Oh to see this and to hear nothing except a four year old Princess C reading a book to her brother while we are all busy homeschooling or cleaning. This does not happen all the time.

The concentration was so good here too.

Blessings.

We had some rain today so it was cloudy all day. We had the kind of clouds  that just made everything gray. This meant we could not lbegin with studying and identifying the different kinds of clouds. So we began with RAIN.

First we read about what rain was and what was flooding. We looked at the radar image of rain moving in our area on the internet. Then we made rain in a jar. The kiddos made predictions of what might happen beforehand.

 It actually did not drip down in the jar but accumulated on the sides of the jar. We also sw clouds or fog form aboe the ice on  top too.

Princess C was even interested and made predictions although they were the same as the boys.

Blessings

For Science my d (and I) are going to do a weather unit starting with clouds. Melissa at In the Sparrow's Nest has a clouds unit study we referred to for our ideas. My d already has about ten or more books that we could also use for the weather unit that will encompass it all.

So today besides the regular school day, washing sheets, washing floors, vacuuming, meal making, cleaning up duties, shelf making, child watching.. well youu get the idea, everything my d, the mom of the house and I the Abiga of the house had to do we started gathering things together for the planning process.

But with summer still here it is nice just to take a walk and discover more things on the farm.

Princess C put heard had by this mushroom as I took the picture. I guess she knew it would look good.

We found two sections of them under a weeping willow tree. Two year old B decided to look for more and he dug around under the tree and found a third one.

He then ran to the other weeping willow nearby and tried to dig up some there but there was none. Clever boy!

Blessings.

Wow....... Just beautiful.....

More beautifullllllllll scenes.

One more....

Blessings.

Today my d and sil had to go to town to get things for the house. They want to get a screen door for the side entry door so that we can get more air flow into the kitchen.  The kitchen is large but only has a small over the sink window and two small side windows by the bay window. If we open the kitchen door and  had a screen door in the what we call the mudroom we might get a good breeze. Well if this gets successfully done I will post pics of it all.

For now I had the four grandkids to myself. My d said to do whatever I wanted to oops I mean with them.  At first school was an option except the two middle ones had played house in ther bedroom and it was declared a disaster area by their dad. So they had to stay up there and clean. They ended up not doing anything until I said no lunch and then took till way after lunch.
But then mom and pop were delayed so I had nature school in the afternoon. The three older ones had to find a nature item to draw a picture of and then write something about it. I told them to look around and pick one thing. I would take a picture of it and then they would start their papers. Well, after my highly intelligent grandchildren picked the soccer ball and other non-nature items I re-explained what their choices were. Tree, plant, flower, or bush were the only options then.

D was allowed to take pictures of his tree all by himself. they came out great.

I let them use my drawing pencils, not that I ever use them or even know how to draw.  D is not in the picture there because he took the wooden wagon out to the southwest field to take his tree pics and start drawing it out there.

Princess C's tree.

N's bush

We still have to find out what the names of the bush and D's tree are but we do know C's tree was a maple tree.

On the horrific side of watching the kiddos today was getting two year old B to stay near me. He loves to go to the front and climb the stairs but then he disappears around the porch.

It's ok to play here though. I can see him from the table.

Of course he was sampling all the vegetation on the property today. - pine cones, green grass, weeds, dry grass, and a cicada shell. He actually chewed on the cicada and then spit it out. He still had room  for his afternoon snack of grapes though.

Then in the house one of the cats came tearing into the room with a plastic bag caught on its neck. The bag was filled with um.. urine shall we say and bits of cat litter which I found as I removed the bag from his neck. I found another bag that had dropped off from him as he tore through the school room into the kitchen. My grandson D told me the cat called Smelly (ha) always plays with the bags and finds them in the basement even if they are put up high. Somehow I do not think that is entirely true but I told them to hide them this time.

Oh well all in a days work on the farm school here.

Blessings.

My son and his wife bought new plates for his sister (my daughter) for her birthday. My d wants to get chickens since she moved to a farm now but she can't eat these and they won't lay eggs.I brought them back from Cally.

 Good thing Southwest Airlines does not charge for baggage and still allows 2 fifty pound suitcases. They are a great airline with good prices too.

And who is that peeking behind that plate.

That's me says B who was not getting into trouble at this exact second since he was standing still. 

He was sitting still here too but I had the hardest time trying to get him to just stand there. He kept sitting and I was trying for a shot standing right in front of the barn steps. I said stand here and his bottom kept going down down down on that step. I moved him and he would squat so this was it then.  Right before this he was running around in circles through all the parts of the barn with me yelling stay away from the spiders on the walls and look where you are going.

Time to leave the barn but one last pic with your big brother D.

Be sure to read my homestead blog too HERE.

Blessisngs.

