Getting Ready for Easter - Part 2

*I wrote this yesterday but, for some reason, the computer wouldn't let me post the pictures.... I'm still puzzled by that but its working now so here it is.

While the earlier post happened a few days ago this one happened just yesterday. Here are a few more pictures of what's been taking place as we get ready for Easter. Not to mention having to make tomorrow's Cream Cheese Squares breakfast, the raspberry jello salad that's now in the fridge, more jello Easter eggs, two dozen homemade dinner rolls I made this afternoon, and the apple pie Monica and I made that is still cooling on the counter. The spiral ham is Matthew's responsibility but he won't do that until tomorrow.

Help from big brother and big sister is a must for a messy job like this one.

The kids each decorated two eggs of their own with Daddy and Jesse eating the 'damaged' ones=)Today Monica, Alana, and I were able to go to Rapid City and get a bit of shopping done...some last minute touches to get us ready for Easter Sunday. I've never been one to always get a new Easter dress or outfits for all the kids but between some good deals and good friends all the kids will be ready to look their best to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. I hope you all are able to also rejoice on the day that the stone was rolled away and death was swallowed up in victory!

Getting ready for Easter - Part 1

While we do explain to our kids the TRUE meaning of Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter we still enjoy the Easter egg side of it as well. We have a traditional egg hunt on Sunday just like I always did growing up. Mom hid chocolate eggs around the house and Chad and I would search to see who could find the most. Anyway, here at our house we are gearing up - I've already bought the eggs to hide and a tye-dye egg decorating kit for the kids to do. A few days ago we did jello eggs and they were a big hit. The eggs 'jello-ed' overnight and when breakfast was over the kids all had to sample one. So here they are sitting on the kitchen floor....(Zach was at work with Daddy again)

Monica was the only one 'talented' enough to put the whole egg in at one time=)

Logan shaggy before his haircut....(like that's the only wierd thing about this picture!)The tattoo on her hand isn't real....Jesse devoured his....and then tried to steal Monica's!

Balloons

Next week the Hot Springs town library turns 110. In honor of the birthday they have several special events going on in the next few days. Since the kids are on spring break right now and we don't have to worry about getting school done we had a free day today and decided to go in this morning and check out some of the happenings. Here are some pictures of what we found.

WARNING: This e-mail may contain a lot of pictures.

The big event this morning was the balloon lady.

She made a HUGE 'Mother Goose' that must have had at least a 10 foot wingspan. The kids were enthralled and asking lots of questions while she finished the goose and interacted with them. Logan and Alana happened to not only be the cutest kids there, but also were well behaved so they got quite a bit of attention=) Zachery watched most of the time as well while Monica saved the day (and the goose) by keeping Jesse entertained elsewhere=)

Here she is in a race with Logan blowing up balloons and helping Alana do it the easier way with a pump.

Despite what it may look like Zach had a pretty good time. He's actually quite handy at making balloon shapes, too. And see what I mean about Jesse - here he is 'unleashing' on the balloons.

There was a photographer there from the local paper taking pictures and writing down the kids names so they may very well see their shiny faces in print next week. And who could resist this?There was a story time after which the kids all helped walk the goose to the center of the library where it was lifted up into the rafters and hung where it will be on display for a week. Then, once the formalities where over, she sat down with all the kids who had come and made each one their own special balloon 'toy'.

I love having a break from school even if it means sitting at home and not doing anything very exciting - but today we not only had a break but a special treat as well.

A BIG day for Monica

Today Monica put an official end to her freshmen year of high school - ninth grade is over! Last year she decided she'd like to compact her 4 years of high school into 3 and since we home school I was able to lesson plan it and she put it into action. So, this weekend is spring break and when she starts back to school on Tuesday it will be as a sophomore! Monica is the teenager every parent dreams of having. Now, lest she read this and get a big head, she isn't perfect but Matthew and I are so pleased with her attitude, her choices, and her love for the Lord that she's just about as good as they come. I always wanted my daughter to become my friend just as I am with my Mom and it is neat to see that happening. Daddy and I love you!
PS - She got an A on all her finals!

New Hair-do's

This week has been one of lots of clipping and trimming and curling and cutting for our family. Logan was just plain old in desperate need of a hair cut while I only needed a trim. So off we went on Tuesday together and got our hair cut.

