Feast of Trumpets 2010 and a HUGE Caterpillar

The Feast of Trumpets was September 9 on the Roman calendar this year.  It was nice to have an extra day of rest this week.  The holy day started on the evening of the 8th, and we had brisket and sides for dinner, and Will and I made trumpet-shaped sugar cookies for dessert.

Will cutting out dough with cookie cutter

He had fun helping me make the cookies

The first batch of trumpet cookies

Trumpets is the fourth annual feast and holy day of God, which symbolizes the fourth step in the true plan of salvation.  Passover is about the sacrificial death of the sinless Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.  Feast or Days of Unleavened Bread is about repentance, turning from sin and toward God's law of love.  Pentecost teaches that we need the begettal of God's sperm/seed/spirit in order to be a son of God and for help in keeping his commandments.  Trumpets foreshadows the time in the future when the seventh and last trumpet of Revelation's trumpet plagues sounds and Christ returns and the saints rise from the dead and are changed, followed by those alive at his coming, and they shall all meet him in the air and receive their rewards, and then they shall descend with him and reign for a thousand years, bringing in a new age--the Kingdom of God.  I look forward to the fulfillment of this holy day.

I went over the feasts with the boys and read them scriptures dealing with the feast of trumpets and what shall take place in the future.  I also read them their this year's letters for their Feast of Trumpets reward journals.

Rewards Journals

I mourned for days prior to this feast of trumpets, because I knew the boys could not be rewarded.  Their behavior and works fell far too short of reaping any rewards, and if it wasn't for poor Trusten's lacking a better example (namely Jaden William), he really deserved a punishment for being naughty over this past year.  It could be argued, then, that Will needed the punishment, but then it could be said he is lacking a better example.  The boys have really just needed more loving and patient Daddy time, and he's worked so much.  He may soon be selling his business, though, and if so we can pay off everything (our mortgage and vehicles, as we have no other debt), and he can do something that has a schedule and way less hours away.  I know all the boys in this home (including my beloved husband) truly have a good heart, but without God as the top authority, things just do not work well.  

So, I read the sad letters to my boys.  I believe I am sadder than they, because I missed out on giving them something.  I want to teach them justice/judgment, though, and if I reward them after poor behavior, it is no encouragement for better behavior the following year.    After I got past my sadness, I realized I would have a biblical lesson to teach.  Those who are called but reject the calling, or are chosen but do not stay faithful, will not even be in the first resurrection, but there may be others who are in the resurrection but will not receive rewards but "he himself shall be saved..." (I Cor. 3:15).  Now, I know my boys are not the type who just do not care.  They go back and forth between trying really hard to do what is right and then do works on top of that, and then deliberately doing evil deeds.  Just as the wicked will see what they would have received if they had done righteously, before they are destroyed forever, I wanted my boys to see what I really wanted for them to have but they didn't get.  If they were both deserving, I wanted for them to have a swing set, and Nathan okayed it.  If, of course, one was undeserving of something and another not, other things would have been worked out, but that was the TOP prize, and I wanted so badly for them to get it, but to be just, we could not do it.  Will was disappointed, but I know he knows I deal justly with him.  He had told me before that I'm "unfair," but he knows that he is the only one unfair when he's doing wrongly.  It's no different than what God told Israel, as recorded in Ezekiel chapter 18, when they accused him of being unfair, and he says that they are the ones who are unfair.   Will has had superstar behavior today.  I hope it continues.  As I keep reminding him, judgment is a process that takes time.  Super good behavior for a short time to try to reap a reward and then going back to do evil afterward is not true, nor lasting, repentance. 

September 10:  Today Will excitedly showed me a huge red caterpillar.  I believe it is a larvae of an Imperial Moth, though most of those are green.   He has it in a large yogurt container that has holes in the lid, and he also collected some other things and put them in his science containers we got for him.  He's apparently using them today as kill jars.  He has a spider, some unidentified insect, and then a moth that Trust killed.  The two former are alive in there, awaiting the oxygen to run out, I guess.  He said he wants to study all of them under the microscope.  Check out the caterpillar:

What I believe to be a red Imperial Moth larvae

Note the size of this caterpillar

Well, that's it!  I have to finish preparing for the sabbath. 

Feast of Trumpets!

