Cumberland Falls Kentucky Mini Vacation

With needing some vacation time just the two of us, we planned a little mini vacation to Cumberland Falls Kentucky. Our first day, upon arrival, was sunny and really quite warm. We checked in to the Lodge and then checked out the area and did some hiking by the falls. Was really quite beautiful and the surroundings were so relaxing.

The bees are out and doing their job.

There was even a small beach area that we were surprised by. Who needs Florida? Okay, it wasn't near as warm, but we got the beach feeling anyways. : )

A small water fall came out of the rock above and trickled down through the beach. My landing from jumping over it was quite lovely.

Day 2, not so lovely. We got up and ate muffins, bananas and yogurt, then hit the road as it was cold and rainy. We stopped at a little mountain craft store that was very interesting. The crafts were, well, not really anything that we would buy, BUT they also sold honey, so we purchased some of that and had a really nice visit with the Kentucky folk that ran the store. Then we headed for some lunch, ate and came back to our room for the rest of the day. I had packed stuff for chicken salad croissants, so we had that for supper, watched movies, and just hung out and relaxed. Jonathon said at one point that it wasn't a vacation, but I quickly told him that it was for me. No dealing with children in any way is a motherly vacation. And was much needed!!!

So, tomorrow we head home and pray for safe travels. Very thankful for the first day of nice weather that we could get out and see some beautiful creation. Enjoyed it, relaxed, rested and now ready to go home. Is surely a blessing to have the priviledge of getting away for a bit though.

Spring is Approaching and All That Comes With it!

With the spring feasts approaching, I often times feel like I am unprepared for how I should truly be to celebrate them with the right heart attitude. So, since I stayed home from church with the boys today, I thought it was a good time to do some studying and begin the preparing process.

So many times things in the Scriptures line up perfectly. Why wouldn't they with a master author who knows all things from the beginning of times, to the end. The first thing that I find fascinating is that there are 7 Feasts of the Lord. The number 7 means "perfection" or "completion". The 7 Feasts are definitely complete. My little review here will not show the entire completeness and perfectness in the feasts, but is what the Lord blessed me with this evening.

Let's start with Passover as it is the feast that will be coming up next and is the first in the spring feasts that we look forward to. A couple Scriptures from the Old and New Testament that talk about Passover are Exodus 12:11-14, Leviticus 23:6, and Matthew 26:17-30. I especially like the one in Matthew as it shows that Jesus too kept this feast. Passover is to be a memorial. We are to remember the deliverance of God's people physically from Egypt and the spiritual deliverance of God's people through Jesus the Messiah.

Next is a seven day long feast, Feast of Unleavened Bread. Leviticus 23:6 and Matthew 26:17 are good referrences. As Passover approaches, we rid our home of all the leaven which represents sin in our life. As we become aware of the sin in our life, we spend the week of Unleavened Bread drawing nearer to the Lord, while separating ourselves from the sin.

First Fruits is the next feast that we observe, which is also Resurrection Day. Read Leviticus 23:10 and 1 Corinthians 15:20. All of the spring feasts go together nicely as was His plan I'm sure. Before Jesus died, he told the disciples that he would send a Comforter. So, after he resurrected, do you think the disciples were looking for that One that Jesus promised He would send to them?

Which takes us to Pentecost (also called the Feast of Weeks), the time when His Spirit, the Comforter He spoke of earlier, would come to bring us help along this journey. Exodus 34:22 and Acts 2:1 speak of this feast. And John 16:7 talks about the Comforter that He says He will send.

Beginning the fall feasts is the Feast of Trumpets. Leviticus 23:24 talks about keeping this feast and observing it and Revelation speaks of when the final trumpet will blow. Hallelujah for that day!!!

The next feast is not as much of a celebratory feast as most of them. The Day of Atonement reminds us of how the sacrifices of burnt offerings were not enough to atone for sin. You can read about it in Leviticus 23:27-28. I found it interesting that in Hebrews 9:13&14 it talks about the change in the priesthood. "For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unlcean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spririt offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" Because of God's sacrifice of Jesus, we no longer need to offer the burnt offerings that were done under the Levitical priesthood.

