Talent...

Jordan sewed this dress for her sister Riah's birthday. Riah got a doll like this one (this one is Bekah's) and Jordan worked on making her a hand sewn dress in one week (we don't have a working sewing machine). The lace added the perfect touch to this dress. It is beautiful. Like I said...talent! (I don't say it in a bragging way, more in awe because I have NO talent. I have no ear for music and can't sew a stitch) (those are things I dream of having so I put a lot of emphasis on their importance).

The doll is from http://www.visionforum.com/. They have four dolls there (although one is not available) and they are cheaper than an American Girl Doll. If you get on their email list, they let you know of clearance sales and specials. I got Riah's doll almost half off the price online and Bekah's was 10% off when you buy two dolls. They will be a keepsake as Jordan and Emily got dolls similar when they were the girls ages and still like to dress them up. (I do like Jordan and Emily's dolls better because they are all hard-bodied and hard hair. I can see these dolls may not look so nice in 10 years as the hair could get ratty and the body is soft.)

Happy 6th Birthday...

to Moriah. We had a really great night! All the grandparents and my brother and family came to celebrate. I got these adorable cupcakes at Sam's Club (got home too late to make something home made). I had to go to town to get sugar and some other supplies and then ran late so didn't need the sugar anyway! Jordan and I had a good time in town together. She needed a coat and we found one clearanced out at Sears and she likes it a whole lot, plus she got a hair cut. The lady checked when the last time Jordan was there, January 2009. I just can't believe it's been that long. She had to take off 4 inches to get it healthy and feels it's so short (a real laugh if you can see how long her hair is). I can get in such a panic having people over (clean freak that I am) and then they come and I didn't get to dust, vacuum or anything and everything went quite well. Relationships not perfection!

Gearing up for birthday #5 of 2010...

Riah turns 6 tomorrow! Em has a scavenger hunt planned and everyone else is scrambling to figure out what to give her. She's been asking for the last 100 days "How many days until my birthday?" Poor daddy has to be gone for a training until Thursday and will miss it. He was only a couple hours from home and texted me saying he wished he was here already. So very nice to be so loved :) Here I am looking forward to sleeping in that nice big bed all by myself with no-one who snores!!!!! If I didn't suffer from insomnia, it wouldn't bother me so much.

Since, I'm rambling, did you know ACV (apple cider vinegar) is the cure for most anything you might have? I've been going on www.earthclinic.com lately looking up home remedies for things like eczema, eye issues, yeast, etc. All of those can be cleared up with ACV. For the eye thing you actually put it in your eye and people have had immediate results. Kev's taking it for fungus right now. A couple girls are going to try it for their eczema. Isaac showed off how he can drink it without making a face. Emily tried it and ran to the sink in horror at the taste. It was funny. It's great for digestive issues and almost anything. Check out the site if interested in those things. My number #2 website is www.azurestandard.com as it goes out this Thursday. I will not buy 70 avocados at one time again, you need to try some things to find out though. We had too many bad ones. Still, we have enjoyed eating them daily! I am ordering Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar and ACV capsules for those who can't do the taste! Still spending my free-time finding answers to all those questions out there. Have a great week!

A good trip...

We made the long drive to Mankato yesterday leaving about 6:15 a.m. and getting home around 9 p.m. It is always nice to spend so much time with Kevin. He is fun and we laughed a lot. Dr. K's visit went wonderfully, as usual. He is a nice doctor with a positive attitude. Isaac's blood results showed much improvement! His hemoglobin is 11.7!! (up from 10.4 two months ago). Again his hemoglobin is higher than mine, which explains why he can run, jump and be completely obnoxious and I am in a daze much of the time :) Isaac's retic count, SED rate and platelets all show where they are supposed to be. His inflammation markers are showing no inflammation! We are coming down on the prednisone again. Please pray that blood will not come back as he tapers off. I always come away from there feeling hopeful. He also added Isaac to their prayer chain for the prednisone taper. How many doctors are praying for you to get better? In our journey for healing I haven't run across many that will even acknowledge God has anything to do with it. Praise God for our trip being successful :)

Prayer please...

Please pray for safe travels as we drive to Isaac's follow-up doctor appointment in Mankato tomorrow.
Please pray for Isaac's blood tests to show his body is continuing to improve!

