Sweet Annie

I wanted to take a minute to send out lots of love to Annie, who very graciously made me a signature! I mentioned how I'd like to have one and she volunteered to make me one! Wasn't that sweet of her?!!! For those of you who aren't familiar with Annie, you should really take time out to visit her blog. She is such a sweet woman and I can't say enough about her. She and her family have been through a lot with their daughter Izzy and they are such a wonderful example of perseverance. I'm inspired every time I read Annie's posts. So, what are you waiting for? Jump on over to Annie's place and read for yourself! You'll be touched and inspired!

Menu Plan Monday April 30-May 6

I'm thinking we'll have a bit of a busy week since we'll be starting up on our deck again. Hopefully we can get some walls up and the roof on this week and then we can take it as slowly as we want! I tried to pull together a menu that was quick and easy, yet still tasty. Here's what I came up with:

Monday: Grilled hotdogs w/chili, fried potatoes

Tuesday: Mexican pork loin roast, queso (I think I got this recipe from Big Blueberry Eyes)

Wednesday: BBQ meatloaf, mashed potatoes, steamed green beans

Thursday: Taco Salad (from Taste of Home), queso (what can I say, we like cheese! LOL!)

Friday: Pork chops w/apples and stuffing (Taste of Home), corn, roasted potatoes

Saturday: Tacos, rice, and you guessed it....queso

Sunday: Pasta w/tomato cream sauce, salad, garlic breadsticks

Let me just say that a few of these days I'll be feeding extra people. Since my BIL and FIL have been nice enough to help with our building project, we try and feed them every evening they are here working. They are, after all, providing free labor! For more menus, head over to Laura's. Have a great Monday!

Weekend Reflection # 12

It seems like this week zipped by before I knew it! It was a nice one though and I look forward to the new one that starts tomorrow!

It went something like this around here this week:

Sunday after church, we were invited to bring a picnic lunch and go to our pastor's house for lunch. He told us that his family was inviting a "few" families over to picnic on their land. When we arrived, there was already about 6 families there, with their stuff spread out on the lawn. After about thirty minutes, 10 to 12 more families arrived! I think it's safe to say there was more than a "few" of us! It was wonderful! I sat on a blanket and talked to some of the ladies from church while Caroline was off in the creek with the smaller kids and Logan was sitting at a table with some older girls playing Mad Libs. Jeff was sitting around chatting with some of the men and I enjoyed watching him be so relaxed. It was such a wonderful, relaxing time of fellowship!

Monday night, Caroline had a ballet recital at a local senior assisted living facility. Many of the students from Trinity Arts Center showed up and participated in some way. Some students played piano while others expressed themselves through some sort of dance. Some of the dances included Jewish worship dance, Scottish dancing, ballet, and some of the smaller children did a bean bag dance! There was also some violin playing. I felt like I was having an out of body experience as I watched my Caroline, who is 8 1/2, during the ballet portion of the program. Her body language seemed so mature but her face couldn't hide that huge smile she seems to always wear. All of the children did a wonderful job and Mrs. Tanya, the ballet instructor, did a wonderful job putting this together. It was so wonderful to see the room of older residents there enjoying themselves as they watched the children.

Wednesday, the roof on our new deck went up. Well, the plywood for the roof went up. We still have to get shingles put on, as soon as there is nice weather. It's coming along nicely and is going to be a wonderful place to entertain! I can't wait. We got our weekly dose of Lost on Wednesday night and that was about it.

Tuesday and Thursday were pretty normal. Nothing much happened besides ballet class for Caroline on both these evenings. Oh, I did forget that on Thursday, I bought Lord of the Rings Online for Jeff! He was pretty excited when I brought it home!

Friday was pretty quiet. Jeff and I went to Moto for some Japanese food. We came home afterwards and just took it easy. He's had a busy week at work so it was nice to just relax and do nothing.

I've recruited a couple of friends to do a Bible study with me. My friends Kasi and Jenny are going to join me in reading The Excellent Wife by Martha Peace. We're going to read on our own and answer the questions from the study guide. We plan on getting together (either every two weeks or once a month) to discuss what we've read and our answers to the questions. I've read some of the book and it's really good. I'm looking forward to doing this study with these gals.

I'm looking forward to scrapbooking today or making some cards. Since it's chilly outside, I think I'll put something in the crockpot for supper! I hope your week has been wonderful! To read more WR's, check out Judi's place!

