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I am Very grateful for my newly cleaned out and painted laundry/sewing room. I had many diligent daughters that helped me with the project. A giant task that started as a little cleaning job. It grew and grew, and what a blessing it is to me now.

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DeBrands sundae. Yum. A birthday gift from one of my daughters. Tart raspberry sauce, milk chocolate sauce in a chocolate bowl with homemade vanilla ice cream. almost too pretty to eat, but not quite. Thanks Hannah!

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What is it about 2 year olds that is so delightful? Maybe the cheeks, or the big eyes, or the constant chatter. I know one thing for sure, you don't need tv if you have toddlers.

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Most of my children got free horseback rides from a friend at church as a surprise. What a blessing to them and to me. Thanks Abigail, your kindness brought such joy to so many kids that day.

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Katie bug was blessed by being able to be on her favorite beast. She got to have 2 lessons this summer. The next best thing to owning a horse. What a joyful day, thank you Lord for providing the means.

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Delighful. Busy. Beautiful. My little baby boy, 15 months, is a continual reason to give thanks. I don't deserve the way the Lord has filled my hands with so many blessings. But I gratefully and humbly take on the task each morning.

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Getting to spend my mother-in-law's birthday with her and all of us was a blessing. Isaiah and all the kids worked hard on art to give her. We are so grateful for all the time and love she has invested in our children. Making gingerbread houses, baking cookies, doing crafts, having tea parties...and all the special gifts she makes them; raggedy ann or andy when they are one, a birthday flag when they are two, a tea set when they are three. So many memories, one super Gramzpamz.

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How precious to still have my 86 year old grandmother. And how wonderful that she came to stay with us for a week. She is one of 14 children and the daughter of to full blooded Italian parents. She is such a blessing to spend time with. We had the joy and priviledge of taking her to the zoo for the first time in her life in October. I wish I had the visit on video tape. It was wonderful.

Tasty Tuesday

A new idea...tasty tuesday, sharing one or more of my favorite recipes each week. As long as the Lord allows me the time, here they shall be.

             Emma, my dear 13 year old is chef of the day today and has made us one of our very favorite recipes for breakfast. Lemon Tea Muffins. They are delightful with a cup of tea, and also delightful without the tea.

Lemon Tea Muffins

4 cups flour (we use 1/2 whole wheat, typically)

2 cups sugar (we use turbinado, sucanat or evaporated cane)

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 cup buttermilk (we use our raw milk)

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 tsp grated lemon peel, optional

1 tsp lemon extract

1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

4 eggs

1 cup oil

TOPPING:

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup flour

2 tbsp butter

Directions:

Combine dry ingredients and nuts. Then add wet ingredients, mix just until all is moistened. Put into 36 greased or paper lined muffin tins. Mix topping by combining sugar and flour and cutting in butter, until it resembles course crumbs. Sprinkle on the muffins. Bake at 400 for 12-15 minutes. These freeze well.

Enjoy!

Multitude Monday

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To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. Ecclesiastes 3:1

Fall...what a wonderful time of year. I am grateful God gives us a change of scenery 4 times a year. What a blessing to see the leaves changing colors and falling from the trees, and knowing God has a purpose in it all. What a good reminder, that no matter what we go through in our lives, God has a purpose in it all.

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One of my favorite times in our daily schedule is at 9 am. We gather after our quiet time, breakfast and morning chores for our Bible memory work and hymn sing time. We start with the oldest, and let them pick the hymns, and work our way down to the youngest who can read or sing. If time doesn't allow for all to pick songs, we let the next one be the first to pick the next day. We were abundantly blessed a few months ago by a local church with several boxes of hymnals they no longer used. We were thrilled!  Not only enough for us and when we have large families over, but enough to share with 2 other families and still have a few extra to use in our visual journals, tore up. Thank you Lord!

  

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My precious Hopie girl, sweet sissy bear, I love her so much. She is almost 3 and not to be intimidated by having 2 brothers above her and 1 brother under her in the birth order. She can hold her own, and if you didn't know her family, would think she was a first born. She talks, and talks and talks. In beautiful little chatter. I'm quite sure she will grow up to be one of the biggest helpers I've got. We recently found out she has a heart murmur and are praying it is nothing serious and that God would heal her.

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Oh what a beautiful sight home canned peaches are. And they taste even better than they look. We had the blessed privilege of having Mrs Prentice help us can our 3 bushels this year. She is such a diligent server and blesses our family beyond measure with her help each Thursday. God provides in so many ways, above all we could ask or think.

