Hello from Omaha, Nebraska.  After a short 14 hour drive, we made it to my sister's house on Saturday evening a full two hours sooner than I expected.  It is amazing how much time we saved by not eating out!  All of the children did amazingly well on the trip and we only stopped about 3-4 times!

Sunday afternoon we took the kids to the swimming pool for a couple of hours.  Sunday evening my brother and his family came up for a few hours and we had a barbecue.  I really enjoyed talking to my brother about my father's family.  I've only recently found out that my grandmother was up to half Native American.  He thinks she may have been a Plain's Sioux or something like that.  I'd love to find out more about her, but we really know very little.  I also found out that my great aunt and uncle performed in vaudeville shows.  My father and his only sister were in an orphanage for several years (ages 5 or so to early teens).  My father was 7 feet tall.  His father was 6'10" and my great grandfather was about 6'4" or so.  My brother is 6'8 or 6'9.  Anyway, I find it fascinating, and I'm amazed that I'm almost 40 and just now am learning this stuff about my family history.  I wish I had a good source to learn more.  I wonder what I don't know about my other family history!

Today we went to the Henry Doorly Zoo here in Omaha.  It is an amazing zoo.  After 5 hours we only hit a very small portion of it.  Praise God for sunscreen!  It was a fun trip.  I wish I could post pics.

Tomorrow we are heading to Platteville, Wisconsin (or nearby).  Most of our drive will be across Iowa.  I wish we had time to go up to De Smet, SD and see the Little House stuff up there.

Feeding on His faithfulness,

Carol

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For Today June 17...

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For Today June 8...

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It's not Monday, but I want to go ahead and do my weekly update, since I like to do the Simple Woman's Daybook on Mondays.

1.  Bible Study/ Devotions ~ I'm doing better about spending time with the Lord.  I had a great intercession time with the staff on Thursday morning.  The YWAM Prayer Day letter was very good and very encouraging to dig in to hear from God. 2.  "Must Do"~ Organize my homeschool plans for next year.  Go through my new materials and cover the paperbacks with contact paper.  Make plans for preschool stuff for Elly (almost 4).  Start planning for our trip to Boulder next weekend and to Illinois the following weekend. 3.  House Cleaning~ Floors Monday, Laundry MWF, Bathrooms and Kitchen Tuesday, Stairs and carpeted areas tonight or Monday.  Sweep basement Wednesday. 4.  Train Them Up~ This will be the last week of our 2007-2008 school year.  As I was organizing my new school closet, I found two extra weeks of school records from last summer that I had lost.  Now I know we will have more than enough days to complete the year!

Highlights from this week:  Tuesday we went to the doctors for camp physicals for my two older girls, and for my baby boy's 18 month check-up.  Everyone checked out well.  We're working on the grass in our yard.  It is patchy, and one area was bulldozed last year, and so didn't have any grass.  The grass we planted two weeks ago is not coming up well, so we bought new seed and replanted yesterday.  It snowed here Thursday morning, but didn't stick.  Baby Josiah is growing so much.  Yesterday morning the two little ones got off the porch when I took a minute to check my email and found a puddle to play in.  They were covered in mud from their waists down, and their shoes were soaking!  Right to the bath they went!

Feeding on His Faithfulness,

Carol

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1.  Bible Study/ Devotions ~ I've been better about reading my daily Bible, but still don't do it daily!  I'm in October now! 2.  "Must Do"~ Finish unpacking and organizing stuff in my new house. 3.  House Cleaning~ Working on getting unpacked, while keeping the rest of the house clean - no deep cleaning for this week. 4.  Train Them Up~ We still have 6 1/2 days of school to do officially this year.  I ordered my homeschooling stuff for next year two nights ago.  I'm excited to get it.  It will be My Father's World Explorers to 1850 for the older two and Sonlight Preschool 4/5 for my soon to be four year old.  I also got some great hands on stuff for the two little ones from My Father's World.  I can't wait to get it all organized! 5.  Menu Planning~ Monday- Chef Salads with leftover fried chicken from Sunday lunch.  Tuesday- Casserole with artichoke, salad, bread.  Wednesday- Taco Soup or Frito Casserole.  Thursday- I work in town, so Daddy is on his own.  Friday- Leftovers!

Feeding on His Faithfulness,

Carol

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For Today June 2...

