Power is on...

....and I am catching up on laundry and enjoying plenty of light.  :-)

We're currently enjoying seeing some of our neighbors as we hand out treats for "Trick-or-Treat".

Storm

Quick post as the battery in my laptop is getting low.

We lost electric around midnight last night, discovered it around 2:00 a.m.  Thankfully only a bit of water in the basement during that time, easily taken care of with the shop-vac.

The generator is powering the fridge, freezers, and sump-pumps.

Randy helped get the tree off the neighbors van.

Okay, I'll check in later...

Storm

Thought of this song a lot last week...now it comes to mind again as it's raining and we're expecting lots of rain and some wind from Hurricane/Tropical Storm Sandy.....

We had a good weekend.  As I mentioned, our basement floor is cleaned up.  Our woodstove is hooked up and working nicely (we just replaced our old one).  We have plenty of candles and an oil lamp or two.  I'm sure there is a flashlight or 2 around.  We have our generator ready.  We're prepared so the storm may not be as bad as predicted...but just in case...  Since we have city water, we typically have water even in power outages.

The kids have off school.  Most schools already have cancelled for Tuesday as well but ours has not (yet).  So far they're playing nicely....

Anyway, back to our weekend.  Saturday night we visited my parents.  Sunday morning we went to church (message:  God Speaks part 1-through the Word/Bible).  Sunday evening some friends came over for supper.  The guys played cards (Haus).  Lots of fun!

Now we are watching it rain.  Older 3 kids playing legos, little boys entertaining themselves (I should probably check...)  I'm doing laundry and cleaning up the house.  May do some baking, or scrapbooking, or meal planning (that's what I SHOULD do).  Maybe I'll just drink more tea or coffee and watch it rain.  :-)  Randy is back at the shop doing truck maintenance.  I'm glad he's in the area since we're not sure how the rain's going to affect us...

Potential Storm coming..

Today we're gearing up "just in case" we get the bad storm that may or may not hit us in here in the mid-atlantic.  Last I checked, we're in the 4-8" of rain area...but it may have changed since that was last night.  But, just to be safe, the generator was checked and is working, everything that soaks up water is off the basement floor (except the glued down carpet).

And then this afternoon we took a field trip to Cabella's.

Enjoy your weekend!

Wednesday.

Wednesday....


Well, we got through another funeral today.  I was thinking about it how as life goes on there will only be more of them...after all, I will attend funerals for my loved ones, family and friends, and everyone has one.  Some people have weddings, some people have baby showers or bridal showers or housewarmings, but everyone ends up with a funeral.

We got their early for the viewing (not sure if this is a familiar thing for people in other areas of the country?).  Since we then had an hour and a half before the service started we ran out and got some coffee before returning for the service.  It was beautiful, but very difficult to get through...always harder for me when there are little children left behind...

I discovered that I have a purse dressy enough for a funeral and large enough to hold plenty of kleenex...a whole box even.  :-)

The pianist who played prelude and postlude did a fabulous job...at first I thought I'd practice to be like her, and then realized that I will need to be content with playing as well as I do.  :-)

As normal, the music always gets to me.  We sang When Peace Like a River, The Love of God, Blessed be Your Name, and Mighty to Save.  The eulogies were touching and the message was comforting and thoughtful.



The church was quite full.  We did not stay for the "interment" (or burial, as I call it).  My sister-in-law who kept our younger boys blessed us with a pumpkin pie for dessert tonight.

Since the funeral I had last attended had been for Randy's aunt who was from a conservative church, I couldn't help but compare the two a bit in my mind and realize that both provided comfort and rituals that help bring peace in their own way.

****
After coming home, Randy left to get back to work.  I picked up the boys and came home.  We played and read books.  I wasn't to motivated to do anything...I'll make up for that tomorrow.  I got to play the piano for a little while tonight which I always enjoy.  Now everyone is tucked into bed and fast asleep.  I should go soon too...tomorrow's another day....

My day...Monday

Today I

• did mounds of wash (which reminds me, the last load needs to go in the dryer).
• baked brownies
• Had bird issues...as in, a bird flew into our patio doors and died.  I needed to take care of that.  Dead birds freak me out (for whatever reason).  Thankfully a neighbor was walking the dog and his wife volunteered him to take care of it for me.  Very thankful here!
• 2 little boys were giggling in their bedroom at naptime.  Upon checking on them, I discovered both were diaperless and their was poop everywhere.  Yuck.  So add washing bedding for 2 beds to my laundry pile.  And I had just washed their sheets on Friday.
• Last night we had a fire in our fire pit.  Zach threw a piece of wood in this afternoon and it started smoking.  So, since it was still hot, we added some more wood and cooked our supper over the fire in pie irons.  Delicious.
• Spent the evening sitting by the fire catching up with a neighbor while our kids played.  Fun!
• listened to lots of music...my therapy when my heart is sad....

