More updated moments

I cannot believe Scott has been home for over a month already! This time with him is going sooooo fast! It seems there is always something happening or something to do! For this last little while we have enjoyed another long walk while the kids rode bikes on Centennial Trail. The day was gorgeous and we ran out in the sunshine to catch some while it was still out there. Our goal now is to somehow find free or very inexpensive bikes for Scott and I so we can ride with the kids. I told him I want mine to have a seat like that of a barcolounger. No teeny weeny seat for this tender hiney! :)

It is times like these that I am thankful we take our time about using gift cards given to us. If I was smart, I would always save them for lay offs. Because of our procrastination, we were able to take the kids to see Kung Fu Panda 2 today. Very cute and kept us giggling! We smuggled in some super cheap Twizzlers, thanks to my couponing habit!

Speaking of couponing, that is something Scott and I are doing together now as well! Not all the time, but we have been out on some adventures to snag up really great priced things together! We have also been selling on Ebay, that has been an adventure as well! We are doing quite well so far, thank you Lord! We even sold our Wii system, we decided to use that money to get us to our annual conference this year. And it was just enough. We are so thankful to still be able to go and pay cash as well!

In related news, the Lord has continued to show His amazing provision for us in an abundance of ways! This week I have two cleaning jobs coming up thanks to my sweet friend Michelle. She always has work for me just when we need it. I am so thankful. In addition, Scott received a call from his former employer (and our neighbor) asking him if he could come to work on a part time temporary basis. This works perfect for us since we are enjoying the time off together, however this will "bank hours" with the union so our benefits continue for us. AMAZING! Just what we needed! I also have to mention that during that phone call I received one from another, most generous friend who said her husbands company is going to be looking for someone temporarily to help out on a job coming up! So, if he is interested to give him a call! Opportunities are pouring in from everywhere!

Scott is now in physical therapy. We truly feel this is incredible timing, the layoff, so Scott can get his body back to feeling good. He will be heading off to PT two times a week for now. His MRI scans showed some tendinitis as well as some arthritis in his left shoulder. The physical therapist feels he can really help Scott through exercise. We are praying this is so. We have also had the added blessing of sweet friends offering us advice on diet changes he can make to help him feel better as well. We are very hopeful that by the time he goes back to full time work, he will be ready both emotionally and physically!

So, as to our adventures lately....our latest was going to The Farm in Snohomish for a bbq dinner and play time as well as having the opportunity to take a look at the acre of land we will be working on to help Harvest for the Hungry. We had the opportunity to work this land last summer in conjunction with a local church. It was a great experience for us, and we are looking forward to doing it again this summer, only we hope to have daddy with us as well! You might be wondering what we do there, basically we come in and help weed and take care of the vegetables growing and later in the season we begin harvesting and the fresh food is donated to our local food banks. Last year the farm donated over 15,000 pounds of food! AMAZING! The added blessing is we are able to glean from the harvest as well. This will come in quite handy for our family this summer. :) The additional blessing of this particular adventure is we are able to see where our food comes from. How difficult it really is to bring forth food and the biblical lessons are innumerable. I love the lessons God gives us as we are working on the farm. Truly, we gain more from this experience than I feel we give.







Yesterday was an incredibly beautiful day! Our family has found hiking to be a much loved outdoor activity so we decided to head out to Wallace Falls for the day, sadly everyone else apparently had the same great idea. The place was PACKED! There was no parking anywhere near the falls, it would have been a hike just to get to the entrance of the trail. :( We decided instead to head to the nearby Skykomish river. Big Eddy is a beautiful area with river access, rocks to climb and if it is warmer, much, much warmer, you could wade in the water. As for us, our feet in the water for more than a minute caused our bones to ache, that day was just far too cold for wading. Our dogs on the other hand thought the temperature was lovely! We enjoyed our picnic lunch together sitting on rocks and being this was also the sabbath we spent some time in prayer and bible study. I don't believe there is a more appropriate place to read God's word than sitting in view of some of His most amazing creation. It was a most memorable day. Scott thought it would be fun to take the scenic route home, which after 45 minutes of meandering through side streets and county roads we ended up a back on the highway an entire block from where we turned off! Hilarious! So, here are some pictures of our adventures at Big Eddy.







I was trying to take pictures, and Gunner just insisted on standing right here, this is my view from where I was...he is such a funny dog!
Forgot to mention all the wildlife we saw while enjoying our outdoor day! Check out the snake we saw in this tree, the color is amazing! ;0)
And a day out in the northwest would not be complete without a bear sighting! This little guy was quite friendly, so friendly in fact, we decided to bring him home.
My sweet family....I am truly blessed beyond my wildest dreams. ♥

Updating our moments

So I am sure you have been wondering what we have been up to since Scott has been home. Honestly, we have been super busy! Having daddy around full time does not leave us a lot of down time. We don't know when he will be heading back to work, so we try to squeeze a lot of fun into this precious time.

I believe my last post was about Atira's birthday. What a wonderful memory that is! Since then we have celebrated Shavuot, which for us this year was a family day. We headed out to Centennial Trail and took a walk for a couple of hours, enjoying God's amazing creation. We went to The NED Show with our homeschool group, which was wonderful fun! We know the presenter, who is a good friend of ours and it was such a delight to see him "in action"!

