A look in the rear-view mirror	December 31, 2005

As years go... this one's been fairly uneventful----that is, until I take a look in the rear-view mirror.  And when I do that, I realize just how much has taken place, how many things have changed and how many things have stayed pretty much the same.  I think if I were to highlight the year, perhaps the one event that tops my list would be the trip back to Indiana to visit Mother and Bill and to spend time in their home, to sit at their table and talk together, to see their favourite sights and to attend the dinner theater production of Beauty and the Beast at Beef & Boards in Indianapolis along with the day trip to Shipshewana to the "Amish country" to visit shops and see the farms.  We so enjoyed day trips to special historical sites including James Whitcomb Riley's home, Lincoln's boyhood home and a tour through the Benjamin Harrison house.  Then adding to that, the opportunity to meet one of our "online" friends face to face, to spend a bit of time with their family---well, that was a sweet highlight.

But when I think back on other things that were done in the past year... how could I forget the months of the now infamous "while you were out (of your mind) Family Bathroom Project" that was the generous gift from our son and daughter-in-law and other family members.  I nearly forgot all the days of tear-it-up-clean-it-up-tear-it-up-clean-it-up-tear-it-up-clean-it-up.   And then Timothy was gone... and gone and gone... A couple of language trips to Mexico, and working at Catalina for most of the summer.  Our family seemed to function fairly well without him, but he surely was missed as we went to the different Bible Conferences and camps.  It's amazing the particular influence of each family member and the way they sort of colour their part of the picture... and when they're absent, how obvious it is.

The year saw the passing of one of our grandparents along with one of the dearest saints we've ever known and the woman for whom our dolly 'melia is named.  It was a sad farewell for her prayers and faithful walk with the LORD surely were inspirational to us all.  At the first of the year, we hit the five year milestone of the passing of Wes's dad and that was quite a surreal time as we reflected on his life and influence on ours.    Pondering these things and many more, we saw the faithfulness of the LORD.  While we've had many disappointments in things and people and circumstances---we surely have seen the LORD utterly faithful and entirely merciful to us all. 

We've continued our weekly Bible studies, exploring life as a fellowship of believers... and being "outside" the church as we've known it has had its challenges and its joys.   It's been richly rewarding to grow with the girls in our Wednesday night dinner and study.   Other times of weekly gathering have been a blessing as we've met with different friends through the year.  We continue to seek the LORD and His leading as we walk with other believers and serve the LORD.

We celebrated lots of birthdays, anniversaries, accomplishments and other milestones----there were lots of home comings and goings away.  In a family this big, there're also lots of other funnies that go on most every day... kids graduate to bigger beds, learn to sleep in their own bed (for a night or two), kids learn to tie shoes, they lose teeth, learn how to climb up the kitchen doorway and do a chin-up there, too.  Kids learn to hide in the laundry basket, covering themselves with laundry and pop out at precisely the right moment to scare the daylights out of their mama----happens every time!  Kids learned to swim, hold their breath under water and ride a bike without training wheels.  Kids learned to read better, write better, spell better and pick up the milk cap and put it back on the bottle.  We memorized movie lines----actually so many movie lines that Daddy was forced to invoke a "movie fast" for the last six weeks of the year.  No kidding.  Can you imagine what the first New Year's activity will be (after banging on the pots and pans and yelling Happy New Year!! to the world outside)??

We didn't do all the stuff we intended to do and we didn't write letters we should've written or make calls we should've made.  We stayed up too late and ate too many treats.  We read the Word, but didn't memorize passages as we should've and we didn't get all the projects done that we'd intended to do.  Our garden was small, our yard work barely kept up with the weeds and the tares.  But... when we had opportunity, we laughed a lot, played a lot and worked hard when opportunities presented themselves.  I guess that's okay------gives us much more to hope and plan for in the coming year.  We know lots of ways things don't work out very well... so, we're ready to implement the things that do!

The past year has afforded us many opportunities to walk with and wait upon the LORD...  and so we close this year the way it began... with a prayer of thanksgiving and praise.  We want to be found faithful and waiting on Him.  And so, I guess, more than anything... we want to be quiet in the year ahead... quiet enough to hear the LORD and still enough to listen and eager to be vessels for His use.  I don't know what the year ahead will bring... I have a few guesses and there are some plans on the drawing board, so to speak.  But, I don't know about tomorrow---I just know Who holds tomorrow in His hands.

