Pop Goes the Weasel(s)

Kids love big boxes.

Painting Day

The other day the boys were bored with everything "fun" in the house, so I got out the paints.

Notice how they started out with nice, bright colors that were separated?

          Annie was very intrigued with the whole process.

Soon she wanted to join in also.

 

She was content to just hold a paint brush though.

 Soon enough she will be slopping around in the paint with her brothers.

Oh, I forgot to take pictures of the finished product, but just imagine large dried mounds of grayish, brown paint on white paper.

The Chicken

Im sure you can remember a toy that was so special to you when you were a child. Something that you spent hours with, and gives you warm fuzzy feelings every time you remember it. Well, that happened tonight.

We were visiting my parents this afternoon, flying kites, sitting out in the lawn, enjoying each others company, when Isaac asks if he can go into the basement. “you have never been in the basement?” I ask. “nope, never” he replied. Now you must also remember the excitement of being a child and exploring grandma and grandpas basement, attic, or garage. So this must have been a treat.

I immediately showed him the storm cellar, the “dungeon” we used to call it, where we kept all of the canned goods and stuff that we never wanted to see again, seeing that that was probably the coolest place of all.

Nope, he wanted to explore everything. So we did. Digging through old books and toys, we found the greatest one of all. The ever so loved Lite-Brite. An immediate rush of sentimentality ran through my veins as I picked up that black and white box with the clown face pegged into the black paper. I opened it, and lifted that dusty piece of my childhood out of the box.

Isaac immediately wanted to try it, and so we did.

Ahh yes, the chicken. What a lovely creature. At first we didn’t know whether to put the pink, or purple pegs where the letter P was, but found out that it didn’t matter. The toy was meant for a child’s imagination. To me, the chicken looked like some creature you would see on some packaging from China, but to a child, it was the greatest chicken that had ever been brought to life. He was so proud of it, even though I had to “help” him, because surely he couldn’t do it on his own right? I mean, I was just being a good dad by setting an example of how the pegs fit into the holes right? What kind of father would I be if I didn’t play with his toys with him?

Regardless, sometimes we as adults lose vision, creativeness, imagination..
I am just glad we have children to remind us that sometimes we can let go of our seriousness and adult reality and enjoy chickens with pink tails and purple heads.

It Baffles Me

It baffles me sometimes to read what people actually believe. I stumbled across an atheists blog post today, and for clarification purposes, here is the link if you wish to be annoyed by peoples ignorance.

http://healyhatman.blogspot.com/2008/05/how-do-christians.html

And yes, the comments by “Jason” are left by myself.

First of all, I don’t understand atheism. How can you choose not to believe in a higher being other than yourself? Any higher being for that matter, let alone the Creator of the universe and all that is in it?!

I have been trying to distance myself from what I might see as unfruitful discussions, but this one I could not stay away from. This person claims to be an atheist, and yet picks apart the Bible like it was some fallible piece of poorly written fiction. AND, this writer claimed that he respects the “Word of God”, but what he is saying makes no sense. And here is why.

For someone to claim to be an atheist, but acknowledge the Word of God and claim to actually understand certain parables of Christ is impossible. I believe true interpretation and Biblical discernment can only be found through the Holy Spirit, which is Given to us when we are saved, which this atheist is obviously not.

It would be like saying you understand a car by only reading bits and parts of the user manual. This we all know is impossible. You have to feel the car as it is driven. You need to be acquainted with it. Then the manual will make sense. So for one who is not saved and does not have the Holy Spirit, it is impossible and foolish for them to try and discuss Biblical matters seeing that they have no divine revelation.

You need to feel the Holy Spirits presence in you to make any accurate conclusions about Gods Word. Without it, it is not meant for you. (yet) And you will understand nothing. Well, you will be able to understand one thing..

And that is that God sent His son Jesus to this earth to die for our sins, and it is only by accepting His command in our lives and admitting that we are sinners and are in need of a Savior, and through Him will have eternal life.
It takes faith though, and this atheist has none.

So if you ever do encounter an atheist who tries to tell you that the Bible is mistaken and erroneous, explain to them that they have not a clue as to what they are talking about. Or if you know a foreign language, just start talking to them in it and see if they understand that as well.

Thoughts for the night..


Jason

Our Mothers Day

After church we had a quick lunch with Ken and Judy before they headed off to see Grandma Hopkins. We then went to my sister Sarah's house where we had a large Mother's Day celebration. My 2 sisters and their families were there along with our mom, of course, and my sister Sarah's mother-in-law Dorothy and husband Rich.

Not only did we celebrate Mother's Day, we celebrated 3 mid-May birthdays in our family!
It was a very fun day. Here are some of the pictures.

                                     Me with my 3 sweeties, Isaac, Seth and Annabelle.

                                                          My mom with her 3 sweeties.

                                  My sister Sarah with her 3 daughters, Silvia, Abigail, and 

 
                                               Esther, and mother-in-law Dorothy.

                              My sister Julie and her baby boy Joshua. Her first Mother's
                                                               Day as a mother!

                                    Family pictures usually look pretty nice, but getting
                                    everything, and everybody coordinated can get pretty
                                  hectic and stressful right? This is what it really looked like.

                                    Sarah delighted us with a homemade, black forest cake.

Here were the 3 birthday people. Julie, Julie's husband Keith, and Abigail (far right).

       Pretty little Annie.

     My nephew Joshua Terwilliger.

                                                                 He is so so so adorable!

                                               And new for this Mother's day, a glimpse

of baby number four, for Jason and I.

My Little Herbavors

       Whenever I prepare fresh broccoli, Isaac and Seth always ask

         to chomp on the stalk. I don't know if I should be worried, or

        feel blessed to have children who love vegetables so much.

    Isaac's almost done with his.

Seth isn't so sure if he wants to finish his.

   Annabelle's first time with a broccoli stalk.   

She liked it so much, she cried when I tried to take it away. 

 Not much around here goes to waste.

   We don't even need a dog!