1/365 Blessings - New Home of the Petersonclan...

The Petersonclan is getting a new home... in a slightly larger Whoville in KY... right next to Grandparents. Eric and I have spent most of the year designing a space which will fit our larger than normal family. See that large porch on the side? It's 32 feet long and 10 feet wide.

And this room will be my kitchen and dining room. The dining room will seat 18. Of course we will need to get a table to do it. ;)

This is hard to see, but it will be my pantry and laundry room. 16x8. With hookups for two washers and two dryers. Never mind that I only have one right now. A second one will eventually be a wonderful thing!

You'll be hearing so much about this house this year. We are getting it framed in by a builder, then we are doing the inside ourselves. I am not thinking it will go fast. I am thinking there will be a lot of sanctification while getting through the process. But I am looking forward to the space our new place will provide. And I am looking forward to preschool at Grama's house.

So... blessing 1... family. And Home. Both great things.

Dusting off The Blog...

Hello... hello... is anyone there? I know it's been a long, long time with not much to say. It's been a busy fall. But now we are at the beginning of another year... hard to believe 2011 is only a few hours away.

I have the aspiration to do more counting of blessings this year... making a point of enjoying the wonderful parts of each day. So I am doing what in the photography blog world is called a "Project 365". A photo a day to commemorate the little ways that my life is wonderful.

Mine will be 365 Blessings. So, stay tuned. Go ahead and unsubscribe if you are waiting for the profound - I've not been able to for a coherent sentence recently. But if you want a daily reminder to be thankful for the little things... come back tomorrow. :)

Siblings...

Once again...

Once again I have let weeks go by with nothing real to say, nor the time to say it. In October I had only 4 days the entire month that I did not leave the house. So here is a quick summary of our month. I am sure you will agree that we should slow down a little!

- My washing machine died in mid-September. Took it to the repair place an hour north of us (only one that would work on it). It is STILL not fixed. Never buy Maytag. [The problem is getting the parts to get it repaired... not the repairman.]

- We are in week 11 of school. All caught up and actually LOVING what we are doing. For the most part. There are still some of them who would give up math so we could sell the books to give the money to missions, but other than that we are enjoying it.

- We had our town's bicentennial. I tried to post a slideshow, but couldn't. So just head HERE to see my photo album of it. 4 of the children were in the musical review, and had many practices, 5 shows, and a parade that weekend. It was a lot of fun!

- Starting Sept. 28 we were majorly busy... the 28th I took Mercy to Cincinnati (4 hours one way).

29th we went to Pizza Night at friend's house, 1 hour north of us...

30th we went an hour northwest of us to visit two sets of friends... one for lunch and one for dinner.

31st was church and our monthly fellowship... one hour from our house.

The first I was home,

the 2nd I took Anna and my wonderful mother in law who is now living close to us to Bowling Green (over an hour away) to celebrate Anna's birthday.

The third Eric took the two oldest kids to a church Bible study one hour away.

Thursday I had to run an hour north to pick up my supposedly fixed washer. Only to have it break with the first load. Have I mentioned not to buy a Maytag yet?

Friday we went to pizza night, and had our twice monthly co-op. There the kids get to participate in Chinese class (taught by a Taiwanese woman from our church), choir (taught by my favorite Humble Muse), Bible Study, and Chemistry experiments. Then we eat pizza and play games. It's so fun!

Saturday I met with some women for a wonderful time of fellowship, then Sunday we went to church, soccer and dinner at friend's.

What a blessing to have the opportunity to fellowship with so many people. I love our new church. The church family is so very, very sweet.

- I was kept awake one night by mice chewing in my room. Under a bookshelf. The next day our friends were giving away kittens. We now have two. Inside the house. This is big, y'all.

- I have been trying to learn to take better photographs. And I cannot manage to take anything worth posting if my life depended on it. Sigh. Nothing like trying to get better at something and realizing you really don't know a thing. LOL.

- My in-laws moved 1/2 an hour north of us. We are now building a new house next to them. Anyone want a house in Whoville? We are excited to have more space, to be closer to our church, and to send the little ones for preschool at Oma's house. I am sure you will be subject to many many photos as it is being raised.

- I got to meet MommaBug! What a lovely, delightful family she has. And they are crazy enough to rent a RV (why would "An RV" sound better even though it is grammatically incorrect?) to travel the northeast and see the fall colors. She still has her sanity even after it... LOL.

- We have had the most beautiful fall weather. We have been outside enjoying as much of it as possible. Between all the activities.

Here ends our boring update. Sorry. I do have a few posts floating in my head, but who knows if they will get written. Not much coherent stays in my head these days.

Bicentennial

Whoville is having her 200th birthday! We're having a party! Here's a sneak peak...



Doesn't it make you want to find a park, listen to some bluegrass, and watch kids playing?

Update on Mercy- Oct. 2010

Anyone remember this photo?










Anyone want to see how she looks now? After 19 months on Propanalol, and one plastic surgery...

Mercy is looking great. We ask that you continue to pray for us as we are seeking wisdom in how far to go in our attempts to make Mercy's face "normal". She continues to ask us to pray that God makes her face look like the other little girls in church, which totally breaks my heart.

For those of you new to my blog, and who don't know the story about Mercy you can read background info right here and here.

Leaf Fun

Anna turns 11

Our delightful little Anna turned 11 on 10/10. She is growing up... for our gift to her she has asked that we have a "girls day" and go shopping. For clothes.

She evidently has not read my memo stating that she is NOT allowed to grow up and leave me.

Equestrian Games 3

Last week we were able to take the whole family to the Equestrian Games, thanks to tickets gotten through our local 4-H. It was a LOVELY day.

We saw lots of horses.

And played lots of peek-a-boo.

And wore some kids (and parents) plumb out.

There were these really neat statues of horses all over. Each decorated in a different style. This one of the Wild Things was one of my favorite. I especially liked MY wild things in front of it. :)

Emma and Sara loved the one made from shells.

We also got to see the Vaulting preliminary rounds... that was interesting!

Eric got to show off his strength by carrying TWO little ones.

Some more vaulting in a demonstration ring.

And Nate being adorable with his hat backwards.

We even got to meet some dear friends... Glenn and Jenn were among my best friends all growing up... she was actually my Matron of Honor in my wedding. Liked me enough to even wear a dress. That's Love for Jenn.

All in all it was a wonderful day. We didn't lose anyone, so that makes it even better. I think we logged at least 5 miles of walking though!

Sam, 13 months

It's hard to believe the baby is 13 months, but the calendar assures me it is so.

Look at those eyes. These are how they really are... I don't own photoshop nor do I know how to "pop" the eyes like you see so often now.

Beauty

Yesterday we had the blessing of seeing two delightful young people join their lives together in marriage.

Such a simple and beautiful wedding...

Several hundred people joined them in starting their lives together.

Anna's father had died a year and a half ago, but her brothers delivered her safely to the arms of her husband.

Anna and JT saved their first kiss for the altar. I love that.

It was a beautiful, beautiful day.

For more photos please head over to the web album: