Cowgirl, A Peek Into Tot-School, A Horse to Ride....

Well this has been a very busy month with school starting and many other things so I haven't been diligent to capture moments...but this week I did and so here they are for you to enjoy! Living in the country is so rough on the jeans and all of our daughters jeans had holes in the knee...darn! We went to "wally-world" and found these darling jeans, and shirt - she is delighted as she loves everything to do with "cowgirl" style...

Here is a peek into our "tot-school". I ordered these three items from Lauri Products and I am so happy that I did. There is nothing better than hands-on learning. Our little "tot" loves his school, he learns and retains so much. Just look at that grin!

Some dear friends of ours that moved to the same area as we are have horses...and a delightfully patient young lady who willingly took the time to teach Jireh a few things about riding a horse. Thank you to "Oliver Stables" for the experience!

Waking Up The Sun....

Meet Donut...who woke up the sun at around 2:00 this morning! We can not believe that the Lord has blessed us with a heifer...another one...now we have four girls in our herd of milk cows...what will the Lord have us do with all this milk?
Our second boy is responsible for the name Donut and has been praying that his calf would be a girl...oh, joy it is! It is wonderful to me that the Lord cares so much about a little seven year old boy...way up in the mountains...He cared enough to hear a plea and granted the request!
Even though this arrival was a bit of a surprise and really messed up our plans of a mini-visit with some dear friends whom we long to see, we have to believe it is all in the Lord's timing and it was his will for Donut to arrive last night...so what now Lord? Oh, I hope the next exciting thing is a ranch of our own...that would be so wonderful - but I am learning through reading His word, prayer and supportive friends that I need to be content in all things...all things that the Lord grants.
Thanks for stopping by...Enjoy the pictures.

Cows, A "Cow" Boy, and Dessert

Here are some fun pictures for you! This is of our "Jersey-Girls". We really love our cows...so from the farthest forward...Dutches, Ruthie (our boss cow and our favorite), Rosie (Dutches's mom) and well the reason why I took the picture....our "cow" boy! I came walking around the corner to hang out with the girls and this is what I found - gave me a good chuckle!

In my "spare" time I have been reading another book written by Julia Childs. This dessert fascinated me and I've decided to try it...not sure when...but I'm determined to try this dessert that looks amazing!

School Begins...

I was going to post about homeschooling and the joy of it all but as I read my husbands post today I thought he did a better job. Even though he doesn't actually talk about homeschooling he does touch on one of the reasons we are so passionate about homeschool. So here is his link and I hope you all enjoy what he has to say~! http://thegospelaccordingtothegospel.com/ You are looking for the blog Satan's Parallax View On Your Children. I found it heart breaking at the realization of it all.

Just in case you are wondering...school was wonderful and the children were delighted with the new curriculum choices I made. One choice that I'm delighted with is Apologia Science. I went with the Physical Science for our oldest and their Solar System Study for the two middle children. They are delighted and really enjoyed science the most today.

I will do a post this week about what we use and why I use it. I will also be taking our "school" pictures here soon...we ALL have nasty colds and look so terrible so I think it better to wait to take the photos...so keep checking and soon there will be a photo of my "students"....and a nice little review of what we use!

Happy Schooling...thank you for stopping by!

Small Town Fair Fun

Today was such a fantastic day...filled with fun, sun, and lots of candy! Our little one day fair in our little part of the world was such a great experience.

Here the children are waiting for the parade to begin, which little brother is in, with some friends.

Here is my little guy and my husband in the parade...our "float" was a huge hit.

My very favorite part of the parade...the tractors - I love the sound, smell and look of tractors...but could someone please make one in pink!

She entered a "Tomato Soup Cake" which one first place...nice job sweetie!

P.S. - Yes, the recipe actually called for a can of Tomato Soup.

Our future Entomologist with his "first place" bug collection!

Our little guy won "best of show" and a "best parade entry" trophy...good job!

And last but not least...our oldest son won first place in the hobbies division for his Lego creation and he also won a berry pie...hope he shares!

Thanks for stopping by...it is fair season...support your local fair and go have fun!

Welcome To The Funny Farm....

Welcome to the Funnies...Didn't know that our webcam could be such a hoot! We must have played with the webcam for a couple of hours...I was laughing so hard I was crying...

Can you guess who we all are? Have fun laughing at us!

Peep...peep...peep...we have arrived...peep

We have seven chicks as of this morning! This is the first time that we did not use an incubator to hatch the chicks...we thought since we are "farmers" - way out here in farm country we should get with the rest of the community and try it the good ole farm way...using a hen of course! What a joy it is to watch the mother hen "hide" her chicks from us. We are really looking forward to watching the mother hen take her little chicks on walks...peep!