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This mama and her two children were coming up our driveway for a visit Saturday afternoon.   The one in the back on the right is the mama.   The other two are her cubs.   We were fascinated watching them, then decided to all go out on the deck and yell at them, then they ran off.   Tim later got on his four-wheeler with his shot gun and shot the mama with rubber bullets to scare them some more so they hopefully won't keep coming back.   I hope they don't since we're now out of rubber bullets!

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On Friday morning, May 16, I rose from bed early as I had a lot to do, a long way to travel and an early meeting time at the Montrose airport for our weekend trip to Mexico with Samaritan Aviation Fellowship.  I got Tim up and we got ourselves ready, then got the girls ready, and lastly got Josiah up, who was none too happy about being hauled out of his cozy crib before dark.  We got into our van and headed down to town to arrive by 7:15am, an hour away.  We were some of the first to arrive.

There was a little delay in getting the third airplane to our airport so that everyone could leave, and since I was in the plane being piloted by the organizer of the outreach, we didn’t get to leave until 10 am.  We had a wonderful tailwind, however, and made up for part of the delay in the air by arriving in 3 hours instead of 4 to the Mexicali airport at the Mexican border.  We connected with one more private plane out of California and flew on to San Quitin arriving sometime after lunch.  The airport looked interesting as we flew in because it had tall dust devils formed on either side of the landing strip as we landed.  The area is in severe drought.  It was a dirt landing strip, and the pilots just parked the planes over to one side.  I don’t think it even had a wind sock visible to the pilots from the air, and I heard a lot of discussion prior to our landing about wind direction and so forth.  It was a wonderfully clear day, and was actually cold most of the time until we were flying over Mexico.  I loved the scenery from the smaller plane – the highest we flew was like 14,500 feet, I think.  You could see many unique land formations, and we even saw an edge of the Grand Canyon.

I think we finally got to eat lunch around 2:30.  Then we headed over to the clinic where we had a waiting room full of patients expecting us.  I was the only physician assistant, then there was two family practice doctors from my area, an optometrist, and an EMT.  We saw the patients quickly and were done by 6pm or so.  We had a late supper on the coast, but it was too dark to see the water. 

 We stayed in a little “resort” made for volunteers to the mission where we worked.  It wasn’t bad.  The rooms were like dorms with about 12 bunk beds, but I was the only “single” lady, and I slept there with the wife of the Samaritan Aviation organizer.  We weren’t there much.  Fruit trees abounded – lemon, orange, grapefruit, etc. 

Saturday we went to the mission/orphanage again and ate breakfast and had a short devotional.  It was about being culturally sensitive to the people we served.  I took it to heart and felt it was very appropriate.  We then went back to the mission clinic, and we again were met by a room full of people waiting for us.  This time our numbers were added by a Mexican dentist and another physician (also Mexican).  I stayed up front seeing the general medicine patients – a long of gyne issues, stomache problems, etc.  The other three physicians went to a surgical suite and worked on removing lumps and moles, etc.  The eye doctor had another area, as well as the dentist.  I think the final count including everyone for both days was 79 total patients and about 25 of them were lesion removals.  At the end of the day people kept slipping in, and we kept thinking we were done, then we had two more, one more, two more…  We finally got done around 5 pm.  I think for me the highlight was seeing a Norplant removed.  I heard that they were discontinued in the US about 7 years ago!  I also enjoyed working with a translator again, and finding that I remember some of my Spanish from when I was in Guatemala 2 years ago. 

The construction crew was still working, and so we went back to our sleeping quarters to wait for them to get back so we could eat supper.  We had eaten lunch at the clinic as we could get away.  They brought the food over to us there.  We had tacos for supper at a neat little stand on the main street of the village we were in, then we drove back to the beach in the dark again and had a campfire and talked for a couple of hours.  It was really foggy and cool there. 

One of the doctors brought his family on this trip, and I saw how nicely that worked.  They had two young daughters, ages 6 and 8.  Their mother worked with the children in a room at the back of the clinic doing crafts and fun activities with the children who waited with their families to be seen at the clinic, and with some of the orphanage children.  I think the two girls had a good time working there too.  It was their first experience in another culture outside of their country.  I hope in the future I can bring my kids too.  I will probably take them one at a time though, as I will be working in the clinic and won’t be able to devote as much time to them.  They can be my helpers.  They’ve had some experience doing this while we were in Guatemala, and my two oldest daughters do very well at this.  Who knows, maybe we can all go as a family some day too, but not until our two youngest are a lot older. 

