Thanksgiving in the Kuhn Household

I'm thinking back over this past year at the many things to be thankful for, yes it was the first year without my dad, but God blessed us the whole year through, with many answered prayers. So it's with thankfulness brimming in my heart that I write today.
There have been so many changes in our lives this year, at this time last year we were living in a tiny trailer that was literally just falling apart around us and the landlord wouldn't do anything about it. We were constantly barraged with cussing drunk neighbors to the point that I had to close the windows so I could get a bit of peace. Half of the electric didn't work in the trailer and it leaked we would wake up to rain splashing in our faces. Then come March/April of this year, a professor at Hocking College where we were attending and I was taking piano lessons from, brought up that he had a farm house he was looking to rent out (the current renter was moving), and said it was in the country in the town that we wanted to move to. So that began the excitement and up and downs of when we would get to move. We dreamed and dreamed about what we would do with our new 4 bedroom home, and we started packing! The renter finally moved out the end of April and they began renovations (due to the fact that she had really trashed the place), took out all the carpeting and polished the beautiful wood floors to a shine that when I stepped into the house for the first time I said "Wow, I love it!" replaced windows in the front of the house with brand new ones, painted everywhere, updated plumbing and electric, mowed and trimmed up around it. Then came June, we graduated from Hocking and started moving within 2 weeks. We were so excited to get into our new place. We were officially the tenants come July and now have been for 5 happy months! We love it and it has restored a sense of peace about our lives, not having to listen to drunk, stoned, crazy neighbors is a plus. I have things now that I had dreamed about like my dining room set and a nice guest room and big kitchen with walk-in pantry. A big yard which we plan to put a fence in so the dog can run eventually. And I'm planning for a large vegetable garden come next spring/summer.


So that was some of the blessings of this past year. Another was how God helped us through the big loss of my daddy. I have felt God helping us and at times carrying us through. It was a sudden shock to wake up to that phone call on January 3, 2012 that my Daddy was no longer with us. My mom has known God so close this year (not that she hasn't before), in that God has worked miracles out for her to stay in the home we 3 children were raised in and the home that she and daddy spent most of their married life in. I have sat at the piano and played songs about heaven and looked at the family picture I have from our wedding that he is in and thought of him sitting round the throne and that he's not in any pain anymore and praising God. Sure it still is difficult to go through and any of you who have lost loved ones know that the first year is always the hardest. When my husband told me (he's lost both parents) in the beginning that time would heal I looked at him through my tears and said "I don't understand how!". It's been almost a year and still keenly feel the loss of my dad, although the ache has lessened some, I still feel it. And especially around the holidays, he loved these family times and especially if the grandchildren were around. In short, I'm thankful for God's guidance through our grief this past year, none of us have given up in dispair, we know that we've got more to go to heaven for than we did last year!
 


Another thing to be thankful for was I gained another sister in law this year, Jennifer, my youngest brother Kevin's wife and they are going to give me my 3rd little niece/nephew (we're not sure yet which) in the spring.





There are so many other little things that I could praise God for on this day of Thanksgiving but these are two of the biggest ways, that I'm thanking God this holiday. I'm so thankful for my family both biological and in-laws, my home, my life, my hope in the future, my salvation, and for God.

The Start of Heart Warming Wednesdays!

Hi all, I know it's been several days since I last posted here on the blog, but I wanted to post and let you all know that I've started something new on my Creative Adventures with Food blog, it's called Heart Warming Wednesdays. Check it out HERE! We look forward to having you!
Now for a promised update on the fall decorating here at our house.

This is the center piece on the dining room table! I love that wire pumpkin it's from Partylite!

This is our front steps. I had fun doing this! I found the idea somewhat on Pinterest! I love that site!

 This is also in the front of the house, although now the frost has killed all the impatients! I don't care for cold weather, because I enjoy my flowers so much! But I guess I'll have to fix these beds up for winter too!

