Grandma's B-day

On Sunday we celebrated my Mom's 60th birthday.

It was kind of a double celebration because it was the first time we have seen my brother, Jeremy, his wife, Laura and son Isaiah since they left for Vietnam last July.

Even though it was cool, we actually had some sunshine and spent the afternoon outside.

Josiah enjoying eating outdoors

Mikaya and Nathan

Jumping Fun! (Mikaya, Brooke and Isaiah)

The birthday girl herself. Doesn't look 60, does she?

My family's most favorite steak barbecuing person (who just happens to be my adorable husband :)

Josh and Rebecca filling up!

The cousin trio (Isaiah, Mikaya and Brooke)

Chow time (Jeremy and Mark)

Yum, Yum.....(Laura and my mom)

The birthday girl blowing out her candle (we didn't have 60)

Here is a video of how we surprised my mom. Everyone but mom knew that Jeremy, Laura and Isaiah were going to be at her birthday party. She thought they were still traveling. So we set up a Skype call, with Jeremy and Laura being in the other part of the house, but mom thought they were still far away :) Let's just say she was quite surprised!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

WE LOVE YOU :)

95 Chicks a Peeping

A chicken with red earlobes will produce brown eggs,

and a chicken with white earlobes will produce white eggs.

A pair of chickens walk up to the circulation desk at a public library and say, 'Buk Buk BUK.' The librarian decides that the chickens desire three books, and gives it to them...and the chickens leave shortly thereafter.

Around midday, the two chickens return to the circulation desk clearly upset and say,' Buk Buk BuKKOOK!' The librarian decides that the chickens desire another three books and gives it to them. The chickens leave as before. The two chickens return to the library in the early afternoon, approach the librarian, looking very annoyed and say, 'Buk Buk Buk Buk Bukkooook!' The librarian is now a little suspicious of these chickens. She gives them what they request, and decides to follow them. She followed them out of the library, out of the town, and to a park. At this point, she hid behind a tree, not wanting to be seen. She saw the two chickens throwing the books at a frog in a pond, to which the frog was saying, "Rrredit Rrredit Rrredit..."

Question: How can you drop an egg six feet without breaking it?

Answer: By dropping it seven feet - it won't break for the first six.

What do you get when a chicken lays an egg on top of a barn?

An eggroll!

Why did the chicken cross the basketball court?

He heard the referee calling fowls.

Which side of a chicken has more feathers?

The outside.

What do you get if you cross a hen with a dog?

Pooched eggs.

A chickens heart beats about 280-315 times per minute.

If you hold a chicken and move it around,

it'll keep its head in the same place, as if it is bolted to the spot.

I found this demonstration on You Tube

Secret Saturday Revealed!

Yup....it's a slinky :)

Secret Saturday

What do you think this is?

No Dating? By Jennifer

Even as young as I was I knew that my life was going to be different, special, set apart. I was riding along with mom in the baler when she first told me that when I became "of age" that I wasn't going to be dating, but rather saving my heart and emotions for one man. Doing so in the process of courtship as an alternate option. I was about 10 or 11 and I didn't really know what it all meant, but I knew it would change my life long term and that I was going to be different, but in a good way.

SIDE NOTE: For those of you who my have been wondering I have Never regretted my parents decision to protect me, to protect my heart. It has meant SO much to me to know that they care about who I am, and who I will become.

Courtship can be looked at from many different angles and explained in many different ways, but the main point to it all is to SAVE yourself for ONE person.

I have had a couple of people come up to me and say "do you have a boyfriend?" Umm... nope (how are you supposed to answer a question like that?). Usually the conversation is dropped there (thankfully :) but one person actually took it further when I said "no" and said "well do you have a crush?" Hee Hee "well I'm sure you'll find someone, there are lots of good looking guys around" Thanks... I really needed the encouragement... Ha, Ha. (Umm... not really) :)

People seem to think something is wrong if a girl doesn't have a boyfriend (or the other way around). Why? Why is this normal?

Should it be normal to waste my time on short term relationships when I can be doing something productive (like helping my family :)? Should it be normal to give pieces of my heart away when I could be saving ALL of myself for the man that I will be (Lord willing) spending the rest of my life with?

Proverbs 31:12 says:

She will do him (her husband) good and not evil all the days of her life.

