It's been crazy long since I've been on here. I think everyone is healthy here again so hopefully I have a little more time....yeah right! :)

Besides having had sick people here, we have been a little more involved in the lives of a few people in the village in the last couple months. There have been several heart wrenching situations/circumstances. We struggle with knowing how to help kids whose parents are essentially absent, or kids who have been "removed" from the home by CPS but are actually still there because of  a variety of issues with the system.

We had several appointments in Phoenix, so we decided that instead of rushing around all in one day we would stay overnight and take our time. Ahhh, so much more refreshing. Thanks for the beds, Melissa! Here are some pics from the hike we took to Piestewa Peak....well at least some of us made it to the top.... It was harder work than we planned for, so only Jim, Bryce, and Tara made it to the summit, while the rest waited about 2/3 of the way up.

Ready for the hike

wow, this is getting steep!

This is the easy part of the trail.

hey Seth can you see California?

climb, climb up sunshine mountain...... 

At the top.

back down we go!

Misc pics

The best "toy" in the toy box!

In a cardboard house.

Matthew and his monkey.

Happenings In The Miller House

It finally snowed here! here are some pics of  happenings around the Miller house. 

Matt & I out in the snow

Matt being silly

Matt rolling his eyes



The boys sleep over in the fellowship building so us girls sleep in the boys old beds and Matthew sleeps upstairs with us.

Last night we stayed up till midnight playing games & Visiting

Happy new year!


Posted by: Sharayah

Coolness By: Seth N. Miller

On the 26th of august the Toews' son Jeremy flew into Flagstaff in the Quest Kodiak, it is a VERY COOL plane, well actually for me any plane is very cool but the Kodiak is WAY COOLER here I'll show you how COOL it is ................

this is the best pic i got

just coming in

Matt being silly

the glass cockpit

up in the air

the cockpit 

that's me

Matt and i

Jeff, if you are looking at this thank you for the airplane ride!!!

P.s. This is very late (-;

this n that

Just a sampling of what keeps me from posting very often.....school, harvesting green tomatoes, canning green stuff, painting, studying and a host of other things....just in case you wondered. :-)

I've been thinking a lot lately about being in touch with God moment by moment throughout each day and always knowing or asking for His leading in each decision I make big or small. I wonder how many opportunities to touch others lives I have missed in my lifetime because I am too busy doing my "to do" list to be aware of His leading. Even within our own family. God has given us these children for a time and have I taken every opportunity to instill His truths in them? Bryce is almost 17 and where has the time gone? 

We went to Coal Mine Canyon a few weeks ago.

Matthew had fun crawling around in the sand!

We definitely need a real carrier for Matthew.

Tara, Sharayah and Seth took a different route so 

that they wouldn't have to go down the drop off.

Matthew was being silly eating his broccoli!

He was opening his mouth, and saying "ohhhh", 

in a really high voice

        

"Helping" Dad build a fire

        

and...

         

         

...admiring his work!

He is always right there when he hears the stove door open. He will leave anything for that, including food.

I love his inquisitiveness about figuring things out. He seems to take longer than our others though,  to figure out that "no", actually means, "no". :-) Maybe he will keep us young.

Scorpions anyone?

We have not been hiking in a long time so last Sunday we decided to hike down into the canyon. It was amazing how different everything is since the monsoon rains. We walked up a gully that was about 4-5' wide and about 5' deep that was never there before. And the sand dunes were a lot steeper...at times we found ourselves sliding down out of control. A bit scary for me, but the kids seemed to think it was great. Seth let everyone know when he got stung by a scorpion. Thankfully it wasn't the poisonous kind. And believe it or not, even that, hasn't deterred him from going barefoot.

We are keeping busy plugging away at school. So far we are staying on track. Yay! It's hard to believe Bryce is a junior this year and we are having conversations about continuing education. He would really like to go through CollegePlus, like a family we know has done, and get a bachelors by the time he graduates high school. So we are praying about it to see if God opens the way for that.

We have been blessed with a wonderful crop of tomatoes for the first time since we moved here. So we are really enjoying the fresh tomatoes. I had forgotten how good they actually are. Looks like there will be enough to freeze or dry too. Next year we are hoping to plant more in our garden.

Matthew got his cast off about a month ago and he has been taking steps for about a week or more now, but still prefers to crawl. He gets lots of practice with his walking though because his siblings are constantly coaxing him to walk.

The last several months have just seemed to take a lot of effort on a daily basis. Sometimes I feel like I just get more behinder each day...not just in tangible things, but in relationships in our own family, and God and with friends in the community. Sometimes it feels like I'm walking to school uphill both ways in several feet of snow. I just started looking up scriptures on joy because I know there are days I forget about rejoicing in the Lord. So if you think about it, keep us all in your prayers.

Recording has started, of the New Testament in Hopi. We are really excited! Someone who has attended church meetings for years commented as she heard the book of Mark being recorded that she didn't realize how serious it is. Hopefully this will bring more understanding for the older generation here that grew up speaking Hopi.

Recently I have enjoyed having more interaction again with some women in the village. We had not connected for a while so this has been good. I hope we can keep it up through the winter when it seems harder to get out. One of them does a lot of reading and has been asking for books to borrow, so I loan her a couple books and she brings them back in a few weeks for more. The books have been christian nonfiction for the most part....true stories about real people and she really likes them.

Matthew helping with the dishes...or not.

Excavating

This is our tomato jungle

Ready to go up!

Skyping with Grandma Miller

Love those corn cobs.

Seth and Sharayah helping with stucco at the Red Feather straw bale house.

Recycled stuff and Matthew pix - Posted by Tara

Seems like we've been crafting a lot lately--mostly sewing but lately it's been cutting with th Cricut machine:

And I've mostly been cutting from this one cartridge:

Matthew in the laundry basket!

The celery monster!

Mom made these little jackets for me and Sharayah...

And these for Matthew - all from recycled shirts!

Posted by Tara