Confession Time

This week we're doing standardized testing to fulfill the law for homeschool families here in North Carolina.

So I was wondering, what was your experience with tests in school? Did you love 'em? Hate 'em? Stay up all night worrying? Sleep like a baby?

And the real question is....how did you do on your SAT's?

What A Difference A Week Makes

These pictures were taken exactly one week apart, on successive Mondays at the beginning of the month.

And Now For Something...

completely different.



H/T: Stuff Christians Like

Holy Week Resources

• My friend Jennie linked to this article today, which was a helpful reminder to me. Thanks, Jennie!
• Also mentioned in that article is Noel Piper's collection of readings for Holy Week (beginning the Saturday prior to Palm Sunday...that would be one week from this Saturday!). You can buy it for $4 in the DG store, or print it from the web.
• And we usually do the Resurrection Eggs, available at most Christian bookstores. These have been helpful in providing symbols to trigger the children's memory regarding the events during Holy Week. If you do these with your children, you will need to start them one week from tomorrow...so don't forget to pull them out this week (translation: I'm going to try get them out ahead of time this year!). (also, Stretch Mark Mama posted today on how to make your own set!)
  
• We also make Resurrection Gardens, described here.

Perspective

Stellan suffered from the same malady that messed up our Cameron's heart in utero. Now at four months, he is sick again and doctors are working feverishly to calm his heartrate down.

Offer up prayer for Stellan today!

More Trip Pictures

Behold the cousins! Every last one of them!

The farmhouse lawn = rolling hill ("get out of the road, kids!")

Behold the great-grandchildren! Every last one of them!

(that's nine, for those of you at home...the redhead on Pop's lap is my cousin's son; all the others belong to my sister and me)

Sweet moment during singing "Happy Birthday"...Andrew was singing adoringly right into Pop's face, and Pop reached over to tickle him.

Then we headed for the barn

Jonathan and his cousin fed a holstein calf

He also fed a lamb

He was being called "farmer boy" by the end of the day

I'm Here! I'm Here!

I really need to get better about leaving a "be right back" message here when I take off. I have not been abducted by aliens...the family trekked northward for a birthday celebration for my grandfather, who turned 90 last week. I'll post more pictures later but for now I will leave you with this one...

Sam Dawson with his youngest great-grandchild

Currently in my CD Player

(I know, I still use a CD player. I own an iPod, but when I'm in the kitchen I'm all old-school 'n stuff.)

Those of you who enjoy Sandra McCracken's newer albums will almost certainly love Gypsy Flat Road, her 2001 release. It contains many gems, one of which is the title cut:

Across the gypsy flat road
Where everything closes down tonight
Across the gypsy flat road
Where the steps and the stars are light

And it rained all day
And it rained all day
And it rained all day
With the bounty of new wine

The sky settles in low
On the rooftops of this trainboard town
We are upstairs alone
And we speak only with the whisper sounds

Will there come a day
When our faces will not lift out of the dust
Can we then still say,
That this mercy is our only trust

…what was incurable, desperate blindness
has been bound up from all sides with lovingkindness
comfort for sorrow,
rivers for dryness
come and drink you who have no money

And it will rain all day
And it will rain all day
And it will rain all day
With the bounty of new wine

The melody is easy, simple...the guitar lulls you into the feeling of a lazy rainy day. Beautiful.

Overheard

Ben's been coming up with some doozies lately...here's the latest...

Scene: Mom and three oldest boys weeding the garden and turning the soil over. Ben is on a roll, pulling out big weeds and making sure the roots come with them.

Mom: Wow, Ben! You're doing a great job!
Ben: Yeah! I am really strong!

(pause, more weeding)

Ben: When I am really strong and pulling out weeds, I like to call myself Satan Boy.
Mom: Wha..Satan Boy?!
Ben: Yep! I like to call myself Satan Boy because I am pulling really hard on the weeds and they're coming up!
Mom: Hmmm...

(another pause, more weeding while Mom racks her brain for why he said that)

Ben: Or...who was that guy in the Bible who was really strong?
Andrew: Samson!
Ben: That's right. I like to call myself Samson Boy.

OOOOOHHHHH. Well, O.K. then.

A Dose of Encouragement

I just wanted to extend a thank-you to everyone who's encouraged me regarding this blog in the last few weeks. I have been wondering about my writing...where it's going, and whether it's something I want to continue working on. Without mentioning this fact, I have been the happy recipient of a lot of positive words about my blog in recent days. So if you have encouraged me about my little corner of the web, THANK YOU!

On a related note, yesterday I was able to give some encouragement to a total stranger. I was wrapping up a shopping trip at Kohl's (I GOT THE 30% OFF COUPON THIS TIME!!) and herding the kids across the parking lot. As we approached the van, Ben was lagging behind and I had to call him out of the way of an approaching minivan. The woman driving the van parked down the row from us and approached me as I was buckling seatbelts and getting everyone settled. I was afraid she might say something about parking lot safety, but instead the conversation went this way:

Nice Lady: Hi, I know you're busy.

Me: Oh, that's OK.

Nice Lady: I just wanted to tell you that I have four young boys at home, and I'm pregnant with my fifth boy.

Me: Wow! Congratulations!

Nice Lady: And I wanted to say that I've been nervously wondering if I can do it...if I can get out of the house with all five of them. So it's really nice to see that you can.

Me (now her biggest cheerleader): Oh, yes! You can! You can!

It was a nice way to end a somewhat stressful shopping trip. :-) I'm so thankful to God for the kind words of friends and strangers in recent days.

