We had a fun time playing in the new snow last night!
Sledding with a friend
January 14, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Sleepover with the BFFs
October 31, 2011 by 1 Comment
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have 8 children ages 8, almost-7, 6, 5, 4, 4, 2, and 2?
I’ll tell you. It’s a little crazy. And oh-so-fun.
This is what the table looks like at meal time:
(from August 2011)
Recently, we were blessed to have the Perry kiddos join us for an overnighter so that their parents could have a little time alone to celebrate their anniversary. (Go, Craig and Kathy! Thirteen years! Woo-hoo!) We had a splendid time!
Five sleeping girlies
Snuggled up tight
Zachy sleeping in the boys' room
Megan and Ava playing dress-up
Karisa and Grace playing dress-up
Jaden and Zach coloring in the school room
Jaden and Zachy at the piano, taking after their parents' love of music
The big kids playing a rousing game of the Angelina Ballerina memory game
We are so thankful for fun friends!
Exiled: Romania
October 18, 2011 by 3 Comments
Way back in 2001, I was able to go to Romania on a short term missions trip through Cornerstone University, which was led by a great lady named Terre. Luke also knew Terre through his improv comedy team called RISEN Ministries.
Fast forward a half decade or so, and our church began to support a great couple named Andrew and Leah Postema. Leah just so happens to be Terre’s daughter, and the Postemas are missionaries to Romania.
Andrew, Leah, and their three awesome kiddos are home on furlough right now, and one of the things they’re involved in while they’re home is a couple of weekend junior high retreats at Lake Ann Camp. This past weekend they were going to be a little short-staffed, so our family had the great privilege of going up to help at camp.
Oh. My. Fun.
The basic gist of the weekend was that as the kids entered camp, they were entering Communist Romania. Soldiers had “taken over” the camp, and they didn’t look kindly upon Christians or Bibles or chapel meetings. You get the idea.
As the campers rolled in, the kids and I did our part…Grace, Caleb, and I stood out along the driveway next to a burn barrel. As the cars/vans came in, I stopped them and told them something like, “Be very careful. The regime has taken over the camp, and they don’t look kindly upon Christians. If you have Bibles, hide them! There are soliders up ahead, and they will be looking for your Bibles. We are Christians, and they kicked us out of our home. We have nothing. We are starving. Do you have any food?”
A few cars gave us food. How sweet! 
It just so happened that it was cold and rainy that night, so the kids didn’t even have to pretend to be sad. See?
After about an hour, we were done. Then Luke’s part began, and he was busy busy busy the rest of the time.
Luke was the General.
Isn’t he handsome in uniform?! 
Okay, so the weapon is a little scary.
It was a pretty tiring weekend for him, because he spent the whole time being mean to the kids. He actually does like junior high kids, so it was draining to have to always be the mean guy.
And it was confusing for Jaden. He asked me bajillions of times last weekend, “Is my daddy a bad guy?”
While Luke was working so hard, the kids and I had a splendid time hanging out with Leah and two of her kids (their oldest, Grace, was participating in camp).
We are so thankful to have really awesome, godly friends who love sharing Christ with others! Thanks, Postemas, for a GREAT weekend!
Still friends
September 3, 2011 by 1 Comment
We saw this post as we were looking through the archives for something in particular recently. This is a picture of Grace and her sweet friend Karisa, three years ago…
And now see what beautiful young ladies they’re becoming!
I’m so blue-hoo-hoo, blue-hoo-hoo, blue-hoo-hoo-hooooooooo!
August 10, 2011 by 4 Comments
The last time I went blueberry picking was the summer of 2007, when Grace had a broken leg and 1-year-old Caleb ate a LOT of green berries. But since four years have passed, I figured it was time to give it another try.
I left the boys with our beloved Miss Wendy. (For those of you who don’t know her, she is an awesome kid-magnet, a beloved teacher of the 2- and 3-year-olds at church, and a very generous person with her time and resources.) My friend Sommer and her daughter Maddie, as well as a sweet friend from church named Ginny, all piled into our van with the girls and me, and we trekked to Coopersville, to Ven Roy Blueberries. Ginny has been picking there for 25 years and highly recommended it. The orchard itself was very clean and well-kept, the blueberries were great (especially considering that it’s the tail end of the season), and the price was GREAT ($1.35/lb).
Here we are in front of the blue blueberry stand, ready for picking!
And Sommer in a blueberry bush. (She doesn’t know I took this picture – sorry, Som!)
See the bucket hanging from Sommer’s waist? If you’ve never picked blueberries, you may not know how this works. You just tie a string around your waist, and on the string is a clip. You clip your bucket on, and it hangs there, ready for you to fill. It’s very convenient and makes for faster picking!
Oh, did I mention that in the summer of 2007 I was about 6 months pregnant for Ava? You can imagine how silly I looked with a bucket hanging in front of my mondo-belly!
Of course the kiddos had to take a potty break in the middle of picking. So here are our silly girls (after we visited the lou): (L to R) Maddie, Grace, and Ava.
We picked about 12 pounds altogether (and definitely plan to pick more next year, toward the beginning of the season). Today, the kiddos enjoyed lots of blueberries with their lunches.
And later they will enjoy some blueberry muffins with streusel topping. YUMMO.
