Wednesday, March 23, 2005
March happenings....Spring is in the air!
Well, it certainly has been an eventful month for us....partly why I haven't posted in awhile and have a lot of catching up to do. I just posted some pics below from this month, that will catch you up some as well.
The weather here has been alternating between sunny and gorgeous some days, to dreary and rainy on others. We did also have a couple snowy days this month, and are still waking up to frost on the ground some mornings. But this hasn't seemed to slow down all the bulbs, which have been in full bloom around here for the past two weeks. The former owner of our house had planted bulbs of yellow daffodils and purple crocuses, which have been blooming so beautifully all around our house and yard! And some lilies are starting to come up now as well, it's so exciting to watch them grow so quickly. And what colorful, lovely Spring surprises.
We've also been enjoying all the many birds that come to our feeder in the back yard, which we can see through our dining room window...a male red cardinal, and two females, a pair (at least one pair) of blue jays, lots of robins and housefinches, doves, and tufted titmouses, as well as a couple different types of woodpeckers. I've also spotted a few new ones lately that we've yet to look up and name. We're looking forward to hopefully discovering many nests in our yard soon.;)
We're also planning to do some planting soon, it's time to get those seedlings going!
Nathan & Tabitha have been enjoying their horseback riding lessons immensely, which they started at the beginning of this month. They each get an hour lesson, once a week. Their instructor, Mrs. Jennifer, is a wonderful Christian lady from our church. She also homeschooled all three of her children all the way through highschool. Two of them are now in college, and one her eldest daughter is now running her own dog grooming/sitting business. They're a neat family, and have been attending our church since it's beginning years.
Jennifer also leads the local 4-H group for our county, which emphasizes horse husbandry and has a horse club, which Nathan and Tabitha were invited to join. They're excited about that as well, and will be beginning that this summer. It's actually for 4th graders and up (Nathan will be an official 4th grader next year) and Tabitha will just be tagging along mostly (but I'm sure she'll be doing her best to keep up- knowing her!). From what Jennifer's told me about it, and stuff they've done/learned (like painting and labeling the parts of a horse- w/colored frosting- on an actual horse! LOL) it sounds like A LOT of fun! So we're excited about starting that.
Another highlight of this month has been my Mom's very unexpected visit. She called us up on Thursday, 3/10 and let us know that she'd be on her way here, driving from Biloxi, MS, on Sat., 3/12. She had a couple of interviews for nursing jobs in Knoxville on Mon. and Tues. So we got to spend the week w/her and we had a nice visit. The kids especially enjoyed having her here, it's been a whole year since we've seen her last. She was excited that she got to go to Taba's dance practice and to Nathan's awards banquet for Scouts. She's still trying to figure out what she's going to do as far as a job goes, whether she'll take another travel job (she's an RN), or be able to find a job suitable to allow her to finally settle down. It was nice to visit, I always enjoy learning a little more family history each time I see her for any length of time.
We're excited to learn that Chris's Mom will be able to visit us this summer, and will be flying up here w/his grandmother, Virgie Lee, too. The Smiths will be visiting this summer as well, so we're looking forward to being with family and friends soon.
Nathan and Tabitha have been doing a great job at keeping up with their chores. And we're now planning for them to start giving a portion of the money they earn, by sponsoring a child their own ages, (joyfully, and of their ownfree will of course) as an offering, out of their own allowance. I asked around for suggestions of a good, reputable organization to support in this, as there are quite a few. And a friend (thanks Karen!) told us about this one they're personally familiar with, and we like the idea that it is smaller, and so we know every penny we give will go directly to provision for these kids. The parents of our friend have been traveling to the Home of Refuge a few times a year for several years now. The man who runs it, Tony, is around 60-65. In the nineties, he visited Venezuela to preachand saw the kids living in the dumps. His story of going back and startingthe orphanage is on their website www.homeofrefuge.org.
