Dug Down Deep - A Book Review

"Dug Down Deep" by Joshua Harris is a great book! I'm really enjoying it. He has an analogy a little after the beginning, that is just fantastic. Everyone should read it.
We're headed to some summer sunshine, so I didn't get a chance to finish it, but I'm taking it on the trip. Dot's eager to be second-in-line for the book. :-)

Here's the book's summary:

What will you build your life on?

With startling transparency, Joshua Harris shares how we can rediscover the relevance and power of Christian truth. This is book shows a young man who rose quickly to success in the Christian evangelical world before he realized his spirituality lacked a foundation—it rested more on tradition and morality than on an informed knowledge of God.

For the indifferent or spiritually numb, Harris's humorous and engaging reflections on Christian beliefs show that orthodoxy isn't just for scholars—it is for anyone who longs to know the living Jesus Christ. As Harris writes, "I've come to learn that theology matters. It matters not because we want to impress people, but because what we know about God shapes the way we think and live. Theology matters because if we get it wrong then our whole life will be wrong."

Whether you are just exploring Christianity or you are a veteran believer finding yourself overly familiar and cold-hearted, Dug Down Deep will help you rediscover the timeless truths of Scripture. As Harris challenges you to root your faith and feelings about God in the person, work, and words of Jesus, he answers questions such as:

What is God like and how does he speak to me?What difference does it make that Jesus was both human and divine?How does Jesus's death on the cross pay for my sins?Who is the Holy Spirit and how does he work in my life?
With grace and wisdom, Harris will inspire you to revel in the truth that has captured his own mind and heart. He will ask you to dig deep into a faith so solid you can build your life on it. He will point you to something to believe in again.

Author Bio:

Joshua Harris is senior pastor of Covenant Life in Gaithersburg, Maryland, which belongs to the Sovereign Grace network of local churches. A passionate speaker with a gift for making theological truth easy to understand, Joshua is perhaps best known for his runaway bestseller, I Kissed Dating Goodbye, which he wrote at the age of twenty-one. His later books include Boy Meets Girl, Sex Is Not the Problem (Lust Is), and Stop Dating the Church. The founder of the NEXT conferences for young adults, Joshua is committed to seeing the gospel transferred to a new generation of Christians. He and his wife, Shannon, have three children.

To purchase the book online, check out:

http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/catalog.php?isbn=9781601421517

This was book was provided for review by WaterBrook Multnomah.

I'll have to post more, when we come back, and I finish the book. :-)

They're Home!

My brother and sister-in-law are back home in the states.
They are so thankful for the prayers.
We are looking forward to hearing their story and experiences.

Please Pray!

My brother and sister-in-law landed in Haiti an hour before the earthquake hit. They are bringing supplies to an orphanage with others from their church. They are safe and ok at this point, waiting for morning when they can assess how they can help.
Please pray for them and for the many people in Haiti tonight.

Pretty Water!

When we went to the Hotel on Saturday, next to the check-in counter was this:

It was prettier when the water was full to the top. There were fresh raspberries and strawberries suspended among the ice. The water had a gentle berry flavor. So delicious!! What a neat idea!

Sometimes it always seems like there has to be something with my health. It's frustrating. Friday morning I woke up in the very early morning with my diaphragm area just aching. It still hurt in the morning when I got up. I jogged hoping to work it out. Nope. By evening it was definitely worse.
Saturday morning was better with the pain more localized in the lower left quadrant of my lung. It wasn't my rib, but deeper. Saturday night it was really hurting and I couldn't take a full breath, so we decided to go in. I was thinking I might have a partially collapsed lung. They did chest x-rays, nope. Maybe heart issues or blood clot. Blood tests for both. Heart, no, blood clot a possibility. So needed to do CT scan with dye. Hook up IV, take test (boy that felt weird, but didn't last long). Wait, nope, not a clot, but my aveoli are collapsed in that area.
Dr. says take plenty of pain meds so can breathe deep in that area and refill the aveoli. I did that, that night, and was definitely better on Sunday. Was hurting more last night, but we'd had such a busy day, that I didn't keep up with the pain meds. I'm planning to do better today. Dr. said to be careful as it would be easy to get pneumonia in that area.
Isn't that just weird!! It's called atelectasis. I'm hoping that maybe when I jog this morning, it will help open that area up the rest of the way, so the rest of the pain will leave. Weird. I'm glad it wasn't a collapsed lung or a blood clot, but it sure felt like a waste of an ER trip, although it is nice to feel better and not worried about what it is.
Anyways....life goes on.... :-)

Snowball Ballroom Dancing

Yesterday I spent the day watching Ballroom Dancing. I went with friends to watch a friend of ours compete. He took first in all his categories! Yeah!! It was his first year. We watched the cha-cha dances in the morning, and then after the lunch break, watched the waltzes, etc. I LOVED the Viennese waltz! The gowns were GORGEOUS!! So fun to watch them float around the room. We met the lady in the blue "curly" gown. She was so nice and friendly. Home-town sweet.

