Rock tumbling!

More proof that our kids are nerds like us, ha ha ! Joshua has wanted a rock tumbler now for nearly 2 years. He has a rock collection and since we are always down at the river there are many rocks to be found. Sometimes they are nice and sometimes not so nice but we always tell him that "beauty is in the eyes of the beholder" in terms that he can understand. He wanted to be able to see what his rocks would look like all polished up so this year for Christmas we got him the rock tumbler. I thought of this post by Gwen's sis, Shannon from way back in the year. It is definitely long but worth the read.


Many a time Joshua has come to me and asked, "Can I please have a rock polisher to polish my collection, Mom?" And I have said, "It is almost your birthday/Christmas Joshua, maybe you will get it then, but we don't have the money right now." As these two years have passed I have felt more and more urgency to get the polisher. And after reading Shannon's blog entry and the scripture


Proverbs 13:12 - Hope defered makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.


I remember wanting a few special things when I was a child and my mom, against her better judgement finally gave in to one thing. It was a special growing doll. It was so cool on the commercials and I begged and begged. My mom kept telling me, it probably doesn't work as well as it seems. But I didn't believe her. I just knew that it would actually go from a 6 month old to a 3 year old in seconds! It showed it as if you pushed a button and all this transformation took place. So, for Christmas, my mom did it. I was so happy! You can't imagine how much I figured it would never be under the tree and then, there it was! She was so pretty, that little doll.


When I got it out of the package I noticed it was a crank that you turn and the transformation should take place. So I did it. From a six month old, with a tremendous amount of hair, who looked as if she should have been 3 years old, to pretty much the exact same doll, add an inch (just a small enough amount that you could use the same clothes) and some teeth came in. I didn't want my mom to say "I told you so!" Which she never would have really done. I acted as if it was everything I ever wanted. I took that doll to my room with the worst feeling in my gut. I had really wasted the gift that could have been something great. I started thinking about all the other things I could have asked for or the things that my mom might have just got me if I didn't push so hard and they would have been so much better. What a disappointment. I should have known!


Probably one of the best things my mom ever did for me was buy me that doll. It taught me so many things. Mostly, that when people buy something for us it is not because we necessarily wanted or even needed it but because they wanted to give it to us. My mom wanted to give a gift to me but she would have much preferred something else. I was not so quick to choose my own gifts after that. And more grateful for the things I got. I also learned not to believe everything you hear and see. And much more lessons were learned. But, although it wasn't ideal, I did play with that doll for years and kept it for Annabelle, also. She was pretty. No harm in the big scheme of things but I never wanted my kids to choose something that would be like that.


With that memory in my mind, fresh as if it were only last year that it happened, I went into the Teaching Tools store. I find the service is wonderful and when the owner approached me about any help, I was still looking around for the rock tumbler which I had seen in November and was so scared they had sold out of while we waited for the cash to purchase it. She helped me find it. It was the last one. What a relief! I asked her everything I could think of. Return policy, customer complaints or comments, does it really actually work? All that kind of stuff and she openly told me to the best of her knowledge. She said that none had come back. One man did say that it worked "okay" but that that was the only somewhat negative thing she had ever heard of it. She said that of course if a person wanted the rocks perfect, they should possibly pay more and get a really great quality one but that this should be awesome for a kid to polish his rock collection. I made sure that if we were really disappointed we could bring it back and she said yes. So, on I went to the till. Excitedly I wrapped it up at home and Christmas morning, Joshua was more than happy. He even came to me just after lunch and looked me in the eyes and said, "Thank you so much for the rock tumbler, Mom!" And off he went to play. It was enough to know that we had made the right decision.


So, we have been waiting since Christmas for Adam to have a day off work so that we could start the tumbling process and tonight was the night. But, Adam got called in to work till 10pm. Joshua was looking forward to it though so I told him that we would still start tonight as I had promised.


After opening his gifts Christmas day. What a handsome boy we have!
Bad lighting, but this is the polisher, freshly out of the box.
The tumbling chamber.
Inside it
Joshua, checking it all out.
The rocks that the tumbler came with that we decided to try first. They look beautiful just like this, imagine after they are polished!
Rock pictures, before they are rinsed.



Joshua's favourite rock in the bunch, before and we will see what he thinks after.

Rinsing the rocks in a bowl. Yes, I know it is almost time to get the dishes done!
And then I figured the strainer would work better so here he is again, rinsing away.
All rinsed

Filling the chamber with rock. About 8 ounces is what you are supposed to use.

The favourite, rinsed.
In the chamber.
Adding the sand.
Ready for water
Adding the water.

Into the tumbler.
Locking it up
Ready to go.
On something soft so it is not as noisy
And starting the process. This first step takes 2-4 days. The whole process takes 2-4 weeks. I will take pics of each step as we go and you all can follow the life of the rocks. So, I will know soon enough if we made a great choice in getting this for Joshua, but already he is enjoying it immensely!

to be continued...

God bless you all as you celebrate 2008 tomorrow!

The doll house

I mentioned to a few people that we were only really buying one large gift for each of the kids, something that they really wanted and then their stocking. They were blessed beyond belief from family and friends! What a wonderful Christmas we had! So, I thought that I would post these pics while I had a few minutes. Joel told us he wanted a guitar so he could be just like his daddy. Joshua wanted a rock pollisher to pollish his collection. And Annabelle wanted "a really big doll house"! Now, this just happened to be a dream I had for my whole childhood. I just wanted a big doll house like my friend Jen had. I loved to play dolls and wished for it all my little life. So, I was so excited to look around for one for Annabelle. There were lots for small dolls but I wanted something that she could play with her barbies in. So, I saw one in Sears and thought about getting it but after buying the furniture and everything it would have been almost $250!!! We couldn't do it. This house I found online for a lot less that the above price. And we bought it. Set it up Christmas eve, and it has been such a hit! She has all her ponies living in it too. I will take a pic of her playing with it tomorrow. So beautiful! And it is a little taller than her! Amazing! Virgie, isn't it awesome?!

Daddy working hard for his little lady.
What a joy!
Just fixing the swing.
The finished product, with furniture! Yippee! Also, everything is pretty durable. It should last a long time.

VSP and christmas lights

At the school, for kindergarten the parents are asked to do a poster and presentation for VSP day! It is one day for each kid to show what a Very Special Person they are! This is the poster I did for Joshua, he was so proud. He talked lots and was not even shy! We brought a bunch of special things from at home and from when he was a baby. It was a great time. I also made Candy Cane cookies and the class read the Candy Maker's Gift and had the candy cane cookies. Such an awesome day for Joshua!


And last night Joshua had his Christmas concert at the school. His class was singing Feliz Navidad. They did great! The school did Christmas around the world. Was a great concert, but none of our pictures turned out. Hopefully the video will. Afterward we went to Timmy's and got coffee and went for a drive to look at a few Christmas lights. We have already done this a couple times this year but there is one house, way out in deep creek that we always love going to see. This time the kids were all awake so we went all the way out there to check it out... Here is a pic of it, although it is very hard to get a clear picture on the night scene on the camera unless you have a tripod. This is the best we could do. There is stuff all over the yard and the trees are done up too. Beautiful!
Best house around! Up on Mountain Vista. So fabulouse. Again, pretty blurry though. I love the lights on the roof.
And one more pretty one on Mountain Vista. Great street to check out!
Hope you all are having a great time celebrating in your own special ways. God bless you!

Hooby dough

So, here are the ornaments we cut out from the hobby dough to decorate. They will not be dry in time to paint today so I will be sending some home with the kids I babysit to decorate at home. I just love them though, they are even better with kids messy painting all over them. I also bought some really fancy nice ribbon to hang them from. What a joy!

And the very cool, finished hand prints, ready to be wrapped and given as gifts for mom and dad!

Santa craft

Although we don't teach the kids that the jolly old man is real or brings them gifts, we still watch the movies and this year I was given these craft kits. The kids loved them! So much fun! So, here is Annabelle and her best friend making their santa bell craft.

Annabelle, so carefully putting eyeballs on Santa.
The goofy girls!
The finished project. Cute!

New posts???

OKay, trying to play the catch up game so here are a few new posts of a little tiny bit of our Christmas time buisness going on. Enjoy, and enjoy the snow... I love it more than anything else outside in the world! Have a wonderful season!

The fabulous plan gone terribly bad!

Here is the low down... I decided, after finding a great recipe, that we would forfeit our usual gingerbread house building and build a Rice Krispie house. So cool. Here is the icing all whipped up and ready.

