Sunday, February 28, 2010

Worship and Praise Sunday, God of Justice by Tim Hughes

Wow, it has been a full week since I posted last.  It has been a long and busy week, I guess. Anyways...

Today, for worship and praise Sunday I want to share a song with you that talks about what the mission of our church is all about.  It is an awesome song about doing justice, showing mercy and walking humbly with our God. This is taken from Micah 6:8 which says:
"He has showed you, O man, what is good. 
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy 
and to walk humbly with your God."




God Of Justice 
by Tim Hughes

God of Justice, Saviour to all
Came to rescue the weak and the poor
Chose to serve and not be served

Jesus, You have called us
Freely we've received
Now freely we will give

We must go live to feed the hungry
Stand beside the broken
We must go
Stepping forward keep us from just singing
Move us into action
We must go

To act justly everyday
Loving mercy in everyway
Walking humbly before You God

You have shown us, what You require
Freely we've received
Now freely we will give


Fill us up and send us out
Fill us up and send us out
Fill us up and send us out Lord

This song really touches my heart becasue I love our church and what it is all about.  We attend a church that truly GETS what we are to be about in this life.  About doing justice and loving mercy all while we are walking humbly with God.

I could make this a very long post focused around our church and why we  love being a part of it, how it is doing justice and showing mercy and walking humbly, and how God has showered blessing after blessing upon it but I will save that for another post.  For now, enjoy this song and be blessed in the LORD!



Sunday, February 21, 2010

Worship and Praise Sunday

This is one of my new favorite songs and thought I would share.  I love the beat of the song, as well as the message in it.  This is the type of song that would go great with a jazz or hip hop type of dance routine. I can just see someone dancing to it in my head.  Maybe I should try being a dance choreographer...awww then again, maybe not. :)

For more Worship and Praise Sunday head on over to Following The Footsteps

Beckah Shae - Here in This Moment






So here I am, ready to have all of you
So here I am, waiting for you

Oh, nothing can change the way I feel when I'm with you 
You give me a peace that surpasses all understanding 
And no one can tell me there's a better place Than with you, you give love everlasting

Oh, here you come (come) with arms open wide (come and fill me) 
Oh, cuz you are the one (you are the one) who fulfills all my desires

chorus
You are Love, you are Life
You're the air that I breathe, you're my day and my night 
You're my Joy, you're my Peace You're the wings for my flight and vision to my sight 
You are Truth, you are Power 
Gave me faith to believe, brought me straight to my knees 
Now I'm standing here in this moment with you 
There's nowhere I'd rather be

Oh, there's only one who can truly satisfy me 
Only You can give me everything that I need 
And as high as the heavens are above the earth 
You show me your love so unconditionally

Oh, here you come (come) with arms open wide (come and fill me) 
Oh, cuz you are the one (you are the one) who can fill me with this fire

chorus

There's nothing that I can do without ya 
I know life only because of your love 
I just can't breathe without ya, I'm so crazy about ya 
And I know love only because of your life 
Oh, you overwhelm me with your love (all your glory overflowing) 
Oh, you overwhelm me, you overwhelm me, you overwhelm me, you overwhelm

chorus

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Happy Valentine's Day

We had a great family day today.  We have been attending church on Saturday evenings for the past few months and since we already attended church last night we were able to start the day with a little sleeping in time.  Aww...that was so nice.  We were able to turn off the alarm clocks and not have to worry about being up and ready by any certain time.  After we finally crawled out of bed, we exchanged our small valentine gifts with each other.  We, typically, don't go all out for the kids or each other (me and the hubby) on valentine's day.  It is so encouraging to see the kids get so excited over the smallest gifts.

