Move/Extreme

Andrew and Alison Sagmoe moved out of their rental to a "new" home and our community life group went to help them out.

A cardinal sang a beautiful trill nearby. I had almost forgotten the sound. The first year we moved to our home, we had several pair of cardinals. Since then the "stupid" (Hannah says I shouldn't use that word!) black birds have chased them all away.

Alison and Andrew at their new home. Enjoy your home!! You'll have to host Bible study some night!

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Al wanted to go see "Extreme" at the cosmosphere in Hutch.

So that is what we did in the evening.

It is pretty incredible that they have rockets and moon landing stuff there in Hutch of all places. This is Al's alma mater. I attended Adela Hale while he went to Hutch JUCO for 2 years. Hutch was a great place to date. We'd stop at The Hutch for peanut butter shakes or go to the movies at The Fox. Our first date was at the State Fair in Hutch. I worked for a year at The Great American Life Insurance Company there before we married and moved to Lawrence.

Anyway, it was good to go back to Hutch; and to go see Extreme. It was about these crazy, extreme outdoor adventure sports that people do. Like riding waves taller than 30 feet.

And climbing sheer cliffs.

Or skiing or snowboarding down untouched mountain peaks. Climbing vertical frozen waterfalls. It was amazing. The world God has created and continues to create is breathtaking. Unfortunately, this film had a lot of spiritism in it. There was no giving the Creator the credit for all He has done.

Reminds me of Romans 1 where it says "The basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thorough look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can't see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of His divine being. So nobody has a good excuse. What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn't treat Him like God, refusing to worship Him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in His hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand." The Message

After the Imax film, we went to a Chinese restaurant. There was an extreme item on the menu.

Frog legs.

Gross.

No.

Did not do that either.

I like SAFE.

I don't like EXTREME.
I'll watch extreme,

like the Olympics

from my SAFE and comfy chair.

art

Hannah loves to do art work. She told me today she felt "crafty". Her Gramsy sends her lots of crafts in her "Gramsy Grams" (wonderful packages from Adam's mother who lives in Wisconsin). This is a picture that Hannah made for her mommy.

This one is of her and me.

And Sophia's coloring.

Tonight while I was preparing supper, Al did playdough with the girls - since Hannah felt "crafty". My husband does not have a artistic bone in his body. I thought. Stick figures and such. Well, I learned something new. After almost 35 years of marriage, I find out he does sculpture!

finances

This week we had : Checking in -

Yummy food - (*recipe for the trifle at end of post)

Beautiful decorations -

Lots of friends and fellowship -

This month there was a panel discussion about finances -

put on by some very wise women.

They have been through Crown Ministries or Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace classes and help lead them now. They had many, many wise things to say. I liked how they mention giving children "commission" instead of allowances. They have to work for their money. And teaching them to put money into savings, tithings and spending categories. We did that for our kids and I think they are all pretty sound financially and know the value of money.

Al and I used to be real poor. We got married young. Like just turning 20. Neither of our parents had lots of money. Al grew up on a farm and his dad had to work 2 jobs to help feed his family with 6 children. My parents were missionaries and then had a pastorate. You know that isn't bringing in lots of money. Although I never knew it. We traveled a lot and in the old days only wealthy people traveled. People were so good to us, bringing us lots of food - mikans, nashi and omochi in Japan and in America the congregation would give us cream, milk, eggs and lots of meat. So, if we didn't have money, I didn't know it.

When we married, Al was in pharmacy school. I worked at KU and brought home $400 a month as a secretary. We got by fine. Our rent the first year was $80 (we lived on campus - married student housing with an orange plastic sofa!) and went up to $100 later. Then we had Josh. We thought we were done with school, but Al went on for his masters. I stayed home; Al really couldn't work with his studies. One year he did bring home $86! Of course we were audited but they found out that was really the case. We lived off borrowed money and love. We wore clothes purchased at garage sales (and our old clothes from high school days) and I washed cloth diapers; we used the WIC program. God always provided. Sometimes it was a sack of groceries on the porch; or someone would give us clothes for Josh. We prayed about needs. During those years, God taught us to tithe, even if it seemed like we didn't have any $$ to give. We never went without our needs being met. Maybe our wants. Ok, a lot of times our wants. But I learned that that wasn't what was important.

