Beautiful Eva

Eva's Feast...
Eva(13y) is a dear, dear girl.  She is sweet and loving.  Doesn't know a stranger.  She's very artistic- as all of my children are.  She loves to draw pictures- the more detailed the better.  She will cover the entire page- no white spaces for her. She's a hard worker- she loves to clean her room- no joke.  I rarely have to remind her to do her chores.  She is the fastest dish washer in the house.  She just pops in her ear buds and off she goes. And the sink will absolutely sparkle when she's done.  FlyLady would be proud. She joined me in my Nanowrimo this year. She's even illustrating hers.  She's the goofy one of the two girls and gets downright punchy at times.  Late at night, I'll hear her squealing and laughing while Bekah is saying, "Eva!  Be quiet! I wanna go to sleep!"  She loves being outside and will go out no matter the weather.  She loves to do acts of daring on the tire swing.  Sometimes she can talk Bekah into joining her in her silliness- if the weather is pleasant. She's just an all- around fun girl and we love her bushels and barrels.




pomegranate blood

poor Daniel

He looks upset to be the appetizer

Fingers, toes, and eyeballs in sweet and sour sauce

Her feast... Every year at least one of the kids completely floor me and this year, it was Eva's turn.  This is where you'll see her silly side.  Her theme was the Zombie Apocalypse.  Really.  This was a first.  She completely destroyed the dining room. She tore up pieces of newspaper and scattered them about, along with other debris. The tablecloth was all rumpled. Kerosene scattered around the room- because there will be no electricity during the zombie Apocalypse. Machetes abounded. So... Will, Eva and I put on a audio skit before she invited her guests in.  We pretended that Daniel(who's still in Boston) was being chased by zombies and comes crashing through the door.  We all start screaming for him to get in.  We fire our guns(slamming blocks of wood together.)  NO!!  Daniel was killed.  We cry and sob only to start getting attacked by the zombies, ourselves.  First Eva is killed and then me and Will valiantly tries to hold them at bay, but as he shuffles his pump action shotgun(yes, we believe in the second amendment- you never know when zombies might attack) it is obvious he is out of rounds.  He screams his last breath and collapses to the floor.  The laughter in the next room was proof that they were being highly entertained by our demise- should I be concerned?  Never once was the word "zombie" mentioned, but they clearly understood what was happening! The dining room is silent.  After a minute or so, gurgling and moaning began to fill the air and it was time to invite the guests in.  Eva pretended to bite each of her guests.(For those of you out of the "zombie apocalypse" loop, that's how you become infected.)  So now we're all one big happy family of zombies.  Daniel is spread out on the dining room table(I am so sorry, Daniel.  We were all really sad to be eating you, but we are mindless zombies remember.) Eva had sweet and sour hot dogs and meatballs in a crock as his head and spaghetti in a larger crock as his belly- we all agreed that he was much too fat to be Daniel.  Garlic bread made up his arms and feet.  There were pomegranate seeds scattered around the body giving everything a rather bloody and gruesome appearance.  We were a little dismayed by the requirement that we eat with our hands.  She was considerate enough to provide serving spoons. Most of us were inventive in using our bread as eating utensils.  Her beverage was tropical punch and her dessert was a strawberry jello cake topped with whipped cream and sliced strawberries. Her gifts were hair clippies for the girls- to keep their hair out of their food- and the guys got paddle balls. And so I think, "How can we top this one?"  and I know that one of them will.

Will was hesitant to read a scripture before this feast as he was concerned about blasphemy. He asked everyone to try and ignore the body on the table and concentrate on the passage as he read:

 Romans 12:1-2 "Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect."

I love how Paul uses the "therefore" card.  He does it so frequently.  There's something relevant to these verses before this passage. Chapter 11 is rich, indeed, in the illustration of the mercy God has extended to us, sinners.  The forgiveness of sin, grafting us onto His root. The depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God.  "For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.  To Him be the glory forever. Amen."

And so offering yourself as a living and set-apart sacrifice is a reasonable and rational thing. Don't be like the world, but completely change yourself by the new understanding you gain of the wisdom and knowledge of God and his mercies. By doing this, you prove what God's good, well-pleasing and perfect will is.