Valentine's Day Blessings

Life is moving along and I am barely hanging on and definitely not been anywhere near writing.  I miss writing daily.  I know that this blog is not informational or even for anyone else but family and friends that care to stop in.  Last week we celebrated Valentine's day and I wanted to share a few of the blessings I was surprised with.

Beautiful flowers from my husband.

My wonderful card made by my Kris! 

Breakfast in bed, made by Kris and Sara.  Love them so much!

Sara's card.  It included little activities for me to do as well.  Made me smile every time I looked at it.

Ended the night with a nice surprise from one of the youth kids.  Ellie brought us white choc. covered strawberries and sodas.  Totally surprised us and made our night!  We love working with the youth group!

Big Brother Teacher

Best part of homeschooling for a parent is to watch the older brother step up and jump in and help the younger brother with his school work.  Eli was struggling with understanding what a new word was and Jaron, without being asked jumped in and helped.  Made me smile!  BTW, yes this is a staged picture...only because my camera refused to turn on immediately, but it is what I saw when I looked up from grading Jaron's history papers.

It's January and all I can think of is SUMMER!  People talk about spring fever...usually happens about March for me...not this time.  I am so wanting to be on a beach, sipping ice cold water and enjoying the sun!  I can not wait for summer to get here.  I plan to live at the lake with the kids this year or in our small pool.  I can't wait to get things started for the garden too.  This year I plan to do straw bale gardening.  It will be interesting to see if it works as well as I have read it does.  I sure hope so, I hate wasting money on new things but I think this might be a great new adventure!  While I think and plan what I want to garden and sit here looking out the front window, there is a lite dusting of snow on the cars and I hear the roads are slick with ice.  Sigh! 
   We are having a snow day and I have spent the day talking to friends on Facebook, searching for school curriculum for next year and just enjoying a quiet day to relax.  This week has been packed full of birthdays.  Eli and Sara turned 9 this week.  Oh how I miss those baby/toddler days.  I miss rocking them to sleep while they snuggle up with their noses against my neck.  Gone are those days but having older children has it's benefits too.  I want to capture every day and cherish each moment because I know before long I will be longing for them to be 9 again.  "All my days are written in His book," Ps139:16

Check out "Not Short on Anything"

My dear friend Martha (Marty) has started a blog.  She and her husband Michael are some of our closest friends.  They were part of our wedding party and have walked with us through many things and us them.  Marty is the mother of two wonderful children, Lucy and Jay. Both have been classified as autistic but it does not define them!  Just like autism does not define our son Kris. 
   I share this because she has started her own blog called, "Not Short on Anything."  Funny thing is God gave her the name and their last name is Short. Marty is a very talented writer and honestly I don't think she knows how talented she is.  Can I ask that you go over and check it out.  It is so encouraging!  Book mark it because I know you are going to want to come back and read her posts!

It's a New Year...

...full of promise!   I haven't posted in while.  We were busy with a surprise visit from my brother and his family for Christmas! Which makes our holidays happy!  The new year is upon us and does promise the best of possibilities.  I am trusting God and believing for so much this year! I believe this is the year we will harvest all that God has promised us as a family.  We have been sowing for years and I have hope and faith that this is the year of reaping all that has been promised. The Lord has directed me to pray specifically  certain scriptures such as "Oh that you Lord would bless us indeed and would enlarge our territory, that Your hand would be with us and that you would keep us from harm." 1 Chronicles 4:10.  I believe this year He will increase our finances (despite what the media says will happen), I believe He will increase our living space, He will increase our health.  I believe He will open doors to ministry that we have never thought of or see coming.  I believe that this year God's favor and blessings will REST upon us.  Yes REST upon us.  One definition would be a place of resting...or LODGING!  I love that!  Let his favor and blessings LODGE over our family! 
Just a few of the holiday festivities... Cousins = FUN!

Lexie, Eli and Sara...8 yr olds.

Kris and Tim....10 yr olds.

Jaron and Maddie...12 yrs old.

 Waiting to ambush!

Attack!

Cookie decorating fun

My brother Ron, who hates having his picture taken.

   

So much to be thankful for this year and every year.  Thank you Lord for my wonderful children and husband!  You have blessed us many times over this year and I can not thank you enough! 

Life Skills

A few years ago when our son Kristofer was in group therapy for Autistic children we were told and taught to teach out children the necessary life skills for each stage of development. He was 6 then and in 1st grade but they pushed for us to work with him to do things on his own such as clean up his own dinner plate, get dress and put his own shoes on, brush his own teeth, wash himself during bath time and even make himself his own snacks or breakfast such as waffles, pop tarts, cereal and toast. 
   The idea of teaching him how to use a toaster or a microwave did worry me.  But he caught on quickly and loved being more independent.  We have proceeded in this adventure and know children his age with out his difficulties that do not have the slightest knowledge of how to use a microwave to heat up something or even how to use a toaster, he is now 10 I might add.

   He loves to help make dinner, bake cookies and cook.  He has told us since he was little that the wants to be a chief or a cook as he says.  Lately he has wanted to learn to cook more things such as eggs.  I have shown him a few times how to do so.  So today when he says, "I'm going to make breakfast," I honestly was thinking he would be making a waffle in the toaster until I heard the banging of pots.  I went in and found him preparing to make himself a couple of scrambled eggs.  I am so proud of him!  Naturally I ran to get the camera and capture it.  After he was done he decided he wanted to teach Eli (Eli wanted to learn too).  So I supervised and they did great as a team.  So proud of my boys, growing and learning together!

Shelters

With thanksgiving coming we decided to take the month of November and do some research on famous American Indians and the type of shelters they would of lived in.  The kids had a great time learning about the shelters last week and today they build their assigned shelters, gave a speech and answered questions that their siblings, dad and I had for them.  The rest of this week we will be reading a variety of stories, both fiction and fact about different Indians and then next week they will be doing reports on their chosen famous Indian from history.

Eli's longhouse.

Kris' wickiup.

Jaron's pueblo.

Sara's plank house and totem poles.

What I find fun about these projects is listening to the kids talk about the types of Indian tribes that would have lived in these types of shelters.  We will also be creating a teepee next week to add to the shelters.  Kris, who is autistic, has the ability to remember every thing he reads and sees.  Specially if it is a topic that he loves.  I really wasn't sure how he would do with this but when he gave his speech it was as if he was reading the book back to us.  Now if he could just master multiplication and division the same way!