Not Just For Boys

Today I was able to document a suspician that I had. Little girls enjoy playing with bugs and worms as much as Little boys.

I was inside cleaning the house, and suddenly realized I had not heard any screaming or fighting coming from the backyard for awile. I looked out the window, and Kara and Lydia were squatting down around a worm and squelling with delight everytime it moved.

They were even more excited, when Kara handed the worm to Lydia and she broke it in half and both halves of the worm were still moving.

Getting Big

Over the past few weeks, I've been buying fresh fruits and veggies when they've been on sale and cooking and turning them into babyfood. Yesterday I picked up a box of rice cereal for Andy and fixed him his first bite of food for dinner tonight.

You can see by his expression that he's not too sure about this new taste.

Kara's attempt at taking a photo -- not bad.

Kara took a bite of the cereal and almost got sick, but when I asked her if she wanted to feed her brother she was more than willing to give it a try.

The Miracle of Prayer

The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. James 5:16

Today I was again reminded of how short life is, and how imporant prayer is. Not to mention how frivilous I can be at times. This afternoon, JA and two of the men (brothers) from the church were working on building a structure to both keep rain from flooding into the house, and to keep my children from banging their heads on cement steps. During this process while JA and one of the men were on the roof shingling, the other man had a mini stroke. JA came running into the house to call 911 and I went out to see what I could do not realizing what was happening (I pictured someone falling off the roof, or nailing his hand, etc. . .) I did not expect to see him passed out on the ground convulsing and vomiting, and turning blue. As soon as JA got off of the phone, He came out and immediately began praying over the man w/ the other man. When the ambulance arrived, and after they left JA continued to pray. And immediately after the ambulance left began praying aloud with the man's brother.

After JA and the brother left for the hospital, I came inside and prayed w/ Kara (who was refusing to take a nap -- of which for once I was thankful). A few hours later JA came home and told me that Sam was stable and had most likely suffered from a mild stroke. However, he was not able to talk. About an hour later Sam's brother and his other brother showed up at the house, and Sam was once again able to carry on a conversation.

The power of prayer is remarkable. I am so thankful to be married to a man who's first resource is to begin praying (I know he was praying before he ever reached the phone), and who can remain calm in the midst of an emergency.

How can I dare to doubt the might and power of my God when He longs to perform such mighty miracles? How can I continue to be lax in my prayer life when God continuously makes clear the power of prayer in our lives? I serve a mighty and powerful God who is ever faithful and desires to show himself powerful in my life on a daily basis.

Immortal, invisible, God only wise
To all, life Thou givest -- to both great and small,
In all life Thou livest -- the true life of all
We blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree,
And wither and perish -- but naught changeth thee.
Great Father of glory, pure Father of light,
Thine angels adore Thee, all veiling their sight;
All praise we would render-- O help us to see
'Tis only the splendor of light hideth Thee!

If I simply open my eyes and look around me, I can see God active in my life and in the lives of those around me.

Please Pray

Please pray for Sam Hendrich -- He's one of the gentlemen (the man in the red hat) who has been helping JA with the building in the back yard. Today while they were working in the back yard, he had a miniture stroke. Praise the Lord he is stable. However, he has not yet been able to respond verbally.Thank you for your prayers

Happy St. Patricks Day

Yes, I know St. Patrick is claimed by the Catholics, but in all of my research, nothing links Patrick to catholocism. Therefore, I thought today would be a fun day to celebrate with the girls. So, I declared it a green day. Everything was green from the milk in their cups to their coffee cake to their clothing for the day. I even picked up a couple of green carnations (artificial) from the dollar store to give each of the girls -- Kara planted hers in her garden, but I'll save that for another post.

Here are the pictures from our celebration.

Kara and Lydia at breakfast with their carnations, green milk, and green food.

I made a fruit pizza for the first time, and I am really excited about how easy it was and how well it turned out even with being turned green.

