I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

And I'm pretty sure that's what I'm getting. If anyone has been watching the news you've seen the "Blizzard of '09" that hit the mid-atlantic and up the East Coast. This is the same blizzard that hit yesterday, which just happens to be the day we left for - you guessed it - Connecticut. Which just happens to be on the East Coast.

We are going through Pennsylvania here. Not a lot of snow but I thought it was a pretty picture.

Same here.

Here we are in New Jersey just starting to hit the storm. It got much worse while we were driving but it became too dark to take pictures. We were down to about 20 mph and still sliding all over. We saw all kinds of snow plows and salt trucks. Apparently they are union and it was break time because they were all lined up on the side of the road watching everyone slide off the road and crash.

Here's what we woke up to this morning. You can't see it in the picture but it is still snowing. There is supposed to be 2 to 3 feet before it stops.


I bet you can guess what Robbie is doing. Can you see how happy he is to be doing it?

The Road Less Traveled

Wintertime always reminds me of my favorite poet Robert Frost. Maybe it is his name and the weather here that does it. I don't know. But, in honor of the fact that it is winter, and it's Monday afternoon I am going to put up my favorite poem from him.

I'm also posting these pictures of the girls taken in Plymouth Rock since this is where our forefathers landed when they took the road less traveled.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood,
and I-- I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference

What about you?

It's the first snowfall of the season and the kids are having fun with it.


Yep, they always enjoy bundling up nice and warm and going out when the first snow comes.

But what about those kids that have to go out in it, or want to go play in it, and don't have that nice warm jacket or the snow pants or the gloves or the hat or the boots or the....well, you get the idea. What do they do to stay warm? How do they keep their feet dry? Their ears covered so they don't get ear infections? Their body warm when the weather is so cold that when it touches an unexposed part of you it physically hurts?

The answer is whatever they can. And it is never enough. They put on an extra pair of clothes hoping to keep a little warmer, they huddle close to each other, they cover their ears with their hands because they would rather not feel their fingers than let the air get into their ears. This is the reality for so many kids right now. How do I know? Because I've seen them. I've seen the ones walking to and from school when I take Hannah to hers in a nice warm car. There are many kids who have no choice but to walk no matter what the weather is. I know - I've SEEN them. I've seen the ones standing at the bus stop with watery eyes and runny noses turning their backs to the wind to try and stay out of the worst of it. Yes, I've seen them and I have done what I could to help. We donate jackets, hats, gloves, and scarves when there are coat drives. We send in a couple of cans of food when there is a food drive. We put our spare change into the Salvation Army kettle when we go by it. And then I feel pretty good about myself because I've helped someone else.

This year I realized that although we were helping out we weren't doing it with the right spirit. Yes, we donated items but only stuff we didn't want anymore whether it was clothing or food. We put change in but only what we didn't really need. We never made a donation that would cause a sacrifice. Did it still help people who needed it? Yes, it did. But did it really come from our desire to make someone's life better? Or our desire to honor God for what He's given us by giving back? No, it did not. This season it is different. We have looked around and seen the suffering and the poverty happening in our own town. Everyone knows that Detroit has been hit especially hard and the children are the ones suffering for it. At church this weekend the pastor told us about a school in Detroit that has 650 students and, out of those 650 kids, 95% of them do not have coats. Do the math - that is 618 out of 650 children who have no way to stay warm this winter. That is an unbelievable, staggering amount.

So, this year we are making sacrifices. Not big ones, we still have our coats and shoes and food and Christmas presents. But we have all agreed that there are too many people out there who need basic necessities for us to keep buying things we don't really need. Want, yes. Need, no. Instead of getting lots of presents like they are used to the girls have agreed to one present each so that we can make sure there's another family out there who can provide a Christmas for their own children. We are spending less on groceries so that we can donate to the coat drive for those 618 kids that have no protection against the bitterly cold winters we have here. Are we doing this to feel good about ourselves again this year? Am I writing this to toot my own horn? No, this year it is about helping others feel good and letting them know that there is someone out there who cares about them. This is a difficult time of year for a lot of people and they deserve a little extra help and compassion. We may not be doing much but we are doing what we can. What about you?

