Looking Past the Verse

On Sunday nights, we meet with the teens of the youth group. The first Sunday, we meet with Junior High. The second Sunday, we meet with the High School. And the third Sunday, both Junior High and High School meet together. Our church calls these huddles. This month, Jeremy talked about looking past the verses in the Bible. He challenged the teens to think about what the Bible characters felt like during their story and write a poem about it. Jeremy and I also took part in this activity and each wrote a poem. Take Adam and Eve for example. What thoughts and emotions were going through Eve's head as she realized she had disappointed God by eating the forbidden fruit. Did she feel sad? Did she feel guilty? What feelings would she have expressed if she could have confided in you? What about Adam? How did he feel when his wife did the one thing that God had asked them not to? What did he think when he realized both he and she were naked? There are all kinds of emotions and thoughts that Adam and Eve might have been feeling when Eve ate the apple. In the poems, we were to pretend like we did not know what happens at the end of the story. What if you were reading the story of Adam and Eve to someone who had never heard the story before? Would you read it exactly like it is or would you throw some emotion in it?

I wrote one poem at the Junior High huddle and one poem at the High School huddle. Here are my poems. The first one is about Noah and the flood. You can read about it starting in Genesis 6. The second poem is about Abraham and Isaac. This story can be found in Genesis 22:1-19.

Why me?

Why did He choose me?

I am 600 years old.

I don't know if I am that bold.

~

God said take two

of every living creature.

What am I to do?

Two of EVERY living creature?

~

Spiders, scorpions, birds that can fly.

Cows, horses, lions

and tigers and bears; oh my!

God must really have faith in me.

~

We must all be in this boat

called an ark.

I sure hope I build it well enough to float.

Rain, rain, rain.

~

It's raining,

it's pouring,

the old man

is snoring!

~

Yep, it's me.

The old man.

And it is He,

who chose me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh, how can this be?

This is the worst news

I could have ever received!

Why is this happening to me?

~

My one and only son.

I only have one!

My beloved, my dear.

Oh, how I fear.

~

The past few days

have been the longest

days of my life.

But I must take it in strife.

~

God, do you really understand

what you are asking of me?

You truely, honestly want me

to take the life of my only son with my own hand?

~

How will I ever be able to live

with what you are asking me to do?

To kill, to murder, my one and only beloved son.

Lord, I put my trust in you.

~

Well, this is it.

The time has come.

Oh Lord, I feel so helpless.

Man, this is gonna make a big mess.

~

Son, I love you.

This is not what

I had planned to do.

Please, Lord, I beg of you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To me, it wasn't that hard to do. I used to write poems in high school. You should try it sometime. I would like to see yours if you do. You can post them on my comment section or email me if you don't want to share them with others. Here is a link to Jeremy's blog www.baldgoat.tumblr.com so you can read his poem if you want to. He also put a few of the teens poems on his blog.

Thanks for Being Rude!

What is it about "I'm not interested" that sales men or sales women don't understand? Are they trained to not take that for an answer? Are they trained to ignore a person when they say "I'm not interested"? Why do they keep talking and keep pushing after a person politely responds with "I'm not interested"?

I have had several sales men and women come and knock on my door. I do not enjoy having visits from them. I am sure alot of them do not enjoy going door-to-door either. Why is it that they choose to come in the afternoon during naptime? Why is it that when people design a house, they put the children's rooms near the front door? Why is the master bedroom is always the room as far away from the front door as possible? I once had three sales men come knock on my door in a two week period, two of which were trying to sell me the same thing. Hello! Their company should keep better records. I am glad that the doorbell for my house does not work. I thought about fixing it until this happened.

One day, a man from TXU came by trying to get me to switch my electricity provider. I was trying to be polite and tell him that I was not interested. He pushed on and tried again. I told him I would have to talk to my husband, who wasn't home at the time. I thought he would take this as a hint...no...he didn't. He asked when would be a good time to come back that day. He said that today was the last day he would be in town before he had to head back to Houston. He asked if he could come back around 6pm or 7pm. I knew no one would be home that day at that time. So I told him that would be a good time. I bet he was surprised when he came knocking on my door and no one answered. Maybe he should have listened to me when I politely told him that I was not interested. It would have saved him a useless trip to my house.

