Now we are Six children

Since Mum has released us to share the good news, here it is:

Unconformed isn't the only one having an addition to her family. We are too!!! We shall no longer be five. We shall now be six.

When I was One,
I had just begun.

When I was Two,
I was nearly new.

When I was Three,
I was hardly me.

When I was Four,
I was not much more.

When I was Five,
I was just alive.

But now I am Six, I'm as clever as clever.
So I think I'll be six now for ever and ever.

A. A. Milne

That is, unless God gives us another one.

Kirk and Jo

Memorizing Psalm 5

These are the verses from Psalm 5 for this week.





From Psalm 5:

Monday
v.1 - "Give ear to my words, O LORD, Consider my meditation."

Tuesday
v.2 - "Give heed to the voice of my cry, My King and my God, For to You I will pray."

Wednesday
v.3 - "My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD; In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up."

Thursday
v.4 - "For You are not a God who taked pleasure in wickedness, Nor shall evil dwell with You."

Friday
v.5 - "The boastful shall not stand in Your sight; You hate all workers of iniquity."

Saturday
v.6 - "You shall destroy those who speak falsehood; The LORD abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man."

Happy Mother's Day Mum!!!!!!
We all love you much.
Love, your adoring children,
Kirk, Jo, Elly, Joel, and Annie

The Quote of Wednesday

Maximum - Minimum Value Existence Theorem:

If f is continuous on the closed interval [a,b], then f has a maximum value M and a minimum value m on the interval [a,b].


Ok, so I was studying a lot of math. In fact I've just gotten over my nervous energy high from my AP exam. I suppose you all want something you can understand. Well, I'm too tired to find something, so you'll have to wait 'till next week. Untill then you can pull out your calculus books and look this theorem up.

Psalm 66 - Memorization

Next week I'll be starting Psalm 5, but for this week I'm going to post the whole of Psalm 66. It solidifies the verses more firmly in one's head if you write them out a couple of times from memory.

Psalm 66

To the chief musician. A song. A psalm.
"Make a joyful shout to God, all the earth!
Sing out the honor of His name; Make His praise glorious.
Say to God,'How awesome are Your works!
Through the greatness of Your power
Your enemies shall submit themselves to You.
All the earth shall worship You
And sing praises to You;
They shall sing praises to Your name.' Selah

"Come and see the works of God;
He is awesome in His doing toward the sons of men.
He turned the sea into dry land;
They went through the river on foot.
There we will rejoice in Him.
He rules by His power forever;
His eyes observe the nations;
Do not let the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah

"Oh, bless our God, all you peoples!
And make the voice of His praise to be heard.
Who keeps our soul among the living
And does not allow our feet to be moved.
For You, O God, have tested us;
You have refined us as silver is refined.
You have brought us into the net;
You laid affliction on our backs.
You have men to ride over our heads;
We went through fire and through water;
But You brought us out to rich fulfillment.

"I will go into Your house with burnt offerings;
I will pay You my vows,
Which my lips have uttered
And my mouth has spoken when I was in trouble.
I will offer You burnt sacrifices of fat animals,
With the sweet aroma of rams;
I will offer bulls with goats. Selah

"Come and hear, all you who fear God,
And I will declare what He has done for my soul.
I cried to Him with my mouth,
And He was extolled with my tongue.
If I regard iniquity in my heart,
The Lord will not hear.
But certainly God has heard me;
He has attended to the voice of my prayer.

"Blessed be God,
Who has not turned away my prayer,
Nor His mercy from me!"

Binding of the Blade

Yes! It's out! The third book is out!
Shadows of the Deep, the third in the Binding of the Blade series is out. And a fourth is to come in eleven months, according to the Jollyblogger.
We've got four anxious readers in our family, so we'll be getting two copies.
Beyond the Summerland is the first in this series. Jo and I actually read the second book first, but you should really start with this one. There are just enough strange names to let you know you are reading of some other world, but not so much as to leave you hopelessly lost. It is serious and exciting with out the intensity of The Lord of the Rings (my eight year old brother has read both books).
Bringer of Storms is the second book. This one switches alot in viewpoint, but it is pretty clear when it happens (unlike some books I've read).
So as I can't think what else to say, I'll let Jo post her two cents.

