Monday

What I need to mention about my day is that is actually started about 12:45 am. My sweet little 13 month old lady woke up. I changed her diaper and was all set up all snuggly in my bed to give her a bottle. What I got in return was A LOT of regurgitation! Yes, she threw up all over herself and me. So after getting us as cleaned up as you can with a Huggies wipe, I started a load of laundry. Back to sleep only to get awoken periodically to the little 2 year old coughing and the 6 year old waking up twice due to weird dreams.

Ah, the beauty of motherhood.........

THE HOMEMAKER--

THE HOMEMAKER

By Unknown Author

My days are days of small affairs,

Of trifling worries, little cares,

A lunch to pack, a tea to make,

A room to sweep, a pie to bake,

A hurt to less, a tear to dry,

A head to brush, a bow to tie,

A face to wash, a rent to mend,

A meal to plan, a fuss to end,

A hungry husband to be fed,

A sleep child to put to bed.

I, who'd hoped someday to gain

Success, perhaps a bit of fame,

Must give my life to small affairs

Of trifling worries, little cares.

But, should tomorrow bring a change,

My little house grow still and strange-

Should all the cares I have today

Be swept, quite suddenly, away-

Where now a hundred duties press

Be but an ache of loneliness,

No child's gay ribbons to be tied,

No wayward little feet to guide,

To heaven I would raise my prayers,

"Oh God, give back my little cares."

Saturday, Jan 14

Check it out!! TWO days in a row. Not much to report. We did have a little snow fall today, but barely enough to cover my icy pathways to the animals. Reports this week show some snow but mainly bitter cold temps. As of now it is 8 degrees. I have LOTS of wood on the fire for going to bed and the space heaters set up in the bedrooms and the living room. I have my alarm set for early am to get the fire going again for the day.

Not sure about church tomorrow. Kids appear to be fighting being sick. Fussy; weird coughs; misc. reports of scratch throats. Didn't make it last week, so hopefully we can tomorrow. (Plus, I REALLY want to get my Sunday paper!!!) :)

I checked out today and set up a profile for Pinterest. Have you heard of this. My friend, Martha convinced me to set up a profile. Well, I have one, but there is nothing on it yet. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it--challenging for the aging brain--- BUT I do LOVE looking at all the pretty pictures! :) Hopefully I can make since of it soon.

Our barnyard friends are all doing well. Can't tell yet if our little ewe, Katara, is with lamb yet. She is so big and woolly for winter! Our goat, Bonnie, is DEFINITELY with child. She is pretty big already and I'm suspecting twins for her or maybe it will be another big baby! We will find out in a few months. The chickens are obviously all done molting. We are getting 20-25 eggs A DAY!!! Can you believe that??????? I just recently had 11 dozen eggs in my fridge. My dear husband got those all doled out and when I went out today I ended up with another 25! I can only cook so many eggs! I do love omelets; quiche, etc., but since I'm currently the only adult home this week, it may not be a good idea to make these things everyday. (though I did make some cookies today for the 'littles'). (they are tasty too!)

I need to get to bed and rest up for what the Lord has in store for me tomorrow.

Have a pleasant night!!

2012

With the start of 2012, I'm going to make the attempt to be better about writing. With my dear husband still holding a crazy schedule, I do have a bit more time when he is not home. If you keep a blog, do you wonder at times if anyone reads it? Or are you just talking into space? Hmmm.....

Our life as we start 2012 still looks the same with work and all the kids. We have not had hardly any snow so far this winter but this next week there is snow predicted for each day. We shall see. If it does, it should be interesting since I have not had the 'tractor lesson' which means 'no plowed driveway....' It maybe a quiet week at home.

With God's grace and strength I will be back MUCH sooner than later. I'm aiming for a little each day to be in the habit, but life does get in the way at times.

