Tidbits

How about some little tidbits of information to catch you up on our lives?

*School will be done for us in a couple of weeks!  Yay!  We are all excited for Summer Break.

*We had a wonderful Easter spent with my family complete with and Easter egg hunt and a wonderful lunch together.

*A couple of weekends ago I got the privilege of going on a Women's Retreat with our church.  We went to our local resort mountain town and had a blessed time. 

The lake was like glass one of the mornings I was there.

*The "creating" I posted about here is almost done!  It is coming along nicely and I would have been done sooner but I decided to add some finishing touches that are taking a bit longer.

*We recently had a death in our family.  Corbin's frog "Lake" died.  He was very upset.  I can tell he is growing up because a couple years ago when the other frog we had died it didn't phase him a bit.  This time he was so sad. We had a burial for him in our garden bed.  Now that portion of the garden will be called "Lake's Garden."

*We have gone fishing twice now.  There is a pond a block away from our house and a fishing trailer comes every couple of weeks to teach the kids how to cast and catch fish.  It is so much fun!  I took the boys yesterday to the pond and we tried hard to catch something.  They were catching 6lb. trout out of this pond! I really tried to recruit some of the male gender to come along because I REALLY didn't want to have to touch and poke a slimy old worm.  No luck though!  Steve had to work but did really want to be there.

This gentleman was there teaching casting to the kids.  There were also men there to bait the hooks (only the first time though we had to do it the other times!)

I combed Corbin's hair.  I promise!  The wind was just blowing.

The nice man gave me eggs for bait because he knew I didn't want to touch worm guts.  Under this cup of eggs is a marshmallow cup and a worm cup eewwww!

We are so blessed!

*A LOT of these (see below) have been popping up around our house lately. We have been getting rid of them quickly!  This is the season that the wasps decide to build their nests.  What an education for Corbin.  We are reading this series of books and they talk a lot about bees and wasps and their intricacies and instincts God gave them. A couple of weeks ago I checked this movie out of our Co-Op's library and it has fit perfectly into the spring season with bees and wasps all around.  I highly recommend this movie series (by Moody Institute) and the above book series. He has gotten to keep some of the nests in his "nature collection" box.

*Speaking of school, last week we had our last co-op day.  In the evening we had a presentation night that was a lot of fun.  We got to see performances from singing to taekwondo.  All the students projects were laid out on tables and it was a blessed time.  I am grateful to have been a part of this co-op this year.  Corbin had a blast and I got meet some wonderful mothers with like minds.

He made a Native Americans Lapbook in his history class.

Corbin did a Lego Club with public speaking class too.  He said he was nervous the first time speaking but got used to it after a while. He did some other classes too but I didn't have pictures of P.E. (with kickboxing) or Armor of God class.

*Time to plant our seedlings next week!  No more sign of frost and now my counter will no longer be the greenhouse.  Yay!

*I am going to do a 10 day cleanse coming up in a week and a half.  Hoping to improve my symptoms of Hashimotos Disease and Hypothyroidism.  I am not looking forward to it very much but excited to feel better.

*Cody just wanted to say hello!

~Blessings~

Tidbits

Is it already the end of February?  What happened to this month?  It sure was a whirlwind.

Here are some tidbits of things that happened in February:

~Steve got a job!  Praise God.  He has perfect timing.  God allowed Steve to be home for five months with us before going back to work.  He provided everything we needed and more.  I am so grateful for the time we had with Steve home.  It was like we went into "retirement" mode and we got so used to him being around that it was strange after he went back to work.  As much as I thought I wanted the old routine back of him at work and me at home, I was sad when he went back.  The first day was very hard. I am SO grateful that he has the perfect job for him though.  Thank you Lord!

~My sweet Grandma who has been such a huge Godly influence in my life had her 91st birthday this month. I am so happy that we live so close to her now that we can celebrate these times with her.

~I got an abscess in my gums (near my wisdom tooth that just came in) and it hurt like crazy for a week.  I am so thankful that God healed it before I had to go to the yucky dentist.

~The boys and I went to a local retirement home with a friend and her boys for Valentines day to pass out flowers and cookies.  I have always wanted to do this but usually the thought just stays in my head.  Thank you my sweet friend Jessi for taking the initiative to actually make this happen!  She was so prepared and her boys were so sweet.  Her oldest boy even showed the elderly how to make tissue paper flowers.  It was such a fulfilling time and something that we all can't wait to do again. Corbin has been asking to go back ever since.

