Throwback Thursday: My First Post Was About Almost Being a Handful

It's birthday week for two of our granddaughters, including our second granddaughter, Tigger! In honor of this special event I thought you might want to read again the conversation I had with her one day when she was along for the ride to taekwondo. It was the exact conversation that started me blogging.

I recently added a picture to that first post (clickable link) to show Tigger then. And here is a picture of Tigger this past Easter with her siblings and cousins, except Roman who was celebrating across the country. Tigger is in the back row between Polly who is holding the iBoy and Sweet Pea.

Happy birthday, Tigger! It is hard to believe that you are now "2 handfuls" which means you aren't nearly the handful you were back then.  :)

Happy birthday, also to Lili Ladybug who just turned 4. That means she is the age Tigger was when she made that funny statement. And yes, I think we would all agree that Miss Lili Ladybug is already a bit of a handful in some ways now, too.  ;)

Lili Ladybug is on the front row far left with Diamond Girl and Fen. Notice that our September girls both have reddish casts to their hair. We're sure that's where they get all that feisty handful stuff.

Happy birthday, our sweet September Girls! Gram loves you both very much, handful or not. XOXOXO

Repurposing An Unused Dog Kennel

Once upon a time we had a dog named Pepper that required a high chainlink kennel for fresh air, sunshine, exercise, and potty breaks. We still have the dog named Pepper but several years ago we installed an invisible fence to meet those needs. It was a win-win for Pepper and her people!

But what to do with the unused kennel?

• Let others borrow it. ü  I was happy with this arrangement. At least I wasn't looking at it anymore!
• Lean it against the side of the house for a few years until we figure out what to do with it? ü  I was very unhappy with arrangement! I saw it every time I walked out into the backyard, which is often.
• Let it assume a new identity as an enclosed vegetable garden. üüü  I am very happy with this arrangement!

We haven't had a real garden since we moved here 15 years ago because of issues with shade and wildlife. Especially wildlife. I think our yard is known as a 5 star Cervidae Smorgasbord where the plants are favored delicacies. Couple that with a backyard that has 90% shade cover and where the other 10% contains enough buried cables and pipes that the sunny area looks like a weird Candyland path every time the "Call Before You Dig" guys show up and it becomes obvious why we could not have a vegetable garden in our yard.

Until now.

I'm not sure why we didn't think of this before:

The garden in a sunny spot away from the shady areas of the backyard and protected from the deer

Green beans, pumpkins, peppers, cucumbers, leaf lettuce, tomatoes, watermelon, sunflowers, sage, and a mystery seed planted in its own pot by our grandson make up the spring/summer planting (photos taken in early July)

First we laid overlapping rows of garden weed block down and tucked it under the fence edges. Not everyone would need to do this but we did for many reasons that I won't go into right now. Eventually there will be enough raised beds and straw paths to hold it in place. (Oops! I see grass peeking through in these pictures.)

Our kennel is an approximate 9' x 9' so we plan to build 5 raised beds that are 2' x 4' each which will be positioned around the walls with gaps between for placing freestanding pots. We will leave the space near the gate clear and we plan to let the fruit from vines nest in the center area. The Smart Pot (*note: NOT an affiliate link) will stay right where it is along the side near the gate.

"Farmer Fen" watering the growing produce! (photos: late July)

He's posing for the camera and planning a bit of mischief!

While Gram inspects the damage done by the deer to cucumber vines hanging outside of the fence "Fen" sneaks up on her and sprays her with the water hose! (She got even. Both dried quickly in the summer sunshine.)

Cascading pumpkin vines

Healthy pepper plants

We got a late start this year, having not put this idea into production until mid-June, but everything is growing happily and healthily. I obviously over-planted. Something about those who sow sparingly reap sparingly came to mind. (See II Corinthians 9:6.) We could always prune out weak plants! We don't seem to have any weak plants so that is why the nesting area rapidly became covered with vines and delayed the need for purchasing straw.

We plan to build 2 of the remaining 3 raised beds before the fall planting. The other one will wait until next year when the self-watering planters can be moved without harming their contents. Right now there is no room for the last raised bed box.

