Serve Wenatchee Valley

Back to the regularly scheduled Missions Monday today...Serve Wenatchee Valley is a local organization that is serving the needy in our valley, our community as a whole, and our pastors. Anyone is able to go to their office and receive help whether it be food, furniture, perhaps helping with payment of some bills, and other things - one day while I was shopping at the grocery store, the clerk mentioned how SWV helped her get her life back on track. They desire to unite different churches in the area to support the community and spread the gospel. Pastoral help and encouragement is also given through prayer, luncheons, seminars, etc.

Dave and I both know a large number of committed Christians that volunteer at SWV. And, although we don't agree down the line with everything they do, we like to support them as a faithful organization committed to serving this valley and reaching out for the cause of Christ. You can also support them in many ways from donations (food, clothing, furniture, etc.), monetarily, and time.

1st time up at the lake this year...

Homemade Granola

My husband in wonderful in many ways, and one of those ways is that he is generally a simple eater. He eats the same thing for breakfast and lunch most every day. He does, however, enjoy a variety of dinner foods. :) Granola is his breakfast of choice and there was a specific type of granola he liked best from the store. Then, one day, that granola was no longer sold! What's a wife to do!??!?! Make her own, I guess... A delightful friend at church gave Dave some homemade granola a few years ago that he liked so I called her for the recipe and have then changed it a bit since. Here it is:

Granola

3/4 c butter melted, not super hot
3/4 c honey
1/2 c brown sugar
2 t cinnamon
12 c old fashioned oats

Now, all these ingredients are completely subject to change pending on how you like your granola - you can make it sweeter, more cinnamony, etc. My friend uses oil rather than butter as well.

Measure out the oats into a large mixing bowl. Add in the brown sugar and cinnamon and mix well. Then pour in the melted butter and honey and mix it all together so that the oats are well coated. Dump into a large pan - I use a 10x15 glass baking dish and it fits well. Bake - this is also subject to variation - this last time I baked it at 225 for 2 hours and it gave it a more toasty taste. The original recipe said to bake at 200 for 2 hours. You will need to give it a stir every half hour or so.

As you can see, you can't really mess this up. You can also add in nuts (in with the oats, I suppose) or dried fruit (added after baking). I generally just add in something random each morning as I dish it up for Dave - he's not a big nut guy so I don't add those - cranberries, apricots, cherries, strawberries, blueberries, mango, etc. Also, this is not a clumpy granola (not sure how to do it that way), but more of a loose granola. The way this recipe is written is also not particularly sweet so add more honey or brown sugar if you like it sweet. Hope you enjoy!

One Year Bible NIV Devotional NT

I wrote a while back about how the kiddos were doing some short bible reading each morning when they woke up. They were working through a whole variety of bible books (Old and New Testament) and have now finished the books we wanted them to read at this point. So, we needed something new to use in that time slot. A friend mentioned at one time that she was reading through a New Testament (it does actually do Proverbs as well) only daily bible that had commentary by Alistair Begg. That sounded like a good fit for the kids...New Testament, some explanation, broken down into small chunks. The format chooses a selection from a gospel, an epistle, and from Proverbs - going in sequential order. Begg gives commentary on the gospel and epistle with purposeful application. It actually takes the kids less than 10 minutes to read the daily portion so they go on to the next day until their time is up. Since we're starting in May, they probably won't surpass the days by the end of the year. Also, a fun thing, I ordered one through my PaperBackSwap account. That made me happy. :)

Parvana's Journey/Mud City

Somehow there hasn't been a kid book review for a while, so here's two that we finished a number of weeks ago. Parvana's Journey and Mud City are the second and third books of the series that begins with The Breadwinner.

Parvana's Journey continues on with the main character from the first book and tells how Parvana travels to find her mother and siblings across the country of Afghanistan. The oppression of the Taliban and poverty/difficulties of the Afghan people once again made me feel for them and realize how little I understand about that part of the world. I actually "liked" it better than the first book...I think because it was a story of overcoming. A couple of things to mention: there is quite a bit of bickering between two of the characters (but it somehow fit?!?), and there is some stark reality - a young child dies from a land mine, a baby is trying to be sold and is stated to be likely to die. Hannah had a hard time with those concepts...it actually provoked us to talk about supporting some mission work in that country - but it is practically impossible to find a good solid organization there. We commented the other day that in fairy tales everything turns out well in the end. Only in real stories do things sometimes turn out sad. This is somewhat a story like that.

