In Loving Memory

Grandpa,

I love you so much. I love your sense of humor and all of your crazy stories. Thank you for loving me and taking care of me so often when I was little, and even now that I'm big. Thank you for teaching me to drive a tractor, prime a pump and back out of a driveway the "right" way so as to put less wear on my tires. Thank you for all of the Oreo's, Hostess Pies and popcorn we ate together over the years. Thank you for reading the Christmas story to us every Christmas Eve. Thank you for loving my kids and being proud of them. Thank you for taking them to the pond to watch the muskrats swim and to the barn to feed the cows. But most of all, thank you for my Dad and for raising him to be the Christian man that he is so that I can be the Christian woman I need to be for my kids. Your legacy of love and faithfulness goes on. I'm so happy for you, but I'll miss you a lot.

See you soon,

Crystal

Thank Goodness for Pink-Eye

The school nurse sent Ryker home yesterday with pink-eye. It is probably one of the best things that could have happened this week. We (all 5 of us) have been at the church until 9:30 or 10 pm every night this week preparing for the Christmas musical. I am directing it and Brian is building the set and playing in the pit band. All of us are totally exhausted. Because we go up there immediately after school and don't get home until after bedtime Ryker and Cainan haven't had any time to play together. Cainan has been in tears every night because he hasn't gotten to play with Ryker enough. (Of course they have been playing at church with all of their friends whose parents are also in the musical...but apparently that doesn't count.) So when we heard that Ryker had to spend a whole day at home with us we were really excited. He was feeling fine, except for one puffy eye, so we spent the day playing and cleaning the house so that we can get our Christmas tree. The boys had a really good time together and Kinley enjoyed having her biggest brother around too. I got soooo much accomplished since I could count on Ryker to keep Kinley away from the woodstove and small objects while I worked. It was just the break we needed to keep us going through all of the performances this weekend.

Hail to the Chief!

Apparently our trip to Mt. Rushmore this summer really had an impact on the kids. The following conversations took place in our house this week.

#1)
Ryker: OK, let’s play. I’ll be George Washington.

Cainan: No, I want to be George Washington.

R: Well, I called it first!

C: Fine! Then I’ll be Teddy Roosevelt.

R: Here's your moustache. (places imaginary moustache on Cainan’s upper lip).


#2)
Ryker: What’s the guy’s name that shot Abraham Lincoln?

Mom: John Wilkes Booth.

R: Is that the same guy that shot Martin Luther King Jr.?

M: No.

R: Who shot MLK Jr.?

M: Ummmmm. I can’t remember. John Henkley Jr.? No, that was that guy that shot Reagan. I don’t know.

R: I guess I’ll have to ask Daddy. He’ll know. Maybe it was the same guy.

M: No, it couldn’t be the same guy. MLK Jr. was shot in like 1967 and Abraham Lincoln was shot 100 years before that.

Cainan: Yep. Then they stuffed him in those rocks.

Angel Tree

We have an Angel Tree in the foyer of our church. Last Sunday Ryker and Cainan asked what it was and why there were toys piled all around it. I told them that it was for people to give toys to kids that don't have any.

Then this Sunday Ryker asked, "Why do those angels say "Girl, 7" and stuff like that on them?" I said, "Well if you get one that says 'Boy, 7' that means you buy a gift for a boy that is seven years old and doesn't have any toys." Then Cainan had to start in with the 20 questions, of course. Does the seven year old have a house? A couch? A light? I assured him that he probably had a home but just not very many toys.

Monday morning we were in at the church and Kinley and Cainan were playing around while I did some painting on the set for my Christmas program. Suddenly Cainan came running up and said, "Kinley is out there playing with that seven-year-old-boy-that-doesn't-have-any-presents-for-Christmas' toy!"

The Word of the Day

*Nougatocity \nu-gat-a-si-tE\ (noun): A heightened, yet fleeting, state of accomplishment that makes you realize how unbelievably unmotivated you normally are.

*The definition presented here may not express the views of Merriam Webster, or any other dictionary for that matter, because it came off of a Snickers wrapper.

