The Noble Home Chronicles

I haven’t posted in a while. But upon coming across this on Pinterest, I thought it would be a good time to write and post again. Especially because this is so important to me, and I have found it to be so true.

There seem to be so many people who work way too long and hard, sacrificing so much, living in stress, only for but a few moments of happiness within a year. But wouldn’t it be better to not have that big vacation every year or that big luxury item if it meant more daily peace, more time with loved ones, and much more time throughout the year to enjoy the simple things?

We can always have more. We can always have bigger. But at what price?

It is bitter cold outside tonight. 15-16 degrees to be exact. But it is helping to keep the beautiful snow around. And thankfully our house is warm, there is a toasty fire in the little fireplace up in our loft, and I am enjoying a hot beverage to boot.

Today was great. The service at church was beautiful and meaningful in every way possible. And even though the Eagles didn’t win, it was fun to watch and cheer them on anyway. I prepared a delicious corned beef and cabbage with rice dinner. We watched a funny Christmas movie as a family. And our time of family devotions this evening was especially meaningful. A lot of good discussion was had as we were reminded of how we are to love people. And how to love them well—by meeting them right where they are at.

Another thing we were reminded of was how the devil works to slowly divert our attention from where it needs to be. He doesn’t come in and just yank us far from Christ. He comes in and pulls us away ever so slowly. Through small compromises. Through ever so slowly taking our attention away from the Lord. As any family, we have our good, strong days where all is well and healthy. And we slip every once in a while and get a little off track and out of alignment. But as the new year approaches, we are looking at ourselves in the mirror and recommitting to take the steps necessary to try to stay strong in the things of the Lord. Putting Him as our number one desire. And not allowing the devil to deceive us into thinking that anything else is better or more important.

I wish you all a very merry Christmas. I also wish you a Christmas full of the joy, love, hope, and peace that can only come from the Lord. For the Lord is all those things. And in Him all those things are found.

Please tap on the below box, if necessary, to pull up and read all of the information that I posted about what I’ve learned about regarding social media. 🙏🏻

I was so delighted to receive these beautiful Gerbera Daisies from my sweet mother-in-law this afternoon. I can’t wait to plant them out front in the flowerbed, and watch them bloom every year. 😊

Good afternoon! It is a beautiful, sunny, clear day. About 34-35 degrees. And though all is calm outside right now, we’re expecting snow, sleet, wind, and rain on Thursday.

I’m writing to you from the dining room table, and have a delicious cup of Fireside Spice tea to keep me going. It was a gift from Williamsburg, VA and can be purchased at SpiceAndTea.Com if you are interested. 😉

This was a very big year for the family! I will cover just a few highlights.

Stephen is doing well at work. The Lord has been rewarding his dedication, hard work, and faithfulness to the company. He enjoys what he does and is basically family with his coworkers. He has tackled various new responsibilities and has shown that he can be an awesome, strong leader, but also an eager learner as well. He doesn’t like to lead and manage from his desk. He likes to get right into the trenches with those under him. He builds great relationships that way, and they appreciate and respect him for it. When not at work his time and attention goes to projects at home, our pets, and most of all, 7 other humans who all want a piece of him every day. Aside from God, he is our rock. He keeps us going. He runs a tight but crazy ship. 🙂 And he does it with more patience and grace than what we deserve.

I guess I will be next in line. Lol. What can I say? I love my life. I give a lot to our home and to the kids. And I try to be the wife, friend, and helper to Steve that I know I am called to be. I wouldn’t have things any other way. I am very content, satisfied, and fulfilled. With Tyler and Hailey graduated, I only have Anjali, Erick, and Sierra to teach now. In addition to daily responsibilities I enjoy reading, cooking or baking up new recipes, swimming, writing, photography, hiking, arts & crafts, and continuing to learn a bit of Hebrew and German in my spare time. We have had an unexpected school year so far. But we are having a good year. We went on vacation the first week of October. (OBX 2.0!) While down there, my mother became very ill and was hospitalized. Because of this, when it was time to head home, Steve dropped Anjali and I off in Williamsburg and took the rest of the kids home. We had my mother’s car to use while we were down there, and stayed at her house while she was in the hospital as well as when she resided at rehab after that. ‘Till all said and done, we didn’t arrive back home until late October. And while we were so glad and thankful to be able to be there with my mother and to help her in many various ways, it was difficult to be gone for nearly a month with only a week’s worth of OBX wear. Lol. We also missed home and the rest of the family immensely. Thankfully Steve would drive down on the weekends. Not only was that refreshing, but Steve, Anjali and I were able to make some special memories together. By the time we were all back home together again, Steve’s dad was well into his radiation and chemotherapy treatment. And that altered our weekly routines a little as we were helping him and my mother-in-law by driving them to appointments, etc., (But thank the Lord his treatments have stopped now, and his cancerous lump has shrunk significantly!) Anjali and Erick spent two weeks out in Arkansas the beginning of November, and after being back for 2-3 days, came down sick. Not a week later, Richard and I were also sick. Bottom line, we all had COVID. And it took about two weeks to get that all cleared out. Needless to say, it’s been a crazy autumn. And we are looking forward to the rest that comes with the winter season. I keep thinking of the verse that says that though man plans his steps, in the end it is the Lord who orders everything and is sovereign over it all. Even though we had our own plans that didn’t work out exactly according to our plan, God had other things in mind–and everything worked together for our good. 🙂 (Learning that it is ok to let go of the control and trust God is character-building.) 😉

