The Good News

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“In the beginning God created….” Genesis 1:1

With these words, the grand story of adventure, romance, comedy, tears, life and death begins. We were created to find our deepest joy, fulfillment and purpose in knowing our Creator. Yet, there is always something getting in the way, blinding our eyes, deafening our ears and keeping us from this grand adventure.

Elyse and I put this slide show together using the words of God’s book to us as part of our own devotional study time, to highlight how God views our lives and how he has come to clear the way for us to come to him!

To view the presentation:

  1. Click on the presentation in the language you want (English or Chinese).
  2. Keep clicking on the presentation to go through the slides.

Suggestions:

  1. Click fairly quickly, otherwise the presentation may seem too long.
  2. Have some soft instrumental music playing in the background.

Click here to view “The Good News” in English!

Enjoy free books, movies, toys, events and more… Check out the Library!

Do you or your kids like to

  • read
  • watch movies or listen to music
  • play with games and toys
  • have events for all ages
  • take care of office work such as print, fax and scan
  • even do any of the preceding in a language other than English?
  • or can’t get out of the house and want to do most of the above?

and do it all for FREE?

If so, you may share, or learn to share, our love of the library.

Continue reading “Enjoy free books, movies, toys, events and more… Check out the Library!”

Laugh Your Way to a Better Marriage

Chronicles of Narnia

Elijah and I have been exploring the land of Narnia for a few weeks now. For Elijah, this has been his first time to enter into the magical land in the Wardrobe and for me… I have lost count.

Narnia has kept us both enthralled with the depth of fun and adventure as well as profoundly deep life changing meaning. Elyse has heard Elijah discussing many quotes and concepts from the books and me again expressing what a genius C.S. Lewis was with these books (sometimes after I “preview” the next chapter after telling Elijah we will have to wait until tomorrow for more… even though I have already read these books many times)

There are many reasons that The Chronicles of Narnia continue to be my most recommended read after the Bible for both kids and adults, however my reasons may not be yours. With so much depth, these books may reach and speak to you in ways that I had never even thought of. Two things I will mention are that they are not only life changing, they are also a very easy read. (I read three of the seven books in one night when I was younger and supposed to be sleeping.)

One other thought, if when you do read them, do yourself a favor and start at the “proper” beginning, “The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe”. They reordered them a few years ago into chronological order so most sets now have that order. The original order was:

1. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
2. Prince Caspian
3. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
4. The Silver Chair
5. The Horse and His Boy
6. The Magicians Nephew
7. The Last Battle

I am…

When thinking of the ideal you, the you that you would like to be, how would you complete the sentence, “I am…”? (I am successful! I am a leader! I am generous!, etc.)

This question was recently brought up to Elyse and me and her answer was very thoughtful and thought provoking.Continue reading “I am…”

Our Tower Garden Experience

Contact us or visit the Tower Garden website
to learn more about our experience
or growing your own Tower Garden!
Providing us with extremely local, chemical free and just picked greens (of many sorts), tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers,  herbs & flowers all spring, summer and fall, and….
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… through the winter, too!
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  • FUN – We have had a ton of fun and are so grateful for our Tower Gardens.
  • EASY – I can’t say it’s “workless”, but it is certainly “work less”. I add water around once every 2-4 weeks depending on what we are growing and the temperature. I don’t need to prepare the ground. There are no weeds. There is no daily care needed. I don’t do any trimming. Our biggest thing we do it just pick and eat.
  • SIMPLE SUCCESS – I was not a gardener. Yet, our first garden (see above) turned out very well, as have all others since.
  • DEVELOP AN INTEREST IN GARDENING – We have grown an enjoyment in gardening that led to buying a second Tower, and also planting in the ground (though in the ground is not nearly as easy or productive :).
  • EDUCATIONAL – We have all learned so much about how plants grow.
  • ELIJAH EATS EVERYTHING – Elijah runs out and grabs anything from greens to tomatoes and even flowers and stuffs them in his mouth. (We only plant edible flowers, and he knows to only pick from the Tower, not others in the yard.)
  • TASTE – We now better understand when people say that garden fresh produce tastes better. So much better!
  • CAN’T KILL IT – I call it the garden that will not die. I add water about once every 3-4 weeks. Twice I forgot to add water and it looked like it had died. I added water and within a few hours it was back to full life. (This is more of a testimony to the amazing design God gave plants that we have come to appreciate, than to the Tower Garden, though the way it waters does allow the water to be absorbed more easily.)
  • REALLY CAN’T KILL IT – Our garden has flourished on a year when everyone else’s was dying.
  • WINTER GROWING – We even moved it inside for the coldest winter (2013-2014) and it did well just next to a medium sized window with no grow lights. (See pictures above). Outside with full sunshine grow most things faster, but inside did very well.
  • SAVE MONEY – We eat a lot of greens and we didn’t need to buy greens or tomatoes for over half of the year! We bought it for around $10 a week for the first year, and have been eating almost for free ever since and looking to years to come.
  • Over all, this has been an amazingly fun, healthy, habit developing experience!