The Journey

Enjoying "Normal"

2012-01-30T21:24:00.000-05:00

Sorry....this was written last week and I didn't get it posted.............

We've spent the past four weeks getting into a routine of homeschooling again....and it's been wonderful! Last semester with everything going on it seemed that we couldn't get 5 days in a row anywhere which made it difficult to create momentum that keeps the pace going. It felt all choppy and clunky. But this month has been different and I'm so thankful.

Our days are spent on "school" from 8:30 -1:30ish (at least for Allan) and then the afternoons are spent doing housekeeping and cooking (for me) and chores and quiet time (for the boys). The evenings have been free to read aloud, play games together and leisurely prepare for the next day. The only thing that could make it better would be snow.

On the days that it's not raining and has been warmer the boys have gotten out their roller blades and have enjoyed riding around various parking lots. Philip and I used some Christmas money that was given to us and bought ourselves pairs that way we can go with the boys. It had been 13 years since I'd been on roller blades and it wasn't pretty! The neighbor lady came out and asked if I'd like to borrow a pair of padded ski pants. Whew! With practice it's getting better and hopefully by spring will be much less painful. Philip on the other hand had never roller bladed before and this was his first "run"......

Hmmmm.....it probably had something to do with him watching some tutorials online before he started.

Last Friday night we had a small ice storm and the boys enjoyed playing on a downed tree. We had been out at my in-laws and left just as it began raining. By the time we got to the big Mac bridge there were 6 cars involved in 3 separate accidents and as we skirted one set of cars the policeman was yelling that the bridge needed to be closed down so we made it home just in time. Our church was cancelled Sunday morning due to the ice so we had a nice day of rest.

I heard the boys having a high old time this week while I was doing some computer work and when I came downstairs I found out that we've progressed from repelling off the staircase to swinging. I would post a video...but it's too scary!

This is also our time of year for yearly physicals. So there have been plenty of visits to doctors, blood work, medications, MRI's, and ultrasounds. The good news is that everybody is pretty healthy right now. Two of our guys have allergy problems and eczema during the winter but nothing that isn't easily cared for. I'm very thankful for healthy children and don't take it for granted. Daniel was not impressed to have three shots this round!

This next week looks to be busy with Philip in revival this weekend, and the last of the Dr. visits and tests.

Life is never boring and I'm thankful that we're now going at a bit slower pace.

Broccoli Casserole Recipe

2012-01-25T17:03:00.000-05:00

Here's something to balance the ice cream from previous posts (.....maybe?).
This was a casserole my mom made that came from her sister, Carol Jones.

Broccoli Casserole

1 Bag of Broccoli - precooked

1 can of mushroom soup

1 cup Swiss cheese - shredded

1/3 cup sour cream

1/4 tsp pepper

1 jar pimentos

1 can fried onions

Save 1/2 can onions and 1/2 cup cheese and put on top last 5 minutes. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Another Healthy Recipe

2012-01-25T16:37:00.000-05:00

I fixed Chocolate Ice Cream Pies for our discipleship group last week. My grandma Slagenweit used to make these and I think she got the recipe from a parishioner when they pastored at the Canoe Creek Brethren in Christ Church.

Chocolate Ice Cream Pies

Pie Shells: 1 package Pillsbury Devils Food Cake Mix

3/4 cup Pillsbury ready to spread chocolate frosting

3/4 cup water

1/4 cup oil

Heat oven to 350. Generously grease bottom, sides and rim of 2 nine inch round cake pans or long pan. In large bowl blend all shell ingredients and beat 2 minutes at the highest speed. Spread batter in bottom of pans. Do not spread up sides of pans. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes. Do not over bake. Cake will collapse to form shells. Cool completely.

In a large bowl blend 1/2 gallon of vanilla ice cream until smooth. Spread evenly in center of shell leaving 1/2 inch rim. Have remainder of can of frosting mix softened in hot water. Drop by spoonfuls * on top of ice cream and swirl with knife. Store in freezer.

*Note - I tried this but it always "globs" on me so it's easier to melt and drizzle. My grandma was able to swirl but I can't seem to do it....perhaps if the ice cream was softer?

Special Breakfast

2012-01-24T11:09:00.001-05:00

For breakfast this morning we had oatmeal (just followed the directions on the can) with cinnamon mixed in, topped with ice cream (to help cool the oatmeal of course), chocolate chips, coconut and pecan pieces sprinkled on top.

I think the boys liked it!

Out of the ordinary

2012-01-09T06:29:00.001-05:00

This week was "ordinary" but had a good dose of "out of the ordinary" events that give life some spice. Monday I did something I have never done before. I took my boys on a marathon clothes shopping trip (marathon for us...9:30 am to 3:30 pm). I rarely take them shopping let alone clothes shopping. Since I hate shopping myself, I usually relegate a few hours two or three times a year where I foray into the thrift stores and if no success there, I take a deep breath and enter the Florence Mall. I've visited the Eastgate Mall 3? times since we've lived here and I by accident ended up in the parking lot of another mall in Cincinnati in the 10 years I've been here but it was purely by accident!

I despise shopping! The prices, the hideous music, the ugliness I have to sort through to find the "nice", the something inside me that starts thinking I "need" some of those trifles I see......it's just best if I stay away. But........

All that being said, my boys were starting to look a little ratty in their Sunday best and I finally dawned on me....my mom always bought their dress clothes and winter/spring coats/jackets. The last thing she bought was a jacket for Allan to have when he went to school in the fall of 2010. So we did the shopping thing together.....and you know what? We loved it! It snow squalled most of the day (as opposed to snow flurries which stick and don't hinder traffic) which added this Christmas/fairyland feel to the day. We hit two Targets, one WalMart, Once Upon a Child, Dillard's, Macy's, JCPenney and Sears. Never mind we only made purchases at Once Upon a Child and Sears..........we presented this as an adventure (which my boys are always game for).....on a hunt to capture some good deals for Sunday clothes. Now that being said, my boys are very verbal about the "ugliness" they saw and the "strange women", "bad music" and the "glittery stuff" (As Allan said, "Put there by people who are trying to steal your money!") but we had a grand old time darting in and out of clothes racks, riding escalators too many times to count, pretending we were on an Artic expedition as we tried to find our van during a snow squall. It was quite an adventure. We broke it up by eating out (always a treat) and riding on the carousel. And we even had some success! Whew......that's one trip down and perhaps only one more to go this year.

Stephen (excuse the Kool-Aid mustache)

Daniel - he said the train looked like "kids" clothes but I convinced him that because the train has a 5 on it, it's for 5 year olds.

Allan (Pappy....Allan said to tell you this is his "Lego" smile.....I'm not sure what that means)

We also are full swing back on the school wagon......YEAHHHHHH!!!!! Last fall I focused on Math, Reading, and English since we were keeping life to a bare minimum. Now it's time to get up to speed in spelling, handwriting, science and history. It's been good to be back to the books .

On Friday we had an extracurricular activity take place beside the library. They demolished a house that the school had purchased and so we watched for several hours. The boys thought they were in heaven. Smashing, demolishing, "hunching", and otherwise creating chaos is in their blood. Actually........it was very fun for me too!

The boys' comments were so funny throughout the whole process!

The video below is a shot of something that wasn't planned on in the process but it turned out okay.

It was one time I didn't have any problem keeping their attention all focused on the same place at the same time.

Have a wonderful week!

Our Week

2012-01-01T16:48:00.000-05:00

The last week of 2011 was such a nice restful time. (Other than the screw swallowing episode....but that also meant Stephen couldn't go for an MRI which cut out an activity in the week - there's always a bright side to every down side).

On Tuesday of this week we opened our gifts and it was also our "Birthday meal" for Jesus. This year the boys thought Jesus would like fried fish, shrimp (never mind that Jesus wouldn't have eaten this since they were forbidden - no fins or scales), baked sweet potatoes with cinnamon butter and the special cake roll that they've come to dub "Jesus' birthday cake". So that's what we did!

Wednesday was my "Day Off" for planning and setting goals for the coming year. I find it very necessary as the mother of "littles" to step away periodically, refocus and set some manageable goals. This is so helpful in preventing the "river of life" washing away time that had no set agenda. It's a breath of air to my soul to take my Bible and a hymn book and spend time asking God what He wants me to be doing in this span of time I've been blessed with (even had some blogging goals in there :o). How wonderful to pour out my heart to my Best Friend and know His grace is going to be there for me this year! This year may be traumatic or tranquil, "good" or "bad", but whatever it might bring I hope the end of this year finds me closer to Him than I've ever been.

The boys have been wanting chicken pox very badly! Enough that Stephen has used marker several times to put "dots" on himself and then tell me he has them. So if anyone reading this is anywhere near us and you know of anyone who has the virus.....we need to have a playdate!

We dog sat this week and I learned that city dogs.....are a LOT of work!

The funniest thing I heard this week was one morning as I was combing my hair Stephen came into the bathroom and said, "Mommy, I need some dee-roe-derant for my armpits!" It sounded serious so I gave him some.

The most special thing to happen this week was on Friday during Family night. We had eaten our pizza, played a few games of Uno and then decided to watch Milltown Pride (which has a strong salvation message) which I had purchased for Philip for Christmas. About three fourths the way through we took an intermission and when I walked back into the living room Daniel walked out of the kitchen crying. He came over and threw his arms around me and when I asked him what was wrong he said, "I just asked Jesus to forgive me of my sins." Daniel has always been our most tender child but for whatever reason never had taken the step of, on his own, asking God to forgive him. So it was with great joy we celebrated his commitment to serve Christ. Now discipleship advances to a new level - what to do when you're tempted (being a Christian doesn't mean you'll not be tempted, Jesus was tempted and He was perfect), what to do when you sin (we don't have to sin because God gives us the grace to do what is right, but if we do sin "we have an advocate with the Father"), what this means (repentance means stop doing what you know is wrong and do what you know is right), and all the other guiding and shaping processes that will help him to mature and grow into the boy God's created him to be. These are the moments that make all the work of parenting, disciplining, discipling, training, leading and modeling worth every minute of investment! "I have no greater joy than to hear my children walk in truth" III John 1:4

So that was our week....the one coming up is going to be back to school (for all members of the family) and in general getting back into the routine of "early to bed, early to rise" since that gets messed up on vacations! Blessings on each of you in this coming week.

Happy 2012!

2011-12-31T21:52:00.000-05:00

And I said to the man

who stood at the gate of the year:

"Give me a light, that I may

tread safely into the unknown!"

And he replied:

"Go out into the darkness and

put your hand into the Hand of God.

That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way."

~by Minnie Louise Haskins

Happy New Year Friends! May this year find us holding tightly to the hand of the One who knows and clearly sees the path we'll tread in 2012.

Christmas 2011 in Review

2011-12-31T15:22:00.000-05:00

Last post for 2011! Wow.....what a year! I'm so thankful for God's blessings and grace every step of the journey and am looking forward to seeing His plan unfold for this New Year.

Well....we all recovered from our sicknesses and were able to spend time with family.

For several years I've been wishing I could have the word "Peace" for stocking holders but have only seen Joy, Hope, Love, etc. Not only does Peace have five letters but it also symbolizes one of the key themes of Christ's Birth....He was the Prince of Peace. Meandering through Target this year I spied what I'd been looking for....it made me happy!

Our tree from PA looked so nice this year. We kept it simple....no icicles, just lights and colored balls.

Aunt Carol (mom Brown's sister) took us out to a Mexican restaurant. The food was wonderful and the company was interesting!

This year we went through the Advent Book which was a new one for us but the boys very much enjoyed opening a new door each day and by the end they knew most of Luke 2 by heart. We also went through "What God Wants for Christmas" in the seven days preceding Christmas.

We were able to do some caroling as a family and the boys very much enjoy that tradition (and the candy that the older folks give them!). They wore their new Mickey PJ's to sleep by the tree the night before gift giving.

The day before we opened gifts, the boys were putting together a wooden toy that they'd received from the Brown Family Christmas. Stephen swallowed one of the stainless steel wood screws and they said to give it 4-5 days to make it's way through his system. When he went for a follow-up x-ray yesterday, it had already made it's exit....for which we were very thankful.

Our favorite time was Christmas Day. What a wonderful blessing to be able to worship with our church family on Christmas! We had lunch with all the family and then went home and had our time of giving gifts to Jesus. This year it was a sewing machine, VBS materials, Bibles and tracts, chickens and fishing nets. They boys love going "ho-ho-hoing" with their allotted amount. It was a precious time of giving to Jesus on His birthday.

Edible Christmas Wreath

2011-12-28T21:06:00.000-05:00

My Grandma Slagenweit made these every year at Christmastime and I loved them as a child. Nothing nutritious here but so very fun!

Suggestion - It helps to measure everything beforehand.

You'll need:

1/2 Cup Margarine
30 Marshmallows
1 tsp green food coloring
1 tsp vanilla
3 1/2 cups corn flakes
Cinnamon red hots and silver dragees

Melt margarine and marshmallows on medium heat stirring constantly until marshmallows are melted. Add food coloring and vanilla and stir. Add corn flakes and stir until corn flakes are covered with marshmallow mixture.

Allow to cool until able to handle. Form a ring around a plate then decorate with cinnamon red hots and silver dragees.

Another Week

2011-12-20T09:27:00.000-05:00

Daniel was Joseph in our Church Christmas Program this last Sunday. Other than pretending to shoot one of the shepherds and then rubbing his hands gleefully when the wise men were announced (As though he was saying, "Oh goody! Now we can pay for this child!") I was very proud of him for being able to sit still that long!

Christmas excitement seems to be taking a hold of this house and I'll have to admit I'm beginning to catch the spirit. At least the childhood excitement of nativity plays, singing carols, lights, and visits from cousins. Currently we're enjoying those things from the confines of our home since the majority are fighting or have fought some kind of bug for the last week (save mommy who CANNOT get sick!).

This is the play done by the Aldersgate Academy where the boys take their music class. Allan in in the bottom right corner of the picture.

Daniel playing Jingle Bells

We've already listed to "A Christmas Carol" at least four times (the boys have listened more than that) so it was interesting one day this week when I went in to their room to wake Stephen for breakfast and said, "Time to get up little buddy, it's time for breakfast!" he replied, "Bah humbug, I don't believe it!"

Last week participated in the Christmas open house for the college students to come through our house. My husband so wonderfully took the boys out on a hike that afternoon so that I'd be free to clean and have the house stay in order. The problem was, they came home worn smack out and were ready to go to bed by the time the open house started. We had some tears until it was all said and done but they enjoyed giving house tours that evening.

Daniel had an MRI for a study he's involved in at Cincinnati Children's Hospital and did well except he kept pushing the emergency button to tell them, "I think I moved my head!"

Allan had his first cavity filled today. We tried to prepare him that it "might be painful"....you never know if it's going to be or not but this child avoids pain at all costs. When the dentist stepped in the room and said he had a cavity to be filled and if we had the time they'd go ahead and do it, Allan sat bolt upright in the chair and said, "No, we'll come back later!" He had himself so worked up that he was almost sick so then when he didn't feel anything (not even the shot) he got deliriously happy and was giggling and trying to talk the entire time. Whew! Now he has more motivation not to be partaking of his Christmas candy stash he received at church on Sunday!

The semester is over! God did a miraculous thing for Philip by keeping him well while teaching 22 hours....the potential stresses this semester almost doomed him to be out a few days but he didn't sucumb until Wednesday. I helped administer a final on Thursday, he administered his Greek final on Friday and just today is starting to feel some more normal.

We baked some gingerbread cookies last week and are doing cutout cookies tomorrow. I've just not really had the umph to do a lot towards Christmas this year. It seems this time of year holds so many memories of years past that it hurts too much to do some of the customary traditional things. I both laughed and cried the other day when passing a Hickory Farms kiosk in the mall. My mom loved Hickory Farm cheese balls and bought one (some times multiples for gifts) to have around the holidays. I hated the things but it was just part of Christmas. I cried because she's the only one I know who buys them and I laughed because I almost bought one just for old times sake but decided that some traditions don't have to be carried on!

There are good days and bad days.....I sort of agree with Daniel who told his daddy the other night that God needs to allow people to send letters from heaven. I wonder if they celebrate Christmas in heaven? Do they watch reruns of what really happened? Does Mary share a reflection of what it was like to give birth to the Son of God? Has my mom swapped mothering experiences with her? What must it be like to listen to the shepherds, meet those people who experienced first-hand that "First Christmas"? I wish for one evening that she could sit down with us and share what she's been up to.....somehow it seems like it would make it easier.

So....our upcoming week looks somewhat slower than the past one....everyone is trying to recuperate so we can visit family who are up from Alabama and in from Pittsburg. Maybe tomorrow?........

First Public Singing

2011-12-09T15:39:00.000-05:00

Our boys haven't been overly blessed with musical talent (up to this point) although they love to sing. Staying on key doesn't come naturally to them but slowly and surely they're getting the hang of it and we're not hearing as many monotone songs as we used to. They were asked to sing at the GBSC Faculty and Staff Christmas dinner and after choosing their favorite song and lots of practice, they actually did it! Or well.....Allan did it.....Daniel spent most of the time rolling his eyes and Stephen was just paying attention to the other two. It was a good learning experience for them (Do you know how much training goes into teaching children to stand still, keep their hands by their side and fingers out of their noses, and smile on their face while remembering what it was they were to be doing in the first place?!).

I look forward every year to the dinner. It's held at Higher Ground and they cater the meal so it's just a time to sit back and enjoy to hear what's happening in other parts of campus. The food is fantastic and the fellowship even better. There usually are some announcements of people getting married or expecting babies but this year there were no public announcements (although I know of at least one announcement! ;o)

The boys always get a gift from the school (purchased by mommy and daddy) but this year I only got a picture of Stephen who got a new set of bath toys! He LOVES bath toys. The nice thing about this set is that they all store in the boat when he's done!

Cinnamon Salad Recipe

2011-12-07T06:59:00.001-05:00

My mom used to make this jello salad for special occasions. It makes such a pretty addition to a meal.

Cinnamon Salad

Dissolve 6-8oz of cinnamon red hot candies* in 1 cup boiling water.

Dissolve 1 large pkg of strawberry jello ion 1 cup boiling water.

Add above to 1 qt applesauce.

Chill and top with cool whip.

