Brr! It's Cold Outside!

It's cold - 9 below. But not so cold that the J. kids and my kids couldn't spend their Sunday afternoon skating at the pond just down the road.

It took several days of pulling up water through a hole to smooth out the top, but now the pond is just perfect and the ice is at least 10 inches thick.

Yesterday when they went out Naomi and Aaron joined them.

Yesterday, Aaron and Naomi also made some Christmas cookies to give out to some of the families in Aaron's church and had fun going door to door to pass them out. Of course, with Aaron and Naomi, cleaning the kitchen is fun! I have to say that watching two people fall in love is so much fun!! Especially when they share these secret smiles and knowing looks as if they are the only ones in the world! Seeing them use this special time before they get married to serve others and put others first is even more precious. Naomi's friends that don't live around here would enjoy seeing her in this state! But more than anything, we are so grateful for both Naomi and Aaron that they put God first, both in their lives, and in their relationship. (The aprons were an early wedding gift :)

One other thing my kids love to do when it gets cold is make ice cream! You need lots of ice to make ice cream which is something I don't have whenever they need it but now there is an abundance of icicles everywhere. Hosanna is holding some great raspberry flavored ice cream with real raspberries and some raspberry Da Vinci flavoring in it. Mmm!

We had a good time today, "in church", with "the church". I have to say one of my favorite times in church is when people share prayer requests. Sometimes it seems like everybody has a praise for a prayer God answered in a special way, or a request for a person at work, or a health issue, or a couple asking prayer for their marriage, or a wayward son. It seems to draw us close together as we share both joy and heartaches. As a girl it seemed like the men in church prayed so long! But now, it seems like we could pray for the entire service without it getting boring.

The second thing I really enjoy is the singing. We don't have any fancy worship team but when all the voices blend together from the littlest child, gangly teens, to adults and shaky older voices, it just gives you a feeling that God is here in this room. A lady once asked me, "How can you feel like you're worshipping without a worship team?". Worship is a matter of the heart and when I hear the hearts singing in church I can't help but look forward to the day when we sing in the actually presence of God with voices from all corners of the earth from the first generation of people to the last. Yes, we certainly do worship even without a worship team.

After that, I enjoy the sermons. Somehow they always are just what I needed to hear. I once heard a CD message on, "What You Miss When You Miss." When a person misses a service, you are probably missing the one message you need to hear. My father-in-law is our pastor and does a great job!

The fellowship is great too and overall, I love Sunday morning church services!