Time Flies When You are Having Fun!

It's been a long time since I've been able to sit and blog! We are so glad the snow days are over and the spring time sun has arrived. The trees in the back yard are becoming greener everyday. It's fun to see the leaves on the trees budding, the grass growing (our first spring in our new house with a yard!), and preparing to enjoy our screened in deck! We have had some fun things going on over the last few months...

The beginner violin we started Isabelle in just wasn't very well made causing LOTS of frustration as the strings would break & it would easily go out of tune. So we ventured to a wonderful Strings shop where we were able to rent a better violin for her to continue her lessons. She LOVES the violin and we are blessed by her music. She has uncovered a little hidden talent we didn't know she had! Her teacher is thrilled with her progress! It's fun to see her really enjoy playing this instrument.

John Michael turned 7 on March 16! Boy, was he excited. He had 2 family parties with all his grandparents - one in KC & one at home. Nana made him a monster truck cake & as you'll see below it was a theme. A few weeks before his b-day he went to a monster truck show in KC. It was a little boys dream!

One of his favorites desserts is oreos - so I made him an oreo ice cream cake! It was deliciously rich and absolutely tasty! We've never had an ice cream cake before, but it was great because we stored the leftovers in the freezer and didn't feel a rush to eat it quick.

This was his first year to celebrate at school. Thanks to my friend Bonnie, who is a fabulous trained baker for introducing me to brownie pops! JM wanted me to make these SO bad. The turned out so well, the kids at school loved this unique different treat that tasted a whole like a soft oreo!

Yes, my attempt at turning a pastel colored melting chocolate to red didn't work. They were more of a pink color - but JM didn't care one bit. When we ran out of icing we made a powder sugar icing and sprinkled them with chocolate sprinkles!! YUMMO!!!

JM also started soccer this month. He is enjoying playing this spring with kids that he knows from our community. It's fun to play with kids from his class.

Just last weekend, I had the privilege of attending a leaders retreat for Moms In Touch International. Moms in Touch is a prayer ministry designed to pray specifically for our children and their schools. It is an amazing ministry. You should check to see if you have a group in your area for your school. If not, start one! You can be public, private, or homeschool. You can be a grandma, aunt or teacher - it just takes 2 to pray together for a group! http://www.momsintouch.org/

I am leading a group in our community! We are SO excited to see all that God will do!

Our retreat was held in our state capital - Topeka. We had the honor of meeting with our governor, Sam Brownback. He is a Christian who is seeking the Lord for His leadership of our state. It was an awesome experience to see a man in public office who has reverence an awe for the One who put him in office! I can't wait to see all that God has in store for our state.

This is the State Senate - the original pieces from our original senate. The cushions on the front are where the pages sit. The Senate & House allow students to come and page for them starting at the age of 12...In the near future we will have pictures of Isabelle sitting right there. She is SO excited to be a part of history in our state government. This picture was just for her!

Today we participated in the Global Orphan Family 5K...check out http://artsfororphans.blogspot.com for pictures & updates....

The Luge Track 2011

20+ inches of snow within 1 week makes for lots of fun for 2 (I mean 3) big kids in our family. Sunday these 3 crazy kids spent 4 hours outside building their "luge" track. After getting more snow Wednesday this week and setting record low temps, todays track was extremely fast!!! They all have had so much fun...
Isabelle racing the track with Bubby close behind!

Kevin breaking out his old snowboard (at least 20 years old)...I am not sure who had more fun, him or the kids....

Now the meltdown will begin. This morning -23 degrees here. Early next week, 60's!!!

Are you kidding? :)

Suzuki, Sickness, and Snow

The Redford family has managed to stay very busy the last few weeks before everything came to a screeching halt with respiratory illnesses and the Blizzard of 2011! Thankfully our sickness were nothing to serious, just long in duration and annoying! I am going into my 3rd week of not feeling great - so I think I may head to our little clinic to see if I have a sinus infection!?

After Isabelle felt better, she was blessed to participate in a Suzuki Strings day in a neighboring school district. She enjoyed being able to be with other students who play the violin. She just began playing herself in October of last year - her teacher is a Suzuki teacher and thinks Isabelle is doing SO well! Isabelle doesn't know anyone else who plays violin, so this was a great experience to see other kids who are learning and playing the songs she's been working on too! She is right in the middle of this photo!
The Blizzard in full force!

There were times we could barely see the trees in our backyard.

We probably had 3-4 inches of snow blow in our covered deck!

Today, while waiting for the Superbowl to start, Kevin and the kids spent about 4 hours out playing in the snow - well actually building a long "sled run" complete with jumps and turns! They had so much fun! I tried to get some photos, but Isabelle had to use my snow gloves, so my fingers got cold fast. I didn't last very long out with them!

These two make me smile!

Merry Christmas 2010

We had a wonderful first Christmas in our new home. It was a special night of fun memories for all of us....
We were blessed to spend lots of time with both sides of our family over Christmas. It was a wonderful time of fun, laughs, games, and yummy food!

Pictures from the Redford Christmas....

JM & Kevin before Christmas Eve service.

Isabelle & Kelly

The cousins clean up well for Christmas Eve Service....

JM, Samantha, Isabelle, Tyler, and Jaden

Grandma & Grandpa gave the kids there matching PJ's...they all loved them.

Pictures from the Stone Christmas...

Isabelle and her cousin, Olivia ready for church

JM wanted in the cute photo opportunity...

So did Nana & Papa

Isabelle and JM wanted video rockers for their Wii time. The chairs have been very well used!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas 2010

I haven't blogged much in the last few weeks...just a few things going on!

