Wow...MORE SNOW !!!!!!!

I must preface this statement with the fact that even though I am a fifty something woman, and most folks my age don't like snow...I am after all a New England gal.  Even though I only lived in that glorious region for the first twelve years of my life. SNOW was a huge part of my child hood existence. It was 3 weeks during the winter season of snow days.  It was slinging a pair of skates over my shoulders on a snowy day to head out into the woods for an afternoon skate at a secret swamp where I could skate in and out of the trees frozen in the midst of the ice. It was sledding down gigantic hills with frozen toes and icy cheeks, then heading home for hot chocolate and marshmallow fluff (way better than just plain old marshmallows!)  It was lots of shoveling, fort building and snowman rolling.

In the desert the snow has a completely different look.  It is wide open spaces contrasted with sagebrush and golden yellow native bunch grass, instead of dark evergreens with frosting gathering on the limbs. In the desert it is a rare commodity, and I treasure the comfort of a closed in world with life coming to a slow stop. A time for me like today to contemplate the New Year. What will it bring?  My season in life has definitely changed. Each year brings new challenges, and new delights. Gone are the days of daily family raising. Here is a new adventure of possibilities and brand new dreams. I don't see my life as coming to some kind of ending yet. I see new freedoms and possibilities. Dare I hope for new adventures???  How will we spend the autumn season of our lives? Yes we will continue to pour into our children and those precious blessings of grandchildren which light the pathways to the continued generational blessing. But what if ...God has a new adventure, a new direction previously not contemplated? Today I was listening to Loren Cunningham  speaking   (founder of YWAM) at IHOP  at the One Thing Conference. What a life he has led, and what a tremendous amount of doorways he has facilitated for many a young person to explore in the world of sharing the gospel with every people group on the face of the planet. He sees the possibilities as God has called him to GO.  Maybe I am destined to stay  in this place and share the love of God right here in my adult geographical location...but secretly I wonder "What if God asked me to GO?" would I, could I, should I?  Only the good Lord knows what my future holds, and I totally trust Him to guide me and shut and open the doors of future adventures and dreams.  But on a cold snowy winter's night, the begining of this new year 2010, I can only wonder, wait, anticipate and see what the Lord has in store for me.

Blessings to you and your dreams, your hopes and aspirations. I do hope and pray that as you look to your  future you see the endless possibilities as our great big God, He who is bigger then previously thought or could be imagined, can inspire and lead you into this New Year.

Snow is falling

Snow is falling out side tonight as I am totally relaxing from all the holiday hoopla. It is a little late for a white Christmas but I don't mind. This snow is putting the final touches on my week of rest. Hubby is even off work this week. Granted we spent our first two days babysitting...just can't say no to those babies.

 Christmas was a great time had by all.  Spread out over three days.  We all gathered for a Christmas Eve service, where little ones in pageant attire captured our hearts, and carols by candlelight moistened our eyes.  Then off for a leisurely dinner out at our local Red Lobster. One of the only restaurants in town open on Christmas Eve. We got home around 10:00 just in time for Josh and his girlfriend to pull in from Portland.  We spent a few more hours visiting around the kitchen table with twinkle lights, and the fireplace burning in the background.  And oh yes Jenna's new Christmas tunes playing on her computer plugged into our speaker system, which she had been serenading me with all week as I finished up projects, baked cookies, and spent two days wrapping presents.  (don't even ask, I am ridiculous, and I know it)  It was finally time for me to relax, all my hard work was over.

Waking up is hard to do =]

Christmas morning was slow and easy.  We had our traditional Eggs Benedict, sausage, fruit salad, and of coarse pull apart cinnamon rolls around 11:30.  The babies, Meg and Ty came around noonish  having already made a stop at his folks place in the morning.  Next year I think we may all be at Meg's when her new home will be completed.  No fun hauling babies around all day on Christmas. They were a bit tired, but that was probably a good thing.

Eden was not too tired to give us a performance in her new ballet tutu.  And baby Avey was sporting a flannel shirt...all the rage this year, from her Uncle Josh and Olivia.

