Sunday, March 28, 2010

Lord's Day

Jesus! what a Friend for sinners!
Jesus! Lover of my soul;
Friends may fail me, foes assail me,
He, my Savior, makes me whole.

Jesus! what a Strength in weakness!
Let me hide myself in Him.
Tempted, tried, and sometimes failing,
He, my Strength, my victory wins.

Jesus! what a Help in sorrow!
While the billows over me roll,
Even when my heart is breaking,
He, my Comfort, helps my soul.

Jesus! what a Guide and Keeper!
While the tempest still is high,
Storms about me, night overtakes me,
He, my Pilot, hears my cry.

Jesus! I do now receive Him,
More than all in Him I find.
He hath granted me forgiveness,
I am His, and He is mine.
~J. Wil­bur Chap­man~

posted by Lydia

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Back!!!!.... and other news

Hello to all our blogging friends! I've decided that it is high time that at least one of the 3 sisters made a appearance in the blogging world. Unfortunately, we have no real excuse for our silence and long time lapses between posts! But after that slight blogging break, I think I'm ready to pick this back up again =)

Sooo, I thought I'd just share a mish-mash of updates to give a brief glimpse of what's been keeping life bumping along at such a crazy pace!


Let's get some winter pictures out of the way first, shall we? This, my friends, is Lady Liberty. And no, she is not having a bad hair day, as some people were wondering. You should see her when she IS having a bad hair day...

My dad and I were blessed again this year to attend a youth ski retreat in the Catskills. Beautiful weather and powerful messages. What a blessing!
You can actually listen to the message that was delivered Sunday morning here: http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=310101119240
Definitely worth a listen if you have the time!

The view from the girl's dorms as the sun rose. Breathtaking. Awe-inspiring.

O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder,
Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.
Then sings my soul,
My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art,
How great Thou art.
~Carl Gustaf Boberg~
And this is the sign at the top of the black diamond hill that I miraculously made down alive. (A black diamond is skier's code for "turn back now if you value your life". Just in case you were wondering.)

Skating day with several new friends. Blessed fellowship and only one broken bone! (sorry JohnMichael)

Wrapping up with a romping game of Dutch Blitz.


SPRING! J.O.Y.

This is the grub that my little sister mistook for a caterpillar. Umm....ewww.


Happy garden shoes =) A little dusty after a long New York winter.

With spring comes the little sister's begging to pull out the croquet set...


...along with the mad urge to jump rope. I decided not to fight the urge =)


Alrighty, moving on.
In the kitchen! (This is actually not what I look like when I cook, just so you know. That picture was completely posed. Shhh!)
Here's a new and delicious cookie recipe that I am totally in love with:

Chocolate Chunk Cookies


INGREDIENTS:
~2 cups all purpose flour
~1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
~1/4 teaspoon salt
~3/4 cup (170 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
~2/3 cup (130 grams) granulated white sugar
~2/3 cup (140 grams) firmly packed light brown sugar
~1 large egg
~1 large egg yolk
~1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
~1 1/4 cups (210 grams) chocolate chunks (can use chocolate chips)


DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.


In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy (about 2 - 3 minutes). Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the egg and egg yolk, beating until well combined. Beat in the vanilla extract.


Gradually add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture and beat just until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Stir in the chocolate chunks.


Form dough into balls. Gently flatten each ball of dough. Bake the cookies for about 9 to 12 minutes, rotating the baking sheets halfway through the baking time. The cookies are done when they are light golden brown in color and just set. They will still seem a little soft but they will firm up as they cool. Remove from oven and let the cookies cool a few minutes on the baking sheet before transferring them to a wire rack to cool.

Yum.


Researching for a church history paper brings you across many interesting pieces of...umm...what would you categorize this as?

I always knew Calvin didn't run on Dunkin.....


This: http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/BySeries/83/

is a sermon series by John Piper on the new birth that I have been challenged and encouraged by over the past several weeks. Powerful, powerful stuff. (And if any of you are as un-tech savvy as me.....all you have to do is hit the "listen" button below the sermon title when you click on the link. Some of us make things soooo much more confusing then they have to be....;)

And on one last note, here's a video that I recently re-discovered. I have to admit, I laughed just as hard as the first time:

Well, I think I've filled up enough blog space for one day. If you've actually made it to this point, thank you so much for wading through all of that! Until next time.

Blessings!

posted by Lydia

Monday, March 15, 2010

I'm Home!

Well I didn't have access to a computer for Blogging while in England. So I'll posts of what I did in some of the days I was over there starting with....



February, 17 ~ D day




Saying goodbye.

It was a nice day above the clouds.

Our first look at England!
My room.....
..... with a street view.
After having some dinner we went to bed and slept for 11hrs.
Traveling across the ocean does something to you!
posted by: Caroline