Happy Birthday America! - 12:04, Saturday, July 4, 2009

  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

Fourth of July Plans & Menu - 06:23, Friday, July 3, 2009

                              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

Passover - 01:53, Tuesday, March 24, 2009

 Do any of you celebrate Passover? I know it's a  traditional Jewish holiday, but our family so enjoys celebrating this tradition. I love the symbolism of the meal..... and how it points to the "Lamb" of God whose blood was shed for us.  

  We have been celebrating Passover for years now, and I have always wanted to find a sedar plate to use.  I found this one today from www.dayspring.com   Isn't it lovely? 

 They have a whole line of Messianic Passover products. Very lovely.  This year Passover falls on April 9th, a few days before Easter. I am considering making the Passover meal as part of our Easter meal....that is include the sedar into the Easter meal.

  It's hard to believe Easter will be here in a few short weeks. Time is flying by.  We enjoy special traditions at this time of year. What about you? Do you have any special traditions your family incorporates during the Easter season?

gloria

I love Valentine's Day - 05:53, Tuesday, February 10, 2009

We love Valentine's Day around here. It is one of our favorite holidays ( it's really not a "holi"-day, but you know what I mean) .  I love all the focus on "love" and I love the color red! I love the chocolates and heart shaped cookies....... I love all the mushy cards my kids make for me with their names smeared on with colorful markers. I love the flowers and the candy and well I just love Valentine's day!

Ok, now that you all know I am a "romantic" at heart....... :)

One of the things we love to do is make valentines. This year I purchased some cute store bought care bear kind and Hello Kitty kind.  The older kids made their own. I thought it would be fun for the younger ones to have some store bought ones and they were very excited!

We spent the afternoon making valentines for our church's valentine's party, and also made a whole bunch to take to the nursing home to give to the residents there. All the kids from church are going on thursday night to give these out and then heading to the church for a valentine's party.  I hope the cards will bless the hearts of these elderly people. Heaven's knows they need some cheer in their lives as so many are there with precious few visits from loved ones.

I have some crafts to bring for our Valentine's party for the kids to do and we'll be bringing some cookies and cupcakes to share. The kids are very excited and can't wait.

My son's 16th bday falls on the day after Valentine's , so I need to plan for that too. He turns 16 and is very excited about getting his driver's liscense. :)  He needs some more hours practicing at night, so he will have to wait a little to take his exam.  He's been doing great so far. It's not easy driving my huge extended van or dad's big 4 x 4 truck.  I am imagining how he'll do parallel parking...... hmmm.....something else we need to work on with him. :)

Well I am off to get my grocery shopping done for the week.

Hope you all enjoy a lovely week full of love ~

~ gloria ~

Our New Year's Celebration - 08:12, Friday, January 2, 2009

    It's hard to believe another year has begun! It feels like just yesterday we were welcoming in 2008 and here we are beginning 2009!  Where has time flown?  I remember when I was a young child it seemed like time passed so slowly....... I remember thinking it would be "forever" before my birthday or Christmas....... and now I find myself saying " wow, here it is again!"  Know what I mean?

   Well we enjoyed a wonderful New Year's Eve celebration.  Nothing fancy, just family, but none the less very fun! My sister sent us a huge package full of new games and it arrived on New Year's Eve!! Perfect timing!  She is such a wonderful sister - she is very thoughtful and always sends the kids little cards and games, etc. I am blessed.   We stayed up way too late...... ( I think I crawled into bed at 3 am!) and had fun playing all the new games, listening to music, dancing the conga and eating! 

   Here are some snapshots of our fun evening........ this was taken right after our big huge box arrived! The kids were so excited!  Look at all the fun fun games Auntie Teri sent!!

   We decorated with streamers, party hats, and some noise makers. :) 

Some yummy snacks.........we had some sparkling cider to drink and toast with when 12 AM arrived!

Playing cards........Jacob, Rebekah, Samuel & Paul.....

Playing chines checkers.......rebekah, paul, rachel & jacob.......... haven't played chinese checkers in years!

 The twins playing checkers........

 Peter & Hannah playing  "Connect Four"........

We have a tradition that on New Year's Eve the kids can eat the gingerbread houses we made earlier in the Christmas season........ it's something they really look forward to. :)

Happy dancing kids..........

                                              Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!

