Happy New Year

(the road home from church)

When I think back to the beginning of the year I am a bit overwhelmed at how fast it went and how much has changed in our lives. Last year we had our friends over for our usual New Years Eve "bash" of too much food, games and the loud banging of pots and pans at midnight. I miss those friends a lot, I miss my family a lot and I even miss California with streets I know, stores that are easy to get to, a church we loved, and all of those dear people we left behind.

(here comes Mary!)

Michigan is home now, and it is a beautiful home- with snowy days and ice covered roads. I am amazed at how much fun a snowy day can be, and just how cold you can get! I must say that I don't love frozen pipes but they come with the package. We have a lot to learn about living in the frozen north! For a couple of days it seemed all we did was dig our van out of snow. Slushy snow is hard to drive in and easy to get stuck in.






(Aaron all tuckered out)





We are starting to make friends at our new church and have been blessed by the teaching of Pastor Bud. We've also joined a small group that meets after church for a potluck every Sunday. We are going to be starting Focus on the Family's "Truth Project" in January. I am looking forward to this series and getting to know our small group members better.

We are about to start a brand new year, when I started last year I had no idea that we'd be here and that our lives would change this much but I am glad that God did. He knew exactly where we'd be this year, He knew our struggles, and He will be with us during this New Year. He loves us even when we are away from Him and waits for our return. God doesn't just give us a New Year, but He gives us a new life, and a new start all we need to do is turn toward Him to start living for Him.

(Faith "snow boarding" )

If you are reading this and have never heard the good new of Christ of His love for you then I urge you to find out more. Read the book of John in the Bible and learn about the baby that was born, and who ultimately gave His life for you. If you know about Christ but haven't accepted Him or have turned away, then this new year might be the time for you to turn back to Him.

John 1:10-12 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God--



John 3:16-17 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Happy New Year from the Pryers.

Merry Christmas!

Remember the Cross

Don't visit the manger on a still dark night,

Unless you visit the cross.
Don't stroke the cheek of the little newborn,

Without touching the wood of the cross.

For it's easy to look on the babe in the manger,

and to sing the carols of old.
But to look on the cross, requires me to remember

it was my sin that was sold.

Don''t stay in the days of glorious angels

without living the day of the cross,

For peace on earth and good will to men,

He bought at such a great cost.

If you travel with wise men to see this new King,

Then travel the way of the cross.

When you worship the baby on bended knee,

Worship the King on the cross.

When the babe wraps his fingers around your heart,

Remember His hands on the cross

Don't visit the manger on a still dark night

unless you remember the cross.

Donna Pryer

12/9/03

Merry Christmas to you and yours and may God bless you in the New Year

with love from the Pryer Family

Cold days.

snow cave

Thomas in his little cave.

the boys are building a snowfort


Frank on the deck, a flock of turkeys just took

off into the forest.

The days are getting colder and we have quite an accumulation of snow outside now. The locals say it is early and that the foot of snow we had on Tuesday is not the norm for this time of year. Anyone who knows me knows that I am not a fast driver that has not changed. As a matter of fact I am pretty much the slowest driver around now. The prospect of landing in a ditch just does not appeal! Just go slow they tell me, I wonder if they know just how slow I can go. If closing my eyes was an option believe me they'd be closed.

snowman building

a masterpiece

snow people guarding the field

Yesterday our street was pretty hard to drive on, thankfully the neighbor across the street plowed it last night so that we can all get in and out. Our street is actually a private drive. That means that we are on our own to clear it. Thank the Lord for neighbors with snow plows.

the front of the house, note the wall of snow from the snowplow

the mailbox surrounded by snow

There is one thing that is missing in Michigan, at least we can't find them. Donut shops. Now it may just be a good thing but the kids were talking about donuts, remembering the good ol' days at Orange Hills when every Sunday they could pick the donut of choice. There are some of those grocery store donuts but, it's not the same. Today we got out our MOMY's cookbook and found a recipe for yeast donuts.

The kids looked pretty doubtful but the end result turned out pretty good. Sam said he will be choosing donuts for his birthday breakfast- I may have created a monster.

Speaking of church, it doesn't just snow at our house and since we have to be at church at 8 am so that James and Mary can practice with the worship team Thomas helped to clear the walkway of snow.

We are waiting until Saturday to get our tree. We are thinking about going to a cut your own place near here. It will be the first time in a long time that we've had a real tree. I for one will wait for it to spontaneously combust throughout the Christmas season but it will be nice to have the lovely smell. We've decorated the rest of the house and rearranged the furniture to have a place for the tree. James spent an entire day putting the antique table together so that we'd have a place for our nativity set. He did a great job.

till the next time......

We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing...

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. We had our first "us only" Thanksgiving, it was not planned that way, but my brother called early on Thursday to inform us that he was sick so they wouldn't be coming over. We were a little disapointed but we had a good day anyway.

Can someone just cut the turkey please?

Sam just keeps eating and eating and......

We ate dinner and then had the traditional after dinner football game, though this time it was the traditional after dinner football game with snow and ice on the ground. I'm not sure but I think the snow was probably thrown more than the football.



Hike one! two! three!

Football Heroes???


Mary lookin' cute!

Go!

James. Captain..

