Thursday, October 18, 2007

Nicholas' LEGO car/plane


Nicholas made this car/plane. He likes to make things that can do more than one job. He made it so flames could come out the front & the back! :)
Posted by Picasa

posted by Sonja @ 1:36 PM 0 Comments

Daniel's cool marble run


Daniel asked me to take some pictures & try to catch the marble doing its thing. (upper left - upper right) So here is the marble maze, the marble coming out of the hole (!), (lower left - lower right) the marble going into the hole (we tried to catch it mid-air) and then disappearing down the hole.
Posted by Picasa

posted by Sonja @ 1:31 PM 0 Comments

Marble Fun

The boys have been having fun with marbles & mazes. Here are some of their creations. (click on the title of this post or the picture below to view the album)

marble mania

posted by Sonja @ 12:57 PM 0 Comments

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

The war

So I've been reading a lot lately. I recently became interested in the Zion Covenant series by Bodie Thoene. This series begins in 1934 (an amazing 7 years before America got into the war!), I think, with a girl in Austria. Hitler has taken over Germany, but has not invaded Austria yet. As the story progresses, we see the girl disbelieving Hitler's imminent take-over. She, like many Austrians, believes France & England will stand by their word and protect Austria.
As we know now, this didn't happen. France & England did little to nothing to stop Hitler from invading Austria & taking over. A lot of what I read reminded me of the thoughts we hear today in regard to the war in Afghanistan & the war in Iraq. People tend to not believe that others would be so cruel, and if they could, so omnipotent. They also tend to think since Iraq is a continent away that we are not affected by the goings-on there and thus should not be involved.

Today I was watching "Quantum Leap". The episode happened to be about a girl who was against the Vietnam war. Watching it now, I understand much more than I did when I first saw the episode. Being patriotic, I have always wanted America to win, but I used to not understand why so many of our soldiers died in that war. Now I wonder why there was no clamor over the millions who died when we left.
Things I understand now -
  • a whole lot of people died when we pulled out of Vietnam.
  • Because you could get out of going to the war by being in post-graduate school, a lot of people went to seminary or became lawyers.
  • people said very much the same things then that others had said concerning WWII - that it was not our war to fight, that people didn't want us over there, etc.

In the "Quantum Leap" episode, Sam tells the girl that this war (Vietnam) is going to end because people like her keep chipping away at it. That statement was what prompted this post. What would happen if instead of trying to undermine our efforts over in Iraq, instead of "chipping away" at the war we are fighting, people stood together united and strong? Unity and promises kept might have stopped Hitler from invading Austria. Causing people (namely Saddam Hussein) to keep their promises might have saved a lot of people in Afghanistan & Iraq.

We watched a video blog of a soldier one night. He was showing a town that had been a huge hotbed of fighting and such. It's safe now. People are moving back in. The Iraqi forces are protecting the people, and the American forces are helping them. But we don't see this on the news because it means we are actually succeeding, slowly but surely, in our fight against terrorism.

I think we get so comfortable in our freedom that we fail to realize what it would be like to live without it. I cannot imagine living in a place where I could not express my thoughts as I am now; where I could not wear what I wanted to wear or go where I wanted to go; where men live in fear for their wives' and daughters' lives; where you never know if your neighbor is nice or an informant; where you might not have a Bible, or be able to gather together in worship; where so many of the common things we take for granted are not thought of and survival is a daily necessity.

Thankfully, God has placed me in America! Thankfully, God continues to protect America & allows her to be a strong nation that the world looks to in their time of need.

posted by Sonja @ 9:43 AM 0 Comments

Sunday, October 14, 2007

What's wrong with people?

First of all, you have to go here - http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=97759aa27a0c99bff671 - and check out the video. You don't have to watch all of it (I couldn't handle more than a minute). Then come back and read the rest of this post.

First off, why does there have to be a "GodTube"??? YouTube isn't good enough for ya? How are we supposed to witness to people if we cloister ourselves away? When we have our own bookstores, radio stations, long distance phone companies, web service providers ... and now this ... we end up not running into any non-Christians. What's the point in that?!

Secondly - why'd they have to rip off YouTube? Couldn't they come up with a more original name? And a more original site?? There are other video sharing sites out there, so you don't have to go to YouTube. Why not post sermons for people to listen to or watch?

Thirdly, this song is so wrong to begin with, to try and change it into a Christian one cheapens the message even more! Anyone who has listened to "Baby Got Back" (by Sir MixALot, in case you were wondering) would know it isn't a particularly good song. The girls at the beginning start off by using God's name in vain! And the song, it talks about a girl's butt - and more. Since this "Christian" video used the same music pretty much, the first thing that pops into your head is the real song, not this made-up one.

Then there's the deal of ripping off someone else's idea ... and the fact that in a sense the guy in this video is still talking about pretty much the same thing as Sir Mix A Lot - sex. In this video he talks about seeing a girl with a Bible and being "stoked". I'm pretty sure that's close to "get(ting) sprung" as Sir Mix a Lot puts it.

Why can't we just make up our own music? It's not that hard - DC Talk, while they aren't the greatest example of rap, did fine. They had a song about a girl who swore like a sailor & the guy told her he was waiting for someone pure. Now there are plenty of good Christian rappers, pop singers and more.

The whole point of this song evades me. They even rip on paperback Bibles!!! Holy cow. You know, personally, I think if a person has a Bible & they are reading it - it doesn't matter what it looks like, or what translation it is (NASB is the *most* accurate, though. ;) ) - it is God's word. It doens't have to be leather, or have red lettering or even a ribbon. In China, some people only have one page of the Bible!! I'll bet they would love any kind of Bible they could get their hands on.

Like I said, the whole point of this song evades me.

Thanks for listening to me rant.

posted by Sonja @ 11:52 PM 2 Comments

How about Cornelius?

So I finally remembered something I wanted to blog about while I was working last night. :)
It's a song, of course. :) I suppose at some point I should write about what it is in the songs I post that sticks out to me! For now, (since it is Sunday & I need to make coffee and get going) I'll just turn the lines I liked orange.

Cornelius
by Newsboys

And every generation's got
The fearless few who can't be bought
They don't take polls or look around
They act on truth, and then they stand their ground

Come up and see the world stripped bare
The free indeed
They breathe a rarified air

Yeah, they got spirit
Yeah, they got game
And some get christened
With a righteous sounding name

Cor-ne-li-us

And every generation knows
The doers do, the posers pose
'Cause every time the pop goes fizz
Another yes-man gets his
Come on and see the big man's boss
The mind clears out when you're taking up the cross
Yeah, his burden's easy
No, it don't chafe
It's God's safe harbour
Why play it safe?

Cor-ne-li-us
Core-strong like a centurion
I wanna be Cornelius
Core-strong like a centurion
I wanna be Cornelius
His kneel is real
His kneel is real
What rhymes with Cornelius?
Helium

The "cor" is before a kneel, a kneel
The "i" is an "e" in us, in us
He's ready to fight, but not to fuss
We like, we like Cornelius

And history proves the axiom
Surface skimmers choke on scum
Who's calling deep?
Who opens wide?
Who put the just in justified?

Check, check it out--the view you get
It's God's high-wire
There isn't any net
Show a little spirit
Show you got game
Show you know
(We know, we know)
You know what's in a name

Cor-ne-li-us

He's ready to fight,
But not to fuss
We like, we like
Cornelius

He isn't a wuss
He never wass
We like, we like
Cornelius

posted by Sonja @ 8:56 AM 2 Comments