Hannah, 6, ready to jump in with the horses

Lydia, 8, learning about the horses

I don’t think I snapped a photo of this but one of the horses is a bit up in age. Sweetest horse! He was out in the yard just free ranging on some grass. Content as could be.  Children and animals running all over and the horse just munched his way around the yard.

Sam, 2, getting a tour of the land from the experienced farm hand

Hannah loved the goats and thinks we need one.

Sarah, 4, and Maxine.

I seriously wanted to bring Maxine home. She is a very old kitty who just wants to sit in your lap and not move. Sarah fell in love with Maxine. And it was amazing. Sarah was still and quiet for an extended period of time. If I could have found a way to sneak her home, Maxine would  be a part of our family. Sarah loved her!

Caleb, 10, and Sam, 2. The boys.

Lydia, 8, loving the tire swings.

Hannah, Sam and Lydia.

Caleb. I love this boy.

Sam ready to ride!

Wasn’t this a fun day?! I hated to see it end. Great fun and fellowship.

Bekah, 13. Yee haw.

Thank you to our dear friends!! It was a wonderful day!

(Just a note…we did enjoy fun fellowship with the children in this family. But as a respect of privacy, I kept photos posted to just our kiddos.)

Mary is a treasure. She is an amazing organizer, she has a delightful imagination and sense of humor that has me chuckling often. She is the best alarm clock; helping me to get up and get moving in the mornings. I really do love her for this. Really. I do.  Mary can turn anything from folding laundry to cleaning out the van in to fun.

For as long as I can remember, Mary has loved horses. While we were tossing around ideas for what she wanted to do for her birthday, I had a moment of sheer brilliance. We have friends who have horses and I was sure they would be delighted to have us crash their home and farm all for the sake of horse lovin’ gal’s 12th birthday. And I was right. Our friends so graciously set aside  a day in their busy life, so that Mary could make a dream come true.

Mary seems to be a natural on a horse. I wasn’t sure if she would be willing to come home. However, I think she is more determined than ever to have a horse of her own one day.

My Mary is such a  blessing to me. So hard to believe that she is 12 already. I blinked and she went from that cute little baby to a lovely young lady.

Mary, Happy Birthday!!! Love you bunches!

(We have more photos from the day at the farm. I’ll post them in a separate post. )

I smile. Broken crayons, stray Legos, and missing pencils.

Sisters, math lessons and runny noses.

In the quiet, at the end of the day….I love my life. Thank you, Lord for making me rich beyond measure.

When we had the opportunity to review Say Anything Family from NorthStar Games, we were thrilled! Once again NorthStar has created a game that the “family” truly can play and enjoy!

Say Anything Family is for ages 8+ and allows for 3-6 players but you can use teams if you have more people. ( My almost 2 year old teamed up with my 11 year old and they were quite the competition. )  Game play is easy to learn and set up. In under 5 minutes you can be enjoying this game. It is that simple!

Here’s the rundown of game play for Say Anything Family:

*Each player has a dry erase board, dry erase marker and two tokens; all color coded.

*One player is the judge during the “round”. Judge pulls a card, selects a question and reads it aloud.

*The other players write down their answer and place their cards down in front of the judge.

*The judge, using the handy dandy Select-O-Matic 6000, marks the color of the answer she liked best, places it face down on the table and waits.

*Players now place their tokens on the answer they think the judge selected. You can select your own answer or not. Both tokens can be played on separate answers or the same one.

*The judge reveals her selection and points are awarded. No one can receive more than 3 points at a time. You earn points by having your answer selected and  by choosing the judge’s choice. My six year old kept score easily.

*The next player becomes the judge. Play continues until each player has been the judge twice, points are tallied and the winner is announced. (That would be me. Thank you.)

Game play is full of laughter over creative answers. Not much time is needed for the game so if you need a quick game to play this is an excellent choice! Or if you are like my family, you can just play it over and over.