Scott and I have spent some time discussing and wondering why this layoff came about so soon after our answered prayer of work. Scott feels that this is all in God's timing. As he has been suffering with quite a bit of pain in his shoulder and hands and chiropractic, acupuncture and massage were not giving him relief, he now has the time to pursue the care he needs to get back to feeling good again. We now have the results of two MRI scans done to the shoulders and neck area, Praise God no problem in his spine! However, it does show some issues with his left shoulder and a bit of arthritis in there as well. The doctor has given him a shot of cortisone to figure out the origin of his pain and now that we know it's the shoulder area, he is off with a prescription to the physical therapist. And thankfully, he is feeling much better because of the shot as well. Although that is not an answer for us, it is only a step in the right direction. Scott now takes a regular regimen of herbals each day to help with inflammation and he will be contacting a physical therapist next week. Prayerfully when it's time to go back to work, he will be feeling MUCH better! :) In the meantime, it's great to have him around.

One of our amazing adventures, where we remembered to capture some pictures at was a day spent out at the Western Heritage Center . If you live in the Northwest, you should really check out this amazing, volunteer run museum.

Jordan is using a lathe for his first time.
Our new friend, Jerry (who runs this museum) is showing the kids equipment that was used for milking cows.
Jordan is learning how rope was made, this was really a very cool hands on project, amazing how quick and easy it is!
Atira learning how water used to get into the house!
This stove is just beautiful, it needed a spot on my blog just because appliances today have none of this kind of artwork and beauty in them.
Atira driving a tractor with her dad!
ACK! He is DRIVING by himself!!! He really did enjoy this hands on exhibit, let me tell you! They do not normally let everyone drive them, but since Jerry and our family clicked, he asked if the kids would like to take these for a drive, um YEAH!!
Scott & I with Jerry up on a steam tractor. Jerry is an incredible man, he really does deserve a blog post of his own. He has gone to Africa (Malawi, same place as Scott's family went) to teach them how to farm there. What a heart of love he has for God's people! He is precious!
Scott & Jerry working the steam tractor.
Jerry & the kids working on the steam tractor. What a fun day this was. We learned so much about the Northwest and it's history in farming, mining and lumber. We will be back for sure, even if it is just to get a visit in with our good buddy, Jerry.

Our next adventure was our anniversary. Scott and I celebrated 22 years this year! It's amazing, in so many ways it feels like the time has just flown by, but in others, I cannot imagine my life before him. This year we were not sure what we were going to do, money is tight but we wanted to have a memorable experience. We knew about a conference coming up in Canada the weekend of our anniversary, and since it is not too far, we figured we could make a long day of it. We wrote our good friends who live up there and told them we would like to come up and celebrate our anniversary up there with them and at the conference they were helping with. Their fellowship decided to bless us with a complimentary entrance to the conference as well as our friends having us stay at their home so we could stay the weekend up there! What an incredible blessing that was!! Although it might not be the most conventional of anniversary trips, it was certainly memorable and special in it's own way. We are so thankful to the Bondservants of Elohim for giving us the opportunity to join them.

Scott and I posing for a picture to help us remember our fun weekend in Canada.
A photo I took of the worship dancing, what an incredible time I had worshipping with this group of people! Our good friend Gordon is a fantastic leader and teacher of the dance!! We look forward to seeing all of these wonderful people again soon!

Scott and I have been also enjoying some late nights together, watching television shows on Netflix and just having some quiet time together. It is very special and something we don't get often when he is working. The kids are loving having a daddy home in the morning to lay on in bed when they first get up. Can you put a price on that? I really don't think so. I think that brings everyone up to date on our latest adventures. I will hopefully check back in within the next few weeks with more pictures and updates on our latest adventures!

Birthday Moments

Oh what a day! Atira has just turned 11....I cannot believe it. Our kids are growing so incredibly fast. I remember people telling me how fast it went....but you just cannot believe it until you live it.

What an adventure this year was picking what to do for her birthday. What a sweet, indecisive child she is! :) Finally we hit on bowling...and she wanted to think about it. Thankfully we found a a bowling alley that offered glow bowling and she loved the idea, so I booked it almost before she agreed to it! WHEW! Check that decision off the list!

It was a FABULOUS time! I want to go back! The birthday girl had a blast and I think her friends did too. The alley was so wonderful as well! They are very family friendly, the music was appropriate, the staff was incredible as well, so helpful and accommodating. The kids had pop and cheese pizza and Atiras choice of birthday cakes? Red velvet!! Can you believe it? Can I just say, Costco makes an amazing red velvet cake! It was incredibly delicious.....ummm...cake.....

**let's focus!**

So, let's back up a bit...the morning started with her grandma Sheila coming over for breakfast. Birthday girls choice was waffles made by daddy smothered in fresh strawberries and whip cream from a can. It must be from a can. That's the only way you can spray it directly into your mouth and get that cool sound. And the fun of having a mouth full of whip cream. :)

Then the birthday girl spent some time out in the beautiful sunshine with her dad playing ping pong and then throwing the baseball around for a while.

This was a very special birthday, it was a great day filled with family, friends and wonderful memories. We are blessed.