The Quote of Wednesday

Today's quote comes from John Piper's book Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die from chapter 5, page 29.

"I have heard it said, 'God didn't die for frogs. So he was responding to our value as humans.' This turns grace on its head. We are worse off than frogs. They have not sinned. They have not rebelled and treated God with the contempt of being inconsequential in their lives. God did not have to die for frogs. They aren't bad enough. We are. Our debt is so great, only a divine sacrifice could pay it.
There is only one explanation for God's sacrifice for us. It is not us. It is 'the riches of his grace' (Ephesians 1:7). It is all free. It is not a response to our worth. It is the overflow of his infinite worth. In fact, that is what divine love is in the end: a passion to enthrall undeserving sinners, at great cost, with what will make us supremely happy forever, namely, his infinite beauty."

Memorizing Psalm 66

I guess I'll start right where I left off, since I haven't been memorizing this past week. So this is this week's set.

Psalm 66:

Monday
v.16 - "Come and hear, all you who fear God, And I will declare what He has done for my soul."

Tuesday
v.17 - "I cried to Him with my mouth, And He was extolled with my tongue."

Wednesday
v.18 - "If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear."

Thursday
v.19 - "But certianly God has heard me; He has attended to the voice of my prayer."

Friday
v.20 - "Blessed be God, Who has not turned away my prayer, Nor His mercy from me!"

And that is the end of Psalm 66. I will be thinking of another psalm to begin memorizing.

Cheesecake

A photograph of cheesecake

One of our favorite cheesecake recipes is Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheescake. I made this for Dad's birthday.


Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake

Begin first with the crust.

Crust

9 Graham crackers
1/4 c. of confectioners' sugar
4-5 tbsp. of melted margarine or butter

Put three graham crackers into a sealable bag. Crush them with a rolling pin or have your sister walk all over them. When they are sufficiently crunched, pour the crumbs into a medium-sized bowl.
Stir in the sugar.
Pour the melted butter all over the crumbs. Mix all the butter into the crumbs. Grab a handful of crumbs from the bowl. If they stick together, the crust is done; if they don't stick together, add more butter.
When the crust is ready, press it into a 9-inch springform pan. Press the bottom flat and push the crust up the sides. Don't expect it to reach the top of the pan.

Now you can move on to the filling.

Filling

2 8oz. packages of cream cheese or nufchatel cheese
1 14oz. can of sweetened condensed milk
4 eggs
2 tsp. of vanilla extract

In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese until it is soft and fluffy. Slowly pour in the condensed milk while still beating the cream cheese. Add the eggs one by one. Add the vanilla last.
When the batter is smooth and completely mixed, pour a little less than half of it into a medium-sized bowl.
Now melt:

1 c. chocolate chips or 2 1oz. baking squares
1/2 c. peanut butter

Pour the chocolate into the large bowl of batter and stir immediately. Then pour the peanut butter into the smaller bowl of batter and stir.
Pour the chocolate batter into the springform pan. Fold the peanut butter batter in the middle. Swirl the top with a knife.
Bake in a preheated oven at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for 65 minutes or until it is set. Cool the cake.
Store in the refrigerator if you are going to eat it soon, if not wrap in aluminum foil and freeze. Thaw it by taking it out and leaving it in the refrigerator for a couple hours.

Please feel free to experiment with this recipe and come up with your own variations.

Our 50th Post

This is our 50th post.
Hmm, that is very little for all the time we have had this blog, but we hope to increase that number soon. In fact, as soon as we get our act together and write down all those thought that are rolling around in our heads, we shall soon outstrip this small number.
So, by God's grace, we shall continue until we come to the hundreth post.


Blessings,
Kirk and Jo

Yesterday, I meant to explain why there had been next to nothing posted last week, but a catastrophe occured and delayed me once again.
The verse we leaned on most heavily yesterday was this:

"And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope." ~Romans 5:3-4

Actually it wasn't all that bad. Our washing machine just overflowed and flooded the laundry room and half the kitchen and leaked down into the basement right over the financial records. So we pulled out rags and sponges and mops and cleaned the kitchen floor first. Then we pulled out the stuff from the basement and left in the sun and wind to dry. Nothing was ruined by the grace of God. But we certainly learned perseverance. I was so tired at the end of the day, that I was singing every word or phrase that was spoken or thought (ask Jo what that means). After dealing with an ant invasion in our pantry, we scrambled to get dinner 'cause Mum had a Bible study she had to get to. I think that explains the delay of the explantion.

