Random 5 for Friday ~ 3/11/2016

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1. It's been a lovely week and oh how it has been just like spring! I am so glad that winter finally is past and I can look forward to more of these weeks. It was in the 60-70 range all week and even the nights were no cooler than a mid-50's! Some of the early flowers have decided it's time to bloom, and crocus and daffodils are bringing splashes of color to the barren fields and hills. 

2. I was very happy to place my orders for seeds and transplants this week. We are going with four different companies this year--each providing heirloom and/or organic and non-GMO products. My first order came in today and I had fun reading the packages to start thinking ahead to the planting of each item.

3. We aren't very traditional in our garden choices. We like to go outside the normal selections for produce. That's why we get things like beet blends and rainbow carrots. We love the variety that is available with heirloom seeds. Old varieties that have been passed down from generation to generation. We find the flavors in these are phenomenal compared to the standard garden variety. This year, I went with blends in the summer squash, carrots, lettuce, and beets. I look forward to seeing how they grow and then what the different flavors will be! And just serving rainbow carrots makes me happy---the colors are simply fabulous!

4. It was definitely a week for deliveries and happy mail. Just this week I received a seed order, my fractionated coconut oil order, the suspenders I ordered for Baby Britches, a USBORNE book order, and my Trades of Hope order. I also received a wedding invitation, a bridal shower invitation, and a couple cards. Happy mail is just the thing to brighten one's day!

5. I am so thankful for my Sabbath. We eagerly welcome it every Friday night at sunset. It means a time of rest. A time of worship. A time for family togetherness. A time for fellowship. Our bodies crave it by the time Friday rolls around and we are so blessed to be able to keep it in peace. Making our Friday night Sabbath dinner brings me such joy and the boys look forward to it so much, just as I did when I was a child. I love the extra time for family snuggles. For family talks. And then our time with brethren as we worship together at church. We all are so happy to see one another and celebrate our joy in being able to fellowship together. I know everyone at church looks just as forward to it as we do. It's a wonderful 24 hr period of peace. No outside distractions. It's absolutely wonderful!

© Scripture Pictures

Have a most blessed weekend. Don't forget that Daylight Savings Time begins this weekend! Spring your clock forward an hour before you go to bed tomorrow night! I am so ready for longer nights again!

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Random 5 for Friday (on Saturday)~A Week of Adventures

Another week comes to a close...the first week of March. Hard to believe that it's already the third month of this year. But March means that winter will finally have to fade away and make way for glorious spring! Here are some of our adventures that we had this week as part of Random 5 for Friday!

The links on this blog and in the posts may be affiliate links.  Please see my disclosure policy for full details and thank you for your support!

1. Sunday was delightful! It was so warm and we enjoyed spending the day outside! I got in the mood to garden and started working my way through my seed catalogs to plan what all needs to be purchased for the new growing season. I have a blog post almost done about all the pre-gardening planning that can be done while you are waiting for everything to be ready to go.

2. Monday. LOL. About mid-morning, I kept hearing noises in our chimney and realized a bird had gotten stuck in the flue. This happens about once a year, so it's not a new experience. As we have done before, we just wait for the bird to come down into the woodstove itself and then we dispose of it. It was not to be so simple this time. The bird DID make it down the pipe and into the stove, however, before I could take care of it, there was a bit of excitement. I was on the phone with my mom and all of sudden I heard LIttle Britches yell that Baby Britches had opened the stove door and the bird had escaped. In the house. So I quickly hung up on my mom "Mom, I have to go. There is a bird on the loose in the house!" and then set about a course of action to get that bird OUT! Fortunately, after the initial chaos, we were able to usher it towards a door and outside. And the best news? It didn't poop on anything! LOL! My mom definitely got a chuckle that morning.

