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Gratituesday: Our 2014 Garden

June 2, 2014 by Laura 25 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

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It’s that exciting time of year when we start to see little plants popping up in our garden. Want to see how my garden grows? Here, I’ll show you my garden plot(s), then I hope you’ll tell me about your garden if you’re growing one this year too!

We’ve already enjoyed lots of spinach and green leaf lettuce. See the jungle of spinach behind the lettuce? It looks terrible – but we’ve actually let it go on purpose. It will re-seed all by itself this way, then give us another crop in the fall. Then, it will come up again on its own next spring. It’s a pretty nice system. (We do the same with the green leaf lettuce.)

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It doesn’t seem like much to look at yet, but we have several rows of green beans. We see some gaps in there that tell us we’ll need to replant a few.

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This year, we’re trying okra again. It takes a lot of heat and sun for okra to grow well, so it doesn’t always work here in Nebraska. Here’s hoping!

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Here’s a close-up of one okra plant:

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Notice how we have plastic buckets and such around many of our plants? (And by we I mean Matt and the boys. I can take no credit for all this work!)  The protection around our plants is an effort to keep the bunnies from getting to them. Those “cute wittle wabbits” are sooooo stinkin’ not cute when they nibble and kill our plants. ;)

Matt uses our raised garden bed area for a variety of sweet peppers. These are his babies. :)

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Here’s a sweet pepper close-up. Surely the rabbits won’t be able to climb up the slippery tin surrounding the plants!

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Our back yard “L” shaped garden plot has all of our tomato plants this year. If we get a good crop, I’ll be able to make a year’s supply of tomato sauce, tomato soup, and some salsa.

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Somewhere in one of those plots, we also have a couple hills of spaghetti squash planted. We never plant cucumbers, summer squash, or zucchini because everyone around here always has plenty to share!

So how about you? Do you have a garden this year? If so, what are you growing? And what else would you like to share about this Gratituesday? What are you thankful for?

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Gratituesday: Fun Picture Memories!

May 26, 2014 by Laura 5 Comments

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With Facebook, email, and other quick forms of communication, none of us spend much time anymore writing cards and sending them through the mail. It’s kind of sad, and yet I’m super thankful for the ability to quickly text someone when they are on my heart. I can check up on loved ones through Facebook, seeing pictures of their kids, praying for their needs. I can sit down and send a thoughtful email to someone, and they can receive it within seconds. I am always encouraged when I received these types of online or phone correspondence.

Still, handwritten cards from a dear one are always wonderful. My aunt and uncle (my mom’s sister) came all the way from Arkansas to visit us this weekend. Look what my aunt brought me:

Kevin and Laura

Know who that is? My kids couldn’t figure it out at first. 

Those are two Christmas cards my mom had sent out when my brother and I were little. Yep, that’s my brother and me, back in the 70’s.

Fun as those were to see again, the real treasure is found on the back of those cards. From top to bottom, she filled the space giving an update on our family at the time – all hand written in my mom’s lovely handwriting.

I love these. I’m supposed to share them with my brother. Hopefully I will “remember” to take them down to Kansas sometime when we visit. ;)

What are you thankful for? It’s Gratituesday….please share what God is doing in your life!

 

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Gratituesday: Another Soccer Season Ends

May 19, 2014 by Laura 7 Comments

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March, April, and May are the spring months we eat, drink, breathe, and sleep soccer. Matt coaches (2 teams this season); Justus, Elias, and Malachi play on teams – both city league and traveling teams; Asa, Justus, and Elias referee loads of games. Most of our games are right here in town, but a few are an hour or two away.

We love this time of year, but it is full and busy! Game schedules and referee commitment lists cover one entire side of our refrigerator. I don’t even try to keep up – I just look at the fridge each morning to see what the plan is for the day. Then I check the weather.  Which will I need: tank top or winter coat? Ah….spring.

I’m grateful to share that we have once again survived another soccer season. It’s been great (except for the freezing cold and windy games, the games Matt had to coach while on crutches, and the amount of phone calls we’ve had to make because of re-schedules due to bad weather). Indeed, there’s always a lot of crazy going on for us this time of year. But we love our boys and we all love soccer. So bring it on! (Sunshiny game days are preferred though…what can I say?)

elias soccer 2014 spring

Here’s Elias’ traveling team after their final game this weekend. Great kids!

This year, I’m particularly grateful for the relationships I’ve formed with other parents on the side-lines. We’ve traveled, sweated, frozen, screamed, cheered, and encouraged our sons together for weeks. We’ve shared stories, popcorn, recipes, and life experiences. Through bloody noses, twisted knees, disappointing losses, and exciting victories – it’s been a great season to build relationships with parents of these players.

