God said to love one another right???  He even said to love thine enemies.  We should love all people!!!  We should even try our best to LIKE them.  LOL  That is one thing my mother and I used to chat about.  She would say, I love so and so because God told me to, and I work hard at it, but I don't necessarily "like" them.  It's hard sometimes to love others, even your friends and family, when they can have such ugliness inside, such judging attitudes and their words towards others make you cringe.

The short story is, we gathered at my brother's house for Fourth of July.  The company was good, the food was wonderful, and the kids played and giggled (sometimes too loudly might I add.....but that is a good thing!)  We were forced to eat inside with the chill in the air and the fear of a downpour at any time, but it did hold off some, so that was wonderful as well.  We sat around the table and ate and chatted with my brother who seems to have some of the same favorite TV shows as Matthew and I.

Then after eating, the guys all gathered downstairs to play the Playstation or X-Box.  The kids were playing well, and I settled at the dining room table to chat with the girls (5 of us from 21 to 60).  It was then that I realized, my family is like this EVERY TIME, and it seems my brain forgets it and tries to give them a second chance each time.  UGH!

First the conversation was about Megan, and her baby (due in October) and all the cute things she has boughgt for the bedroom, and the clothing that Tammy (who will be the gma for the first time) bought, etc.  It was a sweet conversation.  It went downhill fast from there!!!!  The conversation went to my neice's MIL and how she "says" she has bought the baby tons of stuff, but she hasn't shown any of it to Megan yet, and how she bettter not forget this child's bday, and how she baby's her own neice but not her own child and wife, she gives money to everyone except them, etc.   I have been there....with the MIL troubles....still are there in alot of ways.  We are trying to work things out and ignore the bad and focus on the good with Matthew's parents.  Isn't that what God does to us????  I want to havev a relationship with my inlaws so I try much harder than I think I should some times.  But my neice has been married a year and she is already starting in the hate game.  Shame.  And her own mother of course sits there and coaches her and eggs her on instead of saying, now hunny, I am sure she had a good reason to do that, or if you have a problem with that, please go talk to her and not talk behind her back, etc.   It really is a shame.

But it went down hill farther from there.  A gal from their church dresses inappropriately evidentially.  Everyone knows and everyone talks about it behind her back.  Her own 13 year old daughter and 16 year old son have told her about it and that it embarasses them, but she does nothing.  Her own daughter told her she dresses like a hooker or a slut.  OMG!  And eveidentially she was serving communion in the churcch with her hubby with a LOW CUT top and VERY MINI skirt and some of the guys "saw things" they shouldn't!!  GEE WHIZ!!  Why isn't someone saying something to her??? Why didn't the pastor say, this is inappropriate, please dress appropriately especially when you are serving communion!!!

Dr. H has a new wife evidentially.  The girls weren't sure if they met on the internet or if she was a mail order bride, but they say she isn't really pretty.  So everyone had to rush to the laptop to see pictures of his new wife from the Ukraine, and his 2 new step daughters at their reccent wedding.  (Dr. H is a very nice looking man, and the daughters were adorable.  I think the reason they said she wasn't pretty was because she had some BLACK mascara on....she had cried at the wedding and thus had some under her eyes.  Other than that, she was very pretty!)

So and so has Hepatitis and is dating so and so.  Yes he knew she had it when they started dating.  I know he is nuts, but he loves her.  That's gross, etc.  Oh and then they started talking about people who weren't proportionate.  LOL  So and so'd butt doesn't fit the rest of her body, etc.  The one I always laugh at is how a few of the bigger gals talk about someone else who is FAT.  Look in the mirror.  That's all I can say.  I know....that wasn't nice.  Sorry.  They rubbed off on me perhaps.

We spent two and a half hours out there before coming home and starting our own firework display here at the house (Noah and I had a blast as Matthew put on quite a display for a whole $32.00).  And in that time I never heard once that they said M is a sweetheart.  Did you know J got married??? They are so happy!  Or, wow, I sure do miss K and how she used to.....blah blah blah.  I heard them talk about V and her new gorgeous baby, but then it went into another girl who has a child who is "not right" and man were they glad they didn't have to deal with that.  *yawn*

By the time we all loaded up in the car, Matthew and I were a little on edge (he said something, I misunderstood, plus his ADHD was pegged out with all the noise and commotion of the family, and yes, we were all tired), that I hate to say we whined and griped at each other and about the family gathering all the way home.  UGH!

