Halloween

For the first time ever, we opened our doors to trick or treaters.  We made the decision to do so, because our church had some tracts available for us; we tape a piece of candy to each tract.  We had about 30 children come by, and receive the tracts and candies.  It felt good to get the Gospel out. 

It's been a while....

Hi Blog friends-  It's been quite a while since my last post; that's because a lot is going on around here- I mean A LOT!  I'm not quite ready to share all the details, I may never share them all.  Just know that I am experiencing  a pretty serious health issues trial.

A friend reminded me today of Philipians 4:13; "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me"  and that God only gives us trials to the point that we can handle. 

I'd appreciate prayers for me and the family, please no guesses as to what might be going on- in time, on His time I will share with th blogging community more on this trial. 

A Retraction....

to the Oregon Coast post.....  I said we visited Heceta Head Lighthouse....  Um, we visited Cape Meares Lighthouse, oops!  I've linked to the lighthouse's web site....  and here is a picture!

This lighthouse is one of the shortest on the Oregon Coast.  In 2009 two guys took target practice at the glass and lenses in the light portion, you can see that some of the glass is still needing to be replaced.  It is an expensive process. When the glass is replaced, guests will be able to walk up the stairs to the light area once again...   

Oregon Coast

 Last week we got a away for a few days to tour the Oregon Coast.  We are ocean people, for sure and for certain!  Most of the vacations we've taken as a family are jam packed from start to finish with much driving and daily destinations pre-planned.  For this vacation we "winged" it- we had a basic plan; to travel from home to the Redwood National Forest via Highway 101.  There was some pre-planning, just checking into attractions along the way, we did not make one camping reservation for this trip, we hunted for a camping spot each night, just like my family did when I was growing up {remember, the pre-internet days????}

I have many pictures to go through, to make this post a little quicker and easier for myself, I'm just going to give a brief description of the places we visited {no links either, I had about 20 minutes to put this post together} .  As I'm going through the photos in the next few weeks if I find one I really like, I might share then...

FORT STEVENS STATE PARK near Astoria, OR.  This is a really neat park, it is huge, and  has several beaches and  bunkers to explore. The highlight is the ship wreck on the beach of the "Peter Iredale"; a ship that ran aground a hundred years ago, miraculously everyone survived.  We were able to park and open up our trailer, cooking supper right on the Pacific Ocean, it was beautiful!

CANNON BEACH, OR- Beautiful wide sandy beaches, charming town, Haystack Rock is located on Cannon Beach.

HECETA HEAD LIGHTHOUSE- Historic lighthouse, still intact, maintained by the local lighthouse historical society, recently it was vandalized by a couple young men how shot at the restored lenses; the group is working to restore it again.

TILLAMOOK CHEESE FACTORY-  Ice cream for lunch! Yum!  We observed parts of the cheese making and packaging process.  We really did eat ice cream for lunch, favorite flavour, Yellow Funfetti Cake and "squeaky cheese" {AKA unaged cheese curds}

OREGON DUNES NATIONAL PARK-  Up for a work out?  try climbing up and over the soft golden sand of the dunes!!!  It was a challenge! We ate lunch in the staging area for the ATV's; those folks have a good time!

Camping literally on the beach, at BEACHFRONT RV PARK in Brookings Harbor, OR.  This was so cool we were just feet away from the powerful waves of the Pacific. We fell asleep to the crashing waves.

TREES OF MYSTERY- Klamath, CA.  If you live on the west coast you must take the family to this destination at least once.  Driving through the REDWOODS NATIONAL FOREST was a treat in it's self.  At the Trees of Mystery, there are descriptions and displays of God's handy work. The highlight is the "Sky Trail" a gondola ride up to the top of the hill, on a clear day you can see to the ocean. It was foggy for our visit, everyone except I rode up {irrational fear of heights!}

At this point we turned inland, up Highway 199, which took us to Grants Pass, OR.  We found a camp ground right along the Rogue River, again we were just feet away, it was magnificent!  We panned for gold in the river, the children found a few tiny flecks.

Our final pre-planned "destination" was to WILDLIFE SAFARI in Winston, OR.  A drive thru- zoo experience; it was super cool.  An emu found our car especially inviting, we were stuck for a bit trying to get him distracted so we could drive on! There is a walk through village also.  The children rode on a camel and we all went out to feed the giraffe's.  We loaded up in the back of a pick up with a cage on it-  It was like a real safari vehicle, when we got to where the giraffes were, we just fed them lettuce, carrots and bananas from our hands.... It was quite an experience!

