Keeping my Resolutions!

Well, here I am keeping my resolution to post here every Thursday. So far, so good! :o) So, what have the Hendersons been up to this past week? Not a whole lot. With Mike not working, church and school are the main activities around here. Speaking of work, Mike has an interview on Monday, and he received an email last night from another company about scheduling an interview. WOO HOO! He's also been busy making sure the military is getting all his paperwork finalized. Some of the jobs he wants to apply for he could get VA benefits for if he had his "retired" paperwork in hand.

We're also waiting for Nick to get in a bank statement so he can go get a driver's license. I know that sounds silly, but he needs 2 different things to prove that he's a WI resident and so far, none of the things we've tried have worked, to include the notarized copy of the bank statement (he was getting an electronic copy). It's all very frustrating, especially since the DMV is a bit of a drive for us. Anyway, as soon as that comes in, he can go get a permit, and hopefully, since he's been driving for several years, he will only need the permit for a little while before they'll let him take the test. In the meantime, Mike or I will need to drive him to college (about an hour or so from here) and hang out till he's done. That's a LONG time to wait around. Maybe I'll find out what the library is like there and spend some time reading.

Right now, Angel has gone to help her Grandma at Meals on Wheels. Grandma fills in in the kitchen when someone else can't so Angel went in today to give her a hand. I pray that this will be a growing experience for her.

Here's a couple of pictures of the girls (and Mike) ice skating in the corral. There's a low spot that collects water that has now frozen pretty well. These pictures are actually a few weeks old, but I just got them on my computer. :o)


Michelle did pretty good considering she didn't have the bar that she's used to using, and even though he didn't put his ice skates on, Mike still found a way to play on the ice.



As for my other resolution to read a chapter of the Bible each day, I am also keeping that. I've read the first 8 chapters of Matthew, and one thing that keeps coming up is the thought of repenting of your sins and how it really means so much more than simply saying "I'm sorry". It means to radically and deliberately turn from your sin which would result in moral and ethical changes in your life. In other words, if you are truly sorry, and repent of what you've done wrong, there will be change in your behavior as well. What kind of "fruit" am I producing? That has been my question for the week.

Well, Angel and Grandma just pulled in the drive, so I'm going to go see how the day went. Till next week...
God's love and blessings

Happy New Year!

I can't believe how fast 2008 has gone by. It was full of changes for us, many of which we were not expecting, but all-in-all, God was very good to us. As of today, Mike is officially retired. I think, right now, it's bittersweet for him. He served his 25 years well, but with each job denial, I think he feels like maybe it wasn't good enough. We've talked about it, and we know God has a plan, we just have to be patient to see what it is, and , as I've mentioned to Mike many times, patience is not one of my stronger virtues! :o)

I am quite glad that I was able to keep one of my resolutions for 2008. Yesterday morning I finished the last chapter of Revelation and finished my goal of reading through the Bible in a year. It was definitely a growing experience for me. This year, my goal is to read 1 chapter every day. This will not allow me to finish the Bible in the year, but it will give me more time to really explore and study the Word.

I've also resolved to update this blog once a week, and since I'm starting today, Thursday will be my blog day. So, look for a weekly update from me on the happenings on the Henderson Farm. (I use the term "farm" loosely as this is really a few acres with a lot of pets.)

This week was pretty mellow for us. A few days ago we had a pretty good snow storm, and we had fun trying to sled in the yard. Mind you, we really don't have a hill to sled on, but we had fun pushing each other down our mini slope. Then, Michelle decided to bury me in the snow much like you do with sand at the beach. The only problem with that, is that with each handful of snow she threw on my belly or arms, half of it blew into the only unprotected part of me--my face. Then of course, she had to help brush it off with her snow covered gloves. Brrrrr! :o) We did have fun last night at our church Watch Night service. We watched a really neat video on the star of Bethlehem and then played games and snacked until midnight when we prayed in the New Year. We also have Jacob, a family friend visiting for the week while he's out of school. I think he and Nick have only ventured out of the room to eat and when told to go help out in the barn. I think they've killed every bad guy on every video system out there by now!

Well, I don't have any pictures to post this week. Maybe next time Michelle buries me I'll make sure Nick gets out there with the camera. :o)

I'll leave you with something to think about. The Pastor mentioned something on Sunday that has stuck with me..."Whatever we weave now, we will wear in eternity." Hmmm.

Till next week-God's love & blessings

Christmas Eve Gift

I wasn't able to update this blog as I wanted to. A few weeks ago we had a power outage and my hard drive crashed. My wonderful computer geek husband, has it all up and running once again and was able to save the data from the last one. YEAH! Nick then loaded up an animated background for me and I was able to put this cool photo I took as the background, and now it looks like it's snowing on my computer!


