Giving Thanks

Psalm 118:1 "Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for his steadfast love endures forever."

I'm always trying to focus on my children's hearts during the holidays - pointing them towards Jesus, so this year we made a "Thankful Turkey". We wrote on the feathers of our turkey the things we are thankful to God for. Scipture tells us to be always thankful, not just one day each year.

Rick Job/School Update

This is a long overdue update, since we have not updated the blog concerning Rick's Job situation since he lost his job in August... In September, Rick had another bout with Viral Meningitis & was VERY sick for 3 weeks! He recovered & Praise the Lord, his migraines have been less frequent & not as intense!!! :-)

The Hynix employees were granted TAA retraining benefits, which means that Rick has the opportunity to go to school for up to 2 years! He will be paid unemployment benefits for those 2 years & will not have to look for work. He is VERY excited about going to school & getting out of the semiconductor industry (after 17+ years).

Rick is going to retrain in the medical field to be a nurse. After weeks of researching nursing programs in Oregon & Washington, he has found ~3 schools that he is interested in. He is in a time crunch to choose a school & turn in a "retraining plan" for approval.

He asks for prayer that:
1) He will get accepted into a school
2) The paperwork from the government will process quickly
3) Continued provision while he is going to school
and simply that God's hand will guide and lead us in accordance with His plan for our family.

Jeremiah 29:11 ESV "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."

~~FALL~~

Fall is here, the crisp mornings, leaves turning colors & falling out of the trees. The garden is now finished & we're preparing for the winter here on the farm: making sure children have warm clothes & rubber boots, repairing fence, breeding animals, purchasing winter feed, butchering animals, etc

Here's some fun pics (taken by Valerie) of Noah & Caleb jumping in one of the leaf piles after they raked up the yard.

Canning 2008

Well, the canning season is officially over for our family. We canned 37 Quarts of Peaches, 13 Quarts of Pears, 72 Quarts of Applesauce, plus the salsa & tomatoes (see earlier post)!! The best part was working side-by-side with my children! Not only am I teaching them to preserve food, but it also teaches them teamwork & a good work ethic. In fact, all of the children helped with willing hearts - sometimes even arguing over who got to do what job... My children are such BLESSINGS!!

Caleb helping"scald" peaches

Kerrianna helping too...

Caleb skinning the peaches - he also did ALL the pears (25# box)!!

The Finished Product!

The apple pickers

Look at ALL those apples!!

Kerrianna helping

Noah helping

Joshua cored & skinned about 3/4 of the apples

Valerie helped with the "saucing"

The finished product

Joshua & Valerie's Birthdays

On September 28, 2008 we celebrated Joshua's 15th Birthday & Valerie's 13th Birthday. We were blessed to have a house-full of family & friends.

Valerie had a Sarah & Melody stay the night on Friday night - while Josh was at an Air-soft War. They played games, ate snacks, had a "fashion" show & slept in the trailer.

Canning Salsa & Tomatoes

Our garden did very well this year & Rick made salsa from the tomatoes, peppers, onions & jalapenos. Our pepper plants doubled in size & we actually had to stake them - after I gave them whey leftover from making cheese!!

Roasting the ingredients.

Yummo!

I also canned tomatoes - usually I hate canning tomatoes due to the time it takes, but thanks to a tip from Lindsay (http://www.passionatehomemaking.com/) I pureed them w/ the skins on & it only took ~4-1/2 hours (start to finish) to can 33 pints!

Look at the size of this Wall Walla Sweet!! It's about the size of a large grapefruit - the other onion is "normal" size.

Gleanings Summer 2008

Joshua & Valerie traveled with our church (HOFCC), to Dinuba, CA from August 23-31, 2008, to volunteer at "YWAM Gleanings for the Hungry". Here are some pictures & brief testimonies of their trip...

Their day started at 6:30 AM, they ate breakfast, had devotions & were working by 8:00AM. They had breaks & lunch, and finished working at 4:30 PM. In the evening, they had dinner, another devotional time & freetime until bedtime at 10:00 PM.

The team of 77, processed 7,660 trays of fruit which is 809,000 pounds of wet fruit, which translates to 57,560 pounds of dried fruit! Which means that the team that YOU sent to Gleanings has sent 28 tons of food to hungry people everywhere. That is more than ay HOFCC team has ever before processed in a week!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Both Joshua & Valerie were tested during their time at Gleanings thru illness, loneliness, heat, sunburn, homesickness, etc. They both enjoyed the hard work & serving. They met LOTS of new friends. But most of all, this experience helped them to grow closer to Jesus. They both cannot wait to go back!

~Worship~

~Friends~

**Fun in the pool - a much refreshing treat, since the temp was around 100 degress the whole week!!**

Fire by the road on their drive home!!