3. Tuesday. So it was just your normal day. I made dinner over at my inlaws house because my mother-in-law is out of town and I wanted to feed my father-in-law. My soon to be sister-in-law came over to help. All was fine until I went to open to open a can of black beans as I always do...and then...oh. That's not good. And then my finger starts bleeding all over. Yep, classic slicing of finger on can lid. It was quite a filet and it would NOT stop bleeding. Fortunately with Lauren (my soon to be SIL) there, she helped me get ice and compression. And then finished dinner. After 1 1/2 hrs it was still bleeding so we discussed whether or not I needed to get stitches and decided to go back to my house. I had butterfly bandaids, gauze and tape there. Thankfully once I got it done up like that the bleeding stopped. But ugh. how aggravating! LOL! And nothing like a thickly bandaged pointer finger!

4. So now I'm on the lookout for a new can opener. Mine was just a nice classic style with padded handles. But I'm now leaning towards this highly recommended Kuhn Auto Safety Lid Lifter or this OXO Good Grips Smooth Edge Can Opener. No more jagged lids at all! Both are highly recommended with very good reviews.

5. We also got new furniture this week! We decided to downsize and moved our two end tables, a coffee table, loveseat, couch, and recliner out. In its place, we moved back in a new power reclining loveseat, reclining couch, and a new coffee table that is just pretty awesome. The coffee table is MINE because it has the best storage!

One side lifts up to give you a tray table of sorts and underneath--lots of storage. The other side lid lifts out and it's nothing but storage! This is why we were able to eliminate the end tables! Now I can store everything in this! The one side is for nothing but library books. The other has my stationary, phone books, blanket, and other odds and ends in baskets for easy grabbing. Everyone just loves it, and we especially love that it is a perfect match to our entertainment center. Did I mention it's also on wheels for easy movement? It's just fabulous! Everyone has been asking us where we found it. We found it at our local fabulous furniture store (aka. Big Sandy Superstore) but it's an Ashley brand which seems to be carried everywhere. They call it a Lift Cocktail Table. I just call it awesome. LOL!

We were very happy to be able to bless an older couple with all our old furniture. They lost all their own in a fire early last year and have been using just hodge podge leftovers that people donated. They are very excited to have all of our stuff delivered tomorrow and we are so happy to be able to help them out.

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I hope you have a simply lovely rest of your weekend! I am having a mini mom day out tomorrow as I have to run some errands in Cincinnati. I have simply got to find suspenders for Baby Britches. He's got the tiniest little tooshie and his pants just WON'T stay up! LOL! I'm hoping some stores will be already filling up with the nice Easter clothes as that will give me what I need I'm sure!

Random 5 for Friday~2/19/206

Here we are at Friday yet again, and things on the farm have been busy this week! Join me as I ramble a bit about our lives in today's Random 5 for Friday!

1. Our week began with SNOW! We enjoyed about 6" of snow which made it quite beautiful here on the farm! And the boys adored having more snow to play in...only wishing they hadn't broken their sled, while playing in our last snowstorm! The snow lasted through about Wednesday, though it had already started to melt thanks to the consistently rising temperatures as the week continued.

2. Next came a well-check for Little Britches! He turned 10 last week, so I scheduled him for his annual checkup. It's always fun to guess what their stats are. As of right now, he's 4'7" tall and weighs 89 lbs. He's my big boy! He also appears to be in superb health......

3. There is a big but to all of this...you see, after his appointment, we had to get him scheduled to take a Lyme Disease test. He was bitten by a deer tick earlier the previous week, and my husband asked for me to get him in there. So we are now praying that the test will come back negative and we can move on!

4. I have been dealing with some of the most dreadful anxiety this week. Ever. Bracing myself for the call from the doctor that will either be okay, or change our lives and what we do. At one point on Wednesday, I was such an absolute mess! And I don't get to be a mess very easily. But Satan was filling me full of worst case scenarios and major what-ifs. Just burdening me and weighing me down under their load of worry and fear. I just had to rush to the bedroom, hit my knees, and give it all to my heavenly Father. I cried until I couldn't cry anymore. I recited scripture after scripture about God's mercy and love and everlasting faithfulness. With tears running down my face, I told Him that I trusted Him with my son's life and that my faith will stand no matter what happens. Let me tell you...the weight that was lifted from my shoulders when I stood back up, is indescribable...unless you yourself have been there too. But we still wait. I imagine we will know next week sometime. Until then, I continue to "oil up" my boy and give him all sorts of good immune boosters. They can only help! Since my moment with God, I've been fine. He has given me that peace that passeth all understanding and I know He's by my side in the middle of this.

