January Randomness

Hello there!

Yes, this is going to be a very random post, but then, this is a blog about our life, and life is pretty random. :o)

It's been very cold here. Of course, it's winter, so you kind of expect that, but I didn't expect this. That's COLD!!

Our youngest has been very into Minecraft lately and thoroughly enjoys playing along with her friend who lives in Maine. They set up their Ipads to Facetime each other while they play the game together. Ah, the wonders of technology. I seriously think I need to set up a scrap-booking/crafting Facetime with my friend who lives in Maine. :o) Anyway, our eldest also likes playing Minecraft, (actually, he's been playing it for a LONG time) and often I can hear the two of them calling out to each other from different rooms about things they've made or found. Not wanting to be left out, My Handsome Hubby decided he wanted to learn. I couldn't resist catching a few pictures of Michelle teaching her Daddy to play. I have to say, though, I have a hard time looking at this photo and not seeing all the "stuff" on my daughter's desk. Wow, just wow, but then I guess it helps you know who the window above belongs to too. :o)

Speaking of scrap-booking (I know that was a couple of sentences ago, but remember, this is random), I did get a little scrappin' done. Only a couple of pages, but it's more than I've done in a couple of months, and as you can tell by the photo above of our youngest and the photo of her below, I'm just a wee bit behind. (Yes, she's the one eating ice cream;o) I do have a monthly date now with one of my more local friends to get together and scrapbook, so hopefully that will give me some drive and I will make some progress in the books.

Another bit of randomness is this photo I took of my little seamstress. She decided to fix a tear in one of her dress-up dresses. I love the look of concentration, just wish I was better at taking the picture. I need to check the settings on my camera. For some reason I've noticed that whenever I put it on manual, the photo is super grainy. I think it's the ISO setting, but unfortunately, camera lingo never seems to process in my brain properly. Also I have a hard time telling what the photo looks like on the camera screen. I have to wait till I get it loaded on the computer, and by then the moment is gone. 

One last thing, I thought I'd give you an update on my non-resolution for this year. If you remember this post, I mentioned that I didn't make any specific resolutions, but I have decided that I want to get to know my Lord better and that I was going to make a concentrated effort to spend time in His Word each day trying to really listen and learn from Him rather than just checking another thing off my to-do list. I thought I might share with you what I'm doing, in case it might help someone else. I'm not following any type of Bible study or reading plan. I decided to start in Philippians because it's one of my favorite books, and I've just been reading it a bit at a time. I do use the Blue Letter Bible site for references and commentaries. I am keeping a journal of notes of things that stand out to me since I don't have near enough room in the margins of my Bible to write it all in. When I'm done, I ask myself 3 questions:

*What does this mean?
*Where do I see Jesus/God (for example, what attribute do I see)?
*What do I need to do/change?

I just finished Philippians and it has been amazing. I felt like a treasure hunter finding little gold nuggets that I didn't know were there before. For instance, Philippians 4:5 says "Let your moderation be known to all men. The Lord is at hand." This is from one of the commentaries I read:

a. Let your gentleness be known: Paul used an interesting ancient Greek word (epieikeia) that is translated gentleness here. Other translations of the Bible translate epieikeia as patience, softness, the patient mind, modesty, forbearance, the forbearing spirit, or magnanimity.

iii. This word describes the heart of a person who will let the Lord fight his battles. They know that vengeance is Mine, says the Lord (Romans 12:19). It describes a person who is really free to let go of His anxieties and all the things that cause him stress, because he knows that the Lord will take up his cause.  (Blue Letter Bible)

Wow! I knew the verse taught me to be gentle, but I never understood the reason why. That's the kind of moderate, gentle person I'd like to be--free to let go of my anxieties. Not because there's no stress in my life, but because I am confident in my Lord and knowing that He will take care of them. I promise to share more golden nuggets with you in future posts.

I guess this is probably long and random enough. I should close here. 

Till next time...

God's love and blessings!

Engagement Photo Shoot

Last week I finished getting the inside Christmas decorations down and re-decorated the living/dining room. I say inside decorations because the ones outside aren't coming down till the spring thaw. :o) Anyway, as I was re-arranging the decor I realized I wanted some more photo frames around and that I don't have any framed photos of our new son-in-law or our future daughter-in-law. I remembered doing a little photo shoot with Angel and her man a while back so I dug through the photo archives and found these cuties.

Think I'll have to frame both of them.

Now I needed some photos of our son and his fiance. I am in no way, shape or form a photographer, but I do know that with the trees that surround our house, the best lighting for photos is outside, not inside. Did I mention it's winter here? It probably will be for several more months too. Have I also mentioned that I'm not a very patient lady? So, out in the snow we went. It did make for some "cool" photos though. :o)

This was a neat idea, but we almost needed a chisel to get them out when we finished. 

