First Day of School!

We officially started our school year today. For the last few weeks, on the days we were home, we did a few subjects just to catch up on a few things we were behind on. Caden started 2nd grade today and Conrad started 6th grade. Caden went in to Minnie Cline Elementary for Music today. He goes in three days a week for an hour for art, music and PE. I would like to say that we had a blissful day with eager students and an inspiring teacher, but a better word to describe the day would be "rough"! This teacher wasn't feeling good and the students had lost all focus and diligence over the summer. We have some work to do!!

Camping, Part IV (Amusing Episodes)

With five kids camping, there are bound to be some amusing episodes. I thought I would share a few.

1. On the way, I said to Chuck, "Oh, I know what I forgot to bring--any body soap or shampoo." Conrad began cheering in the back knowing that would probably mean that NO SHOWERS were required (his favorite way to get through life!)

2. As soon as Chuck started building/lighting a fire, all four boys were on top of each other trying to be the one to light a match, stoke the fire, see what a hickory nut would do if they put it in the fire, see what grapes would do when they tried to roast them, and make sure they made as big of flames as they could. It was amusing to me to watch the big boy, Chuck, and all four little boys who were equally fascinated by fire.

3. On Friday night, we talked about going on a hike on Saturday morning and Abbey said she wasn't sure she wanted to go. I told her that maybe she would find some great treasures and that Austin had been excited to find a hickory nut and maybe she would find some other treasure on our walk. She said, "You mean like a diamond ring?" I was amused at how I was so used to boys that I was surprised by a girl reaction!

4. Jake roasted his first marshmallow by sticking it right into the middle of the fire, having it burn, and then was disappointed that it was completely black. Chuck said, "Jake, if you put it on the edge of the fire instead of right in the middle of it, you will not burn it" So, Jake roasted the second one by putting it right in the middle of the fire, having it burn, and then was disappointed that it was completely black. Chuck said, "Hey Jake, if you put it on the edge of the fire instead of right in the middle of it, you will not burn it". And, you can guess what happened on the third. By the fifth marshmallow, I was saying it in unison with Chuck. On his sixth marshmallow, Jake put it on the edge of the fire and ended up with a beautiful lightly toasted marshmallow! This picture is of one that ended up burned.

5. Although Austin didn't wake up at all during the storm, about once an hour for the hours leading up to the storm, he would sit up, say a sentence in his sleep (one of them was "Hey guys! What are you doing?) and then lay back down somewhere near where he had been and fall back to sleep. By morning, he was facing the other way in the tent and was quite a ways from where he had started. As the kids were talking about the storm that he slept through, they said, "There was one thunder that shook the whole tent" and Austin said, "That must have been how the tent got turned around the other direction !"

Camping, Part III (30% chance of light rain)

We went camping near Cameron at Wallace State Park. It was a nice campground and close to home. We arrived about 4:30, set up camp, ate supper, made S'mores, made a trip up the main bathhouse for bathrooms and teethbrushing and got into the tent. One thing we didn't consider as we picked our site (we let the kids choose it) was the proximity to the bathrooms. The bathhouse was quite far away and the "nice" outhouse was closer, but still quite a distance. We had just gotten settled into the tent when Abbey told me she needed to go to the bathroom. On the way, she was amazed at all the stars we could see out there in the woods. When we got back, before I even got back into the tent, all four boys needed to go to the bathroom! So, I walked them over. I lost count of the trips I made over there in just 20 hours that we were there. Chuck made a few, too.

