Whew . . . What A Week!

Definitely an interesting week. . . . .

We woke up Monday morning to about 14 inches (35.6 centimeters) of snow.  Thankfully my boss called and told me to NOT come to work.  Hubby on the other hand was not so fortunate and had to work.  The kids and I had a good snow day.  I shoveled and shoveled and did not quite get any progress made until hubby got home from work and finished up.  So since my car could not go any where we built a snowman and took the sleds down the hill in the yard.
 

View from the back of the house

View from the front of the house down our driveway

 View of the front of the house

 Kids with the snowman

The heron . . . . 

On Tuesday I caught a few good pictures of these beauties through the window at work.  It was so funny watching the toms walk through the snow.  They would take a step, then flump down they sank into the snow and pluff went their feathers all fanned out.  Then they would repeat the process.  Oh, how I laughed at the sight!

Reminds me of a mirror image

 Two toms hanging out

 

Today the kids and I were home for the holiday.  A friend came over and installed a new garage door for us.  Yay!  The old solid wood one was on it last leg, literally.  It started to fall apart as it was taken down.  Princess and I went to the grocery store this afternoon.  When we returned home hubby and Pumpkin had found a painted turtle down at the pond.  Spring has to be right around the corner!  Then we came inside and had a "tea party" with the tea set Aunt L gave her on Wednesday.  We served pink lemonade and letter crackers.  
 

Before view of the garage door (earlier in the week)

See the rotting panels at the bottom of the picture

The beautiful new door

 Painted turtle . . . spring is in the air

We wish all our family and friends a happy and joyous Easter!!!!!   

Random Thoughts

Pumpkin found a white tailed deer skull today down along the creek in our yard.

Thanks to an allergic reaction earlier in the week to something I ate, I have finally been prescribed an epi pen just in case I ever have a reaction that is really extreme.

Since November I have lost ten pounds.

Today it was sunny and almost 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius).  The Canada geese are pairing up.  Welcome spring!

Tomorrow it will be around 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsisus) with a possible 3 to 10 inches of snow (8 to 25 centimeters).  And winter comes back for another whammy!

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday!  The kids enjoy waving the palms at church and this year they are learning the meaning of palms in Sunday School.

My favorite religious day is coming up. . . . Maundy Thursday.  Here is a link about Maundy Thursday that I wrote two years ago.  "My Favorite Holiday"

Doesn't this fox squirrel have a brilliant orange tail?

Oh, I love to take nature pictures!

I think I am addicted to reading books.  I tend to not get anything done around the house when I am in the midst of reading a book.

I love my hubby and kids!

Princess is really expanding her vocabulary.  Earlier this week she told me "Be quiet. I concentrating. I talking to God."

Pumpkin wants to built dog houses out of cardboard boxes to support his great grandma.  Then she can live with us.  She can sleep in his bed and he will sleep on the floor. (ha ha ha ha)

Pumpkin told me earlier this week "Mommy when you go to heaven.  I'm going to marry Rae and move into your house." (ha ha ha ha)

I have a great husband.  He got me a chocolate cherry coke today! 

Yesterday I splurged and got him the new Hobbit movie on DVD.

I made three loaves of chocolate chip banana bread today.  Two for Palm Sunday breakfast at church tomorrow and one loaf for home.  

Well better serve up some chocolate chip banana bread.  The natives are getting restless. 
 

The Heron . . .

One of the reasons that I wanted to upgrade to a better camera with better zoom is because I would dearly love to get a good picture of the great blue heron that hangs out in our backyard.  The thing is, the heron KNOWS!  

If I have my camera, he makes sure that he is on the opposite side of the pond.  If I get to close, he flies away.  Sometimes when he sees me, he turns around and walks further away.  This morning he even taunted me!  We were running late for church and I did not have my camera, so he was on our side of the pond about 40 feet from the driveway.  Oh it was so hard to drive to church this morning, when all I could think about was turning the car around, running into the house for my camera and finally getting my perfect shot of the heron.  Here are a few shots of him on the other side of the pond, but oh do I dream of a good up close shot of this amazing bird.  