Isn't that picture cool? It's the field at the edge of Mom's property. My kids have always wanted a White Christmas, and we were pretty sure that was going to happen since we've had several inches of snow for the last few weeks, but Christmas Eve we woke up to a fresh coat of sparkly stuff on the ground. At first I thought it was frost on the bushes, but once I got out there I realized it's actually individual snowflakes. "Well, duh," you say, "isn't all snow made up of individual snowflakes?" But this time, you could actually see the 6-sided shape of each one. It was so cool! (No pun intended :o)

Here's a shot of the back porch rail where you could really see the flakes. I hope by next year I have a macro lens for my camera.

Here's another one of the ground. It's about as close as my camera would let me get. If you click on the image you can see the picture a bit larger.

And finally, here's a couple more shots that I took.

It's seems like a silly thing, but it was quite a nice gift the Lord gave the kids and I. We had a blast that morning just walking around and marveling at His creation. It was absolutely beautiful!

I guess I should get going. I promised everyone peppermint chip shakes for dessert tonight so I've got to go chop up candy canes. Till next time, God's blessings.

Settling In

Once again, I find myself way behind in updating this blog. Unfortunately, the house plans have been put on hold until spring as Mike has not been able to find a job. He did have an interview this morning, so hopefully, next week we might have some good news to report.

In the meantime, we have settled in here nicely. We've worked out most of the kinks of melding two families together in one house. Every day we are ever so grateful that when Joe and Carole picked out this house, it was a good sized one!

Since I'm so far behind, I will update a little today, and more tomorrow. First off, we have found a wonderful church and have been welcomed into a new family. The girls and I were invited in November to pick apples at one of the families orchards, and learned to make and can applesauce. That was a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to next year and learning lots of other growing, canning, and freezing tips from Vernelle and the other farmers at the church.

Well, we're off to a surprise 50th Birthday party for our Pastor's wife, so I will close for now.

"I will proclaim Your name to my brethren, in the midst of the congregation I will sing Your praise." Hebrews 2:12

Moving-part 2

Let's see, yesterday I left off with CO. On our trip home, we were able to stop and see the Hala's and Cerrillos along the way. It was great to visit with them. I can't believe how big the kids get when you haven't seen them in a few years.

It took us 3 days (actually, 1 full, and 2 half days), but we made it safely to Mike's Mom's house where we are currently staying.



We've spent most of our days settling in and doing what we can to get the house started. We've been out to the property a few times to meet with contractors, and we are currently waiting for the final house plans and land use permit so we can get to the bank and get the loan. Once that goes through, they say the building shouldn't take too long. We're praying that we can get started before November when the electric company doubles it's price.



Here's a picture of the driveway as it is right now. We have to get the culvert near the entrance finished still. I think the contractor did an awesome job of placing the driveway. It looks like it belongs there.

I guess that about catches up to where we are right now. I hope to soon have pictures of a house being put up! Please keep us in prayers as Mike continues to look for a job and we try to fit in here and get used to the idea of being Wisconsonians (is that a word?).

Moving-part 1

Once again, it's been quite a while since I've posted. Not that we've been busy or anything. :o) It took 3 trains and a plane to get us to CA. Nick, Angel, Michelle and I left Mike in CA and hopped on another plane for AZ. There, Michelle and I headed for CO and Nick and Angel headed for WI.


Princess did pretty good on the trip except for the long flight across the Pacific. We didn't test run her soft carrier before we left and she quickly realized that lifting her head unzipped the zipper. Angel spent several hours trying to convince her to lay down and go to sleep. Thankfully we brought along the hard carrier as well and that's what she used on the trains and once Grandma picked them up in Minneapolis.


Michelle and I spent several weeks in CO visiting my family while Mike finished up his paperwork in CA. We were able to see my niece and nephews play sports and celebrate a birthday as well. One Friday I drove to Montrose to visit my brother Stan and his family. He took the day off and drove Michelle and I up to Telluride where he works. It was absolutely beautiful up there.


Mike did get a chance to visit some friends of ours while he was in CA. He also took a day trip to Yuma to visit some friends there.

Once he arrived in CO, we did some work on the car and then started our drive across country to WI. I'll post more on that tomorrow.

Going home

Wow, so many things have happened over the last few weeks! Along with all of our stuff getting packed up, moving into the temporary lodging on base, and saying "good by" to many friends, we've even managed a trip out of town to Tokyo Disney.

I know Angel's wanted to go to Disney for the last several years, and I think she's been praying overtime to make sure we got to go. Mike and I really had no plans on going, but due to some medical appointments for Michelle and I, we had to make a trip up north to the Navy base in Yokosuka. This base is only an hour or so (by train) from Tokyo Disney, so since we were going to be so close, we decided to make a trip there after Michelle's early morning appointment. What a fun trip! Tokyo Disney is amazingly similar to Disney in California. Aside from the fun time at Disney, the doctors gave both of us the "all clear". Praise the Lord!

Right now, we are in the temporary lodging here on base, and we leave at "o-dark-thirty" for the train tomorrow. We will travel on 3 trains before we get to the airport in Narita. From there, we head to CA, and from there we separate from Mike and head on. Tomorrow will be a LONG day for us, so I will close here and write again from the other side of the world!

"But I have trusted in Your lovingkindness; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation." Psalm 13:5