Happy Birthday to Lew

We had dinosaur cake a la Grammy a couple weeks early.

P

Pretty much the usual crew for that event--

except Great-Grandpa Riches from Washington was standing in for Grandad.

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We saved the wet and wild fun for the exact day of his birth.  

Friends from church helped make the water balloons and giant slip-n-slide extra fun!

We're glad you're six, Lewis!

A Satirical Mirror . . .

. . . for one branch of American Christianity

I have no idea whence the makers of this trailer for the movie Sunday's Comin' hail, but it's so accurate, it really doesn't matter too much.  Thankfully, this represents just one segment of the evangelical church in our country, and whether this exact shoe fits or not, it's a great reminder that a lot of good can come from learning to laugh at ourselves.

HT: Amy of Humble Musings fame

Parenting with Joy

Peter Leithart wrote an excellent article for Credenda Agenda:

Joyful Parenting

Joy is prominently placed in Paul’s list of the fruits of the Spirit, second only to love (Galatians 5:22-23).  If Christian homes are little outposts of the new Eden, green with the fruits of the Spirit, we should expect joy to be one of the main crops.  Joy should be the dominant tone of a Christian home.  Often it isn’t, and that’s hardly surprising.  After all, children are time-consuming, frustrating, demanding.  Children can be a nuisance.

Of course, he doesn't end things there.  The piece is a helpful reminder of what all Christian parents already know . . . but always need to hear again.

Peanut Butter Crunch Bars: A Junior-Chef-Friendly Sweet Treat

Ian and Anna both love to whip out this no-bake dessert---and Lewis keeps asking us to let him do it.  The rest of us are just glad to finally have homemade dessert on hand more often! 

Peanut Butter Crunch Bars

1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. butter
16 oz peanut butter
3 c. bran flake cereal (though grape nuts work pretty well, too!)

chocolate chips to taste (We prefer the bittersweet and do roughly 8 oz per recipe.)

Melt butter.  Mix in peanut butter and sugar; then stir in cereal.  Spread evenly into a 9x13 pan.  Melt chocolate chips over low heat, and spread evenly over bars.  Refrigerate to cool.  Cut into bars. 

These are also great crumbled and stirred into ice cream, and I'm sure there are lots of other creative applications for this recipe yet to be discovered!

Excellent Stuff at Femina

Mrs. Wilson has some great things up over at her blog.  Her Mother's Day exhortation is just what we American women need to hear--our role model should not be the pansy but the prairie muffin:
Women of Valor

Proverbs 12:4 says that an excellent wife is the crown of her husband.  Literally, (my New Geneva Study Bible says) this is a “wife of valor.”  A valiant wife is a crown to her husband.
This is interesting because so often we think of femininity as something soft and sweet (not that it shouldn’t have those aspects). But a godly femininity includes  fearlessness and strength. A manly courage. It has a back bone. It will stand up for what is right, even when no one else will do it.

This post of application excerpts from her husband's sermon last week is also very apropo.  We start by scrupulously showing love to those closest to us:
Romans 13:8 and owing nothing but love

All these things are ways in which we love one another. Love isn’t a sticky, gooey feeling. Love obeys God’s commands. Love replaces the broken object, love pays the bill, love returns the borrowed item.

Thomas Watson said that there are three things Christians tend to forget: their faults, their friends, and their instructions.

More Dentistry

 

Lewis's first baby tooth gone.  Ian's umpteenth tooth extraction.  Here's hoping Ian's hands were cleaner than Lewis's hand looks!