Food At the Fair: A Critic's Review

Some people go to the fair for the Midway. Some go for the autos. Some might have been there to see a football game. We go for the food. Seriously. We open up the fair program and begin mapping out where the food vendors are. We think that we are foodies enough to be self-appointed critics of the various edible offerings at the State Fair, therefore we formed a panel of judges consisting of ourselves and the taste results are below. We have rated the various foods on a scale of 1 - 5 corny dogs, with 1 being not worth the bite and 5 a mouth watering experience.

Fried Banana Pudding:
4 Corny Dogs

Fried Oreos:
4 Corny Dogs

(One of our judges taste-testing)

Fried Latte:
5 Corny Dogs

Fried Frito Pie:
5 Corny Dogs

(Another judge taste-testing)

'Taters:
3 Corny Dogs

Fried Cheesecake:
4 Corny Dogs

Not Pictured:
A Texas sized drumstick
4 Corny Dogs

Fletcher's Corn Dogs
5 Corny Dogs (of course)

Plate of German food prepared by a local chef
5 Corny Dogs

And thus we conclude the review. We hope that this enables you to consume and enjoy as many fried products as are offered at the fair, and to avoid the icky fair-healthy stuff like corn-on-the-cob slathered with butter.

After all, the fair - like Christmas - only comes once a year.

And please don't be surprised if we have put on a few pounds since the last time you saw us...

Reformation Day

Today might have been known as Halloween for most people, but for Christians this is the day that we remember and acknowledge a great moment in Christian - and world - history.

"I would never have thought that such a storm would rise from Rome over one simple scrap of paper..." (Martin Luther)

It was on this day, 1517, that Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral, thus igniting the Reformation in Europe and calling into question the accepted and previously undisputed practices of the Roman Catholic Church.

"Hier stehe ich. Ich kann nicht anders. Gott helfe mir. Amen." ("Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen.")

Many resources are available all over the web, but here are the best I found:

Martin Luther: Lessons from His Life and Labor, a biographical sermon delivered at a conference by John Piper. Read or listen to it here.

A PBS page on the famous monk. You can learn about his life and teachings in a nutshell, as well as watch a few interviews, two of which feature Alister McGrath.

The nearly inexhaustible Wikipedia page. With a complete timeline of his life and teachings, as well as external links, you could spend a lot of time there.

And then, you can always pick up one of his books, or sing the hymn he is most famous for:
A Mighty Fortress is Our God.
(Here you can listen to the American Boy Choir's beautiful rendition for free.)

Around the Fair

Big Tex

Ferris wheel.

Where all your money goes.

I love the guy standing there in overalls and hat, holding his prize stuffed animals and watching the carousel.

Lovely water pictures.

The Midway!!

The fair's main street.

Food vendors line it all the way down. You could hear the foods sizzling and smell their grease wherever you walked.

Landon sips fresh lemonade.

The boys take a break from the auto show.

Autos at the State Fair

These pictures were snapped close to the fair entrance.

Mom tries out new car possibilities (okay, okay: Dreams of new possibilities)

Like this one. (Dad, are you reading this?)

Mom having fun. We can all pretend, right? ;)

Later on, the boys visited the Auto Show where they saw such strange sights as this:
umm, what is it, exactly?

Hunter is wondering, too.

Texas State Fair 2007

The State Fair has long since ended for another year, but in October we took an opportunity to head to Dallas for the annual event.

Bendel

Info-Techno Sabbath 2

Mark Driscoll also has thoughts on taking a break from technology.

Info-Techno Sabbath

A great article on Boundless detailing the benefits of an information and technology free Sabbath. This is something my family has been doing for awhile now and we have seen many wonderful results from this practice. It's so refreshing to take a break from technology and to spend a day resting from time enslavements like email, blogs or forums. One good point to note, and the author does this in the article as well, is that it is easy to make a practice legalistic and you need to avoid this. We occasionally find that we have to use the internet on Sundays, like in an instance a couple of weeks ago when we were making a stop by someone's home after leaving church and we got lost. My sister pulled out her BlackBerry for directions on Google, and that's okay. The point isn't that we absolutely, positively cannot touch the computer on Sunday, it's really just about showing the Lord that we can fast from something very important to us so that we can put more focus on worshipping Him, because He is far better and more important than internet.

