If I had the History Channel, I would totally be watching this on Sunday night at 8:00 PM! Roma Downey, who I loved in Touched by an Angel, is one of the producers!





~Becky

Wednesdays in the Word

"He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord. And He will pay back what he has given." Prov. 19:17

"There is one who scatters, yet increases more;
 and there is one who withholds more than is right, but it leads to poverty.
 The generous soul will be made rich, and he who waters will also be watered himself." Prov. 11:24-25

"Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be heard." Prov.21:13

I love this post and this post by Ann Voskamp about her family's mission trip to Haiti. Sponsoring a Compassion child is a great way to 'lend to the Lord.' : )

~Becky

The long awaited video of Joy's hot air balloon ride

Thanks for editing it, Nathan! When I watched it, I said "I can't believe we let her do that! What were we thinking?!" ; )
Hot Air Balloon from Nathan on Vimeo.

And the winner is...

When one of your kiddos wants to direct movies someday and has all the Best Picture winners memorized from at least the last 20 years, you throw a little Oscars party.

And when your hubby hears that, he suggests you make his favorite meal, Monte Cristos! ; )
They were as yummy as we remembered. (pretty sure anything with powdered sugar and red raspberry jam would be though)

Joy and Nathan loved when the Les Mis cast sang! I think the guy who saw the movie at least twice, if not three times, and sang the songs around our house for 3 weeks, might even have been a little choked up. ; )
I LOVED the Sound of Music reenactment! How cute was that?! -My night was made!

We played some Oscar's Bingo

 and guessed our picks on our own Oscar ballots.

I found this recipe and tried making Orange Julius'! (a blast from our past) The kids had never even heard of them before! Andrew thought they were called Orange Joyous'. As you can see they were a big hit!

(these cute popcorn bags are from the Dollar Tree) 

I held out until Anne Hathaway won best supporting actress around 11:00 PM and then went to bed.

Soooo loved when she said: "Here's hoping that someday in the not too distant future the misfortunes of Fantine will only be found in stories and never in real life. Thank you."  Amen!

I woke up to a bit of a mess but also to two very sweet guys thanking me for the 'awesome Oscars party.' : )

 ~Becky

This visual generation

I think this is SOOO precious!!!! And it was such a revelation to me of how visual this generation is:

One of the teenage girls in my Bible class, told me that she was having trouble praying. It really bothered her that she can't SEE the Lord. She knows, of course, that He hears her but it really bothered her that she can't see the One she's talking to. Guess what she did? 

(I love this!)

She googled 'Jesus' and downloaded a picture of Him onto her iPhone!!!

Now, when she talks to Him, she looks at Him on her phone. I got all excited about that!!! I said, 'Its like you are facing-timing Jesus!!!' and she agreed. : ) 

Now, she prays more! 

How sweet is that?!

I love these girls!

~Becky

For the love of homeschooling

Andrew and I are reading Robin Hood for school, complete with hats! : )

I'm going to miss these days when he starts high school next year and fun things like this are not in the curriculum anymore. Boo-hoo!

~Becky

Wednesdays in the Word

I sooo love the high school girls' Bible class that I get to teach!!!
For part of our lesson last week, we learned about
 'the fear of the Lord' and the AWESOME benefits that come with it. -Nothing else has a benefits package like this! ; )

"By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life." Prov.22:4

"The fear of the Lord leads to life, and he who has it will abide in satisfaction; He will not be visited with evil." Prov. 19:23

"The fear of the Lord prolongs days, but the years of the wicked will be shortened." Prov. 10:27

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. For by me your days will be multiplied, and the years of life will be added to you." Prov. 9:10

Amen! 
~Becky

A night in Orlando

Time got a way from us on Saturday and we didn't leave our house as early as we should have for our big (FREE) date to see The Blue Man Group and eat at the Latin Quarter.

 We got to Universal 25 minutes before showtime, which seemed OK at first but wasn't.

 We were shocked to find out that we had to pay $15.00 park like we were actually going into Universal Studios, gag choke, when we weren't. 

City Walk must be Universal's version of Downtown Disney. 

(here's where I rant) 

But Downtown Disney has FREE parking and you don't have to walk a blessed mile to get there after paying an arm and a leg! : ) Or two arms and two legs.

Anyway...

All that to say, we sat down one minute before it started (hooray!) and found out that we had excellent seats. (double horray!) The show was a lot of fun and not like anything else I've ever been to. 

