13 Years Together

Today we celebrate the birthdate of "our" family, the day we officially began this adventure together. I found this old photo which I believe was around our first Christmas together. Our dogs were our "kids" back then - my how life has changed!!

Back on our wedding day, I never would have imagined what the next 13 years would hold. Of course, I've also learned to appreciate that fact. There is no sneak peek into the future. No promise of good times or bad. There is only God carrying us, together, to weather the storms and rejoice over God's blessings. Even though our marriage has been filled with more of the blessings than the storms, I wouldn't have wanted to know about them ahead of time as I would not have truly experienced the present, always looking to the future.

So I say to my man, I'm so thankful for you and for the life we share. I don't know what the next year or the next 13 years hold but I wouldn't trade you as my partner for the journey. You're precious and priceless to me Babe!

Photos of the Christmas fun

Somehow these photos all loaded in the wrong order but you can look at Christmas in reverse. Thanks to all the family who sent gifts - everything was a hit!


Goose has wanted a guitar all year. What a happy face. As for my man, his surprise was the best of all. His best buddy from his college days sent out the tree stand my man has been saving up for. When all gifts were opened we "found" one more for Daddy. The clue sent him upstairs where we had hidden it for the surprise. The house was filled with glee!!!

Here I am with my "Pretty, Pretty Princesses". Boo LOVES her new game though it is neither challenging or deep. :)

Spiderman has been obsessed with ninja's this fall and was thrilled to have a new costume (though it's probably not his highlight, just cute).

The boys love their Legos and their RC toys the most. Can you tell from this grin?

Christmas Eve Aunt Susie always sends them new PJ's to open. Can you see the anticipation of Christmas morning on their faces?

We also have a birthday party for baby Jesus every Christmas Eve. This year we had some extra guests.

We wish you a Merry Christmas!

Well with only 3 days to go, we want to extend our prayers for you to have a special Christmas. We know the year has been filled with uncertainty for many but we know that God is in control and will work all things together in our world for His perfect and eternal plan. May we all remember that the tiny little babe in the manger came as our gift, knowing full well the high price it would take to redeem us and adopt us into His family. We are so thankful.


Our last little glimpses of the season include our trip to see Santa. We brought Hope along so she could meet Him as well (you're never too old...)

Another day of sledding with the boys' best buddy, Josiah. Currently this snow in our yard is covered with a half inch of ice. Unfortunately the roads out here in the country are covered as well and the kids and I had an interesting walk the other day while we tried to find someone to tow us out of a predicament. Enough about that!

Our two little superstars. I had hoped to put a video clip of their Christmas Program but after realizing it would take a week to upload it on our dial-up, you'll just have to settle for this shot. Just know that they both sang great in the choir and Spiderman survived his role of "Joseph", complete with speaking parts. (Though he was TERRIFIED with his lines, he did great and now thinks he can do it again next year).

God bless!

Fa La La La La......

Does this look like holiday fun to you? Christmas time, planning gifts, baking treats, making memories. Well, I'll let you in on my little secret....


I'm NOT a crafty mom. If I have a choice, I will avoid the mess, the hassle, the arguments, the tears, the cleanup and as a result - the fun. Aunt Susie sent us this candy making kit, so I "had" to suck it up and get down to the business of having fun. The kids were thrilled to hear the word "project" and before I even had the box open, there were arguments and bickering over who got what first. I threatened, "Are we going to have fun or are we going to fight because I'm not doing both." (Now this is the stressed out, fed up voice - not the patient, sweet warning you may presume). Of course to kids who don't get crafts that often, they weren't going to miss out. :) Then my perfectionist (I'll refrain from identifying the one) was in tears about 60 seconds into the project. It was immediately becoming clear that theirs was not going to look exactly like the one on the box. When attempts at reasoning were exhausted, I threw the empty box into the kitchen and declared, "it's never going to look like the box, it isn't supposed to look like the box, you are supposed to use your IMAGINATION! Now stop crying and just do your best or we're done having fun!" There you have it, my secret is out but it feels so good to admit my own flaws.

