Happy Monday!

We had such a great week last week with my mom visiting that this week will seem boring in comparison.

~Charleston pulled out another huge win over Danville making them 4-0 and winning the conference opener.   And the great thing is that all 3 of Christian's grandmothers were there this week to cheer him on.  

Meaning they weren't paying a bit of attention to me when disaster struck since I was sitting behind them and between 2 total strangers.   I was watching the game and felt something hit my hair.  At first I thought it was some kid throwing something.  But no.  

It was a BUG!  In my HAIR!!!!  

And it wasn't coming out even though I was shaking my head around like a lunatic.  The lady beside me took notice and asked what it was.  A BUG!!  In my HAIR!!  

And you won't believe this but she pulled it out of my hair with her bare hands!  

And the world was set right again.  

I'm still impressed with her bravery because if the situation had been reversed, bless her heart....let's just say that the lady beside her might have taken that opportunity to visit the concession stand at that point.  

~LB had a sweet 16th birthday and finally got her ears pierced!    I'm looking forward to watching her enjoy all kinds of earrings....because believe me, she will.  

~Our friends Don & Marianne were out of town this week and Honey and I got to fill in for them at church.  That meant I got to teach 1-2 grade Sunday school.  LOVED it.  I've actually wanted my own Sunday school class for some time but right now they are all full of wonderful teachers.  It was a lot of fun to fill in for Ms. Marianne though I know I paled in comparison.  We learned about Zacchaeus and memorized Luke 19:10..."The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost."   When I wrote it on the chalk board the homeschool mom in me had to resist the urge the label all the parts of speech.

~ And now this week is full of usual regular type of everyday stuff.  But really the usual regular type of stuff is special too and I'm trying to savor it and enjoy it instead of navigating and surviving it.  I'm memorizing Phil 4:8.  I've learned its a form of loving God and loving others even with our mind as I learn to notice and praise the things that are worthy.  Even in the everyday.

 Phil 4:8..
8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

 

Birthday With M&Ms And Football

I have a fun size bag of m&ms on my nightstand that is driving my kids crazy.  Each one of them have asked me like 50 times if they could have it and who's gonna get it and what's it for.  Who knew that 17 m&ms in a tiny bag could cause such a stir.  So I'm leaving it there to torment them because that's the kind of mom I am.

And it's not like they haven't had enough sugar.  My freezer was full of ice cream and that was BEFORE Grandma came to visit.  When Mom got here she made sure they enough for unlimited banana splits with all the toppings.  So yeah, they're good.

G'ma's visit has been lots of fun.  Shopping, eating, going to the park, gaming, story telling, and tonight is

GAME NIGHT!!

Then tomorrow we have a birthday!!  16 years of sweet Laura Beth.  

Isn't this so cute?  She was 8.  So that was 1/2 her life ago.  

And now...

Isn't she so beautiful?  

We have a big day planned of lunch with Grandmas and Dad, balloons and presents, ears pierced (!), and 

GAME NIGHT

again.

We went shoe shopping for our football players because boys just need shoes all the time.  I've had the same shoes for 8 years so I don't know what their deal is.  It might have something to do with all the disappearing food in the kitchen.  But in any case, their new shoes are sharp.  Just hope they are good for field goals and PATs.

Chance and Christian.  

I could watch this every day. 

We Found It!!

After the Gentry game I was getting ready for bed and OH NO!!!  My earring was lost!  GONE!!  

My favorite. 

They were my grandmother's. 

I loved them.  

I looked all over the floor, took off my shirt, shook out my hair, re-traced my steps back into the house, prayed over it, looked in the car, and made the kids search the driveway.  

Nothing.  

Which could mean only one thing.  I lost it at the game.  Two hours away.  On bleachers.  Or underneath probably.  I called the school but figured it was lost forever.  

But today!!  I was working in my closet with 2 of my kids and I looked down and THERE IT WAS!!!  

Oh happy day!   

Our Football Experience

Some of my friends have been asking about our experience with football this year and I realized that I'd hardly even blogged about it.  Where have I been??  This has all been so new for everyone involved and we didn't even know anyone who had taken this route before. 

So here's what happened. 

The boys were minding their own business this summer playing soccer together in the front yard like usual. 

They had no idea they were being watched.  