 After the presents were opened, the babies went home for a nap.  Everyone else went by to visit grandpa and grandma. Nellie was delighted to have her grand children drop in for the afternoon.  She is steadily improving her health, slowly but surely.  Then everyone back at our house for our traditional Christmas dinner of lasagna and meatballs. Now everyone thinks I serve this because of my Italian heritage, but it really is because I can make it ahead of time and freeze it =>  Saturday was spent on a bit of a road trip out to Prosser with Josh and Olivia.  Then back at our house for leftovers and goodbyes to Josh and Olivia.  Jenna and I crashed and watched an old Audrey Hepburn movie Sizzling in Paris, I think we both took a bit of a snooze during it.  Sunday we went out for lunch with everyone. From there we saw Jenna off heading back to Seattle with a girlfriend in tow.

Baby Avey just started crawling a few days before Christmas, and here she was right in the middle of it all

I am not sure what the rest of my week will look like.  I do have a lot of lesson planning to do as my art classes start up the first week of January along with my Bible classes.  I like this in between week. I like the snow showing up right about now too...

The Ups and Downs of the Season

 Megan was taking a series of pictures when she noticed Pudding Toes was eating a lot of the prop, so she had to tell her to stop eating the gingerbread house...it is awful hard to say no to this sweet pea :)

You can't have your gingerbread house and eat it too =]

Hoping you have more ups then downs this year!

Merry Christmas to All

The tree is finally up as of this weekend.  The shopping done. Grandma back in and out of the hospital.  Jenna is home. There have been weddings and party's to attend. Friends to see. Some baking to be done, and presents to wrap.  I finally feel like I can relax and enjoy the season :)

I am hoping all is well with you and yours, and that all my friends in blogland have a very wonderful Christmas, and a blessed New Year!

Lot's of girlies home for the holidays

Jenna and me!

I will be back in touch after the holidays!

Christmas Hoopla

I don't know about you all but I am in the full swing of holiday prep.  No matter how hard I try to plan ahead, my December always gets swamped with holiday hoopla. This weekend we are going to try to put up the tree.  But if the weather doesn't warm up a bit, I am afraid I might be tempted to try a fake tree again.  The last time I did that it was a big flop. Fake Tree  Oh yes it is frigid here in the P.N.W.  I am hoping my roses don't croak on me with this quick deep freeze we having here. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

So tomorrow I head out with my Christmas list and hope beyond hope this will be my last outing for gift shopping.  I am ready to move on to the holiday baking. I can't wait for Jenna Dear to come home. I don't think we will be seeing her till the 18th.

            My new favorite pic of Jenna from a photo session with her sister

Oh did I mention I am making gifts too. Why oh why do I do this to myself. I get such grandiose ideas. I can't share till after the holidays what I am making, so I don't give my surprises away. But let it be noted I am trying to make one for everyone on my list...oh dear.

For those of you who were praying Nellie (MIL) is still on her road to recovery.  I am so grateful for that. Thank you again for prayers.

P.T. with her momma's smile, and Sweet Pea getting so big

I am so looking forward to opening presents with Puddin Toes, and Sweet Pea. I am very blessed dear Jesus for these precious gifts of love, and delight you have given to us for this season of our life.

Prayers Worked

Honestly from the moment I asked for prayer, my M-I-L turned around.  She came home today, and is quite perky.  You know that saying... God works in mysterious ways.  I had tried to get Nellie a shower and the nurse was obviously not wanting to do it.  She said she needed a doctor's order to give her blood before she would....so that took all day yesterday. They told us she was anemic. Funny how they hadn't considered giving her blood till I asked for a shower???   Last night they gave her blood.  Bathing time came and went today and still no shower.  Nellie was released at 3:30 this afternoon.  But she came home so much more alert, hungry and perky.  I am thinking the blood transfusion had a lot to do with it...because I asked for a shower. They wouldn't have contemplated it otherwise.  God knew what Nellie needed...even if I didn't have a clue...or the doctors for that matter...Thank you Father of Lights


Rom 8:26  Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans.

Thanks again for praying!!!!

We Will Trust

 We did have a great Thanksgiving with all the family home.  But Dan's mom is back in the hospital as of last night...we could actually use some prayers heading our way.  Nellie is just taking a beating. I must admit I am getting pretty disappointed in the medical care she has been receiving. Between emergency rooms, doctor office visits, both missing a urinary track infection, and diabetic crashes. I can see that everywhere we go, the medical community is so overwhelmed, they are just not performing well.  I feel like we have to be at the hospital 24/7 just to make sure she eats, drinks, and gets to the bath room. Grandpa is plum worn out.  I can't help but wonder what it would be like with a government run system.  Does any one believe they could or would do a better job?

