White Christmas Video

Here’s a video to go with the pictures of our White Christmas. 

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A White Christmas in Texas

Today is Christmas. It’s a White Christmas! We had snowed all day on Christmas Eve. It was 75 degrees and beautiful on the 23rd then it dropped to 30 degrees (that’s an insane drop) on the 24th, with 30 – 45 MPH wind! This “near blizzard” as they called it was unexpected and the amount of snow is very unusual for North Texas (three inches in Benbrook with some one foot drifts). How wonderful it was that it happened on Christmas Eve though, because here we are on Christmas day with snow all over the place… a real White Christmas. I even built a snowman.

I’ll put together a video later… including some home storm chaser action of me jumping directly into the “blizzard” for some sweet footage.

P.S. Our street is frozen solid with 1 cm of ice (!) but it’s blue skies and sunshine again today so everything is starting to melt.

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Autumn Snow in Texas

It snowed for a couple hours this morning. It was really pretty especially since some of the trees still have their fall colors.

I’ll probably make a little video of the snow falling later.

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A Proclamation Calling for National Repentance and Spiritual Renewal

Sally Kern was first elected to the Oklahoma State House of
Representatives in 2004. Sally is a member of Olivet Baptist
Church in Oklahoma City where her husband is the pastor.

The Proclamation

We the People of Oklahoma, invoking the guidance of Almighty
God, in order to secure and perpetuate the blessing of liberty; to
secure just and rightful Government; to promote our mutual
welfare and happiness, do establish this proclamation and call
upon the people of the great State of Oklahoma, and our fellow
patriots in these United States of America who look to the Lord
for guidance, to acknowledge the need for a national awakening
of righteousness in our land.

WHEREAS,
“It is religion and morality
alone, which can establish the
principles upon which Freedom
can securely stand” (John Adams); and

WHEREAS,
“We have no government armed
with power capable of contending
with human passions unbridled
by religion and morality”
(John Adams); and

WHEREAS,
“Our Constitution was made only
for a moral and religious people”
(John Adams); and

WHEREAS,
“We have staked the whole future
of American civilization, not upon
the power of government . . . but
upon the capacity of mankind for
self-government, upon the capacity
of each and all of us to govern ourselves,
to control ourselves, to sustain
ourselves according to the Ten
Commandments of God” (James Madison); and

WHEREAS,
“Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a
right that belongs to us by the laws of God” (Benjamin Franklin);and

WHEREAS,
“God who gave us life gave us liberty,
and can the liberties of a nation
be thought secure when we
have removed their only firm basis
— a conviction in the minds of the
people that these liberties are of the
Gift of God?” (Thomas Jefferson); and

WHEREAS,
“Whether any free government can
be permanent, where the public
worship of God, and the support of
religion, constitute no part of the
policy or duty of the state” (Joseph Story); and

WHEREAS,
“We hold sacred the rights of conscience, and promise to the
people . . . the free and undisturbed exercise of their religion”
(Roger Sherman); and

WHEREAS,
“This great nation was founded, not
by religionists, but by Christians”(Patrick Henry); and

WHEREAS,
“When you . . . exercise the right of
voting for public officers, let it be
impressed upon your mind that God
commands you to choose just men
who will rule in the fear of God”(Noah Webster); and

WHEREAS,
“The principles of genuine liberty
and of wise laws and administrations are to be drawn from the
Bible” (Noah Webster); and

WHEREAS,
we believe our economic woes are consequences of our greater
national moral crisis; and

WHEREAS,
this nation has become a world leader in promoting abortion,
pornography, same sex marriage, sex trafficking, divorce, illegitimate
births, child abuse, and many other forms of debauchery; and

WHEREAS,
alarmed that the Government of the United States of America is
forsaking the rich Christian heritage upon which this nation was
built; and

WHEREAS,
grieved that the office of the President of these United States has
refused to uphold the long held tradition of past presidents in
giving recognition to our National Day of Prayer; and

WHEREAS,
deeply disturbed that the office of the President of these United
States disregards the biblical admonitions to live clean and pure
lives by proclaiming an entire month to an immoral behavior
[i.e., the White House issued a national proclamation for Lesbian,
Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Month];

