Winter Night

Last night was a cold night here! (We've been in the negative numbers all weekend) It was a perfect day to stay inside, eat spaghetti and cake, and play games! We actually did venture out to a friend's for supper, and she taught us this new marble game, which I will call "The Parks" for lack of another name. It is alot like Parcheesi (which I love!) but with a couple additional twists! Maybe Mathew & I can make one of our own. :)

Also I took some time on my lunch break to drive out on the lake and take some pictures. While they didn't turn out as splendid as I hoped, I did have fun driving around and got to see a Bald Eagle having a snack too!

A God of Mercy, not Compromise

I just recently finished reading this book, and am ready for a re-read! This book gave me a lot to think about. I really enjoyed the beginning, the characters and their choices and faithfullness to God, and also the many quotes throughout the book that made me stop and think. The two that struck me most are:

1. God is a God of mercy, but not of compromise. He is Holy and just and wants our true love.
2. In the ancient days, the priests would blow a shofar to call attention to the people...to war....to worship.....but now, God uses His Holy Spirit and the Bible to call us. Are we listening?

I did really enjoy this book, though it almost made me cry more than once. It is set in the late '90s in California, and is about a growing church and the responsibilities involved. I would highly recommend it as a great read that hopefully, will help you grow deeper in Christ as well.

Too Much Talk...Not Enough Listening

The more I talk, the more I realize how far I am from showing your true love and grace to the world! Oh that I would be less opinionated about things and more passioned about You. Oh that I would focus less on the differences I see in others than the difference You can make in me! Give me a generous heart to love others as You love me. Help me think before I speak, and only speak in gentleness and humility!

A wise old owl, sat in an oak...

The more he saw, the less he spoke...

The less he spoke, the more he heard...

Why can't I be like that wise old bird?

I pray that today and this week, I will speak less, so that I can hear God's spirit leading me!

Busy weekend...Sunday dinner

We've had a very full weekend! Thank goodness it's Monday?! lol Saturday is my usual grochery shopping day (no great deals this weekend), so that takes part of the morning. We also had a friend drop by to visit for lunch. After that, it was time to head out and get our new piano, which was an adventure! We also had our students call up and need a ride to the store, and then we went out to a friend's for a yummy supper. Mathew & Ken went to the hockey game, while we stayed home and made cards and ate apple pie!
Sunday we invited our international students over for lunch. We had BBQ pork, dahl, rice, spicy cabbage, papaddam (Indian "chips") and cream puffs for dessert! Yum!
Here is the recipie for the Indian cabbage dish:

• Cut the cabbage into small pieces. Then mix with about 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp turmeric powder, keep it aside for sometime.
• Splutter about 2 tsp black mustard seeds in a frypan with a little oil.
• Add 1/2 or 1 chopped onion, 2 tsp garlic, 1 tsp ginger powder, 2 green chillis, chopped.
• Fry until onions are golden brown, and then add the cabbage. Mix well and cover the frypan to cook for 3 to 5 minute, stirring frequently.
• Eat!

New Piano!

I'm so excited! We finally have a piano...a real piano! We found it listed in the paper and went to look at it Thursday. It's amazaing how God answers our prayers so quickly sometimes! We had decided to start saving up for one about 3 months ago. And then, I saw the ad in the paper and it was in our price range for what we had already saved. It's a 12 year old, oak Samick console piano. It's in great condition, just a little out of tune (since the last tuning was 5 years ago!). :) It was also neat, because we had a really nice visit with the owners of the piano and found out, they've been music missionaries to Bangalore India! Ha! Talk about God working things out. So we had a nice visit about places we've all seen, and about music and food etc. Here we are backing the truck up the hill. We had my parents and two friends come and help us move it on Saturday. Another answer to prayer, considering it has been -20 degrees, and Saturday was warm and sunny!
All in! Ready to go.

Wednesday Night Lessons...Jan 23

Last night we talked about obedience again. (I'm alternating between Obedience and Wisdom). Here is my basic class outline:

1. Introduce the word "obey" with rhyming words.


2. Activity (word hunt & look at pictures of people obeying)


3. Hands on (made cupcakes)


4. Game/close
   

I made a long scroll with our "To-Do-List" for the night.

I used words that rhymed, and then "misplaced" the 3rd word (obey). After talking about our list, I had them hunt around the room for the hidden letters to make our 3rd word...

After filling in the blanks, we followed our schedule... First we prayed. I let the kids choose what we would pray about, and they picked "Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John."So, we came up with a creative way to pray. We prayed for a person by each name that we knew (Mathew, my husband, Mark, a friend, Luke, their uncle, and John we had Johnathan pick a request). Then we sat on couch cushions on the floor and prayed.

Next, we laid down on our cushions and looked up at the ceiling. I had pinned up pictures of people to obey (i.e. a teacher, the Bible, parents, stop signs, and Daniel in the Lions Den) and we talked about each picture.

3rd, we practiced "obeying" by obeying the cooking instructions to make lemon cupcakes. We had a lot of fun stirring them up and baking them, and even made frosting and sprinkles to decorate.

Last, while the cupcakes were baking, we played Hide-The-Thimble, except with a set of keys. We then ate our cupcakes and shared them with the other classes and adults.

Next week we'll be learning about Wisdom. It will be our last class of this month, so I will proabably do a wrap up activity and finish the memory verse (Luke 2:51,52)

If you have any ideas for teaching, crafts (I'm usually short on craft ideas), Wisdom lessons, etc, I'd love to hear of them! Also, feel free to use any of my lessons and adapt them as you need!

God bless!Emily

My Deals of the Day

I couldn't resist posting about the good deals I found today! First, I stopped at our local grochery store, and picked up the items above for $2.44. (The lettuce and carrots were free, the chicken was $0.89 and the eggs were $1.49!....We had salad for supper! lol)Also, I stopped at JC Penny. A friend of Mathew's told us about a good sale on winter clearance stuff. It was really fun! I picked up all the kids shirts and outfits for $0.98 each, and the coat was $4.00 (regularly $50) and the shoes were $2.00. I have a friend having a baby girl soon, and my sister's little girl's birthday is coming up soon too, so it was great!