As most of you know already, we do believe, and teach, that as Christians, we are all called to be missionaries, be it to our sibling, our neighbor, or to someone on the other side of the world. Well, the leader of this Mommy group I'm a part of, and I have recently organised w/the activities director of a local assisted living/retirement home to come and visit w/the residents monthly, during some of their activities. It just blesses these elderly people so much to be around the kids...and it's blessing our kids as well. Anyways, it was so precious to me last week to see Nathan enthusiastically packing his Bible with him to take on our outing to visit w/these elderly last week. It was entirely Nathan's idea to bring his Bible, in hopes of being able to share w/someone of God's love for them, and he told me that maybe he'd even give it (the Bible) to someone, or just read it to someone...precious. Last week we did watercolor painting w/these precious folks, and next month we're going to be learning some words in Polish from a Czeck. on staff there. :)
Tomorrow we're going to a local farm that our "Mommy group" has been invited to. We'll get to pet and play w/the new little lambs. I think I'm as excited as the kids. Also, this past month we had an outing to a local pizza parlor w/our Mommy group. The kids all got to see the "behind the scenes" workings of a restaraunt kitchen, and how a pizza is made from scratch from start to finish, at our local pizza parlor. They also got an interesting expose on the "history of the pizza" from the manager, who was a comedian as well. It was fun for all, and of course everyone pigged out on pizza afterwards.
Also, the kids are starting Spring soccer this week. Tabitha's playing on the first grade team this time around, which means that as it stands right now, she and Nathan have practice on different nights of the week...blaaah! At least their games will be on the same day, Saturdays. Chris will be the assistant coach for Nathan's team, which he's not too sure about (but nobody twisted his arm-they just pleaded over the phone- he's such a softy), but the rest of us think is so cool!;-)
Well, I think that's the highlights for now. Samson is growing so fast, and beautifully. He's a feisty little handful. We have to stay on him all the time, but I'm sure it'll be worth it when he turns out to be a well-mannered, more relaxed, family companion. Right now he is just plain hyper, and into everything!
"Christianity is not a system of man's search for God, but a story of God's search for man."
~ Peter Kreeft, Fundamentals of Faith, pp. 76-77
The weather here has been alternating between sunny and gorgeous some days, to dreary and rainy on others. We did also have a couple snowy days this month, and are still waking up to frost on the ground some mornings. But this hasn't seemed to slow down all the bulbs, which have been in full bloom around here for the past two weeks. The former owner of our house had planted bulbs of yellow daffodils and purple crocuses, which have been blooming so beautifully all around our house and yard! And some lilies are starting to come up now as well, it's so exciting to watch them grow so quickly. And what colorful, lovely Spring surprises.
We've also been enjoying all the many birds that come to our feeder in the back yard, which we can see through our dining room window...a male red cardinal, and two females, a pair (at least one pair) of blue jays, lots of robins and housefinches, doves, and tufted titmouses, as well as a couple different types of woodpeckers. I've also spotted a few new ones lately that we've yet to look up and name. We're looking forward to hopefully discovering many nests in our yard soon.;)
We're also planning to do some planting soon, it's time to get those seedlings going!
Nathan & Tabitha have been enjoying their horseback riding lessons immensely, which they started at the beginning of this month. They each get an hour lesson, once a week. Their instructor, Mrs. Jennifer, is a wonderful Christian lady from our church. She also homeschooled all three of her children all the way through highschool. Two of them are now in college, and one her eldest daughter is now running her own dog grooming/sitting business. They're a neat family, and have been attending our church since it's beginning years.
Jennifer also leads the local 4-H group for our county, which emphasizes horse husbandry and has a horse club, which Nathan and Tabitha were invited to join. They're excited about that as well, and will be beginning that this summer. It's actually for 4th graders and up (Nathan will be an official 4th grader next year) and Tabitha will just be tagging along mostly (but I'm sure she'll be doing her best to keep up- knowing her!). From what Jennifer's told me about it, and stuff they've done/learned (like painting and labeling the parts of a horse- w/colored frosting- on an actual horse! LOL) it sounds like A LOT of fun! So we're excited about starting that.
