#31 - Monday

We went to co-op this morning and it seems like we've been running non-stop all day!

I caught Anna and Sissy leaving their paper crafting class and heading to their Imagine That class. :)

Looking forward to spring!
SO thankful we're going to dodge the blizzard bullet that is blanketing the areas all around us!

Psalm 37:3-4
"Trust in the LORD, and do good;
Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
Delight yourself also in the LORD,
And He shall give you the desires of your heart."

#30 - Warm Sunday

Today has been a nice and sunny day again! We had a wonderful worship service this morning and this evening at church. Looking forward to the Right to Life Rally in Frankfort on Thursday. We always love to go and take a stand for the unborn babies! Praying that one day abortion will become an obsolete word.

The girls got to pass ball for a few minutes this afternoon, then it was nap time! :)

Tonight after church we had a hodge podge meal!

We like to cut up zucchini and squash and dip in low-fat ranch!

It's semi-healthy right?! :P I'm so ready for some summer veggies!

Psalm 118:24

"This is the day the LORD has made;
We will rejoice and be glad in it."

#29 - Half of Our Lives

Today is the day that Brian and I went on our very first date - 17 years ago! It's hard to believe we've been together exactly half of our lives. But I am so very thankful that he is who God intended for me to marry and spend my life with!

Here we are in our Ag class shortly after we started dating.

And here we are 17 years later :)

******************************************************************

The temperatures today were near 60 degrees, so we made it a work day! Brian and the girls cleaned out the flowerbeds and I cleaned out the van. :)

Anna also got a package from her friend, Morgan, from Alabama!

We have finished the day off with spaghetti and sopapilla cheesecake!

1 Corinthians 13:4-8
"Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails."

#28 - Friday

The girls had a great time with Nana last night!

We took her to the airport today and I made them all cheese for me once again!

Here was the sunset on the way home.
Isaiah 18:4
"For so the LORD said to me,
“ I will take My rest,
And I will look from My dwelling place
Like clear heat in sunshine,
Like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.”

#27 - Nana and the Girls

Brian's mom came over to spend the night with the girls. The girls introduced her to the wonderful world of Wii! Then we ate some leftover chili :) and played Apples to Apples.

They are watching a movie right now before bed. Tomorrow Nana will be flying to Florida (read: warmer weather) to visit her sister. We're trying to figure out a way to sneak into her luggage! :)

Romans 8:28
"And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose."

#26 - Snow Go

Here is what our backyard looked like when I got up this morning. Everything was white! I have taken so many snow pictures this winter, but I couldn't resist a few more.

They had predicted we'd get 4-6 inches, but we ended up with around 3.

This bush looked like this when I first noticed it being completely white.
Then as the day went on and the snow kept falling it looked like this:

Poor thing :)

The girls went out for a little while to feed the critters and play with Cody boy.

I usually don't complain too much about winter weather, but I sure can't wait to see this:

Bugs and all!

I wanted to say Happy Birthday my sweet sister-in-law Becky today!!! I am sure being in Texas she just enjoys seeing these snow pics and not being in it firsthand! Love you Becky!

1 Chron. 16:31
“The LORD Reigns.”

#25 - Chilly Chili

It's been a pretty calm Tuesday around these parts. I made myself venture to the grocery and while I was there got the stuff to make a big pot of chili. The forecast is calling for us to get 4-6 inches of snow by tomorrow night. Yay us. :(

At least we'll have some comfort food to keep us full and warm!

Have a blessed night!

Psalm 119:76

"Let, I pray, Your merciful kindness be for my comfort,..."

#24 - Mini Van City

We started back with our homeschool co-op today and instead of helping with classes this semester I was asked to be the photographer! They want me to do a slideshow at the end of the year with pictures of all of the kids.

We go for 3 hours and during the first hour Nina and I usually walk a couple of miles in the indoor track above the gym. I always get tickled when I looked out the window and see this:

It's mini van city!

There are a few cars and trucks, but mainly there are mini vans!

If this doesn't scream "Homeschool Moms" then nothing does!

Proverbs 31:25-26
"Strength and honor are her clothing;
She shall rejoice in time to come.
She opens her mouth with wisdom,
And on her tongue is the law of kindness."

#23 - Birthdays and Cards

Today is my mother-in-law's birthday!

Happy Birthday, Pam!

This was taken last May :)

Anna hasn't done a lot of painting lately and yesterday I asked her to paint a few cards. The one on the left is for my friend Erica, whose birthday is tomorrow. I'm exactly 20 days older than her and she has never let me live it down! The card on the right was for Nana. Her favorite color is yellow, so Anna added some yellow with her violets!

Here is a wildflower card she is also working on.
(My personal fave!)

She is painting this hibiscus from a picture that was taken in Panama last summer.

Here are a few of her recent paintings/drawings:

She did this birds of paradise flower for my niece.

And she did this giraffe for my great-nephew Aidan!

Whom we can't wait to see in two months when his mommy gets married!!! So hard to believe he's almost 3 now!

Psalm 90:17
"And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us,
And establish the work of our hands for us;
Yes, establish the work of our hands."

(This is the scripture that Anna puts at the end of all of her emails:)

#22 - Fun Saturday

Fun Saturday if you love to do laundry!