Fall 2011

The past few months have simply flown by. Can you believe there are less than 60 days until Christmas?? The past few months have brought several changes: In April, our foster teen moved to her permanent home. Three days later we had 2 siblings placed with us. A 21 month old boy and a 4 month old girl. Our little boy turned 2 in July. Little girly will be 1 in December. They are getting so very big and developing well. Matt has a few attachment issues that we are currently working on and probably will be for awhile. Mary is very mellow w/ a joyful personality. At this point we will have them indefinitely. I'd like to say it's a 50/50 chance the parents will be able to have them back, but reality is probably 80/20 that they won't. Our 20 year old, Tristan moved back home and is now attending WVC-Omak campus. He is taking general business classes and is doing very well. I think he may even be surprising himself! My parents moved to a cute little house in town. A very big move for them. We enjoy having them nearby--though I think they are almost a busy as we are at times! The other "little" change has been serious lack of work for Jeremy. The Lord does provide and did so in an odd, and I feel slightly stressful manner. He will be working at his old company every other week for the next year. Oh, did I mention that the work is 4 hours away?? It is going to be crazy, but at the same time I know deep inside that this is a complete blessing. It will force all involved to stay on our knees. To pray for strength in all things, even the little stuff. This truth was brought forth to me at church on Sunday. ~~ after spending 2 weeks of complaining and pretty much wanting to just cry. Now, today, even though I woke up to a very dead car due to needing a new battery cable; several in our household starting to get sick-all with Jeremy gone and a crazy schedule, I know that He is with me and will get me through it all.
Jack and Trevor are doing great with all these changes. They both absolutely LOVE have their big brother home and do so well with the babies. This is Jack's last week of soccer until spring--he is doing AMAZING!! Awanas has started back up this last month and he is so happy there!

Enjoy the blessings of every day!

Quick Update

I knew it had been awhile since I posted, but I didn't realize that it had been almost 3 months! Well, in that time period, both Courtney and Christina have been placed into their long term homes. So it is now back down to 4 of us. It is a bit quieter now and I now don't have to be in town EVERY day! Praise the Lord! I'm reimbursed for mileage, but of course that money comes when it comes and as you know the prices of gas just keeps going up! So needless to say, I'm looking forward to being home a bit more. When we do get another placement, we are really hoping for 3 and under in age. It will defintely suit our family better at this point in our lives. My sweet husband took on a regular full time job. This has been a huge adjustment for us since he has been self employed for 10 years! The hours are good in the sense that they work 4-10 hour days and your one floating day can be when you want. He mainly uses Friday for that floating day. He is fabricating helicopter parts and really loves this side of aircraft mechanics since he really enjoys building and creating things. The down side is that it's just over an hour away from home, so he is gone about 13+ hours a day. Also gas is killing us--I'm considering a moped.....LOL!! :) We are very thankful that he is working though and was able to find a job without any hang ups. Construction here is at a stand still like it is in so many other areas. Though we do know several people who are quite busy in construction right now due to where they live. With all this now supposed 'free' time on my hands I've been trying to get the paper piles back under control and working on budgeting. Hmmm, maybe I'll get back to writing more often too. The snow is all melted now except for a few patches here and there. All four goats are expecting babies. Dora is due anytime now. I believe that she is having twins since she looks like she has a whole watermelon sideways inside of her! This will be quite an experience for me since I was raised in the city. I have several neighbors who are ready to help me if I need it. I've been reading a lot but as with everything, physical experience is going to be the learning key here. If anyone has been following this for a bit, then they have read about Camp Omak. Well, I have 8 amazing women willing to come here to my house for Mother's Day weekend! We are all looking forward to seeing what the Lord has in store for us and what can be learned from where we all are in life right now. All my boys are going somewhere....camping, hotel.....who knows. They are excited to be having 'man time'. Though Jack has made it clear that he wants to have a donut at some point during the weekend! That's it for now! More soon......

I'm Here!

