We celebrated the 8th anniversary of Caleb’s arrival in this world.

We had wonderful weather. We prepared a few “science projects” and completed a scavenger hunt.

Many friends joined in the fun.

They both impressed the judges with their knowledge of the inner workings of their projects… Mom and Dad must be too hard on them because we could not get three words from them, while they talked the judges ears off.

Caleb also took the award for Best Cub Design.

May you also have a happy New Year too!

We have been busy this year. Caleb and Cody are in the 2nd and 1st grades respectively. We also added Cub Scouts to our activities this year and that has been a lot of fun. We are also looking forward to basketball beginning in January. Cara is growing into her personality wonderfully! She is three and does not realize that she is not supposed to be able to keep up with her brothers, but she does really well! She is attending play school two days a week and she loves her teacher and friends!

Jessica has released many of her duties within the MOPS (Mothers of PreSchoolers) group at church, but has quickly filled the time with volunteering at the boys’ elementary school, PTO and Cub Scouts.

Ryan is making strides toward the completion of his PhD, but there are still too few hours in the day to complete every task to his level of ideal. However, he perseveres and is hopeful to have all of the paperwork and defense completed within the next year and a half!

We would love for you to follow us through the coming year, and it is easy to do, simply follow the instructions after clicking on the “Sign Me Up” button near the top right corner of the blog.

Thank you for checking in on us and we look forward to catching up with you soon!

Do people see the fire of God dwelling within me? I often feel like I am being consumed instead of carrying a source of light within me for others to see. Am I spending too much time “doing” things instead of sharing my encounters with God with others?

The question is, how to integrate these scheduling ideas to work with my iPhone.

There are plenty of apps but which is the best?

OmniFocus is $20 but it does not sync with my calendar, since I don’t use a Mac, but an HP laptop.

HomeRoutine by Wunderbear seems like good option for keeping track of my “FlyLady” responsibilities without the necessity of the plethora of emails. At $5 it seems like a better option.

I have recently discovered YadaHome.com’s 3 in 1 app, which is free, but you must subscribe to their Turbo account in order to sync your information.

I guess I should be pleased to be able to make a clean break and focus my energy on more important things. However, I am a little embarrassed too as I made a scene. I stood up at the end of the vote and turned off the projector, that I brought, picked up my computer and unplugged my extension cord.

I am not exactly sure what I said, but I just looked at Jeff and said that I hope if he doesn’t have the “time” this year that he would be willing to step down or ask for help.

Jeff Jenkins voted for his 9 board members and I was not included. I was really only angry with him, but the 35 votes that I received from the “masses” was not enough to put me on the board.

Again, I know I should be grateful but instead I am embarrassed. It was my pride – I worked so hard to keep the board together this past year. I guess I thought at the very least I would be on the board again.

One person has already stepped down – on the night he was voted in – because of the arguments that went on that evening.