And the Rice Krispie pieces all cut and ready. Now, the recipe did say to wait till they are cooled and hardened. I thought that since they are cooled like 20 minutes afterward, they would be hard enough after a couple days. Maybe I will try next year, making them in October to ensure that they are hard enough by the time we do the house.
So, you start by gluing the house together with the icing of course. The pieces fit perfectly and it looked as if the whole ordeal would go swimmingly!
The process of building
Boys are excited.
Almost done

Joel fell on a present today and scratched his cheek. That poor boy!
Joshua had drawn out the house and decided where all the different candy should go. So cute!

And here is the house, all together. Looks alright hey? I didn't do it perfectly because we were just going to be covering a lot of it with candy anyway. So yesterday I went out and bought a whack of candy!
Starting the process
As you can see, the roof is starting to sink a bit from the weight. And Joel is much enjoying the eating candy more than the decorating the house. It was so funny!

Roof getting lower

And the house starts falling apart so am trying to fix it.
Propping up the inside of the roof with plastic knives and such. Nice walkway though, hey?
And it all falls down
Another angle

And the final flop.
It was sure fun while it lasted and since it is just made out of giant rice Krispie squares, the kids will enjoy eating it for snack for the next month! Haha They were not too upset since we salvaged the night with puzzles and colouring. A wonderful time with the family in spite of the whole problem. Every year, we learn what will and won't work.

Handprints

So, as the kids had their after school snack I prepped the stuff to do hand prints. I wanted to make something nice that the kids I babysit could take home for their parents. It is so fun. We do them every year. The recipe is actually supposed to be for making ornaments and it very light weight. It is a great recipe. Although, when you bake it, it often bubbles and then cracks. I am not so impressed with that. So this time, after it had been in the oven for just a few minutes, I took them out and I am just going to let them air dry. That way they don't get wrecked. Very disappointing that almost immediately Curtis's hand bubbled. Arg! And I didn't have enough time to make another one. So, we will make do with it the way it is. Too bad though.

The dough, getting it ready.
Rolling it out
After it was all done, baking it.

In case another is interested...

Hobby Dough

2 cups cow brand baking soda (of course you can use any kind and it works)
1 cup all purpose flour
1 1/4 cup water

Combine baking soda and flour in saucepan. Add water. COOK over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture is the consistancy of moist mashed potatoes. Turn out on plate, cover with damp cloth. Let cool. Knead until smooth, about 2 minutes then use to create your personal gifts.

Ornaments: Roll out dough between wax paper to 1/4 " thickness. Cut with cookie cutters, small knife or shape form free hand. To join peices together, moisten and press to seal. For hanging ornaments, cut hole in top or decoration with a straw. Place on baking sheet. BAKE at 325.F for 1-2 hours or let air dry. Time will vary with size of peices. Paint as desired then spray with varnish to preserve. Add a colourful ribbon for hanging.

Colouring tips Colour may be added as dough is being made, or peices may be painted after they are completely dry. For solid colour add a few drops of food colour to the water before adding. For marbled effect sprinkle a small amount of dye powder on a ball of soft dough and kneed it in lightly. For bright and glossy colours, paint hardened peices with water colours, poster paints or a felt tipped pen. Allow to dry fully before finishing.

sledding, so much joy!

OKay, firstly, Adam looks totally unimpressed, he was trying to be happy. This was the first day of such bad strep throat that the pain was even in his ears. At this point he told me that he had a headache and didn't feel very good. I chalked it up to the 2 hours of sleep he had the night before. Turns out he was very sick and ended up taking 3 days off work to recover after going to the doc. So, given the situation, he looks happy enough. THe kids had a blast! There is one particular school around here that we take the kids to often in the winter for sledding. It is great.
Annabelle waiting for a sled. We only have 2 so far so they have to wait and take turns, I am looking forward to getting a couple more at the end of the season when they go on sale. These ones we got for $10 a peice last season. $20 (the regular price) is a bit steep.
Joshua was so crazy on his sled! Awesome!
Joel, trudging up the hill for another go. He was a trooper!
Can't wait for many more great days like that!

Nativity, yup no tree.

This is our nativity area that we set up every year instead of a Christmas tree. The kids still ask each year when we will get a tree but they don't seem too broken up about it when we say that we won't have one. So, this helps focus Christmas around Jesus but also helps remind me to read them the story of the first Christmas often throughout the season. I love it. This nativity set was one of the best things we have ever bought together, so beautiful!

