Graduation ceremony...

And announcing our little graduate! With Pomp and Circumstance playing in the background, we happily announce our little girl Emma has finished book 1 of Rod and Staffs 1st grade program. Meaning, she can read! Meaning, she gets her very own, smelly(leather) Bible to carry with her all through the evening and that is just what she did! The children before her have had this wonderful day pass. Daddy presented it to her tonight. Emma knows the most important reason we learn to read is to read God's Word for ourselves and to learn how He wants us to live. She was ecstatic when we found Prov 3:5-8(a scripture we recently memorized as a family) and she read most of it. She asked if we could stop and she jumped up, ran in the kitchen and yelled..."Daddy!! Proberbs 3 verses through 8 is in MY Bible!" We marked it and some others. She is beaming from head to toe. ;)

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Another little tradition our family looks forward to is buying whole stalks of brussels sprouts at the Green Barn every Fall. Then each child gets a knife and the whacking begins! Oodles and oodles of brussels sprouts. Did you know?...my children include brussels sprouts on the list for their birthday dinner? Yup. Did somethi'n right.

Something is awry as it took a lot of convincing and swapping for smaller brussels sprouts to get him to finish his plate. We will brainwash him as time goes on.


We decided to have hotdogs for dinner and not just any hotdogs but campfire hotdogs. Anything to make those cheap turkey and meat product dogs taste better. It worked quite nice. Jacob carved us sticks with his knife and everyone over 4 got to roast. Jessica had the perfect bed of coals fixed.

MMMmmmmm.....

What good is a weenie roast with marshmallows?

Ask him!

Children..

Three things happened in twenty minutes. First I am at the computer printing out puppy docs and I look over my shoulder and see Gracie picking up a full cup of water. I tell her "No, no" instead of acting on this disaster about to happen. Being the obedient 15 month old she is, she takes a large drink. Then comes the sputtering and choking. I now run to her aid...but there is no water to be found..the cup is empty and her face barely wet. The floor dry. Hmmmm....She is looking at me like a tidal wave is approaching in the background. Now I see it. A small steady stream leaking from the left tow of her pink sleeper and the left leg of said sleeper bulging with cold water. Gotta hand it to Carters, they make great waterproof sleepers. We drained Gracie and got her in dry clothes...she is once again hunting for cups of water and this time I will *act* instead of speaking.

Second, I needed to run downstairs to grab something that wasn't upstairs. I skipped down four steps and abruptly stopped because there appeared to be a sleeping toddler wedged on one stair holding his blanky and sucking his thumb. Oooooh...how cute. I didn't know he was tired, it is only 11:30am. I sweetly whisper "Micah....Micah, you want Mommy to bring you to bed?" He sits there for a moment actively sucking his thumb then his eyes pop open and he says "I not seeping, I dead! Danny hit me so I died on da stairs." O.k. then, ruin Mommy's fun...go be dead in your room, but not on the stairs.

Third, We have nothing against the cute little dressed up goblins tonight, we just do not celebrate the wretched holiday ourselves. My children are asked often this time of year what they are going to dress up as and they each have their simple explanation. Danny, 8, came up to me last night with serious big eyes and said "Mom, what will you DO if a trick-or-treater comes to the door?" (Like anyone is going to be trick-or-treating out here in Timbuktu) I told him we'd tell them how cute they are, pat them on the head, wave to their mamma in the car and kindly explain we have no candy because we do not celebrate H. I guess he thought we'd call the police or something, lol. We have never had a trick-or-treater at our house, I doubt we ever will, so sorry Danny that's not the kind of action you hoped for!

We have enjoyed this book as a family...

Keep those home fires burning...

Even after we released most my neighbors kennel dogs, didn't notice one of her dogs had a puppy the last day AND stole her crab cooker to can for a weekend that turned into 4 weeks, she STILL brought us a pizza for dinner last night! How great is that?!

My little *mommies* cuddling up and watching the Andy Griffith show. Look at those blondies!

I still think it odd Jessica is my only brown haired child.