This is the wreath on the front porch, it's just a grapevine wreath and then I did the decorating! I bought it that way so that I can change it out for different seasons aside from Christmas since I plan to have a Christmas wreath out there then!









    This is on one of the front doors since we have 2 doors, I have 2 of these wreaths one has a boy pilgrim and the other a girl.

There is the full front of our house! I have enjoyed decorating up and planting flowers so much! I still will plant the mums later after I'm done displaying them.

There is another shot of the side of the porch with those big planters on it. 

New Jobs, New School, New Home

    Wow so much has happened since July. Yesterday was the first day in a new position as Pastor/Pastor's wife of a little church called Lathrop Mission Church in Lathrop, OH. We have been filling in there on Sunday nights for 5 months and as of Yesterday, September 2, 2012, we became the full time pastor there. It is a new post for us and brand new territory. This is our first full time pastorate, we have been youth pastor, and assistant but now we are full time. We're both excited and scared, but know that God will help us through. I'm interested in finding some good literature to read on being a Pastor's wife since I never did get the chance to take the class women in ministry. I'm asking that if any of you pastor's wives out there know of any good books in the this area could you pass along the titles and author's names? Now I know that experience doesn't come from reading books but from getting into the work and prayer and wisdom from God and I am seeking just that. I have been praying that God will give us wisdom and insight to do the job that He has called us to do. I know that he never promised sunshine without rain, joy without pain/tears, I know that the job we've been called to do will not be easy at times. I knew all these things when I married Bud. We knew that someday God was going to lead us to that first church, never knew it would be in our home state and this close to home though. :)

Bud preaching first sermon as full time pastor of Lathrop Mission Church

    We also started a new school last week. Ohio University the Lancaster campus is now our pathway to our degrees in Early Childhood Education K-3. It's going to be a long rough road I think. We were late getting into the school and weren't able to pick choice classes, so we just picked up what we could. We are both taking an Intro to Music Theory and the teacher is quite intense (only not in Music!), requiring us to walk through the door making eye contact and smiling at him! Some days you're just worn out, frustrated and don't feel like putting on a "good" front! But I think it's one of the classes that we'll stay awake in since it's only an hour long twice a week. The good thing is we have 3 day weekends so that leaves time for doing homework and catching up on house work and doing ministry things. Which is so nice!
   The end of June beginning of July we moved into a beautiful house in the country! We have lived here for 2 months and are loving it! It has 4 bedrooms (yes we have a guest room, not entirely put together yet but there!) and all hardwood flooring! It's just a rental but it feels like home to us now, finally more than just a place to hang our hats and stuff away our things! I have room to put everything away and decorate the way I've wanted to for so long! We've never entirely unpacked at any of the other 3 places we've lived so it's nice to finally get out the pretty stuff and use it! I have a dinning room complete with dining room furniture (found at the local thrift store for a steal!), and a china cupboard that matches so I now can display my china and tea pots and stuff.

 Looking on the one side towards the back porch

 Front of the House

Living Room

Our Relationsip with God

                         Our Relationship with God

Text:


