A Living Prayer

Ron Block, who wrote this song, said:
"What it (A Living Prayer) does mean is that we cease from our own effort, our own works, our own labor, that we "enter His rest" (Hebrews) and trust Christ within us to live through us. C.S. Lewis called it 'gentle possession.' The apostle Paul said, "I no longer live, but Christ lives within me." Real Christianity and real spirituality are nothing but Christ living through the human by the human's reliant submission to Him."

Sung by one of my all-time favorites:  Alison Krauss

Please press PAUSE on my music player first.

God Moves In A Mysterious Way

One of my favorite hymns... seems fitting for the times.

God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never-failing skill
He treasures up His bright designs,
And works His sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy, and shall break
In blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.

Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan his work in vain;
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain. 

Jesus Christ the Apple Tree

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Jesus Christ the Apple Tree

The tree of life my soul hath seen,
Laden with fruit and always green:
The trees of nature fruitless be
Compared with Christ the apple tree.

His beauty doth all things excel:
By faith I know, but ne'er can tell
The glory which I now can see
In Jesus Christ the apple tree.

I'm weary with my former toil,
Here I will sit and rest awhile:
Under the shadow I will be,
Of Jesus Christ the apple tree.

This fruit doth make my soul to thrive,
It keeps my dying faith alive;
Which makes my soul in hasate to be
With Jesus Christ the apple tree.

For happiness I long have sought,
And pleasure dearly I have bought:
I missed of all; but now I see
'Tis found in Christ the apple tree.

Anonymous
collection of Joshua Smith
New Hampshire
1784

I grew up singing in choirs that sounded a lot like this and singing this music. It brings back many fond memories of my childhood. 

For "the kingdom of God belongs to such as these."  Luke 18:16

Advent Prayer

Lord Jesus, master of both the light and the darkness,

send your Holy Spirit upon our preparations for Christmas.

We who have so much to do seek quiet spaces to hear your voice each day.

We who are anxious over many things look forward to your coming among us.

We who are blessed in so many ways long for the complete joy of your kingdom.

We whose hearts are heavy seek the joy of your presence.

We are your people, walking in darkness, yet seeking the light.

To you we say, "Come Lord Jesus!"  Amen.

-Henri Nouwen

From the Christmas Sermons

"The celebration of Advent is possible only to those who are troubled in soul, who know themselves to be poor and imperfect, who look forward to something greater to come.  For these, it is enough to wait in humble fear until the Holy One himself comes down to us, God in the child in the manger.  God comes.  The Lord Jesus comes.  Christmas comes.  Christians rejoice!"
-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Little Lamb, Who Made Thee?

William Blake was born yesterday, 1757.  One of his most famous poems is one of my favorites. It’s a good launch into Advent.

Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?
Gave thee life, and bid thee feed,
By the stream and o'er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing, woolly, bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice?
Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?

Little Lamb, I'll tell thee, 

Little Lamb, I'll tell thee. 

He is called by thy name,
For He calls Himself a Lamb.
He is meek, and He is mild;
He became a little child.
I a child, and thou a lamb,
We are called by His name.
Little Lamb, God bless thee!
Little Lamb, God bless thee

My Children

Joe took a movie with the camera that was just hilarious. I would have LOVED to upload it on to this blog... but then half-way through the recording, (ahem) someone stood up.

Columbus Day Zoo Outing

,

Another Drum Lesson

A New Ragu

I made this easy and awesome bolognese sauce with ground turkey. I think it came from The Barefoot Contessa. It was simply delish. Also, I sneaked in some quinoa via elbows!!! Kids couldn't tell the difference. Score.

Sauté lots of onions and garlic in olive oil... the more the better, in my opinion.

add carrots and celery

then brown the GROUND TURKEY

add crushed tomatoes

sprinkle in oregano and parsley... and a pinch of salt and pepper, to taste.

Just Finished it tonight! Loved it!



Sarah Edwards... Lilias Trotter... Gladys Aylward... Esther Ahn Kim... Helen Roseveare... wow... wow... wow. I could probably relate to Sarah the best (even though I don't have eleven children, and I am NOT married to a "difficult man"), as she was "faithful in the mundane". Maybe that should be my new motto...

Daughter of the Happiest Mother...

