"How are you doing?"

"How are you doing?"
How many times I have asked this question of friends and acquaintances going through griefs, hardships and numerous trials and temptations. But do I mean it when I ask it?

It struck me this week when several different friends asked me this question. No, I am not going through a major loss or illness or even a fierce trial. They are asking because they, too, are mothers and their motherly hearts are torn in empathy when they hear us speak of our single daughter going halfway around the world for at least a year, to a city where she (and we) know not a single person, where she does not speak the language or understand the nuances of the culture, in a region where there is a lot of racial and economic tension. So these mothers ask me THE question. Funny thing, I can tell that some of them are asking out of courtesy, some out of curiosity and some out of deep compassion. Their motives are not "good" or "bad" but different mainly because they have different levels of emotional ties with my daughter and/or me. The one who asks almost flippantly is not any less caring than the one who asks the exact same question with tears in her eyes and a break in her voice. Every single person who has taken the time to ask has given me a special gift, simply because in this, the busiest of Holiday times, they took the time to ask.

The most amazing part of all of this journey to date, though, has been that there is One who does not need to ask. He knows the innermost thoughts and emotions of Derwin and me both. He knows the motives and heart of our daughter, her struggles to give up closely held dreams to take this step forward, and her triumphs in seeing His Hand in opening and closing the doors before her if she will only stay focused on Him. Yes, I ponder on the many "what-ifs" from minor (loss of luggage or passport, getting on the wrong train, saying something rude), to the maximum disaster level (war, famine, violence, etc.) but it is amazing how God DOES provide peace when we seek it. Tomorrow we might find out that something has glitched the paperwork, or world events may change all our plans, or..... or.... or....

So to answer THE question, I am not doing very well and cannot begin to imagine how we will miss her. BUT the Spirit of Christ floods my motherly emotions and desires and replaces fear with peace.

Years ago I sat with a sweet young daughter beside me on the worn couch as she studied for Bible Drill. Together we learned 2 Timothy 1:7 "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." How can I do anything but rejoice when that same daughter, now a beautiful young woman, chooses to follow the Spirit who makes that promise to her, to me and to all of us who believe?

Ashamed, just ashamed!!!

I am really ashamed to have gone so long and not posted here. Between keeping up with "regular" stuff, posting on facebook on both my wall and the one for our trip to Asia, I have neglected blogging. OK, enough excuses!! Since a picture's worth a thousand words, here's my updates (mostly) pictorially:

October -

This is Joanna and me with four new sweet Chinese friends, as we entered Long Sha Park, a beautiful park across the road from the University. I can't begin to tell you how wonderful the trip was, how we saw God move in amazing ways and how our lives are changed forever because of this trip. Praise - while we were there Joanna realized she had never surrendered her life to the LORD fully and made that decision to trust Him for her salvation and her future! Thanks to all who helped make it possible!!

Also in October (after we returned) we continued our Friday afternoon "Fun Days" with our homeschool friends and one afternoon had a cookout afterward, followed by a small fire with roasted marshmallows. Fall Fun!

NOVEMBER:
Emma and Ethan worked on several art and history projects, and we did our annual "Thankful tree" from construction paper leaves where each day they write at least one thing for which they are thankful and then on Thanksgiving Day the leaves "fall down" (aka get taken off the door :)!) and are used to decorate each plate at Gran's for the big turkey meal!

DECEMBER:
We have had a busy month (like everyone else) but lots of fun! This past weekend we took most of the older children from our "Friday" homeschool group to visit the Nursing Home to hand out cards, after playing in the afternoon and then eating homemade pizza. Saturday we watched Katy dance in competition at NCSU (pics to folow from Russ) and then went to see the lights at Lake Myra . Yesterday we celebrated Joanna's BDay with family, and now you are up to date ! I'll try to do better keeping up with blogging...maybe it'll be one of my New Year's "Revolutions" !

Faith Like Potatoes

A dear friend recommended the movie to me titled "Faith Like Potatoes". It's very good, and amazing because it is based on a true story. I won't spoil the plot but just say if you can rent or buy it, do so! As we sweat and toil clearing land, planting, weeding, watering, etc., I just can't imagine doing all that hard work while also worrying about potential life-threatening wars, racial and class tension, etc. swirling around you and your family. Hope you enjoy!! And go "plant some potatoes" :) (i.e. step out in faith for whatever God has called you to do!).

