Taking back the land...

 Below is a poor excuse for a garden, can you strain your eyes to see 3 little lighter green thumb shaped plants (bigger than some), opening in a Y? They are watermelon. We have a little tiny garden growing in our front bed as it's the only area in the sun that has soil for a garden (not good soil yet). And as you can tell, I need to weed. Between, school, watering, mowing, and raking up old sticks & leaves in spots, I forget to weed....the bigger greener weed in the middle is a wild violet (I have many), and that one needs to go! The bush lower left will stay for awhile. It's not food though. We have onions, beets, carrots, beans, cucumbers, and watermelon, but some are not coming up very well, so we'll see.

See the pretty bushes? They were here before we moved in, I just cleaned up all the gunk (lots of it) around them and planted impatiens & coleus in this shady spot. Hope they take well, and look nice in a few weeks.


  Lastly, our hosta's. We have a lot of them, all over, in the weeds, little ones, big ones, and I hope to move them all before we "remodel the land"...which Chris hopes to take a bulldozer through and do an overhaul.

We have a back patio over grown and junky, and I hope to clean it up nice, and put all the hosta's I find around the perimeter of it.

Taking back the land is hard when it's full of thistles, buck thorn, old dog bones (not from our dog), sticks, trash and all of it. Just like our lives when they are full of sin, it's hard to let God regain control of them, and weed them and fertilize our soil. But one day and rocky area at a time He can do it!

2 hockey 3on3 games, Softball tourney, Softball scrimmage, and an Academic luncheon planned for this weekend. Hope to squeeze some quiet reading time in before the week starts in again. Katya is done with school on Tue, and was saying something about working at Taco Bell. I thought she had planned on working at a nursing home. We'll see what happens.

Love from Alesia & Chris

Memorial Day...

Yesterday was a vacation day, a day to remember our veterans.... didn't know about our neighborhood parade, but hope to go next year at 9am!

Made pancakes but forgot the big container of syrup at Grandma's....so we made some...they were liked by almost all...

We moved hostas...it was fun and is looking nice! Chris chopped wood, and helped a man with his Sprinter for a few hours. I napped - yeah!

Later we headed up to the pine city to fish a little and help with an an awning, but it was "stormy" up there, inside and outside of the cabin. So, we headed back. And then we headed to softball, photo's above...Sophia & I hit home runs...it was fun.

Almost all of us joined in, and it was a lot of un for about 30 minutes until competition and bad attitudes set in so we headed home. I decided to move some more hostas.............

It was kind of one of those "off" days, and for me, it was good as I stayed joyful and calm in the storm.  I think Chris has more understanding for my hard days, after spending more time around the kids.

We are off to a new day of school today, and Jonathan got up early and did all his homework early! I think he wants to get outside....some are still in bed, and some are just eating....have a great week back at it.

Love Alesia & Chris

Good Sermon, Grateful Sons, Grandma

Had a great sermon today, on lying, up at Grandma's church. It's just a reminder to me that we have an advocate, in our Lord and Savior and that there is no need for us to retaliate, as "vindication is mine, says the Lord". He will protect and care for us and our loved ones, and we need not take on the world.

I explained to a couple children that one of the hardest things in life is when you try to do your best honestly, and truthfully, with pure motives, and the recipients deliberately (or unknowingly) try to counter with so many blows. It's the biggest injustice. I think some understood it.

I learned some disturbing news this weekend about one of my children spreading falsehood and I am wondering how to handle it. I can handle the sadness of one spreading falsehood about me, but they are representing themselves falsely.  That can lead to more and more shame and lying with time, how timely our sermon was today.

I had a nice couple days with Grandma and cried upon leaving. I have such wholesome memories of Dad & Mom, and it's so hard to just see Dad's boat, the fish house, etc. some days, even though Mom is doing great and I am so proud of her. Just last year, it was a special get away with Chris & I and Mom and Dad for our anniversary, and this year(felt like 10 to Chris & I), we bombarded her with 9 of us. I hope she is recovering.

We headed home today and finished the day with the League of Grateful Sons, by Vision Forum in honor of Memorial Day. We highly recommend it. In the day of the Wii, we forget about WII, in the day of Lego StarWars, we forget the stars of our wars, in the day of facebook, we forget the Faces in the books of history that make our every day freedoms a reality....

We learned the definition of truth today - that which pertains to reality....that pretty much sums it up. We live in a fantasy, electronic world...and forget the reality of those before us that make our lives richer today. I am enjoying my John & Abigail Adams book, and a little Jane Eyre on the side...and His word to keep me grounded in the TRUTH, and I still have a long ways to go with all the lies the enemy sends our ways each day.

May His reality seep into your heart today, touch you, heal you, and bring you closer to the truth in Him...

Love Alesia & Chris

Katya's 16th Birthday

Today is Katya's birthday, and her science class is going to Valleyfair so I think that worked out pretty nicely. She had her hair cut at the salon yesterday, and sang in her school choir. She'll have cheese cake for supper, and lunch out with Grandma on Sat. So not much else planned and don't really have her wish list yet. She hopes to spend some time with a friend some weekend. Hope to update with more photos after the weekend.

Here are a couple more photos from Jaclyn's wish list...ice cream at Nelson's before a violin concert.
Have a good Memorial Day weekend, Alesia & Chris