Something new we did this year, was we made a big list of all the things we were thankful for this past  year........ here are some things that were shared :

Paul :  "I am thankful we don't have to pay the entrance fee to get to heaven -- Jesus did that for us because the price was too high for us to pay. "   * Amen to that, Paul!  Jesus did pay the complete price for eternal life with God! *

Rebekah:  "Our new wood stove that provides such warm heat!"  *  Rebekah loves to stand behind the crook of the stove......there a spot just behind the stove on the tile hearth that she really really enjoys.... we are really enjoying the radiant warmth of wood heat!*

Rachel:  " Freedom to worship"...... * Rachel is so right! There are 54 nations that Christianity is "illegal" and bibles are not allowed to be distrubuted or read.  To read more about our brothers & sisters  in Christ,  who are being persecuted for Jesus go to www.persecutedchurch.org

Jacob:  " Homeschooling"........* Wow! I was suprised when Jacob shared that! Sometimes he complains about the reports I make him type up and all the math he has been doing lately......but I am happy to know he is thankful! Homeschooling is a way of life is so many ways, and our family will be beginning it's 11th year of home education!

Peter:  " Water, food & a roof over our head"...... * Amen, Peter!  Children always remember the simple blessings that many times we adults take for granted.  So many have no access to clean water or food. He knows that first hand from the expierences we tell him of his fellow Guatemalans who live in such dire circumstances. We are thankful for our food our clothing and a warm house to live in. Especially after expierencing a furnace break down in the cold winter!*

Mom:  " For the blessing of being able to pray & worship and also for trials"........ * This year has brought us close to the Lord in prayer and we have learned how to worship the Lord.  I am also thankful for the many trials we were blessed to pass thru this year.  They draw us ever so close to Jesus. *

                                    ___________________________________

I know for many of us this time of year is a time to reflect on the past year and to think ahead and make goals and resolutions for the coming New Year. Our family is no different.  We have our "hopes" and "dreams" and "prayers to be asked and answered" for 2009. 

My heart's desire is to see my family wear out our bibles this coming year........ from continuous use........ for truly the Word of God is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path........... I also hope that our voices will be hoarse from all the praising and singing we are going to raise up to our great & everlasting God this year!  I want to wear out our hands in serving the poor, the naked, the afflicted, those in prison and the fatherless and lonley.........for truly "when we do it to the least of these, we have done it unto Him"......

Oh I have so many hopes and dreams for this coming year!  There are many loved ones in my life who do not know our precious Lord and  my great hope is that their hearts will be open and their eyes opened to receive the gift of salvation thru Jesus.  He is the way the truth and light and NO man cometh to the father but by Him!  ( John 14:6)

I hope that each one of you enjoy a blessed year, a year full of JOY in the Lord and a year full of blessings -- remember, trials and challenges are blessings "in disguise" ...... embrace each one of them! They are an opporotunity to draw close unto our Lord and really seek His face!

I also look forward to another year of blogging here at HSB! This will be my 3rd year blogging here and I can honestly say this is a wonderful community! Each one of you are a blessing to me! Thanks also to my wonderful readers, who post publically and privately to me.  Thank you for stopping by and sharing your thoughts here with me.  You bless me in so many ways!

May God bless you &  yours in 2009!

~ gloria ~

Old Fashioned Christmas Caroling - 03:39, Wednesday, December 24, 2008

        " Rejoice Evermore"   -  1 Thessalonians 4:14

After our  "more than challenging" week we have been thru...... I had a good cry on Jesus' shoulder..... isn't He wonderful? He is always available to us 24/7!!!  After placing all my cares and woes at HIS feet, I realized that the enemy was fast at work trying to "steal" our JOY in the Lord -- especially at this time of year when we are celebrating the birth of our beloved Jesus!  When I realized that I became resolved to not allow the enemy to steal the JOY of Jesus or to steal away our joy in this most joyous of seasons! So last night we prayed, bound the enemy ( yes you can bind him in Jesus name!) and bundled up to go Christmas caroling and deliver some fruit baskets to our dear friends.  Oh what JOY!  I was so overcome with emotion and just JOY as we sang :  Joy to the World,  Angels from the Realm of Glory,  O Come all Ye Faithful & We wish you a merry Christmas!  We have been practicing for weeks now and the kids really sang out last night!  We stopped at the home of the wonderful pastor and his wife who head up the prison ministry that I am involved with each week. Oh what a wonderful visit we had! It did us all a world of good! They had us come in and served cocoa and cookies and we just had a wonderful time of fellowship!  Before we left, Pastor Mark prayed over us and it was just a precious expierence!  We came out feeling so buyoed!

Today we have been busy baking delicious cookies for our Church's christmas service and pageant...... the kids are all excited!  Our church host's our town's anual Christmas Eve service and we have been busy baking cookies to serve afterwards! We are just about done. :)  Ginersnaps, chocolate sugar cookies and jam thumbprints..... mmmm..........

