last Saturday {just another day in the life}

 

What is this?  the 21st century?  Well, I’m in at last – complete with a new phone with which to text my kids, hubby, and friends.  As you can imagine… it’s much like a new toy or tool that can help or sidetrack.  Whatever.  Please give me some credit for saying I did not need a smart phone.  Of course I still have another week to decide if I like this one.

 

 

Equipped with my spankin new phone… Saturday morning I woke up and thought I’d start my day by telling texting a friend about some of our Friday evening excitement {How my nephew Andy came for supper, offered his hand to Luci the dog, and she took it.  Literally.  Ouch.} 

Tim came into our room to brush his teeth while I was still busy with my phone.  So he sent me a text:

“Morning”

To which I lovingly replied:

“Kiss”

Which got him immediately talking to me instead of texting.  :D

 

For my Bible reading I chose to look up some verses Tim had shared with the kids as they prepare to head to Boston to learn and to minister.

Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not.

So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.

Luke 17:9-10

These are verses I’ve read before – and often think of when I’m feeling a bit put upon – or even proud of myself for what I’ve accomplished in a day etc.  Reality is I usually just need to get over myself, as they say.  And maybe I {God} knew this was going to be one of those days…

Back to my phone… to call Andy’s mom and let her know that he was still alive to the best of my knowledge, although wounded... but not by an EOD.  ahem.

Treadmill time – really hard to come by during these weeks of driver’s ed.  :-(

Empty the dehumidifier bucket…outside where the water can do my potted flowers some good.

Breakfast, check email, work on an Amazon order, shower, assist the berry pickers with their pay distribution.

We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.

More phone calls re. Andy {He had posted on fb that he couldn’t move his hand!? so his mom was a leetle curious}  as I went to Ames with Daniel & the Cowgirl for their drive time with Mr. B.

Choose joy.

Ames – I needed to stop in at JCP for polos for Daniel & Kate, and the DriveTek location is now at the mall.  Oh look!  It’s Saturday morning – it’s Farmer’s Market day!  I checked it out and found some wunderbar romaine.  We ate most of the huge head for supper {after inwardly laughing at the kind seller who told me to peel off just as many leaves as I needed at a time}   Must remember to buy seed for Jericho romaine for our own garden.

Headed home without the student drivers because Kate & Abby wanted to shop at Kohls and Walmart when they picked them up instead.

Leftover pizza for lunch, dishes, laundry.  Listened to the Popper enjoying Easy Piano Classics.  Texted with the shoppers.

Asked the Cattleman & the Popper to pick strawberries.  Planted more flowers outside, watered plants.  Changed out of my sweaty clothes!  More laundry, more texting {some of the shoppers would like to be done already}.

Washed and processed first bucket of strawberries, more texting re. Sunday’s potluck – Kate’s stromboli from the freezer it is.

We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.

Shoppers finally came home with famished student drivers who haven’t had any lunch.  Showed Kate the polo options from JCP.  More ‘lunch’ dishes, more strawberries.  Got shot by my hubby with his Nerf gun.  :p

Q: What’s for supper, Mom? 

A: Grumpy Mom.

Choose joy?

Sent Kate, Abby & the Cowgirl off to clean the office.  Talked to a friend on the phone about the potluck.

Online banking to restore positive account balances for the shoppers.  Read the Cattleman’s book report, more laundry and boiling water to pour on someone’s strawberry juiced shirt.

We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.

Tim mowed, the Cowgirl practiced piano.  Kate helped get spaghetti on the table for supper.

Choose joy.

Read Daniel’s book report.  Found a requested email addy.  Emailed/texted to request hymn numbers for Sunday {both Kate & Abby scheduled for services}  Listened to them practice offertories.

We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.

More dishes.  Removed chocolate cake from the freezer for Sunday’s dessert.  {Leftover from graduation party.  I can do that.  Cheerfully even.}

Remove a tick, clean someone’s ears with Q-tips.

Family Bible time.  Another chapter of Living Proof.  Discuss.  Send kids to bed.

Laundry.  Empty dehumidifier, this time down the unused shower drain.

Choose joy!

Went to sleep listening to Kate practice piano.

 

Note to self: I did not iron any clothes for Sunday or view the Super Moon. 

P.S.  Sunday morning I did give Daniel his first lesson on how to iron a dress shirt.

