Of recent days in February

In this month some of my favorite things have been going to Wisconsin with Micah & Rhoda to see friends & stopping to see Jon & Mary on the way... umm...I don't have any pictures of this but please be assured that we had a grand time! :) It snowed, and we went on a walk in it -singing Christmas carols- we laughed very hard -lots of times- went wedding dress shopping with a friend, had interesting conversations & I made my first angel food cake that I still think tasted like baked egg whites with sugar! Perhaps when I get pictures from the weekend I will post them...we'll see.

 Around the end of Jan. beginning of Feb. Dorcas left for Bible School. -This isn't such a favorite thing of the month :)  She doesn't come home till May 1st sometime & I miss her. we all do. 

But she sounds happy & so I am happy for her! :)  

( excuse the bright-ish picture please)

Yesterday was a rather cloudy day with not much to do so in the afternoon Rhoda & I made a small batch of mini mocha cheesecakes & coffee. It was amazing, the cheesecake I mean. I think I am on to something now.... I will make them a few more times then post the recipe 'cause I don't have correct measures of anything.  Just saying a little of this & a lot of that doesn't always work well...

Then today we wake up to awesome snowy-ness outside! Dry, fluffy snow, and lots of it! So we went on a walk in it.... I don't think there has been this much dry, fluffy snow since moving to Missouri so I was quite excited! :)

 Rhoda & Sam.  It doesn't look like the little dog wanted to be in the picture...

Rhoda & I

And next weekend I think I get to go see Naomi in CO! Such fun that will be I am certain! :)   And coming up on the 28th (I 'm not sure which day that is) is National Pancake day! Rhoda & I like to make pancakes on that day as some kind of.... uhhmm.. observance? Or something like that I think. :)  

 The end.

Grateful for happiness...

This is a list of random things from the last several days that have made me feel very happy & grateful...

• Going out to eat, thrift shopping, & Starbucks with a sister and friend
• Seeing friends & family that have not been seen in a very long time
• Seeing a girl in Starbucks reading her Bible -there's just something so refreshing about this-
• Laughing a lot with family over various random things
• Fresh baked cinnamon rolls & tea ring to eat with coffee and sisters and mom
• Learning new pieces of music...some happy and but most sentimental :)
• The nice checkout lady at Walmart offering me a good coupon that was a saving of $1.75 :)
• Pinterest :)
• Music videos 
• My sisters black & white cheesecake bars
• Pulled pork sandwiches with stir-fry for supper :)
• Sewing new things
• Making fabric flowers
• Making and selling candles

Us... Having apple & cream cheese tea ring with coffee, 

and missing the sisters and sister-in-laws that couldn't be here....

So this is a very random list as you can see, but it helps to look for small things to be grateful for. And I like to write them down sometimes and see what all I can come up with! :)

What has made your days happy recently?

In which...

....I will post about December and Christmas...'cause I haven't posted since October 31 and this seems to be a good place to start....

Around the beginning of Dec. Dorcas, Rhoda & I went to Iowa for several days to surprise 2 of our cousins... It turned out to be a rather profitably fun couple of days including an amazing afternoon of thrift shopping and Caribou Coffee with an aunt and girl cousins! 

Here I play memory with Liz & Rebecca....they beat me every time. 

I'm not getting old. I just have a tired brain sometimes.

 Here we play dutch blitz....

Here is us girls.... even if we are blurry. :)

 ___________________________

 Wes & Sara came for Christmas and Jon & Mary were here as well...  We drew names among us girls and set a $5 limit. Rather small I know but we hunted our minds 'till we found creative things.... we made the gifts or bought them from thrift stores ( or on Black Friday ;)) and in the end we all got  with very useful presents! It was a lot of fun to see what could be come up with! ;)

 One of the kidders most favorite games is pegs in the park.  You can play it most any way you want when you are the one making the rules! ;)

Miss Mya ;) she rather liked to play with the little houses and people... ;)

 and the others play legos. :)

 Here we are in the middle of a "picnic"..... never mind that I look terribly tired... After all, we had just climbed to the top of a VERY steep mountain (with our babies) to reach this perfect spot for a picnic.  Sound like fun? It was! :) 

 Dad, Jon, Sara & Micah play the stock market game. 

