Saw this on my sister's blog.  Loved it and thought I would share it.
refiner's fire


Malachi 3:3 says: "He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver."

This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God. One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.

That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver.As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities. The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot;then she thought again about the verse that says: "He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver." She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined. The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed. The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?" He smiled at her and answered, "Oh, that's easy -- when I see my image in it."

School Days

This week I got to go to listen to the 3rd graders recite the poetry they had memorized at school.  They did a fantastic job.  I was very impressed by how much they had memorized and by the poems that were selected.  Four of the kids got to read the acrostic poems they had written for their mothers and Julia was one of them.  Above is a recording of her reading and pictures of the card and poem.  Thanks Julia.

Brigham had a culminating event last week as well.  The first grade classes presented a play on the revolutionary war.  Everyone had a part and Brigham was one of the people at the Boston Tea Party.  His line was, "Rally Mohawks and bring out your axes.  Tell King George we'll pay no taxes on his foreign tea."  It was a great play showing what they had learned about Paul Revere, Betsy Ross, and the founding fathers.  I decided it was much better than a Valentine's party and I honestly think the kids like sharing what they have learned more s well. 

Earlier this year they both had another culminating event.  Julia's class shared stories from Greek mythology and Brigham's class exhibited the coral reefs that they had made.  Peter and I were super proud of both of them and all the things they learned and the hard work they had done.   

None of Your Bees Wax!

It's the Gordon's.  Our great backyard friend the Gordon's got pets as well.  15,000 of them.  They got bee hives and it is fascinating.  The bees live in boxes in their back yard.  They can come in and out but the kids aren't afraid of them because they have learned that it takes a lot to make a honey bee angry enough to to sting you.  The bees live in the two box things you see and in one week had built enough honeycomb to cover about one sheet of paper.  It is really neat to see.  They have a queen that they had to eat through a marshmallow to free and after they have filled the bottom two boxes, which they will live off of during winter, they will start building in another box which the Gordon's will take their honey from.  A hive can produce about 5 gallons in a year.  That is incredible.  I hope they share!

"FUN" Run

NPA had their annual fun run and this year Peter, Julia, Brigham, and Eleanor did the one mile while I did my first 5k since Eleanor was born.    Brigham's teacher read them the story of the tortoise and the hair the day before and talked to them about pacing themselves at the race.  But, Brigham and his best friend David decided that it was still more fun to be the hair if you could run ahead and have a snowball fight.  So, that is what they did.  Fortunately they had the energy to finish even after going a LOT farther than a mile (apparently the route markings weren't overly clear).  I stayed fairly steady and fortunately "ran into" my good friend Spencer who is quite the runner and he helped me make it through to the end.  Afterwards, everyone ate lots of pancakes (Mom couldn't even eat one because she has been spoiled by Peter's) and bid on auction items.  We won a headband, scarf, purse, and CD signed by David Archuletta!  It was a super fun day.

First Smiles

Nothing is more precious than a baby smiling.  And the first time they smile seems extra precious.  Eleanor recently started smiling and we LOVE it!  Peter caught a few of these magnificent moment on camera.  Here they are.

Spring Break!

Spring break was awesome. Since the kids had Friday off, I wanted to go do something fun. It started out that I was going to take us to Disneyland! After pricing it out we realized we could rent a motor home for half as much and go to Moab. The kids loved the idea of a house on wheels after they saw their Uncle Jeff’s. After pricing out the campgrounds we needed we decided that a stay in the West Valley hotel with a waterslide was really cool too! So, we set out for a short drive, which the kids loved, and went to the water park that the hotel had. It turned out to be really great. The waterslide starts inside, goes outside, and then comes back inside for the end. The kids loved it.

We had plenty of money saved so we took the kids to McDonals for kids meals and ice cream cones. The next day, Grandma Linda came up and went to breakfast with us where they had tons of fruit, muffins, cereal, waffles, toast, yogurt, oatmeal, and juice. It was a great breakfast and it set us up so we were ready to head to the Living Planet Aquarium in Sandy.

The aquarium was great. The kids got to touch, among many other animals, sting rays, horsehoe crabs, starfish, and other gross things. We saw eels, huge snakes, sharks, seahorses, jelly fish, and tons more. Peter’s favorite was the glow in the dark scorpions. Who’d have thunk? God made some sick creatures. There must be a lot that he understands that we don’t.

Anyway, when we came home, we got our chickens and spent the rest of the night admiring them.

Pets

Pets




Guess what we got.



Animals that love you to pet them.



They live outside.



They don’t have fur.



They don’t have sphincters.



Their names are Jack, Soup, Little, Nugget, and Chicky!

We have chickens! After much pleading and begging, Peter said that he wouldn’t leave me if I got chickens but he didn’t want to have anything to do with them. So, I did it all. I built a coop in a day. I spent another day fixing it and one repainting (used water soluble paint the first time) it but still. I used a circular saw, a jigsaw, a chop saw, a table saw, a drill, a framing nailer, a staple gun, and a hand saw. It was wonderful. I felt awesome. The roof is hinged and the bottom has a chicken wire floor. Inside those two little doors are the nesting boxes where my little guys lay eggs. Just Brigham’s Chicken Jack (the striped one) and my Chicken Nugget live outside now, but soon we will move Soup (Julia’s), Chicky (Porter’s), and Little (Martie’s) outside. They are a blast. They love to be held and pet and there is nothing more exciting than finding an egg in the nesting boxes. I blew out the first three eggs we got so that we could keep the beautiful shells (Green from Brigham’s, tan from mine) and display them somewhere. Happy, happy day! We have pets and since chickens only live a few years, we don’t have a really long term commitment.