My Mother's Day Prayer

Dear God,


Today is a very special day for Mothers everywhere, and I want to especially thank you for giving me the privilege of being a Mother.





I thank you for the extras that you've bestowed upon my once-teenage-like body. It simply means that I have had the honor of experiencing the amazing journey of pregnancy! Four times I have felt the beginnings of life growing inside of my womb.

(Yeah, I can't believe I'm posting this picture!)

I thank you for blessing me with endless energy, even at times when I simply feel like I can't put one foot in front of the other! I am able to enjoy fun times with my kids.





I even thank you for times of injury and discomfort. It gives me a clear sense of what my precious little ones are experiencing.

(quite the story on this one)




You have blessed me with four special little bundles of joy!

I even thank you for the gray hairs that I relentlessly yank out of my head, it is proof of the stress that I have experienced in the raising of four incredibly determined, inquisitive, and independent individuals.

I think I am thankful for the scary times ... it is then that I have learned the meaning of truly relying on You!

Thank you for Your Ultimate Plan of blessing me with a husband that is an amazing partner in the most rewarding job in this world ... the job of parenting!

Thank you for blessing me beyond measure! I am honored and humbled to be called "Mom"!

And The Easter Sunday Winner Is ...

This little cutie-pie, Addison, who was basically the only egg-hunter managed to gather/find a whopping 108 eggs! But all that egg finding wouldn't have been possible without these two beautiful helpers!

Alli was also a winner, because she was able to skype with everyone! Dad took her on a tour, via laptop, to say hi to everyone then we ended up in this quiet space so that we could actually hear each other.

Cooper found a few in spite of not feeling well.

My table decorations were winners, because they just sat there and did nothing, except put up with the various & interesting positions that the big cousins put them in.

I was a winner when my awesome Mom walked in the door and took over in my kitchen! I love when that happens! Nothing beats Mom's gravy-making skills!

Definitely a winner here ..... ahhhhh .... Brinley! The latest and sweetest addition the family!

Kevin is always a winner with the little munchkins! He has endless energy with them.

We were all winners when Ashley showed up with the prize! The cupcakes were pretty awesome too! (Love the Peeps)

Who could not be a winner when surrounded by awesome cousins????

We are all so blessed to have a family who loves, laughs, and just keeps adding to the clan! We enjoy babies, boyfriends, girlfriends, fiance's, in-laws, and it just keeps growing & growing!

Before we ate my Mom gave a beautiful little speech about my Dad & brother Wendall who flew into the arms of Jesus 26 years ago on Easter Sunday. It's easy to forget that there are just a few grandkids who actually have any memories of their time here on earth. So it was a very meaningful time for my Mom to share some thoughts. I hope I get this next quote right but it went something like this, spoken by my Mom ... " when I cried out to God about the loss of my own son, and He spoke to me and said, "My Son died so that your son could live!" And that my friends, is what Easter is all about, and therefore we are all WINNERS, if we accept the Love of Christ as our own!

Missing You!

This evening I grilled ham (in the snow) and made a pan of green beans fried in bacon grease ... don't knock it until you've tried it! Then I cleaned out the fridge and set about 5 containers of leftovers on the counter. I grabbed the plates and then it happened ... I grabbed 6 glasses to fill with milk or water, everyone's personal choice. Here is the problem: there are only 5 of us in the good ol' US of A right now. The oldest in the family is enjoying the culture and warmth of Lima, Peru. So while I keep saying it doesn't seem too bad having her so far away, I think subconsciously I've begun to really want her close by again. Skype is great, at least once a week, and almost daily we are gmail chatting or facebook chatting, but it just isn't the same as a BIG hug.

Can't wait until you're home in less than a month! Our family is incomplete without you!

While You're Gone ...

This post is for our oldest, Alli, who is far away from us for a while. She is living in Lima, Peru working at a tourism bureau and is enjoying life. I haven't done a great job at keeping her up to date with what's happening here on Amish Highway 35, so here is a smattering of photos to make her homesick.

While you are enjoying summer south of the equator, we are glad to see the end of winter. The signs of spring are starting to appear.

