We picked blackberries today.  They grow in the brushy area on the edge of our yard, and they taste sweet and good.   They are small but juicy from the rains.  We got about a half-pint today, but there are lots yet to ripen.   Maybe we will get enough to do a little baking.  The frequent rains have also kept things cool here compared to last summer.  We have had many pleasant days in June.

The garden is growing joyously.  We have our first tomato blossoms and tiny green tomatoes.  I planted two zucchini plants and it looks like they are getting ready to flower too.  My herbs are growing fast and now I am looking for good recipes so that I can use them.

Both Verity and Mercy enjoy making things with a needle and thread.  Verity has been making some pretty collages of lace, ribbon, fabric, and buttons on a base of lavender felt. I love the colors that she uses.  Mercy has been sewing a little felt heart-shaped pillow.

I am pottytraining Peace (the second attempt) and she seems to be doing well. 

Benjamin was sick on Wed. night with a tummy bug, and I got it last night, and Mercy this morning. I seemed to get the worst of it, but I think I am over it now. 

Bruce was away last week with GA, and was a guest preacher at two local churches this past Sunday.  We always miss our church when we are away.

School has been going well.  Verity is busy reading and making connections as usual.  I have not used "narration" a la Charlotte Mason with her up until now, but I find that if  I ask her a question or two about a book that she is able to give me a good summary and detail....usually with eagerness.   Just a year ago this was too difficult for her to do, so it is exciting to see her grow in that respect.  She started reading a book on the Lewis and Clark Expedition this week.  I asked her if she had ever heard of the Expedition before, and she said.  "No. Well, it was mentioned the chapter I read in the Vostaas: White Buffalo book."  So she is definitely drawing connections.  I wish that I had her memory.

She seemed especially to enjoy Naya Nuki, which is the story of an Indian girl who is captured by another Indian tribe, but escapes and makes her way through the wilderness back to home.  This is a true survival tale, and from the part that Verity had me read about the grizzly, it seems pretty exciting!

I am working on covering all of our new schoolbooks with contact paper so that they will last the heavy use that they get in our house.  Last year I didn't and I wished that I had.

Greetings to all who pass this way....especially to our dear friends and relatives.

Well, our new Sonlight Core 3 box came this week, and that had to be the highlight of our week.....not every week do we get 50+ new books in the mail!  This core is Early American History, so it will be a nice switch from the world history that we have been doing the past two years.  Verity has been devouring the new books.  She says that her favorite story so far is Stone Fox, a tale about a dog sled race, though I have caught her rereading the biography of George Washington, so I think she must like that too.

Bruce found Paddle-to-the-Sea among our new books.  He remembered reading it when he was a boy, and treated us by reading it aloud to us all last night.

I got math books for Mercy this year, and she seems to be enjoying the math and the one-on-one Mommy time that goes along with it.  She is still working through her Get Ready for the Code Books that teach consonants....she is on book 2....and this week I started teaching her some vowels as well.

We got Latin for Children A this year, and so far I really like it.  The kids think watching the DVD is such a treat (the advantage of letting them watch very little television.)  Each lesson is covered on the set of 3 DVDs, and there is a workbook and an activity book with crosswords and puzzles to do. Of course Verity is the only one who does the workbook and activity book, but they all like to do the chants.  Even Benjamin bounces up and down to them.  ;-)

Bruce got a set of three children's commentaries, the "Herein is Love" series by Ganz, and I think I will start using that for Bible this year.  It is set up to use as lessons at home or Sunday School.  I spent last Sunday evening devouring the Genesis commentary.  It is uplifting reading, and brought back to me some of Pastor Fisher's sermons, when he did a series on Abraham.

That should be plenty to keep us busy.....well, plenty to keep *me* busy, anyway.

More on life beyond school next time!

Last week included a major shopping expedition with the kids and church work day.  The shopping expedition was on Thursday.  I loaded all of the kids in the car and took them to Shafer's to buy rolls for the funeral.  We got there before they opened, so we wandered down to their new lawn and garden store behind the produce store, and looked at the posies.  I was telling the girls all the names of the different flowers, and one lady working there asked me, "Do you homeschool?"  I said yes, and she said, "I thought so.  I could tell by the way you were talking to the kids."  We had a nice chat with her and found out that she had homeschooled hers and that she was a Christian.  I bought some thyme and sage and a bag of potting soil.

