This Christmas Season...

I have been reminding myself that...

•  Simple is best, online shopping is good, and gift cards make nice gifts
• Two batches of Christmas cookies are plenty
• A clean house is better than a perfectly decorated one (of course, if you can have both, good for you)
• Making treats with the children is a lot of fun

• Mud will not steal my joy, mud will not steal my joy, mud will not..... (we are building a chicken barn and have mud and dirt everywhere due to a very warm December, but it could be worse, it could be snow!)
• My children are beautiful (even if their clothes are not new or perfectly coordinated) 

• My beautiful Advent devotional can be read in January
• Kind words to my children are better than perfect schedules
• Listening to Brooklyn read to me, s-l-o-w-l-y sounding out words, is a privilege
• Always-dead batteries in my camera mean I have creative children taking many hilarious video clips 
• Soup and bread make a fine meal for guests
• A tea party with the nieces is a special privilege even when you think you're almost too busy to plan it
• Busy Daddy's who read to their little girls are pretty special

• God is Peace, and Hope, and Everything I need

And just because I like us.......

The Week Before Christmas

It's the week before Christmas and all through the house,
Not a creature is stirring, except maybe a mouse.
The children are tucked in their beds for the night,
The week's been exhausting, with lots of late nights.
Filled with excitement of the days ahead,
Good times with cousins dance in their head.
Christmas is coming, and so is the fun,
Hurry, hurry, there's still lots to be done,
Cleaning and laundry and baking galore,
Organize the mudroom and so much more,
One more day of schoolbooks, oh yes, 
Then a two week break will be the best.
We'll stay up late and sleep in each morn,
Laugh and play until we're worn,
Eat lots of food, make lots of noise,
There's fun to be had with all those boys,
The girls will giggle and talk about their horse,
And play Polly Pockets and Dutch Blitz of course.
The moms will talk as fast as they can 
And cook more food for the hungry band,
The dads will catch up as only men can,
And go to B Dubs as a football fan.
We spend weeks looking forward to all the fun, 
And before you can blink, it's over and done.
We'll keep all these memories safe in our heart,
And someday we'll tell stories straight from our heart,
About the good old days when the kids were young,
Life was so easy, and so much fun.
We'll forget about the three naughty boys,
And the trapper's shenanigans will all sound like joys.
The emotional girls, we hardly can bear,
Will grow up and cook for us as we sit in our chair.
They'll talk of their young'uns, and we'll just smile,
Remembering them, yeah, it's been awhile.
So here's to the rocking chair and the good days to come, 
Getting old just might be fun.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
(Sometimes a little poetry is therapeutic :))

The Warrior

you seem so strong,
fighting along,
through battle after battle.
you encourage the weak,
give words to the speechless.
you lift the hands that hang down,
help the brother to go on,
fight on your knees for them all.
and everyone says you're so very brave, 
but I know.
I know where your strength comes from.
I see you wrestle through the long, lonely nights,
begging for God to stop the pain.
I hear you say, whisper it low,
I'm not superman.
and the questions and fears
you say through your tears,
nobody hears but God.
but He gives you courage 
to fight like a man, 
and hold your shoulders high.
and He never fails to come when you call,
and fills you with His strength alone.
And that is enough,
when everything falls,
to know that God's on your side.
He's writing your story,
and He's not finished yet,
and you already know Who wins.
so continue the battle, 
though it's fierce and it's hard,
God's not leaving you now,
and His strength is enough,
for the days that you face,
and someday He'll call you home.
as you rest in His arms,
and hear Him say, welcome,
you'll know,
the fight was totally worth it.

When Life Stinks, God is Still Good

Lately life has felt like one of those spinning tea cups at the Iowa City Park. Seriously, if I list all the bad, I shock even myself.

• our lead pastor resigned at church
• my electric knife quit
• my stove totally kicked the bucket
• our van's back door stopped closing correctly
• we had a water leak in our upstairs bathroom, totally unknown to us, and it seeped under the floor, until the ceiling sagged and came down in the downstairs bathroom, so for the last 3 weeks, we only use the upstairs shower
• the dryer had a frightening noise every time it started
• the porch railing completely fell apart and we had to wait an extra 2 weeks for the new posts to come in and then we had to wait another 2 weeks for it to get repaired
• the electric guys decided our open trenches waiting for them to put in underground lines were no big deal, and so we have had a portion of our yard torn up for weeks and weeks now
• the chicken house building project continues and keeps adding various stress to my dear husband
• Leon has spent hours and hours in the combine this fall, and I totally felt like a harvest widow
• I got the sorest throat I've ever had in my life and felt sick for over a week
• our two adorable baby kitties both died due to our naughty puppy's antics

But unless you should even squeeze out the tiniest bit of sympathy for me, let me be the first to tell you that God is good. And we are incredibly blessed. I don't think it was a coincidence that in the last several months I read an amazing book  called Face to Face With Jesus. Hearing her tell her personal story of being a Christian in the middle East was completely thought-provoking! I am so thankful that the same Jesus who performed countless miracles on her behalf, is the same Jesus I serve. And He's doing miracles right here in America, too. I also read The Hardest Peace.  Wow! What an incredible story of a mother of 4, dying from cancer unless God does a miracle, and how in the hardest places we find peace. I was inspired and encouraged so much- to live each day intentionally, and to just be kind to my children. We admire people who have gone through intense difficulty and come out with an amazing Jesus story. But I want the Jesus story without the pain. I'm forgetting that the deepest peace comes out of the deepest pain.

