Brief Update

Wow! I can't believe almost a month has past since I blogged on this sight. Nothing of great significance has happened in that space of time, but life has been full and I nearly lost track of time. I will try to be more consistent in the future. As spring and summer come with the busyness of a garden and chickens, hopefully I will have more pictures and events to relate.

Right now school is moving in its regular routine. Jonathon is doing well at college and Daddy is busy with his job.

Our Bible Memory Group at church started up again in January and we are already half way through with our memory books. It has gone so fast, I can hardly believe that we are nearly done.

Bear is getting bigger and more in need of daily exercise. He is being a little more responsive to commands as well, so hopefully we are making progress in the training issue. Our kitty Cinnamon continues to be a superb mouser. She has taken to country life amazingly well.

At the present moment (today) we have split up into groups and set to work on a variety of projects. Leisel and Daddy are working on roughing up the cellar floor preparatory to covering it with an epoxy coating, Lynnae and Mommy are attempting to straighten out our garage (the one place that has not been in order since our move), and Jonathon and I have been hanging shades on various windows around our house.

I will try to do another post soon. Pictures are woefully lacking on this post so congratulations if you have read it this far. :-) I will try to make it more interesting next time. I just wanted to give a brief update so that all of you did not think that I had dropped off the face of the earth. I've just been temporarily distracted by the mundane tasks of daily life in our house, tasks which I wouldn't trade for anything.

Mud, Manure, and Memorabilia

I think that I am quickly becoming accustomed to life in the country. Perhaps I am enjoying it a little too much right now. I am waiting for hard reality to hit, yet all I feel is the growing enchantment and freedom of country life. Everything is more beautiful in the country. The air is fresher, the grass greener, and the scenes more breathtaking. That is my very humble and undecided opinion.

After settling into the house, our thoughts begin to turn to the outdoors and the plans for next years garden. Finally, we decided that it was time to do something about our garden space. Jonathon looked on Craigslist and found someone that was getting rid of horse manure for free. Horse manure is not the best, I know, but you can't beat free and we needed to get our garden covered. So yesterday, Jonathon, Daddy, and I drove out to Battleground and shoveled manure into the back of Daddy's pick-up.

Daddy's truck has been officially initiated into country life now. Daddy's one compromise was to put a lining of plastic all over his truck bed before we shoveled the manure in. I am sure that farmers would laugh at us, but I think it will not be long before even the plastic is gone and Daddy resigns his truck to life on a farm.





The soil is frozen and so it was hard to work. It thawed out a little yesterday, but not enough to hoe the entire garden. I think we will have to cover the garden with compost and then wait until spring to use a rototiller.

After two weeks in the country, Daddy and Mommy realized that mud boots were a necessity. So we took a family trip down to Wilcos and bought boots for everyone. We just got black PVC boots, not pretty, but functional. Ania, however, got beautiful, red ladybug mud boots. She definitely looks like a classy farm girl.

The day that we got the boots, Austin, Annalise, and Ania went outdoors to play. When they came to the door an hour or so later, they were covered in mud. We discovered that they had made a mud puddle outdoors with the hose and spent the last half hour or so in jumping into the mud puddle. When questioned as to their reason for making such a mess, Austin replied with some surprise, "That's what the mud boots are for." You just can't argue with that logic.

Later in the day, they further complicated matters by deciding to give Bear (our dog) a bath in the garage with the hose. The results were less than satisfactory.

Grandpa and Grandma both came up for Christmas and we had a wonderful time with them. Grandpa even got caught up into the farming life (or at least pretended to). ;-)

We decided that in order to really become farmers we had to have a fire in our fireplace every once in a while. So we eased ourselves into the wood buying industry by purchasing a half cord of wood. We wheeled it back to the porch and stacked it neatly outside of our back door. The fireplace is not designed to be a great source of heat, but at least it looks pretty with the flames dancing inside.

As for the children, they couldn't be happier. They are spending more time outside during the winter then they ever did during the summertime at our old home. They are thriving in the fresh air and wide open spaces. This will be a very pleasant place for them to grow up. They are going to have to learn to take responsibility and pull their own weight, as there is going to be a lot that needs to be done as we busy ourselves with gardening and animals, but I think that it will be very good for them.

I am very grateful that God brought us here. It is definitely worth all the months of doubt and uncertainty that preceded our move here. It is easy to know intellectually that God has a plan for our lives which He is working out, but when the unknown stretches before you, it is hard to trust that His plan is perfect. So often we want to jump in and orchestrate things ourselves. Yet, in His mercy, God gently leads us, keeps us from making great errors, and lets us struggle with our own headstrong desires to take the lead before gently bringing us to the place where He wants us to be.

