Book recommendation number 2

"Grace offered what Truth demanded- the ultimate sacrifice for sin."

Ok now really read that last sentence again. Did you just gloss over it like "yeah...I know that"? If you did then you need to read this book. It dissects these words in ways that those of us who "grew up" in the church NEED to hear.
Simply awesome.

Book recommendation number 1

"God is Love. Crazy, Relentless, All-Powerful Love. Have you ever wondered if we’re missing it? It’s crazy, if you think about it. The God of the universe—the Creator of nitrogen and pine needles, galaxies and E-minor—loves us with a radical, unconditional, self-sacrificing love. And what is our typical response? We go to church, sing songs, and try not to cuss. Whether you’ve verbalized it yet or not…we all know something’s wrong. Does something deep inside your heart long to break free from the status quo? Are you hungry for an authentic faith that addresses the problems of our world with tangible, even radical, solutions? God is calling you to a passionate love relationship with Himself. Because the answer to religious complacency isn’t working harder at a list of do’s and don’ts—it’s falling in love with God. And once you encounter His love, as Francis describes it, you will never be the same. Because when you’re wildly in love with someone, it changes everything."

Thought for my day:
Joy is an intentional choice.
I have to work at attaining it- then choose to exercise it to keep it alive.

Schoolwork

Me Three Kings

Sunday was a proud day for me as a mom.
The 3 and 4 year olds were singing their long practiced Christmas songs that we, as per requested, practiced at home complete with jumping, clapping and twisting for joy! I don't, however, recall practicing the verse about picking your nose - but apparently Seth thought it fit well into the sementics of the day- and proceeded to pick through-out the length of the 2 songs.
I was just howling and wish like CRAZY we had been sitting closer to get a picture of the picker!

Family Christmas part 1-

I know Christmas pictures are really only exciting to the people who experience them so I'll keep it brief-
All 11 of us Howells were so excited to spend this past weekend together. We are very blessed to truly enjoy each others company. (well, Andy is questionable ;-)

Defining JOY

I have so been enjoying this season of intentional anticipation- as I was awake (annoyingly) at 2a.m. again last night I was thinking about JOY. We talked last night at dinner about what the different characters in the nativity story had to be joyful about.
Mary- I'm sure she was joyful that her labor was over!
Joseph- Knowing that his wife was chosen by God because no one could make up a story like that!
What about the angels (this one stumped us)- They were filled with joy so much that they broke out into song about it. Perhaps seeing the Word being fulfilled.
And those shepherds- they went and told everyone around their joy-filled news.

That was what had me thinking about defining JOY- an inward contentment with an outward expression.
Somewhere around 3 a.m. I remembered that I have forgotten all about this song- what great lyrics to meditate on as I consider my level of inward contentment and my outward expression of it...

Come thou long-expected Jesus,
Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel's strength and consolation,
Hope of all the earth Thou art;
Dear Desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.

Born Thy people to deliver,
Born a Child and yet a King.
Born to reign in us for ever,
Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.
By Thine own eternal Spirit
Rule in all our hearts alone;
By Thine all-sufficient merit
Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

Spaghetti, trains and a green shepherd

We've had some snow days lately. I've loved them. It's been so great to snuggle on the couch and read some books, get some extra tickle torture in, sip on some afternoon coffee, READ (!) play some games, referee sibling rivalry - ya know- the normal family time. =) We opted not to set up our Christmas tree train this year simply because figured it would be just way too tempting for a certain curious 18 month old. (Not to mention the fact that he already had an upclose and personal encounter with the Christmas tree)
Today we (ok I) decided to have a backwards menu day. Why not? So we ate spaghetti for breakfast, French toast for lunch and are planning on some hot dogs for supper. (and for the record- Owen thought spaghetti made a fabulous way to start the day....he was the only one.... )

We found this fun nativity cutout project that we all (except spaghetti-man) have fun coloring, cutting, folding and playing with.
Kudos to Brad for the very life-like stable. Not so much the green shepherd .... ;)

Because he's cute...

The first haircut- (altho I let his adorable curls still intact). He, obviously was not a fan (are they ever?) but the cuteness pictures to follow tell me all is forgiven...

And you...

I love Christmas music.

