Tribute to My Husband - First Blue Monday

Blue Monday

Today is my first ever Blue Monday post. You can go over to Smiling Sally's Blog and find many other posts on Blue Monday.

I wanted to use this first post to give a tribute to my husband, Ron. It is very easy to post about him using blue, because he is an outdoors kind of guy. Along with his very blue eyes, you can usually find him with blue sky in the background or blue water underneath him in one way or another. He is a tremendous guy and I am very thankful to have him in my life. Here he is, the captain of the Panacea. He is happiest when he is on the water, (either the liquid kind or the frozen kind!) He absolutely loves sailing and I love sailing with him. It is so amazing to be out on the water and feel the fresh air in your face. We are totally comfortable, knowing that he is a great sailor and a great captain. (And as for us, he is gradually bringing us from "cargo" to crew - some of us take longer than others.)

Here he is up at the top of the mast - it takes a lot of courage to go up there with me and Ryan holding him up there! He is not only our captain, but our chief mechanic, cook and bottle washer : )

And here, he is holding me up partway up the genoa! That takes a lot of strength, I can tell you.  And I was not afraid, because I totally trust him!

 Here he is taking me out on our sunfish, cruising Long Lake. It is so much fun to go zipping around the lake. I am always amazed at how he knows how to take full advantage of the wind so that we can go really fast.

And here he is taking the girls on a dinghy ride. He is totally a family man. He loves his family and makes lots of sacrifices so that we can be provided for. Below he and Ryan have built a fire for a cookout and then we did some star gazing and meteor shower watching after the sun went down. We are loving our property up on Long Lake!

Celebrating Katy's 20th Birthday

Ron and nephew Michael

Last Christmas with his mom and our girls and our son!

Good looking bunch, if I do say so myself.

He is always good to visit his parents and just Saturday, he spent part of our beautiful, sunny day indoors making soup for all of us and an extra pot to take over to his parents. For him, that is quite a sacrifice, since he loves the outdoors so much and it is likely that we won't have another day like that until next Spring.

Here he is carving the turkey he cooked for our Thanksgiving dinner. He cooked EVERYTHING! He knows I get very stressed out trying to cook and also get the house ready for guests, so he did everything that needed doing for dinner preparations, including making his famous pumpkin pies! Everything turned out just fabulous.  So not only is he good looking, talented, a great provider and a great family man, HE CAN COOK,

TOO!

This is a picture of Ron at our end-of-the-year co-op dinner. He also is our main science teacher in our high-school, home school co-op.  Every year he teaches a subject in science. Last year it was Biology. This year it is Human Anatomy and Physiology. He is usually the favorite teacher in the co-op or at least in the top two! Depends on whether my bff Brenda is teaching or not. : )

Here is a picture of his class from last year on a field trip to the Chippewa Nature Center.

Oh, and did I mention he is always out helping others! Here he is helping my brother build steps in 102 degree weather in S. Alabama.

He is fun and almost always smiling.

 

 

He is always available to attend an impromptu cook-out to make others feel welcome and loves to share his faith.

 

And last, but not least, he loves me! Here we are on our 25th anniversary last June.

I really can't say enough to show how much I love and respect my husband and just how thankful I am to have him in my life. He is truly a great guy.

Oh yeah, and I can't forget, even on a Blue Monday, that he is a Redwings fan, through and through!

Happy Thanksgiving and Pink Saturday

Head on over to Beverly's How Sweet the Sound today and check out the other Pink Saturday posts.

This has been a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday weekend and I would like to share a couple of pictures of my newly decorated dining room. We had my dh's sister and her family along with his parents over for Thanksgiving and I got to show off our new room. Here are a few pictures.

I've had blue and white with white walls for a really long time. And now my dh has painted my dining room RED!  I decorated my hutch with my pink, white and red plates. It is so much fun changing colors. We even hung my very large mirror in there, which had belonged to my mother and I had never quite known what to do with it. I hope to post more pictures soon, but for now, enjoy Pink Saturday.

And one more pink I would like to share are a couple of pink combinations that will make their way into purses. This is my new venture into making purses from repurposed fabrics. I hope they turn out well and will post pics as they get completed.

