The Results (see previous post)

A must for all helpers...a chance to lick the beaters!

Proudly showing off their cleaning capabilities!

The yummy cookies

The girls showing off their cookies.

The girls thoroughly enjoy the job of "putting away the cookies".

Saturdays in the Larson Home

I am happy. Very Happy. Josh works for a ministry that lets him have all of Saturday off. We have decided that Saturdays are for doing nothing. No grocery shopping, no housework, yard work, etc. We stay around the house or hang out at Cabela's or walk around the mall (in winter), and in the summer we will take nature walks with the girls around the 50+ acres the ministry owns. It makes for a VERY relaxing weekend. Sometimes, like today, we will all take a nap in the afternoon. Today, we actually took a 3-hour nap! VERY refreshing. That did, however, push "lunch" back until a little after 4pm. Then supper till...well, you get the picture.

Today, Josh decided that since we ate lunch so late, he wanted to do a "project" with the girls. So they took up making Cocoa Oatmeal Cookies! Here are some pictures of the process of making.

Some mistakes can turn out fabulous!

I made brownies today. No really. These are brownie...COOKIES! For those of us who love the crust...this is the best thing! So how did I do it? Keep looking at pics!

Shalom, making sure I got the recipe right.

She REALLY enjoyed eating the batter.

And wearing it!

Apparently Papa liked it too!

So how did I do it? All I did was accidently add COLD butter instead of MELTED to the recipe!
Try it!!!

Our Day in the Snow (from early in the week)

It snowed last weekend, and I think Ruth was having some cabin fever-like symptoms. So we put on their snow suits, and hit the snow.

Shalom is showing you her tasty morsel of WHITE snow. I made sure to warn them of the dangers of yellow snow! With three dogs, and a few farm cats that hang around, hopefully Ruth and Shalom will take the hint! Unfortunately, even our back yard isn't safe from animal waste.

This fall, CMTS was given two boy cows to raise for meat. Don't worry, we are talking two years down the road...No veal for us! This is a picture of Shalom looking at the cows.

Ruth was the one who wanted to see the cows. We were going to go show Papa their snow suits, but he had taken a car on a test drive. We checked out the calves and then went to find him. He got a kick out of our little snowballs!

By the way, I lost brownie points with the girls...I did not supply them with hot chocolate! Maybe the week we will hit the snow and follow it with hot chocolate. We will need it after a week of imprisonment...I mean sickness! ;)

My Girls are Better!

Thanks everyone who prayed for my girls! They are back to their normal, fun-loving, mischievious selves again! Last night, Ruth was even picking on Josh! It has been a couple days since she felt up to that.

Here are some pictures of Ruth carrying Shalom on her shoulders...just like Papa does!

My Big Girl is sick! :(

It all started Monday when a little boy came to CMTS to visit his Grandma. Two days prior he was puking followed by a high fever that made his other RN Grandma take him to the ER. Monday morning (at about 3 am) he got over it, and came to see his Grandma here (his parents were out of town). My girls barely talked to him, especially Shalom who sat the furthest from him - but she got sick first. Two days worth of fever hovering around 100. Miserable, clingy and crying. Good snuggles though.

Ruth now has the fever, along with a sore throat. Yesterday and today you would find her on the couch sleeping (see picture). Sometimes she would wake up whimpering, and I would go to her, only to find that she wasn't really awake! My tough girl has been reduced to whimpering and whining! I know she isn't well when she doesn't move from the couch unless she is going to the bathroom, and even then, she needs carried, and a lap to lay her head on while she uses the facility!

Shalom is now crying in a miserable way. I am going to take her temp...hopefully she isn't back to being a sick little lady! :( Please pray for the Larson home!

Lazy Bag of Bones

I have officially declared today, "Lazy Bag of Bones" Day in the Larson home. Mama felt a little too adventurous yesterday, and swept and mopped the kitchen. For a normal Mama, even a not preggo Mama this would be no big deal, but for some reason my lower back is not the easiest to "work with" - LITERALLY - when pregnant! So I overdid it yesterday.

