hittin' the road

i'm taking the little boys out of town for a few days, returning in time for us to leave early saturday to head south until after Easter. we won't have internet in florida, so i'm taking a bit of an extended break. have a wonderful Easter! say a prayer for us if you think of it.

chick-fil-a

we miss chick-fil-a so much that when we drove to york the other day to order karis' prom dress, we tracked down the closest chick-fil-a, on the west side of york, in a mall, in the rain and brought home a nugget tray, a whole lemon pie (for nick) and of course, a medium coke (which debbie will be happy to know rivals that of the one on capital circle). so you know i had to laugh my head off when i saw this--enjoy!

even the winds and sea obey Him

(overlooking the gulf at panama city beach from my and olivia's hotel room)

and on that day, when evening had come,
He said to them, "Let us go over to the other side."
and leaving the multitude, they took Him along with them, just as He was , in the boat;
and other boats were with Him.
and there arose a fierce gale of wind and the waves were breaking over the boats so much that the boat was already filling up.
and He Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they awoke Him and said to Him, "Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?"
and being aroused, He rebuked the wind and said to the sea, "Hush, be still." and the wind died down and it became perfectly calm.
and He said to them,
"Why are you so timid? How is it that you have no faith?"
and they became very much afraid and said to one another, "who then is this,
that even the wind and the sea obey Him?"

7 things currently going on

eating

creating

texting

sleeping

surfing

(nick, playing madden '09 on xbox360)

living lovely with family: special treats, random surprises and seasonal activities

what a slacker--forgetting to post this week's lovely fair on time. good thing heidi at mt. hope has a gracious, forgiving heart.

some of our family's special treats/random surprises/seasonal activities have been

family football games on sunday afternoons



slip 'n slide


girl's book club 2006

when the kids turn 11/12, we take them on a special weekend trip (with the olders we used this from focus on the family, with nick and livvy we used passport to purity from family life)
here are some scenes from livvy's trip last year:







3 years ago, a friend surprised us with a week at a condo in daytona beach.
(*my* how they change in just 3 short years)




and some favorite seasonal activities (easter with n.c. cousins-soon to be tn cousins- is a tradition, but all those pictures are back home in fl) pumpkin patch, beach at grandma's, colonial trade days (in tallahassee, now defunct) and of course march madness, which deserves a post itself next week

taste testing

speaking of chocolate...one thing my mom taught me well was the self-sacrificing mother-responsibility of testing my children's food before they eat it.

(growing up we called it the russian check--shows my age-- but we quit calling it that when we hosted katia, a russian orphan girl, for 3 weeks when we lived in ga.)

jack brought home this candy bar specifically to share with me. i tell ya, it's tough to be sugarless when you have such a sweet boy bringing treats just for you.

chocolate world!

last friday the kids had the day off from school (yippee!!)
so we took my niece's son landon (is that my 2nd nephew? great nephew? whatever, he's family)
and met my friend beth (our youth pastor's wife) with her 3.75 children (she's expecting #4 in may) at chocolate world. it's free, and they give you free chocolate at the end.
what's not to love?



the trickiest part is walking across the moving carousel to step into one of these cars.
haley gladly took 2.5 yo mikenna and karis helped with 4yo ian. 1.5 yo eliana stuck with mama.
nick helped with the diaper bag.



what's not to love about singing cows? cows singing about hershey's milk chocolate?
okay, when you're stuck with that little jingle in your head a week later, it's annoying.



i still can get kisses anytime i want from the 2 youngest boys, so i like to call myself their "kiss depositor". it's much more enticing to them to say, "come deposit a kiss on my cheek" than to beg them to come kiss their mom.



we've always been partial to hershey syrup (obviously not the real packaging, but similar).
one of my favorite memories of going to my grandma zwart's house was the little can of hershey's syrup with the yellow plastic lid she'd always have in the refrigerator waiting for us.



once you get off the ride, they give you a free sample of candy.
when i was in college, it was a full size hershey bar.
now it's just a tiny sample of their newest creation (this time it was reese's bliss, kind of like a whipped peanut butter cup). and of course, you have to exit through the gift shop/cafe area.



