I am fully expecting something encouraging to be revealed today.
LORD! Something encouraging!
BIG and ENCOURAGING!

Yes LORD yes!

I have been rather silent lately, those of you who are close to me know why.

It has come to my notice that there are many kinds of people in the world but it really, truly, boils down to two sides; Those of God and those of satan.
Even as we see how powerful the most evil person satan can use is, there is a power greater! And often it comes soft as a whisper, a gliding breeze through our lives. Often we do not even know it is there until the righteous storm clouds gather and we hear the thunder and feel the refreshing rain of grace on our faces.

LORD, you have shown me the many ways you support your people; the prayers, the emails , the love that is poured out onto us. And I thank you! You are great and glorious, you are powerful, you alone are GOD.
But LORD, isn't it time for the thunder and lightening? Isn't time to see Your awesome, overpowering glory?
Your amazing and miraculous wisdom?

In this, may Your Name be praised.

But right now LORD, we need Your strength, we need Your Breath, we need You to hold us up,we need Your peace!

Jesus! Save him and bring him home. Tomorrow,LORD. Please

Amen.Amen.Amen.

Honey Bread (My bread recipe)

Or as we call it here; Winnie-the-Pooh bread. Yum yum!

Heat oven to *375

4 1/2 cups flour
1 package or 1 heaping Tablespoon yeast
1/2 cup oatmeal
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons salt
2 cups warm water
1/4 vegetable oil
3-6 Tablespoons honey

Just dump it all in a NON-Metal bowl, I use clay, and mix it up with a wooden spoon.

I knead this recipe once or twice, it is lighter if you do it twice but just once gets enough air into it if you are too busy.

Knead and let rise an hour or two, I usually sprinkle some flour on the dough before I punch it down, that way it does not all adhere to your hand!

This will fit into two big loaf pans, two eight or nine inch round pans or you can shape it all into one lump and bake it on a pizza stone like I do.

Bake it for 40 -60 minutes, or until well browned on top and firm when you thock it.

If the dough does not rise your house is too cool and you need to put it in a slightly warm oven to rise.

sunscreen

The media, parenting advice columns and magazines as well as the American Academy of Pediatrics all assure us that if we are any good at parenting we should be applying sunscreen to our children's skin adequately if not over abundantly.
Yeah, what if your kids are allergic to most chemicals in sunscreen as well as certain titanium dioxide mixes???

Here is what we go through to apply sunscreen:
1) Decide what to wear, the more clothing the less pain.
2) Lotion all skin showing.
3) Wait for lotion to dry.
4) Apply sunscreen.
5) Hope you put enough lotion on to shield the skin from the sunscreen and enough sunscreen on to shield the lotion and skin from the harmful sun rays.

Why are we so careful you ask? Well Max, Tavis and Ziva are all prone to heat rash, especially if they are wearing plain sunscreen.
Once Tavis was wearing sunscreen and was playing outside, for some reason the sunscreen and his sweat combined into acid-like drips and everywhere the drip ran it left a trail of tiny bubbles and irritated skin, it looked like a chemical burn.

I have found that they can wear Burt's Bees sunscreen just plain but if they do not take a bath that evening their skin will get red and irritated.
There is also a sunscreen stick I get at Whole Foods called Hero that they wear on their faces but have to wash off at night.

They can wear Badger Balm sunscreen without any side effects at all.

The only problem with natural sunscreens is you have to apply, apply and re-apply. Which is better then chemical burns any day!

Yesterday we had another sunscreen episode. For some reason our eldest child decided to use the Banana Boat clear spray on the Very Special flat screen television, Daddy's one big thing he splurged on.
I spent three hours trying to get the sludge off. I tried white vinegar in water, soap and water and rubbing alcohol in water. (All things the electronics companies say NOT to use, but they do not ever say how to get sunscreen off!) It is now much better but definitely not the same.

My geranium was sprayed as well as several other things around the house, including a bed sheet of Ziva's, it was white (yes WAS) with little red roses all over it, everywhere the sunscreen hit the red colors ran into the white and I cannot remove it. This sheet was washed in warm water at least 30 times without ever having the colors run.
The brilliant red geranium has little bleached dead spots everywhere the sunscreen hit it.

And this is what we put on our skin!
Not me, not anymore, not ever!
We will be sticking to the natural ones from here on out.

I am now talking to myself on a regular basis.

Yesterday I had a horrible headache but today I feel better. I am going to clean the house today, not just the kitchen and picking up and laundry but I am going to go through our bathroom cabinets and clean out everything we do not use. It is always amazing how much stuff we accumulate. It's very refreshing to simplify.

Ziva has to have any food the boys have, and YES she knows when I try to trick her!

Speaking of Zi, I have not seen her for awhile.....

Yesterday I felt that it was Tuesday and today I am quite positive it is Thursday.
Why does time go so slowly when you do not want it to??
At least we made it through Sunday...
Mr Incredible is again away for training. We all miss him, so we are all grumpy and out for blood, although I have to curb *my* savage instinct to set a good example for the kids.

In the meantime I am getting a few things done around the house. I am (sniff) packing some of my books up because we will be listing the house soon and SOME (silly) people think a lot of book shelves make a house look cluttered up. If that were the only reason I would not be packing up! But we have decided to move ourselves this time so we are slowly going to be packing up everything.
We will be living pretty basic for the next few years. Fallon was our relaxing, spreading out place, after this Mike will be gone a lot and the savages and I will be traveling so we are not alone all the time.

I have been trying to find a photo to show my hair girl what I want done with my hair. I am ready for a change again, something funky! I have done natural for awhile and now I am going for unnatural!

The kids slept in until 6am yesterday! Woo hoo! But this morning they were all up by 520am. Boohoo.
And it is not that they are rested, every time they wake up earlier then 6 they wake up grumpy and they fight and cry and glower all day.
I am planning on taking them to the park and then going down the road to see if the pasture of about 100 mares and foals is still overflowing with horses, I am hoping they are because I have a lovely camera to use!
So I am going to tire them out and then feed them and then tire them out again and then feed them and put them to bed!
In between all the fun and playing I am going to wash bedding, wash clothing, scrub floors, clean the kitchen, make phone calls and... and... so much more! And yet the time still goes slowly.

Did I mention phone calls? I am planning a party for Independence Day, we are going to be in Idaho and I am using a lovely lady's house and yard for a barbeque! I am related to her and most of the people that I know can come are family as well but I am hoping that many of my friends that I have not seen for ages can come!

I splurged on a dress, it is so gorgeous, it is black and white but the pattern is elegant, it is very long and is a style that can be dressed up with heels and a pashmina or dressed down with bare feet! I just love it!

I made a blackberry pie for Hero's birthday, he said it was yummy and special. I always try to make his birthday special, it is so hard to buy a gift for him because he usually just buys what he needs or what he needs is to expensive for me to buy him!! But not many people get homemade pie!

Well, my couch is covered with laundry and I need to switch out loads.

I have Bestefar's eyes!


Wow! Almost the my whole gang! (left to right) ME! Jedi, Some Teacher, Angie, Rebecca, Emily!
We are only missing Anna and Hans in this photo!



Chatting it up with Bestie!


The bros.

My mom, me and Ziva

She loves berries.... she thoughts it would be lovely to wear them on her head!





(giggle) He's mine.

this is my brother;

He is in the Army, and he is in Afghanistan. I love him and I pray for him, I pray that he will find the Peace only Jesus can give him. If you think about it, pray for him too. Thanks!