~Steve and I began teaching Sunday school together at our church this month. We teach the second and third graders.  At first I was a little reluctant to take this commitment on but Steve has led us the whole way and it has been a major blessing.  That age group is so much fun.  They always have cute and funny things to say and they always have something to talk about.  Our first Sunday Steve even led a little girl to the Lord!  I remember in third grade (at church) was when I first asked the Lord in to my heart.  It changed my life forever. Teaching has been a lot of fun. We love to get to know the boys and girls.

~We had a visit from my Mother-In-Law for five days.  It was a blessing to have her here.  The boys kept hoarding her and vying for her attention.  She really helped out a lot.  We all enjoyed some meals out and shopping together when Steve would get off work.

~I have found a doctor here and hope I will like this one.  We will see. My appointment is next week. My health has been pretty up and down lately and I am looking for someone who will find the cause not just treat the symptoms.  It seems like every other week I am getting sick and if I am not sick something else is wrong like extreme itchiness or overall fatigue and lack of motivation. I covet your prayers if you are so inclined.

~This morning I woke up to Steve yelling "Jenn! Get up there's a tornado!"  All of sudden I am up with my heart racing (not even awake) while Steve is grabbing the kids from their rooms.  We start running downstairs to the basement for shelter.  He said, "The roof is blowing off the neighbors house and there is stuff floating all in the air outside."  I was thinking, "Seriously, did I really want to move here?"  "I thought we got away from the natural disasters?"  Anyway, long story short, we were safe and apparently we have these things here called "micro bursts."  After doing some research they are the beginning of a tornado (which have never happened here-thankfully.)  It is when the whirling wind is spinning horizontally instead of vertically.  In other words no funnel cloud yet.  They can burst 70 MPH winds though.  What Steve saw was real.  There were roof shingles all over our street and the fence fell over across the street and a tree downed a few streets over.  We have some minor roof repair to be done.  Pretty crazy!  Waking up to a HUGE rush of adrenaline was not what my fatigued adrenal glands needed this morning but I am glad Steve got us to safety.  These could never take our house away or anything like a tornado and really we are fine in other levels of our house but we are so new at having "weather" that it was intense.

For March we will see what the Lord brings.  I know two things on my "list:"
~Taxes (yuck)
~Making our guest room into a craft room.  We will still be able to convert the room for when we have guests so they have a room to stay in but I will use it much more for creating during the times we don't have guests. I can't wait!

Tidbits

I have been wanting to post this all day long but one thing leads to another and here I am at 10:00pm! 

1. I almost put off cleaning up my kitchen so I could post but I decided to do my work first!  I had to clean up some pans that were soaking from dinner ~ Gluten Free Mulligatawny Soup (my favorite), unload the dishes and put my homemade beef stock in freezer containers.  I am glad I got it all done first!

2. We are back to school this week and things are going well.  We enjoyed our short Christmas break and I feel refreshed again. I LOVE the flexibility of homeschool.

3. Corbin starts piano lessons tomorrow.  He is SO excited.  I am excited too, maybe I will learn something too?

4. We decided to join our local church homeschool Co-op.  I am so excited for this.  Corbin will be taking three classes along with chapel on Mondays.  His classes will be Lego building and learning how to speak in front of people, P.E., and Learning about the Armor of God.  I wish I had the opportunity to participate in things like this when I was a kid! Cody and I will be hanging out helping during the time too.

5. I started getting sick the day after Christmas and it lasted for about 4 days.  We had to postpone Daddy's birthday because of my sickness (and other extended family members were sick too.)  We ended up having a belated birthday party last night for Steve.  It was so much fun!

Corbin made him this cool birthday sign.

We had our extended family come over (I didn't get pictures...duh...) and they had dinner with us and opened presents and had cake.  We had such wonderful conversation.  I just love my family.  It was so awesome to hear my Dad and Uncle (his brother) laugh so hard over their childhood stories.

Steve has been craving pizza lately and he really wanted Papa Murphys.  Reminiscent of his college days.  I had never had it (and still haven't because they don't offer anything GF)  It looked SO good though.  He wanted a Chicago Style stuffed pizza.  Papa Murphy's is cool because you go in and order what you want, they make it right there on the spot and you take it home and bake it in your own oven.  For the record I did make my own Gluten Free French Bread so I could indulge with them in a Gluten Free French Bread Pizza.  Delicious!

This was similar to what it looked like....

