A white Christmas!

How often do we get white Christmases in Maryland? Every couple years? We were so excited to see it snowing while at our grandparent's home in Northern Virginia!

Well, the Normolian Christmas was a little different this year. We had the opportunity experiment and celebrate Christmas on December 15th as a family. On Chirstmas Eve we went to our Grandparents on Mother's side of the family, then on Christmas day we visited with Daddy's family.

Here are some pictures, enjoy!



A mug. I love it!




Boots!

A glow lamp candle
Chistmas is all about when the Light of the world came to the world

Cousin Ricky with Luke's Christmas gift, a perplexus! (and us in the background marveling at how a seven year old's toy can create 'wows', 'mans!' and 'aaaaws!' out of a twenty-some year old young man!)

Tabor opening gifts

 
 



Family Christmas openings

Luke opening his present

Excited Nate with his new clothes!

Chirstmas time is almost here!

Chirstmas lights, piano recitals, cookies to bake, songs to learn, places to go...
Boy, things are getting overwhelming, my feet are getting achy!

Lo, a voice of song!

"Joy to the world the Lord has come,
Let earth recieve her King!
Let every heart prepare Him room,
Let heaven and nature sing..."

Jesus is the reason this season exsists, why I exsist!

This season, may you rest in Christ's love,
Rejoice in His birth,
Abide in His hope,
Love with His love,
and celebrate with great joy!

Welcome into our hearts, Lord Jesus! Make your home and place amoung us. Be glorified and exalted in our midst and may we be drawn into your presense with every passing breath we take.

 

 The Mountain Peaks at Dawn

As in the early morning

The snowy mountain peaks

Look up to greet the dawning,

So my heart longs and seeks

To see thy face

Here like the peaks at sunrise

My mind to thee I raise;

Clothe me with glory likewise

Make me to burn with praise

In love’s attire

Of flaming fire.

 

In robes of snowy whiteness

They greet their lord the sun;

I too await thy brightness,

On winged feet I run.

Give, now we meet,

Communion sweet.
 

~ By: Hannah Hurnard

 

 

Let's go and sell our products!

    Our friend Mrs. Summer Wilkes was very kind to provide us with a booth at a botique held at her church. How fun to get things ready and prepare our products for our first "real business" outing for our family:) We sold soaps, candles, salves, and creams. We are so grateful for the opportunity we had to get our names out and make some money!

    One thing we really apreciate about having a family buiness is that is so bonding! Working, learning, and selling things together is a hub for fun and encouragement. Family is such an important thing in this day and age that the more we can be together, the better! I (Patience) personally love getting together with my syblings and endevoring to encourage and strengthen their relationship with the Lord. If God didn't make a family to love, cherish, and encourage each other, what did He make it for? So we really appreciate the opportunity to work together and be a light in this way....
 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! ~Psalm 133:1

 


  

Kitten Dilema....

We had a kitten, then  we got another, then we got another! Then one day, a helpless kitten wandered searchingly into our yard and we rescued it from it's hunger; we named him Sebastian. After that, we found that Sebastian belonged to a neighborhood litter and was born unto two undomesticated parents. Soon after, we found Sebastian's sister.
So that makes 5 cats for the Normoyles?
Yep.
In how many weeks?
About six.

Well this got Daddy a bit nervous. Do you know how much rabies vaccines, cold and flu care, and all the other things cats need cost? How much have we already spent on furry loveables? (Maybe we should listen to the pineapple story again):)
Sadly, its turns out that one of these adorable critters has worms. So we gave Sebasian's sister (whom we named Lady Pink) to the humane society....:(
O well for us. Yipee! for Dad.
So now we have four cuddly dubbly kittens to play with. We are so grateful for what God did when He made kittens. What a sense of humble cuteness is there when they climb shyly into your lap.
Thank you Daddy for graciously allowing us to have these adorable pets in spite of allergies, vacines, and extra cleaning! You are definately a gracious and Godly man!

 

 

The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage. ~Psalm 16:6

Belated Birthday Blessings

Dear Nathaniel, We love you so very much and are praying heaps of icecream and chocolate chips upon the 5th year of your life. Not only do we desire to see you happy and enjoying life, but also, we pray that you will grow much in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior this year. May you know His love and love Him. Finally,
Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. (1Timothy 4:12)
Happy Belated Blog Bithday Brother!Love,Your blessed family 

                       Happy Birthday Patience
       ~Thank you Patience for being such a example to us. Have a blessed year. Your 16th!!!!

Answers to a Human Predicament

They fly loudly into your windows...

•  Wander aimlessly (and noisily)  in your back yard
•  Zoom heartlessly into siblings and friends
• Invite themselves to the warm confines of a pleasant home with out welcome
• Decorate your windows with the polka-dots that are now in style

What are they? Stinkbugs. Is there any remedy? Can we do anything to at least temporarily resist the strong forces of the Stinky Kingdom? Is there a reasonable answer????
Yes and yes again! Do not lose hope, Stinkbug Exterminators are here! Made from a water bottle, pop bottle, Fruit2O bottle, (etc.) they are easily made and accessed. Simply razor blade the top off the bottle and tape the top  into the bottle (a shown in the pictures). This makes it impossible for the stink bugs the crawl out. You will find yourself gleefully gathering your guests with renewed enthusiasum.