Fall Garage Sale 2007

Here are just a few pictures from our fall garage sale we had over a month ago. It was a successful day, in terms of good fellowship and yummy food with our friends. Alas, I did not take any pictures and our friends took some, which I am using here, but we were pretty busy all day so there aren't as many photos as there would normally be. But I guess it just goes to show that we were so busy having fun, we didn't want to stop for pictures. :-)

It is always such a joy to have our friends visit and to spend time with them. ( How long now until the next garage sale... ? :-) )

A trademark of our garage sales: junk. Lots of it. It was all treasure to us at one time before it was junk, and now it's regained status to be treasure to someone else.

Landon sets up our clothes rack: PVC connected into a long rectangle. It held up very well.

Visiting with the shoppers.

The driveway was not sufficient, we had to use the front lawn as well. It was a good one, people. That much stuff makes a very good garage sale.

Ashley and Joseph. We are so glad to see him back to his normal, funny ways after watching him fight off serious illness this year.

And that's it - until Spring/Summer!

Global Warming

"...the discussion about climate change has turned into a nasty dustup, with one side arguing that we're headed for catastrophe and the other maintaining that it's all a hoax. I say that neither is right. It's wrong to deny the obvious: The Earth is warming, and we're causing it. But that's not the whole story, and predictions of impending disaster just don't stack up."

-Bjorn Lomborg, author of "Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming" in his Washington Post op-ed piece yesterday. Read it here.

God's Sovereignty and Singleness

from an engagement story written by Genevieve Smith in her weekly email newsletter. I thought the following was very good and should be shared here:

I am 27, and knowing about His sovereignty has been a wonderful and beautiful thing in my
life. It has given me the freedom to concentrate on what God wants me to do now without
worrying about the future...

Knowing that God is sovereign has enabled me to be content, to trust God in two ways: 1)
to know the desires of my heart and 2) to give me what was best for me, either singleness
or marriage; and if marriage, then to the right sort of man.
All these years God has been saying to me, “I am sovereign. Believe in me. Trust in Me. Be
content. Have faith. Have hope. Pursue Purity. Obey Me.” And guess what I recently
discovered? While I have been trying to do all these things with the help of the Holy Spirit,
He has been preparing someone for me who fulfils the desires of my heart and then some,
who is a gift far beyond anything I could have dreamed of, hoped for or believed was
possible! I can’t help but get this picture of God smilingly encouraging me along and
knowing what a treat He had in store for me just around the corner. “Be patient!”

A Day At Canton

Editor's note: Post almost fixed! You can see all of the pictures but one.

On Thursday morning early, Mom, Ashley, Lexi and my sister-in-law, Sarah, drove to Canton for a day of bargain shopping at the huge "First Monday" flea market. Below are some pictures from our fun day.

Here Sarah takes a close look at some antiques. She scored a beautiful rose painting on canvas, unframed, for the baby's room from this vendor.

Ashley and Mom absorbing ideas in a beautiful booth. Mom scored a beautiful vase that now sits on our piano. Notice the Christmas trees? Canton vendors are getting ready for the holiday.

An outside vendor with lots of fun junk. Shutters in need of paint, old kitchen items, toys, furniture... One of the joys of shopping at Canton was sorting through pure junk and finding all kinds of treasures.

Ashley and Sarah were examining a window shutter, I think. Notice Sarah's fabulous hat? It's from Costa Rica and is made (obviously!) for shielding face and scalp from a hot sun She is obviously the smartest, savviest, out-of-doors shopper in the family. She came with her backpack, sunscreen, hat, trail mix and large bottle of water. Smart, smart . We walked around toasted, hungry, thirsty, with our arms aching from carrying bags and wished we had had half of her foresight. And we have lived in Texas much longer! :)

Ahh, lunch time! Here Ashley and Sarah are in line ordering homemade sandwiches and salads. We all shared a peanut butter pie and a snickerdoodle (I think - or something similar) pie as well.

My "baby" sister. Isn't she beautiful? :)

Mom texting. (More money? Please?!) You can see where Lexi comes by her loveliness.

See?

Ah, yes, I'm sitting and tired at the end of the day. But it was so much fun! We filled our SUV's trunk with newfound treasures big and small. I think everyone got something at Canton, but the prize for the best bargain find probably goes to Lexi for finding a 1930's Royal typewriter in near-perfect condition for $60. I believe they usually fetch a hefty sum on eBay.

We are already saving our money for next month's trip. Mom even bought paper cups and lids so that we can share coffee drinks while we are out and put our saved dollars into the Canton fund. :)