Campout in four, three...

Our church's campout at Silver Lake is next weekend. We are packing now and leaving Tuesday. Much excitement as we prepare....blog will be mighty silent for the week. We usually eat a lot of corn on the cob while we're up there, but since the crops are all late there is no way we will be enjoying corn :(. Bummer. No corn husk dolls, no cold roasted corn for breakfast. Mmmmm.

Jessie is coming along nicely in Mothering 101. She was snuggling Elijah this afternoon and said "Mamma, I think Elijah has a fever." I put his forehead on my cheek, sure enough. It took me at least 18m to "feel" my baby's fever. She's got it down already because it was only a mere 100.5. Impressive.

Lot's of work done in the house building department this weekend. Ready for a day of rest. Bed is calling.

There’s Fungus Amoungus

 

Nestled in the Mount Baker foothills we found Ostroms. I was talking to Mr. Gonzales before our tour and he said that he’s seen cougars walking in the field, black bear and eagles. Truly, Western Washington is like no other place on earth.

 

Pardon my sloppy job at masking faces. I did not ask permission to post these pic’s so I had to use MS Paint to color everyone in…pretty rough. ;) We are walking past the soil prep area which consists of dried chicken manure and fresh straw mixed together. It doesn’t stink until you get it wet…and they were soaking it…pew.

He taught how they mixed the soils, the adding of mycelium(?) and how it all works. They let the children all smell and touch the soil at different stages of decomposition, it actually smelled sweet and good. Really…it did.

Week 1. The first of three rooms..here the mycelium is just starting to grow.  Everything is damp and cellar like.

 

Week 2. The next room there were little white round globules coming up from the soil.

 

Week 3. Harvest. Reminiscent of Jiffy Pop. Millions of mushrooms! I had to contain myself, it was almost too much. I was in a ROOM FULL of MUSHROOMS. Oh the JOY. 65,000 lbs weekly. Today they had harvested 11,000lbs already. These rooms are picked by hand three times over before starting over with fresh soil.

That’s a lot of fungus.

My children smirked at me and my camera. They knew I was loving it. I was so impressed with our group of kids. Not one child touched a mushroom(that I saw) and they were all at their eye level!

 

A beautiful shroom. He said they reach the store in 48 hours. I think I will go to Safeway Saturday and see if I can pick this one out.

 

16 month old + mandatory hairnet = stubborn child.

 

The packing room.

 

Mr. Gonzales was a great guide, very thorough and even gave the kids refrigerator magnets…but no mushrooms.

I tried.

Q and A in the parking lot.

So there you are a quick overview of the Ostrom’s Mushroom Farm in Acme. From start to finish we learned how commercial mushrooms are raised complete with a semi pulling out with a full load of mushrooms heading for the packaging plant! What timing. Thank you everyone for coming and those of you who so graciously took a rain check as our tour filled up and some were turned away.

 

What do you call a mushroom who can juggle & stand on it’s head?  A fungi to be around.

Thursdays Schedule

Got up early, wonderfully early. Able to reading and pray in total silence...ahhh. Cat met me at the door with something dead. Jess and Jake are off the take care of a neighbors kennel, Jacob has to milk Junie, make yogurt with the morning milk, laundry is CAUGHT UP, housecleaning and animal care, a little shopping to have friends over for dinner then it's OFF to Ostroms Mushroom Farm, hope to see you there!

"Let us not forget...to kiss our children many times today and take them not for granted. They do not belong to us, they are entrusted to us by their Maker. We may only have them a short time or a long time. Let's wrap our arms around them tight in their early years to protect them, yet hold them in an open hand acknowledging Who they belong to. Remember Who is the giver of wisdom in raising these precious gifts. May God give us strength in parenting our young ones while we not forget to Praise the Lord for them daily."

What a weekend...

