Happy 12th birthday sweet Abigail!!!

We love you so much, Abigail.  We're so glad you are our daughter.  Have a very happy birthday!!

Our Little Lady

There's a twinkle in those eyes

This is how you used to sleep - two spares just in case :)

Laura and Abigail in December 1999

Dad and Laura holding 10 day old baby Abigail

This week in pictures

Happy Birthday to Emily!

Riding in the combine with Mark

Waiting for the balloon glow at the dam - this is where we go sledding in the winter

Autumn

Abby's last day of being 11!

Lincoln Log Cabin

We went to Pioneer Days at Lincoln Log Cabin this weekend.  Some of Abraham Lincoln's family lived there years ago. It's a great place to take our family.  It has enough neat things to look at so it is interesting for the older kids, yet it is small enough that the little kids can have fun without us having to worry about them getting seperated from us.  They had some clothespins and scraps of fabric and yarn for the kids to make little clothespin dolls - a simple little toy, but the younger kids carried them around all weekend.  The boys made soldiers out of theirs :)  They got to play some games from the time period of the cabins, and Emily even made it into the local university's newspaper 

Fall Festival

Emily Erickson, 9, of Shelbyville, learns to play the game Graces with the help of Maren McKee, a graduate student in historical administration, at the Fall Festival at the Lincoln Log Cabin Oct. 1. Graces was a popular game in the 19th century, where girls would send a ribboned hoop through the air to each other and catch the hoop on wooden sticks or wands.

We knew that there were a lot of great places to get pictures of the kids there, so we went prepared to snap some shots.  We took over 600 pictures!  We did manage to get a few good ones, but we had to laugh at some of the faces they made when we were looking at them later.  Lincoln and Garrett are especially hard to get to cooperate right now.  I think Garrett would do alright, but he kept checking out Lincoln's faces to see what he should be doing...  The last time we got pictures to put up on the wall were from before Garrett was born, so since the kids have changed and grown so much since then, I thought it was about time to try to get some new ones up.

Happy 9th Birthday, Sweet Emily!!!

Thanks for adding your sunshine and sweetness to our family.  We love you so much!!!

Heart warming moments

Two things that warmed my heart this morning:

I went in to make sure the kids were awake this morning.  I walked in to Laura, Abby and Charlotte's room and two of them were on their knees praying and the other was sitting on her bed reading her Bible.

Today is our first day of structured school this year.  It is Lincoln's first year of really being on the schedule and having his work planned out for the year.  Most of his subjects are in the morning so he can have the afternoon to just play.  After we had finished several of his classes, I asked him, "How do you like school?"  He answered, "I LOVE it!!!"

Lemonade and porch swings (or Coke and folding chairs)

Yesterday Todd went to help out some friends and the kids and I tagged along.  I was planning to help out a little too, but there really wasn't much for me to do.  So my friend and I ended up sitting down and chatting most of the day.  We didn't get the world's problems figured out, or even any of our own, but it was so nice just to sit and visit and enjoy each others company while the guys worked and the kids helped them out or spent time playing.  Both of us had plenty of other things we could have been doing.  A household with kids never runs out of laundry or dishes or the many other things that need to be done, but we just relaxed out in our chairs in the sunshine and enjoyed the day.

Some of the people that we meet with on Sunday mornings tell stories of just driving over to "so & so's house" on Sunday afternoon and spending the afternoon visiting.  They have so many wonderful memories of those days.  I remember spending many Sunday afternoons at my grandparent's homes sitting around while the grownups visited. 

Sometimes it seems like in the hustle and bustle of our generation some of that time of fellowship has been lost.  We have technology that can keep us in instant contact with each other.  With facebook and texting and blogs and e-mail, etc. we can read about a good portion of each others daily lives.  But sometimes I wonder if we're missing out on really getting to know each other they way generations in the past did as they sipped lemonade out on the porch while they swapped stories and laughed and joked with each other.  Or as they sat around and discussed what was going on in the world around them or visited about the scriptures.

