Three took place in Greenville: Joann, our niece, turned 9 on Oct. 8th. Kent, my youngest brother turned 37 on Oct. 22nd. Carol (in Germany) turned 44 on the 23rd, and Dalene turned 20 on the 26th of October! We thank the Lord for each life! (The pictures are in the order of their celebrations, not their birthdays. :) Sorry!)
Today Dustin got to visit Miss Amber again. They baked oatmeal-apple cookies which we got to enjoy after church tonight. "Meanwhile, back on the ranch," Danika raked yesterday's leaf pile into the walls of a house, with a room for her, Donovan and Danielle. They had a grand time "furnishing" their rooms, and playing together.
Nights and mornings have turned cold. Car windows require scraping again, but the days have been sunny and beautiful, in spite of the cold wind. Today Danika enjoyed raking our maple leaves, and then playing in them with Danielle.
Yesterday the men moved my mother's 45 year old refrigerator (which she gave me when they moved to the States) up to my kitchen to replace a much younger
version that we had gotten a few years ago! Donovan is holding a huge potato that Kay and Susan gave us! We made delicious French fries out of this one and similar ones today. Donia made "pigs in a blanket", another favorite, for lunch today.
Today a long awaited event took place. Bradley took the little kids out into one of Kay's fields to enjoy experiencing shooting arrows! In spite of the cold wind on this sunny day, the kids came back with excited descriptions of their turns with the bow! :) (From top to bottom: Donovan (5), Danika (6), Dustin (8), Eddie (cousin, 8))
Since we are enjoying our fall vacation we got to join Bradley at the nursing home this morning. There was a good group out, and afterwards Bradley had the opportunity to talk to two ladies, who gave testimony of their faith in Christ. This evening Donovan enjoyed a supper date with his daddy to Subway. Donovan is an observant little fellow, who is a charming conversationalist.
On Wednesday morning Danika made a snowboarding girl with her play dough. Later that day I found three dolls on the ladder of the swing! :) Doreen and Lynette enjoyed baking brownies in the afternoon.
Right before we started devotions tonight, Danika came with this little skier she had been working on. She made him out of Donovan's birthday gift--the play dough. I loved the details she added (click on it to see it in near-original size), and the personality she achieved.
It is hard to believe that Donovan is 5 years old now. He is a bright and cheerful boy, who loves letters and numbers, books and cars, playing with his siblings, running and jumping outside, and coloring and drawing lots of pictures. He enjoyed his birthday party a lot. We had invited several church families with children and went on a walk with our "Laternen" after coffee and cake and the opening of his presents. Fall has arrived, so we were walking in near darkness by 7 p.m. already. It had gone down to 0°C Sunday morning, but it was still mild when we went on the walk.
College life is busy, but interspersed with some variety. On several Saturdays, these cousins (all of the girls are related to Erik :) met for lunch. These four kids were all in the same church nursery 18 years ago, but Claire has lived in Hong Kong for most of the years since then, and the rest in Germany. Erik has been playing soccer every week, and he has a good sized fan club since several of our famliy members live in town. :) My mother was a cheerleader in high school, and she rooted for him with lots of her old cheers last week-end! The third picture shows Dalene's new pet...just kidding! She is taking Biology, and got to hold this little guy during lab! Most of their non-class and non-work time is taken up with studying,though. The final picture shows Danae preparing last night for her test today.
While the big boys were at work picking soya beans which were to be roasted and then fed to the pigs, Dustin and Bradley tied up all the branches that have been cut back recently. Twice a year they pick up our large loppings and smaller trimmings. Tomorrow is the fall pick-up day.
We were a small group today, but the ladies who attended are always very appreciative. One of the ladies lives alone at age 85, the other two both have unsaved husbands. The older lady can only come on Sundays and to ladies meeting, the younger, blind lady can only attend the ladies meetings. This year our theme is prayer. Carol prepared for today's Bible study. It was a good time of fellowship.
Several days ago Danika saw a picture in a book of a little girl being outlined on a big sheet of paper. I told her then we would do a project like that soon. Today was the day I pulled out the wallpaper, and outlined the kids with pencil. The rest they did themselves. Doreen enjoyed helping Donovan, the other two did their own work. They started out with the brain and other organs, but then decided to put in some bones, and Donovan added his ears as a finishing touch. :) We had a great time together.
We enjoyed a great day of thanksgiving at the church on Sunday. Kay and Susan had been in charge of the decorating, and the children had prepared several verses from Psalm 136 as well as the song "Vater, Wir Danken Dir"("Father, We Thank You"). I had actually intended to post a picture, but since Eldon filmed it, I decided to try that instead this time. :) (Well, the original 132 MB were too big, so I tried a section with Windows Movie Maker) We stayed together afterwards for the noon meal, and saw pictures of Natascha and Sebastian's wedding and honeymoon. They were in Norway for a week, and saw some beautiful spots of God's creation!!! After singing several of the songs that are being put into the new songbook, we enjoyed coffee and cake time. :)
I have always appreciated that positive way of looking at the passing of a saved loved one. This past Saturday evening our (Great)Grandpa McKenzie went home to be with the Lord. He celebrated his 102nd birthday the end of June. I posted a picture of Dalene and Danae's visit with him that day. How thankful we are for the memories of special times in the past when we got to visit with him. He and Grandma came out to our wedding in Colorado less than two weeks after he turned 80! But mostly we visited them in southern Michigan, actually staying with them during our deputation time and then again on furloughs. I remember several things about Grandpa...he had a daily list of exercises, he mowed his own lawn on a riding mower(1.2 acres), he walked to the post office several blocks away twice a day, he loved oatmeal for breakfast and fruit pies for dessert, and he had great sense of humor! We thank the Lord for his life. (The picture above was taken during a 7-week furlough in 2005 which Bradley took with our four oldest. Grandpa turned 100 then!)
My two lovely oldest daughters before the morning service on campus.
Today our Daddy left for the Perspektiven camp. It is was raining steadily, as it had been the last two days. We worked around the house. And when the work was done, the kids enjoyed playing, for example building a long tunnel for their matchbox cars with our milk cartons. I caught the snap shot of Derek and Devon through the window from outside. Derek's room is in the basement, next to the outside steps.