We dropped the rolls off at the church and then made our way to the shoe store to use a gift certificate.  I was thankful for a very helpful clerk who measured everyone's feet and who checked on fit for me.  Even with her help, it was still a little crazy. But the girls were delighted with their pretty new shoes and Benjamin was fascinated by his first pair of shoes.  Hopefully this will get us through the summer.

Saturday was church work day, and Bruce was home, so we all went together and had a fun time.  I raked up trimmings outdoors and cleaned out the kitchen cabinets indoors, and the children behaved themselves so nicely that I was able to accomplish quite a bit.  Bruce worked on the roof, and the older girls took rides behind a three wheeler with the other kids.  Then there was pizza for lunch.....

This week has been quiet by comparison.  It was oppressively hot at the beginning of the week, followed by a few days of rain, and now today the weather is perfect, sunny and breezy again.  I planted my tomatoes the day before the rains, and they seem to be happy where they are.  We have beans popping up.

And that is about all there is to say about this quiet week.

Bruce is, officially speaking, on vacation.  Last week we went to visit my sisters and family in Illinois.  It was a grand and crazy time.  They have a lot more social activity going on in their house than we typically do!

TC, Moriah, Verity, Mercy and I went shopping on Wed. morning.  We had a delightful time.  We browsed storefronts until they began to open.  Our first stop after the coffee roasters was a lovely bookstore that sold both old and new books, had a small and charming store dog, a stone slate to draw on with water, free coffee and cookies.....We left with used books in tow.  Then a Scots and Irish-themed shop.  The storekeeper there told us about a place nearby that sold items from around the world.  We went there and oohed over the many lovely things.  There I bought a wooden woodwinds instrument from India, carved all over with flowers, and with a faraway and mysterious sound.   This will be Verity's to use, as the other girls both have glockenspeils to play with musically.  Our last stop was the bead store, and this, too, was a delight.  All glass, crystal, stone, and wooden beads. I let my girls pick out 5 a piece, and I got some for Peace and myself.  Then on the way out the owner let the  girls pick out a free spool of stretchy stringing cord.

On Thursday night, the Lansberrys had the Ben-Ezras over, as is their wont.  A few single guys as well.  This made the grand total, counting Raquel, Gabrielle, and the numerous children, twenty-four.  On Friday night, every one they know (apparently) was invited for game night.  There were tables with games set up everywhere, a  fun room full of toys for the toddlers upstairs, a Lego center for another age of children, and LOT of people.

It was the first time I had seen my sister's house....it is  a lovely house, and the garden, though small, is all enclosed and affords many a visual vignette.  The marigolds on the aging picnic table, the peonies drooping by the prim white potting shed, the arbor....little footpaths.....

So on Saturday we came back.  Now we are home, and Bruce is away at Banner of Truth conference, and I am beginning to miss him.  We had school outside today, and a picnic lunch, because the weather was perfect.  There was scarcely a cloud to be seen, only faint streaks crisscrossing, left by airplanes.  Yesterday I weeded the front flower bed, and got rid of dead foliage from last year, and put in the calendula plants that I had started from seed, and one lone nasturtium.  I need to plant more flowers.  There is plenty of space to fill in.  In the side vegetable patch, the kale is blooming tall and yellow, as I am planning on saving the seed.  The peas are blooming with large purple-mauve blossoms.  The lettuce has had a fine start.  There is a row of Forellenscluss, green with maroon speckles, a row of spiky green, a row of smooth red, and a row of curly red.  It is nice to look at.

One of our elders died on Sunday, and the funeral is tomorrow.  I won't go, as I scarcely know him or the family, and am not sure about taking all four little ones with me, alone.  I will drop rolls by, though, for the meal.  I wish that Bruce could go...he is sad to miss it, as he knows them all. 

Late tomorrow night, Bruce should come home, and I will be glad.  I feel as if I am missing something.

