March Life in Pictures

~  Just a Few Moments of My Month   ~

I was working merrily along in the kitchen, getting far more accomplished than usual, when it hit me: The tots are QUIET. Have been quiet for a little while now. Any mom of tots knows that this means you must investigate right away. Case in point: 1 entire box of Strawberry Shortcake band-aids applied to 1 little tot's ankles. Mama keeps a straight and serious face, but inwardly thanks God it was just band-aids and not the Vaseline or the Desitin!!

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I've been on a sewing spree lately. I really do love creating if I just have the time to do it. Time is rather scarce, as always, but a couple of little things I did get done are these ...

A skirt for Christi from my left-over curtain scraps.

Curtains for the nursery.

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A gorgeous sunrise after a snowy night. March has been a most odd yet delightful month this year! We went from many inches of snow to vibrant green grass in less than 2 weeks time. I'm loving it!!



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Sometimes moms do crazy things just to make their kiddoes smile .....

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This little rolly-poly, handsome fellow is just pure joy in this household. I wonder how we ever made it without him!!

He just turned 5 months old this week, and is a solid 20 pounds already. My arms feel about like jello by the time I lay him in his bed at night. He loves his siblings, noisy toys, rice cereal, his softest blanket, and his Mama!

He does *not* like a quiet, boring house, applesauce, sleeping on his tummy, ladies Bible study, or any type of bottle.

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Such delightfulness! Poking tiny little seeds into fluffy soil and planning our first garden here on the farm. I'm sure we're over-zealous right now, but we cannot help but imagine blueberry bushes, raspberries, apple trees, grape arbors, mint tea, tulip beds, lilac bushes, a large strawberry patch, and much more. We've been tilling a large section, and also doing another section with "lasagna gardening". I'm so excited to see how it all turns out.

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A parting shot. This little missy has hair that will go completely curly at the first sign of heat or humidity. Her smile is healing up after a dozen or so stitches a couple of weeks ago. She was standing on a stool by the sink, helping me wash dishes when she got too far off the one corner and tumbled off. She caught the corner of her mouth and it was so deep and nasty looking. We went from Dr.s office to Urgent Care to ER to the specialist where we finally got an excellent Dr {father of 5!} to fix it up. She was such a trooper!!! I promised her a reward for her bravery, and she had only 1 choice: a fancy princess dress. So a fancy princess dress it was and she was just delighted.

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And that, my friends, it a couple of snapshots of my month. Glad you stopped by!

The Little Things

It's the little things that count, I think. That add up to make lifetimes of memories. The small, almost un-noticeable, trivial details that seem to make a difference to the little lives around me.

Like putting on endless coats, boots, hats and mittens.

Like filling dozens of sippy cups and water glasses.

Like taking a few minutes to play a couple rounds of UNO with the 5-yr. old.

Like coloring Strawberry Shortcake pictures with little girls.

Like fixing a favorite meal of sweet-n-sour chicken over rice.

Like teaching the 8 yr. old to make carrot cake.

Like whipping up fruit smoothies for everyone before bed.

Like saying "I Love You" and giving genuine smiles into shining eyes.

Like snuggling my 4 mo. old with his favorite soft blanket when his eyes are drooping.

Like baking pretty cupcakes with the 3 yr. old.

But how can I not spill over to those around me when my amazing Father pours out those little things {and not so little!} to me so often?

Like helping us find the error on our tax forms that saved us thousands of dollars.

Like restoring my milk supply when I ran out after the Babe was so sick for a week.

Like surrounding me with such sweet friends who bless me so often.

Like whispering such utter peace when my heart is in turmoil.

Like giving me a hope and a future. I have so much, both right this minute, and to look forward to. I am so, so, so very blessed.

I thank God for little things!

Anybody Home??

Literally. If you knocked on our door in Kalona tonight, there would not be anybody home. Yes, alot has happened in the past couple of weeks. And simultaneously, no one has been at home on this blog either. A-hem. Yeah, you had already figured that out, right?

In early May, we found a property online that kind of appealed to us. A little further west than we preferred, and the house looked a little ... crazy. But we set up an appointment to see it. Turned out that Jason went to see it himself since I was out yard saling with a friend and totally didn't get back home in time. Jason liked the place pretty much {he didn't remember much about the house, but the barns made a big impression on him}. So we put in an offer. Six hours later someone else put in an offer too, and the owners sold it to him within hours. Done deal. Okay then. God, we accept that.

Several weeks later our real estate agent contacted us and told us that the same place was coming up for sale again. Apparently the new owner simply needed to own the property for collateral for a few days {I so don't get this whole thing} and now he wanted to turn it around and sell quickly. So, we repeated our offer, and within hours, he had accepted and all of a sudden we were home owners! And I had not yet even seen the place! lol  Neat side note here: we paid less for the place than the other buyer did. AND he had to deal with bringing the sewer up to code. Fun!