The Feast of Tabernacles is another long celebration of 8 days, from Sabbath to Sabbath. This one is truly amazing in all of it's perfectness. In Leviticus23:34-44 you can read about this feast. In verse 37 God says that these are "the feasts of the Lord" (not the feasts of the jews) and in verse 1 and verse 44. They are to be statutes that are kept forever, for generations (31 & 41- some say that this is only for Israel, but it talks about the strangers or foreigners keeping them as well. Guess we would fit the "stranger" or "foreigner"category). That is why we keep them, because they are HIS feasts, His appointed times, His seasons for us. Nothing that man created but straight from the Omnipotent God! Now come along with me for this perfect plan....
It doesn't say it definitively in the Scriptures, but when considering the events that took place around the time of Jesus' birth, it seems that it was definitely more likely to have happened during the Feast of Tabernacles. Here is a link to some very interesting details to the likelihood of this.

So, upon my studying and reading tonight, I wonder how one could believe in the Trinity (God, Jesus, and the Spirit all being one) and not believe that what God spoke from the beginning of time was what He still means even today. Jesus walked what God established from the beginning and aren't we to walk as Jesus did? Sometimes I do question what I believe now because it's so different than the average Christian. But I don't want to be an average christian who believes what people say. I want to be one who searches out the Scriptures with all my heart til I find what is consistent throughout it and believe what HE said. I love when I hear His voice challenging me to dig deeper and gain more understanding. And I do love realizing that there were things that I was wrong in and that there are things that I am still wrong in, but the desire to learn and grow in His Word, is exciting.

As the spring feasts approach, I want to be ready to celebrate as I should and as He requires of me. It does take effort, denying myself, having an open mind other than preconceived ideas and clinging to His Truth. But if that's what He wants, that's what I want.

Ephesians 5:1 & 2

"Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma."

A Cereal Mess

Diella was doing something. I'm not sure what because I didn't see her. I just turned around to a girl holding a box of cereal, looking rather nervous in the face, with cereal all over the floor. Jonathon said that he got cereal on him and even caught some in his hand, and when she looked at him as if she were in trouble, he popped the cereal that was in his hand, into his mouth.
So, the cleaning was a group effort. Diella sucked it up while the others ate it. I know, the 5 second rule was way up, but they just couldn't stand the thought of wasting it all and were hungry. : ) How can one be mad at a time like that? Maybe if they would have all ran off and ignored the mess, but they were all frantically eating and cleaning it up. Haha! Love my kiddos!

Cute as a Button

Last weekend we had a lovely Celebration for a friend from church. It was a vintage Cute as a Button party and turned out quite cute indeed. I posted some pictures here, but if you would like to see all the details from the Celebration, check out our CLB CeLeBrations! blog.

We are always so honored to plan a get together with all of our sisters to Celebrate the coming of a new baby!!!!

Milk and Cookies Party

If you haven't checked out the other blog that I am involved in, you really should. It is in it's beginning stages, but it has turned into quite a fun project for me and a friend. CLB CeLeBrations! will hopefully continue to grow and provide fun and unique ideas to help others Celebrate events in life.

This event was for my friend's Daughter, Amalyah. She just turned 2 and had a great time enjoying the milk and cookies at her celebration.


We made pom poms to hang from the ceiling, the cookies, and Casie even did up the two trays in the middle from Dollar Store bargains. But, you can read all about that on the CLB CeLeBrations! blog.

Casie and I after all of our quick work getting ready and waiting for the guests.

Amalyah dipping her cookies. So cute!

The children decorated cookies to take home.

Here are Benaiah's cookies. He didn't have 2 whole cookies to take home since he took bites out even before he started decorating them. What a boy!!!

Laura and Amalyah!

Amalyah and Benaiah.

Was such an enjoyable party! Any party with a table full of cookies and milk to wash them down is simply delicious!

Our Iced in Day

Well, we headed for my brother's house on Sunday afternoon hoping to see all of them with my parents. We didn't make it as the roads were not very good and it was sleeting making them even worse. We turned around and went back home to have pizza and play games with my parents.

With the nasty weather lasting all night, Jonathon couldn't go to work, so we had an ice day at home as a family. The children quickly got their school lessons finished up, so they could enjoy the day!

We had left over pizza for lunch, which Benaiah thoroughly enjoyed!

For some reason Diella pulled a bunch of broken branches up to the house and left them outside the door. So, she had to bundle back up and haul them out to the weeds. She hauled one without gloves on and came back in to put something on her hands. Lesson learned that ice covered branches are freezing to the hands!

Our crabapple tree covered in ice. This was taken in the morning. There is another picture on here of what it looked like by evening. What a day of inclement weather.

