Beatitudes, Blessings & Broadcasts

{pretty, happy, funny, real} every weekend 2/11/12

2012-02-11T12:31:00.000-08:00

{pretty}

Rachel made decoupage Valentines for a party she went to. I thought this one was particularly beautiful.

{happy}

Kaila and I surprised Kaila's good friend Anna on her birthday. We brought her a white chocolate mocha frappachino and some petite vanilla bean scones. It made us very happy to see her so happy on her special day.

{funny}

Anna's little brother Joseph made us laugh with his dreamy stares at his sister's treat. He was so funny!

{real}

This is a very real photo of a typical look on a typical school day here in the Babiak home. Rachel and Kendra working hard on school and Nathan playing chess on the computer.

Are you going through the wilderness?

2012-02-09T08:37:00.000-08:00

Are you going through the wilderness?
by: Hannah Babiak

The Webster's 1828 dictionary describes the wilderness as a desert; a tract of land or region uncultivated and uninhabited by human beings, whether a forest or a wide barren plain. In Scripture, it is applied frequently to the deserts of Arabia. The Israelites wandered in the wilderness forty years. It also means a state of disorder.

We might not be physically in the wilderness, but God will often lead us into a state of disorder (wilderness). I feel like I have been traveling through the wilderness for the last few years. My life often seems to be a bit chaotic and disorderly. I really like to have my ducks in a row and they've really gotten out of line quite a bit these past few years. I never know when the next crisis will strike. I don't know how things are going to end up. I don't know where God is taking me. Sometimes it's scary. I started to do a topical study on the wilderness. I just started this study last night. What I am seeing is amazing and so I'm going to be sharing some of the things I learn during my study.

I just made it through Genesis and Exodus last night and already this is what I've learned.

God is the one that leads us into the wilderness and He is also the one that leads us through the wilderness.

God meets with us in the wilderness.

God gives us commands and duties to fulfill in the wilderness. He also gives us refreshments, our daily bread, along with food and much needed rest while we are there as well. He gives us His law and gives us direction for our lives in the wilderness. He also gives us light during the dark times of traveling through the wilderness.

God opens our eyes in the wilderness and helps us to see things that we didn't see before. He causes us to fear Him and believe on Him in the wilderness.

God casts a vision for our lives in the wilderness.

God makes us to sing in the wilderness.

God makes bitter things sweet in the wilderness.

God responds mercifully to our constant complaints while we are in the wilderness and He shows us His glory even when we don't deserve it. He hears us and listens to us even when we aren't always being grateful for our situation.

God causes us to fight our enemies in the wilderness. Through those fights He teaches us to work as a team and the importance of holding each other up during difficult times. God delivers us and sanctifies in the wilderness. God saves people in the wilderness and overthrows our enemies as well.

God sets boundaries for us in the wilderness and helps us to get rid of the idols in our hearts and He punishes us for our sins.

God also wants some things from us while we are in the wilderness. He wants us to hold feasts, to serve him, to sacrifice to Him. He wants us to offer our oblations and give sacrifically. He wants us to work and to observe the Sabbath as a day of rest. God wants us to write down what we learn while traveling through the wilderness.

Well, those are my gleanings from last nights study. It really opened my eyes as to why the Lord even leads us into the wilderness to begin with. It seems that when we are in the wilderness, the Lord is able to do exceedingly above all that we could ever ask or imagine while He works on our hearts as we prepare to enter into the Promised Land. I hope this blesses you as much as it has blessed me.

2012 Winterfest - Lake Geneva, WI

2012-02-05T17:44:00.000-08:00

Winterfest in Lake Geneva, WI is always a highlight with our family. However, it is usually so crowded when it's judging day. So, we decided to take the children while the sculptors were still working for an art field trip for school. That way they could see them working and it wouldn't be so crowded. The weather was unusually warm this year which presented its problems for the sculptors. We ended up making a good decision. It was not crowded at all and as a bonus, many of the sculptors stopped their work and talked to the children about what they were doing.

The "Vikings in Black" working on their sculpture.

It was really neat to see all of the tools that they used to make these magnificent sculptures.

It was so warm that the lake is melting.

Bob and Andrew enjoying the day out.

This sculpture was our favorite. The guys working on it were awesome! They spent some time talking to our family about the importance of team work and everyone playing an important role. This was a team of three men. One is excellent at shaping, one is very talented at making faces and the other guy was awesome at doing lettering. Together they were forming a rolled up $100 bill.

They had this ice tear coming out of Benjamin Franklin's eye. Incredible and so symbolic!

This was by far our favorite and we later found out that it won the people's choice award.

These sculptors were working on this bird.

How's that for a pig?

Sarah was quite delighted. She really liked the pig.

We thought the name of this group was funny because they certainly weren't wearing kilts. It was warm out, but not that warm.

The good old "Vickings in Black" hard at work.

They had some smaller snow piles for the school children to work on. Someone sculpted this heart. Words were edited on by me of course.

Carriage rides by the lake! I'm always taking pictures of the horses. They remind me of when Bob and I were engaged and he took me on a carriage ride through Lake Geneva. Fond memories!

I kind of thought this picture was funny because the flag lined up right where the dinosaurs mouth was to look like a tongue.

On the belly part of the dinosaur, they had carved out this skeleton of a baby dinosaur out of ice. Amazing! This one won 2nd place.

Here's the winning snow sculpture, all covered up. The sign that follows this picture went with it.

The next day, when I went back, it was really warm and half had fallen apart, and I really thought the sign they had up that day was funny.

Apple eaten by a worm.

Kaila enjoying the sculptures.

Winterfest under construction!

Michael, Nathan, Kaila and Kendra

Jared

Bob, Andrew and Myself

Here's the back of our favorite one. The guys were so funny. They were arguing over who would be the one to wake up in the middle of the night to come make some additions to it. They cracked us up. They were really a fun bunch. They actually make money doing this. They take on many consignment jobs throughout the winter and they travel to the Arctic region to practice. WOW! They've been doing this for 26 years. Amazing!

Here's the "Vikings in Black's" finished sculpture.

Our favorite one with the words.

I think we'll make it a yearly tradition to go when they are working on them. It made it much more interesting. My children learned a lot and are just way too excited for the next snowfall because dad said we will have our own snow sculpting contest here at home if we ever get anymore snow this year.

{Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real} Every Weekend here at Beatitudes, Blessings and Broadcasts 2/4/12

2012-02-05T15:06:00.000-08:00

{Pretty}

This past Tuesday, for our girls night out, I took Kaila and Sarah to the University of Wisconsin's Faculty Piano Trio Concert. It was pretty, beautiful, relaxing and wonderful all wrapped up into one. They played pieces from Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms. They were all excellent, but we were very enthralled with the pianist. She was really, really good. A couple of our friends were also at the concert, so we ended the night by going out to ice cream with one of our friends. It was a lovely evening.

{Happy}

Rachel, Kaila and Kendra at the snow sculpting competition. We had such a fun time. I'll do a post later about that, since I have a ton of pictures.

{Funny}

My children saw this van and it was a pretty unanimous decision that this should be the next Babiak Family Van! Wouldn't we look Scooby Doobyish riding around town in this?

{Real}

Can you think of a better way to keep your drink cold than by sticking it in a pile of snow?

Until next week, go out and enjoy those pretty, happy, funny and real moments.

{pretty, happy, funny, real} January 28, 2012

2012-01-28T20:07:00.000-08:00

{pretty}

Today we celebrated Family Day. Six years ago, I got off an airplane in Chicago from Liberia, West Africa with three new children who became part of our family. They were 10, 11 and 12 years old back then. Now they are 16, 17, and 18. This morning when the children woke up, I had the table decorated with hearts. It served a dual purpose, because we can use the same tablecloth all month for Valentines day.

{happy}

We enjoyed spending time with our friends this week. Kaila and Paige got to spend some quality time together and that always makes Kaila very happy.

{funny}

This next picture is not in focus at all, but it pretty much adds to the funniness of it all. This is the kind of fun that goes on when you get our family and the McIntyre's together. We have so much fun together.

{real}

Sarah holding one of her Family Day presents. It's a bear that has a heart with the word "Princess" on it. When Sarah was in Liberia, her name, given to her by her birth parents was Princess. She wanted a new name when she got adopted, but we wanted to honor her other name, so we named her Sarah which means Princess. She loved her bear! Of course, so do her younger siblings.

Happy Birthday Andrew!

2012-01-25T14:24:00.000-08:00

This past Sunday was my baby boy's 2nd birthday. He was awakened to Belgium waffles with vanilla ice cream, strawberries and whipped cream. Can you honestly think of a more delightful way to awaken?

Waking up from a birthday snooze...

He opens his presents like he peels oranges, seriously and piece by piece.

Thomas!

We gave him some fruit snacks. While he was eating his fruit snacks, he was watching his Thomas trains to make sure they didn't get away.

A football tent to hide away from his siblings.

His cake was a peanut butter cake and it was really, really yummy!

We are so thankful to God for our gift of Andrew. He is a great blessing to us all.

pretty, happy, funny, real {January 21, 2012}

2012-01-21T09:07:00.000-08:00

{pretty}

Our cat is so pretty! Wherever she sits, she just invokes feelings of coziness and home. She really is a beautiful cat.

{happy}

Spending time with the Layhew family always makes all of us VERY happy! We have a lot in common, they are fun and they make us all laugh a lot. Our times together fly by. They are a ton of fun to be with and that's something we all agree upon at our house.

{funny}

Tirzah put this doll head on top of her head and wrapped herself in a sheet and walked around the house and well, if only I had recorded the amount of sheer laughter that was taking place - you would understand the funniness of this a bit better.

{real}

Andrew is the only child I've had that LOVES to peel his own oranges. He is the cutest thing ever when he does it too. He takes it very seriously. I have always loved peeling oranges and most of my children dislike it very much, so I guess you can say, he's a boy after mom's own heart.

Until next week, go out and enjoy those pretty, happy, funny and real moments.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

2012-01-19T10:10:00.000-08:00

This is a report written by my beautiful daughter Sarah. As many of you know, Sarah was adopted by us from Liberia, West Africa six years ago. When she came, she had no education. Sarah has struggled over the years with learning to read and write. This week when we were studying Martin Luther King, Jr., Sarah wrote this report on him. This is all in her own words. You have no idea what an answer to prayer this is that Sarah can write a report like this. Remember that just six years ago, she didn't even know that letters made sounds and she couldn't even write her name. With illiteracy so high in the land that she came from, I find it a great pleasure that God allowed me to have been a part in her getting this far. We were told by professionals that Sarah would most likely never get past a second grade level. I think this proves them wrong. We are very proud of her accomplishments. Please feel free to leave a comment and let Sarah know what you think of her paper. She did use a Grolier encyclopedia to get some of her information.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Written by: Sarah Grace Babiak – January 2012

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. He was the second of three children of Reverend Michael. In 1948, King received his bachelors degree. King was one of the smartest black men who ever lived.

King met Cortta Scott King. They were married in June, 1953, in Boston University. King received his first job as a pastor in the Baptist church in Montgomery. King loved preaching in the church. Some people liked what he said and some didn’t like it. King wanted to be a good teacher. He spent most of his life studying so he would only speak the truth to people. King held on to the truth. There was nothing that ever held him back.

Back then, in Martin Luther King, Junior’s day, blacks and whites were separated from each other. For example, black people would not go to the same church as white people. Whites would not go to the same church as blacks. King believed that one day whites and blacks would be friends. He believed that they would eat from the same table, laugh and talk to each other, and even go to the same church together someday.

King traveled to many places giving speeches to others, telling them to believe in what is right and wrong. King wrote his first book with his father called, “Stride Toward Freedom,” in 1958. King was one of those kinds of people that said he would do something and he would do it. King wanted blacks and whites to love and like each other. He wanted everyone to know they were very important in God’s eyes. He wanted people to love each other no matter which color they were. He wanted people to know that God loves everyone no matter if they are white or black.

