The Battle of Townsend's Plantation

My family spent the day at the Renninger's Antique Center in Mt. Dora, Florida. We went for "The Battle of Townsend's Plantation", a live Civil War Re-enactment, living history with authentic camps and sutlers exhibits, period music, weaponry demonstration, cavalry, and more! I have posted 100 photos from our "Family Field Trip" on our Mountian Cove Family Web site. You can click here to view the photos.

Happy New Year!!

My family left for vacation on December 23, 2004 and had a great time in Northern Virginia and North Carolina with our family and friends, we will be posting some photos from our vacation on our new web site: http://www.mountaincovefamily.com/. While we really enjoyed our vacation away from work, computers, the Internet, etc., it is good to be back home!

Snow Cream In Florida

I remember getting big bowls of snow and pouring milk, sugar and vanilla on it to make snow cream when I was growing up in Virginia and North Carolina. I never though I would ever have snow cream here in Florida. Mayfield Dairy has solved the problem, I found that they are now selling Mayfield Snow Cream at Wal-Mart. I bought some last night, and took it home, and while it may not be exactly like grandma used to make, it does bring back some good memories, and it taste great too!

If you are fortunate enough to live where there is snow this Winter, here is my old snow cream recipe, if you live where it never snows like I do, I can now recommend Mayfield Snow Cream.

Snow Cream Recipe

1 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
large bowl of snow

mix milk, sugar and vanilla. Stir in enough snow to make snow cream to an ice cream like consistency.

Do families today really understand their core values?

Bringing families together builds values that are really important to the family and makes it strong. Family Table Time creates family "unity" by setting time aside each week for sharing, discussion, debate, laughter and best of all, communication. Creating a personal mission statement helps families focus on what's important to them.

The Traditional Church vs. The NT Church

There are some major differences between the traditional church of today and the New Testament church in the Bible. Brian Anderson has compiled a list of those differences on the Milpitas Bible Fellowship Web site. I encourage every Christian to read this list, and do a in depth Bible study using the verses included in the list. Maybe you should do as I have and re-evaluate what, or who, the "Church" is.

Does Your Child Have The Edison Trait?

by Lucy Jo Palladino

He was a boy who learned only by doing. At age six, he had to see how fire worked and accidentally burned his father's barn to the ground. The next fall he began school, where he alternated between letting his mind travel to distant places and keeping his body in perpetual motion in his seat. Because he was distractible and restless, he did not last long in a formal classroom. His teacher called him "addled." Eventually, his mother had to home-school him. As an adult he would recall: "My father thought I was stupid and I almost decided I must be a dunce."

The core of his learning was his passion for experiments. As his new teacher, his mother gave his talent free rein. At the same time she infused him with the disciplines of study. With time and determination, he mastered his runaway mind. He grew up to become a prolific inventor, bringing the magic of electricity and sound recording into the world. He either invented or improved hundreds of practical conveniences. It is said that Thomas Alva Edison succeeded where others failed or never tried, because it was his nature to dare.

There was once a man who drove a truck on a road through a town and got stuck under a bridge that had a low clearance. The men of the town gathered around the wedged truck to think of ways to dismantle the truck or the bridge. Finally, a young boy came up and asked, “Why don't you let some air out of the tires?" That is what they did, and the truck went on its way.

This was a child who had the Edison trait. He saw an element of the scene that no one else saw, because they were busily and systematically focused on what to them was relevant to the solution.

Today, a growing number of children have that nature to dare. Like young Edison, they are easily distracted and disorganized, but also wildly imaginative and inventive.

They have minds that are at home with meanderings and leaps of vast proportions. They make unexpected, sometimes startling, connections.

All children are imaginative and enjoy make-believe, but children who have the Edison trait live even closer to their imaginations. It is their lifeblood.

Children manifest the Edison trait in various ways. Some are quiet and reserved and live in their own worlds. Others are loud, interruptive, and bold.

Your child may be a Dreamer, a Discoverer, or a Dynamo. Or he may combine features of any or all of these patterns.

• Dreamers drift from place to place, on a schedule of eternal time.


• Discoverers have to find things out for themselves and do things their own way.


• Dynamos are always in motion, with a flair forsurprises, power, and speed.

Source: The Elijah Company

Daily Family Worship Service

The Elements of Family Worship Service

A. Bible Reading

The head of the household takes a portion of scripture and reads it to the family and make comments on what was read.

B. Prayer Time

Take some time to pray about matters

C. Hymn singing

Sing some of your favorite hymns.

D. Close in Prayer

Source: The Christian Life

Welcome Back Dave Black!!

David Black just got back from his trip to Ethiopia, where he and his wife have been working with the churches and the people in Ethiopia. It's good to see him back and to see his site updated once again. Be sure to visit both the front page and his blog to get all of us updates. I emailed Dave shortly before he returned, to let him know that he was in my families prayers ant that we had missed him while he was gone. While we have never met him personally, we do feel like we know him, I guess it's because we seem to think alike on so many issues.

Virgin Mary Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Take a look on e-bay, and you'll find some cheesy items up for sale. But probably none as "cheesy" as this one. The on-line auction website, e-bay, took a grilled cheese sandwich listing. It's half of a sandwich the owner claims is ten-years old and bears an image of the Virgin Mary.

Click here to see this eBay listing.

The funniest thing is all of the eBay listings that are taking advantage of the "Virgin Mary Grilled Cheese Sandwich" in their auction keywords.

http://search.ebay.com/virgin-mary-grilled-cheese

I was "rolling on the floor" after seeing some of these listings this morning!

Free Bible Study Software!

e-Sword is feature rich and user friendly with more capabilities than you would expect in a free software package. The fact that e-Sword is free is just one of the blessings and does not speak of the quality of the software.

Click here to download e-Sword today!