Hello there blogging community. Yes, I am alive. The past few weeks have been exciting, stressful, tiring and rewarding. The week before Christmas we got our first foster placement. We received two sisters; 14 year old Courtney and 12 year old Christina. Yes, much older than we were anticipating. Its been an adjustment having teens in the house again! The girls are settling in well and the boys are enjoying having them around. So within that week before Christmas, I took the girls shopping for necessary items (boots; coats; underwear, etc); took the girls to the other side of the mountains to pick up Trevor (they had never been to the Seattle area before) and get shopping and wrapping done. Christmas morning was really nice. LOTS of activity. We received a Wii for one of our gifts and that has been great fun for all. My favorite at this point is bowling--which maybe because I hold the high score for the house....... :)
School is back in full swing. Courtney is in 9th grade and in the alternative home school program within the school district, so she only needs to check in with her teacher once a week. Christina is in 6th grade and takes the bus each day down to the middle school. We had the flu really bad this last week, so not much school has occurred this last week for Jack. Him and I were the worse off; Jeremy and Trevor only lasted for about a day and the girls pulled through with no real symptoms except some tiredness. The girls have a fair amount of things they need to be at within a given week, mainly counseling sessions. We have had one court date so far with more to follow. Given that, I'm out in town much more often than I was before--it is forcing me to be better about my meal planning! :)
My biggest struggle right now is fitting in my time with the Lord. It has changed a bit with simply keeping a bible open and try and read when I'm standing in the kitchen (if no one else is in there talking to me! LOL ) Its been a long time since I've had this much constant activity around the house, but it is getting better--just need to keep my perspective.
Work is coming along for Jeremy. He is working part time at an aircraft shop and is still doing construction as it comes up. We are in the process of taking over our friend's remodeling company since he is going into another line of work. Taking over this business, which has been in the area for awhile, should help with keeping busy. Hopefully I can keep up on all the office stuff!
Better go for now and continue with the day!

Christmas!!

Christmas is upon us again!! Such a wonderful time of year. Even with all the craziness of picking out presents, I just love seeing them under the tree Christmas morning. I don't put ANYTHING under the tree prior to bedtime on Christmas eve. Even if it is a package that comes in the mail, it simply goes in the closet and waits for the appointed time. There have been many years where Christmas was "small" due to financial circumstances, but due to the generousity of relatives and friends the morning of Christmas always has had LOTS of gifts under the tree. ~~ well, at least it has seemed to the kids since there was NOTHING under the tree when they went to bed! One year, my brother came and stayed the night with us so that we can have all the kids be together on Christmas morning. There were so many gifts!! At midnight we were bringing present after present out. WOW--what a feast for the eyes come morning!
Have a blessed season this year! Relax, love and enjoy your family!!!
Praise the Lord for the blessed life that you have been given!

Snow

Snow!! This storm that passed through Monday and Tuesday, brought us about 7" of new snow on top of the 3" that we already had. It is beautiful out. We have been blessed with no wind so the pine trees are heavy with snow. The other blessing of no wind is that the house stays warm!! We have so many windows in our home, that it cools down quickly if given proper conditions. The bummer part of the whole snow thing is that during our gale force wind storm we lost our sled!! We have hunted for it, but to no avail. So we are in the market for one, so to speak! :)

Thanksgiving was spent here at home with just the 4 of us. Our friends were unable to join us. We did knock off one of our turkeys for dinner. Good thing it did end up being just us because it was the SMALLEST turkey on record! A whopping 9 lbs! It was quite yummy though and we did get a bit of leftover sandwiches made and I made a turkey soup too.

The day after was spent putting up our Christmas tree (yes, it's a fake....) and getting everything decorated. Trevor is spending most of this next month with Bill and Leanne while he has audio therapy. I will go over next week and help out a bit with driving. Well, with him being gone, we wanted to make sure that he was apart of getting that tree up! Trevor LOVES Christmas!! Well, so does Jack, so needless to say there was a lot of crazy energy about!

We are still traveling to Twisp for church. We are looking forward to see what God has in store for us regarding a 'home' church. In the meantime we continue to pray for direction. We have not received a phone call as of yet for a foster child placement, but know that it will come probably sooner than later! We are attending a foster Christmas party on December 7. Gifts are provided for all foster kids and parents bring gifts for your biological kids. There will be a santa to pass out presents; food; games. We are all excited (especially Jack!) about meeting other foster families. (well, I think Jack is actually more excited about attending a party!)

That is it for now--

Have a blessed day!!