Family Fridays # 1

Liz, over at Monkey Kisses, is hosting a new carnival on Fridays called Family Fridays. Here's a description from her web site:

On Fridays join us for Family Fridays for some Fantastic Family Fun. Write about something You and your family have done together over the past week or plan on doing, whether it be watching a family friendly movie, a fabulous family recipe, a fun family recipe your child(ren) helped with, a fantastic family game, products your family thinks are far out, or just simply taking a family trip out and about. Whatever it may be we would love to hear about it! **This is a new carnival so please pass the word on to fellow friends and readers, and please feel free to use the button, so graciously created by Trista over at The Pumkin Patch. The first Family Friday will begin Friday April 27th.

I thought I'd give this one a go. I wanted to share what we've been doing as a family this week. I've mentioned that we are building a new deck onto the back of our house. The old one was way to narrow and we didn't use it very much. We are adding a 12x16 covered portion, along with a 10x16 uncovered portion. Since we love to have our church family over, this will be much easier to entertain on. Our kitchen is small and it's hard to fit a large dining table in there. This covered deck will give us plenty of space for adults and children too. We like to have our children with us at the supper table and afterwards for conversation. This will be perfect! Things are going slowly since we are doing the work ourselves. Actually, my BIL, FIL, MIL, husband, myself, and both of our girls have participated in some way. Last week we tore down the old deck, framed the deck, and finally got the flooring down for both parts of the deck. This week we got the plywood on for the roof and today got the felt on top of that. We need to put shingles on as soon as the rain stops. Here are a few pics from our time together on this project this week.

Here's Caroline doing her part of the work:

Logan especially likes the goofy glasses:

Jeff needed some support so I was happy to lend my arms:

We got the roof finished soon after this photo was taken:

The uncovered part just needs stairs and railings now:

I had to love on the girls too, for their hard work. Caroline loved it:

Logan was even happier about it:

It was a great way to spend some quality family time. Something else we plan on doing as a family this weekend is watching the A&E version of Pride & Prejudice on Sunday evening. Well, almost all of us....Jeff will be flying his rc plane while the girls and I watch it :-o) To join this carnival, head over to Monkey Kisses and sign Mr. Linky!

Randomized by Mandalyn

I thought I'd take Mandalyn up on her offer to randomize someone. She sent some great questions and I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed getting them!

1. If you could have your children remember one thing about you, what would it be and why?

I think I'd want them to remember my love for God and my faithfulness to Him and to my family. Now, this is a tough one for me because I'm pretty sure that more times than not, I do not reflect these things to my children. I don't think I show my love for God the way I should. I am sure that I could do better. I do think when they are older they will be able to look back and understand that all of the things I am doing now is because I love them and because I want them to love God and obey His commandments. I think this is essential for their souls and their happiness. If I raise them in the fear and admonition of the Lord, then I have done my job. So, I want them to remember that I raised them in the fear and admonition of the Lord. I think that encompasses my love for God and my faithfulness to Him and to them.

2. If you could fulfill one life-long dream, what would it be?

I'd have to say to travel. I've always wanted to visit all fifty states and also travel abroad. I'd love to visit Paris, London, Rome, Italy, Greece, Scotland, Ireland,Germany, Mexico, Egypt, and Israel. Those are the places I can think of right off the top of my head. I would love to see the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel.

3. What is your best quality?

This is a trick question, right? This is tough because I have a lot of faults. The thing that comes to mind is my loyalty. I am as loyal as the day is long.

4. What is the most exciting thing you've ever done?

In December, Jeff took me with him on a business trip to NYC. For the first two days of the trip, he was in seminars all day long. I, on the other hand, had all of Manhattan to explore so for those two days, I did just that! I took off, alone, on an adventurous walk around Manhattan. This was pretty exciting because there was so much to take in. There is so much diversity in everything there. I was able to see beautiful landmarks, people from all over the world, more food than you could imagine, shopping galore, and I even found an awesome 99 cent store! This trip was also the first time I'd ever been on an airplane so thus far, this is one of the most exciting things I've ever experienced.

5. What is your favorite movie and why?

Hmmm....this is tough. I have two favorites. One is an all-time favorite. It is Pride & Prejudice. I love this movie for many reasons. I love this time period. I love the manner in which people conducted themselves and the way they dress. I love it because it's such a romantic movie. I love that Mr. Darcy is such a principled man. I love Lizzie's fiery personality and her unwillingness to settle for anything but true, heartfelt love. I love her free spirit and her tenderness. I could go on and on! I love, love, love this movie! I own the BBC version of this film, the Colin Firth mini-series version, and the recently released version with Kiera Knightley. I've seen all three versions multiple times! I cry every time too!

