A Funny

There is not much new with us these last few days.

We made it through the inspection just fine. It wasn't really much of an inspection, actually. They came in and asked if we had any proplems (so we showed them the same things we've shown them before), they looked at the shower stall they had to replace not that long ago and that was that. Of course, they hadn't coordinated well with the contracters so they had to come back again a little while later with them, but the contracters just needed to look at the breaker box and some things in the living room and kitchen and they were done. So no-one actually had to look at every room...but they could have! Lol!

While I was writing Isaiah came out and read this joke to me. Since I don't have much to say today anyway I thought I would write it here, it made me smile:

A father was teaching his son to admire the beauties of nature.

"Look, son," he exclaimed, "isn't that sunset a beautiful picture God has painted?"

"It sure is, Dad," responded the youngster enthusiastically, "especially since God had to paint it with his left hand."

The father was baffled. "What do you mean, son? His left hand?"

"Well," answered the boy, "my Sunday school teacher said that Jesus was sitting on God's right hand."

Blessings on your day!

More Sunshine

The Lord has continued to bless us with sunshine this week, it has been so wonderful! Here are some of the things we've been doing while we enjoy the sun.

Miriam walking Henessy to get the mail.

I took Kraemer with us to get some nice, fresh air.

Kraemer and I stayed outside after we got the mail while I did my Bible reading in the sunshine, it was just too beautiful to go back inside!

On Saturday we went to a friends house for dinner and the kids had a great time playing in the yard and jumping on the trampoline. In this picture Joshua is bouncing Miriam and Benjamin (you can just see his foot and hand) up in the air.

After burning energy at our friend's house the kids wound down in the evening by watching 'Shark Boy and Lava Girl'. Gotta love the 3D glasses!


On Sunday I took Isaiah, Miriam and Henessy to the beach. (The two Josh's opted to stay home) It was much warmer than I expected and we all had a great time until Miriam got 'clotheslined' by Henessy's leash! She still has a nasty looking burn on her neck and chin but she recovered nicely.

Isaiah and Miriam enjoy watching the waves crashing on the far side of the jette.

Chasing, and being chased by, the waves.

Boy, did their feet get cold! The temperature outside was pretty warm, the water temperature was not!

One happy dog!

Isaiah's 11th Birthday

Isaiah had a great birthday on Friday!

I can't believe he's 11 years old!

Daddy and Grandma met us at a nearby coffee shop for lunch and Isaiah opened his presents there.

What a handsome birthday boy!

Our crazy family!
I believe Josh is in the middle of telling Isaiah not to ruin the picture. Lol!

Isaiah decorated me with the bows from Grandma's presents!
I could start a trend with this look...



Isaiah reading jokes from his new joke book (these are extremely popular with my kids right now) to his brother and sister.

Isaiah's Birthday cake.

Yes, it says 'Bob'. This is a joke with him and his friends (he is Bob, another friend is Billy Bob and another friend is something else I can't remember...) and he really wanted his cake to say 'Happy 11th Birthday Bob' so that is what it said.

The best part of birthday's is unlimited video games!
(Actually it may be a toss-up between that and no school, as they always get their birthday off from school.) Here is Isaiah playing video games with his buddies the morning after his birthday sleepover.

All in all I'd say Isaiah had a great 11th birthday!

Sunny Days

We have been enjoying some lovely sunny days here in the rainy northwest this week. Even if I can't get out in it much, just having the sun shining in the windows lifts my spirit. To have this brief respite in the midst of the rain and cold of winter is such a blessing!

On Tuesday we took advantage of the sunshine by having lunch and doing some of our schooling on the back patio. We even brought Kraemer (the baby I watch during the day) out to enjoy the sunshine!

The birds also enjoy the sun. I took this picture today. These birds crack me up because the whole, huge flock travels around from yard to yard throughout the neighborhood 'grazing'.
I enjoy watching them pull big ole' grubs out of our yard from my scrapbook room window...I am amazed at how many they get!