Problem Solved

So we have been with out an oven for several months now....I do have an oven but there is a part that we need to get it fixed. We've ordered several parts that we thought were the right one but they weren't so I still am without an oven to bake anything...ho-hum!

One of our favorite treats is cookies...and I love to make them! Our favorite cookie has craisins and white chocolate chips in the mix and boy have we been missing them.

I came up with a solution to our cookie woes...I've been making no-bake cookies and decided that adding a few ingredients would make them similar to the ones we love...they were not exactly the same but good enough to pass the "no cookie left" test!

Here's the recipe if you ever find yourself without an oven or in a hurry....

No Bake Cookies...with added ingredients

2 cups sugar(we use turbinado)

1/2 cup butter(use real butter)

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup peanut butter

*Cook above ingredients to boil for one minute.

*Add following:

5 TBLS cocoa powder

3 cups oats or wheat flakes

1 cup chopped nuts(we have used almonds or pecans and like pecans the best)

1 cup craisins or raisins

*Stir until consistency is drop-able from a teaspoon

*Add 1 cup white chocolate chips...these will melt so if they are from the freezer they will not melt as much

Drop by teaspoon fulls onto wax paper and cool. Store in airtight container! Enjoy with milk, tea or coffee...

Thanks for stopping by...ta-ta

Garden Update....

Thought that a garden update would be fun for all of you!~

Aren't these humming birds daring...I was so close to them...And my son was even closer! Don't you just love the sound they make?

I looked up from my spot in the garden, I was "thinning the carrots" out and I laughed so much as our little guy had finally discovered the power of a hose...he had so much fun soaking big brother!

No, the carrots are not covered in dirt...they are actually purple carrots! We really like this kind as they are very sweet!

Thanks for stopping by...if you garden then I wish you happy gardening - if you don't then I wish you a happy "farmers market" shopping day!

P.S....the cow picture was taken with Shaina in mind...smile!

Exfoliate...Exfoliate...Exfoliate...

Before I dive into my post for the day I want to send a special message to a really special family whose school year began today....It is our deepest prayer that your lives would be enriched during the school year, that our Lord would give you wisdom and help you to accomplish what is expected of you during this school year, that you would see the Lord's hand in everything you learn. May you just be so blessed this school year...our hats are off to you excellent students and excellent teacher! http://mylifeonataffypull.blogspot.com Click on the link to meet these outstanding students...you will be so inspired and maybe you who do not home school will be encouraged to look into home schooling!

Okay, so times are tough on all of us these days...some tougher financially than others. I was talking with our neighbor and she told me to use used coffee grounds as an exfoliate!!!! I thought she was a bit nutty...but as usual I love the weird and unusual things of life and tried it - it worked like a charm. I began to think huh if it works on my face that well what wonderful things could it do for the rest of me? As most of you know we garden long hours and I have grown to love gardening barefoot...however the dirt doesn't like to leave my feet, but rather gets embedded in my toes and skin...so I tried the coffee grounds and low and behold I had clean feet again...hurrah!

Another use for coffee grounds is scrubbing the pans that you left on the stove all night because you thought you had cleaned everything...and were to tired to really investigate if you had or not...or truth be told discovered it after dishes were done and you had some tea and just wanted to read and thought "oh, bother I'll get it tomorrow". Yes, and by tomorrow morning the food you cooked had become one with the pan. But the coffee grounds did a great job (I really do not like sponges...I used to but became enlightened by a dear friend)...

Don't drink coffee...no problem places like Starbucks and Tully's Coffee who are really big on "green things" and "recycle" will give you their old coffee ground neatly packaged in a "garden compost" bag...

Happy Exfoliating...stay smooth!

Oh, What To Do...What To Do...

Oh, What to do on a hundred degree day? Can't very well stay in our little, sweltering hot, non-air conditioned(miss that so much), box so here is what we did today....

We started the day with family worship and reading the Word....then my dear husband took us out for lunch so I wouldn't have to fix lunch in the hot box....I was so thankful at his thoughtfulness!

I took the picture of the hay bales to show you all what I see every time we go to town...isn't it delightful! I really do love living in the country...just wish our living conditions were "normal"...

We then headed off to a more secluded part of the lake we live near, knowing that our regular spot would be packed and might be hard to keep track of all the children. Just look at the fun we had...it was a great day ending in a fun camp-out for the children!


This made everyone laugh...here little man is working hard on his "shelter"...those of you that know us will understand the "laugh" as we are big on survival and shelter....apparently our littlest has been listening to our conversations in his three years of life...

These huge drift woods made marvelous boats - who needs Walmart for floaters when the Lord provides.

Little man is helping with our neighbors horses...what fun for a youngster his age!

Nightie-night all!!!!!