We celebrated Mitch's 21st birthday with a dinner at the EHaus. Courtney joined us for an evening of good food, laughter, and celebration. Mitch was also lucky that his grandparents happened to be home from Florida for the week, so they joined us too! We missed Grandpa Jay and all his jokes.

I'm pretty sure this happened before Alli left for Lima, but I had to throw this one in. I was excited to be able to travel to Grand Rapids with my sis-in-law and my great niece to see the Princess Diana exhibit. I watched her wedding along with the rest of the world, followed her story closely, and admired her ability to rise above all the adversity in her life. Might I just say that I have April 29th wrote in my calendar and I will be firmly planted in front of the tv to watch the wedding of her charming son, Prince William and Kate Middleton.

One evening while my Mom was home from Florida I invited the whole family over for ice cream and we had the time of our lives!

Alli usually cuts Kyle's hair and since she is out of the country he was overdue. So I did the job. Don't worry, this is only 1/2 done, and I finished it very nicely.

Of course, the evening wouldn't have been complete without some wrestling among the cousins. Looks like the girls are winning!

We all got to do a little loving on Baby Brinley! What a sweet little girl!

And now we have just finished sitting at Abbi's basketball games. For a girl that we made play last year, she has really learned to enjoy the game and isn't afraid to take those left-handed shots. But I gotta say that she has told me she still likes volleyball better. *sigh* I love that girl!

So that's what's been happening so far. We are looking ahead to a great Sunday School retreat this weekend in Shipshewana and a warm spring break in Florida in a few weeks!

If you want to know more about Alli's journey, you can follow her at

http://lifeinlimablog.blogspot.com/

(sure wish I knew how to make this a real link, guess you'll have to copy & paste)

Blizzzzzzard 2011

Blizzard of 2011








Blizzard of '78

Many of us in Northern Indiana were hit with a "blizzard" on February 1st and 2nd. Now I'm not really questioning the meteorlogists, because they really know their stuff, but ... well, maybe I am. This little snowstorm, one of our local jounalists referred to it as Stormie, was fun and awarded the kids with a whole day off of school. I also was aware of an offer of a free cup of coffee at the local restaurant if you could make it to town on Wednesday morning. So about 10:00am I asked Abbi if she wanted an adventure, and off we went. On the way into town, bursting through small drifts and deep truck tracks, Alli called to see what was happening "out in the country" as she calls it. She lives in town and was blissfully innocent to all the turmoil that this monstrous blizzard had caused for us country folk. I informed her of our trek and she hastily told me that she just heard there's a state of emergency in the County and that I could get ticketed. I replied that there's free coffee in town, and that the small town police didn't really scare me! I also knew my workaholic husband was at work in town and he would happily bail me out, either of a drift that I was stuck in or of an impending ticket for putting me and my youngest daughter's life in danger. After a wonderful satisfying breakfast and my free cup of coffee, we decided to really do it up big and went to get manicures. Crazy I know! It really felt like a ghost town while driving around and not seeing much activity. Most places were closed, but wonderful Hahn welcomed us as his first, and likely only, customers for the day.

After all this excitement we headed for home where I spent the remainder of the day making baked chicken, mashed potatoes, corn, jello, salad, and fancy little desserts. The whole family +1 (for new blog followers, the +1 refers to the boyfriend of 4 years), came home for a wonderful evening of food, laughter, and fun! It just doesn't get much better than that! Alli was soon leaving for an extended period of time to work in Lima, Peru and our evening together was soothing to this Mother's soul.

As you can see, this Stormie, didn't really stop us in our tracks. Maybe my real problem, and for most of us over 40, we have a pretty clear memory of the Blizzard of '78. I'm pretty sure the younger set are tired of hearing "this is nothing! In 1978 blah blah blah ..." But I really do want to take a walk down memory lane. Join me if you wish!

