Birthday Party

We got together with Maurice & Christine & their kids on Saturday morning, to celebrate Daniel & Heidi's birthday (Jan. 25).
Quite interesting -- Daniel was her birthday present last year, and 2 years before that, Andrew had been Elisabeth's birthday present on September 8! Works out great for our birthday celebrations!
"Thanks for the train, cousins!!" -Daniel :)

More knights & castles...

Way Back When...

Happy 1st Birthday, Daniel!

What's this, Mom? Banana cake!
We thank the Lord for this happy, busy boy! Daniel has been doing alot of walking the past few days, & now can (sometimes) toddle across a room without falling! -though he still crawls alot too.

25th Anniversary Program

"Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations."
Psalm 90:1

On Friday evening, our church celebrated God's faithfulness to us for 25 years! The Orthodox Christian Reformed Church of Toronto began in December, 1980 with 9 families.
The program included brief histories of the church, of the YPs, of Eternal Life Mission, and of the Parsonage Training Program. We then watched a beautiful media presentation of the past years, put together by Carole (with Steve's help - well done, guys, & THANKS!) (and thanks also to everyone who helped out, or came to celebrate with us!) Following are a few pictures from the presentation...



Betty, with Amy & Maria V.
Steven & Andrew B.
David, Andrew, Marybeth, Anneke, Jamie, Ashleigh, & Mary
Wheelbarrow race!
Andrew, Sarah, & Timothy D.V.
Emily W.
Melissa, Rachel, Allison, Maria, Kristin, Nathan, Justin, & Timmy
(this was taken at Ladies Bible Study a few years ago)

Yesterday's Visitor

A wild "friend" of our rabbits! (to tell the truth, Blizzard seemed to be scared of it.) This rabbit lives down the street, & is somewhat tame - we could walk up fairly close to it.

"That He may be glorified"

Isaiah 61: 1-3
" 'The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,
because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,
and the day of veangeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn,
to console those who mourn in Zion,
to give them beauty for ashes,
the oil of joy for mourning,
the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
that they may be called trees of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord,
that He may be glorified.' "

(photo by Louise, earlier this winter)

Big Sister

Just took this picture of Maria reading to the boys -- helpful, especially right before supper!

Our Friends and Missionaries in Tepic, Mexico

Here's a recent picture of Richard & Angela & their children (Jessica, Christianna, Joshua, & Jacob) on the back patio of their new house.

"For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven,
and do not return there, but water the earth,
and make it bring forth and bud,
that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
it shall not return to Me void,
but it shall accomplish what I please,
and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it."
Isaiah 55:10-11

For more on their work, see the Eternal Life Website.

Castle & Knights

Timmy made this for me today!

Our Kings & Queens

We've been studying the Middle Ages - feudalism, knights, castles, etc. Fascinating! As you can see, it comes out in their play...





Prince
Daniel!

Our Library

Looking for a good book to read? Looking for a book to read to your kids about church history? Need a science resource? Over the years we have collected many books and would love to share them.

Check out our online book catalog at LibraryThing.com. I've also added a 'blog widget' from LibraryThing.com that shows random books from our library, down on the left sidebar of this blog. I am about halfway finished cataloging our books... lots more books to come.

Why bother cataloging your books online? One advantage of doing this is that you can organize your books by 'tagging' them so that they can be searched not only by author and title, but also by tags. For example, if you are looking for a book about Martin Luther, you could find it by searching for his name or by looking at the books under the tags 'Church History,' 'Reformation,' or 'Biography.' Another advantage is the ability to share your resources with others - especially great for homeschoolers.

It is actually very easy to create your own online catalog. All you need to enter is the ISBN (or the title or author) and some tag names to help organize the books with. LibraryThing.com does the rest.

If you see something in our library you want to borrow, just let us know and we'll bring it along next time we see you. If you start your own book catalog, let us know and we'll see what we can borrow from you. :)

Daniel

Couldn't resist adding this one!

Gift Exchange

Since Steve was in Florida during the holidays, we decided to wait until the New Year to open gifts with Mom & the kids... couldn't have this special evening without our dear brother! :)
Andrew just saw this & asked, "Does Uncle 'Teven like me?"
I said of course he does, to which Andrew replied, "I know he does.")

Mom gave Rachel & Maria each a scrapbook kit -- great idea!
Thanks, Mom - and everyone - for all your love & generosity!


Louise had picked my name -- she spoiled me with a heaping basket of goodies. Sweet & thoughtful! Thanks again, Louise!

Life Lessons From Messy Oxen

"Where no oxen are, the trough is clean;
But much increase comes by the strength of an ox."
Proverbs 14:5

Have you ever wondered how to apply the wisdom given in this Proverb to your life? Here's a thought-provoking and helpful sermon by Dr. Kloosterman called "Life Lessons From Messy Oxen".
Let me know what you think...

Curt & Jen, with baby Phillip

We had a great evening yesterday at Mom's, with Uncle Cliff & Aunt Henrietta & some of our cousins.

















Andrew was put to bed in Louise's room on a mattress (see right corner of picture),
but this is where we found him sleeping!