Luv My Family!

Beautiful flowers my Hubby gave me! He is so sweet!

Fruit Tart

Chocolate Pie

I wanted to do something special for my little family on Valentine's Day! I made up my mind I didn't care how much school work I had; I was going to spend some time preparing something nice! I came up with a tasty meal and decided to have it on Monday, a day before Valentine's Day, since other activities were planned for Tuesday. The menu for the evening was: Roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, homemade rolls, cauliflower, a fruit tart, and homemade chocolate pie. I thought it turned out quite good! I have made chocolate pies before, but this was a new recipe and was very tasty and rich! I also have never made a fruit tart, but I thought it looked absolutely delicious, so wanted to try it. Here is the link to the recipe if you are interested: http://www.joyofbaking.com/FruitTart.html

This is the link for the chocolate pie recipe: http://www.justapinch.com/recipes/dessert/pie/chocolate-pie-6.html?p=67

I think my little family appreciated the time I spent to create a good meal for them. We usually eat meals at home, but they do not take as much time since I'm busy with school. I enjoy doing something special from time to time. :o)

I didn't think to take pictures of our meal before we ate. I thought about taking a couple of pictures afterwards. Excuse the messy look!

~Time~

Our interesting family photo in 1994!

Christianna ~ 4 yrs., Evangelyn ~ 1 yr., Nathan ~ 7 months

Our family photo in 2011

Time sure does change things (ha ha!)

Christianna ~ 21 yrs., Evangelyn ~ 18 yrs., Nathan ~ 17 yrs., Joshua ~ 4 yrs.

I've started another semester of classes with quite a heavy load for a married mom with four children. I have six classes to complete and am hoping that some of them won't be too difficult so I can get through this. After this semester, I will almost be finished, thank the Lord!

Evangelyn began classes at a local college in January to become a nurse. She doesn't care for school, but is excited about gaining her degree as an RN. Nathan finished high school in January! He will officially graduate in June. He is not exactly sure what he is going to do in the near future. But, I know God has a special plan for him.

With all of these changes in our household over such a short period of time, I have come to the swift realization that life is so fleeting. I can hardly believe all my children, except for Joshua, are finished with high school!!! Life truly flies by so fast! I often find myself reminiscing about the days when the three oldest children were 8, 9, or 10 years of age. It seems I had all the time in the world to spend with them, but now those days are suddenly gone. It is a rather sobering thought, needless to say! I find myself asking so many questions, wondering if I made the right decisions or wishing I had changed some things. I guess this is all part of parenting and growing older, but I certainly dislike the idea. I wish life would come to a standstill and at least allow me to take a big deep breath. I have truly tried to do my best in raising the children, but I'm only human and sometimes we don't always do what we should. God knows my heart!

I have found in rearing children that there are many difficult decisions to be made. How much freedom to give them at certain ages has been especially troublesome to me. Have I sheltered them too much or should I have sheltered them more? I'm not sure, but I have tried to do what God would have me do. Many times the children have not thought that I was fair since others were allowed to do something and they weren't. I have learned that despite what others do, I must remain faithful to God and my convictions. No one else is going to answer for the decisions I made on Judgment Day, so I must be careful to adhere to God's Word and His will.

I have no idea why I wrote all that, but I guess I needed to share it for some reason. Ha ha! I hope everything is going well at your house. If you still have children at home, cherish every moment you have. Seek God's will concerning any decisions that need to be made. Enjoy them all you can (sometimes it is hard to enjoy when there is fussing, arguing, whining, ...)! It will end all too soon, and you'll wish for those days again!

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It is definitely time for a new post, but since I'm so frustrated I'll have to do that some other time. I cannot get the header centered despite numerous attempts. I'll have to try again another time. Hopefully it doesn't bother you too much. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to let me know the secret. I've done it before with no problems, but something just is not right this time. I know it has something do to with the "Add CSS" in the "Advanced" design section.
Hope all is well with you. :o)
Good night!