A Few Snapshots From Last Weekend . . .

Last weekend was a busy one for us, but thanks to a glitch with my computer and uploading pictures, I haven’t been able to post about it until now. But, I have managed to outsmart my computer for once in my life . . . heh, heh, heh (evil scientist laugh) . . . when even the resident tech go-to support people couldn’t solve the problem. It just goes to show you that if you fiddle around and have a little patience you can beat it at it’s (the computer’s) tricks – either that or completely crash it – in which case, the computer has the last laugh. But, not this time. Thank you for indulging me as I digress.

Anyway, like I was saying, it was a busy weekend for us last weekend. Friday night was our annual Reformation Day celebration at church. Costume opportunity #1. Everyone is invited to dress in medieval attire, which means six costumes around here. Thankfully many of these are worn and handed down year to year, and we only ended up having to purchase 2 new ones this year, which wasn’t too bad – especially since we waited until the last week and they were already marked down 30%. Here are a few snapshots we took before leaving home ~

We spent the evening enjoying a fellowship meal, hearing a short talk on the life of John Calvin, and, after the costume contest, the children ran around the church – attending various booths to play games that each, in some way, taught about Calvin’s life. Jeff and I ran the “Authority of the Bible” booth, where the children had to throw balls and knock down every book (cardboard reproductions) except the Bible. It was lots of fun, but I was so caught up in the events that I forgot to take pictures! So, these will have to suffice – and the older girls looked so lovely in their long medieval dresses, too! Oh, well, maybe I’ll do better next year!

Costume opportunity #2 -the next night we attended the Fall Festival that we have been going to for many years back in our old town. It is full of games, bounce houses, ponies, and candy. It seems to get bigger every year and is sometimes a lesson in patience as we wait in line with the crowds for each event. This night required 5 more costumes (now you know what I spent the previous week doing). I managed to get more pictures this night ~

Our group included three clowns, a cheerleader, and Elizabeth Swann -

We played Limbo . . .

Baseball (or should I say “air-ball”?) . . .

Decorated cupcakes . . .

And pet the animals in the petting zoo . . .

When we were sufficiently worn out, we headed to my mom’s house (an annual tradition) and the kids dumped and sorted their candy – always a highlight of the evening – especially since the rest of us can sit down and relax finally!

Thanks for visiting! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend – ours is gearing up to be another busy one, but at least no costumes are involved this time!

Blessings,
Nancy

A Trip to the Pumpkin Farm

Monday found us with a beautiful Fall day just perfect for our trip to the Pumpkin Farm. After our morning studies and a quick lunch, we packed in the van and headed for the farm. It was a lovely drive, down country roads lined with farms and Autumn trees.

We arrived at the Pumpkin Farm and were greeted inside the front gate by many friendly (and hungry) goats. Thankfully, they were behind fences! We had been given cups of feed when we entered and the children started feeding them while I started taking pictures -

In addition to the many goats, there were also sheep to feed -

And a few Longhorn steer, too – in classic Texas style -

Next we took advantage of the abundance of Fall decorations and pumpkins around the property for a few posed pictures -

We spent some time climbing on the hay bale spider, one of several neat hay bales around -

The next part of our adventure was the hay ride, always lots of fun -

Finally, it was time to hit the pumpkin patch and pick pumpkins. Each person was allowed to pick one small pumpkin from the patch to take home (part of the entrance fee). It was fun wandering around the field looking for the ones we wanted -

We did a little more socializing with the animals before leaving -

And took this group picture – they really did have a good time, even if they don’t look like it! ( I told Jeff it looks like a mug shot!) I think they were just a bit tired by this point – I know David was -

And speaking of David – did you notice how many pictures of David are in this post? Can you tell he’s the baby of the family? Well, here’s one more, for the road, because I’m a mother and I just can’t help myself (again) -

Blessings,
Nancy

3rd Annual Labor Day Cup!!