Existing

The best moments in life are when we are happy just because we exist

Sunday Afternoons

What better way to top off a Sunday morning at church than by

spending

Sunday afternoon

doing our

favorite things

And now, I'm off to do mine. Look out stores - here I come.

working for the tree

When these kids were told that we were going to the tree farm for a x-mas tree they were all excited. Until they found out it was a cut it yourself tree farm. After that they only had two things to say.

You mean we have to cut it ourselves?

We have to carry it ourselves too?

You're welcome kids. I hope you enjoyed every minute of it. I know I sure had fun watching you work for it!

forgiveness

Today I want to talk about forgiveness and grace. These issues have been heavy on my heart recently and I feel that God is pressing me to write about them. Disclaimer: I am not in any way qualified to give advice or be any type of therapist. I am simply responding to what God has put on my heart.
First off, let me say that whether you are a believer or not God's grace covers everyone. But it is up to you to accept that grace and then live your life accordingly. Secondly, we have all sinned and fallen short. There is not one of us who doesn't need forgiveness - from others, from ourselves and most importantly, from God. However, God is the only one who freely gives that forgiveness. And yet most of us live our lives believing the lie that our "sin" is so great God couldn't possibly forgive us. We think "if God only knew what we really did He would never forgive me". But he does know and He is waiting to offer you forgiveness - you just have to ask for it and then accept it. That is grace. Don't believe me? Here are some verses that show us God's promises.
"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9
"I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins. Put Me in remembrance; let us contend together; state your case, that you may be acquitted."Isaiah 43:25-26
"Come now and let us reason together," says the Lord,"Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow."Isaiah 1:18
"Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more." Hebrews 10:17
Did you read that? "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more." God has told us in His own words that if we confess He will forgive us and wipe from His memory our sins and transgressions. We are the ones who cannot forgive, either ourselves or others. And we are hardest on ourselves.
Yes, we may say we forgive but unless we also forget we haven't truly forgiven. Everyone has heard the old saying "I can forgive but I won't forget". I believe that not forgetting can be beneficial in the sense that we learn from history in order to not make the same mistake again. However, you must be willing to forget enough that you can truly forgive, enough that the old hurts and recriminations don't keep popping into your head. I am not talking about forgiving others, although that is also necessary for total healing, I am talking about forgiving yourself. When we cannot forget, when we go back and relive over and over, all the things we have done in this life then we are opening ourselves up to an attack by the enemy.
We are allowing him a foothold in our lives that will prevent the spirit of God from coming in. There is not room for both and God will not force His way in, He will knock and wait for you to open the door. Satan wants nothing more than to prevent that and so he takes up residence first and does everything in his power to stay there. We must recognize that the recriminations, the guilt, the if only's, are Satan's way of ensuring his place in your life and God's place out of it.
We must then come to a place where we can confess our sins to God, ask for forgiveness, receive God's grace and decide that from this day forward we are made new and this is the first day of the rest of our lives. We must then live that way. That doesn't mean that we get on our knees every night and ask God to forgive us for living contrary to His word that day. It means that we get on our knees every morning, and all day long if need be, and ask God to give us the strength to live a life pleasing to Him, with thoughts and actions that are in sync with His word. Yes, we will fail sometimes. But when we humble ourselves before Him and admit that we can't do it on our own then God will be with us. God's word promises that He will never leave us nor forsake us. However, nowhere does it say that He will take the first step for us. We have to step out in faith to show God that we trust Him.
So, for those of you who are struggling with forgiveness and self-loathing please know that God does not desire for us to look back and wallow in our old sins or self pity. He desires us to forgive, to ask for forgiveness, to admit our weaknesses, and to then stand up, accept the grace He has given us, press forward and start living a life that is pleasing to Him. I would like to leave you with words of encouragement. I pray that these words would touch your heart and allow you to move into the place of worship that God desires to meet you at.
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways submit to Him and He will make your paths straight." Proverbs 3:5-6
"Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world" 1 John 4:4
"For I know the plans I have for you" declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

Under the big top

TIGERS....

and ELEPHANTS.....

and PEOPLE, oh my....

