Year's End

O Love Beyond Compare,

Thou art good when thou givest,

when thou takest away,

when the sun shines upon,

when night gathers over me.

Thou hast loved me before the foundation of the world,

and did love me still,

in spite of my hard heart, ingratitude, distrust.

Thy goodness has been with me during another year,

leading me through a twisting wilderness,

in retreat helping me to advance,

when beaten back making sure headway.

Thy goodness will be with me in the year ahead;

I hoist sail and draw up anchor,

With thee as the blessed Pilot of my future as of my past.

I bless thee that thou hast veiled my eyes to the waters ahead.

If thou hast appointed storms of tribulation,

thou wilt be with me in them;

If I have to pass through tempests of persecution and temptation,

I shall not drown;

If I am to die,

I shall see thy face the sooner;

If a painful end is to be my lot,

grant me grace that my faith fail not;

If I am to be cast aside from the service I love,

I can make no stipulation;

Only glorify thyself in me whether in comfort or trial,

as a chosen vessel meet always for thy use.

- Taken from The Valley of Vision

Thoughts on Babies

Do you see that ticker above? 76 days to go until baby! That is aaaaalmost 2.5 months left. As I sit here typing I am being kicked and punched as I try to convince little one he has to wait for 76 more days. If he is a good baby he will ONLY wait 76 days. His presence is announced every couple minutes now with movements and twisting. I now wake in the night a couple times to his rumbling. He is 15" and 2.5lbs.

Micah(3.5yrs) talks about him daily. He reeeeeally understands there is a baby brother in there for him and soon he will be holding him. He is planning all sorts of fun. The talk is increasing more and more as everyone can feel *little one* kicking their hand on Mommy's tummy. We are all getting itching arms! I have to be honest, I used to think *those* women who had *lots* of children were probably dreading the next one being born(I used to have many other strong opinions about those women with ALL those children, but we won't go there!). Now that I have been enlightened :) I have come to realize the more you have, the longer the wait seems as you really want to get that baby in your arms...For me, moreso than the first the second and so on. I dreaded the sleepless nights, the nursing, the crying the first three months. It still took me several babies to stop this thinking, maybe it is all the help I have now with the older children(10 & 12)? Is it God's grace in allowing me to learn/become content in my role as a godly wife? I really, truly am more excited and anticipating this little ones birth more. I sometimes stop and pause amongst the six children packed in our home and think...am I crazy? Nope, because I am truly having the time of my life.

Believe it or not, these will be my two(Gracie and #7) closest babies at 20 months apart. That is pretty good spacing and not at all close, in my opinion. I should only have two in diapers for 4 months. Gracie is already showing interest in potty training! Yay! She appears to be a smart one who hates poopy pants already and we make a big deal out of her yucky diapers! Before her bath a couple days ago, I let her potty on the floor as I pointed and told her what it was, she stopped and held it and I encouraged her to go again...she did. She controlled it. I am not going to put her on the potty yet, I am not ready for that, she is not ready for that, but as soon as she is two, she will know exactly what it is and train quickly.

We did not go to church today as we still have sickies. I'm still not well and stayed on the couch all afternoon, how about that!? What a treat! My hubby rented a couple tried and true movies for the kids, bought Papa Murphys for dinner and we all settled down. The wind is STILL howling out there. 12 degrees today but rose tonight to the 20's. Snow drifting up as quick as it is shoveled. Weather is keeping us from finishing our shopping but my mother and I will hopefully get into B-ham tomorrow. Sorry for the lame blog. I am not wanting to make myself think clearly. I do need to go water my poor frozen puppy dogs.

Ya'll stay warm now, ya hear?

Nice-n-Cozy

This morning...

This afternoon...

Not a big difference but it is nice. The wind is blowing so hard that you can't play outside.



I love this picture from this morning. Snow falling outside, Christmas music on the piano and Frosty the Snowman on video...too cute.

Fever eyes....still.

This neat fellow found shelter in our garage, but not for long. Daddy caught him and brought him in the house for everyone to watch. It is a Common Flicker woodpecker. We learned they have very long tongues and incredible accuracy when pecking. They don't draw blood and God gave them a fire orange coloring that only shows when they are in flight...or in a cage. We guessed that "Flicker" came from the way they look like a flicker of fire when they are in flight.

