Catching Up

I thought I would finally try to catch you all up on what's been going on around here.  Mostly, we've been trying to finish up on our school year and taking care of goats.  We are really winding down on school, and going to finish up some of the last priorities slowly.  We really need summer vacation NOW!

I finally started planting things in the garden.  I really cheated this year and bought quite a few plants already started.  I got 8 tomato, 8 broccoli, 8 cabbage, 8 celery and 2 cayenne pepper plants.  They're all tucked in and nicely growing so far.  I did manage to plant potatoes a while back and they're growing nicely as well.  Just yesterday I finally planted the onion sets, so now I'll be anxiously waiting for them to come up.  My little girls started two pea plants and a corn plant indoors, and they've gone into the garden as well.  Very cute. :)  All in all it's been a very slow start with the garden.

My little goats have kept me very busy up to now, but I think it's getting easier.  I had each doe kid in her own little pen and let her bond with her babies there first.  When the youngest were 2 weeks old, I tried to begin separating all the babies from their dams at night and milking in the morning.  After 2 days, the twins got diarrhea.  I separated them all again, cleaned everything and waited to see what happened.  It seemed that they would have a short bout of diarrhea overnight, them be fine again for a number of days as long as I kept them on only mom's milk and grass hay.  I also gave them some goat probiotics.  Finally, after several bouts of the diarrhea, and several total pen cleanings, I started cocci treatment on the twins.  After three days of treatment (with two more days to go) I cleaned every pen with bleach water, sprinkled DE on the floors, and cleaned all feeders and the dog kennels we put in the pens for the kids to snuggle up in.  That alone took about 6 hrs. with my son's help.  I was satisfied that I'd done the best I could, and we put all the kids and moms together in the big pen with the outside run.  So far, so good!  We have now separated the kids from the dams for two nights in a row.  With the runt still with mom at night, I got a whoppin' quart of milk from all three does this morning!  That may not seem like much to you all, but I'm finally thinking this whole thing is starting to pay back.  I just had a nice cold glass of milk, and let me tell you, it was great!   I'd like to get more, but at this point I'd be satisfied with a half gallon a day.  Really, I should be able to get at least 3/4 of a gallon a day within the next couple of weeks.  I'm not ready to blame it all on the goats though, since we're all learning how to do this whole milking thing, goats and myself.  We're definitely getting better! :

The absolute hardest thing so far has been disbudding these cute little rascals.  I had to do my biggest buckling twice, and I DON'T recommend that EVER!  I don't think I'll ever be able to do that again.  He was so big by the time I knew I'd have to do it over that it was almost impossible even with hubby and eldest daughter all holding him down.  It bled a lot more then when they were small, too.  When I finally did get it all stopped and let him go, he scratched it with a hoof and started it bleeding again.  By then he wasn't letting us anywhere near his little head, so the best I could do was spray it with blue coat and let him go.  Poor guy!  However, he still loves us.  Go figure.  I guess we could all learn a whole lot from these animals! :

I'm having fun catching up on all your blog posts, but that's taking time.  I never would have imagined how much time and thought (downright head scratching thought, second guessing thought, down on my knees praying thought) these goats would take.  I'm so new at this, so I keep telling myself to give it time.  It will get easier, and I won't always be in such a conundrum about everything.  Please, all of you tell me I'm right about that! ;)

Pioneer-ish Type Day at Tanglewoods Homeschool

This year in history my littles are studying early American history and U.S. geography. Over the last two weeks we've studied the Dutch colony at New Amsterdam (now New York) and the French colony at Detroit, as well as French pioneer/explorers who explored the Great Lakes region. The Dutch were among the first to import cattle to the New World, and made butter and wonderful cheese. The French explored the New World by birch bark canoe.

We had a wonderful hands on day to go with our history program today. We ground wheat, made bread, made butter and made this model of a birch bark canoe. We also looked at birch bark canoe images online. What fun it was! :)

Snow Day?

Nope! When one homeschools on the homestead, they never have to take a snow day. However, there are times when it's necessary to take a tomato day.




I peeked into my bags of green/turning red tomatoes and found this happening. Wow!

Guest Post by Resident Naturalist

We went to a place my dad works and saw this hornets nest. It was built on the side of a greenhouse. It was as big as my dad's head. It was like half of a nest. You could see inside of it. The hornets came to feed the larvae. The larvae were wiggling around.
It was really cool because there was another hornets nest inside the greenhouse, but it was abandoned. It was as big as my dad's fist. It was safe to watch the hornets from inside the greenhouse.
Here is a video of the nest that my mom helped me put here.