So June 29th we signed about 473 papers and walked out of the bank with the keys to our very own {A-hem, bank-owned} property! Three acres, a 5-bedroom home, huge barns, sheds, and enough wild wooded areas to keep my boys totally enthralled for weeks. We were and are so, so, so excited.

The next 4 weeks was pretty much filled to the max with either A.) packing like a mad woman at the old house or B.) painting, cleaning, and re-modeling the new one. Every night I would fall into bed exhausted, thinking that I couldn't possibly be any more tired. And the next night I somehow was even more tired. Several {kind, thoughtful} friends advised us to slow it all down and just move in several months down the road. But the idea of forking out both rent and mortgage just went down pretty hard, so we kept at it. And on July 30, we moved. Yay for lots of friends and helpers, or I don't know where we would be!!

We've been in the new place for 1 week now. Today I was reflecting back over the past couple of weeks and the feelings of being so richly blessed  began to wash over me. God has been so incredibly good to us. The joy of having a place to call our own. Space to stretch and grow. The little blessings that fit our family like a glove. The freedoms to dream and plan and hope. Oh, Jesus, we love you and thank you!

~More pictures & details coming soon. I promise! =)

Just a Jumble

Wow. My poor, neglected blog! I have so lacked inspiration lately.

I've been lacking motivation too.

Been spending quite a few days just lounging on the couch, barely feeling well enough to get up and do anything. But soggy diapers still demand attention. Hungry children still need lunch, even if it is just tomato soup out of a can and some grilled cheese sandwiches. Dirty laundry still demands to be washed, even if we tumble through baskets of clean laundry to find the desperately needed clean underwear.

I will be glad when the whole morning sickness thing is over and my normal zest and energy comes back!

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I think pregnancy hormones make me more keenly aware of other people's pain. Okay, that sounds weird, but it's either that or I am turning to mush lately.

A friend who is walking a horrible road, trying to find herself. I cannot get her off of my mind or heart.

Feeling like I MUST find a way to comfort an anxious, lonely, or scared sister, even though I am too far away to possibly do anything.

Trying to find an appropriate video clip to share with a girl contemplating abortion. She wants to see what would really happen. I couldn't even watch 1 whole minute, and I am a mess. Weeping over the pain GOD must feel. His tiny, most precious gifts torn to shreds and left broken and bleeding.

I don't usually think of myself being all that tender-hearted. I mean, I care, yeah, but I am also more of a prophet-type to say it like I see it and if you don't like it, oh well. Anyways, somehow the past few weeks, I'm feelin' it! And it's driving me back to my Father again and again.

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I'm still loving the God-spottings in my life. An unexpected day of sun when the forecast was 90% rain. New green grass. A thoughtful husband who stops for pizza on his way home from work. Coffee {as in, iced, mocha, with whipped cream, and barely tasting like coffee, lol} and a good chat with a wonderful friend. And just today I won a huge door prize at MOPS; an hour-long massage!! Another great way I wish he would show up would be in the whole potty-training-the-2-year-old department. But I digress.

I am loving teaching my little girlies to hang up laundry again. They barely remember doing it last year, and they are over the moon with joy every time I haul a basket of clothes out! 

I am loving a new, tiny life growing inside me again. I am so content in knowing that God ordained it. Human reasoning may never fully understand His ways, and I am going to delight in that. And I am amazed again at how fiercely protective I become of that fragile, precious gift.

I love watching my 16 month old learning new things every day. He is like a sponge, soaking up new understanding everywhere. He dearly loves being outside, and our crazy winter-ish spring has been quite a trial for him.

I am loving dreaming with my husband about a house/property to buy. We are asking for some serious guidance from God, and tentatively proceeding with looking for the "perfect place" for our family. At the "perfect price", of course!

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Hopefully it will not be another 6 weeks before I am back to blog again!

Story Time

Everybody likes a story. I hear it soo often from my children ... "Mom, please tell me a story!" I remember asking my mom or dad for a story very frequently, and the best ones were always the real-life ones from years ago.


Tonight I have a story to tell. It's kind of a long one, but I never get tired of it. So, go get your cup of tea or your soft, fuzzy blanket and settle in for a good story. Yes, I'll wait to start til you get back. And yes, you can sit right here beside me. No, you can't lay across the back of the couch ... oh, sorry, you're not my kiddoes. =)


Once upon a time about 17 or some odd years ago, there lived a very wealthy man in central Texas. He was a highly skilled veterinarian surgeon, and there was nothing he wished for that he did not have. Gorgeous mansion, private pool, 3rd floor weight room, late model cars, his own boat. Perfect family; lovely wife, 2 boys, 2 girls. But something was missing. Life lacked real meaning. He became more and more desperate for reality. Until, one day, he found Jesus. That in itself is a story for another day.


