As my husband noted in the last post, yesterday we experienced an earthquake of 5.6 magnitude that lasted about 30 seconds. Afterwards, my oldest was so shaken up that he was unable to fall asleep. Daddy said a prayer for him, reminding him and thanking God for His sovereign control over everything. It wasn’t until after that he went to sleep. When he woke up this morning he told me:

Matthew: “Mommy, that earthquake was heavy.”

Me: “You mean, it’s still heavy on your mind?”

Matthew: “Yes.”

His mind is still churning over the earthquake last night and he still expresses real fear of the event. Later in the day he asked me:

Matthew: “Mommy, I don’t like the earthquake.”

Me: “I don’t like it either, but earthquakes do happen and we need to trust God.”

Matthew: “Are we going to have another earthquake?”

Me: “I don’t know when we’ll have another one, but most likely we will.”

Matthew: “If we have another one, we have to get out of the house, but what if the house falls over? Where are we going to go?”

Me: “Let’s not think about what might happen in the future. Let’s be thankful that God was merciful in protecting us this time around. Our house still stands and we still have a house to live in.”

Natural disasters do happen and it is important to me that I convey that to my son. I almost wanted to say, “It’s ok, Mommy will always be here to comfort you.” However, this statement isn’t true. It is not possible. I cannot make such a promise and only God can. As much as I want to offer my presence as a source of comfort to him, I had to redirect him to God because truly, He is the only One who is able to protect, sustain, and be omnipresent.

While most people know October 31 as the day of Halloween, most people don’t know that it also marks the day when Martin Luther nailed 95 theses protesting the corrupt practices of the Catholic Church to a church door in 1517. This act - commemorated as “Reformation Day” by many - may seem a small act, but it marked a banner day in church history, and marked the beginning of a restoration of a sound Biblical view of salvation to the church worldwide.

This year I decided to do a lapbook project with my 5.5 yr old son to learn about Martin Luther and the Reformation. Soon after we started on the project, Tim Challies posted a Reformation Day Symposium where he is accepting writings on the reformation. While our project isn’t a deep theological treatise of Martin Luther, I’m entering my son’s project for the contest. Perhaps Challies will give brownie points to a five-year-old? Maybe more brownie points for pictures? Pictures do make reading go faster and soothing and pleasing to the eye. Perhaps a generous reward for five days of hard work?

Here is my son holding the Reformation lapbook which reads “Reformation Day October 31, 2007.”

Matthew holding the lapbook open:

A close-up view of the inside. To the left is a picture of Katharina von Bora, Luther’s wife. Below her picture is a red quarter circle mini-book that talks about her life.

The middle of the book contains two pictures with one overlapping the other. The picture showing is the map of Europe with the city Wittenberg colored in red. (Side note: my son loves saying the word Wittenberg because the “w” is pronounced as “v.”) Underneath it is a picture of Martin Luther (see the next picture). Below it is a mini-book about Martin Luther’s life.

To the right is a picture of Martin Luther and beneath it is a red mini-book explaining the doctrine of justification by faith.

More details of the inside. To the left, the red mini-book is opened up and it lists six things about Katharina von Bora’s life: was a nun, married Luther, was 26 and Luther was 42, had 6 children, lived in “The Black Cloister,” and died on 12/20/1552.

In the middle, the picture underneath the map is brought to the foreground. It is a picture of Martin Luther nailing 95 theses to the church door. As you can see, Luther wears a quite colorful garment for a monk. His face even exhibits a severe case of jaundice. Compliments of my son’s artistic abilities.

To the right, the red mini-book on “justification by faith” is opened and reads “God declares a sinner righteous by faith alone. Salvation is a gift from God through faith in Jesus.”

Focusing on the middle page at the bottom is a blue mini-book where my son entitled it “My Little Martin Luther Book.” Matthew wrote an eight page story of Luther’s life which reads: “Martin Luther was born in Germany on November 10, 1483. His mother and father wanted him to be a lawyer but he became a monk. He taught theology at the University of Wittenberg. He learned about justification by faith from the book of Romans. The Catholic church taught that your sin may be forgiven if you pay money to the church. Luther write 95 theses to say that the Catholic church was wrong.” As you can see, my son decides to be creative and writes each letter with alternating colors. He said he likes to create a pattern.

THE END. I am quite proud of my son for accomplishing this project, even if we don’t win the contest.

Wow.

First time since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake that we’ve felt a real shaker around here. This one hit about an hour ago, measured in at 5.6 on the Richter scale, and its epicenter was less than 10 miles from us.

We’re all okay though a bit shaken up (!), though I guess the local phone lines got swamped and the only way folks could reach us was via Yahoo/Skype IM! Funny how technology is.

The house, on the other hand, was not so fortunate as we:

Just kidding, of course.  Actually the above was from the famed 1906 earthquake in San Francisco. Now that was a doozy, to put it lightly.

Seriously, though, kinda humbling, to have the whole world around you not be stable. You really are in no control of nothing (except, I suppose, my bodily functions, and I hear that even that’s going to go at some point down the road).

The quake effects lasted for about 10-15 seconds in our house. Some picture frames shaken, but no damage. Unless, of course, you count the psyche of our oldest, who upon realizing it was an earthquake, just lost it and started bawling. I guess I shouldn’t have shown him those photos of the Bay Bridge collapse last week when explaining earthquakes. He thought it was one of these (below photo is of the I-880 collapse in the Loma Prieta earthquake):

The first thought that came to my mind as I ran over to the other room where the kids were dancing to music? “I don’t know how big this one is, but good thing I just bought earthquake insurance last week!” Seriously!

