Barn Chores

Tonight I went out with B#2 while she did her barn chores. I sat on some hay bales with our barn cat pawing at me while watching the calf drink her bottle and all of the goats milling about waiting patiently for their nightly hay. It was quite pleasant to sit there and listen to the rain on the roof, smelling the hay and watching the nightly ritual of milking the goats. They are amazingly trained. One goat trots in for her milking time then the stall door is opened for her to trot back out. Then the stall door opens again to allow the next goat to trot right in for her turn on the milkstand. I even pitched in a bit and brought the animals their bucket of water...quite the farm hand, huh?

As nice and peaceful as that was, I think I will stick to an area I am much more comfortable in, my home and my children and leave the barn chores to B#2 and whichever of her siblings decides to help her.

She's getting so big and a failed hat attempt

I asked B#2 to teach me to knit hats since I saw the cutest hat at a very expensive baby shop in town. She breaks out something called "double point needles" almost scaring me away from trying. But I persevered and continued, but as you can see by the picture, it turned out a bit too
small. Nevertheless, I will try again!


She is getting so big. On Sunday she decided that she was ready for bigger and better things by rolling from her back to her tummy and then back over to her back again. She has even started scooting forward a bit on her tummy. I think she is thinking she better get busy so she can keep up with her two older very rambunctiuos brothers.

Our Advent Calender

Advent. Adventus. Ecce advenit Dominator Dominus. Behold, the Lord, the Ruler is come....Advent means taking time each day, for three or four weeks before Christmas, to center our thoughts on Truth Incarnate lying in a feeding trough in Bethlehem. Advent is a few moments to stop, catch your breath and renew your strength from the only One who can provide true strength. Arnold Yuletree, author of "Bartholomew's Passage

Typically in our family we read an Advent story each night and choose a Scripture and some small token from a caledar of some sort. This year we made these pretty cones and the children will take turns, one each night to see what we put in them this year. I chose some tiny nativity ornaments that we will hang on a wreath I bought from the Goodwill and some candy with a Scripture to be read by the child(if they can read).

Ingenuity

That is the word I gave to B#5 tonight to look up in the dictionary. It describes him to a "T". On any given day you might hear him rummaging through the recyclables for his supplies or hear the sound of duct tape being ripped as he makes something. These are just a few pictures of his inventions.


This robot actually moves forward and backwards using KNEX and a motor.

KNEX are so great...his chainsaw actually moves by using a KNEX motor.

Today he made this camera using cereal boxes, duct tape and a plastic sheet from an overhead projector.

Last night he made this telescope which slides in and out, using a paper towel tube, duct tape and a lens from a magnifying glass. A few weeks ago he made a bolt action rifle out of a wrapping paper tube and he managed to make it where the bolt really moved. I think awhile back I posted a picture of his fire extinguisher made from a soda bottle and his fireman's mask from plastic sheets taped onto paper. We think the Lord may be showing us that engineering might be in his future.

Not Such a Good Idea

Yesterday while trying to make a soup mix with B#7 I had the "bright" idea to put some rice and beans in a tub and let the boys play in it with measuring cups while I worked. Needless to say we had a huge mess on our hands. At the end it looked like a wedding where everyone threw rice and beans. Maybe they aren't quite ready for that yet. We can try again when they are older.

On the topic of cleaning, a friend sent me a link to a "Fall Clean" schedule. I am sure I mentioned that I love fall so I am enjoying getting started on it. Go Here if you would like to download her checklist. Happy Thanksgiving!!!

The Big 40

DH turned 40 this past week. He told me that he didn't want to have anyone over to our house or to do anything big so the kids and I told him that we would just have a small family party at our house, just us and a family friend. What we didn't tell him that was that we were planning a party for him at a friend's house a few days later.

We told him it was a "music night" at our good friend's home so he was pretty excited about getting to play his dulcimer with the other musicians. Besides DH's dulcimer there was a banjo, a mandolin, three violins, a penny whistle and a bowed psaltry. He was very surprised but he did enjoy himself. It wasn't a big gathering either, just 4 families. Of course between those four families there were 26 children present so maybe it wasn't so small afterall...

My Time in History

Baby, toddler, older sister and I stayed home from church today due to colds in the little ones and as I was enjoying nursing and rocking the baby I got to thinking about things. I am so thankful that the Lord put me where I am in history....our woodstove is for heat, not for cooking. I don't have to wonder if it is the right temperature for baking or if it isn't burning enough or if it is burning too much. Our kitchen stove keeps pretty regular temperature so I can just throw something in there and forget about it for a while. My bosch mixer can knead my bread for lunch all by itself while I walk away to do something else. My potato soup for lunch today can simmer on low on my stove top while I go throw in a load of laundry that can wash all by itself while I go and sit and enjoy nursing my baby. The old ways are good and fun to experience sometimes for a short time but I am thankful to the Lord for the time in history that he put my in. I enjoy appliances that can make my day to day life easier. How about you? What are some of your favorite time-saving appliances?

Big Family Pizza and a birthday

For B#5's birthday yesterday we decided to have party pizzas which isn't something we don't do very often. Maybe you can tell why from the pile of boxes on the counter. I was actually able to cook all ten pizzas at one time thanks to my double oven and my toaster oven. I thought we would have to eat in shifts:)

After so many birthdays you get kinda tired of cake so he decided we could make homemade doughnuts instead of cake. We didn't realize just how many doughnuts our recipe would make. We ended up with 6 dozen "Crispy Creame" doughnuts and a bunch of pumpkin doughnut holes. UGH! I think we are all junk fooded out now and we still have two more birthdays coming in the next 12 days.

He is a young man now with his multi tool and flashlight on his belt and a new watch.