The facts of my life during The Blizzard of 1978:

1. We had one small TV in the basement, ignored in a cabinet, with only 3 channels.

2. One telephone attached to the wall with a cord.

3. My two oldest siblings were married and didn't live at home, my two brothers just older than me were returning from a 3 week trip to Australia with my Dad. It was just me(a wonderful 13 year old), my Mom, and my little brother (all of 9), and ...

4. My best friend was spending the night, little did we know she would be spending the next 7 nights!

5. My Mom was (and still is) an amazing woman!

And then the blizzard hit ... hard! If you look at the photo that begins this post, you will see the snow blowing around in front of the barn. When the blizzard hit in 1978, we couldn't see the barn for 3 days because of the amount of snow and wind. Wikipedia gives the following data: snowfall in our area 38", 100 mph winds, and windchill temps of -60F. On the 4th day when the wind had finally died, us 3 younguns bundled up and ventured outside. There was a drift on the east side of the barn that ran the whole length of the barn and was as high as the bottom of the roof. Over the course of the next 3 days we dug tunnels through that drift like a bunch of ground hogs.

At some point during these 7 days my Dad and brothers landed in California and called home to announce their impending homecoming into Chicago. My Mother firmly informed him that even if he made it into Chicago by air, there would be NO WAY he would make it home from the big city. He was pretty sure that if he figured out a way to use highways to make it within 4 miles of our home (Hilltop Restaurant for you local folk) that someone could come on a snowmobile and pick them up. When my Mom told him he was crazy, he decided that she had likely lost her mind in the blizzard, which probably wasn't too far off given the circumstances of small kids and cabin fever. So he called my oldest brother to talk to someone that had sense (this is how I remember him repeating the story to others later) and guess what ... he heard the same thing from my brother. So my Dad was finally convinced to stay put in sunny California while the County worked to "dig out".

On day 7 we heard loud motors outside our windows! Peering out of our windows, we saw a huge payloader slowly working it's way down our road. He would scoop, dump beside the road, scoop, dump beside the road, the whole way. After the payloader had done his job in our stretch of the road, we stood out in the middle of the cleared path that was one vehicle wide. Looking up & down the path there were neighbors also standing in the middle of the road as far as we could see each way. Later in the day our neighbor boy arrived with his snowmobile to take my friend the 5 miles to her home. I don't remember specifics of my Dad and brothers finally making it home, but I do know they were in awe at all the snow, with my brothers wishing they would've been home to enjoy all the excitement.

I've got a t-shirt in the attic that says "I survived the Blizzard of '78". If you aren't going to go buy a shirt that says "I survived the Blizzard of 2011", then you haven't really lived through a true blizzard. Just sayin' ...

My Great-Aunt Sarah

Yesterday I stopped to visit my 97 year old Great-Aunt Sarah, who still lives in her own home by herself. We share birthdays, so we believe that we always have this special little bond with each other that no one else has. So our shared birthday was waaaay back in September, and it took me this long to find a few spare minutes to stop by to visit. Shame on me!

Sarah is very hard of hearing, so when I stopped by I knocked on the door and walked on in. There she stood in her kitchen, making butterscotch pudding. Unbelievable! She is the sweetest, cutest, little Amish lady you would ever hope to meet.

We wondered around her living room talking about the paintings on the wall, most of which were painted by my Aunt Sylvia. Aunt Sylvia lived most of her adult life in Mississippi and was a self-taught artist. She passed away last summer and I treasure the one painting I have that she gave to me. Sorry about the diversion ... back to the paintings ... the one painting was of the homestead where Sarah was born in Colorado. There was another pencil drawing of a home that Sarah's grandpa built in Mississippi. Then we stopped by her open sewing machine to chat about her projects that are ongoing. She has a box full of a pieced quilt that is in process. Thrown over a chair is a half-completed afghan that she is knitting. My favorite is a cool little flyswatter that has "Pinecraft" handstitched in the swatting part. I definitely will be putting that on my wish list to add to my Pinecraft Collection!

All this to say, that I am so grateful for family and history and the opportunity to share that with those I love! I wish I had a photo of Sarah to share on here, but because she is Amish I decided not to take my camera. But I may go back sometime and beg & plead for a few shots.

Remember to spend time with those you love!