Happy Birthday, Jill!

My daughter turns 30 today!

Sophia : This is how many I am!

Sandwiched between Hannah's birthday and Jill's birthday, we had a scare as my Dad suffered a stroke. Luckily, it was a mini-stroke and he only had to be in the hospital 2 days. He has suffered no residual effects. You would not be able to tell that it happened. (while in the hospital, we were glued to the tv. Mom and Dad were missionaries in Japan for 30 years, so what is happening there with the earthquake/tsunami/nuclear disaster has our utmost prayers and interest. Neither of us have cable tv so it was great to watch the news there)

When he was in the hospital, he said, "I just want to be able to go to Jill's birthday party!"

Well, we thank the Lord that he recovered and was released from the hospital so we could all celebrate Jill's special day.

We celebrated one day early at the Bread Basket. Can you tell it was St. Patrick's Day? Almost everyone in the restaurant was wearing green!

Everyone got a piece of birthday pie.

And Jill received 30 birthday cards!

After lunch, Jill and I went to Wichita to spend the day shopping for birthday gifts for her.

Mindy met us after work and we had a wonderful birthday dinner at Abuelo's.

Happy Birthday, 30-year-old!!

Hannah is 6!

Hannah's birthday is today!
We celebrated this past weekend.
The Arkansas cousins came. Here is Eli praying.
Nana and the 2 little girls ate in the kitchen.




When she woke up this morning, this is what she found at the breakfast table!
Hannah has been reading the American Girls books about Samantha. Jill decided it was time to pass on her Samantha doll that she had when she was a young girl. Hannah is overjoyed with her!

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Other pictures from this weekend.


(Al always seems to have a toothpick in his mouth.)

Thank you for the haircuts, Mindy!

Cousin bath time!

You are precious, Hannah!! Happy Birthday!

Tsunami

I have been glued to the tv, radio and computer (face-booking friends in Japan) today. Watching scenes of the tsunami in Sendai and watching scenes of the earthquake in other areas of Japan. It has been horrific to watch the pain and suffering. I remember all those earthquakes when I was growing up. We lived close to several volcanoes. I remember once that our town was in a tsunami warning, but it never happened.

My high school friend, Judi lived in Sendai. We both lived in the dorms at Christian Academy in Japan that is in Tokyo. We hung out almost all the time. Because our home was too far away to go home to on weekends, I went to Judi's house a couple of times.

Her parents lived close to an orphanage and we would play with the children. It made a huge impact on me. It was one of the influences that got me to wanting to adopt.

This is a picture of some women in downtown Sendai.

Our son-in-law's sister, Stacy, is in Japan right now during spring break. She was just going to enter an earthquake simulator when she felt the earthquake. She thought it was part of the show! She and her friend ended up stuck in downtown Tokyo for awhile, but at last report was trying to get back to our friend's home once the trains began to go again.

A friend and I are memorizing Psalm 46 and I thought of these verses this morning.

God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way
and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam
and the mountains quake with their surging.
(verses 1 & 2)

Pray for the people of Japan and also for Stacy's safety. I believe her return to the States will be delayed.

March 5

On this day, 6 years ago, we moved into our present home. The young couples in the Bible study group we led at the time purchased this plaque for our front door.

When we had our home built, our basement was unfinished. We decided to save money by doing it ourselves. In between Al's job, our church ministries, and having kids move in with us for some time, the basement remodel has taken time. We are almost done. We can see the end in the horizon.

Today we finished up the fireplace.

We thought that it turned out pretty good - at least for a couple amateurs! I love the tree that Mindy bought for us for Christmas! Thank you, Mindy!!!

Then Al added shelves to the little cove. I got out some of my boxes in storage that had my Japanese nick-nacks. It was like Christmas to see all the precious things I have from Japan!! Haven't seen them for 6 years! I put a few of them out.



March 5 is also Tami's birthday - Happy Birthday friend!

It is also Cora Paige's birthday. She would have been three today. Her family celebrated for her. Read her story here.

Along with the joys are the sorrows of this day. March 5 for us was a day to move to our new home, but it is also a day when others went home to Jesus. Today a few years ago, my friend's 15-year-old son was killed in a motorcycle accident.

So March 5 is a day to celebrate, but a day to mourn also. I remember when my mother-in-law passed away. We were so sad and I just couldn't believe how people could just go about their normal lives when we were just grieving. It seemed like everyone should grieve with us.

Recently, I read a book called "Heaven is For Real" by Todd Burpo. A wonderful story about a 3-year-old who went to heaven and it tells about the things he saw. Reading this made my heart yearn for the joys of heaven!

One of my favorite stories is "Safely Home" by Randy Alcorn. This artwork by Ron DiCianni was the inspiration behind that story. It is about persecution of believers in China. In the story, he gives you glimpses of what heaven might be like. Again my thoughts turn to being "home". What anticipation!


Tonight at our church community life supper, we sang this song - "He Giveth More Grace".

He giveth more grace when the burden grows greater;
He sendeth more strength when the labors increase.
To added affliction He addeth His mercy;
To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace.