They were all made in God’s image. King wanted his speeches to go in people’s ears and through them. He wanted people to get the message through their heads. King was not afraid to stand alone for what is right and pleasing to God his Father. King was not afraid to tell people what they were doing was very wrong.

Some people would hear and take it into their hearts. Other people would talk and say bad things about him. On August 28, 1963, King was smarter than ever. He wrote his first great speech, “I Have A Dream.” Again, some people liked it and some didn’t. After King wrote his speech, he was chosen by “Time” magazine as “Man of the Year.” He was the first African American ever to write a good speech that people liked. King was honored for all his hard work. He was honored as the youngest recipient of the, “Noble Peace Prize.” King was very happy with his hard work. King believed if you work hard on something, you can get it done. King had a dream that one day, blacks and whites would be friends and love each other and play and have fun together. King’s goal was to bring blacks and whites together as friends and family. King wrote for people to understand how important they all are.

Today, because of Martin Luther King, Jr., blacks and whites are friends and families. They can talk to each other and welcome each other into their homes.

We should not be afraid to speak for what we believe is right and stand up against what is wrong, just like King did when he was alive on this earth. What I learned from King after reading and writing about him, is to not be afraid to speak what I believe is right and wrong. All I have to say is, thanks to God for all the great work he did in Martin Luther King, Junior’s life. Because of Martin Luther King, Jr., I now have a beautiful mother and a handsome daddy and the special thing about it is they are white and I am black. God blessed me with two beautiful parents, and it all happened because one man had a dream.

pretty, happy, funny, real (Saturday, January, 14, 2012)

2012-01-14T20:08:00.000-08:00

pretty

happy

funny

real

Consequences

2012-01-12T17:22:00.000-08:00

I wrote this letter to one of my children today. It's good advice for all of my children, so I thought I'd share it on here, since I know they all read my blog.

Dear Children,
As your mother, I am writing you to encourage you to think about the consequences of your actions.

Galatians 6:7-8 says, "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life."

Everyone needs to learn to accept complete responsibility for their sin, along with the consequences for their sins. Thinking about those consequences ahead of time can save you a lot of heartache and trouble in the future. A single act of sin can affect countless people and it will affect your future. If you can learn to avoid sin, you will avoid much suffering and many painful consequences.

You need to allow God to change the desires of your heart. You need to excercise self-control when you are confronted with sin. This is something we all need to do.

Everything you do, including those things that are not sinful, have consequences. Learning to think before you act is a good habit to get into. Look to Jesus as an example of how to live rightly. Look at today, and see how the decisions you made today will affect your future. Look at the past and see how the decisions you made in the past still affect you today. Look at how your relatives and friends decisions affect you.

Jeremiah 17:10 says, "I the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings."

Robert Louis Stevenson is a famous children's book author. He said, "Sooner or later everyone sits down to a banquet of consequences."

Be willing to serve your family and others with your whole heart and God will bless you tremendously. Be a giver when it comes to serving. Care more about other people's things than you do your own. Set a good example to others and you will receive many blessings. Accept the consequences of your sins and think about what those consequences will be before you choose to go down the wrong path.

I am praying for you!
I love you!
Love,
Mom

pretty, happy, funny, real (every Saturday)

2012-01-07T09:49:00.000-08:00

Each week in 2012, I hope to post pictures from that week that show something pretty, something happy, something funny, and something real.

PRETTY

HAPPY

FUNNY

REAL

New Years Eve!

2012-01-03T15:10:00.000-08:00

We have some fun family traditions that we do every New Years Eve at our home. Each member of the family gets to make an hors d'oeuvre. Through out the day, about every hour, we eat a new hors d'oeuvre. We spend the bulk of the day playing games and in the evening we spend some time watching old homemade family movies. It's such a blast! We all love this tradition and my children have always chosen to stay home and enjoy the festivities, even when invited elsewhere.

This year, Robert made mini poppy seed muffins. This was the first one we ate. They were a very poppy way to start the day.

Kendra made "angelic" eggs! They turned out great!

Michael made the winning dish this year. These are new keepers for us - Mini Spinach Frittatas! They were incredibly good! Michael is turning out to be quite the Chef Boy-R-Dee!

Nathan got to make the yearly favorite. It's just not New Years Eve without Piggies in a Blanket! Nathan did a mighty good job rolling up those piggies!

Yeah Baby! Taco Dip is one of our favorites. Hey Jared - you better be careful - your face might freeze like that!

Rachel always tries a new meatball recipe each year. This year, she made enchilada meatballs. They turned out really good. Rachel's quite the meatball maker.

I made a vegetable pizza!

Daddy made the only hors d'oeuvre he knows how to make - shrimp cocktail (his favorite). Let's just say he's blessed to have lots of good cooks in the house.

Sarah made chicken nut puffs. They tasted like chicken nuggets with nuts in them. They were pretty tasty.

Kaila delighted us all with calzone pinwheels. Simply delicious!

I think my three little guys were confusing the holiday with the fourth of July. They insisted on going shirtless much of the day. Go figure!

My sweet hubby and I. There's no better way to ring in the new year than beside the man of my dreams.

Have a wonderful 2012 everyone!

Christmas at Home

2011-12-29T20:34:00.000-08:00

On Christmas Eve, our family went to a live nativity in a barn. It was really neat. When we first got there, they had all these cookies and hot chocolate and cider for everyone. It was neat.

Kaila and Nathan enjoying the cookies while we wait in line for the Bethlehem Inn registry.

Rachel and Kaila, now the same height. Lovely sisters that they are.

It was neat to be in the barn with all the barn smells, sitting on hay and watching a reenactment of the very first Christmas. It brought a feeling of humility and awe to our Christmas Eve. The song, "This is Such a Strange Way To Save The World" kept coming to my mind. It was a neat experience to sing "Silent Night" in a barn with a bunch of other people on Christmas Eve. I have never done that before. It was a very neat experience for us all.

On our way home from the living nativity, we found this house all decked out for Christmas and when you tuned your radio to a certain station, you could watch their lights be synchronized to the music. That was lots of fun and brought lots of laughs to everyone. I captured a video of it, but I never have much luck downloading videos onto blogger. Sorry 'bout that.

When we got home, we have a tradition of letting all of the children who are 13 or over open either their hope chest gifts (for the girls) or their tool chest gifts (for the guys).

Robert and Michael both got this cool plier set to add to their tool chest collection.

Sarah got a really neat pumpkin soup tureen and a leaf platter. She had seen this when we were out shopping together and she loved it. She was so shocked that I remembered that she liked it and got it for her. She was so happy.

I did the same to Kaila. She saw these ladybug ceramic measuring spoons and a ladybug scrubby holder. She fell in love with them. Her dream car is a red VW bug that she wishes to paint black circles on to look like a ladybug. I couldn't afford the car, so she got the kitchen goods instead.

After we got the children all in bed, then dad and I had fun putting out all of the gifts. I always love when the children get to wake up in the morning and their faces just light up. It's such a joy for me to find the perfect gifts for my children and I delight in watching them open them. It always reminds me that God sent His perfect Son for us and I know God delights when we receive His perfect gift.

Then I got the table all decorated for our traditional Christmas morning breakfast of tea and scones.

Can you believe Andrew actually fell asleep like this? I wonder if he was dreaming of baby Jesus in the manger. He was actually more amused with the donkey they had in one of the stalls in the barn.

Christmas morning! What a joy! Some of my children wanted pictures taken by the tree. I captured a few of the ones who were ready for church on time to get their photos taken.

Kaila and Kendra

Our little curly Q.

Jared's all smiles today!

Cutie pie Andrew was so delighted to wake up and see Christmas!

A Christmas tree of boys - the very best kind of tree - don't you think??

Kaila with her little brothers - well, some of her little brothers. Michael wasn't feeling well Christmas morning. He was still in bed.

Lovely Rachel. She really needs to stop growing or she'll be taller than the tree.

Sweet Sisters! Where's Sarah? Oh, yes - she's still in the bathroom getting ready.

The family went to church (minus Michael and I) since he wasn't feeling well. I stayed home with him and we listened to a lot of Jonathan Park adventure C.D.'s. The family came home and I had our meal all ready. Herbed Turkey Breast, Garlic Herbed Rolls, Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Green Beans, Cranberry/Raspberry Gelatin and Chocolate Mint Pie for dessert. It was a wonderful Christmas meal. If you look closely in the picture you can see Jared singing his famous Paverati opera that he sings whenever he likes a meal that is put before him.

Andrew puts on his camouflaged hat. I think he thought he'd be less noticeable if he tried opening his siblings presents that way.

Funny story. Dad is always complaining that his pill container is so small. So we found this extra large one and put it in his stocking. He wasn't as amused as we were.

Nathan loved his new Tonka truck.

Andrew playing his flute. The Thomas matching game he got was by far his favorite. He held it in his hands while he opened the rest of his presents.

Andrew loved his baby laptop. Everytime it played music, he would bop his head and make us all laugh.

Want some Ice Cream anyone??? He's got enough to share!

Big boy undies....

Nathan loves his new bear. We asked him what he was going to name it and he said, "Teddy Bear!" Of course, what else would you name a bear?

Michael and Jared both got remote control vehicles that run on different frequencies so they can race each other. Fun, fun!

Jared liked his bean bag football game that he can play in the hallway.

Kendra was thrilled to open up a junior laptop. She's been enjoying the educational games on it.

Kendra colored this horse poster for Rachel. Both girls love horses so this was a special gift.

Rachel is really into doing different types of hairstyles. She got lots of hair stuff this Christmas. This was one of her favorite a set of rollers and clips.

A new telescope for Michael.

New earings for Sarah!

A hot chili pepper mug for Sarah. This girl loves hot stuff. She puts hot sauce on her eggs. Nothing much phases her. But get this, we take her to Starbucks and get her an egg nog latte and her tummy can't handle it. I guess we should have put some hot sauce in it. Haha!

Ok, there's a funny story behind this gift. At one of our Bright Lights meetings, Sarah had to answer the question, "If you could go anywhere, where would you go?" She said, "I'd go to Texas to see the Statue of Liberty." She was horrified on the way home as we informed her that the Statue of Liberty was not in Texas. It then became a family joke. So, on our last mother daughter ladies day out when we went Christmas shopping, I took the girls to a Red Robin restaurant and low and behold, when we walked in, there was a statue of liberty. I think she thought I had taken her to New Jersey or New York. I had to inform her this was not the real Statue of Liberty, but I did take her picture by it. Then when I found this paint by number (which she loves to do) I couldn't resist. It was a funny gift, but you would've had to have been here to catch the humor in it all. She laughed like crazy!

A makeup kit for Sarah.

Robert liked his tabletop soccer game.

Honesty - the first chapter in the book of Wisdom.

A survival blanket for when dad and the boys go survival camping. It supposedly retains up to 98% of your body heat.

Let everything that has breath Praise the Lord.

Kaila has always dreamed of going to Italy, thus the Italy calendar. We hope your dreams come true darling.

Kaila's favorite colors are blue and brown together. I found a store that was filled with stuff that Kaila loved. I love it when I find the perfect thing. She was thrilled.

Kaila got me this beautiful feminine mug. I love it.

A new radio to replace the one my little boys dumped paint all over. Yeah! Now I can listen to music again.

Bob gave me some jewelry, but he wrapped it in this large box that he filled with all kinds of nonsense, like foam pieces, old wood, broken Christmas lights, etc. Imagine the horror on my children's faces when I pulled this out and put it on my head and pretended like this was the gift he gave me. It was funny.

Here's the real gift. Beautiful necklace and earing set with my birthstone in them. Thanks sweetie! I love them.

We got daddy some funny t-shirts, a wall clock, a polo shirt, CD's for the computer and his favorite a deep dish pizza pan with a promise made by me to make homemade deep dish pizza, his favorite food on earth.

Kaila made this beautiful sign for her dad. He was very touched.

Here's a picture of Nathan with some Christmas cookies he made.

Today, we got to celebrate Christmas with all the grandparents. Kaila gave this gift to Grandma Marilynne. It was a drawing Kaila did of her aunt Hope on her wedding day. She won a blue ribbon on it at the fair and decided to give it to Grandma for Christmas.

