garden delighting

Okay, so I didn't realize that I liked gardening that much until Benjamin asked for one. When we moved into our house, we asked what the kids would like since we were in a house, not an apartment. Benjamin said, "A Garden!" Humm... Okay. So we planted a little one out in the back yard in what used to be a little flower bed. We planted sunflowers and peas and carrots. Then the next summer, sunflowers, little watermelons, and mini pumpkins. We didn't get the carrots or peas planted and I was kinda bummed. But then, in the fall, when I was in the front of the house by our other little flower bed and noticed a strange looking "weed". It was a carrot! Apparently the kids had spilled the carrot seeds and they blew into the flower bed and along our sidewalk up to the house! I had to laugh as we were digging carrots out of the grass in the front yard! And smile because God knows our little desires as much as he knows our big desires and He enjoys delighting us!




Well, this summer, we planted nothing! Uff. We knew we'd be gone for at least a month during the middle of the summer and wouldn't be around to care for it. So we just let it sit. We did plant some bulbs in the front of the house which will probably wait until next spring to come up... but... that's another story! We got back from our traveling for a month, and noticed in the backyard right by the garage door where there's no garden or anything, there was a big plant of pink/purple hollyhocks!! Benjamin watched it grow outside his window, I guess! Heh. Pretty fun! What a treat.

I noticed that there never seem to be lots of flowers on the hollyhocks and figured it was jut because they were wild and not in a good spot... Then this week I saw why! Hannie loves to pick them and give them to her friends!! She's our gift giver...

Okay, one more gardening delighting story... We've had to spray our little garden patch a few times for weeds and grass, which has killed most everything else, too. Then we replanted what we wanted to go there. Well, the one thing I kinda liked were those soft, furry, Lambs Ears. I don' t know if that's the official name... but you know what I mean. Well, THEY keep coming back! I didn't know they were that hardy... but I dug the one up and brought it to the front so we could see it more often. Then this fall I noticed several baby ones coming up! What a delight. So we dug those up since the temprature is dropping pretty low here. And now I have two pots in the kitchen of those soft little plants that I enjoy! Isn't God sweet! He knows what you like, too... Keep an eye open!



(Guess what Beth Moore pointed out in the study we started last week... God is a gardner! HE planted the garden in Genesis... Neat, huh?)

what kids say

The other day when we were talking about outgrowing clothes, Hannie asked me, "What's a Hannie down?"

Then today we went down by the Red River to admire the fall colors and Hannie was standing by the gate on the dike shaking our hands and announcing to Ruth and Eli and I that this was the Red River and welcome and - it's even FREE! :)

Ruth doesn't care much for loud noises and usually gets spooked during a thunderstorm. After I had been down to her room several times to comfort her, I told her how some people imagine it's just angels bowling up in heaven... She looked up at me with creases between her eyebrows and said, "MY angels DON'T Bowl!"

Today when I told Ruth it was time to take a nap... way PAST time... and she had to go to the bathroom and then lay down, she wasn't too happy about it. She mumbled something and stomped down the hall. Just when she was out of view she said very loudly, "I - Said - STINKIN'!" Then added, "Heh." with great satisfaction.

Elijah is learning words and saying more. He's starting to string them together, too. Last night we went to Uncle Blake's to see Emmitt, our puppy! "Puppy, puppy, puppy..." And Eli said, "That? Puppy, Bed? Puppy out..." He's growing up so fast. Like they all do, I suppose! Then he tried to give Emmitt open mouth kisses during our whole stay as he poked, "Nose. Ear, Eye, Mouth..." Poor Emmitt loves Elijah but doesn't know quite what to do with him.

I love it when Hannie means to say, "I'm not..." and instead she says, "I Emmint..." :) Or would it be spelled "amn't"? Heh.

Benjamin was reading me his snake book for his 10 minutes of reading out loud for his homework and I was telling him, ick, ooh, yuck while looking at all these poisnious, huge snakes. He was laughing so hard there were tears in his eyes when he said, "Mom, be relieved. The snakes at the end aren't poisnious!" Heh... Be relieved.

family

After my last post about the kids, I figured that I should add a picture OF the kids! This is Elijah, Benjamin, Hannie, and Ruth. (Ruth's bangs are much shorter now since she decided to cut them at the church in Wallhalla, ND while I was speaking!!) This picture, though, was taken on our way to speak in Dickinson, ND. We stopped at Cracker Barrel for some big ol' lollypops! Hannie's been asking ever since she saw them out in Ohio! Pretty cool!