1. Our Approach to God (2 Chronicles 7:14- If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven,.....)
   1.) The first thing we see in our approach to God is that we are to humble ourselves. This does not mean that we are of low self-esteem. It means that we recognize that we are but lowly dust and without God's help we can get no where as far as spiritually speaking. In Proverbs 16:19 it says “Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.” God is looking for someone who is humble in spirit, the definition of humble is:
   2.) The second thing we see in our approach to God is that we are to pray. In Philippians 4:6 it says this “ Be anxious for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” God never intended for us to be worry warts! His word proves this in so many places even Jesus own words “take no thought for tomorrow for tomorrow will take thought for itself.(paraphrased from Matthew 6:34a) says we are not to worry. But in our approach to God we need to pray, and I don't mean to just pray for a few minutes each day, but really pray. I'm guilty of this as much as anyone so I'm speaking to myself here as well. God loves it when we get on our knees and converse with Him even if it is just about our day. He also wants us to make our requests known during this time but He also wants us to be thankful for the things that he's already provided for us. This scripture says “with thanksgiving” our prayer should always include some thanks even if it's a repeat of yesterday. So many times I've heard the phrase “if you can't pray through try praising through.” You'll be amazed at what that bit of praising can do. In our approach to God in prayer we need to be conscious of praise and be generous with it. We do have so much to praise Him for. When we pray we also need to recognize that God is our maker and our Father in Jesus Prayer he said “Our Father which art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name.” We need to recognize that God is in Heaven and his name is holy.
   3.) The third thing we notice about our approach to God is that we are to seek him. In 1 Chronicles 28:9 it says this, “....If thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.” It is important that we seek God and see out His will for our lives. Elsewhere in scripture it says that we should seek God while he may be found. There is coming a day when we won't be able to seek God because He'll have raptured the church out and lifted the Holy Spirit from this place and if we didn't make the rapture it's going to awfully hard to seek Him when the Holy Spirit is not here to guide us. Jesus said in Matthew 7:7 “...seek and ye shall find...” God wants us to seek His face and seek the great things He has for us. And He has promised that if we'll do that then we'll find what we're seeking for.
2. Our Redemption by God (John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”)
1. The first thing we see about God's redemption is that He loves us! John 3:16 says that God so loved the world..... His love is uncomprehensible. The creation that He made in the very beginning turned away from him yet He still loved them so much that He gave His only Son for them. And yet still some have rejected Him. God had a plan in place from the very beginning to redeem His people to him. His love is greater than any love we could ever have on earth it's unconditional. His love is a total different topic but it's so great and vast. It's been said that He loves us so much that when we take a step towards him he takes 2 towards us.
2. What do we need redeemed from?
1. Our Sins
1. Romans 3:23 says "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."  All means every human being on earth has sinned and needs redemption. God provded that through His son Jesus Christ. God knew from the beginning just what we would need and provided for that. We no longer have a need to sacrifice animals like in the Old Testament days we can go directly to God in prayer through Jesus Christ.
2. The wages of Sin is Death. Romans 6:23 says "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." From the very first sin it started the cycle of death. God didn't intend for the human race to suffer, but Adam chose to eat of the fruit thus destroying the perfect body he was given. No matter how you look at it the wages of sin are still death. The things that sin drives you to do cause this mortal body to die. Drugs cause you to become addicted wanting more and more and usualy end in an overdose, Alcohol does the same thing and usually ends in seroisis of the liver and death. Immoral sins can lead to deadly diseases such as AIDS ( realize not everyone contracts it this way but it can be prevented by following God's laws for marriage.) so many other things I could list and won't that all lead to death. But what does the ending of that verse say: "...the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."  So many have tried to find the fountain of youth (which I don't believe exists), when we Christians already have the secret to immortality that is when we ask Christ to forgive our sins and then walk each day with Him following His plan when this mortal body dies we put on immortality and live forever in a place so perfect we can't even imagine everything. I say that's going to be one wonderful place and I for one don't want to miss it.
