Wednesday, April 22, 2009

THIS IS THE DAY...

...which the LORD has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it!! Psalm 118:24


THIS DAY, LIKE ALL DAYS, WE THANK YOU, LORD, FOR THIS BEAUTIFUL WORLD THAT YOU HAVE BLESSED US WITH!
Let EVERYTHING that has breath praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord Psalm 150:6








Until next time...

blessings, joie

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Monday, April 20, 2009

APRIL 20, 2009

I'm having fun editing photos that I've taken over the last couple months! Again, I take pictures more when the boys are outside. I don't have much to say -- nothing new and exciting going on.

My Everyday Cowboy
He ALWAYS wants to wear his hat, boots, and a pair of blue jeans. When the other boys were little, they didn't care what they wore. With Owen, it's always a battle over clothes! He wants to look "tough".




I've said it time and again: I love to see my boys reading! We just discovered the "My Side of the Mountain" series. I knew of it years ago, but I never read it. When I looked through a list of recommended reading for Nathan's age, I found it. It had great reviews, AND I liked the description. I went to Amazon for reviews. Also on this list were MANY books that were about death, witchcraft, the supernatural, etc. I'm VERY particular about what my children read and see. It's nice to find books with a great story line while, at the same time, learning something. Many of the reviews said that a kid -- especially a boy -- would just dream about doing what Sam Gribley did -- living in the wild. Nathan, of course, loved it so much that he asked me to do a read aloud with him and Jared. It's a cool book! He's finished reading all three books in the series.



Jared showing off with 2 of his decorated eggs! They LOVE dying eggs. We had one of those wax crayons so that you could write on your egg and the dye would resist the wax. It was very cool! Even I had fun with it!


Check out the National Day of Prayer website!
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Until next time...
blessings, joie

Saturday, April 18, 2009

WOO-HOO!

WOO-HOO! I finally figured out how to get access to my photos! (thanks, Terri, for your input).

God gave us a perfect weather week for Spring Break! Everyday was sunny and nice (a few days were pretty windy, but the sunshine made up for it!) We were outside most of the week. Tuesday, we went to lunch with Jim and ran some errands. Wednesday we had a packed lunch at the airport. Thursday, Brenda and her family came over, and we went to the local playground. The kids had a blast! From ages 16 down to 4.5, everyone had something fun to do! The rest of the week, the boys played outside. I sat outside a lot of the time too.

We start "back to school" this week; and it's supposed to rain, at least some, every day--according to The Weather Channel!!

I haven't stopped taking pictures; I just couldn't figure out how to get them to Picasa to edit them and get them to my blog. I don't take many pictures inside; I take lots more when we're outside. I'm so relieved that I can get to them now!


Our Easter eggs



This looks staged, but Owen was REALLY sleeping. He insisted on going to sleep like a real cowboy does!



Scrapbook page -- I think it's self explanatory! These photos make me laugh everytime I see them!




Six cousins at the playground
Until next time...
blessings, joie

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

He is Risen indeed!

A belated Blessed Resurrection Day greeting to you all!

We had a nice holiday with family -- and seeing friends at church. After church I made an egg trail with baskets at the end. It was very chilly, so I put down a short trail in the house. The boys always get a Christian cd, dvd, or book (or toy when they are younger) in their basket, plus candy, of course. This year I waited until the last minute and didn't end up ordering gifts until Thursday (they didn't come until Monday--after Easter). However, in my gift storage tub, I had a few things left over from Christmas, so I was able to put something in their baskets for Sunday (besides candy!) Since we don't do the easter bunny, it was easy to explain to my older two that their gifts would arrive on Monday. I had a Larry Boy beanie toy that I didn't use for Christmas, so I had that for Owen. Needless to say, he was thrilled! I ended up giving them the new Veggie Tales Video Abe and the Amazing Promise, a dvd of Guideposts Junction featuring Jodi Benson and a cassette set of The Pond radio show. I get everything from Christian Book Distributors, better known as CBD.

Today was Jim's day off. Since we had an Olive Garden gift card that someone gave us a while ago, we went out to lunch! We almost never do that -- okay we go to Burger King once in a while, when I'm out running errands with the boys. It was a nice treat. When we got home, Jim found out he had to go into work for a few hours -- the same thing happened last week on his day off. It's maddening!

Hey, I just figured out something with my pictures! For now, here are a couple of adorable pictures of Jim with Nathan in 1998! These pictures, of course, were scanned. As you'll notice, I don't know how to edit them yet because I haven't figured out how to use Picasa as my photo editing program with all my photos on the external hard drive! Now I just have to find my other pictures that I've uploaded from my camera!



When I don't post regularly, I forget things that happen. I don't think there's anything else going on...

This week off from school, the weather is supposed to be beautiful all week!!

Until next time (when I figure out how to get the rest of my photos from my external hard drive!)...
blessings, joie












Monday, April 6, 2009

HAPPY SPRING! APRIL ALREADY!

Still here! I can't believe I haven't written in so long! As I write, Jared is sitting beside me doing his science work. Nathan's upstairs working on something and Owen is flying paper birds! We found these really cool books by Norman Schmidt -- flying birds, paper airplanes, kites, etc.


Our weather has been so crazy! Last week, even I was outside -- on a high 60's day! Then it got really chilly -- 40's rainy and/or windy! Today its rainy.

The boys are involved in a musical in church. They've been rehearsing Sunday nights and will be until the show in mid July--wrapping up Vacation Bible School week. In the beginning, Nathan didn't even want to try out for it! Jared is very animated, so it didn't surprise me that he wanted to get involved. In the past, if you were in the VBS production, that was what you did all week for VBS. The boys want to be involved in other things, like the sports program or another workshop. This year, they're doing things differently. You don't have to give up a workshop to be in the production; that's why they're doing rehearsals all this spring (minus holidays and spring break) But I remember when they first started, Nathan reluctantly agreed to go to a meeting just to check things out. He was willing to sing in a group... then after a rehearsal or two, he decided he might try out for a speaking part! He ended up getting a speaking part with several lines. Although Jared's part only has one speaking line, he will be singing a solo! Needless to say, I'm thrilled! Granted, they found parts for all the kids that tried out, but I'm still tickled about it! We will be working on pride over the next three months (for me too!)

Speaking of pride... Saturday I was taking pictures of Owen and myself goofing around hugging--picture it: I was holding the camera pointing at myself! Anyway when he looked into the display on the back of the camera, he said that he didn't like the way he looked in the picture. Without hesitation, he said, "THAT'S pride!" My heart just melted. I couldn't believe that my 4.5 year old recognized that right away. It's a nice feeling that we're doing something right (or maybe it was from a Bibleman episode -- I'll take it anyway!

I haven't yet found out how to upload my pictures from the camera. Sorry!

Until then...

blessings, joie