Don't know what happened with the formatting on last blog. Whatever . . . !
A weather alert just popped up on my screen. The National Weather Service says we'll get 5-10" today. I bet we already have 7".
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Easter . . . Cold? Snow? YES!
Okay, I'll start over. Sometimes I hate technology. I've been sitting here for 45 minutes. I had a nice message all typed, complete with photos. I don't know what I did, but a little message came up. I hit "cancel" because that was the choice I was supposedly to make if I didn't want to go somewhere else. And guess what . . . my post was gone! Oh, well. This post will probably be much better anyway. Here goes.
I serve a RISEN Savior
He's in the world today
I KNOW that He is LIVING,
Whatever men may say . . .
We celebrate that RISEN Savior today. Isn't God good to love us SO MUCH? I marvel. You simply can't put God in human terms. If God were human, He'd have washed His hands of the rest of us a long time ago. As a parent sometimes I am so disappointed in the choices my kids make. I know they know better. I've told them how it will hurt them. Yet they do it anyway. God has millions of us and we all disappoint him every day. We don't learn from our mistakes. How much more we disappoint him and yet he continues to shower us with love and blessings!
I got a great e-mail with good news from Brandy this morning. Brandy is my cousin. She is Uncle Denny's daughter. I'm sure you all have heard of Uncle Denny even if you never knew about Brandy. Brandy's mom, Clara, has been in the hospital for three weeks. The doctors told the family to say their goodbyes. Brandy asked Pastor Bill to go visit her mom so that Clara would hear the message of the Gospel one last time. Guess what?!?!? Clara LISTENED! AND RESPONDED! Isn't that great? An answer to prayer, for sure. (If any of you readers don't know what the Gospel is all about, I'd love to share it with you. Let me know.)
We elected not to go to church this morning. Here was the scene at just a bit after 7:00 this morning. There was 2-3" of snow on the ground and it was falling fast. Abby was really disappointed because the kids were to perform in an Easter program this morning. I felt badly for her, but it wasn't worth taking a chance on getting stuck somewhere. Look at the darkness of the sky, too. We haven't seen any sign of the sun yet today. Wonder if anyone showed up for the sunrise services at Stillings Ranch? (Maurice Stillings is a man that attends our church. He's in his 80s and he has the most wonderful ranch. Perfect place for church picnics and a sunrise service. Different churches in town use his ranch at different times. The sunrise service this year was to be led by Living Water Bible Fellowship.)
Had a big pan of cinnamon rolls ready to take for the church breakfast this morning. Abby's sadness went away when she realized we got to eat those! Colored eggs, too. It was yummy!
After breakfast, we decided to watch a movie I've had here to watch for a while. It is called Magdalena: Released from Shame. It was quite good. It tells the story of Jesus' life, narrated by Mary Magdalene. Ever seen it?
After the movie, the kids decided to go to the dunes (an area on our property with small hills) to go sledding. Here's what it looked like outside at that time--about 10:15 a.m. Notice how the chico bushes are more covered than before? It is still snowing now at noon. I am really glad now that we stayed home. Dana just reminded me that earlier this week when I was looking at the weather forecast, I commented "Wouldn't it be crazy to be snowed in on Easter?"
Kitchen is smelling mighty good! The ham is done. We are waiting for the kids to get back and for the potatoes to finish baking. Sweet potatoes (for the kids) are already done. The others are in the oven now. Going to finish out the meal with corn, biscuits, and pistachio pie.
Hope you all are having a Happy Easter!
Love from all the Custers
Friday, April 3, 2009
Blustery!
Here it is Friday again and a whole week since I wrote anything. I actually had a post nearly finished the other day, but one of the computer gremlins came and wiped it right away.
This morning was beautiful. Clear and calm. Now the winds are strong and the dust is blowing. We are expecting some rain or snow later today and there's a 40% chance for snow tomorrow, too. This is definitely NOT the type of weather I am used to! Except the wind. Phoenix always had a lot of wind in March, too.
Shane is busy finding all the kitchen cabinet doors over in the shop. Time to scrub them all up and get them painted. I am thoroughly enjoying being in the kitchen these days, but it is time to put doors on the cabinets. My family will remember how I always hated not having cabinet doors in the houses Dad built when I was young. It is crazy how long it takes to get things done sometimes though.
A friend from church asked Cody and Amy to help sort potatoes today. We are very thankful that Gilbert was finally able to sell the rest of his potato harvest--he's been concerned. It isn't fun to take a loss, but it would be worse to have to trash the whole cellar load of potatoes. Cody and Amy have done potato sorting periodically over the last few months. Gives them a few extra dollars.
While they were working, I went to the office. I spent the morning making phone calls. We're trying to determine whether it makes sense to offer a shepherding home (similar to a foster home) for girls who need a place to stay while they are pregnant. It doesn't seem like that's going to be a good answer. In the meantime though, we're still raising money so that we'll be able to rent or buy a home. I talked to several people from local Social Services offices to let them know about our services. One of the six counties that we serve wants me to come speak to their group of employees who work with the public. That's cool!
