Senior Banquet

Mary attended Tri-State Homeschool's Senior Banquet Thursday night and had a lovely time!

Anticipation running high

Freshman Class

Dubuque Girls

At the Banquet Table

More at the Banquet Table

Mary and Rose

Mary and Meghan

No Sugar Challenge

My sister Renee started a blog to help her in a 2 week no sugar challenge. I read her first post and am joining the challenge.

Please find her post here

I do not plan to blog about my challenge because life is extremely full right now, however, if I change my mind, my blog for this sort of thing is here

Here is a recipe I found that I thought was very good. I did add chocolate chips which I won't do over the next 2 weeks :)

Next time I make these I will add a pinch of salt and some cinnamon.

Over and out! Good Night All.

Jacob's State IMTA Audition

On February 2nd Jacob won the IMTA (Iowa Music Teacher's Association) Auditions in Dubuque. This qualified him for the state auditions. On March 16th he, Drew, Mary and Drew's Parents headed to Waverly, Iowa for the state auditions. He auditioned at 11:30, playing in level C. He was hoping to get a 1 ranking and felt good about his performance. After lunch they all headed back here. About 4:00 PM he checked the web site and has been pinching himself ever since he read winner in the final column across the line with his name on it. Congratulations Jacob!!

Attic one step closer to becoming a Real Room

Life continues . . .

Cob putting up plastic over the insulation.

Next to North Dormer

South Dormer

THE MAN!

West Dormerless

East Dormer

Be Anxious for Nothing

A text message woke me up Saturday morning.  I read it in shock.

"Hard news - - Andria is being airlifted from Anamosa hospital to Iowa City. She passed out this morning & is having seizures. Ron & I here with Daniel & will be heading to IC when she leaves.  Have her in drug induced coma."

Stunned I pressed a few buttons and fwd the message to Drew (in case I would not tell him correctly). I utter disbelief, I thought, it is too much Lord, she has three small children to care for.  She is too young . . . my mind racing.  But the Lord would not have me believe it is too much.  The Lord would have me call out to Him, putting my hope and trust in His sovereign plan.  

Philippians 4:6,7 "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

Praising God that Daniel was home when Andria passes out.  He had a charged, working cell phone and the wits about him to immediately dial 911. Jack was not hurt when Andria fell on Him. The Dr. @ the Anamosa hospital had the good sense to get her to Iowa City as quickly as possible.  There were not high winds, ice or snow to prevent the helicopter from flying safely.

My heart aches to see Andria well.  She has clot on the top of her head where the blood exits the brain.  She has no movement in her hands, but can move her feet. I am full of hope in the Lord.  She has not had a seizure since yesterday.  I am praying she will continue on a forward trend until she reaches full recovery.  

Printable paper dolls

I found this extremely cute free paper doll printable pages Tuesday!

Printed them in black and white and glued them to some card stock (a cereal box would work but I am saving all of them for another project :)).

http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/princess-paper-dolls.htm

Sledding

What better way to spend time with friends when the snow is gently falling?

Pictures taken February 26, 2013

Attic Progress

Drew has had a dream for years that he opens a door and finds a whole room he didn't know was part of our house.  I am started to feel that way about the attic!!  When I looked in on the framer yesterday he said "The nightmare is almost over."  Check out the nightmare of angles he had to deal with to get things ready for the dry wall guy.

All the kids helped me clean up the wood scraps and saw dust in preparation for the insulation to be put up, which is happening today!

Check out the insulation that is completed.  So far, so good!

Mom`s Last Days on this Earth

 Mom had not been doing well since a few days before Christmas when she went into the hospital with flu like symptoms. My brother Matt and his family had suffered from a nasty flu so that is what Matt assumed she had when he brought her in.  She was diagnosed at that time with COPD or emphysema.

She only stayed in the hospital one night and was sent back to her apartment at the assisted living facility. My brother Matt was not well enough to check on her.  My sister Terry called and asked that the staff check on her more frequently, wondering if we could pay for a higher level of care for her to be better looked after. 

