So the verse that says we are to give the gospel to every creature seemed to hit me in a new way recently. The "every creature" portion just really stood out to me. We are surrounded by people every day, and don't attempt to tell them a thing about the Lord or their eternal soul. I've tried to become more aware of people as I'm out shopping ect. As this verse of scripture has begun to become more real to me, the Lord has sent more people to my door also. Seeing that I really don't get out all that much during the week, I think this is a pretty good arrangement. If I can't get out and tell people about the Lord, He can just send them to my house. My latest encounters have been with Jehovah's Witnesses.

The first pair came to my door a few months ago. Of course, you can tell what they are up to as soon as you open the door, so instead of letting them talk to me, I talk to them first. I quickly let them know that I know they don't believe Jesus is God. I also let them know why I believe that Jesus is God. After I quoted Scripture to them, they tried to tell me that not all versions read the same way. I quickly let them know that was why I only used the King James Version. I knew it had not been tampered with and I could depend on it. They then wanted to know how could Jesus be God and still have a Father. So, I showed them how there are three parts of an eye, yet there is just one eye...the cornea, pupil, and iris. There are also three parts to a finger. When you bend it, you can see clearly the three parts. Let's just say that the lady's eyes were pretty big when I was showing them that illustration.
We didn't get much farther than that with the first pair that came to the door. But I began thinking of how much bigger the picture is for these people. If they do not believe that Jesus is God, they can never believe that He can save them from their sins.
A couple of months later the next and much more educated pair of Witnesses came by. It was with them that I found out that they don't believe in a hell. They gave an obscure verse in Ecclesiastes that says that the dead know nothing as their proof text that there is not a literal hell. Of course that Scripture reference is referring to the dead body of bones in the grave and not the spirit of a person. They also asked why would Jesus go to hell after He died on the cross if it were a place of torment. My answer was so that when they stood before Him at the judgment they would have no excuse for Him sending THEM there. He would be able to tell them that He has been through absolutely everything that they have ever been or would be through, and they do not have an excuse for rejecting Him. They weren't quite sure how to answer that one. They did tell me that they believe in heaven though. Now why would there be a heaven to believe in if the dead know nothing?
I don't really feel like I got very far with these people, but I pray that maybe the little bit that I was able to give them would somehow later on bring them to truly know the Lord.

Today is our 10th Anniversary

It does not seem like that much time has passed, but Spencer and I have reached the double digits as far as anniversaries go. I don't imagine we'll ever get out of the double digits either. We will be heading to the Biltmore Estate and the Blue Ridge Parkway for our big day. Both are places I've wanted to explore for some time. Hopefully, I'll have some interesting pictures to post when we get back.

Yesterday I had a former coworker and friend who now lives in Boston show up at my door. I say show up at my door, because I was expecting her on the 21st instead of the 12th. What's with me reading dates backwards? We had a good time catching up on several years.

Also yesterday, Sierra had a long awaited date with her daddy. She was thrilled. He said, he hadn't had a girl so giddy over him in 12 years. (That's how long ago we met. :-D )

Soccer

Soccer games start tomorrow for our girls, so I thought I'd get a jump on their pictures. Here are my two favorite.

Music

I was able to download an album of different types of music from Bible Truth Music today. The cost was $2.00 along with the request that you repost this special offer on your blog, Facebook page, Twitter, etc. Here is the link.

I receive a bi-monthly magazine that I enjoy reading. The latest issue had a convicting article that I am going to try to keep at the forefront of my mind.http://www.nogreaterjoy.org/articles/general-view/archive/2009/december/03/cheerful-authoritative-consistent/

Family Fun

One of our daughters is shall we say, a cheese lover. So one night for family fun a couple of weeks ago we took her to a local grocery store that has a great variety of cheeses. They had big cheese blocks there for decoration, one of which cost $400 dollars for half the block. (I do think that they eventually cut these "decorations" up and sell them in smaller pieces and prices.) Well, our little girl had the time of her life walking around and around the case admiring the different kinds of cheese. She and all the other kids even got to sample a piece of Swiss cheese. (Do you see my evil grin?) No, not a soul liked it, not even our cheese lover. We finally were able to leave the store with a LITTLE container of gourmet cheese containing six slices. That was just enough for one piece per person. Evidentally we picked the right cheese called Sonoma Jack because everyone loved it. Our daughter has now decided that she wants cheese for her next birthday party rather than a cake. Hmmm. I wonder if cheesecake would be an option she would consider.

