Lazy Friday

Today was a minimal manning day on base. The kids worked hard to have their school work done so they could play with Michael at home - but he went to work at noon. ::snort:: We had a LAAAAAAzy day....and enjoyed it.

Arielle gave Stacia Minnie Mouse ears today 

Michael's birthday is Sunday so the girls and I worked on making his dream ice cream cake......

Then we created a vegan Cashew Banana Ice cream cake for US to enjoy during the party.  This is the small vegan yummy.

Choosing Joy!
©2013 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Context is King

Part of what we are trying to do in family circle is teach the children Bible study tools. We want them to know how to look for answers to their questions and how to mine the treasures of the Word for themselves. 

As we've worked through the I Am Sayings of Jesus in John we've stressed context/background. What was happening before the verse we're studying? What happened after the verse? Was there something  in the culture to make the illustration meaningful? How did the audience respond? Who was the audience? Why did Jesus choose this illustration? (Many questions of interpretation and application follow but this is a post on context.)  We noted there is a miracle/sign before each new message/revelation.  We've studied, "I Am". We've studied, "I Am the Bread of Life." We are working on, "I Am the Light of the World."  We've had a lot of fun skirting John 8:12 with an activity Tuesday night and a wonderful illustration from Michael about WW2 and his Dad's time in the Marines. Tonight we were going to develop context. I started by reminding them context rules...context is king. 

I asked, "Who can tell me what context means? It's two Latin words and when you put them together you get the word's  meaning." 

STACIA jumped in. YES - our EIGHT year old is learning Bible study tools! I was happy she remembered past conversations though I realized we hadn't clearly defined the meaning of context. 

"It means texting with contact." ::snort:: 

photo credit: moriza via photopin cc

We backed up. We talked about Chili CON carne - chili WITH meat. 

They hit upon "with the text" -  an easy working definition. I gave an example from life and one from the Bible where meaning/interpretation is obscure without context.  They got it - even our eight year old. ::grin:: 

By the way - check out the first time in John that Jesus reveals himself as the Light of the World. I thought it would be after a healing.....I discovered Jesus repeats the claim of being the Light of the World in John 9 after healing a blind man....but chapter 8 is the first revelation of being the Light we see in the book of John.

Check out the context. It was the Feast of Booths (or Tabernacle). Part of the feast was the nightly lighting of two GIANT lamp stands which were in the Women's Court of the temple. Several commentators mention, as the temple was on a hill, the light could be seen throughout the city. During the feast of the booths people slept in tent-like booths on their roofs. They remembered God leading them through the wilderness as a light - a pillar of light. Nightly they saw two giant pillars lighten the darkness from the temple mount.  During THIS festival Jesus was teaching in the woman's court (Read 8:1-11 and you'll see how I reached that conclusion) where there would have been two giant  lamp stands. Read the unexpected sign. I'd never made the connection. 

photo credit: Fr. Stephen, MSC via photopin cc

Into this scene the Pharisees bring a woman caught in the "very act of adultery." I've heard this preached about but no one ever read verse 12. You know the subtleties.  The Woman's Court is to be a place of mercy and worship - but they've brought this woman to the temple to find condemnation. Jesus instructs the one without sin to cast the first stone. No one can. They leave. He looks at her and tells her to go and sin no more and then he looks at the gathered crowd and says, "I am the Light of the World. He who follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life." 

WOW - context! She found mercy. She found forgiveness. Not ONE of those who accused her, not one of us, could cast the first stone. We all WALK in darkness until we FOLLOW Jesus. He is the light who dispels the moral darkness and sin in our lives. 

Anyway - I am excited about the context of this verse and excited to see the kids grasp this Bible study element.  Tonight we'll look at the miracle of a physical healing and Jesus' repeated claim to be the Light of the World. 

Another night we'll consider how Jesus says WE are to be the lights of this world and what that means....and then we'll move on.....

As I end this I think it's "nearly profound." I was sharing with someone this week I used to try to be profound on the blog and nearly quit writing...then Michael asked me to focus on a family journal. Now I'm profound about once a year.....this is nearly profound. ::snort:: 

Choosing Joy!
©2013 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

WIN!

We had a wonderful at home day.

We finished The Door in the Wall - which I loved as much this times as the previous three times I've read it to kids. Zander read a chapter out of Fine Print and did GREAT. He also read 1/2 a chapter in Lord of the Rings. This proves a person CAN teach themselves to read if you let them go at it in the way that seems right to them. I am currently teaching him some drills and rules to make his reading quicker and to help him win the phonics games we play on Fridays. ::wink::

If you look closely at her feet you can tell Stacia was jumping for joy when I took this photo. She KNEW her new math texts were in that package. In her mind this means she is transitioning into third grade. Since this little 8 yo is taller than many 5th graders she's VERY excited to be "growing into taller grades." Um....yeah...still working on that image thing.

THIS was the big win of the day! I made a totally vegan  meal.  Everyone LOVED it....loved it. They all said I could make it every week. I took the  Lentil Mushroom Spinach Roulade filling Arielle and I love...and turned it into Hot Pockets. I added a bit of extra fennel and generous splashes of lemon....left out the nuts and nutritional yeast - because I forgot.

Another win of the day was 50 min on the elliptical and the sculpting session from P90....followed by a leisurely soak in the hot tub.....totally onsen like....just needed a friend or two to join me....In time....

