Playing in the Leaves

Today I took my camera with me to pick up the kids from school. Enjoy these wonderful pictures!

Eli's nice goose egg on his forehead. He fell head first down two steps out of the school bleachers.

As you can see the kids had a blast today playing in our neighbors leaves. Yesterday the trees were full but over night the wind from the cold front that came in blew them all off. Much to the joy of the kids!

More Fall Colors!

As promised here are some more fall colors for my friends and family in Florida who do not get to see such beautiful colors. This week we had our first frost of the year and the very next day the colors seemed to POP! This is a tree on the side of the house.

This tree sits in our neighbors front yard. This picture does NOT give it justice!

This little tree sits in our front yard, the church is sitting next to it.(white building)

This is the view from our front porch. This picture again does not give this tree justice. It is absolutely gorgeous! Here right now. The leaves are really starting to fall.

Tonight we had a Fall Fellowship out at the lake. It is so much fun! Everyone brings their favorite soup and dessert to share and we roast hot dogs over a camp fire. We had a great turn out with two new families that showed up! It was great fun! I made a blueberry cake. SO simple!!! Just a white cake (boxed) then when it is cooled use frozen blueberries (thawed) add them to a blueberry pie filling and spread over the top of the cake. Then to top it off I spread a whole tub of cool whip over the blueberry stuff. IT WAS SO DELICIOUS! Everyone seemed to really like it! Just Yummy and simple to make! I am all about simple!!!

Settling for the Imposter?

As promised here is something else God showed me yesterday at the park.

Yesterday

As I sit here at the picnic table watching the kids playing a nice little bee is buzzing by. He is attracted to our soda cups. Sean inadvertently grabbed coffee straws instead of the normal straws, so we have red straws that seem to be attracting this little bee. Not only is the bee attracted to the straws but to the soda as well. It has been quite entertaining to watch this bee flitter from straw to straw, cup to cup. (yes simple things entertain me! lol!) He took long sips of soda on the lids of the cups which I have to say was very interesting to watch!

But here is what I got from watching the little buzzing bee. It was willing to settle for soda instead of the sweet nectar of a flower. That bee was attracted to what the world offered and it was a fake. What was even more interesting is that despite how many times I shooed it way or dripped soda on it to get to it leave it kept coming back for the soda. Now I know soda has a lot of sugar in it but why would it be so attracted to this junk (soda) instead of the good stuff (flower nectar)?

Today

It still baffels me today about that bee. But aren't we just like him! I mean how many times are we willing to settle for the fake stuff. Oh it may look good, taste good and be good but why settle for the fake stuff? God wants to pour His spirit into us, He wants to bless our lives abundantly!

I remember a story that a friend told me about fake pearls. This little girl had a set of fake pearls and loved them so much she wasn't willing to give them to her father despite how many times he offered her a special box. He wanted to trade her his box that had something wonderful inside for her fake pearls. Eventually the little girl lays down her pearls because of her father's love and he presents her with the box. When she opens it she finds a beautiful set of real pearls.

God is like this like this Father. He wants the real thing for you but you have to be willing to lay down the fake stuff, the substitute, the settled for thing, and trust that your Heavenly Father has something wonderful in store for you!

I hope today you lay down the substitute and you find the true love of God!

July 4th Family Events

ok so I can't figure out why but for some reason I can't get my pictures down where I want them. I wrote my post first and then addedthe picture but the won't budge from being the first things you see. SO enjoy the pictures and then read my post. Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July!

Kristofer, showing off his sparkler!
Jaron growing up so fast, still looks like my dad only with blond hair!
Eli showing of his home made tshirt and Sara was fixing her bike...not that it needed it!

Here is the guard of the feeder. Read my post below tp find out what I mean!



Sara wanted to put the sparklers in her hair to look beautiful,that about flipped momma out!

You can barely make out the bird in the leaves

but this was one of the chasing away events!

Today has been such a nice day. Despite the nasty thunderstorms we had earlier this morning. In fact our house was quiet till 10 am. Everyone but me slept in. Naturally when I could use the extra sleep I can't sleep. The reason I couldn't sleep is the same as it has been since Jan. Severe knee pain. In fact I haven't posted about my pain here but if you pray I could use some prayer for healing. I am in constant pain from my knee I had surgery on in Jan. Six months of nonstop pain that causes me to not be able to walk without crutches or prescription pain meds. I go to see my Orthopedic Surgeon on July 22 I am hoping for some answers and some relief. Please pray for healing.

