The Prodigal Son Parable in “F”

The Prodigal Son Parable in “F”

Feeling footloose and frisky, a feather-brained fellow forced his fond father to fork over the family finances. He flew far to foreign fields and frittered his fortune feasting fabulously with faithless friends.

Finally facing famine and fleeced by his fellows in folly, he found himself a feed-flinger in a filthy farmyard. Fairly famished he fain would have filled his frame with the foraged foods of the fodder fragments left by the filthy farmyard creatures.

‘Fooey’, he said, ‘My father’s flunkies fare far fancier,’ the frazzled fugitive found feverishly, frankly facing facts. Frustrated by failure and filled with foreboding he forthwith fled to his family.

Falling at his father’s feet, he floundered forlornly. ‘Father, I have flunked and fruitlessly forfeited family favour.’ But the faithful father, forestalling further flinching frantically flagged the flunkies. ‘Fetch forth the finest fatling and fix a feast.’

But the fugitive’s fault-finding frater frowned on the fickle forgiveness of the former folderol. His fury flashed. But fussing was futile, for the far-sighted father figured, such filial fidelity is fine, but what forbids fervent festivity?

The fugitive is found! “Unfurl the flags, with fanfares flaring! Let fun and frolic freely flow!” “Former failure is forgotten, folly is forsaken! And forgiveness forms the foundation for future fortitude.”

~ author unknown ~

Moose Visit

It has been warmer here that we expect for First-Month. It has been about zero to twenty below. It must have been warm enough for this moose to decide to come out and visit us. It was eating branches from the trees across the street from our house. We were standing right off our driveway in the road when we took these pictures. You may have to squint but the brown blob is the moose. I thought it was unique to have pictures with the children and moose at the same time but the moose looks further away than in real life. However I did not think it wise to get much closer for obvious reasons.   

Hawaii Wind = Early Melt

It is warming up fast thanks to Hawaii sharing it warm winds with us. From one extreme of -72 degrees below zero last week to + 32 degrees above this evening. That is a 100 degree fluctuation in less than one week. That is amazing! Here is a picture of the children outside to “see the warm”, we could even feel the occasional rain drops as it was sprinkling. The thermometer as you can see was reading +32. The snow has all melted off our steps and dripping off our roof.  It was all very exciting. Just wish it could last, but 2nd month can be very cold too, and we are not out of this winter yet. But it is nice to dream.

Frozen Sun Light

This morning the sun was pouring itself out yet again. To be sure it would be another (below) freezing day. “Sunny” in the winter here in frozen north guarantees that it will be beyond cold. As the sun light came sifting through the ice fog among the trees it made for some beautiful picture taking. Today it WARMED UP to -48 below ZERO! 

Frozen Fuel Lines

The last couple of weeks have been very cold and hard on all of us well as hard on our heating systems and vehicle. Most of the last 2 weeks have been about -60 to -65 degrees below ZERO.  Several times dipping past the -70 below mark. Yesterday it warmed up to a warm -50 below. Today we hit a high of -48 below, and we are glad it did so we could get propane delivered. They wont deliver propane when it get colder than -40, but they kept the truck in the shop to stay warm, then drove straight here to fill us up before the propane liquefied and they would be unable to pump it.

Our Heating Oil (diesel) has jelled up at least 4 times leaving us with out heat until we could get it running again. We had to run heat tape covered with foam pipe insulation down the full length of the fuel line to keep the fuel from jelling up. The heat tape is cool stuff, it is a wire that is a heating element. It is about 5 watts of electricity per foot. You strip the two wires and the braided wire twists and becomes you ground wire. You can cut it any length and cover one end and put a plug on the other, we wired ours directly to one end of a old extension cord.

Then using electrical tape you fasten the heat tape to the fuel line. It was so cold that the electrical tape kept breaking so Jason had to keep re-warming it under his arm to keep it from snapping, as you see him doing here.


Then you put the foam pipe insulation over the 3/8 fuel line and the heat tape. We used 3/4 inch insulation and it seemed to work good. The 1/2 inch may have been to small to go on smoothly in the severe cold. We put a little more electrical tape around the insulation to keep it secure.


It has been working good since we have done this. We do however have an extra five foot of heat tape wrapping around the fuel filter. We covered it with a piece of fiberglass insulation and taped it in place.

The Englisher

We have now moved on to the second book in this exciting series. Beverly Lewis has done a great job so far. The second book is off to a good start.
The Englisher is book 2 of Annie’s People. This will be our first book of the year 2009.

