My Favorite Guys

Oh, can you tell that I got my digital camera? :-) We're having fun with it!

Family Getaway

My family all (except Sam and Tyler) went to Stormer Lake last weekend. We had a fun time being together and doing some of the stuff we enjoy together: playing games, staying up late and being silly, singing, eating, making gingerbread houses, exchanging gifts, etc... I came home quite exhausted!! Here's a picture of Dad and Dru with all the kids. I'd post a picture of the whole family, but Derek didn't send me one yet (hint, hint). :-)

Presents! We had a little gift exchange and Matthews gave us presents from Madagascar. That's the guys all wearing shirts from Madagascar. And Larissa (Matthew's youngest) opening her presents.

Making "gingerbread" houses. From the top: Wendy (Jeff's wife) and their oldest, Tia. Sierra (one of Matthew and Rhonda's four) and Helen (Mike's wife), Caleb.

From the top: Matthew, Alicia (Sheldon's oldest), Alabama (Jeff's second daughter) and the newest member of the family - Scott Jacob. He's Derek and Elise's first baby. He's just over a month old.

My Latest Decorating Endeavors

The picture arrangement in the living room is finally done. Thanks to Iris for picking out a picture of Josiah to put up. (It's the bottom, centre one.) The quilt is hanging in the basement. The quilt is one that my Grandma Slaubaugh made for my Mom and Dad - I think for their wedding. The wrought-iron quilt hangar was made by my uncle Paul Eichorn. I'm very pleased with it. Some time this winter (hopefully) I'm going to put up framed black and white pictures of our ancestors - a grouping by the quilt and a bunch on the wall beside it.

Here's Another Good One

I know I should be doing something profitable like laundry, but I just have to share another quote with you from the same author. This one hits me right between the eyes!

"...develop an attitude of gratitude. Be thankful. God is more concerned about your being thankful than just about anything else.... How you tell your story (the story of your life, family, ministry, church, etc.) to yourself and others will be a powerful indication of your thankfulness or bitterness. You have the power to put different spins on all the phenomena of your life. You can (without lying) tell your story so as to make people cry for you out of pity or envy you out of awe. Let others sense your thankful heart when they hear your story."
-James Abrahamson in "Lessons In Leadership"

Yes, well! I struggle against bitterness and negativity as a lifestyle. So, this is a kick in the pants for me!! I'm now asking God to give me a thankful heart in the midst of my struggles. I want to see God and His goodness in all of my circumstances - even the hardest ones!

And now, my hubby is going to take me out for lunch! So there's something to be thankful for right now!

Quote For The Day

I read this yesterday and it really struck a chord with me. I suppose it's all stuff I've known before, but it was said in a different way, or I was ready to hear it in a new way. I hope you're blessed and enlightened like I was...

“…always remember that God accepts you without approving of all that you believe or do. Avoid the cult of “grace lite” (which is usually accompanied by “law lite” and “sin lite”). When you doubt God’s grace you will be tempted to make the Law manageable and sin tolerable. Don’t be afraid of acknowledging your depravity. Things are not as bad in your soul as you think they are; they are much worse! But God’s grace is able to cover the greatest sin. So let the holy Law of God convict you deeply – but don’t ever base your relationship with God on the verdict of the Law. In other words, don’t link the fact of God’s acceptance of you in Christ with God’s appproval of all your beliefs or behaviors. Remember that you walk with a God who “justifies the ungodly” by faith.
Similarly, God’s love for you is not increased by your obedience nor is it diminished by your disobedience. The exact same love that the Father has for Jesus, His Son, is also offered to you because you are hidden in Christ.” -James Abrahamson in "Lessons In Leadership"

Once Upon A Time...

Long, long ago there were three silly young girls. They liked to talk and talk about many things great and small, go canoeing and camping, climb rock cliffs, talk about boys, make true confessions, read Winnie-the-Pooh, make up and play crazy group games, struggle through the issues of young-adulthood together, do crazy skits at youth retreat, sing, listen to music, laugh and laugh, play preposterous tricks on each other, work (work?!?) together, and just plain hang out.

