Danny's Train Cake

We got the idea for this cake from a magazine, but put our own ideas into it, such as the train car with pretzel logs! The children enjoyed spending two hours all helping make it.

Every big accomplishment is made up of little steps. Starting the cake!   We baked the cake in three or four bread pans so it would already be narrow. Then we cut those in half or quarters to build the engine and cars.

 

We made cream cheese frosting and separated it into several little bowls to color it.

Sometimes it takes getting down on your knees to clean up messes--including food coloring that accidentally spilled!

 On our knees, we remember that this is not the end of the world, but just a kink in the works, just a lesson to be learned, just another chance to humble ourselves so that He may lift us up.

 

And then there are those people who like to watch on the sidelines--just so they can lick the bowl!

But as long as you don't care who gets the credit, or who gets to lick the bowls, you can keep making that cake. With pretzel car hitches, Oreo cookies for wheels, and peppermints for eyes (Oh, please don't notice how the eyes are sliding down its face!) you can accomplish quite a feat!

Hope to put a picture on with Danny behind his cake later!

Late Summer Blessings

Lesson from a child:

If you can't climb a mountain, climb a ladder--

and eat watermelon at the top!

 

And if you can't climb the ladder (because you are lame or because someone else is on it)

eat your watermelon on the porch steps.

Either way--enjoy your watermelon!

Also, if you cannot go fishing, enjoy the tadpoles your little boys find in the little pond in the pasture. 

What a blessing to have rain often the last couple months of this summer! It changed our concrete back yard to a carpet of green (and yellow) and the brown pasture into greenery that was almost like Pennsylvania. The Lord must have seen that this Pennsylvania girl was getting famished for green!

It's true a lot of the green was weeds rather than grass, and SUCH weeds, too! Nasty ones out there now, but the children don't worry about it. They just have a ball collecting little treasures from the field.

We were delighted with a hummingbird moth that visited our barrel of flowers on the deck several times recently. Jonathan had bought me these flowers for Mother's Day, and planted them in barrels with the children's help. Three days later, between chickens and goats, the flowers were no more, and it took at least two months for any to bloom again.

A few weeks ago, I was able to buy several hanging flower baskets on clearance at a garden market for just $2.50 or $5 each, which have so brightened our front porch and back deck. 

Sam spent the day digging under a house before a footer can be poured. This is what he looked like when he came home!

Since then came much rain, filling that spot with a couple feet of water. Floods inundated large areas of Colorado northeast of us. Yesterday Sam went back to the same place because Jonathan's guys were begging for Sam's help to dig out mud now before they can pour the footer.

 

Below is a sunrise that Rose took a picture of.

Carrie brings in an armful of beautiful home-grown beets!

The gifts we got for Crystal, Sam and Carrie upon their baptisms. I was so tickled to have found these appropriately themed gift bags at a Christian book store. It's true they were in the Easter clearance section, but I thought a cross, and the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world (spoken by John the Baptist upon Jesus coming to be baptized) were very appropriate for a baptism. 

We got each a daily calendar, and gave the girls pretty journals, and a book for Sam--about how to grow in the graces of being a gentleman.

(Please don't look for any particular miracle to occur.)



Fellowship after Baptism

After the baptismal service, the Albertson clan, Bookmans, Grandma and pa and we enjoyed fellowshipping together at our home.  We had luscious home grown cucumbers and tomatoes from Grandma's garden, and carrots from Albertson's garden, and lots of fruits, chips and dip for snack. Then we were favored with music: piano arrangements of the hymns "Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart" and "How Firm a Foundation" played by Crystal...

 

and "In Christ Alone," played by Emily on the violin, with everyone singing along.

The Albertson family then sang "The Lord Is Our Shield," with such beautiful words that seemed meant just for some of us who were facing difficult times.

Beautiful Day for Baptisms

Last Sunday was a very special day for our family as our three oldest children, along with six others, took the step of baptism in their walk with the Lord.

Our friends the Albertsons from Johnstown, CO, joined our church folk for this lovely event because Joy Albertson had never been baptized and desired to be.

It was such a PERFECT day for baptisms--very warm and sunny, yet breezy enough to keep the mosquitos at bay! A few found shade under umbrellas. This little lake is not far from our home, owned by the former landlord of Rostislav and Alla Sinitsa, friends from Ukraine. Our church has conducted three baptisms here now. This lake is also one that was used by helicopters to dip water out of for the Black Forest Fire.

 



Jonathan took over our travel trailer in which folks could change wet clothes after being baptized.

The girls and I had made up a bouquet for each candidate out of white carnations, baby's breath and ferns. It had always been a tradition in Ukraine to present flowers to baptismal candidates, and I thought it a lovely tradition. Carrie thought it a lovely tradition to hide her face with the flowers!

Here the group of nine candidates gather on the shore. It was so special to us to have not only three of our children baptised, but also their grandparents, whose former old church did not practice baptism. It was very brave of several older folks in our church to participate in this sacrament of obedience and humility.

Bro. French tested the water--and the mud--and got stuck! It took both Pastor Mosley and Bro. Gault pulling hard to get Bro. French unstuck! They decided to baptize in a little different spot.

Pastor Mosley called for "the three Lucas children" to come out first.

It seemed almost surreal to me as our oldest son strode boldly out into the water, followed by 14-year-old Carrie, and 17-year-old Crystal.





It happened so fast, one after the other.

"Did you see Sam's face when he came up out of the water?" Jonathan asked me later. "It was shining!"

 



I said I must have been too busy watching Carrie get ready for her dunking!

Crystal's turn! Our dear friend, Bro. Ward French assisted in most of the baptisms by immersions. 

