Remembering

Okay, so no new pictures because we broke the camera.... I'm sorry, I broke the camera. Anyway, I thought I'd go back and post some old pictures just for memories sake. I just can't believe Caleb's almost 2! And I can't believe Jeremy is in his last year of pharmacy school- Yay!!!. It's funny, when you start out on something new it just seems like the "end" is forever away but in reality it gets here a lot quicker than you expected. And when the end does finally arrive, you realize you're now at the start of something new. That's the perfect way to describe pregnancy. Those 9 months seem like forever and well, when the "end" arrives, you realize the real work has begun! These are some pictures my brother took when Caleb was 6 months old.

In the one above, Caleb so reminds me of the Rugrats Baby.

The Trinity, Parts 2 and 3

Two weeks ago I blogged about our pastor Rob Morgan's first sermon in his series on the Trinity. He has continued the series with Parts 2 and 3 the previous two Sundays. Pastor Morgan resumed his discussion from the previous week with Part 2. His premise for the sermon noted that as we are created by and in the image of the Triune God, we are created for communion, fellowship, communication and community. He talked about how the Trinity is revealed progressively in scripture, which is quite obvious if you think about it, but something I had never thought much about previously. He noted that the doctrine of the Trinity is implicit in the Old Testament (not stated plainly). He referred to these scriptures as "Us" passages (Genesis 1:26, 3:22, 11:6-7 and Isaiah 6:8) and also noted scriptural references to "interesting Triads" (Isaiah 6 and Numbers 6:24-26). He also noted in Isaiah 61 that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are distinct. His sermon continued by noting how the doctrine of the Trinity is more fully revealed in the New Testament. Scriptural references included the Baptism of Christ (where all three are present and distinct: Father, Son and Holy Spirit), The Great Commission, John 14:15 and 1 Peter 1:1-2. Pastor Morgan concluded Part 2 by referring to his initial point that we are created for communion, fellowship, communication and community with other people and with God as seen through the communion, fellowship, communication and community that is seen in the Trinity. This is readily noted in John 16:32, when Jesus is about to be deserted by his disciples but He says he will not be alone for My Father is with Me. WOW! What a revelation to me- I don't know why this struck me so excitedly, as I have read and heard this scripture numerous time before, but to think that there is such community, communication and belonging amongst God. I mean I know somewhere previously that the thought ran through my brain that there is a relationship between God the Father and God the Son, but this time and even now it is sitting there- being weighed between the neurons. Sometimes it seems that we can hear scripture over and over and not really pay attention, but this time and even more so now, I feel like it is sinking into my bones. He also referred to 2 Timothy 4:16 & 17 where Paul is imprisoned in Rome and has been deserted by his friends but states the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength. WOW again. Pastor Morgan also noted that there was only one moment when the communication lines within the Trinity where shutdown- do you know that moment? It brought tears to my eyes thinking of it as Pastor Morgan talked about it, because it made me realize just how much God loves me. It was on the cross when Jesus took upon the sins that separate us all from God and He was therfore separated from God Himself..... do you remember His cry..... My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Pastor Morgan stated it this way, "It was as if He had to unplug Himself to plug us in."

If you have read this and I have confused you or you just can't understand my ramblings, please read or view the sermons

I had hoped to post about Part 3 as well but a review of Part 2 was enough for me for tonight.

Fruits of the labor, Psalm 128:2

This has been a great year to start gardening, according to my parents anyway, as this has been my and Jeremy's first year to do anything besides flowers and herbs. This is just some of the variety of stuff we've harvested. The peaches are from two 3-year old trees Mom gave Dad for Father's day and they have been loaded down, literally so much so that one of the major branches broke (so unfortunately Dad said they wouldn't be this bountiful next year). We've made peach butter and preach freezer jam and we're planning to can some when they ripen up a little more. Yum yum, delicious!My nephew Radnor is turning 2 this week and his party was this past Saturday. Caleb thought it was a blast getting to play with someone else's toys and Radnor obviously enjoyed the chainsaw cake his mother made. It was finger-licking good. What a cutie- Happy Birthday Rad!

