Fall is here!

Look at all those scary Scarecrows! We had fun at our schools Fall Festival Fundraiser. The kids like their school and they wished they could dress like this everyday.

Random fun in Sept.

Scouts went repelling at City Rock in IDAHO. I was so jealous!


Peter was very brave. He finally finished his repelling merit badge!

Mike the Belayer. He also went "Aussie" down the mountain. That means face first.


Made Oatmeal bread for the Ward dinner. It seemed like it would be gross but turned out okay. I want to try again and see if it will rise a bit more. I also did a Dried Fruit demonstration. It was fun to share dried apples with the ward. I have been experimenting with jello dipped apples because they turn a beautiful red and make a great Christmas treat. I have given up on drying Zucchini, no matter what you do to it, it just tastes gross.

We had extra salt clay so we made creations!

We painted them after they came out of the oven. Cool Beads Jill!

Airplane, can you tell?


He likes BIG guns!

Our poor cat Slinky has been missing for 3 days. We have been so worried. I just needed to know if she was dead or alive. So I called the Animal Control and they checked their files for dead cats cleaned off the road. She wasn't on the list and then that afternoon my sister came home early from work and said she thought she just saw the cat in the driveway. I said it must be the neighbors cat that looks like our cat. I was just so sure she was dead and didn't want to get my hopes up. Then later I went in the garage and what do you know there she was. She must have been hit by a car, or at least nicked because the side of her face is not looking so good. She wouldn't stay in the garage and she looked really sick. So she is off somewhere by herself to get better or die in the backyard. I am glad we got to see her and say good-bye. I do hope she gets better but I am just so relieved to see her and know that she isn't roadkill or suffering something worse all by herself in a ditch. We never did find out what happened to Tiger Princess earlier this summer but we just never saw her again.

She has nine lives but I am not sure which one she is on. Sometimes she just sits in the road for no reason but to tease the cars coming straight at her. I hope she learned her lesson.

Being just a normal mom, not a homeschool mom...

Life is really weird not having big kids home anymore. They all go to school and it is just the two little ones and me. We clean the house, hang out in the garden, play with the pets outside, run errands and clean the house some more. It used to be that the big kids entertained the little one and everyone shared the daily chores. If I wanted to run an errand I just quickly got in the car and the little kids were watched by the big kids. Now when I simply need to go to the store I have to find shoes, sock, help them put them on, load them in the car, seat-belt...get them out, hold their hands, argue with them about getting a treat...back to the car, fight over who gets to open the door...it is so exhausting. I have been so spoiled I forgot how challenging an errand can be without big kids to help. Even if they were with me I still had someone to entertain them as we shopped, help buckle them in and someone to hold onto a little ones hand in the parking lot. I feel like a new mom with my first two toddlers all over again.
Getting dressed...there wasn't a big kid home to help her and this is what she came up with. It looks very stylish but not acceptable for preschool class.


We have melons! Sadly this one looks like a deflated balloon. Weird.

Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary D. Schmidt

This was a great book illustrating bias and prejudice. A boy comes to live in Maine in the year 1911. It is based on an event that happened there long ago. The boy makes friends with a girl named Lizzie and that changes everything. She lives on an Island near the town that was founded by former slaves. The town decides to rid the whole place of colored people and so that it would be more suitable for tourists to come and vacation there. It is amazing how much hatred can come from "good christian people". Sadly things don't go to good and the story is very tragic. The boy learns to stand up for what is good and right but is it too late? You read it and find out.

Whole Book

Corn!

First we shuck the corn on the trampoline and bounce the pincherbugs off for the chickens to eat.



Then we boil,cool and bag the corn!


We didn't get very much this year because the grasshoppers took more then their share.

We also harvested the potatoes. It was quite a treasure hunt! We found red ones and brown ones. Too bad my kids don't eat potatoes. I hope they don't rot in the pantry all winter.

"Mom, my project is due tomorrow!"