I look forward to doing this all over again in the fall. I look forward to the break in the meantime. I’m pretty sure our family will celebrate the end of this season with a pick-up game of soccer. Or basketball. We just can’t help it. :)

By the way, I’m happy to share that Matt’s foot is much, much better. His injury is healing very nicely and I’m pretty sure it won’t be long until he can join back in our family soccer games. :)

So what are you thankful for? It’s Gratituesday….please share what God is doing in your life!

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Gratituesday: Stepping it Up

May 12, 2014 by Laura 5 Comments

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We try to keep our kids busy helping with our businesses, with their own projects, with extra chores and home improvement needs, and of course, with regular jobs that need to be done around the house. In fact, I’m realizing now that I wrote about this very thing, just last Gratituesday. Funny that I would write about that, then need to rely on the boys triple time beginning that very night.

Yep, that’s the night Matt put nails through his foot. With Matt laid up, the boys had to step it up even more than usual.

It was a blessing in disguise as suddenly the boys were thrown into learning to do Matt had planned to do. Asa (our 16 year old) got to do some of the more difficult jobs since he is a licensed driver. Matt sent him over to our rental properties with instructions to do some work he’d never experienced before. Asa passed with flying colors, and was then put on a job in our bathroom at home. He rocked it, and how about that, he now knows new skills!

In the meantime, our other boys were kept busy running around the house helping take care of Matt’s foot, and in general, being Matt’s feet.

All that to say, we’re so thankful for how the boys stepped it up last week to make up for Matt’s lack of ability to walk and work. It was especially helpful that Asa is a driver. I’m not sure what I would have done without him. (Poor Matt. It’s hard to drive with nail holes in your right foot.)

malachi's fruit

Malachi was given the job of arranging the fruit in a bowl.
This is actually one of the regular jobs I give him when we get home from shopping.
But this week, he decided to make the fruit bowl look extra special.

God can make good come from anything. Our week was challenging last week, for sure. But what a blessing that our boys learned more about responsibility and hard work. Way to go, Boys! And praise God for His blessings at all times.

Now your turn. Share what you’re thankful for!  Leave a comment on this post letting us know how God is working in your life. If you’ve written a blog post about what you’re thankful for, leave the link in the comments so we can visit your blog to read about it. We love sharing and reading about God’s blessings!

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Gratituesday: Brother Teaching Brother

May 5, 2014 by Laura 7 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

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You know how your two year old can “help” you by bringing you diapers for the baby, putting away a few toys, and stirring a plastic spoon around in some soapy water as a way to “wash dishes?” Some of those little fella jobs are really just “here let me keep you busy so that I can keep you from painting the cat with plaster of Paris” right? But it also teaches responsibility and a servant heart. So moms of toddlers and preschoolers:  Keep teaching your kids to work and serve and help!!!

As tough as it is to let your little ones help you, especially knowing that you could do it forty times faster by yourself, I’m here to tell you that it is so very worth your extra effort! Even when our oldest was 7, I could tell a huge difference in his ability to really help ease my work load. Now that I’ve got kids 9, 12, 14, and 16? Well, I haven’t scrubbed a toilet in years. We put these kids to work, and it’s a huge benefit to our household.

My favorite thing from today is this:  Not only were my kids working hard, they were teaching each other. Asa (16) has been our expert guacamole whipper-upper for several years. I asked him to make some to go with our lunch today. Then I asked him to pull Elias (12) in with him and teach him how to make it. It was awesome. They did the work from start to finish, and now, thanks to Asa, Elias also knows how to make this great dip.

brother teaching brother

We devoured this Spicy Avocado Dip with our burritos today. So good!

This afternoon, the boys pulled out our Risk game. I loved hearing Asa and Justus (14) teach our younger boys to play. Even Malachi (9) was figuring it out.

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Teaching your kids new skills is great. Letting older kids teach younger kids? Even better.  I’m thankful for hearing my olders teach my youngers today. The conversation was sweet, the arguments were few, and we all got to eat awesome guac. Happy day. :)

Now your turn. Share what you’re thankful for!  Leave a comment on this post letting us know how God is working in your life. If you’ve written a blog post about what you’re thankful for, leave the link in the comments so we can visit your blog to read about it. We love sharing and reading about God’s blessings!

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Gratituesday: Spring Formal, Spring Fever, Spring is Here!

April 28, 2014 by Laura 12 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

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This time of year is super full and super fun. The older the boys get, the busier our days are – especially in the spring (and also in the fall, winter and summer, so really, don’t listen to a thing I’m saying about this time of year being busier).