So anyway I was up at 6 am posting the previous post and working on some fun business things for a friend of mine. One by one the kids woke up and after lunch it finally had stopped raining. I love rain when I get to sleep in or just snuggle in bed with a good book. But that was not what I got to do today. Which was fine! This evening Sean had to work and the kids and I enjoyed the evening sitting on our porch watching the hummingbirds coming to our feeder. At one point we had two come dive bomb us on the porch and we were laughing hysterically. I was like, what has gotten into these birds when I looked at Jaron. He had a nice bright red shirt on just like the feeder! In the house he ran to change his shirt!

DO you know how hard it is to catch a humming bird on film? I do! It is very difficult! But Jaron and I were able to get a few fantastic pictures. We had about 5 humming birds zipping by for about 3 hours. They tend to feed late afternoon right before and during sunset time. There was one bird that claimed the feeder as his own. He would hide in the tree leaves and any time another bird came to sip some nectar he would attack and chase them off. It became rather comical and the kids were starting to bet on how long it would take for him to chase off the others. We also enjoyed our neighbors fireworks which were being shot over our house! No kidding directly above our house from our back yard neighbors. Plus we had some neighbors down the street that were shooting them off as well. We did the norm around here and enjoyed sparklers. All in all today was a nice day with the kids!

New Life!

Spring brings much more than April showers (or earthquakes) or May flowers to our home today. We have a neighbor's cat, Taz who is a beautiful long hair grey and white cat. He is gorgeous and I think he thinks he lives here. We open a door and he runs in. We probably haven't helped that much because we do feed him. Which the neighbor doesn't seem to mind. Needless to say Taz has a sister that is also grey and white but is short haired. Snowbell is very pregnant and today she came over to visit and look for food. I was enjoying our beautiful weather and sitting on the porch in the warm spring sun when she came and layed down next to me.

This was remarkable to me because Snowbell is sorta skittish with strangers. The kids were all riding their bikes and eventually ended up on the porch with me. As I was petting Snowbell I realized there was a wet spot that hadn't been there before. I thought it was odd and made a joke with the kids that Snowbell had peed herself. But as I was petting her I realized immediately that she had not peed herself but was in labor! I lifted her tail to see a tiny foot and a small tail emerging. I got the kids to all sit and quiet down. Sara, Jaron, a neighbor girl, and I watched as Snowbell had her first baby right on our porch.

This is not the baby!

I have seen it before but the kids hadn't. Sara was in awe, "Oh Mommy, she says, "Look how cute!" Then it was "oh gross what is Snowbell eating, ewe she pooped the baby out!" Kris was so excited he was coming unglued. Then he saw blood on the kittens two feet and he just about freaked, "Snowbell is eating the baby!" I calmly explained what was going on. They watched at Snowbell cleaned the kitten off and listened to it meow for the first time. The looks on our children's faces were priceless. They were smiling from ear to ear with big eyes all glued on that baby.

Once Snowbell had cleaned that baby off it was time to scatter. She picked that baby up and immediately the kids thought she was going to hurt it and eat it. ( Neighbor dog had puppies and killed a couple) But she was so gentle as she positioned that kitten in her mouth and ran home. I am sure she had at least another 3-4 babies earlier this evening. We made sure to let our friend know that Snowbell had started having babies. She was as surprised that she had the first one on our porch as much as we were. She told Jaron she would check on her in the shed. That is where she had been nesting I guess.

On our porch spring brought new life all to the amazement of our children. What a glorious way to end the day!

QUESTION: What killed the dinosaur??

ANSWER

THE ICE AGE!!

Yesterday i wrote about the storm that was coming in. Well we woke up to a cold house ( electric was out for about 4-5 hours) and a icicle world of wonder! It is absolutely beautiful as well as saddening to see all of the broken trees that are down. Our small little country town has half of the people with out electric and half with. We are lucky enough to have gotten our electric back. In Marion where we go to do our shopping at is even more covered from reports from friends who live there. The kids have had a blast today! For four Florida born babies they sure do love the ice and snow! They have stated I wish our cousins in Florida could see this! SO make sure you call your kids in to see these pictures, for those of you in Florida...we miss you and although these are amazing pictures we sure would love to be laying on Venice beach soaking in some sun!

Some of these icicles hanging from our roof measure 6-12 inches long!

Just one of the many icicles the kids have played with today!

Two of my favorite pictures of the day...

what is suppose to a clothes line is a icicle line instead!

