Jadon is home

Please pray for our dear friends from college. The Temple family is headed back from Korea with their 11 month old son that they just adopted, Jadon Min-Su. Visit their site for specific ways to pray, especially regarding Jadon’s separation anxiety.

is this a dream?

Look at the website I just found:

Cookie Madness.

Enough said.

I’m making the S’mores ones tonight.

My Top Ten (or Fifteen) Wish List for Books

So I just revised my to-read list: I am up to about 40 books that I want to read, but probably never will. 40 is an estimate- I am sure I will remember more as the day goes on.

My top ten (in no particular order):

1. Respectable Sins: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate by Jerry Bridges. I have heard no reviews or recommendations. I saw it on Amazon and thought the title alone was enough a reason to read it!
2. How People Change by Timothy Lane and Paul Tripp. Someone told me they were going through this at one point a year or so again. Was it you, Kacie? I thought it sounded great!
3. Shopping For Time by the girltalkers. Need I say more? I can’t even shop for the book because I am still shopping for the time to read it!
4. Biblical Womanhood in the Home
   
5. In My Place Condemned He Stood: Celebrating the Glory of the Atonement by J.I. Packer and Mark Dever. I am fully expecting this book to be over my head but, like I said in my earlier post today, lately I am completely in love with anything having to do with the cross and the implications of Jesus’ death to the believer!
6. Because He Loves Me: How Christ Transforms Our Daily Lives by Elyse Fitzpatrick. I just found this one today- it’s not even released yet. It sounds wonderful, as does anything by Elyse Fitzpatrick, who my husband introduced me to during a very spiritually dark period in my life.
7. Showing The Spirit: A Theological Explanation of 1 Corinthians 12-14 by D.A. Carson because I love and respect Sovereign Grace Ministries too much to not further investigate having always been told that the gifts of the Spirit had ceased without investigating it on my own. C.J. Mahaney recommends this resource to Pastors but if it gets too over my head I’ll just ask David for help=)
8. When Sinners Say “I Do”: Discovering the Power of the Gospel for Marriage by Dave Harvey. This book, along with Shopping For Time, have been on my reading list for a long time and it just hasn’t happened yet. Soon, I tell ya, soon.
9. Why We’re Not Emergent: By Two Guys Who Should Be by Kevin DeYoung, Ted Kluck, and David Wells. I have listened to multiple sermons, read articles, and read a review of this book by Justin Taylor and I feel like I have learned so much about the Emergent Church and I want to learn more. I hate not knowing about an important issue in our culture!
10. The Courage To Be Protestant by David Wells. Besides the fact that he has my maiden name, I have this one on my list for kinda the same reason as Why We’re Not Emergent.
11. Worship Matters by Bob Kauflin. I just want to know how to worship God better. That seems good enough reason to read a book to me=)
12. The Deliberate Church by Mark Dever. I am always interested in how to make the church as healthy and Gospel-centered as possible.
13. The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment by Tim Challies because I seriously need to cultivate discernment in my own life.
14. Humility: True Greatness by C.J. Mahaney. I have heard friends talk about this book for what seems like forever. I have always wanted to read it and I hope to get around to it really soon! Anything by C.J. Mahaney you know is going to be great!
15. Confessions of a Reformission Rev by Mark Driscoll. I have become quite the fan of Mars Hill Church in the last few weeks. I love the church’s mission and their heart. I love to listen to the teaching of Pastor Mark Driscoll. I want to read this book to learn more about the church and their history.

Okay- that was 15 books. Sorry.

my helpers

The boys helped me make homemade spaghetti sauce last week. They didn’t do much, but they sure enjoyed watching- and they love to sit on the countertops!

Some pics:

P.S. I go out and buy one of the best cameras on the market and my pics are still blurry. It seriously gets on my nerves. Does anyone know what I am doing wrong?

great running song

It is so hard for me to find music that I enjoy running to. For David, it is easy: the faster the better. Fast isn’t exactly what makes a song great for running in my opinion. Sure- fast is great, but I need music that motivates me and gives me a reason to keep running. Lately, I have been choosing music that reminds me of my sheer nothingness without Jesus Christ. I love to run meditating on the work of Jesus on the cross and the hope that that gives us. Lately I have found myself praying often:

Thank you, Jesus, for dying on the cross, and for all that means!