Grandma Cheryl displaying some of her gifts.

Grandma Rachel displaying one of her gifts.

Kendra with our sweet little niece Lydia on her shoulders.

Sarah showing off a movie she got from Grandma.

Well, I could go on and on, but this gives you a glimpse of the fun we had for Christmas. Most of all, we enjoyed reflecting on Christ this season. Dad read the book, "Jotham's Journey" while we did advent candles all month. We took every opportunity to sing Christmas carols and minister to others and that is what made the season bright for us. We pray that you all had a blessed Christmas like we did.

Merry Christmas From our House to Yours!

2011-12-25T17:22:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas Everyone!

I promised everyone that I would try to do a family update around Christmas, so here goes.

Bob has kept himself very busy this year. Besides being the most wonderful husband in the world and the best dad that our children could ever ask for, he loves God and seeks to glorify Him everyday. He continues to also run the family book business and do other odds and end jobs for people when called upon. He works very hard for our family. He attends Alert Cadets with his sons regularly, leads our family in morning and evening devotions, helps to homeschool the children, he takes me on dates just about every week and showers our family with his love and affection. He had to have surgery this past fall because of a problem with him omentum and we are pleased to report that he is back to normal. Praise the Lord! We are so blessed to have such a hard working, loving, self-sacrificing dad and husband to lead our home.

I continue to be very blessed to be the wife to my wonderful husband, and mother to the nine wonderful children here in my home. This year I am teaching preschool to Andrew and Nathan, 2nd grade to Jared, 5th grade to Kendra, 8th grade to Michael and Rachel and 11th grade to Kaila. Bob supervises the teaching of Sarah and Robert. I love homeschooling my children and find it such a joy to hear Jared reading. It really blesses my heart. Each new reader brings such joy as they learn and discover new things. This past year I have enjoyed sewing, photography and cooking and entered many photos and some food in the county fair. It was fun to take part in that. I enjoyed gardening and canning lots of yummy produce from the garden. Most of all, I give praise and glory to God for carrying me through another year and showering me with so many blessings of which I am very undeserving.

Kaila has had an amazingly busy year and she has accomplished so much for Christ this year. Her enthusiasm for life is contagious and her joy and happiness that she finds in the Lord is a reward for her dad and I to watch every day. This year she organized and planned a "Ladies Day Out" at our church. She did many sewing projects. Entered over 40 projects in the county fair. She brought home 7 grand champions and reserve grand champion ribbons. She received an award for being the most outstanding youth in our 4H club. She participated in the Fairest of the Fair competition and boldly spoke for Christ in an amazing way! She also attended drivers ed and watch out everyone (she has her driving permit). She's the first one we've had to teach how to drive. She actually does very well and is a very cautious driver. Kaila continues to be involved in Bright Lights and is also a part of Generation Joshua. She is creative and fun and always sets such high goals for herself. She still teaches piano and has 19 students ranging in age from 4 years old through adult age. She has also taken on accompanying for her sister's violin teacher's recital. Kaila also enjoys blogging and writing about history, music, politics and anything else she feels like writing about. She is a blessing to all that know her. We thank God for Kaila and her 17 years of life that she's had thus far.

Robert is 17 years old now also. His big accomplishment this year was holding down his first summer job. He painted all summer long at Trinity College in Deerfield, IL. He really enjoyed this job and hopes to do more painting in his future. He is looking forward to being independent and is looking into different options for his future. He enjoyed entering some of our garden produce in the county fair this year and did very well. He also continues to be a part of Alert Cadets and enjoyed when the men from Alert Academy visited our church. He has also enjoyed singing at various nursing homes this year with the family, his Alert group and 4H club. Robert has started attending the Generation Joshua club and is learning more about that and he also participated in his first piano recital this year. Please join us in praying for Robert that God would clearly show him what he ought to do with his future and that he would be guided in the right direction.

Sarah is now 16 years old and has had a very busy year. She has really gotten good with her crocheting skills and even learned to crochet wire jewelry which she entered into our county fair and did very well with. She has also started taking piano lessons this year and participated in the piano recital as well. She enjoyed singing, "Go Tell it On The Mountain" for our church's Christmas recital. She has a beautiful singing voice. Sarah has made a lot of progress this year in many areas of her life. We are very pleased to see how God is working in her life. She loves her baby brother Andrew and enjoys playing with him very much. They are very close to each other. He adores her and she adores him. Sarah has learned to make homemade bread this year which was a big highlight in her life. She's always wanted to learn how to do that. Sarah continues to be a part of Bright Lights and has also started attending the Generation Joshua club. She looks forward to our Mother/Daughter dates that Kaila, Sarah and I go on once a month. She really has been enjoying our times together and is always still discovering new and exciting things even though she's been in America for six years. She's always amazed at so many things. She made mention the other day about how much nicer Christmas is here than it was in Africa. We love Sarah's persevering attitude and her joyful smile.

Michael has really GROWN tall this year. He is taller than me and keeps growing. He's all legs. This picture of him is from when we were decorating our tree. Michael loves Alert Cadets and enjoys working through those Alert books. He has memorized many verses, loves doing service projects and enjoys camping (especially survival type camping trips). He continues to love wood carving and this past year he carved the most beautiful hummingbird. It was by far, his hardest carving job yet and he got awarded a Grand Champion ribbon at the county fair. He also brought home a Merit from the Wisconsin State fair for another carved bird. He has also become quite good at working a scroll saw. Michael's passion is his love for computers. He enjoys reading books on computers and has just started taking computer classes. He also loves making movies and this year he did a documentary film on the hymn entitled, "In the Sweet By and By." He entered it into the county fair and did well with it. He continues to play both the piano and guitar. He also has become quite good at singing the tenor roll both in school and at church. Michael is a part of the Generation Joshua group and is becoming interested in politics. Michael's other hobbies include landscaping, wind power, models and he still loves Legos and K-nex. Most of all though, we enjoy seeing his love for the Lord grow and grow over the last 14 years.

Rachel is 12 years old now and she has matured so much this past year. I cannot believe how much she's matured. She is becoming a wonderful young lady. She is an excellent student and is in the 8th grade - yes, she's way ahead in school. She has wonderful organizational skills and she's a self motivated young lady. She can already cook as good as Kaila and I and has become a really big help with meal preparations. When she plays piano, I often think it's Kaila playing - (after all, she has a great teacher.) Rachel's dream came true this year and she has been able to take violin lessons. She absolutely LOVES it and has picked it up quite quickly. We really enjoyed her first violin recital. Rachel also ventured out into starting her own business making all natural homemade soaps. Her soaps are wonderful! I have had no more skin problems after switching to her soaps. They are really incredible and the essential oils she uses have healing qualities to them. Rachel enjoyed being an alto in our church's choir this morning when they sang the "Hallelujah Chorus." She has memorized many verses this year, continues learning much about the Lord in her Bright Lights group, attends Generation Joshua club with her siblings and is also a part of 4H. She won a Grand Champion ribbon on a recipe book she made of recipes from all around the world. She did a great job. We love Rachel's zeal for life and the way she tackles projects head on. She inspires us all. We are blessed everyday by her love for her family and the encouragement that she offers us on a daily basis.

If I could pick one word to describe our 10 year old Kendra, it would be JOY! Kendra is the most joyful, happy person that I know. She wakes up every morning and just makes each day so beautiful. She is always running into my room and saying, "Oh mother, isn't it the most gorgeous day! I just need to go outside and praise God. May I go please?" She finds beauty in things that many of us overlook. She is delighted with the smallest of things and her smile is enough to brighten any of our days. She loves playing piano and really plays from her heart. Kendra got baptised this year and her life has certainly showed that she is a new creature in Christ. She has such a sensitive heart towards the things of God and eternity. I learn from her every day. She is a wonderful student and works very hard. She won the most outstanding junior achievement award in our 4H club. My sweet baby girl isn't so much a baby anymore. She still loves dolls though and loves riding horses. She fully enjoyed horse camp this year and looks forward to attending again this next year, Lord willing. We thank God for Kendra and for the joy she brings to our family.

Jared is 8 years old already. He's in the 2nd grade and is enjoying his reading. It's been so much fun watching him learn to read and helping him in this great endeavor. He gets so excited when reading books. He also plays piano and did well at both of his recitals this year. He is a cloverbud in our local 4H group.

Jared enjoys baking with his older sisters. He also LOVES football, Alert Cadets, camping, baseball, riding his bike, playing with his brothers and eating. He is a really good student in school and is a grade ahead in his math. He picks up most things quite quickly and is a pretty quick thinker. We all enjoy Jared and his funny antics. He likes to mimic his siblings and can do different voice interpretations. He makes us all laugh a lot. We are so thankful for all that God is doing in his life.

Our handsome, curly topped Nathan is now 4 years old. He has got to be the cutest little child that ever did live. (Don't tell him we said that). When he pouts, he looks just like a male version of Shirley Temple. Many of us have to turn our faces when he is being scolded because he is so darn adorable. Nathan takes after Kendra in his love for life. Everything is exciting to Nathan and he could walk for miles without complaining because he's always finding things to be excited about. He loves his sock monkey that Kaila made for him last year. It has become a close buddy of his. He adores his baby brother Andrew and tells everyone that Andrew is his best friend. When we ask him why he's best friends with Andrew, he says, "Because he's soooooo cute!." Nathan loves when people read books to him and his favorite books are, "I Spy" books. Whenever Andrew is not in my lap, that's usually where you'll find Nathan - snuggling with his mom. I love it! He still loves rubbing people's faces and he especially likes rubbing his older siblings faces who have acne. They all think it's gross, but he loves it. If nobody will let them rub their face, he'll rub his own face. We all wonder if he'll grow out of that one. We all love our little Nathan and thank God for him every single day!

Last, but not least, we have our handsome little Andrew. He will be two years old next month. He is growing by leaps and bounds and is ever delighting us all. He LOVES his family very much. His other great loves in life are singing along with his "Baby Praise" DVD, playing with trains, cars, airplanes, wagons and pretty much anything that has wheels. He also loves throwing balls around with his brothers. His vocabulary is growing daily and it's so cute everytime he says a new word. He enjoys his meal times and looks forward to each new meal. He enjoys painting and has painted our white carpet in the basement a nice shade of blue. I guess he thought that blue would be a more pleasing color. He loves listening to Steve Green's "Hide 'em In Your Heart" Bible verse songs. He will even sing many of the songs right along with the DVD. It is so cute! He has been a great and wonderful gift to our family.

Well, that's a quick update on us all. We pray that you all have a most blessed New Year and we pray that all who read this will come to know Jesus, the One that our family worships, believes in, trusts in and relies on daily. He is our all in all, our rock and our fortress, our deliverer, our best friend and Saviour. We are not a perfect family. In fact, we are far from perfect. We are a family of imperfect people who struggle just like everyone else does. Life is full of situations in which our only hope is Christ. We do pray you all find your hope in Him this Christmas. May you all be blessed.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years to you all.
Love,
The Babiaks

There Has No Temptation Taken You

2011-11-23T14:58:00.000-08:00

"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." 1 Corinthians 10:13

I have been pondering this verse for the last few weeks. I was really struggling with an issue in my life and I was spending some time in prayer. I decided to go outside and rake as the yard really needed some raking. While I was out there, I noticed that when my son had fed his rabbit, that he forgot to close the cage after feeding her. I was amazed as I watched the rabbit. She would not go near the opening of the cage. She just stayed behind the bars where it was safe.

While I was watching her, 1 Corinthians 10:13 came to my mind. How often am I like that rabbit? God promises that along with temptation, God will make a way to escape that temptation. He leaves the cage open for us to escape the temptation. But, how often do we stay behind the bars and become slaves to the very sins that we had the power to escape from.

Why do we do that? I was pondering why the rabbit would not try to escape. I mean, doesn't she know that there is a big wide world out there where she doesn't have to wait for people to feed her. Just outside her cage is a large raspberry patch where she could eat all the raspberry leaves she wanted. My guess is that she doesn't understand the freedom that would be hers if she would just leave the cage. I believe it's the same with us. We just don't understand the wonderful freedom we would find if we would just choose to take the escape that the Lord provided for us.

