Eight years ago, during a particularly bad loss to Alabama, (ask Joe- he was groaning from misery while I was groaning from labor), Rachel Rose entered our lives.  She has added song and dance to every room she enters since then.  She is a joy to us.  Here are a few pictures of her birthday dinner last night.

Rachel loves to cook.  Beck gave us a frog cake pan and Rachel made the cake (marble), then helped me make frosting, and then iced it (adding green M & Ms for warts and one brown one for an eye).   She even placed the candles in it.  It was delicious.

Here is the birthday girl about to blow out her candles.

Rachel  chose “Play with Your Food” a.k.a. “Build Your Dinner” for her birthday meal.  Here is an astronaut on the moon.  On the right (in the distance- play along here) is his space capsule.

A fish.

An ostrich.

A man singing praise songs.

And a water skier.

Since moving to our farm years ago, we have been working toward a more natural and self-sufficient lifestyle.  With God as the center of our lives, we have sought to live in a way that we feel is less worldly and more pleasing to Him.  As part of that, we have tried to increase the amount of our own food that we raise and put up food in times of plenty for the leaner winter months.  We feel that our understanding and connection to the entire food chain has made us better stewards of the gifts He has given us.

Recently, we took a field trip with the homeschool group to a working farm/store/school to learn more about aspects of homesteading that we do not do, specifically dairy cows.  The owners are wonderful people and we look forward to going back for future lessons on other topics.  Here are the older two children enjoying the “hands-on” experience.  Since I was helping Lydia, I didn’t get any pictures unfortunately.  Timothy was itching to get out of his stroller and join in but those ole Jersey girls were pretty much stretched to their limits having new milkers without a baby crawling through their legs! 

Rachel did a great job milking Vanilla.

Benjamin got the hang of it really quickly.

The kind owners showed us how to make butter and treated us to homemade cookies and lemonade too.  Can’t wait to go back!

In the past few weeks, Benjamin and Rachel have both performed for their peers.  The Amazing Benjamin has put on a couple magic acts and Rachel has showcased her piano pieces.  Here are a few photos from the homeschool Presentation Day at the local bookstore/music venue and from our enrichment group’s Talent Show.

“And for my next trick…”

A few “volunteers from the studio audience” look on skeptically when Benjamin declares that he can make the rope pass through him.

Rachel played a nice version of Skip to My Lou after only a few months of lessons.

Rachel was the youngest and very first participant in the Talent Show this year.  It’s hard to go first!

We are very proud of them both!

Last weekend there was a fair at the library that we attended.  Rachel’s Girl Scout troop had a table set up.  The emergency agencies were all present.  There were blow up jumping toys, cake walks, free books, a mini-petting zoo- all kinds of good things!  Here are some of our favorite things.

Benjamin looks like a natural, huh?  He’s really good at it- just ask Lydia. 

There goes Rachel up the ladder of the firetruck.

And Lydia was an integral part of the EMT team.

And don’t forget Firechief Timothy!

Benjamin learned how a stun gun works.  The officer went pretty easy on him, though, since it was his first offense. 

And Timothy kept an eye on the Stay-Puffed Marshmallow fireman…

We have badly neglected the blog and are hopelessly behind in sharing what’s been going on.  I’m going to attempt to remedy that by at least posting pictures over the next few days so that the grandparents can see what their dear ones have been up to lately.  Here are a few shots from Timothy’s recent birthday.

This was while we were singing to him.

Rachel holds Timothy and gives him a lesson in present-opening.

Hello all!  Hope you are enjoying Fall.  We have had
some light frosts here, but I am surprised that several things in the
garden still haven’t been frost-bitten enough to die yet.  Our
eggplants, for instance, are the size of mature shrubs and are still
putting out (ugly and kind of stunted) fruits.  Even the lima bean
plants haven’t entirely succumbed yet.  The harvested sweet potatoes
and cool-weather greens are breathing down my neck to be “put up”
before they go bad.  Overall, it’s been a pretty good gardening year.

