Our Trip to the Creation Museum ~ October 2011

I have missed blogging through the past several months. I had pictures ready and waiting to be posted to a blog post, so now I am trying to catch up. So here is the first post playing catch up!

In October I took several of the children to the Creation Museum. It was a beautiful, warm, Fall day.

We tried to make the most out of our trip and see as much as we could.We walked through the whole museum and saw most of the movies and visited the planetarium. We enjoyed walking through the beautiful gardens and the petting zoo. We were quite tired when we were finished.

This first picture is of Samuel, standing in front of Adam in the Garden, with some animals.

Samuel

 

I believe that the dinosaur display was a favorite of most of the boys.

These silly boys decided they had to have a break while walking through the museum.

Samuel, Matthew and Luke

We stopped for a lunch break at the Noah's Cafe.

Micah, Matthew, Luke, Anna, Rebekah, and Samuel

I love the beautiful Fall Colors. We walked around for quite a long time.

We saw this pretty little guy on our walk to the petting zoo.

The four youngest enjoyed the petting zoo quite a bit. This guy was very eager to be fed!

I thought this guy was quite pretty.

Micah was trying to feed this guy but he was a little intimidated by him!

Micah

This is a Zedonk.

This is a Zorse.

Meet Gomer. The kids enjoyed having a ride on him!.

Anna and Gomer

Luke and Gomer

Micah and Gomer

Samuel and Gomer

While walking through the Gardens we encountered this bridge. The kids had a lot of fun going back and forth. I personally was glad to get off!

Luke and Anna

Micah, Luke and Matthew

Luke, Micah and Samuel

After walking around for quite some time in the warm weather, we found this gazebo and enjoyed the shade as well as the fish we were able to feed.

Micah and Luke

Micah

I pretty much had to pry Luke and Micah away from the Fish!

And this is as we were leaving and were pretty worn out!

Samuel, Micah, Rebekah, Luke, Matthew and Anna

We had a wonderful day at the Creation Museum! Now I would love to see the Spring foliage.I know it must be beautiful!

 

Well Hello There!

Yes, it is me, believe it or not!

I cannot believe how long it has been since I have written a real post. I also cannot believe it is now March 8th. Time marches on and it seems to drag me along with it.

Sorry about the lack of post here. I have been reading your blogs, just rarely leave comments. I have really enjoyed the blogging community and hope to get back to it more regularly. I am especially thankful for the support I have received here from so many because of our loss of Faith. Even though it has been over 3 years, she is still fresh on my mind and my guess is that she will always be.

Please pray with me for the ladies on the Pregnancy Prayer List. I have been a little discouraged about the lack of response of people willing to pray. I actually was seriously considering taking it down, but just about that time, I received a few new requests to be added.  I really believe God place this on my heart in the first place, so I am continuing on. I am sorry if you feel I have neglected this, but I want to continue it and be more diligent on keeping it up.

So, on that note, if you are pregnant or know someone who is, please send me an email or leave a comment if you would like to be added. My email address is on the sidebar on the right. Also, if you are on the list, I would love to receive updates on how things are going. Lisa is listed for January and I am sure she has had that baby by now, so I would love an update! Also, could you please leave a comment to let me know that you all are praying for these ladies. I know it would encourage me as well as each of them! Thanks! The names in blue are a link to their blog. Holly actually just made he family blog private so that link is not working, but you can give her a visit by visiting her other blog here.

Update about us:

This school year has brought on some changes for us. Josh is attending a Christian University and lives on Campus. We do not get to see him very much at all and the we miss him a great deal. Rebekah is attending a local University and lives at home. She also works at Chick-fil-A, so she stays extremely busy! We really do not get to see her very much either.

This means we only have 6 at home full time now. Most people would say that is a lot, but since we are down from 10, it is quite strange to me. That is not to say we are not very busy, because we are! Things are just different!

It has been a little strange only having 7 of the children living at home now. The logistics of everyday living has changed quite a bit! Knowing how to cook dinner has been a bit of a challenge too. With the 3 oldest boys not at home, my old way of cooking produces too much food. Tim has been out of the house for over 2 years, but lived fairly close by, so he would eat a lot of our leftovers. He and Naomi recently moved about 40 minutes away, so it is not so convenient for him to come get the leftovers. The younger boys are still a bit picky about their food and do not eat as much and Rebekah is rarely home, so I am learning to adjust.