And now? Thankful that the God who rules over land (quakes!) and sea (tsunamis!) has promised to never leave or forsake us, and is working all things for our good. And no matter the quake magnitude (this one a 5.6), nothing will separate us from His love!

Blogging is an interesting communication medium. Depending on what you want to write and convey, readers form an opinion or idea of the person behind the blog. On occasions I read my own blog and if I can stand back and assess what kind of person behind our blog, I would say this person/couple is serious, most of the time. I’m laughing now because WE’RE TOTALLY NOT THAT SERIOUS. In reality, we are a goofy couple who likes to joke around. Our close friends (ok, all two of you please chime in and say so) can testify to that.

Two years ago we met a couple who had been reading our blog prior to our first meeting. After interacting with us for several days, the husband said to my husband, “You are not who I think you are based on your blog. On your blog you are really spiritual and serious, but in real life you’re really funny too. I think you’d be a great youth pastor.” To that we just laughed. We’re quite amused.

Based on comments and feedbacks from people who have visited on blog, we do come off as pretty serious and intense. Some have said we’re the type of people they would want to meet or have coffee with. Hmmm. . . now that I let the cat out of the bag concerning our goofy personality, I’m not sure if they would still want to meet us.

If we’re truly goofy, why then is our blog so serious? Our blog is an expression of our thought life and even though we’re quite nutty, we do have a serious side. The topics that interest us and are important to us tend to be more serious. The intent of our blog is to write about things that would bring glory to God, and thus far we are only able to express our thoughts in a more serious matter. I believe that bringing glory to God can also be expressed through being funny and goofy. However, I think at this point we lack talents and gifts in this arena.

We were tipped off to the existence of a newly released movie titled Bella, starring former Mexican superstar actor Eduardo Verástegui (described as “the Brad Pitt of Mexico” in one blog) by the Rebelution blog. We decided to make a date of it and went to watch the movie last Friday on its opening night.

The movie chronicles a day in the life of its two main characters: José, the main chef in his brother’s Latino-themed restaurant in New York City, and Nina, a waitress in the same restaurant. What’s marvelous, though, is that the movie, though billed as “a true love story” is anything but what you might expect. Rather than a typical Hollywood romance, instead the movie is a subtle but compelling presentation of the preciousness of life even amidst its complexities. The story delves into Nina’s present-day troubles as they intersect with José’s tragic past, and how they both find hope and promise for the future (and freedom from the past) as they unexpectedly spend a day together under trying circumstances.

What we enjoyed about the movie were an engaging story line, up-close and compelling cinematography (even in the big city), great acting and character development, a believable plot, and most importantly, a beautiful underlying message about the gift of life. Prior to watching the movie, Lois did some research and read more about the life of Verástegui, and how he came to faith in the Lord Jesus four years ago, and the transformation in his life that has taken place and borne fruit in this movie (and others to come from his newly founded production company, Metanoia Films).

This film is wonderfully made and should appeal to people from all walks of life. Rather than a cliched “Christian” film in which someone messes up, “gets religion,” and whose problems are all solved; Bella instead shows how easy it is to get derailed from what’s important, and how powerful an impact one can make in others’ lives with a commitment to treasure life in all its facets and complexities. One might even argue this is what “Christian” art should look like: not a mere knock-off or poor imitation of the world, but a uniquely fresh vision and celebration of the world as God intends us to see and live.

One caveat: the hand-camera filming technique made my wife nauseated about a third of the way through the film.

Bella tells a beautiful and moving story which reminded us powerfully of how precious life is. We recommend it highly.

View a trailer here.

We use a crate to store all of our current school books so that they are all contained in one place.  I chose a crate instead of a box because I can put hanging folders in the crate to separate each subject.  Binders and large books are placed in the back of the crate without a hanging folder.  With this system each book or subject is readily accessible without much searching.  When our next child is ready for formal school, we will use another crate for that student.  Here is a picture of my crate:

I use a plastic caddy to store school supplies such as pencils, pens, crayons, scissors, glue, money, ruler, etc.  See picture below:

Whenever I feel the onset of a cold, I make a cup of garlic tea for myself.  I’m still amazed that this little remedy has worked for me for the past year.  It is all natural, cheap, and simple to make.  The substance allicin in garlic has anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties which acts as a medicine.

The flu and cold season is upon us and this garlic tea recipe will prove helpful in keeping you from getting sick.  To make the tea, crush several cloves of garlic and steep them in a cup of hot water.  Wait 30 minutes and then drink the tea.  You might want to hold your nose because most people don’t like the taste.  You can also add honey if the tea is too distasteful for your palate.  As for me, I have acquired a taste for garlic and don’t mind it.  The side effect of drinking garlic tea is rather obvious: BAD BREATH.  However, my kiddos don’t mind it. If you need to be out in a public place, you can still drink the garlic tea, but be sure to pack a lot of breath mints.  From my experience I have found that if I drink the garlic tea with an empty or near empty stomach, I tend to get some intestinal discomfort.  To remedy this, I make sure I have some food in my tummy first before drinking it.  This tea works best at the onset of a cold.  From experience, this remedy does not work as well when the cold is full blown.