County Fair Results........

You just won't believe this...my little story about adoption won Grand Champion in our county fair! I was sooooo surprised. I'm trying to decide if I want to send it in to have a Christian magazine to look at it. It's kinda scary to put yourself "out there"....
I entered a basket in the "Gifts from the Kitchen" section and got a Champion ribbon. (Actually, it was 3rd or 4th out of all the others...with Grand Champion and Reserve Champion placing higher than me.) It was a lot of fun to do and they usually auction the baskets off to raise money for the Extension Homemakers.
I got a blue ribbon on my oatmeal cookies and on my painted gourd. It was so much fun to just participate in our county fair. LOTS and LOTS of ladies from our little church also entered things. It's neat to be part of a little farming community!

Becca entered her little painting of a bird and received a Reserve Champion ribbon in the open show. She got two blue ribbons on her photos in the Homemakers Junior division.

She got all Blue placings on her projects and an Honor with a Blue Ribbon on one of her photos in the regular 4H fair. Gideon got two blue ribbons on his two projects.

All in all, they were happy with what they got...Becca tends to be hard on herself and works for that "Champion or Reserve or Grand Champion Ribbon." This is the first year she hasn't won one of those enviable ribbons. But she wasn't able to work on them as hard as she has in the past so I'm happy with her efforts.

Roger and I have our big class reunions this year. Since I went to school with Roger for three years, freshman through junior years, I know everyone he graduated with. That reunion is this weekend. I guess most people are apprehensive about those big reunions...I wish I had lost lots more weight......
I don't think I'm going to the class reunion where I actually graduated. I only went there one year and mostly, it's a year that I didn't really enjoy a whole lot...first experience in public high school.............which is why I really am pro homeschool!!

We are also baking another wedding cake...this time for Roger's older brother and his wedding is the same day as our reunion. His sister and her family are coming in first thing tomorrow morning. Busy busy week!!

Have a lovely day...stay cool....if you can!!
Blessings,
Beth

Do You Remember.....

Oh how LOVELY February was?? It is the beginning of 4H fair week here in our county and it is once again HOT!!!!!!! So, with that in mind, I thought it would be nice to remember what it was just five short months ago here in Indiana......

(Pretty picture, isn't it? I didn't take it, daughter Jennie did it!)

Ice on the side of the house....

Snow up past the windows of our old little church...on Missions Conference weekend.

I actually like the winter time as long as I don't have to drive in the bad conditions, or if my husband and children and loved ones don't have to drive in it...which is rare...especially now that Danny is a policeman and has to be out in it all the time!!!

But those lovely, cozy days of curling up with a wonderful Jane Austen book or movie, or scrapbooking, or sewing, or even tidying up my house seem so wonderful to me right now! A nice cup of "Breakfast" or Lady Grey tea in a beautiful tea cup, a yummy scented candle burning, even the lingering scent of the fabric softener in the laundry room seems nice to me right now...summer is very busy around our house and I really miss the slightly less active time of the winter. The wintertime just seems so very cozy to me when I am at home...KEEPING home. The yellowish light in the window welcoming my husband home to a hot home cooked meal helps create a delightful mood in our home. I am really looking forward to the first real winter we will spend in our new/old house. It is really quite snug. (I have been promising myself that I will never complain about anything in the much more affordable house...but I would REALLY love to have a clothes closet for Roger and myself! I'm trying to talk him into building one soon...very soon, please, oh please????????? Roger Honey.....do you ever read this stuff I write????)

My mother was very very sick this week and continues to feel bad...although better. She was taken to the hospital Saturday night with pneumonia in both lungs and sepsis. She is better now and is home. I was really afraid on Saturday that we would lose her. Becca sat at my feet and just sobbed. However, as I said, she is much improved and even called me and joked around with me. (she overheard another phone conversation I had on the cellphone with my hubby, telling him I loved him, etc....She told me that we were "sick." Yeah, maybe...at least our teenagers think we are!! hehe!!) I am thanking the Lord for His provision for her!

4H is about to start full swing this weekend. Almost all the projects have been turned in with the exception of Becca's Food Preparation. She is making quiche' and it needs to be ready Thursday morning...bright and early! Becca and Gideon both received blue ribbons on their craft projects, blue ribbons on their photography projects, Becca got a blue on a painting, and her "salon" photography was just judged this morning. She got a "Blue" ribbon on a picture of chocolate kisses...with a possible consideration for the honors group...and a blue ribbon with honors on a picture of the woods behind our house with the farmer's yard tractor in the picture. It will be competing for champion, reserve or grand champion. (Not bad, I think!) I LOVE that picture!

