Grandmas...

We have had a Grandma staying with us now for 3 weeks. My mom (from Washington) left yesterday, she was here for a week. Jesse's mom (from Iowa) stayed for 2 weeks. The kids have loved having them here and both have helped so much with the move and getting settled into our new place. Garrett was really sad to see them both leave. After my mom left he said "When is the next Grandma coming?". Thank God for wonderful mothers/grandmothers who are so loving, kind and giving. We are so blessed.

My mountain....

The Bible says in Mark 11:22 that we must speak to our mountains in faith....this means saying to our barriers, our doubts, whatever stands in our way things from the Word of God and believe. What is your particular mountain today? I have many things that seem to block my path lately. Instead of feeling discouraged and wanting to hide, I need to make sure that I pray, forgive, am obedient, and constantly have faith. Then nothing can block my way in Jesus. I can ask Him what he wants me to accomplish and trust that no mountain will block me from doing so.

We've moved!!!

Not to Washington like we initially thought. We are living close to where dh works, about 20 miles from where we were before. It is an old farmhouse with 4 bedrooms and 1 bathroom!!!! Also, Katie and Alicia are now enrolled in elementary school!! Katie decided that she wanted to go and Alicia decided to join her. I am still homeschooling Colton, Carlina & Julia. So lots of big changes for all of us! Here are some first day of school pictures of Alicia (9) and Katie (6).

Moving??!!

We are ready to get out of the Sunshine state and head for quieter and more rural territory:) Hopefully we will be moving out by my mom in Washington State at the end of the summer/early Fall! Yay! So much to do, moving is such a pain, but it will be so nice to be close to my mom again. Hopefully we will eventually be able to get some land and have some animals in the near future. I am not really looking forward to winters again, but will be nice to have the seasons, esp. Autumn.

Camper

We sold our camper today. We've lived in Florida for three years and only used it once during that time, so thought it should go. Plus, we can't afford it keep it any longer. We got it in November of 1999. We took a road trip to the factory in Amish country of Indiana to save $600. I remember how brillantly cold and snowy it was but the Amish buggies were out in full force. Brrrr! We pulled it back to Iowa and looked forward to many adventures! I think our first trip was to Texas in February of 2000. We went with Jesse's Mom and Dad (they pulled their camper, too), and made stops in Oklahoma, East Texas, Austin (to see friends) and Galveston (where we camped on the beach!). What a fun trip. We had four kids at that time and they fit perfectly in the four bunks. We also took the camper to Florida for a vacation in July of 2000 and camped at Ft. Wilderness in Disney and then went on the Mississippi to see relatives. Our longest trip was out to Washington in August of 2003 to see my Mom and her new husband. So beautiful going through the mountains and we got to see Yellowstone, too. My favorite trips were not long ones though but times we spent camping in beautiful places around NW Iowa. Fowlers Preserve in Smithland, Stone State Park in Sioux City, to name a few. So many good memories from those times. Once during a Spring thaw in January, we took the camper out to Nebraska to a little campground in a small town (out in the boonies!). We saw a movie that night in quonset hut theatre from the WWII era! Here is a photo of our very last camping trip. We took it to Ocala State Park in December of 2005. I was still suffering from Morning sickness (being pg with Thomas). It rained the whole time and we brought our crazy dog, Charlie. It was kind of a miserable trip all in all. Oh, well!!! Fair adieu to our dear camper who brought our family closer through the years and carried us on many grand adventures.

Et tu, Brute?

I am teaching a class on Julius Caesar to Colton and two other boys his age, thus I have been reading the book, Cliff notes, etc. I never studied Julius Caesar in school, so it is interesting to read it and understand all the underlying symbolism...one thing that I have learned from reading is that humans and human nature does not change, no matter the century. Praise God for our Lord, Jesus Christ who brings salvation and eventually will usher in a new world!!! I can't wait!!! Will keep you posted on how the class goes.