Thanksgiving

Well, I'm back--at least for a time. Dealing with internet servers is really not my idea of a good time. We are looking into getting faster internet, but cost is its own subject!
We are well here. The end of October we became offically licensed to be foster parents!! We have not had a call for a placement yet, but are looking forward to the opportunity!
Currently we are getting ready for Thanksgiving. We really were not paying a whole lot of attention to the prep for the meal since Clay, Veronica and Tristan were unable to join us this year. But we are (weather permitting) getting together with our dear friends Ken and Sabrina and their clan!! Sabrina has a couple of Pioneer Woman recipes that are going to be on the table for sampling this year!
Trevor starts audio therapy this coming Monday. It will be in Bellevue, so he will be staying the majority of the next month with Bill and Leanne. I'm going over at some point the second week of December to help with driving Trevor.
Have you started Christmas shopping yet?? I have got a few things and am hoping to actually start wrapping BEFORE Christmas eve! I just read a short article in Guideposts magazine about a family that decided to buy all presents for their family from second hand stores. She says that everyone really enjoyed the thrill of the hunt and things were actually affordable and kept everyone out of the busy stores. Fun idea......
The artic blast that was predictied for around here has begun to strike. Since Saturday, we have had 30-50 mph winds along with single digit temps. With wind chill we should have negative double digits tonight and tomorrow night. THEN it should warm up to almost 32. Ah, and its only November! We are looking forward for the wind to stop so that we can work on getting the ouse warmed up. It's craziness trying to keep it warm with all this wind. The animals are cold, but so far seem to be doing ok. We just have to bring water out to them a couple times a day since it freezes so fast. Life on the prarie! It's an adventure! I'm so thankful that we do have a beautiful house, a wood stove and LOTS of wood. How did people survive these winters back in the 1800's and early 1900's???? It's truely remarkable what a human can with stand!
Give thanks for the beauty and warmth around you. Give thanks for the beautiful family of yours and let all know how much they touch your life.
Have a blessed Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday

Our home visit went awesome! We are so excited! We just need to get the banister and hand rail up in the stairway; baby gates; one more fire escape ladder; move Trevor and Jack to the downstairs bedroom and set up the crib (we are on the list with a preference for babies). Such minor stuff! Oh, and Jeremy needs to get his first aid/cpr class done. We could be licensed as early as sometime in November. Could be some extra fun around here for the holidays! Now if the tiredness I'm feeling from fighting this cold would go away, I'd be set!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Monday

We had a wonderful surprise Saturday night! We got a surprise visit from our dear friends Adrian and Rebecca! It was so wonderful to see them, though our visit was VERY short! Now we need to get over to Bellevue to see their new house!
Tomorrow morning we have our first home visit. So today I'm working on making sure we have most everything done that needs to be done and cleaning house. Please pray that all goes well and we can finish the last of our licensing process quickly.
Calvary Chapel Okanogan Valley is starting back up again as a bible study! We will be meeting on Sunday evenings at 7pm starting on Oct. 17! We are all excited to get going again. Had a wonderful prayer meeting last night with Ken and Sabrina. Would you be willing to pray for us and our bible study? We have a blog set up that will be updated hopefully once a month or so--
the address is: kinzle.blogspot.com
Back to cleaning......... :)

Soccer and Awanas

Here is our little adventurer from the last couple of days. Jack had his first soccer game on Tuesday night. Their team lost, but I don't think anyone cared. He spent the whole time smiling! Wednesday night at Awanas, Jack said his memory verse, which was John 3:16 and in turn, earned his Sparks vest and moved to book 1! Life is so good for this little 5 year old! :)

We're Back from Dino Land

We have returned and things are now back to normal! It was a beautiful trip. The picture of all of us here is at the top of one of the hikes we did. Saw lots of beautiful scenery and cool dino bones. The first campsite we stayed at was so nice. It was totally like camping at a resort. CLEAN bathrooms with HOT showers! We camped next to the covered group kitchen. This 'primitive' camping kitchen was covered and included: 2 refrigerators; electric stove; wash sink w/ hot water; microwave; coffee pot; toaster.......you get the idea. Oh and we also had the whole place to ourselves! We stayed here for two nights then on Wednesday, we headed for Biggs, OR which is on the Columbia River (Oregon side). Jack caught two fish with his Spiderman fishing pole and Jeremy actually picked one up with his bare hands--yes, we are impressed! LOL We stayed at a state campground there and then headed home on Thursday. We were blessed to have Tristan and his friend, Dale come and stay at the house and care for the animals. I was so happy to be able to see them, though it was a short visit. Also, Saturday after we got home, Clay and Veronica came over to see Grandma and Grandpa too. Everyone ended up leaving on Monday, including Trevor who left with Clay and Veronica. All of a sudden we were down to only me, Jeremy and Jack. VERY quiet!! :)

