Creamy Potato Soup

In large pot saute

1/4 yellow onion chopped
1 stalk of celery chopped
1 clove of garlic minced
1 tablespoon fresh basil (or 1 cube of frozen basil)
1 cup carrots chopped
1 teaspoon of pepper

Saute til onions are transluscent

Add 1 1/2 cups chicken broth bring to a boil and cook til carrots are soft

Take off the heat and blend with mixer or hand blender

Add 8 russet potatoes peeled and cubed and 2-3 cups of chicken broth into the pot

Bring to a boil

In a medium sauce pan make a roux:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
1 cup cream
1 cup milk
1 Tablespoon of salt

Cook til thick and then add to the big pot of potatoes

Heart heavy but still at peace

I've been a little bit heart heavyed these past few weeks. Hubby and I had been looking at adopting again. It has been a maze. First we thought it would be the right thing for God if we adopted a child with special needs. We could easily have taken a deaf child, or one with some correctable disabilities (club foot, cleft palate, etc). But did you know that most countries think that we are a big family and must of course not want more kids or be able to care for them financially? If we wanted to adopt a child that was over 5 years old then there are a couple of countries that would accept our application. And then of course there are a few countries in Africa that would be willing to look at our application if we wanted to accept a child that might have HIV or AIDS.

So as you can see my heart began to grow heavy with these thoughts.

We turned our attention towards the possibility of adopting an infant again. Our agency, ever so sweetly told us that we would more than likely not be picked by a birth- mother since she is usually seeking a home with no children or maybe one other child in the home so that her child can have the best chances in life.

Wow...so there are 148 million orphans in this world....

We are a family that would take one or maybe even two of them....

We are blocked though at this point unless we change what we are looking for.....


but


We do have a great family...

We have 5 wonderful kids....

We will wait...

We will wait with peace knowing that if and when God decides that we should adopt again HE will make it very clear what path we should take and how we should get there....

New 'do

Well I hadn't really had a good haircut since we moved to Hawaii about 2 and half years ago. On Saturday though I finally went and got a new 'do. It is a haircut I've had before but this time seemed different. I was ready for a change and somehow cutting my hair was like really closing the door on my time in Hawaii. This short hair version of me feels like the Northwest, feel like home, and feels like me....

Before

After

What is my house?

My goodness I have just read the most beautiful prayer. It comes from a book entitled "The Valley of Vision", a Puritan Prayer book. Here is the quote that really got me thinking:

Sanctify and prosper my domestic devotion, instruction, discipline, example, that my house may be a nursery for heaven, my church the garden of the Lord, enriched with trees of righteousness of thy planting, for thy glory;

What does my house say about me?

Are my children being raised in a home that will lead them to the cross of Jesus?

Will my children feel nurtured along thier path?

Will they know where the path is?

Will I be leading them along the way?

Walking with them through the pearly gates?

I pray so. (And yes there is a lot to say also about my church being a garden. That will have to wait for another day though.) Right now it is enough for me to concentrate on my home and making it Heaven's nursery.

And what about you? Do you want your home to be a nursery for Heaven? Helping send your loved ones toward HIM? Is there anything you need to do to help make that happen? Anything you need to change?

Joshua 24:15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, ... But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD." (New International Version)

Still waiting

It's just after 9 am on a Monday morning
And I'm still waiting
For L and S to get up….
Pretty quiet around here….
Already read my bible studies,
fixed up the budget,
And then our elderly neighbor came over…..
And woke up the dogs,
Who woke up the kids,
And….now the day has officially started.
Happy Monday!

My big girl, L

First Day of School 2009

Each of the kids gave me some crazy looks and some classy looks. I also got some pictures of each of them talking to me. Best quote? S said, "The worst thing about school would be getting in trouble." I asked him, "What happens whe you get in trouble?" He let me know, "You have to go to the principal's office!"

Our Family Holiday!

My beautiful L! She is getting so big. She turned 10 recently!

M&B our beautiful oldest daughter and her fabulous husband.

My Girls!

S's foot in the sand

Hey who are those two cuties!

Great picture of B (notice the reflection in her glasses)

They are about to blown away....











