Monday, March 24, 2008
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Happy Easter!
He is risen--He is risen indeed!!!
I pray you are having a blessed Easter, celebrating our risen Savior with family and friends. We have already had a good day today. This morning Kris and Olivia headed out to the Easter breakfast at church. Emma has been sick with something since Fri. She has been running a fever. :-( Thankfully though, I was able to set her up in Kris's office with a movie, and I sang in the cantata this morning. We had dinner with our dear friends, Michael, Jenny and Aaron Muth, as well as Jenny's parents, Cheryl and Dan Forbes. Emma sat away from any people not in our family. Cheryl is Emma's 2nd gr. teacher this year. They graciously had Easter dinner at the church so that we wouldn't be far from home and could get home to rest this afternoon. We are doing the cantata again this evening. Pray that Kris doesn't crash too hard after this busy day. ;-) We are thrilled to be able to present the Gospel in song today. There were professions of faith this morning, and we pray there will be more tonight.
Here are some pics from today. I will post more later.
I pray you are having a blessed Easter, celebrating our risen Savior with family and friends. We have already had a good day today. This morning Kris and Olivia headed out to the Easter breakfast at church. Emma has been sick with something since Fri. She has been running a fever. :-( Thankfully though, I was able to set her up in Kris's office with a movie, and I sang in the cantata this morning. We had dinner with our dear friends, Michael, Jenny and Aaron Muth, as well as Jenny's parents, Cheryl and Dan Forbes. Emma sat away from any people not in our family. Cheryl is Emma's 2nd gr. teacher this year. They graciously had Easter dinner at the church so that we wouldn't be far from home and could get home to rest this afternoon. We are doing the cantata again this evening. Pray that Kris doesn't crash too hard after this busy day. ;-) We are thrilled to be able to present the Gospel in song today. There were professions of faith this morning, and we pray there will be more tonight.
Here are some pics from today. I will post more later.
Friday, March 21, 2008
How Deep the Father's Love for Us
On this Good Friday, I am thinking of the amazing love of our Heavenly Father. Many passages of Scripture have been on my mind, especially the Gospel accounts of Christ's suffering for us. I also am reminded of one of my favorite songs. You can check out the lyrics here.
What a wonderful Savior!
What a wonderful Savior!
Happy Spring!
Well, my calendar does say that Spring came yesterday. Michigan never really quite understands that though. :-) Hey, we did have a sunny day, even though our wind chills were in the 20's yesterday. I seriously am thankful for the sun. It makes a difference in the midst of the cold. In the last couple of weeks, we have had more sunny days, heard birds start singing again, and even had some rain that SMELLED like Spring! That has been very exciting.
Olivia has asked for a long time when all the snow would be gone and when summer would come again. She just skipped over the thought of having a season in between. That is about right though in this state. ha ha Her excitement these last couple of days has cracked me up. Two days ago she ran to the sliding glass door, yelling, "Mommy, Mommy, look!!!" I asked what was going on and she said, "I can see WOOD chips! And, I see DIRT around the tree. Do you see the dirt, Mommy?!?" I just hugged her and said, "Yes, I do. Are you excited that the snow is going away, and we can see the ground?" A hearty, "YES!" came out of the child. :-) She hasn't really loved winter here. Later that day, as we were driving to the store, she made sure she pointed out how so much grass is now showing in various places (along the ramp to the highway, in front of a business near the red light, etc.). The grass isn't even very green yet, but to her, she sees an exciting, colorful world emerging as the snow melts away.
I'm reminded to be thankful for what we do have and not always wish for the "better" thing (tulips, daffodils, leaves, etc.). Those will come in time. Most importantly, I'm reminded that my joy should not be based on my circumstances, but found in Christ each day. I am so glad that He is in control, and I can rest in Him for what is best for us, even in the weather here in MI.
Olivia has asked for a long time when all the snow would be gone and when summer would come again. She just skipped over the thought of having a season in between. That is about right though in this state. ha ha Her excitement these last couple of days has cracked me up. Two days ago she ran to the sliding glass door, yelling, "Mommy, Mommy, look!!!" I asked what was going on and she said, "I can see WOOD chips! And, I see DIRT around the tree. Do you see the dirt, Mommy?!?" I just hugged her and said, "Yes, I do. Are you excited that the snow is going away, and we can see the ground?" A hearty, "YES!" came out of the child. :-) She hasn't really loved winter here. Later that day, as we were driving to the store, she made sure she pointed out how so much grass is now showing in various places (along the ramp to the highway, in front of a business near the red light, etc.). The grass isn't even very green yet, but to her, she sees an exciting, colorful world emerging as the snow melts away.