And then those silly young girls grew up and life got harder, but better, and suddenly, between the three of them, they had 10 (yes, ten!) children. And all the children were beautiful and precious, and the now-not-so-young-and-silly girls still enjoyed getting together to share their lives and rememeber the past and get to know each other’s kids. Oh, and one of them still had enough silliness in her to get marshmallow shooters for the kids to play with!

A Few of Those Ten Adorable Kids

Who's Confused??

The other day I was trying to phone a company that sells supplements, to see if I’m giving Josiah the right dose of his iron supplement. Part of the conversation went roughly like this:

Nice guy: hello, mumble, mumble, mumble
Me: May I speak with Lida, please?
Nice guy: Lida who?
Me: I don’t know, I was just told to ask for Lida.
Nice guy: Give me your name and number and I’ll check for you.
Me: Jenni, etc, etc,
Nice guy: And what was your question?
Me: I’m giving my baby the Floradix iron supplement and want to be sure I’m giving him the right dose.
Nice guy: This is General Motors

So, if anyone wants to phone General Motors, I have the number! (And I did get the correct number for the supplement company.)

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We were going for a little drive after church and drove through the cemetery. Here’s a rough reconstuction of the ensuing conversation.

Logan: What are we doing here?
Keith: I just wanted to see the place where Grandma is buried.
Logan: Married?
Keith: Yes, buried.
Logan: People get married here?
Keith: Yes, buried.
Logan: That’s a stinker place to get married!

At this point I intervened and translated for Keith and the whole misunderstanding was cleared up. And we laughed and laughed!!!

Just Thought You Should Know

I just found a really good way to release the tension of the day and annoy my dear husband at the same time!! Just hum loudly and very off-key along with the really nice music that’s softly playing. There were (idle) threats of ice cream being poured on my head, but I didn’t even care. It felt as though it would be worth it at the moment. Sometimes ya just gotta let it out!

A Favorite Ritual

I don’t know if I’m strange or if other Moms feel this way too… A few days ago I went through Caleb’s clothes and got them sorted out for the winter. Every spring and fall I do this and I always enjoy it. What fits from last year? What bigger stuff do I have in a box for this year? What are we missing that we need to buy? Of course, with the younger ones it’s always fun to dig out the cool stuff that the older one(s) wore before. And it’s wonderful if I discover we have almost everything we need!

An added bit of fun lately has been to call my sister, Rachel and tell her what we need and then she goes to Good-will and finds all kinds of great stuff. We get to do that again this year, since she’s coming home for a visit next month. Yeah! So, Rachel, I have the list ready – and it’s not very long! I’ll call or e-mail it to ya soon…

Heart Stuff

I’m finding myself overwhelmed pretty often right now with everything on my plate. Home-schooling, music, swimming, baby, sick kids, garden and yard to get in shape for the winter, a house that I like to keep somewhat better than a pig-sty, mothering, cooking, laundry, etc, etc,. You get my point? I know this is probably the most demanding time in my life physically, and I know it will get better as the boys get older and can help me more… But it’s hard not to feel stressed and overwhelmed.

Yesterday morning I was out for my walk and praying. I told God that when I get to Heaven, I want to do things and then come back in “10,000 years” and find them still done!!! He reminded me immediately that my children and anyone else whose life I impact for the Kingdom of God are things that will “stay done” for all of eternity! That helped my perspective and my attitude a lot!

One other thing that God has been working on me is in the area of praying for my husband. I’m ashamed that I’ve not done that very well or consistently for most of our married life. But the Holy Spirit has been urging me in that direction. So, I’ve commited to praying for him every day for a 10 or 15 minutes. Man, the first day I did that, I couldn’t believe the things that happened around here. Keith came home from a meeting that normally could have been stressful and difficult and said it was a good meeting! We had a wonderful day together and God showed me some practical and specific ways to help Keith – and he was open to my help. Since then, I think I’ve seen changes in Keith, but I know for sure there are changes in my attitude. :-) (You mean to tell me, I have a problem here??) :-) Now that I’ve said it in cyber-space to who-knows-who, I’m really accountable to continue this!

