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.

This week at our house

(fall colors on the Muskegon river)

This past week, we went to Lansing Michigan for our first teen quiz meet of the year. It is about a two hour drive from our house so we had to leave here around 7:30 am. The quiz went well, James quiz mastered in novice and really seems to enjoy it. We were nervous at first but the A team did well winning all their games. Our B and novice teams also did well. We are leaving for a tournament today in Indiana. We are staying at a friend from Indiana's house. The boys are going to sleep in a barn tonight. A barn with heat and foose-ball. Not your average barn!

(the woods are looking bare)

This week has also brought a change in the weather. Days are cold and the nights are colder! Every morning there is frost on the ground and we routinely have to remove ice from the windshield if we are to get anywhere in the morning. Once a week we drive into Grand Rapids for band, an all day event that has us leaving the house at 7 and returning at 5.

(chasing leaves)

One afternoon a gust of wind sent hundreds of leaves flying up into the air, and the kids ran out to catch the leaves before they fell. I think this counts as P.E. I stayed out there as long as I could but unlike the kids I was freezing. Perhaps I should have been running after the leaves myself!

Our little wooded area behind the house is looking so bare! During the summer you could hardly see a few feet into the trees and now you can see way back into the clearing where the kids have set up their "Indian" village.

The deer have been very active lately too, the other day Sam just about went head over hills when he was walking the lab. Three deer crossed the trail about 10 feet ahead of them. It is not unusual now to see 5 or 6 deer in the field by our house just as the sun is setting. We see them on the way to church and back along the side of the road, kind of scary as we've heard some deer collision stories that make us a bit nervous. Needless to say we slow down on the dark roads around here. Soon deer hunting will start in earnest and we expect to see quite a reduction in the numbers, many people here need to hunt in order to provide for their families. Not only that but with the large number of deer out there many will starve over the winter if their numbers are not culled.

We regularly see wild turkeys roaming around. They are not very smart and sometimes you have to just stop the car to keep from hitting them while they try to decide which side of the road they want to end up on. I guess the joke is Why did the turkey cross the road? He doesn't know either. Every once in a while I will hear them in the woods near our house the sound is hard to describe but once you've heard it you know what it is. James has seen them walking around out there.

I hope to get some pictures at the tournament this weekend and on Sunday our church is having the annual "Toilet Bowl" football game weather permitting of course.

All because two people fell in love.....

American Gothic???

Today Ron and I have been married for 19 years. I keep thinking that seems so long and yet it feels like such a short time. When we went on our after dinner walk through the forest last night I told him, we’d be an old married couple next year on our 20th. I remember our wedding day as if it were yesterday and I thank God for my husband Ron, he is my best friend and the love of my life. Our anniversary is a good time for remembering not just the memories of a great marriage but also the way God has moved in our lives.

Ron and I met at church when we were both in our late 20’s, we became fast friends and because it was a friendship we avoided the pitfalls of dating. Ron and I also went to the same junior high school and the same high school graduating a year apart. I thank the Lord that he did not have us meet during those years. I was not the person then that I am now and neither was he. Sometimes I envision God orchestrating a kind of dance in those halls at Santa Ana High, to ensure that we did not meet and I sometimes wonder how many close calls we actually had.

After we gave our family planning over to the Lord we used to say, "10 kids, 10 years, and 10 acres"-that was our "plan" but God had other plans and they were good. I pray that my children embrace the plan God has for them, not trying to fight against what God is doing in them. I pray that when the time is right God brings into their lives the person they are meant to marry and that they don't try to hurry His plan or delay depending on His will for them. As a mom I want what is best for my kids but my human eyes don’t see it the way He does, so I pray that God directs their steps and that I have the wisdom to advise, embrace, and when the time is right, get out of the way.
Most of all I pray that when they marry it will be as great a marriage for them as this last 19 years has been for me. Not that everything has been perfect, but it has been good.



We loved having Bonnie and Jonathan here!
















Grandma and Mary at the Muskegon River by the Croton Dam

moving

(the tree "house" in summer)

Moving across the country to a place we've never been has been an adventure. I think when we put the house up for sale with this idea to move to "another place" than California we had thoughts that it would be easy. Just sell the house, pack up and move. That is what we did, after a grueling 15 months on the market and continually knocking down the price we finally sold, packed up and moved. Our move happened so fast after seemingly taking so long that it left us and many of our friends reeling. Things have settled down and we are settling in so I am taking the advice of a friend and starting a blog.

We moved to rural Western Michigan and it is breathtakingly beautiful. Watching summer melt into fall has us running to the windows to see what has changed today. It seems that overnight the view from our deck has gone from green

(the tree "house" just this afternoon)

to gold and red and orange and..... you get the picture. Walking through the woods - we have 5 acres of woods- is totally different than it was a month ago with the lush humid green becoming dry and much more open. At times the only sounds are the sounds of leaves falling and the occasional squirrel or woodpecker scolding us for coming too close. At other times the kids can be heard while they run in the woods or ride their bikes on the trail that winds through the forest. They have been given the time to play, run and create.

( James lashed together a bed and the

others created an extra bedroom?)

(Foxes Point)

Moving was hard, and at times the homesickness, the loss of friends close by brings tears to my eyes. Just yesterday Grandma, (Ron's mom) left after visiting and we all cried a little. This is an adjustment but we are getting through it. We have found a great church and the kids are making friends. We went to a Family Fun day at one of the church members houses and had a really great day. I took this picture of the kids there.