Spring Is In The Air

Lately our household has been fairly busy with a lot of things. School ALWAYS keeps us busy, piano class and practice for us four oldest, and this weekend our grandma who lives out of town is staying with us. In fact, two of our uncles are here and we are going to have a ham dinner together.

Another thing that has been going on has been some kind of flu bug or something that has been hitting a lot of people. First Daddy got hit and then it made the rounds with most of us kids. It seems like it has taken quite a while for us to get over it but we are thankful that we have!

Spring is almost here, our weather has been warming up, for which we are all grateful! Our Magnolia tree has started to bloom (we'll post pictures of that when they open up - they are SO pretty!) and robins have been circulating through our area. For me, when I see robins, that's a sure sign that spring is coming soon. I think I can speak for my siblings when I say that we are all glad that spring is finally here!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Yesterday was our Daddy's birthday! Happy birthday, Daddy! We love you so very much and hope you like your presents :)

Lots of love and bunches of hugs and kisses,

H, J, C, S, L, V, and S

In Memory

We are sorry that there haven't been any new posts but this past month we have been very busy. I have been visiting my out-of-town grandparents and they have been visiting us. Of course we have also been busy with school but the most difficult thing of all is that our lovable puppy dog, Toby has died. On Monday, February 25th, our Toby was hit by a car and immediately died. The day that we got Toby was on August 25th and just the other day I realized that we had had him for exactly 6 months. For me, those 6 months were the best of my life. We all loved him very much and miss him very much. We are thankful that God brings us comfort even in the midst of heartbreaking circumstances.

We've Been Tagged!

We have been tagged by Miss Rebecca, one of our blogger friends. Part of the game is to give six random facts about ourselves. We thought we would give one for each of us.
No. 1 walks the dog while riding her bike in 6 inches of snow,
No. 2 taught himself how to knit with orange yarn and 2 pens,
No. 3 has seen President Bush in person,
No. 4 loves to sing boisterously,
No. 5 insists that the only way she will eat toast is if it is burnt,
and No. 6 prays every day that her hair will grow long!

Did You Know...

Yesteray in school I came across some information that I found extremely fascinating!
Did you know that...
A 100-pound human body contains enough water to fill an 8-gallon barrel,
enough iron to make a nail,
one teaspoon of sugar,
enough fat to make several bars of soap,
enough carbon to make six thousand pencils,
enough calcium to whitewash a small chicken coop,
enough sulfur and phosphorus to make a small box of matches,
and enough potassium to make the powder of a small shotgun shell?
Isn't that so amazing? I thought that it was so fun to know that we contain all of that inside of us! God has made us all so unique!

Farewell!

I may have mentioned in other posts that my best friend, Ri, was house-training a dog named Rose. We called her Rosie and she was so adorable, fluffy and soft with big brown and white spots and brown freckles on her nose. Rosie is Toby's "aunt" - her sister, Sadie, is Toby's mom. You can see from the picture that Rosie and Toby actually look quite a bit alike. When Ri first got Rosie she was so excited because now we both had dogs and we walked them together and let them socialize with each other. After a month and a half, the time finally came when Rosie was ready to be sold and her last day with Ri came. I had wanted to take some pictures of them together so before she left I took Toby over to Ri's house and tried to get a picture of them together. I say "tried" because they were not cooperating and it took one of us to hold the dogs and the other to take the picture! Here is the result. Aren't they cute?

Increase Mather

Today in my American Literature I read a sermon by Increase Mather titled, Man Knows Not His Time. Increase Mather was a great Puritan preacher who entered Harvard College at age 12 and graduated at age 17, and started his preaching career at 18. The following is a quote from this sermon:

"A man knows not what changes shall attend him whilst in the world."

As I read this, the thought came to me that even though we may not always know what our future holds and what kind of changes may come our way, we can be confident in the Word of the Lord. Isaiah 40:8 says, The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever. Another verse which is found in I Peter says that we are like the withering grass, but that our God will stand forever. The thought that no matter what, God is unchanging and always there for us really blesses me! God bless!