"If all the snowflakes were chocolate covered cupcakes!"

"Oh what a snow that would be!"

Elijah and I learned that song yesterday in pre school!

Last night we made chocolate cupcakes!

So that song has been running through my head all day as we've watched the snow fall.

Ethan is just fasinated with the snow!

Elijah has found that his trucks and tractors can haul more than just rocks and dirt...

And it's still snowing...

...and expected to all evening so i'm guessing we won't be getting a clear view of the moon tonight. Will you be able to see the biggest and brightest full moon of the year?

Snow Day!!

I woke up to the ringing phone this morning at 6:00am. The local schools are closed due to the weather so the childcare here on campus closed as well. So the boys get their first snow day! Geoff's out right now helping to clear the roads/paths on campus.

So i was hoping the boys would sleep in since we didn't have to get them up for school but they must not have got the memo because they both woke up early!

We still have classes today so Geoff will stay home so i can go. He's a good guy. =)
Although i kind of want to play in the snow myself! =)

I started the post below yesterday.
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Thursday, Jan. 28

I went to pre-school today.

It was "take your mommy to school" day. No actually the moms co-op with the teachers and help out in the childcare. Today was my day.

It was fun! I was in Elijah's class.


I thought of you Alicia!

As everyone is arriving the kids sit at their places and have an activity.

Today's they did this...

Here's Elijah with his teacher Miss. Linda. She's great. She's wonderful with the kids. They all love her! One little girl would ask for help but it could only be "miss winda" that could help her. =)

Elijah is learning so much and he loves his new friends.

 

We made cupcakes yesterday and he wanted to take them to his "friends in class".

Enjoy your Friday everyone, whether it's a snow day for you or not!

Our class is a very small one with only 21 students this semester.

But there are three other groups of classes studying here at the same time so there are lots of people around.

We are looking forward to developing new friendships and getting to know the other students.

Here’s a look at some of the classes we are going to be taking this semester. (as taken from the NTM website: http://www.ntm.org/

Worldview - discusses what worldviews are, how they develop, how they affect behavior, and how worldview assumptions can be analyzed, with particular focus on the North American worldview.

New Testament Church Principles- gives a detailed overview of the missionary candidate's future, clarifying what is involved in church planting and how the different components (taught in courses) relate to the whole/complete work.

Practical Ministry Skills- challenges the missionary candidates to consider how the principles learned in other classes can be applied to their daily lives, particularly to their outreach and local church ministries.

Foundational Bible Teaching - presents biblical themes from creation through Christ’s ascension necessary for a clear understanding of the Gospel and the security of the believer. This course also addresses the rationale for teaching this way, demonstrating its effectiveness as a methodology for evangelism and church planting.

Teamwork- addresses the dynamics of a team approach to ministry.

Time Management- is designed to assist the missionary candidates in the effective use of their time.

Money Management- presents basic principles of budgeting and tracking income and expenses.

Culture & Language Acquisition Introduction- introduces NTM’s program for culture & language acquisition.

Phonetics- presents the basic concepts of articulatory phonetics by describing points of articulation, manners of articulation and the human speech apparatus. Besides learning phonetic theory, the missionary candidate will practice hearing, producing and writing various phonetic sounds.

Form & Meaning- gives an in-depth explanation of the appropriate relationship between form and meaning particularly as it relates to Bible translation.

Right now we are also taking a class called Learning Styles and it's really interesting. Geoff and I have both discovered what our learning style is and how we learn best.  It's helped to understand each other better. Elijah is clearly one of these styles and it's so much fun to learn because now we know why he does what he does! And we can adjust our teaching/communicating so he'll respond and understand better.

I'm adding this book to my list of giveaways I want to do here on The Missionary Mama. I'll share more about the book and what we've learned then. I think it's a book we all could benefit from. Especially teachers and those working with kids.

Once again we thank you for your prayers and encouragement as we finish the training with NTM. It means more than you know!

Looking for Texture

I almost didn't enter this week's challenge at I ♥ Faces. The theme is "texture" and I was at a loss of what to enter. I haven't learned how to edit and add texture to a photo that way so i was browsing though my photos. I was looking for a photo that had some sort of natural texture to it. I wasn't finding anything and it was getting late. I decided to look in one last folder. And the very last picture in that folder was this one...

How's that for texture?

You can check out more texture photos by clicking on the button below.

Monday Menu

Ok, well i said i'd give you a tour of our apartment today but i still need to upload the video so that's not going to happen this morning.  What i'd like to do instead is post this from the other day. I found the recipe online and made it for dinner a few nights ago.