My other favorite is Facing the Giants. This movie spoke to me on so many different levels. The couple in the movie struggle with so many issues. They are struggling to have children, which is also happening to us. A lot of people have lost faith in the main character and are secretly plotting to fire him from his job. It just seems that so many things are going against this couple but they always handle it in such an inspiring way. The husband always reminds everyone around him that we must give God the glory when we win or when we lose. It's a very emotional movie but is also very encouraging, especially if you struggle with some of the same hardships. I can't say enough about it. I cry every time I watch it too!

Thanks for the great questions Mandalyn! If you want to be randomized, just ask and I'll dream up some questions! It's alot of fun and we can learn so much about each other from doing this!

Menu Plan Monday April 23-29

Monday: Soup beans, cornbread, weiners w/cheese (Caroline has a ballet recital so this has to be an easy meal night!)

Tuesday: Homemade chicken salad sandwiches (leftover from a picnic @ our pastor's house on Sunday), chips (Jeff has bagpipe practice so he won't be home for supper tonight)

Wednesay: Mexican Pork w/ tortilla chips (Got the recipe from a blog but can't remember where)

Thursday: Orange glazed chicken breasts (Fix It and Forget It), steamed green beans, roasted potatoes, rolls

Friday: Eat Out

Saturday: Sesame chicken (Taste of Home) w/rice and shrimp sauce, shrimp eggrolls

Sunday: Pizza w/salad

Hopefully I'll be able to stick to the menu this week. We are doing some work outside our house and so things could get off track in a hurry! For more MPM's, check out Laura's place!

Weekend Reflection # 11

I really have no idea where the time goes in a week. It seems that I look up and it's Saturday before I know it! The great thing about Saturday getting here so quickly is that Sunday, the Lord's Day, is next! A day of rest and a day to enjoy worshipping the Lord. That's what I look forward to every week.

Here's what happened in my neck of the woods this week:

The Good Parts:

• You know, the good parts really make up every minute we are here. Every breath we take is a gift from God. Even though I post things under The Not So Good Parts, I want you to understand that I love every second of those parts too! No matter what the hardship might be, I thank God for it.
• Jeff worked from home everyday this week.
• We made good progress on our new deck. Jeff, his dad, and his brother are building it together.
• I'm almost finished with Leanne's swap package and I hope to mail it out to her today.
• I received my swap package from Leanne and was blessed with so many wonderful, thoughtful gifts!
• I found some really cute scrapbooking paper and stickers at the Dollar Tree! The best part is that they were only $1 each!
• My BIL has been pretty healthy all week. He hasn't had to be put on dialysis yet and although he feels yucky when he wakes up each day, he feels pretty good once he gets going.
• Jeff is finally over his battle with allergies/sinus crud that he had for several days..
• No one was injured when our gas line was punctured this week. See below for more explanation.
• When I was checking our gas level in our tank this week, I discovered that a bird had built a nest under the hood of it and there are three tiny eggs in the nest!
• Sanjaya was voted off of AI....it seems that everyone in the world is happy about this! LOL!

The Not So Good Parts:

• I missed my dental appointment this week.
• I missed the AIG conference going on in the area this weekend because we are working so hard on the deck. I really wanted to take the girls but we just have too much work left to do.
• While digging post holes for our new deck, Jeff punctured the gas line. We have a gas water heater and propane heat. A service guy from the gas company came out and fixed it and we haven't got the bill yet.......we're guessing at how much it'll cost!
• Our cats have been trying to figure out a way to get under the gas tank hood and gobble up the tiny eggs and the mama bird that have made their home there! Thankfully, they can't fit under the hood but that hasn't deterred them!

There you have it. A great week with only a few bumps in the road. I hope you've had a great week and I pray that next week will be even better! I'll leave you with a little peek of what it looked like out my kitchen door when our old deck was torn down.

Everything is gone!

The old wood that used to be our deck!

Day 1 of the new construction....We have a new frame!

About 7pm, we have a new floor!

Today is Day 2 of our construction so we'll see how it goes today. This section of the deck will be screened in and covered. Beside this section, there will be a nice 10x12 section of uncovered deck. I can't wait! For more WR's, check out Judi's place!

MMORPG's? What are those?

