Torah Life

Sukkot disappointment and Blessings!!!

Well to say that we had a great Sukkot would be a lie, we had some wonderful blessings this year but I think we missed the mark for what we should be doing. Sukkot is one of the most fun things that we do and I normally do so much for it but this year was not good. Is it anyone's fault? YES,   MINE! I forget sometimes that MY Family needs to come first in all things that we do.  Life happens but I need not let that effect my kids and my family. things that are important still need to be important and celebrated weather I am tired or not. but I digress.... 

let me share with you some of the wonderful blessings that we had this year. 

first our sukkah was just so cool. I wish we had done more out there, but it was really cool!!!

 

We put out the baby Messiah and the little sukkahs out in our sukkah and we did play with them. the girls love getting them out and talking about Messiah's birth. 

anouther blessing we had this year was we had our very first Luluv 

It was so wonderful to have a luluv this year and the girls to get to hear the teaching behind the luluv. THank you Mike and Vicki and the congregation of Beth Emet for this  most wonderful blessing.

another blessing that we had was our Ushpizin, our wonderful Sukkot Guests, The parkers, we were so happy to spend the weekend of Sukkot with them up in the Huliapai Mountains. we had such a blast camping and hanging out. 

I am hoping that now thing are calming down that I can do some of the things that I had set out to do with the girls. but we will see how this works.  all I know is that I need to take a look at what I need to do and stop trying to fit in with what others do and start doing what  MY family does best.  Shalom.

Yom terruah 2011

Chag Sameach everyone, I am a little late posting this but it has been a hard week this past week and I really had no time to post. On thursday night was my favorite feast of Yom Teruah, I love this feast for so many reasons, First I love that it is the first of the FALL feasts meaning I can decorate for the fall. then we get to eat wonderful food like apples and honey, round Challah and honey cake

but before we get to the eating we blow the shofars after we find the new moon (Rosh Chodesh)   here is us at the service for Yom Teruah.

after spoting the new moon then we went inside for some feasting.......

after the food we had a small service at MCF, where Pastor Ken Did a message and prayed for the people in the congregation.

On Shabbat we did something a bit more traditional and did a Unconventional Tashlich service.....

after the Tashlich service we ate lunch and played around

around the yard.... YHVH's beauty and message of his goodness is found all around us

My back yard is full of color and beauty, Just anouther blessing that YHVH has giving to us I know but what a blessing it is to look outside and see all the COLORS that YAH has given us 

(Psa 24:1)  A Psalm of David. The earth is the LORD's, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein.
(Psa 24:2)  For He has founded it upon the seas, And established it upon the waters.
(Psa 24:3)  Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD? Or who may stand in His holy place?
(Psa 24:4)  He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully.
(Psa 24:5)  He shall receive blessing from the LORD, And righteousness from the God of his salvation.
(Psa 24:6)  This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him, Who seek Your face. Selah
(Psa 24:7)  Lift up your heads, O you gates! And be lifted up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in.
(Psa 24:8)  Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, The LORD mighty in battle.
(Psa 24:9)  Lift up your heads, O you gates! Lift up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in.
(Psa 24:10)  Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, He is the King of glory. Selah JUST A THOUGHT......

I praise YHVH for all of his blessing, He has blessed me beond my imagination, he has kept me safe and provided for me and my children. providing for all of our needs, YHVH surly is a Elohim to be praised and worship for he is worthy. I do not praise him because I am commanded to praise him I praise him because he is worthy of praise and worship he is worth more than what I give!!!

I am reminded everyday why Y'shuah says that we are to have faith like a child.  Today Kat came up to me all excited that there was a humming bird in the yard, acting like it was the first time she had ever seen one. It made me think, if we acted like that when we went to read the bible or if we acted like that before we went to service I think it would change so many things. we get so used to how things go that we forget to look at how blessed we are to get to fellowship with other believers and spend time in the word.   I want to come into worship like my daughter ran to see that hummingbird. I want to open my bible with the excitement that she has.  it is such a blessing to see things in the eyes of my children.  YHVH has surly blessed me with them, they teach me everyday how I need to be as a Daughter of YHVH.  

sorry didn't mean to preach, I guess I have been hanging out with Joe too much. I just thought it was cool and it got me thinking and then I wanted to share.   Anyways here is Kat's humming bird

 
 

the pictures of the humming bird were taking by Tyna.

