Category Archives: Family

Visitors

Rachel left for Tennessee right after our amazing New Year’s Eve party. She went back for Union’s January Term. We had a wonderful visit with her over the holidays . There’s such a sweetness about having a grown child return home. I love college students – they are thinking and growing and figuring out life practically right in front of your eyes. Rachel is a dedicated student, loyal friend, thoughtful daughter, and godly young woman. I am incredibly proud of her!!

Tarah, Leah, Rachel, Katie and Hannah helped us celebrate the new year!

Tarah, Leah, Rachel, Katie and Hannah helped us celebrate the new year!

Joshua decided not to attend Jan Term this year. Instead we were treated to an extra two weeks of time with him. He worked, played games with us, watched movies and helped with AWANA. The very ‘normalness’ of it all was even more precious. As a junior in college with a heart for discipleship and missions as well as a passion for learning, Joshua is very intentional with his time. Our summers and winter breaks with him have been very brief. The January of his freshman year he went to Germany on a mission trip, returned for the second semester at Union and then spent the summer traveling with WorldView Academy. The next winter he returned to school for Jan Term and then served on Union’s Go Trip in Turkey over the summer months.

Joshua & Rachel at Rachel's Lake City Graduation Party - May 2014

Joshua & Rachel at Rachel’s Lake City Graduation Party – May 2014

Last week Joshua went to Alaska to visit a special friend from college. After a fun week with Kelsie and her family, the two of them flew into Seattle to spend a week with us. Watching the kids grow, form godly friendships, and bring new people into the circle of our family has been a delight throughout the years. Over and over, Tim and I have been proud of the friends our children have made and pleased to enjoy their company as well. We have played games, watched movies, worked on projects, cleaned the house, painted rooms, decorated for the holidays, thrown parties, traveled, prayed, and eaten many, many meals (and more ice cream) with beautiful, amazing, talented, interesting, fun, godly young people over the years. I could post dozens of pictures of our children and their friends. We are blessed by the people they love.

This evening Joshua and Kelsie went to the high school Navy Junior ROTC Ball along with Daniel and many of our good friends. When Joshua and Daniel were cadets, several years ago, Tim and I put on our finest duds and celebrated with them. It was fun to watch them all dress up and go out this evening.

Joshua and Kelsie - ready for the ball.

Joshua and Kelsie – ready for the ball.

The rest of the week, I presume we’ll enjoy more board games, movies, laughter, and family time before Joshua and Kelsie return to Union.

A game of 7 Wonders - Tim posed with my coffee cup.

A game of 7 Wonders – David WON and Sarah came in second. Fun!

Project 365 – Day 24
Kathy

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Wanda’s Honda

Ever since Daniel got his driver’s license, he’s been driving my honda civic much more than his ‘fair share’ making me consider My Car Insurance Quote sercvices. He refers to it as his own car in poetic justice for how I treated (and spoke of) my parents’ little gold Chevette as if it was mine.Car insurance is important for a number of reasons. Without car insurance you could get a ticket which is not cheap. If you do not have insurance on your car you could also end up paying a lot of money to fix your car if you are in an auto accident. If you hit someone else’s car and you do not have car insurance it will be up to you to pay to fix their car. If you do not pay to fix the other person’s car you could end up getting sued.
Car insurance is just as important as home insurance. You would insure your home so why not insure your car? Your home and your car are both very expensive to repair if you do not have insurance on them. You can get insurance for an affordable rate on your home and your car. The best way to get affordable insurance is to do research on the internet. There are several websites that you can go to that will give you multiple quotes so that you can find the cheapest plan available. These days everyone is looking for a way to save money whenever they can. There is no reason to pay a fortune on insurance when you can do research and get a great rate. The cheapest way to get insurance on your car is to just get liability. Liability may save you money but it only covers the other drivers car if you have an accident. You will still be left to pay to fix your own car. Full coverage is a little more expensive but it is worth it in the long run. To get more details about car or motorcycle insurance, pop over to this website . You can get several discounts on car insurance but the best way to do that is to call an insurance company and speak with an agent. The insurance agent should be able to help you find all the discounts that you qualify for. If you have a clean driving record with out any tickets or car wrecks then you should be able to get a discount for that. If you have taken a driving class you can also get a discount for that too. The type of car you drive will also make a difference in the price of your insurance premium. A sports car will cost you more to insure than a family car. You can also get discounts for insuring several cars with the same company.

Some companies will even give you a discount if you buy your car insurance, house insurance, and life insurance from the same insurance company. Saving money is important especially these days when everyone is struggling to make money. Just make sure that you ask your insurance agent about any discounts that their company offers. Your agent should be able to help you out with saving money on discounts. Without auto insurance you could end up having to pay a hefty fine if you get caught. Insurance is important to have on your car, home, life, and even health.

