Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Hey there

I just wanted you to know that we are okay here at the Herdklotz home. My absence from blogging is because I have been busy working on a Christmas project. I can't seem to stop working on it. I am enjoying myself SOOOOO much!!! I made a promise with my family this morning that I would not touch the stuff today. I kept my promise and now that everyone is in bed I have nothing I want to do except blog. So here I am.

The children and I went bowling today. We had a great time out with Karen and her family. Amy DID have bumpers, but she is still so proud of herself. She beat everyone except for Karen's dad. That was exciting news, but the best part of the bowling was that Wyatt (almost one year old) bowled one time and he got a STRIKE!!! Karen will probably explain more of it on her blog so I will "spare" you the details twice!

Saturday, October 27, 2007

24 hour stores

Last night I had to go to the grocery store. A simple trip to pick up a few items for the camp. On my way off the camp, I picked up my friend Amy. We had a blast shopping and we were in NO hurry!! Why be in a hurry, the store was open 24 hours a day and our children were in bed. In my no hurry shopping, I was able to spend time in the toy section and get some ideas of Christmas gifts. I slowly walked through all the video aisles, but didn't find the one video I was looking for. I saw a billion electronic gadgets a few aisles over though. I looked through the tool aisle (Daniel's favorite). Last I shopped for the food that I went for and then we left. Amy and I had such a great time together. We ended up talking outside her trailer for almost an hour. My little adventure to the store took me from when I left at 9:00 on Friday night and until 12:45 Saturday morning!! Any one want to go with me next time?

Friday, October 26, 2007

God's creation

This is what the sky outside our backdoor looked like the other night. Doesn't it look like the sky is on fire? I am so amazed at God's ability to "paint" such a pretty picture!!

Thursday, October 25, 2007

I am FREE

Most of you will have absolutely no idea what I am talking about, but for those of you who do....I am FREE and loving it!! I have been living under such bondage for almost two years now. I have isolated myself from people, all because I thought that someone didn't "LIKE ME".
Monday night when I left Bible Study, I realized that I couldn't live like this any longer. I had to go to this person and see what the Lord would do. I fasted and prayed all day Tuesday. Tuesday night I was "ready" to do it. I asked the person to come over to the cabin where I had spent my day. I asked her to share her heart with me. She was faithful in doing so and God really spoke to me. I realized that it was not a personality conflict. We actually like each other, we just don't understand each other. We are SOOOOOO different!! I want to be pursued, she is NOT a pursuer. I want to know that someone wants me around, she wants me to just trust that if she doesn't want me around she will tell me!! She expects me to feel the freedom to drop by her house anytime and just be a part of her life. I AM SO NOT THAT WAY. I want to be invited, because I don't want people just dropping in at my house if they plan on staying any length of time. It has taken me years to figure this out, but I think that I have it this time. I do not want to EVER again get to the point where we are not talking to each other. I went through something very similar with Jeff for years. I always felt like we were on opposite teams. I read something into most things that he said to me. Much prayer has gotten us to the point that we are at now. I do not struggle anymore with him. I now know for sure that we are on the same side no matter what. I am praying that I have the same kind of victory with this other person. I just have to always choose to trust her heart!! I am so glad that we are talking again!!

I just looked over my past posts. You all haven't gotten any pictures recently. I will post some tomorrow!!

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Joel is "talking"

I have to share some of Joel's new words. He is doing pretty good at repeating some words, but other words come out very funny. Yesterday I was practicing with him how to say Uncle Jimmy. It came out sounding like Unka Dimmie. I thought that sounded great. I was very proud of him. Tonight the children and I were having fun with some new words. The two funniest of them all were for Jeff and Grammie (what my children call my mom). I said, "Joel, say Grammie." Joel's response was, "Granbum!" I think that I shall be calling her that for awhile!! Later we asked Joel to say, "Jeff." He looked us right in the eyes and said, "Bob!" We repeated Jeff again to see if he would do better, but every time, he said, "Bob!" We laughed so hard, we had tears in ours eyes. He knew it was making us laugh and he wouldn't say anything else. He is very stubborn!

Friday, October 19, 2007

You have a point son!