So now we are in our routine of soccer game on Tuesday; Awana on Wednesday; soccer practice on Thursday and soccer game on Saturday. Luckily it won't be for long since soccer is done before Halloween.

Life is awesome!!!!!!

Sunday Packing

Well, we have a new soccer star in the family! Jack is having a BLAST!!! We will be having games 2X a week.

We are leaving on our Dinosaur vacation tomorrow morning. We had Ken and Sabrina's youngest 3 last night overnight and Tristan and Dale just got here. Tristan and Dale are guarding our farm while we are gone--pray the animals survive.....LOL They are actually excited about hanging out at home this week. In the midst of all this, we have stuff everywhere trying to pack!

Please pray for our safety while we are gone. We'll be taking lots of pictures!!!!!

Have a blessed week!!!

Tuesday

I am alive up here on our little mountaintop. My computer has been having issues getting online--I really should take it into a computer doctor! :)
Things are well. Jack starts soccer practice tonight! I forgot how small the shin guards and cleats are at this age. I'll try and get some good pictures. Jeremy is working in Bellevue this week (again). So as usual to kill time during the week, I decide to start 'cleaning' and end up with stuff EVERYWHERE and end up doing a mad dash trying to find some kind of home for it all before he gets back home!
Yesterday, I took Jack to the pet store and I bought him two zebra finches. They are pretty cute: orange beaks and feet. Jack named them Bob and Oscar. I've been trying to place what their little tweets sounds like. Then it came to me. Have you seen the Pixar short called "The Birds"? The funny little chirp those birds make actually sound like Bob and Oscar. (yes, making that connection makes the birds more fun for me). Jack absolutely loves them and spends a lot of time making sure they have food and water.
This week will also be spent getting things together for our little Dinosaur Vacation that we leave for on Monday. Tristan gets here on Sunday, we leave Monday and come home on Thursday. Jack has a soccer game Thurs. night and Saturday morning. Tristan leaves on Friday. The Jetmore's get here on Sat. pm and everyone is leaving on Monday. My only question to myself--"are you going to be smart and make a menu so that you are not stressed?????????? " I'm all over it......as soon as I put all this stuff away that I'm organizing..........LOL!

Fall is Here

It is only the second day of September, but the beautiful season of fall seems to have arrived! The air has a crispness to it--sunny and warm, but has the feel and smell of fall. The grasses that have been brown due to end of summer dryness now has a golden/orange color to it. The leaves are already changing colors---can you believe that? That started a couple of weeks ago when it should of still been warm lake weather! This last Sunday we actually had a fire in the wood stove since it was really cold and pouring rain! Today and tomorrow are to be our warmer days, so though the water maybe cold, I may still take the boys down to the lake just for the heck of it!
Aside from the weather, we started school this last Monday. Jack is LOVING it!! As soon as he finishes one thing, he is asking 'what's next???' I actually had to convice him that for the greater good, mommy really needs to eat lunch......and yes, we are going to be done for the day because we cannot do a whole year of school in one day. His response, "why??" hmmm......
We are leaving for 4 days in a couple weeks to meet up with my in-laws at the John Day Fossil Beds in eastern Oregon. Look it up online-I think that we will be staying in the booming town of Spray, OR. Yes, that means camping! Though if it gets really cold there are a couple of hotels at a nearby town. Jack is excited to go camping and go to a dinosaur museum. I'm going to be buying him his own camera so that he can document the trip from his view and also so that he is not constantly borrowing mine!! :) His photography has gotten pretty good and like his sister, can take some GREAT self-portraits!
Back to finishing up baking bread (another great 'fall' smell!) .