OK, so today was not one of my better days but it does sadden me to think of what I miss out on when I'm focused on myself. Instead of enjoying the moments with my kids, sometimes I just endure them while my mind is on my own "to do" list. As I pick up countless scraps of paper, I miss the joy on my kids faces at wrapping presents for their friends and imaginary friends and teddy bears. I mentally bemoan that they have covered the table (that I just cleared off) with all their art supplies so they can make Christmas Cards for their friends. They ask if we can go carrolling and I think to myself, "it's cold and that's just one more thing to fit into our schedule before Christmas." As we sit down on the couch to watch "The Grinch that Stole Christmas", I'm annoyed with my chatterbox who asks non-stop questions (ie. what is a grinch? why does he look like that? Is he a monster or a person? Dr. Suess?) when I just want to sit and and enjoy 30 minutes of quiet (hmmm, that does sound pretty Grinch-ish of me now ....). Is there any hope for me?

So now that I'm out of the shadows as the one home schooling mom who hates crafts, I'm committing to myself that I will force myself to look beyond my own wants ( peace and quiet, nothing sticky on my floor, etc.). I do want to share the wonder with my children at this magical time of year. They love Jesus and are excited to count down the days til we celebrate his birthday party. They can't wait til next week when they get to go to the Dollar Tree and buy Christmas gifts for each other with the money they earned themselves. They pray nightly for the boy we sponsor at Esperanza Viva to have a merry Christmas and not be lonely. Their hearts are in the right place, I'm working on getting mine there. I'm understanding in a new way today about "the kingdom of heaven" being made up of children like these. I'm trying to learn from their example.

Finally! Our first snow.

The kids have been waiting and asking and dreaming and asking about when we would get snow. Spiderman actually asks us what dates we will get snow as if we can request it or control it ourselves. Anyway, they were out running around building snowmen in their PJ's at 7:00 am today and again after lunch. They stayed out and played until dinnertime. They are truly in snow heaven! We'll see what tomorrow holds.

As for Thanksgiving, we had a relaxing time with Aunt Laura, who travelled in from Chicago to celebrate with us. Even better, she brought lots of pie (so yummy)! You can see here she even got to help the kids decorate our tree on Friday. We laid low this weekend and enjoyed our cozy little house while the kids wrapped presents (from the toybox) for their teddy bears. Christmas, here we come!

It was fun to see Aunt Laura again and she even started teaching Spiderman how to knit. :) He truly loves learning anything new and he never stops asking questions.

Guy Time

Every now and then it's important for me to connect with just my guys. This last week I got to do just that as I headed out of town with the boys and after completing our errands, we went spielunking at Rock Bridge State Park. OK, so it wasn't that fancy but we'd been studying caves and cave life for science and Spiderman had never been in a cave. This is a pretty simple one but it gave him a taste and he loved it.


The boys were a hoot and as it was early afternoon on a weekday, we had the park to ourselves - for awhile that is. All the yelling, exploring, and running was no problem and they really let themselves go. When the AARP crowd joined us on the path, they were quite amused by the dialog. Here they are "off trail" for a bit playing king of the mountain. Boys will be boys!

This is a handsome pair huh? Even though they have their moments, these two are best buds 95% of the time. As for the girls, they stayed home and had a girly day with Grandma.

What we've been up to

Well, we've been enjoying our family visits again. This time under the guise of hunting season. My man spent a week hunting in Ohio with his best bud from college. Even though he brought home a doe from that trip, the real perks for him were eating more than he should and laughing a lot! Despite some brake problems on his truck and a 6 hour repair delay, he made it home the same day his folks arrived from out East. Grandpa Charlie has been a regular hunter here since buying his "farm" last summer. This photo shows him with the first buck he's taken from his new place. Fun memories made between father & son here.

