A Work In Progress

A Work In Progress

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Taking a bloggy break

Posted on Friday, July 25, 2008 at 12:03 AM by Kitty - 1 Comments - Post Comment - Link

This blog has been a real God send to me. I love each and every one of you that visit me. I feel as though we are good friends that I can share anything with. With that said, I must confess that I am having some personal issues in my life right now. My mom is haivng her good days and her bad days. I have hospice coming in several days each week now. All the court issues have been taken care of as of last Wednesday, so now I have full power of attorney over her, I guess you can say, Life. Now I have to make some serious decissions that I really don't think I'm ready to make. And to top all of this off, my dh tells me that he is no longer happy and is thinking along the lines of divorce.

I try to post uplifting, helpful, and homesteady post, but I can honestly say that I feel as though I am a fake here. I don't like being the type to bring others down with my problems so I tend to keep alot locked inside, which isn't really good for your health. This is probably why a couple of weeks ago when I went for my 6 month checkup the doctor had to put me on high blood presure meds. Hummm wonder why, LOL.

So now that you know I'm a big faker, and that my life is not as shiney as I tend to lead on, I feel I need to take a little break for now. I'm not sure how long, I may post more often than I think I will right now, but just in case, I wanted to let you all know that if I don't blog for a while, it's cuz I'm off dealin with "Life". Love you all........God bless

Thankful Thursday

Posted on Thursday, July 24, 2008 at 06:27 by AMY JO - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

I have seen a few other blogs today entitled Thanksful Thursday, so I thought I would join in and do one of my own as well!!!

1. I am thankful for a forgiving and loving Heavenly Father who saved me from my sins and continues to guide and direct me in the direction that my life should go. I look back in the index of memories in my mind, and remember rough times, and even rougher times I have experienced and endured. I could have never made it without God. I remember talking to mom after dad died, and she said, how do people do this without God??? I said I have no idea, and I don't want to find out either!!!

2. I am thankful for my hubby, that God hand-picked especially for me. I was married before, and I THOUGHT I was in love, and I thought he was "the one". What I found out later was, I was walking on my own understanding, and I had made one of the biggest mistakes in my life. My current hubby is nothing like that! He is aa Godly man, and he uplifts me, encourages me, loves me unconditionally, and is the best friend and father to our son, I could ever ask for. Now, that doesn't mean we don't have our diffrences once in a while. Some think if your marriage isn't PERFECT all the time, you should get out. NO! I have made a commitment to God, and to this man. And I made a commitment to our little Noah when he was born as well! Sure, we have rough times, and we fight, but not near as often as we did that first year. (Am I the only one who had a rough first year of marriage getting used to their spouse and the new family, etc.??)

3. I am so thankful for our 2 year old Noah. He was an unexpected blessing, and I didn't know exactly how excited I was when I became pregnant with him only 2 months after our wedding date, but I found out later, he was a blessing, we not expecting, but a blessing all the same. You see, God knew that I needed this baby!!!! He knew that this unborn baby was about to change our family, and I mean our whole family, for the best. My mom was dealing with stomache cancer, and was given 4 weeks to live at the most, when I was about 7 weeks from delivering!! She was tired and ready to give up!! She didn't want to endure the pain of cancer and the hospitals and treatments, chemo, etc. But that little unborn baby gave her the reason to fight, and fight she did! She died the next year after going into remission for months. My father died when Noah was 6 months old, and mom died when he was 11 months old. But you see, everyone was brought closer than ever during that time, to help out with mom and dad. Relationships with us 3 kids towards each other and mom and dad were all miraculously healed. Now that they are gone, us 3 kids are trying our hardest to still be close! This little boy has brought so much sunshine and smiles and giggles into my life since he was born. After mom died, I didn't have much reason to get up and go on with life. I was sad and depressed and grieving. But Noah, he was my reason for getting up every day!!!! He is a miracle baby!

4. I am so thankful for a wonderful home!! It isn't expensive, and it isn't huge, but it is a wonderul home filled with love, joy, and laughter! We bought it right after Noah was born, to move here closer to mom and dad. It needs some work (I hate the kitchen cabinets and sink, so we want to replace it when we have the money), and it is old, and has alot of querks, but it is ours!!! LOL We no longer have to ask the landlord if we can paint, or lay carpet. We just save up for a bit and do it!!! We have had fun redoing this and that, sewing curtains here and there, etc.

