Birthday fun

The kids were excited about celebrating Grandpa's birthday today, so I thought I'd have a little fun with the cake. He's an easy going fella and I thought he would get a kick out of seeing Nana on the hood of his convertible. He turned 55 today if you can't tell :)

It got a good laugh from everyone....
Happy Birthday Dad!

Things I love

I love to watch my children sleeping so peacefully. What 3 beautiful blessings :)

Today's thoughts...

Today was running around doing this and that. We are preparing for Resurrection Sunday tomorrow. I have quite a busy day with playing the organ, singing in the ensembles, and looking forward to enjoying lunch with family and friends! Couldn't pass up an opportunity to make a cake of course....nothing fancy at all...

We have also discovered a few more birds in the backyard. I believe this one is the white throated sparrow...I think it looks so cool with the yellow above its eyes! We also have 3 different types of doves as well!! There is one with the red belly (below). We also have a gray one with white on the tip of its tail and then an all gray one. They are hard to take pictures of.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter Sunday! I am so thankful my Saviour died on the cross to save me from the wrath of God! He paid a debt I could never pay because He loves me! What a wonderful thought. Thank you Lord Jesus!!

Rain...hail...lightning...

Today was not a good blogging day. It has been miserable for most of the day. It hailed for just a moment which the kids got a kick out of...but the thunder and lightning was not accepted very well. We had some nervous kids :) There was one boom so loud, I even jumped!! Not sure where the lightning hit but it was close! The power flickered several times, turning the computer off, so here we are at 10:30pm and there seems to finally be a calm outside. There were 2 tornado watches in the area tonight which frightened our daughter. I have noticed over the past year or so she has become scared of things. Is it because she is becoming more aware of her surroundings?....I don't know. But it was a great opportunity to talk to her about God being in control. We needn't fear anything when we know our creator is in control. Not just concerning weather, but daily life....(I am speaking to myself).
I've been in quite a battle ground lately with myself. Struggles that I KNOW I shouldn't be dealing with because my God is in control, yet my flesh decides otherwise. Anticipating the storm instead of allowing God to work, trying desperately to have control instead of allowing God to take the reigns. I do this so often, KNOWING it is wrong, and constantly praying for God's peace..... BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD! I repeat these words over in my mind....and hum a tune "Peace, peace, wonderful peace....."

3 year old's spell??

This was not planned today in school! Our daughter was taking a little too long doing her Math, and my 3 year old was waiting for big sister so we could do our next subject....so while we were waiting I grabbed a sheet of paper and wanted to see if he could write some words all by himself. This ended up turning into a spelling test!! He did this all by himself....I gave him a word and he wrote it! (No help!) I was so proud of him! This is going to become a regular part of our day now (we will use proper lined paper and pencil next time :) I am amazed at how much these little minds can progress if you give them a chance. We need to be using every opportunity to educate our kids....not just in the 3 R's....but in every area. A 3 year old is not too young to be given the salvation message, not too young to be trained on how to become a gentleman/lady, not to young to learn responsibility, they soak it up. NOW is the time!

click on it to view a bigger image

Addiction?

I can't stop taking pictures of birds! I think I have officially become a bird watcher :) We will be in the middle of a lesson and one of the kids will shout....BIRD! and we all run to the window (usually scaring the bird away!) I had a thought today and it was quite an interesting experiment. I opened the kitchen window which looks right out at the bird feeders, I then went to the computer (which is located just off the kitchen)...turned the volume HIGH and played bird calls. You should have seen the birds that came flocking to our deck and feeders. It was quite humorous and we had a ball watching them, identifying them, and trying to take pictures. If you ask my 3 year old what his favorite bird is he will tell you 'the titmouse...but I like the chickadee and the goldfinch too' :) What a learning experience it has been for them as well! We've been desperately trying to get a picture of the bluejays...they are quick and don't come right up to the feeders often. They like to stay in the trees. I first of all played the bluejay call on the computer with little effect outside. I then tried the cardinal call and we had the female and male cardinal come right up to the deck! It was so cool!!! The cardinal call also brought many of the other birds closer as well. When I switched to the bluebird call, that's when our bluejay's appeared! We finally got our photo of them! The woodpecker also dropped in and from the pictures, you can see we are feeding him well....he is getting fat!! Hope you enjoy our pictures and can help us identify our new bird today.

