and then there was a party : : kids these days

I hope everyone's having a great Christmas Eve so far!  Mine's been pretty ordinary--I just cleaned up the house.  Tonight we're having a Christmas Eve service that I'm really looking forward to.  I really enjoy gathering as a church family for these special events.  It helps focus my mind on the real meaning of holidays and what is taking place.

I found this retelling of the Christmas story today and love it!  It's so cute.  I hope you enjoy it. :)

Merry Christmas!

decorating for Christmas!

Tonight we decorated the house for Christmas!  We had such a good time, even if we did all reek of dust afterwards.  Enjoy the pics!

Ellie decided to take a break and practice her handstands.

Chloe set up her toy horses to pull the sleigh.

I got this ornament years ago when I was obsessed with Little Women.  This is Beth March.  I used to have Meg, but she broke. :(

Everyday's Thanksgiving, Part #33

I'm thankful for:

0641. a fantastically relaxing spring break.  It's been awesome.

0642. spring is here!

0643. mending clothes

0644. The Piano Guys

0645. and specifically, this incredible song covered by them

0646.a biography of Oswald Chambers

0647. meeting great customers at work

0648. being able to go outside more often in the fresh air now that it's warmer

0649. St. Patrick's Day!

0650. filling up notebooks with notes from sermons

0651. having been given the opportunity to play guitar

0652. being able to write to my Compassion child

0653. going to see movies with my family

0654. Coldstone Creamery

0655. cool new restaurants to try out

0656. playgrounds

0657. getting ahead in my schoolwork over spring break

0658. a new cell phone!

0659. Chloe starting soccer in a few weeks

0660. cleats

* photos from weheartit.com

Everyday's Thanksgiving, Part #31

I'm thankful for:

0601. white out

0602. schools of fish

0603. "Never Once" by Matt Redman

0604. peace that literally surpasses all my understanding

0605. urgent care

0606. the incredible testimony of John Owen.  He saw all eleven of his children die, but trusted God through all things.

0607. stuff that's on sale--discounts, coupons, clearance, etc.

0608. huge fish tanks

0609. "My Hope is in You" by Aaron Shust

0610. beta fish

0611.faithful love

0612. lots of opportunities

0613. my grandparents

0614. Valentine's cards (this one got two pictures, in case you're confused)

0615. sunset paintings

0616. art classes

0617. knowing where stuff is on the map

0618. No necesito mas (con ascento) tiempo o mas (con ascento) dinero.  He is faithful to provide.

0619. slow dances

0620. "Dancing in the Mine Fields" by Andrew Peterson

some tastes of love

For today I wanted to include some excerpts from books, and some Scripture, that tells of the beauty that love is.  Happy Valentine's Day!

This first excerpt is taken from "Passion and Purity" by Elisabeth Elliot, and speaks of what she was learning as she learned to trust God in her relationship with the man who would become her husband, Jim.

   *Love interprets things in favor of the one loved.  I had a long way to go to learn that, but the principle is clear enough in Paul's description: "Love is patient...never selfish, not quick to take offense.  Love keeps no score of wrongs...  There is nothing love cannot face; there is no limit to its faith, its hope, and its endurance."

   The trouble, of course, is that we must learn to love people.  People are sinners.  Love must be patient when it is tempted (by the delays of other people) to be impatient.  Love must not be selfish, even if other people are.  Love does not take offence, though people are offensive sometimes.  There are wrongs, but love won't keep score.  there are things to be faced, but nothing love can't face, things to try love's faith, discourage its hope, and call for its endurance; but it keeps right on trusting, hoping, and enduring.  Love never ends.

Then a drop of heavenly love

Fell upon me from above,

And by secret mystic art

Reached the center of my heart.

-- Charles Spurgeon

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! It is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although its height be taken.

Love's not times fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come:

Love alters not with brief hours and weeks,

But it bears out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

-- William Shakespeare 

I just like this song by Frank Sinatra.  I think it's sweet.

When Jonathan Edwards was twenty years old, he wrote a love letter to the woman who would later become his wife, 13-year-old Sarah Pierpont.  I think it's really beautiful to see what qualities he valued in her most.