We ended the day with dessert, I cooked the dinner but Ron and the kids are in charge of pies. This year they made pumpkin pie, chocolate chip cheesecake and brownies. Anybody want to guess what the kids decided would be a good breakfast today???

Snow covered house

James clearing the driveway- he's getting pretty good!

the treehouse with a dusting of snow

First, thank you to those who leave comments. It's nice to know that you are "dropping by" for a visit!

John walking in the forest

This week we are seeing more snow and some of it is actually sticking around for a while. The little kids are hoping for a 'blizzard' so they can go out and use the sleds but I think that may take awhile. It is kind of neat to look outside and see the grass covered with snow.

Faithy looking in through the back door

I know that it will get old and the words "it's snowing" will at some point bring a groan but for now it's exciting!

Thomas turned 16 on Sunday so between running around outside and playing in the snow we celebrated with dinner, cake and brrr..... ice cream. Thomas also got to enjoy his "breakfast of choice" the burrito- eggs, potatoes, sausage, cheese and salsa. We also made chocolate chip cookies for the youth service, I don't know if the cookies were any good, but they were gone!

Happy 16th Birthday Thomas!

The kids are making a few friends here, the pastor's son also a David is a fun kid and is frequently found with David, John and Sam. Sunday it was snowing outside during church, we have to be there for both services so it was pure torture to just watch it come down. After service they all headed out to pelt each other with snowballs.

Aaron in the forest

They can usually be found out in the field by the church playing football or running after each other. David was here tonight and the house was rattling with the lasar-sword fighting (Pryer's always swordfight) wrestling, and nerf guns. The kids were confined to the downstairs bedrooms. Bedlam!

I've been keeping an eye on California weather and the fires. Praying that God brings you cooler weather and some humidity. Those smokey days are no fun.

Snow!

Today as we got ready to leave for our Junior Bible quiz meet in Muskegon it began to snow. Huge snowflakes that looked more like the soap bubbles at the Terra Bella mall in Huntington Beach than the snow I imagined I would see. Last year, OCMA played at Terra Bella and we were treated to a snowfall that looked a whole lot like what we saw this morning.

The kids were so excited and all ran out to play in it. It didn't last, only about 15 minutes and of course it was followed by a drenching rain so there is nothing to see of it now. It is supposed to snow again tomorrow.

Aaron getting soaked before the meet! Frozen Sam!

Frank was unimpressed!

The mornings are very cool as you can imagine and cold cereal just doesn't cut it so I take advantage of our oven a lot. Today I made Baked Oatmeal. It is heavy enough to stick but tastes a million times better than hot cereal. Could be all the sugar hmmm......

Thomas looks a lot like James in this picture!

Baked Oatmeal

1 stick of butter

2 cups brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

3 cups oats

1 and 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup milk (I use buttermilk- the kids won't drink it so it is safe in the fridge!)

Mix the butter, sugar, vanilla, and eggs. Add the dry ingredients and follow with the milk

pour into a greased 9x13 pan and bake for 35-40 minutes
That's the basic recipe, I usually double it and add 2 chopped apples. Today I increased the flour to 3 cups and instead of apple added a large can of pumpkin, a tsp of ginger and a tsp of nutmeg. I also added a tsp of baking soda.

It turned out well and instead of bringing our usual granola bars to quiz for snacks the kids opted to bring the leftover squares of baked oatmeal. Needless to say we will be using this variation again. I may add raisins and nuts next time.

The best part is that house gets warmed up and it's cheaper than packaged cereal. I am looking for a good source of oats around here. I may check out Costco while the kids are at band on Wednesday.

David, Faith and Aaron did well at the quiz meet winning all of their games in the round robin. I quiz mastered in the Novice division which was fun. We have our teen quiz and our JBQ on different Saturdays so now Ron and I can both help at the meets. The big kids are helping with our novice team and they also official at the meets. Mary and James were at Youth Convention for this meet and they just got home. Mary hasn't stopped talking about it yet, I think it was a success!

Keep praying for our country and President - elect Obama, it wasn't the outcome I hoped for but God is in control.

Tuesday!

The tree house now that the leaves are gone. That's Sam!

Studying Hard at the Home School Building where the kids take band.

Okay guys, did you get out and vote? Ron, James, and I all went down this morning and cast our ballots. For James this was his first opportunity to vote and if pictures were allowed I probably would have taken one!

Not that it was without problems. Ron and James were on the list, but my name was not there. We had to wait for the town clerk to come to the polling place and straighten it all out. I did have my voter registration card and my new Michigan drivers license and I was added by hand to the list. Hopefully by the time we vote again I'll be on the list.

Our polling place is the township's new fire station and we were surprised to see a line to vote at 8 am. We met some of our neighbors for the first time and checked in with a lady from our church. Much different than our experiences in California where there is almost silence as you enter the room, the fire station was full of smiling happy people greeting each other and celebrating their right to vote.

Mary got a new sticker for her scripture portion, a tradition from each election as she grabs my "I voted" sticker. This year's sticker is pretty cool and as you can see, Mary's scripture portion is filling up.

Romans 13:1 Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.

Pray, then vote, then pray some more. I don't know what God is going to do with this election. I do know that regardless of who is elected that God is still on the throne.

there are still a few trees still holding onto their leaves.

The young evergreens are getting some much needed sunshine.