They are small.

The Good Part
*They look perfectly Innocent.
*They enjoy light places.
*They are quaint.
*They can not walk quickly.
*They have pretty colors.
*They do not make loud noises.
The Bad Part
*They have too many legs.
*They taste very bad. 
*They have an annoying habit of getting in your mop water.
*They stink... Badly.
*They can, and do, fly.
*They make small and irritating tapping noises.
*I can see 20 of them by simply looking to my right. (Yes, I counted.)
*I am tired of picking them up, sweeping them up, mopping them up... And any other manner of getting rid of them that you can think of. I left one at the bottom of Gladys' stairs last Friday because I was overcome with Dislike for those Things, and could not muster the courage to dispose of even one more...  I will get it next time I clean... Providing that it is still there and Joe has not squished it and dropped it into the trash can... He probably will have. And I shall be Profoundly Grateful to him.

The side affects of a flu…

Started writing a letter to Charity last night in my journal, and it turned into a journal entry (sorry Chari).The first sentence was "I think God thinks I talk too much!", and I went on to jabber about anything and everything that is happening in my life right now. At this very moment there is not a whole lot happening... I'm sitting on the loveseat in the living room wishing I did not have this nasty flu (and using Lances computer, shhh, don’t tell him!)... Talk about dizzy! Ugh... Anyways I'm surviving
I was reading a blog yesterday afternoon during one of my more energetic moments, written by a guy who is 24/25. During his last year in collage he was an alcoholic and one night he got so drunk he did not even know who took him home. He woke the next morning to the news that his pastor had died after dropping his mic into the water while doing a baptism. The pastor was 30 or so and left behind a wife and kids, tragic. Anyways, it shook the guy up enough that he decided not to drink anymore until the end of the semester, which he managed to do, so he decided to see if he could make it all the way through collage... But he discovered after he stopped drinking that he did not have anything to do... No parties to go to... Sooo he picked up his camera, (his dad does photography as a "hobby") aaand currently he travels doing photography for missions all over the world. Wow! A life of uselessness (his own words were "if I died right now people would say ' so-and-so was a nice guy and could fix computers' the end") turned to a rather impressively useful life... All because a man died, young.
And I have to think to myself, so a pastor dies young... around 30 years old... and "saves the life" of at least one man. A couple thousand years ago a Man died young... around 30 years old... and saved the life of millions... Wow! But the reason that second Man saved so many lives was because: He Lives! 
Okay, that was one thought I had…  Thought two… When I grow up I’m either going to have a brand new house, or I’ll have a little tiny house on the mission field somewhere… HA! I wish. We’ve been repainting Mom’s kitchen this week, and it turned into quite the project I’m telling you! Mom had said originally that “It might take as long as Wednesday to get it all done”, well it’s Friday, and she just finished up today. Thus, the comment about new houses… I firmly believe that if I ever happen to be the owner of a Brand New House… I’m NOT going to paint the insides of the cupboards!!! I mean, how many of you have ever tried, during hay-fever season, to keep your balance on a counter top while sticking your head in one side of a cupboard and painting the the other side of the cupboard yellow, not to mention the fact that you happen to be coming down with a flue… Aaand not to mention the fact that you are starving hungry because you are painting a kitchen here and the food happens to be piled in a slightly unorganized pile on the dining room table… Crackers and cream cheese can only suffice for So Long you know!  Anyways, it’s done now and looks beautiful.   
Thought three: Do I have to have a graduation party? Despite popular opinion I don’t like having people pay that much attention to me… It’s embarrassing! So I’m brainstorming for a girls party of some sort… We shall see what happens… I do have my graduation dress fabric that I will probably make up for the end of the school year church get together.
Thought four: Kids Club went Super this week… Tuesday was a crazy day for me. I got up at seven and helped clean the house because Margie was coming to tell Mom “If she was Crazy” (she was wondering about her paint colors) I did laundry while Margie was here and then we headed out the door to go to Gingeriches to sort clothes for CAM, we got home around noon and started right into painting, and I painted until quarter till six when Lance told me he wanted to leave to pick up kids for NBCC in 15 minutes!!! Guys are crazy… Anyways, I was ready in 17 minutes, only to find out that he did not need to leave for another 10 whatever. None of the kids from Lances route were home but the other guys managed to round up 17… Wow, it went great. The kid’s loved the paper bag puppets Abbey (blue was the color btw. ). Bryce um… Bluebird? Seems like that’s what his last name was, and Joe Kilmer came to help out… More guys Oh well, any help is welcome
Thought five: Its supper time, I’ve been sitting here writing off and on for two hours, and I think I’m gonna stop now Have a marvelous weekend!
– Francis

