October/November

Well, it's time for an update on this blog yet again, and I'm in the mood to write. At present I'm in Fall Session 2 of classes, taking Making Christ Known and Between the Testaments. Although Between the Testaments is a history class it still manages to be quite a bit of a challenge. Making Christ Known was a class I did not want to take, but God changed my plans. It has proven to be a delightful, inspiring, fun, learning class. There are about 12 students: 8 guys, 4 gals. In both of my classes I'm no longer the youngest, I got beat out by a 14 year old and a 16 year old. Next week is the last week of class!!!!!! My family and I are all extremely excited. Then I have 2 months off of school. During break I plan to read books on finances, do some cleaning, celebrate Christmas and New Years, and who knows what all else.

Before session 2 started I turned 20. It's proven to be a fairly enjoyable age. The verse I picked out for this year of being 20 is Proverbs 9:10 "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and the Knowledge of the Holy One is understanding". My goal is to be a lady that fears the Lord and I'm actively growing in my knowledge of Him. I'm looking forward to what the next 11 months hold!

The transition to a new church has been fairly smooth. We are meeting new people and working on developing new friendships. This is church is very actively reaching out to our community, seeking to follow God in everything, and just overall shaking up the "going through the motions Christian". God is using this church in my life for good.

IJS and August/September

Last Sunday, my family and I left our church of 9 years. We love everyone at our "old" church, and we hope to continue our friendships with them. Last week there were only ourselves, our Pastor's family and 6 other people, 4 of which will most likely not be at the church in a few months. So it is not a mega-church, which means we have developed close friendships with the people there. It's odd but I'm excited about this new season of going to a different church. This week we visited a church, and it was an adjustment having to wake up extra early on a Sunday.

My family and I have a pretty boring life. I'm going into my 5th week of school, and the sessions are only 6 weeks long! This session I've been taking "Life of Christ" and "Holocaust and Anti-Semitism". I'm learning in both classes, but I'm enjoying "Holocaust and Anti-Semitism" the most. I think the reason is I enjoy recent history. There are about 11 students in that class, 3 of which are ladies. We are about age 72, 52, and 19. In "Life of Christ" there are 19 students. I've always been the youngest in all my IJS classes. Fall break is coming up real soon, which means I need to start working on my final papers for these classes.

My first week of class, Daddy and Mommy went to Pittsburgh. The day before they left Je and I went and got Grandma and brought her home with us. She stayed a week with us, as our Aunt and Uncle were gone that week. Je and I got to take care of Grandma and we had a blast doing it. Having Grandma visiting encouraged me to get my school done, so I could play with her. It was also my best first week of school ever. My 1st class with IJS I had a ton going on right before I started school and on my 2nd class I was sick the first week.

The family's camera broke in May, so we've been using Je's camera. So any recent photographs, are from her camera.
Je and I made homemade bread for the first time. I found a recipe for challah (Jewish Sabbath bread) this spring, and it took until the end of the summer for me to actually make the bread. It was quite a bit of work, but a ton of fun feeling the dough in my hands. We couldn't decided what exactly to use the 2 loaves for (they each were so big, only 1 fit on a cookie sheet), so we froze them. Now we use them for homemade garlic bread (I don't think that's the intened use for challah, but we enjoy it).

IJS and Summer Break

Wow! It's hard to believe next week I finish my class! Then I'll have all summer off till about August when my next class starts at IJS. I'll miss my classmates and their encouragement and spurring on, but then there is always hope I'll study with them again in the next couple of years. Right now, my goal is to take a total of 12 IJS courses, finishing up in the spring of 2012 by taking two classes together one time. Since the class I'm taking now is entitled "Jewish Culture and Customs," one of my assignments was to visit a Jewish synagogue. A week and a half ago, my family went to a Jewish Synagogue. It was a very long service -from 9:30 a.m. to 11:45, with a Kiddush (a snack) after that. Since almost the entire service was in Hebrew, any English was a delight to hear. I learned a lot from attending the service.

On the other hand, I'm looking forward to summer break. The ladies are planning to do some sewing. I plan to do a little gardening, most likely do quite a bit of reading, take a couple of trips with my family, and who knows what all else. Daddy and Mommy are going to be gone a couple of weeks this spring/summer, and without parents around Je and I have a total blast. Actually we have fun with them around too, but it just gets better when they are gone.