We also plan to place gutters along the top of the kennel with a downspout that feeds into a water barrel. The compost bin will then be relocated so that much of the garden's food and water supply will be nearby.

We bought weed block, wood for the raised beds, and a few bags of garden soil which we mixed with our compost made from the leaves of all those shade trees. That's how we lost a kennel and gained a garden. I couldn't be more pleased with the way it is working out, even if the deer do nibble anything that hangs outside of the fence. But who can blame them?!


*There are so many raised bed plans to be found online. We adapted the size to fit our needs. Each of our beds cost around $17.50. 

Help Launch "Polly's" Game! Plus a Giveaway Announcement!

Readers of this blog know my oldest granddaughter by her blog nickname of Polly. Well, "Polly" is almost a teenager now --cringe-- and a game designer. She is also a homeschooled girl who has been taught the free enterprise system and that money is supposed to be earned. She has dipped her toes into the free enterprise system and now a game company wants to help her earn more for her hard work.

Last year I requested your help in launching my son-in-law's newest game that was in production. NOW I'm asking for your help funding his daughter, Isabel's game, TIGER STRIPES.

Isabel designed and originally self-published her game. I even gave one of them away during the summer of 2012! Now her game needs backers during the Kickstarter stage before it can find its way into production. If this game goes into production I will give one of the professionally produced ones away here in the future.

To help get things well past the hump and speedily at full-funding, her daddy, Philip, is having a contest over at his blog. Philip has 4 games that have been published, including the very popular Revolution! board game. Now is your chance to get one of his 4 titles for free and help his daughter at the same time. Click on over there and check out the ways you can enter to win!

"Polly's" Gram thanks you. Happy hunting!

Another Grandchild T-shirt Project

Little Miss Lili-ladybug loves Lalaloopsy. I confess that until recently I had no idea who or what that might be! However, anything can be found on the Internet so I was soon educated! I used that new knowledge to produce a t-shirt for her that I thought she might like:

I traced a black line drawing picture of a Lalaloopsy girl that I then painted with fabric markers. I embellished this with black buttons for the eyes, a tied red ribbon in the hair, red embroidery floss for the shoe laces, black embroidery thread stitching for the mouth, and gold embroidery thread for textured hair. Then I attached t-shirt material with fusible web to the inside of the shirt to protect Lili's skin from the knotted threads.

Not knowing the story, I had no certain character in mind when choosing the hair or clothing colors. I don't think it was a problem. Since Lili's third birthday was approaching we bought her this doll, one of two blond but non-identical dolls she received.

The t-shirt was finished a couple of weeks before her birthday party where Lili wore the shirt! A friend held her while I snapped this photo:

If you're keeping track you know that I still have one shirt left to make. That would be for Polly. And given that she is a preteen and the weather is cooling off I'm thinking something long sleeves and chic would be in order. Stay tuned.

From Fear to Faith: A Personal Testimony

I have been open about my private physical health problem so let me be just as frank about a private spiritual health problem I recently experienced. This may not be the kind of thing you would expect a pastor's wife to write - after all, aren't we supposed to be super-spiritual or something? - but what follows is true and from my heart.

* * *

One day toward the end of June I was sitting here at the computer typing a Bible Journal entry for the daily blog post.

"You know that this is all an exercise in futility. God is not real and the Bible is fake."

That's the thought that crossed my mind. I immediately stopped, prayed, and tried to dismiss it but it troubled me far longer than I thought possible! I've been a faithful follower of Jesus Christ for almost 40 years now. Recently I had even completed 27 years of providing my children a Christian education through homeschooling. Once that was completed I had turned my focus to personal ministry. After much prayerful consideration, and with Pastor Dad's blessing, I had begun investing additional time and money into helping people with their needs. Specifically, this was to be centered on the following 3 groups of people that God says cannot be expected to repay their benefactor:

• widows
• orphans (or those who are unwanted, or unborn, or from broken homes: all of whom can be similar to orphans)
• foreigners.