Feast of Trumpets

This year Trumpets started the evening of September 28 on the Roman calendar.  The boys helped me make our traditional trumpet-shaped sugar cookies, and Jaden William blew the shofar for the new moon and annual holy day.

Jaden cutting trumpets out of the dough

Trusten using the trumpet cookie cutter

All the children received rewards this year.  You might remember that we decided the boys should not receive rewards last year.  They've both had some behavior problems this year, but overall they've been pleasing.  Trusten has cycled in and out of some really bad behavior streaks, but he's just more challenging to train due to a very spirited personality, and food allergies and other problems exacerbate the problem.  Things have been getting better over time.  Liv is a very sweet girl overall, very polite and loving, though she can be a devil, too.  The boys' journals were ready for their new reward letters from us, but I forgot to fix Liv a journal, so I still must do that.

We got them bean bags this year, and Nathan picked them up the day before the Trumpets evening started, and he left them in his truck.  After the kids were asleep, he got them out, and we assembled them and set them up in the living room.  We thankfully were able to wake up and be in the living room before they woke up the next morning, and so we got to enjoy their excited reactions.

Jade, Trust, and Liv on their new cotton bean bags

Jaden also got the entire set of Adventures of Tintin graphic novels.  They're in hardback, a very nice set.  He has already informed me that he LOVES them.  There are three books in each volume, and he's read through one book and is already well into another one!  The first night he started reading the first book with his Light Wedge, and when I went into their room to snuggle and tell them good night, he started excitedly telling me what had happened so far.  Trust and Liv got new stainless steel canteens.  Trust had one, and Liv had none.  I've been letting Liv use Trusten's, and Trusten has used small glasses, but I really don't like him to use glasses, and of course I despise plastic, but I'd been using the crap for Liv.  :-(  BPA-free, but still it's plastic--unhealthful and non-biodegradable.  They all three got a small gift of new modeling clay sticks.

In the late morning we went outside, and I went over the Trumpets lesson and reviewed all the seven holy days and feasts and their plan in salvation, out on a blanket. 

Feast maps, Trumpets scriptures, and Trumpets matching game cards that I made a few years ago

I added something else fun this year.  Jaden has requested a pinata for his next birthday, and I plan to do that, but I decided to surprise them all with a pinata for Trumpets.  I could not find a trumpet or shofar pinata, so I got a king's crown and incorporated that into the teaching, because after the seventh trumpet and Christ returns and gives rewards to the saints, they will reign as kings and priests with him.  The kids LOVED the pinata, and they enjoyed the organic candy treats with which I'd stocked it. 

Liv got to hit at the pinata first

Daddy helping Liv hit the crown pinata

Trusten's turn to whack the pinata with a stick

What fun for Trusten!

Jaden's turn (yes, the boy put on long johns at some point in the day)

Nathan gave the final blow, and surprise!  Candy came out.

We had a great-tasting feast of grilled tenderloin, macaroni and cheese, and a colorful, delicious, and nutritious garden salad.  The children all had a great day, and Jaden William told me at the end of the day that it was the best Feast of Trumpets yet. 

Who needs a false holy day like Christmas, borrowed from the pagans, when there's the God-ordained holy day of Trumpets which teaches TRUTH rather than lie? 

For my article on how Christmas is a fraud and Trumpets is holy, see here.  For a brief outline of how the feasts outline the TRUE plan of salvation, see this article of mine.

Until next time...

Passover and Unleavened Bread, Repentance Journals, Firstfruits, and Taking Things Apart

*Sunday, March 28:  In the morning we read our proverb, and Jade did his Explode the Code lesson.  At evening, it was the 14th day of the first month of the year.  We observed the new covenant Passover with wine and unleavened bread.  I read to the boys out of Matthew.  We then washed each others' feet.  Jaden wanted to wash everyone's feet, though.  He even washed Baby Girl's feet.   I washed Jade's feet.

We will not have leavened bread in the house this week, and we will eat unleavened bread each day.