I'm reminded to be thankful for what we do have and not always wish for the "better" thing (tulips, daffodils, leaves, etc.). Those will come in time. Most importantly, I'm reminded that my joy should not be based on my circumstances, but found in Christ each day. I am so glad that He is in control, and I can rest in Him for what is best for us, even in the weather here in MI.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Quite the Impressive Harmony for Kids!
Check out this group of young girls singing our National Anthem at a game in Texas!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKCVS57j284
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKCVS57j284
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Trying to Catch Up
Well, you might want to have a few minutes to get through all of the pictures below. I told you that I was behind. :-) All the pictures are from our adventures to SC at the end of this last year through the beginning of this year. We left on Christmas Eve and drove through the night. We spent a couple of weeks down there and were able to see my family as well as Kris' brother Kurt and his family. It was so fun! On the way home, we stopped at my Uncle Mike's in Detroit, and we were able to visit with my Grandma, who was up from Florida. That was a special time.
Speaking of my Grandma, I am praying for her today as she is traveling to West Virginia to her brother's funeral. He had pancreatic cancer and did not get to live very long after being diagnosed. Thankfully she went to see him last month before he passed away.
Well, enjoy the pictures. Sorry if it was too many to sit through! Olivia and I had fun putting together the slide show. :-) Oh, and by the way, my mom took us to a tea room while we were there. The lady told the girls to pick out any of the hats hanging around the room. They also had jewelry they could put on. We adults just had to join the fun too!
Speaking of my Grandma, I am praying for her today as she is traveling to West Virginia to her brother's funeral. He had pancreatic cancer and did not get to live very long after being diagnosed. Thankfully she went to see him last month before he passed away.
Well, enjoy the pictures. Sorry if it was too many to sit through! Olivia and I had fun putting together the slide show. :-) Oh, and by the way, my mom took us to a tea room while we were there. The lady told the girls to pick out any of the hats hanging around the room. They also had jewelry they could put on. We adults just had to join the fun too!
Sunday, March 02, 2008
Could It Be?
Could it be that I am writing a post on my blog?
Could it be that I needed a change (what do you think of it)?
Could it be that this really is MARCH?
Could it be that everyone in our household will be well and I will teach again?
Could it be that we are having rain and not snow here in MI?
Could it be that I have asked too many questions?????? :-)
Yes, I am alive and am wanting to get back to the blog. Soooo much has happened since my last post. I thankfully have continued snapping pictures and keeping mental notes of what we've done the last 2 months.
Basically, we had a great Christmas and enjoyed family time after an insanely busy Nov. and Dec. Our annual trip to SC was great. We drove through the night on Christmas Eve and got to my parents the next morning. Sarah, Joe, and Jonas came over, and we all had a wonderful Christmas together. Kris and I were able to visit with some of our friends in SC, and we did see some others at the WILDS Music Conference the next week. The girls had a fun time staying with Grammy and Papa while we were gone. It was hard to say good-bye, but we got home at the end of the first week of Jan. and jumped back into life here.
The second week of Jan. brought an experience that I won't soon forget--a tonsillectomy and nose surgery! I'll spare you the details. It was very rough. Thankfully I am mostly done healing. I actually go for a 2nd post-op visit this Thurs. I am looking forward to breathing better, and having less throat issues overall!
Feb. was fairly uneventful. I continued to get better and began teaching again. Unfortunately lessons/classes were not as consistent as anyone would have liked due to snow days and sickness. Here's hoping that March will be a lot more promising. I was able to get our children's choir going again at church last month. I really enjoyed getting back to it after taking Dec. off for different Christmas programs and such as well as Jan. for my recovery. Sadly, today I was not able to conduct the song that we worked on for the morning service. Kris so sweetly filled in for me. :-) Emma is sick with either strep (tested at Urgent Care today) or possibly the respiratory flu that Olivia is getting over. Olivia was sick for 10 days with it--8 full days of fever and on Motrin! Thankfully she is better and will go to school tomorrow. Anyway, the other thing I have been able to get back to is Bible study. I am excited about what God is doing there, and I am glad to be studying II Cor.
