Some thoughts....

Just sat down to relax for a few minutes....Ty just left, and he was so active and happy today! But...I'm beat! LOL He loved being outside, and pushing his little car around the yard...I'm grateful that we have a lot of shade in the summer...I don't need to worry about putting sunscreen on my children when they are outside here.

I've been thinking a lot today about gratefulness, and God's provision. Seems as my husband's income keeps going down, prices of everything keep going up...and now today, my husband came home and told me that gas went up AGAIN...and he had heard that it will be at $3 a gallon by the Fourth of July.

After a moment of PANIC last night after discussing our finances....I re-read some journals, flipped thru an old Bible that I had tons of notes written in...and felt comforted. As I sat out on our deck this morning having my quiet time, God just kept meeting my every concern (fear?)....until I was quieted and confident again that my God has ALWAYS provided for our family....He is so faithful to us....and He will provide now, too.

Does this mean that we don't need to SERIOUSLY watch every penny?! Yep...we do! Do we need to cut out a lot of things and maybe not do as many of the things this summer as we had planned...yes. But that's o.k......God has shown us even BETTER alternatives! Lots of time together doing free things.....going on picnics, fishing, bike riding.....lots of time with extended family...swimming, going to the lake.....lots of "potlucks" with other families...making lots of crafts and gifts....roasting marshmellows around a fire. Church picnics....friend's graduation parties....birthday celebrations....weddings, babies......wonderful, fun, memory making opportunities this summer!

Would it be nice to take the whole family to the beach for a week? Of course! But it isn't neccessary for us. Sitting on our deck, which is so quiet, peaceful and private...listening to the birds and church bells....watching my little ones play, swing and climb their tree....talking with our girls....watching all of our children grow and mature.....We are blessed!

It doesn't matter if we eat rice and/or beans a couple of times a week....we'll be healthy and together....and that is really all that matters. Memories can be made without money....memories shared that will last a lifetime!

No matter what happens to our income, the economy or anything else....I will not fear! My God is in control of everything, and He loves us....and I stand on the promises in His Word.....He will always meet our needs. If we have food and clothing.....we are content. Praise you, Father God!!!!!! ~Sue~

Man, ya'll are fast!

Two people got the answer to the last riddle, so I figured I might as well tell what it is:
THE HORSE WASN'T TIED TO ANYTHING!

Congrats to Meriette and Michaela for getting the answer right! Next week I will have another for you all to solve :)

Odds and ends of our day....

~Just some odds and ends from our day....it was actually, sort of a "fractured" day today. Lots of different things going on all day. It started off with my brother-in-law dropping Ty off this morning.He is so cute...hard to believe he will 1 year old in only 6 more weeks!Sara has been praying for a 6 month old little boy named Stellan who suffers from heart disease. As she was playing playdough with Ronnie and Anna this morning, you can see who was on her heart! She actually wrote a paper and gave a speech about what Stellan suffers from....'Super Ventricular Tacchiacardia'
Two books we've been pouring over....starting to become a reality!
Ron and Ronnie working hard together on the wood for the frames. Ronnie learns so much from his dad! As a car was going down the road, he said it sounded like it needed new brakes! He is definitely his father's son!

I loved this one! We have pictures of Ronnie 'building' things with his dad since he was around 1 year old....I'm so grateful that Ron knows how to do so many things and can teach Ronnie.

This one is for my herb garden....Ronnie was so proud!

Two rectangular 4x8 foot beds ready to be filled with dirt and plants. Now to keep the deer away!
I don't know why I posted this...Ronnie's ant farm. It is so cool...and we are all enjoying watching them and observing how they work.

Ah....my little corner of the world! My new 'MaryJanes Farm' magazine....the new 'Above Rubies' magazine as well...and a chenille afghan I'm crocheting for a bridal shower gift using my homemade cedar hook.

~And....these were just a few of the odds and ends of our day! Meghan helped me do some laundry, both girls helped with Ronnie, Anna and Ty....Sara babysat for a couple of hours, while Meghan helped with dinner.....now, after our second kefir smoothie of the day....it's early to bed for everyone! Happy Dreams!!! ~Sue~

Overdue update...with photos!

This has been such a crazy, busy, emotional 2 weeks! I feel like saying "stop the ride! I want to get off!"...hopefully, things will settle down now, and I'm feeling the need to guard our time jealously...especially since the emotional stress of my Uncle's death, the funeral and then the "busyness" of life have thrown me into a pretty bad fibro flareup....hopefully, it will start to ease soon...especially if I get a chance to rest a little for a few days. So....quick update on the Gorecki family...in photos!Ron was a pallbearer for the funeral and he was such a comfort to me...I'm so glad he was with me! Usually, he is working on Saturdays and wouldn't have been able to take off.
As this was the day before Mother's Day and we knew we would be out all day on Sunday, the kids decided that Saturday would be MY Mother's Day! This is what they did while we were gone at the funeral. (I love bare feet! )

We pulled into the driveway to this HUGE, beautiful sign for me! (they had a lot of fun making it)

My four wonderful blessings! I am so grateful to the Lord for each one....each one is so special!