Well, those days are gone. Al makes a good living for us. I don't know a lot about money. Numbers don't compute in my head. Truly. Al makes the money; I spend it! Ha! I do stick to the budget. Mostly. I don't consider myself a shop-o-holic. I do enjoy buying things for the kids; and for the church nursery. Al is really smart when it comes to finances and knows about investments and such. He is in an investment club with several of the guys from church. We have a budget book and write down every penny we spend. We pay cash for our cars. We buy only used ones, but in good shape. We do use credit cards (I know Dave Ramsey says you shouldn't). We pay them off each month. Never put anything on the card that isn't in the budget. Never put anything on a card that we don't have the money to pay for it. NEVER not pay the bill in full. So we get cash back. Lots. Sometimes as much as 5% back at some stores. And Al gives it to me for fun money! Isn't he sweet?? I know some people don't like to use credit cards. Some people use an envelope system. We used to. We pinched every penny. I used to have to take the calculator to the grocery store to make sure I didn't overspend. It is nice to not have to worry so much about that any more. But we never know the future and what might happen so we can't take that for granted. But that's why it is important to have that emergency fund.

One thing I have really appreciated is that every January, Al writes down everything I need to know in case he would pass away. His 2 grandfathers and uncle died very young - in their 50's - so we know that could always happen. Al takes such good care of me and of course, I surely do hope he lives to a ripe old age, like his father.

True satisfaction comes not from stuff. It comes from the Lord.

"Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare." from Isaiah 55

"I said to the Lord, 'You are my Lord; apart from You I have no good thing." from Psalm 16

This advise from Hannah (age 4): If we want to save money, we should go to Walmart. Save money. Live better. Walmart.

*Trifle:

Bake a brownie mix. Cool and break apart into about 1" squares.

Put half the brownies into trifle bowl.

Add some Cool whip.

Add some cappucino pudding (I make a vanilla pudding mix and add some instant coffee mixed into the milk to make it)

Add cut up strawberries.

Layer it all over again.

Top with hard shell chocolate ice-cream topping.

Visitors

A couple of "ladies" came to visit this evening. They found a sack of balloons in a drawer.


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Old McDonald Had a Farm - doo doo doo

Come again, "ladies"! Always lots of fun!

Whiter than snow

This week we had somewhere between 5 & 8 inches of snow. I think the official might have been 5 but we heard of others who had 8. What does our official weather guy say, Marc??

This morning in my devotions, I was reading from 2 Corinthians 5:14-20 in The Message:

...One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own.

Because of this decision we don't evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don't look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins....

Become friends with God; he's already a friend with you. How? you say. In Christ. God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God.

It made me think of the verse from Isaiah 1:18 "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow". Wow! Amazing forgiveness!

Pantry

The kids have sometimes come across out-dated things in our pantry. Cereal or some snacks that just have been forgotten. Yesterday I had some time....

...so I decided to tackle the pantry.

This is my pantry.

It is a "secret" walk-in pantry.

Three shelves are non-food items; paper goods, baskets, dishes, and

several Country Woman magazines that are filled with wonderful recipes!

I went shelf by shelf.

Really, not too much was out-dated.

There was a can of coffee creamer that had got stuck clear in the back that was dated 2006. (Yes, I did throw it out!) The oldest out-dated item I found was this - alum. I think I purchased it years ago to make home-made playdough, but I am not sure. Do you think it would still work?

If an item isn't dated - does that mean it lasts indefinitely?

Like Liquid Smoke or garlic wine vinegar.

I wonder how old this is???!!!

Is it still ok to use in soups?! Ha!!

Here is my spice shelf.

Yes - I am one of THOSE people who alphabetizes her spices.

Hey, when you are looking for a spice, it comes right handy!

My cereal shelf... Japanese foods shelf....
and the grandchildren's favorite - the snack shelf!
I felt so accomplished when it was all done!

Now maybe I should tackle the refrigerator.

Creation

The girls came over today. They wanted a snack. First I gave them some apple juice. Hannah said "My favorite juice is apple-mango-silly chocolate milk-cool juice. It is very yummy and most delicious. It sort of tastes sour lemonish." Next, I got out some left over sugar cookies from Christmas and I let them each pick one to decorate. (I don't know why it came out sideways. I couldn't change it)

oops. Sophie got a little too much sprinkles!

I teach a story each week. Today the lesson was the story of creation.

When I finished, Hannah wanted a turn at being the teacher.

Hannah:

"'Let there be light' God said in a firm and loud voice."

"This land is kind of creepy so He made some more."

"He made some animals to be occupied."

"Some fish like to swim near the elephant."

"Let there be some more recreation!"

And that is just what Sophia decided to do.