5. It's been spicy today! We have an International night tomorrow after church, and several members are hosting tables. Each table represents another country from around the world and the host will share samples of foods as well as decorate their table however they like. We were torn between Israel, Italy, and Mexico...but Love-Of-My-Life declared Mexico to be our country. Today I've been busy preparing our foods for tomorrow! I went out and purchased some red, white, and green decorations to coordinate with the Mexican flag. I found some authentic recipes, so I will let you know how they worked out!

And one extra bit of information...Baby Britches read his first REAL book today after reading his Reader One again. He read Biscuit with just minimal guidance and he was very happy indeed! Hard to believe this is the same child who was getting so frustrated at the end of 2015! I'm so glad I decided to make that switch!

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A scripture from Scripture Pictures that really helped me stay with it this week!

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Have a simply blessed weekend with your family and friends!

Random 5 for Friday~ 2/12/2016

It's been awhile, but I wanted to share some randomness...

1. This week my oldest (aka. Little Britches) turned the big 1-0! I can't believe that my darling little boy could possibly be that old! Where has time gone?? It seems like just yesterday I brought him home from the hospital. So adorable and bald. Oh so bald. Then I blinked and he grew up. Sigh. I hope the next 10 years don't go as fast.

Then...

Now...

2. For this birthday, we decided to let him experience the joys of a "real" professional tractor pull, so we bought tickets for the National Tractor and Truck Pull Championships in Louisville, KY. We attended this last night after a whole day exploring the National Farm Machinery show. Yes. Very redneck. But these boys just simply think it's the best thing ever. So does their daddy. Mommy just enjoys being with the boys more than anything else. 

Possibly the coolest thing at the Farm show. A Transformer made of Kioti Tractor parts!

Waiting for the pull to get started

3. So what does mommy do at these hardcore country boy things? She takes pictures, and collects the freebies. LOL. I stock up on grocery bags, pens, and pencils from all the vendors! Woot! Talk about feeding my pen fetish! LOL

See? A lovely collection!

4. Besides. This convention just makes me eager for MY convention. The Great Homeschool Convention. The Midwest Convention in Cincinnati, OH. That's coming up March 31-April 2. Oh yeah. Now THAT convention will be my reward for going to this one with them. Of course none of them volunteer to go to mine with me. Why IS that? LOL.

5. We get to enjoy a fun weekend. My brother surprised my oldest by coming down to stay with us this weekend as a bit of birthday fun. Little Britches was surprised and very pleased. But even more fun is that my sweet niece and sister-in-law flew in from AZ to spend 10 days here in KY with us! And my nephew and my other sister-in-law are coming in this evening from Cincinnati too! It's going to be a simply delightful weekend full of family and love!

I always love spending time with my darling nephew!

I hope you and yours have a most wonderful and blessed weekend! We are going to stay warm inside, because the weather outside is "freightful" and the fire is so delightful! I have a busy week ahead and I promise to get cracking on my posting this week! I've got book reviews (6!), a curriculum review (we loved it!), and a few recipes to write up (yummy!). So stay tuned!

A beautiful graphic from Scripture Pictures

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Random 5 on Friday--11/6/2015

1. Plane Trip

Last week I took my boys back to the Northwest to attend my Grandma's memorial. It always takes 8ish hours to get there, even on the best case scenarios. The boys love flying and I do too. I just wish we had been going for a better reason. But we did enjoy the 5 days we were there. I don't get back there very often and seeing my extended family is always nice. The boys had fun with their cousins (second cousins actually) and enjoyed making everyone's acquaintance again.

Age: 9, 8, 6, 5, 2, 1 and 7 months

2. Memorial

Oh it was so rough. Sigh. I held it together the best I could, but having to read a poem written by my Grandma at age 15...and then sharing my best memories...it's so hard when you loved someone so much. I was so close to her. The grandchild with the most things the same. Seeing her photos and her smile. It was just hard. It always is. I was thankful for my cousins surrounding me and we lifted each other up in support.

