Traditions With a New Twist

We have the holiday tradition of decorating gingerbread houses and have always had fun doing them, usually spending that time with other friends or family. The past several years we decorated them the weekend after thanksgiving, thus having some of them for decorations during the Christmas season. This year we weren't able to do them that weekend and it looked as if we may not do them at all. They didn't seem all that excited about any of the usual craft making holiday traditions that we have had. Our boys aren't as into holiday tradition, memory making as I am, or so I thought. The week before Christmas they started asking about our gingerbread houses and when were we going to make them. Then my 8 year old nephew started asking and so my sister and I decided to get together the Friday before Christmas and decorate away. My two older sons, 16 and 13 decided to make a WWII scene with bunkers and boats and soldiers. They made templates, mixed, rolled, cut and baked gingerbread, enough for everyone. We ended up with a very large WWII scene, three houses and a Christmas tree of gingerbread between all of the cousins. They all had great fun and it was a lot less work for me, now that the boys are old enough to do the baking themselves.

Thoughts of Thankfulness

A few things/people I am thankful for:

My Salvation.

My hardworking and loving husband.

Our strong marriage.

Children who are learning to be what God wants them to be.

That my mom is cancer free!

Hunkering Down

Husband just went to the store to restock our pantry in preparation for the next storm. We are supposed to get snow again this afternoon/evening thru tomorrow morning. Sometime tomorrow it is supposed to warm up and turn to rain - but in the meantime we need to be prepared. I know it seems funny to people who get snow all the time, but the Puget Sound area is pretty much paralized when we get snow. We get so little snow that people don't know how to drive in it and it always seems to surprise the DOT, so that the roads are not ready and it always seems to hit during rush hour. My mother, who is in her 60s and a diabetic spent 4 hours on a bus in 20 degree weather on Monday evening. Her normal commute would be about 1 hour and 20 minutes. To further complicate things around here, there was also a Seahawks football game in Seattle on Monday and it let out at about 9pm. The freeways were gridlocked and it took some people 7 + hours to get home, there are stranded cars littering roads and now, as the roads are finally getting cleared off, we are supposed to get another snow. Our dear daughter had to commute to work today, about 40 minutes away from home - thankfully she has a place to stay down there should the snow hit before she comes home tonight. I am thankful that I don't have to go anywhere and can just stay home and enjoy the beautiful snow. I guess snow can be good or bad, depending on how you look at it.

Tis the Season

Yesterday, after worship service, we went to get our Christmas tree. Our family has the tradition of going to a you cut tree farm to cut a tree and we usually wait until a couple of weeks before Christmas to do this, but our schedules this year dictated us doing it this weekend or not everyone would get to go. It had been snowing a little in the morning on our way to church, but then it turned to rain and by the time we were heading out to get our tree, it was fairly pouring. While we were walking around the tree farm the rain started turning white and by the time we were leaving with our tree, it was snowing very hard. We were all very excited, you see we don't get much snow around these parts and so it is almost like a holiday when we do! After we got home, the boys played out all evening even though we only had about an inch. This morning when we woke up, there was about 8 inches and the boys have been out all morning. It is beautiful! Our backyard is still untouched, except for a few footprints along the side fence where boy #2 went to knock the heavy snow off of our little tree for me, we already had a branch break off of our rhododendron in the font yard from the weight of the snow and we didn't want the new little trees to get damaged. We are in a winter wonderland!

Black Friday -

It has become an annual event for my daughter, my sister and myself to go shopping on the Friday after Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving evening we plot out our route for the next day and then we get up early in the morning and work our route. Fred Meyer is usually our first stop - they always have socks half price, plus many other items that we might want to purchase on sale. This year we were at Freds before 6 am - and there were quite a few people - but it wasn't too bad. They were prepared with all checkstands open and the lines moved very quickly, plus they serve free donought holes and apple juice and there is also a Starbucks in it, so we were set. We moved on to the new Target store and it was fairly empty, I guess everyone went on to the mall store. After that we went to the outlet mall not far from us and got a couple of good deals before bringing daughter home so she could scoot off to work. Sis and I headed to the new Kohls store and that was chaos, it was my first time in it and I couldn't believe how long the lines were - we just toured the store and then left and headed back to the outlet mall. The mall was now VERY crowded, but sis was able to make a couple of purchases and then we headed back home for lunch. We don't take the shopping too serious and have fun with it. When all was said and done, I had made some needed clothing purchases for my boys and sis had done a bit of her Christmas shopping - it was a pretty good day.

