Pictures

Experimenting with homemade ink!

Garrison showing off his Raspberry Gelato and Elyssia was so excited that she photobombed it:).

Outlining and shading... It looks like Samuel is our 3rd left handed child!

Homemade Mozzarella Goat Cheese, Homemade Bread and Samuel after enjoying the homemade chocolate pudding that we made with goats milk!


Another sunny day filled with school, baking together, baseball practice, playing with goats and reading together = Priceless!

A "Mostly" Fantastic Weekend

I really need to start taking more pictures, but I'm honestly just enjoying all the family time before Scott gets busy again.

Saturday we had a baby shower at the church for a friend. We had a great time of fellowship and just enjoyed catching up on what everyone has been up to lately. The weather had been quite nice, but then there was a bit of a drizzle on Friday. We drove back home after the baby shower with snowflakes falling! Thankfully the snow didn't last past Sunday afternoon.

Saturday night Scott had an awards banquet. Shortly after he left we had a miniature flood. The upstairs toilet didn't stop running after someone flushed it and we were in the other part of the house when it started. Thankfully Elyssia went back to her room for something and saw the water before it entered the kitchen. I turned off the water, but we used all the towels in our house and still had water dripping into the middle area downstairs. We put some buckets down there and used the blowdrier to make sure the mattress didn't stay wet. Scott says it didn't look too bad when he got home, so we're thankful that there wasn't more damage. We don't have ceiling tiles in the middle area, so no stains there.

Sunday was quite good. The kids were a bit tired from our busy week, but excited to see the new family with 5 kids. That made 20 children who were 11 and under in the service. It went well though. Elyssia especially enjoyed helping with the twins. They're 5 months old and pretty easy going. It didn't take Garrison and Caleb long before they were inseparable from the two boys closer to their ages. Even the 2 year old took a liking to Caleb and was following him around. They asked us to come out to their place for lunch along with another family, so we made a quick trip back to our place to feed the baby goat and then drove out to their place. It's about an hour from our place, but it was a blessing to visit and see all the kids playing together. OUr boys took their walkie talkies and found when we got there that the other boys had some too! They used one set for the cops and the other set for the robbers. We came back with barely enough energy to do the chores, family devotions and fall into bed. Thankfully Scott didn't have to start seeding today and was able to have a more relaxed start to the day.

The kids asked if we could play baseball after doing school and we ended up playing twice:). Caleb likes to try to sneak to the next base while I'm pitching, which makes for some humorous situations. He also likes to slide into the base. Samuel is content to just meander around the field, listening to the birds and exploring some the toys that are "new to him". He's already starting to look a bit brown. The boys were having trouble hitting the ball and got a bit goofy. They switched the bat upside down and ended up hitting with the other end! It made for lots of laughs, which probably just encouraged their goofiness. I was surprised that they hit it more than once like that, but we told them they really can't keep playing that way. They're catching on pretty fast and will probably go into the rotation of family activities over the summer.

Garrison has started a routine with the other kids. They're always asking for tea before bed. I'm usually busy trying to put Samuel to sleep. So, Garrison volunteered to make it for them and now they've come to expect it every night. Garrison told me that he has a "tea habit". We also had extra milk tonight. Scott was teaching me how to make mozzarella cheese, but had to go out to put the goats in for the night in the middle of it. Samuel hadn't fallen asleep yet and I asked Garrison to sing to him while I was stirring the milk. It was the cutest "off key" lullaby I've ever heard:) and he wasn't even embarrassed when Caleb came to see what he was doing. I checked on them when I was able to step away from stirring and found Samuel just sitting calmly in his bed looking at Garrison as he sang. It wasn't long before Samuel's eyes closed and he's been sleeping ever since. It's amazing how much love these kids have for Samuel. He's one blessed little guy. I pray they don't lose that as he gets older and possibly wrecks some of their things, as toddlers are prone to do.

Heading to bed now and thanking the Lord for the blessing of another day with this family that He's shared with me.

How much can you?

fit into one week? Hmmm... After this week, I'd have to say, "A LOT". We started out slower with Scott and the kids trying to get over colds. We were still getting through the school assignments and Scott was replacing the last 3 sections on the church roof.

We had 7 loads of laundry instead of 4, which made Monday extra busy.

I usually bake on Thursday, but realized we had more eggs than usual and spontaneously decided that it was time to attempt another angel food cake, or two! They turned out really well and I made a jelly roll with some of the leftover yolks and raspberry gelato with the rest. Yum-O! It was a lot of work, but Caleb said it was the best thing ever:). I love how easy it is to please my boys with homemade baking. They usually like to be involved, which make it more enjoyable.

The weather was gorgeous and allowed for a lot more time outside, which we L-O-V-E.

Scott was able to work up the ground for the trees that are coming next week. He will be seeding, so the kids and I will get to plant them:).

We played a board game as a family each night this week before family devotions and the evening milking. Lots of fun when we get into teams:) The kids are getting really good at this strategy thing.

Kiersten surprised me this week by reading 4 books, mostly on her own! We read a lot and somewhere along the way all the letters she recognized started turning into words for her:). So excited!

We've been getting ready for a baby shower this Saturday, calling and planning what foods to prepare. Looking forward to sitting down and visiting with the ladies and watching the girls play with their friends too!

We had a neighbor drop by unexpectedly. So thankful we'd already done a lot of the Spring yard cleanup:).

Today we went in to get a baby gift and some of the fresh fruit for the baby shower. We saw a friend, made a new one and managed to get our groceries in fairly good time.

Scott was replacing windows at the Legion and I said I'd have the kids pick up shingles while I set up for tomorrow. When I saw the amount of shingles, I knew the kids wouldn't be able to do it on their own. We all worked for over 2 hours picking up shingles and putting them into the trailer to be hauled to the dump. There were still some remnants to rake up tomorrow, but we were so happy to see the last of the big piles gone:). The older 3 were awesome helpers! We were lifting tarps full of shingles and I think we'll have some sore muscles tomorrow:). So thankful for the kids being such great workers though. We celebrated with raspberry pie tonight! Caleb requested it and thankfully the Lord gave me the foresight to make them this morning before we went to town.

I was finishing the dishes tonight when Addie walked in holding Admiral. She somehow managed to get him out of his pen, out of the barn, past the dog and all the way to the house, opening the front door and brought him inside to show us:). She LOVES the little goats! We had a good laugh over it after we got over our astonishment about how she managed to bring him all that way.

All in all, it's been a great week and we're looking forward to meeting a new family tomorrow and visiting with friends twice this weekend.

Happy Friday!