We had beautiful weather, no rain at all!  Only a few morning clouds in southern Oregon/Northern California one day.  There was about a thousand other things we could have done along the way, just too much to squeeze into a few days. 

Next week we will begin school, light, but school- The summer break just flew by!
            

A Post

On the second and fourth Saturdays of the month our we participate in a nursing home visitation with our church.  Our children {we are working on shyness with the little girls, one will sing, the other is not quite there....she'll get there, in her own time}  and several others from church, sing a few hymns for the sweet folks, one fellow will give a short message....  What a joy it is to be in this ministry!  One of the facilities we visit specializes in Alzheimer/dementia; the folks in the home, just light up when they hear the hymns!

 

Break

The last few times I've sat down to write a post,  I just end up with a blank screen, or I'll type a few words then delete the whole thing. I think that blogging filled a void.  The void is being filled with other things, namely more time in the Bible.  I'm not quite ready to say that my blogging days are over, it's just that other things currently have a higher priority.  

I may or may not be back,  that's for God to decide at a later time, in the meantime, I know that God is calling for me to take a break. 

The Long Weekend, prt 2

We woke on Monday to beautiful clear sunny skies!  The only plans we had made was to BBq at home and enjoy fireworks as the darkness came...  Our day was wide open... we did not do any chores, {the laundry was piling all weekend; I was tempted to run a couple loads to hang on the lines... since it was so nice}

We decided to bring deli sandwich lunch stuff over to my parents- My Mom stretched something in her hips and has been a little house bound in the last couple weeks, she hadn't been getting out much.  It is just fun to treat my parents once in a while.  My parents live in a 55+ gated community; the homes are individually owned, manufactured styled homes.  The community had a little parade planned, it was really cute; a few of the folks have old cars that they decorated, the local fire department "entered" a couple trucks, and a few ladies got together and had a little drill team...  It was short and sweet, it was really fun to cheer for the seniors, they had put a lot of effort into the event.  My Dad had helped to decorate one of the vehicles. 

My parents really were happy we were visiting, some one was making a funny expression in all the shots I took. 

We then came home, for a little quiet time before the evening arrived.  The neighbors just across from us buy a ton of fireworks each year, the last two years we've bought just a few ourselves, it's really a fun time- they have family over, we BBq and eat supper out in the front yard,  while they begin shooting off their huge pile...

We like to wait until it's a little bit dark-This was the first year that Hubby let the boys do the lighting... Oh, they were thrilled, I think they had shivers up and down their spines, it was very exciting for them.... Boys love to explode things....  Things really got exciting, at one point, a firework malfunctioned,  just missing Miss S and Miss E- I was in the house when that happened, it could have been a very serious situation, thankfully it was just a warning that fireworks can malfunction and that there is an element of danger involved...

When all the fireworks had been shot, we came in for late dessert, exploding Twinkies.  You place the tip of  a can of whipping cream in one of the holes on the bottom of the Twinkie and load it up, just until the cake part begins to separate... It's pretty fun :)

Tuesday it was back to work for everyone, including me, we tackled the laundry mountain and the babies were here.  We all were pretty tired and poky....  Wednesday morning me and the four slept in!    

The Long Weekend, prt 1

Hubby took Friday off, what a blessing that was, as it was the "quiet" day of the weekend. That is if sewing a blouse, a dress and an apron; errands and yard work are considered quiet activities!

Saturday was full of church stuff- our church had a big celebration planned for Sunday- The boys were at the church at 9:30am for the set up, we girls joined in around 10am to decorate, with many hands doing the work we finished about noon, enjoyed a pizza lunch then went home- us girls anyway....  For the boys it was nursing home visitation week... They changed their clothes and went back to church... After the visitations, it was back to church for them so K could practice some songs for the celebration on Sunday {the nursing home group, was going to be our live music entertainment}....  The boys were doing church stuff from 9:30-5:30; they loved every minute of it too!  I was glad that we had finished early, as my sewing projects had a deadline! I needed to finish before church on Sunday morning....   However, when they came rolling in we went out to buy a few fireworks - we ate a late supper, I went back to sewing, but by about 10pm I was seeing cross-eyed, at that point I had finished my dress, most of the apron and just buttonholes and buttons were needed on Miss N's blouse... I called it a night.  The weather was just glorious on Saturday.

