Watch me momma :)

Here is Lila asking me to watch her...Do you know how many times I hear this...so now you too can see my magnificent swimming fish of a daughter, Lila :) Actually I was taking pics of the twins and I needed to pay attention to her she thought :)

They are all doing so well- home 6 weeks today

As you can see Sari is fitting right in with the others and having a good time too. She just keeps on coming out and it is a joy to watch her smile.

Swimming is such a great bonding time with new children. These boys are not even 2 and they love to be in the pool. They would prefer even not to wear the swim vests or arm bands but for my peace of mind they have to. They just swim around by themselves or as Jesse demonstrates one of the favorite things to do is jump in....over and over.

Going Deep- An interesting post by my daughter, Naty

Friday, July 6, 2012

Going deep...

I try to read at least a little bit from the Bible everyday.Sometimes I would skip a day, but lately have been good at coming back to it the next day.In the past reading my Bible has been a big struggle because my heart wasn't in it.This year I made the choice to make it a habit because even if my heart isn't in it God draws me near to him.I found out that if I want to keep up with doing my Bible it's best to keep it simple.The way I do it is by randomly opening the Bible and reading a small section that my eyes see first.Then I write down the reference of the part I read and the name of the section.If there is a verse that really sticks out to me I write it down as well.Then underneath it I write a small form of a letter to God.Many times if I am in upset state I pour it out to God and afterwards I feel better.I know that he hears and wants me to go to him during those times. Few days ago I just felt like reading the Bible from the beggining.I started it,reading a chapter a day and writing as I usually do.Here are somethings that I learned this past week: Genesis 1 Verse 27 stuck out to me the most.It is talking about how God created us in his own image.What can be better to know than that? Honestly that is more encouraging to hear than the simple compliments that I get each day.If only we can remember that we are made in God's image,we would see ourselves differently. Genesis 2 In this chapter verse 18 was the verse that encouraged me the most.Sometimes I think about my future husband and wonder what if I never meet him.Then I think, if I do what good would I be.In this verse it states that we ladies are made as suitable helpers to our husbands.Without women men would be alone and that wouldn't be good.That is what the Bible says,isn't that so true? Genesis 3 I wrote down verse 16 because it was clearly spoken to Eve,but what I learned from this chapter is that since the beginning of time we were sinners.We chose to be bound in this body of death,because of our selfish desires.To this very day that truth hasn't changed.One thing that changed is that we have hope because Jesus died for our sins and we have a choice to choose him. Genesis 4 Verse 7 talks about choosing to do what is right.If we choose to do wrong things sin will remain in our lives and it will rule over us.We should choose to rule over it,with God's help we can!
Genesis 5 Verse 1 brings up the creation of us in God's likeness once again.I love it! It talks that God has blessed the first man and woman,he called them"human beings".We are blessed to be God's most treasured creation and shouldn't take it for granted.We are sinners that are loved by our creator!

The fruits of our labor....

Squash anyone ?

More squash and how about some cucumbers ?

This is a new type of squash we tried this year- called flying saucer .

Our friend let us pick more plums as well....

Then there are these beautiful flowers...gifts from a friend....since she knows how much I love flowers :)

We will be making dill pickles next week and we have made every kind of squash recipe there is....lets just say we are getting a bit tired of squash...except for the zuchinni bread. We found a wonderful , moist and tasty recipe and we have been making it and freezing them and even sharing a loaf with others. We made 16 loaves yesterday alone.....Every single one of the kids and adults in the family love this bread...so it is an easy way to get them to eat a healthy snack, breakfast or even dessert. I love this time of year.

Happy 13 th birthday to Josiah and a thought on teens

 Can you tell he is a Steelers fan ?

His birthday was June 21- that is how behind I am on blogging :) It was fun celebrating Josiah and it is hard to believe he is now a teen...We have 14 teens and young adults and life is interesting - lots of energy, conversation, and we hear, " I know" alot. Amazing how much knowledge a teenager has :)

It never ceases to amaze me .....

The women in Ghana carry things on their head. This was taken when we were mulching. Sari came around to the back with this heavy bucket of mulch on her head. Isn't she just amazing....then we asked her if she could pick up the pitch fork with it on her head...and she promptly did it. I love her sweet smile too as she is showing all of us.

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Plum heaven for my kids

Our older girls have been cleaning houses for 2 yrs.. One of the families they clean for has a plum tree and allowed the kids to pick on Saturday. They brought home 3 Walmart bags full and the kids were in heaven. We have eaten all of them- They are small ones a bit bigger than a lg. grape and I let the kids eat to their heart's content and they did....Thank you to the Hatfield family for givng the kids a delicious treat and one from their past....all of them remembered eating them in Ukraine or Russia.