All of us near the Lewis and Clark statue in Seaside, OR

Taking a final bow, at the end of our Talent Show

But of course the final word is from God. I think this picture says, "Follow me"

Missing

Just read this interesting aritcle. I had never heard of Hygeia (online support for miscarriage).

Makes me think of our baby, Roman. Wierd how certain life events bring it up more than others. Watching my kids up there tonight I thought, "one of my kids is missing".

If there are others that need support I'm here to hear you, not just listen :)

I have...

"I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you." Psalm 119:11

All four of our youngest children learned this verse along with 15 other glorious verses at our Summer Memory Program. The theme this year was the "Fruit of the Spirit". So they, of course, also learned these verses:

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, fathfulness, gentleness and self control, against such things there is no law." Galatians 5:22-23.

All of the other verses they learned pertained to the different fruit of the Spirit. Tonight was their big presentation where they recited all of their verses and then were recognized for the verses that they memorized.

I am so pleased that they each learned all of their verses, but more importantly, I'm so happy that parts of God's word has been planted in their hearts.

Getting ready....

It is nearly the end of summer and we are getting ready to start the school year. While I do believe that all of our learning should be part of our daily lives, we are going to embark on a little bit more of a focused study these next two years. We all decided that we wanted to know more about the people that have lived on this earth before us. So we are going to start way back at the beginning of time and work our way forward. We hope we can incorporate some drama, some works of art and lots of play to really get to know the people that God has created. So be prepared for our kids to be living, eating, dressing and playing like kids from long, long ago. I am so blessed to spend this time with my kids and I wouldn't want it any other way!

Great Vacation!

We've had a great vacation.

We started back on July 18th with our niece Kayla coming to visit for a week. We had a really good time with her. We mostly just hung out although we did venture into Seattle so we could go to the EMP. They were having an exhibit about Jim Hensen. Wow he had an amazing mind.

We drove down to California and went straight to DH's family's house. We were able to see his parents, both of his sibs and all of their kids. There is still something so amazing about his connection with biological family. He didn't grow up with them but they are a great part of his life!

We left their house and went onto my parents', but quickly had to leave and go to see DH's adoptive mom. She is older and very ill. It was a hard visit, but we were still so happy to have seen her.

Back at my parents' house we spent time with them, my sister and her two kiddos even came over for a couple of days.

We headed from there with just L to a 3 day christian concert in Monterey July 29-31. We met up there with some awesome friends. What a great time we had praising our Jesus. Our daughter L had a blast!

Then came camp, Aug 3-8. We were both teaching at the camp went to as kids. While L was a camper the other kids were pre-campers. It was up near Yosemite and it was a beautiful week! What a great week to just focus on Christ and how he knows all of the pieces of our lives and how they fit together. HE has a great plan for me and I do enjoy seeing how it all fits together.

We met up with the L family after camp for a weekend in San Jose. We all had a nice weekend playing and relaxing. We were able to celebrate L's 10th birthday since it had passed while we were at camp. We worshipped with the Campbell Church of Christ in San Jose. A lovely congregation of enthusiastic worshippers.

We left for San Diego Monday, August 10th with the L family but without each of our husbands. They had to work and we wanted to go and play int he sunshine....so we did :)

We beached it a few times, went to the Wild Animal Park and visited Legoland too. This weekend we relaxed a fair bit. We went to worship with the North County C of C, saw DJ an old friend. We even were able to squeeze in a new movie, "Ponyo", which was great. Today we will be washing clothes and packing up, getting ready to leave bright and early for Seattle tomorrow. We are going to try and make it a little fun on the way up. We will stop and see at least one mission and also see the redwoods too....It has been a great vacation but whew....I can't wait to get home to my own bed! And I totally miss my DH too!

Fellowship, fellowship, fellowship

DH and I sure enjoy gathering with our church family. We've had multiple opportunities lately too. :)

We had 59 people join us a few Friday's ago to eat dinner together and sing praise songs. Let me just say how awesome it was to have 59 people in this house, singing. The kids mostly sat in the middle of the room with all of the adults encircling them. The kids sang their little hearts out as well as the adults. What a memory for each of my children to tuck away into their hearts.