You know, those people that God told the Israelites to help when He had Moses write the Pentateuch.

Alumni and Faculty of Karabeth Baptist Homeschool, a division of Gateway Christian Schools, Memphis, TN

Things had been going well. At least they had been until that awful, frightening thought took up residence in my mind ...

A few nights later I had a terrifying nightmare! I had another a few weeks later. Those dreams made me not want to sleep for fear of having another. I began to doubt my salvation and this was not the first time. But when I was a child and doubted it was because I wondered if I had understood, or repented, or trusted Christ, or {fill in the blank}. This was different. This was "There is no God no matter what you believe."  I cannot conceive of a more hopeless thought!

Scriptures tell us that only fools say there is no God, that Jesus is God in the flesh who defeated spiritual and physical death for us, and that if there is no resurrection we are of all men most miserable. That pretty much summarizes my situation. I felt like a miserable fool. Things stayed that way for several weeks but I carried on as well as I could, including typing blog posts despite the troubling thought in my head. My life, and the rest of the summer went on in its course. (That was chronicled in a previous happier post.)

* * *

Then on July 19th I received the following excerpted email from a church friend. It was so timely and so appreciated. 

Just been thinking about you and the Pastor all week....especially yesterday and today.
Mrs. _____ told us that when someone comes to mind and you don't know
why, to just pray for them.

When I read this email I sunk to the floor and cried.  Someone was praying for us! For me!  God, if there truly is a God, had put me on this woman's mind. (She would later tell me that God awoke her in the night several times that week and that was when she prayed.)

Once I regained some composure I typed this reply:

Thank you for your prayers. Mrs. _____ was right. We need them! It has been a very stressful week.

Personally, I have been struggling with doubts. That's probably not the kind of thing you want to hear from your pastor's wife, but it is true. On top of everything else he has had to deal with lately your pastor has had to hold his frightened wife and calmly tell her that the God we say we love and worship really does exist.

I KNOW THAT MY REDEEMER LIVETH and yet I am struggling with it. I have been very open about this with my husband and he has been very patient with me. He thinks that my Bible Journal that I post daily on my blog has earned me oppression and perhaps he is right. It had been my best year of personal Bible study so far and I had been devouring scripture like a starving person grabs food. Then the doubtful thoughts began sweeping over me and I panicked.

I'm still devouring scripture, though, and believe God will make Himself known to me. In fact, I find the thought that He told you to pray for us very comforting. Thank you for telling me.

Her response was simple but profound:

I love you and I want you to know that I never thought you were more than human. 

Okay, we all know I'm only human, but it was comforting to know that others do not hold me to a higher standard than other humans. Evidently ministerial family members do experience doubts and there are spiritual people who pray for them!

I later remembered that being human is what Jesus coming to earth was all about! Yes, He is 100% God but He is also 100% man (and no, I cannot explain this). It is because He is human that He could experience everything we do yet remain sinless and that makes it possible for Him to be our Savior.

* * *

The very next morning, July 20th, I picked up Lisa and Roman at the airport. As I looked at the smile on the face of that happy little cherub in the stroller my heart was pounding. I love that little guy! I do not want to lead him astray! We raised his mommy and her siblings to have faith in Jesus Christ and Him alone as their mediator between their sinful selves and the holy God. It is the same faith that we are presenting to our grandchildren. What if we had misled our children all those years and were continuing to do so? I must find the TRUTH before it is too late! After all, being sincere in a faith isn't enough. It is obvious that many sincere people are sincerely wrong since all views of faith cannot be right. They are mutually exclusive.

* * *

Besides my babysitting responsibilities at church camp I had also been planning to be a counselor. Given what I was going through then it did not seem prudent for me to lead a group of teen-aged girls in spiritual reflection. I attempted to talk to our teen camp director's wife Sunday morning, July 21st, to tell her that I was not going to be able to be a counselor but that didn't work out. I took my place in the choir and tried to get through the song service but that didn't work either. I left the auditorium in tears while we were singing a hymn. I later found myself sobbing in the arms of my surprised pastor-husband during the closing hymn. He asked the congregation to pray for me, as one God-awakened/email-sending member and he himself were already doing. (In the 4 weeks since that service I have had numerous people tell me that God has been awakening them at night and they pray for me. I haven't had any more nightmares so perhaps their intervention - and lack of sleep - has helped me rest.) Telling our congregation about my fear was one of the most humbling things I have ever had to do and yet it was the key to recovery.

Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.  James 5:16 

The next day was our 35th wedding anniversary as well as the first day of camp. It is not unusual for those two things to coincide and actually seems fitting since we have been ministering together since the days we took our vows. But my spiritual peace did not return to me overnight and so instead of being a counselor I worked as support staff which gave me more time to read, study, and pray. It was time well-spent toward examining the Bible, other belief systems, and my own heart.

* * *

I later spoke with my friend, the email buddy, about the things that had been troubling me, one of which is what happens when we die. What if I am wrong about death and there is no God, no Jesus, no Heaven? This wise woman told me that what I am seeking is dying grace and I won't need it until I am dying. Right now I only need the kind of grace necessary to live day by day. It is one thing to make sure that one is on the right path, and indeed, it is what I and my husband have dedicated our lives to help people find, but it is another to fear death.

She was right! It is grace for today that I need and God will take care of all my tomorrows. 

Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. (Matthew 6:34)

If you want me to tell you how I reached my conclusions about God and the Bible I will be glad to do so, but not now. Since most of my readers are believers you may know the path I wandered. My starting point was this: If God is real, then I am a Christian because I believe Jesus paid for my sins. With that in mind, and the prayer, "Lord, help thou my unbelief" I began my research.  And once again I was able to experience the joy of my salvation! The fear is gone and faith has taken its place!

Pastor Dad and I with the 8 blessings that call us "Grandad" and "Gram." We are determined that each of these precious youngsters hear over and over again about the living God who loves them, sent His Son to pay for their sins if they will repent and believe, and desires to live with them throughout eternity! 

What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? 32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. 34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:31-39 

Summer 2013 Wrap-up

Our 2013 Graduate

Many of the students in our area are heading back to school. Even the homeschooling families are sending in their notifications of intent and making final adjustments to the curriculum. Not I. For the first time in many years, I am not preparing for a new homeschool year.

When our oldest graduated in June, 1999 our youngest was not even ready to begin kindergarten the following autumn. But in June, 2013 The Bear graduated from high school. It took 27 years for us to home educate all 4 of our children from kindergarten through twelfth grade but we did it! 14 years is a long span of time between oldest to youngest siblings, but I am glad for it because it means that I have had at least one of my offspring with me for the past 32 years. And we are still not empty-nesters! The Bear will attend a local college this fall and will live at home. But while he is making preparations to go back to school in a few days, his mother - for once - is not.



After all the paperwork had been filed for The Bear's diploma (I STRONGLY recommend an umbrella school during the high school years because it makes dealing with colleges and employers so much less of a hassle!) we turned our attention to other endeavors. Our church had a wonderful Vacation Bible School week in June in which we were active workers and participants. This is always a MAJOR event for our congregation and we love it!

Then Pastor Dad and I began some much-needed work on our house and lawn. We watched it rain on our lawn and gardens, which helped water all the new plants and some of the lawn reseeding. (It has been a rainy summer.) We have also enjoyed the slightly cooler-than-usual temperatures this year. We even stood in the rain with umbrellas over our heads while watching the grandchildren swim on the 4th of July in my dad's pool. And as usual, we celebrated birthdays with several of our loved ones. Oh, my! It has been a wonderful, busy summer!

A couple of weeks ago we had the privilege of picking up Lisa and Roman at the airport. Lisa had agreed to work as a counselor at our church camp as long as someone (uh, that would be me: no arm-twisting necessary!) watched Roman. Since Karen and Philip are directors of our junior camp I also took care of their newest little one.