Linkage

• Mary is giving away one copy of her new book every week for the next four weeks. I feel I could learn much from a woman who has ten children, how about you?
• Nancy encourages hostesses with A Little Help in the Kitchen.
• This weekend you can see Saturn at its best. (ht: Stretch Mark Mama)
• Rachael offers thoughts about American Idol's nearly-blind contestant.
• Desiring God is offering three outreach specials for the Easter season.

Happy Accident Pork Chops

Remember this story?

One day a husband and wife were preparing Christmas dinner together. The man watched his wife cut the end off the ham, creating a flat spot on one side, before placing it in a large baking dish and then into the oven.
Curious, he asked, “Honey, why do you always cut the end off the ham like that before you cook it?
She replied, “Well, that’s the way my mother always did it.”
“OK, but why did your mother do it?”
“I don’t know. I never asked. We can ask her when she comes over.”
When the mother arrived for Christmas dinner, they asked her together, “You know how every time you cook a ham, you cut the end off of it so it’s flat on one side - why do you do it that way?”
The mother thought for a moment, and finally, replied, “Hmmm. I guess I never thought about it, but that’s the way my mother always did it, so I do it too.”
One day, the young couple went to visit Grandma and they asked her, “Mom says whenever you cook a ham you cut one of the ends off, but she couldn't tell us why. Why do you do that, Grandma?”
Grandma smiled, “Well, you see, sweetheart, one day Grandma dropped her large baking dish and broke it. The ham didn't fit into the smaller dish, so I cut the end off of it so it would fit. I never got around to getting a new large baking dish, so I always had to cut the end off the ham.

I have a recipe similar to that in my collection; it's these pork chops. My mom found this recipe on an occasion when she didn't have all the ingredients. The original recipe called for a lemon slice in addition to the other toppings for the meat. She didn't have a lemon on hand, so she went ahead and omitted it, and she liked the final product so much that she never went back.

I learned the recipe my mom's way, and then as a result of another shortage, I made my own (small) amendment.

So as a result of two happy accidents, we have one of my favorite cold-weather meals, and one of my husband's favorite meals, year round. We had these last night for dinner, and the kids gobbled them up...there were no leftovers from six chops (two of them quite large!).

I must apologize in advance for the lack of specificity in this recipe -- I do it entirely by sight with no measurements. But it really is that easy!

Ingredients:

• Pork chops, enough to feed your family (I prefer thin-cut ones for this recipe)
  
• One medium yellow onion, diced* (smaller for <4)>
• Brown sugar
  
• Ketchup

Preheat oven to 350. Arrange pork chops in a single layer in a 9x13 baking dish. Sprinkle onion pieces evenly over meat. Using about one tablespoon of brown sugar per chop, sprinkle sugar over meat and onions. Pour ketchup over everything, using a light hand (you don't want to drown the meat...some should still be visible). Cover with foil and bake for about 40 minutes. Uncover and continue baking about 20 minutes or until done.


*this is my amendment. Mom always sliced the onions in rings. I didn't have a big enough onion one night, so I chopped up the one I had and tried to spread it thinly. As I was cleaning up after dinner, I noticed that the kids had actually eaten the onions rather than leaving them on their plates like they usually did.


Mom always made these with baked potatoes (you can cook them alongside the meat in the oven). I made mashed potatoes last night as a special treat. My children would eat mashed potatoes every day all day if they could.

When People Are Big and God is Small

Fear of Man in the Bible

Today's chapter hits on several biblical examples, both positive and negative, of man-fearing and God-fearing. Citing figures such as King Saul, the Pharisees, Peter, and Paul, the author explores what peer pressure and the fear of man looks like in the Bible.

King Saul refrained from completely obeying God's command to destroy the Amalekites in I Samuel 15. When confronted by the prophet Samuel, Saul gave the explanation, "I was afraid of the people so I gave into them." (I Sam. 15:24)

Fear of man also controlled some of the Pharisees. Many Pharisees unabashedly condemned Jesus and his teachings; however, some Pharisees could not deny Jesus' miraculous works and powerful message. They did not confess their beliefs, though, because "they loved praise from men more than praise from God" (John 12:42-43).

Paul leaves us with a positive example in the New Testament. I love what Welch says here about the apostle to the Gentiles:

Paul was not a people-pleaser. He was a people-lover, and because of that he did not change his message according to what others might think. Only people-lovers are able to confront. Only people-lovers are not controlled by other people. Paul even indicated to the Galatians that if he were still trying to please men, he would not be a servant of God (Gal. 1:10).

Peter is probably the most common example of man-fearing in the Bible, because the reader is able to see Peter's growth in this area as the story of Scripture progresses. We see Peter vehemently deny Christ three times out of fear of what the people outside the house of the high priest might do to him. Galatians tells us that Peter refrained from dining with his Gentile brothers and sisters for fear of the Jews, and that Paul opposed him "to his face" (Gal. 2:13). On the other hand, Scripture also presents us with a clear picture of Peter's God-fearing in his own epistle, written later in his life:

Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. "Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened." But in your heart set apart Christ as Lord. (I Peter 3:13-14)

Peter seems to have grown here, encouraging his readers to not fear man but to fear God.

So, in our lives, we can draw comparisons to these men. I will say that confrontation terrifies me, and in that way I shy away from Paul's good example. Over the past few years, however, the Lord has granted me opportunities to lovingly confront and see good fruit come of it. I feel I have a long, long way to go. I hope that one day I can lovingly confront someone without near-paralyzing fear, but for now that is an area where I can depend on grace to meet me.