When Jesus Wept Book Review

     When Jesus Wept by Bodie and Brock Thoene is my new favorite book.  Bodie and Brock Thoene have been preferred authors of mine for many years, so when I saw a book written by them offered on Book Sneeze, I knew I had to review it.  I got the e-book, so it is not taking up room on my very crowded bookshelves, but I will be rereading it in the future.  In fact, I plan to read it aloud to my family on our next road trip.

     When Jesus Wept  is the story of Lazarus or David ben Lazarus, as he is known in this book.  I have always loved Bible stories told with the fleshing out of fictional details, as long as the story remains true to the Bible, and this one does.  The stories of Jesus in the Gospels are interwoven in a few years of the life of Lazarus in an amazing way.  We don’t know if his sister, Mary, was the woman caught in adultery, but she might have been.  In this story, she was, and the encounter changed her forever, and she became a devoted Christ-follower who poured out her life in service.         
     Did you ever wonder why Lazarus died the first time?  In this story, his death was the result of his service to Jerusalem Sparrows, homeless street orphans. 

     I had never thought about how Lazarus felt, being called back from where he was in Paradise.  He very likely was having a wonderful time of reunion with his loved ones in that happy place.  I had always just considered his sisters needing him on earth.  Jesus had His reasons, no doubt one of them to prove His power over death and the grave just prior to His own death and resurrection.   I got new insight into the parables and stories that Jesus told, because just perhaps, Jesus told them because of happenings in his friend, Lazarus’s life.

     Mary, Martha, and Lazarus became real people to me in this book, as I read of their lives, families, vocation, service, and friendship with Jesus.  The Thoenes are excellent at the background information about the times, culture, politics, even the landscapes, of the Holy Land where the story takes place.

     I can’t say enough good things about this book!  I highly recommend that you get a copy and read it a few times!  I’m anxious for that road trip to read it aloud and see what else I can learn along the way.

     I received my complimentary e-copy from Book Sneeze in exchange for my honest review of this book. 

Our plumbing trouble... Is now fixed!

We live in a small town, which has its own water treatment plant. We have pretty good water most of the year, since we live <50 miles from the mountain snow that melts into reservoirs, just upstream from our town's water treatment plant.  However, we occasionally have VERY murky water when the reservoir has 'Lake Turnover.'

 So nine years ago I decided to install two whole house filters.  The first with a 20um filter, followed by a 5um charcoal filter.  This has kept us from any dirty water to our sinks, showers, ice maker, toilets, water heater, hot water furnace, and washing machine.  Then last month when it was time to change the filters, I felt the integral shut-off valve break as I closed it.  It wouldn't shut off, so I shut the main water valve off and replaced both of the filter housings with ones that have no breakable shut off valves.

I thought all was well, until five days later when I found that there was no cold water to one of our bathrooms, while all of the other cold water outlets were fine.  I presumed that a part of the broken filter shut-off mechanism had broken free, flowed downstream, and gotten stuck somewhere. We tried several strategies to discover where the blockage was, and finally found it today, in a wall half way between the filters and the bath room without cold water.

I trust that this might keep someone from installing any water filter housings that have integral shut-off valves, as they are prone to failure.  My family is rejoicing, and praising the Lord for His help and wisdom in finding this blockage, for the tools, supplies, and knowledge to replace copper fittings, and for it all being fixed tonight!  Now for the gaping hole in the drywall in our entryway.... 

Jeffrey's quilt top done

I finished putting together Jeffrey's quilt last week.  Since then, I have been helping Beth finish up the quilt she started in 2011. 

George Beverly Shea

This week, a wonderful man, George Beverly Shea, finished his earthly race at age 104, and went to be with the Lord.  The song for which he was perhaps most well known was "I'd Rather Have Jesus."  I thought it would be a blessing to others to hear him sing this and tell how it came to be.  Click here to this 1965 recording to listen and be blessed.  Here's another one, recorded in 1983.  His voice just got richer through the years of singing for the Lord.  One more, from 1987.  I noticed this was a slightly lower key.  I'm sure he is having a wonderful time singing praises to Jesus in heaven today!

Quilting Update

 Here is the "stained glass window" (Carousel pattern) quilt as I am putting the binding on it.

 It turned out very pretty.

 It is a twin size, so doesn't fit this queen bed.

 Close up of the quilting.  I requested black thread on top and white on the underside.  This quilt has been delivered to the little boy for whom it was made.  I hope he sleeps well under it!

 This shows the progress on Tiffany's quilt.  Next time LaDeana and Tiffany have time to come over, we'll be working on the borders, and hopefully get it completed!  (This is the same quilt pattern as the one above.)

 This is a twin size quilt for Jason for when he goes away to college in August.  I will be making a similar one for Jeffrey so they will have coordinating quilts in their dorm room at God's Bible School.

Belated post about Emily's 15th birthday

 Emily had a wonderful 15th birthday on March 17.  We have been busy with other things and neglected to blog about her birthday.  On March 16, Mike and Carmen Durkee and baby Michaela spent the evening with us to honor Emily on her birthday.

 Michaela is very sweet, and she seemed to like her "adopted" grandparents and aunties and uncle!

 We played some ping pong with Mike and Carmen.  Emily bought this ping pong table off Craig's List in February and we have been enjoying playing it most days.

 This is Emily's actual birthday.  Emily has become a great helper and companion, filling in the "holes" Beth left when she moved to the R's to be their nanny.  She has been a diligent 9th grader this year and is growing in so many ways.