Serve God, Save the Planet

I just read a great book by J. Michael Sleeth entitled Serve God, Save the Planet. Sleeth is by all definitions an environmentalist. However, he is well aware that that title brings certain negative connotations with it. He prefers to use the terms “Creation Care” and “Earth Stewardship” when describing his work and his passion. For some of us, myself included, the fact that the Democrats and Hollywood are for environmentalism makes me want to be against it. But after reading this book and looking at what the Bible has to say about it I have a different perspective. Let me give you a little background.

Dr. Sleeth was a successful emergency room doctor when he became convicted about certain environmental issues. He was a Christian and had been recycling, etc. for all of his adult life, but as he examined his life he realized just how little he had really been doing. He was living in a 5,000 square foot home with a 3 car garage filled with SUVs, a lawn tractor and a boat. He was taking out 3 large garbage cans full of trash every week and consuming tons of energy a day with a clothes washer and dryer, dishwasher, garbage disposal, etc. As he and his family began to focus on God’s will for them and for the earth they decided to make a change…a BIG change.

The Sleeth’s now live in a house that is exactly the size of their old garage. They no longer own a clothes dryer, dishwasher, garbage disposal, or motor driven lawnmower. They drive small hybrid cars and bicycles. They eat only locally grown organic foods and turned their entire backyard into their own garden where they grow and preserve as much of their own food as they can. They recycle and/or compost everything. They now take out one Wal-Mart sized bag of trash every 3 weeks. He no longer works in the ER, but travels around the country speaking about Creation Care and starting Christian environmental groups on college campuses. He is also an author and travels as a doctor on humanitarian missions around the world.

His book is excellent and really gave me a lot of food for thought. I won’t go through everything here but I’ll give you some of the highlights. The book asks the questions:

“How can I live a more godly, equitable, and meaningful life? How can I help people today and in the future? How can I be less materialistic? How can I live a more charitable life? What would happen if I led a slower-paced existence? How can I become a better steward of nature?”

Here are his answers (kind of):

On Materialism:

• “The earth was designed to sustain every generation’s needs, not to be plundered in an attempt to meet one generation’s wants.”
• “The consumer lifestyle demands an enormous amount of work, worry, strife, and struggle by instilling a deep sense of longing and discontent. If all of us were suddenly happy with our homes, for instance, how many decorating magazines could be sold, etc.?”
• “At the end of a materially rich day, consumerism says, ‘Buy more’. At the end of a spiritually rich life God says, ‘Well done by good and faithful servant.’”
• “It is not our spiritual longings but our material desires that keep us from a right relationship with God. (Rev. 18:13)”
• “How much time have I spent admiring what God has wrought, and how much time am I spending admiring my possessions?”
• “We buy things for many reasons: to cheer ourselves up, out of guilt, to reassure ourselves of our worth, because we cannot discipline our children or ourselves, and to try to make our lives more meaningful, easier, or interesting.”
• “Simplifying means having less, wanting less, being satisfied with what you have or less than what you have. It does not mean boredom.”
• “Spiritual concerns have filled the void left by material ones.”
• “Each time we divest ourselves of possessions, we have fewer earthly things that bind us. This lack of attachment to things, brings us priceless freedom and allows us to hear His call.”
• “When I worry about what the world thinks, I disconnect from the power of heaven.”
  

Wow! This section really spoke to me. I have been struggling with this lately, especially with the kids. They have a sense of entitlement that scares me and their begging for things and discontent with the thousands of things they have is awful. I really started examining what we are doing that has promoted this kind of behavior and mind-set.
Christmas has been especially hard for me. Not because I want things that I don’t need but because I don’t want anything and I don’t want to get anything for anyone. To think about spending hundreds of dollars on things that are totally and completely uneccessary is about to make me sick. Of course there are thousands of things that I want but there is absolutely nothing that I need. Food is about the only thing that I actually need and Brian and I are blessed to be able to provide that for ourselves. Of course I want to buy things for people because I love them and I want to show them how much I appreciate them and value them in my life. I just wish there were another way to do it. One thing I have promised myself is that I won’t try to push these views on anyone else or refuse gifts that are given to us, etc. But we are definitely paring down our Christmas shopping. We have spent money that we don’t have on Christmas every year since we have been married. This year we don’t have any more money and we have more people to buy for, so common sense says, “Buy less.” That is what we are doing, but it is hard not to get things for people that they really want and we know they will enjoy. Anyway, it is a step in the right direction.