I am thankful to all who read this blog for the kind encouragement throughout the year.  I look forward to the new year ahead and to what the LORD may bring our way.  So, thanks and blessings to you all.

A glimpse of pictures in the rear-view mirror

More of the absurd	December 30, 2005

I suppose the silliest news story has been saved for last---if samesex marriages are not pitiful enough, what's gone from indecent to absurd is the story of a woman who married a dolphin.  No, I couldn't make this up---truth is, indeed, stranger than fiction.  Seems a 41 year-old Jewish millionaire married her long time sweetheart.  As children are prone to do---one of the children in the crowd asked: "But what kind of children would they have?" I am sort of wondering what kind of life could they have?!?!

December 29, 2005

Note: thanks to all who've written regarding yesterday's  (12/28) post on the movies.  I so appreciate all your thoughtful letters, the comments left on the comment board and in the guest book.  I have a couple more posts to do regarding this issue and a couple regarding the 'church' today.  I pray to be an encouragement in doing so.

More subtle and absolute social engineering	December 28, 2005

(the following was begun a couple of days ago... interesting collision of connected events or thoughts this week)

It's another one of those "I have no mouth and yet I must scream" moments.  I just completed the reading of David Kupelian's commentary  on the movie "Brokeback  Mountain."   Arrrrgh, I think and bleck, and then I pray to the LORD and say:  O God---please help this land!   And then I see it again... the diaprax --- more and more and more as each day passes: the extraordinary broad brush manipulation of society by the marketers of immoral and depraved teaching and the gross exploitation of guaranteed emotional reactions and the reassigning preconceived notions.  It's as if hollywood is goading the masses of "conservatives" into watching their productions and then subtly  or cleverly tucking in some emotionally arresting scenes---pushing the envelope just a tad more with each passing year.

Well, I wrote the above a couple of days ago---last night as we were closing our eyes to sleep for the night, my husband was praying for wisdom, for the LORD's direction and for His help as we live and move in this society that's essentially a modern day Sodom.   Our senses had been punctured with a searing iron earlier last night.  We had gone on a date and decided to go to the movies---a rare enough occurrence!  We didn't have a particular movie in mind but had seen an advertisement for what looked to be a  "Christmastime family event" movie.    I know, I know... I should have used Screen It   before we left so that I would know what was not initially obvious in the movie---but even now, today,  after reading the review on Screen It, I realize that  we probably would have decided to see it and would not have thought we'd be so profoundly affected.   It was to me, much like David Kupelian  wrote in his commentary regarding the move he was addressing... the screen writers are very clever in introducing material that has to be "accepted" by the viewer because to not do so would be to have a narrow minded view or a "homophobic" attitude about people and their actions.

The sincere and "sensitive" manner in which the homosexual couple is presented in the movie is incredibly cunning and could be emotionally captivating---the plot also demands acceptance of a few other emotionally assaulting circumstances.  The grown children are gathering at the family home for Christmas and the oldest son is bringing home a woman the other members completely dislike.  The family is very typical of many American families---very liberal, loyal to one another, very accepting of immorality and defensive of homosexuality.  The very subtle way the writers demand acceptance of the "couple" is that one of the sons is deaf and his "partner" is of a different race---so for the viewer to disagree would be not only intolerant, not only homophobic, but racist and bigoted as well----and then to judge their desire to adopt a child would be to deny them the happiness of having a family that every couple deserves to have (see the stacked deck?). Then... because (as you learn from a very tender and dramatic and emotionally arresting scene between the mother and father) the mother has obviously had a mastectomy (and is attempting to keep secret the fact that she's sick again) you come to understand she is terminally ill and so you're pulled into her struggle---you're led to identify with her pain.  The strongly opinionated mother is convincing during a dinner scene/confrontation as one who hoped all her sons would be homosexual so that they'd stay with her (and never marry?).   What a gross self-serving, selfish desire---how indicative this thought-pattern is in our society.  Regardless of how actions will affect others or how actions will influence others---self is satisfied or gratified first.