Boston

 

Five of our kiddos are on their way to Boston, traveling with our church’s youth group to assist and learn about a ministry there led by Bill & Deb Edmondson.  (Please click the link if you would like to read more about their efforts to share the gospel around the world by reaching international students in the Boston metro.)  When Mr. E. was here in Iowa this spring, he told us about online Bible studies he’s having with folks on the other side of the world via skype… b/c they are family members of people the Edmondsons met in Boston!  Isn’t that great?!

 

The group also plans to stay in Boston for the Fourth… should be memorable!

 

(photo by Bill Brett)

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for Abby

 

 

 

Verse of the Day

“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” -Psalm 91:1

daybook 6/17/2013

 

For today, Monday, June 17, 2013 

Outside my window...  sunny, blue skies and green, green grass {and weeds!}

Hearing...  a bird chirping

Pondering...  how soon I should wake up the Popper

Praying...  for both strength and wisdom to major on the majors in yet another crazily busy week  {while wondering where blogging fits into that}

Thankful... my Berry Patch kids are able to both deliver and pick up their siblings to/from driver’s ed today.  Which means… I  don’t have to go out the door at all.  woot woot!  {unless I tag along with Kate & Abby’s visit to the orthodontist this afternoon? or go to LMF at church tonight?}

Creating...  a menu plan before I buy groceries {works so much better than vice versa}

Going...  to town to order carpet for the stairs soon, just not today please!

Reading...  the Bible - John 

Tim is still reading aloud Living Proof, which has been really good.  We  need to finish soon as kids have reports to write… in the next week! 

Kate ordered Smart Organizing, which I nabbed to read first –> and from which I hope we will all profit as I/we try to implement the author’s suggestions.  Amen?

        

Looking forward to...  making ice cream tonight…  and Friday – where my calendar is still e/m/p/t/y

In the kitchen...  still just a short list of menu options – baked taquitos, taco soup, and pizza of course  :-)   Most of the kids are eating out tomorrow night for the youth group’s ‘Senior Send-off” and Tim has promised a meal of KFC for Friday.

Last week we survived with leftovers of a not-so-favorite pasta dish, pizza, and birthday dinner steaks.  And cake.  And frozen fruit cups.  And melon.  And fresh strawberries!

Kate the kitchen queen is home, you know.  So she has been busy making smoothies as well as cinnamon rolls, pancakes, heuvos rancheros, and more.  Not sure what’s up her cooking sleeve this week.

Oh yes, fresh strawberry pie – as soon as we harvest enough berries again.

In the learning rooms...  lots of driving instruction and practice, memory work for Sunday school and youth group, Biblical worldview study in adult Sunday school.

Around the house... empty boxes from Tim’s gifts, new {used} text books for Kate’s fall semester, a growing pile of more stuff to get rid of, a new shelf for the basement {on Daniel’s to do list to put together for me}.  The good news is that I found my desk top a couple days ago!

The Mother Load...  housework, put together a meal for a family at church going through surgery recovery, Abby’s transcript {still} – but what sort of grade to assign for a foreign language course without any tests??

Something fun to share...  a clever craft made by a young friend {and her mama} for Abby

        

A favorite quote {from Democracy in America} for today...

There are people in Europe who, confounding together the different characteristics of the sexes, would make man and woman into beings not only equal but alike. They would give to both the same functions, impose on both the same duties, and grant to both the same rights; they would mix them in all things--their occupations, their pleasures, their business. It may readily be conceived that by thus attempting to make one sex equal to the other, both are degraded, and from so preposterous a medley of the works of nature nothing could ever result but weak men and disorderly women.   ~ Alexis de Tocqueville

American women have rejected their respected, important, and necessary part in building our country. No man or government agency can fill the void that forms in a culture when women try to be men.  ~ Tim

One of my favorite things...  the notion of ‘a place for everything and everything in its place’ –> thus, getting rid of unnecessary s.t.u.f.f. {which stands for something that undermines family fun}  ;D

A few plans for the rest of the week...  listening to my girls pound the piano as they prepare for next Sunday’s services including ‘music night’ at church {offertories, congregational singing, a piano quartet, and they are also accompanying several vocalists/others}

A peek into my world...  where it’s green both inside and outside the house

                    

 

~.~.~.~.~

Giving credit where credit is due:

While I am not linking up with anyone, you could read more weekly news posts at other blogs by following any of these links:

• Peggy at the Simple Woman’s Daybook

• Julie for adapting this daybook version as her own ‘Grasshopper Days’ ~ Perhaps I could call it the GHV Daybook. :)

• You can also find a similar weekly meme in Happy Homemaker Monday at Sandra’s

~.~.~.~.~

Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord,

that thou fulfil it. Colossians 4:17

daybook 6/11/2013

 

Outside my window... Bullwinkle and Caspar are in the nearest section of pasture where the grass is getting ahead of them.  The rest of the herd is at the far end, too far to see well (espec with my eyesight).  The yard looks somewhat better after the Cattleman mowed last night.  It’s cloudy, but no rain in the forecast until later this afternoon. 