***Note from Mom***
There are so many fabulous homeschool opportunities in nature! This was a terrific opportunity, being able to safely watch these hornets working inside their nest. Wow!

First Week of School

As mentioned, this was our first week of school. We had a really productive first week, but I'm exhausted! This is going to take some serious getting used to.

On Monday we had a patriotic red, white and blue snack (since we were talking about the U.S. Flag and the Pledge of Allegiance for U.S. History/Geography. I love this picture! They were so excited to eat this yummy snack, and it shows in the photo. Fun, fun, fun!

Persuasive Essay

We started school this week. 9th grade daughter's first big assignment was to write a persuasive essay. I loved the topic she chose! She's a girl after my own heart, and she's learning fast. She wants to farm in the future. Her interests lie mainly in animal husbandry, but she's also interested in organic farming of all kinds. She plans to try her hand at a garden of her own next spring.
Following is her (finished?) essay.


Factory Farming vs. Organic Farms

Organic farms are better than factory farms because they are better for the environment, produce healthier food for people, and are more humane to animals.
First of all, large meat producing companies pollute the earth. They have large amounts of animals which means that they have lots of waste to deal with. They use lots of gasoline and energy to move it all. Some of it will run into our rivers and lakes and pollute our water. Some companies have even illegally dumped waste into water. Organic farms use less energy and fuel, and their animal waste can be used as fertilizer because the animals don’t have any added chemicals or hormones.
Products produced at factory farms are unhealthy for people. They have added hormones to make them grow faster and bigger. The animals are fed only corn. This is a cheap way to feed them and it fattens them up quickly. Animals from organic farms are grass fed and free ranged. The meat has no added preservatives, chemicals, or hormones.
Lastly, organic farms treat animals better. They have large pastures so that they are not all crammed together. They are slaughtered by hand so that the people know that the animals are dead before they begin butchering. They are kept in a clean, roomy space. Factory farms, however, are inhumane to animals. They are kept in small, cramped spaces, often indoors. They sometimes have no fresh water and are up to their knees in muck. Animals- mostly chickens, are sometimes killed and butchered with machines. If a chicken somehow misses the part where they get killed, which sometimes happens, they get their feathers plucked while they’re still alive.
For these reasons, I think it is best to support organic farmers and not factory farms. You can support organic farms by buying local at a whole foods store or co-op. You could buy directly from local farmers. You could grow your own food to eat, and even sell it. You could become an organic farmer!

Crazy Blogger Problems

Hi all-
Blogger has gone haywire. Starting yesterday, I can't make comments on my own blog! Hmmm...
Any way, if I could I would have said thank you for your comments on M's photos. Judy- The lake is Lake Superior, which we can see from our house if we climb a tree. ;)
Erin, I hope soon you'll be here enjoying the view with us more often.
MamaPea- She has the same little camera you and I do, but she makes it seem like a lot more camera than I can. Hopefully she'll get to take some classes and get a better camera sometime during her high school years. That only gives me four years to see that it happens.

How much can one pack into four years? Homeschooling gives one so many opportunities to create electives and opportunities for her children. It is sometimes overwhelming to consider all of these at this point, as we jump off into the ocean of high school and (possibly) college prep. Oh Lord, help me!

General Update on Life-kinda Stuff

Well, it's been forever since I've been here. I've been very distracted from this blog by the new one I started to keep the area home school families connected and up to date on area happenings of interest. School also takes up most of my thoughts and time, especially between Christmas and June.
We've been busy with our studies, standardised testing, learning to sew, and preparing for the science fair. Hattie's science project is, "What is static electricity?" Among other things, she's going to make a light bulb flash with a negatively charged balloon.
Molly designed a shirt, we made a pattern and we've cut it out and began sewing it this afternoon. It's a stretchy knit, and the sleeves aren't going in very nicely. We had to rip the first one out once, so round two on the sleeves tomorrow. Hattie's starting a doll quilt when the science fair is over, and I'm looking forward to doing that project with her. I bought her a little kit that has all of the squares cut out and contains all of the things we need. Just reading the directions has taught me more than I ever knew about quilting.
Dan and Molly cleaned out the chicken coop and rabbit room on Saturday. It's so nice to see everything all fresh! By Monday, the entire pile of composting manure had begun to steam, and I was wondering if we were in any danger of a fire starting? I guess now that it's raining (raining white drops, as Mama Pea says), we're no longer in danger for now...I hope.
The rabbits were bred on Sunday, so in about a month we'll hopefully have two new nests of little babies. That's pretty exciting for all of us, but for different reasons. ;) We're hoping to have little chicks just when the bunnies are cute and cuddly so we can have the home school group out for a day of fun. Last year, we would probably have already been to that point! I guess I"m just a tad spoiled by last year's nice long summer.
I started some cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, broccoli, head lettuce and basil yesterday. A friend asked what on earth I'd done such a thing for, and where I'd put it when it was started, since it looks like summer isn't coming this year. All I can say is, I hope and pray that true summer is here by the time the plants are ready for the garden.
Right now I'm headed to the basement to start a fire...