 Beth gave her a cross stitch bookmark set.  Emily loves to cross stitch.

 Emily wanted a study Bible for her birthday this year.

 She is enjoying the benefit of the color coding for the different themes in the Bible, though it's hard to find those "favorite" verses in a new Bible, because they are not in the same place on the pages.  :)

 We had our favorite doctors and their children for Sunday dinner and the afternoon. 

 Emily wanted Dirt Cake for her birthday dessert this year.

 Opening gifts from the Browns.

 Hope and Emily

 The Browns gave her a special ping pong paddle and balls set.  They have gotten a lot of use since then!

 They also gave her chocolates and chocolate covered raspberries--health food, of course!

 Drs. Matt and Cara:  We love these people so much!

 Faith, Hope, and Lincoln with Matt and Cara.  We have been privileged to be part of their lives for 5 years now.  Lincoln was barely one when Beth first babysat him.  Now Emily gets to babysit them because Beth is too busy.

 A view of Emily's dresser with her cards and other remembrances for her birthday.

Field Trip to Colorado History Museum

 Yesterday, Rowen took a day of vacation and went with us to the Colorado History Museum in Denver.  It is a fairly new facility.  When we arrived, it was full of students.  When these pictures were taken, the students had left for the day and we could use the time machine.

 This is a time machine that you pull to different spots on the floor map of Colorado. 

 We had the machine positioned over the Grand and Gunnison Valleys spot on the map.  At this location, we could choose between two dates to select a story.  Pull the lever on the right!

 This was a story about mining. 

 

The map on the floor shows the land formations and cities in Colorado.

 There was a big display about one of Colorado's ghost towns:  Keota.  It was a nice booming little town in the early 1900s, but then there was a drought, the Railroad company quit coming there, and people moved away.  Some of the last folks to live there donated so much stuff to the museum that it is a wonderful display of how people lived on the plains.  These pictures are in the "school house."

 We positioned our faces in the mirror and took our pictures.  Then we selected a hairstyle from early 1900s and made our pictures for the Keota Yearbook!  We emailed the pictures to ourselves!  We thought this was a very clever activity.

 Here we are, a blast from the past!  I love how it makes me look young and thin!  :)

 Here's Emily!

 And can you believe--Rowen?

 

Another interactive display that we tried:  this is a ski jump at Steamboat Springs with wii technology.  The skis actually change tilt as the wind blows your hair and you are in the movie flying down the hill!  We crashed several times, but we also did some Olympic qualifying jumps!

 Rowen taking off on the jump!

 We got the best scores when we followed the instructions of the little guy on the screen.

 There were so many things to see and learn from.  We thought it was an amazing museum.  Most of the time, we were too busy learning to think of taking pictures.  We even got to place dynamite in a gold mine and blow it up!  Just pretending, of course, but it was very educational.  We were so glad to have Rowen along with us for the day.

Recent Concerts Jason and Emily were in

(Click on the blue words to see and hear the concerts.
This is the instrumental ensemble in which Jason and Emily played cello and violin with other home schoolers.

This is the choir in which Jason and Emily sang with other home schoolers.

 These events ended the Spring semester at CHESS, our home school private school.  The ensemble was directed by Mrs. Teri Ong, who with her husband Steve started CHESS 22 years ago.  Our family has been enrolled in CHESS 21 years!  The choir was directed by Mr. James Clifford, who has been the administrator of CHESS for 10 years.  We appreciate these folks who have invested in the home schooling community and in our family.  Next, CHESS will be doing achievement testing.  Emily is scheduled for that April 25-26.

Quilting Projects in 2013

 This first quilt is my 2012 Facebook Block of the Month Quilt.  I finished it late December and gave it to our dear friends, the Browns, who are like extended family to us.

 In January I made a quilt top for a boy here in town. It is a twin size, so on our queen "model bed" you don't get the full effect.  The black border will be hanging down on a twin size bed.  I made a matching fully lined pillow case too.  This quilt is at the quilter's in Kansas now. 

 This next quilt top is a king size.  This quilt has seven browns in it.  It is called Indian Hatchet String quilt.  The "string" part of it is because of the small strips that make up the middle section of each block.  There are 176 seven inch blocks in this quilt!  The string sections are made up of ten strips, and there are twelve combinations of the strip sections so that it is randomized.  I sent this quilt top off to an old friend in KC to quilt.  My Kansas quilter can only do queens and smaller.  I was glad to find my childhood friend on Facebook and find out she could machine quilt king size quilts.

Yesterday, my cousin, LaDeana and her daughter, Tiffany spent the day with us.  We started a quilt for Tiffany with four of us working together:  Emily, Tiffany, LaDeana, and me. We had three sewing machines going, and someone cutting strips or pinning.  LaDeana picked the Carrousel pattern, like Aiden's Quilt, because it is a very easy and fast pattern.  A couple of weeks ago, we went shopping together and Tiffany picked out the fabrics she wanted. 

In the afternoon, Tiffany and Emily began laying out the quilt blocks on the floor.

Here is Tiffany with all the blocks laid out. (The colors are much more vibrant in real life.  The borders are a rich purple.)  This is for a full/queen size, but without the borders yet.  We actually got five rows sewed together before quitting for the day.  Another long day, and we should be able to get it done.  So we are waiting to see when that day can happen.  It was fun to work together like ladies used to in the "olden days" of quilting bees.  Only, we didn't gossip.  :) We did listen to Odyssey cds and enjoyed each other's company.