I'm Ready for the Yard Sign!!

WOW!! What a political week we've had!! A week ago I never heard of Sarah Palin and now...I'd like to have coffee with her! She's my kind of gal- God-fearing, pro-life, wife, mom, strong, confident, pro-family, well-spoken, hard-working, dedicated, humorous, forgiving, determined...
Needless to say, I was extremely impressed with her speech at the Republican National Convention! The upcoming weeks and debates will be quite interesting. This is going to be an exciting race to watch.
And John McCain...what a Hero! I can't even imagine what he's been through as a prisoner of war and yet he never blamed his country for sending him there, but became more dedicated to the service of his country. I loved at the end of his speech when he called (disgruntled) Americans to do something to make the country a better place rather than complain. Serve, Serve, Serve!! That's the key to life. Take the focus off yourself and serve others. It truly makes for a better life!!

My Junk, Someone Else's Treasure

This was a great summer for cleaning out and "decluttering." I have much more I want to do, but we're going in the right direction.
My dad mentioned to me in June that he was going to have a garage sale. Oh, A GARAGE SALE! The wheels started turning. I had some unwanted belongings I could donate to the sale. I thought this would be a great opportunity to get rid of things clogging up the closets and hopefully make some extra $$ for school books this year.
I imagine my poor dad thought of all the work that he would put in trying to load all that "stuff" into his truck and secure it. Luckily he's master of the bungy cord! Then once he got it home he'd have to unload it, price it, and then wait for other people to decide if my junk was their treasure. But all I can say is, "Bless him."
With much help from a friend they were able to sell SO MUCH!! I was in shock when he told me how much sold! AWESOME!! New curriculum for the kiddos! Yeah!!
Thanks so much for all the help you gave us and when we're schooling we'll thank you for making it all so much more affordable!
Wanna do another garage sale?? Just kidding!

Putting the Labor in Labor Day Weekend

Isn't Labor Day Weekend a great opportunity to work so hard you feel like you'll collapse at any moment? I think that's what our family thinks LABOR day is for. This weekend was wonderful and full of completed projects. We are actually the type of people who lay in bed at night and say "It was a good day" if we completed many projects and worked ALL day.
I had many things on my "To Do" list and with school starting up this week I really wanted to get busy checking off the list.
To Do:
Pick beans outside
Pick all beets
Pick all the carrots
Pick cucumbers and zucchini
Clean up house
Clean bathrooms (little sweethearts have had a touch of a bug and let's just say in the middle of the night aim into the toilets hasn't been completely accurate)
Get miscellaneous (oops, forgot a couple things) items for school ordered and purchased
Start little project for Dear Husband (hope you're surprised)!
Can beans, beets, and blueberry jam (My mom was given many pounds of blueberries for FREE Yeah!)
Help out with the Sunday school program for one service
That's not very much... or is it??
Well as previously mentioned, our three little precious kiddos took turns on each day of the weekend throwing up. I really appreciate that they were so considerate knowing that if they were all throwing up at the same time, it would be very overwhelming. So they took turns.
Huge blessing...My mom decided to come up this weekend to help out. It really lifted the load.
So we canned 12 pints of blueberry jam, 4 pints of blueberry syrup, 13 pints of pickled beets with onions, 7 pints of lemon spiced bean pickles, and we even made some chocolate chip cookies.
Other than that we also completed the other items on the list. DH I hope you like the surprise! It'll be in a later post.
So as I lay in bed before I doze off, I'll think on this Labor Day Weekend. It definitely was a GOOD weekend!

It's All About Family

We had the opportunity to visit my dad's cousin and his wife. They're more like immediate family than distant family. They live close to DH's mom.

We were able to spend a couple hours catching up and soaking them in. I learned so many things in such a short period of time. Did you know that there are pencil sharpener collections?? I'm going to keep my eye out for some cool sharpeners. I now know someone who collects. Did you know you could make a zucchini pie that tastes like Dutch Apple Pie? I'm going to try it and will let you know how it goes.

We're very glad we had the opportunity to spend a couple hours with them. Life is short and these times are precious.

What's In Bloom???

Right now we're enjoying lupine, hollyhocks, coreopsis, and lilies. We also have many other garden plants growing like crazy! I have more photos to post really soon...
Our oldest son took all these photos. He captures the beauty wonderfully!

How about Team USA!!

