MERRY CHRISTMAS!

... and a happy new year!  After a huge dinner with friends on Christmas Eve, we enjoyed a cozy day at home on Christmas day.  The kids may be older but still love the excitement of Christmas.  You can see them last night (below) in their new Christmas PJ's from Aunt Susie.  Thank you for all the cards, calls and gifts we've received.  We are blessed to be surrounded by loved ones and pray God blesses you throughout the upcoming new year.

Christmas treats.

We have been soaked in sweets this month.  It started off with a cookie party where I had to bring 13 dozen cookies and I came home with 12 different varieties, a dozen each.  Unfortunately, we ate more of those than we gave away. :)  

Then Aunt Susie sent a box full of treat making supplies and you can see here the fun the kids had making decorated oreos covered in colorful almond bark.  There were also the reindeer candy canes, chocolate Christmas trees and candy necklaces that look like Christmas  lights.  So cute.  We made some of them with friends and the ones we made on our own ended up making good gifts for their other friends.

Finally, the girls each made more cookies to attend their own cookie party this past Saturday.  Of course, they only needed to make a few dozen each and the extra cookies from the party were donated to a local Christmas dinner for those in need in our community.  All in all, it's been a deliciously fun December.

It's finished!!!!!

Hard to believe but Goose finally finished her second book!  She had worked on this book for well over a year and wrote 19 chapters.  The hard part was the editing.  After so much time invested, she dreaded going back through it with me.  It's not fun to realize parts need clarification, other parts need deleting, and more need rewording.  That's when writing becomes more work than fun for her.  It doesn't help that she's already well into her next book and feels like she has "outgrown" this one BUT she stuck it out and it's finally done.  Even more fun was when she looked through her brother's and sister's artwork to pick out a cover photo.  The beautiful cover art was done by her little sister.  I'm proud to say that this title will have a place on my shelf forever. :)

Fall birthdays

Rather than make excuses again... I'll just say that we've had a fun and busy fall and I'm just now getting around to posting some photos.  Elijah turned 13 at the end of September and he celebrated like a man.  We focused on family, shared thoughts on growing up, had everyone pray for him and his future and shared some great food.  A little while later, he had some guys over for an airsoft battle in the backyard - which was great fun as always.  Here he is below with the blessing we gave him ready to display in his room.

Fast forward to early November and you see our baby turning double digits!  Amazing how quickly that has happened.  She celebrated with her buddies staying for a slumber party complete with yummy fondue (my kids never choose cake for their birthday dessert).  If you look closely you'll see her holding her Dr. Quinn DVD set.  She loves this show!   Perfect for a little girl who wants to be a nurse when she grows up.

What can I say, my kids keep growing up whether I let them or not.  Time marches on....

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

How fun to shop for our Samaritan's Purse OCC shoebox gifts this year!  We love to go to the Dollar Tree since we can get lots of bang for our bucks.  While the girls did each fill a box for a girl their age, the rest of us made them for boys, age 10-14.  Apparently that is the category that lacks the most boxes and they often have to give the older boys a girl's box.  We bought lots of extras for that age group as our church is also having a packing party on November 10th.  The best part was watching one of my blessings pull out an extra $10 of their own hard earned money to buy more gifts.

If you've never had the pleasure of packing a box for a child in need, this is the year to give it a try.  You will be blessed as you share the Good News about Christmas.

Necessary projects

In September we had to take some preventative measures to insure our basement stays dry next year.  Our driveway has a tendency of draining all the water into this little basement window (above).  Here you can see it after they removed the sidewalk (forgot a before photo) and below is the retaining wall we had removed.  It was made of old railroad ties, which had rotted out and was beginning to crumble from all the erosion.

When the Amish & Mennonite workers were done, we had this beautiful sidewalk, window well and cement retaining wall.  I can't imagine how the water can get in there now.

I also had an opportunity for patience as before the workers even left, someone's little footprints were accidentally imbedded in the corner of the new sidewalk. :)  Not a major thing in the grand scheme of life.

A fruitful harvest

We had a great garden harvest this year and take a look at these heirloom tomatoes!  Beautiful!  I've been able to put up lots of pickled foods and sauces, not to mention what we got to eat fresh.  So tahnkful for God's bounty.

Here is a shot of our garden with the heavy mulch we laid down around it.  It was wonderful not having to weed it this year and very rarely did we have to water it.  It may just be worth all that work.

Family Reunion

At the end of July, we made the long drive to Maryland to have a Murphy family reunion.  It was a full week but since I'm so far behind, I'll just share our "big gang" photos.  It was great to catch up with everyone and make some new memories.

The original Murphy gang - in all their silly glory.

The kiddos enjoying their grandparents.

Oh yes, and Boo had such a great time painting this milk house door with her Uncle Randy.  Grandma loved the end results on her property and a new relationship has bloomed between these two.

Memory Lane

This is Jen and we go way back to Junior High School.  It's fun to look back and remember all the things we've experienced together, even when we eventually moved in together as roommates.  Life gets busy and living in different states keeps us pretty far apart.  What a gift to me when she opted to drive 7 hours to meet me in CO this summer!  Bless her!

We spent two relaxing and refreshing days in Breckenridge, CO, enjoying the beauty of nature and of each others company.  We stayed in this mountaintop resort (look at the top left of the photo and you can imagine the view from our room) and it was amazing.  Most importantly was the joy we had in sharing what God has been up to in our lives and families over the years.  Two days just wasn't enough but it was SUCH a gift!