So, now you know how to pray for me when you think of me! Life is a journey - let's travel together and help each other along the way!

Bits and Pieces of our Lives

*We’re starting to get into the swing of home-school. We spend about an hour doing Sonlight stuff in the morning. Caleb and I are enjoying it! We also read some stuff to Logan and I’m sure he absorbs some of Caleb’s stuff by just being around us. He’s still mostly interested in stories with pictures! Then Caleb does Math and Language worksheets in the afternoon when Logan is sleeping. So far he hasn’t started complaining about them.

*There’s some excitement on the extra-curricular side of things. Last week we started swimming lessons. The boys both love it and I enjoy watching them learn and excel. Caleb seems to be a natural fish. This week, they are starting music lessons. The program is called “Music for Young Children.” They will be learning keyboard, singing, reading music, rhythm, etc. It’s a really good and fun program for kids. I’ve always wanted my kids to learn piano or another instrument, so I’m excited about them having a good start this way. Hopefully it will be fun enough that they will want to go on and learn more. You can check out the program on the web at myc.com. Caleb was very unsure of the whole thing when we told them we were doing it. But after the first class, he's very excited.

*Logan and Josiah have finally recovered their health and appetites. In fact, Josiah has been wanting an early morning bottle the last couple of mornings and it seems like he’s just “catching up.” Unfortunately, Logan is sick again today. This time it’s a high fever. :-( It seems like he gets sick so much more than Caleb. Poor little guy. And tonight is his first music lesson. Bummer!!

*Did I mention that Josiah is crawling? He’s been working at it for a couple of weeks. And he’s gotten quite good at it. Of course, his favorite place to crawl to is the boy’s room where the Legos are all over the floor! :-( We’re trying to remember to keep the door closed. He sure is a cutie!! He likes to grin at you with his whole face – he squints his eyes and wrinkles up his nose. Awwwwww!!!

Small Things Make Me Happy

Some of you may remember the crumbling cement pad at the bottom of our front porch steps. Well, when Neal (the brother-in-law who does cement work for a living) was here, guess what?? We got a new one. Yeah! It looks really nice. Unfortunately, the railing along the steps didn’t quite survive when they took it off. It’s still laying in the grass, but Keith has an idea for salvaging it, and I hope he can put it back up on Sat. Then the surrounding flowerbeds need a little attention, etc. But the cement looks great!!

Hints from Hilda the Housewife, #1

How to Make Easy and Tasty Soup

1) Clean out/organize your freezers
2) Take out all the leftovers and bits and pieces that look like good candidates for soup. This would include, but not be limited to: pizza casserole, chicken gravy, scalloped potatoes, chicken broth, vegetable broth, pureed squash that the baby wouldn’t eat, etc.
3) Don’t be too concerned about the age of said leftovers. You can even use stuff that someone else gave you when they cleaned out their freezer and you KNOW it’s more than a year old. (I’ll protect your identity. Hehehe.)
4) Put everything in a big soup pot and simmer.
5) Eat and be thankful (that it actually tastes good!)
6) This works great for those “cleaning out the fridge” frenzies too!

I Have A New Nephew!

Congratulations to my brother Derek and his lovely wife, Elise, on the birth of Scott Jacob. He sure is a little cutie and I can’t wait to hold and snuggle him!!

Puke Is Good For Something!

It really is! Some time ago, someone spilled coffee on the carpet and it left a stain. I tried a bit to get it out, and since then I’ve been pondering what to do about it. It’s in a very obvious spot. Well, last Sat. when Logan got sick, some puke got on the carpet. I cleaned it up but later I noticed that some of it had been on that stain and where the puke had been, the stain was gone!! How weird is that?!? I pondered upon it and decided, hey, why not give it a try… I took a pillowcase or something that had puke on it, rubbed it on the stain, then scrubbed it with soapy water. I know it’s gross, but I just had to try. Guess what?? The stain is gone!! Maybe someone should market that!! :-)