*Cinnamon red hots can be found in the baking aisle of the grocery store usually with the cake decorating supplies. They can be over 2.00 for 2 oz. The best place to buy them is a bulk food grocery store. The last time I bought in bulk, I paid 3.00 for 15oz.

Also note: if you use homemade applesauce it doesn't set up well if you use 1 quart, try cutting back by 3/4 cup and it will do well.

Playing Catch-up

2011-12-06T08:39:00.000-05:00

It's been a busy month and I'm looking forward to a slower paced December....though we'll have to work to make that happen!

Right before my mom passed away we harvested all the broccoli and cauliflower in the garden and I've decided they're right.....it does much better as a fall crop with very few bugs or worms. I have two little guys who will tell you broccoli and cauliflower is their favorite vegetable and it was the most productive vegetable we planted this year. (I've not checked on the brussel sprouts for two weeks so we may or may not be harvesting any of those.)

Then we were in PA from November 3rd until the 14th for my mom's funeral. I'm working on a post from that time but it will have to wait.

We came home for a week and made applesauce and apple butter from the two bushel of Cortland apples that my Grandma Miller picked up for me in Martinsburg, PA. (In Cincinnati, they were asking $27/bushel some places and in PA they were $12/bushel) My boys love to make applesauce. This is child labor at it's finest!

Then we traveled back to PA for Thanksgiving. It was a little different this year since I had to do the cooking. My brother, David, and sister-in-law, April joined us for Thanksgiving dinner which we had on Friday since it worked better for all of our schedules. We had turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, filling (my mom's recipe which I will try to remember to post), noodles, cinnamon salad, and cranberry sauce with pumpkin and apple pie for dessert. We didn't leave the table hungry!

The boys loved playing and holding Kaylynn. She's such a cutie pie....and red hair to boot (I always hoped I'd get a red-head...but it was not to be).

Though it was sad at times, having little people running around is a reminder that there are stages to every life and the innocence of childhood can be so refreshing.

On Saturday we went to get our Christmas tree. In Cincinnati the trees are typically dead, spray painted green, and cost way too much. So we get one that still smells like a tree at a price that is reasonable any time we can!
Daniel has found one his size.

But Pappy and Stephen are still looking.

We found it!

The newest "thing" with the Brown boys is repelling and rock climbing but since there are no rocks...they've chosen the next best thing. Several weeks ago I came downstairs and almost suffered a heart attack when I saw my son on the "wrong" side of the bannister just sitting there pretty as you please. He'd threaded his daddy's belt through this belt loops, included one of the spindles of the bannister and then fastened the belt allowing him to just hang from his waist above the steps. They've had great fun "bombing" people below. And in this video when the bombing fails to dispatch the enemy, a gun comes in handy. Raising boys will either keep me young or kill me early. That's why I'm so distressed that I still can't find any gray hairs....I have earned every last one!

Heaven is for Real

2011-11-03T08:00:00.003-04:00

My mom learned first hand tonight that heaven is for real! She met the God who has walked with her hand in hand down a very long, painful road and I believe if she were able to, she'd tell us it's worth it! She got to see her dad again and meet for the first time the son/daughter she had before I was born. God gave her to us for 56 years and we are so much better because of her life and example. I'm so blessed to have called this lady "mom"! And oh, how much we miss her!

"Write them on the door posts and on the gates"

2011-10-15T16:39:00.000-04:00

Deuteronomy 6:9 says, "Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates." (NIV).

A plaque given to us last year for Christmas

Several years ago when Philip and I began thinking of concrete ways of implementing Deut 6: 7-9 we starting trying to find ways to implement the principles found in verse 9. Traditionally in Jewish culture, a mezuzah accomplishes this command. The idea is that scripture is to be used in the home in such a way as to bring to mind and aid in the memorization of Scripture. With the explosion of vinyl wall art this is becoming much easier!


Taken from Deut 6 this is right above the main staircase (we live in a second and third floor apt) done in vinyl. It's not finished yet -I'd like to somehow make it look like it's in a large picture frame but still uncertain of how I want to accomplish this to make it more attractive. This is what everyone sees when they are sitting in our living room.

Several years ago we went to the P.Graham Dunn studio here in Ohio and visited their "second hand" section. These were relatively inexpensive.

These are at the bottom of the landing between second and third floors.

The plaques are of Psalm 37:4 and Phil 4:4. I purchased the frames at Walmart and took some mark-down fabric scraps to make the background and match the color scheme for this area.

This plaque of Deut. 6 was also from P. Graham Dunn and placed in a frame over the main bathroom sink. This protects the wood from getting wet and the boys can see it every time they wash their hands and brush their teeth.

Home Interiors used to carry some Scripture decorations (though I've not checked recently). I purchased this heart with Matthew 5:8 above my kitchen sink. The notecards are my memory verses that I'm currently working on - I can wash dishes and work on memorizing them at the same time.

More recently, Philip has begun saying the Hebrew blessing over our family in the mornings after breakfast. When he's done we respond with this verse that I just printed from Word, put in a frame and placed on the hutch (china cabinet).

In the upstairs bathroom we have 1 John 1:5 above a Thomas Kincaid picture.

This hangs above my ironing board as I'm working (given to me by my brother, Jonathan Slagenweit).

Our goal has been:

Keep scripture in front of them that will remind them of principle truths of God's Word.
Make it attractive - I'll have to admit when Philip first mentioned implementing this principle (I'm ashamed to admit it!) I thought, "How tacky! It's going to ruin my whole decorating style!" What I learned is - "my style" isn't as important as A. following the commands of Scripture and B. doing what is going to impact my children for good and eternity. This was before wall art and doing a Google search on "Scripture wall art" produced a million results!
Stay within the budget! There are lots of creative ideas for implementing this principle using just a computer and a pretty frame.

If you're needing some more ideas you might be able to find some at Doorposts (which is a favorite resource of mine!) since they're running a contest with this theme of implementing Scripture into our homes. I'm anxious to see some more ideas that might work for our family.

How do you implement Deut 6:9? I'd love to hear/see your ideas!

Caring for Children with Croup

2011-10-15T11:53:00.002-04:00

Probably one of the childhood illnesses I dislike the most is croup. I think it's because it's worse at night which means no one gets good rest and that's exactly what the body needs. Currently all three of our boys have a great case of it and since it's a viral infection, one must be patient and wait it out. Anyhow - since we've been through this many times before I thought I'd share some tips that I've learned from my pediatricians and by trial and error.

Fluids -The important thing for any illness is to keep hydrated. Each of my guys have a different colored sippy cup which helps keep each person's germs to themselves. Keep them filled with something they will drink (but not something sugary) - juice diluted with water, Gatorade, etc. Keep plenty of Popsicles on hand (Eddy's has a fruit pop that has no added sugar - expensive but good!)

Fever - Though bothersome - fevers were designed to kill germs. A low grade fever is actually good and should not be stopped. My person rule of thumb is - no medication until 102.0. I have one child who hallucinates and another who has seizures above this and so that's my point for meds. If their fever is above 101.5 before bedtime I also give them something to help them through the night (usually Advil or Motrin since it lasts longer). If it's really a bugger of a fever and stays high for a long time (over 24 hours) then I alternate Tylenol and Motrin.

Rest - Here's where it gets difficult! Croupy kids need rest! But they start feeling better and then want to be up jumping and playing and the next thing you know, they crash. It's pretty crucial they stay still. Mr. Potato Head, puzzles, books from the library, Lego's, lacing activities, Melissa and Doug have nifty magnetic dress-up sets that are nice quiet toys.

Books on tape are fantastic! Check your local library. Stories (Patch the Pirate, Adventure's in Odessey, Your Story Hour) that are teaching while keeping them quiet are a double blessing.

DVD's are also an option if you allow this. We're not big DVD people at all. Watching a DVD is a special occasion, not a normal occurrence. But when they are sick there are some that we let them watch. Pictures Proverbs is what they're watching right now. Its the book of Proverbs with a new picture for each verse. If you're children only watch DVD's occasionally and don't need a lot of action then these are great! And they pick up on the Scripture so quickly. Another one our guys like is the Visual Bible Matthew and Acts.(The John DVD is not very good) The man who plays Jesus is fantastic. (Just a warning - in the second DVD on Matthew, both Jesus and his disciples are shown shirtless in two scenes). The words are taken directly from the NIV - nothing deleted or added. My boys also enjoy the IMAX Deep Sea DVD. Another set we let them watch are the Moody Science DVDS, we have some of the DVD's from Showforth which are very good. And there are some good children's DVD's at Answers in Genesis also. Some of them you can watch here. There are other handheld games and things that I know are out there but our guys don't have. The idea is - keep them playing quietly - no running around.

Breathing Treatments - There are all kinds of theories on this one but this is what I've found works best for us. Two or three times a day, I put the bathroom shower on fully hot and shut us in there for about 20 minutes. I take the liquid Vick's and mist it on the walls of the shower.

We slather their chests with Vicks (or for the smaller ones - Johnson and Johnson makes a milder version) and also put it on their feet and put socks on them. Then while the steam is working, they lay face down on my lap and with cupped hands I "thump" on their chest. As Allan puts it, "She steams us then thumps us!" This helps loosen the mucus and makes it easier for them to cough it out. Some people then rush the children out into the cooler air. I do this if it's really bad but not on a regular basis. I usually only do the steam during the day - because you usually get sleep deprived with croup - it's best to limit night care to the very minimum. I've found care throughout the day minimizes nighttime care.

At night, I sit the boys up on pillows to sleep. This helps them to not feel like they are suffocating. Night is always worse because the hormone that suppresses coughing is at it's lowest point. If they absolutely can't breathe, the we bundle up (put something on their head) and go outside and sit for awhile (if you live in a colder climate). Yesterday Stephen and I were rocking on the front porch at 4:00am listening to the trains (I'm amazed at the number of trains running in Cincinnati at 4:00 in the morning!)

Mommy Care - this may be the most important part. Sick children need their mommy. This week a friend stopped by and one look at me said, "Are you drinking enough?" (My eyes were a little sunken) I was so busy filling sippy cups, cleaning up bathroom messes, and doing breathing treatments that I'd hardly had a chance to eat and drink myself. Here are some tips I've tried to follow:

Make sure I take my vitamins (an extra vitamin C wouldn't hurt).
Drink plenty of fluids myself
Because I'm going to be doing night duty - sleep when my children sleep. I try to keep them quiet and naptime at a regular time. If they're not expending a lot of extra energy then they usually will take short naps and a regular nap. Sleep during their regular nap.
Keep my schedule clear. Cancel appointments that can be rescheduled. Do the bare minimum with household chores. This allows me to care for their needs without feeling pushed and stressed.

Sometimes I wonder if God didn't design sickness to be a way of slowing us down and helping us to rest. I choose to view it as God's gift to me. It's extra time for snuggling and hugging and back-rubs and good stories that doesn't happen in concentrated form when we're well.

The above was written on Wednesday. Last night everyone slept all night! Yeaaahhhhh! Now except for the residual coughs and low-grade fevers I think we're through the worst of it. It actually was a blessings this week! I needed the slower pace and the release of pressure from my "to-do" list. I just took care of my family this week! And, if you're going to be up with one croupy child - might as well be three, if you're going to be making chicken noodle and corn soup for one..might as well be all! I celebrated this morning by going and getting everyone a Salted Carmel Mocha at Starbucks for Sweetest Day! Another 48 hours and we should no longer be housebound!

Disclaimer: This is what I've learned after talking to my doctors and what I've found helps my children. It in no way takes the place of a proper diagnosis of an illness for your child. My children were seen by a doctor this time too (I wanted to make sure we weren't dealing with pneumonia) just to make sure it wasn't something more serious.

Stephen Turns Three

2011-10-10T20:57:00.001-04:00

This past week we had another birthday in our family! Stephen is now free (three). Although we had to work some time to get him to understand the concept. He's been two for so long that he automatically responds, "two" when asked, if asked again he would say "five" since that's what Daniel turned two weeks ago. I think it's finally beginning to sink in.

We celebrated by having cake and ice cream at Pop pop and Gramme's house. He enjoyed his fire truck cake (which mommy convinced him was better than the shark cake- shark cake seemed too scary/boring to me!)

He's not excited or anything!

Can my little guy be three?! The days pass so swiftly and I wish they'd slow down sometimes. Every stage has it's joys and challenges. May God help me to savor the little things because someday I'll realize those were the important things. Happy Birthday "Stephen Saniel Bown"!

Deep Theological Song

2011-10-05T21:28:00.001-04:00

Earlier this summer I caught this on camera - notice what the thigh bone is connected to (yes, they really are saying funny bone)!

For Pappy Slagenweit

2011-10-01T09:51:00.000-04:00

Dear Pappy, I can stand on my head, mom took a video of it and put it on her blog. Please look at it on mommy's blog. Please let Grandma see. From, Allan.

Homeschooling - School Desks

2011-09-25T17:39:00.001-04:00

Disclaimer: This post is in response to three requests I've had to share what our schoolroom looks like. The views contained in this post stem from my personal educational philosophy and what works well with our family objectives. What works for us may not work for others and this post is only to give ideas.

I enjoy looking at homeschool blogs and magazines that give ideas for organization, multiple level teaching, and surviving the challenges of both educating your children and running a household. Every homeschool has their own unique "culture" which is a subset of the family culture. Most of my philosophies of education came from my family, my education, and my experience. My mother homeschooled for 18 years! She started when I was in the 8th grade - not during the "easy" elementary years. And that was back in the days when it wasn't very popular and there wasn't any support. But she took the resources she had and used them to her advantage.
One of the things my mom did was to keep a special area reserved for "school". We did not work at the kitchen table not strew our notebooks and worksheets all through the house. That first year, she and I sat at a card table in the family room and when we were finished the card table was moved to the corner of the room until the next day. Later on when she pulled my sister and brothers from public school, dad converted the playhouse he had built for us as children into a schoolroom. This was a building separate from the house, there was carpet in it and space heaters in the winter. Each of us had our own desk and "area". I realize this flies in the face of the "unschooling" approach but mom insisted that we be organized. We weren't allowed to go to school in our PJ's (you wouldn't be allowed to do that in public school and you're not going to do it here!) or wake up whenever we wanted as I found out other homeschoolers were "privileged" to do. And what's funny is, I doubt mom read any journals or scholarly research articles on "dressing for success" or orderliness but using common sense she developed a standard of education that allowed her to educate and graduate four children, three of whom are now college graduates.

I've been very blessed to live in an apartment that has a lot of room so we've been able to have a whole area that is our schoolroom. Previously we've had one viewing area (we use the Bob Jones University Press hard drive curriculum) and all three boys would watch the lessons and then Allan would do his work at a small table. Now that we have two - it became necessary to have two viewing areas and eventually we'll have three. So this year we branched out and started planning for a more convenient arrangement that would give us what we needed.

We invested in an adjustable height table. This can grow with the boys over the years and in a year we'll invest in another smaller table that will butt up against this one for Stephen's desk. We then had a man on the maintenance crew make us dividers so that the boys could each view their classes without being able to see their brother's classes! (They don't seem to understand that this prolongs their own school!) The man did a fantastic job and it has done exactly what we intended for it to do.

The shelf adds space for their books an manipulative's keeping organization manageable. I also keep my teacher's editions there so that they're handy. We installed bulletin/dry erase boards that gives them a spot to see their schedule of classes, hang their spelling lists and memory verses and good conduct charts.

Allan's nook:

Daniel's domain:

The divider was also made to include another section that will be installed when we are ready for Stephen to have his own viewing area.What we found (and were hoping this would happen) is that the way they are designed with the shelf, both boys are able to use speakers instead of headphones. This allows me to sit between then and listen in to both so that I can help whichever one needs help without going back to see what the teacher said.

To those who live in the Cincinnati area: we got one of our computers from the Cincinnati Computer Cooperative. This has been a very affordable way for us to have what we need for the boys' schooling. I don't know how many other areas do this but it's worth looking into. The other computer is one that we had for years and needed a few inexpensive parts to get it up and running.

I'll post some other pictures later of the rest of our schoolroom. And no, it doesn't always look like this! On Friday afternoon we clean this area so that it's ready for the next week and that's when I snapped the picture!

What fun!

2011-09-22T02:31:00.003-04:00

Another night of insomnia so I'm putting labels on my posts. I found this as a rough draft in my posts and evidently never posted it! Anyhow, I laughed again at how little it takes to amuse a child.

If there isn't something happening then my guys will start something! This is what they were amusing themselves with the other evening.

Happy Birthday Dear Daniel!

2011-09-19T20:34:00.003-04:00

Daniel is 5 years old today! What a blessing this stocky little guy has been to our family - always careening from pillar to post and regularly giving us heart-attacks but full of a giving, caring spirit. Happy 5th Birthday Daniel Mark Brown!

His birthday meal of choice was.......hot dogs and Doritos! Whatever! His request for a cake was, "I want a knight cake." So after finding some knights on horses at the dollar store (which I let them play with and COULD NOT find but one to put on the cake), and googling "make castle out of cereal boxes" I came up with this idea and went to work! The castle was actually quite easy, very cheap (other than the textured paint I used!) and he'll be able to play with it again. Today he starting dreaming about having a dragon, hanging from the ceiling that would swoop down over the castle breathing fire....but I draw the line with things hanging from the ceiling!

When we were reminiscing this morning about his birth I said, "Grandma and Pappy were here five years ago today." And Daniel said, "yeah, I remember that!" Grandma Slagenweit actually was in the room when he was born and cut his cord! He was a week overdue so they induced - I don't think I could have gotten any bigger or had him drop any lower! (I was never one of those "dainty pregnant" women)

And here we thought after he arrived our little family was complete! Surprise :o)

New Living Room

2011-09-10T22:09:00.001-04:00

This blog post is especially for my mom. Earlier this summer we invested some money in "new" furniture and I've never gotten around to posting pictures of the finished product. The goal of my decorating is to make people feel as though they can relax because it seems like a home. I don't have any knack like my mom and sister for pulling things together and making it look finished but it works for us. Since mom isn't able to travel I've tried to take pictures so that she can "see" what it looks like. This is standing in the kitchen looking into the living room. I love the bookcases! And my fern did wonderful on the porch this summer - I'll probably kill it now that it's indoors :o(

With two full couches it just looked too "boxy" if they were flush with the wall so I angled the one couch and put a lamp behind it since there's no overhead light in the living room and it helps light that part of the room at night.