My youngest is now 6, so there are no more babies around here. That is an adjustment for me as well, but I have also have learned to enjoy the freedom that comes with not having babies to care for. I would, however, would be willing to give up that freedom in a heartbeat if God chose to bless us again! I am looking forward to lots of grandchildren some day!

The hubby has been sick, and this is a first time in a really long time that he had to miss several days of work. I finally took him to the doctor this past Monday, and he has Bronchitis.When I called to make him an appointment,the receptionist fussed at me for waiting so long to make him an appointment. Well, he is a grown man and I cannot make him do anything he does not want to do. Anyway, he seemed like he was starting to get a little better, but over the weekend he ended up getting worse. He seems to be slowly getting better. I hope the antibiotic he is on is the right one for him.

Well, that is all for today. I want to write a couple of posts to catch up on the last few months. I also like to post pictures, but sometimes it seems to take me a really long time to get it all written and edited.

 Let me leave you with a picture of our silly kitty! You know, the one a told you about a few months ago that's not mine! If you don't remember, scroll down and you can see for yourself!

Hope to see you soon!

 

Wordless Wednesday

The kids adore their older sister! Micah is the only one still small enough to get on her shoulders!

 

What have I been up to?

Is it really February 8th?  It is so hard to believe that Christmas was almost a month and a half ago. At least our Christmas decorations are finally down. The Hubby took a scarce opportunity and got the outdoor decorations down. We have had a lot of snow and or ice, so when everything would melt and dry up we were too busy doing something else and never got it done.

Time just seems to keep marching on and I am trying my hardest just to keep up! Most of the time I feel like the World is spinning by so fast and I am just holding on for dear life!

I have come here often and wanted to write something. The words have just not been coming to me. I have been a bit busy with some things that really have been a bit stressful.

One thing that has occupied my time and caused me stress is I had to work on paperwork for Rebekah to apply to college. We also had to work on Scholarship Applications as well. I have been wanting to kick myself because I did not keep up with all the paperwork like I should have for her schoolwork, so I had to kick it into high gear to get all caught up! Our next child to graduate from high school after Rebekah is Victoria. Victoria is currently a freshmen, so I will work hard to keep up with all of her stuff!

Rebekah is planning on going to the local University and study Nursing. I am so proud of her and I believe she will make a wonderful nurse! She is so loving and caring and I think she will be very compassionate with her patients.

Josh is also working on going to College next year, so we have been working on his stuff as well! He wants to go to a Christian College that is rather expensive, so God will have to provide the way! Josh is quite passionate about it, so I pray that it works out!

Mike and I do not have the money to send our kids to College. They all have had to work and pay their own way! I am so proud of each of them as they have worked usually a full time schedule and have taken a full course load as well. Please pray that God will provide for Josh and Rebekah to go to College!

One thing I have been doing in my "spare" time is crocheting. I learned how to crochet when I was a kid, but I just recently picked it up again. I mostly know how to make hats and scarves.  I have been making hats and scarves for several of my kids. When I finish with all of the requests, I hope to learn how to make something different. I have really enjoyed crocheting and it seems to be a stress reliever for me.

This is Rebekah modeling my first completed hat and scarf combination.

I have 2 or 3 post sitting in draft mode that I want to share with you soon. They are a bit late, but better late than never, right?

 

Rebekah's Birthday and a Not So Bad Flop

My first daughter, and fourth child, Rebekah, just recently turned 17! Wow! Where does the time go?

The day she was born I was on cloud nine! Finally a girl after having three boys! She wore a lot of pink and headbands. I even had her ears pierced when she was 9 months old. I did not want anyone to ever mistake her for a boy! Believe it or not, I still had an older man call her a boy!

Rebekah is now a beautiful, 17 year old, young woman, inside and out! She is very hard working. She will be a senior next year and also is in TBQ (Teen Bible Quiz) and studies very hard! Her team is going to the National Competition soon! She works at Chick-fil-A to earn money for college and maybe a car. I am so proud of all her hard work, but I am especially proud of her dedication to the Lord and living her life for Him! 

Rebekah with Anna 

Happy Birthday Rebekah!

I usually order a cake from Walmart for most of the Birthdays around here. As the children have gotten older they seem to appreciate a home made cake a bit more.  Rebekah wanted a special chocolate cake, so I found this recipe.  I decided to make a white cream filling to go in the middle instead, so there would not be too much chocolate, (if there is such a thing!).