2. How do we get redempton?
1. Through Christ's Blood. Christ died for us as stated in John 3:16 so that we could have eternal life. As in the Old Testament we needed a blood sacrfice to atone for our sins and a spotless lamb. Christ is the blood sacrifice and sinless, spotless lamb. In 1 Peter 1:18-19 it says: "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb withut blemish and without spot:"  This explains that we are redeemed through Christ's blood and not by our works. Yes it's good to do good works but they won't save you.
2. Through Faith and Obedience. Abraham was a man of great faith, God called him from the land he had known all his life and without thinking about it Abraham just followed promptly! Throughout Abraham's life we see that he was one of faith and quick obedience, when God asked him to curcumcise his household he did it the very same day. When God asked him to sacrifice Isaac he followed the command and went even though he never had to actually sacrifice him, but was provided with a ram instead. This is the kind of things that God looks for in us. We have to take it on faith that God will do just what he said he would do. And we must always be prompt to obey.
3. How was Redemption provided?
1. Israel's Day. They had to sacrifice animals and went through several different procedures in order to be cleansed of their sin. However it was not as complete as in our day. They had different sacrifices for different things.
2. In our day really all we have to do is call upon the name of Jesus and confess our sins and repent and turn from our wicked ways. That means that just because we called upon him and asked forgiveness today, we go out and return to the things we used to do, no we were saved from those things and we don't do them anymore. We don't have to sin every day in word thought and deed we can live above that through the power of Christ. (that's a sermon for another day.)
3. Continuing Fellowship with God.
1. Communion
1. Partaking of Communion. This is something that we do in rememberance of what Christ did for us. The Israelite's participated in the celebration of the passover in rememberance for what God did for them and now we celebrate what Christ did for us on the tree.
2. Preparing our Hearts for Communion. Communion is not to be entered into lightly, it's not a full course meal. You should take communion only after you've spent a little time in prayer and made sure that things between you and God are clear and between your fellow man as well.
2. Daily Prayer and Bible Reading
1. Daily communication through prayer. God wants us to talk to him as earlier stated. This daily time of prayer needs to be a set thing and something that happends every day. It's our life line to heaven and God so to speak. If you don't have a certain time you prayer then you should seek one out. I know that schedules are busy and time is tight, but even that 20 minute commute to work would be a good time to pray, or while you're folding those 5 loads of laundry that were washed yesterday. Anytime is a good time to pray, you don't have to pray aloud though somtimes this helps. You can walk and pray, kneel and pray, wash dishes and pray, but it's best if you don't lay down and pray because it's too easy to fall asleep. I guess the main point here is to make time for prayer. Get your husband to help with the children or spend time praying while they're taking a nap.
2. Daily Reading of God's word and applying it to our lives. It's important to read God's word and apply it to your life. When you begin your time of devotions you should pray first that God will guide your reading and that He will seal things to your heart and speak to you through the reading of His word. And you don't have to read large portions of scripture each day, bite off only what you can chew on for that day and then chew away. Make sure that you keep a daily Bible reading journal and write down questions that you may have that you need answers to, and then take that list with you to your weekly Bible study or to church so you can ask your Pastor. Your Pastor will love that you're digging in God's word and I'm sure that he will be happy to help you find answers to your questions, but remember he doesn't have all the answers either. Another thing to remember is that when God gives you light on something you should walk in it and follow in His footsteps.
3. Lastly is Regular Church Attendance
1. Forsaking not the assembling of our selves together. (Hebrews 10:25) Make sure that you're getting together with God's people in church every week and as many times as the doors are open. The Scripture above is pretty clear that we're not to forsake going to church.
2. Time for sharing testimonies and prayer requests and praises. In Revelations it says "And they over came him by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimonies."  Satan doesn't like it when we praise God for anything. This is also a time for making requests known, I know not everything we need prayer for needs to public that's why there is unspoken prayer requests and upraised hands. Somethings only God and you need to know about. And this time is also for worshiping God together. It's an important part of our Christian walk.