The wall grouping has all the family pictures. Jennifer and Tonya have sent me new pictures of their boys but I don't have them up yet (project for next week) and I hope to get a picture of Kaylynn soon. Some of these pictures are really outdated!

So that's what it looks like. I'm so thankful for a cozy, yet beautiful home! Sighhhh....I really like it here. Oh, and yes, I know the couch pillows are UGLY.....we'll work on that!

A Little Greek Anyone?

2011-09-10T21:42:00.001-04:00

Here is the result of Philip's foray into teaching Greek using the communicative approach - the boys love it! They're singing a song about the parts of the body. "Feet, hands, head, shoulders, ears, mouth, eyes, stomach, nose, the body has all these things."

Our Story - Part Eleven - The Wedding

2011-09-09T14:20:00.016-04:00

If any of you have ever had the ~~nightmare~~ privilege of planning for a wedding then you know how very few details I'm going to be able to share. There are details, details and more details! I also had a very unique situation in that my mother and sister had been planning for a very long time! So, since I was too busy (with work and school) to plan, and they had already been pulling things together, we decided to let them go ahead with their ideas and Philip and I would be responsible for the actual ceremony. So I'm just going to give you the highlights of some of the fun memories during that period - basically in bullet form.

The first thing we had to do was pick a date. It couldn't be too soon because it was already March but I had restrictions on time off in August so it had to be somewhere in the middle. July 28, 2001 gave us four and a half months to get ready
One week after Philip popped the question, the main members of the planning committee (Mark, Bonnie, and Jennifer Slagenweit, and Carol and Brian Jones) converged on Mrs. Tomlinson's home and it was "Wedding Weekend" - We got my dress (the first one I tried on but we still had to drag my dad to North Carolina to make sure there wasn't something better out there!), the material and patterns for the girls dresses and all the main details hammered out.

I made a trip to Florida after school was out to pick up my dress which my aunt Carol had fixed. The bodice needed some filling in and the skirt had to be taken off because I am so short. When I tried it on we realized that the skirt was going to have to shortened again - now that's a labor of love!After the second time of taking it up, a full underskirt and a high set of heels - it worked :o)
The Easley Church offered to fix up a little house they had purchased across the street from the church as a place for us to live. I cannot even name all the people who worked on the project - even through our honeymoon so that it would be livable. It was a bare bones mill house - it had no tub or shower - just a sink and commode when they bought it.
Teresa Armstrong helped me get invitations and then addressed all them because she can do calligraphy. What a blessing that was!

We originally figured between 150-175 for the reception and had a hard time finding a place to accommodate that many people. The week before the wedding we had 200 RSVP's and it was too late to change venues! It had to work and the lady at the reception site worked with my mom to make it happen - but she also quit after my reception :o(

We had three showers leading up to our wedding - the ladies I worked with outfitted our kitchen with everything from paring knives to appliances! We still use those items today. Philip's co-workers threw a surprise shower and purchased a crock-pot for us. My church ladies also had a shower for us. I'm still pulling out towels and washcloths from those showers. What an outpouring of love from so many people! God used them to bless us abundantly. We started out VERY WELL!

The most fun was planning our ceremony. Philip and I enjoy tradition but we wanted the tradition to have meaning. Both of us enjoy good music and had such a good time choosing songs that reflected our commitment to God and to each other.

Philip came up from SC on Wednesday so we could get our marriage license (you have to wait three days in PA to get married) at the Orphan's Court (?!) and finalize the ceremony with the wedding planners. Sometime I helped to decorate some for the reception but I only remember going to Wal-Mart to get more mirror tiles and glass bowls.

We went through the rehearsal meal Friday evening(to which my mom and dad and I were a tad late due to construction ;o) then on to the rehearsal where it was discovered that the organ was broken. Paul Peak had to tear the thing apart because over half the food pedals didn't work. Of course these are things they don't tell the bride before-hand. I was shocked to turn around during practice and see my friends, Bill and Ruby Oldaker, from West Virginia there! So many people came from all over! Florida, South Carolina, Maine.....it was quite the gathering!

By this time things were starting to feel surreal again! And my nerves were probably like any other bride's - I seriously thought about putting a "party-pail" behind the altar just-in-case! God was very gracious to allow that part to not hit until after everything was over! :o) It seems like I got to bed the evening before the wedding in good time but I couldn't go to sleep - my whole family was out and about getting this and that done before the big day arrived.

On the way to the church I dropped off the icing for the groom's cake for my (future at that point) mother-in-law who had made the Italian Cream Groom's Cake. Then on to the church to comb my hair and get dressed. I combed my hair twice....why I don't know....it was hidden under a veil....nerves maybe?!
I had wanted stargazer lilies used in my flower arrangements and the florist did a beautiful job of fixing two very large arrangements for the candelabra. My mom had these picked up on Friday evening and they were actually in place for the rehearsal. But when we arrived at the church on Saturday morning every last one of those stargazer lilies had closed and died! A lady from my parent's church who lived next door had a whole bunch of them blooming in her garden and willingly donated them to replace the ones we lost! So thankful for Mrs. Pardoe!

Philip and I decided to do all of our picture taking before the ceremony so we had a few minutes alone in the pastor's office beforehand. He asked me to marry him and I said yes in a more dignified manner this time :o) and we prayed together - that God would be glorified in the ceremony and asked that His presence would be there to hallow this sacred time.

You know how it is with wedding pictures....you smile until you feel like your face is going to fall off!!!! and just when you think you can't stand anymore....it was time to go downstairs for the formal pictures while the congregation was gathering in the sanctuary. Now during this time we were doing all of these shots and it dawned on me that we hadn't gotten any pictures with Philip's family! When the photographer said something about being done I brought this up to him and he said that we were running out of time and that we'd take them after the ceremony. The truth was - my mother-in-law had left that morning to put together the groom's cake at the reception site. But she had in her mind that the wedding started at 1:00 (it started at 11:00) and so was taking her time. No one carried cell phones (that were left on) in those days (I know....long time ago! - When gas was $.99 - no kidding, that's what we paid on our honeymoon!) so no one could get in touch with her. It was 10 minutes before she was to walk up the aisle that she arrived and got her clothes changed, straightened her hair and the wedding happened right on time. But I didn't know this until later :o) So we have no formal pictures with his family :o( I wish we could go back and do that again.

The next thing I knew I was alone again! All my bridesmaids were up in the nursery (with the one way window) watching all the goings on! I finally made my way into the stairwell so I could hear some of what was happening even if I couldn't see everything that was happening.

Here's a picture of those in our wedding party:

From left to right: Rebecca Lomeo (my friend from college) Faye Parsons (my aunt who is only 10 years older than I am) in front of her is her daughter Janelle (my cousin) who was our flower girl, Becky Holtry (was a friend from way back - we spent time in Eastern Europe together), Jennifer Slagenweit (my sister who was my maid of honor), Shelly Getty (my roommate in college), the bride, the groom, Nathan Brown (Philip's brother and best man), Dan Wagner, Bryan Smith, Ted Miller - all friends/office mates and fellow PhD candidates at Bob Jones, Mark Horton - friend since grade school, and Kent Forney who was our Bible bearer.

The ceremony was beautiful. My family did a good job of all the trimmings but God answered our prayer and blessed our wedding with His presence. My father-in-law didn't have us practice our vows beforehand and so I bumbled my part at the beginning when he gave me too much to say :o) Probably the most special time for me was when our families joined us on the platform and John Parker prayed a prayer of blessing. It was just so good to stand before God, our family and friends with a clear conscience knowing that we had followed His paths and plan. There were no regrets or heaviness - we were doing exactly what God had planned, abiding by His guidelines. In many ways I still didn't see how this relationship was going to work (I know, most people aren't thinking about that on their wedding day but I was) but I knew without any question that God knew what He was doing and I was going to continue to follow in obedience.
There were funny things that happened here and there but this post is getting long :o) The reception was wonderful! We fed 253 people if I remember correctly and my mother and her crew had it organized so beautifully that it went without a hitch! Mom knew that many people had traveled a long distance to be there and would be traveling home in order to be at their services on Sunday so she wanted to be sure they were fed. We had tossed salad, stuffed chicken breasts, mashed potatoes and gravy, baked corn, green beans with almonds, rolls, and cake.
Our wedding cake was another funny story. A family friend, Judith Hosetter, made it for us but had to transport it some distance. In the process of getting there she ran off the side of the road and hit a pothole which compressed the main layer of the cake. This caused it to be very lopsided and unable to be assembled for fear of falling. As soon as Philip and I arrived, we walked in, she set the top layer in place, we cut it, and it was taken apart. We were able to get a picture of it leaning into the camera and you can't even tell. I felt sorry for her......someday that's going to be me :o)

I'm so thankful for the many friends who sacrificed time and resources to make our day so very special. I hope it was an encouragement to them as well. As I look back through the pictures I'm amazed at how many of them are in heaven already; my grandmother ( Eleanor Slagneweit), Will Holtry (his daughter was one of my bridesmaids), Joanna Robley (the first person I worked for) Bill Oldaker, Joann Hobbs, Virginia Hollingsworth. God has blessed us with a host of friends who have supported and encouraged us over the past ten years. They've been such good ones!
We spent our honeymoon traveling along Skyline Drive and doing some hiking and canoeing. It was a blast! I know some people have horrible honeymoons but ours was great (after my case of nerves calmed down - nothing like showing your spouse that part of life right away!).
Sometime I get the pictures scanned in I'll do a post on our arrival home. Some members of our church family decided to welcome us home (Scott Hester, Matt Bowen and probably some others)! Oh my lands! Like I said, I'll have to get the pictures scanned.

So there it is folks. Our story......or at least a goodly portion of it. Thank you to all who have left such kind comments and to those who have pushed me to get the next edition out! I can't believe the number of people who have followed this. I hope it's been an encouragement and your faith has been strengthened. God really does know what He's doing! And waiting for Him is never wasted time. God doesn't lead everyone the same way but He always leads the right way. And I'm so grateful that I followed His leadership. My life has been blessed beyond measure because I chose to put my faith in something that I couldn't see or understand.

No Story - Just Life

2011-09-06T15:24:00.001-04:00

I'm taking a break from working on these:

to brew a cup of tea since I'm running a fever from some kind of allergy induced sinus infection. And when that's done I'll tackle another batch of Lima beans that were picked yesterday or hem a pair of tuxedo pants for a wedding Saturday. When that's finished I'll check Allan's remaining English exercises and prepare school lessons for tomorrow. What I really want to do is sleep! But that's for people who are not mommies. I really will finish the story - all the pictures are scanned and most of the text is written - I just need to find a slot to put it all together. Just in case you're wondering where the next installment is.

Breaking in on the series for a blog on current life!

2011-08-26T07:25:00.001-04:00

As much as I've enjoyed sharing our story, I've missed the regular blogging about present life in our house. It's been a happen'in place!

The end of July I went to PA to visit my mom and dad. Mom was having a pretty rough time and I was thankful for the chance to see her again. My advice if you have unspoken words that need to be said....say them. I have no regrets in my relationship with my mother but I wish I had expressed appreciation more. Watching she and dad walk the most difficult path a couple can face has made me so proud of both of them! Watching dad carefully change her leg dressings and make sure she had things in close reach and watching mom continue to live life to the fullest makes me so very grateful that God chose them as my parents. Being in the country and seeing mom's flowers and dad's garden were good for me too.

I got to meet Kaylynn Renae Slagenweit - the first girl grandchild to join the family! Bless her little heart. She's as cute as a button and I even got to keep her Sunday afternoon. She's now already six weeks old - and will be so different at Thanksgiving :o( Makes me wish I lived closer to PA.

Philip attended a week-long program in Fresno, CA on teaching Greek using the communicative approach. He came home fired up and we've all been learning some Greek (particularly the boys) as he shares what he's learned. If you're interested in seeing more what he's doing check out his Facebook page.

Allan got his first loose tooth! I can't believe the thing is still hanging
on....it's been three weeks now and he still has it. Stubborn. BTW - the tooth is under his finger hanging on for dear life.

Stephen has learned how to do a summersault. He also had an incident that involved spurting blood but I still get sick to my stomach thinking about it. Thank the Lord for guardian angels and an RN who "happened" to be standing on my front porch.

Daniel found two kittens under our van in the driveway. They were between 4 and 6 weeks old - very hissy! But they finally got to the point where I could pick them up without them fussing. Daniel on the other hand came in very discouraged the other day saying that he didn't think the kittens liked him. "Mommy, don't they like being thrown in the air?" hmmmmm......We kept them fenced in a little pen in our back yard for a week and then my wonderful father-in-law who loves animals offered to take them. So they have joined the "Brown Farm" in KY. The boys shed many tears but at least they'll be able to see them.

I grabbed a towel the other morning and when I unfolded it found TWO towels. Since Allan's in charge of folding the bath towels I asked him why there were two together. He said, "I can fold them faster that way." And sure enough....there's a whole stack of folded double towels. Interesting.....

We started school again! Whew.....mommy's expectations weren't even in the ballpark of what happened the first week but that's okay. I'd never homeschooled two children before. Since Daniel is in Kindergarten, he needs almost constant direction to finish his work. Allan got used to having a teacher push him last year and so has very little self motivation which will take a little while to get kicked fully into gear. By the end of the week he was doing much better. I'm enjoying helping Daniel learn how to hold a pencil, draw lines and circles and recognize characters of the alphabet. Allan's learning perennial, annual, bi-annual plants, what addends are, how to recognize the subject of a sentence, and have very definate ideas about particular subjects. He loves spelling, reading, science, and math but does not enjoy English, or handwriting.

We're working on having a divider made for between the desks because they enjoy watching each other's classes too much. They don't seem to understand that if they watch their own classes plus their siblings classes, that they're in school double the time. I think when that sinks in , they'll be a little more focused on their own work.

I've been wondering where my Hershey's chocolate syrup has been disappearing - I need wonder no longer!

Corn! :o)

Daniel and I took a trip to Holmes county to pick up some furniture and we had a lovely time! He talked non-stop about everything from the depths of his imagination to reality. "mommy did you know planes should never fly backwards? It's too dangerous. They can't see where they are going. What is that growing in that field? Oh, look a falcon. Why do falcons have such sharp claws mommy? Keep watch for the horse and 'boogies' mom and give me a heads up if you see any more. There's some big horses mommy! Oh, what are those hills (corn shocks)in the field mommy? Do you ever think I'll get to Narnia mommy? When I get there I'm going to kill the white witch! Hiiyaahhhhh puhchuuuuuuu" This went on....and on......and on..... There wasn't anything I had to say! After a bit he said, "Mommy, you need to be quiet so I can take my nap." ummmmmmmmm....okay!

We got to see the Longaberger Offices which was a first for me. Very neat!

I just enjoyed the clotheslines, the horse and "buddies" (we've finally got the word 'buggies' into his vocabulary :o) the lawns and beautiful flowers.

I was also thrilled to find peaches for $12/half bushel - Red Haven no less! Thank the Lord for little blessings!

WELLLLL......I wrote what you just read last week. Since then - Allan has lost his tooth - pulled it himself!

And Stephen got stitches again! He fell on the concrete steps leading up to our house. So three stitches later - he's growing back together. When we arrived back from the hospital and Daniel asked him, "Stephen did you cry?" Stephen said, "No, me screamed." Truer words have not been spoken.

So there's just a few snippets! And the next installment of "Our Story" will be out hopefully by Saturday evening barring any more ER trips, or garden coming in. Blessings!

Our Story - Part Ten - The Proposal

2011-08-21T15:28:00.002-04:00

Our date was scheduled Friday evening, March 2, 2001 just as soon as we were able to get off work. My only instructions were, "Wear something nice/dressy and wear tennis shoes." Those were good instructions because that's not normally how I dress. Philip wanted to take me to Caesar's Head State Park and see what was blooming that time of year in the mountains of South Carolina (there is NOTHING blooming the first part of March in the mountains of South Carolina!) and then we'd go out to eat somewhere (which is something we very rarely ever did). You would have thought I'd put two and two together but I didn't - I was just excited that we were actually getting to do something out of the ordinary.

We got off work around 4:30 that day, and left Mrs. Tomlinson's about 5:00. I did most of the talking on that trip - telling about my work and some of the funny customers I'd talked to and what happened in classes during the past week. During the course of the conversation I found out that he'd not been at work much but there wasn't any reason given - I just assumed he'd taken some time off to do some writing on his dissertation. I knew he'd been doing some other writing as well but again, the details were very vague. We arrived at Caesar's Head main lookout area around 5:50 to find a sign saying the park closed at 6:00. Philip had to do some mental adjusting because he had intended to propose here:

but knew he couldn't work up to the proposal in 10 minutes. But we took some pictures and enjoyed the views! I was totally oblivious of anything that was about to transpire. I could tell Philip was disappointed that the overlook was closing but he said instead we'd find a place on up the road to do some hiking (probably what the tennis shoes were for) and that's what we did. Since I'd run out of things to share I started probing him for more details of what had been happening and discovered that he finished a poem that he'd been working on and had told me about. I exclaimed, "Did you bring it along?!" to which he said, "Yes." and I asked him if I was going to get to hear it or not. He laughed and said, "Sure, let's find a place to sit down and I'll read it to you." We found a log, sat down and he took out of his suit pocket a folded piece of very nice stationary (no bells were ringing yet!) and I tried to lean over to read it but he pulled it back and said that he wanted to read it to me. Picky, Picky!!! Okay.....

He cleared his throat and began,

Sweethearts In March

It was your modest look,

Your spirit gentle, mild;

Your love for God alone foremost,

Your heart surrendered fully;

His will do, His way to walk,

First drew my admiration.

From wide- eyed glance to long- held gaze,

The Lord has led us o'er this year,

And step by step our friendship's grown
From timid smile to courting's joy:

Twined hearts before the Throne.

He taught us to trust Him with all our hearts,

know Him in all our ways.

Made us know His timing's true
His wisdom, pure and good.

"Grow old along with me!
(It was at this point the light dawned and I almost missed the rest!)

The best is yet to be.

The last of life for which the first was made:

Our times are in His hand who saith, 'A whole I planned,

youth shows but half';

Trust God: See all, nor [ever] be afraid!"

I love you Marianne.
Will you marry me?

