Fellowship - Frogmore Style!

Ryan and Mindy's small group put on a night of food and fellowship for all the pastors. Nathan and Robin didn't make it, but the rest of us were there! Mike, Kate, Brandon, Julia, Eric, Taylor, Melissa, Eddie, Ryan and Mindy (and little Lizzie too) brought us together Wed. night, and Look What They Cooked US!!!

I find it very funny that I made Frogmore for the first time for my family just a month or two ago and here we are again! They added some things I had never tried in it. Sausage and Green Beans.

Strawberry Shortcake for dessert - River lost her tooth! (and she scored 4 goals at her soccer game!)

Mo was being such a ham ... Kelly egged him on! I always wish I would have taken more photos, but I was trying to fellowship!!
It was a great night. We felt so honored and loved.
Thanks to all of you for giving us a chance to connect and relax - You are awesome!

Album Art

Tofer had his sister and I out shooting photos of him for his "album" - whenever that happens! This is an old guitar someone gave him for stacking wood! He put on my grampa's old, wool, hunting pants with patched knees and found some other things to put him in "character" and here we are at the Hobo Shoot!
Cricket had to get in on the action too, but I think next time we might have to borrow Oat - she seems a bit more like a travelin' dog than our queen bee does!

Memorial Week

I haven't had much luck posting since I've had to work from the dinosaur desktop. It's great for email, but photo posting seems to be beyond it's realm of functionality. I'm trying again however. Our Bible Study had a fellowship night and we gorged ourselves on Mexican Food and held all the babies!!!! Scott and Sadie brought Tri-tip, beans, and rice. I brought shedded chicken enchiladas, & green salads (for those on the raw diet :o) I over indulged. On both food and baby cuddling. So did Sara!

Tof turned 17 Friday!!! You can tell he is growing up just from what he asks for for gifts. Propane tank for the bbq so he can bbq this summer. Money for the computer he is saving up for. Socks. LOL!

We had our traditional breakfast of cinnamon rolls, but the only candle I had was a huge, hurkin' lump o' wax... he didn't mind as long as he got to the cinnamon roll when it was blown out! :o)

My birthday was Saturday. I got my hair butched for summer :o) It's easy, but I feel like I look more like my mother than ever! It grows so fast that it won't be long before it's back in a pony tail.
Jen took me to breakfast. That was especially sweet because I have been craving 'girl-time' lately and haven't had opportunity. We walked to Nova in the rain and chatted, then had great coffee, food, & conversation for two more hours! THANKS SO MUCH JEN!

J & the kids bought me a gorgeous bamboo salad bowl I had been wanting! It rained the whole day and the kids spoiled me by doing my dishes and building me a fire to sit next to and read all day!

Sunday afternoon we held a bbq with a bunch of friends for Tofer's party. God blessed us with a bit of SUN!

Then Sunday night the Murray's hosted us at a "Black and White" night. We had to wear only black and white, eat only black and white food and we watched a black and white movie! What a blast!

J is fighting sickness right now. He has to preach Sunday and would really like a clear head to prepare. Please pray for him.

30 hours - 31,300 dead

Tofer and Minda took part in World Vision's 30 hour famine this year. Our family pastor took several youth and joined with other youth from our city to gather for a night of learning to empathise and care about the 29,000 children that die each day as a result of hunger or hunger related illnesses. The morning after, the kids walked into service with LONG butcher paper rolls of stick figures. There were 29,000 figures, but even more had died in during the event. Each of the kids had to raise at least $35 to participate, but few raised only that amount. $35 feeds a child for a year! A YEAR?!?!

Minda raised $500, and she was sad she didn't have more time to get word out and gather more. Tofer and she led worship with another friend. It was a big step for her. Not only was it in front of people, it was in front of people she didn't know. God gave her boldness to use her talent and her knowledge of her instrument (with encouragement from her big brother and his time in teaching her to "feel" the change...) to usher kids into His presence so He could speak to their hearts.

Minda was asked several times, as she knocked on doors of friends and neighbors, if she was REALLY going to go without food for 30 hours; when it was over she said, "At least I knew there was an end in sight - they don't."
31,300 children were dead by the time she came home because they didn't have the meals her $500 will provide ~ but maybe this year there will be a few less because she chose to go without for only 30 hours just for them. We probably won't know until heaven.

Thaw

I'm still doing the raw food challenge. With the coming of sunshine there is greater desire to eat raw. When it was still snowing and 34 degrees outside for some reason I didn't crave a chilly smoothie over a hot cup of coffee! This was part of dinner last night. A 7 grain and mushroom "tortilla" (brushed with EVOO) with green onion, tomato, cucumber, orange bell pepper and avocado slivers (with pink sea salt sprinkled sparingly) and a green smoothie made of apple, peach, mango, strawberry, banana, spirulina, wheat grass, barley grass, wheat sprouts, jerusalem artichoke, lemon, and flax seed. I know it looks and sounds gross, but even my kids want some when I drink it!

