Taylor MO

Heather took Alex and Emma down to Taylor, Missouri this weekend to help with her grandma's garage sale. She is moving out of her house to a condo and had a moving sale. It was a successful sale and they were able to get rid of quite a bit of stuff.

They had fun seeing all the relatives!

American Girl

Heather and Emma went up with some friends to Chicago to the American Girl store.  It was a foggy day but they had a great time and enjoyed a great lunch and time together.  The kids are enjoying Spring Break this week so it was fun to have something to do.

They took the train up.  It's a pretty convenient way to travel to Chicago.

Meeting Sahara

The Streitmatter's were in town for the Steffen's get together and we got to meet Sahara! We had a great day and spent most of Saturday outside enjoying the weather.

G6 Summit 2011

We had a great weekend at the Big Ten Tournament again this year.  The weekend is always a highlight of the year for all of us.  The tourney was again in Indianapolis.  Below are a few pictures from the weekend.

Northwestern takes the Ohio State University to OT.

Good seats again this year!

Illini

Illini vs. Michigan tip off

Brandon Paul (#3) on D.

Fogo de Chao for a great meal.

Purdue vs. Michigan State.

Late night pizza tradition.

Saturday morning run on the track.

The guy on the left is fast.

Penn St. vs. Michigan St. in the Semi-Final.

And we met Steve Kerr.  He used to play for the Bulls.

Sahara

Our kids have a new cousin!  Heather's sister's family recently adopted a little girl from Ethiopia.  Due to inclement weather, we weren't able to meet them at the airport but Heather and Emma got to go out to see them in Peoria.

Happy Birthday Abe

Long Story Short

I spent this past week at the Biblical Counseling Training Conference in Lafayette, IN learning about helping people see their need for Jesus in dealing with life's issues.  It was my second year and is just a great conference.  I also picked up five CEU's while I was there!

I saw a booth there that New Growth Press had and there was a childrens' devotional there that I was interested in.  It seems difficult to find a really good childrens' devotional to use for family devotions.  They had one that I just loved and by God's sovereignty, got a free copy.  It's called Long Story Short.  The book is divided by each week which includes five lessons.  On day three of each lesson there is a "connect it to Jesus" topic that takes whatever Scripture you are studying and ties it to the Person of Jesus Christ.  I love this about this book because I want my kids to see Jesus in all of Scripture, not just the Gospels and obvious texts.

We started this devotional today and it starts with Genesis 1:1-2.  The cool thing is that the introduction to this week teaches about general revelation.

Romans 1:20 says,

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

This means that God has revealed Himself to everyone through what He created.  The world, the mountains, the oceans, the forests, a tree, a leaf.  Though it doesn't use the theological term general revelation, it is so cool to me that my kids are learning this Truth!

I highly recommend this book for your family and highly recommend the material from New Growth Press.