SUCCESS!

There has been great success in continuing to make our 'house' into a 'home' lately! Matthew and his friend Robert came home this last week to help on the house and made GREAT progress! So now since the painting is basically done and these new 'additions' are almost done it is feeling quite home-like. Here are their contributions...

This is the ceiling for our front porch... all nicely finished!

Next they put up cupboards in the laundry room so all that is needed is the flooring and counter top!

AND... TA-DA... the Upstairs Kitchen Cabinets!

BEAUTIFUL!!!

There has been AWESOME SUCCESS in the Stellmaker 'home' lately!!! YAHOO!

Also... here is another picture of a painting that I painted for my mom for Christmas. Random, sorry.

Palm Sunday Question...

This morning in church, the pastor preached on the Palm Sunday story. He went through Luke 19:28-44 and slowly described it in modern day terms so that we could all get a better picture of it. For example, when the disciples went to get the colt he said it was like grand theft auto..."uh why don't you guys just go steal this donkey and then if anyone catches you just say 'The Lord needs it.'" That type of modern day stuff.

But other than the sometimes hilarious aspects of his sermon there was also some seriousness as well. After reading about the praises that He walked through and then reading v. 41-42, ("As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace-- but now it is hidden from your eyes.") he asked the question...

"If Christ were to walk through your praises and look over your life, would He weep?"

This caught me off guard and truly made me think. Do I 'praise' Christ for my own benefit and status as well as the other things in my life or are they purely for Christ alone? Do my praises and way of living make Him weep because I truly do not understand the reason and 'do' my actions because of my deep love for Christ?

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Side note: Verse 40 hit me too... "I tell you," he replied, "if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out." Christ will be glorified whether I am part of that or not. It is a privilege given to each of us to have a relationship with Jesus and be a part of His plan."

The Equality of Gender Roles???

Last night I had a very interesting conversation with a group of both non-believers and believers about the biblical 'roles' set about for men and women. This is something that is understandable very hard for many non-believers as well as many believers to understand. I was never quite able to articulate it to the non-believers how a woman's role is not sexist or dominating, but just a different purpose but just as important. As many times as I said something along those lines, they still seemed to view it as sexist or something along those lines.

How do you all see this relationship? Roles? Do you have any good analogies? How do you interpret the 2 Timothy 2 passage? Are you comfortable with the roles given to each sex? Why did God choose to make it this way? How do you explain the equality of the roles?

Please feel free to express your thoughts! :)

A Day of Paint!

Today was my first day of Spring Break and was it ever productive! Our house was all ready to be painted when I got home of Friday, but because of a few set backs, we weren't able to start until today. No worries though there was no need to start any earlier considering our day's events! At the beginning of the day, all that was painted a small triangle of the wall near the top of the vaulted ceiling. (pictured below) But once Dad, Papa, Mom, and I got going there was no stopping us!

And here are the pictures of our success today!! (We are painting everything one color for now and will go back and do accent walls once we find furniture and pictures for the walls! The ones that say "Finished" are completely painted and trimmed!)

The Kitchen! (Finished)

The Front Hallway!

Looking into the Great Room!

The Stairway going downstairs!

Papa's Bathroom!

Papa's Bedroom! (Finished)

The Hallway! (Finished)

Mom and Dad's Bedroom! (Finished)

Another view of the Great Room!

The Mud Room!

Mom and Dad's Closet! (Finished)

So that is all of the painting that we did today! But Dad has also been working very very hard on their shower and here is what he has so far! It is going to be awesome! The picture is pointing towards the back of the shower and has a bench at the bottom. The walls will all be tiled and BEAUTIFUL!!!


I love my home!!

Concert Mishap...

Last night the UNI Concert Chorale had a concert which went extremely well... well that is all except the little improvisations that I decided to add to the show.

#1- I was the first one on stage and on my way up the risers, the front of my shoe hit one of the steps and flew off. The guy behind me, Eric, just quickly picked it up and we walked to our spots and he very nicely just laid it down by my foot so I could put my 'lost' shoe back on. Quite hilarious!

