Updated Finally

I am sadly falling behind in blogging. Many of you may be shocked to learn that this is my first time on the internet in 3 whole days! Two of those days I didn't even turn the computer on. I've been working hard in my yard, and then it was opening weekend of "Our Town" so I had many dress rehearsals and then performances (which by the way went really well). I'm glad that performances have started and I get to be home with my family most evenings now. Oh, and I've also been quilting like a mad woman. But I am enjoying myself.
Brief updates. Hannah wrote her name mostly by herself the other day, a moment to be proud of, of course it was in a card to my sister and thus got mailed to her. She also (with daddy's help) rode her "big-girl" bike with the training wheels around the block. Ivan is all boy and reminds us of that constantly. Clayton tonight learned to stand on his own. We had the piano bench on it's side in front the french doors so he couldn't fall down the back steps and he pulled himself up by one of the legs and stood there bouncing on his own two legs. It was very exciting.
And now I am going to watch Jeeves and Wooster with Erik. Goodnight.

Creation and Evolution

My heart feels heavy this morning. Last night I had two conversations with two different people about evolution and creation. The conversations were completely unrelated even though they happened only about an hour apart. The first was with a good friend who is a Christian and believes in what he termed the "long-day" view of Genesis chapter 1. The reasoning behind this being that there is so much "evidence" for evolution that it insults our intelligence (God gave us brains to use them after all) to ignore it and who are we to limit how God can create. That was a fascinating conversation but because we held common ground it wasn't without hope.
The second conversation was with the same man that I had my conversation with a week or so ago and that conversation felt completely devoid of hope. Not hope that I will argue him to my way of thinking...never that. But missing the hope that he will ever see the truth of who Jesus is. He thinks that to believe in the Bible is to throw all science out the window and that any science done by someone who believes in the Bible or a young earth is fluff. And I know that no matter what young earth science I show him he won't believe it, but that's because that's not the real issue. If the Bible is false from the beginning, then even though you may believe in "God" there is no personal responsibility, there is no "sin" or need for a Savior.
But where is my hope if the Bible is not true? Yes, there is a God, who has chosen to reveal himself through his word, Jesus Christ and through his word, the Bible so that we can know in some small way this amazing God that is beyond all comprehension. Because our God desires to have a relationship with us he sent his son Jesus and because of all of this I have hope that I will spend eternity in the presence of our Almighty God. If the Bible cannot be trusted from the first word, what part can I trust?
After the conversation was over, I left and I cried. Not because the conversation was hard, in fact this time around, I didn't say much, I just listened, but because I think I finally have an inkling of what God feels when we look at his creation and yet ignore Him and how he has revealed himself, and when we allow our intelligence to take the place of His...and so I cried.

1 Corinthians 1:17-25
For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel - not with words of human wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of it's power. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:
" I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate." Isaiah 64:4
Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.

I've been praying for opportunities now to share Christ and share the hope that I have in Him. I already know that this man thinks I'm foolish, so I have no fear there, I'm praying for the words to express this hope and this joy that I have in Jesus Christ. That I will find a receptive and willing-to-listen audience in my friend, for he does love to talk and argue, and that I will be bold when that opportunity arrives. Please pray in this with me.

Thanksgiving Dinner

Yesterday morning as I lay in bed (the kiddos actually let me do this for 30 whole minutes) I decided I really wanted "Thanksgiving Dinner". So we went to the store and picked up stuff. They didn't have whole turkeys and so I was forced to get a turkey breast and cook my stuffing outside the turkey but it all turned out delicious and I am really looking forward to leftovers today. I didn't make dessert or rolls or anything but we had turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes. When I told Erik what we were having for dinner he gave me the strangest look, I think it's because the night before I couldn't come up with one idea for dinner other than pumpkin waffles. It's only 10am but I might go eat some leftovers now.

Just Hair

I'm glad hair is just hair and it grows. Ivan wanted his hair cut like Daddy, so daddy did it. He buzzed it but thank goodness didn't shave it all off. I might have cried. So here are pictures of Erik and Ivan together. Ivan likes his hair but he didn't want to smile for the first picture.

