Twinny Tote Drawing!

My sisters have recently begun a new cottage industry selling Twintastic Totes! Check out their blog. This month, Twintastic Creations is doing a special drawing for a special mini tote! Check it out and enter to win! :)

The Weekend of Milestones

We had multiple events creep up on us all at once and I have not had a chance to do a thorough job of blogging about them. Hannah covered the Uelands' Summer Party but the biggest events have only just been mentioned. Therefore I have taken it upon myself to exercise my powers of entertainment and write about The Weekend of Milestones also known as the Graduation Ceremony, Rite of Passage, and Eagle Scout Crowning. So stay tuned folks for a barrage (well,ok just 3) of long (ish) blog posts! :)

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake

This cheesecake is a favorite around our house, but we don't make it very often due to it's prohibitive cost. But yesterday we decided to splurge and I got to work on my culinary masterpiece! I have officially decided that I love making cheesecake! :) I was going to take pictures of the creation process, but I forgot until I was about half-way done and then found out that my sister had taken her camera to work with her, so the finished product will have to do.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake

HURRY!!!!!!!!!!!!! FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My brother and his wife are in a predicament. Last March when Joshua was not living in the middle of the city, an adorable mutt (we think he probably has some Chow in him) showed up at his house and claimed Joshua as his new owner. Joshua proudly brought his new prize to show off. His then girlfriend named the dog Tiberius and he soon became a permanent member of their family....and then they moved.

Josh and Liz now live in a little house across the alley from us in the middle of the city. Unfortunately, Ti is not quite so thrilled with the idea of not having a place to run and play. So his owners have decided that it would be in his best interest to find a new home for him elsewhere. They would be thrilled if a good home in the country could be found for him.

Tiberius is very sweet and knows all the traditional doggy tricks: come, sit, stay, etc. He has been neutered. We believe he is around 2-4 years old. Go here for more details.


(This shows his size better. Please excuse the rather unladylike female on the right. :P)

Friday...

A friend of mine was graduating on Saturday (pictures coming) and asked me to make some of the famous cookies that have been known to emerge from our kitchen in the past. :) So Friday morning I had my work cut out for me.

3 dozen White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookies

3 dozen Jamestown Cookies/Chocolate chip
3 dozen 10 Cup cookies

Promised recipe:

Cream together:
1 c. butter
1 c. peanut butter
1 c. sugar
1 c. brown sugar

Add:
2 eggs

Mix in:
2 c. oats
1 c. flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda

Stir in 1 c. chocolate chips

Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes. Enjoy!

My uncle is the best mechanic in town. He fixed the air conditioning in the van for us last week and didn't charge us a dime! He is also famous for LOVING pie. So with the cookies cooling on the table, I threw together a special peach pie just for him.

It was a hit, so next we'll have to make one for us so we can find out what it tasted like! :)

We had a small Pizza Night this time, but it was all the better because we were joined by Sarah G. Hannah and I met Sarah at TeenPact last March when she was on the staff. We found out during this visit that we had actually been at the same New Year's Eve party within a few feet of each other and never realized it!

That's all for now, folks! The next post on the list will include pictures from last weekend so stay tuned!

A Good Day in the Life of Abigail

Yesterday I got to spend most of the morning and all afternoon digging in the dirt. I loved it! Here are some pictures of what I did.

A few days ago I moved my Forget-Me-Nots to larger pots to allow them to spread out more. The day after Mom came home from the store with some Geraniums and informed me that she would like to plant them in those larger pots, (since I had just replaced some of my dead Vincas with the extras that were in those pots.) So this morning I proceeded to clear a little space beside the side porch and transplanted my Forget-Me-Nots yet again. :)


Mom's Geraniums

I thoroughly hoed and mulched my Vincas the other day. Here is what they look like right now.


Banana muffins for lunch and breakfast this morning...


10 Cup cookies (peanut butter, oatmeal, chocolate chip cookies all put together).

Weren't you just dying to stare at pictures of the dirt in our garden? In a month or two or three these will look like this:
Cardinal climbers, Zinnias, Balsam, and Johnny Jump-ups.


More Balsam
...and more Zinnias in between whatever these others are and in front of the Morning Glories.

Gladiolus behind the Hostas

...and then we had avocado crabmeat pizza for supper, but it got eaten up so fast I didn't get a picture. :)

What you may not have heard...

...about Dr. George Tiller.

A heart-rending story about one of Dr. Tiller's patients.

George Tiller is Dead

George Tiller is Dead: For Whom Shall We Mourn?

by Douglas W. Phillips, Esq., June 1, 2009

Summary: For well over twenty years, the pro-life community has been exposing the evil deeds of Dr. George Tiller. Tiller was regularly picketed over the years. Thousands came in the Summer of 1991 and were arrested outside his clinic. In 2001, on the ten-year anniversary of “The Summer of Mercy”, thousands again protested his abominable practice. His office was bombed once, and he was even shot in 1993 in both arms (his shooter remains in federal prison for attempted murder to this day). Tiller was also the defendant in a series of legal challenges intended to shut down his operations, including two grand juries that were convened after citizen-led petition drives. Through the course of all these means to shut down George Tiller (both lawful and those unlawful), he was never stopped. But yesterday, he was gunned down while serving as an usher in a Sunday-worship service at Reformation Lutheran Church.

