our monday.....

Thanks to all that wished us Happy Anniversary! It was a good day! We went out to eat and had a nice time being together but we are quickly eliminating at each anniversary the restaurants "not" to go to again!!!!!!!! Dave and Kate came over and "kept" the children in adventures while we were out!!!! I'll let you know more at the bottom of this post.....don't peek!!!!!!!!!

Today, Kate is here and Dave is on work missions with his job, he'll be back later to join us for our delicious meal we are making. We are creating two yummy recipes, Apple Stuffed Chicken Breasts and Pear Salad with Raspberry Cream . I am making our regular wheat bread but I put about 1/3 cup cocoa in it to make it a brown bread. I am going to shape it in little loaves and serve it softened honey butter in little metal cups. I think I am going to serve some green beans and new potatoes as well!!! Anna is going to make the dessert so we'll have to see what she comes up with. Its fun to do things like this, like a special restaurant type meal, but at home.

The guys are very busy with work which is great for the needs as big family has :) We have healthy bodies, no sicknesses at this time and we are sooooo thankful. Hope everyone of you all are well too. Mercy just brought me a rose and said "it smells like Jesus." She is so precious!

Ok, now for the rest of the Dave and Kate adventures......... check out the picture, like get a close look, she might need to shave her legs, ya think? or Dave might like his wife to be furry.......my how looooonnnnngggg they look..........and my what big feet you have Kate!!!! Can they possibly be Kate's???????? Look closely......under that cover beside Kate is the man that they belong to.....her hubby!!!! I laughed sooooo ridiculously hard over that!!!!!!!!!!!! So that is the kind of things they do when and even if we are home!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Love them so much and its getting close now, see her cute tummy!!!!

Thanks for keeping up with us......I am blessed by YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!

23 years later.....

23 years later...... he still tells me he loves me many times a day, he still wants to be like newlyweds, he still seeks the Lord with all his heart, he still leads our family, he still works hard, he still enjoys spending his time with our children more than other things, he still is handsome, he still loves me..... 23 years later!! I love you too!! Happy Anniversary!!

whewwwwww!!!!

What a day......busy!!! It started out wonderfully with a visit form our dear friends the "B's." The children played and we visited, just talking and stuff and a bit of 4 wheel riding!!! Its been awhile since they have been to our house and it was soooo good to have them here! It was a spur of the moment invite and they actually came!!!

Next was throwing a quick dinner together, the guys are looking at land on the way home, Elijah is doing tractor work upon his arrival at home, then quick as a flash, Elijah whips the van out of the drive way and zooms away to a fire, Dave and Kate get here for dinner, we eat dinner, then Micah, Caleb, Anna, Bethany, Daniel and the littles all decide to go to a football game and Terry too, They all head out the door and Dave, Kate and I are saying good-by and its just us left here at the house. I said how rude, to invite someone for dinner and most of the host leaves!!!!! The three of us sat and talked a bit after the whirlwind of people going out the door and then they too headed to their little emu farm and now can you believe I am here by myself????? I just heard on Elijah's radio that they are headed back to the station, so he should be here soon. Sounded like a really big brush fire, they were calling in 3-4 different volunteer stations. Thankfully all is put out and people are safe!

Tomorrow a busy day too, Elijah has to get hay, the guys are going to that big auction and Bethany has something up her sleeve.... :) and plus we have to get all the food ready for church and for our own meal Sat. night, so you can see it will be a busy day!!! I have also been looking at the places that Terry and I would like to go out to eat for our 23 anniversary Sunday evening. I am still adding things to the girls room to get it totally done. I just got the curtains yesterday, they are black tab floor length on a black rod, they look really neat with the black beds. I have to get things for the walls, but a little at a time. Then once that room is done, I need to move on to the front bath, it has primer on the walls and on part of the cabinets, not a pretty sight but at least it can be a clean bathroom even though its under construction!!!!

Thought I would say hi to all and hope you have a great weekend......( there is some MAJOR cat fights going on in the garage!!!!!!!!!)

Keep praying for Silas' family as they weep and sorrow for their sweet little boy who now abides in heaven!

bread in Egypt.....

When you think of Egypt in the scriptures, in the Old Testament and if you were an Israelite, it likely holds bad memories. It was to them a place of bondage, difficulties, trials, sufferings and they often cried out to God, "have you brought us here to kill us?" I read a verse this morning that told me that Egypt can through God's providence be a place of great treasure. There are treasures to be found in our trials, our sufferings, those dark places that become our lot. But one must seek for them, look for them just as Joseph's brothers had to "go there," to Egypt to get what they needed to live. It says "but in all the land of Egypt there was bread," Gen. 41:54. We do not like to think that we can "receive" from such a place or a trial, but it may very well be the place where we will grow more, learn more of our great God. In this trial with Joel, I will have to say that I feel like I have eaten of that bread, I have found some treasures, bread in our Egypt and it has filled my spirit even though my soul, my emotions many times still hungers for Joel. I would not have chosen to come to Egypt but I have to trust that if that is the place I will be benefited from and will find treasures that I would not have known, I must say as Jacob, "get you down thither, and buy for us from thence; that we may live and not die." And may it be too that we will receive treasures as they did, "and Joseph opened all the storehouses." I was so blessed by this verse in 43:23, and he said , peace be to you, fear not: your God, and the God of your father, hath given you treasure in your sacks..... I have been to Egypt, a trial, in suffering, yet my God hath given me a treasure in my sack.........Him, his words of Life, Hope, learning about His person and so much more. But I had to go to Egypt to get it.........

