Nate's New 'Do...

Spring has come... and Nate is sporting a new haircut...


Eric doesn't like it, I love it.



What do you think?

Playing with the Flowers

Hope you don't mind my sharing some of my efforts to catch the flowers of spring...

Sunday Soccer in Whoville

Sunday Soccer started back up yesterday... it was electrifying.



The younger children enjoyed the Whoville Park...



And picked flowers.





The older children played until they were sore and very tired.








Only in Whoville would the refs wear a baby instead of striped shirts...



And we played until dark. A fun time was had by all.

If you live in Whoville, come join us next week at 5.

What's Cooking?

I am slowly but surely recovering from the chaos of Sam's birth following so closely upon Bethany's birth which followed closely on Mercys... you get the picture. Anyway-

Now that I have more energy, here's what I am making tonight in order to have this in the morning... I found it here.

Lazy Granola (the name speaks to me!)

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup oil
  
• 1/2 cup honey (Carri's Note: I substituted apple sauce for honey... it's cheaper.)
  
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 tsp. vanilla
• 7 cups oats (I use old fashioned, NOT quick cooking) (Carri's Note: I added more oats so it is less sweet. )
  

1. Mix brown sugar, oil, and honey in a small saucepan. Bring to a low boil.
2. Remove from heat. Stir in cinnamon and vanilla.
3. Pour over oats in a large bowl. Stir until well coated.
4. Spread oats in a 9×13 pan. Bake at 375° for 10 minutes. (Since I added the extra oats I will cook for about 15. Last time they were chewier than Eric liked.)
   
5. Take out and stir.
6. Return pan to oven. Turn oven off.
7. Go to bed. Wake up to a delicious, cinnamon-y sent wafting through your kitchen!

I doubled the recipe and in the morning the kids can have chocolate kefir shakes and homemade granola for breakfast. Yummy! The leftovers should fit perfectly in a gallon jar on my counter.

Treasure the Moments

Less than 12 hours after my last post "Moments in Time" was written and posted, another thing happened to make me stop and think about how we spend our time and what we treasure or not. Early in the morning last Friday, a family left our little county to travel to a wedding. An hour later a tractor trailer crossed the median and crashed into them immediately killing all but two little boys.

Naomi Esh was my friend. 6 days earlier we stood in her kitchen watching her husband plow up a new garden plot, talking about our planned vegetables... rejoicing over the recent adoption of another little baby (I had prayed through the more difficult international adoptions of her first two babies), and generally just enjoying a quick visit.

Neither of us had any idea it would be the last time we would talk.

One thing I did know, however, was the way they lived their lives. In simple and humble obedience to the call of Christ. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that if she had known Friday would be her last day on earth she would have faced it with courage, knowing it was God's will for her life.

As we sang "It is well with my soul" at church on Sunday morning, I reflected on my friend. And I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt she had heard our God tell her, "Well done, good and faithful servant." She and the other victims of the crash were spending their first Sabbath worshipping the Lord in Spirit and in Truth.

And across Cumberland County I have heard of many people deciding to live lives worthy of the calling they have received in response to this tragedy. I know that if the Esh family had known, they would have voluntarily laid down their lives to help even one person find forgiveness at the cross.

So hug your families a little tighter. Be a bit more patient and loving. For we know not when we will be called home.

This is them singing "Home".

Moments in Time

You Capture is featuring "Moments" this week... and this is something so near to my heart. The whole reason I photograph my family is to capture the moments which would be lost in the mundane. And there is a lot of mundane.



But the difficulty I continuously have is showing that although we have some great moments... moments of glory... moments where we are close to touching heaven...



Where life is happy and you can practically hear the angels sing...



Most are closely followed by moments of sheer chaos. Crying. And melting down. By both the children and myself.

So the next time I show you the really fun photos of my adorable children... just remember it is JUST A MOMENT in time. And a few minutes later, everything probably fell apart. Like what happened right after these photos when I had 4 little ones ages 3 and under crying hysterically because it was time to go home for lunch.

And thankfully, that is a moment too.

A Blast From the Past

Recently I organized my digital photos. I sorted the thousands upon thousands of photos into folders by year, then month. I will say that there are many fewer photos before my wonderful husband bought me my much beloved camera. But that is beside the point.

I was doing it manually, and it was taking forever. Then I had an "Aha" moment. (otherwise known as a "You are so stupid for not seeing that earlier... moment.) My Canon Zoom Browser program has a button to push to sort everything by year, and month, and date. Wow. Saved me about a bazillion hours. Because I have so much time on my hands, you know.

So if you have been wondering how to sort your digital photos, that's how I do it. For the past couple years I have also been pulling my favorites out and making a photo book online. Then I order three... one for us, one for each of the sets of grandparents. It's wonderful.

So anyway, this evening I was sitting at my computer, and decided to see what we were doing on this day in other years. Here's what I found. Boy can you tell the difference in the quality of digital photos as the twelve years have gone by!

These were from March 24, 2001. We went to a little gym thing that was near our base in Japan with my friend Asayo and her son Kai. He had a birthday just a week earlier than Josiah. Or was it a week later? Can't remember. They were close in age, though. We had a great time with Asayo and Kai.









These next three were all in March of 2002.

Eric and Emma



4 of the 5 children we had then.



And the girls and I... I was skinnier then. And had big glasses.

This is one of my favorite photos ever. I know it is blurry and washed out, but it shows the children's personalities... this is Anna and Emma in 2005.



And another favorite from March 26, 2005



We have no photos at all from March of 2006, and only 6 from 2007. That is after Mercy was born and we were just starting out with her medical journey. March of 2009 we were in the midst of 6 weeks straight of illness... not too many photos of kids then either. They were too busy throwing up.

This year's March had our trip to the beach, and so far not many photos since then. We have been busy trying to get back in the swing of school (difficult to say the least), working in our garden (2 more boxes added this year... I promise photos are to come), and fellowshipping with wonderful friends both new and "old". It has been a wonderful month, just not much photographic evidence thereof.

So I encourage you... organize your photos, and every once in a while go through and see where you have come from. I've had a nice walk down memory lane.

Now I wonder if I can find Asayo...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This post has been linked to:

http://www.petersonclan.com/2010/03/blast-from-past.html