Saturday Scraps: Catching Up

The last few Saturday's I've wanted to share pictures of the kids. If you are on my facebook you have seen some of them, but not all. I'm just going to post some highlights to catch up. Blogger tends to load pictures in reverse order so these are so not in sequence but I don't have the time to fix them.
This picture is actually from quarter 2 in Princess 6th grade year. I post it because I don't think I have yet, AND I don't have one of the ceremony yesterday when she got honor roll again. We are very blessed by her perseverance in her studies. In this area she is completely self motivated. I all ready knew that but I was still shocked when this quarter she told me her lowest grade was an A. I literally laughed and said "what was your highest then?" All other grades in all other subjects are A+'s. She is the only 4.0 student in her class and it's all on her own initiative. I don't know how she does it. I would have have died for those grades in 6th grade. To actually bring her grades up through the year as the material got harder, is just amazing.
One of Superkid's goofie pose for daddy pictures. He was using his camo Scooby Doo PJ's as an army costume.
With our former neighbor boy and fellow classmate up at the school. Who knew Spidie was a cowboy at heart?
Yesterday I had to comb through Superkids room. 80% of these rocks I found on his desk topped with the shocking chunks of asphalt I found the other day. As I said on my facebook presentation of this picture, this is the nature bucket now (no live creatures allowed).
Lilo is in the school GATE program and just before spring break they put on some skits for the kids of the school. Each skit was a fable with a moral to the story. Lilo was in two for the skits and was the announcer for one.

In this skit she was a pelican having tea with a friend.


Easter Sunday at church. Superkid and Lilo up front singing with their class.
They were a little nervous to be upfront:)
Superkid was to read a verse but his teacher is expressing surprise that he had it memorized. At the second service, he actually read it off the card. The first time around I think he was just happy to get through his first experience speaking in front of so many people.
Easter baskets before church. This year I went to the dollar tree and got something that could be used for something all year long instead of the traditional Easter basket.
My favorite Superkid pic of the season.
My favorite pic of the girls...their faces are so funny.
We used some vinegar this year and it really did make them brighter.

When you choose to do eggs at 9pm, you get crazy excitement and tiredness all together at one table.
Okay, now we are really looking at them backwards. The follow pics are our hike out at Salmon Creek falls. This was during spring break as well. We had a wonderful day out.






the goofieness never ends....







Quick heath update:
Thank you so much for those of you who have prayed for us! As of Monday the 19th, I will have been symptom free from the hormone problems! I'm trying not to get to excited yet but it does seem that the doctors advice of the estrogen is finally kicking in enough and my body is balancing out. The few days I started to feel better I really noticed a difference and felt like a different person I had not been for almost two months. I pray it does not come back again but I'm trying to be patient that it may. I've taken some steps to be healthier that I think are helping too. My other prayer is to be free of the patch once I check in with the OB on May 13th.

