It's About The Cross

This is one of my very favorite Christmas songs! The lyrics are just so true and so simple.

It's About The Cross by Go Fish



A very merry Christmas Eve to you all!

A Day With Natalie

A couple of years ago, two families who live in RV's and travel the country as evangelists came and shared at our church.  One of the families had a daughter named Natalie.  Natalie and I became close friends very quickly, and by the time they left about a week later, it was like we had been best friends for ages.  Since then, we have emailed each other almost every day.  About once a year, the Agents for Christ (that's the name of their ministry) pass through Arizona, and come pay us a visit.

Yesterday was that occasion.  One of the families was not able to come, but Natalie's family visited with us.

Sunday evening we had dinner, talked, played games, and sang worship songs and Christmas carols.  Natalie spent the night with us, and we had fun just talking and playing games before bed.

The next day we just hung out, and did a lot of baking.  We made breakfast, played Dutch Blitz, decorated sugar cookies, wrapped candy, and made pizza.

That night after dinner, we got to go out witnessing.  We went to the Prescott Courthouse, and then the mall, handing out candy canes and tracts, and singing Christmas carols.  We had a great time, and I discovered something new:  It's not easy to walk and sing at the same time in the cold!  I had never before gone caroling while walking, and I was surprised by how difficult it was!  Sadly, I didn't get any good pictures of our time out witnessing.

Even though Natalie was only here for a short amount of time, I was so grateful that she and her family could come and visit with us!  I thank God for such friends as them!

I can't believe it's actually Christmas!

Did Christmas sneak up on anyone else?  It seems like just a couple of days ago that I was saying that Christmas was a month away.  Now here we are: Christmas is exactly one week away!

We started putting up decorations just a little after Thanksgiving.  Isaac had to get up on the roof to put up Christmas lights, because our ladder wasn't tall enough in some places on the house.

We've been enjoying the cold weather and the fires and the Christmas season in general.  My Dad has had the opportunity for lots of overtime at his work, so he's been taking it.  So far, he hasn't been able to join in the Christmas traditions and festivities yet, because of all the time he's been putting in at work.  Now my Dad is a Christmas present enthusiast.  He is almost always the one to say, "Let's open a present!".....  on December 15.  He never can seem to wait for those presents!  He even has a "Christmas face" as we call it.  Here is an example of that face:

So, a couple of days ago, in order to get my Daddy into the Christmas spirit, we let him open an early present.  It was a new stocking that my Mom had made for him.  His old stocking was from his childhood, and was in desperate need of replacing.

Here are some other miscellaneous pictures:

The stockings my Mom made for Isaac and me when we were little:

In the midst of all the traditions and festivities of the Christmas season, it can sometimes be hard to keep our eyes focused on Jesus, the real reason we're even celebrating this season.  However, that is something we are earnestly striving, and sometimes struggling, to do.  I pray that, for me and for you, all the wonderful things that we get to enjoy at Christmas would not get in the way of, but only encourage, the love and thankfulness we have toward God for sending his only son to earth to save us.  Have a very Merry Christmas!

Healthy Hot Chocolate

You may or may not know that I am a huge fan of hot chocolate.  And, now that the winter season is here once again, I've been wishing for some.  However, I had just one little problem.  I've been eating healthy, and hot chocolate is not exactly what you would call healthy.

My mom, in an effort to help me, pulled out an old recipe from high school for healthy hot chocolate.  I tried it, and it is delicious!  So, in my ecstasy, I have decided to share this recipe with you.  I must warn you, it's not as sweet as hot chocolate from the packet, but I really enjoyed it and it completely satisfied my craving for a warm chocolate drink.

Sugar Free Hot Chocolate
(1 serving)

1 Tbsp. cocoa
1/2 tsp. stevia extract powder (I'm sure you can use any sweetener you prefer, but we had stevia so that's what we used.)
dash of salt
1/8 c. or 2 Tbsp. water
1 c. milk

Mix cocoa, stevia, and salt.  Add water and mix until smooth.  Add milk and heat.  If heating on the stove, do not boil.  Enjoy!

Happy Thanksgiving from our family!

Of Bridges, Red Rocks, and Blue Water

My Uncle Tim travels all over Arizona for his work.  One of the places he travels to pretty often is Page, Arizona.  Last Sunday, he took us, along with Aunt Kris and my cousin Mariah, with him to Page.

Page is a very interesting place, to say the least.  It is a very small town established to provide a place to stay for the workers who were building Glen Canyon Dam in the late 1950's.  It is however, a very beautiful place.

On our way there, we were caught in a snow storm, which (I am told) is very unusual for that part of Arizona.  We stopped to take some pictures before we headed up the mountain to Page.
 

On the morning of our first day there, we took a short trail to the edge of the canyon containing the Colorado River.

In this picture you can see Glen Canyon Dam.

Later, we drove to a scenic view of Lake Powell, the resevoir created by the dam.

Page is very close to the border of Utah, so we drove about 15 miles so we could say that we had been to Utah.  :)

After Uncle Timmy got off of work that day, we took a tour of the Glen Canyon Dam.  We learned a lot of interesting things about the dam, most of which (I'm sorry to say) I now cannot remember.  (Too much information all in one 45 minute tour!)  I do however, remember that Glen Canyon Dam is the fourth tallest dam in the world.  Or was it the US?  Bummer!  I can't remember.  Sorry!  :)

Here, we are standing on the top of the dam.

