Updated Changes New Way to Follow by Email

 

A few things have been changing with blogger.  One of them is that pretty soon the Feedburner Widget will no longer be available.  So, for those of you that get notifications of a new post by email, you will no longer get that in your inbox.  

I decided to sign up with FollowIt for email options.  It's just as easy before....enter in your email at the gray box to the right of the screen that says, "Get every post delivered to your email inbox" then, respond to the email sent to confirm your subscription.  Easy Peasy.

Thanks to those that follow my blog.  Your encouragement has been a blessing to me!  I started this blog over 13 years ago to keep our supporting churches and family updated.  We were on deputation traveling with our 3 kiddos, raising support to go to the French West Indies.  A lot has happened since then. A LOT!  We've added 3 kids to our crew.  And a daughter in law.  And 3 grandbabies.  We made it to language school in Canada, finished raising our support, moved to the foreign mission field and then, after a mysterious sickness, moved back to the USA.  We started a church and I've documented the excitement all along the way.  I've posted recipes, family fun nights and crafts.  You've prayed when I needed someone to pray and have watched our family grow.  I have loved blogging and the wonderful people I've met along the way.

I have some fun new ideas floating around in my head for my blog.  I'm excited about it.  So, if you'd like to keep receiving posts to your email, then update your email soon.  And thanks again for the encouragement and walking on this wonderful journey of life with us!

Books for Preteen Girls (A Guest Post by Callie Grace)

I had a friend contact me the other day and ask a question I asked myself many times about 15 years ago...."Any book recommendations for preteens?"  I remember when Josh, Beth, and Brenna became big time readers.  They loved loved loved books!!  But the struggle of keeping up with their reading was not possible.  It got to the point that it was hard to read through books before I gave them to them to read.  It was impossible!  They just read way to much for me to be able to do that.  BUT, I didn't want to stifle their desire to read, so I began to ask around and get recommendations from my friends.  I wanted the books they read to be free of any cursing, promiscuity, and point my children to the Lord, not away from Him.  The philosophies in some preteen books is scary and their influence was not one I wanted in the lives of my kiddos.

Well, the love of books has now passed on to Silas, Callie and Micah.  They love to read as well!  Callie is, by far, my biggest book worm of my younger 3.  Quite often I make her put books down to go do something else.  She loves to read!!

So when I received the message asking for recommendations, I talked to my 10 (soon to be 11) year old and asked her if she would be willing to do a guest post and mention 5 of her favorites.  I think she had a hard time narrowing it down, but she did great!  

So, without further ado, I will hand the typewriter over to my Callie, lover books:

Hi my name is Callie. I am 10 and I like books because it opens you into a whole new world. I like to read in my bed or on a swing outside.   These are some books I like:

The first one is the Red Rock Mystery Series by Jerry Jenkins and Chris Fabry.  My Dad used to read these to us and we were so excited whenever we started a new one. It's about two teenagers, Bryce and Ashley Timberline who solve mysteries on their ATVs.  These books have things that could possibly happen in real life.  These are some of my favorites and there are 15 books in the series.

Another one of the series is called The Peabody Series. It's about these teenagers who come from totally different lifestyles... one was an ex-bully and foster kid and the others must get over their predjudice to work together through many compelling adventures.  

Another certain book I Iike is not a series,though it does have a sequel. It's called Hattie Big Sky. 16-year-old Hattie moves from Iowa to Montana to live in her uncle's old homestead claim,in which her life began an exciting adventure.     

 Another series is called the Millie Keith Series and the Elsie Dinsmore Series,both from A Life of Faith books. From these books, you can see a girl in a certain time period grow up,spiritually and phisically.

I hope you enjoy them!

Thanks Callie!  She's a pretty awesome girl!!  :o)

A New Paddock

Our little goat business is growing and Silas and I are enjoying it!  I think we are almost to the point where our goats are profitable financially.  Almost.  For now, they are still our pets and a fun hobby to enjoy.

With our last batch of goats that we sold Patrick and I decided it would be wise to make another paddock so we can give a new place for our goats and cow.

It's so neat how the Lord provides.  On the day we were ready to buy some new fencing, someone on marketplace was selling their old fencing.  We saved a ton of money by buying it used!

So Patrick, Silas and Micah have been working and working to set up this new paddock.  It's turning out great!  Storybook farms is growing and it's so much fun!

 

"P" Family Fun NIght

I mentioned a couple of months ago about our stars program that we do for our kiddos schooling.  We have a chart where we can put up a star for every A they make on a quiz or test.  When they reach 50 stars they get to pick from one of 3 letters that I give them.  Then, we do something that pertains to that letter. Well, they reached 50 stars again!  Callie, since she had the most stars, chose 'P'.  We had a great P night!!

We decided to make homemade pizzas.  Micah made a dessert pizza he thought of.  It has rice krispy treats as the crust.  Then I mixed cream cheese, sugar and vanilla.  This was the sauce.  Then, he topped it with strawberries and chocolate.  Wow!!! It was so good!!

Silas created a honey-mustard chicken pizza.  It was amazing, too!!!

It was fun creating in the kitchen together!

Patrick decided to recreate the PBJ pizza he made in Canada.  This time he made it with jelly instead of fresh fruit.  It was good.  I think.

Then, we finished off the night with Pictionary AIR.  It's a game that we bought Micah for his birthday.  It's pretty cool!  It works with your TV and the lines you draw show up on the TV so you can interact with them.  It's fun!