Sunday we woke to clouds, threatening to rain on the celebration.... Which they did, sort of.  Each year for about the past 10 years of so; they've put on a giant BBq, inviting the neighbourhood, to come celebrate freedom... {They don't do VBS and I'm glad, as I'm not a VBS fan}...  This year, the church was allowed to give flyers, advertising the event, out to the local {gov.} elementary schools, like 15,000 invitations went out on top of that another 5,000 or so invitations were left on doorsteps and with apartment building managers....  Back to the rain....  It took all sorts of back and forth car trips to get ourselves to the church {we live close enough to walk, we parked the car at home, to free up parking for guests}  just as church began....so did a rain shower {remember Saturday was gorgeous}... Pastor actually was watching the rain as the service was happening and extended the sermon just a bit..... and the rain ceased, just in time for lunch to be served.  {I haven't heard the numbers officially, I know that a few souls were saved during the call in the service} Hundreds of folks received a nice lunch of  burgers, hot dogs, macaroni and potato salad, baked beans, chips and a dessert, at one point I looked to see the length of the lines, I couldn't see the ends!

There were bouncy houses, face painting, cotton candy, sno-cones etc....  The children that attend the church had been earning Baptist bucks since May, to spend on the activities, {fun} food and prizes; Miss E had earned 688- She was really cute, spending the frugally to make the last for the event....

After lunch, It would be time for Mr. K and his fellow musical friends to share some hymns with us......  Would you believe that as soon as they had all the guitars out of the cases, tuned and ready.... It began to rain!  All the music guys retreated, many of the guests left also.  It wasn't that bad of a shower, it was rather soaking though... And wouldn't you know, that as the designated end time of the event arrived.... So did Mr. Sunshine....    

Zoo

 We had a zoo outing with the Mom's group from church today, it was a fun time of getting to know more ladies from church.  The children in our group were as young as 11 weeks and up to 17 years, all the children are well behaved, all had a nice time!  Here are our 4 {S- was working, of course}

  

Life....

A note: I'm having trouble commenting with the "comment as" function of  blogger; the one that gives you choices as to which type of sign in ID you have...  I read a post on another blog, that person was having trouble also.... So you might see an "anonymous" comment,  I'm leaving my info in the signature, so you'll know who's stopped by...

I've lost the zest for blogging....  You can't post about anything controversial or deep in opinion any more as there are many folks out there ready and armed to attack.  There is one site that is especially hateful and is causing many bloggers to go private.  Three of the blogs I've followed for a while have gone private.  There is another Christian mother being targeted by that blog.  I  believe it is their goal to get all of us Christians out of the blog world.  My old blog went under the microscope, only it wasn't an unknown group hiding behind the 'net; it was someone we knew personally- it is disconcerting, as we really don't know who we are opening our lives up to.... I've noticed that I'm less personal in my posts on this new blog, keeping things more general.

That's one reason, the other is that it is time consuming- especially when a post involves pictures....  That said, I'll still blog, and read your posts, but my posts may not be so regular.  In general I'm just trying to keep my time on the computer down.  I'll probably continue regular posting on the recipes blog as Hubby likes to check the menu.

Life has been full for us this month.  The girls dance classes ended last week for the summer... Sort of, they have a couple performances and summer dance camp coming up- at least the trudging back and forth to classes has ended for a bit.... Schools out! We are finishing up the straggling lessons today, yipee!!!  Yesterday we received the first order of books for next year- I'll be ordering the rest at the end of this month.

I have two dresses cut out for myself and a blouse for N, it's a patriotic print {dark navy blue w/ little red and white stars}- and I'm almost finished scrapping our Disney trip.  I'm more ready to tackle scrapping some of the everyday photos that have been piling up- I was hoping that the trip book might do that for me...  Then there is my head, I have all sorts of ideas and projects piling up inside- but finding the time and money is the challenge to actually doing those things.  I should probably jot down them down on a to do list.

We are fitting into a new routine with the new church, it's a change, but one we are really liking.  Only recently have we realized how much we were missing God; in a way it's invigorating, I feel like a new Christian, a dry sponge, soaking in all that He has to share with me.

That's about it for now!  I need to get to some of those projects!!!!   

Road Trip {the girls side}

While the boys and N were away, the little girls and I had plenty to keep us busy...  An overnight trip to help my parents with their weekend property was one of those things....

There was weeding to do... The girlies weeded the entire area all by themselves.

The big job was sanding and repainting a small deck rail- Many hands make light work, is one of my favourite sayings, it was so true with this little project.  My Dad and I did most of the sanding, then we girls, my Mom included got it painted.

We gave the girlies a turn with the sander too.

