summer warmth & sun = lots and lots of fun!!

Oh and chocolate cake...Yum...glad it is nearly gone though!

The past week I've been trying to get out of the house for Jett's sake...so, I actually finally with all three kids and a dualbuggy/stroller went to the high/main street of Perth. I came back sort of frustrated that the shops are so small and do not have the selection as Dillards and Macys (to name a couple) but of course I've been spoiled in Texas right? :)

We also finally went to the Library...yes, pretty sad after 3 summers here! But you have to pay for parking so...I was kind of saving money not going if you know what I mean. Amy & Aaron *really* liked the library...partly for the little aquarium of fish, and little table, chairs and colouring things, and there is a little fort of sorts there, and of course lots of books! I read a few that I knew and a few that looked decent. Fun but tiring!

And then...I bought a cheap £3 pool...was worried there was only a £10 pool but I spotted this at Tesco and was so happy! oh, the littles were too :D they were very tired that night!

But, nothing else to report just now. Just that J is busy preparing for Wed.

play!

Cuteness! I think my lil son is just cuteness (next to wildness of course).
Why do people think he is so "good"?They really do not know this boy I think!

But he is still cute, and of course excellent entertainment! People who do not have children simply because they do not want children have no idea what joys these little people are!I set up a little fort for the older two this morning and popped a wee couch in it too...

Let's just say they played for at least a couple of hours in here drinking tea... :D

It was so much fun I had to video them enjoying themselves.

new blog design

Always liked Sam's new designy blog, but thought how did he do it? Until today when all of a sudden this "new template" thingy appeared...oh soo this is how he did it. Anyways, sorry if you've been seeing a few changes here over the course of a week! I've changed and didn't like it and then rechanged it again...this, I "think" I like. It looks clean...lol which is very much me.

Ok, besides that what is going on in our little family? We just had the communion season here in Perth and it was very nice. Miss Dickie stayed with us over the weekend and let me just say I want to keep her. But I don't think she would be very happy to be a pet eh? ;)

I've been busy running errands for Jett (bank...printer ink...buttermilk to name a few) and also reading his exegetical exercises, and his essay (I have to reread the essay again...). Which has been interesting and profitable, except when I try to pull out my very litttle Greek skills...hey I picked out a few words I remembered and some that almost sounded like English words. I think I should learn Greek...I really do. Infact Jett wants the kids to learn Greek and Hebrew, and I say why not? We'll see though, right now we'll just concentrate on them learning how to read English.

The 23rd is coming very soon. It marks two things on our calendar, 1. Jett's Licensing/trials and 2. The arrival of two outlaws (John and Sam) Jett is due to be in London for the 27th Sabbath of this month. And Skye the following Sabbath...I can see this being a *very* busy summer. My mom has booked her flight and hope to comes just the day before Jett flys to Canada which is in the beginning of July.

And seeing how a post isn't the same without a picture I show you mr owens.

And a huge flower...so pretty it was. :)

Diaper duty calls... :)

singing and more singing

Can't help but let you guys hear some more fantastic singing...Texan Rose click that to find a few more psalm recordings... absolutely lovely even caught Amy singing along. Now if y'all could do psalm 1... :)

life goes on...

...and so this weekend we hope to have the communion season. I'll be busy, but hopefully the services will be good!

Lets just hope these littles behave themselves :D

btw, eating whilst on the kitchen floor is a everyday occurrence.

something from the kitchen...

it was missing lettuce but it still tasted real good.

Till next week...I hope, and why is this underlining all of a sudden?! :)

beauty

Someone had mentioned in conversation that she couldn’t believe how gorgeous my children were. I asked why? But I answered for her “oh, you couldn’t believe I could have beautiful children…” She was a bit embarrassed or so she looked but I knew I nailed it on the head…yes, that ever hurting voice “your ugly, your ugly, your ugly” came to mind. I didn’t say anything about her admittance but just smiled and somehow the conversation was changed.

This has been something I’ve had to deal with mainly in my teen years. It is also one small reason I (we) are choosing to homeschool our children. I won’t tell you all the times I’ve been told how ugly I looked and so forth; the saying “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me” is not a true saying (at least in my experience!)…words hurt very deeply. How can a child grow with this kind of sneering, mocking going around him or her? Seriously, it makes one extremely self conscious, intimidated and has these scars that she or he is really indeed ugly!