Last week we celebrated Labor Day with our annual Labor Day Cup competition. We spent several hours running silly races and competitions with the kids, who were divided into teams of two members each. It all culminated in the winning of the Labor Day Cup by one of the teams (who will be announced below). This year’s games consisted of the following:

Egg Toss
Jarts Throw
Hockey Shot
Horseapple Gallop and Roll (this was a riot, as Jeff made each of them whinny and gallop before they rolled the horseapple!)
Sack Race
Water Balloon Launch
Oreo Stack
Car Race (no, not real cars)

I won’t go into detail about each event like I did last year. If you want to read about most of the events, read last year’s post - but we switched some of the games out for new ones this year, so you’ll just have to imagine the one’s that are missing!

I do want to share some of the highlights of our day, however, so here we go ~

Egg Toss -

Unfortunately, the eggs are the real losers here -

Horseapple Gallop and Roll – this was Anna’s favorite game . . . she loved pretending to be a horse!

David did great in the Sack Race – even if he did come in last -

Anna shooting a water balloon with the launcher -

Of course with water balloons, things usually get a bit out of hand – the kids started chasing each other with the leftover balloons. I think Ryan has already been hit at this point -

Jeff, who is really just a big kid himself, got in on the fun and dumped the water filled cooler all over Michael -

Inside for a break and the Oreo Stacking Contest – such concentration -

The always popular Car Race, which ends our competition in an exciting way and usually decides our winners -

And the winner this year was the team of Laura and Anna (I was forbidden to show the picture I took of Laura) – better known as the AFC team, which stands for the “Albert Fan Club” (if you watch the old Little House series, you’ll know who “Albert” is) -

When we were all finished awarding the trophies and candy, Jeff fired up the grill and roasted some hot dogs for dinner -

And a dip in the pool makes a great ending to a fun event -

Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings,
Nancy

Because I’m a mother and I just can’t help myself . . .

Ryan and Matthew were in a friend’s wedding last weekend, and being their mother, I was snapping pictures of them the whole time. But then, how often do you get to see your sons dressed in a tuxedo and a new black suit – not often enough, I say, so I rest my case.

So, please humor me by allowing me to share my pride in my two boys, who just yesterday, it seems, were little guys running around the house, and now are all grown up and wearing suits.

Mattie leaving the house for the wedding ~

Ready to begin ushering ~

I didn’t see Ryan until the ceremony, as he was hiding out with the groom somewhere (probably hiding from my camera!). There are a few fuzzy pictures of him during the ceremony, which I won’t force upon you (remember I’m still learning with my new camera). At the reception, he spent some time dancing around with David on his feet – so cute ~

Mattie having a quick snack from the reception table ~

And I just have to share this one – I think it is so lovely of Laura (don’t tell her I posted it!) ~

And I really love this one, even if it is a little blurry ~

There was dancing, too, but I won’t share those as there are a lot of others in the pictures that I haven’t cleared it with, but I can share these two little ones, who enjoyed the music immensely ~

Oh, and the cake was wonderful, too ~

Okay, one last picture . . . because I’m a mother and I just can’t help myself ~

Blessings,
Nancy

We saw them!

Image courtesy of Corbis

Well, we didn’t see as many as these people are seeing, but we did see some great ones! Tuesday night the clouds were too much, and we weren’t able to see anything (although Tommy thought he might have seen something once), but last night the skies were perfectly clear, so we went outside around 11 pm and watched and waited.

We were soon rewarded with some spectacular meteors shooting across the sky! It was very exciting every time we saw one, and I was glad that each of the kids was able to see one – most of them for the first time ever. David was asleep, but Anna, who was afraid of missing out on the big kid fun was allowed to stay up and watch with us, although her patience with waiting for them wore out pretty quickly.

We stayed out for about an hour, but then it was time to get them all to bed ~ plus, our necks were getting sore from looking up for so long. It would have been much better if we had been laying flat on the ground on a blanket to watch, but we were all sitting around the edge of the hot tub by the pool, due to the presence of several large spiders who had built their nightly spiral webs in very inconvenient spots ~ literally taking over the area, except for the spot where we were.

