I'm going to be "single" for most of the weekend since my husband has gone on a men's retreat with our church. I'm so glad for him...although I will miss him greatly...he needs to bond with some guys from our church.
I was thinking about what I could do that would be fun and refreshing for ME this weekend but I have to work long 12 hour days at my part time job on Friday and Saturday. Today is the only day that I have "off" and I decided to take a nap. My husband worked yesterday from 8a.m. til close to 12:30 this morning and I couldn't possibly sleep until he got home. He crawled into bed at around 2:30 and then the alarm went off at 5a.m. Yawn....I was really sleepy.
I got my step son off to school and got my girls up for homeschooling and then I took a nap!!! I wish I had that time back but I will be so tired tomorrow and Saturday if I don't sleep a little today.
By the way, in case anyone wonders, I don't homeschool my step son. It was my intention to do so but often he doesn't cooperate with me about those kinds of things so my husband decided that it would be too difficult on everyone else to do that. (even though I feel guilty about it...)Right now he needs me to be a nice "step mom" if possible, and not a demanding teacher...
Perhaps that is something that we can do in the future. Maybe some maturity will help him. The doctor does have him on some medication that is supposed to help....
Anyway, so the girls are busy with their schoolwork and we are planning to go to trumpet lessons, the fabric store and then a girls' night out to eat! (if we can think of somewhere cheap that we can still stay on our diets!! I've lost 10 pounds!!!!) Then the girls will go to their dad's for the weekend. So it will just be me and the dog and cats. My oldest daughter will be home as well but since she is in college and also works, she is in and out. Since I work crazy hours on Friday and Saturday, Gideon will be spending the time with his married sister, her husband and their beautiful little baby girl!
I'm going to spend Friday night with "Monk". I watch VERY little tv but I do love that show.
I think I'm going to treat myself to takeout Friday night and then curl up on the couch with Monk....oh...I guess I mean I'm going to curl up and WATCH "Monk"...I'm going to curl up WITH Trinket kitty.....no one else........until my hubby gets home!!

I'm getting pretty excited about our newest addition to our family...a baby boy that is due to be born to my older son and his pretty wife in January. They're thinking about names. I've been buying some things at Goodwill and the Salvation Army and washing them for him.

I did some Christmas and Birthday shopping yesterday. Christmas IS just around the corner, you know! (99 days, I think????)

Well, Jennie needs the computer back to get her schooling done and I need a yogurt. (and a dingdong, but I'm going to pass on the dingdong, I guess....)
Have a blessed day!

Diet Diet Diet

My dear husband went to the doctor the other day because he just wasn't feeling his best. He knew he had high triglycerides but had no idea that they were that high. Well, now the whole family is on a diet. We could all stand to slim down and now we (well, Roger and I) are motivated.
We kind of got a head start two weeks ago or so and started eating smaller portions. Then we went on our little vacation and ate basically only what I brought to cook. (except for one meal)
I am so happy to say that Roger has already lost 9 pounds and I have lost 8 or 9! WooHoo!!

I know that we will feel much better as we lose weight. We both feel pretty sluggish usually so I am sure that after losing 50 or 60 pounds we will feel much better!

We're trying to cut back on breads (OH I LOVE MY HOMEMADE BREAD!!) and carbs. Good grief, I live on carbs...maybe that's why I'm chubby??? I also love to bake for our family but I am realizing that I am hurting them (and myself) when I'm trying to show them love that way. I need to cut back quite a bit.

We're eating lots more veggies and my hubby is eating more lean meat...I'm not a real fan of meat...

He's having a hard time letting go of his chocolate, though. So am I...and I know where the DingDongs are hidden...I haven't had one yet!! Yesterday it was a real temptation and today as well but I'm so excited about this weight loss that I feel encouraged!

I also want to be super supportive of my husband. It took so many years for me to find him...or I should say, for the Lord to give him to me...I want him to be healthy and not lose him to a heart attack or stroke.

I am confident that I will emotionally feel better as well as I lose weight. I have a very hard time believing that I'm "good enough" for my husband to love me as he tells me over and over that he does. I know that much of that stems from my being chubby...goodness, I'm not just chubby, I'm overweight!

So if anyone has any good recipes to tell me or has any yummy veggies that you know about that are unique, please let me know!
I'll try to keep an update on our weight loss!
Have a blessed day!

National Lampoon's Family Vacation...Beth and Roger Style!!