He watches and he plots!!!

There he goes and walks away from me AGAIN!

 

Best shot so far of this feathered creature.

I have gotten a few other good fauna shots this past week between lunch breaks at work and critters on our pond at home.

Red-bellied woodpecker (male)

Northern Shovelers (3 drakes, 3 hens)

Fox Squirrel

Mallards (1 drake, 1 hen)

I am really looking forward to the spring wildflowers, so I can see how good this camera is at up close objects. Spring is right around the corner.  So stay tuned for more photographic adventures!

Family Day

We had a family day this afternoon and went to a neighboring town to meet up with a college friend of mine.

We started off at the local mall and had lunch in the food court.  I think hubby was happy that he was able to get some Chinese food.  The kids and I had sub sandwiches, with the kids sharing a sandwich.  Of course they ate all of the chips and cookies, without sharing with their mommy.  The kids were able to ride on the indoor carousel next to the food court.  I think that they had fun! 

After lunch we visited a children's museum.  It was pretty fascinating and the kids played for two hours.   

They had a water table, gravity activities, a faux castle, a faux boat with life vest, a faux veterinarians clinic, an much more.  Pumpkin enjoyed the water table with boats and movable obstructions the most, typical boy.  Princess was torn between the sand table and faux veterinarians clinic.  We took a few pictures outside before jumping back into the car.

We headed back to the mall for a bit of play in the children's area, then ended out day with ice cream before driving an hour and fifteen minutes home.  Both of the kiddos fell asleep in the car.  So even though we had a few meltdowns, it was a pretty successful day.

I can't wait for the next family adventure!

So Shines The Night

 

I am super excited to be traveling with Tracy's Caravan!  

So what is Tracy's Caravan?  Well, members of Tracy's Caravan connect through Facebook and have a common interest of enjoying the books written by historical fiction author Tracy Higley.  Tracy is an amazing and down-to-earth author.  It is a honor to be part of her Blog Tour to celebrate the release of her newest book on March 12, 2013. . . So Shines The Night!

I had the opportunity to ask Tracy three questions.  Oh, this is so exciting!!!!

Question #1:  Your books remind me of a time machine, whereas the readers are transported into the pages.  How do you make the stories seem so real and life like? 

"Thank you so much for saying that! It is exactly what I aspire to, so you’ve made my day! I don’t have a simple answer, except to say that there’s nothing in the world I’d like more than a time machine, so it’s definitely a priority. One thing that I do before I sit down to write a scene is to take some time walking around in it in my head, trying to really experience the sensory of the scene – the sounds, smells, tastes, textures, colors, temperature, and spatial details. If I don’t do that exercise, often those things don’t make it to the page. But when I do, I believe it helps bring the scene to life."

Question #2:  How has your writing, research, and travels affected your spiritual life? 

"Great question. All of it has definitely given me a larger sense of the world and what God is doing in it, both now and through the past. It’s made me realize, as I’ve studied God’s work in the nations throughout history, that He has always been calling all people to Himself, and that He still is. It’s also given me a desire to see the kind of Christianity that was born in the fires of Roman persecution become part of our experience now – a living, breathing faith that radically transforms our lives."

Question #3:  What character has been your favorite through your writing journeys over the years and why? 

"Sophia, from Guardian of the Flame. She is the most like me, and ironically probably the character many of my readers have liked the least.  She is withdrawn and isolated, and doesn’t feel herself worthy of interaction with people and although it’s probably more honesty than you asked for, I will say that I struggle with this idea often. She learns that she is loved and accepted by God first, and that God’s love makes all other relationships possible. It’s a lesson many of my characters are often learning, and it comes from a deep place within me. " 

(I just have to say that Sophia is also my favorite character from all of Tracy's books, too.  Pretty cool!)