Benjamin's birthday went by without his notice.  We celebrated both his and Verity's the next day, with a cake and presents.  Verity got clothes, clothes to play dress-up in, some little rings, and a beautiful porcelain doll that I found at Goodwill, that she has named Sara after the girl in The Little Princess.

Verity wanted flowers and a bird on the cake.  I tried something different, colored the frosting quite dark, and "painted" on the pictures rather like a tole painting.  It turned out nicely and looked prettier than some cakes that I have tried to decorate in a more conventional manner.  :-)

Verity and Mercy went to the mother- daughter banquet with me on Friday, and it was a huge hit with them.  They got little aprons to wear as favors. (the theme was "Mamma's Apron Strings"  The program was so good.  The Tassef girls did interpretive speech, one interweaving a fairy tale, a story from Anne of Green Gables, and a poem, and the other the story of  The Princess and the Kiss.  It was very well done, and the girls enjoyed it.  I did the devotional.  It has been a long time since I have done any "public speaking" and it went rather well, considering that.  I spoke about Spiritual Shopping from Isaiah 55:1-3.

But the highlight of the whole evening for Verity was that the butter came wrapped in pretty gold foil.  The little things. 

the first of May is our anniversary.  Last year we spent it in separate states of the Union.  I was nine months pregnant.  We were getting ready to move to Ohio.

This year Grandma and Grandpa Buchanan watched the kids while we walked on the beach of Lake Erie.  My lavender grey silk wrap was the color of the stones and it billowed to them in the wind.  We walked to a lighthouse.

We ate at a small place with tasty food.  We drove through the country, the long way home, and watched the sun turn the tulips to flame.  We sat in Starbucks with a coffee for Bruce and a chai latte for me, and chatted and were quiet by turns.  It was a very peaceful time.

Then back to the house to spend a little more time with the grandparents before they left the next day.

I repotted my tomatoes and peppers this week.  We continued with school.  The neighbor lady gave us a CD player that is perfect for us to use for school.  It holds 5 cds so that I don't have to keep hopping up to change them.  And I don't have to carry the girl's CD player to the sunroom for school any more.   So that is a blessing.

The girls searched for  objects underneath the trees this week and found a number of small treasures : acorns, nutshells, part of an eggshell that some baby bird had finished using, a doggie's license tag from 1989, pieces of broken stone and brick dubbed "pottery."  These were all carefully arranged and displayed on the back porch today, to make a "museum."  And the best toys are not toys at all.

Violets are Verity's favorite flower, as well as my own.  Sparkling with sugar, they topped my wedding cake.  Verity has been searching for them in our yard this spring, and they have finally shown themselves under a spreading tree.  So we have a little bunch of them to adorn our dining room table.

Grandpa and Grandma B are here from California.  Grandpa preached this morning on the text., "Pray without ceasing."  We are enjoying the rare chance to visit with them, and watch them get acquainted with Benjamin....It is the first time Grandma B has seen him!

I was able to sneak out and get my hair cut while Grandma watched the kids.  I got it layered, and was surprised to discover that I have curls.  This, combined with the fact that I am  whittled down to a little less than I was when I got married, means that I am enjoying a new "look".  I think every woman needs a new look every twenty years or so!  ;-)

Benjamin was living in a house with mostly girl toys, but a family in our church with two toddler boys donated their "extras" to us.  Now he has plenty of vehicles to roll around....including a big red fire engine full of megablocks.  That boy lacks nothing now.....if only these new toys would keep him from snitching things out of the garbage and taking the knobs off of the stove.....

I am waiting for danger of frost to recede so that I can plant out my baby plants.  They are growing so fast that I think they will need to be repotted first.  Meanwhile we are enjoying an abundance of greens from the garden.....

The mild air lures us outside.  We took a walk in the park along the trails with Grandpa and Grandma, enjoying the flowers, the birds, the trees.  The girls have made "houses" for themselves under the trees in our backyard. They pluck flowers and stick them in the bushes to decorate their little homes.

School continues, and the end is now in sight!! Not much longer now.....  

Well, here goes a brief entry....it is about time! 

What have we been up to?

On Bruce's day off two weeks ago, he helped us finish a jigsaw puzzle that we were working on.  This was a great moment for us all.  We even found the pieces that we were afraid that Benjamin had consumed!!!!

