4th of July`

The 4th of July celebrations are a big community event here in Klawock. We have really enjoyed them and hope to make them our "family" holiday. We are thinking that even when the kids grow up and move out, hopefully they will come back home for the 4th of July. I would love to have Christmas be that, but with winter time travel what it is here, I think it is more realistic to plan for the summer time.
This year, we spent the 3rd of July with the baptist church in Craig watching the Craig fireworks at one of their members homes. We had a very nice time, and the weather was perfect for fireworks.
July 4th, the church had a truck in the parade. Madison Nickerson was the 4th of July queen this year, so we had the queen on our truck! Fun and games all afternoon at the school yard! We got home late afternoon and everybody was so tired and sunburned that we all crashed and missed the Klawock fireworks.
We have had such beautiful weather here this summer. Even lifetime residents are commenting on how much sun we have had.
(I will add some pictures to this post later)

Book Review

This is my first review as a Book Review Blogger for Thomas Nelson Publishers. I was pleased to review the Word of Promise Next Generation New Testament on MP3. The all-star cast of this project is what originally drew me. Stars like Corbin Bleu, Emily Osment, Sean Astin and other favorites of my tweenagers read the International Children's Bible with full dramatization.
The dramatization, as well as, the enhanced sound effects really help bring the New Testament to life. Having listened to the dramatized version of the NIV with a more mature cast, I must say that for my personal enjoyment, I prefer the older cast. My tweens however, love to hear the voices they know and love from TV and movies.
The 23 hours of listening is a bit daunting for a one time sit through, but in short bursts is quite enjoyable. The enclosed 40 day listening program breaks it up into nice size portions. I don't think audio bibles will soon replace the paper and ink bible I turn to so frequently, but the next generation seems to be much more "audio" motivated. My tweens have been anxiously waiting my completion of this review, so they can have the MP3 cds for themselves.
The bonus "Behind the Scenes" DVD was a hit with this mom. Seeing the stars from HSM, Hannah Montana and Lord of the Rings boldly proclaim their faith in Jesus Christ was a real encouragement to our kids. Over 100 actors were involved in this project and their faith and love for Jesus shows in the work they have done.

Memorial Day Picnic

Last Sunday we had our church service at the little league park in Craig and had a picnic afterwards. We had a great time! It rained and was a little chilly, but everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves. I'm sure Larry had a good message, but I must admit, watching the eagles fly overhead and all the boats on the water distracted me through most of it. We live in a truly amazing place. We had a good turnout and everytime we plan something, and people show up for it, I feel encouraged. The kids and "old guys" had a game of softball. The "old guys" won! I think the kids were really surprised. They didn't think the adults had it in them. Age and experience beat out youth and speed, I guess.

Mary and I have been having a good time crafting together. She helped me get some of the housework done today while the boys were at ball games, then she and I worked on various craft projects that we have been meaning to get to. The store has all their embroidery patterns on sale, so I think I'll pick a few different ones for some "hope chest" projects for Mary to work on. She is very interested in the idea of aprons right now, we found a cute site on line that sells all kinds of aprons. Maybe we'll make up a few, some for now, some for her hope chest. She is growing into a beautiful young lady, and I love to see her interest in the homemaker skills.

TJ and Noah are smack dab in the middle of the baseball season. Noah has gotten hits in the last two games. He walks in the door after the game with a real cheshire cat grin and says, very non-chalantly, "got another hit today" , but I can see the pride in his eyes. He loves baseball, and I love to see him involved in something he enjoys so much. TJ's level has only two teams, so the competition has been pretty fierce. So far, the games have had alternating winners, which I am really glad about. It would have made for a very dull season if one team had been blowing out the other one at every game.

We are finally getting the plans finalized for our trip back home this summer. Someone graciously gave us some companion tickets they had. The only problem with them is, they don't fly into Mich. So, we are working on how to get from Chicago to MI. I can't wait to see everyone.

Mother's Day

Ok, I'm a little tardy in posting about Mother's Day, but c'mon I'm a busy mom....

Mother's Day has never been my favorite holiday. I think I picked up my disdain for the day from my mother. My dislike grew every year with the reading of Proverbs 31, as I never seem to "measure up". Then, my mom passed on, so it seemed my loss was highlighted. Whatever the reason, I have never liked the day.

This year was definately an exception, and I hope a new pattern. I think finally admitting that I didn't like the day, released me to just enjoy the day, without all the expectations I previously had.

