Courageos

I know today isn't my day to post, but there's something I have to tell you all about!
Sherwood Baptist Pictures, known best for Fireproof and Facing the Giants, has come out with a new movie, premiering today.

http://www.courageousthemovie.com/tickets
Use this link to find a theater near you.
I have seen clips of this movie at the film academy I went to and I PROMISE (though it's rated PG-13) it's 100% family movie. It's something to go and see. I got to hear Stephen Kendrick (the producer) speak on it, and it was great.


~Natalya

a stolen post from Katie...

...to say,

HAPPY 18th BIRTHDAY!!!

...to my dear little sister Esther.

She is such a sweet blessing to me, my family, and all those we know.  Thankfully she communicates in English now instead of her childhood 'agady' (which we never learned to translate).  I say 'little' sister but she is actually my height and even more amazing, we share the same shoe size.  (It's in proportion to our height, enough said.)  :)

Her love of our family is apparent in all she does to serve us at home, and she has become a gracious young woman we are thankful to call sister/daughter/friend.  We love her dearly!

These verses are what Esther lives out each day as she blesses our family:

Philippians 2:3-4
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

Leave her a note to say happy birthday!!  (even if you are a lurker and never comment - yes, we know you're there!)

We love you, Esther!!

Natalya~Week 17~ A beautiful lilly and some news!

Hello everyone!
This is a short post, but with some more flower photos!

Luk 12:27 Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.


Very sorry this is bad quality...don't know what happened, it didn't look like that on my computer...hmm...you can still see my lilies though. I have these lilies in my garden at home. I just love them It's one of the best parts of spring for me to see them come up and start blooming. :)


Now for the exciting news...I'm making a short film with some of my friends from church! We're all teens and so this is a big project. I'm so excited about it though. It's about a boy who falls in with the wrong friends, but his true friends won't give up on him, neither will his parents or pastor. They pray for him everyday and God uses everything he did that was wrong to change his life. It's basically a modern retelling of the prodigal son. :)

~Natalya

...::Patricia::...(Week 17)

Every year for my family flies to Florida to visit our relatives.

The beach is a BIG part of that time.

Especially when we have our week-long family reunion in condos!

It's definitely the highlight every year. And I am so thankful my sweet Grandparents still put it on for us:) Because each year it just gets better!

I actually took this picture in Clearwater. It's not were we go for our reunion but my Uncle took Mary and I along for a trip there with his kids.

And we still didn't get enough beach:D

Au Revoir,

Patricia

Esther ~Week 17~

This is our dog Sparky. He is a Maltese! Pretty hairy, huh?

         This is him after he got his haircut!!!

We always say this is his favorite Bible verse:  Matthew 15: 27 says,
"And she said, 'Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters table.'” 

Leave a comment and tell me what your favorite kind of dog is . . . . . . . .

~Rebekah Week16~

I'v been learning pen and ink with my

art student. Its a big change from graphite, oil and

water colors, but lots of fun!

We drew a cluster of mushrooms.

~ Romans 15:4 ~
For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.

Natalya~week16~Butterfly Study

Psa 78:4 We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.

In school we just finished learning about monarch butterflies! We had TONS of milkweed plants in our garden this year, and we left them for the monarchs. :) It was fascinating. We brought two of them inside (one was just a worm getting reading to turn into a chrysalis when we brought it in) and waited. It was a good thing we did because it froze here (that's September in WI for ya...) one morning and they would have died. The first one we brought in was late, but here are some photos of the second. We didn't get to see it emerge, but they're really really fast at it.

It was a clear chrysalis one minute...


then suddenly we looked up at it again and their was a lovely butterfly sitting there!

It's wings were all curled up of course, but it wasn't long before they flattened and dried out. We took him (and it was a boy) outside and put him on a flower. :)
See how he has bigger black and darker brown spots on the lower corners of his top wings? (CORRECTION: The scent glands are the two small black spots on the BACK wings.)That's how we know it's a boy. :) Those are the scent glads they use to attract females. :) See, God even invented perfume. ;) He's beautiful isn't he? We should name him...comment and leave me some ideas! :)

By the way, my mom took the last photo.

Well, bye bye little butterfly! (I sure hope he's on his way to Mexico as it will probably freeze tonight. We haven't seem him or the other one recently, so they've probably all flown away.)

Did you know that monarch butterflies fly to the exact same tree their father and grandfathers did when they flew to Mexico. The coolest part? All monarchs only travel to Mexico once. How did they know where to go? God is truly amazing. The Monarch Butterfly is definitely one of His most amazing creatures.

Psa 78:4 We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.

~Natalya

...::Patricia::...(Week 16)

Bonjour!

I know this isn't really school, but it is something I have been learning.

I have crocheted tons of things in my life, but only recently I discovered Amigurumi.

Which is just the art of crocheting and knitting animals. So I consequently have become obsessed with it:) And I am now making lots of them for the next craft fair Mary and I do.

Down below is a pig I made. I have to say I think he is the cutest of all my Amigurumi pieces!

Au Revoir,

Patricia

Esther ~Week 16~

This week in Science I am doing  a experiment with pond water in 4 different substances.  It has been growing bacteria.  I personally don't like to watch things grow (such as mold, bacteria, etc...),  it's rather gross.  But I have to face my fear :)   I am  learning a lot through this project.
I just want to encourage everyone to be doing everything you do for the glory of God.