But apparently the kid next door took notice of Christian's kicking skills and the wheels started turning in his head.   Our neighbor, Chance, is a senior this year at Charleston High where football is quite the big deal.  For the whole town.  And Chance is a super star.  (He's also Christian's holder and #11 in all pics)

Next thing we know, there is a knock at the door from a guy introducing himself as the high school football coach asking if there would be a chance that Christian would consider kicking for them this year.   Under the Tebow law, homeschoolers are allowed to participate in public school sports.  Interestingly, he'd never seen him kick.  

Well.  This is certainly something we'd never thought of.   

But Christian was interested and it sounded like fun.  Besides, we figured we weren't married to it so if it turned out to be anything other than great, we could step out.  

We bought a football.  Or actually Grandpa did.  

And Christian put his little brothers to work chasing down imaginary field goals while the neighbors watched and hoped this was their chance to turn around a poor kicking game.  

A couple weeks later Oakland Raider's kicker, Eddie Carmona, came by to take a look and work with him on his kicks.  Eddie is a former Charleston Tiger.  He came over a couple of different times and we all thoroughly enjoyed him and appreciated his willingness to work with our boy.  

Summer practice started and Christian got a chance to meet the team and work muscles he'd probably never even used before.  

Meanwhile, I was learning what all was going to be involved and asking some homeschool mom-ish questions.  Like ..... does he have to have a shot record?  do I have to turn in grades?  are there attendance requirements?  ...stuff like that.  

I called the superintendent and he was full of answers.   In fact, he was very eager for Christian to come on board.  He offered the use of the library, any resources that I may be interested in, AP classes, college classes, and everything that would be available to any other student.  In fact, he said that Christian could come and go as he pleased using it like a college campus.  If he wanted to enroll in any class and didn't like it, he could just drop it without it being recorded on a transcript.  He said he wanted to be a help in any way he could and they were working to re-write the school's by-laws.  (This was a first for them too.) 

The things that were required

1. a physical

2. a current standardized test score 

3. enrollment in 7th period athletics  

That was it.  

At this point I was starting to see just what a big deal football really was around here.  Several times I would need to make a phone call or run an errand and someone would say...."Oh, you're the new kicker's mom!"  

Hilarious! Like he was famous or something.  

A couple weeks later we were texting back and forth with the coach about Josh playing on the 7th grade team.  Now I was more apprehensive about this one since he's so young and not quite as "fully baked" as his brother.  Lots of thoughts like.... influence of the other boys, whether he knew the game well enough, the responsibility of it all, and if he was just ready for such a thing at this point in his life.  

We've had some iffy moments but so far so good.  We set some rules with him and he's doing great.  

We are about 3 weeks into the season and this is every bit as much fun as soccer ever was.  This town and school has been so welcoming and more than accommodating in every way.   The principal even gave all our kids free passes to every home game to save us some money every week.  

Friday nights are a blast!  The lights.  The announcer. The band.  The excitement.  The stands are full and at the away game our visitor side has more fans than the home team.  And at every game so far, someone has come and introduced themselves to me.  

And now for some pics....

A good block.  Josh is #81.

I can't get over how big some of these kids are!  What do their mommas feed them? 

But look at the determination in those eyes! 

And now with this guy we've gone from this...

To this.. 

One of my faves....

Be still my heart. 

Our Weekend

I am sitting in an empty house.  The only sounds are the humming of the dishwasher and the crickets and frogs singing through our open windows.  I don't think I could ever get used to this.  I enjoy quiet moments as much as the next momma but it doesn't take me long to miss the kid noise.  Even the un-sweet noises of my kids.

It's date night and my in-laws offered to feed the kids dinner tonight.  So my man and I had our own dinner and he left to go pick them up.  I'm sure they are having a blast and aren't missing us a bit.

Did you have a good weekend?

Here's a little of what we did...

2 bubs sharing granola bars

A box!  The mailman came early with presents!  A new phone for Lane and some DD shirts all from Nana and Grandpa.  Now that's the way to start the weekend!! 

Future Charleston kicker?

We love these. 

Our older girls have been so helpful this week as the rest of the crew was battling sickness.  So their daddy wanted to do something special for them....like ice cream.  I suggested he buy those little individual ice creams in those fancy flavors.  But he wanted something that the whole family could enjoy.  He came home with 3 (three!) different ice creams.  Blue Bell no less!

Later Lane was saying how happy she was that everyone got to have ice cream because it made her feel like she was a blessing to the whole family.  Oh yes, Love you are!!  

