sunday scripture

what's going on

one sure fire way to tell what's going on in the house is to look who's been taking pictures with my camera.








pete planted seeds.
he is taking the watering and making sure they get adequate sun (a challenge for sure this time of year!) very seriously.
he is *so excited* at the daily growth.







there is lots of sewing going on.
my mom was just here for a brief visit.
she helped answer some questions about attaching sleeves to a shirt.
i love watching the melding of generations and mutual respect shared.

and i humbly thank God again for bringing us back home.

happy last year in your teens, karis!

last night the favor of the Lord was upon us as we waited for karis' best friend, sara, to fly in from tallahassee. the snow was coming down fiercely and blowing all around us, the philadelphia airport was closed, but we were able to get her from harrisburg with no problem. thank you, Lord!



this morning we slept in a bit (schools are closed for all the blowing and drifting of our measely 3" but it is nasty out) and so we had cake for breakfast. sara brought a monogrammed license plate for k's car (so cute!) and we gave her a gps system and yoga pants.



we are thankful for good friends, great family and an abundance of blessings on karis' life these past 19 years. we pray for God's wisdom and blessing on this coming year as she works so hard at her 2 jobs preparing for wherever God leads her.

we love you karis!!!!

awana grand prix

each year awana does a pinewood derby and this year was no exception. the boys didn't win anything (and i forgot to take individual pictures of their cars!) but they had fun.



this car won best design. it was made by our 12yo friend, breanna.

company

last week we had the pleasure of keeping a sweet 10yo girl for 3 nights while her parents were with her brother in washington dc for the future city national competition. her family goes to our church, we've known her mom since she was in high school. alyssa has 3 brothers, so having 2 sisters and their undivided attention for makeovers and hair straightening was a new and lovely experience for her. we loved having her!

girls "club"

we started a little girls "club" for olivia and other girls her age.
the goal is to foster deeper relationships based on godly principles so that when they get to high school (next year for her!) they will be accountable to each other for their behavior, attitudes and pursuit of God.

we read romans 15:5-6
"5 May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.all while having fun in a low key environment while eating, creating and serving."

this time we made scrabble tile necklaces and decorated valentine's cookies (lovingly made and provided by my new friend deanna). some to eat, some to give away.

happy birthday mike!

we celebrated in the morning since it was thursday, our c0-op and very busy day.
we had chocolate cake with peanut butter icing and crushed reese's peanut butter cups in the middle and quartered on top. mike was thrilled with his gifts (wii mario sluggers, a book he's been wanting, some candy, legos from karis and a sweatpants/zip up sweatshirt set. he was tired of pull over sweatshirts).

so hard to believe he's 7 already...
we were looking at his baby book, and i said, "grandma and grandpa were the first ones to see you after you were born."
he quickly asked, "where were you and dad?"
ahem. i meant after us....
we love you, mike.

from the last snow....

robin is saying here, "this is starting to not be fun anymore." he got two days off from work, though!



mom, here's a picture of our snow "plow" just for you....



anyone wish they were the mailman?

craziness

the wireless internet didn't want to work all day so i could post these pictures of the craziness of our last 24 hours. tonight we're not expecting any more snow to *fall* but the wind is whipping around the additional 16" we got this go round.


the kids played outside in it most of the day.
the boys enjoyed sliding/jumping/doing flips off of the shed roof into the mounds of snow below.
even pete (he's 4).
i told the 2 little boys to be thankful they had two big brothers because i never would've let them do that without them.


this is looking out the atelier window....
yes, it is covered with snow. it is *that* windy.

and this is a picture of mike's frostbite that he actually got a few years ago while visiting my sister in michigan. it flares up any time he gets really cold. i know because when i was in college (messiah, fall of '84) my roommate and i walked to mcdonalds and i had a hole in my boot and got frostbite on my big toe. every time it gets cold it flares up the same way.

ah, well.
wasn't it helen keller who said life is an adventure or nothing at all?