In case you hadn't heard, we are in fact traveling the state of North Dakota to raise support - prayers and finances - for our upcoming move to Russia to do missions work with an international campus ministry based in St. Petersburg! We are finding our time on the road to be pretty good for the most part. Other than Hannie walking off the platform when she decided she didn't want to sing the song with the other kids, Ruth running in and out of the side door at the front of the sanctuary while Kevin was speaking, and the above mentioned cutting of the hair... We have enjoyed meeting lots of people who love the Lord and getting a good taste of ND churches. We've seen more of ND than we ever have in the past, too. After growing up here, you'd think you'd have seen it all! Heh. It has been kinda tough to not be a part of our church family here in Grand Forks, too. Maybe more than I thought it would be. We still are involved with Wed night things but we really do miss seeing all our "family" on Sunday mornings. We're learning that church is really about family... our church family here in GF and our whole, big, wide church family in ND and around the world! Kinda cool.

Pray that we raise money fast and that others will remember to pray for us! We know we'll get overseas right "when the time comes" (how the Bible talks about time - coming...). But we would like to get there sooner rather than later in order to help the missionaries we're going to help and just to GET THERE! :)

God is faithful and His way is perfect.

too cute

I love kids... especially my own!

They make me laugh and make me think... they open our eyes to the delights all around us waiting to be delighted in.

Hannie sits at a small table in her kindergarten class with two other children and the other side of the table is open to see the teacher and board. Well, she LOVES teasing and told me that there are actually four at her table now.
"Oh, did you get another student in class?"
"No..." -giggle...
"Hannie, are you fibbing?!"
"No! Really there are four..." -more giggling...
"Hannie?"
"It's true; the fourth one is Jesus! He needs a place!"

Hannie is loving school! She's making friends. They get to paint and that's pretty cool. They're learning a Bible verse for each letter of the alphabet. (This week was "B" "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ...") And she also learned her official word this week - "at". She doesn't read books like crazy like Benjamin does but she loves to write things out, which Benjamin wasn't too interested in... She'll sound out words and write things down all by herself. One picture hanging on our wall right now reads, "i LUVU DAD B KUS YW LUKT RME BKS" Anyone? Translation: I love you, Dad, because you like to read me books.

Last night was Back to School Night for parents to see what the kids will be learning this year... I asked Benjamin what his 2nd grade teacher would have to say about him. He figured she'd say that he was doing good... but that the others could use some work! Hannie teased that her teacher would say that she was doing BAD! - giggles...

Benjamin still loves books and reading. He was so excited the other day because they had library at school and he checked out a "cool, gross book". It's about Hungry, Hungry Sharks. Heh. And one page showes sharks EATING a whale! Another page says the things that have been found in sharks bellies - one thing was a suit of armor!!

At meal time we can get into some good conversations. Ruth just asked, "Who is Jesus?" Well... that's an important question. I explained that He is God's Son and our Savior. He's preparing a place for us in heaven... Kevin was formulating an answer himself as we tried to think of a simple yet real answer for our three year old, when Hannie burst out - "He's the Rock of my Salvation!"

It's always interesting to have a child teach you with out them knowing it. Ruth told me the other day as we were talking about Jesus coming to the earth that she did NOT want to go to heaven. I quickly said, "That's why Jesus came... it'll be great to go to heaven!" "Well, I don't want to. I want to stay here." Which made me think... Jesus did come so that we could go to heaven but He also came that we might have abundant life now! (John 10:10) So I went on to explain to her and to reasure her that right now it's good to have her here and that when the time comes to go to heaven that it'll be good to have her there, too. Abundant life now and hope for the future...

Just looking at Ruthie is fun. She's got such expressions these days. We are enjoying some quieter time together now with the older two off at school. She loves to be read to. So that's been fun. Just to have her close and to have conversations with her as we go through books together.

Elijah's learning words and more words. He will repeat just about everything you say and is remembering more and more on his own, too. One of my favorites is "boogie". That's what I say when we need to go... and we are forever GOING... So now whenever it's time to pick up Hannie or pick up Benjamin or drop someone off I'll say, "Let's go!" and a little baby voice somewhere will reply, "Boogie, boogie, boogie, boogie..." Then when we take an exit ramp to get the kids to school, I'll turn kinda quickly and he exclaims from the back seat, "Wheee!" He also gives GREAT kisses. I love baby kisses.

Puppies are also the bomb. Especially Emmitt, Uncle Blake's puppy. While we were taking care of him on Labor Day while Blake was out of town, Eli decided that tackeling him was the thing to do. They both weigh about the same but it was so funny to watch Emmitt look back at Elijah and wonder what to do with this little thing laying across his back... Of course Elijah just grinned and laughed and clapped his hands...

Life. Joy.