Long overdue Update

My blogging is about like my library books these days - way past time to turn them in!! :) Fortunately, I renew the books online and the blog police don't come get me when I go so long without posting!
Anyway, here's what's going on:
1 - Joanna and Alex Carr are engaged!! Last weekend at the beach he proposed and we got to meet his parents and grandparents who drove all the way up from Alabama just to be there to celebrate. They've now set the date for Aug. 15th at 2pm and we are already into wedding planning mode!
2 - Uncle Carl and I got 44 more trees planted last week right before some very long, heavy rains. And today (Sunday, 3/29) we saw the first green budding leaves on three different varieties!! Wooohooo!! I can't begin to describe how beautiful those little green buds look to us!
3 - School was pretty good last week, we got through a lot of the basics but not really any "extras" like field trips or art projects. However, on Wednesday Ethan began the school day by picking up a poem book of Emma's and reading a poem to me with very little help. He then read 4 or 5 "Rocket Readers" (Level 1) and begged for me to go find Level 2 readers. (Thanks, Karen W for these - they have been great!) All of a sudden I have a reader on my hands - a glorious day for any Mom who has dealt with a very reluctant reader!
4 - Last night we had a "Blurt" Blast and then followed it up with a Pictionary contest after we all shared a meal of homemade lasagna, tomato/basil bread, salads and key lime and chocolate pie (not homemade!) for dessert. All 6 of our children (remember that Katy is now my daughter, too, Shelley!) plus my soon-to-be-son were here and I felt very, very blessed to have such a great time with all of us together. I thought of my dear friends who have family around them except for a son who is overseas serving our country and what a gap that leaves in the "family circle" and said a prayer for these brave young men and their Moms who sorely miss them.
Have a great week and I will try to do better about updating the blog.

Blessed be the tie that binds....

Today I was sifting through some old family photos looking for one to re-scan for a cousin who wants to use it in a book about "Mountain Kinfolk". You know what looking through photos does to you, whether they are 50 days or 50 years old. Memories light the corners of my mind.... OK, I promise not to sing! So here's a favorite photo of my "Pop" who most definitely set the moon in the sky just for me when I was about 3. As I thought about Pop and his wonderful sense of humor I remembered something funny he said one time. He told me that when he died he didn't want any of the men to have to wear ties. He said he never could understand how anyone could sing "Blessed be the tie that binds" when that's all ties did - bind you up and strangle you! So he wanted no ties, and he wanted everyone to wear white or bright colors because he just knew that when he went to heaven nobody would be wearing dark colors and he wanted us to think about that. After he died, my Grandmother carried out all his wishes for his funeral, which he had told her in detail. He had the choir sing "When the Roll is Called Up Yonder" and.... yep...as the family was ready to leave for the graveside he had them sing.... "Blessed be the tie that binds"! Wanted us to remember the real meaning of the words, and it made me smile on a day when my heart was breaking. His memory still makes me smile.

Happenin's 'round here....

On the farm -
We've finished the last batch of pear preserves, picked (and eaten!) lots and lots of muscadine grapes, cleared out the garden and planted fall cabbage and collards, transplanted some small pansies into the flower beds which are still beautiful while they await the first frost, tended to the four little pecan trees that we are growing from seed for experimental purposes, picked a few apples and getting ready to harvest more over at a relative's house (hoping to have enough sunny days to dry them), and transplanted two tomato plants from the garden into pots so that we can hopefully continue to have tomatoes after the first few frosts. We've confirmed our tree order and D has plans to help two different pecan growers in the next few weeks as they shake, harvest, dry, sort and package their nuts.


On the home front -
This week we have visited Alamance Battleground for their Living History Days (see Beth's post and pictures), talked a long time about flintlock muskets with the 6yo, crammed in several days of all 8 subjects, went to piano lessons, soccer games, practiced Awana verses, made black walnut ink for the quill pen that we made last week, painted my MIL's rental houses steps (5 sets of steps), sorted fall clothes and packed away summer ones, and will be going to the State Fair . We're planning on helping add to one of the ag exhibits next fall which will include pecans as a NC crop, so we are going to enjoy the fair but also to be thinking/planning how to help with that particular exhibit in the future.

In the family -
My uncle that we went to see a few weeks ago passed away during the early morning hours on Monday. So I took an unplanned trip to my sister's late Tuesday night, rode with her to/from the memorial service, and returned home late Wednesday. Thank you for your prayers for my safety - the drive couldn't have gone any smoother! My aunt and the family are all doing well.

