Praise GOD!

I just wanted to share that Jameson Setsma came through his hernia surgery yesterday with no complications.  The family is praising God for answered prayer.

Library Books

These are the Last two weeks of Library Books.   Although, this past week, we did bring home 8 books.  All of them have been enjoyable.

How Loud is a Lion

something about this book, makes my kids want to roar with every page. I guess that is why the Author ends each page with , "shhh Listen."

The Lot at the End of My Block

This is one of those books that gets really tiring to read, because each page builds on the previous one., so by the last page, you have repeated "the lot at the end of my block", about 59 times.

Tractor Day

more books about tractors for little boys.

Machines at Work

Owen is enthralled with this book and Caeden has it memorized, before his nap, he read it to me!

Jungle Drums

Graeme Base

the same author of Animalia,  this one is also super creative, wildly imaginative, and makes you search for a hidden wildebeest on each page.

Fast Food

At first you see a car or a plane, then think to yourself, wait a minute that is all food.

My Truck Is Stuck

One of the favorites!!  A cute story filled with vehicles and dogs!

The Night Worker

any book in which a little boy goes to work with his dad, is a good book!

Prayer Request

Today we need to be in prayer for Jameson Setsma and his family.  

Mike and I went to College with JT's parents Todd and Melisa.  

He was born in July 2008 with a disease called Epidermolysis Bullosa.  

It is a rare skin disease in which the skin blisters and falls off and has a difficult time re-growing. Jameson needs to be bandaged from head to toe and is very fragile, on top of this he has a hernia and an infection in his blood.

You can read their latest blog entry here.

Jameson is scheduled for his Hernia Surgery TODAY.  The family is asking prayer for no complications as this is very possible for an infant with this disease.

Lord, I pray for Protection of Jameson's body inside and out.  I pray for the the doctor's wisdom and careful hands in performing surgery and treating this beautiful baby.  I pray for his parents and family members that you will Give them Overwhelming peace, Sufficient grace, and Tender mercy.  Thank you for being a GOD that is bigger than our Circumstances and for walking with this family every step of the way and never leaving them. 

Please let there be no complications of any kind in the surgery and let Jameson come through smiling and ready to tackle a new day.

May your name be praised, Lord God

AMEN

A way to give

This is Estero Community Park and right now it is being used as a shelter to house many people from Bonita Springs that have been displaced from their homes, due to flooding from T.S Fay.  One more reason to pray that Gustav stays far away from Florida.!

You can read a more in-depth story of the shelters and the displaced from  this article

I woke up this morning and talked to the boys over the breakfast table about how we need to look for more opportunities to be kind to other people.  After this dialogue (ok monologue)  I thought, " i wonder if they are too young to grasp this concept?"  But as we were driving home from the YMCA the radio host explained how the Estero Community Center could use donations of diapers and food  for all the people that it is hosting right now.  SO.... God prompted me to remember the 3 bags of diapers and pull-ups in my closet that are being stashed away because they are too big for Owen and too small for Caeden.  

I thought ok, here is a chance to teach the boys about how  we can be kind and giving when other people are in need.  So we dropped off the diapers at the Salvation Army truck that was outside the center.  As I was walking away ,  I saw someone else walking up with a cart load full of crackers and chips and cookies, and i realized my 3 bags of diapers wasn't all that much to be proud of.  Thankfully the Lord doesn't judge us like that, but it did put my pride of doing a good deed into perspective

As Christians, we are called to be generous givers and to help the least of these, ashamedly, i admit it is a rare thing for me to step out and give as soon as the need is mentioned.  I am thankful that God allowed us to be used today, how small it may be, and am thankful that he is providing opportunities for our family to step outside of our four walls and be kind and of service to those in need.  I am praying for those opportunities because my children need to learn that Life is about glorifying Christ and not about pleasing self. How else will they learn that, unless they see it lived in our lives?  

Caeden did ask a ton of questions today about why we are giving our diapers away, and why those people can't live in a house, and where the water came from, and if we still have diapers left for Owen.  I pray that these conversations will continue and that glory will always be pointed to Christ alone.  

Luke 12:48 "For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more."

I guess i am learning more from my reading of Conspiracy of Kindness than i have realized.  My eyes are being opened to searching for the need that is out there and to not be afraid to get involved.

Also if you are in the area, they are still in need of donations!

Free Flour

Free Flour.com

I believe this site is done by the Free Rice people.  But this is geared to questions about geography.  I am not so good at it, each correct answer donates one spoon of flour and 100 spoons of flour equals one loaf of bread.  They claim that yesterday, 3,292 spoon of flour were donated through their website.  Check it out!

Gymnastic World

Open Gym for Gymnastic World lasts one hour and is full of excitement.

The Kids had a blast. 

 My niece Addy is in the first picture, i love that smile!

Caeden hanging on the rope, right after Aunt Heather shimmied all the way to the top.  She still has skills.  My niece, Aspen is a natural gymnast, she wanted to hang upside down on all the equipment

My sisters and i used to take gymnastics at this very same place, scores of years ago.  Not much has changed, maybe a few more equipment bars, but it even smells the same.

Future Olympian Runner.......

The kids enjoyed the foam pit the most. Jumping in over and over again, 

and wriggling their way out.

My sister and her family are moving to Argentina in a few weeks, we are definitely going to miss all of the fun outings that we have enjoyed together.!!

