Happy Easter

Photos from our trips

Snow, power and boo boos.

We have had snow for a week now. Four feet total. A neighboring town has 10 feet and still no power since Wednesday. We have been without power several times... but not constantly!

On Tuesday, Abbie's fingers were crushed in a school door accident. Her friend who shut the door was devastated. Here are some LOVELY pictures!

And a little snippet about the snow... note the azalea bush in the background blowing away!

Moving again.

Moving again. 8th residence in our 10 years of marriage. Johns 4th in his 22 months of life... 5th if you count in utero. ~TIRED~

We are blessed to have a parsonage to move into.

So maybe I will start blogging again... someday.

Scared

For over 4 years, my husband and I have been carrying a sign. (It isn't a real sign) It says "Church". It even has a nice 4x4 beam... ready to plant it somewhere. 4 years ago we were brought to this town, given a church building and started digging a hole for our sign on the corner of 4th and Delwood.

It seemed like the perfect place. There was a free house, a free church building and a few workers. It looked like the perfect place to put our sign. For a long time we tried to dig a hole right there on the corner... adjusting for things like rocks and roots.

Those rocks and roots ended up being more than we could handle.

One rock was found after a year of struggling... a pedophile in the leadership of the previous church! The pedophile had been sentenced for several life terms and the church split, the people of Westwood ran the pastor out of town.

Roots were more difficult... Previous pastors had informed the locals that drinking, smoking, rock music and dying your hair are all sins to repent for...

So while digging post holes, carrying our sign.... we have been carrying the weight of this building and the previous churches who met here.

Then there is the muck... Digging hasn't been in the best of circumstances. We came up with the fear of failure. We were told that we would never make it, we were ruining our children, Westwood isn't worth it... Then there was my parents ugly divorce, my aunt died in my car while I was driving, then the house fire, then learning we were GROSSLY under insured. AND the moving and moving and moving!

We have tried moving the digging to other places with various minor results...

Now after a full scale attack (We put a flyer on every doorknob in the main part in town) we have received little response.

We are pulling back... retreating.

We are now a Saturday night bible study.


Tomorrow morning (Sunday) we will not be digging.


I am afraid.

I have been digging for so long. I don't know how to NOT dig. I feel adrift.

Did I not look up to the sign giver and check for directions?
Did we fail?

I should have looked up more.
We have not failed.

Satan is still on the attack...
There is still much to do.
We don't know where we will be digging...
But for now, it will be at our new location... on Saturday nights.

Swagbucks

This is an advertisement. If you hate those... run now. Swag bucks gives you points for using it. And with those points you can get gift cards. If you use my name as a referral, I get points! My name is: Mamafranklin

Music Mondays

summer photos

It's been a summer... vacations were hard, car air conditioning stopped working, John was bitten by a dog, Amie dislocated her elbow and had limited use of her arm for 4 days... When does school start?

Westwood August 2009

Music Monday

Happy 4th of July

This is a test of the Franklin broadcasting system... this is only a test.

The current forecast calls for too much summer fun to include blogging. Hours of chasing a mobile son can be expected. Sprinklers and kiddie pools will flood our days. Exhaustion and watermelon to follow.

This has been a test of the Franklin broadcasting system...

Breast Feeding and My Son - Comedy Time

A boy and his mud.

A boy and his mud are not soon separated.


I love you.
Don't touch me.

Music Mondays

4 year old playing System of a down on Drums!

YOU MUST SEE THIS!!!

Finished

I have finished John's quilt.

Lets Go Giants, Lets go!

Pay it Forward

While visiting Back to Basic Living recently, I took Penny up on an offer to participate in a bloggers Pay it Forward. In these difficult and somewhat scary times, I think Paying it Forward is a great way to possibly brighten someone’s day. So I agreed to participate. Penny sent me yummy smelling soap and lotion as well as a amazing home made brownie mix. No pictures available of the brownies I made from them... they were that good!



















So here’s the deal - the first five people to comment on this blog post and say you would like to participate in this Pay it Forward will receive a gift in the mail from me. I will send each of you a Starbucks gift card. If you’d like to participate, please do not email me. I will mail your gift within one week of your comment. Feel free to comment regardless - but if you do want to participate, please be sure to state that in your comment.

There is a small catch. You must have a blog and you must agree to Pay it Forward by offering a gift to five people on your blog, who will agree to do the same on their blogs. This is, after all, what paying it forward is all about.

Finally

I started this quilt last October. It is finally done! It is for Ella She is 7 months old.



























It is not to my original specs... nor is it completely quilted by hand. But it is the first quilt that I have done start to finish... no quilt pattern, no color suggestions, no nothin'! Featuring Bunny Luv Flannel Fabric by Maywood Studio. I fussy cut a bunny into each corner border.