The Dinner that almost wasn't . . . .

This year we decided to use the roaster oven to cook our turkey, thus freeing up the oven to cook other items. This roaster oven is a family heirloom, it was my grandmothers and it has been around as long as I can remember - 40+ years. Well . . .this was the year it decided to bite the dust. Our turkey was only partially done at 5pm, the appointed dinner time, so we had to quickly shift other things out of the oven and put the turkey in and so we had dinner at 7pm instead of 5 pm. It did turn out well in the end and all 14 of us had a wonderful dinner and it was one that we won't soon forget.

YUM

Today was try a new recipe day on my menu rotation. We had Salsbury Steak and it was delicious! This recipe was one that my husband emailed to me several years ago and I had never tried it. He found it on the internet in 2001, but I do not know where he got it.

Salsbury Steak

1 egg
1 can french onion soup
1/2 C. dry bread crumb
1/4 tsp salt
pinch of pepper
1 1/2 lbs. ground beef
1 T. flour
1/4 C. water
1/4 C. catsup
1 tsp. worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. prepared mustard
chopped parsley

Mix 1/2 c. of the soup, bread crumbs, salt and pepper. Add beef and mix well. Shape into 8 patties. Brown in skillet for 3-4 minutes. Remove patties to plate. In the skillet, stire together flour and water until smooth. Add catsup, worcestershire sauce, mustard and remaining soup and bring to boil. Stir 2 minutes. Return patties to the skillet with the sauce. Simmer 15 minutes. Serve salsbury steak with the sauce and enjoy!

Our whole family enjoyed this one!

Whats for Dinner?

I am not someone who enjoys planning menus and cooking and therefore continually struggle with getting it done. Unfortunately for me, it is a necessary chore. Having a menu planned helps us to save money and also much frustration during the week. Years ago I came up with an outline that helped make the chore of menu planning easier and also provide a variety of foods during the week. For some reason I got away from using the outline and decided to try to go back to it. Here is the new outline that I just finished working on:

MONDAY: Fish: Salmon (2), Salmon Patties, Pizza Fish, Tuna Wedge, Tuna Melts, Tuna Noodle Casserole

TUESDAY: Beef: Meatloaf, Steak, Hamburger Patties, Spanish Rice

WEDNESDAY: Soup: canned or White Bean, Lentil, Minestrone, Vegetable, Chili

THURSDAY: New Recipe

FRIDAY: Chicken: Italian Parmesan Chicken, Chicken & Veggies (Prism pg 199), Chicken & Rice,

SATURDAY: Kids Favorites: Taco Bake, Sloppy Joes, Pasta & Meatballs, Frito Pie, Garlic Chicken, Ala mom

SUNDAY: (crockpot): Roast, Pork Chops, Creamy Chicken, Stew

Using the above outline for ideas and considering our activities for the week, here is this weeks Menu.

Menu Plan

Monday: Tuna Melts with Peas

Tuesday: Spanish Rice with Green Beans

Wednesday: Chicken Soup, Canned and Rolls

Thursday: Salisbury Steak, Boiled Potatoes, Broccoli

Friday: Chicken & Rice, Carrots

Saturday: Youth Rally

Sunday: McDonalds?

Stop by Organizing Junkie's Blog for more Menu ideas.

Homeschool Carnival Week 42

Homeschool Carnival 42 is up at Homeschool Hacks and it attempts to answer many questions that you may have concerning homeschooling. It looks to cover a great variety of topics - something for everyone.

What have we been up to???