I hope that they are learning a lot from 4H and that is isn't all about just winning a ribbon. (I know that that is a big part to them...they each would love to get a champion ribbon but not many kids get to have that. ) I want them to work hard and compete NICELY...not mean spirited. I think that it can easily become that way if we don't watch it. I am also a little bit afraid that PRIDE will get in the way and get ugly.

Becca and Gideon ARE learning about time scheduling, doing your best, talking with judges and explaining their projects. We are really reaping the benefit of Becca learning so much about cooking! She knows much much much more at 14 than I did when I got married!

Well, have a lovely day, try to stay cool...if possible.

Blessings!

Beth

Observations....

My hubby and I went out for a lunch date the other day to Einstein Bagels. Roger loves the Tasty Turkey! Anyway, as I was sitting with him, I noticed an elderly lady and what I assumed to be her preteen or early teen grandson. She was struggling and struggling to open the door to the restaurant. The boy just stood there, waiting for the old lady to open the door. They then proceeded to the counter and placed their order. The boy took his glass and walked to the soda machines and filled his drink up. The old lady joined him a few minutes later with her own glass and filled hers up. Then they sat down to eat.

I don't know why that struck me as significant...I'm sure that kind of thing happens all the time...when a person is completely oblivious to the needs of others. When it happens in MY home, however, it is a little bit different.

When one of my children (or step children) goes in the door in front of me and lets it go without holding it open or in some way being courteous to me, I just stand there on the front porch until he realizes what he did.

It doesn't take long for him to figure out that if Mom (or step mom) doesn't get in the house, food will not be cooked, laundry won't be done and life as he knows it will not go on for long.

When my children were little, I taught them to LOOK for service opportunities. When they were only about three or so, I taught them to hold the door for other people and to pick something up if someone dropped it. Those little fellas just ate that kind of stuff up! It was so cute to see them trying to lean against a big door going into a store just to be polite to someone else!

Becca's homeschooling group is pretty awesome when it comes to service opportunities. Once a month they pick something to do to aid others. It is really nice to see those same junior high and high school students holding the door for people, calling us by Mr. and Mrs., and just simply being polite to people as we come and go in the church building where their classes are held. There are now over 180 students involved in this group and there are a LOT of opportunities to serve! The older ones have been responsible to totally clean the classrooms and the restrooms after their one day a week "school day" is over. I was really impressed when Becca started there last year! Now that she is starting high school (oh dear, where has the time gone??) she will be attending 2 days a week...with LOTS of mom's involvement! Thankfully, she will have an actual teacher to help her with Algebra and Spanish! (not my strengths....)

Two weeks ago, Becca and Gideon's youth group from church went to "The Wilds" in North Carolina for church camp. I guess it was pretty fun! Becca rededicated her life and surrendered to missions if that is what the Lord asks her to do. (or anything else He wants for her life.) Gideon did the same thing with an idea of working with youth. I know that they are young and that may not be what the Lord asks them to do, but it is nice to see that their hearts are open to Him.

The 4H fair is starting up again soon! This has been a pretty hard year with us moving and getting our bigger house ready to sell. It hasn't been easy with my Roger being so sick. The kids weren't able to go to very many workshops and hopefully they will be able to do those things more next year! They each have a few projects, though, and I hope they do well.

Well, we've got to get to the craft store now and then back for their final 4H meeting before the fair. Both Gideon and Becca are officers so they need to be there. (I just want to take a nap...)

By the way, our homestudy is completely done and I talked to the adoption agency on Friday. We need to forward things to them from the other adoption agency. Guess what? We have been approved to adopt 1 or 2 little ones! Wouldn't that be great? Two precious souls? One would be fine with us but two would be an additional blessing. The country that we are adopting from only places siblings and not two unrelated children. I am going to leave that in God's hands.

Since adoption is so near and dear to my heart, I tend to talk about it a lot. I think that it touches people's hearts to hear that people are doing this kind of thing. I try to make it all about the Lord but I also don't want to sound self righteous. Some of you might remember a post that I wrote back in December about walking in the snow and thinking about our little girl waiting for us in Africa. I added to it a little bit to bring in more about Christ's salvation and I entered it today in the open division in our county fair. I told my hubby that at least one or two people will be forced to read it since they are judging it so....who knows if they have ever really heard about God's Adoption of us?
Well, have a lovely day! It is really HOT here in Indiana!
Blessings, Beth

Hello everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful Father's Day weekend!! I wasn't able to visit my own Dad but I talked to him on the phone and will see him as soon as I get over this nasty cold I seem to be coming down with!

