Happy Thanksgiving

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From the Wilsons, we hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving! We are so blessed to be with family and are thankful for the way God has blessed us with such an abudance of family on both sides!

ABC Wednesday-S

Let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.

1 John 3:18

I am glad I have an opportunity to blog about this for ABC Wednesday. Our church does this project for Samaritan's Purse. You get a shoe box and you choose a child and the age of the child and you fill it with gifts for Christmas. I had Josh get the box and I thought that we'd go shopping together, but one day I came home and Josh had done all the shopping. The story I am about to share, Josh will probably be embarassed, but I am thankful for a husband who is compassionate.

He said he was shopping and he saw all these inexpensive gifts that he could fill the box with, but then a thought struck him. He thought if this box were for Annabelle what would she like. And he proceeded to then by things based on what she'd like and not on the price tag. I got choked up! I thought how selfish I could be when giving to others, and yet he wasn't! He was so proud of this box and all the things that he chose. We did not show the box to Annabelle because we knew how she would want everything in it. Next year, we will have Annabelle shop for the items. We think this will be a great way to teach her how to truly care and love others, even those we don't know or will never meet!

ABC Wednesday - R

R is for RAMBUNCTIOUS!

R words we know

I couldn't think of very many words

Visit ABC Wednesday to see more posts on the letter R.

Safe and Sensitive

As a parent one of the most enjoyable things Josh and I do is just watch Annabelle. Yesterday we had a family day since I had the day off of school. We went to the mall to do some Christmas shopping and we stopped at the play area for a while to let Annabelle play.

Two things Josh and I observed were that Annabelle is safe and sensitive. First, you can tell she is safe because she will only go down the slide on her belly. As she watched the other children she tried to go down on her bottom, but the whole time she went down she held onto the side of the slide. The second thing we noticed was she was sensitive to others. She watched others carefully and waited for them to be done with something before she played on it. One example was they had these cars (you'll see them in the video) and a couple of times she went to go play in one and someone else was in it. She waited there until they were done and then went in it, the whole time not complaining.

Sweet Story: Last night we were all doing our own thing when she started calling Daddy. She went and got him, then she started calling me. I came to them and she started pulling us, at this point we were now all holding hands. We thought she was just playing a game, but no! She pulled us all the way into the big room by the couches and then picked up a movie. She wanted all three of us to watch a movie together. So we made popcorn and did just that!

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Marking Measurements

Josh was talking to his parents about how big Annabelle has gotten and got the idea that we should be marking her measurements on the wall. So tonight we did just that and are using her bedroom door frame. Josh even got the leveler out to make sure he was accurate!

ABC Wednesday-Q

ABC Wednesday is on the Letter Q. This was QUITE tough!

Quintessential Q-utie

(Listen to this kids laugh! I just love her.

She is actually watching a video the video below)

This is the video she is watching in the above clip

When I first thought of the letter Q, all I could think of this week was when I play scrabble I always get stuck with the Q and when you get stuck with the Q and all the Us are used it is pretty hard to find a word. So I learned an easy three letter Q word a couple of years ago that does NOT need a U.

qat-noun
the leaves of the shrub Catha edulis which are chewed like tobacco or used to make tea; has the effect of a euphoric stimulant; "in Yemen kat is used daily by 85% of adults" [syn: kat]

Quotes: (Some of my favorites)

I can't help at a higher level than I live.

To whom much is given much is required. Luke 10

Watch you thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become your character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

The best use of one's life is to spend it for something that will outlast it. - William James (Philosopher)

Politics in Perspective

And the LORD said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. [...]only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.” 1 Sam. 8:7, 9 (ESV)

This past election--and every presidential election--is a good reminder to Christians that their hope is not, nor has it ever been, in human government. Here 1 Samuel 8 goes on to describe what the kings of Israel will be characterized by, including taking from the sons of Israel to set up an army for himself, taxing excessively, and redistributing Israel's wealth for his own ends. In spite of this the people still respond in verse 19, "No, but there shall be a king over us [...]"  If ancient Israel's God-sanctioned human government wasn't the "answer," surely 21st Century American government is not either. 

Instead, the New Testament is overwhelmingly concerned with the "Kingdom." Of the 158 times the word is used in the New Testament, only a few don't refer to the "Kingdom of Heaven" or the "Kingdom of God," which of course has nothing to do with human government, but what God will establish in spite of failed human government. As Jesus says in John 18:36, "My kingdom is not of this world." And Peter's admonition to "honor the king" (1 Pet 2:17) essentially amounts to a command to pay your taxes, not to look to human government as any sort of answer for society's problems. Often government itself is the problem, as it often was for ancient Israel. 

Fear on the part of Christians over what the next few years will bring is misplaced, and so is excessive happiness about the results of the election. Even the best of human governments (American) has proven its inability to bring about a positive moral climate, and we can be sure this trend will continue. Instead our hope lies completely outside the realm of human government. It lies in what God will do when he abolishes government and brings about his own kingdom--the kingdom John refers to when he says in Revelation 11:15:  “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever," reminding us that Jesus Christ is the only one to whom we pay homage, and his the only kingdom in which we place our hope.

-Josh

Plethora of Ps-ABC Wednesday

ABC Wednesday is on the Letter P this week! I couldn't believe how many Ps I came up with! This is so much fun! You know you want to join, so go ahead!

Preaching Pastor

Plethora of "P" words

Packer Phanatics Princess
(This was Halloween last year) Pink Poodle
(This year at Halloween)

Pouting

Trick or Treating Together

At School on Friday

Josh is a Bear Market, I am Mr. B (our principal) and Annie is a lady bug Saturday night in Onstead

We went trick or treating with our friends, Gina and Dan, a couple from our church that has a daughter, Riley, Annabelle's age. We drove up to where Gina's parents live to trick or treat in their neighborhood.

Josh and I had never seen anything like what we saw there, it was an incredible experience to say the least. I honestly felt like I was a part of a Gilmore Girls community celebration. It was great because it was a very FUN atmosphere.

It wasn't spooky or scary. It was family friendly and there were over 500 people out! I heard one lady say she had 500 pieces of candy and gave away every single piece! Often at houses we had to wait in LINE for Annabelle to get candy.

Annabelle quickly got the hang of it. Her only issue was everytime she got candy she wanted to take it out of her bucket and eat it right away! We gave her a lollipop and other than being extremely sticky it satisfied her for the rest of the night!

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