On Creation Care:

• “God created the world to sustain all living creatures, and in turn to sustain humanity.”
• “Being pro-stewardship is not a case of valuing forests more than people; rather it means valuing human possessions less, and God’s world more.”
• “God created the earth, and if we do not respect the earth and all of its creatures, we disrespect God.”
• “We say that trees exist to make oxygen, or to give shade, or to be made into paper, and we assign them no further mystery. In other words, nature has purpose and value only insofar as it fulfills our material needs. The Bible says the tree is there to glorify God and to give God pleasure.”
  

Creation Care also includes caring about other people and future generations. The people who live by subsitence farming in Africa or South America are doing nothing to harm the environment and have no means to protect the environment either. The damage that we do effects them, but when we work to protect our environment and heal it we are helping and protecting them too. God cares equally about all people and so should we. The fact that we cannot see them and will never meet them should make no difference. Unborn generations deserve a healthy planet just as much as we do.

On Energy Use:

• “Our generation consumes five times more energy than our grandparents’.”
• “When people’s live become dependent on a substance we call it an addiction.”
  

Dr. Sleeth says that our dependence on oil is an addiction. How else can you explain the Christian’s eagerness to monetarily support a government that forbids religious freedom, declares the world to be flat, sees democracy as a capital crime, and oppresses women. Every man, woman and child in America today is sending about $700 a year to just such a government. We are so addicted to oil that we don’t care where it comes from our how we get it, we just know we have to have it.

On Helplessness:

• “In one respect, it is consoling to believe that the problems of the world are too big for us as individuals. If they are too big or too complex for us to solve, we are relieved of any responsibility. Powerlessness can be comforting.”
• James 4:17, “Remember, it is a sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.”
• “As the 30 million evangelical Christians—and all those who consider themselves people of faith—grow in their understanding that God holds us accountable for care of his creation, we will begin to see positive changes on an unprecedented scale.”
  

We’ll never see our need for change if we compare ourselves to people who behave more selfishly than we do. But if we compare ourselves to a family in Haiti who makes $540 a year and eats only two meals a day and has one bicycle for transportation than we realize just how selfish we really are.

The End Result:

Brian and I are discussing the changes that we need to make in our home. Changes that will promote spirituality over materialism, help to keep the world God created for us healthy and clean, and give us more time to spend together worshipping God and serving Him. They aren’t going to be easy. Christmas is just one step we are making toward change. There are many more steps to come, and harder battles to fight, like the TV battle (Dr. Sleeth calls TV “mental junk food that separates us from the Creator”), but we will cross those bridges when we get to them.

If this article has peaked your interest in Earth Stewardship you can find Dr. Sleeth’s book Serve God, Save the Planet on Zondervan.com. He also gives several practical tips on how to reduce your energy usage, recycle, simplify your life etc. He also supplies a worksheet that will allow you to estimate the energy usage (in gallons) of your household.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

Here is a slide show of our summer vacation. Sorry it took so long to get on here. We went to South Dakota with my parents. We stayed in Custer State Park but visited The Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, and Devil's Tower too. We saw lots of wildlife in the park and did quite a bit of hiking. The kids had a great time camping with Grandad and Granny. We had a great vacation in one of our favorite spots. Hope you enjoy the pictures.

(If you put your cursor on the picture a caption should pop up.)

"Van"-ity

Vanity. Well, you certainly can't have any when you are driving around in a humongous 15 year old conversion van. Our Trailblazer is in the shop getting a new front bumber, right front quarter panel, paint and racing stripe decal due to the aforementioned mall incident so we had to borrow one of Mom and Dad's extra vehicles. They have held on to our old van just for such circumstances and to use on vacations etc. I can't say that it has been fun driving that bohemoth around but it certainly has brought back memories.