This afternoon there was a knock on my door. It sounded like a little kid knocking. Much to my surprise, when I answered the door, there was a man standing there holding a binder. Hmmm...must be a sales man. The guy started out by asking about the truck in the driveway and saying he liked it. It was my husband's Toyota Tundra. I guess he was trying to make small talk before making his dreaded sales speech. He opened his binder and I immediately saw he was from TXU. This guy was going to try to get me to switch electric companies. Sorry mister...good luck with that. He starts out asking me if I knew about the new electric laws. I politely told him I was not interested. He asked, "You are not interested in the new laws?" I told him that I wasn't. He went on to say something else about electricity. I politely told him again that I am not interested. I kept politely telling him that I was not interested. But yet he continued to talk. I said, "I'm going to close the door now because you are not going to stop talking." As I closed the door, I heard him say, "Thanks for being rude." Umm, who is the rude one here? I told him several times, politely, that I am not interested. What else could I do to get him to get the point that I am not interested! How many times had I already told him? Plenty. He had the opportunity to end the conversation and walk away on good terms. But he kept on and on and on. If I really cared about what he had to say or sell, I would not have told him "I'm not interested."

What Happened to Thanksgiving?

There are several holidays in the year. January has New Year's Day. February has Valentine's Day. March has St. Patrick's Day. Then there is Easter. It falls in March or April. It just depends on the year. April has April Fool's Day. May has Mother's Day and Memorial Day. June has Father's Day. July has Independence Day, otherwise known as the Fouth of July. September has Labor Day. October has Halloween. November has Thanksgiving. December has Christmas. These are the main holidays that are observed.


I went to Target on November 2. That was just two days after Halloween and they already had up their Christmas decorations. Really? Yes! They did! Just after that I started noticing Christmas decorations going up EVERYWHERE!

Let's recall the holidays....New Year's Day, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, April Fool's Day, Mother's Day, Memorial Day, Father's Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas. Look at that again. The last few are Halloween, THEN Thanksgiving, THEN Christmas. What was that? There is another holiday between Halloween and Christmas? Yes, it is called THANKSGIVING. I don't expect people to decorate for Thanksgiving, but come on, let's not forget about it and put up Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving gets here! When the stores or anyone else goes from decorating for Halloween to then immediately decorating for Christmas, it is as if they have forgotten about Thanksgiving.

Is Thanksgiving not worthy of being recognized? What is Thanksgiving about? It is about being thankful. Most of us have at least one thing to be thankful for. Even if you don't have very much, or don't feel that you have a very good life, I bet you still have something you are thankful for. When you think about your life, remember that there is always someone who has it worse than you.

What is Christmas about? Christians put an emphasis on the birth of Jesus. The world puts an emphasis on wanting and getting, and sometimes giving. I want, I want, I want. It is like a little kid in a toy store.

What is this world coming to? Greed? Unthankfulness? It sure seems like that when the world jumps from Halloween to Christmas. Seeing all these Christmas decorations WAY before Christmas is almost turning me off to Christmas. I like Christmas, but really, Thanksgiving comes first. There is almost an entire month between Thanksgiving and Christmas. There is about two months between Halloween and Christmas. Come on people! What is the harm in waiting to decorate for Christmas? You can do it the very next day after Thanksgiving for all I care. Why must we skip holidays? If Thanksgiving were some insignificant holiday, it wouldn't really matter. But it is not an insignificant holiday.

The pilgrims set ground at Plymouth Rock on December 11, 1620. Their first winter was devastating. But the harvest of 1621 was bountiful. It is believed that the pilgrims would not have survived their first year without the help of the natives. Thanksgiving did not originally start out as a holiday. When the pilgrims and Indians sat down for that first "thanksgiving" dinner, they were simply having a gathering. Thanksgiving can however, be traced back to 1863, when President Lincoln became the first president to proclaim Thanksgiving Day. Since then, the holiday has been a fixture of late November.

I would have to say the origins of Thanksgiving are something to be very thankful for. The pilgrims were very thankful to the native americans for helping them survive. I know I would be thankful to someone who helped to save my life.

If you are one of the guilty ones in decorating already for Christmas, I will forgive you this year. Just don't do it next year. If you are not one who celebrates Thanksgiving, which IS recognized as a holiday, I would suggest thinking about Thanksgiving and what it represents and what it could mean to you. You might decide it IS something you would like to celebrate. If not, so be it. Just please, please, please, don't decorate for Christmas before Thanksgiving!

Fluffy

In Piper's class, they get colors everyday. The colors signify what kind of behavior she had for the day. Ms. Clonch, Piper's teacher, has a calender in each child's take-home folder and puts the color on that day for which kind of day the student had. Green means Excellent Day! Yellow means Reminder to Follow the Rules. Pink means 2 minutes time out. Blue means 5 minutes time out. Brown means a phone call home to your parents.

