Fun at Grandma and Grandpa's House

While our number one favorite thing to do at Grandma and Grandpa’s house is visit with them and help around the house, we usually have plenty of free time. We never lack for anything to do and are NEVER bored at their house! It’s so fun visiting my Grandparents because they’ve lived in the same house for over 40 years, so my Aunt and Dad were both raised there. My Grandparents have saved many of their games and toys for us to play with!

On our last trip, Josiah and Rubia enjoyed several games of “Clue” using the 30-year-old game board and pieces.

Josiah loves to play “Shoot the Moon” and keeps careful track of how many times he wins. J

We also love playing out in their yard with the old bicycles, balls, wooden stilts, plastic horn, croquet, and tennis racquets.

Sometimes Daddy will take us on a walk through the nursery to the train tracks. Perhaps we’re just easily entertained, but we could stay at the tracks for hours. Especially when we’re joined by our cousins!

We love to stage funny pictures, try to balance on the rails, and hope to see a train.

When we’ve had our fill of the tracks, sometimes we’ll go hang out on the roof. Just kidding, we only did this once while Dad was cleaning up there. J

The den holds many special memories for us kids. When we were younger, we were enamored with the still-working record player you see in the corner. We especially loved the “Alvin and the Chipmunks” record. We would play the record, turn out the lights, grab a flashlight to use for a spotlight, and have a concert with our stuffed animals, using the couch as our stage. The den actually used to be Daddy's bedroom when he was a boy!

This was taken last November at Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Their basement is a treasure-trove of old toys! We’ve enjoyed riding the rocking pony on springs, playing with the GI Joes and battle forts our Dad used, fixing up “food” on the kitchen set, plunking out tunes on the electric keyboard, and building things with old Legos and Lincoln logs.

We also love looking through photos and hearing the stories behind them. I love the fact that Grandma and Grandpa’s house is full of family history. I hope that one day I will be able to share toys, pictures, and memories with my grandkids, just like my Grandparents have done for my siblings and me!

Thanksgiving Weekend

I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Our family enjoyed celebrating out of state with my Grandparents. Here are the pictures from our weekend:

This photo was taken at almost 11 o’clock on Tuesday night. Sleeping bags, clothes, camera bags, and more littered my room! I didn’t get home from dance until 9:30 p.m., and I had to finish all my packing!

The bathroom didn’t look much different. J Mind you, our house doesn’t always look like this! It’s just a bit chaotic before a vacation.

Wednesday morning we were able to pull out on time. We stopped along the way for lunch and met some friends-of-friends from a different part of Michigan! When we got back on the road, I was able to take a turn at driving for around an hour. Thankfully, the traffic wasn’t too heavy, even with the holiday approaching.

We arrived at Grandma and Grandpa’s house mid-afternoon. It always feels good to arrive after a long day in the car!

Once we settled in, I enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate and visited with my Grandparents.

For dinner that evening we ordered sub sandwiches! There’s nothing like a hot meatball sub and brownies for dessert on a cold night!

After dinner, Daddy showed Grandma and Grandpa the pictures he had taken in Asia during his last two trips there. I’m amazed 5 people were able to fit on the couch!

On Thursday morning, most of us were up early to eat breakfast and watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

While we watched the parade, Mom and Grandpa talked Christmas gifts with the laptops.

The weather was unusually warm on Thanksgiving, and we were able to sit out on the screened-in porch during lunch. The temperatures outside were in the upper 50’s, but the porch temperature climbed up to the 70’s with the sun shining!

While we were eating lunch, one of the neighbors brought over a delicious pumpkin spice cake that was enjoyed on the spot! J

After lunch, we decided to burn off our calories in advance of our Thanksgiving dinner. So we walked through the neighborhood, and down through the nursery (above) to the train tracks.

Train tracks make for unique perspective pictures.

All of us (minus Mom taking the picture) down at the tracks.

Mommy and Daddy. Don’t they make a lovely couple?

Then it was time to head back to set the tables and prepare for our feast! Here is the large table set with the fancy china.

Before we sat down to enjoy our feast, Daddy read aloud the Thanksgiving Proclamation from George Washington. It was very beautiful!

We enjoyed a delicious feast of turkey, mashed potatoes with gravy, dressing (stuffing), green beans with ham, cranberry relish, corn, and rolls with butter. It was satisfying! All food was compliments of Bob Evans Farmhouse Feast! J

Of course, we had pumpkin and pecan pie with whipped cream for dessert. After finishing this feast, we all took naps! J

We slept in on Friday morning. Brunch included orange cream danish, cheddar cheese, bananas, oranges, and orange juice. It was a summer-colors breakfast!

