Working Hard

Today was fence-painting day! Danny and the kids have been waiting for the right weather to go out and stain the fence - today was finally nice enough. We had absolutely perfect spring weather! Jacob was working so diligently I could hardly get him to look up for a quick shot! Hannah kept up with the boys - working right alongside her dad and brothers. I went out there myself, but only for moral support. I never picked up a brush - although I did hold the brush a couple times for the kids when they needed me to! Does that count?

And Ryan, he was so cute, he worked hard, and then he found the perfect stump to sit on and rest, and then he would be right back at it. He was shorter than the others so he had to reach high to get that top rail!

It is fun to have spring and be able to get outside and enjoy the beautiful, milder weather. We are supposed to go and see "Joseph" (the youth drama) tonight but it is almost dinner and I cannot get the guys in for a break and a shower! Joseph may have to wait for another day...

A Different Kind of Resurrection!!

Easter this year was so busy, we didn't seem to have time to squeeze in all of the traditions we usually have (dying eggs, watching Jesus of Nazareth, doing the Resurrection Eggs) but we did manage to do some of them. Danny's family was coming over for Easter dinner, and so preparations for that took up much of the weekend. On Friday night, the kids asked if I could try to make homemade rolls - which by the way I have never made before - but a dear friend of mine promised she would teach me how to make hers. So, Friday night I e-mailed her and she replied with these words "Sure! You are the FIRST person outside our family for generations to EVER get this recipe!!" No pressure. I felt bad at this point for asking, but she assured me it was okay and she was even willing to come over and help me.


I didn't want her to come over the day before Easter as she was having her family over on Sunday as well, so I told her I would attempt them on my own. First mistake. Four hours later, the dough had NOT risen! When she called to check on the progress, and I told her, she insisted on coming over and we make another batch together. GREAT! Four hours later - this batch also did NOT rise! She called at around 9:30 pm and I told her that even though they hadn't risen, we were making a new Easter tradition, checking the bowl every 20 minutes to see if anything had risen! (very symbolic for this particular holiday, huh?) Luckily, I had no faith in my baking skills, so I had purchased "backup" rolls at the store that morning and told her I would just serve those.

Easter morning comes. Danny and I go to the side porch and discover a huge bag of freshly baked, homemade, famous recipe rolls with a note that said "Behold! They have risen!!" After laughing at her sense of humor, we just stood there in awe and very touched that someone would make such great efforts to make sure we had homemade rolls on Easter Day. It takes some time first to make the dough, let it rise, shape, rise again, and then bake. She had stayed up who knows how late to do all this, and then have them on my door by 6 a.m. We will NEVER forget this kindness, and every time we make these rolls, we will always remember her amazing, selfless love for us. I sense that I will always make these for Easter too!!

This is a picture of the infamous rolls that we feasted on for Easter. Thank you dear friend, who must remain nameless, as I am sworn to secrecy never to reveal the recipe!!

Well, Monday came along and I decided to try again. I was determined to learn how to make delicious rolls for my family. I have wanted to do this for years! But alas, God has a sense of humor. Once again, my rolls did not turn out, and as I pulled them out of the oven, we found this one (below).

Do you see the smiling face, mocking me for my complete inability to make a light, fluffy, delicious roll??? This hardened lump of stone was just too much. The roll story had just gotten even better!!

Jacob ate it anyway.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Hannah, my beautiful, sweet, fun-loving, affectionate and creative little girl. Did I mention creative? Hannah always has something up her sleeve that she is making - she loves to draw, cut, glue, decorate, draw some more, etc. Today was no exception. I failed to really plan anything for St. Patrick's Day (other than a two hour history review!) and so Hannah decided to celebrate the day on her own, with her bunny of course.



First, she woke up this morning and wore all the green she could find. Then she decorated herself with a headband and bracelet made of paper shamrocks. She proceeded to make something for Ryan to wear. Then she decided that her bunny needed to be "decorated" too! This picture is the bunny seriously trying to hide from Hannah! haha I was laughing so hard I could barely get a picture. The bunny thought that maybe Hannah would fall for the old "the white cookie jar is the REAL bunny" trick! Well, Hannah won the battle. She managed, with lots of giggles, to get hold of the bunny and decorate her with a paper shamrock of her own! Actually, I think the bunny didn't mind it once she had it on!