I wished I got a picture of the cake.  I made a Gluten Free Yellow Cake with chocolate frosting (his favorite.)  The cake was OK.  I will probably try a different recipe next time.  I didn't have the candles I needed so I used the ones I had.  I put candle numbers 3, 4 and 2 and then added one tiny little normal candle on the side. This equals his age ~ No, not 343!  3 and 4+2+1! My 6 year old liked doing the math - 37 years old! Silly, I know. Happy Birthday Steve! May this be your best year ever.

6. I have been reading a book I got from my Brother and Sister-in-law for Christmas called 1000 gifts: Dare to live fully right where you are by Ann Voskamp  It has been an interesting read.  She has a very poetic way of writing.  Nothing like I have ever read before.  She is inspiring me to keep a gratitude journal of 1000 gifts (maybe more). Through her tragedies and brokeness in life Ann started seeking to know the Lord more fully. It led her to start keeping track of all of God's gifts. I love the gifts she writes about.  Everyday ordinary things that truly are "gifts" from the Lord. I can't wait to snuggle up under the blankets and read some more of it tonight.

7. We received a wonderful, unexpected blessing on New Years Eve.  It changed our whole evening around and we ended up having one of the best New Years Eve's I can remember.  I was still under the weather but almost over it and this blessing was just what I needed to get me out of the funk I was in. The four of us had a simple evening together.  We went to the store and got some junk food to much on.  Came home and ate it for dinner (agggh!) then did some sparklers (ones we used at our wedding 7 years ago), put Cody to bed and let Corbin stay up.  Corbin loved that.  Him and I played some Mario Brothers (I am still addicted to that game ~ although trying to set a good example), we all watched our own home videos, and then Steve, Corbin and I played a game of Sorry~ I WON. :-)  It was a wonderful family night.  We woke up the next day and had and AWESOME worship service with an AMAZING sermon at our new church.  It was a great start to the new year.

8. No New Years resolutions here. I like the idea of them but it is too much pressure.  I have goals and aspirations for the year but we will see what the Lord wants.  What I pray for this year is:

More Love

More Trust

More Joy

More Hope

Blessings~ Thank you for reading my blog.  I am grateful for all of you.  Have an excellent first week of 2012!

Tidbits

When I lay down at night I have a list of things running through my head that I think you just might be dying to know. I thought I would share them with you.  I bet you are so excited! 

~When we moved to our new home in another state I forgot to pack my pillow from my parents house. This is not any ordinary pillow.  This is the pillow that I forgot at the hotel at Disneyland and went back for it because I could not be without it.  It has a memory foam inside and a down outside and there is none other like it.  I had been without it for almost two months and was dying!  When I got it back I just let myself melt into it.  It was divine.  I am so happy to have it back.

~I went to a cooking class at our local gluten free market here.  I was not really impressed. It was OK.  I thought it was going to be a class where you have hands-ons cooking time and get great recipes.  It was more of a product sale.  A brand was represented and the people who created it cooked some things from their boxed mixes.  The food was OK.  It was something I wont be doing again.

~Since we have moved here I am amazed at what we have gotten done. Of course none of these things would have been done had if not for the Lord giving us His strength and guidance. In a mere 60 days we have moved in, unpacked almost everything, taken a trip to Salvation Army, found various pieces of furniture to fit our home and moved those in, winterized our yard, reconstructed the east side of our house so water runs away from our foundation, reconstructed this inside of our house (office and bathroom) due to water damage, had a new front fence built, started school, had house guests, gone on numerous outings, found a new church, had weekly church activities, celebrated harvest, celebrated Thanksgiving, been sick two times, met our neighbors, had movie nights and game nights, took driving tests, got new licenses and plates, built shelves in the garage and more and more.  Wow!  That makes my brain hurt. 

~I haven't taken a test in a long time, many, many years.  When I went to take my drivers test I was a bit nervous.  I studied and know that it can't be that much different here than it was where we lived before but I was still anxious.  I started my test and I miss THE FIRST ONE!  I about died thinking "oh no I am going to fail this."  "I am going to get laughed at!"  I started sweating and got really nervous.  In the end though I passed my test and that was the only one I missed. It sure did freak me out though.  I don't even know what question I missed now.

~I miss my friends and my homeschool group with all our outings.

~Tonight we are going to start our advent family devotions.  This is something I look forward to every year.  It really helps us to focus on Jesus and His story through this busy crazy season.

~Tomorrow night I am going to make jewelry for women at a local shelter for Christmas.  I am so excited.  There are so many opportunities at our new church to give back and to get our family involved in giving back.  This is an answer to prayer.

