Camping with Pa

Tis true the Franzenfam has been known to watch Little House on the Prairie and the rumor that we own and watched (multiple times) every season just might be a valid one.

However when it comes doing things like they did in the good ole days well we are amiss!

The kids convinced Pa to go camping last weekend. He agreed, unpacked the tent from the garage and headed out to the backyard to set up camp....



It was a great night creating some “camping” memories and it all occurred from the comfort of our own home. In fact Ma got the whole bed to herself…inside!








Definitely my kind of camping!

A New Year's Resolution from my 4 year old.....

Tori: "Mommy, in the happy New Years I am not going to take naps anymore."

Well that might just be the first broke resolution of 2009.

On a serious note (although I am quite serious about that resolution not coming true), as I arose this morning and contemplated the New Year my thoughts went to the many who experienced a difficult 2008, be it physical hardship, a spiritual battle or financial difficulties due to a failing economy. My peace came as my thoughts veered to the ALL Sufficient One and my gratitude to be in His unfailing care!

My prayer for you is that you would find your strength, hope, patience, faith, joy, love, healing...whatever you may need in the Divine in 2009!

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas from Sunny South Africa

Whatever the sights and sounds of your Christmas, may you feel great embrace in the Father's love for you this joyous time of year!

Merry Christmas from the Franzenfam!

Merry Monday

"A merry heart doeth good like a medicine!"

May you find merriment today and everyday!

Wonderful Wednesday

It is hard to believe that my once stocking stuffer....

is now 4 years old.....



Happy Birthday my precious Victoria. I love you more and more everyday!

The Royal Ball

It was all about Princess "Rora" (Aurora or commonly known as Sleeping Beauty) and her Princess friends today.

Tori invited 10 princesses to join her at her Castle for an Extravaganza fit for a King!


Girls came adorned in pretty gowns and enjoyed some special primping by none other than a face painter named Princess (no joke). Meanwhile Jasmine (she/Skyler, really gets all the credit in my book—what a gem!) helped each princess make their own sash to wear to the ball.


Then it was off for some fun--- Pin the fin on Ariel at her Grotto, Balance with Belle (egg on a spoon race), Find the Right Fit (shoe race), Pass the Poison Apple and Dance 101 with Jasmine.

Complete with sashes, crowns, and princess faces the girls filled their tummies with yummy treats. A royal ball was had by all!


Unfortunately Prince Charming was unable to make it but will be here in time for Princess Victoria’s actual b-day. I told her it will definitely work in her favor as Daddy will give her a Royal spoil for sure!

Here are a few more pics of the special day!

Wordless Wednesday with a Twist

Or if I was going to title this....it might be "Cuppa my size", "Chip off the Old Block", "Cheers", "The coffee bean doesn't fall far from the plant", "Hot Stuff", "My mommy drank a lot of coffee while I was in her tummy and whalla", "Cutie with Coco".........
.......any other thoughts on a good title?

A Mikulosh Snippet

December 5, 2008

6:00 p.m. Cool enough outside…open the doors, turn on the fan and bake some cookies for Santa.

7:30 p.m. Sample cookies—yum! Leave a few for Santa, carrot balls (a unique SA spin on mini-carrots) for the reindeer and a glass of milk.


7:45 p.m. Read, “Are you for Real Santa?” and talk about St. Nick.

8:00 p.m. Kids to bed without as much as a peep!

8:30 p.m. Due to “Mr. Claus” being laid up in Zimbabwe, “Mrs. Claus” will adhere to the stocking filling.



December 6, 2008

6:45 a.m. “Mom, please can we open our stockings? Please, mom…..mom, are you awake?”

6:55 a.m. Elated faces depicting another successful Franzenfam European, Christmas tradition (aka Mikulosh)!



7:00 a.m. “Mrs. Claus” heads back to bed!

Thankful Thursday

Christmas came a bit early this year. Yesterday this gift from Grandma and Grandpa arrived and was installed in our backyard....






.....for endless fun this summer and throughout the year!

What Time is it?.....

Summertime...it's our vacation! What time is it? It's party time!

Schools out- Scream and Shout....

I also can't believe that I not only know the words to HSM but that I blogged them as well. However it is South African Summertime, school is out, it is my kid's vacation and they are screaming and shouting (at each other..hee) with glee!!

Bring on the Franzenfam Summer-Holiday Fun!!

Thankful

Such a great day and season to be reminded of how fortunate we are...there is so much to be thankful for!

