Garden Update 6-29

This update started off happy, but we had a couple of set backs.

I like this close up of the dill in our garden, and a here is a good picture of Mercy-Fire and Jason. There is also a picture of Dat (Jason) cutting some 4 foot fencing in half to make a fence for the rabbits on two other beds we planted.

Our yellow zucchini was beginning to bear fruit, and the onions are still zipping along.

However we have been at war with the rabbits who have been eating everything in sight. They have even been eating things the rabbits here normally never touch including several tomato plants, my Shasta Daisies, and other misc flowers.

The rabbits haven’t breached the fence yet, but the frost we had the other night did. It looks like it killed of most of our yellow zucchini, and two of the tomato plants that were already hurt by the rabbits. You can also see below the zucchini row and the chomped on flowers that the rabbits ate too.

Fathers Day and Birthdays

Judah’s birthday was just before Fathers Day and Jason has his birthday just after it, so we had them both on Fathers Day. We had a nice roast and potato dinner, and Judah had fun with his presents. We had banana split cake for the birthday cake. It was good for something different.

Judah got a new Swiss Army Knife that he has not set down as of yet. Also he received some stuff for his toy train, and a drawing board, and a couple of wooden projects like a wooden “paint your own train”, and a bird feeder to assemble and paint. There was also a new afghan from Granny in Fairbanks. That is a long list for a little boy, well maybe he’s not so little any more now that he is 10! Wow hard to believe. What a blessing he is!

The Games Children Play

Philippians 4:8 (NKJV)

⁸ Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.

The above verse is the standard that every (Christian) parent is to use in judging all forms of media coming into the home. However, as parents we can not rightfully hold our children to a standard to which we do not keep our selves. Mathew 7:4 is true of parents too.

Matthew 7:4 (NKJV)

⁴ Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye?

So we need to judge ourselves first when planning to put our house in order. We need to be humble enough to let go of things we might feel attached to. Listen Closely to the leading of the Holy Spirit. If we are going to examine the movies, games, music, and other influences our children are impressed by, then we had better be free in those areas our selves. Having said all that…

I wanted to look at something we have been seeing more frequently in the culture today. It seems video games are in almost every home we know. Having grown up with the old Atari 2400, playing Pack Man and Frogger, we saw the first Nintendo come out when we were in high school. We played as often as we could. So it seems at first glance a little hypocritical to speak on this issue.  However times have changed and so have the games. During the 80’s something else was becoming big on the scene, Dungeons and Dragons.  Many Churches had speakers that talked about the evil of Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). In fact some ministries spoke more about all the evils they could find in D&D, back masking old Rock songs, than they did about the wonderful salvation we can know through Yeshua (Jesus). This was an off balance approach and turned off many who were on the edge, or already involved in these things. During this time many parents were just thankful that there kids were “only” playing video games. Today many people still have that thought with their youth. In fact many that play these video games are adults.

Looking back to our scripture we opened with in Philippians 4:8  It say we should meditate on these things— things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy— This is the standard we must judge all of our media choices by. End of debate! We can not argue by what others are doing. If we do, we justify our actions by the actions of the unjust… That is not sound thinking at all! Our actions, thoughts, and our entire being is to be governed by the words we find in the Bible.

Today many of the video games are “roll playing games akin to D&D. They use a computer in stead of rolling a die to determine outcomes, in a way they are like the “Choose Your Own Adventure” children’s books. Many will try to justify the video games they play or even D&D are not evil, as they justify them by many other things that are considered to be acceptable in our culture, as this person did in this following quote I found on the web-

D&D is a role playing game similar to Final Fantasy and other computer-based games, except that D&D is based upon rolling twenty-sided dice to determine spells, attacks, etc instead of a computer. It is dramatically more complex than playing Monopoly and allows for the players to create characters using their imaginations. Playing the game itself is basically interactive storytelling, is played by a small group of people and is much akin to the “Choose Your Own Adventure” children’s books. So are children’s books about knights fighting dragons evil? No. Is computer games about wizards fighting monsters/demons evil? No. So is a role playing game about knights and wizards who fight dragons/monsters/demons evil? No, absolutely not.

We live in a world where things are black and white, while our culture fights for shades of gray. There is a clear right and a wrong. Shades of gray come about when we take a little evil and try to justify it by the light of our culture. Often youth in churches are told to be strong and stand for what is right in the midst of their peers. They are told to not yield to peer pressure. Yet it is high time the adults heed their own words and not be afraid if we stick out like a sore thumb if need be. We as Christian people are all too often to worried about what people will think if we stand for something that is seen as different from what the CULTURE thinks. After all what would people think if we were to get rid of 99% of our movies, books and more? And goodness knows that it would be horrible if our children looked or played differently than the others. By now most people have heard the saying that the definition of insanity is doing the “SAME” thing over and over and over expecting a different result! But that is what the church world is doing with their youth. We are hoping for a different result, so we do things differently than what culture dictates.


Often when you make a stand like that it is the people in the church that can be most harsh (everyone else will just think your nuts). But we are not to judge ourselves by even those in the church, not even the pastor. There are many pastors who are playing these games too. We stopped by one pastors house, talking to his wife at the parsonage door we could see a violent video game being played, through a window of the church. His wife commented he was getting ready for a youth night. Is that all we can offer the youth of today? If so the world will win. The world has the latest and greatest while it markets all the video games, as we wait for the latest release. How have we come to think we need these sinful things to mold righteous youth? That is a faulty mold, and anything cast by it will bear the marks of its imperfections. Why not offer a gospel full of life truth and power? Because the pastor was to busy playing in puddles of sin himself rather than praying for his youth and reading the Word. We as parents can be guilty of the same thing if we make our children hold to standards higher than we are willing to keep.