Keeping things real....5 loads later I'm almost caught up!

Brian decided to take the veneer pieces off the doors of the hutch.
It was going to be too hard to fix and to be honest I like it better!

The girlies got to play in the snow for a little while. I looked out once and they were rolling down the little hill in our back yard!

After Sissy left I put the girls to work!


Proverbs 12:14
"From the fruit of their lips people are filled with good things,
and the work of their hands brings them reward."

#21 - BFF's

The girls have been looking forward to this day (sleepover night!) all week long! I picked up Sissy (Alyssa) after working this afternoon and when we walked through the door the girls were beyond excited! These sweet girls have been friends since birth and it blesses my heart because her Mama is my dearest friend in the whole world.

Plus, they all are sisters-in-Christ! The most special Bond of all!

Here is Nina, Me, and do you see Sissy peeking through between us?! This was taken the summer of 2001 at Topsail Island, NC when we vacationed with Greg, Nina, Logan, & Sis. This is the same trip that I found out I was expecting Holly! :D

Proverbs 12:26
"The righteous should choose his friends carefully,
For the way of the wicked leads them astray."

#20 - Tutorial Ragamuffin Barbie Quilt

We've had a pretty non-eventful day and I couldn't think of anything else to take a picture of, except maybe snow. But I've taken enough pictures of snow!

So, I thought I'd show a "how to" for small quilts. Not that I have any idea what I am doing or anything. Hence, the reason they are quilts for dolls :) The girls and I made these before Christmas and I meant to do a post about them before the new year, but didn't. We had also made another simple Barbie quilt that I did post about HERE.

So here we go!

I got this idea from a larger quilt my very crafty sister made Anna.

It's called a ragamuffin quilt and is pretty easy to make!

Cut 8 squares of material either 5 or 6 inches. It's according how big you want your quilt to be. You can use different colors of course. Then cut quilt batting or thick flannel about 1 inch smaller than your material squares.

Lay the batting/flannel between the squares and then sew an X across from corner to corner.

Make sure your thread matches up with the material.

Here are the four squares all sewn with X's.

Next, your gonna sew it all together! Put whatever side you want on the back together and then sew about a 1/2 inch seam.

It should look like this.

After you sew two of them together, sew those two pieces together.

Like this. Then sew a 1/2 inch seam all the way around it.
Please don't look too closely or you'll see I really have no idea what I was doing....hehe!

The back side.

Here is where the ragamuffin comes into play! Take a pair of snips or scissors and cut the material from that 1/2 inch seam allowance you had. The more you cut the cuter it gets. Just make sure you don't cut too far down into the seam. After you get done snipping, hand or machine wash it and it looks a little ragged. WARNING: There will be lots of thread clippings that you'll just love! Ha!

Closer look.

We made a small pillow too. :)

I made this one with just fleece and cotton material with no batting in between. It turned out pretty cute.

We made this one for a doll Anna got for Christmas. Instead of making the four squares we just sewed around the edges and then lines across the middle to give it a quilted look. Then we snipped the edges all the way around.

We did the same for Holly's doll, Rebecca.

She and her pups really liked it.

Psalm 32:1

"Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
Whose sin is covered."

#19 - Crunch Time

This morning I started back with my crunches. Brian and I got this ab cruncher about 14 years ago - that is why it looks like an antique! But it still works, if we'd use it......haha!

I have a love/hate relationship with this fine piece of equipment. I'll do really well for several months and then something will throw off my schedule and blah, blah, blah, excuses, excuses! :)

This morning I did 200 crunches! I plan on combining crunches with a small pilates workout in the morning. Going to the gym is just not always possible with the girls school and Brian's work schedule so I've just gotta work it in however and whenever!

1 Timothy 4:7-8

"But reject profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness. For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come."

#18 - Eggcellent!

We have not gotten any eggs from our hens in a long time. :o(

But today, Brian came in after feeding them with 3 beautiful brown eggs in his hands!!!

A few weeks ago he put some golf balls in the nesting boxes to try and trick them into laying......and it worked! You don't know how badly it has pained me to pay $1.75 for a dozen of eggs at the store! And to think about 5 years ago I wouldn't even touch a brown egg. Now I long for them. :)

Our hens are fairly young and they usually don't lay until they are older. It's also hard to get them to lay in the winter months. Last spring we started out with two hens and a rooster. In school we incubated 3 chicks and then one of our hens set more chicks and now we've got a total of 8 hens and 3 roosters.

Anna took today's picture for me and I think she did an eggcellent job! (Sorry...couldn't resist:)

Psalm 8:9

"O LORD, our Lord,
How excellent is Your name in all the earth!"

#17 - Wellspring and Milestones

Our homeschool co-op (Wellsprings) started back today. Since our Christmas party got cancelled because of snow in December, they made it a Winter/Holiday party for today! It was tons of fun and the kiddos got to play on bouncy stuff, eat some sweets, and make a cute craft!

I loved this picture of Holly in mid-jump!

Today there was also a small milestone. :o)

I got my DSLR camera April 2008 and today I took my 60,000th picture! Haha! I would post it had I been paying attention to the counter and not deleted it! :)

Oh, well....the pic of Holly was 59,885. So close enough!

Proverbs 4:23
"Above all else, guard your heart,
for it is the wellspring of life."