Hokey Pete, Solid Rock was great. The food was great, the company was beyond great and everyone talked about it aaaaall the way home. The crafts, the snack shack, the water balloon fight, the organization, the camping, games, the campfire.....These are the same children who were all zonked in bed by 8:30pm....gee I wonder why? I really thought I'd ask hubby if we could maaaybe church at home tomorrow but then I opened my BIG mouth and asked Renee "So, do you still make church the day after camp?" FULLY expecting her to say NO and therefore condone my wimping out and staying home and what did she say? "No, we will bathe the kids and go to church in the morning"....Dog gone it.

She has twice as many children as I AND a newborn...now I have no excuse, I must pull myself together and make it work.

Everyone is bathed, laundry is washed and my bed is calling my name...I just ate all the chocolate out of the candy bag Renee sent home for my children. Oops. It sure was yummy.

Camp Solid Rock

 

For a couple years now we’ve watched our friends at Baker’s Dozen put on Solid Rock Camp. For these two years we’ve watched we’ve oooed and awed at the neat stuff they do. What a feat it is. Two days of going to camp, but with a twist…It all takes place at the B’s home and the parents get to stay.  

Every hour is filled, meals are provided and your family camps in a tent in the woods.  WE were invited this year! The suspense has been killing everyone, very exciting to say the least. I spent the day there while Paul took advantage of the quietness and worked on the house.

We arrived to a long line at the registration table…just like camp. Everyone signed in and received a t-shirt with team color. I love the little girl skipping away with her t-shirt in hand!

Elijah hung in there all day with only a 25 minute nap.

Micah enjoyed making a beaded necklace while eating his candy one. I wish I could write all that these guys do, but alas I just can’t. Let me tell you a LOT of time and energy goes into it, never a dull moment.

The teams deciding team songs and names.

Decorating their t-shirts with markers, silk-screening(?) and painted stamps.

 

I write to you from the comfort of my bedroom, sipping my hot cup of Driveway Chamomile tea. After a day of no nap for Gracie and a short one for Elijah I was ready to come home, besides, I am too good to sleep in a tent. It’s my husbands fault, he bought me a trailer and now am used to it. Too bad, so sad. Dear Paul came around 8pm and traded places with me. I drove home(only 30m) with G and E and left the two young’ns in the truck sleeping while I ran their bath water.

I took them out, one at a time, crying for all their worth after being woken up. I quickly bathed them, screaming the whole time the poor darlins, they were so tired I doubt they’ll remember the bath. Then I wisked them off to bed where they fell asleep as fast as their heads hit the pillows. I soaked their filthy little clothes and milked the ornery goat, washed the dishes, fed the animals and am now tucking myself into bed for an evening at home without my hubby :(

 

Day 2 tomorrow

Pineapple Weed Tea - A free, local, wild chamomile

It’s 10:01pm, it’s very dark, I am in my driveway. Coffee cup in hand, crouched while scanning the moonlit gravel driveway beneath my feet. My 11 yr old son walks past with a full pail of fresh warm milk, he’s heading to the house “Mamma? Watcha do’ in?” I reply, “I’m just grabbing some tea son.”. “Alright” he says. He doesn't skip a beat.


It's sad really. Normal children would think their mamma's crazy,

but mine just pat me on the head and keep walking.

I have this bag of chamomile on the back porch. I've had it for eons, I bought it to make soap. Yesterday, I picked up the package to blow the dust off and the little flowers looked familiar instead of foreign. I looked closer and it hit me, all those weeds outback look just like this. Hmmm...to the bookcase.



Matricaria Discoidea is Pineapple Weed whereas Matricaria Recutita is German Chamomile. They're related! "Smash the flower heads in between your finger and smell the aroma. If it smells of apples(some say pineapple), you have a genuine chamomile relative, if it stinks..it's a lookalike. Ewe. I find a huuuuuge patch of what I think is Pineapple Weed. I take a bud in my fingertips and smash....mmmMMmmmm....aaaaapples. Yummy green apples. As a matter of fact, it smells just like Jolly Rancher green apple!