Fast forward several days.  It is now December 30th or 31st. Matt and his wife still have severe flu/cold symptoms. Matt's wife, Michelle called our cousin to see if he would check on mom. He found mom lying at the foot of her bed in a fetal position. I am not sure if Frank then helped her up or if she couldn't move at all but I know when Matt came the next day she was in severe pain and unable to move. Matt called the ambulance (as he couldn't get her to move) and they took her to the emergency room.

What happened from there is a huge blur in my mind. It seemed like forever until the test results came back showing that the bone surrounding the hardware in mom's hip had disintegrated.  Not long after that she was diagnosed with a blood infection that was later found to be caused from the hardware and causing the bone disintegration.  Surgery was scheduled and canceled several times, until finally on January 10 the metal hardware was removed and a concrete, antibiotic soaked spacer was put in it's place. 

My sister Renee arrived January 1st or 2nd and was by mom's side reading scripture with her, singing to her and praying with her during the long days of much pain and waiting until surgery. Renee said her last goodbyes to mom on Friday January 11th and headed to pick up my sister Terry from the airport.  Terry flew in at Tampa and together they drove to Orlando, stayed in a hotel so Terry could drop Renee off for her flight in the early AM on the 12th.  

Terry went straight to the hospital where she found mom droopy on one side, the victim of a stroke. Mom's speech was slurry, her left side useless.  Sunday mom called out for Drew several times before Terry realized she meant my Drew.  Mom wanted Drew to pray with her, which he did. That was the last day mom could communicate with us in words. I cannot express how thankful I am that Drew noticed his phone vibrate and answered it! I type with tears rolling down my face in thanksgiving for God's mercy, remembering the tears I cried at church that morning, excusing myself from my seat to cry in the bathroom and stock up on tissues.  I hesitated to return and pausing in the hall remember the hug of a sister in Christ and fresh tears all over again. How the Lord uses a body of believers to comfort in so many ways.

The stroke left mom unable to swallow and late Thursday, January 17th she was moved a very nice hospice house. Rita, her husband Tim and I all arrived Thursday PM. Dawn arrived Thursday or Friday, I can't remember. I will never forget walking into the room at the hospice house and seeing mom laying there.  All I could think was how beautiful she looked.  Not some super model - outward, who cares beauty, but the beauty of a woman with strong character. The beauty of a woman who had raised 7 children who had all risen up and called her blessed. The beauty of a mom who took the time to lay down on the floor and color a picture with me when I was a little girl. The beauty of swinging with her on our front porch swing in Michigan. The beauty of someone who never complained or spoke poorly of anyone. The beauty of a woman who met a struggling couple, owners of a Christian book store and let them live with us a for several months (when money was tight on our part). The beauty of a mother who told me it was wrong to boss my husband around.  The beauty of a woman who opened our house up every holiday and many Sunday afternoons to widows, or widowers. This beautiful mom laying there on that bed! Oh and she looked so, so amazingly beautiful.

She labored over every breath as she lay there. Her eyes opened and she recognized us as we cried over her, hugged her, spoke to her, sang to her and said our goodbyes.  I stayed with her that night, thinking it could be her last.  By 2:30 AM her breathing evened out as she seemed to fall into a sleep and we both slept for a time. The next several days she was surrounded by her children coming and going. Mark came several times. Aunt Maxine, Frank, Uncle Bill all came and went. We sat and shared memories, sang songs, held her hand, washed her head with wet clothes and then early in the morning on January 21st she moaned and breathed her last, with Dawn and Rita in the room.

Her struggle over.

Her, full of beauty.

(I am sure I got some details in this story wrong, my apology. If you have the correct info please leave it in a comment or email it to me.)

Florida Pictures

I have not had time to formulate a post about Mom.  To be truthful, since we have gotten back from Florida, although I have returned to our routine, by default, I have not recovered in a sense. There are still items that have not been unpacked. Add to the trip all the boxes I moved out of the attic for the big attic redo project and viola the house remains in a continuous state of chaos. BUT  that won't stop me from posting pictures taken after the memorial service for Mom.  I just want to give my words about my sweet Mama more thought before posting. Enjoy some photos in the meantime.

In memory of Ione T. Schoeppe

Thank you Paula for helping with the light refreshments!