Bing, Amy and yes even the Chipmunks have a way of drawing out my sentimentality that lies rather dormant the rest of the year-
but I think the sweetness of it (at least to me) rests in the fact that we'll put it away (and typically I'm more than READY to do so) and be just as glad to dust it off next Christmas.
So- I'm curious...
What are your favorite Christmas songs?
Any one specifically "take you back"?
For me- I have to listen to a (sorry mom) super hokey CD by Christy Lane (bonus if you've EVER heard of her!) at least one time each year.
I also love the Kathy Troccoli Christmas album - it's jazzy and smooth...mm..love it!
So what about you????

the slow demise of Will

We were THRILLED to have our first snow day yesterday!
So this is how our snowman (we named him Will) began...

and this is how Will B. Tippin looked 24 hours later...

and Brad finished him off ...

Hope

I've never participated in a personal Advent season before. When we started thinking about what we were going to focus on for our family devotions this month- we chose to research a bit and come up with our own version of this season of expectation (including our homemade $3.00 version of the, in my opinion, ridiculously overpriced store version of the advent wreath =) Typically I know this time of year is to spend time remembering Jesus' birth but this week as we've discussed "HOPE" (side note- just how DO you explain what hope means to a 3 year old??? ideas anyone?!) I've been challenged with the amount of time I spent (or don't spend!) anticipating Christ' return.
Now that alone is reason for Hope this season!

So one of our dinner time questions this past week that I'll ask you too -
What are you hoping for?
P.S. My kids had a hard time distinguishing this from the every night "what are you thankful for" recent activity!

Christmas Change

I recently stumbled upon this blog- made up from what I can tell of a whole assortment of bloggers. In case you don't have enough to do today- check this out:

http://www.christmaschange.com/wordpress/

If...Then...

My latest Bible study I am in on the book of Esther. How many times have I heard this story and yet I am amazed how many more things I am learning and discovering by taking the time to go through it slowly, deliberately and putting feelings to the people behind the story.
There are some truths that I've been chomping on for a while. Love to hear what you think too.

Fill the the blank. If ( enter your greatest fear) then ______.
So what is your greatest fear?
Betrayal?
Wayward children?
Car accidents?
Cancer?
the death of your children?
the death of your spouse?

The point made is that whatever my greatest fear is the 'THEN' has to be GOD or else my faith is completely conditional!
What if (fill in blank) happened? Then what? Would you quite living? stop breathing? stop going to church? stop tithing? stop loving? live differently? OR would you weep, mourn, grieve, question ... and continue to trust? I can't help but think of the Chapman family. The death of a child is certainly high on my list of greatest fears! What a great testimony that their "THEN" has been to continue on in their trust of a trustworthy God.

What's more - is knowing how Satan plagues us with our fears! Moment of truth- I KNOW what it's like to experience the type of psychological fear that is all consuming and crippling. Satan cannot read our minds but he sure knows how to put thoughts - lies!- inside that can be debilitating for us. He is a student of humans and knows- especially for us women I think- that we wage our war in our minds! Our greatest fear can become our greatest handicap if we let it. Or we can find genuine security in Truth himself and truth itself and find freedom from our fears. THAT is amazing grace!

"Our conditional trust not only makes us an open target for enemy torment; it also positions us as negotiators and beggars before God instead of secure children who trust their lives to their faithful Father."
"We don't just trust Him to let us avoid what we fear most. We determine to trust Him no matter what, even if our worst nightmare befalls us." - Beth Moore

I'll end this diatribe with lyrics from a familiar song:
"My chains are gone- I've been set free!
My God, my Saviour has ransomed me
and like a flood his mercy reigns
Unending love, amazing grace.

The Lord has promised good to me
His word my HOPE secures
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures."

Amazing Grace

Our Thanksgiving Weekend -

How can it be that a day can seemingly go on forever and yet an entire 5 day weekend is over in a flash?! Wow. We had a really fun month celebrating Thanksgiving so this past weekend was a sweet culmination. We made these turkey cookies- not sure why the picture won't flip but you get the idea.

Ok, so putting a tree together isn't nearly as quaint as going out, searching and cutting down your own- but... golly it's a whole lot easier! Jaedon was really into helping out this year too. It's funny because a few years ago I was all about the "beautiful" Christmas tree- matching ornaments, ribbon, beads- nothing homemade or (heaven forbid) OLD.
This year I think our tree is the most beautiful it's ever been. Not a stitch of anything matching - there's a paper "ornament" with Jaedon's kindergarden picture in it (with precious gems that lost their hold of the glue), most of the decor is on the lower 1/3 of the tree because that is where little hands could reach to decorate, the beads are askew, the ribbon non-existent and this year we've added transformer ornaments. It rocks! =)

Cousins and Candy and Comet - oh my!