And speaking of almost being late, I'm so glad we weren't because 20 minutes into the show, they stopped everything and let in the 'late arrivals' and shined a spot light and a camera right on them which followed them all the way to their seats while playing crazy music and making fun of them for being late. -I would have died on the spot. ; )

Anyway, we weren't suppose to take pictures 'even if it killed us', but I did snap these only when the strobe lights were going and everyone was dancing and these gigantic lighted balls were flying around the audience and toilet paper was being shot from a cannon.  

I'm pretty sure no one was disturbed by my flash. ; )

 And I'm not sure why 

these pictures turned out red especially

 on a fun night when everything was about being blue! ; )

~Becky

A fun surprise

Hubby has a friend at work with a knack for winning contests on the radio. He doesn't have time to use his latest prizes and he gave them to us.

So, this weekend, we get to go out to eat at a fancy Latin restaurant and see men with their faces painted blue! : ) Whoo-hoo!
















Should be fun!!!

~Becky

Miscellaneous cuteness

I sooooo want to make a bunch of these!
Aren't they cute!?

This project
and this necklace made me head to the Home Depot today for washers. I may be the only person whose gone there because they wanted to make jewelry! ; )
But look at this!
Washers painted with nail polish! Really cute!!!

The kids taught Bree to speak.

 Why? I'm not sure. But it is cute. If you ask her softly then she does a groaning kind of noise. If they say 'speak' loudly, she gives a LOUD bark to match. She's a smart one!

Joy just may have landed a summer internship at a the cutest vintage bakery (in the historic district) for the summer. (prayers appreciated as she has an interview soon) How can my baby girl be old enough for such things?!

Here is one of Nate's senior pictures. We haven't decided on which ones we'll choose yet. He only likes about 4 of them and I like about 20 of them!!! He's so cute!

This big bunch of cuteness has a new home now.

Joy decided that she is over her bunny stage and gave Flopsy to a 6 yr old boy in our home school group whose mom is a gardener and wants her waste for compost. Joy LOVED her dearly but there were a lot of  chores that were required to keep an indoor bunny's cage smelling clean and fresh due to all that waste. Blah! So glad God provided the perfect home for Flopsy.  To cheer Joy up, we did something we've probably never done before -ate POP TARTS for
breakfast. ; )

Here's a quick, cute Valentine snack:

Chocolate covered graham crackers decorated with striped icing for our high school girls' Bible class!!!

I made these the other day: 

Mugs from the dollar store, decorated with sharpie markers and then baked for 20 min in a 350 degree oven. I used tape to help make the lines straight. They say "I have found the one my soul loves." ~Song of Solomon 3:4   I certain have found that one! (we met 27 years ago!) And we've celebrated 24 Valentines Days together! : ) Whoo-hoo!


~Becky

Wednesdays in the Word

For the month of February,
our church family is reading one chapter in the book of Proverbs a day, praying for 5 people who aren't saved and fasting something.
(I gave up Facebook and my Hubby gave up sugar)

Here are some awesome snippets of verses about 'the righteous' that encouraged me the last couple of days from Proverbs 11 and 12: 

"The righteous is delivered from trouble and it comes to the wicked instead."

"He who sows righteousness will have a sure reward."

"The righteous will flourish like foliage." 

"No grave trouble shall overtake the righteous..."

"The wicked is ensnared by the transgression of his lips, but the righteous will come through trouble."

Aren't you glad that we are "the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus?!' 

"God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Cor. 5:21

~Becky

What's for lunch?

If you need a new lunch recipe to spice things up at your house, try
 this recipe for roasted red pepper spread! YUMMMY!

Well, yummy to those of us over the age of 13! ; )

~Becky

Such a powerful movie

My new favorite powerful movie with a message:
is this one:

And what a message!
Oh my goodness and wow!
There's such power in forgiveness!
Have your tissues handy!

~Becky

One last field trip...

Our kids absolute favorite field trip, when they were little, was to an annual reenactment at a nearby fort.

-What hubby always got a BIG kick out of is the fact that they reenact a battle, but then tell you that a battle never really took place there. So, it is like they reenact something that never happened! ; ) But that never stopped us from loving it! 

Everyone there stays in tents and wears, sells, and cooks only 'period appropriate' things. 

  I have yearly pictures of our kids standing UNDER this sign. 

The year we brought Grand Dad!

And now...

I'm probably the only one now, who isn't taller than that sign. LOL

I decided it would be fun to take Andrew back there and I could tell that he thought he was too old to enjoy it. But then his brothers heard where we were going they were jealous (and I was shocked) and they said they really WANTED TO GO. It was pretty cute. Our oldest college guy had a study group and couldn't swing it but Nate came after his college classes.  

 And we had a blast

remembering all the fun we'd had there in the past!