My Favorite Things This Week

~Lane and I got to work at COTS (church on the streets) Saturday and meet some new friends.  Like 125 or so including lots of sweet kiddos and a newborn baby girl.  I do believe those will be my favorite Saturdays.  I had a picture but my computer decided to delete it which is ok because it wasn't a good picture anyway so you're not missing anything.  Lane took her puppet and delighted the kids.

I passed out food and held the baby and cleaned up trash....but not at the same time.

~Oh my goodness gracious.  I LOVE this boy.   And I think he looks terrific in his football clothes.
Game night was as much fun as my neighbor said it would be.  And Y'all, the whole town was there it seemed.  Did you see the video on Facebook?  I've watched it like a thousand times.  I have every nuance memorized.  Charleston won something like 42-19 and 6 of them were Christian's points.

~This has been what's been going on like 19 times a day.  Chess.  And I don't get it.  But they do and love it all of a sudden.  I'm more of a Go Fish girl.

~We started Spanish last week and I can say 3 words.  Soup, Rock, and Shoes.  So I go to church and practice them on Edgar and he tells me how I say them all wrong and makes fun of my accent.  But won't he be surprised next week when I pull out some impressive word like Toothbrush.

~My man planned date night this week.  He cooked a fancy dinner all by himself and even included apple juice in fancy glasses.

~I won $22!!  TWENTY TWO dollars!!   Jes and I won the 50/50 split at bee club last night.  I'm saving for a honey extractor.  Only $80 more to go....I need to win more splits.  Like the football one that's like $400.  Jes was so excited!

Bee meeting was terrific with a whole honey extraction process set up and 3 different uncapping tools to try.
There was a smoker lesson just for me and an example of what not to do....that would be me too.  I learned that there are 300 bees in 1/2 cup which is how many you need to use when doing mite testing and why first year beekeepers usually have a high failure rate.   Yes, it was a great meeting.   

Farm News

Guess what happened?

Well we had this watermelon sitting on the table for 2 days.  Just sitting there waiting for a spot in the fridge.
So I walked by the table and OH MY WORD!!

The watermelon puked!  All over the table and on Josh's math book.  And it smelled horrible just like real puke.  I didn't even know that watermelons knew how to puke.

~  Our garden is on phase 2.  That means that we didn't water it enough and ran out of energy and Momma got busy with school and football started and it basically died and we all got in trouble.  It was a special day.

But for the record, it would've happened anyway because spring gardens don't last all year but some of us are in disagreement over that one.  Yeah, it was a special day that required some Duck Dynasty therapy.  And some Star Trek for date night.

So we cleaned it up, tilled it, and planted some fall seeds.

~I read the article in Time magazine about the bees disappearing.  And really I'd rather stay in the dark regarding that kinda thing.   I mean if you have added supers and done everything you can and your bees still swarm there ain't nothing you can do about it.  But now I'm really antsy waiting for Monday for my next hive inspection.  A couple weeks ago I had them checked by the Arkansas apiary guy from Little Rock.  He said they were perfect.  (I agree!)










~Isn't this a pretty sight?  That means eggs!

We are getting about 5 a day now and it's still exciting every time.  

But the roosters are another story.  Mean and noisy.  Yesterday one of them drew blood on my sweet Nate.  It is time for them to go. I found a guy to buy them and he can not come soon enough.  

Back To School

I've been wanting to blog all week.  But do you  know what happens when you have a back-to-school party?  You have to go back to school.  Like full time.  Not just when you don't have enough cucumbers to can that day.  Why do I always forget that part? 

And if that wasn't enough you have to clean house too.  Like all the time.  Especially when you add in more school stuff .... even though you have purchased every organizational storage tool imaginable.  And THEN!! These people still think they need to eat.  Multiple times a day.  

But here I am.  And I've been wanting to tell you about our back-to-school party.  

First off my kids all made a wish list which started with socks and underwear and ended with every type of snack food they've ever eaten.  It was extensive.  

Lane and I always have the best fun doing this together.  We leave everyone at home and we shop shop shop for all those fun supplies.  The younger kids are the most fun to shop for.  Art kits and sticker books, colored pencils and Transformer backpacks.  LOVE.  I have to be more creative with the older ones to try to find something new they'll like.  We filled up the cart and checked off the lists until we ran out of school money.  

After breakfast the next day, everyone went to their rooms and waited for the bell to ring.  Meanwhile Lane and I set every body's new stuff at their spots and made it look cute.  