My husband is a wonderful man. He's smart, loving, funny as all get out, creative, and many other things too numerous to mention. You get the picture though. He is the perfect man for me. We have the same type of personality, which sometimes causes conflict. That's a good thing though! Sometimes we need a good conflict to help us communicate better. We have so much in common. We both like being at home with our family, we love our church, good food, good movies, good comedy, board games, sleeping in, animals, pro football, college football, any football, college basketball, and the list goes on. When it comes to hobbies, we have different ones. I like to scrapbook (or pretend that I'm scrapbooking!), quilt (still learning), blog, clean stuff, or go to Walmart. Yep, I like Walmart, what can I say! He likes to fly radio control airplanes and build them, design web sites, play music (usually his bagpipes....he's in a bagpipe band), and probably his biggest hobby, MMORPG's. He even talked me into playing one of these with him one time.

Now, for those of you who have no idea what a MMORPG is, I'm about to enlighten you. The acronym stands for Massively Multi player Online Role Playing Game. Really, what that means is say goodbye to your husband for months at a time! LOL! These games are so much fun you wouldn't believe me if I told you! I have never, ever played a game that was as fun as one of these. There are all types of these. Companies spend millions of dollars to make one of these games. Sometimes they are very successful and sometimes they flop. It's crazy.

To make a long story short, I believe my husband should be paid by these companies as a "tester" of their games. Why, you ask? I'll let the picture below explain the answer to that one. These games are almost as social as going out with friends for dinner. You get together with other players in the game to do quests or band together to beat some bad guys. Jeff has made many friendships with people all over the world through playing these games. As I mentioned, I even played one of them with him and had a blast. I had to quit though because I found that I wanted to play it way to much! Our children even enjoy hanging on daddy's shoulder while he plays....and I'm usually right by his side at my computer or on the couch behind him watching. I'm always kidding him because every time a new game is getting ready to come out, he has to tell me, very excitedly, how good he thinks it will be! LOL! I think that's his way of telling me he's going to buy it!

I wanted to share this with you because I thought my hubby was the only man who played these games. Well, I really thought that most of the game players were teenagers or young adults.. Imagine how surprised I was when Shawna posted her desk challenge photo the other day and I happened to notice some MMORPG's on her hubby's desk! I had to email her right away to find out if her husband too was a MMORPG player....and he is, or was! Her hubby had four of the games on his desk and so I thought it only fair that I expose my husband's "growing collection."

These are the ones I could find. It's funny because when I asked him last night of the other games he's played, he gave me names of about 8 more! I would have never dreamed that a man would love to play these types of games at 37!

So, does your husband play MMORPG's?

Hugs to Leanne

If you didn't take part in this swap, you should have! This was the first swap I've ever been a part of and it was so much fun! I can't wait for the next one to roll around!

Two days ago, I came home and my husband informed me that I had a package at the door. I was trying to think of what I had ordered and couldn't remember! Then my daughter brought the package to me and I recognized Leanne's return address! It caught me by surprise but I didn't waste any time opening it up! The girls were practically hanging on my shoulders, trying to get the first peek of what was inside! Oh what fun it was to read the card she sent along and then open up each individually wrapped package. Here's what I saw when I opened up the box.....

Leanne sent me soap (S), pens (P), Rolos and Reese's (R), incandescent light or candles (I), note cards (homemade)(N), things to grow and gloves (G) (Forget Me Nots). She was very creative with her gifts and I especially loved the note cards. She had made them by using pictures she cut from magazines. She glued the cut outs onto card stock and then wrote a theme on the front of each card. The envelopes were even more interesting. She had used a page from a magazine to make an envelope to hold each note card. I'd never seen that before and I am anxious to find a reason to use these right away! I was thrilled! I'm still thrilled! I can't wait to get the Forget-Me-Nots started! Thank you Leanne!

Now it's my turn. I will be mailing my package out to Leanne on Saturday. Here's a sneak peak at some of the things she'll receive from me....

It's been good to have a reason to drag out the crafting supplies and make a mess everywhere! Thanks to Rebecca and Lucy for organizing this swap! You did a wonderful job and it was a lot of fun!

Almost Wordless Wednesday.....

What? You didn't know my uncle Elb was Batman?

For more WW's, visit 5 Minutes for Mom!

