February Baking

Jackie's accomplishments in the kitchen have blessed the family. Here, we have her 5th recipe which was a delicious chocolate cake. She ran into a bit of difficulty mastering the frosting. She had one huge strike against her... the Kitchenaid wasn't functioning. With this minor wrench in the gears she had to use her own elbow grease and put out a lovely glaze type frosting which tasted fabulous! You can tell by the joyful look on her little face that she was proud!

Take Dominion

Clearly the gears had been rubbing for a long time!

This war very early in the morning, excuse the pale, puffy face.

Over the beasts of the field and the appliances in your kitchen! I am happy to report the stripped gear has been replaced and my family is enjoying the fruits of the kitchenaid's good service to us!

Rebellious Servants!

I would never wish to be one of the women of the bible who kept a servant/handmaiden. The accounts from the scriptures of these women are heart-wrenching.. So instead, all of my servants plug into the wall. I operate them at my own discretion and expect them to put out optimal functionality when I want it! Much to my chagrin my servants have all been very rebellious in the last 2 weeks. From my washing machine that screams when it spins, to my dryer who won't close its door, to the kitchen aid which refuses to knead bread without grinding and popping gears, to my vacuum that won't suck. I won't mention the transmission, because that's Jake's man servant.

We've had maintenance men in and out and the washer and dryer are now running obediently again. Thanks to the purchase of extended warranties it didn't cost us the $1280 it otherwise would have. The Sears man noted that the machines are wearing out faster due to the 14-21 loads of laundry that are done a week. Go figure.

The vacuum cleaner is off in some appliance repair shop, thanks also to an extended warranty we purchased. We get it back Feb 10. I hope it comes sooner as the carpets are starting look shameful.

The kitchen aid however is not yet running. The warranty expired after 1 year and the unit is 4 1/2 years old. So, I have ordered the necessary parts to repair it. Colby and I took the thing apart and discovered a lubrication malfunction.. or something to that effect.

Metal on metal isn't good and a gear had busted. We discovered just what we needed and should have it up and running again soon. What fun. The cost to do it ourself was $53.00

It's not that I'm Jealous...

but, I must say this girl has a lot going for her. I mean what other 6 year old girl can feed an 8 month old with perfection, side line her big brother at church knocking him completely over and also do a whopping 20 pull-ups (in the same session..) That's more pull ups than I've ever done in my life. Actually, I have never done one pull up - to my shame. Perhaps it's the gap where her two front teeth used to be that enables her to get a surplus of oxygen which in turn enables a deeper breath? OR perhaps our Lord, who made Louisa, which means strength, designed her this way. We don't condone the intentional side-lining of big brothers, but the rest, we so go for it!

8 months and counting

Samuel is 8 months old today. He is amazing and we love him so much. Thank you Lord Jesus for this dear little boy. He makes us smile and we hold our breath with anticipation over what he might be doing next. The days have gone by quickly since he's arrived. We hope and pray that God will give us the strength to parent him well.

Here's what he's up to:

1. He sits up on his own for little bits of time.

2. He isn't crawling quite yet, but has no trouble getting where he wants to go.

3. He is like a giggle box.

4. Sometimes he sleeps through the night!

5. He is a very sweet little boy spends a lot of his time traveling in the BRV to and from Santa Cruz. That's where we go to church and where our favorite beach spots are...

6. As you can see he likes to take rides all around, whether it's in the van, the back carrier, or the bike!

(Oops, looks like Blogger isn't cooperating with my layout.)

How's the Truck Coming?

Well, there's nothing like a little bit of God-Ordained interference to make you smile... or cry right??

Jake has successfully removed panels, glovebox, steering column, and so on and so forth to get to the old crusty, rusted electrical system. It's happily out of the truck and the excitement begins with replacing it all with a brand-spankin new "painless" electrical system. That has been slow, yet progressive work. Nothing like the verse,

"steady plodding reaps prosperity."

We also received the transmission. That's where the humor, sorrow begins. There's an excellent little auto shop down the road that specializes in restoring old vehicles so they agreed to receive the new transmission so that we could cut shipping costs.. They signed the dotted line on our behalf. We are thankful.

If you look at the above photograph there's a special warning that instructs the customer to open the package and inspect before receiving and signing for any transmission...

So, we weren't there, like I said, and the auto shop signed for it. When Jake picked up the transmission it was wrapped in this special black saran wrap stuff. When he cut it open the broken thing was revealed. He's been in contact with the shipper, Estes, and the supplier, Monster Transmission. They are both in an, behind the scenes to us, argument about it. Monster tells us, it's "our" transmission.. Jake's handled the ordeal very professionally with letters and phone calls and we have been giving the matter over to prayer each morning as well. Pray that the companies would be just and we'd receive the functional transmission we were expecting.

Point Lobos

We took another hike last weekend to a beautiful place called, Point Lobos. The scenes are breathtaking. Not even a fancy camera could capture the beauty that God has created here. The wind blows smoothly against your face as you wind your way through dense forest to the edge of what seems the world. Looking out over the waves pounding the rocks gives one the sense that we are indeed very, very small and our God is indeed very, very Lofty!

The kids like this particular hike because it's a bit gentler on the legs and lungs. I can't complain either;). We've been to this area 3 different times now. We seem to gravitate to this particular area. Can you blame us?

It's becoming part of our Monterey schedule to hike every Saturday as a family. It's great communion with each other. With that said, be on the lookout for more of the same type posts, but only if I can get my act together.