January 31, 2009 - Living For Jesus Is Fun

Today is a silly thing. It's Steve, our SYSCO rep. I like Steve, and not just because he drove all the way to Florence to pick up 18 cases of shredded cheese 80/10/10 blend for us to compensate for an ordering error earlier this week. I think Steve is great because he was in charge of the kitchen/cooking for the assisted living facility my Grandma spent some time in - and she was not an easy one to please. Steve is the one who got her sausage patty, wrapped in a napkin, thrown onto his desk as she expressed her displeasure about the *insert blankety-blank elderly agitated rage here* sausage he was allowing them to serve.

When we got Steve as an order rep., he mentioned having seen me at that place in the past, and when I explained that I was there visiting Grandma Dorothy (she really wasn't awful, she was just opinionated and very vocal...and threw things), he said, "ahhhhhhh....I remember Dorothy..."

Well, who WOULDN'T?? She was one fun ol' lady! Most of the time ;o)

ANYHOW, Steve also happens to be Catholic and I had a question I wanted to ask about Lent - that I really could have Googled, but Steve was handy and Google wasn't - what I wanted to know was WHY Lent is celebrated - I mean I know it all kicks off with Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday - more on that later) but WHY?? Well, it's celebrated sort of like - a commemoration? concecration? in rememberance of JESUS' 40 days in the wilderness, fasting, praying and being tempted by Satan. My family is Apostolic, so even though I should have already known this - I didn't. All I learned from Catholic Grandma Dorothy was that during Lent she would give up sugar in her coffee for that 40 days, try to sneak it (yeah, cuz' God can't see you...wink*wink*) and cuss the equal she used instead. She couldn't tell me why they did Lent, only that Mardi Gras was the last big party before it started, and that Ash Wednesday you went to church and got ash put on your head (so she wasn't a very good practicing Catholic). Well, now I know.

Hmmm...most of that has nothing to do with Steve - but here's Steve bringing us our 18 cases of cheese to Gino's!

January 30, 2009 - Living for Jesus is fun

He's making cockpit combing. I don't know what that is, I don't speak sailboat, but he's happy about it - and you can't tell, but he's also blue like a smurf from the sanding of the old blue fiberglass sailboat.

January 29, 2009 - Living For Jesus Is Fun

Ruby doesn't just paint, she really does pursue art...Very colorful, eh?

January 28, 2009 - Living For Jesus is FUN

Everyone needs a 6-year-old artist in their home. Really, everyone. There would be no such thing as a gray day...

Today, Ruby was scraping the paint off of her palette (okay, salad plate)(acrylic paints are her new thing, because I had a box of them) and she brought it to me all excited...

"MOMMY! I made a Chinese person in my dried paint scrape off!!" (now, these are her words, so even though I'd like to change it to, *I made the shape of an Asian person in the area I scraped out of the dried paint* - I can't, because that's not what she said and she would be angry).

"A Chinese person with hair or a chicken or something! The Chinese person has their hair curled up like you always put your hair up or something!"

WHERE DOES SHE COME UP WITH THIS STUFF?? She's creative like her mother I suppose. When I was in 4th grade (i think) I won some award for creativity and a big spider came and handed me the award and kissed me on the cheek (okay, it was a person wearing a spider costume, no clue why - it was a T.A.G. competition thing).

Anyhow, loosely translated, she sees the shape of an Asian head with a top knot in her plate. She's still pursuing art, by the way, and I am so thankful they don't mind shopping at Goodwill because I would probably be livid if I'd paid more than $2 for her painted attire. Neatness isn't her strong suit, again, she takes after her mother :D

January 27, 2009 - Living For Jesus Is Fun

In my favorite pot is my yummy home blend chai - complete with cardamom :) And my yummy half and half to put into it (I confess, I was sipping it from the quart...)(it's all gone now).

January 26, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

My little friend Khloe. And her giant bowl of...ranch dressing with a side of tomatoes, lettuce and shrimp :) (she thinks it's a shrimp salad)

January 25, 2009 - Living For Jesus is FUN

To me and you, this is and EYE SORE. To Kurt, this is his second wife (just kidding) - the man LOVES sailing. Not just being on the water, but building all the little pieces and seeing his project come together, so this eye sore will be his sailing fix while he works on his cedar strip built from scratch boat. And this one, she needs quite a bit of work - what a homeschool blessing - eh?

January 24, 2009 - Living for Jesus is fun!

