Conspicuous

like this frog who is trying to hide in our azalea bushes. Isn't he sweet though? He let us hold his cool, wet body and calmly hopped back to his little leaf afterward. We didn't tell him but he should have been on some lichen.


Here is our next sweetie, Cy. She was born on Christmas day and only 2-3 weeks early instead of the 2 months we thought it might be! She's a month old now and starting to pay more attention to what's around her. Here she's looking to see what C and the cat, "Monkey", are doing.

This little country church is about 2 miles from our house. This is the typical little white country church in Tennessee.

The next few photos at the airport must be seen in sequence. S decided to try out his new camera's quick takes feature (yeah, I know I don't have the technical term!). It just so happened that as C was running toward him, a plane started up and these photos are truly her expressions of horror and fright (albeit a bit dramatically as is her fashion sometimes!).

All is well!! Whew!

So, these are some photos from the past week and beyond. Some of them are from the late fall, others from the summer, and the baby is from this week.

I didn't get to the blog making this Friday due to taking up time emptying our iPhoto folders. Whew! That was amazing. Anyway, it has really speeded things up by freeing up some memory space. I won't even tell you how many photos were deleted. Of course we've made copies on discs!

This week has been cold and frosty - but at least it really feels like January for a change. Caridee has been in the garage at night even though that's not really toasty warm by any stretch (in the high 50's). At least it's not in the teens like outside.

Some big news - C has just finished the Suzuki Cello Book 2 and is now officially starting Book 3 - as soon as I go buy it!. Congrats, C, you've worked hard.

Til next time, may the road come up to meet you, or something like that! (just not too hard, ha ha) and may the wind blow softly in your face (boy, do I have it all wrong!?). Anyway, my kindly thoughts are with you all, especially M&D who celebrated their wedding anniversary today. Congrats to you too!

Snow/Fall

Here are just a few pics of our latest snowfall taken by G.

Altogether we only had about 2 inches but isn't it pretty?

Be sure to check back to the blog about Christmas in Florida for some added photos.

Are we harbouring Canaanites?

According to the Bible, God promised the Israelites the land of Canaan even from the Great Sea to the River Euphrates. The Israelites were told to annihilate the heathen and pagan nations from that area completely. Joshua was on the path to doing just that when he was deceived by the Gibeonites and made an alliance with them.

Earlier, Balaam, who couldn't pronounce a curse on Israel, decided to use trickery to get the Moabites to seduce the Israelites and weaken them that way. He succeeded, they intermarried and trouble ensued. Read Joshua's summary of what happened in Joshua 23 and 24. These weren't the only backslidings of the Israelites, but yet God helped Israel subdue the pagan nations around them and in Joshua's time, Israel had rest from all their enemies. Close to his death he made the Israelites promise and swear that they would never ally themselves with any heathens or their gods. He wrote this covenant down and brought there a great big rock to be a witness.

Well, unfortunately, if you'll read on into Judges, the people soon forsook their promise. Judges 2:11 and on "And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim: And they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the LORD to anger. And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth" etc...Then the LORD gave them judges (v.16) who, despite their disobedience, were able to help defeat their enemies. These are the nations who were left in the land of Canaan: the Philistines, the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites.(Chapter 3:1-3). Although the Israelites did have physical battles with them, the real influence of these heathen remained to corrupt and pollute their morals, their allegiance to God and purity of heart. If they had been committed to removing these peoples in their entirety, they would have been less likely to have been corrupted, and would have remained true, at peace, and would have fully revealed God's true character to the world.

So, the point of this discussion is to lead us to question whether we, as Spiritual Israel, have removed Canaan entirely from our lives or whether we are still being corrupted by it. First, we have to identify WHAT is modern Canaan. Because if we don't know what or who we're "fighting", then we won't feel a need to purge it. This is a work of heart-searching and honest evaluating of ALL we allow to influence us - and there is so MUCH in 2008. Besides the obvious influence from things of technology, there remains the subtle influences of a lavish and wasteful lifestyle, materialism, procrastination, workaholism, fashion, lack of value for family, structure, discipline, order, courtesy, integrity, healthy industry, spiritual nurture of ourselves and of our families, service to those in need, time for meditation and lots of other things that the "world" leads us away from in tiny increments. Before we know it, we're worshipping the ideals and philosophy of this world - a world tainted by "Canaan". Although it is mostly unrealistic for us to purge Canaan from the world, we CAN and should purge it TOTALLY from our homes.

We have to realize that the "who" behind Canaan is Satan himself. We are so easily led astray and deceived unless we are firmly on the ROCK of Jesus. As the LORD God helped the Israelites defeat the Canaanites, so He is the only one who can help us defeat modern Canaan. But we must do our part in not courting evil where we can control it - in our homes and hearts. Refuse to be seduced, by turning from evil and studying the good. We have no time for frivolous amusements and dallying with the 'enemy', thinking we can avoid contamination. Just the giving of our TIME to these things is walking on enemy ground, never mind the corrupting influence it has on us. "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation..."(Matt 26:41)

Eventually God gave the Israelites up fully to the heathen nations in a physical way - they were exiled to Babylon - but "only" for 70 years. At Christ's first coming He MORE FULLY revealed to them a merciful and longsuffering God, ready to forgive and redeem. We have the whole history of Israel to see what happens when we forsake the only true way - and yet we so easily fall into the snares of the evil one ourselves - Spiritual Israel; we, who have pledged ourselves to following ONLY Him. The next exile will be FOREVER, not a measly 70 years. We have a lot more at stake this time. Let's not throw eternal life away for the sake of worthless, worldly idols. We must return to a pure and innocent (primitive) godliness. Let us repent!

