This past week I saw a new commercial on the television. A young man, who is filthy dirty, top to bottom, arrives home. His parents meet him at the door holding a roll of paper towels. As he tromps around the house, leaving dirt stains on the piano and on everything he touches, the parents follow him around, wiping up the dirt. This reminded me of a picture I had drawn years ago and put in my prayer journal.Colossians 3:5-17 inspired this picture.


5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11 Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. 12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. 15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.


Just as we change our clothes each day, and sometimes more than once a day, we need to daily dress in the wardrobe Christ has for us. Take off that BO smelling clothes, those rags stained with oil or dirt. Dress in His likeness!

Field trip

Hannah wanted me to go with her on her school field trip. So Sophia and I tagged along. Our first stop was Druber's. We love

DRUBER'S!

When my children were just little, we used to go there and meet with other moms and their kids.

Hannah's kindergarten class is large enough that they were divided into two groups. While group #1 was shown the "how to's" of making donuts, Hannah's group had donuts to eat and pictures to draw.
After group #1 was done, they switched places.


They were shown how they make all the different kinds of donuts. All fashioned by hand.



Getting on the bus to go to the next stop.



Faith explained that they share the love of Christ to people who are in need.
Christ Himself was homeless His last years on earth. "The foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head." Matthew 8:20



Each child brought a box of cereal to share with the families who stay at the shelter.

"Christ came into the world not only to offer salvation, but to show us a new way of life . . . a life defined by love, humbleness, selflessness, sacrifice and service. Then, He tells us if we want to follow in His steps, we must deny ourselves, take up His cross and follow Him . . . we must live our lives as He did . . . outward focused. Christ’s body was broken and spilled out for others; now we are to present ourselves as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1) . . . we are to become His hands and feet. Christ calls each of us to be His representative to a lost and dying world, to offer them hope and a new way of life."

Thank you, Hannah, for inviting me to go along with you!

Minute to Win it night

We have been slowly working on finishing our basement. Al took off a couple of days to work on tiling the shower. Al does NOT like cold so I was so impressed that even the snow did not keep him from work!
We finished the tiling of the shower.

Next on the agenda is the flooring.
The kitchen is nearly finished.

We got a Tassimo that will serve Starbucks brand coffee - lattes and cappucinos. Mmmmm!

So, although the basement isn't complete, we decided to host our first party down there anyway.


Our Community Life group meets weekly - 1st & 3rd Monday nights we have Bible study, the 2nd Monday night is a game night and the 4th is an off night. Last night was game night and we decided to play the game Minute To Win It.

Before each game, we would watch an excerpt from the show on how the game is played. You have 60 seconds to finish the task. You get 3 chances to do this.

The first game we played was Ready Spaghetti.

How does Christina do this in high heels???


You needed to slide a spaghetti noodle through the tab of a pop can. Your partner would catch it in their mouth on the other side.


Then you have to move the can to the other side of the table....

...and hope the spaghetti noodle doesn't break.
The object is to stack the pop cans in less than a minute. Truly not as easy as it sounds. Al and I got a zero on this game. The spaghetti strand kept breaking. And just at the last minute we were stacking it, as Al unthreaded the noodle, the stack fell.
Our next game was Junk in the Trunk.


8 ping pong balls are put in a kleenex box. You have to jump around and in less than a minute and try to release all the balls. (you might enjoy watching the video at the end of this post)






Al was impressive! He did the best, getting all the ping pong balls out of the box in 15 seconds! YAY!

Stick To It - Bounce a ping pong ball on the floor to your partner...

...who attempts to catch it on the lint roller. Object, to catch 3 balls in 1 minute.




Face The Cookie -

That's how it is done!

Don't know the name of this game. We had to string 4 penne noodles on a spaghetti strand...


...and transfer them onto your partner's spaghetti.

Be careful or you might poke them in the face!





The winners! Our engaged couple! Way to go!!

One year

Can it really be that one year ago today my brother, Doug passed away?


My brothers, Dave and Doug in their "yukatas" (a cotton kimono)





This past week I purchased this book, Tender Grace by Jackina Stark. I don't purchase books often as our church library has so many good books to choose from. But I was at Faith and Life Bookstore and happened on a sale. I got this book with full intentions to donate it to our church library once I finished it. But it has been a book I have not been able to put down and I am going to keep this one for my own library. Here is a little description of the book:

Audrey Eaton awakes at three in the morning and gets up to retrieve her husband, Tom, from the recliner where he has fallen asleep watching a ball game. But when she enters the living room and looks at his gentle face in the soft lamp light, she knows their time together is over. Grief attacks her until all she can think about is how much she wants her old life back. Determined to find healing, she embarks on a journey to the one place Tom and she always intended to visit but never did. Along the way, she discovers, through shared experiences with friends old and new, the meaning of the "tender graces" God provides each and every day.

On her trip she examines the book of John. "In chapter 16, Jesus speaks of going away and the Holy Spirit coming to us. Intellectually, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is a difficult concept to get hold of. Experientially, it is simpler. He is like an ever-present Jesus: comforting and confronting, guiding and equipping, enabling and enlightening. His presence is the greatest of gifts."

In the hard times, how precious for this ever-present, ever-caring Father!