Getting Fat!

Taken at 30 weeks.

Only 10 more to go!

To Have and To Hold

My niece, Nicole, is marrying her man: Matt, in 6 days!!!

Sorry we won't be able to be at the wedding, but best wishes to the happy couple. We love you and miss you and can't wait to see pictures and hear all about your day!!! Lots of love!

Fireman!

Well, we braved the cold 38-degrees this morning and headed out to the Caldwell Fire Station with a friend's pre-school group. The firemen weren't exactly sure what to do with a bunch of 3-4-5 year olds, so they skipped the lecture on "stop, drop and roll" and went right for the fire engines!


The pictures didn't turn out so great because no one would hold still and the lighting was bad inside the station, but at least you get the idea. Peter Parker began brave enough to try on the fire-fighter gear, but turned shy half-way through!

Sunday School

My husband has been teaching Sunday School at our church for the 12-14 age group. He is really enjoying it. Right now he is taking them through the Shorter Catechism and basically the objective is for them to walk away ready to say why they believe what they believe. I think that these are important lessons and tools for young people of that age... about to step it up and become young adults and then adults! My father always put a lot of emphasis on the Catechism, and I am thankful for that! I can still recite the answers to the questions that Hubby is using with the students right now.
Peter Parker has been learning the Children's Catechism. He is up to question 14. It brings tears of joy to my eyes to hear him say things like [Why should you glorify God?] "because he made me and takes care of me!" PP's teacher says that he does a really good job in SS and seems to really be absorbing the lessons and is very responsive. It's encouraging.
I am also enjoying SS. I am participating in a class about CS Lewis' book, Mere Christianity. The teacher is awesome and I am learning a lot. I was orignially supposed to be in a different class, but chickened out the first day because there wasn't enough seating in the room and by the time I tried to go in, the door was closed... so I went upstairs and sat in on the other one. I am glad that I did! Hopefully they don't care that I switched! The reason I was late to SS is because I am playing the piano for the children's song time (SS starts at 9:30 and they do singing from 9:30 to 9:40 before they go to class)... I am enjoying that as well! PP is very good at participating in the singing. He has been given an opportunity to play rhythm instruments each time. Maybe there's hope for a musical career after all! If I can just get him to match pitch!

The First Commandment

So this past Sunday my pastor began a sermon series on The Ten Commandments. Obviously his first sermon was on the first commandment! It was GOOD! I hadn't thought about a lot of things that he said before now and as I was listening... and then later involved in a discussion (we have small group on the 1st and 3rd Sunday of the month) that evening, I came up with a challenge for myself...

Idols do not just come in the form of tangible things. For example, if asked to think of an idol, a person might say: TV, computer, clothes, money, cars, a really good American singer, etc. But what about the things that are intangible???

Relationship with Husband/Wife, Friendships, Desires for Self or for others, Protection of Children... these things can be both good and bad... (wanting to keep your kids safe isn't a bad thing!) HOWEVER if they become more important than Christ!!! What then?!?!

I am going to try to nail down some of these for myself.
For starters... being organized and sticking to a schedule. Oh boy is that an idol for me! I'll let you know my progress on conquering it!

P.S. if you want to hear the sermon, go here. (not sure when it will be posted, so keep checking back)