and what would downtown hershey be without kiss shaped street lights? and streets named cocoa ave? (click on picture to enlarge if necessary).
the tower in the background is the observation tower, aka "the kissing tower", at hershey park.
(this photo courtesy of nick. no, mom, i don't drive and take pictures at the same time.
read and drive, like you? yes. take pictures? no)

for my mom

here's the quilt fabric i ended up getting to make this zigzag quilt only instead of 12 different zigs with an additional outline, i'm going with an uneven number, and having it be a mirror image from the center. i just couldn't find 13 deep red fabrics that i liked. i started with the baseball fabric (i'm planning on it being a family room throw for our new house....if we ever get one).

for the budding artist

we've enjoyed jan brett's blog for a while now and sometimes she posts things that really inspire us.

check out this video (click on link to go to it): how to draw a stork.
there are more following that one. we've especially enjoyed the hedgehog one (she shows us her real live pet!) but be forewarned, she makes it look so easy!

it's long, but worth it. she just returned from a trip to africa. check it out and be inspired!

(pete, making his wall mural to go with "the three snow bears")

spring rain

Hosea 6:1-3

1 "Come, let us return to the LORD.
For He has torn us, but He will heal us;
He has wounded us, but He will bandage us.
2 "He will revive us after two days;
He will raise us up on the third day,
That we may live before Him.
3 "So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD.
His going forth is as certain as the dawn;
And He will come to us like the rain,
Like the spring rain watering the earth."

guess who's coming to town?

http://lancasterndp.com/

happy things

a nice-to-be-reminded note from a 6yo
creating a promise of God with a 3yo
a cold glass of water in a new happy cup

interviewing the little boys

i find it fun to periodically pick the kids brains (one of my favorite night time things used to be word association. once the lights were off i'd say a word, and they had to say the first word that came to their mind. it's a GREAT way to find out what's in there in a non-threatening, unassuming way. it's been a while, i'll have to try that one again soon)

mike-6's answers are in red and pete-3's answers are in blue. they were not in the same room when i asked them. (added: jack-10 wanted to do it too, his answers are in green)

1. What is something mom always says to you? always obey your parents put the disk in (can you tell he was playing wii? and he's never allowed to put the disk in) i love you
2. What makes mom happy? when i obey wii having a clean house
3. What makes mom sad? when i don't obey when mike says hate when we say hate
4. How does your mom make you laugh? when she says something funny when she tickles me by dancing wierdly

5. What was your mom like as a child? she was little she said mama thankful

6. How old is your mom? 48 i don't know, 5 or 6. 42. until july.

7. How tall is your mom? 5-6 inches THIS tall (raises hand above head) 5 foot 6 inches?
8. What is her favorite thing to do? fold wash bowling (a friend just gave him a bowling set today) folding wash while watching t.v.
9. What does your mom do when you’re not around? sleep sleep supervise peter
10. If your mom becomes famous,what will it be for? because i'm happy her bed being mom of the year
11. What is your mom really good at? laundry bowling telling jokes
12. What is your mom not very good at? bowling not bowling watching t.v.
13. What does your mom do for her job? pay dad laundry be a mom
14. What is your mom’s favorite food? fish broccoli crab
15. What makes you proud of your mom? a good cook i don't know that she's so great
16. If your mom were a cartoon character,who would she be? supergirl superman elasticgirl
17. What do you and your mom do together? art set up the bowling pins talk and play ping pong
18. How are you and your mom the same? we love each other we have eyes we both have vitiligo
19. How are you and your mom different? little boy/big girl i have short hair she's a girl and i'm a boy
20. How do you know your mom loves you? she kisses me she kisses me cuz all the things she does for me
21. Where is your mom’s favorite place to go? the beach walmart (SO NOT TRUE) the beach