If you enlarge the picture, you can see the copy he worked on so that I could frame it - which I think I will do in honor of our 10th anniversary!

And I squeaked out a "YES" that we both laugh at to this day! So much for a nice "honor of being asked and privilege of being your wife speech". It was this surreal, "life as I know it has just drastically changed" feeling that was both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time (little did I realize that I'd experience this feeling three more times in the delivery room!). He then fessed up to why he wasn't at work and all the challenges he'd faced putting together this special proposal and we laughed at how totally shocked I was.

I had called my dad before leaving on my date (because I was supposed to have called them that evening) to let them know I wouldn't be calling because Philip and I were going on a date and it would probably be a little late when I got in. Dad said that it was okay if I called anyhow KNOWING FULL WELL what was going to happen that night.

After sharing "the rest of the story" with me Philip asked if he could take my hand - which was the first time I'd ever held his hand - and we could pray together once again, asking for God's continued direction and blessing on our lives. There were tears on both of our cheeks when we finished and by that time it was getting dark so we hiked back to the car to finish out the evening.

On the way back to Greenville we discussed many things and Philip told me that his engagement gift to me was going to be a 12 piece set of fine china. He wanted to take me shopping the following day to pick it out. We also decided that with everything else going on in our lives we'd better wait to get married in 2002.

Philip had made reservations for us to eat at Steak and Ale in Greenville. When we arrived at the steakhouse, we were led to our table where there was a bouquet of flowers waiting for me which he had delivered earlier in the afternoon. I don't think I was able to eat much but at dessert time they brought out a cake (which Philip had also delivered) for me to take to work on Monday to share with my coworkers. It had a heart made out of icing roses and said, "I love you Marianne!" aaaawwwhhhhhhh!!!!!

The first person we told was Mrs. Tomlinson - she was on cloud nine for DAYS!!! and of course I called home that evening and contacted my siblings. Brother John Parker announced it at church on Sunday morning (we didn't have any preaching that Sunday morning so he had to wait until the very end of service to make the announcement) and our joy was added to by sharing it with so many others who had walked this road with us. Such wonderful, wonderful, happy memories!

Saturday we did indeed go shopping (which both of us DESPISE!) and I found a pattern that I did like but we were unable to get it that day. I later found a great deal online that was buy-one-place-setting-get-another-one-free! Yippee!!! It has been such a blessing over the years and it's not something that ever gets old. And thus far....not one piece has gotten broken - even in our three moves! For the ladies - it's the Noritake Landon pattern with gold rim and teal band with light pink and yellow flowers. My in-laws gave us a set of goldware as a wedding gift to match.

Within the first few days of talking to our parents and pastor, everyone was unanimous that we had to get married in the summer of 2001. We listened to their wise counsel for in 2002 we would have been graduating from grad school, getting married, moving to Cincinnati, and starting new jobs. Too much stress for a new marriage! And we're so thankful now that we did!

In the next post (which I'm already working on so it will be out within the next week....hopefully!) I'll fill in the wedding details. I'd like to post some pictures but I need to have Philip show me where the computer hides the pictures after I scan them!

Our Story - Part Nine

2011-08-21T01:01:00.002-04:00

To those who have waited so patiently, I'm sorry it's taken so long. Life has been quite busy the past two weeks! So here's another part to the story.

Philip's comment to Part Eight: Still remember sitting on the couch, looking at you, for a brief moment taken aback, when you said it had taken the Lord only 1.5 weeks to tell you that He wanted you to date me -- and it was then six weeks after I had asked you! I thought: we're in the same boat, neither of us are dying to do this because of the potential hang ups we see ... but here we go! First time for me to do this, but I know the Lord wants me to. ... Sure I am glad I followed the Lord's leadership!

The following Sunday I moved from my customary seat on the left to Philip's pew on the right. As I walked in and sat down Brother Dan Parker (John Parker's father) said loud enough for the whole church to hear, "Well it's about time!". It was so fun to watch our church family's enjoyment. They'd watched Philip for many years and I'm sure made their fair share of comments. But much to their credit - I heard not one word breathed in suggestion and my hat is off to them! They were thrilled and we took a good share of ribbing about it. I'm sure Teresa had a few words to say to David on the way home from church that day :o)

And thus began the process of of learning more about each other. Philip was able to share in my joy when I did indeed pass philosophy and was able to remain in the Master's program. I began working full time that summer and physically I was slowly making some progress. Because Philip was writing his dissertation, and I was working on an independent study course over the summer it wasn't as though we had a lot of time for dates. There was one special time when we took a better part of a Saturday to go hiking and we talked about some things that I still remember. By the middle of July we felt as though it was time to progress to the third stage - courtship. All along we were carefully following the Lord's leadership and more and more the hesitancy's were melting away. Not that there weren't some differences, they were still there but they didn't affect the fundamental issues that we had to agree on.

It was at the end of July, on a Wednesday evening (and I can take you to the spot on the road home from church) when Philip told me that he was beginning to feel some uneasiness about our relationship. It wasn't anything that he could put his finger on, nothing to go on other than feeling at that point. He wanted to be very honest about where he was at and to please pray for continued direction. I got out of the car, walked into my room and sat on the bed once again. Emotionally I felt as though I'd just watched him walk through a door, watched the door close and was now waiting to see perchance if the knob would turn. I cried that night. He cried that night. But as I poured out my heart to God there was a thankfulness that I knew we had done exactly what we were supposed to have done. And even if that door never opened again, I had become a better person and would always be so thankful for God's gift of Philip at that point in my life. There was a part of me that said, "You knew this was how it was going to end!" But there was no bitterness.....hurt, yes! But with a clear conscience I knew that God was working His perfect will in both of us.

Those were several miserable days and when Philip called on Friday evening we were both pretty drained. But we agreed that we'd done the right thing and that we'd wait until the Lord gave clear direction how to proceed. I can't remember how long it was until we felt clear to continue the relationship. It seemed like an eternity but in reality it was only a week or two. It was a good test of faith in God's leadership.

Before school started we had scheduled a trip to Kentucky so that I could meet Philip's parents. In late May or early June my parents had come to SC and at that time got to meet Philip for the first time. Though I'd heard a lot about "the Brown's" I'd never met them nor had I ever heard Dad Brown preach! And I was scared spitless. My uncle tried to reassure me by saying, "Remember that they get dressed the same way you do every morning." .....that wasn't very helpful. But I knew the time had to come and so we'd planned to leave on a Thursday and come back the following Monday.

The weekend before we were to leave we had scheduled a Saturday picnic and so on Friday evening Philip called and said we were going to have someone join us on Saturday. That "someone" was his mother who strongly believed with all the medical issues I was dealing with, it was not fair for me to meet strange people, in a strange place and so she was flying down so that I could meet her on my "own turf" where I was much more comfortable. Now that's looking out for someone! When she walked in to Mrs. Tomlinson's house Saturday morning, she came straight to me, gave me a hug, and said, "It's so nice to meet you." She was not at all like the scientist, PhD, cancer researcher, author, that I thought she would be. She was so human! And we had a lovely day together.

Our relationship continued to grow and develop as our appreciation and admiration of each other grew. School started again in the fall and we went back to our study schedules and weekly dates. We continued to eat and study at the Parker's on Sundays and attend school functions together. Both of us were more comfortable with the relationship and encouraged with the united vision we had in so many different areas such as ministry, childrearing, personal discipline, Biblical lifestyle issues, role expectations, finances, ....all those things you go over in premarital counseling :o)

Each year that Philip was at Bob Jones, his family would come to SC to celebrate Thanksgiving and then attend the annual Shakespeare play at the University. Thanksgiving of 2000, they came to my place (which was the first time I got to meet Philip's brother, Nathan) and we attended the play together. I learned much about their family during that visit since the whole clan was together and I got a dose of what life was like in the Brown household! My brain hurt at times ;o) but it was great!

Since both of us had time off at Christmas, we decided to take a whirlwind trip to KY and PA. This was the first time Philip got to meet my siblings and my grandmothers. Oh, the wonderful memories we made. Some of them just traveling and talking - I still enjoy traveling and talking with him :o) What I didn't know, was that while in PA, Philip had managed to have a talk with my dad about his intentions. Since I didn't know, I'm not sure what all happened at that time.....Philip would have to give those details!

Another thing I didn't know was that my mother and sister were planning for a summer wedding and getting very nervous because they'd reached a point in their planning when they needed some information from me but since I wasn't yet engaged.....they had no reason to ask! (This might be a slight overstatement...but not much) I on the other hand had just started a new semester, was working full time and knew the dissertation wasn't even close to being done so I wasn't really prepared for one Wednesday evening ( I know it seems a lot of things happened on Wednesday evening...but we didn't spend a whole lot of time together other than on the way to or from church....except for - usually - a weekly date) when Philip said as we pulled into my driveway, "I'd like permission to call your dad." I did know what that probably meant but I figured it would take him awhile to get up the courage to make that call so I had several weeks to mentally prepare myself for the next stage of the relationship. That was February 28, 2001.

I didn't know Philip very well at that time. When Philip decides on a course of action, then action is commenced. Wednesday night he talked to me, Thursday night he talked to my dad, and we had a date scheduled for Friday evening. The man wastes no time.

Our Story - Part Eight

2011-08-07T21:44:00.000-04:00

We continued studying, attending vespers, and other school functions together. Physically I wasn't doing well and lost 50 lbs during that period - in short I was very miserable but had to keep pushing through it now that I was working part time and going to school. I did miss one whole week in March while the doctor's tried to reset my body to function properly which had some success. God had to sustain me on a daily basis which He did and I learned much about trusting Him.

It should have been easy then when Philip approached me after service one Sunday the middle of March and said that in praying about the direction our relationship should take felt very clear that he should ask me to begin dating. He was very kind and there was no pressure of any sort. Just a simple, "will you?" and a request that I pray about it and give him an answer when I was absolutely clear about God's leadership. He followed that by telling me that he wasn't going to ask again, he would not bring the subject up again until I had made my decision. Like I said, it should have been easy - I'd just seen God work miracles to open up the possibility of this happening, the way I could see God working through Philip in the way he related to me - God knew my hang-ups and as Philip walked in the Spirit, I saw God caring about those issues. But I wasn't yet willing to risk the hurt!

I prayed - and prayed and prayed! But the answer was always the same. I was to begin dating Philip Brown. I gave God every reason in the book why this wasn't going to work, every incompatible aspect was brought to His attention, my fear of hurt and rejection and pain, .....I made a very convincing case! I even listed other girls I knew that would have been very good matches for him! But the answer was always the same. "I want you to step out, trust Me, and have faith that I know what I'm doing." I couldn't believe it!

One week went by, two weeks went by, then three, and then four and five. March passed, April passed, and we entered May - Philip was a very patient man of his word. Not one hint of asking or pressing ever crossed his lips. One Friday evening Philip and I had planned on going to an event on campus but I was too ill to attend and so he came to Mrs. Tomlinson's to spend the evening with me. He'd already purchased flowers for the event and so he brought those along (I think that's the first time he got me flowers :o) and we sat in the living room and talked about our week and the fact that school was soon going to be over for the semester. Philosophy was going to be over and at that point it looked as though I had indeed flunked out of the Master's program because I'd just gotten back my paper that week that was worth a good percentage of the grade and I'd received an F. At that point I'd not made any plans for leaving - just waiting for the final word.

I finally brought up the subject of dating and told Philip how impressed I was that he'd kept his word and that I'd admired his patience. I was honored that he had asked and that if the offer still stood, I'd be honored to date him. He momentarily seemed at a loss for words....I think he was probably preparing himself for a rejection but then he asked if we could pray (after letting me know that the offer was still good) and we took the time to again tell the Lord that to the best of our knowledge we were following His leadership and as long as He was leading, we were going to follow. It was a very special time and all of the sudden our focus which had been a common interest in front of us shifted to interest in each other. WOW!! I can still remember that feeling - pretty heady stuff!!!! Still makes my heart pitter-patter :o)

Philip then asked me how long I had prayed before God had given an answer. He had been saying after week two, "Okay Lord, how long does it take You to make it clear to her?" And he had no way of knowing that by week two I knew what I had to do but spent the rest of the time arguing and posing all the objections I could think of. And thus started some very happy days :o) I figured since God had put His seal of approval on all of it then I might as well enjoy it for as long as it lasted. No value in being miserable until it was over :o)

Our Story - Part Seven

2011-08-07T15:32:00.001-04:00

Ooops! I left out one very funny incident (which really should be told by John Parker! - he does love to tell it!) that happened in January. Right after I got back from Christmas break I thought it would be nice to have Philip and John and Cathy Parker over for supper some evening as a "thank you" for all their prayers, calls, and concern for my mom over the holidays. Since they had never been there before I showed them "my corner" of the house. There were kindly remarking how nice it was, homey, etc. when Philip's eye landed on my Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (I'd taken two semesters of Hebrew in Bible college) and his eyes about popped out of his head (When Brother Parker tells this story he exaggerates)! Philip says, "What are you doing with a Stuttgart?" John says I replied, "Oh, I took some Hebrew in college." I was thinking, "That was a stupid thing to leave out!"

Let's see -where was I? Oh, THE Wednesday evening Philip let me know he was asking for God's direction in our relationship. I walked into my apartment that evening, sat down at my desk, and tried to make sense out of everything that was going on. Over the past six months I'd seen God working in my life on a scale that I'd never before experienced - doors that opened and shut, answers to prayer, grace beyond measure and my heart was full of gratitude. If you know Philip then you know the passion he has for loving God and living all of life by God's Word and teaching others to do the same. I'd met people with a lot of head knowledge but no passion for God's Word and others who had a passion for God's Word but no training to help them stay balanced. Here was someone who was near my age who had both and I had the privilege of "tapping" into that resource. The lessons I had learned in those six months would be invaluable for the rest of my life and that was exciting.

But I was certain I knew what was going to happen next. Our friendship, the time spent sharing and studying were leading us closer to each other. I saw the possibility of two things happening but the same result for both options. Either we would halt the process of the developing relationship and to do that would mean draining the life out of the relationship and it would die or, we'd take the next step and realize how incompatible we really were as people and the relationship would die. It was that night I realized that there wasn't really any way for us to remain friends for much longer. And I remember crying. It was one of those, "just had a really good time but now it's over" kind of cries.

Philip and I were going through some of the very same thought processes at that time. Our friendship had always centered on studying the Word together - Sunday afternoon at the Parker's home he would answer questions I'd always had and also took me through his dad's Christian Belief's notes (anyone remember the permanently attached notes?:o). But that seemed to be where our common interests ended. I was majoring in Elementary education, was excited about learning to teach children how to read, had dreams about teaching and gardening and country life. Philip was pouring his life into seminary level theology and dreamed about teaching Biblical languages under his dad. Our backgrounds were very different, our ways of dealing with situations - world's apart, and in both of our minds - there was just no possible way for this to work. At this stage in our relationship the differences weren't something that we talked about because it wasn't necessary to do so but they were there!

Philip was (and he's freely told this) very upset with God at that time. He liked me very much, but I wasn't what he thought he was looking for and it made him angry that God would lead us together, I would get my emotions involved and then be very hurt when it was all over. He tells of pounding the steering wheel in his car and saying, "God why would you do this? She's going to get hurt and I don't want her to get hurt!" During one of those times God gently asked him, "When have I made a mistake?" sighhhhhh......

And that's where I was at that Wednesday night - I too had felt God leading us together and it made me sad! I knew the routine of feelings and emotions getting involved, the time would come when the differences were too much and it would all be over - and it HURT! I didn't want to hurt like that again. Philip wasn't what I was looking for either - if I ever did envision getting married it was to a mechanic, farmer, "man of the earth" type of guy. Philip didn't fit that paradigm - at all!

So I began praying too, for wisdom, clear leadership, and a sense of peace but I did not like the answer I was getting!

Our Story - Part Six

2011-08-07T08:13:00.002-04:00

January 2000 - With Christmas break behind me, mom slowly recovering, and Y2K behind us, I went back to school. If my life was stressful before - it was about to become even more so. My grandfather had loaned me the money to go to Bob Jones and in January was diagnosed with cancer. In April I attended his funeral. This meant getting a job to pay my way through second semester. Thankfully Bob Jones University Press had an opening in their customer service department and I began training by the end of January for a part time position.

This was the semester that I met Dr. Guenter Salter (that's a whole other story of God's sense of humor and power that needs to be told) in Philosophy of Education. To make a very long story short, to pass this course required many, many hours of study which I did with two other young ladies in the class every Saturday but that wasn't enough. Philip knew Dr. Salter - how he thought and what he was looking for and so he offered to help me study. The details are a little fuzzy in this area but it seems we started studying the beginning of February - sometimes in the common room of CVA (campus view apartments where he lived) or in Mrs. Tomlinson's dining room (she absolutely LOVED Philip!). Discussing philosophy was an interesting way to get to know each other a bit better and it definitely helped me in the class. I will say though, that after some of those session, my brain hurt! My admiration of Philip was growing, not in a romantic way but respect for him as a person.

The details are not important but the stress of the previous semester, concern for my mom's health, having to get a job while in grad school and taking a course that had the potential of disqualifying me for the master's program began taking it's toll on my physical body and it wasn't good - at all. I became very ill. By the middle of February it was clear that something was very wrong and it would be several years before I'd fully recover.

But in spite of illness - life was marching on! There was starting to be a tug of "wishfulness" that by spells I didn't want nor totally understand towards this young man that had exhibited himself as a careful gentleman. I found myself leaving campus after the library closed at night and watching to see if his apartment light was on (sometimes going the long way around campus to do so), or making sure I waved at him in chapel, sharing cookies from home, running to the store to get him chicken soup when he was sick, etc. At this same time we began car-pooling to church on Wednesday evening. Philip would drive to Mrs. Tomlinson's after work, we'd eat supper together and then go on to church together. He would drive me home and we had some fantastic and rousing conversations during those times.