Little Brothers

"Brad, go comb your hair."-Amy
Five minutes later: "Brad, your left shoe isn't tied".- Yours Truly
A little later: Brad tuck your shirt in... its not cool to have a ruffle sticking out from under your jacket. -Lance
And  yet a little later: "Brad, did you brush your teeth!?"-Amy
Five minutes later: "Brad"... "Amy you guys stop picking on him!"-Mom
Brad (who previously had been doing our bidding with a slightly annoyed look on his face): "Yeah, anyways!".
  This is heard regularly at our house... Whenever we happen to be going somewhere in fact. Today we were getting ready to go to Rice Lake and poor Brad did not have Mom here to rescue him... He changed clothes twice and his shoes once. He un-tucked and re-tucked his shirt tail at least once as well.
And then on the way to Rice Lake Lance and I pestered him wondering what he was crying about (he has a cold right now and was sniffing).
   And it makes me wonder... Do we pick on him too much!? :)

Love you Brad! -Frank

   

 
 

K, so I found this when I was blog-hopping today, thought it was pretty good:

What do they see?!

What do they see? when they look at you?!
Do they see Jesus?
Today, you may be the only "Jesus" that somebody EVER sees.
Are you going to make the most of it? Are you representing him in a way that makes people think less of him? Or are you representing him in a way that makes people WANT to get to know him better.
He wants to flow through you, but are you letting him?

When people look at you, they SHOULD see Jesus, but in reality, right now, what are they seeing?
People need to know that they are loved unconditionally, they need to know that Jesus loves them unconditionally. The best way for them to learn that, is not through some missionary coming in a few years to preach to them, it's through YOU and your everyday actions.
If you open your mouth to speak to people, and reach out to them...God WILL fill it. He WILL give you the right words to say. You just HAVE to be bold.
I believe it's time for this generation to get a heck of alot more bold about our faith. It's time to stop being passive and assuming that other people will tell the world. As Christians...it's OUR job, and there's no getting around it.
Myself especially, I I still don't think I fully realize how much God can use me EVERY SINGLE DAY, if I just stay fully submitted to him.
I've been working on it lately, just waking up in the morning and letting God know that I want him to use me in every way, shape, and form that day that he possibly can. It's AMAZING the little things that he brings into my path, he needs people to rise up, and I believe WE are those people.
The love of God flowing through you to another person can change their demeanor, their day, and essentially, their life.

However, it all starts with your relationship with God, your ministry needs to be an OVERFLOW of your relationship with God. If you have a close to non-existent relationship with the Father, how do you expect him to be able to use you, if YOU aren't filling yourself up? If you start pressing into him, spending time with him, getting intimate with him, it WILL bubble over, overflowing out of you and will start to bless everyone around you. I guarantee it.

Are you willing?!
Who/what will people see when they look at you?!
-Natellie Joy

Have you ever tried to change your blog template? Get it to look like you, and yet be something that other people don't look at and think "goodness, whats wrong with her!?" .  It's not easy being me... :)
 I tried brown, I tried orange, I tried green, I even tried teal. And you know teal of all colors is stretching it for "looking like me". Teal is just not a color I use, I mean, I like it, but I'm just not cool enough to be able to use it ;)
  I actually tried orange first because orange is my "happy color". Burnt orange:


It would be the one smack-dab in the middle there, actually its halfway in-between that color and the one on the bottom row, right.
 I remember when I first decided I liked orange, people still give me funny looks when I say that, so I always stress that burnt part of burnt orange... I mean, come on, it's not like we're talking about florescent orange!
 Anyways... I did not start this post to write about burnt orange... I started it to say that yeah... My blog's probly gonna look different every time you come on here for the next lil' while...
  Have a great weekend! -Frank

One Day is as a Thousand Years

I had a new thought yesterday... If with God one day is as a thousand years, another words time has no meaning. And I spend a day praying, God is listening... and it means He is willing to spend a thousand years, and more, listening to my prayers. That idea really boggles my mind, I mean, its not that I did not know that God cared about me but the fact that He cares enough to spend Thousands of years listening to my prayers! I have an AWESOME God!