5. I am thankful for not new cars, but cars that run and run well. Cars that can get us to and fro without much problem. (OK, I wish Matthew's car which gets Great gas mileage had air conditioning, but it could be worse) And I am thankful that they are paid for!!! Praise the Lord!!! They are comfortable and hold the family and lots of groceries when we go for our monthly or bi-monthly grocery runs.

6. I am thankful for AIR CONDITIONING!! Now I have heard on several blogs lately how the weather in your area is nice and breezy and you have turned off the air conditioning, but not here. Not only is it hot, but now we are having lots of rain and some flooding in certain areas, which means more humidity!!! I know some of you have no air conditioning and would never have it if you could, but I am not one of you. I am a pansy when it comes to the heat, and it doesn't take much for me to get overheated and sick. So thank you Lord for air conditioning (and that it works great as well!)

7. Thank you for my stocked pantry!! I am so thankful we used part of our tax incentive checkc this year to get a freezer, a whole hog and lots of other veggies and needed items. I could estimate right now, that if we didn't go to the store for anything, we could probably survive for at least a month (except for buying bread, milk and eggs) We love fresh produce, but we have lots of canned and frozen, so we could get by if needed.

8. I am thankful for our church family. This probably should be higher up on the list! We absolutely love our church and our church family. Matthew and I met at this church, and have been attending there ever since. We have a great pastor and some wonderful encouraging Christians friends there as well that we see often, inside and outside church. I haven't been going to Bible Study with them as often as I would like since gas is so expensive now, and I miss them when I can't go. (Matthew is able to go since he is already in the same town as the Bible Study because he works there)

9. I am thankful for friends and family who live close. One friend in particular has been there in the middle of the night even when I needed her. I called her late at night, after midnight I believe one evening crying and saying, they don't know if mom will make it through the night, and we are going to the city to see her (in the hopspital, 2 hours away), and I need a babysitter. She threw some clothes on and was at my doorstep in 10 minutes as we were dashing out the door to hold mom's hand that evening.

10. I am thankful for freedom. We live in the United States. We have the freedom to worship as we please. We have the liberty to vote for our leaders, and we have a voice here. We dont' have to ask the government what we can name our child (isn't that Norway???), or if we can keep our baby girl (China). No, in the United States, we don't have to do any of those things. USA is not perfect by any means!!!! And sometimes I wish I lived somewhere much more glorious! LOL But we aren't scared to be killed in our beds by the malitia here, and we can call each other Christian without being hung or shot!!

All in all, I am thankful for many many more things. These are just a few.

A Very Busy Week ! !

Posted on Thursday, July 24, 2008 at 4:29 PM by Amanda - 1 Comments - Post Comment - Link

We are almost through our first week of school. Its been so very busy. And we all cant wait for Saturday. We still havent yet set a complete schedule for the day but I feel we will this next week. As for school lessons, everything is going really well. Everyone loves the curriculum.

This week my hubby has also been home because of his back. This has added to the busy schedule. We all know how ailing hubbys can be. He is somewhat better and went back to work today. His job does require some lifting and Im hoping they wont make him for a few more days.

This afternoon I am cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. Im way behind on things around the house. We have started cleaning for 30 min before school begins each day and this has helped tremendously.

My menu planning has also been lacking. This weekend Im going to be working on this to help with time management. Isnt it strange how one can be on top of everything one moment and everything is in chaos the next. lol.

Here is today's menu plan

Breakfast: Toast

Lunch: Ham and Mac & Cheese

Dinner: Taco Rice

Sheppard Boy

Posted on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 03:17 by Beth Joy - 1 Comments - Post Comment - Link

I Was Thinking About this today if God Could Turn a Sheppard Boy into a Warior and Then soon after that a
King cant He use Us? I was also thinking that We need to pray for our Country God punished all Isreal some times when only some of them did wrong and us as a Country need to pray that God will forgive our county! We need to as it says in Ephesians 6-21 Finaly my brothren, be strong in the Lord and in the Power of his might put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand the wiles of evil. These are just some thoughts that I was having and wanted to share with you! I Hope you will read this and be blessed!
Love Your Friend,
Beth~Joy

Mountains, Mammograms and More

Posted on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 03:51 by Schatzi - 4 Comments - Post Comment - Link

Today was a wonderful day as I really didn't have much to do....finished some laundry and got the kids to dust the living room and TV room...I got some extra vacuuming done. Babysat Audrey's daughter while she was called back for another Mammogram...I was also called back but not until August 1st.

Audrey came back for dinner. Her husband and son are on their way to Africa to climb Kilimanjaro, so we are taking care of Audrey and dd.

I tried a new recipe for Indian Butter chicken. It was unbelievable...managed to get a photo before it was all gone...here is Ethan's bowl.

Then we all went over to Karisa and JJ's new home for coffee and dessert. They have the cutest place. Karisa made an awesome brownie and the kids had ice-cream with chocolate sauce also. They are settling quite well into married life. JJ has been away quite a bit as he is a lineman for Hydro and quite busy, so their time together is precious....Part of our wedding gift to them was a new computer system. Dh went their to also set it up so they could pay their bills online and have their email back.

Kids are sleeping in the tent again...they are having lots of fun with that. Here is a picture I just had to post. The boys had their turn making dinner on Tuesday and they made Spaghetti. When I saw this I couldn't resist taking a picture.

HS event

Posted on 2008-Jul-23 at 03:50 by Dana - 1 Comments - Post Comment - Link

A fellow HSler hosted a 'playdate'. WHAT HOOT! Those ladies are a riot! Joey was a bit of a pill, but I guess he got over it. I don't know if he's missing Mat or what.

And next week (when I host), one lady is bringing me kombucha 'scobies'?? The starts!LOL I learned of a few other things as well--where I can get raw milk (to make kefir), different butchers, etc. And another lady is bringing me more goat's milk soap! She also makes and sells goat milk cheese and makes some dip that she's supposed to bring next week. The ladies who had it were raving about it!

Probably the funniest thing was that there were 2 ladies there and they both looked familiar. I'm pretty sure that one is DH's customer. I met her at one other HS event. I think we might have scared her off this time tho.........LOL I heard the other one mention horseman's name, but it wasn't clicking so I figured that I had just seen her there at one time or another. So she asks me if I am 'the one'. I said, I don't know, but you mentioned horseman's name and I live on his road so I"m going to guess yes!ROTFL! Turns out she's the lady who stopped by in the dead of winter once and Dh had the quilt nailed to the front door and I had to talk to her while I was stooped over thru the screen in my bedroom window (the porch runs along there)!ROTFL! So we had a lovely chuckle about how DH winterizes the inside of hte house......:)

Praise Reports and a day in the Wood family

Posted on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 01:01 by Mrs. Joseph Wood - 3 Comments - Post Comment - Link

The Wood family would like to share some answers to prayer. We have had so many of you continue to pray for us and we thank you again for your love toward us. We have decided to boast on His good work and share continued needs of prayer.

Praise Reports:
We had asked for prayer regarding the sale of two trailers that we used to move from CA to KS. God answered those prayers quickly and both trailers are now sold.

We asked for Joy and Peace on our home as we went through this time of transition. This move has to be one of the most peaceful and joyful experiences for each member of the family that we have ever experienced.

We had prayed that He would allow us to be a blessing to our neighbors-we are seeing this prayer answered daily! They too are a blessing to us!

We asked for His grace and mercy as we left my parents and oldest son in CA we also asked for patience as we wait His timing to bring us together again. It has been the Lord that has comforted our hearts- we trust Him to work out all the details for our good and His Glory! By His strength we have been able to do what would have been impossible in our own strength.

We had asked for prayer for Joe's new work. God has given him favor and is blessing the works of his hands! We thank the Father for going before us and making a way!

Prayer requests:
For continued vision to see how He sees and do as He would have us to do.

For those lives we are touching. That we would be a testimony of His love and the enemy would have no room to divide the body of Christ.

For the home in CA to sell.

Okay, so now to answer all those that have been asking, "What exactly do you do with your day now that you live in the city?" Well, let's see... I do believe our days are much quieter and yet so much heart work is being accomplished. We are spending a great deal of time reading, studying, and writing out the Scriptures. I would guess several hours a day but I haven't kept track. It has been more of a living activity and not a task.

We have been taking time to get to know our neighbors as well as the area we are living. Monday the children and I took a bus ride with our neighbors to the state capital. They had a wonderful time and scrap booked about it later that night.