Remember 1 Corinthians 10:31 says  "Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."

If you have been learning something fun in school, please leave a comment and tell me . . . . . . . . PLEASE :)

Theme!

This Week's Theme is:  Something we are learning in school or life.

Elaine - Week 15 - Niagara Falls!

Niagara Falls! How amazing. You stand there beside the falls hearing the roar of the water and thinking of the power of the water. Wow. My words are inadequate to describe it, and my pictures are too :)

Unfortunately, my other pictures are not downloading to blogger, so I will try to post more pictures next week!

Psalm 29:3 ~ The voice of the Lord is over the waters; The God of glory thunders, the Lord thunders over the mighty waters.

Picture by Elaine, August 2011

Natalya~week15~Cheerfulness!

Photo credit goes to Lisha B. (pronounced like Elisha - the "e") who took this adorable photo of her sister Rachael a long time ago (it's only been about a year, it just feels like forever...)

Post is short today, because I'm not feeling well...again...3 colds in 3 weeks is just too much...I must be better soon! (mom won't let me go swimming at the high school pool where we have a pass until I'm better and I love swimming!)

John 16:33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

See? Nothing to worry about? Just trust. :)

Esther ~Week 15~

 

 It's a good reminder to me to always be humble.

James 1:9-11 says,

 

The Perspective of Rich and Poor   

"Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation,  but the rich in his humiliation, because as a flower of the field he will pass away.  For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits."

Rebekah

We finally got to climb

our first 14er of the year, Missouri mountain!! 14,067 ft.

above sea level, 11 miles round trip.

Our group starting the assent through the trees.

First sight of the summit.

Hiking the ridge.

The view from the summit.

Our group on the top.

Climbing off the ridge.

~ Psalm 36:5-6 ~

Thy mercy, O LORD is in

the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth

unto the clouds.

Thy rightousness is like the great mountains;

thy judgments are a great deep:

O LORD, thou preservest man and beast.

Natalya~Week 14~Lessons from a Barnyard

Hello Everyone!

I have two photographs today. Both are of my friends. We were delivering a baby goat that day, so there was plenty to do! I got to film the whole thing with my SONY HD digital video camera, but there was some time before the goat was being born to kill some time and try not to be overcome with excitement! My friends and I took turns filming the sheep and the goats at our farm, and we took some photos too, a setting the camera also has. I took a few of my friends and edited them on Picnik! (gotta love that site!) so here are some, with a verse for each:

Pro 31:13 She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.
We weren't sheering sheep that day, but I thought this verse applied well to what we women do at the farm. (though we haven't tried spinning wool yet, even though lots of us "teen" (don't exactly like that term) girls would love to have a go at it!)

This was rather a snap-shot and she didn't know I was taking this! I had to use a red/pink-ish border because we had a red heat lamp by the goat and it was affecting the lighting in the shot. It was white light on one side of her, and red on the other, so I just tinted everything red instead of having to mess with some extreme digital coloring techniques. (which for one I didn't know how to do at the time!) :)

Those blurry dark things in the back of the photo are some of our coats. It wasn't that cold at first, but it was suppose to get cold in the evening. As it was not everyone actually wore their coats anyway, the barn was very warm and we were all bubbling over with excitement. My friend's mom had delivered a baby goat before, and I'd helped before, but none of the others had. It was still exciting for me the second time. :)

This isn't a very good picture, it's rather dark, but it does show you something of what Coco looked like. He was the baby goat that was born that day. :) He was absolutely adorable. :) He was about 10-15min old when this photo was taken. He hadn't even stood up yet at this time.




Here's the second (ok it's actually a third) and verse:


Ecc 3:11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.

Are you really young? Like, under 13? The girl in the photo was 8 at the time this photo was taken. Don't worry. You'll grow. God makes all things beautiful in His timing. :) Don't try to make yourself bloom to quickly. It will come. You're beautiful just the way you are right now. (and that includes you teens too.) Don't rush God. He knows when the rose you are is ready to bloom. :)

~Natalya

..::Patricia::...(Week 14)

Well, my first post from Florida has to be about my Grandparents.

They are the two people who make it fun! They have our family reunion, they send us to Disney, take us on bike rides and to the beach, and they are so hospitable and interested in our lives, even though we live so far away.

So Grandma and Grandpa's House, is, and always will be, the bestest place on earth<3

These three pictures are from the surprise anniversary party we did for them!

They celebrated 5o years of marriage.

Grandma and Grandpa, you two are the greatest example.

I love you.

Au Revoir,

Patricia

Esther ~Week 14~

Anna and Me.

This picture is 12 years old!  That seems like a lot when I've only really been alive 18 years! This was my best friend when I was growing up.  Her name is Anna.  My Mom bought us a matching outfit and I remember how cool I thought we were!  It's good to look back sometimes and remember how the Lord really blessed me through giving me friends!!

Proverbs 27:17 says
"As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend."

Rebekah

Now that the weddings passed we've

been catching up on our summer.

I chased this Monarch around the yard

and finally got some pictures of it.

Sand soccer.

Chatfield reservoir.

fish... in a wave.

~ Revelation 21:6 ~

...I will give unto him that is athirst

of the fountain of the water of life freely.

Elaine-week 13

Hello! Right now, I am in Canada with my grandparents, so I am not able to post any pictures this week. Vacation pictures to come next week!!