We are looking forward to our Christmas service tonight -- time to sing and praise our Lord for HIS humble birth, His amazing life, His painful death and His glorious resurrection!

Friends, I realized this week that the enemy was out with an attack to steal our family's JOY ..... when the Lord showed me that we prayed, bound the enemy and chose, purposefully *chose* to expierence JOY in Jesus -- for HE IS THE REASON for this season!

I want to thank you sweet friends who publically and privately have prayed for us during this challenging week! Thank you dear ones! You are all precious to me! Your love, faith and prayers mean the world!

I pray that each of you will enjoy a blessed and JOY filled Christmas -- remembering my dear readers that we are celebrating the birth of our King and Lord!

Praising His name!

~ gloria ~

Christmas Cards - 12:32, Thursday, December 18, 2008

We awoke to some more snow this morning and some beautiful blue skies..... so I decided to take some photos of the children for our Christmas cards..........

Here are my girls......

And my boys..........

And here is all of the "gang".......

And the one we actually chose for our card........

The snow we got was so powdery and not the usual "wet stuff" we get here in Missouri, that I gave the kids the day  "off" from school and let them play outside.  Hannah went to a friend's from church and made & decorated Christmas cookies.  I was able to get the photos printed off and notes written inside. I decided to individually write a personal note in each Christmas card this year.  I really miss this tradition. Doesn't seem like many write personal notes in their cards anymore -- the trend seems to be the " Christmas letter" instead of individual cards. When I was a girl growing up,  my mom would put up in the entry way a felt banner where we would hang the Christmas cards on display.  We would get scads and scads of cards...... this was before computers and printers and digital cameras. No one would put photos on their cards and such.  It was always sooo exciting to go to the mail and get a christmas card! I would race home and show mom and we would read the inscribed message and personal note.  After the holiday season was over, mom would let me take down those cards and I could cut out the pictures on them and make collages and art work. It was something I really enjoyed doing.

It seems we have "lost" the art of Christmas cards. It's gone out of "style" in many ways.  So this year I decided to get forgo the  generic Christmas letter and write a personal inscription to each family.  I used a lovely gold pen and took time to write it out carefuly and neatly. No computer print out this time.

The kids enjoyed a full day.... and we had a late dinner.... so I am off to bed..... but wanted to share these photos with you my readers here on my blog. :)

Goodnight,

~ gloria ~

Holiday Eggnog - 11:14, Saturday, December 13, 2008

I love eggnog and so does my family!! We have made this recipe for years and it is sooo good! No raw eggs or alcohol needed! Yummy!!

                                                 Holiday Eggnog

8 cups whole milk ( must be whole milk)

1 3 oz package vanilla instant pudding mix

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp rum extract

1/2 tsp nutmeg

In a large bowl mix pudding with 1 cup milk.  Place in fridge. When pudding is set add all other ingredients and mix well.  Chill at least 3 hours.  Serve with nutmeg & whipped cream!

Enjoy!

~ gloria ~

Christmas Nativity Cookie Cutters - 02:32, Friday, December 12, 2008

I just found this adorable Nativity Cookie Cutter set on www.amazon.com for $7.95!!!!

We have a set already we purchased years back from www.zondervan.com but I much prefer the metal cookie cutters vs. the plastic ones!

I am definately going to be ordering this one!

~ gloria ~

Enjoying - 01:56, Friday, December 12, 2008

We enjoy lots of fun holiday traditions & one of  them is baking goodies to eat and share!! :) 

Each year we bake up lots of gingerbread men for the kids to decorate.  They so enjoy this activity!

The girls decorated a bunch yesterday to bring and share to our church's Christmas pageant practice. They had so much fun!  Sarah Grace, below is really enjoying herself! She recently lost one of her front teeth and is about to lose another front tooth ....... what a smile! :)

We hope you & yours are enjoying a JOYous season!

~ gloria ~

The Nativity - 11:43, Friday, December 12, 2008

I think my favorite Christmas decoration of all is the Nativity.  Growing up, my grandmother has given my mother one that was from her homeland ( Spain) and it was so beautiful... I remember how excited I would be to get it out with my mother and "ooh and ahh" over the figurines..... each Christmas eve, my mother would put out the baby Jesus after we were all in bed...... precious memories.

When I got married we purchased a simple inexpensive set from Costco. Thru the years I have collected various nativities.

