Our Week

I wanted to give you all a bit of an update on our life. We are all settled into our new home and are enjoying it so much. Yesterday afternoon Sunshine and Vision had the most wonderful time working on building their own little fort. They didn't even want to come in for dinner they were enjoying themselves so much. A few days ago they packed a special little picnic and went a hiking/exploring. When they found a good spot they sat down and ate their special little picnic and then continued on their adventure. We had walkie-talkies to communicate with. Every once in a while we would talk to each other, mostly for Mama's sake to make sure they were okay. They are just having a grand time on this beautiful mountain. We are so thankful to the Lord for putting us here for this time. We don't know exactly how long we will live here but we want to enjoy it while we are here. Dh was gone to another state this whole week for his new job training. He loved it and can't wait to get doing it. It is with a decorative concrete business. We never knew that there was even such a thing as decorative concrete, but it is just amazing what they can do with this type of high-tech concrete. While at training they made a wall that looked just like a brick wall, colors and all. Paints and stains are used to make the colors. They do floors that can look like a marble floor, shower walls, counter-tops, and sinks. One of the really neat things about this to me is that dh will be able to use his artistic abilities. The owner is a Christian and we are so glad! The owner and hubby had a wonderful time together all week and are looking forward to working together. Sunshine and Vision have their first big concert coming up with their young orchestra. They are so excited and hopefully Mama won't blubber too much. ;-) Beloved is running all over and is just soooo smart. He loves for me to hold him...that is his favorite place to be. If we could just get the excema on his face all gone. We just recently celebrated the one year anniversary of the day we got him and how thankful we are for him. Sunshine told me that she doesn't know what she would do without him. Sunshine finished her last math lesson this week and Vision has two more lessons to go. I love the math that we are using. Sunshine is already doing algebra and she just finished 5th grade. We also just started a new science program and I think it is going to be wonderful. This was our first week. It is Apologia science and we are going to go through the Botany book. I must admit that I still have not found a satisfactory grammar program. We are thinking of trying Easy Grammar. Does anyone have any suggestions? Tomorrow we are having a special Easter breakfast at our church and then we are having people over after church for lunch. On Thursday evening our church got together and had communion together along with washing each other's feet. We also spent a long time singing to the Lord together. It was a special time thinking about all that Christ has done for us. May you all be blessed with more of Him as you remember His death and resurrection this weekend.

The Move...New Mercies

Here we are, just a few days before our move to the mountain. It is so beautiful up there. We will be living on 49 acres that are mostly wooded. The children and I are looking forward to going on our daily walks surrounded by God's amazing creation! For now we will be living in the walk-out basement of the log home. It is much larger than our apartment and has two glass sliders looking down the mountain. I know we will very much enjoy living in the basement and on the mountain. Sunshine and Vision are daily enjoying playing their cello and violin together. What a blessing to us! We all played together in church last week, Dh on the piano, me on the guitar, Sunshine on the violin, and Vision on the cello. How sweet it is to be able to all play and sing together!! We LOVE it!! We sang a song that we learned from dear friends in our home state, 'There's A Mighty River'. It is such a special song to us. Whoever wrote the song was given a gift by the Holy Spirit. I am so thankful for new mercies and new days from God. Last Saturday I felt unable to continue on...I was seemingly surrounded by dark clouds with no hope of sunshine in sight. I spent most of my day crying. To put it plainly, I was a mess. I missed our families and friends terribly. No matter how much I tried to look to the Lord, I could only cry and wonder if He really was hearing our prayers. Since dh has barely worked for almost 4 months with no work in sight, I felt like a hopeless, wrung-out dish rag. Anyhow, by the end of the day I was seeing a bit of sunshine thanks to my dear husband, a neighbor from Nepal, and some friends we had over for dinner. By the next morning I was feeling almost entirely renewed and thankful that it was a NEW day. Unbeknownst to me, my loving dh had asked the Lord to please ;-) send some encouragement for me. Well, He did. That day we were given a refridgerator to use in our new living place, some meat, possibly some work at our church, and a brother in Christ stopped by with a gift for us. How undeserving I was, but how loving and merciful He is. O me of little faith. I am sure we all have days where there seems to be no hope for whatever situation we are in. God will never push us beyond what we are able. He is a good Father and only does what is good for His children. Many times it is hard to hold on to that when difficult situations come, but He will never desert us. He is trying us by fire so that we can come forth as gold. The Lord wants us to be able to totally trust no matter what is going on around us. Thank you Father for your tenderness.

Down Computer

I just wanted you all to know why I haven't been able to put up any new blog posts...our computer is not working right now (hasn't been since the day that I put up the last post). I am typing this from the library right now and I do not have any way of posting any pictures. When I can I will resume putting up posts. God bless you all!

Cheese and Jammies :-)

We love making cheese...and eating it too! Here is the beginning of making mozzerella cheese. There are four gallons of milk in the pot. I am slowly heating the milk up to 98 degrees. Here I am stirring the curds. Exciting!!

Now for the really fun part, stretching and shaping the cheese. I have to dip the cheese in 200 degree salt water so that I can stretch it. This cheese in my hands is very hot. If I did not stretch the cheese it would not have the right texture. It is at this point that we all eat a big, warm chunk of it. It is sooooo good!