In September, Piper got one yellow day and the rest were green. She and her best friend were talking and goofing off in line and were reminded to be quiet and follow the rules. It was nearing the end of October and there were a few days left. Piper had gotten green for the whole month so far. We told Piper if she got green for the rest of the month, she could go to the store and pick out something. Right away, Piper decided she wanted to go to the pet store. We have a fish tank at home. Some of our fish have died and we also used to have a crab in the fish tank. It died, too. Because of this, Piper sometimes asks if we can get another fish or another crab. We haven't gotten another crab yet, because we need to close up part of the tank so it cannot escape. There is a hole in the lid near the filters. (The hole is supposed to be there.) We had a crab escape from there before, so until Jeremy closes the hole, we are not getting another crab.

Well, Friday, October 30th came and Piper had a whole month of green! So Jeremy took her to the pet store like she wanted. We thought she was going to pick out a fish or a crab. NO...the first thing she saw when she walked in the door were parakeets. She immediately decided she wanted a parakeet. Jeremy tried to persuade her to pick out a fish or a crab. Piper decided she wanted a chinchilla. Much to Piper's disappointment, chinchillas cost too much. Piper could not be persuaded to get a fish or a crab, so she picked out a white parakeet. The lady at the pet store asked if it was ok that the parakeet was a boy. Piper didn't care that he was a boy. She just wanted the white one. What did she name him? Fluffy. She's a 5 year old girl, what can you expect? The parakeet alone would not have been too bad, but you can't just buy a parakeet. You have to buy food, a cage, dishes, toys, treats, and so much more.

Here is Fluffy. He is what they call a Fancy Parakeet. I think he blinked in this picture, so his eyes are mostly closed. He is a sweet little bird. Parakeets have leg bands on to tell you where they were bred, who their breeder is, and when they were born. Fluffy was born in Texas. I am not sure if he was born in April or August. He hasn't let me look at his leg band that long yet.

So far in November, Piper has gotten all green. If she makes it to the end of the month with all green, we will have to put some stipulations on the special gift she can pick out. Who knows what we would end up with?

Lions & Tigers & Bears, Oh My!

When Finn was born, my mom bought a Jester Halloween costume for Piper, thinking it would fit her that Halloween. We measured Finn and Granny Joyce made a lion costume for him. Well, when Halloween came, the Jester costume did not fit Piper. It fit Finn. So, Piper got to be the lion. Funny how they were so close in size. Finn was almost 4 months old. Piper was 17 months old. To save money and Granny Joyce making more costumes, we have been able to reuse some of the costumes. The lion has been used three times. I thought I'd make a post with the three different children in the lion costume so you can see how much they look alike, or don't look alike. I think they all have resemblences to each other and you might not be able to tell Seven and Rilian apart if you didn't know better. You can look at the pictures and decide for yourself.

Here is Piper at 17 months.

Here is Seven at 6 months. I think this picture really looks like Rilian. Not necessarily in their lion costumes, but now.

Here is Rilian in the lion costume. He is almost 9 months. I would have to say we have definately gotten our money's worth out of this costume. Well, it didn't really cost us anything because Granny Joyce was willing to make it for us. So, maybe we could say Granny Joyce got her time and money's worth out of this costume.For Finn's second Halloween, he was almost 16 months old. Granny Joyce made another costume for him and he actually got to wear it this time. He was a monkey.

For Seven's second Halloween, he was about the size of the monkey costume, so he got to wear it, too. Seven was 18 months old. I don't really think they look alike, but you can decide for yourself.

I was looking at the past Halloween pictures to find the lion pictures and came across the monkey pictures so I thought it would be fun to put them in this post, also. I say Seven is the black sheep of looks in our family. He doesn't really look like the rest of us. He has his own look. I look at the baby pictures and there are some where I would have a hard time telling if it was Seven or Finn or Rilian. But for now, Seven doesn't really look like the rest of us. He is the black sheep...of looks.

Halloween

Piper and Finn went with me to pick out the pumpkin. They also thought they needed smaller pumpkins. Piper and Finn picked out theirs and then picked out one for Seven. I told them they could draw on them. Here is the face Piper drew on hers. She made a "scary" mouth.

Finn actually had two small pumpkins. The smallest one was the one he picked out when his class went to the pumpkin patch.

Seven drew all over his pumpkin and really enjoyed doing it. He was proud to show it off!

Rilian did not partake in the pumpkin drawing, but he enjoyed sitting and watching and smiling.

Jeremy was making the first cut to make our pumpkin into a Jack-O-Lantern. We were disappointed to find out that we would not be baking and eating pumpkin seeds this year. The pumpkin had a small hole that had allowed moisture to get inside and rot the inside. When Jeremy took off the lid, there was water inside. For some reason, the kids thought there was grease inside. I am not sure why they thought it was grease. It was water.