 Lydia, Abi and Meleah

Sophia and Chloe

 Baruch, Dawson and Henry

 Abram and Jason

 Lydia, Abi, Meleah and Julia

 Abram, Baruch, Davey, Jacob, Melvin and Dawson

 Matt, me and Suzy (thanks so much for your support Suzy!!)

Renee and Georgie

 Yulondar and Matt

David leads the children's choir

Renee and I

"One More Thing Beth"

Drew calls me "One more thing Beth" because I always have one more thing to do, before we leave the house, before I go to bed, before I eat breakfast and on and on.  Well last night one of my "one more things" was setting out my workout mats since I am always groggy in the AM. This resulted!

A work out frenzy!

Overwhelming Support

Grief rolls in and out surrounded by sweet memories of unrecoverable days. God remains the same, yesterday, today and forever.  He is my rock and fortress through the tumult of emotions. I am so thankful He provides others to come alongside me, with encouragement and overwhelming support!

Ione Therese Miller Schoeppe September 12, 1932 - January 21, 2013

Ione Therese Miller Schoeppe,

80, of Dunedin, died January 21, 2013,

surrounded by her loved ones

at Suncoast Hospice House, Palm Harbor, FL.

Born in Lansing, Michigan – Sept 12, 1932.

Preceded in death by husband

Glenn Edward Schoeppe (Sept 11, 2004). Married, Nov 6, 1954.

Also by her parents George and Leona (Spitzley) Miller

and siblings Donna Youmans and George Miller.

Survived by sisters Joan Miller, Maxine Murdoch,

and brother-in-law William Youmans.

Loving mother to Terry (Eldon) Porter, Dawn (Chip) Pearson,

Mark Schoeppe, Rita (Tim) Syfert, Matt (Michelle) Schoeppe,

Renee (David) Easter, Beth (Drew) Tuecke and

grandchildren Morgan (Ryan) Martin, Charles and David Pearson,

Kyle and Kelsey (Lauron) Hepp, Emily and Sean Syfert,

Melvin, Henry, Jason and Dawson Schoeppe,

David, Meleah, Julia, Lydia, Georgie and Sophia Easter,

Mary, Jacob, Abigail, Baruch, Abram and Chloe Tuecke

and great grandchild Avalyn Hepp.

Two services are scheduled for Friday, Jan 25

In lieu of flowers please consider

a donation to your favorite charity

or Ione’s favorite charity:

For HAITI With Love

P.O. Box 1017

Palm Harbor, FL 34682-1017

www.forhaitiwithlove.org

Mass at 10:00AM

St. Michael the Archangel

2281 St Rd 580

Clearwater

Memorial service at 11:15AM

Lakeside Community Chapel

1893 Sunset Pt Rd

Clearwater

Light refreshments to follow

Entertaining at a Local Nursing Home

Here are some of our dear friends.

I am a little late In posting this. Better late than never.

Merry Christmas 2012

2012

Chloe (4):  Chloe is doted on 24/7 by everyone in the house. Yet she has no one over which to exercise dominion except the dog, Banjo - which she does. She enjoys singing to herself and is frequently heard talking in the living room alone making wedding plans.  We have not yet learned the name of the fortunate fellow.

Abram (6):  Abram wins the award for being the most fun to tease.  It seldom irritates him and everyone is happy to oblige in the task.  The rougher, the better.  His eyes shine with a flare that makes those who like things calm and in order, tremble.

Baruch (8):  Baruch is our thinker.  He spends his time wondering how to reverse the gravitational force of the earth, how many pulleys would be required to move the house off the foundation and trying to find a new color no one has thought of yet.  He intently listens to long explanations from his father regarding the nature of the world.

Abigail (11):  Abi is everyone’s friend and confidant.  Chloe regularly has a breakdown when Abi leaves the house without her.  By riding her unicycle when we take walks, she makes us look and feel like we are part of a parade.

Jacob (13): Unfortunately, our house is not large enough for Jacob.  For that matter, the city of Dubuque is having trouble containing him.  An unengaged Jacob is a frightful thing for our family and the general public.  Fortunately, he is a good self-starter (most of the time).