White, feathery flakes have just begun to fall from the sky. It is the first snow of winter here. Can it get any better than this?

Spafford Relocation

Where do I begin? That is the question with which I am wrestling as I sit down to write a post. Occasionally I am at a loss for material to make up a post, but so much has happened in the last few weeks that I am at a loss as to where to begin. I have a folder with 239 pictures and I must pick through them to decide what would be the best ones to put on this post.

Well, I guess the beginning is a very good place to start. So...we first saw the home late on Thursday night, Dec. 3. This was the first time that all of us children, except for Jonathon, got to see the home. Exclamations of wonder and delight comprised most of the noise during the first tour of the house. It surpassed our expectations. We spent the first night in sleeping bags on the Bonus Room floor.

When I woke up in the morning, I walked over to the window sill where I had left my glasses and put them on. This is the scene that lay before me, framed in the window like a picture. All I could do was let out a deep breath and wonder at the fact that this was our home. After nearly two years of uncertainty, God had led us here.

The photos don't do it justice.

These are the scenes from the back of the house. We have two chickens which came along with the house and we hope to add to their number come spring.

And the view from the right side of our home. There is not an ugly view anywhere. Everywhere that you look, you are surrounded by the beauties of God's creation with very little man made creations to mar their splendor.










Well...we enjoyed a morning in our great empty home and then the boxes began to move in and take up their own little spaces, demanding to be emptied. The task seemed nearly overwhelming, but the reward of being settled in our own dear home spurred us on.






We were blessed with many helpers during the moving process. On Friday Pastor Will came over and helped Daddy move two whole storage units (which have held a portion of our belongings for 18 months now) as well as an entire moving truck load of things from our rental home. They got a good head start on the move. Then on Saturday a large group from our church came over and helped us move everything else into our home. What a blessing!

The Entire Work Crew!



For the first week we have enjoyed blue skies and a very icy cold snap. In fact, it was so cold that our little waterfall in the front yard froze over completely.

During the 11 days since we began our move, we have entirely unpacked, sorted, and set up everything from our old home and the two storage units. The only boxes left are book boxes (we are in the process of having library shelves built) and garage boxes. We have made multiple trips to the dump and Goodwill and are completely settled in except for our pictures, which we have yet to hang on the walls. Christmas decorating is completely done and today we did Christmas baking for our neighbors.

This has probably been the busiest 11 days of my entire life. There is a satisfying sense of accomplishment, however, and an overpowering realization of the goodness of the Lord throughout this entire process. All the the glory must go to Him. He has led, strengthened, and sustained us during all these days of uncertainty.

In the midst of this whole process, Daddy and Mommy bought us a dog. This is the first time in my entire life that we have ever owned any pet, except for the three goldfish that I had for a brief time when I was very little before they promptly died.

Anyway on Sunday afternoon, Daddy and Mommy took us to the home of a lady who was selling several puppies and bought us a dog. He is a beautiful little black lab the product of a father who is a golden English lab and his mother a chocolate lab. Go figure! He is the sweetest, most cuddly little puppy I have ever seen; with eyes like a Precious Moments dog. We named him Bear. For now he is Little Bear, although, judging from the size of his paws, he shows great promise of being Big Bear soon.

As you can see, much has happened in the last month. I told Mommy that she and Daddy can never top these Christmas gifts: a new house and a dog. God is very good and has been very faithful.

New E-mail Address

We are all in one place now, but the unpacking and settling in continues. There is so much to do! Leisel suggested that we take some of the boxes and just burn them because evidently some of the boxes we have happily lived without for 18 months and if we burned them we would not even know what the contents were so they would never be missed. Not a bad idea. You don't realize how much stuff you have until you move. It just seems to collect everywhere.

Anyway, I am still going to do a real post complete with pictures and everything, but until then, I am going to be busy unpacking yet more boxes. :-)

Because of our move, all of our e-mail addresses have changed. So I decided that instead of writing an e-mail to everyone I could possibly think of who had my wrong e-mail address, I would just post my e-mail address on my blog and hope that most of the people that need my new address will see it here. So my new e-mail is charae.e@gmail.com.

I will be back...if I don't get buried under a load of boxes first. :-D

Pre-Relocation Ramble

Well, Thanksgiving is over and the Christmas season is upon us. Yet before we can sit back, relax, and enjoy the holidays, we have a major move into a new home, our final destination. I am looking forward with great excitement to the move. I know it will be a lot of work, but I think that we can have a lot of fun in the process.