I have always always wanted an olive wood set ... something that has always been a bit out of reach on a carpenter's salary..... well  this year my Lord gave me my "heart's desire"..... our pastor & his wife, were moving and they lovingly gave me this nativity set they had purchased a few years earlier on one of their trips to Israel.  They had *no* idea that I had always wanted an olive wood set.   When they approached me about this gift, they said they had prayed about it and God told them to give it to me. Isn't the Lord precious?

It is made of olive wood and is oh so beautiful!  Our beloved pastor and his wife recently moved back to their homestate of California, and left this to us. It is now a wonderful reminder of God's goodness ( to grant my heart's desire) and a loving memory of Jim & Nanci.  ( our pastor & his wife)

Isnt' the Lord so wonderful?

He brings faithful loving friends in our lives for a season at times..... but they leave on our hearts the imprints of their faith & testimony of the Lord........ this is what I am reminded of each time I look at this nativity.....

Christmas is many things for many people now a days..... but for me & my house it is all about Jesus.

He is everything.

Praising Him,

~ gloria ~

Trimming the Tree - 01:24, Monday, December 8, 2008

Last night the family enjoyed trimming the tree..... although we found out early this morning the tree had fallen down and we lost some of our most treasured ornaments! I was so sad I cried. ( these are ones that can not be replaced).  I am grateful we didn't lose more than we did, so trying to look on the bright side of things.

Sarah & Dad trimming the tree......

Rebekah is enjoying herself......

Paul, hanging his ornaments...

Sarah is enjoying the Christmas train ...........

The "finished" tree... which ended up falling down in the middle of the night! I awoke to a mess in the living room , but fortunately only a few ornaments were shattered. It could have been much worse.

Next time we'll make sure to tie the tree to the wall -- just in case!

 ~ gloria ~

O Christmas Tree - 05:32, Sunday, December 7, 2008

   Yesterday morning we awoke to a beautiful crisp and cold sunny day.... we enjoyed a lovely breakfast buffet at Golden Corral.  The kids ate and ate and ate........ and then  we headed  ( or shall I say "rolled" ) out to the Christmas Tree farm to pick out our tree......

   All the children are encouraged to search for "their pick" for a tree and then mom & dad go and vote on the trees and pick out the best one of the bunch..... this year it was a simple choice as everyone pretty much agreed on the same tree!

 Here are some snapshots from the day ......

  Our lovely daughter, hannah........ 13 yrs and trying to keep warm! The northwind was blowing and it was coooooooold!

Samuel, 10 yrs, & Peter running around looking for just the "right tree".....

Dad, with Sarah Grace on his shoulders and John......I think they paired up to look for a tree......

Rachel, age 11, is enjoying herself....... take a look at the size of that candy cane! Who is that on her back?

Miss Naomi Rose ( age 4) is on her big sis's back.......

Rebekah standing next to her "pick" for a tree...... this is the tree we actually all ended up agreeing was "the" tree for this year! Good job, rebekah! She too was enjoying her giant sized candy cane!

At this point my camera's batteries died......... I wanted to take a few more photos of the "men" cutting down the tree.... but alas not this year......

We'll be bringing the tree inside to decorate tonight. My kid's are beyond excited. 

May each one of you enjoy the beauties of this joyous season,

~ gloria ~

Christmas Music - 12:21, Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Over the past 16 yrs of wedded  life, I have tried to simplify our Christmas traditions. It has been a journey the Lord has led us on.   Years ago, we purposed in our hearts to place CHRIST in Christmas first and foremost. We avoid much of the "fluff" of the season that would easily wear down and exhaust a mother of many children.  

One of our beloved Christmas traditions that we do enjoy is the singing of Christmas carols. Each day in the month of December we begin our devotions with the singing of a Christmas carol.  For years we have been using Ace Collin's books on the Stories behind the Carols to help learn more about the history of the carols. These are a wonderful resource for any family who wishes to know more about the composers and how the carol came to be.  This book can be purchased thru www.zondervan.com

Each year I choose a new carol to add to our group of carols we sing while we go caroling.

This year's pick is Angels From the Realms of Glory.  It is a beautiful, old carol.  My favorite part is the chorus:

" Come and Worship, Come & worship, Come & worship Christ the Newborn King!"

This Sunday we will begin our caroling.  We carol each Sunday in the month of December. It's something we really look forward to!  It brings such joy and it costs absolutely no money, does not create stress, and most of all it truly brings praise & glory to Christ the King!

Our family loves to sing the carols ~~ I hope you are all able to enjoy the lovely music of this season.......

Praising Him!

gloria