2 Kings 2:23

Because of mis-communication and certain mishaps Erik is now bald. Erik has this fun cowlick at the back of his head that he can never get the same length as the rest of his hair no matter how many times he goes over it with the clippers. So he usually has me try because I can see what I'm doing. Well...I thought about trying it with the scissors, then decided against it and picked up the clippers to just do it that way, I turned them on and touched them to Erik's head just as he asked if I had put the attachment on...oops, too late. So instead of walking around with a huge bald spot on the back of his head he just shaved the rest of his hair off. The mis-communication was due to the fact that every time I have ever used the clippers on his hair he always has the attachment on and ready to go but this time he did not. I didn't think to look because he always has it ready for me and I've used the clippers maybe 10 times in my entire life...so all that being said, Erik is now bald. Our neighbors saw him and asked me what on earth possessed Erik to shave his head right before Fall; they sure did appreciate the laugh.

Bible-Believing Church

Today I had an absolutely fascinating conversation with a friend. Wait, let me back up. Today at church Pastor Dave talked about "throwing out the life-line" to those around us that are not saved, and some of the reasons why we do not. So all during the sermon I was praying for specific opportunities to share with specific people and also for the courage to do so when those occasions arose. I must say that my prayers were answered quite quickly today and thus I had this fascinating conversation with a friend. I mentioned something about being late for worship practice this morning and he asked,"What church do you go to again?"
I said, "Calvary Bible Church in Manzanita, the one right there on Laneda, same side as US Bank."
He said, "Oh, okay. What type of church would that be?"
I replied,"Well, it's kind of a non-denominational church, which is basically a denomination all it's own, but it's a basic Bible-believing church."
"Oh," said he, "you mean like literal history, creationism, the earth's only 6000 years old kind of Bible-believing?"
"Yes."
He was shocked to meet someone who believed in the Bible as literal history, and I have never before met someone who passionately believes that evolution and God can co-exist and that evolution is "guided by the gentle hand of God." Not only that but that religion and science are two separate things and when one tries to explain the other it crosses over the line of it's purpose. He also thinks that the Bible is one way to know God; a poetic, metaphorical way to know God but because God is so huge that we can't wrap our minds around him to limit ourselves to just the Bible is in a sense limiting God and giving us a very narrow view of who He is. ( He later also said, that there are many bibles and religions that all point us to god...)
I prayed the whole time for words to say and questions to ask with out being disrespectful or rude and it was a fun conversation of trying to explain to each other our different viewpoints. When I said that evolution cannot be a completely proven scientific fact he gave a little laugh and told me to bite my tongue and said that evolution is probably one of the most "stable" continuously proven theories.
Of course I asked questions like, what happens to original sin and the need for a Savior if there is death and decay before humans were ever in existence? And if natural selection is the method God chooses to further evolution what is the point of trying to cure death and disease or prolong life, aren't these the tools of natural selection?
I still as I write this am blown away by this conversation, it seemed so crazy and yet it was fascinating and fun. There was so much more to the conversation that what I've written here and I hope that he and I can continue to have conversations like this. I know that I will never argue him to faith in Jesus Christ and the one and only true God and Father but just to throw those seeds and let God handle the rest...I just feel so blessed right now to even have had this conversation...that at this moment I have no more words to say.

Dinner

Sometimes I try to make dinner interesting, but tonight I obviously failed...actually we just had a very tired girl tonight, but we didn't realize how tired until we left her at the table to finish her dinner and came back to find this only a few minutes later.

Pile O' Rock

This is my birthday present from Erik. I know it just looks like a pile of rocks...'cause that's actually what it is. It's a dump truck load of pit-run rock that I am slowly turning into rock borders and walls for flower beds and such. I'm very excited, I like playing with rocks!

Peaches

Well, they're done...mostly. I have no more jars and so I must be finished canning peaches. I have 70, yes seventy, quarts lining my cupboards and about half a box left to eat. We decided that we needed more peaches this year than I canned last year, so I got five boxes. I would have taken a picture and maybe in the near future I will, but I'm exhausted right now. I also have three boxes of apples sitting in my kitchen to make into applesauce; I'm so glad that they last longer than peaches because I have to find more jars (anyone got extras?). That's all. I'm going to go sit down.