So not cool.

Well, we are still having car trouble.  We took it to our mechanic and paid $500 to have it fixed.  He thought it was.  Then it died again.  grrr

Steven has been driving it since our scary incident on the highway and it has died on him several times.  I have had to go and get him twice after it died and wouldn't start again.  Each time he has been able to pull it off out of traffic and leave it there. 

Tomorrow we are taking it back to the mechanic...can he get it fixed?  I don't know.  I hope so because we leave on Sunday for vacation.

Here's hopin'.

The Last Christian Blog Tour

Summary:

After her remote village is annihilated by disease, a cryptic message from her grandfather launches Abby Caldwell into the seemingly impossible task of re-introducing the Christian faith in a late twenty first century, secular, trans-human America.



My opinion:

This is a great book!  I really enjoyed it.  Really!  The first couple of chapters were kind of hard to get into because it was a little confusing; but I kept reading and it completely paid off. 

This is such an interesting story because it mirrors what is going on in our world today.  So much of what the author wrote about scared me silly.  The blatant disregard for God and the outright denial of anything other than our desires is shockingly true to life.  I can see how we are just a short step away from the world in this book.

The sci-fi aspect of this book was so much fun to read about.  I loved all of the gadgets and little changes to the things we already have; I can totally see some of these things coming about!  But, it wasn't so much that it was unbelievable or hard to wade through.  You don't have to be a fan of sci-fi to enjoy this book.

I also found myself re-reading some of the theology that the characters believed in and talked about.  It challenged me and made me really analyze what I believed.  I will be reading this one again; I will also recommend it to everyone.



This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group

Our Reading Room

I can't remember if I have posted about this before and frankly I am too lazy to check!  Plus, I love it so much that I just have to talk about it.  :)

Off of our kitchen there was an area that we had a table and chairs in and the girls could eat in there and we did school in there.  It was always messy. 

My dh and decided that we were going to move the desk/office upstairs to that area and the table downstairs.  That thought lasted about 10 minutes.  Next, it was putting the office/desk in the storage room and someday re-doing the walls and floor.  That lasted about a minute!  It would never get finished and we both know it.  ;)

We finally came upon the idea of moving the table downstairs as a game type area (I also thought we could do school there!) and the extra love seat and coffee table upstairs.  Aha!  We found an idea that we both loved.  Steven let me buy an area rug and curtains for the sliding doors.  I still need different curtains for the windows (I bought them with the breakfast area in mind), but alas that will have to wait.  The extra budget money is going for fixing my van-but that's another story!

Here it is:

It is a sactuary for Steven and I that we use for our Quiet Times/Bible Study or just to get away for a few minutes.  The kids are not allowed to bring anything in there or leave anything.  They may visit but only when invited and only for short periods!  I have a pretend door on it that I say is closed so that I can have some quiet time.  :)

Everyone should have a room like this!

School...

We are officially done with our school days for the year BUT we are not done with school!  lol  We are continuing to do Math and Latin through the summer as well as Botany.  As well as lots of outside activities, ie swimming and bike riding.  I have to admit that I am pretty glad to be done with school for the year.  It was a great year, but I am tired.  I am ready for sleeping in, lazy days, and spur of the moment fun.  Not that any of those will happen but a girl can dream, can't she?

I would like to say that we are going to be one of those super-homeschooling families that does creative and amazing things through-out the summer, but I just don't think that is going to happen.  For one, we are not one of those families.  We are average and we frequently don't get everything done.  Sometimes we even skip things; but don't tell anyone!  Secondly, I really would like to be lazy.  I also have some writing to get done.

I would be thrilled if I could keep up with the blog!  I guess that's one more thing to work on.  :-D

More Randomness!

ahem...

I have been a bad blogger.  We haven't been exceptionally busy, we haven't come down with any tropical diseases (that we know of), my computer hasn't crashed (this week)...I just didn't want to.  Sounds bad doesn't it?

I should have, I had things to say and pictures to post.  I just didn't want to.  I was being supremely lazy.  :)

So, I am going to attempt to catch things up today.  We'll see how it goes!

Random pictures

Graduation, Car Trouble, and Pink Eye

Quite a combination, isn't it?  My niece is graduating high school this weekend and we were supposed to go.  Not gonna happen.  Why?

