Happy New Year!

2009 is almost here. Here are some thoughtful ways to bring in this New Year.....

Consider this list of Jonathan Edwards' resolutions.

http://scionofzion.com/resolutions.htm
(Disclaimer: I know NOTHING about this site, other than it offered the most printer-friendly version of these resolutions that I could find. As always, use discernment!)

Here are thoughts about the resolutions especially for our young adults, but all of us can benefit from reading this series. Here's a link to the first article. Follow their listed links to the rest.

http://www.therebelution.com/2006/02/teenagers-resolutions-part-1.html


Doug Phillips of Vision Forum sends this reminder out at the end of each year...

http://visionforum.com/hottopics/blogs/dwp/2007/12/3287.aspx


Be intentional! We can all use these tools with our own families to make 2009 a year of living more intentionally to His glory, redeeming the time He has given us.

Love,
Queen Mom

Chips and Dip

Before he started feeling even worse than he was feeling over the weekend, Mountain Man enjoyed giving Little Bit a tutorial in chip and dip eating. Those of you who know him well know that Mountain Man will choose a bag of chips over chocolate any day (I just don't get that...). Anyway, as soon as Little Bit heard the crinkling of that chip bag, she decided to join her Daddy up at the table and get in on the goodies. Here Daddy shows her the proper way to dip a chip.

"Remember to actually eat the chip. Don't just lick off the dip.""You're kidding me, right? I have to eat the chip with the dip?""Yes, you have to eat them together. Otherwise, it would just be dip, and you'll miss the full effect."

"Daddy must be joking...why can't I just eat it my way?""Ok, I'll try it his way. It can't be worse than green eggs and ham."

"Hey, Daddy's right. These do taste great together!"

And after they came to an understanding, Mountain Man even cleaned up his little ranch-dip-covered princess. The End.