A few of my cousins (with my brother on the end)

3. Time change

On top of the dealing with grief, I also was attempting to keep our bodies in sync with East Coast time--to make sure we kept going to bed and got up at our NORMAL time. It's difficult to do--but throw in daylight savings time, when they steal another hour...ugh! Instead of trying to accommodate for a 3 hr time difference, it was like a 4 hour one! But it apparently worked, because we were able to jump right back into our routine as soon as we got home without any issues. Woot!

4. School on the Go

Because we homeschool, we took it with us. The boys don't always like this, but we have gotten into a new travel routine, and it works. Little Britches did work on math and science using Standard Deviants Accelerate, as well as his continued reading of his biography, and completed pages in his Critical Thinking workbook. But the real "education" happened outside the classroom! We went on a field trip of sorts to assist in butchering turkeys! The boys loved watching the whole process, and even helping in the plucking!

Another field trip, involved a nice dinner at an authentic Mediterranean restaurant. From the tapestries and artifacts, to the cushioned/pillowed seating areas, to the pre-meal handwashing, to the authentic food and drink...it was a cultural experience to be sure! We loved trying new foods and fell in love with baba ghanouj, limonana (mint lemonade slush), and schawarma!

Lamb Shank, Arabic Tea, and a Limonana

Gorgeous tapestries and draperies everywhere!

5. Home At Last

We are very happy to be home. Reunited with Love-Of-My-Life and back in my beautiful roomy house, the countryside and our regular routine! I came home ready to cook for the fall season and have had fun exploring my cooking magazines. Today I pulled out a decadent chocolate cake recipe to make a dessert for our big annual church semi-formal dinner/dance. I made it last year with serious rave reviews and knew it was the dessert of choice for this year as well. I don't LIKE to bake, but when I do it...I do it well!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend! It's supposed to switch over to real fall weather tomorrow with highs in the 50's...not the 70's we've been enjoying. I imagine our first hard frost will happen soon. It's time to figure out what to do with our new fruit trees to prepare them for winter...and I need to dig up my dahlias to save them for next year. 

But for now...goodnight!

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Random 5 for Friday~ Oct. 23

Friday the 23rd of October. Are you kidding me? How did THAT happen? Poof and these months are gone anymore. Well, here we are at another Friday. Just one more left before November is here. Again. Seriously? LOL. Here are my five random things for this week...

1. My week started out very rough with the death of my most beloved Grandma. She was the grandparent I was the absolute closest too. The person in my family most like me than anyone else. I was the only grandchild to be allowed to live with her after college. We shared more in common than anyone else. She taught me how to do things she didn't teach anyone else. I knew she was going to be leaving this world before too long--she's been sick for so long. But I guess in my heart, I sort of hoped she'd live forever.

2. Next Friday I am making a trip back to the Northwest with my brother and cousin (both living in Cincinnati) for my Grandma's celebration of life. Unlike my trip for my grandpa, which involved me being on the ground in WA for a mere 48 hours, this trip is going to be a few days long. I appreciate this as it will give me time to connect with my family and some friends that I don't get to see very often living out here in KY. And I love flying.

3. I haven't flown with my brother since...2001. Can you believe that? Strange but true. It's been 14 years since we last flew together. That's what happens when one of us is 10 years older and gets married and moves away. I look forward to our trip. It can be fun to travel with family. Especially when you are needing to travel because of a sad event. Family makes things easier.

4. Living two hours away from the airport can be a pain. Like when you have an 8am flight. And you need to be at the airport by 6:30am. And you have to leave the house at 4:30am. Let's not even talk about what time I will have to get up next week. I was not amused at my husband chiming in with this lovely information this morning.

5. Finally, I have created a very special post over on my blogs Facebook page. It was written after seeing a beautiful status from a dear friend. She and I are working hard to bring awareness to beautiful babies who are born with craniofacial deformity affected individuals--especially babies born with cleft palate and cleft lip. We are asking leading baby products brands to consider placing a beautiful baby with physically visible special needs like these on their packaging to help raise awareness. We are calling it the #CleftStrong movement and hope you will check it out and join us!