Mud City is the last of the series. It chronicles the story of Parvana's friend, Shauzia. She is in the country of Pakistan and is working towards fulfilling her dream of going to France. Most of the book she is living in Mud City - a women and orphan's refugee camp. I must say, I didn't really like the book...Shauzia was not an overcomer, more of a constant complainer. She always had an overly inflated view of herself and was frequently unwilling to abide by the rules and powers that be. Nonetheless, it was an interesting look into a refugee's life in Pakistan during the 90s. The idea that these stories took place in such recent history was really quite amazing to me.

Although these books are not the top of my favorites list, they were very insightful and broadened my very limited understanding of these two countries. I would recommend them if that is the purpose you are looking to fulfill.

Some more Sun Mountain pics

Sun Mountain Lodge

Dave and I are enjoying a lovely night away in celebration of our 15th anniversary tomorrow....we decided to drive up to Sun Mountain Lodge (about 2 hours away), and spend some time mountain biking. This afternoon was perfect temperature and perfect weather so we hopped on some bikes after we got checked in. The trail system here is absolutely amazing...so much fun. Dave is a pretty good mountain biker, but I've only been 3 or 4 times. The trails were nicely maintained with a good variety of levels. We mostly went on easy to moderate trails through lovely trees and flowers. Then, we spied a "most difficult" trail that looked like fun, at it was super! We actually went back up and did it again. Needless to say, I'm sure we are going to be sore tomorrow.

Our room is nice with a good view of the mountains. We also enjoyed a dinner outside on the deck overlooking the beautiful valley. The menu was a bit limited, so Dave ordered a hamburger, but I ordered Chicken Curry Soup (yummy!) and some goat cheese/mac nut/glazed fig salad - also scrumptious! Dave did also order a side of morel mushrooms that were amazing. So, overall a wonderful dinner.

They also have a great game room with ping pong, Foosball, and pool tables. We played some of each - I think Dave won them all.

The weather for tomorrow is forecasting rain, but I hope we'll get enough time to play a few games of horseshoes. :)

Josh's 8th Birthday

Today was Josh's official birthday, and we had our family party this evening. We had a bit of school this morning and some free time...then a nice bike ride around the loop -first of the year - it was great to get out and do that. Then we had Dave's brother's family and my folks over for a waffle dinner followed by chocolate chip cookie bars for dessert (we already had cake on Fri so Josh wanted something else). What was especially nice was having all my kid's cousins together at one time...

Blackbird Island

A place I love to go visit is Blackbird Island...it's a great place for kids, for older people, for people seeking beauty, for people just wanting some peace and quiet...you can't go wrong spending an afternoon there. It's located just outside of downtown Leavenworth. There is a nice, mostly smooth, sandy trail system that weaves around the island near the water and more inland. If you go towards the western end, there is a great play area for kids (a little on the younger kids side). And, what kid doesn't like to play in the sand/mud? This time of year the water is up quite high so the beach areas aren't quite as accessible, but later in the summer it's a great place to play in the water. Hope you'll get a chance to head out that way sometime soon...

Friend Birthday Party

The year of friend birthdays has arrived and we celebrated this afternoon for Josh's 8th birthday. We only have friend parties on every major year and since Hannah is turning 10, this is it. The last year was 3 years ago when Josh was 5. We're always quite low-key about parties...we have them at our house, make our own cake, make our own decorations, and create our own games. 14 friends were able to come including his two cousins from CA which was a special treat. We played "Pin the Hat on the Lego Man", pop the balloons and assemble a Lego man (a piece of Lego was placed in each balloon), an obstacle course, and our traditional gift exchange (this year the kids were asked to bring Legos).

Monday, Josh's actual birthday, we'll have our regular family party...