Grandbaby L of Illinois. Hmmm.. What is this near my mouth? It fits nicely in here too.

I think I will use it.

Hey who is that running towards me with that plastic passy in her hand?

Sorry mommy but I like this better.

Written and produced by a non-interfering Abiga.

Blessings.

Baby E about a week or so ago.

Link to my homestead blog articles. HERE

Blessings.

We did have one great sunset in Cally. The sky, clouds, colors all cooperated to bring this view one evening.

Blessings.

The whole family in Cally on their front porch.  The middle rocker with A is an old family rocker.

This is a flannel board dollhouse my dear dil bought on Ebay and then made more acessories for A. It was her gift from the new baby when baby e got home. Didn't she do a great job?

At my son's church they put a cut rose on the church organ for the Sunday service to signify a new baby in the  church was born. They also announce it in the bulletin. The parents get to keep the rose. This is baby E's in a swan glass next to a picture of A when little.

Blessings.

Hi  I am back in Illinois now. Baby E never showed any signs of illness nor did any blood test cultures show anything so all is well.

Here is a contest you can join HERE.

I will try to get some posts done later.

Blessings.

Baby E is home with mommy and papa and back home now with toddler A.

FInal blood count went down and culture has not grown anything and baby E had one last dose of antibiotics.

They are watching for any symptoms of infections as per doctor's instructions but she is healthy and strong wanting to eat, sleep, and be awake sometimes of course at night. She goes to doctor's for a visit tomorrow.

California hospitals are very encouraging and supportive with breast feeding. Unless the baby has special needs to be taken care of the baby stays with you from birth. They give the baby a bath in your room, give medicines, weigh the baby etc all in your room after the initial bonding. Then the baby stays with you all the time in you room. The nurses are also trained in lactation so they can be of assistance to first time moms too. Fathers are also encouraged to stay in the rooms and family and siblings have liberal visiting within the room also.

There is a large sign on the wall answering questions about nursing. They give you a bookle about babies. And also they give you a free boppy pillow to have and use and take home with you. The traditional free diaper bag is also given.

Blessings.

On August 3 at 1:34 am Baby E joined my son and dil. Just when we thought she would never go into labor(tee hee) my dil's water broke and we headed to the hospital. No help was needed as labor progressed wonderfully and within 4 hours and less than 5 min. of pushing baby entered the world.

Isn't she the cutest???? And now they have two girls i.e. the beginnings of a Little House on the Prairie family they say.

Now my granddaughters outnumber the grandsons by 4 to 3.

New big sister now.

Baby is on antibiotics and hopefully will be ready and able to come home with mama and papa by Tuesday afternoon. My dill has strep in her system which every mom gets tested for. The delivery was so fast she was only able to get one dose of the antibiotics in her IV so baby's white cell count was up. But she shows no signs otherwise of an infection - no fever, she is eating wonderfully, active so that is great. But keep us all in prayer.\

Blessings.

My son is off garage saling with his little girl. Last week they had some great finds - dollhouse with people and furniture(just what she prayed for), Aggravation game, miniature water cooler, ABC puzzle, blanket for me, . and on and on.

And this.

And this dollhouse, not the llama, already had that cute toy.

What will they get today?

Blessings.

My son and dil are still waiting for the baby to come. Her due date turned out to be really July 29. But here we are on Aug. 2 still waiting. She had cramps/pains yesterday on and off all day and night but early this am when we thought we would surely be headed to the hospital they stopped. She has been taking walks at least twice a day trying to get things rolling here but not yet. If no arrival by Monday she will have a doctor's appt. to check things out.

I think a lot of things is life involve waiting. Hence all the fast food, fast internet, cable/satelite tv, buy/rent videos, promises of overnight shipping etc. that are offered to us today. We anxiously wait for news about a new job, whether the house sells and you can buy the new house, awaiting pregnancy test, waiting for that all important meeting with someone that you are not anxious to really see, the list can go on an on. I guess we must just take each day as the Lord gives us and fight against the flesh needs and wants that assail us. We could be called to heaven or Jesus could come on any given day and the most important waiting time of our lives will be over with. As I have gotten older I find I must live each day in God's power and strength praying for His peace and love to prevail over all the daily issues the come my way. Some days it is easier thatn others and some days are difficult and slow as when I was teaching this past year. But God is always with us.

Blessings.

Our family likes to do puzzles, sometimes and occasionally only. When we were all together in a cabin in Colorado we put one together. Some of us more than others participated.

