Friday Ramblings

I feel as if I am finally getting my "back to school" legs on after Christmas.  Some of you may laugh as it is the end of January, but I do have a little bit of an excuse....(little bit).  Let's go back to the first week back to school.  I don't remember that week except that we had a few make-up basketball games that were not the best for the 7th grade boys.  We also had at least one two hour delay that week due to snow. Combat that with starting school on a Tuesday which always throws me off.  That was also the week that Kirsten and I went to Nebraska for a few days.  That was a great trip. It just was not "normal".

The next week was the strange week with one missed day of school and four not full days. That was such a goofy week.  

Last week was the run back and forth to the dentist week.  I was there 3 afternoons in a row at 3:00.  No one had cavities though, so it was good.  We then took Friday off and went to Nebraska.

This week was slow getting going, but finally at Friday, I feel as if I did get some things accomplished.  Peirce got his braces on Tuesday. (I'll post a picture some time).  I commented to someone the other day that after homeschooling for so many years and not having to deal with the school schedule, I am still trying to adjust.

I'm not complaining; it has just been a strange adjustment to the new year.  Now that February is coming, I feel as if I might be getting as much of a handle on it as I can.

I'm excited because my mom will be coming in on Monday to see Mitchell's last basketball game. I have a few things planned.  I hope that it gets a little warmer.  It has been so sunny the last few days.

Monday is Ground Hog's day, and we are going to have a spring fellowship at church for the ladies.  Not because it is Ground Hog's day, but because it is Ground Hog's day we decided that we could focus on spring.

I am counting my blessings.....I don't usually type off of the top of my head, but today I had too much going on up there, I decided to let the "ramblings" out.--not always the safest thing to do.  God is good.  He gave me a wonderful husband who doesn't always understand where I am coming from but loves me and is patient with me.  I have been so amazed in watching my kids lately at how grown up they are.  Peirce will be 15 in 2 months!  They can be such a great help and companions.  I enjoy doing things with them....not that I didn't before, but they are acting more "adult" now, so it is a little easier.

Well, I have been promising Kirsten for a few weeks that we could do some scrapbooking, so I better go take care of that with her.  She has turned into quite a great crafter.

Have a great day!  Thanks for "listening" to my ramblings.

Here is a recommended book.  Dan and I are in the small group at our church.  It is very challenging.  I will not recommend every word of it, but the truths there are very scriptural.  The very basic premise of the book is that women hear(and think) through pink hearing aids and men hear (and think) through blue hearing aids.  We process things differently and this many times causes the rough points in our marriages.

When I react with respect, he reacts with love.  When he reacts with love, I react with respect. The opposite is true also.  When I act without respect, he reacts without love.  When he reacts without love, I react without respect.

It looks at the differences and shows us how to learn to react properly to each other.  I am learning so much....wish that I had gotten this 16 1/2 years ago.

Christmas in January

My family was finally able to get together after the Thanksgiving chicken pox at Dave's house.  Friday, amid very strong winds, we travelled to NE to my parent's new house.  It has been a year since we were all together.  Dave and Linda have 4 kids: Davis, 10; Cana, 7; Sam, 4; and Eli,2.

These pictures did not go in the way that they usually do, so I'm going to just tell you what each one is starting in the top left.  That is mom and dad's new church in Lushton, NE.  Dan and I sang there Sunday morning.  It is a small church in an even smaller town, but the people are great and thrilled that mom and dad are there.

Top right are all of the "Peirce" kids together.  Of course, we can't have a picture without someone crying, but poor Sam got his fingers stepped on right before this picture.

Bottom left is Eli "signing" "I love you."  That was his favorite thing to do, "I love you, Grandma!" he would yell as he did his way of signing.  It was more the sign for an "e", but he's only 2, so it was very cute.

Bottom right is Sam on his new "Plasma car" from Aunt Marlene.  They really liked it.  I have a picture of Dave on one too.  I'll have to get that up sometime.

It was a nice weekend.  It is amazing all that has happened in this past year.  I don't think that this year will be as eventful.

Update

Ryan is doing much better today.  His family has said that they can feel the prayers as well as see them before their eyes.  Ryan even started playing video games this morning.  Yesterday, he barely opened his eyes when we were there.  He has to be in an oxygen tent a few times a day in order to help his body heal, but for right now it looks as if he will be able to avoid the skin surgery.  He will be in the hospital for a few weeks.  If you would like to look on his caring bridge site, here is the link.   www.caringbridge.org search: ryantheel  If you have never seen this website, it is a wonderful way for people dealing with serious illnesses to keep many people updated.  Thank you so much for praying.

Missing Pieces

Before Christmas break, I bought a puzzle with the hope of putting it together over Christmas break.  Kirsten helped me to put the border on it, and from then on it was mostly me.  I would work on it a little at a time.  It was a hard puzzle as there was a lot of water and sky.  It is a NYC skyline at night, so the buildings sort of blend together.  It was hard.  I got toward the end, and the kids got interested until we could not fit anymore pieces in the spots.  How frustrating.

When Dan and I were coming back from Iowa City the other day we stopped by the Little Brown Church.  I'm sure that many of you remember the song.....There's a church in the valley by the wildwood, No lovelier spot in the dale; No place is so dear to my childhood, As the little brown church in the vale. "

What is funny is that I know the words to this song, and I don't know why. We like to visit these little spots.  I've passed by the sign leading to the church many times and wondered what it was.  When we lived in South Bend, we were 45 min. from the "Old Rugged Cross Church".  That was a little more exciting than this as that song is a little more meaningful to me.

One Warm Day

Kirsten and her friend Tori had a lot of fun today in our 32 degree weather building a snow man.

