I love celebrating special occasions and I consider my wedding anniversary to be one of those. Last week Russell & I had a little get-away to the high country. I planned it but didn’t tell him where we were going, although he knew it involved water because when we walked out of the house to leave, he saw this… The boys had loaded it for me the night before – late at night when there was no chance of Russ seeing it. Our destination turned out to be Blue Ridge Reservoir. I’ve never identified a duck before! Is this a Red-breasted Merganser? Could this be the male and female Red-breased Merganser? Or perhaps the green headed duck is a Mallard? gorgeous views This Blue Heron…
Our 23rd Anniversary Getaway
Saturday, May 19th, 2012 at
8:32 am
Comments (4)
What Does a Whisker-Free Celebration Look Like in Our Family?
Wednesday, May 16th, 2012 at
3:17 am
Well, after about 2 years, Serenity convinced Seth to shave his beard! I don’t know how long it will last, because I think he’s already missing it, but we decided throw a little party in his honor anyways. We declared it the “Celebration of Whisker-Free Day” and Wesley has decreed that from henceforth on this day, May 13, all beards should be removed. Hear, Hear! Awww, I’ve embarrassed him… The menu from the Bearded Dragon’s Cafe: Red Bearded Enchiladas Bean Stubble Rice Whiskers Seth didn’t know at first what was going on. He walked into the house, with me sporting a mustache and then out came the others with their various “beards and mustaches”… or squirrel ‘stache, as the case was for Russell. Audrey had quite…
The Feeding of (Great) Ideas to Our Beloved Children
Monday, May 14th, 2012 at
10:52 am
I had so many wonderful comments last post about our bird feeder. I loved the interaction. The general consensus about our “mystery bird” seems to be that it most definitely is a grosbeak because of its beak. That was people’s first clue on what family it was from. Then our ”twitchers” determined that it was a black-headed grosbeak. Now to be honest, when I look in my Birds of Arizona book, the bird doesn’t look quite like the one we have, but when I googled it, the black headed grosbeak images are the very same ones as my bird. Thanks so much everyone. It is so exciting to learn the names of the birds here in our backyard! If you want to be inspired, read the comments left on that post. …
Cultivating Enjoyment of Nature
Thursday, May 10th, 2012 at
7:06 am
A few weeks ago I purchased some bird seed for song birds at Sam’s. I filled up my birdfeeder that had not been used in years and it has been so exciting to watch the many different birds come in to it. “We are all meant to be naturalists, each in his own degree, and it is inexcusable to live in a world so full of the marvels of plant and animal life and to care for none of these things.” Charlotte Mason I have never purchased birdseed for songbirds before because I thought we didn’t really have those birds around. I knew we had blue jays but not much else…. or so I thought. House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus) These come in small flocks to our…
A Peacock Themed Wedding and Reception
Tuesday, May 8th, 2012 at
7:16 am
What happens when girls get to be about 20 – give or take a few years? The fall in LoVe. After they fall in love, there’s a wedding. Well that’s where I was this past weekend at another niece’s wedding. Emily’s wedding in March and Kristen’s in May. I didn’t get a lot of great photos but I begged some off of a friend that took some really great ones. The so-so pictures were taken by me and the really good ones were taken by CF Shalom Photography. An invite to a very special day. Little details… The peacock theme started with the invites and continued at the wedding. A very nice touch! A relative of the bride put a few of these large bouquet’s together. I loved…
Hatching Chicks from Our Incubator
Friday, May 4th, 2012 at
8:57 pm
We have baby chicks! I mentioned that we (as much time as I have spent researching and checking on those babies, I feel like it’s mine) the kids had purchased an incubator. Here’s a quick synopsis of what happened from the time we put the eggs into the incubator… till they hatched! I placed 10 eggs into the ’bator on April 13 and let the egg turner do its thing which was to rotate the eggs from side to side for the first 18 days. I wrote the date on the eggs but since realized that it was pretty pointless. When the 18 days were up I removed the automatic egg turner and placed the eggs onto the metal screen which is on the bottom of the incubator. After I…
EXPO 2012 Has Ended
Monday, April 30th, 2012 at
9:30 am
EXPO’s over. Saturday was a great auction day – beautiful weather and buyers were really generous. The last few years the price’s were lower but this year was really good. Audrey got to be part of the opening ceremonies with the Clover Bud kids from our club. Serenity sold her 2 aprons with matching potholders for $300. Wesley had a great year with some new buyers & some really loyal bidders entering into the bidding process. His pig sold for $5.50/lb. for a total of $1,452. Whoa! He was so excited since it was way more than he was expecting. I made a variety of treat packages. Some for the 4-H leaders, others for kids that it was their last year, and plastic baggies for those…
And the Award Goes to… Serenity!