I don't think we're in Kansas anymore...

Oh wait, it's just the circus

Catch up

Update #1

CJ is feeling much better. You can see the picture of how he looked on surgery day if you look at my last post. This is 10 days post op and he is doing really well. We're just waiting on hair now.

Update #2: We not only had Thanksgiving this last week, we also got early christmas presents from my m-i-l who was here for the week. I got a Sony touch screen reader. I can't wait until I can actually put some books on it and put it to good use.

Cerah got a new computer and a lego replica of the Seattle Space Center. She had it put together in about 5 minutes.

Morgan got a netbook and a set of chemistry experiments. I can't really say which one she was more excited about.

This one leaves no doubt about which present Hannah liked best. She got a Nintendo DS Lite, which she has wanted forever! Well, maybe not forever, but it sure felt like it.

Robbie got a new t.v. It's a good thing he's willing to share too since I would hate to have to go to my room every time he wanted to watch it. That was a lot of "to"s wasn't it?

Last Saturday we went to the circus. It was the first time for the girls and they had so much fun. Morgan told me that it was her best birthday present ever. Saturday night we picked up grandma from the airport. On Sunday we went over to western MI to visit Robbie's aunt and uncle who live over there. My parents arrived on Thursday night and my sister and her family got her Friday morning so we had a late Thanksgiving but it was really enjoyable. On Saturday we had to take Grandma back to the airport and then that afternoon we all went to the farm/orchard and took a wagon ride out to the christmas trees where we got to cut down a tree. We actually made the kids cut it down cuz we're lazy. Then we all got hot cider and donuts and came home. We got pictures of them with the tree and I will post them just as soon as I figure out how to get them from my email over to here. Yesterday was a full day of after Thanksgiving shopping. And today everyone went home and back to work and school. Wasn't that worth the five minutes it took to read this? Yeah, I didn't think so either.

C.J and his eye

C.J. had his eye removed today.

I know that in the long run he will feel better...

but right now all I can say

is OUCH!

Pictures

I have spent the last 5 days going through digital pictures. We decided that it was time to start organizing the pictures that we had downloaded throughout the years. When I started I discovered that we had started using a digital camera back in 2003. Since that time not once had I sorted, organized, dated, or identified any of our pictures. I did not think to see how many we were starting with before I started going through them. It's probably a good thing that I didn't or else I would have just said forget it. I can safely assume that I had upwards of 6000 pictures to go through. When we started there were 10.4 GB worth of pictures on our computer. I now have 2,555 pictures that take up 4.59 GB of space. Whew, that's a lot of pictures. But we did it. After countless hours of staring at the computer; many, many neck aches that I was wishing I knew a masseuse for; and lots of racking our brain for dates and places it is finally done! Not only did we go through them all, get rid of the ones we didn't want, dated and named all the ones that we did, but I even re-arranged all of the folders so that they were organized by dates also. I believe from now on I will take my own advice. I always tell the girls "it's easier to keep up than to catch up".
Now that it is done I can get back to keeping up with this blog. Quite a few of you have asked when I was going to update it. Today, in honor of the fact that I am organized, I decided to put up a few old pictures. And I would like you to identify them. Do you think you can do it? It's amazing how quickly you forget what kids look like since they change so fast. Secondly, I would like you to tell me which two look the most alike. Good luck and have fun. When you email me the reply I will tell you if you are right or wrong.

Mystery girl #1
Mystery girl #2


Mystery girl #3

Mystery girl #4.

Sunday

I had my niece and nephew here with us this weekend. Can you tell by this picture that Morgan and Shannon had fun? So did the rest of them but these two girls love being together. They giggled and laughed the whole two days that Shannon was visiting. Bedtime didn't stop them. They just laughed in bed and, after I left after getting after them, they just hid their heads under the covers and giggled some more. I don't know that they ever went to sleep. It sure didn't sound like it.

