Joy Of Every Longing Heart

Come, Thou long expected Jesus

Born to set Thy people free

From our fears and sins release us

Let us find our rest in Thee

Israel's Strength and Consolation

Hope of all the earth Thou art

Dear Desire of every nation

Joy of every longing heart

Merry Christmas! We'll be back on the blog in a week or so!

~~~

Teddy is Two!

Teddy Dean is two years old today!

We spent the morning at ArtSparks, building ~


Painting ~

Drawing ~

and relaxing ~

In the evening, at home, came presents ~

including a much-longed-for Incredible Hulk toy ~

and Bibleman DVD's ~

And a Tow Mater brownie to top it all off ~

Happy Birthday, Teddy Dean! We love you!

~~~

One Last Hurrah

To end our series of graduation posts on Cookbooks & Commentaries, we have pictures of Ken with some of his professors. It is, after all, because of the excellent faculty at Southern that Ken's degree is so valuable ~

Dr. Betts

Dr. Wellum

Our pastor, Dr. Cook

Dr. Vogel

Dr. Beougher

Dr. Moore

We are thankful for these men (and many more) who are faithfully serving the Lord by investing in the lives of future ministers of the Gospel. Thanks to all of you!

~~~

Daddy's Big Day

On the big day, the morning of Ken's graduation ceremony, he woke up the boys wearing his cap and gown ~


Calvin said he liked Daddy's "cape" ~

~~~

President's Reception

Saturday's blog post was only the beginning of reporting our graduation experience. After all, the description of Cookbooks & Commentaries is "The Schmidt Family's Seminary Adventure." So of course we're going to thoroughly include you on our culminating seminary experience!

Our graduation celebration started the day before the ceremony, at the President's Graduation Reception, where Dr. and Mrs. Mohler graciously greeted everyone individually ~

And after seven and a half years as a Southern student, Ken finally had his chance to see the famed personal library of Dr. Mohler ~

He just graduated, and he acts like he owns the place. I tell ya what ~

We're happy. Can you tell?

~~~

Study Bibles

Do you have a Study Bible? I received my first Study Bible when I was a new believer. I can still remember the helpfulness of my NIV Study Bible. Over the years, however, I became disenchanted with Study Bibles. Why? Because I noticed that when I was leading Bible studies, more people were referring to their notes rather than the text to answer questions.

I have mellowed in the last few years. A couple of weeks ago, I received an ESV Study Bible as a gift from a friend. It is a great tool. However, I keep reminding myself that the notes, articles and maps are just tools.

If you don't have a Study Bible, don't rush out and buy one. They are helpful, but not needed. If you do have a Study Bible, let me encourage you to read this commentary by Al Mohler.

It's Official!

Yesterday was Ken's graduation ceremony. He now officially holds a Masters of Divinity from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary...

Way to go, Ken! You did it!!!!!!!!!!!

We had two full days of graduation activities. We have many more pictures and stories to share. But for now, I'll just say...

Hooray! Ken's finished!!!!!!

~~~

Family Night: Homespun Christmas

Tonight we made popcorn garlands, sang Christmas carols, and had homemade hot cocoa.


Teddy and Calvin's contribution to the garland project? Eating popcorn and making a royal mess.


Teddy also put popcorn in his cocoa and told Ken it was marshmallows. Smart kid; he fooled his dad. Ken spooned it out and was about to eat it. "Hey!" Ken said, "That's not a marshmallow!" Teddy just giggled. How can a not-quite-two-year-old be such a trickster? Answer: He's Ken Schmidt's son.


The garlands are now adorned with Wraffia bows and hanging over the back doorway. They're pretty, in a Cabin Christmas sort of way. (Though I'm wondering how long I'll be able to stand the stale popcorn smell coming from that doorway. I have an overly sensitive sniffer.)


After advent readings tonight, we knelt together to pray. The boys have prayed for a teenage boy named Ben ever since they met him two months ago. Calvin prayed, "Dear God, thank you for Ben. Please anoint him." Okay. Prayer time then dissolved into giggles. Anoint him?? Hmmm....maybe that came from memorizing Psalm 23 as a family. I'm positive, though, that Calvin has no idea what "anoint" means!


The Christmas song that went along with tonight's reading was "We Three Kings." No sooner had Ken and I started singing, "We three kings of Orient are bearing gifts we traverse afar..." than the kids started galloping around the living room, down the hall, through the kitchen and back again.


Our family advent times this year lack a certain...shall we say...reverence. But we'll choose to savor these antic-filled Christmas moments while we still can.

~~~

Baking...With Children

We baked Christmas Cookie #1 today: Peanut Butter Blossoms.

The boys' little friend, Jonathan, came over (and his mom, my friend Becky!) and we took on this little endeavor as a group. Peanut Butter Blossoms are good cookies to make with little ones. They can roll the dough in sugar ~

And smash the Hershey's kiss into the cookie (keyword: smash) ~

Even with all the Hershey's kisses that disappeared into little hoppers, we ended up with four dozen lovely (and delicious!) cookies ~

~~~

The Things They Say

Calvin is very into pretend play. Tonight, he announced that we should all play "Grinch."

Me: Okay. What should we do?
Calvin: I'll be the Grinch. You can be Cindy Lou Who. And Daddy will be the roast beast.

(The thought of Ken as the roast beast cracked me up, especially since all it does is get stolen, returned, and carved.)

Me: Do you really think Daddy wants to be the roast beast?
Calvin: Well, I guess he can be the reindeer.


We are teaching Teddy to obey "right away, all the way, with a happy heart." The conversation is something like this:

Me: Teddy, when Mom and Dad ask you to do something, what should you do?
Teddy: (silent grin)
Me: You should obey right away, all the way, with a...?
Teddy: Ha-hee-har!

Teddy came up with a new name for himself the other day:

Me: What's your name?
Teddy: Cute Baby!

~~~

Christmas Craft

~~~

I said last year that I was going to use last year's Christmas cards to make crafts this season. I'm not much for crafts. But if they aren't too messy, don't take long, and involve little more than a scissors and a glue stick, I can do it!

So here are last year's cards, re-created:

This may not even qualify as a craft in your mind. It did, regardless, bring some Christmas cheer to our kitchen!

~~~