It wasn't until we got home, that we talked about the misunderstanding and patched that up, rested a little, played some Christian music to sooth all of our nerves and were finally able to put a smile on and speak joy and love again.  It really is sad how others can rub off on you like that.  Just being around a houseful of that for a few hours had us nipping at each other and had taken our joy level to a very dangerous low level.

Thankfully, we were able to pull out of it, go outside and enjoy the fireworkds.  We were able to see most of the citywide display from our front porch, plus some other neighborhood displays as well as the items Noah and Matthew picked out.  Noah was so funny shouting out the colors of the displays as he saw them and actually couting the roman candles as well.  RED! GREEN! BLUE!!  LOL  We had a great time.

And this morning we were able to get up, go to church and visit with our church family, praise God, let Noah learn about Jesus and play with his friends, and see the prior youth director and song leader who came for a visit this Sunday with their 3 kids from Colorado.  We were also honored to have some of Pastor's dear friends from Thailand come to visit this weekend.  They are Americans but moved to Thailand several years ago with their daughters to spread God's word.  They specifically came to the US this weekend to celebrate Independence Day.  Isn't that wonderful???

Hope everyone had a wonderful and safe weekend!

Happy 4TH of July all you blogger I know not a lot of you aren't on today cuz you are celebrating with family the freedom we have.

Well today our town had a BBQ.(We live in a small town) It was in the park so after we ate we played for a little while then we came home.  What did you do today?  Did you have fun?  I hope you did well bye.

Two weeks ago my family went camping we planed to stay four days, but we ended up staying two and a morning of taking down camp in the rain.  We went camping again two days ago we ment to stay five days but we stayed two, and while we took down camp it was raining and once the tents were all put  away the rain stopped after all the hard work ugh.  Have you had any half the time camping trips?   Did you enjoy yourself?  Do you like to camp?  Well we do but it can be hard with a family of nine.  We  talk to you soon.

 

 

 

  Happy Birthday America!  Today I am especially grateful for the wonderful freedoms we enjoy.  The freedom to worship, the freedom to praise God, the freedom to own our own property and live and work as we wish. For all these freedoms and more I very thankful for!

I pray each one of you enjoys a blessed & wonderful day!

Gloria

        

Happy Birthday America!!!!  Let's all cheer for the Red, White and Blue!!!  I love the Fourth of July, and the cookouts, family gatherings, and fireworks.  But this year, we aren't sure if there is going to be much fireworks.  We might be able to still arrange the cookout, and just eat indoors.  But is is difficult to celebrate with fireworks when it is raining!!  UGH!  The weather reports aren't sure if the rain will stop before sunset and the big firework displays or not.  DARN IT! 

Matthew took off earlier this morning with our Noah, 3 years old, to pick out some fireworks.  We always wait until the 4th to buy ours because of the wonderful sales they hold the day of.  He alsos picked up some sausage and milk on the way home for our breakfast....sausage gravy and biscuits!!  YUMMY!  He even made breakfast for us.  Matthew never cooked (except for Hamburger Helper) until he met me.  LOL  Now he is the breakfast expert and won't let me in the kitchen when he is making pancakes or his specialty of biscuits and gravy. 

The rest of the day we are going to hang out, relax (finish putting away laundry, do a few dishes) and just enjoy having daddy home!   Tonight we are going to my brother's house for a cookout (possibly cook in...depending on the whether), and then back to town for the city wide fireworks display.  I am looking forward to seeing my family today.  We are all so busy, and it seems working schedules conflict that we don't get together more often.  Looking forward to seeing how big my neice Megan is getting with her first pregnancy.  She is due in October, and I am sure she isn't much bigger than her little frame was before, but maybe a tiny bit. 

Matthew's family is all scattered this weekend.  We made a comment last night that if everyone wasn't gone, we would have loved to get them all together at our house this weekend.  Oh well.  His parents church is having a 3 day meeting, his sister lives in Washington,DC area and unable to come home, and his other sister, her hubby and 5 year old daughter just started their 5 day trek back to Missouri from California and today.  They visited Sea World, Disney, etc. and had lots of fun.  I can't wait to hear about their trip!

