In Christ Alone our Hope is Found

The first day of Gems and Cadets. Siah is excited that he gets to go as well. It's a short walk across the street! (:  Grace is saying, "Faster Siah, faster!!!" It was funny, but boy can hardly hold her up.  (: This is what happens when you have a big rider and a small horse!(:  We went to Art Prize. It's a highlight of our year in Grand Rapids. The kids were THRILLED about a bus ride downtown! Here are Grace and Siah waiting for the bus. That is Natalie's excited, but trying to hold it in face! (: This was so cool. It was a room of 3D boxes. Micah has stuck his head in one side and I took a pic from the other. They were very well done! I love this one like crazy! Ken stuck his head in really far and it made for a cool picture! (: In front of the Gerald Ford Museum. (Josh was home doing homework) This is weird, but it appealed to my weird mind! (: Grand Rapids is so beautiful. I couldn't resist as few...

The past few weeks, we have had some unique experiences. Almost 2 weeks ago, my mom came to visit and we were getting ready to spend the morning downtown at Art Prize. (It's an art competition with all sorts of mediums and about 1500 entries from all over the world. First prize gets $200,000. It's so fun!) My mom and the kids were getting into the van, while I was grabbing the last few things. I asked Natalie to go into the garage and get the stroller. (We have a detached garage.) She came in screaming that we need to call the police because there was someone on the floor. I couldn't quite comprehend what she was saying. Once my mind understood, I called everyone in and locked the door. My mom and I went outside very quietly with a bat and peeked into the garage. We saw a pair of legs. We went back inside and locked the door again and called 911. It was about 15 minutes before someone came.  It ended up being a very drunk lady. The policeman was so tender and kind. In o...

I found this post from this past spring as I was cleaning up all of the drafts on my blog. I start so many posts and never finish them. But I want to share the description of Siah at the bottom. The first paragraph will also be great for me to be able read some day when I look back at this time. It sums our neighborhood up with just a few sounds. (: _________________________________________________________________________________ In our neighborhood, spring means the school marching band pounding out it's drums until well after 8:30 some nights, being able to hear the the church worshiping across the street on Sunday afternoon and the man that lives in the motel by our house, revving his dying motorcycle and driving up and down the street, sometimes as late as 10 pm.  I suuuuuuure, like reaaaaaaaaaalllllly, could do without Mr Motorcycle man! To some people spring means flowers and birds singing, to us it means lots of interesting noises! (: Grace is growing so big. But one t...

Labor Day is MY January 1. Since I started Kindergarten, I have lived on the school calendar. When I was done high school, I lived by Ken's university schedule. Then once Ken was done University and we got married, he started teaching. Now that he is done teaching, he has become a student. I suppose it's also because I have had kids that have been school age for 12 years too! (: September signals back to school, new routines, new habits and simply a fresh start. A fresh start to me is like smelling crayons in the box. Delightful! Did you just read that last sentence and say, "What?" I know, I am a little cray cray for crayons! (: We did a little school throughout the summer. I just wanted them to keep their core fresh. We have done about 30 lessons in math and reading.  It's a great head start that didn't take much effort and we have eliminated the days of trying to recapture what they forgot over the summer. I have always wanted to do it, but it just n...

It's so easy to get caught up in life especially when it's busy. You know that "AHHHH..... I have so much to do and so much on my mind and I don't know where to start." feeling? I have to really work hard at keeping perspective. It does not come easy to me. Learning not to sweat the small stuff, keeping eternal things in the forefront, living a life of thankfulness and resting in the Lord for every detail in our lives is what I strive and long for.     Perspective was given to me this morning. All of those things on my giant list and the pressures that I woke up thinking about disappeared when I read that a little girl we have loved and prayed for for many years just got cancer for the 3rd time.  This is not my first post about Kate and some people may not understand why I feel such love for them when I don't even know them.  Micah and Kate had cancer the first time and relapsed in close proximity. I have only emailed with her maybe two times and s...

We are home. We have been gone for 13 days. I think that is the longest we have been away from home. To be honest, it felt like much longer and that is a good thing. Thirteen days to be together as a family and almost completely logging off the computer and not answering the phone was a rest that we really did need. Walking into our house actually felt foreign yesterday afternoon. After a few hours of being home I realized I actually have to start doing 'work' - dishes, wash, thinking about school etc. SHOCKING. (O: We went on holidays with our Pennings family for a week and it was amazing.The place we stayed was crazy beautiful. Grace walked in and said that it was a gigantic house and that it was gorgeous. (Her two new words.) She also kept getting lost. She would keep asking me if I could help her find the big red door. We had the whole Inn to ourselves. Each family got 2 rooms. There was a pool and playground. We were right on the lake. There were horseshoes, shuffleb...