Monica wanted something a little more drastic so she got a perm - we're all waiting anxiously for the perm smell to go away. She's been told her hair will never curl a whole lot but it's a nice change for her just the same.

And last but not least - Jesse didn't get a haircut but, for a very short period of time, he also sported a new 'do'. Man, is Monica going to be in trouble when her father sees this=) I think it looks like a early American haircut...men wore ponytails then, right?

I just can't bring myself to cut it yet....

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Spring has sprung...or not?

Earlier this week I saw a thermometer in town say that it was 66 degrees, today it is low 30's and snowing. I wondered if we were over the winter yet but I guess you never know. Anyway, today Jesse is sick with the cold that has gone through most of us, and might be making it's way back around. It takes a long time to work it's way through all 7 of us and by that time, well....So I stayed home from church with my baby boy and he slept in for quite a long time. After Matthew took the other 4 in with him I took my morning nice and slow and even enjoyed a quick trip out into the white stuff. As I've said before, I love when the snow covers out typical brown South Dakota scenery so here's some of my pictures - hot off the press.

A couple of the tire swing....

and one of our house....(taken from far enough away that you can't see the pink chalk drawings left on the bay window by a certain pink-loving little girl!)

and finally yours truly...I told you I liked the snow!!!!!

Leaving a Mark....

As a result of our basement project we had some leftover cement and so we poured a little slab by one of our garage doors that often becomes a mud hole. The kids were wanting to leave their handprints on the floor downstairs but while Daddy said "No" to that (it could make it harder for the tile to stick) he said "Yes" to leaving their mark in the slab outside. It was cute and the kids felt pretty special leaving their mark.

The girls....

The boys....

The baby....

The results....

I couldn't help but think when writing this what kind of mark am I leaving in this life?

A New Project

Since moving into this house in November of 2005 we have done tons of work on it. The first and most major change was to completely gut the gross basement and rebuild everything down there. We put in two bedrooms with space left for a schoolroom at the bottom of the steps. In behind the stairs is basically dead space where we store things and where the furnace and water heater are....all that kind of stuff. There was some sort of water pump/drainage system in place that was absolutely retarded - water poured into a big plastic bin and then was pumped back out...supposedly. Well, a few months ago it malfunctioned and flooded the basement for the FIFTH time. That means lots of cleanup and pulling up carpets and setting up fans, etc., etc. The last time it happened I just about lost it and it moved from the 'someday we need to fix this list' to the very top of the 'fix now or wife will go crazy list'. All that to say that it has been replaced with a pump that is buried at floor level and we therefore have proper plumbing in our basement. So, our next idea was to build a bathroom down there. We have a master bath as well as another upstairs bathroom, but with 5 kids (4 of whom have rooms downstairs) and lots of company we could use another one. Anyway, we are in the early stages of the project and are doing it as time, or more accurately finances, allows. Monday morning we re-poured the basement floor which Matthew had pounded and broken up and the kids had hauled out by bucket loads. Thankfully we had help from a good friend and his work crew to bucket the cement back down the steps to that room. Thanks, Tod! So here is a picture and hopefully soon I'll take some more of the next phase! How blessed am I to have a husband that, as Red Green would say, is both handsome and handy=)

The Passover

I'll just say right from the beginning that I've tried to think of a few things to cut out to shorten this post but I just plain old don't want to so it might be lengthy - so for you to read or not to read, that is the question.

Last Sunday night at our church we celebrated the Passover. Granted, it was an abbreviated version of the real thing but it was so neat to participate and learn about this Jewish holiday. I knew that the celebration of the Passover had to do with when the Israelites fled the land of Egypt but most of it was new to me and the rest of our family. About 100 of us sat and were divided into different tables. Each table had a 'Papa' who did some of the ceremonial things and ours was Matthew, fitting I thought! Each group had a plate and some "wine" for us to use.

Everything at the passover meal has a significance and I'll try and remember them accurately. Our Passover was led by Jennifer Rogers who did things VERY accurately. She is a Cornerstone graduate who is now part of Chosen People Ministries and is raising support to work among Russian Jews in the country of Germany. About a decade ago there were around ten thousand Jews in Germany and there are now about 100,000 of them, many having come from Russia.

We began with the traditional song and lighting of the candles which is done by the 'Mama'. Then several times throughout the meal we had some "wine", I think 5 different times, each time was for a specific reason.

