My Thankful Thursday Post just a little late

This past Thursday Iwas working in the garden, and Jonathon was working at splitting wood, and I realized that I have so much that I am thankful for that I just love. I thought how perfect of a day for me to share with our readers the things around our home that we (mostly me) am thankful for.

A lake would be better, but I just love seeing the sun reflect off of water. Even if it is just on a mud hole, there is just something about the shimmer on water that causes me to stop, reflect and be thankful for that sunshine.

After years of talking about it, we finally planted some fruit trees (2 apples and 2 peach) AND the deer haven't touched them. My prayers will continue though that they will stay away!

This may look like a peculiar thing to be thankful for, but do you see all the notches that are taken out of this stump? This stump is where Jonathon sets his piece of wood to split. This stump means that my husband is able to split wood for his family. I'm so thankful for his health and willingness to work hard.

And he got a new toy. We needed something to mow the yard and will need something to push snow this winter, so he got himself a little garden tractor and is really having fun with it. So, I am thankful for his new toy and his joy with it, but look at that baby watching his papa ever so closely. I'm thankful that my children watch their daddy, but more importantly, that they see good character and good work ethic when watching their daddy.

That is the first leaf to open on our maple tree. We have been wondering when its buds were going to open, and I noticed the first one today. We planted this tree a few years after we moved here. It has grown so much! It sure is fun to watch a tree that we planted ourselves, grow and grow.

This picture is of me, waving, if you didn't notice, at all of our readers.....and showing our freshly hoed garden. I'm thankful for this space to grow nutrient rich produce and thankful that I was able to get out there and hoe it. This time last year I was stuck in bed waiting for a clot to go away and a baby to come. My health is coming to mind a lot these days.

My sunflowers are up! I might have planted these a little early, but I just couldn't wait. And we have peas, lettuce, spinach, and cabbage up. Bless the Lord for the good of the land!

Here is a picture of our other beautiful tree that I promised I would take only it is not in its full beauty. I waited a little too long.

Another strange picture perhaps, but this van full of tools and supplies means my man is working, and we bless the Lord for that every day!

One of my favorites from the day of taking pictures. These tulips were planted by me and the girls when Jonathon left back 5 years ago. Tulips are my favorite flower and I wanted something to pop up in the spring to remind us of new life and growth no matter what happens. Well, in the spring, he was back and our family had certainly gone through some growth and new life. Then last year I missed them blooming from being in the hospital doing some more growth and waiting for another new life. So these flowers are super special to me. And speaking of super special.....can't be thankful and show what things I love without posting......

a babe with blue eyes.

Good Deal-E-O

Hey, I went shopping today at Walgreens and scored some great deals with getting register rewards back. Love freebies from stores. But I wanted to pass along a freebie that is $14.00 worth of freebie. I got a shampoo and conditioner of the Organix Coconut Milk. The bottles had a Try Me Free tag AND Walgreens had a Buy One Get One Free sale. So, I did the Walgreens sale of buy one get one free and will mail in my receipt along with the rebate form to get my money back for the one that I did buy. Love those kinds of deals! Let me know if your Walgreens is having the sale and if their bottles have the Try Me Free tags.

It's Spring!!!!

Well, it is finally getting warm, things are greening up around here, and we wanted to share with you what our view is here at our house. Oh, and Benaiah is officially crawling, so we are busy around here keeping our eyes on him and keeping things picked up. What a task!

This is the first that it clicked with Benaiah and the crawling milestone. He is pretty happy about being able to get around.


Welcome to our front flower bed. Right now, there aren't too many flowers in the garden...just a few here and there, but the trees are looking mighty fine. Usually we only get to enjoy these for a day and then a big wind storm comes in and blows the flowers all away. We are really enjoying it this year!

