Project 365 ~February 16-22

February 16

We got to church Sunday morning and were surprised to see a music group was all set up to play! The Herrlinger Family stopped by on their way through the area. It was unplanned, but we are flexible! :) Very much enjoyed it! The girls did awesome on this violin medley!!

We even invited them to stay and share again during the evening program!

February 17

After a morning of school studies, the kids and I cleaned up the open area of our garage! It was getting messy and needed to be swept! We filled two garbage cans, one with burnable junk and one with other stuff! It felt so good to have that done!

Danny pulling his 4-wheeler back into the garage....with Tamara on it! Not sure why he didn't just start it up. Seems that would have been easier! Maybe this was his strength training for the day! :)

Same day....

Tamara shocked me when she told me that she would like to walk our road every day (1 mile). This same girl who would drag her feet anytime we even mentioned the word "exercise"!! I wouldn't let an opportunity like this slip away!! It's good for her and I!

February 18

GEMS (Gospel Express Ministries South) board meeting! Great group of people to work with!

We are in the middle of planning two Ladies Tea fundraiser's. One will be held in Tallahassee, and another in Grand Ridge! 

February 19

A beautiful day for a walk....and this is what we saw!

February 20

Look what is in our fridge!!! :)

February 21

Cleason Martin, a friend from PA, and the one responsible for bringing us that log of Lebanon Bologna above, came and spent the morning and had lunch with us! It was nice that Dan had off work that day so they could visit. Cleason is here to do some seminars in the local prisons.

February 22

We were invited to Evan Hunter's 16th birthday party! The boys had air soft wars all afternoon and evening!

Stopped a moment for supper! :)

The girls played a game of Monopoly, while the adults visited! (no pic) :)

Project 365 ~ February 1-15

February 1

The guys were out hunting, so Tamara and I met my sister Chris and her daughter Heidi in Tallahassee for a day of shopping!! :) We don't do it nearly often enough, in my opinion :) We had a fun day.
 Heidi had just got her Driver's Permit and drove part of the way to meet us! :)

February 2

Our house with a beautiful pink eastern horizon at night! The west was also pink!!

The back, left addition on the house is an apartment. Another of the volunteer chaplains, an older single man, lives there. He has lived here longer than we have.
Our house isn't as big as it looks! ;)

February 3

Aleshia Keene (Peachy Keene Photography) took a quick Valentine photo shoot of Dan and I.
I shot the shooter! :)

This was our "photobooth strip". Maybe I should find a better term for that! :P ;)

My favorite pic.....

February 4

Our yard was just full of Robins!! I guess spring is on the way! :)

February 5

I had two helpers to clean the kids bedrooms today!! :D They did good work!

February 6

Valentine's Snacks...

February 7

The younger kids in our homeschool group were having a Valentine's Party, so we invited the youth 12 and older to come spend the day at our house. We had homemade pizza for lunch, then they played games, shot BB and airsoft guns, made human pyramids and who know's what all else. For supper, we had hot dogs over the fire. It was a good day and I think all the kids had fun....they want to do it again, so I think that's proof! :)

Preston is a brave boy....and the girls were ready to catch him if he fell! :)

February 8

We hosted the 2nd Annual Widow's Banquet at church. This year, Carol Yoder enlisted the young girls to be servers! :)

Back: Darla Weeks, Tamara, Carmen Miller
Front: Kirsten Falb and Maria Weaver

February 9

Perfect Sunday afternoon activity.....started a 1,000 piece puzzle!

February 10

Danny helping me with some hard spots!

February 11

The puzzle was completed!! We all spent some time working at it throughout the day and in the evening Dan placed the very last piece in!! :) Now it's time to clean it up!

February 12

Took Dan to the Oral Surgeon to have a tooth removed that had a root that went out both directions! :P
This was the weather.....and it was a cold 37 degrees!!

February 13

The Panhandle Pioneer Settlement is looking to have some Jr. board members.
The kids who were applying were invited to their board meeting and had to share a little about themselves and why they would like to be involved.

The kids (front) and the board members (back)

There were two girls missing.

February 14

Dan and I chose not to go out this year. We had a family Valentine supper and spent the evening playing games! :) Fun memories!!

February 15

We were invited to a surprise birthday party for Scott Cloud. Less than 2 years ago, Scott was diagnosed with brain cancer. After being treated for months at Moffitt Cancer Center, Scott is cancer free! We are so thankful for how God has answered prayer and blessed their family!! :)

Scott, Amy and their kids Barrett and Audrey 

Ministry Update

If you would like to follow my husband's blog with ministry updates, you can visit Yoking up with Jesus.