Lilo is about to take a new adventure though! She is getting braces for her cross bite! She is excited about getting them but does not really understand the hard work at maintaining and the serious lack of candy and gum this will mean (she is our major sweet tooth child). We are all going to support her by not having these things either and the kids will have to turn in their Awana and other candy for family ice cream now and then. She has to have her two baby eye teeth pulled on April 28th so if you think of it, please pray for her that day. She is very scared of getting this done. She has had a molar pulled and I think the memories from that are not good. It was such a blessing how this came about though! If I had been able to do a Thankful Thursday post, it would be about this. Rick took out a special payment plan through his work that allows us to pay monthly for this work to be done for Lilo, tax free. We too the plan out on the advice the Dr. gave us two years ago that we would need to do this work at 8 or 9 years of age. Rick had a deadline to sign up for it so he signed up before we did the consultation. The receptionist quoted him $4900 dollars. We did not realize that once you put this amount in, you cannot change it. You will be obligated to pay that money within a year whether you use it or not. It can only be used on medical or dental bills. It's been pulling $180 from each paycheck since Feb. I believe. Well, we had her checked to get going on this and the Dr. said we needed to preferably wait another year, and that it was best not to start now. Rick and I were beyond stressed. He did all he could to change the plan, back out of it, or anything. Nope, they don't let you change it or back out of it unless your child dies. We HAD to start, even if that meant that in a year it would have been discovered that all of this work was unnecessary and her mouth would have adjusted on it's own, or at least to have not needed so much bracing. We had to step out in faith to start and hope that God knew why this was happening this way, but we were sick about it.
This last week, I went in and the Dr. had just gotten Lilo's x-rays of her full mouth. A panorama view. He said to me "it's so good that we are starting because we would not have seen this". Her permanent eye teeth are fully rooted and cannot fit to come in. Her baby ones are not budging and the new teeth are about to try coming in on her upper pallet behind her current teeth. Had we waited a year, they would have come in, and we would have had to spend much more money getting them anchored and pulled forward. He said it sometimes even requires oral surgery. GOD, YOU ARE SO GOOD TO STRESS US OUT SOMETIMES! THANK YOU THAT YOU SEE! Now, because we were forced to start, she will get the baby teeth pulled so these puppies can come right in where they aught to.
So, on the 20th of April she get's her braces on, and on the 28th she get's her baby teeth pulled. So, she is going to be pretty sore. I'm having more of a problem that she won't look the same for a few years! She will have to wear a retainer for a long time after all this and even when it's done she may need work through her teens since there is so much adjusting to do and her mouth is not done changing anyway with her growth. There is another 10 or 12 year mouler that is all ready turned the wrong way and he says will have to be helped along. She did not get the blessing of a good set of teeth but I'm thankful we have a way to take care of this so she does not have problems in her adult years. Rick really needs to get work done that we really cannot afford now because he never had two permanant teeth that never came in the middle of his lower mouth. Because of this huge gap, his lower teeth are moving back and caving in. He almost looks like he has a front tooth missing by now. I worry about what it will mean as he get's older. So, maybe after we get Lilo squared away, we can start on his. There will be no fancy cars or anything like that in our near future! When they say that kids are expensive, this is what they mean. It's worth it though for her not to have problems later on. Her cross bite would mean that one whole side of her teeth will wear completley down and the other would be fine. It would eventually effect her eating.
We will try to get a picture of her before and after. Now days I hear they get to pick their band colors. If Lilo can do a rainbow, I bet she will try.:)

Saturday Scraps: 100's Day and Basketball Girl

• Isn't he cute? Yes, he is. He was so excited for a week to work on his 100's day project (celebrating the 100th day of school the kids make a project of their choice using 100 things). He made three different scenes and all of them were great. This was his choice to enter. Sadly, it was judged by junior high kids who had no idea what the early years of Mario looked like. He only played the retro games before we got the Wii. With it's block art it was perfect for lego's. He made a scene where Mario is running through a graveyard to save the princess in the castle at the end. I think these older kids just saw lego's, but we were very proud of him. It was all his idea and his work. I took him for an ice cream sandwich myself (the winners won a coupon for one at lunchtime) to celebrate.



(She is #2)




• Princess had two games this week. My camera stinks in the gym. The girls played their hearts out and even though they lost 15 to 19 they fought hard for it. There are only about 7 of them and the other school was huge (you can see the blue uniforms lined up on the bench) and there were lots of them, all big girls. Rick really loves going to the games. He is such a good daddy, he works hard and fast to be there in time and cheers them on so well. I have to encourage him not to try to coach them from the bleachers but....:) He really should coach but he cannot get off in time for all the practices.



• Lost started....and I'm still confused. Still a fan! However, they better throw this fan some scraps soon or I'm going to howl.

• I have another new blog to recommend. Mary and I grew up in the same homeschool circles. She is an avid reader and loves to chat about what she reads. I like that she has a refreshing layed back outlook and isn't afraid to say what she really likes and doesn't like. Lookout, she is also an Edward fan! Yes, there is a whole new world of Twilight kindreds. *sigh* Her blog is called "A Girl And Her Books" She seems to read from classic to contemporary that I'm not even aware of yet. Check it out! She also will go on my bloglist.

(just a sidenote funny: i was out with a friend this week and the this song came on and we both just stopped talking instantly.....and paused. if you know, you know why *wink* which really, the soundtrack on Twilight was better than the movie itself, but still....*sigh*)

• Scripture concept I've been pondering: "I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to the....I will rejoice in doing them good...with all my heart and all my soul. " Jer 32:40-41

Besides that my week has been focused on really working that SAHM gameplan and disciplining myself to persevere in all my domestic areas. It has made for a very nice week.