For us Resurrection Sunday, was like any other Sunday. Today Je bought me a whole bunch of discount candy, which we are going to enjoy eating for the next several weeks. We always try to stretch our candy as long as possible.

A couple weeks ago I got a YouTube channel named joyfulhymns. On it I posted a video of me playing "There is a Redeemer". I've tried to link it, but I haven't had any success. So if you want to see it, try searching on YouTube.

Last Thursday we had a bit of an adventure. Our tub drain has not been draining well, and we've tried all sorts of things to get it to drain better but we haven't had sucess. So Mommy decided to turn the hot water heater up temporarily, then put hot water down the drain. Well the water in the hot water heater got so hot, that I guess it popped the relief valve thing, so hot water started pouring out of the water heater. We caught it quite quickly, so it didn't make too big of a mess. We learned a lessson: Never turn the hot water heater up!!! If you are going to turn it up, turn it up very gradually.

March Happenings

Due to receiving an anonymous comment, from my mom I suspect, I decided to do another post again. The comment before that was another anonymous one, that time from my sister on my need to post. So the moral of the story: comment and maybe if I see it, I'll post again.

Last Thursday, my mom turned 50 years old, half of a century. It was a non-eventful sort of affair. She did receive some presents, and she worked on sewing herself a dress during the day. For lunch I brought home Chinese at her request. Daddy took a business trip, which he didn't take Momma on, which was quite a treat for us ladies (we never get left home alone with our mom overnight, because Daddy has a very hard time being separated from her). It was just an overnight affair, so he got home the afternoon of Momma's birthday.

Je enjoys her work, and she is working many hours this week and next. The Lord just keeps giving her more and more hours to work. We sure miss her when she is gone, although today Mommy and I went to visit her at work which was very nice.

For me I'm taking a class on Jewish Culture and Customs. It's been a whole lot different than my last class. First of all NO tears!!! Then my professor is very interactive with us students, and there are 11 of us students-almost twice the amount of the first class. Therefore discussion is a whole lot easier, added to the fact that the questions are actually fun to answer. Today was my first day to be somewhat discouraged and I'm not really sure exactly why. Only 3 1/2 weeks until summer break!

Last week, and part of the week before that, Mommy, Je, and I made 8 skirts. Four of the skirts were a ladies size, the other four a size medium girls. We sent them off to Haiti. We all had a ton of fun sewing and making the skirts together.

In other news I heard a report that there is more than just one person who reads this blog, that means I need to be careful what I write, and to write more often. I really don't blame people for not commenting. I read many, many blogs, and I rarely ever comment.

February at our House

February was a fun month. The beginning/middle of the month, Daddy and Mommy left for a week and went to Pittsburgh. Je and I stayed home and had a grand old time. We watched lots of movies, went to a talk on chocolate and tasted it at the library, and I managed to do my school in a timely matter. Then on February 12th, my big sister turned the big TWO THREE. We went and had our nails done, and my sister had an updo. Then in the evening we had our church over for an ice cream social. The afternoon of that day was spent doing the final preparations for the party. Our parents arrived home in the middle of the ice cream social. We played Fictionary, which is where one person writes out the definition of a very obscure word in the dictonary, than everyone else writes out what they think the definition is, after that the definitions are all read and everyone votes on which one they think is correct. It was a lot of fun.

I haven't said exactly where I do online college. It's called Institute of Jewish Studies or IJS as I always call it. Friends of Israel is the parent organization over it. Last fall they went online (before the Institute was at Philadelphia Biblical University). Once I finished high school I knew I wanted to take online Bible classes, but I didn't know exactly where. I had considered The Master's College Online, but I was more comfortable with IJS, since I feel like I know the people with Friends of Israel, and I had heard talks from the Professors at IJS about how great IJS is.


This above picture leads me to another exciting development at my house. On Saturday a laptop arrived for my family to use. I was taking over our computer, so my dad decided to buy a laptop that I could use. I think the laptop is just the greatest thing. In fact I typed some of my school on it today.

While I'm between college classes, my mom has been teaching me cake decorating. Here is what I learned today. It's quite fun if you have the right equipment.