Friday, April 27th, 2012 at
8:19 am
It was another bad-weather day at EXPO. The weather turned cold and it poured rain. Mud, mud, mud! Thankfully, Justus brought his mud boots because he needed them – but it wasn’t enough to just walk in the mud and smoosh it around, he had to scoop it up in his hands and watch it ooze. No picture, but it was quite a sight. Wesley didn’t place but he did very well. For showmanship he placed 3rd in his class beat by two other girls that are in our club. Wesley and Molly, who’s on the far right, used to always be neck and neck in showmanship and one or the other would win 1st or 2nd place but for the last few years, Molly’s pulled…
Butterfly the Pig and One Apron for the Gents and Another for the Ladies
Wednesday, April 25th, 2012 at
9:34 pm
4-H EXPO has officially begun as of today and will end on Saturday after the auction where the kids sell their animals or in Serenity’s case, an item she has sewn. She was raising a lamb if you remember, but sadly that ended abruptly. Wesley spent some time grooming his prize pig. This prize pig is not called Wilbur because it’s a girl. Her name is Butterfly. Awww… That’s exactly what comes to my mind when I look at her – a butterfly. Can’t you see the resemblance? He’s been brushing her the last few days with a brush because they get this scaly dandruff stuff that doesna look so good in the show ring. Judges don’t like to see it. You don’t want to try to brush it all…
Can a 20 Year Old Young Man Work Full-Time and Still Cook? Find Out
Monday, April 23rd, 2012 at
12:45 pm
What a great visit we had this weekend with Zachary, family and friends. Zach’s surviving very well the bachelor life. He’s living in our travel trailer on his own and makes himself supper almost every single night. No, it’s not Campbell’s Soup or Ramen Noodles, but real food! He’s actually using the Internet to find recipes online. He gets it all going in the Crock Pot and off to work he goes. I tasted some of his leftovers and it was good stuff. His go-to spot on the internet is Recipes.com. This is the TEAM that he works with (his 2 cousins on the left, then his boss and then Zach himself). I just loved watching them all pull into the yard, in 4 different vehicles where they have…
My Lone Rabbit, A Challenge, & Our Future Baby Chicks
Friday, April 20th, 2012 at
7:26 am
After having 2 people in one day wondering why I’m not posting (family counts, right?), I decided I should give you a little update. The next day after the loss of our new rabbits, Audrey was looking out the breakfast window when she spotted what looked like our new bunny. The long and short of the story is that the black bunny was found and retrieved. That we were able to catch it and the location where we caught it was just the Lord because that little fellow could have hid in a multitude of places. I was so happy to have it back, even if it was the male and only cost $5. The female cost me $20 and that’s the rabbit dinner our dog…
Oh Where, Oh Where Did They Go?
