Rest and Rejoicing!

I wasn´t going to post but I wanted to let you all know personally how thankful I am for your prayers. I thought often through the weekend how many of you prayed and it blessed my heart.

We had ladies from two churches come to the Ladies Coffee and Chat but no new ladies came. This among all the work involved,caused me to struggle just to not get down, but I know that here in this country little is much when God is in it! I am rejoicing in another activity and the company of fellow believers.

Our company has arrived but my weary body needs rest. It´s been a long weekend. Painting, cleaning, ladies meeting, and an after chruch fellowship this evening. Praising the Lord for one soul who heard the Gospel for the first time! So even though Satan wants to get us down and keep people out of church by having a big soccer game scheduled right at the same time as church, we can rejoice in a soul who may come to know Jesus!

I will post pictures soon. Thanks again for all your prayers and for your dear friendship!

Praying for an Open Door

I would like to pause in our busy routine to ask you all to pray again for our first

Ladies Coffee and Chat ~ Un Cafe y Charla entre Amigas.

We have invited several ladies who do not know Jesus as their Savior, and we pray as we share these verses the Lord would open their eyes and hearts to His Wonderful Saving Grace.

"For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ." Philippians 3:20

Have a blessed weekend and Lord´s day tomorrow. Let us remember the Price that was paid for our Liberty and our Salvation.

Finale Finally!

In honor of our final day of school this year and Friday Photo Flashback, I take you back to our first school room. Where as little toddler pre-schoolers, Isaiah and Andrew learned to read, while baby Michael napped, played and yelled happily in his pack n play! (yes, this little one has yelled happily or unhappily his whole life!) You can barely see his kiwi -fuzzy head back there in the right hand corner.

Oh and that´s how my boys posed for pictures back then. They always said "patata" which is spanish for potato.. and thus the wide open mouths. It was never just "cheese". Nooooo... It was always, "Patataaaaaaa!!!!" at the top of their lungs!

Here is our school room this year.

This is a re- posted picture because needless to say with all the tests and running around today, the camera was the farthest thing from my mind. At least the tests are done and the boys move on to Fifth grade and Third grade! ( I am sure they did well enough to announce that already even though I haven´t graded all the tests yet. After all they are my kids.)

Hip Hip HURRAY!

"Thank you ,Lord, for your strength and guidance as we journey this road of learning together. Make me into the Mommy you would have me to be. Strip the ugly from me daily and put only a good memory of their mommy in my little ones minds. Thank you, Dear Lord, in Jesus´ Name, Amen."

Wednesday What´s up with the Crew? Legos and Last Day!

It´s still Wednesday! I have one minute before Thursday, but for those of you on the other side of the ocean it´s still Wednesday.

So, What´s up with the Crew?

Here they are helping declutterize their lego buckets the other day!

Amazing the things they found!

(this job was of their own incentive, but took almost a whole day outside of school, that is.

Eve of the last full day of our home school year 2008-09!

We are going to finish up all our tests tomorrow. Final exams for the fouth graders and last tests of the year for my second grader.

We are finishing up as much as we can so that we don´t have to do school while our company is here, our very special company. My hubby´s father is coming for the first time since we have lived in Spain! They are at this moment somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea on a cruise. (my dream cruise. ---sigh--maybe someday) We are expecting them in Sunday evening. We should have one great whirlwind week!

Well, I must go make up the last tests for History and Science. Pray for my little crew as they rack their brains tomorrow.

"Declutterizing"

(Ok so I am making up a new word. If word verification can do it so can I.)

I am trying to make my home sing by de-clutterizing and painting this week. So for Making Your Home Sing Monday, I am getting rid of all the junk I have collected that really has no sentimental value and that is totally not needful.

What started this declutterization? (another new word!) My Father in Law and two other family members are coming for a visit next week! We are so excited! It´s been a long time since we have had family come to see us. I think the last time we had family come out to visit was in 2002. Of course, we have seen everyone since then on furloughs (2004 and 2008), but it´s different when they get to come see us!

Our home is cozy, small and just right. But, it needed some declutterizing and some paint! Even the boys are getting in on the fun! They already have sorted their legos and their cluttery drawers of collectables. I think they have gotten a whole trashbag full of junk already to throw out! It´s amazing the things we collect.

I did take before pictures and some after pictures. You will have to wait for the pictures with all the decorations up,but for now you can see the colors. We have lived here for four years and the only painting we have done is the bathroom ceiling (due to mold. yuck!) and the boys room when we got them new bunks 2 Christmases ago.