And yes, we finally made our bus ride. Lotsa licorice and lights to behold. The bus driver seemed to enjoy our *caroling* that we waited to start until the bus emptied out.

Now lets see if I can get another little chocolate mouse to jump in my coffee cup...

Nope, it's not.

It's not true. Those forecasters. How dare they get us all excited. We have terrible cold high winds but zip for snow. It has been 22 degrees here all day.

We missed church :( Gracie is miserable sick, tonight it appears she has a double ear infection. Paul and I have to literally pin her down to get two drops of garlic oil in each ear and I KNOW just the pressure from her screaming must be so painful. It is bad enough she is still fussy on Ibuprofen! Micah had an ear infection, but the garlic oil cleared it up right away. I don't know what it is with ear infections this time around!

We live right in the valley where the NE winds come ripping through and we are getting pounded. Our woodstove is running with about 3-4 logs in it at a time with both dampers open...pretty much as hot as she'll go! I love this weather. Off to cuddle the sickies.

Is it true, could it be?

Is it true, could it be?

We are sitting on the edge of our chairs waiting for that elusive ssnnooww.

Ready to jump for the box of mittens and hats.

Hot apple cider and warm blankets.

Throwing balls of ssnnooww on the wood stove and watch them sizzle and jump across the top.

Go find sticks for arms!

Grab the carrots!

Pick rocks out of the driveway before the ssnnooww covers them up!

Is it true, could it be?

Learning contentment the hard way.

Be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." Hebrews 13:5

Be content in all things, give thanks in all things...Those can be hard for children to grasp when their little worlds don't go as planned. It is a hard one for me to reconcile in the larger disappointments of life. Tonight we had one of those small superficial disappointments that should not be any big deal. But is was. And the tears flowed.

Every year we look forward to the second Friday in Dec to put on our santa hats, grab our bags of red licorice and go for a half hour ride on the Lynden Circulator bus to look at all the lights in Lynden. It is a biiiiig deal for the children. This was our 6th annual ride. We have talked about it all week and everyone was just giddy. We loaded up the van, even Daddy had a santa hat on as we drove to the bus station! The bus was set to leave at 6:13pm and our experience is he is precisely right on time. We parked right next to the station and waited. The bus came at 6:11, yay!

We quickly gathered our stuff and piled out of the van...just as the bus took off again, at 6:11...about 15 seconds after it stopped. I waved at Mr. bus driver hoping to catch his eye, but to no avail. Almost in unison we had 5 very unhappy children and a couple broke out in tears. Daddy gathered them up and used it as a lesson that we need to glorify the Lord in our actions even when things don't go the way we hoped. I was even discretely mad! The driver never even looked to see and he had come all this way...but like Daddy said it was the good Lord's will and He does all things well...even when the bus leaves us standing in the cold with santa hats on and licorice in our pockets.

It is so goofy as we can easy go tomorrow night, too, and we will give it another try if it isn't snowing too hard, and if it is...well, that will be a treat in itself.

Cookies, cookies and more goodies

I got this from my sweet little six yr old reader. I know I have said this already but it is SO much fun to have a new reader in the house. Their whole world is coming into focus! She can read Daddy's shirts(her favorite), she can read the Bible, with a little help, at devotions now, she is learning how many words she has mispronounced aaaaall these years. She thought every word with the *ing* sound, was pronounced *een* so she is relearning a LOT of words! She sees her middle name everywhere we go at Christmastime and loves to point it out. Which leads me to the above picture. We have a big box of Kid K'Nex that she loves to play with and yesterday she brought this up to me so I could have it as a Christmas decoration, isn't it sweet! It reads JOY.


We started our Christmas cookies. It takes a good week to complete as we only make about one batch a day. Dawn gave us this idea on her blog and we LOVE it. A new favorite though I can not manage to put the minute little eyes and whiskers on so ours are blind and whiskerless.


All these guys are are maraschino cherries, with stems, dipped in melted chocolate chips then have a Hershey's kiss placed for it's head and two sliced almonds for ears. Ooops, one fell in my hot cup of coffee...

The mice were so much fun they do not fall under the classification of work and then these pretzels are just plain *no work*. I melt 8 oz of vanilla candy coating in the double broiler then throw in 2lbs of pretzels and mix. They are sooooo yummy.

