Monday, May 30, 2011

Happy Memorial Day! (I miss you Dad)

I know, Memorial Day should make me think of our soldiers and veterans who have served our country so well and have worked to help us get and keep the freedoms that we so enjoy, and I am thankful for them but Memorial Day always makes me think of my Dad and Waterloo, NY.

Roger Nelson was born on May 30, 1950 and was raised in Waterloo, NY, the birthplace of Memorial Day. He loved having his birthday on Memorial Day because Waterloo always had a parade "for his birthday." I think that he would have joked around that this year (since Memorial Day falls on a Monday) the rest of the country would actually be celebrating Memorial Day on the right day. He loved Waterloo ("Birthplace of Memorial Day and Elsie the Cow" he'd say).

Three years ago today he was at the Memorial Day parade with a few of his Gideon friends giving out New Testaments. Many people told me that they saw him there and had little chats with him that meant a lot to them, many of whom hadn't seen him or chatted with him in months or years. He was doing what was most important to him - giving out God's Word - on one of his favorite days of the year. I chatted with him that evening, wishing him happy birthday and he told me what a great day it had been with the parade and a picnic.

Four days later I got the call telling me that my Daddy had gone Home to Heaven. Oh, how I miss him but how glad I am for him that he no longer has to struggle with his old, broken body.

So happy birthday Dad, happy almost 3 years in heaven. Missing you makes me more homesick to get there.

Thank You God for my Dad and the example You gave me in him. He wasn't perfect but he loved You. I miss him so much. Thank You for helping me through and truly being "a Father to the father-less." Please help me to follow in his footsteps, live for You and serve You, as he did.

Thursday, May 12, 2011

A Hard Time With Number 10

We have a lot of cool stuff, most of which we have acquired from one of 3 places:

1. The curb
2. Craigslist
3. Salvation Army

I will be posting about a couple of new dining room acquisitions soon.

Anyway, we had some friends over for dinner tonight and we were showing them some of the neat things that God has provided for us. Towards the end of the night Caleb said, "Dad, you need to let them go. You're making them have a hard time with number ten."

We looked at him and asked," "What?"

He said, "You know- from the ten commandments - you shouldn't want what other people have."

I love that boy! He hit the nail on the head. "Struggling with number ten." How often do I do that?!

God, please help me to be content and not to long for what others have!

(Note: I tried to post this last night but blogger was down.)

Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Mississippi Mud

Every year around this time I start to scramble. "Oh no! Where is that recipe??" I cry. I always like to make Mississippi Mud for Glenn's birthday (which is today!) but I don't know what happened to the recipe card that his mom gave me when we first got married. Years ago I typed it up and put it in a cookbook that I compiled with some other young wives back when we were at Houghton but I have the hardest time finding the thing because it is just a stack of 8.5x11 pieces of paper folded together. Well today after a bit of a scramble again I found the recipe and I am recording it here so I don't have to scramble again next year :)

Mississippi Mud
1C butter
2C sugar
1/4 C dry cocoa
4 eggs, beaten
1t vanilla
1/2t salt
2t baking powder
1 1/2C flour
13 oz jar marshmallow fluff or 2-3C mini marshmallows
Mud:
Cream sugar, butter and cocoa. Add eggs. Stir. Mix in dry ingredients and vanilla. Pour into greased 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes until toothpick comes out almost clean. Sprinkle marshmallows or spread marshmallow cream over the top of hot cake. Return to oven for 2 minutes.
Frosting:
Combine ingredients and stir well. Pour over mud while still hot.
1/4C dry cocoa
1/2C melted butter
4C powdered sugar
1/2C evaporated milk
1t vanilla

This is super yummy. It is great hot but it is also great the next day after it has spent the night in the fridge. Yum! The kids look forward to Glenn's birthday for this treat :)

Happy birthday my love!

Monday, May 02, 2011

My Love/ Hate Relationship with Spring

I have a "love/hate" relationship with Spring. I love Spring - the warmer weather, the flowers, the birds chirping, the less layers required, people coming out of hibernation. I feel like I am starting to come back to life again. Winter is rough for me and I never really realize that it was rough for me until it is over and all of a sudden Spring hits and I realize, "Oh no! I didn't get much done this winter! I hibernated too much!! We are way behind in school and our house is overwhelmed with clutter and there is so much to do inside but with the nicer weather I just want to be outside!!" It is a struggle. My kids pray for "a nice day tomorrow so we can go out and play" and I secretly pray for rain so that we won't want to go outside so we can get work done inside. Ugg. There is a month or two in the middle of every winter where all I want to do is go to bed and put my head under a pillow. I usually don't just go to bed and put my head under my pillow but during that time I don't feel that I have the energy to fight my kids to get them to get their work done or to fight myself to get lesson plans done and get things set up properly for school to happen and enforce rules and routines. I always start off the school year relatively well but after Christmas break things go downhill then when the energy level finally returns who wants to do school??

