Service.

This is the view from my kitchen window.
These are my neighbors steps.
This is my 6 year old son shoveling her steps.
Service.
I love it.

My Hero.

Yes! We have water!

One day it will be humorous...
Peter is home today so we are preparing the house for MLS photos which will be taken Monday at 1pm. We were supposed to touch up paint, clean out the closet, shampoo the carpets, however, our well pump died. Peter spent the entire day outside pulling the pump and running to purchase a new one. He also dropped off 8 bags for Goodwill and 8 boxes for storage. In the meantime, I cleaned out our closet. Both sides. Big job. Took 3 hours. I even found a Christmas gift we forgot to give the kids. I called the kids, who were home, in to the closet to show them and we all enjoyed a yard long Twizzler. While Peter was gone I sanded and painted our patched walls. It was the perfect color. Then I turned around to see that the color was actually completely wrong. I spot painted the entire Dining Room the wrong color! Peter came home and decided to put the well pump in so that we would have water tonight. They sold him the wrong one. We have a two wire system and they, after Peter explained what he needed, sold him a three wire system. The Sabbath has begun and Peter has declared us Amish for the next 24 hours. We have been without water since 10am. It is time to relax, enjoy our family and focus on the goodness of our Lord. We celebrate a Saturday sundown Sabbath to Sunday sundown. Tomorrow night we will install a new well pump and paint the Dining Room. Never mind the carpets! We will have to figure out how to fit in a normal house cleaning as well. I am sure I will be surprised at how the Lord multiplies our time. Off to eat hot Taco Soup, which I threw in the crockpot before the well died. The dishes will not get done. I have an almost 13 year old who will be grateful for that. Sabbath Shalom!

Kid Quote

Quote of the night:

As Daniel is trying to shoot bear that are charging him 2 at a time, he throws the gun to Peter and yells, "Save me Daddy!!!" Daddy once again becomes a hero. What a stud.

Busy.

Things have been busy at our house. Every time I think of something heartfelt, societally deep or just plain wonderful to write about, I am instead overcome with packing a box. Last year we felt the Lord impress upon our hearts to sell our house and be freed from mortgage debt. We are still living in the same house with the same FSBO sign in the front yard. Recently, we hired a realtor who holds to the same biblical convictions our family holds. He has had us busy moving furniture, packing up the needless things, painting our door red and basically making our home look like there are not seven people who live here. He understands the work involved as he has 8 children of his own. That is to say his desires for us were not stated out of an overwhelmingly ridiculous, unattainable, childless self-living standard. So, we have worked. We have slowly moved things to our rental storage unit, forcing us to continually evaluate whether or not something is really worth paying a storage fee. We have accumulated 15 years worth of stuff. We have been pretty faithful to weed out as the years have sped by knowing that it is all gonna burn one day anyway. However, things are expensive to replace. It is a game. A dance. The memorabilia, the needed. We are taking the next few days off. Our tree is up, gifts have accumulated (all things that will work well after our house is sold), meals are planned and family is beginning to arrive this evening. We will celebrate. As Peter was called in to work this morning and will be gone for the next several days, we will celebrate Christmas with our children on Monday morning. I was going to try to write a bit more but I am needed. Daniel needs me to fix his horizontal stabilizers on his paper airplane.

TSA Inspiration

Kid Quote

It's been a while since I've posted a kid quote. We are a fairly health conscious family. I mill my own grain, we buy all our meat from Polyface Farms and we try to eat our daily veggies raw. The kids are getting a fantastic education when it comes to where our food comes from and why we eat what we eat. However, if I am really honest, none of us can really refuse a Snickers bar and my birthday dessert consisted of both a triple chocolate cake (thanks Dad!) and a Cold Stone ice cream cake (thanks Mom!). So as not to confuse you; my parents are still happily married after 38 years. They just happen to know I like chocolate and double dipped on cake! My faithful husband supplied the pizza in abundance (thanks Husband!). This has turned into quite an introduction for today's quote. So, here it is, as stated by 6yo Daniel.

Mom: Wow, that is a lot of people going to McDonald's.

Daniel: Those people are gonna die in a minute!


Well, at least we didn't eat at McDonald's for my birthday meal, ahem.

Veteran's Day.

Like your freedom?

Freedom to worship as you wish-
Freedom of speech-
Freedom to walk into the grocery store and buy what you need-

Freedom, I like it.

If you do...

Thank a veteran.

You wouldn't have it without them!


As for me, I will be kissing one who has been gone far too many days this month!

Look who turned 6.

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday Dear....guess who!
Happy Birthday to you!

Our sweet boy, Daniel, wanted another dinosaur birthday celebration this year.
He has had these dinosaurs surrounding him every night since his big day.

The look of surprise. I love it. So genuine.

Precious big boy hands can just barely hold the box.

I think of Daniel and I tear up.
I am so blessed that the Lord chose me to be his Mom.
Oh God, Thank you!

Happy Birthday, Precious Boy!
We love you,
Daddy and Mommy

Bookends.

Bookends come in all shapes and sizes. We have a set of long ago used tail hooks from two F-14's that my husband flew. They have been moved from house to house and moved throughout each house trying to find a nice resting place. They have been my most memorable bookends, holding up large books about F-14's, Naval Aviation, F-18's and any other book we have related to the military. Although they are my bookends which escort me down military memory lane, they were only my most memorable until this week. This week my sister in law visited with her three children. Peter was out of town so the children and I journeyed to the airport to bring them home. As we arrived home one of my children, obviously disregarding my instruction to bring everything from the car into the house, made a run for the door and threw up all over the front door mat. Oh! So, you weren't disobeying! I spent the next several minutes hosing down my porch to make it passable for my waiting extended family who had been patiently standing with their luggage near-the-of-the-driveway. Welcome to my home, I announced as they made their way to the now clean door. I was positive that this particular child had just had something bad to eat as they felt better almost immediately. My sister in law got settled as I made the other child ready for bed. Said child came down the stairs, laid on the couch and all of the sudden made a dash for the bathroom and threw up in virtually every direction while I yelled for paper towels, Windex and Clorox Wipes. I will spare you the rest of the details, but suffice it to say that I had to strip my bed and I was up every hour on the hour until 2 am. The next day all was well, must have been food poisoning. We had a great time with the cousins and were able to have my brother in laws kids over to play as well. We continued the next day with a big field trip and all was still well. I was even more convinced it was just food poisoning. For the next few days all-was-still-well. We did a big family field trip to our nations capitol and hit Five Guys for dinner. And then it happened. My sister in law was leaving the next day to fly home. We had enjoyed a wonderful week together. I was so happy it had just been food poisoning! No. That night found two of her children ill and the following day found one more of mine not well. The rest of mine had stomach aches, so I deprived them of their normal food intake, warning them that it was for their own good. We have, so far managed to have only two throw up. (And there was great rejoicing!) My sister in law, however, made it all the way home with two having gotten sick here and the rest of their family becoming ill at home. Bookends. My very memorable bookends. I am so grateful that God gave us gorgeous weather, healthy children and time to talk throughout the week. We miss you and hope you are feeling better today!