Camp Como

July has been filled with adventure.  This photo shows you just who accompanied me on the journey to Colorado, a 14 hour drive in a 15 passenger van across the plains of Kansas.  I actually had volunteered to go for just that drive, as an assistant chauffeur, and had no idea what God would have in store for me while I was there.  He worked out all the details to make me available and I just had to trust the outcome to Him.

In addition to watching 3 of my kids "encounter the mountain wilderness", I got to know some fun teens, met some wonderful college students and connected with my kids youth pastor on a deeper level.  We climbed boulders, cliffs and mountains and the finale was a 12,500 ft peak named "Little Baldy".  It was a daunting climb but I kept up with all the youngsters.  I was rewarded with this beautiful view from the top and left a little monument on the rock (above) for another explorer to find. 

Granted, my adventure blessed me in many ways (including one I'll share on my next post) but it did come at a cost to my comfort zone.  Lack of showers, sleeping on the ground in an Indian teepee (that was a struggle), outhouses,  lack of regular showers and the smell of stinky, teenager feet next to my sleeping bag each night.  Despite the "hardships", I'm so thankful I stepped out of my comfort zone, saw the world through the eyes of a teenager again, enjoyed the overwhelming beauty of God's creation, connected with people whose experiences are worlds away from my own and worshiped God Who gave me this escape.  BUT, it is good to be back at home in my bed. :)

A June full of "camping"

Our first week was church Day Camp as we all helped with a 3 day VBS at church.  The older kids filled many roles including a skit (pictured below), Boo was a camper, my man taught kids archery and I was the potter.  Lots of work but lots of fun.

The next week was Boo's turn for a 3 day survival skills camp at the Conservation Department.  The skills they learned were based on the children's book, Hatchet, and were lots of fun I'm told.  Here she is at camp with a good buddy.

During the same week, Spiderman & Goose attended Camp ER where they had hands-on science all week long, especially related to the anatomy/medical world.  They had an incredible time.

The following week was the older 3's turn to experience the same survival camp that Boo had been through. 

Top all this off with a fun visit with Aunt Laura, who rode her little scooter all the way from Chicago.  June was a blur but one filled with lots of fun opportunities.  (I don't see our summer slowing down until August)  :)

Much of May

May was a blur around the house.  The kids helped me unload a truckload of rock and did some beautiful landscaping around the house.  We built the above raised bed for our strawberry plants (the cage is to deter the bunnies and birds), one twice as large for various veggies and moved a dumptruck load of tree mulch around the property.  We're trying a Back to Eden style project on our old garden bed since the soil is such terrible clay.  As you can see below, the weather interrupted some of that as we received around 10 inches of rain in a week's time.  The neighbors newly planted corn gave us a whole new layer of topsoil, wanted or not, and our footbridge washed 30 feet downstream.  Not to mention a flooded basement through the window well and a tree toppled due to soggy ground.  What a doozy!

If life gives you flooding, go play in the mud....

Where did April go?

I can't even pretend to catch you up on the 3 months that have gone by quietly on this blog.  Life has been anything but quiet.  Here are a few shots...  Above is a poster Boo designed and won 2nd place for - earning herself a $5 prize.  Look at that pride and joy.

It became official.  Ethan is taller than I am and to celebrate, he bought me a bag of Swedish Fish, my favorites! 

The kids finished the school year and here they are with friends after a fun field day.  We're so thankful for good friends.

Sporting shots

 

I thought I'd take a minute to share some sporting photos since these opportunities have been so much fun for my kids. They go back a few months but have sat here long enough.  :)  Above is a shot of my guys on a dodgeball team.  It was only a one day tournament but they had such a great time I'm sure we'll do it again this year.

 

On a much more regular note, my kids are so thankful to have a home school basketball team to learn and practice with each week.  They all were reluctant to begin playing basketball in previous years but now that they're comfortable, they really even love to compete in the games.  The photo above and below are of the 7th & 8th grade basketball teams.  They had their games in the fall against the local Catholic school.  As we have a limited number of participating kids, we did have some younger kids help out with these teams (including Goose and Spiderman). 

 

 

 The 5th & 6th grade teams played their games in February and March.  You can see there are some similar faces in the photos below.  My kids just love to play and even Boo began learning some skills at practice and she hopes to play on the team next year.

 

This boys team had the added opportunity to play in a tournament with some small town public school teams.  It was fierce competition and they did very well.  They lost to the winning team by only one point but it did light a new fire under their feet.  I loved watching my man coach these boys and relive his own fond basketball memories.  What a great year in sports.

Goose is now 12!

 

 

Look at that smile.  This is my girl who can't wait to grow old so she is pleased as punch to turn 12.  On her birthday she opted to make her own no-bake cookie balls instead of having a birthday cake.  What a change from the years I stayed up til midnight to decorate some elaborate cake in her favorite theme.  I've seen her maturing in many other ways as well and I'm proud of the heart for Jesus and the love for life she shows me every day.

 

Knowing that age 12 is the last big sleepover party, Goose decided to have one this year.  You can see a good group of her friends up above and there was lots of laughing in the house.  I actually thought I might pass out from the fumes of all the nail polish and remover that was so popular that night.  :)  

Below you can see the dessert we attempted.  We recreated Goose's favorite vacation food memory and made fondue.  You can see an assortment of fruit and goodies that we dipped in our chocolate flavor choices.  It was absolutely delicious!!