One of those Wednesday evenings when we pulled into my driveway, Philip turned off the car and turned to me. It was in that conversation that Philip laid out his ideas of how relationships progressed. Stage #1 Friendship - This was the very basis for a relationship, basic information, finding if there were shared goals and ideas, finding out their commitment to God and His Word. Asking, "Is this person even a possible candidate for a wife/husband? If there was friendship and compatibility of goals and ideas and commitment to Christ then it was possible to progress to Stage #2 - Dating - sharing things that you wouldn't share on a friendship level, further probing of personal philosophies and background, examining theological ideas further. Deciding yes, this person is a possible life partner which would lead to Stage #3 - Courtship - This person has the characteristics of a life partner but there are some things that need to be talked about that are just not appropriate at level #2 - finances, any previous sin that would affect the relationship, all those "sticky" things that are "where the rubber meets the road". If the relationship withstands those scrutinies then the next step would be Stage #4 - Engagement - the actual commitment to marry this person, premarital counseling, and preparing for Stage #5 - Marriage.

That Wednesday evening Philip shared that we were in Stage #1 and he was praying about how to progress. That was one of the things I appreciated about him - I never had to guess about where we were at or how he was viewing the relationship. He'd had many years to figure out how to avoid some of the common pitfalls of romantic relationships and it sure saved me a lot of anxiousness and fear! When I got out of the car that evening I was confident that Philip wasn't out to take advantage of me, he respected me as a person and would treat my heart gently. But there were other problems that caused my gut to clench that evening.

Our Story - Part Five

2011-07-28T23:49:00.007-04:00

This story was put on the back burner while I made a quick trip to visit my mom who's been having some new challenges and difficult days. My wonderful husband took care of the boys so that I could go to Pennsylvania last weekend and spend some time with mom and dad and....the first little girl to be born into our side of the Slagenweit clan! She joins SEVEN grandsons....bless her little heart! So here it is (on our 10th anniversary no less!).

The more I write on this story the more I realize how MANY things were going on during this time in our lives. November came and I realized that I could not continue taking care of Mrs. Forrester and going to school. This meant finding a new apartment (and having to start paying rent - which was not in the budget) and looking for a job. God opened a beautiful door when he led me to Mrs. Barbara Tomlinson's home. She was a widowed, Methodist lady who had a little apartment off of her garage with a bedroom, bathroom and vanity area. I was able to use her laundry, kitchen and the rest of the home for $100 a month and we hit it off splendidly! That was a great step in reducing my stress load.

Christmas was approaching and near the end of November I had just shut my apartment door to leave for cantata practice at the church when I heard my phone ring. Since I had some time I decided to go back in and see who it was. On the other end was Mr. Philip Brown himself! Bob Jones had a Christmas vespers service (a service in which music, drama, and/or recitations center around a theme) that was required attendance but you could choose to attend from two or three times it was taking place. Philip had forgotten about cantata practice but he asked me if I was planning on going to vespers. Since we both had to go Philip asked, "May I join you?" Not, "can we go together, may I take you, etc." but rather a very carefully thought out plan to make this very non-date-like.

I'm not sure when (that's Philip's side to tell!) Philip began asking the Lord for permission to ask me to date but felt a very definite, "No!". Multiple askings over an extended time yielded the same answer until he began to think that it was not to be. Though there didn't seem to be an answer to why he couldn't ask, he followed the Lord's leadership and kept the relationship very informal and uncomplicated. What he could not have known was that God was looking out for me in a special way during this time. Having been very disillusioned with the whole dating scene, I was not about to jump into the foray again.

One evening he walked into his apartment and God told him, "You may ask her." It was so out of the blue that Philip couldn't believe it and spend the next half-hour in his walk-in-closet verifying that it was indeed God's leading! As soon as he knew that it was God's leading he picked up the phone and called - just as I was walking out the door.

So when he asked, "May I join you?" I didn't see any good reason to turn him down - we both had to go, might as well go together - it's Christmas after all and neither of us had family or close friends with whom to attend. So I said yes. As I walked out of my apartment again and shut the door it began to hit me what I'd done. I would be showing up at a major event on campus with a very eligible bachelor - it couldn't help but be noticed. It was bound to get out and I'd need to let me mom and dad know so they didn't hear it second hand. The absurdity of it all - I (elementary education major, farm girl, nobody) had a date with Philip Brown (PhD candidate, city dweller, everyone knew who he was - and consequently - watched)! And I began to laugh - and continued to laugh like an idiot the whole way to church. No one was going to believe this! I couldn't believe it!

We had a very enjoyable evening. I drove to campus, we met in the lobby and proceeded to find our seats. Philip had just finished reading, "Desiring God" by John Piper and shared his thoughts on the book. The vespers service was beautiful and definitely put one in the Christmas spirit. We had a few final interactions before I left to go home on Christmas break but there didn't seem to be any reason to contact each other over the holidays, so we went our separate ways.

Unknown to me at that time - this break was not to be a "break." Withing 24 hours of arriving home my mother was in the ER in horrible pain. We waited for hours and I finally went home only to wake in the early morning hours to hear my dad sobbing in his room. He had tried desperately to convince the doctor's that something was very wrong with my mom but they just couldn't find anything but he refused to bring her home until they did further testing. It would turn out that my mother had a blood clot in her mesenteric artery and within hours she was in the operating room. Needless to say, it was a very stressful time for everyone involved but we made some great memories in the hospital over that Christmas time.

Philip was not only my Sunday School teacher but also the assistant pastor at the Easley church. John Parker asked Philip to keep abreast of my mom's situation so he would call periodically or e-mail to see how mom was doing. After the first time he called, I walked into mom's room where she was hooked up to every machine imaginable and barely conscious and said, "Mom, you'll never believe who called to see how you were doing. Philip Brown called from South Carolina." She got a silly, drugged smile on her face and said, "I think I'm being used as an excuse!" After Christmas mom was released from the hospital and I began packing (at her insistence!) to go back to school.

The Great Smoky Mountains

2011-07-19T13:04:00.001-04:00

We took a family camping vacation last week to the Great Smoky Mountains in North Carolina. Our campsite was actually on the Cherokee Indian Reservation just a little below the Smokies at Mile High Campground. In June we'd scouted out the area and found site 10 A&B to be exactly what we wanted - at the edge of the grounds where the boys could explore without being in other people's campsites, they could be loud and not disturb anyone, and had all the terrain pluses needed when you're tenting. Perfect spot. We packed and pulled out Monday morning around 9:30. Here are the boys already immersed in the books we'd picked up from the library. They also enjoyed HOURS of listening to "The Hobbit"! It helps the time go so much quicker. Stephen wasn't too impressed with the story except there was a dragon in it!

The drive was lovely and the boys enjoyed going through the tunnels.

Elk have been introduced to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and driving up to our campsite we saw our first one resting in the shade behind a primitive cabin. Later that afternoon, Philip took the boys to the restroom and I was at the site by myself when two very large elk walked right past our tent. Two days later the boys were able to see some and my mother-in-law got some pictures of them.

We had a great setup with the "dinner" tent set up very close our sleeping tent and the fire pit nearby. The only drawback was having the restrooms so far away but that's not much a problem when you have boys!

Daddy playing ball with the boys. Because we were over 5,000 ft. the weather was perfect! Mid-to upper 70's in the day and high 60's at night - Perfect!

Monday night there was quite a windstorm that blew through but our tent was anchored well and it sounded like ocean waves coming up from the valley and rushing along the ridge and down the other side.

Tuesday we did some exploring! We took a picnic lunch to Balsam Mountain and then after eating took a one way, gravel road through the mountains into Cherokee, NC. It's about 28 miles but it took over two hours to travel. The windstorm the night before had blown over a tree across the road. Unfortunately, Philip didn't have an axe with him but he did have a log splitter and was able to cut through enough that we could get by. It was a lot of work! When Philip was done the boys burst into applause saying, "Daddy's a hero!"

The views from the Campground are INCREDIBLE! In the mornings the mist would lay in the valleys and you almost felt like you were in another world, way above the clouds. The sunsets were also fantastic.

On Tuesday my in-laws came to join us. Their pop-up was in the site next to ours. The whole week no one else set up in the other two sites next to us - which was VERY nice! The boys had the whole area to themselves. While they were there - Philip and Pop-pop spent time reading Hebrew together while the boys played -

Found all kinds of interesting things to look at (red and green mushrooms, shelf fungus, and butterflies, Indian paintbrush and other flowers). Gramme was a good source to help analyze what we were seeing.

Wednesday morning Philip and I travelled to Bryson City, NC to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. It was fun to reminisce about the past 10 years - though it doesn't seem that long, a lot has happened in our lives! The main activity we had planned was riding on the Great Smokey Mountain Railroad. Philip had reservations for first class which included a meal. It was a lovely, relaxing time! We saw lots of beautiful country and the history was very fascinating. Before boarding the train, we toured the museum that had a really neat train display that my boys would have loved!

After sitting all day we both needed some exercise so we hiked to two waterfalls that were very close to each other.

On the way back to our motel we saw this sign and had to take a picture! "Southern Hospitality?"

This post is already too long and there are too many pictures to put up! Philip and I came back to the campsite on Friday and learned that it had been raining since Thursday evening (necessitating a trip to the laundry mat to dry out pillows and sleeping bags) and it stay very misty wet the rest of our stay. Here are some pictures of the boys playing and general camp life pictures. It was a great time! and it's been hard to come back to hot, city living :o) So thankful for family times filled with good memories (some of which I dare not share here under threat of my life!).

Our Story - Part Four

2011-07-17T17:16:00.000-04:00

Table Rock

October of 1999 brought changes on all fronts. I asked the family of Mrs. Forrester to allow me to have Sundays free. That way when I left Sunday morning I didn't need to be back until after evening service and it could truly be a day of rest. This meant that I no longer had to be in her home to fix lunch, so John and Cathy Parker invited me to eat with their family at lunchtime. I willingly agreed and found out later that Philip was also a standard fixture at Sunday lunches.

By this time I had developed somewhat of a begrudging, internal awe of "Mr. Brown." Having the privilege of sitting under his teaching in Sunday School was a breath of fresh air. I had just been through four years of Bible School and had left with more questions than when I had entered and frankly, was very confused.

I remember crying to the Lord the summer after graduation and telling Him I wanted to learn more about Him and His Word, but I didn't know how to begin to get the answers to my questions. Spiritually it was a very critical point for me, but I had come to the decision that I was going to serve God because I loved Him--even if I never got answers to my questions. Although some things may never make sense, it didn't mean there weren't answers or that I was putting my faith in something that didn't make sense! I just wasn't looking in the right place or given the opportunity to find the answers.

With those issues settled and in total surrender to God's leadership, He then unfolded one of the most magnificent, ongoing, blessings, I've ever had the privilege of partaking in. Every Sunday I was learning brand new material, and it finally dawned on me that God was going to start giving me answers and sorting through my confusion using a very gifted and talented teacher. I began to relax my inward defensiveness, and I made the decision to learn as much as possible in the time allotted.

At this same time, one Wednesday evening after service, Philip came up to my pew and asked me about a chapel message that had been preached that morning that he was very excited about. It was one of the clearest presentations he'd heard on entire sanctification (though that terminology wasn't used) in all of his years at Bob Jones. His question was, "I'd like to hear what you thought about the chapel message today."

I'd like to report that I gave an articulate response to his question but that's pretty far from the truth. First of all, this was the first time he'd spoken to me one-on-one so that was a little flustering. Second, he was asking for my reaction to a chapel message for which I couldn't even remember the topic (at that point I was so flustered I couldn't remember being in chapel). And third, why in the world was a student of theology, a PhD candidate, wondering what I thought?!?! There were hundreds of thoughts going through my head at that moment and very few of them had anything to do with the chapel message! "Why in the world is he talking to me now? Why can't I think straight?! I'm acting like a love-sick teenager! Come on- what was the sermon about? Did I really go to chapel this morning? I'm sure I did - it's required but I don't remember anything about chapel! Come on Marianne! THINK!!! What's he going to gain by hearing what I thought? Is he really interested in what I thought?! If so, why?" Anyhow.....if I had been out to impress him....it would have been a horrible failure.

From that time on we began having conversations here and there. I found out where he was in his dissertation process, and he learned what my plans had been and the obstacles that were ahead. John and Cathy's home was a wonderful place to just sit and listen to what was happening, observing and learning who Philip Brown really was (which differed from my preconceived ideas pretty drastically). There was no pressure to interact. We were just two people who were treated like family by our pastor's family and were able to learn a lot about each other indirectly. It was at this time that a situation occurred that really challenged me to look beyond myself and my ideas of Philip and begin paying attention to who he really was.

One evening after church, an elderly gentleman in the congregation was talking with Philip and became very adamant about the issue they were discussing and called into question Philip's commitment to the authority of Scripture. Now, for those of you who know Philip, that was a low blow! And Philip responded strongly. I wasn't there to witness the conversation but evidently there were some members of the Sunday School class who did. The following Sunday, before Philip started teaching his Sunday School lesson, he made an apology. In it he confessed that the Bible says "rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father" and that his response was wrong--he was rebuking not entreating. He asked the class to forgive him for his unbiblical response which was not edifying to anyone within earshot and not uplifting to the body of Christ.

I was chagrined! The person I had made Philip Brown out to be in my mind would have never admitted wrongdoing! I remember thinking as I sat there, "Either this guy is the best hypocrite I've ever met or he's the real deal. And if he's the real deal, then it would be best to watch him a little more closely".

Our Story - Part Three

2011-07-10T16:14:00.000-04:00

*(Big Smile) I no sooner walked into church this morning than I started getting questions, "Where's part three?, When are you going to post part three? Will post three be up before you leave on vacation?" Goodness!! Part three - we're not even dating yet! I have no idea how long this is going to take :o * So here it is folks - part three - part four will probably not be released before next Sunday.

Philip had been at Bob Jones for eight years and had the unusual reputation of not having dated anyone. Everyone was quite interested in his singleness and the longer he was there, the more the interest rose. Philip says that he told the Lord that he was too busy with his education to be looking, observing and trying to learn to know someone. If God wanted him to notice someone, she'd have to be dropped in his lap - where he couldn't miss her. Well, God didn't drop me in his lap but he did plant me across the aisle and three rows up. But that didn't do much good at the beginning.

When I was accepted to Bob Jones there were some very definite ideas I had about what would happen. #1 I'd get an education #2 It would take me one year (I'd chosen a 30 credit Master's degree with no thesis) #3 to accomplish #1 and #2 there was no time for developing close friendships. I had no hesitancy about accepting singleness (and was excited about the possible ways God could use me in that state) and was looking forward to embracing "life on my own." And really....I was very excited about what God was doing and how He was working in my life.

The only slight shadow cast on my very bright future was Philip Brown. I knew that he was still finishing his degree and that I'd probably run into him at church (because he also attended Easley Bible Methodist) and I was apprehensive that "fresh meat" would mean I'd have to deal with the uncomfortable situation of making it clear I was not available. (*I had been in this type of situation before and had learned some very ugly lessons about human nature) Or even worse of having to deal with this young PhD who probably thought he was somebody - ugghhhhhh!!! In my mind the issue was settled before I arrived in SC and he had no idea the absolute certainty with which I was going to cut off all possible complications.

I arrived in Greenville the first week of August on a Friday and unpacked all my worldly possessions into a small bedroom that was to be my home where I was caring for a woman in the beginning stages of Alzheimer's. In return for cooking, cleaning, taking her to appointments, etc. I was able to stay in the home for free. Saturday I showed up at BJU for registration and as I was driving on front campus I recognized a briefcase carrying, red-haired gentleman walking down the sidewalk and my heart sank. Uggghhhhh ...... hopefully he would be easily avoided.

Sunday I went with David and Teresa Armstrong to church and sat in their pew. I don't remember initially seeing Philip but he remembers seeing me. He had entered the church from the door right off of the platform and as he stepped through the door our eyes met. He said all he remembers was "sheer terror" written on my face and thinking, "Whoa! That girl needs a lot of space!" All I remember was going to the Sunday School class that I would be attending and finding out that a one "Philip Brown" was the teacher! Oh Great!

School began and life began moving at a pace that was indescribable! Within one week I realized that my dream of completing my degree in one year was not going to be reality. I was working on a Master's degree that didn't have the undergraduate degree to build on. They expected me to know methods, theories, people and terminology that I'd never heard of. After some scrambling I cut back to three classes that semester and tried to rearrange the plan so that I could finish by going to summer school (which also would not happen). My course load was an enormous amount of work and I was way back on the learning curve. The research class I was in required most research to be done on the Internet. I'd come from a school that didn't allow the Internet. I had to look up theories and people and information in education that I'd not been exposed to just to make sense out of what I was learning in the classroom.

That last paragraph may seem superfluous except for that fact that through this entire time - Philip Brown never spoke one word to me. Not one. He might nod and say "hi" at church but that was it! All of August and September and most of October passed with not a word passing between us. I was a little perplexed (since I had been expecting some trouble) but with everything going on ... very relieved at the same time. His side of the story is that after that initial "look of terror" he thought the last thing a new girl, in a new school, new town, new church needed was someone bugging her. He had no way of knowing how true that was and how important it would be for him to follow the Spirit's leadership.

Our Story - Part Two

2011-07-09T20:10:00.000-04:00

I finally made it through Bible school without finding a life partner (certainly not because there weren't enough chapel messages preached on the topic!) and in my era that meant you might as well embrace singlehood until a batch of widowers starting becoming available. It actually was a relief to know that singlehood would be my lot and I had big plans for "my life". My own trailer, my own dog, my own clothesline and teaching school somewhere in PA. Surely God would approve.

While traveling in a singing group my junior year of college, we had some time to kill in South Carolina and toured Bob Jones University. I had some familiarity with the University because my mom had used their curriculum while homeschooling my siblings and me. I thoroughly enjoyed our tour and picked up some information and we moved on to Easley, SC for our evening service. This would be the second time that I'd meet Philip. I remember where he sat (right hand side, three seats back on the aisle - in case you wondered). "So that's the Brown boy." was the extent of my thoughts and impressions at that time.

After that tour was over and some time had passed, several situations came to bear in my life that made it clear it was going to be necessary for me to further my education if I were going to be prepared to do what I believed God had called me to do. Because of the degree I was going to be receiving it was doubtful that I'd be able to go on to graduate school but the thoughts of doing another bachelor's was disheartening. I looked through the information again from Bob Jones and chose a Master's degree for which I met the prerequisites and went ahead and applied asking God to perform a miracle.....and He did! (though it would turn out later that my acceptance had been a mistake - since I was already earning credits, they allowed me to continue based on my performance - another story for another time).

