Marching Orders

The true Christian was intended by Christ to prove all things by the Word of God, all churches, all ministers, all teaching, all preaching, all doctrines, all sermons, all writings, all opinions, all practices. These are his marching orders. Prove all by the Word of God; measure all by the measure of the Bible; compare all with the standard of the Bible; weigh all in the balances of the Bible; examine all by the light of the Bible; test all in the crucible of the Bible. That which cannot abide the fire of the Bible, reject, refuse, repudiate, and cast away. This is the flag which he nailed to the mast. May it never be lowered!

~ John Wycliffe

Join me in praying for
The Perkins family.

Ruth and Boaz

We have started checking out childrens' movies from our church library on a weekly basis, and the girls really enjoy them. Currently, we have "Bible Animated Classics: Ruth" on loan, and they like it so much we actually renewed it for another week!
Here's when you know maybe they have watched it a few too many times....
Tori walks around the house saying, "My God, MY God." (I don't think she knows how to say 'your'.)

"Where you go, I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God." Ruth 1:16b

And the real kicker....
Lexy had a great suggestion the other night:
"Hey Mom, how 'bout we name the baby Boaz?"

Boaz Hughes.
Has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? :)

I had to laugh. At least they are hearing (and hopefully learning!) about trust in God, obedience, and kindness from the story of Ruth.

The New 'Do

In case you didn't crack the code of Bill's previous post (which he has now deleted), Lexy and her little scissors decided to cut all of Tori's hair off last Thursday afternoon.

I was tutoring, and the girls were both supposed to be asleep. I had left out Lexy's Arts & Crafts bin on her little table figuring she might wake up sooner and would need something to occupy her. Although she had a episode with a friend's doll's hair last spring, she really hasn't had any issues with the rules for scissors, so I didn't think it would be a problem.

So, apparently neither of them ever went to sleep, and Lexy had invited Tori out into the family room to do Arts and Crafts.... ON HER HAIR.

They both walked up to the table while I was tutoring with huge grins on their faces saying, "Look Mom! Look at Tori's hair!"

I was in total shock, as was the girl I was tutoring. We were speechless. Thankfully, I had just heard a talk that morning at MOPS about how we shouldn't be yelling/screaming at our kids. Since the message was still fresh in my mind, I heeded the advice and chose silence instead of screaming.

I took Tori back to bed. Lexy resumed her arts & crafts (ON PAPER, this time), and I finished tutoring (although my mind was a little preoccupied, as you can imagine!).

When I had finished tutoring, I made a 911 Hair Emergency call to a hair-stylist friend and she said she could try to fix it at her house right then. It was a tough fix, since there wasn't much hair left to work with.

So, here she is in her new 'do. It's cute.... but clearly, not a hair cut I would EVER in a MILLION YEARS give a 2 year old.



Since then, Bill and I have had plenty of discussion with Lexy about WHY she would cut her sister's hair. Bottom line, we think there might have been a touch of jealousy over her curls. Which is even a BIGGER parenting issue to tackle. Ugh.

We don't believe in the concept of karma, but we did end up in at Urgent Care on Friday night for Lexy, who jumped off the couch and hit her forehead on the edge of a chair resulting in a little, but deep, cut that, thankfully, didn't require stitches. She is currently sporting about 8 steristrips (sp?) on her forehead and has been told to keep in dry for 5 days. I guess swimming is out of the question!

The good news in all of this is that Tori seems totally unfazed by the fact that she now looks completely different. In fact, those pictures were taken Friday afternoon when she was looking at herself in our bedroom mirrors, admiring her new look. I think she might even LIKE it.

I just hope it grows a little before we take our family Christmas picture....

The New Mantra

And, no, it has nothing to do with the Dodgers. :)


Lexy's prayers have been answered! :)
(She's been asking God for a boy since she found out I was pregnant.)

"Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him." Psalm 127:3

Safe from fire, surrounded by smoke

For any out of town family or friends who are wondering about us and the current wildfires burning in southern California, we are fine.

At this point, we aren't in the fire's path at all. Things can change at any time, of course, but I have a certain level of confidence that our valley will be spared. News reports are saying that the hillsides that are aflame right now haven't burned in more than 50 years, so the "fuel" is plentiful. That is definitely not the case in our valley, which has had its fair share of fires over the last 5 years.

The only effect we are feeling is the terrible air quality. This morning, I walked outside and thought I was standing next to a campfire. It's that strong. And there is little, itty-bitty pieces of ash all over everything-- I read one article calling it "southern California snow."
I found this AMAZING VIDEO that gives you a good idea of what our skies have looked like for the past 3 days. I was particularly excited to watch it so that I now know how the "white tops" have been formed amongst the smoke. (You'll see what I mean if you watch it!) I couldn't tell if the smoke was enveloping a cloud, or if the smoke itself was turning white, or what.... I started to think it looked like whipped cream on top!

Anyway, we are well. Will keep the blog updated if anything changes.

Hughes Look-alike Meter-- update #2

And then there's the original comparison for Lexy and today's...

That's a 7% swing! That must mean Bill has lost 7% of his hair since last time.

But I still think she has Hughes blood coursing through those veins.... :)