Happy Birthday Ninja warrior boy #12

Today is Ninja/Secret Agent boy's ( 3rd son ) birthday. He was born 12 years ago. The only child of my brood to be born in the afternoon light hours. He was not in a hurry to come out either by date or by labor. This signified the beginning of his unique personality.
He requested a boston cream cake/pie. I obliged him. I think it turned out quite good. I pretty much only make home made frosting and whip cream now. I really love the taste and it is so easy. I figure that is healthier than store bought even though it's still sugery goodness.
Here is the recipe I followed for my first actual chocolate butter cream frosting! It is so good and very rich! Wish I could post a photo. I will get this straightened out soon. We are taking the boy skating with his sister and a couple friends and then home to play. It will be simple this year.

BB tourney

Our youngest boy had a basketball tournament last weekend. I was so pleased to go. It felt too normal though. It was a nice feeling. A feeling as though nothing else big is going on in my life. Nothing life threatening..nothing that requires such intense focus...
Let me just say that BB is not his game. He is a karate kid so to speak. His effort, however, was highly commendable. He didn't get much game time, but he held his head high, he swerved all around his opponent, back and forth, never yielding. I was pleased. I told him so.
Here's a couple shots I admired from a game. I love taking photos. I have no fancy shmancy photo shop...
Well I can't get more photos to list because it's full?? I will get back to you on this.

crossing over to Boy Scouts

Secret Agent is officially a Boy Scout now! I only wish his brother Braveheart could have been in line with him, but he was fighting a bronchial virus that night and wasn't feeling well. We are very excited for them to experience all their adventures in scouting together.
Congrads son. Good job!

wordless wednesday

doing ok...

this one is off at college now, attending his second day of classes...he seems to be doing ok..
here he is probably thinking excitedly about this being the last burning job he has to do for awhile...:)

We are starting to miss you......

This boy is inheriting the major part of mowing of the yard...'mom, can I make a checkers pattern in the grass?' sure...why not.....

hopping...hopping...bouncing....

look at this fella...he is 3 months out from his last chemo...look what he can do now!

It is such a good, simple, wonderful pleasure to see him out here, staying out here, hangin' with the sibs...having energy...feeling better, thinking better...getting some real school work done this year so far...

We are so thankful. If you could please pray, we have CT scans this week. I am feeling fine really. Sometimes I feel a little nervous. I felt sure that God told me He had real plans to heal this boy...I have trusted and rested in this...but there are times when a test to look inside makes me cringe a little. Other times cancer is just a word to me. It means nothing at all, not scary like it seems to be out there...selfishly, I think to myself..'I don't know if I can do this again' I don't know if B can do this again..but then I just look up and ask God to keep carrying me..He is in control...He always does...He is so good...
ya see..He loves us...

summer so far again...

I finally learned how to use my juicer which I didn't want to learn before but now feel VERY led to get on it so I can really help heal my body! If you get time try to read this book about juicing. You will learn some new surprising facts and it is a quick read. These veggies are from my garden or farmer's market.

Flowers from Aldi, only $4 and aren't they gorgeous??? I love to brighten the room. Not many to really pick from my own garden when I got these last week.

Found this a few weeks ago for our school room at Good Will, furniture was half off, retro, excellent condition and it SWIVELS!! If you know me, you know I have a strange weakness for chairs that swivel. I think I paid $3 something.

My pilot mom, being interviewed again for the Wanna Be a Pilot weekend! Wish I got photos of the cool jet plane and the Chinook helicopter!

Finally found a new place to pick our own blueberries. I only had two helpers available that day so couldn't get as many as we wanted. Our old place, just never can get in there now. This one you pick and just weigh and drop your check in the bucket...quite lovely. Braveheart adores these fresh picked ones over the frozen and they're local and cancer fighting!! A must have in this house. I froze them and they are almost gone already. I hope to get enough for the year next time.

happy birthday secret agent boy! #11

Dear friend God brought into his life. I love how each kid gets that special friend to encourage one another!