Now, this may seem silly, but this little guy packs a punch! THIS is my FIRST non-KJV BIBLE! Okay, truth be told, the KJV is my favorite, but having a simplified ESV makes it much easier for me to communicate with some of the kids I work with (in plain English, as they say) so they can understand what I'm talking about and not just pretend they knew what I was talking about and wander off confused :) My son, he thinks it's his. But the print is very small and he refuses to wear his reading glasses - and I don't need reading glasses :D It's purse sized. It's sparkly new. It's mine :D

January 23, 2009 - Living for Jesus is Fun

So, this *could be* a mess. But really, I had to laugh. We are blessed. We are blessed with the microwave, AND the hot cocoa that make up the mess. We are blessed with little Ruby, who is physically able to, and mentally capable of, making the hot cocoa in the microwave (and intelligent enough to NOT OPEN THE DOOR as it boiled over and blew up - yes, liquids in microwaves DO blow up, it's true). We are blessed with rags and running water to clean it up. So yeah, the microwave door was stuck shut when I wanted to heat up tamales and this was the surprise I got when I opened it, but all things considered - WE ARE BLESSED :)

January 22, 2009 - Living for Jesus is fun

Sandy made SUSHI today!! Well, California rolls...she won't do raw fish :) Fun times hanging out at the Alsworth's all afternoon, cracking crab and sipping tea!

January 21, 2009 - Living for Jesus is Fun

and so is flying to HAWAII on February 9th, 2009!!












Becky and I bought our tickets before church tonight and this is our confirmation screen!! YIPEEEEE!!

January 20, 2009 - Living For Jesus is FUN

The question was, "Mommy, can I jump rope with this thing?"
Mommy says, "Sure, that's what it's for, basically."
Then...I look out the window and this is what I see...acrobatics

January 19, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

This is my friend Lora Jo - she's tons of fun :) We work at Gino's together :)

January 18, 2009 - Living For Jesus is FUN

The stained glass window that's made it through all of the remodels of this 100 year old church (as of last summer). These windows are comforting...they bring me comfort even when I'm just driving by because they remind me that in Jesus, we have peace.

January 17, 2009 - Living For Jesus Is Fun

It's work related. This is the "sheeter," aka "the dough machine" at Gino's Pizza - I only rolled my fingers up one time - and the first couple hours it didn't hurt a whole lot, but man was it stinging after that - until I mentioned to Hank (my nurse, in ER) that it was starting to sting - and he came around with lidocaine - jolly good stuff that numbs-it-up-stuff!! I prayed that God would take the pain away and keep it after the lidocaine wore off - and He did SO WELL that I was actually starting to think I had nerve damage - it never hurt again. Four stitches in my index finger, a flat middle finger and a little bruising on the rest [lots of bruising on the 2 really damaged digits] , August 2008, and I can almost make a fist again - PRAISE GOT!!

January 16, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun!

"I wonder if this will pour in my eye?"

January 15, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

Now, to the untrained eye, this looks like...well, a confetti party at a bad fashion show perhaps - but you know what's absolutely amazing that I see here? IMAGINATION - and - CREATIVITY. We don't have any little baby dolls that go with that little house (that Ruby bought for 1.99 at Goodwill on her birthday), SO, they made paper dolls - Ruby's "little girl," is 9 years old (Ruby said so) and was walking up the stairs, wondering why she was so tiny - as Abby was still cutting hers out. With brilliant, happy children like this - why on earth would I actually go out and buy little plastic dollies?

January 14, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

THIS is the best babysitter in the entire world. Really. She's not just amazing, she's my friend too - and we're going to Hawaii together with another friend soon :) REALLY!! It's gonna' be SO COOL! (the short one, she's not the sitter, she's the one that goes TO the sitter)

January 13, 2009 - Living For Jesus is FUN!!

Even extra fun today because somebody wonderful LOVES me and well, okay my whole wonderful family is loved by another wonderful family - I know, I got a love note on a special bar of chocolate, all the way from Wenatchee, WA!

The SMITHS LOVE YOU TOO King Family :) Dark chocolate with Chili...you make me smile :D

January 12, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

Friend's come westward for a visit!! HELLO ANGIE :)

January 11, 2009 - Living For Jesus Is Fun!

Playing xBox 360 @ BJ's house :)

January 10, 2009 - Living For Jesus is FUN!

TODAY, my friend Billie Jo called out of the blue and asked if I wanted to head to Shore Acres to hike with her...and gave me 4 minutes to be ready (knowing I had just crawled out of bed around 11...about 30 minutes prior to her call).

Anyhow, during our hike we saw immense waves, and swirling ocean - always something that leaves ME in awe...and we saw TONS of trees that were blown over from recent storms - some haven't even hit the ground yet, they are being propped up by others, and some when they blew over took 2 or 3 or 4 others out...and it just reminded me of how WE are like trees as human beings...

note, in this next photo, how the tree, as you get toward the top, starts to curve - because it's tipped a little and wasn't growing straight, so to reach the sunlight, the top started curving back upward to "straighten" itself reaching for the sun...












For me, there is great Biblical symbolism here...we can be like the trees, and when the storms of life come, we can be swayed, but if our roots are deeply and firmly planted...we may sway, we may even lean over to be held up by other *trees*, but we will remain and eventually lift our heads Son-ward and straighten back out, and if we loose hope, start to look around at the soggy muck we are standing in and lose sight of our purpose, we may topple right over and potentially take others down with us (for me, as a momma tree, if i really blow it, it could be my little baby trees i take down with me, frightening, isn't it?).