Hearing... nothing of note.  It’s just me and the dust bunnies here for now.   Four kids took the other two to driver’s ed. class on their way to pick peas at the Berry Patch again this morning.

Pondering...  putting my head in the sand {aka, a book or this computer} and ignoring all the tasks calling from each room of the house 

Praying… still for Eleanor and Meg {who are both doing well at last report}, for the P family overseas and hoping to renew their visas this fall, for the A family also overseas, for Tim and kids to have a good productive day.

Thankful... for Mr. B., who is again the driving instructor for my kids in driver’s ed class this year.  And yes, I am so very thankful the Cowgirl survived her second time behind the wheel of a car yesterday – driving in Ames!  :o  (She wouldn’t leave the gravel roads on our short drive together last night.)

Reading...  Bible – John.  And a fiction series from the library.  Not sure I really like this scary suspense/murder stuff.  But of course I must finish to the happy ending now!

In the kitchen...   I should share the blueberry muffin recipe the girls found and baked for Saturday’s breakfast – yum.  I had some of their leftover b’fast pizza yesterday too – more yum.  As far as menu plans, last night was pizza and tonight is supposed to be Julie’s baked taquitos

In the learning rooms... Driver’s Ed has taken priority over the Cowgirl’s algebra and science.  She will finish eventually, even if it’s August before she can concentrate on it again.

Creating… a post about the new furniture as promised, but I haven’t quite finished it yet 

Around the house... At the moment the kitchen is the most in need of my attention.  All six kids flew out the door this morning, so I finished cooking Abby’s crepes as well as my own eggs, put the yogurt away… but the clean and dirty dishes and dish of baked oatmeal await.  I ought to vacuum before I hit the shower this morning.

The Mother Load…   Abby’s transcript.  Still a few flowers leftover from the graduation party – I like them in their tin cans, but I don’t think they are big enough to live through the season there (see photo above).  Blog posts!  and of course, laundry and the endless pile of ironing… which I did work almost through the other week, but it’s so impossible to keep it from piling up again.  :-( 

Something to remember for later... um, to speak more clearly when I need a quart of paint, not a gallon.  Bless the guy’s heart for selling the gallon to me for the price of a quart.  We just needed it for touch-up in the younger girls’ room.  Maybe I should find another room to paint blue??  And you locals, please shop for paint at Diamond Vogel!

{not sure you can see in this pic what a pretty blue it really is}

A Bible verse...

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.  John 5:24

A few plans for the rest of the day/week...

Driver’s Ed, the Cowgirl’s birthday, A Beka motel meeting (just need to enroll for dvd classes), Father’s Day?! (not sure what we’re doing to make it special for Tim!)

A peek into my world...

   

{Daniel is laughing at Kate who insisted on the photo journal of his pie-making – He actually won the “prettiest pie” prize on Sunday, but I don’ t have a pic of the final presentation with piped whipped cream border.  And yes, it was delish!}

 

~.~.~.~.~

Giving credit where credit is due:

While I am not linking up with anyone, you could read more weekly news posts at other blogs by following any of these links:

• Peggy at the Simple Woman’s Daybook

• Julie for adapting this daybook version as her own ‘Grasshopper Days’ ~ Perhaps I could call it the GHV Daybook. :)

• You can also find a similar weekly meme in Happy Homemaker Monday at Sandra’s

~.~.~.~.~

Take heed to the ministry which thou hast received in the Lord,

that thou fulfil it. Colossians 4:17

celebrating with our graduates

 

Friday, May 31, 2013 ~

            

                    

       

 

 

          

      

                                     

                    

                    

                                                   

Kids of all ages enjoyed carousel rides…

{click for photo credit and info on our carousel}

Good friends Theresa & Sarah took charge of the kitchen for the evening ~ with help from their hubbies and Theresa’s daughter  :-)  They along with a couple other families stayed to help clean up too!  I think we were done by 9:30pm – So the Rays came home with us for an after-the-party party…  crazy but fun.

     

    

     

So if we look a little sleep-deprived… take a closer look at the clock!

    

 

~ * ~ * ~ * ~

 

   

 

Congratulations, Abigail & Daniel!!!