Well, we got back late late Tuesday night from our mini vacation to beautiful southern Indiana and Holiday World. (Holiday World is a wonderful amusement park in Santa Claus, Indiana.)

We decided to camp so that we could take our new (to us) little camper along with us. We have been assured over and over again that "camping is the most inexpensive way to take a vacation." Hmmm....

We could have flown to Europe.

First, we purchased our camper...
Next, we "fixed up" my old van...a 1997 Ford Econoline Van that hadn't been driven in a year. It wouldn't start and had 4 flat tires.

We had to purchase and have a hitch put on the trailer plus other things that I don't understand how they work exactly. I just know that they were expensive and it took multiple trips to get them done.

Next, we had to license and insure the trailer...and the van since it has been sitting in our driveway for the past year.

We also had to pay sales tax on the trailer. YIKES!!

Then there was all the "incidentals" that you have to purchase when you have a mini home away from home...chemicals for the tanks, special toilet paper, electrical cords, water hoses, etc......

So, our plan was to leave fairly early on Sunday morning. We really hated to miss church and tried to figure a way around that but couldn't come up with a plan. (Saturday was spent by me working 12 hours away from home and Roger trying to get us ready as well as helping his daughter and son in law move...) We intended to leave at 10 a.m. to drive to our camp site. At 12:30, we pulled out with our old van and our camper attached. We got no more than 15 feet when we heard a terrible noise coming from the trailer.

We (and when I say we, I suppose I should say "I"...) forgot to push the steps of the trailer back up under the trailer. The steps caught on the tire of the car in the driveway and ripped the steps halfway off...

Roger wasn't happy.

He was a very good sport, however, and didn't even blame me. I thought all along that it was his fault but then I realized that I was the one who needed back into the trailer just moments before we took off and I asked for him to pull the steps down for me. I didn't remember...or even think to push them back into place!!
He simply took the steps all the way off the trailer and got a little step ladder to use on our trip.

Once again, we were on our way....and by then, it was raining....

We had to stop at Walmart, of course...and then to the trailer supply store to return something and hours after we had planned to leave, we were once again, on our way.

We got to southern Indiana fairly late. By that time, the rain had stopped and we were thinking it would be a nice night after all. We were thinking about hot dogs cooked over the fire and S'mores for desserts! Just as we found the park, it started drizzling. By the time we were backing into our site, it was officially raining,...again.

We microwaved our hot dogs and played boggle and some kind of card game the kids came up with. Keep in mind that our trailer is a very small thing...one double bed and a bench that folds down to make another bed. The kids decided to sleep in the van since the back of it also folds down to make a bed. We made it an early night.

Sometime in the middle of the night, a terrible storm came through. We were quite comfortable in the trailer but we were so worried about our kids in the van. We knew that they were as safe as we were...and that was kind of questionable...but we were worried about them being afraid. As soon as the storm eased up, Roger went out to check on them. Rebecca was sleeping through it and Gideon was doing ok!
Around dawn, another storm went through, this one just as bad if not worse than the first one!
Roger rolled over, laughed a little and said, "Do you want to go to the amusement park today?"

I laughed.
Finally, we were able to get some sleep and around 10 a.m., we woke to fairly sunny skies and we hurried and had pancakes for breakfast and DID actually go to the amusement park.

We had to move our camper first to another campground closer to the park since we couldn't get both nights at the same place...they were booked up due to the holiday weekend. I must say that my dear hubby did an awesome job manuevering our camper in and out of the sites. I am impressed! He has never done that before and I am proud of him!