JA and a couple of men from the church have had another task they've been workign on for the past couple of days. We have a wonderful fenced in back yard, but right next to the back of the house there is a stairway going down to the lower level of the house (which is nice). However, the stairwell was level with the ground something that has made me very nervous about allowing the girls to go outside and play w/o supervision (I just have these visions of one of the girls running, falling over the edge and banging her head open on the cement steps). So, the men have been building a wall around the stairwell for us.

I'm hoping to maybe plant some ivy or some climbing roses in front of the trellis. I'm not sure how well they will grow, but it's worth a try (our backyard has limited patches of grass growing, so if grass doesn't grow I'm hesitant to know what will.).

My Living Room

I apologize for the delay in posting pictures of my Living Room. We've had it done for a couple of weeks now, but b/c I've had other things to post about (and still do) I've neglected to post. I have had a lot of fun trying to decide how to decorate and arrange my living room. In another year or two, I hope to get a coffee table and some end tables but for now TV trays work great. The girls have learned that they aren't allowed to bring toys upstairs; but they have a bunch of books in a basket here in the living room that they are allowed to read when they are upstairs (they are free to be upstairs or downstairs whenever they want, we are just attempting to keep the toys in the playroom so we aren't constantly tripping over toys).

JA gave me this folding picture frame for our second valentine's day together :) The couple in the wedding picture is my Oma and Opa. I'm hoping to put my parents and JA's parent's wedding pictures up on either side of this one once I get them (that's a hint for you mom and dad).

Because the emphasis in our home is God and the family, we've chosen to try to decorate as much as possible with family pictures and scripture. JA scripted the words Faith, Hope, and Trust so that we could remember that we need to place our faith in the Lord, have confidence that He will accomplish His will in our lives, and trust Him even when the storms come.


I love these pictures we got from JCPenney's for $15 -- To me a great find and deal. The one on the left is I Corinthians 13 a passage are planning to have the girls memorize soon. The frame on the right is the Fruits of the Spirit. I am trying to surround myself with Scripture so that my focus is continuously directed back to Christ and so that my times of discouragement (such as in my previous post) are far and few between -- which they have been.

I do want to say thank you to those of you who encouraged me and offered suggestions after my last post. Let me explain the situation behind this for you. We are in a very small church -- in fact, on Sunday mornings there are only two other women who regularly attend. One woman takes the girls in Sunday School - Andy will join them once he can walk. The other plays the piano for services. Therefore I feel I can't ask them to take the girls in nursury so I attempt to sit through services and keep the girls quiet (we believe Church worship should be a family activity so definately no babysitters at home unless one of the kids is sick). Wednesday nights I take the kids into the Sunday School wing for Kid's club. Just this last Wednesday night Andy was fussing and wanting to eat, and the girls were both being disobedient and picking on each other thus resulting in screaming. After 5-10 minutes of trying to get them to stop I just packed everyone up and brought them home and put them in bed.

I do love and enjoy the church, and I am very thankful for the ministry the Lord has given us here. Wednesday night was just a night that I needed to cry (I hope you women understand that need at times), and my blog/facebook seemed like a good sounding board after I spent time reading and praying. Maybe I posted in haste, but I praise the Lord for your suggestions some of which I tried and others which I will try. I will let you know what finally works.

Thank you Jen Horak for your suggestion in taking this quiz. I love reading Jane Austen's book, and I have often tried comparing myself to her characters. I must say I agree with the results of this quiz though. WHat do you think? Is my personality that of Emma Woodhouse?

You scored as Emma Woodhouse. Emma is possibly one of the most loyal characters of Austen, always wanting better for those around her and doing all she possibly can to make it happen. Her motives sometimes get in the way of her good intentions and her own opinions can end up ruling her actions, but she has a good heart. She loves to be social and is welcoming to most, unless they are too silly to tolerate. While she sometimes changes her behavior to make others feel comfortable, she knows who she is and is always bettering herself. Emma Woodhouse 91% Elinor Dashwood 81% Jane Bennet 69% Elizabeth Bennet 63% Marianne Dashwood 41% Charlotte Lucas 38% Lady Catherine 28% Which Jane Austen Character are You? (For Females) Long Quiz!!! created with QuizFarm.com

From Rags to Curls and much much more

With the warm weather we've been having, I've not been nearly as good at blogging -- that and it seems like each week I have less and less time.