Today is "working Wednesday," it works so well to get it all done in one day and not have to keep asking if so and so did their job on this day or that day. I know many have their own little routines and you have to work a system for your own family and this certainly works good for us! each person has jobs they do, its more than just straightening, I have people cleaning baseboards, ceiling fans, wiping places in the unknown lands and more. I am thankful for all my helpers!!!

The guys are working so hard lately, trying to get several jobs done at once. It sure is a blessing of having jobs streaming in!

Oh, I thought I better do a Dave and Kate update. They came for dinner last night and we see them often, but I guess Dave is "acting" calm so I do not have any big news!! :) Kate is growing beautifully. She has a tiny round ball of a tummy and is due in about 4-5 weeks. She is using the same mid-wife that we have used for some of ours, she's great:) We can hardly wait for baby "Mavie." Last night Dave gave us a demonstration of the "G" diaper they will be using on their baby, how you fold it, close it and then the dreadful "getting it out!!"

Keep Silas' family in your prayers, on Thursday they will have a celebration of his life.

prayer.....

I read this today, taken from Spurgeon's Morning and Evening. For me entering into prayer is a place I feel close to Joel but even more than that, I am learning that I love more and more the fellowship and the knowing that Jesus hears my prayers......its really such a thin veil to eternity!

Their prayer came up to His Holy
dwelling place, even unto heaven
2 Chron. 30:27

Prayer is the never-failing resort of the Christian in any case, in every plight. When you cannot use your sword you may take to the weapon of all-prayer. Your powder may be damp, your bow-string may be relaxed, but the weapon of all-prayer need never be out of order. Leviathan laughs at the javelin, but he trembles at prayer.Sword and spear need refurbishing, but prayer never rusts, and when we think it most blunt it cuts the best. Prayer is an open door which none can shut. Devils may surround on all sides, but the way upward is always open, and as long as that road is unobstructed, you will not fall into the enemies hand. We can never be taken by blockade, escalade, mine, or storm, so long as heavenly succours can come down to us by Jacob's ladder to relieve us in the time of necessities. Prayer is never out of season: in summer and in winter its merchandise is precious.Prayer gains an audience with heaven in the dead of night, in the midst of business, in the heat of noonday, in the shades of evening. In every condition, whether of poverty, or sickness, or obscurity, or slander, or doubt, your covenant God will welcome your prayer and answer from His holy place. Nor is prayer ever futile. True prayer is evermore true power. You may not always get what you ask, but you shall always have your real wants supplied. When He does not answer His children according to the letter, He does so according to the spirit. If thou askest for course meal, wilt thou be angered because He gives thee the finest flour? If thou seekest bodily health, shouldest thou complain if instead thereof He makes thy sickness turn to the healing of spiritual maladies? Is it not better to have the cross sanctified than removed?

I was blessed by these thoughts.......

siah and I........

Siah and I have a "secret," (and it does not have anything to do with a baby) Its really a prayer. We have been praying about this little secret for 2 years now. It has to do with Joel and Josiah. He sometimes comes and asks, "are you still praying?" I assure him I most certainly am. Recently we were talking about it and he had his arms around my neck and he ask,"how much does it cost?" I told him it did not cost as much as Elijah's tractor so I think he was pretty confident that God could do that. The reason I am telling you, is because like with the tractor, I wanted to "write" it down so if the Lord grants the request, I can once again give Him the praise and you can be blessed as well with the testimony and I can come back to this post and we can all rejoice!! Like I said with the tractor, it could be days, months or years, but my little Siah and I will keep asking, seeking and knocking according to His will!!!!

Yesterday after church we went out to the land possibility that I mentioned several days ago that the boys are interested in and walked around. It is a bankruptcy auction of a house and over 700 acres. The land is divided into parcels of 40, 80 and 160 acres. They are looking at the 40 acre tracts. The house is a 7000 square foot house and it brought lots of thoughts to the things of this world. Its the largest house I have ever walked through. The house is not completed yet but it is adorned with elaborate and ornate wood work, Italian marble floors, inlaid oak floors, oak pillars and mantles with intricate carvings, a theater, and rooms galore on its 3 stories, several fireplaces and winding curving stairs in two places to go to the upper level. I can not help but think of this man that had a great vision and dream and now he has lost everything pertaining to the house. In the huge outside barn there is stainless steel appliances in their boxes, top of the line as you can imagine. There are tractors, bull dozers, and much heavy equipment awaiting new owners. He had a vision but His vision did not include the Lord obviously. Likely borrowing several million from the bank but could not keep the payments. So many scriptures came to mind, gaining the world yet loosing your soul, setting our hope in things that will rust and not last. My heart felt compassion for whomever this was as he has lost all. It reminded me too of our Great God in that as he said he was going to prepare a place, but it will be finished with all its glory and it will far exceed 7000 square feet in an unimaginable way!!! Since Joel's made it to heaven before me, the things of this world hold a different perspective. Though every good gift is from above, the things that last for eternity are much more dear to me now.

On the post below I shared about little Silas going to live with Jesus on Sunday. Please pray for their family. I listed their site below. We are called to weep with those who weep. May you and I enter in and through prayer ease the burden.

Well, its Monday and getting the house back in order, school and enjoying the great week of weather that is ahead. Our 23rd anniversary is Sunday the 8th. Wow, its gone by so fast. I am blessed!

Notice, how early I wrote this, the time change is good for farm people!

silas

Remember the little boy Silas I mentioned awhile back. He had the same cancer that Joel did. This morning he went to be with Jesus. Please pray for their family and you can really bless them I am sure if you let them know you are praying. His web site is http://www.kdforthecongo.blogspot.com/