Spring chick...

I just have one...my Katie Grace....
Katie will celebrate 9 years on April 3, 2010. It seems like yesterday, July of 2000 in Metropolis, IL (on a camping trip) when I took a pregnancy test and found out I was expecting #5. I was in shock but so thrilled.

We are planning a butterfly themed party as she loves all things nature, animals & outdoors. She has gotten mice & bunnys for her birthday in the past and this year will receive 5 painted lady caterpillars. This is the second time she has raised butterflies. I am so grateful to God for Katie. I was done having children after number 4(or so I thought), but He knew best. Happy Birthday Dear One!

What a blessing..

is a lovely Spring day. It is worth all the ice, snow and blizzard winds. I am so thankful for green grass and chirping robins. God is so good to give us a new start each year. Besides the weather I am so thankful for my Lord and Savior. Phil 2:7-Instead He gave up His divine privileges; He took the humble position of a slave and was born a human being....

With His death He gave us the chance for a new start...one that overshadows any thing that this earth can offer. The chance for a new heart and a new life now exists because of what He has done.

Some things to ponder...

Romans 5:8
But God demonstrated His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

I Cor 15:3-4
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures.

Do you believe? Is Jesus really the real thing or a fraud? If He is real, what will you do with that knowledge?

Yum

I am a circus peanut freak so I love these at Easter time. Here is a link to a fun review of them, too.

Brach's Chicks & Rabbits

Julia & Anna

It is Spring!

What a gorgeous day! We went to church and then had lunch with Jesse's mom. Roasted chicken and potatoes! Jesse had to work tonight so he slept this afternoon and the kids and I went to Pamida to take advantage of the 25% off for employees. I got diapers, detergent, dog food, basic necessities.

Jake was a bad dog and went after a teenager walking through our back alley. He didn't bite him, but was very fierce. A male dog in town is not a good idea. He should have been on his leash but wasn't. If something happens to him, no more dogs until we are out in the country!

This week will be busy with Ortho, dentist, Awana and preparing for Easter. We are going to have 23 family members over.

Contentment

"Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with such things as you have, because God has said—Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." Hebrews 13:5

My favorite spring flowers...

What are yours?

It's that time..

of year when motivation to do school is at an all time low. The weather is turning to Spring and it is hard to concentrate! Garrett is my most difficult child when it comes to this! He is only in Kindergarten and I don't require a huge amount of work from him, but getting him to do the minimum has been like walking through quicksand. He is smart and can race through when he is in the right frame of mind. Unfortunately, that hasn't been at all lately. Katie is also having troubles...esp with math. We will get through this. (little pep talk for myself!).

Disney pictures...

I know you can't get enough!

New Fridge and Israel musings.

Our fridge went kaput finally so we bit the bullet and got a new one today. It is a damaged model (just a dent) but perfectly fine for us--it is black--which doesn't exactly match our kitchen, but larger than our last one with a freezer on the bottom. A nice family member loaned us the funds, so we are very thankful. We don't have credit cards anymore and have been slow to build up a reserve. That is something we really need to work on, but hard to do! We got our fridge at Lowe's. They had tons of them but only a few damaged models.

Make sure to read Bible Prophesy Today about what is going on between the US and Israel. Keep Israel in your prayers and our country as well. I Thess 5:17-pray without ceasing.

Lovely Tea

Our Ladies Tea went beautifully. We had springy decorations, delicious food and a wonderful, inspirational speaker. Overall a great success! Our speaker (Brenda L.) spoke about the sweet "p's" of God's gardening...planning, preparing, planting, protecting, pruning and picking. All important in a vegetable garden but eternally important in our daily life. She also shared an amazing testimony. She has lost 7 children to miscarriage (including a set of triplets) and a baby girl, Olivia Grace, at 20 weeks. She told how she learned so much about God's love for her through those difficult times.

Well, the sun is shining and the snow is melting. Spring is definitely on its way. Colton and Carlina went bowling with our church youth group and Julia & Alicia went to a Christian concert with some church friends. I have cousin Jewel spending the night and she is playing hide and seek with Katie, Garrett & Thomas. Anna is calling out to me from her high chair so I will go rescue her.

Also, Happy Anniversary to my dear sister and her husband, Dan. They were married 6 years ago today in Bend, OR. They are a wonderful couple and I wish them many, many more blessed years!

March snows bring April showers...

Hopefully!
The girls were out playing in the snow and a photographer from the local newspaper stopped to take their pictures. They were having fun building a snowman with the fluffiest, snowmanmakinest stuff all winter. The snow has finally stopped and we are busily planting flowers to celebrate the vernal equinox tomorrow...just kidding. There are flowers starting to poke there brave little heads up, though. We pray that March turns into a docile little lamb soon, as promised.

60 degrees today

It was so gorgeous and we enjoyed lots of time outside. We got the yard cleaned up and it is officially snow free! We are expecting 2-6 inches of snow tomorrow, so 1 snow free day is a blessing, I guess.

