Firm Foundations Ministries

Happy 8th Birthday, Wibbis!

In case you are wondering about the above name, it was my youngest sister, Emma's, babyhood name for the birthday girl because she could not pronounce 'Elizabeth'. This day, September 11th, is the eighth anniversary of my little sister, Elizabeth's, life. She was born "at the crack of dawn" in my mother's words, and from being the most mellow baby amoung us, she grew into one of the liveliest, most talkative, and social. She is often the life of the party, but is willing to listen and go along with other's ideas. In fact, she often offers ideas, but then if someone suggests a different idea and seems to really want to use it, she will quickly add,

"But we can do that if you want to; I don't care."

"Are you sure?" they ask.

"It's okay, I really don't care." she assures with a smile.

  "Ibizis" loves to make other people happy, and usually has a ready smile (or rather, grin). She has her faults, as do we all, but they are not the only side of her character. On the contrary, Elizabeth can be and often is, a very sweet, loving, and generous girl. I have worked on accomplishing meaningful relationships with my siblings, and it has paid off tremendously: she confides in me, and wants to share all her little or big discoveries. That smile, that hug, that trusting look: if that doesn't make you feel warm and fuzzy inside, I don't know what does! She even asked me to help plan her birthday menu. 

[In case you are in the dark, on our birthdays we get school off and get to choose our meals, although there are limits as to what we can choose, after the Great Sugar Crash Incident of 2006 on another birthday of Elizabeth's. What a day for stomach jitters! Do you really want to know the menu? Alright, she had Magic Stars cereal for breakfast (which is pretty much the same as Lucky Charms), cinnamon rolls for lunch, and blueberry waffles for dinner. Plus, Mommy gave us two pieces of strawberry cake with vanilla frosting. I couldn't even finish my cake, I felt so sick. That day has been a joke in our family ever since, and today, she chose cranberry bread and tea for breakfast (yum), tuna sandwiches and watermelon with milk for lunch, and grilled chicken in BBQ sauce, mashed potatoes with gravy, biscuits, and cooked carrots for dinner. Her birthday dish will be a marvelous, home-made, Mint Chocolate Ice Cream Cake with an Oreo crust, a nice, thick layer of mint ice cream, and fudge sauce on top. Bon Appetite!]

I have been extremely blessed by Elizabeth, and her active, delightful personality is a God-given blessing as well. I pray that God grants her many more years, and that He calles her to Himself. I pray that He would bestow upon her the fruits of the Spirit, and that His hand of protection and guidance would be upholding her throughout her life. God Bless You, my dear, sweet sister!

Love from Within,

Mariel

Oh Dear, I cannot think of anything to say!

Back to Blogging

I Have Returned!!!

Greetings, fellow bloggers (I dare not say, 'readers'). I trust that I find you all in good health and joyful in the Spirit of our Almighty God. I am astonished at the amount of time that has passed since we last conversed. Six months! That is my longest ever on record, and, of course not a little shameful. I have missed you all so very much! Because of the long period of time, I almost posted saying that I had stopped blogging, but then when I logged on today, it dawned on me what I would be and was missing! How could I leave my dear friends? I have met so many wonderful people on HSB and I realized what cutting off those friendships would mean. I probably wouldn't talk to Kylie, Jocelyn, Amanda, Rose, Eyebright, Grace, or my other HSB friends again! That would leave a gap.  I love all my friends here and that is why I choose to return and blog. I look forward to future conversations with you all. (And perhaps in our jammies, right, Kylie?)

On another note, these last two days, we have had the extremely delightful Suarez family visit here at our house! On Tuesday, they were coming for dinner; Mommy was going to make wine chicken, boiled potatoes, salad, and our traditional Suarez/my family dessurt, sugar bread. Yet, there was one big problem: Cornflower and I had forgotten to tell her that the oven was not heating up correctly over the weekend that she was gone to the Modesto conference! Trouble on the horizon.... So, when she preheated the oven so that the wine chicken could be cooked--the oven did not turn on at all, although the stove worked perfectly. To top it off, the Suarezes were going to be here in an hour, so no time to get it fixed. Of course, that was when I remembered to tell her about the oven's behavior during the weekend. I prayed furiously, asking God to make the oven work, knowing that He must have a plan, but not a spark flared. Oh, dear. You mothers can imagine the situation. The Suarezes got here, the situation was explained, and--fabulously flexible friends that they are--we were able to settle on Chevy's for dinner. We high-tailed it over there and had a scrumptious meal, came home, Levi, Julie, Corn, Spidey, Wibbs, Emma, and I went into our backyard and fought battles with the foam-padded swords that Daddy made us. [Pause: I'm sorry, Corn and I are laughing over Jocelyn's post "You've Been Labeled" Go check it out.] Paul eventually came out and beat us all with his quick moves and blocks. After a few more matches together, we went back inside and Daddy showed us some amazing martial arts scenes and then some absolutely hilarious WIPEOUT episodes.