Well...

For starters, we haven't been able to get the van fixed.  Shoot, our mechanics can't even figure out what's wrong with it!  Of course I can't have a vehicle with normal problems.  lol  Until we can get it fixed, it is too dangerous to take out on the highway.  (We are supposed to go on vacation in June and it had better be fixed by then!)

The other reason we can't go is because I think we have Pink Eye.  Well, not all of us just the 5yo.  She has been stuffy for a few days and then her eye started gooing and turning pink.  Niice.  :(

I'm pretty sure that no one wants around with Pink Eye!

Serving

We were blessed to have an opportunity to pack food for Haiti with Numana.  I had heard about it through our church and really wanted to do it, it just didn't work out.  Well, we finally got the opportunity to go. 

Our homeschool group tries to serve through ministry opportunities.  In the past few years it has been raising money to free modern day slaves, sending hygiene kits to Haiti, taking cookies to the fire fighters, etc.  It is an amazing way to get our kids involved in serving others. 

Today, we went to pack food with Numana. 

I wasn't sure what to expect.  I mean I was taking all four girls with me and you never know what kind of mood they are going to be in!  Let alone me!!  ;-)  I prepared for the day, praying that we would all get along and serve with joyful hearts. 

The kids were in great moods.  That is until our youngest had to put on the hairnet and plastic apron.  That did NOT make her happy!  Truly, they were hideous!  She dealt with it and eventually cheered up.

We were assigned our table-our homeschool group filled THREE tables!  At each table, there was a station for the rice, beans, soy, and vitamin powder.  A certain amount of each one was put into a funnel and into a bag.  The bag was then weighed and then sealed.  Each almost 4lb bag of food would feed a family of six.  Seriously! 

Our youngest scooped up the beans, rice, and soy putting them in the funnel for almost two hours and never complained.  So did my other girls, but at 5yo I was pretty impressed!

It felt good to be able to contribute to the well-fare of others and to see how much our girls enjoyed doing it.  To foster a heart of service in our girls is a high priority; I'm so glad that we have a group of friends that help us in that endeavor.

I love my house

No, really I do.  God brought it to us and gave it to us.  I am grateful and in awe that He would do that for us.

That being said...I am tired of the leaks.  We have two windows that are leaking; but only sometimes.  Is there any way to predict when it will happen?  Nope.  Does it happen frequently enough for us to be on guard against it?  Nope.  It just happens out of nowhere...water starts pouring through the windowsill. 

Yup, good times.

After we had finally got the kids to shut up, I mean in bed, it was quiet and I could finally hear myself scream think.  When the quiet settled around us I heard someone peeing.  Seriously, it sounded like just like that!  However, all the rugrats children were in bed and I didn't think that any of them would pee in their rooms.  (Anymore!)

Lo and behold, it was coming from the school room.  So not cool.  Water was pouring the window, down the wall all over our timeline.  AAGGHH!!! 

I know I should have been worried about the wall or the carpet or even the window and why it was leaking.  But all I could see was our timeline and the characters that we had placed on it.  It covers almost two walls.  Here is a post that has a picture of it.  You have to scroll down a little to see it.  I was getting more upset with each century line that was ripping and then the tape that we had used started ripping the wall.  Niice.

As we were cleaning up the water that was pooling on the carpet, I kept chanting to myself, "They are just things, they are just things."  It still broke my heart.  :(  I love our timeline and I can't replace it.  At least not anytime soon.

So...Steven and I stayed up most of the night going out to check on the offending window to see if the well was filling back up with water.  I grudginly graciously let Steven go to bed and then proceeded to stay up all night so that I could run out in the rain and look into a window well.  I got pretty sick of it and the last time I was grumbling a bit and almost didn't catch that the water was rising and needed bailing.  It was such a joy to pick up the pitcher that I had broken earlier bailing water out of the well that I couldn't help but curse!  Okay, so I didn't really but I wanted to. 

Thankfully it didn't leak anymore past 3:30am.  That and the kids let me sleep until I woke up.  Then I had copious amounts of coffee!  We found a covering for the window but I am expecting that at any random moment water could start pouring in my house.  I guess I will keep a bucket handy!

