10 Lovely Years

Not an unlucky Friday the 13th for us...a lovely evening of enjoying each other's company and reminiscing about our last ten years.

1 You, God, Marriage

2 Children, Become One

3 Vacuums

4 Computer, Family Members

5 Vehicles

6 Churches

7 Addresses

8 Years of Republican Rule, Missionaries Supported

9 Countries

10 Wonderful years with YOU!

Here we are today...(this is the same dress that I wore when he proposed.)

This what looking for a job looks like...

He really really really is working hard at finding a job...just one afternoon while he was doing applications he happen to fall asleep. (He's also been fighting off a cold and really the bigger need for a nap.) There have been many bites in the last few weeks so this is just an aberration!

It was quite a lovely day this day and we were attempting to do some school outside. Does the Lego magazine count as school? I think it does when a 5 year old wants to read it for his free reading time. (The other one does have a real math book in front of him.)

Page Protectors

Something that I thought that we could always live without...

but this week it has hit crisis mode in home school that we don't have page proectors!

This school year we have gone through an entire package of page protectors and it's only the beginning of March! We do have great history notebooks and non-history notebooks to show for it and well preserved to boot! We are half-way through the 50 states and both of the boys wanted to show off their home state for the picture.

Random thoughts

For this Lenton season in preparation for Easter, I am giving up facebook. "Giving up" something for Lent is fasting from something - food, activity or some other pleasurable activity - to help remind us of the sacrifice that Christ gave on Easter of dying on the cross for our sins.

When you would normally do said activity, it's a time to pray. Giving up facebook has made me realize that I have really liked the random thoughts that people have put in their status and I liked being able to share some random thought as well with my status.

So, I've blogged a little more during Lent because I haven't had facebook as an outlet for random thoughts. Now, what did I do with all of these before all of this communication? The nice thing about putting these thoughts out there is that I can throw them out there and no one is required to respond...it's a personal choice to make a comment or not. If we were in a conversation then you would feel obligated to make some type of response. 

So, is facebook and other statuses (I still set an gmail status and don't use twitter or whatever else may be out there) a means that I don't have to justify my thoughts and diminishing my interpersonal communication? Because I don't have to have face to face conversation about what's on my mind am I allowing myself to have thoughts that go unchecked and could be going down a wrong path. I am trying to be witty or mysterious to win some type of popularity contest to see if I can get people to respond?

Enough random thoughts...I think I'll have a real conversation with my children now.

What to do with veggies

A few weeks ago someone came to church with this HUGE pan full of steamed veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, not sure if there was anything else in there or not) that was given to them the night before at a dinner they cleaned up from.

We ate some of the veggies that week and froze the rest in bags to use later. Well, later has arrived and I need some suggestions on what to do with them. I don't think that they would be good just thawed and heated because I'm afraid that they would be mush.

Here are my thoughts...if anyone has any suggestions or opinions, let me know:

- make a cheese sauce like I would for cheesy potatoes and bake with a crispy topping (possibly do half potatoes and half veggies)

- make a corn casserole type thing with chopped up veggies - corn bread mix with egg, sour cream, and add some corn and bake.

- puree the vegetables and make some type of cream soup

I will be serving this for church next week since the vegetables were donated to the church. I have at least three gallon bags of these vegetables so we may get to try all of these options!

Life is emerging

Yesterday was a fabulous February day. We hadn't had precipitation in quite awhile so I started attacking the garden area. I was so excited to find new life already! I think that one is some cilantro growing - it's where the cilantro was last year that didn't really do much. The pumpkin leaves took over and shaded it and then pretty much squelched it.

This is the ever faithful chives. The garlic chives are coming up too and I need to figure out how to use these more this year.

Today with the help of my friend, we planted peas in pretty much the entire garden plot and some salad stuff in another little area.

Yesterday I had some help thinning out and re-arranging the phlox in front. The labor fee was some starts of the phlox which was a great trade for me. I was excited to pull 5 gallons of pretty good looking compost out of the compost pile to help the transplanted guys flourish. The automatic composter is up and running again so hopefully we'll have lots of great compost to use the entire year.

I love the emergence of new life in the spring! I still remember as a kid hating the garden though. I am not sure all of the factors that contributed to my change of heart but it's an exciting time of hear to like dirt!

No More Training Wheels!

Yesterday the training wheels come off and away he went! The only thing that makes this story slightly more interesting is that the training wheels and riding happened after 9pm! The same person who taught one of his friends to ride two-wheeled did the honors as well last night. There's no turning back now - no assistance required today and already wanting to race down the hill.