WALL-E: a Movie Review

~WALL-E~

Setting: 2815 A.D.
Rated: G
Star Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5

~~~ ~~~ ~~~

A couple weeks ago, my family and I watched the Pixar film WALL-E. I think we were a little skeptical about it at first, but when we had finished it, we all agreed that it was a surprisingly good movie, full of many twists and portrayals which reflect the present state of the masses in this age of entertainment and electronics.

The setting for this movie is over 800 years into the future. Garbage has basically covered the entire planet, and humans evacuate, living in giant spaceships which contained all the necessities for life. Originally, the plan was for humans to take a sort of vacation for a little bit, while specially designed robots cleaned up the trash and attempted to make earth inhabitable again. As it turns out, the clean up failed, earth remained void of life, and people continued to remain in space for hundreds of years.

By some mishap or other, the dutiful WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class) is the only robot left on the earth. His existence is somewhat monotonous until one day a rocket from outerspace drops off EVE (Extra-Terrestrial Vegetation Evaluator). From then on come adventures which I will leave you to find out for yourself.

There was no objectionable material apart from one brief scene (which many children won't even pick up on, but you know your children better than I do), where Wall-e finds a piece of ladies' undergarments in the refuse he is cleaning up.

I read an article in World magazine in which director of WALL-E, Andrew Stanton (who also did Finding Nemo and professes to be a Christian), was being interviewed. He said that people were misunderstanding the film's purpose, saying it was a commentary on environmentalism or obesity. Stanton says that this was not the movie's purpose at all. It is about relationships. (Please read the whole article at www.Worldmag.com. It is extremely interesting and thought provoking. Search under Andrew Stanton.)

But I want to address the dominant theme of what humanity is becoming. When WALL-E visits the spaceship Axiom, what does he find? He finds humans in a sickening state of laziness, leisure, and ignorance. They have robots who do literally everything for them except sleeping and eating. It is disgusting. But the humans have sunk down so far that they don't even see it that way. They have become fat, slovenly, and unable to do anything for themselves. They don't even walk anymore! Instead, they have special robotic chairs that transport them wherever they wish to go. They eat meals in liquid form from cups like big babies. They have television screens which are in front of them literally all the time. They are so caught up in being entertained that they don't even notice the things going on around them.

How are we like that today? We live in an age where people don't want to think. They want to be entertained. People pathetically abuse electronic devices like TV's, iPods, video games, etc, etc. They have become lazy and ignorant, their minds dumbed down by so much thoughtless entertainment. I'll bet you if you approached the average American today and asked him when he last read a good book, he'd look at you as though you had come from Mars. Or if he had read a book, it was most likely something so dumbed down that he didn't need to think about what he was reading. Perhaps that's why books by authors like G.A. Henty, Daniel Defoe, or Jules Verne aren't read much anymore these days! People refuse to think! God gave us brains: we just need to actually use them!

Sadly, even many "Christians" have fallen into this pit. Many of them only open their Bibles once a week on Sunday, because throughout the rest of the week they just don't want to take the time to read God's word and think about what it says. Many so called 'church services' have become intent on entertaining people or catering to their whims and leisures, instead of discipling them.

There is one particularly disturbing scene in WALL-E, which reflects the dumbing down of people in this day and age. The captain is in the process of figuring out how to return to earth after EVE finds a little green plant growing among the refuse. One of the things given to him is a control manual in book form. When given this, the captain doesn't even know what it is! He can't even figure out how to open it!

Another point of this movie is that technology and things can never replace our needs for love, relationships and interaction between human beings. Stuff cannot replace those needs because they are essential to living the life God gave you.

I guess I'll wrap up by saying that if you do watch WALL-E (and I highly recommend you do so), then don't get stuck on the 'humans have destroyed earth' theme. Remember that this was not the intent of the film. If you focus on that too much, then you will miss all the other good stuff in WALL-E. Andrew Stanton said that he "was just using the circumstances of people abandoning Earth because its filled with garbage as a way to tell my story."

"The hand of the diligent shall bear rule: but the slothful man shall be under tribute." Prov. 12:24

"He that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster." Prov. 18:9

"The desire of the slothful killeth him; for his hands refuse to labor." Prov. 21:25

Persevero,

Scribe

Snapshots of Christmas Day

