Mildly confused.

The first cat you see is Tess, our 10 generation barn tabby. She became accustomed to going out for her afternoon frolicking during our week of fine weather. She couldn't quite understand why she was covered with snow the very next day. She decided to take up temporary residence under a cabinet in our family room until it is nice enough to go back outside.

Second you see Cotton, our mild mannered gray cat. She is the kind to go outside and frolick in the snow while the "older and wiser" Tess watches in disbelief. She has been known to get herself stuck at the top of the neighbor's tree. Someday I will try to capture her doing her spread eagle at the top of the screen door. Truly remarkable.

Is it, or is it not?

At this time of year, the weather can be quite confusing. One day feels like, dare I say it, almost summer, and the next day your once bare yard is covered with inches of snow. There have been nights where all the heat is turned off and we are all trying to stay cool enough to sleep, and other nights where every cover is pulled up tight around our necks and we experience "sheet shock" when climbing in to our chilly bed. When the sun is shining outside, I feel warm, even if the sun is not accompanied by warmth on that particular day. I think we have all gone outside with the mistaken idea that because the sun is shining it must be warm. Here in the mountains, the sun shines a lot, and most days it is accompanied by warmth. But springtime in the Rockies is a whole different animal. Having lived here for 6 years now, I am still getting used to it's weather patterns. That would be the same as saying that you are trying to get used to North Dakota's weather patterns. True ND natives would smirk and say, "what weather patterns?" My point exactly. Here are a few pictures of our lovely Ruth, now age 16 months, enjoying her slide on our back deck during one of our lovely spring days, around 60 degrees this particular day. Notice her pretty barrette (we are just happy she has enough hair for it to stay in).

A day in the life...

Today will not have a picture attached, as it has been designated "cleaning day--survival mode". Moms, you know the day I am referring to. Just yesterday the clutter here and the clutter there did not affect me in quite the same way as it did upon waking up this morning. I make a grand proclamation this morning that the mess would be cleaned up, today! So out came the dry erase board and the easel and the living room became commando headquarters. I began to write down tasks in different colors to coordinate with the times these tasks were to be accomplished. When I finished I was rather proud of myself. It was a well organized project and the execution should be a snap with such professional planning. I had done the difficult part.

Well, fast forward to 8pm. The jobs are still not finished. Little ones managed to reach their tiny little fingers over the edge of the board and draw lines and squiggles, erasing half of my precisely calculated scheduled. We did manage to get most of the work done.

Looking back over the day I can chuckle. Even the best laid plans (and mine were far from that) are changed in a snap by the Lord. I picture God as in Psalm 2, sitting in the heavens and laughing as we think we are "planning" what will happen in our day. "Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.'" ~James 4:15.

Perhaps tomorrow I will get it right and make sure that my plans are the Lord's plans. In no way did I sit the children down today and explain to them that this is the task that God has for us today and we must all do our share and work diligently. Thank you, Lord, for this timely lesson. I pray that You would continue to convict me in areas of weakness and lend me Your strength so next time I am able to do what is well pleasing in Your sight.

Joseph's 5th birthday and his penguins.

Joseph has had a fascination with penguins for the past 6 months. It all started with a "puny penguin" as he called it. We found this adorable penguin backpack for him and Grandpa Roger sent him a stuffed penguin, "Pablo" for Christmas, along with his Uncle Kerry who sent him "March of the Penguins" for Christmas. Thus, his penguin collection has begun. I even made penguin cupcakes for his birthday party. (If any of you have such collectors in your house and would like the recipe for those cupcakes, just let me know.) Joseph's birthday is January 22 and we celebrated it at home with a balloon popping contest, one of the children's favorite party games. We still have decorations from that party on the ceiling in our dining room.

December and the chicken pox. The whole story.

Here is handsome young Matthew, age 6.
Thomas, age 14, covered in pox!
Hard to see, but Sabrina, age 3, is covered in pox, too. She did have the mildest case.

Here is Ruthie, age 1 with her pox. She had most of them in her hair, running in a straight line from ear to ear. Poor thing had a hard time laying down to sleep. Her sweaty head made it the prime place for the pox to show themselves.
This would be our Ellie, age 14. Such a cheerful countenance.
Brian, age 12, took this break from school to do a little catch up on his reading. He had 4 books finished in the time it took his pox to run their course.

Maria, 10, reluctant to let her pox be documented for posterity.

Here is the story behind the pox. We knew that we had been exposed over Thanksgiving, so we waited for 2 weeks before the first outbreak. That lucky child would have been Joseph. Three weeks later, about 5 days before Christmas, we began to see the first signs in the other 8 children. That's right, 8 children down with the pox over Christmas. As you can tell by the pictures, they all took it well and we sailed right through our first major childhood disease. We went through 3 boxes of Aveeno oatmeal baths, half a bottle of calamine lotion and numerous movies and books. The children would tell you that it wasn't as bad as they thought it would be, but they wouldn't want to do it again. Because we knew we were exposed, we were home bound almost the entire month, not wanting to spread this to anyone else. As such, this recaps our entire month of December from initial outbreak to final outbreak and recovery.

Good morning friends and family!

This is my first attempt at a blog page, so bear with me as I am just getting my feet wet. This is the most current family picture that we have, taken December 3, 2006. The daily or weekly happenings of the Pederson family may be of some interest to you, may give you a chuckle from time to time, or might just be the lighthearted distraction that you need from your hectic day. Feel free to check back often and leave us a message. We're glad you stopped by!