The sunshine has been working it's wonders in other areas too! The woodlands are greening! We have a pair of eagles that have chosen to nest on our hillside. When the sun is warm they circle on the wind currents and call to each other. Tofer has the hoop set up and has been out there shooting baskets every shiny afternoon when school is finished. Nimbal-O and he sat and chatted with one another yesterday.

Cricket and I and Cassia had hoped to walk along the creek and get a bit of exercise, but it is still to deeply entrenched in snow.

Little by little winter is losing it's grip on the mountain. It's raining today and we are hoping it is diminishing some of that frozen depth at the creek side. I'm sitting with a cup of peppermint tea watching the drizzle. We just finished PSAT tests and have one more week of school before we are on our 3 month break! I'm going to do dishes and then work on curtains for our bedroom (they've been in process for months). Life is good.

The Recording

Tofer, Cassia and our friend James Schlender (Who stands as 8th best fiddler in the US! He was 13 when he won that title!) recorded Tof's new worship song that I blogged on! Hope you enjoy it!

I posted about this past week below.

Minding the Mission

Wow! What a week!!

J and I spent most of the week in Billings hearing about the Great Commission and building relationships with other pastors and their wives and families.

It was also some great time alone as a couple. :oD

J got to lead worship Tuesday night with some of his buds. Our prayer during the preparation week was that the pastors would feel built up and edified, and energized in their spirits as they were lead into the throneroom. God definatly did all that and more than we could have asked for. It was an evening of anointing. Both the worship and the message of what He is accomplishing throughout the world, exalted and glorified God alone! I was very proud of my guy and our friends.

Our kids stayed home and did their school work and chores! We have THE BEST kids in the universe! You can not convince me otherwise! They are simply awesome, by the grace of God!

4 days, 3 nights, and no time apart from eachother, yet we came home to a clean house, happy siblings, no broken bones, and school assignments totally completed!

They recorded the worship song that I blogged about, so as soon as I figure out how to embed an audio track onto blogger without it being a video... I'll let you know!

Expelled

Expelled, originally uploaded by efiw.

We took the kids to the "movies" Monday.
I've been following this movie for almost a year and was intensely interested to see if this was going to just be another bash fest or a presentation of facts. Ben Stein did a decent job of getting word out there as to what is happening and how our World View seems to influence our ability to look at facts objectively and follow those facts to their ultimate conclusion. Still, it was a bit bashing (typical Ben sarcasm.)
I did learn a few things:
*You do not have to be a Christian (or even a Creationist) to subscribe to the ID theory. ID is simply stating that since scientists don't know the origins of life, could there be an intelligent designer instead of having to have all the proteins and atoms mesh in just the right way to bring about the 1st cell that in turn evolved into life.
*Darwinists are much more violent and vigilant than IDists.
*Science has been reduced to popular belief instead of testing, achieving results and documenting facts.
*It sounds just as crazy for me to say that God created life by molding mud and breathing into it, when I have never seen with my physical eyes the performance of the creation of life with mud or otherwise, as it does for Darwinists to say the first cell came about billions of years ago through lightning striking primordial soup causing evolvution into complex life forms.

One of the professors in the movie who teaches evolution was passionate about making sure nobody believed in God or the idea of after-life (heaven in particular). It was hopelessness up close and personal. Minda walked away from it in tears. I did too. He will never know the grace, mercy or love of God, and he doesn't care to.
The next day she said to me, "Mom, it seemed so much easier to believe in God when I was little. This whole God-head thing is strange, and difficult to understand." I went on to talk with her about how faith comes into play where we don't totally understand, and how growing up also means having to make choices for ourselves and not just following our parents like we did at 4 or 5 years old. In the end she said, "I wish I could stay 6 years old in my spirit then, forever."
Don't we all?

Brotherly Love

Tofer is becoming a wonderful songwriter. What is really special is that he loves when Cassia harmonizes with him. He'll write a chorus and then rush up the stairs to show her. By the second time through she has her harmony and begins to sing out, right along with him. He goes back down the stairs smiling and excited to continue writing. When the opportunity came for him to minister in song to the congregation, he wouldn't do it unless Cassia was available. (She is a busy girl right now) It not only worked for her, but God brought together others who wanted to help make this moment as worshipful as possible!

This is them performing "Holy God" together for offeratory~ along with Tanner on drums, Scott on bass, and Mike on rhythm guitar. It was beautiful :O) I'll have to get Tof to put it on the computer so you can hear it.

Raw Granola Bars

I've integrated about 90% raw into my diet. It was a challenge from Sara. It's been difficult to do as much as I would like because of family, and lack of a garden, but I have loved what I have been able to do.

I was hungry for granola bars the other day, so I decided to try my hand at making them raw. In order to make them stick together I used organic dates, organic, fresh almond butter, and unsulphered, non-heat processed molasses. Into that I added organic unsweetened coconut flakes, organic whole oats, organic raw sunflower seeds, organic flax seed, almonds, and dried apricots. I mixed it, pressed it into a pan, and let it dry for a day and a half with a screen on it (I also don't have a dehydrator). They were yummy - with the exception of the apricots... I won't add those next time. I may make more soon. The 12 bars this made went fast! I may substitute out the molasses for honey and see how that goes.