“Tiller the Killer” is dead. Who will mourn for this man? Perhaps the bigger question is this: Who will mourn for the more than 60,000 babies that Dr. George Tiller brutally murdered in the most horrific manner imaginable over his lengthy career as America’s most notorious provider of late-term abortions?

The names of these babies are unknown. On the other hand, we do know what happened to the bodies of these children made in the image of God: “Tiller the Killer” would vivisect these children up to nine months into their lives; next, this professing Christian would baptize the mangled remains of the children he murdered; then, he would place their bodies into his Auschwitz-like crematorium; and, finally, he would take the ashen remains of these children and place them in an urn.

Tiller’s career was more horrifying than any horror movie ever produced, because there was nothing pretend about his bizarre and diabolical practices. On Sundays, George Tiller worshipped in his Lutheran Church where he served as usher. But on Monday through Friday, he chopped up children — and he did so in the name of Jesus. He even boasted about it. Because of Tiller, Wichita, Kansas became the destination of choice for women all over America to come and have Dr. Tiller take care of their “problem.” These are the facts.

And yet his death is tragic. It is not a tragedy that Tiller will never be a killer again. Will anyone argue that it is a tragedy that the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will never again be dishonored by this church-going Sweeney Todd of the medical profession?

The tragedy is two-fold: First, by breaking the law of God (murder) in order to advance the law of God (punishing a murderer), the shooter demonstrated that he was a lawless individual and that, whatever his motivations, his cause was unholy. He cannot expect the blessing of God on his efforts, but rather the contrary. God was certainly capable of shutting down George Tiller without private individuals breaking His law by taking matters into their own hands. The ends do not justify the means. Pragmatic responses to evil produces short term victories and long-term heartaches.

Second, Tiller’s executioner has played into the hands of the community of abortion apologists — those in the press and elsewhere who look for every opportunity to shift the debate away from the bloodshed of babies. These individuals are hell-bent to justify America’s idolatrous practice of child sacrifice to the gods of feminist self-determination, and the wrongful killing of an abortionists only furthers their cause.

Back in 2003 when Paul Hill was executed for killing Dr. John Britton (a noted abortionist in Florida), I offered the following on why vigilante justice in the cause of the unborn is immoral:

The common law defense of justifiable homicide is derived from the case laws of Exodus which make clear that one may use lethal force if necessary in defense of self or others where imminent life-endangering harm is threatened and lethal force is necessary to prevent the crime. In addition, lethal force may be used in defense of country, or by the state against those criminals lawfully convicted of a capital offense.

So where did Paul Hill go wrong? Practically speaking, Mr. Hill acted as executioner, not rescuer. Having determined that the abortionist in question was guilty of past murders, and would probably commit future murders, Paul Hill stalked, hunted and executed the abortionist. The problem here is that the biblical jurisdiction to execute rests only with the state. There is no provision in Scripture for vigilante justice.

And what of Hill’s argument of justifiable homicide? Under biblical and common law, justifiable homicide in defense of others requires: (a) a clearly identifiable victim; (b) an aggressor who is presently engaged in a clear life-threatening act of violence against that specific victim; and (c) a reasonable determination that lethal force is necessary to prevent the specific life threatening act of the willful aggressor against the innocent party.

Paul Hill failed each of these tests: Who was the victim here? We don’t know. In fact, we don’t even know for sure what the abortionist was going to do that day. We may presume he will be about the business of killing babies, but that is not sufficient to make a claim to justifiable homicide. Nor was the abortionist being stopped from a crime in progress. He was simply gunned down in his parking lot. Nor was Paul Hill rescuing a victim from an observable and specific criminal act. Nor must we conclude that executing him was the only way to stop this man from future acts of murder.

Paul Hill lacked the jurisdiction to execute another. He never found himself in a circumstance which warranted justifiable homicide, as defined at biblical and common law. His was an act of premeditated murder, and for that God’s Word required his execution by the state.

For the cause of the pro-life movement to succeed, we need the blessing and favor of the Lord. Only this will win the day. And we cannot presume to have God’s blessing and favor unless we love the Lord with all of our hearts; unless we become men and women committed to his law-word revelation; and unless we recognize that judgment begins first in the house of the Lord.

This means that the millions of professing Christians who use abortifacient contraceptives need to humble themselves before the Lord and change their practices. It means that we must embrace a 100% pro-life apologetic, rejecting all forms of abortion and refusing to embrace “ends justifies the means” reasoning. It means that we need to be serious about not voting for individuals who sanction the murder of even one child. It means that we need to embrace a life-ethic which is different from the world — we must love life, love children, and embrace them as God’s gift.

Moreover, we must view the cause of Christ as more important than the pro-life movement. This means that our duty to obey Christ and to honor His name is more important than defeating abortion in America, as badly as we may desire that outcome.

I conclude with this thought: George Tiller is dead. For whom shall we mourn?

First, we mourn for the many children he murdered whose names will never make headline news, but whose murder were painful, violent, and bloody at the hands of this man. Second, we mourn for the future children who may be killed as a result of the way the pro-abortion movement will capitalize on this unlawful killing. Third, we mourn for a nation that has broken covenant with God, and that is deserving of God’s just wrath for its complicity in child sacrifice.

Finally, our mourning must lead us to prayer for the Church. God forbid that the blood of the innocent would be on our hands. If we would humble ourselves before the Lord and simply refuse to tolerate abortion in our own ranks, who knows what great things might be lawfully done, with God’s blessing, to bring murderers like George Tiller to an appropriate and earthly justice?

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