Thursday, March 31, 2011

More Nathan-isms

Nathan:  Like, why do you have a chest?
Me:  Because that's how God made girls.
Nathan:  Is it like to put things in?


Nathan:  I'm hungry.
Me:  You had soup to eat for supper.
Nathan:  But, I was just too bored.  I couldn't eat.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

No Pictures!

I discovered today that I don't have any pictures of Nathan & Teresa's last birthday party at our house. 
I took them.
But, now I don't have them. 
No Spiderman cake.  No "muffin" (huge cupcake) cake.  No proof that such a party even existed.  What happened???  Did I delete them before saving them on our computer?  Did my computer stash them in some weird place?  I have no idea.
Thankfully their grandma also made each of them a cake, so they still have proof of a cake--and a birthday--at some point!  Hopefully they will find it in their hearts to forgive me someday.  Maybe they will be distracted by the other gazillion scrapbook pages and not even notice.
Hopefully.
Or--we can just have a 5 & 3 year old party again next year!

Monday, March 28, 2011

Little Monday Update

A few snippets from our life . . .
--The water is down (for now) and we are able to drive on our main road.  This is good (for obvious reasons) and bad (because that means things have FROZEN again).  Will I never see my blueberry bushes again??
--Thanks to my husband, dad, & boys, the downstairs railing is installed and just needs to be stained.  That was an unfinished project I had completely forgotten about. 
--I attended a wonderful women's retreat yesterday on finding our spiritual center.  If we all tried harder to stay centered, we would all get along much, much better.  It's a good thing to remember when life gets me all fired up . . . or beaten down.
--A friend's Facebook status today:  "Don't ask the Lord to guide your steps if you are not willing to move."
--WalkMS is only 18 days away.  So far our team has raised $790!  Not bad for a year "off" from fundraising.  :o)  We are thankful for our loyal supporters.  We also are excited to welcome new team members this year.  This is great (for obvious reasons) and bad (someone new has been diagnosed with MS).  But, this is a great event to show support to everyone affected by MS.  We walk for those who can't!
--May your blessings today be as many as the snowflakes that are falling from the sky . . . again.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Tortilla Soup

It's been a good week for soup.  This is one of my favorites and it comes together quickly.  If you hurry, you might even still be able to make it for supper tonight!

Tortilla Soup
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 soup can milk
1 can cheddar cheese OR nacho cheese soup
1 can chicken (or any cooked chicken)
1/2 can red enchilada sauce OR 1 full can mild green enchilada sauce

Mix together and heat in a medium saucepan until warm.  Top with crushed tortilla chips.  Mmm . . . the chip and soup combo is so yummy!  Enjoy!

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Rising Waters

I promised some photos from our recent flood.  It took me a few days to get to taking pictures.  I felt like I had already taken them--a little over a year ago. 
This top one shows the main road leading into our farm from the south.  As you can see, unless we are in a boat, we will not be getting anywhere on this road for awhile.
 This next one is our one way out--1 mile west and a little south of our farm.  When the water started going over the road Sunday afternoon, we all drove our vehicles--and school bus--to the other side.  Last year the water washed out the road underneath and we drove up to it, parked on the north side, and walked across on a footbridge to get to our cars.  Thankfully, with 2 culverts in place this year, the water had gone down by Monday without washing out the road.  We were all able to return our vehicles to our homes and skip those extra steps.
. . . and that's what's been going on around here this week!

Monday, March 21, 2011

The Falls & Scrapbooking

Teresa and I returned Saturday night from a Girls' Trip to Minnesota.  My sister-in-law Angela and cousin-in-law Lisa started a scrapbooking weekend a few years ago.  It's a great deal--the moms scrapbook in the basement for a couple of days while the grandmas take care of the little ones upstairs.  Landen and Nathan have each had their turn in past years to go and play with cousins.  This year Teresa and I went along.  We had a really great time! 
On the way, we stopped at Falls Park.  It is quite amazing to see The Falls in spring!

Here are a few of my favorite scrapbook pages.  From Thursday evening through Friday, I completed roughly 37 pages.  I only stopped to eat.  It was wonderful!  I was about a year behind on all three kids when I arrived.  Now I am caught up!


 Here is our group right before our departure.  We had three more, but we lost cousin-in-law Lisa and children after Thursday evening.  Her baby girl was not feeling well and wanted no part of the weekend.  :o(
Guess what else?  The flood we were anticipating is here!  More on that later . . . .

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

More Pink

There was a time when I was sure God had stopped his production of baby girls altogether.  I could not have been more wrong.  It seems He was just gearing up for 2011! 
Congratulations to Dana & Tina, Spencer & Lincoln on the birth of their daughter & sister Lillian Marie yesterday! 
Picture to come soon . . . .

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Sunny Days

This is the time of year I am usually scheduled to whine about the time change. 
This year I have had a change of heart about Daylight Savings Time.  Right now I am LOVING the fact that all three have been outside playing--in the daylight--since Landen got off the bus.  The longer sunny days and melting snow have done wonders for my outlook, too. 
However, this melting snow is a mixed blessing.  We will soon have a flood over our roads as the creek rises.  :o(  Oh, well.  We are prepared.  I bought enough groceries to get us through (untill we run out of milk and have to have it boated in).  Our house is built on a hill--and a sandy one at that.  The Bible says it's foolish to "build your house upon the sand," but it's worked all right for us so far!
Until the water rises, though, I will appreciate seeing ground emerge after this long winter.  It is almost spring!