Thanks for such a pleasant day, my friend... :)

End of Summer Vacation

For most of the day yesterday, I worked on getting things ready so we can start school on Monday.  We've been doing a little bit here and there, but haven't started our full schedule yet.  Anyway, that was on my mind yesterday evening when Lincoln climbed up in my lap for a little snuggle before he went to bed.  He wrapped his arms around me and snuggled his head between my shoulder and face.  As I breathed in his sweetness after his bath,  it hit me that this year, if we didn't home school, he would be going away all day to school.  It would just be Garrett and me left alone trying to fill up our days until the hustle and bustle of the rest of the kids returned with the school bus.

How did this sweet little guy grow up so fast?  Wasn't the doctor just trying to convince me that, no he wasn't teasing me, and, yes, this baby was indeed a boy!  Weren't we just sitting in the newborn ICU beside him for a week wondering if he was going to be OK?  Didn't we just bring him home to his own personal fan club where everything he did was amazing and everyone fought over who was going to get to hold him next?

For that matter, when did our toddling little girls grow up to be graceful (most of time, anyway ;) ) young ladies?  Where did their toothless grins and dimpled knees go?  Once in a while we still get a glimpse of "child" in them, but it's lovely to see them growing and learning.

I'm so glad that we have one who is still in the toddler years.  Although he reminds us often enough that he is almost 3 - or 4 - or 5 or whatever age he decides he wants to be that day.  Also that we have a few still in the little kid years.  And I am so thankful that some of our friends introduced us to home schooling so many years ago so we could spend so much more time with them.  There are days when everything is chaos around here - when the house is a disaster zone - when I haven't had a quiet minute that I, just for a minute, think, "What in the world am I thinking..."  but then my mind jumps ahead a few short years and I remember that it is all so, so worth it.  I won't be able to get these years back again, but we will all have so many wonderful memories of the time we all spent together.

I'm not sure how this post ended up being so sappy, but I guess thinking of summer being over and our birthday season starting next week must have brought it on.  So I guess I'd better so see how we're going to spend our last day of summer vacation!

Our recent days

We've had a lot going on the past several weeks.  I'm sure I'll end up leaving some things out, but I just wanted to write a brief summary to help us remember our summer.

Our days at our convention were wonderfully refreshing.  Those 4 days of convention really are the best days of the year.  It is amazing to me that the little kids even love those days.  Around 15 hours of sitting (well mostly sitting, anyway - there is quite a bit of wriggling and moving around involved in the sitting) quietly during the meetings isn't something that you would think kids would enjoy, but they always really, really look forward to convention and ask why it can't last longer.  We also were able to be at Friday - Sunday of the convention over at Mt. Sterling.  It was especially a nice convention for us because Laura was baptized there this year.  We're so glad that she is growing up to be such a special young lady.  It is hard to believe that she will be 14 in a couple of months.

On Sunday of convention, Todd got a call telling him that his Grandma Erickson had passed away.  He would have really liked to be able to be at her funeral, but with the distance and the flight schedules we just couldn't make it happen.  We were there in thought, anyway.  My Grandma Fox passed away a few days later.  She lived in Arizona, but her funeral and burial was at Brownstown so we were able to be there.  It was so nice to be with family and friends who came.  Aunt Rannie stayed at our place for a few days before heading back to Arizona.  It was so nice to have her here.  It's been a long time since we have gotten to spend much time with her.  The kids really enjoyed her too.  They (and we all) were wishing she could have stayed longer.

Todd's mom came to visit for about a week.  We had a very nice time with her.  It flew by too quickly!  She even braved riding the horse a little bit.  She would have like to ride some more, but since Todd's dad is recovering from a broken leg, she decided she had better be a little careful so they weren't both laid up with casts on. We went to Tuscola to the outlet mall and hit a few other stores, got some bargains at a few thrift stores, spent some time just being together at home and then went on Friday to St. Louis to spend a few days there before she headed back home.  We went to Grant's Farm in St. Louis for the first time on Friday.  We really enjoyed our time there seeing the animals up close. The kids fed some goat kids bottles of milk - we fed some grain to a camel and a few other animals.  We watched an elephant do some tricks. Saw the Clydesdale horses, and several other animals.  Saturday we spent the day at the zoo and had a lot of fun there too before heading back to the hotel for some swim time.    We went to the Morton's house for Sunday morning meeting and then went out for lunch before taking her back to the airport and heading home.

