A visitor...

Miss Sally Mander pauses to pose for a picture.

A book everyone should read...

Hitler's Cross 

by Erwin Lutzer

Swastika banners in churches.  Pastors and leaders who tried to serve two masters.  

A country seduced and hypnotized by a demon possessed leader.  This was Germany under the rule of Adolph Hitler in the 1930's and 1940's.  

This book tells how Hitler rose to power, scheming to eliminate the church in Germany and set up his own ‘religion’ after his own image, and what we can learn for today from this deception.   Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer saw that following Christ was to focus on the message of the cross without shading the message to fit the political zeitgeist (spirit of the age). Sadly, most of the German pastors did just the opposite and the church lost it's influence in the country.  Nationalistic pride clouded their minds and many churches and pastors (although not all) looked the other way when Hitler began his elimination of the Jewish people.  It's hard to believe how this could happen, and this book examines how the church was deceived, and the lessons we can learn from this as our own nation becomes increasingly secular.  A nation that rejects it's solid moral foundation in God is a nation adrift and capable of much evil.

God let Satan loose to shake the whole German church to separate the wheat from the chaff. Hitler was a powerful man, but God is in control and nothing that happens is a surprise to Him.  He sets up rulers and takes them down.

I highly recommend this book.

~Alyssa W

Quote for the day...

" 'Free will' I have often heard of, but I have never seen it. I have always met with 'will', & plenty of it, but it has either been led captive by sin or held in the blessed bonds of grace." 

~ C. H. Spurgeon

An English Country Dance

 This past Saturday was the second English Country Dance at our place. :)

We had a fun time together!

Becca and Amy

 The little boys had fun too!

Francis K.

"I see you!"

 Hannah and her brother Nate.

 Amy

Miss Glory K.:)

 

 Josh K., the sound man.

 Here we are learning the moves to a new dance.....   We did finally get it figured out!



A gift..

"Every day we live is a priceless gift of God, 

loaded with possibilities to learn something new, 

to gain fresh insights into His great truths." 

- Dale Evans

A Pepper with Personality

We made salsa last week and when I cut one of the peppers in half it looked like a face!

These are some the captions friends came up with:

  ‎

"Don't eat me! Don't eat me!!!!" - J.R.

‎"Baby RUTH..." - T.H.

‎"Whoa! I can't see, I can't SEE!" - P.P.

Do you have an idea for a fun caption? :)

A Bonfire and Hymn Sing

 Yesterday evening we went our church's annual bonfire. 

We sang hymns for over an hour while watching the fire crackle and burn.

 Then we walked up to "Low Point" and watched the sun set!

Mr. D. enjoying the view.

When we came back to the campfire, we each shared Bible verses and then had s'mores...yum!

Live!

{picture by Three Nails Photography}

"Do not, we beseech you, be satisfied to vegetate when you are called upon to live.  

Do not be content to take a low standard of life.  

Aim high.  

Be a living force for good in the world.  

Inspire by your own earnest, faithful life, the lives about you, and in your daily weakness and need remember Him who stands ever by your side to give you grace sufficient."  

~ from the book In My Father's House - A Vision for Daughters

How to Write Good

{Photo from Pintrest}

.....A fun list of what NOT to do.....

Avoid Alliteration. Always.

Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.

Avoid cliches like the plague. (They’re old hat.)

Employ the vernacular.

Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.

Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.

It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.

Contractions aren’t necessary.

Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.

One should never generalize.

Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.”

Comparisons are as bad as cliches.

Don’t be redundant; don’t use more words than necessary; it’s highly superfluous.

Be more or less specific.

Understatement is always best.

Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.

One word sentences? Eliminate.

Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.

The passive voice is to be avoided.

Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.

Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.

Who needs rhetorical questions?

Parenthetical words however must be enclosed in commas.

It behooves you to avoid archaic expressions.

Avoid archaeic spellings too.

Don't repeat yourself, or say again what you have said before.

Don't use commas, that, are not, necessary.

Do not use hyperbole; not one in a million can do it effectively.

Never use a big word when a diminutive alternative would suffice.

Eschew obfuscation.

No sentence fragments.

Don't indulge in sesquipedalian lexicological constructions.

A writer must not shift your point of view.

Don't overuse exclamation marks!!

Place pronouns as close as possible, especially in long sentences, as of 10 or more words, to their antecedents.

Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided.

If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.

Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.

Everyone should be careful to use a singular pronoun with singular nouns in their writing.

Always pick on the correct idiom.

The adverb always follows the verb.

Subject and verb always has to agree.

Placing a comma between subject and predicate, is not correct.

Use youre spell chekker to avoid mispeling and to catch typograhpical errers.

Don't repeat yourself, or say again what you have said before.

Use the apostrophe in it's proper place and omit it when its not needed.

Don't never use no double negatives.

Poofread carefully to see if you any words out.

Hopefully, you will use words correctly, irregardless of how others use them.

Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors.

If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be by rereading and editing.

And always be sure to finish what

~Written by Frank L. Visco and William Safire