Finn, being the sweet boy and brother that he is, wanted his picture taken with Rilian.And of course, Seven wanted his picture taken with Rilian, too. What "photo shoot" would be complete without a Seven and Rilian picture?Piper's pumpkin is now complete. She drew hair, which is kinda hard to see in this picture, and ears. I think this picture of Piper is adorable! I don't get very many pictures like that of her.
Finn was showing off his completed pumpkins. He has a funny expression on his face because his pumpkins were heavy.
Cutting and scraping the insides out.Cutting the eyes...It can be hard to please all your children when you have more than one. Piper wanted a triangle eye and Finn wanted a circle eye. What do you do when you have only one pumpkin to carve and the kids cannot agree on what shape eyes to have?
You make one circle eye and one triangle eye. Then you have two happy kids.

What shape nose do you have when you have one circle eye and one triangle eye? Not sure...so we came up with this. If you ask me, I think it looks like a kidney bean.

Now it's time for the mouth. Everyone was watching as closely as they could.

It's a good thing Piper and Finn agreed on the type of mouth our Jack-O-Lantern was going to have. They call it a spooky mouth.Making the finishing touches on the mouth.

The completed Jack-O-Lantern. Granny Joyce had bought us an LED light that changes colors for our Jack-O-Lantern. It looks kinda blury in the picture, but I think it might have been in the process of changing colors when the camera captured the picture. We were trying to get all four of our children by the Jack-O-Lantern for a picture. Here is a good one of Piper and Finn while we were trying to get Seven and Rilian to "pose".

We took several pictures of the children in front of the Jack-O-Lantern in hopes of getting one good picture. This is the best we came up with. Piper was being a goof and making faces in most of the other pictures. The face she was making in this picture isn't too goofy.
Piper chose to be Princess Aurora again. Finn was Spiderman. Seven is a Scary Tree. There is a Disney movie that they watch at Granny Joyce's house with scary trees in it. Seven likes them so much, he wanted to be one for Halloween. He was so happy and excited to be a Scary Tree! You can see him smiling behind the green. Rilian was a lion.

I put another picture of all of them dress up because Rilian is smiling and looking at the camera in this one. I was sick on Halloween so Granny Joyce helped me out and took the older three kids to the Fall Festival at church. I was so thankful. I dressed Rilian up just for the picture. It was his first Halloween so he had to dress up. Seven still has a really big smile on his face. I told him to hold his leaves out in this picture.

Piper now has a Fancy Parakeet named Fluffy. I will make a post about Fluffy later, but she wanted her picture taken with Fluffy. Finn wanted to stand by Fluffly, too.Look at the adorable lion! I have another post to do on Halloween lions. Piper, Seven, and Rilian have all worn this costume, that was originally designed for Finn. I will explain that in another post.

Making Paper

Jeremy was at Walmart one day and found some paper making kits on clearance. They were normally about $20 each, but he got them for $5 each. He decided this would be a great Family Night activity. He started looking at how this works before we actually did it with the kids. He found out that it is a messy project.


First, you have to shred paper. Then the paper has to soak in water for 2 hours, I think, before you can actually use it in the project. We had some newspaper laying around and decided to shred it for this paper making project. I think if we wouldn't have used newspaper, it might not have been as bad. Everyone knows how messy newspaper can be on its own, then try to shred it and soak it in a bucket of water.

After the shredded newspaper had soaked for the designated amount of time, we poured it into little containers that resembled blenders. Each of our children had one. Then we were to "blend" the shredded paper for several minutes.

After it was done "blending" it looked like this...and was called pulp.

Finn, Piper, and Seven were sitting with their tubs of water, waiting for their pulp to be poured into them.
Jeremy was pouring Finn's pulp into his tub of water.
We let the kids pick what color of paper they wanted to make. We used food coloring to change the color of the pulp to make colored paper. Finn chose green.

Piper chose blue. She was trying to take off the lid of the food coloring and put the drops in her pulp all by herself.

Seven chose red.

Next, they picked what shape they wanted their paper to be. Then they had to sift the pulp onto that shaped template. Finn had a hard time at first...he is like his mom and dad and doesn't like his hands to get messy. He just sat their looking at the mess in his tub. I asked him what he was doing. He said that he didn't want to get his hands messy. Poor kid, takes after his mom and dad.

Seven chose to make his paper shaped like a red star. After it was on the template, we had to let it dry for about 24 hours before they could write on their paper.
Here is Finn's green circle paper that he made. I didn't think to take a picture of their paper after it had dried, so it is still wet, too.

Here is Piper's blue heart paper before it dried.

I don't know that we will make paper again. It was an experience that I am sure the kids loved. It was fun. Would I recommend doing this with your family? That is entirely up to you :) There are pros and cons. I think the pros and cons will be different with each person. For one, and you might laugh at this, but Jeremy and I don't like to get messy. This was definately a messy project.