There is another answer also. Do not forget that the Lord is strong on the behalf of those who trust in Him, ask God to remove the stinkbugs and be persistent in prayer. Use His name(s) and pray in faith. Trust Him to make Himself glorified in your life.
In all of our lifes, we will have stinky situations that are not pleasant. The Lord puts trials and hardships in our way to help us grow and lean more on Him. We have a choice. Will we chose to accept them as stinky and unwanted, or will we thank the Lord that He loves us and is doing this for our good? "I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well." Psalm 139:14
Thank you Lord for stinkbugs and all the lessons you have taught Your children throught these insects. Help us to be creative and use what you have given us to serve You to the fullest of our potential. In Jesus Name, Amen

 

The Normoyles have kittens!

                                                               Sunny and Simba

Simba

Sunny

Yummy Yummeis!

Patience, Tali, and Tabor were in the kitchen making chocolate covered garlic (its supposed to be good for your memory:). As we were nearing the end, we noticed that we had leftover chocolate! So Patience mixed together a couple ingredients and covered them with chocolate. Yummy yummy!

Nutri-Treats

Ingredients:

• About 1 1/4 c chunky peanut butter of peanut butter w/ finely chopped nuts (3/4 c PB & 1/3 c nuts...make it look like chunky peanut butter)
• 1/2 c cranberries
• 2T of a seed( like flax or sesame seed)
• 3-4T wheat germ or oat bran (flax seed meal works too)
• 1/4-1/2c hemp seed
• 1 1/4 c+ melted chocolate chips

~ Make a base of peanut butter and nut mixture. Mix in cranberries and seeds to a good consistency. Add wheat germ if you need a thicker 'dough'. Scoop out 1T of mixture into a bowl of hemp ad roll to cover. Roll in chocolate or spoon chocolate over ball. Decorate as desired and place in freezer of fridge to dry! They are like healthy chocolate treats. Enjoy and let us know what you think!

Fun....but thought-provoking

Isaiah 40:28-31

"Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the Lord, the Ceator of the ends of the world, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and ot faint."

Wait: Hebrew "kaw-vaw"

 To bind together (with Christ's death, burial, and resurrection); To intertwine (God's truth of Romans 6, 7, and 8 with our mind, will, and emotions); To expect (that temptation will come, and be ready to quote Romans 6 and 8 when temptation does come).
~Definition of 'wait' from The Eagle Story published by IBLP. www.iblp.com

All of a sudden

All of a sudden....

we cannot flip our lights

flush the toilet

cook our food indoors

take a warm, refreshing shower

hear from our friends

have air conditioning...

      And all the other things that result from a power outage. What happened? Well, here in Maryland we have been having record heat (104-105 degrees) and a big storm came through, sweeping across the U.S. from the west and leaving hundreds of thousands in our with our electricity. This was a very unusual storm because there was so much lightning (due to the heat). My parents commented that we would easily be able to read a book all night, with out electricity!

My family had our electricty out for 5 days, so to cool off we bought some fans...












Made use of our swimming pool....
And (not nessesarily part of cooling off) we made jelly on the grill. New adventures are always exciting. And this one was yummy=)

The electricity came back on on the 4th of July (while we were swimming:). We went to Sugarloaf  Mountain and watched fireworks on the mountain. GLORIOUS! We had the pridvelege of bringing along our friends, the Windsors. Mr. Windsor has a strong interest in meteorology, soooooo, when the lightning started drawing our attention from the fireworks, we had a meteorologist on our hands! Thankfully the lighning was well enough away so that it would not hurt us on the mountain. ( And by the way, the lightning was REALLY neat that night. Because the sky was hazy, the lighning was red! How often do you see red lighning?!) We sang God's praises along with some patriotic songs on the mountain.
When we returned home, all of a sudden.......
Our hearts burst with praise when we didn't have to:
Go buy gas for the generator
Remember to bring a flashlight when getting Something from the cold storage room
Go outside to grill in the heat
Relocate fans when they got in the way.
Fill our bathtubs to flush our toilets

Psalm 103:1-2

A Psalm of David. Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:

Summer is Here!

Summer is here with all of it's joys. Today, we moved rocks, weeded, put up herbs, and cooked. We had fun. It was a blessing to see the garden growing and realizing how much produce we are getting and are going to get this year. Lots of thyme. I could say we have so much thyme on our hands!!!

 

Hot days just arn't your thing? Well the Normoyle family has come up with a new and inproved solution! Tea pops! Perfectly refreshing, rejuvinating and healthy. Tea pops is our family's new favorite treat.
How to:
What I did first was made mint tea.
Pick a plentiful bunch of spearmint from your mint patch or use a mint tea recipe with mint tea bags. Next, cut the mint up into a pot on the stove. This will help the flavor to come out.
Pour water over it til it covers.
Let cook for about 15 minutes on med-high to high or until you smell mint!
Strain and add honey to taste.
Add ice and water to taste and pour into dixie cups with your favorite fruit. We used 1/2 a cabob stick but any thing will do.
Lastly, freeze and enjoy!
~Patience

The Normoyle children would like to thank our Father for his good godly example for us.

 Happy Father's Day Daddy!!

"Children's children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers. "

Proverbs 17:6