More pictures of Autumware products!

My First Potatoes!!

If you recall, I had planted a couple potatoes that had started to sprout in our drawer earlier this year. Well, today I went out there and pulled 'em up! I had no idea what I was doing or when they should be ready. I was going to enjoy baked potatoes for lunch, but, uh, I overbaked them and so I had to throw them out. How embarrassing.... I was quite disappointed. 

We have been experiencing a drought here, so our tomatoes are still not ready for picking although we will have quite a bunch when they are ready. The rhubarb could be ready for all I know. I have no idea what I'm doing. But I tell you what, I'm really excited about growing things! I can't wait to get started for next year!

This was me in 1972.

Faith Like a Child

Last night as the boys were falling asleep, after a while of it being pretty quiet, Eli started yelling, "MOMMMEEEEEE!!"

 >pause< 

Then again...

"MOMMMMEEEEE!!!!" 

Finally, I went in, with a too curt, "What?! What are you yelling about?" 

"What was that noise?"

"What noise?" I asked, slightly humored once I realized what his problem was.

"It was a bump bump bump up there." He pointed up to the roof. "It was the Dark. The Dark made that noise." He laid back down from his sitting position and I covered him back up. 

"No, honey. It wasn't the dark. It was probably just a squirrel on the roof." 

At this point, never really having dealt with fear at night with him, I was trying not to laugh. So I got serious. 

"You have nothing to be afraid of. There are angels all around our home to protect us and watch over us." 

"Do the angels have babies in their tummies?" I was thoroughly confused over this question. 

"Honey, God charges His angels to watch over us and protect us all the time. Remember the song we sing, 'All Night, All Day'?"

His face lit up at that so we sang the song together:

All night, all day 

Angels watching over me, my Lord. 

All night, all day

Angels watching over me. 

I told him that anytime he's afraid, he can sing that song and remember that angels are surrounding him. As I said good night for the second time that night, I turned to go. 

"Mommy!" my sweet little two-year old son said with an exclamation that put me to shame. "We forgot to pray!" 

Of course! What's the matter with me?! What are angels without the Living God to instruct them?! Why wasn't prayer the first thing on my mind? 

"Of course, my darling. You know that whenever you are afraid, you can always pray to God. He will always protect those who love Him. And He will always listen to you." So we prayed together. We prayed for everyone. 

As I went to close the door behind me, I said, "I love you to the moon and back." And I heard in response, "I love you to the moon and back, Mommy!"

autumnware plug

Among my closest of friends is Autumn Fraits. We've been friends since high school (EMHS, Harrisonburg, VA). Autumn is one of the most talented seamstresses I know. She's very creative in her ideas and in her styles. How I wish I could be creative with the sewing machine like her! In any case, one the perks of being such close friends is that she's always making stuff and giving things to me. Among the more favored items are the many bags/purses she makes. There are few purses that I really like (bags are a whole different ballgame - I love bags bags bags!!!!) but unique, handmade bags are a rare speciality that few people have. Well, fear not, my faithful, eager readers! You can be one of the privileged to purchase a handmade product from my dear friend, Autumn. She is now selling her creations online to help support herself and her two darling young children. If I have aroused your curiosity and peaked your interest, please visit her site to purchase a quality handmade product that others will envy! Check back regularly as she continues to add to her collection. Be sure to tell her that Geniene sent you!

Visit Autumn's Blog. 

Rearranging the rooms

I've been wanting to do something different with the Dining and Living Rooms for a while now. Before we moved in, I had decided the Dining Room would be a play room, but we never did that. So with a friend's help yesterday, we finally moved things around. I feel so much freer and I like how the space is being put to good use. There are still some things we are waiting on. For example, we have a TV cabinet coming to us and a cable extension so that we can move the entertainment system to the other wall. When we do that, the couches will probably be pushed back together in the corner. But it works for now. 

Pictures of Family life

New Find: The CrockPot Lady

Thanks to my sister, Mary, I have discovered a new and highly interesting blog to follow. Maybe you've heard of it. She's The CrockPot Lady. If you're an avid Rachael Ray follower, you might have seen her featured on her talk show, The Rachael Ray Show.

She made a New Year's Resolution to use her crockpot every day for the year of 2008. That's discipline. That's setting the bar high. What's more is that she records everything she does on her blog and she's a journalist, so her posts are fun to read. 

So enjoy the reading and dinner planning. Fortunately, for me, the year is more than half over, so we have lots of recipes to read that she's posted since January to choose from for tonight's dinner.

Experimenting

If you see weird things on my blog, it's b/c I'm trying new things. I might try them out and leave them b/c my time is limited and I don't have time to fix it before the next time I get on. So bear with me....