Baby Shower Cake

This is a cake I made for my friend Kat's baby shower. She is due next month and is having a baby boy and they are naming him Griffin. I was overall pretty pleased with the end result as far as taste and presentation, but I need to work on my icing and decorating skills. I wish I had been able to smooth the sides better and I wish I had rounded out the beading around the top and bottom layers of the cake. Actually, I wish I had just asked my sister-in-law Karina to decorate it- her cakes are so cute and so much more professional looking than mine! She did offer me a great tip on smoothing out the beading, so I'll use that next time. The shower was really fun and I got to meet some of Kat's friends that live around this area. Kat got lots of cute gifts for the baby too and we played a great game of "Name that baby food." Congratulations Kat and Andrew!

The Trinity

Our pastor Rob Morgan (of The Donelson Fellowship) has begun a series on the Trinity, which is something I have always believed, but my understanding of it has always been poor to say the least. It is one of those things I would find difficult to articulate or explain to someone. For lack of better teaching, or perhaps for lack of better comprehension on my part, I have thought of the Trinity as God in 3 persons as I am one person but I am a granddaughter, sister and cousin (therefore God is one God, but has the role of Father, Son and Holy Spirit). For some reason, however, that analogy has never completely set well with me- it was far too simplistic. Pastor Morgan did present this in fact to be false and his sermon was by far the best I have ever heard related to the subject. He basically made three points which I will state briefly:
1. The Trinity is the Most Unique Aspect of Christian Truth
2. The Trinity is Easy to State
There is One God who eternally exists in Three Persons- Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
3. The Trinity is Impossible to Understand

You definitely don't get the benefit of the whole sermon here as the meat of it was in his discussion, but I am hoping to entice those of you interested or curious on the subject to read or view the sermon from the following links. I think you will find it worthy of your time and effort. Even those of you not Baptist might enjoy it! I am hoping part of his discussion in future sermons in this series will shed light on the relationship among the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as another reason this subject is so intriguing to me is because I read The Shack last month and while the book is controversial to some, for me it opened up a whole new understanding of the Trinity.

Here is a link to read it and then also one to view it

Caleb's artwork

Caleb has started coloring this past week so I wanted to post a couple of his "drawings." We actually bought him the bigger, triangular shaped crayons and they are much easier for him to use than the skinny round ones. I was really excited when he colored these because he did them completely by himself. I didn't even have to start him on the page as I had on previous attempts. He is so funny because he is good for one drawing and as much as I try to get him to do a second one, he's like, "Mom, one was enough, be happy and let me down now." And he likes to use every color at least once, which I think is good for some reason. On another note, I was recently left in charge of my parent's garden, of which Jeremy and I have a small section of that contains corn, peas, green beans, squash and cucumbers. Well the week my parents were gone and I was in charge was quite the harvest week- for both our garden and my parents. Thankfully Pat is here with us and she has shelled so many peas I am sure she is quite tired of them (although she shelled some more tonight). Well, anyway, I had so many cucumbers they were overtaking our kitchen so I decided to try pickling them. I have previously made and canned peach butter with the help of my mom, but I was nervous to try something on my own. It was a pretty involved process, though not one of those recipes that takes days and days. The end result was 16 pints of bread and butter pickles and a kitchen that smelled of vinegar and strong spices. We haven't tried the pickles yet, so our fingers are crossed that it wasn't a huge waste of time. After the pickles I decided to try relish because I found a great deal on red peppers and onions at the local Kroger. We've actually opened a can of it and while it's okay, it is nothing compared to what my mom and aunts have previously made and shared with me. Now, after saying all of that, let me take a moment to say to my mom, my sister and my aunts and my friend's parents (James and Mary Cox), thank you for all of your previous gifts in the form of home-canned foods. While I enjoyed them all, I was clueless to the time and effort involved in making them. Any future gifts will be treated as the treasures they truly are.