A Free Ride

Lately, when we take a walk, Chaeli ends up riding her tricycle and Dillon ends up walking. So it never fails that Dillon gets tired and needs a lift. We had carried Dillon for a bit, but then Chaeli offered him a ride on the back of her tricycle. What a gal! She "drove" him at least 1/3 of our walk! Dillon was quite tickled about it and enjoyed himself immensely!

Fit for Heaven

When are we fit for heaven?

Is it when we have lived a long life of discipleship and no longer yield to temptation? Or is it from the moment we accept Jesus as Saviour and Lord, like the thief on the cross?

In her classic treatment of the life of Christ, The Desire of Ages, Ellen White offers an arresting answer: "Love to man is the earthward manifestation of the love of God. It was to implant this love, to make us children of one family, that the King of glory became one with us. And when His parting words are fulfilled, 'Love one another, as I have loved you' (John 15:12); when we love the world as He has loved it, then for us His mission is accomplished. We are fitted for heaven; for we have heaven in our hearts" (641).

As we meditate on amazing grace, as His divine love floods over our being, we begin to be changed into His likeness. And as God loves the world, so do we.

(Excerpt from Jesus, A Heart Full of Grace, June 6) I really appreciated this thought today. I want so much to be fitted for heaven with the love of Christ reigning supremely in my heart, not just for God and those close to me, but also for each person that Christ has made! I want to love because He first loved me!

Prayer Meeting

This post is not what you're thinking if you're just going off the title! My son is just so funny! With David being a Pastor now, Dillon hears a lot of words and really doesn't know what they mean. One of them is "prayer meeting." So all day yesterday Dillon decided that he was going have prayer meeting. Obviously by the picture he didn't really know what goes on at prayer meeting, but it's a word he knows! He collected his toys and then sat on the steps playing for quite some time. When he woke up from his nap, he was right back at it. I asked him if he was going to be a Pastor like Papa when he grows up and he said sweetly, "yeah."

A Treat for Papa

After Chaeli's nap, I asked her what she would like to do tonight and she replied by saying, "Make a treat for Papa (that's David)." So we decided on cookies and that was our task for the evening while he was gone! A friend of mine had just given me a recipe that looked pretty yummy, so that's what we tried, with our own revisions, of course. :)

Cranberry Pecan Oatmeal Cookies
4 T butter, softened
3 T oil
1/2 C cane juice crystals
1 egg replacer (or I used flaxmeal "egg")
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 C oats
1/4 C wheat germ
1 C whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 C dried cranberries
1/2 C chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 375. Beat the butter and oil together till completely blended. Add cane juice crystals, "egg", vanilla, and salt. Set aside. In separate bowl combine oats, wheat germ, flour, and baking powder. Add dry ingredients to liquid and stir well to combine. Stir in cranberries and nuts. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto baking sheets (sprayed or lined with parchment paper). bake cookies for 10 minutes. Cool on wire racks. Enjoy cause they're yummy!

Cheap Entertainment

With the price of most things going UP, it's nice to know that there is one thing in town that is still cheap! My kids love to ride the Meijer "Penny Ponies," and at the price of a penny, who can say no!?

"An approving conscience , a contented spirit, sweet communion with Jesus, will make us the happiest beings in the world." (Signs of the Times, Dec. 8, 1887)

City Gardening

Let me first start by telling you that my garden is a work in progress (it's too bad we're soon to be moving closer to our churches!). My garden is located in what use to be a swimming pool. Before we moved into this house, the old swimming pool was punctured, drained, and filled in with fill dirt and many other unimaginable things! Last year we planted in this spot for the first time (it's the largest spot available in our backyard) and as David was desperately trying to rotatille the ground, he came across many large rocks, cable, toys, and miscellaneous objects that had been buried beneath the dirt. It's really not the ideal spot, but it's all we have and I must have a garden!

Secondly, here in Michigan, it's just finally warm, so while many of you, are already eating the fruits of your labor, I just started planting a few short weeks ago!
You must be asking yourself, what in the world these are in my garden!! So here is the story. I had just planted my tiny little tomato plants...all eight of them. It was then time for lunch so I took the kids in and was only gone a about an hour! In that time, my hungry neighborhood squirrels had done away with the leaves on four of them!!! They are my worst offenders! No deer in this neighborhood. So anyway, in an attempt to keep the squirrels away, we covered them up and poked holes in the bags so that water and sunshine could get through! It's been over a week now and the plants look great so the little "greenhouse" we created has worked! A couple of them actually came off today. The rest will come off this week as they are not so "young and tender" now.
Above: cucumber plants, the little tiny ones just sprouting up are about three weeks behind the older plants. That's so they all don't arrive at the same time!


Above is my basil, thyme, and oregano. I needed a container to plant them in, and frankly, I was too cheap to buy one. I have two recycling containers so I figured one should be turned into a gardening center. It has holes in the bottom and everything. It's perfect and I didn't spend a dime! :)

These are the hands of my gardening assistant, age 4. She has become side tracked by a rolypoly. I must admit, she did first help remove some of the maple leaf helicopters that have plagued our garden and tried to overtake the little seedlings that are trying to pop through.