an historic event

we haven't had this much snow since march of '93 (and we were here for that one too...)

half way through

we are officially half way through the school year.
the boys in 1st/5th grade are saying good bye to their bodies.......
and moving on to the next thing....

one afternoon......

i turned these:

into these:

(click to enlarge)

so easy! so fun.
and i finally figured out something to do with those shelves i was given 3 months ago!

color of the day

orange

guess who stopped by to visit?

at 6 months now (and her mama staying home with her) she is sitting up and crawling!
well, she gets on her knees and rocks back and forth until she catapults herself forward.
and she has two teeth!
she was happy to see us, and we were happy to see her, but we're thankful for where we are.
you go girl!

pennsylvania farm show

(has it been that long since i last posted? i went to do dishes and now january's over)

everyone needs to go to the farm show once.
the joke in college was that it always snowed farm show week.
that just added to the excitement of it.
i took the three oldest to the farm show when they were little.
none of them remembered it.

it's gotten a. lot. more crowded. since then.
it took us an hour and a half to go 1/2 mile to the parking lot and take the shuttle to the building.

but i was so. happy. to have all 7 of my kids together again.
it's such a rare occurrence.
too bad robin had to work.
i guess someone has to fund our fun.


this whole sculpture was made of butter.
1,000 pounds of it.
i wonder what happened to it once the show was over?

here's proof they were all there.
but nick was too cool to get in the canoe.

north museum of science and natural history

we love that our library offers free family passes to some local museums. this month we took advantage of the one to the north museum of science and natural history. instead of bemoaning the fact that we so rarely can do field trips with all 7 kids, i've decided to embrace the relative ease of keeping track of only 4 (and console myself with the fact that the oldest 3 have been to many, many more museums, even if they don't remember all of them).

it doesn't look very big from the outside, but inside there was so much to do. i feel like we went through it quickly, and we were there for over 2 hours. the discover room alone (with all those delightful labeled boxes of things the kids could touch, including animal feet, skulls, native american things, etc.). we're getting ready to study astronomy in the spring, so their whole section on that was inspiring, not to mention the traveling exhibit on blood suckers which was very well done and full of information.

the mind of jack

half a century

robin turned 50 on the 18th, so we attempted to have a little surprise something for him. t.j. had given us a gift certificate to red lobster for christmas, so, since it's our friends darrell and sue's favorite place to eat, we went with them, and the plan was to have everyone be at the house when we got back. but there was a congregational meeting at church (we didn't go because we're not members yet. the members classes are during sunday school and since we *teach* sunday school, we haven't been able to do all the classes yet. we've met with pastors to finish 3 of the 4, now we just have to find time to meet with the last group of people) and people didn't get there before we got home. that was okay. all their kids were already at the house, and robin loves people, so i think he was surprised and happy. tj's dad shares a birthday with robin, but is a few years younger :)

2 days after christmas

the sunday after christmas, we headed to virginia to meet my mom and jerry, my sister sherry and her family from michigan (sans mark-we missed you-because of his new job) and my brother billy and his family from tennessee. we met sherry and her 4 kids somewhere on 81 so i could help navigate since she wasn't feeling well.

we were meeting in virginia because my mom turned 70 on january 2nd, and she wanted to treat us to a mountain getaway vacation together, which meant renting a lodge that sleeps 22. it was beautiful and we had a GREAT time. we went to the masanutten water park and on walks looking for animal tracks (lots of deer, the kids think they saw bear, and lots of little birds, squirrel, etc.).

so glad we didn't have to drive from florida, and that we're close enough now to see my family more than once a year. thanks mom and jerry!

also before christmas.....

we are blessed to have an awesome sledding hill behind our development, close enough for the kids to walk. on this particular trip, i was out looking for the wayward puppies (who keep digging out under the temporary chicken wire fence we've put out) and took my camera with me to catch a few shots before the sun went down. their friend, veeble (sp?) was with them, seen in the picture of the jump they made.









at the end of a beautiful day....