When William found Jesus, it was not a sweet little nursery-rhyme prayer that he mumbled while raising his hand at a meeting. It was a life-shattering event that changed everything. He would read God's Word and it was real. When he read about the rich young ruler, his heart was convicted. And when he understood about living simply and giving to the poor, he knew what he had to do. Often he pleaded with his family to just sell everything and live in a simple cottage, giving the extra to those in need. Mrs. William was horrified, and thought he had lost his marbles. There was no way she was going to give up her dream home and her high-faluting life-style. So William tried to think of a way to be more humble & simple. He began to sell the expensive cars, and to give up the costly weight-room equipment. Mrs. William had had enough. She filed a restraining order against her husband, and later, a divorce.


Poor William was so distraught. Daily he sought the Lord as to what to do. Finally he took a drastic step and decided to walk away. To walk the highways and the byways, sharing the love of Jesus. To become homeless and to identify with the least of these. He lost his life of ease, and became known as "Pilgrim Bill". And that is what he had been doing for years when I met him. Ragged-looking, trampy, & just a little scary. Not the kind of guy you'd want to get too close to. But his testimony of love for Jesus outshone everything else, and my dad brought William home from the side of the road to stay with us for a night. That night turned into 3 months, and later, 6 months, and our lives have been intertwined for years ever since. Again, that is a whole 'nother story, for another time.


As anyone can imagine, William had more stories to tell than we had ever heard before. He could keep an audience of any age-range completely and totally captivated for hours on end. Not only was his life before leaving Texas extremely incredible, his experiences while walking the roads could have filled literal books. And it's one of those stories I  wanted to share tonight. Yes, finally, we got all the preliminaries done, we've set the stage, and we can proceed. =)


One winter Pilgrim Bill was walking through Colorado. It was bitterly cold, and there was snow in the forecast. Bill spotted a hunter's cabin a little ways into the woods, and was delighted to discover that it was empty and would offer him some shelter during the storm. For the next several days he holed up in the cabin, spending amazing amounts of hours curled up in his 40-below-zero-rated sleeping bag reading his Bible and communing with his Savior in ways that leave me ashamed. Stopping every once in a while to fix himself a fresher mug of coffee, and peer out at the storm. Finally after 3 days the sun came out, and although it was cold, Bill felt prompted to head on out and start walking.


He had only gone about a hundred yards when he heard what sounded like a threshing machine clanking and banging up behind him. An enormous boat of a car pulled up to a stop, and the man in the drivers seat was the hugest human Bill had ever laid eyes on. He was covered in hair .... hair everywhere. Bill glanced to the heavens and said, "Lord? .... really??" "Yes, Bill," God replied.
So Bill leaned over to the window where he saw the trashiest dumpster-car he had ever seen.  A booming low voice growled, "Hello, there. My name's Grizzly, and I'm willin' ta give ya a ride if ya want." So Bill shoved and heaved his backpack into the back seat on top of a week's worth of McDonald's wrappers and baked bean cans and soda bottles and they were off. Bill soon learned that Grizzly had just been released from serving time at the Wyoming State Penitentiary for killing two police officers  and was on his way home to Corpus Christi, Texas.


Bill's heart trembled and he breathed a prayer for God to receive his spirit. He felt sure he'd be next on Grizzly's hit list when he began to speak of the things of God. But as he had done with hundreds and thousands before, Bill began to share with Grizzly the ways of Jesus and the true meaning of life in Christ. It turned out that Grizzly was very well versed .... he had availed himself of many an educational program during his years on the inside, and he knew every argument inside and out. He had no use for religion, nor for the feeble men who use it as a crutch. He made sure Bill knew exactly how disgusted he was with God and how much he did not believe in the reality that Bill was trying to share. Finally after 30 minutes or more of airing his disapproval and disgust, there was a pause and Bill turned to Grizzly and said, "You don't really believe all of that though, do you Grizzly?" Grizzly drooped a little and admitted that no, he didn't really know what he believed. Bill silently asked the Lord how to reach his heart; how to make a difference right here and now. "Ask him if he ever came close to dying", whispered God into Bill's heart. So Bill did. Grizzly nodded his massive head and agreed that there had been many-a-time when he thought it would be his last day. But, he said, one case in particular stood out to him. Bill invited him to share the story, and Grizzly did.


