Life is busy.

Life is busy.

Children running.
Momma teaching.
Daddy working.
All are laughing, loving, learning.

Bills are coming.
House still dirty.
Rain is falling.
Time for a movie.

Wiping noses.
Feeding faces.
You're still hungry?
Time for a cookie.

Sick and tired.
Energy abounds.
Now your head hurts?
Time for some medicine.

It will end soon.
You'll feel better.
Need a snuggle?
Time for some reading.

Tired faces.
Fevered bodies.
Sneezing, coughing.
Time for some sleep now.

A teenager?!

It's official!
We now have a teenager in the house.
Happy Birthday Ashley!
We love you so much...

Her door on birthday morning!

A morning birthday greeting from Daddy!

Lunch at a restaurant of her choice--PF Changs!

Happy Birthday our dear girl!
Where has the time gone?
We love you.
We love that you LOVE our LORD!
We love that you are seeking to have a serving heart!
We love that you are making good choices!
We love that you want to honor us!

WE LOVE YOU.
xo, Dad and Mom

Birthday Boys!

This wonderful boy had a birthday yesterday!
He is now four.
When asked about turning four he replied,
"Now I can drive a car aaannnndddd I can do whatever I want!"

Happy Birthday Isaiah! We love you all the way to the moon and back again.
We are so happy to be your Daddy and Mommy!
xoxo

AND
The guy on the right turned AHEM on the same day.

Happy Birthday Peter!
We missed celebrating with you.
We all love you and are grateful for you in our lives.
xoxo

Bill Collection by Ben Lansing

Bill Collection [added: January 25, 2011]

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