Well, we have a lot of schoolwork to still complete for this year so I'm sorry if it rains. It just means that God has answered some of my prayers. We will be testing during the first part of next week (and uncluttering) while Glenn gives his brain a couple of days rest between studying for his tests last week and this week and before he starts digging in to his studying for the Step 1 exam which he'll be taking on 6/18/11 then we have 3 weeks medical school free before he starts on his first rotation in medicine on 7/11. At that point it is looking like we'll take the 3 weeks off with Glenn then the kids and I will have to dive back into school for a bit at least.

As I was making tortillas today I was listening to the message from Northridge Church yesterday and one thing that he said was "being at peace with others often requires me to be at war with myself." As I have been thinking about that and wrestling with the knowledge that we have a lot to do I realized that the biggest deterrent to me being successful in homeschooling is me. I really need to go to war with myself. The only way to be at peace with homeschooling is to be at war with myself. Recently in reading through James I read 3:1 and stopped, "Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment." My first instinct was "I should send them to school!!" but quickly God reminded me that whether I am their full time teacher or not I am still responsible to teach them and I will be judged on how faithful I have been in that job.

Thanks God for Spring. Thanks for new life abounding everywhere. Thanks for the awakening and new life in me. Please help me to be faithful with the time and responsibilities that You have given to me. Thank You that You don't have "bad weeks" or "bad months." Thank You that You do not go into hibernation. Thank You for Your faithfulness. Please help me to become more like You!

Many More Blessings

It has been a couple of weeks since I posted and my list has grown (though I haven't been as consistent lately and it has shown in my attitude unfortunately). So many things to thank God for!

287. Hannah carrying a book around with her

288. Sunny play at Barry Park

289. Sleep

290. Monitor is out the door- yay craigslist!

291. Crazy kids running around outside

292. Kaylee visits

293. CLA #2

294. Practicing my flute with a friend

295. Our two tables put together with a tablecloth on top work to fit everyone around

296. Sunshine

297. Weekend!

298. Flip flop day

299. Pizza with 3 extras around our table

300. Gymnastics

301. Snuggling, a movie, popcorn, then thank yous on our CLA2

302. I could hear some out if my right ear when I put ear buds in!!

303. Time spent with Grandma and Aunt Ruthie

304. Fun listening to Matilda in the car

305. A parking spot on Irving for the CMF meeting w/ Dr Bailey.

306. Touching soft pelts

307. It stopped raining so the kids could do their playdate outside

308. Sunshine on this day I've been dreading all week because of the forecast.

309. Other kids want to join our family

310. My 14 cent copy of Creative Correction arrived and looks like it's never been read

311. Glenn is done with classes, now it's down to studying and tests

312. I get to go to my dentist appointment kid-less

313. Bouncing blowing hail

314. "you're it!" walks around the block

315. Beautiful spring flowers even if the weather doesn't feel spring-y

316. Homeschooling friends

317. Jesus is coming again

318. Today's Friday, not Saturday, more time to get stuff done

319. The lost overdue book was found at the library and fines were removed

320. Sunshine

321. Seeing stories done in sand and light

322. It stopped raining before the egg hunt

323. Sunny fun at the zoo watching the animals play with Easter eggs

324. Soul Surfer bags that fold into little bags, I love bags.

325. Mike & Doreen took over the K-5th kids so we could go to service

326. Colored eggs and melted chocolate poured into fun Easter molds

327. A muffin-ish tin from the curb to make crayon cookies in

328. Christ has died and Christ has risen, Christ will come again!

329. Living He loved me, dying He saved me, buried He carried my sins far away, rising He justified freely forever, one day He's coming oh glorious day!

330. We don't have to take out all $58,000 in loans that we were offered for next year

331. We drove to small group so we didn't get soaked on the walk home

332. Sunshine

333. Fun cleaning out storm drains and relieving the Allen St flood

334. We don't have to move this spring

335. Sunny days and rainy nights

336. Screens on doors

337. Egg salad

338. We could get in the door

339. 2 tests down, 2 to go next week

340. Caleb was invited to play in a soccer league for free because other kids dropped out

341. Two wheeling Abigail after only a week without pedals!

342. Free copy of 31 Days to Clean

343. A Hoosier to organize our school stuff.

344. Yummy homemade tortillas

345. 99 cent whole wheat and self rising flours from Ollies

346. Listening to a convicting message on relationships from Northridge Church while making tortillas