*Monday, March 29:  We read our proverb and bible story.  I told the boys what would have happened to Jesus the night before and what would have happened during different times of the day.  I did it in OUR time but explained that in Jerusalem the time of day is different, but it would have been the time of day it was here, there when it was happening.  Well, that doesn't sound well explained, but rest assured the way I said it, Jade understood.  This night was the first day of unleavened bread, a holy sabbath day.  It was a full moon, as it was the middle of the month, according to the object in the sky which God placed there for us to keep up with the months, namely the moon!  Most of adherents of the man-made religion of Judaism (as well as Passover-keepers of the man-made religion of Christianity and also Messianic Judaism [Judaism married to Christianity]) keep the Passover on this day, the 15th day of the month, although the scripture couldn't be plainer that it's the 14th day of the month that the Passover should be kept.  The 15th day of the month--mid-month with a full moon--is the first day of unleavened bread.  The full moon would have lit up the night if the Israelites happened to travel any by night after the Passover.

The full moon was lovely and should have been a reminder to all believers that God lights the way to righteousness for us.  He lights the way for us to leave the darkness of sin and death.  Egyptian bondage symbolized bondage to sin.  Serving the Egyptians symbolized serving the law of sin and death.  The Firstborn's of God death frees us from bondage, frees us to turn and serve the law of God with all our hearts and covers us with grace for our repentance.

*Tuesday, March 30:  It was nice to have a day of rest.  It was a lovely day outside, so the children and I enjoyed a good time outside.  We walked around on our property and took pleasure in the various wildflowers that have bloomed, all the greenery, and the buds on our flowering trees and bushes.  We also liked to see all the pretty butterflies fluttering about and the sights and sounds of the birds.  The only downside was some sort of gnat-type insect that kept swarming us now and then.

I read the proverb of the day.  Then I read some out of Revelation to Jaden.  That was an impulsive thing, and I didn't really have any specific reason.  Then I had Jaden write in his new repentance journal, and I had Trusten talk to me, and I wrote what he said in his for him.  You may remember that the boys have rewards journals for the Feast of Trumpets.  For the Feast of Unleavened Bread, they have repentance journals.  They write in the repentance journals; Nathan and I write in the rewards journals.  They write the sins they need to work on overcoming for this year.   Here's a picture of the repentance journals:

Jaden wanted pancakes so badly this morning.  He's asked one day last week, and I promised him we'd make pancakes "sometime next week," not thinking at the time about what week it was to be!  SO, we made unleavened pancakes.  It was simple.  I just left the baking powder out.  They were flat as a pancake.  LOL!  Okay, seriously, they were a bit flatter than normal, but they tasted fine, we thought.

I went over the feast map that I downloaded several years ago from United Church of God's sabbath school section for children.  I have copies for each of the children and myself, and they're colored.  It makes it more fun as we go through each step, and I quiz them (mostly Jade right now) on what each of the feasts and holy days mean as it pertains to the plan of salvation.

We didn't have a real lunch this day.  We just snacked all day.  Then for dinner I fixed some very delicious chicken fajitas, with of course unleavened bread (tortillas), tomatoes (canned, as I can't have anything close to raw), and fresh red bell pepper.  Oh, and we added some fresh organic shredded cheddar cheese.  They were so very good!

*Wednesday, March 31:  I can't remember the conversations of this day.  It never fails; if I don't take notes, I forget.  I know we read our proverb and bible story.  I also know the boys watched the following Youtube videos:

Survival:  fresh drinking water, making a snare, making a bow
Moral cartoon story:  "The Crocodile and the Monkey"

We had delicious chicken and dumplings, with the dumplings being tortillas I cut into dumplings, and green beans.  

*Thursday, April 1:  Proverb, bible story, and Youtube videos.

Survival:  making an arrow, dehydration
Moral cartoon stories:  "The Fingers," "The Crow and the Necklace"

We tried ground turkey for the first time (excepting pre-made turkey burger patties that we've  had a few times), since I've not fixed beef much in the past few months, except for special feasts and usually leaner red meats only on the weekly feast day.  The things, like tacos, that I normally used ground beef for, I've fixed vegetarian, with beans in lieu of meat.  Well, tonight we had soft tacos with ground turkey, and they were super!  We have things made with tortillas (unleavened bread--no yeast) all week during the week of unleavened bread each year.  It's an extra reminder what the week is about every time we sit down to dinner (which is overcoming sin, yeast being symbolic of sin).