I finally remembered to ask Kraemer's parents for permission to put his picture on here. So now I can show you how cute my kids are with him!

Here Joshua is throwing the ball for Henessy while holding Kraemer, who absolutely loves the dog!

This was the perfect way to keep Kraemer happy while I made his bottle!


Kraemer also loves to play with Isaiah's hair!
When Kraemers around Joshua refers to Isaiah as 'the scruffy guy'.


You can see he was very happy playing with Isaiah.
What a cutie!


And just because I think it is so very cute, I had to add this picture of Isaiah carrying the baby in my sling taken last week. Too adorable!

No pictures of Miriam and the baby today but I am sure I will add some soon.
All three munchkins just love having a baby around, it is so sweet!

In other news, Isaiah will turn 11 tomorrow!!
(which would actually be in 45 minutes as I write, yikes!)
He will be having 3 friends over for a sleepover party, which will include pizza, video games and glow-in-the-dark bowling from 9:30 - 11pm!
Sounds like a good 11th birthday party to me!

Oh, that reminds me I still have presents to wrap!
I better get going...

Until next time... blessings on your day!

Imagination is...

From the time Joshua was 3-years-old and telling me amazing stories to go with pictures he drew or the game he was playing with his toys, I have been captivated by the incredible imaginations of my children. Few things bring me as much joy as seeing my children play and imagine. Joshua loves to tell me about imaginary creatures, peoples and worlds he has made up and the ongoing stories about them. Miriam is constantly coming up to me during the day to tell me about something her animals are doing or who she is at that time. Isaiah and his friend, James, enjoy wandering the neighborhood battling pretend bad guys and 'exploring'. This is the joy and wonder of childhood!

As I write Miriam says to Josh, "I'm electric eel woman. You can call me electric woman or eel woman."

Josh: "Can I just call you eew?"

Miriam: "No, you can call me electric woman or eel woman."

Josh: "Ok, eew." (Ornery daddy.)

Here is Miriam the bandit with baby Maia on her hunting giraffe (yes, the giraffe hunts for her and brings her meat to eat - though the giraffe only eats fruits and plants).

Here she is later with a bridle and saddle Isaiah rigged for her. (Take note of the rather eccentric outfit...my girl is definitely a free spirit!)

Here Joshua has set up a bunch of his animals in a epic battle scene, each set of two or three animals has it's own little 'battle story' of what is happening there. (I actually got him on video telling me about them but I lost it somehow when I uploaded my photos, sadly.)



This was my favorite, smaller dragons and dinosaurs attacking the large dragon...I especially like the one on the tail.

Isaiah's GI Joe's are trying to stay out of the molten lava, while they battle.

Bad guys getting ready to go across. (There are 3 of them, can you find them all?)

There you have a small sampling of the amazing imaginations in our household. I am always entertained (and impressed) by what these guys come up with!

Here is one of my favorite quotes:

Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge defines all we currently know and understand, imagination points to all we might yet discover and create.

Albert Einstein

Pool Fun

Yesterday I took the kids swimming at our local public pool. Two other families from our neighborhood went as well. The kids had a great time and the boys really enjoyed the break from their work, as well as getting some much needed exercise. I enjoyed getting some fun pictures of my kids and their friends. Here are some of the pictures I took of my munchkins:

Here is Joshua in his cool new goggles

Miriam showing off her ability to 'hold herself up with just her legs.'

Joshua and Isaiah

Isaiah in mid-flip! I love this picture, even blurry.

Miriam's running jump off the diving board.

The boys are just about ready for their merit badge fair, finally! We are continuing to enjoy spending more time in the Word as a family (and me on my own). The hours continue to rush by so that the day is gone before I get a fraction of the things done that I would like to do!

I was able to finish a scrapbook page layout that I have been working on for two weeks, well, it's been sitting there half done for two weeks anyway...I haven't actually 'worked on it' much. (-: In the last week I have also enjoyed getting all my packages from the various places where I ordered scrapbooking supplies using Christmas gift certificates and Christmas money - so fun! (Thanks, again, to those responsible!) I can't wait to spend more time in my scrapbook room! Saturday is to be a scrapping day for me while the boys (all 3) are gone, Miriam has a birthday party to attend and will likely be playing with friends much of the day.

