Every good and perfect gift is from above.
~James 1:17

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

A Toothy Tale

The Tooth Fairy is going to have to fork over a bunch of dough tonight! Little Grant had to have his two eye teeth pulled at the dentist today. He was such a trooper as they numbed up his gums with "sleepy juice." The dentist did an excellent job of making Grant feel comfortable. He is really good with kids.

Grant did not feel much other than a little pinch when they gave him the shot of novacaine. He left the dental office with two big wads of gauze in his mouth and a puffy, numb lip. I let him watch videos and eat mashed potatoes and chocolate pudding for dinner. He is feeling much better now. :-)

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Narnia Personality Quiz



As Susan, you are mature and respectable, yet with your 'motherly' role you can be quite bossy. Still, you can always be trusted to be loyal and faithful.

Ha~ha! Well, I guess there is a quiz for everything! :-)

Sunday, December 11, 2005

Narnia

Oh, we LOVED the Narnia movie!

One of our family's favorite Christmas gifts last year was a volume of all The Chronicles Of Narnia. We began reading it together on Saturday and Sunday afternoons and soon the kids were begging for "Narnia time"! We finished The Last Battle about a week ago and could hardly wait to see the movie, The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe!

Last night our whole staff team, kids included, went to see the movie together. Afterward, we all went to one family's home for our Christmas party. It was fun seeing the movie with a big group, but it was really special to see it with our kids after reading the books and anticipating it for so long!

I thought the movie represented the story really well. The times that the children went into and out of Narnia through the wardrobe were just exactly like I imagined it when reading the book. When Aslan first appeared on the scene, I thought that he could have been a little more fierce, but other than that I loved everything about the movie. I'm so glad that the money and time were put into telling this story well and I hope that the other stories in The Chronicles of Narnia will be made into movies, also!

The first thing Katie said when the movie ended was, "I want to watch it again!" :-) I couldn't agree more! I don't think we can wait too long before we go back to see the movie and step into Narnia again!

Thursday, December 08, 2005

Tigger is back

My little Tigger is bouncing and chatting again. :-) It is good to see him acting like himself once more. Tonight at dinner he confided that he thinks he should be a secret agent when he grows up because, "I just like being secret and sneaking around." Okay...well, I think everyone would know what he's up to because he also likes to talk and talk about every little thought he has! :-)

This is the weekend of parties! We have our homeschool co-op classes tomorrow and a little party afterward. On Saturday the kids are going to a birthday party and then we are all going to our staff team's family Christmas party. It's a good thing Tigger is back in action for all these parties, because socializing is what he lives for! :-)

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Tigger

My little Tigger-like son is down with a headache and fever. He is always so full of energy and non-stop chatter, that it is strange to see him lying around and being so quiet. :-( I'm praying he will be his old bouncy self again soon.

Sunday, December 04, 2005

Frosty kids

Grant and Katie just came inside after playing in the snow with the neighbor kids for the past couple of hours. They are red-cheeked and happy. The igloo they started sits in the front yard...only two lonely little snow blocks. It's a start, though, and that project will keep them busy all week! :-)

It's hard to believe that Christmas is only three weeks away! We've already gotten some Christmas cards in the mail ~ boy, I wish I was that organized! We haven't even taken a picture or thought about what kind of greeting we'll send this year. Last year we never even got one out, so hopefully this year we can pull it together! ;-)

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Thanksgiving Preparations

We celebrate Thanksgiving every year with some friends whose extended families are out west, like ours. We are all transplanted westerners. :-) We alternate which family is hosting each year and this year our friends are hosting. We are bringing three pies, (apple, pumpkin, pecan), a lettuce salad, rolls, pop and sparkling cider.

My little girl is feeling much better and really wants to help me in the kitchen. She is only five, but is actually very helpful! :-)

Both Katie and Grant want to help roll out dough for pies and I'm sure Katie will stay in the kitchen long after that to help me with everything else that needs to be done. She just ran down to her play kitchen to grab her apron, so she is ready to go! :-)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Saturday, November 19, 2005

Sunny smile is back!

Katie is sick. :-( She got the sniffles and it blossomed into wheezing and asthma troubles. Sometimes she gets a cold and gets over it in a few days and other times it gets worse and brings on the asthma symptoms.