In my heart -
Lately everywhere I turn I am reminded that God has a covenant with each of us as believers in the redeeming grace of Jesus. Not a contract (dependent on our actions) , but a covenant (eternal, unbreakable, unchangeable). It's just almost unimaginable that no matter how we screw up we are still His children, still saved by grace, still loved by an Almighty, Eternal Creator. Eph. 2:8-10 "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."

Happy Birthday, Mama

Saturday my mother would have been 93. When I was younger I thought I would probably celebrate this birthday with her. My grandmother lived to be older than this so I thought Mama would, too. But she's been gone to be with her dear Savior for over 19 years now and I can still hear her voice explaining something gently to her oldest grandson; see her propping her chin on her hand as she finally sat down to rest from cooking and dishes; looking wistfully out the window on a cold, foggy winter day; fingers working frantically to finish hemming a dress for me; left hand on hip while skillfully flipping pancakes with her right hand; packing a basket of food for someone needy; and a hundred other little things. She always opened our home to visiting preachers and missionaries, youth groups from church, those who needed a hug or meal, a deaf girl from a troubled family, visiting relatives, neighbors who didn't have a way to cook or heat during power outages, and anyone who wanted to drop by at any time.

Mama had 6 brothers and 2 sisters (the 3 "girls" are shown above-my Mom on the left). Saturday we spent most of the day in the mountains visiting with my Aunt (Mama's only sister left living - in the center above and the youngest of the 9) and her husband on their 66th anniversary (yes, they got married on my mother's birthday!!). We then went just down the road to visit with my mother's only living brother and his wife. They are all in their 80s and 90s but full of life and it was just an extra special time for me and mine to share time with them. Aunt Lurleen even sent us home with a tin full of her famous peanut butter fudge!! Yummm!!! Since it is only once a year (or less) that I get up that way I really cherish the opportunity to share time with them. And of course the mountains were beautiful and we even squeezed in time to picnic and hike to Whitewater Falls Saturday morning and stopped by an Apple Orchard on our way home Sunday. You can take the girl out of the mountains...... but she will always miss them :) !!

We Resolve -

"Resolve" - 1) to deal with successfully; make clear and understandable, 2) to reach a firm decision about, 3) to declare by formal resolution

Recently I read two good books for parents. Actually, I re-read the first one "Let Us Highly Resolve" by David and Shirley Quine. I heard them speak at a homeschool conference years ago and read a friend's copy of it but found a cheap used copy a few weeks ago and re-read it - well worth the money and time! The second book is called "Parenting in the Pew" by Robbie Castleman. It always amazes me how the Lord leads us along and teaches us things. I need to backtrack a little to tell you what I mean.

For years my hubby and I had no real goals or "resolutions" written down. Oh, we had talked about and agreed that we wanted "good children", a "nice house", and "good things" like every other family we knew. We were different from most only in the fact that we wanted children fairly soon after we were married and we wanted at least three children, even with both of us working long hours and crazy schedules. But things changed in 1992. Our marriage and family were a shambles even though we had lots of money, a very nice large home, all the latest toys and gadgets, traveled when and where we wanted, etc. Thankfully we had been raised by Christian parents and we knew in our hearts what was missing. Jesus Christ wasn't Lord of our lives. So we both knelt on the cold kitchen floor one late night and poured out our hearts to Christ, giving them over to Him. Within hours we both were hungry for the Word and looking for Bible studies (BSF was such a blessing to us both), within weeks we were making the decision to sell our home, investments and assets so that I could quit work and stay home with the children and shortly thereafter we made the decision to homeschool. Within a few years we turned over the one area of our lives that we had maintained "control of" - the ability to have children. God saw fit to bless us with two more children (and two babies in heaven). Now you think this is a "happily ever after" story but unfortunately this is the story of two real people in real life. Yes, Christ is our joy. Yes, we did make the right decision to turn everything over to Him. But no, we have made many, many more mistakes and are still having to come face-to-face with our shortcomings (and always will). But YES, Christ is always there. HE is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow regardless of us. THANKFULLY!!

