And the Winner is....!!!

Okay, so you all probably know that I am a librarian, (or at least a librarian wanna-be) and that I absolutely adore Children's Books. Well, late last year I found the most amazing book called, "The Lion & the Mouse" that I totally fell in love with. There are few words in this book, it's a retelling, by beautiful pictures, of the Aesop's fable. The wonderful thing is, this retelling doesn't need the words. Nope. The story is told through the illustrations. I can't say enough times how happy I am that this book won the 2010 Caldecott Medal which is given each year to "the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children." Jerry Pinkney is the illustrator and his book is definitely worth the medal in my humble opinion.

If you want to see a few more of the pictures, click here on the Amazon link

http://www.amazon.com/Lion-Mouse-Jerry-Pinkney/dp/0316013560/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1264092207&sr=8-1

Or better yet,head to your local library and request the book! Then sit down and enjoy this wonderful book with your children that evokes words such as courage, valor, uncertainty, heroic deeds, loyalty and most of all enduring friendship.

Oh! And don't forget to enjoy the end paper!

Uplifted by Bounty

About five years ago, my husband and I were able to make a work trip that put us within a three hour drive of a bustling community where there were many of our Church of the Firstborn churches. With great excitement we made plans to go on this trip! We wrote all the names of the area's surrounding churches onto little pieces of paper and put them in a bag and then got on our knees and prayed that the Lord would direct us to the place He would choose. Then we picked out two names.

The first church we went to was on a Wednesday night. We got there at the appointed time and no one was there! We were so disappointed. So we got out the church directory and called one of the elders to ask if they still had Wednesday night meetings at the appointed time. And we found out that we had crossed the time zone back an hour on our trip to the church! We had arrived an hour too early. The brethren all came then to the church house and welcomed us with such love and care. They prayed for us in meeting, thanked us for coming and made our hearts so glad that the Lord had brought us to meet them. Generously we were offered a place to stay that night, but since we had to get back to work the next day we made plans to come back that Saturday night to stay with them and they would take us around to meet other brethren in the area.

Our visit those five years ago opened a door for fellowship with these dear saints. Our little body of brethren here in Oregon has been through a lot in these past few years. But with the love and prayers of the brethren in that body we met back then, we all have been so comforted. They have been there with us, praying with us when our dear Sis. B. was sick, nigh unto death. They opened up their homes when two of our older sisters traveled to their part. Again, they treated our sisters with the utmost love and care! Our daughters became pen pals. And as a few of the sisters here started blogs, a few of their sisters started blogs and we got to share more in each others lives even though we were so many miles apart. Us girls have laughed and cried and rejoiced and sorrowed with one another through our blogs. We've come before the throne of God for each other and I have been so edified!

And then just recently, when our little church was flooded. And ruined. What did these brethren do? They gathered their bounty and sent it to our church. That's what they did! I wanted to write this little blog post to let that body of Christ, so far away, know that our little body over here has been so comforted and uplifted that you all would once again show your love and care to us. Times are hard everywhere right now, and so our brethren know how much what was given meant to you all. Thank you, and God bless your little assembly so far away. We all love you all!

Written and edited together by Me and The Dad <3

I'm dreaming of.... Tiger Butter?

Over at Hillbilly Housewife's blog I found this recipe that sounds SOOOO good! I want some. Maybe even right now! This could be because I am recovering from the flu... I almost have all the ingredients too! I don't have the much needed crunchy peanut butter however. Just thinking of how pretty those swirls of chocolate and peanut butter must look in a pan makes my mouth water.

Having successfully caught the flu for the second time in a month, I've been hoping and dreaming of getting better so that I can finish my Christmas shopping and get my house tamed back into shape before our family's big Christmas Eve dinner. But I've been stuck on the couch doing nothing at all towards these goals . And to top it all off, I've given the bug to The Dad.

Excuse me... I'm heading back to the couch again to dream of... Tiger Butter!

The Sudden Flood

I didn't cry until this morning. I got up and went to the kitchen in my usual routine, got my drink of water and turned go look at my Christmas tree and it hit me. There under my Christmas tree was our church's beautiful nativity figures. The wise men bowing under my tree, baby Jesus nestled all snug against his mother Mary. And I teared up.

Yesterday, Daughter L went to clean the church to get it ready for our Christmas Dinner and Sing that will be this coming Sunday. And she noticed, as she walked up to the front door, that there was what she described as "a river of water" coming out from under the doors! "How strange," she thought and opened the door. Out poured a flood of water that washed over and covered her feet. The water poured on and on because the whole, entire church was filled with ankle deep water. I got a frantic phone call, "Mom! There's a river of water pouring out of the church! It's flooded!" I have to admit, even at that moment my mind went to the song, "There is a River". Even as I write this I'm not sure if it was poetry or hysterics. As I got the story from her I ran and got my car keys, Son J and out the door we flew.

Heading to the church just a few miles away every car in front of me was going about 15 miles slower than the speed limit. I think that's a hallmark in situations like this. But finally I got there, it's pouring rain and there's my bedraggled daughter out front of the church and sure enough, there's the river of water still pouring out the open front door. Son Th was there also, poor man! He had got Daughter L's call too, but he was home that day, in bed, doubled up with the stomach flu. But now, there my brave man was trying to stop the flood of water flowing on and on.

The first thing I heard was water rushing. Rushing everywhere around me. I peered in through the front door and water was cascading down from the ceiling just inside the door and the ceiling was coming away in places and hanging down. Looking toward the men's bathroom door I could see in just a little bit and what I saw was amazing. Again, water showering down and chunks of insulation and plaster everywhere. Quickly I turned away because Son Th was still trying to turn the water off at the water main. And now I'm starting to think about the electricity! Water and electricity do not mix and my daughter had just walked up to a building full of water AND electricity! Oh and by the way, I was now standing in that same water. But there was no place to not stand in water because I then noticed that around the entire church yard there was water. The water must have been flooding for some time, there was water out all the way into the neighbors' backyards! My brain was trying to comprehend all this and by this time Son J had taken off his shoes and socks and had rolled up his pants to wade out to the water main to help his brother figure out how to shut off the water. Finally a city worker pulled up in front of the church and helped turn off the main pipe.

Gradually the water slowed and the torrent from the ceiling lessened. Our church's heating and cooling unit uses water to heat and cool with. It's up in our attic. Last week we had the unit checked and I don't know still how or what happened up there, but the water was all coming from up in the attic of our sweet little church that to me now looked destroyed. At last, my husband pulled into the driveway and put on his boots, went into the church and turned off the power. We at least were all now safe from electrical shock. But all of a sudden there was a crash. A big chunk of the ceiling had fallen in! I remembered then that I had my phone that I could take pictures with and so I started taking pictures. Most of them are a little fuzzy because I was shaking with shock, cold and wetness. It was, of course, pouring rain outside still!

I had to leave to go to the library to work after that. It was so hard to drive away. My mind was filled with so many questions. How could this happen? What will we do now? Where will we have church? When can we be happy in our little building again? And then thought hit me; it's just the building. The building might be devastated, but our real church; the people, are safe and we are fine. All will be well.

Sidenote: Thank the Lord for small mercies. Both Sis. D and I were so happy to know that our precious nativity figures had been lovingly placed up on a table last Sunday night in preparation for the church sing. If not for that, our little baby Jesus would have been found floating around the building and we would have had to rename him Moses instead!