Tuesday, July 15, 2008

What We've Been Up To

What We've Been Up To In The Hot Weather

This is our second really busy week and this week is also equally hot as last week. Last week the older girls did Horse Camp. This week they are doing Art Camp in the morning. In the early evening we are doing swim lessons. Natalie and Rachel have a summer cold. I was feeling dizzy yesterday and emotional. I think I was short on sleep.

Here are some pictures from this last weekend to share with you. We had a fun family weekend.










Abigail really is a very happy baby, but she doesn't think much of me trying to take her picture instead of holding her.
 

Friday, July 11, 2008

Been Busy

I've had a busy week

I've had a busy week. You would definitely NOT want to see my house. The older two girls have had day horse camp during the day, then the older three girls have had swimming lessons in the evening (with me front packing the baby). Plus, there were a couple of appointments this week. I am looking forward to the weekend. I'm hoping the kids want to play outside - although it is suppose to be VERY HOT this weekend - by my Northwest standards, of course - meaning it is supposed to hit 90. Luckily, we have a couple of box air conditioners.

Gardening


Jon put up a grape trellis for me. It's not quite done actually - but he did the hard part and put up the posts. I'll get the wires this weekend, and then I will do some pruning. I weeded around my roses earlier this week and added compost and fertilizer at their base. I have four roses I've bought between last year and this year, then four I transplanted that were in a shady spot from when we originally moved here. I treated them for Blackspot several weeks ago and they are all starting to perk up and have leaves and buds. I can't wait for them to all open up and bloom at the same time. I hope that happens this year.

That's about it for my garden escapades, except that I was out yesterday morning before it was hot turning the ground. We have soooo much room here in our "yard" to plant flowers and such. Unfortuneately, it's sooo much space I've had trouble getting to it. The previous owners did bark and fabric ground cover (which I can't stand and am still trying to get out of the ground) and probably caseron'd it, with a few bushes and a few flowers, but not the way I'd do it. I want to get it mostly planted in perennials and have it come up year after year. One of these days, hopefully next year, we'll be building a house and then our yard will be elsewhere, but I like gardening and I don't want to caseron it, so I'm trying to plant stuff anyhow. I've got to live in the here and now. It's been three and a half years of in two years hopefully we'll build, so that's what I've got to do.

Big Girl Abigail

Big Girl Abigail

Abigail is 8 1/2 months old now. I can't believe it! It sure has gone fast. She passed a couple of milestones today. One) is that she said, "hi dada," while waving to her Daddy. Two) a little later she went over to Daddy and pulled herself up on his legs as he sat at the couch.

Such a big girl.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Let's Be Real


I don't know about you, but I love having conversations with other moms where they tell me the reality of their days. I love knowing the nitty gritty - that their house is in disarray, that they didn't get through their curriculum this year, that they only spend two hours a day on actual schoolwork, that they were short tempered with their kids, etc.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm sure some people take me the wrong way. I can remember one particular instance, when I said to a mom, "really you only school two hours a day, now I don't feel so bad." I'm sure I looked happy. I have an inability to hide anything I am feeling.

And I just hope she didn't take me wrong. It's not that I'm thinking, "All right, you do an awful job, I feel superior!" I'm just thinking, "Here is this mom that I really respect, with respectful, obviously smart kids who read really well, and she seems to have it all together, but in reality she is just spending two hours a day on actual schoolwork. Maybe I didn't totally drop the ball this last year."

Well, here is a picture for all of you. I wish I would have thought of taking this picture before I did. My seven and nine year old were away at Day Camp today, and my four year old got some special attention. However, in the middle of that special attention, I did get on the internet and wasn't paying the greatest attention to the progress she was making on her art project. That is until she came to me with globs of paint all over her hands and said, "look at me Mommy". A picture of her hands would have been a priceless picture. The table I take a picture of here, was taken after I already started to clean it up.

THIS is my reality of daily homeschooling:


 

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Happy Day After Fourth Of July

The Fourth Of July

Happy Day After The Fourth Of July. We've been going like crazy lately - enjoying our summer. Here are some pictures from last night's Fourth Of July celebration.





Our Fireworks Display On Our Farm


Roasting Hot Dogs


Rachel watching the fireworks from inside. The loud noises really bothered her.

What We've Been Up To

Here are some older pics below from the last week or so:


My Husband's On The Tractor. My husband's friend Jon is on the hay trailer.


Haying Pic #2.


Black Walnut Log Being Milled


Farm Fun


Under The Trees


Natalie's Silhouette
 

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Thankful For My Husband's Safety

Well, we have been up to a lot actually. But, I want to start today with a cool testimony about God's providence. My husband has been doing a lot of haying - to put up hay for the cattle for the Fall, Winter, Spring. His brakes were partially failing after the second day of haying. So, he had a friend mechanic replace his front brakes. He never had him look at his back brakes.

Well, Jon, my husband, (along with his crew of 3 others) got 35 ton of grass/clover hay up in the barn during those two days. But, Jon wanted 5-10 ton of plain grass hay up in the barn as well. So, this was the third hay day (well fourth if you count the day Jon unloaded 5 ton of hay by hand). He was getting up at four in the morning (which is real early for us, we usually get up at eight or even nine). He woke up at 2:30 in the morning and prayed as he figured God was waking him up to pray. He kept feeling God tell him to pray for the safety of his haying team.

This morning as Jon went to pick up the haying team, his back brakes completely failed and lost all hydraulic pressure. Once he looked at the brakes - there was nothing left of them - no brake pad, the hydraulic thingy totally burst, and the rotor thingy was totally worn away. If that had happened when he had a trailer full of hay, it could have been bad. Here are some pics. The first three are the bad brakes, the fourth is the new brake being installed.

Busted Brakes






 

Strawberries, Strawberries

Strawberries, Strawberries From Our Garden

Yes! We got a bumper crop of strawberries this year, with more to come. The work of the last couple of years is starting to pay off.