La Soupe du Jour

soften 1 cup of shredded carrots and 1/4 cup of sliced green onions in 3 T butter

add 1/4 cup flour

very slowly add 2 cups of milk

add 250 ml chicken stock

bring to a boil

stir in chicken and cheese until melted

serve

et voilà... C'est tres bon!

Uncle Victor Was Here

Strong silent type, passionate about his relationship with Jesus (seriously... really really loves the Lord!), works hard, loves worship music, into exercise and fitness, serves at church, plays guitar, has a great laugh, adores children, still waiting for the right one... any takers????

The Happiest Boy on Earth II

It's all Benji's been talking about.
"When are you gonna start your lawn mower?????"

This made Benji really really happy.

A Misconstrued Term of Endearment

Chicken Poop...

Chicken Poop...

Chicken Poop...

What did you say?

Chicken Poop

Why are you saying that Benji?

Chicken Poop just went upstairs to take a bath and get ready for bed.



That would be Charlotte... a.k.a. "Chickie Pooh"

The Happiest Boy on Earth

Please press PAUSE on my music player first.

Knowing God

I am reading this book... again.

And I am so inspired... again.

In the first chapter, he quotes one of my all time favorites... C. H. Spurgeon... who was only TWENTY years old when he wrote this:

It has been said by someone that "the proper study of mankind is man." I will not oppose the idea, but I believe it is equally true that the proper study of God's elect is God; the proper study of a Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father.

There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity. Other subjects we can compass and grapple with; in them we feel a kind of self-content, and go our way with the thought, "Behold I am wise." But when we come to this master science, finding that our plumbline cannot sound its depth, and that our eagle eye cannot see its height, we turn away with the thought that vain man would be wise, but he is like a wild ass's colt; and with solemn exclamation, "I am but of yesterday, and know nothing." No subject of contemplation will tend more to humble the mind, than the thoughts of God...

But while the subject humbles the mind, it also expands it. He who often thinks of God, will have a larger mind than the man who simply plods around this narrow globe... The most excellent study for expanding the soul, is the science of Christ, and Him crucified, and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity. Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity.

And, whilst humbling and expanding, this subject is eminently consolatory. Oh, there is, in contemplating Christ, a balm for every wound; in musing on the Father, there is a quietus for every grief; and in the influence of the Holy Ghost, there is a balsam for every sore. Would you lose your sorrow? Would you drown your cares? Then go, plunge yourself in the Godhead's deepest sea; be lost in his immensity; and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of sorrow and grief; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead.

Labour Day

We invited the Shewchuks over for dinner because we really like them. It was also apropos considering the holiday did originate in Canada and they are fellow Manitobans. Joel is... a master craftsman of fine violins. He also builds guitars, but mostly violins and I'm sure he's also really good at a lot of other things. Photography for sure. His beautiful wife Amy stays at home to raise their three gorgeous kids. Besides nearly being a concert pianist she has also been an aesthetician. It was a good time for all of us Canucks... reminiscing about the Great White North... thankful to be able to go up and visit, and thankful we no longer live where it's minus 40 for 4 months of the year :) Also discovering how many people we both knew from Winnipeg and that Amy was such good friends with my cousin while they were at Providence College! We grilled the salmon and some steak and had corn on the cob. Nothing fancy (except the drinks they brought), but the company was delightful!

Amy and her daughter Zoe

Eli and Ethan Shewchuk with the Bubar boys

Son of My Right Hand

Matthew

Finally!!!!!!  My sister Andrea had a baby this morning and we are so excited.  He is 22 inches, 9 lbs 14 oz and she had him au naturale, if you can believe it.  The doula was a big help, I'm sure.  He was born an hour after they got to the hospital at around 3:00 this morning.  Big Sister Julia just loves him and hopefully those feelings will never change.  I can't wait to talk to my sister myself.  This is such a happy day!!!!!!!!!

On Being Diligent

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." Deuteronomy 6:4-9 ESV

I've known this passage for a looooooooong time. But, the Lord has been in my face with these verses lately. I am praying... reading... on my knees imploring for what He wants from me... as a mom. I have some great friends who inspire me with how intentional they are with their children. I know that my kids have missed out. I haven't done my best. His kindness in revealing these things are leading me to repentance.