~I have been having some success cooking and baking Gluten Free. I don't feel as intimidated by it anymore, in fact, I feel like I can help other people who are just starting out.  I have educated myself enough to know what I am doing now.  The best part is that I can make a lot from scratch rather than buying the really expensive mixes. I made some really good pumpkin chocolate chip squares the other day!  One of my most favorite cookbooks for Gluten Free is this one. 

~Steve and I watched One Night with the King the other night and it was so good.  It was about Hadassah becoming Queen Esther in the Bible.  Since we watched that I have been studying the book of Esther. Her courage is remarkable and the story sure has some wonderful lessons in it.

~Speaking of courage, Steve and I along with my Aunt and Cousin went to see the movie Courageous.  Have you seen it?  Steve said it was the best movie he has ever seen.  I wholeheartedly agree.  It was a great story, thought provoking and convicting all in one.  Go see it if you haven't! Pretty Please?

That's it for now.  I am sure when I lay my head down tonight more "edge of your seat" tidbits will come to mind for the next post. Stay tuned....
~Blessings~

Tidbits in May

~I just got over being sick for a week.  It was horrible. I felt like I was going to die and that my throat was on fire.  All the symptoms of Strep.  After four tests only one came back positive for Strep.  Hmmm... what is wrong with the testing these days? (another post for another time)

~I had a nice Mother's Day.  It was low key because my husband was getting over the sickness I gave him.  He was selfless though and packed a nice picnic to go to the lake and feed the ducks. He have me a wonderful card along with a Teavana gift card.  Corbin made me some sweet gifts and a cute card. For dinner Steve and my dad made us an all American dinner complete with Gluten Free burgers, potato salad, corn on the cob and more! Thanks my love!

~I went shopping today with my mom and the boys and it was so cute because every time we walked by something Cody grabbed it from his stroller and said "Momma, Cuke!"  "Momma Cuke!" He was showing me all the clothes he thought were "cute".  Precious.

~Last week I roasted some garlic.  I bought a HUGE head of elephant garlic popped it in the oven and turned it into garlicky, nutty goodness.  I have always wanted to do this.  It has been yummy for soups, stews and stir fries.  I will definitely be doing this again.

~Today I made my first homemade chicken stock.  I figure I saved our family about 18 dollars doing this.  It was so easy and tastes amazing.  I can't wait to use it in my dishes.

~Yesterday we were at a red light and I started red light praises.  I was praising God for our car and the fact that we can drive it freely, afford to drive it and that God has given us the means to drive it.  Just then the light turned green and I stepped on the gas and it sputtered a bit. I got on the freeway and the car had virtually no power! Luckily I could get off at the exit a little bit away and get safe.  The car died!  Such a crack up the timing of this.  Anyway, $1000 bucks later and a new fuel pump (among other things) and our car is as good as new.  I AM thankful for it!  God has a sense of humor and thankfully I do to.

~We are officially done with Corbin's kindergarten year.  What a wonderful accomplishment.  He has come so far and I am so proud of him.  We will be participating in a promotion/graduation for him in June with our homeschool group.  I can't wait.

~I bought some See's Candy last time I was at the mall and I have loved that stuff since I was a little girl.  Strawberry Creams and Peanut Crunch!  Yummy.  I tried to get into Godiva chocolate years ago and it was good but most of it tasted the same to me.  I think See's is better!

~I am not understanding the new "thing" to make your photos look yellowy and "vintage."  I am not really a fan.  Instead I am taking the yellow out of our old photos through Creative Memories Memory Manager.  One click and it is done.  Funny how some people want it to look that way and some don't.

Thanks for reading my randomness today!  I hope you have a blessed week~

Tidbits in April

1. I think Wednesday is my new favorite day of the week.  Lately it is a day where I feel the best mentally and physically.  Don't know why though.
2. I have an eyelash growing down and even when I put mascara on it still goes down and gets in the way.  It's annoying.
3. I made my first gluten free bread with Corbin the other day.  I am storing it under my pillow in case an intruder enters our home and then I can use it as a weapon. Bleck...
4. We watched The Passion of the Christ last night.  It had been 7 years since I had seen it and it really changed my perspective and focus. It humbled me. What Jesus endured for us cannot even be put into words.
5. We are in the thick of Easter week around here doing old traditions and creating new ones.  I have been using Thriving Family magazine (one of my favorites) for some really good ideas.

