February gifts: blue ribbons and pink cast

I've neglected my 1000 gifts list here on the blog for a long time... my mother-in-law started hospice care in February, and she died in March; then I had another tough loss in May. I've actually still been writing gifts on my calendar, but typing them up here to share was just too hard.

But I feel ready now, and so incredibly blessed that God gave me so many gifts to keep us going through times of grieving. Here are my gifts from God to add to my 1000 gifts list for February, 2014: a record for my family and another offering of thanksgiving to God.

788.  First place in the regional AWANA Bible quiz
Both my daughters' teams won first place! Here's Blaze (on the left) with Jaye, and below that Dreamer (on the right) with Makiah

 

789. remembering Lake Peignur

Just love those moments when Blaze gets excited about something at school. While studying about solutions and how salt dissolves in water, she remembered seeing a video of a lake that sunk into an underground salt mine; she looked it up and found it for us!

790.  Photo book and hand drawn pictures of all the things I love

My four girls drew me pictures of horses, unicorns, maps, globes, lizards and Grandma helped them put together with some recent photos in a photo book  for my birthday

791. two sets of flowers

Birthday presents both from B. and from Stars

792. orange creamsicle cake and Greek spanakopita

Two more of my favorite things, my mom made these for my birthday

793. left-behind treats

Stars moved to Washington and told the girls they could have anything she left behind in her room. Hair decorations, sun glasses, purses, odds and ends... the girls were down there for days poking around! I myself discovered a special treat: a jar of Nutella

794. antique map notebook

Blaze used her prize points in AWANA to get me a notebook instead of something for myself, because she knew I would love the antique map cover (and I do!) 

795. Bible hangman

Those two words don't seem to properly go together, Bible and hangman, but it's still a great word game that Blaze and I play sometimes

796. Amazing laparoscopic surgery

Serious took a fall off one of our horses and broke her arm, which ended up requiring a ambulance ride all the way down to Children's Hospital in Denver because the break was too complicated for local surgeons to tackle. Three pins later, we marveled at how such a bad break was fixed with noninvasive surgery!

797. 4H carnival duck shoot

The girls' 4H club designed a mechanized duck target for rubberband rifle shooting for our 4H carnival. Even more impressive were all the decorations! A giant cardboard alligator and dozens of ducks, frogs, hunting dogs, etc. (the theme was Duck Dynasty). 

798.  Job 38: 1-8

These were the verses that God used to speak to me personally, to prove His existence to me, over 20 years ago. A few months ago I shared these precious verses with friends in my Bible study... recently one of the ladies grabbed me at church and said, you have to hear my daughter's story!!! Her 14 year old daughter had just got saved reading the SAME VERSES. 

799. the infinite universe

When I do Bible study with Blaze and Dreamer, I've noticed what my girls really get interested in is when we talk about heaven... and space... or where heaven might fit into space (or not). We talked about how mind-bogglingly big the universe is, and it's a good thing we get to live forever because it will take forever to explore our infinite universe