Finally, we went to the park and I was talked into riding rides. My intention was just to get into an inner tube and float down the "lazy river", which is my kind of excitement! I was talked into going on the Liberty Launch...which is this crazy thing that takes you way up in the air and then drops you down a million miles an hour...or close to it.
I bowed out of the roller coasters and so did Rebecca. We rode the Turkey Whirl (also known by us as the Turky Hurl....yuck!) a few times and the guys did the roller coasters. We had lunch in the "Thanksgiving" area of Holiday World and in the interest of saving money, each had the children's plate! (It was HUGE! We had chicken and dumplings and all the fixings! Roger had turkey, I think....)
Finally, we went to the water part of the amusement park and rode the huge water slides. I was terrified, having ridden them before and hated every minute of it! However, Roger and I were on the tube together and just hearing him yell and shout was worth having to go on the ride. It was hysterical! He ended up having to ride the side backwards like I did the first time and I thoroughly enjoyed teasing him about it afterwards!(I kept telling him he screamed like a girl...which wasn't exactly true...he just screamed like a regular man....!!!!)
We went to the "wave" pool which makes you feel like you are in the surf. It was getting kind of cold and Roger started not feeling very well. We left after the kids spent quite a bit of time in it.
The "Lazy River" was next and we floated down it twice.
Finally, we sat down for a while and the kids went on another ride close by. I got my poor sick hubby a drink and pretty soon, we both got to experience his lunch all over again. This time it wasn't quite as appetizing as it was when he first had it.
I felt so sorry for him but in the same time, it was kind of funny. He was teasing me most of the time about making me ride the scary rides and there he was, sick as a dog!
He soon felt better and we shopped a little bit and got some things for each of our sets of kids to take home to them.
We had a wonderful little cookout back at the campsite and even got to ride our bikes a little bit until Rebecca's bike broke. I gave her mine and walked hers back to the camper.
We sat around and sang songs, talked and Roger told us the story of Esther in the Bible. I gave a kind of devotion about football!! Believe it or not!! Evidently, there is a rule about "not piling on" when someone has been tackled. I used that as an example for the kids. When someone is having a difficult day or is in trouble with a parent, no one else is allowed to "pile on" him or her. I'd been waiting to talk to them about it after hearing it on our Christian radio station.

The next day, we left to go home a little after noon. We went to the boyhood home of Abe Lincoln and saw where his cabin once stood. They built a replica of it nearby and we enjoyed that greatly.
We drove and drove and went to a monastary and to a Christian store.
We ate our food that I had prepared at the picnic table there. It was yummy!
Finally it was time to head the many hours home. Roger decided we needed gas in our big gas guzzler. As we got off the interstate, there was a road that went to the left and to the right. To the right, it had a sign that said gas so we turned that way. Finally, we came upon this little....well....shack of a gas station. Roger manuvered the van and got out to get the gas. The pump wouldn't work! He went to the little store which had a big "OPEN" sign flashing in the window.
He came back...it had closed 30 minutes ago.
Across the street there was an even worse looking gas station. After much work, he was able to angle the van and trailer in front of the first pump. It didn't have a hose...
At the second pump there was a huge barrel with tomatoes growing in them. On the door of the gas station there was a sign that indicated that there was an out house out back...
An old man came over and told Roger that there was another gas station down the road with better prices so, believe it or not, after all that work and manuvering, Roger decided that he would go to the next town! (11 miles away.........)
Well, we DID make it to the next town...up and down all those big hills of Southern Indiana, my poor old van's engine whining and complaining all the way. Sometimes we weren't sure if we were going to make it but we DID!
We actually had a great time. Roger pointed out the factory where White Castles are made and of course, I had to take a picture!
We finally go home late Tuesday night and as we were rearranging the cars (six of them) in our driveway and onto the street to back the camper into the drive, a policeman pulled up! We thought maybe we were making too much noise! However, he was just trying to catch some guy who is known to speed up and down our street at that time of the night! Whew!!

We're planning one or two more camping trips this fall. I am not sure why.....

Adoption, Step families and the flu!

