The time has come for us to go on vacation. This is something we don't generally do. Oh, we will take a week and go to my parent's house every year, but there is something special about venturing out on your own to unknown territory.
My husband's sister and her husband live on the coast of Maine. Every July they offer their spare apartment for friends and family to stay in and this year we decided to take them up on their offer.
We haven't seen LaRee and Bob for fifteen years. The children have never met their aunt and uncle, instead they only know them from their Christmas cards and gifts that come every December. So although we are still spending our vacation visiting family, it is like going on an adventure.
We plan to take advantage of this long distance road trip to visit famous sites along the way. Our first stop will be in our nation's capital. We won't go in and visit anything but instead will just stretch our legs and walk around the mall and see the buildings. Next April, we will go back for a detailed visit. We also are planning on driving through NYC, see the Empire States Building and the Statue of Liberty.
The best part of all will be seeing LaRee and Bob in Maine, playing in the ocean, boating and fishing, and whateverelse Maine has to offer us.
I can't wait and will be sure to post pictures when we get back in about ten days or so.
I love being out in the middle of nowhere with lots of land, rows and rows of produce, chickens milling around, meals made from scratch,...you get the picture.
My wonderful mother left the farm when she married my citified dad and never looked back, but evidently there is some farmer blood running through my veins.
Today, my daughter and I drove north to Shady Oak Farm in Newton to pick berries. I could have stayed there for good. We both loved being on the farm, the smells, the sounds...We had to giggle everytime we heard the rooster crow and the hens all cackle. (He sounded like he was having fun.)
It only took us only an hour to pick seven pounds of blueberries and a couple pounds of blackberries. It was a bit more challengin picking blueberries here versus up in Michigan. We are used to bushes that are about five feet high in MI. These bushes here were no higher than our knees which made some backstraining picking but worth it.
While we were there the farmer let loose his chickens and of course Bonnie had to see if she could catch one which she did. No, she didn't chase it down. Instead, she stood very still and it just came to her. She was so proud of her chicken. She can't wait for us to get our own. We still need a coop to keep them in but now with our home improvement projects under way we should have enough scrap built up to build one soon.
We, of course, will never have our own full fledge farm, so I am content to hang out at places like Shady Oak Farm. But I am grateful that we can grow alot of our own veggies in our own little garden and that I have a small bit of farmer blood running through my veins.
Remember all those pecans I picked last fall/winter?
And how I sold them at my yard sale?
Well, a friend asked if I wanted to share a booth with her at our local farmer's market to see if I can sell some more.
Why not?! I said. So for the past few weeks my husband and I have been shelling pecans in anticipation of making some profit from our bounty of nuts.
Today, the kids and I loaded up bright and early, like 6:30am, to head out for the Denver Farmer's Market.
We set up our table with its sign and waited to see if anyone wanted our pecans.
THEY DID!
All of my shelled pecans sold within in the first hour. Fortunately, I bagged all of the shelled pecans just in case someone wanted to do the hard work themselves, which some did.
Now it is time to shell some more pecans. I got a lot of work to do this week. I might have to buy a sheller to speed up the process. I have two more Saturdays that I can sell there and want to make the most that I can.
Thank You Lord, for the bountiful harvest of pecans!
I have decided that home improvement inspectors are paid to tell you what you want to hear!
When deciding on whether or not to purchase our house the inspector told us several things about the condition of this house that was not accurate.
For instance...when inspecting the foundation, we were told that we only needed to repoint the foundation. Just put some mortar inbetween the bricks to fill in the gaps.
Wrong...several foundation experts later...we need a whole new foundation. Like we need to jack up the house, pour new footings and put in all new brick work.
Another example... the inspector told us our electrical system was updated and fine.
Wrong....when we blew a fuse and Todd took the blown fuse into the electrical supply company, they laughed at home. Told us that those fuses are "widow makers" and our no longer made.
Needless to say, we put our hope in the inspector and bought this old farm house knowing that repairs would need to be made. Now we know that the repairs are a little more extensive than we originally thought.
So as we accept reality we know that we have to do this a little at a time and trust God's providence.
So far we have replaced the roof and updated the kitchen. This summer's project would be windows. Of course, we can't do all the windows at once but we deemed that the windows in the kitchen and dining room were the worst and the first on our list.
