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Apr 29, 2008

April Birthdays

I have been meaning to post these pictures all week, but I have been more or less consumed with my term paper, which I finished yesterday - 3 whole hours before I had to hand it in! It isn't that I waited until the last minuet to get started, the paper was half done weeks ago. It is just that I write best under pressure so once I knew what I wanted to write about I stopped writing until the end was very near.




But now that monkey is off my back. And here are a few pictures from Jacob and Cadence's birthdays. This year was the first time Jacob wanted his own birthday party (their birthdays are only 5 days apart). I don't know why he didn't want a princess cake!




I gave Jacob a choice between having a "themed" party with family and taking a friend to Chuck E. Cheese (the trip to Chuck E. Cheese cost a little less than the TMNT cake). He decided to take his friend to Chuck E. Cheese, but his friend ended up sick, so the family went to Chuck E. Cheese. A few days later he went and played laser tag with his friend. One thing that I learned was NEVER go to Chuck E. Cheese on a Saturday afternoon. That place was a madhouse - we usually go at weird times (since I make up my own schedule) like Tuesday morning when all the kids are in school. He wanted chocolate cake with fudge frosting, and we had Grandma and Nate over to have cake with us.





Aside from some cool presents, he got $100 for his birthday. He has been planing for months to take the family out to dinner when he could afford it. He wanted to take us to Old Country Barfett (his favorite restaurant) but they recently went out of business. His second choice was Friendly's. I tried and tried to talk him out of it, but that just made him mad. I suggested cheaper places, places we had coupons for, just take everyone for ice cream. But he was insistent - he didn't care if it wiped him out (after savings, tithe, and putting money away for his trip with Dad in the fall). So he put up over $40 to take us all out to dinner. He has a very sweet and generous heart!





Cadence wanted a princess cake, but every day she wanted a princess. The day I bought the candle, it was Cinderella. Grandma and Nate came over again, and Cadence had a great time eating pizza (her all time favorite food) and opening her presents. For some reason, we have a lot more pictures of her than we do of Jacob. She was very excited to get a guitar from Bobby and Nanny, and she also enjoyed all of her presents that had anything to do with princesses. Thankfully, the Disney Princesses have replaced Gollum. Each morning I have to play "guess which princess name Cadence will answer to today." Giselle from Enchanted is probably her favorite. She is totally obsessed with that movie. Todd tells her "Your my best Giselle" and she tells Todd "Your my best Robert!" (the handsome man Giselle falls in love with).

Apr 15, 2008

Home Stretch

Over the weekend I finished my report for the 3rd quarter of school. The end is in sight. I think that in 6 weeks we will be done with everything (except math and spelling because we will do those over the summer). I am thinking that we might spend lots of time at the MOST over the summer since I just bought an annual pass and maybe we will study and report on some of the exhibits there.

For the most part, Jacob has progressed really well this quarter. But then there are days like today...He couldn't remember how to count past 79 today and all through math it was like he had no concept of anything. Maybe he just needs a day off...the school kids are all off this week, but I have found in the past that taking a whole week off of school makes my next week really hard.

Gabriel is doing really well too. Of course I don't have to report on him for two more years, but I do stop and reflect on where he is when I do Jake's report. Yesterday he picked out a book to read to my niece, Nicole (who happened to pop in for a surprise visit). He picked out Goodnight Moon and I said "that is an easy book" - Nicole thought I was nuts...until he read it and several more books to her!

Apr 11, 2008

Expelled

I am so excited about this movie!!! Check it out. You gotta love Ben Stein.

Apr 10, 2008

Point, Gabriel.

Yesterday I took my kids to the library to get out new books. On average, we have about 30 books out at a time and most of the librarians know me by name. So going to the library is normally nothing to write about. But yesterday was different. It has been a long time coming, but yesterday I really felt like I lost my first argument with Gabriel - in the basement of the Solvay Library.

One of the books he picked out was a chapter book - a Junie B. Jones book to be exact. I told him that he could not get it because it was too hard for him. "No its not" he said. "Yes it is, you aren't really big enough to read that book," I told him. "Yes I am!" he insisted. He was determined, but I was more determined (I thought). So I said, "Okay, open it up and read some of it to me." And then he did. He read the first page without any trouble. At that point, there was nothing left for me to do. Gabriel checked out his first chapter book. Gabriel finally won an argument with me (I'm not sure his father has even accomplished that one:) I can't even imagine trying to reason with him in ten years! Of course, he will probably be in law school by then...

Apr 2, 2008

My Apologetics



No, not my apologies. I'm not sorry about anything, especially not my faith. I am nearing the end of a course in apologetics being offered at a local church. I jumped at the opportunity to take this class for several reasons (including but not limited to "I have to get out of this house!") and boy am I glad I did it. The first several weeks I was thinking that maybe it was a mistake because it felt like I wasn't really gleaning anything new. It felt too much like a community education class (which is essentially what it is) and just wasn't heady enough for me. I have recently come the realization that I am nerd. I love to stick my nose deep in a book, or several books. I look forward to writing a research paper. Basically, I love to learn - it is one of my favorite things to do.




People often ask "What is apologetics?" or if they know what it is, "Why is it called apologetics?"

So here it is for you, a definition. My interest in apologetics stems from my interest in church history. I don't remember exactly how it happened, but I know that I became interested in Martin Luther in 9th grade and wrote a paper about him for English that year. I continue to be intrigued by the question "how did the church go from Acts 2 to the the church of the 16th century?" So anyways, my academic interest in the church was further peaked when I heard Ravi Zacharias on the radio several years ago. I am consistently frustrated and embarrassed by Christians who don't have any idea what they believe or why they believe it. So I have set out to educate myself...


My expectation for an apologetics class was that it would consistently challenge my intellect and help me to expand my understanding of Christianity while improving my ability to defend what I believe. What I absolutely did not expect, was to have challenge after challenge posed to my heart. Our teacher's theme is reminiscent of a concept that his father (a salesman) taught him as a boy " you can win the argument but lose the sale". He has stated over and over again in a hundred different ways that if our defense of Christianity is not rooted in love we will never be able to win anyone.


This week we examined some of Francis Schaeffer's ideas including the one that we are not just called to interact with the world but to impact it. This goes hand in hand with what Jordan has been preaching (it is basically the whole idea behind our church). How do we impact the world? There were a few different points that were covered, but this one really challenges me: "The principle of the practice of an observable love and oneness among all true Christians regardless of who and where they are" It is also referred to as "The Mark of the Christian" which Jesus laid out in John 13:34-35 "Love one another".


I know lots of people (I think especially of a few different pastor's kids) who have been completely turned off by the lack of love that they experienced in the church. How often does the church embrace God's holiness (outwardly requiring everyone to live by some or all of the standards God has given us) and reject God's love? Conversely, many of the mainstream churches today are all about God's love (tolerance) to the point where they have put His holiness on a shelf. Holiness without love produces a harsh gospel, and love without holiness produces a weak gospel. The challenge, for those who desire to be set apart, is to demonstrate God's holiness and love simultaneously. I think that if we can teach whole groups of people to really live by that standard, there will be great impact on the world around us.