Another feature I liked was that each card has 3 questions and the judge picks the one she wants to ask. This was great when a question might have been unfamiliar to the judge or a topic not readily discussed in the family. We do not watch television so any questions dealing with celebrities and such could just be skipped over.

Say Anything Family would make the perfect gift for a game loving family. Toss in some snacks and beverages and let the family game night fun begin!!

Say Anything Family can be purchased at various retail stores such as Target, Borders and even online at Amazon.com for as little as $13.85!!

Make sure you head over to the Crew and see what other families thought of Say Anything Family!!

 Disclaimer: As a member of TOS Review Crew, I received a complimentary copy of this product for review. No compensation was made. The opinions/thoughts expressed in this post are my own.

This past Sunday I realized that there hadn’t been a fabulous sale to stock up on ice cream and that we didn’t have enough ice cream for everyone to have  bowl. Oh. No. I informed the Tribe of the lack of ice cream stash and there was much weeping and gnashing of teeth. The children quickly helped Daddy calm down and recover from the shock.  (Just kidding.)

I quickly thought of a back up plan. I’ll make chocolate chip cookies! Yum! Yippie! All was right in the Sunday afternoon dessert world. Until I got in to the kitchen. And this is when devastation hit me. We were out of chocolate chips. My two cooks did not inform me of the shortage. Of course, I already had the cookie dough mixed. I had two eager little ones ready to lick the spoon. I was at a crucial moment of decision.

Then I spotted the bag of butterscotch chips that NaNa had given the kiddos.  A little kitchen improv and we had butterscotch chip cookies. Now, I’ll be honest. I wasn’t excited. I’m a creature of habit. I like living in a rut. Thank you very much. But I knew my kiddos would go with the flow. They take after their father.

As I pulled a batch from the oven, I had a light bulb moment. While I didn’t have enough ice cream for everyone to have  a bowl, I thought I had enough to make some homemade ice cream sandwiches! I grabbed the ice cream, a spoon and the cookies. Slapped some ice cream between two cookies and tossed those babies in the freezer.

Dessert time arrived and I pulled out the pan of ice cream sandwiches. Did you hear the shouts of joy? No? That is because it was more of a mumble of joy as they shoved the sandwiches in their mouths. Giggle. A huge hit! They loved them. I can see us definitely doing this again. With chocolate chip cookies. Because my girls know to put it on the list. Right, girls?

**I did manage to find in the top of the cabinet about 1/4 cup of chocolate chips. Pitiful, I tell ya. Pitiful.

Tri-Cross is a strategy, critical thinking and problem solving game that blends in qualities of chess and checkers but has a twist all its own. Tri-Cross needs 2-4 players (or you could play in teams) and the recommended age is 8 and up. Personally, at least for our family, I’d bump the age up to around 10. Depending on the number of players, you will have 4-6 markers to move toward the goal of the Tri-Cross square. To win you must keep your marker on the Tri-Cross square for four turns.

We struggled a bit with how to play the game when it first arrived. I had a hard time following the written instructions. Games for Competitors included a tutorial CD and you can view the same tutorials on their website. Viewing the videos made a huge difference in my understanding the concept of the game and I quickly passed it along to my older children.

My 12 and 11 year old daughters are now Tri-Cross fans. I can’t win and they love that. They even take it with them when they go to work with their dad. Easy to do with the Tri-Cross Eco-Edition that Games for Competitors sent to us as well.

The Tri-Cross Eco Edition contains a cloth board, cloth bag, markers all stored in a larger canvas bag. Perfect for those concerned about the environment. Perfect for travel! I actually haven’t seen our Eco Edition since the girls snagged it to take with them!

After a slow start, we are enjoying Tri-Cross and are diligently trying to improve our strategy. Interested in it for your family?

Tri-Cross Standard Edition is $24.95

Tri-Cross Eco Edition is $19.95

Tri-Cross Wood Edition is $35.95 (not a part of this review)

This could make a perfect holiday gift for a game loving family on your gift list!

Make sure you head over to the Crew and see what other families thought about Tri-Cross!