After searching various Habitat For Humanity Restores and building supply companies we finally found the right place to find good windows for little cash.
On Monday, we were able to purchase the windows and today my wonderful husband installed them. I can't tell you how excited I am to have these new windows in. They make such a huge difference. I am especially hopeful to see how they will impact our heating bill.
The windows in the kitchen and dining room area where old Levelor windows. They were difficult to crank open and we could not get them shut tight. Todd even tried screwing them closed, but there were still gaps in them. Not good on the heating and cooling bill.
My handyman husband did a greatjob tearing everything a part and framing in the new window.
From this view you can see both windows Todd had to replace.
The house without windows. Fortunately, it was a cool day. Overcast skies and low temps so even with a big hole in the house it wasn't uncomfortable.
Ah....such a beautiful sight.
Both windows are in.
Todd also installed the window over the sink the day before while we were off playing at the lake. What an improvement this has made on the house. It is so quiet inside now. Plus it is so nice to be able to open and close the windows. No more plastic in the winter to mess with, at least not in these rooms.
Next summer, we will try to replace the living room and upstairs windows.
This year's fourth of July was quite entertaining.
It started with the fireworks show at Todd's high school. Each year they put on a big show and vendors of good food and children's games fill the running track.
Only Bonnie and I were able to go this year. We had fun walking around the track and seeing who we knew and deciding what goody we were going to treat ourselves with. In the end Bonnie chose a frozen banana on a stick dipped in chocolate which was very good (she let me have a bite.) I ended up with a chocolate ice cream cone.
After several laps around the track, several of our friends showed up and we sat with them to enjoy the show.
On the actual fourth, Todd and I were going to take the kids down to Lincolnton for their parade and fireworks, but as our neighbors were leaving town they stopped by and offered all of their fireworks that they had stored in a barrel. Last year at their 4th of July party, a family member brought a huge box of fireworks but due to the downpour of rain they never were fired and have been sitting over there ever since.
My neighbor offered them to us and, of course, my nine year old sprinted over to his house to retrieve them. Needless to say, the boys could not wait for their daddy to come home from work so shoot them off.
At some point in my old age, I have become very cautious. I remember shooting off fireworks as a child but, of course, what we had were these little Black Cats and some chasers. Oh yeah, and don't forget the smoke bombs and black snakes. Nothing really major.
The stuff that my neighbor gave us was nothing of that sort. I am talking about huge boxes full of 20 to 30 aerial fireworks. Rockets that look like they can break through the atmosphere. This stuff was huge. It was on the same caliber of what we saw the night before at the high school. Fear of arrest for illegal contraband, grass fires, house fires pierced my conscious. At one point in our private celebration I went inside so that the boys could have their fun without mom stressing out in the backyard.
The boys, (all three of them) had a blast, but next year I think we will just stick to letting the professionals do it.
Last week was obviously Father's Day. But like every weekend, Todd was working umpiring baseball games. The kids had made Todd cards for Father's Day and I got his some Seattle's Best coffee, but as a surprise we decided to go to the field where Todd was working and bring him dinner. We figured after spending a min. of ten hours in the 90+ heat in full gear he would appreciate some food and a cold drink. So we drove over to Huntersville Athletic Park. While we waited for his game to end, the kids played at the playground and we just had fun being together.
Since February we have been practicing and playing baseball.
This was our final weekend to play. Sadly, although we won one scrimmage, we never won a tournament game. But that was not our objective. The goal of our team was to learn how to play the game and have fun.
On a personal note, my son Brian has grown in many ways since joining the team. He had never played the game of baseball and did not know much about the game. He is also my introvert who does not do well in new situations with new people. He had to overcome his shyness and insecurities to be accepted by his fellow teammates. Little by little he grew into an outgoing athelete. I can still see him at his first game shaking like a leaf at home plate. Two weeks ago, he hit his first ball and this weekend he hit almost every ball that was pitched to him. He even made it to first base two times.
As much as I dreaded sitting on a bleacher bench for six hours in the heat, I loved the fact that our whole family was having fun together. Bonnie played with the other sisters, Bryce made friends with one of the younger brothers and Todd and I made new friends too. Plans are even being made for campouts and sleepovers with our new friends.
I took a few pictures of our last game to commerate this new chapter in our lives.
Waiting in the dugout for a turn at bat and cheering on his teammates.