My guys! Ronnie insisted on getting his picture taken with his Dad in front of the Penguins flag....Stanley Cup, here we come!

Anna wanted me to swing with her on the tire swing....boy, it was windy that day!

~We had a restful, wonderful day the rest of the day....got my favorite dinner (Carrick Poultry chicken!) and just enjoyed being home with all of us together! (watching the hockey game, of course!)
Sunday, after a wonderful church service and a lunch of leftovers....we set out to visit and honor our mothers! We stopped at Ron's mom's house on our way to my mom's. Here is "RoRo" with Ron and the kids....we were actually able to visit her for a little while, then again in the evening after leaving my mom's house...we walked in and she had warm, homemade chocolate chip cookies for everyone!

Here is my lovely mother! Poor Mum....she had had knee replacement surgery a few weeks before and between her knee pain and her sciatica pain...she was really hurting. We all stayed for dinner, cleaned up then left to allow her to rest. Her knee is doing much better, but her back is still very, very painful. Hopefully, she'll be able to get help tomorrow.

Here is one of my beautiful sisters, Pam and her twins Tina and Justin. (you know, mom's are never actually IN the pictures, so we try and take some with our children whenever we can!)

Someone took this one of me with the kids over my mum's house. We all had a great time being together that day! (should have taken a picture of the scarf that I crocheted for my mom...it is beautiful, warm rust color made out of very thin bamboo yarn....turned out beautiful!)

Our favorite model, Anna with her favorite stuffed animal (of the moment!)..."Rosebud"....the littles are very into the "Airbuddies" movies right now! It's next best thing to owning a dog....and with 2 cats and Ron & I not being dog people, this will have to do!

This same week, after watching Ty every Wed. & Thur., we had a cubscout picnic at our home on Friday....Praise God, it didn't rain! Here the boys are working on their "Leave No Trace" posters.

The guys visiting while waiting for dinner to be ready....

My friend, Ranea graciously offered to be "grill master" for me....so we worked together to get the "smokey" work done! It was a lot of fun for everyone! We are done with cubscouts now....it is a great organization, but with 4 children, Ron's nightturn work schedule, it is not a good fit for our family...but we've found a wonderful alternative for Ronnie called "Contenders for the Faith"...where he will still get together with Christian young men, and work on skills, character traits and earn achievements while growing into a strong, christian young man. I think we're going to love it! Meghan and Sara did the companion to it, called "Keepers at Home" when they were younger and still have the books and are working thru them...while Anna will have a little "Little Keepers" group of her own with a couple of her little friends.

After the girls and I being at youth group Saturday night, on Sunday Ron had a little high school reunion party. Here we are before we left.....we don't look TOO old for a 29th year reunion! Even though I didn't go to his school, I knew a lot of people since I worked in the neighborhood at the bank for years...even before I met Ron!
What a crew! I wish I had taken more pictues, though.....we had a good time, and Ron was like the mayor...he knew everyone! We're looking forward to the picnic that they are planning for next years 30th reunion!

~So....there is our update! Last night, the girls and I had our Maiden's group and finished our study of 'Beautiful Girlhood'. It was such a nice night, as every time we get together with this particular group of girls and moms always is! Three of our group are moving back to the state of Indiana next week, so we will miss Jenny, Megan and Sydney very much! We will be starting a new study next month on the book "Stepping Heavenward" by Elizabeth Prentiss.....we are very excited about this one! Hopefully, we will have a couple of new families joining us for this study. (I hope so!)......so today....off to work on more laundry, schooling (12 more days to go!)....then Meghan is babysitting this afternoon and Ron is going to the Springsteen concert tonight....he really excited about that! He always goes with my cousin, John, and the two of them have a great time! May everyone have a blessed day!

Answer...

... to my riddle!
Okay, so we had some enthusiastic participants, and due to busyness, I haven't posted the answer! OK, here is the question again:
There are three kinds of people in the world. Those that can count and those who can't.

And the answer is:
I am the one who cannot count!

Congrats to Bella, who guessed correctly! Here is a new riddle:
A horse was tied to a rope 15 feet long and the horses food was 25 feet away from the horse. How did the horse reach the food?

To tell the answer, I would like nine entries... think hard!