We had another sewing day at church this week.  I made some flannel pillowcases for the girls' big pillows, and some throw pillows for the couch out of a beloved old dress of mine.  Verity got her first lesson on machine sewing from Mrs. Kobb, who brought a bunch of scraps and helped her make a quilt block.

We keep plugging  away at our schoolwork.  The new Sonlight catalog came, so now I really want to finish so we can order next year's books!!  We are up to the founding of Virginia in history, which we studied with great interest as it is a place that the children have actually visited, and we have ties there.  Verity is has read recently the Secret Garden, Anne of Green Gables, The Trumpet of the Swan...all extracurricular.  We were reading The White Stallion of Lippizza in school, and Verity came to me a few days later with a book on composers....there she had found a reference to Vienna (where the horses perform) and showed it to me with great delight.  Watching the kids make connections is so much fun!

We are enjoying the spring weather.  The girls are playing outside again, and I am cleaning out the garden bed, planting lettuce and peas, watching the spinach really take off and wondering how we are going to eat it all.  Tending to baby plants indoors till the weather is mild enough for them outdoors.  Watching the robins come back.

Yesterday was a pleasant day.  Bruce took the day off, and we had a "date", meeting with our financial advisor.  It really was rather enjoyable, strangely enough.  Maybe because my expectations were so low!!! We had coffee and talked about our hopes and dreams.....with the advisor there, but there you go!  *giggle* Guess we don't get out enough!

Hope the air greets you gently when you step out your door, dear friends and family.

As a rule, I don't do many school projects with the kids.  We do the basics, no frills.  But Verity was reading a book about bugs this week, with "simple experiments for young children."  She wanted so badly to do one, though many of them would require a purchase....a straw or pipe cleaner....and would have to wait for a trip to the store....but we did find one that we had the materials for.  I hung a long strip of scotch tape from the doorway.  That was the spider's sticky thread.  The girls threw little balls of fleece at it.  These were the bugs.  Presto!  Caught in the web!  Wow.  You would have thought I had given them the world on a silver platter, this "experiment" was such a hit.  The girls also drew spiders on paper and strategically placed them on the "drag line" as Verity called it.

Bruce was gone this week from Monday to Thursday at a theology conference, and it seemed strange without him.  On Wednesday Mrs. Kobb came with her grandson who is just a month older than Benjamin, and they spent the day with us.  We stayed in the dining room and sewed away.  Verity worked on her cross-stitch pillowcase, I finished my curtains for the kitchen and a quilted bag for a gift.  Mrs. Kobb, when she wasn't busy helping me figure out what I was doing, was working on a number of different blankets and quilting projects.  We had fun, and plans are to do it again soon.

Someone was supposed to come to tea today, and the girls and I prepared with great anticipation.  They got out their tiny teacup and saucer to take turns drinking, and I got out my rose teacup and thistle teacup, my blue teapot, and filled a willoware platter with grapes, sections of blood oranges, and little lemon tarts.  Our company never came.  The girls were downcast......when then to the door came Regan Rastetter, who had accidently locked herself out of the church.  This was sad for Regan, as the mishap played havoc with her carefully orchestrated day, but it was perfect for us.  We forced tea and tarts upon her with great delight while she waited to be rescued.  The little girls had two tiny cupfuls of tea each, complete with milk and sugar.  What fun!   

We were passing through the Portage Lakes area on the way back from the library and saw a swan.  So lovely it is hard to believe it was real.  But it was.....I saw it fishing.

Verity read The Hobbit.  She is rereading Charlotte's Web and laughing heartily.

Started potty training Peace this week.  Benjamin's favorite spot is in the kitchen where he can explore the cabinets.....oh the happy sounds he makes!  Mercy is sewing a felt rabbit and Verity is cross-stitching a pillowcase. 

I have taken to damp mopping the dining room daily.  The kids drop so much food it seems that it needs it.  The pleasant side effect is that clean smell.  mmmmmm...... The birds are flocking to the feeder these days.  Pigeons with iridescent ruffs, mourning doves, cardinals, blue jays, many small birds that I do not recognize.  Verity looks through our bird field guide trying to identify them. 

