Well....the last day of 2009 did not start off too great for me this morning. I was in the van leaving about 6:35 am and the good ole' van wants to get stuck in the snow/mud!!!! Terry and Elijah were already up so I called from the van in the driveway and give the info to the rescue squad. Out they come, hook up tractor to van, pull van out, hurray!!!! Next I go to the grocery store, get all the grub on the list, back to van and its dead as a doorknob!!!! I kindly, (not really, I was getting a little sad by this time) call Terry and get info. Go back into the store and ask for mercy for someone to help. Two fellows come to my rescue but with one bad jumper cable, like the end thing falls off.......duh!!! He goes to hunt another and we giver er' another try......hurray again!!!!! Next I go to Wal Mart to see about getting new battery. Turns out, thats all I need. The young girl was so nice and we talked about children and "how many" we had and she said the kindest things!! At first she thought it was under warrenty, then not, then I go on about my shopping because I had to get the battery no matter if it was warrantied or not. I check out pay for battery and hurray again!!! Instead of $75 it only cost $9.75!!!!! So things are perking up now!!!! I was able to get back home in a timely manner to get our New Year's goodies/food going!!!
So tonight, we are going to be very low key. Dave and Kate are joining us as we bring 2010 in and also Bethany's friend, Brianne. Our menu is going to be Chicken Poppers, (chicken wrapped in bacon) Calazone, a new Bean dip, another type of dip and several desserts. Some cola and Mt. Dew for our "Happy New Year" and some Cranberry Spritz!! And of course lots of coffee and later in the night, coffee shakes!!!! We have several games we are planning on playing, so it should be a fun time together!
The guys and Dave have been meeting with an elderly man this afternoon, discussing purchasing 160 acres. They said the meeting was very positive. Caleb and Daniel want to get about 30 acres apiece and Dave and Kate would like the remaining 100. It is close to our place here, so that will be a blessing if the Lord works it out. Dave and Kate have a family ready to buy their house so if the land deal goes through, they will have to get a house built really quick!!! And guess who can help?????? All the guys!!!!
Alot to be thankful for in 2009! Thankful for health, provision, two of our younger children were saved this year, grace in grieving, not any major breaking of things we use so often, washers, dishwashers ect, our home church has had new families, thankful for all of you out there, your prayers and faithfulness, the farm has been productive, teh livestock has increased and sales of show goats is doing well.....so much to be grateful for, but all that I listed is because of Christ, his mercy and grace, His goodness, His protection, His directing and ordering our steps.....so Praise Him!!!!
May the Lord pour forth His mighty grace and mercy upon each of you this New Year 2010!!!
We miss you Joel!!!! I remember this day so well in 06'
Finally, Caleb and Daniel's music CD has arrived!!!!! We'll be shipping all the pre-orders out tomorrow! Of course with the New Year's holiday, the mail will be delayed a bit, but it will be in transit to YOU!!!! Thanks for investing in the guys and their labors. If you have not ordered one, just click on the side at the top and order yours!!!! May it bless many and be a tool for the Lord to use in mighty ways for His kingdom!!!
For the pictures of Josiah yesterday, I had to do little bribing!!!!! Mercy caught on and wanted to "do" pictures too!!! So we did, but not without a "prize" coming her way!! We did not have the sun shinning through the windows like with Siah, so they all did not turn out. I get few pictures and she gets a "prize!!!"
The tracking info says we are suppose to receive the music CD's today!!! It's getting late so we'll see! I'll let you know if they get here later and tomorrow we'll be shipping the pre-orders that have been requested. If you have not ordered yours......get with it!!!!
Poor thing, we are taking one of our steers to the butcher tomorrow morning but yummy for us, real meat soon to fill up the freezer!!! I know we are only a few days into winter but I am ready for Spring!!!! I LOVE summer!!! So I am looking forward to Spring happenings on our farm, baby goats, we'll be ordering our meat chickens, garden 2010, which now the area wraps around very close to our backyard. I might be able to swing the french doors open and grab some lettuce or spinach!!!!
Tonight I get to hold baby "Mavie." Dave and Kate are bringing dinner over here!!! Dave's special is on the menu! Anna is whipping up some dessert, and we'll get the new coffee pot going and snuggle up together!
Last night we played the board game, "Are you smarter than a 5the grader?" Well.....sad to say some of the teams had to say,"I am not smarter than a 5th grader!!!" Its ridiculous, don't buy it!!!! I am glad we played it by ourselves, it could have been embarrassing!!!!