It has been so long since I posted anything here and there are so many things swimming around in my head. Our 5 weeks of chaos is about over - drivers ed. class is done and boy #1 successfully completed his course. He now must get more drive hours in and will also have to have his permit for at least 5 more months before he can take the drivers test for his license.

Boy #2 has been playing football for the local middle school and has thoroughly enjoyed it. He has one more week of football, including two games and then the season will be over. It has been a good experience for him, he has learned much about the game and about working together on a team. The school has been geat about working with us as homeschoolers and the other players have accepted our boy as a teammate.

Boy #3 has finished his second session of swim lessons and successfully passed to level 3. He will start level 3 in another week and he attends lessons two evenings a week. He has worked hard and it is paying off.

It has been a crazy, unusual time in our lives - but it was well worth it.

Auto shop - Homeschool Style

Our family is embarking on a new adventure. We have purchased a 1965 Mustang Coupe in great need of restoration. It was one of our goals for the boys to learn how engines and other automobile systems work prior to their graduation from our homeschool and now we have a hands on way for them to learn. The first step, as we see it, is to completely strip out the interior and see what we have to work with. Two engines and a rebuilt transmission came with the car and so we have something to work with there. This project will be a fun way for our boys to learn all about automobiles - from the inside out and to spend quality time with dad. I will post pictures periodically as things change.

What a Tackle!

In the middle of the project:

After the project was done:

This project became a family project. Our dining room chairs desperately needed recovering. The old country plaid was beyond cleaning and starting to get holes on the edges. The project involved removing the seats from the chairs and then removing the old fabric. This was a huge undertaking - the manufacturer used a kazillian staples which were not easy to remove. While the chairs were apart, two of our boys helped clean the wood frames with Murphy's Oil Soap and my husband made sure they were tight. After removing the fabric, my husband beveled the edges of the plywood and then I cut out batting and fabric that was left from when I made our curtains several years back. After recovering the seats, my husband scotch guarded them and reassembled the chairs. All three of our boys helped with this project which took the better part of Saturday and a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon. I forgot to take the before pictures of the really ugly seats.

Thanks to 5 Minutes for Mom for hosting Tackle it Tuesday! Check out their blog for more completed projects and inspiration to Tackle it, whatever your "IT" is.

A Day Late

Here is my menu for this week:

Monday: Beef Taco Bake (easy dish and everyone loves it)

Tuesday: White Beans and Ham Soup (starting up soup days again)

Wednesday - Chicken Parmesan

Thursday - Dinner out at King's Buffet (to celebrate my birthday, which is actually on Wednesday - but our daughter is off on Thursday and I wanted her to be able to join us.)

Friday: Pizza Fish (this is a Prism recipe that we haven't had for a long time)

Saturday: We are going to visit the Museum of Flight - maybe soft tacos when we get home or maybe fast food.

Sunday: your on your own

I am still working on our breakfasts. Coffee Momma if you read this, could you post your breakfast cookie recipe? I have some Canadian Bacon in the refrigerator and so I will probably do some sort of breakfast casserole this week. Last week we did baked oatmeal, pancakes and scrambled eggs, strawberry & yogurt smoothies with instant oatmeal, waffles and the old standby: cold cereal. I found a website called Mr. Breakfast that looks interesting, I hope to have some time to investigate it more fully this week.

Thanks to Organizing Junkie for hosting Menu Plan Monday! Be sure to check her blog for other great menu ideas!

Laura over at I'm an Organizing Junkie hosts Menu Plan Monday. You should go check it out. You might find some fresh recipes to spice up your menu.

I had a busy weekend, mostly away from home and thus my menu got planned late. Here is what I have so far:

Monday: Tuna Noodle Casserole (it had been ages since we had this and everyone liked it)

Tuesday: Chicken Noodle Soup (out of the can - with home made muffins)

Wednesday: Grilled Burgers for the Kiddos, Steak and Potatoes for mom and dad

Thursday: Stuffed chicken (was on last weeks menu, but we substituted a different chicken dish as we didn't have all the ingredients for this one)

Friday: Baked Salmon, Brown Rice and steamed veggies.