Saturday Scraps

I was not going to do this today, was gunna skip it but then I remembered my darlings pics I needed to share!

Princess got Honor Roll. I was mad at myself for considering not taking a picture because she has been getting honor roll since she started public school, but the I reflected that this is not easy to do! Especially heading into 6th grade concepts and work loads getting bigger. She is so self motivated she deserves her moment in the spotlight for sure. We thank God for this academic gift he has given her. Way to hang in there Princess!

Superkid FINALLY lost his other front tooth! This thing had been hanging there for a LONG time like some Billy Bob guy. Superkid does NOT believe in wiggling teeth at any price. This tooth like the other one beside it, and the two bottom ones, had the permanent tooth well in before the baby tooth came out. So, we all cheer real big when it comes out. I've been curious how big his permanent front teeth will actually be. He is such a big kid all ready (he comes up to my chest) at 6, I know he is going to be huge and those teeth right there are for the grown man he will be. I have a feeling they will look big when they come in.

We have wheels again! Last night Rick and I picked up our Jetta. We had the heating core bypassed (so glad we live where we do!) and it was 60 dollars CHEAPER than they quoted. Thank you Lord! We got babysitting and went to see Avatar. That was a fun ride. As my facebook status indicated:

"Well, saw Avatar. It's like Pocahontas meets Jurassic Park, meets Star Wars, meets Planet Earth, meets Braveheart, meets Blue Man Group, meets Al Gore. Don't get me wrong, it was a fun ride and very original and creatively beautiful. Not cool with making the military look like jerks but I'll take a flying dragon of my own any day."

And Rick and I decided:

"Rick and I have the most frugal idea now for the kids on Halloween. We'll just strip them down, paint them blue and give them a loin cloth with a tail."

(Please don't take that seriously)

I'm so excited I don't have to get a ride or walk in the cold on Monday morning. I can take my kids to school when we are ready and want to go! It's amazing how thankful going without can make you.

I was reading in Job when God responds to Job and it amazed me to read:

"Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food?"

Do we ever think enough about how God's hand gives to us? The animals really depend on God to provide their next meal. I wonder if we should ponder this more and realize we do nothing for ourselves. I felt God provided for our car a solution that was from Him. It was not a fancy new one on credit, it was not a beef up job on credit, it was a simple set of wheels which was what we needed but it was from Him. How often I work for the fancy things in a way that frets to have what I think I need when God is ready to give me all I really need. I just think I should think more like the creatures he provides for and wait expectant on His provision.

The pantry challenge is continuing btw, but I'm drawing it out into Feb. I'm still using what I have from the cupboards but I've been getting meat when it's really cheap (like 49 and 88 cents a lb) and things for lunches still have to be purchased. There are some areas I need to regroup and go back to making my own from the cupboard but it's becoming more of a drawn out challenge for me. Just wanted to update.

We did have a fun "mother of invention" moment when we wanted dessert last week. I blended some very ripe bananas with ice and a can of condensed milk from the cupboard and we froze them into banana pops in our Popsicle makers. The kids loved them! That's why these challenges are so fun, they make you try new things.

Saturday Scraps

I have to be honest, I'm more anxious to get on in the stimulating discussion previously posted but you know me, I come up with these things and it being only the second Saturday, I shall delight in reflecting! To hear about my inspiration for Saturday Scraps go here.

• Got worried about my brother- Some of you saw my post to ask for prayer for my brother and I posted update on comments but I'll let you know here that he is better. It's very hard for my mom, and me for that matter to have him so far away but the ministry ranch he lives at is so perfect for his somewhat independent life that he wants, that it's just the best arrangement. The scary thing about his situation is that his body will start to shut down as he gets older. Living years on meds for his cerebral palsy will start to show up in different ways in his health as he grows older.

