The cost

of a few priceless photos? ...a handful of m&m's. :) Sometimes bribery works!!







We went to Fredrik Meijer Gardens Sunday. The natural lighting in one of the barns is just fantastic, but the girls weren't very excited about posing for a picture. Fortunately, for me, they really wanted some more trail mix, especially the m&ms!! :)

Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor hail

No, I am not talking about the postman! I am talking about our girls and their bikes! :) They love to be outside and love to ride their bikes. The warm weather photos here are from april and the winter one is from January.

Paul has started working with Regan on riding a two wheel bike. She has a pretty good grasp of what to do and was making good progress the other night. Then, on the second night, she fell and got something in her eye. That has put the brakes on wanting to try any more this week. Her body is ready to do it...now if we can just convince her mind of that!!

It has been pretty wet here lately, with a day or two of sunshine mixed in. I guess it's better than snow and at least gives hope that warmer days are ahead!!

Hope your days are filled with Sonshine!

Happy Easter!

Hope your Easter Morning is blessed! We had a fun time yesterday, reading the Easter story, making resurrection rolls, painting eggs and talking about Jesus death and coming back to life. Today was a wonderful service at church too.

My thoughts...

Today, I was volunteering in Regan's classroom. As I was washing the tempera paint from the paint brushes and watching the murky water swirl down the drain, my mind wandered to another world. As I performed the simple task of cleaning paint brushes, I couldn't help but think about those who don't even have clean water to drink, let alone to clean paint brushes with. I was thinking how the water washing off the paint brushes today was probably cleaner and safer than the water they drink every day.

Over Christmas, our church participated in the Advent Conspiracy. In the three months since then, my mind has wondered often to the water needs of our world and the ministry of Living Water International.

As I have prayed about these things, I have been constantly asking God 'what do you want me to do about it?'. He has laid on my heart lately that every little bit counts, so do what you can and I will bless it.

Yesterday, I visited the Living Water Site and read this:

A child dies every 15 seconds because of the lack of clean water. It costs us an average of $0.98 to provide clean, safe water to one person for one year: every dollar makes a difference!

I am not someone who finds it easy to ask people to give money to something, even if it is something I believe in. And now, of all times, isn't the best time to ask...so, I won't.

But I do have something to ask of you and a way that you can help! I write my blog mostly to record things for my family to remember. However, I am curious about who actually reads it! LOL!! So, if you are reading this, leave me a comment. Tell me what ministry or cause tugs at your heart strings. If you had a lump sum of money that your HAD to give away...where would it go??

For every comment left here...I will donate $1 to Living Water International. Your simple post will provide one person with clean water for one year. It doesn't get much easier than that.

A Couple of characters!

Yesterday, we went to a sport show at the DeVos place. I've never seen so many fishing lures in one place at one time, but we did have a good time! lol! We walked around the exhibits fairly quickly. The girls enjoyed seeing the live deer and baby bear and the 'sparkly' things being tied into flies.

We sat down to some cinnamon almonds while we waited for the highlight of the event...the jumping dogs (dogs who run down a dock and see how far they can jump in the water). Where we were sitting, there was a guy doing Charicatures for tips, so I had him draw the girls. These artists always have amazed me, but I have never had one done before. I think it turned out adorable!

New Paints

I was inspired by some friends blogs recently, to venture into the 'real' watercolor section of my local Hobby Lobby. Armed with Sage's $20 birthday money from Grandpa and Grandma and little to no wisdom about the product, I purchased a couple of things for the girls. I bought some watercolor paper, a kit with some brushes, mixing tray, pencils and tubes of paint and found a couple 8 color trays on clearance (these look very similar to the 'kiddie' ones I had been purchasing for the girls. Let me tell you though, they are nothing alike!

I gave each of the girls a piece of water color paper and let them use the 8 color trays. I can't believe the difference in paint quality! The paints we were using before were so hard to get any color from, we usually just ended up with a big watery mess. These take only a little water and produce some great colors! What fun!!

We all had a little fun creating our first watercolor 'art' and I can see us doing a lot more painting now! (Thanks Grandpa and Grandma for the Birthday money to spend on some new supplies!)

Time with a friend

Regan had her friend Eden over for the night last night. The girls have been friends for over 4 years already. They were nice enough to let me practice some of my photography skills on them. :)