We had a few warmish days this week.  Spring is coming slowly, in starts and fits.

WIC meeting this morning, family night at church tonight.  Tomorrow after evening church the Rastetters are supposed to come to our house for banana splits.  I am looking forward to that.  I have been collecting cool banana split stuff for a while now.....ice cream and bananas, of course.... frozen berries to thaw and mash.....hot fudge.....butterscotch....whipped cream......maraschino cherries for the top......slivered almonds, bits of toffee,  yum yum yum.  I am hoping it will be a hit.  I am hoping that it will make up for all of the alleged health food that I have brought to potlucks.  :-)

Bruce is busy since Pastor Bogue is away.  He preaches twice tomorrow.

I washed my pots for starting seedlings this week, and I plan to plant on Monday. 

Praising the Lord for blessings large and small.

"Where sin is forgiven, other mercies will be sweet, and the burden of affliction tolerable; but without this, and with apprehensions to the contrary, every temporal calamity is double.  For this is the wormwood and the gall in every bitter cup.  We shall not under the troubles and difficulties of this world cry out 'we are undone" if we can think that God has forgiven us."  John Shower.

In whom we have redemption through Hisblood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.  Ephesians 1:7

Yes, I think we are.  The doctor yesterday said that Verity's ears are almost all better, and though Peace still has a bit of a runny nose, we all seem generally healthy.  We got a nice get well card from Grandma B. today with some lovely spring stickers, and that was hailed with great joy.

This week has had more excitement than I would have cared to have....most of the activities of the week were pleasant.....a sewing bee at church on Monday.  I made curtains for my kitchen, as well as figured out (with the help of those who are more experienced) how to use the sewing machine that someone gave us last summer.  Verity made a potholder by weaving loops, and Mercy "sewed" on plastic canvas.

There was church on Wed. night of course, and Thursday evening was spent very pleasantly with the Kadlecheks from church at their home.  Verity and Mercy dressed up with their girls in lovely princess outfits, all shiny blue satin. 

On Friday, however, I lost my engagement ring.  It was missing for a full twenty-four hours.  I noticed that it was gone while at the doctor's office that morning, so I really did not know where it could be.  I had also walked to church and back that morning, so Bruce and I combed the roadside, looking.  Today I found it while I was cleaning the kitchen counter, slipped under the crock pot.  So we are thanking the Lord for that mercy!!!  The moral of the story is that my fingers are getting too skinny and I need to wrap my ring with thread, or something.  Suggestions are welcome.  :-) 

Benjamin is pulling up on things now and has developed a great fondness for real food.

I will need to start some seeds indoors soon.

I haven't been keeping up with my studies.  I have been reading the first volume of the Faerie Queen, though, and enjoying it.  Someone from church gave me a copy of The Bruised Reed, too, and I am working my way through that. 

We did have school this week, but with everything else going on, it didn't make it to the headlines!  Maybe next week....

Well, much has happened since my last post.  We went miles and miles and saw many loved ones.

Much has stayed the same.  We are again battling infections.(except for me.  I feel fine.  A little tired, maybe.)  Every time I think Bruce is better he has a relapse.  I think he may need to go to the doctor.  He seems to have a sinus infection.  He keeps on working though. Dr. Bogue is out of town and Bruce preached this morning.  I kept the kids home as they are coughing and contagious, I fear.  It will be my turn to go to church tonight. 

It is snowing beautifully outside today.  We haven't had a nice snow like this in a long time.  The birds are flocking to the feeder.

We did have a few good days of school this week.  I found that if I get up earlier, we can start earlier and get more in.  It is hard otherwise to do all of the reading AND  the workbooks.    This week we did some workbooks.  Verity learned to subtract, and Mercy learned about the letters K and T.  History was about Alfred the Great and about the Vikings.  Extracurricular reading has included daily reading from a book about astromomy that Verity is enjoying.  She was so excited to find that a million earths could fit into the sun! 

Reading about the astronomy has given me some food for thought this week.  Some of this stuff is just so amazing, so beautiful, so vast, that it seems as if it must be a fairy tale.  I love to think of the galaxies dancing so fast, so slow.  The stars rejoicing in their movement " as a strong man to run a race."  It is a lovely thing to think of when the children are  croupy and crabby.  Somewhere in the universe, the stars are dancing.  Even if I can't see them right now.  They are obeying the Creator.  Huge, strong, and perfectly obedient.     