To top off the beauty, here is the best part. The kids decided that because they love their family so much they would wrap up thing of their own to give away. They obviously did it all themselves. I thought that it was the sweetest thing ever. So, the gift there, they are from out of town. The kids get so excited everytime a package came in the mail. I guess I am going to have kids who like the mail as much as I do! Annabelle is the most excited about everything. So cute!

Christmas crafts

A couple weeks ago I received these cool crafts in the mail from my dad's girl friend. It was so nice! She sent 2 packages but one got mangled in the mail and came in fine condition except the envelope and it was in a mail bag with a appology note. Weird. Anyway, the kids were so excited but we had not hot glue so we started the projects with regular glue. Could only do part of it because the glue had to dry.

So, after that I went and bought a low temp glue gun to do the rest. We did finish these ones but I didn't take a picture of the finished project. We will be working on more tomorrow and I will get a photo of them all done and the kids working on them. Thanks Deb!

How To Recognize If You Are In A Cult

Are you told not to question what is being taught because the leaders are honest and want the best for you so you must trust them? Has someone replaced your own choices in life?

Are you told not to ask questions why anyone left? Are you to accept the answers the leaders give you? such as: they fell into sin, they didn’t receive correction, they weren’t open or they had a bad heart and didn’t want to be disciples

Are you told that you must be with their certain church or group to be saved and not by Jesus Christ?

If you want to leave are you being told their is no other church that practices truth, you will go to hell?

Are you made to feel your failures and that your performance is not up to par for the bibles standard?

Are you being rebuked for things such as the way you say hello or how you respond to being asked to do something for a leader or disciple? Do they tell you its a matter of the heart how one complies?

Are they putting down other church’s and building themselves up? Do they sometimes use people as examples of what you are to be doing and others on what you are not to be doing?

Do they bring attention to what they do, and ignoring others that may be doing the same things outside their church?

Do they put down others to make themselves look better, calling themselves righteous and others unrighteous?

Do they call those who leave, fallaway and enemies, dogs returning to their own vomit, using the examples of Korah or Judas?

Do they stop you from reading anything negative about themselves calling it spiritual pornography or recommend you not to read it for your own spiritual protection?

Do they recommend for you to be around their people expecting you to be at all the group activities? If not your spirituality and dedication are questioned.

Do they defend all that they do even though it can be harmful or wrong?

Do they operate by humility or are they arrogant and demand you to obey if you are considering otherwise? Or is it done subtly by manipulating you into obeying by statements such as; real Christians obey their leaders, if you were following Jesus you would see what I’m saying is right, and true disciples did not question Jesus?

THINGS TO BE AWARE OF

People telling you how talented you are and saying you can really go places. (flattery goes a long way in cults)

An instant bonding of friendship without your knowing who they are or they really knowing you, they act as your best friend (love bombing still works).

When you ask questions about their history or the group they are vague in their answers or avoid answering them. (not answering or postponing it makes it go away)

Are you required to attend studies, going through the program before you are allowed to be a Christian? (this will attach you to the groups goals)

Are they emphasizing their church and who they are, more than Christ? They teach that one can only be a Christian by joining them. (exclusive spirituality appeals to our pride and works well today)

Cults will always divide the family unit instead of bringing them together. They will make you choose between God and their church. They use scriptures such as Jesus came to bring a sword not peace or one must give up brothers sisters wife and house for the kingdom and be a true follower Children often become the most hurt because of strict rules enforced on them. They lose their childhood and are deeply affected being unable to adjust later on in life. Religious systems that are not balanced can be socially and psychologically disastrous for innocent children. (click here to go to facts on Jehovah Witnesses and children)

What to do when confronted to join

Say you're not interested and do not put up with their badgering and phone calls. Tell them you want time to think about what they are teaching before you become committed to their group. If they pressure you for attendance or continuing in their studies then you know this is not something good.

If you are already a member, leave while it may be easy because it doesn’t get easier to leave later on.

KNOW THE RIGHTS YOU HAVE

You have every right to ask questions, lots of them in fact. Ask about what other churches they are affiliated with.

What is their history and the people involved and those they look up to for spiritual teaching? What books influenced them or what do they read?

What is their doctrine? Are their basic beliefs and philosophy of ministry on paper? If not, why not?

