Allow me to be serious for a moment.
At daybreak (my mom's group at Beulah), I decided to take a study called "Lord, Change My Attitude." I would highly recommend it. It's pretty in-depth, but very amazing. The first week was very convicting, and made me so aware of things.
The first week session was about complaining. Complaining is expressing dissatisfaction with a circumstance that is not wrong, and about which we're doing nothing to correct. It was really eye-opening to read in the old testament what God felt and did about His people's complaining. The writer then talked about what we are telling God when we complain. It's so easy in amongst the goodness of life to get caught on one thing. When we complain about that one thing, we're telling God that He's not enough. We're telling God that although we have tremendous blessings from Him, He's not powerful enough to take care of it. God doesn't want His children to complain about their lot in life. "Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say, 'It is well, it is well with my soul.'" That song went through my head a lot that week. God uses our hardship to perfect our souls, and when we complain about it, we're basically telling the Master of the universe that He's not doing His job. Ouch. So next time when we're thinking, "My life is ruined!" it might be time to thank God for what we do have. Which is SO much.
Friday, January 23, 2009
More Recapping...
So here we are. More random things on our lives for the last little bit.
* * *
Last Saturday as we were all hanging out in Zack's room, we were all playing and the boys were getting dressed. Then, after some time, Zack said to us, "Mommy and Daddy, I'm going to sing a song to you. It's the 12 days of Christmas, okay?"
Looking at eachother with a questioning glance, Pete and I said, "Go for it, Zack!"
Then Zack proceeded to sing the ENTIRE 12 days of Christmas without stopping or stuttering. Pete and I gazed at him, our jaws on the floor! We hadn't sang that song since Christmas eve at my Grandma's house, and at that time he didn't know beyond the second day of Christmas. We asked, "Zack, that was AMAZING!!! How did you learn and remember that?"
Nonchalantly, he replied, "I just practiced it in my bed."
So now he is very proud to sing the song to anyone willing to listen. It's pretty amazing. I still can't believe he can do it. The "Fiiiiiiiiiiive Gooooooooolden Rrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiings" is my favorite.
* * *
I should give you an update on the truck... It's still dead. It's engineless outer shell is sitting in the yard at Pete's shop, and now he's gone through 2 engines that had the promise of working but turned out to be duds. Luckily we still have a few more options we can explore, and hopefully we can figure them out without losing too much more money! I have no idea what we'd do if Pete wasn't a mechanic! Thank goodness he is! :)
* * *
Still no computer. But the computer news is good! My cousin Dale is amazing with computers. In University computer engineering, he was the one fixing his classmates' computers. So I called him and he came over to see our ailing piece of hardware. His diagnosis was much better than we thought, so he took it home and it should be as good as new with all my old pictures and info too! Yay Dale! :)
* * *
The boys are doing awesome - Nathan is still doing crazy and cute things all day. He's still nuts about his cars, but he'll do anything if he gets the chance. Zack is starting to read now as well as write, and we're registering him for kindergarten soon (aaah!).
* * *
Last Saturday as we were all hanging out in Zack's room, we were all playing and the boys were getting dressed. Then, after some time, Zack said to us, "Mommy and Daddy, I'm going to sing a song to you. It's the 12 days of Christmas, okay?"
Looking at eachother with a questioning glance, Pete and I said, "Go for it, Zack!"
Then Zack proceeded to sing the ENTIRE 12 days of Christmas without stopping or stuttering. Pete and I gazed at him, our jaws on the floor! We hadn't sang that song since Christmas eve at my Grandma's house, and at that time he didn't know beyond the second day of Christmas. We asked, "Zack, that was AMAZING!!! How did you learn and remember that?"
Nonchalantly, he replied, "I just practiced it in my bed."
So now he is very proud to sing the song to anyone willing to listen. It's pretty amazing. I still can't believe he can do it. The "Fiiiiiiiiiiive Gooooooooolden Rrrriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiings" is my favorite.
* * *
I should give you an update on the truck... It's still dead. It's engineless outer shell is sitting in the yard at Pete's shop, and now he's gone through 2 engines that had the promise of working but turned out to be duds. Luckily we still have a few more options we can explore, and hopefully we can figure them out without losing too much more money! I have no idea what we'd do if Pete wasn't a mechanic! Thank goodness he is! :)
* * *
Still no computer. But the computer news is good! My cousin Dale is amazing with computers. In University computer engineering, he was the one fixing his classmates' computers. So I called him and he came over to see our ailing piece of hardware. His diagnosis was much better than we thought, so he took it home and it should be as good as new with all my old pictures and info too! Yay Dale! :)
* * *
The boys are doing awesome - Nathan is still doing crazy and cute things all day. He's still nuts about his cars, but he'll do anything if he gets the chance. Zack is starting to read now as well as write, and we're registering him for kindergarten soon (aaah!).
