Dan's Birthday revisited

Brian wasn't home on Dan's birthday. We had a little gathering at my folks house but decided to wait until Bri got home to give Dan our gifts.

Saturday we had another little party for Dan. We didn't make a cake or anything, but we did make S'mores. I cheated and cooked the marshmallows over the flame on the stove.

While we were singing Happy Birthday to Dan, he grabbed Bri face and gave him a big squeeze. It was so cute. Gabe had to give Dan a pat.

Love the Daddy

Dan loves the gifts
Big brother shows Dan how it is doneDan with all his "booty"
Oh my, who is that old lady!?
Dan enjoying his S'More

Saturday Fun

While Brian worked on the chicken coop, the kids and I did a few chores and then relaxed.

Bessie gives Dan a push

Hmmm...Dan sure thinks he is strong
Dan loves the sandbox
Gabe and I decided to take a walk down to the brook and look for some more frogs eggs. The water was high, but had gone down quite a bit. We saw all sorts of animals tracks. It was quite interesting, but no frogs eggs. I think the high water might have washed them all downstream.

Gabe checks out the animal tracks

We found these very interesting mushrooms in the woods. We looked them up in our mushroom book and discovered they are called "Devil's Urn". They are one of the first mushrooms to come out in the spring.

Saturday Work

Brian was away last week and we kept quite busy. We had a little birthday party for Dan at my folks on Monday, Mom and Dad came over on Tuesday and watched the Littles for me while I took Bessie to piano and then she and Gabe and I went and did some shopping. Wednesday we had friends over for a play date. This family also has several adopted children. Thursday we went to a friends house for a visit. It was fun and the kids had a great time.

We do not usually spend so much time on the go, but it was good with Brian away.

Saturday morning we headed out to the post office and the library. After lunch, Bri started working on the chicken coop. During the winter, it is almost impossible to clean as the manure freezes to the floor. The spring cleanup is the worst of the year. He also had some minor construction to do for the new chicks. The little "apartment" that we had before made it too dark for the bantams, so he took it out in the fall. He needed to put in a new place for chicks. We keep them separate from the main flock until the are big enough to hold their own as the other hens will hassle them for a few days until the peaking order is re-established.

Bri mucking out the hen house

I really enjoy my little chickens (bantams). They lay small eggs but they seem to have so much more personality than the big hens.

Betsy is Gabe's favorite

We also have guinea hens. This birds do a great job of keeping down the tick population. We only three this spring, but we are hopefully that the female will hatch out a clutch this year.

I've Been Tagged!

De'Etta tagged me for a Thinking Blogger Award.

I really never thought anyone would think my blog worthy of this, so thank-you De'Etta for tagging me. I'm glad my blog is enjoyed.

It has taken me several days to write this as I was trying to tag a blog that has not already been tagged. There are a few repeats. This was a very hard job for me. I do not read a lot of blogs, but all those I do read bring me so much pleasure as these people share their lives, their struggles, inspirations and joys. Thank you to all that take the time to blog.

1. Kathy has a wonderful blog and it is one of the first blogs I check everyday. I so enjoy the normalness of life in her family. When things seem so off the wall here, I relax with Kathy, Tim and their wonderful family. Kathy (and Tim) has a tremendous sense of humor and she makes life seem so interesting and so full! You can feel the love they have for their children and see it in the photos that they share.

2. Michele shares her life as the mom of older students, with some gone from the nest. It is great for me to see the transition she is facing with children outside the home and a few home, but old enough to have full lives outside of family. I love her pictures and seeing life from a different area.

3. I love the way Jodi homeschools. Her easy-going style and eclectic curriculum is refreshing to me. She is so comfortable with her choices and because of that, I think those choices work really well for her children. I love the way she shares their life, the comfort of it as she teaches and nurtures her children.

4. Lisa is a good friend and we have actually meet several times. Reading her blog helps me stay in touch with what she and her family are doing. Maine is also one of my favorite places and I enjoy seeing the photos she shares of her area.

5. Cynthia has a terrific blog full of wonderful pictures of her family and their adventures. Cynthia plans and takes the most awesome vacations. Her blog also conveys such a servants heart for her family and her church.

***The participation rules are simple:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,

2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,

3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn't fit your blog).