Anyways, this week I tried a new way to curl the girls hair and I love it. It is so easy. The hardest part is getting Lydia to stand still.


I was really surprised at how well Lydia's hair curled. I knew Kara's hair would curl because she already has a lot of natural curl, but Lydia's hair has always been straight with just a few strands that curl. Now all I have to do is figure out how to arrange the rags in their hair to get the curls to end up in the right spots.


This is one of my favorite outfits on Andy. It helps make him look a little bit older and bigger (He's only in the 10th percentile for hight and weight).

And, I just realised that I neglected to post the pictures from my family's visit. Unfortunately, I was too busy running JA to and from the hospital and Dr.'s Office to remember to take a whole lot of pictures, but we did get a few after church on Sunday before everybody left.
Here is Oma and Andy
Here is Uncle Timmy and nephew Andy

Here I am Happy with Aunt Beth

Eew, no kisses please!

The Greatest Teaching Job Ever

Ever since I finished teaching last May, I've begun to focus on my present teaching position. I've been wondering when and how I was going to begin teaching Kara to read. Of all the things I can teach her in school, Reading and Writing are the two scariest subjects. I know once she learns how to read and write nothing is out of her reach, but I've been fearful with my own feelings of inadequacy to teach in these areas.

Over the past few weeks, Kara and I have been working on learning her alphabet and her numbers. I'm pleased to say that she knows most of her letters. A - B - C - . . . P - Q - R - Snake - T - U . . . We do have a few things to work on such as E is not an F, and Snake is not a letter. It is the letter S. I must say, I have enjoyed playing flashcards with her, and teaching her. She is a very fast learner when she wants to cooperate. I am also very thankful for Leap Frogs Letter Factory video. Because of this video, she has learned all of her letter sounds. In fact, if she can't think of the name of the letter, she will tell me its sound instead. Now, if only I can get Lydia to learn her colors . . .

I will Trust in Thee

This past week has been a week of trial and difficulty for JA physically. Last Saturday, JA began complaining about a sore throat. By Sunday night it hurt for him to swallow. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday he seemed to be improving. After preaching Wednesday night he struggled quite a bit with swallowing. By Friday morning, he was having difficulty breathing. We went to the doctor Friday afternoon, and the declared that he had a very bad case of tonsillitis. They gave him a antibiotic shot to help him get a jump start on fighting the infection. We got home and he slept for two hours. After that, he couldn't lay down and breathe. So needless to say neither of us got much sleep. At 2:30 in the morning I called the hospital, and they told him to come in so they could give him an antibiotic intravenously and they could monitor him. At 10:30 I was able to bring him home with strict orders to drink, drink, drink -- not to mention the other antibiotics. Please pray for JA as he rests and gets better. I praise the Lord for his provision in allowing my mom, sister, and brother to be coming up this week. I don't know what I would have done at 2:30 this morning had they not been here -- drag all three children out of bed?

JA's breakfast tray this morning consisted of jello, apple juice, and . . . salt? What was he suppose to do, put the salt on his jello? Anyways, the comedian that he is pretended to salt his jello before I fed it to him -- oh, the pain of being an invalid!

Now for the other young man in my family who has also had a difficult month.

Here is Andy before his surgery

Here is my baby right after his surgery. The poor boy had staple holes in his nose, and his nose kept bleeding. In fact, he was hungry but so out of it that he wasn't even able to eat right away.And here is my adorable little man now. Can you tell that he has
had work done? He is a sweet boy.

As trying as this month has been on my men, It has been excruciating to helplessly watch them in the hospital. I praise the Lord that I know He is the great physician and can heal all of our earthly and spiritual diseases. I will bless the Lord at all Times; His Praise Shall continually be in my mouth. What a blessing it was for me this morning to be able to read to JA from the Psalms while he lay in the hospital.