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Random 5 for Friday 10/9/2015

October 9th. Seriously? I can't believe we are already almost to the middle of October! But here we are yet again. I have another Random 5 for Friday post that I'm squeaking in while it's still actually Friday!
1. "I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers." I must say that I agree with Anne Shirley. October here in Kentucky is simply stunning and nothing like it was growing up back in the Pacific Northwest. Evergreen trees are very regal, but nothing can compare to the hillside here when the trees--sycamore, hickory, walnut, chestnut, buckeye, maple, birch, ash--when these trees begin to put on their autumn finery! The sunsets shimmer and glow reflected of the jeweled toned leaves. And the air! Nothing like a crisp foggy morning that burns off to roasty sunshine.
2. I am thankful I homeschool. I know this is a simple statement. But this time of year when the weather is simply perfect and nature is changing so quickly, I'm so grateful to be homeschooling so we can be out enjoying it! We shift at least half of our day outside now. We enjoy the warm sunshine as we complete our watercolors, or dive into our literature. Having so many wildflowers and trees and plants, makes a nature study on seeds ideal for this time of year. What fun to explore the plants to see what we can find and to be outdoors in the sunshine and Indian Summer weather while the other children stare longingly out the windows while stuck indoors.
3. I love monarch butterflies. One of the beautiful things of October are the arrival of the migrating monarch butterflies. One day this week, I was working outside and happened to glance over at my butterfly bush to find there were two monarchs feasting. I welcomed them gladly and wished them well on their long journey ahead.

4. I love new boots. Love-Of-My-Life spoiled me rotten we were away keeping the Feast of Tabernacles down in Jekyll Island, GA. He took me shopping and stocked me up for the fall with new shirts, a new jean jacket, new jewelry, a new dress, and a pair of simply fabulous brown boots. There is just something about boots that screen fall. I look forward to wearing them tomorrow with my new dress and jacket. We are going out on a date tomorrow night...no special reason except that we love each other. And you don't get a better reason than that!
5. Finish strong. I am determined to finish this last quarter of the year strong. I have a new homeschool planner (I am reviewing it, so stay tuned!), plans of attack and goals for school, a new routine, continuing in my successful daily Bible study program, and yes, even health goals which include increasing my water intake and getting outside for physical activity. I want to finish the year strong so I can shift into 2016 with a sense of purpose for a healthy mind and body. New habits take time and I want to have new habits for the 2016 year!
May your weekend be blessed! I have a review for Progeny Press that will be posting on Sunday, and then one for Fish Flix coming on Tuesday. There are reviews going to be posted at least once a week for the next 6 weeks as I finish out my 2015 year with the Schoolhouse Review Crew, so stay tuned! I also have a couple book reviews to write up and yes, even a recipe or two! I really do plan on getting back in the swing of regular and consistent blogging...I just needed things to settle down.

Random Five for Friday...on Saturday 9/19

Here we are with September in full swing! We are staying busy here on the farm...fortunately it HAS eased up since summer ended since our heaviest work is during hay season. Now we can slow down and catch our breath for a bit. We do love autumn around here...

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1. Summer is lingering...here in NE Kentucky, the summer is lingering. We get these wonderful fall days or mornings, and then it becomes hot and humid again with 90 degrees. I can't wait until the weather officially switches over. I'm so ready for fall.

2. Fall means menu change. We embrace fall by welcoming it with chili, casseroles, and soup. Mmm. My mouth waters thinking about the tasty meals we have ahead of us. I make quite the mouth happy chili and oh how we adore our beef barley soup recipe. It also means bread season.

3. I will start making bread again. I love fresh baked bread, don't you? I have been debating on whether or not to replace our bread maker this fall. Ours went out at the end of bread season last year. I wasn't even using it completely. Just for the dough setting at which point I would take it out and bake it in the oven. So I may not replace it and just "do it the old fashioned way". But if I do replace, I'm looking at either this Oster 2-pound Expressbake or the Cuisinart 2-pound Programmable one. Both have excellent ratings...biggest difference is the price.