Speaking of family memories, Sunday afternoon my man took Spiderman out to the woods with him. Apparently Spiderman spotted the deer first with his new eagle eyes and Daddy couldn't help but harvest it for him. As the kids are usually a bit wiggly and noisey in the woods, this is the first time one of the kids got to SEE Dad shoot the deer we eat. Spiderman was pretty excited to see the whole adventure and can't wait til he's old enough to shoot his own deer now.

The proud hunters with their "trophy" doe. :)

My baby is FIVE!

Oh my, where has it gone? This is my baby the first day we met her in Guatemala. Probably taken after I finished sobbing. :) How incredible to meet her that day and study her every feature in person that I had already encountered in referral photos. Of course how could we not focus on her stubbornly STRAIGHT hair that we could not get to lay flat no matter what we did. We never saw her head of curls coming...

Boo had a wonderful time with her birthday this week from friends, parties, and presents to picking her meals and such. I have watched in a little shock and awe as I realize just how grown up she is becoming. We took a day off yesterday for a trip to the city and everywhere I turned I saw women with little toddlers and babies (that happens when homeschoolers go out in public during the day). It truly hit me that I'm way past that stage - diapers, sippy cups, tantrums, all of it - and I must admit that I don't miss it. :) Anyway, my baby is becoming a big girl and some of her favorite gifts were a purse filled with her own lipstick (chapstick) and chewing gum. She thinks that she's a grown up now.


Here are a couple of shots from her Hello Kitty party. I'm sure it's due to having older siblings but all the friends she invited were older by a year or two (or 3). They had a great time and as you see by the crown, she relished the role of "queen bee" all week. We made a fun trip to the dollar store and she purchased her own pair of reading glasses, I'll have to add a photo. She is competing a bit with big brother on that one - I hope it doesn't screw up her eyes!

Peace in the midst of politics

"Don't fail to rescue those who are doomed to die. Don't say, 'I didn't know it!' God can read your mind. He watches each of us and knows our thoughts. And God will pay us back for what we do." Proverbs 24:12 (CEV)


OK, I know everyone is aware that today is election day in America. I have spent much time in prayer this past year and especially these final weeks. I am enough of a realist to know that neither of the candidates is perfect and both will make decisions that I think are dead wrong. As a result, I think it's right to be a single issue voter and in order to get my vote, you have to be willing to protect life. Proverbs 31:8 says, "Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves" and I firmly believe that if we as a nation will not protect the unborn children being slaughtered in their mother's wombs, God will not bless us. Scripture shows us that over and over that as God's people started following their culture and sacrificing their own children "in the fire" to the false gods, they incurred God's wrath. If America is going to survive as a nation, we have got to protect life. The Bible tells us "children are a blessing" and yet Barack Obama said that if his daughters "made a mistake", he did not want them "to be punished with a child". God is the giver of life and no child is a mistake or punishment in His eyes. I also know first hand that every child is a wanted child - yet not always by the one who carries them in their womb. We MUST speak up for them!

OK, so you know where I unapologetically stand on politics. Today we took a field trip to the polls and had some interesting conversations. I have spent the day in prayer and fasting for the future of our nation and over and over, God has reminded me that He is over everything and that no matter the outcome of this election, my refuge is in Him and Him alone. The peace that comes from that realization is staggering. No peace is to be had by politics. I can sleep tonight (and every night) because I know Who holds the future.

Even Superman wears glasses

So why not Spiderman? Well, the short story is that we casually took the boys to get their eyes examined only to find that Spiderman seriously needed glasses! Looking back now I can see the little clues he left that there might be a problem but I guess I rationalized them away. Now it's a whole new world for this handsome guy. He might as well be a celebrity at our house as the other kids are fawning all over them. I'm sure he is just thrilled to be able to see something!



We just finished up another family visit as Grandpa M & Great Aunt Liz came out for a week. Grandpa was busy working to get things ready at the farm for next month's hunting trip while Liz got to meet Spiderman and get reacquainted with the kids. The kids love having all the company and are now looking forward to Nov. when Grandpa comes back to hunt and brings Grandma along for spoiling the kids.

