Finally Posting Again

This is a favorite picture of mine. Caleb is enjoying sledding down the driveway and he is laying in the sled and our two dogs see him laying and come running to check on him. The dogs are so protective of all of us but especially Caleb. If he is laying down they will stay by him until he gets up, I think he milks it just a bit because he loves having the dogs close by.

This is the snow view out of the front door. Across the street where the snow laden trees are is where we spotted the deer this week. Read further down the blog for details. I loved how the ice stayed on the trees and makes everything so beautiful at least when you get to stay home and not be driving.

This picture was taken on a recent snow day that we had. Caleb was having a blast with the our neighbor children sliding down the hill. They made a ramp to jump off of and spent hours playing in the cold. We've been blessed with some wonderful neighbors.

These are the beautiful flowers that Caleb gave me for Valentine's Day. He picked them out all by himself, his daddy was just the driver to the store. Wayne got me 3 of my favorite Lip Glosses. I hate lipstick because it dries my lips out too bad but Estee Lauder makes wonderful lip gloss so I got pink, pink and more pink lipgloss.

My dear wonderful mother reminded me yesterday morning on the telephone that it had been a very long time since posting. Aren't mothers wonderful to give you those gentle nudgings. I love you mom, thanks for the reminder. In all actuality I've been having computer issues, hopefully to be resolved very soon. I've had to visit the library to get computer access which is not always convienent.

To bring you up to date with what has been going on in our neck of the woods. Caleb has been a busy little boy these past few weeks. He has had Baseball Academy which basically means that he has been in training for the upcoming baseball season. He was able to attend the pitching and hitting sessions which are pretty intense. We will see how he does in the upcoming weeks with baseball season getting ready to kick off. He is supposed to be the primary pitcher for his baseball team, which is a great honor but such a responsibility. I think I get more nervous than he does because of all the pressure that is on him. Caleb has also been attending a hunter safety course at the Bass Pro Shops. Bass Pro puts on this course along with the local DNR and 4 H Club. He had his 100 questions test this past Tuesday evening and passed with flying colors, I was so proud of him. He passed with a 93%. This weekend he gets to attend a Field Day where DNR sponsors all ammunition for a 4 hour shooting session. There will be all types of guns that the kids will get to shoot, he is very excited about the shoot. Caleb received a gun for Christmas that he had been wanting for a long time but a requirement of ours was that he had to attend a hunter safety course before shooting. Voila! Hunter Safety Course is completed and many safe hunting days ahead. Yesterday, Caleb and I looked out our front windows and there were 6-7 deer all grazing in the yard across from ours. Caleb being the very typical little boy, says to me, "Mom, I need to get dad's 12 gauge and shoot those deer". My response was I don't think so, lets just watch and enjoy the deer. He didn't like my response one bit.

On a different note, I'd like for you'll to check out my friend Amy's blog, it is listed under Crosswalk. Amy and her family are going through a very difficult trial at this time and desperately need our prayers, the doctors also need wisdom in treating Amy's condition. I'd also like to mention a prayer request for a family of a patient that I took care of in just the past couple of weeks. This patient was a fellow employee that was 38 years old and was hospitalized for approximately 3 weeks, with a very unsure diagnosis. He ended up dying on my unit and his family has taken his death very hard. He and his wife had only been married for 5 years and did not have any children but were in the process of adopting a child.

Our problems in life seem so big in our little world, but when you look outside your windows there are always people that are hurting and have needs that are so much bigger than ours. I pray that God will make me sensitive to other's needs and help me not to be so self focused on my own problems. Please say a prayer for Amy and her family as well as this other family that I will simply call by the name "KM".

Love is in the Air

Caleb got in the car this morning and says to me, "Mom, I want to get you a bouquet of flowers but they are too expensive, they wanted $29.99 for the flowers I wanted to buy you". I told Caleb, honey you don't have to buy mommy flowers but if you really want to, how about a single flower. A single flower means just as much too me. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love flowers, but I hate to see my husband and son go out and spend a bunch of money on something that will fade so quickly. I treasure the memory of Caleb's sweet voice telling me about the flowers and his desire to give something to me. I'll have to see what Valentine's Day brings.