2am = project finished. What did we learn? When you go to public school you have deadlines and an obligation to finish projects on time. AND I guess you learn that mom will stay up with you and help you finish it. Should I have taught him a lesson the first time and just not do the project last minute? The consequences would have been a missed assignment and a bad grade. Hmmm, my mom always stayed up late with me. I don't know what the right answer is but I do know that I have always liked doing projects with salt clay! I hope my children learn to love it too!

The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare

I finally read this book after having in my to read pile for 5 years! It was worth every second. I loved it! Not only is it written from a completely different perspective on the time when Jesus lived but it helps you understand the people and era better then just trying to read religious books or the bible.

My favorite part is that the main character is a young boy named Daniel. He isn't exactly the good guy you cheer for through out the book. In fact you question his choices again and again and I personally didn't like him, not until the end. He was probably what a lot of people were like back in the days Jesus walked the earth. He hated the Romans, wasn't quite living like a Jew and keeping all the commandments, was poor and looked down on yet trying to live a life that he could survive the best he knew how. He was angry and vowed to avenge his parents deaths yet he had to be responsible enough to care for his sick sister. He was smart and resourceful yet completely irresponsible when it came to reason and safety. This book will take you on an adventure and might even change how you view your neighbors. I couldn't help but cry at the end as the Daniel discovers the greatest strength there is and looks deep inside to change into a better person.

Loved it! Added it to my classics section and will read it again. My son has read it a few times but even though it had been sitting next to my bed in a pile forever and he said it was good I finally just now got to it.

Whole Book

First Day of Speech Class

Jill had a first day of School too! Speech class started again. She is very lucky to have a time of day when there is only one other child in her class so she gets extra one on one with her teacher! She has class 2 times a week and then a preschool on early Friday morning.

Little Edmund and I sometimes hang out waiting till her class is over. He really likes the knights. They are mysterious and scary.

Edmund and I tried to catch a bus last week to pick up his sister. We waited at the bus stop for 40 min. and finally gave up. We were 15 min. late after walking home from the bus stop and getting in the car and driving 3 min. to the school. I completely looked at the bus schedule wrong and poor little Jill was the last one left at her class. She was sitting in the reading nook with her backpack on looking at a book and trying not to cry. Edmund was very very disappointed about not getting to ride the bus. We will try again another time on another day.

Starting the Harvest

The Zucchini just keeps piling up in the garage. We made the most delicious zucchini brownies. The recipe can be found here at allrecipes.com. I froze shredded zucchini and made zucchini bread now I just need the rest to go away! TOO MUCH ZUCCHINI Help!



Our first Watermelon! It was a big one! We have 10 more growing in the garden!

It was ready and tasted so good.

The watermelon boys with juice running down their chins.


All last week the sweet smell of onions permeated through the air.


The kids helped me peel off the outer layers. We were crying the whole time despite wearing goggles. It didn't last long and we filled the trays ready to dry.


The dehydrator was put in the garage but we eventually had to move it outside of the garage because the cats were having a hard time with the smell and thought we didn't love them anymore.


13 pounds of onions dries down to ONE pound of onions. We bagged them and used the finer stuff in our empty spice shakers as onion powder. Delicious!


A few pumpkins are waiting for Halloween!

Spellweaver: A Novel of the Nine Kingdoms by Lynn Kurland

Okay, so I read these books back at the beginning of the summer but then things got busy so I am just adding them. This is the 5th book in the series and doesn't quite complete the story. A few things are brought together but a few are left out there so of course the 6th book won't be published till 2012 and now I will have to wait.
The author has a real neat way of just leading you one and keeping it interesting
so you just can't put the book down. My son read them all before I did and he read them in half the time too. So despite the romance/puppy love boys like these books too.

Whole Book

A Tapestry of Spells: A Novel... A Tapestry of Spells: A Novel of the Nine Kingdoms by Lynn Kurland

This next book takes on a different perspective from a few different characters. More magic and sword fighting. Also a new romance, I love puppy love.

Whole Book

Princess of the Sword (Nine Kingdoms, #3) by Lynn Kurland

yes another one! The saga continues and there is more sword fighting.

Whole Book