My home may not be singing a symphony yet, but we are on the way to having a nice fresh clean organized home!

My Hubby (the better painter) getting started on our living room.

Yours truly getting in on the fun!


The finished wall.
(the funny thing is the colors are almost identical to the colors in our church.)

the other side of the living room.

(we only painted two walls as the other two were still good)

Bedroom before

After (with out decoration)

Entryway before. Wall to wall wallpaper!

(it was falling off in so many places)

We had a lot of help with this part!

(our fellow missionary friends)

Pizza Party after 2 1/2 hours of stripping wall paper!

Lord willing by next week, I can post the finished product of the hallway and entry. We hope to put a pretty paper border all the way around.

Paused By Paint!

Yes, that´s right. I have been paused by paint! Paint in the living room, paint in the bedroom and paint in the entryway and hall! We have been at it last night and all day today! Needless to say, my Fitness Friday post about "walking it off" is going to have to wait till next week.

But, I wanted to post something.

Something!!!

Sorry,

I couldn´t resist!

It is Photo Flashback Friday over at Alicia´s blog! We scan our old pre-digital photos and post them every Friday. It´s been so much fun!

This Photo Flashback is very sentimental for me. Here standing with my handsome groom and I, are both sets of my grandparents. Three of them have gone Home to be with the Lord while we have been on the mission field. This is how I remember them in my mind and heart. My grandma standing next to me is now 83 and still very healthy. I miss them so much! Some days I believe time has stood still on the other side of the ocean, and they are still as I see them here in this photo.

I thank God for my godly Grandparents!

Come on and join us for

A Little Bit of Home!

Thank you, Julia, for my lilacs.

Oh, how it reminds me of my childhood home! You did a great job with this montage. I love it so much!

Wednesday What´s Up With the Crew?

Impromptu School Pictures!

We had an informal Photo shoot today! It was a gorgeous day, and the boys were even some-what stylish with their new hair cuts. (by Barber Daddy) These are the clothes they picked out today all on their own. (we were impressed)

Andrew Jay

Age 9

Fourth Grade

Michael Joseph
Age 8 (June 11)

2nd Grade

Isaiah Lorell

age 10

Fourth Grade

proud Mommy,

Unimportant Favorite Things?

I have wondered over this for several days.

How is something that is a favorite considered unimportant.

Is it like...

a huge cup of coffee and chocolate (with out sugar of course) on a cool morning?

Could it be a quiet couple of hours just to sit and read?

Maybe, It´s those early mornings between sleep and awake when your pillow feels so great!

Oh, I know!

It´s a Starbuck´s Mocha Coffee Frappaccino!

No no, that´s definitely important!

I know, it´s the smell of fresh cut grass that makes me feel like a kid again in the springtime!

or maybe that Diet Free Day I just must have every so often. (by the way I had a Mars Bars all to myself the other night!)

These are my 6 unimportant favorites in life! I guess, maybe I could do without them if I had to.

I was tagged by Theresa and now I must tag 6 others to tell their 6 unimportant favorites.

1. Nina - even though she may not post them, I know she will play along and at least e mail them to me. Love ya!

2. Pilar - cause she does most all the tags, and makes it fun!

3. Nan - becuase she makes the unimportant seem so important and humorous! Like a trip to Sonic!

4. Alicia - because I would like to get to know you better.

5. Mimi - cause she´s livin´in my old stomping grounds and we both have boys!

6. Julia - becuase I haven´t heard from ya in a bit. Sure do miss ya. You´re probably out in your beautiful garden!

All my readers have become so dear. Please remember, I don´t take you for granted and you´ve been such an encouragement to this missionary so far from home.

PS. If you haven´t gotten to see the winner for the Gettin´Fine in ´09 challenge, you need to take a peek. She wrote a whole "book" on her fitness journey!

Blog Spots / Hot Spots

I want to tell you about three great Blog Spots today! To me they are definitely Hot Spots.

You´ll have to do some jumping around if you are going to be following the activity of this high- tech frogger,

I mean blogger.

Blog Spot/ Hot Spot # 1

Remember I metioned that you had to head over to All Pain No Gain on Monday to see the results of the "Gettin Fine in ´09" accountability challenge... The results are in!

Well.....You´re gonna have to just go on over to see them, cause I promised myself I would not post my weight on this blog. I will just give a little hint though, this froggy´s been doing a lot of jumping!

