Blessed be your name....

Spring break has been such a blessing! We have enjoyed being together so much! I have loved having time to spend with my children... Over the weekend we visited Scott's family in Grants Pass. It was a nice relaxing time, and we all enjoyed getting away. I learned how to crochet, and started my first project...a lavendar blanket for one of Dawn's twins...the other one will be green...sage green to match the nursery... One of my favorite memories was sitting on the porch crochetting with Carrie, and chatting while the kids played beside us in the grass while the sun was shining on all of us... The kids were cutting the grass with scissors, and they thourougly enjoyed that for a very long time... Just a nice moment I don't want to forget....

Yesterday we got up and went to the stable. We gave Sierra a good brushing and then the kids and I took her down a huge hill and they ran ahead of me pretending they were riding their own horses. Then we went and ice-cream at Dairy Queen. Afterwards, we came home and the kids all took a long nap in the living room while I finished an awesome book by Karen Kingsbury called Redemption...if you are interested in some awesome Christian Fiction, I strongly suggest these books by Karen Kingsbury cowrote with Gary Smalley! Excellent!!!! Scott came home and we ate dinner, played, and made cookies....a very fun and wonderfully enjoyed day! See, to some of you this may seem like nothing too exciting, but to me, a working mother of three, these are precious, precious moments, that I live to enjoy!

Today, we got up and went back out to the stable, and played with Sierra in the sunshine. Ryan ran a little to fast down the hill, and fell and skinned his elbows, hands, and knees. Cried so hard, poor little guy, and then Gracie was crying as we left because she was upset that she had to get off of the horse. She is obsessed! And I love it to be honest. The tears dried up and the sniffles ceased as we pulled into the parking lot of the park where we met daddy for lunch, and visited the library too. We checked out some books, and then after running into some of my students we decided to invite them to play with us on the playground where we stayed for the next 2 1/2 hours! They ran and ran, and played in the sandbox, and got filthy dirty! Thoroughly enjoying themselves! While I watched and played and slid down the slide with them, and did under-doggies. Thoroughly enjoying myself too! I also got to sit and visit with my friend, Erin's dad, who was the one who lost his wife two weeks ago in a car accident. He was with my student (his grandson.) That was nice too.. Just to be used by God to listen and give encouragement...I just remembered that last night during our family devotion, that I specifically asked God to use me tomorrow for whatever purpose he had...And then we just happened to run into Nicholas and his grandpa at the park... Coincidence? I think not. God has everything in his grasp... even an afternoon at the park...

After the park, we went to our favorite local grocery store to get some things for dinner, and some essentials, like rock candy from the candy counter, and then we headed for home, where I took two very exhausted, dirty, sticky children out of their carseats and laid them in their beds to finish their naps. Meanwhile Bailey and I came in to work together in the kitchen to start daddy's favorite dinner that has to be started 3 hours before you want to eat it! All I can say is that I am so blessed to have a day like this and I thought of a praise song...as I was driving home and seeing the majesty of the costal mountain range out my windshield, and the sun shining down on us and the kids and I were singing... the song is a praise song that goes....Blessed be your name, when the sun is shining down on me, when the world is all that it should be, blessed be your name. Every blessing you pour out, I'll turn back to praise...you give and take away, Lord, you give and take away, in my heart will choose to say, blessed be your name...and that is exactly what I feel today...Praise the Lord for this day!!

Each day of life is a gift...

I have come to understand this in such an awesome way. I went to a memorial service for a family member of one of my student's yesterday. (His family is one that is close to ours.) As I watched pictures of this woman's life roll across the screen of the slide show on to the screen, I saw the legacy she left.... in a church filled to the brim with people she impacted and touched, I stood there, (there was only standing room left when we arrived) and it was so obvious that her life was for others and not just for herself. I was overcome with the pictures because in every one she was smiling and laughing and enjoying her awesome children. She left this legacy behind her...and I began to wonder what was I putting into my children...my family.... Will I be remembered for being a loving fun wife, and mother, or will I be remembered as a hag?
I hope to instill so many awesome memories with them... In the end of it all, what matters is your relationship with the God you will spend eternity with, your family and your friends. I want to invest myself into what is important, not things that will fade away....I wake up and thank the Lord for another gift of life, another opportunity to do His work, and how thankful I am that I am given the blessings that I have been given...

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Pictures that needed to be posted...too precious too pass up... 

Snow days...followed by sick days...hmm...

This past weekend we went to Mt. Hood with family. We played in the most snow I had ever seen! The kids loved it! They screamed and laughed and enjoyed their snow-covered selves! We played until everyone got to cold to enjoy it any longer. Grace pee-peed in her snow suit, so her and I went to the car before anyone else, but that's okay, we enjoyed sitting and singing together in the warmth of the car, while the others threw snowballs at each other and went plodding around in the snow.

It's amazing to me as I read other people's blogs that they are swimming and sunbathing and all that crazy stuff! Wow! It's still freezing here! I can't even imagine what it would be like to actually show off any legs here in shorts or something without blinding someone with my white, goose bump covered legs! Eigh!

Well, here we are on Thursday, following our playing in the snow weekend, and Bailey has a fever and sore throat. Poor thing. So I am home with her and Ryan and Grace today. It' s nice to enjoy them though. I have really missed spending time with them, so I wasn't disappointed when Bailey's thermometer read 100. I simply thought, we will just have to snuggle together today....but I do wonder how my substitute is getting along with my students...

Spending time with your children is priceless...even when mine are screaming at each other and begging for marshmallows right after they have had breakfast, I still think, you are precious to me...sometimes you can't have everything you want, but you are soooo precious! Do you think that is how God feels about you and me, too? Maybe... ;)

mom, dad, and Bailey in the snow! 

a picture I will always love... Scott took this on our drive home on Sunday... 

a snowy road 

a frozen day  

pretty sierra at a trot 

here she comes... 

The kids enjoying their horse... 

Daddy and Sierra.... 

Shay on the farm... 

Cool boy.. 

Outta' here! 

She knows who's in charge... 

mom, Grace and Sierra... 

Gracie's favorite thing... 

Playin' 

Sierra and mom 2 

Sierra and Mom 1 

Our art project for the auction! The second highest bid of the night! This was for a fundraiser for our Christian School. I made it for $82.00 and sold it for $425.00. I really commited this to the Lord and He gets all the glory!