I'm Thankful For....

I'm thankful for the beautiful view just outside our little "box"....I'm thankful for snow angels, silly girls who loose their hats and have the most ridiculous hat "hair" I've ever seen, boots for mom's toes - just because my husband loves me and wants me to have nice things, for children who are not worried about having the latest "snow gear" and are happy to just be sledding, for a son who laughs at himself when he looks really funny in his too-huge snow suit, for the beautiful snow that the Lord gave us on the first day of our Thanksgiving school break...we are a blessed family and are so thankful for so much! We are most thankful for a Saviour who sees us, and friends that care - we love you all so much - Happy Thanksgiving!

Fabulous Four

Today is a great day...a great day to turn Four! So our little guy woke up this morning and said...."TA-Da I'm four now"

Birthday's are magical for children. In our current situation I've tried to make them extra special as I don't want them to feel the stress of our living arrangements...and from the comment above I think I'm doing a good job...only by the grace of the Lord can this be possible..."count it all joy" is the scripture that comes to mind. I do feel the Lord cleaning my heart and giving me joy when life has dealt harshly with us.

Enough about me...let me share with you about my four year old. If I could choose one word to describe him I would choose "JOY". He is always happy, joyful and full of smiles to give for anyone who might be looking in his direction - and if you are close enough to him you might be granted with an extra special "Blanchard" style hug. (a Blanchard hug is the best hug in the world...makes you feel really special...the mother of the Blanchards has the best hugs. You know the make your day...carry you through kind!) Anyway, Our little guy is so full of life and he just loves people - We all love this about him. He is very smart and loves to learn. His favorite time of the day is "tot-school", where he learns about colors, shapes, letters, and numbers. At this moment in his life blue would be his choice of crayon, dogs are a favorite animal and to dress up like a cowboy and pack around his long rifle is his favorite thing to play.

So our hats off to you, our very favorite four year old - we love you so much - we love watching you grow - we are so thankful that the Lord blessed us with a little guy who brings everyone around him much joy!

P.S. - We are having a time finding a battery that would work for our camera - hopefully today we will find one as we venture into town for lunch, to pick-up the mail and the much anticipated birthday cake...pray we find a battery or this memory will be only logged into minds...I'd much rather capture the day on film so I can share with all of you a picture story...

Thanks for stopping by and may the Lord richly bless you and shower you with His surpassing JOY!

Getting Wood For The Winter

In the years past getting wood was something we did because we liked to have an occasional fire in our antique, for decoration mostly, wood stove. This year is a different story...we actually need the wood because that is how we heat our home - wood only! I really enjoy the deep heat of a wood stove and the toasty feeling that comes from having a fire. We all enjoy falling asleep to the crackling sound and watching the flames dance as they lull us to sleep in the evening....almost as enjoyable as sitting around watching the Christmas lights on the tree!

So here we are way up in the mountains, behind where we live gathering wood - and can you believe this blessing...the log company stacked the logs on the side of the road, decked them out and only charged us $5.00 per truck load...what a deal!

While the "men" were getting the logs the little people and I went exploring. We found this nifty old log cabin. It must be at least 100 years old. There was even a little creek down below it. Come to find out this place we were at used to be a mining town so this was probably a prospectors house at one time and they used the stream to clean the pans...fascinating!

It looks short from the pictures but the roof is caved in and the door is covered half way up with debris. There is still a window in tact and I can't tell if we are looking at the loft area and the rest of the cabin is covered in debris or if this was just a strange built cabin...I really wanted to explore more but the thought of falling down into a pit got the better of me...I'm not into creepy crawly things and old places usually are crawling with them...so our little adventure ended. My daughter, miss adventure herself, was gladly offering to do the inside exploring...but I still thought better of it!

Welcome To China

This year I choose to combine my two middle children for their geography class. I decided to go with the curriculum, Galloping the Globe, and am so glad I did. The children have learned and retained so much with this curriculum's approach. I do have to plan ahead a bit and order books from the library, make copies, etc.., but it is all worth it just to see my children grasp and enjoy geography.

For the past few weeks we have been learning about China. The children keep a notebook for the activities, vocabulary words, drawings, creative stories or mini-books. I also like to read aloud stories to them and for China I choose to read about Hudson Taylor. He was a missionary to inland China, if you ever get the gumption(is this a word?), anyway if you ever get the itch to read about a missionary I highly recommend reading about Mr. Taylor. I promise you will need tissue and feel as though your struggles are so small in comparison to his...but you will learn a lot and probably pray for strength like his...amazing story!

We also did a mini-book on Panda Bears. Don't you just relish the fact that you can find anything you need on the web...great help for us home school moms. I found Mandarin Chinese characters. Because they use only characters and not letters we had to dig up the meaning of the children's names to write them in Chinese.

For the grand finale I saved up and we went out to a Chinese restaurant. It was great fun and we even tried to use chop sticks....notice I wrote tried!

It just so happened that we needed a few items at Lowe's and so I turned a usually boring trip into something fun...a scavenger hunt! I told the middle two that they had to find things made in China. YES, GASP...I really broke my steadfast rule of "hold your hands and don't touch anything" rule and let them pick things up and look for the "made in China" words...needless to say time flew and they enjoyed looking.

A great lesson occurred in Lowe's as we only found one thing...one thing...one thing that was made in the U.S.A. Not lights, fixtures, screws or nails, scissors, tool kits, measuring tapes, eye protection,....no none of those! We only found mailboxes that were made in our country. We were able to talk about how much we purchase from and are very reliant on foreign countries instead of standing on our own....it was a real eye opener to me just how much we have in our home from China...what would America look like of we only purchased things made in the U.S.A.? I doubt very much that China is filled with things "made in the U.S.A." - it is a shame but I won't keep rambling on and on about it!

On the way home, as we came across the pass, this is what greeted us! The picture doesn't do it justice but it looked like fire spread across the sky - glorious!

Thanks for stopping by...see you next time as we travel across the globe!

Dear Husband actually let his hair down and relaxed and was being so silly...I really love this picture of us and if you know the heart of what we are going through you will love it just as much as I do...we really had a joyful time!

Bright RED.....

Okay, so I'm so embarrassed! I apologize for the weird choice of music on my blog...I honestly didn't choose it and am going to take the music thing off of my blog...I only wanted the classical music and some how there is this strange stuff...I'm Bright Red in my face from total embarrassment...eeeek!

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!