Free Citrus Tree

I love our generous God. He gives us so much more than we deserve! Even silly things. Glenn was talking about wanting to own an orange tree or having some kind of citrus grow in our house the other day. Today on our way home from finding out where his testing site for Saturday is we drove past a lemon (it might be a lime, we don't know!) tree on the curb just around the corner from our house! It has only 2 leaves but several little fruits growing on it. We took it home and put it into a pot that we'd planted a tomato in a couple of years ago. It could probably use a bigger pot but we own this pot and we aren't 100% sure that it is going to live. It is so fun that God gave us a trial tree for free to see if this is something we really want to own.

Thanks God for abundantly supplying all of our needs and SO often supplying so many of our little desires.

The Miracle Worker

Last night we went to Syracuse Stage for their production of The Miracle Worker. We were able to go for free because of an elective that Glenn is taking at school. From the time that I had heard that it was going to be done here this spring I have wanted to go but I wasn't sure that I wanted to spend the money for all of us to go. Through his elective Glenn has gone to a couple other (not so family friendly) shows this semester and often the students are told that they are allowed to bring one guest with them. He asked the teacher and a few of his classmates if he could have their extra tickets and we were all able to go. Yesterday we had the kids play 20 Questions to find out what we were doing last night. It wasn't Caleb's turn yet when he figured it out. He was so excited he was jumping up and down. We had taken a tour of Syracuse Stage in the fall and The Miracle Worker was the one show that he really wanted to go to. It was a great show. We all really enjoyed it. The kids were a little freaked out about the parts where Jimmie would talk to her from behind bars but other than that they really liked it.

Thanks God for free tickets to go to The Miracle Worker. Thank You for healthy kids that haven't had to go through the trials that Helen, Annie, and Jimmie did. Thank You also for the great example of perseverance through trials.

Pretty Plants

Wow, it has been a long time since I have blogged over here. I know that I have taken pictures to "blog later" but I haven't blogged. God has not ceased to provide for us but I guess I have ceased to give Him credit here. Here is a short and sweet one. Our upstairs neighbors moved to Utah for a new job and decided not to take their plants with them. They offered them to us and I jumped on the chance to have them. I had been wanting plants but didn't know what to get/ where to get them and it is so much easier if plants are just given to you because then those decisions are made for you. You take what you are given and say thank you then try to keep them alive :). The 4 big plants in the first picture and the huge one in our kitchen window were gifts from Bruce and Helen before they left and I am very excited to have them. I love having green living things in my home. Under the cup in the first picture is a sundew. It is a carnivorous plant and was given to me by my friend Dawn. It is really tiny now but I think that it likes the light bulb it is under so I hope it will grow and I am excited because I have never owned a carnivorous plant before!

Thank you God for providing plants to make me smile.

Women of Faith Conference

Yesterday afternoon I got an email from a friend telling me that a lady at the Bible study she goes to was giving away 2 tickets to the Women of Faith Conference in Rochester because of an illness in the family or something. She was wondering if I wanted to go with her. Her husband was encouraging her to go but she didn't want to go by herself. I asked Glenn and he said, "Go." I thought, 'OK, Glenn says I should go I'll email Kara and see what she says.' She was surprised by my answer. I think that she thought that it would definitely be a "no" because of Glenn's busy class schedule. She told me that she would call and see if the tickets were still available. I never heard back from her last night or this morning so I assumed that the tickets had already been given away. At noon I got an email from her telling me that we have the tickets for the conference that starts at 10 tomorrow morning 2 hours away.

I have never been to one of these things before for probably two reasons - 1. they are kind of expensive. 2. I don't think that anyone else should have to take care of my kids because that is my responsibility (I need to remember that they are OUR kids and that I am not the only person who is capable of taking care of them. They are a blessing and I should allow others to be blessed by being in contact with them.)

God took care of the expensive part - the lady gave away the tickets for free not wanting them to go to waste. Part of the expense part is not only the conference part but also the hotel expense. Thankfully I recently moved from Rochester and just had to ask to see whose house I could crash at. A friend who is going to be out of town for a wedding told me that we could sleep at her house - hurray - a place to sleep for free!

I was a little nervous about the kids part, mostly because Glenn has a class that he HAS to be at from 11-12:30 tomorrow. Kara's husband was willing to watch them but then Glenn found out he had another required class at 8am. One of his classmates recruited her husband to watch the kids for us. It is still in the works as to whether he is watching them here or at their place from 7:30-1.