Here Mom, this is for you. Emma finally found her doll and the dress at the same time and yes, it fits beautifully! The bloomers were small as her dolly has a big toosh, but the neck opening on the dress was perfect. As you can see by the smile on her face, Lucy likes it too!

We have fevers and sick children to rock today, it sounds like everyone else out there does too. There is nothing better(for a mommy) than to have a sick child(or two) climb on your lap and just sit, sucking their thumb and snuggling their blanky. All the fussing stops, the tears go away and I think it works better than tylenol on a fever. I love it.

Less Santa, More Mistletoe...& My Hubby

This is my favorite ornament of 2008

Gracie found Emma's school tub. She sits chatting away with baby talk reading a book to herself. She is too cute.

Then all in a moments notice away flies the book and in flies the thumb, it is naptime.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It's a Hubby Tag! You get to know my hubby a little better! I got this from a friend's blog. O.k., she feels like a friend because I read her blog often, but she really doesn't know me, lol! Anyhow, she posted this and I thought it was cute & I had time on my hands so here goes..

1. He's sitting in front of the TV, what is on the screen? He's sitting in front of the TV? His arch enemy? I bet the screen is black if you look closely his eyes are closed. Media/entertainment of choice is his iPod with the newest daily free title downloaded from Behemoth.com loaded and playing.


2. You're out to eat; what kind of dressing does he get on his salad? Ranch? Hmmm...I never see him eat salad.


3. What's one food he doesn't like? Zucchini!


4. You go out to the bar. What does he order? Bar? Lol, you mean BARista... He will order a grande mocha, double chocolate. He never orders different! He so does NOT think outside the box.


5. Where did he go to high school? Lynden High School.


6. What size shoe does he wear? Romeos 11 M - Everything else 11.5 Wide


7. If he was to collect anything, what would it be? Tools, roofing, guns, stuff, aluminum, scraps of stainless steel and other metals that he can weld or that make his eyes twinkle...No really...come to my house and see he stash of *pretties* It is bad. Oh...don't forget casters. Ask about his boxes of unmatched casters stashed in the attic. Oh and the...



8. What is his favorite type of sandwich? Grilled Ham and Cheese, double the ham, double the cheese and add an egg.


9. What would he eat every day if he could? Snickers bar. Hershey's bar.


10. What is his favorite cereal? When he used to eat cereal it would be any type of sugar with cereal added. Frosted Flakes, Frosted Cheerios...The yummy stuff.


11. What would he never wear? Pink or purple, they're related! No way!


12. What is his favorite sports team? I scored ladies, he hates all sports! So do I...I am blessed, lol.


13. Who did he vote for? Chuck Baldwin


14. Who is his best friend? ME. But since that's a boring answer and sort of a given, I would say Neil.


15. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn't do? Loose my car keys. Leave the van on empty for Sunday morning. Misplace my cell phone. Not blog for more than 5 days in a row. With pregnancy brain, this list has increased greatly.


16. How many states has he lived in? Hmm...2? Florida and Washington...


17. What is his heritage? Polish.


18. You bake him a cake for his birthday; what would it be? Chocolate cake with a chocolate fudge center with chocolate frosting and fudge sprinkles...chilled. Of course we would HAVE to put the candles you can never blow out on top and serve it with chocolate ice cream.


19. Did he play sports in high school? Refer to Question #12


20. What could he spend hours doing? Fishing with his boys. Working outdoors. He is the farthest thing from a lazy man! He fixes and refines all the needful things around the house and is getting ready to install a new septic system, drain field(you know it dear, they are gonna make you do it) and add onto our home, by himself...IF the planning department will let him. Big IF.


21. What's something cool about him? Cool is such a relative term! He loves his God and his family and those two come first to him, praise be to God. His boys are by his side in everything he does. He'd rather be at the coffee shop with his daughter(s) rather than *the guys* on a Saturday morning. He can shoot a 4" pattern with his bow and arrows from 40 yards(I think that is SO cool). He is a jack-of-all-trades and a master-of-most. He is stylish and picks most all our home decor and colors. He is easy to dress - CarHartt Jeans, T-shirt, Romeos. I will stop now, or this will become a book, lol. He is SO cool.



Let me know if you end up doing this tag as well. I'd love to hear more about your hubbies!

New Traditions

I am a copy cat. I have openly admitted that before. I have no creativity of my own, therefore I mooch off others. Its works for me.