Then SURPRISE!!

He loves his new calculator! 

I try to get them one "big" present and then all the littler ones.  The younger kids got backpacks, the older ones got lap desks, and Mally got an art kit.  

I'm pretty sure only homeschoolers get this excited over school supplies.  Maybe?  

But the fun wasn't over this time.  Nana wanted to be involved in our back-to-school and she came the next week.  So the kids revised their lists with the things that Mom didn't buy and Nana took everyone shopping... 2 stores even, and lunch!  Hobby Lobby was one of the stops of the day and we didn't even break anything.  Aren't we growing up?  Thanks to Nana our back-to-school fun was doubled! 

So the last couple of weeks we have been back at it with a new gusto.  We've added Spanish, piano, art, and a new history/geography program.  2 of our kids are taking a writing class from our piano teacher. Everything else is at home. 

It's shaping up to be a good year! 

Our (3day!) Weekend

I'm sitting here watching my clothes fly on the clothes line and waiting for it to rain.  How I hope it rains...but can it just wait until my clothes are all dry?

We started the weekend with a big breakfast complete with lots of ketchup.  Nothing needs ketchup more than breakfast foods at our house.  Lots of music.  Lots of dancing.  Lots of food.  Lots of ketchup.

A Saturday morning trip to the feed store was in order but after they got there they found out we had a totally flat tire.  Then it turned into a trip to town, a box of Little Debbies, a lot of money later, and 2 new tires.  

Mowing is always on the Saturday to-do list.  And now the yard looks pretty.

Did you hit the Savers sale today?  We went right after church...well the ones who couldn't get out of it did.
That would be the boys.  This was the yearly boys' shopping trip looking for clothes.  You can imagine their excitement.

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate to shop with more than 2 people under the age of 20?  One time in Colorado we went shopping with 14 people at Walmart.  On a Saturday.  That has to be some sort of record.  Up and down each aisle all fourteen of us.  Why?  I don't even know.  And now when I go to Walmart with a bunch of kids I feel like I should look up the manager and apologize in advance.

Well clothes shopping with boys is actually easier than Walmart.  There is nothing more they'd rather do then hurry up and do something else.  It was beautiful chaos Y'all.  And fun.  I'm not sure that the other shoppers would agree.  The girls disappeared and I only saw them at the end when they had their cart full of stuff.

So I got all the jeans 4 boys will need for the winter, 3 shirts, 2 pairs of shoes, and whatever the girls got for $54.

Meanwhile, Honey and Christian escaped to Sams and came back with Season 3 of Duck Dynasty!  Because he said, "Duck Dynasty covers a multitude of sins."  .....lets just say I wasn't too happy with him before that....

Moving on.

By the time we hit the road to go home it was almost 2pm and those of us who didn't pack a lunch were lamenting our bad decision .  And somebody had the great idea of invading Grandma's house.  That always means food.

We went home first to unload the car and change clothes.  And I decided to stay home and get some things ready for school tomorrow.  So I gave the how-to-behave-at-Grandma's-house-when-mom-isn't-there speech to couple of kids who needed a reminder and they were off.

And I was alone to wash new clothes and clean the house and look at school.

OK just now Honey called and GASP!!  I went to answer the phone and noticed that it was sprinkling outside on my clothes!  So I had to make a quick rescue and dry them the old fashioned way in the dryer.
But you know what he said?  He said that Grandma offered to keep the kids for date night and he was on his way home!!  

Grandma is awesome.

What I'm Reading

I have several books I'm waiting to read.  Problem is I've been a slow reader this year and have a few  books that I'm taking my sweet time getting through.  I want to finish some of these up before I start something else....like Great Expectations.  Since I watched the movie, I'm eager to read the book. 

So here's my current reading list......

Do you do the 1 year Bible reading plan?  Have you ever started and then got so hopelessly behind that you just gave up?  While I usually like to have a goal to shoot for, the reading the Bible in a year seems almost impossible to me.  I almost did it once but managed to stretch it out to two.  Then I did it 2 more times each time taking about 2 years.  Now I'm on my 4th time around and have taken the scenic route of 4 years.   Every time I change it up some.  Once I did it chronologically.  Once I did it from Genesis to Revelation.  Now I'm reading whole books but in a more chronological fashion than cover to cover.  

If you're at a point of giving up reading through the Bible, I want to encourage you to stick with it.  But feel free to change it up, slow down, and make whatever plan you like be yours. 

 Right now I'm reading Ezekiel.  And this morning there was this great passage that I'm praying for my Awana kiddos ....

"I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God.  I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak."  Eze 34:15

Awana starts in only 6 more days.  Can't wait to see my boys again and meet some new friends!  

Oswald Chambers never disappoints.  For such a young man, God gave him so much wisdom.  When I was a new Christian this book was hard to get through.  Now it's one of my morning faves, though sometimes oftentimes he still speaks over my head!

I love the issue of poverty alleviation.  And I love Shane Claiborne's take on it all.  I started off strong with this book and couldn't put it down.  Then about 1/2 way through it started getting heavy and I had to really think through what I was reading.   

Here's a quote I like... " We have not shown the world another way of doing life.  Christians pretty much live like everybody else; they just sprinkle a little Jesus in along the way.  And doctrine is not very attractive, even if it's true.  Few people are interested in a religion that has nothing to say to the world and offers them only life after death, when what people are really wondering is whether there is life before death.  ........

and the kingdom that Jesus speaks so much about is not just something we hope for after we die but is something we are to incarnate now. Jesus says the kingdom is "within us," "among us," "at hand," and we are to pray that it comes "on earth as it is in heaven."  

  

Our current read aloud.  Following the time period we are studying in history and a break from Hank The Cowdog.  We are all loving it and we are at the exciting part where she unlocks the secret garden.  

"One more chapter!!!"  

Love me some Duck Dynasty!  This book has a lot of business and hunting info and probably speaks to those that know more about that kinda thing than I do.  Still it's good, just slower going than the first Duck Commander book. 

  

Have you watched the 99 Balloons video?  If you haven't, grab some tissue and click on the link.  So sweet! 

This is Matt Mooney's account of his son, Eliot's, life.

He is a fantastic writer and this is a wonderful story.  

So that's it for now! 

Weekend Babbling

~Aren't these just beautiful?  

I walked into my bathroom and SURPRISE!!  There were these pretty flowers, some snacks, and a note from Lane saying it was my back to school teacher present.  I've never gotten a teacher present before and I could pretty much get used to this!  Such a sweet girl I have.  

~Did you have a good weekend? 

Any day that doesn't start at 5:45 is pretty good in my book.  So Saturday was a nice mixture of lazy and productive work.  Stuff like....dog walking, clothes hanging, mowing, and napping.  

Oh and....making my boys very worried when they found Momma in their room with a trash bag.  2 trash bags actually.  I've been inspired by this site to get some things in order.   And nothing needs order around here as much as a room that houses 3 little boys.  I threw out 1/2 a bag of trash and gathered another bag of donations.  Of course you could not tell I had done a thing at that point but when I found a sack of dirty clothes shoved into a corner that had been there for 2 weeks since they went to the creek at Grandma's I decided to call it a day before things got too dangerous.  And 3 boys breathed a sigh of relief and decided to go ahead and clean up some more stuff just to be safe.  

~We harvested another 5 gallons of cukes and leeks.   And I'm surprised because the garden looks pretty dead to me except the pretty marigolds everywhere.    We are still on the fence about a fall garden.   When normal people are harvesting pumpkins ours will be a thing of the past.  And I still can't get rid of them!  As my son says, "Mom, nobody eats a real pumpkin besides you and Ms. Tracy."  

Apparently so.  

~Saturday night we put kids to bed and Honey ran to the store for some necessary snacks.  Then we called it date night.  He stayed up until 2am one morning watching  Great Expectations on Netflix weeks ago and has been talking about it ever since.   So we ate snacks and watched it together and Y'all.....it was the BEST movie ever!!  And I have to confess I had low expectations of Great Expectations.  But I was wrong!  It's a 3 hour movie and there was no way I could go to bed without finishing it.  So that nap I took earlier came in handy. 

~This morning was Honey's last Sunday as youth pastor.  He has stepped down to have more time with our younger kids.  Lots of mixed emotions!!  But today we loaded up the furniture from his church office and brought it home.  And now we have an extra computer area for the kids to do their computer related school work without having to tie up the main computer.  Sweet!  

I am praying for the next youth pastor.  And for Awana that starts in only 10 more days!  Ten. More. Days!!

Is It That Time Already?

The first signs of fall....

~Public school has started. 

~The temps are cooler. 

