Arielle, Zander and Nolan enjoy our pool....not a TX sized pool (and certainly not an ALASKAN sized pool - it IS the biggest state in the union you know - but who NEEDS a pool in AK)...more like a Rhode Island sized pool.

This is the type of day you only have on Monday….and it was the type of Monday you hope to have only once a year! {G}

I DID get to ride the bike today. My legs are finally loosening up after Thursday’s 8 minutes of torture. I’m hoping I didn’t gain weight this week since I wasn’t able to move on Friday and missed 3 days of both the 8 Minute moves and the bike riding. I’ll be much more careful not to push it from now on – yeah SURE. I have that sort of “gut it out” personality.

The day began with me trying to get my computer to print a brochure that I’d made for SAGE (our co-op). It wouldn’t work and took forever to figure out what to do. I finally saved it to a memory card and plunked it into the computer that is a foot away from my computer…but it took me about 2 hours to come up with a solution. In fact, I tried to email it to one of the other computer’s first and the computer is STILL trying to send it…..15 hours later. {g} I copied the brochure and quickly noted three changes that need to be made right off the bat. Since this IS a family service project I let my youngest two sons (4 and 7) fold them. Nolan has some motor coordination issues and needs to do lots of eye hand things…but maybe folding brochures was a bit of a leap. Ah well….Zander and Nolan had fun folding them and all our really organized types can refold theirs like I did. :::snort:::: I got some good natured teasing from Adrienne and Becky about a line I added. Tell me does this sound like a hammer “Failure to promptly pay for your order will result in your SAGE membership being terminated”. Now I’m worried that someone who forgets to pick up their order will think I’m going to TP their house or something dire like that. Heather, our produce co-op organized, is so nice. I guess I’m going to be the “mean co-op organizer”. Heather, do you still read the blog? Should we work out a good cop/bad cop routine? :::snort:::

I got some laundry done.

I made a couple of PWOC calls that I needed to make.

I took the youngest 3 out to buy a cake and presents for Arielle’s birthday – tomorrow. Zander was sure that Arielle wanted a TRAIN!!!!! He finally settled on a zoo computer game….obviously planning to use it.

We dropped by the house of a friend who had packers at her home today. We took her a couple dozen cookies. Her packers had JUST arrived! Good grief it was about 1:00 p.m.

I had to cancel PWOC Traveling Training due to lack of interest. I was looking forward to it. I was planning on going to Fall Focus in October and now Mike will be away from home. I don’t think I can leave the kids alone for 3 nights and I’m not sure I’ll want to leave them anyway since they’ll be just adjusting to him being gone.

When I got home, Mr Gatti’s (sort of like Chuck E Cheese) had called. I called the manager to be told “we’ll have 500 kids from the schools here during your party – will that be a problem?” Hmmm….let me see one small game room, one buffet line and *500* kids…..yep – a problem. They said they’ll only have 219 students on Wed. I rescheduled for Wed at 1:00 and then realized Mike has meetings he can’t miss. Then I rescheduled for 5 p.m. and most are going to be able to make it – but now I remember that the new chaplains’ wife is going to be in town and we were going to go out for dinner with her. I guess she may enjoy a birthday party or we’ll meet her Thursday.

The older boys went out to shop for Arielle and the younger ones enjoyed the pool that I bought at Wal-Mart…also bought some gifts and some more weights.

Took Josiah to work.

Met the truck. They had a new driver and things took much longer. I was 20 minutes late getting home. Our “worker bees” were already waiting at the house when we arrived. We managed to get it all inventoried, sorted and divided.

Now we’re watching the Mavericks/Spurs match up score on the computer….wish we had a TV that showed Spurs…or we could stream the game. LOL

Becky showed up for co-op with their “spare mower” in the back of her van. Jamin is in heaven (not what I would call mowing lawns in W TX in 100* heat. Adrienne is going to call Town and Country about letting the kids pump gas and do windows for donations for their missions’ trip. Jamin will probably not want to play tomorrow – he’ll want to mow more lawns and dream of the AK missions’ trip.

Stacia is still grumpy.

Bre called and “needed to talk to Mom” and I keep missing her. I cried when picking out a “sister” card for Stacia to give Arielle…we miss Bre and Krista.

I love co-op night and visiting with everyone. There were a few men tonight so Mike even had someone to talk with.

I can’t remember what else happened today but it was an incredibly long day and Nolan, Arielle and I didn’t even start school.

I need to figure out what we’re doing tomorrow. Our homeschool support group is having a swim party….we have speech and Bible Study and its Arielle’s birthday….what to do….score is 111/108 Mavericks are winning…..overtime….

Jamin was pleased with the organic “Cloud Nine” candy I bought. He says its “pretty close” to Snickers. We can survive organic. {G} Of course we aren’t fooling ourselves that it is HEALTHY but if you want a treat it is sure better to grab an organic candy bar made with rice syrup and such than a Snickers. Right?

