Mini vacation

I always have mixed feelings about going away, even for a much needed break. First of all, there's the stress of getting ready to go: making sure everything is covered for the time we're gone. Then there's the stress of getting caught up when we get back. But time away from the routine is very necessary for body, soul and spirit.

It feels like we've been non-stop busy since September with Andy doing extra work for Nativity, then Christmas, then the Easter drama. So when Amy invited us to join her and her family for a couple of days in Ricketts Glen, we thought it would be a good idea. And it was!We left after church on Sunday and drove the 160 miles to north central Pa. Ricky and Amy were already there. We ate a salmon and rice dinner that I had made up ahead of time, along with blueberry oatmeal bread and some cookies.

On Monday, Ricky got up very early (like 3:30 am) to go turkey hunting. He came back around 8:00 to get Amy, then the two of them went out while Andy and I stayed back at the cabin to watch the kids. Andy and I had taken our bikes along, so he hooked up Amy's bike trailer to his bike and took Chase for a ride, while I put Amy's Ergo on and hiked behind Andy with Joanna on my back. (good exercise)

When they got back we had our lunch, then put the kids down for naps. After they woke up, we all went on a hike together down by some falls.

Amy and her little papoose!

How old was this tree?What a nice family!

On Tuesday morning, Andy got up with Ricky (early again - 3:30 am) to go turkey hunting. This time they had luck and Ricky was able to get one which we had for lunch. The mighty hunters returned with lunch for the family.

On Monday evening we all loaded up and drove down to a track that had go-carts. Joanna had fallen asleep on the ride there, so I stayed with her while Amy, Ricky, Chase and Andy got into the cars and rode around the track a number of times. They had a lot of fun.
The weather was so nice while we were there - both days - just like summer. We rode our bikes to the lake and enjoyed the serenity of the water and peacefulness of the day.

Throwing rocks into the water

It was so much fun to be with the kids for the 2 1/2 straight days. Joanna is such a doll. When we ate our meals, she liked to crawl around under the table, probably picking up our crumbs like a little puppy. Every once in a while, she'd look up at us with her cute little face!It's good to be back, but the time away was a nice break.

On Tuesday, Christy had an appointment with Patrick and asked if I could babysit the other kids. Well, Christy, twist my arm!!! The appointment was at 1:00, so I used the morning to make a cheesecake. We had another staff birthday this week and her favorite cake is cheesecake. It turned out very tasty, especially with the strawberry sauce I made. We didn't eat it all up at the party and were able to bring some home to enjoy again!Anyway, when I got to Christy's, the kids and I had lunch. I can't really say I made it for them since Grace is pretty self-sufficient - the beginnings of a little homemaker. She scrambled eggs for everyone while I made toast.

It was such a nice day that I didn't read very many books, which is usually our favorite thing to do. When Asher woke up from his nap, we all went outside and played on the trampoline.
We also played for a while in their "fort" which is actually an empty shed (a nice shed). Christy put their play kitchen and fake food in there for them and they had fun making me"tea" and "treats."Aren't they beautiful children! Notice the aprons on the girls! Too cute!

While I was gone, Andy worked on the front porch and when the inspector came on Wednesday, we passed! Yeah! All done. Next week we're hoping to get some bushes and mulch and finish it off.

I scrubbed the screens for our kitchen window and put them in. It's getting warmer and we'll probably soon want to open the windows for some nice spring air. After we put them in, though, a goldfinch came to our bird feeder. I took a picture but it's not as good as the pictures I took this winter without the screens. I was so happy to see the goldfinch I had to take the picture, screen and all.
I have a very busy weekend coming up. More on that later.

Tuesday is normally Andy's day off but he had some outside work he wanted to do and because it was going to rain on Tuesday, he decided to work then and take off near the end of the week. Thursday and Friday ended up being beautiful spring days and he was able to accomplish a lot.

Several weeks ago, he had called the township building inspector to come inspect the front porch, and believe it or not, he failed us because the steps were more than 3/8 inch different in their heights. Well, that was not Andy's fault because he didn't do the concrete work. But he had to fix it if he wanted to pass a final inspection. So he worked at making the one step higher so that they were equal in height. After all, we wouldn't want any of our friends (or the UPS man) to come over and trip and fall on our uneven steps.

He also did the parging work on the concrete walls under the siding on the front of the house and around the porch. Doesn't it look nice?I hope we pass the building inspection, then we can finally finish the landscaping and walkway.

On Saturday morning, Andy organized a bike ride with about 6 other people, going about 30 miles on south Jersey back country roads. I did laundry and some grocery shopping. Then around 11:00 we left for another birthday party. Aiden turned 6 years old on Friday. It was fun being with the kids again.

Asher is getting around pretty good.Patrick helped with unloading the dishwasher.

Naomi asked me to take her picture
and made a very special funny face.

Aiden is trying to think of a wish before he blows out the candles.Grace is "helping" Aiden blow out the candles.

Our trees and flowers are so beautiful right now and I couldn't resist taking more pictures of different areas of our yard.

The weeping cherry

creeping phloxviolets I found by accident (I didn't know we had any.)star magnolia bushwhite bleeding hearts

All the beauty of springtime reminds me of the beauty of our God who created all this. And God saw that all He had made was GOOD!

Quesadillas for supper

Saute tomatoes, onions, chicken

brown rice tortillas
butter one side
Brown tortilla and add sauted veggies & chicken.
Add cheese.
Fold and turnSimple and delicious!

Is it a Musical Drama or a Dramatic Musical?

