"When I was..." Our Littlest Tells of Her Life

Our littlest one is a great story teller! I love to listen to her tell a story of life as she knows it. Her stories usually begin with something like.... "When I was a baby girl in China..." or "When I was a baby and I had lots of bottles..."

Well let's point out, she was never a baby girl in China and she never had a bottle. It's so funny to listen to all the stories she comes up with. I don't even know where they come from.

I feel like I should be carrying a video camera around so I can capture these stories while she's telling them. Her verbal skills are amazing as is her memory.

I think she's taking the real life experiences of people we know and incorporating them into her life. We do know a family who adopted a little girl from China and her cousin does have a bottle. Wherever she's getting the stories they are enjoyable.

A real life event is that she began "manastics" (that would be gymnastics to you and me). She is an amazing little gymnast and listens wonderfully. She has mastered the "Crown Finish." Her teacher was amazed at how well she listens, especially with the crown finish both before and after the moves. She loves her class and even volunteers to take a nap prior to gymnastics so she is rested for the class. Amazing!

She has now mentioned that she would like to be a pink ballerina. I guess ballet is in our future. I'm sure we'll be doing all sorts of fun activities. Our little one has big plans!

Little entrepreneurs

Today the kids worked so hard manning their roadside juice and vegetable stand. We have a surplus of lettuces, cilantro, radishes, and bok choy. The kids eagerly set out their table and had their signs ready for every passing car. They sold juice and lettuces and then started selling radishes and bok choy. They worked so hard and never let rejection get them down. They are awesome sales people. I was so proud of them as they marketed their vegetables and refreshments.

At the end of the day they had over $20.00 in sales. WOW!!! Great for these little entrepreneurs. They were so happy and learned a lot about counting money. They plan to give 10% to their charity of choice. The rest they can spend or save. It's interesting seeing the different personalities of the kids as they are evaluating whether or not they will "spend" or "save."

They are eager to do this job again!

Picture Problems

Hi all,

I'm trying to figure out the photo posting on this blog. Sometimes it's works, sometimes it doesn't. I was able to post one photo today and hope to get more on soon. The garden is growing like crazy and I would love to post more pictures. Bear with me as I go through this learning process.

Proud Mama

We recently finished our AWANA year. I'm proud to announce that our oldest completed his third year as an AWANA Sparky and completed the three Sparky books in that time period. This may not seem like much if you're not familiar with AWANA, but in completing 3 books he's memorized approximately 107 Bible verses, 46 of them were done this year.

He has and amazing memory and we can see the benefits of this memory work. He's gaining more than just Bible knowledge, he's gaining a heart connection with God. How AWESOME!

I'm thrilled with the program. For years I've said that I'd like to memorize scripture. Well this is the answer. I've memorized along with him and love it.

Our middle son just competed his 2nd year as an AWANA preschooler and will go into the Sparky program next year. He's done a lot of memorizing also. So cute!

And last, but not least, our littlest girlie will be able to go to the preschool program next year. Amazing to have them all involved! She's really excited. She wanted to go this year, but had to spend the time with mom. The girl time was good.

Don't Worry Dad

Read at your own Risk...

If you have issues with the discussion of bodily functions skip this entry.

We were on a walk the other day while baby girl was trying out her biking skills. Our dog was straining on the side of the road. He'd walk a couple of feet, strain and squat and walk on. Then the'd stop again. Well, Dad was getting frustrated with him because he'd do it on the road rather than on the side of the road. So as dad was instructing our beloved dog to get on the side of the road, Ari says to him, "Don't worry Dad, he just has Dingleberries." Needless to say, I laughed my head off.

She's on a Roll

birLast weekend we celebrated the many family birthdays that occur in the spring. One of which is our littlest one's birthday.

She's been asking for a bike so she can be like, and keep up with her biking brothers. Well, Papa brought up the cutest little Princess bike for our little Princess. Her new bike is equipped with horn, water bottles, a backpack (or handle bar pack), and fancy handle bar decor.

When she first got on she tried to figure out how the pedaling thing worked. Within the day, she was pedaling like a pro and cruising down the road. It was so cute watching her get the hang of it. She was so interested in watching her feet pedal that she would forget to watch the road. We had a couple near misses toward the ditch, but no accidents.

On her second day out she's cruising so fast I have to jog a little to keep up with her.

I must mention also that she is quite the site to see! She packs up her purse and puts it on the handle bars, she packs her water bottles (2 of them, because you know how sweaty a 3 year old can get), and her My Little Pony helmet. I love it! So cute!!

Scary Moment!

Well, I was just relaxing reading my email and enjoying a moment and through the hole in our sliding screen door bounds our declawed, overweight (close to 20 pounds), indoor cat. I thought he was just enjoying a few minutes on the back deck. Or maybe he was under the back deck.