And so it was that I found myself stopping in Greenville, SC with my sister and father on the way to Hobe Sound (where my sister would be returning to school), to meet with Teresa Armstrong (who is the head of Interior Design at Bob Jones and a member of the Easley Bible Methodist Church), and try to get her help in finding a place to live.

Teresa is such a gracious, Southern lady and I left her office so excited about what was about to take place in my life and ecstatic that God was leading me into a dream I never thought would become reality. I loved Bob Jones and all the opportunities that it held and I was planning on attending the Easley Bible Methodist Church which at the time was pastored by Bro. John Parker. I had to pinch myself to keep seeing if it was really happening! Teresa promised to keep her ear and eyes open for a place off campus for me to live and said she'd be in touch. You would have to know Teresa to appreciate this part but I learned later that when she got home that night she said to her husband, "I've met the perfect wife for Philip Brown!" To which he replied, "Teresa, you keep your mouth shut!"

Our Story - Part One

2011-06-30T23:33:00.002-04:00

On July 28th we're going to be celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary. So many people have heard our story but for those who haven't, I'll be sharing (at least my version :o) the highlights of those very special days. It will probably take several posts!

Our story begins long before we ever met each other - our backgrounds were very different, our family cultures were not at all alike, but there were some commonalities - both of us had made decisions to follow Christ; Philip at age six and I at age 15. This at least set us on a path that allowed God to work in a wonderful way in both of our lives though very unaware that each other existed....well - not quite.

Philip was raised in Florida at Hobe Sound Bible College and three of my mother's siblings attended there as well as my father's sister and family. One of my aunts actually babysat Philip and growing up in Pennsylvania I remember seeing a recipe, written in her hand entitled, "Maynard's Lasagna" which had come from Nadine's (my now mother-in-law) kitchen. I faintly remember hearing stories about "The Brown's", a few comments about them being "different" (in reference to how they were raising their children) but had no clue who they were.

The first I would have seen Philip was at Bellville Brethren in Christ Church when the Hobe Sound Choir was there and we went to see my uncle, John Keefer, and my cousin John Mark Keefer. But neither of us remembers the other.

There are six and a half years difference in our ages so our lives were at different stages at different times. Philip did not date prior to our meeting, I on the other hand did. He graduated from college and moved on to Bob Jones to work on his graduate degrees while I graduated from high school and went to Bible School.

To understand "Our Story" you have to understand a little of my background. I wasn't one of those girls who was just waiting for the day that I'd meet Mr. Perfect and we'd get married, have babies, and live happily ever after. My view was more - "It's easier to cry yourself to sleep at night because you're lonely when no one else is there, than to stifle your tears because you're lonely and someone is there." Not a lot of hope that marriage was anything better than God's ordained way of populating the earth - if you got fortunate, you might even like the guy. So, I entered the dating scene with pretty disastrous results! And apart from the mercy of God - this story would be a whole lot different!

New Furniture!

2011-06-25T21:17:00.002-04:00

This week was VBS at church so there wasn't a dull moment. And there were lots of other exciting things that happened also.

For some time we've been looking for a couch, love seat, and recliner for our living room. All of our furniture was donated and though we are so thankful for it, it was time to purchase something that meets our needs a little better. I sold all of it at our yard sale this past spring and we've been looking for new ever since. Furniture nowdays is just plain UGLY in my opinion - absolutely no character! We found this right off but upon praying about it got a definite "no". I was hoping for something that I liked the color and the style and finally decided that was expecting too much! Philip is the one who found this at a small store in Newport. The couch has a recliner on each end and so we decided to go with two couches (the cost of the love seat was not much less so we opted to get the second couch) and skip the recliner. I like the color and fabric even if not really the style I had hoped for.

The ugly pillow will soon disappear!

Then we've also been watching for a good sale on oak bookcases - they are NOT cheap. I also started watching Craigslist and hit upon an entertainment center that someone was trying to sell with two bookcases and they were willing to break up the set. So we picked them up last evening for a very good price! Love Craigslist!

We spent the morning taking a hike around Winton Woods lake and had an enjoyable time. Daniel took his Razor, Allan walked, and Stephen lagged so far behind he finally was able to hitch a ride.

We got to see lots of wildflowers and butterflies. I'm so thankful for the quiet joys of summertime!

Christmas In June

2011-06-17T12:10:00.001-04:00

I'm so excited! Our schoolbooks arrived today and the boys are thrilled - Daniel wanted to start today. But Stephen is rather perturbed that he didn't get any books this time. I told the boys we're going to wait until at least the end of July.....if we can wait that long :o) I love homeschooling!

Another First for Allan

2011-06-15T16:29:00.001-04:00

Allan holds the distinguished title in our family for First To Get Stitches and now... First To Break a Bone! Two weeks ago he was jumping over the staircase and fell on his twisted arm. When he kept complaining about it we decided to take him in for x-rays and sure enough, his complaints were for a reason. The good news is that since he's already two weeks into the healing process he should only have to have the cast on for two weeks. That made him very happy!

Summer Days are Here!

2011-06-12T17:19:00.001-04:00

Summer + slower pace = fun family times. Not that we couldn't be busy this summer but there are more important things than being busy. Here's this past week:

Kroger had their raspberries on sale the past two weeks for a $1, so that gave good reason to make up some jam. There were 20 jars but one has already been opened to go on toast for breakfast - marvelous stuff!

We tried out a "new-to-us" park on Tuesday evening at Mt. Airy Forest that has a really cool treehouse!

We had fun exploring there and then decided to take a little hike. The boys are always looking for an adventurous walk in the woods - pretending a myriad of things along the way. It was HOT the middle of last week and so we were thoroughly soaked and worn out by the time we got back to the van (but little people sleep better when they're all worn out :o) Here's Stephen with his hiking stick "whip, whip, whip"ing away at whatever he's whipping - have no idea where he got it from!

Allan wanted me to take a picture of a tree with arms -

Then Wednesday was spent in the garden....all day.... finishing the planting that needed to be done for this year. We would have to choose the hottest day of this year so far to finish but since we were leaving on Thursday it couldn't wait any longer. I broke down and bought Preen (which I should have done two months ago!) so that I don't have to spend the rest of the summer weeding. So now all the cucumbers, squash, cantelope, and okra are planted and I took time to stake the tomatoes.

Thursday we headed to Tennessee!

Where we stayed at the Valentine's home -

And grilled our meals while enjoying the lovely patio and gazebo area that had a swing and table -

While the boys explored the woods and spent time playing on the swing -

Enjoyed some awesome scenery in the Great Smokey Mountains - what a wonderful change of pace from the city. God is such an awesome Creator!

Enjoyed all the flowers that were blooming (including Mountain Laurel and azaleas) but missed getting pictures of the turkeys.

Two different days we took the boys to Cosby Creek to throw rocks and just enjoy the outdoors. They had a marvelous time!

All too soon it was time to pack up and head back to Cincinnati - we arrived home last evening a little after 5:30, had some homemade pizza, took our Saturday night baths and headed to bed.

Today we had lunch with our special friends, Michael and Linda Schaub, and their girls (all four of them :o). Tonight we have to say goodbye (again!) since they're taking their new little one and heading back to Florida. I'm so thankful they were able to be here for the birth of the baby and we got to meet Maddie before they had to go back South. We will miss them!

Some other doings this week

2011-06-05T17:19:00.001-04:00

I forgot about something else we did this week! On Friday Yagoot (a frozen yogurt shop not far from us) was having their coconut yogurt free with one topping. That was a special treat for the boys! I got mine with pecans, Allan got his with raspberries,

Daniel loves his sprinkles (ughhhhhh!!!!)

And Stephen loves the chocolate chips. I was interested how different the yogurt tasted depending on the topping you choose.

They boys didn't appreciate the music so we went outside.

They've played outside in their little pool a lot this week, worked on lego projects and also played with their Ideal Blox (which are the neatest things I've seen in a long time!)

Now I think that pretty much sums up our week...at least what's documented with pictures!

This week's collage

2011-06-05T17:01:00.001-04:00

Last Sunday Stephen and I stayed home since he was running a fever and most of the day was spent like this (for him at least):

Monday was Memorial Day and Philip installed the flag that I got him for Christmas. I got to visit a friend in the hospital who had given birth to a baby girl the day before (sorry - no picture!)and then we went to my in-laws to grill and have homemade ice cream - I'll try to post the recipe later.

Because the weather was so nice, I worked outside a lot finishing flower planting, mulching and doing other odd jobs around the house. The mint that was given to me from Saudi Arabia two years ago was finally given a home.

The lily of the valley and bleeding hearts are blooming.

The rest of the shade garden is looking so nice! The hydrangea is getting ready to take off with nice pink blooms this year.

The cherry tree that I planted earlier this spring died and so it had to be replaced but the new one is looking good thus far.

Liberty apple didn't bloom this year but it's looking good.

The pixie crunch apple also had to be replanted this spring since it didn't recover from the damage done by the children last fall. This time I got smart and staked all of the trees so they shouldn't be so easily messed with....I hope. It had twelve blossoms on it this year but they had to all be removed to allow the tree to establish itself before fruiting. Perhaps next year we can get a few.

The strawberries are doing so well and we've even eaten a few - Daniel look surprised after he picked one off... "It tastes just like a real strawberry!" he said. Again we won't have lots this year but I think they've done quite well.
p

The garden looks like it survived all the rain! The tomatoes, peppers, squash and cucumbers still look a bit yellow but they seem as though they will snap out of it. The green beans, lima beans, onions and carrots will be fine. This week we need to get the rest out if possible. I was going to wait to trellis my grape vine next year but if they get any bigger I'll have to do it this year!

Perhaps the most exciting project I've worked on this spring it my blackberry and red raspberry bushes. This area behind our house used to be overgrown with weeds and to me was wasted growing space! Last year we planted four bushes but then with everything else that went on not much else happened. When I planted, I made a mistake and put down landscaping fiber (since the weeds were so AWFUL in that area) forgetting that the bushes would be sending up new shoots and that landscaping fiber wasn't going to allow them to grow. This year I removed the landscaping fiber and mulched heavily (sidenote: answer to prayer - I love my place to look nice but can't really justify spending a fortune on mulch. I did spend some but then got four bucket loads for free - I was SO THANKFUL!) allowing them to put up new bushes (and they are!). Then in front of them I placed landscaping fiber held down by bricks that are from the wall that's collapsing behind our house. They boys got the job of using a screwdriver and hammers to knock the mortar off of all the bricks. They think because they got to use tools and whack on stuff that it was fun...they didn't realize it was work :o) Then I filled the area in with pebbles to make a walkway. I ran out of pebbles and landscaping fiber but that should be done by the end of this week. This area is also a great hiding place for snakes and we did kill our 12th one last week - hopefully they've all moved on now....I really don't like snakes...at all!

My flowers are looking nice in the planters but the hanging baskets need to be trimmed back to bloom out again.

Oh, and our van turned over 100,000 miles today!

That about sums up our week. It's busy now that the cafeteria is closed and I have to cook :o) It's amazing how slow I get when I'm not cooking on a daily basis. God has blessed us with some good times together as a family and I'm so thankful for these summer days!

Mom: sorry I forgot to get any pictures of my hanging baskets - I had taken them all down last night when we got a storm and I've not gotten them back up.

May

2011-05-30T23:39:00.000-04:00

Note: Insomnia has driven me out of bed to do my "sleep Hygiene" and what I've been working on is putting labels on all of my posts.....in doing this I discovered that I never posted this....post. So ...here's the post...from May!

This is the time of year at GBSC that days become a blur! With finals, programs, awards, meetings, camp, graduation, assessment, last days of school, people and students moving....whew....by mid June the whirling comes to a stop and there's a little chance to recover before the new school year begins! Here's just a synopsis of this month thus far -

Tornado - actually not here but in Alabama where Philip's brother lives, so we had family here for a few days while things were being cleaned up in their area and power was being restored. No pictures :o(

Braces - Sorry no pictures here either - someone paid for me to get them so I started that process and because they're Invisalign, there's nothing to see (only feel!) and actually they were very easy to adjust to. Every two weeks I switch aligners and that's a little uncomfortable for about 24 hours but no big deal and in 10-15 months I should have straight teeth :o) ...

Yard Sale - after 10 years of marriage we'd accumulated enough for a decent yard sale. I've learned two things - they're a lot of work and my street is not a good one to have a yard sale on. The GBS people were a great support but only four non-school people showed up and three of them were men. Even my whoopie pies didn't sell (though my boys were happy about that). So we'll try again in about two weeks in a different neighborhood in KY and see how well it goes.

Mother's Day - deserves a whole post of it's own.

This past week - with the great help of my neighbor, Rhoda Valentine and her son Nathaniel, I was able to get all of my garden planted this week. The only thing not in the ground is the okra and it has to wait until the first of June. I'm so excited about doing garden again this year! It was really wet so some of the soil didn't work up well at all but I needed to get it out so that I can rotate for fall crops. I also washed all the second floor windows and got the screens in since we had temps in the high 80's. That necessitated getting all the boys winter clothes put away and breaking out the summer items. Had some company for supper, went to the flea market to look for flowers, campmeeting was the latter part of the week, and all the other odds and ends that are necessary for running a household.

That's why, without further ado - I'm going to take my Sabbath rest and thoroughly enjoy it! Blogging about Mother's Day will be later!

My Mother's Day

2011-05-22T16:39:00.001-04:00

Mother's Day for me this year was quit interesting and once the day ended I had to laugh at how much it typified a "normal" mother's day!

The day started great with my husband making me a spinach omelet and the boy's cards. I had received flower earlier in the week and by Sunday they were beautiful!

This particular Sunday morning I was running behind getting us out the door on time. My thinking had been, get the boys dressed, get my hair combed and self ready then we'll get pictures of the boys and me.....don't ask me from where this "picture of mommy and children" tradition originated but from blogs and Facebook I see I'm not alone! But with trying to find matching Sunday socks and tracking down renegade shoes, cleaning up the kitchen from breakfast and a spill, and finding someone didn't have their shirt ironed so the whole outfit needed to be changed....I was running behind. One small detail was that I forgot to inform my husband of the previously mentioned traditional photo and so by the time I had myself together, he had very kindly put all of the boys in the van and strapped them in. ..... There went my vision of the ideal picture with well rested, well dressed children, non-frazzled mother!

We did arrive had church on time though still a little ruffled in spirit and I did manage to find a man in the vestibule, holding a child who offered to take the picture. We had one shot...and this is it!

It was a typical Mother's Day service with children's recitations and a special prayer (which is always appreciated!) and flowers for the mothers.

We had previously made arrangements to eat in the school cafeteria (which was nice since there is no prep nor cleanup!) but I forgot to take a change of clothes for the boys and by the time they were done eating there was no chance of a "well - dressed" picture. We weren't 5 minutes into the meal when Daniel made noises indicating that I needed to remove him immediately because things were about to get interesting and they did. We made it to the restroom in time and after getting him cleaned up I returned to eat my meal ... or what I had appetite for.

But there's always naptime .... alas, after 30 minutes Stephen woke up crying very hard complaining of serious stomach pain and since this had been going on for three days but now was accompanied by a fever I spent the next two hours holding and rocking him with no seeming relief. After consulting with his pediatrician it was decided that Stephen needed to be screened for an appendicitis and off to the ER we went.

Thankfully it ended well and we were able to get him fixed up but by the time we got home, church was already in session and so I missed the going away gathering for some friends (and lots of good food :o(.

But as I sat quietly rocking Stephen and talking about puppies and dragons and "scooper diggers" reflecting on the past seven years - I couldn't help but be thankful for the gift of being a mother. There are fleeting moments of glory...periodically...but for the most part there's not a lot of glamor. It's day after day, line upon line, precept upon precept that has taught and stretched and grown me into the person God is wanting to make me. We asked God to give us only the children that we could raise for Him - the ones that He wanted us to have. I'm so proud to be "mom" to Allan and "mommy" to Daniel and Stephen!

Flowers!

2011-05-16T19:57:00.001-04:00

Something I can't remember the name of.

This post is for my mom :o) I've been trying to find a greenhouse in Cincinnati that's comparable to what I was used to in Pennsylvania. Nobody does greenhouses better than the Mennonites in Martinsburg! But alas, I'm not willing to pay what the greenhouses around here are asking for pitiful, slim pickings. After putting out a request on Facebook I got some ideas and followed up on some of them. Some were successful and others weren't. I was very pleased to find Baeten's Nursery in Union, KY which is the closest thing I've found that I'm used to. Large selection of colors, large variety of plants, healthy, and reasonably priced (not cheap but reasonable). They have about 11 greenhouses that are full of all sorts of beautiful flowers. The only drawback was their system of display - aisles were very narrow and all the plants were on the floor except the hanging baskets - most of the hanging baskets were so low you had to duck to get around them. I'm used to plants being up (where children can't trip and go sprawling all over them....yes that did happen :o) and all the same types of plants being together. But in some cases there were the same types of plants (just perhaps different colors) in all 11 greenhouses. You had to remember which plant in what color was in which greenhouse...little unhandy but I'm comparing them to the best! Anyhow......for my mom's benefit -

Americana Light Pink Splash Geranium

A shot of all the different plants. I got several spike plants that I didn't take individual pictures of.

A dark pink Solenia Begonia planter I got for $16.99.

Bandana Lemon Zest Lantana

Pink Ruffle Double Impatiens

Purple Wave Petunias

Hmmmmm ..... I already uploaded this one :o(

Summer wave large Violet

Purple Stripe Double Impatiens

Superbena Large Lilac Blue

Sweet potato vine

Solenia Begonia Dusty Rose

Now I'm just waiting for some sun and warmer weather (hopefully towards the end of the week) so that I can put them together in baskets and plantings. So excited!

IHC April 27

2011-05-15T13:55:00.001-04:00

This year IHC was special because my brother, Jonathan, and his family attended. They stopped by for a very quick visit to drop off a desk. Philip purchased a desk for me off of Ebay that was located in Tampa and they delivered it. This year we took all three boys (which I think is a first) and thought I got to see many faces - there wasn't a lot of time to talk :o(

These are my nephews - Tyler and Zach. Oh, and the other guy is my baby brother!

Cloud Formation

2011-04-22T16:12:00.001-04:00

We witnessed the neatest cloud formation this morning!

Stephen's First

2011-04-22T16:10:00.001-04:00

Stephen made his first trip to the Urgent Care for stitches on Wednesday night. But the doctor gave a choice of 5 stitches or glue and we chose glue. He did fantastically and sported a nice bandage until today. The bandage was removed and it looks great!