Gram with her baby grandsons

The boys riding around the campground in style

The 6-month-old Roman and the 3-month-old "Baby Boy" were introduced to each other before we headed to camp. (I think their moms just wanted to know if I could handle two infants at the same time. Ha! Ha!) The boys played together on the floor. Three months can make a big difference at such young ages. Roman picked up Baby Boy's foot as if to show him his toes. If he could talk he looked like he would be saying to his cousin, "See these, dude? You're gonna love them! They're great to suck on whenever you misplace your pacifier!"

After camp, Dan flew into town to join the family. A few days later several of us attended a Red's game. The game itself wasn't much to see, (We lost to the Cards. Boo!) but we had fun in the stands. Our pictures even flashed across the scoreboard briefly as the cameras panned the audience while playing the song "Pretty Woman" (obviously they were highlighting our beautiful daughter, The Princess, but we got to photo bomb).  Pastor Dad said he was glad they didn't show us during the "Kiss Cam" because he and I had several people between us. I had to agree because if either of us had been required to kiss Fen or Diamond Girl right after they ate sticky cotton candy I'm afraid we would have been permanently bonded.  :)

This past Sunday we celebrated The Bear's graduation with an Open House. He had asked that we wait to officially celebrate when Dan, Lisa, and Roman could be in town. Sounded like a good idea to me!

Several pictures were taken at the event.  This one is of our 4 children and their grandparents. Pastor Dad's parents are on the left and mine are on the right in the photo.

The Bear is the youngest grandchild on both sides of the family so all the grandparents have only adult grandchildren now.

Pastor Dad and I were added for this 3 generation portrait.

And finally, here is one of The Bear being supported by his sisters and brothers-in-law, the "siblings" who helped raise him and added much-needed support through the years.

That's Pepper photo-bombing. That dog! ~sigh~ (I guess she thinks she helped raise him, too.)

Spring and Easter Crafts: Rose Barrette

I made this barrette for one of my granddaughters. You can't see it, but this is attached to a large barrette form. Here are the supplies I used:

• 18 inches of 3 different 3/8 inch ribbons for the rose (I used pink dotted swiss, plain pink, and plain white)
• green ribbon for leaves (I used sheer green dotted swiss) - the length depends upon how large and how many leaves you wish to make
• needle and thread
• large barrette form
• glue (not shown but I used Gorilla Glue)

Instructions:

Braid the ribbons for the rose together into a long strip.

Begin winding the ribbon around itself to make the inner bud. Use the thread to tack any coils that pull loose, including the beginning of the braid. Pull the center out a little and continue winding in a slight cone shape until you reach the end of the braid.

Tuck the end of the braid under and sew it into place.

Make the first leaf by folding the green ribbon into a point. I sewed this into place and crossed the green ribbon across the bottom to the opposite side to make the next leaf. I did this crisscrossing, folding, and sewing into place until I had as many leaves as I wanted. (The reason for the crisscrossing was to add stability.)

Glue a length of ribbon (I used the green) onto the top of the barrette form. Allow to dry. Either tuck and glue the overhanging ribbon or trim it even with the top.

Remove the forked piece on the inside of the barrette.

Barrette with fork out

Barrette with fork in place

Sew the flower onto the top of the barrette by inserting the needle near the bottom center of the rose before wrapping the thread tightly around the barrette. Make several stitches/loops to anchor the rose securely.

Put the fork back onto the barrette.


Give the barrette to one of your favorite princesses!

More Grandchild T-shirts

We've been busy lately (so what else is new?) but I did manage to get a few more t-shirts and/or onesies done. I particularly wanted to finish Roman's so that I can get it in the mail with his Easter basket. I did our Diamond Girl's at the same time. And in my "free time" (uh...what's that?) I worked on Sweet Pea's shirt.

That means I have 2 shirts left to make this spring, but since spring doesn't seem to be in any hurry to get here I think I'll have time to get Polly's and Lili Ladybug's shirts done before they need them. I'm thinking of doing some beading or jewels around a neckline for Polly and appliqueing a ladybug (of all things) on Miss Lili's shirt. Anyway...