There have been some interesting things in the news lately.  My brother and sister both mentioned the 60 Minutes piece that aired this past
Sunday evening.  It gave an overview of some of the vulnerabilities of
the American electric grid.  It is well-worth watching.  Here is a link
that I think will work.  http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5578986n&tag=contentMain;cbsCarousel
It pretty much focuses on international espionage/terrorism as the
reason for knocking out electricity.  That is highly possibly-
depending on who you ask, maybe even the most likely scenario.
Regardless of how power could be knocked out, I feel better being
prepared to heat our house and cook food without having to rely on
consistent electricity.

Also, if you are looking for a really good (fiction) read about
Americans coping in a sudden “grid-down” situation, I’d recommend One Second After by William R. Forstchen.  It’s quite a page-turner!

~Laura

While we were on a recent Homeschool Field Trip, a friend of ours took these pictures. She’s obviously very talented.

We didn’t even know she was taking our picture at the time.

Benjamin got up this morning and cooked a birthday breakfast of French Toast for us. Here’s a picture of Chef Benjamin. 

Just smell the corndogs, funnel cakes, and fried pies!  Listen to the cacophany of animals, blaring music, shrieking midway riders, and children begging for money to buy trinkets and play games.  Look at the blinking, racing lights in a rainbow of colors.  We must be at the fair!

This year, we decided to do more than just improve the local economy-  we decided to participate.  We have been 4-H members for the past 2 years, but this is the first time we have entered anything.  Benjamin took part in the Chick Chain and so we knew we would be entering his birds for competition and auction.  While we were at it, we decided to try our skills in the art, baked goods, canning, and produce divisions also.  It turned out to be lots of fun and a good experience for everyone.  And we were fortunate to win quite a few ribbons too.

These Black Star chicks won Benjamin a blue ribbon.  They sold as a group for $36 at auction on Friday night.

Rachel brought a Buff Orpington pullet that we raised from a day-old chick.  By the end of the fair, she had sold it for $10.

Benjamin entered corn muffins using Grams’ recipe.  He won first place.

Rachel made a complicated 3-step pecan pie for which she also was awarded a blue ribbon.

Lydia has been practicing making her own sandwiches at lunch time.  Here she is making a PB & J to enter (in her new favorite PJ’s from Beck).

Here she is with her finished product- she fancied them up by using a star cookie cutter.  The competition was fierce in this category.  Who would have guessed that she’d face more rivals than any of the rest of us?  She is delighted with her green ribbon.

Here they are with all of our ribbons.

We ended up placing in the following:

Lydia-  green (participation) for her PB & J and red (2nd) for Purple Smudge tomatoes she helped me grow

Rachel- blue (1st) for her pecan pie and a blue for a watercolor painting of a frog

Benjamin-  blue for 4-H Chick Chain pullets, blue for corn muffins, yellow (4th) for Pinewood Derby car, white (3rd) for a charcoal drawing of a knight, blue for a pastel picture of a chicken with her chicks, and white for his iris folding art project.

Laura (me)-  blue for banana walnut bread, white for strawberry jam, blue for Sweet Tangerine tomatoes, red for Brown Berry tomatoes, and blue for a blue potato (in the Unusual Vegetable category).

And since we are 4-H members, we’ll get checks for double the usual prize money.  How exciting!  The kids can’t wait until next year!

A couple of weeks ago, we went to Lake Guntersville, Alabama, for our annual summer vacation. The whole extended family went, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews, Grams and BePops. We had a great time!

Uncle Chris brought his boat and we got to cruise up and down the lake site seeing.

If we got hot, we simply stopped and took a swim.

Benjamin, Rachel, and I tried knee boarding for the first time. Benjamin and Rachel popped up like it was old hat. I, well, I eventually got up after 1/2 tank of gas trying.

Lydia took it well that she wasn’t quite big enough to try the knee board. But she wasn’t really dissuaded from pretending.

The rocking of the boat eventually was too much for her, though and most every ride ended in nap.

Timothy wasn’t quite big enough to go boat riding, but he certainly enjoyed the resort’s swimming pool.

We had a great time!