Okay.  Blogger let me add a picture of Randy from the other weekend now.  :-)

Camping at Camp Hebron - Photos

Pictures of our time at Camp Hebron - I took the first 4, Autumn took the rest.  For some reason Blogger is not letting me upload any photos of Randy...weird!  I'll try again later!  Interspersed with thoughts that Pastor Josef shared this weekend (in my own words) at our renewal meetings focused on grief & comfort.

 

Micah

 

"If you live long enough, you lose everything."

 

The kids had a good time fishing.

 

" Life is short....whether you live 90+ years or briefly in the womb...life is short, like grass in the field or a leaf on a tree."

I was fascinated by the leaves against the blue sky.

 

 "Questioning and/or complaining to God is not sin, Complaining about God is rebellion."

Our Mark

 

"God is God, I am not."

One of Ruth's fabulous breakfasts over the fire.  We ate breakfast separately, but when Randy saw this he needed to eat a 2nd breakfast.  :-)

 

"Kids feel alone in their grief often as they deal with it again (and again) as they mature and realize things on more mature levels.  They often feel alone and that their parents have moved on and don't care (even though the parents may simply not be talking about it anymore and still be in pain)."

This is the only photo of Ruth that I have from the weekend.  She loved to cook in cast iron pans over the fire....and made delicious meals!  Her husband, Mark, is on the left.

Zach with Mark & Ruths 2 older children.

Autumn

 

"the 4 men who brought their crippled friend to Jesus, Those who surround the grieving person can lift the hurting ones to Jesus as they may be hurting to much to come to Him on their own."

Josiah

 

"When someone who is older dies, you lose your past, When someone young dies, you (feel like you) lose your future. "

Janae

 

Can't remember what else he said that I was going to type....

 

Love this photo Autumn took of the trees reflecting in the water, the leaves on the water.

 

If you are grieving, consider going to www.gehmanmennonitechurch.org and finding the services on line to listen/watch.

Me and Micah.

 

 

Weekend

I was going to post photos of our camping weekend from last weekend for my next post.

Life got in the way.

As I mentioned, our church had meetings Friday night, saturday night and this morning.  Paster Josef spoke on grief and comfort.  Saturday, an hour or two before we needed to leave for church Randy spoke with the man of the family we camped with last weekend.  His wife had passed away in her sleep that morning.

Suddenly we were in the midst of what our meetings were about.  So now we will be going to a funeral on Wednesday.

I will try to get photos posted later this week of our camping weekend like I had planned.

Please pray for their family.  Mark & Ruth have 3 children, 5, 3, and 9 months.  Ruth was 31.  Pray for their families and friends...

Thank you...

Church

Last night our speaker for the weekend shared his testimony and talked about how we sometimes ask "God, do you even care?" or "God, would you help me even if you cared?".  Tonight he's going to go further into that.  He said he's particularly speaking on comfort this weekend.  More info HERE.

Come out and join us tonight and/or tomorrow morning if you are grieving or in need of comfort or are asking those questions!

www.gehmanmennonitechurch.org.

Photo Card

Christmas Label Christmas

Shop Shutterfly for unique, personalized Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

This Weekend

If anyone (locally) is looking for something to do this weekend, our church is having renewal services Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday morning.  More info. can be found HERE.  The speaker, Josef Berthold, spoke at our friends' wedding back in the spring and we're looking forward to hearing him again.

Random

I love random!  :-)

• Tonight I enjoyed listening to our youth group on local station WJTL as they helped with the broadcast.
• Now I'm listening to southern gospel favorites, particularly Legacy 5.
• I was having a rather rough few days earlier this week, but am in much better spirits after Randy was home from Tuesday lunch until today at lunch.  He had the boys yesterday for the afternoon which was a nice break for me.  I went to BB's (a discount grocery store about a half hour away) all by myself.  :-)  I stopped at McD's and got a mocha frappe (and I didn't share it with anyone!)  I got all the groceries put away by the time the older kids got home from school.  I spent time talking with them without interruptions from little ones.
• While talking, we talked about why the little boys need some therapies and what they do at their therapies.  Sometimes the little boys don't want to talk about it or get embarrassed.
• I still haven't started seriously working on potty training my two youngest.  I keep hoping they will independently decide to take care of this.  And they do like to sit on the potty...unfortunately, that's all they do....oh well...it's a couple of years until school....
• This morning I went to my MOPS group.
• We've had beautiful fall weather here.  The colors of the trees are striking.  A bit ago, though, it was pouring down rain so there may be more leaves on the ground tomorrow.

