A Little Adventure

On Saturday, Derek, Elise and I took our babies to Kenora to get their pictures taken at Wal-Mart. Derek had decided to go with us because some friends of his from Winnipeg were going to be there that day. The trip down went fine and our first stop was at Debby’s for lunch. Josiah had just been sleeping for 20 – 30 minutes, so I left the van running and let him sleep for awhile. Lunch was nice and it was great to see Debby again.

We headed for Kenora and right away could tell that the van wasn’t running right. It was running really rough and had no power. Help!! I was hoping that letting it idle for half an hour wasn’t the problem! So, Derek dropped us off at Wally World and took the van to Bayview Toyota. Unfortunately the mechanics had just left for the day. Some guy there told him it sounded like bad gas - uh, gasoline - and to put gas-line antifreeze in it.

Meanwhile, Elise and I were trying to get Josiah to cooperate. When the photographer was lowering the different backgrounds to show me, he got scared of them. There was no way he was going to sit on that table and smile! He just cried and cried. It was kinda funny and frustrating both. Finally I held him and we took some shots of the two of us. I eventually got him to sit beside me, then Elise used a stuffed animal to play catch with him. We finally got some good shots of him, but every now and then he’d look behind him to see if those backgrounds were going to move and make noise again. That was pretty funny! Scotty behaved much better for his pictures! :-)

When we left Wal-Mart, the van was still not good, so Derek called Ned (Keith’s mechanic-Dad). He said it didn’t sound good and he and Keith tried to find a mechanic who could look at it (while Elise and I did more shopping). They couldn't find anyone, so they told us we had to spend the night and Ned would come get us in the morning. Well!! I was so glad that I had put my glasses and contact case in my bag that morning! We ate supper at KFC and then went back to Wal-Mart where I bought a toothbrush and toothpaste. Debby kindly said we could crash at her house. It was fun to be able to spend more time with her, anyway! The silver lining in the cloud!

Josiah was a mess since he didn’t have a play-pen to sleep in. He kept waking up and then he’d just get up and walk away instead of going back to sleep. So I’d have to put him to sleep which took forever. The last time, I laid on the couch and finally got him to sleep on me. So, it was a short night! Well, long night, but short on sleep!

Ned showed up at 7:45, and he had sparkplugs with him! He changed the sparkplugs and the van ran like a top! (It wasn't my fault for letting it idle!) So, we headed for home and made it here by 12:30. Needless to say, I had a nice nap that afternoon and slept in Monday morning! It’s a good thing the boys cooperated for their pics, or the whole trip would’ve been a bust! Well, we did do a bunch of shopping so that was good. It's always so much fun to buy diapers, you know! :-) It was a fun adventure though, and Elise and I were so thankful that Derek was there! And I’m so thankful it was only sparkplugs!!!

Blogging Again

I’m back again after a bit of an unintentional break. I’ve been meaning to write some stuff, but it seems like there’s never enough time. This has been a busy month. I can’t go back and tell you about everything or even write everything that I said there’d be “more about that later”. Anyway, here’s a little update:

-One reason I’ve been busier is home-schooling. One of my commitments in the New Year was to take school more seriously. I’ve started doing a bit of “school” with Logan most days. That adds to the time it takes. I also asked God to please change my heart and give me a real joy in teaching my children. Up until now, it’s felt more like an interruption in my day and I spent as little time possible doing it. I knew that wasn’t a good long-term plan!! I was so grateful and pleased when I felt my heart changing and began to really enjoy doing it! Now that I’m doing some with Logan too, we all sit down at the table together and Caleb does his Math, Language, and Spelling while I work with Logan. Then, usually after Josiah is in bed for his morning nap, we sit on the couch and do our Sonlight stuff. Getting into a better routine and making school the first thing in our day (usually) has also helped my frame of mind. So, we still have challenging days, but it’s going much better. Thank you, Jesus!

-I’m in charge of making the desserts for our annual sweetheart dinner. :-) So, I’ve been trying out different decadent and delicious desserts. How’s that for a diet plan?? I make them when we’re having company or I can share them in some way, so I don’t have to try not to eat the whole thing. Twila, if you read this, do you have a really good diabetic dessert recipe? Anyway, it’s been fun, and looking through cookbooks for recipes has inspired me to try some other new, non-dessert recipes – I was getting pretty tired of the same ol’, same ol’ every night…

-I’m still trying to read more and clean out shelves, etc. Of course, it’s not every day, but I’m making some headway.

-Books! Here’s what I’ve read recently: “Fourth Dawn” by Bodie and Brock Thoene. I love their books!! They’re such scholars of the Old Testament and Jewish culture! “Light From Heaven” by Jan Karon. What a hoot! I love the way she writes! It’s very easy-reading, yet uplifting at the same time. “A Revival Primer” - I already told you about that one. Now I’m trying to finish “Under Cover” by John Bevere (I started it ages ago, and then put it down for awhile). He’s an amazing author! The book is about authority – particularly in the church. He explains what it is, how God set it up, what our response should be to authority. It’s been very convicting! In Caleb’s Sonlight curriculum, there are always some good books going. Right now we’re reading “Greek Myths”! Strange and interesting! Now I’m starting to understand some of the reference to mythology that are common in our culture.

-That’s all for this post!!