Below are the finished shapes. That is how much cheese comes from four gallons of milk. A couple of days later we made homemade individual pizzas with our homemade cheese on top. Yummmm!! :-)

For Christmas, Sunshine (dd) and I made matching flannel jammie pants for our three men. It was really fun to keep it a secret and work on it while Papa and Vision were gone together. Sunshine is becoming quite the sewer. She entirely made Papa's and Vision's after I cut them out for her.

Christmas with friends...

I know that this is a little late, but I wanted to put up a few pictures of our Christmas day with friends. Here are all of the adults, minus me, at the big table. We had turkey, fruit salad, crackers with a cheeseball, rolls, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, and sparkling cider. This is the medium aged children's table.

Here we are getting in line to fill up our plates.

This is the little children's table.

Three dear friends of mine.

Thanks so much for having us all over for a Christmas meal! It meant even more since we live so far from our home state with so many family members and friends.

Celebrate!!

How much we love you our precious Beloved son!

He loves splashing in the water. Hello everyone near and far! :-) How is your new year going so far? Our family is doing well and has a big reason to celebrate today. We received something very special in the mail today...Beloved's finalized adoption papers! He is legally our son now even though he has been our son in our hearts since the day we received him. Wow!! What amazing things God has done in our life this past year. How WONDERFUL to have three blessings...we can't wait to have more! The way has, at times, been the most rugged we have ever had to climb, but He is faithful. I am not just saying that either as a nice little spiritual cliche'...we have watched our God provide for us time and time again during this journey of adoption. No He didn't make it all easy and soft, but He never left us. It is good that God doesn't show us in advance what we will have to walk through. I am afraid I would have quaked in my boots. But, He lovingly gives us strength and provision for each day as we need it. I can look back over this past year and see how God was always gently teaching us more and more to live by faith in Him alone.

When nothing whereon to lean remains,

When strongholds crumble to dust;

When nothing is sure but that God still reigns,

That is just the time to trust.

'Tis better to walk by faith than sight,

In this path of yours and mine;

And the pitch black night, where there's no outer light,

Is the time for faith to shine.

Last week we had another exciting event...Vision's first cello lesson! What a beautiful instrument. How I have loved hearing him run his bow across the low, mellow strings. :-) I am so often proud and in awe of Sunshine and Vision's musical abilities. They both have more talent than I so I just love getting to watch and hear them. They both sing harmony and play to some degree or another 5 different instruments. Anyhow, our whole hearts are to honor our Father with our music and worship. May we never do any of it for the applause of men.

This year I am reading the devotional 'Streams In The Desert' by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman. It is sooooo good! Each day I read one little section along with my Bible reading. I am also reading a book called 'The Children's Storm'. It is a true book that relays the historical happening of the major blizzards in the Dakotas that Laura Ingalls Wilder based her book 'The Long Winter' on. So far it is very interesting though I only get to read a few pages a day. ;-) I am also, very slowly, reading a biography on Adoniram Judson. Christian biographies are my very favorite.

I am soon going to post about making mozzerella cheese, and the most yummy dinner rolls I have come across.

May God bless you all as you live for Him who died, gave His all, for you. We have SO much to be thankful for.

Cooking Together

For those of you who know me well, you know that I am a bit of a health foodie. :-) I love to read about healthy cooking and how to make things homemade that are healthier and more economical for us. I am also quite an old fashioned lady. These are a few of my favorite things ( can you hear Maria singing??) ...a homemade quilt, cast iron pots and pans, a marbled, rustic bar of homemade soap, a batch of freshly baked bread, candlelight, woodstoves, knitted wool mittens/socks/sweaters/hats, little rustic log cabins, campfires, washing dishes by hand, shelves filled with home canned goods, freshly made cheese, milking goats, a walk in the thick woods, carrying babies in slings or packs, homebirth, freshly churned (or shaken) butter, cooking over an open fire, homemade skirts and dresses, homemade corn brooms, and gardens bursting with health giving life. Mmmmm what wonderful things God made! He also created work and how good it feels to create good and beautiful things with our hands. One Sunday morning, before church, the children and I made a big pot (this is my cast iron dutch oven) of beef stew. Here are the onions and stew beef browning. My two faithful potato washers, peelers and choppers. They help me in the kitchen so much. Sunshine was trying to make her hair curly by doing the 'rag curl' method. :-) I think they did this in 'Little House and The Prairie'.

Above is a picture of all the carrots that Sunshine sliced for the stew. They are waiting to go in. The pot on the front left is our breakfast of steel cut oats. They had been soaking on the stove overnight and we are just starting to cook them here. We really enjoy them...even more so than oatmeal.

And the delicious, finished stew. I have always loved stew. One of my most sentimental memories of growing up involves beef stew. It was a snowy, beautiful Michigan winter day. The snow was falling beautifully and we were outside shoveling the driveway. Meanwhile my mother was inside making homemade buns and beef stew. The house smelled heavenly and we couldn't wait to enjoy her efforts. After we finished the shoveling we all went in and ate and ate of Mom's wonderful meal. Yummm! I love that memory.

A misc. picture of my daughter and I playing music together. Thank you Lord for music and the chance to worship you with our voices and instruments.