I was looking at this picture and thinking you couldn't have
a lovelier backdrop to a relay :)

Taffy gone awry

I was all excited to write this great blog post on how our little crew with the help of two sweet little nieces pulled delicious, tootsie-roll type taffy this afternoon. :) It was going to be complete with cherub faces twisting and pulling. However, that was not to be. Becky and I mixed all the ingredients and then heated and heated and heated and heated and heated some more...finally it reached the right temp. Then the pulling was alright when it was warm, but it quickly got too hard for the kiddos to pull. As far as the picture taking, it went too quick and my hands were too greasy and sticky to handle a camera. Basically, as Becky said, it is more like a hard candy than softish taffy.

For those adventurous ones among you who want to give it a try, here's a link to the recipe. Also, Good Eats has a great video about it (start at 3 min). I'd recommend making just a single batch as it makes a lot!

5 Aspects of Salvation

Just a great selection from a John MacArthur sermon I listened to the other day. He summarized the aspects of salvation in such a unique, concise way:

There are probably five terms that summarize our salvation: justification, redemption, forgiveness, reconciliation and son­ship, or adoption, same thing.

All right, let's look at the first one. The first term that's used to summarize our salvation is the term justification. In justification, the sinner stands before God as the accused and is declared righteous.

The second term is redemption. In redemption, the sinner stands before God as a slave and is granted freedom by a ransom.

The third term that summarizes our salvation is forgiveness. In forgiveness, the sinner stands before God as a debtor and the debt, having been paid, is forgotten.

Fourth, is reconciliation. And this is beautiful. In reconciliation the sinner stands before God as an enemy and becomes a friend. Peace with God is made.

Fifthly, the term sonship summarizes our salvation. In sonship, I love this, the sinner stands before God as a stranger and is made a son.

Think of it. We stood before God as the accused and He declared us righteous. We stood before God as a slave and He granted us freedom. We stood before God as a debtor and He forgot our debt. We stood before God as an enemy and He made us a friend. We stood before God as a stranger and He called us a son. That sums up salvation.

My sis flew in for a visit today, and we enjoyed a lovely day with them

The Seed Company/One Verse

The Seed Company is an organization that works on bible translation. They are an affiliate with Wycliffe Bible Translators and estimate that there are still around 2200 different languages needing to be translated. Their hope is to make these translations possible within this current generation. Right now they have about 400 languages in process. For each project they choose a particular number of prayer partners needed and the necessary funding. You can click on the specific translations and see what percent they have accomplished as well as some information about the people group.

A subset of The Seed Company is OneVerse. I think the way they go about translation is particularly fascinating. You are able to purchase a single verse or multiple verses for a specific translation. And, you actually receive a specific verse that you can look up (you are not able to choose otherwise some verses would never get printed. :) ). Another neat thing is that you are able to see exactly what verse they are in the midst of translating for each language. Purchasing a verse or set of verses is a great gift for a Christian that is a challenge to buy for.

Bible Translation is a great way to entrust your finances for the kingdom...

2002

Review Games

As I mentioned the other day, we've had testing around here this past week. Since the math portion was a big focus of ours, we've been going over different aspects we knew to expect on the test. It gets pretty old pretty fast just answering questions, so we mixed it up a little. Basically each day we went through the vocab (things like parallel, pentagon, congruent, etc.) and/or test questions based upon the Item Specification Chart you can find online. Each child had either some scratch paper or a dry-erase board to produce their answers. I would ask a question and they would write their answer, then if they got it right (here's the fun part) they would do one of the following:

• Penny Toss - for each right answer they would take a penny and toss it into a dish. If it made it into the dish, they would be able to keep that penny.
• Pattern Blocks - for each right answer, they would take one of the different pattern blocks. After all the questions were done, they would create something from the pattern blocks they received.
• Hangman - for each right answer, they would get to choose a letter to figure out the saying.
• Jelly Beans - for each right answer you receive a tally mark. Once our time is done we add up the tally marks and divide by whatever number (2 or 3 normally) based upon however many jelly beans I want them to eat. If they get 35 right, I'll probably divide by 3...22 right, divide by 2.
• Computer Minutes - similar to Jelly Beans except they receive extra computer minutes based upon the number correct.
• Misc. Actions - a question is asked, normally a multi-process type question (3x7+6/9=), and when they know the answer they do the prescribed action - hop on one foot, do three jumping jacks, run around the room, kiss the momma, etc.
  