Doesn’t it mean everything? I know I am guilty of making methods, issues, and other silly things more important than the Gospel… and shame on me! The atoning work of Christ on the cross should be what drives us, motivates us, dictates our lives! All the other things that I like to dwell on, think about, talk about, should come in a far and distant second place!

Here is my latest favorite running song:

Jesus, My Only Hope

I come into Your presence
With nothing in my hands
I only bring thanksgiving
For Jesus, God and Man
I cast myself on mercy
I cast myself on love
I trust Your gracious promise
To wash me with Your blood

I will not fear Your judgment
For me no wrath I dread
For it was spent on Jesus
Poured out upon His head
When Satan’s accusations
Make my poor heart afraid
I hear my King declaring
“Father, that debt is paid!”

Jesus my only hope
My only plea
My righteousness
My Great High Priest
Who intercedes for me
Before the throne
Jesus, I trust in You alone

Though I am poor and naked
Your prodigal come home
You place Your robe upon me
Your holiness alone
Though I be dry and barren
By grace this love springs forth
Love for You and Your Kingdom
Joy in Your glory, Lord

But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Galatians 6:14

bowling

We have a sitter secured for Simon this morning to take Noah and Sammy bowling, along with the home schoolers. It should be lots of fun! I haven’t been bowling in a while (unless a Wii counts?). Pray we have no smashed fingers, kids running down the oily lanes, and that I beat David. That is, in fact, what truly matters.

P.S. The boys are turning into little Daddies (I won’t say Mommies cause that would be weird). When one of them gets a boo-boo, the other raises their voice to a squeaky Mommy-esque level and says “Oh no! You got a boo-boo. It’ll get better. It will.” A couple days ago, they were in the tub and Sammy said this to Noah regarding his big knee boo-boo and Noah looked at him, raised his voice to a glass-shattering level and said: “Yes! Cause God healed me!” Too cute!

for your enjoyment (since your kids didn’t do it)

Seriously, I wonder if God decided to show His sense of humor when I wrote this morning of my lack of blog content. This afternoon, I’ve got some. Allow me to explain:

Around 1:30, I put the boys down for their nap. I proceeded to my bedroom where I was studying the passage in Genesis where Rebekah told Jacob to deceive his father and steal Esau’s birthright. I think that’s needed- or at least humorous- information because the very fact that I was studying 2 brothers- very different brothers- made me think of my own sons.

Around 2:15, I thought the boys were asleep. Simon was sound asleep upstairs and I heard not a word from the other two. It was an eery kind of silence and I should have checked the situation out, but I figured, worst case scenario, they were laying quietly in their beds and would wait there til I woke up. I was E-X-H-A-U-S-T-E-D and, not listening to that voice in my head, I passed out.

At 2:45, David called and asked me to unlock the door because he was headed home to change clothes. I let him in and fell back into bed. At that time, I heard the boys whispering, but figured the phone had woken them up and they would just play quietly in their rooms with their “drawers” (magna doodles). That’s what they do on most days. I was wrong.

David walked in the door and I told him that I thought the boys were awake. He walked across the house to say hi to them (I call this the “calm before the storm”) and then I heard it: the wrath of Dad. He screamed: “What in the world are you doing?!” Then we saw it:

This is but a small part of the wall in their playroom that they colored. Like the pirate ship? Here is the cross. Somehow I think Noah knew forgiveness would be involved.

David asked them who did it, knowing the answer. Noah pleaded: “SAMMY!” Oh yeah?

Maybe Noah was hinting a great place for dinner? I didn’t even know he could do this!:

The “convicted” headed to the slammer, or bath:

Noah, in the aftermath (he looked remorseful, huh?):

And that’s our afternoon. I hope your’s was much less stressful!

randoms (this always happens when I am in the mood to write, but have no content…)

