Tis the Season...

"Tis the season to be greedy, falalalala lalalala" this is what my mom often sings about the way Christmas is viewed in our culture today. Our family got to the point where the ONLY reason we celebrated Christmas at all was because it is the time of our Savior's birth. But for several years now we have celebrated something called Advent with is twenty five days of focusing on, and celebrating Jesus's birth and what he was born to do.

Every night during Advent the whole family gathers in the living room and we read one days' worth of an Advent story book, each day has a lesson, or a thought on the real meaning of Christmas and what it should mean to us. Then comes the Advent Book, each day one child opens a door in the book to reveal the next portion of the story of Jesus's birth. The doors are numbered according to the days of Advent and we open one new door per day along with all the previous doors, this way the anticipation builds up until Christmas day when we open the last door and the whole Christmas story is revealed. We rotate every day so that everyone gets several turns opening doors, even us older ones :-).

The little ones LOVE reading the Advent Book, which comes straight out of scripture. They now have almost the whole book memorized by heart, thus they have almost memorized the entire Christmas story in scripture, and they often quote each doors' verse along with Daddy as he reads.

Another thing we have changed in our house is the fact that we don't give presents on Christmas, because we want that day to be focused on God, and not ourselves. And we have found that presents bring our focus onto us and what we get or deserve. So our family doesn't give presents on Christmas, we do however give presents on Epiphany, 12 days after Christmas which we also celebrate. I believe I will be posting about that in the near future as well!

This is the way we celebrate the Savior's birth, we love the way that it puts our focus on God and the mercy he showed us by sending His Son, we love that our little ones, and the rest of us, are memorizing the scriptures, and we love how Advent really teaches our little ones what Christmas is about, because the last thing we want is a Christmas focused on presents, Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus, and all the other things that the world has tried to make Christmas about.

I would love to hear what YOU think about Christmas, please comment!

In Christ's Service, Anna Primer.

Growing Up Too Fast

Gabriel helpin' Daddy haul firewood!

Gabriel doesnt play with toys hardly at all, it's not that he doesnt have any, it's that he doent like toys. Give him a honey dipper, cardboard box, plastic cup, or toothbrush, and he's set to go!

Rosie taught herself to play the guitar over this last summer, she has a ton of fun playing songs for the kids or just teaching them to strum.

Here are some pictures of Bethany's playhouse. She is SO CUTE when she washes her play dishes:
She insists on decorating even the countertop.

She loves to cook pretend meals for her brother Ben on her cardboard stove. Then she proceeds to clean up:

Her favorite pastime is diligently practicing her dishwashing skills.

Table and chairs, complete with cups from her very cute tea set!

"Hello, is this you? This is me."Bethany never ceases to provide us with a good laugh, she is just too cute!!!

Gabriel insists that he is old enough to feed himself, and indeed he is growing at an astonishing rate. He has been toddeling around the house for well over a week, and has amost ceased crawling.

And he's very happy about it!

Just wanted to share some pictures of how fast our little ones are growing. They make us smile every day, and we consistantly say that they are better entertainment than tv. Hope they made you smile too.

Love to you all, Anna Primer.

Running

Here is something that God has been working on me with, I hope that he can use it to encourage all of you too!
Going Through the Motions
As Christians it is easy for us to go through our lives, reading our Daily Bread every morning, singing hymns in church on Sunday, and praying at meals, even praying and reading our Bibles when things get tough. It’s easy for us to live spiritually lukewarm.
I have often times got all hyper after a camp, concert or conference. I was on a spiritual high. I would burn for Christ 24/7…. For about a day and a half.
Then suddenly the Jesus rush wore off. I was back to simply going through the motions without much thought. As I watched myself do this over, and over, and over, and over, and over again, I was convicted. What a shallow life I was living. This wasn’t what I wanted; I could be having a deeper, closer, LASTING, trusting, and loving relationship with my Savior.
I wanted to be on a never-ending spiritual high.
But it wasn’t long before I found out that my ambition was much more easily said than done.
It seemed that every time I got close-ish to where I wanted to be, I would slide back into the motions. Then I read a devotional that changed the way I thought about the time I was spending in Bible reading and prayer. The devotional was called “My Heart, Christ’s Home” it was a fictional story about a man’s heart. The heart was like a house, with all kinds of rooms, the study, the living room, dining room, recreation room, workshop, bedroom, and hall closet. The man invited God to come and live in his heart, when Jesus arrived; the man was excited and began to show Him about the house. One by one the man led Jesus to each room, and one by one, the man became ashamed of their sad state, and asked Jesus to help him clean them out. He did, one at a time, until the man declared that the house would belong to Jesus, and from now on he would be the guest, and Jesus, the master.
The part that really got me was the living room, where the man and Jesus would meet every day to dig deep into the words of the Bible, every morning they would take time to learn from God’s word. They would just spend time together. For a while the man arrived faithfully on time every day, but it wasn’t long before he started showing up late, and soon after that he skipped a day here or there, and before long he didn’t show up at all. One day as the man was rushing off to attend to important things he passed the door of the living room, and as he did he saw Jesus, just sitting there, waiting. The man gathered his courage and entered the room, he asked Jesus what he was doing, and Jesus replied that he was waiting for him. The man asked him if he had been here every morning, waiting for him. Of course Jesus answered yes. The man was ashamed that he had so easily drifted away. And still, Jesus had remained faithful.
When I think of Jesus sitting there every morninPsalms 139:23-24 says: “Search me O God and know my heart; try me and know my anxieties; and see if there is any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
g waiting to spend time with me, while I simply rush past to begin my “important” day, I have to admit that I am greatly ashamed. And it makes me want to change.
I like to get up early while most everyone is still asleep, so I set my alarm for the unbelievably early hour of 6:00 a. m. (I know I’m pathetic). But there are still many mornings when I fall into temptation and hit the “off” button on my alarm clock, because I am, of course, sinful human. In fact one of those mornings was this morning, after the previous day, which had been really busy, and a late night, I was pretty tired. When my alarm went off, I lay in my bed and debated with myself weather I could even open my eyes and be able to focus on the tiny print in my Bible. But determining that it didn’t make my Bible study any holier to do it at six a clock instead of later, so, I went back to sleep.
---
Running
Here are some of my favorite verses,
1 Corinthians 9: 24-27:
“Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight; not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.”
“Run in such a way that you may obtain it.” That is the way I want to live my life, running for Jesus.
That is how we all should live our lives, running for the ultimate prize, the only prize that matters.
We should run long and hard not wearying, not slowing down. But that’s a hard thing to do. It’s hard to be diligent; it’s hard to run that hard, and we’re not strong enough to do it, but the cool thing is that God sustains us and gives us strength.
“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”-Philippians 4:13
So that is what God has been teaching me, I hope it encouraged all of you.