Score is now Mav 117 and Spurs 111…20 seconds left…I think it is over…

Wow – what a busy Sunday! Today was the day that Mike spoke in all three services about the upcoming changes. My first glimmer of things to come was a group of Catholic women outside the chapel crying when we arrived. Father Jim was doing the same at all the masses today. It was a hard day. Change is always frightening and I think even more so when there have been so many changes made so quickly that are totally out of local control. As expected several are not happy. The Protestant side of the chapel lost a total of 3 contracts when AETC cut appropriated funds. For those non-military types….in the chapel it’s usually been expected that the military would pay for the “chapel service” and the tithing funds were used for extras to run those programs. Musicians, Religious Education Coordinators, Parish coordinators etc were paid by the government. This funding ended quite suddenly for our maj com. Tithing must now cover it all – and frankly – in the military many, many continue to tithe to their “home church” because they see the chapel as a “employment bennie”. {G}

We were so impressed with the growth in the contemporary service (student service) in the last few months. Both their chaplains will be leaving in the next month or so. In addition to all the new manning changes the normal PCS season will bring changes to the chapel as well.

I’ve been asking people to let me know when their churches had a service of just worship. I have so missed contemporary worship…who would have believed that this was available all the time at our very own chapel. The service began with *Jesus Freaks* and those kids can rock. Then we went into about 30 minutes of really wonderful worship. Mike preached and he loved the feed back from the students. They closed the service and then they stay and worship AFTER church too! Very fun. After service we went out to eat with another family. Mike was about to order a Chicken BLT for us to split when I told him that I didn’t feel like eating the devil’s meat. :::snort::: We split a chicken salad wrap and it was very good.

Stacia is incredibly stuffed up. I have thrown together a SAGE (co-op) brochure and am now going to go to bed.

MILITARY APPRECIATION DAY

A nap is NOT going to happen but here are some pictures from the day. We all passed up the Sam's Club cookies when I suggested we have home-made ice cream at home instead. I'm always so pleasantly surprised when Zander passes up a former favorite for a healthy treat without a fuss. He is even starting to accept the answer "that food makes it hard for you to be good" and he told me the other day "oh - it makes me feel sick" so I think he's starting to make connections himself. If we can only keep him from the cookie dough....an overdose of sugar (even honey) would not be good for any of us. LOL

Our older children kept commenting that they didn't remember other communities doing this...and we've been where they have but this was by far the most impressive...though Great Falls, MT came close. We discussed it and noted that the smaller cities seem to put on the bigger celebrations. {G}

Nolan's 2nd time on a pony

Arielle dreams of owning a horse...wish we could make it happen for her...but for now...pony rides are great fun!

Jamin on the rock climbing wallJared on the wall"I can do ANYTHING the boys can do"Nolan on the wallAnd of course if the BIG boys do it....Zander convinced the lady he was big enough...he was by far the youngest on the wall while we were there

This is hard to explain. A Bungiey cord is hooked to a harness that they wear. They race up to grab a baton and then the cord pulls them back. It was hilarious to watch. Again...Zander had to give it a shot. We have some great shots of him with the helmet 1/2 off and such. He finally got it...but the lady really was rooting for him {wink}.

Jared at the bungie race- look at that determined expression

Thoughts that have made me go HMMMM……

Here’s something I’ve been thinking about. WHY do wonderful Bible teachers sometimes feel the need to take Scriptures out of context to prove a “point”? I’ve run into this three times this week and frankly it is discouraging. I’m doing two studies and both very Godly women have done this. I went to read the study notes in my Bible on one of the passages and found that the commentator had done the SAME thing!

It takes more than doing a word study to “accurately handle the Word of Truth”. You MUST look at context. You must consider what the whole Word of God has to say about the topic. You must admit if something is used literally or figuratively. You must not torture Scripture. All Scripture must agree. Scripture does not contradict Scripture. I’m sad to run into this THREE times this week from trusted teachers/leaders.

I actually agree with most the points being made by the authors – I think – but they really begin to cloud the issue for me when they begin to fling Scriptures at me without considering context. I have a hard time hearing the message or wanting to even continue the study when a teacher does this. The Word does say that teacher’s will receive a stricter judgment…..it’s not a good idea to try to strengthen an argument with less than accurate handling of the Word. I suppose it’s my ministry within a chapel setting that has led me to present both sides of an argument as fairly as possible and trust the Holy Spirit to apply the Word exactly as needed. I don’t know.

It’s ironic that one of the studies had these quotes in it – great quotes – right before she went on to present one side of an argument. Is it deceptive for a teacher who knows both sides of an argument to only argue her side strongly and not present the verses that would weaken her argument? Oh well – I ran into this with this author with some of the more Calvinistic doctrines. It’s really OK not to agree with everything an “expert” teaches…maybe some days “my eyes will be open” and I’ll agree with her…..maybe some day her eyes will be opened…and most likely all of our attempts to “get theology” right are amiss…God has all the pieces of the puzzle and knows exactly how they fit together…we’ll probably get a good chuckle or a sob when we see how all these “hard doctrines” mesh in heaven….I’m betting that NO camp has it all sewn up. It just bothered me to read strong comments without any balance in the study, go to my Bible and find that the commentator there had done the SAME thing on the OPPOSITE side of the issue…and combined with the other study that is throwing verses totally out of context to support a viewpoint….it really was to much this a.m.