Here is our friend, Caleb, dancing with one of his partners. She looked so elegant in her gown with gold gloves and shoes. She had a classic look.
In the next picture down, the couple on the right were so dreamy! I loved her gown, and she had such a beautiful smile!
I spent a lot of time watching just them dance. Mmmmm.....Like they had been plucked from a castle ballroom in a movie.
The middle couple were in the over 35 group and seemed like such a fun couple. They were beautiful together and fantastic dancers. They looked like they were having a blast. Her pink gown was incredible!
The center couple shows Caleb again with his other partner. She had a beautiful blue gown.
We were so proud of him!!What a fun day!!!!

Big Brothers are Awesome!!

Darling was so excited when her big brother, Drum, joined her at her "tea party" with his brownie and ice cream. Sometimes it is just the little things that can make a child's day!

Christmas Holidays

We had a fun Christmas Eve with Gramma and Papa W. The next morning, Christmas Day, we celebrated with our family, then later had our friends over to spend some time together. We played catch phrase, and other games, and just enjoyed the fellowship. This was followed by a restful weekend! On Sunday, Dot had Bible Study with her girls, while Jerry worked. The boys were at Papa's, and I enjoyed rare time with a friend, while Darling slept.
I wish I had more pictures, but I mostly just enjoyed the times.

On the Monday after Christmas, we enjoyed hosting a Holiday Hop with friends of ours. Our friends came over in the afternoon and helped get the studio in our pole barn ready for the dance. Kim and Dot put up Christmas lights. So cool!! Later we introduced a waltz, and then turned off the main lights for some beautiful mood lighting. Steve & my dear husband did the introduction and a couple small comedy routines. They did a great job, and we look forward to their return. :-) We did a variety of music and dances. I thought it was a resounding success for our first Holiday Hop. :-)

On Tuesday morning, I had a Dr.'s appt. to take out my nose stitches, all seven of them. The ones underneath dissolved on their own. The Dr. and nurse both thought it looked great. Nice to get that over. Then I joined my Mom on her birthday for a trip to the Mall. We had a blast looking and shopping. We ate out and got our nails done. A fun ladies day! We joined the rest of the family for a pizza party at supper time. My Mom looked young and happy. :-)

Wednesday morning we slept in! :-) Then headed to join several families at the Theatre for the new Chipmunk movie. It was fantastic! Better than the 1st, I thought. The boys went home with one family to practice for the New Year's Eve party the next day, and to go to youth group with them. We had one of their boys, which made for a relaxing evening as he entertained Duke & Dessert. We switched kids late that evening. A fun day!!

Thursday, everyone (kids that is) slept late in anticipation of a late evening! Duke and Dessert went to a another friend's house to spend the night and were packed by 11:00 am in their excitement. They didn't go over until about 6 pm. :-)
Dot took Drum and Dime for rehearsal at 5: and the rest of us joined them at 7. Julie and her boys had prepared a fantastic evening of games and activities. There were several other couples there to help with the chaperoning, so it was fun to visit and help Julie with the games. Before midnight, after a devotional time, they had us all go out by the bonfire. After some snowfights, they shared around the bonfire and had the kids share. It was a special time. Then she passed out noisemakers! I could hear them from the house (where I had gone with Darling when she couldn't handle the cold any longer). Then they came in the house for song time. It was neat to see the kids worshiping together. Dh and I left with Darling, while the four oldest spent the night. What a fun way to spend New Year's Eve!!

On New Year's Day we slept in and eventually got our kids home and other kids back to their respective homes.

Deer and I went shopping on Saturday. She had a coupon to use and a few items yet to get for her party the next day.
We got back and all of us left for a MOVIE time with Papa and Gramma K, Uncle Pat & Aunt Dawn, and their kids, and my Great Aunt and Uncle. We saw "Blindside", and it was well worth the time! Very, very good!! Aunt Dawn and Gramma took the little ones to "Princess and the Frog", but they didn't think it was great for the little ones. They did ok though, and loved the popcorn!!
Then we all went for pizza. It was fun to relax together and talk and visit. The kids were wonderful. Well, Uncle Patrick's quarters really helped for some of them. :-)

Later that evening, Deer and I had to finish her party favors. I thought they turned out soooo cute!! We photocopied the pattern, then Deer stamped them. I cut them out and taped them together, while Dot helped tie the ribbons on. Then Deer filled them with candy.

After church on Sunday, Deer had her 13th Birthday Party!!
Here they are enjoying a game. There were 13 friends, plus her sister, and herself!

A few boys were at another friend's birthday, and Dime and Darling went to Grandpa K's, so Deer mostly had the house to herself and her friends. In between helping the girls, I got caught up with all my ironing!! and did a bunch of laundry. I was thrilled to start out the new week back to school, caught up with that anyway. :-)

We made it through the first week back-to-school. There are still several things to add to the schedule, but we are focusing on getting ready for the first speech meet of the season. It is next Saturday - Yikes!! We've usually been much more ready, but this year has just flown by.

I'm looking forward to the New Year - 2010. I am so grateful for God's abundant blessings for myself and our family. We have much to be thankful for. One of my goals in the new year is to put together alot of my blog posts from last year into a printed book. It would be a way to have it as a more permanent record of our family's times. I'll have to post when I get that finished....
Happy New Year, and Happy Blogging!! :-)
God is good, All the time!!