Big Sister

As the oldest girl in a family of 8 kids, I am (quite obviously) a big sister. But What is a big sister's job?
I have found that being a big sister is a huge training tool that will prepare me for life, I will need many of the skills I am learning now, when I become a mother.

It is so easy to brush my younger siblings off as an annoyance, its so easy to tell them to "Just go away and leave me alone!" actually I've tried that, but... when you have six little brothers and sisters and you live in a three bedroom house: You Cant Get Away From Them!!!
So I faced a choice, I could either be driven nuts for as long as I live with them, OR, I could learn to live in grace with them. Naturally being miserable didn't sound fun, so... I gave in to what God was trying to teach me.

It has been a bit difficult, but it has brought me much joy in the long run.
I have learned that it's better to be merciful, than to be cranky and easily annoyed.

For Example:
the other day I was trying very hard to get some schoolwork done, and Bethany ran into the dining room and tearfully flung herself on me. "Anna the bad guys are going to get my Andre seal!" (From the movie Andre) Oh such tragedy!!! (she's picked up some of my drama queen talents :-p)!!!

"O Brother," I thought. But then I had to consider, will it help make my relationship with my three year old sister to be stronger if I tell her to leave me alone so that I can do my schoolwork? Or could I possibly stand to take 30 seconds to allay her fears and send her running back to the living room to give those naughty bad guys what for?

I decided to take a moment to talk to her, and in no time she was scolding the bad guys on TV. :-)

So I want to encourage all of you big sisters out there, It's alot more fun to be a fun, loving, nurturing, playful, big sister than it is to be a grouch! :-)

Love, In Christ, Anna Primer

The Simplest Things

The other day Gabriel sat in his highchair and played with a damp washcloth for over a half an hour. He was soooo cute!!! I couldnt resist snapping a few shots. Its funny how the simplest things can mean so much. Well, my computer is acting up, so enjoy the pics!

Fun with the Jost family

Last week our family enjoyed the fun and fellowship of having the Jost family (the Josties) in town for a concert at our church. Sadly, even brownies with huckleberry sauce and ice cream, not to mention my amazing chocolate velvet decaf coffee, could not convince them to move to Idaho. :-(

Nevertheless we had a ton of fun cramming 21 people (10 Primers, 11 Josts) into our tiny house for meals. The saying "The more the merrier." certainly became true!
I think we got the most laughs out of star tripping (if you haven't tried it its a MUST), and Josiah reading "The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig" book to Hannah and Bethany, (that is definitely a family favorite).
Their concert was amazing, and we have been playing their CD ever since.
We greatly enjoyed their amazing family and are looking forward to the next time we can get them to come see us! :-)

"Reel" Women

Last weekend my family went camping with 3 other families from our church. The campground we camped at was near a reservoir where our brothers were spending their every spare minute fishing. After reading " MaryJanesFarm" magazine, (www.maryjanesfarm.com/magazine.html) my two best friends (my lil' sis Rosie, and close friend Brandie) and I were inspired to be "reel women" and be cute and feminine fisherwomen! So we hiked down to the dock and we fished from there until my brother John brought his canoe in, then he let us borrow it, what a nice big brother! We were a little tippy at first, but soon we got the hang of it, and were gliding along smoothly. We rowed out to a small island, and pulled the canoe on shore, after exploring the island we hopped back in the canoe and headed for shore. It was soooooooo much fun. so as you can see, we found out that you can be feminine no matter what you're doing!