 I am quite certain that I would not win if I ever attempt to play! 

 Kyler is so happy to get Scarloey for Christmas! 

He seems to like Thomas & his friends quite a lot... :)

  Aubrey gets a scarf! And it's pink! What can be better than that? :)

 Mr. snowman/cheesball. He looks rather fierce... I suppose he was....

 Stories with Uncle Jon. I love how Mya is looking at him on this picture...

 ...and again.

 And then we wash dishes. It's so fun to wash dishes with these helpers...

 Especially this one. :)

So there you have it. (some of it) 17 pictures and some words. A little more than 2 months since my last post & I must say I enjoyed updating! does that sound odd? I hope not.

  

Life has already changed since Christmas. Jon & Mary have moved away to Iowa and I already miss them. Dorcas will soon leave for 3 months and I will miss her. But like Pooh says - it's a good thing when you like people well enough to miss them and the other way around..... (something like that I think)   But know I need to go 'cause it's getting kinda late....Have a good day tomorrow! :)

Perhaps I will just call this...A blog post.

Hi everybody! Here I am with a few new pictures...I know only 1 of them has people in it & those are always the most interesting ;) But the others are nice too I think :)       You may or may not have noticed that I also changed my header and blog colors.... You may also have noticed that it is kinda late in the season to come around with fall colors but I never once thought about it until today when Mary & I were looking at random pictures of this fall.... so enjoy!

  Grandma was here for several days so we took her to our favorite cafe for coffee...

excuse the bad lighting.. ;)

 Yay for fall decor.... a gold plate, leaves from the tree, acorns & a yummy coffee beans candle....(you get all the good scents when you make them yourself! ;))

An awesome sunset...and gate... Just beautiful!

And who doesn't like bright red leaves in green grass?!

A fall-ish kind of day

October days are perfect for nearly everything!  I am so loving this fall with all the blue skies and happy colored trees.... the other day Mary came over and in the afternoon we had a small tea on a blanket in the yard....

 

Mary & Rhoda arranging flowers...

Mary gets all excited about picnics & tea ;)

 

us... Dorcas was here too but she is taking the picture. 

See? Didn't I say October is beautiful?   I feel pleased to have been born in this month ;)   I think fall is the perfect time for candles, lots of coffee with Mary at work, fresh baked somethings, fast walks down the road, & getting lots of exciting birthday gifts! ;)

I hope you are enjoying each day 'cause there is a lot to be seen & appreciated if we are willing to look!

Interesting things happen....

Hi people!
So I realize that It has been a little more than 2 months since the sun has shone on this blog... I will try to do better!

Yesterday I was at work, most times nothing un-ordinary happens but yesterday was not so.  Here is the story... it is pretty long, due to my not knowing how to shorten things like this....
It was 5:00 and the last customer had just gone out the door. I was restocking shelves and cleaning up when suddenly I looked out the window and saw that the customer hadn't left yet. (I will add here that It was a very old couple, they had purchased a large number of jar goods so there was a lot of weight in the box for them to carry out...but they didn't think they needed my help.)  With a little more examination I realized that the man was on the ground beside the truck. Oh great! I thought to myself... this is perfect, since I have no experience lifting old people!  I went out to see if I could be of help, the woman was trying to lift up the man by his belt and wasn't getting very far... apparently he had set the box of jars on the back seat of the truck and was turning around to get into the drivers seat... and fell down.  -Here I will say that the parking lot is gravel and he was beginning to feel it on his knees.  I asked if I should/could call the ambulance but they were not at all fond of that idea. He said all he needed was a couple strong guys and wondered if there were any close by that could be of assistance. So I ran across the drive to the neighbors and told them what the matter was and asked if any of the guys were around to come help... The brother was around so he came down...I tried to tell him what the case was and we both agreed that neither had any experience lifting people like this. The only thing we knew is that we needed a gate belt...which we didn't have... but it was clear they did not want an ambulance...soo... as we approached the store the poor man on the ground told us that he weighs 240 lbs.  This is perfect I told myself...  They don't want the ambulance, just 2 strong guys... only one was around.  The way the man was situated between the truck doors there was no room for a person on each side so David (the neighbor) tried lifting him as best as he could and suddenly there was a pop and the man groaned and said it felt like his shoulder had just dislocated and that we should wait a little before trying it again... so we waited and then tried again... and saw that it was not going to work.  So I asked again if I may please call the ambulance and they agreed that would be better. So I call 911 (I had never done this before but they are very helpful which is good! ) soon they were there and the man was in the truck and the EMT's left. Then the little woman came in and thanked me for my help and proceeded to say that her husband has some kind of  disease which causes low oxygen.... but she thinks he will be OK.   I gave her my best regards and she said that they plan to be back on Friday and we are to save 3 big rolls of butter for them....
I am thankful that this don't happen everyday as it creates more stress and drama than asked for but I do sincerely hope that the elderly mans shoulder is not dislocated and  I think I also learned that it is not smart to try lifting people (esp. 240 lb. people) when you have no experience!  Mary and Dorcas tell me this last bit of wisdom....