~Pre-season football has begun. 

~Halloween junk is at Sams

~My spring garden is nearly dead. 

~Our bees are pretty much out of the danger zone for swarms. 

~Swim suits are on sale. 

~This weather is PERFECT!  I just can't believe it's so nice and cool with so much rain.  My bees are happy and gave us 2 1/2 gallons of honey.  I attribute that all to the good weather this year.  Other beekeepers are getting multiple harvests.  

~You should see how precious my boys look in their football uniforms!  And I know my boys might not wanna be called precious....but they ARE!  They had their first scrimmage games last week.  The real games start soon.  

~My cucumbers are still producing.  I was able to sell them 3 different times this year but now we are at an awkward stage where there are too many to keep but not enough to sell.  We also have a big harvest of pumpkins.  I had grand plans of cooking and canning this particular type of pumpkin so when they started coming up I was pretty excited.  But when I actually looked into the how-to of canning pumpkin I changed my mind.  Way too labor intensive for that kind of food.  Unfortunately the place that buys my cucumbers doesn't want my pumpkins since it's still hot outside.  And when I try to give them away people look at me like I'm crazy.  So no pumpkins next year.

~We are getting eggs!  Finally our hens are old enough to give us eggs.  And every day is a treasure hunt and an exclamation of pure excitement.  I'm sure the new will wear off soon, but for now every egg is a new surprise.

~Oh beautiful watermelons!!  

~So I'm guessing that pretty soon it'll be time to close up the pool, pack away the shorts, and give up the popsicles.  And then it'll be cozy nights, fires, a fall garden, and soups.   

But maybe there will still be room for popsicles.  

My Cow Girl This Week

This week is Bird's turn to be Child Of The Week.   She has had more responsibility with kitchen work this week than in her whole life!  But she loves being COW for the whole week instead of just a day and she has really stepped up to the plate with a terrific attitude.

Some special things she's gotten to do....

~Cook and prepare lots of meals.
~Ring the dinner bell
~Check the mail
~Take Jes to piano with Mom
~Go grocery shopping with Mom
~Lunch with Mom and Dad
~Drinks from Lane's work
~Sit on the Christmas couch for morning meeting
~Pick a yogurt from the store
~Keep the Aldi quarter

It's been a fun week and I can really tell a difference in her behavior and attitude with just a little extra one-on-one time with Momma

School Plans Part 2 - Meals

While this may not seem school related, I've found that meal prep and clean up is a big distraction when it comes to school.

I try to keep our meals simple but even making sandwiches with store bought bread is a big mess, takes a lot of groceries, and plenty of time to put together.  Clean up duty has to be figured out since it's not practical to have 9 people standing in line to use the sink and dishwasher.  

We did several things that worked last year that we will continue and I have a couple of ideas for this year.  

~My man gets paid every 2 weeks and payday is when I do the big grocery shopping involving 3 stores and half a day.  We have a cash budget and I try to save out $100 for the week that I have to shop for meat and the week of Azure Standard.  Then it's out of my purse and I don't consider it for normal shopping. This has helped budget wise.  

~Now I used to buy as many things as I possibly could in bulk.  I still do for most things.  But Renee told me once that she never buys paper towels in bulk because it just might happen that she is low on grocery money that week and if she spent a bunch of money on something she could really do without (like paper towels) then she wouldn't have the cash for what she really needed.   That made a ton of sense to me.  So now I look carefully at things like cleaners or ketchup to decide if I will really have the money to buy a lot of it this time or if it'd be better to just buy enough to stretch it, or do without altogether.  

~I pray before I shop asking God to give me wisdom to buy what we need and to be a good steward.  I also pray while I'm shopping.  Especially if I'm having trouble deciding on something.  I learned this years ago from another lady's blog I used to follow.

~I'm making a menu every 2 weeks to match our pay period.  I don't live in an area where I can take advantage of sales or couponing very well so that doesn't really matter.  But it's easier to think of twice a month than to do it every week.  I usually tell my kids when I'm working on a menu and ask them what they would like to have.  I try to give that some consideration but you just can't eat macaroni and cheese every day.

~We drink water all the time except Saturday when I usually make juice in the morning and tea in the afternoon.

~We have the same thing for breakfast every day.  Homemade granola cereal.  There is no way I could do boxed cereal b/c of the expense of it plus they would eat 3 bowls each and that's a lot of milk.  This cereal is filling and we don't go through too much milk.  On Saturday we have a bigger breakfast since we have more time for prep and clean up.

