Cookie Bakers

Anna wanted to bake some cookies for Mom and Dad's trip to Europe. This morning, they were all three up early. I let them grab a breakfast bar to eat and then they got to work, baking! It was so funny to hear and watch them. Anna was of course in charge, and she had them helping and mainly watching. They (hmm...she) pretty much did it all except the vanilla (we're too fond of our large homemade vanilla bottle to let her pour it yet) and the actually baking in the oven. Yum!

Spontaneous Reading

A sweet moment waiting for family Bible time...

Daniel and his "Nee nee"

Sweet Dan man loves his pacifier, and he first called it his "nee nee" and now we do too. Here he his, happy as can be, because he has found not one, not two, but THREE nee nees!

Special Friends

There are a few people from our church that have grown very near and dear to our hearts, and I wanted to post a few pictures of them. God has truly blessed us with their lives and friendship in different ways.
Brother Don is constantly encouraging us, always engaging our children and showing them special care and attention. He is a veteran missionary and dear friend. We are so glad to know him, and we pray that we will be as useful and committed to Christ and His kingdom in our "retirement years" as he is! (Note: Don never says he is retired, because as long as he lives, he wants to work for the Lord. So that's why "retirement years" is in quotation marks.)




Ms. Dolores is a sweet, joyful and caring friend. She is a woman of many hidden talents such as painting and calligraphy. She has not had an easy life, but by God's grace, she is in no way hardened by her past. On the contrary, she is as gentle and sweet as you can imagine. Every time I see her, she is smiling and genuinely concerned about our family. She is so kind, always serving and helping when she comes over. She sure knows how to work hard!



And last but not least, Mrs. Dudding. She has devoted countless hours to helping me by watching the kids while I run errands, helping with household chores, giving thoughtful gifts to the children, and being a true friend. We are undeserving of her love and devotion to our family, and it is another example of the love that the Father has lavished on us, undeserving though we are.


Here she is about to blow our her birthday candle last January.



God has made our lives richer because we know these people. He is good, and one way shows His goodness to us is through the lives of these special folks. Thank you, Loving Father! By Your grace, help our human love to be a picture of your perfect love.

Goodies from Hawaii

Kris recently attended his cousin Laney's wedding in Hawaii. It was a beautiful setting for a wedding and reception, and Kris enjoyed his time there with his family. Upon his return, his suitcase was full of goodies for the kids, sent from Hawaii from Ted and Gabby and a few things from him. The boys have kukui nut leis with Hawaiian shirts and matching shorts. Anna has a pretty blue Hawaiian dress with a plumeria flower for her hair. Kris also brought some good qulaity Hawaiian coffee for his coffee lover (me). Here are a few pics:

Tower o' Dishes

I had no idea that one could be so creative with dishwasher unloading. David is supposed to stack the dishes on the counter so I can quickly put them in the high cabinet when I'm ready. This morning when I came in to do my part, he impressed me by his nice tower. Can you see that the cutting board is balanced on the top of the cheese grater? Funny boy!

Basket Fun

How many kids can you get in a basket? I think they were going a trip somewhere...

PCPC Marriage Conference - Paul David Tripp

A couple of weekends ago, Kris and I had the opportunity to attend a marriage conference at Park Cities Presbyterian Church where Paul David Tripp was teaching. Remarkably, almost all of his funny stories he also used at the Desiring God National Conference last fall, however, they were absolutely relevant to his marriage talk and so unusual and comical (most of them) that anyone would be happy to hear them all again.
The title was "What Did You Expect? Redeeming the Realities of Marriage." These are my notes from the conference.
He started off telling us that it's all the little moments - getting ready in the morning, getting out the door, waiting in line - that life is really lived. There are few BIG moments in life. Pretty much everything is "little moments" and God must rule in the little moments if we are going to live for Him.
Principle 1: A marriage of unity, understanding, and love is not rooted in romance, but in worship. Worship is first an identity before it is an activity; you are a worshipper before you worship. In marriage, romance is a result, not a cause. It's something that comes from the heart, like everything else.

Luke 6:43-45 “For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks."