These are just someof the way to help our relationship with God. Good Bible study books also help in devotions and such. Find a good wholesome Bible Study and attend it.

Graduation Approaches!

Well for the past 2 years we've been enrolled at Hocking College working on our Associates in Early Childhood Education. We have graduated (Bud has returned for one more semester to finish up general education courses, but he is done with tech courses). I have started online college to get my bachelor's and have been quite busy keeping up with that as well as packing to move!
Here are some pictures from our time at Hocking College:

This was a field trip to Robbins crossing for Social Studies class.

 Part of Robbins Crossin for Social Studies Class.

 This was part of our tour of Robbins Crossing for Social Studies class.

 This was Bud's Three little Pigs House made of Sticks. (popsicle sticks that is! LOL)

 This was for creative experiences class, we did a study on the Three Little Pigs books then we had a choice of what house to make. This one is made of hay.

 This may seem a strange picture, but it was a requirement for one of the classes we took on Anti-Bias in the classroom. I made an Indian inspired meal, it was quite interesting. It was pork chops in apricot sauce, green beans sauteed with garlic, rice with cashews and raisins.

 Abby in her cap and gown, happy to be graduating.

 Bud hiding out behind a tree with his cap and gown! Happy to be graduating.

This is Abby & Bud with the President of Hocking College on Phi Theta Kappa induction night!

 The Table all set up for Phi Theta Kappa induction.

 Abby and Charlotte after induction into Phi Theta Kappa. Bud, Abby, and Charlotte were the only three out of our department that joined Phi Theta Kappa.

 This was the night we were inducted into Phi Theta Kappa- Interntional Honors Society. Mom came down to celebrate with us! The roses were given to us during the ceremony.

 This is Summer and Abby. Summer was Abby's supervising teacher at the local elementary school for 1 year (I had a different teacher the first year and didn't get a pic). This was in the 1st grade.

 This was Brooke and Bud. Brooke was Bud's supervising teacher at the local elementary school for 2 years during his practicum. (His shirt is wet because it was field day and quite hot!) This was in the 1st grade.

 Mar and Connie openin gifts and cards.

 Most of those who were graduating with us and most of these people didn't even show up for graduation! From L-R Front to Back. Connie, Mar, Lisa, Ansley, Bethanie, Shana, Angie, Katie, Tabitha, Cassandra, Charlotte, Carolyn,Bonnie, Micah, Steph, Abby, Bud. Most of them are going on or their bachelor's.

 From L to R- Bud, Mar Magyary(head of our department and professor), Connie (the other main professor in our department), Abby. This was at Hocking College in the shelter house, it was party to celebrate those who had finished their degrees and also bid farewell to Mar who retired this year! :'( We really liked our teachers and that's not for brownie points! (course we don't need brownie points anymore!) LOL

 This is us at our graduation pary the Friday before graduation. It was nice to celebrate!

 It's finally graduation day! (this is in he parking lot of the college that's John Light Hall behind us where we had so many of our classes. And Oakley Hall is to your left where our department offices were held and also a few of our classes.)

 Bud about to receive his diploma! That's Laurel our dean reading off his name and what degree he is getting.

 Abby about to recive her diploma!

We've got the diplomas in hand! (well at least the binder they are to go in when we receive them!LOL) We worked hard for 2 years on this! We've now been given our Associate of Arts in Early Childhood Education here we come Bachelor's!

So there you have some pics of our time at Hocking College. This fall we'll start another adventure! (Well right now I've already started but am not sure if I will continue with online classes or go to a traditional classroom.)

Easter Sunday

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday! Here some pics of my Easter Dinner table:

 Hubby came in Saturday night with the bouquet of flowers for the middle of the table. ( I had bought some silk flowers to use but quickly changed them out and used them on my piano.)

 I just came up with the idea to make bunnies out of Easter Eggs and rolled napkins, I thought they turned out so cute. I drew the faces on with a dry erase marker.

 My beautiful flowers from Hubby!

 Top of my piano decorated for Easter. The flowers were the silk ones I bought for the table and didn't have to use them there. (they are from Dollar Tree)

We had 2 pork roasts (we had 6 people here and I knew one wouldn't be enough besides we needed some left overs for Monday lunches), Mashed Potatoes, California Blend Vegetables, and Rolls, And a Strawberry Ice Cream Cake for dessert (that was for Bud's late birthday- his birthday was in March and he doesn't like regular cake and we couldn't afford an ice cream cake right then so we got one to celebrate for Easter).
Enjoyed a few hours with my in-laws, even though I read them the poem my momma wrote in memory of my dad and cried throughout it, but it's good to remember him, and they all wanted to hear it.