~I used to do leftovers for lunch.  But we've grown to the point of never having enough leftovers for everyone.  So instead I rotate these 5 lunches and we eat all the saved up leftovers on the weekend.

1.  Tuna and crackers with fruit
2.  Bean burritos
3. Bagel sandwiches - cream cheese, spinach leaves, shredded carrots, pickles, and cheddar cheese.  If we happen to have lunch meat we will add that.  But we usually don't.
4. Rice cakes with peanut butter and honey w/veggies and dip
5. Nachos with beans or lentils.

~COW helps with dinner prep and clean up no matter how old they are.   Sometimes COW will make the whole dinner.

~I try to save out a serving of dinner for Honey's lunch first.  Otherwise it may be gone.

~I'm working on re-stocking my freezer.  This week we made zucchini muffins, refried beans, and frozen bananas for the freezer.

~Sometimes we do a mid morning snack.  Sometimes we don't.  It's almost always popcorn with coconut oil served in coffee filters.  And we don't stop for snack.  They keep on working.

~Tea time is afternoon snack and that's usually a bigger deal.  At 3pm we have something depending on how much time we've had to prepare that day.  During the winter we do more homemade muffins and cookies.  During the summer we do more PB crackers and fruit.  Right now we have loads of cantaloupe that have to be eaten.  This is also when I read aloud to them.  Our current book is a Hank The Cow Dog.   LOVE that head of ranch security!!

Bee Update

Capped honey!  It's harvest time Y'all!

You can see the smaller hive in the corner.  We still had the feeder lids on but switched them out today since I haven't had to feed them in a while.

The front of our large hive.

Busy working!

I saw only one hive beetle and I quickly put an end to him with my hive tool.  Christian worked the smoker for us which was hugely helpful since he's better at making a fire than any of us. 

The bees look great and I'm so proud of them!

The Best Day And The Worst Day

Warning.  

This is not for the squeamish or faint hearted.  If you are looking for something beautiful and inspirational to read while you sip your tea, you've come to the wrong place.  In fact this is full of blood shed and heart ache and may change your eating habits forever.  

Well it turned out to be an exciting morning.  We've been building up to this for some time now.  TaeKwonDo testing!  Jess testing for his black belt.  Nate testing for mid term to black belt and my other black belts mid terming toward their 2nd degree.  So y'all, it was a big deal. 

Ready to test!  I was most concerned about Jess and Nate this time.  Last cycle neither of them broke their boards and it would just be pure sadness if it happened again.  

But NO!!  And just look how handsome he is in BLACK!! 

I don't have all my pictures ready to show you the action but suffice it to say it was a lot of wood breaking and a lot of screaming and yelling and hugging. 

And Nate.  He's a littler guy in our set and I've been hoping that he's grown stronger since last testing cycle.  And sure enough...WHACK!  BAM!  CRACK!  All three broke!!  

And it was a good morning.

~~~

But now the scene changes.  And this is where you might wanna dial a different number because its fixing to get horrible.  

We have these roosters, see.  Five of them to be exact.  And they are constantly crowing at all times of the day.  If that wasn't bad enough, they have also turned mean all of a sudden and the little kids are scared to even go into the chicken pen.  

The time had come to harvest some chickens and bring some peace to the neighborhood.

Honey had been watching videos all week on how to do it.  And if you talk to anybody over the age of 65 they have a story about it and an opinion of how to do it right.

All week FarmerBoy had been talking about it and even asked if he could keep a chicken head to make a necklace out of.

Y'all.
There are no words.

~~~

I suppose no matter how many homemade videos you watch, it's gonna be different when the time comes.  

So after shutting every blind in the house, LB and I busied ourselves in the kitchen to pass the time until it was done.  Because while I was ok with harvesting our chickens, I didn't want any part of it myself and gave strict orders that there were to be no feathers, heads, feet, or guts of any type that would pass the threshold of my house.  And I had it in my mind that it would be a quick deal and my man would come in with nice clean chicken meat.  Everyone would be smiling.  And life would go on.  

But no.  And it didn't take long before I had people coming in asking for different things and switching out knives and giving a report.  Something about it not being quick enough.  

And that's when everything took a turn for the worse.  And I started thinking that our sweet baby chick that I held and loved on and fed kitchen scraps to was suffering and hurting and it was all our fault.   Why was I so impatient with the noise?  What could we have done differently that might have kept him from being so mean?  Why did it have to come to this?? 

