Plans For The Year(God Willing)

-More Prayer Time

-Keep On The Schedule

-Practice the Piano More Faithfully

-Lose Around 20 lbs

-Sew at least 1 outfit and make some
curtains for the girls' room.

-Print off more pics

-Paint at least one room

-Go door knocking at least once
a month once the weather is nicer.

-Finish at least 4 more quilt squares.

-Get up to 30 minutes of walking 4 times a week.

-Get Caleb potty trained:)

-Do some canning

-Invite one family over for a meal each month.

-Pray for at least one person to be saved this year!!!

-Have a monthly Ladies Bible Study starting the first Mon of Feb.

Here it is(Just a little late)

“From Our House To Yours”

The Holloways 2009

What a fantastically busy year we’ve had! Our year started at Scott’s parents in Alberta. On January 15^th we headed to our new home in Kindersley, SK, where the Lord was leading us to start a new church. Our big steel box arrived before us and was unloaded by family and friends. Much faster than we imagined! Scott was heading back to work for his dad on the Monday, so we unpacked almost everything before he left and had the house looking mostly normal before he left. Our life over the next month included weekend visits from Scott and one more week spent at his folks. We traveled several hours to Swift Current and Saskatoon to attend church before holding our first services at the Elks Hall on Sunday, March 29^th.

In March we found out that the Lord was blessing us with a 4^th child! We later found out that Elyssia had been praying for a baby sisiterJ The next couple months included extreme nausea for me, a visit from my mom and our first Evangelist! Getting to know people in the community better and fitting Dr. visits in between.

The summer just flew by with family visits, organizational meetings, door knocking, etc… We headed to Scott’s folks for Canada Day and Scott performed his first wedding for his cousin on the 4^th of JulyJ. At the end of July we welcomed old friends and new for the organizational meetings and saw a good turnout for each night of the meetings. We’d sent out 16,000 John and Romans a couple weeks beforehand and there were about 60 at the meetings each night. Praise the Lord! Most of the doors in Kindersley were knocked on during the week as well. We’ve been blessed to have several articles written for us by the local newspaper. For free! Even if people haven’t visited, they know we’re here and what we believe, thanks to literature and articles circulated among the community.

Before I forget! There was another addition to the Holloway House this summer. Elyssia earned her puppy and named him Sam, the explorer dog, Holloway. He quickly grew into a LARGE puppy and has made a good, though messy, watchdog.

In September we made several visits to the Hospital with regular contractions, thinking that the baby was coming. God’s timing is best and Kiersten Blythe Holloway was born on Sat, October 3^rd at 11:39 pm. She was 13 days early, weighed 7lbs, 2oz and was 20 inches long. So far she is a sweet, contented baby. Her siblings adore her and Elyssia saw God answer her prayers once again.

Scott has been extremely busy working as a carpenter, pastor, husband and father. He has many “hats” and often has to change clothes 3 times in order to be at each one throughout the course of the day. In Spring he managed to plant 1,000 seedlings and keeping them watered was quite the task. We had a fairly decent garden as well and enjoyed eating most of it fresh. An early frost killed some of it, but the Lord blessed and we’re thankful for what we had. Scott has been doing Bible studies and hymn sings at Caleb Village and helping out at the legion hall in town. He was able to put up a fence for them this summer and helped with the Remembrance Day ceremonies this fall. The Lord has given him the energy to deal with it all and this is only our first year of ministry. Somewhere in the middle of all this we’ve been blessed to purchase a church building in town. It’s been such a blessing to have our own facilities and stay around for fellowship whenever we want toJ.

