Puritan Reading Challenge

Chew on this...

"Men must not be too curious in prying into the weaknesses of others. We should labour rather to see what they have that is for eternity, to incline our heart to love them, than into that weakness which the Spirit of God will in time consume, to estrange us. Some think it strength of grace to endure nothing in the weaker, whereas the strongest are readiest to bear with the infirmities of the weak." The Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbes

I love that quote. I think of how often in my own house we are so quick to point out each others faults.

Smiles!

Here we go again...

Current Temp = 5 degrees
Current Wind Chill = -11 degrees
Current number of kids out of bed = 2

Guess the teenagers need to catch up on their sleep.

Smiles!

Zack throwing at the college level...

Mark found out that Zack can compete at college Track meets as "unattached". So Friday night we paid to have him throw at a college meet at Grand Valley State University. There were maybe 5 or 6 other colleges represented there also. I thought you'd enjoy seeing Zack doing what he loves to do. He was a little nervous being the only High School kid throwing with all the college guys but he held his own. Out of 20 guys he placed 4th. We are very excited for him.


Thank you Melissa!

Please pray for Lydie!

Lydie is a precious little one who has pneumococcal meningitis and needs our prayers. Please read about her here.

Kindness Pays

Look at what Rebekah gave me today...

Thank you Rebekah!

I am going to blow this up and paste it on my fridge so the kids can see it. They may not believe someone gave it to their mother otherwise. Especially the 17 year old.

So now I get to pass it along! I love that part of it.

Jennifer (although there was that "yack" thing)
Mel
Tonja (Pronounce the "J". I still keep saying your name wrong in my head)
Kat
Cherdecor (Hopefully this one won't get stolen!)
Hope
and right back at ya Rebekah!

Thanks to all of you for the "kind" comments you leave. I am enjoying getting to know you all!

Smiles!

Puritan Reading Challenge

My first day of reading was well blessed this morning. Enjoy a couple of the pearls that I found...

In regards to Christ's Calling...

• "In this we may see the sweet love of God to us, in that he counts the work of our salvation by Christ his greatest service, and in that he will put his only beloved Son to that service." Oh that I may feel the "sweet love of God"
  
• "See here, for our comfort, a sweet agreement of all three persons: the Father gives a commission to Christ, the Spirit furnishes and sanctifies to it, and Christ himself executes the office of a Mediator. Our redemption is founded on the joint agreement of all three persons of the Trinity."

In regard to The Good Effects of Bruising...

• "Our hearts, like criminals, until they be beaten from all evasions, never cry for the mercy of the judge." Wow! Read that again.
• "After conversion we need bruising so that reeds no themselves to be reeds, and not oaks. Even reeds need bruising, by reason of the remainder of pride in our nature, and to let us see that we live by mercy" That ugly pride again.

Smiles!

My Cozy Corner

Monkey Giggles is having a fun little contest. All you have to do is take a picture of your own "Cozy Corner" and link it back to her post.

So here is my favorite place in my house, my Cozy Corner. Do you see the tan blanket on the bed? I love that blanket. My sister, Jodi, crocheted it for me for my graduation (from High School) gift. I received it after I graduated from college. I love a homemade gift way more than an on time gift. I am hoping my niece feels the same way. You see the blanket peeking out of the tote in the corner? That is her wedding gift that I have to finish knitting. She has been married for almost 5 months now. I guess it runs in the family.

Can't wait to see everyone else's Cozy Corners!
Smiles!

Love that Michigan weather...

Puritan Reading Challenge

I first seen this challenge on Jennifer's site and thought "oh there is no way I could read that stuff it would be way over my head".
But it just kept come back to me as something I should at least try. So I am doing just that. I am going to give it a try. We will see how my black and white, engineering, mathematical mind does at comprehending it all.

Smiles!

Happy Saturday!

Look what Mari passed on. I am all about spreading the love! Thanks Mari!

Here is what the maker of this award says:
"I have met so many lovely and very talented ladies here in Blogdom, what more can I do or say to express my humbled heart to each, than to give all my dearest readers and friends a special award filled with love. So, spread the love dear ones, spread the love to those you love."

I am too busy checking on my 101 blogs to decide who to pass this on to so I am going to revert back to my tagging fellow Jennifer's.
Jennifer
Jennifer
Jennifer
Jennifer
Jenni
Jenni
Jenna
Jennwa

Look at the next award I received. Thank you Dawn!

I am passing this one on to one special friend from Japan who yacked on me! You know who you are.

Look at what Mary is doing to celebrate her 200th post. She is have a giveaway. Who doesn't love a giveaway? Go check it out.

Smiles!

Melissa got it - Way too fast.

I knew that Melissa and I had waaaayyy too much in common. Yes indeed, it is how many subscription to blogs I have in my Google Reader. Yikes! I knew it was getting away from me.