Just some things I've been pondering.

IndoctriNation Movie

2011-10-18T12:17:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday Nathan!

2011-10-10T13:46:00.000-07:00

Just jumping on blogger to wish my sweet, little, curly top boy a very happy 4th birthday! We enjoyed being on the pontoon with you!

We got Nathan this cute little mask kit. He loved it when I put on this grandma mask and pretended to be his grandma. He giggled with delight.

We all love you very much Nathan!

Courageous

2011-10-02T06:42:00.001-07:00

Go see the movie "Courageous." Most powerful movie I've ever seen. Action packed, happy and sad moments, but not one ounce of anything boring. Incredible movie! Let me know how you liked it, if you go.

Sabatical

2011-09-06T13:43:00.000-07:00

Hello to all my blog readers,
I am just writing to let you know that I have decided to take an indefinite sabatical from the computer (with the exception of educational stuff) for a while. My children are growing fast and I just need to get rid of as many distractions as possible so that I can focus on my children and be the best mom I can be. Thank you to everyone who has stopped by my blog. I won't be deleting the blog. Everything will stay up and I'm sure I'll probably jump on here around the holidays and post a family update every now and then.

Many blessings to you all!
Hannah

Winning Photos and more!

2011-09-01T19:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the judging for the open class photography. I entered quite a few photos this year and someone asked me to post my winning photos on the blog. I feel awkward bragging on myself, rather than bragging on my children. I'm much better at that. This post is for you Audra!

I won nine ribbons total this year in the photography department.

The one that made me happiest was winning 1st place in the flower category. It's the largest entered category in the photography competition. I asked later and the person in charge said that there were 55 total entries in that category with 35 actually showing up at the fair. So winning first place out of 35 entries was quite the thrill. Here's my winning photo for that category.

The next one I won 1st place on was in the category of Adults Celebrating. I took a chance on entering this one because the adults didn't look all that happy in this picture, however a professional photographer friend of mine complimented me on this photo, so I entered it to see how it would do. The judge really liked it.

Now on to my 2nd Place winners. The first category that I won 2nd place on was the Black & White Collection of 4 adult photos. The funny thing about winning second on this was that the judge really didn't like three of my photos. He only liked one photo on my display board. However, he said that one photo was a blue ribbon photo by itself and if all four of my photos had been as good as this one then it would have won 1st place. So, I'll put the one he liked best first.

Here's the three that were on the display, but he didn't really like them. However, they were part of the winning ribbon, so I'll stick them on here.

My second category that won second place was the Black & White Collection of 4 Rural/Agricultural Scapes. Again, he only really liked the first two and the second two he said he could do without. I'll put the two he liked first.

Here's the other two that were on that same display, but he didn't really like them. He said I won because of the first two photos.

The next category that I won 2nd place in was Black & White Family In a Creative Posed Setting. This one he said, would have won 1st place if "I hadn't done such a horrible job of cutting part of the dad off." Yep! That's exactly what he said.

The next photo that I won 2nd place on was under the category of Black and White circles. The picture that beat me was actually one oval. Not sure how it won 1st place since it wasn't a circle, BUT I was thrilled to see that mine won 2nd.

The last category that I won a 2nd place ribbon for was Color manipulation and I had to have the original attached to it. I will put the original first and then the color manipulated one.

After Color Manipulation...

Now on to my Third place ribbon winner. This was under the category of Child in a creative posed setting. He said that this would have done better if it wasn't so "soft."

The last ribbon I won was a Fourth place ribbon in the category of Black & White Child celebrating. He said that if this photo wasn't so soft and if I had use a tri-pod to make it more sharp, then it would've been a first place winner. I laughed because I was lucky enough to get this shot. It was at Kendra's party and I came around to take pictures of the children and I said, "I know there's a pretty girl underneath that hat." And then she lifted her hat with that HUGE smile and I snapped the camera. No time for a tri-pod. Oh well! I'm happy with fourth although I was secretly hoping for better because I wanted to give my ribbon to the little girl that I took this picture of. I'm still going to, but fourth isn't as exciting as others. I personally love this photo and it was one of my favorites.

My husband won 1st place in the Black and White Architecture photo. Here's his winning photo that he snapped in Chicago.

Now, just for the sake of showing you. The following picture, I entered under Walworth County Architecture. I did not place on this picture. However, the judge held up my picture and said the following words, "This is by far the best picture entered under this category. However, there's no door and so it doesn't invite me in." So, I got nothing for it. It's of Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay and regardless of what he thought of it, I like it just the way it is.

Lastly, I'm going to post my very favorite photo that I entered this year that didn't get one bit of recoginition, but it was my favorite and I love it. So, for my readers enjoyment only - I took this photo in my front yard of a mama robin sitting on her eggs in my evergreen tree.

I entered a bunch of other photos too. Some of them, he commented that he loved or really liked, but he didn't feel they were prize worthy. I was thrilled because I won anything at all. It's very tough competition. While I thought the judge was a bit rough with what he said about some of the photos, I'm still glad he picked some of mine. My friend Kim did quite well. One of her photos that won first place, the judge told us that the picture made him gag - but she won first place anyway. He really didn't know how to give constructive criticism without saying some rude words. All in all, I liked last years judge better, but I can't complain, because he did pick some of my photos and that was fun.

Article on Kaila

2011-08-31T19:04:00.000-07:00

Here's the link for the article that just came out on Kaila today in the Lake Geneva Regional Newspaper. It's a pretty well done article - only a couple of minor errors - but otherwise right on!

http://www.lakegenevanews.net/Articles-i-2011-09-01-245032.114135-Not-your-average-Fairest-of-the-Fair-candidate.html

Shattered!

2011-08-27T11:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday evening, my cute, little, lovable, curly haired, adorable three year old, threw a very small rock at our front screen door and well, the results are below.

I was actually quite struck by this in many ways. One, I had never seen tempered glass in action before and it is really amazing to just watch glass shatter before your eyes but stay in tact. Watching the ripple effect of the shattering was interesting too. There is a screen on one side of the glass that broke and another window that didn't break on the other side of the glass that broke. So, these two are kind of holding everything together right now. I cannot believe how many little pieces there are.

I was baking cookies this morning and looking at the beautiful light shinning through the glass and I was just struck by the beauty. Really, it is quite beautiful to look at. Then I started to think about the spiritual lessons we can learn from this shattered glass.

We've broken MANY things in this house. Usually when glass shatters, it flies everywhere and it takes forever to clean up and you're never sure if you got all the pieces or not. Once you collect everything it just goes into the trash and you wouldn't exactly see that as a thing of beauty. However, this window is different because there are pieces on both sides that are holding it up and holding it together even though it's shattered.

I began to think of a very dear friend of mine who has really had her life shattered over the past couple of weeks. She is experiencing things that would destroy some people. However, my friend is trusting and relying on Jesus Christ and I believe even though her life is shattered right now, He is holding her together and making something beautiful out of her life.

I often hear people say things like, "Just ask Jesus into your heart and life will be great." That is such a false doctrine. Jesus doesn't save people so that our lives will be great. Jesus saves people so that His name will be made great. When a Christians life comes to be shattered and they can say, "It is well with my soul because Christ is holding me together." That exalts the name of Christ. He is our anchor in the storms of life. We don't make Jesus, Lord of our lives so that all will go well for us. We make Him Lord of our lives so that we don't have to be anything - He can be all to us!

Galatians 2:20 " I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."

Without Christ, when the storms of life come and shatter our lives, we tend to be like a glass that falls to the floor and shatters everywhere. It gets swept up and thrown out and there is no beauty in that. When we have Jesus Christ steering our ships, when our lives get shattered, He alone is the anchor that holds us together and makes something beautiful out of us. Shattered yet beautiful! Broken yet shinning for Him! That is my hearts cry for me, and all my family and friends.

Robert is Home!!!

2011-08-26T18:24:00.000-07:00

Excitement is in the air tonight as my son Robert has come home from his summer intern job at Trinity College. He's been home a few weekends here and there, but now he's back home and done with his summer job. Everyone is so happy to have him back home. He has learned so much this summer and has matured so much. He has grown in the Lord and has had some amazing discussions with me throughout the summer as he had the opportunity to build many of his own convictions. It was so nice to see that he always wanted mine and dad's opinions on different topics. He honored us by caring what we thought about many different areas in his life.

We are all thrilled to have him home and he is very excited about starting school. I think he learned many reasons why he still has so much to learn and now he is motivated to learn them.

I thank God for all the men he was able to work with this summer. It sounds like each one played an important part in helping him to mature over the summer. The best part is: He came home with all kinds of professional painting tools and is ready and able to do some painting around here. Yeah!!!! We are all discussing which room should get painted first.

I thank God for the opportunity Robert had this summer, but I do have to admit that I really missed my son and I'm so glad that he's home. He's on a mission to do this very aggresive Bible reading plan that helps you read the whole Bible in eight months. Kaila and I are going to try and do it with him. It will be interesting to see what God will teach us all through this.

Welcome Home Son! I love you!

First Ever Babiak Ladies ZUCCHINI Bash!

2011-08-25T08:35:00.000-07:00

On Monday, we hosted a Zucchini bash at our house. We invited some lady friends over for a fun evening of food and fellowship. Each lady was asked to bring their favorite zucchini dish and recipe and we voted for the top three. We really had a good time together. We shared some zucchini jokes, zucchini solutions and zucchini trivia. We shared a lot of laughs together and even enjoyed a sweet time of prayer for a friend and a zucchini devotional.

As promised to the ladies: Here are the recipes...

First off we have Mini Bacon Quiches *(adding zucchini and changing cheese type and egg amount) brought by Kathy O'Brien (I Hannah, loved these and plan to try these on my family. I'm guessing they would go over well here.)

1 pkg (15oz.) cold pie pastry

2 tsp. flour

2 eggs, slightly beaten*

1/2 lb. bacon cooked, crumbled

1/2 c. ricotta cheese

1/2 cup shredded colby jack*

1/2 cup shredded mozzarella

1 small finely chopped onion

1/4 tsp. garlic powder

1/8 tsp. salt

dash black pepper

dash crushed cayenne pepper

1/2 medium zucchini* grated and squeezed to drain

1. Flour surface. Lay out 1 pie crust. Use small biscuit cutter to cut 24 circles. Roll out scraps to get enough. Press into cooking spray coated muffin pans.

2. Combine remaining ingredients. Spoon about 1 Tbsp. into each crust cup. Bake at 400 degrees for 14-18 minutes, until set. Cool 5 minutes. Remove from pans. Serve warm. Yield 24 minis

/OR/ Place pie crust into 8" cake pan. Add all filling: Cook/Bake for 28 minutes or until set.

Next up we have Zucchini Pizzas brought by Anna Hartlaub

These were great and what an easy, quick solution for using up a lot of extra zucchini. They would make great appetizers!

Sliced zucchini

Pizza sauce

Cheese - mozzarella, cheddar, whatever you want - I used cheddar

Basil - optional

Top sliced zucchini with pizza sauce, top each with a slice of cheese, and sprinkle with basil if desired. Place on a pizza screen or cookie sheet.

Broil unitl cheese is crispy.

Next up, we have our 1st Prize Grand Champion winner brought in by Kathy Hartlaub. This was an excellent main course dish!

Italian Chicken and Squash Grill

2 lbs chicken, cooked and cut into bite sized pieces

1/2 cup Italian dressing

2 T. soy sauce or liquid aminos

Stir together and marinate in fridge 8-24 hours.

3 medium zucchini squash

3 medium yellow summer squash

Large red bell pepper

1/2 cup Italian dressing

Cut squash into fourths lengthwise, then into 1/4" circles. Cut pepper small. Stir together with dressing and marinate in fridge 2-6 hours

24 oz. spaghetti noodles

2 cups Italian dressing

6 T. mayo

3 1/2 t. seasoned salt (Herby)

3/4 cup parmesan

3 T. parsley

1 1/2 t garlic powder

Combine in saucepan.