Here they are, two sweet girls, both decorated in paper shamrocks. Thank you, Hannah, for always managing to brighten up my day with your perpetual cheerfulness and love for life. You make homeschooling you pure joy with your creativity and zest for life. You make everything fun with your sense of humor and sweet, encouraging personality. You are very humble and teachable. You love the Lord with all your heart. You are an example to me in so many ways Hannah. I cannot tell you how grateful I am that God gave you to me to be my one and only daughter! Keep on shining with your wonderful, creative gift!

Moses, Ryan and some Legos

We have been reading to Ryan from the Bible about Moses and the amazing things God did through him. Ryan went downstairs in the basement for a long time, and he came up with this wonderful illustration. On the far left is the Israelites crossing the Red Sea, right next to that is Moses' arms being held up with his staff to give the Israelites victory in the battle against the Amalekites, and the right shows Moses on the mountain and the burning bush. Nice to know he is listening and retaining. Great job Ryan!!!

Boys and Their Toys

It's funny how as the years go by we make different decisions in our parenting because of some new "teaching" or a new thought process occurs, and often the decisions we make for the older ones we would never make for the younger ones. We make our best decisions for that child given the wisdom (or lack of) that we have at that time. I often tell Matt that, as the oldest, he has unfortunately been the brunt of many of our mistakes. We often need to turn our thoughts back to our Creator and realize that He sovereignly purposed Matt to be our oldest child as much as he ordained Ryan to be our youngest, and He knew every mistake we would make and uses them for good in their lives. I cannot tell you how many times I have had to rely on this truth when hit with conviction and guilt about something I did or didn't do!

In this case, the issue at hand is guns! Play guns that is. (Well, sorta) Ryan and Jacob have airsoft guns which shoot real pellets and it can definitely sting if hit - but I cannot tell you how many hours they have spent shooting at each other as they hide in the woods, or shooting at targets they have made (spray painted logs or soda cans). Ryan had been missing vital parts to his gun (the charger) since we moved, and when Jacob found it for him yesterday, their interest in airsoft guns was rekindled! Jacob went out yesterday and bought a new one - it is a huge gun that can act as a machine gun, or as he put it, a "sniper" - and he plans to use it with Ryan today - as a matter of fact Danny wanted to play hookey from work and shoot with the boys!

Well, we never allowed Matt to have any type of gun as a child, thinking it promoted violence. Then we had two more boys and as we continued to read material on parenting sons, Danny read some book about helping boys become men, and in it he read that it is a good thing to allow a boy to have a gun to express his God-given masculinity, the instinct to be protective, the responsibility to handle it all with certain guidelines, etc. Bottome line - our younger two boys have guns. Matt, we are so sorry honey! (Good thing you know that parents aren't perfect and will make many mistakes!) I try to remember in these moments that Matt has had some priviliges that we will not extend to the younger children at such early ages - so there are some advantages to being oldest!! Again though, the "live and learn" principle!! Thankfully God has a plan for each of our children that even we, with our all human error, cannot thwart!

A Visit to Matt at Starbucks

After a long week of surviving things like colds, wind storms that brought down trees and bunny hutches, daylight savings time, and a flooded basement (yikes) we decided to end our weekend with a visit to Matt at Starbucks. We all planned to splurge on our favorite drink. We hadn't seem him much all weekend, and we popped in on him for a surprise visit! Of course, he was out in the back taking out the trash, but we waited patiently and he soon showed up with his usual cheerful grin! I have always loved Matt's smile...

This is the outside of Matt's store

Here is the smile that I so love to see!


Matt working hard at making all of our drinks. He treated all of us to our favorite - we were very surprised and blessed. It was fun to watch him make everything. I know I may be prejudiced as his mom, but my vanilla latte was the best one I had ever had! It was really neat to get the inside "scoop" on all the drinks and procedures behind Starbucks famous drinks!

The younger boys sipping on their frappucinos!! I asked them to smile but they couldn't take the straws out of their mouth long enough to smile for the camera!

Hannah sat up at the bar and drank her favorite strawberry frappucino! (with extra strawberries of course)

All in all, we had a fun time laughing all the way down there in the car, listening to the voice of Danny's GPS speaking in it's Australian accent, the kids laughing in the back seat as they squished the monkey in the middle (Jacob) and excitedly going in to surprise Matt. It was a wonderful way to end the weekend, and the long week. We are so grateful that the Lord provides us moments like this as a family.

Guess what we had for dinner??

Sorry family, I just had to do it!! And none of you grabbed the camera to take a picture of me, so , I guess I just won't be in this one!! haha Honey, thanks for making these absolutely delicious, melt in your mouth, ribs!