Double Digit Midgets

We had the joy of celebrating the twins 10^th birthday last week!  I kept thinking really …. 10??!??  Ten is such a big number for me as a momma!  At this age sometimes I feel desperation to slow the hands of time as I have noticed over the years the speed at which 10 becomes 13 and then 13 becomes 16! While they are both growing independently in so many ways, I love it when they do something similar and I will hear one or the other say … “well we are twins”.  J

10 is a big deal around here for a few reasons.  You get to have a “friends” party, you get to go out to dinner with just momma and daddy and possibly the biggest of them all for a Honey….your first “cuppa”… cup of coffee that is!  Shelley in particular has been unabashedly anticipating her cup of coffee for many, many months now!  I am so thankful our machine did not disappoint for her, she absolutely LoVeD her cup! Poor Will on the other hand was a bit like his sister Isabelle in that the delicious steaming cup of coffee just did not meet all the big hype and they both could gladly go without.  Our tally is 2/2 now… Mitchell and Shelley are coffee lovers, Isabelle and Will, not so much!  JD is already talking about his cup of coffee he will get in oh …. 4 years … so hopefully the tie breaker will go to the “cuppa”!!

 I could still say about Will much of what I wrote about him on his 9^th birthday!  He is still faithful in his tenderness in response to instruction from us, he is always willing to work with rarely a complaint, he still LOvEs building all he can with KNEX and LEGOS!  He still constantly asks Daddy how he can help him or if he can work or build with him around the house, and his handwriting is still beautiful! He is the faithful caretaker of our dog Rocky, and he is growing stronger this winter as he hauls in wood almost every day for our fireplace.  He has come to love RC items, especially the helicopter and airplane he received over this last year for Christmas and birthdays.  He spent many hours mastering his helicopter before it met it’s demise and now he is mastering the RC plane he just received for his birthday.  Hands down, he still is one of the most longsuffering big brother anyone has ever met….someday JD will have the privilege of understanding what a gem he has in his older brother William.

 

Much is the same for Shelley also!  She is all girl, all the time and we love it! She has a deep love for horses and cooking, she loves spending hours listening to stories/books on CD while her imagination is living the story in her mind. She still so enjoys “playing out” those stories for hours on end with her siblings in their makeshift frontier home. She is still a faithful student and is loving her sewing and knitting instruction this year.  I can’t wait to post about some of her completed projects! Hands down she has the most beautiful penmanship of ANY of our children.  She still excels at helping me around the house and is always willing to do the next thing I might ask of her. She has become an excellent reader aloud as she has spent many hours reading to Will for school and JD for pleasure.  Still one of the best ways to pass the time for JD is to snuggle next to his big sis for a story time. Yes, she still loves being “little momma” and gets better at it each year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I Would Rather

Some would gather money along the path of life,

Some would rather gather roses, and rest from worldly strife;

But I would rather gather children, from among the thorns of sin,

I would seek a golden curl, a freckled toothless grin.

For money cannot enter in the land of endless day.

And roses that are gathered soon will wilt away.

But oh, the laughing children, as I cross the sunset sea,

And the gates swing wide to Heaven. I can take them in with me!

 

Author Unknown

 

 

 



19

Celebrating 19 precious years married to my dearest and best friend. Thank you Lord.  

A fun side note.... I have officially been married as many years as I was not married!
Married at 19, married 19 years!

 

 

 

 

Photography

Isabelle wanted to try her hand at photography with a real camera so away she went!  She wanted to capture a quiet moment of Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus.  She set up the Playmobile nativity, turned out the lights, and convinced her sweet, agreeable younger brother William to hold the flashlight for an unknown amount of time while she snapped countless photos. She enjoyed it immensely and got a shot she was happy with, a great learning experience!

40

I feel a little funny writing about this, but at the same time I wanted to simply remember this day as a motivating factor for myself and hopefully for others.  No, I’m not turning 40… yet (thankfully I still have 1 yr, 8 months  and 9 days before that happens… gee no counting here! J ) but I wanted to mark another big 40 in my life …. 40 pounds… gone!  I started this journey in early April and I gave myself 1 year to lose 60 pounds.  Even though I knew I had been seeing results over these last few months, I was still surprised to realize early this month that I was very close to reaching the 40 pound mark.  At first my goal was to make it through the holidays without gaining anything but then when I realized I was so close to such a big marker, my motivation grew and I was able to lose this last little bit and hit my 40 pound mark this past Saturday!! 