 Here is his latest blog post from tonight! :) Keep praying for our family. While his job and position changed a bit, we are still very much seeking His will, not just in the current prison work, but in ministering to our community! Thank you~

February 2014

January was a month of new beginnings. The first Chapel Service at Gadsden Reentry Center on Saturday, January 25, 2014 with 4 inmates attending. January has been a slow month in terms of chapel programs at Gadsden Reentry Center. Please pray for me that I will be patient with the start up process. It appears that I will have to learn some new processes for interacting with DOC since I am working as a contracted employee through the Unlimited Path, Inc. instead of a state employee.

Monthly numbers:

• 2 Services with 13 total attending
• Inmate Contacts (visitation in the dorm, work areas, and visiting park plus contact through services and programs) – 280
• Interviews (orientation, religious, premarital, pre release, death and crisis notification) – 34

Please pray with us as we look for a more economical vehicle. The round trip every day is 90 miles. My Jeep gets about 20 mpg. I'm hoping for something that gets at least 30 mpg.

Most of all pray that I will not lose focus on the main objective - building His kingdom.

Thanks to all of you for your support of the ministry at GRC.

Dan Henry 

Project 365 Update for January

So I'm not doing well at posting my daily pics for Project 365! :P Not doing well at blogging P.E.R.I.O.D!

I'll see what I can do about that! :)

January 21

I had 4 trips to the dentist in 2 weeks time! I went for a cleaning and discovered I had 4 cavities (3 were just small, but still!)! :( The last visit, I jokingly asked my dentist if I get a discount for making so many visits in such a short time. When I went to pay they told me there was no charge!! :O I couldn't believe it!! I was so blessed!

January 22

Nothing ordinary about this day/night...just a normal day at home! Danny was watching a hunting video (one of his favorite past times), Tamara was enjoying a cup of coffee while reading a library book. And Dan was doing computer work for his job since he still doesn't have a computer AT work! :P

January 23

The Wissman family came to sing at our church! They are so talented!!

January 24

Our homeschool group took a field trip the Science and Discovery Center of Northwest Florida. Some of the kids did a workshop on fish dissection. After they were done, they did Japanese fish prints, known as gyotaku. They actually painted one side of the fish and then pressed paper over it to make a fish print. Very unique and cool! :) Kelly, center front, was a super teacher and very knowledgeable!

January 25

Dan and I celebrated 19 years since our first date....also at Pizza Hut! :) Just a different town in a different state! :)

January 26

A group of us ladies who went in to Gadsden Correctional Facility to participate in the Sunday evening service. 

January 27

The leaves on our crab apple tree are just NOW turning a brilliant red!! :) Craziness! This same tree gets very pretty white flowers in the spring....not too far off! :)

January 28

Tamara spotted a llama on our kitchen ceiling! Sadly, we have been having more trouble with a leaky roof (just in a different spot) and it left this mark! :) 

Side Note: If you know of a youth or church group that would like to sponsor a service project, this ministry house could use some work! Like repairing roof leaks and putting in new windows! I'm sure GEMS would be forever grateful, as would our family and the gentleman who lives in the apartment on the side of our house....and those who live in this house in the years to come! We have black mold growing on our windows and sills and I'm sure it's not healthy! :P Probably need the ducts cleaned out too!

January 29

A day that will be long remembered in the history of North Florida!!

We got sleet and freezing rain and maybe a few stray snow flakes, but it also shut down over 200 miles of interstate in the FL panhandle and many, many other roads and bridges!! I plan to do a post on this with more pictures! :)

January 30

Joann Nissley and I audited the church financial records in preparation for our church's annual business meeting that evening. :) All was well, and I couldn't ask to work with a sweeter lady!! :) Alma Nissley does a superb job of keeping the books for our church....very orderly!

January 31

I taught Tamara how to make home made bread! It turned out delicious! :) She said it was rewarding to eat her hard work! :) :) :)

I am going to try to post my February pictures and maybe do a few more in depth posts of some of the events of the past month! :) Thanks for reading along....

Project 365- January 20

My photo of the day~

Thanks to our neighbor Jonas, for firewood. He had wood over at their house that the guys went and picked up, brought home and split and stacked it. (Only the front stack, the one Danny is standing at, was from yesterday)

In the process Dan broke the handle of his splitting maul! :P He was bummed, because it made the job much easier!