They say there is a young lady in New Haven who is beloved of that Great Being, who made and rules the world, and that there are certain seasons in which this Great Being, in some way or other invisible, comes to her and fills her mind with exceeding sweet delight; and that she hardly cares for any thing, except to meditate on Him—that she expects after a while to be received up where He is, to be raised up out of the world and caught up into heaven; being assured that He loves her too well to let her remain at a distance from Him always. There she is to dwell with Him, and to be ravished with His love and delight for ever. Therefore, if you present all the world before her, with the richest of its treasures, she disregards it and cares not for it, and is unmindful of any pain or affliction. She has a strange sweetness in her mind, and singular purity in her affections; is most just and conscientious in all her conduct; and you could not persuade her to do any thing wrong or sinful, if you would give her all the world, lest she should offend this Great Being. She is of a wonderful sweetness, calmness, and universal benevolence of mind; especially after this Great God has manifested himself to her mind. She will sometimes go about from place to place, singing sweetly; and seems to be always full of joy and pleasure; and no one knows for what. She loves to be alone, walking in the fields and groves, and seems to have some one invisible always conversing with her.

 This song is sweet too.

Finally, here is a reminder of the best love there is: the love of God.

**When God Weeps

“The face that Moses had begged to see—was forbidden to see—was slapped bloody (Ex. 33:19-20). The thorns that God had sent to curse the earth’s rebellion now twisted around his own brow…
   “On your back with you!” One raises a mallet to sink in the spike. But the soldier’s heart must continue pumping as he readies the prisoner’s wrist. Someone must sustain the soldier’s life minute by minute, for no man had this power on his own. Who supplies breath to his lungs? Who gives energy to his cells? Who holds his molecules together? Only by the Son do “all things hold together” (Col. 1:17). The victim wills that the soldier live on—He grants the warriors continued existence. The man swings.
   As the man swings, the Son recalls how He and the Father first designed the medial nerve of the human forearm—the sensations it would be capable of. The design proves flawless—the nerves perform exquisitely. “Up you go!” They lift the cross. God is on display in His underwear and can scarcely breathe.
   But these pains are a mere warm-up to His other and growing dread. He begins to feel a foreign sensation. Somewhere during this day an unearthly foul odor began to waft, not around His nose, but His heart. He feels dirty. Human wickedness starts to crawl upon His spotless being—the living excrement from our souls. The apple of His Father’s eye turns brown with rot.
   His Father! He must face His Father like this!
   From heaven the Father now rouses Himself like a lion disturbed, shakes his man, and roars against the shriveling remnant of a Man hanging on a cross. Never has the Son seen the Father look at Him so, never felt even the least of His hot breath. But the roar shakes the unseen world and darkens the visible sky. The Son does not recognize these eyes.
   “Son of Man! Why have You behaved so? You have cheated, lusted, stolen, gossiped—murdered, envied, hated, lied. You have cursed, robbed, overspent, overeaten—fornicated, disobeyed, embezzled, and blasphemed. Oh, the duties You have shirked, the children You have abandoned! Who has ever so ignored the poor, so played the coward, so belittled My name? have You ever held Your razor tongue? What a self-righteous, pitiful drunk—You, who molest young boys, peddle killer drugs, travel in cliques, and mock your parents. Who gave You the boldness to rig elections, foment revolutions, torture animals, and worship demons? Does the list never end! Splitting families, raping virgins, acting smugly, playing the pimp—buying politicians, practicing exhortation, filming pornography, accepting bribes. You have burned down buildings, perfected terrorist tactics, founded false religions, traded in slaves—relishing each morsel and bragging about it all. I hate, loathe these things in You! Disgust for everything about You consumes Me! Can You not feel My wrath?”
   Of course the Son is innocent. He is blamelessness itself. The Father knows this. But the divine pair have an agreement, and the unthinkable must now take place. Jesus will be treated as if personally responsible for every sin ever committed.
   The Father watches as His heart’s treasure, the mirror-image of Himself, sinks drowning into raw, liquid sin. Jehovah’s stored rage against humankind from every century exploded in a single direction.
   “Father! Father! Why have You forsaken Me?!”
   But heaven stops its ears. The Son stares up at the One who cannot, who will not, reach down or reply.
   The Trinity had planned it. The Son endured it. The Spirit enabled Him. The Father rejected the Son whom He loved. Jesus, the God-man from Nazareth, perished. The Father accepted His sacrifice for sin and was satisfied. The Rescue was accomplished.”
-- Steven Estes and Joni Eareckson Tada

We love because He first loved us.