There was time for some fun too.....

  

Crazy Busy

What a whirlwind last week was for us! I ended up with a horrible head cold and was down for a couple days, but still attempting to function at full capacity-  I prayed lots and rested when I could....because I knew the weekend was jam packed with activity.

We were non-stop from Friday afternoon right through last night.  The girls dance recital started us off on Friday with the dress rehearsal, and actual recital on Saturday.  Sunday we had church and a college graduation ceremony {a close girlfriend of our oldest daughter} to attend, God was so good to us, we made it to each event with time to spare!

Today I'm lounging a bit- OK, so alot... I've spent some time doing office type work, you know bills, grocery lists, grocery inventory and such.... It's late in the afternoon and dare I admitt, I'm not showered for the day yet!

Even with dance ending for the season, our calendar remains quite full- So much fun having a houseful of active children!

In the midst of the crazy weekend our oldest daughter, made some life decisions that were tough,  she handled with the utmost maturity, grace and following God's direction.  Those years in the early 20's are so full of growing...  {I wouldn't go back for an infinity amount of money!}  It is such a blessing to be able to still be guiding her through these years.

Earlier this year we dropped our cell phone plan, and went to a prepaid system.  We only turn the phone on when we go out and only in certain situations. We don't miss it one bit.  In a effort to further simplify our lives, Hubby and I decided to drop out of the Fac****k world- for us it was just is a waste of time, we hardly would check on it and it was a chore to do so.  The other side of it is, is that there is just too much personal information available to people about everyone out on the web- at least we've stopped this source.  I encourage all of you to examine your involvement in social networking on the web, whether it be through a site like FB or even blogs.

******ADDED:  The  "deactivate" function is in either "profile" or "account"  it was the bottom choice, just click the word "deactivate" and complete the questions. For reason, mine was "other" I wrote in, "waste of time- and too much personal info on the web".***** 

Road Trip

Recently Hubby, and the 3 older children took a weekend road trip to Minnesota.  Some close friends of  our oldest daughter were getting married, after months of waying the options of travel, it was decided that driving/camping along the way would be best.  {It wasn't in a part of the state near the "Cities" and the airport}...  The little girls needed to be home for some dance  stuff....We've never done anything like this before, we've always gone as a family...

I told them several times before they left, that they wouldn't be let back in the house, upon their return if they didn't take any pictures {ha ha}- They took plenty of shots which tell the story of their trip...

N caught this beautiful shot of  Montana morning....

They had a really great time, by my request I asked them to stop at the information center along I-90 in the Painted Canyons in North Dakota, I didn't expect them to dress alike!!! It was beautiful but super windy, they brought me a coffee table picture book of the Badlands, they know I love North Dakota...

Here's their camp set up in MN.... The camp they chose was on one of the many lakes, so there was lots for the boys to do while big Sis was at the wedding...  

They were only had one full day in MN, they made the most of it,  this was a fast road trip.

pedal boating

fishing

row boating

And there was hiking{er, um rabbit chasing...I think one snuck up behind them and grabbed um!!}

We girls had a little road trip adventure while they were away... I'll post that next time!  

Picture Heavy Post

This past week, the "Babies" as we refer to them were here 3 days instead of just one... What a joy and blessing it is to have these two little blue-eyed sweeties join us!

Kory is holding Little Miss E, now every bit a 2 year old- that look on her face, she didn't want her picture taken. The big Miss Emma, wanted to hold the baby, but Miss Natalie won that battle, Mr. L is 5 1/2 months old, he had some teething issues one of the days, he is such a content little guy. And Mr. Chad is on the right.  I'd been waiting for better weather to get in a pic of the 6 of them.

The boys won these stuffed friends at the arcade in California Adventure on our trip.  This is a re-created moment.  The last day we were there, we girls decided that we wanted to spend the day at Disneyland, the boys were ready for the "big" rides at Cal Adventure, we went our separate ways... mid-day we met up, as we were exiting the "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln" exhibit- there were the boys looking guilty....{normal for them!} They each pulled a stuffed friend from behind, one for each girl! It was so sweet, and I was so mad that they didn't warn me to have the camera ready! So, we re-created the moment here for the scrapbook.

The Mother's Day Show, the children gave me.... Chad giving his speech, the girls doing a dance, and Kory singing me a song he wrote and composed.  The location was "The Garage Theatre".