I miss my hubby. He is working 6 days a week, 10 hours a day. Yesterday, today and tomorrow, 13 hours a day(leaves at 5:30am, home at 7:30pm). He comes home tired, but smiling. I am sure he had a lot to say last night after he came home, but he sits and entertains ME while I tell him aaaaaalll about my day, selfish little woman I am. So dear, when you read this on your lunch break, please expect to come home and I will sit and listen to your whoooole day, o.k.? So for a couple weeks I will be an excellent blogger, blogging nearly every day I bet! Then he can keep up on the home front, too. ;)

Batch Cooking

I am behind the times. It seems all my friends seem to have this down pat, but I haven't quite been motivated enough. After a pep talk from Cindy before church, I decided I would give it a try. I already have one batch cooking book and another that I hope my friend never remembers she lent to me. I really like it. So today with the wonderful help of my daughter Jessica, I was able to put away 40 C of red sauce for use with all kinds of recipes, 42 bean and beef burritos and 4 large batches of Beef Barley soup, double the veggies. I have more planned, but my surplus of pregnancy energy has been dwindling over the last couple days.

School was completed and corrected this morning, as usual, and then when the little ones went down at 2pm I enjoyed a nice conversation on the phone with a good friend and then canned the rest of my marrionberry jam. That one seemingly small frozen box of berries yielded just over 16 quarts. Not bad.

Jessica scooped up the the two youngest and asked if she could give them a bath tonight, sure! That gave me 45 of uninterrupted time to cook! She is the best.

Here are the children having a "Fall Party" You can't see it well, but all the play equipment is decorated in leaves and they made a jumping pile. They smelled so good when they came in! I love the smell of Fall leaves.

Blogger loves to put pictures in sideways for no apparent reason. Here is a pic I had to take of what Jacob considered a great job of scraping 8 cans of refried beans with a rubber spatula. Hmmm....

Don't tell my neighbor...

but we did a bad thing this morning. I babysit her dogs for her. She is a fellow breeder so babysitting means watching 20-30 dogs plus their puppies. I go there in the morning and in the evening to wash her kennels down, feed, water and give extra lov'n to the puppies.


That said, my son washes down the pens on the north while I wash the pens on the south and feed the pooches. So...there I am standing at the sink in the kennel house washing puppy bowls. I look out the pretty etched glass window overlooking their large greenhouses I so covet and I see 3...6...9...no MORE dogs all running by OUTSIDE of the kennel. I yelled for Jacob and just I as did he comes screaming out the side door apologizing that he accidentally left the gate unlatched. ARG!!!


So now we are chasing puppy dogs all over the neighborhood, they are thoroughly happy enjoying this blessed escape from the usual. Meanwhile the dogs IN the kennel are cheering them on, the yapping was deafening. PETA members would have died laughing at us. Pack animals they say? Oh no, they must be mistaken. These are not pack animals. It was like a fourth of July firework in the sky...dogs flying everywhere in every direction, all colors, all sorts. I now know what our new neighbors yard looks like down the road, I have ran the outskirts of their property several times.
After much sweet talk(which doesn't work) cornering, pouncing, and even a few tactical military-type ambush moves coordinated by my sons, we successfully rounded up aaaaaaall the dogs and got them back in their pens. I hope my neighbor won't notice smears of mud on a couple or their happy smiling faces. I got my exercise for the week, I'm not smiling. Sssshhhh...please don't tell her and maybe...just maybe....she won't... read... my blog.

What happens when the 14m old sweet little baby turns 15m of naughty little baby overnight. I was making marrionberry jam and she discovered the pot of puree'.

*I had no pictures for the day so I ran downstairs and graced you with a snap of our heavily fortified piano chair.

Return of Porky Man

Sheesh, what is this? Again, I leave thinking the two little ones are in bed, I come back and this is what I find on my camera. Thanks Jess...

A wild baby among assorted school books. It is that lazy susan, don't ever give the baby merry-go-round rides on the lazy susan, she will... never... forget.

Oh dear, Porky Man has arrived...again

See this post if you do not

understand the meaning of wet foot prints...

Crawled onto counter via the electric heater you KNOW you are NOT supposed to step on......check.

1/2 C of water dumped on head....check.

Combing hair in a *porky* fashion....check.

