Our 20th year of homeschooling is underway!

On August 26, 2009, we started our 20th year of homeschooling.
When we started home schooling, Randy was almost 5 and starting kindergarten. Tim was an almost 3 year old; the other four of our children were just twinkles in their father's eye, as the old saying goes!
This year we have only three fulltime students: Beth is in 11th grade; Jason is in 10th, but trying to double up on some of his subjects to overtake and graduate with Beth; Emily is in 6th grade. We have 7 more years to go!! Jeffrey is working part-time at ACE Hardware and wanting to finish his Physics class this fall. He is also praying and planning for a two week missions trip in Oct/Nov to Ukraine. So his "schooling" is on a different path.
Hitherto has the Lord helped us!

In memory of our friend, Zonya Campbell

Our friend, Zonya Campbell, went home to heaven August 17. Cancer had invaded her body and God, in His wisdom, chose not to heal her. We don't understand His reasons, but we know He doesn't make mistakes. Zonya and her family are very special people. We feel blessed to have known them and fellowshiped with them. Together we enjoyed many meals, picnics, snack times, lots of volleyball games, popcorn, bonfires, even a hay ride, several hikes, lots of songs, much laughter, some games, and lots of visits and testimonies of God's leading in our lives. Zonya had such a cheerful and grateful spirit; she was creative in many types of crafts. She loved the outdoors, gardening, singing, making something special out of what other people did not value. She homeschooled her children and taught her girls to cook, sew, crochet, and keep house.
Here is a picture of her family, minus their older son, from sometime in 2005.

Their family are quite the walkers and hikers and this is a picture taken one evening when we and other church families went on a mountain hike with them. Never mind that it rained cats and dogs and we were all soaked when we got back to the trail head! Zonya has an arrow pointing toward her.

Labor Day in 2005, we spent the day together in Rocky Mountain National Park. Here we are at the top of Trail Ridge. Zonya has the arrow pointing to her again.

For 2005 Christmas, the Campbells wanted to do a Living Nativity for the community. This picture is special to me because the little girls in the picture are the girls I have babysat all their lives. They were experiencing baby Jesus and mother Mary (Zonya) up close and personal.

Zonya's funeral and burial last Friday brought blessing through the tears. She has finished her race and won the prize--she's at home with Jesus in Heaven. I'm anxious to go there too. Don, Isaac, Hannah, Abigail, and Phineas are in our prayers as they learn how to live without the wife and mother in their family. God's grace will hold them.

Janet's birthday

We are privileged to live very near the Rocky Mountains and like to take advantage of that fact by having picnics in the mountains frequently. Last evening, since we wanted to do something special for my birthday, we took a picnic to the hills. On the way, we passed this beautiful sunflower field. It was so gorgeous that we stopped and took pictures of it with the backdrop of the mountains we love. This was a couple of miles east of Loveland on State Highway 402.

We drove up the Big Thompson Canyon, past Drake, and up Glen Haven Road. It is a slower, more scenic route to Estes Park than Highway 34. If you ever get a chance and have time, take this road. The speed limit is 25-35, so it does take longer, but it is very enjoyable. If you go on to Estes, you will get to experience two switchbacks that are very exciting to drive! We were not going to Estes last evening, but stopped at one of the picnic areas about 13 minutes past Drake.

Our favorite places to picnic have the river running beside them. We love the sound of the river. This is our second favorite place on Glen Haven road. There were too many people at the other one, and this one was empty except for us. We were eating homemade chicken fajitas, lettuce salad, potato salad, tomatoes, and chocolate zucchini cake for dessert.

Mountains and birthdays are cause for pictures, so I'll share a few of the many that we took after supper.

Besides lots of mountain picnics, we want our children to always remember that we love each other!

Next to our relationship to God, our marriage is our most treasured relationship.





Jeffrey, our 18 year old, who had his first day working at ACE Hardware on my birthday!

Beth, (almost 16) who missed our last 2 mountain picnics because she was in NC!

Jason will be 14 on Saturday!