45 minutes before serving, put veggies on cookie sheet(s). Roast at 475 degrees for 10-15 min. or til beginning to char. Cook & drain pasta. Place chicken on cookie sheet and roast at 450 for 15 min. Heat sauce on med-low heat til gently boiling. Layer pasta, chicken, veggies and sauce in two 9x13 pans. Enjoy!

Next, we have my dish. I made Zucchini pancakes. They are one of our family favorites.

6 cups grated zucchini

6 eggs, beaten

3/4 cups chopped onion

1 1/2 cups flour (I've used all-purpose and I've used all whole wheat-- BOTH work)

1 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

6 Tablespoons oil

Pizza sauce

In a medium bowl, combine the zucchini, eggs, onion, flour, parmasan cheese, mozzarella cheese, and salt. Stir well enough to distribute ingredients evenly. Heat a small amount of oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Drop Zucchini mixture by heaping tablespoonfuls, and cook for a few minutes on each side until golden. Serve with warmed pizza sauce on the side. Serves 12

Next we have A-Z bread made by my beautiful daughter Sarah Grace. She loves making this bread. You can make this bread using just about anything - thus the name A-Z bread. She often bakes us up a loaf for breakfast.

2 cups sugar

1 cup canola oil

3 eggs, lightly beaten

2 cups A-Z ingredients (she used zucchini for this recipe and she peeled them so dad couldn't tell it was zucchini)

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon backing soda

1 teaspoon salt

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and bake at 350 for 45 minutes to an hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Next, we have our 2nd place Winner! This awesome Chocolate Zucchini Cake is every woman's dream! The chocolate in this cake was great! A very moist cake. This winning recipe was brought by Christine Skates.

1/4 cup margarine

1/4 cup shortening

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 cup sour milk

1 tsp. vanilla

4 T. cocoa

2 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp. baking soda

2 cups shredded zucchini

8 oz. chocolate chips

Combine margarine, shortening, vegetable oil, and sugar in a bowl. Add egg, vanilla, and sour milk; mix well. Sift flour and cocoa and baking soda together and add to bowl. Mix well. Mix zucchini in last. Spoon batter into well-greased and floured 13x9 inch pan. Sprinkle top of cake with chips. Bake at 325 for 45-50 minutes or until done.

Next we have Carrot Zucchini cupcakes with White Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting. These were brought by Jackie, Anna and Rebekah Thelen (They were VERY yummy!)

1 1/4 cups flour

1/2 t. ground ginger

1/2 t. ground nutmeg

3/4 t. baking powder

1/4 t. salt

2 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

3 T. Walnut or Vegetable oil

1/2 t. vanilla extract

1 cup walnut halves

1/2 cup grated carrot

1/2 cup grated zucchini

1. Preheat oven to 350, line muffin tins with paper liners.

2. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, spices, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

3. In a large bowl, beat eggs and sugar together for a full 5 minutes.

4. Slowly add oil to egg mixture until well mixed. Stir in vanilla extract.

5. Add walnuts, and carrots & zucchini to egg mixture; mix well. Fold in dry ingredients.

6. Using a spoon, fill lined muffin tins about 2/3 full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of one comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes.

Frosting

1 package cream cheese

1 cup white chocolate chips

1/4 cup butter

Melt chocolate chips in double boiler, add butter. Whisk in softened cream cheese. Spread on cupcakes and sprinkle with chopped walnuts.

Next we have our Third Place Winner made by my other lovely daughter, Kaila Marie! She made our family favorite zucchini recipe. Zucchini Cobbler! This stuff tastes like apple squares or apple pie. It's great served warm with vanilla ice cream on top. If dad likes it, then it's a hit and dad loves this one!

8 cup peeled, chopped zucchini (we don't peel ours)

2/3 cup lemon juice

1 cup white sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

4 cups all - purpose flour

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 cups butter, chilled

3/4 cups oatmeal

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. In a large saucepan over medium heat, cook and stir zucchini and lemon juice until zucchini is tender, 15-20 minutes. Stir in 1 cup sugar, 2 teaspoons cinnamon and nutmeg and cook one minute more. Remove from heat and set aside.

2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 10x15 inch baking dish. In a large bowl, combine flour and sugar. Cut in butter with pastry blender or two knives until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir 1/2 cup of butter mixture into zucchini mixture. Press half of remaining butter mixture into bottom of prepared pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Spread zucchini mixture over top of crust. Mix oatmeal with remaining butter mixture and sprinkle over zucchini. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of cinnamon. Drizzle with a little bit of melted butter.

3. Bake 35-40 minutes, or until top is golden. Serve warm, with ice cream, or cold. 25 servings.

Lastly, we have Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes brought by Bethany Hartlaub. These were very tasty as well.

1 cup butter melted

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 t. vanilla

Mix all above ingredients together.

2 1/2 cups flour

1/4 cup cocoa

1 t. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. cinnamon

Mix these ingredients together.

Mix wet and dry ingredients. Stir in 2 packed cups zucchiniand 1/2 cup chocolate chips. Bake at 375 for 17-20 minutes. Makes 2 dozen.

Oh, and I must not forget the most requested recipe of the evening that has absolutely NOTHING to do with Zucchini- But was a HUGE hit!

Kaila's Fabulous Mocha Punch

6 cups of brewed Starbucks French Roast Coffee ( or any coffee)

1/2 cup instant chocolate drink mix + a little extra to taste (or till mom likes it :-)

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 gallon vanilla ice cream

1/2 gallon chocolate ice cream

1 can Whipping cream

Chocolate curls, optional

Brew coffee, while it is still hot, add chocolate drink mix and sugar. Refrigerate until cold. About 30 minutes before serving, pour mixture into a large punch bowl. Add ice cream by scoopfuls; stir until partially melted. Garnish with dollops of whipped cream and chocolate curls if desired. Yield 20-25 servings (about 5 quarts.)

Here's Kathy Hartlaub, our 1st place winner, holding her prize.

Our second place winner, Christine Skates holding her prize.

Our third place winner holding her prize which was donated by Kathy H. (Thanks Kathy!)

The group shot -taken by me.

The group shot taken by Kaila.

Here's a copy of my Zucchini Devotional that I wrote for the event - my meager attempt to keep our eyes focused on Christ.

We laugh and have fun when we think of the over-abundance that many have with Zucchini and how they often try to get rid of them and can’t. Well, I was thinking about this and sometimes that’s exactly how our burdens are. There are times that we feel overburdened with the cares of this world. We have an over-abundance of troubles and it starts to really bother us and affect our moods and who we are. We start to feel like nobody wants to be with us because we are so sad or down and out. Let’s face it, life is downright hard sometimes. There are times that things just sneak up on us and we weren’t prepared for the battle that laid ahead of us.

Sometimes we try to share our burdens and we feel the same way that we might feel if we had tried to pass along a zucchini to someone who already had 10 sitting on their countertop. Typically, we don’t want to be a burden to other people and so we try to hide our troubles or we hoard them because we think that nobody really wants to share with us anyway.

What happens if you just hang on to zucchini and can’t find uses for it and you can’t find anyone to give them to? They start to rot and go to waste.

The same thing can happen if we hang on to our burdens, they tend to rot us from the inside out and then our lives become a waste. We stop being fruitful for the kingdom of God.

As Christians we are told to bear one another’s burdens in Colossians 6:2 and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Jesus told us to cast our cares and burdens onto Him. He’s always there ready and able to take our burdens.

Psalm 55:22 Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.

1 Peter 5:7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

The sovereign God of the universe sent his son to this earth as a man so that he could really relate to our pain and sufferings. He died to save us and He wants you to cast your burdens upon Him.

All of us here are Christian sisters in Christ. Tonight we will share fun and laughter and we may also share some tears. There are some among us who are hurting or have anxiety and worries and need the love and prayers of fellow sisters in Christ. Let’s fulfill the law of Christ and love each other tonight with our fellowship and let’s point each other to Christ.

When we leave here this evening, let’s remember this lesson. Each time we see a zucchini, let’s stop and consider who among us needs some lifting up today. Who’s burden can we share. Who’s load can we make lighter and let’s strive to do that for one another. Let’s also strive to be open and honest people who aren’t afraid to ask others to share our burdens in prayer. Let’s not hoard our burdens and allow ourselves to rot and go to waste. Let’s stay fruitful for Christ!

Feel free to share your favorite Zucchini recipe with us in the comments section. Hopefully, you can all experiment and come up with your new favorite recipe for the 2nd annual Zucchini Bash to be held in 2012. Looking forward to it!

Venetian Festival

2011-08-25T07:10:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, Kendra and Rachel got to go to a "Kit American Girl" party and they had to dress as certain characters. Here's Kendra all dressed and ready to go. Kaila took this great picture of her.

Here's Rachel - Kaila also took this photo as well.

On Sunday evening, we went to Lake Geneva for their Venetian Festival lighted boat parade and fireworks.

Here's two of my cutie pies by the lake.

Beautiful sunset!

Cute ducks!

Cute Andrew!

There were about 20 boats or so that were decorated with lights for the parade.

The Fireworks were beautiful. It was a lovely night with no mosquitos. Family, Fun and Fireworks = Great Evening.

Last Day of Judging

2011-08-23T14:15:00.000-07:00

Somehow on the last day of judging, we had more things being judged than any of the other days and yet I took less pictures. Go figure. We don't know the final results of this days judging yet.

Here's a picture of Kaila getting judged on her geneology scrapbook where she traced her father's maternal side of the family. She loved this project. It was one of her favorites. It went on for further judging so we don't know yet if it won or not.

Here's Kaila getting judged for her power point movie that she made that promoted the 4H program.

Micahel's judge loved his bird and it went on for further judging. Kaila had a dress that she made out of bedsheets go on for further judging as well in the recycling category.

Michael also made a composting project and entered his windmill that's been in our front yard.

Rachel and Kendra both made posters on Scotland. Rachel's International Cookbook went on for further judging.

We won't find out the final results of this days judging until the fair starts. Sometimes that's a long wait, but it adds excitement to the first day of the fair.

Crocheting, Sewing, Child Development, Cloverbuds and Home Environment judging

2011-08-23T14:03:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday was all the judging for crocheting, sewing, child development, cloverbuds and home environment. A somewhat busy day.

Jared is in Cloverbuds. They get participation ribbons for the things they do. Jared entered peanut butter cookies and some photographs he took.

Kaila made this poster for Child Development.

Kaila posing in her "Looking Good" outfit. "Looking Good" is a category where you buy a complete outfit with accessories at a thrift store.

This is Kaila's vintage vest that she crocheted for the fair. She was so excited because she won a Grand Champion on it. She was so thrilled. She was up until midnight the night before judging finishing it up.

This is Kaila with the crocheting judge. The judge absolutely loved Kaila's hat but when the judge turned it inside out, Kaila had forgotten to weave one of the yarn string ends through and the judge was so disappointed to have to knock her down to a red ribbon for it. However, when we went back the next day we discoved that the judge liked it so much that she gave Kaila the Outstanding Achievement award for this hat which means Kaila should get some sort of gift certificate or something from "Needles and Pins" yarn shop. Yeah Kaila!

Rachel getting judged on her crocheted scarf. Rachel won a Reserve Champion for this scarf. She was about as thrilled as thrilled can be.

Kaila with one of her most favorite judges. The Child Development judge is very fun. Kaila entered three things in this category. Her poster on the Biblical Responsibilities of Parents, a sock monkey that she made for Nathan and a scrapbook of the birthday party she threw for Kendra. Kaila won a Grand Champion ribbon on the album she made for Kendra. That was so fun to find out.

Sarah getting judged on her crocheting projects. She entered a hat, two dishrags, and some crocheted wire jewelry that she made.

I think Kendra helped Kaila win that Grand Champion because the judge invited her to come and tell her all the things she enjoyed about her birthday party.

Sarah was all smiles because she received her first ever blue ribbons for her crocheted projects. The judge loved her crocheted wire jewelry and said she never saw anyone who could do that before. Great job Sarah! We are so proud of you!