It is strange to be in this deep on my journey.  I am a different person, with different cravings and different motivations than I have ever had in my entire life. I still LOVE food, I still LOVE to cook food, I still show MY LOVE to others with food, I just don't "live to eat" anymore; rather, I try to simply "eat to live".  I still enjoy all the food I make, just much less of it.  I can also recognize now that exercise and daily life can go hand in hand. Running is something I now desire to do, always.  I am perusing a book right now titled Run Your Butt Off and one of the writers describes being “hooked on exercise” in the following way. 

“For a while – a long time, it seems – we only appreciate exercise when it is over.  We feel virtuous for having done it, and we’re glad we pushed ourselves out the door.  Whew. Check that off the day’s to-do list. But there comes a point when the actual “during” portion of exercise isn’t so bad, either.  You’re out there and you start running, and it feels much easier than you anticipated it would before you started. You feel like you’ve got a good stride going. In fact, it’s downright invigorating. It goes by quickly, and you’re sort of sorry it has to end. “

 When I began running this spring, I remember praying that I would just stick with this, stick with something that could make a difference.   The Lord graciously answered my prayers.  Now it is not a matter of sticking to it, but the simple fact that as someone who initially detested running, I now truly enjoy it.  As strange as it seems to type it, I think I can officially say … I am a runner. I am not a fast runner, I am not a long runner, but I run. The beauty is that anyone can run.  One thing I have learned over these months is that my view of who a runner is has been skewed.  I have always thought of running as this elite group of people who must be super- human in their desire, motivation and skill. What I have learned is that there is a vast gamut of runners out there.  Very definitely there are your “super-human amazing runners”, but there are also your overweight, clumsy, absolutely NOT athletic, slow runners out there and everything in between.    Another very special factor is that those who are amazing runners are extremely encouraging to those of us who definitely are not. Wow.  It has been a very sweet journey for certain.    

These last few months have also further revealed something special that I was aware of but have been blessed to experience to the fullest recently.  I am surrounded by encouraging and generous people who love me.  Family and friends who are generous with their words of love and encouragement and truly take joy in seeing you succeed.  WOW, what a treasure they are to me.  My biggest encourager has been my dear husband. God has used these last few years and in particular the last few months, to further reveal to me the depth of the man I am married to.   NEVER in all our years of marriage has he said a negative word about my weight, no matter where I have landed on the scale.  He has loved me as equally and fervently in recent years as he did almost 19 years ago when we said “I do”.   I cannot tell you the countless, (literally countless) times in the last few months that he has told me “I am so proud of you” as we kiss goodnight.  His words are true, honest and like gold to me. 

It is strange to be at a weight I haven’t seen in years.  To be in a size I haven’t worn since before Mitchell was born. This past Sunday I wore a dress, a full-fledged dress … something I haven’t done in probably 9 or so years….my girls were thrilled!  Over the years they have asked me why I don’t wear dresses and I simply had to say I didn’t feel comfortable in them.  I know I still have a bit of a journey left.  My initial goal of 60 pounds might change to 70, I don’t know.  I do suspect that these last 20 pounds will be harder than the first 40, but I am ready for the challenge.  Excel still more.

Love,

MARCH 2012

DECEMBER 2012

 (sorry for the crummy lighting)

Christmas Week Memories

Just a few photo memories from this last week!

 

 Last Saturday we had a great afternoon watching the Washington vs BSU game .... an excellent game that ended with BSU taking the victory at 28-26.

The game was fun but as usual the fellowship with our dear E family

was the sweetest and far exceeded the game!!

 

 

Traditional opening and then silly photo of Christmas Eve PJ's from Grandma Honey!

 

Christmas day with Grandma & Grandpa!

 

 

 

 

 

 

And some general silliness.... possibly too much Christmas sugar!!