His love has no limit;
His grace has no measure;
His pow'r has no boundary known unto men.
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus, He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again!

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
verse 17, 18 "And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words."

Projects

This past week the weather was just so very nice! So the girls and I worked outside; picking up dead leaves, doing some sweeping, cutting back some dead branches and such.

Then time for some fun - like sidewalk chalk

and swinging!

Today was a more chilly day. Al had the day off and we had several honey-do things on the list. First he went to help Adam plant a tree. Stonecreek had trees on sale for $26! So they bought a flowering crab to replace the poor corkscrew willow that didn't make it. While he was doing that, I began to stain the door to the baby room (which will one day be the exercize room once all the grandkids outgrow the crib).

Do you like my pants? Several years old. I used to wear them when my friend and I had a wallpaper business. So much wallpaper paste on them, the stiffness can't be washed out. I use my pants as a rag. Quite handy.

When Al got back from Jill and Adam's, the next "to-do" thing was to clean out the nest some sparrows had made in our entryway light.

Mommy and Daddy sparrow looked on and were not at all happy.

We placed a "snake" in the light to keep them away.

I love birds, but Al has a love-hate relationship with them. He enjoys watching them, like I do, but they sure can be a mess. Last spring they set up camp in the basement fireplace flue. So Al had to take it all apart to clean it out, then put a screen around it to keep them out.

After a lunch of soup to warm up our cold bones from being outdoors, and a nice nap (a must for those of us hitting our senior years) we got onto the next project - the stone on the downstairs fireplace.

The girls popped in to see what we were doing.

We ran out of time and the project will continue tomorrow. I wonder what else I can put on my "honey-do" list to keep Al busy??

Spring decorations

This morning I was reading in Psalm 50. Verse 14 says "Sacrifice thank offerings to God." Next I read out of "Today in the Word" it was from Hebrews 13. And guess what verse 15 says? "Through Jesus therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise - the fruit of lips that confess His Name." I also read out of Streams in the Dessert and what is the verse for today?? Hebrews 13:15! So 3 times today, the Word reminding me to offer to God an offering of praise.



Sophia was over this morning. She LOVES to sing so we sang several times throughout the morning:

Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Praise Him all creatures here below.
Praise Him above, ye heav'nly host.
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen

(and yes, she sings "Amen" too!)

Can you guess what we did this morning? Hint: Look at her mouth!



Sophia loves chocolate! And we made Waffle Iron Brownies!

Different from the usual brownie, these are baked on a waffle iron instead of in the oven.

Here is the recipe:

1/2 cup butter

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs, well beaten

1 tablespoon water

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup chopped walnuts

confectioner's sugar

Preheat waffle iron to medium setting. I spray mine with Pam.

Melt butter in a saucepan. Remove from heat. Blend cocoa into butter with a wooden spoon. Stir in sugar, eggs and water. Add flour and salt; beat well. Add nuts.

Bake in waffle iron like you would waffles. It will bake in 1-2 minutes. Watch it so it won't burn.

I have a Belgian waffle maker so it took longer than what the recipe calls for. Use the tip of a wooden skewer or other sharp object to remove brownies. Let cool on rack and then sprinkle with confectioner's sugar.

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After we made these waffle brownies, I told Sophia that it was time to take down all the snowmen and Valentine decorations. After all, tomorrow is March! We had our first hail storm yesterday and there were tornadoes south of Wichita. Yup, it is Spring!

So we boxed away all those snow things and Sophia helped me place the Easter and Spring decorations around the house.

We even got out the Resurrection eggs that tell the Easter story. Each egg is numbered and you open them.

Example:

#1 - there is a flower. "In the beginning, when God created the world, it was just beautiful! It was perfect!

Each egg has something to represent the Easter story - like a cracker to represent the last supper. (Sophia opened this egg and said "A cwackoo!" and almost popped it in her mouth! That little oyster cracker is probably 3 years old so I quickly stopped her from eating it!)

The very last egg is empty to represent the empty tomb. It was fun to tell Sophie the story and I'm sure we will do this multiple times before Easter actually arrives. And I am sure the girls will want to hide those eggs too and try finding them.

I am so ready for flowers and warm weather!

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Yesterday during the storm, I saw these 3 geese out in the field by the house, just not caring at all that it was pouring rain and also hailing some too. We had mostly pea size hail but a few were quarter size too. One of the geese flicked his head like he'd been bonked on the head by some hail. I would have gone for cover!

Take a look at that first goose. I cropped the picture to get a better look. It is rather blurry from the rain, but look at its' face. Not the usual Canada goose face. It actually has the face of a Barnacle goose, but the body is more Canada goose. Barnacle geese live in the East and mostly upper Canada and in Greenland and arctic Europe. Do you suppose it could be a cross-breed of a Canada goose and Barnacle goose? Or just a mutated Canada goose?

Then today in our back yard I saw this hawk.

Praise God from whom all blessing flow,

Praise Him all creatures here below...