How lucky were we

to get a live band performance for the evening!

Herm, John and Bob VH came over tonight and gave us a special treat!

I guess these guys all played together a couple months back(I missed it). We fell for their family, they fell for ours. These three men are from a family of 11 boys and 2 girls, one of those *girls* is our neighbor.

Neither of them can read a lick of music, everything is by ear. They each play a minimum of two instruments. Jon taught both Jacob and I some new tricks on the guitar.

Herm on Dobro, Jon on acoustic guitar, Jacob on acoustic, Daniel on the fiddle, Micah on spoons and Bob on the bass. Jessie and Ems vocals - Gracie was on tambourine and Elijah was on shaker off camera.

What a blast. These guys have hearts of gold and were so patient and mentoring. Thank you! Catch them at the Lynden Community Center this Friday at 12:30pm,  our kids might be joining them for a few songs.

It was one of those nights I just sat back, watched my kiddos and thanked God for His goodness to our family. Where He’s brought us. My sweet children who love each other, their smiles, their brilliance, their cheerfulness, their talent, their hearts for hymns and singing…it was a wonderful night.

Sweet sleep..

…with a brother is best.

She’s legal….

AAAaaaaaaahhhhh!!! This happened too fast.

I told her to expect to be turned away because we didn’t have enough ID. I told her to expect to flunk the first test. I told her to be patient. I tried to protect her from being disappointed, BUT she passed and in two hours we left with a permit. We prayed before we went in and the Lord just made it so smooth and blessed her with the kind man she leaned over and told me she “hoped she’d get”.

That was the easy part, now giving her the wheel will be cause for much more anxiety…for me. Yay Jess! We are so proud of you!

Happy birthday..

…to the sweetest, kindest, most handsomest man I know.

The Lord gave my men seven beautiful trout this morning for his birthday…not bad.

Yesterday, we had fun taking family pictures! Here is Paul, me and Paul’s Dad. He is feeling much better this week!

Dead birds don’t eat…

 

At least, that is what Elijah(3) learned today. A neighbor called last night and said an exotic bird was attached to her screen door and wanted in. Jessica ran over on her bike and saved the little escaped, runaway blue bird from the elements.

She brought her home and kept her calm, covered and quiet. That wasn’t enough, however, the stress was too much. In the morning, the little parakeet was nestled in the corner of her cage… dead. Much to everyone’s disappointment, especially a very curious toddler, we could not play with a new pet.

That didn’t stop Elijah. He really wanted that bird to wake up. Periodically, while walking through the dining room, I looked over and saw the bird, face down in her food dish. Several minutes later, floating in her water bowl. It still didn’t hit me. Several minutes later, back in the food bowl with it’s head rolled in food and this time Elijah standing guilty-like by the cage. O.k., that’s just wrong. Get the dead bird OUT of here. Wash and sanitize the 3 yr old. <Sigh> Toddlers. Gotta love ‘em. 

Grind that meat

 

Grinding the meat into hamburger was a before dinner family event tonight. Thanks to the T’s lending us their super duper meat grinder, we ground all the meat in record time.  Thank you T’s!

 

40lbs

Backyard Beef Butcher’in

2012 has been the year of the Butcher. Thus far, we have butchered, for the first time, a goat and a sheep. But today, toDAY, we stepped up in the world. (Exhaling a warm breath upon my fingernails and shining them on my shirt;)

It all started with a phone call. We had just spent the morning singing with our sweet friends at the local rest home and I was settling in to a productive laundry day, I thought, when I got the call. A neighbor’s yearling beef heifer had just cut herself beyond repair. He said she was perfectly fat and happy until the accident and he needs to put her down…now. The local butchers would not fit it in. His options? Putting her down and disposing of her, or  calling that odd homeschooling family who eat sheep and goats and see if, you know, they’ll slaughter a beef heifer the fly. He has stumbled upon many of our butchering times together and loves the fact we’re not afraid of a little blood and hard work.  ;)

But, Paul was at work. I distinctly remember thinking to the Lord. “Lord, should I really do this? I have so much to do today. I really can’t pass up your provision. Help me pull this off. We’ll roll with it Lord, please let me look back at the end of this day and be thankful for whatever I am getting ourselves into.”