I just now realize I have no pictures of the "after" - we'll get those after he wakes up from his nap.

Quieting a Noisy Soul

2011-04-12T06:11:00.005-04:00

This post was written on April 3rd:
This afternoon Philip and I were sharing together and he asked me, "What is your analysis of what happened last summer?" That got the conversation wheels turning and after listening to my theory of what happened last summer I was able to ask him the same thing. Through the last 10 months it would have been so much easier (possibly) if there had been a clear picture of what was happening medically but that wasn't possible because there was so much more happening than in just the physical realm. But what interested me was when Philip said, "It's good we didn't know everything going on medically because the temptation would have been to avoid the pain. God was using the pain too much in your (Marianne's) life, my life (Philip), the life of our family, our church family and beyond that to have "fixed" it would have shortchanged the magnificent, redemptive, work that He was doing."

And it's true. We seem to be hardwired to run from pain. Not just physical pain - any type of pain or discomfort. And whatever is necessary to get away from it, we try it. And it's different for every person. The places we hide and the the extent to which we try to run varies from person to person. But one thing running always does - it generates noise. The kind of noise that can temporarily numb the pain and make us forget whatever it is that is gnawing at our souls.

Confession time - the two places I've frequently hidden is food and sleep. Neither of these are wrong, both are a necessity. God has much to say about both.... and their moderation. So, it was no surprise that two issues I struggled with last year were being able to eat - the nausea was incredible! (Drug withdraw affects every cell in your body!) and the insomnia was so debilitating. The two places I used to run and hide were no longer options. As I've said previously, the situation was multifaceted to say the least. There were many things happening physically (due to surgery and drug reactions/withdraw), psychologically due to what the drugs did to my mind (extreme terror, anxiousness, irrational fear, loss of concentration and sense of normalcy, horrible sense of "lostness" and gut-wrenching depression) and spiritually (issues coming to the surface that had not been dealt with - we're talking a long list of wrongs, both true and perceived that had never been tackled, character flaws that I would never be honest about with myself). And the list could go on and on!

So the noise was deafening! Some of my own doing and some from other sources. The generation of noise is not new. We're living in a time in history when noise is at an all time high. If we're ever going to stop and have quiet we have to fight for it. I'm not talking about physical quiet (I live in a house with 3 boys....that's only possible between 9pm and 7am) but soul quiet. A deep, genuine, quietness of spirit that only comes through one channel. That's spending time alone, with God, listening to His voice, and allowing Him to renew our minds. Allowing Him to teach us how to view life and all of it's component parts from His perspective. As I blogged earlier, it's a type of peace and quietness of soul that calms the anxious heart, quiets our fears, and restores our joy.

That's really where this blog post begins (for those who are still reading :o). When I was "trying" to get better last summer I was trying to do everything to shortcut the process of what God was wanting to do. I wanted out of the pain, the withdrawal, the side effects of the medication, and God saw the only way to help me get back on my feet and be a stable person again was to allow the pain to be so severe that I would be quiet and listen. Because for many weeks that was all I could do. Benzodiazipines cloke the nervous system and when that cloke got taken away every nerve was laid raw. I can remember when hearing the air conditioning running and watching the hands on the clock was overwhelming stimulation - almost more than I could handle. Absolute quiet was a necessity (which is why I lived with my in-laws for awhile - Thank God for understanding in-laws!). But it wasn't stagnant quiet.

Back in February I blogged about the book "God is More Than Enough - Foundations for a Quiet Soul" by Dr. Jim Berg. This book actually came out of his much larger Christian counseling program, "Quieting a Noisy Soul" a whole DVD, study guide (Taking Time to Quiet Your Soul), and program to deal biblically with "overcoming guilt, anxiety, anger and despair". I cannot express adequately what this study has done for me. I'm not saying this study was a quick fix for dealing with some serious issues in my life. But it gave me the tools necessary for God to start working on the renewal of my mind and my situation. I'll admit...I read the short book first and so profited from it, but I'm always a little leery of "Christian Counseling". Main reason - much of it doesn't differ from secular psychology - and I'm not interested in trying to solve my problems apart from God's help and without His Word. But I read the testimonies of others who had been in a deeper place than I was and decided it couldn't hurt. And knowing Dr. Jim Berg, I knew he wasn't going to be saying anything heretical, and I trust his wisdom. So Philip purchased the program and I began.

I went to the quickstart option for panic attacks and anxiety issues since this was one of the most horrific side effects of the withdraw. It wasn't going to stop them but it would give me the tools to deal with them biblically and thereby minimize the psychological effects they were having. One of the things I like about the program is its balance. He talks about the importance of finding out first if there is a medical issue causing some of these problems. Then even if there is a medical condition, there are some strategies for helping you stay stable until the medical issue can be solved. It's not a reductionistic approach that all you need to do is "read your Bible more and pray." There is a whole section on starting a physical exercise routine that will help you physically and pairs that with relaxation techniques. The DVDs were great for watching while I was walking on the treadmill. The MP3's were wonderful when the visual stimulation was too much and for listening to in the van as I'd be traveling. The workbook "Taking Time to Quiet Your Soul." gave direction for really digging into God's Word and evaluating my thoughts against God's reality.

At first I was a little overwhelmed- 24 sessions, very structured, and I was barely taking care of myself. But the beauty of the program is, you can work at your own pace. The way I used it was to watch/listen to all the lectures first and then started going week by week and using the workbook. Philip and I had some precious times of worship this summer as we listened to the lectures on God's character. One of the fist things I did was print off the STOP-THINK cards and write off the supporting Bible verses on index cards. I then put those cards in my pocket and carried them EVERYWHERE! When a panic attack to hit, I'd pull them out and preach myself a sermon (He teaches you how to do that if you don't already know how) and move on.

The overview page has some good video clips about the program and they have some very helpful information. Just this morning, while staying home with two boys who are in the croup dying stages, I listened to "Getting Grace from God" under the "further help" and "listen".

I give this recommendation to those who are on top and those who are looking up at the bottom. It's not a program that just helps a certain set of people but rather has something helpful for everyone. Husbands and wives would benefit from studying together, parents would learn to quickly spot improper thinking patterns in their children. It's beneficial to anyone who is learning how to handle the pressures of life from a Biblical perspective.

As we are approaching the one year mark, I look back and stand amazed at what God has done in this past year. Someone asked me several months ago if I felt like I was back to "normal" because their one concern was this experience would permenatly change me. What was "normal" is no longer where I want to return. This past year has changed me. But I don't think that's a bad thing. There is a large area of margin in my life (which I'll blog about sometime) that never existed before. I have more time for what's important because I can't keep the schedule I used to keep and I want my best reserved for what's important. It doesn't mean I'm always comfortable here. I chafe under the restrictions sometimes and must daily submit to my Father's gracious molding.

So, if you struggle with feeling overwhelmed, or have battled depression, or are involved in the life of someone who is at this point, this is a very helpful resource.

Yes, these children are mine!

2011-04-10T22:20:00.001-04:00

I'm not sure who they take after.....

Allan Turns Seven!

2011-04-10T22:13:00.001-04:00

Allan turned seven on Thursday! Since he was in school, we needed to make a treat for his classmates. I used an idea from a friend and made frog cupcakes. They actually turned out quite cute (except the ones with red eyes looked rabid and the yellow eyed ones looked anemic).

Later that evening we celebrated his birthday supper (pepperoni and mushroom pizza, Doritos, and pop)with friends. He got a bike and a pocket knife - he's working on learning to ride his bike and got his first pocket knife cut on Friday! I can't believe I'm the mother of a seven year old! The other evening he acted hesitant about giving me a good night kiss and so I figured it was time to tell him that if he was uncomfortable that was normal and he didn't have to kiss me. He looked at me shocked and said, "I'll never be embarrassed to kiss you!" I hope that's true. We're so blessed to have this young man in our family.

Unguarded Camera

2011-04-10T17:19:00.001-04:00

When getting ready to download the pictures from my camera I discovered that son #1 evidently had been playing.

New Deuteronomy 6 Blog

2011-03-31T11:18:00.001-04:00

One of the young men in our Sunday School class has put together a blog specifically geared to giving practical ways of implementing Deuteronomy 6 in our homes. Check it out at http://trainthemdiligently.blogspot.com

Random

2011-03-27T00:40:00.001-04:00

If it seems strange that I'm blogging at 12:17....that's because it is! Stephen has croup and last night I was up too many times to count so I thought tonight I'd sleep great but that doesn't seem to be the case. So, I'm practicing sleep hygiene and putting my 30 minutes in. I went to bed early tonight but then at 10:40 Stephen woke up crying so I got up, put vicks on his chest and feet and propped him up on pillows. Philip then took over and is sleeping in Stephen's bed but when I couldn't get back to sleep after an hour I decided to blog. Hopefully by getting it out of my system...I'll be able to get to sleep quickly. This will also explain if my coherentness degenerates!

Let's see....we're still getting some of this....in fact, as I type I'm enjoying the snowflakes falling outside my window. Perhaps this will be the last of the season?

But before this snow....we had several days of 70 degree weather (hence, little boys going out in bare feet which probably resulted in the croup!. During the nice weather we decided to get out and so some garden/yard work. I just about lost heart the first day though. As I was hauling soil to the asparagus bed something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. There, about 6 feet away was a MASS of snakes. I couldn't tell how many there were but none of them were very little! Two of the maintenance guys from campus came over and killed six of them. Evidently they had been hibernating together and so that's why there were so many. The guys even dug up a rock below the surface of the soil and found some of them. Sighh.....I"m really NOT into snakes....at all. I took the boys down to the house and put them to bed and then returned to the asparagus bed where I found THREE more! Ugggg......and so....I killed one (Please take note of this David and Jonathan...you would have been proud....not of the screaming but having the guts to get close enough that with a five foot shovel I was able to kill one), the neighbor boy caught one and another got away. The following day when I was putting up my strawberry bed the neighbor lady about stepped on one and so her son grabbed a shovel (left from the day before) and dispatched with the ninth one (I'm praying that it's the one that got away the day before!) I have no pictures, it wouldn't have been pretty.

That being said: I did still manage to replant my asparagus (last year's plantings rotted in the ground...twice) and built a pyramid strawberry bed which turned out quite nice. Right now it's covered in straw to protect from the freeze but here's what it looked like.

Also my asparagus bed, that I built last year but the timbers warped so much that I had to use expandable foam between them so I wouldn't lose all my dirt.

Then we planted blueberry bushes:

I didn't get a picture of the cherry tree we planted (which was a Christmas gift from my BIL and SIL) - the grape vines didn't get planted before cold weather hit so they're in storage until warmer weather allows us to get them out.

OH, we also replaced lily of the valley, bleeding hearts, polemonium, and lady ferns that didn't come up last year.

So that's been our happenings recently. ...guess I'll go to bed, give it another 30 minutes and if I'm not asleep I'll blog some more....good night!

Philip's 40th Birthday!

2011-03-27T00:16:00.001-04:00

After arriving home from PA we started getting ready for Philip's "big" birthday. Turning 40 wasn't earth shattering for him at all....he said as he looks at his life, he's done everything he's dreamed of and God's allowed him to do more than what he could have imagined. I'm so thankful that I've been blessed to watch God's working in his life over the past 10 years and it has truly been amazing! We celebrated with family and a few friends and enjoyed reminiscing about what God has done.

We celebrated with steak (thanks to a Kroger gift card for a Proctor and Gamble study :o), baked potatoes and salad. Then, Philip had asked his mom to make him a Mississippi Mud Cake...that was wonderful! The following day we celebrated with our Young Adult Sunday School Class....but I forgot my camera!

Trip to Pennsylvania

2011-03-27T00:04:00.001-04:00

It was a joy to be able to spend a week in PA over the last part of February and the first of March. Philip was holding revival in York, PA which is about 2 hours from my parents so we took the boys with us a made it a "vacation". It was nice to see my dad and mom again and for the boys to enjoy some more time with Grandpa and Grandma. My mom had some pretty good days while we were there which I'm thankful for. Grandpa and Grandma both read lots and lots of books (although the boys seemed stuck on The Sphinx during that time period), colored, and played for hours on end. And my guys loved it - they just have a hard time understanding why we can't do it once a week or so :o)

In the evenings my brother and sister-in-law would come over and wear the boys out before bedtime. Side note: After a streak of seven boys in the family, we've just learned that April (my brother David's wife) is expecting a girl. So my parents are going to get their first granddaughter sometime in July! In looking through pictures thought I don't have any shots of them....other than the evidence they were there by mom son's headgear!

One afternoon while we were there we saw the most amazing thing. I happened to look out the deck doors and the sky was just full of flocks of Canadian geese (strangely enough they were heading south) As far as you could see to the left and right there were geese and the noise was incredible. They were flying pretty high so it was difficult to get a good picture.

While there we were able to see some relatives that we hadn't seen in some time. On Sunday my Uncle David and Aunt Miriam came for lunch with their son Jason. Then Monday my Aunt MaryLou and Uncle Jeff brought my grandma Miller for a visit. My grandma hadn't ever seen Daniel or Stephen so It's been at least 4 years since we'd seen her last. She doesn't look like she's 80 does she?! We had such a wonderful time! I'm so glad they made the trip!

All too soon it was time to head back to Cincinnati. But we take the memories with us and look forward to when we can do it again.

halfpricecincy: HalfPriceCincy - Totter's Otterville

2011-03-16T09:07:00.001-04:00

halfpricecincy: HalfPriceCincy - Totter's Otterville
If you live in Cincinnati, you'll want to take a look at this deal for Totter's Otterville.

Chicken Noodle and Corn Soup

2011-02-22T20:16:00.001-05:00

Growing up this was a frequent favorite of mine and has worked well for my little family. After a friend's family recently contracted the stomach virus I made up a batch and took to them. She asked for the recipe and so here it is.

You first need some type of chicken. I prefer to roast a chicken with seasoned salt, garlic and onion powder, and fresh ground pepper. It makes a rich broth that gives a wonderful base. I've also used boiled chicken breasts but the broth isn't nearly as rich. I just watch for a chicken to be reduced to $2.00 or so and use it for recipes like this.

Roast chicken (or boil) until meat is very tender. This little guy roasted at 325° for three hours this morning.

There was a good 3 cups of broth and since I needed just a bit more I added another 1-2 cups of water and plenty of salt. I used a package of corn that we put up last summer. It's a creamier type corn but frozen is probably better than canned for this recipe.

Add your favorite noodles. I used 3/4 package of No Yolk today.

Simmer until the noodles are tender (not soggy) about 20 minutes. Then add your chopped chicken.

Sorry there's no picture of the finished product. We were so preoccupied with eating it that we didn't get a picture. It's a great cold-weather soup when served with fresh baked bread.

In the Yoke

2011-02-20T17:19:00.000-05:00

"Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
Matthew 11:28-30 (NASB)

Have you ever been weary? Not a physical, "worked hard today" type of weary but rather a soul weary. The emotional cupboards are bare, when you go to the reserve tank there's nothing there and all vitality seems to have ebbed away. It's contributing causes usually are many, and there are no quick fixes to remedy the situation.

This summer I "happened" (another one of those "God moments") to run across a book entitled, "God is More than Enough - Foundations for a Quiet Soul" by Dr. Jim Berg. Dr. Berg was the Dean of Students at Bob Jones University while Philip and I were there and I have the utmost respect for him and confidence in his relationship with God.

The first chapter opens with the above verse which started the mental wheels turning. This verse was one that kept playing in my mind weeks before the book crossed my path, when a doctor entered my room in the ER and began to challenge me that my "religion" was what was causing the strain on my body that in turn was draining me emotionally (let's see....would a hysterectomy several weeks before have caused any strain to my body or emotional/hormonal challenges? but ....I'm no doctor! anyhow, that's another rabbit trail). My "religion" placed undue burdens on it's women (I'm guessing that he's referring to MY decision to follow Biblical guidelines on lifestyle issues) and we were to be commended for being so committed. As I said, it was a very l-o-n-g conversation that further drained my spirit. But as I was lying there I kept asking myself, "Is he right? Could he be correct that the way I've taken is hard and in the long run detrimental to my well-being?"

I lay there 1/2 listening to his concerns while this verse kept going over and over in my mind, "My yoke is easy, and My burden is light" And I almost had to smile because as low as I was physically and emotionally at that time there was a peace in my heart and a burst of joy - that though I didn't understand what was going on at the time (only that I was having a severe reaction to medication), God was there - seeing and knowing all the intricacies of what was taking place. I remember telling the Dr. at the end of the conversation, after thanking him for his concern, that he would be right in his analysis IF I were serving God out of fear and IF I were working to earn His approval. But that I wasn't......the reason I'm serving God is because I have chosen to serve Him and I've chosen to serve Him because I love Him.

I began studying the verse this summer and it became an anchor through many stormy days going through the drug withdraw. God invites those to come to Him who are weary - ( the root word literally means to take a beating) - and heavy laden (like a ship heavy with cargo). His promise is - if we fit the description and if we come to Him - "I will give you rest"

Reading the promise in context gives us a plan for obtaining this rest, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart". I used to picture this verse as me stepping into a yoke and Christ was back on the wagon box with the reins directing the way but that isn't at all the way a yoke works. A yoke is for TWO, not one. Christ is already in the yoke and He's asking me to join Him. He never designed us to live life without Him, on our own strength, relying on our own wisdom. No, He's saying, "Enter the yoke with me. Let me show you life and all of it's components from My perspective. Let me show you, shoulder the load with you as you navigate the challenges of life." What a Savior!

"For I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls." Not a driver, not a taskmaster, a fellow "yoke-bearer". There's rest in being in step, in yoke with the lover of our souls. That doesn't mean easy roads or smooth sailing but it does mean - HE'S THERE!

"For my yoke is easy, and My burden is light". Easy simply means comfortable, pleasant, or tailor-made. His ways are not burdensome but light. And they're light because He's in the yoke with us, teaching us, guiding us, caring for us. What a wonderful God we serve! May you, my readers, find that rest. What peace, what joy, what contentment follows when He gives us His rest!

Baked Apples

2011-02-19T11:50:00.000-05:00

We had some friends over for supper Thursday evening and I fixed one of Allan's favorite dishes, baked apples. I thought I'd share the recipe with others who may be interested. This works a serving of fruit into a "meat and potatoes" meal and makes a wonderful side dish.