• On Monday, my good friend and I took our sons and her new baby to Monteray Bay Aquarium. We had a blast. It was good to be with our boys. She had invited us since our older kids had been at camp in the summer and she had passes but when we tried to go then, her toddler got sick (she has 5 kids) so this was the fulfillment of a raincheck trip. Look for more pics to come!
• Princess had her first game (and Lilo wanted to grace the picture, which she does of course, and btw we call this her "Where's Waldo Goes To Prison" shirt...lol..:)! She did not get to play but hey, she was there. Her grade is kind of the back up team. I just thought she looked so cute in her uniform which I had to tweak for the blog, sorry. OH, and on that note, the kids will be going back to their code names from my other blog SFE that is closed now. There are new followers here and I'm excited they come by but I think it's time to go incognito:)
• The storms hitting our California dry lifestyles was thrilling but a little scary. It was an adventure not having a car and navigating rides and walking in it at times to school and once to work. As I was walking I contemplated how wimpy I was. I was pleased in a way that Superkid was home sick for two days so we could enjoy the storms together. He had a fever all day on Wednesday and lay on the couch watching movies and staring out at the storms.
• God is challenging me this week. Challenging me to dig deeper, be wiser, and more than anything to be humble. I sometimes get frustrated with my own personality that wants to shout things from the rooftop when they are impressed upon me and I have to slow down and be mindful that the very way I go about these things could take the glory AWAY from God or mess up the message entirely. Human communication is difficult to navigate well. The journey in these lands always swells my heart like nothing else, it is sheer delight and happiness, and yes an emotional experience to dive into the ways of my Heavenly Father and His intentions for his created ones. This song swells my heart and comes to mind often:

Side Note:
Did you know that Newsboys is loosing their lead singer Peter Furler and they are replacing him with Michael Tait from DC Talk!? Its a little strange since I've been a fan since I was a kid and all ready had a hard time when they lost their OTHER lead singer John James. He, John, had a great calling to preach and I'm sure Peter has a good reason too but I don't know if Newsboys will be the same after this. I love Michael and his independent stuff has been great too but I'm just finding it an odd match. Well, it's "In The Hands Of God" as they would say:)

• New Blog! Nope, not from me...don't sweat. :) My best friend growing up (I say growing up but I mean mainly in my final high school years which were homeschooling) was a guy (so I actually consider him my brother in heart) and he married a beautiful, talented, and interesting lady named Erin. Erin has a new blog called Epicurean Travels and it's about their family's tradition of picking countries and cooking something new from there. It's going to be really fun to follow I think. I love foreign food so much though so it's right up my alley.



• I went in to Superkid's class again yesterday to help give the end of the week assessments. I was just so tickled by this I had to share. I call the students back to a table with me, and they read thier sight words for the week and their pheonitic words. This week they had some contractions and the new concept of the e at the end making the vowel say it's name. So, with each child I reminded them of these helping hints before they read thier six words or so to me. With one child I said "now here you are going to have the e that.....?" and said child so charmingly and unknowingly responded: "makes the i say your name." OH>>>>LOL! NO! I didn't laugh out loud! But I did inside, and then I tried to fight off the song starting to play in my head "Say my name, say my name...." :)

Saturday Scraps

For a while I've been wanting to do a blog about what has been rattling around at the top of my head all week. I did not know just how to do it. Saturday mornings are the only morning the kids and I act like bums for a few hours. Rick works on Saturday first of all so we don't have the normal day off that many people around us do. So, we don't hurry to get the day going. The only to-dos we have are chores. The kids have a tradition of cartoons on one of the two stations we do get and some what we call "Saturday morning cereal" which usually is something like Coco Puffs or Lucky Charms. We don't get them every Saturday but most.
So, while they chill in their jamies I usually have my coffee and get on the computer. It makes a good time to gather those scraps together.

