Here is a picture Peter drew the other day of our family:

Ever since Jim’s sister (Aunt Nini) moved in with us at the end of September, the boys have embraced her as though she’s been part of our household since the beginning. When we announced that she would be moving in, their first reaction was, “Cool, now we’re going to have seven people in our family!”

I have seen God at work in this situation, even before Jeanine moved in. More than anything else at this point, He has grown love in our hearts for her–and let me emphasize that it is HIS love, not ours. Human love is finicky; it expects love in return; it grows or lessens depending on my emotions. But God’s love is unconditional and faithful. Here are some things the Bible says about God’s love for people:

“But You, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.” (Psalm 86:15)

“But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)–this is one of my favorite verses. Jesus didn’t wait until we had our act together to die for us. He loves us and meets us where we’re at.

“I pray that you…may have power…to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.” (Ephesians 3:18)

God’s love is amazing; something I will never completely understand. There is nothing we can do to make Him love us more or less. So as it relates to Jeanine living here, Jim and I are grateful that God is allowing us to observe and even participate in His love for her. We know the road may be rocky at times–we’re far from perfect people–but we wouldn’t want things any other way right now.

We went bowling with the Gieres last Saturday. The weather was frightful outside, but inside it was cosmic. Yes, we arrived just in time for Cosmic Bowling–when the lights go down, and the disco balls, black lights, and heavy metal music turn on. Suitable for young children, no?

We had a great time; for the second game, the adults challenged the kids. Let’s just say the score was closer than it should have been. Jake whooped me both games, and 5 year-old Hannah beat me in the second game (cut me some slack, though, the kids had bumpers).

Here are the four dynamo bowlers:

…and their faithful cheering section:

We began Christmas morning (bright and early) by lighting the final candle on our advent wreath.

Our family had such a great time going through this activity during the advent season; I highly recommend it. This is one of the best ways to remember why we celebrate Christmas in the first place. I printed out an advent packet from this website. It explains how to make the wreath (we did it for under $10), and it also includes pictures, Bible readings and songs that correspond with each week’s candle.

We then opened up presents. Jake and Derek were on the giving end this year, as they had taken their piggy bank money and bought gifts for their brothers (and other family members). After hanging out and playing throughout the morning, we headed over to Mom and Dad’s condo.

Dad read about Jesus’ birth before the gift-giving began.

Derek is checking out the load of presents:

A glimpse of the activity:

Oh, Ste-phen!

Doctor Peter…

…and Officer Bubbie

Officer Bubbie after dinner and a few…cookies:

My Aunt Ellen and cousins Jackie, Nick, and A.J. drove down from MI to celebrate with us. In this picture, Jackie was helping Jake twirl in the air like a princess in the Disney Princess Wii game. Then Peter found an otherwise unknown function of the game: those sparkly things that come out of the princess’ magic wand are actually fire balls that you can shoot at other players!

One more pic–gathered around the dinner table…

Hooray! We had fun with the Johaniks on Christmas Eve:

Peter is opening a “boring box”. Given his love for good clothing, I don’t think Peter really means what he says in this case.

Jake, on the other hand, was thrilled to expand his wardrobe, which before this night consisted of about 2 pairs of fitting pants without holes and 4 shirts.

Definitely, one of the highlights of the night was…playing with Aunt Judi.

The three older boys participated in our homeschool co-op’s Christmas play last Monday. Being the drama-loving family that we are, the boys had important, but um, less-than-starring roles.

Peter was a Who in Whoville during the Grinch portion of the play:

Later that night, Peter explained to Jim and me the choreographed skills that he was taught for this number. He didn’t smile while he was on stage because he was concentrating so much on moving his hips back and forth. I love a hard-working attitude!

Derek played the role of a shepherd (he’s on the left), and Jake was a wise man in the nativity portion of the play. Jake even recited a line!

The whole cast:

Our family played the game of Life last night. Before each player makes their first move, they need to decide if they will start a career right away, or go to college first.

Peter declared, “I’m going to North Korea!”

Jim tried correcting him by explaining that the word is “career”.

Evidently, it still didn’t sink in because as Peter was picking his career card, he was chanting, “Korea, Korea, Korea.”

The dough was made.

It chilled overnight.

The cookie cutters were sorted (thanks to Peter).

First thing the next morning, the cutting and baking began. Jeremy and Peter were the master cutters (and taste-testers, naturally):

Once all the cookies were cut, I piled up the leftover dough for Peter and Jeremy to play with. Well…long story short, Jeremy had more than his share of raw eggs that day. I left him alone with the dough while I went to fold a load of laundry. When I came back to the kitchen, his dough pile had shrunk considerably. I asked him what happened to his dough. He replied, “I eat dough.”

Thanks to the four junior bakers, the final product turned out fantastic:

Peter

fast,aggressive

tucked-in shirt, belted pants

planes,drawing,running,music

playful

…a partial summary of last weekend.