 We never left without some handcrafted toy weapons and Joy always had to buy something to defend herself, right? This time was no different.

 Andrew got a crossbow and pencils have been flying through our house ever since. Joy got a sling shot which she loves and she shoots pennies with it. Even our SENIOR in high school got all nostalgic and bought a toy bow and arrow set. Too cute.
We enjoyed listening to a fascinating presentation on the Seminole Indians together, given by a woman in pioneer woman's clothing who had a pet chicken named Ed. ; )

The whole day warmed this home school mom's heart.

This was most certainly Nate's very last field trip ever with our 'school' since he is graduating in May. Blessed Academy will surely miss him. And it looks like he'll be the first of our kids to move away from home. So, I guess I'm emotionally getting geared up for that and I will certainly always fondly remember his last trip to Fort Foster!

~Becky

Wednesdays in the Word

I LOVE this dialog. 

(from Exodus 4, all emphasis mine)

What a patient God we serve!

Moses: "I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue."

God: "WHO has made man's mouth?! Now therefore, go. I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say."

Moses: "O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever ELSE You may send." : ) (I'm pretty sure I've said that)

God: "Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well." (that makes me smile)
"And I will be with your mouth and with his mouth, and I will teach you what you shall do."


Me: "Oh, Lord be with my mouth, in Jesus' name, Amen!"

~Becky

Desserts that float our boat

So, I'd heard about this strange sounding recipe that called for apples and Mountain Dew, but I'd never tried it until last night when my BFF brought it to our Super Bowl party.
 Oh.My.Stars.
These apple dumplings are heaven in pan!
I will have to make them myself someday soon. -Actually, not that soon because hubby is on a sugar fast for the month of February. He suggested that I make them every weekend in March though. LOL
This recipe could potentially solve my holiday dessert dilemma! I don't think I've ever mentioned that I have a holiday dessert dilemma but I do. My way to celebrate something, anything or everything, is with something gooey and chocolaty!!! But not my hubby. Chocolate doesn't really float his boat. He always votes for something fruity, which doesn't float mine.
BUT, these things are incredible!!! -One first world problem solved! ; )

~Becky

We had a SUPER time

~Becky

Happy happpenings

Sooo much football. Is it over yet? ; )
One more game to go. Yay!
Here's a look at the party we had when the Broncos made the championships. (my hubby is from CO) Joy did the decorating

and Zac and Andrew made us some outrageous blue cheese and bacon burgers!

Hubby's brother bought everyone milk shakes from the 60+ year old ice cream stand near by. (they are amazing!) Chocolate and peanut butter for the adults and our kids always get butterscotch and peanut butter. We had fun thanking Carlos for that enormous gift.  : ) Which is very good for football watching and the reason we will most certainly be having a  Super Bowl party tomorrow night. We are going to play Super Bowl Bingo  which should be a fun for all of us who aren't completely into the game. : )

I FINALLY finished this project that I started at my parent's house a year or so ago. Yay!

On MLK Day, we took Joy and Andrew to a state park to go for a hike.

Gotta love 13 year olds! And since this one is our 4th 13 year old,

I knew that even though he didn't want to go, he'd end up having the most fun of anyone! ; ) And he did! 

We hiked a 3.3 mile trail. At one point on the trail, Andrew and Joy were really quiet and really far behind us. Dad gave a yell and they didn't yell back, it turned out that right about that time they both fell in the river!
Joy made this silly meme to show what happened:

She fell in first near the bank and then he turned to see what happened to her and lost his balance. Andrew was in all the way up to his shoulders. Alligators came to mind of course, because this is FL. Then what came to mind next was his ipod which was underwater. Joy has an Otterbox but he doesn't. But we are happy to say that both ipods survived the dunking. Yay!

We did two Hats of Hope projects this winter. We knitted for children in a children's home in NC and for women/girls who live in a safe house for women who have been trafficked, in NY. Here are the hats Joy and I knitted:

Including the ones from the other families, we were able to give away 94 Hats of Hope! Hooray! PTL!

Joy and I had a girls night and watched this:
http://www.redbox.com/movies/amazing-love And were so touched by God's redeeming love for us! And we got a big kick out of seeing Sam from the LOTR movies as a youth pastor!

Today, Nathan had a photo shoot for his senior pictures at a gorgeous park. Hubby and I felt like we'd suddenly been transported back to CA. This park looks so much like the ones in CA. We plan to bring the whole fam back there for a picnic soon. Nate's pictures are going to be gorgeous. Kind of fun that Zac had his taken downtown and look so urban and Nathan had his done out in nature. Can't wait to see them.

Hope you are having a happy weekend!
~Becky