Brian really grew as a batter. He is a good hitter but nerves always took over during the game and he failed to hit the ball. In the past few weeks he has overcome his nerves and has shown every one he can hit the ball and make it to first base.
In fielding position, ready to stop any balls from getting past him.
Between games we would set up camp around the parking lot with coach's grill and cook out . We all brought something to grill and eat and would take time to visit and get to know each other better. If there was a playground near by the boys would often go off and play. If not we would all rest and do our best to stay cool until the next game.
Bonnie and the other sisters kept each other entertained.
Bryce couldn't wait to see Grant at each game. They were the inseperable duo. When they weren't playing together they were helping out in the dugout as bat boys.
At the end of each game, Coach Visser would sit down with the team and tell the boys of how proud he was of them. He always pointed out areas where the boys had improved and played well.
Congratulations Lake Norman Bears on a good season!
Just a few weeks ago I was on a roll with school and had no intention of stopping. Plans were being made to focus on some academic areas that had been dropped by the wayside like handwriting and such. But something happened after VBS. The momentum died. I believe that part of it is due to the fact that my garden has taken over a lot of my energy.
I don't know about you but I am a morning person.
I like to get up early and get started. If the majority of my work is not done by noon I feel that the day is wasted.
Because of the heat, the best time to work in my garden is in the morning...preferrably 6 am. So from 6 to 9 I am out working in the garden, pulling weeds, watering, and harvesting. When I finally make it back inside I am a sweaty mess who is starving for food and a cool shower. Before I know it is 10 and no one feels much like being academic.
My wonderful husband has started morning devotions with the children once I am out of the garden and has been giving the children yard work and house work during the remaining morning hours. By noon everyone is settling down with a book, legos, or anything non-electronic. Bryce and I are stilling working on reading but that is all.
I feel bad that we are not doing a lot of school work and yet I don't. We need this down time. I need to fill up the pantry with all the food God has blessed us with. So for now, we will focus on family relationships, cooking, hiking, and just having fun.
For the past month I have been raging war against the weeds in my garden.
They are not really weeds but grass that has invaded every patch of dirt my garden has to offer.
I spent weeks degrassing each row in my garden. Two hours every day was spent pulling up grass.
My hands were ripped to shreds. My nails are non-existent. Dirt has embedded itself in the cracks in my feet. Slowly my garden was being reclaimed for the plants that were meant to be there.
Unfortunately, my attention to my garden waned. VBS and other events took over and now it is like war was never declared in the first place.
This morning I had had enough. Three hours, two wheelbarrows, and three broken nails later later I began to make headway.
There have been casualties in this battle. The zucchini did not make it. I believe the life choking tendrils of the evergrowing grass "did it in." Two cilantro plants have also succumbed to an early death. But all is not lost.
I refuse to give up.
I will have my patch of earth.
We will have food in our pantry this winter.
I WILL WIN THIS BATTLE!!
For now, there is a lull in the fighting. A truce has been declared as I reenergize for the next day of pulling. With temperatures in the 90s I don't care to become a victim.
The grass and I will meet again at the front lines tomorrow. 6AM the cannons will fire and the battle will start anew.
Whether I am ready or not, my garden is producing.
Yesterday I picked four quarts of green beans. I was not ready to start canning yet and had to run to the store to start stocking up on lids. Now I have four quart jars filled with bean and sealed thanks to my wonderful pressure cooker. I have half a dozen cucumbers that I am watching. They are pretty big but I want them a little bigger before I pick them. My tomatoe plants are full and already pulling the cages out of the ground. Time to start making more stacks to keep them upright. The grape tomatoes are turning red but my big beef tomatoes are still a beautiful green. Fried green tomatoes anyone?
The corn is taller than me with tassels on top. Onions, cantelope, and peppers are all coming on nicely. And, of course, the zucchini is always ready. Add to that my neighbor is gone for the next two weeks and has told me to eat whatever is ready in his immaculate garden, so we are eating a lot of veggies.
As for the weeds...well....let's just say that I decided to mow the grass down between the corn rows. I know, not very good, but, hey, now I can walk between the rows instead of wading through the knee-high grass. Now I just need to pull up the grass that is growing between the stalks. I have decided that I will not be able to completely eradicate the grass from my garden. I am just trying to keep the area around my plants free.
This year our church, like many others, is doing the Boomerang Express for our elementary age children and for our preschoolers we are using Gospel Light's SonRock Camp.