"Choose ye this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." Joshua 24:15.

Pain and Tribulation

Last time I said I'd talk about the 3 little angels. Here they are.

Ages 3, 5 and 6.

Needless to say we had a busy time that week, and the New Year's Eve party was a disaster! The middle one especially has no idea how to behave in a group situation and was out-of-control bouncing off the walls, bless his little heart. I'll spare you the details but to say we left early!

The pain and tribulation title refers to the fact that on Tuesday a crowned tooth of mine decided to "erupt" in pain - an angry beehive indeed. The pain is indescribably agonizing. I say "is" because it's not completely gone despite a strong antibiotic and fairly strong painkillers. And it only takes a minor irritation or disturbance (such as eating OR drinking) to set it off again! I'm bracing myself for a root canal and am NOT happy about it. Why don't the dentists just come out straight and tell you "The nerve is dead and you'll have to have a root canal". But no, they give you the antibiotics, painkillers and give you hope that everything will work out just fine. "But we'll check in two weeks to see that it's OK". Then they'll break the news to you: "Oh, too bad, it needs a root canal!"

Since sleep didn't come easily at times this week I had the time to listen to some very interesting online videos by Walter Veith on the history of all the versions of the Bible. They're at the Google video site - can't remember the exact address there but the series is called Total Onslaught. Check out videos numbered 213 and 214 in particular I think. They're the Bible versions-specific ones. Anyway, I have found them terribly enlightening and informative and several of our Bible versions are being put out to pasture! (The more radical ones of course). Some of them one can take a pen and "correct", which he does himself with the New King James - one of my favourite versions too.

We've had nice weather this past week with a fair amount of rain, wind and storm to water the earth. It's supposed to be winter but is more like spring. We had our chimney worked on this week too, but alas, the foundation is hardly more than mortar - not even concrete - and just cracks and breaks when they (Ram Jack Company) try to lift the chimney up. I believe they said they've "stabalized it" but we're still not playing around it! Two stones have already fallen off during its "surgery".

When S sends me more photos I'll add a few here and there, so check back from time to time!

On Sunday evening we had the wonderful pleasure of a visit from Jeni-Joy, Carlindo and their two little girls from California. We had a lovely catch-up visit and supper. Uncle Robin is in SA as we speak, for two months. He took Aunty Loretta's ashes to be buried with Gailee's at HBC.

Enough newsy news for now. Next time I'll give you my ideas on the Canaanites.
Until then, happy Sabbath. May you find that true rest in Christ as you rest physically from all your labours of the week.

Christmas in Florida

Drove down last Sunday, the 23rd Dec, to visit the folk in Avon Park. Had a lovely visit, enjoying the warm, even hot temperatures (I saw one temperature display that said 91' one day, but not sure if that was accurate. Some others showed in the mid to high 80's), sunny skies and fresh salty/swampy breezes one recognizes all too well from that part of the country.  Also enjoyed taking a trip down to "Lion Country Safari", Xmas lights at the hospital, visiting with the folk

(S got a hole in one - a birthday present)

visiting our old favourite, "Highlands Hammock" etc.   C and Grandma had a wonderful time loving on each other - so sad that we live far away. I think Grandma enjoyed all the kisses and hugs,

and Grandpa enjoyed showing us photos and other things he's been up to lately. 

Lion Country Safari

C doesn't look too perturbed at being eaten by a lion!

Feeding a giraffe

My, what a lovely long tongue you have!

Riding on a camel.....

May I jump in, Mommy?

We reluctantly left them on Friday morning for the coast where we headed to the beach. The air was very warm but the water was chilly. I got in as far as my waist but C managed to swim up to her neck. S got his ankles wet! We also had fun building a dribble castle and decorating it with shells.

The next day we meandered slowly up the coast, visiting interesting places along the way - some nature reserves, and cute harbour villages: Cedar Key, and another one: Apalachicola amongst others. We even saw brightly coloured autumn trees here and there - about 2 months behind the rest of the country. It was low tide at one place and we got to see miniature fiddler crabs scuttling around. Many of them were only the size of a dime (just more than 1cm wide). I'm not sure if S got any close-up pics of them but will add them later if he did. Some of them were tenaciously guarding their wives and didn't move til we actually nudged them along. There was a whole city of crabs in that area so we didn't walk around for fear of stepping on them.
We ended up near St. Joseph's Peninsula State Park around 5pm and made the decision to camp there - it's nice to have a van we can sleep in at short notice! There were a few sites available and we found a nice one just a stone's throw from the sea. 

(The reason these two photos are dark is that they were taken at or around sunrise.)

How nice to go to sleep with the roar of the waves in one's ears. And the cherry on top was a storm that blew in just around bedtime so we got to hear the rain on the roof as well as watch a light show from the lightning. That didn't last too long - or maybe we fell asleep before it ended....

          Sunday morning we had a picnic breakfast by the boat launch and got to feed the gulls

                                                   who caught our bread offerings in mid-air.

C was, of course, thrilled. I don't know how much food actually got down her own throat though.
So then, this week was the first of the new year - HAPPY NEW YEAR! We had 3 angels to watch this week. I'll tell you about that next time. And the time after that will be about Canaan, comparing us to the Israelites of old.