The stars were spectacular in themselves, a beautiful sight and enjoyed by all. The meteors were like bonuses on top of it all. I think that maybe next year I will try planning an overnight campout in the yard (weather permitting) and we can spend the night (more comfortably) watching the sky. That is if I can work up enough courage to face the spiders, snakes, and other nocturnal creatures that inhabit our yard at night ~ ah, life in the country ~ but the stars are amazing and worth the effort.

Did any of you get to see them this year?

Blessings,
Nancy

Updates

Just wanted to share a few updates from around our house.

I have officially decided to cancel summer camp plans for this summer. I have postponed it a number of times already and the next possible date to have it would be into late August. I will be well into thinking about back to school by then (already am!) and the time for summer camp seems to have come and gone. I am packing up my notes and supplies so that I’ll have them ready to go again next summer – hopefully in June, which is when I get most excited about camp plans. Having just come off a week of VBS with a camping/hiking theme kind of filled our camp tank anyway, so we’re not too sad about canceling it.

I have a new camera. It came about that I needed a new camera one day when my old one was returned to me with the words . . . “I don’t know what happened, but the screen isn’t working quite right.” Upon further investigation, “not working quite right” meant that there was a big slash across the screen and everything in the background was black . . . obviously it had been dropped. Now, I won’t mention the name of the culprit, but maybe you can guess from these pictures (taken previously on the old camera) -

How’s this for evidence? (especially since these were the last pictures I found taken on said camera) -

And finally, we have a picture of the lovely lady herself – now how can I get upset at a beautiful smile like that?

So, about a week later, my knight in shining armor came home with a new camera for me. It has been an adjustment as this camera is different from the old one and I wasn’t sure for awhile that it was going to be allowed to live here – I’m still not totally sure, but we’re getting along a little bit better. I think that it’s true that you can’t teach an old dog new tricks – or at least the old dog doesn’t like to learn them, but I’m not calling myself an old dog, you understand.

I haven’t actually uploaded any pictures off of the new camera to my computer, so you haven’t gotten to see them yet. It’s because I don’t know how to do it – more new tricks to learn and I haven’t had the courage to try haven’t had time to read the manual and decipher how to do it. I must force myself to do so soon, because I’m running out of old stock to include with my posts.

I was going to update you on the gardens, but I think I’ll save that for it’s own post (maybe with pictures?).

I’ve been spending much time pouring over my notes and websites making a plan for our new school year. I have been drawn for many years now to the teachings and educational philosophy of Charlotte Mason, and have implemented many of her ideas for different subjects into our homeschool over the past 5 years or so, but am feeling the Lord leading me to include even more of this gentle approach to schooling into our days. I will hopefully post more about this in the near future, as I think that I’m closing in on my final plans for the year. Can you please pray for clear thinking for me and the Lord’s will to be clear to me in this area? He is the center of our homeschool and I only want to go where He is leading us.

Well, I think that’s enough for now! I am being called to the kitchen – to make cookies and to carve an apple doll for Anna. We read “The Apple Doll” by Elisa Kleven last night before bed and she asked if we could make an apple doll today – we will carve the face and let it dry for about a week. Guess I better take my camera to the kitchen with me.

Have a lovely day!

Blessings,
Nancy

Cowboys and Cowgirls for a Day

Our Keepers of the Faith Club last month was all about horses. We met at the home of our friends who have three horses and were given a lesson in horse care, grooming, riding, and history. The boys club joined us for this one and they all had a turn on the horses. Here are a few of the pictures I took throughout the evening of my kids ~

David was dressed for the occasion, donning his cowboy boots ~

When we first arrived, we spent some time just admiring and interacting with the horses through the fence ~

After a brief talk on the history of horses, they were brought outside the fence so that the children could learn how to groom them, and were given a chance to brush them down for a bit ~

Two of the horses were then saddled up and it was time to ride. One was a Tennessee Walker and the other was a Quarter horse – their gaits were so different! I had not realized that there were differences in horses’ gaits. Each child got a turn on one or both of the horses ~

David patiently waited for his turn . . .

