This Memorial Day will be a memorable one but not for the regular reason.  This was a BIG wildlife day at our house.  Even though our house is nestled up against the mountains we usually do not see much wildlife in our yard.  It is probably because we have dogs and the children tend to make noise too.   BUT, today was a big change.  This morning in the trees right across the street sat a very large bald eagle.  Of course, it flew away before I got outside with the camera.  Maybe that had to do with children running in yelling, “MOM,  A BALD EAGLE!”

I did manage to get a couple of photos of our afternoon visitors though.  A mama moose and her two little babies running right past our backyard.

I thought I would share part of my spring garden with you. We spent some time yesterday planting. Our house is beginning to brighten up for the summer! They are not the best photos but the flowers are beautiful!

My birch bark planter.

Some ferns in front of the house.

Another birch bark planter, I LOVE these planters!

My Mother’s Day gift.

Just something pretty I picked up at the greenhouse yesterday.

Big beautiful snow! I love it when we get a big dumping of snow! I am one of those crazy people who loves the snow! Along with it being beautiful and FUN, I find it to be such a great reminder of what the Lord has done for me!

Psalm 51:7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

With this in mind as we come to celebrate the first coming of our Savior looking forward to his return, here are some photos of our white, white snow! Enjoy!

The deck railing–two feet of snow…..

Tree covered in snow, look at the tree trunk to see how deep it is.

Children on a pile, notice the newspaper mailbox.

Inside the beginnings of our fort.

My best friend is having a birthday! Isn’t he a handsome guy? He is the best guy you could EVER meet. There are so many adjectives that I could use to describe him but let me just say…… He is a godly man, my best friend, and I am so glad that I married him!!!!! Happy Birthday my love!!

Many months ago we started on a remodel of our office area.  We took quite a bit of time on the office and it has been slow getting the photos on here but I have finally decided to do just that.  We were going to add built in book shelves but we decided the money could be better spent else where for now.  We opted to just put book shelves in the room.  It was a difference of about $1700 so I think it was a good choice!!!  That is a lot of money to save.  Maybe someday in the future we will add built ins after all of the other projects have been tackled!

Here are the BEFORE photos:

Entering the Office

Breaking into the alcove/closet area

ugly light

Nasty floor & walls

Now for the AFTER photos:

Entering the Office

bookshelves

Alcove/closet--a bit messy--eventually we will have a desk under the lights

New wood floor

Pretty Light

Sooooo, what do you think?  Improved??????

I found a great article on family devotions. I want to share a snippet with you in order to entice you to read the entire article. It is well worth your time! You might want to leave a comment over there but please head back here when your finished reading the article and let me know your thoughts!

Teach These Words Diligently

A father may be committed to Christ himself and see that his wife and children are fully committed and therefore think a regular family devotion time is unnecessary. Some fathers see these instructions in Deuteronomy 6:6-7:

“These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.”

…and rightly conclude that this is a lifestyle and therefore setting aside a family devotion time is unnecessary. I agree that if someone is teaching each child throughout the day, it may be unnecessary to come together for a dedicated time of formal teaching. But surely such a family would relish the opportunity to come together and sing praise to God, to lift their voice to Him in prayer, and to joyfully list for all family members the wonderful things the Lord had done that day. Such a family would delight in a dedicated time of reading scripture and prayer, making daily family devotion a necessity driven by their shared joy.

If your family is like most I know, you can only fulfill the command to “diligently teach” if you diligently dedicate time each day for a regular family devotion. The key is diligence – family devotion cannot be a simple convenience or of a low priority that is easily displaced by other trivial activities.

Finish the article over on Every Good Path.

Budget, what budget?  That is what I am feeling these days.  Since we have taken a break from school we have a little bit of extra money.  We are not paying for piano, ice skating, and a few other things due to the summer break.  We do have fishing trips and fun stuff planned though and that all takes money too.  We have taken to eating out more than usual also.  Eating out is a treat that I love, no shopping, planning, cooking, or clean-up.  Having a family our size takes a lot out of our budget even if we decide to go to a cheapy old fast food place. (Dave Ramsey would be appaulled) I am starting to feel the need to tighten that money belt a bit.

I am planning on going through our checkbook and looking at the last several months to add up how much money we have wasted on eating out. (Dave Ramsey would be proud) After I pick myself up off the floor from the shock that I know is to come I will share this revelation with the family.  Then we will think of all the things that we could have spent that money on until we are all convinced that eating out really is not that wonderful a thing.  (Dave Ramsey would be proud)  Then we will celebrate with a nice dinner at the Chinese place in town.  (Dave Ramsey would be appaulled once again)  Oops, did I just say that out loud???