I went down to Grandpa and Grandma's a few days before the rest of my family came down for Thanksgiving and, while I was gone, Leisel and Lynnae packed up everything that we can possibly spare in the next week. When I got home boxes lined our already narrow hallway. To walk down it you practically have to pin your elbows to your side and shuffle down the narrow walkway (well, not exactly, but you definitely can't walk with arms outstretched either :-). Today, Cosette and I worked on packing up 8-9 more boxes including our quilts. Mommy is washing all of the sheets and we are going to sleep in sleeping bags this week. Today I also made three meals ahead so that we could pack our cooking supplies and we would not have to worry about dinners in the last minute rush.

We sign the papers on Thursday and then we will be owners of a new house. It will feel so nice to finally be home. On Friday we plan on moving all of the boxes out of our two storage units and then on Saturday will be our big move, Lord willing.

I will probably take a break from my blog for about a week to a week and a half. We're going to be busy with packing up, moving, and unpacking again. Besides the internet will probably be down by Thursday and it may take a couple days for Daddy to set a new one up (although, knowing Daddy, that is probably the first thing that he will do). I will try to do a post on our move and new house as soon as possible, though.

The Scent of Christmas

Within three weeks, we will be moving. We hope is to be completely settled in by Christmas time. Our thoughts are already wandering ahead to all of the Christmas baking that we will be doing. Yes, and we should be organizing an exercise schedule to go along with it so that the Christmas season does not follow us on our hips all year long.

Yesterday I made some Cardamom Bread with Cardamom butter. The golden braid made me think of Christmas baking and inspired the post today. I think I'm in the Christmas mode now.

We each had a couple slices after dinner along with Lynnae's Arabic Coffee. If you have never had Arabic coffee before, it is definitely something you must try. It's aroma alone is enough to cause your mouth to water. I have decided to post Lynnae's recipe (with Lynnae's permission).

1 pint water

3 TBLS ground coffee

3 TBS sugar

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cardamom

1 tsp vanilla extract

Heat all ingredients in a saucepan until foam starts to form on top. Serve immediately.

The recipe for cardamom bread can also be found at: http://http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Cardamom-Braid

The recipe for the bread is one that my Nana makes. She is one of the best bread makers I know and the one who inspired me to try making homemade bread on my own. Mommy still remembers coming home to the smell of Nana's homemade bread. This recipe is unbeatable (if you like cardamom, which is its dominant flavor).

Christmas time is around the corner once again and with it come the pleasant sights, sounds, and smells that accompany it every year. There is something special about the Christmas season that seems to pervade the air, influencing moods, creating delightful nostalgia. Perhaps it's the timelessness of the season that creates such an aura about Christmas. The same delightful expectation that exists in the traditional movies that we watch every year from A Christmas Carol in the 19th century to It's a Wonderful Life in the 20th century down to our present day in the 21st century. There are some things about the holiday that never change.

Yet there is an element of Christmas cheer that is sad also. It is the transitory nature of the season, the empty holiday joy. Few of those that browse through the stores hung with tinsel and decorated with glass balls, hearing the familiar Christmas carols and picking out gifts for the season, give a thought to the true joy behind the holiday. Christmas comes and with it the holiday whirl of excitement, family fellowship, Christmas trees, and presents, yet it passes leaving those it finds as empty as they were at first. Yet for those of us who know Christ, the Christmas season is a special time set aside to celebrate what give us joy throughout the entire year: the birth of our Saviour.

Pre-Thanksgiving Banquet

This past Sunday some dear friends from our church had us over in the afternoon for a Thanksgiving dinner. You would have to know the Bystroms to even begin to imagine the scale and enormity of the feast they prepared. I believe Lynnae counted at least 10 courses that came out of their kitchen, each one fit for a kingly banquet.

After we had eaten (more than our fill) we let our food settle a little and then gathered around the living room for a time of hymn singing. Favorite hymns were requested and we spent a blessed time in singing hymns of praise to our great God.

Sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Bystrom, I know you don't like your picture taken, but you both looked so cute in this picture that I just couldn't resist posting it on my blog.

Chris spent most of the afternoon with one or more of the little ones on his lap. For some reason all three of the younger ones seem to gravitate toward him; I don't know what they are going to do when he goes back to Boston to finish up school. I think he is going to leave a lot of weeping people behind. We are so much enjoying the time we get to spend with our cousin.

Ania is an avid reader and, since she has not quite mastered the art of it herself, she is always eager to find some one who will do it for her. I have a feeling she will be reading Dickens by the time she is 7. :-)

In the evening we went back to church for the evening service and heard a great message on Revelation 10. It was the perfect ending to a wonderful day.