Menu Plan Monday April 16-22

It is still Monday so I'm posting this, even though it's very late! My husband and oldest daughter are sick so I've not been real motivated to make my menu! Here's what I pulled together:

Monday: Mushroom Swiss burgers, fries

Tuesday: Bacon Potato Chowder, salad, bread

Wednesday: Pizza, salad

Thursday: Chicken Cacciatore, Smashed Parmesan Potatoes, Lemon Parsley Bruschetta

Friday: Eat Out

Saturday: Corn Chowder (Fix It & Forget It), bread

Sunday: Breakfast for supper--eggs, bacon, biscuits, gravy, fried potatoes

There you have it! Nothing fancy, just good eatin'! For more menus, check out Laura's place!

Weekend Reflection # 10

Another great week, although I'm a little tired from this one!

The Good Parts:

• I was able to find several nice dresses and shirts for Caroline at the clothing sale my friend had. This saves us alot of money and these are good, durable clothes that I couldn't otherwise afford to buy. Great brands and excellent prices!
• Went to the doctor this week. This is a good thing because I'm not a doctor person. It's pretty hard to get me to keep my appointments!
• We were able to spend the entire day with a lovely family from church. The mom brought her four children over to stay with myself and the girls while she did some shopping. It was a pure delight to have these children. The youngest child is 1 and since we really want to have another baby, it was nice to be able to play with her and cuddle. We decorated a cute plastic cup for the children to take home and the rest of the day we played outside.
• Caroline & I spent the entire day with my cousin and aunt on Friday. They drove over and we went to some antique shops. We made a day of it! Nevermind that they got lost coming to my house! Aunt Kat goes by visual directions....she sees something she recognizes and assumes she's going the right way! LOL! We spent about six hours looking through all of the shops. They also treated us to lunch at a local cafe. Thanks aunt Kat and Angel! We had a great time!
• Logan was able to stay all night with a friend from church on Friday night. She and her friend have been trying to work this out for some time and it seems things just kept getting in the way of their plans! Needless to say, I was tickled to drop her off, knowing that she was really going to enjoy herself!
• We ordered the lumber to start our new deck project. It was delivered on Friday. Jeff, his dad, and his brother tore down the old deck. Hopefully they'll be able to start working on the new one as soon as the weather clears up. I'm really excited because the new deck will have a covered portion that will double as a second eating area. This means we can invite the large families from church over more often!

The Not So Good Parts:

• Jeff and I have both had allergy issues for the past few days. My throat swells but goes down when I take sinus meds. It's generally just something that is making us feel very tired and worn out.
• I'm still not very motivated about getting more of my trim painted. I've pretty much stopped! I guess I went all out for about a week and got burned out. Hopefully I'll muster up the desire to start up again. It's such a lot of work and not very fun to do alone. I'd rather have a "painting party" and have several people over to paint and have fun!
• I made tilapia fillets for supper Wednesday and they were good. The problem is that I can't really eat fish. Something about it grosses me out. I know it's all in my head but I can't seem to get over it. It's an issue with the consistency of fish and when you find brown meat in them. It's sick I tell ya! Plain sick!
• My father-in-law decided to have a nice fall when he and Jeff were taking down the old deck. He hit his head before hitting the ground. He says he's fine but it was very scary. I wasn't here when he did it and I'm thankful because I would have panicked!
• It's raining like mad and is supposed to do so all weekend! I'm ready for warmer temps and nice, sunny days!
• I didn't have time to do my Menu Plan Monday last week. Luckily, I've had odds and ends that I threw together.

I hope you've had a good week! Hope over to Judi's to read more WR's. I pray this coming week will be wonderful for each of you!

Thursday Challenge...Circle

Inspired to participate by my RL friend Jenny, here's my Thursday Challenge. The theme is circle.

Our second day in NYC, Jeff was in meetings all day. I wanted to go to the other side of Manhattan and in doing so, for unknown reasons, I decided to visit the United Nations. This is the Security Council Chamber and you'll notice that the desk is circular. I know it's not a closed circle but it's close enough! LOL!

See more Thursday Challenge photos here!

You Want to See What?

Imagine my surprise when I saw that Carrie tagged me for this thingy-ma-bob. After I stopped kicking and screaming, I picked myself up off the floor and decided I needed to be a big girl and share my mess. I really do like to be tidy. It just doesn't happen at my desk very often. Since I homeschool my children, I'm constantly at my computer printing worksheets and things. When I'm not doing that, I'm doing my online banking or bill paying. I also maintain a website for a local realtor. I guess you're wondering what my point is, right? Well, my point is that I use my desk ALOT. It's my second home! Ok, here goes!