A few recent pictures

Dad & Mom and all their offspring (except Michael and Daniel)

Todd's mom on Beauty

A couple of silly boys!

Sound asleep in the middle of the zoo - he's obviously used to noise and chaos!

Riding the carousal 

Closing Jordan Creek School Blog

A few years ago I started a blog for our homeschool.  I wrote a few posts, but didn't get very many posts written.  It was a private blog written just for me to keep track of what we were doing, so the posts aren't very interesting.  I am going to close that blog down, but don't want to lose what I posted, so I thought I would move the posts over here.  The next several posts will be copied and moved from there.

Summer Break - From 7/25/2009

Summer break is still in session :)

It seems like every year that I plan to have school during the summer ends up like this one. We have had several unexpected things come up, so we haven't hit the books yet. It has been a cool summer, though, so since the purpose for doing school during the summer was to make it so they could enjoy the cooler weather in September, it has worked out fine not to have school.

Some of the girls have enjoyed some field trips. Laura, Abigail & Charlotte went to Conner Prairie in Indiana for a day of living in the past. They really enjoyed their time there and came home with lots of stories about things they had learned there. Laura & Abigail spent a couple of nights with some of our friends and got a good history lessons on World War 2. A few days later, they spent the night at another home and heard about the Vietnam and Korean wars. It is great that they could have these live, personal history lessons.

School Books Arrived - From 6/19/2009

Woo Hoo - the school books arrived today! Now I have to figure out when I will have time to make the lessons plans...

More Sewing - From 6/15/2009

Laura (and I) took apart a pair of pajama bottoms today. They are going to use it as a pattern to make a new pair tomorrow in their class. She picked out rose flannel material for her new jammie pants. She (and I :) ) also cut and started sewing together a couple of 9 patch blocks for a small quilt. She is really enjoying learning to sew. The other girls would really like to learn, too, so maybe we will try to have sewing class during school this year.

School Books Ordered - From 6/15/2009

I placed our order to Rainbow Resource today (the first order of the school year anyway). It will be exciting when the box comes! The kids are already looking forward to starting school again. Heidi asks every day if we can please, please do school today. It is always fun to break out the new books. There are a few subjects that I haven't ordered yet. The Latin program that we are planning to use this year is brand new and isn't available for sale yet. It says it will be available this summer, so hopefully we can order it soon. Todd and I sat down last night and made the final decisions for what we should use for each of the kids. I was just about ready to push the send button on the order this morning, but didn't get it done. Wouldn't you know it, we got the Rainbow Resource catalog with about 1500 pages of school curriculum this afternoon. It was pretty tempting to sit down with it to see if I wanted to change anything, but I went ahead and pushed the send button... :)

Sewing - From 6/11/2009

Laura has started taking a sewing class from one of our good friends, Marty along with another girl (the grandaughter of one of Marty's friends). Last week they made a 9 patch and learned a few of the basics of sewing. Next week they are going to work on making a pair of pajama pants. Laura has been wanting to learn to sew for quite a while now, so she is excited about this class. She is showing some of her sisters the things she has learned, so they can learn a little bit too.

Goals and Plans for this year - From 6/11/2009

This is just a tentative plan for our curricula this year.

Pre-School - Lincoln just turned 3 in May and is anxious to learn along with his big sisters. We have a few pre-school workbooks for him to do, and we will work on getting him to recognize the alphabet. He knows his colors, shapes and several of his numbers. The older kids enjoy teaching him and think he is pretty clever.

