What's been going on?

I've been receiving emails "Hey Marla where are you? Whats going on?" So, here's an update. I've been spending almost every night at the revival in Florida. Todd Bentley is a very anointed man of God http://freshfire.ca/ who went to http://ignitedchurch.com/ Lakeland, Florida on April 2 to hold a 4 day conference. He is still there, they put up a 10,000 seat tent. There are people coming from all over the world to be in the anointing of God. This is very big! The really cool thing is you can watch this every night at http://www.god.tv . This is very amazing! I am excited about what God is doing. Twice I've gotten to hear the teaching from http://citytaker.com/about how to take this message to the streets. What message is that? "The Kingdom of God is at hand." As a result of this I've been completely and totally healed of asthma. I've taken no medication for it since May 10th. The other neat thing is I've taken no anti-depressants since about May15th. If your part of the revival police I don't want to hear what you think. If you are hungry for God than please check it out.

Other things to be updated are Shakespeare camp, writing camp, Cub Scout camp, vacation and the neat story about the piece of chocolate that tormented me and the fact that the garden is doing well.

Floored

Last night we went to the award banquet for The Teen.

WOW!

She was the only one in her school who achieved a 4.0 average for the year. Also she received the Niehaus award. This is a huge honor that goes to 1 senior each year. "The Niehaus Award is given annually to a student who exemplifies the core values of the Academy." "A person whose sense of dedication to the school and to other students is unsurpassed. " The 2 quotes are from the letter that accompanied the award. It said a lot more, but I felt I needed to let The Teen decide how much I posted about it.

Her parents are very happy with her.

This is her happy 18th birthday picture.

The Prom

Saturday night was the pirates ball.

Hiding

Yes, Yes, I've been hiding out. First it was Easter, than it was my birthday, after that it was battle of the bands. Saturday night was Prom, but that gets its own post.

The Woodcarver and the Stickers

A long time ago I heard this story and it really moved me. It has stayed with me for years. I don't remember if I read it or heard it. These last few weeks God has really been doing some amazing stuff in my life. I'm so thankful for this sense of peace I've been feeling. As I've dwelt on what God has been doing I remembered this story about the woodcarver and the wooden people with stickers. One of them of them told another one that because she visited the woodcarver every day the stickers would not stick to her. She encouraged the other to go and visit the woodcarver.

Well, I've been spending more time with the woodcarver and stickers are falling off me. So I decided to try to look up the story. I was surprised to find it was written by Max Lucado. The story is about a group of wooden people called the Wemmick's and you can read it here. This is truly an amazing story! Now there is a whole series of books about this group, but I'm going to look for the book Tell Me The Secrets. It sounds like something I'd like to read with the kids.

That Was Easy!

My sewing machine is 20 years old. Here is a picture of a machine like it. So this wonderful machine is now out of warranty. Of course I had nothing to do with it, nor did Superior Threads, nor did the Organ Needle company... Anyway since I did not feel like driving across town to the sewing store, nor did I feel like paying them $70 to look at it, nor did I feel like being without it for a week I decided to be brave, open it up and try to fix it myself. I was able to do it and after only an hour of digging with a pair of tweezers I got the offending threads out. Later my dear sweet husband was so happy with me he bought me Subway for dinner. YEA! OK, fast forward to today. I turn on my machine and see a battery warning flashing. UM, OK, I've had this machine for 20 years now and I guess thats a long time for a battery to last. What to do? What to do? I walk over here, sit down and look up the machine number and battery. I'm taken to a message board from 2004 and complete directions to how to change the batteries. WOW! That was easy! I turned on the machine flipped it on its back removed the cover and put in 2 AA batteries.

What To Blog About?