I hate parades. Ba-humbug =) Really I just don't like the hot, humid, fourth of July, over-crowed, under-deodorized type of parades. This "holiday" parade we've gone to for a few years is a bit of fun. They have firetrucks to climb in and reindeer to pet- and, of course, candy.

Piles of fun

Is there anything more precious than the looks of sheer delight?

Giving Thanks

We're still a few days away from Thanksgiving but this is the updated Thanksgiving Tree in our house. I haven't decided how we're going to wrap it all up and start Advent over the next week but it's been a lot of fun to write our thankful things on our leaves each day. We've got everything from "I'm thankful for my Bible" to "ketchup." Oh yes- very deep some of these are (not).
This also makes the third November that we've worked at memorizing Psalm 100. As is the case with any routine- it's easy to start being robotic about familiar passages and not truly think about what you're saying.
I thought I'd share what I enjoyed in my quiet time today. Some meditations on our current memory verses: Psalm 100
Shout - be verbal, make some noise
for joy - a deeply rooted internal contenement despite outward circumstances.
to the Lord, Oh earth.
Worship- kneel, sing, serve, pray, bless, confess, give
the Lord with gladness- and smile while you're at it.
Come before Him- be intentional, purposeful- make a point of going to God
with joyful songs- "Sing songs, hymns and spiritual songs" I think God likes music!
Know- don't just believe it- know it
that the Lord is God- this is a statement of truth.
It is He who made us- see Genesis
and we are His- a promise of security
We are his people- us Gentiles are grafted into his family tree and share the promises of his people.
the sheep of his pasture - thankful for his precious, protective, guiding shepherds staff
Enter his gates- we are invited to go- so get going!
with thanksgiving- "out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks..."
And into his courts with praise- Not only am I invited to come to Him, I'm allowed to enter his presence and bless him.
Give- another action
thanks to Him and praise His name- Why?
For the Lord is good - Do I truly believe this statement- despite how I may feel about it?
His love - his unconditional favor towards this wayward, grafted in rebellious child
ENDURES- never ends
His faithfulness- I serve a God that is true to his Word.
continues through all generations- a future promise.

A thought I've been challenged with as we seek to generate an attitude of gratitude (not just now but all year long) - how well am I modeling gratitude? Do my kids hear me complain about this or that? Do I verbally express thanks through-out my day?

Happy Giving Thanks day to you. May it be more than just a day.

from one blog to another...

http://www.aholyexperience.com/search/label/Walk%20with%20Him

This blog is so precious. I found this series of ideas for walking with God as a family that she posted. What a great way to learn, share and be encouraged! I hope you have time to copy, paste and read some of this link! This is just a tiny bit that I wanted to share:


Falling for God


Love is a function of proximity

We're most likely to fall for someone we brush up against everyday. The closer our proximity to someone, the more likely the passion.

Thus the more ways I can keep company with God, stay close to Soul-Lover, braid my hours to His heart, the more likely I am to be captivated.

Ways to wake to the close proximity of God:

1. Build a House of Prayer: with an established place to pray, prayer bench, and with established times to meet God in prayer, hourly dates we anticipate, the chiming of the clock calling us to communion...

2. Dinner Dates: Savor Real Bread at every meal. Whenever plates are all licked clean, we serve a round of soul honey, Sweet Savior in Sweet Scripture.

3. Memorize His Love: as the courted re-read love letters, we memorize His I-Will-Die-for-You words... letting them whisper sweet everythings to the soul cochlear a thousand times a day

4. Sing love songs: Listening to the hymn of His heart in the old verses of song, in contemporary choruses, in the Psalms, sung as we work, at the close of the meals, when the chaos quakes the windows and we need to gather back into Love.

Snowmen, Fire and Turkey

Our family is weird.
Duh.
One of our (way too many) oddities is the fact that we have a lot of birthday connections. For example: My dad and brother- one day apart. My nephew and Seth- one day apart. My twin nephews and Brad- one day apart and my mom, me and my Dad in law- all one day apart. Not to mention there are several shared dates (like the fifth of the month is Jaedons and my two sister in laws bday dates and my niece and nephew share the 17th of their bday months.) See- Weird.

My mom and I don't get to celebrate our birthdays together very often but we did get to this past week. We had a nice time. We went out to Bronners on Saturday. (Bronners by the way is the largest Christmas store in the world-Note to self- next time go in April.) It was crazzzzy busy. I spent more time making sure my beastly double stroller wasn't in someone's way more than looking around. The boys did fine though - they got some transformer ornaments.
We also went out to Kobe Steakhouse for our birthday meals. Lisa and Katelyn joined us so we had a good 4:4 adult/kid ratio. Seth was NOT a fan of the huge flaming grill. Jaedon was nervous about it at first but then decided it was "really cool." Owen did not love the banging gong they brought out to sing to someone else for their birthday.