Original Ranch Pork Chops

(gluten free)

Servings: 5
Prep time: 15m
Cook time: 25m
Total time: 40m

Ingredients:
1 packet (1 ounce) Hidden Valley® Original Ranch® Salad Dressing & Seasoning Mix
¼ teaspoon black pepper
6 pork chops (about ¾-inch thick)
Dash of paprika (optional)

Instructions:

Combine dressing mix with pepper. Rub mixture on both sides of pork chops. Arrange pork chops in a single layer on a baking pan or broiler rack. Sprinkle with paprika (optional). Bake at 450°F for 20 to 25 minutes, or until cooked through.

Served with garlic/butter potatoes (it was going to be mashed potatoes until i realized i don't have a potato masher! oops!) and green beans. (And try not to burn the pork chops like i did! double oops!) Other than that it was really yummy and really easy to make!

Enjoy!

What are you making for dinner?

Just a couple things

First i've had to put on the word verification for comments because i've been receiving a lot more spam comments and they are getting annoying so i'm hoping the word verification cuts back on that. I'm sorry for your sake though, i wish i didn't have to put it on.

Second thing is about the newsletter. You may have noticed i had a sign up for our newsletter on the sidebar. It was something new i wanted to try out. It was a free service and when i went to send out a newsletter i noticed they stick adds in the letter. I didn't like that so that's why those of you who have signed up to receive newsletters have not received any! I didn't want to send it out with adds! So i've been looking around for something else and found MailChimp.

If you have already signed up under BraveNet I’ve moved your addresses over to MailChip so you don’t need to sign up again.


But please add our email to your address book so the newsletter doesn’t get sent to your junk box. My email is missylovsjesus(at)yahoo(dot)com

You can sign up above for now. I'll be moving it to the side bar soon.
Come back on Monday for a tour of our apartment! And stay tuned for a new Missionary Spotlight featuring The Hazens!

Hey you guys, have a great weekend!

Learning

11:00am – Thursday, January 21, 2010

One of the classes we’ve had this week has been the history of New Tribes Mission.

No matter how many times I’ve heard it before the sacrifices these early missionaries made never fail to touch me.

We’re in class right now listening to the story. There’s something I wanted to share with you.

In the early days the mission held their training in Fout Springs, CA. They lived in dorms and one day when they were all in the dining room the dorm caught fire and burned to the ground. The missionaries lost everything except the clothes on their backs. But that night nobody was talking about their stuff. They were asking for peace and grace for one family who’s 8 month old baby girl was napping inside the dorm at the time of the fire and they were not able to get to her in time.

Can you imagine?! I can’t. Here I am in class and when the photo of that little white casket being lowered into the ground came up on screen my tears started flowing! Just imagining losing one of my boys breaks my heart!

And you know that night they were singing, praising God still in the midst of their pain. And God used them for many years in Brazil.

It makes me wonder what scarifies am I going to have to make? Am I willing to give everything for Someone who has given everything for me?

But it’s an amazing thing what God does in our hearts. I’m praying He works in me and gives me such an excitement and passion for what we are doing by taking the gospel to those who have never heard it before that the hardships don’t seem like scarifies but an honor to serve Him.

I want God to work in our lives and do what will give Him the most glory. At any cost. I can say this now, I pray that when the time comes my faith is strong and I can live it out.

Please pray with us that we will make our relationship to Christ our priority and that we would learn what He wants us to this year.

Listen to this quote the teacher just read to us…

“If Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for him”
C.T. Studd

I have a feeling this year is going to be a full year. I think this year is going to be full of personal growth in our lives, in our relationship with the Lord, as a family and with others.

Thank you for your interest, prayers and impute in our lives!

Winners Announced!

First of all I want to thank you all for entering and commenting and making Ethan's Birthday Bash such a success. I've had a lot of fun and I hope you did too!

According to the True Random Number Generator the winner of the bath toys is #6... Sherri!

And maureen73 is the winner of the Mobi Digital Thermometer!

Like I said in this post i saw how many people want and could really use one of these thermometers and I wish i could give one to each of you! So if you didn't win today we'll be giving another one away next month so you'll get another chance!

And for the Bible Action Songs CD your chances of winner were higher since there were only 19 entries.

The winner of the CD is  Moya in Jamaica!

Congratulations girls! I'm going to email you but if you read this before i do go ahead and send me an email with your mailing address to missylovsjesus(at)yahoo(dot)com
Thanks again everybody for joining in! It's been great to meet so many new folks!