I actually got a picture of him smiling!!!! :o)

 Just before heading into the house, the little one asked her big brother to throw her in the snow.

 He did.

 Plop!

Silly kids. :o)

I need to get some of these printed up and into frames now. How was your week? If it is still cold and chilly in your neck of the woods, I hope it was filled with snuggles on the couch and lots of hot cocoa. I suppose you could enjoy those even if it wasn't cold and chilly. :o)

Till next time...
God's love and blessings!

Emma, our Christmas Elf

Well, hello again. I pray all is well with you. I have no cakes to bake this week, and most of my housework is done, Michelle is in the middle of a play date with friends and Mike is not home from work yet, so I have a couple spare, quiet minutes to write to you. Spare quiet minutes are such a blessing. :o)

In my last blog I mentioned Emma. You may remember from this post that Emma was a new friend we made last year to add some more fun to the holidays. This year she didn't get into quite as much mischief as last year (simply because I forgot about her many evenings), but she did have some fun.

Here she is making herself a midnight snack.

 Trying to pretend she's an angel.

 We're still not sure who started this nerf war.

 Can you tell what she's trying to make here?

 

She left us a couple of messages.

 

I think she got in the most trouble for this one. :o) 

Michelle doesn't want to put Emma away with the holiday decor. I'm just wondering what kind of trouble can she get into the rest of the year and can I remember to do it? :o)

I suppose I should close this here and get dinner going before my handsome hubby gets home from work.

Till next time...
God's love and blessings!

Happy New Year!

Wow! I can't believe 2013 is gone. :o( It went way too fast-especially December. I felt like I blinked and it was gone. Thankfully, I did get the camera out a couple of times so I can remember some of the activities, 'cause at my age, I need all the help I can get at remembering things. :o) There was lots of gift making, decorating and baking going on. A couple of great surprises and fun family get-togethers. All in all, it was  a great month, it just went way too fast.

Peppermint snowman spoons to go with homemade hot cocoa mix

Our first outside tree. LOVE!!

She still loves decorating cookies.

She made his Birthday wish come true by saying "yes" :o)

Learning to play Apples to Apples on Christmas day.

Cocoa really doesn't know what to think of Grandma's new babies.

All of "us" minus one who was home sick. :o(

Did you figure out the two surprises? One was our son's proposal to his girlfriend on his birthday. So excited for them both in this new adventure. The other one was that Angel and Tyler came home for Christmas. Well, that one was a surprise for Michelle and I, seems like everyone else was in on it and they were pretty good at keeping the secret. What a nice surprise. :o)

So what does 2014 look like for us? Right now--cold! Like -34 cold, and that doesn't count the wind chill factor. Needless to say, we are snuggled up in the house and enjoying lots of hot tea and cocoa. Think I'm going to make some kind of soup for dinner tomorrow night.

I didn't make any resolutions this year. Guess I was too busy to think about it at the time. I have decided on one thing I would like to do this year and that's work on my "Son" tan. Our church has been going through a video series by Jim Berg called Changed Into His Image. In one chapter he compares our walk with the Lord with someone getting a tan on vacation. You know they've been in the sun based on their outward appearance. The less time they spend in the sun, the more that tan fades. Our live should be similar. Can people see our "Son" tan? Is it obvious through our words and actions that we've spent time in the Son or is our tan fading? That doesn't mean that our salvation is based on our works, it just means that if we're spending consistent time with the Lord, it should show in our life.

I want to have an extravagant love for my Lord, and I know the only way I can do that is to get to know Him better. And the only way to do that is to spend time with Him in prayer and reading His Word, something I have been sorely lacking in this past year. I'm not going to set a goal to read a certain number of chapters each day or a certain amount of time as I know that, for me, that just becomes a check mark on a page that needs to get done. Instead I am committing to starting my day in His Word and letting Him decide how much and how long I spend with Him. This morning it was nearly 2 hours, and it was the best 2 hours of my day. :o)

I'm going to close this for now and go make myself a cup of hot cocoa. Maybe tomorrow I'll get a chance to show you some of the mischief Emma got into this year.

Till next time...
God's love and blessings!