Jesse fixed Garrett's little Diego bike and he has been having a blast riding down the sidewalk. Thomas is right behind him pushing is Tonka Truck. We walked to the library (for the first time in a loooong time) and Jake enjoyed the sunshine. I noticed both kitties also loved the warm weather and ran and played all day.

We are getting ready for our church's Ladies Tea on Sat. It is the first day of Spring but will be in the mid-3o's. Would have been nice to have the 60 degrees on that day. I made the base for the pineapple punch:
3 boxes of pineapple Jello dissolved in 3 cups of boiling water; Add 2 cans of unsweetened pineapple juice, 3 cups of sugar, 6 cups of cold water and stir until all dissolved. Then freeze. Unfreeze 2 hours before use and mix with 4 2-liters of 7-up. YUM!

I am also making chicken salad finger sandwiches.

Should be a fun event with a speaker, girls from the church singing and delicious food & fellowship.

Also, for your viewing pleasure...more pictures from our trip!

Spring is in the air...

It is going to be near 60 degrees this week and most of the snow is gone. It seems like winter has disappeared almost overnight. Of course, I know about those end of March, early April blizzards. Last year Katie's birthday party was canceled due to one of those. So, in the end, May is generally the only "safe" Spring month in Iowa. We have a busy week. My Aunt is visiting from Arizona. She is mom's older and only sister. She lived in PA until a few years ago when she moved to be near her children outside of Phoenix. I haven't seen her in years, so it will be fun to get together with her. We are also planning for our church's Ladies Tea which is coming up on Saturday. Should be a fun Spring event on the first day of Spring!

Our Bible Study is reading Sin, The Savior and Salvation by Dr. Lightner. It is a great book going over some very essential areas for followers of Christ. I would recommend it!

Better diet...

Well, we are all trying to eat healthier this year..Jesse and Colton are now doing the South Beach Diet and I have to figure out how to cook for them. No bread, No pasta, No sugar, No fruit in Phase 1. Lots of lean meats, veggies, etc. We had a stir fry last night and I marinated cut up tip steaks in beef broth, with mushrooms, onions and peas tonight. It is a bit stressful to figure out new ideas and a challenge. I am just trying to cut back on Pop (I sometimes drink it daily for the caffeine), sugar (a mainstay in my diet) and eat more vegetables, plus buy more low-fat and sugar free items.

On another note, I can now see the ground in front of the house. There is still snow, but this is the first time all winter that some bare ground is visible!! YAY, that is a good sign! I have a huge clean up to do in the yard. Lots of fallen branches. There is a huge tree in front of the house that looks to be on its last leg. It sheds it branches with little provocation.

Our trip...

We just returned from a whirlwind trip to Florida. For those of you who don't know, we lived in Florida for 4 years...June 2004-June 2008. We started a tractor business which boomed initially, but declined as the economy disintegrated. The last year that we were in FL, Jesse worked for another tractor dealer as a salesman. We decided to move back to Iowa near Jesse's family and as a wonderful plus, my mom and her husband moved back to Iowa (from WA), 6 months after we did! Now, if I could only get my sister to move here.

We have many happy memories from Florida. We made incredible friends, got started homeschooling, had our little Thomas and got to spend lots of time with Jesse's Aunt and cousin, who lived in the area. I loved the gorgeous weather, beautiful foliage (year round) and delicious citrus and strawberries that grew in our area.

It was great to go back and see friends that we miss so much. Alicia's best friend lives in Florida and it was amazing to get the 2 of them together again. They spend lots of time on the phone together, but it just isn't the same.

We decided to stay on the Disney "planet" and camped in Ft. Wilderness campground on Disney property. Disney is truly magical to us. We had annual passes for the first year that we lived in Florida and enjoyed every minute. Staying on Disney property is nice as you can take advantage of a few perks, like complimentary transportation to all the parks and extra magic hours (only for people staying on property). We got to see each of the 4 parks, have a special character breakfast with Mickey, Pluto, Lilo & Stitch at Ohana's restaurant in the Polynesian Resort, had a campfire/singalong with Chip and Dale, ride the boats to and from Magic Kingdom (to Ft. Wilderness), to name a few things. On a sad note, we experienced some sickness. The stomach flu (or norovirus-which is really going around) went through most all of us. It meant one deathly ill day and then almost back to normal the next. That didn't happen until the end of the trip...so both Colton and Julia were sick on the way home. That is the short of it...we love Florida and will probably try to go back in a few years. It has been a difficult recovery from the trip. Tons of laundry, emptying out the camper, sick kids....but we are home and going away does accomplish the feat of making you appreciate your humble abode.

Welcome!

Thanks for hopping over here with me! My old blog went "to infinity and beyond", so here we are. I will continue my mundane musings and thoughts about daily life with 8 children in small-town Iowa.