Roman's onesie and Sweet Pea's shirt

The transfer (shown below) are of Pepper as a puppy and  the rascal she is now. Since there is so, sO, SO much BROWN ink in the photos (What else would one expect a chocolate lab-mutt mix to use?) the puppy picture wasn't distinct enough after the transfer so I used fabric pens to turn Pepper-the-puppy into a drawing of herself. I wish I could do that with the real Pepper sometimes.

I also used fabric markers to color the words. Sweet Pea likes color as much as she likes Pepper and that's saying a lot. :)

The next two pictures show you the applique bunny with his little cottontail and the sentiment that I wrote that says "Somebunny who keeps everybunny else hopping" Appropriate? Hmm. Maybe we better ask his mommy and daddy.

After tracing my bunny onto heat bond web fusing and ironing it on, I added the ear in the same way, then outlined him in a blanket stitch. I also embroidered an eye, nose, mouth, and hind leg details before sewing on a pom-pom tail.

Our little Diamond Girl's pink onesie is identical to her cousin Roman's blue one except that I used different calico prints and colors.

The purple-lavender version of the bunny
with his blanket stitch, embroidery, and tail

A slightly blurry view of the words, because,
you know, she really does keep us hopping

Here she is modeling the shirt while showing everyone just one of the many ways that she stays active. (She loves to climb! And those bunnies in the rocker bench must come out to allow the sweetie wearing the bunny on her shirt to use it as a step stool.)

 

And yes, *clap, clap* she is so happy that her Gram got her shirt done before she outgrew it!  And so is her Gram.  :)

Another Year of T-shirts for the Grandchildren

It has become a Rite of Spring for me, this making of t-shirts for our grandchildren. Lovingly fingering the thin cotton material while dressed in wool always lifts my spirits knowing that the weather will one day be warm enough for the children to wear them.

 

This year I decided to design my own t-shirts instead of buying already designed iron-on transfers at the craft store. That way each child will have something that fits his or her personality and interests, or at least that is the goal.  :)

 

 

 T-shirt #1

 

I only have 2 completed so far, but thought I would share them.  You can probably guess who is now the owner of the first shirt. (If you need a reminder you can go back a few years to my 4th blog post here to meet the manatee lover.)

 

I've tried unsuccessfully for a long time to find a cross stitch pattern to make a manatee sweatshirt for the manatee lover's autumn birthday but with no success. So when I decided to make her a t-shirt I looked through my pictures to see if I had anything appropriate. None were perfect, but one was chosen because it had at least one complete manatee in it:



 

 

 

 

 

After copying my photo to a Word document I added text and a graphic to the page: 

 

 

 

Using iron-on transfer paper (which I bought as a BOGOF per package sale offer) I printed off the transfer. If you do this, remember to use the mirror-image setting so that the text is properly formatted after ironing.

 

Tigger is now wearing this t-shirt:

 



T-shirt #2

Thanks to current tv options Fen has discovered old cartoons that most of us forgot (and for good reason, I might add). One of the characters has become his hero. Thanks also to old pictures found on the Internet I downloaded a picture of his favorite character:

T-shirts #3-#7

Uh, not even started although Sweet Pea did tell me that she would like one with her favorite animal, a hippo, . . . or a dog . . . specifically, Pepper.

Ok, perhaps you'd like to see pictures of our two latest cuties wearing the Valentine shirts that their Gram bought them instead. (I use the word "bought" loosely. I used bonus points earned from holiday spending to get each shirt for about $1.50 each. Hope that doesn't make me look like Gram-the-Scrooge).

Fen was giving his sister a little Valentine love.  :)

The picture is a little fuzzy but these moving targets were hard to photograph

And here is our newest little love and his Gram, who was privileged to visit him  on Valentine's Day in his home almost 2,000 miles away from her own (which is in an area warmer than her own year round):

I'll post more on shirts 3-7 when I have them.

Looking Back at the Birthdays

A couple of weeks ago we celebrated the birthdays of 2 granddaughters, sisters that share a birthday week. That would be Miss Tigger and Little Lili Ladybug. It really was Lili's birthday that day, her second.

