Dayspring Banquet Hall??

We were honored to have our LEAH board meeting at our home. Our leaders prepared dinner for all of us and our families. There were 28 of us for dinner, I think. We ate in our newly framed and painted floor basement. Beau was so excited to help set up tables, chairs and the like. He even asked me not to tell the other kids we were working; he wanted to do the preparations by himself.

Can you believe we own all those tables and we have 24 chairs!? AND I was amazed to learn that many, many families do not own folding chairs!!!???

So tell me, do you? See I thought everyone did. That is what JB and I ate on for the first 7 years of marriage! :O

Girl toys? and first aid. :P

Do all little girls play with knights and swords,

or just the ones with older brothers?

Their dialogue was so cute, so I switched to video mode

thinking I would capture some great footage.

Um, nope.

Then, as Skeezix leapt off her chair to see how the photo turned out she fell over the castle they'd left on the floor. She got one of those scrapes like when a razor goes awry → it peeled off a layer of skin. You know the kind. It doesn't bleed at first. When she first tripped, I tried to ignore it and tried to make a big deal over showing her the picture I took. But she had this high pitched "ouch ouch, oh ouch, ouch" thing working, so I looked. I recognized it, scooped her up and tried to get her to the bandaids before the blood came. I carried her to my bathroom with the "good" bandaids and bacitracin. And the blood started.

As I was preparing the bandaid she looked and said,

"Whoa. Dat's a lot a blood."

She has a cool band-aid to show off today. :S

Piano lessons and art on the fly!

Piano lessons are a family affair!
The other cat had been sitting there as well,
but got up as I did to get the camera.

Angel was napping.
The kids all love our teacher.
Champ asked her when he could start.
She said he could watch for a few weeks

and let us know if he thought he was ready.

♥ ♥ ♥

Then this morning, after breakfast, I wondered where Angel went.
She had made herself comfortable creating in the hallway.

My photos aren't that great... but you get the point.

We started a Homeschool Bowling program this week.
Ten weeks long.
That is how long ONE game feels... SERIOUSLY! ;)
I'll take a pic next week!

Skeezix's Art Work

Friday morning as the boys and I plodded on through school Skeezix made two cat pictures and then I gave her eight popsicle sticks. Enough to make puppets of Mommy, Daddy, the kids and the cats.

About an HOUR later, she came to us and said, [this is great]

"Mom, Ine betending you and Daddy and [sic] Champ and [sic] Angel died on da cross, okay?"
"Huh?" I replied.
"Well, you and Daddy and Champ and Angel died on the cross. It's okay. Ine just betending"

So I said, "Why are you PREtending we died on the cross?"
She says, "Well, I just want to be done making puppets."

See - she'd made herself, Beau, and the cats, and wanted to be done. So she had to make a reason why we weren't there. And she is pretty fascinated with the crucifixion. OY.

Okay - despite that BIZARRE story - her puppets are very cool!!!!!!!

She is "ten years old," on the left.
Beau is "six years old," on the right.
See - she made herself bigger and needed to make it plausible.
SO she changed birth order... ;)

See the flower on her shirt?
See how Beau's shirt is too small and shows his belly button.
She cracked up over that.

Rick Warren's Inauguration Prayer

Well, I am not one to watch TV. But I suddenly walked over to it and turned it on today. It was precisely the moment that Rick Warren was walking to the microphone to pray at today's inauguration. I bowed my head and prayed along with him. The kids came into the room, clearly shocked that their mother had turned on the TV.

I can't say I would have said the same prayer, 100%. I truly do not think anyone in Heaven cares at all what is going on down here. Revelation 21:4 tells us, "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away." I believe that if anyone from Heaven were looking down here they'd be inclined to cry about any great amount of things! So I am not all that sure MLK, etc., are celebrating either. I imagine that it is hard to get excited about some earthly president when you are in the presence of Jesus Christ...

But if you missed it, here is Warren's text. And you would crack up if you knew where I got it online.
The red is what I loved the best! ♥


Let us pray.
Almighty God, our Father, everything we see and everything we can't see exists because of you alone. It all comes from you. It all belongs to you. It all exists for your glory.
History is your story. The Scripture tells us, "Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God. The Lord is One." And you are the compassionate and merciful one. And you are loving to everyone you have made.
Now, today, we rejoice not only in America's peaceful transfer of power for the 44th time. We celebrate a hingepoint of history with the inauguration of our first African American president of the United States. We are so grateful to live in this land, a land of unequaled possibility, where the son of an African immigrant can rise to the highest level of our leadership. And we know today that Dr. King and a great cloud of witnesses are shouting in heaven.
Give to our new President, Barack Obama, the wisdom to lead us with humility, the courage to lead us with integrity, the compassion to lead us with generosity. Bless and protect him, his family, Vice President Biden, the cabinet, and every one of our freely elected leaders.
Help us, O God, to remember that we are Americans, united not by race, or religion, or blood, but to our commitment to freedom and justice for all. When we focus on ourselves, when we fight each other, when we forget you, forgive us. When we presume that our greatness and our prosperity is ours alone, forgive us. When we fail to treat our fellow human beings and all the earth with the respect that they deserve, forgive us. And as we face these difficult days ahead, may we have a new birth of clarity in our aims, responsibility in our actions, humility in our approaches, and civility in our attitudes, even when we differ.
Help us to share, to serve and to seek the common good of all. May all people of good will today join together to work for a more just, a more healthy and a more prosperous nation and a peaceful planet. And may we never forget that one day all nations and all people will stand accountable before you. We now commit our new president and his wife, Michelle, and his daughters, Malia and Sasha, into your loving care.
I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life, Yeshua, Isa, Jesus [Spanish pronunciation], Jesus, who taught us to pray:
"Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Hum Drum January...