We're Still Alive

Hi all! I've been gone a long time, I know. That does seem to be the way things go in the winter around here. I get so busy with the formal education of my children, and my attempt to remain even slightly organised with so many irons in the fire. It feels a bit like juggling dinner plates, only I drop a lot of them. I'm not always OK with the fact that I really can't do all of my jobs well, and in my attempt I end up with what feels like a barely adequate job at each. Many times each year I reevaluate each "plate" to see if I really need to include it in the act. Some of them go by the wayside for a time to be picked up later. Here are some of the plates(each one important to me)that I'm evaluating now.
Relationship with my Savior: This is primary for me. I often neglect this one, I'm sorry to have to confess. It's because He's such a gentleman. He never throws a fit if I neglect Him. I don't have to be sure there's something for Him to pack in his lunch or cookies for after lunch. He doesn't need his clothes cleaned or his bath, and I don't have to teach him arithmetic or how to load the dish washer properly. In fact, if I fail to keep this relationship well, He can become quite invisible. That is, until my plates begin to fall in rapid succession. I realize at that point that I've lost my peace and joy, and my life feels precarious to say the least. I need that time of prayer and meditation for refreshment to stay sane. This has to be my first priority!
Relationship with spouse: This is very important. If it's really true that, "If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy" then it is equally true of Papa! By the way, we're about to celebrate our 15th anniversary! I'm so happy that he's the one I'll be celebrating with. If you've ever seen Marley and Me, it's a fairly realistic representation of our lives together. Their struggles were so common to us. Watching it seemed to be watching ourselves grow up in our relationship together. Not in every way, but many - minus Marley. We have a dog, Katie, but we got her after 10 years of marriage and when the kids were 2, 4, 7 and 9. It's the struggles as young parents that are so similar to us. Parenting young children is so consuming in time and energy. It is such a blessing, but it takes it's toll on life as well.
Relationship with kids: This one has so many facets. There's the actual interpersonal relationships with each of them. These are one of the reasons I set about educating them at home. These relationships are among the most precious of all to me. However, the other "plates" often distract me from these relationships. This isn't OK with me, but how do I change it? There are SO MANY PLATES!

Another facet in the relationship with my children is their actual education: This should probably be in a category of its own. This is a major undertaking that gets bigger every year. There are all the subjects that the Department of Education deems important to teach, and well as guiding them in life skills that will be so important to them as they grow up. All this while still maintaining relationships and attempting to keep that "fire" lit in them. The fire I speak of is that natural desire to discover and learn. It's there in all of us, but so often it's extinguished before it's joys are discovered. I so badly want to keep that fire alive in them. It's so much fun to see it burning, and to watch what they do with it. However, some of the things I find myself doing in the process of educating them is more like pouring water on their fires. I dislike those parts. I try to evaluate things so that there's more fuel on the fires than water. When life gets too busy with spinning plates, the fuel is more likely to be set aside, and the water remains. Things like memorizing multiplication facts and learning grammar. They're important. I can't cut them out! But, we need the fuel. Classic books, art projects, science experiments, living books, constructing castles, THESE are what I want more time for.
But there are still more plates: Laundry, preparing healthy meals, teaching how to do chores, pet and livestock care, maintaining organization, friends, extended family, physical fitness, financial priorities (like TAXES!)...
I was hoping that this blog post would help me clear my head and organize my priorities. I'm not so sure that's happened. Perhaps I shouldn't post for fear that it will stress you all out! ;) But, this is where I'm at right now, and so this is what I'm sharing with you. A glimpse into a life that's definitely full, usually happy, and very imperfect! This is why blog posts are few and far between in the winter.
Jesus, help me to be OK with imperfect! :)

Uff Da!