Elijah talks about school...

Elijah's a little camera shy when it comes to talking to the video camera so I had to be sneeky and turn the camera on as it was sitting on the table and he was telling me about his first day at pre school.
It's shaky sometimes from him kicking the table.

Today is the last day to get your entries in for the giveaways. We'll announce the winners tomorrow!

Bible Action Songs CD

A Mobi Digital Thermometer

Bath Goodies

Off we go...

Thanks for all the well wishes and prayers for our first day of school!

It's a blessing that they have pre school for our kids right here on campus! And childcare for Ethan too. We can drop the kiddos off at 8:50. And pick them up after class at 12.
Classes start at 8am for us though so one of us is going to have to miss the first hour of classes everyday. Most likly Geoff will stay and drop the kids off since i need to be at all the classes.

Geoff took this picture before we headed out this morning. We have a couple days of orientation this week before actuall classes start.

When i picked Ethan up after classes he was playing happily on the mat and when he saw me he gave me a great big smile and lifted his arms and was talking and pointing like he was telling me all about his morning.

Elijah did good too. His teacher said he fit right in and did really well.

First Day of School

Goodmorning, today is first day of school for both Elijah and his Mommy! =) Wish us luck!

Here's some pictures from the past week.

Elijah is enjoying it here. Here are some pictures of him around the campus.

This was from last week all the snow is gone now.

All you need is a stick and an imagination!

His smile brightens my day.

This is his favorite spot.

He can climb the ropes all the way to the top and is so proud of himself!

I hope you all are enjoying your day!

We Are Family

That's the theme on I ♥ Faces this week.

This is a photo taken last week (a couple weeks?) at Sherri and Jesse's pregnancy photo shoot. They've provided me with a few weeks worth of  I ♥ Faces photos! =)

Sherri and Jesse are expecting their first baby and I'm so excited to see their family grow!

Thanks for visiting! And thank you to all the new followers! Wow!

If you want to join in on Ethan's Birthday Bash check out these other posts and giveaways...

Todays giveaway... Bible Action Songs CD

A Mobi Digital Thermometer

Bath Goodies

We'll be announcing the winners in a couple days. Thanks for joining in and celebrating our little guys life here at The Missionary Mama! It's been fun for me and I hope for you too!

And the party continues...

Update: Giveaways are now closed. Thanks for entering! Click here to see the winners. Don't forget that next month we'll be having another birthday bash with giveaways!

Welcome to day three of Ethan's Birthday Bash!

Want to watch Ethan eat open his gifts?

First step was to chew each gift to see which one tasted the best...

And then his big brother had to give him a hand with the rest...

Yay! Fun letter and number magnets from Carrie! Thanks Carrie!

Let's see how this one tastes...

A music CD!

One more...

A little sea horse that plays music and lights up.

He fell asleep holding it the first night. So sweet.

Now on to the cake!

He loved the candle. We lit it and blew it out at least five times! =)

Notice Elijah holding his arms back so he won't burn himself. I told you he was a protective big brother!

What do you think he thought of his first taste of cake?

 

Not a big fan

It was much more fun to break it up and throw it on the floor piece by piece.

He also thought it was great to smear it through his hair and stick some behind his ears. So guess what he got before bed? Yup, he got another rubbermaid container bath...

.

Wow! Who knew a digital thermometer would be such a hit? Thank you to all who entered. I was touched by the need. Some thing so simple can make life so much easier. I know how hard it is for me to try to take my kids temps. Elijah thinks i'm trying to tickle him when i put the thermometer under his arm! And Ethan just won't stay still long enough to get a reading!

Since so many of you shared about how you could really use one of these digital thermometers i've decided to give away another one next month at Elijah's birthday giveaway. So if you don't win this time you'll get another chance in a few weeks. I hope it will be a blessing and help to those who win. If you haven't gotten your entry in click here to do so.

But don't forget about todays giveaway!

Todays giveaway is celebrating Ethan's love of music!

We're going to send one of you a...

Bible Action Songs CD!

To enter just leave me a comment below telling me who would enjoy this if you won.
If you follow The Missionary Mama give yourself another entry because I love you so much! =) But don't follow just for the extra entry. I want you to follow because you are interested in something your read or see here. Every one is welcome to enter. Even those of you who live over seas. And feel free to tell others about Ethan's Birthday Bash! Thank you to those who already have! "The more the merrier" as my mom always said! I'll choose the winners in a couple days.