Oh, another note about Spiderman is that his new glasses resulted in him scoring 3 goals at his last soccer game. When you consider that they are the first goals he's made all season, you realize the glasses made a huge difference. He loved all the praise and attention. It's even more impressive when you realize that last year he wasn't even willing to practice with his team, much less play soccer because he just felt too "shy" (his words for it).

The Murphy boys playing offense. Goose prefers defense so she can sing songs to herself while waiting for the ball to come her way. :)

like a kid again

Our second round of family visits just ended this week. My parents only get to come out once a year so we relish getting to connect with them in person. The kids had fun showing off their new skills and playing games with Grandma. Spiderman even helped Grandpa remodel the hen house (guy stuff you know).


We usually have our visit at Thanksgiving but this year we decided to get together in Oct. to avoid the weather issues for travel and it worked great! Aunt Susie made it a Halloween theme one night and the kids had so much fun making the meal, decorating and eating this "dirt dessert". She is always full of fun projects to do with the kids

Get a load of these fun socks. One thing aunts have over moms is they can spoil kids and get away with it. :) Every day something new and exciting to do or make. Bring it on Aunt Susie, as long as I don't have to compete.

There was plenty of quiet and quality time too while everyone was here. I especially enjoyed feeling like a kid again. Having Mom & Dad here, watching The Brady Bunch with my big sis and singing silly songs from our childhood - yep, I'm pretty sentimental. It was sad to say goodbye and yet, we're still planning for a family reunion back out West next summer, Lord willing!

The chicken saga continues....

We have had quite a few weeks with our"pets" this month. I know it is silly for us to devote so much time and emotion into something that we eat all the time BUT these silly birds have brought so much joy for my kids this summer. So about 10 days ago we came home from a short parade here in town to find that a neighbor's dogs had come over, broke into the chicken coop and slaughtered our chickens. The girls were screaming and sobbing while we cleaned up the mess and we praised God that evening when one hen appeared out of nowhere at bedtime. Apparently she had escaped and hid out for the entire day. It was a small consolation but that one survivor gave the kids a ray of hope (and kept me from throwing in the towel on this whole thing). As Goose was unwilling to let "Grandma Cluck" move in with a friend's chickens, we set about to locate a companion for her. God provided us a rooster through a kind home schooling family and the kids spirits started to rebound again.

Here is Goose with "Lester". Whether it is because he is still young or because the previous family handled him alot, he is very tame and the kids love to hold and pet him. (Our old hens never let us touch them). God didn't stop the blessings there though. This family located a lady willing to sell us six laying hens, for a good price, and only 3 days after the massacre we now had 8 chickens. Here are four of them (though I think they all look the same so I just have to call them "the ladies" even though the kids have names for them).

We had some interesting talks during this time as we prayed about one chicken that was suffering, thanked God for the chance to have the chickens in the first place, and discussed the hard facts of life (chickens are food, they don't live forever, etc.). We also thought about Job who lost everything he had in one day and still praised God. Now, I realize that our chicken loss doesn't truly compare with that but for kids with big hearts, they did feel that way. Just as God replenished Job, we too received more than was taken from us. The kids are enjoying the new flock and we are reminded that nothing in life is guaranteed. We have to enjoy our blessings while we have them. I have no doubt that this won't be the last lesson we learn from these silly birds.

Grandma time

Well I'm obviously behind in writing but I hope to post a few things this week to get caught up. :) Fall is a pretty busy time around here as it seems our house is full of out of town family. We enjoyed having Grandma M here for Spiderman's birthday party and filled our week with lots of fun. As is usually the case, it was an emotional goodbye at the train station when we dropped her off. I thought this photo captured the emotion well. It helped cheer everyone up to realize that she would be coming back in just a few weeks.



