Happy ??? Birthday to me . . .

HA!!! Thank goodness it is almost midnight and my birthday is just about over. This one hasn't been very good at all. I should have done what I was originally planning, which was taking the kids out for a fun day. I opted to stay at home though and am now regretting it.

Part of what made it so awful is that my husband scheduled a major medical procedure for today without even telling me about it. This is something I thought that we would discuss together when the time came and I have been totally in the dark about it. Not only am I hurt that he has kept me in the dark about this, but I am also very angry.

I didn't even get a present to open today. The kids and Lynn gave me flowers and bought a cake. I was so wound up today over his secret that going out for supper didn't even sound good. The kids wanted to take me out though, so we went to Perkins.

Hopefully next year's will be better ~ I guess it can't get much worse.

Amy

3 Days of Cropping . . . .

And this is what I have to show for it!! LOL! :)

I spent last weekend at a 3 day crop in Albion, Nebraska. I had a good time talking, laughing, and getting little sleep, but don't have much at all to show for it.

The 3 classes that I taught and the booth kept me busy, so this was all I got done. These pictures are from 2002, but I love the way this layout turned out. I am glad I waited to scrap them.

I had a great time though and can't wait to do it again next year!

Amy

Making Life a Little Easier . . .

Ok, so it doesn't look so pretty in my *needs to be defrosted* freezer, but there are 27 meals in there ready to go!!! I am so excited. October and November have been pretty busy around here. I hosted one crop in October and am teaching/vending at 2 in November. Add in our trips to Lincoln twice a week and life is busy. It seems like 5 o'clock always rolls around and the kids are saying they are hungry and I have no idea what we are going to have for supper.

I spent Sat., Nov. 1st making all of these. The kids were a big help and even better -- now that we have started eating them, they say that everyone has been good. They did think last nights was too spicy though. Samuel said tonight that we need to make notes about which were good and which weren't so we can do this again. He's a thinker!! LOL! We used recipes from www.savingdinner.com.

I learned a few things from this venture. If at all possible, don't shop and cook on the same day! By the time I got everything bought and home, it was late afternoon. We worked on these until about 10 and had the majority of them done. Also, prep work is important. If I had it to do again, I would shop on Friday and cook on Saturday. I would also do the prep work Friday night, so I would be ready to roll on Saturday.

I have always wanted to do this and I think it would be fun to do with a friend. However, I could never find anyone that was able to get together or had similar tastes. My mom said she would come help me tries this a couple of years ago, but she was just too busy to come help.

I finally just decided that it was time to give it a whirl and see how it went. It really wasn't as bad as I had thought. The kids were a bigger help than I thought they would be. Next time around should be even better, now that I have them trained. :) LOL! There favorite job was to suck the air out of the bag with the handy dandy new tool from ziploc.

It has been very nice just pulling out a meal and KNOWING what is for supper at 5 pm!!

YUM, YUM!

Amy

More October fun & a Belated Happy Halloween!

The kids had Wild Hair night at AWANA.  These were our hair creations.    They received the titles of most colorful.  They had quite the do's.  I hope they got coloring their hair out of their system and won't need to do that again!

Happy Belated Halloween from the Wicked Witch and The Hulk!!!! These were our little spooks. We went to the Family Fun Fest for an evening of games and candy. It was a fun night and it wasn't too crowded.



They really raked in the loot. Now, it they would just stop hiding it from me, I would have a pretty good supply of candy!!




We have been enjoying the fun of Fall! It's hard to believe that the Christmas season will soon be upon us. It seems like I missed a good chunk of fall with being gone.



Amy

AACK!!!! Where has October gone?????

Oh my!!  I can't believe it is already November and I haven't updated my blog at all.  I have thought about it many times, but just haven't had the time to sit down and type.  I was looking through some pictures tonight to post on here and can see why the month has flown by.  

I'll have to post pictures of our trip later.  There are too many great pictures to go through them tonight (I took over 1,300!!!)  It was truly the trip of a lifetime.  I really enjoyed it and would love to go back again if I ever get the chance.  I would have loved to have spent more time in London and in Pompeii.  Next time though, I'll leave Lynn at home!!   LOL!  I may be looking for a friend to take to NZ with me on the next one.  He isn't excited at all about the plane ride.

We got home on the 13th and Samuel's birthday was on the 18th.  I can't believe that "my baby" is 10 already!!  Where have the years gone?  It is hard to believe that he started out at 5 pounds 10 oz.  It won't be too much longer before he will be as tall as me!!  

