and all the fun and noise they bring.....way too quiet here.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
fresh
This is my go-to word for the time being. I'm feeling a need to make things look fresher in our house, to eat fresh veggies and fruits, to start some things over (fresh). Admittedly, mostly, I want to wake-up our tired-looking house. It looks fine, but I hate the cloudy gloomy wintry mood that comes with this time of year, and the lack of sunshine is spilling over inside also. There's not much sunlight in the house (totally miss that about our old house) so that doesn't help my mood. So I'm trying to counteract that with some fresher, brighter colors here and there. Now, I do LOVE our neutral walls downstairs because that gives me a backdrop that can remain the same while I change out accents, etc. So that will not be changing (much to Brian's relief!).
So, I got some girl time with Amber this past weekend and we happened upon this fresh bright pot at Hobby Lobby. Love it. It's perfect and just needs a tall plant now. I'm thinking I might go get another one for outside, too, since it was looking pretty awesome out there before I brought it in.
So, I got some girl time with Amber this past weekend and we happened upon this fresh bright pot at Hobby Lobby. Love it. It's perfect and just needs a tall plant now. I'm thinking I might go get another one for outside, too, since it was looking pretty awesome out there before I brought it in.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
bald eagles
We went to see the bald eagles in Clarksville this weekend. They come to this part of the country during January - March while the water supply in Canada is frozen. We were fortunate to see a live presentation about them before we went down to the river front to try and spot some with the binoculars that our friends had brought and the telescopes that the Conservation Department had set up. Really neat to see them perched in the trees. I've been telling my class about them this week.....their wingspan can be up to 8 feet long! And their nests are sometimes 8 feet wide and 4 feet deep.....that's a big bird house!
Friday, January 29, 2010
favorite indulgences
Two of my "go-to" things right now......
fave music right now
talked into it while Christmas shopping at the Christian bookstore
so glad I splurged
listen to this everyday - Ethan even knows the words to the songs now
a splurge at Trader Joe's a few weeks ago
talked into it when I couldn't find the dark chocolate covered blueberries
already finished off one bag......the second is sitting in the pantry just begging to be opened
they look good for you...not sure if they are...but they LOOK good for you
deliciousness
(and I don't even like dark chocolate)
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Haitian Islands Ministries
When the earthquake hit Haiti this past week, a man from our church was there. Steve Smith heads up the Haitian Islands Ministries and was down there this week for that reason. He is safe and actually arrived home last night!
I wanted to share because I think a lot of us want to help but aren't sure how, don't know which organizations are a hoax, etc. This ministry is heavily supported by our church and we personally know the Smith family as well as others who are involved in running the ministry. Last year a group of teens from our church went down to Haiti on a missions trip with Steve and stayed in the guest house......the guest house is in crumbles now.
Anyway, I wanted to let everyone know that this is a safe avenue if you are wanting to help. 100% of the money given goes to Haiti.
Below is a link to Steve's story that aired on Fox 2 this morning. There is also some more detailed information about the ministry from our friend, Melissa, who is part of the ministry. They are wonderful people!
Fox 2 Story about Steve Smith and Haitian Islands Ministries
A summary of the ministry from Melissa:
... founded in 1994. Provide medical care, feeding and vitamin programs. We also support 6 schools/churches (2 in Port au Prince, the others are a bit further north). Sponsorhip refers to people (here) sponsoring the education of children there (my program). Basically, people pay $25 month to send a child to school. It relieves that burden from the family and often helps more than the actual child being sponsored stay in school. We try not to turn away students and parents are asked to pay what they can. Our goal (in brief) is to keep students in school and keep salaries to the teachers. So having just a handful of sponsored students makes keeping the teachers employed possible. It takes more than that to keep the schools running but, it works itself out with the ability of some Haitian parents to pay a little and other giving to the ministry.
Steve is actually a physician's assistant so medical care is where he started with the ministry. The rest evolved from there. Having the schools/churches also gives him a regular place to go back to each time to conduct medical clinics for the kids and the people in the villages where the schools are. He's been caring for many of our students since they were born. For the majority of the people in the villages outside of Port au Prince where we work, he is the only medical person they have access to. There is no welfare system there so if you can't pay for medical care, you don't recieve it... period. He is able to provide his services for free so as you can imagine, he's helped a countless number of Haitians. We conduct our feeding programs at the school for the children 3 to 7 days a week, depending on money available to buy the rice and beans.
