Thanks Janel for the pictures!
More to come.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Baby Shower Preparations
We girls worked all day Thursday (and some of Friday) on food for the baby shower for Mom.
Dipping pretzels
frosting cookies
Frosting the cake at about midnight...
Pictures from the shower to come!!!
Dipping pretzels
frosting cookies
Frosting the cake at about midnight...
Pictures from the shower to come!!!
Happy birthday Paul!!!
Dad's birthday was on the 22nd.
Here is a picture of him from a VERY long time ago.
...and a more recent one.
Here is a picture of him from a VERY long time ago.
...and a more recent one.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
From the past
We have been sorting through all of our old photos recently and I thought I'd post a few.
This is Aud and Shan
Logan and Mia in 1994
Mia and Aud in 1995
Garth, Aud, Brady, Brock and Logan in 2003
This is Aud and Shan
Logan and Mia in 1994
Mia and Aud in 1995
Garth, Aud, Brady, Brock and Logan in 2003
Thursday, April 14, 2011
It was a long time in coming, but breakfast was finally over and we were ready to settle into somewhat of a normal school day at our house. Normal? At our house? Normal is subjectve here. Today's plans can suddenly become tomorrow's dreams.
This morning the semi truck we were expecting to deliver our load of phosphorous came, in itself not a big deal....only we hadn't anticipated he would back quite as far into the field to dump his load. He unloaded, but was then mired down in the soft field. I wasn't personally there to witness how the boys were able to extract the truck from the mud that bound him. I do know I was called at one point to deliver some ground shovels to the scene. Over the years I've learned that I'm better off unquestionably observing some things from afar, assisting when asked to, and then later adding to the collective sigh of relief when a thing is passed.
So, like I said, we were now ready to begin our school day. Generally school happens in our basement, but today it just seemed better to work at the kitchen table. I had Garth (12), Brady and Brock (11) and Trent (9) there working on a few things that they could do while I read from our current read aloud: Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorenson. We were just basking in the sights and sounds of a lovely autumn day in the woods with the characters in our book when suddenly the revving of a chain saw could be heard in our own back yard.
You try being the teacher and competing with a lumberjack in your back yard. Paul's mom had asked not long ago if we'd consider taking down the pine tree she had planted about twenty-five years ago. It was beginning to obscure the grape arbor next to it. Today was the day Logan (18) decided to take it down.
I have to say with a dad, a brother, a husband and now nine sons, I've learned to identify with the male mind by and by. Watching the mighty crash of a falling tree is, I suppose, infinitely more interesting to most boys than predicate nouns. Not, mind you, that predicate nouns and such aren't important, but let's be reasonable here! Who said every lesson in life comes from a textbook? I ran with them to watch the tree fall. Interestingly, Brock came in announcing they determined the tree to be about....you got it....twenty-five years old based on their counting of the rings. They hadn't been told ahead of time how old the tree was.
We did manage to eventually trudge back to the kitchen table to finish reading our chapter and to learn the finer points of reciprocating fractions. After a time we called it good, and the boys were dispatched to some odd jobs dad had waiting for them.
In the late afternoon Paul and a number of the children grabbed empty feed bags and began their yearly spring clean up of a winter's worth of accumulated trash in the fields immediately next to the three roads that border our farm. As usual, there was no shortage of discarded bottles, cans, and other sundry trash thrown from passing vehicle windows. If nothing else, I think all of our children are growing up with a healthy appreciation for proper litter disposal because they know how much time it takes to clean up after other people!
~Colleen
This morning the semi truck we were expecting to deliver our load of phosphorous came, in itself not a big deal....only we hadn't anticipated he would back quite as far into the field to dump his load. He unloaded, but was then mired down in the soft field. I wasn't personally there to witness how the boys were able to extract the truck from the mud that bound him. I do know I was called at one point to deliver some ground shovels to the scene. Over the years I've learned that I'm better off unquestionably observing some things from afar, assisting when asked to, and then later adding to the collective sigh of relief when a thing is passed.
So, like I said, we were now ready to begin our school day. Generally school happens in our basement, but today it just seemed better to work at the kitchen table. I had Garth (12), Brady and Brock (11) and Trent (9) there working on a few things that they could do while I read from our current read aloud: Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorenson. We were just basking in the sights and sounds of a lovely autumn day in the woods with the characters in our book when suddenly the revving of a chain saw could be heard in our own back yard.
You try being the teacher and competing with a lumberjack in your back yard. Paul's mom had asked not long ago if we'd consider taking down the pine tree she had planted about twenty-five years ago. It was beginning to obscure the grape arbor next to it. Today was the day Logan (18) decided to take it down.
I have to say with a dad, a brother, a husband and now nine sons, I've learned to identify with the male mind by and by. Watching the mighty crash of a falling tree is, I suppose, infinitely more interesting to most boys than predicate nouns. Not, mind you, that predicate nouns and such aren't important, but let's be reasonable here! Who said every lesson in life comes from a textbook? I ran with them to watch the tree fall. Interestingly, Brock came in announcing they determined the tree to be about....you got it....twenty-five years old based on their counting of the rings. They hadn't been told ahead of time how old the tree was.