I know none of these activities are particularly amazing, but they add just enough enjoyment to make math review not so bad. :)

Gospel-Powered Parenting

Gospel-Powered Parenting is my favorite parenting book that I've read in quite some time. Farley does a thorough job at challenging parents to not be looking for any certain method or five-step plan, but to just live their lives according to the gospel...to seek heart change in their children, to be honest about their need for Christ, to have a truly God-centered family.

He has a great section on how the gospel should affect parenting. Some other major themes in the book deal with the blessings that come through fear of God, required holiness in parents, the need for humility, the importance of the father's role, sin and authority, and the bible as the answer to our needs and failings.

Here's a bit of summary from his first chapter:

All our conclusions about parenting flow out of our unconscious assumptions about God, man, and ultimate reality. Collectively, the constitute our parenting worldview-a worldview diametrically opposed to that of the secular world. Your capacity to parent effectively will be a function of your assumptions. I want to discuss five assumptions that you will need in order to internalize the rest of this book.

First, you cannot be a perfect parent. If you could parent perfectly, your children might not need a Savior. But you are not perfect. From where you sit, you cannot even see perfection. Therefore, your children will desperately need Christ.

Second, effective parents assume two parallel truths that go off into eternity and never find a satisfactory intellectual solution. First, God is sovereign over your child's salvation. Second, they assume that God uses the normal means of grace to draw our children to Himself. Parents are the "means" that God wants to use to reach our children. Holding these two ideas - God's sovereignty and man's responsibility-in tension is important.

Thirdly, effective parents assume that a good offense is better than defense. Either we can focus on preparing our children to enter the world and conquer it, or we can concentrate on protecting our children from the world. This book will assume that effective parents equip their children to overcome the world-not by changing and controlling their environment (things external to their children), but by going after their children's hearts. We change their hearts by teaching the gospel, modeling the gospel, and centering our homes on the gospel. Effective parents make the gospel so attractive that the world cannot get a foothold in their children's hearts.

Fourth, effective parents understand new birth. Statistically, most Christian parents assume their child's new birth. This could be your biggest parenting mistake. Be wise. Don't presume your child's new birth until you see solid evidence. The first sign is growing hunger for God. Other signs are hunger for holiness, growing obedience to parents, and desire for secret prayer and Bible reading.

Fifth, effective parents are not child centered. They are God centered. They strive to put God at the center of their family. The symptoms of God-centeredness are numerous. The first is a willingness to say "no" to a child when it is in the child's best interest. A second symptom is a marriage in which Dad and Mom are united before their children, even when they disagree about a parenting direction. A third symptom is the willingness to make our marriages more important than our children. A fourth symptom is a willingness to be different. God-centered homes will be radically different.

----On a lighter and more humorous note, my friend posted a blog entry by Kevin DeYoung about Parenting 001. Very funny, but also very insightful.

Enabling

Enabling --verb-- In a negative sense, enabling is also used in the context of problematic behavior, to signify dysfunctional approaches that are intended to help but in fact may perpetuate a problem. from Wikipedia

It's been a relatively difficult week around here. Hannah has had 4th grade testing three mornings this week and another on Monday. I've decided that she is my anxious perfectionist (in some areas) - a tough combination. This week has also reminded me of what I think is one of the biggest challenges to homeschooling...enabling your children rather than pushing them to accomplish what they are able on their own. This becomes particularly evident when they are expected to take a test on their own, without raising their hand for help every couple of minutes. Maybe this isn't the case when you are teaching more than two kids, but it seems to be something that happens around here. I do acknowledge that this is also somewhat personality driven by the child, and is, in many ways, a formed habit by the parent.

As a mom, you want your kiddo to succeed, you want them to get the right answer, to finish the page...and, oftentimes it's easier just to explain and prompt rather than challenge and encourage (at least in the short-run). But, we aren't just working for today, but 5, 10, 20 years from now. It is important for each of us to be willing to put in the hard effort to figure something out, and that is best learned as a child in the home.