Here’s the challenge – a great challenge: “Where does your theology come from? Do you believe because of men’s teachings and experiences or because you have dug out truth from God’s Word yourself, precept upon precept? {snort – hint hint} We forget that no one person has a corner on all the truth. Therefore, we need to be like the Bereans who, after the apostle Paul taught, searched the Scriptures to see whether or not what he taught was in keeping with the Word”.

We simply MUST be women of the Word.

Ah – it all throws me back at His feet. It all causes me to abide in Him and to allow His words to abide in me.

As for teaching…well often if one articulate person voices her opinion strongly it will drive those who think differently to remain silent. I’m blessed that in my classes ladies will speak up and disagree with the author and challenge each other to consider all sides. Really – this is better. I’d rather have the questions out in the open than buried…so I’ll consider to point out questions if no one else has the nerve to voice their opposition…and the Holy Spirit is so faithful to guide us each to truth.

I had begun to feel that my reading this year has been “light” and I needed to add some “meat”….now I’m not sure WHY I thought that because life is “heavy” enough and I’ve been doing several studies at a time all year so really light reading is my relaxation. We don’t do TV and Mike’s been working late hours….but anyway….after reading *Captivating* and *What the Bible Has to Say about Healthy Living*, I decided to reward myself with some light reading.

Play it Again Spam ~ Tamar Myers

I was a bit leery of Magdalena after *Between a Wok and a Hard place* but I’m firmly back on her side with this book. {G}

The idea of including so many spam recipes had me laughing and reminiscing all through the book. I can remember the packages from “home” when we were on the mission field - with SPAM in them….I guess folks figured we didn’t have meat in Africa or the Philippines. I suspect that Tamar must be reliving some of her missionary kids days in writing this book. {g}

Of course, nothing is as funny as my grams landing overseas with a frozen turkey in her suitcase…and we didn’t get turkey overseas so it was a treat!

I love reading these Penn Dutch Inn books. Somehow a Mennonite Inn Keeper in an Amish community who solves mysteries seems very believable to me. Just in case you’re not interested in mysteries maybe the recipes will tempt you to pick up this book: Spam Jambalaya, Spam Western Bean Soup, Hearty Spam Breakfast Skillet, Spam Stuffed Potatoes Florentine, Sinapore Spam Salad, and Ragin Cajun Spam Party Salad. Come to think of it this book would have been welcome back in the days when we had cases of Spam in the house. {vbg} I can post any recipe that catches your fancy. :::snort:::

The Hand that Rocks the Ladle ~Tamar Myers

I simply couldn’t resist picking up another one of these. I love the fact that my kids bought me this series for Christmas. It’s the gift that keeps thrilling all through the year.

Ah…Little Jonathan, Little Mose and Little Freni make their debut here. Magdalena manages to solve a mystery, begin a new romance and run an inn single handedly in this book.

Heaven’s Wager by Ted Dekker

Thanks to Jen from MO for sending this book my way. I’ve not read the Christian Suspense genre in years and so am getting my feet wet again. In fact this is my second one this year. I knew I was in for something good when I saw this comment by Frank Peretti on the cover, “A fiction writer with a rare knack for a compelling story…a provocative read.”

I DID find this to be a provocative read. I don’t want to give away a plot line so really can’t say much but it kept me turning the pages. The author gives us a glimpse into what may be going on “behind the scenes” in various situations. This reads like a modern day Job story. I liked it so well that Josiah decided to read it and is just finishing it up. In fact – it was so great that we checked to see if the library had the other two books in the series. They didn’t. I waited for Paperback Swap to come up with them and they haven’t – so I ordered the next two books so that we can read them. {G} Though….I was sent another Ted Dekker book. Yippee.

An Offer: This is a book crossing book. That means that Jen would like to trace where the book goes. I plan to go journal and will see if Josiah could journal too….then we’d like to send the book along to someone else. If you would like to read this book, please email me or comment below and I’ll get it to you. I only ask that you go to bookcrossing.com and enter the fact that you read the book and where you sent it off to next. It’s really easy. Directions are included in the book and at the site.

A Question for those who’ve read the series: There is a new book out called “The Martyr’s Song”. It is the most recent book. It seems to just retell the story of the soldiers in Bosnia. I’ve heard that that is basically what the book does…a story which is told well in book 2 of the series I hear. The publisher says that all the books stand alone…but to read *The Martyrs Song* first….but on book lists I’m hearing that TMS is a let down. That the story is more powerful in *When Heaven Weeps*…care to opine?