Richmonds Go To Oregon

April Showers..I'd rather have May flowers

We got a big April snow storm last night/this morning. More than 8 inches fell officially...although I think we had about 11-12 inches. The snow drifts in our backyard were almost as tall as the kids. Here are some pictures from the kids playing in the snow today.



Here is the terrible job that the snow plow guy did on our parking lot, he plowed the snow up onto the sidewalk, after I spent 3 hours getting it all cleared off. Plus he didn't even show up until around 4-5 pm, when all the snow fell over night and was just sitting there all day. I don't like the job the snow plow guy does.

I'm driving down the...

I'm driving down the street with my window rolled down. listen

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Upcoming Stuff

We've got some exciting things coming up:

• Spring
• Warmer weather
• Izzy's B-Day (March 2, send an e-card she loves them)
• Brett's going on vacation from March 10-20
• Bud and Sue are coming out for a week long visit
• We'll be going to Ikea when we pick Bud and Sue up at the airport, Ethan thinks we should live there like Mark in Ikea
  
• Our 12th anniversary
  
• Did I mention Spring and warmer weather?

While on vacation we'll probably try to catch up on some blogging on this site.

Total Eclips of the Moon

Lately our blog posts have been about as frequent as a total eclipse of the moon. And sometime they happen at the same time. You can see Saturn on the lower left and the star Regulus almost directly above the moon.

I'm Giving You All She's Got, Captain!

There are seasons when I feel like Mr. Scott from Star Trek. Yesterday I found myself telling my captain, God, that I didn't think I could give Him warp speed.

I was thinking about the sermon from Sunday and also of my own teaching on Sunday, they were both about time. Pastor Mark had some great stuff to say about time management and how it is really life management. And I was talking to Elementary kids about the importance of giving God time in their lives.

Then I started to think about rest and sabbath. I have traditionally held to the belief that the sabbath and God's rest was more like the cessation of activity. So most of the time I think of using this time to sit around doing nothing, watching TV, playing with the kids, sleeping in, taking naps, or just not doing what I view as "work". That's when a thought hit me.

"What if the sabbath or God's rest was less about the cessation of activity/work and more about preparation?"

I don't know if this is true or not, BUT yesterday I spent time cleaning the house, doing dishes, making dinner, all so that today I could have all my energy free for creativity. What if God's plan for our rest is for us to prepare for the seasons where he's going to be asking us for warp speed. What if the sabbath is for us to take the time to put to rest our unresolved energies so that we can focus all our energy in attaining and maintaining warp speed.

Today I say to God, "Warp Drive at the ready Captain!"

Christmas Interviews

Now that the kids are getting older we thought it would be fun to interview them on the subject of Christmas.

Ethan's Interview


Izzy's Interview


Kate's Interview


Brett's Interview

Christmas Greeting

Here's a little Christmas Greeting from the Richmond children. Christmas Interviews coming soon..

No More Monkeys....

....jumping on the bed!


So Izzy decided to jump on her bed the other day, below are the results.

She then had to spend the night on the floor. Kate said that we're one step closer to having pillows and cushions, my dream furniture. So today I fixed her bed, gave it a little bracing.

Now Izzy's happy cause she has her bed back, although she knows that she needs to be more careful.

LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW!

Well the weather outside was frightful,
But my children found it so delightful(including Brett)!

Yes, it snowed almost 10 inches here in a day! Ethan and Izzy have enjoyed sledding down the plow hills. Brett and I have had the pleasure of doing some snow shoveling here around the apartment building. There's always something fun to do with this care-taking job.

Family update:
Isabella had a great report card sent home last week! The teacher said that she is "very respectful and liked by all her classmates." I can tell that Izzy is letting her little light shine brightly at school.

Ethan, 2 weeks ago amazed me by writing his whole name. Yes, I know he's 4 and should be able to do that. However with Ethan we are glad that he is finally sitting long enough to write his name. I seems the older he gets the faster he becomes at everything.

Brett and I are busy as usual at this time of year. We're getting a choir of children ready to sing before Christmas and Brett is finishing up his Mid-week program before the holidays.

Hope all of you are enjoying the season that is upon us! God continues to be good!

The First Big Freeze

We had our first big freeze yesterday. The temp was at -2 when I took Izzy to school at 8 o'clock and warmed up to 11 for a high. bbbrrrrrrrrr