And my sweet girl, caring for our little seed starts.... They are much bigger than this now, we need to transplant some to bigger pots and others outside... We colour coded the toothpicks so we'd know which seeds were which {especially the two types of pumpkins}... Do cucumber seeds usually sprout yellow leaves first?  Ours have.... 

Happy Mother's Day!

We finally all made it to church today!!!!  After months of unending illness, we made it! To Sunday School, church and evening service, that was a blessing!  That was a lovely Mother's Day gift, thank you Jesus!

We went to the church that Hubby and I visited about a month ago.  Since that time, we've listened to the Pastor's sermons online- and gotten to know the church a little, through their website.  Today visiting with the entire clan, we were noticed.  It's hard not to notice a new family in a smaller church, especially one with four school aged children!  We all had a wonderful Sunday School class, we all really like that the children are segregated by age and gender- Both the girls and the boys liked that a lot.  The morning service was really nice, the theme, Mothers of course!  Pastor preached on the many faithful mothers we are told of in the Bible.  At the end of the service bouquets of flowers were given to the mother with the most children, the oldest mother and the newest mother- Each mom was given a rose as we left the service.

We went back for evening serive {Bible study}, the Pastor was finishing up the book of Titus-   We met lots of folks tonight, including the Sunday school teacher's the chldren had and the Pastors and their wives.  We were told that there are quite a few homeschool families at this church.  We will be trying out the mid week services and will mostly likely be going back next Sunday. 

Here's where I get real-  Yes, it is a bit scary. We've just come away from a not so great church situation- On top of that all the sickness, we were really questioning what God wanted for our family.  It gave us lots of quiet time to pray.  In the end I just have had to hand it all over to Him and not take on the burden myself.  Leading up to today, yes, I was anxious, then I realized that if we didn't just jump back in with both feet, we'd never find a new church home, that we'd just be searching and searching.

Yesterday the four gave me {Hubby was invited too} a show for Mother's day!  It was really well thought out, they even made a program. The girls danced for us, K played his guitar, sharing a song he's written, it's really good!  Both boys had speeches to write last week for school so they each gave their speech.  It was a wonderful gift!  We girls went over to my parents this afternoon for a visit.

And of course I wish a Happy Mother's Day to all the Mother's out in blogland!!!!

PS to the oven story: the guy was not able to repair it on Saturday- my Hubby had to be persistant and talk with few people, but was able to get another for Monday- hopefully they will be able to repair it.  I say they, it's a built in range oven combo, it takes two guys to pull it out, to see what's going on in the wiring behind it- I'm thinking that the tiny narrow kitchen is going to be a little crowded and messy while these guys are looking at it.   The upside, I can cook entire meals via electrical appliances such as an electric skillet, griddle and deep fryer/cooking pot; the toaster and microwave have come in handy also.  Oh, and it's not an "emergency" to have hot wires behind a range/oven {we have the breaker off}, but it is an "emergency" when the frig goes out!  

My Oven

This morning as we woke up late....

I had planned eggs, bacon and biscuits for breakfast....

We were out of bread, I planned to make some today...

I turned on the oven, placing the tray of biscuits in during the preheat, we were in a rush....

POP!  {insert scent of hot wires}.....

Sometimes our counters pop to settle.....

Why are the biscuits still looking raw?????

Open oven door......

It was slightly warm, obviously not working....

A tray of biscuits went to the trash :(

Repairman coming Saturday!!!!

   

Weekend

We made it to the events we needed to go to this weekend.  That is quite an accomplishment, considering the illness that we've seen.  The beginning of last week was quite rough, many were still not feeling well with the chest cold that we'd each gotten.  Especially for my Hubby.  He worked through it, although I'm thinking his co-workers would have rather that he'd been home, he made it through.  The fever that our youngest, Miss E had, finally broke after one week; she was still coughing a bit, but finally on the road to recovery....

I did have a little bit of a meltdown Friday afternoon-  and had a little rant about every little thing that had been "bothering" me-  While complaining, my family laughed at me, which really helped lighten my mood....    

We had plans for this weekend.  Saturday the little girls and I attended a birthday party for our favourite toddler girl in the world, Little Miss E, turned 2.  She was just sweet and darling!

The big plans were for Sunday... The girls dance studio planned a dance benefit for our local Children's hospital, one of the girls on Miss E's dance team, has a rare form of asthma, this sweet girl has spent many of her days in the hospital- The theme of the event was "breathing".   Miss E had not been to dance class for a week and a half, we really didn't know how she'd hold up....Would she get into a coughing fit? Would she tire easily?  She did just fine.  She said she was coughing a bit, but we couldn't tell from the audience.  We haven't heard the dollar numbers yet, but their little dance school, pulled off quite an event!