I hope you all had a chance to see the Mens' 4 X 100 Freestyle Relay!! It was AWESOME!!! The Frenchies had boasted that they were going to "Smash" the US team but... Au Contraire Mon Frere!! It was so exciting!! The US Men's team beat Team France and they were speechless! Beautiful! Absolutely Beautiful!!
As a result of all this along with the other swimming events, Michael Phelps has become quite the Phabuloso at our home!
Our brown eyed guy has talked Michael Phelps all day! He's been to the pool many times trying out his Michael Phelps moves. Michael Phelps does this and Michael Phelps does that. It reminds me of my inspiration I got from Amy VanDyken a few years ago. After watching the Olympics I started swimming with the local Master's team at 5:00am. I wish I could say it was long lasting, but not being a morning person made those early morning work outs too brutal!
But the hero Phelps lives on! The boys enthusiastically watched Phelps in the 200 today and reported his win! I'll watch it again tonight. Who knows, maybe we'll get a swimmer after all.

Sleeping on the Floor of the Denver Airport

Sounds like the words of a sad country song. I had a great weekend visiting friends in the midwest and flew out on Monday. I was very anxious to return home to hub and kids and my familiar life at home. I guess it was my desire to be at home that made this travel day all the worse.
The initial flight was delayed over two hours. My connecting flight was in Denver. With the delays I ended up missing the flight home or maybe the flight was cancelled. I couldn't get a straight answer from the different people I talked to. Anyway, with no outgoing planes I was told I could get a "discounted" rate at a local hotel. The discounted rate was $65 for a hotel 20 minutes from the airport or $100 for a hotel 10 minutes away. I opted for the less expensive one. I thought 4-5 hours of sleep at a hotel would be worth the cost because sleeping in the airport would be the PITS! There was a time in my life when I would have thought it an adventure, but not these days.
I sat outside the airport for about one hour waiting for the shuttle to come. This is a shuttle that is supposed to stop every 20 minutes. After an hour I thought if this is how this shuttle runs I'd probably miss my flight the next morning.
So I cancelled the hotel confirmation and thus began my evening. It was about midnight and I was wandering around the airport with my large duffel bag and personal bag. I was searching out a quiet place to rest. There were many other people in the same situation so the accomodations were limited.
I started off in chairs leaning my head on my bag. This was terribly uncomfortable. Sometime around 4:00 am I got up to get my boarding pass. I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth and get freshened up and headed for the ticketing counter. I was told my airlines woudn't be open until about 6:00am.
I then walked to find a floor space. I found a space with only a few other people. I noticed the most common way to sleep was to put your head under the chairs shielding your eyes from the bright flourescent lighting. When in Rome... I stuck my purse under the chair and used it as a pillow, put some socks on, covered my arms with sweat pants, covered my legs with a sweater and tried to snooze.
The concrete covered floor was very HARD and the cleaning going on was very loud. Also some of the ticketing counters were opening and there were a lot of people arriving. I imagine it was a sight to see us sleeping on the floor. I felt a bit like a homeless person.
At 6:00 am I got up again, got my boarding pass and headed to security. I was still groggy and VERY TIRED! When I got up to security I was informed that I was "Selected" for the thorough search. Grand! I was directed to the "special" line. I had to go through this machine that blows air all over you. I sure hope it wasn't one of those new x-ray vision machines. Next came the close x-ray of my bags. I was told not to touch my belongings. Then a man came and said, "Young lady this way please." Young lady?? He reaffirmed that I was not to touch my bags or belongings while he went through and swabbed just about. everything. Forget modesty and PTL that I bought new underwear before my trip! He told me he was checking for residue for explosives. What a way to wake a girl up!! I made it through the check only losing the one ounce of facial toner I had in a 4 ounce bottle. Apparently they look at bottle size rather than amount of liquid in it.
I'm happy to report I made it home safely back to my precious family and even gained another story to share.