Pre-K/Kindergarten - Heidi will be 5 in November. She knows most of her letters and a good deal of pre-school stuff. We have been working on teaching her to read. I am planning to have her use the 1st Zaner-Bloser handwriting book, Singapore Math 1A, The Ordinary Parent's Guide To Teaching Reading,

1st/2nd - Emily - Math - Finish up Singapore Math 1

Spelling - Finish up Spelling Workout A & Move into level B

Grammar - Rod & Staff Level 2

Writing - Continue with Writing With Ease 1

Handwriting - Zaner Bloser Level 2

History - Story of the World 3

Science - Undecided

Music - Continue Piano Lessons

3rd/4th - Charlotte - Math - Singapore Math 3

Spelling - Spelling Workout C & Sequential Spelling

Grammar - Rod & Staff Level 4

Writing - Continue With Writing With Ease 1

Handwriting - Zaner Bloser Level 4

History - Story of the World 3

Science - Undecided

Music - Continue Piano Lessons

Latin - Prima Latina

4th/5th - Abigail - Math - Singapore Math 4

Spelling - Spelling Workout E & F

Grammar - Rod & Staff Level 5

Writing - Continue with Writing With Ease 2

Handwriting - Zaner Bloser Level 5

History - Story of the World 3

Science - Undecided

Music - Continue Piano Lessons

Latin - Latina Christiana

6th/7th - Laura - Math - Singapore Math 6, Life of Fred Fractions/Decimals & Percents

Spelling - Spelling Workout H, Latin Roots

Grammar - Rod & Staff Level 7

Writing - Undecided

Handwriting - Zaner Bloser

Literature - Undecided

History - All American History

Science - Apologia General Science

Typing - Mavis Beacon

Music - Continue Piano Lessons - Some type of music history

Latin - Either Henle or First Form

School Work Prior to 2008 - 2009 School Year - From 6/11/2009

Laura - Math - Saxon Math Levels K, 1, 2

 Singapore Math Levels 2A - 4B

Grammar - Rod & Staff English 2 - 5

Reading - Phonics Pathways, Bob Books

History - Story of the World 1-4 + Additional library books

Science - Real Science 4 Kids, Lots of library books, Various Science curricula

Spelling - Spelling Workout A-E

Latin - Prima Latina

Logic - Mind Benders

Typing - Mavis Beacon

Music - Piano Lessons from Age 4

Speech - Co-op Class

Abigail - Math - Saxon Math K

 Singapore Math Levels 1A - 2B

Grammar - Rod & Staff English 2 - 3

Reading - Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, Bob Books

History - Story of the World 1-4 + Additional library books

Science - Real Science 4 Kids, Lots of library books, Various Science curricula

Spelling - Spelling Workout A-B

Music - Piano Lessons from Age 4

Speech - Co-op Class

Charlotte - Math - Singapore Math Levels 1A - 1B

Grammar - Rod & Staff English 2

Reading - The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Your Child to Read

History - Story of the World 1 & 2

Science -Real Science 4 Kids, Lots of library books, Various Science curricula

Spelling - Spelling Workout A

Music - Piano from Age 4

Emily - Various Workbooks

Music - Piano from Age 4

2008 - 2009 Schoolwork - From 6/11/2009

I have been clearing out the school bins from last year and getting ready for the new school year. Here is the curriculum the kids did