#2- On the way out, one of the girls ahead of me dropped her music so Eric again picked that up and I started chuckling a bit, (because he was again having to pick up something which was dropped) which was a BAD idea. I then proceeded to forget that I was wearing a floor length flowy dress while walking down the steps. As I stepped onto the floor, I stepped on the hem of my dress and completely tripped.

So there are my sweet acrobatic improvisations which were 'all too nicely' added to the concert last night!

Chocolate Bowls... Medicine... and Simon Estes???

Here is the most random collection of posts EVER...

Post #1- Chocolate Bowls

I found a recipe online awhile ago for chocolate bowls and have LOVED trying to make them and perfect them! Rachel and I tried them the other weekend and they were a lot of fun, but were quite soft, so I tried something different.

Recipe:
Almond Bark
Balloons
COOKING SPRAY!!!

All you have to do is blow up some balloons, SPRAY THEM WITH COOKING SPRAY (I have forgotten this step both times and it makes it very difficult), and then dip them in almond bark (Rachel and I tried just chocolate but they were too soft and melted easily). Make sure that the almond bark isn't too hot otherwise the balloons will pop. It takes a few tries to get the right temp.

SO EASY HUH?!?

Then Rachel and I filled them with a cream cheese mixture and topped them off with fresh fruit. When I made the filling I used cream cheese, vanilla, powdered sugar, and chocolate pudding for the ones with brown filling.

Here are the finished products...




Post #2- Medicine

I got all of my shots and medications for India today! Another thing off the to-do list!!! Traveling is not cheap though. I hope this stuff really prevents me from getting whatever otherwise I just got ripped off. :)


Post #3- Simon Estes

As I walked into church yesterday, I was shocked as I saw who standing in the congregation, why no one but Simon Estes himself. I went up and got to meet him after wards and he told me that if I would ever like to sing/have a lesson with him, just to look him up and we could work something out. I was to say the least...ECSTATIC!!! (For those of you who don't know who Simon Estes is, he is nothing but a very famous opera singer!)

Reasons 1-2/50

As I was looking through my books the other day, I stumbled upon "Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die" by John Piper. It intrigued me since I had never read it before so I took it off the shelf and started! After reading numbers 1 and 2 of the 50 reasons, I am amazed! So here are a few of the quotes that take awhile to soak in but are incredible!


Reason #1- To Absorb the Wrath of God
-"If God were not just, there would be no demand for His Son to suffer and die. And if God were not loving, there would be no willingness for His Son to suffer and die. But God is both just and loving. Therefore His love is willing to meet the demands of his justice."

-"This is what sin is-- dishonoring God by preferring other things over him, and acting on those preferences...We glorify what we enjoy most"

-"Therefore sin is not small, because it is not against a small Sovereign. The seriousness of an insult rises with the dignity of the one insulted."

-"[Propitiation] refers to the removal of God's wrath by providing a substitute. The substitute is provided by God himself. The substitute, Jesus Christ, does not just cancel the wrath; he absorbs it and diverts it from us to himself."

Reason #2- To Please His Heavenly Father
-"What Jesus did when He suffered and dies was the Father's idea. It was a breathtaking strategy, conceived even before creation." (Isaiah 53:10)

-Paradox of the New Testament- "On the one hand, the suffering of Christ is an outpouring of God's wrath because of sin. But on the other hand, Christ's suffering is a beautiful act of submission and obedience to the will of the Father." (Matthew 27:46 vs. Ephesians 5:2)

-"Oh, that we might worship the terrible wonder of the love of God! It is not sentimental. It is not simple. For our sake God did the impossible: He poured out his wrath on his ow Son--the one whose submission made him infinitely unworthy to receive it. yet the Son's very willingness to receive it was precious in God's sight."

Free Sheet Music

So for those of you who love music and can play piano, I have found a pretty sweet site! It's http://my-piano.blogspot.com/ This place has hundreds of songs with free sheet music downloads! It's quite incredible! Have fun!

Painting...

This year I have realized that I love painting. I am so relaxed when I paint and it is just so fun to make the canvas come alive. So here is my most recent painting. i can't decide whether to keep it plain or add some words. If I kept it plain, I would paint 2 or 3 other black canvases with a single flower on them as well to create a set. Any votes??? Add text or a paint a set?