Story of the Day

There are some days that just make for a good story. Today was one of them. It was a cloudy overcast day and very chilly. I made a list of "To Do's" most of them were indoor activities like vacuuming, cleaning specific rooms, etc. But one thing on our list was to take fresh vegetables from the garden to our local food bank sponsored by our church. This would be our first trip of the season since planting occurred so late.
This is our 3rd year planting the garden for our own consumption and for the food bank. The kids and I love meeting those who are in tough times and benefit from this little food bank. The gals who work there are a true gift. They give of their time organizing this little endeavor and feed about 200 people a week.
Today we greeted the gals and brought raspberries, a variety of lettuces, arugula, an assortment of dark red, pink and white beets and Thumbelina carrots. We spent a little time talking with them and then were about to go on our way.
As we exited the food bank there is a line up of people waiting for it to open. First in line were two older women. One was missing her front teeth and the next lady had an accent. They said "Thank you" and we started walking to the car.
Immediately, I noticed someone trying to get my attention. I turned around and the little lady with the accent said, "My husband has been waiting for you." I looked out into the parking lot in the opposite direction. Walking toward us was an older, slightly feeble, looking man. Although he looked quite a bit thinner I recognized him instantly. She said, "Do you remember my husband, Joseph?" I looked at him and said, "You are the one who likes the GIANT zucchini I bring." (You know those zucchini that overnight grow to about 2 1/2 feet that most people don't want).
Joseph loves them. He is a Hungarian man who makes a favorite Hungarian soup with the big zucchini. In the past two years when he sees me arrive, his face lights up. The gals at the food bank always set aside the huge cabbage and zuc for him.
Joseph approached and greeted us. His wife said he waits in the car because he's not feeling well. Joseph then shared that he has lung cancer and is going through chemotherapy. We talked a bit about what's growing in the garden and what I brought today. At the close of our short conversation I tried to be encouraging and let him know we'd be praying for him.
As I got in the car, the kids said they remembered him from last year. I let them know he has lung cancer.
Driving home I starting thinking about the little things in life that we each can do. It really doesn't take much more effort to plant the seed packet instead of a couple of seeds. The cost is the same. The time weeding is about the same, but the blessings spread from this little effort are great. We are blessed to see Joseph and his wife and their smiling faces. We are blessed by seeing the gals work so hard giving their time at the food bank. And we are blessed to see the others wave at us while we drive away. It's good to know they're getting some fresh, healthy vegetables. It's all worth it and then some.
And when we least expect it, God shows us we now have a new person to add to our prayer board and lift up...Joseph.

This Little Pig Went to Market

The kids and I recently went to a local park that is also the home to many farm animals. The kids love to look at the animals and sometimes they even have "baby" animals which are especially precious to look at.

I took photos of the piggies, because they are irresistable! So cute!

While looking at these photos I was reminded of a childhood treat. In our family pickled pig's feet were a favorite. We didn't get them very often, but we would often receive a jar of them in our Christmas stockings (Just typing that makes it seem like such a strange thing!!- but we are a different type of folk). My brothers and I would fight over who got more, etc.

Then one year I went to a local fair and there was a mama pig there with her pee wee piggies surrounding her. I looked at those little cuties and that was it! I couldn't eat another pig's foot again. I even tried, but couldn't do it.

My family is shocked by my departure from pig's feet world, but they just don't sound good anymore.

I still eat pork and just about every other type of meat and we still eat "different" food, but no more piggie toes for me.

Growing Garden

This is a photo of my garden at the beginning of July. I need to get out and take another photo to show the new growth. The sunny weather has really been beneficial!

Last night we enjoyed a huge salad with fresh mixed lettuce greens.

The beets are now ready too, so I've got some canning to do. I love pickled beets! There is a recipe in a canning book, Small Batch Preserving, that makes the best beets. Throughout the year I pull a jar down and usually make a beet salad. The salad consists of beets, garbanzo beans, feta cheese, garlic, olive oil, and kosher salt. We love it!

I probably won't do too much canning this year with our upcoming move next spring. Although, I couldn't resist putting up some strawberry/rhubarb jam, but that will be gone quickly.

Raspberries

The raspberries are coming on and they are AWESOME! It's wonderful to be working out in the garden and then take a break for a fresh, non-sprayed, raspberry snack.

We have three different varieties. We have raspberries that are a deep red color and they are a medium size. We have golden raspberries that are small, but oh so flavorful. The kids love the goldens. They aren't as plentiful so we treat them like a delicacy. And we have LARGE, pinkish-red raspberries. I love these ones. They are plump and so tasty!

The other day the kids went out on a mission to pick and came back with over seven pounds of berries. Way to go!! I put most of them in the freezer for future consumption.

If this year is like years past we should be picking berries until late September. They just keep producing!

Coming Home from China, Off to China

I was just reading the Blogs from two separate friends. One friend is flying home from China with her husband, youngest biological son, and newly adopted Chinese son. This is their second Chinese adoption and makes for 5 kids in their family. It was so amazing to read how God pulled all of the details together and has rewarded them greatly for their obedience.