Mark's Birthday

A few photos from Mark's birthday a few weeks ago....

 Can't believe my little man is 4!

He's been doing great with his speech therapy...although he still has quite a ways to go.  His current favorite expression is "my ca(r) b(r)oke dow(n)".  :-)  We are getting him reevaluated as we are concerned about his muscle tone/coordination.  He toes in very much.  Because we play outside a lot, he has compensated and can do pretty much everything either of his brothers can!

 

 

And one extra photo of me and my baby boy....

Ticket Available

My friend over at Coupon Cutting mom has a ticket available to a blogger event in Harrisburg, PA. If anyone is interested, get in touch with me and I can get you in touch with her to work out the cost details.

Family Weekend

As I'm sure I mentioned in a prior post, back in September we spent a weekend at the cabin with my family.  Five of us six siblings were there plus three spouses and assorted children...making a total of 8 adults and 12 kids...I think.

Anyway, I try to avoid posting photos of other peoples' kids on my blog without permission unless they are the type of parent who has their kids' photos all over the internet already.  So, there weren't many photos to choose from for this post.

 Janae

Me and Randy

Autumn fishing

Weekend Camping Trip

We enjoyed one last, quick camping trip this weekend.  We left on Friday after school and were back around noon today.  We went to Camp Hebron near Halifax, PA.  Lovely, although a bit chilly yesterday morning!  I have photos.  But when I put them on the computer I discovered that there were a bunch on the camera that I never got to the computer.  So you'll have to suffer through a few "old" posts before I get to posting photos from this weekend.  :-)

More Christmas Gift Ideas

Many families that are in the process of raising funds for adoption are selling things.  Consider buying from one of them for your Christmas gifts this year.

One of my favorites is buying JustLove coffees.  Kimmie @ www.overthemoonwithjoy.blogspot.com has a link on her sidebar to their site where you can buy coffees from countries around the world.  A portion of the purchase helps Kimmie and a portion also helps orphans in Africa (I think Ethiopia, but have not double-checked).

On the side of Dawn's site at www.arethesekidsallyours.blogspot.com is a whole list of blogs she follows.  At any given point, some of those have items for sale as well.

 www.gotloveadopt.com has some really cool t-shirts, jewelry, travel mugs, and such to support (-1) and their adoption.

Dreary Monday

Outside, that is.  My foster/adoptive play group met this morning and so it was quite cheery inside, despite a certain boy who gets all hyped up when people are here.  Before that I went to the dentist (one cavity).  Now it is quiet time (but not quiet, unfortunately).  Zach is playing nicely in the living room.  Mark & Micah are playing loudly in their bedroom.

Saturday I settled in to do a bunch of baking:  chocolate chip cookies, Whoopie Pie Cake, Yellow Whoopie Pie Cake, and Scotcheroos.  See how long it lasts.  I took the Scotcheroos to church for a fellowship meal along with a crock pot full of Chili.  Both are all gone.  Everything else is in the freezer, but I need to get something out for supper.  Saturday night for supper I made Cheeseburger Soup.  Delicious!  So I spent most of my day in the kitchen on Saturday.  Randy spent a good chunk of the day looking at pick-ups to replace his work vehicle which was on it's last leg (or cylinder).  We now own a bright blue (Dodge) Ram.  4 Door, Seats 6.  Used, of course.  I wouldn't dream of having a brand new vehicle around this crew!

Micah used a permanent marker to pinstripe our large van on Saturday (comes off with wax and elbow grease).  Mark dumped shoe powder through a window screen onto Zachary (and all over their bedroom as well).

Sunday we had a fellowship meal and then Randy left for work.  In the evening we visited my parents.

Well, I need to get back to doing laundry....Happy Monday!

Christmas Is Coming

This past week I started thinking about Christmas.  Jotting down ideas for those whom I buy gifts for.

If you're looking for something different this year, consider doing some (or all!) your shopping from Orphan Wares.  The Wares are donated and then sold with proceeds benefiting orphans.

For the person who has everything, consider donating items to the less needy in their names.  Ministries such as World Vision, MCC,  Gideons and assorted others all have "Gift Catalogs" where you can choose an item to donate in honor of someone else.  Usually the receiver gets a card or something telling them about it and you/they support a good cause.  I noticed that you can buy Christmas Cards through the Gideons website which supports purchasing/distributing Bibles.  Many people may also appreciate a gift to their favorite charity.

Merry Christmas!

Quick Post

It is an absolutely gorgeous day here in PA (ahead of the front coming tomorrow and bringing clouds and rain).  Blue skies, perfect temps.