This has been the week of the nasty cold at our house.  Everybody got it except for me.  It came complete with fever, sore throat, headache, and coughs, and it kept me busy enough nursing everyone back to health.  I did have a touch of a sore throat, but thankfully was spared the worst of it.  Bruce even took a day to lie in bed, and so you know that it wasn't fun.   We seem to be on the mend now, and that is good.....

because tomorrow we are leaving to go visit family.  The plan is to visit Great Granny Snyder in Yorktown, then go visit my parents in SC, and hopefully visit some more Great Grandparents while we are there.   It is exciting, especially to see Granny Snyder....it has been almost two years since we have seen her....that is so hard to believe.  Those two years have just flown by.  I have never seen my Grandpa Mutton's home with his new bride, either, and we will be able to go visit them in GA, Lord willing....and my Grandparents Rhodes in their new situation staying with Uncle Stan and Aunt Marcia.

The weather has been downright balmy around here....well, in the 50s.  Bruce had me air out the house from all of the germs, and the air from outside smelled so sweet....but now it is back to winter once again.  We had snow and biting wind yesterday.  The kale is turning purple from the cold.  I am glad that we are not!

Well, we finally got our family letter written yesterday to send out with pictures.  So with that final holiday project out of the way, I feel like I can get back to blogging.

We had a lovely quiet Christmas celebration at home on Christmas Eve.  The children were so much fun to watch!  Bruce indulged me in my birthday request for a card table, so in the evening after the kids went to bed I set up a candlelit dinner for two in the living room, got all gussied up, and had a lovely date with my husband.

On Christmas day we had a delightful dinner over at the Bogues.  Andy brought in a birthday cake with a singing candle.  The candle played continually, so I found myself quite confused about when to blow.  But I eventually just did it, and successfully extinguished the flame.  Bruce preached an excellent sermon in the evening on Israel's prophecy about Judah and its relation to the Messiah.

The snow has melted for the present.  It is actually supposed to reach 50 today!  Craziness.  At any rate, it made it easy for me to access my kale this week when I made soup.  Still eating out of the garden!

I am trying to learn to dance via videos.  This is a fun way to burn calories.  When I was a child I used to dance around my grandma Mutton's living room, and she would say how graceful I was.  Somewhere in the process of reaching my present age I have stopped feeling graceful, but I would like to regain a little of that, and nothing usually happens without trying!  I am enjoying my efforts.

We didn't get much school done the week before Christmas, but got a full week in this week.  We are up to Constantine in history now.  Wow, it seems like those years just flew by!  I also realized to my shock this week while we were putting up timeline pictures that Mercy can recognize a picture of Kublai Khan and associates him with Marco Polo!   But we studied that last year!  How do these things happen?  I wouldn't recognize Kublai Khan if I met him on the street!  It just goes to show that my quiet one absorbs a lot more than she lets on.....and Mommy forgets a lot more......

Sigh. 

Have a wonderful Sabbath, and a pleasant start to the new year! 

This must be a quick entry as the kids must be loaded in the car to go back to church soon, but it certainly is about time for me to write a bit!

Yesterday I was examined by the elders, and today the minister in the pulpit (my husband) announced that I had been accepted into membership pending the receipt of my letter of transfer.  Today was also a  communion Sunday, so all in all it seemed a special day to me.  It was the first Sunday, so we stayed for lunch at the church with several other families that attend the Foundations Bible Study.  Bruce is still at church to teach a catechism class that meets before the evening service.

Life has been going by at a good clip.  It always seems to accelerate after Thanksgiving!  We had snow for Thanksgiving, then a thaw, and now we have a nice big blanket of snow again.  Bruce cheers when the snow passes us, I cheer when we get it!  He claims it is because he doesn't like shovelling out, but our neighbor upstairs shovelled the driveway for us this morning.  So that was kind of him.

Benjamin is officially able to crawl!!! 

My lettuce has lived through both snow and thaws, and to all of you gardeners out there I recommend Cook's Garden Seeds "Fall and Winter blend" of lettuce seeds.  These plants are quite hardy!