Last week while I was having devotions, I got so much out of this particular devotional I decided to share it with you. It's taken from "Walk Thru The Bible Tapestry", February 2008 issue.
" When you love someone, you can't help thinking about that person. God says, He can't get us off of Hi s mind: "Can a woman forget her nursing child, or lack compassion for the child of her womb? Even if these forget, yet I will not forget you" ( Isaiah 49:15). When you love someone you invest in them. God gave us the Spirit as a down payment (2 Corinthians 5:5). He placed His Spirit inside of us. You don't invest in something you don't really want or desire. When you love someone, you care when they're going through hard times, and you walk through those times with them. The Holy Spirit helps us in our distress. "For we don't even know what we should pray for, nor how we should pray. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words (Romans 8:26 NLT). God specifically put His Spirit in us to act as our advocate and to pray for exactly what we need when we don't know what to pray. It's one thing to tell someone you love them. It's another to listen to them when they want to talk, to empower them, to encourage them, and to stand by them. You are deeply, passionately, and completely loved by the God of the universe. Soak that up for a second. The One who created the universe, hundreds of billions of stars, countless planets, and space as far as the eye can see is captivated by you. Soak up God's love. You are chosen. You are dearly loved. You are His.

Wow! I absolutely loved this devotion. God in all of His greatness and vastness is captivated by me through all of my shortcomings and faults and is willing to listen to me grumble and whine. God still loves me anyway and then helps me through my problems and issues. This is not something that I didn't know before but it came at a time when I needed it. Just thought I'd share it with you'll. I'm wishing you'll a love filled Valentines Day.

Stormy Weather

We had quite the stormy weather yesterday evening in Southern Indiana and surrounding counties. I had just gotten off work when my phone rang and I was told there were 75 mph winds headed in the direction that I was going. I was 30 minutes away from home and am now terrified to drive in the rain, let alone winds that were going so fast. I said a quick prayer that sounded a little something like this, "Lord, you know that I'm scared to death and I just want to get home, please keep me safe and calm". I drove for about 20 minutes with some wind, a few sprinkles but once I hit the country road that we live off of, the storm decided to hit. It started pouring sheets of rain and I was on a curvy and hilly road that is surrounded by trees on both sides. My prayer turned to one of panic because the visibility was so bad, I almost pulled off numerous times but fear and determination kept me moving. I was only 2 miles away from home when I encountered the first tree but it was only covering half of the road so I could avoid hitting it. Small branches were scattered everywhere but I kept plugging on, I just wanted to get home. When I was only yards away from the road that we live on I encountered another tree, I stopped, evaluated then decided to plow on through, the tree wasn't that big. I managed to drag a portion of a tree branch into my garage. My husband says my good sense was overtaken by the panic that I was feeling. I'm thankful for God's protection but rain storms now scare me to death. There are a couple of small trees that are down in our yard but no other damage. I'm reminded of the scripture in 2 Timothy 1:7 that says, "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity , but He has given us a spirit of power and of love, and of a calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control."

Snow Day!!!!.

I just uploaded the pictures to my computer from this past weekend. Caleb gets to be home from school today, as we have a little over 1 inch of snow here in southern Indiana. My mom always laughs when I tell her if Caleb is on a delay or snow is cancelled because of the weather but I have to remind her that southern Indiana roads can be so treacherous with all of the curves and hilly roads. Northern Indiana folks seldom cancel school for weather, they would be out of school almost 3 months with all the snow they get. Anyhow, Caleb is enjoying being out of school and getting to play in the snow today.

Caleb had a great time playing the back yard with the dogs, sledding and snowboarding.

