Hearts in Service

I've been tagged by Michelle and I am supposed to list 7 random things about myself so here it goes! 1. I was a psychology major in college. 2. I HATE brussel sprouts! 3. I once stopped a man beating up a woman on the street in our last ministry. (It was his girlfriend) 4. I'm petrified of spiders. 5. I have to sleep with the sheets up around my neck or I don't feel comfortable. (Besides, sleeping like this will keep any ax murderers at bay) - LOL! 6. Lilacs are my favorite flower. 7. When I hang up clothes on the line, they all have to be facing the same direction. There. Now you know how quirky I really am. :-)

We've had so much rain this winter and more is expected this week. What do you do to stay entertained in a very small house when it's rainy? Play games. Type stories on the computer. Read. Eat As you can see, things have not been very exciting around here! :-)

Thank you Dianne at Majestic Mountains, Rolling Hills for nominating me for the "You Cheer Me Up" Award. I'm new to this whole blogging thing and it's encouraging that people enjoy my blog. That was a nice surprise. Here are the instructions for this award: "If you are a recipient of the "You Cheer Me Up" Award, please find the blogs that cheer you up, copy the code to post on your sidebar and pass Ethel and Lucy across the blogosphere, You can use what cheers you up in your post, or copy this one, but please send your award receipients back to the original post on "A Nice Place In the Sun" to get a copy of the award code, post the image and read the instructions. I want to try to maintain a page of original and ongoing award recipients, so feel free to let me know if you've received an award when you pick up the image code." I would like to nominate my friend, Michelle . Her blog is always so encouraging and is a nice place to v

Dan decided to teach Emily some wrestling moves today. It was the funniest thing and she had me laughing so hard. It actually worked and she was able to take down whoever she was wrestling in a minute flat. First it was Dad. Then Nathan. Then Stephen. Then the boys got into wrestling Dan. However, Emily came out on top! LOL!

My husband and children are a pretty thoughtful bunch. They help me out so much during the day and so I thought I'd just show you a bunch of random pictures I got of them over the past month or so being kind. Doing dishes. Cleaning up her room. Helping Dad with the car. Making a salad. The thing that I feel so blessed about is that they actually love to help. Dan just naturally does it and the kids are always cheerful and eager to help. I know that can be a rarity in this day and age!

I had a bunch of leftover ham to use up so I decided to make Split Pea Soup with ham yesterday. My children must be strange because they love split pea soup. First, I chopped a medium onion, 2 garlic cloves, 1 celery stalk, and carrots. Saute them in 2 Tbsp. olive oil. Add a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper. I added in two or three sprigs of fresh thyme and a bay leaf. If I had fresh rosemary, I would add that as well. Saute for a minute or two to release the flavors. Add a 1 lb. bag of dried split peas and saute for 1 minute. Add more salt & pepper to taste. You can now add a can of chicken broth or vegetable broth. I always freeze my broth when I boil a chicken so I just take it out of the freezer and pop it into the soup. Add 6-8 cups of water. Simmer on low until the soup is creamy, about an hour and a half. I chopped up the ham and added it at this point. Simmer until ham is thoroughly heated, about 20 more minutes. I have made this without ham in the past

Okay, a friend of mine today told me how she does a ten minute tidy in her home. Thanks, Jenni :-)! So I decided to implement it. How it works is you set a timer for 10 minutes and you and the children pick up as much as you can in 10 minutes. I used to do this when they were younger but had forgotten all about it. Silly me! It worked wonderfully. Here are the before pictures. This counter top is a dumping ground for everything. Believe it or not, it actually looks much better than it did a few days ago. Okay, it looks like the computer is a dumping ground too. Piano books never seem to make it back to the shelf where they belong. The table collects clutter also. We set the timer and were off! Here are the final results. Emily wanted to pose :-). Also, the coat hanger is substituting for the antenna that snapped off the radio. Dan came home about 5 minutes after we finished and asked if I cleaned the house. LOL! See, 10 minutes can look like you cle

I realized the other day that all of the sudden I was seeing signs of spring. First of all, the birds are back. In the past few days I've seen robins, mourning doves, sparrows, and red-winged blackbirds among a few. The best thing for me in the morning is lying in bed when I first wake up and hearing the mourning doves' sorrowful cry. Also, I've seen signs of Spring in all different shades of green. It's coming slowly and you have to look hard but it's there. It's still only been in the high 30s and low 40s all week but Spring is definitely on the way! Buds on the trees We have grass! This is the north so we probably have another month to go before it really feels spring-like but I'm so glad it's coming :-)!

We have such a small house and the children are so easily distracted that we tend to do school all over the house rather than parking everyone in one spot. It tends to be that wherever there is a quiet, empty space is where school happens. Breakfast is in the right room :-)! Writing at the kitchen table. Vocabulary on the upstairs landing table. Math in the bedroom. Reading - Stephen in his room and Emily in mine. We do history and science all together in the living room or kitchen table depending what is happening. It was an adjustment at first trying to work out the logistics so that everyone can focus but so far this has been a good method for us.

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-8 Do you find yourself worrying a lot? Are you an anxious type? Do you repeatedly turn things over in your head; things that are troubling you? Unfortunately, this tends to be my personality. In fact, it really annoys me when I am tossing and turning at night, lying awake and I look over at my husband and he is snoring away! I feel like someone should be awake, worrying with me! However, these verses tell us to be anxious for nothing. Instead, we should cast our burdens and requests on the Lord. Notice the key word though, with thanksgiving. Wow! Can we really thank God for the burdens we carry? The next verse tells us that when we do this, and only then, we will receive the peace of God. His peace goes against h

Charlie, an amazingly cool guy from church, invited Dan to bring the boys to help him tile a floor. They were so excited to go and spent all day yesterday and this morning helping him. Dan's job was to go get donuts and coffee - LOL! Charlie instructing Nathan. What am I supposed to do with this? Good job, boys. The almost finished product. So they had fun and helped someone out. I think it was an overall good experience!