Pure Pleasure Gathering - This Saturday!

Here’s how you can pray for this gathering –

1.    The “Behind-the-scenes” support team - Ask the Father to fill them with the Holy Spirit (Eph. 5.18) that those who will be using their gifts at the Pure Pleasure gathering would serve in the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. (I Pet. 4.11)

2.    The Worship Team (led by Ryan Thom) - Ask the Father to fill them with the Holy Spirit, so that they would be addressing their brothers in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with their hearts! (Eph. 5.18-19)

3.    Men who are enslaved to sexual sin - Ask the Lord Jesus to come in mighty Truth and gospel power to set these men free from their bondage to all forms of sexual sin. And if any are spiritually dead, to cause them to be born again to a new and living hope (I Pet. 1.3)!  Praise Jesus that everyone that He sets free is really, truly, lastingly free indeed (Jn. 8.31-36)!  May our God satisfy them every morning and every moment—with Himself! (Jn. 6.35)

4.    Men who have been set free from sexual sin - Lord Jesus, we praise you that you have set these men free from their bondage to sexual sin!  Please keep them from using their freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. Cause them to go from one degree of glory to another in their freedom, satisfaction and conformity to your image (2 Cor. 3.17-18).  Through your Spirit, equip them to comfort their brothers with the same comfort that they have received from you (2 Cor. 1.3-4). 

5.    Pastor Jason (who will do the opening Welcome/ Announcements/ Prayer) - Ask the Father to fill Jason with the Holy Spirit in Jesus name, so that his prayers would be “in the Spirit” (Jude 20). And that his words would be “good for building up, as fits the occasion, that they may give grace to those who hear.” (Eph. 4.29) 

6.    Pastor Kempton (who will lead 2 one-hour sessions) - Ask the Father to fill Kempton with the Holy Spirit in Jesus name, so that when he speaks, he would be speaking the very oracles of God—as he serves in the strength that God supplies—so that God would be glorified through Jesus Christ! (I Pet. 4.11).

Ask our Father to cause Kempton to know nothing among the men at Pure Pleasure except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  And in Kempton’s utter weakness, ask the Lord to cause his speech and message not to be in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and power, that the faith of the hearers might not rest in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God! (I Cor. 2.1-5)

7. Joe Rigney (who will lead a 4-wk follow-up study) – Same prayer aim as Kempton’s. 

When the going gets tough...

The Mama gets out this stuff!

Since we've been having a very snowy, rainy & chilly Spring, I've had to plan extra indoor activities for my kiddos.  Here's a list of our favorites.

We enjoy painting our snacks! 

I keep a bag of balloons on hand.  They're always lots of fun!

Marbles - A preschoolers' joy!

My girls like painting so much that I created a Pinterest board -
Fun with paint!

Water Play - Lots of Splashing Fun!

Glow sticks - Just $1 for a bag of endless fun! 

Good ole dress-up.  Her big sister dressed her up & said that,
"She's getting married." :-)

We are 10 times blessed!

We recently celebrated my oldest son's 10th Birthday;
now my baby boy is 10 months!  

Here are 10 of my favorite pictures of Baby Caleb
since his 6 months post.

This reminds me of the movie Up.J

Sweet baby face

He's on the move!  

Stylin' in Uncle Curt's hat.

Sad, teething-pain face...needed lots of mama lovin'.

Cute hat that a sweet friend from church made.

Precious, food-covered face

Playtime Fun

Serenading his mama!J

Adios! 

When I woke up to this...

 I try hard to meditate on my 2 yr old's memory verse that's on our refrigerator;

Read one of the devotionals in this book;

And not allow my mind to ponder too long on the memories of the warm spring days in Texas!L

The Refiner's Fire of Motherhood

“All my children have brought more trial and struggle into my life than I would have ever wanted to have.  But, I am who I am today because of that refining fire from the Lord.  The Bible says that children are a blessing from the Lord.  That is so true!  Often they are not a blessing in the way we would expect them to be.  They bless us by challenging us and forcing us to be more than we can possibly be.  They push us into complete dependence upon God.  They strip away our pride and leave us humble and broken before our Lord.  And if we have any pride left, the Lord uses them to make sure it doesn’t stick around for too long.  I am so glad I have gone and am continuing to go through the fire of motherhood.  It is the tool God is using to make me like Him.”

Christal Stroup - "Mad at her & Mad at myself" in Above Rubies Magazine, February 2013

The ONE thing I like about snow...

You can make ice cream with it! :-)

We recently finished our goat & cow units.  So, what better way to culminate those units than by making ice cream!  What else would we do with a foot of snow 15 days before spring???

All you need is...

8 cups of fresh snow (Thanks sweetie!)

1 (14 oz) can sweetened condensed milk & 1 tsp vanilla extract

Add the condensed milk to the snow.

Add the vanilla.

Stir.

Serve with sprinkles...yummy!

We also did a Venn diagram of two very good non-fictional books that I highly recommend -

Anna's Goat & Beatrice's Goat.

Goat Unit

Our muffin tin snack of foods made with milk:

pieces of bagel with cream cheese, crackers with butter, cut up cheese stick, chocolate chips, & yogurt raisins.

My little artist's cow that she randomly drew on a piece of scratch paper.  

Cow Unit

Let heaven and earth praise him...

    The seas and everything that moves in them.

Psalm 69:34

That was one of the verses that we studied during the Octopus Unit. What an extraordinary creature God made! We learned many interesting facts; like the many functions of the suckers on the underside of their arms.  We also had so much fun playing a game that I made up called "You're inked" in which someone is the "octopus" & she chases the rest of us (predators) to "ink" us.  The Water Unit was a study of the states of matter - solid, liquid, & gas. We also did a unit on insects.  Here's a brief look at a few of our activities.  

After we read The Very Lonely Firefly, Carysse made her own firefly scene.  We used this craft idea, but instead of buying a box of band-aids, I improvised with fluorescent sticky notes. 

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 We talked about how insects are symmetrical (same on both side).
Then she made a Name Bug.

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The Insect Unit

She's adding "suckers" to her Toilet paper roll Octopus.

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We even had an octopus for snack; thanks to an idea that I got from Family Fun Magazine - Aug 2012 issue.

The Octopus Unit

We did a water experiment showing how heat turns water into steam.
She was amazed to see that the 1 cup of water we put into the pot turned into 1/4 cup after a few minutes.

Our States of Matter Chart
As you can see, I'm a teacher not an artist. J

The Water Unit

Here's the girls' favorite video about the states of matter.  They know it by memory so you can imagine how many times they asked to watch it!