All the days of her life! It doesn't just start when you get married... it starts now.

I would rather be able to look my husband in the eyes and tell him that I saved everything for him. Than "have fun" now and give pieces of my heart away. Pieces that I will want back when God brings the right man along. It's just not worth it.

Some people may ask, "Well how are you ever going to find a guy or know he is the right one if you don't date around?" Well let me tell you that my God is bigger than that. He knows where my husband is and He will bring him to me in His own good time. I don't have to go looking for him by "dating around" if it is God's will for me to marry... He will make sure that I get married! No, it hasn't always been easy to rely on God and trust in His perfect timing, but I'm learning more everyday how to give the Lord my hopes and my dreams.

Because He knows best, and He loves me most, so His opinion should be and IS the only one that matters.

Here is a joke we heard the other day.

Thought it was too funny not to share :)

3 sons left home, went out on their own and prospered. Getting back together they discussed gifts they were able to give their elderly mother.

The first said, "I built a big house for our mother." The second said, "I sent her a Mercedes with a driver." The third smiled and said, "Ha, I got you both beat. Remember how mother loved to read the Bible? And you know that she can't see very well? Well, I sent her an amazing parrot that recites the entire Bible. It took Church elders 14 years to teach him. Mom just has to name the chapter and verse and the parrot will recite it."

Soon thereafter, mom sent out her letters of thanks: "Jim," she wrote one son, "The house you built is so big. I live in only one room, but I have to clean the whole house." "David," she wrote to another, "I am too old to travel and stay at

home most of the time, so I rarely use the Mercedes. And the driver is so rude!"

"Dearest Gerald," she wrote to her third son, "You have the good sense to know what your mother likes. The chicken was absolutley delicious..."

Secret Saturday Revealed!

Many of you were very close in guessing our Secret Saturday mystery picture.

The ones who said that it was the nose of a cow were almost right on, except that it the nose of our "BULL"!

Of course I didn't expect you to know that by the little glimpse that you got!

Good job to everyone and thanks for guessing :)

Secret Saturday

Can you guess what this is?

Comment and tell us what you think.

Then come back on Monday and see the whole picture!

We Teach Them Young!

Around here we like to start homeschooling them at a young age.

Take Little Joey for instance.

Yesterday he did a couple of science experiments and learned about the density of certain objects.

He learned that a plastic spoon and an ear plug float in a fish tank....

(and that water also causes the ear plugs to expand so big there is no way they will fit in mom's ears!)

While a remote control sinks in the toilet (and also causes them to cease working)

YEP! we teach 'em young!

Wordless Wednesday

Don't Feel Sorry!

Awhile back I came into the nursery during a church service and overheard a conversation that was very interesting to me. The two mothers were talking about how sorry they felt for the girls from "that" large family that had to help care for their younger siblings. It didn't take me long to realize that the girls they were actually talking about were "our" daughters. Obviously they didn't pick up on the fact that I was "those" girls mom. By now they had my interest, so I continued to listen. They went on to say how "those" girls were being deprived of their freedom in having to take care of children at such a "young" age. They went on to say that "those" girls probably wouldn't want to even become mothers someday because of this burden that their parents had placed on them. Now maybe at this point I should have stepped in and said my piece, but I didn't. I think I was maybe a little dumbfounded, a little shocked. Not because I don't know that people talk about us, I know that they do. But to actually hear someone talk about you while you were in the same room is kind of.....weird!

My question then and still is now...."How can people think this way?" How can you think that by getting your children to help out in the family, that you are ruining them for life? How can you think that by getting your children to work when they are young, that you are putting too much on them? How can you think that because you get your children to help out with younger siblings that they will never want to be parents?

Of course the heart training of our children is the key to teaching them to do their work well. If their heart is bitter, ungrateful, complaining....they may very well regret hard work. As parents it is our job to train them to work with a happy and a willing heart. I tell my children all the time that I am doing them no good if I allow them to do a job with a bad attitude, because when they are grown, if their attitude is bad, they are not going to be useful in any job, be it a spouse, a parent, a missionary, self-emplyed or an employee. Training their heart if KEY.

