Nov. 30, 2008 - Happy Birthday Emily Rose!

This sweetie pie is turning 16 today!  It has been such a blessing and joy to have her in our family.  The past 16 years have gone by so fast and yet I can't remember what life was like without her around. 

I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth.  3 John 4

Go visit this Simply Vintagegirl and wish her a happy birthday! 
You can also see more pictures of the birthday girl with her big sister at A Bowl of Moss & Pebbles.

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Oct. 29, 2008 - Wordless Wednesday

Happy Birthday Sweetie!


For more Wordless Wednesdays visit 5 minutes for Moms.

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Sep. 5, 2008 - Thanks to my cutie-pies!

I want to thank my girls for making my blog look so sweet!  Breezy took some time this afternoon to paint me a new header and Emily Rose enhanced it in Photoshop and put it on my blog. 
Oh, I just adore it!  Thank you girls!

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Jul. 31, 2008 - Just a little blast from the past

I visited my sister's blog last night and found that she had put music on her blog. While I wasn't surprised that she had music now; since her daughter, Maggie, had recently added music to her blog, I was surprised at the song she had playing.  It was the theme music to the TV show Rawhide, a real "blast from the past" kind of song. 

When I was growing up, our family owned a riding stable and my dad was western through and through.  Our lives revolved around the horses and the farm and any TV shows that we watched at night were usually western shows.  So when I heard that song playing, memories of my childhood came flooding in. 
My two older sisters had this little conversation going on for awhile about the words to the song; trying to remember what they were exactly.  Finally, one of them found the song and wrote down the words.  They had better memories of this show than I did and they were excited about reliving it some.  While I don't remember the show that much the music is definitely in my brain.  We would often play around singing parts of that song while we were herding the horses in from a field or getting ready to head out on the trail with some riders.  

I told my oldest daughter, Breezy, that to me Rawhide was like our "classical music".  Something like that was always playing in the background. 

Emily, I guess you could call it our "soundtrack".

Dad

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Jul. 24, 2008 - 25th Wedding Anniversary

My dear husband and I were blessed to be able to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary last week.  We decided to go back to the same place that we had went on our honeymoon.  We had such a lovely time together.



It's incredible to think back over the years and see what the Lord has done in our lives.  When we were first married, neither of us were Christians.  Jesus Christ was not even on our radar, but He had us in His radar.  After several years of walking together in the darkness, the Lord saved me and then a few years later He saved my dear husband.  While we are far from perfect, the Lord's mercy and compassion have kept us together and blessed us with a sweet marriage. 

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Mar. 30, 2008 - Prayer Request for Chris

Please pray for my brother-in-law, Chris.  He has been diagnosed with cellulitis on his leg and has been in the hospital for since Thursday.  His leg became very red and swollen.  We do not know how he contracted this very painful illness. He had surgery on Saturday to try to remove some of the infection and to relieve some of the pressure.  He will have to stay in the hospital for several more days.

My niece wrote some more about this on her blog here.  Thank you in advance for your prayers.

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Mar. 26, 2008 - What a Blessing!!

Today was a good day for my daughters.  This morning Emily made us some yummy waffles and made the house smell wonderful.  Breezy woke up re-inspired with a story that she thought of as she went to bed last night and eager to work on character sketches for it.  They got busy with their school work and then after lunch we received a letter that we had been waiting for. 

An exciting letter. It contained the final information concerning the results of the art contest at the Indianapolis Homeschool Convention.  Last week Breezy was notified that her portfolio had won champion, which we were all very excited about, but the photo division had not been decided yet, so we were a little let down about that. Today's letter brought the news of the photography division.  Emily had entered a picture she took of her father, and she won champion with it. 

How exciting for them both to be able to win champion in their own categories!  What a blessing!  They both worked very hard on their projects and put a lot of time and thought into them.  They are gifted in very different ways and it is so satisfying for us to watch them grow and use their gifts to bless others.  May God be glorified in all they do.

They both have posted about their projects on their blogs so I will just link to them.  Breezy explains her projects here and Emily shares about her winning the contest and you get to see a picture of my dear hubby  here.

