Party

Lystra's send off party was fun. We had desserts and wine. My cookie cake turned out really good. Allie took a quarter of it home. Needless to say, all the kids there were wild, due to the sugar. Aiden is amazing. He can run on all fours just as fast as kids run on two legs. We watched him outside run like some animal. It looked totally natural.

Lystra asked me to bring some kind of game idea. I did, but it was way too easy to be fun. I happened to have a print-out of all the Kingdom Melody chorus lyrics. My game was to have people sing the tune when I read the words to the song. Zonya and Cathy didn't even need to hear the second line before they were singing the song.

Above is a pic of what's left of my cake. This recipe is so easy. I have alot left, because there were alot of desserts there, and we came late. I'm going to take it to band practice tonight.

We're also invited to go to a little kid party at the Clarkes house down the street. We're going to show up there for a while until it's time to go to practice.

Pioneer School

My friend Lystra is having a send-off party for herself tonight for pioneer school. When Tasha asked why she needed a send-off party when she wasn't really going away (it's one county over), Lystra said it's because she's going to return a different person after 2 weeks of intense bible study and ministry training.

Alot of pioneers go into school thinking they know everything about service and applying scriptures. Then they come out. I was worried before I went myself, because people were saying that when they came out, they realized they don't know hardly anything! I thought, 'I already think I know hardly anything, what am I going to think when I'm finished school?'

Everyone goes into school having some kind preconception. Probably every time, they are taken by surprise what pioneer school is really like. When I was done, I realized that I did know stuff. It teaches you to become a spiritually mature person. You learn how to treat your relationship with Jehovah as your most precious possession. Keeping this priority is the real survival skill, because in the end, that's all we're going to walk out with.

I'm making a giant chocolate chip cookie for the party. The recipe is on my kitchen blog at http://joellynskitchenonline.blogspot.com/

Profile

Name: Filip Age: 17 mo. Height: 2' 5" Weight 21lb
Vocab: 3 words
Skills: scribbles, walks backwards, sings, helps, kisses, waves bye, animal noises, spits, climbs ladders, slides, splashes.
Drink: cup, straw, sippy
Behavior: cautious, interested, silly.

Sparkberry Manor

We went to the Alan's home today. My friend Jeannie got married last year to a nice guy who seems to be made for her.
In some ways, Jeff seems just like Jeannie, except with more testosterone.
Like, she's prepared with everything when she's camping (clothes racks, tablecloths, air-mattresses). Jeff would pack 10 times more stuff than that. She says the whole basement offers a variety of any camping equipment you can imagine.
Jeannie likes pets, and has 2 dogs and several cats. Jeff brought in about 15 more pets into the marriage.
Jeannie has an above-average appreciation for the arts and literature. Jeff has a vast array of musical instruments that he can play, shelves of jazz cd's and records. Their house is packed with things like these.
It's like Jeff makes Jeannie's interests larger-than-life. I don't know Jeff that well, but it seems they have enriched each other tremendously. If Jeannie just liked kittens, Jeff would of owned a tiger.
So we visited, and Filip got to see them give 3 of their pet rats a bath in the sink. He touched the corn snake, and watched the big snake. He saw their dogs, turtles, lizard, and mice as well. He mostly sat on Johnnie's (Jeannie's mom) lap the whole time watching animals.

Doctor Visit

I took Filip to the doctor today. It's been a whole year since he went. His doctor looked at his eyelid with the lump on it. Then he injected the eyelid with something that will break it up and make it go away.

I declined all vaccinations. Susan, the practitioner who was doing the well baby exam, said it is going to be a whole lot of vaccines that he will have to make up when he's older. I figured, if he has to get 21 shots before he's age 1, he can get those shots when he's 3 or 4. That way, I can compensate for who-knows-what chemicals they're injecting in him through detoxing and diet.

I know it's a fad for parents to decline vaccinations because they're afraid of autism. That's not my biggest concern. I don't like how aggressive Doctors are required to be about vaccinating children. Also, the benefits of receiving shots are very exaggerated, and the 'dangers' of not getting them are exaggerated. It makes me question the motivation behind these. If vaccinations only exist for the well-being of society, they wouldn't have to use bully tactics, and fragmented, biased information to get parents to inoculate their children.

My practitioner is very reasonable about this. It's obvious she dosen't agree, but she dosen't act like I'm a bad mother because I turned shots down.

Hanging out day

Today we went to Silver Spring to hang out with some friends who are in town. Filip and I stayed at the house with Leah, while JR and Pete went to meet a business associate.
I got alot done because I brought my books and computer. I studied for the meeting, got some material together for my upcoming talk, finished my weekly bible reading and worked on another study project. So it was pretty useful to be at their house.
There were a ton of toys to play with for Filip. So, he had fun. Here's the video of him playing.

Lily Bird

Live Action Lily.