some people's children...

...are SO goofy! :-)

I wanted to post last night, and today I don't know if I can again capture the family life going on in our van (Suburban)-ride home last night...
Kids play a "paper" game sometimes. Whoever's "it" closes his/her eyes until the others have passed around some scrunched up paper. The "it" person has to guess who has it -- sort of like "Button, button, who's got the button?" Well, they of course do a countdown to determine when the person should open his eyes and guess. Last night the countdown turned into a song...
"10 and 9 and 8 and 7" and so on.... "2 and 1 and YOU've Got an EXTENSION!" and then they would start counting down AGAIN... was the little twist to last night's game. One silly girl was "it" until we'd reached our exit....

Oh, and before reaching home I heard that someone had found a toad outside church... Me: Is it in the van now?? No, he let it go. To which Tim adds that the toad had kept saying, 'Give me liberty! Give me liberty!' (skipping the 'or death' part obviously. One smart toad, says I.) Tim tells us that he's a Toad Interpreter. I say, you could get a job doing that, I'm sure! He'd been chatting with a friend at church about the insane topics people get research money to investigate (or worse than insane, but we'll not go there.)

AND the "Give me liberty, or give me death!" was in our heads b/c The Artist (could be a Drama Queen in disguise?) had earlier in the day been standing on a kitchen chair to recite (er, read) Patrick Henry's wonderful speech. BTW, it's much longer than those seven famous words. And she must have brought it along, b/c I think she was reading it to her dad on the way TO church as well. Extenuate is now one of her new favorite words. "It is vain, sir, to extenuate the matter..." (and, for those who care: as far as I can tell, that is the correct spelling -- but I don't have a 1775 dictionary)

Well, it all seemed funny at the time!

Okay, I'll get really serious for a moment. Liberty is not a laughing matter these days! Here is Mr. Henry's speech - or at least the portion she is most fond of:

It is in vain, sir, to extentuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace--but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

And yes, one of these days I'll upload some more photos! For now, it's time to make supper!

brief banter

Just a quick hello to prove that my i-net service is working just fine!

It's a LOVELY day here, and the State Fair is still going, so wouldn't that be a fun diversion?! But instead I'm off to the kitchen to whip out some delicious cherry bars to take along this eve to the 'farm picnic.' We had our 'day at the fair' Tuesday evening (if you can call less than 4 hours a day?) - it was different for us, but good enough to count. Had our corndogs and gyros and even met up with our potential builder and discussed a few items...
Tim is making lots of phone calls this week - just met with the power company again today. Lots of paperwork to accomplish... If things fall in place (as put there by our loving Heavenly Father!) we could be digging into this project in about four weeks! wow! So last night we stayed up late and rearranged the kitchen (on paper) - don't know if it will all work, but I was pleased with what we *might* be able to do with that. I'm just gonna PLAN to live (and be pleasant) with subflooring and zero window trim and whatever else is negotiable for now, so that we can LIVE and breathe (and buy groceries...) Sound Exciting?! Pray for me! ;-)

Meanwhile, back at the current ranch... we have made the plunge into schoolwork! (another reason I should be *brief* today! Did you see that title?) Seems to be going well enough ;-) But right now I hear a cowboy in the house who ought to be outdoors soaking up some vitamin D while he romps with his sister(s) ... since they're not at the piano practicing :s Seeee, I have no time for this computer thing!

Better go 'be the Mom' ~ talk at ya later!

artsy fun with stencils

shhh! the last one is a surprise ;-)

We're ready to add a few accents to walls around the house - wouldn't that be cute? hmm, I've been thinking flowers upstairs for the girls, but maybe we should find some non-pink paint and put some bugs in the boys' room in the basement!

Right now I suppose I should find us some lunch after we put away the bottles of paint...
and this afternoon I have a list: bread, pizza crust (supper), hamburger buns (Saturday?), lesson plans, grocery list, AND the rack of ironing that just won't go away.

here we go

Okay, the picture thing was my own fault of course. I told you my brain is on hiatus this week, didn't I?!


Remember me saying that Tim & crew 'took care of ' the turkey last week? Now here is the Popper with Tom-the-Turkey's toes...


I think she said that he was praying here ;-) She's even funnier on the video!

And here just to appease your appetite and need for beauty is one of the older artsy girls' shots...






Actually, my younger 'artsy' girls have been busy painting this morning. My battery was dead, so I'll have to get a picture of their creations later.
Enjoy your day!

what to say today?

Must be time for another 'weekly' sort of post... but so many random thoughts leave me a bit speechless. (Those of you who KNOW me are laughing heartily at that thought!)


That's really just a caveat to tell you my brain seems void of profundity, so "Reader, beware!" and keep your expecations minimal, please.

I was going to throw in some pictures here, but now the system doesn't want to work for me - ??? - so you're stuck with my verbal abuse a bit longer.
I have spent the morning so far with online library catalogs :o searching for books for history reading. We must start school up NEXT week!! Can you guess who doesn't feel ready for this again? This is 'normal' for me, so we will jump in anyway.
So... Queen Victoria, Florence Nightingale, Charles Dickens, Rudyard Kipling, "Livingstone, I presume"... and on to Reconstruction and Pioneers of the West, and so on. We LOVE HIS-story here! =)
{edit: make that pioneers of the MIDwest =) ... we're supposed to be post-Civil War}
AND the Cattleman just brought me a Lego creation to see... they have been b.u.s.y. this week with their Legos! Sounds like another post with pictures will be required soon.
For those of you who care to note: the MusicBox girl IS practicing her violin faithfully this week (and right now)! yeah! =)

the inner man

Praying for you, my friend!

For this cause I bow my knees
unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,
That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory,
to be strengthened with might by his Spirit
in the inner man;
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith;
that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
May be able to comprehend with all the saints
what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;
And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge,
that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly
above all that we ask or think,
according to the power that worketh in us,
Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus
throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.


Ephesians 3:14-21

getting a grip?

Another week flown by!
The Littles and I enjoyed a little "summer" last week (library visit, biking, playing) -- along with a little math and botany and cattle chores :-) The Bigs were in Wisc for a few days for a teen conference - Tim even went for a day to observe first-hand. Good, all very good.
Saturday we had 'no place to go!' woohoo! and good since the Bigs arrived home ~5:45am and were very short on sleep! Later Tim and the able crew tackled the business of butchering Tom Turkey... one BIG bird. I think we had the meat cooked and in the freezer by 10pm.
Sunday sermons have been SO good this summer - Pastor and his "non-series mini-series" on how to live in this present world =) And Sunday school with Christlike Leadership (servant leadership => slave leadership!) All very, very good!
Tim brought a volleyball net home from his mom's, so it's volleyball season at our house (um, yard) Also a 'new' dresser for the Cattleman to use for all his duds. So I spent many hours rearranging and cleaning to make the basement liveable again with the additional furniture -- yeah! but oh my, we have TOO much stuff in this house! :o ...and yes, chaos is discouraging and depressing! A grumpy mama :( is not good.
The Littles had some more 'summer' fun with a trip to the zoo today with friends. Tonight the Bigs are having yet another biology lesson with the last? dissection from their lab kit - a fetal pig. I videoed some of it -- not sure yet if I should post it here ;-) They started outside to keep the stink out there -- but had to move into the sunroom now that it's dark -- still slicing and dicing out there...

Sorry, no pictures to liven this up tonight :-) Maybe the Cowgirl with digital camera will have a zoo photo to share with me later - that would be more appealing than the dissection? And I did NOT take pictures of before/after in the basement! ;-) You'll have to use your imagination.