This is almost a two foot icicle that was hanging off the house!

Close ups! See all that ice, this is on the small maple in our front yard!

These two close ups are from the branches that now lay in our back yard!

The next two pictures are a before and after shot of the once beautiful tree we have in our back yard. The first is a fall picture from Nov 2006 when we were voted in and accepted as the new pastors of the church. The second picture is what is left of that tree after the ice has had its way with it.

More pictures of the now very sad tree in our back yard. We had a nice swing set in our back yard that another family had blessed us with. You will see in one of the pictures what is left of that swing set.

My once beautiful potted plant is now a ice plant. There is a plate of ice surrounding

it on top and then the bubbles of ice that formed down the side of the pot.

How to Eat Fried Worms

If you ever read the book in school you have to

get the movie! It is one of the best kid/family

friendly movies. We all love watching it!

There are not too many kid movies that I like

to watch over and over again, but this is one

that qualifies as one of my favorites.
My kids love digging for worms.

Something they were never able to

really do in Florida but here in IL we have

a plethora of night crawlers. These things

are huge! Well they kids love this movie.

Naturally they do not want to eat the worms

but if theycan keep them as pets it makes

them even happier! You want a great family

movie, go to your localmovie rental

place and rent it! It's great!

Oh and don't forget the popcorn!

Fall is in the air!!!

We awoke this morning to wonderful crisp fall air!

The temp was 50 degrees and the high is only

suppose to reach 70 today. Later this week we are

suppose to have highs in the low 60's!

AHHH fall is here!

The leaves are starting to change. Some have

actually lost all of their leaves. The picture above

is from last year. It was taken just down the road

from where we live now.

I love fall! I love the crisp air, the falling leaves,

the variety of colors all around and of course all of

the pumpkin patches! Fall is one of my favorite seasons.

It is why I love the northern states. Florida can not

compete when it comes to fall!

In a few weeks Sara and Eli's pre-K class has a

pumpkin patch field trip that is open to the whole family.

It is actually on a pumpkin and apple farm which

will be lost of fun for the kids. When we lived in

Florida we would go to a local church that sold

pumpkins for missions. It was so much fun to go

and take pictures of the kids sitting in the midst

of the pumpkins. This year shall prove to be even

better. I have been told that it is a wonderful

farm and the kids will have a great time!

So be looking for those pictures at

the end of the month!

Mom's know everything...yea right!!!

Before you read any farther please check this out

http://wisemantis.tripod.com/wahlum/pics.htm

This site has some beautiful pictures and I am

unable to produce with my camera!

Then read the rest of this little tidbit!

EWE WHAT IS THAT!

What is that thing???
EWE! It looks like a roasted marshmallow!
It's gross maybe it's poop!
No it can't be poop!
Mom what the heck is that thing!

Like how am I suppose to know???
My children always seem to think that I am the
genius in this family! They really need to go to
their father! He is a genius!

But I am not sure he would even know what this
thing is! So what is a Mom to do...
well a modern Mom that is computer savy gets on the
internet and does searches till we figure it out!
Now I have to be honest, I had help, you see in the, what has a habitat
for four toads and a tree frog is now the lone inhabitant....
A HUGE PRAYING MANTIS!

So I figured it had to be something to do with the bug!
I was right! Its a Praying Mantis egg sac! It is suppose to hatch in the spring I believe is what I have learned so far!
This info is from http://www.projects.ex.ac.uk/bugclub/mantids.html

The eggs are produced in an eggcase called an ootheca this may produce 30 to 300 young mantids depending on the species. The ootheca is a frothy mass created by the female, the froth hardens to form a tough case for the eggs. Hatching usually takes between 3 and 6 months. The young may hatch all at once or in batches over a period of several weeks.

My goodness what have we gotten into! Last summer and the summer before that we had hundreds of monarch caterpillars, from eggs to butterflies. We watched as the caterpillars grew and then formed its beautiful green crystalis and then watched as the butterflies emerged! It was an awesome sight!! One I had never experienced until I had my kids...especially Jaron our budding biologist or bug scientist! And now we have this...oh my goodness! My son is teaching me more about bugs than I really care to know and learn! Just give me a can of Raid! I love do love it though! My kids are teaching me isn't it suppose to be the other way around!

The above picture is from: http://pt.treknature.com/gallery/North_America/United_States/Midwest/photo76179.htm

My camera could not take pictures of our egg sac but this is what it looks like!