Here we are 16 years later still learning some pretty basic lessons. In 1992 we made some "resolutions" about turning things over to Christ. He enabled us to complete those. Now we realize we need more resolutions - not just for ourselves but more importantly for our family as a whole. That may seem ironic to those of you who think that our family is shrinking (children grown or growing up) but if you have older children you know that no matter their age or yours you are still a family and actually it continues to grow as you add daughter- or son-in-laws, grandchildren,etc. Since early this year God has been teaching us that we need to have some written "Resolves". Months ago a friend sent me an article with the resolutions that Cotton Mather had made as a parent. Go HERE to see the full text - it is tremendous!! I took those and summarized them into 20 points and have kept it posted on my fridge. They are very comprehensive and somewhat daunting in task but each day I try to read ONE point and remember it throughout the day. In addition, I read these to my children occasionally so that they can understand why we do what we do (or attempt to do!). After re-reading "Let us Highly Resolve" my hubby and I are working on rewording and reworking the Mather list with practical ideas to make it come about. For instance, point 3 "Pray daily for each in fervency and agony" is pretty clear but we want to be sure that we not only pray individually but more often together as spouses and as a family. And what, you ask, does "Parenting in the Pew" have to do with this? Well, we have been bothered for some time about how our children "tune out" the worship service although they are beside us they are not "with" us, and this book is a great help in why and how to make the service one in which your children understand that we go to worship God, not just go to church. It ties in directly with several of our resolutions, including "Teach Biblical Principles and Doctrines", "Teach them to pray", "Talk and listen about sermon points", "Teach true meanings of Holidays and traditions", etc. So today we HIGHLY RESOLVE to continue to work and fight and be diligent and work and toil to ensure that our children understand spiritual truths. In fact, it's the only thing worth resolving.

Great News!!

Yes, the first news is I am finally back online BUT that's only good news - the Great news is that I am soon to gain a daughter (or two according to my 9 year-old who shocked her Sunday School teacher with her excitement that she was going to have two new sisters soon!) Before you jump to conclusions about this old woman, let me tell you that our soon-to-be 22 year-old proposed over Labor Day Weekend and she accepted!! Russ gave her one ring that he had designed and made with a sterling silver band of three strands (representing each of them and God and based on the scripture Ecc. 3:12 - a cord of three strands is not easily broken), with a clear crystal on each side of a large red stone in the middle, representing each of their two lives joined in one heart. Since this ring was very beautiful but somewhat fragile, he also got her a diamond with a new white gold setting that was more "bumper proof" :) ! The "second sister" my daughter is claiming is the sister of the bride, since she very much takes to heart our admission that when two people are married they join two families together. Boy, are we ever blessed because if you could hand-pick another family to "join with" it would be the great one that my soon-to-be daughter-in-law belongs to. God is good!!

Random updates

The youngest children and I had a great time at the beach with Renee and her two youngest girls. She has really encouraged me by listening to a lot of things I needed to get off my chest, and has been a great example to me in wanting to give 100% to the Lord in all things. Thanks, Renee, for listening, encouraging and sharing a great time! The children had a blast boogie boarding, swimming, catching tiny fish in nets, playing in the sand, and lots and lots of laughing!

M and J are in Rome today, halfway through their tour of Europe. I cannot wait to see pictures and hear all the stories of their trip! Here's a picture M took on his last trip (Dec. 2004 - click on pic to get full view):

Gardening is still keeping me busy and I spent several hours this morning pulling beans, peas, butter beans, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, and corn. Needless to say most of the rest of the day I have been shelling and fixing veggies (in between loads of laundry getting hung on the line to catch up from our trip!).

While we were gone D worked long hours but also managed to do some clean-up in and around the orchard. The blueberries and blackberries are about all finished, most of the peaches are done, the plums have been gone for some time but muscadine grapes and apples are still to come! I will be spending lots of time this week canning, freezing and getting caught up in the garden department but am very thankful for two tiny rains we had while I was away that kept things growing.

The last few days....

Hope each of you had a wonderful Fourth - we sure did!! On the third we went to White Lake for the day (just D, Gran, and the two youngest since the others were working) and it was perfect weather and loads of fun. Then although several families had to cancel coming on the 4th, we were still blessed with all 5 of our children plus Gran and several young adults that we count as family, too! The Broglis were here and we were so very glad since we probably won't see them as often after they move. Matt B. will be a Youth Pastor, and although we will miss them we are very glad that the Lord has opened a door for them and we know He will bless them greatly in their new adventures! After we ate (and ate - esp. D's homemade salsa from veggies from the garden - I am so glad I grew that cilantro!) we drove over to a baseball stadium to watch some fireworks. My Matt "practiced" taking firework pictures (like he needs practice - I've not seen a bad one yet!) so that when he and J are in Paris this weekend for Bastille Day he will have some practice with them (although I'm sure the French would not compare their fireworks with those of the Mudcats :) !!)