I can't leave out that Jaybird joined the ranks of the proud hunters this month. Following in his little sister's footsteps, he bagged his first squirrel and is proud to show it off here. Way to go boy!

a SUPER 8th birthday

Spiderman became Batman for his birthday. If he had his choice, he would have been the Human Torch from the Fantastic Four but I didn't think he'd really like it if we set him on fire. :) Anyway, we represented all superheroes at the party and he loved it! As for me, I finally learned that there are some limits in decorating birthday cakes. Scyscrapers are to be avoided in the future but I had thought that a long rectangle with "supers" scaling it would be easier than a "super" himself. Well, after decorating an 8 story/layer cake tower I learned it wasn't such a great idea. Overnight the building came tumbling down, decorating my kitchen in grey frosting. Before the birthday boy saw the demolition, I wisked it away to the freezer and salvaged it horizontally for the party that afternoon. He was happy, I was wiser. Whew!


Getting into the superhero theme, my kids all got dressed up for the party and here they are displaying their powers. Boo backed out at the last moment but had been "Ballerina Girl" before the party. Unlike last year, Spiderman seemed very at ease with all the attention and revelled in every bit of it.

The highlight of the party was our "evil villain hunt." I had explained to the kids that we needed them to patrol the grounds for evil villains and we armed them with "plasma bombs" (AKA water balloons). I told them four were hiding in the trees and one was loose in the backyard. As they pelted the bad guy faces in the trees, they moved to the backyard and all of the sudden "the Joker" appeared armed with a super soaker. The boys were in hysterics as they chased my man, I mean the Joker, around the backyard pelting him with water balloons. I only wish I had it on video! I was informed later that I had armed him with a faulty Super Soaker and the battle was truly one-sided. What a good Dad!
Can you see the grin on the birthday boys' face? The joker was definitely outnumbered.

God is so good!

This was the big week for Kinsman Redeemer. We held our first ever Community Informational Meeting on ways to be involved in orphan ministry. Though it was only weeks in the making, it felt like months! :) The day finally arrived but it was not without much warfare and trouble. The day before the event, my man erupted in a major allergic reation to a sulpha drug. It was a real doozie and resulted in a trip to the doctor. The next morning he was actually worse with fever, chills, aching and shaking violently. The head to toe rash was getting worse and we ended up back at the doctor. He wanted to admit my man into the hospital and as we got to the parking lot, the battery in our van was dead. After getting a jump start, dropping my man off at the front door of the hospital ("bye honey, you're on your own"), going to get a new battery installed, then back to the hospital, we finally saw Daddy resting comfortably in his much too short hospital bed. The kids were real troopers throughout all of this but there was some real concern on their part as to just how serious this was for Daddy. Spiderman seemed especially concerned that Daddy's life was in jeopardy, a reminder to me of just how many fears this little guy must carry with him still.

Anyway, we spent a hour or so with my man before we had to leave, grab dinner from a drive-thru, run home to change and close up the house we had abandoned earlier that day. For the first time since we had our chickens, they would NOT come back to the hen house for us and we finally had to leave them roaming so we wouldn't be too late for the Big Meeting. You might imagine by now just how stressed I was feeling from the day's events and I don't say this to complain. As we set up the tables and information while people were arriving early, I had no idea what I was going to say to the crowd now that my "behind-the-scenes" role had evaporated. (My man was supposed to MC the event and now it fell to me) I pulled my friend Lori aside for a quick prayer and told God that I was counting on His words to come out of my mouth as I had nothing prepared. I begged God that everything said would bring glory to Him. He answered mightily.


Here I am introducing the last part of the evening, our parent panel made up of foster and adoptive parents. I still look back and marvel at the evening. I don't enjoy public speaking at all and yet, once I stepped up to the podium I felt a complete sense of peace. I was able to speak from the heart, make sense (so I've been told), and connect things to scripture as I introduced speakers and fielded questions. God's Presence was so vivid for me and afterward, one man even told me that he noticed I didn't read from a script and my heart felt words had challenged him deeply. He and his wife are considering adoption. The other board members also had similar encouraging conversations and opportunities. We know of at least 5 families who communicated to us that they are looking into foster care or adoption and we are rejoicing for whatever small part we can play in that process.