January is so dull around these Disciples' home. When we look back at our photo albums, and now our computer files, we see precious few photos from January. We simply don't do much. It is so dull. January and February seem to be the eight weeks that simply have got to be endured to get to the better parts of the year.

Here was Angel being precious last Monday.

CUTENESS ALERT!!!

So for fun one day, the kids dressed Angel up. She was more than willing to participate.
Usually Champ won't let anyone wear his new hat.

Then, in an effort to record some of our month...
I took photos of Champ doing his spelling.

Yes, I made them do school today.

I'll save our days off for nice weather!

And of Skeezix drawing cake and ice cream on her Magnadoodle.

Back to Normal

JB headed back to work today after 23 days off.
Yes, you read that correctly. Twenty-three days off.
His plant was shut down for three weeks. :P
And as I was getting ready to get into the shower this morning it occured to me that it really was like a vacation.
There was no sunbathing... no restaurants... no roller coasters... or tour guides. But it really was a vacation from our routine.

During this "vacation:"
~I worked 52 more hours than I normally would have.
~Daddy conducted three full days, and numerous partial days of school.
~I had surgery.
~Daddy framed the basement.

What we didn't do...
Daddy went 23 days with out a conference call, meeting or product deadline.
Mommy had two Mondays at work --> which is laundry day.
Mommy had a Thursday at work --> which is mopping day.
The kids had 5 days off school. [Yes, we made the do school even on New Year's Eve! - school is so much easier to conduct with two adults around, so let's keep moving in the curriculum and take time off when the weather is nice!]

By far the most amazing part of Daddy's time off was him being able to get the basement framed.

It was just after we moved in that we got quotes to finish the basement. While they were reasonable, they were just simply out of our budget. We realized if we wanted it done, we'd have to do it ourselves. Sounds good. Um. WHEN? WHEN does JB have TIME for such a huge project? I remember standing in frustration one day in our family room, just overcome with tension wondering when we would ever have money for any projects or when we'd ever have time for the projects we need. And as tears of frustration came, I managed to ask God and He blessed me with a song in my head, "Strength will rise when we wait upon the LORD, wait upon the LORD, we will wait upon the LORD." It dawned on me that what I see as a frustration is only a problem because I want things on my time. Maybe God's plan *could* be that we don't do these projects until the boys are old enough to help and learn and grow with Dad. That settled me for then and since then, I really haven't expected much in way of getting the basement project done.

So - here we were with 23 days off for Daddy. Now - many of them were consumed with Christmas and holiday activities, Mommy-work days, and other activities. But JB got 3 full days and a few partial days to work on it. AND HE GOT THE FRAMING DONE! While the boys were not much of a part of it, JB'S DAD WAS! JB's Dad got to come over and they worked on it together. Home projects is something they both like and are both good at. And the two of them barely get to see one another. So that was great.

What was also a major blessing was a $400 gift card to Home Depot that allowed us to buy all the wood, and a tool we needed. That came from American Express. Hey, God can do anything!

And so here is the basement! It is an area about 600 sq. ft.

Since I took this pictures, the floor has been painted, too.

Day home with Daddy!

Mommy had to work Tuesday during the day.
Kids did homeschool with Daddy.

After they were done they wanted to make masks.

Daddy pulled out the craft supplies.

[And the recycle bin?!]

May I present,

Bibleman, Cypher and Biblegirl?

They'd make Willie Aames so proud!

Peekin' thru the cat door!

Daddy and Poppy are working on finishing the basement.

Mama went down to "supervise."

The girls don't like knowing their Daddy & Poppy are downstairs
where they can't hang with them.

So they PEEK!

And make funny faces.

And laugh really hard.

And Mama takes some pictures.

New Year's Eve

No picutre on this one, I'll explain why.

Last night our church celebrated 40 years as a congregation with a dinner and a time of music. A letter came home encouraging everyone to consider sharing their musical gifts that night. I briefly explained it to Beau, who began piano lessons this July, and then asked him if he would like to play "Ode To Joy" that evening. He quickly said, "No," which I fully expected as he is rather reserved about things like that. However, he surprised me about 10 seconds later as he piped up, "But I could play "We Three Kings" Mom, because I know they know that song; we sang it at church on Sunday!"

OK!

So I emailed the coordinators who let me know it would be fine. He practiced without being asked. I tried not to talk to him about it and I acted very much like it was not a big deal. I dressed it up as - "God gives us talents and we can use them to serve Him and His kingdom." I also mentioned briefly the other day he could see it like the Little Drummer Boy.

So last night, he was introduced, walked over to the piano and shared his song with God and his church family. I buried my head in Skeezix hair as I was overcome with Mommy-feelings. I chose not to take photos or a video. That was VERY VERY hard for me. But I really feel like it makes it more about God and less about Beau if I don't treat it like a performance. Instead it was an offering. And I prayed ALL DAY LONG. Not that he wouldn't make mistakes, or that he wouldn't get nervous. I just prayed all day long that Beau would be blessed and that God would be blessed. I think they were. I will talk to him about it in a day or so. He got a lot of recognition at the conclusion of the evening from much of our church family.