Tyler–What a year he has had! About a year ago now, he decided to start reading the Bible every day and sharing a verse, every day, with the family. His life has been radically changed through this! He has gone from a head knowledge of the Lord, to a heart and life totally surrended to God. He is passionate about the things of God now, and his heart is on fire for the Truth! He works with the YouVersion Bible app staff as a consultant/designer of sorts. And he has started his own podcast, sharing the word of God with others. It’s amazing the change of heart, attitude, thoughts, etc. that happens because of a heart surrendered. Tyler is doing great at work. (GREAT!) He has been promoted a couple of times. (And bought himself his first new car!) He had some health struggles for a few months. But he is better now.

Richard. Goodness. He’s had quite the year as well! He obtained his Pennsylvania driver’s license and now has a car of his own! And over the summer, he and Tyler moved into their new apartment together! It was very sad to have them move out and to not have their daily pressence here with us. But we love where they live and it is fun to visit them there! It’s only about 20-25 min. from where we live. And between us driving there to visit them and them driving back home to spend time with us, we get to see them frequently. 🙂 He is actively involved with the young adults group at church as well as a men’s Bible study group that he has joined. He is growing in so many ways as he allows the Lord to do His pruning thing. 🙂 Pruning is never easy. But we surely become better and more beautiful in every area because of it. Not that we are ever perfect. We have our flaws and weaknesses. But God is faithful in helping us to be more like Him as we walk with Jesus. We are always thankful for his grace and forgiveness. Where would we be without it?

Hailey spent much of the year working at the same company as Steve, Tyler, and Richard. (How cool is that?!) But she has made the personal decision to take a step back (a break) to focus on some other matters, and has also been focusing on her art. She has developed into quite the artist and her drawings are just…wow…and…(sigh.) 🙂 She also creates wonderful resin art now. Wonderful and beautiful objects. On a different note, certain events and people from her past have given her anxiety that she has been struggling with. But she is fighting and working through it through various channels. (Amazing books. Many long heart-to-heart talks with Steve and I. The Bible. A good counselor. Etc.) We have no doubt that she will be able to heal and overcome all that has hurt her. It takes a lot of strength and courage to dig deep, face, and get to the root of what has caused the anxiety or depression. There are a lot of “quicker fixes” out there. Things to just make the pain go away temporarily. But Hailey’s desire is to confront it head on, heal, and move forward. She is a big help at home and we just love her laughter, big heart, and uniqueness.

Anjali–After years of treatment for her scoliosis, it was necessary for her to undergo spinal fusion, this past May. That was a bit of a trial and scary time. But oh the peace we had through it! And she healed so quickly and so well afterwards! It affected us all in different ways. Of course it affected her most of all. But we could all tell you many stories of times throughout the whole ordeal when we knew and felt the Lord carrying us safely and securly through it all! She has become quite the PowerPoint creator!!! Oh my goodness! The PowerPoint presentations that she creates for school projects and reports, as well as the ones she creates just for fun for our family devotions, just leave us in awe! She adds her own illustrations, and her presentations never cease to leave us delightfully entertained and a little more knowledable. Lol.

Erick—Lol—Lord help me. It has been quite the challenge to have him go from the cuddly “I need my mother” boy stage to the independent “I’ve got this and pretty much know it all already” teenager stage. 😛 My boy is becoming a man. There is no stopping it, and it is a good and healthy thing. He is very tall and thin, and eats as if he has a never-ending pit as a stomach. He is very gifted musically, and delights and entertains us on the piano, his acoustical guitar, his electric guitar, his drum set, and his steel drum(s). He also enjoys coding, scripting, programming, and creating really amazing games, worlds, and images online. (A lot of graphic design.) We are so proud of him.

This bring us to Sierra. 🙂 She is our never-ending ball of energy! She is doing very well at her freshman year of high school. She loves to cook and bake and it is nice to be able to leave a meal or dessert in her hands from time to time! She loves to dance, sing, and play sports. Above all, she loves to play games with her friends. With her personality and temperament being just about polar opposite of my personality and temperament, we are ever learning how to use our differences to pull us together instead of allowing them to pull us apart. We are seeing the beauty and blessing of being different. Lol.