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that we, the
undersigned elected officials of the people of Oklahoma, religious
leaders and citizens of the State of Oklahoma, appealing to
the Supreme Judge of the world, solemnly declare that the hope
of the great State of Oklahoma and of these United States, rests
upon the principles of religion and morality as put forth in the
Holy Bible; and

BE IT RESOLVED that we, the undersigned, believers in the
One True God and His only Son, call upon all to join with us in
recognizing that “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,”and humbly implore all who love truth and virtue to live above
reproach in the sight of God and man with a firm reliance on the
leadership and protection of Almighty God; and

BE IT RESOLVED that we, the undersigned, humbly call
upon our Holy God — our Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer —
to have mercy on this nation, to stay His hand of judgment, and
grant a national awakening of righteousness and Christian renewal
as we repent of our great sin.

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Veggie Garden in November

I’m happy to see that we can grow veggies through November here. Our peppers are doing better now than they did in Spring. The tomatoes are producing well but now the plants are looking tired. I learned it’s better to cut the Spring tomato plants back in July than to replant for Fall. We make some killer salsa out of the harvest. Our experimental Mexican Piquin Pepper plants that we grew from seed are finally producing their itsy bitsy peppers too.

One of these slides shows prepared ground for Apache and Navaho blackberry plants (to be planted next Spring). We live on “Hills of Whitestone” so I dug out tons of rocks. One of them must have weighed 200 pounds or more because I could hardly even roll it. We then added a few hundred pounds of various composts (and a little cow manure) to help improve the clay soil. Next week we’ll dump a bunch of mulch on top to encourage the worms to keep working for us over the winter.

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Promo Video for Storm Spectator

Watch the promo video I put together for Storm Spectator, via the site’s nifty embeddable video player. Obviously, I did not take these photos. I just edited it all together.

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Great Books 2009

I’ve read some great books this year. Here they are:

How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth – It was recommended to me by one of my proffs. It is an excellent guide on reading the Bible, taking into consideration hermeneutical (Bible interpretation rules) insights by genre (epistle, poetry, prophecy).

Love Your God with all Your Mind- Is an excellent book about the role of reason in faith. Being a Christian does not mean one is unintelligent, like a lot of atheists assume. Christians are thinking people, or at least we should be.

Feeling Good- The New Mood Therapy- I read this book for one of my counseling classes. It is an excellent book about how to defeat depression through cognitive therapy, which has been proven to be as effective as medication.

The Attachment Connection- Is a very insightful book about parenting. It teaches parents how to create emotional bonds with their chidlren through intentional attachement. The researcher who wrote it, has done extensive studies with children in homeless shelters.

The Prodigal God- Is an excellent presentation of the story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15). Tim Keller is a sharp theologian. He provides some incredible insights into the relationship between the father and the older son.

Digestive Wellness- Is all about the digestive system, immunity and nutrition. It is very well documented and fascinating to us health nut-vegans. I learned how to do a Vitaminc C flush that Steven and I do regularly.

Money, Possession and Eternity- Is probably the best book on biblical stewardship out there. Presents the connection between money, the Christian faith and eternity. Randy Alcorn is amazing.

Recently Steven and I have read a good number of Christian Biographies written by Janet Benge. They are all wonderful, inspirational and very touching. We both love them.

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Storm Spectator is Online

Storm Spectator is DreamDolphin Media’s latest site. It’s a video and photo upload site for crazy weather enthusiasts.

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Western Fun with Mom & Dad

Mom and Dad visited us this Fall. We did some fun western stuff in Fort Worth plus the Benbrook Cowboy Roundup. We also spent some time by Benbrook Lake and ate good vegan food.

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Bed & Breakfast Browser 2.0

We totally redeveloped Bed & Breakfast Browser. The site that had been online since 2006 was “temporary”. This new version uses our custom CMS which lets users submit and manage content such as B&B listings, photos and reviews. Unlike other big B&B directories, this one is free for innkeepers, because we want every bed and breakfast, everywhere, to create and maintain hugely detailed listings. And on the visitor end, we want to build a huge database of uncensored reviews and user-uploaded photos.

Please give the site a browse and tell me if you find any bugs.

Thank you Sudi-Pie for encouraging me with this forever, for the writing and design insight.

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