Friday, March 11, 2011

Women

For the past 4 weeks, I have been part of a women's study group.  To simplify things, we call it Bible Study (and it is, in a way), but the main focus is studying Pope John Paul II's 1995 Letter to Women and a call for a "New Feminism."  (To really dilute this huge concept,) this is a culture that respects and empowers the woman, but also respects and empowers life.  The material is thought-provoking and I have learned a lot, but the best part is the group of women who have come together.
I first joined my church's women's Bible Study in the fall of 2004.  The school at which I taught had just closed and I was floundering.  What a wonderful group of women God put in my path that year!  We supported each other, prayed with and over each other, listened to each other, and usually ate lunch with each other, too.  I looked forward to meetings every week.  Then, more babies started to arrive, some began outside work after being stay-at-home moms for several years, and we disbanded.
My friend Deb (amazing homeschooling mom of 6) decided something was missing in our lives this past winter--and she was right.  We chose this topic from a list of several possibilities.  I wasn't sure what to expect.  We do read the written material provided for us, but the lessons I have learned from these fellow mothers have been the best part.  Last week, one of the women said when she first came she looked around the table and thought, "I can learn so much from these women."  The rest of us said we felt the same way about her!
My time with these women will soon be over as I will start my spring part-time drama directing gig, but I do hope we come together again next winter.  It has been such a gift in these dreary days.
David has wanted me to be more interested in politics (or just the news in general) for years, but I just do not have the space in my brain right now.  As my friend Cathy says, "It is not my time."  I am consumed with taking care of my corner of the world--my family, my home, my family's spiritual and physical well-being, and let's not forget keeping the backpacks full of what they need to have for the day!  I hope when our children go out into the world, they will have the foundation to make it a little better place in which to live.  At that time, maybe I will have the time and energy to reach out a little farther, too.
I will close with this quote from the next week's chapter.  It may not fit your life, but it certainly fits mine.
Female interests are centered on the human side of their lives:  their family life, their relationships to those they love, their concern about their health, their welfare and, if they are Christians, the spiritual welfare of their children's souls; in other words, about human concerns.  Most men speak about the stock market, politics, and sports; some speak about intellectual and artistic questions.  [G.K.] Chesterton was right when he wrote, "Women speak to each other; men speak to the subject they are speaking about."'
(Alice von Hildebrand, The Privilege of Being a Woman) 
May God bless your day!

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Shine


I've been a little distracted from my blog lately.  Hmm . . . what have I been up to?  Well, there was the normal "mom" stuff I try to accomplish every day, an afternoon trip to Aberdeen, more snow and icy roads for my trek to Bible Study yesterday, and today I painted a room for my friend Cathy.  (Who, incidentally, just gave birth to her first daughter Lucia Rose on Friday!  Lucia has 4 older brothers, too.)  
After all that, Teresa and I took a nap this afternoon!
I've attached a link from a song I've recently discovered by The David Crowder Band.  The video is so clever I just had to share it with you.  (SMS stands for "send me a sign.") 
May God bless your Ash Wednesday!

Friday, March 4, 2011

Rainbow Girl

There are some things only a daughter will notice. 
For instance, a few weeks ago, we were quickly making our way through a store. As soon as we came up to the shoe aisles, Teresa took them all in and said, "Oh, cute!" 
Last week I was trying on a new dress that had come in the mail. 
Teresa came down the hallway and commented, "Ooh, cute dress, Mom!" 
I am afraid we are going to make a very dangerous shopping combination in a few years.
Then, there is her new choice of subject to draw--rainbows.  This absolutely warms my heart so much because I spent 99% of my childhood either arranging my huge set of magic markers into rainbow order or drawing rainbows with them.  This new fascination is all her--drawing at all is a new concept for her.  I must have passed some sort of "rainbow" gene onto her.  She said this picture was a "Rainbow Girl."
 And, yes, my T still has a fashion sense all her own.  She loves to change clothes throughout the day and most often picks her sundress or another skirt to wear at home.  (The photo above shows her favorite sundress over a pajama top with leggings--just because I insisted she have SOMETHING on her legs.)
Yesterday she dug to the back of her dresser and found--ta da!--swimsuits!  This was the second one she tried on.  I just couldn't resist a picture when she came up with the sock/slipper combination.  The crazy hat is a staple and goes with everything.  She often uses it as a sleeping hat, too. 
I will definitely be saving this one for a future slide show . . . or first date.  :o) 

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Little Miracles & Sleep . . . Interrupted

God is truly bestowing gift after gift these past two weeks!  Five babies have been born to our friends and family--4 girls and a boy.  And . . . we have friends still awaiting their newest blessings in the coming days and weeks!
The newest is our niece who was just born today.  This is such new news that I don't even have a picture yet.  Her name is Avery Erika and we are so very excited to welcome her into the family.  Well, Nathan wanted a boy cousin, but he'll come around. :o)
It seems appropriate for there to be so many babies being born lately . . . .
I would NEVER compare a woman to a cow (David had STRICT instructions never to do that at any of my OB appointments), but we have had quite the abundance of births at our farm these past weeks, too.  The baby calves are coming a few a day now.  I don't have much to do with it, but it is David's full time job this time of year.
Technology has improved calving immensely.  Instead of having to walk to the barn in the middle of the night, David can now just turn on the "cow channel" on our bedroom TV to see how things are going. 
That means we both wake up sometime in the middle of the night.  Depending on what's happening, we may be awake for a long time as David watches everything to make sure he doesn't have to go out to the barn.  Then he is usually up for the day shortly after 5am to let the cows back out of the barn. 
This year's calving season has really reminded me of our own days with newborn babies in the house and how I missed uninterrupted sleep.  The only difference was with the babies, I was the one doing most of the getting up at night! 
So, congratulations once again to all of the new (human) parents!  May God bless you with restful sleep again soon!