That about wraps it up! If you have read down this far, thank you. Lol. 🙂 It has been an eventful year of ups and downs. (I shouldn’t really say “downs.” They have been more like challenges and opportunities to grow us. But yes, there have honestly been some downs as well. But that is normal. That is real life. And that is why we desperately need and desire Jesus. Lol.) But it has definitely been a year of growing closer as a family. We are all a work in progress, we are a family in progress, but our home is full of love, laughter, fun, peace, and growth. And we are forever grateful for that and for each other. Merry Christmas! Jesus, God in human form, came to earth, lived, was crucified for our sins, and was then resurrected. Now He sits on His throne and reigns from Heaven. One day He will sit on His throne and reign from a restored earth. May we daily allow Him to sit on the throne of our hearts and reign in our lives. Oh come let us adore Him!

Sometimes staying at home can be the best vacation. Such is turning out to be the case this weekend, with all eight of us together, and with no other agenda. We’ve grilled out, played board games, frisbee, enjoyed time in our pool, had fun with some pyrotechnics, and more. Life doesn’t get much better than that. I am going to bed tonight full of joy and thankfulness.

January 23, 2022—I just pulled some cinnamon and sugar streusel muffins from the oven for the family to enjoy for breakfast. But while they cool a little, I’ll write a little about this past week.

Right now it is somewhere between 20 and 26 degrees! It has been a bitterly cold week with temperatures down to between 8 and 10 degrees, even without the wind chill factor! (And highs in the 20s!) But we got some beautiful snow out of it. And that makes it all worth it! 😊 😁 🌨 ❄️ (I’ll try to get some snow pictures posted on one or more of our site’s pages.)

This was a big week for Hailey as she started working full time at PDQ! She is enjoying it there. It’s a great place to work, and I am so happy for her. She joins the other three members of our household who already have PDQ as a second home. 🙂 (Four of the eight of us work there now!) It was also a big week for Anjali as she turned 16!!! (Pictures will be posted on another page.) We had fun celebrating with her. She chose to have cupcakes from Lancaster Cupcakes instead of a cake. And boy were they good!!! It was our first time to go to their store/bakery/restaurant and to bring home an order. Lord willing, it won’t be our last! She was hoping for a trip down to D.C. this weekend, as a special birthday outing. But because of some other things that came up, that trip is being postponed. We look forward to a drive down soon. She is especially wanting to visit the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, and the Museum of Bible. (I can’t wait to walk around the National Mall and enjoy some delicious food!) I love D.C.! 🇺🇸 😊

Finally, it was an unexpectedly big weekend for Tyler and Richard! Until yesterday Tyler’s room was up in the loft and Richard and Bud were sharing a room. But yesterday we busted it out and got what will one day be set up as our game room, down in the basement, all set up as a bedroom. And now Tyler and Richard are roommates with their own space down there. They have their own man space, Bud has a room to himself again, and Steve and I have the loft back to use as a library/study/sitting area. Win-win. 🙂

I’ll close now. (The muffins are plenty cool enough to eat by now.) 😉 It was a good week. The first week of feeling nearly 100% again after three weeks of Covid followed by a week of extremely painful tooth infection. Which is now all better. I enjoyed getting out to Hippo Bubble Tea, Weis, Wegmans, Lancaster Cupcakes, and the Disney Store with the kids. And I enjoyed driving three of my Amish neighbors to Hobby Lobby where they enjoy looking around and shopping as much as we do! 😄

With a hot cup of tea to the side, some dark chocolate covered graham cracker stars to munch on, and some beautiful, instrumental Christmas jazz music playing in the background, I’ll write a bit about this past year.

For starters, it was a year of beaches. And did we have a blast exploring some new places! In May we drove down for a week in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. We stayed in Corolla, but enjoyed many other places on the Outer Banks as well. (Duck, Currituck, Kitty Hawk, and others.) What an amazing area of the United States! And the seafood there is second to none! We loved it so much and hope to return as often as possible! We also enjoyed time in Ocean City, New Jersey as well as in Sea Isle City, New Jersey. (I especially enjoyed Ocean City!)

Aside from the beaches, we were able to visit with family down in the Asheville area of North Carolina. We always enjoy our sweet time there visiting with them. The Blue Ridge Mountains are breathtaking. Asheville is super fun to walk. And the food is delicious! (North Carolina just has some incredible food! Lol!)