Speaking of the boys getting older, Asa (16.5 – a junior in high school) went to Spring Formal last weekend. We are so thankful the homeschoolers in this area put together such a wonderful event for our youth. Asa headed off for the evening with some of the greatest kids on this planet. What a blessing it is to have such good friends! Several of them came by afterward to hang out, eat pizza, and watch a movie. After all, why end the evening at midnight when you can stay up until 4 in the morning? We loved it!

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Asa is back left, just in case you weren’t sure.  :)

There is a lot of excitement at our house this week because we’re hoping to officially wrap up our school year by Wednesday. We still have some books to read, and we’ll tackle some special projects we haven’t had time for, but THIS is the reason we begin our school year the first week of August. Just about the time we all have spring fever, we complete our math and English assignments! It’s been a great year, and the boys are excited to have almost all their subjects completed. Now they are doubling and tripling up on assignments in order to be completely finished in a few days. Can’t wait!

So what have you been up to? When will your school year be finished? Are you planting a garden this spring? We haven’t even started yet, although we do have asparagus and spinach coming up on its own. Awesomeness. :)

Now your turn. Share what you’re thankful for!  Leave a comment on this post letting us know how God is working in your life. If you’ve written a blog post about what you’re thankful for, leave the link in the comments so we can visit your blog to read about it. We love sharing and reading about God’s blessings!

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Gratituesday: “Mom, Do You Know How Long I’ve Been Waiting For This?”

April 21, 2014 by Laura 9 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

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You know how much I love butter? That is how much Malachi, our nine year old, loves Legos. The kid plays with them for hours every day, won a $10,000 scholarship because of his Lego dreams, and has ideas for making Legos a part of his career/business once he’s a grown-up.

You can imagine, then, how much Malachi has been wanting to visit LEGOLAND. We’ve not been able to make it all the way to California to visit the Legoland, but we did provide Malachi with a fun trip over the weekend to the Legoland Discover Center in Kansas City. We were headed that way anyway for our church youth leadership (LTC), so we left a day early to make this happen for Malachi.

We arrived and found a spot in the parking garage with one very excited little boy. I wish you could have seen his joy. As we made our way up the stairs out of the parking garage, there in front of Malachi was the Legoland building. He paused, took a deep breath, and said, “Mom, do you know how long I’ve been waiting for this?” Oh yes, Son. I know. :)

For the next four hours, Malachi and Daddy took it all in. They rode the ride, looked at all the exhibits, watched the 4-D movie, visited Lego Academy to learn more about building – basically experienced the most Lego fun ever, according to the nine year old. Tired as he was that night, he couldn’t wind down to go to sleep until after midnight.

In an effort to save money and have more age appropriate fun, the older boys and I went to Union Station and walked the shopping mall during that time. Once we all met back up, it was so much fun to see pictures and hear Matt and Malachi telling all about their day. Here are a few highlights:

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It is amazing all that can be built out of Legos!

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Oh yes, Star Wars.

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Malachi was hesitant to climb on top of the giraffe, but Matt assured him it was okay and threw him up there for some exploration.

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This next one might be my personal favorite. My son, the owl, with the owl he just built in the Lego Academy:

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Praise God for fun opportunities and the joy that comes with them. What a fun memory for Malachi and Matt to share!

Now your turn. Share what you’re thankful for!  Leave a comment on this post letting us know how God is working in your life. If you’ve written a blog post about what you’re thankful for, leave the link in the comments so we can visit your blog to read about it. We love sharing and reading about God’s blessings!

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Gratituesday: Special Choir

April 14, 2014 by Laura 15 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

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Every year since our oldest was a 3rd grader, we’ve headed to Kansas City each spring for a big event called Leadership Training for Christ (LTC) that our church participates in with other churches in the area. Our kids work super hard ahead of time preparing for Bible bowl, skits, puppet shows, choirs, sculptures, paintings, stories, poetries, speeches…and the list goes on. It is a lot of work for parents and kids alike, but the fun we have at LTC is so worth it!

This year, our family and some friends of ours decided to team up and put together a special choir. Why? Well, let me give you a little background:

Matt and Tim played soccer at York College together for four years. At the time, Tonya and I sat in the stands together during every game – so proud of our boyfriends. :)  Those boyfriends became our fiancés, then in 1994, those fiancés became our husbands. Yep, we got married the same summer.

The years went by, and babies were born. They had a girl, we had a boy. They had a girl, we had a boy. We had a boy, they had a girl. And then, last but not least, we had a boy…and they had a girl. Yep, every time one couple had a baby, somehow the other couple had a baby. We began to wonder if we were drinking too much of the same water. However, they seemed to have all the girl-flavored water, while we had all the boy-flavored water.

We’ve loved raising our kids together, going to the same church together, and of course, playing soccer together. This year, we realized that this would be the first and last year that all eight of our kids would be in LTC together. Our youngest kids are finally eligible, as 3rd graders, and their oldest is a senior. This is it.  That’s why we signed our kids up for a small choir together.

