Junior Soldiers of The Salvation Army

The Salvation Army

Junior Soldier

Promise

"Having Asked God for forgiveness,

I will trust Him to keep me good.

Because Jesus is my Saviour from sin,

I will be His loving and obedient child and will try to help others to follow Him.

I promise not to use intoxicating drink, harmful drugs and tobacco.

I promise to pray, to read my Bible and,

by His help, to lead a life that is clean in thought, word and deed."

Salute

"One Way"

Collar S's

"Saved to Serve"

The New Religion- Greenstians

I am convinced that we need to add another religion to our textbook religions. I even have a new name for those who practice: Greenstians. Read on...

The other day, we were out and about and decided to stop at McDonalds for a quick lunch and a chance to play on the playland. We had been around town, touching grocery carts and such so I had everyone head to the bathroom to wash up. After washing our hands we had to stand underneath a hot air dryer forever to get our hands dry. I hate these things, and if you have little kids, you probably do too. I always have a little one who is terrified of a loud machine blowing hot air directly in their face just because they have wet hands. I would be too. I get annoyed having to stand there for so long just to dry my hands and am often just using my skirt/pants to dry my hands and tell my kids to also. We have better things to be doing than to stand around and wait for our hands to dry. There was no other option because McDonalds is "saving the planet" by not letting me use paper towels to dry my hands. (All the while they're killing us with their mostly nasty food.)

We are being pressured to act green. Here is just a small sampling of the pressure I feel:

• Bring your bags to the grocery store (I only do this to save the nickels and so that I can carry more into the house in less trips. I happen to LOVE plastic bags and all their many uses.)
• Waste your time washing your garbage so that you can recycle.
• Use dishwasher soap that doesn't really work because the lawmakers are actually in my kitchen telling me what I can and can not do.
• Embarrassed that I can not spend a fortune on an electric car to proudly drive around saying "I'm saving the world, I'm saving the world"
• Attempt to convince my children that it is their fault that global warming is occuring, not just the natural way that things work. (There has always been climate change even without "emissions" and our "destuctive race")
• Look down on me for eating a cheeseburger, thus driving up the demand for cows, thus forcing more production of cows, thus producing more cow farts and burps. Yeah right, totally my fault.
• Shame me for mopping my floors with *gasp* Pine Sol. A very toxic agent that happens to make my floor sparkly clean and my home smell sooo good and refreshing (to me).
• Stress me out about drinking from plastic bottles when sometimes I have no other choice.
• Feel guilty when I pull up to the gas pumps to yet again fill my gas guzzling mini-van.
• Keep me dodging the hole in the ozone layer over my head that I have created with my almost daily use of hairspray from an aresol can.
• Entertain the ridiculous thought that I have single-handedly over populated the world by breeding 5 children of my own.
  

And countless other practices of this new religion.

What is religion anyway? Religion is a specific system of belief and worship, involving a code of ethics and a philosophy. Green living is a new religion. Society wraps its arms around it and bows down to it and it is becoming the most acceptable form of proselytism.

Now, don't get me wrong, I wholeheartedly embrace taking care of the earth and being good stewards of what God has given us dominion over, but it is certainly not my focal point, God is. I also take all realistic, practical precautions not to poison my family or the earth, but it is definately not the first thing I think about in the morning. (See how I feel the need to defend myself against the Greenstians?? I'm scared of backlash and being labeled as non-green, black if you will.)

But really, I am sick and tired of everyone else's religious, obsessive ideals being crammed down my throat. Think about it. Christianity is progressively being nipped and tucked away. Some Christians are even retreating from the fronts in fear of becoming corrupted by this world's ways instead of fighting the good fight and standing firm against the devil. Because of society's every growing godlessness, there is a sense of shame and embarrassment taking the place of the bold living and speaking that Christ calls us to. People don't want to hear about a Saviour who entirely saves us from destruction. But they'll bend over backwards and inside out to try to save the planet. They don't want to hear about the love of God but everyone's on board the love train of sin. Don't you even dare talk about moral living either or else you may be committing a hate crime.

Any other religion besides Christianity is broadcast loud and clear in our society. Think about all the things we can get caught up pursuing that is glorified in the our society's eyes. In fact, even we can get caught up in the things that appear right in the world's eyes and earn us pats on the back.

Here are some other ways of life, that all have their place, but when out of balance, have become culturally acceptable religions:

• perfect health- organic, natural, raw, fat-free, no sugar, excercise, excercise, exercise, (the lawmakers even want to put a tax on junk food, that way they can govern our bodies too and punish us for "bad" choices like the cigarette tax. Did we elect them to punish us according to their standards???)