4. School is going great! I haven't really had many posts on here about how school is going. I was thinking of maybe starting a weekly wrap up post to share every weekend...So we've kicked off My Father's World Kindergarten as part of our Kindergarten work and have 3 weeks under our belt. Baby Britches is rocking it and loving it. He also already completed the first Singapore Math Kindergarten book (120+ pages)...yikes! LOL. He just loves math which is so weird for me. But I have the next book ready to go and the next level if he gets this one out of the way quickly as well. Little Britches is doing well too. We are reviewing a couple products and they are actually working very well for us. The biggest excitement is our work on Phonetic Zoo, a spelling curriculum from Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW) which is one of our review products. I can't wait to share that review with you...but it won't be until end of October.

5. We are looking forward to taking a little trip soon to the beach for some much needed family time. My folks and brother are flying down to meet us and we will share a house. It's going to be lovely and we will get some awesome family time. We also plan on touring a few museums which will get me some nice "field trips" into our schedule.

Have a fabulous week! I will have another review for you this week, so make sure you stay tuned and check back in!

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Random 5 for Friday~ 8/28/2015

Well here we are in the last Friday for the month of August...how did that happen? These years just fly by in a blink anymore. I must say though, I'm looking forward to September! It's one of my favorite months here in Kentucky because it's simply beautiful!

The links on this blog and in the posts may be affiliate links.  Please see my disclosure policy for full details and thank you for your support!

1. I've been working on lesson planning so much my eyes are about crossed! We plan on starting back to our FULL schedule(ish) this coming Tuesday (the 1st) so I've been finalizing the plans for BOTH boys. I've been looking at a lot of different planners and I've been hoping to find *just* the one I was looking for. I downloaded two of the free HUGE planners available from my membership with SchoolhouseTeachers.com but I didn't like them exactly. But I can take pieces of what I want and use it. I found my best luck using the DonnaYoung.org and her FREE planning forms.  

This is a great deal!! Make sure you check it out for access to HUNDREDS of different curriculum and lesson plans!

2. I can't believe I have a Kindergartner again. Seriously. It seems like just yesterday I was gearing up to start our homeschool adventure with Kindergarten for Little Britches...and here we are 5 years later doing it all over again! I am working on sharing what Baby Britches curriculum is going to look like this year. It's much different than the kindergarten of Little Britches!

MFW-K Unit Study Week 1 All planned out!

3. Fourth grader. How do I have a fourth grader? Seriously. I remember when I was in 4th grade so it just doesn't seem possible that Little Britches is this old already! We are looking to have a great year with even MORE goodies to explore! I have his curriculum post in the works too...the main reason it's not been shared yet, is that I didn't finalize it until today. LOL!

4. We had a random week of delightful autumn weather! Oh how much I have loved having the cool weather without any humidity! Some mornings were a delightful 55 degrees and we wouldn't even get past 75! I admit I got used to it...and sadly it will go away as tomorrow we are getting back in into the upper 80's starting tomorrow and for all next week as September begins. Hopefully it will go away again and true autumn can return!

5. Have you noticed everyone (as in all the restaurants and such) are advertising pumpkin this and pumpkin that? Forget pumpkin. I am all about the apple cider. I adore the apple cider donuts that roll into Tim Hortons. Yum!

Well I hope you have a delightful weekend and final few days of August! I have Poppins Book Nook for Monday, and hopefully my curriculum posts as well. I'll also be sharing what my upcoming reviews are for the month of September, so make sure you stay tuned!

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Random 5 on Friday...It's August??

Tell me I am NOT alone in being so shocked that it's already August?! August to me is like a big red flag reminding me that the year is winding down. Kids are heading back to school. Summer heats up then shifts to early fall. Gardens throw out their final hurrah. August is such a fabulous month--but I can't believe it's already here!

1. The Beginning of August means...Summer Camp! This is our third year for Summer Camp. Little Britches (Age 9) and I have gone the last two years and this was our third time together. He was tickled to be in B2 this year and I was thrilled to be returning as the lead counselor of G1. We adore summer camp. This year my dorm was filled with nine giggly girls aged 5-7 and boy, did I have a time! It is both exciting and yet, exhausting! I really was mommy to nine little girls for the 3 1/2 days! Thankfully I had great assistant counselors (three teen girls) who made it so much easier. But we enjoyed canoeing, fishing, archery, court games, field games, indoor games, arts n crafts, swimming and more! It's over in a blink...but everyone starts counting down for the next year!