B-enefits

Psalm 103:2-5

Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His BENEFITS:
-who FORGIVES all your sins
-and HEALS all your diseases
-who REDEEMS your life from the pit
-and CROWNS you with love and compassion
-who SATISFIES your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles

Whoo-hoo. We were encouraged to know those benefits last Sunday. I'd learned them a while back but was just refreshed to read them again. They are benefits for the children of God! And not just health care! (Although that seems to be included!) Heh.

This week, I especially liked the one about satisfying your desires with good things... so that your YOUTH is renewed like the eagles. "Jill" means "youthful" and so lately youth-y verses stick out to me! And to be renewed like the eagles! Just reading it is renewing! Heh. (The other youth verse that I have written down in my Bible is Isaiah 40:29-31 about ..."youths grow tired... but they that wait on the Lord will renew their strength. They will mount up on wings like eagles..." Guess eagles and youth go together?! Heh.)

Forget not His benefits!

kevin and jill

Top 10

Kevin and I celebrated our TENTH wedding anniversary on August 17th! Whoo-hoo!! Or as he likes to say, we celebrated the anniversary of our honeymoon... Heh. So I thought it'd be fun to list the top 10 reasons I like being married to Kevy bear! Here goes, in no particular order...

*Having a sleepover every night with your best friend
*Five lovely children
*Road trips
*Crawford family late night band
*A home to invite friends to
*Snuggling
*Comfortable - dressed up or dressed down
*Nick names - my Kevy bear
*Laughing (& teasing)
*Waving on the overpass
*Growing - Iron sharpens iron
*Advice - always someone there for help
*Praying together
*Moving to Russia
*Abundant life!!

Okay, there's a few years to go on, too, I guess! I could come up with a ton but I'll just say that I love being married to Kevin! Here's to another 75 years!

Queen of Heaven

Tonight as we were discussing heaven, and how we are actually princesses and princes (Cinderella days...) because God is the king and we are His children... the question came up - who is the Queen then?

"There is no Queen."
"Why not?"
"No one knows."
"Someone knows."
"Who??"
"God. He knows everything"
moment of thought...
"I know who is the Queen!"
"Who?"
"Grandma Helga!"

Grandma Helga just might be the queen, I told them. She was the darling elderly lady who sat across from us every Sunday in church. She passed away in March and the kids are thrilled to know that she is now running in heaven! Even though we do miss showing her our loose teeth and so forth...

Maybe now she is the queen.

Double Egg

A while back, we were going through a tight time financially (which never ends, really, I just happened to be a little worried about it then...). I was cooking supper, scrambled eggs, and I was half praying half thinking about how we were getting low on food and the pay check wasn t for a few days. As I counted out two eggs for each person and looked to see that we might be short an egg or two - I looked down to see the egg that I had just cracked open was a double egg!! That gave me the right count in my pan and a little more hope in my heart!

Well, tonight - there was that double egg again! Another reminder of God s provision! And this time it was not only one double, but two! So instead of me having two scrambled eggs, there were four in my pan! I just smiled, then laughed. Eli did, too. The girls came running to take a look...

Makes me think of the verse in Ephesians 3 abou how God able to do above and beyond all we ask or imagine. I hadn t even thought to ask for double eggs! And then there they were again, along with my double portion of hope.

Lord of the Rings-HOPE

Have you seen the movie Lord of the Rings? I think Kevin's seen it something like five times. Now I have twice. After it came out on DVD, Kevin got the extended version and so last week we decided we should watch them all... it took us about a week! (Naptimes and bedtime...) Anyway.

Guys love the fighting and strength, girls love the love stories and the courage of the women. What we found we both loved this time was hope. If you've seen it, did you notice that? There are several times hope is mentioned, or even a speech is given about it! Courage and hope. Don't give up. My favorite hope part is the flower on the dead tree... if you've seen it you know what I'm talking about! Hope. Life. Don't give up.

The greatest of these is faith, HOPE, and love...

Lessons in a Public Restroom

Ok, so in June we spent two weeks in missions training in Springfield, MO. One afternoon, after just hearing, in some detail, about all the parasites and worms we would for sure experience overseas... and how we'd get used to planning our day around how our stomaches felt... I had to use the restroom! Between our classes I had a slight stomach ache. So just before next class and I headed to the bathroom. As I sat in there, I thought, "Man, I don't really like being here in the public restroom..." knowing I would probably be in several other public restrooms in other countries!! And then the thought came to me... Would you rather stay in your own home all comfy and cozy to use your own bathroom or would you like to live an adventure, chasing after abundant life in Christ - even if it could mean having to use an unfamiliar bathroom?! My choice was obvious. While that was not my favorite thing to do, I knew that excitment and life would be waiting for me. I'd rather live life to the full than to stay safe and know my own bathroom is handy! More to this life, right?! And I was back in class before the teacher began! He is faithful, even in the restroom! Heh.

hi

hello, just testing things out here...