We started nebbing her last night ~ hoping to get a good start on it ~ but she kept needing nebs every hour all night. I thought it would start to get better today, but finally called the doctor and was able to get her started on prednisone this afternoon. We'll see the doctor in the morning.

Now she is breathing easier and tonight she smiled and even laughed. Her eyes twinkled again. It was SUCH A RELIEF. I think she's on the mend. :-)

Friday, November 11, 2005

First day of school



Wow, I have actually posted 3 pictures in the last few minutes after not being able to post pictures for days! I hope I will be able to continue to post pictures whenever I want to. These pictures of the kids were taken on our first day of school in September. You can see they were ready to get started learning! :-)

Finally...it worked!

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Pictures not working again!

Well, I have been trying and trying to post the picture I mentioned in the post below and it just will not work. It is very frustrating and makes me wonder if blogger is really going to work out for me. We'll see, I guess.

Monday, November 07, 2005

A look back at summer

Someday I will get some more pictures posted! I don't have a digital camera, so I have to wait until I get film developed and then scan the pictures and finally post them...and by then so much time has passed that the pictures are of things that have happened long ago! Case in point ~ this pic of the kids at our homeschool co-op camping trip in August. Hopefully, it won't be too long before I can get a digital camera! :-)

Saturday, November 05, 2005

Starting Over

This is the first post on the new blog! It has been awhile, but I am up and running again! Hopefully this will be an encouraging place to catch up with us and get to know new friends! :-)

Thursday, October 27, 2005

Trials

Did you see the picture?! It finally worked! I am still not sure why, though. :-)

I mentioned a while back that we were experiencing some difficult times. God has been carrying us through, and although it seems like it will never end, I know that this too will pass...eventually. I wish I could say that I have been sailing through this trial with peace and joy, but I have struggled. I have experienced a lot of anxiety. And I have felt guilty for being anxious rather than calmly trusting. It is so much easier to think or talk about how I would respond in certain difficult circumstances than it is to actually go through them! :-)

The following excerpt from today's Elisabeth Elliot devotional has been a good reminder of what I can do in the midst of this trial and where peace is found:

Only a few things are really important, and for those we have the promise of divine help: sitting in silence with the Master in order to hear His word and obey it in the ordinary line of duty--for example, in being a good husband, wife, father, mother, son, daughter, or spiritual father or mother to those nearby who need protection and care--humble work which is never on the world's list because it leads to nothing impressive on one's resume.

Peace lies in the trusting acceptance of His design, His gifts, His appointment of place, position, capacity. It was thus that the Son of Man came to earth--embracing all that the Father willed Him to be, usurping nothing--no work, not even a word--that the Father had not given Him.


Lord, we give You thanks for all that You in Your mercy have given us to be and to do and to have. Deliver us, Lord, from all greed to be and to do and to have anything not in accord with Your holy purposes. Teach us to rest quietly in Your promise to supply, recognizing that if we don't have it we don't need it. Teach us to desire Your will--nothing more, nothing less, and nothing else. For Jesus' sake. Amen.

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Friday, October 21, 2005

Where's the picture?

I have been trying to post Grant's football picture for the last few days and I DO NOT understand why it is not working!! The other pictures I've posted took forever to work, also, and I'm not even sure why they finally "took." I keep doing the same thing and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Grrrr! It's so frustrating!

We're home today with two little sickies. Grant just has a mild cold and cough, but Katie is running like a faucet and her asthma has kicked in. :-( We have been nebbing her around the clock and hope that will help her turn the corner today. I hope she'll be doing much better by tomorrow. In the meantime, we are snuggling, drinking lots of water and washing our hands like crazy! :-)

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Football season is over

At least Grant's flag football season is over anyway. He had a fun time and a great coach. The schedule for the season is so laid back: one practice in the middle of the week and a game on Saturday morning for about six weeks. It's nice. The games were in a local park surrounded by trees in all their fall glory. When we started the trees were all green! :-) So, fall has arrived and football is now over.

Monday, October 17, 2005

Fall days

Well, another week has flown by! We have been busy with every day life ~ school at home, our homeschool co-op, dance classes, AWANA and Grant's last week of flag football. The days have been gloriously sunny and golden, with beautiful fall colors all around and crunchy leaves underfoot. This is my favorite time of year in our neck of the woods! :-)

Sunday, October 09, 2005

Grant & Kate


These are my kids. Aren't they cute? :-)

Monday, October 03, 2005

Fresh with no mistakes...yet

I love a new month! (Or a new year, week, day.) It presents a fresh clean slate. For that reason I also like when the seasons change. It keeps things fresh and new. :-)

It is just starting to look and feel like fall, so it is a "new" season. :-) And today is a Monday ~ another new start.