So.... All day today I've felt as though I saw things last night that I so disagree with---or,  rather, that I am so completely convinced are sinful and indecent---though I know they are present in countless families, I wish I never saw the images I see today.  I feel the attempted manipulation and deception by what we saw and what I really should've known would've ended up that way --- given the actors that made up the cast of the movie.  So I find myself affirming what I know to be true and right and righteous altogether.  To be against homosexuality is not homophobic---it's not judgmental; the Bible calls it sin and that's why a believer would and should stand against it---just as a believer should and must take a stand against any other sexual sin or immoral behaviour---regardless of the physical conditions or limitations of the people involved.  So, would I recommend the movie The Family Stone?  No---and for many more reasons than I shared briefly here.

Christians are being bullied into submission to societal "norms" and coerced into accepting lifestyles, situations and decisions that they know are immoral and/or ungodly but do so just to keep peace or save face so as not to appear legalistic or judgmental.  Movies, clothing, music, magazines, television shows----and on and on.   Sadly, the conditions worsen because of failure to make and take a stand against them.  This is sort of like the terrorism that's going on all over the world---only this is terrorism of a different sort.  People are gagged by fear to speak the truth and constrained by those who seem to have authority over them but in reality, they do not have authority over them at all.  Terrorists have great power by their threats and occasional acts of violence---liberals do the same.   So, in fear of man, Christians don't take stands against adultery, pornography, homosexuality, and a myriad of other matters common to man.   Perhaps it's because so many are involved in them themselves(!).   The church, so busy with building bigger barns and meeting "felt needs" is missing mercy and truth, putting fear of man before reverential fear of God, accommodation of desires ahead of denial of self, and entertains the compromise of Truth rather than declaring and defending Truth.  Hollywood is subtly setting the course of the nation by covertly pleasing the eyes, satisfying the flesh and whispering in itching ears.  Until Christians end the preoccupation with popular opinion and become occupied with following Jesus and knowing and obeying Truth, we will see in epic proportions far more devastating and greater than the pages of Scripture reveal about Sodom and Gomorrah.  It's grievous: the disregard for consequences of sin and folly and the arrogance of man over the Living God.

  It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Hebrews 10.31

 

happy Christmas!	December 25, 2005

 
A happy 9th birthday for sweet Naomi

A bit of sense...	December 21, 2005

Finally, knowledge and common sense is displayed by a judge who's rightly dividing the laws of the land and is recognizing the clarity of the first Amendment to the constitution---that the First Amendment does not erect a wall of separation between church and state as a freedom from religion, but rather protects the free exercise thereof.   Why is this so difficult for scholars to decipher as if it were some vague and mysteriously written piece of legislation?!  In what surely proves dialectic praxis, a case of an erroneous and oft repeated phase (the wall of separation between church and state) being repeated over and over until it's adopted and accepted as truth. 

One of the greatest misnomers of all would be the American Civil Liberties Union---which is any thing but!   So, the story's about a A U.S. appeals court  that upheld a decision by a lower court regarding allowing the Ten Commandments to remain in a courthouse display.  This, from the Worldnet Daily piece: "The county display the ACLU sued over included the Ten Commandments, the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, the Magna Carta, the Star Spangled Banner, the national motto, the preamble to the Kentucky Constitution, the Bill of Rights to the U. S. Constitution and a picture of Lady Justice."    Once again I am thinking: ACLU, leave.  Go---go to where there are no freedoms, where there is no reverence for God and His righteousness.  Go to where there is no freedom to express faith in the Lord God.  Go to where it's dark---see what real oppression is like.  Our country is at war because of oppression such as that.  Our country was founded by those who bravely sought freedom of religion and fled religious persecution---only to, two hundred years later, have that freedom assaulted and denied.   The ACLU continually barges its way into American's lives, meddling in people's affairs, dismantling every vestige of religious freedom and expression in an attempt to sterilize this nation from all the things that built it.  It's pitiful and shameful that these ravenous, malicious buffoons are continually given the platforms and power to devastate everything in their path and leave such deception and destruction in their wake.

