Guess what I was making for dinner that night.

Give up yet? It's Sirloin tips! Man were they good!

God's promises!

This blog speaks for itself. I need say nothing except this was across the road from our house.

We're cookin'!

As a stay-at-home-dad, I get to do some cool stuff. One of these is teaching the kids to cook.

Even at the age of 3 I begin this training.

My older 2 are getting good enough to cook some things alone, and help teach their brother's what they have learned.

Toys are really alive!

One day about 5-6 years ago, we had told the boy that any toys left in the living room when they went to bed would disappear for a while. Well, they went to bed and I found toys out. One of the last toys put away in the closet was a Buzz Lightyear toy. The real one that has Tim Allen's voice. I threw him into the closet and shut the door quick so it couldn't fall out. After we had shut the door we hear Buzz say, " I don't think we're in the gamma quadrant anymore. Lori and I were laughing so hard that we could barely walk.

I told you all of that to tell you this. Today, a similar situation happened. I had asked Alexys to put away her puppy dog that talks and help a child to learn colors, the alphabet, and her body parts. She forgot to do it before starting to eat so in frustration, I took it and threw it upstairs right into her room onto her bed. As it was hurdling through the air, it said, "Bye bye." Again, I was laughing so hard I could hardly walk and was able to share all of this with my kids and had a good laugh with them. It was a good day!

Jesus Brownies

Today, Alexys made her first brownies with my help. When we had poured the brownies into the pan, Alexys turns to me and says, "can I lick it?" She meant the spoontula in my hand. I said, "maybe." Completely planning on letting her because it's all part of the experience. She didn't miss a beat though. She turned to me and said, "Jesus said I could lick it." And thus we have Jesus Brownies. Just thought I'd give you all a little laugh.

Refinished Table

I wish I could say that I had a before and after picture but I just forgot to take the before pictures. But trust me, the table looked bad. I had to do some repair work also but I love the finished product, don't you? First we have the legs.....

Then the side of the table. Check out all the nooks and crannies that we had to strip out. What a job, but Lori did an excellent job with it don't you think....

And for a grand finish, the top.

Well, as you can tell, we're pretty proud of the finished product and I wanted everyone to see what it looks like before life messes it up again. This was my Great Grandparents table, then it was passed down to my Father, and he refinished the top, then it was passed down to Lori and I. We refinished the whole table. I wonder what my kids will have to do to preserve this antique family heirloom? As long as it stays in the family and is kept up, I'm happy.

God's faithfulness!

The Lord is faithful! Recently we had a very scary and troubling time. We had given away our truck to take on a new van that the Lord had given us. (Pictured below.) Then we found out that there was a problem with this van that would eventually render it unsafe and unusable. It would take a year or two but because of that and the fact that a brake cylinder blew, we took it off the road and were going to just sell it as is. So we went with just one vehicle for a while. My Chevy Astro. Then one day the Chevy overheated, so we put more radiator fluid in it and it cooled off and ran okay til that night when I went to go home from getting some things. It was climbing a hill when all of a sudden, it slowed right down to 25 mph. It wouldn't go any faster and was running terrible. I found out that it blew a head or manifold gasket. At any rate, we were now without a vehicle at all! Well after calling my friend and Pastor Seth and getting prayer about how to move forward. I called my mom to tell her I didn't need her to baby sit because I had no way to the doctor appointment I had. She suggested that I get out my guitar and Lori and I worship him and cry out to him. We did not feel like doing this but the stress was making my blood pressure rise so I thought, it can't hurt. So we did it. We cried out to God and told him how we felt about this situation and I began to feel a peace. Then we asked God for a miracle. We asked him to give us a new van or tell us what to do. Then we went to bed not knowing what our God would do for us. We had found a van on Craig's list but were unable to buy it with taxes because we put the wrong acct. # on our taxes when filing electronically. In the morning, my sister called and said, "How about if we lend you the money until you get your taxes back to buy that van before it's gone." I told her we'd pray about it and talk it over. After doing that we really didn't feel that borrowing money was what the Lord had for us. Our father God had something better for us. So we made the decision that we wouldn't borrow to get it. I was about to call my sister to tell her our decision when the phone rang in my hand. It was my sister calling to say that they had just prayed about it and the Lord told her to give us $2000.00 to get the van free and clear. She also gave us $100 to help with licensing it. Praise the Lord!!!!!
What is there to learn from all of this? When the Lord is testing you, don't give up. If you press on, make your need known, and wait on him and always trust him, he will see you through. As Derek Levendusky preached Sunday, God attends the funerals of sparrows. Why would he not care what happens to us! He does care so much more for us than sparrows does he not? Trust him, he won't lead you wrong and he'll always take care of you. This was a real test for us. We've always taken the easy way out, but this time we waited on him and trusted him and saw the richness of his mercy and love.
Sorry for the preaching but I thought that this might help someone to totally trust God instead of leaning on their own understanding.

Below are pictures of the van the Lord provided to us in our time of need.