In his earlier days, Grizzly had been a trucker. One day he was trucking along with a D9 Cat on his trailer ... an enormous, over-weight load. He was coming down the mountains out in the Rockies; switchback after switchback, with a high cliff on one side and a sheer drop-off down the other. All of a sudden he rounded a hairpin curve to see a school bus, turned over on it's side, completely across both lanes. Little school children were spilling out of every door, and climbing out of broken windows. Grizzly had a split-second decision to make. Should he hit that bus, surely killing many little ones, or take the rig over the cliff, plunging 100 feet to his own death? He took the cliff. He fell for a long, long time. When he hit the bottom he found himself trapped under a semi truck, the trailer, and that D9. But he was alive! The little pet raccoon he kept with him in the cab for company was not trapped, and was running around the cab frantically searching for a way out. Some hours later Grizzly was rescued and he spent many weeks recovering in the hospital. He told Bill of the many parents who would bring their children by the hospital, words failing them to express their profound gratefulness for how he spared their children. And how the teacher brought her class into his hospital room to say their thank-yous and show him how much they appreciated his sacrifice. And of the humongous, enormous card that he received, with signatures of each child, and how much it meant to them what he had done. "Yeah", Grizzly commented with a tear on his face and a quiver in his voice, "I reckon that was the most special thing I've ever received."


There was silence in the old beater car for a few moments, and then Bill spoke up, "What do you think you would have felt, Grizzly, if none of those kids or their parents had ever came and thanked you for what you did that day? What if they didn't even care?"


"Well", said Grizzly, "I suppose I woulda been real sad. Yeah, terrible sad. Probably even woulda been mad!"


"Think about it then, Grizzly," Bill continued, " Jesus took the cliff for you! He saw that you were dying, and he took the death. He took it for you and you haven't even thanked him. You don't even acknowledge what He did for you, and you don't even care."


Grizzly's eyes stare hard at Bill. "I guess I never thought about  it like that, Bill. No, I never did. Boy, that's just terrible. You reckon He'd still have me? Ya think He can forgive me?" And Bill sat beside old Grizzly while tears fell down his face and for the first time he thanked Jesus for taking the cliff for him.


What a whooping and a hollering commenced to pour forth out of the old car as they continued on down the road. But suddenly Grizzly noticed that the little red needle was really pert-near droppin out of sight. So they rolled in to the nearest police station. Grizzly asked Bill to keep his foot on the gas pedal of Ol' Betsy lest she should quit running, and heaved himself into the police station. Soon he returned to the car with a handful of voutures for gas and food. They rolled into the gas station & fueled up. Bill could not believe his eyes, and finally asked Grizzly how in the world he managed to get free gas & food like that. Grizzly replied, "Well, I just go in there and tell the officers that my name is Grizzly, and I just got released from doing time in  the Wyoming State Penitentiary for killing two police officers. I am on my way home to Corpus Christi, Texas, and unless you'd like for me to settle here in your town, would you consider givin me some food and gas voutures? And they give em to me every time".


It was many miles later that Bill climbed out of Grizzly's car, and hugged his new brother good-bye. I don't think they ever saw each other again on this earth,  but I know, that when I get to heaven, I want to sit down and hear the story again, first from Jesus' perspective, and then from Bill's, and then from  Grizzly's.


After all, we all love a good story.


Disclaimer: I am telling this story completely from memory, and it has been many years since I heard it from Bill. Forgive me if some of my details are wrong.

Thoughts on Worship

My life has been ... how shall I say ... less than easy lately. To be honest, it's been downright discouraging and trying. And it's been tough for me, maybe because I am usually so confident & peaceful & even-keeled. I'm not used to being a puddle on the floor so often in one week! There's been an awful lot of thoughts jumbling around in my head the past couple of weeks. Thoughts of God, how He thinks, and of who I am. Thoughts of my needs versus His perfect plan. And try as I might to understand, it seems the more I think and ponder it all, the more convinced I become that His ways are far above my ways, and He doesn't intend for me to figure Him all out.

But one thing He is showing me, and that I am figuring out {sometimes it takes Him a while to get through!!} , is that He desires my worship. It is His love language. He craves worship like I crave affection. He needs it like I need someone to care about me. I can't exactly give God a hug or cook Him my finest meal or buy Him a big beautiful present, but I can give Him worship.

So my next question is, what is worship??  How in the world do I give the God of the Universe meaningful worship? The dictionary says that worship is showing reverence & admiration to a deity or supreme being. That's very eloquent, but I was thinking of something more down-to-earth. Are my prayers worship? The way I live my life? Is it the time I spend on my knees with my heart overflowing with gratitude & song? Maybe all of the above? I really feel like I don't do a very good job of worshipping. If my worship was the only worship God ever received, would He feel adequately loved & admired? :Blush: I doubt it. Especially if He has a God-sized need to receive it!

Then I {in such human-ness!}  said, "God, okay, I will worship you. I will do my best! But then what about all this ... 'life' that is happening!? What are you gonna do? How am I supposed to handle it?" And He said, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added unto you." Grin. Wow. He is so awesome! I can't wait to see what happens next!