Psalms 107
Give thanks to the Lord for He is good!
The message puts it….Oh, Thank God- he’s so Good! (love that!)

It also states later on…."Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!” (enter Israel Houghton- hee!)

I’ve been talking with my kids about how we need to “say so” everyday. Gratitude should be habitual and verbal! Simply put we should spend the rest of our lives saying, “Thank you!”

This morning as I was stuffing the turkey I was listening to Josh Groban’s Christmas album. Yeah, Thanksgiving meal, Christmas music and summer weather…it is a bit wacky! And believe it or not my turkey is from America…JeanieO!

Josh’s song “Thankful” is just so beautiful!

I pray you have a wonderful day and spend sometime verbally being thankful! Say So!

A "Corny" Thanksgiving Treat

A Toilet Paper Surprise

I should have posted this yesterday as I am told it was World Toilet Day. I hope everyone did their part in commemorating this very important day.

I was simply grocery shopping and you all know how exciting that can be. Arriving at the TP aisle, I reached for a 9 roll packet of my favorite TP brand (the only non-abrasive kind available here) when I noticed a “free silky pup” inside. You tend to notice free marketing here as it rarely ever happens. Well isn’t that nice I thought…Tori will love her little TP surprise.

As soon as I arrived home and gave Tori the little puppy I realized my blunder. Skyler would surely want one too….she loves stuffed animals and a yellow lab puppy at that. So later I swung by the store to grab another 9 pack with a free stuffed puppy snuggled inside.

Now Tori and Sky would have matching puppies and we’d have comfort at the throne for sometime…right? Wrong….the new problem being they were not matching, one had a pink pillow and the other a blue one. So the arguing over the “girl” puppy began.

What does one do when things like this arise? Well I am sure the right answer would be to sit the girls down and explain how blessed they are thus they should be thankful and not arguing…etc…etc. Wish I could report that I went that route but I'll save that speech for another time. What did I do…yep, bought another 9 rolls of TP making sure there was a pink roll rendering a girl puppy.

27 TP rolls later and the girls have matching girl puppies, Blake gained a “boy” puppy, there is peace and I don’t have to shop for TP for at least a month. Works for me!

Wacky Wednesday

Turn your Whining into Whoopee..

....Take the 7 Day Sex Challenge!

This might be a good time, while your eyes are poppin' out of your head, to mention this is for MARRIED COUPLES ONLY!

You may have heard this as it is getting major news coverage but what I found amazing is that it made the news here.

Ladies grab your husband because believe me he will want to watch this and Click here for the full scoop!

Rich and I are taking the challenge any other takers?

Favorite Foto Friday

Where Have I Been?

Well the last 2 weeks I’ve been spending a lot of time in this…

Actually that is not my car but I have one just like it. See I’ve been spending so much time in it I couldn’t even get a picture of it! I’m thinking of getting a mini-frig installed for all the on-the-go snacks/meals and I wonder if they could put an espresso machine in the dash board?

I’m definitely learning the meaning of the words “Soccer Mom” minus the soccer part…hee! All the Christmas festivities that puts everyone in a tizzy the first 2 weeks in December in America is happening for us right now. The ending of this month marks the end of the school year and with no T-day celebration it is a mad dash to get the Christmas performances put to bed by Nov 30.

SO

We’ve been to a couple of these…..



School performances and award’s ceremonies for Blake and Skyler. Blake’s theme was “Around the World” and his class represented Spain, thus the hats. See the cute USA class…I hooped and hollered when they came out….give me a break I’ve been cooped up in a car for 14 days, gotta vent when the opportunity presents itself.

We’ve been to a few of these….


Sky’s ballet concerts…2 of them to be exact each 2 hours and 13 minutes in length. Yep I timed the last one. She has one more ballet exam next week and ballet party and than we are done for the year.

So why all the time in the car…because of the bazillion rehearsals (no exaggeration) leading up to each of these performances. I must admit where I don’t enjoy all the running around, we have really enjoyed watching the kids on stage. They definitely take to it well. Such fun memories and if your lucky perhaps I’ll figure out how to upload them (or is it download) onto You Tube. Aren’t you excited?

I soo wish I could take the credit for their evident talent but unfortunately to do so would be a fabrication of the truth (to put it nicely). I guess I will just have to live vicariously through them and cross my fingers that Santa will bring me a rhinestone studded microphone for Christmas.

One more school performance to go…it is Tori’s turn in the spotlight and the church Christmas play (which has another zillion rehearsals). Then just as things are picking up for you I will be sitting back slurping down the eggnog. Cheers to a quiet December!