He proudly pranced in with something dangling from his mouth. That something was a MOUSE!! The mouse was just stunned enough that I was able to run into the garage grab a shovel and shoo our cat away so I could scoop the mouse up and THROW him back outside where he belongs. OOOOOooooooooo YUCK!!! I'm not crazy about the things, especially when they are in our house. Definitely not where they belong.

How our cat managed to catch something that should be much quicker and agile is a mystery to me. No more hunting for the evening. I should have a talk with him, I don't mind him taking care of business, just don't don't bring your trophies indoors.

Schooling In The Garden

Yesterday we did school in the garden. It was such a beautiful day we couldn't stay cooped up in the house. So out the kids went with backpacks on and lunchboxes in hand. We sat in our arbor looking at the mountains and did our Bible time. We read about Paul on a ship during a terrible storm and about listening and trusting God in our tough times.

After Bible we read two books we checked out at the library. One was Pick, Pull, Snap! Where a Flower Once Bloomed, by Lola M. Schaeffer. It showed how a flower forms on a tree or a plant and it is from the flower that the fruit comes. After reading this book we went all around the garden looking at the flowering apple and cherry trees, the flower buds on the raspberries, the flowers on the strawberries, and the flowers on the blueberries. What great science and so much fun too!

After that we read, Who is in the Garden? by Vera Rosenberry. We talked about all of the great plants and trees we have in the garden/yard that are also in the book.

While the boys worked on their math I rototilled an area to plant some more beets. We love beets and I learned of a few new varieties that are supposedly sweeter than regular beets. We planted Blankoma beets which are white table beet, Chioggia which are an Italian variety with light red round roots and bright pink and white alternating interior rings, and Red Ace Hybrids. Some of these we will eat and others we will pickle. What a great treat for all!!

First Harvest of 2006

This morning I went out and worked in the garden and much to my pleasant surprise the radishes were already ready to harvest. I have quite a few so I think I'll be making a salad I recently saw that had pork, radishes, cilantro and a few other things in it. Yum!!

I also planted tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, artichokes and lavender. These plantings were in the 4th of the 4X12 foot raised beds we built. The other three were planted last weekend. I have strawberries in one, the other two are filled with lettuces, carrots, beets, herbs, melons, and more. I'll take some photos as things begin to grow.

What does daddy need for his birthday??

Daddy had a birthday recently and when the kids and I were out looking and trying to figure out what to get him our youngest son piped up, "I know what dad needs!"

I responded, "What does dad need?"

Now remember this little guy is post-Seinfeld and has never seen the show before in his life. He then excitedly replies, "Let's get him a Man Purse!"

Without hesitation I laughed my head off! That's just what our dad needs. We all got a good laugh from that one!

Happy Birthday!!

Be Careful!

It has been a season of accidents lately. Recently two of our kiddos were playing. Middle brother was pulling baby girl around around the wood floors on a fleece blanket. One can usually hear me saying, "Don't swing wide, slow down around the corners."

Well as I'm sure you can guess they got to playing and missed the "don't swing wide" lesson and "bam" baby girl hit the corner of the wall.

Needless to say, we made a VERY quick trip to the doctor's office for stitches in her forehead.

From a mom's point of view, I don't know if there is anything much worse than sitting by your child while they scream for you to make it better. We sat in tears together through this experience.

Then last week, while at a friend's house, our oldest took a spill off a bike and broke his hand.

After it happened, we suspected there was something wrong, but didn't take him in until the following day. He didn't complain about it, but it seemed much too swollen.

Well, Big brother now has a nice short cast on his hand. Never a dull moment!

Little House in the Big Woods

We're working our way through Laura Ingalls's first book, Little House in the Big Woods. I can't say I remember reading the book as a young girl, so I'm really enjoying this experience.

The book thoroughly describes life in the big woods and we have had so many great discussions about how different our lives would be if we were born in a different era.



making butter



The Butter Ball



In Laura's day, one day was set aside for making butter. Ma would churn the cream and make the butter. What a great activity for our family! So the kids and I bought some whipping cream (believe it or not we didn't milk it directly from the cow) and shook it and shook it until it thickened so much it "outgrew" the container we had it in. We then decided to speed up the process and put the thickened cream in the blender (that's how my mom did it). The thickened cream quickly began to form a ball of butter. We then removed the butter from the blender and squeezed out the extra buttermilk and had our own large ball of BEAUTIFUL butter. What great fun!



This week we also read about "hasty pudding." We made our own hasty pudding yesterday following lunch. We made two types. One type was made with corn meal. That's the type Laura had. The other type we made is one that I enjoyed with my Papa and Grandma in the evenings when I lived with them. My Papa said his mom used to make if for him when he was young.