However, all did eat from chopsticks and oh that food is sooooo yummy!!!

My mom gave me "how to make a turkey" instructions (as per my request) so on my birthday we had a thanksgiving prelude meal made by mom. mmm.... I pulled out the cloth napkins, goblets and candles for our meal- not a plastic spoon or sippy cup in sight.
It's fun to celebrate- and now- I'm eating salad for the next 2 weeks straight! ;-)

Generating Gratitude

I remembered this old song that I learned when I was young (only I don't remember the verses so I'm asking for the songbook for Christmas!) It goes:
"Are you humbly grateful? Or Grumbly Hateful?
What's your attitude?
Do you grumble and groan or let it be known your thankful for all God did for you?"

So I'm looking for some feedback. What are some things you do personally or as a family to generate gratitude?

heard this today...

"Gratitude is a backward glance on God's provision.
Faith is a forward anticipation of his Faithfulness."

Leaf throwing, Daddy burying fun

October 31 FUN

Since the Marriage 101 class is meeting Saturday nights from 6-7 we had to come up with some alternative "halloweening" plans this year. Our friends were having their family over for some goolish fun and offered to let our boys join in the festivities even if Brad and I had to leave for some of it. The kids ate some "mummy dogs" and we all had fun coming up with some other silly foods. I think Becky's aracni-mole was the winner though -

101 update

Some of you have been asking so I thought I'd post an update on day one of the Marriage 101 class. It was last night and our kiddos had been off of meds for almost 2 days (as in no fevers etc...) so we felt it was ok to put them in their classrooms during Saturday night church.
The contact person from the class told us that only 2 couples had signed up. I, however, was determined that God was going to exceed our expectations- although I'm not really sure what my expectations were in the first place.
We had 2 couples come. Not even the two that signed up! =)
And honestly I was a bit discouraged.
I started doubting if this was what God wanted us to be doing, doubting the choice of material, any abilities that we may have - you name it.

Lately I've really been struck with the reality of spiritual warfare. It's not a new idea to me- but maybe it is. Maybe since I haven't addressed it - when I do it does seem a bit novel. Our memory verse is about putting on the armor of God because we are warriors engaged in battle- regardless of how ignorant we choose to be about it. I've noticed that since I have started addressing it in my personal life, my family's life and some others close to me- well, the more I notice it the more I'm noticing it!
Last night was no exception. I was discouraged and I am certain that is exactly what the enemy was trying to get me to be.
And today I'm choosing to think that if Satan and his cronies think I'm worth their time to discourage and dishearten...then I just might be doing something that upsets them a bit.
And I'm ok with that.

Operation: applesauce

Brad called me on Tuesday last week to let me know that his school was going to be closed for the rest of the week. My first thought: I'll get to do my applesauce!!!! sad huh? ;)

The next day I got sick.
However- before the sick week was out- we did manage to get our 2 bushel done. I did 2 1/2 bushel of Macintosh and 1/2 Cortland this year. The little boys helped some. They liked when I asked which of them wanted to be "cranky". Brad was a big help- even if he was only amusing Owen at the time. Owen was no help whatsoever (except taste testing) but he sure is cute.
We ended up with almost 40 quarts - which will barely get us thru until next October.
A days worth of work for a years worth of enjoyment!

A tree in our house

The latest art project - 'Our Thanksgiving Tree'I was thinking a little tree to hang on our pantry door- well, with the boys help this tree is larger than some outdoor ones. We had to post it in the stairway!
We are all filling out what we are thankful for on some "leaves" each night . I know- leaves are suppose to be falling OFF the trees right now... so far the boys haven't noted that oddity as of yet (so no tipping them off, Jodi ;0)
Anyway, I think it'll be fun to see what it looks like when it's the end of November- (which is, of course, when we can all stop being thankful ;-)
Jaedon wrote the words (painstakingly so) to Psalm 100. I think he did a great job.

Armor of God

We decided to memorize the Armor of God passage this month mainly because (as our translation puts it) the "spiritual forces of evil" are more...uh...noticeable this month than others. (?) Anyway- I found this cute little craft that the boys both had fun doing today.

http://www.dltk-bible.com/crafts/armor/mpaperarmor.htm