Long Time No See

Last week I had some very special company at my house. My roommate from college, Marta. She and I met through her first roommate our freshman year (who I went to highschool with). Heather left college after one semester and I moved in with Marta. We pretty much lived together all throughout school except for the last year and a half, although we were still good friends. It was a very short visit but seeing how she lives in Anchorage, AK and the last time I saw her was almost 12 years ago - briefly - at my wedding, I'll take whatever I can get! It was really a great time. She was in CO visiting her brother and sister who, thankfully, live on the front range. She took 2 days away from her visit with family to drive all the way down here with her 3 boys and her 10 yr old niece to come and hang with the Palmers. It was so wonderful!

Jack holding Silas. He adores babies.So do I for that matter. Isn't he so sweet? And I totally dig his awesome faux-hawk!She got in around 4 on Tuesday. Our kids hit it off immediately. Her boys are 6, 4 and 3 months. So for a little less than 24 hours we had kids ages 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10 and 3 months running around (well except the 3 month old of course...). It was a crazy fun circus in our little house! Their favorite thing to do was play dress up and lock each other up in Mishka's kennel.

Diego (6), Kale (7), Jack (3), Kate (5), Mercedes (10)Their second favorite thing to do was play Transformers.
Xavier (4)On Wednesday we drove downtown to show Marta how much D-town has changed in 12 years. We had lunch then headed for a quick visit to the Children's Museum before they had to head out on the road back to Pueblo. All my pictures are slightly blurry. Seriously they ran everywhere in that place!

Kate and Diego
Everyone was there but there weren't any other good pictures.

We had a really wonderful time. Our conversations went like most of mine do with kids running around. We started on a topic, got interrupted then forgot what we were just talking about so we start a new topic. We cover a lot of ground just not real in-depth :)

Now I just gotta figure out how to get my family up to AK to see them again before another 12 years go by!

Introducing...

...our newest family member

Mishka (meesh-ka)
-apparently it means teddy bear in Russian-
This handsome Golden Retriever joined our family on Monday. He's 5 years old and a big, sweet teddy bear--which is good for this family. We weren't interested in another over-the-top-full-of-energy dog. Don't get me wrong, we loved our other dogs, we just didn't do as well with them as we would've liked.

We weren't actually in the market to get another dog. We kinda figured we'd wait a long time. So it wasn't on our radar. Then my friend Sharon texted and asked if I might be interested in taking her new roommate's dog. Their new landlord would only allow the 6 dogs she already has (I know insane! But she breeds them so she's got lots!) and so they have been hunting for new homes. She advertised him to me as a mellow, trained, 5 year old Golden. I asked if he was for real :)

I brought it up to Mark, not really even sure how I felt about it. He said he'd love to meet the dog just to see. Both of us agreed that if his personality didn't fit what we wanted then we'd say no.

But then we met him and Kale fell in love with him.

And well so did Mark.

Kale, of course, promised us the moon if we'd get him. "I'll walk him and feed him and brush him and pick up his poop!"

Hmmm...we'll see. I know all 7 year olds who are desperate for a dog aren't the best truth tellers :) So far he's been a huge help and I intend to hold him to his promises.

Kate, on the other hand, asked me the other day why pets can't take care of themselves and why we have to take care of them. I laughed as she was saying this because, of course, she was talking about my life as a mom...I explained to her that they are like children, you have to help feed and take care of them because they're part of the family and you love them.

Mishka is quite big (about 85#). He comes up to Jack's nose and to Kate's shoulders. Needless to say they were a bit terrified of him at first. The last few days, however, we've seen how calm he really is and they are relaxing. He doesn't move when the kids yell and run around. He just follows me around and lays on the floor wherever I am. He's like a really big cat and I'm thankful for that.

We discovered today that he is allergic to the food we got him. So we had to take him to the vet already and now we've got to get him the good food. He's ok though and as soon as the other stuff is out of his system he'll be back to his normal lazy self :)

We're excited to take him hiking with us. Hopefully he'll have energy to do that! Our cat, Obi, is non too thrilled with us but he's gotten used to 2 other dogs. He'll get used to Mishka.

I can't believe we got a dog!

