His Plan For Me

When I stand at the Judgment Seat of Christ
And He shows His plan for me,
The plan of my life as it might have been
Had He had His way - and I see
How I blocked Him here, and checked Him there,
And I would not yield my will,
Will there be grief in my Savior's eyes,
Grief though He loves me still?
Would He have me rich and I stand there poor,
Stripped of all but His grace,
While memory runs like a hunted thing,
Down the paths I cannot retrace.
Lord, of the years that are left to me,
I give them to Thy hand;
Take me, break me and mold me,
To the pattern that Thou hast planned!

Author Unknown, received in an email from a friend today.

Oops!

A hit a deer with his work truck a couple of weeks ago. It wrinkled the hood, fender, and driver door. It's in the shop getting fixed now. $$$$$$$ Good thing there's no deductible for damage from hitting wildlife!

An early birthday party for C

C's birthday is coming up on July 5, but since so many kids leave for vacation once school gets out we decided to have an early birthday party. Friday evening 4 of his good buddies came over and had a sleepover in the tent in the yard. Lots of fun. Here are 3 of them with C up in the treehouse. One of the boys couldn't spend the night.



This is C with a great kid who used to be our neighbor, but has since moved to town. He'll be moving to BC next week and C will really, really miss him. They've had so many good times together.



This year I made C dirt cake for his birthday cake. It was a big hit.

The cast is off!

Well, it's a good thing K had a nice long ride on Prince on Monday evening, because she won't be doing that again for a while! Yesterday she had her weekly visit with the surgeon. They removed the cast and put a splint on - it's just for the forearm so that she can bend the elbow and wrist. She's to wear it for 6 weeks, and she is to be VERY careful because the bone is very apt to bend. No swimming, horseback riding, bicycling, running, NOTHING. She was a little bummed out. We will definately be signing her up for the summer reading program at the library. And we want to do some scrapbooking. And we'll have to come up with some more activities to get through the summer. I had signed her up for riding lessons starting July 1, but now that's definately out. And I guess she'll just skip swimming lessons this year. Oh, well. The Lord had other plans! I have to say that she's been handling these disappointments quite well, considering how much she wants to be on the back of a horse and how much she likes to swim! Hopefully she'll get a couple of weeks of unrestricted activity before school starts again. :o)

A relaxing day with a surprise in the evening

Well, I've not been keeping up with things very well on here, except for updates on K's arm. Ha. Every year I find May and June to be so full of stuff to do that I feel like I'm in a whirlwind, trying to keep up with it all. This year is no exception. I'll be happy when school is done - K's last day is Thursday. J finished exams last week. C should be done sometime next week.

Today was nice - we all (well, except for A!) got to sleep in. C & K slept in the tent in the back yard last night. J did have to work at noon, but I just dropped her off and zipped back home rather than run a gazillion errands. J worked from 12 to 6, and then played slow pitch this evening, so she did have a busy day.

C spent a lot of the day working on one of the few things he has yet to finish up for school - he's writing a research paper.

K had 4H this evening. She was pretty excited and surprised to see that her pony was at the riding arena when we got there - Cindy brought him out for the first time. We've been waiting for this day for a long time. You see, when we first got Prince, he was still a stallion (we were so green last summer that we did not know you did not buy your little girl a stallion for her first pony! Duh!) Within a month, we had him gelded but were told that his behavior might always be a problem since he was gelded late. We actually decided to try to sell him last fall because of this, but he didn't sell. We could only guess how it might work out to bring him to the arena to be around horses that he is not familiar with.

Tonight he did really, really well! Cindy and her girls have obviously been working with him - K was easily able to lead him around the arena right away. Then someone else took the first ride on him, and it went pretty well. Then K had a turn, and it went well, also. He was quite well behaved around the horses, and didn't even try to nip people. He seemed to respond fairly well to K's cues. K was soooo pleased, and had a wonderful time - I don't think she wanted to get off. She was all smiles.

Another update on K and her arm

Today I took K to see the orthopedic surgeon again. He said that the cast comes off in a week, and then she'll get a half cast, which is just a back slab that is held to her arm with an ace bandage. I didn't catch how long she'll have to wear the half cast. She is supposed to be careful with her arm all summer - no rough stuff like trampoline, etc. I'm not sure about swimming lessons or riding Prince - will have to ask next week.

Also took Rascal to the vet for his shots. He shook like a leaf. The vet's coming to do a heartworm test on Cowboy tomorrow - she had to do a house call for a cat nearby tomorrow so said she'd stop in.

Lots of other stuff happening, but I'm so tired that I'm about ready to drop.

We read Psalm 27 for our reading after supper - such a nice chapter.

"One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple."
Ps. 27:4

"Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord."
Ps. 27:14

K and her cast

It's now been just over 4 weeks since K broke her arm. She continues to have weekly appointments with the orthopedic surgeon, and today was the day - we were there at 8 this morning. First they do an x-ray, through the cast. Then we see Dr. E. Today he showed us the x-ray again, and pointed out that her arm is shrinking (I guess due to muscle atrophy) and said they will perhaps have to do a cast change at some point so that it continues to fit and the bone stays in place. He said that when the break is near the elbow like hers is, sometimes the bones want to drift apart more than they should, but for now it's good. She'll likely have to have a cast another 2-4 weeks.

More info about raw milk

This article about raw milk was in Dr. Mercola's newsletter today. Let me know what you think. Maybe some day it will not be so hard to get around here.

A few months ago, we did get some raw milk. It was great - I made puddings and lots of butter. Butter is actually pretty easy to make in a mixer and tastes AMAZING. The milk tasted a little different from the pasteurized variety, but it was really good, especially knowing that it is so much healthier (if coming from a very clean source).

I made the switch to butter from olive oil Becel margarine a few months ago, though I still use margarine for baking most of the time. I just wish I could make our own butter on a regular basis! I'm hoping that with the push towards organic and health foods, raw milk will soon be allowed to be sold here.

Your opinions, please!!

I'm trying to decide which photo-sharing site to use. Snapfish, Flickr, Webshots, Kodak Easy Share Gallery, Shutterfly, and Picasa . . . are the ones I've heard of. If you have any opinions on this, please comment!

Thanks! :o)