wants to be dependant on others in proper ways....

Where is this people's need for God? Have we all gone off to do our own thing? My prayer is that we learn how to depend on God as a people, as a nation. That we will indeed turn from our wickedness and heed the word of our Lord.

A Learning Process

Boy oh boy is being a new mom ever a huge learning curve. Makes me wonder how people do it! :) But, they do. And I too will survive this learning curve.

Veronica the lactation consultant has called a couple of times just to see how I am doing, and to offer encouragement and advice. Nice of her to do that...and yes, I know it's her job, but it is still nice to hear words of encouragement over the phone.

Susan, our mid-wife, was planning on coming over tonight to check up on us, but.....there was an accident within the family so she won't be able to come today. She'll come tomorrow instead. She thinks that yesterday when Justin was crying all day that it was a growth spurt that he was going through. All I know is I kept feeding him, he couldn't settle and I'd feed him some more...and it was a never ending merry-go-round. Sleep didn't come easily last night. Today, on the other hand, our little boy is sleeping all day long. :) Such a change.

My hubbie Jim is trying hard to be a good dad and supportive husband as we go through learning process. Makes me love him even more. Go figure that eh.... one wouldn't think that such a change in life could cause a person to love another person, more....but somehow it does. Not that I'm complaining. It's good to have a firm love for one's life partner.

Anyways, time to go to bed so....i'll write more another time.

Annette

New Life

Well, what can I say? Our baby has been born!
Labour was nasty, it, if our baby had been a bit smaller, would have been doable, but he was just a tad bit too big, and took just a tad bit too long in coming into the world. Having a C-section was doable, just not the option we wanted.

Interesting though, I did a search on-line last night for information on recovering from having a c-section and there is surprisingly not a lot of information out there! Most people experience what Jim and I did. Go home and take it easy. I find that horribly shocking! It took some searching to find out how I should care for myself over these next few weeks.

From what I could tell from people out in computer land, what I should do is the following
1. I should have help in the house for at least 2 weeks following release from the hospital.
2. I should go up and down the stairs as infrequently as possible.
3. I should rest. Sleep whenever I can, use pillows, chairs whatever to get myself comfortable.
4. I should not bend over and pick things up.
5. I should not carry anything heavier than our baby.
6. I should avoid anything that could add to abdominal stress - avoid constipation, gas, etc. It means eating healthy,taking stool softeners, and so forth.
7. It means walking in order to keep the body's systems active.

So why don't doctors tell their patients these things? Like seriously, I am sure that I could have avoided adding to my pain levels IF I had been told these things. So why wasn't I? Why do most women not know these things and have to rely on other women to fill them in? That makes for a lot of misinformation being passed around and greater chances for women to actually find themselves damaging themselves and needing more recuperating time.

It just seems like doctors don't really care about their patients if they don't give them good post-operative care and kinda just willy-nilly send them home when perhaps they shouldn't because the patient might have a better recoup time if they stayed in hospital even one more day, or it gave them more time to learn about what they should do when they are at home and so forth.

I have found that it has just been rather interesting learning about people's experiences in this. I was blown away too by the numbers of women who choose to have a c-section because they don't want to go through the bother of labour. The prevailing attitude among such choice makers is that they want to avoid the bother of labour, and they like the idea of having to do nothing for at least 6 weeks after the baby is born. One lady was even rather bummed that (after choosing to do c-section for four children) that her doctor said....Okay, no more children are you allowed to have.! And she was SO mad at her doctor. Why didn't he tell me this might limit the amount of children I could have? What's his problem, I should be able to have more children, all they need to do is c-section it, even if it's a bit a early! I just find that type of attitude so ... not sure of the word to use....shocking, frustrating, mind-boggling. Definitely NOT one that I would agree with.

Still waiting

Hello, it's been a hot Saturday. Jim and I had a nice day. We went garage-saling this morning (what can I say, I've gotten Jim a little bit hooked on going to garage sales too!) :) It's kinda fun to share this with Jim. Anyways, afterwards we ran up to London. We checked out the London Market (it's not as far to drive as the Kitchener one). We bought a zucchini, but we mostly went there just to take it easy and get our minds off of things.

So ... what has been on our minds lately you might wonder?
Stuff going on with the larger church that we belong to. Our church is part of the Reformed Church of America. A while back one of our professor's of theology decided that it would be a good idea for him to officiate at his daughter's wedding to her lesbian daughter. This is not acceptable, neither to the official position of the RCA denomination NOR according to the standards of God as written in the Bible. We just had our general synod meeting. At that meeting there was a trial of Rev. Kansfield were he was found guilty. At that same synod a lot of overtures were turned down... most of those overtures had to do with defining what marriage was and other issues. This has caused quite the uproar in the larger denomination.

What was approved was a three year study on the whole issue of homosexuality. Which really means putting a lot of things on hold in the church for the 4.5 years, because this is supposed to be a denomination wide discussion that involved EVERY level in the church. Takes the focus off what the church is supposed be involved with....mission, evangelism, acts of service and so forth. Some churches have already decided that they don't need to part of our denomination already. It is causing more polarization and anger and disappointment and so forth. NOT what the church really needs.