Yesterday, I was at the library waiting until my littles were out of school(the library shares a parking lot with the school). I was just browsing around and I saw a book (a book with about 100 pages) about blogging. Yes, this was a book about what to blog about. Yes, this book was ideas to put on your blog. Like nothing happens here, so I need ideas? Usually, I'm just too lazy to make another post, but ideas are limitless. For instance, this morning, I woke up late, so the kids got up late. If you don't think that makes for good blog fodder, then you don't live in a house with lots of kids. Of course, since I had also gone to bed early last night, I did not make sure that every one's homework was done. So, my dear sweet boy had not read his 2 books that he had to take tests on today. Sigh, I was getting breakfast ready when he said 'Um, mom I need another book because I've already read this one,' So I meander over to the computer to look up online to see what other book I can hand him, and I see that another child has not packed up her backpack and, in fact, all her homework is spread out around the computer. Sigh! OK, I call that child to come pick up her stuff and call the boy to stir the scrambled eggs (a job he has not done recently). When I get back to the eggs, I find that he has stirred only the top layer, not the now-solidified layer on the bottom of the pan. I fix the eggs, and he starts reading, but I can't pay attention to him, because no one can find the lunch bags. It so happens that I forgot to buy lunch bags-of course no one put them on the grocery list and yesterday I went to two stores, but never mind, 'here use this bag. No, you can't wear that shirt to school. Yes, I'm sure we have more sandwiches made in the freezer go look in the downstairs freezer. I know we are out of bread on the counter, here is some from the freezer...' In comes the neighbor to ride to school with us, she sits next to the boy and he reads to her. I enjoy hearing them giggle together when they get to the funny parts of the book. The Teen in a cute pirate bandanna starts talking about how good her hair looks today. 'Um, sweetie, I can't see your hair,' The battle of the bands is next week and she is exited about it. Uh oh, now she's running late and I still want that case of water from my trunk that she did not have time to carry in yesterday. Look out, it's my day to drive the kids to school, how did I miss that? I run to the bedroom to put on some shoes and a jacket that will cover my hair, and out the door we go.

Swan Lake

I have seen Swan Lake several times. I have never seen anything like this. It is truly amazing. WOW!!! This talent is truly a gift!

Visiting Friends

We've had a really busy week here. I took some of the kiddo's to visit friends. I learned how to spin wool into yarn and my Boy learned how to milk a cow.

Happy Easter!

My Blog is 1 year old now. Thanks to all who visited me this past year.

Today is Easter. Please enjoy this picture of an Easter Lilly complements of the ASPCA who warns that this plant can be lethal to cats. Since I don't have a cat I don't think I'll worry too much about it. I'm really looking forward to this very fun and very busy week that the kiddos have off school. This is my last years Easter post.

This Easter season has been a very special one to me. If you've read my whole blog you know that last year I was saying "I'm not Catholic and WON'T be, because I am a protestant." Actually I said I was a pedestrian who carried the love of Jesus everywhere I walked (I still am). I said a lot of other things too, but we won't go there now. Last August my sweet DH and I started taking an R.C.I.A. program. We both really enjoyed it very much and found little we did not agree with. I don't feel the need to ask the Saints that have gone before me to pray for me, because I can ask people here now to do it. When I first started thinking about this it was awkward. Than I realized that if I believe that people are alive in heaven than why can't I ask them to pray for me. I still don't really feel comfortable asking Mary to pray for me either, but that doesn't affect my faith in her son. In December we were asked if we wanted to continue toward being Catholic and we both said yes. We could see what God was doing in the church and felt very comfortable there. I am so happy with the education that my children are receiving and the friends they are making. The class culminated last night in an Easter Vigil. It was a very beautiful service where we were welcomed into the church. I know that many of my protestant friends don't understand or agree with what we are doing. I can honestly say that I am not being coerced into anything and I am NOT joining the church to 'get the school discount.' Since I have been following God down this unexpected path he has poured out on us in a mighty way. I am very much enjoying the beauty that I find in the mass and I leave there going in peace to love and serve the Lord. I really have much to say about what God is doing for me through this, but I have other things I want to go do now.

Happy Easter!

The Find Of The Week!

I bought some Palm kernel oil from Columbus Foods. If you 've never seen PKO it is a very solid, solid at room temperature. Since I ordered a 7 pound bottle it came in a bottle. I did not know how I was going to get it out of the bottle to use it. After some thinking I decided to melt it down and pour it into ice cube trays, let it harden and store it in zip bags. The only problem is I needed ice cube trays. So off I go to the thrift store. I LOVE going to the thrift store. I had to go to 2 stores to find what I was looking for. Hee, hee, at the first store I found baseball shoes for my boy for $.50 and some really nice tiny correlle bowels. I like for the kids to use tiny bowls because they always take more cereal than they really will eat. The big find came at the second thrift store. I found a Krups ice cream maker for $7.50. I came home and looked them up and read that people who paid $60 for them were thrilled. YEA! The base of the machine has to be chilled for 48 hours than you pour in your ice cream mixture and wallah, home made ice cream. Tomorrow we will try it.