Patty - 10? That's it, really? Such control.

Jennifer - I am 5'10" so if I weighed 101lbs. I would be more than anorexic I would be dead. You do remember my recent post on Rose's right? I love food. (For those of you who don't know Jennifer, watch out when she is in need of sleep, she starts throwing things at you.)

Jenni- You must not remember my "weird things about me" I hate socks so I certainly am not addicted to them. Giggles!

So how about y'all... How many blogs do you either subscribe to or just go to everyday?

By the way I thought you'd like to read the limerick I wrote today to enter in Shannon's contest...

Ode to "There's a pill to fix everything"

There once was a family of Hill's
Who spent to much time making bills.
Mom said, "This must stop.
I can't get on top."
So she ordered a bottle of pills.

It amused dear hubby so it was worth it.

Smiles!

101

So what is 101 you ask? I'm not referring to Dalmatians.
I am referring to my addiction...
When will it stop?
When is enough enough?
When is it too much?
How many of you have this same addiction?
Some of you are thinking pairs of shoes aren't you. I do like me a good pair of shoes but I have limits. It isn't shoes.
I was just as shocked as you when I counted them this morning.
It is clear now why it is consuming so much of my free time.
Have you figured it out yet?
I am not ready to confess yet so go ahead and give me your best guess.....

Smiles!

I am so mad at myself!!!!

Can you figure out what these pieces belong to?

I can't begin to tell you how bummed I am about these pieces. I think this clip below pretty much describes my anger/frustration...

This is where those pieces belong...

You see I was backing out of the garage this morning and I caught the side mirror on the garage door opening. If I could just have those 2 seconds of my day back. Argh!!! Here is the garage. I didn't do any damage to it. Don't be mistaken by that black smudge, it was already there.

There is absolutly no evidence of damage from this morning's incident on the garage. I guess I should be thankfull for this because I just got the estimate on fixing my Suburban...

"Are you sitting down?" that is what Ross at Tolman's asked my dear hubby before he told him.

$750!!!!!

I just want to crawl in a hole! I asked my sweet understanding hubby (you see he has caught my mirror on the opening twice it just never broke when he did it so at least he is somewhat understanding about it) if we could just leave it that way until we get some extra cash. He is worried that we wouldn't be able to get the Suburban washed with the mirror like that because the car wash brushes might grab it and then we could do damage to the side panel. And if you know my husband and his vehicles... well let's just say he won't let it not get washed if it is dirty. Now add to that the fact we live in Michigan, they salt the roads like crazy this time of year, and we just happen to live on a DIRT road. My Suburban gets dirty!

Does anyone out there feel my pain?!?!?!

Trying to smile...

Yummy Restaurant

Mark took me to my new favorite restaurant Saturday. One of the guys he works with told him about it about a year ago and told him he should take me there. (Thank you Steve!) We have been there a handful of times since. It is located in Gaslight Village in East Grand Rapids. For my local reader's, if you haven't been in this area in a while it is worth the drive. Every time we drive through this area I am always amazed at how many people are outside. Even as cold as it was Saturday there was still people jogging, out for a stroll with the kids, etc. It just seems like a really welcoming/happening place. The restaurant is Rose's on Reeds Lake. Part of the fun of the restaurant is the heritage. Apparently Reeds Lake used to be THE place to be back in the late 19th Century. It is where the "richy-richy" from Chicago came to get away. I can't think of any other restaurant that I have eaten at that puts so much flavor in their food. I don't even know how to explain it but both Mark and I are amazed at how delicious the food is. Mark had the Grilled Mahi Mahi sandwich and I had the Rosemary-sage-garlic Marinated Pork Tenderloin. I also had a glass of White Zinfandel to go with it. YUMMY! Here is the best part... Mark has a doctor's apt on Wednesday and his doctor's office is very close to Rose's so he invited me to go to lunch with him here again on Wednesday. Twice in one month!!! I can't handle the excitement! In case you are wondering, I will be having the Roasted Pork Sandwich. It is soooo good. My mouth is watering already.
Smiles!

Am I wierd? Another Meme.

Rebekah apparently thinks I am weird because she tagged me for this Meme (remember it rhymes with dream). I will try my best to not disappoint.

The rules are as follows: Simply link to the person who tagged you. SHARE SEVEN WEIRD things about yourself. Tag SEVEN bloggers to do the same AND include a link to their blog. Let each person know that they have been tagged and finally post the rules on your blog.

7) I talked my hubby into putting in an underground pool and I don't like to swim. I do like to sit next to it under a big umbrella and read while the kiddos are swimming.

6) This one links to the last one. I sit outside almost every day in the summer for no less than an hour by the pool with the kids but I don't like being hot so it takes most of the summer before I have a tan because I sit in the shade. Oh well, no skin cancer here right?