For several weeks our families have gotten together to practice the songs. Tonight was our final practice. This weekend is the real deal.

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Here’s a picture I snapped on my phone tonight while the kids were practicing.
I have got to remember to turn the volume down on my phone as the “snap” was completely distracting. Sheesh.

I’m so grateful for friendship and the joy these kids bring to us. Can’t wait for the fun this weekend!

Now your turn. Share what you’re thankful for!  Leave a comment on this post letting us know how God is working in your life. If you’ve written a blog post about what you’re thankful for, leave the link in the comments so we can visit your blog to read about it. We love sharing and reading about God’s blessings!

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Gratituesday: Connecting With Gladis By Studying Maps

April 7, 2014 by Laura 6 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

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Once again, today proved that ministry and school can collide, and that no matter what we’re doing, we can learn something meaningful.

After breakfast this morning, the three younger boys and I mixed a geography/history lesson with our outreach to Gladis, the girl we sponsor through One Child Matters. We did a little research on Honduras, where Gladis is from. We printed out and colored maps and flags to send to her. We talked about the distance between our home and Gladis’ (roughly 1900 miles). And we marveled at how big God is to connect us to her in this awesome way.

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I should make something clear:  My three younger boys are 9, 12, and 14. They don’t sit and color pictures anymore…ever. But when I told them we were making these pages for Gladis, they ran for the colored pencils – even discussing how colored pencils would be better than markers for this assignment because it would look so much nicer and Gladis could see the maps better. Anytime I mention doing anything for Gladis, their response is always joyful and eager.

Maybe I should ask them to fold and put away their clothes in the hallway/do the dishes/pick up sticks in the yard…for Gladis. Think it would fly? ;)

The end results of our creations are simple. We thought maybe Gladis would have fun coloring the rest of the maps, so we left a lot for her to fill in. But we wanted to show her where in the U.S. we are located (Husker red, of course). Do you see the blue shaded areas on the world map below? That’s to show her that she is there, in Central America, and we are here in Nebraska, USA. We’ll be writing a note at the top of that map, letting her know that we are praying for her, that God is taking care of all of us, and that we are sending our love from our home to hers.

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I always wish I could see her face when she receives our packages. I’m told that pictures and maps like this are a treasure to these sponsored kids as they typically don’t have many items like this in their homes. How wonderful that such a simple school lesson for our family will be such a wonderful blessing to Gladis and her family.

Want to print out similar pages to do something like this for your sponsored child? Here are the links for where I found ours:

World Map Coloring Page

US Map Coloring Page

Honduras Flag Printables

United States Flag Coloring Page

Check out this cool Distance Calculator to discover about how far away your sponsored child is from where you live.

If you’re not yet sponsoring a child, please join us! I’m celebrating this ministry for Gratituesday today, because of the blessing it is to my family. I want you to experience this too. Bless a child – be blessed. What a rich gift.

Now your turn. Share what you’re thankful for!  Leave a comment on this post letting us know how God is working in your life. If you’ve written a blog post about what you’re thankful for, leave the link in the comments so we can visit your blog to read about it. We love sharing and reading about God’s blessings!

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!

Gratituesday: Winter Jam 2014

March 31, 2014 by Laura 12 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, please see our disclosure policy.

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Winter Jam, a huge concert which features several popular Christian artists, was coming to Nebraska. We were able to go to Winter Jam last year, so this year, we didn’t really even look into it. What were we thinking?

Thankfully, our friend Gage had big ideas. He’d never been to a concert, and decided he would do what he could to make it to see some of his favorite Christian bands. Gage has special needs and isn’t able to get around by himself. But he knew our family would surely enjoy the concert. Maybe we could head there together?

Great plan! It was a night filled with praise and excitement. I don’t think Gage stopped smiling the entire six hours we were there. Who am I kidding? I don’t think any of us stopped smiling the entire six hours. What an amazing night!

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Here’s Gage and three of our boys in line waiting for the doors to open.

It was a packed house – thousands of Christians gathered together for this concert!

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One of the highlights for all of us was jamming with the Newsboys…

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We’re so thankful our boys have such fun and talented artists to listen to which fill their minds with a Godly message. We are already making plans for Winter Jam 2015. :)

Now your turn. Share what you’re thankful for!  Leave a comment on this post letting us know how God is working in your life. If you’ve written a blog post about what you’re thankful for, leave the link in the comments so we can visit your blog to read about it. We love sharing and reading about God’s blessings!

 

Heavenly Homemaker's Club Members: Access your homepage and all your fantastic resources here! Not a member yet? Please join us!
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