What does Tracy have to say about her newest book?  Let's listen to this video filmed on location in Ephesus . . . 

Here is a fun question for you.  Where's the Book?

 
As part of the Blog Tour, I had the opportunity to get an advanced copy of So Shines the Night.  So without further adieu, here are my thoughts on Tracy's newest book.
 

I had a hard time putting the book down and was able to read this book in about twenty four hours, which is fast for me.  I would categorize it as a story within a story.  None of the other Tracy Higley books that I have read have had this particular aspect.   

The prologue threw me off a bit just because it was not quite what I expected from reading previous books.  Chapter one drug me back in and held me until the epilogue (which was amazing by the way).  The prologue and epilogue are of a storyteller in first person telling a story that occurred many years before.  The chapters in between is just one of the many stories pertaining to early Christianity.  

The two major characters are Daria and Lucas.  Both have experienced major hardships in life.  Both are lost in some way.  Both seek knowledge.  And both seek truth.  The year is 57 A.D. and a majority of the story occurs in Ephesus, an ancient Greek city located in present-day Turkey.  Daria is a widowed scholar, her work is that of a tutor, and speaks many language a rarity in those days for a woman.  Lucas is a wealthy merchant caught up in the emotions of being a widower.  He strives to right that which he believes was the cause of the untimely death.   

Now I don't believe in giving the story away, you will have to read it for yourself.  The story does portray the darkness in the early days of Christianity with Greek gods and sorcerers.  It is just one story of how faith in our One God overcame the darkness of those day and includes apostle Paul (for biblical reference, Acts 19).  To me the basis of this particular story is learning to trust, finding courage to stand up for what is right, and opening your heart to the truth.  Death can build or break the person left behind, it can strengthen your faith or turn you from God.  But for those who prevail, they become stronger, wiser, and happiness will return.  This fact (which I myself have experienced) is found in this story.

There is a mixture of both fact and fiction.  I love how Tracy really researches the archaeological and biblical aspects of her literature and travels to the location of the story to make the characters seem so real and believable.  

 As with any story, interpretation is up the reader.  I have seen mixed reviews on whether the actions of Paul are depicted correctly.  Well, two people can read the same passage of scripture and glean totally different things from it.  I do enjoy reading the Bible but at times it can be just as confusing to me as the works of Shakespeare, because we live in a different time and a different era than when words were written.  I have actually enjoyed discovering Tracy's views on apostle Paul.

Overall, I would recommend this book to all of my friends.  A big thank you to Tracy for another wonderful book and I look forward to reading the next one! 

Please follow this link to be entered into a $50 gift card drawing:  http://tracyhigley.com/enter-to-win/

Thank you for stopping by and don't forget to read a copy of Tracy Higley's newest book So Shines the Night!  

Broke The Mold

Have you ever heard the saying "God broke the mold when he made you."?  I certainly hope that is true.  I seem to be a walking catastrophe at times and hope that others do not have my uniqueness. Being unique is a good thing at times, but other times it is just not fun.  Certain parts of my uniqueness I just refer to as being very special or unusually blessed.  So what about my mold is different?

I am a giant . . . . now I know that I am not really a giant but that is how children and some adults see me.  I hear "Whoa, you're tall!" a lot from children.  Being 6'1" is not always easy.  Sure you can reach the top shelf at the grocery store.  Sure you can see over a crowd.  Sure you can be 9 months pregnant and only look like you are 3 months.  I like sitting in those super tall chair that you can sometimes find at restaurants so my legs dangle.  I like to sit in the back pew at church, so I can have some leg room.  But being tall comes with its own disadvantages, too.  My name is not "Jolly Green Giant".  My name is not "Big Bird."  I don't answer to "Hey, you up there."  Shopping for clothes is terrible. . . I have to special order my long sleeved shirts and my long pants and jeans (36" inseam).  Shoes . . . ha ha ha ha . . . I am wearing mens size 11, which would be about a 12 or 13 in womens.  I whack my head a lot in this world designed for shorter people.  The first two used cars that I owned I had to contort my legs and knees, cramming them at an angle under the steering wheel just so I could drive it down the road.  Glad I have a Mailbu now, plenty of leg room!  There is so many more disadvantages to being tall, but that is enough for now.  