Here is one of the few flowers blooming in our front flower bed. It seems before I can see one all pretty, one of the girls finds it and picks it. This one I caught first though. :)

Jonathon has done an amazing job at trimming this tree so it has this amazing arch over our path to the shed. And since the winds in the past usually blow away the beauty, I thought I better get a quick picture of it with the children.

Love these three! They make the tree look especially beautiful.

The girls smelling the fragrance of our weeping cherry tree.

The children surprised me by showing me this little bush to the east of our house. It is a rhododendron and is looking like it also is enjoying this warmer weather.

The children are hesitant around the weeping cherry trees as they have lots of little visitors. I did finally get them convinced that they wouldn't bother them while they were getting their picture taken. I couldn't resist getting a close up shot of this bee. How amazing to watch it go from flower to flower doing what God created it to do.

That evening Jonathon and I were busy outside planning garden stuff and preparing to have an area started for wildflowers. I love cutting flowers for bouquets and if this area we are planning works, I will have a great assortment of flowers to cut. Maybe I can post pics after the flowers are up....hopefully. Anyways, Benaiah enjoyed the flowers too.

He would reach up and grab one flower and feel it in his hands. And notice his feet crossed? That's how he sits often. We are a little behind on getting seeds planted but hopefully that will happen soon. Last year my tulips didn't bloom. I was in the hospital and would have missed them anyways. I'm really wanting to see those bloom this year. Then it will be the crabapples turn to bloom. Will post pictures of that too. I missed that one too last year, but thankfully a lady from church came and took a picture of it on her phone and came to visit me and showed me the picture. My husband sure did choose some wonderful trees for our home when we did our landscaping. I love it!

If you have any lovely landcaping pictures on your blog, leave a comment with you blog address so we can all enjoy them too. Now I'm waiting for allergies to kick in. Missed those too last year from being in the hospital. Would rather have the allergies than go through that again. Blessing the Lord for those memories, His protection, and healing. Spring growth is so lovely!

Friends and Fun at Delt Church Park

Delt Church Park in LaGrange, IN is such a great place to visit! Room to roam and things to climb makes this a wonderful pick for families of all ages. We certainly enjoyed it while spending some time with our church family enjoying the Sabbath Day of the first day of Unleavened Bread. It's such a blessing to fellowship together with those who also observe His days.

Benaiah sure enjoyed the swings. He looked like he was sleeping but really he was very relaxed sitting in the sun and swinging in the breeze. Many other little ones enjoyed the swings too. And Amalyah had fun pushing Naiah. She sure is cute! And of course, Benaiah is too!!!

Asleep or not? That was the question.

Just really relaxed!

Some of the ladies just watching the children busy at play. We had a beautiful day to fellowship and enjoy one of the first spring like days. Couldn't have been any nicer for us!

This playground has some very unique things. It really is a fun place to hang out for awhile.

Peek a boo! She did need help getting down, which is why I didn't get a smile, but I couldn't resist the picture before helping her get back to the ground. Love how her hair is blowing in the breeze. Truly thankful for all of the children that are part of our's and our children's lives.

Who is that masked man? From the other side of the playground, I looked through one of the openings to one of the slides and who did I see? This is zoomed in, but what a great picture reflecting the fellowship that he has with his brothers in the Lord. We are so blessed!

Alegra and Hope. These little seats gave the saying "sit and spin" a whole new meaning. Too bad I didn't get a picture of Vicki trying her hand at these.

Oh that sun was so bright but very lovely. Everybody enjoyd passing Benaiah around as usual. I don't think that boy is loved at all. :)

This contraption was very interesting and I did try it, both with the young lady in the above picture holding Benaiah and once with Jonathon. I much preferred it with Sarah, as Jonathon actually sent me flying off of it. Guess I needed a little more weight. Alegra wouldn't take our picture doing it because she said we were being too rough. If your feet on the step hit the tires, your feet bounce off of the step. A little scary, but really scary when you actually fly off more than an inch and your feet totally miss the step on your way back down. Okay, maybe I'm glad she didn't take our picture. I probably wouldn't have looked my best. :)

Time to gather them all up for a group picture!