Laura - Math - Singapore 5A & 5B

History - Story of the World 2 + Kingfisher

Science - How the Earth Works

Grammar - Rod & Staff English 6

Writing - Outlining & Wordsmith Apprentice

Spelling - Spelling Workout F & G

Latin - Latina Christiana 1

Music - Piano Lessons & Recital

Logic - Critical Thinking 1

Spanish - Some Rosetta Stone

Typing - Mavis Beacon

Abigail - Math - Singapore 3 A & B

History - Story of the World 2 + Kingfisher

Science - How the Earth Works

Grammar - Rod & Staff English 4

Writing - Part of Writing With Ease 2

Spelling - Spelling Workout C & D

Latin - Prima Latina

Music - Piano Lessons & Recital

Typing - Mavis Beacon

Logic - Mind Benders

Charlotte - Math - Singapore 2A & B

History - Story of the World 2 + Kingfisher

Science - How the Earth Works

Grammar - Rod & Staff English 3

Writing - Part of Writing With Ease 1

Spelling - Spelling Workout B + Part of Sequential Spelling 1

Music - Piano Lessons & Recital

Emily - Math - Singapore 1A & Part of 1B

History - Story of the World

Science - How the Earth Works

Writing - Part of Writing with Ease 1

Spelling - Part of Spelling Workout A & Part of Sequential Spelling 1

Music - Piano Lessons & Recital

Reading - The Ordinary Parent's Guide for Teaching Your Child to Read

Heidi - Reading - The Ordinary Parent's Guide for Teaching Your Child to Read

Various Workbooks

Science Video Website - From 6/8/2009

I just found a new website today with free science videos - I haven't had time to look at it yet, so I will put it here so I can find it later. http://www.neok12.com/

Our tentative school schedule for 2009 - 2010 - From 6/5/2009

We are going to try a different schedule than usual this year. I have been wanting to try it for a few years, but it hasn't ever worked out before. It is basically a 6 weeks of school, 2 weeks off all year. We did take a longer break at the end of this past school year, but generally the rest of the year will be the 6 on 2 off schedule.

Here is our tentative schedule:

June 30 - July 2

July 6 - Aug 4, Aug 11 - 13

Aug 26 - Sept 4, Sept 8 - 11

Oct 5 - Nov 20

Dec 7 - Dec 30 (taking off the 24th and 25th)

Jan 4 - Jan 22

Feb 8 - March 19

April 5 - May 14

This schedule can be adjusted as needed. We schedule our days so we are in session the 176 days that are required for the public schools.

The Illinois Homeschool laws can be found at http://www.hslda.org/laws/analysis/Illinois.pdf

Getting ready for next school year - From 6/5/2009

I really love putting together our schedule for the school year. It is so exciting to see what each of the children are going to be learning - and what I am going to be learning along with them! I have been doing quite a bit of research to decide what curriculum we are going to be using this year. I have a lot of it picked out, but haven't ordered it yet. I have a wish list at Rainbow Resource, but the total is over $600 - I am thinking I am going to have to weed through and just pick out what I know we need to begin with. I have a few things that we haven't used that I am planning to put on e-bay, so that will help towards the new books.

I ordered the grammar books earlier this spring when the publisher was having their annual sale, so we are all set for grammar. Most of their grammar books are non-consumable, so that really helps. We just have to buy the workbooks that go along with the texts and teachers manuals for the levels that the older children have already been through. Emily will be starting with Preparing to Build, Charlotte will be moving on to Building with Diligence, Abigail is going to be using Following the Plan and Laura will be in Building Securely. The books are quite thorough - I have been learning a lot of grammar that I either never learned or that I completely forgot. We are having fun learning how to diagram sentences.

We were at Wal-mart today and found a few workbooks for school. Lincoln is wanting to be included more, so I got him a Thinking Skills book. I got him a pre-school workbook a few weeks ago, but his sisters helped him finish it in just a couple of days. :) Heidi got a number dot-to-dot, an alphabet dot-to-dot, a color by number, and a Kindergarten Basics Book. I got Charlotte a Crossword puzzle book and also a workbook to work on her multiplication facts. It is hard for them to wait to start working in them. They look like so much fun. :)

Art - From 6/5/2009

The homeschoolbuyersco-op.org had an offer for Mark Kistlers art program a few weeks ago. I signed up for the 3 year classes for the kids. They are really enjoying it. It is a video class with lots of different things to learn to draw with shading and shadowing to make the pictures look 3-D. Neither Todd or I are artistic, so art is something that gets put on the back burner a lot. This seemed like it would work to get them drawing a little bit anyway.

We also have the book Drawing With Children. We have had it for a few years, but haven't worked with it yet.  I think we'll try to pull it out and try it this year...maybe...

Back in time - From 6/4/2009

The kids really enjoy the "olden days". They spend lots of time playing Laura Ingalls Wilder and other pioneer type games. They often tell us they wish we could live without electricity and running water...