But I tried to keep on working.  And LB just kept on singing as she worked and it reminded me of the verse about the guy that sings songs to a heavy heart and I really desperately wanted her to stop but I didn't have the heart to ask her because she's so sweet and I didn't want her to think that I was having second thoughts or was worried about Midnight.  

And just so you know.  It is the stupidest thing in the world to name your chickens.  So don't do it. 

Hours later.  And I do mean hours.  Lane and Josh came in with big smiles and a naked chicken.   Lane gave me every detail she could remember as she worked on it some more in the sink.   I couldn't touch it.  And I was glad it was bedtime.  So I had Lane cook it and I had no part of it at all.  

I got the boys to bed,  and went in a few minutes later to let FarmerBoy give me his version of it because I knew he'd wanna talk.  More details, and he thought it went pretty well but had some good ideas of what to do differently next time.

Then....  He says "The only bad part was the feelings."
Me:  What do you mean?

And he broke!  And said how he felt bad for having to do it and melted in my arms.

Oh y'all....!

His daddy came in and told him how proud we were and what a good job he did and just sat with him for awhile.  And I went into my bathroom and cried  bawled.   And felt like throwing up.

~~~

Never again.

We have 4 more roosters that are free to a good home and from now on we will buy our chicken at Walmart like normal people.   Packaged nicely on a styrofoam tray from a random stranger chicken that I never held and loved on.  Or we will simply never eat chicken again.  It's up in the air.  

School Plans Part 1

I've spent a good portion of the summer thinking about the upcoming school year.  I have 6 pages of scribbled notes, a small stack of new books in my closet, and kids that are making their back-to-school wish lists.

So I thought I'd share it all here since it's a good place to get some of it organized and it's helpful to see what other families are doing sometimes.   That means I hope some of you will share your upcoming plans as well!

We've kept what I call "a flex schedule" this summer.  Meaning there's been plenty of math and Bible and writing and reading and plenty of gardening and family time and goofing off too.  But as our garden is showing the first signs of winding down, football practice has started, and school supplies are on sale I'm getting ready to settle into a tighter schedule.

~I re-read one of my favorite scheduling books early on this summer.  And one of the things I got from it is that Pam says she does school when it's school time and chores when it's chore time.  That will be a new measure of helpfulness this year as it seems I'm always trying to squeeze in another load of laundry or chop dinner vegetables when my time would be better spent being more focused on school when it's school time.  And even if my kids are working quietly I want to use that time for planning for the upcoming week and resist the temptation to fold towels.  One of my greatest pet peeves is being unprepared and it seems that I'm never as prepared or organized as I want to be.  I think this will help.

~When my older kids were little we had Child Of The Week (COW).  That child would get any special privileges that might come about that week.  They could check the mail, have the last cookie, go with Dad on errands, etc.  When God added more kids to the mix we changed it to Child Of The Day so they wouldn't have to wait so long for their turn.

This year I'm changing it back to weekly and letting that child be my right hand man.  It might mean that she does very little book work that week but instead focuses on helping make meals, household chores, errands, etc and working very close to mom.  My goal for this is to train up my younger set to have some of the responsibilities that I usually rely on my older ones to do.   Mally will especially love this since I will let her set the table for tea time with any dishes she wants.  (I usually use paper towels or coffee filters and plastic cups.)

~I'm starting something I'm calling "Sharing Projects" this year.  The idea is for each child to get to share in some sort of way with the rest of the family that contributes to learning.  For example,  my older two will be in charge of science for the younger ones.  This year we are studying the human body and they will be making skeleton models and paper bodies with cut-out-and-glued-on organs.  I'll plan this out and let LB and Christian be in charge of it.

Lane will be in charge of everyone's Bible copy notebooks...keeping them organized and making sure everyone has what they need for it every week.

For the middle ones it will mean reading aloud to the younger ones and planning which books they will like....not the books only the reader likes.   This will also give my middle kids more practice at reading aloud and dramatizing instead of just to themselves.

My younger ones will share a story or a report or a song they've been working on.   And occasionally I might have everyone do this as a means of a little public speaking practice.  Even though your family is not public it will help them to organize their thoughts and words better if it has to be presented in any way.   This sort of thing will be reserved for Fridays as I'll share my schedule later.