Dan's Birthday

Today was Daniel's fourth birthday. He was so excited. The Littles aren't quite sure what it is all about, but they do know it involves cake or some dessert and presents!

Brian is away, so we won't have our family celebration until he gets home, but we went over to Mom and Dad's and had a mini-celebration. The kids had a great time and Dan was beside himself with the thrill of it all.

Blow out the candles!

Noona and Papa and the kidsMom and Dad gave Dan some fun gifts. The Littles are still tough to buy for, but they did a great job. He got a battery operated robot, some sunglasses, rubber boots, alphabet flash cards and McDonald's play food with backpack and one of those cloth flying discs.

Mr. Cool

The robot was a big hit

Blackie Ready to Travel

Blackie is all set and ready to go! She is sitting on Bri's backpack, just incase he has forgotten about her. She is looking forward to her adventure.

Biking and Blading

Saturday was a great day. We made a trip to the library, got in some good gardening, went out for Chinese food and finished with some biking and rollerblading.

Bri gives Gabe a spin

Dan has figured out how to peddle!
Bessie and Gabe prefer the rollerblades
Hannah is working hard on her new bike

Spring Gardening

This past Saturday was a gorgeous day. The temperature was pleasant and the sun was so bright. It was a perfect day for gardening. My perennial border gets quite covered with leaves and debris during the winter. This makes a nice winter blanket for it, but also makes for a large job in the spring.

I usually leave most of the last few flower stalks over the winter. This adds a nice structure to the garden over the winter as the seed heads and long stems are a nice contrast to the starkness of the snow.

We had several of these large tarp fulls to pull out back to our brush pile. We find it so much easier to use the tarp to pull large loads than making many loads with the wheelbarrow.

My water garden always seem to take a lot of abuse during the year. The kids play around it and the dog gets in when she is loose. The rocks get knocked into the water and of course there are lots of leaves to clean out.

After pulling out the water lilies, which overwinter in the bottom, we found them already starting to put out shoots. Another few weeks and the dark green leaves will make it to the surface. The other plants are still inside as they are not frost hardy. I will wait a few more weeks to bring them out and also put our gold fish back in.

We had to reseat the little waterfall section and then we set the water pump back up. What a wonderful sound to water flowing in the garden again.

All cleaned up and ready. Some of them plants are already coming up, but many still have a few weeks before they will start coming through the ground.

My gazing ball got broken last fall when I tried to take it off to put into the garage for the winter. I'm still trying to decide what color to get this year. I love my garden and the fact that Bri will help me so much with the heavier jobs makes it much more pleasant.

Sun At Last

Today started out gray and cloudy again, but the sun finally was able to push the clouds away and the beautiful blue sky broke through. It was a balm to my winter weary soul.

We had another good morning of work, but I could tell everyone was just waiting to get outside. We finished up then headed out after lunch. We spent 3-4 hours enjoying the sunshine this afternoon. It was till cool and breezy, but the sun was warm and wonderful.

Rachel and Gabe rode their bikes around and around. A friend had given us a small bike with training wheels and Hannah gave that a try, but the seat was too high. Brian lowered that when he came home. She will be all set now.

Gabe spent quite a bit of time pushing Dan around in the little wheelbarrow. Dan was quite upset when Gabe finally got tired and went on to other things.

Gabe gave Gracie some much needed exercise today and ran around the yard with her. She had so much funny. At one point Gabe tied her to the tricycle and then had me call her. She pulled him easy as could be going like mad. Gabe laughed and laughed and Gracie looked like she enjoyed it too!

They have always been best buds. We got Gracie right after Gabe's 2nd birthday and they have grown up together. Gabe can wrestle with her and pull her and tackle her and she just licks his face. If any of the other little guys tried this, she would give them a soft growl and move away. She is very tolerant of Gabe. Don't they both look so happy to be together?

Snack time at the picnic table

By the end of the afternoon, Dan was pooped. The Littles still tire quicker than Gabe or Bessie. I think their little bodies are still recovering. Dan just plopped down against the tree and made a little pile of rocks. He was so cute.

I brought out my stitching, but didn't get any done. The girls played with my hair and they had fun coming up with different doos. I looked through the science catalog and decided what to order and worked on a Bible study.

