Preparing for Lent

We have been very busy preparing for Lent this year. We have decided to make a Lent Calendar and Lent Folders to help my girls (and myself) in an effort to strengthen our faith! Our Lent calendar marks the beginning of Lent (Ash Wednesday) and continues through the end of Lent (evening of Holy Thursday) and through the Triduum and Easter! Since Lent is a time for Prayer, Giving Alms and Fasting these are our plans for this Lenten Season: Each day we have items we must count and we will put the corresponding # of pennies in our rice bowl to be given to the needy at the end of Lent (our church will collect these). We are also picking one item from our pantry each day and putting those in a box (haven't gotten around to setting one up and decorating it) and those will all be donated as well. We have specific prayer intentions we will be making each day during Lent as well. To add to our traditional fasting we have decided to give up candy and sugar items every Sunday (which for us will be quite a sacrifice). I have included pictures of our Lent Calendar and the girls Lent Folder they are in the process of creating (these are called lapbooks or flapbooks). My girls have recently began making these in our homeschooling (history mainly) and they are similar to scrapbooking so it's right up their alley! Well, I must get them some "late" lunch so I will end for now.

Cookies, cakes or sweets anyone???

What a better way to earn some money, but to have a bake sale right? Well, we got together with some friends and decided to have a small bake sale on Valentine's Day. We did great, we earned over $300 and the girls had a great time! We are planning another one just before Easter and maybe will be doing a car wash in March. Hey, we have to find some way to earn the money to keep our kids in gym and horses!!!! Looks yummy huh?

Our latest project!

Well, the sad part about this post is unfortunately we lost poor Bec's goat. Losing an animal is always tough, but we try to take everything that happens in our lives and use it as a learning experience for our kids and this was no exception. We have lost hamsters, birds and even a cat but this was the largest animal we have lost thus far. I think the toughest part was just not knowing what caused it. Unfortunately the more animals you own, the more you will lose...that goes without saying!

Sooo, as if hubby and I don't have enough projects around here this experience gave us the opportunity to take our projects outside and work on something different. We (I say we, but it was really HE) built a nice "bed" for our little goat friends! Yes I said friends, as in plural because they can't be alone; well at least that is what we were told....I think it's a conspiracy to get us to get more animals!!!! Anyhow, yes we took on another goat so our little one wouldn't be lonely (I guess the 2 horses aren't very good company). Sooooo, here is a little pic of our new addition and their "addition"!

Where have I been???

Wow, it's been so long since my last normal post(well pre-blogger meltdown anyhow)....time sure flies! December was a good month for us and started off with a bang as Bec went to the State Championship meet and knocked the socks off those girls and took home 1st place Uneven Bars!!! WOW, now she gets yet another banner at the gym. From there (Coos Bay) we went to visit our friends in Salem (always love seeing them) and had a fun time playing WII and just spending time with them (even though we just saw them for thanksgiving). After that we headed north to WA to spend some much needed time with Rame's family! What a great time we had and we even had the opportunity to go up to our Nephew's places in Everett and Gig Harbor WA! Once back home it was hustling around to get our Christmas tree and get ready for the 4-H Christmas party we were hosting at our place. We had so much fun finding our tree, we go to a place just about 10 miles from here and it is just loaded with snow, kids get to sled, dogs just run around and root in the snow and I just love being there; the scenery is just breathtaking! Our party went well, we had so many people here and have added about 6 more kids to our group and the girls gave a fun presentation on line breeding rabbits-very informative and I get to check off debate for Marissa on her curriculum! I love homeschooling!

Then of course we spent the rest of December (prior to Christmas) baking, baking and then there was baking! We had a wonderful Christmas, just the 4 of us out here! But I think one of the best things about this Christmas was a dear friend of mine was here over the holidays....how I have missed hanging with her (miss you so much Suzanne). We had such a great time together, we shopped, had dinner together, our kids hung out together and then there was the fun time at gymnastics (just like old times)!!!!

That was our December! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and great New Years!!!! We made some resolutions, had a couple toasts and are ready to make 2009 the best year yet!

'til next time,

Blogger Meltdown

Okay, so here I sat trying to get my blog page up to date I mean after all I had Christmas music and an outdated background on it. As I am doing this I find this very cute background and thinking I know what I'm doing I proceed to cut and paste the code and BAM my page has all these errors on it. So, I figure okay I will simply go back to the classic template and all will be well.....UH no!!!! Although I now have an actual page you can view all my cool stuff is GONE, gone I tell you!!! So being in a bit of a panic I quickly find my daughter and tell her what I have just done and within about a 1/2 hour she has more or less repaired my goof! So I am in the process of rebuilding my blog.....Oh and of course the page that had all the cool backgrounds and blinkies is under construction so naturally I can't replace it the way it was......soooo bear with me as I slowly get my page back in order. Can I just say UGH!!!!!!??????