Grace Marie

Lannie and Jill had their little baby girl Feb. 10th, 7 weeks early!  The little miss is doing so good though.  She weighed 4 lbs 1 oz (I think that is right) and is 17 inches long.  She is already off the vent so that is great news.  She will have to stay in the hospital about 3 more weeks.  Lannie and Jill are able to hold her though and have gotten to change diapers!  Congrats guys!

Happenings

Most of the time I am home with these two!  Lucy really does love her little brother.  She is always saying things like, “He’s so chubby.”   Or “Mom our little buddy is so cute.”  I couldn’t agree more!

This weekend we also got to see some good friends Seth and Rachel.  We are working through a marriage book as couples.  The kids get to play- they have a lot of fun!

Then we also got to have some family fun.  Jared, Em and Zoe had come up for the weekend.  So it was fun to hang out with them.  Of course I don’t have a pic of Zoe.  You’ll have to go to my sister’s blog or Jared’s to see a recent one of her.  We also were able to watch one of Payton’s basketball games.  I was impressed- I don’t think my team was that good in Jr. High.  He is a good sport too.

A Good Sermon

Last weekend our pastor preached a very edifying sermon.  I found it very encouraging and challenging. 

Here is a little from it.

This week’s sermon: “What Is the Recession For?“

God is sovereign over all finances. Any economic recession—global or personal—is never less than recession-by-divine-design.

When the economy plummets, God has his purposes—perhaps thousands uponthousands of purposes. Some of these purposes he has made known in his Book.

At least 5 of them are:

1. To expose hidden sin and so bring us to repentance and cleansing.
2. To wake us up to the constant and desperate condition of the developing world where there is always and only recession of the worst kind.
3. To relocate the roots of our joy in his grace rather than in our goods—in his mercy rather than our money, in his worth rather than our wealth.
4. To advance his saving mission in the world—the spread of the gospel and the growth of his church—precisely at a time when human resources are least able to support it. This is how he guards his glory.
5. To bring his church to care for its hurting members and to grow in the gift of love.

A Poll

So the other night I was at small group and brought a Texas Sheet Cake, which everyone kept calling brownies!  I finally announced if one more person calls this Texas Sheet Cake brownies, I’m going to … It was an empty threat, with really no threat but wanted to get the point across that I had made this cake from scatch, it was not brownies!!  It was pretty funny and everyone had fun making fun of me, including myself. 

If any of you have had Texas Sheet Cake you know that it is made in a jelly roll pan.  Here is where my poll comes in:  How many of you know what a jelly roll pan is?  If so do you own one and what do you use it for?

Everyone in my small group was making fun of my “monster” pan.  They had never heard of a jelly roll pan.  I thought is it just an Iowa thing or a weird thing in my family?  So please answer my poll so that I can prove to my small group they are the weird ones!