Merry Christmas!!!/ Update

 Merry Christmas from our home to yours!!

 

 

This is just the best time of the year!!

We have had a year of change, growth, some challenges yet to many Blessings to count!

The business had a great year one again! The Stoltzfus Structure team does an AMAZING job and the sales for the year broke record again! The four Zook brothers all play an important part in this business and they do each part well. They have brothers meetings about once a month and watch something educational then discuss and strategize. They each bring a unique piece into this family business and they seem to accept each other despite the flaws they each have. The office staff and all the shop workers make things run smooth and we appreciate each part that is played out!

The Horizon Structure business had a great year as well. I love to watch this business soar since it was started from scratch in our old home years ago when Dave was hauling sheds. We had a separate phone line for the horse barns and the customer would leave a message. Dave would return the calls in the evenings or when he could get to them! He hired a few employees and put them in with the Stoltzfus crew. Soon they outgrew that and they moved next door where they now have there own offices and a team behind the computers! This is a fun group of people and we appreciate each one so much!

Dave does investing. He has since I have known him,although the scale has gotten much larger at this point. He did it on his own for years and loved it. He started to invite others to invest along side of him via "Syndication". Many great investors have come along side Dave and are enjoying the journey with him. We have made many great new friends from this venture of his including all the Belize connections! We LOVE Belize and look forward to visiting many friends there in a few weeks!

He has had some as he calls them "Compound Affect" challenges this year. He broke his foot on Labor Day weekend. He had and is still having a hard time getting this foot to heal properly. It swells bad and gets sore as soon as he tries to run or even walk with me! The foot was feeling better when he fell off the four wheeler again (chasing Jenika's loose pony) This time he broke ribs. We take it for granted but we use our ribs for EVERYTHING!

He hurt so bad for a few weeks!! Coughing was hard, deep breathing was hard, sneezing was brutal! Running and getting fresh air and deep breaths in the lungs is what Dave was used to. He had weak lungs but running has helped him stay away from lung issues for years now! He rarely even got a cold! We run. Often. It has become part of us. The foot and rib injury put a stop to this and I was thinking "I hope he don't get sick!"

Last week we started with colds. We all snapped out of it fast except the one that couldn't cough without rib pain. Thankfully his ribs had a few weeks to heal before the cold settled in but it is still painful. Today he is home. Diffusers are going non stop and I even put some oils in the nebulizer and we are running that under his nose...:) I make him take hot baths, drink tea, lots of water with oils in them, I make him sip bone broth but he hates it and don't sip it. He eats it with other stuff and thinks he gets the same benefits...:}

Anyway he is mending and we are thankful that he can clear his lungs better then he could have a few weeks ago! He has been keeping me a busy nurse and I'm so ready for him to be back to doing all the normal things a husband and father do around the house! We take his healthy body for granted and I will appreciate it more then ever once he is well again!

Justin is busy with work. He is still getting hours working for Stoltzfus Structures. He likes it some days more then others. He gets lots of the repair jobs and some prefab stuff. He likes driving his work truck with a crew. When he is not working it's Eva Jane he wants to hang with. These two have started going to the slopes boarding and they have a few other dating couples they have fun with.

Eva is in Lancaster most of the time now even though her family is in Franklin. She has a job for Beliers Donuts! Justin likes her new job because now she is in Lancaster more...:) Last night they were here for our Christmas party,today they are in Franklin for her family party and tomorrow they plan to be back to do Christmas day with us at my parents. It is back and forth but they seem to be used to it. Justin got snowboarding pants and shoes from us for Christmas. Eva got a diffuser for her room..:)

Jordan is loving school and all the school drama that comes with eight grade. Drama is mostly involved with the girls but its funny to watch as he gets involved sometimes to!...:) He absolutely loves his school friends and he looks forward to his high school days! The class is doing a missions trip this winter that he is anticipating when we get back from Belize. His health has been good this year and he shot up past me in height! We do infusions once a week still but his anxiety before the needles go in lately have us talking about giving his tissue a break and going back to IV once a month. As long as he gets his infusion he has what he needs to fight sickness just like we do. We are always more thankful for his antibodies through infusion this time of year because Christmas parties is always where Jordan ended up on the couches! He got his sickest over Christmas and he missed out on so much because he wasn't well! Today we are thankful that he is well!

He is loving his basketball team and games!

Jordan got smart wheels / Hover board for Christmas from us and he is thrilled because he has wanted one of these wheel thingies for years now!