In late Oct we found out JM was going to have to have his tonsils out on November 19th. He did great, it was a very simple procedure and within 3 days he was just about back to his normal self! He wasn't supposed to run or have recess, etc. One day he looked at me and said, "Mom, my legs just feel like they have to move!" He was feeling so much better, but wanted to run & play! He ate alot of Macaroni & cheese and oatmeal...I was ready to be done making both.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving early Nov with Kevin's family and then with my family over Thanksgiving. It was great to see all of our family!

On Nov. 28th, JM was baptized at our church. It was a really special day as his dad baptized him! Our photos of the actual event, didn't turn out, but we took some afterwards.

On December 2, I started a new job at our elementary school as a first grade para. I have had a blast. It has been a HUGE blessing! Isabelle and John Michael enjoy having me around at school and I love having the same schedule that they have. Today I'm suffering from the effects of being a new school employee - STREP!!! After a quick trip to the doctor this morning, I hope to be feeling well soon!!!

In early December we made a quick trip to Silver Dollar City! It was our last chance to use our Season Passes - Isabelle had been begging to go one more time! We saw her favorite show "A Christmas Carol" and then we saw John Michael's favorite show..."The Live Nativity"

Looking at all the lights...

Lighting of the HUGE Branson tree...

"The Live Nativity"

Kids with donkey from Live Nativity

Merry Christmas

Fall Weekend Parties begin

Today, the kids elementary school had a costume parade down main street. For 30 minutes main street shut down while the k-6th grade showed off their costumes for family and friends. I think they take the 6 block walk to wear off energy before they fill them with candy at their party! :) It was definitely a sea of characters...hard to find my own kids at first!

If you look close above, you'll see JM in a khaki hat (a cowboy) right above the tiger.
Here's Isabelle in her princess outfit, complete with tiara!

JM is right in the center waving, next to batman!

Checking out all the loot at his party!

Isabelle enjoyed her party...it was all very exciting. Now for a LONG weekend, no school tomorrow...here there is a HUGE fall festival in a neigboring town. The whole town shut down yesterday. A town of 10,000 blows up to 80,000+. There are food vendors, craft booths, carnival, 3 parades, and so much more. We will go for the parade Saturday and then Sunday our church is having Trunk or Treat on Sunday evening. We are really excited for this outreach event to our community!

The kids needless to say are all grins, dressing up (one of their favorite things to do every day) and eating candy (which is a real treat!). We love fall!!!

A New Chapter Has Begun!

I love that life is never the same....well, I love it when things are going along smoothly, and I am learning to love it when things aren't so smooth. The Redford family found itself once again wondering what God was up to this summer when He began to challenge us to think and seek His heart about where our kids should be for this school year.

When we began homeschooling, I told myself "you don't have to do this forever" just so I knew I had a way out if things didn't work out. BUT, I also knew that it was a HUGE commitment and that if I start I should probably be in it for the long haul.

Guess what? God doesn't work like this. He is a God of surprises, flexibility, and spontaneity at least in the sense of our lives. For those of you who know me well, you know that I am a type A, extremely structered, neat freak personality. These qualities do come in handy from time to time, but they do limit me in the surprise, flexible, spontaneous categories - UGH!!!

God is not about a perfected outline for each of our lives. He has no desire for us to try and figure out what He might have for us. He desires us to be openhanded, prepared, and available for whatever He calls us to do. What one day looks like will not be what tomorrow holds. What "created, controlled structures" we have close off the work of His spirit to move us as He leads.

As we prayed about the different things God continued to lay on our hearts regarding our children, He made it VERY clear that they were to begin school at our local Elementary school.

One thing Kevin and I could not get out of our minds was this phrase from Ecclesiastes "for everything there is a season." We kept asking God, "Is our season of homeschooling over for now?"

A second thing we kept coming back to was the way God has wired our kids to be kingdom advancers. Our kids both pray for their friends & share openly & boldly about Jesus. They want everyone around them to know Him. Unfortunately, they weren't connecting with many students around here while we were homeschooling, and God kept showing us that He wanted them to have an impact.

A third piece (there are many more) to this puzzle, was the principal at the school. He is an amazing Christian, pastoring a church for 19 years before taking his current job. He was SO excited to hear about Isabelle's work in Haiti & around the world and shared with us his connections to Haiti. He was so encouraging to us as a family, not even knowing that we were prayerfully considering enrolling the students. He was very helpful to me as a homeschool parent looking for ways to get my kids involved in community activities. (He also let me borrow a book called The Castaway Kid - I highly recommend you reading this!)

Isabelle on her first day in front of Mrs. Edwards class.


John Michael in front of his classroom, Mrs. Lickteig

So, I had to let go of many emotions, feelings, etc. that I had about homeschooling to answer the call that God had over my children's lives. Kevin and I see that God is beginning to weave a big picture that directly involves their lives at school. We are only beginning to see glimpses, and we cannot wait to see how He develops His story, for His glory!

The kids were so pumped it actually shocked us when we shared with them about starting school. We had asked for prayers for the kids to receive the news well - God was already WAY ahead of our requests for prayers. The kids were pumped. Isabelle shared with us that she had been recently thinking lots about her old elementary school - how she missed it, her friends, and how she felt God had wanted her to have more conversations about Him with people there. She went on to share with us that she didn't feel she had any of those opportunities now - so when we told her she would be starting school, she knew it was the right thing because God was giving her opportunities to be a light for Him!!! (And to think I was worried about telling them)

Each day we must be ready for Him to use us, to change our circumstances, to put us with people and in places that He has ordained for us to be. Sometimes, it isn't what we hoped, dreamed, or even partially considered an option - but it is what He wants for us. We must embrace it with JOY! When we obediently follow, blessing pour forth!
Where is God asking you to let go of control and obey Him today?