My dad used to put puzzles together besides read or work on the family genology. One was started in the back bedroom of the house before he passed away a couple years ago. My mom can't see too well once it gets dark out even with glasses so she hasn't made too much progress on it. She usually won't read or do things at night when the lights are still not bright enough for her. Actually as far as I know she would rather watch anything on tv and look at the neighbor hood, local, and sale papers than read things like novels. The family cannot visit that often or if they do are talking or working in the yard. So this puzzle sits with not much changing on it. I think mom does not want to take it apart and put it away because of my dad having started it. My son-in-law who has had to stay at her house for awhile because he was working in the city says my mom did get some done.

I don't remember from one visit to the next how much has been finished but now I have a copy here to compare the next time I visit.  It is a nice picture.

Blessings.

Homes out here in the bay are for the most part landscaped beautifully. Everything grows so well here. It is almost the perfect climate for plants. Many people have lemon, orange, apple, or plum trees as part of their yeards.

Most homes have several rose bushes as they grow so easily out here.

Many evenings the clouds/fog rolls in from over the hills. Sometimes during the day you can see it only behind the hills or in the direction of San Francisco which has cooler weather and fog a lot.  We are only about 15 to 20 miles away from the ocean here so the wind smells wonderfully of flowers and bay and ocean.(You cannot walk to the beach from here though because the road is through many hills.) If the wind is strong and coming from the ocean it is usually a nice cool or sometimes cold breeze. The further up in towards the hills and up the hill you go the windier it gets sometimes. This pic will give you an idea about how the streets go up the hills toward the ocean and down towards the bay. The bay is in the background and the streets will keep heading up till it is just empty hills. You have to jump on the freeway then which changes to highway ill the ocean towns.

It has been a bit cooler lately because of the wind. Last night I saw the clouds/fog rolling in. After this pic was taken it covered us. It usually only looks cloudy then not foggy here.

Back in Illinois those clouds would signal a storm coming over but here it just means ocean clouds covering us.

Blessings.

I can't remember exactly everything we have been doing. Mostly sleeping well at night. Can you believe most nights I get almost ten hours of sleep with only one bathroom break in the middle.(I am at that age you know.)

We were in the yard letting A play with her miniature swimming pool toys. I had my usual daily walk. They had theirs after A's bedtime. We also had a barbecue dinner consisting of burgers, corn, and fresh squeezed lemonade, thanks neighbor for the lemons. We also ate it outside. My son had the sprinkler on in the yard in the area you see in this picture. The table was moved to the left of the yard and had a tablecloth on it. Chez B's is a great place to visit when in the bay area. Sorry no pics of the actual event. Sorry but the establishment does not allow pics during peak dining hours. Actually I was too lazy to run in for the camera.

Monday and still counting off the days till grandbaby number seven makes his/her appearance.  My dil is so uncomfortable at this point with no room to spare inside for a kicking active baby. Tomorrow is the due date so who knows. But then again tomorrow evening is the farmer's market next door in the church parking lot so maybe after that. After all we are out of fruit.

Blessings.

I do like old things whether it be furniture, dishes, rugs, etc. etc.  My grandmother (dad's mom) had a desk that folds down with compartments inside, also little shelves all over it. Right now my mom has custody of it but I have asked to get it when she well, you know do I have to say it. No, good. Hopefully it will work out that I will get it without any problems. I have an old rocker that I had redone when I lived in Georgia. Woooo.. it cost a fortune but it was worth it to put it back into shape. Here is the desk.

Currently it is a catch-all for old and new items and what-have-you.

These are two old pics on a little shelf of it - one of my grandma and the other of my mom with grandma and my aunt years ago.

On the opposite side on two little shelves are statues that my now grown son gave to his granparents (my parents) many, many, and then some years ago. I also see a rock on one of the shelves. I will have to ask my mom about that and where it is from, another old thing with a memory. The rock not my mom......

Blessings.

My son had a day off so he surprised me with a day at the beach. With the baby coming I did not think we would go anywhere before or especially after the baby comes but that was ok by me. Being in Cally is good enough. I do get the travel bug often esp. with summer weather but with no hubby to take me places and not wanting to go alone I just enjoy daily life as it is. Little granddaughter A loves the beach too just like her mommy and papa.

The weather was great maybe alittle chilly in the wind. Of course the water is always cold here. We got to enjoy the sun, waves, ocean sounds, seagulls, pelicans, sand, and fresh air.

Sandy coated cutesy feetsys.

The new Ritz-Carlton on the ocean, uh only 500 dollars a night, a mere pittance my friends. Well, no we didn't stay there. Of course we have to get home in case the baby decides to come.

Each room on the first floor has 2 chairs and a firepit. You probably need it when it gets cold at night.

If the one parking lot is full you can park in their parking gargae to get to the beach which is still public not private. Probably a deal in order to be able to build on the ocean front. It is a pleasant walk from the resort through the golf course and then down to the beach.

But then you can enjoy the beautiful beach.

Ooops, no that is not us on the beach.

One last parting look.  Bye bye beach.