Nutty Putty

Yummy snack, fun treat, playable plyable peanut butter. Very simple treat that is so fun to play with and it is edible! With a consistency of playdoh, it is so neat!
Nutty Putty Recipe
You will need: peanut butter, dry milk powder, and honey.
What to do: I don't measure (just like my mom) so I'm not quite sure how much I made, but I think I put in:
three heaping tablespoons of peanut butter,
about one cup of dry milk powder,
and then a half a cup of honey.
Then, you mix it with a spoon (or your hands) and put it into the fridge.
It will be ready after 30 minutes, but I let mine sit over night just cause... then
you lay out wax paper to the table, and take some putty and PLAY! THEN EAT!

You all probably heard of this, but I made it for a snack last night because I was bored and hungry so I thought: let's blog about it!

A few ramblings about our day and Mum's Mother's Day!

I love spring! All the little 'helipcopters' as we call them are flying around in these huge wind gusts. Ronnie and Anna played for half an hour just with the helicopters outside. The helicopters are the little bud things that fall off maple trees in the spring. I'm laying on my bed resting, with lace curtains flowing from the strong breeze, listening to the Pride and Prejudice soundtrack and overall feeling very peaceful. This day started out a little chaotic but it came back under control soon enough. The day was filled with joyful preparations for a certain holiday, some fun creativity outside and in but for me a sad solemnity seemed to lightly loom through out the whole day.

Mum and Dad were at my Great-Great Uncle Rich's funeral service and burial today. She stood by Aunt Helen the whole time and Dad was a pall bearer. Sara and I stayed home with the littles because Dad and Mum had to be there at quarter till nine. Mum called a few times and updated us when she got home early this afternoon with Dad. Uncle Rich had served in WWII in Africa and Italy, so there was the three gun salute, the playing of Taps, and the flag folding ceremony. When my Pap (Dad's dad) died a few years ago, because he was in Korea, they did all this and to this day I can still not even think of the piece Taps without crying. There wasn't a dry eye at the burial, Mum told us. Especially when they played Taps. Please be in prayer for our Aunt Helen and her sons and their families through out the coming days.


Though the latter events were going on at the time and were not far from my mind, Sara, the 'Littles' and I all set about cleaning up some for Mum, playing outside, and drawing a huge mural at the top of our driveway that read, "HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY, MUM!!" (Pictures from Mum's Mother's Day will be forthcoming.:)) Because we will be gone at church and both my grandmothers' homes tomorrow (and Mum will be working her tail off...again) Mum declared today to be her own Mother's Day. So the past week and a half we've all been planning and carrying out Mum's mother's day gifts. :) Mum surprised me by dropping me off at Michaels tuesday because she knew I needed to go to get all the things for her gift....she was clueless as to actually what! :) Tuesday night when Mum was with Aunt Helen visiting her for her birthday (and supporting her when the news came) Ronnie, Dad and Sara went out to get all their Mother's day gifts. Anna stayed home and kept me company-we were surprised when Dad brought home Chick-Fil-A icecream and milkshakes!


Ronnie and Anna made her sweet little cards (that I know she will keep....because she always has) and Ronnie, with his own money, bought Mum a beautiful cross pin. Dad got her the Duggar book, a mandelin (mandolin?) and a beautiful frame that had the Proverbs 31 verse, "Her children arise up and call her blessed," inside of it. Sara got Mum a beautiful new 'Mother' mug and I got Mum a bunch of reeeeeeaaallly sooooooo soft yarn, a new candle, some chocolates (only three) and I wrote her a little poem. I had so much fun coming up with how to present it to her! Sara and I worked together on this like mad after Mum called and said "we're on our way home!" AAACK! We still needed to finish up! I got a basket from Michael's craft store, padded it with some wool roving (Mum LOVES wool) and set everything rather prettily if I do say so myself, in the basket. We wrapped the whole kit and caboodle in that gift-basket wrap and tied ribbon around it. This way Mum had LOTS of surprises....she had specifically requested the Duggar book and the mandelin but this way we really surprised her with everything else. I love catching her off guard and surprising her with some of her favorite things!!!


Poor Mum cried as she read all our cards (either from happiness or being so tired....probably both) and now she's relaxing in the living room reading the Duggar book. Mum doesn't have to cook today so she can just have some leisurely relaxation time with her family....we're even making Dad and Ronnie go downstairs to watch the Penguin game so the yelling won't disturb Mum. We're all insisting Mum rests since tomorrow will be so busy. It's tradition that if it's Mum's birthday and/or Mother's Day, she gets a Carrick Poultry chicken dinner. Dad orders it and then picks it up in Pleasant Hills (Ella, tell your mom this...see if she remembers Carrick Poultry) Now Carrick Poultry is called Chicken Derby, I think, but it has the second best fried chicken in the world!!!! First best fried chicken is Grammy's chicken bucket chicken...but I think it's the same recipe that Carrick Poultry uses. Grammy used to work at Carrick Poultry, according to Mum. :) Mum loves the wings and their coleslaw and potatoe wedges are SO good! These are the only things Mum will 'cheat' on her diet for. :) And gosh darn it does she deserve it...especially on 'Mama's Day.'