Kendra doing her puppet show with the judge.

Kaila getting her dress judged that she sewed. She received a blue ribbon.

Rachel getting her homemade soap judged. She got a blue ribbon.

Kendra getting her tied quilt judged that she made for her little cousin.

We are very excited to see our daughters and sons using their talents for the Lord. It is so much fun watching them explain their projects to the judges.

There were other projects that got judged on this day as well and I didn't get pictures of them all. One judge just couldn't get over how well Kaila could sew pillows. She said she's never seen anyone do it so that you can't see where they sewed by hand. That's awesome!

Art Judging

2011-08-23T13:36:00.000-07:00

Art Judging day is one of the easier days for everyone except Kaila. Somehow our daughter Kaila was born with some artistic flair. She loves art and so this was a busy day for her.

Here is the pencil drawing she did of her Aunt Hope on her wedding day. It turned out really good and she got a blue ribbon on it.

This is Kaila's oil painting of a sunflower. The judge really liked this and thought this was Kaila's best piece of art. Kaila received a blue ribbon on this.

For lack of time, Kaila entered this colored pencil drawing that she did at the beginning of the year. She says it's not her best work, but it was done, so she entered it.

This was a pastel that Kaila tried so hard to do for her neighbor. Our neighbor Kim took a picture of this statue on her travels and Kaila wanted to do this, but she wasn't pleased with it all. She couldn't figure out how to blend the pastels and just couldn't get it to work right. The judge told her to smooth it out more using some kind of special pastel pencil or with water. At least she learned something and can try to fix it when she gets it back.

Kaila's watercolor painting. She got a blue ribbon on this. Her brother Michael liked this one the best.

This is Kaila's Acrylic painting. She really liked it and made it to hang in her bedroom. The judge took one look at it and said, "Your oil painting is better." I guess that means she didn't like it. However, we all like it and Kaila likes it, so that's all that matters. It's just one person's opinion. She got a red ribbon on it.

Michael was so thrilled to find out that he won a Merit at the Wisconsin State Fair for his bird. He got to pick up his bird and ribbon on this day. A merit is the highest award you can receive at the Wisconsin State Fair. We are so thrilled that he was honored in this way for his hard work.

Food Judging

2011-08-23T13:11:00.000-07:00

Food judging at the fair is always a BIG deal at our house. My kitchen is never so trashed as the day before food judging. With 5 children all cooking at the same time in the kitchen - it gets rather interesting. I pretty much stay out of the picture except to occasionally come in and do the dishes for the children.

Here are some English Tea Cookies that Rachel made.

Rachel also made these Chocolate Truffle Cookies

Kaila's sugar cookies before painting them.

Kendra's Peanut Butter Cookies

Kaila painted a bunch of sugar cookies for her Artist gift basket she made. They turned out really cute!

Here is Kaila's completed basket for the "Foods for Gifts" category. Inside she has the painted sugar cookies, Chocolate Italian Bread, Meringue cookies, Mocha mix and lots of things useful for artists such as paintbrushes, canvases, pallete's. She won a blue ribbon for it.

Kendra got a blue ribbon for her peanut butter cookies. Another girl from our club who competed against Kendra won the Grand Champion for her peanut butter cookies and Kendra was so thrilled for her. She said, "If I was the judge, I would've picked her cookies too." It was nice to see the character trait of humility being played out in her life. That's worth more than any ribbon.

Kaila waiting to be judged in the "Dairy Delight" competition. She made Spinach Artichoke Dip. It's really good.

Kaila won the Reserve Champion for her Spinach Artichoke Dip. Great Job Kaila!

Kaila getting ready to be judged for her African Chicken Stew in the International Food category. She even dressed for the occasion.

Michael being judged on his gift basket that he made for a friend that's at Alert right now. It contains hard tack, trail mix and pancake mix.

Rachel being judged on her Dutch Apple Pie.

Rachel won a merit ribbon for her four cookies for tea time.

The most exciting thing of the day is that Kaila won a Grand Champion for her African Chicken Stew. Everyone who ever tries this stuff thinks it's fabulous or as the judge said, "Phenomenal!" We like to make it on family day - the day we celebrate the arrival of our adopted children. It is really a hit everytime we make it. So, out of all the 10th and 11th grade entries in all the food categories, Kaila was chosen as Grand Champion. Hooray for her!

Right after food judging, Kaila had to go to her interview for the "Fairest of the Fair" competition. The children and I hung out at the library. I took the following picture while waiting for her to get done at the bank parking lot.

This was Kaila, right after her interview with a sigh of relief. It wasn't as bad as she thought and she actually enjoyed the interview and liked the judges.

Andrew's 1st Haircut and Playing at the Park

2011-08-23T12:44:00.000-07:00

I finally got myself to cut Andrew's hair. Problem was, he wouldn't sit still and so out came the buzzers. Now he has no more hair and looks very different.

After he got his hair cut, he kept kissing himself in the mirror. I think he thought he was kissing someone else besides himself.

When the older children were all cooking in the kitchen the day before food judging for the fair, I took the little boys to the park to keep them occupied and away from the cooks. We had a blast!

Nathan and Jared

Andrew

Nathan loves to dig holes. This made him very happy!

Cutest Fireman I've ever seen...

Nathan was singing, "Fireman Sam."

Jared

Who needs skateboards to play at the skateboard park? Certainly not my boys.

We saw some cranes in a nearby field.

I love geese! Even though most people despise them, I find them to be one of God's most fascinating creatures and I love the way they stick together with their families.

From Andrew and the rest of us....

May all your days be park days!

Exciting News!

2011-08-15T17:58:00.000-07:00

We just received word today that Michael won a Merit award for his handcarved bird at the Wisconsin State Fair! We are very excited about that and praising God for his talents.

Today, Kaila went and did a commercial recording for the Walworth County Fair at a local radio station. Tuesday is her interview. She'd appreciate prayers that she would bring glory to God in all she says and does.

Food judging is also Tuesday. My children have been cooking like crazy all day. I've been the dishwashing mama today.

I will try to post results as soon as I can and hopefully pictures too.

Fun Times at the Beach & other things

2011-08-11T07:07:00.000-07:00

One of our families favorite things to do in the summer is go to the beach. We like to go after the life guard is gone and all the crowds have left. It's really the best time! Here are some highlights from our last beach visit.

Here's Kendra! She loves swimming and gets very proud of herself when she swims to the pier.

Andrew loves the beach, but has to be watched very carefully because he has no fear of water whatsoever. He has so much fun!

Nathan also loves the beach and smiles with lots of giggles the whole time he's there.

Kaila, Rachel and Michael like to hang out on the pier.

Dad and Rachel - the stunt team!

Sarah didn't want to swim this time around, so she just helped keep an eye on Andrew in the shallow end.

Kendra strikes a pose!

I love his feet!

I guess I have to give in and cut Andrews curls off - they are getting quite long.

Kendra's all smiles!

Jared tried so hard to swim to the pier. Not yet strong enough - maybe next time.

I know I'm way behind on posts, but my children have 140 projects they are entering in the fair and next week is fair judging. We are busy, busy, busy over here. So here's a quick sampling of some other misc. things that have been going on.

Kendra raised her butterflies that she got for her birthday. Eight of the ten larva became butterflies and we set them free.

For our monthly "girls night out," I took Sarah and Kaila to see the Lake Geneva Symphony Orchestra. We met their friends Bethany and Anna there. It was a really wonderful evening! You can read more about that on my daughters blog. The link is in the side bar. Her blog is the "Incorporeal Entrance."

The garden is doing great. On this day, we were busy preserving all the turnips, turnip greens, beets, beet greens and swiss chard. It was a lot, but we worked as a team and got the job done.

We praise God for this bounty!

Kaila painting a sunflower. She's done a lot of artwork this year for the fair. I'm sure I'll be doing a blog post about that soon.

Kendra working on her Scotland poster.

This is not the greatest picture in the world, but my hubby and I got to go to the Fireside and see the Triumphant Quartet in concert. It was a terrific night.

That's it for now. The next few weeks, I'll probably be posting all the fair projects and the results. Oh and if you go to the following page, you can see the picture of Kaila they are using for the "Fairest of the Fair" contestant media. http://www.walworthcountyfair.com/2011/media/ If you go to the media guide, you can read her bio. They don't have the right age or school year on her bio. - unless they fixed it since I post this. Otherwise, she was happy with the parts they included. One of her interviews is Tuesday, so if you feel led to pray that she would shine for Christ, I'm sure she'd appreciate it.

All About Andrew

2011-08-04T08:08:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, we went to a graduation party for a young man in our church who graduated from homeschool high school. I spent a lot of the day playing with and chasing Andrew around. He's so busy now. Well, by default, I had fun doing a little photo shoot of him and grabbed some cute shots. He sure is growing fast.

This one was my favorite!

All smiles!

Do you ever feel like Big Brother is watching you?

Woah! Here I come!

What's more fun than Andrew - TWO Andrews!

Andrew loved this piece of farm equipment. It was pretty fascinating to him.

Airplane!

Fooseball anyone?

God is good ALL the time!

2011-08-03T18:10:00.000-07:00

It's been an eventful week here at our home. I have two friends who lost their husbands this past week. I have another friend going through a very difficult and trying time in her life. My husband's mom got blasted pretty good with the storm last night that wrecked her pool.

Bob and I had a fun date last night. We got to do one of our anniversary gifts and go to the "Fireside" and saw the "Triumphant Quartet." It was wonderful!

Today, my Rachel was blessed with tons of soap making things to get her business off to a great start, by an old friend of mine.

Whenever I taste the bitter and the sweet in the same week, it causes me to ponder. None of us knows what tomorrow brings. We can only be sure of what has happened and what is happening. God is the one in control and he promises to work all things for good for those that love Him and are called according to His purpose. I am so blessed to believe and trust in Christ. I can know that nothing will happen that God hasn't ordained. This brings me great peace in my life. I don't have to have all the answers and I don't even need to know why? I can trust Him with my life. I can also trust my hurting friends and family members with God, knowing that He has a plan for everybody and He will bring that plan to fruition in His timing.

I can't imagine my life without God. I know people who have no hope. They seem to have no purpose for living and they can't make any sense out of the bad things that happen to them or to others. They seem lost. They can't find their place in life. They know they're going the wrong way, but can't seem to figure out what the right way is. They're always looking for something better in life and are never content with what God gives them or does for them. They steal other people's energy with constant negativity.

These are the people that I would love nothing more in life than to introduce them to my Savior, Jesus Christ who died to pay the penalty for our sins, who was raised from the dead, and offers us forgiveness and a brand new life. He intercedes on our behalf with God the Father and He calls us His own once we accept Him and surrender our lives to him. I would love to introduce you to the One who walks me through each and every trial and tribulation and sometimes carries me when I have no strength left. He is my Lord and Savior and I love Him more than words can express. I can't imagine my life without Him. If you don't know Him, please contact me so that I can introduce you to him. My life consists of pointing my children to Him on a daily basis and I would love to point you to Him as well. He will carry you through the sweet and bitter moments of life and give you a greater purpose for living.

Mom's Birthday

2011-08-01T14:41:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday, we celebrated my Mother-in-love's birthday. Marilynne is a very special lady in my life. She has taught me so many things over the years and I am so grateful to know her. She has a beautiful servants heart and she is the most wonderful hostess. She has taught me so many things about hospitality. She's really one of the kindest people I have ever known.

This is my little niece. She's such a doll!

Here's Andrew - always moving!

Rachel

Andrew playing bean bags.

Here's my mother-in-love and my children's wonderful grandmother.

Kaila having fun with Uncle Joe's camera.

Kaila putting flowers in Sarah's hair.

Hope, Joe and Heather with Marilynne.

Happy Birthday Mom and Grandma! We all love you more than you'll ever know and we pray God's richest blessings upon you. We are very grateful for you.