I am serving as the Preschool Bible story teacher this year.
I love it.
I really love telling Bible stories to the children.
Bonnie is to old for VBS and is serving as a PreSchool helper. She ended up assigned to another homeschool mom who has a daughter the same age as Bonnie. They have hit it off really well and are already planning sleepovers. I love how God brings Godly friends into my children's lives.
Brian and Bryce are still in VBS, although Brian was not too thrilled about going. However, learning that all of his buddies were going to be there made it easier for him to come. Secretly, I know he is having a good time.
Here are some pictures of my room that I decorated. I really had fun doing the decorations.
Our Saturday started at 4:30 a.m. with getting the cinnamon rolls in the oven for the Yard/Bake Sale. Todd was off doing guard duty at the high school to protect the graduation ceremony set up from vandalism so I had to drop off the boys with him at 6 to be at the yard sale by 6:30. Believe it or not there was already people shopping when we got there.
Bonnie and Zoe did very good selling all of their goodies. They had made more than enough and made $39 to donate to a missions group.
My big money maker was my pecans. Remember all those pecans I picked this past fall? On a whim I decided to empty out our freezer and bring all of them to the yard sale and sold every bag. Another mom has asked that I rent a table with her at the local farmer's market to sell more, so I need to get busy cracking.
When it was all said and done I made about $100 which will go towards schooling. All my leftovers were donated to the local resale shop.
On another note, Brian was off playing baseball while we had our sale. Wouldn't you know he hit the ball everytime he was up to bat!! and I missed it. Of course his team still hasn't won a game yet, but MY BOY HIT THE BALL!!
This Saturday, we are having a yard sale, or at least my friend is having a yard sale and has invited me to join in with her. Anyway for the past few weeks we have been clearing out the attic and primarily Bonnie's room looking for things that we no longer need. The upstairs "school" room is full of items that are ready to find a new home.
My business minded daughter decided this would be a good time for a bake sale. She contacted her friend, Zoe, who agreed and they were given permission to sale their baked goods to make some money. The money they will be making, however, will not be for themselves but will be donated to a local mission.
Today, Zoe came over to bake with Bonnie. Together they made banana bread, sugar cookies, brownies, and carmelitas. For three and a half hours they kept my oven busy. They did a very good job and I pretty much stayed out of their way. I was concerned that my finicky, old oven would sabatoge their good efforts but even it helped to produce some delicious treats. Of course, we are not done baking. Tomorrow we will make some more cookies and then tomorrow night we will set out some homemade cinnamon rolls to rise and bake early Saturday morning.
I am so thankful for wonderful friends such as Zoe for my daughter. She is a wonderful, Godly example for Bonnie.
Not much happening and everything else you might want to know
Two weeks ago, everything slowed down around here. Our co-ops ended and life sort of stalled. We are still finishing up our school books and I keep finding historical books to read to the children each morning but it only takes about 2 to 3 hours and we are free to play.
I have been trying to take time each day to work in my garden. The weeds have overtaken everything and it is time that I reclaimed the land for my plants. My goal is to weed a row each day. One row has been taking me about two hours to weed (that should tell you about how many weeds I have out there.). I have managed to clear up the tomatoes and have started on the corn but have a lot left to do. Maybe by the end of this week I will have the garden back under control.
My garden is already producing veggies. Tomatoes are on the plants waiting to ripen. Radishes and Zucchini have already been picked to eat. The corn is chest high on my nine year old son. Besides the weeds I am very pleased with it.
Other than school and the garden, baseball is our other main activity. Brian played again this weekend. His team has yet to win a game but this weekend we finally played a team that we were matched skill wise. Normally, we lose by the mercy rule i.e. the other team is beating us to a pulp, but yesterday we found ourselves tied with our opponent at the end of the final inning. We had to go to a tie breaker and unfortunately they scored three runs to our one. Today we played again and this time we again found ourselves winning the game until the fourth inning where they got ahead of us. At least we weren't mercied out. Brian has yet to hit the ball but he continues to show improvement. I just pray that he will get over his stage fright and hit the ball once before this season is over.
