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posted by David on 07/17/07

Have you ever made chain reactions with dominoes? I have had a great time experimenting with this recently. What tremendous fun it was to set up tracks for the dominoes! They slid down ramps, fell over, through, and under bridges and tunnels, and traveled through many incredible patterns! I especially liked using stairs, slides, block piles and the dinner bell! One even used Lincoln Logs and a marble. In picture number 6 you can see the long green piece that has a Lincoln Log balanced on its end. When the domino behind the blocks (you can see it in picture 5) knocks the Lincoln Log off, the front end of the green lever falls allowing the marble to roll down to the next domino and continue the chain reaction. Meanwhile, the Lincoln Log fell and hit a domino which started a second chain reaction. As you can imagine, most of my time was spent in trial and error and setting up dominoes that were often bumped and fell over. It was hard to respond with patience and not get frustrated. Just one little accident led to many of them falling over. As I contemplated this truth I was reminded how often it is that one little compromise, a small sin, leads to more and damages a person’s life. The concept of falling dominoes is an encouragement to me to reject temptations. I’m looking forward not only to getting back to trying some more domino inventions but also finding opportunities to build my relationship with the Lord.

4 Comments » | posted in Family News

posted by David on 06/25/07

1 Samuel 14:6

Usually we clean house on Monday. Cleaning the bathrooms, sweeping the floor, dusting the furniture,doing the laundry, and putting everything in it’s proper place are all things Mom has encouraged us to do to keep the house orderly. But last week we had a problem: our cousins were coming and we were short on people. Donald, Jonathan and I were the only ones here because Dad was at work, Michael was up on the hill working, Robert was in Chicago, Esther was in PA with Mom, James was in Life Focus and Daniel was going through Sound Foundations! Helping Michael had taken all that morning and we would still need to help him some more later in the afternoon. We were in a predicament. but the three of us had a meeting and decided we could do it if we all showed determination. We did everything we needed to do and were ready when our cousins arrived!

DETERMINATION

Purposing to accomplish God’s goals in God’s time regardless of the opposition.

5 Comments » | posted in Family News

posted by David on 11/23/06

My brother Donald has been giving art lessons at weekly home school meetings. I have always wanted to be an artist, but I never really took it seriously until Mom bought art pencils and a kneaded eraser for me. I am a lot better than I used to be, but I am not the best yet. I especially love learning to draw animals.

 Right now he is teaching us to draw something alive and moving. However, he said it would be best if we did not draw our own pet. It has been hard to find something that is alive and stays still long enough to draw besides our dog Sentrina. Jonathan, Mom, and I went down to a lake where we saw ducks before, but we did not see anything. I think I will just have to draw some birds from our feeder. Josh (one of my friends at the meeting), brought his pet duck and we had to draw it. It was hard to draw. I did not do very good, but my brother Daniel did.

These are some of the pictures I have been drawing recently:

2 Comments » | posted in Art Work, Family News

posted by David on 10/13/06

I thought that you would enjoy these cookies that Mom and I made during my Math class. I had to double the recipe. Instead of 6 dozen we made 118 cookies!

½ c. butter
2 tsp. baking powder
1 c. brown sugar
¼ tsp. salt
1 ½ tsp. vannilla extract
nutmeg
½ tsp. almond extract
1 egg white
1 ¾ c. flour
2 tbsp. water

Cream first four ingredients. Add flour, baking powder, and salt. Pack mixture into empty 1lb. butter carton. Chill. Remove from carton and slice lengthwise. Slice each section into 1/8-inch-thick slices. Brush with water and egg white beaten together. Sprinkle with nutmeg.

Bake at 375° F for 12 minutes until golden brown. Makes 3 dozen.

2 Comments » | posted in Recipes

posted by David on 09/28/06

David’s been learning how to use Adobe Photoshop. Today he got a mischievious idea. Can you tell what is not real in these pictures? (click on them for a larger image)

3 Comments » | posted in The Bright Side