For an update on recent ministry keeping us busy click here.

Bye Bye, Baby

Notice anything different about my “baby”…

No more Ci-Ci (pacifier)!

I know what you are thinking…"It is about time, she is almost 4." I know, I know but it was the last of the “baby things” and it was pretty fun to watch other people so bothered by Tori still having her pacifier..*gasp*, such awful parents.

She was definitely more ready than her parents were. Our friends Dan and Janell came over with their 11 month old little girl, Miesha and Tori decided she wanted to give her Ci-Ci to baby Miesha. I told her if she did I would buy her the much coveted Ariel dress she spotted in the store. And that was it, end of story, bye-bye pacifier, hello Ariel….



Well my baby may not be a baby anymore but she still is darn cute (and reducing the odds of an overbite is also a plus)!

Our Halloween

I’m betting our day was quite a bit different than yours….

For one my kids did not even know it was Halloween…no marketing, no hype, no witches and goblins, barely even a pumpkin! (Really kinda nice!!!)

There would be no trick or treating. I don’t know something about the large electronic fences with barb wire in front of every house and it being one of the most crime infested cities in the world that puts a damper on little kids adorned as cartoon characters ringing the bell and asking for candy. We call the police when a man wearing a mask appears at the door (gate really).

We did however enjoy some treats! Rolo’s, Nestle mint chocolate bar, gummies and chewy runts were among the choices tonight.

And it doesn’t have to be a special day for my special princess to pull out the “costume”.



So there you have it…Halloween check, onto Thanksgiving!

An Opportunity to be Part of a Miracle

I wanted to take this post and raise awareness of an opportunity we can all have in being a tangible part of a miracle in the lives of our friends Dave and Beth Hasz.

Rich and I went to college with Dave Hasz and spent many years serving together in ministry at Teen Mania. Along the journey we got to know his wife, Beth and for those of you that know her you would agree she is the epitome of the phrase, “Godly Woman”.

When Impact Africa was in its initial stages I was pondering over how to engage prayer warriors with us for this launch and to sustain the ministry. One of the very first people I thought of was Beth Hasz. I took her out for lunch and picked her brain on how to involve prayer warriors like herself in our ministry. Now when we go through times of hardship and doubt I feel the amazing strength of the prayers poured out on our behalf by people like Beth and the many like her.

Some of you may know this and for those of you that don’t Beth is battling cancer and now needs a remnant filling up the prayer bowls on her behalf.

There is another way you can help as well….Beth is seeking non-traditional treatment that is not covered by insurance. You can imagine the phenomenal costs incurred….there has been a benevolence fund set up specifically for the Hasz’s and these medical costs. Please click here and learn more about how you can help today!

Will you join with me in a prayer for Beth right now….

Father, we pray for my friend and your precious daughter, Beth. We pray that she would not become weary in doing good but that she would reap a harvest of health in due time and that she would be up girded by your strength and not give up.

Father, we thank you that by your stripes Beth is healed. We pray that her thoughts would be set on you…that she would see herself well, strong, healed, and chasing her children around in the yard.

Father, I ask that you would show me and those reading this how we can help Beth in a very tangible way. And I pray that as we ignite our faith with the Hasz family through our prayers and finances that they would be fertile seeds that will help bring about a miracle in Beth’s life.

Thank you precious Father!

On the Brink of Forty (still a Christian) & Sexier than Ever

Rich and my first short-term mission trip after we were married was to Ghana, Africa. It does not go down in my history book as my favorite mission trip albeit a good one! First, I got very sick. Second, we heard the clucking than chopping of our dinner most nights, and third leading together for the first time after doing so separately for so many years prior, Rich and I realized we had a lot to learn…thus the selflessness journey began.

The Ghanaian people as in the case of most African cultures are very spiritual people. One of my favorite African symbols originating from the Ghanaian people is the following…..

Its meaning: God Supremacy; he is above everything, and to him we owe what we have.

Good thing I like it so much because my husband recently had it permanently etched into his arm. Some may call it "trashy", others “cool”; I’ve termed it “on the brink of forty”!

My almost 40 year old hubby is sporting a new tattoo and in my opinion he looks sexier than ever. Although I must admit I was a little disappointed he did not get a tattoo of a heart with my name in it….maybe next time.

And for those readers belonging to the slightly older generation…we are pretty sure one can have a tattoo and still be a Christian. Hee!

Update...Here is a photo of the real deal...