One Thousand Gifts (181 - 190)

Still counting my blessings............





181.  A surprise phone call from my sister!  I miss her!  Who'd a thunk it too.  We did NOT get along as kids.  Now she is one of my most favorite people.

182.  A blessed evening with an amazing missionary and wonderful friend.

183.  Watching children play at the park.  It struck me as so beautiful to see something like 50 kids all with huge smiles on their faces.  Odds are that some of those kids were dealing with big problems in their lives but right then, in that moment, you could tell, life was perfect!

184.  That the mold report for the water damage came back and showed NO black mold.  Just the regular stuff.  Woo Hoo!

185.  Warm weather.  

186.  My dog FINALLY figured out how to work the doggie door. Only took her a month!

187.  The love my kids have for their dog.  They all dote on her. Makes training next to impossible though.

188.  My amazingly messy kitchen. Because it means that we are well fed when so many are not.

189.  My daughter got a job with the school district.  One step closer to independence. 

190.  Watching my kids try to do the "YMCA" dance.  Hilarious!!

Our week (Feb. 17 - 23)

We had a pretty good week.  Monday, Bob had the day off and we grabbed Mr. Baseball's buddy and headed up to the mountain to play in the snow.  We had a great time!  Even though it was a holiday, we had the sledding area mostly to ourselves for about two hours.  

Tuesday was our weekly "Pray and Play".  Pray and Play is our homeschool group's name for a park day for all the kids.  The clan looks forward to it each week and are devastated if we can't go for some reason.  This group has been such a blessing to us.  The kids have made good friends this year.  

Mr. Baseball gave us a presentation on volcanoes this week.  The report was good but the demonstration wasn't as impressive as we had hoped.  Still fun though.
  
Don't you just love the line of toes in the background!

Today, Mr. Baseball had his youth group meeting so we picked up a few of the kids' friends and spent the afternoon at the park.   The kids had a blast.  

Princess and her friend

Princess, Bear, Boo and Knight 

 Bear

 Tigger

 Boo

Ambushing the next kid to come down the slide!

 

These are a few of the animals we saw while at the park.  The goose in the upper left corner had a friend that looked just like him.  These two geese were bullies.  They came up out of the water, ignored the seven kids around me, and made a bee line for me. They began pecking and biting my legs! think they were trying to bully me into feeding them!  


Summer Vacation countdown:  124 days complete / 56 days left

One Thousand Gifts (171 - 180)

Here are a few favorites from the last few days.

Trying to capture "ethereal".  Wasn't what I was after, but still kind of cool.  

Pinecone.  I don't know why.



Continuing to count my blessings..............

171.  Finding that perfect spot in the sunshine, on a cool day.

172.  Birds chirping and children laughing - a wold at peace.  At least my little corner of the world.

173.  Soft 6 year old lips on my cheek

174.  Cooking dinner with Ladybug

175.  Ladybug decided to bless all her brothers and sisters this morning and did all their morning chores!  What a sweetheart! 

176.  Bible study with my bff.

177.  Seeing true repentance in the eyes of my child.

178.  Chasing my son through the house snapping towels at each other.

179.  The absolute joy that my dog shows when I walk into the room.

180.  God using a terrible experience of mine to minister to someone else.  (Romans 8:28)

Miscellaneous Pictures

I haven't taken many pictures since Christmas.  Not sure why.  We've just been busy trying to get back in the swing of school after the break, I guess.  But, thanks to Denise, whose encouragement  got me to me to dust off my camera and get to snapping again!  Here are a few that I took today.

My beautiful Boo!  Love those eyes.

My wonderful husband got me a dozen roses.  

This is a macro shot of a bud of baby's breath in the roses, with a water droplet on it.

More baby's breath.

My sweet Ladybug.  She's getting more beautiful every day!

Oh - this is for Kim and Denise - 
These are all shot in manual with manual focus (the ones of Ladybug were autofocus), all SOOC (except for cropping for the close up of the bud)
Oh yeah!

One Thousand Gifts (161 - 170)

161.  Driving around looking at Christmas lights with the family and drinking hot chocolate (well, I had coffee).

162.  Successful surgery and a cancer-free bff!

163.  Getting to know her family.  What a hoot they are!

164.  Playing in the snow

165.  Then going home to warmth.

166.  Getting my sock completely blessed off by the checker in the grocery store. What a beautiful soul she is!

167.  2 weeks with my wonderful husband who was on vacation.  It's good to have him around the house.

168.  Renewed sense of purpose that the new year brings.

169.  I am going to say it again because I am so grateful - Her cancer is GONE!

170.   Watching, unnoticed, as my girls play pretend games.  I love their imagination!

One Thousand Gifts (151 - 160)

151.  Uninterrupted conversations with my husband.  (They sure don't happen often)

152.  Six, count 'em, six hours all my myself!

153.  Opportunities to learn to trust God more.

154.  The health of my family

155.  Ted and Judy - such wonderful and godly friends who bless us constantly. 

156.  Surprising the kids by going out to their favorite breakfast restaurant.

157.  Bubbles - big handfuls of bubbles that I blow all over my grand daughter and Boo while they are in the tub. They squeal with laughter at the "snow"

158.  Hot baths

159.  A good book

160.  My first real attempt at bokeh.  So much fun!

One Thousand Gifts (141 - 150)

141.  Surprise birthday party for my bff

142.  She really was surprised!  (She's very hard to fool)

143.  Bff's strength and unwavering faith in the midst of crisis

144.  Puppy love.  So sweet!

145.  Warm, winter days

146.  Little E (my grand daughter) turned 3.  She is the best thing since sliced bread!

148.  Custody issues with Little E have been completely, and favorably, resolved.  Thank you Jesus!

149.  Lost In Space.  So corny that I can't help but smile.  "Danger, Will Robinson!"  haha!!

150.  Watching my kids serve at the assisted living home.