This afternoon I took Breezy to her art class that she is auditing from the local college and after hitting some rough spots in previous weeks, she had a really great class.  She was able to experience the professor critique their projects with some very brutal comments and she walked away learning from it instead of feeling defeated.  That shows some great progress in maturity.  Although, I guess she hears enough critiquing from us that she was just used to it and was glad to hear someone else's mean thoughts.

We had a good night at church and lots of fun fellowship after, came home and recapped the day.  After praying and saying goodnight they ran off to bed giggling.  Everyday is a blessing from the Lord, but some days are just too fun. 

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Mar. 5, 2008 - Wordless Wednesday - Charlie

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Feb. 13, 2008 - Homeschooling 3rd shift? hmmm....

You might think that because it is getting late and you're tired that you are going to bed, but no. 

Those girlies... for some reason their brains kick in high gear after 10 pm.

The oldest: "When I have kids, I am going to unschool my children, we will play the piano, read books aloud, paint, play outside, garden, blog and scrapbook all day long. Yep, that's what I am going to do because that's what I want to do right now"  this said as she twirls in the living room.  "oh and by the way am I taking the SAT test?"  I nod.  "Great, because I love essays."

The youngest: " I am going to drop some 4-H projects so I can spend more time reading"  this said as she is studying her lists of books to read and gathering up legal pads and books.

So I tell them, "Why don't you girls go to your room and consider all this while I go to bed" 

On second thought, I wonder if they could get all their homeschool work done after I go to bed.  Hmmm..

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Jan. 28, 2008 - Happy Birthday

My little "Breezy Tulip" has turned 17 years old!

My sister gave her the nickname Tulip when she was a baby.   I would put these little ruffly bonnets on her and thought she looked like a flower. 

She's grown up to such a lovely young lady now.  

Happy Birthday Breezy Tulip!  

May God bless you greatly this year!

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Dec. 18, 2007 - Oh, those girlies

I just want to say Congratulations to my girls.  You are amazing!! 

I thank the Lord for what He is doing and will do in your lives.

In case you haven't seen Breezy has won the best artistic content blog award.  She has been drawing since she was old enough to hold a pencil.  Her first recognizable drawing was a mouse that she drew on a Magna Doodle board.  She was two and it really looked like a mouse.  I wish I had thought to take a picture of it, but who knew at that time that it was the beginning of something special.   She has literally spent thousands of hours drawing.  I thought at first hundreds but when I figured out how much she draws each day and how old she is, it is thousands.   When she was around 7 or 8 she started having "art attacks", where she had to have a paper and pencil right now because of something she just saw in her head and needed to get in on paper.  Such a funny girl.

Emily Rose, our youngest has always had a love of buttons (especially buttons that make a pleasing sound) and numbers.  She has spent hundreds of hours on the computer, practicing and experimenting with whatever she could.  She would have spent thousands probably too, but we didn't have a computer when she was young.  She has made our blogs beautiful and made our computer experiences less stressful.  She is always so quick to offer to help or do all the hard stuff for us on the computer.  A huge thank you for that!!  

It has been so incredible to see God at work in these girls' lives.  He has blessed them with talents that compliment each other so wonderfully.  The past couple of  years they have used their talents together to make some wonderful projects come to life and what a joy that has been to see them work and create things together. 

When we started homeschooling 11 years ago , I didn't have any idea of where we were heading.  I just knew that the Lord wanted us to homeschool and that was that.  What  a journey it has been.  Our girls have been such a joy to teach.  I know that everyday hasn't been blissful but that is just life in general.  You just bounce back and start over the next day.  Praise the Lord for His mercies are new every morning. 

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Nov. 30, 2007 - Happy Birthday Girly

Where did the time go??  My baby is turning 15 today.

She has always been full of life and busy, busy so I guess that made time fly by faster? right?

Happy Birthday Emily Rose!  We love you!

We are so blessed to have you in our family!

~Love ya, Momma & Poppa

You even turned me into a better photographer 

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Nov. 5, 2007 - Sadness of Death

My dear mother-in-law passed away a week ago Sunday.  My husband and his brother were able to travel to be with her during her last hours.  This was such a hard thing for them to do but were so thankful that they could be there with her. She will be sadly missed.  

Her early life was not always filled with wonderful stories but mostly of heartbreaks and sadness.  One day, later in life, the Lord took hold of her and dramatically changed her life.  She became a different person, one where there was peace and happiness.  She married an ol' schoolmate that she "re-met" at a class reunion and they took off on a life of adventure.  They traveled in their motor home all over the United States and packed in as much as they could in their ten years together. 