But, what is beauty? People measure beauty in looks. But this kind of beauty as some put it is only “skin deep” and age will lessen it eventually anyways. And then I think, ah, God has made us this way, and surely we ought to be content with the way we look and not feel pressure from others that we do not look as we ought to.

What is more important though is not the facial beauty, but the heart beauty. If we looked on someone, who the world would describe as the prettiest person on earth, and we could see into that person’s heart we would be horrified to see how ugly, putrid and defiled that heart was. I speak, of course, of the spiritual heart. We very likely would think differently of that person whether or not he or she was beautiful outwardly!

Now what is beautiful heart but one that has Christ in it? A heart that is pure, filled with the good things of the Lord. Surely this is much more desirable than a goodly appearance!

Sour cream chicken

Ok, I've decided to share a delicious recipe! It used to be Alice's Sour Cream Chicken from All Recipes but I wanted to slow cook it in obviously a slow cooker...and well I changed it soo much that it really isn't Alice's chicken any longer :D! Jett gets excited when I make this recipe...heehee not too excited now of course! :)

So...here are the ingredients (basically...sorry the spices are not measured
but I just season to taste)

- 1 cup & 1/4 cup sourcream
- 1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese (I used fresh)
- 1/3 cup of white wine (lol we buy probably the cheapest thing but still works great for this recipe)
- 1 clove of garlic minced
- 1/3 cup of chopped onion (approximately!)
- garlic powder
- onion powder
- pepper
- salt
- 5-6 pieces of skinless boneless chicken thighs (you probably could use different pieces of chicken but these stay moist best.)

So you pop all the ABOVE ingredients in a slow cooker/crock pot and mix together. I think I usually cook it on low for about...4-5 hours so you could probably put it on high for shorter time.

Now I always thicken this stuff with just flour...I pour a bit of the sauce into a bowl or mug and whisk flour in it...not exactly sure how much I use. Scrape into the crock and stir. I usually do this a couple of times to get the sauce in the crock to be quite thick like stew. This tastes great over noodles or beside mashed potato. Hmm...this does our family so probably this is only 4 servings- double if needed. :)

I like slow cooking recipes because it makes dinner easier to make at that part of the day when your tired and sometimes stretched for time! So, try it, and let me know how you like it if you do that is! If I can I'll try to measure how much flour I use for my own recipe card.

just days after his 1st bday and he starts this...

Owen turns 1

This morning I woke up about 6:30 (thanks to J's alarm) and realized what a HUGE difference it was from last year!! Last year at 6:30 I had given birth to Owen and was recovering with horrible afterbirth pains (which lasted for a good hard 3 days). I was bothered by the midwives thinking I could just get up and shower...still bothers me now when I think of it and it makes me want a homebirth next time (if the Lord is pleased to give us more children). It also doesn't help that Mr. Owens came just as the midwifes were supposed to change shifts...ah well I had Jett next to me and we hope the Lord was with us too. I remembering singing Psalm 121 whilst in labour I think I was just at transition and it was soon Owen would be with us...we only got to the end of the 3rd stanza before another contraction came...but I'll never forget that moment, it was peaceful and the words encouraging.

So fast forward a year and we get this ... :)

Happy Birthday Mr. Owens!!

I decided against a cake but thought cuppies would work well and especially for a caterpillar :)
I think you can see his top teeth in this picture

Opening up his first present

Not at all enthusiastic eh? Well he was actually do for a nap, but I figured if we got the gifts out so the older kids could play while O had a nap then by the time he gets up they would be more willing to share. And so it was!

Yep, completely uninterested

the second toy

Amy of course took the pink cuppie...but she didn't eat it all!! It looked like a crown...!

And last of all the traditional song...

warm days

We've had two days (so far) of the warmest days of the year. Of course that means lots of sun too. We made good use of the backyard for some fresh air, and Vit D. :)This was from yesterday. He finally posed for the camera!

Mr. Owens

What I found in the abandoned nest out back...can you see her eye?

What I found Mr. Owens doing to a mirror image of himself...

:)

He was put on the grass for the first time and he wasn't quite sure about the feel of it :D It made a good video clip, I'll see if I can post that later.

The Synod is over, and I am glad Jett is home! He is to take the services here in Perth this weekend and the next too I think, and then the Perth Communion starts. May has just slipped away on us!

