Do Not Pass Me By

I cannot believe I found this! I LOVE THIS SONG!!! I've never seen the video before, but the song is so much fun! The traditional version of "Do Not Pass Me By" is in our hymnal at church.... every time I see it, I hear this song in my head! Awesome! I esp. like his rap about "They took me to the water, I went down in his name, I repented of all my sins, and I haven't been the same. My feet started to shake and my legs had to run, his love took my heart and his Spirit took my tongue." Sounds to me like this guy's got the Holy Ghost!!!!! lol!! I was trying to type this and my fingers got on the wrong keys, .... op[iurlknerklmngzl; My fingers were speaking in tongues!!! Enjoy!

Final thoughts in 2007

Hello and Happy New Year to all! I find myself pondering tonight. My sons wanted to watch the ball drop in NYC on the tube, so I turned it on at 11:59:32, just in time to see the new year ring in here in America. Of course, we are all familiar with the chaos and pandemonium of that scene. (sudden random thought... imagine if the Holy Ghost were to descend upon Times Square at midnight on New Year's Eve?????) Anyway, I think my boys are pretty oblivious to all that was occuring... they were watching the fire works explode and the confetti fall, etc. They didn't seem to notice the partying and revelry spirit at work. I praise and thank God that our children are growing up knowing that on New Year's Eve, we go to church, and focus on all that God has done in the past year, and anticipate all He will do in the upcoming year. Our children think that New Year's Eve is about GOD..... AND IT SHOULD BE!!! Well..... they also think New Year's Eve is about food!! LOL! You should see the spread we have for pot luck after the service is over!

Anyway, speaking of food, that is a perfect segue into what I want to blog about tonight. Lack of food, that is. Beginning Jan. 6th, 2008, we will be joining the United Pentecostal Church International in 30 days of focused prayer and fasting. Our pastor has gone a step further. We are doing a "self-discipline" fast. Here is the agonizingly painful list:

Self Discipline Fast

1. To fast food for at least one day per week, for a 24 hour period.
2. To abstain from the internet, except for work-related purposes.
3. To only read books or magazines which contribute to my spirituality.
4. To abstain from TV, movies, DVDs, and any other media influence, and also withhold them from my children.
5. To read the four Gospels and the Book of Acts (in all our free time).
6. To make at least one of the sponsored church prayer meetings each week.
7. To pray at least once a day for a minimum of 30 minutes.
8. To perform one act of Christian service, per week, that nobody knows about except for the one who is on the receiving end.
9. To verbally share my faith in Jesus Christ to at least one person, per week, who hasn't heard it from me before.
10. To make every scheduled service, including mid-week Bible study, and be there before the start of the service time.
11. To teach a Bible study to my family or a friend.

So there you have it. Back in May of 2007, I did my very first 30 day computer fast. Read about it right here. Now, I am being called to try again. It may kill me (it would be GOOD if it killed the carnal man within!!!). But I know that this will bring incredible results in my walk with the Lord. So beginning Jan. 6th, pray for me!!!! I'll see you back on Feb. 6th! God bless you all!

Hooray! Number 400!!!

Ladies and gentlemen.... this is the last post of the year 2007, and it is also my 400th post on the Northern Apostolic Mom blogsite! Woo hoo!

Yesterday, I attempted to post some pictures of my gorgeous niece Elana, who is now walking and talking and just generally being adorable, but Blogger.com was being eternally difficult about it , and the pictures just would NOT post... well... HERE THEY ARE!



How adorable is that little baby????

Also, I would like to tell you that my husband and my sons have testosterone galore, and the result is this amazing car rollercoaster in my living room, over 5 feet tall, and fully operational!


I took a short video of them running it for the first time (ar ar ar... Tim Allen grunt), and tried to upload it to you tube so my in-laws, who bought it for them, could see it for themselves. But for some reason, it won't upload. Just my luck. Oh well. The pictures will have to suffice!

That is all for now. Got to go make some amazing Rotel cheese dip for watch night service this evening... that stuff ROCKS!!!!!!! Love to all.. see you in 2008!

"Catch up" Christmas

Well! Now that we are back at home, we had some "catch-up" Christmas to accomplish with the rest of the family. We began last night (Sat.) at my brother's house. My mom and Ray were here from Florida, and she made an amazing turkey dinner last night! We made it a combination Christmas and birthday celebration, as my sweet niece Laura turns 9 on New Year's Day.



Tonight, we had Christmas with Grammie Julie and Grampa Jack. We had delicious lasagne, and a few presents to exchange. Here are a few pictures....

The most hilarious gift I received tonight was totally unexpected. You should read the end of this post in August to refresh your memory first. I opened my package and it was a LOON that makes that sleep shattering sound ALL NIGHT LONG when you're trying to sleep! Here is a picture of my reaction....

