Bible Quizzing Success!

This weekend we attended a Bible Quiz meet. Our Elsie is part of a team from our church. This year they memorized 18 chapters of the book of Luke. Yes, that was not a mistake, 18 chapters. There are 27 teams and around 100 quizzers in the PNW District. The meets take place about once a month and begins with just a few chapters, adding more material as the year goes on.

Enough information, I am now putting on my "Mommy hat."

Elsie did SOOO Well!!! We are SOOO proud of her. After this meet she averaged in 5th place for the year. WOW! She is competing with 6th-12th graders.

I am proud, but can take no credit for her success. She is very disciplined with her study. Her Stand-Up Dad is her coach and she shares his competitive streak. She loves all the stats and is always running her average in her head as she competes.

Bible Quizzing is not just memorizing the text. There are many different types of questions.

An example: Question - When they entered they did not find what?

Answer - The body of the Lord Jesus Christ (Luke 24:3)

Question - According to Luke Chapter 21, the whole what?

Answer - Earth (Luke 21:35)

I love that she is hiding God's Word in her heart each and every day. It has also given her the opportunity to make many new friends. She is learning how to speak in front of groups and how to win and lose gracefully.

She is such a beautiful young lady with a heart to match, that I know God has an amazing plan for her life.

For now we rejoice with her as she celebrates this victory in her life.

Sweet Momma

Hurry Up Spring!

What a long wait for Spring we have had. Just when we think we have seen the last snow, God reminds us to watch for surprises in life. Our area can go a whole winter with very little snow, so we have found the numerous snowfalls this year to be very surprising.

My little Pumpkin has done so well this year with homeschool. He is closing in on the end of Kindergarten and I am so proud of his progress. He wanted to share a couple of Springtime poems with you.

We are all hoping that the next weather surprise that God "springs" on us will be sun and 60 degrees.

Sweet Momma

One Blessing Comes Out of Sickness

Our family has been very healthy this winter. I am so thankful and was beginning to think that we would escape sickness all together this year. Over the past week we have shared a rather bad cold. Not the horrible fever that has been going around these parts, just the kind that zaps you of all your energy and the ability to breath without hanging your mouth wide open.

I acquired this bug toward the end of last week and have felt very crummy. My sweet husband allowed me the freedom to sleep as long as I liked this morning.

My day could have been quite dull were it not for my precious Sweet Pea who also had the crummies. She crawled in bed with me and we spent the day watching Anne of Green Gables. We snuggled and drank orange juice and ate toast and had a lovely day together, except the being sick part.

I definitely have a "Kindred Spirit" in my little Sweet Pea.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Pumpkin was so excited about St. Patrick's Day. He wanted to know if we were going to do school. I had a hard time explaining the difference between St. Patrick's Day and other holidays like Christmas. I think he understood when I said that there wouldn't be any presents.

So, although we have to do school today, we can have a little fun with food coloring. Green waffles anyone?

Stand-Up Dad was trying to figure out this morning if he was Irish. I know that I am a little bit. We are mostly mutts. Have fun and enjoy your heritage. It is neat to think that back in my family tree someone lived in Ireland. I can't wait till my family tree includes some Ethiopian soil.

Sweet Momma

AWANA Games!

On Saturday, our whole family (just the kids) participated in the local AWANA Games. This is BIG fun! All year at AWANA the kids practice these games. Once a year, about twenty churches get together and compete. There are a lot of rules to be followed. The grown-ups take the rules very seriously and the kids just have a blast. I love it because it gives my four the chance to see that there are kids all across our state that are memorizing verses and playing these same games every week just like they are. AWANA is actually an international organization. Wouldn't it be fun to play with kids from Peru or Ethiopia?

One Month Update

We have been on the waiting list for one month. Although it has gone fast I know there are many more months to wait. We are now #95 on the waiting list for our agency. Last week there was a sibling referral of one boy and one girl, 3 & 1 1/2. It will happen for us one day soon.

In the meantime we are busy with life and praying each day for our little brother and sister.

Stand-Up Dad is recovering well from surgery, but still experiencing some annoying symptoms that we believe will lesson as the swelling on his spine decreases. He is a little frustrated at how tired he gets after a normal days work. It's all part of the process of healing.

In this month of March, we anticipate the birth of a niece to my brother and his family. We look forward to Spring Break and beginning some house projects that need attention.

Through each day God is faithful to provide all we need. I find it funny that the other day one of my children was having a little trouble getting some perspective and I found myself using the phrase so many of our moms used in the past. "There are starving children in Africa." My version sounded like this. "Sweetheart, you need to get some perspective. Your little brother and sister may not have food today, that is something to be concerned about. Things like, who will take the first piano lesson is not worth getting upset over."

I pray that our little ones do have food, and are warm and loved.

Of Watercolor Ponies and Thomas the Train...

As a mom I have always worked to teach my children how to pick up their things. A tidy room at the end of the day is a wonderful thing, so as not to stub a toe on something on your way to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Or, so that mom will not stub her toe as she comes in to give that one last kiss before going off to bed.

This was fine, until we had a little boy. They love to build things. Our girls have plenty of "stuff", but somehow it could always be put away or neatly placed off to the side at the end of the day. Our boy on the other hand loves cars and trains and any track that accompanies these are all the better.

Three years ago Pumpkin's Kansas Grandparents purchased a HUGE plastic, battery powered, Thomas the Tank Engine train set, for his third birthday. When I say huge, I mean that when the full set is put together it measures 4x6 feet. Obviously he loved it. At three, he was not able to put the track together on his own. The job then fell to Dad and I or his sisters. Elsie, we have found, has an amazing aptitude for building car and train tracks of many kinds and quite enjoys it as well.

All that said, I have been waiting for the time when Pumpkin would enjoy the building part as much as the playing part. Over the last year, he has made the transition.

As thrilled as I am, I did not realize the full scope of this new endeavor for my son. He will spend hours now building a train track, car track, LEGO garage, etc. When afternoon chore time comes he always asks if he has to clean up his latest track. I seem to relent on the clean carpet rule when it comes to this. Although, last week he had a plastic train track and a wooden train track out on his floor. I asked him to pick one of them up because there was no room to walk in there. The picture shows his latest creation.

I included the words from an old song called Watercolor Ponies that I really enjoyed prior to having children. Now it makes me cry. It is so true...someday all those train tracks, Hot wheel cars and LEGOs will ride away. And I will miss them.

I need to remember to cherish each of these moments while I still have them.

Sweet Momma

Watercolor Ponies

by Wayne Watson

There are watercolor ponies

On my refrigerator door

And the shape of something

I don't really recognize

Drawn by careful little fingers

And put proudly on display

A reminder to us all

Of how time flies

Seems an endless mound of laundry

And a stairway laced with toys

Gives a blow by blow

Reminder of the war

That we fight for their well-being

For their greater understanding

To impart a holy reverence

For the Lord

(chorus)

But, Baby, tell me what will we do

When it comes back to me and you?

They look a little less

Like little boys every day

Oh, the pleasure of watching

The children growing

Is mixed with a bitter cup

Of knowing the watercolor ponies

Will one day ride away

And the vision can get so narrow

As you view through your tiny world

And little victories can go by

With no applause

But in the greater evaluation

As they fly from your nest of love

May they mount up with wings

As eagles for His cause

(chorus)