Friday, January 2, 2009
Random Recap
Well, lots has happened, and the reason I haven't reported most of it is because our computer crashed - ouch!! So hopefully I can get it fixed, and if not we'll be stuck for now... So here's a couple of random cute things to tide you over until I can post some pictures and get a computer back!
* * *
On Christmas eve, we were all having a conversation at my Grandma's house during supper. Zack heard me talking about my dad's grey hair, and he said, "Mommy, why is Grandpa's hair grey?"
"Well Zack, when people get really smart, their hair turns grey."
Thinking that this was a sufficient answer (not to mention a complement to my dad), we carried on with supper. After we opened presents, Zack was playing with a new puzzle that he got. He was doing so great, and I commented that he's so smart. Well, Zack turned to me in dismay, his eyes filled with tears, and he said, "But mommy, I'm NOT smart. My hair's not grey, so I can't be smart." And then he started to cry. Oh dear.
* * *
Well, the inevitable happened, and after a year and a half of being with us, our poor truck Harold died. His crankshaft broke in half and broke the engine block in the process, so Pete has been frantically finding parts to rebuild a new engine so that we will be back to two vehicles soon. It's sad that he's spent every free day of Christmas holidays doing it, but hopefully the new engine will be together soon!
On another slightly frustrating note, because of the constant cold temperatures of below minus 20, our pipes have been freezing! This results in our bathtubs (the lowest drains in the house) filling up with raw sewage, and Pete freezing his butt off outside under the house with a heat gun on the exit pipes. *sigh* Poor Pete - not the Christmas vacation he imagined!
* * *
We had a whirlwind Christmas - 5 straight days of dinners, presents, and family! It was busy, but we all had a great time. The boys sure got a lot of presents - clothes, toys, a new bike for Nathan, a regulation sized hockey net for Zack, an art easel, marble works, to name a few. Pete and I both were spoiled with wonderful gifts as well - my top three favorite gifts are:
A Waffle Iron (now that I can actually eat them!)
A Sewing Machine
A georgeous star necklace with swarovski crystals
Pete got lots of tools (yay), clothes, and some fun video games that all of us can play. We had a spectacular time with everyone, and we are still getting over it! :)
* * *
Hope you have a great New Year, and I'll try and keep everyone up to date soon!
* * *
On Christmas eve, we were all having a conversation at my Grandma's house during supper. Zack heard me talking about my dad's grey hair, and he said, "Mommy, why is Grandpa's hair grey?"
"Well Zack, when people get really smart, their hair turns grey."
Thinking that this was a sufficient answer (not to mention a complement to my dad), we carried on with supper. After we opened presents, Zack was playing with a new puzzle that he got. He was doing so great, and I commented that he's so smart. Well, Zack turned to me in dismay, his eyes filled with tears, and he said, "But mommy, I'm NOT smart. My hair's not grey, so I can't be smart." And then he started to cry. Oh dear.
* * *
Well, the inevitable happened, and after a year and a half of being with us, our poor truck Harold died. His crankshaft broke in half and broke the engine block in the process, so Pete has been frantically finding parts to rebuild a new engine so that we will be back to two vehicles soon. It's sad that he's spent every free day of Christmas holidays doing it, but hopefully the new engine will be together soon!
On another slightly frustrating note, because of the constant cold temperatures of below minus 20, our pipes have been freezing! This results in our bathtubs (the lowest drains in the house) filling up with raw sewage, and Pete freezing his butt off outside under the house with a heat gun on the exit pipes. *sigh* Poor Pete - not the Christmas vacation he imagined!
* * *
We had a whirlwind Christmas - 5 straight days of dinners, presents, and family! It was busy, but we all had a great time. The boys sure got a lot of presents - clothes, toys, a new bike for Nathan, a regulation sized hockey net for Zack, an art easel, marble works, to name a few. Pete and I both were spoiled with wonderful gifts as well - my top three favorite gifts are:
A Waffle Iron (now that I can actually eat them!)
A Sewing Machine
A georgeous star necklace with swarovski crystals
Pete got lots of tools (yay), clothes, and some fun video games that all of us can play. We had a spectacular time with everyone, and we are still getting over it! :)
* * *
Hope you have a great New Year, and I'll try and keep everyone up to date soon!
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