Come out of the Cave

Photo credits

The other day I read a question: "What was the date of the Civil War?" .....uh...uh.....[insert crickets chirping] Ok, ok, I admit I don't remember a lot from school. I figure I will get a 2nd and 3rd chance when my kids go to school. Right? I do remember literature more than dates as it turns out...though still kind of rusty. When I heard the song, The Cave by Mumford and Sons, I heard hints of the cave analogy by Aristotle...again, please don't critique my intelligence...but Aristotle asked if we are in a cave simply seeing shadows casted upon a wall of the real thing or maybe the object casting the shadows were just copies of the real things themselves. I think their is something intrinsic that knows we were created for more. Created to serve a Creator. Created for more that's intended in this world we see.In God's Kingdom in heaven there are things that we have only had a glimpse of. I've been hearing the words "Life Saving Gospel" swirling around in my head. "Life Saving!" True Life. Something more real than our own heart beat. It's pretty exciting really, until I think about how God commanded us to GO preach the gospel to the ends of the earth...then I get a little more timid. I don't even know where to begin honestly. Anyways, getting back to this song...I think its pretty amazing...especially the line about coming out of the cave Walking on Your Hands...the idea of God's Upside Down Kingdom...its opposite of what the world deems "logical"...and what we so often deem as logical. The last shall be first. We are meant to glorify God, not ourselves. We were meant to give, pour out ourselves, not gain. Dye to ourselves only to TRULY live. Become a Servant as Christ and then you will find Freedom. All sound like one big oxymoron, but couldn't be more truthful. I think that's pretty amazing. As for the American Civil War? 1861-1865. I heart Wikipedia.

A walk in the park

one of Ava's favs...."the bouncy things"

noth'n wrong with being a tree hugger

I should be cleaning...

I wish I had a fancy, shmancy camera...because pictures make me so happy. Here are a few cute ones from today...oh yeah, HAPPY BIRTHDAY Adam (even though I didn't get any pictures of you!) and my sis, Kate...and Dr. Seuss.

Asa loves his "dog shoes"

Asa's digging spot he is very proud of and shows me his progress everyday!

allergy eyes

strangely his favorite digging tool

Asa's "Cheese" face

best buds

mommy: "Ava just have a relaxed face" Ava: "Ok, mommy"...

one of the many crafts for daddy's birthday

Organize Your Stuff: JOYS on Homestead Revival

Yep, another giveaway before I even post about my kids..love this one though. It's for a filing system by Organize Your Stuff...it takes a creative right-brain approach to organizing which I love! Ok, ok, sometimes I feel dumb when I'd like to use colors or pictures instead of words, but it just makes so much sense to me...the JOYS system used color in such a cool way. Anyways HERE is the giveaway!

Also LOVE this idea using paint cans which I found on the Organize Your Stuff site...

Plan to Eat giveaway...

yes, that's right...I'm on a giveaway streak...And you get an extra entry for blogging about it! I will eventually blog about my family that I so love...but for now I'm trying to get free stuff : ) Keeper of the Home is having another giveaway, this time for Plan to Eat, which is a great online recipe organizer and scheduler...I really like it. Here is the LINK.

Berkey Light Water Filter Giveaway @ Keeper of the Home

I have been dreaming about filtered water from a Berkey water filtation system for some time, its true. One of the blogs I follow, Keep of the Home is having giveaway week and giving away a Berkey Light...which is definitely big enough for our fam! and unlike Brita and such, the filters not only last super long, they filter out SO much more! Here's the link Keeper of the Home.

It’s the Nutrimill GIVEAWAY

I love Kitchen Stewardship where I found so many super healthy and fugal recipes...she is having a nutrimill giveaway! Check it out!

Christmas Celebrations

This year we sought to find ways to celebrate Christmas that would help us and our kids focus on Christ's birth, sacrifice, hope and love for the world. So I thought I'd briefly...I mean briefly share a few ideas we have discovered.
1. We will create a book list soon! We have found some amazing books I didn't know existed, but one that I love and it way too hard to get unless you can get it from your library is The 12 days of Christmas: the story behind the song. Did you know the 12 days...doesn't start until December 26th and extends to Jan 6th which was a holiday to celebrate when the 3 Kings brought gifts to Jesus. When Christians felt oppression in by the Church of England because of their religious regulations, parents would use the 12 days of Christmas song to teach their children about Jesus. Every day have a very profound meaning! "The 1st day of Christmas my True Love gave to me was a partridge and a pear tree"...My True Love is God because no one loves us more...and the partridge bird will protect her baby birds even if it means her life...Jesus and the pear tree represents the cross Christ came to bare. Seriously now, this song is amazing. My mom told me it was...but I'm a slow learner. Anyways...there is still time to celebrate the 12 days of Christmas...you can even use one branch from your Christmas tree, put it in a pot, and place little paper numbers on it each day when you read the story. The book it better, but here is a link to the story. This same author's actual book has some helpful questions so children can understand even better and great illustrations compared to this link, but still wonderful and easy to print out...12 days of Christmas.   I'm going to print it out in case we can't rent it from the library because its out of print and going for $150 resell on amazon!!! Yeah, crazy...yet the library has it...I wonder how much they'd sell it to me!?

2. Jesse Tree- I only found out about the Jesse tree a year ago...then my amazing sis, Kate Marshall, made me this insanely wonderful one. A Jesse tree is a unique advent calendar of sorts. Each ornament describes something about the genealogical of Jesus through the line of Jesse, while learning about the great story of God's love and all the messed up people he uses, really. It's pretty amazing. There are lots of ways to do the Jesse tree and you can sit down and read about all the ornaments at once or you can read one each day, you can find a place to print out little ornaments to color, or make your own, or buy some. Anyways, my sis' present to us it pretty amazing. Thanks, Kate!

3. Our church has also been doing this thing called Advent Conspiracy... Christmas can (still) change the world . I have a feeling our church will do something like it every year, as will we. They have been helping our church community focus on how we can actually share Christ's love with hungry orphans (or other's in need). Our church sought out to feed 1500 orphans in a year in an African region we support. It only costs $40 to feed an orphan their for a whole year!!!! CRAZY. It has been very convicting fo our entire church for sure. we can change a LIFE for $40. Ava even raised her own money, not $40 but a good portion of her allowance and went to donate it last week. Our church gives you a little gift box with a ribbon and tissue paper inside with a magnet you can put on your fridge to remind you that an orphan in Chikudzulire, Malawi, Africa is being fed today. The gift you put under your Christmas tree to open on Christmas to remember the gift you gave. It make me cry. It also puts everything back into perspective.

Have a very Merry Christmas!

Rain is on Ava's head

Ava titled this post herself.  What happens when it rains in Arizona...you finally get to play outside. Ava frequently says in her cute little voice that rain is her favorite weather.  A girl after my own heart. We took some pictures while playing outside under the overcast. I didn't have the card to my nicer camera or the pictures would be better quality, but still can't help but love em. I seemed to have posted all the pictures....

practicing her smile

I didn't take many pictures of Asa as he was moving too much or too fascinated by the 2 teenagers tossing a football in the park

Asa repeated, "ball, ball" as he watched the older boys play football