We did manage to eventually trudge back to the kitchen table to finish reading our chapter and to learn the finer points of reciprocating fractions. After a time we called it good, and the boys were dispatched to some odd jobs dad had waiting for them.
In the late afternoon Paul and a number of the children grabbed empty feed bags and began their yearly spring clean up of a winter's worth of accumulated trash in the fields immediately next to the three roads that border our farm. As usual, there was no shortage of discarded bottles, cans, and other sundry trash thrown from passing vehicle windows. If nothing else, I think all of our children are growing up with a healthy appreciation for proper litter disposal because they know how much time it takes to clean up after other people!
~Colleen
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Spring Cleanup
Every spring, we are faced with the same job: picking up the trash that people have thrown out their vehicle windows as they drive past on the road. Our farm has about one mile of road frontage on three sides, so our exposure is pretty extensive.
Thursday, April 07, 2011
Evening with friends
Pictionary. . .
Its a lot of fun seeing what pictures people draw to illustrate words!!!
I think this game was called 'electricity.'
Two people watch while Shawn spins the quarter and the others face the other end of the table. When it lands on heads, the two guys watching have to squeeze the hand of the person next to them and they do the same down the line as fast as they can.
When the two people at the very end of the table feel the squeeze, they try to grab the towel before the other gal does. It really tests your reaction time!!!
'Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget.'
Its a lot of fun seeing what pictures people draw to illustrate words!!!
I think this game was called 'electricity.'
Two people watch while Shawn spins the quarter and the others face the other end of the table. When it lands on heads, the two guys watching have to squeeze the hand of the person next to them and they do the same down the line as fast as they can.
When the two people at the very end of the table feel the squeeze, they try to grab the towel before the other gal does. It really tests your reaction time!!!
'Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget.'
Tuesday, April 05, 2011
Busted!
This morning I knew the field was too muddy to drive in with the pickup. I parked out by the road and the twins carried the feed to the chicken buses in by hand. This evening on our trip to gather the eggs, well, it hadn't rained all day, and the twins persuaded me to drive in against my better judgement.
Ummmm....when we got back, Paul says, "Who was peeling out in the field?" He just had to hear me, 1/2 a mile away with the windows shut! I assured him we never actually bogged down stuck at any moment, but just sailed right out. Yeah right, then why is Brady hosing the truck off just now??
So, I was mudding with Paul's truck with the twins and we got caught.....I guess we'll be walking tomorrow morning. :)
Tonight, Paul's mom, our resident Gramma, invited all the children and me to her house for a snack. (Paul is at a church meeting.) Gramma spoils my children (and me!). They are forever coming home with a cookie or some such because they either dumped her table scraps to the pigs or got her mail or...or...or... Tonight the treat was in reward for all the water the boys have been bailing from her basement due to a faulty drain.
Gramma is not your average 73 year old Grandmother. She was out with a shovel earlier today shoveling said plugged drain way out behind the house*. Like, how many other 73 year olds do that? Quite apologetically she'll confess once in a while that she just doesn't feel as good as she used to and she sure can tell she'll slowing down. LOL. (*Brady did go out and help her after he discovered what she was doing.) Our Gramma is the unsung hero type who lives in the shadows doing amazing things.
After the snack, I stayed for a while to help her put a few stitches in the baby quilt she is making for her latest upcoming grandchild (our 13th, due in just about 6 weeks for those who didn't know this before ;) ). That woman has made a hand quilted baby quilt for every one of her now 20 grandchildren! What special treasures those are! (Both the children and the quilts....) While we were quilting some of the boys were looking at the little books she's made for each of them over the years. They like to hear her tell the same stories about, "When you were little...." over and over again.
~Colleen
Ummmm....when we got back, Paul says, "Who was peeling out in the field?" He just had to hear me, 1/2 a mile away with the windows shut! I assured him we never actually bogged down stuck at any moment, but just sailed right out. Yeah right, then why is Brady hosing the truck off just now??
So, I was mudding with Paul's truck with the twins and we got caught.....I guess we'll be walking tomorrow morning. :)
Tonight, Paul's mom, our resident Gramma, invited all the children and me to her house for a snack. (Paul is at a church meeting.) Gramma spoils my children (and me!). They are forever coming home with a cookie or some such because they either dumped her table scraps to the pigs or got her mail or...or...or... Tonight the treat was in reward for all the water the boys have been bailing from her basement due to a faulty drain.
Gramma is not your average 73 year old Grandmother. She was out with a shovel earlier today shoveling said plugged drain way out behind the house*. Like, how many other 73 year olds do that? Quite apologetically she'll confess once in a while that she just doesn't feel as good as she used to and she sure can tell she'll slowing down. LOL. (*Brady did go out and help her after he discovered what she was doing.) Our Gramma is the unsung hero type who lives in the shadows doing amazing things.
After the snack, I stayed for a while to help her put a few stitches in the baby quilt she is making for her latest upcoming grandchild (our 13th, due in just about 6 weeks for those who didn't know this before ;) ). That woman has made a hand quilted baby quilt for every one of her now 20 grandchildren! What special treasures those are! (Both the children and the quilts....) While we were quilting some of the boys were looking at the little books she's made for each of them over the years. They like to hear her tell the same stories about, "When you were little...." over and over again.
~Colleen
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)