H I S

This is a picture of mostly kids that are in our little home school group. Some of the kids in this pic are extra kids that were visiting that day, and some of the "regular" kids were missing for this picture. This is our first year as a group, and we have chosen the name, Homeschoolers in Service, or HIS for short. We get together about once a month and have chapel, music, crafts, games, and on occasion a geography bee, historical dress up, or a cake decorating class.

Historical characters "Osama Bin Ladan"(remember to pray for our country's safety) and "Queen Esther" (from the Bible)

Pharoah's daughter that drew Moses out of the water.

Betsy Ross and someone I can't remember.

Wild Bill Hickok and a Texas Ranger

When our church was holding Missions Conference we had the privilege of having some of the missionary children joining us, and some of the missionaries were able to tell us on a more personal basis about the field that the Lord has called them to.

We also go on occasional field trips. The newest field trip we are headed to is a Civil War reenactment. It will be held in March, and is said to be very good. The only problem was the money. When most of the families have several children, paying for the tickets is not as minor a thing as it is for a smaller family. Well, our coordinator came up with the bright idea of a yard sale. Oh, ugh! After a few technical difficulties and a lot of prayer as well as work, we were all set up to sell STUFF! The kids even made things to sale. They had made magnets, bird gourds, cookies, rice krispy treats, and hot chocolate and apple cider. Thankfully, we got enough money to more than cover the tickets as well as pay for the newpaper advertisement, and pay the kids for their contributions. So let the battle begin!

I wonder how many little ones will be holding their ears as the guns begin firing.

So I don't have a whole lot to say at the moment, but here is a link to a website some of you may find useful.
I also am considering getting some glasses from here. The pair I'm looking at will $12 including shipping, and since I only wear my glasses around the house, I don't think there will be a big loss if I don't like them. I have gone to an optical store and tried on different frames to give me an idea of what would look decent on me though.

Men and Department Stores

The other day when we were out shopping for the ingredients for the Cherpumple Dessert, I noticed that all these older men out with their wives were being really nice to Spencer. They would just say hello to him as they passed in the aisles in the store. What really made me laugh was when I asked him if we could stop at Belk really quick. I badly needed a black top, and they were having their extra good red dot sale. "I know what I'm looking for, and it won't take long." I promised him. Well, it took longer than I expected, but I did find a black sweater for $10. After I paid for the sweater, I still had a little bit of $ burning a hole in my pocket and asked Spencer if he minded if I looked at the jewelry. He graciously said that was fine. It didn't take me long to find something I wanted, and as we were heading to the cash register to pay, an older gentleman once again stopped my husband. But this time what he said was different. "I bet your wife said, that she was just coming in for a minute, and she wouldn't take long." My husband laughed and agreed. The gentleman said, "That's what my wife said too, and I'm just barely getting out of here." Let's just say that I paid for my $4.50 necklace and earring set with a grin on my face.

Snow Day 2

Meeting Mr. Snowman

He just wanted to do "cool" poses until I made him stop.

The girls loved him.

The end result after Spencer got ahold of him.

Sledding on the hood of an old car

We were snowed in from church today, but we got to watch live church services elsewhere thanks to the internet. Later this afternoon we got to make a snowman, and the kids got to be pulled behind a four wheeler on the hood of an old car.

Snow!

I don't know why she didn't complain about her poor ear being bent.

Today the cold weather and the wet weather finally coincided and have resulted in snow and sleet. The kids are absolutely thrilled, and we are loving our wood heater. Thanks for the wood Papa and Mema.

The Cherpumple

So people have been mentioning that I haven't written anything on this blog for a while. Now that I look at the date, I guess they're right. It's not that I haven't thought about it, but I just feel like my blog has lost focus. However, I have had some ideas on things to write about. We'll see how it all pans out.