Don't you just love this kid's handsome smile? What a kid. He turned 11 and if you don't mind I will just just muse for a moment. I was so proud of how selfless my kids were when Braveheart first became ill 2 years ago. They stopped everything and gave up things only caring for B and his welfare, understanding his prioritized needs. We strove to give as much attention to the other kids as we could and my mom was mostly living here to help out. (thanks mom) but suddenly last year we realized something happened to this precious little boy. We aren't sure what, but emotionally he was troubled. Part of this was his personality, true; he really has always been a 'strong willed' child that has given me a run for my money, but we began to see some real issues arise in him...

After much prayer and love and training and work and more prayer..we are so pleased with how he has come along. So much joy back in his heart and countenance! Praise God!

Now, can I just brag on my man for his 'gifting' love language?? We were getting all the kids some swimming supplies for birthdays this year, can you see his back pack? He loves that thing. (I got these for $2 each on clearance) Birthday boy keeps telling me about that and all his gifts. He is even loving that hoodie he requested himself..can you say hot? Well, my husband wrapped each gift up inside each larger gift so that each time he opened one he had a surprise inside! The whole family had a blast wondering if there was yet another gift inside! Boy, was that a hit. Damsel prayed that night, thanking the Lord for dad's great wrapping idea..it was so precious! The kids are requesting more of that one. You're the best dad..but I didn't get a pic this year..soon I will though.

karate promotion

This is old news from a few weeks ago. I haven't posted all the promotions, but I wanted to get Damsel on here since she just passed her first one. Although we might like to do 5 other activities and although this doesn't mean that we will only do this 'forever', I love this karate thing. We have a great teacher that focuses on 'self discipline' and 'self control' and the more kids from your family, the cheaper it is (price is a big factor here right now) and we can be together more rather than 5o different directions. LOVE IT!!! Secret Agent earned his yellow belt and Damsel earned her red belt. So cute.

wavy fields of crazy crochet goodness

It took me awhile to get this on here but I did finally finish Secret Agent's (3rd son) crazy color requested crochet blanket. Now each child has their own crazy crochet, except I did officially do a ripple for Damsel girl. I actually ended up making this one super wide. The weird color combo he requested actually turned out pretty well in the end.

It amazes me how God makes us all so different, each child so unique with his own taste and preference. You see, I have never hated red but never felt any kinship with it. Never chose it often. My two oldest sons tended toward blues and greens. I am always a bit more swayed by deep eggplant rich purples. But Agent has always loved RED. He is drawn toward it. Loves it.
Well, here he is wrapped in it's wavy soft, goodness. I love it. He loves it! That is the most important part. Don't they together just make you want to reach out and eat 'em up? (my kids don't like me to say that after a certain age) :) I don't think I can ever stop though.

recital and promotion

We have really been busy lately with so many different appointments and events, so I hope I am able to show them all but here is a glimpse into some achievements for a couple of the kiddos this weekend. We decided too this fall, that it was time, after much waiting, to invest some time and money into some interests that the littles have. It was especially important after all we've been through this last year and a half.

Secret Agent has been asking and waiting to start karate for forever and we finally got him started and he is loving it!! This teacher really focuses on self-control and discipline which is right up our alley.

He's a red belt, it's official!! Here he is with his teacher.

Just turn sideways here...I can't turn this video..sorry.

Damsel had a lovely first recital for family and the elderly and this extended care home. I just could not get a good head shot, however I did get a nice video! It sounds so sweet. It's the next best thing to being there. I hope you enjoy.

fall party creations

Scouts had a pack meeting and we had to come up with a quick treat so we tried to use what we had around the house and we made a small little batch of frosting and used our licorice and chocolate chips to make a monster snack...it was pretty tasty too.

This next snack won the prize at the meeting and T got to be the one to eat the creature! Yuck.

Damsel made this at a friends party. Cute.

tennis is fun

I thought I would tease you by putting up photos from a beautiful sunny day a couple weeks ago. Our coop group had a lovely tennis lesson. I love capturing their faces as they focus on their task.