My other friend has just arrived in China with her 5 children (two of them adopted from China). They are beginning their new positions as "educators" in a Chinese school. They are also obedient to their call and waiting to see what God has in store for them.

There is so much excitement and I enjoy knowing amazing people who are reaching the orphans of the world and making a difference.

I was driving the kids to VBS (Vacation Bible School) this morning along the same road we travel just about daily. The road(s) have been under A LOT of construction and they have been consistently torn up, rerouted, and resurfaced. As we were nearing one of the stoplights I glanced over to the side of the road that had been torn up and was now a pile of dirt and there was a single BEAUTIFUL red poppy. It wasn't one of the red wildflower type poppies, but a beautiful multi-petaled fancy poppies. I alerted the kids to the flower and I just sat there gazing at it while we sat at the light.

I started thinking about that little beauty amidst the mess of construction and starting thinking about life. How many times do we only see and focus on the mess of heart-construction when God has us working on an area. We may miss the beauty that is there if our focus in only on the repairs.

That little poppy is going to be my reminder when I start to focus only on the construction/character building in my life. Rather than let myself get down and wonder when is this construction going to be done or what a mess it is and why do I have to go through it, I'm going to look for the little poppies in bloom and know that a good work has, is and will be done in my life.

To your poppies...

The Garden is Growing!

We had such a terrible spring- so cold and rainy that I didn't get my garden in at the regular time. I didn't want to write the garden off, but felt like I was so far behind I couldn't have the garden I wanted. I kept running into people from our church's food bank and they ask, "How's the garden?" I didn't want to admit, "It's not going or growing" and we wouldn't be able to bless the food bank this year, but I also didn't want to put a lot of extra pressure on myself.
Family is such a blessing!! A month or so ago my sweet husband rototilled the garden. He decided to plant some grass in a couple areas that used to be garden so it wouldn't be too overwhelming. The soil is so beautiful and the winter rye we planted last fall added a lot of nutrients to the soil.

Also, my mom came up and helped me clean up and plant MANY seeds! Poor mom kept asking, "Are we done yet?" I kept showing her more seed packets I had bought. So we hustled and much to her dismay and aching muscles we got the garden in. We planted bush peas, bush beans, beets- choggia, red, lettuce- romaine, mesclun mix, paris mix, butterhead, arugula, and more, cucumbers- pickling, muncher, and more, butternut squash, sweet meat squash, carrots- Thumbalina, Rainbow, tomatillos, spinach, tomatoes, delicata squash, hubbard squash, pumpkins- Dill's Great Atlantic, Cinderella, Howden, Acorn squash, onions- walla walla, slicing, cabbage, and I'm sure there's more out there that I'm forgetting. Two things we didn't plant are potatoes and corn. Corn takes up a lot of space and since he made some of the garden grass, I didn't do the corn. We still may do pototoes...we'll see.

So tonight from the garden we enjoyed a spinach salad with strawberries. The strawberries, although very late are DELICIOUS!! We added a little feta, mandarin oranges, sliced almonds, onion and a balsamic vinegrette and... Oh so good!

A DAY AT THE LAKE

The boys went to Day Camp last week so baby girl and I had a lot of time on our own. I really wanted to make sure she had some great times too so she wouldn't feel like the boys got to do all the fun stuff. We went to the local lake three times. She loves to play in the sand and build castles. I'd love to too if I could sit down comfortably amongst all the goose poop! Gross!! And despite the freezing water I did get in up to my knees a couple of times. I seem to remember the water being warmer in the past.

We also frequented the local donut shop for donuts and ice cream and of course did the girls day out at the mall. It's fun to wander around and look. The boys don't care much for shopping, but our girlie sure likes it! She shouts out words like, "Darling, SO CUTE!, Uh, Wow, etc." I think she's a born shopper!

Even though we had fun, she's really looking forward to her days as a camper. Mom just isn't as fun as a bunch of young energetic camp counselors. So sad!

New Look!

I was looking at a friends blog and decided to change up our blog a bit. I hope you like.

It would be my ultimate goal to post everyday like one would write in a journal. I know the information may not be all that exciting, but I'm hoping to keep many of these pages for our kids so they can look back and see what we were up to when they were young. Even though I hope to REMEMBER everything, I can barely remember what we had for dinner tonight.

Wish me luck! Again!