On Monday, Amy has to see the doctor in Glasgow. It's just a check-up on her condition. I really hope they have the DNA test back...but I doubt it. I am starting to wonder if they really took blood for the test in the first place! :)

Wednesday marks Mr. Owens 1st birthday and I think I'll make a caterpillar out of cuppies (cupcakes)...after having J's cake I didn't want another big cake to eat through...besides I'm only allowed one sweet thing in a day so cuppies work well I think. Did I ever mention that I wish I could take a course on cake decorating? I would really like to learn the art of piping roses, leaves etc. I like things to look pretty I guess :)

Uncle Lyle & Anna were over last night for dinner. I enjoyed having them as it is rare to have relatives over! *hint hint*

All right, I had better go and start preparing dinner now. :)

School of sorts, Belfast Zoo & N.Ireland, J's Birthday etc.

Owen fairly happy in his new car seat (we are very happy with this one!)

At the Zoo we saw lots of Animals (it was cold that day though, so not very many photos)

Aaron viewing the Elephants.

What happens after a looong walk through the Zoo but sleep?

Oh and snacks and funny faces! :)

Amy's handwriting, the first bit was of course traced but then she started writing out the rest on her own.

Oh, and this of course is Aaron's work :D

Little do you know it but he has screeching vocal chords...!

Lynne had put a doll house up in the Larne Manse...

Poor Granny, she was in the bathroom for almost the whole time we were there!

What we found at a Petrol station in N.Ireland! I was sooo thrilled I had to get Jett to buy a coffee....this picture was my doing.Jett's Birthday Cake just moments before Owen took a corner off... :(

So we patched it (notice the y is messed up...thanks to Mr. Owen).

We've been busy since we got home from N.Ireland last week. The ferry went so so...a bit bouncy at the beginning not not not my cup of tea at all...especially first thing in the morning!! But it smoothed out for the majority anyways. The Edinburgh Comm. was this weekend and it went well, I nearly didn't go as the kids were noisy in the hall on Sat...long story here and not enough time to explain the hall/vestry issue. This week is the Synod so Jett will be gone for a few days. Ah well, it will be a loong week for me, and perhaps a short week for J! And May is almost gone?! Owen turns 1 next week all being well.

Gotta catch the little rascals... :)

On this day 5 years ago...

We got married!
Happy Anniversary to us! :D

My new extended family...with a lil shorter version of Sam :D

My family, with my sister about 6 or 7 months pregnant, but that is me, I wouldn't have had it any other way.

The lovely bridesmaids...which I look back and think...ugh, I should've stayed with Care's ideas for the dresses...because the other seamstress made them look so plain!! :( Well, I guess you learn eh? Except I can't redo this day, but just tell you what I should've done :)

And quite frequently in the rolls of film we had was some pics of this lady...who turned out to be the photographer's future wife :D

So much has happened in 5 years, and so much to be thankful for!

oh the beautiful Psalms!

Take a peek at Mercy's blog for their psalm sing...how I miss Texan singing with babies slightly playing, crying or singing along in the backround... :)
http://itsagreyskymorning.blogspot.com/2010/05/psalm-singing.html

Hope you don't mind Mercy!!

Teaching your children the Psalms

So, I've been curious, how do you teach your children the Psalms when they are so little they cannot even read yet? How do you keep their attention!? Especially when little ones have small attention spans!

Well...here is how I do it.



Does this remind you of singing songs with "actions" too? It works for Amy!

In other major news, Jett passed his exams! We only have one mark back, but so far he has done well, to the Lord be the glory!

This Friday we are leaving for Larne, N. Ireland and hope to be there for two Sabbaths which means no internet (unless it is dial up). We hope to dip down into the Republic of Ireland (no, Northern Ireland and Ireland are NOT to be confused) but other than that and maybe (I REALLY HOPE) go up to see the Giants Causeway. So, that is the plan, Lord willing.

We hope to get back the 11th of May...and of course mother in law will know what day that is! Somebody is turning (shhh) 35!! :)

I might try to update one last time before we leave, but don't count on it as I'm trying to spring clean a bit before we head out...the cupboards in the kitchen are all clean!! :)

2 cups

This morning I had 2 cups of tea! :)



Update to come I hope! Jett is taking this last exam today!