The heart is the seed of all our emotions, desires, and motives. Our greatest marriage problem is in the heart. Tripp encouraged all the attendees to realize, "I am my biggest marriage problem."

It's extremely hard to keep the most important things important. And what rules your heart will shape your marriage, and everything else. One example: It's 10:30pm, and the kids are yelling and jumping on their beds in their room. As he head down the hall...again, he is not thanking God for the opportunity to once again remind them of the precious truths of the gospel and to shape their hearts lovingly and graciously with these truths. NO. He is stomping down the hall saying in essence, "Right now, I don't give a rip about redemption or about the hearts of my children. I don't want to have to parent after 10:00. I am done for the night and and how dare they interrupt my time." Because of selfishness, the most important thing has fallen to a place of lesser importance.

Principle 2: Sin causes us to shrink our lives to the size of our lives. Instead of wanting God's glory and participation in Christ's great kingdom, our selfishness places our focus on our own insignificant lives. "The DNA of sin is selfishness. Sin in its fundamental form is antisocial. That self-orientation de-humanizes the people in my life; they are either vehicles to getting me what I want, or obstacles that get in the way of what I want."

We never threaten, manipulate or guilt someone in love for them. We do these things because we are using them to get us what we want.

Principle 3: Marriage, this side of heaven, is always a war between two kingdoms. Marriage is war, but not against your spouse; each is doing battle in his/her heart.

Everyone lives for some kind of treasure. The thing that is your treasure will control your heart. What controls your heart will control your behavior. Few treasures have intrinsic value; most treasures' values are assigned.

Based on this, there are two different lifestyles: Manipulation or Ministry. A Manipulation lifestyle is living for the kingdom of self, characterized by indulgence, or feeding, the sinful nature. If you are this person, you will live for earthbound treasures and anxiety-bound needs. You are driven by ME: "My world is all about what I treasure and what I say I need." If you think something is need, and your spouse says, "I love you," you will expect them to do whatever it takes to meet that "need."

Matthew 6:25-34
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,
29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

A person living for kingdom of self suffers from the dynamic of forgetfulness regarding his identity. In Matthew 6, Christ is saying that much of our struggle is rooted in "identity amnesia." We forget that we are God's beloved, and that He has promised to care for us and meet our needs, more so that even the birds or flowers that receive His care daily.

We must stop trying to use other people to meet our "needs." But even we Christians have fallen prey to the thought that if we don't look out for ourselves and our needs, no one will.Tripp says to fight the cynicism that says, "If I love that way, I'll lose." We are to trust Christ and rely on Him. "Identity amnesia" (forgetting that we are Christ's and that He will care for us) always leads to "identity replacement." We are on a nervous quest to find our identity when we've already been given it in Christ. Then we begin to place more value on things less valuable in God's eyes, losing sight of what is most important.

Instead of marriage being at the center of our identity, it isn't anywhere in the circle of things we value - our functional treasures. (I understand "functional" to mean the treasure we live out. What we spend our time and money and thoughts and energy on - what we look forward to when we get home; what we spend our free time on; what we try to learn more about; what we talk about and think about. Regardless of what we say we treasure, our "functional treasures" are the ones we truly value.)

Living this way is living for ourselves. "The idol of idols is SELF." Galatians 3:13-15 says,

13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

So, if we live for ourselves, it won't destroy our relationship, it will destroy us.

Jesus says, "But seek first my kingdom." The second lifestyle is Ministry, living for the kingdom of God and characterized by serving in love. The problem with our relationships is that we do not love God enough. We need to fix our relationships vertically first.

"Cruciform" love: willing self-sacrifice for the good of another that does not demand reciprocation or that the person being loved is deserving.

"In the name of love, there is no duty too debase for me."

"If I only love you when you're lovable, who am I loving? - Me. To say, 'If you jump on my train (if you do the things I want you to do), I'll love you' is just ugly self-interest.""

Love is best born out of gratitude toward God for lavishing such love on us. We should be so full of the love of God, like a cup that is filled to the brim with water, that the love can't help but splash out - so that people can't get near us without getting wet.