Tuesday, April 10th, 2012 at
6:56 am
Unfortunately, I have bad news to report. My adorable bunnies are no longer. Our excellent blood thirsty dog ripped the chicken wire where the rabbits were housed and had himself a nice breakfast. That dog can be so sneaky! We know it was him because we have caught him in the act of getting one of our chickens. He grabbed it and ran into a big field near our house but far enough from us that we couldn’t get him. We really scolded him and he hasn’t touched one since but if he can be sneaky and get something (like our goat kids) he will. He just showed up at our house one day and has been here for years – longer than any other dog we’ve…
Why I Bought Rabbits & Other Interesting(?) News About Our Weekend
Monday, April 9th, 2012 at
5:15 am
Saturday, I felt like I was operating a granola factory. I made 26 pounds of granola. Whew! Using only one oven, it took me most of the day. Next time I think I might try 2 ovens and see if I can expedite things. This is my Pecan Cranberry Granola… Saturday, Russell brought me home these 2 little bunnies I found on Craigslist. I’m wanting to use their manure as fertilizer for my garden. If I get it planted. For some reason, the whole garden thingy is intimidating me. Zachary’s not here to do it (he’s working and living about 5 hours from home) so it’s just little ol’ me that’s left to get it going. I think it may be because it’s such a…
Resurrection Cookies – A Hands-On Way to Learn About Jesus’ Death, Burial & Resurrection
Thursday, April 5th, 2012 at
7:14 am
This Sunday will be Easter, a time to remember the greatest moment in history – Jesus’ resurrection. Have you all ever made Resurrection Cookies with your children? It’s a great way to teach your little ones the story of Jesus’ last days on earth and then his resurrection. We made them (Resurrection Cookies) for the first time last year and the kids are looking forward to making them again. And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him. (Mark 16:6) Here the other day, a doctor said, “I studied to be a minister, studied four years. I become an agnostic; I throwed the…
Outliers – A Synopsis
Friday, March 30th, 2012 at
7:25 am
I’ve just recently finished the book Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. What a completely fascinating book! The subtitle of this book is called “The Story of Success” and throughout the book Gladwell tackles seemingly unrelated happenings in life and shows how those very circumstances contributed to your success or non-success. For example, hockey players. A few years ago it was discovered that almost every hockey player that was on the Junior Hockey League in Canada was born in January, February or March almost without exception. Why is this? Is it because those born in January, February or March are special? No, it’s simply that the cut-off date for age-class hockey is January 1. Therefore, when the recruiters come around they are looking for the bigger and more coordinated players….
Making More Room in the Pantry – Installing a Shelf
Saturday, March 24th, 2012 at
7:53 am
How’s your weekend going? I’m off to my niece’s bridal shower today (yes, another one is getting married!) but I wanted to share with you a quick project that we did in the pantry this week. For Emily’s wedding I had bought the commercial plastic wrap for all the little mini desserts I made and transported to the reception hall. I didn’t use very much of the wrap but it served its purpose well. I knew I wanted to have the plastic wrap somewhere where I could access it easily in the future but where. My pantry was quite full already and there was not room for this large box of wrap. This is my appliance center which holds my grain mill, juicer and bread machine. The bread machine gets…
From Pallet to Flag
Saturday, March 17th, 2012 at
5:22 pm
Hello, ladies. I’m pretty excited that I finally got to finish my flag project. Two flags, as a matter of fact. I wanted to paint a USA flag and a Canadian flag on old wood. For my purposes, I used a pallet that we had lying around. I removed the boards, cut them to the size I wanted and then we attached them together by laying a couple of strips of wood down and stapling the boards I wanted to them. Sorry, I don’t have a picture of the underside to show you how we attached them but you probably have it figured out already anyways… right? The next step was to prime the boards. I used Kiltz. I wanted to prime them so that I…
Aaron & Emily’s Wedding Part IV – the Reception
Friday, March 16th, 2012 at
8:29 am
Well I’m pretty sure by now you all are heartily wishing I’d finish all the posts on the wedding. That I hope to do today! So bear with me just a teensy bit more, ‘kay? The wedding reception hall was almost adjacent to the wedding chapel. The setting at the campground was quite pretty and you can see what it looked like here. In the 5th picture down, it shows the guests waiting to enter the chapel and you can see the reception hall at the back of the picture. But before the reception could begin, there were pictures to be taken… (Emily’s family) Heidi (the flower girl) was feeling right at home. The centerpiece for each table was a square of burlap with some lace on…
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