The silver car has been through some pretty rough treatment, over the years. My brother brought it to Kuwait with him when he was stationed there, and the heat of that country caused the rubber door and trunk seals to shrink somewhat. But it was otherwise in very good condition when he sold it to me, with less than 70,000 miles on it, back in 2006 or early 2007. My brother maintains his cars carefully, and I was glad to buy it from him at the very low price he offered.

Daniel and Sarah amuse themselves by making shadow puppets on our movie-watching screen.

Daniel and Sarah amuse themselves by making shadow puppets on our movie-watching screen.

After some eight years of my less-than-tender stewardship, the car has 184,625 miles on it, the engine leaks oil, the exhaust smells and is rather loud, and recently one of the kid’s friends put a worrisome dent near the gas tank — Make sure to check out Vintage VW spare parts importers and wholesale distributors of spare parts. Still, I had planned to sell the car to Daniel this Spring, so it could be his in reality, rather than fantasy.

Today, he told me, “I don’t think I want to buy your silver car anymore.” We were driving home from the doctor’s office, where we had him checked out for whiplash. (The doctor says he will be sore, but is otherwise probably OK).

Earlier today, Daniel was rear-ended by another student at his school, while he sat at a stoplight. The damage to the car was significant, although you can’t really tell from this photo. They say it will cost $4100 to repair luckily he found a place where their repair it at affordable prices in Auto Detailing jacksonville FL, which is more than twice the value of the car, so I’m guessing the insurance company will just cut their losses and total the car.

The rear bumper was pushed up and forward about two inches, with considerable damage to the side and frame.

The rear bumper was pushed up and forward about two inches, with considerable damage to the side and frame.

A few months back, I was feeling rather unhappy about Daniel’s relentless use of my car, so I want it to take my car to get some cash for cars in Melbourne but a the end I told him I didn’t feel well-thanked. After some consideration, I decided that if he was going to use my car, he needed to thank me each day in writing, in order to be eligible to use it the next day. If he doesn’t thank me, he doesn’t use my carthis transmission jack review from autonews center.

Some of this damage was actually done a few weeks ago by a friend.

Some of this damage was actually done a few weeks ago by a friend.

So, every day I get an email or a drawing or some other form of written thanks. Sometimes it is a poem or a limerick, other times just a simple sentence thanking me for some aspect of the car. He has really gotten creative on several days — it is fun to see him enter into the spirit of the thing and to put some effort into giving thanks.

Here was his first offering:

There once was a girl named Wanda,
who had a nice little Honda.
She drove through the town,
and married a clown,
and moved away to Uganda.

I was very moved by Wanda’s loyalty to her Ugandan clown, but I worry about shipping costs — Did her parents approve of her choice of the young clown? Or was there bad feeling, which precipitated the move? You can see that in some ways, this limerick raised more questions than it answered — but I was definitely gripped by the story line. Sadly, Wanda failed to appear in subsequent editions, so we’ll never know if Wanda was happy as a young bride in Uganda.

Now I am trying to persuade Kathy to lend her support to buying a new Corolla, a car I’ve always wanted to own.

When I was 17, a friend loaned me his stick-shift Corolla for two weeks, hoping that I would buy it from him. I could never raise the money, but ever since I’ve wanted to have (and drive) a sporty little car like that Corolla. Kathy says that a new car loses too much of its value, when you drive it off the lot, she mentioned how she even had to get a windshield replacement in cincinnati oh a few months after buying her brand new car. But I’m thinking that I really would like to have a car that I don’t need to worry about repairing, at least for a few years, I guess she wasn’t lucky enough.

I’ll keep you posted on my sales campaign against Kathy’s frugality. Feel free to comment on the relative merits of a new car over a used one, as long as you’re on my side. Comments arguing in favor of used cars can expect to be mysteriously deleted or unapproved.

Project 365, Day 23
Tim

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Coming Home

Kathy and I had the opportunity to attend a prayer conference for a few days in Oregon. Today, the conference ended and we headed home, somewhat dreading AWANA. It is always hard to muster the energy needed for AWANA, and even more-so when we’ve been traveling home from a conference.

Fortunately for me, my awesome assistant Beckie had everything in hand — she had printed all the scripts, and gathered the props, and generally took charge. Jared and I (Jared is my other assistant, who had also attended the prayer conference) were able to let her mostly just run things, which was lovely.

Sometimes, when we are away, Kathy dreads coming home, especially if the house wasn’t very tidy when we left. When we were about an hour from home, she got a text from Daniel.

Daniel made himself a milkshake, and then thoroughly enjoyed it.

Daniel really knows how to enjoy a milkshake.

“How long until you’re home,” he asked.

We spent several miles speculating about why he would ask this question.

“He’s probably thinking about hiding the evidence of the naughty things he did while we were gone,” I said, rather snidely.

“Or maybe there are some bodies that need to be disposed of,” Kathy rejoined. We laughed nervously.

As it turns out, he was cleaning the house, and wanted to know if he had time for a few last-minute touches. We walked into a house that was all tidied-up. He didn’t answer the door, when we first got home, because he was upstairs, vacuuming Sarah’s room.