Baked Apples
7-9 apples peeled and quartered
Place in baking dish.
Mix together 1 heaping teaspoon of cornstarch, 3/4 cup water and 2 Tbs. of sugar. Pour over apples. Sprinkle 1/4 cup white sugar and 1/4 cup brown sugar over apples. Sprinkle with cinnamon and dot with slivers (about 1 1/2 tablespoons) of margarine. Bake 45 minutes to 1 hour at 350° until apples are soft.

For those who have my mom's recipe, this one is the same but cuts out 1 cup of sugar. I found you don't even miss it. Enjoy!

Celebrations!

2011-02-12T20:00:00.001-05:00

There was nothing short of a celebration when I FINALLY figured out how to fix the problems with my blog this week! Whew....now I feel like getting back into the swing of writing again since it's not so ugly as before. I was wanting a little more color but I'm done messing for now :o)

It came to my attention this week as I was placing our picture order for the year 2010, that I never blogged about Allan's Kindergarten Graduation! It took place May 27th, exactly one week after I had surgery. It was the events immediately following his celebration that started the whole medication reaction and withdraw so blogging about his celebration totally slipped my mind.

It was a great celebration! Weeks before we sat down and came up with his guest list and it very quickly grew to 50 people...most of them adults. I never had a kindergarten graduation in public school but our Christian school has one and I think it's a great way to launch them into their formal educational career. It was definitely a "homemade" graduation celebration but it was so much fun and he was very thrilled.

Making sure his cap and gown are the right size.

Daniel checking out the "impressive" medal.

Principal and helper welcoming everyone.

Allan walking out to "Pomp and Circumstance".

Allan doesn't seem to be interested in the commencement speaker's address!

Conferring his degree of "Kindergarten Graduate" and awarding his diploma.

Some of our guests:

It was a great time! I'm sorry that it was somewhat shadowed by the food poisoning that followed (not from the food that evening but evidently something earlier in the day - none of our guests were harmed - for which I'm very thankful!)and my mom's worsening condition.

We're very proud of Allan and his accomplishment! He did very well his kindergarten year and I so enjoyed being his teacher and teaching him how to read! That has to be one of the highlights of my life thus far. He's adjusted to being in a Christian school this year and I've been pleased with his attitude. It's hard to believe that in a little over a month we'll be celebrating his 7th birthday!

Things we've been doing

2011-02-05T15:46:00.003-05:00

It's February! This is the time of year that get's my creative juices running for spring and summer and I love it. Reading seed and flower catalogs, placing orders and planting the things that need to be started indoors. Ahhhh...there's nothing quite like it. (And just this week my pyramid strawberry bed arrived! Yippeee!) But this time of year usually brings some wonderful white stuff that demands people to slow down and take a break which is wonderful after the rush of the Christmas holiday. I look at snow as God's gift to those who have a lot of out of the home obligations that allows them to stay at home and not feel guilty for it! Unfortunately most of those people hate snow....so I enjoy it for them! Here's what we've been up to:

Sledding at Eden Park: Daddy was VERY kind to pull little people up the hill!

Because it was a l - o - n - g way up for little legs.

Stephen was amazing! He absolutely loved it and as soon as he'd get back to the top he'd go down with whoever was ready - I think he went down more than anyone else.

I took Stephen to Sunday School for the first time the other week and he did very well. Due to sickness we've not made it back but hopefully soon, for the first time in almost seven years, I'll be going to my own class without little ones. That will be different.

We've been eating some Sunday meals in the cafeteria since my mother-in-law has been away - I so thankful for this blessing!

And just today I planted Coleus, some coral petunias and some plum pudding petunias! It should make for a pretty summer. Once they germinated I'll post another picture of them.

Celebrated the homegoing of a friend/role model and shed many tears of sorrow for the empty spot she leaves in so many lives.

Perhaps someday in the future I'll blog more about this. Three years ago one of the things I started to do was blog about some individuals that God brought across my pathway over the years who influenced me for God and wholehearted surrendered service to Him. Unfortunately, they're all still in the "unpublished" category and now two of those individuals have left this world. That's something I may take up again.

I'll admit, having a "blah" looking blog doesn't motivate me to update! But I've been working with the HTML code this week and am starting to make some headway although not as much as I like. I'm about 30% computer literate and that's not enough to be working with code! So, I'll keep working and hopefully someday soon - it'll have a new look :o)

Apology

2011-01-23T14:48:00.001-05:00

I know my blog is hideously ugly right now. I used to know how to change backgrounds and keep it neat but I've messed up something .... and I seem to be at a loss to figure it out. The skin just won't go away and everything I do just overlays like a watermark. So, bear with me....I'll read some more articles and perhaps pull my husband in on the case within the next few days and figure what I've done wrong.

Growing our Church

2011-01-18T14:27:00.004-05:00

Our church is growing! This first picture was taken two years ago.

Back row: Nathan 6m, Stephen 6m, Rebecca 5m
Front Row: Shamika 7m, Klarrissa 3m, Conner 3m, Kelsey 3m

This was taken this past Sunday -

Back Row: Conner, Nathan Stephen
Front Row: Bro Stetler, Rebecca, Klarrissa, Shamika, Kelsey

Christmas Collage

2011-01-16T15:32:00.011-05:00

The time spent in the van on the way to destinations is always a highlight of the trip. We listen to stories together, the boys play with toys and read new books we pick out for the trip. We pack a lunch and they enjoy being able to snack on special treats that we take along.

Mom working on the turkey.

My sister, who doesn't prefer to have her picture taken...but that's okay, she's my sister!

The cutest nephews ever! For some reason I have no pictures of Evan alone.

Evan trying to tell his daddy something.

Tonya either loading or unloading the dishwasher. She doesn't prefer to have her picture taken either...but that's okay...she's my sister in law.

Grandma and Grandpa Slagenweit with Zach and Tyler Slagenweit.

Dad reading the Christmas story.

And so another Christmas is gone....but Valentine's Day is just around the corner!

Christmas in Pennsylvania

2011-01-16T14:35:00.009-05:00

The Whole Slagenweit Clan
Back row: Philip, Marianne, and Stephen Brown, Dad, Mom, April, (?) and David Slagenweit
Seated: Tyler, Jonathan, Zach, and Tonya Slagenweit, Jennifer, Bryce, Justin and Evan Harris
On the Floor: Daniel and Allan Brown

This was our year to travel to PA for Christmas and what a wonderful time we had! Many of you know my mother's health has not been good this year. The progression of the Polycythimia Vera in addition to Bahcet's syndrome, mylofibrosis, pulmonary hypertension and the pyroderma gangrenosum infection she's been battling for the past 8 months has taken it's toll. The evening of December 6th she became unresponsive and was rushed to the hospital. Gradually, she became responsive again but there doesn't seem to be a consensus as to what happened. Mom has so many things going on that it's hard to draw a conclusion as to what, out of the many things, may have occurred. This has brought new challenges for her. It's now necessary for her to be on oxygen and every week she's having ongoing tests to see what the best course of action might be.

This all said, we knew as a family that when she was diagnosed with Polycythemia Vera in 1996 after suffering a stroke, that time with our parents should be treasured events. Let's face it, 100% of human being will die at some time. But periodically there are reminders that we shouldn't take the time we have for granted and that time sometimes is shorter than what we anticipate. So though we have no idea the time we have left, Christmas is a time for families and it was our desire to spend this year together. God graciously gave us another Christmas and what a time it was!

For those of you who don't know my mom or dad....this is normal.

We had a good time just sharing, reminiscing, and enjoying each other's company.

We ate....a lot...this is very normal anytime you're with my family! But why we all look so sober in this picture is beyond me!

We enjoyed having all the seven boy cousins together (we're sort of hoping the next little one to arrive in July is a girl).

What a heritage I have! Having Mark and Eleanor Slagenweit and Harry and Virginia Miller as grandparents who all served God and made such important decisions that still are making an impact even now to the third generation. As I sat and listened I was reminded how the decisions I'm making now are going to impact the course of my offspring for generations to come.

New Beginnings

2011-01-01T07:36:00.006-05:00

2011 - A new year and for whatever reason, I always have this strange sense on January 1st that it's a day of new beginnings. New Year Resolutions aside (though they have their place), today marks the fresh turning of a New Calender, new day planner page. And it gives me a sense of peace to know the God who walked and carried us every step of 2010 is already aware of this new season of my life.

This blog has been multifaceted in the past. It's been mainly a form of keeping my family scattered across the US of what's going on in our world. In many ways it's a method of documenting for my children, the things that are happening in our lives individually and as a family. Occasionally there's other "stuff" that I've learned or found helpful that I like to share with anyone interested. But I sense it's time for a more focused approach.

In this "blog world" there can be a surface depth disclosure (as with any public networking information sharing system) that leads to a warped view of who people are. I've been asked before by people who read my blog where my "super woman" cape is. To set the record straight for anyone who reads this blog - I don't own one - nor do I want to. One of the valuable lessons I learned this summer was that God has created me uniquely to be me. I'm not someone else and I'm not more than one. Reading blogs can very quickly put me in a "I need to do that, so-and-so does it this way, let's work on implementing this" mindset and pretty soon I'm violating 2 Cor 10:12, "We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise."

God's not impressed with my ability to take on more than He intends for me. Just because you can do something doesn't mean you SHOULD do that something. This summer brought a total halt to everything I thought defined who I was as a person - and it was terrifying to temporarily have those things stripped from me. But I've traveled far enough away from that point to realize what a gift it was. God allowed the natural process of a severe reaction to medication and then drug withdraw to let me see what's really important.

There have been times in my life when it's made me a little sad to look at my age and think, "I wanted to be so much further in this or that area, I thought by now this area of my life would be more mature, etc". But life happens whether you're ready for it or not - and when you add children to the mix...well, time flies! Between training children, doing wash, cooking meals, washing fingerprints off windows, spending time reading God's word, vacuuming mud off carpets, taking children to doctors, scrubbing floors and toilets, offering a helping hand to a neighbor, changing the toilet paper roll, buying groceries, looking for good clothing deals, communicating with your husband, memorizing scripture, picking up toys, sorting through toys, trying to quietly help toys to disappear, meditating on Scripture, trying to find healthy recipes to fix for you family (okay, you get the idea)you're weary and wondering if you're ever going to find those carefree days when you could focus on growing as a person. Many times I've wished I could jump off the merry-go-round for just a moment to catch my breath. God allowed that to happen this summer, not for a moment, or a day, nor a week - but months. And what I found was, a lot of those things I listed, though necessary and valuable, had taken priority instead of being supporting factors of THE MAIN THING. So this year I'll be sharing some of the lessons I learned - not because anyone else can be me - but because we're all on this journey of LIFE together. And sometimes it's nice to know we're not alone. I'm also documenting this for my children who watched miracles take place in our home this summer - that they won't ever forget THE MAIN THING.

So, blessings on all my friends and family in this New Year - 2011!

Wedding through the eyes of a child

2010-12-14T14:59:00.006-05:00

Last Friday night I took Allan and Daniel to their first wedding (that they can remember). Philip and Stephen were sick so they stayed home. The girl attends our church when her family is in town and the boy's parents and grandparents were influences during my college days.

On the way to the wedding I explained what marriage is and that it's usually celebrated by a wedding. Allan wanted to know when they are actually married (when the wedding starts, when it's over, etc). I told him as soon as the preacher says, "I now pronounce you man and wife" and the groom kisses the bride then they're married. He further questioned if that was when they couldn't divorce, leave each other, etc. and I told him, "Yes". Well....once all the explaining was done that I thought needed to be done we entered the sanctuary and took our seats.

It was a rather large wedding and so when the girls started filing down the aisle Daniel turned to me and in a loud whisper asked, "Are ALL these girls getting married?" I explained the "bridesmaids" thing and he was content with that. The girls were in long red dresses but were wearing white fur capes and so as soon as I answered Daniel's question Allan leaned over and said, "They look like the white witch (from CS Lewis's The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe)but the white witch doesn't carry flowers!" Now, you have to understand that we're about 5 rows from the back on the aisle and so I try to hush him as much as possible while grinning to myself. Then it was time for the entrance of the bride. The doors were closed and the foggers turned on. In a moment as the music heralds the bride's entrance, the doors are flung open and the bride steps out of this cloud. Allan sucked in his breath and said right out loud, "THAT'S the white witch!"

I was just coming out from under my pew when she passed our row and Daniel matter-of-factly observed that her dress made a "nice plow" because her train was gathering up all the rose petals as she moved forward. It was then that I was very thankful we were near the back because this was just the beginning!

Half way through I took out a pen and started jotting down some of their questions and observations but now I can't find the paper! We managed to make it through the ceremony and questions to the point of the pronouncement and I thought we were safe. OH NO! The boys were all eyes watching for the kiss and when they were done Allan turned to me with a sigh and his brow furrowed, "Well mommy, it's too late now."

It was a very enjoyable time! I thoroughly enjoyed seeing a wedding through the eyes of a child and it was a lovely wedding. As I sat there watching though...I wouldn't trade "newness" for "comfortableness" in a million years! Wow! There's so much to learn those first few years as you establish a home separate from your parents and routines, traditions, habits, and make the decisions that will set the course for the rest of your lives. NOPE! I'm glad to be an "old" married woman.

The boys thoroughly enjoyed the wedding (and being out until 10:00!)and I was glad that I took them in spite of everything.

Baking extravaganza

2010-12-14T14:47:00.009-05:00

I looked up the word extravaganza and M-W.com says this:
Definition of EXTRAVAGANZA
1 a literary or musical work marked by extreme freedom of style and structure and usually by elements of burlesque or parody
2 a lavish or spectacular show or event
3 something extravagant
So actually - the word doesn't fit in this case!

Last week Daniel and I tackled the holiday baking and I've decided today that I'm DONE! The pinwheels and peanut butter blossoms will have to happen next Christmas (though I'm not sure what to do with all of the Hershy kisses!)

Peanut butter cups - 3 dozen

Raisin filled - 4 dozen

Cream cheese cutouts - too many to count

Biscotti - 2 dozen

Fudge - 2 lbs (actually 4 lbs but the first 2 didn't turn out - if you like creamy fudge that is - if you like crunchy fudge it's perfect!)

Pecan tassies - 5 1/2 dozen

So that's our holiday baking attempts. Our plans are to make trays for all of our neighbors. We also give them a card with a tract containing the message of Christmas and the plan of salvation. Our plan is to hand those out next Tuesday evening.

Flurry (of blogging that is)

2010-12-05T14:56:00.001-05:00

This time of year can get really busy so I wanted to catch up while I can. We've been doing many other things to:
1. Attended the GBS F/S Christmas dinner held at Higher Ground Conference Center. The meal is always so wonderful! This year there were a choice of meats (ham or a pecan topped chicken breast with a really nice glaze on a bed of rice) mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans with almonds or a broccoli/cauliflower/carrot blend, a lettuce salad, and homemade rolls! For desert we chose the apple dumplings with cinnamon ice cream. Ahhh.....very nice evening (not that all nice evenings include food but I'm very fond of good food).

2. Family Pictures - we'd not had a family picture taken since Stephen was a baby so we wanted to do that this year. I always enjoy taking the boys to get their pictures taken - there's a part of their personality that never is seen unless they're in front of a camera and this year was no exception. All three of them did so good and it made it very hard to choose one pose out of the 106 options given.

3. Church Christmas supper was this past Friday night and it was again a fabulous feast! It was nice to spend time with our church "family" who have become so dear to us over the past six months. I've gained a new appreciation for the body of Christ and how it operates! I couldn't ask for a more wonderful group of people to call "family"!

4. The church Christmas program was this morning! Allan was an angel...and was thrilled about being able to wear a pair of wings. Daniel did very singing and wanted to know two things afterward: 1. Did he do a good job singing? and 2. Did we see him picking his nose?

5. I'm not remembering a lot of other things right now. Three weeks ago I got a case of poison ivy that just won't quit. Due to scratching I've also developed an impetigo infection so... waiting for the antibiotics to work and praying it goes away quickly...it's really hard to sleep when you keep waking up scratching yourself!

6. This week is going to be our "Christmas Cookie Baking Extravaganza" and a wedding Friday night. Other than that...no big plans. All the Christmas shopping is done and I'm wrapping them as they arrive. This year has necessitated slowing down the pace and being more realistic about expectations for the holiday season. I've found I rather like it! This might become standard.

Snow yesterday

2010-12-05T14:40:00.001-05:00

Oh, it was wonderful! We got our first significant snowfall yesterday (about three inches) and had so much fun! I love snow and feel very strongly that if the temperature is going to be below freezing there should be snow compensation. Yesterday morning I took the boys to the church's Christmas program practice. When we arrived home they donned on their hats, bibs, mittens, and winter coats and spent almost three hours having the time of their lives. Our neighbor boys, Jonathan and Nathaniel Valentine came over and joined them in sledding and having snowball battles. Their mother, Rhoda, also joined in later on.

Video of getting the tree

2010-12-05T14:37:00.001-05:00

This clip was taken as we set off to find a Christmas tree.

A little bit of this and that

2010-12-05T14:22:00.001-05:00

We had a lovely Thanksgiving this year! Several other staff and faculty members got together for a Thanksgiving feast and there were also a number of students who joined us as well. Unfortunately, my pictures didn't turn out of that event. It was also the first time I'd ever done a turkey and thankfully, it turned out just fine.

The day after Thanksgiving we set out to find a Christmas tree. It has always been my desire for our family to cut our own - usually cheaper and definitely more memories. I'd found several possibilities and so we decided to try Hilltop Pines this year - just off the AA hwy in KY. I wasn't at all what I expected but the price ($25 any size) was right. We arrived right after the opening and set off to find the "perfect" tree.

The boys didn't overly enjoy all the walking and the tree we found was at the far corner of the lot!

But we did indeed find a tree and Philip managed to carry it out (it was necessary to carry because the cows foraged this area and were the only caretakers of the place).

So we now have a "shooting star tree" since it didn't have a central stem but once you get lights and icicles on any tree it somehow takes on the magic of Christmas.

On a side note: That was the day we also received our first skiff of snow. On the way to get the tree we stopped by WalMart and picked up sleds so that we'd be ready for the "big" one.