Gingerbread houses. The grand finale. This is what you build when you have mastered cookies, then gingerbread men. Perfect mothers, you know, cook, cut and piece together their own gingerbread houses for their children to decorate with home-made icing and hand-picked candies from the bulk food section. Sound like fun? Um, I'm not big on baking if what I make has to fit together in the end to create an object with form. Though I have always wanted to *make* a gingerbread house, you know, be that perfect mother. Every Christmas season comes and goes with this little dark cloud of "You never baked a gingerbread house again this year!".

So, I was reading a blog by another mother from our church, Marie, and became inspired! She spoke of a gingerbread house kit? Really? Everything contained in one little box at one little price? And trust me, $8.99 is a terrific price considering it is the entire kit! No baking and it even gives me three, yes three, decorating options for my non-creative brain to use!! Oh the bliss.

To top things off, our church offered free childcare Friday evening for parents to get in three hours of shopping, or dinner, or both! We dropped off one eager 12yr old *helper*, 3 to be watched, 1 with Grandma and took 1 with us(he came down with a sore throat). We choose both dinner and shopping, and went to Michaels where I found this kit!(Costco was closed Marie, your kit looks much nicer!) My children were ecstatic when we came home with it!

Look! No extra creativity needed! I LOVE this!

While the little ones napped Jessica and I iced it together.

Then had to wait three hours.

So the girls danced while the boys cut their weekly allowance of firewood

I sold my last puppy! Yay!

"Gracie? Wheres your mouth?" Jessica says she is still no competition for Avi.

Then the fun began. We all took votes on what window style, roof, doorway, peak etc...

Jessie and Daniel decorated the right half and Jacob, Emma & Micah decorated the left half.

Micah snitched candy and ran to the bathroom to hide it! Stinker.

Jessie is thinking "Cake Decorator" as a future business venture...

Some final touch-ups as Daddy came in to help rid us of those nasty little leftovers

Ta-da!! We did it! Our first gingerbread house...looks like we have a new tradition.

My Kids Are Nuts.

Oh boy. It is 8:48 am, frreeeeezing cold outside and my children are dead set on running in circles in the front lawn in their jammies to sing ten, yes ten, rounds of jingle bells. All the while they ring jingle bells and sing at the top of their lungs. They come in after every song, stand by the wood stove to warm up then grab their bells and out they run.

They made me promise to serve hot cider when they get in to warm them up. What ever put THIS idea into their heads I dunno. It wouldn't surprise me if it is all a ploy to get cider. Hmmm....But I am upstairs, and I hear them laughing, singing at the top of their lungs, ringing jingle bells and making a a wonderful memory. Goofs.

Rice

A couple months back, I bought a 25lb bag of California Brown Rice..that is as far as the label informed me. Well, I just used the rest and we are doing the happy dance and ready to try another rice. I know NOTHING about rice but noticed Cash N Carry has many choices. What does YOUR family use? We prefer brown rice, but we are not legalists ;) I want a rice that doesn't come out sticking to the roof of your mouth or in a thick clump(yes, I know this has to do with the COOK too) and goes well with say sweet and sour meatballs over top. Is that too much to ask from rice? Really, all I know is instant, white and now this CBR.

So, what do YOU use...PLEASE help me choose my next bag!

Reality & the Downside to Country Living

Reality. I am doing my taxes. "It's early", you say? Yes. But tax time this year ends up right when I have oodles of puppies due, a baby of my own, and federal taxes(which I do myself). Not wanting to take on more headaches I decided to pay early since I am done doing business this year anyhow. I was not a little shocked upon completing them. I ignorantly did them last year, this year I am digging deep to figure it all out. As posted previously I am NOT a number person so I am pulling my hair out. Such is life. It wasn't THAT bad...I guess...maybe...yeah it was.

Paul, honey?

Training isn't working on this one.

I found her this morning during school happily rocking in the chair biting the little pearls off the ornament!!! Arg! So, what is plan B?

This is the part of the post title "The Downside to Country living"

It isn't all breathtaking scenery and refreshing country smells.

Whilst I sipped on my cup-o-hot-java, this is what greeted my eyes smack in the middle of my front lawn.

Paul, honey? The farmer didn't want to pay for the dead animal truck again, the dog found it & I ain't touch'n it.