We wanted to spend some time with the kids, so we went to Omaha to celebrate his birthday at Coco Keys (an indoor waterpark).  It was a lot of fun.  Samuel wanted to go to Cheesecake Factory for supper -- yummy!  I wish we had one closer to us.  

Amy

One Week from Today!!!!

We will be heading to London!!!  A week from right now, I will be on a plane, a very long plane ride that I am not looking forward too! LOL!  However, I can't wait to see all the places that we are headed.  Big Ben, the Vatican, Leaning Tower, the Colosseum.  Places I have only dreamed of going.

Olivia announced at supper last night that she can't wait to see the Leaning Tower of Pizza.  :)  I said, "Um, honey, you aren't going with us, so you won't get to see it."  She looked at me, with this exasperated look and said, "I know . . . I can't wait to see pictures of it."  The attitude is there already at age 6!!  

For a split second, I thought maybe we should have taken them.  They have really taken an interest in what we are going to go see.  But I really think this trip would have been too long for her.  I guess we will just have to go again!!!

I am really looking forward to seeing my CTMH friends!!!  This will be my third cruise with CTMH and I love seeing my buddies on these trips.  It is like a big reunion!!  My friend Shannon is with me in the picture above.   She lives in Oregon and we were roomies together in Orlando at convention this summer.  I can't wait to see her again!  She and her husband Aaron are in the room right next to us on the boat, so they will be easy to find on the boat.  Can't wait to hang with them!!!!  :)

~~Amy~~

Homeschooling Thoughts

A homeschool friend was cleaning out her supplies and gave away some old copies of a homeschooling magazine.  I was the one to grab the magazines.  One of the letters to the editor really spoke to me.  I am still processing this all, but I loved her thoughts.  

Here is her letter:

"Homeschooling is a ministry for me.  God called me to homeschool our children, and they are the ones I minister to.  If I do nothing else in my life but raise our children to be godly leaders who love the Lord Jesus and show His love and share His Word with others, I will have accomplished something wonderful.

I used to be very busy with ministries outside our home.  I sang at church.  I made the church bulletin.  I volunteered in the church office.  I was on an outreach ministry and on the missions board.

I really believe I was doing all that God wanted me to do.  But I was leaving out my husband, our children, and our home--the most important ministry that God will ever give me.

What good is a ministry if our children never see us or if our marriage slowly falls apart?  What good is a ministry if our family and home are suffering?

If we are involved in everything outside the home, will our children rise up and call us "blessed"?  (Prov. 31).  Will our husbands "praise us"?  Or will they resentfully say, "You were never there"?

I am not saying we shouldn't have outside ministries, but the most important ministry we as wives and mothers have is to our husbands and our children.

The Lord showed this to me one day as I was washing the dishes.  I was grumbling in my hear, think that I had much more important things to do than wash dishes and make dinner, dust, deal with the children, and make coffee for my husband when he came home.  But, then the Lord spoke to my heart, saying "Do this as unto Me."  I was stunned.  Wash the dishes as unto the Lord?

I realized that my attitude was not glorifying to God and that I was not honoring Him.  I was lowering the importance of the responsibilities He had given me, and I was not doing them out of love.

The Lord reminded me that He had created me for a special purpose.  He had given our children to us for a reason.  He had given me as a wife to my husband because I am perfectly suited to him.

The things I do daily -- wash dishes, home school, read books to the children, make coffee for my husband--are ministries.  They are important to God.  And my attitude is very important to Him.

If I approach the day with resentment in my heart and a wish to be somewhere else, doing something else, the children will see it.  If I don't do my best in the things the Lord has given me to do, then they will not do their best either.

I am not saying that I get excited about washing the floor, but it is a littler easier to do it when I know that it is a ministry to our family and is pleasing to the Lord.

The interesting thing is that when I gave up the ministries I had outside the home and concentrated on our home school, our children, and my husband, I found that I had a lot more joy in my heart and freedom to really enjoy what I was doing.

Our home is much happier now.  My husband is happier, our children are happier, and I am much happier.  There will be time plenty of time for other ministries when the children are grown and gone.

For now, the Lord doesn't want me to minister outside the home.  He is teaching me to minister to my family.  And it is my privilege and joy to do it."  Lisa Beaubien, Alberta, Canada