EKjourney Backup

For some odd reason, I looked on Craig's list (probably for the 3rd time in my life) and under "Free", I found some cedar deck rails. Phil called the person who was getting rid of them but they were already gone. However, he had some cedar with metal "slats" that we could have. This is what is already existing - pressure treated with copper. Here is the cedar with aluminum. He was also giving away these two matching panels. Here is what we are going to do. The arborvidae behind the paneling will come out and the neighbors will build up their side of the property with concrete blocks and we will backfill to make a level space on our side. The panel will be the same height as the other fence (right now it is resting on a steep slope). The metal paneling fence will go the rest of the distance down to the street. Everything together is the perfect length give or take a couple of feet. We had planned on doing this anyway and now it is free except for the posts...

Grandpa Zane got Evi a little riding pony for Christmas. One of Jubilee's favortie past times as of late is to sit in front of the mirror, cock her head to one side, plaster on this goofy grin, and stare at herself.

Getting toasty on the heater Sunbeams in the playroom A handsome boy! A classic Evi look. She does a lot of closed mouth grins!

These pictures pretty much sum up Jubilee! She is quite a nut.

The Lord has really spoken the following verse from Psalms 46: Be silent, and know that I am God. I won't get into details but for a time, I really need to be silent and still before the Lord. I will be reading my Bible and praying but taking a bit of a sabbatical from some everyday and common place things in my life so that I can just listen.

We have been really enjoying the sermons of SM Davis. We got some of his sermons on CD's and I have listened to them over and over. Every time I am in the car, I am listening. I have come to look forward to driving just so I can be fed! We just ordered more and I can't wait for them to come in!!! The Lord has really been speaking to Phil and I about the environment that we create for our children. It has caused us to reevaluate and rethink many areas. For example, we are seeing a need to limit the tv and movie watching to an even greater extent than we were before. We are feeling led to fellowship as a family with other families. We have looked at family roles and how we can further create a Christ centered home. Even today, a situation arose that I felt our children were in a physically unsafe environment, one that I felt was not nurturing their well-being, one where I felt little confidence in the charge of others, and one that I felt was not serving its purpose for ...

Is it a bazooka, firewood, what??? Hmmmm, this picture could be a little disturbing. However, it is really showing Daddy and Sawyer cleaning up after a hard day of chopping ivy to expand The Deer's... er... Mommy's vegetable garden. Sweet little pink jammied girls reading library books. After disassembling the basket ball hoop, Sawyer decided he wanted to sit up high. Mommy had to help him up, he couldn't quite make it even with the help of the step-stools!

After we went to the zoo, we decided to ride the max train into downtown Portland and back......just for fun! The children loved it! Looking a little perplexed. Unfortunately, I caught this picture just after he winked! Long day for a tired baby! She enjoyed the train ride as you can see. This was a big hit. These big cranes are on a huge ship.

Ok, this isn't really a "zoo" animal but she was so cute just laying there chewing her cud! Sleeping Hippos - Look at that one on the Left's foot. This Giraffe was in his pen. This is the closest that I have gotten to one at this particular zoo. (In Kenya, I got to feed one - they have very long black tongues!) Any animal with the title Naked Mole Rat deserves a picture.

Grandpa Zane and his friend Rhonda came down late Saturday and stayed all day Sunday. We did "Christmas" and had a fun time visiting. Monday morning, we met for breakfast and then they had to head back to Idaho. It was nice to have them down!

The day finally arrived, as I knew it would, to move Evangeline crib out of our bedroom and into her own room. I was a bit traumatized, Phil on the other hand, was happy to have our room back! The older two children are now in one room. Sawyer's bed is in his loft and Jubilee's is where his bed used to be. I put some posters on the wall to make it a little more girly for her. Evi is in the "nursery" room. She slept great last night (I didn't). The older ones stayed the night at my parents so we will see how they do today with the new arrangement. It may take some getting used to. I have the cosleeper ready to be set up, next to the glider chair, waiting and hoping for it it be used in the Lord's timing. Valentine's Day was great! Phil and I spend the day with Evi. We ran a few errands, puttered around the house, switched the bedrooms around, and ate a quiet dinner together. Just spending time without the usual interupptions is romantic! We wat...

One thing that I dearly love is completing tasks and having a neat and tidy house. This is not necessarily conducive to training small children. I find myself becoming distracted when I am multitasking and it seems that behaviors escalate as does my frustration level. Phil has encouraged me to let go of some of the housework just spend more time playing and enjoying the children. I have been trying to find the balance in this. When I let the dishes go for the day, I had a horrible experience of trying to cook with no counter space and no clean utensils with 3 children and stools and food burning. However, doing breakfast and lunch dishes when the children go down for naps does work, provided all the dinner dishes from the night previous are done. Doing the laundry as soon as it comes out of the dryer doesn't work. Having the children sort the laundry into baskets and then having a family folding session in the evening does work. Trying to clean throughout the day and mark ...

Why oh why is it so hard to find a moment to update!!! Fun things... We went up to OMSI for teacher's night last week. Once a year, teachers get into OMSI with their guests and EVERYTHING is free. If we were to pay for all we got to do, we would have spent over 60 dollars. We went on the submarine, watched an IMAX movie, and played around in the Discovery area. We didn't quite have time to do the planetarium (maybe next time). It was fun to take a picnic dinner and do something "out of the ordinary". We have meant to go several times and will for sure make this a yearly tradition! We had some beautiful sunny days last week and the children and I walked down to the library (probably a mile and a half, round trip). They are SO INTO BOOKS! I love it!!! Sawyer is a regular little book worm, and Jubilee is starting to have the patience to sit still and listen (and "read" aloud to herself). We celebrated Phil's 35th birthday both on Thursday (the act...

This girl is getting so big! A typical morning in the Kelly household. Someday soon she won't want Daddy to blow dry her hair while she sits on the potty after a bath!

The Horsey should never horse around while still suffering the effects of the flu!