Day 89

1. Girly apron! 
2. Homemade pizza for dinner
3. Making a cake with Jacob 
4. The very homemade-looking, rustic result, as in, we got impatient and put the frosting on while the cake was still warm ;-)
5. What else - frankly, this was a rather crummy day. Sad news with more sad news made for a sad day. Jacob thought some cake would cheer us up...Jacob is thoughtful that way...cake combined with some Marx brothers helped. 

Day 88

1. Those naughty bantam chickens ate my primroses. Probably wasn't smart to set them down next to their food dish...oops.
2. Altering a thrift store dress
3. Planting lettuce, peas and onions!
4. What else - having a quiet stay at home and get caught up sort of day, facetiming with the grandparents, watching Dick Van Dyke

Day 87

1. Pretty table at Jeanne's home
2. At the craft store - Christine buying a hairy green "monster"
3. What else - homeschooling, sorting sheep, bible study (so nice to be back!), taking the lamb to the butcher with Tyler, watching Tintin with the family

Day 86

1. Cinnamon rolls for Andrew's 18th (gasp!) birthday!
2. Planted geraniums and then made little "cloches" out of hooped sticks and plastic bags.. curious to see if it helps.
3. In the middle of "cloche-ing"
4. Me, with a dirt smudge on my cheek and my gardening apron. It felt so good to be outside!
5. A group effort on the birthday cake - Daniel washing, Tyler frosting and Jacob watching.
6. A very homemade looking but extremely yummy cake - Angels food cake layered with chocolate sauce with a whipped cream and chopped up heath bars frosting. 
7. Not pictured- Hanging out with Tyler while shopping in Woodburn, home made pizza for dinner, Andy opening presents

Day 85

Day 84

1. After getting supplies to work on transforming the duck coop into a chicken coop I came back to this surprising scene. Apparently the chicken wandered in to the coop, Daniel locked her in their to be funny and then Wilma plopped down in front of the door.


2. The temporary bantam chicken coop all set up in the vegetable garden. They've been residing for the last year in a rhodendron bush!

Day 83

1. Taking Rebekah to the train station - Which included the following - getting up super early in case we ran into traffic from this. Thankfully we only had about 20 minutes of sitting in traffic. Which as we found out later could've been avoided if we had come the direct route instead of following detours. oops.
2. Coming home from #1 - Still had about 2 inches of snow this morning. So beautiful.
3. Doesn't everyone have chickens in their hanging baskets? - Seriously. Our bantam hens lay their eggs in our two porch baskets.
4. Beautiful wood burnings at Woodcrafters 
5. At the bank in Canby - Okay,funny story. We had just pulled up and we see this car park that has SECURITY in big words on the side. Then out steps a man who can't be younger than 70 and shuffled across the parking lot towards the bank. I'm afraid Mom and I laughed for a good five minutes.
6. What else happened- Driving down a deserted 213 on the way home from the train station. Seriously, I saw two cars on the stretch between the closure and Beavercreek. Dr Z again, buying a router plunge base at Woodcrafters, enjoying the sunshine, hearing horror stories of traffic in OC, Jared U spending the night, watching Mamma Mia with Dad & Tyler, finding a bit of leftover chocolate cake for a late night snack, Thanking the Lord for His peace which surpasses all understanding... I lost it at some point this week, and He has graciously renewed my spirit this evening...

Day 83

*I'm catching up from last week!

1. Stripes!
2. Out to the local airport cafe for Dad's birthday dinner
3. Daniel's huge loggerbaker potato
4. Jacob wrapping presents for Dad
5. What else - SNOW! We got 7 inches and it was lovely! Went down on the wooden toboggan a few times, once even with Rebekah (heehee), built a small snowman with R & Jacob, finally celebrating Dad's birthday

Day 81

1. Thai for lunch
2. Getting sidetracked by cute shops
3. Loving the teal shoes
4. The Meadow
5. At The Meadow, you can taste salts from all over the world!
6. Next stop: Salt & Straw - Four samples - Lemon Basil Sorbet, Salted Caramel, Almond Brittle with Salted Ganache, Pear with Brie Cheese. 
7. & 8. A very happy Samuel
9. The menu
10. Samuel diggin' the ice cream
11. What else? Today Rebekah, Hannah and I set aside the whole day to hang out with each other in Portland. We started off at Sean, then Thai food, a cute shop, The Meadow, Salt & Straw, the Sock Dreams Shop, Grand Central Bakery, and then to the Lyons for dinner and more wedding planning. It was a fun day!