As for me.- Hmmm…Life has been busy trying to keep up as wife, mother, secretary, pastor’s wife, daughter, friend, etc… I’ve definitely felt the Lord helping me to change in so many ways. Being able to give more to others, even when my physical strength is low. There were many times where we looked at each other and felt that we should be exhausted, but instead we were excited and energized because of seeing what the Lord was doing with us and the town of Kindersley. There have been several new things that the Lord has helped me to do, including feeding a large crowd several times in one week. I was thankful that I had my mother-in-law there to help me thoughJ. Making cinnamon rolls and pies from scratch has also been a neat experience. I find that I’m becoming more and more of a farm wife these days, although we don’t have all the farm animals. Just the way I think and cook sometimes. Homeschooling Elyssia has also been a new experience. There is a good support group in the area that I was blessed to attend and get some encouragement from. Within 2 weeks Elyssia had started reading full books and she’s like a train that’s been set on course and there’s no stopping her(for now anywayJ). Kiersten has also been a big adjustment. Okay, she’s small, but figuring out how to do errands, etc with 4 instead of 3 has been a bit of a challenge. Sometimes it requires 2 carts if we’re planning to purchase more than a couple items. I sometimes feel like everyone is staring, perhaps because the kids are so close in age, but I guess that that’s part of being a parent. I’m just thankful they’re not staring because the children are throwing tantrums or something like that.

Elyssia’s Update: She turned 5 this October! She’s a big help to me with the baby and her brothers(although they don’t always appreciate her helpJ). Her latest interests, other than books, are sewing, pet shops and baby sister.

Garrison’s Update: He turned 3 and he’s growing like a weed! He loves to help his dad build stuff and go on adventures. Eliminating his need for diapers has been a huge blessing for all of us. He currently loves books, moose, tools, G.I. Joes and tells us that he wants to be a Mountie Preacher when he grows up. He also says frequently that his name is “Gary” because his friend Josh calls him that. I think that his Grandpa Prisk would have liked that.

Caleb’s Update: Hmmm… well update is a good word for him. He’s always climbing “up” on something. He also falls off of stuff frequently, but that’s beside the pointJ. He has a limited vocabulary, but still manages to let you know what he wants. He currently loves”his” baby, Legos, books, and anything he can steal from his sibling, especially if it involves food.

We’ve settled in quite well now and the goal for the time being is trying to stay organized amid the busyness of this new life of ours. Having a schedule for the kids helps a lot. So many new experiences and friends in such a short time. One friend said that I must be writing a Christmas “novel”. That’s a good idea for the futureJ. Well, that about wraps it up for us. We hope that everyone else has had a productive and blessed year. May you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love, The Holloways