Now, just because I love her, I'm tagging Jenny! While I'm at it, I'll tag Judi and Shawna too! Come on girls! Get out those cameras and share a picture of your desk with all of us!

Ten On Tuesday #3

10 High School Memories

1. The many track meets, basketball games, and cross-country running events I participated in. My fondest memory is my senior year at the state track meet, winning the 3200 meter event. I think being involved in sports is what kept me out of trouble during high school.
2. Mrs. Hutchinson, my high school English teacher. I loved English and she always had such a wonderful attitude. She was always very chipper.
3. Gym class....who didn't love gym class! LOL! I really did love it. Mrs. Berta was the gym teacher and she was very serious and strict about her class. Since I was an athlete at heart, I loved that she was so serious. She had to be in her 60s when I was in high school. She retired about 5 years after I graduated.
4. Friday night football games. Since I come from a small hometown, these were great. Everyone knew each other and it was a great time to get together with the whole town and cheer on our Dawgs!
5. Drivers Ed class....I'll never forget driving and almost running a stop sign. I didn't because the DE teacher slammed on the brakes! LOL! I still crack up whenever I think about that one! I wanted to throw up when he slammed them on but I didn't! We never discussed that incident and he passed me! He passed away this year, unexpectedly.
6. Coach J...he was my basketball coach, track coach, and cross-country coach. He also lived up the hill from me. Since my parents were divorced when I was about 7, Coach J. was more like a dad to me through high school. He was a great source of encouragement. His wife is one of the nicest people you'll ever meet too.
7. Again, senior year at the state basketball finals. We were beat in the first round by one point. It was still an awesome experience though! My first season on the basketball team I was an eighth grader. I was on the varsity basketball team and we had 6 members! No one else wanted to play I guess! We went 0-22 that year!
8. Lunch. Yep, you heard me! I loved those cardboard hamburgers! Plus, being at lunch meant no being in class! LOL!
9. Burger Shack....this was a little greasy spoon at the bottom of the hill from the high school. They had good food and I loved going there after practice and getting a peanut butter milkshake! Yummy!
10. Graduation Day...I was glad to get out of school because I felt it was a colossal waste of time. I only went to school to socialize and I sure didn't care about keeping up passing grades. If I could go back to that time, I'd have my nose in books all the time. I never applied myself. I always did enough to get by and that was it. As a matter of fact, it sure would have been nice to have been homeschooled!

Visit Ten On Tuesday to see more lists!

Weekend Reflection # 9

I'm so thankful that each week when I sit down to post this, I remember how good I have it! There are always so many things to be thankful for. It's wonderful to take a second to reflect on how God has sustained me in the past week. It is an ongoing process and gives me all the more reason to praise Him. It always brings me back to the first question in the Westminster Shorter Catechism.

Q. 1. What is the chief end of man?
Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

The Good:

• Life is good.
• God is good.
• My family is well.
• My brother-in-law is doing much better.
• I have a roof over my head and food on my table.
• I was able to get all of my clothes ready for a local clothing sale coming up. This is a huge task because the clothes have to be freshly washed, hung, and priced. In participating in this sale, I always make enough money to turn around and clothe my youngest daughter for the spring and summer.
• We enjoyed a good meal out with my father-in-law and brother-in-law on Friday night.
• We got our taxes done! Woo Hoo!
• We have enough money to cover the expenses for a new deck we are getting ready to build.
• My in-laws are still talking about the surprise 50th party we threw for the last week!
• My good friend Jenny felt sorry for me and nominated me for this award. She's such a good friend! One of these days I'll get around to sharing the story of how we love to get together and eat pizza rolls!
• We were able to watch Love's Unending Legacy on Saturday night. This was a real treat. We've watched each of the movies in this series and we love them!
• We spent Resurrection Day at my grandma's house. We were able to stay most of the day and also spent time with aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.

The Not So Good:

• Hmmmm.....surely I can think of something! LOL!
• My youngest daughter continues her curiosity quest. This week, she took a thumb tack and stuck it in the wall to "see what it would do".....her words, not mine! LOL! This is not a HUGE thing but you must understand that she has an issue with being a little too curious! If we let the little things ride, she does even more off the wall things! The thumb tack only made a small hole in the wall....no biggie. You have to remember though that this is a child who took a serrated knife and sliced the top of a wooden kitchen drawer.....what was she thinking?!!! I'm afraid I'm going to wake up one day and find that she decided to "move" the car so she could play basketball in the driveway! LOL!
• I need to get more rest. I have insomnia of sorts.
• Jeff has to drive to work four days this week. He normally works from home three days a week and his office is an hour away. He'll be getting in late, he'll be tired, and we will not get a lot of family time. The plus to this is that his boss told him to work from home all week next week!
• My grandma looks more feeble each time I see her. There are still so many things I want to talk about with her. She's so full of knowledge and I feel like time is of the essence.

