Spring Is In the Air

by Alicia Noa

Spring is in the air
The birds are in the trees
Praising the Lord for
Everything.

Spring is in the air
The flowers are all a bloom
Red, white, and yellow
Oh, thank the Lord for colors.

Spring is in the air
The little butterflies
Are flying in the air
In the light blue sky
Oh thank the Lord for spring!

Spring is the the air
The sun is shining bright
Time for the hat and glasses
To shield our eyes
Oh, I love spring!

30 Years!!!

Engagement photo 1980

My Mom and Dad recently celebrated their 30th anniversary.

They are my examples of what a godly marriage is supposed to be like.

When my parents went to a pastor to see if he would do the wedding service he said no, because they had 3 strikes against them:
1.They were too young in his eyes. She was 18 and he was 22.
2.They were raised in different religions, he was raised catholic, and she protestant.
3.Both of their parents were divorced.

They eventually found someone else to marry them. When my parents decided to get married they decided that they would NOT divorce. They have been faithful to that decision since the day they became husband and wife!

“For this reason a man shall leave his Father and his Mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.” Genesis 2:24

God Knows All About Us

In the Bible in Psalm 139:13-16 it says:

“For You formed my inward parts;

You wove me in my mother’s womb.

I will give thanks to You for I am fearfully

and wonderfully made;

Wonderful are Your works,

And my soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from You,

When I was made in secret,

And skillfullfy wrought in the depth of the

earth;

Your eyes have seen my unformed

substance;

And in Your book were all written

The days that were ordained for me,

When as yet there was not one of them.”

Wow! what an amazing thought!

God knew the day we were going to be born before the world was even created!

He knew everything about us before we were born. He knew our name, who our parents were going to be, what kinds of animals we would like, even how many hairs are on our head.

God is so amazing!

Praise God that you are “fearfully and wonderfully made”!

Garlic

In October, we planted 50 garlic cloves in our garden beds. October may sound a little late for planting, but we planted the garlic in the fall because that is the way it grows around here. The plants are growing tall and should be ready to harvest sometime next month or early May, depending on what the weather is like. We should have almost enough garlic to last a whole year, but some of it we will save to use for planting this fall. We prefer growing our food, to buying it in the store.

So what do we use garlic for? Besides adding it to food for flavoring, it has many medicinal purposes, as well. Here are a few things that we use it for:

1. Allergies
2. Arthritis
3. Cough and cold

The list above are just a few of the things it is good for. If you are interested in find out more things it is good for, get the book "Practical Herbalism" by Philip Fritchey.

(I learned all of the above from my Mom. She is a great teacher. I love her!)

Extra Thankful

I know this is not Monday, but I had to write about how thankful I am for my two younger daughters. My allergies have hit me pretty hard this year. I was even in bed for a day last month. My two daughters stepped up and took over the household chores. They did all my chores, as well as their own. I am so thankful that they have learned to do all the household chores so I don't have to be concerned about them if I am not feeling well. I am also thankful for their servants hearts. Besides doing my chores and theirs, they also made all the meals (from scratch) and gave me my tincture regularly. So here I am again suffering from allergies and they are splitting my ironing between themselves, washing their own laundry (by hand) and getting me my tinctures.
Thank you, God for two very special young ladies. I am truly blessed.

Grinding Grain

For Christmas, my Dad bought my Mom a hand cranked grain grinder. It takes a lot of work to get a lot of flour! I really enjoy cranking it!! Even though it might make your arms tired, after you’re done grinding grain, it makes you thankful that God has created us with strong bones and strong muscles.
God is so good!
Here are photos of everyone taking turns grinding grain for our bread.

Happy Birthday, Christopher

Looking For A Tree

The Saturday before Christmas, we went to a Christmas tree farm to find our Christmas tree. Hannah and I got to help our Dad cut it down. We had fun being together as a family.

Here is the Noa family Christmas tree

Here I am helping Daddy cut it down

Here is Hannah giving it a try too

We got it!

Mommy and Daddy putting the lights on it

Hannah and I putting on the ornaments

Daddy topping it off with the angel

All done, doesn't it look GREAT!

Jeremiah 29:11

My favorite scripture verse in the Bible is: Jeremiah 29:11, it says,

"For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for a welfare and not for a calamity to give you a future and a hope."

This verse encourages me that even though I do not know what the future will be, God has everything in control. I can trust God to take care of me now and in the future.

Happy Veteran's day (Mom's computer was down, so we couldn't put this on last week)

Our Dad.

The sign Hannah and I made.
(you can click on the photo to make it bigger, so you can read it)

Our Grandpa Noa.

Our Brother.

A few days before Veterans Day, Hannah and I made a surprise for our Dad.
We made a sign that said Happy Veterans Day on it.
He really liked it!

My Dad, both my Grandpas, and my Brother are veteran's.