Scott, Meleah

Elyssia, Garrison,

Caleb & Kiersten

A Relaxing Blog

I'm rather enjoying the fact that this blog isn't public yet. There's no pressure to blog any more than I feel like doing, or have time for:). The past couple of weeks have been extremely busy. First it was lots of baking, delivering cookies, cleaning for the expected company and planning what to do for the Christmas Eve Service. The kids were up and down more than usual emotionally, but doing okay behavior-wise. Some days are harder than others trying to find ways to meet each child's needs and desires through out the day when they're so diverse and they all want my attention at the same time. I was definitely looking forward to the extra hands of family coming at Christmas. My Father-in-law, mother-in-law and Brother in law, Preston arrived at lunch time and Kirk arrived at dinner time on Christmas Eve. We packed up the kids around 6 and headed to town for the special service. It was about -32 C and I wasn't sure there were going to be many out. Surprise, surprise, the Lord blessed. There were 38!!! 8 first time visitors:). Some from out of town, some regulars, some family, but all appreciated. After the service we went downstairs for snacks and fellowship. Most stayed and we ended up leaving around 10! Garrison fell asleep on the way to church and slept the whole time, and even went to bed when we got home. Our church people surprised us with a love offering, which was a huge blessing considering that Scott's unemployed carpentry wise for the winter. The Lord has been providing in many ways like this and we're SOOO thankful. Getting extra time with him isn't so bad either:).
Christmas morning started a little early, but we told the kids no presents til 7. Elyssia updated us about every 10 minutes what time it was. Can anybody tell that she was excited:). There were books, clothes, homemade marshmallow guns, ornaments, canned jams, homemade candy, toy cars, an electric blanket, walking sticks, explorer hats, homemade chess board, jelly bellys, pink tool sets, and much more under that tree. Very fun seeing the kids opening things and being surprised by our own gifts. I think the best surprise was when Scott was given a 22 by his parents!!! He's been wanting one for a couple years, but has been very patient since we didn't have the money for it. What a blessing to see the Lord use his parents to give him the desire of his heart. On a sad note, we received a call telling us that Scott's child hood pastor, Gordon Ironside had passed away. His funeral was set for Jan 4th and he requested that Scott preach at it. So, Bro. Dave Webster offered to pick him up at the Kindersely Airport and fly him to Hanna, Alberta, so long as the weather is cooperative. Much prayers for any at the funeral that may be lost. The rest of the family time was spent reading, playing, cooking and building a snow fort outside. I enjoyed a bit of a break as the brother in laws showed off their cooking skills. We had homemade pizza, potato/bacon chowder, empanadas, chicken fajitas and sopapillas(sp?), refried beans, rice, ginger beef and sorbet, plus a white chocolate mousse. Mmmm, I think I'm gaining weight just thinking about it:) It was good and there are many leftovers in the freezer too. Double mmmm. On New Years Eve we had roast beef and potatoes. The family all left on New Year's Day and made it safely back home, despite the -30 weather. Caleb learned a couple new words while they were here, including eggs, jelly beans, grandad, and a few other phrases became discernable. He seems to have stopped saying, "bad dada" which did make us laugh, but seemed to come out at the oddest times. A couple times at Church:). He also changed it to bad nana, but would use those two phrases on anyone whenever he was not getting his way:)
Elyssia's reading just keeps getting better and better. She's also into sewing and made nana a little purse for Christmas. She received lots of craft, sewing, knitting and cross stitching supplies for Christmas too. For those Looooong winter days:). Scott is doing science experiments with them. The other day it included making bubbles. Caleb turned the lid while we weren't watching and drank some of it. Yuck!!! He didn't like that taste, but wouldn't drink anything to wash it down, so he was wiping at his tongue for quite awhile. Doesn't seem to have curbed his curiosity any.
We've found that Garrison is really good at memorizing things and repeating. Including an entire Dr. Seuss book!!! Surprise, surprise:) He's doing better staying dry through the night now, which is another big blessing. There's definitely enough laundry without adding bedding every night or 2.
Kiersten is growing like a weed. She got a bit spoiled with all the people to hold her, but is starting to settle down again. She's my smiley girl and we all love to hug and kiss her while she kicks and coos:). Too bad baby days are so short:(.
I gave both boys a haircut yesterday. A little cold for the buzz cut, but what else do you do when they squirm and fuss. Caleb did pretty good, but I found that I was cutting a bit unevenly, so ended up taking it all off. He's still our cute, mischievous Calebee. Garrison's is a bit longer on top, but has some uneven shades, since he insisted that I use scissors. At least it's done with for at least a month or so:)
On a sad note, a dear friend of mine passed away this morning. She was a member of the church my dad pastored. They were one of the first members and she always sat behind us and requested hymn 44. She was very funny and loved to hug and kiss us. As I got older she was my primary Sunday School teacher and then a close friend once I became a young adult. She will be greatly missed, but I'm thankful that she won't have to suffer with cancer anymore. She's also up in Heaven and I wonder if she'll give my dad a hard time for getting there before her:) Many prayers for her family right now. It's NEVER easy to lose a loved one, even when you know they're in Heaven.
Well, I really should finish up this novel for now. I wrote a Christmas letter this year. Our first one:) I might post it on here sometime if I remember. Not sure if anyone is reading this. Sorry for the lack of pics. It takes a bit more to load them here, so it won't be the main focus of the blog. Happy New Year Everyone!!!