Saturday: Youth Program Dinner at church

Sunday: Your on your own - usually burritos or sandwiches.

I am also trying to work on our breakfast menu. We have fallen into the rut of boxed cereal most mornings, which is less than healthy and also expensive. Last week I got up early and fixed baked oatmeal one morning, scrambled eggs one morning, Fruit smoothies & whole wheat toast once and plain old oatmeal once - we still fell back on cold cereal the rest of the time. What kind of breakfasts do you fix for your family?

Taxi Mom

I never thought that I could be described as such - but alas it is so. Our family went from over a year of almost no outside activity to CHAOS! It started with son #2 wanting to play football. We went ahead and let him go out for the local middle school team. He has practice every weekday from 2:30 pm to 5:00 pm. Son #3 is signed up for swimming lessons that take place every Tuesday and Thursday for the next four weeks at 7:00 pm. Now son #1 is taking Drivers Education classes on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons from 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm for the next 5 weeks. So this is how my afternoon goes:
Leave the house at 2:15 pm and drop son #2 at the Middle School for football practice. Return home at about 2:45. (luckily everything is pretty close). Leave home at about 3:35 pm to take son #1 to Driver's Ed. Return home about 4:15. Leave home at about 4:50 to pick up son #2 at the middle school. Return home about 5:15pm. Leave home at about 5:45 to pick up son #1 at Drivers Ed. Return home at about 6:15. (on Wednesdays we will leave from Drivers Ed to go to bible class) On Tuesdays and Thursdays - Leave home at 6:50 to take son #3 to Swim Lessons, return home about 7:45 pm. Hopefully I will be able to stay on top of all of this - add to it, parent meeting for football, and scheduling drive time with the Drivers Ed school. Swimming stops in 4 weeks, drivers ed in about 5 weeks and football at the end of October and then we should be back to our normal hum drum schedule.

Homeschool Carnival Week 37

Don't forget to jump over to Principled Discovery for this week's homeschool carnival. I haven't had a chance to delve into the posts yet but it looks as if it covers a full range of topics.

Tackle it Tuesday

BeforeAfter

On 5 Minutes for Mom they have a Tackle it Tuesday encouragement post each week. The idea is to pick a project that needs doing in your home and then to do it. On Tuesday, blog about the project when it is done. The project that I picked is to clean up the floor along my side of the bed. This area tends to catch all of the mess that has no real home or that is in process for some other project. I was able to get the area cleaned up and even dusted the furniture. Over the weekend we shampooed all of the carpets in the house.

Frito Pie

This recipe is so EASY! My family loves it.

Ingredients:
Chili (canned or homemade)
Fritos - Original or other (we like the chili cheese)
Shredded Cheese

In a 9 x 13 or larger pan - Cover the bottom with Fritos. Over the Fritos add your Chili - you want enough to fill the pan and then top with the cheddar. For a 9 x 13, I use about four 15 oz. cans of chili. Bake for 30 minutes at 350. We usually serve with a green salad.

Laura at I'm an Organizing Junkie started Menu Plan Monday. I think this is a great idea, hopefully it will help me to keep planning menus. Having a menu plan helps with the budget as well as keeping the dinners on time. My husband works swing shift and so we have to get dinner by 12:00 or 12:30 pm., which can be a challenge as we are also homeschooling our three boys and have very busy mornings. Here is my menu for this week.


1. Frito Pie
2. Stuffed Chicken
3. Quick Chili Rice Casserole
4. Tuna Wedge
5. Beef Stroganoff

Around the blogosphere

The folks at Wittingshire always have beautiful photography from around the Pacific Northwest region and currently have a wonderful tribute to Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter - the post is dated Sept 5.

The Common Room family have a couple of funny posts about their new puppy - the probably Irish Wolfhound, Donovan here, here and an adorable picture here. That family is so much fun!

Athena in a Minivan has a great video that you must watch!

Free Admission Thursday

There are several museums in the Puget Sound area that offer free admission on the first Thursday of the month. I plan to visit some of them this school year. Let me know if you know of any others.