Goodnight Ya'll...

Life is Beautiful...

...I am amazed at how beautiful life really is!  Even in the times that feel completely un-beautiful, God is still working and I can know that the end result will be perfect.  Tonight there was lots of laughter and at the same time, a gentle rain outside. Things we were needing so much, both came at the same time!
    Tomorrow is another day. I am challenged to live it fully. To treasure each moment. To notice the beauty in trusting God with the unknown. To treat those around me better than myself. To Live...and Love.

Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence [is] fulness of joy; at thy right hand [there are] pleasures for evermore. 

Psalms 16:11

An "out of the blue" grateful-for-my-family post

This is a picture post.  Pictures of sisters and family.  Pictures of lovely times spent together eating ice cream and drinking coffee at Mary's house.....

Us five sisters in age order at a recent reunion

Rhoda & I 

A happy mug with coffee & creamer goodness

Ice cream.....Amazon storm & cappuccino chip

Mary, Rhoda & I,   (Dorcas was behind the camera ;))

Naomi gets a picture all by herself on here because she wasn't at the 'party' :)

Aubrey, perhaps a future pianist..... *wink* :)

Families are like fudge - mostly sweet with a few nuts.  
~Author Unknown :);) *wink*

Rhoda, the favorite aunt, with the nieces and nephews

 This older brother & sisters of mine are such a good thing in my life ;)

 Naomi & Mary

 Dad & Mom

You don't choose your family.  They are God's gift to you, as you are to them.  
~Desmond Tutu

Things Change....

Recently I have been thinking about how things change. Constantly.things.change.

So I decided to find a couple old pictures of myself to show ya'll.... ;)  

(Yea...I'm way glad that I look different now then I did back then! ;))

  This was alot of years ago....
and that's my brother Micah beside me.... (he has changed too.. ;))

             ________________________________

   _________________________

    

It was only a matter of years between then and now...

I don't think I really look like the same person but they say those are the pictures of my childhood so I will believe them.

Along with growing up, my family also moved from Wisconsin to Missouri.   From winter wonderlands & lush, happy green summers, to winters that are less wonderland-ish & summers that are very hot & brown.  But since this sounds like we didn't gain anything I will tell the things we have gained.... the surreal beauty of the Ozarks  and getting spring about 2 months quicker then those in the grand north.

So there is definitely good and bad, beauty & not so beautiful things about both places....(but I will say that the north has trickled into my blood from a very young age and will undoubtedly stay there! )

And so just now I will post a favorite picture from a place known as the far South to those in Wisconsin and at the same time, it is now known to me as my home of 4 1/2 years. Missouri. It saddens me to not have any pictures of Wisconsin Winters and summers but they are on another computer that doesn't work so this is it. You cannot tell me that the picture below is anything, but...

....Simple.beauty....

....I  have learned, in whatsoever state I am, [therewith] to be content. Phil 4:11