1. Turkey bacon is superbly yummy!
2. We watched Juno last night. I wanted to see it because of my slight obsession with anything having to do with pregnancy and childbirth. David said he was surprised (I think that was the word he used) that I wanted to see it because of it’s storyline (teen pregnancy, abortion). I was curious, however, at how Hollywood was looking at said topics these days so we rented it. I was sad, of course, because of how lightly “big” issues were handled in the film and of course saddened because it was a sad situation. The movie has a very Napoleon Dynamite feel to it. It is hiliarious. I think there were parts of it where I laughed because the humor was random and senseless, but there were also times that I was tempted to laugh at sin. And for that reason, I wouldn’t watch it again. This movie is a wonderful resource for church leaders, especially teenage leaders, because teens really think this way. At one point David said: “What is sad is that this is true.”
3. Simon has learned to unload the dishwasher. He really holds me accountable in a strange kind of way because if I don’t unload it first thing in the morning, he will be in the knives.
4. Noah now thinks he’s Jesus. He asked me to “died” (kill) him last night because he is Jesus and he has to die.
5. The boys don’t play Follow The Leader. They play a rather “messed up” version called Jesus and the Disciple. Whoever leads (Noah, of course) says “I am Jesus!” and Sammy calls out “and I am the disciple!” Sometimes it gets weird though when Sammy says he is the criminal or the cross. Eek.
6. I am dying to get my hands on a copy of some R.C. Sproul books: The Holiness of God and The Priest with Dirty Clothes. I am hearing great things! I think they’re old books. It usually takes me a while to get wind of a good thing=)
7. We are starting a new book with the boys today! I was waiting til they got a little older and now they are so intrigued by Jesus that I think it’s a good time to start it. It is called The Big Book of Questions and Answers by Sinclair Ferguson. I know they may not “get” it, but it’s all about instilling it, right? I bought this book a year ago at Grace Community Church’s bookstore when I was in California. I was hoping David could go through it with us (and maybe he can join us later on), but he is so busy it just isn’t possible.
8. I have a new laundry routine and it really helps. I am the world’s worst for washing and drying laundry and never folding it and putting it away. The new plan: I throw in a load at bedtime and when I wake up in the morning I throw it in the dryer (it will not mildew over night- at least in NM where we have no humidity). By 8 or 9 a.m. the load is dry. I am most motivated to do my housework in the mornings so this is helping me to ensure it gets done.
9. I started The Shack yesterday. I figure if I am going to pretend to know something about a book, I should actually read it.
10. I don’t have to cook dinner as it is Wednesday. YAY! YAY! YAY! Did I say YAY?
11. If you haven’t tried the new Townhouse FlipSides Pretzel Crackers, you are sincerely missing out! They are only like the greatest crackers ever! And I am not a cracker person. They don’t really help with my fitness routine, however.
12. I am meeting a friend at 10:30 so the kids can play. This means I should probably be focusing on my housekeeping and not composing a senseless blog post.
13. I bought two new Sovereign Grace CDs: Come Weary Saints and Songs for the Cross-Centered Life. They are A-W-E-S-O-M-E!
14. David bought Stepping Heavenward for the teenage girls who are graduating next month. I think that makes me love him more.
15. Lastly, we got a new answering machine. So if you call us you can actually leave a message! Isn’t technology amazing?! And…you must call to hear Noah’s message=) Just make sure we’re not home!

a must-have for your CD collection!

All Mars Hill music is free!!!

My newest fave is Mars Hill Live Worship Volume Two. Find it here!

My favorite song: There is A Redeemer. The lyrics:

There is a Redeemer,
Jesus, God’s own Son,
Precious Lamb of God, Messiah,
Holy one.

Jesus my Redeemer,
Name above all names,
Precious Lamb of God, Messiah,
Oh, for sinners slain.

Thank you oh my Father,
For giving us your Son,
And leaving your Spirit,
til the work on earth is done.

When I stand in glory,
I will see His face,
And there Ill serve my King forever,
In that holy place.

Thank you oh my Father,
For giving us your Son,
And leaving Your Spirit,
til the work on earth is done.

There is a Redeemer,
Jesus, God’s own Son,
Precious Lamb of God, Messiah,
Holy One,

Thank You oh my Father,
For giving us Your Son,
And leaving Your spirit,
til the work on earth is done.

which is more sad?

The fact that David can’t attend Together For The Gospel this year? Or that I think I am even more sad that I (as a female) can’t attend? =)

On that note, C.J. Mahaney had a blog post that really blessed my heart. I bet the staff wives at Covenant Life Church loved he and his wife come conference time! Read what I mean here.