The Beauty of God's Nature - White-tailed Deer

Divorce

Divorce is such an ugly word. Yes, I have been divorced but would never advocate it for anyone. Within the last few months, I have heard of Christian couples who are struggling in their marriage & may end up in divorce. This is wrong. We as believers need to be different than the rest of the world. We have fallen into Satan's trap and have become like the world in too many areas of our life. We need to turn to the Lord in repentance & begin to shine for the Lord. Marriage isn't always going to be easy but that doesn't mean to give up on it. I believe there is a saying that goes something like "If something is good, it is worth fighting for." God created marriage & found it good; therefore, it is worth fighting for. We as wives need to be helpmeets for our husbands. If we are true helpmeets for our husbands, we will be respectful, encouraging, & a joy to be around. We want our husbands to desire to come home & not dread it. We need to be sure to work on our character & attitude and not worry about trying to change our husbands. That is not our job. It is God's job to change our husbands if God feels that is what needs to be done.

God is Good

As I look back, I am quickly reminded of God's faithfulness. As I travel the road of life, I have found what seems to be valleys & mountains along the way. On the part of the road that is going over the mountain, I see the beauty around me, & life seems wonderful. However, this is , also, the time that is so easy for me to lose sight of God. I have found it is harder to remember to cling to the Lord in the times of good which is why it is so important to take time to fellowship with other believers & be regular in my church attendance. I feel this helps me to keep God foremost in my mind. When things seem to be following the road through the valley, it can seem lonely & difficult, yet I have found these to be the times that I, also, feel the closest to the Lord. These are the times I will cling to the Lord as I see no other way to make it through. These are, therefore, the times I have felt closest to the Lord. As I look back, I can see that those are the times I grew most in the Lord. This is why it is so important to remember to praise the Lord in the good times & what seems to be the bad time. Ps. 63:1-5

Update on life:

Well, it has been just over 2 months since I have blogged. We were able to get a lot down before the wedding. I was able to get my pictures all caught up. Part of the raking was completed while we were gone as well as getting the trampoline down. On our wedding day, the weather was beautiful. We had many friends & family who helped get everything wedding including cousins on Greg's side who jumped in at the last minute to help out. We appreciated all who helped and joined us for our special day. We have to give an especially big thank you to my brother Rob & his wife as they stayed with all 7 kids while we were gone for 10 days. Greg planned a wonderful honeymoon. We spent the 1st night in Mpls. /St. Paul. We flew out early the next morning to NYC where we caught our cruise to Bermuda. It was a 7 day cruise. We were docked in Bermuda for 3 days. The weather was wonderful the whole time we were gone. We had a great time exploring the island together. When we got back to NYC, we spent one night at the Hilton in Time Square. We spent the time there exploring the sights which included a carriage ride around Central Park & going to the top of the Rockfellar. We flew back to Mpls. /St. Paul & spent one more night there before heading home. We appreciated the time away as we knew that once we returned home we would hit the road running & had no idea when we would ever have such an opportunity again (probably not until the kids all graduate from high school.). We got home just in time to briefly visit with my parents as they headed out the next morning for Arizona.

A week later we were spending some time talking over the last week and talked about the fact that we felt like we had been home for at least a month rather than a week. Since we have been home, we have been busy trying to establish ourselves as one family. We are eagerly looking forward to the spring when we can settle into the house Greg had which will be once the addition is done.

We have been busy trying to accomplish school, enjoy the holidays, & keep up with all the maintenance that has needed to be done on the houses or vehicles. We had an enjoyable Christmas as our immediate family was all able to get together the weekend before Christmas. On Christmas day we were able to get together with some extended family which was, also, enjoyable though quieter this year than in past years.

Our Kids

Life in a Nutshell

Wow, a lot has been happening. I have been so blessed with all that has gotten down around the house between my dad & Greg. My electric heat is now hooked up in the frontroom & back entry. I now have a light in the back entry that had gotten hidden. My dad did a great job finding it & getting it hooked up. (What would I do without my dad?) My dad & Greg ran a sidewalk around to the back door. (It was great timing to start going with Greg last spring. He really didn't like the mud to get to the back door.) They, also, got some siding to put on where the garage had been turned into my living room & back entry. Greg was able to get the paint & get in painted before it got too cold. It looks really nice now (yes, Dawn, I will get a picture some day.).

