A steady pace is what our last few days have been like-and it's been nice.  I finally got all the unpacking & laundry done from our camping trip with everything put away.

Hannah went to a birthday party Friday-they played putt-putt golf, had pizza and went swimming. 

Saturday I was in a real slump with house-work.  I just couldn't get motivated.  Pat had to go in to work for a few hours in the afternoon, so I went online for a bit to read a site on home-keeping.  That helped.  Editing to add the addy-it's actually a blog.  Scroll down to the Home-Making title: http://www.pineblossomswebpages.com/wordpress/2006/07/29/recommended-reading-for-the-week-72906/  

I desire to see home-keeping as something I do to please the Lord and as a ministry to my family instead of just drudgery to get done as quickly as possible. I'm not there yet. 

I decorated a section of wall in the dining room. I used a bunch of stuff that was in a box that had been sitting around for months-all of it given to me, too.  Here's the wall:

Sunday, we ended up not going to church and just enjoying being at home together.  Pat got us all together to do family Bible reading & prayer and he even did a little teaching with the kids.  This is really encouraging to me because I usually get that started, not him.

We all talked quite a bit at the table about finding our true satisfaction in the Lord, not in things or activities. We also discussed some habits that need to be changed around here-for all of us.  That was really good-it felt like we all came together as a team to reach a common goal.  Now, to work on consistency and perseverence.  I might write more about this another time.  Lately, any "deep" thoughts I have are so jumbled up I can't express them intelligently.

I did some work in the garden and Pat mowed the lawn with Susanna sitting in his lap.  Hannah & Jonah fed all the animals.  Our neighbor called and needed help fixing a flat tire on her mower.  We all went over on the 4-wheeler so we could see how to take care of a flat tire.  Her dh has left her, and we try to be there for her when she needs help.

Pat helped me make butter in the afternoon.  We don't have a butter churn or mixer, so we have to shake it by hand and it takes awhile.  I used the buttermilk to make pancakes this morning.

In the evening we had a bonfire and made hobo pies with another family we had invited over.  They have 3 kids. 

Hobo pies are made with cast iron pie makers with long handles.  You take 2 pieces of buttered bread with pie filling in the middle or whatever you want to use-could be anything!  You close the pie-maker and set it in the fire until it's done.  They are very tasty!

I have more to write about getting started with school and some things I want to change, new things to implement, etc.  But, I'll have to do that later.