Josiah looks so big. He has lost the "toddler" look as when Joel was here with him. I so wish I could see them side by side. I wish I could have a peek as to what Joel would look like at age 6. The tractor was Joel's 3rd birthday gift, his last one and the book Josiah is reading some dear friends had it made using pictures of Joel through out it, a keepsake of course. I guess this is the last Christmas I will get to hold and be with a three year old as Mercy is that age, the age Joel was in 06, his last Christmas with us until I get some grandchildren. I know I am likely the only one that sorta puts Mercy in Joel's memory and thinking of her age 3 and what he was like at this time with him. Anyway, I just wanted to take some pictures of Josiah .......to remember!
Not much going on around here. The guys are back to work. We are trying to do a little school today. I am not taking the Christmas stuff down yet. It seems to keep the house cheerful and I need it to feel that way right now. I know I repeat myself but the days ahead in memory are harder than the days in Dec. when we found out he had cancer. Jan. 3rd was the last day we communicated with Joel. Then the following 20 days were like being in hell itself if one could imagine. The doctors, the hospital, the court and lawyers, the taking care of our own son in a facility where you are suppose to get care, the silence as we beheld Joel and no laughter, no cries, no playing, nothing came from him. Three years or be it 30 years or 50, he is missed and tears are still falling........Its so strange to feel hopeless and yet hopeful at the same exact time. I am hopeful and look with great anticipation to see him again........thank you Lord for Josiah, his name means "Jehovah heals." He has helped my heart in many ways!
If things continue I am going to run out of room quickly!!!! With being blessed with 9 boys, along with them comes love for sports!!! Funny how they are trying out new sports and filling the house with new sports equipment! We rode bulls and steers, we got chaps, ropes, helmets. We play volley ball, we got tenny shoes and I can not even count all the balls we went through! We got into basketball so now we have a portable basket ball goal. We went to the lake and they bought knee boards and wake boards. Oh, and football????? Yes, we have helmets and shoulder pads bulging from the closet!!!! They are soon to go snow skiing, Lord willing in a few weeks so the other night we went and bought snow bibs, gloves, jackets and masks!!!! We have also joined the ice skaters of America!!!! We now have ice skates in our house!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We have guns galore for all the hunters and enough camo to cover our house!!!!!!! We have a ping-pong table, remember all the crazy tournaments we had last year!!!!!!! Its totally crazy and my house is getting FULL!!!!! Oh, well........hope they fill my house with grand babies soon, that's what I'll really like!!!!!!!!!
Whats everybody "resouluting" to do for the New Year?????? I do not think I am going to make any. I know I am being negative, but I can not do what I know to do many times so why get myself more buried!!!!! I will just keep it simple, seek to read and pray and spend time with Lord and in his mercy hopefully He'll fix me!!
It looks like its going to be a white Christmas here in Oklahoma!!!! It is blowing snow, and it is soooo cold!!!! We are inside, (some of us) staying toasty and warm and drinking coffee by the pots!!! Caleb, Daniel and Dave went out this morning and walked around on a prospective 160 acres in this blizzard type stuff for several hours. They made it safely back and said it was a great time......ummmm?????? I'm content by the wood stove!!!!
Thanks first to my daughter Anna, for being so thoughtful in the BD post!!! I am blessed by my family and ALL of you!!! Thank you for the BD blessings, wishes, calls, and texts!!! Tonight.....ice skating for my BD. We have conjured up a group of about 45- 47 folks to go!!!! This time its an inside rink, the Blazers!! Hey, if anyone out there wants to join us, meet us there at 7 pm!!!
What a party last night!!! There is no way we could have done that if we did not have the extra room space!!! We had about 45 people here and we played some pretty rowdy games that needed room!!!!!! And the food ......wowowoowowo!!!!!! So much food!!! We even had our own chef!! Jeremy Canning brought in huge trays of veggies, fruit, snow crab and all sorts of dips!! He really is a professional chef!!!! Everyone did such a great job on bringing goodies, thank you!!!! We played a few games. One was Stocking Guessing Game. I had three giant stockings and filled them with like articles, then tied them shut and had three teams. Each team had to "feel" from the outside and write down what they thought was in there and the team that had the most right won!!! Next was Snowball Toss, we had 4 teams lined up behind each other and one person on each team stood in front of each lined up team and tossed mini marshmallows into the persons mouth. The winner was whose team each member caught one in their mouth. Another game was Christmas Wrap Relay. We had 3 teams and on each team you had a partner that stood right next to you. I taped their inside hands together and they could NOT use those to go down and wrap the present. The first group would make the box up and put the tissue paper in, the next group would put the shirt in, next group would wrap the package with paper and tape and the last group would put the bow on. But remember they were only using each others outside hands!!!! The last game we played was a guessing, charade game using Winter/Christmas words! It was a huge blessing to have all these folks here. Every family that was here, besides our dear friends the Burnett's (whom were a main source of support) is because of meeting or getting reconnected through Joel's sickness and battle with cancer. Even though the Lord has taken, He has given! Given friends, prayer warriors, people that supported us monetary and so much more.....thank you!! My heart is so grateful for being with us on this journey!!!