One of the times we didn't drink it but took 10 individual drops and placed them on our napkin as a reminder of the ten different plagues that took place in Egypt prior to Pharaoh letting God's people go.Each table had some unleavened bread on it. This is, of course, because God commanded them to make bread without leaven for a few reasons - leaven represents sin and before Passover even today it is customary for the house to be cleansed of any dirt, and also to be ready to depart quickly when the time came for them to leave. Traditional bread takes a couple of hours while unleavened bread can be made in less than 30 minutes. There are 3 pieces of bread all inside a special bag with 3 compartments in it (or, in our case, a napkin). Early on in the meal the 'Papa' reaches into the cloth and removes the middle piece of bread, breaking it in half. The broken piece is wrapped and taken to another room and hidden.

Also on the plate is a cup of salt water and a green, leafy vegetable of some kind, ours was parsley. Each person took a piece and dipped it in the water and ate it. This is symbolic of the Israelites dipping a branch into the shed blood of the lamb to paint it on their doorpost as a way of letting the angel of death know that they belonged to God and were under the blood - just as we today are under the blood of Christ, the Lamb of God. This is when the Egyptians suffered the greatest plague of all when their firstborn sons were taken from them. A shank bone of a lamb sits on the plate as further reminder. We did eat something bitter, horseradish, and something sweet, an apple sauce-like mixture, as well. Then, towards the end (traditionally about 3 hours into the Passover meal), all the children were asked to go and find the piece of bread that had been hidden. Those who still celebrate the Passover do this also. Whoever finds it gets a prize from his 'Papa' and it is therefore met with great rejoicing. Logan was the one to find it and you can see what his prize was, given to him by Miss Rogers.

Sadly, though it seemed obvious to me, the unsaved Jews do not see the significance of this. Jesus, as part of the Trinity, was bruised and broken for us in His death on the cross and then hidden away and buried. But DEATH COULD NOT KEEP HIM IN THE GRAVE and He rose again after 3 days, just as He said he would. His resurrection was met with great rejoicing! I was so glad that our church was able to partake of this Passover meal. This traditional meal is full of things that have so much meaning to them - what a great way to better understand and witness to those of God's chosen people who do not yet see Him as their Messiah.

For Tricia

I'm quite addicted to a blog about people I've never met going through something I can't imagine. It's a young couple who have a tiny premature daughter and the mom is on the lung transplant list due to her cystic fibrosis. That's the very brief version of their story. I've mentioned them before but I thought I would again as part of a challenge. Tricia, the mom, is unable to interact with her daughter much at all, she was around 2 months old before her mom could even hold her. So I'm making a list, as are many other moms, about what I can't wait for Tricia to experience with her little girl once their lives get back to normal. If you are interested check out the husbands blog at http://cfhusband.blogspot.com/. For now here is my list - it's just off the top of my head because if I had to list all of the things I love and have experienced as a mom of five I'd be here all day!

I can't wait for Tricia to experience...

~watching your fussy baby finally settle down to sleep on Daddy's chest

~having your little one crawl into your lap and say "I just need you, Mommy"

~going into a public bathroom and having your 2 year-old loudly ask if you're done going potty yet

~not being one bit jealous when they choose Daddy instead of you

~having your little girl ask you what that is when you change baby brother's diaper

~staring for a really long time at your baby's sleeping face

~finding your toddler brushing his teeth with toilet water (I'm not joking!)

~changing a really bad diaper in an airplane bathroom

~coming home after a half-hour trip to the grocery store to shouts of "Mommy" so loud the neighbors can hear it

~hearing 'Jesus loves me' baby-style

~how much fun it is to say he takes after his father when he does something naughty

Nathan and Tricia - Hope you guys enjoyed reading this. Know that you are thought of and prayed for as you walk God's path for your lives.

Coincidence or Providence?

Last night for some reason Matthew just couldn't sleep very well. Then it just so happened that Logan was coughing quite a bit so Matthew got up to give him some medicine. By chance he looked out the window at the neighbors lot and saw a tree on fire with 15 foot flames shooting up inside it and into the air just a few feet from the house. He ran to wake up the neighbor, who lives in another house down the road. There is no running water hooked up at the house where the fire was but coincidentally that same evening we had gathered about 6 or 7 buckets together in preparation for some work we were planning at our own house the next morning. Matthew filled the buckets with water and our neighbor grabbed 2 fire-extinguishers and they were able to put the fire out safely. Wow, how lucky was that!

