Amazing!

Last night was AMAZING! The whole day was awesome and I have pics but it will be tomorrow before I will post any pics. This is going to be a quick entry, I have to get ready for the outdoor church service this morning at LifeLight! Jason and I have had the time of our lives! The weather was hot and windy but God let that sun shine down upon us and the music was phenomenal. When Michael W. Smith got on stage and started his show with "Open the eyes of my heart", I got chills, I could feel God's presence. It was the most amazing thing, and it is so hard to explain when you get 150,000 to 200,000 people in one location and not all are believers in Jesus Christ you can feel the Holy Spirit's presence on the grounds. So many different walks of life. As the body of believer's we make up the church, there to save the lost. Alan Greene was telling the audience last night about what had happened at the Souled Out Stage Friday night (the SO stage is the stage where they are reaching our youth). During on the bands performance last night literally 100's of kids ran to the cross and drop to their knees and committed their lives to Christ. It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about the power of this festival and all that it mean to so many people and it's turn purpose. To bring the church outside the walls and reach the lost! Amazing! I had the chance yesterday to also spend with my #1 daughter. Her and I are reaching a different stage in our lives and you can tell. Our relationship is growing stronger every day, we are open and honest with each and we can laugh together more and more.
Thank you Lord for this amazing girl you placed in my life to teach Your will for her life! I love you for being a part of my life and loving me no matter where I have been or what I have done. Unconditionally!
I will post pics tomorrow from the weekend. Today wraps up with many of favorite bands, including Casting Crowns who will close the festival tonight. They have the most amazing music. One of their songs "East to West" is on my blog music if you care to take a listen! Have a blessed Sunday and many God bless you richly today!

Cathi

AWW......

Aren't they just the cutest things you ever did see? Wow what great grammar there was in that sentence! Hee,hee! Oh well, was never a great fan of English anyway!
:0)
She decided yesterday that she would take all 3 from the nest and put them by her food dish, well guess what it started to rain, so I go running outside in the rain to see if she had enough sense to take them back to their nest and of course NO so she is wet and all 3 kittens are wet! And it wasn't a hot rain, it was a cold rain yesterday! So I had to go inside and get Mikayla and our raincoats run back outside, gather up her and the 3 kittens and taken them back to their nest. So this is what they looked like tonight when I went down there to check on them! Good mama!!
So without further ado.....here are our newest additions.....

Cathi

COUNTDOWN!

John 8:12
Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

The countdown begins for us this week in our household! LifeLight 2008 is this coming Labor Day weekend check out the link and see what it has to offer. We are looking forward to it this year! Of course we have looked forward to it for the last 2 years that we have gone. This year will be especially GREAT as we will have NO KIDS for the whole weekend! We can enjoy great music, great worship and great fellowship with those we know and even maybe meet some new people! Our 3 youngest will go to Grandma Bottelberghe's for the weekend and the teenager will be camping out at LifeLight with the youth group from church! She is looking forward to a weekend to have some fun and not be around crazy mom and dad! Anyway....some highlights for this weekend are to see Michael W. Smith, I haven't seen him in concert since I was a senior in high school (now I am aging myself) and of course seeing Casting Crowns again. There are a bunch of other big names that we are looking foward to seeing but those are the two highlights of the weekend! We are pumped! The little ones are excited to go to Grandma's. They love going to LifeLight but it gets to be a long day/night and weekend for them so this works out best for all of us! Anyway......I will post highlights when the weekend is over and hopefully have some good pics with it! I have pics of our kittens that I hope to post sometime this week....as for now, I must close and call it an evening! Have a wonderful week! God bless you all!

Cathi

The kittens

****UPDATE*****There are for sure 3 alive kittens. Two look like our male cat Sunflower and the other looks like our precious Lightening! We are leaving them alone (as much as possible anyway) and she is finally being a good mama and taking care of them very well! Soon they will have their eyes open and will be playing around the property! YIPPEE!!!!