I have been so busy lately! I think it's a safe bet that I'll be posting less now that school has started. We started last Monday (Monday the 30th of August. I didn't get this published after I wrote it. Like I said, I'm having trouble getting any blogging done.), and it's been going well. We have a kindergartner, second grader, fifth grader and seventh grader. They're all becoming such wonderful little students. I'm so pleased with how well the first week (Two weeks now!) has gone, even though it was so full of activity. Here are our new first day of school pictures. I try to do this on the first day of school every year.








One of my husband's brothers and two of his friends spent last week in our neck of the woods. They planned to hike on the Superior Hiking Trail a full week. They arrived on a Saturday and we fed them a good supper. They got up and had an early breakfast before Dan drove them to the trail head on Sunday. They started near Trail Center on the Gunflint Trail, hiking the border rout trail to McFarland Lake by Wednesday A.M. At that point one of the men decided that this was all just a bit too much for him. They caught a ride to their car, which Dan had parked at a trail head on the Arrowhead Trail, and back to our house they came. So, I fed them lunch and let them shower up and wash clothes before they started out again on Thursday A.M., minus one. He stayed behind with our family. This time they started at a Superior Hiking Trail trail head on the Camp 20 Rd. They made it to the Pincushion Mt. parking area by Friday afternoon. I don't know about you, but I'd call that some hiking! I picked them up there and brought them home for another shower and supper, and we saw them off with full stomachs on Saturday after lunch. It was really fun to play hostess to all of them for the week. I think they all had a good time, and I know that our family did! On Saturday A.M. 2 of the men helped the kids with their wood splitting chores, and one of them helped Dan and I get a good start on our goat pen. Here's a quick photo of the new fence. It's almost done! :)
Okey dokey, no picture. I'll have to show you later bc blogger is being a pain in the tail right now.

Hattie's Tadpole Update

It has taken a really long time for Hattie's tadpoles to become frogs. I think that conditions just aren't the best and it slows them down. We were keeping them inside the house and their progress seemed better. I think because the temps stayed even. The problem with that was when the tadpoles turned into frogs they disappeared! I'm pretty sure they just jumped out of the tub. So, we decided they had to go outside. First they were in an area that got sun in the afternoons. They weren't doing well there so we put them in the shade full time. They're doing better there and slowly turning to frogs and disappearing. This doesn't make the kids happy, but they were thrilled to hold this little guy yesterday. I wonder if he "jumped" last night? I zoomed in on him to let you get a look. He's really smaller than this. This has been a pretty neat science project!

Pretty cute little guy!

Teaching a visual-spatial learner

This was day 2 of my new approach to educating my 5 yo. I feel a bit like I'm going backwards, but it's actually been a lot of fun. I'm trying to incorporate some ideas I've gotten from reading online. I'm trying to keep in mind that VSL's tend to learn best when what they're learning is based in the context of their experience. Well, that seems reasonable. I think anyone would!

Yesterday, I divided a piece of paper into 6 sections and wrote the name of a family member in each one. I had her trace each name and draw a picture of each member of the family. That was it for the "reading" lesson. I guess it covered handwriting as well. I then asked her questions like, "How many people are in our family?" "How many children?" "How many parents?" "How many girls?" "How many boys?" That was it for the math lesson. That really seemed like going backwards, but I could see her "wheels" turning as she categorised all of us into different groups. Then I hung the "poster" up in the dining room so we can talk about it and see our names there. One other thing that was actually VERY funny - Dani drew something in each picture that each of us liked. She drew me sitting on a couch, because that's what I like. ;) She's got me all figured out!
We then "read" a book together that had text something like this, "A cat...a tan cat...a tan fat cat...a tan fat cat ran...a tan fat cat ran fast..." You get the idea.

Today, we reviewed our poster from yesterday. After that I gathered a bunch of art catalogs, clothing catalogs, and seed catalogs. I had Dani cut out pictures of things. Things like flower, hat, shirt, dress, shoes, bag, apple, pear, corn, peas, cat, and some longer words like watermelon, raspberries and elephant. We glued each picture to the back of a recipe card and wrote the word on the other side. So, guess which words she was able to read?? Apple, blackberry, elephant and necklace. Hmmm... yep, she's different than the others! What an adventure I'm on! :) God is good, and I'm really enjoying something I thought I'd seriously dislike! Thank you, God!