Today the rains we here in our little corner of the world, are so accustomed to have returned.  I do think that we've turned the weather corner, and will be seeing more of the sunny days we experienced this weekend.  Speaking of weather.....

I've a package to send off to Alabama, and The Pioneer Woman has a unique giveway this week, benefitting the tornado victims from last week.   The blogging community certainly has pulled together in helping those folks.

Easter



After the hunt... you can tell Miss E doesn't feel all that  great {the eyes say it all}

 We spent the weekend holed up at home... Saturday, we finally got a weather break, it was sunny and over 60... The boys hid our plastic eggs for the girlies, they were so cute, sneaking around the yard finding the best hiding spots... The girls then had a good time searching for 193 eggs.  We just hide them empty, all for fun.  Then we crashed!  Hubby and I that is. I put him to bed, I took the couch {to be accessible to the children}.  We talked lots of Jesus Crucifixtion and Resurrection, reading some Scripture.

I did make a treat with the children, I'm not sure what they are really called; I called them Easter biscuits, I saw the idea out on the web, using refrigerated crescent rolls.  We make our crescents from scratch so we used that as our dough.  You dip a large marshmallow in butter, then roll it in cinnamon sugar, place it in the center of the dough {I rolled it thin and cut it into squares}, then you seal up the marshmallow inside the biscuit.  Bake on a lined tray, {I used a silpat} at the temp for the dough you are using, until the biscuit is golden.  The marshmallow represents Jesus, the sealed biscuit the tomb.  As these little treats bake, the marshmallow melts, leaving the biscuit hollow in the center.... When you open the little treats, they are empty.  They are quite tasty too!       

The usual cool, cloudy, showery weather returned for Sunday, we are thankful for our calm weather*.  We missed the Easter drama at the new church we checked out a couple weeks ago, we missed brunch with family... We bonded with each other, and actually had a lovely weekend.  We are thankful for the quiet time and that we are on the mend. 

*We are praying for those folks in the St. Louis area, we have family there.  The tornado came within a couple miles of their home, and S has a co-worker that was traveling through the airport when the tornado hit.  We are thankful that they are all fine.  

PS- I plan on posting more picture from our vacation too, as time permits.  

Pictures

March 20th, the Yreka rest stop on I-5



The children were fascinated with the palm trees! This is on the side walk in front of the Califoria State Capitol




Our first "Mickey" sighting, in the parking garage




In the plaza between Disneyland and California Adventure, we were getting closer!




Miss E, turned 10 on our trip!




We had quite a few of these, along the way....potty stops!



A "This and That" post

It's interesting to me, how we go along for many days without a trial.  Then suddenly we are faced with many.  A few weeks ago  Mr. Charles Swindoll's radio sermon was on that topic.  He said, that if you weren't in a trial right then, no worries, you would be soon!  How true that is.

We have several items that we are praying about right now. They are all pretty big things, I'll share a couple the rest we are keeping private.

We were not able to go to the church we visited a week ago, due to, too many with colds {including the head guy, Hubby}.  It's a terrible chest cold, we believe the same that Mr. C had, we are praying that those in our family currently with it, don't develop pneumonia.  That church is doing an Easter drama next weekend, we hope to be able to go to that.  

We also are praying for friends from the church we left, for their understanding that we did what was best for our family.  They are having a difficult time grasping what happened, the Pastor is friends with them also.





Thank you from outdoor.mom for an award.  "Versatile Blogger Award"    Outdoor.mom say's  "Kimberly.....because she lets us grow with her and makes her home her domain"

I have pictures to share, it just takes so much time!  I have been working on getting prints ordered from our Disney trip.... While the memories are fresh! 

The trip, illnesses and paycheck timing have our freezer bare!  A grocery trip is most certainly needed.  I had a hard time maintaining a frugal budget during the winter;  the couponing thing kind of threw me off course too.  For me, it's really time consuming, I'll use coupons when I have them, but if I don't have them, I'm not going to sweat it... It's more about being a good steward with the resources God gives us....

We started some seeds inside this week.  It's just been too cold and soggy to sow seeds directly into the ground.  We did seed hearty peas and beans directly, the inside starts include cukes, pumpkins, sweet peas and larkspur... When the weather warms, I'll buy tomato plants and pepper plants.

School is going well, this is a favourite time of year, the children begin to finish off subjects, making the school days much shorter. 

That's the this and that from our house this week!