The boys played splendidly together this morning and with the neighbor so I was able to work diligently around the house and start getting things back in order.  Now I need to quick do some business bookwork.  I'm taking Mark to the doctor in an hour for the follow-up appointment.

We have absolutely no plans this weekend...wonderful!

Mark's Hospital Stay

Mark in his hospital bed Monday evening....looking so much better than in the morning.  Amazing what lots of fluids, steroids, and antibiotics can do!  His arm is all wrapped up because he kept trying to remove his IV.  The puppy was a gift from the hospital (well, from people who donated it to the hospital for kids in the pediatric ward).    He also managed to collect assorted stuffed animals, activities, and balloons.  For which he always had one word...."MINE".  :-)

Sunday - Dover International Speedway

It's called the Monster Mile and this is the monster...yeah...rather ugly looking!

Beautiful Day - I got sunburned.

The race track.  We were on Turn 4, across from some of the pit boxes.

The goodlooking guy I went with.  :-)

Randy & I

The crowd.

During the Race

It was a lovely, relaxing day...but the race itself...well, that was really, really loud!  And kind of boring as races go.  Not many lead changes.  No big wrecks.  Just cars going around a circle twice a minute or so.  But it was a very fun day.

Saturday - Hershey Park

Waiting to go on the Comet

Josiah's favorite ride.

Waiting for the little steam train (one of the few rides that didn't scare Janae)

On the train ride

Posing for Mom.  :-)

Waiting for the Monorail.

On the Ferris wheel.

What a fun day!  And totally made possible by a friend who blessed us with tickets.  It was a lovely day out with our big kids.  And our little ones had so much fun at our friends' house/farm.  Mark may even look at a cat without crying now?!

Friday Night

We enjoyed playing in the kids tent at "Tent City"

Zach and Micah (and Mark's arm)

Janae sporting her face paint pumpkin

Mark w/Zach & Autumn in the background "collecting eggs"

He certainly doesn't look sick there!

Watching the Tractor Pulls

Wednesday

I've pretty much cleared our schedule for the rest of the week.  Mark is much better but also very cranky.  I guess adjusting to not being the center of attention after 3 days of it is difficult.  Or else he still doesn't feel the greatest.  Or a combination.  Anyway, it's definitely grumpy day here!

So after a few calmer days, within the next week we have:
(1) dentist appointment
(4) doctor appointments (between 2 people)
(1) Speech therapy
(1) physical therapy evaluation
(1) Play Date (health permitting)

Hopefully things will calm down after that!

I need to make Lentil Soup on Friday for Autumn's class.  They are having an "Abraham Day" where the discuss the biblical Abraham and life at that point in history.

Tonight we are going to go to the local street fair briefly, go early, leave early, and get to bed early again.  Everyone is acting/appears healthy at the moment, but we do want to make sure that Mark recovers fully.  He did not sleep at naptime so I'm sure he'll be quite sleepy tonight!

I'm going to try to post some pictures from our weekend tonight...

Another Quick Update

Mark is laying in his hospital bed, crying "Mommy Go HOME!".  He wants Daddy.  Daddy is home with the other 5.  Do you think maybe he's a bit mad that I brought him in here where they stuck him with needles and won't let him take his IV out of his arm?!

He officially has Mycroplasm Pneumonia (walking pneumonia) and was pretty badly dehydrated.  I'm happy he's feeling well enough to complain because he was quite lethargic earlier.  The hospital has WiFi so I can escape to the Internet world while he complains.  :-)

Now, this past weekend was full of fun (although the babysitter who dealt with Mark puking all day Sunday may not have thought so...but we didn't know about that).

Friday night I took the kids to the local fair to see the animals and tractor pulls.  Saturday morning we surprised the big kids.  We dropped off the 3 little boys at my friend's house and then took the older 3 to Hershey Park (amusement part).  A friend had blessed us with 4 free tickets so we only had to pay for 1 + parking.  We packed a lunch and resisted buying souvenirs.  On our way home we stopped at a restaurant where we had gift cards that covered the cost of the dinner.  (Need to use up those Christmas presents before December!)

We picked up the kids and brought them home.  My friend came over at 5:00 in the morning to take over and Randy & I met his brother & wife and went to Dover International Speedway to see a NASCAR race.  Quite an experience.  Very Loud!  When we came home, my friend told me that Mark was very sick.  We made it through the night, but then I brought him in to the ER this morning.

Pictures of all this to come at some point.  When I'm not so tired...

Lot to update

but I need a nap so only one thing:  I took Mark to the hospital this morning and he was admitted.  He has pneumonia (not bacterial or viral, but can't remember the type).  Randy and I are taking turns being with him and being with the other children.

Will update later.