winter happenings

I'm having a hard time pulling myself away from knitting to post here. Tara taught me how to knit and it seems to be quite addictive. Kinda like puzzles for me....which is why I hardly ever get them out anymore.

Right now the Toews boys are all home and Melissa is here too. It's so good to see her again. She and Luke Toews are courting/dating. I think it's pretty exciting.

Mandi, who had been here for 2 months helping out, left on Monday. I will miss not having that extra help, especially with food prep. She would be busy in the kitchen in the mornings so that I could focus on school. We have been on break now this week and probably next, so we'll see how things go when school starts up again. I'm hoping to get things set up for the kids to take turns making lunch each day so that I can still be available for school and kitchen questions.

Meanwhile since school has been out, we have been keeping busy with other projects. I had a bunch of mending piling up so I was able to work on that. I have some other sewing projects that I would like to get to also. I made a felted purse the other day since mine was falling apart. I'm not sure if I'm 100% happy with the results. I need to do something different with the zipper or remove it altogether. Tara, Seth and Sharayah all have some sewing they would like to do too. So I want to help them get started on their things.

The last few days we have had children here nearly all day. There are times I just wish they would go home. But by the grace of God they are growing on me and I kinda enjoy having them around more and more. It is great to be able to speak truth into their lives and there are times we are able to encourage them. I pray that they will see the love of God through us.

We got some snow again so the kids are coming up to go sledding too. Bryce had the opportunity to sled with one of the boys his age that we have not seen up here for a long time. I think he really enjoyed that. Most of the boys his age don't come up here like they used to.

Some days I feel like God is stretching me to the limit, but I know it is to grow me and bring glory to Him. Thank you all for your prayers! They are surely needed.

I will have Tara add some pics here tomorrow.