Museum of History and Industry in Seattle

Burke Museum at the University of Washington - Seattle

Washington State History Museum - Tacoma (free from 5pm-8pm)

Seattle Museum of Flight - Seattle (free from 5pm - 9pm)

Seattle Asian Art Museum - Seattle (free on First Saturday too)
(the Seattle Art Museum usually has the First Thursday free too, but they are currently closed for remodeling.

Wing Luke Asian Museum - Seattle

Burke Museum

Today we took our first field trip of the new school year. We went with some dear friends to the Burke Museum at the University of Washington. This museum contains a great variety of items from geological finds to dinosaur skeletons to cultural displays. The lower floor contains cultural displays from the many diverse groups of people living in the Seattle area. These included Native Americans, Japanese, Korean, Polynesian peoples, Laotian and others. They don't allow photography in the museum so you will have to go to their website to see the exhibits. The children enjoyed the trip as did the moms! This museum is well worth the time!

September 30th, Museum Free Day

I received the following link for the Smithsonian Museum Free Day. The link will take you to the information page and it contains a link to museums all over the country that are participating with the Smithsonian. This is a great opportunity to visit a museum that might otherwise be financially out of reach. Make good use of the day!

Homeschool Meme

How Great a Debtor and JavaMom both tagged me for this meme.
1) ONE HOMESCHOOLING BOOK YOU HAVE ENJOYED.
Educating the Whole Hearted Child by Sally Clarkson

2) ONE RESOURCE YOU WOULDN'T BE WITHOUT
Email groups and internet search engines

3) ONE RESOURCE YOU WISH YOU HAD NEVER BOUGHT
I can't really think of any off hand - I try to be very careful with my purchases and have used most of the items that I bought enough to justify their expense.

4) ONE RESOURCE YOU ENJOYED LAST YEAR
Ourselves by Charlotte Mason

5) ONE RESOURCE YOU WILL BE USING NEXT YEAR
Notgrass American History

6) ONE RESOURCE YOU WOULD LIKE TO BUY
CadCam student program

7) ONE RESOURCE YOU WISH EXISTED:
Someone that could come in and organize our family room area for a nominal fee. ;D


8) ONE HOMESCHOOLING CATALOGUE YOU ENJOY READING
I like Rainbow Resource catalogue

9) ONE HOMESCHOOLING WEBSITE YOU USE REGULARLY
Ambleside online and many other blogs

10) TAG FIVE OTHER HOMESCHOOLERS:
1. I tag whoever that wants to play that hasn't yet.

5 Things Meme

This is a very belated answer to a tag by Cindy at Dominion Family.

Five things I have in my:

Freezer:
1. Chicken Breasts
2. Bread
3. Pepperoni Hot Pockets
4. Salmon
5. Popsicles

Closet:
1. Shoes
2. Fabric
3. My dad's slides and slide projector
4. Craft Supplies
5. Clothes

Car:
1. Tissues
2. Power Invertor
3. hair brush
4. Mozart CD
5. Green Apple gum

Purse:
1. Burt's Bees lip balm
2. Wallet
3. Advil
4. Calendar
5. Cell phone

People that I am tagging:
1. Beth Spera In Domino
2. Our Blue Castle
3. Any others who would like to participate

Raising Boys

In my catching up on my blog reading after vacation, I came across this post at the Dominion Family Blog. It is a MUST read for those parents who are raising boys.

My Week

We arrived home on Sunday Evening, three of us had head colds (I was one of the three). We celebrated hubby's birthday. The alternator went out on the suburban. My bursitis is still acting up. Hubby returned to work on Tuesday. I have been working on mountains of laundry and laying around in between. I spent time on the phone trying to get some medical assistance for my mom, with little success. Not a very productive week. We did get our wireless network set up again today, after much frustration. So maybe things are looking up. I am hoping to recover my dining room chairs this weekend and work on school scheduling.

Cataldo Mission - Idaho

On our way home from Montana, we stopped at Cataldo Mission State Park. We have driven past is so many times on our way to from other places and never stopped. I was driving and decided it was time to take a break. This mission is the oldest building in Idaho. It was a worthwhile stop and now my curiousity is satisfied.

