What are you waiting for?

Yesterday was the start of the Advent season - a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the birth of Jesus. In our household, we have an advent wreath. It consists of three purple candles, one pink, and a center white candle surrounded by holly. On the first Sunday of Advent, one purple candle is lit. The next Sunday, two are lit, and so on. Christmas day all candles are lit. As we lit the first candle, we said a blessing. With each candle being lit, we say a verse and prayer.

Here is what will be said as three candles are lit: "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. Philippians 4:4. Lord Jesus, we implore You to hear our prayers and to lighten the darkness of our hearts by Your gracious visitation; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, on God, now and forever. Amen. 'Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding! "Christ is near," we hear it say. "Cast away the works of darkness, All you children of the Day!"

Ellie and Josh enjoy the lighting and blowing out of candles the most. They also enjoy opening the little paper window on our Advent calendar, telling the story of the birth of Jesus.

We are trying to instill the importance of what this time represents to us as Christians. A time of waiting, anticipating the salvation that Simeon's eyes were allowed to see. Jesus, God with us. Savior, Christ the Lord.

What are you waiting for?

Everywhere I go . . .

. . . my truck comes with me.

Happy Birthday, Josh!

Josh's day started out with "Happy Birthdays!" from his family. He got to choose what he wore, and what he ate for breakfast. He got to watch Dumbo. He got to be the main character in our Bible devotions. He got to cut a second birthday cake (not a train, but I did drizzle pink icing on it.) And he picked me to rocked him before bedtime.





Josh received a Hess emergency truck with a rescue vehicle from us for his birthday. Once we got the batteries in and the vehicles working, they played until bedtime with them. He also received his very own coloring book, but that was forgotten as soon as the truck came out of the bag. The rescue vehicle only lights up, so Ellie was producing her own siren. All I got were videos of Josh and his truck, because he didn't sit still with it. The video is a little dark, because to see the lights on the trucks properly, so say Josh and Ellie, the lights must be out. When told it was time to put the truck away, there were much tears.

We're having a party!

Today was Josh's 3rd birthday party. My parents and aunt, and Gary's mom were able to make it. Gary's dad and Judy caught the flu, so needed to stay at home and rest. And Jess had a paper due today she needed to work on.

Josh picked pizza for dinner and a pink train cake for dessert. He was quite set on pink . . . I think Ellie had something to do with it. He knew what he didn't want for the inside color (flavor,) and finally agreed on spice cake. We ordered the gigantic 28" pizza again. This time we had it delivered.

We bought train plates and napkins. Josh helped me make the cake, but then went down for his nap. He recieved three matchbox cars, a train peg shelf, goofy bug things that crawl down the window, a CD with his name inserted in all the songs, a roll of smarties, and a shirt. He has to wait until his actually birthday for our gifts, not that he noticed he didn't get them yet. He immediately set to playing with the cars. And the trains that my dad set up while we visited before dinner. He received from Dan back in April, but we never took time to set up because of them being broken. I finally pulled them out today to see if we could get the in working order. They still don't work, but Josh has a grand time playing with cars and track anyway. He likes the track even without the train cars, since anything will ride on them. I think if we get fresh batteries, he might get to see them move on their own. And hear a regular sounding whistle, not a sick cat sounding whistle.


Ellie had a hard time letting it be Josh's day. She tried her mightiest to stick herself in the middle of everything. We feel it very important to teach her that everything does not revolve around Elisabeth Virginia Kulp, even if she thinks it does. She still has to make it through him getting extra attention on his actual birthday.

Are they going to make it?

Here you see our brussel sprouts actually trying to grow after 5 months of waiting. I'm not holding out for them.

Leaves all around

I decided that our leaf population had increased to an unreasonable high. I got out the rake and the bags, cleaned up the dog poop, and got to raking. Josh helped.


Here are the leaves I raked off the street. If you look closely, you can see that these are 99% oak leaves. We have maple trees. All these leaves aren't even ours. They belong across the street.






