Sap from the Maples

Dana here~ Have you ever read something great? Then you thought “Oh thats what I wanted to say!”  God did not intend me to be a great writer. It’s just true.  I am a great reader so here is something I did read. http://itsalmostnaptime.blogspot.com/2010/02/i-dont-want-my-children-to-be-happy.html   Please take a look-see. 

   (I caught them reading together)

Geoff here. Would you consider praying for our family as we take on a new adventure. It’s an adventure that will be really healthy and challenging for our family. As many of you know Grammy (Dana’s Mom) has lymphoma (I won’t capatilize the “l” out of my spite for the destruction cancer has on thousands of lives and families, it doesn’t deserve the “properness”). She is fighting it, but it is fighting her as well. We feel the need to start taking a little bit more care of her, thus we’ve decided that she needs to be living with us. We are in an ideal location and a very supportive community. It is our desire to build her a cabin in our yard that will serve as her last dwelling and ulimately our family hideout. I have found a great idea for a cabin style at www.weecabins.com. We are searching for materials for this cabin. If you have any connections please let us know so we can accomplish this mission in a timely fashion. She is a very good Grammy and we want to insure that her last chapter in life is as comfortable and full of love as possible.

God works in mysterious ways and we know that He will be honored through this situation. Please join us in prayer for Grammy’s health and energy, our patience and wisdom, and an overall understanding of what God wants to do through this situation in our lives.

~Dana here~ My 40 Days to a personal Revolution (Barron Baptist) has so far included words like ” interrupted, postponed, skipped, missed, a bust, canceled”  It  is however also including the words “trying again, a process, starting over, a new day”  I might only get 27 out of 40, but hey, thats better than none.

Hopefully the New Year resolutions I made for all the kids will work out! Oh, I mean I will “work out” and they will just do their work.

Dana here~

A trip to Dallas,

Dinner in Uptown Dallas, meeting a famous guy.  Jay Chandrasekhar, to be exact. If you don’t know who he is…..well, we don’t either.  Super Troopers Is a movie I had never heard of.  But I made sure to get a picture with him!

Visiting cousin Foster, The gift of a superman doll

Sterling sneaking out of the dorm, after telling the babysitter I don’t like you

3 road side potty breaks

gallons of hot chocolate with friends and board games

Pinecove meetings, baby sleeping in the shower after waking in panic at 3 am

Zip line for all 3 Maples girls.

and a post I started, never finished and found today :}

 We had a super fun christmas. It was white and COLD!

Let it snow!

Inflatable Paradise

Hello this is Geoff. We swam through a sea of inflatables this weekend in Olathe, KS. It was an event to remember for the rest of our lives. The description of this hotspot proudly stated that this residence had over 150 Christmas inflatables on display for our jolly pleasure. Boy was it a pleasure, or more like a fright. There were little creatures that popped up out of nowhere, giant snow globes that had intermittent patterns of insul-bead being blown around, very random placements on the roof, scratchy holiday tunes being muffled by the laughter and amazement of the onlookers, and a showing of “Happy Feet” on the side of the house on an inflatable movie screen. It was a very unique experience to add to our weekend. The grand finale of our weekend was when we celebrated my wife’s grandparent’s birthdays. They turn 75 and 80 years old this month. 

The weekend started with an ever-soothing trip to the dentist. First off, thank you to our dentist and his willingness to serve our family by taking care of some much-needed issues. We might have broken a record for the most shots of Novocaine for one visit coming in at 11. You heard me right, my wife had three and I had eight. After six hours of drilling, poking, spraying, x-raying, smoothing, filling, and prying I had a mouth full of new teeth. I feel like a new man that’s ready to take on the decay. No more Mr. NO-FLOSS.

~Dana here~ This is the story of Annie /Dandelion. It has yet to be concluded.  Tuesday morning I saw a Facebook post….’ found a puppy is it yours?’ I say ‘no, but I wish it was’   we message, they say come get her we don’t know what to do with her. Long story short, I put a bow on the cutest puppy ever and say Merry Christmas Eden! Share her with your sister and brothers!” YEAH rejoicing.  Tonight we found out this very same puppy belongs to Geoff’s very own cousin! Yes, she posted on Facebook her lost puppy. Geoff’s Moms sees it and figures out we have the one very same lost puppy!  Siloam is a small town, and Geoff is related to everyone. So in the morning I get to say “hey Eden . Remember that puppy I gave you yesterday, well you can’t have it.” I am pretty excited about that conversation. I will give you one guess as to who  named her Annie and who named her Dandelion.

We put up the tree! I feel Christmas~y!  I have some of the most beautiful vintage painted glass ornaments. I love them, and want to have them for years to come. Therefore, this year we decided to have no glass on the tree. I had visions of the whole tree coming down on us. Deacon is like a starving rat just escaped from a cage. The tiny toy soldiers went to battle 2 lost arms in the deal. Our ice skating snowman lost his left leg. and all this before we even had all the ornaments out of the attic. SO………… this year, mmm..this year. We will put out decor I do not care to ever see again, and be happy with it. As parents we are going to have to come to the place of tiny sticky hands messing with the tree, and be ok with it.  In the past my kids have been a bit bigger or a bit smaller at this time of year.  3 Big kids that want to touch and gently love all the decor… but that one little devil baby is…. well ON  the kitchen table to be exact….

 Holding on to the last warm days

We are Geoffrey, Dana, Liberty, Eden, Sterling, and Deacon. We have been a family for ten years and have been on quite the adventure. We live in Colcord, OK. at New Life Ranch. We worship God and we homeschool, garden, camp, swim, hike, bike, ride horses, hang out with friends, cook s’mores, and much much more. We love life and where God has us right now.