Serving at TVC~by Beth

We began serving the church at the Village last Summer/Fall and have been so blessed to have the opportunity to give using music.  It has been a great blessing to us to be there.  Here are a few things we have done.

March 2020~by Beth

We had several highlights this month, including the 3 girls going to state and their team taking second place.

Joel and Kelsey taking Stevie to the Butterfly Estates.

 Joel's birthday party

 Kelsey fixing up Emma's hair and make up for some senior pictures

 Jon, Charity and me working the election March 17, just before our stay at home quarantine.

We also spent a week doing Spring cleaning at home.

January 2020~by Beth

Finally, a post in the same year I am writing it!  January was a fun month for updating at our house.  Between Christmas and New Years we picked up our new windows at Lowes.  We replaced 4 original windows the year before, and these were the remaining 2 original windows.  We had our friend Art come to help with our crew here, and Joe next door finished the installation since he does that for a living.  All the new windows are hurricane rated.  Also, as a Christmas gift to me Jon put chunky trim around our bedroom windows.  I love them.  He also put the same type of trim around the big living room window.

New blinds too!

We also had our garage door replaced along with an opener.  The old one was really in bad shape and didn't lock.  The new one is also rated for wind.  The very same day my washer broke down so we ran up to Lowes and replaced it.  I now have a smaller washer, and also went back to one with an agitator.

I painted it Bravado Red like our old door.

March will be my next post, which means that I am almost current on posts.

December 2019~by Beth

We had a few highlights during this month besides Christmas.  After arriving home from our Thanksgiving trip, I had a week before flying out to Ohio to visit my folks.  Since their years on this earth are perhaps not many, I felt that I should go ahead and schedule a visit.

My sister loaned me her coat, scarf and gloves.

Mom and me by the enormous Christmas tree at the Beechwood mall.

David took Emma to her second dance, and Johanna to her first one.  They had a great time.

Some first this month were Abigail getting her braces.

Abby lighting the Advent candles at both services (RV and the Village)

Johanna had her ears pierced.

We also enjoyed decorating cookies at Joel and Kelsey's house on Christmas Day.  They were so gracious to invite us all over.

Thanksgiving week 2019~by Beth

During the Fall, Emma played soccer again.  Here is just one shot of her at a game.  She really enjoyed the season despite not having enough girls to fully field their team. 

Nathan and Hannah and their family plan to visit Florida annually during Christmas or Thanksgiving, rotating each year.  Our other Texas children come at the same time so we can all be together.  Last year it was the year for Thanksgiving.  Now that they are a family of 7, even with some being free, purchasing tickets is too cost prohibitive for Nathan.  With the needs of the little people it would be a two day trip, each way, which would eat up 4 of Nathan's vacation days.  So they came up with an alternative suggestion of renting a house for a week located half way between Dallas and Cape Coral.  Then no one traveled more than one day.  We all chipped in as we were able and got a 6  bedroom house near the Gulf in Miramar Beach.  Our household and Nathan's household left on the Sunday before Thanksgiving.  We stopped in Tampa to visit our friend Art, who had had surgery at Moffit a few days before.  It got cold on our way northward so it was very chilly when we arrived and unloaded.  A few hours later Nathan's car arrived and we were so excited to see the crew.  Joel and Kelsey had also arrived a bit before us but opted to stay at a hotel.  Katie and Christiana arrived sometime Tuesday.  David and Emma had college classes on Monday (why in the world was that???  Those college board folks should have their heads examined for that) so they drove up Tuesday too, arriving around dinner time.  Caleb arrived next from Gainesville, so it was the shortest drive of us all.  Zach arrived last and flew in Tuesday evening.  Joel and Kelsey were leaving on Wednesday so we had a 2 hour window that morning to do our newest family photo.  It was so bright in the morning and we are so light sensitive that we didn't get a lot of shots where someone wasn't squinting.  But, at long last we finally got my beach shot with denim and white.  It will always be my favorite.  Here are some of the shots from that wonderful week.

Leaving after church on Sunday and packed to the hilt.

Snuggle time the first morning.  Does life get any better?!

The house we stayed in.  We had 6 cars between us all.

We took a trial picture before Zach arrived just in case the beach didn't work out the next day.

Joel's Iphone takes great photos!

Florida's version of a snow man, in sand.

Blikstad family November 2019

Thanksgiving Day feast

We all left Saturday morning, each going our separate ways.  Our car stopped to copy the bulletin for the following day at a print shop along the way.  This is one of our favorite memories.

Spring, Summer and vacation 2019~by Beth

There are a lot of good things happening because of our stay-at-home mandate, one of which is getting caught up on things that seemed to be perpetually on the back burner.  Blogging sure seems to be one of those back burner projects.  It's easy to think one will have more time later.  So on to the subjects of my post.
Last Winter Katie had begun looking for a house.  She sensed that she needed to start thinking about a more permanent place to live, stop losing money renting, and have a sense of putting down roots.  God gave her favor with her bosses when she asked for a very significant raise and got it.  She looked at various houses but one came on the market that was sure to be sold in days.  It needed no work, though it was a bit dated, and was underpriced.  There were 12 offers that weekend, Katie's being one of them, at her top price.  She included a letter about why she wanted to be considered for this house and a picture of our family.  God moved the widow to choose her offer.  For an outside payment the widow also left everything in the house minus her clothes and a few personal items.  What a blessing!!  Here she is in May in front of her house and in the back yard.  The little girls came one day to pick up leaves.  The group shot is in her kitchen.  God is good.

Before we left Nathan's family was blessed by the birth of their first son, Josiah Luke on July 3.

Vacation Bible School, where our children have attended for years, took place the week we left.  Stevie is the only one young enough to go so he was able to attend for a couple days before we went out of town.  July 11, slurpee day, we packed up and hit the road.  Our first stop was the Ark Encounter in Williamsburg, KY. 

Johanna and Emma at Creation Musuem

The landscaping at the Ark was beautiful, just like these girls

 After an overnight in a hotel Jon took Emma and Johanna to the airport in Cincinnati to fly up to Chicago.  They were gone for over a week for a retreat called Journey to the Heart.

 The rest of us visited the Creation Museum, (Jon also took the girls the night before their flight to the Creation Museum) then drove up to my mom's house in NE Ohio.

Just had to have ice cream before we left for Grandma's house

The day we arrived my niece gave birth to her second child, a girl named Emma Reese.  Saw her at one day old.

A highlight of a visit to Grandma's is her pool!

We love attending my Mom's church in Cleveland and timed it to be able to worship there two Sundays.  We left from church the second week to go pick up the 2 girls in Chicagoland.  Then we headed to our son and DIL's house in Irving, TX.  Jon and I had the guest suite in the cottage all to ourselves.  Felt like a retreat.  Hannah has a way with decorating.  We got to an estate sale and there are now some pictures hung above the bed.

What is morning without a cuddle from the little people.  I told them they had to wait for the sun to come up and then they could come over to the cottage.  Such fun!

Project at Katie's

Boys night at the game

Girl's night at Katie's

We left Irving to travel to our conference in Big Sandy.

On our way back to Florida we stopped at a Bucees in Alabama.  It was later in the evening and the place was packed!  It is huge, but the best and cleanest bathrooms.

Our last stop is usually IKEA in Tampa.  Love that place.

Those are the highlights of the Summer.  We began school shortly after arriving home.