• I'm really enjoying the chronological reading. I'm so impressed with the issue of time. How big a barrier time is to our trust in God. Perhaps it's impressed upon me because I struggle with impatience. Looking at the bible God seems to move like a Dinosaur! Everyone in the stories struggles to wait on God and his promises. Most of the trouble comes from women trying to make things happen on their own. Yet, God still uses their meddling for all his purposes. Joseph is impressing me the most lately though with his willingness to be and do whatever the Lord puts him in and to respond trustworthy at any level of responsibility. He had such cause to be bitter for all the wrong done to him and yet he escapes this sinful attitude by continually keeping his eyes on God. He seems of higher integrity than even King David to me in many ways. Back to the timing issue as well, I was hit with the significance of that band of Ishmaelites on camels that came by and bought Joseph from his brothers. Somehow my mind took me right into that scene. Who could know that those camel hoofs as they hit and shuffled the sand, were moving history. They were ushering in the transfer of the whole nation of Israel in Egypt. God knew what was going to happen and I'm sure every hoof and every clink of coins as they were transferred must have rung in his ears. It would save the nation from dispersing itself through marriage to outsiders and redistribution of the people to new lands. It would gather them and purify their lineage but it would also bring them under great oppression for so many years. Those camels brought on their backs, a new large and significant chapter in the history of God's people. The starting thread to a great tapestry.


• I'm very disappointed with Pat Robertson and his tactless insensitivity. I don't like when Christians give the enemy fuel to feed a fire of hatred against God's people. I also don't enjoy the words he used to say that the Devil was responsible for the events against the French in that country. Satan does nothing unless God allows him and people cannot have things they want to happen happen by going to Satan and him saying "okay". Pat made Satan look powerful and God look like the impersonal crushing giant standing in heaven and saying "there you go...bam!" We can never presume what God's decisions are regarding a nation unless he tells us himself. In the OT he does do that. He says he destroyed a people because... but if he does not say, we don't dare guess at his ways. I do know that the heart of Christ weeps for these. Just as he does for every injustice, every deep painful loss, every natural disaster. The whole earth is under the curse still and all of creation cries out for relief from it. I'm sure he weeps at what the effects of that curse results in on those he created. We know that it was that love for us for which he came to die. This disaster could happen to any people at any time and God would sorrow to see it happen on any of us. It makes me remember and be thankful that he has a plan to redeem it all. "For behold, I make all things new". Pat Robertson made me feel like I was in the temple hearing the two men pray that Jesus spoke of. One who said "thank you Lord that I am not like that man, filthy and unrighteous" and the other man who beat his chest and wept and tore his clothes before God for his unrighteousness but deep desire to be saved. Jesus told us which one the Father heard.


• I've been struggling with a bizarre health problem. In early December I had woke up with a seriously painful stiff neck. It was equal on both sides and I could hardly turn it at all. It was not like you get when you sleep wrong, it was way more painful than that. It was some of the worst pain I've every felt and I've had three kids. A week later I had a huge swollen gland in my under arm that was so painful but the neck was better so I was thankful. The swelling was there about a week also and began to move down my arm with the pain. After a few more days I could not stretch my arm out palm up all the way or stretch it out above my head all the way. I finally decided to see the doctor the week after Christmas. He put me on antibiotics for 10 days thinking it was an infection in my glands. I did not notice any difference except that I could stretch it a little more out. About this time I began to battle some real fears as to what was going on in my body. I spiked a strange high fever for 24 hours as well that had no other symptoms. After seeing my dad slowly fade away and die at 54 of cancer, I knew that nothing was guaranteed me. I also knew it was probably nothing and these thoughts battled themselves out in my mind over and over. I would think things like "that's it, I just need someone to do a full body MRI to make sure I don't have cancer" and then the Lord would speak to my heart and say "I know exactly what is going on in your body, and they could do all those tests and still not see what I may be able to see". The doctor saw me again and ordered an ultrasound on my arm. It was to make sure there were no blood clots. It was fine but there was still this long hard vein in my arm that was sore and knotted inside in places (very tiny but you could feel it on the outside). He put me on a 10 day regiment of aspirin and I have noticed a slight improvement in the vein. I'm still not sure whats causing it or if there is a bigger problem but this Focus on The Family was just for me. You have to listen. A mans healing is caught on audible recording. He was just in the middle of talking about healing and how God does whatever is best for His glory. That he sometimes heals and sometimes does not. In the middle of talking you can hear him being healed. I love how he tells Dobson at the end that if we could see the purposes of God in our problems we would probably be more willing to go through them. Yet, isn't that what faith is? Falling on the certainty of the goodness of God.

I think that's it for this week. At least all that's worth a spotlight....the rest is random jumbled mess!