Here is a picture of our birthday celebration that we had this past weekend, pardon the bottle of dressing, my brother just couldn't resist.

My mom, brother Jon and dad all in a moment of togetherness.
Nathan, Caleb and Savannah were all feeling lazy, they had just woke up.

Spencer got a haircut this past week, we were teasing his mommy that he looked like a little Amish boy. He will be a year old in just a few weeks.

Birthday Celebration

The month of January is a crazy month in my family for birthday's. My parents, brothers and one sister-in-law all share January for their birth month's. My mom and sister-in-laws and I debated about this weekend, did we want to go out or cook dinner. We finally decided that a home cooked meal would be just fine if it included a favorite for each individual. Our celebration dinner included the following:

• Apricot Glazed Pork Loin
• Wild Rice
• Greek Salad
• Orange Salad
• Macaroni & cheese
• Crusty multi-grain bread
• Chocolate covered peanut butter pie
• Carmel Apple Cake

I have to say the pork loin was a huge success. The original recipe was from Angela Nichols in Mt. Airy, N.C and was published by Gooseberry Patch "Magic of Christmas" but I tweaked it just a bit to our taste. The version below is mine.

Apricot Glazed Pork Loin

• 15 slices of boneless porkloin
• Greek Seasoning sprinkled generously over pork loin
• 15-1/4 oz. can apricot halves, reserve juice
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Spray 13x9 glass baking dish with non-stick spray. Place porkloin in dish and sprinkle with Greek seasoning. Cover dish with foil and cook at 375 for 2 hours, then turn oven to 350 for 1/2 hour or until meat thermometer registers 160 degrees. Mash apricot halves with juice, blend in sugar and lemon juice. Bring to a boil and cook 2-3 minutes, remove from heat. Pour apricot sauce over slices of porkloin. Enjoy! The Greek seasoning was just something that I had purchased at Walmart in the spice section, it is just another version of seasoing salt with a few more spices.

I'll post some pictures later, just haven't uploaded them yet.

Pictures of our house

This is where Caleb and Wayne love to hang out. This weekend they spent a few hours in the pole barn coming up with ideas for Caleb's Destination Imagination program (DI). Caleb participates with this program through school where they are divided into teams and children are encouraged to think outside of the box, and solve problems creatively. It is a great program that I believe is done nationally but first they compete on a local level. This year his team has to come up with ideas for building a project that will have 4-6 obstacles, it must have a Christian theme, a skit and take no longer than 4 minutes to complete (this includes set-up time, skit and obstacles). It is definately a challenge. Wayne thrives on helping Caleb with these projects. A few topics that were discussed included positive and negative pressure, and flow of gravity. I love creative projects but DI gets just too technical for me.

The living room.

This is a picture of the dining room. Notice the cabinet holding my collection of cookbooks. I collect cookbooks and probably have over 250. This cabinet holds special meaning to us. We purchased it at Wayne's grandparents estate auction a few years ago, it was a cabinet that had been stashed in the barn after catching on fire some 50 plus years ago. His grandparents at one time displayed it in their kitchen. Wayne had it refurnished for me as a Christmas present a couple of years ago. When our house was up for sale, we had to have a sign in the cabinet window stating that the cabinet would not be going with house.

Here is a picture of my new kitchen. I'm absolutely loving it. It is great for entertaining.

My brother, Jon is diligently reading the newspaper. I don't even think that he knew I took this picture, he was so engrossed.

Caleb is patiently waiting to open Christmas presents and trying to have a pillow fight.

This is my sister-in-law (Tammara) acting silly with her camera on Christmas.

Window Washing

It has been so nice outside the past couple of days here in Southern Indiana, that today I decided to wash windows. The windows were quite dirty at our new house, the previous owners never liked to open their blinds, so thus they couldn't see all the dirt. I absolutely hate dirty windows, just can't stand to look out them. My windows are all clean and sparkly for now but in a couple of months they will be dirty again.