Anyway, it was a wonderful holiday here (except for a while mid-day when I got the "Martha syndrome"and was ill-tempered with my dear hubby - who is loving and gracious enough to forgive this middle-aged whacky woman) and I pray that each of yours was great, too. On Saturday I gathered the first purple hull peas and green beans from the garden and we ate them and some of the salsa and leftover grilled chicken and burgers for supper. Yummy! Purple hulls are probably my favorite veggie. Lindsey had left some of her watermelon here so all weekend I pigged out on watermelon, too!

Service Sunday was very special with a beautiful tribute to the armed forces, with the veterans standing when their military anthem was played. I couldn't help but get teary-eyed thinking of my father and many of his WWII generation that have passed on as well as the many young men and women who have/are serving and the ones who have paid that ultimate sacrifice. May we not be foolish in living, voting, praying in a way that will help to carry on their memory.

As we get ready to send two off to Europe, do gardening, canning and housework, keep two extra children part of the week, get ready to have relatives from Kansas visit this weekend, and try to squeeze in some time to enjoy the summer, I probably won't be back at the computer long enough to blog but will try to keep up reading yours. Hope you have a wonderful summer week!

Father's Day

When I was younger these "days" didn't mean much to me. Yes, I made a little card and/or gift for my Dad and as I got older I bought him something but I don't think I ever properly thanked him for being a great Daddy. Not perfect, but he did not only better than his parents but in some ways better than I have been. So on this Father's Day I rejoice that I had a Christian Father. That I had a wonderful Christian Father-in-law as well and that my hubby is a fantastic father who loves and prays for his children with his whole heart. He might not always say it but they would be pretty blind not to see it. And most of all I am thankful for the best Father of all - our Heavenly Father. I am in awe every day that HE would be willing to call this sinful, disobedient, willful child His own. I thank Him for giving me men in my life and my children's lives who love all of us, and who love or have loved their Heavenly Father. Happy Father's Day!!

Mudcats

Yesterday my hubby took off from work and we raked and picked up rocks in a small area directly behind the house. We used hand rakes and tried to get up all the rocks in the area we will have as our "official backyard" and will just rake up the rocks with the tractor rake on the rest of the 14+ acres left. After doing that all day, we showered, ate a quick southwest chicken salad for supper and went to see the Mudcats play (compliments of a coworker who has season tickets - thank you!!). Great time, great game, with the Mudcats behind until the 4th, then tying the game and finally winning it with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th - fun stuff!!

We love having "company"!!

We were blessed last Friday night to have Megan and her family over and we all thoroughly enjoyed it! Gran's friend was here, and Russ and Katy came and stayed a while, too, so we ate up some grilled chicken, slaw, and some of the best potato salad and strawberry salad that Megan brought (I want recipes!!). Saturday evening we had a relative over for a while in the afternoon and enjoyed sitting and chatting on the back porch, swinging in time to the breeze and watching two hummingbirds flitter just a few feet away from us on the other side of the screened porch. Sunday brought a few minutes to share with an old friend at church who was in town for the day and then Matt and his best friends came over for a spaghetti dinner (hope it wasn't too spicy for Baby B, Lindsey!) with my niece, sister-in-law and MIL joining us for part of the time. Lindsey started my girls on some new crafts!! On Monday Russ, Katy and Joy visited after coming this way for a hair appointment and spent the afternoon with us, playing some video games, "Apples to Apples" and the girls making a few more crafts they had started on Sunday night with Lindsey. All in all we had a terrific weekend and now my children are asking who is coming this weekend to play!

Saturday some of us will be going to our home school graduation ceremony and then on to various celebrations with some of the seniors and then Sunday we hope to have a repeat of last weekend with some other friends/family here. In the meantime, I am emailing a couple of friends "up north" talking about when we can get together for a "chicken pickin' " (hint, hint Lea & Shelley!!). Maybe they will be our visitors the following weekend!