This year I had the idea to do something a little more fun for them.  About a month ago I was in Paradise Bakery and saw that they were advertising heart cookies that were iced to look like the "conversation heart" candies. I thought that was such a cute idea and decided that I would order one for each of the boys for valentines day this year.  I didn't order them that day because I wanted to get hubbies thoughts before I did.  After talking with him about it he thought it was a great idea but made the comment that it might mean a little more and actually taste a little better if they were home made.  My first reaction was "whatever", but after thinking about it I decided that I would give it a try.  I have to say that even though they didn't look as professionally done, they were quit tasty.

In addition to the home made cookies there was also candy and cards that we exchanged.  Of course you have to have the valentine's chocolate, at least for Tyler and I. Hubby and Kyle like the sweet and sour sugar candy (what are they thinkin'?). ha!

Here are the cookies that I made the boys.  They are Sugar Cookies with Butter Cream Cheese Icing. Mmmm...


You can tell by the look on their faces that they were a little surprised that I actually made the cookies.

One last gift that I received from the hubby was a night out next weekend to hear Gary Thomas speak.  Gary Thomas is the author of the book "Sacred Marriage".  Our church has started a new Marriage Ministry, called TwoIgnite, along side Ted Cunningham's church (Woodland Hills Family) in Branson, Missouri.  (Ted Cunningham has co-authored a couple books with Gary Smalley) Each month there is a focus/theme for the ministry and the church usually has something cool to go along with it.  This month is called Two Risk.  To go along with this month's theme of Two Risk the church is bringing in Gary Thomas as a guest speaker. This is something quit special to me as Gary's book was a huge blessing in a desperate time of need for me almost 5 years ago.  I am so excited to be going to a marriage building night together at the church with my hubby but it is even more thrilling to be going together to hear Gary Thomas.  I can't wait.  Oh yea...and I don't even have to plan the child care. How awesome is that!

Worship and Praise Sunday - Divine Romance by Phil Wickham

Divine Romance by Phil Wickham

With today being Valentine's Day I thought I would choose a song that communicates what our love and our relationship with Christ should be...A Divine Romance. This is an older song from Phil Wickham. If you are not familiar with this artist I encourage you check him and his songs out. It is very evident by the songs that he writes and sings that he has an amazing love for the Lord. He is a very talented writer and musician. His songs bring you to the feet of Jesus and prepare your heart and mind for worship with HIM, our God.


\

The fullness of Your grace is here with me
The richness of Your beauty’s all I see
The brightness of Your glory has arrived
In Your presence God, I’m completely satisfied

For You I sing I dance
Rejoice in this divine romance
Lift my heart and my hands
To show my love, to show my love

A deep deep flood, an Ocean flows from You
Of deep deep love, yeah it’s filling up the room
Your innocent blood, has washed my guilty life
In Your presence God I’m completely satisfied

Friday, February 12, 2010

My Latest "Deal"

I am so excited about this awesome deal I found, I just have to share.

I took a quick trip to Sports Chalet the other night to try and find some new soccer cleats for Tyler.  Well, I didn't have any success with finding what I went for but I did finds these...

They are Asics Harumi running shoes.  Ok, I am not much of a runner but have found over the past few years that running shoes are some of the most comfortable shoes that you can find.  I have always wanted a pair of Asics but all the ones that I like or that fit me right are never in the "affordable" category for my budget.   These are SO comfortable that they almost feel like wearing slippers.  I have worn them the past 2 days now and my feet have not even slightly hurt by the end of the day.   Ok...so I know your asking...how much did I pay for them?....a whole wapping $25.  Yep that is it!  YeeHa!  


Monday, February 8, 2010

Gem and Mineral Show

One of the coolest things ever about homeschooling are the wonderful field trips that you get to take.  The past couple of months we have been learning about some earth science.  Specifically, rocks, minerals and gems. The boys have been learning so much about the different types of earths rocks and minerals.  There are so many kinds and types and so much information that it would take years and years of learning and studying to even begin to come close to learning everything that this earth has to offer.

