The calm before the storm...

We were on our way home from a wonderful family reunion today and as we drove home it hit me that summer is almost over. I still have summer projects that need completion...painting, gardening, organizing and then it hit... SCHOOL. School starts next month. And music lessons.

We are going to the Redwood Forest in Northern California on a family adventure pulling the trailer. This will be the first two weeks of Sept so we won't start school until mid Sept. Not that it matters, once we start we put our nose to the grindstone and rarely take days off. For those of you who don't homeschool it is about two and a half hours of total time each day for schooling(Jessie is in sixth grade now and will take a half hour more, here and there). So it isn't like school is this time consuming, all day event. However, I still have a bit of prep to do. I forgot where each child is and need to haul out the books and reacquaint myself.

Emma STARTS school this Fall so I have another student! And the best kind too, a First Grader. So sweet and innocent, minds like steal traps, full of bubbling excitement, I love teaching my first graders! If you are wondering, we do not do preschool or kindergarten. I am excited to think Emma will be reading herself a book by Christmas. Once she finishes her second shiny reader from Rod and Staff curriculum, Daddy presents her with her own new Bible to read. Each of our children have their own Bibles that Daddy presented to them upon completion of their second reader. The #1 reason we learn to read is to learn God's love and commandments, to learn about Jesus! I love it because this curriculum teaches that all the way through.

Before school starts I had promised myself I'd get my children on a more organized chore schedule. I ordered this fabulous book many of my friends rave about. Managers of their Chores. It is all about organizing a household with any number of children(1-15) starting at age 2 to get a simple chore system set up. I can't wait. I have pictures in my mind of all my children with smiles on their faces, skipping around the house doing their chores happily, while I read a book. Hmmmm.....That will take a lot of work, but it is a goal.

So, off to go through school books...

It's hot.

Yes, I am blogging a lot. I am reading a lot. I am sitting in my house a lot. That is because it is over 95 today. I am a Washingtonian, I can't take this.(Yes, Cynthia, I hear you snickering) My house is air conditioned by two window air conditioners, so that is one plus to having a smaller house! The big kids are in the pool, the little ones are napping and I am going to grab another book and go lay on the couch. Dawn, I know you are at the NNWFair today, my heart goes out to you.

Rise and shine...

Somewhere in the dark early morning hours I heard a scuffle of children and a daddy getting ready to go fishing at Silver Lake. They packed the boat the night before and could hardly get to sleep. I woke only because in the fumbling to get dressed someone accidentally threw their shoes on top a sleeping 3 yr old, who woke with a vengeance. After tucking him back in I crawled back in my comfy bed quickly praying the Lord would keep them safe from hitting a deer on their way up. And He did.


I was called 5 minutes before they arrived to get my camera ready so from that I knew the trip was successful. Jacob and Jessica limited out(5 ea) Danny caught 4 and Daddy caught 2, only because he was too busy taking fish off the line and re-baiting hooks. I have never seen this many fish out of that lake in one morning in my life!
They were big! The best part is we have 16 rainbow trout and only had to buy one license! Talk about a cheap dinner! We had planned on BBQ salmon tonight, needless to say it turned into BBQ trout...I, however, will still have salmon. Mmmmm....

Japanese Spagetti

One of our FAVORITE dinners, very inexpensive and great taste.

Of course, I double it.

1/2 lb thin spaghetti, cooked
1/2 head cabbage
1/2 lb cooked chopped bacon
4 scallions (we use green onions)
soy sauce(we use tamari)

Fry bacon until crisp. Remove all but 2 T bacon fat and cook the cabbage and scallions for 3 minutes in the fat. Add bacon and cooked spaghetti then and add soy sauce to taste(about 3T). This is soooo yummy and every child loves it.

A Day at the Fair & a Scary Evening

It's over. And for some strange reason I don't feel a sad ping in my heart or want to go back. We pulled up to a *close* parking place about four blocks away from the entrance, right next to a lot that charged $6, the Dutch side of me liked that. We packed up and hit the road walking. We picked Thursday because last year the attendance was at it's least that day, well, this year it was 85 degrees. My support hose and I were in a love/hate relationship all day. They are like wearing leggings under a long skirt(hot), but then again I couldn't walk without them so I am thankful for them.

So here are some of my pictures...

The Lego/K'nex exhibit. Jacob won Best of Division here two years in a row so we like to come drool over all the models.
Milk a *cow*. Then a nice lady measures the milk(cloudy water) and tells you how much got. We learned Jacob will be assigned to goat milking duty when I get my goat. And yes honey...I will get my goat ;-P

We happened to catch the only day my niece Shannon was competing with her horse in the ring. She did so well!The only picture of me. Paul snapped it as I was taking a drink from his backpack/waterpack. Nice, thanks honey.

Emma on a loom weaving. How fun!

Jessica on the big loom weaving a large piece of fabric.

Can't go to The Fair without playing the ducky game!

Or shooting the balloons. Can you say "sucker"? 5 kids all begging to play a couple games spells t-r-o-u-b-l-e.


And then the best part of the day....Moo-Wiches all around.

Micah and I shared a strawberry funnel cake. I think his fork was magnetically attracted to all the fresh strawberries.