Randy Albertson helped baptize his wife, Joy. This dear couple has just begun pastoring the Immanuel Missionary Church at Federal Heights in Denver. 

Our dear friend Bro. Donald Lefever was so very brave to go in for the real thing!

"Would you like to give us your testimony?" Bro. Mosley asked.

"No!" Bro. Lefever gasped. "Just get me out of here!"

So--DUNK!--they got it over with fast!

Sis. Katherine Gafford was another brave soul who decided to be immersed as well. 

Timmy may as well have been baptised, too. This is where he stood to watch!

I figured there must have been little tykes like this playing in the water, too, when Jesus taught from the boat in the gospel times and when John the Baptist baptised.

There was nothing scary about this baptism--Danny told us yesterday that he wanted to be baptized!

"It looked like fun!" he explained.

The funnest--or perhaps funniest--part was after the baptism ceremony when the guys were trying to get out of the mud they were stuck in!

Bro. Gault really got stuck fast! Pastor Mosley and Randy both help him out this time.

Day of Grace and Humility

After the baptisms by immersions, three candidates were baptized by pouring.

Pastor Mosley promised he would get the cleanest water possible in the pitcher!

It was a privilege to witness the baptism of Jonathan's father.

"John Lucas, I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost."

 

Helen Lucas, Jonathan's mother

Dear Sis. Audrey Lefever, whose life exemplifies graciousness, beauty and dignity,

submits to the obedience and humility of baptism. 

Our three oldest children, wet and windblown but triumphant, with the bouquets of white carnations presented to them after baptism.

Mom, with full heart, hugs her children. It seems so unreal.

It was just a gift  from God, to someone so undeserving, to witness her three oldest children express their faith publicly in the sacrament of baptism. 

Jonathan has such warm arms for hugs! (I know it from experience!) 



Katherine Gafford and Joy Albertson beam their joy, sure they must look an interesting sight!

Donald and Audrey Lefever

Labor Day

Labor Day was a day of labor for us!

Jonathan stayed home all day and finished changing out both the front and back storm doors that were falling apart. He and the boys painted the front door and the door trim.

 

I read recently that most American sons grow up only knowing a dad (if they have a dad at all) who goes away all day, comes home exhausted, and sits in front of the TV [or computer] all evening.

They seldom get to see a masculine role model doing anything besides flop around.

So I am always so thankful for times when our boys get to work alongside their dad and watch him be a man--watch how he measures and reads directions and takes old broken things down and puts new things up and paints and repairs.

Even Timmy is set to work learning to tape off a window so the door can be repainted.  

A holiday with Dad actually staying home!

And doors that have been ready to fall apart for years finally getting repaired!

Whoopee!

Meanwhile, since it is just after a wonderful little rain, the little boys are busy scouting around the property, gathering eggs and looking into window wells to find (can you see it peeking out of Danny's hand?)

salamanders, toads, and--

w o r m s!

Howwwww exciting!

Sunday morning the boys found a little snake at church. Don't ask me where they found it.

It was a harmless little garter snake.

And they knew Sis. Miller does NOT like snakes.

So they were sure to show it to her--from a distance!

Then tomboy Hannah had to see what it was like to hold a snake, too.

Ooooooooh.

 

While the men and boys were working on doors on Labor Day, Mom and the girls worked at getting school books and schedules prepared for starting school the next day.

In the evening, Pastor Mosley's family came for a cookout and to scout out the lake nearby where our church is holding a baptism this coming Sunday.

It is a thrill to have our three oldest children planning to be baptized, along with hopefully others. Last Sunday morning our pastor, instead of a sermon, passed out handouts of a study on the Scriptural meaning and examples of baptism from the Bible. It was excellent. Neither Jonathan nor I could remember ever hearing a message about baptism before in our lives. It was a very important part of New Testament repentance and beliefs, and is sadly a much neglected topic in our churches. As our pastor pointed out--just because churches we do not agree with may overemphasize an issue does not mean that we should react by not doing it.

 If it is taught in the Bible, as baptism plainly and clearly is, we have every obligation to obey.

This is God's plan, said our pastor.

Jesus submitted to baptism, setting an example for us.

In the evening, the pastor  had a little time of instructions and sharing of testimonies for baptismal candidates in the church basement before service.  

Our Nineteenth Anniversary

This is the covered wagon at Bear Basin Ranch near Westcliffe, a ride Jonathan had reserved for our anniversary last week,  

and the ride we never took...

 

because just as the driver was harnessing the horses, one keeled over on its back, thrashed like it was having an epileptic seizure, and broke the harness!

"Ride is cancelled!" the guy said matter-of-factly.

Shock!

No, he wasn't teasing. There lay the broken harness!

I asked if we could just get a picture of us in the wagon, and so we did!

It was okay with me. We had had a beautiful day so far, picnicking and reading the Bible together by a quiet beaver dam. 

If marriage is only about spending money for each other for entertainments,

it would not be happy.

But it is about being together, enjoying God and His Word and His creation.

It is about choosing--

choosing this one spouse over all others,

choosing contentment with simple things,

choosing to please the other as well as ourselves,

choosing to be faithful when things go wrong

and when each other's faults and failures and weaknesses keep staring you in the face.

 

It's about spending moments like this one

turning around in the middle of the road to watch a herd of wild mountain sheep jump the fence by the side of the road.



Two little baby sheep tried hard to follow, and finally squeezed under the bottom wire of the fence.

The whole herd waited for the babies.

Because the little ones are so important to the herd.

The little ones are the future of the herd.

All the mamas helped wait and mind that the little ones were safe. Then they began to graze contentedly.

At home, the girls and cousins slept out under the stars. (Some of them are still a bit achy from the lumpy ground!)