I could be a bubble girl . . . . Oh, so many of my friends tease me that I should be inside a plastic bubble.  The older I get the more allergies I seem to develop.  My biggest allergy is to capsicum (peppers).  So that would include green peppers, red peppers, sausage, pepperoni, chili, salsa, paprika (which is in EVERYTHING), etc. . . .   It is one of those triple header allergies- food, airborne and skin reactions.  But according to the tests at the allergy doctor's office it is just an intolerance so it won't kill me, instead I get hives, feel like I have the stomach flu, loose my voice, get a headache, and I want to curl up in a ball and not move.  Oh the newest reaction to the list. . . . my cheeks and ears turn bright red.  But don't worry it won't kill me, it just will make me EXTREMELY miserable.  Within the last 18 months, I have discovered that I am allergic to SLS (sodium laureth sulfate) a foaming agent which was in my shampoo and toothpaste; peeling, blistering skin is always so joyful to deal with.  Like I said I am special.  I have discovered that Burt's Bee Balm has an amazing shampoo that is SLS free and Sensodyne Pronamel toothpaste is SLS free.  Oh my gosh, Tom's of Maine mouthwash is SLS free and is amazing!  Now you might be laughing at this point, go ahead.  I laugh quite often about all of my strange allergies.  I have a whole list more of allergies, but I'll stop at the big ones.

I have four eyes . . . . Yep, I wear glasses.  I have tried contacts, but I must have been allergic to the cleaning solution.  Glasses are a pain when it rains, when you go inside after being out in the cold they fog up, and you always have to clean them.  It would be cool if someone invented wipers to clean your glasses with, so much easier.  Something cool about wearing glasses, if I have a headache I can take the glasses off and the world blurs around me which can lessen the throbbing pain.  Nice!  Strange fact- the eye doctor has to leave the lights on for my eye exam because the difference in light changes my prescription.  I am nearsighted with astigmatisms, so my daughter comes by it naturally (although her vision is worse than mine).  Even though I got teased about wearing glasses growing up, it is nice to wear them now.  My daughter loves to wear her glasses because she gets to be like mommy and that I would not trade for anything.

If it is going to happening to anyone, it WILL happen to me . . . . I just have this wonderful magnetism for the strange and unusual.  Did you know that only about 30% of women have to have a c-section? Yep, this was me twice.  Have you ever walked into the edge of a screen door with your face as it is mid-way through closing?  Happened to me.  Have you woke up in the middle of the night with a mouse sitting on your shoulder?  Happened to me in high school.  Have you had a pheasant almost fly through the open passenger window of your car?  Yep.  Have you been surrounded by a flock of wild baby turkeys with an angry momma turkey standing right in front of you?  Why, yes I have.  Have you had one of those automatic check-outs at the store that calls for the attendant after every single action you take?  Oh yes!!!  Have you had your turn signals on your car short-out?  Yep, twice!  Have you had the head gasket blow on your car on Christmas Eve spewing antifreeze from the tail pipe?  Yep.  Have you had a baby pee in your ear?  Ha ha ha!  This one was actually my husband.  We learned that valuable lesson of covering Pumpkin with a wet wipe when we changed his diaper that day. Are you laughing yet????  That is what I do when something weird happens.  I figure you can either laugh or cry, so why not laugh!

Life is really what you make of it, but I am still hoping that the mold was broken when I was born. We have a lot of blessings in our life, but everyone often has challenges that lay hidden too.  So if someone if having a bad day, give them the benefit of the doubt because you never know how much they are going through unless you travel a mile in their shoes.  I know that I cannot shrink my legs, that my allergies will run amuck, that I have goofy eyes, and that the weird and unexplainable WILL happen to me . . . . but that is what makes me unique.  That is what makes me who I am. . . . Me.  And who better to be than yourself?   What weird quarks do you have?