Well there is one alive for sure. She had it out in the yard this afternoon when we went out to do chores. Looks just like mama cat and very much alive. I know where she has them hidden just can't find the nest and that is okay with me, I am just glad to know that one is alive for sure. It looked very healthy and had quite a set of lungs. I am also glad that the children don't know yet where she is hiding them and hopefully will keep it that way until they are old enough to have their eyes open and walking around. Mikayla was the only one who saw the baby kitten cuz she was outside with me at the time. She was VERY excited! We also found a home for the stray cat that has been "camping out" at our place. A girl Briana rides the bus with and lives about a 1/2 mile from us will come tomorrow and get "Casper". Thank goodness for that! Anyway....I must get going and check on my dinner, taco's tonight! MMMMM....my favorite! Have a wonderful weekend! It is a 3 day weekend for us! YEAH!!!

Cathi

Our first day!

Oh my what a first day of school we had! I met Colby at school (of course I was there for work way before the bus so I just wandered the hallway for awhile) and him and I went hand in hand into his classroom. Now mind you I am already having a hard time with this and the first thing his teacher does is hand me a book and a package of kleenexs, well that was the straw that sent me over the edge! I blew it and started to cry right there in front of him and his teacher (thankfully his teacher knows me and is so wonderful and supportive) so I had to get myself together and get him settled and then send him out to the playground. I am so glad that I am in the school all day long working and could poke my head and see how it was going, I only did that once yesterday and it was when they were outside and she said he was doing GREAT!!! Today was better but still weird to believe that he is in kindergarten, that just doesn't seem possible seems like just yesterday he was this:

oh I am getting all teary-eyed just thinking about it! They grow up way to fast! I mean really look at him, he is so grown up! Anyway....that was our week in a nutshell(and tomorrow is Friday so their week isn't done yet but mine is, I love preschool only 4 days a week to work, I am sad, NOT)!!!!
Have a good night!

Cathi

Kittens

Well our cat had her babies sometime today, how many we have no idea or if they are even alive. Since the kids went out to do chores this afternoon she has been home and hasn't left. We are not sure where she ended up having the kittens but she has had them that is for sure. Her stomach is smaller and squishy and no longer bulging plus her tail was wet and there was blood. So I am sure we will have yet another litter of kittens that will not survive. We will see, but I am glad that she waited until we were back in school to have her kittens. Maybe this is better that we don't know where they are, the kids are less likely to distrub them (if they are alive indeed). So I will keep you posted.

Cathi

First day of school!

Today is our first day of school. The children are off on the bus and Keara and I are hanging out until it is time for us to leave. This is weird, the house is very quiet without Colby here. I got teary eyed when I sent him on the bus. My baby is growing up so fast (and really he isn't my baby, Keara is can you imagine what next year is going to be like for me?). He wanted to ride the bus on his first day so I am going to meet him at the school and take him to his classroom. He seemed excited, I think! We got up early and had breakfast as a family, committed the day to the Lord and then sent daddy on his way to work. It was a great start to the day. Here are some pics of the morning! Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Cathi

The breakfast table at 6:15am


The 7th grader


The 3rd grader


The Kindergartner


Getting on the bus!


This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it! Psalm 118:24

Dinner by......

the teenager! She made dinner tonight for the family for the 1st time ever. It was fabulous (not that this dish was very hard to make)!!! She made dad's favorite! Tator Tot Hotdish! I have included pictures also. She also made dessert! It was ice cream with green food coloring. I didn't partake in the ice cream, it was to weird looking for me. Enjoy the evening!

Cathi

PS: here is a classic Cathi moment at Wal-Mart this morning after church. We were in the shoe department because I am in need of shoes for work....anyway.....my son decided that he was going to lay on the floor and scoot backwards across the floor on his back.....I looked at him and said "Get up off the floor you are not a swiffer". Needless to say, that got a few laughs from my family. I was told at dinner tonight that that was an original.

Have a wonderful evening!!!! Enjoy the pictures!