Well, I must go.....hugs to all the dear family who read this, and love to friends.

We got our first blast of  truly cold air this week.  The garden is holding its own, though I think that my ceremonial pea may never exist except in my imagination.  The blossom is still there, pink and lovely.  The turnips needed thinning so we had baby turnips and turnip greens in our chicken soup.  I made it on Friday for Bruce, who is suffering from a cold.  Also more broccoli raab and spinach this week. 

We had school for six days this week!  I am trying to make up for earlier in the year when I was trying to get into the swing of things.  The kids are enjoying it.  This week we studied the Greek wars---with Persia and the Pelopponesian wars.  This was tolerable to the children, and Verity  even started reading ahead.  But the true highlight for Mercy and Peace was reading Little Pear, a story about a little boy in China.  Verity had already read it to herself, and she was going through agonies, knowing how disobedient Little Pear was going to be in the last chapter, but the younger ones just enjoyed it.

Benjamin gets up on his hands and knees now as if to crawl. He doesn't crawl yet, but will make it across the room if given enough time. 

Peace got a glockenspiel for her birthday.  It has a lovely sound.  She "plays" it and sings her favorite song, "Away in a Manger" quite loudly.   It is pentatonic and so there are no dissonent notes on it.  I am glad.  :-)

Bruce is preaching in Twinsburg this morning, and it is time to eat breakfast (French Toast Casserole).  May the Lord bless your Sabbath day. 

  On Monday we gathered everyone up and went over to the park across the road for a walk.  Many of the leaves had fallen the day before, a blustery day.  Verity said that the trees were bald.  But there were still some that were tipped with flame.  Bruce pushed the double stroller, and I walked behind with Mercy, who wanted to wear her patent Mary Janes and her velvet dress.   She is our ultra feminine one.  Verity danced between Daddy with the stroller and Mercy and me.  We saw a falcon, and many little chickadees;  we walked on boardwalk through a marshy area, and around the pond (could there be sharks there?).  We took a break to eat butterscotch chips and then headed home.

  The birds found our birdfeeder this week.  So we have bird visitors once again.  The birdfeeder is in our dining room window, so the girls have enjoyed "sharing a meal" with them----different menu, of course!  This week we got an unidentified black bird, and some finches, and a blue jay.

  On Wednesday I discovered my first pea blossom, so I am rejoicing that my ridiculously late pea planting seems to have not been in vain.  We will eat our pea with great ceremony, I am sure! 

  On Thursday I made a little compost bin with some wire fencing, and filled it with leaves to compost.  That was a chilly day, and we got our first real frost that night.

  On Saturday WIC had a pie exchange, and Bruce left to visit a neighboring presbytery, and I forgot to get the house key from him.  So Dawn drove me to the Kobbs where the kids and I had an unplanned but very pleasant visit.  We pulled up wire supports from her garden and stacked them.  We raked up a pile of leaves so the kids could jump in them.  We had sandwiches on the screened porch in the sunshine, and later Mrs. Kobb showed me her sewing room and her quilts....we sat on the porch and I knitted away while she re- covered some chair seats.  Bruce picked us up, and we went home to get ready for "Food, Fun, and Fellowship"

 I made a monster pot of chili for Visitors Meal today while the girls took baths, and then we headed for the church.  Who was there?  The Kobbs, Andy, and us!  So we had a grand time, feasting on rice dishes and roasted chestnuts....Then headed upstairs to a cozy room where we watched part of an old Danny Kaye movie.  Then home again to make last Sabbath-day preparations.  All in all, a satisfying day.

I have missed my blogging for the last few weeks, and now that I am back I will let you know some of what we have been "up to."

* we had a picnic with the sisters from the previous blog entry, down by the canal.

* I made elderberry syrup, the children's favorite (yummy!) medicine.

* I promptly got sick after I finished making it.

* I have started knitting (undisclosed) presents for (undisclosed) persons, with brightly colored wool.

* we ate our first produce from the garden.....spinach, brocolli raab, and lettuce.  The garden is just beautiful.

* we have enjoyed some unbelievably pleasant fall weather.  The leaves are now in full color, and outdoors looks like a landscape by an old Dutch master.

