Emma found everyone’s shoes and Micah shined them for church. I love the line up,

so sweet to have all those feet ;)

Ollie Bollen

Doris Jean’s Donuts!

Every year we try to go into town and celebrate a little Dutch heritage by enjoying some ollie bollen. And no, Dee, they do not even come close to yours!  

  

Elijah Wilhem is named after his five of his forefathers that date back to 1560 something. All of them named Wilhem(Vil-um).

Jessica was at a party, so a part of us was missing, but we(they) still downed 1.5 dozen ollie bollen nonetheless.

 

Grace looOOooved her oly-bawlin, but Micah was disappointed we didn’t end up at the bowling alley as he had thought.

Friday night celebration

What better way to celebrate than a surprise pajama ride? Paul has been very ill for 5 days. He even missed three days of work! In a nutshell, he has a salivary gland that produces stones maybe once every two years, much like kidney stones, and they have to pass from a gland near his neck out through a duct under his tongue.

For five days he has had this duct plugged by a suspected stone. Swelling, pain, unable to eat and drink thus unable to take meds…it has been difficult waiting it out, to say the least. Well, this morning the stone had arrived to the surface and he pulled it out. Much pain. But it is out and now the infection can drain. He is talking tonight and eating! Praise the Lord it is over and he is on the mend. Thank you for those of you who were praying and checking up on him. So to celebrate Daddy being better, he took the children all on a pajama ride. 4 caramel, 2 strawberry and 1 chocolate sundae, please. 

Now, I’m off to bed after last night’s slumber party, I am looking forward to my own bed ;)

Slumber party!

Wow, what a night! A craft with glitter, a big tent, sleeping bags, Sergeant York(the movie), popcorn, giggles. It started with all five of us ladies, but we made a rule that if you urped milk on the carpet you had to go to bed. Unfortunately, Lydia didn’t last 20 minutes.

 

We started at 8:30pm with this snowflake craft I found in Family Fun magazine. Q-tips, Tacky Glue and sparkles. Try it! You glue the intersections together, sprinkle sprinkles, flip when dry and do the other side the same. These should last for many years if packed away carefully. LOVE it!

Aren’t they pretty? We are going to hang ours from the ceiling around our Christmas tree.

We built a large tent and all piled in, even the dog ;)  Watched most of Sergeant York and ate popcorn. You mammas would be proud, twice I got up to nurse the baby and every square inch of my body hurt from sleeping on that floor and I resisted the temptation to crawl in my bed.

I was surprised at how much my daughters loved this. I really need to do this more, it was so much fun to have a slumber party again!

He got his duck!

 

Finally, after many cold mornings of tromping around the irrigation ponds and ditches, he shot his first duck!

A Mallard hen who made us some incredible duck jerky…mmmmm….more duck please.

 

That was one happy young man.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Emma reading a story to her little siste…chicken. Yes, folks, she was honestly reading a book to her chicken, The Speckledy Hen, no less. It even came packed in a crate with us to Thanksgiving dinner. <sigh>

 

 

Since I finally found my camera cord, we had fun with pictures today. I love the circle of heads and have had this *pose* with all my children for years on my cell phone. LOVE it.

Lyddybug is even getting in on the fun! She is such a ham. 

 

As I was taking the picture, I was thinking hokey pete that’s a lot of children! 

“Many hands make light work”

Patience is a Virtue

Jacob and Daddy are pulling in the driveway as I type.  Jacob’s face is happy, but not thrilled, so I know there is yet again, no duck in hand.  He took the hunter safety course and passed with flying colors. He bought his ammo, practiced, dressed in everything camo he could find only to spend many walks(with Daddy) around the irrigation ponds to either flush ducks, shoot and miss or find no ducks. Today he flushed up 5 at once, shot and missed….again. It was hard. He prays to the Lord of Creation and knows in His time he will provided the ducks and the kill. It’s still hard(for mamma) watching him come home every night or morning empty handed. It will be a sweet, sweet day when the Lord decides it is time to make the shot and the duck connect. Praise the Lord for teaching my children patience and contentment through His gentle lessons.

“…more than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Romans 5:3-5

Spring is coming!

O.k., so it is, yet again, a little too early to speak these words out loud…but we dreamed about it yesterday.

Jacob went out to milk yesterday morning and when he got in I asked him if he had watched the goat for 2m. This is something the children have had to do after milking the last few days to catch Junie in heat. For 12 hours, once every three weeks, she wags her tail like a puppy. We watch her like a hawk. Anyhow, he had not remembered and so he put his coat back on and out he ran. Within seconds he came a’running in the house with two thumbs up. I, then, had to emerge from my toasty warm house to double check. The boys loaded her up in the back of my van and off we raced to visit the G’s buck.

We now have a due date of April 2 and the anticipating is building already!

Guinea Pig

Oreo needs to move on down the road. Anyone interested in a guinea pig? He comes with cage, bedding, food…everything. He’s friendly, will eat all your veggie scraps and is quiet. We are asking $20 for the whole works.