Cultural Differences

A friends of mine living in northwest China made a post about his recent experience with a local Uigur man. It's a very amusing highlight of the difference in cultural viewpoints!

Merry Christmas!

I hope you all are having as relaxing and blessed family time as I am!

We had our family Christmas yesterday.

Table set for dinner. I had fun making the stuffing and a dairy-free, gluten-free pumpkin pie.

The living after all the presents had been unwrapped. Most of us recieved books, which you can see several enjoying. You can't see the styrofoam packing peanuts that Levi was getting a kick out of crumbling all over the carpet!

Here are some of the things I got:

Today Nathan and Andy were with their in-laws. The four of us slept in and went to The Nativity Story. It was really good. Not perfectly Biblically accurate, but it gave such a sense of the story, and the wonder of it. I didn't expect to be so moved, but I cried through almost the whole thing.

New MP4 Player - a lesson learned

Well, maybe technology isn't as wonderful as I thought! I got scammed. The mp4 player is actually 1 gig instead of 4. I found a site devoted to these cheap no-brand mp4 players from China. Word to the wise: check out MyMPxPlayer.org's blacklist before you buy any player from eBay or other auction sites.

I probably will still keep the mp4 player because it was so cheap. But I will put bad feedback on seller e-britain on eBay. Next time I know to check into things better before I buy. It was just an accident that I ended up with this one, anyway!

New MP4 Player

Check out my new mp3 player! 4 gigs, smaller than a credit card, and about a third inch thick! Isn't technology today amazing?!

Babysitting today!

I get to spend today with Levi!

He Had No Rights

This fits in with recent discussions and study on humility in Philippians.

He Had No Rights
He had no rights:

     No   right to a soft bed, and a well-laid table;
     No   right to a home of His own, a place where His
              own pleasure might be sought;
     No   right to choose pleasant, congenial
              companions, those who could understand Him
              and sympathize with Him;
     No  right to shrink away from filth and sin, to
              pull His garments closer around Him and turn
              aside to walk in cleaner paths;
     No   right to be understood and appreciated; no,
              not by those upon whom He had poured out a
              double portion of His love;
     No   right even never to be forsaken by His Father,
              the One who meant more than all to Him.

His only right was silently to endure shame,
     spitting, blows; to take His place as a sinner at
     the dock; to bear my sins in anguish on the
     cross.

He had no rights. And I?

       A   right to the "comforts" of life? No, but a
              right to the love of God for my pillow.
       A   right to physical safety? No, but a right to
              the security of being in His will.
       A   right to love and sympathy from those around
              me? No, but a right to the friendship of the
              One who understands me better than I do myself.
       A   right to be a leader among men? No, but the
              right to be led by the one to whom I have given
              my all, led as is a little child, with its hand
              in the hand of its father.
       A   right to a home, and dear ones? No, not
              necessarily; but a right to dwell in the heart
              of God.
       A   right to myself? No, but, oh, I have a right
              to Christ.

All that He takes I will give;
All that He gives will I take;
He, my only right!
He, the one right before which all other rights
     fade into nothingness,
I have full right to Him;
Oh, may He have full right to me!

Mabel Williamson, miss. to China

Christmas Program

Last night is the first Christmas program in a couple years that I haven't sung in. Instead I was called on to shepherd the littlest sheep, but he saw his daddy and refused to go up front! You can see more (better quality!) pictures on Davis' blog. Andy and Jenelle have video of the best part of the program on their blog. (Check the archives for December 19, 2006. Their blog is weird, so I can't send you straight to the page.)

A sober sheep!

A cheerful king!

In the Christmas spirit at my brother's after the program. (About 2AM!)

My favorite little boy

My favorite little boy on my birthday last month.

Him again with two cousins. I missed the picture of his littlest cousin wiping his dirty face with her napkin!

(I wonder what I'll call him when his brother and new Morris cousin are born?)

Car News

Well, I finally got word on the coverage I'll get for my car. I hope the money comes soon. Dad and I looked over various choices to replace it this morning.

Top choices were this van, this minivan, and this pickup. There is a reason for size! I'm looking for something I can use for hauling bulk garden things around this year. But I also need something to drive the kids I take care of around in. If I end up with the van or pickup I'll probably add a hitch to it.

Danny!

Here is Danny's latest trick - hands on the floor, feet on the ceiling!

New Garden Blog

I started a new blog for my market garden. Check out In His Hands Garden blog! I plan to keep garden updates, news, recipes, and discussion on interesting articles there.

A New Opportunity

I've written and talked over the past year about my interest in gardening and nutrition through it. The Lord seems to be opening the way to start a market garden this year. I've applied for a class through the New Agrarian Center's City Fresh program.

Their Market Gardener Training Program teaches organic gardening/farming, small business skills, helps you find land, the assignments add up to your business plan by the end, includes the possibility of a start-up grant, and provides several hands on sessions at an organic farm in Oberlin. I'm pretty excited about it and mom and dad both think it's a good idea.

They're not quite so sure about my first year garden plans. Mom thinks I'm biting off more than I can chew, and Dad says he's exhausted thinking about it! (My paraphrase!) They're probably right, but I think part of what this class will do is help me figure out what I can handle on my own.

Anyway, I'd appreciate your prayers for the Lord's leading on starting this up. I have plenty of ideas, but I don't want to jump into them if they're not coming from Him.

Car Issues

I finally got my car driveable on Thursday. It just required having the muffler fastened up so it didn't drag. I had been waiting for insurance money to come through, but I finally was notified that my claim was denied because the driver was uninsured for that car. Thank the Lord I'm covered for uninsured drivers. But now there's another whole process to go through with my agency.

Now the car is having another set of problems. When I tried to take it to be fixed it wouldn't start. My dad charged the battery. SundayI stopped at a store for five minutes. My mom was in the car and turned off the engine, leaving the lights on. When I came back it wouldn't start. Roger came and picked us up for AWANA. When we came back later to jump it, it started up without a problem! Crazy car!

Wicked Witch of the West

Here is the covered part of my outfit for my concert on Saturday night! (It was fun and went well!)