*Friday, April 2:  Proverb and bible story.  Jade also played on Clever Island, playing "Time in a Bottle" to work on his time-telling and a game he really loves called "Meer Cat Mob" in which he has to shoot at meer cats (or maybe their signs) that have the right words labeled in front of their holes and get them before they go back into their holes.  There will be a category, like "verbs," "adjectives," or "food words," and so he is supposed to only shoot at those kind of words.  A screen shot from "Time in a Bottle":

We had vegetable-venison stew for the sabbath, but we had tortilla triangles to go with it for a change.  We had a mixture of chocolate and vanilla pudding for our dessert.

*Saturday, April 3:  Today was the sabbath day, and I read the daily proverb and then a lesson out of Choosing Thankfulness, about how David praised God and was a man after God's own heart.  I worked on the book I'm writing, God's Law of Love:  The Perfect Law of Liberty, and I'm nearly finished with the sixth commandment.  It was also a very gorgeous day, and I got to spend plenty of time outside cherishing the gift of creation by the Wonderful Creator.  I walked around with my Liv and then sat her on the grass so that she could pull at flowers and kick the grass back with her bare feet.  She got her feet dirty.  She really tore that grass up!  :-)

*Sunday, April 4:  The day after the sabbath during the week of unleavened bread is First Fruits.  It's not a feast of any sort, not a holy day.  Under the old covenant, though, the priest would wave a sheaf of the first fruits of the harvest to be accepted by God.  When Jesus the Christ ascended to God after his resurrection, he fulfilled this.  He was the firstfruits of the spring harvest (I Cor. 15:20), as laid out symbolically in God's feasts that lay out the plan of mankind's salvation.  So, I explained this to Jade and how ironic it was that this year it happened to fall on the same day that Christianity keeps its feast of Easter, on which they claim their christ rose from the dead, known in ancient heathen religions as the "sun god." Easter is the name of a heathen goddess, also known as Ishtar, Astarte, Eostre, Isis, etc., depending on which culture and language is being used.  She is a fertility goddess, hence the big deal over sex-crazed rabbits and eggs. 

We ate out at Las Palmas, a Mexican restaurant, for a late lunch today, and then when we got back, Nathan put together our new ceiling fan for the living room, while Jaden took apart the old one.  The other day, Nathan replaced a couple of our door knobs, and Jade took apart one to study it.  When I asked him the other day what his favorite thing to do currently is, he said, "I like to build, but I also like to destroy, and then when things can be fixed, I like to rebuild them after I tear them down."

Well, that's it until next time.  It will soon be the last day of unleavened bread, starting this evening, a sabbath day.  So, tomorrow I'll be going over the feast again with the boys and the entire plan of salvation.

Feast of Unleavened Bread (Roman Year 2014)

 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (1 Cor. 5:8).

We've been enjoying the week of Unleavened Bread so far.  On the first day—a holy day—I reviewed the meaning of the feasts, starting with questions to see how much they remember, as I always do, and then put particular focus on the meaning of Unleavened Bread.  I stressed the message I Corinthians 5:8 to the children and elaborated greatly, also reminding them of the fruits of the spirit.  Sure, removing literal leavened bread is a nice reminder of the need to remove sin from our lives, but the main point under the new spiritual covenant is that we should work hard on examining what we need to change in our lives to grow in righteousness and grace.  If we only were to participate in the removing literal yeast from our homes as instructed under the old carnal covenant, we'd be falling short of what is expected of us under the spiritual covenant.

Due to my severe trial at this time last year, I didn't even get out the children's repentance journals then, so this year is the first year that Trusten did his own writing.  I wrote down Olivia's list of things she wants to repent of and change, as she spoke them to me.  Jaden William made a big deal over how terrible his writing looked from past years.  LOL

We've been eating unleavened muffins, as we normally do, and I've been making tortillas to eat in various ways.

 Tortilla in the skillet

 Chocolate-chip muffins

Blueberry muffins

For Passover I made my dough in a heart shape before cooking it in the skillet, as seen on my other blog.  It reminded me all the more that what my Lord Salvation the Anointed did for me was out of his awesome love for me.  

I hope the children will truly work hard on their needed changes.  They know if they do well, they will be given rewards on the Feast of Trumpets and a wonderful note written by me in their Trumpets rewards journals.

To those of you who are also keeping the feast (with sincerity and truth, of course), we hope that you are being greatly fulfilled in spiritual growth, extra time of fellowship with fellow children of God, extra rest, and nourishing unleavened breads.

