Jonathan's Mom's 80th Birthday!

What a busy week! After bidding my brother's family goodbye Saturday morning, Jonathan and I started packing for our trip to South Caicos, and then we headed off late afternoon to attend his mom's 80th birthday party at his parents' home.

I was thankful that my runny nose quit just in time for the party. Grandma likes the color lavendar, so decorations were lavendar.

Esther and Julie had coordinated the party, and I had been asked to bring corn and icecream, so that is what we brought. I was so thankful I didn't have to go to a lot of work, as I had been sick plus trying to pack for a big trip.

Dave and Ruth had traveled in from Albuquerque, and Ruth and Crystal helped serve so Grandma could stay seated. Grandma usually serves everyone else!

Esther brought meatloaf and cake, and Julie brought ham and yummy asparagus and salad.

The three brothers, Jonathan, Rob, and Dave (L-R) look at Rob's pictures of the bighorn sheep near his workplace, and discuss them.

Somehow we all managed to fit in Grandma's little house. They had set up two extra tables.

We all knew Grandpa likes lots of pictures when we all get together, so different ones were getting photos, including Rob who was trying to get a panoramic view.

I had been out for a few minutes and came back in just in time for the candlelighting and pictures. 

Loved getting a picture of everyone taking pictures!

Jonathan's mom has been very blessed with good health and strength now for 80 years, and the entire clan was there, except for Barb and Chad in Idaho, Dave's children in New Mexico, and our Carrie who was away in Mexico.

As we all held hands around the table, Jonathan's dad offered a heartfelt prayer. 

We were grateful for all God had brought us through and for all of us who were present and celebrating together.

No matter how old we are, we are a work in progress.

Esther had made this beautiful cake with pansies, one of Mama's favorite flowers.

She had not wanted any fancy celebrations, just family.  

So we honored her desire.

Here Grandma is opening our gift of a photo calendar with all sorts of photos of her with husband, family, grandchildren, flowers, and homemade food, interspersed with couplets of poetry about Grandma!

Also, Hannah had done some origami and folded some money bills into butterflies which we stuck into the little pot of roses.

Grandma showed us this little plaque that Carrie had brought her when she stopped by to say happy birthday before leaving for Mexico.

And our dear Aunt Irina back in Russia had sent Grandma this pin we think she herself made for her.

It was exquisite work! Thank you, Aunt Irina!

Back home on Sunday morning, we loved seeing our little dog family out playing in the front yard.

I had to stay home from church as I was too exhausted and needed to rest before the big trip the next day.

I uploaded these pics Sunday so I could write this post when I had time on our trip.

And so--while Jonathan and I are waiting in the airport at Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos, I am updating this post!

Goodbye to my Brother--and Blown Tire

Our last evening together with  my brother was a very happy evening.

I managed to catch his three youngest boys together on a chair--and got their picture!

We had thought of going to see Garden of the Gods, but the children preferred instead to play games outdoors in the cold with our children and the Hagertys. So I only had to make runs to the park and back. Rose galloped back on the horse to meet puppy customers. The one set of pups are 8 weeks old today.
For supper, we had turkey and rice,

succotash which Elizabeth had brought,

pickled beets, and brownies.

We wouldn't want to mention how every crumb of brownies disappeared, even though we had made two big pans of them! And we certainly wouldn't want to say how many pieces a certain girl--I mean, child of Gabriel's who has the same name as one of our children--ate. 

She--I mean she/he ate six pieces all by themselves!

Thankfully someone caught one brownie left in time to get it to Jonathan!

Elizabeth having fun tickling Aaron's feet.

Gabriel's children have an unusual sweetness and lovableness--and I am incredibly impressed.

We talked about how we as parents need to love, value and cherish each one of our children, 

and not just the cute ones, the little ones, or the more mellow ones, but all of them.

Each one needs us to pay attention to them.

They need our discernment and discipline, too. It's so easy to want to please a cute little kid--and to quickly try to please them when they throw a fit. We love to see them happy, but caving to their fleshly desires, especially when they express those desires in wrong and fleshly ways, will hinder them from learning obedience to parents, older siblings, other authorities, and God.

However, the emphasis needs to be on positive things. I think that concentrating on keeping children busy and happy (and rested, which means putting them to bed at an early hour every evening,which we did most evenings here) will take care of probably 75% of discipline problems. 

As parents we can't spend 90% of our time with other people and their problems, ship our kids off to babysitters or daycare or grandma or older siblings, and let them stay up with older children and adults till all hours of the night, and think that when our kids cause problems that it is their fault or someone else's fault.

While they are young, they are our priority. Then when they are older, they will bring us blessing and joy and not shame as we reach out more and more to others. 

The last evening here, Gabriel's Carrie decided to run a hair dressing salon for my boys.

Timmy kept peering into my purple hand mirror to see what on earth she had done to the back of his hair!

Then Carrie started in on Sam, which did not turn out very well, shall we say.

Meanwhile, I had procured this huge cardboard box from the driveway from I don't know where, and the little children were cutting a window in it and playing inside it.

 You do not need to buy expensive toys for your children if you have a few huge cardboard boxes around!

Well, morning came too soon, and Gabriel's family was scurrying around to try to leave about 6 a.m.
We all got up early to see them off. Three-yr-old Benjamin did not like for anyone to see him in his "jams," but I told him I love little boys in jammies!

Gabriel asked Jonathan to pray for their family, and then he prayed for ours.
I don't like to be sacrilegious, but I wanted a little picture of us praying together, so I quick snapped one. I really appreciate Gabriel's willingness to lead spiritually, and ask to pray.