A Final Hurrah?

We got a blast of wintry weather today.  Freezing rain, sleet, snow, wind.  Yep!  It was all here!

We counted over twenty cardinals today.  I was able to get a few shots with my camera!

It might be the final push of winter as the temperatures should be in the upper 50s this weekend.  But then again we should never count our chickens until they are hatched.  Maybe old man winter will give us another day or two of icky weather before spring officially arrives.  We will see!

Thinking

Sometimes thinking is good and sometimes thinking is not so good.

#1:  I am still working on losing a few pounds.  I have been reading a chapter a night of the book Made to Crave: Satisfying Your Deepest Desire With God, Not Food by Lysa TerKeurst to help motivate me.  So far I've been taken with the passage Matthew 19:16-30 from the introduction.

  

Someone came to Jesus with this question: “Teacher, what good deed must I do to 

have eternal life?”

“Why ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. But 

to answer your question—if you want to receive eternal life, keep the commandments.”

“Which ones?” the man asked.

            And Jesus replied: “‘You must not murder. You must not commit adultery. You must not 

            steal. You must not testify falsely. Honor your father and mother. Love your neighbor as 

            yourself.’”

“I’ve obeyed all these commandments,” the young man replied. “What else must I do?”

Jesus told him, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all your possessions and give the 

money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

But when the young man heard this, he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is very hard for a rich person to 

enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  I’ll say it again—it is easier for a camel to go through the 

eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!”

The disciples were astounded. “Then who in the world can be saved?” they asked.

Jesus looked at them intently and said, “Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But with 

God everything is possible.”

Then Peter said to him, “We’ve given up everything to follow you. What will we get?”

Jesus replied, “I assure you that when the world is made new and the Son of Man sits 

upon his glorious throne, you who have been my followers will also sit on twelve thrones, 

judging the twelve tribes of Israel.  And everyone who has given up houses or brothers 

or sisters or father or mother or children or property, for my sake, will receive a hundred 

times as much in return and will inherit eternal life. But many who are the greatest now 

will be least important then, and those who seem least important now will be the 

greatest then.”

It didn't make too much sense reading it at first, so I googled for a devotional on the verses and then it made much more sense to me in the context of the book.  Food can be a crutch, it can be our riches that we do not want to give up.  With each chapter that I maneuver, I see how faith in God can help with the motivation and endurance needed to make real change in my eating habits (or at times reasons behind the eating habitats like stress, grief, boredom, etc...).  I have a long way to go, but hopefully one of these days I will reach my healthier goal that I set back in November.

#2:  I've been thinking a lot about mom lately.  Somedays are better than others, then some days are still rough at times.  I know that I still have yet to heal and that it will take a long time.  It is not like you can just throw a switch and everything will be alright again.  Sometimes I wonder about what mom would think about the kids.  Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to ask mom's advice about something.  Sometimes I wonder why she did not go to the doctor sooner.  Sometimes I just wonder what life would be like if she was still here.  Sometimes my thoughts are happy and sometimes my thoughts bring tears.  

#3:  When I think about mom, then I worry about dad and what will happen when his day comes.  He is my only parent left and I know that he will lose his battle to cancer too.  I know that that day will come sooner than I like.  I wish that there was a cure for his cancer.  I so wish that cancer just did not exist.  I need to try to get across town more often to visit him.  Sometimes it is hard though to get over there without the kids and they have a tendency to make his anxiety levels go sky high.  I hope that he is around long enough to teach the kids some cool grandpa things. . . like fishing, playing the guitar, cooking a pizza on the grill, making tomato burgers, and the Super Chicken song.

#4:  I'm so exhausted from thinking at times that I just don't want to think.  I just want to zone out . . . lose myself in a book . . . lose myself in a movie. I get tired of feeling responsible for myself, my kids, my hubby, my grandma A, my grandma R, my dad, and sometimes even my baby sister.  No wonder I zone out and stuff my face with food at times.  

