Happy Birthday to Tom and me!

Grandpa and Grandma came for our birthdays! They are playing chess.







The children don't know that Grandpa ALWAYS wins!







Here is Grandma drinking coffee.










and . . ., Lorien being silly. If I take enough silly pictures of her, maybe she'll want to take good ones!

Commentary on Snow

Snow brings lots of shoveling. Lorien is clearing the sidewalk - again.











Tom is trying to clean off the car, but the snow is still coming down.













Tom is working on our walkway.














Aleya joins us with her shovel. She is getting lots of practice this year!












Kayren is shoveling.













The snow comes down "horizontally" as Adam would say.












It looks peaceful in the back yard where you don't need to shovel!













We've had 48 inches so far, which is twice the normal amount. March is usually our heavy snow month.













Where's the road?








We've had lots of snow this year, and the temperatures have been very cold. These pictures are from a few days ago, but the temps this week have all been below zero. The wind chill is getting us down to -25. This reminds me of Alaska! At this point, our driveway is a sheet of ice, and cars cannot stay on it. We slide to the top, and slide back down to the street!

"Warmer" weather is coming this weekend. It should be in the 20's and maybe even the 30's!

Tom got me a beautiful blue bowl to replace the blue one that one of the children broke almost nine years ago, when I first met Tom. This one is gorgeous!

He also bought me these beautiful tulips for Valentine's Day. In April, if I can keep them alive that long, I can plant them, and they will come up every year.

Oscar, after bath and brushing. So much hair!

Aleya is getting ready in the morning.

This is Murphy, my Valentine's gift to Tom. He wanted a fish.

Betas are very pretty, but solitary. They do not want company.

Kayren is getting ready to come to work with me this morning.

A lovely sunrise over all the snow.

Oscar is barely visible in the snow. He is on the sidewalk, which has been shoveled. He can hardly move through the snow in the yard. It swallows him!

I still think that snow is beautiful.

More snow!

Snow, snow, snow!

We took some wonderful pictures of all the snow we got last night - about 9" or so. But, I left the camera at home. Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to submit some photos.

Anyway, no school today for any of us. The girls went to piano and we shoveled the Deatsches' driveway, as well as our own. Then I went to work anyway to work on labs and curriculum.

Kyrie is getting ready for her trip to TN tomorrow. She is applying for a scholarship to go to Bryan. She'll get to stay with Kesse and see the Robinsons while she is there! She'll be back on Monday.

Kayren is working on school anyway - no enjoyment on snow days for the OCD's in our house!

Lorien is avoiding schoolwork at all costs and finding every fun means of playing possible!

Aleya just loves tagging along with Lorien. There are so many fun things to do besides work! She is at a birthday party at present.

We are all getting over the nasty respiratory bug that hit us last week. Lorien avoided the worst of it, and is just sniffling. The rest of us continue to cough and hack, but are seemingly better.

Tom is reading his ecclesiology class that he is taking from MTIOP with our assistant pastor.

Our ladies' Bible study group is growing wonderfully! We are working through Elyse Fitzpatrick's book Idols of the Heart. It has been a great study.

Cold and Sick

No pictures today - we are migrating through the cold and trying to stay warm. Tom, Kayren, Aleya and I are all sick, while Kyrie and Lorien plod on.

It was -2 today. We've been spoiled the last couple of winters with warmer weather and shorter cold snaps. I guess this cold snap was especially hard because it came on the heals of 50 degree temps!

Lorien has two more basketball games and she will be done. Track is next.

Jathan is running indoor track and did well at his last meet. He is trying to earn a scholarship for track for next year to help out with finances.

Kesse is enjoying Bryan immensely and will host Kyrie this coming weekend for the scholarship competition. Kyrie is flying out on Thursday (next week) and returning on Monday morning.

Kayren is working on her art project, which is turning out well. She is sick right now and not doing much of anything.

Aleya is sick too, and she stays downstairs reading and sleeping most of the time. She has quite the temp!

Tom and I keep going, though last night Tom didn't get very much sleep. He was up trying to breath. He put on some sermons and we fell asleep after a while.

The church continues to grow and we are grateful for all the Lord is doing there.

The Lord's blessings on you all -

Tom is visiting us at Faith too. He gets to stop by sometimes in between stops. He is very busy tonight, so he can't stay. It's cold!

Aleya is making faces for us!

Here is Oscar! Aleya is beginning her photography career with this photo!

This is Kayren and Lorien posing for a picture that I used in a presentation for Faith Academy. They really do study together on Spanish!

Kayren is "enjoying" her geometry today.

Kyrie is applying to Taylor, Bryan and Grove City. She is trying to figure out which one to go to!

It's about 5 degrees outside in this picture. I am watching the quiet pond from inside the West Des Moines library. I am warm and sipping hot coffee and eating nuts and dried fruits.

It is so peaceful!

And yet - some children in the other end of the library seem to be getting tired of how long their mother is taking picking out books, so they start playing tag. The librarian is not happy. Librarians never seem to be happy when children are playing tag in their library. My girls would love to sit here all day and read, but we need to go, so off to work and school.

Sunday we had a wonderful sermon on Romans 5 and the peace that comes with Christ. It is good to know that real peace comes with Christ and not with silence and a snowy pond.

School Begins!

Well, Faith Academy began this week, and by today (Wednesday) we already have 42 students. I didn't get a chance to count my math students, but I am truly swamped at work. The curriculum has changed in all of my Algebra classes, so all the labs I prepared last semester need to be changed. Changing curriculum amounts to tons of work!

Kayren started the Network on Monday, and she was glad to be getting back into her routine.

Kyrie and Lorien also started back on Monday, and they were happy to be back into the school schedule. Lorien has a game on Friday night, along with a birthday party with one of her friends. Kyrie is trying to get Kesse to come and visit the school tomorrow, but they need to get permission from all the teachers, which was forgotten today, so we'll see. Kyrie is also working on her college applications. They take a lot of work! She prefers Grove City, but has applied to Bryan and Taylor too. She's been accepted at Bryan and is waiting to hear from Taylor. She needs one more reference in order to send her application to Grove.

Jathan was home for a couple of weeks and intends to drive back Friday. I think that they start classes on Monday. He has worked through the break and earned quite a bit of money, which should help him when he gets back. He loves playing his guitar, and chatting with the girls.

Kesse goes back on Sunday evening. She has gotten in some work time, and some rest time, and hopes to see the girls' school tomorrow. She loves her classes at Bryan, but has enjoyed being home, drinking hot beverages, and curling up on the couch to read. She also does the dishes without us asking! Wow do I miss her!

Lorien is playing basketball and happy to be back in school. She started German this semester, which I thought might mess up her Spanish, but she doesn't think so. She really likes learning foreign languages, and seems to have a knack for it!

Aleya is tagging along with everyone while I try to get her school together. I am thinking that I will have a better chance to look at things when the college kids go back. The older ones are all going out to the Olive Garden tonight (they seem to be much wealthier than we are!)

More company is coming Friday night, and I suppose on Saturday as well. We have lots going on.

We are ever thankful to our Lord for His goodness to our family. It is so nice to have the chance to be altogether. We don't know how many more Christmases we will get like this one.