Friday, March 30, 2007

No longer crawling at a snail's pace ...

We finally moved from dial up to high speed. With AT&T buying out Cingular Wireless, they have a great combo package where we can get our cell phone, home phone, and DSL combined for the price that we were previously paying for the home and cell phones separately. What a difference in speed!

Alayna's Field Trip

Today Alayna's class took a field trip to Kids 'N' Stuff Museum in Albion, MI. She got to "visit Mexico" and dress up in a festive outfit. She also went shopping in a miniature grocery store, worked in a bank and post office, played with the water table, and went rock climbing.


Check out Kids 'N' Stuff online!

Fire Bug

Behind me is the pile of tree limbs that came down in an ice storm during the winter.

Accident Avoided


For some reason, Melanie had one of Josiah's trucks and was driving it on her head. As a result, her hair became tangled up in the axle! Daddy had to remove about 6 screws, the little driver inside the truck, a spring (that caused the front wheels to move when the man was pushed down), and the axles. Finally, after some fancy maneuvering, we were able to rescue her hair from the clutches of the truck!

Monday, March 26, 2007

Record Setting Day!

78 Degrees

Today was a beautiful spring day here in southern Michigan. In fact, the temperature set a new high here in Jackson today. I could get used to this!

Melanie's class had their lunch outside under a tree for the first "picnic" of the year. Alayna was in her pajamas when I picked her up from school. Her class is working on their "P" letter book. All the kindergarten students wore their PJ's and had pancakes for their snack.




Sunday, March 25, 2007

Church Split

I found this article that I am planning to use as a sermon illustration this morning ...

Church Splits Down The Middle Over Issues Regarding Piano Bench
100 years of Christian fellowship, spiritual love, Godly unity, and community growth ended last Tuesday in a fit of congregational discord not to be rivaled in this century. Holy Creek Baptist Church was split down the middle like the tabernacle cloth that tore at the point of our Lord's crucifixion. It is said that one could hear that rip a hundred miles away. Holy Creek Baptist was severed from the once stalwart cord of unity that bound them together. The fist of discord has pounded an army of Christian soldiers into two disheveled, unorganized factions of estranged members.

The source of dissension in this once Holy house of God, is a piano bench which still sits behind the 1923 Steinburg to the left of the pulpit. Landover Baptist members who have friends or relatives at Holy Creek Baptist, say that the old bench was always a source of hostility. People should have seen this coming. "That congregation was getting ready to break for the last 10 years," some said. "It's just a shame that it had to be over a piano bench." One outside pastor commented, "However ridiculous it might sound, I'm sure the Lord is using this whole thing in some way that none of us can see or make any sense of at all or ever hope to comprehend."

At present, Holy Creek Congregation will be having four services a day. There has been an unspoken agreement mediated by Pastor Deacon Fred of the Landover Baptist Church. Each faction will have it's own separate service with it's own separate pastor. Since the head pastor is not speaking to the associate pastor, each will have their own service, which will be attended by factioned members. We are told that the services are far enough apart that neither group will come into contact with the other. An outside party will be moving the piano bench to different locations and appropriate positions, between services, so as to please both sides, and avoid any further conflict that could result in violence.


Copyright 1999/C.Harper .
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Saturday, March 24, 2007

An Early Reader?


Esther tediously sorted these books and arranged them by size recently. Josiah managed to undo that in the twinkling of an eye! From now on, she'll probably just put books on the shelf any way they will fit!

Friday, March 23, 2007

Let's Talk Turkey


Turkey Mourned as Model Member

Lambs United Methodist Church, Wales Township, Michigan, held a moment of silence last week to honor one of their model members — a wild turkey. The Rev. James Huff, pastor of the church, said the turkey regularly attended Sunday services and greeted people as they arrived. "He would kind of wait for me to come in," Huff told the Times Herald of Port Huron. "He knew when I got there. Service was about to begin, and then he would sit on one lady's car until we were done."