Friday was spent mostly at home. During the morning you would find most of us reading. Here Rubia reads “Cassie.” Across the room from her, Roma read a historical fiction book, while Daddy read an instruction manual on trimming hair. Ben was reading the novel “Courageous: Honor Begins at Home,” and I was reading “The Naked Communist.”

Later in the morning, Josiah got his first “home haircut” given by Daddy. It turned out quite nicely!

We ate a lunch of Thanksgiving leftovers from the day before, and in the afternoon I went out with my Grandparents to the beauty salon, so that Grandma could get her hair done. While we were gone, Ben cleaned up outside while Daddy did a few fix-it projects. They also brought down the Christmas tree from the attic and set it up in the living room!

For dinner on Friday night, we enjoyed pizza (of course) with popcorn, carrot sticks, and for dessert, apple pie with whipped cream. We certainly ate well all weekend!

Daddy, Grandpa, and Grandma all squished on the love seat after dinner.

I love this picture! J It’s so inspiring for my siblings and me to have Grandparents who have celebrated 56 years of marriage and still love on each other.

We had to leave my Grandparents house late-morning on Saturday. We were trying to beat the holiday traffic by leaving a day earlier than usual. After a long afternoon of driving, we stopped by Cabela’s to buy some winter camping gear for Ben.

While they shopped for boots, gloves, and snowpants, we enjoyed the amazing display of animals on the “mountain.” The exhibits are amazing and many of the animals were real at one time.

A wolf chasing down a caribou on one side of the display.

All of us kids in front of one display.

We arrived home safely later that evening. We had a wonderful trip, and we’re so thankful that we could spend Thanksgiving with our family!

Prophecy Conference



Some of the resources we purchased at the Prophesy Conference.

A couple of weeks ago, our family attended a prophecy conference featuring Dr. Jimmy DeYoung. Only Daddy was able to attend the first session, but the rest of us joined him for the other two. It was quite fascinating!

Listening to Dr. DeYoung was very interesting because he lived in Jerusalem for 18 years as a fully credentialed journalist. He is very knowledgeable about Middle Eastern culture and history, particularly that of the Jews. He has also memorized an incredible amount of scripture and can quote dozens of verse references at a time when discussing end-times prophesy.

During the nights we were there, Dr. DeYoung talked about the chronology of the tribulation; how people groups like the Muslims play into the end times; from where the Antichrist will likely come; who the 2 witnesses will be (he believes them to be Elijah and Enoch), and what the new heaven and the new earth will be like.

The conference definitely caused me to think a lot about my view of eschatology and why I hold those views. Although we didn’t agree with all of Dr. DeYoung’s interpretations, it was a very interesting conference and gave us much food for thought!

Thankful

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” James 1:17

“Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples!” Psalm 105:1

~ Posted by Betsy

Recipe--Tomato Soup (not from a can! :-))

My whole family can tell you that my absolute favorite meal in the world is tomato soup with Mom’s double-decker grilled cheese sandwiches. And what makes it all even better is that this tomato soup recipe comes from the Tightwad Gazette, so it’s a very frugal recipe. Next week, I will post the sandwich recipe and you too can enjoy this amazing meal for yourself!

Tomato Soup

1 6-oz can tomato paste

1 teaspoon salt or to taste

1 teaspoon celery seed

24 oz milk (refill tomato paste can 4 times)

¼ teaspoon basil

Put tomato paste in saucepan. Add milk using the can, rinsing thoroughly. Add salt, celery seed, and basil. Stir together. Cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally (try to press out tomato paste lumps.) Serve with double-decker grilled cheese sandwiches (recipe coming next Saturday!) Serves 4. (We double this for our family.) Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Favorites

Thanksgiving is probably one of our favorite holidays next to Christmas. We have many favorite foods and traditions, which we share below:

Mark— It’s simple, one word, Family. I am thankful for my immediate family and my extended family. Being that turkey is one of my favorite foods, I am in food heaven on Thanksgiving day. I love the smell of the turkey cooking. I love to finish off the dinner with one of my favorite pies, pecan (warm with whipped cream). As a kid I also enjoyed watching the Macy’s parade. Now I enjoy watching with my kids. I also enjoy watching some football, time permitting after a nap.

Betsy—We almost always spend Thanksgiving with extended family, and that’s such a blessing. I enjoy either cooking a large feast, or enjoying one that has been cooked for me. J Years ago, we started several traditions that continue to this day…one is making a “Thankful Tree” decorated with colored paper leaves, on which everyone writes things for which they’re thankful. Another is writing “thankful” letters from each member of our family, to fill a special book for my parents. They add to it each year, so it’s a constant work-in-progress. In past years, we’ve also read plenty of books about Squanto and the Pilgrims and other Thanksgiving-related topics.