Fun on Friday - 25 {Anasazi Heritage Center}

Last Friday (I know...I'm playing catch up again) we combined FF with a homeschool field trip to the Anasazi Heritage Center. I have to admit that I was really wondering if this was in fact going to be fun. I mean a heritage center with kids?

But, as it turns out, the kids had a fabulous time! All I could picture was ancient artifacts that the kids would want to man-handle and museum staff giving us dirty looks wondering why we can't control our children. Thankfully the staff at the museum was wonderful.

They actually had a woman give us a tour and teach us and it was fabulous. She said that they normally do field trips for 4th and 5th graders so it was different and fun doing it for kids aged 18mo-7yrs. She also said our kids were well behaved and fun, much to the relief of the parents!

They certainly asked a lot of questions and told the nice lady many things that she probably didn't need or want to hear. Like how Kale was drawing a picture of a dead volcano (which had absolutely nothing to do with what she was teaching us).

Here are some of the pictures of the fun things they got to do at the AHC:

Our little class of homeschooled kids. We just told them to line up but they almost did it in perfect order from tallest to shortest.
Anna, Kale, Madison, Benen, Kate, Violet and Jack.
We stood where a kiva used to be and the guide showed us a model of one and explained what they were used for. The kids were totally interested.They showed us a short video on respecting the ruins. I totally understood the need for the video and respect the message, however, at one point they told us to take nothing and leave only our spirits. Hmmm. I told Mark I was taking my spirit with me thankyouverymuch.

They had a whole section that was very kid friendly and hands on. They got to inspect things under microscopes,grind corn (the guide told us that the Pueblo women would spend 5 hours a day grinding corn for their families - oh my heaven!),sort rocks and fossil-thingys,weave blankets,
listen to the telephone guide tell us about making arrowheads,and get shoulder rides from daddy when it got closer to lunchtime and we just couldn't stand still!Since we were out near Dolores we headed to the cool castle park again and introduced our buddies to it. I didn't get many pictures there since I've already shown it to you but I did get this one of Kale and Anna building their own kiva.

Today

Today I:

Slept in (sort of)

Laid in bed far too long

Brought myself cereal and coffee and ate it in bed

Played on my iPhone

Took a long, hot, quiet, peaceful shower

Rested and relaxed

Soaked in the quiet

Realized that, while I am so very thankful to my husband for taking the kids out for breakfast leaving me at home for some much needed and appreciated alone time, I miss them. There are days and moments when I dream of quiet but in reality, I love the noise. I love it because it means they're here. They are ok. They are my world.

But because they will be home soon, I'm going to enjoy my last few precious minutes of quiet.

Quiet that I need. Quiet that refreshes me. Quiet that I love.

So that when a they return I can smother them with kisses!!!!

Seasons

This week has been busy. It's been full. It's been fast. It's been normal.

Fall has come to town and it's gorgeous. Yes I know it's been fall for a while but the trees in town and around our house are fully turned now. It's breathtaking. I love it!
I love the smell, the sights, the warm days and cool nights. I love fall.
But it doesn't last long. It's a season.

So often I think of the difficult times of my life and I remind myself that it's just a season. I can do anything (read: diapers, disciplining, all the cooking and most of the cleaning, the dinner battles, the exhaustion, the waking up early, the need for babysitters everytime I want to go do something by myself, carseats, sick kids etc...) for a season. I tell myself this won't last forever. You can and will survive.
But then I'm reminded that just as the difficult stuff is fleeting, so is the good stuff -- the snuggles, the abundance of kisses and hugs, the sweet smiles, the hilarious words and conversations, the wonderful smell of newly bathed kids, their wonder and excitement about new things, their curiosity, their need for their mom...It makes me tear up to think that that will also soon be gone because it's just a season.
Every season has it's good things and it's bad things. Good moments, bad moments. But they are all a season of life. They come and go. You move on to the next season of life.

So, no matter what season of life you are in -- enjoy it. Even the difficult things. Because God works no matter what and He wastes nothing. Ever. I want to be able to look back and know that I didn't waste my time - good or bad -- with my young children. Because, from what I've heard (and actually experienced looking back at baby pictures of the kids), it goes way too quickly.

The End

Recently Mark felt God's leading to do a 40 day fast. Actually God had been preparing him for a while now, but back in July God said now.