Success!

We're Home!! What an adventure. I feel like I conquered the world and all I did was drive to Minnesota and back! Cassia had a great visit. She made friends, fell in love with the college, their faculty and staff, got a taste of late nights and early mornings several days in a row, and got a nifty, purple T-shirt! (he he!) Peter told me before we left to keep my hands at 10 & 2... How did I do Peter? I won't be anxious to get back in the car again anytime soon. Just thinking about it makes my butt ache.

Our special Google map blown up to 350% so you can see "St. Boni" (as the locals say). Google gave us wrong directions, but we made it anyway thanks to the grace of God! It's a beautiful place, although most of our time there was spent watching the unseasonal blizzard. Winds were outrageous!

One of the many long stretches of I-94 east... at least it was a beautiful morning! It reminded us of eastern Washington. We felt like we were driving to Tri-Cities or Odessa. It made Cassia miss 'home'. I can't say that I will ever miss coulees, scrub land, tumbleweeds, or sagebrush, though I do miss the heat sometimes.

This is Tonya. She is from a small town in WY and wants to go into Crown's nursing program. She and Cassia became good friends while they were there. She is one of several people that we are now missing. One thing about going into an environment where everyone is there for a similar purpose, and have similar goals, dreams, and hearts is that you connect quickly and feel their absence acutely when you are separated.

Tof blessed us with some Starbucks money. However, finding a Starbucks in eastern Montana, North Dakota, or small town Minnesota is a needle in a haystack exercise. My nose, however, is a finely tuned Starbucks locator. We found one on the way home hiding out in Bismark. Do we look happy? Coffee = Happy, happy, happy!

Thank you, again, to all of you who were praying for us continually. Cassia's interview went well, she doesn't think the essay went great, & the initiatives were challenging. The roads were good, and the car did fantastic. I wish you were all here so we could tell you about it in person. God did some amazing things and we could not feel more blessed or secure in the knowledge of His love toward us.

Please pray for the scholarships & grants that Cassia will be finding out about in the upcoming weeks. If she is supposed to be at Crown, it will have to be paid for through God's provision. I'm so excited about her future.

And They're Off!!

Cassia and I leave in about an hour!!! We're packed, we have our directions printed, we bought a map, we got snacker-nackers, and have checked and rechecked our lists. J. filled up Lassie with petrol, changed her oil, left the snow tires on and checked their pressure, and washed her with triple action foam so she is shiny metalic blue again (we'd forgotton what color she was!).
Tof and Minda have their school assignments lined out for them, their work assignments have been rehersed, snack and meals have been gone over...

You all have been awesome with your prayers and blessings over us in these preparation days, please continue to pray for us!

Frogs and More

We are in the middle of endless winter. We're experiencing barefoot & frolic depravation. Last winter was our first in Bozeman and God must have let us just have a 'sip' ~ Sorta work us in, easy like. This year its' been like drinking from a firehose. It has literally been 8 months of winter. We've had non-stop snow since the end of Sept. Great for the skiiers, not so great for those of us with Spring in our hearts.

We've been hankerin' for Summer - campfire grub, Flip flops, tank tops, Fresh fruits, vegies, grilled fish.

Family night this week I decided to cook a childhood favorite of mine. Grampa used to make this in the big dutchovens when we'd go camping. He called it Frogmore Stew - cause it had Frogs and More in it! It's simple and fun.

Throw chunks of potato, corn cobs, crab, shrimp, frog legs, or whatever into a pot with some olive oil and water. Season to taste with whatever you want and boil it until tender. Then drain it and dump it onto newpaper in the middle of the table. (I put a garbage bag under it so it wouldn't damage the table, but when you are camping it doesn't matter!)

Give everyone a ramikin of garlic butter, a big napkin and long forks and have at it!

You'll be surprised at how quickly it is gone!

Minda beat us all in corn cobs ~ Her place looked somewhat like a graveyard.

What I really love about this dish is the clean up! When you are finished you just roll up all the newsprint. I tossed the cobs out for the squirrels, the newspaper went in the recycling, and that left me 5 forks and 5 glasses to wash!

It reminds me of Fondue in some ways. You all sit around a central 'pot' and laugh, chatter, and eat, getting your forks tangled up, chiding the ones who are hogging all the shrimp... Great family fun!

Happy .... Um, April??

We had a blizzard. 90 inches at the top of bridger, only about 24 at our level... More snow in April than in October??? Welcome to Montana!

UPDATE on Cassia's Trip

I'm driving. I'm nervous. The farthest I've ever driven is about 5 hours from Portland to Moses Lake by myself. Portland I knew my way to and around... Minnesota I've never even seen or set foot in!

But this means Cassia isn't going alone, and it will be only 30 hours of driving instead of 50 hours on a Greyhound. :o)

J is calling us Thelma and Louise - let's hope not!

We are going to need all your prayers ~ during the preparations, during the drive, during the Campus Preview, for the fam. staying behind, for the vehicle, and anything else you can think of to cover!

God is well able, I know. Just trying to get as many people petioning Him on our behalf as possible!

Thanks everyone!