Bianca—I enjoy being with family over Thanksgiving. I love that each Thanksgiving is a little bit different. To be honest, I love all the different foods associated with Thanksgiving dinner! But if I had to pick a few, I’d say pecan pie, savory stuffing (dressing), mashed potatoes, and sweet potato casserole would be at the top. But I also love the corn, green beans, cranberry relish, pumpkin pie. . . Never mind. You get the idea! J

One of my favorite Thanksgiving traditions (other than watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade J) is writing my Thanksgiving letter. It’s helpful for me to look back over the year and think of all the ways God has worked in my life, and all that He has blessed me with. Many of the things I’m thankful for go onto our Thanksgiving tree as well. That is truly the reason we celebrate Thanksgiving; to thank our Lord and Savior for all He has blessed us with, though we’re undeserving of it all!

Ben—I enjoy being with my family at Thanksgiving. I love any and every food associated with Thanksgiving dinner! J I also enjoy watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and sometimes I might watch the football game. I enjoy making our “Thankful tree” and writing Thanksgiving letters to my Abuela.

Rubia—I like getting together with family and celebrating! I like turkey. J I also like making our Thanksgiving tree and writing down what I’m thankful for.

Roma—I love going to Grandma and Grandpa’s house to celebrate! I also like listening to Christmas music on the way home from our trip. I love pecan pie! I like our tradition of making a Thanksgiving Tree.

Josiah—I like being with family. My favorite kind of Thanksgiving food is everything in the Bob Evans Feast we get at Grandma’s. I love the turkey and the pecan pie. I like writing a Thanksgiving letter for my Grandparents’ book we made them.

Thanksgiving

“Enter His gates with thanksgiving

and His courts with praise;

give thanks to Him and praise His name.”

Psalm 100:4

Happy Thanksgiving!

Making Herself Beautiful

“I think that truly beautiful hands don’t depend on how they look on the outside, but what those hands do. Women who work really hard for their families can be proud of all they did with their hands. Women who don’t work with their hands as much may have beautiful hands on the outside, but I wouldn’t want to be remembered that way. I want to be remembered as someone who worked hard and was diligent.”

~ Written by Rubia

“One woman I know who possesses beauty of the soul, rather than the face, is my Mom. J I can remember when I was little, seeing my Mom work very hard to keep the house running, and now she has taught us to do many of those things to prepare us for when we grow up. She is the best school teacher I’ve ever had, and she’s the best Mom in the world. She never is vain, or worries about her looks, but she has true beauty of the soul. I love her very much!”

~ Written by Roma

Keepers Coop

Last week, we attended Keepers Coop again! We had lots of fun, and this time I remembered to take more pictures. So here are some photos from our most recent time at Keepers:

We arrived nearly ½ an hour early for class, so the younger kids played Rummy up in the loft while the Moms chatted.

Once the other families arrived, we sat in the living room to discuss the research/homework we had done at home. Everyone had some neat findings! After our discussion, we watched segments of “Making Herbs Simple: Volume 2” with Shoshanna (Pearl) Easling and Debi Pearl. The movies are a lot of fun to watch!

We got a little distracted during the movie because it started snowing outside! We’ve been tormented with flurries for weeks now, but nothing sticks. But we know we’ll be singing a different tune come March when there is still snow on the ground! J

After we finished the video, we went into the kitchen. That’s when the fun really began!

We started off doing herbal steams (so any of you who guessed that in the comments of yesterday’s post, you were correct!) We boiled pots of water and to one pot we added dried mullein, and to the other German chamomile flowers. Then we sat with towels draped over our heads and breathed the steam into our lungs. These particular herbs and the steam treatments aid in respiratory problems. I struggle with constant sinus issues, so these steams were really soothing!

After the steams, we turned our attention to making salves. Earlier in the week our teacher, Mrs. L, had started the salve-making process by mixing the dried herbs with oil and heating it in a crockpot for 3 days. What we did was to reheat the oils and strain out the herbs. Then we added beeswax to help in the hardening process.

Next we added lavender essential oil to the salve designed for cuts and burns, and peppermint essential oil to the salve designed for arthritis. Then it was time to pour them into the molds! The tins went outdoors to cool while the rest of us enjoyed a snack indoors.

The boys went outside while most of the girls played a board game called “Wildcraft.” It’s a fun game that teaches different types of herbs and their uses.

Meanwhile the Moms went through the dried herbs that had been ordered in bulk. We each took some home to experiment with and research.

And that was our time at Keepers! We look forward to next time!