The Far Right

2011-07-29T13:16:00.000-07:00

When I was a child, I was made fun of on a regular basis. I attended public school most of my childhood and I mostly remember those days as feeling sick. In all actuality, I was a pretty healthy child. The only things that were wrong with me was, I walked a little different from everyone else because I was born with a club foot, and I wore hand me downs or clothes from garage sales.

I can still remember the rhymes and names that people would chant as I walked by. They would sing in a chorus like fashion as I walked by: “Tippie Toe Hannah, Long Haired Banana.” One time, my step dad got me a brand new sweater and he even had my name embroidered on it. It was very rare for me to get any new clothes and I fell in love with the sweater. I was so excited to wear it to school because for once, I had something new to wear. The kids made fun of me all day. They said my sweater looked like shag carpet and that I looked like a rag. Then they started calling me “rag-a-muffin.” I would get beat up on the playground, simply because I wasn’t popular. Everyday, as I walked to school, I would feel so sick to my stomach. I think it was my nerves that made me feel sick. The rejection was unbelievable! I couldn’t decide which was worse, the name calling or getting beat up. People always say, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” For me, that little rhyme never worked. I found it all to be hurtful.

When I was a sophomore in High School, I finally had surgery on my foot. I was at a hospital that was filled with children who were much worse off than I ever was. At school, I always felt a bit sorry for myself. For the first time ever, I no longer felt sorry for myself, but I sure did feel bad for the sweet children that surrounded me that were in much worse shape than I was. Then I started to think about how badly I had been treated for such a small difference – what were these poor children treated like??

Since then I’ve always had a heart for children who are specially made by God, but different than the rest of society. I have noticed that people who are different have really big hearts. They know how to love, because they know what it’s like to not be loved and how hurtful it is.

It’s funny to think of adults name calling – but it doesn’t seem to end when you become an adult. It just gets a little more polite or politically correct. Since being an adult, I’ve been called worse things. You see, I’m still different. Except now, it has nothing to do with the way I walk. Even though since my surgery, I have very bad pain in my foot most days and it really hurts to walk sometimes – people don’t notice that now. What people notice now is that I have 10 children, that I have a biracial family, that I love life and will vote pro-life in every situation. They see that I homeschool my children and that I love Jesus. I schedule my life around our church calendar because I love being with God’s people. I love to garden and cook my food homemade. I even love to look like a lady and therefore often wear skirts and dresses. I stay home and care for my children and don’t work outside the home. I could go on and on about all the “weird” things I do that still qualify me as different.

I get called things such as “Amish,” “Cultish,” “Legalistic,” and my favorite –“Far Right.”

Well some of the names are just plain funny, such as Amish! I mean, I drive a 15 passenger van – not a horse and buggy. I use electricity every day and start to panic a bit when the power goes out. Most of all, I find it funny because I really admire the Amish and think they have a lot of things right that most of us have wrong. So, to be called Amish is really a compliment in my eyes even though I know, we are not even close.

Then there’s the cult thing. I’ve been told that numerous times in the past 16 years. I just think it’s funny. If you read a certain magazine, you must belong to that cult. If you quote an author, then you’re a part of that cult. Whatever church I go to, there are people who think that church must be a cult to get us to do all those weird things. I’ve even been accused of being in the “Old Testament” cult because I believe the Old Testament was just as divinely inspired by God and profitable for us as the “New Testament.” My answer to that is that I am a daughter of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and that is the only cult I belong to.

Then there are those who call me “legalistic.” That’s a good one. In today’s lawless society where everyone feels that truth is relative, I actually take this as a compliment too. I would rather be legal for God, than legal to this world. What people are really saying is, “Wow! You have convictions!” For me it is a compliment to be told I’m legalistic.

There’s many other names that I’ve been called. However, my favorite is when people find out that I am 100% pro-life and that I will always vote pro-life! I made a vow that I would NEVER vote for anyone that did not value life. So, this classifies me as being part of the “Far Right” movement.

Everytime someone says something about us “Far Right” people, I can’t help but smile as I think of Matthew 25:31-46. This passage reminds me that it is good to be on the far right and that is exactly, with God’s mercy and grace upon my life, I intend to stay. When people tell me I am part of the “Far Right,” it is a reminder to me to make sure I’m taking the advice of Matthew 25. So while names used to really hurt me when I was a child, they now confirm to me that the path I have been led to live, by God, is the best and I want nothing more than to stay on that path. My mission in life is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Classify me as you wish. In fact, maybe you can come up with a new clever little chant to sing as I walk by. Maybe it can go something like:

“Far Right Hannah, Cultish Banana, Must be Amish, ‘Cause she cooks in a dish!”

I’m sure you could all come up with something better. I’m not very gifted in the coming up of name calling chants.

Matthew 25:31-46

31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. (Emphasis mine.)

34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

In Love,

Hannah (Daughter of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords)

2011 Family Reformation Ladies Day Tea

2011-07-26T18:46:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, the girls and I went to Providence Church's Family Reformation Ladies Day Tea. It was such a delightful day with my precious daughters. We had such a wonderful day! The people at Providence Church are such servants and every event we've ever been to from their church has been amazingly wonderful.

The dessert table - so beautiful!

Every table is decorated differently. We sat at the horse table. Why would we sit at the horse table? Hmmm. I wonder... We all got to take home these cute saddles.

Stacy McDonald talked about Hidden Idols of the Heart. It was a very good talk and very helpful to me.

They served Southwest Quinoa Salad for lunch with strawberry soup. It was very delicious!

Well, this one was my favorite tabletop decoration .

Preserve Me, O God

Hope Ware is so very funny. She did a hillarious skit and gave a very good talk. I loved her saying that, "God is not limited by the size of your checkbook." It was a faith building talk, that's for sure.

Kendra and her friend.

Kaila and her friend.

The Lord Brought Zion's Exile Back

Tiffany Hector gave a wonderful talk entitled "In Love With Love." Kaila loved this talk. I have to admit it is wonderful seeing a courtship that worked in real life.

Kendra won a door prize.

So did Rachel.

Lovely Vine

Becky Morecraft talked about Heart Matters and she sang some beautiful songs. I really, really enjoyed her talk. I could relate to it in many ways.

These lovely ladies sang the Trisagion Hymn. I love that hymn.

It was such a wonderful day. One that my daughters and I will not soon forget.

Highlights from swimming at grandmas!

2011-07-25T20:07:00.000-07:00

This past Wednesday, we had a great time swimming in Grandma and Grandpa's pool. Here are a few highlights.

Rachel, Kendra and Kaila having a blast trying to all fit on one raft.

Sarah

Michael

Rachel

Kendra

Jared

Nathan

Andrew

This is what Sarah did when I told her to kiss the fish!

Thanks Grandma! We all had a BLAST! It was a great way to cool off on that 100 degree day.

Kendra's 10th Birthday Party

2011-07-22T11:34:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, Kendra had her friend birthday party. She had 12 of her very closest friends, besides her sisters, join her in this special day. She had a tea party and requested that all her friends wear hats to the party. It was so cute!

Kaila actually did most of the planning of the party because it is a child development project for 4H and she wanted to enter that. Kaila, Sarah and Rachel served all the girls their food. They were treated like little princesses. It was a really fun time.

After they ate, the girls painted bags. Here's a group photo of all the girls with their finished projects.

Then they enjoyed some three-legged races.

Followed by some old-fashioned dancing. They did the Virginia Reel and a circle dance. They had so much fun.

We had fun sticking all of Kendra's bows on her hat. I thought this expression as she was opening one of her gifts was cute.

Many more pictures are on my facebook page if you want to see more.

Hope and Justin's Wedding

2011-07-21T11:48:00.000-07:00

This past Friday, we had the privilege of attending my sister-in-love's wedding. I took 100's of photos. If you're my friend on facebook, you've already seen them. However, I figured I would pick my top 12 favorite photos and post them here on the blog.

This first photo is one of my favorites. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time and caught the florist laying down the rose petals.

The rose petals - another personal favorite.

Love the look of this. Hope was walked down the isle by her mother and brother.

Hope is my husband Bob's sister. She was adopted from Korea. We loved watching her grow up. She was quite small when I married Bob. She has turned into a beautiful young lady and she made the most gorgeous bride.

I've only recently met Justin and so I don't know him that well. However, from the couple times I've seen him, you can tell that he loves Hope and that makes me like Justin very much.

This below shot was my all time favorite photo. I think the reason why I love it so much is because it shows the unity between Christ and this couple. Without Christ in a marriage, it is hard for it to last. Bob and I have made Christ the head of our marriage and that is why it has been a success for the last 20 years. That is our prayer for Hope and Justin.

The Kiss!!! I liked this because it almost looked like the trees created a heart shape behind them and I thought it was beautiful!

The cake was very simple and beautiful! It really made a statement set up in the center of the room.

The reception hall was absolutely gorgeous. This shows the candles on our table with the head table in the background with the beautiful windows behind.

The very happy couple!

Here's a picture of Bob and I with the newlyweds.

Their first dance as a married couple. How sweet!

Hop on over to my facebook page to see the rest. We pray God's richest blessings on this sweet union.

Quick Update

2011-07-19T07:45:00.000-07:00

We have been SO busy! This is just a quick update because we have lots going on right now.

Last week, Michael, Rachel and Kendra attended horse camp. Kaila was one of the assistant leaders. They had an awesome week learning about horses and the importance of bridling your tongue.

On Friday, my sister-in-love got married!!! It was such a gorgeous wedding. I took 100's of photos. If you are friends with me on facebook, I've been posting lots of them. I will try to pick my favorite ones and blog about them some day soon.

On Saturday, we had 13 of Kendra's little friends over for one of the funnest birthday parties we've ever thrown around here. All the girls wore hats and we had a tea party with painting, three legged races, Virginia Reel dancing, etc. Lots of giggles and lots of fun! Pictures to come soon, hopefully.

Saturday night our friend Becky gave us the gift of going to Family Faith Night. It was wonderful! We had a great evening together as a family and Mark Schultz sang some really amazing songs. One of them made me cry. He has a real talent of story telling in his songs. We also got to watch the most amazing sunset.

Sunday, we had church in the morning and then spent the evening with the Layhew family from church. We had such a great time!!!

Life is going to be full this week as well. We have lots going on. I am thankful that God has filled our lives with people to love and enjoy. I cannot think of a better way to spend our lives.

I am really hoping to get pictures to the blog soon. I need to finish getting the wedding ones up to facebook and then I will work on the blog. But all of that comes when I get free time - which is becoming more scarce as of late.

Hope you are all enjoying your summer. Stay cool! It's been HOT here - heat index of 114 degrees.

Daddy and His Baby Girl's Birthday

2011-07-12T19:20:00.000-07:00

My husband and my youngest daughter share the same birthday. So, we started celebrating on Friday and did something to celebrate all the way until Monday and we aren't done celebrating yet. Wow! I bet everyone's getting tired of reading my birthday posts. However, July and December are full of birthdays at our house.

On Friday, Bob and I went on a date to celebrate his birthday together. We saw this purple martin bird house. The house was filled with babies and mothers that kept bringing them food. It was quite entertaining.

Gotta love the zoom on my new camera. Here are three of the purple martin babies. They are so new and so cute looking. They reminded me of platypus' with their wide beaks.

Thought this was a really cute setup on the lake.

My sweatheart and I. Have I ever told my readers how very blessed I am? My husband is the best!

On Saturday, we celebrated Dad's birthday with the family. Kendra got her dad some Recees.

Rachel got dad this new industrial grill brush.

Sarah got dad a grill mit so he doesn't burn himself.

Nathan got dad a new T-shirt.

Kaila, Michael and Jared all pitched in to buy dad this hose cart.

Robert got dad a power washer.

We got dad a Recees Peanut Butter Ice Cream Cake. He loved it!

Robert got Kendra a canteen and she was so excited because she's really wanted one of those. What a good big brother.

I thought this was a cute picture. The little brothers looking over Kendra's shoulder as she opens gifts.

On Sunday, Grandma Cheryl and Grandpa John came over and gave Kendra her gifts and then they took Kendra and Sarah out to eat at Paisano's. I had to practice being content and not jealous as that is my FAVORITE restaurant!!!!