Until next time...

Feast of Trumpets 2009, Starting School Again, and Cooking Pancakes

We started back on the books Wednesday, the 16th of September on the Roman calendar. I have a very simple schedule for the remainder of Jaden's first grade year, and it's been working well. On Sundays and Fridays he does a lesson in Explode the Code (for a total of two lessons a week), Mondays and Wednesdays he does a lesson in Spelling (usually 4 pages), a few pages in Lang. Arts (4-8 pages), a few pages in Math (4-7), and a lesson in animal science out of the God's Design for Life series. On Tuesdays, he does a lesson out of Spelling and a lesson out of Lang. Arts, and we go grocery shopping on this day. On Thursdays we do Spelling, Lang. Arts, and Prepare and Pray. Then, of course, every day I read to him a chapter out of Proverbs and then usually a chapter or two from where ever we are in reading through the bible (still in Jeremiah, and we're going through it s-l-o-w-l-y).

Oh, whatever day he wants to do some art, he does that in his free time. We'll go back to history and music next year. I have his math and language arts lessons pre-set with paper clips throughout the Complete Curriculum book. It's making it very easy and organized for me. When he's nearly finished (I have it set to last around 6 -7 weeks), I will pre-organize his writing lessons. He'll be using the skills he's learned from reading, spelling, and language arts in order to be successful with that section (this was my choice, as I just didn't think he would be ready for that section until the others were completed). Then, during the last week or week and a half of this year he'll be doing testing from the book. He will be finished with the math section within six weeks, probably, so I bought him another workbook for math. It's a first grade math book by Miquon.

He's doing very well in spelling. He breezes through his lessons. Most of the language arts has been easy for him. With some of the things, he struggles a little at first and then quickly figures it out. Some of the stuff in math he struggles with, but he says every time before we begin math that he likes math. He's been doing addition and subtraction, including doing fact families, and he's done place values. He caught on to the place value stuff very quickly. We're still working through some of those lessons, and then we'll be starting on money.

We observed the first fall feast--the Feast of Trumpets--last sabbath. This is the second year we got the boys gifts, but I have a better plan now. I made them each a Feast of Trumpets reward folder. Both Nathan and I wrote short notes to each of the boys, hole-punched them, and put them in their folders. At the bottom of the notes, we also listed the reward(s) they received this year. We will be keeping these folders for them and updating them every year by adding an additional page with our notes each year. The notes are to detail what they did well the previous year, what we've appreciated, and what we've noticed that they've overcome, what behavior traits are good and what extra help we've appreciated. The reward(s) can be taken away if they fall away from having good behavior and slack off helping the way they should or being disrespectful or irresponsible, not taking care of their responsibilities. Of course, for now, this applies more to Jaden, since he has more responsibilities than Trusten.

I made trumpet-shaped cookies again for the feast. This was my second year in doing so. The cookie cutter is too big, though, so the shape gets messed up when transferring the cookies to the cookie sheet to bake. This year I made roll-out peanut butter cookies. At least they tasted good. We had a beef brisket as the center of our main feast meal. We had that Friday evening and then leftovers the next day for lunch.

I went over the feast lesson with the boys by first detailing a brief summary of all the feasts, as I do each high holy day, and the steps of salvation which they symbolize: Passover being that we need a perfect sacrifice for our past sins, Unleavened Bread that we must repent and remove sin from our lives, Pentecost that we must receive the begettal of the Spirit of God in order to help us live righteous lives according to God's Law, Feast of Trumpets that there will be seven trumpet plagues before the return of Christ and that at the seventh trumpet the saints will be raised and changed as Spirit sons of God, Day of Atonement that Satan will be locked away during the 1,000 year reign of the Firstborn Son of God and all the other sons of God (the saints in the first resurrection) so that human beings who have lived through the tribulation and their posterity will live under the Kingdom of God rather than the kingdom of Satan and that people will become "at one" with God, the Feast of Tabernacles that life here on this physical planet in these physical bodies is temporary and that the Sons of God "tabernacle" temporarily with human kind until the plan of salvation is finished, and the 8th Day that all who have ever lived and were not called to the Truth (whether because of death during childhood or spending one's life in a heathen culture, never hearing about the true Creator God and His Law and plan of salvation) will be raised to physical life once again and be shown the truths of the scriptures and be given their judgment period to choose life or death, and then all who have rejected God's way will be thrown into the lake of fire, and God will come down with the new spiritual earth and dwell with his Sons.

