Hanging out and Baking Cookies With Friends!

Yesterday we went to the DeMyer's house to hang out and bake cookies!  We were experimenting with a bunch of different gluten-free recipes.  Caleb is gluten intolerant - so we all avoid it as much as we can - so I will be sharing some delicious, healthy recipes!

Mom's having a lot of fun!

Sabrina

Mom eating (no - actually pretending to eat) the molasses :)

Mrs. DeMyer

Abby :)  So cute!

Sabrina and Abby

Nick, Caleb, Sam, Me, Reuben and Sabrina taking weird pics of each other :)

Me and Sabrina

Here is one of the recipes we used!

Gluten-free Ginger Snaps:
This makes really soft wonderful tasting ginger snaps - and you would never know that they were gluten-free!

Ingredients:
3/4 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
1 or more cups flour blend
3/4 cups coconut flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 teaspoon ginger
1 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
scant 1 teaspoon cloves (that means almost full :)

 Cream together the first 4 ingredients

Then mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and then mix the two (dry and wet ingredients) together

Get a bowl of evaporated cane crystals - you get a little lump of dough and roll it into a ball (about 1 inch in diameter) and roll it in the sugar so the outside is coated in it.  Place on a cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes.  And there you have it!

Yummo!

 Hope you have a great time experimenting with this cool recipe! :)

~ Megan

Christmas Concert Choir

Last Friday and Saturday we had our concert choir.  It was pretty fun!  We had seven songs - Cannon of the Bells, Lord Lift me up, Stars of Glory, Hallelujah Chorus, Gloria, Good Tidings, and I Waited For The Lord.  Halfway through the "Lord Lift Me Up" song everyone had to start swaying to the tune - they didn't spring that on us till the night before the concert and you could tell that it hadn't been practiced :)  Some people were bouncing slightly while they swayed and having a great time - others were swaying stiffly and you could tell they were not used to being on stage.

Psalm 96:1-3 "Oh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth!  Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day!  Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!"

Judges 5:3 “Hear, O kings; give ear, O princes; to the Lord I will sing; I will make melody to the Lord, the God of Israel."

There are so many verses in the Bible about singing.  It is something we will to forever in eternity.  The angels rejoice when we sing - because it is warfare.  It is one of the strongest weapons we have against the devil - praising God with singing.  When I started choir last year I was scared to death.  I was scared of having people hear me - what if I messed up?  But now I love it!  I am letting my light shine - I am fighting with my voice - and I am praising my Maker.  Fear is one of the vices the devil uses to keep people from singing.  So what if you don't think you sound good - that's not what matters.  I am now so glad that my parents made me do choir - now I know how to sing right - I can sing the right notes now :)  And I would never have gotten the alto part on my own.  Next year I plan to either join ensemble or sing a duet.

Psalm 27:6 "And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to the Lord."

Psalm 59:17 "O my Strength, I will sing praises to you, for you, O God, are my fortress, the God who shows me steadfast love."

Here are some photos:

I am in the second row down, first on the left - Caleb is on the top row, second from the right

Afterwards Abby fell asleep on my lap :)

Modesty

A hundred years ago modesty was the norm even among non-Christian women.  They didn't question it - or rebel against it.  Feminism has lied to so many women theses days - telling them they need to prove themselves in the world - when the Biblical role for women is to be Godly help meets to their husbands, train their children, and keep the home.  It is common for women to be discontent in the home, they want to do all the things men do, and don't want to be stuck in the house doing the dirty work or having to wear uncomfortable clothes.  But when you look in the Proverbs at what a Godly woman is - she is very different from that.  She is content in her place - because she realizes that it is where God ordained to have her. 

One of the biggest reasons for us Christian women to be modest is so that we don't cause our brothers to stumble.  As it says in Romans 14:21, "It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble."

And 1 Corinthians 8:7-13 "But some, through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.  Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.  But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.  For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols?  And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died.  Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.  Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble."

Most men struggle with their thoughts in this area - women usually don't have this temptation, so it is hard for us to understand.  When we are covered up we are not to blame - but when our dress encourages it we are just as guilty as they are.