I've been battling the flu lately. I am feeling better but I am just soooo very very tired! I had planned to get so much done this week and all I really accomplished was really scrubbing the floors in the kitchen, entry and hallway and cleaning up one bathroom. I did get to babysit my son's little boy, Dylan,5 years old, and later, my hubby's granddaughter, Seraphina, 9 months, who is in every way MY grandbaby as well, yesterday! I took Dylan to the park and he met a little boy about his age. They played and played and played! The park was just packed with mommies and their little ones. There was about 5 or 6 beautiful Asian children there with Caucasian mommies. I boldly...or not so boldly...asked one of the mommies it if was an adoption support group. She said, "Yes, it is!" I told her I thought it was a beautiful thing and we talked for a while. (She thought Dylan was mine and was shocked when I told her I was the GRANDMA! Kind of a nice ego boost for this chubby Grammy!!)
Adoption has been on my heart and mind for so many years, since I was a little girl. I keep praying about it. I wish God would just take away the desire if it isn't something He has for us to do. I just can't imagine anything better that I could do with the rest of my life than to give love to a couple of children who otherwise wouldn't have a family of their own.
I started out last year...or maybe it was two years ago...reading about orphans in Africa, especially Ethiopia. My heart would just break for them and I would cry and cry. My husband finally asked me to please stop going to those websites. I tried to obey him but every once in a while, I still read about them.
Then I started thinking about orphans in THIS country as well. Little children who may never hear about the love of God. Precious little ones that don't have someone to tuck them in at night and a place to feel safe, secured and deeply deeply loved.
I don't care what color or race of a child I might get. I realize that there are cultural differences and we would have to try soooo hard to include those things in their lives and to ask for help from other people.
The other day, I was working with an African American lady and I mentioned "John Denver". She just gave me a blank stare. She had no idea who he was! Then I realized how much of her culture that I don't know. Would it be fair to the child to raise him or her in a culture different than his or hers? Then I realized that just as there are differences in our white culture, lower class, upper class, the huge middle class, there is the same thing in African American or Hispanic cultures! You can't be everything to everybody...we would just have to try our very very best and expose the children to as much of their ethnic group as possible. I am friends with African Americans and they are so VERY similar to the way we live. When I am with them, I don't think about them being different than us. We are just friends and we have the same VALUES! I think that's what we get hung up on. People are people. There are different kinds of people with different kinds of values...I did not say that there are different races with different values. Not at all! People are people and people have different values. There are white people with values so different than mine that I want to say, "WHO ARE YOU AND WHERE DID YOU COME FROM?"
I understand the argument that people say that people should raise children of their own race. I'm just not saying that I agree with it. There are so many children in this world...in this country...that need homes-Christian homes that will nurture and love them. All children deserve to be loved. I can't imagine growing up without the secure knowledge that my parents loved me and that I was safe.
That's what I want to do. I want to change a child's life forever by giving him or her all the love that he or she could handle. I want to change MY life forever.
This is something we're praying about...and waiting for. We already have had a huge task of trying to combine this family. Sometimes I think we are expecting perfection. It is nearly impossible to expect a group of older kids who weren't raised together to suddenly feel like everyone is one big family. I think maybe what we do have is pretty good. I honestly think it is unreasonable to expect them to immediately think of each other as brother and sisters instead of step-brothers and step-sisters. I think everyone is trying to include each other but they still had the majority if not ALL of their growing up years with their own core families. Sometimes I just think we expect too much.
Wow...well, there you go. I honestly don't know what made me write all that today. It's just been on my heart and I thought I'd share it. If you think about it, keep us in your prayers.
Have a lovely day!

Inexpensive but nice decorations for my home!

Yummy Zucchini Brownies!!!!

Supper!!!!!

I think we now have about 30 bags of zucchini frozen!

Home grown tomatoes on Grandma's dish

Just a few pictures of things that have been keeping me busy...preserving food, baking and even some crafting. The tomatoes were from our garden and were delicious! One night we had all fresh produce and hamburgers. Another day I made zucchini brownies...a recipe from one of my favorite blogs.

The framed words are so simple to make. I am planning to make some with Bible verses, lines of poetry or such for Christmas presents. I bought frames from the Goodwill Store that already had the matting in them...usually for 1/2 their price! (Sometimes the frames were just too perfect for what I wanted and I actually paid full Goodwill price!! YIKES!! haha) Most of the time I removed the picture that was in it and just cleaned it up OR even sanded it in places. I bought scrapbook paper with bits of rose petals in it and then just wrote the words using caligraphy pens. On some of them, I have lined the area next to the matting with more scrapbook items...in these cases, I used sticky border to make it look older. This is an easy and fairly inexpensive craft! For more ideas, browse the picture aisles at the store and write down phrase ideas or look in magazines and catalogs! Some other phrases might include "Simplify", "Country", "Primitive", etc.

They were lots of fun to make and I now have these two hanging in one of our bathrooms. When my son and daughter in law married in early August, I made them a phrase that they say to each other all the time...."Love you Most!" and then added their names and wedding date. I think they liked it and they knew that I made it from my heart!

Our new Camper!