* we have continued having school amidst it all.

* we celebrated Peace's birthday with a very popular pumpkin cake.  She got her own little people.  She has also learned to love helping.  She is the only person in the house who actually enjoys throwing diapers away.

* we got two children's cookbooks with some of Mercy's birthday money.  She just loves to cook.  So we have tried various recipes.  We made "pretend soup" for breakfast one morning, "sweet potato surprise" to take to church, "carrot pennies" for supper one night.

* we got our family pictures taken.

Whew!  All in a couple of weeks....no wonder I haven't had much time for blogging!

I saw a dear friend today that I had not seen since her wedding day almost eight years ago.  I cannot say what that does to my heart, to see Sarah again.  It only added to the emotion of the moment that it was at her Grandpa's funeral.  But the emotion was tempered by the giggliness of Beth and Sarah.  Beth was wondering why they were serving powdered donuts at a funeral.  Sarah was commenting with glee on the "sentimental spot" downtown where the car broke down with the three of us in it, late at night.  "Why?"  I asked " Are you so giggly?"  Eldest sister breaks in ...."They're always like this when they're together."  Well, we all look a bit older, and our children and babes-in-arm affirm that we are grown-up.  But it is nice to know that when sisters get together there is a silliness that is not lost.

This was Verity's first funeral to attend.  She took notes on the occasion : "Day 5 Funerl of Uncle Boug"  Also a picture of Daddy preaching and "First Peter Chapter I"  This was Bruce's first funeral to lead, and all went well.

Update on green larval creatures:  I continue to deal with them.  Each morning and evening I squish, each morning and evening more appear.  The kale has suffered from them the most.  I think it will live though.

No one else has had GI trouble, but we all have had colds this week.  This is Benjamin's first sickness.  He has been of a good temper in spite of it.  I cannot say the same for the girls.  Benjamin has also produced his first tooth this week.  We have managed to have school for four days in spite of this madness.  :-)

Well, I should be able to finish the herb course by the end of April if I am diligent.  I had truly forgotten how far I had come.  I am half way through already!  So I am taking til the end of the month to review, and then in November will start with material that I have yet to cover.

All thanks to the Lord for the blessings of the week.

Today is Mercy's birthday.  I am glad that we celebrated yesterday, because today she is huddled is her bed after having spent the night vomiting.  She actually had a good day yesterday.  Grandma Mutton sent her a little bag that said "Happy Birthday" on it, and this was the perfect size for collecting and toting all of her birthday cards and stickers that she got in the mail.  She got a Fisher Price "Little People" set from her Mommy and Daddy, with horse, coach, prince and princess.  This she loved.   We had chocolate cake and ice cream.  For some reason which I  cannot fathom, I am the only one in the house who likes the cake.   And in the evening we went to Family Fun Night at church where the wonderful time continued.  Though she did want to hurry home, back to her Little People.

But today she is sick, so Mercy and Benjamin and I are home.  Benjamin doesn't seem to like the quiet.  I am enjoying it.  It is chilly today...true autumn weather, damp and nippy.  The garden plants love it.  The stretch and sigh, turning green and luxurious.  The first spinach will be ready to harvest soon, and the lettuce.  Something green and larval has been eating at the brassicas, and I have been "handpicking" them this week.  This is a delicate way of saying that I have been squishing them mercilessly.  The plants are managing to grow in spite of the pests, and the broccoli raab will be ready to eat soon, too, methinks.

We did school most days this week.  I am suddenly motivated to get at it.  Realizing that if I want to order more books, we have to finish reading these first, was the key!  So I want to finish these in May.  More books, more books!!!!!!  Meanwhile my daughters read their schoolbooks round the clock, the world history being their top pick of the week. 

I have been reading more, myself.  I read Cry, the Beloved Country and A Midwife's Story in the last two weeks.  Now I really want to get back to my herb course.  I am in goal making mode, so I will go map out on the calendar when I wish to finish it......More about that in the next exciting installment of my blog...What will become of the green larval creatures....will the other children come down with GI distresses?.....when will the herb course be finished if Donna is diligent?....Come back and see next week!!!!!!!