Also, we need to remember God's design. That husband, that wife, is gloriously designed, but we don't always feel that way. God is the Creator. It is PRIDE to rise to that position and say how he or she should be designed (more personable, less serious, not so sensitive, more sensitive...). To do this is to "curse the work of the Creator in your spouse."

Are you affirming the work of the creator in the way you respond to your spouse?

Think of all the circumstances that God has woven together to have you and your spouse meet. The time, the place, the families. He has marvelously orchestrated your meeting your spouse, with all of his or her family ties, personality traits, and interests and He designed that specific person to be married to you. Your differences should be celebrated.

God is always at work in our hearts. Either we are a part of what God is doing in transforming the heart of our spouse or we are in the way of it. There is no middle ground. We are either responding in love to their sin and particular characteristics and are one of God's instruments of refining them, or we are a hindrance to the work God is doing. We have no capacity to change our spouse's heart; however, we are instrument that God uses to change them. Just like an artist's brush, we should aim to be a soft brush in the hand of God: a hard brush will not absorb much paint and will mar and scratch the surface of what it should be beautifying. A soft brush will absorb paint readily and will beautify the canvas. The only way to be a soft brush is to be full of God's love and trusting Him.

Spring Celebration

Rise and shine, it's Spring Celebration '09!



Today was the long awaited Spring Celebration 2009. We ate yellow cinnamon roll bunnies this morning (pink was the color last year, so we decided on yellow this time), accompanied by flower-shaped cheese, and of course, the oh-so-sought-after "peeps" or "cheeps" or "Repicheeps," as Thomas kept calling them.



After dyeing our eggs, we got to work on school while they were drying. But after lunch, we added the finishing touches to the eggs.



This evening was the best part. We thoroughly enjoyed our meal together on our special tablecloth - Anna set the whole table and it looked great!



We had a flower pot dessert...



...and then the kids were chompin' at the bit to get outside to hunt eggs!



So Kris hid all 76 of them while we waited, and then we released the kids for their greatly anticipated hunt.


The older kids left the easy ones for Daniel to find.







Even Genny tried to get some eggs!

I intended to incorporate a few more intentionally God-centered elements in our day, like a craft. Maybe next year. Thank you, Father, for the beautiful ways You show Your glory in spring!

From Four Wheels to Two

David approached us Sunday evening, asking for us to teach him how to ride his bike without training wheels. We practiced a bit, and he would go three or four yards before putting his feet down. He really was doing well for his first attempt.
Then, yesterday, Kris worked with him a bit more. He is a brave boy, and is not too worried about doing it perfectly or not falling. He's really willing to give it a try.
Then today, he asked for permission to ride in the street, and I told him he could. As I watched him start off with our neighbor Gene's small bike, I was stunned. He rode effortlessly up and down the street, starting on his own and turning easily. Did David really do this for the first time on Sunday? Kris and I think he's done a superb job trying and learning and just going for it!








We're proud of you, David! May you work hard on all your pursuits, in Christ's name and for His kingdom!

Trash Day!

As soon as the kids hear the trash truck each week, usually around 8:00, they call back and forth to each other, "Trash truck!" and they run into the living room and take their posts at the window. Here they are watching this morning. If you look closely, you can see the back corner of the truck at the bottom right of the window, right above Daniel's head.

3-2-1 Blastoff!

Watch out NASA! From Sachse to Cape Canaveral, here we come!



Here the kids are, mid-ascent, in their state-of-the-art space shuttle. I think this was before they lost their solid rocket boosters.

Green Eggs and Ham

We found out this morning that Sam-I-am and his friend are not the only ones who like green eggs and ham! (We added cheese as well; I'm not sure whether Dr. Seuss would put green eggs with cheese and ham in the same category, but we do at our house.) This was David's idea, and I finally got around to doing it. It's interesting that God gave us a sense of what colors food should and shouldn't be. It's hard to override those senses and get yourself to actually taste and enjoy something that is the wrong color. The boys thought it was pretty funny. Anna, on the other hand, wasn't too sure; in the end, the ham-lover Anna decided that green ham isn't too bad after all.