Piano Recital

Piano Recitals. What can one say about piano recitals. I LOVE hearing my precious playing. I love watching them walk on the stage, sit down and play their piece whether it be "Old MacDonald," "Star Wars," or the theme from Hercules. It is all music to my ears. I love being the proud parent holding the video camera and just beaming, "Yes, that's my little pumpkin up there." So wonderful!!
Last night the boys had a piano recital. Our middle son just started playing about 2 months ago, so I was a bit nervous for him to go on the stage thinking he might be nervous. He was the first one to go since he was the youngest (6) and the newest to lessons. He did a magnificent job! Can I say "magnificent" for a 6 year old with 2 months of lessons under his belt? Well, I thought he was magnificent. He walked up to the stage took a seat, played his 2 pieces and walked back down. He meant business. Serious business!
Our oldest played 3 songs. He's come a long way adding chords to his music, and has recently started making up his own songs. It's exciting to see him getting more and more comfortable at the piano and actually experimenting. He did a Stupendous job at the recital! (Gotta like those adjectives).
And our precious little princess...well she's not quite recital audience material. She kept getting up, going from the front row, back to our row, checking on the program, etc. It really is hard to sit through 1 1/2 hours of piano when you're barely 5. Luckily there were cookies afterward as a reward for the patient. She loaded her napkin with 3 cookies and marched out of the auditiorium. It was a good night!

Planning for the Future

Our oldest son, all of 10 years old, had his first meeting with a financial advisor today. WOW! I shared with our little man that I didn't even know what a mutual fund was until I was about 18.
He's had quite an interest in saving, investing, earning and the like for years now.
Last summer we read, Larry Burkett's Money Matters for Kids. He was crazy about this book. We discussed his skills, he worked on a resume. We talked about time management and when he could work on jobs. We examined what to do with the money he made and set up goals for tithing, saving and spending. We've researched and tracked stocks.
And today he took the leap and had a 2 hour meeting with a financial advisor. He learned about Money Market accounts, Mutual Funds, the law of 72, and much, much more. It was so exciting to watch his wheels turning as he was taking in the information. He's very excited about his future and leaping into diversifying investments. This was an important day in the life of our own Warren Buffet.

Wrapping Up the School Year

It's been a busy time around our household lately! So many of the year's activities are coming to a close.

Dear Husband coached both boys soccer teams this spring. Needless to say many of our Saturday's were spent on the soccer field. It was a strange spring with snowed-out games and frigid temperatures. Too bad Global Warming hasn't hit our neck of the woods. Our number 2 son was proud to have played a game in the snow-that's a claim even his dad hasn't had a chance to experience. So we're almost done with soccer. Regular season is over and now we're only looking at a tournament.

Our home school co-op is now on break for the summer too. We celebrated our end of the year event/graduation last Friday. I taught all three quarters this year. It was really fun! I finished the year teaching a cooking class to younger kids. They did a great job!

Our youngest was able to join co-op for the last quarter. She took a science class and came to a few of my cooking classes. The boys finished up with the following classes...Legos, Germlish (German), and Fitness. We love our co-op family!

Tonight was the official end of AWANA. We had a leadership appreciation dinner. Last week the kids participated in an AWANA Grand Prix. We made a Wii Controller shaped car. It did well the first round, but didn't do so well the second round. It must have been a graphite thing-couldn't have been the sleek car.

Also today, we had the end of the year Preschool Picnic. I can't believe our baby is going to be a real life school girl. Hello Reading, Writing and Arithmetic!

So our calendar is freeing up a bit for a couple of days... but don't blink, it'll be filled soon enough.

The Eagle Has Landed

The other day we came home to a message from a neighbor... The message was, "Hi! We were driving by your house and noticed an eagle sitting on top of your roof! Just wanted you to know and thought you would want to take a look if you're home."
Well, we weren't home and were sad to have missed it.
Then a few days later we were driving home and there were 2 HUGE eagles circling our house. They looked so magnificent and glorious. I thought about the verses that mentioned eagles and claimed the truths,
"but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint." Is 40:31
AND
Psalm 103:1-5
"Praise the Lord, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits-
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satifies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's."
This week we're continuing our study on the Names of God. We're on Yahweh Rophe- The God who Heals. How perfect how He pulls all of this together by showing us the Eagle and the verses about healing in the time that we've moved into learning about God our Healer. AMAZING! ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! I don't believe in coincidences, so I stand and marvel.