Since Dan and Roy both started new jobs and are both working for the state, they had off work for MLK Day. We decided to get together and have mountain pies for supper! The Pickron's had never had them before, so we introduced them to something new! :)

Mmm....Kay made a cream cheese spread for the dessert ones. I had the spread, blackberry pie filling, coconut and a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar.....and was that ever good!!! :)

After supper, when the fire had died down and it was getting almost too cold to sit outside, they threw their Christmas tree in the fire! Wow! I don't know if I ever want a live Christmas tree! That thing went up in flames SO quickly. I can't imagine that happening inside a house! :O Wish I had my camera for that! :)

Today it's back to school.....wash day....and later another dentist visit followed by a GEMS board meeting tonight! :) Busy day, busy week! 

Project 365: January 19

This year I am going to try to take a photo every day and post it on Facebook (Project 365). It's going to be a challenge, I think, but I am at least going to try.

Today, a facebook friend posted this link:

http://www.maryannemorganblog.com/365-project-2014/365-2014-day-15-shine/

This lady is blogging along with her picture each day! I thought Wow, that's a lot of work!! But then I remembered my blog sitting here neglected. While I am not even going to try to compare with her beautiful posts, I AM going to try to also post my photo's here each day and maybe write a little with them. Sometimes when I post one on facebook, I want to write more with it, but yet I think I should keep it simple, so I don't.

So we'll see how this goes. I may or may not go back and add pictures from the first 18 days of the month, but I WILL start with yesterday's photo.

This was the sunset last night! It got even more beautiful as the evening wore on, but I was too cold to stay outside longer!

I don't know if it's my age or the amount of time I've lived in Florida, but I seem to stay cold all winter long, even on days that get up to 60! That being said, I would still much rather live in Winter than Summer, any day!

I am trying to enjoy each cold wintry day this year, because I am not at all excited about the hot summer months that will be here before I know it! :P

Birthday Celebrations

I don't know how it came to be that we have two teenagers!? But it did!

Happy 13th Birthday to our sweet Tamara!!

Her birthday was Jan. 2. It was also Dan's first day at his new job, plus we were having out of state friends over for supper. So gift time came in the hour between Dan getting home and our company coming.

She said she had NO idea what she was getting....

Excited or upset??

Excited! We found a really good deal on a Kindle Touch before Christmas and since she loves to read, we thought this might be a perfect idea for her. She loves it and has quite a few books loaded and is busy reading!

(If you know of any good books for free we'd love to hear. It's kind of hard to search on Amazon, because so many things we tried just brought up all kinds of romance novels! :P She finally searched for classics and found a bunch that she wants to read! :) )

We made homemade pizza for supper and then she requested a red velvet cake! :)

Keith & Sarah are here from Michigan and we enjoyed an evening of playing Snitch, eating and visiting! :) They have 3 kids but after a long day and some grouchies, they decided to leave them at her parent's house so they could go to bed early. :)

The Yoder's :) :) :) Super friends!!

*******************************************************************

So then on Friday, the 3rd, I had planned a little party for Tamara with just a few of her friends.

It was an Anne of Green Gables party.

They started out by watching the movie....it got loud and silly! :)

Shauna, Anna, Carmen and Tamara

Table decor....

For supper, Tamara requested a menu of:

Meatballs
Mashed Potato's
Buttered Noodles
Corn
Carrot Cake
Chocolate Ice Cream

And I also made Blackberry Cordial, (I know it was Raspberry in the movie, but I used what I could get) thanks to my friend Fern who provided me a starter since she is good at making cordial and had blackberries from their bushes! :)

Silly lip straws!! :)

Gift time!

Shauna gave her a lovely scarf, headband, bookmark and a cute emery board.

Carmen gave her a pretty, soft throw pillow.

Anna gave her a tablet, pen and stickers.

They had lots of fun with photo props! :)

Seemed fitting..... :D

Tamara, Shauna and Anna

Anna :)

Carmen! :)

We bought slates for each of the girls to paint, in honor of Anne breaking a slate over Gilberts head! :)

It took a little for them to decide what to paint. They each chose a quote they like! :)

Their finished projects!!

After the painting was done, we had the cake and ice cream.

Judging from the amount of giggling I heard, I think they had a fun time!! I'm thankful for good, godly friends for Tamara! I pray that she can grow through these friendships!!

And so begins our life with two teens in the house! I don't dread it! I'm actually looking forward to all the fun times ahead!! :) Not that we won't need lots of wisdom and patience, though! ;) 

Psalm 127:3-5

Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him.  Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one's youth.  Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies in the gate.

Matthew 18:2-6

He called a little child and had him stand among them.  And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  "And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me.  But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.

Proverbs 1:8-9

Listen, my son, to your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching.  They will be a garland to grace your head and a chain to adorn your neck.