Spiced Apple Cake

Ingredients

3 green apples

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup butter melted

1 egg

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground allspice

1/2 tsp slat

1/2 cup golden raisins

2 Tbsp granulaed sugar mixed with 1 tsp ground cinnamon

powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 325 deg. F.  Butter an 8 inch round cake pan.  Core and thinly slice apples, leaving skin intact.  Whisk granulated sugar, butter, and egg, together in a bowl.  Stir in two- thirds of the apple slices.

Sift flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and salt together.  Add to the egg mixture along with raisins, stirring until just blended.

Pour into prepared pan and smooth top.  Arrange remaining apples slices in a pattern on top, pressing them gently into batter.  Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.

Bake until golden and springy to touch about 50 minutes

let cake stand in pan for 10 minutes then turn out and let cool completely about 2 hours. 

dust with powdered sugar and cut into wedges to serve.

Bucket Truck

Daddy, has a really fun job, he gets to play with tractors, and big trucks all day long.

Today Caeden  was so in awe, that Daddy got to drive the back-hoe all day today.  "no fair"
On this particular day, Daddy was cutting down a tree at the Campground, so he got to use the big bucket truck.  Which, by the way, is a word now in Owen's vocabulary!.  When Daddy was done, Caeden got to go for a ride in the bucket.
Owen and I just watched, while Caeden went higher and higher, waving the entire way!

It was such a treat for him,

This is Uncle Brad, watching with us, while chillin on the back-hoe.

yummy recipes

I made these yummy carmel sticky rolls from scratch using a buildabelly recipe. Which have been my very favorite to make; they are all so delicious.  These were for my birthday breakfast and her streusal topped cheesy broccoli was a side dish for my birthday dinner.  I also wanted to make her gingerbread waffles, but i ran out of time.   Maybe i will try to make the waffles tonight. 

click to find
Buidabelly recipe

For my birthday cake i made this strawberry cake from Martha Stewart.  

I forgot to take a picture of my cake, but believe me, it wasn't this pretty.  I am glad that tasty doesn't always have to be pretty.  

My sister Amber, made this inside out strawberry ice-cream cake for Sam's birthday, I was so impressed with it that i had to post the picture.  It is 3/4 of the way gone, and it still looks scrumptious and gorgeous and i wish that i could have been in Italy to taste it.  The icing is vanilla ice cream.  YUM, way to go, Am!

Master bedroom

Slow but sure, the master bedroom is coming along, but not complete yet.

There is a big piece of clear plastic hanging where the wall used to be. just a little more drywall mud and some texturing and hopefully my bedroom will be a bedroom again instead of a construction site.

Library Books

These are books from last week's library session.

Tropical Storm Fay, might put a damper on our Library plans for this week.

Zoo - Looking

Caeden liked this more than i did.  It was a simple book about a girl that went to the zoo and saw some animals. Kinda boring!

Fix -It Duck

This one on the other hand, was so creative, and humorous, and i will probably buy it sometime.

Animalia

I already posted a little about this one.  A must read for sure.

Last Saturday

These are pictures from the new playground at Lakes Park.

My dad joined us on opening day.  The playground is really cool and "train-inspired".  It is located next to the new train museum.  We had a lot of fun.  Too cool off, I let the kids play in the water area first that is located on the other side of the park.  

Did You Know???

My boys, love animals!!!!!!

At this point in our lives however, Caeden can't get enough of them.  He loves reading books about them and seeing pictures of them and knowing what they eat, how they sound, 

where they live,

 etc.  

I found this animal slide show on the internet.  It was great, because it showed him a ton of wild animals over and over again.  

I realized there is a lot i do not know, like the difference between a  cheetah, a jaguar and a leopard.

We looked it up and did you know??

1)the jaguar is the largest and strongest, followed by the leopard, the puma and finally the cheetah

in fact it is the only cat able to kill with a single bite, having the strongest jaws in the Cat family,

2) The leopard is the most successul of all feline predators in that its generalist diet, supreme intelligence and absolute stealth makes them able to take on even human adversaries. In India and Africa, people fear the Leopard far more than the Tiger or Lion respectively as a result.

3) The Cheetah, the third of the large spotted cats, is native to Africa and Asia, but most commonly associated with the African savanna and is the fastest of all land animals, being the only cat whose claws cannot retract and appears therefore to be more doglike. It even chases down prey more often than stalking it.

4) A jaguar inhabits the jungles or rainforests of South America, while both Leopards and Cheetahs prefer the plains of Africa and Asia. Both Jagaurs and Leopards have been known to climb trees to rest and keep their prey safe from other roving predators such as wild dogs, hyenas and lions.

5) Jaguars (like Tigers) enjoy swimming and have shorter tails than Leopards who prefer the Savannas and need the tails to aid in balance while running down their prey. Jaguars also have more muscular bodies. 

6) Cheetahs can be thought of as the sprint athletes with thin bodies and individual black ,dots as opposed to Jaguars and Leopards with their black circles with brown centres and heavyweight boxer or wrestler build. The Cheetah' s head is smaller and has a black line running along the nose. 

The pictures above, were all taken by my Dad this summer during their vacation!!!!  He thinks they are just OK, He has such an Eye for Animal photography.  I need to take advantage of that, and decorate my house with his photos.  Growing up, we had "dad's photo wall" with a ton of his animals all over the living room wall.

The other avenues for animal learning that we are enjoying are:

1) Bindi the Jungle Girl (the crocodile hunters daughter)

she is on Discovery Kids Channel, and it is a very entertaining and informative show.  

2) Animalia,  is a phenomenal book.  Each page is crazy artwork of each letter of the alphabet.  Everything on the "A" page begins with the letter A, i mean everything.  As well, on each page is a little boy that you have to search for, kind of like "where's waldo."  This author is so creative, it blows my mind.