Two months ago a fellow homeschool mom brought a stack of books to our monthly mom's night out dinner. She was having a hard time selling her books and was looking to see if anyone wanted them. Needless to say, she left the restaurant empty handed as all of us moms took home her books. That incident inspired another mom to set up a book exchange. Everyone was encouraged to meet at the local park and bring all the books they no longer needed or wanted to exchange with other moms. About 15 moms showed up this afternoon bearing boxes of books, manipulatives, games, and videos to give away. We all found something to help our home school. I found a 3rd and 4th grade Easy Grammar student text and a 4th grade spelling workbook as well as cursive workbooks (that is our summer project...writing better cursive.) On the other hand I was able to share all my ABEKA readers with a mom who needed them. We all had stories to tell about how others have helped us in the past with our curriculum and now we wanted to pay it forward and help others if we can with our curric. It was a good day of sharing.
With co-op over our school days have taken on a new look.
The pressure of meeting all the weeks requirements has disappeared and is now replaced with a casual air. It doesn't matter if we get all of Helen Keller's biography read this week or next as long as we get it done eventually. We will take as long as we need to read all about Teddy Roosevelt and Marie Curie and once we have read, and discussed these fascinating people we can take a break from history. The children also know that once their math and language workbooks are completed they can take a break for the summer. No deadlines ...just when its done ...its done.
Here is a glimpse into our school day today:
Bonnie hard at work figuring out the volume of a prism.
Brian solving for the perimeter and area of polygons.
Bryce practicing his addition and subtraction as well as learning his four times table.
Cody - always around to give love and support or maybe he is figuring out the length of his stick....Go figure?
What Fun!!! The following Friday after our performance the cast from both plays, MacBeth and Romeo and Juliet, reunited to celebrate!
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One of the families in our play live on Lake Norman and invited us all to come over and play. Despite the rain and cool temperatures all the children put on their swimsuits and dove in.
The night we have all been waiting for was finally here.
Performance Night
Bonnie and Bryce did well. Bonnie, as one of the three "Weird" sisters in MacBeth, did great. She put a lot of emotion into her character. We also had a lot of fun with her costume. I made the dress and then to make it look like someone had been wearing it out in the woods alot, we burned the edges, dropped ashes on it to burn holes into the dress; we even trampled it in the garden. For makeup, Bonnie took a piece of coal from the firepit and rubbed it on her face, hands, and feet. We initially teased her hair and put leaves and twigs in it but the director wanted to be able to see her face so we just left her hair down but did not brush it. All in all, she looked good and had a lot of fun with creating her character.
(I have to tell you a little about this picture. The church where we performed at was established in 1764. Behind the church is a graveyard that has tombstones that are 200+ years old. I found a tomb for a Revolutionary War veteran there. We decided that the graveyard would make a perfect backdrop for the three weird sisters of MacBeth. The girls are standing in front of a tomb that is above ground but is crumbling. Even the old, wooden picket fence is showing its age.)
Here are some video clips from her two scenes:
During the performance of MacBeth, I had to sit back stage to help Bryce and make sure he made all of his cues (and stayed out of trouble), so I don't have a lot of pictures from MacBeth. However, during the performance of Romeo and Juliet I was able to sit out front and take pictures. Bryce was in the first scene of R & J playing a Montague who gets into a fight with two Capulets. One scene is the masquerade ball where Romeo first sees Juliet and falls in love. All the children from both plays participated in this scene. They all made masks to hold and the girls all danced while the boys looked on. It was a lot of fun.
Sunburned, tired, and red, itchy eyes is how I feel after two days of baseball.
Brian's team played again this weekend. I love his team and the dad's who coach it. They all have such good attitudes and want to have fun more than win the game, although winning would be nice. Brian got on base a couple of times this weekend. I have learned that the object of Little League baseball is that once you have made it to first base, you need to take the first opportunity to steal bases until you have made it to third so that you can make it to home quicker. Brian has never stolen a base, Brian has never even made it to a base until Saturday, so that when he got on base he wasn't sure what to do. Todd, my husband, is the first base coach and would tell Brian to steal but he would only get a few steps before his nerves would get the best of him and he would run back to first. This happened several times before he actually made it to second. It was so bad that I could not watch when he was on base. Todd was great. He did not get frustrated or mad but just had to laugh and coached him the best he could. Now we know what we need to work on with Brian this next week. Good thing we have a couple more weeks till the next tournament.
We still haven't won any games but each boy has shown improvement at each game. We are coming along nicely and everyone is having fun!