We had such a good time together this week--and they plan to come back in September!
Gabriel and Elizabeth felt the time they spent this week at Caring for the Heart was very worth their time. There was only a small group at CFTH this time, but two of them were conservative couples, including one couple from around Canon City who works with a ministry for babies of mothers in prison. The ministry provides a home for the babies with one "nanny" for each baby.

Well, we said our goodbyes and hugged around, and flew through the house to check for anything they'd left behind, and then waved them off. There go their taillights in the dim light of morning!

Five and a half hours later, our children were skyping with them when a tire blew on their van!
The tire had a bubble on it when they had arrived here, and we all forgot to prioritize getting a new tire. Well, Gabriel had to fight to get the anti-theft thing loose and the spare tire out. The children said it  must have looked a sight by the road with their suitcases out by the van while Gabriel tried to change the tire! They lost over 3 hours having to buy a new tire, etc. and didn't arrive to my sister Kezia's place in Illinois till after midnight. Long day!

After they left, we sat down to breakfast, dolloping on our scrambled eggs some of this delicious homecanned salsa that my brother Fain's wife Regina had sent us.

Here is a thought that came in yesterday from John Piper...
"...when the trial comes. There will be resources of endurance in that moment that we do not have any other time. Take heart."

"Peter says, “If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you” (1 Peter 4:14). This encouragement from Peter says that in the hour of unusual threat (whether insult or death) there will be “a Spirit of glory and of God resting on us.”...Peter went out of his way to say that those who suffer “for the name of Christ” will experience a special “resting” on them of “the Spirit of glory and of God...Pray that this would be your experience."

Angel Gabriel's Birthday

 My brother Gabriel shares the same birthday as George Washington!
He'd like to think he shares it with the archangel also, but I don't suppose they have birthdays in heaven!When I asked what he wanted, he said soup and salad and angel food cake!
 
So I looked up a recipe for angel food cake, but I didn't have all the ingredients, sooo-I went shopping. And guess what I found? One already baked angel food cake on sale at Safeway, and another marked down at Walmart, and I decided we would cheat a little and not try to bake them ourselves!

On the site with the recipe, the writer shared about how her mother always made angel food cake for her birthday, in memory of her grandmother who had died too young.
She wrote: 
 "Remember to Share your Life, Love and Food with all those around you.  You just never know the bond you are creating, the love you are sharing and the memories you are making that will be passed on for generations to come. – Elayne"

Well, I had really wanted to create some sort of special bond, make cakes ourselves just for the first time experience, BUT with 14 children and all kinds of work and shopping and packing for next mission trip staring me in the face--the boughten cakes worked out just fine! 

 I made a potato soup from scratch, and we prepared fruit to serve with cake and icecream.

The children put lots of candles on the cakes, and of course the boys helped light candles and make sure daddy Gabriel blew them all out!

Getting started on the gifts.
I had found Valentines Day chocolate marked down to 90% off at Safeway!
A whole heart-shaped box for just $1 or others for just 50 cents!

Not that Gabriel wasn't worth  more, it was just a nice bargain!!!!
The children have a policy of decorating their daddy's head, just like we used to decorate our daddy's head many years ago!

 They also decorate the presents with lots of bows!

 The children told us that Gabriel ALWAYS guesses the gifts and guesses right.
He shakes them, looks at them, feels them, listens to them, and even smells them--and he figures them out!

 (Of course, it is very helpful when the little boy who helped wrap the bags of cookies for their trip home tells him promptly that the gift is cookies!)

 Here is the birdhouse that Andrea and Timmy gave him. Our Timmy had built it, and then Andrea painted the vine and flowers on the side.

 Andrea also painted this plaque that Timmy had jigsawed out.
Andrea and I had sat down and tried to think of all the three-word slogans we could think of that went with three hearts, and Andrea decided on this one.
Since it's right in the middle of Caring for the Heart Seminar, I thought it was very appropriate.
(Andrea's second name is Hope also, so this was special.)

Gabriel also got this plaque, which he decided to give back to the children!

I had picked these up at Safeway, marked down, for a gift for him, and hadn't realized they were named "Pecan Divinity," which seemed very suitable for an angel!!!

   Elizabeth got herself decorated, too!
She loves doing little girls' hair, and misses it now that her youngest girl is 14, so she combed Hannah's hair into French braids that evening.

Aaron decided to brush somebody else's hair while the hair was being done.

He just LOVED brushing Jonathan's and Gabriel's hair. (By the way, he seems to love and trust Jonathan, perhaps because Jonathan has a beard just like his daddy's!
We just sat there and enjoyed watching this sweet little boy brush and brush from one person to the next.

Benjamin takes his little wooden snake that his brother painted here and hisses and "scares" us all dreadfully!

Well, since Elizabeth likes to do hair so much, I asked her to do mine and make me pretty for once!
So she did!

 Look quick, because this is probably the first and last time I have a pretty hairdo!

 Things were a little wild last night, and we got to bed a little too late. And then Elizabeth had drunk too much coffee, which made the baby wired and somewhat sleepless--soo we had kind of a short night.

And my cold and runny nose came back with a vengeance, so I'm sitting here trying to rest a bit while the children are at the park with friends for an hour.
Then we plan to go to town and maybe see Helen Hunt Falls and Garden of the Gods.
But we've been so glad for the privilege to have my brother's family here. It has been about 13 years since they were here. They were the singers 13 years ago for the tent meetings, when their Carrie was a baby, and our Timmy was a baby.

Since moving here to the Springs from Ukraine, I've rarely gotten to see my brothers and sisters.
And I hardly knew Elizabeth. So this has been a very good time, even though we haven't had much time to visit as Gabe and Elizabeth are gone all day till late.

 They have to leave in the morning.
But last night, on Gabriel's birthday, my children kept calling me to come look at the sunset.
Hannah said, "It looks like heaven!"
 
I thought that was so special for  my angel brother's birthday!