 

Shavu'ot 2011

Shavu'ot or the feast of Pentecost.  Shavu'ot is the feast where we commemoratethe giving of the TORAH and the HOLY SPIRIT.  this is a beautiful feast, rich with tradition and meaning to us as Believers in Messiah Y'shuah. Messiah is our word made flesh, the giving of himself at Passover and the raising from the grave at the feast of First fruits. He told them that he would send a gift at Shavu'ot, a gift from the Groom to his Bride.  We accept his gift  on Shavu'ot the gift of the Covenant and the gift of Holy Spirit.  

Isn't that a beautiful picture? If it doesn't make you feel loved by Y'shuah and YHVH, I don't know what else will. This is one of the few feast that we share with ourbrethren in the Christian Church as they Celebrate Pentecost, Pentecost a greek word meaning fiftieth.  Shavu'ot means "Weeks". interesting how they mean verysimilar things. 

Shavu'ot is rich with tradition, here are some of the traditions of Shavu'ot  and why ( my definition) also I will include how we kept this tradition.

reading the story of Ruth- Ruth is the symbol of a "Godly bride" to Boaz ( a Hebrew Groom)  also she is the Grandmother of David.

we read the book earlier this week and then we painted a book of Ruth.

 

Eating dairy- there are many reasons why, I like it representing the promise of Milk and honey in the promise land, showing how YHVH always keeps his promises. 

we kept this: dinner we had alfredo potatoes and for dessert we had ice cream. lunch the following day we had sandwiches ( with cheese) and our Commandmentcake (carrot Cake- because of the harvest decoration) with cream cheese frosting. 

  

Another tradition is to put flowers all over your home because of Mount Sinai being green and lush. we did do that.

       

Pretty. I love flowers so I surely love to decorate my home with flowers. they will be up all through the summer. 

all to make ready for the feast........

we celebrated the feast with fellow believers, Good friends!!! 

Here is the girls all pretty for the picnic

 
 

There is Cindy and Mike, waving the bread. 2 loafs to represent the  believer and Unbeliever

 
Fred blowing the shofar, because a feast is not the same with out blowing of theshofar. 

 
Joe and Mike both did a teaching. and they both did a great job.

 
 
 
 
the kids playing in the tubes.

 
Nap time for Heze.

here is some other pics 

Heze Fred and Dianna  Jim and Carla

 

Happy Shavu'ot!!!!

 

 

3rd month...... Rosh Kodesh

The new moon was spotted in the land and here on Friday night!!! 

We find many references to the new moon or beginning of months in the Scriptures, including the obligation for True worshipers to observe them, Numbers 10:10; 28:11-15; 1Chronicles 23:31; 2Chronicles 2:4; 8:13; 31:3; Ezra 3:5; Ezekiel 46:1, 3, 6; Colossians 2:16.

we didn't have everyone over this month due to it falling on Shabbat and that for us is family time and that is family time for everyone in the congragation as well.  but we had  suprise visitors from Tucson to share the new moon celebration with us so that was a blessing.