I then focused more specifically on the Feast of Trumpets, reading several scripture selections dealing with the feast and with what it means in the future fulfillment at Christ's return. Jaden understands it all more and more every time we go over this. I always ask plenty of questions as we go along. I explained that at Christ's return he will be bringing rewards (gifts) from our Father to the saints who earned them.

Jaden blew the shofar Friday evening. He's been blowing it on the weekly sabbaths and new moons for the last few weeks. He does extremely well for a six year old! He likes to do it. Then the next day, he asked whether I would get him and Trusten some balloons (I rarely let them play with balloons), so I blew up a balloon for each of them and wrote "Feast of Trumpets" on each of them. They played with their balloons after breakfast, and then after lunch they blew the little party noise blowers that I'd saved back from last year's feast. Then, we did the lesson, and we read their notes and let them open their rewards.

Jaden got a jump rope and two computer games (a racing game, as he has wanted a race car game for some time now, and an educational spelling game), and Trusten got a wooden helicopter with a wooden peg man inside (the latter of which I took away until he gets older, as it's a choking hazard). Trusten loves vehicles of all sorts and really likes flying machines (they both do, and they get that from me). He has frequently played with Jaden's little wooden helicopter (something Jaden has never played much with), and so I decided to get a bigger one for his very own. He loves it! And Jaden loves his race car game, which he gets to play after his school, other responsibilities (feeding cats, making his and Trusten's beds, and vacuuming the living room), and after outside time (I sure don't want him addicted to a computer game with no outside play!).

One day this week Jaden wanted pancakes (he loves pancakes), and he's been wanting to help me in the kitchen, so I let him make the pancakes. He even read off the ingredients the best he could, and with very little assistance from me, he put everything together, mixed them up, and cooked them. He did a great job! And it was a nice change to be able to sit down and eat pancakes while he cooked, instead of them sitting eating their pancakes while I still cooked! Yay!!! ;-) What a treat (and he thought he was the one getting the treat by my letting him cook).

The boys and I all got stung by yellow jacket wasps yesterday. I got stung on the front porch, and then a few minutes later the boys came screaming (and Trusten crying) from across the yard. I think they must have been by the nest. I have not yet gone out there to investigate. I had to take their shirts off, b/c they had yellow jackets crawling on them. Jaden got stung twice. Trusten got stung four times. So then last night we all read some things on the computer about stinging insects and learned about the Schmidt Pain Index. Very interesting stuff. And the creature that was second from the top looked like an insect I saw after I'd gone back outside a while after being stung. It was on the deck railing, and I was staring at it, wondering what it was and whether it could sting (it was obviously a wasp-type creature). Anyway, the creature I'm talking about is a Tarantula hawk. I investigated further to see whether they exist in Missouri, and they sure do. Well, if that's indeed what it was, I sure do not want to be stung by one of those. They are supposed to be worse than red wasps (which I've been stung by once, and my whole hand swelled enormously and stayed that way for days).

Well, I guess that sums up our learning adventures for the past week. I couldn't possibly ever fit in everything.

Fall Feast Holy Day Season 2012

In this entry I'll post about our celebration of the fall holiday season, consisting of four feasts, one of which is really a fast rather than feast, and within the four feasts, four holy days.  Later I will post another entry to catch you up on some of the other things we've been doing in our lifestyle of learning.  I'll be using mostly pictures with little commentary.

Feast of Trumpets

The Feast of Trumpets is the four feast and holy day in our Creator's seven-feast and seven holy day plan of salvation.  It foreshadows the time of the seven trumpet plagues detailed in Revelation and most specifically the seventh and last trumpet when the firstfruits--the saints called, chosen, and faithful during this age--are resurrected and born again as spiritual-bodied sons of God to help the Firstborn of God our Lord Salvation (Jesus Christ or Yeshua Messiah) reign over the earth in the next age.  This is one of my favorite feasts, though it wasn't celebrated this year with a great deal of pizazz as normal, especially when compared to last year's celebration.