Little Britches came over to say hello during lunch

All dressed up and ready to meet my girls!

2. The Beginning of August means...it's Baby Britches birthday! Baby Britches had his big FIFTH birthday on Wednesday (the 5th) and while I wasn't home from camp yet, I sent him birthday wishes and smooches. This year, his present was a new John Deere bike--the traditional present for a new five year old here on the farm. He was tickled to death. My mother-in-law gave him a headlight and taillight and a bell...which made it even better! My parents are sending him a Spiderman helmet which will make him so excited! I can't believe my little man is already five years old. Seems like it was just yesterday that my labor started. Sigh.

Love this boy so much!

3. The Beginning of August means...BABIES! My sister-in-law who lives in Arizona arrived with my precious niece and my husband's first cousin arrived with her new little two month old boy. So we've got babies on the farm! They arrived in hopes of being around when my other sister-in-law has her baby. Her due date was August 2nd. Well it's August 7th and baby Conway is apparently very content to just stay in his nice warm room. Everyone leaves this coming week--so we are hoping that this weekend will be the big show so they can meet him before they leave. My SIL of course is absolutely miserable and prays every night for Conway's arrival. Auntie Lisa is also eager to meet the little man. He was kind enough to wait until I came back from summer camp...but now he needs to come out! Eviction notice has been served!

Beautiful baby girl...love my niece so much!

4. The middle of August means...finalizing all our school plans! We will be starting school on September 7th, so the rest of the month is going to be all about school prep. We have plenty of supplies, but I don't quite have the curriculum finalized and things keep changing in regards to what I want to do. Next week, I will be part of the Back to Homeschool Blog Hop, so I will be talking more about our plans and such over the course of the week--so stay tuned!

5. The end of August means...it's almost time for school! I actually love gearing back up for school. I think we will have another great year because of all the fun things that are in the works. The biggest change will be that Baby Britches will be starting Kindergarten this year! I can't wait for those Back to Homeschool First Day of School photos!!

Random 5 for Saturday~ 7/18: Summer Words

It's been awhile, but I figured I would do a Random 5 on Friday post...on Saturday. This week I have picked words to describe the summer we are having so far.

Click image to add yours!

1. Busy. There have been activity after activity at church and it keeps me hopping! Throw in a couple trips and a visit from my family, not to mention normal farm busyness, and this summer is just flying by! Middle of July already? How is that even possible?
2. Rain. That pretty much describes this years summer. We had 2 straight weeks of storms and rain. We received around 9". And some of it came down so heavy our creeks rushed and the grass was flooded. Crazy amounts of rain this summer. So weird to think that on the other side of the country, they would happily take even a fraction of the rain we are having, because they are bone dry.
3. Green Tomatoes. My mom told me that the type of summer we are having here in Kentucky is what they called growing up a "green tomato summer". When you get more rain than sun and it seems like your tomatoes stay a perpetual green. Well that pretty much describes it here! We have quite a few tomatoes, but they just need more sun to ripen!
4. Humidity. Ugh. All that rain? Well the ground is saturated. And now we have HOOOOOOTTTTT weather. Put them together and there is 90%+ humidity which tacks on 5-10 degrees in "real feel" to our temperature. Today was 92, but tacking on the 95% humidity made it over 100 degrees. The kind that just covers you in sweat within seconds. Ew.
5. Flowers and Cucumbers. While the tomatoes might not be ripening, the flowers are loving the rain and sun, and so are my cucumbers. It's pickle season! Our cucumbers are growing fabulous and now it's time to make pickles. That's one thing about preserving your crops, when they are ready, you just have to do it, ready or not! Last night we had to put up corn because we discovered IT was ready. Soon it will be potatoes and melons. But right now it's cucumbers. 

Nine jars (pint-and-a-half) of pickles--whole and quartered

Fresh from the stalk corn-on-the-cob. Oh so delish!

The bees are loving my sunflowers this year!

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