We have to rent a vehicle to drive there as our van is giving us trouble. It wouldn't start yesterday when we got in to go to lessons and AWANA :( I had a bad day! There is always something going wrong it seems and it is so discouraging some days!!! Besides the van having trouble starting, it has trouble at 50 mph to 65 mph. It pulls and shakes. I continually think this is it, I can't do one more thing (don't know what I'll do about it), I can't do it anymore. Then, of course we get through it and look back and it wasn't so bad. I can usually laugh, but, lately, it is getting harder and harder to look back and laugh or find the hope of the future being any different. Then, I think, why should it get "better" for me. Sometimes people go through hard times and some of those times are harder than what I'm experiencing. Should things get "better" or should I view my circumstances differently? Should I be like Paul in the New Testament and find joy in the hard times and should I be content with that which I have? I know the right answer. I know that I have nothing to complain about really. I know that my kids are great, people are praying and caring for us, God has not left (despite it feeling like he must have sometimes), tomorrow is another day (that I too often think will only bring one more trial), Lena is the cutest baby ever, I love Jane Austen movies (just watched Persuasion (very good)), my dad (step dad) brought me flowers for Valentine's Day (I don't think he's ever done that), my husband continues being a great person (poor guy thinks I'm mad at him that the van wouldn't start because it's been giving me trouble for months, but I was really crying and couldn't talk on the phone when I called to tell him what happened so I handed the phone to Jordan), and I could keep finding the good things in life despite it being a challenge to do so at times. I'm not sure why I write all these things. Maybe to give hope to someone going through a challenge? It can be hard but there is always hope no matter how far away it seems to be. The greatest hope is eternal life with Christ Jesus:) What a glorious day that will be!

To answer the Vander Vorsts question: Jordan has been playing violin almost three years (started lessons in April of 07). Emily started then too. Emily is practicing more in a day as she is interested in trying out for symphony next year too. Jordan just started teaching two of the other children violin. Maybe we'll have our own little orchestra soon!

Last time...

Here is a picture of Jordan with Midori after her Sunday concert. Jordan's been listening to the CD she bought over and over again. It is beautiful music.

More Midori...

Jordan has had the privilege of playing Thursday, Saturday and will again today with Midori. She also has gotten to hear and play with Midori's graduate student. I went to the concert on Thursday night and when Midori played with the junior high symphony it was so beautiful to watch her play I almost cried. She played again with Jordan's senior high symphony. Jordan got her autograph!

Jordan had a Super String Day yesterday from 8 to 4. She attended several workshops on playing jazz-style, fiddle and other styles. Midori and Mone played again and taught some and Jordan had the best time. She told me the whole day before she even got the door shut on the van! Then, she had a concert last night with the adult symphony. Midori played at the concert too and will again today. Today, Jordan gets to stay and watch the whole concert. She only plays the first song with the adults and then leaves but today has a ticket to watch the rest.

Couponing...

A friend turned me on to coupon clipping. I've not done coupon clipping much before because most of the foods in the coupons we didn't eat. I usually buy bulk and not much processed food but I decided to take a look at it and see what I could do.

Here are my deals at Walgreens yesterday. Bought one pack of Huggies at $8.99, used a $2 off coupon, got $3 in Register rewards to use next time I am there. Bought 2 packages of Kotex for 2 for $6, used a coupon for $2 off 2 packages, got $3 in Register rewards for next time. Bought 4 packages of Nabisco crackers or cookies for $0.99 each, with coupons for $2 off 2 packages for 4 boxes of crackers/cookies free! (Actually made $0.02 on it) (Kevin already took one of the cookies to work. He likes these kind of things for snacks and will purchase them for too much at a convenience store.) Buy one Haagen Daaz ice cream, get one free, plus used a coupon for $1 off of two for a total of $3.79 for two. Jordan and I ate these last night for supper as we were in town for symphony practice and a concert. The register rewards of $6 are good on my next purchase at Walgreens as long as my total comes to $6. So basically the diapers were $3.99 and the Kotex were $0.50 each.

At Cashwise last night I scored pretty good. I don't usually buy sugar cereal except for birthdays but it was a good deal and I don't mind having it once in a great while so I got two boxes for $1.98 each with a coupon of buy 2 and get $1 off so they ended up $1.48 a box. I bought 2 packages of Huggies brand diapers and pull-ups at $8.98 each with a $2 off one and $3 off another in coupons I received in the mail. The sweet deal of this was if you bought two packages you got a free baby wipes, to which I had a $0.50 coupon which was doubled. They do take coupons for free products! So the diapers were really $5.98 each and free wipes. Chicken drumsticks or thighs were buy one get one free with a $0.75 off each package with a coupon on the actual package of chicken, coming to $2.24 for each package ( I normally pick these up for Isaac to eat for $6.99 a package). I got a free bag of potatoes for buying $25 of groceries. I did buy 8 lbs of bananas, a mayo, and three dry curd cottage cheese without any coupons or being on sale so that made my total savings only 35%. Two boxes of valentines for $1 each, (regular price $3.49). Plus, at Cashwise you always get a gas coupon, mine was $0.04 off a gallon and gas there was $2.48/gallon. I don't normally even try to coupon, just buy what is on my list and get out of there. I am going to give this a try though and when I am in town take a closer look at the deals available. I have to quit the sugar cereal deals because guess what we had for breakfast two days in a row, cereal! It is way too easy when we are running behind. You can check out www.valleydealseekers.com for ideas and www.coupons.com for coupons. The ladies at Valley Deal Seekers offer a class on how to do this. They both have snagged about $600 worth of grocery items for around $60 doing coupon combining, stacking, register rewards, Target gives $5 gift cards when purchasing certain items, and looking at the ads each week. After you get the hang of it, it won't be so time-consuming.