Everyone was asleep by 10:00 (and yes, Chuck was the first one to fall asleep! :-) but for some reason I could not fall asleep. It must have been about 3am that I went to sleep. About 3:30, I heard thunder in the distance and wondered if rain was coming--but the forecast had said 30% chance of light rain, so I didn't worry too much. Suddenly, there was really loud thunder and very heavy rain. The kids all slept through it for about 40 minutes. Then, there was a huge clap of thunder and all but Austin (who slept through the entire 3 hour storm/rain) woke up. We couldn't believe how long and how hard it rained. Every time it let up a little bit, it started up again really hard within a few minutes. They were awake for about 1 1/2 hours talking and listening to the rain. There was a little water in the tent, but I was glad we were all still dry and warm. Then, it finally let up enough that they all went back to sleep and then at 6am it started another round of loud thunder and heavy run and they woke up again. We all went to asleep again and when we woke up again at 8am, there were many wet things in the tent. My sleeping bag was completely soaked as were many things that were on the floor of the tent. Thankfully, except for a damp pillow and a few damp corners of blankets, the kids were all dry (but not all their stuff was!). From weather reports, it sounds like it was over 2 inches of rain! It had stopped by the time we got up, and Chuck made bacon and eggs and sausage. Then, we were able to go fishing for a little while before Clark and Stephanie came to pick up Jake and Austin to take Jake to football practice. Then, we had lunch, loaded the van, and took Abbey home and came home. Had we gotten more sleep, we might have stayed longer today, but we were all so tired that we came on home. These pictures are of the kids walking down to the lake to fish--on the trail to the lake, they were going single file singing "hi ho, hi ho...it's off to fish we go". The other is of Conrad and Jake fishing. No one caught anything but they had fun.

Camping, Part II (Abbey)

Back in April or May when I was teaching Abbey's Bible class, we were talking about the Israelites and how they lived in tents. She asked if we had ever been camping and I said that we were really going to try to go sometime this summer. She said, "I want to go with you!" and after class told her parents that she was going to go camping with us. She asked me almost once a week when we were going to go camping. One time I told her that I didn't know, but that she was on my list of things to take. Her dad said that she told everyone they knew that she was on my list. So, we knew there was no way we could go camping without her! She was so excited when we invited her, and when we picked her up at daycare, her teacher said that she had been talking about it all day. She was a great camper. On our way home from camping she said, "When are we going to go again?" and I said, "You want to go again?" and she said, "Yes, but this time we should go for two nights."

Camping, Part I (We actually went!)

For many years now we have said at the beginning of the Spring that we are going camping this year! We haven't gone since Conrad was 3! Each year, we would decide to go camping, often on our way somewhere else for vacation. Then, we would think about how much stuff we had to take just to camp one night and how we would likely arrive fairly late to set up the tent and have to get up early. We always decided it wasn't worth it. So, this year we said that one way or another we were going to go. Having boys who love the outdoors as much as ours, we really wanted to give them that experience. We have also been planning to go camping with Clark and Stephanie for several years and haven't ever found a good date for both of us. We still hope to go with them this fall, but decided to go for a "trial run" with a short camping trip this week-end. Clark and Stephanie had plans, but we did take their boys. We also took Abbey Hopkins (more about that in my next blog). There was some "trial" in this "trial run" which I will get to, but we were glad to finally go. We have much to do as far as a better list of what to take and organizing it all. The pictures are: 1. The four boys in the tent---it was hot and steamy enough that Caden rolled his pajama pants way up--we were all hot for most of the night (more about that coming up). 2. Austin burning his first hot dog 3. The kids playing at the playground where the main bathroom and shower house was 4. All of them in and on the slide

Conrad's Blog goes Nationwide!

This is Conrad's horseriding teacher, Sharon Bryant. Conrad really likes her and has enjoyed his time with her. She asked him after a lesson earlier this summer to stay at her house and help her take the animals to the vet. He was so excited about it, and between the lesson and loading the animals, they had some extra time, so they sang Christian music together and Conrad said, "We sounded good together!" We found out that she had lived in Nashville and created a gospel CD, and she gave him one. He wrote about it and her on his blog and put her website on there.

Another part of this story is that we realized today that she had left a comment on his blog (anonymous). Quite a long time ago he had given her his blog address since he had written about horseriding (although I was suprised he remembered his blog address to give to her) and we assumed that she had just found time to go check it out.

Tonight, in her presentation, we found out the real story. Her music agent called her the other day and said, "You aren't going to believe this! Some kid has your website/music listed on his blog!" She was so excited and looked at it, and it was Conrad's! Her agent had apparently googled to find out where Sharon's name would show up and Conrad's blog came up! I thought the entire thing was so funny!

