My Summer

When the summer ended I hit the ground running and haven't had much of a breath since until now. I started the summer with the usual list of honey-dos

and cookouts

We maintained one of our passions in keeping a vegetable garden.

Something new this year was the addition of strawberries. I attempted to clip all the blooms this year in order to improve the plants vitality and help future harvests. I missed a couple and Grace ate our entire 2010 strawberry crop.

Another regular occurrence is the absence of Michaela and Joshua in the home as they head off to Child Evangelism Fellowship's summer training, CYIA. Michaela was chosen as a staff person this year.

Later on we had to be without all three children as Grace attended Camp Good News while Joshua and Michaela served as counselors.

The rest of the summer seemed like one long road trip. We started by heading east towards Indianapolis to go to our home schooling conference (ATI). We always stop at my first cousin's house in St. Louis when traveling east and get some great

southern hospitality. He is originally from Arkansas.

After that we stopped at the Mark and Wendy Correll family in Brownstown, IN and had a great time visiting and exploring their property in rural Indiana. They have 7 children: Stephen (19), Benjamin (17), Kevin (15), Maria (14), Nathan (?), Christina (?) and Marcus (?) in chronological order.

The conference was especially revitalizing as it helped us (actually Velda) to refuel for another year of home schooling. We also got to hook up with friends from previous conferences like the Greg Xiques family from Florida. Greg is also a public school teacher who home schools.

Michaela and Joshua served the youth at the conference as, respectively, a Children's Institute instructor and ALERT Cadet Challenge Squad Leader

The summer was finished off with a trip to see the Scott McDaniel family who had just moved from Salina a few months earlier. We had a great time being with them for a few days.

It was topped off with a trip to the Creation Museum where we saw some eye-popping sights!

The grounds were a treat as well.

All of this travel was in a wonderful Honda Odyssey lent to us by the Roger Hederstedt family because our van's A/C was not working. As comfortable as it was there was still an occasional need to stretch :)

Ah, Christmas!

Hello everyone! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We are enjoying a relaxing time together this season with no big plans just rest and enjoyment of God's presence with us. What a wonder to think of our most holy God coming here to be with us. It humbles me to know that he loves me and you so much that he would do such a thing for us. It has been my hope and focus to embrace Gods' presence as much as possible in the quiet of the morning and in the choosing of activities and how my time is spent during this Christmas season. I hope that the gift of God's presence fills each one of you with His love and His peace this coming year.

These are a few of my favorite things...

I love preparing for Christmas, but this year, I did not start preparing my heart until the week before. On December 18th all of a sudden, it dawned on me that Christmas was in one week. Here are some things that we did in that week that helped me prepare. First, we went and caroled with the (Mark) Kroekers and the Beckmans. We were very zealous carolers and sang our favorite Christmas songs in the car. One elderly bachelor said, "your singing and this pumpkin bread is Christmas to me." His gratefulness blessed me as well. Then, we went caroling again on the 21st with our home school choir.At one nursing home a lady began singing along. I love caroling and would love to do it all year round.

Now for the really different activity. Mrs. (Lyle) Kroeker invited my mom and I to go to a Christmas service at her home church. It's a little Swedish church in New Gottland. However, the catch was it started at 6 am on Christmas morning! Although it was early my curiosity got the better of me. We had to leave at 5:15 am because the church was a half hour away. When we arrived, I was amazed how chipper people could be in the morning. I personally, didn't talk much. We sang hymns, heard the Christmas story and a short sermon on the name Immanuel. Then, the choir sang an old Swedish carol in Swedish. I enjoyed listening to them. Now, most of you know that I don't get up that early without some compensation. After the service, we had breakfast in the fellowship hall. I had four different kinds of cinnamon rolls and some delicious minty hot chocolate. Because of our visit, we are now declared half swede. The service helped me start Christmas with the proper attitude.

The Creer's Christmas

Hey everyone!! We have not blogged in a long time! So, Michaela decided that I should post. Anyway, for Christmas I got a new game called Buzz Word, a journal, a book, and(get this) a 100$ gift-card for JCPenney!!!!!! That was from my grandparents. From my friend Katy I got a candle. To my mother I gave a poem in a frame called Dedication. I gave Daddy a teapot!! Just kidding that was the decoy, attached to it was a verse which was the clue to his present. which was a another poem taped to the wall of his closet. After that my family took naps while I read. After that, our friends the (Mark) Kroekers invited us over for games and desserts. All in all, I had a fantastic Christmas, and I hope to blog regularly.

Over&Out

GRACE