Happy New Year!

I have a lot of things percolating in my head to rite about. Nothing is coming to fruition right now. My camera is lost.again.

A friend emailed me this morning mentioning how at the end of the next decade she will be 51 and he husband will be 61. For some reason that hit me hard. We have been talking about making the most of our time with our children for it is so fleeting. Is anyone setting some goals for the New Year?

Keith

Tonight Keith shared on sermon on not compromising at evening service. He has not been feeling well and I am so proud of him. He shared from his heart. You can listen to all the Sunday morning and evening messages from our church here:

http://www.gbc-cohoes.org/messages.html

Joy

These are the days that are so special and so fleeting.

The days when my children are young and full of

hope,vim and vigor.

The days when my parents are young

enough to enjoy their grandchildren.

This time is not everlasting. Right now I am

relishing it.

Happy Christmas!

Merry Christmas! I wish you could be here :-)

Hold me back

http://19butternut.blogspot.com/2009/12/abbys-diabetes-doll.html

This is fabulous. I emailed Stacy when Ollie was diagnosed and she was a huge encouragement.

Whoop-de-doo

I made this.

I hot glue gunned a silver spoon my Nana Rawls bought me when I was born to a piece of scrapbook paper and framed it. I borrowed the idea from www.thenester.com

There you have it.

Please

Stab me in the eye with a fork if you hear me utter the words "playdough or moonsand" when someone asks me what my kids would like for Christmas.

Kisses from Sophie

Sophie is such a character! She will get this wild look in her eyes and attack

you with kisses. There is no escaping.

Sometimes I am frustrated over my children's lack of picking up.

While we are working on it and things continue to improve I realized I am overlooking

how kind they are to the younger children. Christian

and Gillianne are very helpful with Sophie and Abby. They enjoy each other.

That is more important than the crayons on the floor.

Yee Haw

We had fun wrapping some gifts, white trash style!

I couldn't resist these candy necklace jewelry kits. I dabble in jewelry and I knew the girls would have a blast but.the.packaging. I do not like the Brats-esque gals on the front. I was going to repackage them but frankly, that didn't happen. Sorry to all moms whose daughters are corrupted by my gift this year.

Abby kept saying "But mom, they are in bikinis" She was concerned too.

One of my tips for today is to use a blood test strip as a name tag on your gift. Frugal and cute! Ok~ there was one stuck by accident and it was too funny not to share.

I do not have a pic of the best part. Our garbage was super duper high. We have been cleaning out like maniacs and it shows in our can. It was about 5 feet over the top of our big can and I perched a shoe rack on top which looked like a jaunty hat on top of a snowman. I am sorry to say that I have a raging case of tonsillitis and didn't go out in the freezing cold to snap a photo of Frosty before he was hauled away. What a sad ending for Frosty.

The Goal of Christian Education

Discipleship: For example, student misbehavior and disinterest at school are not just interruptions in the educational process-they are revelations of the students heart condition. Spiritual processes of Christian change and growth have been stymied in the students life and must be addressed biblically. Christian Teachers (and parents!) must remember that the goal of most businesses is to please the customer, making him a consumer, the goal of Christian education is to change the consumer, making him a contributor, a servant. Discipleship must be the driving concern

~ Jim Berg Changed Into His Image

What does this look like? I do not know but to start I think it is doing life together, imperfectly and extending grace to each other while pressing for the goal. Serving one another and others outside our comfort zone.

This picture was taken on the first day of school 2009.

Gill the Pill again

QUINN, I GILLIANNE SAY BE A GIRL HAHAHAHA

Guest Blogger~ Gillianne

i put on earrings today. i do NOT HAVE MY EARS PIERCED.

you hey you GILLIANNE.

Co-op Capers

The children have been learning about the food pyramid. A special presenter came to co-op and reinforced what they had been learning. I hid in the back and ate an entire tray of cookies I was given as a Christmas gift.

Since it was the last meeting until the new year there was celebrating and with celebrating comes sugar.

These lovely ladies made the cake. They had a Wilton cake decorating class elective for a quarter last year and they were showing off their skills.

Remembering Grandma Rion

There was a special church service for my grandma today. I wasn't able to go but I thought about her a lot today. She loved nature. She loved birds and cardinals were her favorite. Red was her preferred color. Her kitchen had red small appliances, she was zippy!

This picture was taken on Thanksgiving in 2004. I just realized I wore that same skirt on Thanksgiving this year :-) That is Gilli on my Mom's lap. I love to see the 3 generations together.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/06/17/haditha.charges/

Hello!

We had a great day at co-op today. I snapped a few pics, I will try to catch up tomorrow. I have been busy preparing and early Christmas gift for my hubby. I will show you, dear readers, on Wednesday. Until then, here is some ruffle love with a great semi homemade (my favorite since I cannot create from scratch) gift idea.

http://www.rufflesandstuff.com/

All you need

I am thankful for noise canceling headphones, and friends who will drop off a big bag of sugar when you really really want to bake a nice fat loaf of bread but have nothing to feed the yeast.

:-)

Not the most stellar day over here today. I am looking forward to going to bed and starting fresh tomorrow.

Co-op Cuties

Abby was the helper of the day!

I help in Abby's first class, hence the overabundance of pics from that class.

When Abby got to pick someone to help hold the chart Julianna was the obvious pick.

Ollie was picked next. Ollie has been shadowing me since the hospital and diagnosis.

I love the teachers at Co-op. They are very gifted.

We played Physics Hangman at the end of class. Apparently it was not my most stellar class, the kids let me know :-)

Gym! Gilli is in pink, Jules in a pink coat, Abby in brown and Ollie is in the corner with Spike.

I hope I can continue to post pictures. Have a great Tuesday!

Remembering December 7, 1941

Must Read

I am having a problem uploading pics and I have so many projects to share, a burlap and hydrangea Christmas Tree, a framed spoon (LOL!) and co-op pictures.

Anyway I am posting this must read for the holiday season.

http://nestingplacenc.blogspot.com/2009/11/do-less-be-more.html

I need to learn how to make clickable links, sorry.

Have a great Monday!

Sew Cute!

Abby wanted to show you her choker.

Gillianne made her first pair of culottes. Our friend Laura had us over to teach me to make culottes. She was so kind to make a pattern for me. I wasn't able to stay that day but it got me started.

She can already sew better than me! I can only sew straight lines. She made these out of a vintage sheet from out friend Nanette.

Sweet!

Mom: Oliver, what happened to your hair?

Ollie: Nothing

Mom: Who cut your hair?

Ollie: No one

ad infinium

Ollie: Maybe Billie (barber) did it last time.