Sunday we went to breakfast at the mission, had a tour of the mission and orphanage, and then we went back to the airport.  On our way out, our four planes “dive bombed” the little mission church (with prior approval) as a way to say goodbye.  It was really fun, and definitely a great way to end the weekend.  We had to stop at the border on both sides on our way back, and didn’t arrive back to Montrose until 7:30 pm. 

This is our entire group standing in front of the mission sign. 

This is the group of medical providers, plus one of the nurses who worked there full time (the man on the right).

Feeding on His Faithfulness,

Carol

This is part of Show and Tell with Canadagirl.  Go to her blog to see more.

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We had a little excitement in our day today when, as we were doing our math work at our dining table, I looked up as I saw something move outside of our sliding glass door on our back deck.  It was the biggest mouselike creature I've ever seen!  It was grey with large ears and a long, slightly furry tail.  This thing was huge.  Its body was as big as Tim's foot!  I called Tim from the dining building and he came over and took care of it.  I wish I knew what kind of critter it is.

Carol

UPDATE:  Okay.  I looked at my pics today, and it is only as big as Tim's foot when you include the tail.  I believe it is a woodrat, aka pack rat.  Probably a good thing that Tim killed it as they can wreak a lot of havoc.  I still get the heebeejeebees when I think about it.

PS.  I didn't post the pics as the ones I have of it alive didn't turn out very good, and the ones of it dead have some blood on its paw.  Sorry.  The following is a borrowed picture from another website.  Click on the picture and you will go to its original site.  Ours looked something like this one.

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Well, it has been 12 days since my last post - could it really have been that long?!  I guess a lot has happened that I need to catch you all up on.

First of all, we have most all of our things moved from the smaller house to our new, lovely home.  It feels really good to be here!  I'm loving our new dishwasher, large windows with a beautiful view, big back deck, and large closet to store homeschooling things in, and just about everything else about this house!  I still have a lot of unpacking and organizing to do, but most of that stuff is in the basement , and I only have to look at it when I go down to do laundry! 

Last weekend dh took the train to Nebraska to buy a van from my brother and drove it back.  It is an older van, but it has low miles on it and runs well.  We feel very blessed.  Thanks Dan!

On Friday morning my family drove me down to Montrose where I met up with the Samaritan Aviation teamat the airport.  We took 3 planes from here and met with one from California in Mexico.  It was a lovely time of doing clinic work, walking on the Pacific coast, eating lots of tacos, and meeting lots of wonderful people.  We saw about 79 patients over the 1 1/2 days we were there (including 3 doctors, myself, a dentist, and an eye doctor).  I was happy that I remembered a good portion of my spanish from my time in Guatemala, although I still rely heavily on translators.  On our way back after we left the airport, we "stormed" the mission there in the village with the four planes - one after the other we flew over the clinic.  It was so fun and the kids in the orphanage probably loved it.  I can't wait to go again - maybe in July.

I hope to get pics up soon.

Feeding on His Faithfulness,

Carol

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     Well, we're in the process of moving into the bigger house now.  I'm at the clinic working today, but I've made several trips with bins full of stuff in the past 2 days.  Dh is hoping to move the beds and the rest of the stuff that would be necessary to live with today, so we can be there tomorrow over the sabbath.  Unfortunately we woke up to 3-4 inches of snow again.  It will be a muddy process.  Also ds18months is having a hard time with the move and he is crying a lot and clingy.  Poor little guy.  It makes it hard to try to pack and move when he isn't cooperating much!  He's lived in our current residence for his entire short life, so I think it is hard for him to understand.

     Then on Sunday morning dh will be getting on a train from Grand Junction to ride to Lincoln, Nebraska to get a van that my brother is selling to us.  He will drive it home on Monday, and get home Monday night or Tuesday sometime (if he's too tired to drive all the way through).

     Next Friday I will be flying off to Vicente Guerrero, Baja, Mexico for two days of medical work at an orphanage.  I'm looking forward to the change of scenery and the chance to get to minister in the foreign mission field.

   We didn't do any school on Friday, so it looks like our homeschooling will push into June this year.  Oh well, at least it will be in our new home!

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My 3 yo was sitting on her daddy's lap the other day looking at a picture book in Spanish and English.  After a while she stopped and said,  "Daddy, when I am all grown up I can learn all the Spanish words I need to know, but right now I have a wedgy."  (She then crawled off of her daddy's lap, dug the panties out of her bottom and ran out to play).