1 John 4:19

* excerpt taken from "Passion and Purity" by Elisabeth Elliot, page 169

 ** excerpt taken from "Boy Meets Girl" by Joshua Harris

this is love

Tonight Chloe and I made cookies for Valentine's Day tomorrow.  It was so much fun! (even though I hate baking)  She made it fun.

This one was for Daddy.

She abandoned me after icing a few cookies, so I had to finish the rest.  Lookin' pretty good, huh?

Laboring as to the Lord

Happy Labor Day, everybody!

Around here, holidays like Labor Day don't do much to change our daily life.  Daddy works at home, so it isn't like this is a special day off of work, and with Ellie being homeschooled she takes about one day a week off.  Rachel and I are only going to CNM on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so we didn't get a day off of school.  But today has just been amazing so far!  I have all of my homework done, so what I've been doing today is just stuff to get a little bit ahead.  Mama, Chloe, and I went to Walmart to get stuff for our Labor Day cookout and, wouldn't you know it, God blessed us with three mountain bikes, one each for me, Rachel, and Ellie, on sale for just $29 each!  We've all been thinking that it would be nice to buy bikes, and these are just fantastic (fantastically cheap too)!  This afternoon we went and tested them out all together, and then made shish kebabs while Ellie made chocolate chip zucchini bread (amazing).  Right now I'm taking a break from psychology before we go eat dinner together.  The rest of our evening plans include a Bible study together, maybe some singing, as well as making smores, using up some leftover fireworks, and watching a Steven Curtis Chapman DVD we've had for about three months and still haven't watched.

My point to all of this is just to say that, amidst all the hubbub of starting college and continuing on at McDonalds and everything else, there is peace in the Lord.  He is showing me how He will set me free from worry and stress if only I'll give it all to Him and realize that, really, what is there to worry about?  The worst thing that could happen is that I fail all four of my college classes (I dropped my chemistry), and if that happens I can just retake them or do something with my life that doesn't require a degree.  I want to take care of orphans, after all, and raising kids doesn't require a college degree.  Teaching kids does, though, and that's what I'm leaning towards majoring in now.  If that's His will for me, God will see me through!  In the end it's all a matter of perspective.  Why on earth would I worry?  It won't add a single hour; rather, it will waste the hours God has given me in which to glorify Him.  Let's use this time wisely, and labor for Him.

And He said to His disciples, “For this reason I say to you, do not worry about your life, as to what you will eat; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap; they have no storeroom nor barn, and yet God feeds them; how much more valuable you are than the birds! And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life’s span? If then you cannot do even a very little thing, why do you worry about other matters? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; but I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will He clothe you? You men of little faith! And do not seek what you will eat and what you will drink, and do not keep worrying. For all these things the nations of the world eagerly seek; but your Father knows that you need these things. But seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you. Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom.

 Luke 12:22-32

Almost 2011!

Happy almost-New Year, everybody!  I love the beginning of a new year.  Fresh beginnings, new opportunities...it's great!  Tonight I'm going to my first New Year's party sort of thing.  My youth group's having a lock-in, so it should be fun!

In light of the new year, take a look at this when you get a chance!

I found this cool idea here, to have a word that's kind of my focus for the year.  The word I chose is:

So often I think I'm scared to hope for God's best, so I'm going to try this next year to hope for the best that He brings!  Even if it's not what I would choose, I know it couldn't be any better.  I also hope (haha) that I can share more of God's precious hope with other people this year!

So, here's hoping for a fantastic year!

Happy New Year!

Of That First Night

Did the star take on a brighter brightness?

The snow that fell, a greater whiteness?

Did Joseph and his poor young wife

Know then how they would spend this night?

And did they know that God the Son

That night, before the eve was done

Would be born in a lowly stable

And thus would be Holy birth’s label?

Did angels crowd at Heaven’s door

Eager to share of Christ, their Lord?

To go and shout, “Look here, He’s come!

He’ll save from sins His chosen ones!”

And yet, He was a little baby,

Just a child had come to save me

A tiny boy of infant size

Yet it was He who carved the skies!

His tiny fingers wove that star

That shone straight down, so very far

And yet He cried like any child;

God, by humanness defiled

So it was, so long ago,

Before had come His time of woe

Two thousand years ago, this night,

A Child was born, and there was Light.

-- Sarah Butler

This is Christmas

The Nativity of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

Hymn 32

The Nativity of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ

Where is this stupendous stranger,

   Swains of Solyma, advise,

Lead me to my Master’s manger,

   Show me where my Savior lies.