[Warning: This show is occaisionally a wee bit crude, so, even though my family, namely my sister, Cornflower, teases me about being so sensitive to some crude humor, I still don't appreciate all the jokes on this show. That said, there are many laugh-out-loud moments from the hosts, but, unfortunately, as with any obstacle course show, there will be and are some people who take the LORD's name in vain.]

Anyway, somewhere around 12:00, they left and we parted by saying "See you next year!" Little did we know that tomorrow, spontaneously, the mothers had put together a playday for Levi and Julie at our house! So they came over again, dropped Levi and Julie off, then Mommy invited them to dinner. Mrs. Suarez said they had an engagement with the Wuehler family for dessert at 7:00, but they could push for 7:30 and have dinner at our house! So, Mommy crockpotted the wine chicken through the day. All of us kids went out into the backyard and fought some more skirmishes with the swords. Levi is an aware fighter and a good opponent, therefore he presents a challenge, which I appreciate. I love challenges! Mommy made some lemonade to refresh us hot soldiers, and we came in and played Bluff, Lord of the Rings Stratego, and the girls played with Playmobil until the most heated part of the day was over. After that, we went back outside and played five games of Medieval Times Capture the Flag, or simply, Fight for the Flag, where you use your sword to defend yourself from the opposing team with your sword while trying to steal their flag and guard the prisoners. We had so much fun playing with them! Next, we asked Mommy if we could go outside in the court on our bikes and scooters to play Cops and Robbers. She agreed and we strapped on helmets and swept the highways! Levi and Cornflower were the police officers, and the rest of us tried to avoid their hawk's gaze while breaking traffic laws. So you see, we didn't really rob, we only went the wrong way on 'lanes' and crossed 'off-road'.

The rest of their family arrived and we had a splendid dinner of wine chicken, boiled potatoes, and a lovely salad. While we were eating it, Paul came into the kitchen and I asked him when they had to leave. He replied by saying: "It was canceled." Whereby Cornflower accidently tipped her plate over and the remains of her salad scattered on the table, everyone laughed and Paulie added, "Don't get too excited!" I found out a bit later that the cancellation was due to Mrs. Suarez's headache. I did feel sorry for the Wuehlers because I know that if I had been in their place, I would have been very disappointed, but I was SO VERY glad that they could stay! So we spent some more quality time with them and I was reminded of how much I love their family, not to mention adorable little Susanna, who resembles Luke and looks so much like a Suarez! I love her! We LOVE you, Suarez family!!!

Goodbye, fellow bloggers! I sincerely hope that you enjoyed my narrative. God Bless You All!

Love from Within,

-Mariel~

New School Year

I just started school for the year. I think I really only finished about a week before, but knowing that I will need to take time off for a move and a new baby, I am trying to plan ahead.

It is exciting to be teaching 5 students at once. Really everyone needs help with their math which is very mentally stimulating. One huge blessing is having four readers. It is nice that many of them are learning lots on their own and learning how to read and follow directions.

We are reading through the Little House On The Prairie series, we have done some related map work, and made a list of their work compared to ours. It really helps me be aware of the fact that most of my work is picking up and organizing stuff. I am on the lookout for ways to scale back on that problem, I am sure a move will help a bit.

I am doing a weekly blog over at the Homeschool Blogger Company Front Porch, so it is a struggle to get things posted here, but I do appreciate reading what everyone else has to say.

Blessings,

Jennifer

Squaw Creek Resort (somewhere in Tahoe)

Look at that beautiful mountain!!!

This is a picnic deck with a lovely view. We didn't eat here though!

That little cutie is Baby Hannah! (SO SWEET!!)


Elizabeth being silly.

"We Want You!" only with a smiley face!

There was a really nice and inexpensive carnival there, right in the middle of the resort! This is John playing "Ring Toss"

Hannah (my sister) and I did the "Bungee Run". It was SO much fun!

Mommy signed Hannah and Iup for the "Water Sponge Relay Races" at 3:00 PM. When we were all done at the Carnival and the arcade (but I am too lazy to put pictures up for that) it was only around 12:00 pm. So we went swimming!! That picture on top is of Elizabeth going down the water-slide. It was 120 feet long!

And...um, that is...hehe...me. Understand why the picture is so small? Okay I was accidentally flipping! Next!


Here we are...after about three hours of swimming...at the relay races! Hannah and I were on a team.
I have to tell you how the races worked...I find it quite funny! We are all paired on teams of two. Hannah and I were already signed up together so we made an immediate team. At one end of our track (which was maybe fifteen feet long) there were two chairs about three feet apart--both with buckets underneath them. At the other end was two buckets filled with water and one sponge inside each one, the same length apart. One team would start at each bucket. When the caller said "Go!" one member of each team would grab a sponge, dunks it in the water so it gets wet, and run over to the chairs with buckets underneath them. Then they would place the sponge on the chair and sit on it to get the water out! They would then run back to their teammate and pass them the sponge. The teammate would complete the whole process over again. This will keep going until the water in the buckets under the chairs reaches a certain marked level. Whichever team reaches this level first wins!