Ellie home from school, showing off her tongue and the cleaned up sidewalk and street. I didn't get to finish all the raking by the time she got home, but I at least got them off the sidewalk and street. You can see them on the far left of the picture covering the grass.



Did I mention that I walked Ellie to the bus not once, not twice, but three times this morning? Yesterday I finally got the schedule they said I would have last week. First Student transports students for Penn View Christian School and Grace Christian school. So the schedule is different when the other school is closed, as it was today. The last time Penn View didn't have school, we didn't know about the different schedule (the note not getting home to us.) I thought surely today will go fine, we have the altered schedule, which states the stop - York and Cannon, and time - 7:45 am. I was at the appropriate corner by 7:40 am. By about 7:57, I walked back home with Josh and Ellie to give ol' First Student a call. The bus driver claimed he was at the stop at 7:45, and I reminded her that wasn't true. She told me the bus would be there in 10 minutes. I walked back to the stop with both kids and waited another 15 minutes. At 8:30 (when her school starts,) I headed back home again, kids in tow. Another call, another promise that the bus would be coming in 5 minutes, we went back to stop. Before I even got there (we walk down our street, then turn and walk another block,) the bus was headed by on the cross street. I had to wave to him to wait. Good thing there is a stop sign. But she got on the bus.

I am quite put out with First Student, if you couldn't tell.

Friends, scrabble, entertaining, and such

Myrtle came over today. Some might not think that odd, since she lives in Virginia and never left her couch to come over. First we just talked on the phone, while I beat her at scrabble, then she went and beat me. We sang a few hymns, and then she came over to watch the kids while I prepared dinner. She read them Frog and Toad, The Napping House, and then the kids showed her books. As you can see Josh didn't last as long as Ellie. He started playing. Then she joined us at the table for dinner. It was a lovely afternoon. All thanks to skype and a camera phone.

Herbs and Spices, Coffee and Tea

It was brought to my attention, thank you Claire, that I have not given an account of what we are selling. So, in case anyone is in need of something and close by, we are selling (all of it organic) apple spice, pumpkin spice, mulling spices, poultry seasoning, pickling spices, bay leaves, 100% pure vanilla extract, seasoned garlic salt, cinnamon, rosemary, basil, herbs de province, whole chilies, chili flakes, cinnamon sticks, sage, paprika, chipotle powder, cayenne powder, parsley, Earl Grey tea, spiced coffee - regular and decaf, and house blend coffee - regular and decaf, to name a few.

On our first day we had the first seven I think. Since then we've grown.

To market, to market

We've had a few late nights, and it has nothing to do with the Phillies. We have a store location to put our spices. Yeah! But since we didn't plan well, we were up past midnight for two nights getting stuff ready. An acquaintance of Gary's from high school has an antique type shop and offered us a spot for our spices. Gary and I are exhausted from getting everything ready.

We did, however, have our biggest sales day at the farmer's market today. And Ellie was Daddy's little helper. She was there all day with him and was well behaved. Josh stayed at Grammy H.'s overnight for his birthday. Each had a special treat and Mom had no kids for half a day.

Now, even though I had no kids, I had no relaxation. Gary and I scrambled this morning to get him off to the farmer's market. Things that went wrong - 1. Ground coffee too fine and had to grind more. 2. When grinding the second batch forgot to add the spices, so instead used already ground spices and just mixed it in. 3. Since he was so late, we just brewed the coffee and mulled the cider at home and hoped it wouldn't spill on the way over. After Gary left, I took a record time shower and went over with Ellie to help him set up.

I finally made it over to The Shabby Attic with our spices. I had the display all set, then remembered I forgot the bags of coffee to sell. When I got back to the shop with the coffee, Karin asked about the coffee Gary said we would brew for samples. Back to the house I went to grab the coffee Gary accidentally ground too fine and mixed in the spices. After stopping at four grocery stores looking for 8 oz. cups for said coffee, I ended up buying foam ones, which I was loathe to do. I wanted the cardboard/paper kind. Apparently I am the only one who does.