Conrad's Horsemanship Night

Tonight was "Horsemanship Night" at Sharon's house and all of the students got to

demonstrate something they learned. They learned both English and Western riding, and Conrad demonstrated "Western pleasure". He was obviously nervous, but did a good job! He finally looked comfortable in the saddle--he started out the summer terrified of getting on the horse. We had beautiful weather and enjoyed getting to see all the riders.

Summer is coming to an end!

Today, I took the kids (mine plus Eli, Nathan and Sara Weeks) to the last 'canned food' movie of the summer. Then, we went to pick peaches at the orchard. Kate Haynie, from Sabetha, KS, came over to pick with me. Between us all, we picked about 40 pounds in 15 minutes. They were beautiful and the trees were loaded. When Conrad first got to try one, he said, "These don't taste like peaches; they taste like heaven!" I have been freezing some. One pix is of all of the kids and part of the peaches we picked and the other one is of Sara--I thought it was such a cute picture of her.

End-of-Summer Fun

With school starting next week, we have been trying to make the most of these last summer days. On Monday, we went to Liberty so that they could play with cousins, Jake and Austin. They had a lot of fun in the sprinkler and playing the Wii. Then, on Tuesday, we took Eli, Maison, and Abbey to the summer movie (they got in free with a canned food item) and then to lunch at Subway and then to Mike and Robin's for swimming. They had a great time.

Update on the Shake!

The day after I had tried the shake experiment, Caden begged me for another! This time, I added a whole banana I had in the freezer, frozen strawberries, frozen peaches (which he is sure he doesn't like), a small scoop of frozen yogurt, skim milk and SPINACH! I didn't add any sugar. We all three enjoyed them!
I also tried another experiment. My kids' favorite meatloaf recipe is one from my family cookbook that Sara submitted. It is named "Venison meatloaf" but I usually use lean hamburger instead. It calls for 1/2 cup grated carrot which I used to put in, but Caden fussed so much about it that I quit putting it in. This time, I cooked carrots, pureed them, and added them right in. No one could even tell they were there! Eli, my nephew, was here and he also ate it right up, too!

Grandma

I wanted to update you on my Grandma. She has gone back home to York and is recovering slowly and trying to regain her strength after having her bladder and surrounding tissue removed after they discovered cancer while she was in Lubbock, TX visiting my aunt. She just saw the cancer Dr. this last week and he is having her do some physical therapy to regain her strength so that she can start chemo for about 4-5 months. The Drs. are sure that without chemo, the cancer will return so she is preparing for that. Please pray that it will not be difficult for her.

Food Experiment!

Last week I was forwarded a link to a website called HeavenlyHomemakers.com. The author, Laura, and her husband, Matt, were both my students at York. She goes to church with my grandma and had written about her on the blog portion of her site. They have four boys that they homeschool. I loved her enthusiasm on her site for homeschooling and healthy eating. She had a recipe for a shake that was this: 2 cups frozen strawberries, 1 cup frozen peaches, 1 cup raw greens or spinach, stevia (a natural sweetener), and 1 cup water. She said that it didn't turn out green and that you couldn't taste the spinach. I thought it would be such a great way to get some extra veggies into Caden, but wasn't sure that he wouldn't be able to detect it!
So, I did the experiment today!I used skim milk instead of water and added a little bit of sugar. Although they didn't see me put it together, Conrad saw me when I started blending. I had put the spinach on the bottom and as it started to blend, he said, "It looks like green puke" and it sort of did! He didn't ask me why it was green which I thought was strange, but realized later that because I had bought kiwis, he assumed that is what was in it. But, amazingly, as it blended all the way, it was more of a brownish pink. Conrad tried it and liked it, but Caden was immediately skeptical and said he didn't like peaches which he knew was in it. He said he wanted a banana strawberry shake instead. So, I just added a banana to what I had and he tried it again. This final color was kind of like the color of pumpkin pie before you bake it! He said, "It is too slimy--it needs ice cream!" (it wasn't slimy, but I wasn't suprised at all to hear him say that it needed something sweet or dessert-like) So, I added the smallest scoop of frozen yogurt to his and he said, "yummy!" and he and Conrad both drank the biggest glass full. :-)