BTW the bread was pretty good, it is very dense by then again we are not used to it, we are only used to store bought bread so it could take awhile to get used to but then again I was told by someone I know that our taste buds turn over every 3 weeks so it will only take that long for us to get used to it. The kids all loved it this morning that was their breakfast before church. The only drawback is that baking home made bread is time consuming, but since I will have Fridays off this school year guess that is what I will be doing, me and Keara. Lucky us, good mother-daughter bonding time!

What was left of dinner tonight! She is well on her way to becoming a chef :-)


Her dessert, interesting huh?

Our new friend!

Meet Casper, our newest feline friend. She is a stray who just showed up on our land from the bean field. We don't know who's she is or where she came from but from the looks of her she has been far from home for awhile. Very friendly but very sick looking. The kids love her. We will see if she sticks around or not. Our other two cats DO NOT like her, they hiss at her and chase her away. I am afraid that our tom cat will try to kill her, he is very territorial! YIKES!!!!! I will keep you posted. In the mean time here are some pics.

Cathi

My experiment

I am trying to get my family into a more preservative free feeding environment but the one thing I can't seem to do right is bread. So this afternoon I found another recipe and tried again. Here is how it looked when it came out of the oven. It looked a little dry (even my teenager agreed with me) so I put some butter on top. I am not sure how it will taste that will be for later. Pizza (yes from a pizza joint in Sioux Falls, not very healthy and full of the junk I am trying to get away from)is what is for dinner, my oven was over taken with the bread, so Briana didn't get to make dad his favorite Tator Tot hot dish, that will be for tomorrow night, lunch after church will be pork chops on the grill. Anyway.....taste testing will be tonight or tomorrow for breakfast....stay tuned!

Cathi

PS does anyone have a good cake recipe (from scratch of course, had to buy the box mix yesterday for Jason's birthday and it had partially hydrogenated oils), if so please email me the recipe. Thanks!

Thoughts!

As I sit at my computer this afternoon and the children are outside and my husband is at a side job, I have a moment of peace and quiet that I don't get frequently, it gives me a chance to reflect on my life and the many blessings that I have in it.

I am thankful for:

My husband - even if he irks me to no end some days, I don't know what my life would be like without him in it and he endures much from me on a daily basis (poor man)

My kids - they are my constant in my life. Even when I am having the most horrible of days they are there to see me through and to love me even when I am unlovable at that particular moment.

My family - they have endured many things from me over the years but through it all they have stayed with me (with the exception of my sister whom I haven't talked to in almost 3 years, I pray for healing someday in that relationship)

My friends - without the wonderful friends that I have made at church over the last 2 1/2 years of attending there, I would be a wreck (worse than I am some days).

But what I am most grateful for is my salvation that was only grated to me by my Savior Jesus Christ, because it is truly because of Him that I live and breath. We are all sinners and we all try to live inside this bubble that we are perfect, we are not, we can try and shield our kids from this world but there comes a point in which we must let them go, give them wings and let them fly. I am finding that more and more to be true. I need to produce some great moral biblical values in my children that will carry with them into adulthood and let God take care of the rest. Only He can fulfill their purpose in life and only He can reveal that to them. I am only their mother here on earth and only I can point them in the right direction and only I can teach the foundations of that relationship with Christ that we are all suppose to have with Him in our daily lives from there I submit the rest to my heavenly Father and let Him take care of it.

So for all that read my blog, thank you for journeying into my daily life, thank you for being my friend/family/stranger, but most of all I thank God that He brought you into my life for a purpose, I can't wait to find out what that purpose was on the other side. Love me for who I am not what I can't be. I am who I am because of circumstances brought into my life whether good or bad!

Have a wonderful and blessed weekend! Summer has winded down for us and school begins next Wednesday. I go back to work on Tuesday, part of me is ready but the other part of me is not! God has something big in store for this family this coming school year and I can't wait to see what it is!

My love to all,

Cathi

Happy 32nd Birthday!