I love the realness of a three year old's world!

Carol

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1.  Bible Study/ Devotions ~ I am still making my way through the NIV Daily Bible from last year.  I am stuck in September.  I really must be more diligent about this!  2.  "Must Do"~ We're almost finished with the newsletter.  We just need to have it proofread then printed and sent.  My 2dd is almost 9 on Wednesday.  We will have some birthday fun on Tuesday and Wednesday. 3.  House Cleaning~ Nothing new under the sun here.  Maybe this week I will do the windows inside and out. 4.  Train Them Up~ We are in our last month of homeschooling this year.  I really need to work with the kids on not grumbling in any manor, and with 4ds on not yelling when he wants or needs something. 5.  Menu Planning~ Monday- Creamed eggs on toast.  (Didn't do it last week!)  Tuesday- Pizza bites, salad and birthday cake.  Wednesday- Probably sandwiches as we will go bowling with our church.  Thursday- I work in town, so Daddy is on his own.  Friday- Baked chicken, baked potatoes, jello.

Feeding on His Faithfulness,

Carol

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Today my heart was so full!  My dear Mountain Princess has taken the step of being baptized as a sign of her heart commitment to make Jesus her Lord.  She even wanted me to do it.  I am so blessed!

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This morning I had to hurry down the mountain with the children so that I could have my teeth cleaned.  It has been almost 3 years since I last had it done!  Of course yesterday I broke out with a cold sore on my upper lip.  Pleasant .  On our way down the mountain it was bright and sunny outside.  I had a hard time seeing the road well, as it has a lot of pot holes in it this spring, and they weren't very visible.  I hit a couple and decided to slow down.  Shortly after slowing down, I hit another one that I did not see and heard a crash.  Would you believe that the back window on our suburban shattered and fell all over my two oldest daughters in the back seat?  Two other window in our suburban have several cracks in them.  This one was completely whole.  The key word being was.  The girls are fine.

Feeding on His Faithfulness,

Carol

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Outside My Window...overcast, and lots of dirty-looking snow.  I picked up a 9-point antler the dog had picked up in the woods, carried around and chewed up, and I through it in the trash trailer today. 

I am thinking...of all the things I should get done this week, such as my Samaritan Aviation application, and my medicaid renewal.

I am thankful for...my children's help with the housework today!

From the kitchen...I am making spaghetti and salad, and dh is making French bread from scratch for dinner tonight.  It is staff night tonight - we invite the staff over for supper and fun every Tuesday now.

I am wearing...blue jeans, my faded light blue Pooh t-shirt and footy socks.

I am creating...a clean house and much needed order!

I am going...to Mexico in a little over two weeks!

I am reading...Naya Nuki, by Thomasma.  It is my dd10's reader right now.

I am hoping...That the weather man is wrong and we don't get any more snow this year!

I am hearing...my two middle dd's playing with Little People castle and toys.
Around the house...packaging projects are halfway done, and rubbermaid bins lie waiting to be moved to the new house when we get the go-ahead.

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week:  Dental cleaning tomorrow, welcoming home the Horns on Wednesday or Thursday from Asia, working in Delta on Thursday, and working at the Urgent Care Clinic on Saturday.

One of my favorite things...The smell of children after their bath!

Here is picture thought I am sharing...

Giddyap! 