  Here is Kat with her new moon shirt on I ment to take a picture of her shirt but I was so busy getting ready for the company I forgot.  that is ok she will where it for next new moon I am sure. 

as for the rest of the weekend, we went to shabbat service FINIALLY, I missed everyone so much having missed 3 services. then we went to feed alex for Mike  ( mike is at a wedding) plus we wanted to see the baby bird's nest 

 we did see the baby birds but the pics I tried to take didn't show up where you could see the babies. maybe tomorrow we will try again.

anyways we were blessed to have friends here from Friday to Sunday, I didn't take many photos of the visit as it was a sad trip for them they stoped here after a loss of a friend in Vegas ( if you can pray for them and the family of Greg) but I did catch this one photo of Abby just being, well, Abby

Julie and Tyna were playing wii

after Julie and Jim went back home we headed to the lake, cause you know we can't stay at home ;)

This is the Fish Joe caught right before we were heading out.... nice size so we kept him, he is now fileted and in the freezer waiting for more of them so we can eat them.  

well that is it for me .... On tuesday and wednesday  there be the rest of the pictures from the camping trip so watch for that and  the 13th we will be posting on shavuot ( it is on sunday the 12th)  so we will have anouther busy week ahead.  have a blessed night Shavuah tov

 

 

Chametz.......NO MORE!!!!! time to get our FEASTING ON!!!

well I just have to say I am glad that these feast only come around once a year. It is alot of work to get your house ready for them. 
the girls have been such a help and such troopers about the whole thing. abby and Jackie were my top shelf helpers and Tyna and Kat were my biggest help they helped me with all the dishes and all the wiping our of the cabnets. Tyna even made dinner acouple of nights so I wouldn't have to. It truley has been a great experance to include them in the cleaning this year. as they have in the past just looked for the leaven this year we went a bit deeper with it, teaching them that we need to search and clean out the leaven the house, and this is supposed to remind us that we need to look closer at ourselves and clean out the sin out of our lives.  Even though it is a CHORE to clean like this we had some fun with it and we know that the house is VERY clean which always make you feel good about. but on to more fun things like Pesach, Pesach will start Tonight at sundown, for our family we will we doing our own sedar, I hope to post pics of it tomorrow morning.

Peach food 

we have been cooking up a storm today, making all the elements of the sedar and dinner. 

this my friends is a horseradish root, we use it to make, of course horse radish or what we call the bitter herbs. which is  talked about  in Exoduse,

Exo 12:8  Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. 

if you don't know this is a pain to do if you do not have a food processor, you have to wash it peel it and the graid  it ( in a food prosser perferably). then you add 3/4 cup of vinagar, 3 tbs of sugar and  2 tsp of  kosher salt. this will be our 2 year of making the horseradish and we will contiue to eat the horse radish with our passover matzah meat spread all week long. and it is Yummy although if you remember the girls are not as thrilled with it as we are

  now we come to the sweet element of the sedar , the Chorest (horest) which is apples, walnuts, red wine, brown sugar and cinnamon. It is the sweet reminder of the Father's blessings and it tastes Yummy we normally will finish this up with our breakfast matzahs. This year was my first year making it, everyone has always blessed us with some. even this year someone was nice enough to offer to help and make some but I really wanted to do it all by myself. and it came out pretty yummy.

   Exo 12:15  Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For whoever eats leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. 

 and we make our own Unleaven bread or Matzah,  it is simple and fun plus for the girls it teaches them alot. they have to make sure that the matzah is peirsed just like our messiah was peirsed. it is a great learning picture for them. 

Lamb, Yummy lamb. this was a blessing for us this year to recieve a lamb from a friend of ours and it has been cooking all day and it smells SO GOOD I can't wait to eat it. the lamb was a first born and it was with out blemish, and was killed kosher. 

and this year to add to our pesach feast we are having chocolate covered matzah that Tyna and Kat made all by themselves..... 

looks yummy doesn't it . I am looking forward to eating it!!!!!

 

Our Sukkah ( late I know)

I have been asked for these pics for a while, I never posted pics of my sukkah and how we did school well the reason is, is because we need to finish the out sides of the lapbooks and I wanted to get that done first before posting, sorry it took me so long but better late then never right? Plus I have been MAD busy but I really did want to share the pics so here they are ....

 

here is the sukkah....

pretty huh?  I love how it came out!!

here is the roof so that you can see the stars through

Pretty huh?

here is what it looks like at dark with the lights....

here are flags that I made of the 12 tribes.....