Daniel has always been the best at cleaning the kitchen until it gleams.

Daniel has always been the best at cleaning the kitchen until it gleams.

I was very impressed, and Kathy was very thankful. It was so nice to be able to relax for an hour before heading off to AWANA. Thank you, Daniel!

Even the blankets and cushions on the couch were all put away carefully.

Even the blankets and cushions on the couch were all put away carefully.

Project 365, Day 21
Tim

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Conference & Journaling & Kids

We’ve been very blessed to bring David and Sarah with us to this year’s Impact Prayer Seminar. Originally we were going to leave them with friends or grandparents, but things got complicated and other families attending encouraged us to sign David and Sarah up for the conference.

These notebooks are getting FILLED up!

These notebooks are getting FILLED up!

I can only echo what John wrote in 3 John 1:4,

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

What a joy it is to have shared this conference with all of our children over the years. As I sat with David and Sarah in the sanctuary, watching them take notes, listen to the speaker, and concentrate, I was reminded, once again, how blessed we are to have such thoughtful, careful, godly children.

Tim and I have attended this prayer conference many times over the past eight years, so we were more than willing to let David and Sarah be responsible for the note taking job this time. The material ranges from goal setting and time management to the incredible blessings of being a praying leader. This year we’ve especially enjoyed the company of several other church friends and families.

A little search of our blog reveals that we’ve written about the prayer seminar before:

The Lord has taught me many things as I’ve walked this path of godly woman, daughter, wife, mother, sister, friend, mentor, leader, homeschooler. He has greatly enriched my prayer life, humbled me through hardship, blessed me beyond measure, and ALWAYS continues to work in my heart and life.

Journaling with colors is WAY more fun!

Journaling with colors is WAY more fun!

I am still processing, thinking and praying about all we’ve studied and discussed and learned during the two and a half days of the conference. 16 hours of teaching on prayer! More than anything I want to be a Champion for Jesus – honoring Him in my service for His kingdom. I want to delight in Him, bring glory & praise to His name, and be purposeful in my days. This seminar has both challenged me and inspired me. Not to mention, been a bit overwhelming as I contemplate being a good steward of all the Lord has given me – my time, energy, finances, gifts, and talents.

Praying that Tim and I, along with David and Sarah, will leave here with renewed passion for following Jesus. Praying that Joshua, Rachel and Daniel will also find encouragement and a fresh love for Jesus even though they weren’t able to join us.

Project 365 – Day 20
Kathy

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Tim the Handy Man

Although I have several skills and abilities, home maintenance and wood-working are not among them. I have a certain anti-genius when it comes to projects around the house.

I'm hoping that David is not like me in this regard.

I’m hoping that David is not like me in this regard.

Whenever I forget who I am, and attempt a household project, it usually follows a certain pattern:

1) I identify the problem and purchase the necessary supplies.
2) Several months go by. (Although some might credit my natural laziness, there is another explanation.)
3) Kathy makes occasional remarks about how nice it is that I have the supplies for the project.
4) I spend a half-hour rounding up the tools I will need. Kathy helpfully points me to the supplies that have been cluttering up her living room for the past 8 weeks.
5) Cautiously, I begin the project.
6) Something goes wrong. Something always goes wrong.
7) In an attempt to fix whatever goes wrong, I damage the thing I’m trying to fix, and I usually waste about 1/3 of the supplies I purchased.
8) I begin to casually speculate about whether I could burn the house down, and make it look like an accident.
9) I spend several hours trying to get back to where we were, before I started this ill-fated project.
10) I go out and purchase more supplies.
11) I eventually cobble together a solution that mostly addresses whatever went badly wrong.
12) I finish the project, which usually looks like a demented four-year-old has savaged it with a reciprocating saw.
13) I vow to never again get sucked into a home maintenance project.

You can see why (2) above usually lasts several months. It takes me a good while to forget how inept I am.

As it turns out, when you force a caster-sleeve into a hole that is too small, things start to go badly wrong.

As it turns out, when you force a caster-sleeve into a hole that is too small, things start to go badly wrong.

Today, I must’ve had a fever, because I attempted three projects, and finished two of them. Although the first project didn’t really accomplish anything, we got off pretty lightly ($16 in supplies, and no permanent damage). The second project was a smashing success, if you don’t mind that the blinds I installed aren’t the same color as the ones to the left or right of it. And so far, there have been no serious losses in the third project.

I was trying to put new casters on Kathy's computer chair, to make it higher (and so it would roll more easily).  Neither objective was achieved.

I was trying to put new casters on Kathy’s computer chair, to make it higher (and so it would roll more easily). Neither objective was achieved.

Never mind that we’ve been without a window blind for 18 months.

Just don't look too closely at the color of this blind.

Just don’t look too closely at the color of this blind.

I’m telling you, I am a brilliant anti-genius among handymen. Want me to come over and work on your place?

Project 365, Day 18
Tim

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