"But I want men to be attracted to me!"
They for sure will - but not at all the kind you are looking for.  When you dress immodestly weak men will flock to you, and the strong Christian men will be running in the other direction like they should.  And for all you ladies who are unmarried - if you end up married to one of those men who gave into temptation, what is going to happen when other half-naked girls walk by? If he wasn't able to control himself with you, what makes you think he will be able to with other girls?  Especially when you start to get older and those young gals look so good!

In addition to not tempting men, our bodies belong to God and our husbands, or future husbands as the case may be.  According to 1 Corinthians 7:4, “The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife.”

"You can't tell me what to wear, the Bible says not to judge!"
The Bible actually says, “Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.” – Matthew 7:1-5.  If you are an unbeliever there is no reason for me to judge you, because you already stand condemned.  But if you are my sister in Christ, it is my duty to point out your sin to you in love.  If I see you sin and am silent, your blood is on my hands - but if I show you your error and you continue in your sin, your blood is on your own hands.  

Matthew 18:15-19 - “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.  But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.  If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.  Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.  Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.

"But What about Pants?"
It does not say in the Bible that women should not wear pants.  But God commanded that women should not wear a man's garment.  In this day pants are worn as both a man's and a woman's garment - and in Old Testament times men wore skirts - so what is the answer?  I wear skirts because they are more modest and more feminine. I especially like split skirts - you are still able to ride a horse or something like that without having to hike up your skirt - it is a nice way to be modest and still be able to do everything!  The majority of the pants women wear are low-rise jeans that show skin when you bend over. They have designs on the back that draw attention to the wrong area. They show off the shape of your legs. They are anything but modest. If you want to wear pants, how about borrowing a pair of your daddy’s? I don’t think anyone will be tempted with those :)

Christmas Mice!

So, last night we were getting out Christmas decorations and putting up the tree.  We got the angel out once the tree was done - and she was covered in fuzz and seeds.  Well, of course that means that mice are living in our boxes :)  The boys dug around in the one the angel was in and found a giant pile of feed and seeds - probably about 4 or 5 cups worth.  Then Mom said "it's probably still in there!" - and right as she said it a mouse scurried across the box.  Mom screamed like a little girl but them decided it wasn't scary and ran to get the camera - "a Christmas blogging moment" she said.  The boys caught it in an old shoe box and took it away.  Here are some pics of the excitement!

Digging for the mouse

found it!

Catching it in a shoe box

Ephraim on TV!

Our friend Ephraim was on TV a few weeks ago! :)  Look at this awesome video!

Riding Slim

A few days ago we went on another fun ride!  Me, Tikvah and Esther all took some of the Strain's horses and rode to our house.  I got to ride Slim - he is sort of a runaway racehorse / trick horse.  If you get him into  a lope you have a 50 / 50 chance of being able to stop him when you want or him running away with you until he decides he wants to stop :)  He also is trained to rear up on cue - you just have to kick him in the sides and pull on the reins at the same time (which by the way is a bad thing to do usually) - so I got him to rear a couple times - but he wouldn't do it as high as I wanted :) lol  Then we got to our house, broke in and ate all the food and watched a movie :) lol  Just kidding - we did have some lunch and watched a slideshow that Tikvah put together of their trip to Israel.  Then Mom, Caleb and Hannah showed up while we were just finishing the slideshow and Mom made us eat some curry.  Then we trotted the whole way back - we did a little loping and Slim ran away with me for awhile until I about took his head off :)  So it was an awesome ride (for me - some people might not think that's fun though)!  Can't wait to do it again!

Having Fun In The Snow With My Friend Tikvah!

Yesterday I went over to Tikvah's and Mom took a bunch of pics of us together :)  Then we went on a ride in the snow!  In these pics I am riding Enoch and Tikvah is riding Reata - we picked matching hosses for the photo taking :)

Then I took some photos of her working Bullet for an add she was doing for halter breaking.

Hooking on

Roping the feet

Sending around

Desensitizing to the flag