More Cookies, cookies, cookies...	December 21, 2005

I was remiss in not including the frosting recipe for the Sugar Cookies.   If you sift 5 cups of powdered sugar (confectioner's sugar) and then add three egg whites, and 1/4 cup of lemon juice, and then whip it for several minutes in the KitchenAid or with a hand mixer, then you'll have a great icing for cookies which will be thin enough to pipe around the edge of each cookie (use a pastry bag with a plain line tip---a #4 or 5 or so), and then if you want to flood the inside of those piped lines (once the piped lines are set a bit they form a great boundary), you might thin the frosting a bit to fill each cookie---or add powdered sugar to thicken the frost.  This works really well for solid cookies or cookies you will strongly define and then perhaps add a couple of decos ---like for snowflakes or bells or gingerbread boys & girls (press the mini-choc chip buttons or red hots or sparkly sugar or whatever on the cookies just before they're 'set' and the candies will stay in place). This frosting will harden nicely and you can "stack" cookies on a plate and not have them stick together.  If you don't have pastry bags, then you can use zip-lock bags filled with frosting and just snip the ever tip of one of the bottom corners.  This is a simple solution, and works adequately, but I'd recommend investing in a few pastry bags.  If you wash and dry them properly, they'll last for many yeas.  I have some bags that are at least 10 years old and they're just fine today.

So, it's beginning to look a lot like...   whew... we're running out of time!  Naomi's birthday is coming up so quickly! ~smile~

 

Daddy... lookit what we did... cuhdjew taka  picher of us---please, Daddy?!?!?

Cookies, cookies, cookies...	December 20, 2005

Watch... the winds are blowing...	December 20, 2005

And if you're not real careful, real prayerful, real watchful and real spiritually discerning, the winds will blow and tickle your ears.  Listen long enough, and you might accept, adopt and apply the winds of doctrinal change and the dialectic praxis will blow you away.  Interestingly enough, the winds are blowing from some unlikely corners and are blowing along some very clever lines. 

I like the work of Discernment Ministries and look forward to reading their newsletters.  I look for sites like these bcz of the prevalence of new-age-driven-emergent-purpose-name-it-and-claim-it sort of sites.  I stand against them and make no apology for that---but I do attempt to not be obnoxious about it all---but I understand that those who do not jump on the bandwagon of purpose or the couch of the emergent conversation are offensive and narrow to those who've bought into the whole one emerging purpose world.  So, I was reading the newsletter that I receive by email and then went on to read their blog entry for today.

I also like to read articles at a couple of other sites that amplify what's going on in the "church" today---and what's *not* going on.  One site I really like is Eastern Regional Watch---Discernment Resource Ministries and the wide variety of articles listed in several categories.   I do a bit of looking for good apologetics sites and for conservative theology sites, too.   But... I suggest very careful scrutiny and caution when just searching sites on the net----there are many that *seem* so good on the surface and then tragically, it becomes apparent that they're aligned with false teachers.  So caution... always caution.

 

It's Christmas week...	December 19, 2005

So, instead of lots of blogging...  lots of baking's going on!  I'll attempt to put up a few more recipes and Christmas writings in the next couple of days.  For today... I made the "(Dumb)Three Ingredient Cookies."  There's a story behind these.  Shortly after our son's wedding, I realized that my attempts at meal preparation and presentation were feeble, at best.  O, I had thought I was a competent cook, no one had died from my cooking and actually, many really thought meals were pretty okay coming from my kitchen.  Well, so that first Christmas, our new daughter in law was making one of her over the top gourmet desserts (no, really, she makes fabulous entrees and deserts!!) and so, there she was in our kitchen --- which is spacious enough for a few projects to be going on at a time. 

She was preparing the chocolate orange truffle sauce for the chocolate meringue torte that was layered with chocolate mousse filling and shaved chocolate topping---and not cheap chocolate, either.  So I was standing there... observing the creation and the procedures taking place in my kitchen and was gathering the ingredients for my cookies while the white almond bark was melting in the microwave oven.  Then I used pan spray on the foil that I had placed on the dryer to prevent the cereal balls from sticking... and then it dawned on me... here I was, married all these years... had had a few accomplishments---though I couldn't remember a single one at that point---and I had hostessed hundreds of gatherings and made a gazillion meals and on and on... So, there I was making those dumb three ingredient cookies---melting the package of white bark, and getting ready to add to that bowl 4+ cups of CocoaPuffs, 1 Cup of peanuts and a cup+ of miniature marshmallows. 