Grandma got Kendra this cool butterfly kit. We ordered our butterfly larvae and can't wait for them to arrive.

Here's a picture of the Parmesan Whole Wheat bread I made for Kendra's birthday meal.

Grandpa Robert stopped by on his way to visit a friend and brought Kendra and dad some birthday presents.

Kendra's birthday meal was Chicken Casserole, Homemade Bread and Garden Fresh Salad.

Kendra will be soon having her 10th birthday party celebration with her friends. She requested that all of her friends wear a hat because it is a tea party. However, there was one teeny, tiny issue with that. Kendra didn't have a hat. So, low and behold, her darling older sisters, purchased a hat and decorated it for her. She was thrilled.

Kaila got the hat and Rachel bought the flowers and Kaila decorated it. They are all posing in their hats. How cute!

Kenrdra with her Little House Cookbook that we got her.

Emilie Barnes has a couple really cute books out. This one is Making my Room Special. It is a very girlie, girl book. Very cute inside.

We gave Kendra this horse blanket and we also paid for her to attend horse camp this week at some friend's of ours horse ranch. She is in love with horses.

Kendra had vanilla cake with mint chocolate chip ice cream.

Happy Birthday Kendra! I can't believe my baby girl is 10 years old. Boy how time flies.

The Cat Lady's Birthday

2011-07-10T16:48:00.000-07:00

This week, we had the awesome privilege of celebrating one of my really good friend's birthday. Meet The Cat Lady. Kim is my neighbor and we have a really good relationship. We enjoy a lot of the same hobbies and she's just a really nice friend. My children really enjoy her too.

My son Michael is really getting good on his scroll saw. I told him we were going to be celebrating Kim's birthday and he went out in the garage and whipped this one up. I really like it. Kim has four cats and they are very dear to her. So this was a very fitting gift for her.

Here's a picture of our cat polly posing with the sign.

Kim's favorite fruit is raspberries and I was thrilled to see that my raspberries ripened up just in time to make this delicious cake for her.

Kim's favorite food is pizza. I made two kinds. Tomato basil and Chicken Alfredo.

The flowers on the table were a gift to Kim from my daughter Kaila. They were miniature mums that she can plant in her yard and hopefully come back year after year. We love gifts that keep giving.

Jared colored Kim a cat picture.

Kendra framed a picture of a cat and painted the frame.

Rachel gave her some of her homemade soap.

Sarah made her a very pretty bracelet.

Nathan gave her a Recees Cup. Then when he was done giving it to her, he asked for it back. It was funny!

Michael with his Cat Lady gift.

We found this cute little egg skillet for her. We also got her a weather alarm clock and a luggage scale.

Kim with her cake. Each candle stands for one decade. How awesome is that. We pray she has many, many, many more years and that she doesn't move away. Say NO to Arizona or anywhere else and YES to Wisconsin!

When we were done eating, we played a fun game of Taboo. The birthday girl's team won! Yeah! I happened to be on her team. We had a great time.

Happy Birthday Kim! We all love you over here at the Babiak house and we think God did good when making you our neighbor. You are a blessing to us.

Divided The Movie

2011-07-09T14:48:00.000-07:00

This is an excellent movie and very well done. If you care about the unusual amount of Christian youth who are rapidly leaving the church, you need to watch this movie. The best part is, now you can watch this movie online for free just by going to the following link.

http://www.dividedthemovie.com/

Let me know what you think if you watch it. They really make some good points.

Fourth of July Independance Day Celebration

2011-07-08T11:29:00.000-07:00

On the fourth of July, we went to Old World Wisconsin. It was one of the most patriotic celebrations. We really enjoyed this beautiful day.

The Harmony Coronet band started the day off by playing patriotic songs for the raising of the flag. They also played the "Doxology" while everyone sang.

This gentleman showed us how they shot the cannons in the old days.

Then we attended a patriotic concert and had a picnic.

It was a neat concert and they played a lot of fun songs.

Nathan enjoying the day.

I really like this picture of Andrew. Showing off his little curls that I really need to cut off, but he's just so adorable.

It was a hot day, but sitting in the shade felt great!

Nathan giving water to Andrew.

Jared decided the stroller was more comfy than the park benches.

They had an old fashioned hymn sing at the church. They sang quite a few really good hymns. The church was packed and since it's such a small church, it really sounded neat.

One of the best things about Old World Wisconsin is it's never the same. There's always new and different things going on.

All my girlies admired this lady very much.

Leah and Michael relaxing and waiting for the parade.

Jared enjoying his sister Leah.

Here comes the parade. Behind the flag bearers is the pastor. He led some really good prayers throughout the day that were quite Godly. He was pleading the Almighty to rid our country of it's evils and turn us back to our Creator. It was so neat.

Kaila, Rachel and Kendra were asked by one of the workers to be Liberty girls in the parade. It's easy to pick out my girls - they're the ones that have dresses hanging under the robes.

This lady's dress was really neat.

The Norsk ladies dancing.

This was a favorite of the children. A miniature horse and cart. How cute!

This was so sweet! Just Beautiful - Mother and Child.

Andrew getting filled up with water again. He's so adorable!

The water was dripping down.

Kaila and Susan Hammer, one of our friends who works at Old World Wisconsin.

Rachel, Kendra and Kaila - the Liberty girls.

A display of all the signs people carried in the parade. I thought they looked neat hanging out by the fence.

The crowd watching the oratories, poems, etc.

The band leader. He was quite knowledgeable about the music and shared a lot of good information with us.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the day. Michael hanging out in the wagon with his brother hanging out with him. Way too cute! Michael's a very good big brother.

Mr. Hammer singing the Star Spangled Banner.

My girls loved this lady's dress and they were asking all kinds of questions about how it was made and what all the little jewelry pieces were for.

Mrs. Hammer snapped this shot of me with all my sweet daughters.

Afterwards, we went to a fourth of July picnic at the Power's house. It was a really fun time. They had a Chicago Hot dog bar set up. There were many fun activities to keep the over 100 children well occupied. Some of the things my children participated in were a barn dance in the loft, volleyball, three legged races, tug-of-war, visited the animals, bean bags, etc.

Here's Robert jumping up to get the ball. Dad actually sprained his wrist badly playing volleyball. He's been wearing a brace ever since. But he had fun prior to hurting himself.

Nathan playing on the slide. I think one of his favorite things was when Mrs. Powers brought out the popsicles. Nothing says summer like a good, runny, sticky popsicle.

When it got dark, we went to our small towns firework show. For being a small town, they really do a nice job. In fact, everyone in our family believes that they are better than the next town over's resort fireworks. It was quite enjoyable and the mosquitos weren't too bad.

Well, that was our Independence day celebration in a nutshell. Hope you enjoy some of the pictures.

Leah's 18th Birthday

2011-07-07T13:03:00.000-07:00

July 3rd was our oldest daughter's 18th birthday. We celebrated it on the 4th of July. It was a very bitter-sweet day for me. Have you ever just had one of those moments where you just weren't sure how you got there? This was one of those moments for me. As most of my readers know, Leah decided back in December that she no longer wished to live with our family. That was hard. She said she wanted to celebrate her birthday with us on the fourth by going to Old World Wisconsin and to our church picnic and fireworks. Then the day before she was to come, she decided that this would be too long of a period of time for her to be away from her friends that she lives with. Except for a funeral and father's day, she hadn't been with us for six months. Wow! This letting go stuff is hard. Well, she ended up coming for presents and then went with us to Old World Wisconsin and then she returned to her friends.

As Dad and I went through all of her paperwork, getting her stuff ready to give to her, we were reminded of how hard it was to bring her to America. All the many people who rallied behind us and donated so that she could become part of our family. The tons and tons of paperwork and red tape that we had to go through. The prayers and tears were an endless process while trying to get her here. The sacrifice and the love and the hopes and dreams that went into making Leah our daughter. Now she is all grown up. We only had five years with her and I poured all I had into trying to make everything work out. Now, she's our first child to become an adult. She has turned into a very beautiful young lady. We pray God's best for her life.

Jared blessed Leah with a box of Whoppers for her birthday.

Kendra crocheted a cute little purse for Leah.

Robert blessed Leah with a box of playing cards.

Sarah made this pretty bracelet in Leah's favorite color orange.

Michael made Leah a scroll saw puzzle with his scroll saw.

Here's the finished product when it's all put together.

Rachel blessed Leah with some of her homemade soap that she makes. She gave her a lavender bar. She also wrote her a letter letting her know that she forgives her and she asked for forgiveness too for all the wrong she had ever done to Leah. It was a good moment.

Another beautiful moment of forgiveness extended to Leah from Kaila.

Kaila blessed Leah with a pair of earings.

One thing that Leah and I have in common is our love for hot, spicy foods. My Liberian children always said that I was good at eating foods like Liberian women. I found this neat cookbook for Leah that has hot, spicy foods from around the world. I'm sure she'll enjoy cooking out of it. It's a pretty neat cookbook with pictures of all the recipes. I love cookbooks that have pictures of all the foods and Leah always loved cookbooks with pictures. She always said, "I need to see the picture to know if I'll like it or not."

I made Leah a scrapbook for her birthday of some of her school work that she's done over the past five years. She's reading the letter that I included in the front of the album. It was quite the project as I had an extremely large box of all of Leah's schoolwork. It's amazing how much one child can do in 5 years. I went through all of it and decided what was the best keepsakes and put it all in one book for her. If the Lord so chooses to bless her with children and grandchildren one day, I believe they will have fun looking back to see what their mom accomplished in the first five years that she was in America.

I will close with a copy of the letter that I put in the front of the album.

Dear Leah,

This entire book was written and illustrated by you. I simply went through the last five years of your school work and picked out some things that I thought you would enjoy looking at and for saving to show to your friends and possible future children and grandchildren.

This has been a very healing project for me to do for you. God has used it in mighty ways to minister to my heart. Through putting together this album for you, the Lord showed me that I gave you everything I had to offer to you and I taught you all that I could in the five, very short, years in which you were here in our home. I know, without a doubt, that I taught you the things that God wanted me to teach you. I taught you the Bible, character traits, science from a Biblical perspective, history and the sovereignty of God, Math, social skills, health, virtuous womanhood, purity, how to cook, bake, clean and various other things over the past five years. However, I know that the most important thing I taught you is the fact that Jesus Christ came to this world to die for our sins, to save us, and make us right with God. If we put God first in our lives, then we will be willing to surrender to His perfect will for our lives and not try to fight what He wants for us.

I want you to know that it was a real honor and privilege to be able to be your primary teacher for the last five years. I thank God for giving me the opportunity to pass my faith in God to you. Most parents get at least 18 or more years to teach their child everything they need to know for life and godliness. I did not have that opportunity with you, but I know that I tried to cram as much as I could in the few short years I did have. I know sometimes I frustrated you because I had such a great urgency to teach you everything and I knew I was running out of time. That time escaped me faster than I could blink my eyes. I always felt a sense of urgency that I needed to do more, more, and more with you because there was so much to learn.

I know I was not able to cram 18 years of learning into 5 like I wish I could have. However, I know that I taught you how to learn. I taught you how to research anything you wanted to learn. I taught you how to read. So, it is with great humbleness that I turn your education completely over to you. I pray that you will continue learning every single day of your life. That you will have a curious mind and that you will seek to learn as much as you possibly can. I pray that you will not waste one single day, but that you will take all you have learned from me and that you will become a very wise and diligent young woman who fears God with all her heart. I pray that you will remember that I tried my best and I pray you will become 1000x better than I ever could be. I know that if you live under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and submit yourself to His plan for you, then you will be able to accomplish great and mighty things for Him and reach many people to continue filling up the kingdom of heaven.

I also want you to know that I love you. Someday, if the Lord chooses to bless you with your own children, then you will better understand my sense of urgency that I had, to push you to learn as much as you could. Now, the Lord has given me great peace that I planted the seeds, He is sending others to water those seeds and He alone will provide the increase. I have trained you in the way in which you ought to go, and I pray you do not depart from it.

I love you, Leah!