Earlier this week, we worked on taking pictures of a day that we were helping Melanie and Abigail so that we could show you what we are doing.

Aunt Sarah has the first turn, and it’s time for her to make breakfast.

After enjoying a yummy breakfast, it’s now time for Abigail’s bath. Aunt Sarah has brought over her special bath toys, and Abigail plays everything from bug races to petting “Quack Quack” (her duck) during her bath.

Once Abby’s through with her bath, it is now time to get her dressed and fix her hair. Today she will wear the dress that Aunt Mary made for her. Aunt Sarah fixes her hair, and upon asking her how many “tails” she wants, she says “two”!

Aunt Sarah then goes home, and a little while later Aunt Anna comes over right in the middle of Abby’s blanket time. Aunt Anna starts the laundry, and then does school with Abigail. Today they will draw pictures. Aunt Anna also helps Abigail with her counting and numbers.

Next Abby has school with Mommy while Aunt Anna fixes lunch. Mommy helps Abby do the alphabet puzzle. Abigail likes the letters and can say all of them.

Mommy and Abby do blocks together, but Abigail prefers to sit in the tub during this time. : )

Now it’s lunch time!

After cleanup, it is time to change the laundry so Aunt Anna, Abigail, and “Na,” the baby doll, go down stairs.

Abigail helps by taking the sheets out of the dryer.

Now they move the wet laundry from the washer to the dryer.

“Hhmmmmmm is there anything left in the washer, Abby?”

Time to get the mail! Brrrrrr, it’s a little chilly outside so they won’t stay out for long.

Then it’s nap time. Aunt Anna helps Abigail get ready for her nap, and then Aunt Anna heads for home.

Grandma and Aunt Mary head back over after Abby’s nap to help again. Aunt Mary and Abigail are going to go on a walk with Gi-Gi and Grandad.

When they get home, Grandma helps make dinner and then reads books to Abigail!

Aunt Mary helps with dinner preparations and  other odd jobs. There’s always something to do over there, and everyone keeps very busy!

Then it’s time for Grandma and Aunt Mary to say good-bye and head home to eat their dinner. Daddy will soon be home, so Mommy and Abby will be just fine together until then!

“Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.” (Psalm 127:3-4)

Life has stayed busy around the Maxwell house, and we’re down to only 2 1/2 weeks until our next trip (exciting!). The bus is making progress as Dad and Joseph have worked on several projects, including the tank issue. The tank appears to be fixed, and we also had a new one made that will be installed underneath Dad and Mom’s bed. It’ll be nice to have some extra water on board!

Some of our beds are taken apart as the bus work is being done! So, the beds are up on the seating area.

Dad

John made a great "floor" for the tank out of diamond plate.

Christopher and Joseph carrying the fresh water tank back to the bus!

Joseph has been helping Dad quite a bit on the bus (John has had another project right now).

Abby helping Joseph open a gift. We celebrated Abby's birthday early a few weeks ago, and so she's experienced opening gifts.

We are trying to get a new set of matching jumpers made before the trip, so the "race" is on!

Another project before the trip was to compile Chore books, so four of us spent time on Friday and Saturday compiling.

Jesse

What did Joseph have for his birthday dessert? Ultimate Turtle Cheesecake.

If you’d like to try the Ultimate Turtle Cheesecake, here’s a link to the post I did on Cookbook about it last week. If it’s anything like at our house, it won’t last long!

May the Lord Jesus bless your week!

Sarah

“Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered” (Psalms 40:5).

"If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith" (Luke 12:27-28).

It’s been a busy start to the week for the Maxwell house. Dad and Mom are away for two days doing school planning and working on updating some sessions for the next speaking trip. In the meantime we’re: doing school (that is, the three youngest), helping Melanie and Abby (Melanie and Baby are doing well), doing normal “Keepers at Home” things, Titus2 ministry things, and yes, a bit of special food while Dad and Mom are gone. Tonight’s menu is homemade stuffed crust pizza .

May you delight in our Savior this week!

Sarah

Christopher gave an excellent message this morning about the Resurrection, but we wanted to share with you an illustration Christopher shared, which proved, once again, the authenticity of the Bible. First, let me share several verses with you.

• “And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it” (Matthew 28:2).
• “And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted” (Mark 16:5).
• “And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments: And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead?” (Luke 24:4-5)
• “But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre, And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain” (John 20:11-12).