• perfect lifestyle- namebrand, high-end, best quality, latest and greatest (we've really gotten far... trillions of dollars of debt!)


• perfect education- private, public or home, elite, ivy league, $ (some people in other countries are just trying to survive the day, but in America, we take for granted the privelege of education)


• perfect philosophy- godless, thinking, creating new thought, understanding the ultimate whys (everyone thinks they've got THE answer!)


• perfect relationships- studying endless books, keeping just the "perfect" easily relatable people in your life, consulting Dr. Phil, Oprah Winfrey or countless others (what happened to loving the unlovable, and developing real character in the face of conflict)
  

And so many more culturally acceptable religions! What do you think of?

The real fact of the matter is that there is only one perfection and there is only one way to thoroughly save our planet and that is our Holy God and His sanctifying work in us.

So leave me alone world! "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!" (and the Lord alone)

Rachel's Sunday Morning Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients:
4 1/2 Teaspoons Yeast
1 Teaspoon Sugar
1 Cup Warm (not hot) water
1 Can Evaporated Milk at room tempature
2/3 Cup melted butter
3/4 Cup Sugar
4 Teaspoons Salt
4 Cups White Flour plus more for dusting
2 1/2 Cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
room tempature Butter (about 2 sticks)
Brown Sugar (about 1 1/2 Cups)
Cinnamon (about 3/4 Cup)


In your Kitchen Aide Mixer- Mix the first 3 ingredients. Add the next 6 ingredients to make dough. Let it stand for 15 minutes.

Attach dough hook and knead about 7 minutes until smooth and elastic. Slap the dough on the counter several times to remove air bubbles. Grease your mixer bowl and place the dough back in and lightly grease the top of the dough. Cover with a towel and place in a warmed oven (I do this in the winter) or outside (I do this in the summer) until dough has doubled in size.

On a floured surface, roll the dough out in the shape of a rectangle until about 3/4 inch thick.

Spread liberally with Butter. Put on a ton of Brown Sugar. Put on a ton of Cinnamon.

Starting with the long side, roll, roll, roll. Slice into 1 1/2 inch slices and put into greased bakeware. Let rise again in warm place until they are at desired size.

Cover with plastic and put in refridgerator until you are ready to bake. I like to pull them out on Sunday morning. Or you can bake them right away.

Heat oven to 400 degrees and then down to 350 and then bake for 18-22 minutes. When rolls are down, frost immediately with cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting:
Mix- about 2 1/2 Cups of Powdered Sugar (to taste), 1 Package of Cream Cheese,
1/2 Cup melted Butter, and 1/4 Milk
(I also make this the night before and store in fridge until I bake the rolls)

Thank the good Lord and enjoy!!

Summer Routine and Keeping Kids Occupied

We finally got some routine back this week. It's been hard the last few weeks with traveling, coming back for a few days, and then leaving again. Plus some little side trips on top of that.

I LOVE Routines, not so much a strict schedule, but a routine, which I happen to believe is the best form of discipline we can provide for our children. They know what's coming and what is expected of them .

Our (I'm speaking for the kids and I) Summer Routine (when we're home!) generally looks like this:
Mondays- home and at the Corps briefly (1-2 hours) with the kids to clean/set-up for stuff. Then we use the day to catch up on chores, run errands (mostly for the Corps) and I try to make sure we do a fun/learning activity. Lately it has been the library and we have been learning how to Break Dance and Hula Dance with some videos we've checked out. We even re-arranged the living room furniture for our "dance" lessons.
Tuesdays- Ann and Hannah go to "school" from 11am-4pm while the boys go to the GameRoom and I work in my Office/help with the Game Room. Mary takes a ride in my ergo or sleeps in the playpen in my office.
Wednesdays- We're all at the Corps from 7:30am-Noon. The kids play upstairs (GameRoom, Nursery, SS Rooms) and our Nursery worker watches Ann and Hannah while I'm in Home League. Otherwise they like to "help" (I use that term very loosely) me get some work done in my Office or wherever I may be in the building.
Thursdays- same as Tuesdays
Fridays- home, grocery shopping and errands and whatever else we want or need to do. Today we had our good friends, the Browns, over for a long lunch, but not long enough! Time flies when we're together.
Saturday-free day and catch up day! (sermon/sunday school/community care preparations)
Sunday- Church and Community Care Ministries (our favorite day!! but usually long and draining)

I really enjoy and savor having the boys ALL to myself in the Summer when school's out. The reason I change my Corps Office schedule is so that I am present while the Summer Game Room is open. Even though I'm busy getting work done, I can still take breaks and walk across the hall and visit with our youth. (They kept coming in my office for a hello and a visit but I finally had to start closing my door or else I wouldn't get anything done!)