Tadpole Update, Visual-Spatial Learners and Random Stuff

I wanted to post a quick update on Hattie's tadpoles. I had read online that after they hatch they don't move around for up to 5 days, but it was hard to believe they weren't dying. Sure enough, however, after about 4 or 5 days they did begin to swim around. We changed the water, removing the dead ones in the process, and fed them some goldfish flakes. They have really grown a lot since then. Soon we could see eyes, then nostrils, and when they swim upside down we can see their intestines. In time we expect to see their hind legs developing. It's been a lot of fun watching them grow. I just tried to upload a new video of them 3 times, but it wouldn't work. Bummer...

We're winding down our school year now. I think everyone is feeling relief that we'll have a break from the "classroom" for the summer. That reminds me, if anyone who reads this has any advice/information on whole word reading, or visual-spatial learners, please send it my way. I have a hunch I'm going to need it. My youngest, it is clear, isn't going to be learning by the same methods that have worked with the other 3. We used phonics very heavily with the others and they seemed to quickly get the idea and then were off on the reading adventure and learning to spell by the same methods.

My 5 year old is on the young side for reading, so I'm not overly concerned, but she's been learning (or being taught, I should say) her letter names and sounds since she was 3. She's been pretty extensively exposed to them through a variety of methods at least 3 times each. She has finger painted them, glued dried beans on them, molded them out of play dough, printed them, watched videos of them, sung them...and still she doesn't know all of her letter names. She knows even fewer sounds. Today we were attempting to sound out some three letter words (such as bed, had, gum, run, dug). She was getting upset because she didn't know them, and I was trying to show her how to sound them out. She looked up at me and said, "Mom, I don't get it!" It's clear that indeed, she doesn't. The curious thing is that she can read some words. I don't know how, because she clearly has no idea what sound the individual letters in the words make. And I have very little by way of ideas, as of yet, for helping her. She told me that she knows the word bed because it looks like a bed...hmmm.

I have found one book and some websites that may help me. It's clear that it's going to take more time and effort than it has with the other kids. I'm encouraged by some of the great strengths that her learning style may have, though. I've read more than once that VSL's (visual-spatial learners) learn skills in sort of a hap hazard way, being advanced in some ways and slower in others. They may not build skill upon skill in ways that other learners do, but once they "get" it, it's there permanently. It often seems like turning a key. One day it isn't there, the next it is. Okay, yes, I can see that with her. There have been times when that's happened already, and it really took me by surprise. So, I guess I won't be able to "measure" her progress like I've been able to with the other kids. It will be somewhat of an exercise in faith for me. It will take more persistence that I'm used to having. I'm not exactly known as a patient person. I like to "see" progress, and I like to see it now. So, please keep me in prayer! Thank you! Okay, enough about that. Sorry for the long post, but I guess I'm using it to "process" what I've learned today.

As far as the little homestead goes, things are moving ahead at a snails pace. We've planted onions...yep, just onions. They're beginning to come up, which is exciting, but I sure do need to get the rest of the seeds in the ground. Peas, I think, will be tomorrow. Dan says he's going to get some planting done when he gets home from work tomorrow as well. We've built a second rabbit cage just like the first, and have 2 more to go. We finished the new chicken run. It turned out quite nice, but it was a lot harder working with the fencing that I'd expected. We chose horse fence, 10.5 gauge woven wire, 2 x 4 inch squares, 5 feet tall. It's very rigid and heavy. It is really hard to get a nice tight fence, and to get it to follow the uneven terrain without leaving gaps is quite a challenge. However, it was great preparation for putting up the fencing for the goats. That will come after the rabbit room is all set up in the barn. So, yep...things are coming together slowly but surely.

All the children are enjoying the summer weather. We've slept in the camper (right here at home) once, and are planning a trip to visit my family, especially my grandparents, at the end of the month. The kids and I will be staying for a while, helping with their garden and visiting with them. As they get older, I know my time is limited. I really want the chance to know them better before it's too late. I also want the children to have some memories of them.

Okay, that's enough...for now!

Hattie's Tadpoles

Hattie found some frog eggs in a pond on Wednesday, April 28. They're beginning to hatch today, April 30th. The tadpoles are unbelievably tiny and very still. We read that they will begin to move around after about 4 days. I hope that happens, but I did some things wrong when we got them. I wasn't prepared for them when she brought them home. They really didn't have enough water in the container for proper oxygenation, and we brought them into the house. We may have changed their water temperature too quickly or too much. They are, however, developing...so we shall see.

I did eventually answer Hattie's question about the mother frog. How cute that she left half of the eggs for the mother frog! She now knows that the mother "lays" (?) her eggs and then goes her merry way.