There are only two sources of power in this world. God or the devil. Magic in any form in movies, books or video games has its roots in the works of the devil. Magic is an abomination. It is not to be used for our entertainment even if we make the pitiful excuse of telling a supposed christian story as in Narnia or Lord of the Rings. When we do the next generation tries to justify what it does by our actions and not by the Word of God, as it takes things one step further pushing the boundaries. Is using a little bit of magic ok to tell the story? Is a little manure in the brownie mix ok? No! The whole batch is tainted. In the same manner we heard the drum beat for many years telling us D&D was evil and many in the church believe it is so without argument. However many do not know why it is evil. In our opinion it is not so much that D&D is evil in its playing method, as it seems a poor tool to teach occult methods (as the encyclopedia is said to be better for that). The worst part of D&D is not teaching the occult but familiarizing and obsessing people with it. In the same way today’s video games are doing that very thing. Not only do they glorify the occult and things of the under world, they are full of murder and bloodshed. What happened to the standard of Philippians 4:8? There are many parents who would shudder at the thought of their children playing D&D, but they allow all kinds of video games, books, and movies in the house.

If your children are young then you have a great advantage of making these decisions before they are exposed. Even if the games were of good nature there is plenty of evidence to show how easy it is for these games to become an idol separating the  child’s heart from the parents, and more importantly from YHWH (Father God). It would be best to never allow it from the beginning, then there is never the fight to find boundaries. I would strongly suggest reading the book “Keeping Your Child’s Heart” by the “Maxwells” (from Titus2.com).

America’s Revival~ email

~~This was in my email in box today thought I would forward it on to you.~~

Sign the ‘Pledge for America’s Revival’!

Join with other patriotic, God-fearing Americans in taking

back our country from the socialist Obama administration!

The Pledge imposes no obligation to support a particular candidate,

political party, or organization.  It’s simply a common-sense

commitment to return America to its founding principles,

through reliance on God—much like the pledge the signers

of the Declaration of Independence made to each other.

Read and sign the Pledge at

www.AmericasRevival.com

“They shall mount up with wings as eagles.” —Isaiah 40:31

Peanut Butter Families Stick Together

We are now reading~

Peanut Butter Families Stick Together

Family life can be smooth or crunchy

By~ Bill Butterworth

Very funny book, even if it is a little dated (mid 80’s). The stories Bill Butterworth tells are often so classic, that we as parents can relate to it in any decade. You can still find a cheap used copy of this book on HERE on Amazon, and it will be well worth the laugh to get a copy. The introduction is by Chuck Swindoll.

~Blessings~

Breastfeeding Room

This is a picture I came across on the web and it made me laugh so I saved it to share with you. There seems to be something lost in the translation VS the picture.

This would have been a better choice……

Vacation Bibile School

We went to a local church for a week of evenings, for Vacation Bible School (VBS). The children had a great time. They had lots of good stuff for the children to do after they sang a lot of fun songs and heard a Bible story/lesson. They had bubbles mixed up that made BIG bubbles. They said the bubbles had syrup in them, and that is was what made the bubbles be able to get so big.

They also had a keyboard, kites, and ice cream or “otter pops”. The wind was not the most helpful for kite flying, but we did manage to get a couple of them up for a few minutes. Mostly the children had fun running to keep the kites up in the air.

On the one night it rained so they had a picnic inside, and planted a potted flower to take home.

They also played a game, where you have to roll a ball down a board into a coffee can. Mercy liked that game a bunch. I think the favorite thing to do was getting messy with an ice cream cone. (See Destiny below)

Happy Fathers Day

Happy Fathers Day to all the fathers out there, including our own.

Our Garden Part 3

As we finished our planting in the fenced area, we were able to start planting in the tires and other areas that still needed more dirt work and fixing up. Jason and the children planted the tomatoes on one side of the garden. They had a fun time helping.

Anna started working on planting the flowers along the back and the side where the entrance is to the garden. Jason is getting ready to start making the gate for that opening. Maybe this week we might get it done.
There is a picture of Judah wearing his John Deere shirt, too. He loves that shirt. Also a picture of the sprinkler going on the garden, it was nice to not carry buckets of water as Jason got the hose connected and plumbed in.
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Our Garden Part 2

After we got the “T post” in place we set our fencing in place. Last year we only had our three raised garden beds and when the rabbits found them we lost a lot of our plants. So this year we hope to keep them out. We also hope to get the electric fence set in place to keep the moose out too. One more thing to add to the “to do list”.

Jason and Judah removed two tires from one side and stacked them on the tires next to them making an entrance area. Jason then took two long pieces of 6×6’s and Judah helped him put them into place to make a couple of steps that help hold the dirt in place and helps to make for a nice entrance.

Then at long last we finally got to do some planting. Judah helped take some of these pictures while we were planting. We planted three rows of potatoes and all of our other plants in our new fenced area of the garden. We soon found that we already needed more room. Our plan to leisurely get the other half of the garden ready was disturbed by this reality. We had to get the rota tiller out again, and plow in several more rows so we could get the rest of the potato starts in the ground. Rabbits don’t seem to like the potato plants so they would be safe out side the fenced area.

Next to the potatoes that are in the fenced area, we planted a row of onion sets. The children had a lot of fun planting them and they got great satisfaction that the onions are already above ground. It only took 1-1.5 weeks to see the green coming up from the ground.
Next you can see all the other plants and things finally coming together.