In two more weeks we're having a big yard sale. Last year I organized a yard sale to benefit the Women's Resource Center and Valley Horizons combined. We netted nearly $1,000. Hopefully we'll do as well or even better this year.
We also have a good deal right now on Elitch Gardens tickets if you have friends or family in the Denver area. We get to keep $5 from each ticket we sell and the tickets are just $20. Pretty good deal.
Okay. Enough about Valley Horizons and my work there. Most of you want to know about the family anyway. Dana and Abby are building a chicken coop right now. Actually a chicken ark. Funny name, but it is actually a clever idea. There are handles on each end of a rectangular structure so the ark can be moved around. The ark will have nests on each end and a small "yard" in the middle. The roof can be opened on either end to gather eggs, plus you open the "yard" section during the day so the chickens can range free. Makes for healthy eggs!
Funny thing happened this morning. Abby woke me up. She was worried because Blackie (one of the roosters) had a thread wrapped around his tongue! Funny kid.
Cody dropped a bombshell on the family this week. I won't bore you with the details of what led up to this decision, but he has decided he wants to join the Army when he turns 17. That upsets me greatly for lots of reasons, but it might be a good thing for him. I've told him I will sign the papers but asked for him to show he's the man he thinks he is and get some things done in the next six months. Yeah, less than six months. He turns 17 in late September. I never dreamed I'd be asked to send a 17-year-old to the Army. He will get his GED in the Army before basic training. I never dreamed one of my kids would choose to drop out of high school either. I guess that just means that Mom doesn't know everything, right?
By the way, I told you about mice being in my kitchen--remember? The day I wrote that post, I bought mouse traps. Set them and caught one mouse. No more issues. I'm SO THANKFUL! I HATE the idea of mice in my house.
That's all for now. Have a wonderful, blessed, great and happy day!
This morning was beautiful. Clear and calm. Now the winds are strong and the dust is blowing. We are expecting some rain or snow later today and there's a 40% chance for snow tomorrow, too. This is definitely NOT the type of weather I am used to! Except the wind. Phoenix always had a lot of wind in March, too.
Shane is busy finding all the kitchen cabinet doors over in the shop. Time to scrub them all up and get them painted. I am thoroughly enjoying being in the kitchen these days, but it is time to put doors on the cabinets. My family will remember how I always hated not having cabinet doors in the houses Dad built when I was young. It is crazy how long it takes to get things done sometimes though.
A friend from church asked Cody and Amy to help sort potatoes today. We are very thankful that Gilbert was finally able to sell the rest of his potato harvest--he's been concerned. It isn't fun to take a loss, but it would be worse to have to trash the whole cellar load of potatoes. Cody and Amy have done potato sorting periodically over the last few months. Gives them a few extra dollars.
While they were working, I went to the office. I spent the morning making phone calls. We're trying to determine whether it makes sense to offer a shepherding home (similar to a foster home) for girls who need a place to stay while they are pregnant. It doesn't seem like that's going to be a good answer. In the meantime though, we're still raising money so that we'll be able to rent or buy a home. I talked to several people from local Social Services offices to let them know about our services. One of the six counties that we serve wants me to come speak to their group of employees who work with the public. That's cool!
In two more weeks we're having a big yard sale. Last year I organized a yard sale to benefit the Women's Resource Center and Valley Horizons combined. We netted nearly $1,000. Hopefully we'll do as well or even better this year.
We also have a good deal right now on Elitch Gardens tickets if you have friends or family in the Denver area. We get to keep $5 from each ticket we sell and the tickets are just $20. Pretty good deal.
Okay. Enough about Valley Horizons and my work there. Most of you want to know about the family anyway. Dana and Abby are building a chicken coop right now. Actually a chicken ark. Funny name, but it is actually a clever idea. There are handles on each end of a rectangular structure so the ark can be moved around. The ark will have nests on each end and a small "yard" in the middle. The roof can be opened on either end to gather eggs, plus you open the "yard" section during the day so the chickens can range free. Makes for healthy eggs!
Funny thing happened this morning. Abby woke me up. She was worried because Blackie (one of the roosters) had a thread wrapped around his tongue! Funny kid.
Cody dropped a bombshell on the family this week. I won't bore you with the details of what led up to this decision, but he has decided he wants to join the Army when he turns 17. That upsets me greatly for lots of reasons, but it might be a good thing for him. I've told him I will sign the papers but asked for him to show he's the man he thinks he is and get some things done in the next six months. Yeah, less than six months. He turns 17 in late September. I never dreamed I'd be asked to send a 17-year-old to the Army. He will get his GED in the Army before basic training. I never dreamed one of my kids would choose to drop out of high school either. I guess that just means that Mom doesn't know everything, right?
By the way, I told you about mice being in my kitchen--remember? The day I wrote that post, I bought mouse traps. Set them and caught one mouse. No more issues. I'm SO THANKFUL! I HATE the idea of mice in my house.
That's all for now. Have a wonderful, blessed, great and happy day!
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