Make hair on back of head porky...check

Button Levis up after doing duties...um...yeah about that...

Am I not the coolest toddler you have ever met?

Yes, that is right...I am Porky Man and mirrors are my best friends.

Tradition

I have 15 minutes, can I do this?

Here is Gracie. She found Daddy's DQ Blizzard cup from Tuesday night. It seemed to have exploded on her face.

Can't tell you what year Stoney Ridge Farm first opened(neither could they) but I know we were there. All four of us. Daddy, Me, Jessica and baby Jacob. We love the fact they do not decorate for Halloween. Most people probably don't notice this, but we do. I emailed the Gavettes several years ago and thanked them for this little detail and they said they decided from the get-go to honor the Lord in that way. Neat. So here goes nothin....

We walked in, paid(for the first year) and jumped on the hay wagon all to ourselves! We beat the school groups by 5 minutes! And missed Grandma by 1 minute who came walking out to the field as our tractor pulled up, lol. Poor thing.

Here is my pioneer daughter and her pioneer baby.

The pumpkin patch! We go there to run through the pumpkins and spy crazy looking gourds. Then we went hunting for 4 of the biggest Hubbard squash we could find to can and freeze.

The corn maze! Last year Danny got lost, it is too big for children imo. He FINALLY came out just as my *paranoid* thermometer hit the top. This year they went in groups WITH walkie-talkies....they still got lost....but we communicated and used the cloud patterns as a way to find north and south and then OUT. It worked! Homeschooling at its best yet again.

Who is that crazy baby sitting next to me?

Back in the hay wagon to go pet animals, feed chickens and drink fresh pressed, hot apple cider. Grandma bought apple pull-aparts for all the kids, YUM!!

While we had coffee and hot apple caramel pie, oh yeah.

Here turkey, turkey, turkey...

"I wish I could get out of this stroller...I sure wish my boot wouldn't have fallen off while being carried to the van this morning, or I'd be walking now."

Group hug!!

One bunch of happy children!! I LOVE these years. I LOVE my mother for coming with and helping me. We had a great time and made great memories. My oldest son was noticeably bothered when he overheard a mother come skipping in the restaurant and say "We took the kids to school, then came back to enjoy ourselves!" Ouch. For me, it was one of those days you come home smiling, so very thankful I'm a momma. We had a blast together.

And then there is Jessica, who can't go anywhere without spying some little

critter hiding in the foliage to love and hug and hold.

Nope, my 15 minutes was up 5 minutes ago. Oh well.

"It's a boy" and Daily News

See the little bum and the nubbin in between the bum in picture #3 from yesterdays post? We are planning for a boy, but only the Lord knows it's true identity as He knits this little one together in the darkness. I will shop & I will eagerly look forward to another little boy...but keep the tags.

The birthday party was fun, but the children must have had too much sugar because boy it was action packed. Here you see my oldest daughter spinning my youngest daughter on the lazy susan. Try keeping the 15m old off the table after that!

Instead of making a chocolate cake, as the birthday boy requested, the birthday cake baker *accidentally* make brownies with chocolate frosting. We had baked trout for dinner with fruit salad and green beans. Not all that exciting, but what he wanted.

Here is the birthday boy today with his over 400 piece set already completed. He woke up very early, grabbed his legos and ran downstairs before the little ones woke to meddle with his new toy.
It is a rescue helicopter, a Jayhawk the boys tell me. This poor Lego man has been in the mouth of the shark more times than his plastic heart should stand. But then along comes the rescue helicopter and takes the mangled lego man away to the hospital....again. If you know my boys well, you know they have a friend in *high places*. Yesterday, Daniels birthday, we heard *the sound* and all pandemonium broke out in the house as everyone runs downstairs, throws their shoes on and runs out the door leaving it open. With in 15 sec there is the Blackhawk helicopter thundering circles over our home and everyone waves, yells and jumps for joy. The neighbor lady, mowing her lawn down the road, stops mowing and stares with her mouth open wondering what the J's have gotton themselves into now. As quickly as it came, it flew off, but it put a smile on the face of three boys(and a Daddy) for the rest of the day.

Off to dig up dahlias while the sun lasts!