Please pray that we would get God's perspective and heart during this whole season.  He is faithful.  Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.


Update


Thanks for the prayers and compassion. We are still dealing with a lot of run around...7 hours between three of us at the hospital today. When I got there at noon her water was out of reach on the other side of the room, and she hadn't eaten since early morning. They had missed her snack and forgot her lunch (she is having diabetic problems, so no food is bad, not to mention she is anemic and malnutrition) Finally at 2:00pm after three phone calls to the kitchen we finally got her lunch :/ But the good news is she is doing better. Her infection is at least gone. Now she can work on recovering in some of these other areas.

Happy Thanksgiving to All!

I am still officially on a break.  We have rolled right into another family emergency.  Dan's folks had their 65th Wedding Anniversary two weekends ago, and a week ago Wednesday dear Nellie ended up in the hospital in some pretty rough shape.  She came home Monday, but she and Grandpa Dutch are still needing alot of assistance. She will have in home nursing care three days a week, and physical therapy. We have a big road ahead to get her back on her feet.  Following are some pictures for you to enjoy of their anniversary, and some wonderful pictures "Through the Years"

As of this moment I have my turkey cooked, sliced and in the fridge.  The stuffing, cranberry sauce, and pies all made.  I am hoping to have a bit of a relaxed Thanksgiving.

My prayers and blessings to all of you, have a wonderful day!

Here they are at their 65th with 3 of the 4 grandchildren

Nellie was a war bride!

25th Wedding Anniversary

50th Wedding Anniversary

Oophs

Apparently I have taken a bit of a blogging break...I just figured this out :)  Ahhh life has been a little crazy.  Meg and Ty spent the last two weekends moving into an apartment.  Which meant lots of help from all.  I have been on full time packing, babysitting, and meals on wheels duty. We even had an overnighter for the whole family.   I had some wonderful time bonding with P.T.   When Megan pulled up to our house for a drop off one day this weekend, Eden turned to her and said, Nana is my best friend.  Well that just melted my heart into a puddle. Up until this point the Papa's have been her fav's.   Well they are now settled in, and the next big project is to build their house!  Did I mention we pulled off a 65th wedding anniversary for Dan's folks in the middle of all this last weekend.  Megan took pictures and I am sure we will get to see them soon.  She has really had her hands full, babies, and boxes, and paper OH MY !  They sold a 3bedroom home and moved into a tiny 2 bedroom apartment...now you are getting the picture.

I can't think of anything else I have been doing except teaching on Mondays with the Interns.  Along with my regular class I teach on the Holy Spirit from Portland Bible College. I am administrating a Streams class on The Art of Hearing God.  I watch a video, take notes, share some key notes with the interns, watch the video again with them Monday morning.  Answer questions work on the exercises, assignments, and classroom discussion. Then the kids beg me to come to my house to watch it again in the afternoon.  Soooo, we watch, pause every five minutes or less, for more questions and answers , and no I am NOT exaggerating.  Then I feed them all dinner and shoo them home.  Phew...no wonder I am pooped and have not had time for blogging lately.

And now the holidays...

Podoso....I haven't even had a chance to mail your book....but it is coming, I promise!!!!!!

I can't wait to get some time this week to check in on all my blogging friends, and see what your creative,exciting busy lives have all been up too!

And the Winner is...

Yes ladies we do have a winner of  Pilgrim's Inn, also known as the Herb of Grace as it was published in England.  The lucky winner is Podoso who found her way over here via Bonnie & Melissa, who I believe came by way of Sara's blog.  Don't you just love blogland?  So fun to meet new folks.  Congratulations!!!!!!

I am so sorry for those that didn't win and are eager to try a book by this author.  You can find used copies on Amazon.  Also I have one great recommendation for Christmas. Amazon has new copies of  The Little White Horse  in paperback for only$6.99.  I highly recommend this children's book. I recently read it this fall and wondered how I had missed out on this wonderful children's story for my own kids. It is one I will definatley be reading to Puddin Toes, and little Ms. Sweet Pea!  

Here are the inside cover pictures of the Elliot family. This book is second in a series of three. The first book being The Bird in the Tree.

Some of my other favorites are The Scent of Water, Bird in the Tree, The Child from the Sea, and the first one I read The City of Bells.

Last weekend I had the best time with Ms.Angelina Ballerina & Little Bunny Foo Foo :)