Getting Ready for Easter

This year we're staying home together.  Every other year we go to CT and spend the weekend with my Aunt Rosie, Uncle Rich,  and my family who also go there.  This Easter seems to have come much quicker than other years.  Not sure why.  We always get a special outfit and try and match.  The boys all get to pick out a new tie.  This year, I think we're going to try and find a spring green color.  Last year we did light blue and pinks, the year before we did purple.  This is always a fun time to be together and remember our Lord's conquering death and giving us His power.  Spring also is a time of excitement and remembering new life.  What wonderful new life our Savior gives us!  

Today I finished my skirt and a bag to go with it.  If you are real observant, you've seen the fabric before.  It's the same fabric I used to decorate for Ruthie's shower.  I saw a great pattern that would work using both pieces!  The skirt has green in it so we'll try and match that shade.

I just love making bags!  I find them so fun to make!  I put pockets in this one as I've done this bag before and little things get lost in the bag.  So much fun!!!

Peeps

Tim has been counting down to this day!  His peeps are here!  Silas, Hunter and Luke each have their own chickens and Tim wanted to get his own.  Mark buys the grain for them and they take care of the chickens.  They can sell any eggs they get as long as there are a dozen in the house each day for me to have.  This is a way they can make money and I don't have to tend to the chickens :)   I absolutely love having chickens so even after the boys leave our home, I want to still have them,, maybe just move the coop closer to the house as the hill in winter can be a little scary on the ice!
Tim woke up so excited, got alittle school done and then off we went to town to get his peeps.  He got 6 Buff Orpingtons,  6 Rhode Island Reds and 6 Red Comets.  Titus and Addan wanted one of their own so they got to pick a black one (I think they were Laced Wyandotes???, something like that) each.   They're real excited about it although it'll be a miracle if Titus' lives past the inside time as he loves to hold it and isn't the most gentle holder!

Thus begins the journey of chickens for Tim.  We're so excited for him to start the responsibility of his own chickens.  It's been a great teacher of responsibility for each of them!

Boys and the Toys

The long days of winter and wet, muddy days of spring make for some creative play times.  We've never been a family that is for lots of toys.  Our house is too small and I get so tired of the mess.  So they have few toys which keeps my sanity.  I also prefer playing games and constructive toys.  The boys have become very creative in their toys.  Here's some of them :)  Titus and Addan brought in the videos to build towers around the train tracks.  It then became a challenge to see how high  it could reach before falling!  Jordan is so good about sharing his room with his little brothers. 

Titus and Addan got rubber bands and shot at targets placed on the stairs.  They did this for hours.  They play so well together!  So thankful for the friendships they are forming.

Small Steps

My Pastor's wife gave me this book to read.  Her husband just went away to a pastor's conference and brought it home to her and she read it and passed it on to me to read.  (A plug here for Pastor's wives-- Thank the Lord daily and pray daily for your Pastor's wife.  She has the burden of home and church and her husband's ministry.  Alot of times, she's the one behind the scenes doing SO much!  I think it's one of the busiest positions there is!  I absolutely LOVE our Pastor's wife!  She's got a heart to help, loves our boys like her own, would do anything for people and is a tough bird-- she's a hard worker and not afraid to get a "little dirty".  I see our Pastor's wife talking and loving the unlovely and the ones I know have hurt her in the past-- or sometimes harder, the one's who have hurt her husband and children!)  She is always giving books out to read to try and encourage people in their walks with the Lord.  This book is called How to Speak Husband.  It's been real interesting so far.  This morning I read about how men think and their God given roles.  Men have been given the desire to have dominion over things.  The author said how teen boys begin to feel that as they get older.  Ugh, today I started to experience that!  Jordan went for his driver's permit.(He passed and even drove a bit of the way home!!!!)   It won't be long before he's off driving himself to work each day, developing his own domain over the area the Lord gives him.  It's hard to see them growing up but oh so,  exciting too!  Jordan is becoming a strong man and I pray daily, a man  that will be a leader and live TOTALLY for the Lord!  What a joy to be a Mom!
I highly recommend this book,, it's been a fun read so far!

Healthy Living

My head is spinning with all the talk of health care.  It's a bit out of control!  What happened to people taking care of themselves and paying for it themselves?!?!
A couple weeks ago, I saw on a news show, a lady who had to divorce her husband because he had gotten dementia and could no longer take care of him herself.  Their insurance would no longer cover the bills but if she divorced him, the state would pick up the bill.  (our tax money at work!)  This seemed so extreme to Mark and me as we sat and talked about it.  How sad!  We agreed that we want to take good care of ourselves to prevent those types of situations. (We, of course, don't know the outcome of our lives but if we know or hear of things that will prevent that, we'll strive to do that!)    I've heard so often people say, "I take that, and I feel fine" or "I've gotten that shot and I didn't see any side-effects" yet they don't know the long term of what it does to their or their children's bodies (after all their children do come from them or out of them!).
What happened to the day when you were sick, you tried to get yourself healthy?  Now it's, I got a sniffle or slight temp so I run to the doctor to get some junk to make it go away.  Of course, it's no sweat because the insurance or government gets the bill.  When we get sick, Mark's hard earned money pays for the bill.  So to prevent sickness, we try to eat healthy and live healthy.   Of course, there are times that we have to see a doctor but when we do, we pay for it!  We pay for our dentist visits so I try to make the boys brush well and eat right to prevent it.  I know so many people that run to the doctor so often, it's sad!  They don't care because they don't pay for it!  I know someone who's child was throwing their eggs on the shed wall because they don't like to eat eggs but got them free from WIC so the child used them as toys!  How sad!
God has a very strong opinion on what we put into our bodies!  "Whether therefore, we eat or drink, do ALL to the glory of God."  Our eating needs to bring glory to Him,, what a challenge! 

I realize this is all my opinion and we can be viewed as quite radical, but I do think our world's system is so out of control and people's eating is the same, and yet we don't put two and two together!  How strange!

Mr. Visionary :)

Mark is always planning and thinking of ways to expand his business.  When we moved to PA in 2003, Mark was hired as a Christian school teacher.  The income wasn't enough to support our growing family.  Mark launched his own business washing windows. He does windows after school each day (his last class ends at about 1pm). The Lord has greatly blessed Busy Brothers Window Washing!  They clean  over 100 houses and businesses each year! (Most businesses are done either biweekly or monthly). This year Jordan will be getting his driver's license and he and Brendan will be able to do alot of those jobs, freeing up Mark to grow the business.  He's been asked by people if he does power washing.  This has always been in the back of his spinning mind :) , so last Saturday while I was in the quilt shop, Mark went to Lowes and got a power washer.  The boys have been so excited to see it being used!  Today is a beautiful spring day, so it was a perfect chance to fire the power washer up!  Here are the excited boys/man seeing it used for the first time!

Spring is in the Air

I love it!  They are staying outside more and more each day!  Our land is so perfect for the boys and we're SO thankful for it!  Addan playing in the sand.  Tim catching salamanders in the pond, he absolutely loves doing this hour after hour!