#5:  I think I need to probably get off the computer now and find something to clean in this disaster of a house.   The chaos seems to multiple, have babies, then spreads through the whole house.  I probably could clean for weeks and still not catch up.  Hmmmm. . . guess I need to focus and get something accomplished.  I got it, I'll make slips of paper with different rooms in the house of where I should start, draw a slip, and then . . . go to sleep.  Tomorrow is another day and I can start cleaning then.

Lazy Days

 

We have not accomplished much this weekend.  A few basic chores but that is about it.  I had my nose stuck in a kindle book yesterday.  Just picture Belle at the beginning of Beauty and the Beast.  Ha ha ha! Thankfully, I have gotten it finished and post will be coming in the next week.  I really enjoyed the book and had a hard time putting it down, which meant little was done yesterday besides feeding the kids and letting them run amuck like two little tornadoes through the house.  Ha ha ha!

The kids camped out in the great room on Friday night.  We made a tent with blankets and chairs that they slept under.  They seemed to really enjoy a different location in the house and the location is a lot warmer than the floor in the sun room.  

We had seasoned pork chops and corn on the cob last night.  Pumpkin finished his plate off.  Yay!!!  Tonight we had pork chop pizza and chocolate chip banana bread.  So overall, two night of good suppers.  I have no idea what to make for supper tomorrow night.  Hmmmmm . . . either bacon, eggs, and toast or spaghetti with a meat sauce. Oh, cheese toasties with tomato soup sounds good too.  Well I'll figure it out tomorrow.

This morning when buckling his seat belt Pumpkin said a daddism "Why did you talk me into having kids!" Ha ha ha!  Apparently he was frustrated with latching his seat belt and spouted off the first reason he could think of.  It was pretty entertaining and I had a hard time not laughing in front of him.  Hubby really needs to learn to watch what he says in front of our little parrots!  It can come back to bite him later.

Princess has been big into say "Actually" lately.  She also likes the word "nocturnal" and can tell you several animals that are night time dwellers.  Can you tell that her parents like science, nature, and the outdoors?  She is extremely talkative for her age.  One day when we picked Pumpkin up from kindergarten to go to a joint doctor appointment.  The school nurse asked if she was starting kindergarten in the fall.  Ha ha ha!  I told her that she had 1 1/2 more years until she could start.  Apparently they were quite impressed with her clear speech.  Now at church, pastor has a hard time understanding her and he just nods his head or says "Really?"  Oh, the joys of a child!

Hubby had the kiddos outside yesterday afternoon playing.  Pumpkin's good school shoes came back caked in mud as well as his snow pants and winter coat.  Princess's attired was not too bad.  So today I washed both of their outdoor clothes and hubby brushed the mud off Pumpkin's shoes.  Then the kiddos when outside today.  The exact opposite happened this time.  Princess was covered in mud and Pumpkin was not too bad.  Ugh!  More laundry to wash!

Well guess I should start rounding up the kiddos and rustle them into their beds.  Have a lovely week!  

Just Another Day On The Prairie

 

I got this really cool shot of the prairie this morning as the snow was falling down.  Oh, how I love the prairie!  The sweeping sea of grass in the fall.  The dull orange of last season's big bluestem in the winter time. Spiderwort heralding in the spring.  And the vibrant array of forbs in the summer . . . rattlesnake master, butterfly weed, partridge pea.  Oh, how the list can go one.  What an amazing ecosystem!!!!!!!!

Now, this afternoon was a real treat!  I army crawled for this first shot!  What do you think it is????

I snuck closer until I was able to hide behind a partition.

Wild Turkeys!  Eleven to be exact!

Hen

Tom

Don't the remind you of dinosaur raptors???  

If you don't think so, try having an up close encounter.  

Definitely a story for another day!

Then I ran up the stairs and got this shot.

What a day!!!!