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Daniel added much excitement to our excursion this year. The evening was cooling and we were finally ready to go visit the Whatcom County Sheriff and Border Patrol sections, our sons favorite part! All those officers, so little time. Plus they have the best(tax payer paid) free stuff. So as we walk into the Sheriffs tent. I start talking to an officer about... "Jen, where's Daniel?" Paul says...the officer I am talking to won't stop talking so I nicely tell him I need to find my son and I walk out. We are very careful with the children at events and watch them constantly. Paul is pushing the stroller around in the crowded field looking and whistling for Danny. I start walk half a block away and find a group of medics who I tell to watch for Daniel and they start eyeing the crowd. I could NOT remember what Daniel was wearing, my mind was starting to panic. I prayed for the Lords help the second Paul asked me where Daniel was, but after that I panicked when he didn't show up quickly. All the thoughts that run through your mind!

A medic told me to go to a certain building and report him so all security could be alerted, they have a system set up for this. I ran over there with Emma and walked in to the ladies at the desk and told them we couldn't' find my son, this is about ten minutes later. I filled out an amazingly long lost child report(without a description of what he was wearing) and THEN they radioed security. I sat down with Emma, I lost it.

If I didn't read Fox News, I could have handled it better. Another looong few minutes went by and an officer called in and said he had a lost blond Daniel by the hand. I lost it again. I had to stay and claim him then sign a release form. I called Paul on his cell and told him he was found and just at that moment the officer and Daniel walked past them and he took Daniel. I signed the forms and we met up, stunned and not quite knowing what to do. That was the point we grabbed our desert and left, that about killed me! All this happened within 15-20 minutes and let me tell you if felt like an hour had past.

Daniel had kept walking when we stopped and disappeared into the crowd. He said he got scared after looking for us and found an elderly man who looked safe because he couldn't find an officer and asked the man if he knew "Where my parents are?". That man then took him right away to an officer. So Daniel did well, it just wasn't quick enough for a mother's heart.

The Fair

We are heading off for a day at our town's Northwest Washington Fair today. We have decided to be lame parents and NOT to do rides this year. We usually open and close the place and see hundreds of long lost friends. Since I grew up here, & Paul was here all through high school, it is amazing how many of the people you know. I love just seeing old friends and catching up. I know old friends gasp at us when they see us with 6 children in tow, in a sick sort of way I like seeing their expressions. Unfortunately, half of my graduating class is divorced now, literally half. I am sure Paul's class isn't too far behind, since I graduated from Lynden Christian High and he Lynden Public School. Hmmmmm.

Well, off to eat mini-donuts, poffertjes, moo-wiches, caramel apples, cotton candy, kettle corn, elephant ears, waffle fries, those big sloppy german sausage sandwiches and a stop at ye good ole Woods Coffee for a mocha with half the chocolate....can you say Jenny Craig for the rest of the week???


Shhhhh...don't tell the kids I really only go for the food!

Oh...and the dahlias.

Blueberry Orange Muffins

Jacob, Daniel and I went to a local blueberry farm to U-pick. We got 40lbs of organic blueberries, 20lbs we picked/20lbs the nice lady gave me. I want to go back today. Jacob is an aspiring baker. He has a friend Mitchell who cooks better than I do, it sounds, and has since loved to bake goodies in the kitchen! Thanks Mitchell! So Jacob pulled out my favorite recipe for Blueberry Orange Muffins and I now have 10 dz mini-muffins on my counter, minus 20 for lunch, Gracie couldn't get enough!. They are SOOOO good.

Blueberry Orange Muffins (the large recipe. We freeze so they stick around)

6 C flour
2 T + 2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1 C sugar
1 T salt

2 C frozen blueberries, thawed

1 C chopped nuts(opt)

2/3 C orange juice(I fresh squeeze old oranges, then add a little water to make 2/3)
2 eggs
2 C milk
1 C butter
2 T grated orange peel

Put everything in a Bosch and turn on low for about a minute.

**OR**

Sift dry ingredients together. Stir in blueberries and nuts, tossing lightly until coated. Beat remaining ingredients together. Pour into flour mixture. Stir until dry ingredients are moistened. Spoon into greased muffin tins(mini-muffins less crumbs with kids!) Bake at 425 for 20 minutes or till golden brown. Yield 45 muffins or 10dz mini-muffins. (Cut in half for original recipe. I will even triple this recipe when I have the ingredients on hand, every large family needs a Bosch!)

Beat'n up dad..

Why is it all little boys like to *play* beat people up?. We were trying to watch the airshow as a family on Sunday afternoon out in our neighbors field and I kept hearing my two *boys* thrashing on each other. So in between taking pictures of the airshow, I'd glance back and snap one of the boys.

Daddy starts it by putting Micah in a headlock when he was snuggled in to watch the airplanes. He didn't care for that.

OOOOooooohhhh.......

AAAAAaaaaahhhhhh.....

Micah has had enough, he starts beating on daddy's chest...respectfully of course.

The wrestling match escalates...

O.k., that doesn't work so he starts pouncing all his body weight in one blow upon daddy's chest.

We all shake our heads and enjoy the rest of the show...We hate to see them all go home, even if they are loud.
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Some of my pretty dahlias..

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Consumer Report:

BTW, dont buy the *pretty* new red corn in the grocery store...it turns brown after cooking and tastes nothing like a good ole ear of sweet corn.