Area residents reported that the turkey died last week after it was hit by a car on a road near the St. Clair County church. Congregation members immediately noticed that the fowl was absent, since he never missed a service.

Source: The Pastor's Weekly Briefing, March 23, 2007

I'd like to have more people who came to church every Sunday, but I would prefer that they actually come into the church, rather than sit in the parking lot until the service was over. :) Just in case you were wondering, Wales Township, MI is located on the eastern side of the state, above Detroit. It is pretty close the the Canadian border of Ontario.





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Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Do Our Actions Match Our Words?

GORE REFUSES TO TAKE PERSONAL ENERGY ETHICS PLEDGE
WASHINGTON, DC Former Vice President Al Gore refused to take a “Personal Energy Ethics Pledge” today to consume no more energy than the average American household. The pledge was presented to Gore by Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), Ranking Member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, during today’s global warming hearing.
Senator Inhofe showed Gore a film frame from “An Inconvenient Truth” where it asks viewers: “Are you ready to change the way you live?”

Gore has been criticized for excessive home energy usage at his residence in Tennessee. His electricity usage is reportedly 20 times higher than the average American household.
It has been reported that many of these so-called carbon offset projects would have been done anyway. Also, carbon offset projects such as planting trees can take decades or even a century to sequester the carbon emitted today. So energy usage today results in greenhouse gases remaining in the atmosphere for decades, even with the purchase of so-called carbon offsets.
“There are hundreds of thousands of people who adore you and would follow your example by reducing their energy usage if you did. Don’t give us the run-around on carbon offsets or the gimmicks the wealthy do,” Senator Inhofe told Gore.
“Are you willing to make a commitment here today by taking this pledge to consume no more energy for use in your residence than the average American household by one year from today?” Senator Inhofe asked.
Senator Inhofe then presented Vice President Gore with the following "Personal Energy Ethics Pledge:

As a believer:
  • that human-caused global warming is a moral, ethical, and spiritual issue affecting our survival;
  • that home energy use is a key component of overall energy use;
  • that reducing my fossil fuel-based home energy usage will lead to lower greenhouse gas emissions; and
  • that leaders on moral issues should lead by example;
I pledge to consume no more energy for use in my residence than the average American household by March 21, 2008.”
Gore refused to take the pledge.


After reading this article, I thought "what a hypocrite." Then I began to think ... are there any glaring (or dull for that matter) inconsistencies in my life? Lord, help us to lead by example in serving You, not just by word of mouth!

Redecorated Bathroom


Alayna is enjoying brushing her teeth in our newly redone bathroom. The bathroom had some hairline cracks in the tub and the wallpaper was old and peeling, so now we have a new tub, fan/light, window, linoleum, trim, and a bright yellow duck theme. Special thanks to Jim Seely who helped with the plumbing, drywall, and trim; Jonathan Riddle who did the flooring, my dad for his help with wiring in the new fan, and Esther's step-father for installing the window!

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Josiah's New Bed




Last summer we bought this car toddler bed at a yardsale. The time has finally arrived to put it to use. Josiah "helped" me put it together. Before it was assembled, I told him that he would be sleeping on the car tonight. He got excited and layed down on the hard plastic side of the the car and pretended to go to sleep. He has had no trouble adjusting from a crib to the bed!

Cat Cake

Esther worked hard making this cat cake and a couple kitten cupcakes!

Melanie's Birthday


Party Girl

Melanie had a gr8 time turning 8! Her teacher asked how many parties she was having, and I had to pause for a moment to count. (1) There was the birthday party at Mamaw and Grandpa's in Indiana when we went to the Bus and Outreach Convention. (2) Grampy and Grammy traveled from WV the weekend before her birthday. (3) Esther made snickerdoodle cookies for a party at school. (4) We had our own family birthday party with CiCi's pizza and a cat cake. (5) Last Sunday we had all the families from church over to our house who had a birthday in the month of March. It seems that we had a couple parties that were early, a couple on time, and one that was l8.