Lots of people signed up for this but only three showed up (counting us). We raced against two brothers, one older and one younger. We beat them. The only team left to go to the finals (sort of) were a brother and sister. We all would have raced as usual if not who we were racing with were significantly younger than us. Daddy and the rest of us thought that it was not fair. So we asked the person who was managing this if we could do something never done before. We all matched Hannah with the young girl and me with her brother! It was a good match! Hannah and her partner won. I am glad that everybody was a good sport about things. All in all we had a good time :+)



That is (from the left to the right) Little Hannah, Auntie Grace, and beautiful mommy :+)!


The next day my family and I went on a hike.


Part of the trail.


There were many flowers that we took pictures of but I am not going to post those. This is a beautiful wild Columbine!


The ski run. (AKA Cable)


And finally a picture of the children!

I hope you enjoyed it!


God Bless You
~Cornflower~

I am Tagging Myself Since Nobody Else Wants to :+)

Hello again!

I'm going to start blogging again.

These days...

I'm working more and more these days...as everything it has it's pros and cons.  I really like working there and the people I work with--I do miss being with my kids full time.  Sometimes I feel like they've had to deal with so many changes since last year.  Next month they start public school...  I worry, but know this is where God has us for now.

I'm amazed at where we are at...  good and bad...  sometimes I wonder why God would put us in these difficult times that put us in situations where never really thought would happen.  Somedays I feel very close to HIm, and others I feel "lost on the ocean floor."  I know the latter is not true; it's just I had planned to homeschool for a long time.   Other days I look and see how FAR God has brought us...through much spiritual hardship and to a place where in some ways we feel more like a family again--even though the "time" we spend together is less. I'm so glad for the close relationship my husband and I. I'm thankful that we live in this wonderful area where the school they will attend is small and we have great Christian neighbors.  I guess it all boils down to trying to understand this Season where God has placed me.

I am very happy.  In many ways I'm much happier than I have been in years.  Financially, things are tight and rough--yet as I hear it that's much of the nation these days.  I suppose like most normal people I would like everything to be perfect. [now]  :)   I know it will never be until we meet Jesus face to face--what a wondeful day that will be.

I'm just trying to live each day moment by moment and enjoy what I have now while I work toward a better future.  God is good all the time and all the time God is good.  Even when there are many unknowns and not perfection.  I think I'm truly beginning to learn what contentment is all about.

This is not meant to be whiny--just an expression of my current thoughts.  May the Lord bless you today and guide you with peace.

Template of the Week Contest,

Recycled Templates (http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/RecycledTemplates/) is hosting a Template of the Week contest.  Below is a description and the rules!

What happens in this contest?  In this contest several templates compete to become the Template of the Week.  This means that your template gets free publicity, you will get HTML advice from others and bragging rights and a banner if you win.  Winners of the Template of the Week will be entered into the Template of the Month contest.

How do I enter?  Every template that is submitted to Recycled Templates will automatically be considered, you do not have to send them in.  I will choose several templates that I think will do well together and enter them in the contest.  I will PM you if I choose to enter your template. 

What is Recycled Templates?  Recycled Templates is a website where you contribute old templates that you won't use anymore and 'recycle' them for other people to use.

How do I vote?  You can either PM or comment me your vote.  PMing is advised it you have friends in the contest, that way nobody's feelings are hurt.  No anonymous comments will be counted.

Can I tell others about this contest?  Yes!  You may post this post on your blog to let people know.  Please do not just tell your friends to go vote for you.  You might have more friends that vote for you then other contestants do.

What sportsmanship do you require?  I ask that if you win, please don't put anybody else down.  I would like it (but it isn't required) if you went to the other contestants blogs and congratulate them if they win or tell them that it was a good try if they lost.

If I were entered into this contest can I vote for myself?  No.  You may however vote for somebody else who is participating.

Will I be entered multiple times?  You could be.  Right now there's only a few templates that have been contributed to Recycled Templates.  Every time you contribute a template you increase your odds of being entered.  At some point in time I will have entered everybody who has contributed.

What if I don't want to contribute something to Recycled Templates, could I still enter?  At the moment I am only entering templates that have been contributed to Recycled Templates.  My reason for this is: I don't know how many (or few) templates I'll have flooding in and I don't want to forget which ones are for Recycled Templates and which ones are for the Template of the Week contest.  This will make it easier on me, but I might change this after a few weeks.  My other reason for doing this is so that your template will be recognized as a good quality one and more people will use it one their blogs. 

Let's say I have contributed several templates to Recycled Templates but there is a certain one I would like entered in the contest.  Can I ask you to enter it?  Yes!  I'm not saying I'll do it right away but at least I know you would like it to be entered.

How often will this contest be held?  Every Tuesday voting will end for the past three templates and the winner will be announced.  At this time three new templates will be entered.  Every three weeks the past winners of said three weeks will be entered into a Template of the Month contest.  I may stop this contest in the fall because I will be starting school again and I have no idea how busy I will be.  If I do quit in the fall I will start again next summer.

Is there anything else you would like me to know?  Please remember that this is a HTML contest, not a popularity one.  Please don't vote for someone just because you know them.  Please be on your honor system at all times and please remember to have FUN!!!

Hope you all enjoy this!!

~Cornflower~