Our Children’s Thoughts On Children

Around the table the other day as we ate lunch, the subject of us having more children came up. Judah asked “if we have ten children, will they all use the same high chair that we used?” ” We hope so,” we replied. I then asked Judah “what would be fun about having ten children?” He had several good answers. Judah thought it would be fun to have another boy (he has been praying for a brother for some time now). He wanted to have more siblings to play wheel tag in the snow, to ride bikes to town with, and play cows and farming with. Some one to read books to. He also said, “it would be fun to have eight kids for the eight days of Hanukkah”. Then he said, “we should get a big school bus to ride to town in”. Serenity said she wanted nine siblings. She thought it would be great to play penguins with them. She says she enjoys changing diapers and clothes, and helping to feed the baby. Mercy Fire says she wants seven siblings. She wants to have more sisters and brothers to play doggies and bus driver with them when they are older. She also said “playing with them now too is good”. They all said they liked the idea of picking names and playing with the baby when it wakes in the morning.

When asked about why it would be sad for us not to have any more children, or what they would miss most about not having more siblings, Judah said he would miss feeding, seeing them grow and playing with them. He would be sad not seeing another baby growing up, until he was an adult and had children of his own. Serenity said she wouldn’t have as much fun with out them to play with. Mercy said she would miss changing babies, and younger kids clothes and diapers. They all seemed to agree that they would miss holding them and playing with them in the morning.

When Jason asked them what they thought would be sad for other children or what other children would miss out on if their parents only had one or two children. Judah said, “they would never get to know what sisters and brothers they could have had and missed seeing them grow up. They would miss out on learning how to change a diaper. And may never know what it is like to have a sister or brother if they had one and not the other”. Serenity commented, “they would be sad not having anybody else”. Mercy said, “They would miss out on changing diapers, and they wouldn’t have as many choices of people to play with”.

To often the “world” molds parents into thinking that children are bother and a hassle, and yet children that have not undergone the world’s programing still see children and babies as a blessing. They believe children are fun to play with, exciting to be around and a great joy to help take care of.

Below is a picture of Mercy Fire helping her youngest sister with a drink of water.

Whole Wheat Sugar Cookies

Yesterday we had a lot of fun making some “Whole Wheat Sugar Cookies”. There is something fun about the simplicity of using cookie cutters to make treats that are fun and yummy to eat. We made an egg wash to keep all the pretty sprinkles in place. Everyone got to fill their own cookie sheet full of their own creations. I altered my Mom’s recipe to use Whole Wheat, and included the recipe below for you. I think the subtle flavor of the lemon makes them taste perfect.

Sugar Cookie Recipe:

1 and 3/4 Cups Whole Wheat Flour

1/2 Tsp Baking Powder

1/2 Tsp Baking Soda

1/2 Tsp Salt

2/3 Cup Butter

1 Cup Sugar

1 Egg Beaten and Bruised

2 TBSP Milk

1 Tsp Vanilla Extract

1 Tsp Lemon Extract

Sift first four ingredients together if you want ( If your into that kind of thing, I just throw them together in a bowl )

Cream butter and sugar together.

Blend in egg, milk and flavorings.

Blend in dry ingredients.

Chill for 2 hours, works good back door step if you are in an Alaskan winter.

Roll with rolling pin 1/8 inch thick.

Cut into shapes.

Brush on egg wash (1 egg white beaten with a touch of water) then add sprinkles

Bake on cookie sheets ( I line mine with silicon backed parchment paper)

Cook in oven 10-12 minutes @ 375 F

Should render 5 dozen cookies (If you are using Keebler Elf sized cookie cutters)

Hanukkah 2008 ~ Day 8

Hanukkah is now over and it will be fun to look forward to next year to celebrate it again if YHWH wills (Blessed Be His Name).  Here are some more pictures of the last day (day 8). First there is a picture of Vision with a new Teddy Bear. There is a picture Serenity Rose putting the last paper flame on our paper menorah. Mercy Fire is pictured watching Serenity Rose gluing it on.

After lighting the menorah, the older kids all got new paper note tablets. One of there favorite things to do is to draw and color there own pictures. They were very excited. It is neat how something so simple is so exciting to them. There is the picture of Mam (Anna) Video taping the activities of the day. Also Vision was getting to drink water out of a sippy cup, a new thing for her.

We hope you all had a Blessed Hanukkah!

~Blessings~