O MOST Mighty! O MOST HOLY!

   Far beyond the seraph’s thought,

Art Thou then so mean and lowly

   As unheeded prophets taught?

O the magnitude of meekness!

   Worth from worth immortal sprung;

O the strength of infant weakness,

   If eternal is so young!

If so young and thus eternal,

   Michael tune the shepherd’s reed,

Where the scenes are ever vernal,

   And the loves be love indeed!

See the God blasphem’d and doubted

   In the schools of Greece and Rome;

See the pow’rs of darkness routed,

   Taken at their utmost gloom.

Nature’s decorations glisten

   Far above their usual trim;

Birds on box and laurels listen,

   As so near the cherubs hymn.

Boreas now no longer winters

   On the desolated coast;

Oaks no more are riv’n in splinters

   By the whirlwind and his host.

Spinks and ouzles sing sublimely,

   ‘We too have a Saviour born,’

Whiter blossoms burst untimely

   On the blest Mosaic thorn.

God all-bounteous, all-creative,

   Whom no ills from good dissuade,

Is incarnate, and a native

   Of the very world He made.

-- Christopher Smart

A Hymn on the Nativity of My Savior

A Hymn on the Nativity of My Savior

I sing the birth, was born tonight,

The author both of life, and light;

   The angels so did sound it,

And like the ravished shepherds said,

Who saw the light, and were afraid,

   Yet searched, and true they found it.

The Son of God, th’ Eternal King,

That did us all salvation bring,

   And freed the soul from danger;

He whom the whole world could not take,

The Word, which heaven, and earth did make,

    Was now laid in a manger.

The Father’s wisdom willed it so,

The Son’s obedience knew no No,

   Both wills were in one stature,

And as that wisdom had decreed,

The Word was now made Flesh indeed,

   And took on Him our nature.

What comfort by Him do we win?

Who made Himself the prince of sin,

   To make us heirs of glory?

To see this babe, this innocence;

A martyr born in our defence;

   Can man forget this story?

-- Ben Jonson

In the Bleak Midwinter

In the Bleak Midwinter

In the bleak midwinter,

Frosty wind made moan,

Earth stood hard as iron,

Water like a stone;

Snow had fallen, snow on snow,

Snow on snow,

In the bleak midwinter,

Long ago.

Our God, heaven cannot hold Him,

Nor earth sustain;

Heaven and earth shall flee away

When He comes to reign;

In the bleak midwinter

A stable place sufficed

The Lord God Almighty,

Jesus Christ.

Angels and archangels

May have gathered there,

Cherubim and seraphim

Thronged the air;

But His mother only,

In her maiden bliss,

Worshiped the Beloved

With a kiss.

What can I give Him,

Poor as I am?

If I were a shepherd,

I would bring a lamb;

If I were a wise man,

I would do my part;

Yet what I can I give Him:

Give my heart.

-- Christian Rossetti

Thanksgiving

I hope everybody had a fantastic Thanksgiving!  My family and I went to Las Cruces on Wednesday and stayed the night there at my dad's parents' house on Wednesday and Thursday.  We spent the actual Thanksgiving day at my aunt's house in El Paso since my grandparents went back to Albuquerque on Thursday morning (you can tell our planning was a bit off).  In El Paso we saw the whole family on my mom's side--grandparents, aunt, uncle, four cousins, and my cousin's two children.  The only one missing was my cousin's husband, Johnny, who is currently serving in the Air Force in Qatar.

It was so much fun!  We came home yesterday, and it was good to be home too.  We got a grand total of fifteen pictures on the entire trip, and most of them weren't very good, but here's a few.

All the cousins.  From left to right; me, Rachel, Chloe, Ellie, Allie, Judy, Nicole, Austin, Albert, and John

All the cousins plus the grandparents

My grandpa has all of his pocket watches framed, and I saw a photo opportunity! :)

A Proclamation of Thanksgiving

Proclamation of Thanksgiving by the President of the United States of America.  A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies.  To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.  In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theater of military conflict; while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.  Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore.  Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battlefield; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.  No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things.  They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.  It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.  I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.  And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed,

Done at the city of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the Eighty-eighth.

-- Abraham Lincoln

I hope everybody has a fantastic Thanksgiving, and remembers all that God has given them and thanks Him for it!