I told Leon recently that I just want the hard to stop. He reminded me that as long as we have life and breath, we are engaged in a battle. We can fight with our arms hanging down, or we can fight like the warriors God has called us to be. It's true. We are never promised easy. We are promised that God will be with us. And it's Him living in us that makes all the difference. He lives through us, wins our battles, and fights for us. But we can't walk around in defeat.

A lot of my list of hard stuff at the beginning of this post is so, so trivial. First world problems. I would be lying to say that I took each new 'broken' piece in stride. But that stuff cannot take my peace. My peace does not come from my circumstances all being honky-dory. My peace comes from the One who holds everything in His hand.

My husband fixed the electric knife, the van, and the dryer, and the bathroom is still an on-going process, our youth group blessed our socks off and gave us a monetary gift to replace the stove, the porch and trenches are out of my control so I may as well not fret.......and harvest is OVER for this year!!!

We had a lot of HAPPY mixed into this tough stuff.

One Sunday we just took the day off- for us. We had a special meal at a Mexican restaurant, hiked and took photos at the reservoir, and came home and watched a movie.

We had a couple family game nights sprinkled in too. We took advantage of every rain that kept Leon out of the field.

And there are always good books to read....

Brooklyn is learning how to read like a pro-

We enjoyed the baby kittens for a short time.

We took the day off of school and toured the Herbert Hoover Museum.

Here we're posing after a Sunday afternoon run-

 This is how Leon feels sometimes when the women in his house get crazy!

And this is how certain family members eat their caramel dip.

God is good! All the time. God is good!

What's Cooking?

Why soup, of course!

You could call us the "Soup Family", because we love soup so much. Of course, some in this house love certain soups more than others, and we are still working daily on getting that picky eating thing taken care of.

Yesterday I created my own recipe and it was a hit. I didn't google it to see if it truly is original with me, but I'm pretty sure NO ONE else has ever had this brain child, so here goes.

Ham and Veggie Chowder

4 cups of chicken broth and water
(I used 2 cups broth, 2 cups water, and a bit of chicken noodle seasoning)
1 pkg. California blend (you know, the carrots, cauliflower, broccoli stuff?)
1/2 cup onions, chopped

Cook in broth until veggies are soft. Then I took my stick blender and just ran it around in the kettle for a bit until the veggies were just teeny tiny little colorful floaties.

Add:
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 cup milk and 1/2 cup flour, mixed together in a gravy shaker
4 cups milk
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
1 1/2 cups finely chopped ham
1 cup Greek yogurt or sour cream

Heat on low until heated through and thick.

Serve with your family's favorite sour dill pickles and fresh homemade bread and call it a meal, folks!

Anddddd....I just might be back with more of our favorite soup recipes.

Mom's 80th Celebration

Last July, my dear Mom turned 80. She was almost 42 when she had me so somehow, even though she's 80 now, I still don't think of her as old. We celebrated big- with {almost} the entire family coming home for the weekend. There are 70 of us altogether so it is no small feat to find a date that suits the whole clan. Two of the grandchildren were missing but otherwise we had a complete reunion.

We started off the weekend by the 8 siblings and our spouses taking Mom to a special restaurant for dinner. The grandchildren stayed back and had a meal in the garage- Grand Central Station for the food. We joined them for dessert- pie, baked by Mom. Her food is a highlight for the grandchildren, but this time, the only thing we let her make was pie. And we all enjoyed that pie to the fullest!

Saturday we had brunch catered in. I can't say enough good about getting meals catered when you have a bunch like this.

After brunch, we took family pictures and then did our traditional birthday celebration by blessing  Mom and hearing her share memories from her past. She showed us her first coloring book and doll. Niece Allison modeled her wedding dress.

After our evening meal, Karen and I organized a rousing game of chaos Trivia for the family. We divided into 6 teams and we then asked questions about individuals in the family and you got points for getting a correct answer. It was loud, competition was steaming hot, and it was a total chaotic experience, but made some great memories! We all tried to hand in clues about ourselves that people wouldn't likely guess.

Sunday we went to church with Mom and then set up for her Open House that afternoon. About 300 people came through to celebrate with her. We also had a slide show going with old pictures of the family which was very entertaining.

The weekend flew by like it always does when we're together. I was reminded again of how incredibly blessed I am with my big, crazy, loud family. We have strong personalities and loud voices and great story tellers. We have painful memories and we have terrifically good memories. We are all a unique piece in the puzzle. But when we get together, we have a beautiful kaleidoscope of color that makes us who we are- FAMILY!

The whole clan-

Grandma with her grandchildren

Mom and her daughters-

Mom and her sons-

All eight children-

The children with their spouses-