Victory

Today we won our first basketball game 55 to 10. Of course . . . the team was all girls, and we went scoreless for 8 minutes. But with our record we'll take any victory. I scored 14 points, but they were all fast break lay ups. Oh well, hopefully we'll win another game.

Knitting

I have started knitting again after about a year. I am still learning, and hopefully when I am done with my practice knitting I will have a scarf for one of my dolls. Michaela is drilling me hard(not really) I have to practice three times a week for 15 minutes. Our aunt gave us some needles and yarn and instructions on how to make these hats. Hopefully, I will be up to the challenge before the winter season ends!

Over&Out

GRACE

Facade

I am often described as a person that seems calm and collected and most of the time that is true. After becoming a husband and father, I suddenly had to deal with anxiety attacks. Living on 9th Street allows us to hear many sirens because of the location of the police department, hospital and fire station. When coming home from work on 9th Street it is not uncommon to see an emergency vehicle heading in the direction of my house. I will usually have waves of thoughts wash over me wondering at first if it is my house and eventually this first thought will grow into a vain imagination of horrific proportions. Fortunately I recalled being told that this is the time to pray. So my routine now is to recognize that these thoughts do not originate from my heavenly Father. (Philippians 4:8) Next I spend some time thanking God for every moment that I have had with my family thus far (I Thessalonians 5:16-19) and affirm that I will worship Him whether or not He gives me another moment with them. (Habakkuk 3:17-19) This usually puts things in perspective and causes my adversary to flee. My last 2 incidents were when Velda and Michaela drove to McPherson with a spare tire. Nothing out of the ordinary. Michaela and I drove to KC with a spare when we had a flat on the way to the airport. Still it was a test for me. The other one was with Joshua. Joshua received his driver's license on December 30. Yesterday he drove to Whitewater by himself for a campout. Joshua's character includes a healthy amount of caution and He has been a very good driver. I was the one who decided to let him drive. It seemed like a good idea at the time. He has driven there a few times with me. Both Joshua and the car returned in about the same condition that they left. While he was gone, I got some good practice on the above concepts.

Camping

Today I just returned from an overnight camping trip in Whitewater. I had a great time, we had venison steaks grilled over the fire, and plenty (if not too many) s'mores. Then for the rest of the evening we played freeze tag. It was a great game, since there was mud which several people slipped in (and in which I was foremost), and there were no boundaries so you could elude your tagger by hiding in the woods. It was a little cold when we went to bed, at least we didn't do the campout earlier or else we might have been dealing with negative degrees. Had a great time, and will sleep well in my nice warm bed.

God Answers Prayer

After Eddie was at a loss for words on last weeks' game, I thought I would report on the boys' game today. God answered my prayer before the game with the boys that they would play as a team, working together, show good improvement and have fun while doing it. The game was a great encouragement to me as the boys appeared more comfortable on the court and worked much better together as a team. There is still room for improvement and they came so close to a win so we will pray all of the above and the added bonus of a win for the next game as well. What a great adventure!

Charades

Last Thursday, we had a game of charades. It was mainly Michaela and I. Daddy did things like up (the movie) cars(also the movie), Joshua did Chariots of Fire. I did the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Which Joshua guessed before I had even started. Then for the grand finale, the kids acted out the Good Samaritan which was a school project. Joshua was the Israelite, Michaela was the robbers, the Pharisee, and the Levite. And I was the Good Samaritan! Unfortunately, this Israelite was very unwilling to receive help. Since I couldn't lift Joshua I was trying to get him to move; then Michaela said I should bind up his wounds first. It was then that I discovered Joshua's ticklish spot. On me touching it, Joshua immediately smacked my hand, which resulted in me hitting him and so on and so forth. In the end I guess it kind of turned out as a disaster but we had fun!

Over&Out(I haven't used that in a long time wonder why)

GRACE

Are you Hungry?

Lately I've been noticing that this is a time in my life when something amazing is happening. For the past month God has been giving me spiritual food like crazy. For instance, for graduation I received a Christian devotional called "Streams in the Desert." The first Sunday of January I started it and was determined to go through the whole year with it. Well in church our pastor ends his sermon with the verse Isaiah 35:6 which last words are streams in the desert. So apparently God wants to use this verse and the devotional in my life.

Also reading Amazing Grace about William Wilberforce has been amazing. He was incredible. But not only do I get to learn about him but also about other Godly characters who were his friends. I really like the determinedly tenacious Granville Sharp. He was an accomplished musician, Christian, and lawyer and often signed his name G#. This guy could play two flutes at once!

Then for my Christian online college "Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life" is recommended. This book is packed with 12 essential disciplines that all Christians should practice along with practical examples and steps of how to implement them. Also my goal is to finish the biography of Hudson Taylor sometime this year. He particularly struck me with how much he would sacrifice for the advancement of God's kingdom. At one point in China he was only living on $10 a month! Also while in London he only ate twice a day and literally only bread and water.

One Christian man said if he were stranded on a desert island with only one book of the Bible to read he would want Romans. That's the book I started this morning in prayertime. Last but not least my Mom and I are starting the Perspectives class which is an intensive 15 week course about world missions and how Christians should be acting about them. My old partner in crime Ethan Greene will be attending this class with us as well and will be riding with us. With all this feeding of my spirit it will be exciting to see how God will use me to teach the lessons I'm learning and what growth will occur. Am I hungry? Oh yeah!

Christmas Letter

Finally, we have typed and printed our Christmas Letter. I read and thought it was very good. But I will note that I don't think teasing Joshua is one of my hobbies. I loved the pictures of the kids. Though I 'm not quite sure when mine was taken but it wasn't recent sense I'm wearing sunglasses. For once, Joshua is looking at the camera and smiling a combination difficult to find. And I think Michaela's picture is quite her.

Love,

GRACE

Shopping Surprises

Now I normally don't go shopping, but I needed some shorts. So I went with the rest of my family to Goodwill. Since I didn't see any shorts, I moved on to the pants sections. There to my great joy I discovered BDU pants (my favorite) in my size. It ended up that I walked away from the store with four BDU pants. One of the pair are desert camouflage, that is an added bonus. Hopefully I won't have to shopping for a long time.

At a Loss for Words

I was able to attend my sons basketball game today. I can't find the words to describe the game. They lost 60-something to 20-something. Mercifully the scoreboard in the gym was not working. My wife is the head coach so this is really going to challenge my abilities of the English language. (I paused a few minutes before typing this sentence. I can't call it writer's block because I know what I want to say.) Let me jump to the encouraging fact that Joshua said (genuinely) that he had fun today. That is the bottom line. If they aren't having fun, then something is wrong. After all, basketball is a sport and the word sport is a synonym for having fun. Wow, I'm very relieved that this entry is over.

Anniversary!

Hello all you faithful(and unfaithful) blog readers. I have an important, exciting, message. The Kansas Creers Home on the Range blog has now been going for one year. Actually we started on December 18, 2009 so a few days into our year. I don't know what I was doing on December 18 but it wasn't blogging which would have been the proper thing to do on our anniversary. But this is a surprise anniversary so it doesn't matter. We have all immensely enjoyed blogging(most of the time) and have now gotten back into the routine of blogging once a week(sometimes).

Games, Games and more Games

This title describes our New Years Eve event with the Greene family and several other friends. We played into the early morning including charades, pictionary, apples to apples, and a crude form of the game cranium just to name a few. Of course the evening included delicious food, and conversation for all. We enjoyed ourselves and caught up on sleep the next day or should I say later on New Years Day. May God bless all with a truly prosperous year in the Lord.