To my wonderful husband :-)!!!! How time flies! I am sure your mother is still saying that to this day! I pray that you will have another year full of love, hope and excitement. God has been kind and merciful to you and to our family, I hope that He blesses you beyond belief this coming year! I love you to the end of the earth and back! Enjoy your day (which I know you will)!!!!

Your wife,
Cathi

Isn't he handsome? I LOVE THIS HAT ON HIM (my "farmer" man)!!!!

Butchering!

Well we did in all 17 of our chickens yesterday! Let me tell you what an experience that was for me and the kids. You all know me, city girl thru and thru. But I was in there with the best of them and I did the grossest job of all and that was gutting them. Oh the smell, NASTY!!! BUT.....I am ready to do it again next year only have more this time. The in-laws took some chicken and Jason's sister took some chicken also. I have included some pictures from our experience. I am so proud of my son. He was in there trying to catch the chickens to butcher and was just having a blast. Some of the things that he did was so funny. I just had to laugh. The only one of my children that didn't partake in the experience was Briana. I think she got herself attached to those chickens and just couldn't bear to see them killed. I am hoping that next year will be different and she will be out there helping, the more hands the better. Thankfully the weather was beautiful, overcast with a nice breeze and no humidity!!!! So anyway....I picked my favorite pics to share and left all the other ones out.....enjoy!

Cathi


His chicken to butcher! What a hoot!

Me and my MIL cleaning the birds!

He wasn't scared of them alive or dead! Can you tell?

The look on his face is priceless!!! He looks scared but he wasn't!!!

WHACK!

Butcher Time!

Tomorrow will be butcher day at our house. We are going to "kill" about 5 of our "heavys" to see if they are ready for butchering. I am trying to wrap my brain around it but some moments it is hard. I know that God put them on this earth for us to eat but the thought of killing something to eat it kind of appalles (sp?) me!!! I am hoping to get some pictures of it but that remains to be seen. The children I don't think really understand what is going on or why we have to kill them. I have been warning them not to get attached as they ARE NOT pets!!! It should be any interesting afternoon. The in-laws are coming to help so that will be nice. I will post and let you know how it went either tomorrow night or Monday sometime. Please also be in prayer for me over the next several months as I start to explore home schooling. God has been laying this very heavily on my heart as of lately and at the nudging of a group of ladies from my Sunday School class I am going to research and talk with people who do home school and see what it will entail for me and if it is indeed a good choice for my children and me. I ultimately leave the final decision up to My Lord. If this is what He is calling me to do then I must be obedient. Pray that I will make an informed decision and that God will be in the midst of it all. In all things that I do, it is Him alone that I will answer to in the end and I want to make sure that I do everything that pleases Him and only Him. I know that He will lead me in the right path that He wants me to pursue. I have been dealing with this for 3 years. So after strong "conversations" with Him, I knew that I needed to do more than just keep pushing it away. God is trying to get my attention. So I am going to be obedient. Pray for me!!!!

Cathi

Garden picking!

We haven't been to our garden in a few days so we decided that we better go and pick some veggies out of it. Here is what we got!

cucumbers, zuchinni, and our first tomato (boy were the kids excited about that)!


more cucumbers (Colby's favorite)


sweet peas!


we have got some ears coming in on our sweet corn, we are excited about that!!!


our cat basking in the shade!!! BTW she's pregnant again, due soon I am sure just look at her stomach! Hopefully she will give birth after we are in school!

Pool fun!

I haven't posted for awhile and for that I apologize! We are winding down our summer here. School starts 2 weeks from today and the kids are ready and yes even I am ready. I have some things left to tie up around here but other than that I am ready to get back to work. Should be a good year! So last Friday the kids and I headed up to Brookings to spend the day with Grandma Bottelberghe at the Brookings Aquatic Center (used to just be the Brookings pool but they made it bigger and better). The kids had a blast and yes I must admit, I throughly enjoyed myself also! It was a beautiful day and the water was COLD!!! So here are some pics from that fun day! Enjoy!

Cathi