I just realized how much was going on in the background: temper tantrum, music, loud "talking" to child throwing tantrum...such is life at our house.

As a post script, I was watching YouTubes of goat kid castrations and dis budding. Yuck, yuck, and triple yuck! I don't know if I can do it...

Thanks, Turkey Durk! (or, Making a Quill Pen)

We recently finished up an ancient history course, and began a new course on the middle ages. We'll be studying the period of history from roughly 400 AD and about 1600 AD. We began with the division of Rome into two kingdoms and will end with the Spanish Armada and an overview of the world at the end of the 16th century. What young boy wouldn't love it? Gladiators, knights, castles, King Arthur, Robin Hood...
Here's where Turkey Durk comes in. I wanted to make quill pens with the kids, and asked a dear friend if she had any large feathers I could have. She had butchered a large tom by the name of Turkey Durk shortly before I asked, and donated some of his tail feathers to our homeschool. It worked out really well. I SO need a camera! It would have been fun to take some pictures of our project. It was actually quite easy to do. Here's the process:

What you will need
some feathers about 10 inches long
a straight pin
a sharp craft knife
a cutting board
some sturdy paper (drawing paper works well)
some India Ink
a piece of felt (or paper toweling)

1. Soak the feathers in warm, soapy water for about 10 minutes.

2. Use the craft knife to remove a couple inches of feathers from the quill (or remove all of them, if you wish. They were used both ways.)

3. Cut the tip off the quill shaft at an angle using the craft knife. The very tip of the angle is the portion you will write with. Cut a tiny slit at the tip, parallel to the shaft. This tiny slit helps the ink to flow properly. (It would be so much more clear with a picture. I do apologize for my camera. It worked for about 15 seconds tonight. Just as I was snapping a picture of this process, it went berserk again!)

4. Use the straight pin to clean out the quill shaft.

To use the quill pen, dip it in the ink (about 1/2 inch) blotting the excess on the felt (or paper towel). Hold the quill at an angle with the "open" portion of the angle you cut facing up. You want that tiny slit you made facing the paper. Experiment to find the right angle and pressure. When we first tried it , I was using it "upside down". It was very hard to control the flow of ink and it was used up almost immediately. Just keep trying, and I'm sure you'll figure it out quickly.

Happy writing!

Homeschool Conference: Country Mice Go to the City!

We got home on Sunday after a challenging but very rewarding home school conference in Rochester. My sister and I went to the conference together, and we really had some personal growth moments. Finding parking was one of them! There was a 5 story parking garage connected to the hotel. When we got there there was seriously ONE SPACE left, all the way at the top. It was more like 75 % of a space, since the cars on either side were parked over the lines. I wish we had taken a picture of the van in the cozy space we fit it into!

Once we found our room, we took a picture of the room number so we wouldn't forget it (a bit of a joke, but I think we were slightly serious).

That evening before we tucked ourselves in for the night we went down to the lobby to ask about how long it would take to walk through the skywalk to the Civic Center from our hotel. They said to give ourselves at least 10 minutes. Well, when we came down in the morning and tried to find our way we thought that we'd made a mistake in not giving ourselves MUCH more time. Thankfully one of the hotel employees asked us if we needed direction. If he hadn't walked half way with us, I'm sure we would have wandered aimlessly for a lot longer.

While we were walking he told us the funniest story. Earlier that morning, he'd seen a gentleman walking around looking lost. He asked the man if he needed direction. The man responded with, "No thanks, I've got Jesus." After about 10 minutes, the hotel employee saw that the man was still aimlessly wandering around. Once again he approached the man, this time saying, "Jesus sent me to direct you 10 minutes ago. Do you want my help now?" This time the man accepted assistance. How silly we are sometimes. How often we miss the answer to our prayers because we're looking for something else!

My sister and I laughed and laughed about our whole situation. It was just so funny to keep getting lost, and be so challenged in figuring things out. It was so fun to have her to laugh with. What a blessing from God it was to spend such time with her!

the skywalk

This is a gigantic Barnes and Noble that we passed in the skywalk. It has an escalator to the lower level (with lots more books), and used to be a theatre. You can see the stage in the background.

This is some artwork that my sister and I thought was neat, and took pictures of for our artsy daughters to try. The dots give the effect of a mosaic from a distance, but are really "dots" of paint.

The keynote speaker was a man who trains horses and compares it to our relationships with God and our children. They created this arena full of dirt for him. It is a LOT of dirt! We found it pretty amazing that they were able to create this very workable space for the "Sermon on the "Mount'" folks to work in.