I'm proud of my kiddos.  It's been a different sort of school year.  We didn't start until the beginning of October this year because books were on back order because of so many students homeschooling this year.  So, they have been working hard to catch up.  It looks like we should be done the middle of June.  So thankful for being able to school my kids from home.  I'm enjoying this time, because I know before long we will be filling out college applications!  It goes that quick.

 

How many chocolate chips for each cookie?

About 4 years ago, when Josh and Tabitha told me that I would become a Lolli, I knew I wanted to be the type of grandmother that baked, and especially cookies!  Some day I want to be the type of granny to have a cookie jar always filled with homebaked goodies.  For now it would never be full!  We would eat them too quickly!

I knew that I not only wanted to have a cookie jar, but I wanted to bake with my grandchildren.  That has been something that I have really enjoyed!

So when Liberty and Freedom came over for the evening, we planned on making some cookies!  Yay!

Liberty thought we should add all the chocolate chips on top of the cookies right before we bake them. I think understand her reasoning now..

Each cookie ended up averaging about 1 chocolate chip each.  The others ended up in little girls' mouths.  Smart girls!

 Precious.  That's what these moments are.

He's 9!

My baby boy turned 9!  I know I say it often, but time really does fly!  It seems like we were just announcing his birth yesterday!  Or, okay, maybe last week. :o)  But, time really is fleeting fast.  My prayer is to savour every moment with joy!

For his birthday he wanted to invite over some of the "guys" of the church.  We had a great time with water balloon games and an ice cream cake.

 Micah is my sensitive, loving kid.  He stays concerned about the needs of others and is truly thoughtful.  He is a sweetheart!  And we love him dearly.  I thank the Lord for my boy!!

Great Grandparents

I have to admit....I have had fun showing off Victory Belle!  It's so neat to introduce her to others.  That's my granddaughter!!  I'm so glad that Mom and Dad were able to come up for a quick visit to meet her!

Of course they fell in love right away, too!

They were even able to come to church with us! That hasn't happened in over a year.  So thankful to be getting things somewhat back to normal!

 

Loving her time with Pops

Victory Belle is going to be just like her two older sisters....she's going to love her Pops.  I can tell already.  

When Patrick and I became parents to Joshua, I loved to watch him love his son.  As we had more children, his love grew with each of them.  I loved watching that.  Now, I am enjoying the benefits of being married to a grandfather that loves abundantly.  Now that's attractive! 

 

Wheels for the girls

It's been a long time coming, but my girls fianlly have a car!  When we sold our old Expedition and the church bought us a new(er) one, they were no longer on the insurance and couldn't drive.  I didn't realize how often they need to use the car!

We began looking and looking.  We had a pretty small budget with the money we made from the Expedition.  But, the Lord knew and took care of everything.  We bought them a Honda CRV.  It needed some repairs, and we knew that ahead of time.  I am thankful for an honest seller!  We took the car to a shop ran by a man in our church.  He did a great job and gave us a great deal!  

So they finally have a set of wheels dedicated to them.  Yay!

 

I have chosen...

 This morning I was reading in Psalm 119.  (I love reading in Psalms!!)  Verse 30 says, "I have chosen the way of truth."  What a good reminder for me!

Each day we are faced with "I have chosen..." and we get to be the ones to fill in the blank.  We get to choose what we will do with the moments God has given us.  We get to choose what we will do with our talents, (we all have some!)  and with our treasues. (No matter how big or small)

God gives us the freeddom to choose.  But the conseuences are set.  Choose wisely and you will reap blessings and benefits that come directly from God Himself.  Choose unwisely and we will reap disappointment and regrests. 

As for me, I want to lay my head on my pillow tonight knowing I chose wisely,  Will I fail?  Sometimes.  And our gracious Lord is so forgiving and merciful when we do.  But my goal for today is to choose the good and to choose the right.  Who's with me?

Happy Easter!

Easter morning started out bright and early preparing for church.  Every Sunday morning is busy for us, but Easter just seems a little extra busy.  Everyone seems to want to make sure there is some pastel or pretty color in their wardrobe.  When flowers are blooming, we want to look pretty, too! ;o)  With me being gone all week it seemed especially tricky getting everything all together.  Micah has learned how to tie a  half windsor and he was so excited to wear it this way for church.  It only took him about an hour to get it done! ;o)

And of course the Easter Bunny comes that morning, too.  My kids and I joke about this.  We've always been very honest with them about the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus.  They are like Mickey Mouse, they are not real, but fun to pretend and act silly with.  I woke the kids that morning by announcing  "I just saw a giant white cottontail bouncing away from the house and I think he left candy behind!!"

Then, it was off to church.....our favorite place to be!

It was super busy at VSIBC!  We had a record attendance that day of 115!  Praise the Lord!

My Josh with his girls.  He's so proud of each of them and loves them so much.  Aren't they a beautiful family!

Then, it was off to Denise's house for Easter lunch and an egg hunt!

This lady right here made a yummy ham with ALL the fixins'!  It was so delicious!

Callie and I made a Robin's Egg Nest Cake.  It was so fun!

I sure am thankful for a wonderful holiday with my family.  But, I'm even more thankful for a Risen Saviour!  Because He lives we have hope of heaven.  Because He lives we have a life that we can live for Him.  Because He lives I can face tomorrow with a peace that only He can give!!