Fun with Friends

A beautiful, crisp, cold day with two of my best friends. We spent the day in Old Salem strolling the streets. We rode in the buggy you see here. We visited some of the gift shops. We had lunch at Salem Tavern and finished up a perfect day with warm sugar bread!!!

Thank you, ladies for a wonderful day. I have missed you so much.

Beautiful Snow

It snowed in North Carolina! Need I say more?

Here are pictures from this wonderful day the Lord hath made.

We rejoiced and we were glad in it!

The snow sledding gang. Everyone was here expect for mom, she was taking the picture.

My love.
Hannah & I
Hannah
Cari

Mom & Dad
Dad
My brother, Daniel and his family.
Daniel
Mason
Cassie
The boys
The kids
Daniel and I decided for old times sake to go sled down the hill together. We used to sit together and slide when we were little. He pulled the same old trick, he kept leaning side to side and ended up spinning us around all the way down the hill. We were not sliding up the hill, as it looks in the photo, we were backwards at this point.
And the picture at the top was the end of the ride.

It was fun - just like when I was a kid.

Wild Wonderful West Virginia

We love our annual trip to West Virginia to spend time with our family

celebrating Christmas together. While we were there, it SNOWED!!! It was so beautiful. This may sound silly, but this is the first time in my life that I took the time to focus in on a single snowflake. I was sitting inside of our van waiting on Michael to return with our pizzas. (We brought pizza to the gathering because there is not a kitchen inside of our hotel room. It's quick, easy and all the kids and some adults LOVE pizza.) Michael showed us a tiny little flake on his coat sleeve. The beautiful snow was falling all around and from inside of the car, the flakes would melt as soon as they touched the window. But, along the fuzzy strip of rubber where the side window is on the outside, the flakes would fall and stay for at least 10 seconds before melting. I was able to focus in on those snowflakes. I tried to get a picture of them, but my camera kept trying to focus in on the water droplets on the window. They are so delicate and so beautifully designed. God left me speechless over these tiny bits of wonder.

Since I was not clothing equipped to go out to play in the snow, I stayed happily inside of the room and took pictures of the rest of my family outside playing in the snow. Michael started hurling snowballs at me. There was a nice thick piece of glass between us, so I didn’t mind.

My love.

Hannah is loving being out in the snow.

Cari acting just like her Daddy.

Now, for the nice warm pictures.

Having quiet time with cousins.

Hannah playing with her cousin, Cassie, under the table.

Uncle Roger and his grandson. Like two peas in a pod. Roger and I have at least two things in common. We share the same birthday and we are brother and sister to one another in Christ.

I always love conversation with him.

Tucker – aka ‘The Camera Snatcher’. I had finally stopped snapping pictures for a bit and sat down. I sat my camera on the table and out of the corner of my eye, I saw this little hand grab it and start walking as fast as he could. I was able to catch him and in order to not upset him by taking the camera back, I snapped a shot of us both. You can see the look of shock on his face. The nerve of me to take his new toy away.

Thank you, Lord, for our family.

Goodbye Pitkins...

...we will miss you while we are gone...
... and your Chocolate Moose Pie.

Serious

When you have to mount a second stop sign on top of the regular one,

then you must get some SERIOUS snow!

MICE!!!

The answer is..... MICE!!! Total casualties: 5.

I woke to the sounds of crashing pots and pans in my kitchen. I went stumbing into the kitchen to find Michael standing there.

He said, "I saw a mouse!"

I said, "Where!?"

He said, "He was standing right here in the middle of the floor and then he crawled into this cabinet."

I said, "You're kidding me! That is where my breadcrumbs are!!!!!"

My mom has been mailing me my favorite breadcrumbs to put on top of my chicken pies. They do not sell that brand here and we LOVE chicken pie.

We opened the cabinet - slowly. He had eaten my peanut butter chips (to make my favorite chocolate cookies with peanut butter chips) and he had eaten my BREADCRUMBS!!!!!! How dare he?

Michael set the traps and killed two that day. Now, there is a trap set and if any mouse that does not like peanut butter passes by the trap, the door is now duct taped shut.

Michael's words to the girls when they asked why: "He breeched the borders." Of course, he had to explain and define words and all that.

I bought Crossroads clean out of mouse traps. They will be set for any who dare enter while we are gone.

I'M GLAD I'M COMING HOME TOMORROW!

CAN YOU GUESS WHY?

Can you guess why Michael duct taped this cabinet door shut?

Thanksgiving Tepees

You have heard of kids making ginger bread houses at Christmas - but what about Thanksgiving. We found this cute craft idea online.

We made Thanksgiving Tepees.

I present to you our art class.....

This is my tepee.

The girls working on their tepees.

Hannah loved painting the tepees.

Hannah's finished tepees.Cari is very serious when she works. Look at that wrinkled brow.

Cari's finished tepees.

Later on that day, we attended the home school Thanksgiving Dinner. The lady who heads up the dinner borrowed an apple cider press from the Adirondack museum. All of the children (and adults, if they wanted to) had a chance to wash apples, and help press them. We had fresh pressed apple cider for our beverage with supper. I think I could have drank the entire half gallon that was on our table. Just to make you drool, I also had fresh applesauce and fresh, homemade apple butter ontop of fresh, homemade bread.

