MARANATHA!

Come quickly Lord Jesus!

This Sunday our pastor asked us what would change in our lives if we knew Jesus was coming soon--tomorrow, next month, in two years. . .

He made a list of what that would mean to him and asked us to think about what it would mean to us.

Here’s my list:

* my sadness for the ‘bad’ in this life would be over

*I would “dwell in the house of the Lord forever”

*those who are currently not ‘paying attention’ to the things of God would PAY ATTENTION.

*those unsaved would perish

But wait, I don’t want those I love, or even those I just know casually, or anyone for that matter, to perish. So I guess it is with those in mind I write this post.

If God created the earth, and if evil and sadness have come into that earth so it is no longer the paradise God intended and if God in his mercy has made a way out from under that evil and a way to restore all things and if Jesus is who he claimed to be, “the Way, the Truth and the Life”

Then. . .

NONE need to perish! :-)

“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” --II Peter 3:8&9

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” --I John 1:9

“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

--Romans 10:13

That is Good News! Maranatha, come quickly Lord Jesus.

HAPPY YEAR OF THE RABBIT!

We had fun yesterday celebrating Chinese New Year. First we made egg rolls:

Then we made bubble tea:

Then we had a party with friends and family!

"According to the Chinese zodiac, the Year of the Rabbit assigns characteristics such as gracious, cautious, kind, elegant, reserved, soft-spoken, artistic, tender, self-assured, shy, sensitive, compassionate, flexible and lucky, but also opportunistic, superficial, moody, stubborn, self-indulgent and detached." (http://mansfield.patch.com/articles/uconn-celebrates-the-year-of-the-rabbit)

Daniel is the only rabbit in our extended family. Cautious, kind, artistic, tender, sensitive-yes, soft spoken-not so much. Those others-we'll leave unmentioned ;-)

Today we will go to the big Chinese Association New Year party and tomorrow we will celebrate at the Chinese church.

Christmas Pictures 2010

Reading the Christmas Story on Christmas Eve

Christmas Morning

A whirlwind of present opening

At church on Sunday

Christmas Letter 2010

All new for 2010! The Blakeslee annual (or semi annual or once in a while)Christmas letter now goes green. No more printing, no more stamps and envelopes, no more trying to fit pictures from a whole year on a 8x10 page. It must be the 21st century.

This year it seems I've heard many disparaging comments about 'Christmas letters'. So I decided to post mine on our blog where only those who wanted to read it would. So thank you for wanting to!

We thank and praise God for this year. Things have gotten smoother on the home front, but also quieter. Our family of nine has spent most of the year as a family of 6 with our three oldest out of the house.

Annie has been really stretched in her first year in ministry with Formando Vidas in Bogota Colombia. Rebecca is still enjoying her volunteer job at Overlook Farm in MA with Heifer International. She spends her time doing farm chores and being an educational volunteer . She shows people around the farm and encourages them to think more about world and their part in it. In her spare time she enjoys bread making and apparently, judging by all the hand crocheted gifts today, she has been enjoying crocheting.

Tim just finished his first semester at Adelphi College in New York. He did really well, but decided to take a semester off to work and look into another school for the fall.

Jonathan, Kai, Daniel and Sarah-Grace are all still homeschooling. This blog is mostly about them, so if you look back through the posts you can see lots of what they've been up to.

Dana and I are well. We can not believe we are in our fifties! Last night, after reading the Christmas Story and The Night Before Christmas to the kids, Dana admitted he was ready for grandchildren! He said the excitement level with our kids at Christmas time just isn't there anymore.

We hope Christmas and the New Year bring many blessings to you and yours!

What Kai Learned

This is a manger scene made by Annie's students in Colombia

We've been looking into the Christmas Story this year for school. We've learned a bit about shepherds and sheep, St. Nicholas of Myra and angels among other things. I decided to do this because last year the entire Christmas season went by and I'd only read about 2 of our Christmas story books with the kids. So we've taken advantage of "school time" and read our favorites.

Of course among the favorites is the Bible account of the birth of Jesus. While reading from Luke 1 about John the Baptist's birth and the Angel Gabriel coming to Mary we read about the Virgin Birth. Surprisingly, this was a new concept for Kai. He had thought Joseph was the biological father of Jesus. Thus missing the whole glorious truth of "God becoming man." And he really seemed to get it. He looked totally awestruck. It was a good time for him to learn this fact because we are just finishing up a unit on human reproduction--so he knows all about how babies are conceived and grow in the womb. He was really amazed that God "put" Jesus into Mary and then he grew there--Son of God and Son of Man. It was also a wonderful time to talk about adoption. Joseph was the earthly father of Jesus; Jesus, had a "different" biological father than the rest of his siblings. I felt like it was an extra special Christmas gift from God for my adopted kids.

I'm really looking forward to Christmas this year. Feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the shopping I still have left to do. We saved getting our tree until Annie, with Jonathan who went down for a 2 week visit in Colombia, came home. So we have a busy weekend in store: cut and decorate the tree, Christmas choir/play rehearsal and play for Sarah-Grace and Daniel and of course the ever present shopping! Hopefully I can post some of these events with pictures!

Despise not the day of the small thing

We've been working really hard here. All three of the younger kids are grade levels behind where they should be academically and sometimes that strikes fear into my heart. So this year we've really been working on English grammar, reading, phonics, reading comprehension, spelling etc. Hard work! However, I do see progress and that is good. But, all this hard work takes its toll. So over this past week we've taken a couple of "mental health days."

Last Friday was a cooking day. We made Lithuanian LOG for our co-op class to share on Daniel's birthday. He turned 11. We also made roast pork and a corn casserole for dinner because we filled out our state sheet on Iowa earlier in the week and Iowa is the top producer of both hogs and corn. And we made applesauce from some apples we had picked earlier in the season. Kai and Sarah-Grace were both surprised to see that applesauce was really just cooked down apples. We didn't even add anything to them but a tiny bit of water and the applesauce was delicious.

Yesterday I let the kids sleep in since they were up late playing with Daniel's new Wii game. Then we only did English and math. So they had a good bit of free time. While Daniel was eating lunch I looked over into the living room and Kai and Sarah-Grace were on the floor playing with Legos and cars. This is the first time I've seen them play at imaginative play alone together since Sarah-Grace came home last year. It really warmed my heart and made me realize that time for mental health is good for us all!

Fall 2010

I've been wanting to blog and feeling guilty for not blogging--but basically my life feels rather boring right now--as far as new thoughts go. At least thoughts I want to share. So here are some pictures to save 1000 words:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my husband of 28 years this month!

Dana and Kai ready to go out hunting

Matryoshka dolls we made during our study of Russia in our homeschool co-op

Daniel as an Anglo Saxon for Halloween
Kai as a stickman and Sarah-Grace as a little person