This past week we took a couple of days and hit the road to attend one of the worlds largest Gem and Mineral shows.  It is located right down the road from us in Tucson.  We met some family there who attend every year.  They know the place and the vendors like the back of their hand. They were our tour guides, so to speak. It was great to have them there to show us around and tell us where all the good deals were for a few items that we purchased and brought home with us.

Here are a few things that caught our interest and decided to bring home with us:


 
This is a small Amethyst Cathedral.  It is amethyst crystals that are what is called "In Matrix" or their natural form.  These are pretty pricey just to walk into any retail gem shop and purchase.  One like we purchased would cost anywhere from about $50 to $80.  We were able to get it for $14 at the Gem show.  It is the coolest thing, specially at a price like that! The Cathedrals are priced based on their size and the quality of the crystals.  The larger and darker the crystals the more valuable they are.  Maybe next year we will get a larger one.  

These are different types of lava rocks. The name "Lava" is their everyday street term.  The scientific name for the top one is Spider Web Obsidian.  The spider web name comes from the small lines throughout it that looks like spider webs.  This type of lava is real smooth and looks almost like glass.  The bottom rock is called Hematite and has little bubbles all over its surface.  The differences in the two rocks is determined by the rate at which they cooled after erupting from the volcano. The top one has a glassy surface becasue it is cooled at a very slow rate where as the bottom one has bubbles all over it becasue it cools almost immediately after leaving the volcano.  The bubble rock probably came from an underwater volcano and cooled instantly upon hitting water after the volcano erupted.


This is what is know as Peacock Ore, or more scientifically speaking, Chalcopyrite.  This is a type of rock that naturally has all different colors through out it.  It is just amazing all the things that God created...even rocks!

We brought home quit a few more samples with us but I don't have any pictures of them.  One that I don't have a picture of is a rock that looks like it was perfectly polished by humans, but actually was not.  It is a rock that is only found in a river in India.  They are all the same shape (an oval egg shape).  They are called Shiva Lingam rocks.  They are known, mostly in Asia, for their spiritual powers.  That is not the reason why I think they are cool.  Again, I see it as another amazing act of God.  He isn't just our creater of all things he is also the perfecter of all things.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Worship and Praise Sunday

Here is my first post for Worship and Praise Sunday.  It is a song that we have been listing to and singing in our home for a while now.  To be honest I am not sure what the spiritual side of the song is. However, we first heard it and it is played a lot on Klove.  It has a very upbeat rhythm and some fun lyrics.    

It is Fireflies by Owl City.  It is one of those poetic type of songs where you have to read more into the lyrics then just taking them for face value.  There have been several thoughts and explanations from different people as to what exactly the message is in the song.  I will not try to give a full explanation, but if you would like more information on it you can find it here

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Thanks Jen!

Thanks to Jen I have a new look.  She rocks!

I also have to give credit to my wonderful hubby for the awesome photos.

Thanks guys!

Hiking

We went on a hike the other day with some other families from our home school group and discovered that it is something that we all enjoyed doing together.  It was just so awesome to be outside on such a beautiful day and having so much fun together.

We hiked the Wind Cave trail. It is a 3 mile round trip hike.  We didn't actually make it all the way to the cave because there were some families with younger children that were not able to make it all the way to the top.  We hiked about 3/4 of the way there and turned around and headed back.  The boys are looking forward to going back so that we can make it all the way to the cave next time.

Here is a picture that I took when we stopped for a quick rest. 

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

New Blog Look

I know that I have not been keeping up with my blog and making posts like I used to.  I hope all that will change with a little inspiration and help from my sister.  She is the one that put my blog togehter and designed it all for me.  She is planning on helping me again with updating the look a little.   She is so good at it!

With my husband being the aspiring photographer that he is, I have some new and awesome photos to use that will help spruce things up a little.  He actually does not like the photos but then again he is really critical and has a real keen eye for photography.  I know Jen is working on it now and the new look should be up soon.  So, only time will tell if the new look will give some new inspiration.