God blessed us with a beautiful Christmas Day celebration. I do think we're one of the rare sets of parents who have children who DON'T rise at 4:00 a.m. and run for the gifts. We were up late playing Phase 10 on Christmas Eve, and the children didn't even get up until almost 10:00 the next morning. We enjoyed a simple breakfast of coffee cake, and Mountain Man read from the Advent, 12 Days of Christmas, and Ephiphany devotional book that we've been using. After a bit of clean-up, we enjoyed opening gifts after listening to the children quote Luke 2:1-20. Gift-opening takes quite awhile in our family because we open each gift one by one. It's nice to watch the expressions of delight on the children's faces, and the children have learned to be quite patient, thinking not just of themselves and what they'll be "getting." Each child received three gifts, and we finished up in about 1-1/2 hours. We enjoyed a lovely Christmas dinner later that evening. Here are some moments from our day....

Here are the children reciting Luke 2:1-20. One of the most creative gifts we received were these homemade coupons from Scribe and Little Big Man for back rubs and foot massages! Little Bit loved the new dress that Scribe gave her. Whistler received this GIANT coloring book from Reaches Up. This really is amazing, with beautifully detailed pictures to color and LOTS of information about butterflies. It proves you can learn AND color at the same time! :)

This has been on my list to buy for the Littles, and I'm glad I finally did. Boo has really enjoyed this mat, and she has been very gracious in sharing with Little Bit. Mountain Man bought another pen for it so they can use it together. (however, we're having to teach Little Bit that the she is supposed to draw with the pen, not drink the water from it!)
This has been in Reaches Up's hands almost non-stop since he opened it. What 6 year old boy doesn't want to be a spy? The briefcase even shoots darts from the side. So cool!Reaches Up also loves his new apron, which our dear friend, Caity, so kindly embroidered for us with the title, "Chef Luke." He can't wait to get cookin' with Daddy!


Mountain Man with one of his princesses, dear Whistler.

Here Little Bit demonstrates her fine ability to open gifts.She was delighted to receive her own doll, a 12" Corolle, which is known for its wonderful vanilla scent. Some of the young men in the house think we have too many of these....
Whistler loved receiving this first book of sewing called See and Sew. It is beautifully detailed, teaching hand stitching first. Mommy will be learning right along with her. :)

Here the children show their new ornaments. Each year their MeMaw gives them each one. They'll have a nice collection when it's time for them to celebrate Christmas in their own homes. (I don't really want to think much about that...:( )

I was thrilled to open this present...a bread machine. Our family easily consumes a loaf of bread in one sitting, so it will be nice to toss in the ingredients and have a fresh loaf of bread in a few hours.

As you can see by Little Big Man's expression above, the big surprise was ipods.Mountain Man, Scribe, and Little Big Man all received one. (Little Big Man inherited Daddy's old one.) Scribe had the shuffle, and he's done a great job of managing his time with it, so we decided to give him one that actually has a screen. :) The ipods come with a couple of conditions....they'll be used to listen to books and teaching CDs and sermons, etc. as well as the music, and they cannot at any time become divisive...in other words, you can't use them to separate from or tune out the family.

A couple of Mountain Man's favorite gifts were this music stand and a guitar stand. Here Little Bit tries to show Daddy how to set it up. :)

So easy to please, Mountain Man loved his new coffee mug. However, it's such a great design that now all the members of the "Saturday Morning Coffee Club" are asking for one.

One of the most favorite family gifts the children received was the classic Twister game, given to them by their Aunt Krista. It has provided much laughter and fun, and you'll be surprised to know that even Queen Mom, at 7-1/2 months pregnant, played a round of this and actually WON! :) If I can do it, ANYONE can play!

Alas, today finds many of us not feeling so well, so it will be spent resting, taking vitamin C, enjoying peroxide in the ears (it really does work!), and praying that this will be a very short-lived illness!

Love to you all,

Queen Mom

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! We love and miss you all!

Christmas Lights, Hot Chocolate, and Dickens

Last night we took our annual drive around Albuquerque to look at Christmas lights. We decided to eat dinner at Chick-Fil-A (our only one is an hour away, so that was a treat), and we had a marvelous time listening to an unabridged but dramatized version of Dickens' A Christmas Carol. We topped off the evening with hot chocolate from Satellite coffee. Our time together was simply wonderful!



One of our favorite stops was the Speake House. The family used over 85,000 lights in their display and set everything to music. Here's a video that gives you an idea of how amazing the show was. The Littles walked over to the house and danced under the arches. (turn off the blog music to hear the video)

The audio of The Christmas Carol we listened to was produced by American Vision and Five Talents Productions. It is fabulous, and we highly recommend it! Regardless of how many times you've seen the movie, you miss so much of the story if you don't actually read Dickens' book. This audio is a great way to enjoy this story together as a family. You can find it at www.americanvision.org.

After all of the excitement, most children would be like Boo, passed out contentedly for the rest of the ride.

But, Little Bit is not like most children. She was born with an Energizer battery....and when it comes to sleeping..well, she doesn't seem to need much of it. Here she is beaming at the same time Boo was sleeping soundly.

We're so thankful for God's protection as we traveled around and for the blessing of enjoying these Christmas joys together as a family.

The Art of Self-Discipline

It's that time of year. Regardless of what you call them...resolutions, goals, etc., most of us can think of many things we'd like to do differently in the New Year or things we'd like to accomplish for the first time. There's something about a New Year that marks in our mind a "new start" or a "fresh opportunity,"even though we can accomplish any of these goals any time of the year.