Tuesday, September 6 was the last day Mark ate food...until today. He went 40 days drinking juice, water, broth and herbal tea. This man of mine who loves a good Texas Taco. Who drools over any kind of red meat. Who had soda every single day. Who drinks his coffee sweet! This man of mine who really loves his food went 40 days without it. A-maz-ing. To me anyways.

I'm not bragging on Mark - although I do think he's wonderfully awesome and I'm so stinking proud of him - I want to brag on God! He spoke to my husband and sustained him through meal after meal. He was enough for Mark and He has blessed Mark in ways that aren't measurable. He has led, spoken, encouraged, loved, poured himself out, and filled my husband daily for the past 6 weeks. His blessing - measured in just knowing Him - is overflowing in Mark's life! And I pray that He has gotten all the glory (and I know that Mark agrees). Without God this wouldn't have happened. Plain and simple.

It was no doubt a battle. The enemy fought hard to convince Mark that no one would know if he had a bite of the sandwich or the candy or whatever. He fought hard to convince Mark that 20 days was plenty of time for God to speak and that he didn't need to go the full 40 days. But my husband, with God's strength, fought back and won. He was obedient. And it was an amazing thing to watch. The kids cheered him on and were so proud of him. He sat with us at every meal. Went out to dinner with us a couple times when we were meeting friends. He was a warrior not just a trooper.

His first bite of food was dry toast. Not totally thrilling but we have to be careful to start out very slowly - much to Mark's chagrin. Too much too fast could cause him to get really sick. So it's toast today, maybe some salad tomorrow, then slowly add in fats, proteins, carbs...I wonder if this readjustment part will be harder than the actual fast! :)I have to share before and after photos of this event though because it is quite a visual process. He didn't want to do pictures each week as he lost weight but the before and after are still pretty amazing. He lost just shy of 30#! The weight that he is at now was what he weighed in highschool. Seriously he hasn't seen those numbers in 20 years! It'll be interesting to see how much weight is gained back in the next week when there's actual food in his gut.
















Mark Palmer - Thank you for being an example to your family. Thank you for seeking God's heart, for listening to Him and for obeying. You will never know on this earth how much you have impacted our children. Thank you for being you!

Fun on Friday - 24 {Farmington}

Fun Friday was spent in Farmington this week. Ya see, we gave away our big ginormous couches (*sniff sniff *- not because I regret it but because I really did like that couch - we just needed something that fits a bit better) and we needed to figure out how to replace them. So we decided to have fun in a furniture store!

Ok maybe it was just a FF for Mark and I. I love furniture stores. I love looking and sitting in countless couches and chairs. I love seeing kitchen tables and I love looking at bedroom sets. None of which we could actually buy but it was fun anyway.

The kids posed on several couches and chairs. Surprisingly, they had a great time. Almost too much fun if you know what I mean. Shopping is just so much more different when you invite your offspring to go with you.

None of these pictures actually show anything that we bought. Basically because we didn't buy anything. We were really there to see about pricing and size and color and style. Very enlightening!

The bottom picture of the kids is at the last store we went too. They were playing Ice Age 3 on one of their TV. Genius!

After the stores we took the kids to a park to blow off some steam. It was a gorgeous day and they had fun hanging around :)

God loves my little punkins...

You may have heard this story...if you have then enjoy it with new pictures. If you haven't, then you get to hear the same story I told my children the other night while we were carving our pumpkin that we picked up at the Farm.
















God picks us all, like a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch. He brings us in. He cleans us up and washes off the dirt.

The outside is what people see...the inside is like our soul. Our heart. A pumpkin left by itself will rot.













God is the only one who can change our hearts (no Mark is not God but he represents Him for this story :) ) if we let him in and allow Him too.






See, our insides are yucky. Full of seeds of bitterness, pride, jealousy, selfishness....



















{when I asked the kids what was inside their hearts they said meaness to their siblings...}

God scoops out all the yucky stuff inside of us.




















He removes the seeds of doubt, hate, impurity and greed.















But if we leave a pumpkin with just his insides taken out, then it's just hollow. We need to have a light inside that will truly make us alive.

Jesus said I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but have the light of life.
Jn 8:12










God loves my little punkins...

















And so do I. Even when they decide that carving a pumpkin isn't nearly as fun as drawing on one...


















He was very serious about his project.