 

                              I have been planning our weekend.  Tomorrow we will enjoy a quiet day at home.. just family ( all 12 of us!).  We always enjoy a special meal on America's B-day.. so this year I will be making grilled steaks ( a rare treat) , baked potatoes, homemade baked beans, watermelon & homemade apple pie! It's not the fourth w/ out homemade apple pie! 

      Sunday our Church is holding an evening meeting and then a potluck meal. I'll be brining watermelon, lemon meringue pies and spinach salad. The girls are making cookies & cupcakes.  We are also going to bring a pinata & water balloons!  It should be a fun evening!

      Fourth of July is one of our favorite holidays!  We sure enjoy celebrating and taking time to remember how blessed we are in this land of the brave and home of the free!  I am also thankful for the freedom and perfect law of liberty thru Christ our Lord ! Jesus died so ALL men could be set free!  How grateful  I am for that!  We are no longer under the bondage of the law -- but are free thru the grace and liberty in Christ! Thank you Jesus for your precious blood shed on calvary so all men can be free!

  Hope you all enjoy a blessed Holiday!

Gloria

Well, our summer is underway and I'm already tired.  It might just be the heat.  Today it's 33 degrees Celsius.  Thankful the pool is warm as I've been swimming a bit.  I'm not complaining that's for sure because we get enough rain and cold in the winter so this is awesome weather we are having right now.

My favourite fruit is in season right now and we are enjoying an abundance of "raspberries". Yum.  I have made raspberry cheesecake...raspberry viniagrette...raspberries and cream...just plain raspberries...raspberry shortcake...you get the picture.  Plus, I put 40 pounds in the freezer to make raspberry jelly later. I am not doing much this summer...I am still working on this "tennis elbow" thing and so any amount of work causes pain...and trying to use my left hand for everything is also difficult....so I am taking it easy this summer and just sitting around doing only what absolutely needs doing...and with five kids still home, that's busy enough.

We took the kids to the ocean and for ice-cream...and now Anika says she has touched her feet in the North Atlantic Ocan and now the Pacific Ocean..it was exciting, not to mention we all had our favourite ice-cream...mine is "tiger"...delicious!  The tide was out so we were able to walk quite a ways out.

Dh and I also made our first "beer can chicken"...or others call it, "beer up the butt" chicken.  It turned out amazing.  Next time though we will leave in on the barbeque 1/2 hour longer..but the flavour was unbelievable.  I went on the internet to look up recipes and there were hundreds of them, so dh and I just came up with our own rub and everyone loved it.

The boys got the go-kart out from the garage and pumped up the tires washed it and even got it started on their own.  Last year they couldn't really touch the peddles very easily but this year well.....my boys are growing up too quickly for "this mama"....but it was fun watching them tearing around the grapes and through the long grass.  They had a blast....so did dad!!!!

We are reading Daniel Boone right now...and because the weather was so great today we took our blankets and I read to the kids under the big tree in the back yard...I sat in our wonderful Muskoka chair and the kids laid on the blankets...it was fun.  I finally got a sore throat from reading so we all laid on the blankets while the kids  talked about all kinds of things...we all told story after story until I got a whopper of a headache...so Anika decided to massage my head so I wouldn't go inside...she loves listening to my stories...she even braided my hair.  It was a fun afternoon.  Of course every once in a while the wind would blow a certain way and it was "chicken poo smell" everywhere....then thankfully the wind would shift and it was beautiful trees and grass smell.  Oh the joys of living in the country.  God is so good!

Our cherry tree is producing lots of fruit this year...but unfortunately the birds are getting more than we are. Any ideas how to keep the crows away? 

Well, that about sums up our past week....looking forward to the weekend. 

Happy "4th of July to all my US blogging friends

and

Happy Birthday to my sister!

 

If you are in the need of some make up or jewelry go to youravon.com/dschulz that's my mom's Avon website. I'm not trying to be some business freak but I'm trying to help my mom sell Avon.  So if you need anything go to the website I gave you  hope you look at it.

My best friend know as lollypop on homestead she lives right behind me and I live behind her.  Right now she is in Washington visiting family, she will be back either at the end of july or middle of august.  Now that I told you about her do you have any close friends?  Well bye tell your friends

Howdy y'all I am a country girl I live in a town of 1,000  people I have chickens in my back yard.  I am  40 miles from the closest city which has 20,000 people.(Trust me there are cities with more)Where do you live? Are you a country lover or is city life your thing.  Well now that you know my style(country lover) I hope you keep reading.