Roger did well with his surgery on Thursday!! He went back to work today.
We had his nieces over this weekend and returned them to their parents on Saturday. They live in Florida and I drove just south of Nashville, Tenn. to meet their parents.
We stayed over night in Nashville because I was driving and just didn't want to drive all the way home to central Indiana at 10 o'clock at night! Roger was able to drive on Sunday which was a very good thing because I had to take cold medicine and I get really "Loopy" on cold medicine!

Kind of a funny/sad thing happened on the way home, though. Roger was driving a car that belonged to his brother in law's sister. We were driving it home to Indiana for her since she had left it in Florida when she picked up the children and had driven the kids' parents' nice van with them back to Indiana. Anyway, so he was driving this older car that we weren't familiar with. Next to us was a whole huge group of motorcycles and suddenly they came upon a semi tractor tire in the interstate highway lane they were driving in. Everyone in that lane (and in all the lanes around them) started slowing down and swerving to protect the motorcyclists. Roger swerved to the left and almost ran off the road. Nothing really happened but our HUGE HUGE diet soft drinks in the cup holders tipped over and plunged to the floor....right into the bag that held his and my dad's Father's Day gifts!! So...Roger wore a slightly stained new shirt to work this morning and I haven't yet tried to get the stains out of my dad's shirt. I think, though, that my Fels Naptha soap should do the trick!

I'm doing pretty well on the weight loss struggle!! I lost 23 pounds in six weeks! My doctor was really happy so it made the office visit with her more pleasant than last time! The past week or so has been more of a challenge to me, though. I think the newness of being a diabetic has worn off a little and now I just want chocolate. In fact, on our trip to Tennessee this weekend, I saw a big Cadillac Escapade that was painted that new creamy pink color. Immediately I thought about Cherry Cordials, wanted some SOOOOOOO badly and low and behold, a gas station we stopped at sold them individually!!! I bought three, had one yesterday, one today and I still have one left. They aren't as good as I once thought they were......I think that sugar is becoming too sweet to me. I GUESS that's a good thing....???????

Well....we have LOTS to do today and it seems that if MOM isn't working and is blogging instead, no one else seems to think that they need to do anything, either. Good grief, you'd think I'd need to set a good example or something!!

Blessings to you all!
Beth

Being My Husband's Wife

I've recently been reading the book "The Excellent Wife". It is a really good book...not necessarily entertaining, but filled with lots of Scripture and information about being a wife. I did not find within its pages helpful homemaking tidbits and that kind of thing. However, I am really learning about being accountable to God for my actions and attitude all the time. I'm learning about being the wife GOD wants me to be regardless of how I am treated or how romantic or unromantic my husband is being or if he is doing everything he is supposed to be doing. Don't get me wrong!!!! Roger is absolutely wonderful, my best friend and one of the greatest blessings in my life. He's not perfect but he's perfect for ME!! But of course, sometimes we DO have our squabbles and misunderstandings. Sometimes, those squabbles can blow up to be a big fight that only hurts our relationship and the relationship with our children. When it comes right down to it, even if my feelings are hurt or I don't think my husband is doing something correctly, it is MY responsibility to respond the way that GOD wants me to respond. After all, I am a wife who is supposed to be obeying God......

A side note....my precious hubby is supposed to be having surgery Thursday morning...I would covet your prayers for him. He also now has a pretty serious infection and I am very concerned about them still performing surgery on him while the area is infected with this nastiness!


Speaking of wives...a few months back, I was asked by my daughter in law, Erin, and my son Danny, to sleep over at their house so that they could have a weekend away. I was able to stay with my little grandson, Liam in their cute house.

This was the room that welcomed me!! Isn't it cute? It made me want to stay there longer....except that I would miss my husband and other children!


This is their little "cottage"! Isn't it adorable? It is just perfect for the three of them (and possibly more in the future??) and believe it or not, it has an upstairs! They were really blessed to be able to buy this house at quite a good price so they were able to start out their married lives with a home of their own! They did lots of work on the landscape and driveway lately.

Here they are at Christmastime with little Liam.

Liam and I made brownies for them...as a surprise when they got back!! (Actually, I think I took this picture another day when I just had him for the morning at their house....) Regardless, he is absolutely ADORABLE!! And doesn't Duplo blocks and brownie batter go together? He is now one year old!!

I am mentioning my daughter in love Erin in this post because I am so very very very proud of her...my son, too...but I am just so proud of her! I have never been to their home when it wasn't spotless...their baby wasn't spotless, beds made, kitchen and bathroom clean, and my son very very happy! She is a wonderful wife and I really wish I had been as good as she is when I was her age. (or at my current age...)