Today they wanted to make some old fashioned ink. They went out to the chicken house to get some feathers for quills - picked some mulberries and went to work. Their recipe was something like this: 1/2 cup mulberries, 1/2 tsp vinegar, 1/2 tsp salt.

1. Fill a strainer with the berries and hold it over a bowl.

2. Using the rounded back of a spoon, crush the berries against the strainer so that the berry juice strains into the bowl.

3. Keep adding berries until most of their juice has been strained out and only pulp remains.

4. Add the salt and vinegar to the berry juice. The vinegar helps the ink to retain its color and the salt keeps it from getting moldy.

5. If the berry ink is too thick, a tablespoon of water.

6. Store in a covered container.

7. Only make a small amount of berry ink at a time and when not in use, keep it tightly covered.

I love it when they can cover some science, history, home ec., and have fun all at the same time. And I suppose I can count the tie died clothing for art, can't I? And I love it when they can do it outside so the mess stays out there :)

Next project? Now they want to make their own paper to write on.

Our School - From 6/3/2009

I am enjoying writing in our Critters on the Porch blog so much, that I decided I would start a new blog focusing on school. I am not sure what will end up on here, but I think it will be a good way to keep our records and memories.

We started homeschooling when Laura was just a couple of years old. She was so anxious to get started. When she was 2 1/2, one of our friends children turned 5 and they started schooling her at home. Just about every day after that, Laura would tell me that it was her birthday, she was five, let's make a cake and start school. It was so cute. Finally, I gave in and got her a few workbooks and some "Bob Books". They are books that introduce a few letters per book and the child can start reading a "real book" fairly quickly. Laura did really well - learning her letters and numbers. Learning to write and read. It was really a joy teaching her. It seemed like she just absorbed everything we introduced.

After that start, Laura had basically covered kindergarten material by the time she was 3. We started really looking into homeschooling, and really liked what we learned about it. We are so glad that we started on the homeschooling path. It is wonderful to be able to spend every day, all day, with the children. As we have added children to our family, it takes more and more creativity to schedule our days. Some days it seems like we don't get much schooling done...other days, when we do well with school, it feels like the house will fall apart around us, but all in all it goes well. There are days when I wonder what in the world I was thinking... :) Days when I worry that they won't get the education they need... But mostly I just feel so blessed to be able to have our children with me - to have the opportunity to teach them to be good citizens , to teach them how to love their brothers and sisters, to teach them to love to learn, and most of all to teach them and hopefully show them how to love the God who created them.

Grandma

My Grandma Fox passed away Friday.   We lived far apart. We didn't talk on the phone very often. We didn't get to see each other very much after they moved to Arizona.  But she has always had such a special place in my heart.  She always remembered our birthdays - always.  Even when her hands shook so badly that she could barely write, she would tuck a little note in with a birthday card.  It was so nice to know that she thought of us.  I'm going to miss that.

One of the first thoughts I had when I heard that she had died was that she wasn't here anymore to pray for us. I'm confident that not only did she remember us on our birthdays, but she remembered us - her children, her grandchildren, her great grandchildren, and many others - before God in prayer. I'm going to miss that!

I'm so glad that she and Grandpa brought my Dad (and their other children) up in a God fearing and loving home.  I'm so glad that love was lived before us so that we too would want to know that same God who they loved.  I'm so glad that there was never any doubt of what was most important to her.  She left us such a wonderful heritage.  Not a heritage of natural things, but of things that really matter.  I'm going to miss her - I already do!

They think they are soooo funny

The kids were getting their beds made and ready for the night this evening while I was working on the leaflet for my Grandma's funeral.  In the background I could hear Laura playing the piano, but I wasn't really paying attention until the other kids all started calling out.  "Mo--ommmmmy, could Laura please help us... she isn't doing anything... whine, whine, whine..." Without turning around, in an exasperated voice I said, "Laura, would you please go help your sisters get the beds ready... It's getting late - you need to get to bed... yada, yada, yada".  They all burst into giggles.  Laura had recorded some songs on the piano and snuck out of the room, and they were all hiding around the corner waiting to see if they could trick me.  Funny, funny children!