Can you review on paper their revenues, are they open to the people and public? Do they review who gives what to the Church? Are peoples finances monitored?

If others left can you find out why, or is mum the word? Do they allow you to speak to former members? If this is not allowed, this becomes the biggest check in joining quickly. Watch if they become uncomfortable in your asking about their origins or teachings.

Give yourself some time if you're seeking to know God or looking for a church he will give you warnings and lead you. Don’t ignore the warning signs or checks on how they conduct themselves no matter how friendly the people are. Love and emotional attachments are an old ruse to have you accepted without any strings attached. This doesn’t last long. Ask what they do on their spare time. Many times ones talent and creativity is smothered as all their time goes toward the group or church.

Where do all the people in cults come from?

Ron Rhodes writes in his book "The Culting of America," "It is a common myth that unbelievers join Cults." Percentages show that those who join these aberrant groups formerly attended Christian Churches.

Dr. Paul Martin of Wellspring Retreat (where cultists adjust from their harmful experiences) writes, "Twenty-five percent formerly attended evangelical, fundamental churches. Over 40 % had backgrounds in large, more liberal Protestant denominations."

Lately the International Churches of Christ probably have the greatest percentage of Church converts. Because their main goal is to go into the Christian Churches and remove people.

Their are 2 categories of cults one is doctrinally the other is sociologically.

1. Almost all cults deny the Apostles creed which consists of the virgin birth, deity of Christ, his resurrection, his atonement on the cross and the second coming. They have tendency to pronounce other groups as apostate and they alone have the truth.

3. They devalue or deny the deity of Christ.

4. They have Extra sources of biblical revelation. They may use Gods word with something else to interpret it

5. They have salvation by works -either denying God's grace or add performance. It will not always be easy to spot. Mormons say they are saved by grace-this means from death and not the penalty of sin.

6. They will deny a major doctrine. Cult like groups take a minor doctrine and make it a major. Ex: you must speak in tongues to be saved.

The following are basic patterns, or characteristics, found in almost all cults that one can easily identify.

Additions - Cults add to the Word of God by having additional writings they call scripture, or by saying that only the Bible is God's Word but you cannot understand it without their interpretation from their own teachers or books. The Bible is discouraged to be read alone.

Subtraction - Cults subtract from the Person of Jesus by saying he is something less than Eternal Deity. Or they will add their own teacher as deity.

Multiplication - Every false religion has works as part of their system of salvation. They also usually specify what works must be performed at a certain level for acceptance to their group and God.

Mediators- They will always have others involved for ones salvation by others. For the J.W.’s it is the 144,000. for the International Churches of Christ its discipleship partners. For Mormons it is to join their church for salvation and use their materials- Doctrine and Covenants, Journal of Discourses and the Melchizedek priesthood.

Divisive - Cults have people choose by dividing a person's loyalty. It's God through their leadership by claiming to be the only Spokesman or group for God. They also require obedience to their leadership to be in right standing with God. They do not tolerate another’s differing opinions and it is looked upon as being divisive or of the enemy.

It's A Wonderful Life- The Lost Ending!!!!!!!!

Snow?

Well, it seems as if it has decided to snow, well I guess that would be God that has decided. So, my estimation, although they are saying it will be around 10 cm tonight, I think more like 15-20! No school tomorrow due to parent teacher interviews (we went for ours tonight and Joshua is doing swell!) so it will be a perfect day for baking and snuggling, recovering from sickness for Annabelle and hopefully doing some crafts. I truly do love the winter. My only concern, power outages. We have only electric heat so it would get mighty cold. But with this light snow I am not anticipating any real problems. It would be so nice if Christmas eve was like this!

So, Joshua was very sick, as soon as he recovered Joel got it, he recovered after a bout of throwing up at church and then Annabelle came down with it. All a virus, fever, headaches, shaky, tummy aches, etc. No infections thank God and only tylenol for meds given. Not a lot of sleep been happening but tonight I decided to splurge on a late night and watch my favourite Christmas movie with Adam, It's a Wonderful Life! I love it and thanks to my bro in law, we own it now so I can even watch it again before Christmas. Just got Adam some winter boots tonight also, he really needed them! Just in time if I do say so!

Enjoy the snow shovling everyone. Drive safe and keep warm. Looks like a mighty cold week coming up with an average of about -10 all week! Should be a beaut!

Check this out... like really do, you won't be sorry!

Elfing funny!