(Time passes... it's been at least an hour since the loon pictures.... )

ARGH!!!! I have been trying for well over an hour to upload pictures of my gorgeous niece Elana, who is walking and talking and just generally adorable.... BUT BLOGGER IS BEING TOTALLY FRUSTRATING! I cannot get them to upload... even one at a time. Grrrrrrr...... Perhaps another day. I'm too tired to argue with a computer tonight. Thank you for sharing a couple minutes of your day with me. God bless you all!

No place like home!

There's no place like home, there's no place like home.....
Our week in Maryland was nothing short of heavenly, but afer 11 hours in the car yesterday, it was even MORE heavenly to get out of the car and sleep in our own beds! I love visiting our fabulous family in MD, it's just the drive I could do without! LOL!

We unpacked the truck (with much added drama because Nick our drama king twisted his ankle and proceeded to make enough noise to be heard all the way in Maryland). Then Nick decided he wanted to build the K'nex rollercoaster thing they got for Christmas (which has 1, 118 pieces!)..... at 9 pm, after an 11 hour drive!!!! The answer was NO, the response was a temper tantrum. (pulling my hair out of my head....) I promptly put him to bed, where he belonged. I had a killer headache anyway... so I was ALL DONE with that atttitude before it even started!

Anyway, here is a picture of Dad helping to build it this morning (sorry... cell phone camera pics really aren't the greatest).
(picture removed at hubby's request)
This afternoon, we are going to my brother's house, because my mom and Ray are still here from Florida, and we are having a turkey dinner with them. I can't wait to see them!

Time for me to start unpacking.... we just crashed in bed last night and left the unpacking for today. At least all the laundry is clean... can just move it from the bags to the dressers. YAY! Talk to you all later!

Approaching landmark

So.... this is post number 396 on the Northern Apostolic Mom blog. Four more, and I will reach the landmark of

400 posts

(ooooo, she can do the math.....). I was thinking.... what in the world have I talked about in 400 posts that has been of benefit to the general reading public? I began with intentions of making this a very spiritual corner of the web. It has been sort of two-fold... some spiritual application, and more than some family news. I do seem to have strayed from my original intent a bit. But I am not upset about that. I like what I have posted here for the most part. Some of it is boring to anyone outside of family and friends that don't know us. But I have definitely posted some heavy spiritual material here as well. I have given Bible studies, linked to Bible studies, posed questions that make you consider what you really believe and why.... and even challenged myself a time or two. Have I made a difference? You be the judge. If ONE LIFE is changed for the better (i.e. pointed someone to Jesus Christ) because I have created this little (not so little anymore) blog, then it was totally worth it. How cool would it be to get to heaven and have someone from Canada come to me and say, "I read a Bible study on your blog, checked out some preaching you linked to, and visited a church because of it, and here I am in heaven, because of you!!!! (Not really... it's because of Jesus Christ and his mercy and grace). Really, that would be so cool! Moses would say, "What's a blog????" LOL!

The other thing I am thinking now is that this blog is very lengthy... but is a written (and pictoral) record of my life as a Christian mom. I would love to have this in book form. But the thought of how much printer ink and paper that would take is alarming! But how cool would it be???? Hey, folks at Blogger.com ....... is there any way to make that happen? Is there like, a function, on your site that we can click on to make this blog a physical reality, instead of a virtual one? Just wondering..... If you have nothing to do with your time (LOL!!!!), you can browse back through this blog all the way back to Nov. 2004 and see what my life has been about these past 3 years. It's like a little time warp! Enjoy!

hanging around

Today has been a very peaceful day. Matt, Brianna, and Raven are back in Texas safe and sound. Al and Winnie both took today off (yay!!!!!), so Al, Jason, and the boys are at the swimming pool at the South Germantown rec dept. Winnie and I had such a wonderful time together, laughing, getting ourselves into "situations" involving the brand new dryer, and talking about our wonderful, merciful, gracious Savior, Jesus Christ. I am getting the bulk of our laundry done here so I don't have to spend $10 in quarters to do it at home. This way I can go home, and unpack the clothes directly to the dresser drawers. THAT is SWEET! Tonight we will have a nice quiet dinner here at the house with Al and Win, and pack up the truck for the drive home tomorrow. I kind of hate to be leaving, but it has been a fantastic time with our family! Next year, with any luck, Al and Win will be coming to Vermont for Christmas.... we'll see what the Lord has in mind.

Also, I've been online looking at the prices of different digital cameras, as ours has apparently given up the ghost. Hmmmm.... not going to be cheap to replace.... but my blog is going to suffer terribly without the pictures! *sniff*. Yes, I'm whining. We'll see. For now you will get the occasional cell phone camera picture, but they are not that good, and kind of expensive to be emailing to my computer. So that will only be on rare exciting occasions. Perhaps this will force me to become a better writer! If I don't want people to stop visiting my blog, I must become a more powerful writer to make up for the lack of visuals. *sigh*

Time to fold more laundry. Goodbye to all until we get home to Vermont! HA! It is snowing in VT right now, and I am not there! YES!!!!!!!! NO SNOW IN MARYLAND!!!!! I'm not excited to go home to snow......