No Pie For You

Or anyone, or jam, nothing.

The birds cleaned out my cherry trees.

I am beyond sad. HUNDREDS of cherries, gone.

And only cherry stained poop on my car as proof they were here in the first place.


Birds.

Radiator Springs (a leak)

For those that have known us at least a month it is pretty common knowledge that we have a "saga of cars".

I wish I was kidding.
Over all God has been gracious to us regarding transportation, and this post is in no way a negative or complaining post regarding our current situation.
It simply is what it is.
There are much bigger issues in the world.
We are thankful for the help we have received and look forward to what God is doing in our lives.


The saga continues...

The Volvo is officially gone.
Sold to a recycling yard.
I am both absolutely relieved and a little sad. It was our nicest car....as in, it had air conditioning, a sun roof, leather interior. Things like that. It also had an engine light that would not go out and wouldn't pass smog testing here in California, which made it illegal to drive, so we didn't. So it sat there, staring us in the face like the brazen deer that eats things in our yard. Only this deer eats gas and our paychecks, because boy howdy are Volvo parts expensive.

So we made some new friends with new people at church, who own and run a mechanic shop. They were going to help us figure out if the car was worth saving.
So very long story short, God stepped in and made it clear what we should do with the car through a weird set of circumstances. These circumstances led to us getting a credit at the shop, cash for the car (not much) and an opportunity to fix our other cars.
We did a long list of "needs" on my husband's car. Although the list isn't done, we stopped so we would have a bit of money to put into my car.
You know, my 1988 Toyota Corolla with 235,000+ miles on it.

Because it needed an oil change....

and a new radiator, and some belts, and apparently a something cap thing, because it is leaking oil all over the spark plugs, and new front tires and more.
The only thing getting done is the radiator for now. And that's going to cost us. Our credit at the shop is now used up, but our "to do" list on the cars is long.

I am so thankful for the help. I am thankful they were able to give us discounts and are generous with us.I am thankful the radiator didn't fully go and then ruin the engine. I am thankful for God's provision while we figure this all out. 

Shrinking Furniture

 After I posted the photo of Spencer from his 8th grade graduation day, I noticed something....

This is him on the first day of 8th grade.

And this is a few days ago...

The shelf behind him seems to be, well, shrinking. That's the only explanation. So I had him stand there today, and stand completely straight this time.

Yep, that shelf is shrinking for sure.

Someone...

Someone graduated from 8th grade.
Someone is now a high school student.


Someone also received a special achievement award in History, and will be on the honor roll as well.

Someone will also not take a nice photo for his mom.
The ham.

Mother's Day Backflips?

Yesterday we took this photo...

 Later in the day I added it to my Facebook account, in fact I used it as my profile photo, even though one daughter is missing because she is away at college.






Not too much later it showed up in my feed a little different...

Obviously her Applied Computer Graphics Technical degree program is paying off.

The conversation that occurred  after the photo was hilarious. Apparently she was with me all day, and the kids planned and performed a silly dance (a family tradition) complete with backflips.
Oh, and they were successful at making a souffle.

What an amazing day!

What's in the Fridge?

In an effort to save money and really keep an eye on our food intake we have been eating at home a lot more than we used too. I usually make a plan in my head for the week and try to stick to it. However, sometimes plans fail, and we get busy and then it's 6:15 and we need to be somewhere by 7. oops.

Mother of necessity, I had some turkey meatballs and some wonton wrappers...

 So I wrapped the meatballs up.

 Sealed them up with an egg wash.

Brushed them with oil, which I used too sparingly.  I baked them in a 350 degree oven for about 18 minutes.

Served with green beans and peas and a spinach, sugar snap pea, strawberry salad with basalmic dressing.

We also added homemade Asian Plum Sauce, not pictured. The sauce made all the difference in the world and it was so very tasty.
Quick, easy, different, yummy.

BIG DREAMS Meet Reality

Since lining up our marriage more correctly, since Aaron has stepped up his role, and I have done what I needed to do, God has been POURING big dreams into my vision.

I can not keep up with my pen and paper when they get downloaded, that's how much I am seeing.

I took my excited self to talk to the pastor regarding part of it, it involves our church. We sat and discussed the possibilities, and he encouraged me to hone in on one thing for now. Narrow it down, find a jumping off place.

And then suddenly I was starting a drama ministry ...


How did that happen?

WHAT?!
WAIT?!
ME?!
AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*

 It wasn't even on my original list of amazing things.
I don't get it.


I feel like calling up the pastor and saying, "No thanks", but I am the one that brought it up. Phooey.


I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.






 * I apologize for the over use of punctuation.