It is frustrating to see the work of God being sidelined by issues such as this. And how is conversation really supposed to be facilitated when the real issues at hand are being ignored. Issues such as discipline, interpretation of scripture, holding to the standards of the church, and so forth? I honestly think that nothing will really be accomplished in the next few years because the real issues aren't be addressed. All that will happen is that people will leave our denomination. I do hold out a bit of hope that God will use this time to start a revival in our denomination that will spread. That HIS glory and honour and power will be upheld in the highest way possible. Ah....to see a revival occur....wouldn't that be an awesome thing? To see people learn and grow and LOVE God deeply! To give up their own agendas and to focus on what we are supposed to. Would be good of course if I learned to do that better too! :)

Until another day (it's getting late).

We have babies

My husband and I enjoy aquariums. We both have different tastes in the types of fish we enjoy. he enjoys cichlids and I enjoy quieter community fish - like rainbows, barbs, etc.

ANYWAYS, here I was quietly taking a nap and he bursts in...HUN! Come see! We have babies!

I slowly (well actually with his help) got up (what can I say....i'm overdue to have our child), and trekked over to the aquarium and low and behold I find we have a whole slew of baby salvini cichlid. Clustered all over one of our rocks. With momma and poppa guarding them.

They are pretty good at keeping the other cichlids away from them ... one is better than the other. But then the one sometimes chases it's partner away too! So hey....it's like a bit of a war zone in the aquarium right now.

Unfortunately it means that we need to figure out a different set up for our aquariums...because right now it's a bit of a guessing game as to whether any of them will actually survive or not. Most of them will end up getting eaten by the other fish, and we'd rather have a bunch of babies so we might need to purchase another aquarium to keep our salvini cichlid's in. They'd be a nice little money maker for us in the long run. :) Nice to have baby fish! :)

Anyways, there you have it! One of these days you might actually learn what our child is .... but we are still playing the waiting game with that one!

False teachers and standing for truth

I've been Studying from 2 Corinthians, this morning I was in chapter 11. Paul was talking about how the Corinthians were so easily led astray by false prophets and it seemed like he was defending his actions against them.

It must have been hard for Paul to deal with. He has spent so much time and energy on the Corinthians only to find that they are so easily turned aside by false teachers, finding himself wanting to defend himself, and yet knowing that his best defence is to continue doing things as he has been doing them. That only by doing so will he show these other people up for what they are ... false prophets/teachers.

Makes me think that it must be hard for Jim as well. To work so hard with these people here in Exeter, and within the Reformed Church, bringing the truth of you and then finding that people turn aside for other reasons. And then I look at some of the denominational issues that are facing us, and it makes me wonder, how do men (and women) of God who strive so hard for the truth of scripture deal with it all.

I find it rather frustrating myself. But I do like Paul's response where he says:

12And what I do I will continue to do, in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do. 13For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 14And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 15So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.

He is not going to change his stance for the truth. God will show these false people for what they are. "The Truth will out" so to speak. Helps me to understand Jim better too when he says that he will continue to focus on the preaching of God's word, regardless of what the Church growth movement says about it or not.

Through the direct preaching of the word, the truth will be heard .... sometimes I find... regardless of whether or not people really want to hear it.

Babies

Funny how it is. Here we are expecting our baby in the 8 weeks and everywhere we go, we are seeing babies and/or pregnant women. I find it interesting. Generally speaking I really don't pay alot of attention to that, but now it's like I can't avoid it. We met a wee 6 week old just the other day, and his mom kept saying...it's not a bad as you think it will be... really. :) It's like she was trying to convince herself the way she kept emphasizing it.

Do I get concerned a bit when I think of the actual labour part of having a baby? Yep! From what I read, some women get overwhelmed that they just kinda shut down and their partners and/or care practitioners have to get mad at them in order to get them to continue doing their job (having the baby). If that would happen I wouldn't be particularly thrilled with the whole process. So that's a concern. Hopefully though, with having the baby at home, there is less of a concern for that because I'll be at home where I feel safe and comfortable and to a certain extent in control of what happens in life. And all that helps with not feeling overwhelmed by the whole labour process. And having a mid-wife that I can trust is really good too!

People keep asking if we are really excited about having a baby. It's hard to know how to answer them sometimes. Do I look forward to having a baby? Yes. I do. But at the same time, I'm not wild with excitement ... I feel more calm about it than excited generally speaking. Am I aware that I am pregnant? Very much so... it's like I can't escape it now! I have a bigger belly, the baby kicks alot, it's getting harder to get comfortable, and some things are much harder to do now. :) But that's all to be expected. Can't say that I'm always thrilled about the changes in my body, and sometimes I just don't like it at all, it's like my body is not my own anymore. But generally speaking I really don't mind as it prepares me for all the changes in my life that will happen after the baby is born too!

Anyways, enough for today...