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It's been a good while since I've written on here, but I've been enjoying the summer with my family. I've been able to be awake for it this year. For those that don't know---for the past two previous summers I've had a horrible body rash that kept me awake at night and would finally get so bad that I had to take Benadryl around the clock, day and night, which left me needless to say--out of it. But not so this summer, I've been rash and Benadryl free---it's been wonderful! Our summer wasn't too eventful, but we had a few things going on....
June's highlights:
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aquiring and taking care of 32 baby chicks and 10 baby guineas (we lost three of our guineas-two were due to sickness and one was snatched in broad daylight by something)
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finishing up school
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trip to Holiday World and Splashin' Safari
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art classes once a week for Morgan and David (ended in mid-July)
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going without TV after the digital switch (still loving it)
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Father's Day celebration for Jeff
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picking and freezing over 100 cups of blueberries
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Andrew and David taking turns working with their daddy (continued throughout the whole summer)
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Lauren continued to volunteer at the senior center's monthly breakfast all summer (she's made quiet an impression on them)
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hours and hours spent making plans for Lauren's upcoming graduation in 2010---We have her diploma, announcments, name cards, and etc. all picked out. We've also planned a family vacation for her graduation---the destination was Lauren's choice. We've never actually gone on a family vacation just the six of us unless it was to visit family here or there, so we're all excited about it.
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LOTS of homemade ice cream in the evenings!
 chicks and keets on June 4th
 chickens as they look now
 and a guinea
July's highlights:
- my mom's news that she's cancer free, Praise God!!!
- days spent seasoning iron skillets that I've had for nine years and never touched before, and reseasoning a skillet that belonged to my Granny and another one that belonged to Jeff's great-aunt Rene. Then I decided to buy a pre-seasoned 17 inch skillet to use in the oven for cooking bacon (it's 12 lbs. and a good little workout to lift it in and out of the oven repeatedly)
- picking apples, then making lots of apple butter and a few apple pies (I'm not done yet either)
- I taught Lauren how to make biscuits, much to David's pleasure
- days spent pouring over school books and making lesson plans for the new school year
- 1/2 a day power outage that had me a nervous wreck thinking I'd lose the apple butter I'd just made and put in the deep freezer (that was a highlight to me anyway)
- More homemade ice cream!
 yummy apples on the trees behind the house
 my homemade apple butter --delicious!
 homemade apple crumb pie in the making
 putting the crumb topping on
 the finished product---it's not very pretty, but it sure did taste good
August, so far, highlights:
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vegetables,vegetables, vegetables---delicious and homegrown---given to us by our neighbors
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first week of school completed---smooth sailing so far!
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waking this morning to Andrew's dog Zeus baying at a coon in one of the apple trees right behind the house---Jeff shot and killed it without the girls even waking (it was right outside their window too). He debated whether or not to shoot it (I think he hated to do it), but in the end we had to think of our future egg layers.
A few samples of God's glorious bounty given to us:
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 the raccoon---the reason for all the racket and chaos early this morning
 Zeus posing with "his" raccoon
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Posted by Anonymous