Christmas Letter 2013

Merry Christmas to you! I know, I'm still behind on my updates. This time I have a good excuse...Christmas! It's that time of year again, and life is super, crazy busy. But in a good way. I've been making HUGE messes in the craft room and kitchen working on various projects and gifts. I still have 10 more gingerbread houses to bake today and then cards to make and addressed and get mailed out, so, since Layla wrote such a wonderful letter for our cards, I thought I would post it here to finish up my updates for the year. Lord willing, I will do a much better job of updating in the new year. We'll see, but don't hold your breath or anything. :o)

_______________________________________________________________

Well, hello there! It's me, Layla. You may remember me from Coco's letter a couple of years ago when I joined the Henderson family. Princess was supposed to write the annual Christmas letter last year, but she was too busy chasing mice to figure out how to use this keyboard thing. Now it's my turn to give you an update on this past year. 

Let's see, in April, Angel flew to a far-away place called California for a couple of days. When she came back there was a new ring on her hand. Mom says she's married now and that's why she's moved out to California and lives with Tyler. He's pretty nice, He knows all the right places to scratch when he comes to visit, but unfortunately, they haven't been to visit in a while. :o(

 

Mr. and Mrs. Brooks. That has a nice ring to it. 

 

May was pretty eventful. Dad, Mom, Michelle and even Grandma Carole left for a couple of days to Iowa. When they came back Dad was wearing this funny looking hat with a tassel hanging from it. They wouldn't let me play with it, though I really wanted to. Dad says he has a Master's Degree now. Not sure what that means, but he sounds pretty smart to me. Then Dad, Mom and Michelle spent a week in Colorado visiting Mom's family and celebrating "graduations". I seemed to hear that word a lot in May. 

 

Doesn't he look smart?

They left us again in July to go to some place called Texas. Grandma Carole didn't go, but Aunt Darlene did and Nick, so Coco and I got to go stay at Grandma Carole's and hang out with Butch, Ben and Radar. Princess stayed at home to guard the house. Anyway, when they got back they told us they had lots of fun visiting with family and going to a wedding.

 

September was just crazy! There were people coming and going all over the place. First they took Angel to the airport to move out to California. That was a very sad day for us. I miss her. :o( Then Dad and Mom took Michelle on a surprise trip for her birthday to a water park. I like water, and I like parks. I hope they take me next time. Then there was a trip to Michigan for a couple of days, and another one to Duluth. That one only Mom and Dad went on. They said something about a 25th anniversary. They sure were smiling when they left for that trip, not to mention when they got back. Oh, and then we had visitors! Aunt Pam, Grandpa Gary and Grandma Diana came out for a couple of days and then Grandma Fay came. What fun we all had. I always love when there's more people around to give me scratches and lovin's. :o) 

 

Hey, hey! That's me and Coco. See, we give lots of lovin's too.

   

Did you know they were still taking trips in October?! Dad, Mom and Michelle left for a weekend to Madison. Dad said he had to go to some classes there, which sounded very boring, but Michelle was telling me all about the animals she got to see at the zoo and the fun stuff she did at the museum. I hope I get to go on the next trip with them. Wherever that might be.

  

So what are we doing right now? Dad and Michelle are both usually busy with school work. Dad says he's almost done though. Mom helps Michelle with her school work, and makes cakes... lots and lots of cakes. You can see some of her cakes on her Facebook page called Frosted Memories. When she's not busy with school or cakes, she spends time in the craft room making a mess! (And they get mad at me when I leave my toys around!) Nick is always busy with computers and hanging out with his friend Romni. I like when she comes over to visit too.  Speaking of Romni and Nick, Nick showed me this super cool ring he bought and now it's on Romni's finger! I wonder what that means? 

I wish the chair wasn't in the way, I wanna see the ring!

Well, there's lots of snow on the ground, and they put all these pretty decorations up all over the house. They even brought a tree inside! It looks pretty though, and I promised not to play with the pretty decorations hanging from it. I like to listen after dinner when Dad reads from the Bible about little baby Jesus. I don't like the part about when He grows up and dies on the cross, but I guess if He did it because He loves His people and was willing to die in their place so they would get to go to heaven, then it's really a happy part.   

I also keep seeing them hiding pretty wrapped presents all over the house. I remember last year when they sat around and opened up a whole bunch of presents from under that tree. I got to play with all the wrapping, and Coco, Princess and I even got some treats. I wondered though, if it's Jesus' birthday, why were we all getting gifts? Then I heard Mom explaining to Michelle that since it's hard to give a gift to God, they show their love for Him by giving gifts to their loved ones. She did say that there is one special gift they can give to God, and that's their heart. She said it's as easy as ABC

Admit you're a sinner

Believe Jesus is God's Son, that He died on the cross for your sin and rose again the third day

Commit your life to Him

oh, and D...Don't delay!

Well, I need to finish this letter and go find someone to help me get them folded and in the envelopes. Typing with these paws is one thing, folding is another. Hope you and your families all have a very, merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

                                        God's love and blessing,

                                        Layla (and the rest of the Hendersons :o)