To honor Lili on her special day, her two oldest sisters composed a poem in her honor. I neglected to get a copy of the poem but there was an illustration to accompany it, as you can clearly see below.

Polly and Tigger reciting

Two girls opening gifts can make for a lot of excitement (and gift wrapping paper!).

Sometimes one of the gift-givers suffers from separation anxiety.  :)

Hey, Mom, did you mean to give this away?

The birthday girls blowing out the candles on their respective birthday cakes.

I include this photo for Mem and Pop. This is what we saw when you called.  :)

I hope she didn't get blue icing on the telephone!

Don't you just want to kiss that sweet little face? Well, maybe after it is washed. 

Big sister, Tiggeriffic, enjoying her birthday treats, too. I think Miss Tigger ended up having a"Birthday Week," which is not a bad way for an eight-year-old to celebrate, right?

Family Friday: Counting Multiple Blessings

Last night the ladies of our church enjoyed our annual Mother-Daughter-Friend banquet and the speaker is a lady that our family has known for several years. Early in 2010 she received the news that her daughter was carrying quads! Our family was privileged to follow the story from the time the family received the news and we shared information with our church so they, too, could pray. God answered in miraculous ways and many ladies who prayed were in attendance last night. They were able to meet the grandmother, our guest speaker, and her daughter, the mother of the babies. No, the babies weren't there. I know someone will ask me about this.  :)

A DVD that was shared with our group is also online. The link to that is here. I thought some that weren't able to attend the banquet, and perhaps some that were, might like to see it.

The family was also featured by the cable series Facing Life Head On "Episode 17: A Blessing Times Four." You can find the link to that episode here. There is also a link at the site of an update that was filmed several weeks prior to the birth of the babies.

When I count my blessings my children and grandchildren are definitely included but so far all of them have arrived one at a time. This is an amazing and beautiful story of what can happen when those blessings are multiplied and it is much too good not to share!

And We're Back This Friday Evening

It seems like I recently found myself in a world similar to the one Lewis Carroll created in Alice in Wonderland, a world exhibiting a whole lot of scurrying about accompanied by an equal amount of no sense of time. I wish to thank my readers (both of them: "hi" Karen and Josh) for reminding me that there are schedules to be kept. I'll try not to let the White Rabbit be my time keeper again.

So what's been happening lately? Well . . . a lot of the stuff but much of it has revolved around my son.

First, he decided that he wanted to try his hand at designing and building his own computer. And so he did. But in order to finance the project he needed to sell his old one. To his dad. Since The Bear's "old" computer dates back to 2010 and Pastor Dad's computer is somewhere in the neighborhood of eight years old it wasn't a hard sell.  :)

Both gentlemen are now very happy with their desktops, although "desktop" might be a misnomer in describing The Bear's computer. And I'm still very satisfied with this laptop of mine (and don't you DARE take IT apart to see how it works) thankyouverymuch.

I was mainly involved in the driving back and forth to the computer parts place across town. How ironic is it that the least geeky person in the household is the one with an account at the computer store?!

Second, he got a job. Just in time, too. I'm pretty sure that - besides the computer - we're not interested in purchasing any more of his possessions from him.  Old Yu-Gi-Oh cards, anyone? :)

His job is ~um~ interesting. He is a guide at an outdoor recreational area. He loves it and I've noticed that he has spending money these days.

My part involved completing the paperwork. Good grief! If I got paid by the hour to fill out all the forms involved in his "employment packet" I could take that trip to Europe now that's on my bucket list. I'm truly mystified at how any illegal could slip unknowingly through the employment system, but that's a rant for another day.

Third, he had a birthday. He asked that I make homemade strawberry pies for the occasion. I found a simple recipe last year that we really liked and I am now convinced that the people who sell strawberry glaze in cartons in the produce department at the grocery store are laughing all the way to the bank. Really. I think the glaze to make 2 pies cost about 50 cents.

And then there are the non-son related things that have been keeping me otherwise occupied:

Nice days could mean trips to the park with my grandson.

Showing his new skill at walking on the balance beam/spring

Even not so nice days aren't bad ones when there is our new granddaughter living right up the street!