Emily, 11.5, who got 5 baby teeth pulled last week because they refused to come out on their own!



Janet, 48, and still too young to drink coffee!

The sign by our picnic area--so you will know where to stop for your Northern Colorado Rockies picnic!

Guests for the evening

Last evening, we were privileged to have Sam and Debbie Lindahl for a meal and visit. They were KCCBS boys' dorm parents when I was a student 27 years ago. Debbie and I worked together on 3N at Shawnee Mission Medical Center for two years. She was always such a good nurse and leader and helped me gain skills and confidence I needed as a new RN. Debbie still works as an RN, even though I gave it up long ago when Randy was born.

It has been nearly 26 years since I have seen them in person, and Rowen and our children never had known them except for my stories and letters from them through the years. Our children really enjoyed Sam's sense of humor, (he kept them in stitches), which we are so glad he still has, even though he has been battling cancer for 12 years. The joy of the Lord is their strength.

I thank God for this opportunity to renew acquaintance with these precious people of God.

Beth is home after spending 24 Days in North Carolina

On Saturday Aug. 15th, Beth had a great flight back from her time in North Carolina. All of us Johnstown Albertsons were able to go to Denver International Airport to get her. We met her at baggage claim, after we were delayed due to the highway being closed after a fatal crash, and an awkward detour that we had to take to get to the airport. Beth's flight from Norfolk, VA included stops in Tampa and New Orleans, before arriving in Denver. She got lots of experience on take-offs / landings on her round trip by plane.


We were all glad to see Beth again!

Resurrection Garden!

Here's what our garden is looking like today. Whatever wasn't totally destroyed by the hail, is coming back! We have gotten a few handfuls of green beans, though most of the plants are gone, and we picked three zucchini yesterday. The spaghetti squash at the far side of the garden is growing like crazy and starting to set little ones on. I don't know that we will see any tomatoes, but if we get zucchini, we are happy. I'm so thankful for the friends who have shared with us from their abundance. God is good, all the time!

Rocky Mountain pictures from August 8, 2009

A few pictures by the Big Thompson River after our breakfast picnic


We went on to Estes and down highway 7 to Lily Lake. There is a nice walking trail around Lily Lake. Even wheelchairs can go on it safely.


Of course, we did not stay on the nice walking trail. The kids wanted to go on one of the hike that takes off from there. Rowen and I found it too steep for our liking and stopped to enjoy this view:

We even found some nice stumps to take a picture of:

The kids went much higher, but Jeffrey stopped for a "Word from the Creator"

Emily getting higher!

and higher!

Looking down on Lily Lake!

She and Jason liked this profile rock on top of the world! (The guy is facing right.)

Beautiful view from up there!

Looking down where we started.

Taking a rest on the way down.

They finally made it back to where we were.

Back down to the Lily Lake trail now. They think they climbed the middle hill behind them.

We went on to Meeker Park for lunch and the kids took these photos.

Jason manned the camera and did not get in many shots.


A fallen tree Jason and Emily climbed.




What we did while they monkeyed around!

We enjoyed our day in the mountains!

Brent and Alicia Susan's visit

Brent and Alicia Susan and their daughter Tirzah came for the Cruz-Troyer wedding and spent the weekend with us. We really enjoyed having them with us. We thought the "swaddler" Tirzah was wrapped in when it was time for sleep was great! Wish we would've had one when our children were babies.

She always went to sleep when she was in the swaddler.

We enjoyed breakfast at Loveland Mountain Park on the way to Estes.

It is our favorite place and one we like to take guests to when we have company.

Tirzah seemed to like the mountains just fine!

She even liked her adopted grandpa Rowen!

Sitting on the rocks by the Big Thompson River is one of our favorite things to do!

Brent had been here before, but it was Alicia's first time for our mountains.

Tirzah got startled for this picture. I thought her outstretched arms were so cute!

This was taken before they left on Monday morning.

One of the special things about the Susans' visit was that they brought their instruments. So we had music several times. This happened to be at bedtime, so please excuse our children's pajamas, but enjoy the music!