Kris just finished teaching a Prime Time class on justification and loved that. He also started a new short study in our SS class. We recently finished taking our class through The Exemplary Husband by Stuart Scott and The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace. We would meet together as couples and then split up for the last 1/2 an hour and go through the lessons. It was very good! Soon Kris will start a book of the Bible for our class to go through verse by verse. He is also working on Easter music, as Easter is really early this year. It seemed we finished the Christmas cantata and had to jump right into working on the Easter cantata. We are repeating Once Upon A Tree this year with some variation. I think it's a good thing to do the same cantata again. As much sickness that has gone around with just about every family we know, and many people missing rehearsals, it's helpful to sing something familiar. The biggest thing this week (Friday) for Kris is our state fine arts competition, MACS, which we host in our school. Pray for him as he has his groups perform but also has a lot of extra stuff this week in relation to our hosting the competition.
Well, that is the best I could do to summarize the last 2 months. I will work on pictures to post. The girls continue growing up and changing on us! God continues to stretch us and grow us all in many areas. He is always good, and we look to Him to guide us each day. His grace is sufficient and absolutely amazing!
Could it be that I needed a change (what do you think of it)?
Could it be that this really is MARCH?
Could it be that everyone in our household will be well and I will teach again?
Could it be that we are having rain and not snow here in MI?
Could it be that I have asked too many questions?????? :-)
Yes, I am alive and am wanting to get back to the blog. Soooo much has happened since my last post. I thankfully have continued snapping pictures and keeping mental notes of what we've done the last 2 months.
Basically, we had a great Christmas and enjoyed family time after an insanely busy Nov. and Dec. Our annual trip to SC was great. We drove through the night on Christmas Eve and got to my parents the next morning. Sarah, Joe, and Jonas came over, and we all had a wonderful Christmas together. Kris and I were able to visit with some of our friends in SC, and we did see some others at the WILDS Music Conference the next week. The girls had a fun time staying with Grammy and Papa while we were gone. It was hard to say good-bye, but we got home at the end of the first week of Jan. and jumped back into life here.
The second week of Jan. brought an experience that I won't soon forget--a tonsillectomy and nose surgery! I'll spare you the details. It was very rough. Thankfully I am mostly done healing. I actually go for a 2nd post-op visit this Thurs. I am looking forward to breathing better, and having less throat issues overall!
Feb. was fairly uneventful. I continued to get better and began teaching again. Unfortunately lessons/classes were not as consistent as anyone would have liked due to snow days and sickness. Here's hoping that March will be a lot more promising. I was able to get our children's choir going again at church last month. I really enjoyed getting back to it after taking Dec. off for different Christmas programs and such as well as Jan. for my recovery. Sadly, today I was not able to conduct the song that we worked on for the morning service. Kris so sweetly filled in for me. :-) Emma is sick with either strep (tested at Urgent Care today) or possibly the respiratory flu that Olivia is getting over. Olivia was sick for 10 days with it--8 full days of fever and on Motrin! Thankfully she is better and will go to school tomorrow. Anyway, the other thing I have been able to get back to is Bible study. I am excited about what God is doing there, and I am glad to be studying II Cor.
Kris just finished teaching a Prime Time class on justification and loved that. He also started a new short study in our SS class. We recently finished taking our class through The Exemplary Husband by Stuart Scott and The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace. We would meet together as couples and then split up for the last 1/2 an hour and go through the lessons. It was very good! Soon Kris will start a book of the Bible for our class to go through verse by verse. He is also working on Easter music, as Easter is really early this year. It seemed we finished the Christmas cantata and had to jump right into working on the Easter cantata. We are repeating Once Upon A Tree this year with some variation. I think it's a good thing to do the same cantata again. As much sickness that has gone around with just about every family we know, and many people missing rehearsals, it's helpful to sing something familiar. The biggest thing this week (Friday) for Kris is our state fine arts competition, MACS, which we host in our school. Pray for him as he has his groups perform but also has a lot of extra stuff this week in relation to our hosting the competition.
Well, that is the best I could do to summarize the last 2 months. I will work on pictures to post. The girls continue growing up and changing on us! God continues to stretch us and grow us all in many areas. He is always good, and we look to Him to guide us each day. His grace is sufficient and absolutely amazing!