Here are the kids with Daddy earlier in the afternoon. The other amazing thing that night was that these 4 children did so well being self contained and not requiring "Mommy" in the midst of the chaos for the 3 hours we were at the meeting. Afterward, we went back to the hospital to "tuck Daddy in" and then home. It was about 9:30 pm and I went to lock up the chickens when I saw that they never returned! This was the last straw for me. Since the chicks were "devoured" two weeks ago, and this had never happened before - I was at the end of my strength for the day. I know it sounds silly now but I prayed so much for those 5 silly hens that night, I begged God to protect them from whatever predators were lurking around. I just knew the kids (OK and me) couldn't handle losing all of our chickens, on this day especially. It was just too much. I cried my eyes out thanking Him for the meeting and asking for my man's healing but I knew it was life and death for the hens that night. What a huge relief to go out early and find them clucking around the coop, trying to get in for breakfast. You can call it luck but I know my God had a guardian angel on those stupid birds that night! The kids were so relieved.

Life is back to normal now. Daddy's out of the hospital and finally symptom free. Here he is "watching" football with Goose (gotta love it!) The big meeting is over (though the good feedback of God's working in hearts is still coming in) and I get to go back to regular "Mom duty" as I prepare for a birthday party this next weekend. Just had to share how God is so much bigger than circumstances and how thankful I am that I can trust him to carry me through the trying times.

She's a killer...

OK, for all of you who are anti hunting or PETA cardholders, please skip this post. Remember, we are country folks.


Can you see the pride on this little girl's face? Last weekend she chose to go squirrel hunting with Daddy and at the last minute said she wanted to try and shoot one (usually the kids choose to just go watch Dad try). As I've been told, Goose was sitting on Daddy's lap cuddling in the woods when he spotted a squirrel. She quickly took aim and shot it but her gun shifted and kicked her arm. She started to cry and my man said, "you shot it Goose!" She thrust her arms into the air in triumph and in her tears said, "it's just what I always dreamed it would be!" This was her first ever hunting kill and Daddy was beaming! (you can see he got one too) It's obvious to me who she gets this from and it is NOT me.

As is typical during hunting seasons around here, everyone lined up to get in on the achievement. Boo LOVED holding Daddy's squirrel and practically cuddled it like a babydoll (???) Spiderman shocked me by actually tasting the squirrel meat (which my man is required to cook) and asking for more! Amazing.

The ironic twist in all of this is that our beloved 4 chicks were apparently "hunted" by some sort of predator yesterday. When the kids heard that we found one of the bodies (confirming they had not just run away), the sobbing and screaming was intense in the same kids that were so excited to handle the squirrels. They obviously feel the big difference between wildlife and pets and as much as they handled these chicks,they truly were pets. The hens are still here, being much wiserbut it sure isn't the same to the kids. It's hard to see them so worked up.

On a better note, this is what the boys have spent their week doing. They saved up to buy these gliders and have put them through the ringer (and the trees) this week. Sounds like a great investment huh?

Back to School!

Here we are on our first day of the 2008 school year. Our "academy" has a pre-schooler, two 2nd Graders and a 3rd Grader. The kids were so excited to start school on Tuesday that they were READY by 7 am and congregating on my bed trying to get me in gear. :) Though it doesn't feel routine yet, it does feel good to be getting back into a scheduled day again and I'm thankful to have a weekend....TGIF!

This is Boo last night as she helped me pick grapes off their stems. With all the rain we've had this year in the mid-west, we have a ton of concord grapes from our one vine this year. We made our first ever Grape Jelly and there is some grape juice underway. Don't worry, there were no naked feet involved in the squishing of our grapes.

Today we took the afternoon (and a little buddy) to a semi-local apple orchard. I heard they had honeycrisp apples and I HAD to have a fix! Admittedly, things you love and build up in your mind don't always live up to their expectations. :) Of course we wanted to pick our own and as I helped the kids take turns with the apple pole, the others seemed to be picking apples from other trees (and even from the ground). When all was said and done, the kids had a blast and we have a half bushel of apples that are approx. 50-60% honeycrisp. :) You gotta love kids!