For now, I'm going to post some pictures of a dessert that my husband made. We won't mention the long car ride we went on when the dessert started falling apart as he was making it.... That's ok though. We got to see some nice houses and land, and the dessert turned out ok after all.

The dessert is called a Cherpumple. It is an already baked cherry pie then baked into a white cake, an apple pie in a spice cake, and a pumpkin pie in a yellow cake. They are then stacked onto each other and held together with cream cheese frosting. Yum and very rich.

One more thing about the blog. As I'm sitting here trying to load pictures of the Cherpumple, I suddenly remember what a pain it is to upload pictures here on Blogger, and if things are like they were the last time I wrote anything, it has suddenly become difficult to arrange pictures once they are loaded up here. That may be one more reason I haven't blogged in a while.

Another birthday

Our third daughter was thrilled to celebrate her fifth birthday. This is her last big one for a while, and she has been looking forward to it for months. Celebrations were complete with a bouncy house (thanks to my in-laws), games, a craft, and great presents.

My parents and the birthday girl.


All the kids after a dress up relay race.

Paint!

I made the cake out of miniature cupcakes.

Yesterday was the last nice weather day for a while. I decided that I'd clean up the yard some and burn a few leaves. I easily started a fire in the yard clippings from the whole year/leaf pile.
I quickly realized that this was going to be quite a time consuming endeavor, so I put out the fire and headed in the house. I later went back outside and noticed that the pile was still smoldering in spots, so I carefully "watered" the hot spots, and once again made sure that everything was okay. I sure didn't want to be the next person to almost burn the neighborhood down.
Rain left over from tropical storm Ida began pouring down and has been pouring ever since. So, imagine my surprise when I looked out our bedroom window this morning and saw this sight through the rain.

The pile has smoldered all day even though we've received around 6 inches of rain. My husband (as far as he and I know) put the fire out again before we headed to church tonight. Hopefully it'll still be out when we get up in the morning.

I had been told that Wal-Mart now sells caskets and urns online. When I looked it up, there is was. Here's a link. WoW! Shocking!
My husband found it humorous that there was a "Be the first to review this product" button for each funeral item.

State Fair

Pumpkins grown by little kids

Zach reading the sign


Here's what the sign said, but where's the sod?

Family

Today was a fun day. Spencer had mentioned that he'd be taking the day off, so yesterday we did a little extra school work. Late last night, we decided that the State Fair would be a fun family trip. On the way to the fair, we were able to complete the school work for the day that we had not been able to get done the day before. Here are some pictures of our day.

This and That

This has been an eventful week. Zach's Cub Scout group went on a camping trip this past weekend. It was abnormally cool for this time of year, but Zach had a great time running around and experiencing different activities.

Tie Dye

Putting up targets.

Shooting BB guns. A favorite past time.

Well, Brittany has finally reached her mile stone. Her hair grew long enough to donate to Locks of Love. She was so excited to cut her hair, and I was too. No more stringy hair that gets messed up two seconds after it's been brushed.

School is Now in Session

We finally started back to school. This year three of the kids are in the school routine. The baby is making things easier on me by thinking she's in the school routine too. She thinks that I must let her count and sound out letters. I must say that she can count to ten pretty well, and she has learned what the letter A says.
Zach and Brittany are especially loving science. They can tell you the parts of the ear and eye. (Well, at least they could when they took their first test.) I think they've taken the love for science a little too far. Their new pursuit is slugs. They all think it's neat to push their eyes in. Ewww! Brittany is especially in love with the slugs. She collected 12 of them the other day and put them all over her desk. After I demanded that she remove them, I found her sitting on our den floor with them on her legs. So disgusting!!!! I did take a picture which will be good blackmail when she gets older, and I would put it up here, but I can't download any pictures to my computer at the moment. Why, you say?? That's because I have 10,000 pictures on my computer and I don't know how many videos which have taken up all my computer's memory. When I get all of it transfered to CD's like I should have long ago, I'll be able to entertain you with pictures again.

Outing

We got to go to a nature center, science museum. Here are some pics of the kids playing doctor in the miniature hospital, as well as a pic of the my mom with the kids.