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Thursday, February 24, 2011

Carding, Felting, and Spinning...oh, my!

We had a great demonstration by Sarah on the various aspects of fiber arts. There are a lot of hands-on activities in this one area. This is not an art form that I am very familiar with, so it was nice to have someone with some expertise show us the ropes. Daniel is on fire now and wants to learn how to spin. 
 
Carding wool...






Spinning wheel demonstration...






Feeling different fibers...


Felting....


Tera stuck her finger with the felting needle. It only bleed for a second but she posed with her bandage anyway. Luckily another mom had a band aid...I was halfway across the room trying to entertain Michael away from the needles.
 



Using a drop spindle...




For more pics of our day, check out The Forest Room and It's a Boy's Life.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Birthday Celebration

Well, here goes a second time...blogger failed to publish my first attempt.
We had Michael's birthday celebration this weekend complete with a visit from Granny. 

 
The kids decorated a gingerbread house... 
 









crocheted and just hung out!





We had a little party for Michael on Saturday with this awesome ice cream cake. It's been a while since I made one, but it's great!



Michael got some really cute presents...and thanks to Granny a potty and underwear to start a new phase in life. Right now, he's actually freaked out by the potty but that's okay. 





Sunday, February 20, 2011

Happy 2nd Birthday, Michael!

We couldn't imagine life without our 3rd unexpected blessing. I know everyone says this but I really can't believe 2 years have passed since we were introduced to our little boy.


Michael, you are our miracle baby. We always thought that there was one more little face waiting to look up into ours. When you came along, we realized it was yours.
 
 


We thank God for you!







Our sweet little 2 year old baby!

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Emotional Health

Lately I haven't been on the top of the Emotional Health game.

I've experienced:
anxiety
depression
guilt
jealousy
frustration
lack of patience
lack of understanding
short temperedness
snappiness

Well, you get the picture. I started thinking about how our emotional health is affected by our current spiritual health. You see lately I've been slacking on certain spiritual disciplines that can be easy to let slide...Bible study and memorization, set aside prayer time, and devotional reading. All these things keep me "in tune" with the Savior and what He wants to do in my life. When I let things fall into disrepair, the emotions are the first things to show wear and tear. Then, I start "bearing the wrong kind of fruit". Instead of the fruits of the Spirit found in Galatians: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness and self-control, I start showing that list of things I've already listed.

It's a lot like your physical body. If you starve yourself, your body suffers. If you feed your body junk food, instead of nutritious food, it begins to show itself in negative side effects (bad health overall, weight gain, lack of energy). Only when we do the good things for the body, does it perform to its potential. Our spiritual and emotional health work the same way. We were created to love and serve God...to seek to strengthen our relationship with Him. Only when we do the things we know are good for our spiritual bodies, do we "perform" to our potential. Our marriage would be pretty stinky, if we only talked to our spouse once every couple of days.

Just like with our physical bodies, when we decide to change our bad habits...we might not look or feel different at first. But for each baby step we take in the right direction, we are one step closer than we were before. It's only when we give up, and decide how we are is just fine, that the striving and fighting is over. I may not be perfect and I know I have a long way to go, but I've come too far to turn back now. There's an old chorus I've sang probably my whole life that goes: "I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back!" Sometimes I feel like a take too many pit stops on this journey, but I won't quit the race!


Jesus said: "Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."

John 15:4-5

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Valentine's Day Take 2

Our group met on Tuesday for a Valentine's party.
 
 
We made several really cute crafts...









Decorated cookies...
 



and exchanged Valentines.

Here's a sampling of the Valentines the kids received...


 
 Here are the Valentines our kids made this year...
 






For more pics, check out The Forest Room.