Kitten antics video

When Eppie and Ollie were small, we got them a "kitten condo": cat house, play toy, perch and scratching post all in one. We would have rather had them climb on that than on our furniture, that's for sure! I got this video of them playing on it. Watch for when they start playing with each others' tails; it's near the end (no pun intended!) of the video. :-)

 

Ice-coated Winter Wonderland

What I saw out of my bedroom windows this morning immediately made me think of the term "winter wonderland". Why's that? Well, what I beheld made me wonder: Can winter get any prettier than this?

Two days ago it rained//sleeted and the temperature got above freezing. Yesterday, in the morning it warmed up a tad and rained a little bit, and then towards evening the temperature got colder and it snowed some. Today, the sky is cloudless, and the icy coating on all the trees makes them sparkle like diamonds when the sun shines on them. When the wind blows on the trees the ice crackles on the branches! Here are a few photos.

 

 

Mom's artificial flowers remind me of all the color that I hope to see outside soon...

Can you tell I'm already looking forward to spring? :-)

Ice is nice, and it makes everything outside look very pretty, but I am looking forward to the kind of weather where I don't have to put on ice grippers on my boots when go out. Mud season will be here before y'know it. :-)

I think our cats are also looking forward to the warmer weather...

...especially the temperatures where the water is liquid again!

Sorry it's been so long since my last post! Not many new things have been happening at Green Gambrels during the last month. I've started getting into running (more like jogging right now!), and icy roads are not very conducive for that. Oh well. Over the last year or so I've working on getting in shape, reforming my eating habits and learning more about fitness and healthy food. There are foods that I eat now that I hadn't even heard of a year ago, or if I had heard of them I thought they were "weird". But as I learn more, I'm amazed to see how God made so many different kinds of foods that are incredibly beneficial to the health of the body. Anyways, maybe in a future post I'll write more about my favorite "weird" foods. :-)

I've been involved with several Bible studies that we have going on during the week. On Tuesday night I attend a young peoples' Bible study hosted by a friend of ours from church. We've been  studying the book of John, and it's refreshing to go through it again and see different facets of the same gems that have been in there all along. On Wednesdays I and a few other church friends go to a nursing home and visit the folks there. We sing, have a Bible lesson and sometime I do some fiddling for them, too. On Friday nights we have a Bible study there as well, and more and more people are interested in coming to hear the Bible read and the gospel preached. It's really exciting! We also have a Bible study at another friend's house on Sunday nights. We've been studying Romans. With every study I feel like I'm understanding a little bit more of God's grace, wisdom, power and plan, and more of my own position as a believer in Jesus Christ as my own personal savior from my sins. On Wednesday afternoons, after the nursing home visiting time I'm involved in study of the book of Revelation with my Mom and two other ladies. It's quite an interesting book, with lots of things in it that I don't understand! However, there are things that I can take away from it that are practical lessons/reminders for everyday life. For example, in chapter 22 Christ reminds us that He is coming quickly! I'm really looking forward to that day. The beauty that I see in the ice on the trees in winter time will be nothing compared to His glory!

A Great Piece by Bach!

Recently I started learning how to play the Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 (or part of it, anyway!) on the violin. It's a piece by Johann Sebastian Bach, and I really like it. Not just because it's by Bach, but that is a good reason to like it. :-)

Before you watch the video, here's a quote from Bach that I appreciate.

The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.

I agree that all music should give glory to God, and a lot of it is certainly refreshing to listen to and enjoyable to play.
Here's a video of the bit of the Brandenburg Concerto that I'm starting to learn. This video is well worth watching, not only to hear the music, but also to see how every instrument, musician and part comes together to form this beautiful and lively piece. The musicians are also fun to watch; they look like they thoroughly enjoyed playing this piece together. :-) I hope you enjoy this video as much as I did!

Some advice... :-)

This last week I went to Buckit Week. Buckit stands for Bible University Christian Knowledge Intensive Training. It went from the evening of August 15 through the afternoon of August 20th. It was a wonderful time of good, solid Bible teaching, reading and study, and it was also a great time of fellowship with other believers!

One of the two Bible teachers, Mr. Wilson (all the way from Down Under!) spoke a bit on how not to study the Bible. When some people study the Bible, they take things out of context, read things into the text or misconstrue it in some way so badly that all one can really say is... well, watch this video and you'll find out! :-)  

Animals of Green Gambrels video

This is a video that I put together of the animals around our house. :-) It's one of my first few times using our video camera. Enjoy!