But being an "Excellent Wife" isn't just cooking, cleaning, etc. It is doing what God expects of us in our attitude and reactions. I think my Erin is a pretty excellent wife.

Yeah....I want to be her when I grow up......

Pictures of our "Little House in the Country!"

This picture is of Becca's bedroom.....all ready for a little girl to join our family sometime this year! "Grace" (as we call her since we don't yet know her African name...) will have the bed full of pandas. Becca was very happy to share her room but still wanted to have an "Asian" theme. The rest of the room is very Asian inspired....I just don't have that part in this picture!! :(

I have some more pictures to show you of our little house in the country!! Since I am not very good at any thing having to do with a computer, I have these pictures in the wrong order!! I wanted to show you the before pictures and then the after pictures, but I ended up doing it the wrong way. So.....this is our kitchen with the white painted cabinets. We have opted to keep the pine walls and even the ceiling for now. Eventually we intend to add a family room and change the kitchen somewhat.

To anyone who may remember...there is a little quaint corner hutch to the right of our little kitchen table. It is still there and I LOVE it! (I just don't have a picture of it right now!!)

This is our living room. It is pretty tiny compared to what we are used to having but it is an incredible feeling to know that it is truly ours...(and God's) and that we don't owe anything on it to the bank! That idea makes up for a LOT of shortfalls!!! :)

This was the before of the living room.

And....the before of the kitchen........WOW....it took weeks to paint all those cabinets white!!

Here it is.....home sweet home!! Eventually, we plan to add a covered front porch and change the siding on the front to a wood look shingle. We are also planning to get rid of the "patio" door on the left of the house and add windows like the ones on the right of the house. Roger also has plans for a new window for our living room. (Yeah...we have LOTS of plans....very little money....but LOTS of plans!!) I'm not crazy about the patio door (it leads to our bedroom...) but I am pretty content with it.

The woods behind our house, while not "ours" is lovely to look at and you wouldn't believe the birds singing in the mornings!! We haven't seen a deer there yet but we do hear foxes "screaming" at night sometimes!

Hopefully, I can keep pictures coming as we work on the house. We don't plan to do anything to the new house until we sell the "big" house.

I know it seems strange to people that we have purchased a house 1/3 the size of our bigger one. But when you feel it is what God wants you to do, it doesn't seem strange at all. It seems very comfortable. A year or two ago, we went to a missions conference and my husband asked me what I thought about him writing a check to go to missions. I thought it was fine but realized that it would really hurt our budget. We now feel that we want to be able to do that anytime God asks us to do it. (Not that we will ever have THAT much money...) Not having a big house payment can help us do what God has for us. (Especially if that has to do with our little girl waiting for us in Africa!!! We're still working on the adoption!!)

Have a LOVELY day...I'm supposed to be painting and cleaning the "big" house....and here I am, BLOGGING!!!

Blessings,

Beth

We have a pretty big weekend planned with just Roger, myself and Roger's son Gideon. We are going camping and the teenage girlies prefer to stay in the air conditioning at their dad's place. Imagine THAT!!!! They decided that they don't like mosquitoes and other insects. (I don't blame them!)
We have almost completely finished with our homestudy toward adopting from Lesotho, Africa!! They are waiting for some forms to be sent to them and then the social worker will forward the homestudy to our adoption agency! I can't wait! "Baby Grace", as I call her, is ALWAYS on my mind! (Always in my heart!!)
I'm trying to quickly blog a little to let some of my online friends know that we are still alive and fairly well and dear hubby Roger is loading up some bicycles in the van to take camping with us! We are still kind of living in two houses...the computer is in the original house and most of our necessities are in the small ranch house....which I LOVE, by the way!!!! So I don't get to blog much since I don't really have access to our computer very often!

I've lost ALMOST 20 pounds in 1 month!!!! I don't think I have ever lost that much in a month before but then I have never had this much to lose before!! I'm just really cutting back on breads and sweets and eating basically about half as much as I was. (Which was quite a LOT!!)

All the kids are doing well, finished up with the school year and 3 out of 4 are starting on NEXT year already! Marci is doing college online and a few classes on campus and Jennie and Becca are working for next year's high school credits. Becca is homeschooling and Jennie is doing some senior classes so that she can attend classes for a Nursing Assistant Certificate her Senior year. So everyone seems pretty busy!

Roger has to have surgery on Thursday so if you think about it, keep him in your prayers. It will be outpatient, so it should not be terribly serious!

Blessings to you all! Beth