Camping Fun

 

We had our annual family camping trip last weekend, and the weather was gorgeous.

We went on plenty of walks, and Lydia and Gyunay were able to spend more time camping with their dad, since they went up Thursday morning.  The teens and I weren't able to leave until Friday evening, but we still had a good trip.

Book Review - The Key to Love by Betsy St. Amant

 

Can I just start by saying that I love the author's last name for a romance novelist?  The story itself is good.  I enjoyed the main characters, and although Gerard is very prickly in the beginning, I found his character development very nice.  His interactions with the town pastor were well done, too.  Overall, this is a good contemporary romance, with some humorous parts.  The author threw in some twists.  I really enjoyed the story overall, although it did drag just a bit in a few places.  This would be a great vacation read, because it's easy and enjoyable. 

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

Chicks and Pumpkins

 

The kids enjoyed playing with the chickens in the third yard on this beautiful fall day.

Gyunay and Lydia like finding worms to feed the chickens.  Lydia found this huge grub. I love her face in the second picture, though:

And here is Malachi with his favorite chick, the lavender orpington.  He's still debating a name for her.  He's wanted one of these chickens for years.

Lydia had a good time arranging our front porch for fall.  Some pumpkins/cushaws we grew, and some are from the orchard.  The butternut squash and spaghetti squash are from the farmer's market.  Elijah plans on making the big green one into a jack-o-lantern.

Wrecks and Rainforests

Gyunay made a rainforest diorama.  He has been studying South America in geography, and so we did some extra on tropical rainforests.  He did a great job, and he really enjoyed this activity.  We didn't have any toy jaguars, so Lydia drew dots on some of the lions with a dry-erase marker for him.  

Yesterday, Elijah and Malachi were in a car wreck on the way to school.  Gyunay kept asking questions on what happened, so Malachi brought out the cars from the Life game:  

 

September Harvest Totals

 Beans, crescent - 2.2 lbs

Beans, dragon - 10.4 oz

Beans, Kentucky Wonder - 1.4 lbs

Beans, runner - 2.4 oz

Carrots - 27

Chicken - 47.9 lbs

Chicken hearts - 13

Cucumber, Edmondson - 73

Cucumber, pickling - 6

Cushaw - 1 (19 lbs)

Eggs - 41

Jalapenos - 7

Peppers, Bulgarian - 5

Pumpkin, Long Island Cheese - 1 (19 lbs)

Tomatillos - 4.9 lbs

Tomato, Golden Jubilee -6 (1 lb)

Tomato, Purple Russian - 1 (1.4 oz)

Tomato, St. Pierre - 3 (11.8 oz)

Radish - 2 

Squash, yellow - 2

Happy Michaelmas

The kids are decorating for Michaelmas.  Lydia did the flower arrangement herself from our yard.  It turns out that she is quite good at it.  She is currently making a second arrangement.

We had a good time this past weekend.  We went to see family, and we were so happy to have the visit!  We also picked pumpkins and enjoyed apple cider slushies.

Now I have more apples to process.  I have been making and canning applesauce, but I'm about to change to making cinnamon apple jam.  It's all so good!

 

New Adventures

 

First up, I finally have a table that can seat at least 8.  This bench opens to store my muck boots and doubles as Gyunay's new favorite seat

Of course, he also wrote all over the lid with pencil the first day I brought up the bench.  I don't know what got into him; he hasn't written on anything in years.  

Nathaniel found this table and benches for sale, and he sanded it down for me so I could stain it.  I love it.

The kids and I headed to Spring Mill to meet my mother-in-law for the weekend.  We had a marvelous time.

Spring Mill is my favorite state park to visit, and we had a great time.  Gyunay had never been, and Lydia was too young to remember it at all.  Elijah and Malachi were quite young the last time we went there.