Daniel has a tendency to try to be funny, but ends up being foolish instead. Today he was wise, and ended up being funny without even trying.

Lauren had been in the bathroom for a long time brushing her hair. This bothered Daniel immensely, because he himself needed the bathroom.
Jeff heard Daniel's frustration, so he tried to explain something to him. Jeff said, "Daniel, remember how you like to go fishing? Well some girls think of hair brushing as just as much fun."
Daniel responded, "That's nice, but the only place that I can go fishing is in a lake!"
I laughed so hard. When I finished laughing, I told Lauren to get out of the bathroom. She could brush her hair somewhere else!

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

We are tired!!

We must be tired from all these late nights and these early mornings!! Three of my children have thrown some HUGE fits today. I am ready to get back to our normal days of sleeping 10 to 11 hours each night!! THEY NEED THEIR SLEEP!!! Tomorrow, because of those fits, I will have three children with at all times. YIPPEE!!

Monday, October 15, 2007

Ramblings

Here are a few things that are going on in my life right now.

  1. Joel got hit with a pool ball on his forehead. He has quite the goose egg to show for it!!
  2. Fall Family Camp #2 starts today.
  3. I have to frost over one hundred sugar cookies by tomorrow night.
  4. I have Bible study tonight and I am behind in my lessons. I will make this post quick so that I can go do my lessons.
  5. Yesterday at church, I was asked this question. "Would I be content with Heaven and all it has to offer, if Jesus wasn't there?" I can honestly say that I have never thought about that before! It didn't take me long to know my answer. NO, I would not be content without Jesus there with me!! I can't wait to be with Jesus for ETERNITY!!!
  6. I was running late for church yesterday......again!! I always get everyone else ready first, then I finish getting myself ready. Jeff came to me yesterday while I was trying to hurry and finish getting ready. He suggested that I let the older ones do more so that I am not ALWAYS the last one ready. I did not respond right to his timing. I unplugged my curling iron and got straight into the van just as I was. I WENT TO CHURCH WITH MESSY HAIR!! I really wasn't embarrassed, until I got home and saw how bad it really did look!!
  7. Basketball season starts next week for Jeff. I am not looking forward to it, but I will embrace it when it gets here.
  8. The weather is absolutely beautiful outside today!! I have both doors wide open!!
  9. Did I mention that Family Camp starts today? Did I mention that my doors are wide open? There are strangers right outside my door playing at this very moment. One little girl just came right into my house and asked me if she could use my bathroom. I said, "Sure you may, but who are you?" She tried to explain, but all I got out of it was that she was the sister of the boy that hit Joel with the pool ball this morning. (Maybe I shouldn't have let her in!) JUST TEASING!!

Friday, October 12, 2007

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here is the recipe that I told you about yesterday! I found it on allrecipes.com. (My new favorite recipe finder website!!)

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies III

1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 t baking powder
2 t ground cinnamon
1/2 t salt
1 t baking soda
1 t milk
1 T vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1. Combine pumpkin, sugar, oil, and egg. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well.
2. Add vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts.
3. Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for approximately 10 minutes or until lightly brown and firm.

The website recommended that the cookies taste best cold from the refrigerator. I would have to agree 100%!! I LOVE THESE COOKIES!!

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Fall is here!!

I am not real happy about the whole thing, but FALL is here anyways!! I so do not like the cold weather that it brings us. I even had to put our flannel sheets on today!! They will keep us nice and warm!! The changing of the tree colors is nice, but I really like the color green. I would have to say that the nicest thing about Fall is the changing of the seasons clothes. I love going to storage and getting out all the "new" clothes for this season. Joel has MORE clothes and pajamas than any three children combined should have!! The reason he has so many is because, he has been given most of them and the rest were from garage sales. Grandmother Herdklotz, absolutely no clothes for his Birthday or Christmas this year PLEASE!!!
I found a great chocolate chip, walnut pumpkin cookie recipe this week. We made them for camp and they were a huge hit!! I will post the recipe tomorrow.

Monday, October 8, 2007

My morning

For those of you with only preschoolers, you might not want to read this post!! Or on the other hand maybe you do, so that you can have hope of what is to come for you some day!!!