Jenika has grown a ton this year!! She is thriving in school although the first quarter was really hard and trying for her! She has learned responsibility in areas where she struggled before. She started to do book reports with her dad and this has helped her reading and spelling skills so much! Gadgets are her favorite thing to do and "Horse Land" is her favorite thing to watch snuggled in her cozy bed with my phone! Music is her favorite right now! She likes it loud in the car, in the shower and pretty much anywhere...:) "How Deep the Fathers Love For Us" (by Joy Williams) is her favorite to jam on today!...:)

Jenika has always been my challenge. As a toddler she got into EVERYTHING!! She is not a pretender and does not play with dolls or anything make believe. She is a reality gal and she gets it from me...:) She likes REAL animals. She likes daring adventure. (she don't get this part from me!...:}) She likes action packed anything. She is always on the move. She has made friends at Linville but girlfriends do not come easy for her. She removes herself from drama and goes to hang with the boys! She loves boy games and getting dirty never ever scared her! Lately I see more "girl" come out in her. She asks deep spiritual questions. She combs her hair without me begging her to. She cares more if her outfit matches. She likes her room with soft lights, soft music and crafts or reading. Sometimes when I see her in her room taking care of it or her stuff or even herself I pause and just look and run it in my head "this girl is growing up to be an adorable little lady after all"! I was afraid she never would show me her "girl" side!....:) We love her so very much and she adds just the spice to our home that we need to keep us on our tip toes!...:)

Javon... How can my baby be eight!?? He is so LOVEABLE! He is easy going and still likes it at home better then anywhere else. School is going great for Javon and he does well in school. He has many friends and has compassion for those around him. He makes annoying noises (which our family hates) more then anybody we know. He likes to flip those water bottles over and over to see if they will land on the cap! He likes to sing! Lately we tell him "go play your piano" when he starts to sing the same song over and over for to long!! He plays and plays piano!! He can do "Away in a Manger" really well and it has been fun to see him thrive during his first year of piano lessons at school with Miss

Javon is not a morning person but once he is at school he wakes up...:) Thanks to Mrs. Garber who is patient with his lagging some mornings. He begs to sleep longer everyday and he is one that will so enjoy this Christmas vacation so he can sleep long in the mornings!! Just this morning when I met him on the steps on his way down he said "Ahh that felt AMAZING! One time I awoke and thought I overslept but then I remembered it was Christmas vacation and I snuggled back in and went back to sleep and that felt AMAZING!!...:) He loves anything remote control! He loves LEGO's! Oh how we love his personality and he sums up our family well!!

Me... I'm always busy so it seems. I could pack my days and still not get everything done...:) I am not one to sit much and yet at the end of the day at times it feels like I haven't even got much done that day! Housework here seems to go on and on even though the kids are older. We do have a chore list that is working well with the Little ones right now. They can be helpful if I'm patient enough to let the chores until they get home from school. Most days I end up doing it all... They play and do homework when they get home and the bedtime routine seems to take just as long today as it did when we had toddlers and babies!... It is my fault because even after all are tucked in I go around with my oils basket and rub feet and start diffusers. I love this time because this is when the stories from the day come out. This is when they all want to chat and Dave wonders why he don't see for an hour after everyone was tucked in already...:)

I love oils and healthy living! I have been doing online sessions learning more about Essential Oils and I love them so much the kids gave me a diffuser plug in for my car and a necklace that hangs around your neck with a place to dispense oils! I use YL but other places to get essential oils are popping up to. I don't know what I ever did without them! We drink them, we diffuse them and we use them topically every single day! I'm sad that I used those nasty chemical filled plug-ins for so many years when there was something like essential oils!

Kombucha tea is another hobby of mine. We drink this tea everyday and I have had fun educating myself on all the benefits of probiotics. Probiotics come in different forms and I think more then one are important but Kombucha Tea is a great way to get some healthy bacteria in a diet! I'm learning how to ferment my own foods and then incorporate them into our diet, I love to be online a few days a week with educational health classes going on behind the screen. I take notes while I work in the kitchen. I love to learn how to use food as medicine. Learning is something I hope I never stop doing and as Dave educates himself and I educate myself (both in our own interests) we find we are often talking the same language just with different educational topics...:)

I made butter for the first time ever!... Dave's sisters found a bargain on some fresh organic cream and they got a few cases for me! I even made some cinnamon honey butter!

And because its Christmas and I offered to bring homemade bread to the Christmas gathering we made fresh bread to go with it!! It is so yummy!!