So, I am getting picked up at 7:30 tomorrow morning to head to Rochester for a conference that I didn't even know was going on before yesterday afternoon. I am so thankful for this opportunity and excited about what God is going to do in my life as a result of this weekend.

Thanks God for the free tickets and how You've worked out the details and for how You are going to grow me through it (and already have!)

A Surprise Knock

Last Sunday Glenn and Caleb went to an introductory planning meeting for a First Lego League that is starting up here in Syracuse thanks to a grant that one of our neighbors up the street got from work. Caleb came home very excited about the idea of Lego robots and they got online to look up how much they were. They were pretty expensive so we tossed around the idea of saving up for it and maybe getting it as a group Christmas gift at some point down the road.

Caleb was checking the mail at the same time as our upstairs neighbor, Bruce, the other day and he saw that he got his Lego magazine and was thrilled and was showing it to Bruce and started telling him about the Lego Robotics group that he was going to be involved in. Bruce told Caleb that he had one of those Lego robots that Helen had given to him for Christmas one year that he never played with. Caleb asked if he could check it out sometime and Bruce said sure.

This afternoon while we were getting ready for lunch there was a knock on the door and it was Bruce and he had the robot that he decided to GIVE to Caleb, not just lend. We were very surprised and Caleb was very excited! We weren't even sure if they were going to let Caleb borrow the robot but GIVE it to us? Wow!

Thanks Bruce and Helen for your generous gift and thank You God for going above and beyond supplying our needs but furnishing our wants as well!

To find out more about Mindstorms and Lego Robotics you can check out the Lego website: mindstorms.lego.com Below are some pictures of Caleb with his new robot. I took one video of him with it but it didn't do what he thought he programmed it to do so I will try to remember to post a video of it later when it actually does what he wants it to.

Working on his robot

Making some adjustments

Lets see if it works!

Check out that happy smile :)

Free Food Weekend

I haven't posted in a long time. I am sure that there are things that need to be posted here but I am going to just post about this weekend which included some yummy free food.

Yesterday we went to a furniture store that was having a sale and offering free food. We were looking for a new couch and are interested in getting a new mattress as well. We didn't decide to buy anything yesterday but we did get free hot dogs and ice cream sandwiches.

Today Glenn went to a conference from something about family physicians and was fed at the Genessee Grand Hotel. While he was there I took the kids and their little friend whose mom works a couple of doors down to a community fair a few blocks from here. It was a lot of fun. Some of the free things there included soft serve ice cream cones with sprinkles, cotton candy, flea circus, hot dogs, hamburgers, lemonade, snow cones, bounce house obstacle course, caricatures, face painting, mini golf, velcro fishing and live music. Score! It was a lot of fun!

Then tonight our whole family was invited to the party for the family practice thing at Glenn's advisor's house (who was the president of the organization this year). It was catered and there was food everywhere - starting with cheeses, meats and crackers, then various salads and fruits, then roast beef, finger potatoes and veggies, then a delicious berry shortcake for dessert. We love free food and Caleb was super excited that he didn't have to do dishes :)

Thanks God for blessing us with free food this weekend!

Curb Dives

I am not even sure where to begin with this one. I haven't kept an annotated list of these lately (which I probably should have). This is the time of the year to find stuff (if you can get it before the scrappers do). We have been blessed by the curb this spring. I'll have to work on this more when the kids are awake to have them remind me but here are a few things that we have picked up the last week or so:

- a shoe rack (that fits perfectly in the little entryway of our new apartment that I had no idea what to put there!)

- a spiral bound atlas of the Syracuse area

- a tall 4 shelve metal shelving unit that we'll put in the basement to store stuff on

- a 4 shelf thing (I am not really sure what it is or what we'll use it for) that I got today from a girl that I saw that looked like she was frustrated and crying on the side of the road and I stopped to help her fit stuff into her car

- we have also found lots of good books (as if we didn't already have 25+ Baxter boxes packed full of books)

- a shipping crate that we're planning on painting and lining with contact paper to make a toy box for the kids

- an office chair (missing a wheel but Glenn thinks he can fix it)

- a stack of xbox games (most of which we'll be taking to EB Games to change into games that we actually want/ will play)

- a fun orange desk chair

- a pretty lamp