Slaving away, I stirred the cereal, peanuts and marshmallows---using the rubber spatula to both clean the bowl and stir the cereal, peanuts and marshmallows until they were all coated evenly.  The kitchen was buzzing...  Kathryn was washing dishes, utensils and measuring items.  Our daughter-in-law was busily dredging the orange peel through the dark chocolate in the double-boiler to flavour it just a tad.  I was busily dropping the soup-spoon sized mounds onto the sprayed parchment.  Little ones were walking off with the mounds as soon as they were set. 

She cooled the chocolate to the precise temperature for the heavy whipping cream---and whipped it to the precise consistency.  I dropped the last snowball shape onto the paper and went over to the sink that contained half my kitchen and washed my bowl and spatula and put them away.  I threw away the wrapper to the bark, the box to the cereal and capped the peanuts and probably tried to hide the remaining marshmallows.   Her superb creation was taking shape beautifully.  Slowly and carefully, all the layers were assembled.  It was spectacular.  I can't exactly recall now, but when her magnificent dessert was completely assembled, and the chocolate was elegantly drizzled over it and the chocolate curls were added and the top was lightly dusted with sifted sugar... well... it was beautiful!   

That was the Christmas I realized I was in a new place---and it didn't feel lofty.  It wasn't all that grand---I felt as dumb as the cookies.   I had a lot to learn and nothing to prove.  Now I see I really have nothing to prove and yet still a lot to learn.  But, I learned somewhere along the way that it's not all about me and not all about what I think's happening or how it feels to me---it's really all about whatever's going on at the time for everyone---everyone's story's being written simultaneously and uniquely.  That day was a day for our daughter-in-law to shine and she surely did---very much so.  That was seven years ago... and just this afternoon I made a few batches of those dumb cookies.  This time, alone.  I mixed them up and dropped them onto the counter... let them cool and when they were set, I put them in plastic 'storage boxes' for the cookie trays for later this week.   The kitchen was quiet.... only two children were home and the kitchen wasn't abuzz as it usually is.  So, those dumb cookies fill several plastic boxes.  I'm pretty sure the grandchildren will be among the first to eat them up... along with the pretzels I coated with the white almond bark today and all the other cookies, breads and candies we're planning to prepare throughout the week.

---

In the news... Who'da thunk it?

As I was perusing the news, and after reading several pieces, I was struck by the blatant audaciousness of what will become societal norms in America---all in the name of political correctness.  I was further struck by the astonishing power of a relative few---by the political sway of a small percentage of the population and by the normalization of once radical--even obscene practices.  And so... America.  Poor anemic, hemorrhaging America.  Ameriraq or perhaps Muslimerica will one day be the name of this country if the weakening and the perversion of original intent for this nation continues. 

I am marveling today at the news regarding the eavesdropping on phone conversations of people with al-Qa'ida connections.  It's surprising to me the uproar about it all and perhaps just as surprising is the continual disarming or the debilitation of American soldiers by those who, in the name of political-correctness, are undermining the war effort---true war, with appropriate boundaries already in place, cannot be made kinder and gentler and still be effective.  What seems to be going on is what's been going on for some time---a sort of feminization of military, thus a weakening of military.  Interrogation techniques or tactics already had sufficient boundaries in place.  Can you imagine what it would have been like to have Viet Nam on the daily play-by-play then as is done with this war today?  Can you imagine the way the war effort would have gone had any number of US presidents, FD Roosevelt, Truman or Eisenhower  just to name a few, had armchair ambassadors and political-correctness watchdogs in force?  Bill Clinton did---and seemed to have listened to them.   It seems that spying on members of a known terrorist organization seems only prudent---eavesdropping on their phone conversations, likewise.  I guess it's not upsetting to me bcz it's sort of a given that people's lives are easy to track---businesses do it all the time---financial institutions trade information daily, and there is really very little anonymity anywhere.  And for those that have something to hide, I guess I think it's permissible to discover it---we *are* at war.

Speaking of former president Clinton...  So, I continued reading through the news headlines and thought: what a mess society is in!  I can't get over a line in a news story:   " "Mr Clinton congratulates Sir Elton, 58, and David Furnish, 42, and says: "If there were more people like Elton, the world would be a better place." "  A better place.  Hmmm.  The world would go no place... in a hurry.  But there would be music.

Thank you...	December 18, 2005