This is a view of Lake Powell from the top of the dam.

After we finished the tour, we drove down to the lake, looked around, and took pictures.

The next day it was time to head for home again, but we made some stops on the way.


First, we hiked a trail that led to Horseshoe Bend.  Horseshoe Bend, as you can see in this picture, is a spot where the Colorado River does a complete u-turn around a huge rock peninsula.  It really is quite majestic.

Later, still on our drive homeward, we took a little detour and stopped at Navajo Bridge. This bridge also stretches across the Colorado River. 

While there, we were blessed to see a California Condor.  This bird is the largest North American land bird, and is one of the world's rarest bird species.  Currently, there are only 192 of these birds known to be living in the wild, so we were very excited to see one.

Why is it, that no matter how wonderful a trip is, you are always glad to get home?  I don't know the answer to that question, but that is how it was for me.  I had a great time in Page, but it felt wonderful to be home again.

 

Driving Time!!

I got my learner's permit today!  I was really nervous about the test, but it was a lot easier than I had anticipated, and I passed!  I was very happy, and was praising God for getting me through it.  I know the rules of the road; now I just have to learn how to drive.  :)

It's finally fall here!

Fall sets in a little later here than in most places, but it is definitely underway now.  The maple trees are mostly yellow and red, the cottonwoods have lost all their leaves, and it's been growing colder day by day.  Where has this year gone?  It seems like it was just a couple of months ago that we that we were still living in  our old house waiting on God to move us.  Time is flying by so fast for me, and it's scary and thrilling at the same time because I'm realizing that I'm not going to be a young girl much longer.

Our fireplace is getting almost daily use.  We've never had one before, resulting in our making a fire as soon as the temperature drops below sixty degrees.  :)  Really though, we've been enjoying it tremendously.  I just love the warmth and the glow and the all around ambiance of it.

For the past couple of days I've been doing a lot of research.  Research, that is, on my family ancestry.  Daniel, from Daniel and Friends, wrote a post speaking of how he had been getting into genealogies, and he gave some links to some sites.  That was all it took for me.  I got started, and the whole thing has been rather consuming.  I just love this sort of thing!  When I find some important piece of information that helps me connect some piece of the puzzle, it feels like I've just opened a treasure chest full of jewels.  So far I've been able to trace as far back as 1709!  You may be thinking right now that I'm very strange, and you're probably right.  I really don't understand why, but I find so much enjoyment in tracking down my family's heritage.  (If you're interested in this sort of thing a good site to start on is www.rootsweb.ancestry.com.)

In Christ,

Giveaway at Feminine Farmgirl!

Jenna at Feminine Farmgirl is having a giveaway for Jasmine Baucham's book, Joyfully at Home!  You can go here to enter.

God's Providence in the Lives of Two Men

Last Sunday, an amazing thing happened as we were driving home from church.  We were on the interstate, going about 75 miles per hour, when we passed a blue pick-up truck that was hauling quite a lot of wood.  It looked the people in it had been woodcutting, because they had chainsaws and all that wood in the back of their truck.  Approximately 5-10 seconds after we had passed them, my Dad yelled out, "Oh my goodness, that guy just flipped his truck!"  We pulled over, and then backed up to the scene of the accident.  Meanwhile, my mom was calling 911, and I was sitting in my seat praying.

When my dad and brother got out of our van to check out the situation, a couple was just getting into their vehicle and driving away, and there were two Mexican men standing there talking.  After walking up to them, my Dad realized that those were the men that had just been in pick-up truck that rolled over!  By God's providence, the truck had landed in the perfect position to let the two men climb out unharmed.  I think one of the men had bumped his head, but other than that, they were both uninjured.

My Dad, in amazement, said to them, "Do you realize that God just saved your life?"  He  prayed for them both, and then gave them each a gospel tract.  The first sentence of this particular gospel tract read, "If you died today, do you know where you'd go?"  How appropriate, given their situation.  They were, I'm sure, thinking about death, it having just come so close to them.  Pretty much right after that, we left, praying for these men that they would see their sins for what they are, and God for who He is, and that they would turn from their sins and trust in Christ to save them.

Boggle!

Today we played Boggle.  If you're not familiar with it, it's a word game in which you search for words in 3 minutes and then compare your words with everyone else and count up your points.  I'm sort of a word game junkie, so this game just happens to be my favorite of all games.  Yes, I guess you could say I am addicted to it!  :)

 The game is played by searching for words.  You can only make words with connecting letters.  For instance, in the picture below, I could make the word grit because the g touches the r, and the r touches the i (diagonally), and the i touches the t.  However, I could not make the word bath because although the b touches the a, and the a touches the t, I would have to skip over the b to get from the t to the h.  I hope I'm making sense.  :)  Also, I wouldn't be able to make the word barren because I would have to use the r twice, which is not allowed.

In the game, you are only allowed to make four letter words and up.  Names, foreign words, proper nouns, and proper adjectives are prohibited.

In three minutes, I can find 16 words in the picture below.  How many can you find?