Knock-Knock Jokes

I’m sure that knock-knock jokes are a developmental stage in children. I’d like to hear from my social-worker sister about this one! My boys, ages almost 7 and almost 4.5 have not yet “gotten” knock-knock jokes. Once in awhile they like to tell them, but of course, they never make sense. The boys think it’s hilarious fun. Today they started in on the jokes again (after quite a long respite) so I tried to explain to Caleb what makes a knock-knock joke. He’s starting to get it and his jokes are getting closer the the real ones. He thinks he gets it, of course. So, at what age do knock-knock jokes start to really make sense to a kid? I’m afraid I don’t want to arrive at that stage because I find them pretty annoying in large doses. I don’t want an Aunties giving my kids a book of knock-knock jokes for Christmas!! :-)

Quotes from Caleb

The other day, Caleb brought me this song that he had written and it really blessed my heart:

In Heaven there will be be no sadness, no crying , no pain.
We all will be happy all the time.
But the best of all is that God will be there.

On a lighter note, we went to see my nephew, James and nieces, Kayla and Erica play hockey on Friday afternoon. Caleb was so "inspired" by the hockey he made up some names of hockey teams:

Texas Runaways
Mexico Hikers
Louisianna Supercows
California Redwings
Canada Mountains

New Year’s Resolutions, part 1

I don’t usually make resolutions because I just don’t seem to keep them. But, this year I am making some. I guess it’s partly because after the busy-ness of the holidays, I’m so ready to have a more disciplined routine and do some things I haven’t had time to do. Another reason is that God has been dealing with my heart in some areas, so I need to make some commitments. Also, some of the resolutions I’ve made are already “cooling off” So, I’m going to blog about them and see if that increases my motivation and renews my commitment.

The first one I already wrote about… I want to de-clutter a bunch of corners of my house. It’s not really a “spiritual” thing to do, but it sure makes me feel all happy and good inside when I bring order out of chaos and get rid of stuff that’s been sitting around waiting for that “some day” when I’ll want it. So, what I want to do for a month or two is spend about 15 minutes most days cleaning and de-cluttering. I did good for a week, but this past week I got “too busy”. Humph!! Gotta prioritize my time!!

The second one is I want to spend at least 15 minutes a day reading (besides Bible reading). Maybe that doesn’t sound like a big accomplishment to some, but for me it is. There are so many great books I want to read and I seldom take the time to do it. I should make a resolution to finish the books I’ve already started (I can think of at least three right off the bat), but I’m not sure I want to do that. :-) Because of this commitment, I read (and finished!) the book, “A Revival Primer” by Dale Schlafer. It is really good! God is moving my heart to desire and long for and pray for revival – in myself, my family, my church, my community. More on that and more about resolutions later…

Taming the Tongue

I guess the New Year is a time of soul-searching and striving for spiritual growth. At any rate, I’ve been convicted numerous times lately about the words I speak. It seems like so often when I’m with a group of people, by the time the conversations have ended, I’m regretting something that I’ve said. Often my words are critical or self-focused (proud). I understand why James said in chapter 1, verse 5: “So also, the tongue is a small thing, but what enormous damage it can do. A tiny spark can set a great forest on fire.” So, I’m asking God to guard my tongue and change my heart, because that’s where my words come from!!!

I Guess I'll Take the Tree Down

Monday morning Logan pulled the tree down. ( I have to confess that it was my fault. We were playing a little game of "hide the doll" and I put it in the tree. It was too high for him to reach and I wasn't paying attention...) I was already thinking about taking it down, so that was just the impetus I needed. We all worked together “un-decorating” and cleaning up and it felt so good! I’ve decided that as much as I love decorating for Christmas, I enjoy putting it all away a little bit more. It feels so clean and uncluttered. I was already wanting to clean out junky/messy corners and that really put me in the mood! While we were putting stuff away, Keith cleaned a shelf and I did a shelf and drawer. One of my “New Year’s resolutions” is to clean out a shelf, drawer or cupboard every day in Jan. Well, not every day, but often!! I'm declaring war on clutter and junk!

Happy New Year

We got home from Int’l Falls a little after 6:00. We were surprised to find that we got about 14 inches of snow while we were gone! So Keith had to shovel before we could even get in the driveway. Keith was on-call that night (ambulance), we were tired, and Keith was sorta sick. So we just hung out here after the kids were in bed. Of course, Keith had 3 calls that night. The first one at 9:30 or so, one at 11:45 and another around 4:00. So, we watched some old Bonanza episodes and I watched a bunch of it by myself. :-) The next morning Keith slept in!

Happy Birthday, Josiah!

We had a little "party" (well, cake anyway) at the Holiday Inn on Sunday morning. I've never seen a one-year-old so uninterested in cake!! He tasted the icing, but wouldn't even try the cake! Oh well, he still turned one. :-) He's walking all over the place like a big boy now.

New Year's Weekend

Last weekend, my family was together at the Holiday Inn in International Falls. We had pool-side rooms, which was very nice! The kids swam and played and we all sat around, played games, and sat in the hot tub and ate!!!

more pics...

I Love Santa!

Well, not really. I just love getting (and giving) presents. My favorites this year were: two books and a CD that were on my list (Bodie Thoene, Jan Karon, and Michael W. Smith), a stainless steel compost bucket with a lid and everything (Lee Valley), and a beautiful framed picture from Rachel that she took in Madagascar. So, I want to hear from you (even you lurkers that I know are out there - Kathy, Priscilla, Eunice, Kathrina, Twila, Lisa, Betty, Becky, Debby, etc., etc.). What was your favorite gift(s) this year??

Christmas Morning at Our House

For Matthew!

Just so you know, brother, we are decent parents... Here's a picture of our backyard skating rink. :-)