I raced back to the shop to set up the coffee maker and then took a needed bathroom brake. As I got back to check on the coffee, I saw that it had overflowed and made a large mess. The full pot of full strength coffee became a half pot of weak coffee. But I was told, since I don't drink coffee, that it had good flavor. Perhaps the orange juice drinker should not be put in charge of the coffee. And to top it all off, I forgot cream and sugar.

But there were some high points to the day. What seemed as wrongs, were actually rights. Thank you God for looking out for us. When Gary got to the farmer's market, he discovered that the electricity had been turned off. If we hadn't brewed and mulled at home, we wouldn't have had coffee or cider ready to sell. It did eventually get turned back on and keep the drinks hot. And since Gary brewed some coffee that didn't work for the percolator, I had coffee to take to the shop.

And the best part of the day was that Ellie had a great morning with her dad and Josh had a great morning with his grandmother.

The Full Moon

The children ate all their dinner tonight. An unusual occurrence, to be sure. And not only did they finish, they had seconds (and thirds if more were available) of the broccoli and cauliflower, and seconds (and thirds for Ellie) of the noodles. They did not however want anymore meat. And who could blame them, since I cooked it to death. I made it chewy and mostly tasteless. I mistakenly thought what I was cooking was thin ground beef, but it wasn't. One might wonder how I could make such a mistake, but we won't bother with that now. I have another package of it, and I won't make that mistake twice. I'll actually pay attention when reading the label.

Anyway, I also thought I'd make a gravy to go on the meat and noodles. Sounds good until I decided, foolishly, to add hickory smoke flavoring. I added too much, and because it was not real flavoring, it was yucky. Eventually I had to remove the pot from the table, the smell bothered me so much. I am throwing that bottle away.

Now the vegetables were the highlight of the meal. And that actually means something coming from me, the one whose tongue generally cares not for such healthy things. I sauteed them in grape seed oil (I can talk about that later) and Gary's seasoned garlic salt. Very tasty, highly recommend cooking them that way, especially for those who don't want to eat their greens. I should have made more.

And to top it off, we had told Josh he didn't have to finish his meat. He declined our offer and ate the last two pieces. At that point I wondered allowed if there was a full moon tonight? I immediately looked at the calendar and discovered that indeed it was a full moon. Go figure. Maybe at least once a month they'll eat all their dinner!

After much searching, I think I like the Harley-Davidson Softails with saddlebags best. Either brown or black. I just have to wait twenty years to purchase one.

Happy Birthday Karen!

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear Karen!
Happy Birthday to you!

You know, growing up, my mom and cousin had birthday celebrations together and my brother and grandfather had birthday celebrations together. Although my aunt and I have birthdays next to each other, I never really got to celebrate with her. She lives in North Carolina and apparently never was up visiting during January.

Ellie gets to celebrate with her cousin since they share a birthday. And another cousin's is a few weeks before. Gary could join in since his is only a week before, but really, he'd rather just let the girls have their day. He isn't into pink, princess or girl stuff anyway.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear Mom!
Happy Birthday to you!

What makes doing housework fun?

Listening to my favorite songs on my iPod. Want to listen too?

"While I'm Waiting" by John Waller from the movie Fireproof




"Unknown Legend" by Neil Young

Heading to the World Series - again!

Last night the Phillies won the National League Conference Title and another shot at winning the World Series.

I've got a ticket to ride

After four classes, a bit of hurrying, and an extra ten dollars, I have my motorcycle license. We arrived late for our first class. They say they are very strict about not letting late comers in, but they took our information and let us in anyway. I put my permit in my pocket since they said we would need it later. That was a Thursday. Friday I did laundry. Yes, I forgot to remove the paper permit and washed my jeans. What was left of my permit when the washer stopped would have fit in a thimble, with room to spare. I tried getting a new one, but the driver's license center was closed during the hours of operation.