Here's Kodi at the princess tea party. He decided he had to go along and be moral support for Papa and Uncle Robbie. Personally I think he secretly enjoyed the party. But I won't ever tell. That will be our secret.

I took pictures of all the girls at the party as they finished with their hair and dresses. I wanted to make sure that each girl would have a picture of just her to remember the party by. But, leave it to me, I didn't get a single picture of Morgan or Hannah dressed up all by themselves! Not that I didn't try, but every time I tried to get them alone someone would come into the picture or it would be time to start something else in the party and I didn't get one single good shot.

It's o.k though because we did get a lot of good ones of them with others. Like this one.

And this one.

What a wonderful weekend we had.

Dear Hannah

Dear Hannah,
Nine years ago today you came into this world. I loved all 7 lbs 11 oz and 19 in. of you the moment I laid eyes on you. I have to admit, though, that during my pregnancy with you I didn't think I wanted another baby. But from the very first I have loved you with everything I have.


I loved how quiet you were, how laid back and easy going. How undemanding you were. I loved that you had curly hair and big bright blue eyes. I knew that you were the last child I could have and because of that I cherished every moment with you even more. When I looked into your big blue eyes I felt to my soul what life was about. There was no job more important in this world than being a mom to you and your sisters.



I had so many dreams for you, so many plans. I wanted you to have the world. No, I wanted the universe to be yours. There were so many firsts still ahead for you that I wanted to be there to share. Your first day of school, first broken heart, first drivers license, first day in your own home, and your first child. Already there have been so many firsts and I am so happy to share them all with you. So blessed to watch you grow from a baby into a girl who is beginning to discover this world that is hers.

I look at you now and see so many more things to love. I love how excited you get about everything no matter how big or small it is. I love when we drive down the road and you start telling me your bible lesson from Sunday School. I love to hear it in your own words and know that you are understanding it. I love how you love all animals, especially ours. I love watching you go up to people you don't know and asking them if they want to play with you. With you there are no strangers, only friends you haven't met yet. I love how you will jump up without having to be asked to bring your sisters something they need. Most of all I love to hear you say I love you mom.

You are growing up so quickly into a beautiful girl and I am so thankful that God is allowing me to share this journey with you. I look forward to so many more years of watching you grow. I know that wherever you go in this life you will make the world around you a brighter, happier, better place to be. And I want you to know that no matter where you are I will always be right there beside you cheering you on and giving you enough love to carry you through.

I love you,
Mom

This is Halloween

This is Halloween, this is Halloween, halloween, halloween...

Anybody know that movie? Alright, moving on

This is our pumpkin for hallween

This is our halloween dinner


Just in case you couldn't see - we had mummy dogs, deviled eggs, spooky pudding, and vampire blood punch

Morgan is an eyeball - pretty clever huh? Hannah is a rag doll, and Cerah is a Chinese Dragon Miss. They are standing in the doorway of our house that Rob decorated for the trick or treaters



This is the girls after trick or treating. We only spent an hour going to houses but they got a pretty big haul. The smoke is from the fog machine that made the entryway scary for the kids.

I took the girls this year and Rob stayed home and passed out candy. He got lots of "cools" and "neats" and "that was awesome" from the trick or treaters. Morgan also got a lot of comments about her costume. All of the adults at the houses we went to loved it and one of them even had to take a picture of it. She got quite a few comments from kids too but mostly they just exclaimed over it after we had passed them. There was one boy who was not very nice and actually hit her in the head and laughed about it. I didn't see it and the girls didn't tell me about it until later. That boy is lucky.

But, all's well that ends well or so they say. All in all we had a good time and now they are watching halloween specials on t.v. and eating all the candy. It should be fun getting them to bed tonight. Maybe I'll just go join them

Last cake for now

Cerah has finished her 1st cake decorating class. This is her last class for this course. And this was her final cake that she decorated. I almost didn't eat this one but thank goodness my common sense took over. I remembered that I still had quite a ways to go to accomplish a grandma lap. I would really hate to fail in my goal - I am not a quitter!

Way to go Cerah. I love your cakes