Social/Sick/Training

Yes, I am here and still alive! August can be summed up in three words: social/sick/training
Social and sick actually go together in the sense that we had LOTS of wonderful visits: My sweet friend Martha and her kids drove out to visit for a week. On the first morning she was here, Martha's little Eric threw up. It was quick and he was back to hard core playing and running within an hour--weird, but we went with it. We had such a great time and were even able to hold conversations at times that were more deep than, "Do you want a hot dog or chicken nuggets???" LOL The day before Martha was heading out (Sunday), my brother Alan and his family came! Yes, on Sunday night we had a grand total of 15 people in the house: 5 adults and 10 kids!!!! It was not as crazy as one would of thought! Sunday night about midnight, Jeremy and I found Trevor walking in our room and heading for the bathroom.......you guessed it sickness flowing from his back end. As I was tending to him, Jeremy went to Trevor's room and found that he had threw up EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!! Oh goody!!!!! So, we got that all cleaned up and got him settled back in bed. Too bad for me though because literally EVERY hour and a half he was sick from both ends, if you know what I mean! So, on Monday morning Martha headed home (well, probably running since I doubt she wanted to get sick again, which if you follow Martha on her blog, you will have noticed that Bridget got sick again.....). Monday was visiting and hoping that Trevor recovered quickly since his birthday was on Tuesday! Alan and Jeremy did take Julie on the grand tour on Okanogan and Omak--she was highly impressed! :) Tuesday was Trevor's 18th birthday!!! He was feeling better, so we headed for Omak Lake for the day!! Met up with the Kinzle family--soooo much fun!!!!!!! Wednesday all is good until lunch time, when my nephew Chris gets sick at lunch......Wed. about 10:30 pm my neice Paityn gets it. My other neice Syrenah feel AWESOME this whole time!! :) Alan's family heads out on Thursday afternoon. Thursday night; Friday night and all day Saturday Jeremy and I are at foster parent training classes. Oh, yes, I'm sick all day Friday. We had the last of our training classes this last Thurs; Fri; and Sat. and are done with those!!!!!!! We were so blessed to have our precious friends take time to care for the boys while we were gone!! :)
In the midst of this month, I should mention (for whatever reason) that 3 out of 4 weeks of August Jeremy was out of town working! ~~even with all the craziness, it was a great month with lots of memories!!

Homemaking website

I also found a cool website:

www.homemaking911.com

Shelves and Relationship

I cannot believe that it's only 1:45 in the afternoon!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For some reason, this has been a VERY slow moving day! On the upside, I did clean and reorganize the kitchen shelves. That was a gross job. I honestly thought I cleaned all that not that long ago but was I wrong--who would of thought that dirt got THAT sticky......... So I do feel slightly better about myself for cleaning that one portion of my house--(no I didn't take any pictures!) :)
Last night we had the most amazing lightening and thunder storm I have ever seen! The lightening bolts simply lit up the house and a few seemed to touch the ground in my fields! The thunder cracked and shook the house! Praise the Lord, we didn't have any fires on our mountain and didn't lose any trees around the house. Today is breezy and sunny--no sign at all of anymore storms, though according to the weather service there is a chance of another tonight. The cooler weather is nice, but it does mess with our lake and pool time!

You know how I said that it is a slow moving day? I think I'm just in thought regarding a book I'm reading called 'Walking in Total God-Confidence'. There are a few things that are standing out to me, but one at this point is what I 'get' to do for God--not what I 'have' to do.~~forget about the "Rules of the Christian Life" and focus on my "Relationship with the Living God".
Which motto will I choose to live by: Have to? or Get to?

Quote from Hannah Whitall Smith:
Here Lord, I abandon myself to you. I have tried in every way I could think of to manage myself and make myself what I know I ought to be. But have always failed. Now I give it up to you. Take entire possession of me. Work in me all the good pleasure of your will. Mold and fashion me into such a vessel as seems good to you. I leave myself in your hands. And I believe you will, according to your promise, make me into a vessel unto your honor, sanctified and meet for the master's use and prepared unto every good work.