We also were able to host our friends from Hawaii. He is in the Air Force and had about a month of leave. Part of it he used to help at church camp on Oahu and then they headed here. They were here part of their time and also over in Montana. The time that they were able to spend here was so awesome. We enjoyed hosting them immensely! We played cards, ate good food, went to a water park together, played XBOX, and just enjoyed each other's company. We are sure going to miss them!

While they were here we celebrated Independence Day. We were pretty beat from going to the water park so we stuck close to home. At the last minute we ended up at a neighbor's house (friends that we also go to church with). Wow! Such a generous heart these friends have. We had such a good time playing games, eating great food (homemade marshmellows, anyone?) and of course lighting fireworks.

Yesterday I was able to fellowship again with a couple of moms and a whole bunch of kids! Each of the 4 mothers had extra kids. Nieces, Nephews and friends. They all loved being able to look at the animals together. They played hard and slept even harder last night.

What would I do without my church family? I am so happy to have them here on this side of eternity and know that eternity with them will be sweet too!

Cute Photos of the kids, playing out front

Only Friends Would do this:

Dress up like a dinosaur. Put your arms around each other. and smile like you've never smiled before! Friends!

Summer Fun!

Sisters Forever

Jumping for joy!

Co-operation

We've been getting together with some of our friends to do crafty schooly kinds of things every other week.

Here's S and his friend G. They are working on an art project. They are 5 years apart yet they sit side by side in our learning environment. I love that about homeschool.

Here is A and B with their buddies K and S. There is a lot of concentration going on, can you tell?

Busy, busy...

I've been too busy to blog.

Our new home has been buzzing with people. In and out, fellowshipping, conversing, eating (of course). I love seeing all of our friends here at our home. I love catching up with each of them and loving on them. If you haven't been by yet, call me up and we'll put you on the calendar. We would love to see you here soon.

Cause we really love being busy, busy...it makes me smile :)

Aloha~
May you have a blessed day.

Did I say that we have some great friends???

Here is a quote from my former blog about our move, NOTICE THE DATE:

January 05
Moving, moving
There are 2 moves to let you know about....
First and foremost our family is moving to Seattle in just a few weeks. Our dear friends offered to let us stay with them for several weeks while we wait for our house in Hawaii to close and then wait for our household goods to arrive in the NW. We love these friends! They are like family! Like family, except we actually picked each other. I'm focusing on this verse while we prepare to move.
Deuteronomy 31:8 (New International Version)
8 The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."

Wow.
Let me say it again, WOW!
We have been with bibliomom and her family for more than 4 months. They have been welcoming, inviting, and have given us way more than average friends usually give! We have all grown weary of our temporary living situation, cause if it was permanent there are things we'd do differently. You know, we'd have a real bedroom and not look like we were always in the middle of moving. But other than that we've really enjoyed being here. Bibliomom's kids have been more than gracious. They've let my children be in the middle of all of their things. Playing with their toys, sitting in their favorite seats, and even taking over their beds sometimes. Bibliomom and I have had a great time cooking together, surfing the internet together and trying to keep the kids happy as clams. The guys, well, the guys work at major software companies...we've been lucky to have them around at all. They work so many stinkin' hours!

There are people on this planet that you choose to make a part of your family. Bibliomom is one of my favorite sisters. So this is my public way of telling the world that these people are top notch, awesome, loving, fabulous friends and if I had to do it all again, I'd call bibliomom and ask, "Hey do you still have that bed in the basement?"
Love ya sis!
and Mahalo!

The final tie is cut

Our home in Hawaii has finally closed escrow. God's timing is always perfect and I'm sure there have been lessons that we have learned (or could have learned) while we were waiting...

I do know one thing for sure. I am more patient now than I was 10 years ago. I've let this process happen to me. Trying to enjoy the parts I could enjoy and thankful for every day that I'm alive. And while I am sad that this last tie is broken with Hawaii, I am so glad to be moving on to our new home in Washington.

Thankful...

This Mother's Day thing is special. I so remember how hard this day used to be. Those memories are kept locked tightly away in my mind usually, but today I choose to take them out. Examine them, be with them, and be thankful. I am so thankful for my children, here and the one that is already with Jesus too. Thankful for each sweet face when they are happy. For each head that lays on my shoulder when they are sad. For each giggle of delight. Thank you dear Father in heaven for these children you have blessed me with.

Trip to California, part 2

Visit to California, part 1