After all the hard playing that the children did, it was time for a nap I guess. I think the adults were thinking that more than the children were. I think they were mocking us here. :)

We didn't quite get everybody in the picture, but the majority. I should have placed them a little better as you can't even see Alegra but that's okay. I was just glad to get such a nice picture with them all. And there is no picture taking without.......

a crazy picture. Oh the fun that we had. Even the adults got in on the fun of the playground. What a great place to spend some time as a family or with friends. We will certainly be visiting this park again!

A Great Day for a Scavenger Hunt

We honored my dad for his birthday by sending him on a scavenger hunt in Shipshewana. It was a cold day for such an activity, but we all had fun and the children had "getting to know you questions" for him, so they learned a little about grandpa. We started out by meeting them at the Davis Mercantile, singing "Little Red Caboose". That was an easy clue for him, and we all set out to the only red caboose in town.

Of course the children had to help him find the clues.

Most of the clues had something to do with dad's life, whether past or present. Some of them were easy, but then others made him think. And some we had to give extra clues to for him to figure out. With each clue we included a coupon for a free drink at Pilot truck stops. Since my dad is a truck driver, I thought this would be a great gift for him to enjoy on more than just this special day. I think he was quite pleased with those coupons, especially since he started working for a new company and there is a Pilot truck stop right across the road. That worked out nicely, I'd say.
This clue was at Kid's Creations. I believe the clue said something along the lines of "As you have gotten older, you get more of these". He thought for sure it was something physically related, but they have been blessed with a lot more fun, crafty papers from lots of little ones.

The last clue took us to get pizza. Yummy, as we were all quite hungry after our walk around town. We had pizza, ice cream and we all played dominoes. A great family time!

Happy Birthday, Dad! Thanks for guiding our family in the right direction and teaching me so many great lessons just from your example. Love you!

Davis Mercantile Homeschool Week

Well, we haven't done so well with field trips this year. I don't know, maybe it's because I have another little body to keep track of that is causing me to not be as excited about going out with all four of them. :) We do however get very excited when the Davis Mercantile in Shipshewana has their Homeschool Week. This year a small handfull of us from church went along with Grandpa Daniel and Grandma Deborah. We were glad that Grandpa Daniel could join us since he doesn't get to spend very much time with the children. It was a fun day!

For the Homeschool Week some of the stores participate by doing an I Spy themed treasure hunt. Tokens for the carousel are hidden throughout the building for the children (or adults in some cases) to find. And boy did we find them! Carousel rides for everybody! Yay!!! And they had to read clues and do different things with counting or figuring out answers to questions that pertained to the store. This year two of the stores had coloring contests which made my children really excited. We had just been talking about coloring contests and they all wanted to enter one, if we only knew of a place that was having them. That was answered and they all colored great pictures! We'll see if anybody from our group wins anything.

In the Scrapyard, we had to count how many different kinds Shipshewana paper that was. I was very surprised at the paper. I had no idea Shipshewana had their own paper designs. Here is a small example of what they had:

Diella's just says Shipshewana at the bottom and Alegra's is an actual picture of the carousel. Very neat!

After all of our clues were found, we headed upstairs to the coloring table where they created their masterpieces for the coloring contests. They were busy at work!

They had to color a Kooky Pen for the Kooky Pen Club and a quilt square for a gift certificate for the Mercantile.

Here Josiah is coloring and grandma is doing his word search. Those were very hard and they were tricky in not making them all the same. They all had the same words but the mixed up the letters. I guess they didn't want any cheating. Does grandma doing the word search count as cheating? :) We didn't turn any of them in because they were just too much for my aged children.

Benaiah Daniel sure is fond of his Grandpa Dan. As you can tell from his gaze. It is moments like this though that makes me wish that he could have met his grandpa Byron too. He would have loved and loved and loved this little guy.