Clean up is done and it's time for Family Circle....I'm ahead of schedule to have blogged before bed time....another win.

Choosing Joy!
©2013 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Science @ PWOC

I wrestled with taking ANOTHER day of school off  in an already short week of school. God smiled. I planned to send some food in with Michael today as our class had hospitality.....then I got a call from our facilitator about stepping in for her today. It was my joy to do so.....God smiled. 

The kids would have missed much if we stayed home. They dissected owl pellets in the home school room. Stacia found a vole skull in her pellet.

The lessons continued at home throughout the afternoon. They got lots of school in today. They were thrilled as we are studying Flying Creatures (Apologia Zoology) this year.

They even got Arielle to take a look. She wasn't thrilled when I told her she'd be doing the same in a month or so. 

I enjoyed a nice visit via phone with BreAnne. 

Michael and I enjoyed a quick talk before dinner was ready to come out of the oven. We were perplexed as we couldn't find Arielle. We didn't see her in the family room, we didn't remember her passing us on the stairs.....guess where we found her? 

Yuuki faithfully guards the oven! 

Choosing Joy!

©2013 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Tuesday as Monday

Day 2 of P90 and 90% of the muscles in my body are screaming. Arielle isn't having the same reaction. 

I was chilly this afternoon (common with hypothyroidism). I ached. I day dreamed of an onsen visit...and then soaked in the hot tub...in the middle of the day....immediately after school was finished. It was heavenly. 

Michael went to PT today. The guy did "American Acupuncture" on him. He stuck needles in his shoulder. The goal is to to traumatize the muscles which should cause blood to flood to the spot to repair the injury and hopefully repair the original injury as well. Who knows? The Cortisone shot hasn't helped; this is worth a try. 

We had pot pies for dinner - Chicken and Chick Pea. ::snort::

I remembered our study has hospitality tomorrow so made some apple bread and a coffee cake. I received a call asking me to facilitate the class tomorrow....

We are studying Jesus as the Light of the World this week in family circle. We began with an activity to illustrate the problems of walking in the dark as well as the limitations of having a sighted person guide you - you're still in the dark. 

I believe she's looking for the door BEHIND her

Trying to write his name on the board

I said, "Write your name under Nolan's." I guess this is ONE way to make it happen. 

 Zander looks for his seat....

Choosing Joy!
©2013 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Free Birds in Yuba City

We came out of watching Free Birds this weekend to see  these free range birds. I'd never seen them at that spot.

They usually hang out around the Wendy's in Yuba City on Bridge street...fresh chicken nuggets? Once I saw them at Carl's Jr across the street.....

They seem to have their roost/nest in this bush on one of the busiest streets in town.....fun.

Choosing Joy!
©2013 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Long Weekends

"Technically" Friday was Michael's CTO (Time off when you preach) and Monday was a holiday - a four day weekend. Except - um - ::snort::  He did a bit of work on Friday, preached on Sunday and we were tired on Monday. We had talked about going out of town this weekend or next weekend (another 3 day weekend and Michael's birthday). He has a commander's call on Friday and is picking up duty for another Chaplain on one day next weekend, we won't be going away next weekend either......it's a tad bit frustrating to be within driving distance of  family and not be able to get away......however....

By today we are happy to be home. We are happy not to have an eight hour drive ahead of us. There are a lot of deals around town for Veterans - but quite simply - we're tired. We thought about it and decided to sleep in, play with the kids, Skype with the older ones we could catch (all but Josiah and Shelby) and weelax!

Michael taught Stacia how to make really cool paper airplanes. Zander bragged he could shoot them out of the air with his Nerf gun. Game on. Michael challenged him to prove it - and he could and did! Which led to an all out Nerf battle - fairly appropriate for Veteran's Day?  Can you spot the four warriors below?

I'm amazed at how Michael is able to continue with his normal routine in the face of chronic pain. Many remember his emergency surgery in 2012....and then another at the end of the year. The pain has never gone away. They said they could go in again and see if they find something new....but he opted to wait until we arrived stateside.  He has a referral this week to a specialist off base.

In February of 2013 he injured his shoulder. We aren't quite sure how - though we think it involved lifting of suitcases and boxes.  He's had an MRI. The cuff is not torn but it is still very inflamed and he has very little movement. He's saw PT in Japan - lots of torture; no help.   He had a cortisone shot last week.....unfortunately, he's still waiting to feel relief. He's seeing PT again...which doesn't seem to really help the swelling or the pain.

All that to say - the fact that Michael continues to work 40 - 60 hours a week and engage as a dad with the pain he's enduring amazes me.  He deserved some rest today.....and he got it.....it was good to be home rather than traveling.  Yes, I still love to watch him sleep.

Look at this rip-roaring Monopoly game. It appears Stacia and Nolan merged and won it all.  Note the Nerf gone at the ready...Zander contemplated a hostile take over.

It turned out to be the perfect long weekend and I'm looking forward to another one next week. LOL  I am a bit concerned about getting 5 days of school done in 2 and 3 days this week. We usually take PWOC day off I'm debating staying home to get school done or just calling this week a wash! Stay tuned.

Day one of P90 - will I survive? Working towards my anniversary body. ::snort::

Choosing Joy!
©2013 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...