I have not been “real” grocery shopping in probably 2 months. These every other day runs to the store are a budget killer too.  I always seem to find something to buy that wasn’t on the list!  I am in desperate need of a trip to the butcher shop and to Costco.  I think this shopping trip will bust the budget as well because I have not kept our stock up.  I just need to do it though to get back on track.  I am planing on making a LARGE purchase at the butcher shop and hopefully it will last almost all year.  Hubby went deep sea fishing and brought home halibut and rockfish.  We are going at the end of the month to go salmon fishing.  Hubs is also planning a caribou hunt and a bear hunt.  I think meat should be covered for the year! Then it will only be keeping stock up in the pantry.  Costco runs will cover that.  Those runs are not too bad as long as I keep on top of it because not everything runs out at the same time.  It is when I let the supply dwindle and have to restock EVERYTHING at once that is gets unbearable.

So my day will consist of menu planning and list writing.  Oh yeah, and adding up the wasted money that we have “eaten” up these past few months.  (Dave Ramsey would be proud once again)  If I am not back to blogging soon then you will know I hit my head when I fainted from the total!

Am I the only one who has a hard time keeping that food budget under control?  Or I should say, just following the food budget!

We just recently purchased our first home.  It is a bit of a fixer upper unless you like living in 70′s style.  We have made a lot of improvements and still have a lot to go.  It can be fun, tiring, frustrating, and rewarding.  We are trying to make our improvements debt free and so far have been able to do so.  This past week while going over receipts to see how much we have put into the house we noticed something.  Lowe’s had not given us our military discount on anything except one receipt.  After a phone call to the manager we took in all of the receipts.  After much discussion and employees trying to get out of actually doing to the hefty job we recieved our discount.  It was really only a partial one but we got such a good deal on the carpeting that we let it go.  So with the credited money my hubby moved on to another project.  He has been putting in more wood flooring.  Our hallway looks a thousand times better than when it had the nasty old, dirty, and worn green carpet.  He had to level part of the floor and had a funny corner to try and cut out.  This job had challenges of its own.  More challenges were not need yesterday!  More challenges were what we dealt with and are still trying to fix.  The back door handle and lock are broken.  The door we always use is now out of working order.  This is not that big of a job to fix; it is just an annoyance mostly.  Then at 10:30 at night, after one of our daughters took her shower, the water would not quit running in the tub.  While fiddling with the faucet in the tub, it busted and shot water all over the bathroom and washed pieces down the unclogged, open drain.  This would have actually been pretty funny if we had not been so tired!  So this morning we are without water.  Replacing the faucets should not be a very big job either.  My husband went to bed last night exhausted, with a killer headache, and a bit annoyed.  This would have been nothing if he had not been working on the flooring and trying to get it done.  In fact, the whole situation does seem funny this morning now that we are rested!

This is just like anything in life.  When we know the challenges and have a plan of attack and life is going mostly according to plan or at least nothing we didn’t already anticipate; we tend to do well.  It is when the unexpected arrives and one unexpected thing on top of another that we tend to struggle.  Even the little unexpected things can throw us off.  These are the times that I am so thankful for a Savior who is sovereign!  I may not have expected these things to pop up in my life but knowing that they were ordained by my Father in heaven brings me some comfort.  Whether it is shooting water all over my bathroom or the loss of a loved one; knowing I have a God who cares and works all things together for my good gives me strength and comfort.  I may not enjoy the trials, I may not feel strong or even comforted, I may even feel abandoned. The thing is, if I truly know my Savior I can rest in Him, his wisdom, his love, his promises, his faithfulness, and in all of the character that is my God.  Remember things often look different when you come out on the other side of the trial.

Do you have that assurance?  You should if you know the living Lord!  Praise be to the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!

1. Trip to Lowe’s for supplies.
2. Priming and painting.
3. Demolition of a wall.
4. Plumbing with black pipes and copper pipes.
5. Waterfall from the ceiling until piping is finished.
6. Running cable for internet, cable tv, and telephone.
7. Another trip to Lowe’s for supplies.
8. Framing a wall.
9. Drywalling.
10. Installing a doorbell.
11. Installing new carpet.
12. Yet another trip to Lowe’s!
13. Installing wood flooring.