Politics are stinky

The governor of Texas tried to make a statement by not accepting stimulus funds...

Since President Obama controls GM, the Arlington, TX plant has been temporarily shut down.

Amie's Easter

John's Easter

Maggie's Easter

The little mother

Abbie's Easter

Sorry no video!

John learned how to turn on a flash light.

It is in his fist with the light pointing on the ground behind him.

He is spinning around with his head over his shoulder trying to get the light.

I am laughing hysterically!

Update: Amie is now taunting him with it... he is still chasing it!

Music Mondays

Happy Easter!

Music Mondays

Funny quote

Eagles may soar but Weasels never get sucked into jet engines.

Not Me Mondays!

Not Me Mondays! was started by McMamma. She is in the hospital with baby Stellan. So her blog readers are doing a special "Not Me Monday" that is all about Stellan.

I did not force my two oldest children out in to the freezing cold to take a picture for Stellans name gallery.

Music Mondays

Give us this day our daily bread

I spend too much time figuring out where I am getting our physical bread and not enough time budgeting time for my spiritual bread.

I had about $25 total for our food.

Had I spent it in Westwood:
3 gallons of milk @ $4 each
2 loaves of Bread at $1.30 each
2 large boxes of cereal @ $3.50
3 lbs of apples @ $1/lb

But I went to Susanville and prayed on the way that I could get some cereal for $1.50, I literally prayed the whole way to Susanville.

For $23:
3 gallons of milk @ $2 each
8 loaves of bread @ 4/$1
4 boxes of cereal @ $2 each
12 lbs of apples @ 50 cents a pound

God provides.

Now if I only spent more time on my spiritual bread acquisition.

Easy creamy chicken/turkey stew

I KNOW you have a gallon size freezer bag of Turkey from Christmas/Thanksgiving!

Easy Creamy Turkey Stew
by Jenn Franklin

Left over turkey
8 cups of Water
1 lb carrots
1 head celery
1 onion
1 cup of barley
1 32 oz can of cream of chicken
Salt, pepper, garlic, Italian seasoning to taste.

Boil turkey for 30 min. Remove meat and set aside. Dice carrots, celery, onion and place in crock pot with broth. Add barley. Add favorite seasonings (Not too much, the cream of chicken has a lot of flavor). Cook for hours until carrots are soft. Add cream of chicken and diced up turkey from earlier. Heat it through and eat! Serves 12.

You can easily cut this recipe in half but use 6 cups of water.

Frightening... but true.

Memory verse of the week

Philippians 4:6
Do not be anxious about anything but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Requests: Permanent housing

Please pray with us for permanent housing.

I hate apple

I hate apple. There... I said it. Every time I sync my Ipod... something catastrophic happens... Last time I synced the stupid thing... the songs didn't appear on the ipod. Now my computer doesn't even recognize it is there. This happened with another ipod as well. I think they are doing something to make previous generations of ipods fail. But right now I am just pissed and full of conspiracy talk!

Music Mondays

Heaviest Element Known to Science

Heaviest Element Known to Science

(Hat tip to Mike at WL)

Scientists in the US have discovered the heaviest element yet known.

The new element, Governmentium (Gv), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.

These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons.

Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert; however, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A tiny amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second to take from 4 days to 4 years to complete.

Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2- 6 years. It does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places.

In fact, Governmentium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes.

This characteristic of morons promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as critical morass.

When catalysed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium, an element that radiates just as much energy as Governmentium since it has half as many peons but twice as many morons.

hysterical funny

Music Mondays

Music Mondays

Really?

My children are trying to kill me!

Yesterday... crappy day... After having bible study and 11 children in the house, I picked up all the tea pots and placed them on the counter, fed the kids lunch and turned on Hulu and watched The Tonight Show. I wasn't even through headlines when I hear water hitting the floor. Clearly they had finished lunch and wanted to "clean up" I told them (Without leaving Leno) to clean up the water. I assumed they were trying to wash dishes. I realized there was a very sharp knife in the sink and decided to go remove it...

I think I smell fish...

I walk in to discover my kettle filled with hot tap water, 1 full can of fish food and 1 full can of formula... and they spilled it all over the floor. This milky, fishy mix is flowing across the floor and under the fridge and the oven.

It took over an hour to clean it up. I think I still smell fish.


Then today they poured out a brand new bag of fruit loops on the floor and were dancing on them. (Oh how they make a great noise!) John was just rolling in them, sucking on them and depositing them in the pile.