Blog Spot / Hot spot #2

As I sit and contemplate about this past weekend, I realize how untypical it was, but it was ministry related non the less. We took a trip to Madrid with the Gijón Mariners American Football team for their first and only play off game against the Madrid Osos (bears)...

To read more head on over to the KJV blog. I write for Monday Ministry Highlights once a month. There are so many great uplifting God honoring posts to read there as well. May this jump bless your socks off!

Blog Spot / Hot Spot # 3

I have been joining Making Your Home Sing Monday for several weeks now. It´s a meme to help us moms make our homes run a little smoother and happier for our families. There are mom´s with some great ideas who can really relate. It has happened on one or two occations when reading one of the posts that I find my self wondering if that that person was actually in my home.

We have had a great time with this meme! But this Monday, I will send you all over to check out everyone else´s posts. My home is sleeping after a long trip to and from Madrid.

So how was your blog spot /Hot Spot jumping? I sure hope you make it back to let me know what you think.

Have a wonderful week!

Stop You´re Pinching Me!

I don´t think he really is pinching Andrew and maybe Andrew is laughing.

I just don´t remember what happened.

This is one of my favorites of my second son!

My hubby was the only one who could make him laugh.

Andrew and I
(he´s about 9 months old here)

Come join in

If you are into fitness scroll on down to the post before, for FITNESS FRIDAY.

"This and That" "Fitness and Health"

Today is Friday, and with that comes Fitness Friday! Sandy at God Speaks Today is opening up the meme for those who want to post about fitness. I am so excited because this way we can all get so many new ideas, meet each other and encourage each other to stay healthy and fit! She has posted some guidelines if you are interested in joining in.

Well, I don´t have any great fitness break throughs to write about, and I don´t have any great healthy natural food advice, I just want to write a little "this and that" about health and fitness.

This:

click on image to view or print recipe.

This is a great healthy recipe! I use to make it a lot and had forgotten about it. It has lots of veggies! I also add chicken for my non vegetarian husband. He has to have meat at every meal.

I made it today and was so pleased with its light and yet filling content!

To make it even healthier, you can use whole wheat pasta. Here in Spain, whole wheat anything is almost twice as expensive, so plain pasta for my men and I just eat less pasta and more veggies.

When trying to lose weight and get into shape, eating more vegetables has been a must. In fact I love having a salad for supper. I add some of my favorite cheese and my favorite Balsamic Vinegar and I am one happy bunny rabbit!

Do you have any healthy, recipes you like preparing? Maybe you could post it for Fitness Friday.

So "this" was a Pasta Delight ...

And "THAT" is:

Well, actually better said "these" are

Resistance Bands.

I have just started a new phase in my work outs! I am so excited about Resistance Bands! I thought they were a little silly, but that was before I met Sarah @All Pain and No Gain. She explained how you can use them in your home and get a full work out.

I thought, "I can do that."

So I went out and bought me some.

Then I made my own work out routine.

"Can you do that?" you ask.

Why, yes! There is so much at our finger tips now days.

I went immediately to Google! When I googled it, I didn´t want just any exercise, what I need is an intense concentration on certain areas, ehhhem... the hind quarters.

Here is what I have put together. Maybe it will be a help to you as well.

I will be doing a Cardio workout (usually stationary bike) before these exercises.

2 sets of 10 reps, is a good beginning.

Squats - Stand on the band with feet shoulder-width apart, keeping tension on the band by holding a half-bicep curl. Lower into a squat, keeping knees behind toes, and pulling on the band to add tension. Return to start and repeat.

Lunges - Stand with right leg forward, left leg back and band positioned under right leg. Keeping tension on the band by bending elbows, lower into a lunge until both knees are at 90 degrees, front knee behind the toe. Return to start and repeat.

Side Steps - Tie resistance band around the ankles (make sure you're wearing socks) so that there are a few inches of band when you stand at hip-distance apart. Take 8 steps to the right, contracting the glute and outer thigh. Repeat on the other side.

Butt Blaster - Get on your hands and knees and wrap a resistance band around the right foot. Hold the handles in each hand and begin the move with the right knee bent and flex the foot while extending the right leg straight back, squeezing the glutes.

My hubby said this last one sounds like a villain in a movie!

For further resistance band exercises and photos on how to do them you can go to this tutorial.

Oh, and stay tuned till Monday for the winners of this great fitness challenge.

@

All Pain and No Gain.

Happy workout!