Mary Elisabeth (15): We would be in trouble without Mary.  She is an example to the other kids, extremely helpful around the house, full of spiritual insight and is just plain fun to have around.

Drew and Beth keep fighting to see they are part of something much bigger than themselves, or their family, or the city of Dubuque, or our great

nation.  We hope the Lord gives each one we love eyes to see past all the things that falsely make a claim to worth and blind us.  There is no thought, object, action or person that has value apart from Jesus Christ.

“Worthy is the Lamb”.  (Rev. 5:12)

Merry Christmas from the Tuecke Family!

Fun Name that tune Challenge

I shared this last year, but thought it was good enough to share again. If you follow the link here you can listen to a Piano Puzzler.  This definitely counts for school! :)

For more Piano Puzzler's:
Click Here or cut and paste the URL below
http://performancetoday.publicradio.org/podcast/piano_puzzler/

Abram Looses His First Tooth

Abram lost his first tooth last night.  I was bummed not to be home for it.  I wish I could freeze time, Abram and all the children are at fun stages in life!!

Juggling Balls

I found this in my drafts post list from March of this year.  One of the original set I made for Jacob ripped shortly after I made it.  I wanted to make him a replacement and couldn't find the pattern I had used.  Low and behold I had the pattern right in my drafts.  So of the sites below the first one listed proved to be the most useful.  The juggling balls are a great size and shape.  Oh and the reason his ripped is because I failed to put interfacing on the fabric.  The interfacing is dual purpose. One, stiffening the fabric and two, preventing fraying. So if you decide to make these I recommend doing the interfacing. Now it's happy sewing!!


This site gives detailed, yet complicated instructions.
http://juggleballs.amielmartin.com/all

The site below has good advice on what type of fabric to use etc.
http://www.jugglingdb.com/compendium/skills/equipment/making/balls/barnesybags.html

The site below has printable patterns for many different styles of balls
http://www.jugglingdb.com/compendium/skills/equipment/making/balls/sewingpatterns.html

I clicked on this link and got this:
http://www.jugglingdb.com/compendium/skills/equipment/making/balls/Sewing%20Patterns%20for%20Juggling%20Part%20I.pdf

This site gives somewhat useless information about making juggling balls =)
http://www.pjb.com.au/jug/leatherballs.html

Am I seeing things Clearly?

I have been thinking a lot lately about how important it is to see life through the crystal clear, untainted lens of the Bible. I generally think of myself as a pretty good person until confronted with the first three verses of Ephesians two*.  The fact of the matter is that I am not only not a good person, apart from the grace of God I am DEAD.  Yes, dead.  No not physically, but spiritually. I can do nothing to bring myself to God, nothing to merit a moment in His presence. Drew is teaching this week on the first 10 verses of Ephesians and as I listened to what he prepared I thought about how easily Eve turned from believing the truth to embracing Satan's lie**. Satan wants us to think God is our enemy.  He wants us to believe that God has withheld good things from us.  NO, God has gifted those He has chosen with every good thing***. When I see myself as pretty good I am not seeing things clearly.  I'm a slow learner, but I am begining to see things more clearly;) As I pray through each circumstance during the day I am calling out to the Lord to help me see things clearly.  Help me see things rightly, instead of clouded in the fog of lies bombarding me by the prince of the power of the air.












* 1And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. 3Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

**1Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” 2The woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’” 4The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! 5“For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

***3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8which He lavished on us.

Snack Time and Organizing

Here is the snack I made for Chloe, Abram, Baruch and I while the oldest three were at play practice.

 

Here's Chloe and her kitty waiting patiently to dig in!

When I was uploading these pictures I noticed the shelves in the background and thought, why not put in some pictures of my new plan for the winter. 

 

A bin for each member of the family for our hats, scarves and mittens!

And a shelf for each child to put his or her boots on.  Although we have had no snow yet, I am asking each child to take off their shoes and put them on their shelf when they walk in through the door.  I sat everyone down and gave them the beef that Mom is not responsible for anyone's shoes.  If your shoes are found anywhere other than your shelf or your closet you owe me a quarter.  So far this has been the hardest on Baruch and Abram.  I feel so bad because they get the least amount for allowance.  But rules is rules and I am sure they will learn soon =).