(pictures are of the boys ready for church one day last year, and pete doing his best toby mac impression)

and here's a picture of jack:

living lovely-weekly

this week over at mt hope chronicles we're talking about weekly rituals.
(that's karis on the left, 17 years ago, about 17 months old, wearing a dress that was her mother's)

when our kids were little, starting at about age 4 (for the olders, the younger kids started earlier because, well, they saw the big kids getting to go out....) we started a weekly date with mom/dad. it would be date night with mom, alternating each time with a child-led date night and a mom-errand-date night (like grocery shopping). then we'd alternate months with saturday morning donut date with dad, which didn't last long with dad's busy schedule. but the weekly date nights with mom were a special time (didn't take many pictures). so let's say january was a one kid a week date night, kid choice. february would be donuts with dad saturdays, march would be date errand night with mom, april would be donuts with dad. get the idea? we haven't done date nights (other than some random one on one) since moving here in january, but i know several kids who are anxious to get it going again. this has been one of our best moments of parenting, in my opinion. i love spending time with my kids. they're great people!

that one-on-one time became especially important once we had so many kids we had to switch from a man-to-man to a zone defense. that was their time to share anything and everything, make memories, try new things without an audience and spend some time alone.



again when they were little, we had a weekly family night where we did something intentional as a family, whether it was play at a park, watch a movie, or do a puzzle. this got harder as the kids got older and more involved in sports/dance/youth activities. it permanently fell by the wayside about 5 years ago. i hate that the littles don't have the same childhood as the bigs, but in some ways it's better. the bigs didn't have older siblings to take them to the grocery store and get a treat, etc. now, in place of those nights, i try to make an intentional effort to watch a show with my kids (past favorites have been american idol, what not to wear, jon and kate plus 8. current favorites are survivor, the office, csi miami) or play a game with them (settlers of catan, dutch blitz, norwegian dice). it may not be my first pick, but i never regret pushing all the things on my mind aside in order to spend time with them, even if it's a show i don't particularly enjoy. it has sparked many great conversations and laundry and dishes are still there when the show's over!



when we were homeschooling, we had a weekly tea time where we had a special snack (i was usually the only one who drank tea--the others opted for hot chocolate or milk) and shared a poem from a book, or one they had written. (that's pete in the swing, where he usually was during tea time when it was reasonable to be on the back porch)




and of course we have the weekly ritual of church attendance on sundays and wednesday nights. those days are our anchor days--they help us through the week to maintain focus, and have even helped our kids learn the days of the week.

(olivia with buddies from church in florida)

i feel like i'm forgetting something important, but i also feel like i've been working on this post forever. must be the lack of sleep.....

enjoy your kids!

got hope?

(impatient me, brought some forsythia in to force it to bloom early. isn't it lovely?)

as a graduate of lancaster bible college, i had the privilege of learning the school song by heart by the end of my time there. it has come in handy the past few years, and especially this past year when i lost the hope of having more children due to an unexpected hysterectomy last summer at the age of 41, i lost the hope of educating my children after 10+ years of homeschooling when we enrolled them in public school and i wondered if we would ever see our hope of returning back to our roots and our parents come to fruition (we had been praying about it for over 3 years).

so i sang this song often, and reminded myself (and anyone around to listen, usually the dogs or pete) that my hope is in the Lord. simply in Him. not in how often i get to be a mom, or where my kids primarily get their education, or even where my husband has a job.
the song? here are the lyrics:

my hope is in the Lord
who gave Himself for me
and paid the price of all my sin at calvary

refrain: for me, He died
for me, He lives
and everlasting life and light
He freely gives.

no merit of my own
His anger to suppress,
my only hope is found in Jesus' righteousness

refrain again

and now for me He stands
before my Father's throne
He shows His wounded hands and names me as His own.

refrain once more

His grace has planned it all
tis mine but to believe
and recognize His work of love and Christ receive.

refrain final time.

got hope?

it's here!

yes, folks--it's here! mcdonald's shamrock shake.
we had a tradition when the kids were little (because i remember getting them with my dad when i was a kid) to always get a shamrock shake from mickey-d's in march (only through st. patrick's day).
but ever since we moved out of pennsylvania 13 years ago, we haven't been able to find them.
i was actually told when we lived in the south that they no longer make them. undeterred, we made them ourselves at home.
imagine our (pleasant) surprise when we returned to pa. to find that they do, indeed, still make them.
at least in these parts.

happy st. patrick's day!

The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves.
romans 14:22 (nasb)
(this verse actually made me laugh today)