We've been haphazard... family devotions at breakfast... sometimes.... bible stories at night... most times...sitting together in church...yes, and a smattering of "life lessons" through out the day.  But when I honestly ask myself how many teachable moments I miss along the way, I realize there have been many and I am grieved.  With the power of the Holy Spirit we will be more diligent...consistent, earnest and energetic.

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Joey has graduated!!! Now that he can read on his own, he is moving from a Bible story book, to a real Bible: the ESV Children's Bible. I just LOVE it! It's a "word-for-word" Bible translation and has 200-plus full-color illustrations, a dictionary, a bible reading plan and all sorts of cool Bible Study helps. For school, Joey is supposed to read 15 minutes every day. Guess which "book" the teacher is going to see over and over and over again in his reading log? :)





And... we are back to memorizing the Psalms. (I felt so overwhelmed when Charlotte was born, that I took a break from scripture memory... for a little too long.  Isn't that disgusting????)

Joey and Willy: Psalm 145
Benji: Psalm 23

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The other day I was reading the USA Today and Joey asked me what I was doing. Normally I read the news online or catch it at 10:00 when they're asleep. I had to explain "the news" to him. And I realized he needed to start reading it too. Sooooooo... I got Joey and Willy a subscription to the the children's edition of WORLD magazine called Early Edition (f0r PreK-1st Grade).



I couldn't resist a one year adult subscription for us as well.

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A Wild Morning

Mommy, Mommy, What Do You See?

And They're Off!

Today was Willy's first day of Kindergarten and Joey's first day of Grade One. It was so exciting, I could hardly sleep the night before. Daddy made his special smoothies for breakfast and read the Word. We prayed for the boys and then I took them to school. It was so fun to see old friends from last year. Joey was calm and confident and Willy held on to my hand. Everything was so new for him at this BIG school, but he was very, very excited. I think he feels like a "big boy" now. He was living vicariously through Joey all year last year. So, here he is at school all day, every day. I'm so happy he got two lovely co-teachers. I think this is the beginning of a great year.

Joey's new teacher welcoming him back to school.

Willy talking to Rose... his friend from Pre-K last year

Last Hurrah

This was the last weekend before school starts, so Joe decided to take the boys camping. They went to Lakeview campground just southwest of Flagstaff.

Fun with Grammy and Papa

Grammy and Papa came to town last week(Aug. 3-9). Soooooo much fun! And the agenda?

Bass Pro Shop









Chuck E. Cheese's



P.V. Mall

McDonald's

Swimming

and a sleepover!!!!!

Getting Older

Last night we went to Chick-fil-a for dinner to celebrate Joey's "official" birthday.

I sat down with two other families that are friends of ours while Joe went to order the food.

When the cashier said, "that will be nineteen seventy", Joe remarked, "that's the year I was born."

The cashier responded, "cool, that's the year both my parents were born!"

Cool indeed.

Joe just stood there... genuinely dumbfounded.

The rest of us laughed until we cried... and the poor guy behind the counter felt clueless.


It's hard to admit when you're going on 40.

Joey Turns Seven

Today is Joey's seventh birthday. We celebrated on Saturday.

The birthday boy

Mac-attack!

Yep, that's Charlotte standing on two feet and chowing down on her own slice of watermelon. She is growing so fast!

Victoria Archer

I love Willy's expression in this one. He was not envious, but truly happy for Joey when he opened all his presents and that made my heart so happy.

"Good job!"

"AWESOME!!!!" It was exactly what he wanted... a remote-control dinosaur... even though he'd never seen a toy like it. Don't ask me how Grammy does it, but she is one incredible "hunter"!

l-r: Kennedy Archer, Micah Rich, Joey, Malachi Archer, Willy, Taro Yokoyama and in front is Christina Reimche

Twelve Years

Sonnet 116 - Shakespeare

Let me not to the marriage of true minds 
Admit impediments. Love is not love 
Which alters when it alteration finds, 
Or bends with the remover to remove: 
O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken; 
It is the star to every wandering bark, 
Whose worth’s unknown, although his height be taken. 
Love ’s not Time’s fool, though rosy lips and cheeks 
Within his bending sickle’s compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, 
But bears it out even to the edge of doom. 
If this be error, and upon me prov’d, 
I never writ, nor no man ever lov’d.

1 Corinthians 13

The Way of Love

¹If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ²And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³ If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant ⁵or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. ⁷Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. ¹¹When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. ¹²For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

¹³So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Thank you for being a picture of God's grace and mercy in my life.