So I am thankful to find hope at the top of a crooked tree that's weathered the storm and still reaches heavenward

January 9, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

You can't even tell how bull headed and disobedient this child is by looking at this photo...but she's in the saucer chair in the living room, finally asleep, after being sent to BED at 8:00 PM. Honestly, any bed in any of the 3 rooms in this house would do, but noooooo...when I got home from work at 10PM - she was UP. After a battle of wills and her waking Daddy (who has to get up early) several times, apparently I forfeited and lost the battle because there her innocent little self sleeps, sucking fingers (the two middle fingers on her left hand) in mouth and right hand twirling her sleeping curl (she has names for everything) - sleeping pillow (I swear to you it's less than a month old, and I did have a pillowcase on it) is filthy but there with her. This child has to have everything *just so* or she literally CANNOT function.

*SIGH*

I love my baby girl, she's amazing! Witty, brilliant, stubborn, artistic and left handed like me :D

January 8, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun!

Not the best photo in the world, to get that I would need a tripod and to go outside to take the photo instead of shooting on self timer through 2 sets of windows with spiderwebs between them - but I'm NOT GOING OUTSIDE in the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT DURING THE STORM to get a photo of what I see when I'm lying in my bed at night - wide awake. Actually - the angle I see it from is almost impossible to photograph because Kurt moves on his side of the bed too much for the camera to remain still - anyhow, this is still cool enough - my view of swaying trees from the bed during the storm. Helps me remember that I am small and HE IS BIGGER than I could ever imagine and I am so thankful for His hand in my life and the blessings He pours out upon my head - we are sheltered from the storm, we are warm, we are dry - we are amazingly and wonderfully BLESSED :)

January 7, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun!

Don't laugh, this is my favorite cooking tool. My rice cooker - it's actually a little bigger than we need - but I wouldn't trade it for the world. I know, you're thinking - I've cooked rice for a hundred years in a pan on the stove and a rice cooker is just a glorified gadget you don't really need. When you eat 5 - 10 pounds of rice a week - the rice cooker becomes your friend. It's brainless, you dump in the stuff, shut the lid and push the button and believe it or not, it cooks even brown rice PERFECTLY (which, may I add, without it I DO NOT - in fact, I'm really good at burning because I'm easily distracted). So, there you have it, probably my absolute favorite kitchen gadget, my 10 cup zojirushi rice cooker - 3 years running. (we bought my dad the 6 cup at the same time - and he's still loving his as well).

January 6, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun!

If we have a storm, and even pieces of bamboo are blown over and broken off, and it continues to rain - you can still play outside and have a blast! :)

January 5, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun!

It's dark. It's so terribly gusty/windy that our trailer is rocking like a boat (I always make jokes about living in this single wide trailer is our preparation for living aboard a 50' ketch...which is my husband's dream...fortunately it's a few years off, he's building a 20' boat right now and it's taken him a year to get from drawing some plans and gathering stuff to actually gluing planks onto the frame). Anyhow, I was reading the blog that had the post that got me all inspired about this project in the first place (see it here) and the urgency in her post to TAKE THAT PHOTO NOW (even though I have started) made me take a look around my room and voila. There it is. My miserable looking ficus bonsai tree that Joseph gave me for Christmas...last year? Perhaps the year before (it spent several months in my mother's bathroom before making it to my house, so it must have been Christmas 2007). Anyhow, no one told me ficus didn't like to be moved, and I don't mean just that they don't like to be moved from house to house, they just plain don't like to be MOVED AT ALL - not from room to room, nor shelf to shelf. So when the leaves began to fall off of mine I thought, "oh, too drafty here..." and I moved it, and more leaves fell off, so I moved it and more leaves fell off and - you get the picture (it's a Charlie Brown tree now).

Well PRAISE GOD someone told me they don't like to be moved, and my naked little tree that makes me smile every time I look at it (because it reminds me of Joseph, my brother) is growing it's leaves back! Yeah, so you can see the cobwebs between the storm windows and the outer windows - but it's a blessing to have those storm windows, so the cobwebs can stay. And, it's true, the little thing is still mostly naked - but seriously it had one leaf left a couple weeks ago. It was a very sad sight to see.

So THIS is my important memory of January 5th (it's past midnight) on a night that I can't sleep because I'm getting seasick on land in this blessed single wide trailer in the wind!

January 4, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun!

Kord & Cory (a couple of my favorite young men) kicked back playing football...just inches from the giant flat screen God has blessed you with (no cable networking piped in, only gaming machine).

January 3, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

Paint, it's not just for paper anymore! This is how one pursues ART and especially PAINTING!

January 2, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

This one will get a little edit before going in the book. Abigail. The metal thinger in the back, it's a keval bit (very large cleat), and meaningful because it's fun to BUILD A BOAT!

January 1, 2009 - Living For Jesus is Fun

Abby's painting. Painted while I was at work, photo not edited...they were painting on the kitchen floor, so that's where I took the photo!

Let's Try Project 365 - Living For Jesus is Fun!!

So here's the beginning - for me anyhow, New Year's Eve, 2008.

Camden, at church, right before service was dismissed and we headed down for snacks and games :)