 

 

 

 

As for my pick this week, I really enjoyed discovering Bellamere Cottage. Hop on over there for a visit. I'm sure you will enjoy what you find there. She likes to blog about home, family, decorating and homekeeping. Be sure to read "her story". It will inspire you!

I hope you all have a wonderful day today.

Five Favorite Things to Do at Christmas Time with My Children

As part of the Dora the Explorer Christmas Contest, I am posting the following five favorite things I do with my children each Christmas.
1.  Decorate the Christmas tree
2.  Celebrate Christmas dinner with Family
3.  Go to Christmas Eve service at church
4.  Listen to Christmas music
5. Watch It's a Wonderful Life starring Jimmy Stewart


Watch Dora's Christmas Carol Adventure Dec. 6 on NickelodeonFavorite Holiday Activities with Kids

Mackinaw City - Pink Saturday

For Pink Saturday, hosted by Beverly over at How Sweet the Sound, I am sharing some photos from a summer visit to Mackinaw City. This is the front of a restaurant where we had dinner. I love the sculptures of the children playing around the water pump. And the flowers there are always so beautiful.

 

Funny thing is, you can't tell that I am coming down with my first experience with poison ivy. I had it so bad that we had to leave and drive home so I could see the doctor. I still have scars on my legs from the terrible stuff. Now I can spot poison ivy a mile away. I hope to never have to repeat that experience.

 

This is my husband's sister, who had come up for a visit. It was so disappointing to have to leave because of the poison ivy. But since she is a nurse, she was urging me to go get taken care of.  It was good to see her, even if it was for a short time.

This is a little puppy we met while we were shopping there.  Isn't he cute?

Take time to head on over to Beverly's place at How Sweet the Sound and check out the other love Pink Saturday posts.

Find Beauty Where You Are

I read an article today over at The Inspired Room. She wrote a wonderful piece about looking for the beauty in our homes and being content with what we have. It was quite an insightful piece.  One of the hardest things, I think, this day in age, is to be content with what we have. We are surrounded by advertisements, glossy magazines, store fronts and more, showing us that next best thing that we "need" to make us happy. And then there are the "neighbors" who have just what we wish that we had.  One scripture that is so important and yet so difficult to live by is this one:

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,

"Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."

Hebrews 13:5 (NIV)

I fall into that trap quite often. I look at the messes and not at the love and creativity that goes on here. I look at the piles and not the precious lives of friends and family that gather here. 

As I think back on it, the most beautiful place that I spent time, other than my own home, was that of my grandmother. She lived in a two-bedroom farmhouse that she raised her four sons in (my father being her youngest). She had a natural art of making things lovely.  She would go out into the garden and snip off flowers, branches, whatever caught her eye, and put them all over her house.  It was always beautiful.  But the most important thing I remember was the love, affirmation and acceptance I felt there.

Hopefully, today I can take this message to heart and stop being so hard on myself. I have the most important thing in my life - the Lord- and I have my family and  a beautiful, loving home.  I need to learn to be content with that. How about you? Are you content with what you have?

 

 

This is a typical gathering at the Leng household with friends and family.  Lots of food, fun and love.

Things Remembered - Pink Saturday

The tea pot on the right was given to me by my grandmother. She gave it to me one day when I went out for a visit.  She was always so generous that way. She had just bought the tea pot - probably at the dime store. But when I arrived I was really admiring it, so she just simply gave it to me. There is always something special about something given to you by someone that you love.  It didn't matter to me where it came from, just that she gave it to me.  It now has a place of honor on my book shelf in our family room and every time I look at it, I think of her and the day she gave it to me.

 

When she was much older and had gone to live in the nursing home, her house burned completely to the ground.  So many things were lost, including all of her pictures, furniture and everything.  So things like a dime store teapot take on a much bigger meaning.  Do you have something in your life that brings back good memories?  Tell someone about it.

 

Thanks to Beverly over at How Sweet the Sound for hosting this wonderful Pink Saturday project. Stop on by there and check out some of the other great blogs that are participating.

One of the things Beverly has challenged us to do is to visit a blog that we have not been to before and highlight it on our Pink Saturday post.  So today I'd like to highlight Collected Treasures . Her blog is really well done, with lots of beautiful photos. She is hosting a wonderful contest on repurposing with some great prizes.  You can read all the details here: REPURPOSING CHALLENGE