First Taste

Our first dinner with some of the coho salmon Daddy brought home. Seasoned with lemon and dill... scrumptious!

Hike of a Lifetime

Every couple of years, Joe's dad takes his three sons on a "Bubar Men's Club" adventure. One year, it was hiking and camping in the Grand Canyon and another year it was canoeing and camping in Wisconsin. This year it was hiking Half Dome at Yosemite Park in California. (July 12-15) Here are some interesting facts I found on a web site:

Hike Distance: 14.2 miles (22.7 km) round trip via Mist Trail
16.5 miles (26.5 km) round trip via John Muir Trail
20 miles (32 km) round trip via Glacier Point
23 miles (37) km round trip via Tenaya Lake
7 miles (11 km) round trip from Little Yosemite Valley campground

Half Dome Elevation: 8,842 feet (2,650 meters)
Total Elevation Gain: 4,800 feet (1,600 meters) from Yosemite Valley

Hiking Time: 10 - 14 hours

Why climb the trail to Half Dome? Half Dome is the ultimate Yosemite day hike - the one you can't die without doing, and the one you're most likely to die while doing.

It's got 900 feet (300 meters) worth of spectacular waterfalls at the bottom if you take the Mist Trail route; bigger-than-life panoramic vistas at the top; and a knee-knocking, hand-clamming cable ascent that will test your courage, your strength, and the tread on your shoes.

Scenery Factor: Unsurpassed.

Difficulty: Extreme. It's long, steep at the beginning and end, and more dangerous than most Yosemite hikes. It's probably the most difficult of all Yosemite day hikes. On the traditional 1 to 10 scale, this one rates an 11.

Insanity Factor: 9 out of 10. Wait 'til you get to the cables, and you'll see what we mean.

How many people have died on Half Dome?

There have been more than 20 deaths on Half Dome itself, and if you count the trail leading up to Half Dome, the number leaps to more than 60.

People have died on Half Dome from a variety of causes: falling off the cable route, heart attacks while climbing the cables, lightning strikes, failed base jumps, climbing accidents, and even a few suicides. In the most recent tragedy, a hiker from the bay area fell to his death while descending the cables on June 13th. It was the first death on the cables since 2007, when a Japanese climber fell off the cables and died on June 16; another hiker fell to her death the same year trying to climb the route when the cables were down. The cable route is extremely dangerous; please don't do it unless you're well prepared. These tips on surviving the cable ascent are a good starting point.

Deaths on the trail to Half Dome, rather than on Half Dome itself, are usually above Nevada or Vernal Falls, and usually occur when someone wades into the the water above the falls or slips off rocks into the water and gets swept away. In many cases, their bodies have never been found.

For more information, read the macabre but remarkable Off the Wall: Death in Yosemite, which chronicles every unnatural death in the park from its inception until the book went to press in early 2007; and Shattered Air, an account of the lightning deaths on Half Dome on July 27, 1985.

One evening in June, I was lying in bed and reading the news on my laptop. That's when I noticed the headline on msnbc.com: Hiker falls to Death on Yosemite's Half Dome. I turned my head to Joe and asked, "This isn't the hike that you guys are doing, is it?". "Ummmm.... yeah." Hmmm... well let's just say I got a little nervous. As you will see in the pictures, though, they were successful and had a great time while they were at it. Although, they admitted, their life flashed before their eyes...several times. And they'd NEVER bring their families. That's fine with me. :)

These amazing photos were all taken by Joe's dad:

Asleep after driving through the night.

Joe's youngest brother, Tim. He's a Youth Pastor in St. Paul, Minnesota. He's married to Kara and they have two adorable little girls.

Joe's middle brother, Matt. He is an executive for a company in the lumber industry out of Buffalo, NY. He's married to Andrea and they have four kids.

A little bit of tubeing before the hike.

And they're off. The hike began at 10:00 p.m.

This is Joe videoing off a cliff... obviously having forgotten that he has four children... and a wife who is completely inept without him!!!

Where is Joe????

At the top!

Sunrise

Coming back down and hanging on to the cables for dear life.

Made it!

The end.

A Little Less Paranoid Than Before

Today marks the day when Benji started "swimming"... also known as keeping himself afloat in deep water. About a month shy of his 3rd birthday.