Perhaps we want to read that book we'd never thought we could tackle, train our children to be more diligent in a certain area, or get up earlier and have a consistent time in the Word. There are so many possibilities, but at the root of being able to do any of them is that often elusive (especially if you don't have a natural bent towards it) art of self-discipline. More often than not, it is not the uncontrollable circumstances, but a lack of self-discipline, that is the one stumbling block in our paths, continuously frustrating our desire to reach a certain goal or accomplish a certain task. So we trip over it, fall, get up, and start again. However, after doing this several times, we give in to the bruises of discouragement and simply quit.

We tell ourselves we'll try again later (which isn't always bad), but often later never comes. If you're wanting to read a certain novel, and you never finish it, well, you truly can come to it "later" and not suffer any dire consequences. However, if you are focused on spending time daily in the Word or being more consistent in teaching and training your children in a certain area, then quitting simply isn't an option. The consequences are eternal.

I certainly don't have the art of self-discipline mastered. That's why I can speak too well of how a lack of it can be discouraging, frustrating, and annoyingly persistent! So, I was very encouraged when I came across this post by John MacArthur which offers very practical advice about cultivating self-discipline in ourselves as well as teaching the same to our children. Some of the tips might seem especially difficult (um, see the one about not eating the doughnut that caught your eye) and others might be second nature to you already, but, as Pastor MacArthur so aptly reminds us, "...you cannot split your life into the secular and the spiritual. Instead you must live every aspect of your life to the glory of God. And self-discipline cultivated in the seemingly mundane things of life will spill over into the spiritual realm."

www.gty.org/Resources/articles/24

Pressing On,
Queen Mom

When the love of books goes too far.....

Here's what I found one morning recently when I went to wake up the Littles....

Poor Reaches Up....displaced by The King of the Golden River.

Weekly Rewind Catch-Up

I've neglected to post a "Weekly Rewind" for the past couple weeks, so here's an update of what's been going on....

~Mountain Man is loving his guitar lessons, and his music teacher has been pushing him to try his hand at composing. Last weekend, my Beloved recorded his first song. It was quite the surprise to have him come home with a CD of his recording, and I'm hoping he'll let me post a link to it here soon.

~Because of some complications, I had to return to the doctor on Monday to have my surgery site examined. It was a very messy day in town (i.e. snow and rain), and the truck wipers simply stopped working when we were getting ready to head home. We just prayed and prayed, asking God to please make them start working so we could get home safely (since it was an electrical issue, we couldn't just pull into an auto place and have them fix things). Praise the Lord! He graciously answered our prayers.

~We love being at home. However, this week found us having to go to Albuquerque four times because of my doctor's appointments. This upset the schedule quite a bit, but the children were so great about making an almost daily trip to town, and behaved so well wherever we went. It was encouraging, too, to hear the positive comments from strangers about our family (and even enjoy a free meal!)

~Wednesday brought another trip to the dermatologist to check on my nose. Sadly, she thought at that time that the graft would not be taking and wanted me to return on Friday. At yesterday's appointment, she decided that she does think the graft will take, though the scarring will be more significant. We'll deal with that once the skin has healed more. For now, I'll have to continue keeping everything bandaged and will see her again on Dec. 30th. I'm so thankful for the many people who were praying about this for me, and I would appreciate your prayers for complete healing and amazingly minimal scarring. I'm also grateful for a very patient and loving husband who has taken care of this wound from day one!

~We've been experiencing the "humble and contrite" spirit much this week in our family. It is wonderful to see God at work in our children, answering our prayers for them, and bringing glory to Himself as He draws them into a deeper relationship with Him.

~We've enjoyed watching two versions of "A Christmas Carol" this week, one with George C. Scott (the one we normally watch), and the other with Patrick Stewart. Only the older boys watched the second one with us, and we liked it pretty well, but we still consider the Scott one to be our favorite. We'll be watching the original one that was done in 1951, I think, later this week. It's been fun to compare the different versions.

~Though it's something seemingly small, it's also quite significant, since we spend so many hours of our lives cleaning....I discovered Mrs. Meyers Clean Day GERANIUM scent, and I absolutely love it. The smell just makes you want to clean! Plus, it's safe for the children to use. I just dilute a small amount in a spray bottle and use it as my all-purpose cleaner. I've found that World Market has the best selection of Mrs. Meyers if you enjoy those products.

I'll close with a quote that expresses my thankful heart so very well....

"From David learn to give thanks for everything. Every furrow in the book of Psalms is sown with the seeds of thanksgiving."

Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667)

Love,

Queen Mom