Good Housekeeping Magazine doesn't have good pointers for hot, wet, fish food, formula mix on wood floors... nor do they have a solution for getting crushed and slobered on fruit loops up either. (Hint: the dust buster is useless)

Stimulating

This year, taxpayers will receive an Economic Stimulus Payment. This is a very exciting new program that I will explain using the Q and A format:

Q. What is an Economic Stimulus Payment?
A. It is money that the federal government will send to taxpayers.

Q. Where will the government get this money?
A. From taxpayers.

Q. So the government is giving me back my own money?
A. Only a smidgen.

Q. What is the purpose of this payment?
A. The plan is that you will use the money to purchase a high-definition TV set, thus stimulating the economy.

Q. But isn’t that stimulating the economy of China ?
A. Shut up

For a giggle

Jack Box was hit by a bus.

http://hangintherejack.com/

Music Mondays

Music Mondays

Music Mondays

For now on I will be doing Music Mondays every Monday to enlighten you on the amazing music stuff I find online.

Imagine the possabilities!

HELP!!! PRAY CONSTANTLY!!!

The world is going to hell and I am strapped to the wreckage!

All you have to do is keep a running tab of the things our President has done today.

Lifted restrictions on overseas abortion funding?!?!?!

So the United States is in a budget crisis and he is sending abortion money overseas?!?!?

And with millions of people who hate the United States, we should close all secret detention facilities around the world, right?

When something is broken... you throw it out right? That is how we got into this mess! We need to turn back the clock to when people FIXED things... not just bought a new one when the old one didn't look good.

Apparently I am ending my radio silence...

I encourage all people, who are concerned about where this country is going, to write Mr. Obama and who ever you can get to listen.

New Layout

My blog has a new look. I decided I needed to have a side bar with places for nice buttons like the "Fight Foca" button.

I may change a few times while I try to get this right.

School day - yippee!

For people who love starwars or think 3 year olds are adorable!!!

Childrens Church

I take kids 5 and under into the fellowship hall for the sermon on Sundays. The Sunday after Christmas is insane! The 6 children were constantly talking and fighting but out of that zoo...

~A Funny~

Jonah Kerr: Abbie, you are the oldest, you go first.

Me: Jonah, you are 6 weeks older than Abbie.

Jonah: But she is taller.

Me: It's just because her parents are taller than your parents. You may be taller than her when you are a grown up.

Jonah: Really?

Me: Yeah, you will probably be as tall as your daddy.

Jonah: Really?

Me: Yeah.

Jonah: Will I be as fat?

Abbie: All grown ups get fat.

Christmas Eve

This is my comment to a post from another blog who disagreed with glow sticks given to kids at a Christmas eve service and got flack for it:

We handed out glow sticks to all the kids at church. My husband is the pastor and we FIRMLY believe in "Suffer the children to come to ME"

What do you do when your first child is born? Are you quiet? After all the screaming and hard work, the new mom weeps loudly with tears of joy. The father dances like a leprechaun and shouts for joy. Everyone involved is not quiet. Not even the baby!

So having 10 kids dancing in front of the alter (At a baptist church) with glow sticks singing Christmas hymns at the top of their lungs, celebrating THE birth of a first born son is incredibly appropriate!!!

We are SOOOO homeschooling!

Last week we took Abbie out of public school because of MANY reasons... Fighting, kissing and meth on the playground. Yes, she is a Kindergartner!

So for President elect Obama to "change" the school situations, he has chosen the Chicago Superintendent of schools to head up our education reform... HOLY CRAP! Our government is now being run by Chicago politicians. Does anyone else see a problem with this?

Christmas 2008

I may be a luddite...

Wordless Wednesday- Setting off the car alarm

Wordless Wednesday

Hysterical and crass... the perfect election coverage!

Fall

I love fall.
I love the colors.
I love the cool weather.
I love the absence of mosquitoes!
I love baking!
I love soups!
I love walking with John in the back pack and Amie pointing out every word she knows! (Leaf, leaf, stick, car, truck, leaf, leaf, wet, stop (stop sign), leaf, leaf, leaf.)

Right now it is snowing... so our walk consisted of new words: mama snow! C'mon mama snow! Eat yum! Snow mama snow! Boot! Snow! C'mon mama! Snow!

We walked so long, John fell asleep and started snoring. He tilted to his left and now my left shoulder is toast! But I have lots of lovely memories of Amie's first snow that she will actually remember.

Family sticker

Get your own Family Sticker Maker & MySpace Layouts.

Our pretty fall day!

What is Obama avoiding?

More politics... can't keep my mouth shut on this one.

Breaking the silence... going political

I hate politics and I am in hiding... but:

I am not Catholic... but the video is still worth watching!

staying quiet

Happy Birthday

Ok... so it isn't a birthday really... but a friend of mine from college is celebrating the 1 year anniversary of starting her blog. She has an amazing story. Check her out here. She is hosting a give away. So go sign up!