**Disclaimer: As a member of TOS Crew, I received a complimentary copy of this product for review. No compensation was made. The thoughts/opinions expressed in this post are my own.

What a beautiful picture this scripture puts into my heart. Going into a room….into the quiet…the stillness…the peacefulness.  Moments or hours alone with the Lord, sending praise up to Him, given glory to His name and pouring out the joys and sorrows deep within our hearts. What a precious, sweet time that is….

I know. If you have a little blessing or two or seven running around your house, climbing on you right at this very moment, or…hmmm, I’ll wait while you go find where you 3 year  old is and what she did with the Sharpie.

I understand completely how difficult it can be to find a quiet place to have that time with the Lord. For me, some days it is an accomplishment to have bathroom privileges without a buddy. How will I manage to go into my room and join the Father in the secret place for an hour, 15 min or even 5?

Here is the truth. And I’m not sure how it will hit you, but it hit me hard. I heard the truth come out of my own mouth as I was talking to my children. Guess what I told them? I can’t remember what brought about the conversation, but someone hadn’t completed a task and gave the reasoning that he/she just didn’t have time.  My words of great motherly wisdom? If it was an activity that you truly wanted to do, you would have found the time. If it were a book you wanted to read, you would find the time. If you wanted to create notecards, you would have found the time. In the same way you could find the time to ……

Did you hear that? It was the 2×4 lovingly, encouragingly hitting on the back of the head. If I truly desired to seek the face of the Lord, if I truly desired to lift up praise and thanksgiving to His Name, if I truly desired to fall on my knees and cry out to the Lord for the salvation of my children and the forgiveness of my transgressions, I would make the time. It is that important, is it not?

I make the time to blog. I make the time to sit up until 2am reading a book of no eternal value. I make time to sit and drink my daily dose of Dr. Pepper. I make time to update my Facebook status. I make time for all these shallow, temporal things and can’t find 5 minutes behind a closed door with the Lord? Oh, Father forgive me for me blindness. Laziness. Forgive me for being satisfied with the stale and shallow.

I need to make meeting the Father in a secret place of top importance. Will I not become a better wife and a better mother because I have become a faithful daughter of my heavenly Father?

Will it always be easy? No. And how much more will I treasure that time when it was harder to come by. How will I find that time with seven children? Maybe I will rise up early and in the stillness of the morning, seek a quiet place to meet with the Lord. Maybe I’ll let my shower time  take an extra 10 minutes to hide behind that door. I am blessed with older children who can handle things while I step away for 15 minutes…or 30…. I have a husband, who if I just tell him that I haven’t had time to pray behind the door today that he will tell me to run, right then while he watches over the children.

If it was important to me, I would find a way, wouldn’t I? If it was important, I wouldn’t let anyone come between that precious time. I’d find a room, a couch, a corner to have a moment “behind the door” and meet the Father in that secret place. I encourage you to do the same.

He did share two chapters and then they lent us the book to read at our leisure. My children couldn’t wait to finish it and hated to see it end.

O Ye Jigs & Juleps! A humorous slice of Americana by a turn-of-the-century pixie, aged ten is a collection of essays written in the early 1900s by a young American girl, Virginia Cary Hudson. Her view on life around her is charming and hilarious. You cannot read it without a smile and a chuckle.

She shares her thoughts on the Sacraments to the Library to Church Etiquette.

“Sacraments are what you do in Church. What you do at home is something else. Cooking and sewing and running the Bissels sweeper and eating and sleeping and playing and scrubbing yourself are not sacraments.”

“The library is a memorial. A memorial is something that somebody says or gives or builds after you are dead and can’t hear it or get it or see it. And now may God grant us all a good night’s rest and not let the fire whistle blow. Amen. Hallelujah and so be it as it may.”

“Before I go into the house of the Lord with praise and thanksgiving, I lift up mine eyes unto the town clock from whence cometh the time to see if I am late. It is not etiquette to be late.”

If you have not read this delightful book, you must find it! We will sadly be returning our borrowed copy but it is a must have for our family bookshelf!