He must have been listening

By the end of convention, Garrett was wiggling all over the place.  On his chair and off his chair, on my lap and back off again, picking up a book and putting it down again... you get the picture.  But he must have been listening a little bit - and processing it a little too.  On our way home, out of the blue he announced, "I like God"...

The blind man and his seeing eye dog

Back to school sale

I wonder if 350 pencils (not counting the ones hiding out under the couch cushions and beds) will be enough to make it through the school year...  

All dressed up and ready to go...

By the looks of her dress, Heidi even brushed her teeth for the occasion :)

Bye Bye Lilac

Lilac and her calf went to a new home yesterday.  Some friends of ours have been milking Heather this summer and decided they would like a milk cow of their own.  Last night we took Lilac and her calf over to their place, enjoyed supper and the evening with their new owners and then brought Heather and Fern back home with us.  This morning the girls went out and milked Heather and enjoyed some fresh milk for lunch today.

Lilac and her calf

A new home for the chickens

One of our neighbors had a chicken house that he didn't need taking up space that he did need, so he offered it to us.  Considering that our current chicken house doesn't keep out chicken eating critters very well, we were very excited to get a new one!  Some of our friends have a trailer and kindly helped us move it and get it set up. Yesterday was moving day.  I forgot to take the camera along for the loading of it, so all of the pictures are from after we got it home.

 It rode a couple of miles on the trailer.  

 Stopping for a pizza lunch break.

 Putting the finishing touches on

Filling in with gravel.

Beans, Beans, the Musical Fruit...

Just for fun, we planted a bag of several different kinds of dried beans in the garden.

This is how they came in the house - looking like they'd end up in the chicken scrap bucket

This is how they looked after we took them out of the shell - almost too pretty to eat.

Fright in the night

Yesterday evening, we needed to move some cows around, so Abigail rocked Garrett to sleep.  In the middle of the night, I heard him run down the hall into the living room.  I laid there waiting for him to come back when all of a sudden I heard the front door shut.  I jumped out of bed, ran to the door and outside yelling his name.  He had run all the way to the pasture gate. When I picked him up and asked him what he was doing, he sobbed, "I was looking for you!"  He spent the rest of the night in our bed between us...  My heart was still going about 100 miles an hour when I woke up this morning.

I think he is feeling better ~

A picture of Lincoln today

Our poor little man

A new way to get Chicken Pox

We are pretty sure Lincoln is coming down with chicken pox.  Charlotte also has several spots that look suspiciously like chicken pox.  She has been inoculated for them, but apparently about 20% of people who are inoculated also get them.

Yesterday evening, we were planning to go in to Mattoon before going to Bible Study, which meant I needed to have the kids fed, dressed and hair combed so they would be ready to jump in the van when Todd got home from work.  I fixed chicken wraps so they could just take one outside to eat to save time because we wouldn't have to clean up the table. While I was cooking, I asked one of the girls to take Lincoln's temperature because his eyes just looked like he had a fever.  We were discussing the fact that it had been 2 weeks since Heidi came down with chicken pox, so it looked like Lincoln must be coming down with them.   Garrett must have been taking it all in, because after I handed out chicken wraps to the kids and sent them outside to eat, one of them came running back in saying that Garrett had thrown his supper on the ground.  He was out there crying "I don't WANT to get chicken pox..."  I guess he thought chicken pox came from eating chicken...

It is so quiet around here!