Another highlight of this month has been my Mom's very unexpected visit. She called us up on Thursday, 3/10 and let us know that she'd be on her way here, driving from Biloxi, MS, on Sat., 3/12. She had a couple of interviews for nursing jobs in Knoxville on Mon. and Tues. So we got to spend the week w/her and we had a nice visit. The kids especially enjoyed having her here, it's been a whole year since we've seen her last. She was excited that she got to go to Taba's dance practice and to Nathan's awards banquet for Scouts. She's still trying to figure out what she's going to do as far as a job goes, whether she'll take another travel job (she's an RN), or be able to find a job suitable to allow her to finally settle down. It was nice to visit, I always enjoy learning a little more family history each time I see her for any length of time.
We're excited to learn that Chris's Mom will be able to visit us this summer, and will be flying up here w/his grandmother, Virgie Lee, too. The Smiths will be visiting this summer as well, so we're looking forward to being with family and friends soon.
Nathan and Tabitha have been doing a great job at keeping up with their chores. And we're now planning for them to start giving a portion of the money they earn, by sponsoring a child their own ages, (joyfully, and of their ownfree will of course) as an offering, out of their own allowance. I asked around for suggestions of a good, reputable organization to support in this, as there are quite a few. And a friend (thanks Karen!) told us about this one they're personally familiar with, and we like the idea that it is smaller, and so we know every penny we give will go directly to provision for these kids. The parents of our friend have been traveling to the Home of Refuge a few times a year for several years now. The man who runs it, Tony, is around 60-65. In the nineties, he visited Venezuela to preachand saw the kids living in the dumps. His story of going back and startingthe orphanage is on their website www.homeofrefuge.org.
As most of you know already, we do believe, and teach, that as Christians, we are all called to be missionaries, be it to our sibling, our neighbor, or to someone on the other side of the world. Well, the leader of this Mommy group I'm a part of, and I have recently organised w/the activities director of a local assisted living/retirement home to come and visit w/the residents monthly, during some of their activities. It just blesses these elderly people so much to be around the kids...and it's blessing our kids as well. Anyways, it was so precious to me last week to see Nathan enthusiastically packing his Bible with him to take on our outing to visit w/these elderly last week. It was entirely Nathan's idea to bring his Bible, in hopes of being able to share w/someone of God's love for them, and he told me that maybe he'd even give it (the Bible) to someone, or just read it to someone...precious. Last week we did watercolor painting w/these precious folks, and next month we're going to be learning some words in Polish from a Czeck. on staff there. :)
Tomorrow we're going to a local farm that our "Mommy group" has been invited to. We'll get to pet and play w/the new little lambs. I think I'm as excited as the kids. Also, this past month we had an outing to a local pizza parlor w/our Mommy group. The kids all got to see the "behind the scenes" workings of a restaraunt kitchen, and how a pizza is made from scratch from start to finish, at our local pizza parlor. They also got an interesting expose on the "history of the pizza" from the manager, who was a comedian as well. It was fun for all, and of course everyone pigged out on pizza afterwards.
Also, the kids are starting Spring soccer this week. Tabitha's playing on the first grade team this time around, which means that as it stands right now, she and Nathan have practice on different nights of the week...blaaah! At least their games will be on the same day, Saturdays. Chris will be the assistant coach for Nathan's team, which he's not too sure about (but nobody twisted his arm-they just pleaded over the phone- he's such a softy), but the rest of us think is so cool!;-)
Well, I think that's the highlights for now. Samson is growing so fast, and beautifully. He's a feisty little handful. We have to stay on him all the time, but I'm sure it'll be worth it when he turns out to be a well-mannered, more relaxed, family companion. Right now he is just plain hyper, and into everything!
"Christianity is not a system of man's search for God, but a story of God's search for man."
~ Peter Kreeft, Fundamentals of Faith, pp. 76-77
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