If people want to help, the best avenue at this time is prayer and financial support. Without a charter plane or money to send over a freight box, you can't take a lot into the country. Steve is very resourceful and makes sure that all of the money he gets for the mission goes right back into the hands/bodies/businesses of Haitians. If people would like to contribute, the ministry is a 501c3 tax deductable, not-for-profit organization. We write tax receipts for every check we get. The ministry's address is:
Haitian Island Ministries
P.O. Box 616
Wentzville, MO 63385
I wanted to share because I think a lot of us want to help but aren't sure how, don't know which organizations are a hoax, etc. This ministry is heavily supported by our church and we personally know the Smith family as well as others who are involved in running the ministry. Last year a group of teens from our church went down to Haiti on a missions trip with Steve and stayed in the guest house......the guest house is in crumbles now.
Anyway, I wanted to let everyone know that this is a safe avenue if you are wanting to help. 100% of the money given goes to Haiti.
Below is a link to Steve's story that aired on Fox 2 this morning. There is also some more detailed information about the ministry from our friend, Melissa, who is part of the ministry. They are wonderful people!
Fox 2 Story about Steve Smith and Haitian Islands Ministries
A summary of the ministry from Melissa:
... founded in 1994. Provide medical care, feeding and vitamin programs. We also support 6 schools/churches (2 in Port au Prince, the others are a bit further north). Sponsorhip refers to people (here) sponsoring the education of children there (my program). Basically, people pay $25 month to send a child to school. It relieves that burden from the family and often helps more than the actual child being sponsored stay in school. We try not to turn away students and parents are asked to pay what they can. Our goal (in brief) is to keep students in school and keep salaries to the teachers. So having just a handful of sponsored students makes keeping the teachers employed possible. It takes more than that to keep the schools running but, it works itself out with the ability of some Haitian parents to pay a little and other giving to the ministry.
Steve is actually a physician's assistant so medical care is where he started with the ministry. The rest evolved from there. Having the schools/churches also gives him a regular place to go back to each time to conduct medical clinics for the kids and the people in the villages where the schools are. He's been caring for many of our students since they were born. For the majority of the people in the villages outside of Port au Prince where we work, he is the only medical person they have access to. There is no welfare system there so if you can't pay for medical care, you don't recieve it... period. He is able to provide his services for free so as you can imagine, he's helped a countless number of Haitians. We conduct our feeding programs at the school for the children 3 to 7 days a week, depending on money available to buy the rice and beans.
If people want to help, the best avenue at this time is prayer and financial support. Without a charter plane or money to send over a freight box, you can't take a lot into the country. Steve is very resourceful and makes sure that all of the money he gets for the mission goes right back into the hands/bodies/businesses of Haitians. If people would like to contribute, the ministry is a 501c3 tax deductable, not-for-profit organization. We write tax receipts for every check we get. The ministry's address is:
Haitian Island Ministries
P.O. Box 616
Wentzville, MO 63385
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
clean
Those of you living in the midwest and anywhere else that got snow and extremely cold temperatures the past few days will share my enthusiasm with the subject of this photo. A few hours ago our van was covered in salt and muck. Now clean and shiny (for a day or so anyway)! Apparently everyone else had the same idea cause there were about 5 cars ahead of us and 5 behind us at the car wash. Oh what a great feeling to have a clean car again!!!
Now the really sad part is that I commented to the boys that it reminded me of when Thomas got washed after a hard day's work in one of the episodes (can't remember specifics) and they had no clue what I was talking about. Well bust my buffers!!!!
Thursday, January 7, 2010
treasures
On Christmas Eve this year, Elliott spent a lot of time making sure my eyes were not peeking while he wrapped some surprises. And then he made sure that I opened them first on Christmas morning. This is what was inside those meticulously wrapped packages:
Every Friday Elliott gets to choose something from the treasure box in his class if he has earned enough tickets, and the last week of school he used his tickets to buy these presents for me! I loved that he was so excited to give them to me and the look on his face when he was telling me that he was able to "buy" them on his own. And the bonus is that Brian got me a new camera for my purse and it fits right into the cute pouch!
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