When Sara and I were little we only called Mum 'Mama.' So we always said, "Happy Mama Day!" Ronnie and Anna quickly (unfortunetly) got out of calling her Mama because they heard us 'older ones' saying Mom or Mum. But on Ronnie's card he wrote "Happy Mumma Day.' Apparently he didn't know how to spell Mama correctly. He knew how to spell Mum so he figured just to add an 'a' on the end. :) Sara got her a beautiful sound card with the song Legacy (Bella, you should remember that one) and Anna made Mum a beautiful card that was almost all pink with her scrawl over the letters I made for her to trace over. :) Anna and I had fun with Mum's card! Though some of the things she asked me to write in it were sort of odd. :) I enjoyed (but still cried) while writing her a poem....a break from the traditional letter on Mother's Day I've been writing for the past few years. :)

I love celebrating Mum and all she does for us! I know I should honor her and thank her everyday but today is especially one whole day just for doing so. She is the most hardworking, long-suffering, joyful and patient Mother I know. She's my Mum. :) I know she's not perfect as she reminds me often, but I still highly esteem and strive to be more like her each day. I am so grateful she's my mother and the Lord sought to choose her to be my own 'Mum.' :) 'Mum' is what she called her mom, Grammy, and hopefully what my children will someday call me...

I love this day (and her birthday) that is specially set apart for celebrating Mum. She is my best friend, such a blessing to me when I'm down and always listens to my random ramblings when I'm in a weird mood. :) Mum is the most long-suffering, patient and joyful person I have ever met. And she is, as Anna says, "The bestest of the bestests," mother. :) I love her so much and strive to be more like (it goes without saying, the Lord and Jesus) but also to be more like Mum. I am so glad, privileged and blessed to be her daughter. I often say, "And I was the one to make you a mother!" :) When I, Lord willing, have children of my own one day, I hope I am at least half the wonderful, forgiving and gracious mother to my children as Mum is to us. And I hope I live in close proximity to Mum....I don't think either of us could stand living very far away from each other. And I want my children to know, love and spend lots of time with their Grandmum. (the name 'Mum' needs to be carried on!) :) Already Mum's saying, "I want to be called Baba." That was what she called her great-grandmother and what we called our great-grandmother-her grandmother. :) I laugh and say, "When the time comes I don't think it should matter too much....but why don't wait until you're a great-grandmother?" It seems silly thinking about when I'll be a mother someday, or when Mum will be a grandmother, but for us it's so fun and wonderful to think ahead to the future. I can't wait to be married and have children. It's everything I've ever wanted to be....just like Mum. I hope I am like Mum when I'm a mother; yes, even singing to my children to wake them up in the morning. Of course, they probably won't be too fond of that either. :) I suppose it'll just seem natural to me. I hope I am just as patient, grace-giving, loving, creative, joyful, long-suffering and forgiving as Mum is. I am so glad to have her as a mother.....my Mum. When my own children call me "Mum" someday, or call it out anxiously, I hope I realize then what a privilege it is to be called that; after my own dear Mum. :) I'm SO looking forward happily to being called Mum!

Happy Mother's Day, Mum!
I love you!

Orange-a-licious

Ok, the title is odd, but once you hear the story, you will get it. I promise. I hope.

Anyways, after Anna's surgery, my grandma bought her two cute little books: pinkalicious and purplelicious. All about this little girl who would only eat pink things and only eat (you guessed it) purple things. One of the reasons my grandma bought this book is because the character looks exactly like Anna Banana.

So yesterday Anna and Ronnie were hungry and bored. I was too, cause I forgot to eat breakfast. So I pulled out our electric orange/lemon/lime/grapefruit/etc. juicer and juiced me some orange juice and grapefruit juice. Yummo. Anyhow, Anna saw me making it and wanted some. Of course, Ronnie did too. So I made them a new drink which I named Orange-a-licious and Pink-a-licious (Pink grapefruit). THEY LOVED IT! Here is the recipe for happy campers :)

1. You will need an orange (a big one) and a juicer.
2. Cut the orange equally in half and juice it with the machine (or by hand)
3. Now, scoop out the yucky pulp from the peel (which should be still perfectly round)
4. Check peel for holes or rips.
5. Pour your juice into the peel!

That's it! Grapefruit juice is better cause the peel is bigger... I also found that while they didn't like grapefruit juice alone, they liked it with some added Stevia... who knew? Here are some pics of them enjoying their drinks:Anna drinking her orange juice :) She helped squeeze the juice, which was cute!

Ronnie especially liked his GF juice ;)

The 'cup' for the juice :)