Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Help Me Win Money Help For Christians Writers Challenge

This is my blog article that I wrote for Money Help for Christians.  It is part of the Money Help for Christians Writers Challenge.  Depending on how many Facebook shares, Tweets, and Google+ shares, depends on my placement in the final standings.  Would you be willing to take a minute to share the article on your Facebook, Twitter, and Google?  You have click to the article and share it from there for it to count.  Thank you so much!!!!

Check out the article here - http://www.moneyhelpforchristians.com/time-talents-and-treasure-does-god-own-it-all/

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Fun with Friends

This past week, my friend, Ellie, came to visit from Wisconsin along with her 5 younger siblings (Eva, Nathan, Faith, Grace, and Naomi).  We had a wonderful time.  Thursday, we went up to see Gaga, and the girls were able to sing for him.  (The girls all sing together as a family plus Nathan one of the two boys.)  We enjoyed a nice visit playing some Uno with him and talking.  Then after we left, we went by the park and got to swing for a while.  It was a nice treat as most of us older girls had not done that in a long time!

Friday was Naomi's seventh birthday (Naomi is the baby of the family), and we enjoyed getting ready for that - baking a cake, fixing her favorite meal, etc.  We also got the house cleaned for Shabbat.  Naomi really liked her cake which was a baby lamb.  Grace, Eva, and I decorated the cake together.  Both days, Nathan really enjoyed helping Daddy prepare for our bees.  Then he and Daddy went to get them on Friday morning.  He was such a huge help, and I think that Daddy really enjoyed the company. 

Shabbat was a good day.  We got up and everyone got all ready for the day and in our good dresses.  Everyone started arriving around 11am.  Some of us young folks enjoyed playing Settlers of Catan.  I had never played it before, so they wanted to teach me.  We had a lot of fun!  There were many giggles from the table too!  Ellie, Eva, Nathan, Faith, and Grace sang for the congregation; then, we enjoyed lunch.  Ellie's family had brought along a goat roast for us to try, and we had fixed it for Shabbat.  It was very good...tasted a lot like Roast Beef...and very tender.  Then we all enjoyed our Midrash on Shabbat and the New Moon. 

Sunday was a busy last day as we helped get everyone packed and ready to go as Ellie and her siblings headed back home.  We had a very nice visit and were glad to hear they got back home safely last night.

Monday, I spent the day recovering from all the activity and enjoyed some down time!  Then today, we have gotten a lot done and caught up around the house which is a great feeling.  The rest of the week promises to be good - baking on Wednesday, helping Daddy with his bread class on Thursday, preparing for Shabbat on Friday, enjoying Shabbat, and then on Sunday, the young people of our congregation are going bowling!  :)

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

What a week this has been so far. I've tried to put a whole week into 3 days!!! One of my best friends (Ellie) who lives in Wisconsin will be arriving in just a couple of hours and spending the next 5 days with my family. Her 5 younger siblings are coming as well, so I know we'll have a lot of fun together. This also means our family will go from 3 people to 9 people!

I have had a lot of fun on Sunday and Monday helping Daddy get his bee hives painted and ready for his bees which arrive on Friday. This will be his first year keeping bees, and we are all excited about that and being able to produce our own honey. It has been fun helping him get them all set up. I've even helped build the frames for the bees to build their honeycomb on.

Sunday evening I mowed the yard which was the first time I've done it in the past couple of years. When we first moved out here, I did all the mowing. We then realized that my back was getting aggravated with all the mowing due to the type of damage I had done about 8 years ago when I fell on the ice...so I had to stop and give it time to heal properly. It is now totally manageable, so I was glad to be back mowing! (For those of you who are wondering...I fell on the ice 8 years ago when we were building our house. We did not realize the extent of damage done until 2 years later I developed headaches and an occasional migraine. A friend recommended a chiropractor. I started doing that and between that and massage therapy, I rarely have any trouble. The key for me is to be physically active and not just work at the computer all day! It is amazing how Yahweh provides us with natural healing methods.)

This past week, we got to have some really good friends over for lunch, and we had a great time fellowshipping that afternoon. Besides that, I had two days of cleaning jobs, and we celebrated the last day of Unleavened Bread. Since that fell on Friday, it meant we had two Shabbats back to back - the High Holy Day and then the weekly Shabbat.

Well, I had better go now. We're going to get an Angel Food Cake on, then I've got to run over to the Township Hall for the Zoning Board Meeting which I'm on, and then Ellie and her siblings should be here!

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Fawn

I had a really sad day yesterday. My sweet little boy kitty, Fawn, had not come home the night before, and he was not up that morning like he would be if he decided to go exploring at night. So we kept calling and looking around our property. Since we could not find him, by afternoon, we drove around our block. We found him the next street over hit by a car. There was nothing we could do...he had been badly hit apparently the day before. He was just two days past his birthday. He had been such a good boy...so sweet and loving. Very protective of his nieces and sisters! We will greatly miss him. I shed some tears over him as he along with our other kitties are truly part of our family. I love you, my little Fawn boy! (P.S. God, I hope kitties are in heaven!)

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Passover 2012

We had an amazing Passover. So beyond words! You could truly sense the spirit of Yahweh there. Our family has been busy preparing for the past two or so weeks. We had a four page to do list which kept us quite busy...shopping, ordering the lamb, finding the various supplies, coordinating, etc.

Friday morning dawned a bright and clear day - a day perfect for us! Aunt Daria and her grandchildren (Matthew and Ashley) came over about lunch time. Momma and Aunt Daria worked on the Matzah ball soup. The children and I finished gathering everything we needed. We had told anyone who wanted to come help to come from 2pm on. So by about 3pm, we had three super helperes in Richard, Paul, and Tamara. They, Matthew, Ashley, and I headed to the hall to set up the tables, decorate, and get all the Seder elements all put out. We were joined by Glenn at the hall...and soon after, Joseph got there. That gave us plenty of guys to move th heavy wooden tables and many chairs to get it set up as we liked it for Passover. We would be having 32 people for theSeder.

More and more of the congregation continued to join us and help us get setup. The many hands made work light! We were fully set up and just doing the final little things and fellowshipping after just 1 hour and 45 minutes. Daddy was at home grilling the lamb which was once again so tender and flavorful! All of the food was very good - lamb, matzah ball soup, lentils, beans tomatoes and rice, fruit salad, veggie tray, salad, coleslaw, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, cheesecake, coconut macaroons, fruit punch, plus all the Seder yummies like Charoset! I could hardly sleep that night for being full!

Daddy lead the Seder. To was his first year doing so. He had been the reader the past town years which was excellent preparation for him. He did a fabulous job. He was well prepared, and you could tell so. He was also very relaxed.

Then Gary who is part of our congregation was the reader as well as taught the meaning of some of the key words using Paleo Hebrew. That was very fascinating. The entire Seder went very smoothly. Ashley found the Afikomen for us, so we were able to complete the Seder! :)

I have put up on my Facebook some of the photos and set it up where you too can see the pictures. To do so, click here. I will close now and wish you a wonderful Feast of Unleavened Bread.