Confessing Sins

I have been thinking about confessing sins lately. As you all know I have 4 kiddos and am with them most of the time when they sin. We have been praying with them at night as long as they have been alive. Lately I have been asking God to forgive our sins of the day...those we know of and those we don't. I read Spurgeon's devotional tonight and it really made sense and made clear what I had been thinking about. I look forward to explaining it to the kids this way. Hope and I have been having great spiritual discussions lately (6 year olds are fun) and I know she'll understand and have some thoughts on this subject.
What do you think?
~Rose

This was Spurgeon's evening devotional tonight:
"Father, I have sinned."-Luke 15:18

It is quite certain that those whom Christ has washed in His precious blood need not make a confession of sin, as culprits or criminals, before God the Judge, for Christ has for ever taken away all their sins in a legal sense, so that they no longer stand where they can be condemned, but are once for all accepted in the Beloved; but having become children, and offending as children, ought they not every day to go before their heavenly Father and confess their sin, and acknowledge their iniquity in that character? Nature teaches that it is the duty of erring children to make a confession to their earthly father, and the grace of God in the heart teaches us that we, as Christians, owe the same duty to our heavenly father. We daily offend, and ought not to rest without daily pardon. For, supposing that my trespasses against my Father are not at once taken to Him to be washed away by the cleansing power of the Lord Jesus, what will be the consequence? If I have not sought forgiveness and been washed from these offences against my Father, I shall feel at a distance from Him; I shall doubt His love to me; I shall tremble at Him; I shall be afraid to pray to Him: I shall grow like the prodigal, who, although still a child, was yet far off from his father. But if, with a child's sorrow at offending so gracious and loving a Parent, I go to Him and tell Him all, and rest not till I realize that I am forgiven, then I shall feel a holy love to my Father, and shall go through my Christian career, not only as saved, but as one enjoying present peace in God through Jesus Christ my Lord. There is a wide distinction between confessing sin as a culprit, and confessing sin as a child. The Father's bosom is the place for penitent confessions. We have been cleansed once for all, but our feet still need to be washed from the defilement of our daily walk as children of God.

OUCH!

Desi and I each had "a fall" this week. Monday morning as I was taking Levi down stairs I slipped and fell down about 4 steps...landing on my buns. It was completely terrifying. Thank You God that I was holding Levi in front of me (he was facing me) and not on my hip where I could have broken his leg. He was fine (just scared). Desi was gone and I yelled to Hope to come help me. She held Levi while I recovered (I was more scared than hurt, but it did hurt really bad). I'll spare you any pictures, but I have a really colorful (was dark purple, now is red) bruise on my rear end and a few on my right wrist and hand. Today is the first day I don't feel sore from it. Lesson learned: no socks without Crocks (my favorite house shoes) on the stairs!

Desi fell today on his scooter a block from Bruce's house. He was making a turn and ended up on some dirt and sand and the bike just slipped out from under him. I got this message (he borrowed someone's cell) that he had fallen and an ambulence had been called and to please get ahold of Bruce and "I think I'm ok". The paramedic checked Desi out, but he refused being taken to the hospital. When Bruce got to Desi, there was a fire engine, police car and paramedic there! He thought "Oh no...it's really bad!" Thankfully he is ok...but he's gonna have a nice colorful bruise on his hip/upper leg and he got a little road rash on his arm (see pics below). The scooter and his helmet got a few scratches and he'll need a new cell phone, but not too much damage. This really shook Desi up and he's just so thankful that it wasn't any worse. Needless to say, I am relieved as well!


Our brother from another mother -Micah also had "a fall" this week. Yesterday at work (parking attendant) he was running to get a car and slipped and cut up his hand. Since he doesn't have insurance and the company paid for it he went to the hospital to get it cleaned out. They glued it up and sent him home. He was laughing at going in for such a small injury and it reminded me of when Josh cut his hand back in CA and I had just given birth to Hope or Owen (can't remember). Once he got his hand bandaged, he came to see the new baby. Do you remember Josh?

Please pray for our safety and that we'd all recover quickly. Thanks!
~Rose

Bible Times Food

Hope's curriculum called for a "Tasting Bible Times Food Party" today. We sampled (with much excitment I might add) dates, figs, almonds, olives, goat cheese, bread and pomegrante juice. Dates aren't that bad, but I prefer Fig Newtons to figs. The kids loved the goat cheese, bread, olives (they fit so nice on fingers) and the juice.

Hope is doing so well and working so hard in school. Here she is hard at work illustrating sentences in her writing workbook.

Emma likes to "do school" too. I have 5 write on/wipe off books which the kids really love. I couldn't believe my eyes today. Emma was tracing letters and doing a really good job of it. If Emma follows in her sister's footsteps, I may end up doing Kindergarten with Owen and Emma together in the fall of '08. Owen's hand eye cordination is not as good as Emma's (but don't tell him that!)

~Rose

This One's For You Josh

Josh gave us this beautiful framed black and white signed picture awhile ago. Well, I finally found a place to hang it. This is the view from our kitchen to the back room, which leads to our basement and the back yard. I like how Josh is watching out for us. (For those of you who remember, this is the room that I stepped into, only to see the intruder coming up from the basement stairs).

Here's an up close shot...what a great hair style Josh, too bad you shaved it all off.

~Rose

Thanks for the cards!

We had a nice Valentine's dinner Wednesday night. The girls helped me set the table all pretty, complete with sparkling cranberry cider. We enjoyed heart shaped pizza, Reeces peanut butter cup and decorated cupcakes. Micah joined us and the kids had a blast opening cards. Thanks to family and friends for sending the cute cards. I had a little $1 gift for each child and a silly mustache and beard for Desi (Micah and Levi are modeling them). Desi brought home a beautiful flower arrangment with a sweet card for me. It was such a nice evening.
~Rose

Happy Hearts Day

Happy Valentine's Day from our family to you!
John 15:13 "Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends." May you know the greatest love of all today. See John 3:16!





Thanks to Micah for stealing our camera and taking these great shots. I know Levi looks drunk, but I love the picture anyway. It's funny!
~Rose

Colorado Weather

This picture was taken last Sunday. We had church at our house and as everyone was leaving we realized it was pretty warm outside. We ended up spending all afternoon out front with my brother Jason, Micah and Amanda. We celebrated Owen's 4 1/2 birthday (a new tradition) with cupcakes and a song. The kids rode bikes, colored the sidewalk and played with Hotwheel cars. It got so warm with the sun on us that Hope changed into shorts and I put my flip flops on!

2 days later...

Just 2 days later it dropped down to what I like to call "WAY COLD" and we awoke to snow. It snowed again today, the sun came out for a few hours and it's currently snowing now. I LOVE the snow. It's so peaceful to see it falling and turning everything white (nice change from dirty old muddy snow that just won't melt). So, here's a picture I took this morning. Needless to say, the weather changes often here and some changes are quite dramatic! Do you like the two tone look to our van? I doubt it's ever been this dirty :)
~Rose

Scary...what are they doing to those kids?

This is a fifteen minute video on math for 4th & 5th grades. If you have a child in public school you should watch this!
I just think it's scary how much power and control the government has in our public schools. Those poor kids. I would have been so lost as a 4th grader at that school. My mom teaches 3rd grade in Jefferson County (Golden, CO) and had to introduce new math curriculum this year that seems pretty similar. She hates it!
~Rose