Oh, guess what the family got me for my BD??????????????? You know how much our WHOLE family LOVES coffee!!!! We have had two pots for quite a while, but with our hard well water, it corrodes the insides!!! So I got an Industrial Bunn Two Warmer/Decanter Coffer Brewer!!! It makes a pot of coffee in about 60 seconds. The only thing is I am having to buy and refill jugs with filtered water for now until we can get a Berky water filter dispenser, which we hope to soon! So if you come to our house and love coffee, we'll be able to serve you up some QUICK!!!!!
This morning I was reading in Luke 10. Sometimes only ONE word is all we need to hear and if we have confidence in Who God is, that He is Faithful, that one word will be a Rock, a Tower, a Strength. The verse is 10:8, And I say unto you, though he will not rise, and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. There are many words I have come to hold on deep with in my heart. One is Resurrection. This word importunity is very important to me and my heart, to a grieving mother. The word means, urgent, persistent in solicitations, to beg, to even be troublesome. You see the road I am on, many emotions come and go, but what is Sure, is Him, my Jesus!!!! I have done all of the definitions above. I have begged, I have been persistent, I have been urgent, I solicit requests much, I have even been troublesome to the Lord. And the most wonderful thing is HE WANTS US TO BE!!!! He wants and desires us to come to him in desperation as our only hope and help! We might not receive all we are begging, requesting, soliciting for but what does happen is, you begin to KNOW in a deeper way and learn in a deeper way of Who God is! We did all of the definitions above when Joel was sick, yet our longings were not answered like we desired but we rest in His wisdom. Even now this word is critical to my heart as I still beg, persist, solicit, and keep going back and back pleading his mercy and grace to keep walking in this trail. Also it is a very important word as I keep asking and seeking Him for direction for daughters and sons and their futures, for provision, for our family and much more. I am so glad this word is for us, for our needs, for our help. I am so glad that I can keep on asking and asking and asking adn He will rise and give what is needed!!!! You can too!!
Well, blessings to you all, thank you for everything!!!!
The music CD is on order and we'll be shipping them out soon!!!!!........order yours on the side!!!! Your gonna be blessed!!!!
***** Just a ridiculous side note...... people are selling these on e-bay for $100 each and this morning I heard a lady bought 3 of them on-line somewhere for $150 each....that's crazy!!!!! you can get them at Wal Mart for $8 if they ever have any on the shelves!!!!!!!!!!***********
Well......if your on the planet "earth" you likely know the Christmas toy craze!!!!! Now, I do!!! Its the Zhu Zhu Hamsters!!!!!! Whenever I went into a store, I would randomly check and see if there were any on the shelves but always not! I asked the other day at our Wal Mart and they said on 21-22-23 they were going to have first come basis for each day and could get a ticket and they would be selling like 46 each of those days. I thought , ok, I might get in on that so I called and got more info and they said, "oh yes, people will line up around midnight." I was not going to do that!! So this morning I called about 3 am and asked how many folks were there and there was only ONE. I called back at 5:15 am and still only one! So it was time to get up anyway and I had a few more things to get at Wal Mart for the party tonight, so I'll go check it out. One lady got there at 3:30 am! I got there and since there was only two of us, I went ahead and got my shopping done and went back to the line. I sat for about 45 minutes and then they passed them out!!! I had my shopping done my Zhu Zhu and could get home and start getting ready for the party!!!! Now...... for the fun!!!!! I am going to be your very dedicated blog friend, getting up, sitting in line and sacrificing a bit of extra sleep for YOU!!!!!! HEHEHEH!!!! I am going to give away this little Hamster and the Surf Board!!!!! Leave a comment, one per person and we'll put your name in the pot and have a drawing for the winner!!! We'll draw tomorrow, the 22nd at noon central time!!!! I"ll get it in the mail on Wed, the 23rd!!!!! Sounds like fun!!!!
Don't forget about ordering the guys music CD!!! See the button on the side!!!! Also our dear friend John-Clay Burnett, (he produced Joel's Journey DVD)has put together a short Christmas movie. Its five minutes long and costs $2 to download. Caleb and Daniel did the music on it!!! You can go here for all the info and download it!!!
I hope everyone is focusing on Christ! I know for me the memories are so screened before my mind of what our life was in 06. Joel, on these days was really doing well at home, enjoying playing and walking around slowly. The innocence that Joel had of what was really going on in his body did not affect him as far as being with his family, loving his farm and being comforted by his brothers and sisters. It is so hard on my mind sometimes as I think of "then" and I could not protect him from the monster of cancer that was eating away at this body. So it is Christ I must dwell upon, the baby in the manger that grew to be the God/man without sin, who died, rose again and is victorious over death, to give me the hope that I will be with my Joel again! Christ becomes more to a persons heart when one has walked or is walking in the "shadow of death." I do not want you to "know" what I know, but its only a knowing in a sense that as one suffers the scriptures says we shall reign with him. Thank you, Lord for Jesus, for the manger, for the cross, for the empty tomb, for HOPE...........for what I can not see now but one day will be face to face!!