The girls and I had a nice pleasant morning. LOTS of strings of fellowship tied this morning! We ate breakfast, had quiet time (Mama reads the Bible, and the girls look at books quietly, or play with a toy - quietly), and just played and rough housed...LOTS of tickling and laughing. A very good, RESTFUL morning with no requirements (except for when the girls decided to dump their toy box, then we all cleaned up).

I had quite the interesting conversation with Ruth this morning. We were talking about the Baby, and Ruth knows Mama will be nursing the Baby - she remembers me nursing Shalom. She and I had previously had a conversation about how she would be able to nurse a baby when she got big and got married (she said, "Big like Uncle chris and Aunt Allison?"). Today we kind of revisited that conversation, but she decided to enlighten me and tell me that God would tell her when she was ready to be married!!!

Enjoy pictures from our morning together!






As a closing note, please remember my friend's Dad in prayer. I received this in an email this morning. I can't remember if Mr. Morris is saved or not.

Saturday night my mom and i drove to my dad's house to check on him since he had been coming down with a cold two days prior and he wasn't answering his phone. we found him on the floor, semi-conscious. We called the ambulance and i was amazed at how quickly they arrived! he was taken to the ER and is now in the ICU. Tests have shown that he was immobilizes for at least 24 hrs before we found him. we still have no idea how he go so sick so very fast. he has severe pneumonia that has led to septic shock and multiple organ failure. despite all of this he has shown some signs of improvement over the last day and a half. they have reduced some of his original meds and his sugar levels have stabilized. our primary concern is for his kidneys. they had shut down but are functioning now. tomorrow they will test again to determine if dialysis is necessary. because he is on a respirator and sedated we have not had any communication with him. this is very hard as we have no idea how much he hears and understands his surroundings. please join us in praying for healing, peace and patience.

My Girls : They Love Each Other

Both Ruth and Shalom are holding their toy version of a camera. Just moments before, Shalom had hers to her cheek saying over and over "Smile!" and "Nice!"

It doesn't look like it, but Ruth was gripping Shalom's shoulders, but Shalom rose to the occasion with her "smile."

She thought I said "snarl", not "smile!"

Some Examples of God's Goodness

There was a knock on our door today. One of the guys that does our pick-ups stood there holding a crate of milk products for our family. Inside the crate was two gallons of skim milk (that Josh is going to use to make yogurt), at least 10 little cups of strawberry yogurt, and 4 cups of peach yogurt, a half gallon of Egg Nog (which is ALL Josh's) and a whole gallon of chocolate milk. Thank you, Lord.

The Sunday before Christmas, Andy Merrick's brother Chris came to our front door. His church gave him several Thanksgiving meals to give to missionary families that he knew of...so we were given a whole turkey, instant stuffing, instant potatoes, a bag of rolls to brown in the over, some applesauce, and a box of brownie mix! Thank you, Lord!

A friend here at CMTS works at a local grocery store (her husband is Josh's boss in the shop). Because she is a worker, she was given a coupon to get either a 15 dollar turkey, or $15 off the purchase of a larger turkey. She had already bought a turkey, and wanted to get us a turkey using the coupon. She dropped off 2 halves of a 26 pound turkey! Thank you, Lord!

After Thanksgiving, we were given the remnants to 2 - 24 pound turkeys - plus turkey stock. Thank you, Lord!

I now have almost 2 gallons of turkey stock in my fridge waiting to go thru the canner. Thank you, Lord!

After sending out our Christmas letter (the second or third post in December), someone wrote in their Christmas letter a verse from the Bible that had been going thru my head while typing and editing Josh's letter.

• I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.
  Psalm 37:24-26 (in Context)

If this post doesn't make sense, take a look at our Christmas letter, and you may get a better picture of what I am trying to say.