Usually, if the children are deserving of rewards for the past year's performance, they will receive gifts of varying degrees.  This year we've had to be more careful with our spending, but I got us all galvanized steel pails, so six in all.  Elizabeth is too small to use hers now, but I put it back for her.

So nothing fancy, but we like them.  I've used mine to water my porch flowers, because the plastic pitcher I used to use for that cracked.  The kids can use them to gather things, play in the sandbox, etc.

Some of the usual....

 

My set of Trumpets scriptures

The "road map" of feasts outlining the plan of salvation

Trumpets memory match game cards

And some not usual...

The four immediate prior years for Trumpets I made sugar cookies and used my trumpet cookie cutter.  I made banana pudding for our dessert this year and made my fruit, grain, and seed cereal bars for breakfast.  I tried trumpet-shaping them, but it didn't turn out too well. 

Some images I printed and cut out for our Trumpets poster project

In the past, for two years when Jaden William was much younger, I did a Trumpets poster project.  This one is quite different than those I did in the past.  I read and talked about the seven trumpet plagues, and we pasted the pictures to go with each one.  Liv doesn't care much about such projects at this point, so it doesn't matter that this is over her head.  She did her own thing, anyway.

Day of Atonement

I don't have any pictures to go with this day, but I fasted from food and drink, and Jaden William greatly reduced his intake.  He wanted to participate.  I certainly do not expect my children to do so, though.  We watched an Atonement-themed sermon on Youtube, streamed to the television.  And I had some prayer and meditation time outside while the kids played.  It was a truly gorgeous day that day as I sat outside in prayer and meditation.  The way the sky and trees looked and the way the air felt is still vivid in my memory, as well as the strange way I felt from fasting, which I don't often do when exclusively nursing an infant.

Feast of Tabernacles

We often travel for the Feast of Tabernacles, but this is the second year in a row that we haven't.  Last year  much of our house was water- and mold-damaged, and Nathan had to rebuild the damaged parts.  Here's a small quote from my post last year:  

It's interesting that all this was discovered shortly before Tabernacles and that our plans were radically changed.  During the Feast of Tabernacles Christians stay in temporary dwellings, and this year we lived (and still are living) in temporary conditions in our own home.  It's really given me a lot on which to meditate.  It has caused me all the more to look forward to that time when God's Kingdom reigns on this earth...a new world/age.

Also last year our friends John and Jessica and their girls were supposed to move up here from Texas.  So many things went wrong on their end and ours that it didn't work out.  While we had our problems with the house and unable to use our master bedroom and bathroom, kitchen, and laundry room, John and Jessica and family suffered a bout of whooping cough and their own temporary living conditions of staying in various friends' homes and tent-camping, all with no job because John had quit his job, and they had planned to temporarily stay in our home until securing a place up here to rent and securing a job (he was to work with Nathan until then).  We were suddenly cramped in our own home without use of even our kitchen, and they had whooping cough (and I was soon to give birth to a new baby).

This year their family came up to keep part of the week of Tabernacles and also the 8th Day with us.  We also had others keep the feast with us.  Keith from Canada stayed the entire week of Tabernacles and the 8th Day, and our friends Paul and Lisa and Paul's daughter McKenzie and Lisa's son Fabio, as well as our friends Casey and Shana and Dave came for the holy first day of Tabernacles and again for the 8th Day feast.  Our family, as well as Keith, and Paul and Lisa and McKenzie tent-camped the first night.  Fabio started the night with us, and Casey and Shana and also Dave all came for a hamburger and hot dog cookout the evening of the first day of Tabernacles.

The next day we had a big feast of turkey and dressing, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes and turkey gravy, salad, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie after having a breakfast of blueberry muffins and snacking throughout the day.  Keith gave a sermon on the topic of Truth. I didn't take pictures of our delicious food, but here are some pics:

Our tents/tabernacles, people gathered in our living room

Playing catch and throw with football, conversing around the fire pit

I'd seen a video posted by my friend Chel on her blog that I thought would be cool to play for the kids.  We all enjoyed singing to it.  I played it twice!  Later in the week when John and Jessica came, I learned that she'd played it for her girls, too.  It's a popular one put out by the United Church of God.

  It's entitled Jelly is Dreaming of the Kingdom.