Anyone tired yet? Want to come and help?? Whew! I just woke up and am ready to go back to bed!

Have you ever been in a place where you had a difficult decision and one of great consequence? We are currently in that place. We are looking for a home to purchase. I mentioned a week ago that we thought we had found one. The housing here for a large family is limited and for our price range has very little to offer. Last week we had finally decided on one house in particular. It was small but it had a great yard was very pretty. It had a Chakuzzi (as our 4 year says jacuzzi) but we were going to have to put in a wall and take one of the living areas for a bedroom. It was a nice home with the least amount of work but was at the top of our budget limit. We made an offer on the house but there was still nervousness in our spirits.

This was a good house, we would be very cramped but considering the other options this was the cream of the crop and it had the least amount of remodeling. We went to the home several times to try and figure out the best way to make it work for our family deciding that maybe we were just going to have to settle and make do with what was available.

The owners came back with a counter offer that we were just not very comfortable with but looking at the market there just were not really any other options. So now we had a big decision to make. Do we take this house which is a good home because there are no other options or do we pass it up praying that something new will emerge. Making this even more difficult is seeing our current living circumstances. All 10 of us are crammed into a 2 and half bedroom and one bath little hotel apartment. We are also paying to kennel our dogs and each day that passes costs more and more. To be honest it is a difficult thing not to look at current circumstances for our guidance but to look past them to what the Lord has in store.

After pleading in prayer with the Lord for wisdom, guidance, his provision in our lives, and a calm assurance of which home to purchase, I decided to do yet another search for homes. I did a search for large square footage homes regardless of a bedroom count. God providentially gave us a listing we had not seen before. This is very clear in my mind. I am so thankful for a Lord who has my life mapped out before me.

We were making one last trip to the home we were looking at to make our final decision about the counter offer and decided to go and look at two other homes while we were out. One was a home mentioned to us by someone my hubby works with and the other is the listing I just mentioned.

After returning to the home we were considering our nervousness and somewhat hopelessness for anything more both began to grow. We had to make a decision within a few hours to meet the deadline. We went to one of the other homes and it brought no fresh hope to our situation. Again, do we go for the good house which needed the least amount of work but was going to cost so much we would not even have the money to do the work? But other prospects were dwindling quickly. I was at a loss on what to do. Hubby was leaning toward declining the counter offer and wait for the Lord to open something else knowing full well there was nothing at the present time. I will be honest and tell you fear was growing with in me. I was again pleading with the Lord for guidance, direction, wisdom, and assurance.

We drove out to the property that the Lord brought to our attention earlier that morning. It was only listed as a three bedroom but had a boatload of square footage and listed other rooms. The trend we had experienced was that these other rooms are usually so dinky you could do nothing with them but with the large square footage it was worth a look. As we drove into the drive way there was a sparkling of hope. Thank you Lord! As we walked through the home our anxiety lessened and peace began to fall over us. This home is a 3300 sq/ft house (8 rooms to use for bedrooms, a formal dining area, living room, family room), on 1/2 acre with a babbling stream running along the edge of the property. There is a close mountain view and sunshine (which is great to have here in Alaska). There is also a 1200 sq/ft detatched heated 2 car garage that is tall enough to even park the van in and has a “cabin appartment” we can fix up for Jacob to have his own place when he starts college. The price is $35 Thousand dollars LESS than the house we were considering and the sellers are paying all of the closing costs! There is still some work to do, mostly just cosmetic updating, but with the lower price and all closing costs covered there will be money to do the improvements we would like to make.

After viewing the property and driving the neighborhood we came to a peacful conclusion that the Lord had answered our prayers. There was peace and no questioning. God had provided above and beyond anything we could have imagined! we declined the counter offer on the previous home and placed an offer on this home before even leaving the street and it was accepted without any debating. We are now waiting for a home inspection, an enginering report on the septic system and the well, and the financing process(for which we are currently pre-approved). Things could fall through and the home is not ours until the last signature is signed and the keys are handed over but we have seen the hand of the Lord at work in our lives. We have learned to pass up the good for the Lord’s best. This is never an easy thing to do but each time you do it is even more amazing to see the Lord work and providentially provide in abundance in one’s life.

I would like to ask you to continue to pray for us concerning this home and if all goes as it seems to be I will post photos for you to see later. God continually reminds me of his provision and his goodness. I would like to encourage you all to remember his provision and his goodness. Be willing to pass up the good for God’s best.