5) I sing to the radio when I am driving and often embarrass myself when someone drives up next to me and catches me just belting out the song. Looks like I am talking to myself because no one else is in the car. I am praising my Lord and there is nothing embarrassing about that right?

4) This one is getting better but one of my little quirks is that I hate making decisions, even simple ones, so when it comes to things like ordering pizza I ask Mark to do it for us. Then I sit there telling him what I want on it. Why don't I just order it myself? Poor Mark.

3) I don't like socks. Even in the winter if I am at home I am probably not wearing socks. I know you are wondering... nope not wearing any right now.

2) I don't like coffee. I have had friends tell me to just "grow up already". Is that what it takes to grow up? Because my daughter Kaylyn likes coffee and she ... let's just say I think I have proved my point that there isn't a link there.

1) I made a dessert that uses puff pastry last night and I baked the left-over scraps for me to eat. I know I am stretching here but I am running out of things that I dare to share.

Now, lets hear from some other weirdos out there.... Melissa, Dawn, Anna, Kaylyn, Tori, Julie, Brenda

Smiles!

8 in 2008

Did you see my sidebar? I decided to join Extravagant Grace and set some goals for this year to live more intentional. I listed my goals in my side bar for my own sake. This gives me a daily visual reminder of how horribly bad I am doing.

Did you see number 7? Argh! I am so not a runner, walker, crawler, anything of the like but my daughter, with her sweet tender eyes, asked me if I would start running with her this spring/summer. I am honored that she would ask to do something with me and it is healthy to boot. How can I say no? Did I mention that I don't like exercise of any kind? We are going to Haiti in July and I hear there is a whole lotta walking so this would also help with that but still, yuck. I have to change my focus and think of it as one on one time with Anna and we just happen to be moving.

Maybe Jenni will have to give me some hints.

Smiles!

More solos.

Christmas Eve Service

Is your volume on?

Zack singing "Joseph's Song"


Libby singing "Away in the Manger"

Kaylyn playing the piano with her piano teacher, Mrs. Janssen.
Sorry but I didn't have a very good seat for filming her.

Smiles!

Check this out!

Sue @ Praise and Coffee is devoting Tuesdays to building up marriages. She has great advice today. I can't wait for more Tuesdays with Sue!

Smiles!

Still making up for lost time...

Some more fun Christmas memories. Anna wanted Guitar Hero III for our PS2 this year for Christmas. Well around here it was hard to get your hands on it. We went to 4 different stores in 2 different cities one Saturday but we were finally successful.

I told Anna to not get too upset if she didn't get it because it is hard to find right now. She might have to wait for her birthday in February. So just to keep the suspense going I wrapped a cassette tape box with a note inside for an IOU one Guitar Hero III.

She was still thrilled when she opened it even though she thought she would be waiting to get the actual gift. Then I mentioned that we could look for it in the stores tomorrow or you could just go up to my closet and get it now. She flew off the couch and her brother was going to try to beat her but she left him in the dust.

You can see from the last picture she was one happy girl.
Good Memories!


Smiles!

A few more Christmas Memories.

For Mark's family party we rented out a banquet room at a local hotel. This is a great idea if your family is too big to fit in a living room. It cost us $50 and we had the room all day and we had use of the pool all day. We got there around 4pm so the kids could get some swimming in before we had a potluck at 5:30pm. It is really nice to not have to deal with the clean up like you have if it is in your own house.

Doesn't Mark look like he wants another baby? This is his great-nephew, Logan. He is just the sweetest happiest baby and he loves Mark. On a side note, that brand new shirt Mark is wearing he got from work. It has a work logo on it. Well needless to say his wonderful wife washed it with Zack's new jeans and they bled on it. Anyone have any tips for fixing that? I caught it before it went into the dryer but I think it is still a lost cause. Bummer!


The handsome fella on my lap is also a great-nephew, Josiah. He stole my heart when he came over to me and asked me if he could sit on my lap. Are ya kiddin? What are you waiting for, jump on up here.


This last picture is just too funny to not include. It is Logan's brother, Tusla, jumping into the pool. Isn't that just the best picture?


Smiles!

Making up for lost time.

Here are my kiddos in their Christmas PJ's. Anna told me that I should start taking the picture Christmas Eve instead of Christmas morning so that everyone would look a little more "with it".




Here is a picture taken Christmas morning at my folk's house of all of their Grandkids. I should have asked the kids to look at me because I can tell all of them except Kendra are looking at my sister who was also taking pictures.

Smiles!

It's a Girl!

You know that ticker on my side bar of that baby that has some 130+ days to go? Well yesterday we found out that it will be a girl! I am so excited to get busy making girlie stuff. My sister is doing well and is now in maternity clothes. It is fun to watch her grow.
Smiles!