“Boys? Are you up for butchering a heifer?”

“REALLY?!!! Mom, really?! A whole cow? We are SO there.”

“Yes. We’ll take the heifer off your hands.”

A half hour later the 44 mag did it’s job(Mr. C did that part…ewe…ewe…ewe) and they bled her out and got her lifted up with the tractor bucket. The boys started skinning, but the job was obviously nothing like a goat or a sheep. Discouragement crept in when we realized our knives were dull and this cow had an udder. An udder? Really? I didn’t know what to do with an udder. I called my friend Mindy whose husband used to be a butcher…he’d know what to do with the udder. She gave me Brian’s cell number. He confidently gave instructions…hmmm, I’m not convinced we can take this on.

Back out we walked and stared at the huge, hanging carcass. I usually do not come and hang out with the butcherers until AFTER the head is off. For some reason, it is at this point that it goes from a “aaawww, the poor thing” to “carcass” and I can handle the whole ordeal. Well, the head was on, it was staring at me, and I was skinning a dead sweet heifer. Did I mention my husband was at work? I suddenly felt this was not the right thing to do and it may be easier to just cut hunks of roast out and call it good. Then Jacob hollered “Mr. W is coming down our road!” Thank you Lord.

Mr. W got off work and drove to our house to survey the beast. He convinced me it was too good a deal to leave. He drove aaaaall the way back home, got dressed, got on his tractor and drove aaaall the way back to our house. Our tractor was overloaded with such weight and his picked it up with ease.

  

Long story short. Brian took pity on us and carved the beast FOR us. Tenderloins, filet mignon, roasts and hamburger meat. Identifying each piece as he carefully carved them out, patiently teaching Jacob. Then my hardworking man pulled in the driveway! He was pretty excited with all the meat harvested and jumped in. We processed, packaged and froze it all tonight. We have many, many pounds of boneless meat. Gorgeous, red, lean, yearling beef.

The cutest butcher this side of the Mississippi. Luv ya babe…

I had mentioned to Mr. W how it hit me we never got to school today. He reminded me THIS was school today, education at it’s finest. Jacob really stepped up to the plate in Daddy’s absence, Danny…well, Danny has a broken arm and he did what he could, and Gracie? She, matter of factly, wondered what in the world were we doing with that cow upside down?

The children are excited to have chunk of meat tomorrow night for dinner, beef NOT in ground form. Is there such a thing? We will feast like kings with humble hearts before our Lord who never ceases to surprise us with His unique provision of food, often with an educational twist.

I AM thankful at the end of our day, so thankful we took on this seemingly overwhelming task, and that the Lord orchestrated the whole thing and made it work. Thank you again Mindy for lending us your talented husband!

He’s Seven!

Celebrating Miker T. Biker’s birthday! He learned how to read this last year, and write, use a sander, jump his bike, add and subtract numbers…many other fun things too. Miker is always full of questions, calls me “beautiful mamma” and reminds us always to pray at every meal. He is a leader. He loves Jesus and learning more about God’s Word. He loves helping mamma around the house, opens my car door and is truly a gentleman.We love you so much Miker!

_{disclaimer: Sickness kept us home from church.}

Two chicks from his sister Emma

A kite!

The grand finale was a custom built trike by Daddy, Jacob and Daniel. Two Browning machine guns mounted to the handle bars and painted camo. Complete with sparklers in the guns to produce a cool charred affect in the guns.

We think he liked it.

Gracie and Lillie the one-eyed dog enjoying the sunshine today. I chose to milk this morning and it was sooo therapeutically wonderful to sit out there and talk to my goats. It doesn’t get any better than this.