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Family Times
We had the privilege of hosting Thanksgiving at our house this year. (I realized that I haven't really posted much since the middle of Nov., so I thought I would let you know some of what we've done since then.) My aunt and uncle were able to come up from the Detroit area, along with 2 of my cousins and their families. We were so glad that everyone could get together at our house before they all headed up to Aunt Barb and Doc's cabin in Cadillac. Everyone pitched in on the food that we feasted on. It was all so delicious. I had just gotten a new roaster that plugs in on the counter, and I cooked a 16 lb. turkey in it. It turned out great! I am liking the roaster. I have used it twice now.
Aunt Barb makes the most amazing stuffing and brought that with her. I always love my cousin, Jenni's, corn casserole, and was glad to have that as part of the meal. Of course, we would all say that Thanksgiving would not be complete without the sweet potato crunch! Mashed potatoes, gravy, homemade cranberry sauce, rolls, salad, pies, cheescake, cookies, and who knows what else was enjoyed that day. Aunt Barb has also gotten me hooked on her special mix of vanilla spice egg nog and Vernors. It is quite yummy.
Other fun things we did (besides eating ha ha)were celebrating my cousin's daughter, Eryn's birthday, listening to their son, Cole, play the piano for us, having our girls sing some songs, listening to Christmas carols that Emma played on her violin, and all of us singing some songs together. We ended the night with a few rounds of Blurt and Catch Phrase games. That had us all in stitches at times. I am just so thankful to have family within a couple of hours away. We had a great day, and I thank God for the many blessings He has richly given.
Aunt Barb makes the most amazing stuffing and brought that with her. I always love my cousin, Jenni's, corn casserole, and was glad to have that as part of the meal. Of course, we would all say that Thanksgiving would not be complete without the sweet potato crunch! Mashed potatoes, gravy, homemade cranberry sauce, rolls, salad, pies, cheescake, cookies, and who knows what else was enjoyed that day. Aunt Barb has also gotten me hooked on her special mix of vanilla spice egg nog and Vernors. It is quite yummy.
Other fun things we did (besides eating ha ha)were celebrating my cousin's daughter, Eryn's birthday, listening to their son, Cole, play the piano for us, having our girls sing some songs, listening to Christmas carols that Emma played on her violin, and all of us singing some songs together. We ended the night with a few rounds of Blurt and Catch Phrase games. That had us all in stitches at times. I am just so thankful to have family within a couple of hours away. We had a great day, and I thank God for the many blessings He has richly given.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Snowy December
Well, I don't know that we have to dream of a white Christmas (and yes, it's "Merry Christmas" despite the one window with "Happy Holidays") in MI. We had quite the storm on Dec. 11th, and had a little snow even before that. Now we have over a foot on the ground! I can't imagine that all the snow we have piled up outside is going to go anywhere fast. In fact, I saw that there are predictions for even more snow here later in the week. I guess it is said that a true white Christmas is one that includes snow falling from the sky that day, not just snow that is on the ground. We'll see what happens. I just know that it will look white outside. Well, here are some pics of what we saw after quite the snowfall last night and through the first part of today. Because the winds were supposed to get so bad and create possible blizzard conditions, white outs, and snow drifts, our cantata was canceled for tonight. Thankfully it is working out to reschedule the program for Wed. night at 6:45. We have certainly enjoyed the unexpected rest today! Soon I will get caught up on the last month's happenings with us. . . .
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Catching Up
Well, I am finally getting some time to blog. I did a few different slide shows that show some of our fall fun this year. Last month we had a wonderful time having my sister, Sarah, and my nephew, Jonas come for a visit from SC. They had had such warm, dry weather down south for so long, that Sarah was very much looking forward to coming up north for some crisp fall weather. Well, the day I picked her up it was near 90 degrees! We had been having unusually warm weather before she even came, and to her disappointment, it had not changed to our normal fall temps. Our extended family from the Detroit area came up to see Sarah and us. We had planned a nice morning at Papa's Pumpkin Festival in Mt. Pleasant. The kids had some fun, but they were miserable in the heat when they went on the hayride to pick pumpkins. Who knew. . .You can tell by the girls faces in the picture of them watching doughnuts be made that they are quite flushed. You never know what MI weather will hold. Anyway, Sarah was here for 9 days, and toward the end of her visit, we did get some pretty cool windy weather. The day before Sarah and Jonas left, we took a drive up to Cadillac to see our aunt and uncle. We actually were cold that day, and we did get to see some beautiful fall color. Sarah got at least a taste of what she was looking forward to here, and of course, the time together was very special.
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