Depending on how carefully you read those verses, you might notice some details that weren’t the same. Matthew says “the angel of the Lord,” Mark says, “a young man,” Luke says “two men … shining garments,” and John, “two angels in white.” How could they be seemingly contradicting?

Now, for the illustration. Our Families for Jesus Fellowship meets in the dining room of a nursing home. Today, as Christopher was sharing, on cue, Joseph and John disappeared into the kitchen. Soon, a clanking was heard, and John rolled up the metal “blind” between the kitchen and dining room, and John’s voice was heard, “Hello folks, I just wanted to tell you that Jesus Christ rose from the dead,” while Joseph stood next to him. The blind was put back down.

Christopher shared that if several people were to recount what had happened, you would hear different details. One might say, “A young man told us that Jesus rose from the dead,” or another might say, “There were two young men, and one of them told us about Jesus rising from the dead,” or, “The tall guy was telling us about the Lord who rose from the dead.” See how this just proves, once again, the authenticity of the Bible? You’re not going to have four different people telling what happened the exact same way. Depending on who told the story, they might just mention John, and not Joseph, since he didn’t say or do anything except to stand near John. Christopher’s illustration perfectly demonstrated the the authenticity of Scripture, and his message was a perfect for Resurrection Sunday.

He is Risen, Alleluia! What joy we have as we celebrate our risen Savior. The world tries to make it into a “bunny hunt and eggs” holiday, but that’s not it. If only they knew what they’re missing.

Sarah

“This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things: and we know that his testimony is true. And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen” (John 21:24-25).

This will conclude our final “unposted pictures” post.

As I reflect on that last week, it’s truly amazing all the Lord Jesus did.

• Like I mentioned last week, Mary was one, sick young lady, but she only had two days of really feeling awful, and then she just had a normal cold. The Lord spared all the rest of us from getting it.
• We crossed back into the United States safely.
• We made it to the Mother/Daughter tea in enough time to set up and have some fellowship before the actual start time.
• We traveled many miles from northern Washington to southern California, and the Lord again protected us.
• One thing I don’t believe was mentioned, is we barely limped home with our fresh water tank. We were losing our fresh water rather rapidly at the end. By Sunday, we were conserving the water greatly. Almost by a miracle, we made it home with enough water. Soon, the guys are going to pull the tanks and figure out what was wrong, so that we’ll be set for our next trip.
• The weather was gorgeous for our re-scheduled Flagstaff conference.
• Our drive home was quite uneventful as we drove through New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas (Kansas is a very long state width wise). It was a wonderful time of talking to each other and preparing to be home.

It's always wonderful to see a sign like this when we enter back into the U.S.!

The Mother/Daughter tea was such a special time.

You just never know what you might see motoring down the road. Sometimes you'll hear an exclamation: "Look at such and such at 10 o'clock." Years ago, when Nathan and Christopher were young, Dad taught them how to describe something they saw out the window. Instead of, "Look over THERE!" (As in, where IS there?!) to picturing your view out the window as a clock and describing what you see as a time. It works perfectly well!

Sometimes I think it's hard for people to picture how big the bus is. One afternoon, we decided to take some photos to demonstrate!

Very pretty scenery

Downtown Seattle at night (thanks, Christopher!).

More scenery.

We did a photo shoot with Joseph and John one afternoon in sunny California. They needed a new picture for their business card!

Christopher's our all around great-guy!

This is the blog post with interesting vehicles. Here are two more.

The mountains outside of L.A.

Dairy Queen, again! We got great mileage out of Uncle Rob & Aunt Tami's gift. Thanks again .

While we were in the W-M parking lot at Flagstaff, we noticed a man who appeared to be living out of his vehicle. He also had two large dogs in his car. Christopher brought him some tracts and food, for which the man was very grateful.

Setting up in Flagstaff.

What are the guys doing? Well, near the end of their set up, one of them had an idea. They decided to do a group pushup, and they each stacked some chairs up and did their pushups. Interesting. Creative.

Christopher giving Evangelism.

Dad and Mom in Flagstaff.

Anna always has a cheerful smile.

A peek out a bus window.

I took a picture one night as we were going to bed.

Almost exactly 8 hours later, we were on the road again.

Mom loves light, so often in the morning, you could find her putting up the blinds!

Another scenery photo.

Our precious, fresh water, draining out overnight!

“And there ye shall eat before the Lord your God, and ye shall rejoice in all that ye put your hand unto, ye and your households, wherein the Lord thy God hath blessed thee” (Deuteronomy 12:7).