We are scrambling around here....so much to clean and cook. Looking forward to fellowship tonight with friends, many whom because of Joel's sickness and testimony we were introduced to and re-acquainted with after not really seeing much of each other for years. The Stinson family, we have known for 23 years, they live in Tulsa but because of business of life, we did not stay in touch, but their family and church prayed for Joel, the Canning family we met through Joel's sickness and selling goats milk, the Gellenbeck family we met a bit prior to Joel's sickness but they sought to minister to us during all the trials. The day of the funeral our driveway was knee deep with mud and snow, their oldest son came and brought gravel and got it where folks could come to our house easier. Dave and Kate, we met Dave at a showing of Joel's Journey at a church, never knew him before. We met Kevin and Kim through the Gellenbeck family and all the volley ball we play with that crew in the summer. So many served and prayed and ministered to us. Thank you even after almost 3 years!!!
Have a great Monday.........
Here are a few pictures from our skating adventures on Friday night!!!! Our whole family was able to skate together!!!!!
My dad, their "Paps" left this morning!! We had a great time with him and Shirley!! I got up early and went grocery shopping but I did not get it all done. I'll have to go back tomorrow and finish up.
Remember our summer sport is volley-ball, well it looks like our winter sport is turning out to be ice skating. But the problem is this one costs!!!! We need our own rink or a shallow frozen pond big enough to hold us all!!!! Thats why I had to get back home, so I could help get dinner and then we are off to Stillwater, us and a few other folks.
We are having a Christmas Party Monday evening, so I am trying to make preparations for that. Its going to be great having all the space to host it. I have a few games in mind but does anyone have any group games that are really fun??????
Bethany made the music CD button on the side and it will get you to pay pal to order. Oh, and she got new glasses today!!!! She looks so.... 2o ish!!! I'm next to get some but we'll have to wait until January.
I am wading through the memories, His grace is good but I miss my little Joel!! Its hard to imagine this time in 06' that only had 36 days left with him. I think any mother will always "count and remember days."
We had Christmas at our house last night....with their "Paps." It was an explosion of excitement ALL day anticipating. The little ones get soooo excited. It was a blessed evening of being together and our family was blessed with needs and pleasures from my Dad and his wife, Shirley! Tonight we are cooking our Christmas meal, turkey and all the trimmings and LOTS of desserts and confections!! Shirley makes peanut brittle that melts in your mouth, I am sneaking very tiny pieces!!! It is addicting!!
Well, here's the scoop on the music CD. Right now we are waiting on the hard copy proof. It is in the air but will not get here until Friday. Now if it looks right with color and all, they will place the order and will likely arrive on Tuesday the 22nd. We would ship them out on the 23rd. The folks in Oklahoma would likely get theirs on the 24th, but the out of state folks will probably get theirs on the 28th. This is the best case scenario IF the proof is good! When Bethany gets back from the dentist, she will set up the pay-pal, you can pre-order so yours will ship out first thing when they get here! They are $12 plus $2.50 shipping, so $14.50 total. She'll make a the button for the CD on the side so you can order anytime you like. I hope your able to get one and support the guys and also be blessed!!!!!
Ok, other BIG news!!! Mercy does not have her passy anymore! We have been telling her for several months that when her Paps gives her gift to her that she has to give up her passy. She has gone along with the talk of it for these months. So last night after the dust settled and people were getting in bed, she was about the last one to get settled, she came to the edge of my bed and said,"mommy, I can not sleep without my passy." It was the saddest voice. I was so heartbroken for her. She whimpered a little and then crawled in bed with me. She talked in whisper for a long time about her passy, saying over and over "mommy I can not sleep w/o my passy." She asked where it was, she said it was too hard and she wanted me to scratch her back and rub her leg and finally she began to get sleepy. We prayed and she was so sweet in trying to understand but it was with a heavy saddness. Finally she went to sleep! This morning, I told her she was soooo brave! I think we'll be good to go from here on out! That first night is so hard. I really did not care if she had it longer but I think some people were wondering when it was going to go! Being the last one ( I guess, since nothing else has happened:) it is a little sad for me, a part of the "baby" stage is now gone from her, but she is very much a mothers girl, so I know I'll still get lots of snuggles!!
We are suppose to get the windows for the add on space today!!!! I can not wait!!! Terry and the guys are working close so when the windows arrive, the guys are going to zip over and put them in. I'll have to take a picture and show you if it all works out!!
