House Hunting

Ok, so seriously I think I would rather be out hunting buffalo or something. I would have put deer, but I actually do want to be out hunting deer. We have started our journey of looking at houses and have now seen 6, had my heart broke on one and are now looking at a new possibility. We are seeking God's direction on this journey so much and boy do we need it! We thought originally it would be Huntington which isn't too far away so we can still see friends and depending on which side of town, still go to our church. Now we aren't ruling out the surrounding area to where we are now. This is where some of my confusion of which direction to go, comes in. I want to be able to provide the ability for my husband not to have to drive so far to work everyday while on the other hand not take my kids from their school or our family from our church. What a HUGE decision! Rodney has decided that staying in our church is more valuable to him than being closer to work. The last house we looked at is in LaFontaine and had a family with four kids in it. It's a nice lot, nice yard, good size and just needs some love and personal touches. It has great potential for so many ideas that we have (mainly me) in store for the future (bring on the covered porch baby!).
Needless to say but I'm gonna, we still need so many prayers. Buying a home seems sooo big, but God is bigger and I continue to tell myself that every day and every house.
Heavenly Father, I come to you and ask that you direct my family and I to that perfect house You have picked just for us! I pray it is a size that our family fits in comfortably. I pray it has 3 to 4 bedrooms, 2 to 2.5 bathrooms, a nice size yard with room for fruit trees, kids, a dog and a garden. I pray it is in a country setting even if it is in a neighborhood. I pray that if our kids have to change school that you would give them the strength and courage to do so. I pray you will have wonderful new friends waiting on them, to embrace them and love them as much as the friends they have now. Ultimately I pray we are able to stay in our area of school and church. Lord none of this is bigger than You and we acknowledge that Your plan is what we want over ours no matter what that may involve. We just pray that You would make it ever so clear to us that we are on the right path. Open doors You would have us go through and close the ones You don't want us to even stick a foot in. You are Almighty! I pray for peace, comfort and patients through out the whole process. I thank you in advance for the house You have waiting just for us and for the journey we have been put on for the process. I praise You and love You! In Jesus' Name I pray, Amen!

A Jammin Good Time with my Niece and Kim!

On Monday I headed into the kitchen to make some Black berry jam. I had wanted to do this while Kim was here because she wanted to watch the process. Well, to my surprise and excitement, Jessica my 14 year old niece wanted in on the process as well. I thought it was so neat! So Jessica and I began by smashing berries which she helped me when they were in the bag and then I threw them into the pot and finished up myself. What a yummy mess as you can see by the picture below.


I love the color and at this point was getting even more excited since I knew what enjoyment is to come over the duration of however long this batch will last, which isn't long when Rodney begins to dig in.
Waiting for our rapid consistent boil, it's a good exercise of patients.
Then on to filling up the jars.

I got to help Jessica top off the jars which gave me sight into how nice it is to have help during this whole process.
When it came to cleaning the rims and threads of the jars, Kim got to jump in. So Kim wiped up the jars so they were nice and clean ready for our 2 part lids which Jessica followed right behind and put them on. After that we put them in the caner and gave them a 10 minute bath. As we pulled out the jars Jessica and I had the opportunity to hear the "pop" of the lids sealing up. We let them cool over night and wa la......Beautiful jars of blackish purple yumminess! I sent a jar home with Jessica but held the rest at ransom for her to come visit me soon for more and another go round only with Apple Butter next time. In doing this, it kicked in my desire for fall and all the warm yummy comforts that come along with it. I was craving fall so much that I made a black berry pie later that evening and it was so good. We will be harvesting pears and apples soon and even sweet corn. I am very excited!

World Pulse Festival

On Saturday at 5:30ish in the morning two vehicles carrying 11 people headed up north to meet with another vehicle carrying another 4 people. Once the three vehicles had met up they headed further north to South Bend for an all day festival/concert. We arrived around 9, parked, headed into the gates and then found our spot to set up 3 shade tents. Now there was much focus and determination to work quickly in order to have the tents up before the rain pour reached us. This we achieved. After the crowd prayed for the storms to move out, the rain cleared and the fun and worship was on.
We got to see the Robby Seay Band, Ayeshia Woods, Hawk Nelson, David Crowder Band, and Jeremy Camp. It was a blast. Initially it was supposed to be blistering hot all day but with the rain pour we had, it didn't begin to get hot until around the Hawk Nelson band and from there got hotter.
We headed out to the vehicles for lunch and hydration, then back in for more music.
Here is our group, what a bunch and what a great time!
I really enjoyed being able to take our teen trio as well: Madison from church, Bre and Jessica our niece.
The last act was the main reason Rodney, Bre and I wanted to go.....Jeremy Camp. The poor guy had the hottest time to be on stage. Half way through his time he was struggling to go on and not pass out. With God holding him up, he persevered and finished out his time. It was the best part. I throughly enjoyed the music, the worship and the friends that all went. OUr family as well as Winter and Jesse have decided we are going to make it our yearly tradition for closing out the summer before school starts.