We enjoy the Farmers Market and meet others with the same goals in nutrition as our family. The Lord went before us and gave us favor with a local bee keeper who wants to meet Timothy and offers scholarships to children to start their own bee keeping. What an answer to prayer that was for him!! He loves bees! We also met a blueberry farmer and will be going out and picking blueberries later this week or next. We were able to stop and pray with the owner of the farm that has cancer. I praise God for allowing our paths to cross so we can be prayer warriors on their behalf!

The home is peaceful and quiet. The Lord has "made us to lay down in green pastures." Our days still begin early and end when the sun goes down. We stay on top of all the house work so that our home is clean and orderly. This enables us to minister to others without restrictions or the burden of clutter. The boys find gardening and yard work to do. They cleared a sidewalk area that had overgrown with grass. The neighbors said it hasn't been done for at least the last six years. They were delighted to see the sidewalk again (It is a brick sidewalk that weeds can easily grow up between). Josiah does several of the neighbors yards for money- He is enjoying this opportunity. Elisha continues his art work and is using it to minister to others. Some of the pictures the Lord has given him have been amazing! I will have to share them with you soon. Bekah, Beth and Sarah delight in ministering to the little children here in our area. They consider it a reward to hold the baby across the street and discuss who gets to hold her first when they see them coming to visit.

There are so many other things I could share- glimpses of His grace in our lives. However, I had sent the toddlers up to my room ahead of me so I could write you all a quick note- it is nap time here in the Wood Home. I'm afraid if I don't get laid down with the toddlers quickly I'm going to miss this sweet time with them. I just love to cuddle with the little ones while they sleep don't you?!

Until our next chat dear friends, may all His blessings abound in your heart and home all for His Glory!
With much love,
Mrs. Joseph Wood

Pictures of the sundress I recently finished for my neice

Posted on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 12:13 by AMY JO - 2 Comments - Post Comment - Link

My sister in law, Melanie recently found out that I sew. And she told me she would LOVE a sundress for her daughter Mindi made out of the smocked material that Wal-Mart currently has. No problem I thought, and of course I would do just about anything for my 4 year old neice. So off to Wal-Mart I went, and bought a yard this material. It didn't take much at all to make her sundress because she is so little. I have more than half a yard left over!!! I was thinking, it might be cute to use it in some other way in her new bedroom at their new house, since it is going to be decorated in Disney princesses! I was thinking, wouldn't this be cute, as a trash can skirt??? Or, I think she has a little makeup table, and we could velcro this on as a little skirt for it!!! How cute would that be???

Here is a close up of the fabric. So adorable!!!

And here is Mindi, being shy while modeling her new dress:

And here is Mindi, NOT being shy while modeling. Isn't she a cutie though???

You can't see it well in these pictures, but the little white sandals she is wearing, are white, and have 3 of the disney princesses on the top of them. So she already has MATCHING SHOES!!! How sweet is that??? Both Mindi and her mom were so excited about this simple little dress. It would have only taken me 5 minutes to make, if my needle hadn't kept coming unthreaded, so I can estimate, it took me 7 minutes instead. LOL

Daddy bought us a Water Park Pool!!! (Pictures)

Posted on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 11:51 by AMY JO - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

Recently, on a hot summery day, daddy took his son out to run some errands around town. And when they came back, daddy had bought his little guy the cutest little water park pool you ever did see!!! It was time for Noah's nap, so while he slept, Mom and Dad put together the pool and set it up in the backyard. When Noah woke up, we put on his trunks and boy did he have fun getting wet!!! Here are some pictures:

The water park pool can be attached to a hose, and it will spray water!!! So Noah got wet coming down the slide!!!

And here he is learning to toss the rings!!! Isn't he a little hottie???

That's all for now, thanks for looking at our little pride and joy!!!! He is such a blessing to us!!!

Pictures of our Two Year Old Making Biscuits

Posted on Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 11:36 by AMY JO - 2 Comments - Post Comment - Link

Here are some pictures I just found on the computer the other day. LOL I had forgotten all about these. They were taken last winter sometime, but they were so cute, I just had to share. LOL Noah, was helping daddy make homemade biscuits and gravy (one of hubby's specialties, so I let him cook it!!!), and he was REALLY getting into it!!! LOL See for yourself:

And another:

Making all those biscuits makes you thirsty!!!!

Thanks for looking!!!

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About Me

I am a mother of three. I desire to grow closer with the Lord and raise children who love and honor Him. Knowing I am a work in progress, I have decided to start this blog to keep in touch with family and friend from a far and perhaps meet some new ones who can help me in this journey of life.