I want to thank all of our veteran's for serving our country!

A Blessing!!

Children are considered a blessing to the Lord.
Children really are a blessing.
I love being with children! I love watching them play together.
I enjoy watching little girls pretend to take care of there little babies.
I also enjoy watching little boys play with their cars and trucks.
God loves children.
Jesus loves children as well, "He said, Let the little children come to me."
I thank God that he created and blesses us with children!!

Birthdays and Horse lessons

Last week, we celebrated the girls' 14th and 15th birthdays. It was a lot of fun. They also wore their new riding boots they bought with money from their Grandpa and Grandma Noa, during their horse lesson last week.Now, Hannah, make sure you share with your sister:)

Alicia enjoying her lick of the cake batter

Hannah talking to Grandpa Noa while reading the card he sent her

Alicia getting a kick out of something Grandpa Noa said

The girls holding their lit candles so they don't fall and start a fire:)

The birthday girls proudly wearing the crowns Dad made for them



Horse Lesson Time

cleaning the horses hooves

Time to saddle up

making sure the straps are tightened just enough

riding high in the saddle

Check out those cool new riding boots, they won't look that good for long:)

My Favorite Thing To Do

My favorite thing to do with my Dad is to play checkers. He is really good at it!
I have only beaten him once.
It does not matter to me if I win or lose, as long as I play with him.
Here is a picture of us playing...

I love my Mom!!

My Mom is the best. She is a Proverbs 31 woman. The ten things I love about my mom are:

1. She teaches me about the Lord.

2. She taught me how to be a lady .

3. She trains and disciplines me.

4. She serves God and her husband.

5. She makes homemade tinctures.

6. She likes to hold babies.

7. She loves me.

8. She is a good seamstress.

9. She cooks well.

10. She is a pretty singer.

Thank you Mom for always being there for me!

Serving our Father's

Me working with my Dad.

I must really say that, I love my Dad. I want to share a few ideas of how we can serve our Father's.

The first idea: Offer to massage his feet and do it cheerfully! (I try to do it every night after dinner).

Second idea: Make his favorite dessert to surprise him.

Third idea: Obey him the first time, without arguing.

Fourth idea: Thank him when he corrects you.

I hope you find these ideas helpful.

The best dog ever!

Our dog Lita

We have a dog named Angelita Noel(Lita for short). Lita does the funniest things. My Brother found a ball that she really likes to play with , if we take it away she starts whining and whining until we give it to her! She is the best dog ever!

Blueberries!

On Tuesday we went to a blueberry orchard and picked a lot of blueberries. We got almost 20 pounds of blueberries. Another family who went with us got 22 pounds! After we picked berries we had lunch at a picnic table there. We had fun picking blueberries!

Hannah picking berries

Me picking berries

All our berries

My New Apron

For sewing class I made an apron. It did not take very long. I like to sew, it takes a lot of practice to get good at it. I can't wait until I get to sew clothes for my future children.

Me in my apron

A Servant's Heart

I am so pleased that my daughters are learning to have a servant's heart. Of course, it starts at home. Here is a wonderful example of one of them demonstrating a servant's heart toward her Daddy.

Alicia loves to take her Daddy's shoes and socks off after dinner and give his feet a good massage. Her Daddy loves the luxury. She is truly a servant to her father

A busy week

This has been a very busy week. I am just now getting around to uploading our photos. So we will have a montage here of our week.

Hannah and Alicia have been working on Election lapbooks all year and are just about finished with them. Most of the work left to do will come after the conventions and then finish up with the general election. They thoroughly enjoy learning this way.

Here is one of my favorite photos (it is almost two weeks old but I just had to put it on) Don't these young ladies have beautiful faces? God has truly blessed our family with these two young ladies.


Hannah and Alicia decided they wanted to start a book club with some friends, so here they are on Thursday going over the book and some questions they had regarding the first chapter.

Here is the first book they chose to talk through. It is an excellent book for young ladies.

Here are their friends Kylie and Stephanie (holding little Anna) as they are discussing their book.

The ladies were continuing with their dessert baking class this week. We were blessed with oatmeal/raisin cookies, Snickerdoodles and here Hannah is checking the temperature for the Almond Roca. When making candy the temperature must be just right or it won't set properly.

The temperature is almost right, but you must be patient! Hannah is doing a great job at being patient.

Alicia is reviewing the recipe to see what they need to do next. They have become quite proficient at reading and following recipes.

We had waaaaaaay toooooo much rain this week so we are not sure how our garden will fair. Most everything is turning yellow from too much rain. We keep praying that God will still bless our crops as we attempt to provide for the needs of our family.

We had a wonderful surprise on Tuesday with the appearance of our oldest daughter and her husband coming over for dinner. We had a great visit with them and look forward to many more visits.

We had a great week and look forward to tomorrow as we venture down to Yelm, Wa to visit my dad for Father's day.