I love the extra time we have in the summer to get together with friends and family. I think somehow I need to make that extra time year-round, too! Nothing as good in life as time spent with those you love. Do I hear an "Amen"??

What does News mean to you?

I am very thankful for the internet. Not just catching up with old friends through email and blogs, which is so much easier than old methods (although I DO enjoy a good long chat over a cup of cocoa more than an email, I can read emails much more often!). Also, I like the fact that I have a much greater choice of from whom and where I get news. When I was young I just could not understand my Dad's fascination with the news each evening. It was soooooo boring to me. I am sorry to say that I really didn't understand his interest in news of a war half-way around the world. I didn't realize that he had once been that soldier on a battlefield fighting for our country. I didn't understand that he was interested in what laws were passed or not because I did not comprehend that they affected how much pay he brought home or whether our dilapidated school bus was replaced or when my brother would have to sign up for the draft.

Today a friend sent me an email about the tornadoes in Iowa. Sounds remote and boring, right? But those people are her friends and relatives and former classmates. Since they are her friends they are in some respects my concern, too. People killed, injured, a large chunk of the town completely destroyed and other parts badly damaged. So today I sat my children down and explained how a "boring" news story about another part of the country is a call to prayer for people who could be our friends or relatives or even us. Yesterday we took a few minutes to talk about and pray for young men serving our country, and families who have lost sons and husbands. No, I don't want them to be worried or fret or "scarred" but I do want them to be sensitive, realistic and understanding. And to grasp one of the best reasons for news - the ability to pray for and often help others whenever we can.

Awanas Awards

Last Sunday my children received their ribbons and awards and applause (and ice cream afterward!) for the many verses they had learned this year. It is much easier for one of my children to memorize than the other and sometimes it seems a little unfair how much harder it comes but I am so thrilled and pleased that they are learning the verses and more importantly, we are trying to get them to apply them to their hearts. We have really enjoyed our participation in this program for the past 2.5 years and I am praying that we can continue to participate (there is discussion about moving it to Sunday afternoons which would make it difficult or impossible for us to continue). Anyway, as my Granny used to say "Don't borrow trouble up ahead, honey" so we will wait and see the outcome of discussions. For now, we will continue to review and even learn a few new things in preparation for next year. My 6 yo knows his New Testament books so we will spend the summer learning the Old Testament and the 23rd Psalm. My 9yo will work on learning two long passages and we will all as a family work on trying to get better at living out the Word! We're not doing the "summer" mid-week program as it is mostly play and with gas prices (we drive about 25 minutes each way) and the rigors of gardening and summer schedules, we opted not to do it this summer. Later in June we will participate in VBS but that will be all of the non-Sunday activities until fall.

Happy Wedding Day

Where does time go?! See if you can guess who these two (very!) young people are.

If you think the wedding day was joyful, you have missed many, many days since then when the joy has been even greater. You think you love each other all you can when you marry. And maybe that's true. But God shows you how to love even more after you share moments and days and years of joys and sorrows, new life carried in your womb created by that love, loss of loved ones, quiet times, angry times, tender moments, lots and lots of laughter - all these are the sunshine and rain that makes that love grow even greater than it was when you were young and wide-eyed at the world and each other. Today we celebrate 10,592 days of married life. I cannot imagine sharing it with anyone else. God is so good to have brought us together and He has been the One to teach us how to love more. Happy Anniversary to my Sweetie!

Busch gardens!

Saturday, Matt took E&E and I to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg. J had to work and couldn't join us and Dad and R both don't really care for the rides and had other plans anyway. It was a perfect day, with temps in the mid-80s, plenty warm to ride the Pompeii and Roman Rapids water rides as well as the many other rides, where we dried off a bit. We started out slowly with the teacups to get the 6yo used to things and very shortly advanced to bigger and faster things!
He liked everything he rode but the "Big Bad Wolf" roller coaster of which he mildly said "I don't think I want to ride that one again. It made my tummy feel funny." I was surprised at how many larger rides he did like. EK loved everything she rode, including her favorite, the Loch Ness Monster with two loops and a tunnel! She rode it a couple of times with Matt and once with me, too. I think my children have inherited my love of thrill rides! A wonderful day ended by the younger children asleep in the back seat before we left the parking lot!

Fun with children

Last night I attended my first ever "car-cert". My 6yo decided he wanted to put on a "show" for all of us with his remote control cars/trucks he got for Christmas and birthday so he invited us to come see it. "It's like a concert with drums, Mom, but with cars so it's a 'car-cert' ". Too good!! (Notice which musical instrument he used to describe a concert?!)