Must have TEA. Oh happy day!!! Medicinally, from what I have read, this differs very little, if any, from German Chamomile and looks just like it to...well, the flower buds do. German Chamomile buds open into a white flower and Pineapple Weed buds stay looking like...well... pineapples, never opening into anything special. Unfortunately, and a BIG unfortunately, is that it does not keep well. So much for stuffing a 2 qrt jar full. It can not be dried without quickly loosing it's effective volatile oils. It is best frozen for less than 6 weeks or used fresh.

The tea will help you to sleep or soothe an sore gut...some say it also has a tylenol effect on pain. I placed a little more than a tablespoon of buds(not the leafy stems, they are bitter, though not poisonous) in my cup, filled it with boiled water and steeped for 7 minutes. Then strained with cheesecloth and enjoyed a cup of tea that was reminiscent of an apple Jolly Rancher dissolved in a cup of hot water....something I would have done in 7th grade. O.k., something I've have done.

It is all over the West Coast...you MUST try it! It likes dry soils, cracks in driveways, roadsides, lots, and is easily identifiable with it's appley aroma. Now go. Go and find some right now and make yourself a spot-o-tea, then let me know how you liked it.

Or you can meet me in my driveway tomorrow night with your coffee cup in hand ;)

Video of Gracie's Caterpillar

I am trying my hand at video again.

I saw a little caterpillar, climbing up a tree.

It wiggled looong, it wiggled short, it wiggled right to me.

I put it in a little box, "Now don't go away", I said.

But when I looked inside, I saw a butterfly instead!

Caught a weasel in the turkey house..

And it’s wearing blue dress.

I was making dinner tonight when I heard the relatively quiet turkey tractor whooping it up. I looked out the dining room window to see a blue dressed weasel trying to inconspicuously catch a sneak a turkey!

She was no good at catching the critters though and mamma was able to grab her camera and get out there before she exited with said turkey poult.

Birkenstocks, Moles and Field Mowing

 

It is 11:13pm. I was not in the mood for a creative title…ok?

It sure is nice to have neighbors who own trains down the road. We stumbled upon our neighbors Mr and Mrs.(Dee) VB running their childrens train at the Raspberry Festival in town Saturday. Thank you Dee for your generous free train rides to a family who about fills up your train!

Where is my little baby? Really…he is growing so fast. He loves this new front door that opens to a whole new world outside This child is going to be a petrologist. He always has a rock of some sort clutched in his chubby little hand. I do his laundry and there are rocks in the bottom of the wash tub.  “Elijah, spit it out!” <sigh>

 

Don’t ask me why the hats. I don’t understand it myself. Daddy has worn that hat for years but recently(after seeing friends with them?) everyone 7 and older is wearing a hat. It just so happened the thrift store had plenty to outfit the children….oh happy day.

 

My new front yard and back yard. Paul got the septic field/low spots/high spots all leveled. After two dump trucks and 20 yards of soil we should return to normalcy at some point this year.

 

Daniel The Mole. Daddy does not like going under the house. When your house is almost 100 years old there are all kinds of creepy crawly *things* lurking around, or remnants thereof. Paul was in the process of running wires to and fro in the addition when he came to the point of *under the house work*. Daniel offered as he LOVES going under there. It has been two days and Daniel and Micah have ran, single-handedly, all the wires under the house, drilled the holes and fed them through to Daddy(comfortably on the outside) It was like a day at the beach for Danny and Micah.  Daddy was able to easily instruct Danny with a walkie-talkie.

 

Daddy and Micah putting gookumpucky on the end of a pipe to feed wires through to Daniel The Mole.

Jacob learned how to drive the tractor this weekend and cut some of our neighbors field grass for him. He’s a natural on a tractor. He can work the clutch and PTO like he done it since he was 3.