PS - Just in case you missed what I was trying to say....God holds us in the palm of His hand and we can rest in that. Everything happens only as He allows it. Last night many were protected from potential harm because of the order of events orchestrated by the Lord Himself.

Special Treats - Part II

Saturday evening, after Monica returned from her exciting afternoon, we quickly packed everyone into the Expedition and headed to Rapid. Just the day before I'd seen an add for the Black Hills Horse Expo. Ever since moving out here our family has had intentions of going to one of the big rodeo's in town. It's never happened for one reason or another so this time we decided we could make it work and we headed up for the show. It was really fun. The pictures in no way, shape, or form do it justice. There was even a small petting zoo with goats, chickens, ponies, sheep, rabbits, and calves. Also there were several stalls with some very expensive horses on display.

Jesse's favorite part was the petting zoo, the show was OK but sitting for and hour and a half is tough when you're one!
Logan and Alana were pretty impressed with both the petting zoo and show while Monica spent most of her time drooling over the horses. Daddy and Zach, well, they said they would have preferred a tractor pull! MEN!It's showtime=)

The show itself was made up of several different acts. There were 4 girl trick riders that had performed in the Calgary Stampede (ages 10-19) but everything they did was at a gallop and none of my pictures turned out. Tommy Turvee was a featured performer as well and he did some incredible things with horses, sometimes he had them doing tricks as if they were dogs. We also saw some mounted archers, Wild West shooters on horseback, medieval displays, Spanish horses, etc.

Here is Tommy Turvee and a couple of the tricks he did with Smokin' Joe, the horse!

All in all it was a good time even if we did get home a bit late for a Saturday evening - especially with last weekends 'spring forward'.

Special Treats - Part I (edited)

Saturday was a good day for our family (the night wasn't so great being short and all). We spent most of the day at home working on different projects around the house, checking some things of the never-ending list of home improvements that need to be done...trust me when I say NEED! Monica had a different set of jobs to do as she was back at the Couch's ranch working until lunchtime. Shortly after that they realized that one their cows was about to have her calf - for quite some time now this has been way up on Monica's list of things to see. So, she spent the next couple of hours tucked up into a pile of hay with Mrs. Couch watching the miracle unfold. Fifteen minutes after its debut he stood up on his wobbly legs and tried to walk. Anyway, witnessing part of God's miraculous creation was Monica's special treat and tomorrow I'll tell you about Part II.
Sorry there are no pictures of the baby calf - mommy cows can be very shy/protective (AKA - dangerous)!

Corn Hotdogs

Tonight Jesse had a taste of his first corndog, or, as they are known at our house, corn hotdogs. There was no time for another picture since two minutes later there was nothing left but a stick!

How does your love rate?

I've been thinking a lot about love lately....not really the romantic kind of love but the I Corinthians 13 kind of love. This world today has twisted love of every kind but the one that has suffered the most, I think, is the love of God. Love is who HE is, but what does that mean? Does that mean we should love everybody....actually, yes, we should. But the love we should have for everyone may not necessarily be interpreted as love if we truly put it into action. Our love for each other, for fellow Christians, includes a love that both covers a multitude of sins and at the same time is selfless enough to point out those areas in which we believe there may be a struggle. And our love for unbelievers must also be Christlike - without sacrificing or comprising our love for God and all that He stands for that is right and good. You know the saying 'Hate the sin but love the sinner'. So I ask myself "Is my love selfish? does it bear and endure all things? does it rejoice in iniquity? is it patient? is is kind? Would others who may see me, whether saved or not, be able to see that love?" There are 3 actual situations that I am thinking of now as I write this that all involve my love for another person. "Please, Lord, help me to handle them all with the right kind of love." There are also a couple of other situations in the past couple of days where the 'love' of others was evident for me or my family, one by way of godly rebuke and one being anything but godly. Read I Corinthians today and see how your love rates.

What you should be reading now....

What you should be reading about right now is last Friday's trip to Evan's Plunge (an indoor 'water park' built on some natural hot springs) and also about Saturday's trip to the park. However, not only should you be reading about it you should be looking at pictures as well....and that is where the problem lies - I forgot the camera! And since there isn't much to tell I didn't post anything about either one. But the pictures sure would have been cute!