I love black and white photos. Especially ones from long ago. It's as if you can look into their eyes and see what they were trying to tell you, a story of who they were and where they came from. A story that held laughter, joys, hurts and sorrows all rolled into one.The picture above is one of my mom and her three sisters taken in Kansas during the 1930's. From left to right there is my Aunt Betty, Aunt Helen, Aunt Ruby and the little blond one in front, with the great big smile is my mother. My mom is smiling because she was the youngest, and was pretty tickled because she was holding a purse in the picture. Was it her purse, no, it was my Aunt Betty's, henceforth.... she is wearing the frown. This picture always makes me smile. It makes me want to step back in time and see what life was ... read more
The Miller Family Motto
The Miller family on top of the Hard Rock Cafe in Seattle. Our Miller Family Motto is "Choose Joy". This stands for putting Jesus first, Others second, and Yourself last."22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. "Galatians 5:22-23Joy is one of the fruits of the spirit in the Bible. At times, joy is not an easy thing to find. So many other things can get in the way. Petty squabbles, finances, and health seem to be a few of the things that can cloud our view and become joy stealers. We loose our joy when we take our focus of the positive things in life and start to focus on the negative. Our joy is also lost when our priorities are out of place. When we decide to ... read more
Storms
This has been a hard week for our family. We have received unwelcome news twice this week. Even though it has been difficult and still is, we know that God is with us every step of the way. This video below is a song by Casting Crowns titled, "Praise You in this Storm," which fits exactly to what we have been feeling this week. You will have to pause the music on the sidebar in order to hear this song. ... read more
Homemade Laundry Soap
A few weeks ago Daniel and I made homemade laundry soap. It did not take much time and was actually fun to do. We figured that the cost of a 5 gallon bucket of soap is $2.00 which lasts our family 2 months. When we compared this to what we spent on name brand laundry soap we figured we were saving roughly $228 dollars a year. That is quite a savings! After trying the homemade soap I feel that is cleans just as well as the store brands. Below you will see the instructions for making our thrifty soap. 1. Add 1/2 cup of Borax into a five gallon bucket. 2. Add 1 cup of washing soda into the five gallon bucket. 3. Grind up 1 bar of Fels Naptha soap. 4. Put the ground up soap into a saucepan and cover with warm water. Set on medium heat and stir until ... read more
3 Perfect Rounds!!
Last Friday evening my Son had a quiz meet at our church with the rest of his team mates. They have been studying the book of Exodus and where quizzed over the first 15 lessons. I am an assistant coach to the team of 12 and usually score keep at each of the quizzes. I was especially excited for Daniel during this quiz, because out of 3 rounds of 20 questions each, he did not miss a single question! He was so proud of himself when he accomplished this , as were Mom and Dad. Way to go little buddy! All the hours of studying paid off! To top off the evening he found out that his team also took first place. The picture below shows Daniel with the biggest grin ever as he is holding his two first place ribbons. ... read more
A Boy That Can Melt His Mommy’s Heart
A few weeks ago my ten year old son came home from being with his Dad and said, "Mom, I have a surprise for you!" Out from his back he pulled a bouquet of little pink roses and said, "Mom this is an award for being the best Mom. " Sigh.... well, he brought his Mom to tears and reminded me that everything I do day in and day out is indeed worth it. ... read more
‘I’ll Be Home for Christmas”
One fun activity that we were able to participate in this holiday season was our church play called,"I'll Be Home for Christmas." The play was set back during the time of Pearl Harbor in San Francisco. It portayed how a family made it through difficult times by relying on the Lord and remembering what the true meaning of Christmas was really about. The drama cast of "I'll Be Home for Christmas." Aunt Angie, Micky (Daniel), Lil, Grandpa, Sid and Norma. Micky (Daniel) wants to listen to the Lone Ranger on the radio, but Aunt Angie and Grandpa can not stand all of the shoot outs and brawls. Micky (Daniel) pretends that his wooden horse is a microphone as he sings, "Without you, ba, ba, ba, boo." Emily had her first ballet solo as she played the lead ballerina during the song Toy Land. Our ... read more
Autumn
My favorite season of the year is Autumn. I love the Autumn colors, the lemon yellows, watermelon reds and the list goes on and on. I love the chill in the air, having a cup of Russian tea, picking out pumpkins, making pumpkin spice cookies,hosting Thanksgiving at our house and just spending time with my family. The pictures below are what we have been up to this glorious Autumn season. ... read more
Back in the Saddle Again
Almost two years ago, my little girl,(I know she is 13 and not necessarily little, but she will always be my little girl. Smile) was thrown from a horse during horse co-op. She almost gave her Mother a heart attack, but in the end she was fine. Two weeks after the accident she got back on a horse and the horse stumbled in the arena which caused some fears to surface and made Emily decide that she did not want to ride ride again until yesterday.Yesterday she got up on a very slow and gentle horse named Skeeter. She showed great courage, confidence and determination as she got back in the saddle. The sweet lady in the picture is Miss Janie. This woman is one of the kindest individuals I know. As Emily was mounting the horse she told Emily to remember the verse, "I can do all things who ... read more
Two Perfect Rounds
In quizzing this year the children at our church are studying the book of Exodus. We had our first quiz meet this past Saturday. Out of our 13 quizzers our A,B,and C team took 1,2,and 3rd place. We were very proud of Daniel on Saturday because he only missed 1 out of 60 questions, which resulted in two perfect rounds. We were also proud of Daniel because of how he dealt with some situations during the day of the quiz. God has been working with Daniel in certain areas of his life and this was made evident in the maturity he showed and the decisions he made on Saturday. Good Job Buddy! You are loved! ... read more