We toured part of Yellowstone National Park on our free day at camp. We were able to visit Mammoth Hot Springs, the Norris area where Steamboat Geyser is, and the Canyon area. After leaving the Canyon area, we were supposed to head north back to camp. I got us twisted around and we went south instead, but because of the mistake we got to see a great heard of bison.




This is a near arial view of Yellowstone Bible camp. I say near, because it is actually taken from what is called T-shirt mountain. Some of the men, boys and girls climbed this mountain and at the top there are T-shirts that they can sign. Our older two boys really enjoyed this challenge. This was a great vacation.

We're Home

We arrived home from our trip on Sunday evening. After our stop at Glacier National Park, we went for a week to Yellowstone Bible Camp in Pray, MT. It was a family camp and consisted mostly of homeschooled families. Some of which we know from here in the Pacific NW and some of which were new to us. There were just over 60 in attendance of ages 2-87. There was tasty food, great fellowship and also many great lessons on family and relationships. The schedule includes lessons in the morning after breakfast and then again in the evening after dinner. We had free time in the afternoon and then a free day on Thursday. We used our free day to travel into Yellowstone National Park and had a wonderful time there viewing the great scenery that God created along with many different forms of wildlife. (I will post pics. soon). We arrived home tired but grateful for the time we had. On Monday, I needed to go to the store and decided to take our suburban, so I could gas it up after the long trip. Well . . . it died in the left turn lane in traffic. Turns out that the alternator gave up the ghost. Thankfully, it waited until we got home instead of somewhere on our 500 mile drive home. God is so good!

Fire around Glacier National Park

There is a fire burning on the east side of Glacier Park and at one point the Going to the Sun Road was closed halfway up. We were concerned that we might not be able to get across the park and make it to where we had a motel reserved. Well, they got the fire somewhat under control and the roads opened so we made it through. I took a couple of pictures - one of the smoke from the fire, it is taken from an overlook near Lake St. Mary, and the second of some of the devestation that the fire caused. We saw lots of charred trees and even some flames in the top of a tree, it was a terrible and sad sight.

Wildlife at Glacier National Park

Click to enlarge the images, it was if these two were posing for us.

Hidden Lake Nature Trail at Glacier National Park

More Images of Glacier National Park

We enjoyed seeing the Red Tour Buses that operate in the park and couldn't help taking pictures of them. I am including one of a bus going through one of the tunnels in the park. There are also many wildflowers in the alpine areas and I am partial to them so I am including one or two pictures of them too.

Glacier National Park

Yesterday we drove from Missoula up to West Glacier and then on into Glacier National Park. It took us a lot longer to drive up than we thought because there was much road construction. After we went into the park we had a picnic lunch at the Apgar picnic area. It was very pretty there on the end of Lake McDonald. The weather was warm and sunny. We spent the afternoon and early evening driving around in the west side of the park. We stopped at McDonald Lodge and walked through - it is very old and beautiful with log beams and a gianormous fireplace. Today we got up and drove across the rest of the park, we took our time and stopped many places along the way. I have a flair up of bursitis in my knee right now and so we could not do as much hiking or even walking as we would normally do. We did stop at Logan Pass Visitor Center and do a 3 mile hike up to Hidden Lake. I am sure I will pay for that later. We did get to see mountain goats, bighorn sheep, hairy marmots, ground squirrels, and chipmunks during this visit. This visit to Glacier was time well spent.

Today

Today is our 26th Wedding Anniversary. Today we drove about 8 hours and spent time in three states. Today we completed the first leg of our trip to Montana. Today the weather was cloudy and then sunny and warm. Today we crossed three mountain passes. Today we ate lunch at Dairy Queen. Today the boys got to watch a movie because we have a new laptop. Today I got to blog because our favorite hotel has wireless access now! Today was a good day! Hope your today was great!

We're off

It may be quiet around here (nothing new) but we will be off in the morning, heading to Montana. We will be spending a couple of days in Glacier National Park and then travelling on to bible camp near Yellowstone. Dear friends of ours will be at camp with us and it should be a great time! I'll post pictures when we get home.