I hope your week was as good as mine! I'll leave you with a few pics from our time with my grandma and family on Resurrection Day! Remember to jump over to Judi's for more Weekend Reflections! By the way, you'll see my cousin Missy in the photos below. She told me she just wanted me to post pics because she doesn't have time to read.....she's a school teacher! LOL!

Tagged!

Jenny at Up The Hill Gang tagged me for this one so here it is!

Name Six Things in Your Fridge:

1. Leftover bowtie pasta with tomato cream sauce from supper last night
2. Homemade Ranch dressing
3. Deli ham (honey ham)
4. Leftover taco meat from supper tonight
5. Tiramisu that I made last night
6. Ranch dip

Name Six Things in Your Freezer:

1. Talapia fillets
2. Loaf of French bread
3. Mayfield Neopolitan ice cream
4. Pancakes on a stick (that my kids roped me into buying but now refuse to eat because they're gross! LOL!)
5. Hamburger meat that I'll use to make Santa Fe Soup with for Easter supper with my grandmother
6. Three containers of Cool Whip (guess I forgot I had some and just kept buying it...LOL!)

Name Six Things Under Your Kitchen Sink:

1. My Whispermill
2. My DeLonghi mixer (it's the bomb!)
3. Slide out drawer full of lids
4. Sunlight dishwasher detergent (actually there's like two drops left and the bottle is upside down in hopes that I'll have more in the morning!)
5. Fantastik
6. Spray that is supposed to keep cats from peeing on the carpet....yeah right!

Name Six Things Around Your Computer:

1. My Canon digital camera
2. Planner/calendar
3. My diet Sunkist glass
4. My household notebook that really needs to be updated!
5. Box of papers to file
6. Box of papers to grade (the beauty of being a homeschool mom is that you can let this pile grow as long as you want!)

Name Six Things in Your Medicine Cabinet:

1. Deoderant
2. Vitamin E facial lotion
3. Eye drops
4. Perfume--Happy (I think by Este Lauder)
5. After shave
6. Tylenol PM

Name Six Things On or Around Your Night Stand: (Don't have a night stand but I'll tell you what's on my dresser)

1. Lamp
2. Alarm clock
3. Candle
4. Mary Engelbreit box
5. Book--The Excellent Wife
6. Swap items for Leanne

I'm tagging Shawna!

Thursday Thirteen #4

Thirteen Things About Our Family

1. There are ten of us (only four of us are human). Me, my husband, two daughters, five cats, and our mini-schnauzer. Oops, make that twelve of us....we also have two fish! LOL!
2. My hubby, Jeff, is a web-designer and programmer. He's very techy, geeky, and all of the words associated with computers. I think he's a genius!
3. My daughters are 8 and almost 13.
4. We've homeschooled our daughters for the past 7 years.
5. My husband used to be a public school teacher. He hated it!
6. Before becoming a SAHM, I worked in a docs office.
7. My daughters are very computer savvy and I have no idea how they got that way!
8. We LOVE animals. That's why we have five cats. Only one of them is actually ours. The others are wild cats that came out of the woods behind our house. We started feeding them and now you can hardly tell they were once feral cats.
9. My husband is very musically talented. He plays banjo, guitar, mandolin, some fiddle, button accordion, and his favorite, the Great Highland bagpipe.
10. I have hypothyroidism.
11. We love the show LOST.
12. We are huge sports fans. Football is our favorite and college basketball next. In fact, our favorite football team, the COLTS, won the Super Bowl this year! Our TN Lady Vols also just won the National Championship Tuesday night! Woo Hoo!
13. We are a very happy family that loves being together. You will rarely see one of us without the other three of us in tow.

For more Thursday Thirteens or to get the code, go here.

Wordless Wednesday....Big Number 7

For more WW's, pop over to 5 Minutes for Mom!

Leaving A Legacy

What Legacy Will You Leave?

Recently, I listened to a Basement Tape and it made me think about what my husband and I would leave behind for our children. The tape was all about leaving an inheritance for future generations. It was very inspiring and has caused me to think of things a bit differently.