I have made this bread for many years!! Dave's mom taught me how when we got married since Dave was not used to bought bread and I loved her homemade! It took a few times of her and Leah to come and show me how to do it in my own kitchen. (thanks mom and Leah!) After that the recipe was used so often it became engraved into my memory! After we started a healthy food journey I stopped making this bread. The other day when I wanted to make it again I literally had to think if I even have a recipe anymore!?? I didn't. I had to sit and put my hand on my head and to think the steps through and hope I had the right recipe measurements! I know I have the recipe on here somewhere but I don't have it itemized so I didn't take the time to even look here. The bread got perfect so I guess this recipe was right...:)

1 cup warm water with 3 Tbs. yeast and 1 tsp. sugar. Dissolve in warm place. In a large mixing bowl mix 6 cups warm water, 3 Tbs. salt, 3 Tbs. black strap molasses, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup vegetable oil... stir then add 6 cup Occident bread flour. beat together then stir in the yeast mixture. Add 8 more cups flour and stir real good. Add four more cups and work with hands until the right texture. Sprinkle with flour and cover to rise 1/2 hour. punch and work with hands adding more flour if to sticky. Rise again 1/2 hour or forty five minutes. punch... work with hands and put in about 1 1/4 lb. per bread pan. (I don't need a scale anymore because you do get the feel of the right amount after 19 years of doing it!) Rise to a bit past the pans and bake until done.

This bread does not crumble and makes great toast without all those homemade bread crumbles! It is super moist yet light and fluffy tasting! It is for real the best homemade bread I ever had and I'm so happy to have learned all those years ago to whip up a batch from scratch! I can now have bread made lickity split and it used to be an all day chore! One batch makes 8-9 loves and I freeze it. It comes out the freezer best if put in the microwave for 1:40!... yes we have this 1:40 down pat by now to...:) It's just the best for 1:40 in the microwave from the freezer. I think it adds moisture (otherwise defrosting on the counter seems to dry it out to much?)

We are looking forward to fresh bread and homemade butter at mom and dad tomorrow just because its Christmas!...

What you see are church bulletins...

After visiting churches for a year we have learned a lot. We appreciate what we had a Spring Garden and we still love the people there. We are so thankful for the many good years at Spring Garden! We struggled with leaving that comfortable setting.

We like the feel of a small church where members share hearts and lives. A youth group where Jordan would connect. We were looking for it. Somewhere we were sure it was there. We just couldn't figure out why it was taking so long to find. We were struggling with the feeling of "this just don't feel right" after each new church we visited.

We still are not certain where the church is that we have in our minds. We still don't know if it is out there somewhere... That "comfortable place" where we can just step in and feel like we have always been there... the one where we are comfortable and feel like most of the members are on the same journey as we are and we just connect easy somehow...Where the worship is powerful and alive and the message just flow and fill us like we need them to each Sunday....

 Sometimes what God has in mind is not anything like we had pictured. Sometimes we just need to pause and say okay God if we can't find "that church we had in mind" then you just put us somewhere where you can use us for your purpose...

After attending Bethesda Christian Fellowship once we thought hmmm Maybe? The worship was great. The pastor brought the message in a powerful way and I thought it really felt like our "Belize" church in a way.

It has been interesting. It has been stretching. It has been scary. It has been a roller coaster but we are starting to realize that the perfect church we have been looking for is most likely not even anywhere out there and so we adjust our hearts and our mind set and be content in letting God place us where he sees fit and we are open to be used for his honor and glory.

That's where we are on our church journey...:) Finding a new sense of "church normal" seems to be taking us longer then we anticipated but we are excited to see what God has ahead for us concerning a local church in 2017...:)


Last night we had a great big feast here with our family!... Justin was working a bit late and Eva was working later to (one of the craziest weeks of a market!) so they didn't show up until after supper but we didn't want to keep the younger ones waiting to start the night... We played games, looked at old pictures and opened up fun gifts...:) Justin and Eva gave Dave and I a pile of our favorite chocolates! As the kids get older the gift giving time gets to be more interesting and also more fun!...:)

The Little ones were beyond thrilled with these motor scooters!! They seem to fly but so far they are only in the basement with them. I hope this will be there new rides to and from the bus!...:) With a half mile long driveway they can get a good ride before school days begin!...:)

This was our fun menu!...

These desserts were both out of the park good!! The brulee got served with fresh raspberries and whipped cream and the mini cakes got served with ice cream! We enjoyed every bite!!

Jordan is always a help in the kitchen and as we work together to make Christmas goodies right now I find it funny... He will look at me funny and with questions in his voice he will say "Are we going to use this!?" I tell him "Yes Jordan, It's Christmas! Just use it and look the other way! Aw and when you eat it once its ready just soak it up and enjoy every bite to the fullest... we will recover in January!"...:)

Today we recuperate from our late night last night. We make more desserts and cover more goodies in chocolate for another party tomorrow. Tomorrows party with my family will wipe out all the gifts from under the tree. We will soak up a fun morning church service with refreshments before service begins, we will soak up lunch and all day Christmas BLESSINGS with my family!
 We are so very BLESSED!!!

Merry Christmas!!!