So continues our crazy life!

It is crazy, but it is good!

Blessings on your day!

Busy Days

Whew! We are getting back to a somewhat normal schedule and, boy, are we busy! It just doesn't seem like we should be this busy, we don't do anywhere near as many activities as some people, but the days are gone before I know it.

We got our part-time munchkin back yesterday (the 6-month old I babysit during the day). He is a very easy baby, but still... he is a baby. It is amazing how even the easiest baby manages to gobble up the time. Still we were all very happy to have him around again during the day. It is so much fun to see my munchkins interacting with him, they get such a kick out of everything he does! It warms a mother's heart.

Late yesterday afternoon my husband received word that a group of contractors would be coming to our house at eleven o'clock, today to do a walk-thru and bid on the abatement that will be done when we move in June. (We live in Coast Guard housing and the house we live in is due to be gutted and remodeled after we move, and because there is asbestos in the walls they have to have special people come in to deal with that.) So we had one evening and one partial morning to get every room in the house presentable! This may not be a big issue for some but for this family it is. Housekeeping is definitely not my primary gift (nor my husband's) and my kids are, well, kids - though I must say Joshua's bedroom stays pretty clean. We usually have some rooms presentable, but rarely all! So instead of blogging last night, I was cleaning and supervising kids cleaning...which sometimes seems to take more effort.

Then after all the hustle and bustle of getting the house presentable eleven o'clock rolled around this morning and...nobody showed up. At around two o'clock Josh found out that they would not be doing the walk-thru until January 22nd, when they will do it at the same time as our annual inspection! Aurgh!! Whoever gave Josh the information yesterday hadn't talked to the right people yet so we got the wrong information. The joy of dealing with the government. Looking at the bright side, at least I have a really clean house. (-:

The boys are still hard at work on their merit badge requirements. I have offered to type out some things as they dictate to me, which also eats up the time. Tonight I took the boys to a city council meeting, which is a requirement for the communications merit badge. They both actually enjoyed it and Isaiah wants to go on a regular basis. (I found it interesting myself so I will take him if he wants to go.) They got to meet the mayor and talk to him for a few minutes during a recess between the city council meeting and the urban renewal meeting, which we stayed for to see if there would be more points of view to better fulfill their merit badge requirement. There was more discussion and we are glad we stayed, though it is now much later than I would like. After the meetings the mayor came up and gave the boys his card and told them to call him if they have any questions, then he thanked us for coming. I thought that was pretty cool.

We are all enjoying our family Bible reading (we are reading the Bible in a year, together) which we do as soon as Josh gets home from work and changed. I am keeping on track with my Bible reading (reading the Bible in 90 days), though not with my blogging about what I am reading. I have taken notes, however, so I will be able to update later...if I ever have some extra time! I am thoroughly enjoying reading so much of God's Word everyday. I do have to adjust my reading habits...in that I prefer to have total quiet and no distraction when I read my Bible (perhaps one reason I have not been reading it enough) but if I am going to get 10-15 chapters a day read I need to be willing to read next to the kids while they school - taking breaks to answer questions, read while holding and jostling the baby, etc. Yesterday was nice in that I read 5 chapters in the morning and then I was able to hide away in my room at bedtime and read the last 10 in peace while Josh ran interference with the kids while they finished cleaning and got ready for bed.

I am so thankful for the many good things this year has already brought. Each day I am reminded of how truly blessed we are and I just thank God that he has seen fit to deal so graciously with us. With each trial and temporary frustration I am just reminded that I need to lean on Him and as I do, I grow and learn and, hopefully, do a little better the next time around. As we swing in to full gear with school and activities I just need to remember to stop - take a breath, and hand it over to Him...and, you know, He just handles it all so much better than I!

Blessings on your day!

