Keri On: December 2011

Current Memory Verses

1Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
2 To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.[a]
3 We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; 5 because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit,[b] as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth; 7 as you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, 8 who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.
9 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood,[c] the forgiveness of sins.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight— 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.
24 I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church, 25 of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, 26 the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. 27 To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which[d] is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. 29 To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

An 8 Year Old Man

Zachary turned 8 on Sunday. He likes anything that has to do w/ cowboys. His sister Rachel found this jacket, hat, and nice pair of jeans at our local GoodWill. Have you such a handsome 8 year old in your life?

His sister, Grace, went shopping w/ Rachel...and found these great gifts..a new red bandana, and a wallet...with money already in it!

A couple of months ago...this sweet Madeline....

heard Z say that he really wanted a mama deer...he already had the baby...so, she checked her savings and hired herself out for odd jobs w/ her older siblings, collected the necessary amount of money, and had Sarah take her to the local farm store to make her purchase. She had it wrapped and under her bed for 2 months.

It is a busy time of year...this post is 2 days late....I told Z that we would have a cowboy get together next month!

Happy Birthday Z!

I would also like to mention that today is my husband's 49th birthday!

Hope my 8 year old man grows up to be just like his daddy!

Happy Birthday, Gregg!

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Apples to AppleCider

We had the opportunity to buy apples.....

Lots of apples....actually each of these bins holds 900 pounds of apples.

Two of the bins are ours......and the plan was to use one of them to make....

CIDER!

Ah..the anticipation of that first gallon!.....

We had a little friendly competition...teams seeing how quickly they could grind and press a gallon of cider....from start to finish...these strapping young men held the lead at 6 minutes and 24 seconds...

the competition was intense...

even scary...

Such a fun time!!

Even the mamas made a decent showing (that'd be 7min 7sec)

But this handsome fella single handedly thumped us all! He finished his gallon in 5 minutes and 50 seconds.....

No, no....not finished drinking his gallon....I mean he actually grinded apples and pressed his gallon in that time!

We made about 30 gallons (two different pressing events!) The apples cost us about 10 cents a pound..the press was rented for 1.5 days for $60....

The fun we had was priceless!

Friday, December 2, 2011

Some of our happenings...in pictures...

On Thanksgiving morning, it is our family's tradition to decorate gingerbread houses. We make 5 of them and have two children decorating each house.

This tradition was started to give little people a project while mama was busy in the kitchen....the older children still participate, ,pairing up w/ one of their younger siblings. Its a very sweet tradition!

Here is Sarah's post on our Thanksgiving!

On the weekend we get our Christmas tree...this is usually done on Saturday...but this year got postponed until Monday...the weather was immensely better on Monday, and we all came home dry and happy (which would not have been the case if we'd gotten it on the weekend!).