. . . but right when it was time for him to ride, he heard that there was something even better being offered over by the fence ~

I have pictures of Laura on the horses as well, but have been forbidden to post them, which I wouldn’t dare go against as she would most surely retaliate with pictures on her own blog!

When it was time to leave, we had to practically pry Sarah away ~ she loves horses so much ~

It was a fun time, even if the evening was a warm one. In the end we rode off into the sunset in on our 15 passenger van horse, enjoying the air conditioned transportation that we so rely on here in Texas!

Blessings ya’ll,
Nancy

John 14:1-3

Photo courtesy of Corbis

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in Me. In My Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with Me that you also may be where I am.”

It makes my heart smile to think of my Dad dwelling with his Savior.

Thank you for all of your thoughtful comments and prayers! I’ll be back to posting as soon as I am able.

Blessings,
Nancy

Happy 4th of July!

Photo courtesy of Corbis

We have been busy working on our 4th of July lapbooks this morning. It is good to remember why we are celebrating today! I will be hitting the kitchen soon to bake some brownies and start chilling the homemade ice cream. I am even going to try my hand at fresh squeezed lemonade if I have time.

It will just be our immediate family for the 4th this year with my Dad “relaxing” in the hospital (Hi Dad!) and my siblings off with other plans. Ryan will be coming over later, and we will be swimming in the pool, cooking out hot dogs, shooting off some fireworks and lighting some sparklers, eating ice cream, and – when it gets dark – heading out to watch the local fireworks display.

I hope you all have a wonderful 4th, whatever your plans may be!

Blessings,
Nancy

What’s Living Behind Your Furniture?

Beware! This post contains harsh realities and fuzzy findings! Continue reading at your own risk. Really, it’s not that bad – it could have been much worse than this – in which case, I may not have been so willing to share it with you. If you have an aversion to dust, feel free to skip this post entirely.

As I mentioned in my Daybook yesterday, Michael (7) was in a real cleaning mood yesterday. I don’t know if it was the Dr. Pepper he had for lunch (not a normal occurence) or the driving force of earning a dollar, but he kept coming to me asking for more work. To his credit, the paid jobs came after his initial independent decision to clean the entire living room, as well as do his other afternoon chores without being told and before our normal chore time.

Anyway, one of the jobs that he asked to do was to clean out behind our entertainment center, which is a mostly neglected area, not high up on the list of places to clean up regularly, and so generally forgotten . . . until you are hunting for a missing DVD or video game, and then you muster up your courage and dive into the mix of cords, dust and whatever else has found it’s way back there. It doesn’t help that our entertainment center is rather large and therefore, has lots of space behind it for gathering . . . things.

So, what did Michael find while on his expedition to rid our home of this particular black hole? Well, I asked him to tell me, while I jotted down his findings so that I could share it with you (whatever was I thinking?).

Here’s the list he gave me -

-Dvds

-Books

-Videos

-Dust (we won’t even talk about how much)

-Video games

-Uno card

-Toy figures

-Cheeseburger – no, it wasn’t real – a toy from Anna’s play kitchen.

-”Soft, gray thing” – which turned out to be an old tissue covered in dust – he was wary of diagnosing this himself and called me in to investigate. My first thought at his description of it was, “Oh, no, I hope it’s not a dead mouse!” Needless to say, I was quite relieved to find that it was not.

-Pencil

-Duplo block

-Ball

-Cords (LOTS of them)

-MarioKart steering wheel

-Paper

-Dirty socks

So, there you have it. No, I’m not proud of it, but not too disturbed either. In a house with this many people, including small children – you just learn that there are priorities in life, and the floor behind my entertainment center is just not one of them right now – unless, of course, you are seven years old and looking for income anywhere you can find it – even in dusty, uncharted territory.

Hmm. . . maybe he’ll decide to dive under the couches next. But I really might not have the courage to tell that story.

Blessings,
Nancy