The Power of Prayer

I don't want my blog to become a site where I bog you down with all that is going on in my life.  I want it to be an encouraging place, but tonight I really ask for the many prayer warriors that I know follow my blog to come into God's presence.

Last Saturday a 10 year old boy in our church, Ryan, was taken by ambulance 3 hours to Iowa City for emergency surgery.  The weather was terrible, and it was safer to go by ambulance than helicopter.  His appendix had ruptured a few days before without any of the normal symptoms.  He had even been to a doctor that week.  Because Ryan's burst appendix let out all of those toxins to sit until it was taken care of, he is an incredibly sick child. He also had a (excuse my lack of medical terms) ball of infection near the appendix. They did the surgery Sunday morning, but last evening--Tues., he was rushed back to surgery due to a hole in his colon caused by the toxins eating away.

We were able to go down last evening and spend some time with them.  We took their other son back to the Ronald McDonald house so that they could both stay with Ryan.  This morning and all of today Ryan has been very sedated.  He has now developed a skin infection.  I will not go into any more details.  It is a very long and intricate story.  His parents have more decisions that might need to be made tomorrow as this other infection may need to be treated if it does not stop spreading.

It has been such a long week, and they are almost 3 hours away from their church family.  They do have some Christian friends who live an hour away, so that has been a blessing.  It will be a few weeks until Ryan is home.

Please pray that this skin infection goes away tonight.  If it does not, they might have to cut more of the skin with the idea of doing a skin graft later.  This will add more pain to the area that is already incredibly painful.  Please also pray for his temp to go down as it has been fairly high today.  His parents are Darin and Sherry.  His older brother is Nathan.  Ryan is a very active child.  It was hard for Dan and I to see him so sedated today, so I cannot imagine what his parents are going through.

I have lots of other things to put on here.  Hopefully tomorrow I will have the time to get them on.

Another thought....Sunday Dan preached on prayer.  It was a great sermon.  I'm hoping that this will put the thought even deeper in people's hearts.

Cold Weather Day

Can't call it a snow day, but the kids are off of school.  I just looked at weatherchannel.com.  It is -20 right now but it feels like -44.  It was -27 when I got up with wind chills of -48.  What is almost funny is that in Anchorage Alaska it feels like 40 above 0.  Does that seem wrong to anyone else besides me.  I moved to Iowa not the North Pole.  The kids actually want to go out and play because we have new snow and it looks so nice out.  The sun is shining so beautifully.  If it were not for the sun, I might be going a little crazy with these temps.  My mom reminded me last night of Little House and the Prairie.  They lived north of here a few hours. I cannot imagine living without central heat in these temps.  I wanted to whine a little, but I have plenty to do today that three children home from school may be able to help with.

Back to school now.  Kirsten and I decided that we need to not take snow days as we want to get done with school earlier than the boys.  We do take it a little easier on days like this though.  We make sure that we get done with the subjects that give us more trouble and sometimes put others aside that we are ahead in.  Unfortunately, I will have to run out in a little while.  My stop will take me close to our Cabin Coffee.  I might have to stop in:)  Most of you know that I don't touch the coffee, but they have the best Chai tea.  Dan got me a gift card for Christmas too.

It's cold outside!

It is -5 outside and dropping. Tomorrow the HIGH is -10. I am so glad that we love it here the rest of the time. The cold and the wind are not fun. It was a year ago today that we left Clear Lake for the first time. We had travelled a few days before from Orlando, FL to here. We went from 80 to 0. I am so thankful that we can find peace and contentment away from the circumstances of life.
I am thankful for an evening with my family as all of our evening activities were cancelled due to the cold and blowing snow. Time to put a fire in the fireplace and get some board games out.

Christmas Cantata a few weeks late.

We had our Christmas Cantata today, January 11th. Our first plan was the 20th and 21st of December, but we got "blizzarded" out" One of the nice things about doing the program after Christmas is that there is not the pressure of the season. It is so much fun getting to perform what you have worked so hard on. One of the fun parts of the day was that Dan got to direct one of the songs. Our choir director, Rod is a true tenor. We had one solo that was very high, so Rod needed to sing, and Dan needed to direct. Rod is about my height, so you can imagine the difference in Rod's arm-span to Dan's. Having had Dan as my director for so long, it was a highlight of my day.
The theme of the cantata was "Tonight, Heaven Touches Earth". It is such a great thought to bring it down to our level. God sent His Son to touch me. We still have one more family Christmas to complete until our Jordan Christmas season is over.

New Year's Eve fun Pt. 2

Our church had a fun game night New Year's Eve. We are not late night people, and after the whole day at the Mall, I was wondering how I would be, but it was fun. Games and food with friends.....

New Year's Eve fun Pt. 1

New Year's Eve found my three children, two of their friends, and myself traveling the two hours north to the Mall of America. The kids had been wanting to go; the weather looked good, so we decided to go for it. If you have never been to the Mall of America, let me tell you a little bit about it. It is a huge circle three floors high with store after store, sometimes the same store. In the middle there is an amusement park which is pretty cool---very expensive. I am hoping that we don't make the trip too often as it really hurts my feet. We had a great time. I stayed with the girls which is why we have so many pictures of them. Mitchell and his friend Mark met up with us every once in a while and stayed in contact by the phone. Peirce met me every few hours and was quite content to be on his own. Highlights of the day: the store Archives...:)(A scrapbooking and stamping store for those who have never been there.)

Kirsten's friend Kristi bought her American Girl Doll.......

Following Sharky......

Watching two girls be silly......

Lot's of fun with more to come. Look at the post above this for the evening.....