Henry Hill Passes Into the Presence of our Lord

This morning, I was awakened by my cell phone ringing. It was Dan's mom calling to tell us that Dan's brother-in-law (Stacey's husband, Matt) had lost his father during the night. There was no warning, no health problems that we know of. He just passed in the night. Mimi, Matt's mom, had awakened by the silence beside her and found, to her horror, that Henry was no longer living. What a nightmare. We know, however, that though grieved we all may be at the loss of having him with us, he is rejoicing in heaven in the presence and glory of our Maker. As Greg Laurie said in response to his son's sudden death a few weeks ago, it makes the anticipation of reaching heaven that much more exciting. We long to be with our loved ones who have gone before us, but even more, we long to be worshipping the Creator alongside them w/o the worries of this world distracting us, without our sins coming in the way to distort our praises. Thanks be to the Holy Spirit who sanctifies our prayers and praises so that they reach the "ears" of the Almighty cleansed and pure! 

"Jehovah gives and Jehovah takes away. Blessed be the name of our LORD!"

My Husband, the Chef

After a long day at Sesame Place (season passes for 2009 and the rest of this year were early Christmas gifts from Dan's parents - THANK YOU!!!), two boys and one mommy came home exhausted. The boys ate and went to bed, but after having slept in the car for about a half hour and being overtired, they took a long time falling asleep. While I was dealing with them, Dan was in the kitchen preparing a wonderful meal for us to enjoy by candlelight. We ate to the serenade of banging around, laughing and other strange noises coming from overhead. But it was the best meal I think I've ever eaten. I wish he would write these things down, but he never does them twice the same way. This was the menu: 

Thick cut boneless pork chops drizzled with a garlic mushroom sage sauce (unbelievably divine!)

Fresh grown summer squash and tomatoes cooked with onions, garlic, a hint of lime and special spices (the BEST)

White rice mixed with a bit of ricotta and drizzled with his special garlic-mushroom sauce topped with crispy fried mushrooms (for the girl who hates the texture of mushrooms - a successful alternative!)

Crusty bread to dip in "the special sauce"

For Dessert? chocolate soufflé! He did a remarkable job considering he had to make the chocolate since we didn't have any to melt. His first attempt was a masterpiece!

I told him that there had to be a way to use this talent/gift for the glory of God. His response was that he was thinking "how could we make money from this?" But then he said laughingly, "But yeah, I guess using it for God's glory would be better." = )

Playing with new toys

The Nasty Virus Got Us All

I'm the last one to get it. Hopefully, it will be done. I'm waiting for the antibiotic to kick in any minute now....

I hate being sick.

"I Gotcha Where I Wantcha, And Now I'm Gonna Eatcha."

This afternoon, when Eli woke up from his nap, I heard in his "little" voice hollaring "MOMMMEEEEE!!!"

No sooner had I opened the door when he said, "Wook!" As my eyes adjusted to the low light, I saw that he was pointing at something. "Mommy, wook!" 

"What is it?" I asked him.

"Wook!" As I came closer to him, I saw that he was talking about something on his finger. Yup. It was a booger. 

That's my boy. At least he's not eating it! I thought. 

Illnesses and Dedication

Sunday was Gabriel's dedication. Unfortunately, Dan was still sick since being home from Nicaragua. He ended up going to the ER after church (just before everyone showed up at our house) per orders from our doctor to get tested to rule some more serious things out. It turned out that the ER Dr didn't think it was anything too serious, so he prescribed him an antibiotic. Whatever it was, the antibiotic seems to be doing the trick. Dan was back at work today and is amazingly back to himself. Gabriel and I, on the other hand, aren't feeling too well. Gabe has a fever and is obviously under the weather. I'm feeling some sort of infection in my lungs and throat. I can't wait until all the illnesses are gone from our home. It all started with Eli about three weeks ago. 

Here are some pictures from Sunday. After the church service, we had about 50-ish people come to our house for some festivities.

Gabe's Dedication Invite

This is the invitation to Gabe's Dedication Service and party that we sent out. Of course, we took out our address and contact information. But if anyone that knows us are in the area and would like to join us, you are welcome.

A "New" Swingset

We have been blessed to receive this unused swingset left by the Doners son. I don't think it has been used in years. When the Yates moved in, the area it was in had wasps and wasn't a nice place to play. So Justin and Dan moved it over to our yard yesterday. It's a welcome addition to our playyard.

Gardens, Etc

A tomato growing in our very small, eclectic garden.

This is what I assume to be a potato plant. I buried a sprouting potato that we didn't eat quickly enough and, I believe, this is what came of it. I don't know the first thing about growing potatoes, so we'll see what happens with it. I'm pretty excited about it, though if it really yields potatoes. I think it may take a couple years though to get potatoes to eat.

We planted the mint cuttings that Mom sent home with me. It will be nice to smell the mint fragrance while sitting on the patio.