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And that was our sukkah tomorrow I will post the pics and video from Sukkah school

The end of Sukkot...

Well it has been MUCH fun but, now sukkot is over. This is always sad for me cause this feast is so important for us as believers in Messiah. This our time as a bride of messiah to spend with him.

What a beautiful picture this is, I always think of the song Dance with me when I think of this feast as we have the tradition of Dancing our first dance with our husbands after we are married so we too Dance with our husband during this feast in honor of this feast and the end of Sukkot I want to post this video of dance with me.....this is Tyna dancing in the sukkah

 

this has been such a wonderful time of learning and spending time with the father and sharing with the girls, I will post Monday on Sukkah school but til then Shalom

 

old ways....

I was watching a movie today about the Amish, this story was by Beverly Lewis and it is called Saving Sarah Cain. It seems all that I a surround my self and my children with these days are stories of people who live a different life in accordance with God. I have much respect for the Amish, living in a community with God providing for there needs. Some Jewish people have that as well,  My girls love the movie put out by Hallmark " Loving Leah". And as only God could plan he has laid it on my heart to teach again on books that are more about how to trust HIM for he will provide,  we are finding these same ideals tucked in the pages of Anne of Green Gables and Little house on the prairie. but the question is where do we find God's will now, you have to search for movies that even talk about GOD let alone find a book. 

we sit here as Americans thinking that modern things are better. giving us more free time, I don't think that is true, I find that we don't have any time at all!! we don't make time for God that is for sure. we may give him an hour on Sunday, all he asked for was one day (the 7th day) and we can't even give him that day we have to change the day and only give him a part of the day.

I read in a book once that "God doesn't want you as a fare-weather friend"  that is so true, he wants us all, are whole lives devoted to HIM. But he wants you to give of yourself of your own free will, he has that power to make you follow him TREMBLING at his feet!!! But all he asks if for you to love him, trust in him, and honor him in the way he laid out for you in his word. 

He saved you, for a purpose, I have heard my husband preach many times that it was for his Glory alone that Israel was saved, not because they were good people, but because He made a promise. I tell my children that I never make a promise that I don't intend to keep, and fight very hard to keep every promise. I do that because it was how I was raised. My Dad never broke his word. I think that is where I understand how YHVH is, He doesn't break his word either, he stands firm. But most people don't see God in that light they see him as they want to see him, not remembering that He told us that he doesn't change! so why do we try to conform him in to how we want him?

Sorry got in to some of Joe's preaching!! My point was that we should take time to do the simple things, enjoying a simpler way of life instead of a "modern way"

My girls will learn how to do things that aren't taught so much any more and I am so very happy about that, and my deepest prayer is that they thank the FATHER  for  impressing on my heart to do this for them.

Shalom

Shavu'ot

This past weekend was Shavu'ot or Pennitcost. we had a wonderful time and it was such a blessing to be able to have such a wonderful weekend. Tanya and Luke hosted the feast at there home and spent weeks planning the event. they did such a great job and we are so thankful to them for doing this.

this was a full feast as we started with ending shabbat and starting the feast the night before. and what a better way to start a feast then with SMORES!!!

( kosher of course)

Lots of fun. the next day we had all kinds of fun activities but we started with Breakfast ( home made cinnamon rolls and eggs) then we had service.

We had a good service even with the wind and Joe had a great message.

we followed service with the duck pond all the kids had to pick a duck and what ever the number was on the bottom they got that prize. very cool and the kids enjoyed it.

we then had lunch which was Hot dogs and LOTS of Yummy side dishes.

the kids and adults alike had plenty to eat and it was so good
we then did CRAFTS!!!!  first we started with making backpacks then we finished our lapbooks.

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as you can see they had alot of fun.

after the crafts and kids class we played games and cleaned up!!! it was a great day.

MOre  photos of the weekend in our  PHOTO ALBUM ON THE RIGHT THAT SAYS SHAVU'OT 2010