It reminds me of all of the trips we have taken in it (and our other brown van, the two have merged in my memory). We always had it stocked with lots of games, music and audio books and there was always a cooler stuck between the seats. I remember laying on the couch and chatting/singing/ giggling with Deena and Amber or Tia and Stacy as we cruised for miles in route to the next campsite. I remember Eric and Brian playing Super Nintendo Mario on the little 7 inch TV in the dark on the way to the Current River. I remember setting the tables up in the back and playing cards by map light for hours with Brian, Jill and Eric while Mom and Dad (both sans desperately needed glasses) tried in vain to read the road signs and maps that would get us to our next campsite at around midnight that night. I remember the night Dad almost crashed it into a herd of cattle late at night in Kansas in search of yet another illusive campground. I remember it breaking down on Mom and Jill and I as we went shopping for the food for Eric and Kari's rehearsal dinner. I remember climbing in and out of it at the ski slopes in Winter Park and Dad wrestling around in the engine to get the air filter off so that it could handle the altitude a little better. As a matter of fact the last time it ferried us around on a vacation Dad spent at least one evening at our campsite in Mesa Verde, Colorado wrestling around in the engine to fix something. That van has taken us all over the United States. It has hauled wedding dresses and lumber, exersaucers and ladders. I can't even count the number of times that I have drawn the shades so that I could change clothes in the back on the way to some function or another and I think most of us have slept in it overnight at one time or another. It has been a very usefull vehicle.

The kids love it. They think there is nothing cooler than having a couch in your car...espcially one that you can turn in to a bed any time you get tired. They love to sit back there. Cainan announced yesterday that he plans to drive a van himself when he gets old enough. He is really impressed by it's size. He keeps pointing out that our whole family could ride in it and still have room for his cousin Callah, too. Of course, it has the exact same seating capacity (if you go by number of seatbelts) as our Trailblazer but it's got us beat on floor space. Ryker and Cainan like to "surf" in the middle aisle as we drive up our long lane. They also like to be thrown up out of their seats as we go over the speed bumps in front of the school. They think its fun that the map lights flash on and off when we hit a bump and they are so impressed that it has both cup holders and trashcans (ashtrays) for everyone. They're a little disappointed that the TV bit the dust a long time ago but they don't mind that the van rattles and squeaks and the rear speakers just static.

Me neither. It's been nice being back in the old van. My sister and I should have given it a name. I wonder why we didn't? It sounds like something goofy we would do...probably while on a long trip to Utah or somewhere after Dad had banned singing and before we started playing Skip-Bo.

Out of My Mind

You know how your mind works quicker than you can imagine? It seems like sometimes in a split second you can have hundreds of thoughts whiz by, grab the one you want and then voice it with almost no effort at all. When asked a question by a familiar looking stranger you can scroll through hundreds of faces in your mind, determine the person's first name, where you know them from and the answer to the question plus an interesting comment all in about the time it takes to blink. (On a good day, that is.) Anyway, I recently had one of those experiences where my mind was whirling through possibilities in the blink of an eye.

I met my sister at the Mills Mall for a day of shopping. When we finished I loaded up the packages and the kids and drove home. I then unloaded the kids, talked to Brian for a little bit and then went back out to get the packages. When I stepped into the driveway I was shocked to see that the passenger side of my car had a dent in it. On further inspection I noticed that there was white paint smeared in the dent and the front bumper was cracked down the middle and hanging down almost to the ground on the passenger side of the vehicle.

My first thought was, "Who came in our driveway and hit our car???!!!" Then, "Oh no, did I hit someone and I don't remember it?" And finally, "Somebody hit my car while it was parked at the mall and I didn't even notice!!" Unless I am having out of body experiences the latter must be true, but the funny thing is that I had all of those thoughts in about the span of time it takes for me to type a single "e". How is it that I can run through unlikely scenarios at the speed of light but it took me 5 minutes this morning to figure out if "possible" has one "s" in Spanish and in English or just in Spanish? Then Cainan asked me how many days until Christmas and it took me another 3 minutes to calculate that after wondering whether November had 30 or 31 days.
Maybe it is one of those things that doesn't work if you are really trying, maybe it has to be...what is the word, you know, it is kind of like spontaneous, but it is describing your muscles and stuff...oh yeah, involuntary.

Happy Halloween

Harry Potter

Zoo Keeper

Monkey