Busy Birthday happenings

It has been a very busy week. Our eldest child, Plant Lover, celebrated her 21st birthday on the 25th and her very dear friend Tiffany and husband Josiah and baby Anya came to visit from Nashville. We had a BBQ with friends and family this past Sunday and had a wonderful time celebrating with our dear daughter.

Honored and Missed

My grandfather, Clarence Raymond Smith, was born July 13th, 1917 in a small town in Arkansas. He was a father, a husband, a grandfather and great grandfather. He was a wonderful grandfather, who loved to spend time with us kids. When I was in grade school and junior high he used to take me fishing with him and we would catch bunches of fish and then grandma would fry up a mess. He always had a big garden, enough to feed and army and he teased me about my first garden - he said it was a "postage stamp garden". It thrilled him that I was interested in gardening. Grandpa loved to work with wood and was always puttering in his shop and his other favorite thing was grocery shopping and keeping the pantry full. You would find him with all the grocery ads and then he would go all day from store to store getting the good deals. He liked to cook and make a mess. Grandpa had a triple bipass surgery and then lived life to the fullest for about 15 more years. The man was stubborn but boy did he have some spunk. Grandpa loved the Lord and did he sing about it (although a bit off key). He went on to be with the Lord, December 1996 and he is sorely missed.

Books finished this year

I am moving this post to the top as I finish books.

January

A Christmas Carol
Gulliver's Travels

February

Reading Between the Lines

March

When God Writes Your Love Story
Best Friends for Life
Pride and Prejudice
The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax

May

Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Tom Sawyer Abroad
Tom Sawyer Detective
More Hours in My Day
I Gave Dating a Chance

June

The Scarlet Letter
Robinson Crusoe (with B#2)
Book of Indians (with B#3)

July

Mrs. Pollifax Unveiled
The Hurrier I Go: Finding Time for the People in Your Life
Mere Christianity
Th Man Who Was Thursday

Currently Reading:

For the Children's Sake
Dating with Integrity
How to Read a Book

Quotable . . . on Personality

From Mere Christianity by CS Lewis Book IV, chptr. 11

"At the beginning I said there were Personalities in God. I will go further now. There are no real personalities anywhere else. Until you have given up your self to Him you will not have a real self. Sameness is to be found most among the most "natural" men, not among those who surrender to Christ. How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been: how gloriously different are the saints."

Quotable . . . on the church

From Mere Christianity by CS Lewis book IV, Chptr. 8

" In the same way the church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the bible itself are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose. it is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any other purpose. It says in the Bible that the whole universe was made for Christ and that everything is to be gathered together in Him."

Quotable . . . on Faith

From Mere Christianity by CS Lewis Book IV, Chptr. 7

"But we must not remain babies. We must go on to recognise the real Giver. It is madness not to. Because, if we do not, we shall be relying on human beings. And that is going to let us down. The best of them will make mistakes; all of them will die. We must be thankful to all the people who have helped us, we must honour them and love them. But never, never pin your whole faith on any human being: not if he is the best and wisest in the whole world. There are lots of nice things you can do with sand; but do not try building a house on it."

About Me

Javamom tagged me a long while ago with this one and I just got it finished. It was kind of fun to go down memory lane and scary too since the old memory doesn't work so good anymore.

20 years ago (1986)
1. I was 25 years old.
2. My oldest was almost one
3. I worked for the Federal Aviation Administration in their personnel office.

15 years ago (1991)
1. Our second oldest was 8 months old
2. We were getting ready for our dear friends to move in with us.
3. I was content to be a wife and mommy.

10 years ago (1996)
1. I was 35 and was 8 months pregnant with my fourth child.
2. My grandfather was very ill
3. We went to see a civil war reenactment

5 years ago (2001)
1. Went to my first Apple Cider Press Youth Rally
2. Spent lots of time with our friends the Reddings
3. Listened to our daughter sing with her friends at Youth Rallys

3 Years ago (2003)
1. We camped at Mt. Ranier, North Cascades, Olympic National Parks and Mt. St. Helens
2. I witnessed the birth of my dear friends daughter.
3. Our oldest graduated from our homeschool.