Since her death was in another state and there are two services planned for her in two different states things are taking longer than "normal".  We are having a memorial service here on Saturday, nearly two weeks after her death.  This has been hard on my husband since there hasn't been that closure yet.  

At times like this it is another reason to be thankful that we can homeschool.  Instead of sending the girls away to school each day, they are here with us working through these real life issues.  Even though our school day may be somewhat altered during this time they are learning so much about life, relationships and even how to plan a memorial service. 

Thank you for your prayers during Jenny's illness. 

~Robin

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Oct. 25, 2007 - Prayer request for my mother-in-law Jenny

My husband's mother has been through so much in the past few months.  She was unable to keep food down for close to 3 months, had a cancerous brain tumor removed, has been getting radiation and is back in the hospital, this time with pneumonia.  She is about 10 hours away from us, so we can't be there with her, but her husband, Phil, has been by her side all the way.  My husband and his brother were able to be with her during her surgery and recovery time, and they are so thankful they had that time with her. 

I would ask that you would pray for Jenny, that God would give her comfort and strength and that her husband, Phil, would experience the mercy of God.  May God be glorified throughout this time.

-Robinlyn

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Oct. 23, 2007 - Happy Birthday to another Dear Sister

In honor of another sister's birthday, here is a picture of what we will enjoy at our Tuesday Talker's club.

  On Tuesday afternoons my 2 sisters, niece, my daughters and I all meet at my mother's home for some fellowship and some yummy food.  We have been doing this for the past year and it has been such fun.  We like to try different things to eat and share what we have been learning in life.  With this being a birthday week, the birthday girl gets to pick out what will have to eat.  This was her pick.

Happy Birthday Sis!

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Sep. 22, 2007 - My Bird-Watching Sister

My oldest sister just celebrated a birthday, so in honor of that I thought I would post a few of her pictures.  She takes some amazing pictures of birds. 

This one is of a young eagle.  We don't usually get to see eagles around here.

This is of a hawk that is usually near by.

This is the shadow of a hummingbird!   I love that one.  His shadow makes him look so much bigger than he is.

Here her grandson is trying to see if he can play dead and lure the buzzard down for a closer look.  He must enjoy his grandmother's bird photos, too.

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Aug. 25, 2007 - Update on Grandma Jenny

We can rejoice over a successful surgery for Grandma Jenny.  She came through the surgery with very little problems.  She did have to be put on a respirator temporarily but that will come out today.  She was alert for a short time and recognized everyone.  Now she will begin her recovery and hopefully all the nausea that she has been experiencing for the past several weeks will be history.  May the Lord be praised for her healing and for giving man knowledge of how to do such an intricate surgery. Thank you for your prayers. 

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Aug. 22, 2007 - Grandma Jenny

My mother-in-law has recently been diagnosed with a brain tumor.  It is causing her a great deal of discomfort and she has been in and out of the hospital several times over the past few weeks because of it.  This Friday, the 24th, she will be having surgery to remove it.  If you would please pray for Jenny.  Pray for her strength and healing and that the Lord would be glorified through this trial.   Thank you.

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Aug. 15, 2007 - Joy through the tears

My uncle, Tom, passed away this past Saturday.  We attended the funeral yesterday and it was a hard funeral to get through.  There were photos of him when he was younger and photos of him with others who have already passed on, like my dad and grandmother.  Those brought tears to my eyes but what really was tearing at me was the music.  My uncle liked to play the banjo and the piano, as a matter of fact his siblings all sang and played music together as they grew up and as adults.  During the funeral they played recordings of him singing and playing his music and that was the hard part.  It brought back so many memories of my own father playing his guitar and fiddle and times when he played with Tom.  I could not only hear it but I could picture it clearly.  That was hard. 

Before we went to the funeral I read John 11, it is about Lazarus.  When Jesus had come to Bethany and saw Lazarus' sister weeping and those around weeping also, he was deeply moved and he wept.  So as I sat through the funeral, and saw his bride of 54 years, his sons, family members and many friends, I thought of those words and wept. 

And like Lazarus, Tom knew Jesus and has been resurrected.  And that is something that will bring joy through the tears

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