Here's what I believe. A generation of "spoiled kids" is being raised right now. Yes...I said it.... SPOILED! They are not expected to work for their meals, they are not expected to pitch in with the daily chores of the home, they are not expected to get along with their siblings, let alone take care of them. They are not expected to honor and obey and respect their parents and other authority. They carry around cell phones and talk or text constantly, they play endless video games, they spend hours watching television, they hang out at the malls...when what they really need to be doing is some good ol fashioned work :) (of course when I say 'they" I am not meaning "all")

I have heard the pity that people feel for our children. The children that work so hard and never get to play. I have news....I don't feel sorry for them. I feel that they are very blessed. Blessed to the measure that when they leave home and Lord willing become parents, they will know how to make meals, they will know how to honour their spouse, they will know how to care for children, they will know how to do laundry.....and they will know how TO WORK!

I think I have talked about this before, but I will touch on it again. My heart breaks when I hear young moms with one or two children talk about how stressed out they are and how they need a break. Can I tell you a secret? This is bold, but here it goes....I know that my daughters will NEVER say these things! Do you wonder how I can say this with such confidence? It's because this will not be new stuff to them. They have grown up learning to deal with the hard work and struggles that are involved in raising a family. This will not be news to them! And this is only part of the problems that are beginning to arise with the generation that really doesn't know what hard work is.

A few years ago I might have not been as confidant to say these things simply because I had not yet seen the fruits. But now I see it in our grown son and older daughters. They are capable of raising a family. I have seen it in our daughter-in-law who also cared for her younger siblings while growing up. Truthfully, if anyone would have any right to complain, she would. Things have not been easy for Rebecca as a new mom. Things did not go as she had planned. But I have never seen a bad attitude or seen her to be a complainer in all this. She has never demanded ME time. She has proclaimed the truth that God is in control of their life as a family and she rests in that. This doesn't just happen by chance. Her heart was trained. And this is how I want to train our children's hearts. That they know that whatever path God chooses for them, with His strength, they can remain strong.

I know that if you asked my girls if they regret being born into a large family they would respond with a resounding "NO!" I don't even have to ask them how they would respsond, I know what they would say (and you have my permission to ask them if you would like :) They would answer this way because we have always focused on the positive side of having a large family and many siblings. Do they work hard? Yes, sometimes from sun-up to sun-down. Do they have a ton of "ME" time? No, they don't. Do I feel guilty about that? NO!!!! I wish I had less me time when I was growing up because looking back on it I can see how it fed my selfish desires. LOTS OF ME TIME IS NOT GOOD!

To sum it up...if you have a family, don't shelter your children from work. Don't buy into the lie that they need "ME" time to become healthy adults. Don't listen to the people around you who feel sorry for your children if they have to help out. And most importantly seek God's Word and what He says about work and with what attitude we are required to do it in. Let them be an encouragement to you. Hang them around your home for a constant reminder. As the ol saying goes, "A little work never hurt anybody."

Oh and by the way....if you think of our children and the work involved in running a large family, please......don't feel sorry for them. Instead think of how blessed they are!

Proverbs 29:18

He who tills his land will have plenty of bread,

But he who follows frivolity will have poverty enough!

Proverbs 10:4-5

He who has a slack hand becomes poor,

But the hand of the diligent makes rich.

He who gathers in summer is a wise son;

He who sleeps in harvest is a son who causes shame.

Pregnant Toes

Here is what you get when you combine a new video camera with:

(a) A pregnant mama on an easy chair looking at her pregnant toes

(b) A daughter who like to "dress up" a really uninteresting video

(c) A mother and daughter who laugh at really corny things!

There, now you know the real me :)

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Please Pray

***UPDATE***

Andrew had an MRI and hernia surgery on Tuesday.

Everything went very well and by Wednesday afternoon he was discharged from the hospital.

His recovery seems to be going very well....and he is still as cute and smiley as ever!

So once again thank you to our family in Christ who have been so faithful in praying for this little guy.

We appreciate all of you very much :)

Again thanks to all of you who have prayed for

our little grandson, Andrew over the last few months.

He is doing great and growing well.

Your interest and concern means so much to all of us.

Could I ask you again to pray for Andy.

He is having an MRI at 1:00, and hernia surgery at 2:00 this afternoon.

This little guy has been such a blessing in all of our lives.

Thank you Lord for little Andrew.

Please pray for Josh and Rebecca as well

that they would be able to rest and put their trust in the Lord.