After coloring and a carousel ride, we all walked to the park to meet up with the other half of our group who were coming to do it all in the afternoon. We had a nice lunch together and then headed back to the Mercantile for the movie and a nice little music lesson from Simple Sounds about instruments around the world. After that, it was pretzel time! Yay, our favorite part!

They gave the children a short history on pretzels and then gave them each their own chunk of dough and let them roll and twist. Here, Zeky and Alegra are really getting into it. Gotta roll those sleeves up even.

Pretzels finished and ready to be baked at the table. It was fun to see how everbody's pretzels were different, and yet they all ate them the same.

Aubrey and Elli worked at one together. Great job girls!

Time to head to the Murphy's. Grandma Linda and Aunt Mandy came and picked up the three older children for some fun at their house while Benaiah and I stayed at Dad and Mom's to give them massages. After mom's massage, here is how I found the two boys. What a tiring day apparently!

A fun day was had by all!

Reading along with the children

We have been reading through the Bible with the children. Most nights we only get one chapter in, but usually there is much thought and discussion about that one chapter after we read it. And because we are only reading one (sometimes) at a time, it is taking us awhile to get very far. That's okay though, because more and more things are sticking out to us. We started in Genesis and are just reading through. Last week, I noticed a portion that I had never contemplated before and have been contemplating it ever since.

When Moses went up on the mount, the others burnt their gold down and made into a golden calf. After this happened, the Scriptures talk about how they had their own feast. They obviously were not focused on God in doing these acts and celebrating. And they called it their feast. I have been thinking of how often we take something so wonderful (such as Moses being gone, spending time with the Lord) and we turn it into something that is not pleasing to Him. They created their own feast! We have done that too in our society. Push Yahweh out of the picture and let's have a feast time that might "look" like it is in celebration of Him but in all reality it is not at all. They brought in pagan worship of an idol when they should have been worshiping the One who brought them out of Egypt. I just don't get it!

So, then the Lord establishes His feast days, and we shrug our shoulders and think it is ridiculous to celebrate something that He established in the Old Testament. It is the Old Testament, you know, and we don't have to live by that old thing. Wow, there is alot in there that He said. I don't think His words changed from when He said them. Why do we so willingly and quickly accept the celebration of our own feast days and so quickly and willingly reject His? I don't get it! But the thing is, I used to do it too. Ashamed now and know that others around me think I am crazy, but I know that I am celebrating what He established for us to celebrate. Holy days that are truly worthy of celebration and completely pure in their roots and history. No mixing of paganism in what He calls us to acknowledge as a time of celebration.

To my family and friends who do not understand and think we are weird, well, study it for yourselves and don't lean on what society says is right to do. In most cases, if the majority goes with it, then it isn't what He would be pleased with. Changing such major things in our lives is difficult, but the blessings that we receive from it after doing it, are far better than going with the flow of traditional christianity and not looking different than the norm.

So, the question is, are you creating your own feast days or celebrating in the ones that others have created or are you celebrating in the feast days that He established for us? And some people think that they are the feasts of Israel. Not true, when God calls them the feasts of the Lord. Clearly they are the ones that He wanted all to celebrate in, not just Israel.

Coming up is the start to a lot of feast days for our family. We celebrate according to what He says to do in the Scriptures. If opens our eyes to new things every year, and we bless Him for giving us this time to reflect on things and certain areas in our lives. We welcome the extra Sabbath days to commune with Him and welcome the abstaining from leaven to remind us of the sin in our lives that we need to get rid of. It's like a spring cleaning of our bodies and souls. Feels good and hopefully, it pleases Him! That is our heart's desire in what we do. To not allow the enemy to creep in with any of his tricks and lies and to only be serving and doing what He will accept as holy. I just can't imagine that He sees too much out in this world that He would deem holy. Put aside all traditional thinking, study it, and give yourselves wholly to Him in being holy as He sees is holy.