I've been working on organizing the girls' school books and all the papers and notebooks that go along with them! WHEW! I bought two Rubbermaid type files for my part and quickly found out this morning that I will need more! I hate to spend money just to get organized but I think it is important to be organized in AT LEAST this area of our lives!
It was a much colder weekend than we have been used to and I had a terrible headache yesterday to prove it! I made it to morning Sunday School and church and then went to bed as soon as lunch was over with. I didn't make it to evening church but my hubby did. He is doing something with the sound booth at church, using a computer or something...they won't let ME near it and good for them!!!!
There's not much happening today...the girls are working on their schoolwork and have recited their verses and their poetry this morning. They did a good job!
I'm going to help my husband bring home our new(ish) little camper this afternoon! I can't wait to outfit it with things around our house, quilts, dishes, etc. My husband (otherwise known as "He who has put wife on purchasing restrictions") admitted to having already bought plates and bowls for the new camper. He said that he could already "see" me going to the Goodwill Store and buying all kinds of things for our little home away from home. I told him that I can decorate our camper from things already in our house. He said, "I BET YOU CAN!!!" Hmmm...I'm not sure how to interpret that! Do you think he means that I am soooo talented that I can create some lovely things from items in our house....or could he possibly mean that I have already purchased so many things that are laying around our home that there is plenty to pick from???
Hmmmm.......
We are planning a trip to "Holiday World" (a nice amusement park) in Southern Indiana soon and plan to camp closeby. That will be our first time in our camper. I am considering how much fun it might be to let just us girls go camping sometime! (Since I work Fridays and Saturdays, it is hard to take advantage of camping!)

By the way, my daughter Jennie has now posted some videos of our little granddaughter, Seraphina and well as our silly kitten...the baby is about 9 months old and the kitty is about 12 weeks old...just in case you want to check them out! Please pardon my messy house in the background!!!!
Well...lots and lots to get done today and not much time to do them in! So have a lovely day! Blessings to you all!

Start of a new school year and cleaning!!

We have been so busy here at our house. I'm TRYING to get organized with cleaning and having the girls start school this week. They are both very excited about it. I think that Jennie is having a much easier time with it because she went from public school last year to online streaming for school this year. So she is used to the routine and the necessity of the school tasks that she is doing. Becca was homeschooled last year but since I worked outside of the home last year, she did much of her work on her own time schedule. She did fine for me but it wasn't as regimented as it will be this year.
I bought a new laptop so that each of them would have a different computer to work from. It was nearly impossible for them to put in a full day's worth of school sharing the computer. Becca has been saving for a computer (and so has Jennie) so Becca and I went in together to buy one. Jennie will continue to save her money until she has enough to buy her own laptop. However, they help support a little Kenyan boy and Becca helps me to pay for her trumpet lessons so saving money is rather slow around here!
I think it is so cute, though, to see them doing their schoolwork. Becca answers questions out loud and sings during their Bible class when the teacher asks them to sing a hymn. They have LOTS of Bible memory to do and I am pleased but somewhat worried about them getting it all done. I can't imagine anything any better for them to do, though, than to memorize God's Word! God has been putting that on my heart as well so I may try to memorize it along with them! So far Jennie has taken several quizzes in different classes and has gotten 100%! Yay for Jennie!

It is also neat that the girls' cousins from Pensacola Christian Academy are "in" their classes. These are pretaped classes from a year or so ago so even though the cousins are a little older than my girls, they are "in" the same class! It's fun watching them answer the questions. These are good kids so I don't expect the teacher will ever have to tell them to pay attention, etc. in the classes. (I'm just so happy that I was never in a taped class...my parents would have had evidence that I was NOT paying attention, talking, or just plain goofing off in class! WHEW!)

I've been cleaning out cabinets and washing the tops of cabinets in our house. I'm rearranging our pantry and cabinets a little bit as well. I just don't quite know what to do with all the stuff. Maybe it is time to DROP OFF at the Goodwill Store instead of BRINGING THINGS HOME from the Goodwill Store!

I'm also trying to figure out how to organize all the school books and manuals, test and quiz books, etc. for their school. I think I need to "purge" some book shelf space for this important time of their lives! I have to be better organized! That is my biggest problem...lack of organization! I would love to BE organized, I just don't know how to GET there!

I have some pictures to share but I don't want to disturb Jennie while she is studying...she is going to give me some computer lessons and show me how to get pictures from my camera on to the computer! Hmmmm....THAT should be a task for her!!!! Maybe next week...tomorrow and Saturday are those long days at work...I come home and just SLEEP!

We have new neighbors accoss the street. I was praying for some people who possibly homeschooled to move in but they look like they are an older couple. They are probably very nice and soon we plan to bring them a loaf of home made Zopf bread!

Blessings to you all! Have a lovely day!

Oh...by the way, I've talked about "Trinket" the kitten...Jennie has decided to put a short playful video of her on my blog. Hmm....Oh well, I guess I told her my password???? Not sure why. She was working on a video about a slum in Kenya and about the growth of a baby in the womb so she is sharing them with us. I DID tell her to put her Kenyan video and the baby video on there. I LOVE THAT GIRL OF MINE!!! :)