Jake and Derek swam in a meet in DeKalb on Saturday. Of the four heats Derek competed in, he took first place in three! He received a badge for each win: 25m freestyle, 50m freestyle, and 25m backstroke. And what pleased Jim and me just as much was Jake’s genuine happiness for his brother, and Derek’s good sport-attitude. Because they’re only going to swim competitively for so long. Even if one goes on to the Olympics someday, their bodies will age. What’s more important is the character–the heart.

Then Sunday, my dad came by with a chocolate santa which was given to him from a guy from Slovakia. My dad gave it to Jake, knowing he would really appreciate it. I propped Santa up by Jake’s seat at the kitchen table before dinner that night. As I was in the kitchen preparing dinner, I noticed that Jeremy had been quietly standing on his chair staring at me for some time. Chewing. When I looked closer, I saw the chocolate in the corners of his mouth. And an empty foil wrapper lying on the table. The Santa had been consumed in one gulp. In vain, I held a napkin under his mouth and told him to spit it out, but alas, it was too late.

Meanwhile, Jake was on the verge of tears. I tried comforting him with, “It’s alright, it was just a piece of chocolate” (to which anyone who knows me well is laughing right now, because normally I would never put “just” and “chocolate” together that way in a sentence).

Jake replied, “I’m not sad for myself, I’m sad for the guy from Slovakia because he brought that all the way for me to have, and now I can’t enjoy it.”

I answered, “Well…it’s not a total loss. I mean, Bubbie sure enjoyed it.” Even though he tried really hard to suppress it,  Jake burst out laughing as he looked at his brother’s chocolate-stained face.

It’s not easy being the oldest. Many opportunities for character-building!

Jim is in Indy tonight, so the boys and I made cookies.

Derek made his soon-to-be-world-famous Snickerdoodles. I’m bringing them to Judi and Jeanine’s cookie exchange on Saturday, which makes an eight year-old feel pretty special. He definitely inherited his cookie-making skills from his dad.

Here he is rolling those babies in cinnamon and sugar:

Jake pored over the cookie recipe books and decided on Gingerbread Cutouts. He’s packing the brown sugar here:

Now, I promised a certain 4 year-old who really wanted to help that he could do the cookie cutters after Jake was finished making the dough. That was before I realized the dough needed to chill overnight.

So the activity for the little ones was sorting the cookie cutters for later use. When they were finished with that activity, they moved onto what they do best…wrestle:

Peter was a great sport about having to wait until tomorrow morning, plus a little taste of the dough helped to sweeten the deal, so to speak.

Derek recently learned this song on the piano, and guess what I found on my mane a week later? My first gray hair…short, wiry, and sticking straight out the side of my head.

When I told Mr. Scientist, the first thing he said was, “How does hair turn gray?” I’ll be referring him to this website: Why Does Hair Turn Gray?

Meanwhile, I am claiming Proverbs 16:31 for my head :)

Over the summer Jake got a wood chip stuck in his foot after stepping on it outside. He took his pocketknife and (with help) cut open the skin so he could take it out before the area became infected (yes, mom, it grossed me out). That was 4 months ago.

Last night before bed, he was holding his foot saying that the spot where the wood chip was had a bump, and it hurt. I asked him if this all just started, and Jake replied that no, it’s been hurting for quite some time. Hmmm, sounded like an infection to me.

We went to see the doctor this afternoon. She took one look at it and declared, “it’s a wart”. Knowing this was a possibility, I did explain my wart history to Jake on the way to see the doc. I told him what the treatment was for my warts, and that he could expect the same if that bump on his foot was a wart.  Not so.

Today, medical knowledge is expanding at lightning speed. Brilliant ideas are discovered. There’s so much technology these days, you know.

The doctor prescribed OTC wart medicine with duct tape. I laughed, but it’s been written about in medical journals as being the most successful treatment for warts. Apparently, you can even buy the tape in all sorts of colors (maybe for this very reason?). So tonight, Jake went to bed with duct tape wrapped on his foot. And for now, it’s the industrial gray variety.

Allow me share a couple of noteworthy things that have come out of this: after reading the wart medicine package, Jake looked up the active ingredient in the Merck Index. Yes, you read that right. The boy has been reading out of the Merck Index during his down time. He told me something I don’t understand about the acid that’s in the medicine, so I just smiled and nodded. He’s getting smart with that science stuff!

Also, as we were talking in the car on the way home, I was commenting to Jake on how neat it is that he’s so interested in the elements and chemicals (refer to previous post). We talked about the possibility of him becoming a doctor, since doctors study lots of science (and Merck Indexes).

Then he asked, “Mom, how can doctors be useful in ministry?” 

This led into a conversation about all sorts of great things missionary doctors do for people around the world, including the U.S. We talked about how great it is when a doctor heals a person’s body, but how much greater it is when that doctor also tells a person about Jesus Christ, the only One who can heal a person’s soul.

Whatever course Jake and his brothers take in life, it is my prayer that they will truly serve God with everything they are and have. “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men” (Colossians 3:23).

I made this report about How The Elements Are Useful and some things about atoms. I put in very useful elements that we use every day, sometimes in your home or in a nuclear power plant.

If you click this link you will go to the report.

how-the-elements-are-useful