We had a wonderful breakfast at church (the men did all the cooking and cleaning up after), I had the opportunity to speak during service (I really miss teaching on a regular basis), and then just a relaxed afternoon and evening with my family. The men did a great job with breakfast and we had alot of fun with the idea of them doing ALL the work. They had even put tablecloths and decorations on the tables. Very impressive.

I pray beginning some of these "new" traditions will help solidify the family feeling in our church.

I have noticed that people are sticking around later and later, chatting after service, which really warms our hearts. God has good plans for us and we anticipate His harvest.

Spring Fever

We have been teasing the idea of Spring for a few weeks now, or should I say Spring has been teasing us. We had three weeks of glorious sunshine, the temps were still in the 30's, but the sun shone bright and clear. The end of last week and the weekend proved to be a confusion of snow, hail, rain, freezing rain, and a few bursts of sunshine. March truly "comes in like a lion" and I am hoping it "goes out like a lamb".

Noah, when asked what he wanted for his birthday, chose a trip off the rock with his dad. So, he and Larry took the ferry to Ketchikan for an overnight adventure. Not much to do in K town this time of year, but he did get to eat at McDonald's! For the first time in two years! They went Wal*Marting and just hung out.

We have been passing the sore throat, stuffy nose, fever crud from one of us to the other and I'm ready for it to be done! Poor Mary missed a whole week of her short volleyball season. She goes back to practice tomorrow and hopefully will get to play in the games this week.
TJ is shooting up like a weed! He daily challenges me to see who is taller! So far, I'm still in the lead, but I don't know how much longer that will last. He is sprouting quite a 'stache and shows me his lip whever he can.

We have had some new faces at church for the last few weeks, and that is encouraging. Larry has been preaching through the book of Ezra. The Lord is really teaching us some valuable things about the priorities of His house. I have also begun a study on the concept of exchange. Trading one thing for another. My primary scripture comes from Romans 1:23, 25 as Paul describes the trading of an immortal God for worthless images carved in the image of mortal man. The Lord has been speaking to me about the things, worthless things, in my life for which I have traded things of infinately more value. So, I will continue on the study and let the light of the Word illuminate the dark corners of my soul and with light, bring life.

Wow! It has been a while since I posted..shame on me. We have been so busy getting the two older ones going on their new curriculum. They are loving it! TJ has really taken the initiative in his own education with this new software. He wants to finish the grade he is on and advance to the next grade as soon as possible. So far, they are maintaining all top grades and seem to be enjoying the work. They were working on base 10/base 5 math today. YIKES! It has been the first thing that I had to do some serious review on before I could try to explain it to them. I'm not sure we've got it yet. I'll have to google it and see if someone out there has a better explanation than I do.
The weather has been great. Cold, but clear. The drop in temperatures makes the snow on the ground (not very much left) really glisten. The sunshine is encouraging the kids to get outside some and they have been taking walks almost every day. We are expecting rain again by the end of the week, but we'll take all the sunshine we can get for now.
We had to buy a new dryer today. The old one just died. We had the repair guy in and the motor was just fried. Thankfully, the Lord has blessed the church financially so there was money to get what we needed. We are so blessed!
We begin leadership meetings with the board members and their wives tomorrow night. I really believe the Lord is wanting to raise these couples up and use them for His glory. We are entering this season with great anticipation.

We have had such beautiful weather here this week. A couple of days of rain, but then lots of sunshine. The sun barely clears the tree tops across the street, it just skims along them all day until it reaches the other side. When sitting in the living room, we have to shut the blinds for part of the afternoon because it is so blindingly bright.

Friday, the kids and I went to Craig for our homeschool group. We stayed all afternoon and Larry joined us at the pizza place when he got off work. Then we had a CAP meeting in the evening and Mary and Noah walked down to the gym to roller skate. It was a beautiful day outside, so on the way I stopped and got some pictures of the kids outside showing their Michigan pride.

The older two kids are now back to homeschooling. I am really enjoying having them around. We have joined the correspondence school and will take a couple of classes through them and our core subjects with the same curriculum Noah is using. The nice thing is the correspondence school provides computers and a technology class. I'm excited about them being computer literate! We have also started an intense family altar time, using John Piper's Blazing Center curriculum. We have 5 days of discussion and then on Day 6 there is a DVD to watch. We are also using the Christmas cards we received as our prayer list. We pick one card that we received each day and pray, as a family, for that family. I am really looking forward to what God will do in and through the Goodale family this year.