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Here we are...on Resurrection Sunday at Grammy's house. I am grateful for our large family, with both hands full. I am grateful for in-laws willing to have us over for a wonderful meal and filling more eggs than any other human ever has in order to hide them for the children. I am grateful that we have many bouncing, jumping, running legs in our family. I am also grateful that no one got smashed in our jumping pictures. ☺

 

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Paul, darling, charming, busy, hungry, loud...repeat. I'm quite sure there has never been another like him. He is an original. Which makes every day with him new and exciting and...well...busy, and noisy. I no longer carry on phone conversations in the house. I go to the garage. You never know when a pirate, a policeman, a fire truck, an indian, or some other 'thing' will erupt into loud whoops and hollers in our home...so to be safe, I just go to the garage. And if you have ever seen our garage, well, you know that he must be very loud for me to spend any amount of time out there. ☺

Valerie Hope

-Valerie Hope-

playing @ the park

The hand of the diligent shall bear rule: but the slothful shall be under tribute. Proverbs 12:24

We use chore packs from Steve and Teri Maxwell's book "Managers of Their Chores". I just love them. With our big happy family, chores are a constant necessity. After a few months of doing our chore packs, the children were a little less than motivated to get their chore packs on and begin in the morning. I was talking with the Lord about this and an idea came to my mind.

When I sat down with the children at breakfast, I told them we would no longer have any desserts or treats unless it was a birthday or holiday. Then came the exception. For every chore pack card they complete, they get one point. If they do jobs over and above their chore packs they get two points, and if for every subject in school they get done, they also get a point.

I also expanded this to special events. If they get a large amount of points in a day, we can go to the park, the library, the zoo....etc... It also works in reverse, one Thursday of each month my oldest daughter organizes a volleyball/ultimate frisbee/park day for all the families at our church. The children have to have so many points to be able to attend. This week, we have a similar even and they all need 45 points to go.

Each week, Kate prints me off "chore point checksheets" to tape up on the dining room wall. Then, as the kids complete jobs, schools or extra things they put tally marks in their daily box. 

Now, I my management job is a little easier and I am so grateful to the Lord for His creativity. I am also grateful to the Lord for the hands full of blessings He has allowed me to train. He must have known I'd be lazy if I had any free time ☺.

May God bless your days with creativity!

Enjoy the pictures of our park trip at the end of a high-point earning day.

yes, we stayed until dark....

Multitude Monday

0021.Oh how very grateful I am for our precious first born boy. Isaiah. What a wonderful, splendid young man he is. The first boy after 8 girls, we never thought we'd see the day. We are sure glad we did. He is a delightful 5, almost 6 year old. He loves being with Mom. He also loves playing with his playmobil, his little brothers, little sister and all the big sisters God gave him. Everyone who sees him says he looks like his daddy. He looks remarkably like my dad as well.

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I am so abundantly blessed by all the hand-me-downs that people have given to us. Our little James is wearing a hat and jacket given to us by friends. We have probably spent less than $50 on our 3 boys total in their lives on clothes or shoes. Isn't God good to provide for all of our needs?

0023.The first little flowers to poke their heads up in our front bed are crocuses. We have a few colors, but I'm partial to the purple ones. Aren't they beautiful?

0024. Coffee beans...beautiful little coffee beans ☺. They are the perfect pairing for chocolate. Actually chocolate, ice, milk, chocolate chips and a little Hershey's syrup...all blended together. My daughter, Kate, ground 2 pounds of beans for me to make espresso for frappuccinos at the older church kids volleyball/ultimate frisbee party a few weeks back.

0025.I have this wonderful Grandmother who is gifted with so many skills and talents. Gramma Carmen is so willing to share new things with us and even teach us to do them when we come to visit. This past fall, when we went 'up north' to visit her, she taught all of us to make hand-sewn pin cushions. Some of my daughters surprised me with how they liked/disliked hand sewing. My daughter with a custom sewing web-site HATED the hand sewing. My daughter who isn't usually patient enough for much sewing, LOVED it.  Live and learn ☺.

0026. Being the mom of a super-sized family, I get the extra blessing of the many adoreable faces the kids make. 2 year olds seem to make especially cute ones...who needs tv?

0027.Thank you Lord for "chef of the day". At our house all of the girls 11 and up get a day of the week to be chef. Today is Kate's day...thank you God for Kate!

0028.Modest swimwear. I am exceedingly thankful to be able to have all my daughters go to pools and public places in modest swimsuits. One of my favorite companies is http://www.wholesomewear.com/ . They are comfortable and you actually feel dressed while swimming.

0029.We have been so blessed to attend our church, Keefer Creek Baptist Church, for 11 years now. We meet in a state-run nursing home as a ministry to the patients. This has given all of us an appreciation for all the people God has made...we are all creations of His. I am so grateful also for our Pastor and his humble, teachable spirit. He is always willing to learn from God and share with us what the Lord is teaching him.

0030.Last year at Christmas our children were all wonderfully blessed by a surprise box in the mail that contained new jammies for each of them. God gives us so much more than we deserve.

 Spring