We are so happy to have our friends stay with us this weekend for my birthday + super bowl party. 🙂

Baked French Toast with berries.

Chicken Quesada

Chloe is in chorus this year.

Happy birthday Mikaela!

Lunch: Butternut squash soup + Rosemary thyme Chicken sandwich

It’s snowing pretty heavy outside and we are so glad our fiends could come over to hang out with us today. Nothing better than being at home, nice warm and cozy with our good friends on a winter day.

Chloe was so happy to see them! Can’t you tell? 😉

Breakfast

We are making bacon grilled cheese sandwich &

Grilled Salmon sandwich

Rex’s family is coming over for lunch, and then it’s time to say goodbye…

We’ll miss you, Rex! We are Rex’s “official” dog sitter according to Chloe. Come back anytime~XO

Chloe’s on duty for walking the dog in the morning at 6 am. She is going to be so sad when he leaves tomorrow. 🙁

Shane wished for a dog and here he is!

Isn’t he the cutest… 10 months old Morki named, Rex. Welcome to our house!

Rex is actually our friends dog and we are dog-sitting this cutie for just a few days. 

He’s such a lovable dog! We are already anxious we have to say Good-bye soon. Unfortunately our fear became reality when we confirmed that Shane indeed is allergic to dogs… He’s had itchy eyes sometimes when he played with other dogs in the past but not always. Well, having Rex with us for a couple of days confirmed it. He’s been on allergy medicine. I felt so bad for him because he really loves dogs. We all do actually and and we were really considering rescuing a dog in the near future…

I guess our plot to keep Rex here forever is useless now. 🙁

What a fun trip this was! So glad we got to spend some quality time with GRC families.

I look forward to coming here every year seeing different productions. We saw Samson this time and it was amazing! Once again our family was blown away by the performance and the message is about God’s redemptive love and it always points to Jesus.

After we came home, Chloe and I had a great conversation about sin and forgiveness. I recently heard about drug problems and depressions in middle schools around the area. I was shocked to say the least. I wanted to bring it up to Chloe and talk to her about some of the issues…

We talked about how when we make bad decisions, stupid mistakes, rash sins, or careless choices,  how scary those consequences are. We need to be aware of aftermaths of drugs, and it can ruin one’s life sometimes…

I never ever want Chloe or Shane to ever do illegal drugs, or fall into any sinful path, but at the same time, we live in a sinful world and I can’t expect them to live a good and perfect life… So I always tell them if they ever do anything bad, or are in a bad situation, they can always tell me and their Dad and our love for them will never change. They should always tell me everything they are going through because we are here to try to help them from any situations. But even better, I want her to know that no matter how terrible our sin is,  the good news is God’s providence and His plan can cover all our sins. His all-wise governing of all things for His glory and for our good, includes our bad choices, our sinful actions, and the consequences that flow from them.

God forgives with His perfect love. Not to your undoing. God has a hopeful plan for you beyond this world that spans eternity. And no mistake of ours can undo it.

God will deliver us from our sin because Christ has paid for our sins.

Chloe’s first reaction to all the drug talk was a shock. And I did scare her quite a bit about all the consequences that can happen.  She said to me, “Mommy, I know I won’t ever do drugs, but I worry about Shane. Because he likes to do what his friends do. We have to watch him and pray for him.” So cute… She’s such a good sister (when she’s not beating him up).

Just the fact that she said we have to pray…. I know that her little mustard seed has sprouted in her heart.