As for me, I’ve been cleaning house. I absolutely love gathering all the bedding on a hot sunny day, washing it and purposefully NOT using fabric softener so I can hang those sheets out to crisp in the summer breeze. The children are eagerly waiting for Solid Rock camp this weekend. I love summer with the kids. No pressure, everyone’s outside, my legs don’t hurt, I am not jailed to the stockings…I am in my birks.  Did I mention the Lord gave me a gift a couple weeks ago? I looooove Birkenstock sandals, I’m a conservative tree-hugger at heart. My only pair of birks wore through last year so I finally pitched them, sadly and reservedly. I was in Second Chance(thrift store) and there was a brand new(!) pair of black Birkenstocks for $1.99. Were talking the real deal $120.00 sandals. In my size. I grabbed them, hoping not to look too giddy and thanked the Lord for them. Oh…it gets better. The next week I found the SAME ones brand new in blue…in my size for $1.49. And I can wear them without my hose….I can see my toes……I can wear polish…..it feels so great. Thank you Lord for that little gift that means so much.

Updated photos have arrived

It is hard to become motivated to take blogworthy pictures of my children when my camera stinks. The poor thing, by no fault of it's own, has aged terribly. The flap that holds the battery in is broken, the lens is scratched and it just plain has started taking lousy pictures. I'd buy it again though, it was a great little point-n-shoot.

Now that I have stated my excuse I will own up that the pictures on my sidebar are soOOoo outdated, a couple of them were two years old! Eh-hem. That was bad. Today, as the children were doing what they do outside I thought I better get some pictures before this ole camera dies. So with a washcloth in one hand(to wipe EVERY face) and Camera in the other...I now announce the arrival of new pictures.

Off to make dinner

Ostrom Mushroom Farm Field Trip – 2 Spots left!

 

July 29 at 1:30pm our family is going to take a *no cost* tour of the Ostrom Mushroom Farm in Sumas.  

Now WHAT can be more FUN than MUSHROOMS!!! I’m die’n here, this will be the BEST ever field trip…really.

All different types including White, Crimini, Portabella, Shiitake, Oyster, & Enoki.

 

We can have a maximum of 30 children so call us to sign up. Currently we have 2 spots left available. Mr. Leo Gonzales, the plant manager himself, will be taking us on a guided tour. If you are interested please call me or leave a comment on this blog.

 

It sounds like they put together a neat program. Our van will have 3 extra seats, FYI.

I used to put together some fun field trips for homeschoolers, but it just kind of faded away. I would like to get back on the horse for the 2010-2011 school year…any ideas? I’ll blog them a month in advance.

Lest we forget…

"Self-righteousness is being more aware of and irritated by the sins of others than you are conscious of and grieved by your own." – Paul Tripp

 

This quote went up in the kitchen this morning. What a great reminder for the body of Christ.

Puppies are here!

O.k. so she didn’t have 42 puppies like I thought. I have been guessing my litter sizes 4/5 times. Here Jen, have a piece of humble pie.

On Saturday we were busily packing up for a BBQ. After making my salad, dressing the children and packing everyone up, I ran back in the house to grab the diapers and wipes. All day I had been watching my dog, who seemed perfectly happy being pregnant with 42 puppies. I kid you not, everyone was in the van and as I grabbed the diaper I turned around to have one last glimpse at the dog on the t.v. screen and at that moment she hunched up.

This dog KNEW I was heading out the door for the evening. I went out to her kennel and sat there watching her, sure enough, this was it.

We stayed an extra half and hour to see how things  progressed. I ended  up calling our neighbor Dee who  said she would check on my dog every hour. Over the course of the next 8 hours Summer very slowly gave birth to 4 puppies.  Healthy little buggers they are. 3 boys/1 girl – 2 blacks/1 brown black and 1 white. The littlest guy is a true solid black, no white at all and he was 4.5 ounces!

 

Much to my dismay, she did not have 42 puppies, but these four sure are keepers.