The Day at Quinton Heights

Hi All,

Today at 11:15 our kiddos were picked up and we now have the rest of the day to ourselves. We both wanted to do something that we have never done before, but when you have lived in a place your whole life that list is small. After talking about it we discovered that neither one of us had ever been sledding down Quinton Heights Hill. So that is what we did and we had a blast. Here are some pictures.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Amelia's 8th Birthday

Lessons from Elijah

Two days ago I was reading in the book of 1Kings about one of my favorite Bible characters, Elijah. He was fed by ravens, ran faster than a horse and chariot, went "toe to toe" with Ahab, not to mention defeating the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. WOW! As you will soon see, even though Elijah was a prophet of the Lord, he was also very much like us.
The first time that Ahab, king of Israel, had audience with Elijah, Elijah said in 1Kings 17:1
"As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word." Then, Elijah left.
In 1 Kings 18:1 it states, After a long time, in the third year, the word of the LORD came to Elijah: "Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land." So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab.
At the same time Ahab sent Obadiah, a devout believer in the LORD and the servant in charge of the palace, to find grass for the horses and mules to eat. While he was on the road he met Elijah. In verse 8 Elijah tells Obadiah to go tell his master that he was there. I love Obadiah's response in verse 9 and 10.
Scared for his life he says,"What have I done wrong, that you are handing your servant over to Ahab to be put to death? As surely as the LORD our God lives, there is not a nation or kingdom where my master has not sent someone to look for you..." In verses 13 & 14 Obadiah says, "Haven't you heard, my lord, what I did while Jezebel was killing the prophets of the LORD? I hid a hundred of the LORD's prophets in two caves, fifty in each, and supplied them with food and water. And now you tell me to go to my master and say, 'Elijah is here,' He will kill me!"
My take, and I am sure there are other points of view out there, is that out of fear for his life Obadiah was telling Elijah that he can't go to Ahab because so many people depend on him.
Also, like all things in our lives, there is no such thing as coincidence. I believe that their meeting was a divine appointment. God wanted to implant truth into Elijah to prepare him for what was to come, but it was up to Elijah to listen.
In verses 16-22 Elijah does go to Ahab and presents the idea meeting the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel for a contest between the god of Baal and the God of Israel. The outcome being that the winner must be the one true God and therefore must be followed. This was to stop the wavering between two opinions.
In verse 22 Elijah says, "I am the only one of the LORD's prophets left." Now wait a minute. Obadiah just told him before that he was hiding 100 prophets. Now suddenly Elijah is the last one? I am wondering if Elijah heard him.
For the rest of chapter 18 Elijah has the "mountain top" experience of seeing our God show up at Mount Carmel, and then with the power of the LORD on him, running faster than Ahab's chariot to beat him to Jezreel. Now that was a "Red Letter" day.
Chapter 19 starts out with Jezebel enraged with Elijah because he killed the prophets of Baal and threatening his life. For the next several verses Elijah runs in fear of his life and hides in a cave. While there, God shows up and asks him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" Every time I read this, I picture him talking really fast, half whining and half nervous. He says, "I have been very zealous for the LORD God Almighty. The Israelites have rejected your covenant, broken down your alters, and put your prophets to death with the sword. I am the only one left, and now they are trying to kill me too."
For the past couple of days I have been thinking about Elijah and his response. Because he believed that he was the last one left, even though he had been told that he wasn't, this inflicted much fear on him and he spent much time and energy going places that the LORD did not want him to go. In the end, Elijah had to go back the way that he came and accomplish what the LORD commanded.
In our lives, Satan tells us lies all the time. Some go something like this: If you would only...you would be (happy, accepted, loved, validated). *Why are you wasting your time, you know it won't work out. *Why are you praying? Remember all of the things you have prayed for and they didn't turn out like you prayed they would. *It is hopeless. You might was well give up now. *You are so wretched, God can't possibly love you.
Like Elijah, I wonder how many times God tried to fill my ears with truth so that when those lies came I would be empowered not to let them fill me with doubt, fear, anxiety and hopelessness, that ultimately would take me places that God did not intend.
So now you say, "Well that's great, Jenny. What do I do about it?" The only way that you are going to hear God and His truth is by being connected to Him. This sounds so "churchy". Let me explain. As a parent the only way that your children are going to get to know you, your expectations etc. is by spending time with you. God is not that different. Now if I were you, the question that would be on my mind is , "What does spending time with the Lord look like?" Ruth Graham was a busy mom of 4 and Billy was gone most of the time. For her, her daily time with the Lord was writing a verse on a 3x5 card and reading it many times that day. Some may be able to spend an hour in prayer and scripture reading. The idea is to give God what you can, and even in our over-scheduled lives, try to listen. I can imagine that Elijah wish that he had.

The Huff and Puff

Last Saturday we took the kids to the Huff and Puff and I took some pretty good pixs.

Poor Jonathan was so scared of the sound and the heat that he was literally shaking as David held him, but grew to like it. When we put him down he hid behind our legs. Poor little buddy.

Over all a good time was had by all.

Remembering

Hi All,

A couple of days ago I had someone tell me that I have very strong Scandinavian features and wondered if I knew what my back ground was. I had always thought that my back ground was English and German, but as I get to know more, I think I am a melting pot like most of us.

Just today I took out some photo albums to see what family members I might resemble. I haven't answered my question, but I did come across some good pictures. Here are but a few.

This is a picture of my first time at Worlds of Fun with my dad and grandma. I am told that I got so excited that I peed my pants.

This is me at about age 2 or 3 and my mom and dad.

Here is a picture of me and my dad on the porch swing at his parents house.

This is me on the left and my cousin Anita on the right. She and I are about the same age.

This is a picture of my sister Caroline. I put this in because she looked so cute.

This is a picture of me, my grandparents Hollingshead and my sister. There are seven years difference between us.

Me and Caroline

Me, my aunt Mary with Caroline on her lap and my cousin Neil.

The cousins

In the back, Jennifer and Melissa, (Ronnie's girls)

Caroline, Neil and me
August 31, 1997

I don't remember the date that this was taken, but I am sure that it was in the 80's because of my BIG hair. I am still waiting for BIG hair to come back in fashion so I can pitch my flat iron.

This was taken at my aunt Mary's and uncle Nelson's house back east.

I saved the best until last.

The man on the left is or I should say was my uncle Ronnie. If you focus on him he is sitting there smoking a cigarette and has a contemplative look on his face as if he was playing poker, but then you look at the rest of the picture and realize that he is playing Uno with his 10 year old niece. It cracked me up.

First Day of school

Hi All,

The kidletts have been in school for a little over a week so I thought that I would update our blog.

Don't tell Abby this, but I forgot to take a picture of her first day of preschool. I am also the teacher, so I think I was a little distracted. Pictures of Abba will come soon.

Here we are at our new school building. Jonathan and Abigail had to get into the picture too.

Amelia and Mrs. Mangricino (I misspelled her name I am sure.) 2nd grade

Joshua and Miss Figgs. Kindergarten