Here are some of our old Easter traditions and soon to become new traditions: 

We made palm branches and then re-enacted Palm Sunday with the boys and Read John 12:12-13 - they loved it.

We discussed the meaning of the word "Hosanna."

We baked the afore mentioned bread and were supposed to give it to a family in need along with some Easter goodies. Yea - didn't give that one away.  We talked about Jesus being the bread of life.

We talked about the significance of Passover and may implement some new traditions with this next year.

We died Easter egg's last night and talked about where the tradition of the Easter egg came from.

I sent Corbin on Easter scavenger hunt today to find various items around the house that represented Easter (tomb, sin, cross....etc.)

We will be making our He's Alive Buns tomorrow (sadly I will not be able to partake, it's probably better not to grow my muffin top anyway!)

We will be doing our normal Maundy Thursday foot washing tomorrow evening as a family.  We will read John 13:1-17.

We will be purchasing a red carnation and adding red food coloring to the water.  We will talk about how Jesus was a lamb without blemish or defect and then took on the sins of the world.  Over the days we will see the carnation turn red.

We have been using our resurrection eggs every night after dinner along with reading Benjamin's Box: The Story of the Resurrection eggs.

We will be attending church on Good Friday and taking communion. I want to do something more on this day to help Corbin really understand it but I am not sure what yet.

We will also be going to church on Sunday and worshipping Jesus for his death and resurrection.  The same day we will have a mega Easter egg hunt here with an early dinner. We will be reading Matthew 27-28.

I really enjoy celebrating and reflecting at Easter time. It is the basis of my faith and without it I would be lost. 

He is risen - He is risen indeed!

Tidbits

My blog has been a bit heavy lately so I thought I would post some interesting facts about me and some fun pictures.  (I love to read blogs with a little of both - some seriousness and transparency as well as fun and excitement.)

*I have been seriously craving Daphnes Fire Feta lately.  My friend posted about it on facebook and that was all it took.  I splurged (well actually I had a gift card) and went and got a tub of it today.  I WISH I had the recipe!

*I cannot wait to sleep through the night again.  Cody started to sleep through the night in November, before he got the stomach flu and after that it has been all downhill!  Can't complain too much though because when he was younger he was waking every one to two hours.  I at least get 4-5 straight hours now.

* I love Ethiopian food and I haven't had it in a while.  I hope to get to go have some soon.

* I cannot wait until the season premiere of 19 Kids and Counting tonight.

*Below are a few things I have gotten in the mail recently that have totally excited me.  Yup - a dictionary!  I am so excited about this because the definitions are not modern.  In other words, when you look up the definition of marriage you get The act of uniting a man and woman for life...Marriage was instituted by God himself..."Marriage is honorable in all..." Heb. 13.  and more!  Love it!  I also ordered four bible study books for myself.  They will last me for quite a while.  I am loving this because I haven't been able to sign up for church women's bible study in a while for various reasons.  I was able to order exactly the books and topics that I needed.  Can't wait to dig in.

*Corbin recently had his last day of his homeschooling bowling league, complete with Donuts and juice AND pizza.  He won a trophy for Boys highest scratch score. I am so grateful for opportunities like this in our homeschool group.

*Last week we spent part of a day with my father-in-law (aka. Papa Dave) at a local park to play some baseball.  Corbin has really taken to the game lately and loved to go and practice. He has improved a lot too over the many times we have been.  He is great at pitching and batting.  Cody went too and tried numerous times to get into the game. He had his little bat and ball to play with.

*Corbin and I made homemade dog treats to take to our family's dog Rosie in Idaho for Christmas.  It was so fun.  I decorated the package with my cousins awesome stamps.  Rosie (or Royeee as Cody calls her) gobbled the peanut butter treats up!

*I have been in awe of how times flies lately.  When I look at Corbin I cannot believe his is so big already.  It seems like I just had him and he was a little toddler.  Time will fly with Cody too.  One of the reasons I love photos so much is because I get to look back on the progress and growth.  Love my two miracles! Here is Corbin...

*This is the first year I have decided to do our family scrapbook digitally.  I have done both traditional an digital scrapbooks for years but have reserved the digital for vacations.  One reason I decided to start a digital family album for 2010 is because each year I take more and more pictures and I am not able to fit them into the traditional albums anymore.  Or put it this way, I am not able to fit them into the ONE family album anymore.  I was starting to do two for each year.  It was getting to be too much.  So now I am doing them digital and can put a ton of pictures in them and they don't even take up half the space.  Here are a few of my favorite pages so far from my 2010 family album