I had prepared to get some fun stuff out when Benaiah layed down for his nap. The children can't play with these kinds of things when he is up because of his destructive mode, so as soon as he went to bed, we got out the Lincoln Logs, blocks, and animals. Jonathon did that with the children while I worked on getting the rest of tax stuff around and pay bills. I would have rather had his spot, I'm thinking. : )

What fun they had building and being creative!

And being creative.....

The the little brother woke up and it was all ruined. But they got some really good play out of it before the demolition project took place.

After the snow really started coming down and piling up, I told Jonathon that we needed to get more wood hauled up to the house. I had brought a bunch up before the last big snow storm so we would have plenty and now there was only a little bit left from that. It's hard for me to push the wheel barrow in deep snow, so I told him I would help him and we got more brought up in case we get lots more snow.

I love working outside with my man, even in the snow. It did bring warm memories of working together in the garden and flower beds, but actually, I think I would rather do this kind of work than weeding. Yuck!

And this is my tree in the evening with ice and snow.

A Winter Wonderland!

The temperature really dropped, we got all our outside jobs done, and I had stirred up sugar cookie dough that was chilling in the refrigerator. The children all picked out cookie cutters and we started getting creative again.

Alegra with a tray of letters and shapes.

Our little helper. : )

We got out letters from Aunt Carole Sue and metal animals and stars from Grandma Murphy.

The girls helped out a lot. It's been awhile since they have helped me with all the steps of making cookies. They are growing up....

And growing up!

The masterful creations.

Some how, Josiah was the only one who got all the letters to his name. Guess he wasn't interested in butterflies or snowflakes.

We had such a fun productive day. Made great memories, talked, laughed, read, and did dances on our heads. Okay, only the papa did that. : ) So blessed with my family!

Drive-In Movie Party

We have reached the half-way mark for school this year, so we decided, with our friends (my party planning assistant) to throw the children a party. With it being winter, snowy, and cold, something indoors that is meant to be outside was chosen as the theme. Not sure how we were going to do it, we kept it to our two families and just played it by ear.

We started out by having 1 box for each child big enough to be a car. For us getting boxes was easy since Jonathon has boxes shipped full of stuff to the house a couple times a week. But if you don't have boxes readily available, you can always get some at your local appliance store. We then got out the markers, stickers, plastic lids from juice bottles, yogurt contai ners etc. for head lights, and let them decorate their boxes. We also had round paper plates for them to use as wheels and then got out some fun stuff like boas, pearls, ribbon, construction paper to make flames for the boy's cars, toilet paper rolls for the mufflers, and canning rings for lights too. Oh, we also had styrofoam bowls for stearing wheels too. And don't forget the hot glue gun! Those cars go through a lot before the show actually starts.

Ahead of time I made a theater sign and snack stand. For both of these I used cardboard boxes. Then I put my thinking cap on to turn them into the real thing....or at least something similar. : ) Paint, white poster board, gold star stickers, and some decorative lights turns a boring piece of cardboard into the movie's welcome sign.

The snack stand was a little more involved. I had to see what kind of box I could use and then how I needed to deconstruct and construct it into a stand. The red shelves on the outside, holding the candy, were just cardboard that I cut and slid through a slot on the wall of the stand, to the back and taped down so it would hold securely. Then I painted it to stick out a little. And with making the top look like a curtain or awning helped it look more realistic. And paint changes everything! One note though, I taped the snack stand together and on all the places that I painted over the tape, the paint began to flake right off. So, after we got the stand in place for the party, I touched it up with paint, then cleaned up all the flaked mess on the floor.

To count this as school, obviously the children did quite a bit of art in creating their cars, but then they also worked the stand as cashier and had to count out their money and see how much they needed to purchase their snacks. It was fun and realistic practice in counting money.

For the food boxes we used small postal shipping boxes. They were the perfect size. You can get them at your post office or even shoe boxes would work too. Casie found the plastic popcorn containers at Target, and I'm sure will use them again. When having this party you don't have to go all out with all the snacks from a real movie theater, but we decided we would. You could also just get smaller things of candy too, but we compromised with smaller pops.

Time for the movie to start. Our The Brothers' Theater was in the basement so the children drove their cars on down. They had so much fun!

We clipped their food boxes on their cars with clothes pins, but you could also use those big paper holder things that you flip the tabs down after you put it on the paper. Sorry, I don't know the name of those things, and my description isn't very good either. : )

And make sure to pick a good quality movie. It makes the event more fun and the adults will want to join in too. That's what makes these times more memorable for children...when their parent's are truly a part. You'll make memories for a lifetime with simple and fun ideas such as this!