A WINNER!!

I week behind in posting this.  lol  The winner for the copy of Radical by David Platt is...Jodien!!


Woohoo!!  I will facebook you for an addy!  :)

Indivisible Blog Tour

From the publisher:

An inseparable bond.


An insatiable force.

Battling his own personal demons, Police Chief Jonah Westfall knows the dark side of life and has committed himself to eradicating it. When a pair of raccoons are found mutilated in Redford, Colorado, Jonah investigates the gruesome act, knowing the strange event could escalate and destroy the tranquility of his small mountain town. With a rising drug threat and never-ending conflict with Tia Manning, a formidable childhood friend with whom he has more than a passing history, Jonah fights for answers—and his fragile sobriety.

But he can’t penetrate every wound or secret—especially one fueled by a love and guilt teetering on madness.

From best-selling author Kristen Heitzmann comes a spellbinding tale of severed connections and the consequences of life lived alone.



My Opinion:

This was a great book!  It was a little frustrating at first because I wanted to know all of the back stories for all the people and the author did not give anything away until she was good and ready to! lol  I was intrigued from the first and just had to know what was going to happen.  The characters were crafted in such a way that kept you guessing as to why they did things.  You had to keep reading so that you could get their full life stories; you just had to! 

Now, I will warn you that there was a little bit of gruesome in the book.  I'm not going to give it away, I'm just going to say-be prepared!  It's not too bad, but it did make me a little squemish.  It wasn't a major focus of the book, but it was definitely a key point that couldn't be ignored. 

I did figure out the mystery of 'who-dunnit' about half-way through.  Kind of!  There was a twist in there that I hadn't seen coming and was pleasantly surprised.  Even though I was pretty sure of the outcome, I still had to read it.  The characters were addicting. 

I was disappointed about one thing.  One of the characters...well, I can't give anything away; but I wanted more about him.  I wanted history, stories; more just more about him!  Maybe there will be another book just about him? 

If you want to buy this book go here.

You can download the first chapter here

You can listen to an interview with the author here.

Include the FTC disclaimer: This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group

Mother's Day

Mother's Day.  it is a day that is celebrated by so many and yet for others it is a day filled with sorrow and pain.  I spent many years dreading Mother's Day.  I would avoid going anywhere, especially church.  They would pass out flowers and have all the mothers stand for applause.  I couldn't do it.  Through those years of miscarriages I learned a new appreciation for those 'on the outside'. 

My heart would break everytime the word mother was mentioned.  It hurt with a pain so deep that I couldn't even give it a voice.  There was no way to describe the heartache.  It was consuming.

One of the things I learned is that all women are mothers.  You may not have given birth to a child, adopted one, or whatever other way there is to be a 'mother' but you are a mother none the less.  If you are around people younger than you, you are a mother.  God gave women the instint to mother and you do it all the time.  You guide, protect, love, instruct, encourage, correct, and give your heart to those around you.  That is being a mother. 

So, whether you gave birth to a child or adopted one or just parent the children you come in contact with I say Happy Mother's Day.

Liz Curtis Higgs posted something on her Facebook status today that fits exactly what I am feeling. 

"For all who are celebrating this Mother's Day, may the Lord bless you. For all who are mourning this Mother's Day, may the Lord comfort you. For all who are struggling this Mother's Day, may the Lord strengthen you. "Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all." Prov 31:29"

God Bless.

A few pics...

This picture is of our "non-competitive" child!!  She didn't really knock the girl down, but she sure did go after the ball.  heehee

We were getting ready to leave for a Mother-Daughter Banquet with my mother-in-law.  Maggie (the dog) just had to be in the picture with us.  I think in this one, she is pouting because we are not paying attention to her!

Some pics of the flowers around our house.

Our oldest took these...

It was a beautiful day and the girls were outside playing all afternoon.

Radical Blog Tour and GIVE AWAY!

IS JESUS WORTH THIS TO YOU?


It's easy for American Christians to forget how Jesus said his followers would actually live, what their new lifestyle would actually look like. They would, he said, leave behind security, money, convenience, even family for him. They would abandon everything for the gospel. They would take up their crosses daily...

BUT WHO DO YOU KNOW WHO LIVES LIKE THAT? DO YOU?