Woodpecker

Bluejay

Female and Male Cardinal

Unknown

In the twinkling of an eye

(picture taken last night at dusk)

When I was young and I first saw this sort of imagery in the sky....I thought this was the way the Lord was going to come back for us :) The sky is full of clouds but right there.....an opening with the sun rays poking through....that must be what the rapture is going to look like! :) I was quite young I remember, but EVERY time I see this, I think back to those thoughts as a child. I really don't think it is much longer do you???

Be still

I sit here and listen...the window is open. The wind is whipping hard outside but the birds are sweetly chirping. I hear children playing in the livingroom, quietly and together....bringing a smile to my face. I think about our day, how smoothly school went, the naps we were able to take this afternoon, how refreshed I feel at this moment. I am happy :) I think about my husband coming home soon, how we will all share supper together at the table and talk about our day. I look forward to evening! I sit here with sweet thoughts mingled with anxieties....but remind myself that my God is in control! I'm humming a song that will be sung this Sunday for our Easter service. I think about friends and family, how God has blessed. I pray while typing of those things that God brings to my mind about others. I am peaceful, I am loved, I am safe. I hear a sweet voice calling....'ma-ma'....I am needed :)

Mountains

Saturday afternoon we took the kids up to the mountains. I don't think we've been up there with any of them!! It was a beautiful afternoon and the kids had so much fun at Caesars Head. They especially liked walking through the 'Devil's Kitchen' which is a huge crevice between 2 rocks. We then went to the visitors center and bought a magnet to put our family photo in.

Happy Birthday Baby Brother!

hehhe...flashback! 1977!! My baby brother has turned one....ahhh how sweet! I love looking back at old photos. This is such a sweet one too. I hope you have a wonderful birthday today!

Big Fun!

Our littlest one has been pointing in the closet lately at the BIG stuffed animals...so we pulled them out today and had some fun, hugging them, talking to them, sitting beside them :) It made for some cute pictures.

woodpecker visit

here is our woodpecker friend.....

Birds!!!

I have never been a bird watcher but since hubby has put up this bird feeder which hangs off our deck...I'm loving it!!! I took the camera today and was trying to take pictures of all the bird visitors. We are also starting to learn about birds in school so it has been a real learning experience for us. We are studying the 13 colonies right now as individual states. Our first was Virginia and their state bird is the Cardinal. This week we are on New Jersey and their state bird is the American Goldfinch. Both of these birds visited us today....how exciting!! We also had some visitors which we can't identify so I"m hoping you can help us! We've labeled our birds below....

The Goldfinch (male)

The Goldfinch (female)

The Cardinal (male)

Tufted Titmouse (males?)

The Chickadee (I think)

Bluebird

Unidentified #1...

Identified as Purple Finch

Unidentified #2....

Identified as Brown headed nuthatch?


Unidentified # 3.....(black, red, white)
Identified- Rufous-sided Towhee


Woodpecker (from FAR away)

Woodpecker

Our woodpecker friends are back again this year. I say 'friends' with a snear because 2 years ago he put a big hole in our deck....last year he was pelting away at our house, and today...aaahhh the sound of a woodpecker pecking on metal...our house!!!! I've been searching through my THOUSANDS of pictures but can not find the photo I took of our woodpecker visitor 2 years ago. Let me just say he was HUGE! I didn't know they got that big. This year's friend is alot smaller as I briefly saw him fly away. If I find my photo I'll post it but for now....here is a relative from the internet :)