Today we were cleaning rocks, limbs and bits of trash from about 3 acres of the field and the same child came screaming to me that he was being "attacked." He had just stepped in a fire ant hill about 30 minutes earlier and barely made a sound - "I think something's stinging me Mom" (he calmly says with about 20+ red ants biting away) so I wondered what in the world had "attacked" him. He took me back to the spot and said, "See, right there, a crazy bird" and sure enough a killdeer (who blended in perfectly with the ground around her) came squawking and strutting her feathers and threatening to peck me - even using her "broken wing" trick a couple of times. I knew immediately we were near her nest and sure enough it didn't take us but a few minutes to spot 4 beautiful gray-speckled eggs less than a foot away from her. My children were intrigued by the camouflage of both the mother and her eggs as well as her willingness to "attack" humans multiple times her size in order to protect her eggs. We marked the area with a stake and caution tape so that when hubby plows tomorrow he can leave her undisturbed (and so we can keep track of the progress of the eggs which cannot even be seen a few feet away). Hopefully in about 4 weeks (or less if the eggs have been there a while) we will be lucky enough to catch sight of those fast-running babies!

On the front porch we have seen the purple martins return to their nest they made last year and would love to know if the couple "courting" there is the same one as last year or one of the offspring. We love watching their flying, hearing their "songs" (OK, more like screeches), watching them lay and care for the eggs and then babies but by the end of the summer I am really tired of having to constantly wash off the bird droppings all over the porch. But such is a mother's life... :) - just enjoy tending to the eggs and little ones (and washing the porch off) because before you want to think about they have flown the nest.....

Anyway, enjoy the spring! (Tomorrow, Lord and weather willing, we will begin planting the vegetable garden including transplanting most of my seed beds - then I will really know spring is here!).

Quick Update

Well, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. In the past week +, we battled yet another round of flu, had my MIL taken to the ER twice and lots of "little" things along with just life in general. Praise! My MIL is somewhat better even though her BP is still very high and they have changed her meds three times now, but her EKGs and other tests don't show anything to be alarmed about so they are just assuming for now that the "stroke level BP" she had (280/189 at one point and 260/170 at the other) was due to changing her meds two weeks ago. The doctors don't seem to know exactly why her BP is still so high but for now she is being careful to monitor what she eats and try to get a little more exercise.

A friend had a new baby and unfortunately we haven't been in good enough health to help out until last Thursday and then we have been too busy. Friday another friend and I finally got to spend the whole day together after rescheduling 3 times due to sickness in one family or the other (she does the same curriculum we do and we like to get together once in a while to encourage each other and let the children share time together). Yesterday and today was our annual testing required by our state so we got up at 6am and tested from 7:45 until 2:45 yesterday and then tested again 8am till noon today. Thankfully that is done and also thankfully my MIL was well enough to watch my 6yo (he doesn't do this type of test until next spring) since the Mom who was supposed to keep my 6yo while I proctored tests had the flu (along with several of her children). Tomorrow we have a couple of appointments and somewhere between this afternoon before Awanas tonight I have to do some ironing since my hubby needs clothes to wear to work (I did laundry all day Monday)!

Friday we have a "Spring Field Day" where the children will compete in several races and sports including the 100-yard dash, 3-legged race (their favorite), frisbee throw, etc. Our family is marching on to the field with the flag from Vietnam so tomorrow we are painting yellow stars on our red t-shirts (like the Vietnamese flag) and I am trying to download the Vietnamese national anthem onto CD to use for the awards ceremony. Should be lots of fun - I'll try to remember my camera since lately I have forgotten to take it along to everything we've done!

I've not shopped in quite a while but that's OK since we stocked the freezer and pantry during tripes at Harris Teeter a few weeks ago. I even had bread in the freezer to use for our lunches we had to carry! It really has been wonderful to be so well stocked.

The oldest children are really getting cranked up with papers and tests and getting down to the wire for the end of the semester. I would love to see more of them but am glad that they all are doing well in school and seem to be making wise choices during these college years. A wonderful thing to be thankful for these days !

That's mostly it for us for now - I'll try to be more creative once I catch my breath. Hope each of you are healthy and enjoying a beautiful day in the Lord -
-F