We spent Nan’s birthday with her on Wednesday at the Strong Museum of Play.
I have lots of photos, but my computer is acting so cranky. 

You can see we had lots of fun.
Then we picked up Nene on the way home and  enjoyed tacos and cake!  YUM.

^{Last Sunday we celebrated John’s parents’ birthdays. 
Poppy’s birthday was 10/19 and Ba’s is 10/30.
They also have an October anniversary.}

^{We don’t usually get to all get together to celebrate, but this year John’s brother’s
family and his sister’s family were able to join us for dinner.  It was a nice afternoon.}

^{We also learned of our niece Katelyn’s engagement to Joe. 
We are looking forward to their April wedding! 
This good news is in addition to the wedding of our niece
Rachael to Chuck in August!  Yay 2012!}

John had to get some personal belongings out of our car and I asked him to take the camera with him.

I shared these photos with some friends last night and one said, “If that had been a few feet back that would have been right into you. Then you might have been hurt. Those situations are what let you know God is watching over you.”  I am grateful for her words.  I confess when I saw the photos I was just dissecting the damage, not assessing the grace.  They told us yesterday they are writing off the car and I was trying to evaluate why they couldn’t fix it, and why it couldn’t be preserved.  My friend looked and saw that I was preserved.  Thanks, TB. 

Psalm 40:11 – Do not withhold your mercy from me, LORD; may your love and faithfulness always protect me.

 

God answered one of my prayers this week.  Wednesday night, through streams of tears not reserved for this storm, I did UNABASHEDLY ask God to bless us ABUNDANTLY if it was His will.  We found out yesterday that the amount they are going to give us for this vehicle will be a substantial amount and go a long way toward the purchase of a new car. 

Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

We are now praying that God leads us to the “new” vehicle He has planned for our family.  I can’t wait to see what He has in store. 

How do bats help pollinate the saguaro cactuses of the deserts?

Like this!

We traced the edge of the cup onto a coffee filter

And cut it out [to be petals]

We made a circle of honey and cut straws shorter than
the cups [to make the pollen stick and to mimic the proboscises of the bats]

We coated the rims with honey [to stick the pollen to]

And then dipped them in sugar [the pollen]

And poured a small amount of root beer in the bottom of the cups [to mimic nectar]

Then we pulled on our coffee filters [to be petals]

And used our straws [proboscises] to drink out the pop [nectar]

The kids [bats] really had to smush their faces into the
rims of the cups [cactuses] to enjoy the pop [nectar]

This resulted in sugary [polleny] faces

and if they moved on to their neighbor’s cup [cactus] they would
have left behind remnants of sugar [pollen]
and helped to make new flowers!  I mean cups!

I did not think of this myself – all the credit goes
to Carrie Austin at Heart of Dakota Publishing.

 

DO TRY THIS AT HOME!
Even Tabitha got in on the experiment.  As the big 3 were writing
up their labs, she did as well and proudly brought it to me. 
These are DEFINITELY the days where homeschooling as a family is so special!

We were bats, not birds, but you get the idea.
[click the photos to go to the photographers’ credits.]

HERE WE ARE!

I did not plan to start my day out so differently than usual.
But it did just the same!

I was enjoying my quiet morning drive into work, listening to music on the Family Life Network and daydreaming.

And then I hit the deer.  Or rather, the deer hit me. 

The poor beast ran right into my front quarter panel.  I just have this vivid image of a deer face right in front of mine.  The poor, dumb thing.

I confess that my immediate angst was related to the cost of losing a car.  While it may only be worth a few thousand to an insurance company it is worth volumes to us.   I reached into my work bag only half expecting to find my Tracfone.  It is rarely with me and even more rarely charged.  It WAS there and the battery status revealed one out of three bars.  I quickly called John.  Then I quickly called work.  Then I thought about calling 911. 

I am here to say that the Brighton Fire Chief’s car was there in about two minutes.  Oddly, he parked at the bottom of the ramp near the bridge I was parked on [490 west over 31F] and climbed UP the steep embankment.  All I could think of when I saw them coming up was, “I bet there are snakes in there!!”

The Monroe County Sheriff’s Deputy arrived about three minutes later.  I guess I should not be surprised that he knew exactly what he was doing and made everything as smooth as can be.  But still, I was pretty impressed with how smoothly everything is dealt with after an accident like that.

As I sat in the car waiting for John to show up and while the deputy did his paper work I started to tear up and get a little upset.   We do not need the stress of a broken car.  But thankfully, I switched gears and recognized the blessings. I was alive!!! The air bag did not go off!!! The windshield did not break!!! And like the widow’s oil my cell phone stayed alive for all three necessary calls! That last one may not impress others, but I am just amazed by that.  Oh, and the fact that I even HAD the cell phone with me?  That is huge!  THANK YOU, GOD!

After John arrived I got out of the car to assess the damage.  I had to crawl into the middle row of seats and out the slider as the front driver’s door wouldn’t open and I was too close to the shoulder to exit out the passenger side.  As we surveyed the damaged I said, “I’m going to faint.”  It was worse than I imagined from the safety of the inside of the car!  Blood and fur and the hood was mangled.  *sigh*  The poor animal. 

We headed home where I dropped John off and I got to work 65 minutes late.  God also blessed me with warm and helpful co-workers for the day.  THANK YOU, GOD!

I have no idea what is going to come of the car.  I am praying and praying that the insurance company deems it is fixable.  It is a 2003 Ford Windstar.  We own it free and clear and have since we bought it in 2006.  It is a great car!  Please pray with me.

But I was also praying to God in the car that I know He can work all things for good and He DID just that with the car-tastrophe of 2010 – click here for a reminder!

I’ll keep you posted!

Part early 40th birthday present, part because-my-other-camera-broke
I clearly have a lot to learn about it.  It is a DSLR and has more buttons than my old film SLR.
More buttons = more to either ignore or conquer.
I am still excited enough to want to conquer it…

Here are some early shots.

 

 

 

We were invited to an open house at General Motors Holdings – a/k/a Daddy’s Workhouse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We got to see all kinds of things I couldn’t possibly explain.  Well, I could try to, but I won’t.  It was cool to see where Daddy’ works and one of his coworkers took a few photos of us, safety glasses and all.

 

We were looking at some robot arms here. 

Johanna wouldn’t keep her safety glasses on. 

Despite all the cool technology, the kids favorite part was the man making balloon animals at the end of the hour long tour.  For some reason Nigel didn’t take a photo of his, but it was the same duck as Tabitha’s.  Marie loved her bunny hat and Stewart loved his penguin.  Surprisingly, they lasted a long time. 

Today was hard. 
And I will pray for encouragement. 

Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
(Hebrews 13:5)

If you do this and God so commands, you will be able to stand the strain, and all these people will go home satisfied.”
–Exodus 18:23

Brethren, let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide with God.
–1 Corinthians 7:24