Well, things did not go as planned! About 20 minutes into baking, Luke comes in and asks "what is that horrible smell"? Chocolate Cake Baking is not supposed to smell horrible!

One minor detail that I overlooked is that I was supposed to put the batter into two 10 inch pans and not 9 inch pans. The batter was overflowing all over the oven! It was burning on the burners. Yikes!

Well, I decided to let it keep baking and see if I could salvage anything. It seemed a bit crispy on top. I decided to put in an emergency call to Leigh, Jeremy's girlfriend. She works at the Bakery at Walmart and is an amazing cake decorator. She made a beautiful cake for Rebekah.

Rebekah and Anna being very silly!

I eventually made the icing and the cream center and put the cake together.  It was falling apart a bit, and crumbs were everywhere when I put the icing on. It was a little sorry looking, but it tasted amazing!

This is their version.

Mine

Yummo!

 I will have to try it again using the right size pans! This cake was very yummy and the Chocolate Ganache Icing is almost like eating Fudge! We really enjoyed the white cream center to break it up a bit!

Have An Awesome Weekend!

 

I'm Still Around And Randomness

Well, it has been a week since my last post.

I am working on making my life more organized a little bit at a time. I really need to be on a better schedule, but this is very hard for me. I am a person that would prefer to just "go with the flow!" This does not work well with all that needs to be accomplished and things do not usually "flow" well around here when I am in that mode.

Isaiah 26:3-4 has really ministered to me this week. I really need God's Peace right now. I need peace in my home and in my heart and mind.

Isaiah 26:3-4 (King James Version)
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength.

I am working on keeping my mind stayed on my Lord. I cannot do this in my own strength. I continually ask Him to help me with keeping my mind stayed on Him.

There was something that happened this week that I was not having my mind on the Lord at that time. Suddenly the Lord brought it to my attention that I was trying to take care of things in my own strength. I said Thank You Lord for reminding me and I asked for his guidance in the situation. Things soon got better. I need to remember to invite Him into every detail of my life!

Other happenings:

I took my son Matthew to the doctor yesterday. He has not been feeling well for about 2 weeks. It started with something that was like the flu. It seemed like he was starting to get better, but suddenly his fever came back and his cough got a lot worse. It ended up that he has pneumonia. They gave him 2 shots of some kind of antibiotic and also gave him a prescription for home. Today he seems to be doing some better. Please pray that it doesn't spread to anyone else!

On labor day we took the children to Chick-fil-A for dinner. They were giving away a free chicken sandwich to everyone that day. I also had several coupons for free kids meals. We only had to buy drinks for those of us who didn't get a kids meal and we bought fries to share. This meal was very inexpensive for our family.

My daughter Rebekah started working at Chick-fil-A a few weeks ago. She really likes it there and so far it has been a good experience. The atmosphere there really seems pleasant. It is also refreshing that they play Christian music. My 2 older boys have worked at other fast food restaurants and the environment has not been quite as pleasant. I pray that it continues to go well for Rebekah and that it will be a positive experience.

That is about it for now! I am off to prepare for our Wednesday night activities. We always have to eat dinner early on Wednesdays so that we can get to Church on time. We have a 45 minute drive to get to Church.

Blessings,

 

About Us Part 1

My name is Karen and I have been married to my dear husband Mike since 1984. We did not set out to have a lot of children, but little by little, God surely changed our hearts. We were going to have the average 2 children, but possibly stretch that to 4. The plan was that I was going to keep working after having children, but that idea was quickly changed .

Our first pregnancy ended in miscarriage at 13 weeks in October 1985. We became pregnant again 2 months later with our first child Jeremy, who was born in 1986. Well, that did it for me, I was in love with my new baby and I loved being a Mommy. There was no way I was going to leave this baby with someone else all day. So, that is when I became a stay at home Mommy. We went on to have a few more children and life was busy.

Timothy was born in 1988 and Joshua in 1991. Six months after Joshua was born I unexpectedly became pregnant again. Quite a surprise, but I still was very excited! The doctor could hardly believe that I could be pregnant again so quickly, especially since I was exclusively nursing. However, I miscarried that pregnancy at nine weeks. We decided to go ahead and try again soon after, and the following month I became pregnant again. Rebekah was born in 1993.

June of 1993 was mixed with great joy with the birth of our first daughter and sorrow with the death of my brother Doug 4 days later. To add to our grief, when Rebekah was 15 days old, our son Timothy was diagnosed with Leukemia at the age of 4 1/2. Needless to say our world was turned up side down.