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I like to come about once a week to keep track of what has been going on in my week.  I feel like doing a Monday Meanderings with Tiany to help keep it organized.  This will help me plan and look forward to the next week too.  Bible Study/ Devotions ~ {(For the week) If you don’t plan it, you wont do it! I will share what I will be studying along with my Memory Scripture of the week!}  I am still making my way through the One Year Bible from last year.  I am stuck in September.  I really must be more diligent about this!  "Must Do"~ {Not the 'To do" list but the "Must do" as in it must be done this week! Whether it be some sewing or repairing, your Home Blessing maybe?}  It looks like we will be moving soon.  I will post some pics of the new house we are going to be blessed with at the bottom of this post.  So my must dos include things like going through stuff and weeding out all that I can possibly get rid of and live without.  I've been doing this and it feels good to get lighter! I also hope to get out a newsletter soon, get my address list put onto my new computer, finish my paperwork for my trip to Mexico in a couple of weeks, and put in my paperwork for our insurance papers to be updated. House Cleaning~ I need to be more diligent about this.  I need to fit in spring cleaning soon too so my house won't be so hard to clean up after we move out. Train Them Up~ {This will focus on anything pertaining to the children. You could share the topic of study in your homeschool, the character training you wish to tackle, new habits you wish to form etc… You know the important stuff you have been putting off!}  We are starting our last five weeks of homeschooling this week.  We have been reading through Little Town on the Prairie by L.I. Wilder.  We enjoy it tremendously!  We also are reading through A Book of Fairy Poems for poetry appreciation.  It helps us to enjoy the spring!  We are one week away from finishing our Indian Prayer Guide that I got through Sonlight this year.  We've enjoyed it a lot.   For science we are enjoying The Burgess Bird Book for Children.  1dd10 has almost finished her Singapore Math 3B, and we'll go ahead and move on to 4A.  She's a little behind in math, and so we will be working on through the summer.  Same with 2dd8 - we'll be working on with her too.  1dd10 is reading Naya Nuki by Thomasma.  It is a great book by a great author.  I started it last night myself.  2dd8 is reading Little House on Rocky Ridge by Roger Lea McBride.  We enjoy reading it together.  She and I alternate reading every other page. Menu Planning~ {I will share the week's Menu here and or a favorite family recipe! (This can coincide with Menu Plan Monday) }  Monday- Creamed eggs on toast.  Tuesday-Spaghetti, salad, bread and butter.  Wednesday- Tacos, guacamole dip, ice cream.  Thursday- I work in town, so Daddy is on his own.  Friday- Chicken on the grill, baked potatoes, jello.  I may switch Tuesday and Friday's menus as we have company on Tuesday, but it depends on if we get to town to buy the chicken before then.

Feeding on His Faithfulness,

Carol

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Good morning!  We've had beautiful weather since Saturday.  Sunshine, no wind!

Saturday we did get to go on our field trip to learn about creation and dinosaurs.  The two older girls' Sunday School class (about 30 kids), drove to Grand Junction and listened to a speaker for about 1 1/2 hours give a talk on dinosaurs and the flood and Noah and fossils, and gave lots of scientific evidence for creation.  It was really good!  Then we went to the dinosaur museum in Fruita, Colorado.  It was set up as a sort of children's museum with a dinosaur twist.  We brought all four children and enjoyed it very much.  I'm just sorry that I forgot my camera!

Sunday we went to church followed by lunch at Denny's and a beautiful afternoon at the park.  All of us really enjoyed the sun, dry ground, a little creek that runs through, and the playground equipment.  I even got on the swing with my baby boy for a short time.    I came home with a little sunburn too.

On the way home we stopped at Sonic for some refreshing drinks.  The girls had a cherry limeade to share, and I shared my lemon berry slush with the two little ones.

Yesterday was another beautiful day.  I resumed my morning walks after a week of being on crew - which meant that dh or I had to get up and shovel snow every morning, so I couldn't do my walks.  It is so beautiful on the mountain with sun and snow, the woodpeckers tapping out nature music, and the silence only broken otherwise by an occasional bird song.

Today the Martins are moving back to Pennsylvania.  They are the only other family on the base that has young children like us.  We will have to trust the Lord in this matter of friends for our children to play with and grow up with.

Feeding on His Faithfulness,

Carol

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Would you believe that in the past two days we got another 3 feet of snow?  I'm sure we've gotten a total of over 12 feet of snow up here this winter.  I guess it was fitting that we read "The Long Winter" by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  We could really relate to it!  The above picture is of the dormitory that is across the driveway from our house.

Tomorrow we are supposed to go on a field trip to a dinosaur museum near Grand Junction, Colorado.  We are hoping that we don't get too much wind tonight.  Otherwise we won't be able to make it due to drifts.  I had a hard time getting home from working at the clinic last night.  I couldn't believe how much snow we got.  Just when we were thinking it was melting, the snow returned in all its madness!  Below is our front door.  Most of the snow has been removed.  It was up to the running boards on the suburban this morning when I went to move the truck for the plow.

MountainPrincess showing off her most recent read:

SnowCrystal taking a break from school to draw on her "slate":

Littlebit showing off her Polly Pocket:

Buddy doing what little boys do best - eating!:

Feeding on His Faithfulness,

Carol

P.S. This is a show and tell - sponsored by Mary at www.homeschoolblogger.com/canadagirl

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