The girls helping scrub the apples.

Cari could not wait to help grind up the apples.

Then Hannah got her turn.

Wa la - fresh apple cider.

Edification

Eph 4:29 Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those that hear.

Websters 1828 Dictionary
Edification
1. A building up, in a moral and religious sense; instruction; improvement and progress of the mind, in knowledge, in morals, or in faith and holiness.

2. Instruction; improvement of the mind in any species of useful knowledge.




This verse convicts me. Let no unwholesome word proceed from my mouth. I know that every word that proceeds from my mouth is not always wholesome. But, thank the Lord, He pours out His forgiveness and mercy upon me. He is working on me (it is called sanctification).

I want to share this with you.

People are confusing sometimes - especially when they talk about God and how He operates (and use those big words like sanctification).

This is one of the things the Lord used to draw me to himself. I asked someone what made them decide to home school their kids. The very simple reply I got was "When the Lord laid it on our hearts', we wouldn't have it any other way." Period. That is all the lady said.

What in the world did that mean? "God laid it on my heart."? What does that mean anyway? I didn't know. I didn't know anybody I could ask without looking like a complete idiot. Who wants to look like a complete idiot when it comes to God? Nobody wants to ask those questions and get a look that says, "YOU go to church, and YOU don't know what it means for God to lay something on your heart? Where have you been during the sermon?"

Then I started to ask myself questions. "Why am I home schooling my kids? Is it because I want to or because God wants me to? How do I even find out if God wants me to home school? How is He going to lay it on my heart? How will I know? How will I know for SURE? Who exactly is God anyway?"

Then God started to teach me who He is according to His word.

He started with a simple little answer to a simple little question and used a simple little person. This person probably didn't realize the impact her words had on me that day. I am sure she wasn't trying to edify me with her words, but God used her words to edify me. He has 'improved and progressed my mind, in knowledge, in morals, and in faith and holiness'. Thank you Lord.

One Last Day.....

Sunday, we went to church and one of our new friends told us that God had given us this day. One last day before the cold weather set in. What a beautiful day it was too.

Weather in the mid 60s calls for a picnic by the lake.

This is us by the lake. This lake is located towards the back of the campground. The girls love playing in the sand. They love to dump all the sand out of their shoes too!

One sleepy man. He's trying his best to rest. The picnic table bench isn't very comfortable. But, when you are tired, anywhere is perfect. He spent the weekend witnessing on the streets of New York City in Time Square and the Bronx. Talk about an experience... I will let him share his stories with you. They stayed up pretty late because that is when all the people come out in the city.

Hannah has very good picture taking ability. She took this one of us. I just love him so much!

Michael took this one of me soaking up the sun. I love sitting in the sunshine.

This is of the girls right before they went and started playing in the sand.

I begged, "Please let me take a good picture of you while your clothes are still clean."

Thankful Thursday

Every day I am amazed and thankful for things that my Lord has done for me. It might seem small to some. To me, when I see the hand of God working in my life, it is a big deal. Please let me share one small detail that He has not left out.

For a few years now, when it starts to get cold outside, my hands start getting very dry and my knuckles get little cracks and they sometimes bleed. I do not like sticky lotion. But, I slather the lotion on my hands and they still are very dry and cracked. They remain this way for nearly the entire cold weather season.

To add to this, I do dishes at least three times a day and sometimes more (depends on what I am cooking). You have seen pictures of my kitchen. You know there is not very much counter space. So, I do not let the dishes pile up. There is no place to pile them. There is no automatic dishwasher, I am the dishwasher. The water up here is heated with a gas water heater. The water is H.O.T.! It will burn your skin off in a second if you dare to test the hot water. I always use a little cold. I only need a little cold because the cold water is freezing!

So, my hands are in the super hot water washing dishes around three times a day and it is cold outside. Can you guess? My hands are not even at the beginning stages of being dry. They are nowhere near cracking. And how about this, I don’t even put lotion on them.
That is the kind of God I serve. He cares about my hands. HE EVEN CARES ABOUT MY HANDS! …my hands

Psa 8:4 What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him?

What are you thankful for today?

Works for Me Wednesday

Loctite Mounting Putty 'works for me'. We live in a cabin that belongs to Word Of Life. We are told not to nail any holes in the walls. The walls are getting boring. I like pictures. So, my wonderful mother found me some of this putty to hang up some pictures. We have used it to hang lots of letters from my niece and nephew and for pictures that the girls painted. Don't you just love the double scoop, chocolate ice cream cone that Hannah painted for me? Does she know her mom or what?

Halloween Date

Michael helped carve the pumpkins. The girls LOVED digging the seeds out. They loved the squishy inside of the pumpkins. I roasted the seeds, but nobody likes them except for Michael. I was on the phone with one of my good friends and Hannah comes running in the room and tells me that someone was sitting in our car - just as serious as her Daddy would have. I came out sneaking, looking through the curtain on the front door and this is what I saw.

Michael is crazy.

I just love this picture of Mr. Pumpkin head driving my car.

The girls and I finished up the evening with a date. I took them to the Word Of Life Inn to the Allison Durham Speer concert. They LOVED it. Cari wanted one of her CDs and Allison signed it for Cari. Allison was so sweet and loved talking to the girls. She was asking them what their favorite song was.