1 year ago (2005)
1. We went camping in Spokane, WA
2. We went to We Care Ministry training
3. We went camping at the Olympic National Park

This year so far (2006)
1. Our two oldest boys have committed their lives to Jesus.
2. We went on a mission trip to Texas.
3. We changed churches after 14 years at the same one.

Yesterday
1. Met some friends at the park
2. I did laundry
3. Planned for our reading program

Today
1. Went to a garden with my daughter
2. Hosted neighborhood reading program
3. Worked on School Planning

Tomorrow
1. I will watch my son at swimming lessons
2. I will fix dinner for my family
3. I will help with Summer Memory Madness

In the next year
1. I will go to Yellowstone bible camp
2. I will work on my scrapbook
3. I will work on decluttering my house

In the next minute
1. Get ready for Bed

Clash of the Cultures

Last weekend we got pulled into a domestic dispute that our neighbors were having. We don't know much about these neighbors except that they came to America from India about 11 years ago. Their 19 year old daughter came flying into our house crying and hysterical asking me to call 911 and saying that "he" was going to kill her. After her came her mother, who speaks very little english and her father or brother, I am not sure, it is all kind of a blur. The girl ran upstairs and the mother was excitedly talking to me, I could not understand what she was saying. I followed the girl upstairs and telephoned 911, the neighbors already had too, and then waited for the sherif to get here. My husband got the others out of the house and I was able to calm the girl. Turns out the father found that she had a "My Space" and instead of talking things over decided to get physical. I don't debate the right of the father to make rules for his household, but I do take issue with the way he and his son tried to enforce them. What I see as an issue here is people coming from one culture that has certain ideas about women and their place to another country, namely ours, that has completely different ideas about that sort of thing. They don't learn the language and they send their children to public school and yet expect that they won't pick up attitudes that pervade our society. To some extent, as Christians, we can have the same problem. We are in this world but of another, trying to remain true to our Lord. Trying to fit one culture into another is truly a difficult thing.

Words are Interesting

Quixotic: 1) of or like Don Quixote; 2) extravagently chivalrous or romantically idealistic; visionary; impractical or impracticable.
(found in A Man Who Was Thursday)

Megalomania: 1) a mental disorder characterized by delusions of grandeur, wealth, power, etc. 2) a passion for or for doing big things; 3) a tendency to exaggerate
(found in Mere Christianity)

Pirates!

Last Sunday afternoon, we went to see Pirate's of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. We are big fans of the first movie and we really enjoyed this one as well. There were a couple of creepy parts that I didn't like, especially the opening scene, but for the most part it was a very entertaining story. Johnny Depp was as creative as ever in his character of Captain Jack and the costuming for Davy Jones and his crew were favorites of our whole family. Sensitive individuals may be upset by a few of the scenes that contain violence.

The Man Who Was Thursday

Wow! This book was a real page turner. Chesterton is indeed a master at his craft. Just when I thought I knew what was happening, it all changed and then changed again. Those who like a mystery will like this one. The ending, well it just wasn’t expected! This was my first Chesterton work, but certainly won’t be my last.

Happy Birthday Bouncy Boy!

Bouncy Boy, our youngest child, turned 10 last week. In our family, we have the tradition of letting the special birthday person select breakfast and dinner menus. On his birthday, we had cinnamon grands for breakfast and Pappa Murphys Pizza for dinner. Because he wanted his big brother to be at his party, he chose to wait until a few days after his birthday to celebrate with his friends. B#1 got home from his mission trip late Sunday night and we had Bouncy Boy's birthday party on Monday afternoon. He didn't want cake and chose to only have ice cream, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Vanilla. It seems just as if it were yesterday that Bouncy Boy came into our lives. My how time flies! This child fills our lives with much love and excitement. He is a very passionate child, there is no in between with him. He keeps us on our toes. Currently he is really into marvel comics and action figures.