laughing and having fun in the day-to-day stuff.

Hello. I miss you. We are still in our house and fixing it up. We are beginning to paint the outside now. The weather is perfect and lovely. Home-schooling is fun and orderly again. Life is adding much to our education in the way of plumbing, maintenance, science, wiring, music theory, evangelism, nutrition, budgeting, etc.

Leon is still hoping to get a full-time job in Bartlesville. The chances seem to be pretty good.

We are having so much fun doing chores, school and eating. We have also been working on the house and practicing our music. YumYumChildren had a show on Tuesday and are having the first Quiver society meeting on Sunday. The children will perform on their own as Four Lights In The Night.

We go on bike rides sometimes. We are trying to find a good ride to take the Dimmick's on when they come to visit. The problem is; Greg and Marla enjoy the kind that could likely end in death or dismemberment while Zuriel wants the kind that is safe and cuddly, and I want the kind I can travel with my babe on the back. We could pick a middle of the road trail except that Leon is very much opposed to "middle of the road , try to please the majority while not offending anyone," thinking. Perhaps he would be okay with it if we only sang crazy home-made hymns as we peddled along and we purchased no praise choruses.

Well, enjoy your blessing of children today. Or if you haven't been blessed in this way yet, enjoy being His child. Revel in it.

Thank you dear friends.

Oklahoma Dreaming

We went and saw a property yesterday. It is 40 acres total with several in front of the house green, sloped and park like. The rest is mostly woods full of mystery and beauty. It's perfectly situated for what we want to do with children and singing a new song to the Lord. No busy street, no railroad, distant neighbors. Lots of room for a garden, orchard, chickens, cows or horses. Also all the land around it is not fenced and the realtor gave us the land etiquette. She said you can hunt, fish, ride bikes, 4 wheelers, horses or just explore on any of the land as long as you don't let the cows out. There is a lot of wildlife but, not the kind that would hurt our kids (except snakes but the realtor didn't have a problem with them while growing up in this area). The land is perfect, there's even some rocky bluffs but, they are not so big that the kids can't climb around on them.

The house itself is not a fixer-upper. It's actually clean and neat though small (1168 sq Ft). The walls are finished and beautiful. The all wood floors have just been re-finished. We would want to save to do a large expansion in a few years. I think we should about double the size of the house if it seems God is in it and he's bringing us enough kids to need it. It's an old farm house and retains that charm.

We could even have a "men of valor" and "women of virtue" camp for children once a year like we have talked about. It's a lovely 20 minute drive from there to the door of the place Leon hopes to be working at. They are asking $204,900. It would be a miracle to get it because Leon doesn't have full time work yet so we can't even make an offer. He has an interview with Conoco Phillips soon.

I can't believe after all our land searches and years of trying to figure out where to live, it is Oklahoma. God is such a shocking God. There has never been a thought of going back to Portland area or even Idaho. The peace and confidence has been almost constant.
"It's in your hands God, we trust you."

Well, our next step on our house is re-doing the bathroom and replacing some rotten siding so we can paint the outside. Then we have to tackle finishing the walls in the laundry room. Today we are priming and maybe even painting the den. We are using it as a third bedroom and plan to build and install a closet. Then we are almost done. We plan to refinish the floors after we move our stuff out. We really enjoy working together on the house but, we lack any skill in some of it. We just haven't ever been shown how to do this stuff. Ephraim will be ready to build his own house if we keep this up. Just think, if he was in public school he'd be missing most of this education.

being available

Leon gets to go to the Voice Of The Martyrs on Tuesday. He has the privilege to attend chapel and then work on their computers. We don't know if it will solve our need for full time employment to get the loan. God is taking care of all. We trust Him knowing His best may look like pain or trouble to us sometimes. We are so honored to be able to fellowship with the body who suffers daily for Christ and His kingdom.