We are now starting the count down until our wedding. It is less than 1 week. I see the week feeling very long as Saturday can't come soon enough, yet it will go very fast. I have way too many goals set for myself (& Greg). I don't know that I will be able to get them all done, but I am sure I will try. Greg is being very patient with me. The plans for the wedding really doesn't require a lot of my attention. However, I want to get Holly's stuff packed up from her bedroom as that is the bedroom Greg & I will use. I am hoping Heidi will come to pack her stuff. We got beds moved around this past Saturday but still need to get the boxspring over for our bed. I need to make it through the week with school. I would like to finish getting the photos put in the albums. I need to get the boys bedroom ready, & I would like to get our bedroom organized. Then, if that isn't enough I could always dream big & get the home videos all caught up, but I KNOW that isn't happening. Of course, sometime before it snows it would be good to get the trampoline down & the yard raked. We have a "ton" of leaves. If things go right, maybe the kids can do those last too things while we are gone, but I am not going to be really hopefull on that either. I suppose sometime in there I, also, need to pack. I am very thankful that I don't have to pack the kids. That will make life easier.

Engagement

I am very excited to announce that I am engaged to Greg Will. It has been a very different engagement as we have been fairly confident that we would be getting married. We went into this relationship with that intent though with the understanding that we needed to get to know each other better. Neither of us were going into this relationship blind & knew there was a lot that had to be considered & worked through. When you have 9 kids between you plus one son-in-law here on earth, there are a lot of logistics that had to be thought through. It definitely hasn't been all easy, & we know that we will have some rough times. However, God is good, & He will see us through. Sunday, Sept. 7th we met with our pastor & his wife as there were some issues that we felt we needed to discuss with them. Sunday, Sept. 14th I found out that Greg had a peace about our getting married before we even left the pastor's house on the 7th. We begin to talk more seriously about marriage. Monday, Sept. 15th we actually set a possible date for marriage which since then was changed. Wednesday, Sept. 17th Greg went to my parents to ask for their blessing. After that, he came up to my house along with my parents, pastor, & pastor's wife to tell the kids. He told the kids that we were planning to be married in October. Then, he turned to me and said I could still say no and went on to ask if I would marry him. Of course, I said yes. This last week has been very exciting & busy trying to figure everything out. Greg needed to get the details of our honeymoon done before we could officially set the date of the wedding. We are getting MARRIED Oct. 18th @ 11:00 am. We are planning to be gone for 10 nights on a honeymoon which will be amazing. Figuring out a honeymoon with so many kids to think about isn't easy. I praise the Lord for my brother & sister-in-law's willingness to step in & watch all the kids for us (7 kids). My parents, Heidi (my 2nd oldest), & Tiffany have, also, willingly agreed to help with the kids since we will be gone so long.

God is amazing. If you would have told me a year ago that I would be getting married, I would have thought you were crazy. I didn't even think I would be seeing anyone. Greg is a Godly man who strives to be sensitive to the Lord's leading. He is a wonderful father, & I feel blessed to have him in my life.

What our family will look like

Family Reunion

Family Picture with my parents

So...I haven't posted in quite some time and have had a few people comment on that so decided it was about time to post something. Aug. 15-17 we had our first Weinert Family Reunion here in our home town of Bemidji, MN. It was great to have everyone but 2 of my nephews make it. (They were greatly missed.) There was a total of 46 family members and 3 special guests who stayed at the camp. It was a wonderful time of fun & fellowship with all. Some of the family had never had a chance to meet while some of us had only meet briefly. Therefore, this was a great chance to get to know everyone. We were all able to stay at a camp and have our meals catered so that no one was stuck in the kitchen other than to make coffee which was a must have for our family. Over the weekend we had the opportunity to play games (indoors & out), have a laughter filled talent night with some touching moments as well, have some canoe races, & just some great times of fellowship from joking around & laughing to some talks centered around our wonderful Lord. We ended the weekend with a family church service with my oldest brother bringing us a heart felt message about how thankful we should be for the heritage we have and a reminder of what we were taught growing up (Labor, Live, Love). We are blessed to be going on the 5th generation of believers. What great example our grandparents & parents have been for us. After my brother's message, we had the opportunity to share in communion together led by my dad. To top the whole weekend off, my church came out for a baptism service which included my daughter Sharmane being baptized by her cousin.

Volleyball fun


Sitting around the campfire

Smores

Canoe Racing

Baptism