There were some big milestones and events this past year as well! Our 12-year-olds Bud and Sierra became teenagers! So now instead of the house abuzz with children and teenagers, it is absolutely nonstop with them all being teenagers and young adults now! And now we have six kids under our roof! As I have written a little about before, after corresponding and talking on the phone with him for three years, and then him coming for a one month visit, Richard moved in, in May. Truly it is like he’s been part of the family forever. We love him dearly and he is such a blessing to be around! We can’t imagine family life without him now. We thank the Lord for the pretty amazing ways that He worked in order to bring Richard to where he is today. Maybe we needed us. But just maybe we needed him too! 🙂

There were three graduations in June! My nephew, Johnathan, graduated from high school as did my niece Mylee. But they were not the only ones! Hailey also graduated from high school! There were fun graduation parties aplenty. And it was a pleasure to not only celebrate the graduates, but to enjoy visiting with so many dear relatives in the process. Another great time of visiting relatives was at my cousin’s wedding! What a very beautiful, inspiring, and encouraging ceremony! (And the most beautiful outdoor reception that I have ever been to in my life! The venue…oh…be still my beating heart!) But relatives flew in from Idaho, Montana, Hawaii, and many other places to be there for it. And it was a blessing to be able to hug them and talk with them again!

Steve continues to enjoy his position as one of the directors at PDQ. He is a great leader and has such an amazing environment to work in, as well as coworkers who are wonderful and are really more like family. Steve came down with Covid around October/November, but thankfully he recovered nicely and none of the other seven of us got sick from it! I am still homeschooling, among the other hats that I wear. It is a bit sad being down to three students now. But we are having a great year! My days are full. And I am super happy, content, and satisfied. 😊 In my free time I like to read, write, dabble in digital art, get out into nature, go through Survivor and Amazing Race with Steve, play games and watch movies with the fam, and enjoy all things Jane Austin and BBC with Anjali! (Our latest favorite being Sherlock!) Tyler continues to do excel at PDQ as well. And he has been bumped up to now having his own cubicle and doing computer work in addition to everything else that he does out on the floor. At home his room (or should I say the loft which we turned into his room) is kid central and a hub for their gathering pleasure. Lol. They love to visit, watch movies, and play games together up there. It does my heart good. Richard is now working at PDQ, full-time, as well! 😀 He is an amazing chef, a sweet, smiling soul, and does so much to help out around the house. His desire is to start studying at Lancaster Bible College in the fall. Hailey continues to work on her art. (She is really good!) She plans to be working within the next month or two, save for a while, and then to possible begin art school. She had a big scare this past autumn when what we thought was going to be a quick trip to the doctor turned into a trip to the ER and then a week in the hospital! She was diagnosed with having colitis and is now back to normal. Steve’s bout with Covid came on the tail end of Hailey’s time in the hospital. I then ended up with a non-Covid virus after Steve recovered. All in all it was a pretty crazy month and a half for our family until all said and done. Anjali is doing well. Physically her scoliosis has worsened, by quite a bit, and there is now talk of possible spinal fusion surgery. We will know more in January. She is seen regularly(for a number of years now) at Nemours DuPont Hospital For Children in Delaware. It’s a fantastic hospital. And her doctor is the chief of orthopedic surgeons there at the hospital. He’s wonderful. We know that she is in good hands. And God’s got her back, figuratively and literally, more than anyone. No matter what the outcome may be. And we trust Him. Other than that she loves school. She loves to read. She is learning both Korean and Spanish. She’s taking a college level anatomy and physiology course. She is Miss Academia. (And makes darn good cupcakes and crepes to the side!) 😉 Bud is no longer a little boy. He is taller than me. And he is now taller than Anjali! He does well with math, enjoys building with Legos, he has taught himself computer programming, creates the most incredible worlds through the computer, and has become an amazing pianist in his own right! (Both in composing as well as in performance.) (I love to hear him play!) Sierra is the spice in my life! Lol! She has just started basketball for the season. She enjoys baking. We love doing devotions together, one-on-one, before she goes to bed at night. And she is an energy-packed stick of dynamite! Our personalities are polar opposites. And that comes with challenges both teacher-student, as well as parent-child. But we love each other deeply, And God is using me to grow her, and God is using her to grow me. In ways that I didn’t see coming. But it is all good. And I am thankful for the journey. ❤️

I will close for now. May you have a blessed Christmas season! May the Lord’s spirit be born in you today. 🙏🏻

In about an hour I need to start dinner. But for now I am going to enjoy propping up my feet with a cup of coffee beside and e-reader in hand. It’s been a cold, dark day. I spent a lot of the day helping Anjali, Bud, and Sierra with their math assignments/lessons. And now it’s time to escape to the Appalachian Trail. (If our Great Dane will stop wanting to play long enough for me to take the trip.) And just an update to my previous post, what I had ended up *not* being COVID. And I am back to enjoying full health. 🙂