The kids have finished up their school work and are using their art boxes now. I put some paper, glue, markers, stickers, etc. in a little case for each of them. They can make whatever they want with the things in their art boxes when their work is done. They love this and they have produced some lovely creations. :-)

Enjoy this good new day!

"Tomorrow is always fresh with no mistakes in it."
~Anne Of Green Gables

Thursday, September 29, 2005

Busy days

Wow, it has almost been a week since I last posted! Things have been busy. They have also been difficult. Dave and I have been asking the Lord for guidance, but we still do not know exactly what He would have us do. We are trusting that He will make it clear in His time.

In the meantime, the busyness of life goes on. Katie is in dance class, Grant is in football and both kids are in AWANA. We also participate in a homeschool co-op twice a month. We try not to get involved in too many things, but still life can seem hectic at times! :-)

Overall, life is good. I enjoy the sunny fall days. Dave and I love each other. Our kids are healthy and happy and they keep us laughing. And God will lead us.

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials for we know that they are good for us~they help us learn to be patient.
Romans 5:3 (Living Bible
)

Friday, September 23, 2005

Co-op

Well, I still haven't been able to get any help posting pictures. It is a busy time right now for most of the people I could ask for help, so I will try again in a week or so. :-)

Meanwhile, we are all busy around here, too! Today we have our homeschool co-op, which meets at our church. I am co-teaching a Five In A Row class for grades K-1. Both of my kids are in that class since Grant is in first grade and Kate is in Kindergarten. Today we are finishing up the book, How To Make An Apple Pie And See The World, and we are making apple pies! Each child will get to roll out their own dough and scoop the apple filling into their own individual pie. My kids are so excited for this, but they both are sick this morning and won't be able to go! :-( They are still in bed, but my husband and I heard them coughing away and made the decision for them to stay home this morning. Since Dave doesn't have a meeting he can watch them until I get back. So, in a few minutes I will have to tell them the sad new that they are staying home. I think I will go make them a yummy breakfast to help soften the blow!

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Frustration

I have been trying to post pictures here and to the right by my name, but I cannot seem to get it to work! :-( I will keep trying and maybe get someone to help me figure this out. Hopefully, pictures will be coming soon!

Sunday, September 18, 2005

Milestones

Katie lost her first tooth today! She has been wiggling it around all week and today she thought it was finally ready to come out. It was! She is very proud of her toothless state, but I cannot believe my baby is big enough for this to be happening already! :-)

Saturday, September 17, 2005

Neighborhood fun

We have always wanted our kids to have friends in the neighborhood to play with. When I was a kid, I spent my days playing up and down the street with neighborhood kids of all ages. We built forts, played on our tire swing and played endless variations of freeze tag, (t.v. tag, cartoon tag, car tag, candy tag, etc.) Most of the time, everyone played at our house because we had a huge front yard with two big shade trees, which was the ideal spot for all those rounds of tag.

My kids have gotten to know a few of the kids on our street, but usually there are only a couple around at a time for them to play with. And I am not comfortable allowing my kids the same freedom to run loose in the neighborhood that I had as a kid. But, today, things changed.

There just happened to be several kids who spend some weekends with one parent here outside today, along with my kids, and pretty soon some kids from the street behind us had joined them. They ran around mostly in our yard and then my daughter and a couple of girls came in and played house for awhile. Then they all ran outside again to chase each other around the house or swing on the swingset.

Dave and I actually sat and had a cup of tea and were able to talk for a couple of hours! We could see everyone from the living room window. It finally was happenning and it was glorious! :-) After awhile the parents of two little girls came over to check on their kids and we got to visit with them a bit. It is nice to get to know the neighbors and we hope our kids will have many fun times ahead playing with the neighborhood kids! What a great day! :-)

Friday, September 16, 2005

Welcome to this good day!

Thanks for checking in with me on this good day that God has made. I hope to use this space to share the ups and downs of many good days ahead. I am new at this and not very techno~savvy, so we'll see how it goes! :-)