Our church's Easter drama was performed 4 times this weekend: 4:00 & 6:00 pm on Saturday and 9:00 & 11:00 am on Sunday. Andy played the role of Jesus. He did an excellent job. The story was from a musical called The Christ, The Cross, The Crown, with our drama director making a lot of changes to add more interest to the dialog and story. I sat through all 4 performances and was blessed and moved each time by the retelling of the story of the cross. Drama is a powerful medium. We had over 1900 people in attendance. Praise God they heard a clear message of the gospel.

Getting ready

Blessing the children

More shots

I took a lot more pictures, but they didn't turn out good enough to keep because we weren't supposed to use flash.

Christy and her family came down on Sunday to see the drama and I got a shot of 4 of her kids with their PopPop:
After the last performance, everyone came back to our house for lunch/dinner. I had made baked ziti and cookies on Saturday, then got Andy's mom to put the ziti in the oven while I was still at church. So it was ready when we got home. I also made a huge Caesar's salad. We had a fun afternoon playing, visiting together.

Patrick did really well. He is making a lot of improvements in his behavior. Even though he doesn't talk, he understands everything that is going on. After we finished our dinner, I asked who would like coffee. Patrick raised his hand. We all laughed, then started asking more questions where it would be obvious he couldn't do what we were asking. He continued to raise his hand at everything we asked. It was pretty funny. And he knew he was being funny!

It was a beautiful day with the magnolia tree almost at the end of its bloom.
Now the Bradford pears are in full bloom. Spring is just springing out all over the place! Andy had to do some mowing of grass this evening, too. And I've heard that by the end of the week, the weather will be up in the 70's. Yeah!

A note of interest about these trees: we bought 10 trees about 15 years ago with puppy money. They were small then and we never thought anything about planting them where we did. Who could have imagined then that they would grow so tall that the electric company would have to come out every couple of years to trim them away from the wires going back to the neighbor's house? Lack of planning/foresight on our part.

Easter weekend

In preparation for Good Friday and Easter, Andy and I have been reading from John Piper's book, The Passion of Jesus Christ, after dinner each evening.Each chapter has a reason why Christ suffered and died. We read chapter 9 tonight: Christ suffered and died: for the forgiveness of our sins.

When we forgive a debt or an offense or an injury, we don't require a payment for settlement. That would be the opposite of forgiveness. If repayment is made to us for what we lost, there is no need for forgiveness. We have our due.

Forgiveness assumes grace. If I am injured by you, grace lets it go. I don't sue you. I forgive you. Grace gives what someone doesn't deserve. That's why forgiveness has the word give in it. Forgiveness is not "getting" even. It is giving away the right to get even.

That is what God does to us when we trust Christ: "Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name" (Acts 10:43). If we believe in Christ, God no longer holds our sins against us. This is God's own testimony in the Bible: "I, I am he who wipes out your transgressions for my own sake" (Isaiah 43:25). "As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us" (Psalm 103:12).

But this raises a problem. We all know that forgiveness is not enough. We may only see it clearly when the injury is great - like murder or rape. Neither society nor the universe can hold together if judges (or God) simply say to every murderer and rapist, "Are you sorry? Okay. The state forgives you. You may go." In cases like these we see that while a victim may have a forgiving spirit, the state cannot forsake justice.

So it is with God's justice. All sin is serious, because it is against God. He is the one whose glory is injured when we ignore or disobey or blaspheme him. His justice will no more allow him simply to set us free than a human judge can cancel all the debts that criminals owe to society. The injury done to God's glory by our sin must be repaired so that in justice his glory shines more brightly. And if we criminals are to go free and be forgiven, there must be some dramatic demonstration that the honor of God is upheld even though former blasphemers are being set free.

That is why Christ suffered and died. "In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses" (Ephesians 1:7). Forgiveness costs us nothing. All our costly obedience is the fruit, not the root, of being forgiven. That's why we call it grace. But it cost Jesus his life. That is why we call it just. Oh, how precious is the news that God does not hold our sins against us! And how beautiful is Christ, whose blood made it right for God to do this.


Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. (2 Corinthians 9:15)

Baby Registry and Our Garden

I planned to join Dawn and Amy today to register Dawn at Babies R Us. I arrived at her apartment at 10:00, then Amy and Joanna came about a half hour later. But we decided not to go out because Dawn had a ob-gyn appointment that she had forgotten about and Amy needed to be home by 2:00 to take Ricky to the dentist. So we did some talking about what Dawn would need and registered for some of the big items online. We also made a list so she could go to the store and put more on her registry.

While we were working, Tommy stopped in to change into his surfing clothes. It was a great day for surfing with all that wind, so he had to go put in his time in the ocean. Before he went, he let me take his picture. Notice the nice hair cut! And always clowning around!
Dawn's appointment was at 12:00 noon, so when she left, Amy, Joanna and I went out to Panera's for our lunch. Then Amy had to hurry on home.

When I got home, Andy had been working at putting up the fencing around our garden. I stopped at Lowe's and bought some starter spinach and onion plants. I planted them in very crooked rows. I do not have the level eye that Andy does. Then my neighbor gave me some Romaine and butter lettuce plants that she had started in her green house.It was so cold today, I had to wear my winter coat and a hat. The temperature was 50 degrees which wouldn't have been so bad, but the wind was very blustery and chilly.
I have some pea and cucumber seeds that I'm hoping to plant this weekend. And my neighbor has a lot of tomato plants started, but it's still a little early to put those out. I can't believe I am actually doing this. I hope this work is not in vain. Do you really think that fence will keep out the raccoons, groundhogs, squirrels, rabbits and possums? I guess we'll see.

Andy's dad made a salmon quiche this afternoon and invited us to join them for dinner. So that was a nice treat...I didn't have to cook dinner. Sorry, Christian, I don't have a picture of the quiche for you. I was able to supply the cookies for dessert. We still have some left. They don't go very quickly with just the 2 of us.