Learning Joy

“The boys” (do you see we’ve gained one more?!) playing and talking at the coffee shop.

Nicholas enjoying his Italian soda at the coffee shop.

Hi all! It’s been awhile since I’ve written anything. We’ve been really busy, or so it seems. Jef has been getting a lot more business, and the boys and I have been staying busy. We’ve been enjoying the sunshine. 🙂
Last night we had our AWANA Fair & Awards night. Everyone had a lot of fun. We ate hot dogs and chips and pudding, then headed inside to play games. There were ring tosses, spinning wheels, put-put golf and Plunko. 🙂 The boys seemed to have a good time. (I was manning the Plunko game, so I only saw them occasionally) After we played, we went upstairs for the awards ceremony. The boys were especially excited. Jonathan was pretty sure he would win Clubber of the Year, because he was the only one who had finished his first book in one year. They made him wait, though, the Clubber of the Year award wasn’t handed out until the end!! 🙂
Nicholas received a perfect church attendance award and Cubbie of the Year!!! We weren’t expecting that! 🙂 He was so excited!!! Nicholas received a Cubbie T-shirt. It’s cute.
Daniel received a perfect church attendance award and Skipper of the Year!!!!! We weren’t expecting that! They split the Sparks into two different things – Skipper of the Year and Hiker of the Year. Elijah got Hiker of the Year. 🙂 He worked really hard.
Jonathan also received a perfect church attendance award and T&T Boys Clubber of the Year!!!!! (we were expecting that :o) ) He was (still is) so excited.
I’ll post pictures soon.
Jef got me a digital camera for Mother’s Day. 🙂

Michelle Malkin style!
Okay, so a while ago, Mrs. Clinton was “down south” campaigning. Well, not really campaigning, but for some reason, she was speaking in a church on Sunday morning. (and here I thought pastors weren’t allowed to say anything about politics, much less have a politician speak for them!) A lot of people noticed that her “accent” got more Southern. So here is a tutorial on how you can speak the same way –
http://hotair.com/archives/2007/03/07/my-fair-lady-southern-style/

This is a hard one to start. Too many thoughts invading my head. I guess the beginning would be best.
Some ladies in our church are going to a “Women of Faith” conference in Seattle in June. When I first heard of it, I was wary, because of the name. Having lived in northern FL, and having been around “name-it, claim-it” people (and, I suppose I must admit, having been one myself at one time), I am wary of anything with “of Faith” in the name. Christianity has seemingly gone to where our faith is equal to God’s grace. That, though, is another topic for another day. (See? I told you there were too many thoughts!) Secondly, I was wary of the conference when I saw who was going to be there ~ Allison Allen, Patsy Clairmont, Dr. Henry Cloud, Mary Graham, Nicole Johnson, Carol Kent, Max Lucado, Marilyn Meberg, Beth Moore, Nicole C. Mullen, Nichole Nordeman, Anita Renfroe, Lisa Smith, Luci Swindoll, Sandi Patty, Sheila Walsh, Thelma Wells, Ayiesha Woods. Most of these people are great. I think it woudl be fun to sit in on Luci Swindoll’s session. But they have Sandi Patty (who changed back to the real spelling of her last name when she came back to Christian music after 10 years) as a speaker.
See, all of these thoughts started because I was looking up old Christian musicians to add to my Zune. I ran across “First Call” and decided to read about them. I remembered vaguely that there was some scandal with one group and another Christian singer that were travelling together. Well … “First Call” singer MaraBeth Jordan and solo singer Michael English had an affair. MaraBeth got pregnant. I do not know if their affair would have ever made it public had this not happened. Both were married. I couldn’t find out any info on where MaraBeth is now, but Michael English has reentered the Christian music realm, singing once again with the Gaithers on their Homecoming show. He is remarried. Somehow this led me to find Steven Curtis Chapman … he started an accountability group for Christian singers like English and Sandi Patty.
I have a hard time with divorce and remarriage. As far as I can tell, God says you can only get divorced if there’s been adultery committed. If that has happened, He commands the woman to remain unmarried.
Sandi Patty and Amy Grant made me sad. I was saddened by Amy Grant becasue she said on Regis & Kathy Lee that “(she) never inteded to be a Christian singer.” Apparently it jsut kind of happened, and wasn’t related to her singing songs like “El Shaddi”. Now she is divorced and remarried, but it’s okay.
What has happened to people? What, more specifically, has happened to Christianity, that we can just dismiss divorce as if it is nothing?
I used to love Sandi Patti. I had her tapes, I wished I could sing like her. I thought she had an awesome ministyr of leading people in worship of God.
Sandi Patty got divorced and said it was over “irreconciable differences”. Two years later, we find out she was having an affair with a back-up singer. About a year later, she remarried. She admitted to having a different exta-marital affair too.
Ten years later, she came back from the void and everyone in the Christian realm decided to forgive her. I heard Sandi said it was “okay” with God that she’d gotten a divorce.
Today I read an interesting set of articles. http://www.av1611.org/crock/spatti.html This link will take you there . The newsletter carries you through the whole process, from 1993 to 1998, when she came back. These articles talk about how Christians use psychology to diminish sin. Being a student of psychology, I think there are

(so does Hot Air!)
Last night (I know, I’m behind the times … ), Jef & I watched some Hot Air video blogs. Jeff Foxworthy was MCing the Country Music Awards. I really liked what Mr. Foxworthy had to say. Thought ya’ll might like it, too. :o) Go here to see the video.
http://hotair.com/archives/2007/04/21/jeff-foxworthy-tells-it-like-it-is/
Let me know what you think!

This morning we woke up to news that NBC had received a package from the psycho who murdered all those people at VA Tech. I couldn’t believe they would give him the press he desired and show such horrific images.
Well, I just checked out my myspace page & I’d received a bulletin about VA Tech, and opened it. It had a video and pictures!
C’mon people – don’t give this guy any more time! The time now should be for the victims and their families. We should not be focusing on the pictures of the carnage … but rather courage.

Like this hero – Professor Liviu Librescu, who stood in the doorway to allow his students to escape. He was shot five times, but twenty students escaped because of him.

(quoted from the NEW YORK TIMES )

“Speaking to a reporter by telephone from Israel, Professor Librescu’s son, Yossi Librescu, 40, a computer engineer, said he took some solace in the appreciation being expressed for his father.

‘He was passionate about life,’ Mr. Librescu said. ‘He had no fear of death.’

He said that his father was born in Romania in 1930. After surviving the Holocaust, Mr. Librescu said, his father became a refusenik in Romania and lost his job as an aerospace engineer. But in 1976, Liviu Librescu secretly published a book in Norway that advanced a theory of aerospace technology that grabbed the attention of others in the field. In 1978, after lobbying by groups in Israel, he was permitted to leave Romania and settle there. He began teaching at Virginia Tech in 1985, university officials said.

Mr. Librescu said that the bucolic environs of Blacksburg provided a respite from the rigors of his father’s earlier life. His house was built on the edge of a forest and he took long walks daily, enjoying nature. He listened to classical music and settled into the calm, productive rhythms of his new existence.

‘He found Virginia to be a place that allowed him to be inspired,’ Mr. Librescu said.”

Trip to the coast 2006

I’ve actually uploaded two more albums. Just click on the picture and it will take you there!

This weekend, we were able to join our church in the Jr. Daffodil Parade. Here is Nicholas & his friend, Genna, waiting for the parade to start.
Nicholas really likes Genna. He sits by her, and yesterday would not walk with me because he wanted to walk with her. :o) Since her mom was there too (she took the pictures), I said okay.

This was just after the parade ended. They’re so cute!