So I went to our first riding class without a permit. They didn't ask for it, I didn't bring it up. I did go to the driving center again the next week and paid for a new one. The riding class was excellent at teaching beginners about motorcycles. First you just stand next to it and look at the bike. Then you sit on it. Move the levers and buttons. Next you turn it on. You practice rocking back and forth, recognizing the friction zone - the place where the engine starts to engage and move the bike. Then you move across the range in first gear, both feet still on the ground walking with the bike. Then you move a little faster, picking your feet up. And so on practicing basic techniques. It was fun. I had a blast.

At our next classroom class, I was nervous about the written test. Gary knew I'd do fine. We both passed.

At our final riding class (at which God answered my prayer to stop the rain,) we would be doing finer skills, like u-turns and such. We practiced, received some advice, then came the test. Gary was in front of me. On the second skill of the first part of the test, Gary dumped the bike. I wanted to shut off my bike and run over to him, but you can't go running across the range. He didn't even realize what he did wrong, until later when an instructor talked to him. He had braked while swerving, which is a big no-no for a motorcycle. His was the fourth mishap that day, but since his was during the test, he didn't pass. I wasn't sure how I'd do after having watched my husband land on the ground. Although I was armed with the advice on how to do slow u-turns, I hadn't gotten to use it yet. I did fine. The rest of the test went well, also, and I passed.

If there is room, Gary can be a walk-in at another class this weekend and try again.

Now, I just need to find a motorcycle to practice on and a way to get it to the school parking lot.

Fireproof

Gary and I watched the movie Fireproof soon after it came out. A local church was showing it. It is good. I recently rented it from our local library. I watched it many times. It is great story about what happens when two people don't love unconditionally in a marriage. And then one of them is dared to try things differently - God's way. At first Caleb isn't really trying, just going through the motions, but he soon realizes that he can't give what he doesn't have. To love unconditionally, one needs God's love. God gives us the love we give to others. Caleb then starts loving his wife with God's love, doing it God's way. His wife starts to notice and eventually wants what happened to him to happen to her.

A companion to the movie is the book The Love Dare, a complete version of the dare that Caleb follows in the movie. It's a forty day dare to love your spouse unconditionally. I dare you to try it.

The tale of our weekend

The Chatter Box, where we had dinner Friday night.














Cruising the boardwalk in a surrey Saturday morning.
























Our favorite pizza place - Mack and Manco's.















A couple getting married on the beach.












Going for a helicopter ride.














Going down the slide.
















Stuffing as much cotton candy as allowed into mouth. Ellie saved her money to buy it.












Having fun at the new playground.














Exploring the sand.













Posing on the beach (before Ellie and Josh were soaked.)












Ellie and Josh enjoying the ocean (very soaked.)

Ocean City, NJ

Today after lunch we will be heading to Ocean City, NJ. It will be the first trip we will be taking with Gary's mom. We are all excited. Gary, because the shore is his favorite place to go (he is a bit saddened that we didn't make it to the shore when it was actually swimming weather.) The kids, just because. Josh and Ellie get excited to go anywhere. Gary's mom, because it will be her first real break from regular life since Dan got sick 9 years ago, and me, because I will be away from the business of home.

I plan to take all my MomSense magazines that I have neglected to read over the past year. I also have my bag of God books, though I need to get a bigger bag now. Myrtle asked her pastor to send me a hard back copy of The Book of Concord. I have wanted one but didn't feel right asking for one and didn't take the money to buy one. Since I found out he was sending me one, I hoped it would arrive before we left for the shore. It came today! Now I have the treasure of a book and it is a precious gift.

But before I have the chance to read it at the shore, I have to get ourselves packed.

Phillies Win!

Phillies are 2009 NL East Champions! (Three years in a row!)