Keeping my kiddos occupied during the Summer months:
I believe prolonged boredom leads to trouble!! so I like to keep my kids busy, not adult busy, but kid busy... here are some things we do everyday:

• Chores for everyone, even Hannah, and whatever else mom needs done
• Music 'appreciation' (my best friend from Highschool, Tiffany, taught me this one!)
• Reading for at least 30 minutes
• some TV time (about an hour or so- more if we're watching a learning show- they like to find those!)
• playing with toys
• endless projects from the art box
• playing outside (water play, digging, swingset, etc)
• consulting the activity list- a posterboard of ideas to stay busy with like using the magnifying glass, playing a board game and 60+ fun and do-able ideas in the Chouinard home (I learned this from my good friend Stacie who has had one of these posted as long as I've known her)

So that's what works for us. If you're like me, than you use ideas that fit into your lifestyle, and toss out the other ones. Or even some ideas might generate more ideas for you! That happens regularly in this good ole' brain God gave me and I say "thank you God! something else to try out on my poor, guinea-pig, trial and error kids!" (ha!ha!).

Random Pics

Youth Fundraiser- Lemonade Sale

In the Thrift Store.

Funny... only the Chouinard kids showed up...

What's up with that????

Riverfront (or Riverview?) Park in The Dalles.

NEW Playground!! How could we resist stopping to play!

Did I post this before?

Ann's Pre-School "graduation"

Pretty Hannah

Monkey Munch

Hannah shaking the Monkey Munch.

I got this recipe a few years ago from a "John and Kate plus 8" episode (something good did come from this show..... a great recipe!) We like this for a snack/dessert in our home. It's easy to make, has some nutrition (WW Chex Cereal and Pnt. Butter), and the kids have fun making it.

Ingredients:

9 Cups Whole Wheat Chex Cereal

1 Cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

1/2 Cup Natural Peanut Buter

1/4 Cup Butter

1Tsp. Vanilla

1 1/2 Cups Powdered Sugar

Directions:

1. Put Chex in large bowl and put aside

2. Place Chocolate Chips, Peanut Butter and Butter into a quart-sized microwaveable bowl, stir together.

3. Microwave the mixture uncovered for a minute on high. Sitr the mix again and continue to zap in thirty second intervals until it mixes smoothly.

(You can also do this on stovetop)

4. Add the Vanilla and stir.

5. Pour over the cereal while stirring.

6. Put combination into a 2-Gallon Ziplock freezer back. (I still can't find a 2 Gallon bag, so I alway just put half the batch in a Gallon zippie at a time. It gives more for the kids to shake anyway.)

7. Add the powdered sugar, (HALF if you're doing a half batch in a Gallon bag twice). Seal the bag and shake until distributed.

8. Spread Monkey Munch out on wax paper to cool.

9. Keep refridgerated in airtight container.

Our 4th of July and Maryhill Museum

We went to Cascade Locks park for the fireworks show. We had an awesome time. We got there about 5pm and didn't get home until after Midnight (we were a tired bunch at church!). We had a picnic dinner got KFC (finally got to try the "grilled chicken") for the main course, I made some sidedishes and dessert, packed in some pops, water and chips.

We had several hours to kill before the firework show. The kids got DRENCHED running through the sprinklers, we took walks and watched other people's firecrackers,

played catch, talked, laughed, bickered, nursed, potty trips, snacked, played dinosaurs,

and just had such a great time together.

When the fireworks came, Paul and I braced ourselves for scared children (mainly the girls). We used to take the boys to the fireworks shows in Eugene when we lived in Springfield and the boys were always terrified (they were much younger). We were so suprised at what troopers the girls are!! (I guess that makes the boys sissies when they were that age!ha!ha!) Ann LOVED the fireworks, sat in her own chair and took it all in. Hannah got nervous at first and sat on Daddy's lap. She got really into it though when Daddy told her to name the purple ones. From then on she was a screaming color narrorator for our side of the park. It was so funny! Mary nursed, for comfort I think. I kept her exposed ear plugged with my finger. The boys are really into it now... no crying from them anymore!

It was an amazing show, with the fireworks smack dab over our heads.

We went to Maryhill Museum on Friday. It was even better than I expected. We loved looking at the art. I especially liked the miniature fashion displays on the the dolls. Ann and Hannah really liked them too. We hunted for Peacocks afterwards. There were supposed to be 36 on the grounds, but we only found 5. Elijah and I practiced our Peacock calls. They sound like screaming women. Easy to imitate. Paul and Ann did the road runner call ("meep, meep") (I don't know what they were thinking) Our family is big enough to circle around them so they can't get away and we got some good, up-close looks.

They know now to watch out for the Chouinards....