Last week one day while I was vacuuming the floor, the children told me someone knocked on the front door. I hurried to the door and was met by this lady standing there. Her first words to me were, " You ARE a born-again Christian, right?" I said, " yes", then she said, "I'm not sure why I'm here......." Seeing the puzzled look on my face, she said, " I go by your house almost every day, and the last 2 weeks the Lord has been telling me to stop in, I kept telling Him I know those people are christians, they don't need to be told about You - I don't want to stop. He kept saying, 'STOP', and I decided today I would obey." I was almost speechless to say the least......then she said, "Do you need prayer?" I said, "Yes, I do" and shared some challenges we are facing right now....she said, " I will be praying for you specifically every day, and it seems like the message the Lord wants me to give you today is, keep fighting the battle, so many christians are giving up these days, but you must keep going, stand strong, be faithful, because it will be SO worth it all." I gave her a big hug, and thanked her for obeying the Holy Spirit when it didn't make sense at all..... we chatted some more and she left..my mind was spinning, but I felt like I was walking on clouds!! God sent someone to MY DOOR to give a message!! So amazing! I felt so encouraged and loved....I couldn't wait to tell Gaylord...he was on a 2-day trip to Wisc.- I shared it with him that night on the phone and we again marvelled at God's faithfulness and goodness. In the days since I've been thinking so much of how one person's obedience to God and doing a hard thing so blessed us...it was convicting to me... How many times have I robbed myself and someone else from a blessing and encouragement by not speaking a word, or not making that phone call....simply because I was afraid of what they would think or because it didn't make sense. God help me to be so connected to You, so that when you prompt me to do something, I am empty of myself and completely available and willing to be used. Our family added Marlene's name to our daily prayer list, and pray for the blessing of heaven to be on her.........I share this with you, hoping it will encourage you as it did us! However mundane our days seem to be at times, lets be faithful where He has us now - after all, it will be worth it all!!   

There's nothing like the feeling of being snowed in, especially when there's no place you HAVE to go. Yesterday was one such day. Beautiful snow, then ice, then more snow all day long. All the schools were closed around here but we plodded on, relishing in the hope of finishing even earlier come Spring ....but how can one sit in the basement schoolroom when there is so much to see outside? I built a fire in the stove in the sun room and we all sat out there studying in between long gazes outside. I must say I don't recall ever seeing such huge snowflakes in my life, so beautiful!! Here are a few of the scenes we captured from yesterday......
Chloe with her bear? pancake

icicles on the bird feeder!

I'm sure some of the flakes were a couple inches in diameter

I wonder what they were discussing....perhaps the longed-for invention
of bird mittens for icy perches :)

 even the snowmen were smiling

 :)

 coziness....

  I must say......

..my children have interesting reading  positions!

 Cherie finishing up

 Michael pondering something.....mother needs to mend soon I see :)

 she wouldn't pose nicely! This is a home ec project she
completed. I'm proud of her sticking it out!! Cherie tho't
taking a picture was such a silly thing to do - I told her  I'll
wait for my"thankyou" till she's 30..... thanks mlou!

 our supper...the spotted, much used cookbook page tells  how yummy

 thats it for now. God bless your day!

Happy Birthday, Dorothy(justasiam)!!!!!! Miss you and love you! Hope  you have some fun Honduran birthday surprises!! Hugs from all of us!

               Fresh salsa anyone?
  Yummy, this wonderful tasty salsa is so easy to make - we love it fresh
and canned. I'll try and add the recipe later......

  Edit:  Ok, here's the recipe.....

              Mom's Salsa

   14 cups chopped tomatoes
   3 1/2 cups chopped onions                                                                                                                            
   1/2 cup chopped jalapeno peppers (or more to suit your taste)
   1  cup chopped sweet peppers
   lots of fresh snipped cilantro -1/2 cup or more
 1/2 cup vinegar
   1 cup tomato sauce
   1 Tblsp. chili powder
   1 Tblsp. garlic powder
   1 Tblsp. salt
 1 1/2 tsp. cumin
   5 Tblsp. clear jel (only if you can it)
   Combine all ingredients.Mix well. Enjoy fresh, or put in jars
and cold pack for 15 minutes at a rolling boil.By the way the
clear jel will make the salsa look cloudy, but after they're cold
packed it'll look nice and clear. Yield: approx. 12 pints
   I love the flavor of this salsa...so authentic! And its so easy...
no cooking before canning it.... that makes more of a fresh flavor
even after its canned. Enjoy!

Its been quite fruity around here...we were blessed with a 'loaded' cherry tree...in the 7 years we've lived here this is the first quality crop of cherries we had. The children picked and ate lots of 'em. Most ended up in pie.
 All in a cherry's day....















                                                                                                                                                                 Making those half-moon pies brought back so many memories of watching Mom making them,
and us children gobbling them up while they were still warm....only hers tasted better!! I'll keep
trying.

 We froze 80 quarts of strawberries, some crushed and sugared, some sliced, some jam and oh yes, I canned some strawberry pie filling for the first time.It looks so beautiful in the jars, and will be so handy to open and have
some with angel food cake and cool whip for unexpected guests or whenever.....The help I had was amazing !! The whole process took no longer than 2-3 hours!! ...notice the new parakeet?
























 The holiday weekend was spent working and lots of good family time. We enjoyed a cookout and family
biking trip on friday evening. Then saturday we took off for a day at the zoo. We chose to go to a smaller one
closer to home. It was ok....the animals abit scarce..but lovely gardens and a fun relaxing day.





























































































  our cookout friday night.....
























 We watched fire works on saturday night and came home around midnight....everyone  was exhausted!


   God recently gave us this amazing rainbow - it was the most beautiful one I've ever seen....complete, bright and then even a double at the end......the pictures don't show how beautiful it really was, but I still like 'em.































  That's all for today.....sunshine and balmy breezes to you!

I look at my children at times and ask myself, "Can it really be that they're mine?How can they be so grown up already?" I still feel really young, but looking in the mirror always has a way of bringing me back to reality - its like the white hair have pronounced an all out attack suddenly.......I'm still discarding them, but the truth is either I stop and be content to look 'middle aged' - (don't care for that word at all, someone help me out, please) or than I will have very few hair left at all ,- that's not an option!!  I suppose I'm making it sound worse than it really is now, but, well doesn't hurt to think ahead, right? HOW did I get on this subject? All this to say I'm so grateful for every one of my precious children!
 
 The girls and I at the mother-daughter banquet at church.



 Yay  for Zach......he shot these two last evening, now there's 2 less bunnys munching on our garden plants.


 I made a few extra stops in the boys' room this week - the rhododendron
 blooming in all its glory outside their window was a treat for the eyes indeed.


 That's all for now - I'll post later about our trip to Tn.
and what God's been showing me.......check back!

   Goodnight, sweet dreams.....