 

 

 

 

Merry Christmas

With Love from the Honey Family

 

 

 

 

 



Gigi

In some ways these 2 years have gone so quickly and at other times the moments have seemed to drag.  I cannot imagine what these last two years have been like for my Gigi. In Heaven with all its splendor, glory, and beauty and being face to face with her Savior; I can hardly wrap my mind around it.   Two years in Heaven is not even a dot on the page in the book of eternity.  To see the physical realities of the faith you treasured, what an amazing hope we have in Christ. 

We miss her, we miss them.  I know it sounds cliché, but I truly will miss them until the day I die. It is no cliché, it is reality. There really isn’t a day that goes by that in some way, somehow I don’t think of them.  We talk of her, we reminisce of her, but I still have a hard time looking at photos of her, of them. They are all around us here as it is mostly framed pictures of Papa and Gigi that grace our home.  The photos are here but I struggle to really look at them as my heart aches when I do.  You know how when you really look at a photo, the memories flood back and you are transported to where you once had been and it seems so real.  Hard to do. 

We will have Top Ramen and Garlic English Muffins tonight for dinner.  A funny memorial dinner isn’t it? Definitely not because that was all she could cook … no way!  She was an amazing cook and the consummate hostess.  We really could be having Stuffed Mushrooms, homemade pasta, Italian Chicken or steak and spaghetti with oil and vinegar salad, Manicotti or one of my favorite birthday dinners she used to make me as an adult …. Calzones!  She was a masterful cook.  No, we are having Top Ramen and Garlic English Muffins because that is what the children remember most that she made for Papa and for them.  The years they lived with us she didn’t cook much at all but Papa loved Top Ramen and Garlic English Muffins, and she loved Papa, so she made him those as often as she could in the early years of living with us.  Mitchell and Isabelle especially have memories of slipping next door to the trailer and joining Papa and Gigi for a lunch of Top Ramen and Garlic English Muffins.  Silly dinner I know, but it fits the memories and gives us a little part of Gigi for the day.

 

XOXOXO Gigi, I love you. 

 

 

 

"There is something keeping for you, which is worth the having.

Less of you resides out of Heaven now." Samuel Rutherford

 

Christmas Baking

 Yesterday was a very fun day of Christmas baking with dear friends.  Jodi and I have been friends for many years, she is a treasure to me!  We met long ago in MOPS when all of our kiddos were little, Mitchell was 4, Isabelle was just 6 weeks old and her two, Alyssa and Riley were just 6 & 2!  The Lord has knit our hearts together over the years, and through the ebb and flow of life He has created a strong and deep friendship between us.  I am so grateful for the sovereign hand of the Lord intertwining our lives together as sisters in Christ and dear friends!  Years ago we did Christmas baking together but as our families got bigger and busier our baking together slid by the wayside.  I am happy to say we resurrected the tradition this year and have all intentions to reinstate the baking as an annual event … hopefully! J

 

We made lots of nummy stuff….  Frosted Sugar Cookies, Caramel Filled Chocolate Cookies, Peanut Butter Balls, a perpetual favorite…..Rolo Turtles and our new absolute favorite … Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti from allrecipes.com … wow those are CRAZY GOOD!

  

 Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti

 

1/4 cup olive oil                1 3/4 cup flour             

3/4 cup white sugar           1/4 tsp. salt

2 tsp. vanilla extract          1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. almond extract      1/2 cup dried cranberries

2 eggs                                 1 1/2 cups pistachio nuts

 

 Directions:

 

- Preheat oven to 300 degrees

- In a large bowl, mix together oil and sugar until well blended.  Mix in the vanilla and almond extracts, then beat in the eggs.  Combine flour, salt and baking powder; gradually stir into egg mixture. 

- Mix in cranberries and nuts by hand

- Divide dough in half.  Form two logs (12x2 inches) on a cookie sheet that has been lined with parchment paper.  Dough may be sticky; wet hands with cool water to handle dough more easily. 

- Bake for 35 minutes in the preheated oven, or until logs are light brown.  Remove from oven, set aside to cool for 10 minutes. Reduce oven heat to 275 degrees.

- Cut logs on diagonal into 3/4 - 1 inch thick slices. Lay on sides on parchment covered cookie sheet.  - Bake approximately 8-10 minutes or until dry.  Cool. 

                                                       

*A couple notes- the dough is VERY wet and seems almost too wet to form into a log but it does work.  Also, we dipped ours in chocolate for extra yumminess!