I'm pretty sentimental. I love to hang onto old pictures, old Christmas cards, things from my childhood (although I don't have anything but pictures), etc. I would give anything to have an old dress that belonged to my grandmother when she was a young woman or a paper flower that she made (she used to make these all the time when I was a kid). It gives me a sense of identity. It helps me to remember certain periods of time in my life. I want to leave these same kinds of things for our children. I want them to be able to remember what they did on their birthday each year. I want them to have something that they can pass to their children and talk about where it came from, who made it or purchased it, and what the sentiment behind the item was. All of these things are great things to pass down but the most important legacy we will leave is not something material. It is something permanent. It will not pass away if we teach our children. Our legacy will be just that....teaching our children to love God and keep His commandments. Our pastors often say that we should teach our children the three W's.....Who God Is, What God Has Done, and What He Requires of Us. I'd like to think that my husband and I do a pretty good job at teaching our girls these things. Certainly, we can always do better and we do strive for that.

As I listened to this tape and took in all of the wisdom coming from the speakers, I looked for things that represented our family.....something that told a story. I wondered if we had anything like that. It seems that this sort of thing is slowly disappearing. Everything has become so disposable that it is hard to find things that really stand the test of time. We are very blessed. Having said that, I'll also say that we've never spent much money on furniture. We've tried to keep ourselves debt free save having a mortgage. In doing so, we don't finance much. If we don't have the money for it, we don't buy it. When we get the money for it, we try and chose wisely how to spend that money. Anyway, I've really wanted to buy a nice bookshelf lately (translate nice=pretty). Oh, I found one....for $110, before tax. It was nice. It was pretty. It was way more than I wanted to spend. It was flawless...no dings, no scratches, nothing to show its character. It was made of nice cherry wood. It was big and had many shelves...but it had no story. Since I had listened to this basement tape a few days before seeing this holy grail of bookshelves, it was much easier to turn and walk away. I wanted a bookshelf pretty bad but I wanted one that had a story.....a story my children could tell my grandchildren. A bookshelf that would make its way through at least a few generations of Forresters. In the tape, one pastor told the story of a tool that he had that belonged to his grandfather and how he was keeping it for his son. This was what I wanted! I came home and commissioned my husband to help me build our "inheritance" piece from some scrap wood we had. We used some old stair treads for the shelves, top, and bottom. We purchased some wood for the sides and we went to work.

Here we are putting the frame together:

Here's the bookshelf after it was painted white and the back was put in:

Jeff and his dad adding trim to the front of the bookshelf:

Finished bookshelf sitting comfortably in my living room, filled with some of our favorite books:

Yep, I could have spent $110 plus tax on a manufactured bookshelf. Instead of doing that, we have something really special to pass down. This bookshelf was built not only by Jeff and myself, but his dad had a small part in it. So when this is passed down to one of our girls, they will be able to tell their children that it was built by their grandpa, grandma, and also their great-grandpa! How beautiful is that! The best part of the story will be how we built it with them in mind. I can imagine what it will be like. One of my girls will be sitting around her living room with her children. Their father will be reading from Psalms and afterwards they will discuss the meaning of the Psalm. They'll discuss God's grace, mercy, forgiveness, love, kindness, and care for His sheep. They'll be sharing an inheritance with their children. When they are all finished and are ready to send the children to bed, they will lay their Bible onto the bookshelf....not just any bookshelf. That Bible will find its home on the bookshelf crafted by a generation of Forresters before them. And so the story will continue.......

Menu Plan Monday April 2-8

I'm going to try this again. It seems that I always get off track during the week. I do good the first two days of the week and then something happens and I'm off my plan! I'm going to try to make it all the way this week though!

Monday: Soup beans w/cornbread and ham

Tuesday: Bowtie pasta w/my friend Samantha's red pasta sauce, salad, bread (This could change since my Lady Vols are playing for the national championship this night! GO LADY VOLS!!!)

Wednesday: Salmon Pasta Primavera, salad, bacon bread (from last week)

Thursday: Stromboli w/marinara, salad

Friday: Eat Out

Saturday: Tacos, rice, queso (from last week)

Sunday: Easter--We'll either be going to my grandmother's for a meal or we'll be at a church feast

There you have it! Boring, I know. I hope to have a more exciting menu next week. If you are interested in any of the recipes for the above items, let me know and I'll post them! Check out more menus at Laura's!