So, what can be done? These are some thoughts I've had although not all that I have proven through practice...

1. Do a good job at explaining the expectation for whatever work you are giving the child. Know ahead of time if there are some confusing directions that need clarifying or a new concept that needs to be introduced. Don't expect a child to just "get it" because you as an adult understand what is being asked. The problem with this is that it takes preparation in advance...something I'm not good at with school work...something I should work on.

2. Since my kiddos are getting older, I can simply ask, "Have you really tried your best to get this answer, or are you being lazy/just wanting an easy way out/giving in too easily/etc?"

3. For a child that often has this problem, requiring them to read through the directions as least two times or to spend at least a few minutes trying to work it out on their own can be helpful. Sometimes my children "magically" come up with the right answer when I am in the middle of something and am not immediately able to help. When it is less convenient to seek help, a child may put in the extra effort required. I've also found not being in the same room while doing worksheets can create a sort of buffer that stops the kiddos from immediately requesting my assistance.

4. Make sure they are legitimately able to do the work you are requesting of them. I find that a particular challenge with Josh who works above his level, but still can't write legibly to save his life. It is not reasonable to expect him to write a page of text even though he is able to answer the question verbally.

5. Be aware of their limits. If you have just been up late multiple nights in a row, or the child has been sick, or you've just come off a vacation, don't expect them to work at their highest potential. Also, there are days when no one feels like schoolwork...sometimes it's best to just give in and read a book/play outside/do a craft, or sometimes you just need to teach a lesson in perseverance.

Hope those thoughts are helpful...I plan to be much more diligent about challenging my kiddos to work on their own during our next school year.

We have some friends that live up the street who own this sweet horse.
They let us come up and feed her carrots and apples...a real treat for Hannah.

Star of Light

At long last, Dave and I officially decided to make a trip to Yellowstone this June so this afternoon I spent hours and hours figuring out where we can stay and what activities we can do. At least I have some more free time with BSF finishing up this past week… :)

We continue to chomp away at kid’s books. One of the recent completions was Star of Light. It is another great book by Patricia St. John. She does an amazing job at capturing real struggles and teaching us through them. She also is adept at weaving in the gospel message in each of her books. This book is about a little blind girl who is to be sold to a beggar as a means for him to make money. Rather than having that awful life, her mother has the older brother steal her away and bring her to a missionary in a far away town. The little girl is happily taken in by the missionary, but the brother becomes a street child. We see his transformation and trials as he lives in this new-found home. Another child is also introduced later on in the book, and we learn how she is changed from a selfish, spoiled only-child to one that comes to have faith in Christ.

St. John again shows the power of the gospel in a person’s heart. It is instructive of how we too should be changed because of what we believe and Who we believe in. No longer do we only look to ourselves, but seek to serve and put others first.

Life Impact

Missions Tuesday this week... :)

Life Impact is a ministry that is focused on at-risk children and orphans as well as other people in need, primarily in the areas of Burma and Thailand. They especially help with children that have been sold into prostitution/slavery or children who are unwanted. They provide homes and schooling for many of these kids and evangelize the peoples in these poor countries in a variety of ways: outreaches, studies, camps, discipleship, etc. On their website, they have a number of stories and some statistics about the problems they are up against. You are also able to participate in a short-term mission trip with them. I am thankful as I've looked into these various organizations that there are people who are willing to serve others and live their lives for the kingdom.

Happy Mother's Day

Hope everyone enjoyed a lovely Mother's Day. I had the particularly wonderful opportunity to be with my mom this Mother's Day...I can't remember the last time that happened. And, I meant to take a picture, but I forgot, and my mom amazingly didn't bring her camera!! Anyways, we had a nice lunch together and we were able to spend time with Dave's mom later in the evening.

Some pics the kids drew of themselves for me during a visit with my mom. It is really hard to draw a self-portrait.

Josh woke up this morning, came upstairs, and said that he was going to make something all on his own for me. This is what he made...bookmarks. The one on the left he fashioned so that we were looking at each other and the one on the right is a picture of our frequent morning snuggle in my puffy, green chair. Very sweet.