Lew from "Sermon on the "Mount'" during one of our workshops.

My sister and I enjoying ourselves at the conference.

Overall the conference was a marvelous experience. It was inspiring, encouraging and informative. There were over 4600 people in attendance. It is really an encouraging thing to be in a room with 4600 other people who have all come together with the goal of being the best educators they can be for their children. I wonder how many fortunate children that represents? I personally knew of 5 families who were represented by 6 of the parents who represented a total of 15 children. If we use that to average 3 children for every person, that would be 13800 children! Wow! We attended some excellent workshops on child training, relationships, and education.

I got the chance to become more familiar with some curriculum that I've been impressed with. Unknown to me, I'd been gradually patterning my own homeschool after a lot of the same ideas and using a lot of the same books. I was able to sit in on one of his seminars and found it very inspiring and encouraging. His heart for raising thoughtful, responsible and Godly children was evident just as it is in the curriculum that he and his wife have developed. I pray God develops that same heart in myself and Dan. I tend toward taking the lazy way out of too many things. But, God is good, and He's been patiently nudging me on. When I look back I can see how He's patiently helped(or helping) me to grow up in him.

I was also able to get some good instruction on teaching writing. That was inspiring and also encouraging. I found that many of the things I've been doing have been good, as well as how to take those things to the next level. I feel more confident to carry on now.

So, it was an all around wonderful time! Dan and the kids also had a good time. He took them to lots of parks and on a lot of walks. They found snails and other water creatures to bring home, and got a LOT of sun. They were all a little pink and quite tired when we got back to my sister's house.

Hehehe! Ok, I just read this and I guess you can sum up this whole thing using the words ENCOURAGING and INSPIRING! I was a bit redundant, but I'm done now, so you get what you get! :)

Ho Hum...

I really don't have too much to say right now, but thought I'd post before we head south. We'll soon be off to the cities for a home school conference. I get to spend two whole days with my sister, minus the men, children, and pets! I'm looking forward to the time with her, and the great information and ideas I'll surely receive at the conference. I know, however, that I am going to miss my family a lot. It's funny that as much as I might need a break from my normal life sometimes, I'm never really fully away, and never fully immersed in whatever I'm doing. There's a huge part of me that's still busy being Mom. I wonder, will it be like this forever? When they're all grown and have flown the coop...
Well, that's as far as that's going to go right now, because I'm tearing up at the thought of them all grown - even though right now they're being SO LOUD I'll be surprised if you can't hear it when you read this, and one of them just dropped a frosted graham cracker on the floor icing down and then proceeded to eat it.

Today was a pretty good day! I'm trying really hard to get 3 good school days in before the conference, and still have enough laundry done and not come home to a house that looks like it's been through a tornado. So far, part success. Schooled all the kids in math, reading and grammar. Listened to my 7 year old do a beautiful job reading aloud to me. That's one of the most rewarding things about homeschooling for me. I love it when they learn to read! Got some laundry done and cleaned the kitchen. However, I have 5 baskets of laundry in the living room that seriously need putting away, only they've been there so long they're probably in need of washing again. I did have to re-wash the basket of towels that the dog decided to use as a bed. :(

Question for Mama Pea's Mr. and Chicken Mama: What do you do when a hen is being "over loved" by the rooster? She has no feathers on the back of her neck or her lower back, poor girl.

Oh, and one last thing. This one's a prayer request of sorts. Today, Molly fell off her horse during her lesson. She hit her nose on the ground, and somehow also her back, just above her hiney and to the side. She's a tough girl and doing fine other than some bruising, but I'll tell ya, it's really a struggle for me not to be afraid for her. I appreciate your prayers for her safety and quick healing of the bruises. Thanks!

Please pray for me, too, come to think of it! I'm feeling a little...or rather a LOT stressed right now, with all the stuff that's been going on. Lots of good stuff, but too much of it!

More Random Ramblings: This one's long, so pull up a comfy chair and grab yourself a good cup of coffee! :)

We got home last night from an overnight trip to Duluth. We had a nice time just being together, and getting a little break from "life as usual". Dan was feeling the need to get away from all the responsibility staring him in the face, so it was great timing.
The main reason for going on the trip was to get Molly's braces off. Her teeth look really nice, and she gets about a weeks break before she goes into full time retainer wearing.

Before...

After!