This situation that I am going to tell you about, is only possible because of where we live!! Last night my two oldest girls spent the night with some friends. The three younger ones stayed here. Jeff left for work this morning sometime around 4:30 or 5:00. After being awake for a couple of hours when Jeff left, I fell back to sleep and woke back up around 9:00. I came out of my bedroom and it was totally quiet in the house. I kept looking around for the children, but they were not here! I realized as soon as I saw Joel's wet diaper and his PJ's from last night on the floor, that Amy and Daniel had gotten him dressed and took him outside to play!! They did all of it without waking me up!! I am loving having children that are able to do these things!! Not only did I have a leisurely morning getting ready, but today Fall Family Camp started so at 10:00 it was time to go down to the Lodge and eat the brunch that my husband had prepared!! I walked into the Lodge and there were all five of my children excited to see me. Okay three were excited! Life is very good at the Herdklotz home today!
(PS- Amy and Daniel did a great job getting Joel dressed. His clothes actually matched!!)

Friday, October 5, 2007

Special treats

Today was a day of lots of special treats! I went through this day, just amazed at all the blessings today kept bringing.

* This one was a BIG blessing. Lauren went to her orthodontist first thing this morning. Up to this point, things have not been going well for Lauren and her teeth. She leaves every appointment discouraged and not wanting to go back. She has been working SO hard to do the right things and it finally paid off today. Her orthodontist was ABSOLUTELY AMAZED at how well she has done since her last visit. He has never seen such a dramatic moving of teeth. She did so well, that she now has to spend the next two months correcting the over movement that took place!!! She doesn't mind though. She is just glad that he finally realizes that she is doing everything that he tells her to do!!
* I actually filled out our bank deposit slip and got it all added correctly! (Don't ask, just trust me that I was very excited!!)
* I found an incredible cheesy potato soup recipe online today. Lauren and I made it for
supper tonight. It was great to work with her. I also made homemade cornmeal rolls. Supper was fabulous and everyone loved it!! It felt so wonderful to spoil my family.
* I haven't done dishes in a very long time. Tonight I did Lauren's dish job and it felt sooooo good to do them again. The best part of doing the dishes was I didn't have to, I chose to!! Sometimes it just feels good to choose to do something and not be forced to do it!!
* I got to snuggle with several of the children while they were watching a movie.
* We made s'mores for dessert. Always fun!
* We have a sleep over guest tonight. Emily and Lauren invited Moriah Mann to spend the night and the day tomorrow. I love having Saturdays off from school!!!

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Freedom!!

Have I ever told you that I love my children growing up and doing things on their own? I am feeling such freedom at this point. Joel has been feeding himself for months now, but not everything. He is now exclusively feeding himself!!! I can now make something for him and not have to sit for the next twenty minutes feeding it to him!! I am so excited. He is not my little baby any more. YIPPEE!! The funny thing about this whole process is that it makes us both so happy. He wants to do most things on his own and I am glad to let him do it!!!

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Goofy pictures!





The children and I were having fun tonight taking goofy pictures. We all laughed and laughed during this great family time. I hope that you enjoy the pictures.

For those of you out there that comment on my blog things are changing. If you follow the blog to the left titled Little Muffin Head, you will notice that I am copying her new idea. She has started to respond to viewers comments in the comment section. Now she has a running dialog with her viewers. I love this idea. I will now be doing the same. Just leave your comment and then check back later. I will try my best to respond to you. I will be signed in as ME! I hope that we can have some fun with this. I love it when people leave a comment for me. I often wonder who actually reads my blog and what they are thinking about any given day.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Happy Birthday to Jeff!!

Today is Jeff's 41st birthday. This morning we went to a meeting at headquarters. The whole topic was the differences of the male brain and the female's brain. I left that meeting really appreciating the differences that Jeff and I have. I pray that I can remember to be thankful for them the next time we differ about something!! During the meeting, the children stayed home by themselves. (Karen was right next door if they needed her.) While we were away, the children decorated the house for Jeff. They put up streamers and signs all over the place. They apparently had a great time while we were gone! Jeff is working hard to lose all of those extra summer pounds that he acquired this season, so no cake and ice cream for him!!! The children and I are disappointed, but it really is better for us all!