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Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Turning Lemons to Lemonade on the Columbia River Gorge

 Hello Everyone! Welcome to the Homemaking Party! 
When I was in the 7th grade, I won a button at the school carnival that read, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." I took it home to my mom to have her explain to me the meaning---basically, when you're faced with hard times, you have two choices: negativity or positivity. 

Our family has had to choose to make a lot of lemonade the past couple weeks! To make a long story palatable, our van is toast. Toasty toast. We lost the engine last week and the van is too old to make the repair costs worth doing. So...the kids and I were stranded in Oregon unsure how to get home at the end of the month---for about 24 hours. Then the body of Christ began stepping in and we are well on our way to being able to afford a trip home on time. Yay! 

Anyway, this is just the kind of stuff that used to get me down. However, God has faithfully provided for our needs so many times that I didn't even worry this time! I knew it would work out---and it will!

So, on the day I had to go sign off the title to the guy from the scrap yard, I decided to take my oldest son Michael along and make it a happy day. First we stopped for ice cream---yum! Then we took the old highway along the Columbia River Gorge and found several spots with Oregon Trail ruts.

When we got to the town of Arlington, we stopped at the little park in town and I showed Michael my childhood swimming hole! I hadn't been there in at least 30 years!

Every day we encounter things that can bring us down. Some are simple like an impatient person in the checkout line---some are really big like being stranded 1,800 miles from home with nine children. If we choose to make lemonade out of those sour experiences, we might discover fun things like bits of history, a great swimming hole, or ice cream!

The Autumn Pen Friend Exchange is open to new participants at my blog, The Victorian Letter Writers Guild. I'd love to have you join!




Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Visiting the Children's Museum of Eastern Oregon in Pendleton

Welcome to The Homemaking Party! Today is Kynthia's birthday---she's 6 years old! We are having a great time celebrating our fourth oldest daughter.

Cainan (13) was given a free pass to the Children's Museum of Eastern Oregon and since the activities are mainly geared toward younger kids, he decided to take Brenna, 4, for a special day out last Friday.

The pretend grocery store was Cainan's favorite part of CMEO when he was little and Brenna loved it too!

I sat at a table in this pizza shop and wrote letters while they played restaurant. 

The Alice In Wonderland tea party room had a verrrry low ceiling! Ha!

When they'd played for a couple hours, I let Cainan pick out a souvenir for Brenna. He chose a wooden flute and they each got a snack. It was a great day out!

We are going home in 29 days!!! I can't wait! Did I tell you all we got a house? I can't remember...but we did! It's gonna be great. I can't wait to show you all around!


Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Taking Daddy Home

We had a great visit with Daddy over two weeks, but had to take him back to Boise to meet his plane on Friday. We stopped at the top of the Blue Mountains to get some photos.

This picture doesn't come close to capturing the vastness of the mountains and canyons behind us! We were standing at the edge of a very steep drop off. We had fun imagining the early pioneers, as well as later travelers, making their way down the mountains into the valleys below. The freeway wasn't put in until the mid 20th century. Amazing!

We've got about five weeks left until we head home. Can't wait!


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