We had baked chicken, noodles and green beans for dinner.

It was a great day and so nice to finally feel the sun and enjoy some warmer air.

Ups and Downs

One advantage of having so many gray, rainy days is that the kids are not chomping at the bit to go outside. We have had a couple of great weeks of schooltime. Attitudes have been good and for the most part we have been able to keep Dan busy enough to not be too much of a distraction.

Speaking of Dan, he loves doing somersaults. Any place is good enough for him...the couch, the chair, outside or even on the hard floor. I caught this series of photos as he did one of his almost perfect loops. That has gotta hurt your head.

Up

Up

Over

Down

Bessie checks out one of our health books. She is always looking for new info on health and exercise.
The kids love the marker board (they are so much fun). Here Hannah practices her lines. She will fill the whole board with straight lines. Dan seems to think this is wonderful! Or, more likely, he is trying to figure out how he can get his hands on the marker and do some creative writing someplace.

The Yada Yada Prayer Group

by Neta Jackson

I loved this book! Thanks, De'Etta for the recommend on the second in this series.

It is hard for me to write why I loved it so much. It is well written, but not what I would call a great literary book. It is a nice story about a group of woman from very different backgrounds that meet at a Christian Women's Conference and are almost forced into a prayer group. Something happens while the women are at the conference and they decide to keep the prayer group going.

As I read the book, I found myself challenged with my idea of how to come to the throne of God. About worship and prayer and how I looked at it. I found myself identifying with Jodi in the book who doesn't quite think she needs prayer as much as some of the other ladies because she leads a very normal life.

I was also struck by the idea that somehow I feel more worthy of God's love because I have led a good life, but in that I also don't feel the intense love of God that comes from having someone love you when you don't deserve it! And then realizing that none of us is good enough to deserve God's love, so none of us is any better than another. These ideas were really driven home for me and gave me so much to think about. I'm still working it all through in my head. I found it very humbling.

I am looking forward to continuing with this series. This is a definite recommend.

Images of our week

Nothing much going on this week. The weather has been crazy...rain, snow, high wind and gray, gray, gray! We've had a good school week and the kids have managed to play outside in between the storms. I thought I could put away the winter gear, but this past weeks snow tells me otherwise.

In this photo, Gabe says he is a dragon and Dan is a knight. Doesn't Dan look fierce!?

Hannah and Dan always seem to find a place to relax...the bookshelf, the stairs and now the chairs.

Brian started painting the woodwork in the kitchen. This is not the color we picked out. After finding the paint card and comparing it, the color was way off. A trip to Lowes and we now have the right color.

The chicks are now two weeks old. They are getting feathers and getting up on legs. They are still very cute, but getting that gangly look about them. We moved them to a larger cage and as soon as the weather breaks and the temp rises a bit, we will move them to "nursery" out in the hen house.

Mr. Fix-It

I am convinced that Brian can fix anything. In the 20+ years we have been married, I have seen him put a 2nd story on our house, change engines in our truck, install furnaces, plumb bathrooms, doing any number of wiring projects and keep our ancient vehicles running.

He has repaired vehicles while we have been out on the road heading to vacation. He has jerry-rigged them to get us home. On one occasion, he filled the washer fluid reservoir with gas and used the washer fluid pump in place of the fuel pump to get us home.

Last Thursday, he had a day off. Bessie was cleaning up from her latest baking project and announced that she wasn't getting any hot water. Brian headed to the basement and found our furnace not firing. He was able to replace several parts and fix it in about an hour. These type of breakdowns no longer cause me concern because I know my Mr. Fix-It can...fix it!

A former pastor used to call him McGyver. Give him some duct tape and a pocket knife and he can build a tank!

Okay, so maybe not, but I sure do love my Mr. Fix-It.

Blackie Arrives

This cute little girl kitty arrived at our house this week. Jodi and her kiddos seem to like to send these little hairy creatures out into the world! She looks a little startled to me...it must have been dark in that box. Her name is Blackie and she is going on a trip with Brian. They will be going to Kangerlussuaq, Greenland and beyond. She will get to see Fjords, glaciers, muskox, arctic foxes and plenty of snow. Sure wish I could go too!