Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Bible Buddies

I've been doing a little Bible story time for preschoolers.  Gyunay really enjoys it, and it is at the preschool he will attend in the fall, so it is making him more comfortable with transitioning to a new school.  Here he is showing off his sheep (while eating kholrabi):
He made the sheep all by himself, and he was very proud of that!  I read a picture book that illustrated Psalm 23 (by Barry Moser) to the children, and we talked about how David was a shepherd before he was king, and how he wrote songs for God.  The kids loved making the sheep and using the musical instruments.  Granted, we didn't have harps, and shaky eggs are not exactly like what David used, but hey, it was good.

Then, there was our Memorial Day weekend.  Usually, it is the weekend of Nathaniel's big kayak trip, but the river was too high, and only one of his friends was going to kayak anyway, so instead that friend and his wife and their kids joined us for a fabulous weekend.  The kids all had a blast.  We ended up taking all of us to a lake with the kayaks, and then took turns.  (We have 4 kayaks, so it really worked out well for the 12 of us.)  And although it was supposed to storm most of the weekend, the weather ended up being beautiful.


Sunday, May 21, 2017

Last week

It's felt like summer here the last week, and Gyunay has been enjoying daily water gun fights.  Malachi is pretty much always ready for one, so the two of them enjoy spraying each other frequently, but everyone joins in some days.
The chickens apparently don't mind the heat; they laid 61 eggs last week.
The gardens are looking better all the time.  We've been harvesting a handful of radishes, pea pods, and herbs every few days.
And I took the kids to pick strawberries yesterday.  We did really well in a short amount of time - about 16 pounds in 40 minutes.  Elijah and Lydia are very good strawberry pickers.  Malachi isn't, but he kept Gyunay occupied.  Gyunay has no desire to actually pick the berries; he just wants to carry the bucket, but this is best when the bucket is nearly empty, since he spills frequently.  They also have a little petting "zoo" area, where the kids were thrilled to see a newborn goat, among other goats, donkeys, and sheep.  Malachi, of course, spent most of his time with the chickens.  We may go back and pick strawberries again.  So far, we've had strawberry shortcake, strawberry crisp, and today I hope to make strawberry jam, but we could always use some more strawberries.  Those fresh ones are so good, and don't last long!


Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Pea Pods and Snappy

I harvested the first of our pea pods today!
Notice the dark purple one?  It tastes like the green ones, but is a very striking pod.  Gyunay promptly ate some of these pods, and I ate the rest.  I should have saved some for Malachi; he likes them, too, but I forgot about that until after they were gone.  But there are many more to come, so he will get his chance in about 2 days.

Also, Lydia found a tiny snapping turtle in the backyard.  She named it "Snappy" and had fun playing with it for about a half hour before releasing it by the pond.  

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

A Girl and a Frog

Lydia was delighted to find this frog on the deck after school today.  She's always looking for frogs.

I'm not sure if she remembers the princess and the frog fairytale, but I'm confident that she'd rather have a frog than a prince any day!


Book Review - A Love So True by Melissa Jagears

A Love So True (Teaville Moral Society)I stayed up way too late to finish this book, and it was well worth it.  A novel set in 1908 about a woman who helps orphans and tries to get women out of prostitution would always catch my attention, and this one is well-written.  I loved the complexity of the characters, and that although they certainly had good moral characters, they didn't come across as "holier-than-thou".  Also, often when writers take on social problems in the past, they project a more modern viewpoint onto the characters, but that wasn't the case here.

This book is the second in a series, but I didn't read the first.  This is easily a stand-alone novel, although for fans of the first book, the main characters in it are minor characters in this one.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I highly recommend it.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher, Bethany house, for the purpose of writing a review, but all opinions are my own.

Thursday, May 4, 2017

Playing with Chickens

A couple of days ago, the weather was perfect, and the kids had a lot of fun playing with the chickens.





These are their "chicken ninja" shots.  They are showing the chicken's feet in ninja pose,  According to my kids, our chickens are ninjas who secretly protect the innocent.

Gyunay really didn't want his picture taken, so I only got him incidentally.  He enjoys petting the chickens, but he is now nervous about holding them.  ("Too little!  I too little!")  He used to hold them when Malachi or Lydia handed them to him, but not right now.

Monday, May 1, 2017

Bikers

Elijah was sick, and Malachi was at a birthday party, so we took the younger two for some biking fun on Saturday.
Gyunay has decided that he likes this trike best.  He flies on it!  The adaptive bar is off, and he no longer needs it.

And Lydia also enjoyed getting to really ride her new bike.  

This is a very old picture, from when we lived in Madisonville and we only had two little boys.  I dug out this picture for the 8th grade slide show- it's Elijah, age 1 1/2, helping Mama bake.