Laura's hasty pudding was made by boiling water and slowly adding cornmeal until it thickened. We let it set covered until it cooled and then we added a little sweetner to it. For my Papa and Grandma's hasty pudding we heated milk on the stove and added flour until it had a thick pudding type consistency. I then spooned the pudding in bowls and we topped it with a little butter, sugar and cinnamon. We added a little more milk to it also.

The Importance of Journaling

Last weekend a friend asked, "What was the greatest thing that happened in the last week?" Wow, what a question! We do so many wonderful activities, but they're gone like a blur as the days pass. I couldn't remember one event from the past week, even though we did so many memorable things.

At that moment, I realized when I write down our memories I'm much more likely to be able to recall them. Lately the kids have been asking me, almost daily, questions like, "Mom tell me what I did when I was a baby. Tell me what I was like." I'm finding that in the process of life, I'm forgetting what I thought was engraved in memory banks of my mind. So for the preservation of our family events I journal in this blog. Then when family asks, "What did you do last week?" We can all look to the blog and recall.

THE WHOLE GARDEN

I worked in the garden again yesterday, busily planting some seeds. I took this photo before I had planted. The focus this year will be on more flowers and less vegetables as we are not able to eat everything that comes up. Last year I canned, froze, gave away, and donated to the food bank and still there were some things that just went to the compost pile because I couldn't keep up.

So yesterday I planted carrots, french marigolds, african marigolds, stock, cosmos (orange, pink, yellow, white mix), teddy bear sunflowers, gaillardia, bells of ireland, and larkspur. I hope to have a nice cutting garden this summer.

Tomorrow we'll level the garden out and make the paths and figure where the grass will grow.

I'm off to find some boards to make raised beds for the strawberries.

How Does My Garden Grow??

After the overwhelming task of maintaining a HUGE garden (about 40X150) last year we decided to scale down and rethink my garden. We had a landscape designer draw a new plan for us. Last fall I moved the trees, blueberries, grapes, strawberries, and rhubarb to different locations as to make room for more grass and paths and less planting areas and weeds.

The whole garden just went through the 2nd tilling and I've been able to plant a couple things. I ended up having to transplant the peas I had planted as I didn't take into account the new grass pathway that is going in.

So today, between rain showers, I transplanted my peas--All 125 of them and put them in new rows. Now I realize that doesn't seem like I'm downsizing, but really I am. I saved one of the sprouts that was a great lesson for the kids to see the pea that split open, the sprout that has grown, and the long roots.

I've also planted some lettuce mixes, beets, radishes and have about 100+ strawberry plants to replant. But first I need to build the raised beds for the strawberry plants. The rhubarb is also growing quite well.

We'll keep you posted on how the garden grows.

Some Photos From Mississippi Mission Trip

As you will see in the photos, the devastation in Mississippi is still very evident. Although the hurricane was over 7 months ago, the landscape, the homes, and the towns are far from being restored. I've realized through these photos how controlled we are by the media. It's an "Out of sight, out of mind" situation. We don't realize that there are still so many people down there who are still without or who have just walked away from everything. The truth is really sobering.

On A Mission

This week my kid's Daddy left for a mission trip to the Gulf Coast. He phoned last night to tell us about his first full day. They went to the home of an couple who are living in a FEMA trailer. They have a shed that needs the roof put on.

I'm not completely sure how this couple got on the list for help, but when the group showed up they were shocked by the number of people who came to help. The older man spoke to the person in charge and said, "I can't possibly pay this many people to help me." The person then responded that it was all taken care of and there was no need to pay. My sweetheart said the man then stood there and sobbed.

When my hub, told me the story I couldn't help but cry my eyes out too. He then said that so many people or organizations have told this couple that they'd be there and then never show. And what impressed them is that this mission group said they'd be there, showed up on time, and are eager to work.

Today they're going to finish the roof on the shed and then move on to other projects. We'll see how God uses this group in the upcoming days.

A Great Good Morning

I awoke to cathedral bells chiming at 7:00 am. No we're not vacationing in some European village. The bells were from Oldest son's alarm clock. Last night he set his alarm so he could awake early and give me a special surprise.

After the bells chimed, he came in my room and instructed me to stay in bed. He had BIG plans.

About a 1/2 hour later he reappeared dressed in a striped button shirt and one of Dad's floral, early 90's, ties carrying a tray with breakfast and a latte. SO CUTE!! What a sweet thing to do for mom!

He's been blessing me so greatly lately. The other night he cleaned the whole kitchen by himself. He washed dishes by hand, dried them, and put them all away. He kept saying, "Mom, you have a really hard job. Just when I think I'm done, I turn around and there's more!"

I'm feeling pretty appreciated today!

Catching Up

Greetings and Happy New Year!

We recently attended a wedding of a friend. It was such a beautiful celebration and a great time to get together with friends.