In Radical, David Platt challenges you to consider with an open heart how we have manipulated the gospel to fit our cultural preferences. He shows what Jesus actually said about being his disciple--then invites you to believe and obey what you have heard. And he tells the dramatic story of what is happening as a "successful" suburban church decides to get serious about the gospel according to Jesus.

Finally, he urges you to join in The Radical Experiment --a one-year journey in authentic discipleship that will transform how you live in a world that desperately needs the Good News Jesus came to bring.

My opinion:

This is a great book!  I found myself nodding and and wanting to underline so many things.  The first chapter is entitled "Someone Worth Losing Everything For".  That says quite a bit, doesn't it?  Do we really understand what the Bible means when it says to take up our cross and follow him or do we have an Americanized version that better fits our lifestyle? 

Author David Platt poses some very good questions that should step on all our toes.  If we read this book with the intent of being honest with ourselves, we will have to examine our lives and our walks with Christ in a different light. 

I highly recommend this book.  I think it could open a wonderful dialogue in the Christian community. 

I challenge you to read this book.  Read it and then radically follow Christ.

I also received the booklet The Radical Question by the same author.  On the cover is the question, "What is Jesus Worth To You?"  This booklet is filled with sotries from around the world of people who sacrifice everything for Christ.  It is a great schnipet of the book, but I would recommend getting the main book and reading it several times.


This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group


Now, I have a copy of Radical to give away.  If you would like a copy of this challenging book, leave a comment and I will draw a name Wednesday the 12th.

God is so good

Last Thursday our homeschool group went to Morningstar Ranch to volunteer.  We spent the day painting, planting, and having fun.  Our good friends live up there and we miss them terribly.

After the fun and work was over, we had to hurry home because my brother was having surgery at the VA.  We were almost home when it happened.  I was driving 65mph and was in the passing lane trying to get around a slower car.  There was a car in front of me, several behind, and the one on the right with several cars behind him.  It was a very busy highway.

I was almost past the car on my right when I tried to give the car a little more gas.  I say tried because I did and nothing happened.  I tried again and then looked at the speedometer and realized that it was going the wrong way.  We were slowing down.  I looked at the gauges and lights, there was nothing wrong.  But we were definitely slowing down. 

I looked at my oldest and said that something was wrong.  By then, the lights and gauges were all going off and I knew that the car was dead.  It had died going 65mph in the middle of heavy traffic.  I had no power steering and no way to get it off the road and around all the traffic.  I started say, "Oh God", not in a cursing kind of way but in a desperate cry for help kind of way.  I turned on my emergency lights and tried to turn the steering wheel and the next thing I know we are sitting on the shoulder out of traffic. 

Seriously.

I don't know how we got there and how we didn't get hit by all those cars, but Praise God we didn't.  It was probably one of the scariest moments I can remember.   The girls and I talked about it and I was sure to make them understand that God was in control and He got us to the side of the road safely. 

Surprise!

Sitting at a make-up soccer game last week, Steven and I were checking our calendars to see what was going on on Sunday, May 2nd.  We both checked and saw nothing (see previous post on Sundays!).  After a few minutes of staring at our calendars, which are on our phones, we realized that Sunday, May 2nd was our anniversary!  roflol

We both forgot.  I had spent so much time getting ready for his birthday that our anniversary slipped right past me.  We sat there laughing at each other and I realized that the other people sitting around us had heard us and were laughing at us.  :-D  Oh well, at least we forgot together!

We were able to go out and celebrate our 18th anniversary just the way we wanted.  Steak and a bookstore.  We are simple people with simple pleasures. 

Eighteen years, wow!  I picked a great guy.

More soccer

We had a great day of soccer.  One because the girls played their hardest and two because we only have one more weekend of games!!!  lol

Steven's parents were able to be there for the games and yell for the girls.  Steven took pictures that are still on the camera.  (someday I will put more pictures on here!)  No one got a sunburn.

It was a good day. 

WINNER that I forgot to draw for!!!

I am sorry that I forgot to draw for the winner of the book Bridegrooms when I was supposed to.  :(  With my brother's surgery and life happening, I just forgot.

Anyway, the winner is...KARLA!!!

I hope you enjoy the book.  :)