We went to town to pick up some air mattresses so that Keith and Jaden could continue to comfortably camp out.  Trust ended up being sick throughout the week, so we didn't want him out, and Liv shouldn't ever be far from me.  By the end of the week it was nearly freezing outside, so everyone had to sleep inside.  While Keith and Jaden went into the store, the other kids and I waited in the parking lot, and I snapped some sweet pictures of Elizabeth.

Elizabeth's almost always a happy girl.

Later in the week the kids and I took Keith to Paul's and Lisa's earth bag home, and we ate and had a bible study that night.  Nathan worked all the days but the holy days and one other day, but he attended the bible study that night after he went home and showered.

Bible study at Paul's and Lisa's with Fabio also attending

The morning before the weekly Sabbath John and Jessica and girls arrived after driving from Texas all the previous night.  We all had a wonderful weekly Sabbath day.  I'd fixed my usual fall/winter Sabbath meal, stew and cornbread, and we had enough leftover for lunch the next day.  It was a wonderful day outside, and we all enjoyed each other's company.  We started to watch a sermon but ended up not doing so.  Casey and Shana came over during the latter part of the day with some 15 bean soup, which was delicious with some of my homemade salsa and some tortilla chips.

Playing and talking outside on Sabbath, the memorial of Creation and a holy rest day

Trust and Liv playing in sand box

Kaia and Violet in the Sycamore tree

Jaden and Kaia in our tent

Jaden and Kaia reading on couch; the sky as it looked before I left to go to town.  Can you spot the moon?

When we got back from town we left to go to Hobbs State Park fall festival.  I was sad Nathan did not go, but he had to go do something on a job.

Beautyberry shrub (Callicarpa dichotoma);Kids on Van Winkle Hollow trail (Violet had just fallen and was hurt when I snapped picture)

Children at the old-fashioned games table

They liked the neat games.

Jess looking at the games; John holding Zephyr, their fourth-born of five daughters

Top is Kaia on stilts; bottom is John on stilts

Jaden on stilts

The Van Winkle's old spring house

Jaden talking to the blacksmith about various tools

Various old tools

I was especially fascinated with what I found out was a "miller's hammer," (top) which isn't really a hammer and the claw hammers pictured at bottom

Top: Trusten and Kaia; bottom: Olivia

Flint tools

The labels say it all

The man at the table knapped all these points himself, I think.

Trusten using the pump while he and Jaden listen to the blacksmith talk about forging metal

Top: Jaden trying the pump; Bottom: Jessica with newly picked flowers in her hair (picked by Violet)

Paintings of various buildings from the Van Winkle family's time

From l to r: John, Zephyr, Olivia, Trusten, Violet, Jaden, and Kaia

Trusten being angry and being silly

Top: John with Zephyr, then Trust and Liv; bottom: Jess and I

Top is Jaden and Kaia; bottom are children out by the parking lot after our walk and learning experience

Liv had gotten her feet wet in a stream and walked most of the way back barefoot by choice (she always goes barefoot, so it's nothing to her).  I asked to take her picture in the parking lot, but it was her desire to run to the rock and pose.  She loves pictures like her momma.

This one was taken before we got back to the parking lot (out of order).  From l to r: Trusten, Jaden, Kaia, Violet, Olivia, and Emilia

Elizabeth and I

Eighth Day...


 Then we had everyone over again for the 8th Day, which was a nice warm and sunny day after a chilly day.  It was such a blessing.  We had a lot of outside time.  Then we adults (and two infants) all gathered outside for a short sermon/bible study while all the kids (overseen by McKenzie, nearly 12) stayed inside and watched a bible video.

I meant to get a picture myself but forgot, so this is a still image from a short video greeting Keith did, so he's the one behind the camera.  Pictured from l to r: Casey, Shana, I (Tara), Nathan, Dave, Fabio, Lisa and my baby Elizabeth, Paul, John, Jess and her baby Indica

Then we had another cookout--hamburgers, hot dogs, and chicken (thanks to Nathan) with chips and bean dip (with thanks to Lisa) and pumpkin and pecan pies (my doing) for dessert.

Everyone pictured (Trusten only in second pic, behind chair), except for me (behind camera) and poor Jaden, because I'd sent him for a quick shower, and Dave is at the sidelines.

 We had a great feast season!  And I hope you did as well, for those who kept the feasts of the Almighty God!

Until next time...