We celebrated Sam's 10th birthday while in Duluth. We spent the night at The Best Western Edgewater. I think it's safe to say that everyone enjoyed their time at the water park! I tried to get some pictures of that, but the lighting was terrible and I couldn't get any good ones. Dani and I enjoyed the lazy river the most, I think. Dani liked watching the huge bucket tip and spill 500 gallons of water on everyone, but she was a bit scared to play near it, so that ruled out the kiddie area for her. Hattie LOVED that bucket, and its dumping water! She wanted to be right under it when it dumped, and loved the kiddie slides. She also went down the big slide on a double tube with Dan. They also loved crossing the pool on the turtles. :) That was so fun to watch! I saw Sam for about .3 seconds when we got there, and .3 seconds before we left. He never stopped going down the big slides the whole rest of the time! Molly was pretty much enjoying everything available that she could. She's been having some trouble with some pain in her foot related to a ligament that's too short (possibly from fast growth). She has to rest it more than she'd like, but she still had tons of fun.
We had purchased a birthday cake to eat at the hotel, but Sam got the worst migraine he's had yet, and spent some time resting in the quiet dark room (achieved by Dan taking the rest of the kids on an explore around the hotel and some time in the arcade). By the time he felt better, it was 10:30, and much too late for eating cake. :( The next morning Dan took Sam to the arcade to see what he'd missed (not much in my opinion). He wasn't ready to leave the arcade as soon as the rest of the family, so Dan let him stay there for a while by himself. He was taking a long time to come back, so Dan went looking for him. He'd been lost for about 10 minutes, and fell into Dan's arms when they found each other. He was crying when they got back to the room, and it about broke my heart to see him so upset! I guess he's not ready to fly solo yet. That's fine with me! :)
Our other reason for going to Duluth/Cloquet was to do some "farm" type shopping at L&M Fleet and Dan's Feed Bin. Got 200 feet of fencing for the chickens and future goats, and cage wire to build 5 rabbit cages for the meat bunnies we're soon to have. That was a lot of fun, and also a LOT of expensive! Fencing and wire cost SO much! I got a goat raising book, and am learning a TON! This time, I'm determined NOT to let all that information overload deter me from getting dairy goats. I'm looking at Dwarf Nigerians. I think they'll be a great starter goat for me. I'm looking forward to milking and making kefir, cheese, yogurt and such yummy things! Mmmm...
I'm really enjoying this great weather. The robins are again gracing our yard with their song, and it's so peaceful and relaxing to sit out near the chicken yard and enjoy their company. I enjoy spending that special time with God, and Molly seems to appreciate it at least as much as I do. She's frequently found keeping me company. :) It's also a great place to gather for reading aloud to the kid-o's. We're working on Robin Hood (as preparation for our next history unit) and Swiss Family Robinson (just for fun).

Two of our favorite hens, Puffy and Butterscotch

Sinbad, our new Bantam rooster

Raven on her nest. I think she's just laying her egg, but she's showing some signs of becoming broody.

I guess it's time to think about what type of gardening I am (or am not) going to do this year. I know that I want to put in at least one raised bed this year. I will possibly be filling it with compost this year, and letting it finish composting so it will be ready this fall or in the spring. I'd like to experiment with a cold frame for planting some late fall lettuce and spinach in as well. It would be so nice to extend that fresh vegetable season a bit longer, and begin it sooner in the spring! We also want to figure out how to grow some tomatoes up here. I mean, how to grow some tomatoes that will ripen. Gardening is simply NOT my forte!

Ok, now that I've put you all to sleep with my rambling, I'll go and get some work done...after I get another cup of coffee. :)

My Son's Journal Entry

I'm not trying to brag, but I just have to share my son's journal entry with you all! He journals every day for school, and wrote this very sweet poem! I'm not so sure that it's true of me, but I sure am delighted with his sitting down and writing it!

Mothers

Mom's are sweet and very neat and love you all life long

And when the moon is up and the sun is down they sing you a lovely song.

They'll make your favorite food

And put you in your favorite mood.

I'd love mine back if I were you

Because kids take for granted the miraculous things that they can do.

Learning To Write a Sentence

This is Hattie's "sentence story". She's at the point where she's ready to learn to write sentences. To help her along, I told her that she was going to write a sentence story. That seemed somehow more exciting than writing a sentence. She made up her story and drew the picture. I wrote the sentence, and she is in the process of copying it. I thought her picture was so cute, I had to share it. It's so exciting to see your children learning. I love this stage, when they learn to read and write. Fun fun!