Bat-girl

Miriam was looking at a book this afternoon and doing what the kids in the book were doing.

(which is actually the point of the book, we used to have a lot of fun with this book when the kids were smaller...arching like a whale breaching, flapping like a parrot flying, growling like a tiger...but I digress)

Everyone thought she was so cute I had to take pictures and share.

The page in the book she is mimicking in the following picture.

Miriam being, not just a bat, but a fruit bat.



One happy girl!

(Of course, she is always happiest when the center of attention. Lol!)

Speed Demons

Today Joshua and Isaiah did some of the fitness testing that is required for their Personal Fitness merit badge. One thing they had to do was to time how fast they can run a mile, so Josh took them to the nearby junior high school track. They did a great job, running the mile in 9:45 and 10:15.

I am very proud!

Josh took some pictures for me...

Look at them go!

Miriam did some running too.

Cooling down!

Time to rest!

Hope you enjoyed your Saturday!

A Joyful Day

Happy 2nd day of 2009!

Today I got a call from a friend I had not had opportunity to visit in quite a while inviting me to come visit this afternoon. The boys are very busy working on prerequisites for their upcoming merit badge fair, for boy scouts, but as Josh got to come home early from work today Miriam and I were able to take off and go visiting! We took Henessy with us since my friend also has a dog, Bear, and Bear and Henessy love to run and play together on her property while we visit. This was also a wonderful blessing since poor Henessy is not getting nearly enough exercise lately with the yucky weather we've been having.

After visiting my one friend for a couple of hours, I called up some other friends who lives near her and asked if we could stop by. We ended up visiting with them for another couple of hours! Now that is a blessed day! (-:

Here is Miriam kicking back with a juice box at my friend's daughter's Barbie table. (Yes, she is wearing quite the crazy outfit, those are red stocking underneath it all...workout pants, a sweatshirt that doesn't really match and a pink overall dress, well, over it all...I do love that girl!)


Here is Miriam playing with her new digital pet cat that just came in the mail today (bought with your Amazon gift certificate, Bubba) as we leave the second friends house.



After we got home I took this picture of Isaiah suspending himself from our kitchen doorway.

And if that wasn't enough he decided to hold himself up by holding the other end of the rope in his mouth. That's my goofy boy!

This is a picture of me blogging last night, the cat came and was doing flips in my lap trying to get me to pet her. Finally she settled down and I had Isaiah take these pictures.

Here you can see the cat a little better, and she looks evil...it's just the flash, really...Lol!

As I finish tonight she has come and is cleaning herself in my lap. I guess she is my new blogging buddy!

Last day of '08 and first of '09

Here are some random pictures of the last day of 2008 and the first day of 2009.

Wrestling boys, next to a long-suffering dog.

Working on the take-down.




Isaiah gets the upper hand, next to the dog, again.





Miriam and Maia (the baby doll) all set-up for a reading session on the couch.





Isaiah kicking back on the kids lofty reading area. (in a space above our pantry, oven and broom closet - between the kitchen and living room, for those who haven't been to our house and seen it)




Our crazy, cute girl. It was actually pretty dark in the room - being a very stormy and windy day - and she was having fun shining her flashlight around, especially on the dog for some reason.




Miriam's webkinz all lined up on the edge of the reading area. I just thought this was so cute I had to include it.




Miriam on the reading area, about to climb down the white post. (I actually have pictures of her doing that from another day, perhaps I will post some tomorrow.)


Our New Year's day was relaxing and uneventful, other then the roaring wind and rain outside all day long. I was thankful to be feeling better today as I was quite ill yesterday. One important thing we did today was to start our 'reading the Bible in a year' as a family. I am very excited that we are doing this.


In addition, I have decided to follow a plan to read the entire Bible in 90 days. I have started a second blog to record thoughts and experiences related to my Bible reading. You can view that blog here: http://readingthruthebible.blogspot.com/ if you are interested.


May the Lord richly bless you as we embark on this new year!


Bring on 2009!