What I was going to write yesterday, was this: All last week, we've had dreadful cold things (the kind that start as allergies but then get worse), plus three of my siblings had to take their New-York-required-achievment tests.

In conclusion, praise God in all your circumstances and remember that He is in control and keep an eye on your washing machine.

HE'S ALIVE!! HE'S ALIVE!!!!

We pray that you all have blessed day celebrating the resurrection of our Lord.
The Two Sisters

Friday Vocabulary - Shcwop

This weeks vocabulary word is shcwop. Now I bet you never heard of that word before. I hadn't either until recently when Kirk told me about it. Shcwop basically means to grab someone hard and kiss them. I'll see if I can get a picture of it later.
So anyway, thats what shcwop means.

The Quote of Wednesday

"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disapoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now recieved the reconcilation." Romans 5:1-11

Memorizing Psalm 66

Here is this week's set.


From Psalm 66:

Wednesday
v.12 - "You have caused men to ride over our heads; We went through fire and through water; But You brought us out to rich fulfillment."

Thursday
v.13 - "I will go into Your house with burnt offerings; I will pay You my vows,"

Friday
v.14 - "Which my lips have uttered And my mouth has spoken when I was in trouble."

Saturday
v.15 - "I will offer You burnt sacrifices of fat animals, With the sweet aroma of rams; I will offer bulls with goats. Selah"

Friday Vocabulary - Contumacious

This weeks word, as you can see by the title, is contumacious. Well, actually, the word itself is not contumacious. I mean the word is contumacious but it's not acting contumacious. Contumacious is the word I'm going to define. So, now we will get to business.
If you are insubordinate, rebellious, disobedient and willfully resisting authority, then you are contumacious. Children are usually contumacious around two years of age. I know I certainly was. In fact, I was contumacious until I became a christian.
So, there you have it. The definition of contumacious. See you later.

The Quote of Wednesday

Our hope:

"Well Faithful, thou hast faithfully profest
Unto thy Lord, with whom thou shalt be blest,
When faithless ones, with all their vain delight,
Are crying out under their hellish plight.
Sing, Faithful, sing, and let thy name survive;
For though they kill'd thee, thou art yet alive."

From Pilgims Progress by John Bunyan; the song of Christian about Faithful after he escaped from Vanity Fair.

Memorizing Psalm 66

I was busy all last week with various things, so I never got the verses out. That's alright because I didn't memorize all of the last set.
So here is the set for this week.




From Psalm 66:

Monday
v.6 - "He turned the sea into dry land; They went through the river on foot. There we will rejoice in Him."

Tuesday
v.7 - "He rules by His power forever; His eyes observe the nations; Do not let the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah"

Wednesday
v.8 - "Oh, bless our God, you peoples! And make the voice of His praise to be heard,"

Thursday
v.9 - "Who keeps our soul among the living, And does not allow our feet to be moved."

Friday
v.10 - "For You, O God, have tested us; You have refined us as silver is refined."

Saturday
v.11 - "You brought us into the net; You laid affliction on our backs."

Friday Vocabulary - Vacillate

Ok, here is the second word for today: Vacillate.

Vacillate means to sway or waver or to fluctuate or to show indecision or to be irresolute.
I can't think of anything more to say on this topic.

Friday Vocabulary - Reconnaissance

Ok, this post was supposed to go up last week, but who can think of such mundane topics as reconnaissance on the day that we celebrate the triumph of light over darkness in Ireland? So you are going to get two vocabulary words today. One now and one later.

The word for now is reconnaisance. In military science, it is the process of finding out about the enemy by examination or survey. You can also use reconnaisance to survey land for other reasons like in engineering to prepare for triangulation or in geology when you are trying to learn its features.
Ok, that's all I have to say right now.