I have the greatest...

...family! The story behind the line is: the winters around here can be tough. We got stuck on our township road Saturday, Sunday and Kevin did on his way to work today. My dad even came and cleared 4 miles of township road yesterday so Kevin could go to work today and Kevin still got stuck. Well, Jordan missed symphony last night and has another practice tonight, this is her big week with a world-famous violinist Midori and if you don't attend practices you don't play at concerts and there are four concerts this week. My brother is now here clearing the driveway and township road again and my dad says he'll take her to her practice! What a huge blessing this is for us! As you can see they have the "big" machinery to do the job. It also makes really large snow hills for the kids to have fun on. Unfortunately for the kids they forget to put their sleds away before each snow clearing so there are a couple sleds under the pile of snow.

Love notes...

I Love You Steph 7-24-96

This one is on the inside lid of a cooler Kevin had before we got married, we still have it.

I LOVE YOU BUN! 5-24-05

This one is on my metal cabinet with the things I used when I taught preschool once upon a time. I used to go into it several times a day. Bun is a nickname Kev has for me that comes from Love bunny from our dating years. The yellow one next to it says "Hi Beautiful"

Mr. Blazek Loves Mrs. Blazek!

This is written on the plastic wrap to our soaked oatmeal that we had for breakfast today. The kids had a real kick out of that! :)

I have a dozen or more notes that I saved over the years. I try to date them (if Kevin didn't already) and keep them, sort of as my "happy" thoughts. I like to run into them once in awhile so I try to keep them in the original place. The crumb tray of our old toaster used to say "I love you Steph", but, I didn't see it for a long time because I didn't open the crumb tray much. One of the kids found it a long time after. We celebrated our proposal anniversary date with Chinese food from the place where Kevin proposed. They moved to a new location but my wonderful sister-in-law picked it up for me and we ate just the two of us.

February 4th, 1989

I looked back to last year's post on this day and I did write on the significance of today. I wrote the date today and it hit me that this is again the day Kevin proposed to me 21 years ago. I don't think a thing of it until I write the date. The kids want us to go out to eat Chinese since that's where he proposed so long ago. I'm pretty sure he's working a bit late and we have to drive Jordan every day this next week for symphony practice and three concerts so I'm not interested in driving somewhere tonight. So, I came up with a perfect solution; my sister-in-law works in town and she's going to pick up some Chinese food to go for us and if I have this right it is the same restaurant but different location as where Kevin proposed. I texted Kevin and said "the answer to the question is yes." "Do you know the question?" He had already thought of it! :) He thinks like me, celebrate all the anniversaries or at least recognize them.

A happier day it is too. Isaac was weighed yesterday and he is more than 20 pounds heavier than last year around this time. He still shows no blood! Praise the Lord! A really great thing to shout about is Caleb's maturing as a reader. He finished a whole section in AWANA in one night, there are 7 sections in one whole section and he worked real hard to say 8 long verses and finish all the other writing assignments for it. He really did the work on his own a little each day. I have had such a fight with him in this area. He is also reading a Hardy Boys chapter book on his own and finds it very interesting. He has struggled as a reader and I love seeing him come out of that and enjoy reading like most the rest of us.

Lunch...

Our Azure order came yesterday! Apples (40 lbs), pears (22 lbs), onions (50 lbs), carrots (50 lbs), avocados (70 count), and peanut butter (15 lbs)! For our family this is a time saver. My grocery cart is simple during the week; lettuce, bananas, spinach, hamburger, and a few other things. When Azure comes we feast for about a month on some tasty fruits and veggies, cheeses and more.

Today, lunch is partly Azure; half of an apple (looks like more than half, doesn't it?), peanut butter with only salt added bought in a 15 pound pail (no hydrogenated stuff or sugar and tastes just as good, according to my kids), avocados (only 2 kids don't like them and I got 70 of them for almost 1/2 the price of the grocery store and anytime I said Isaac was eating avocados to a doctor they "oohed" a little so you know they are good because they didn't get excited about much), home made bread made partly with home ground wheat with egg salad made with a bit of mayo mixed with home made yogurt and a bit of chopped onion for those who liked. I may have wrote the trick about yogurt that I learned from Karma before. It makes the mayo go a bit further and the kids can't taste the difference. I can't taste the difference and that's a big deal.

One meal down and many more to go :) I have supper figured out though: Chicken and rice soup made with home made chicken stock, left-over rice, left-over chicken, some of the carrots we just got with soaked grain bread where I soaked the wheat 24 hours in yogurt. I hope it turns out. I'm about to go work on it.

Check out Azure for a delivery site near you. The apples and pears last us all month. The pears were $19 for 22 pounds. The Brae burn apples were $18.80 for 20 pounds and Fuji apples were $19.60 for 20 pounds. As you can see it is much cheaper than the grocery stores prices when they are on sale.