Last night, Todd took all of the kids except Heidi and Garrett to the annual Warner family fish fry.  It was very different having just Heidi and Garrett here.  Garrett was pretty disappointed that he didn't get to go with them, so for the first part of the evening he was a little stinker.  Getting into everything, messing up everything Heidi was doing and generally being a grump.  After supper, he settled down and we went outside and they played on the swings and with Mr. Potato head for a while while I mowed.  After enjoying some fudgesicles, they played in the water to get the chocolate washed off and then Heidi got to get him all ready for bed.  I think she kind of enjoyed being the "big" kid around here for a change!
Today, it is just Heidi and me here.  The rest of the family went to the convention grounds to help start getting ready for convention.  Garrett was up and dressed with his shoes on bright and early.  He came out and informed me that he was going with Daddy today!  I told him that I would miss him and didn't he think he should stay home with me?  His bottom lip puckered out and he said "But I go to Bwownstown and help Daddy."  So I settled for a hug and a kiss and sent him happily on his way.  It is so quiet around here! Heidi's chicken pox is very mild. She hasn't felt bad at all except for the itching.  Even that hasn't bothered her very much.  She is enjoying doing a few things that she doesn't normally get to do when everyone is here.   She's been playing with playdough, working on a puzzle, eating a little bag of M&Ms and is getting ready to do a little painting.  I'm not sure what to do with myself with all this quietness around me!  I'm missing the normal chaos that happens around here most of the time.  Now, I need to go get something accomplished while I am not being paged every 2 minutes.

Chicken Scratching

Last night Heidi told us that she had some bug bites on her head - we looked at them and told her that sure enough, she did and hopefully they would feel better in the morning and sent her to bed.  So this morning, she was complaining of more bites.  I told her we would take all the sheets and blankets off of her bed and vacuum it real well because she must have a spider in her bed.  And then she kept telling me she had more bites and more bites... So the fleeting suspicion I had last night that maybe she has chicken pox apparently wasn't just a fleeting suspicion. She said that she must not have a spider in her bed, but instead she must have a chicken in it pecking her while she is sleeping.  Everyone but Heidi and Lincoln have had the inoculation for chicken pox, so hopefully our quarantine time won't be too long!  I keep asking myself why, of all of our children, did I neglect to get the chicken pox shot for our most High Energy, High Intensity, Highly Sensitive child!?!  So far she is still bopping around like she is feeling fine.  I told her to do everything fun today that she wanted to do because it might be a few days before she felt like playing around.  She told me a little bit ago that she had an itch on her leg so she was going to go watch it to see if she could see the chicken pox pop up.  Wonder how long it will take for the novelty to wear off - and wonder what the possibility is that those really are bug bites...

Learning to ride

Now that we have one pony, I can see that it would be so much fun to have a horse for each of us.  I watch the kids riding around the yard and pasture, and it makes me want to hop on a horse and ride with them.  It's not something that we will be doing any time soon, if ever, but I'm glad that we were at least able to find a pony for the kids to share.  Until this evening, they were just riding for 5 or 10 minutes each around the yard. That was about all the horse wanted to do in the heat.  They would go out for a while in the morning and then again in the evening when it wasn't so hot.  Tonight, though we went back into one of the pastures so they could ride down the hill and around in the tall grass.  What fun!

It's hard to grow up

Garrett is 2 1/2 - just on the brink between being a baby and being a little boy.  Most of the time he wants to be a big boy.  He very often says "I'm not Garrett, I'm Lincoln and I'm 5!"  The other day, however, we had some friends over who have a 3 month old baby girl.  I was holding her when Garrett came up to me in need of having his diaper changed.  I handed the baby over to someone else and took him back to change him.  While he was laying there, he said "You need to take care of YOUR baby..."  After he was dressed again, I told him to run along downstairs to play with his friends.  His reply - "I not go downstairs, I stay upstairs... I need my mommy."  Guess it was just too much for him to see HIS mommy holding another baby.  He was quite happy holding the baby himself, though.

Our new addition

We kept saying no... not right now... maybe someday... probably not... we don't really need one... they take a lot of care...  we don't know anything about them... we don't have a barn...  but we finally gave in... and the kids are thrilled, to say the least.

Her name is Beauty.  She is about 23 years old and as calm and gentle as can be.  She belonged to an Amish family in Arthur and the kids rode her to school.  She also is broke to pull a buggy.  If someone falls off, she stops and waits for them to get back on.  The kids had never ridden before (unless you count the times the older few rode around in circles on the ponies at the pumpkin patch), and they got right on and she meandered around the yard.  I think we're going to like her :)  I should have gotten a picture of the cows lined up at the gate checking out their new pasture mate.

I think he forgot what he was "supposed" to be doing!