Day 76

1. Love the rainbow of colors at the party store
2. Finding the big dipper on a painting at the doctor's office.
3. Coming home to kitty's napping parallel to each other
4. What else - dropping Scott's lunch off at work (oops, I forgot to make it last night), Costco, Wal-mart, Salvation Army (and running into Maria B. there, too fun!), Sears Outlet (wow, I'll be back there again...), Costco again, ESD (Daniel's working on getting his permit- eeks!), Dr Z, picking up Ryan A to spend a couple of nights, Tyler and I hanging out and watching My Big Fat Greek Wedding while everyone else was off party-ing.




Links I enjoyed:
   An interesting application of Ruth to modern times
   Awesome aquariums
   I want to make this cake

Day 73 (A Snowy Day)

Late last night Tyler knocked on my door and proclaimed the words, "It's snowing". Now maybe in many areas, those words instantly mean a foot of snow the next morning, but when living in Oregon though, those words always come with a grain of salt, especially if the weather forecast is iffy on that matter. The weatherman never get it right here when it comes to snow. ;) Or at least, they'll predict numerous inches and then we get half an inch... which has happened twice this year already. 


But today was glorious. We got five inches... really just the right amount. Not laborious to walk through, but plenty for sledding, snowballs and snowmen. And making everything look like a wintery wonderland! I love how snow transforms everything into something special and it hides all the blemishes... all the mud dissapears, and everything is magical!

Day 72

1. Feeding the sheep this morning
2. An old barn in Tualatin near the river
3. Finding the perfect cupcake/muffin tin liner
4. What else - meeting with Scott's neurosurgeon, a very blustery walk along the Tualatin river, errands, Dr. Z, family meeting (ie, a conference), a burst of enthusiasm for reorganizing the baking cupboard

Waiting quietly

Things I'm thankful for (or trying to be!):

1. A warm fire - Daddy built one this afternoon and it's still going strong. I'm laying in front of it as I type.

2. Good sermons on Lamentations - Our pastor is preaching on this right now. Today was a good day for me to hear his wisdom.

3. A renewed focus on being thankful. I'll be honest, I whined and worried a lot to God last week. And I'm not proud of it. I lost my Praise-The-Lord-no-matter-what focus. Hence this post to try and shape things up for this coming week.

4. The fact that my worrying and whining doesn't change anything.

5. God is in control.

6. That God has called me to wait... quietly. And hope. He knows my desires.

7. This being driven home to me by this verse that God laid on my heart from today's sermon.

²⁵ 

The Lord is good to those who wait for Him,To the soul who seeks Him.
It is good that one should hope and wait quietly (Lam. 3:25,26a)

8.  That he does hear my prayers
9. That he will give me the strength to wait on him and not try to take matters into my own hands.
10.  The last couple of weeks being filled with on and off sickness. Thus not a lot of homeschooling happening. Which also means we are getting behind... in my mind at least. But really, God's in charge.
11. My memory or lack thereof. The exercises I get from the functional neurologist play havoc on my memory some weeks. And my eyes...
12. Not always getting the "big" picture of a scenario. Kind of hard to explain, but I just don't pick up on stuff like I always should... which is all related to the previous point.

And now for more fun stuff..
A friend who got engaged yesterday! Yay!
Another friend getting married in 40 some days.
Baby Lambs
White Collar marathons. I think we watched 3 or 4 episodes tonight...
Being strong enough to start exercises beyond yoga, ie, using "weenie" weights.
How much better I'm feeling. Even with my weird brain stuff, I feel better than I have in years!

Well, I guess I'm off to bed. G'nite folks!

Day 70