


That’s not what happened. Mark, who was not on call. Got a call from work (which never happens) and had to go to work on Saturday. I was committed to volunteer at a home school used book sale so that left his parents to watch the kids.
Fortunately, Mark only had to work in the morning and was able to get home and get to the wood store and back home to get up some railing before it started pouring rain!
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Before the rain, the men were checking the radar on their “smart” phones. |
And Sunday dawned beautiful and bright (and hot) and everyone actually looked at the camera for pictures!
We had lots of visitors in June and the first of July (that’s how we like it around here). And lots of visitors means lots to clean before and after. Here are two of my helpers in training (no, I did not make them clean the cabinets but they both wanted to and I let them do it…who’s going to refuse help?).
Yep, he’s the kid behind the clothe in the first picture. He really wanted a rag so I gave him, sprayed water on the cabinet and he went to town and was every bit as serious as could be.
Josiah enjoyed helping with making laundry soap. He’s becoming quite the chef and every time I step in the kitchen he is right there asking to help!
Ceili Rain learned to ask for help in putting on her underwear. She also learned it doesn’t go over your head. Oh, and she learned that toothpaste doesn’t go in your hair either. She did a lot of learning in June.
what will seven be?
And thus, explains my absence the past several days! We are so excited about this new little blessing being knit together! The kids are beyond thrilled and Ace told us, when we told them about the baby, that he had prayed the night before that God would give us another baby.
I’ve got to do a major photo dump but sleep and nausea are my friends for awhile.
But, pictures they are a comin’!
Stay tuned.
Bryant likes blueberry coffee cake. See???
We’re here but blogging will be sporadic this week as we are enjoying some time with our dear friends from another state! Ten kids 8 and under all in one house! We are having a blast.
For now, enjoy Bryant’s sweet blueberry face. Yeah, we know we should have used a bib!
So, for the 4th we will be joyfully busy.
And my daughters will be decked out in the most adorable outfits. At least I think they are:
Yeah, it’s still keeping the pictures turned. I’ll show how I made this skirt in a sec…but first, the youngest from the Bunch…
This was my second attempt at a pillowcase dress and, I must say, it succeeded!
So, here’s how I made Zoe’s skirt. After making the pillowcase dress, I didn’t have enough material to make a twirl skirt for Zoe. So, I brainstormed. And remembered that I was holding on to two blue jean legs that I had cut off last year to make shorts for Zoe. I knew they would make a cute skirt but wasn’t sure how to use them. And then this project came up:
I cut the legs apart and then folded them in half.
I placed the denim on the fabric on the fold and cut out two more panels to match the pants panels. I also made sure they had a bit of a triangle shape to add to some twirl (which is a requirement from Zoe).
Then I just sewed (actually serged…woohoo…I have a serger now) the panels together, made casing for elastic and then sewed the ribbon on the bottom. Tada!
And my wonderful “critic” and “advisor” loved it!
Ceili Rain wanted one of Bryant’s hard plastic toys (it looks like a remote control). Ace was in the front middle seat with Bryant and thought he’d toss the toy back to Ceili Rain. Apparently, Ace isn’t very good at throwing behind himself and the toy landed directly behind him. It just so happens that Liam occupies the seat directly behind Ace and it just so happens that Liam took a direct hit, in the eye, from the projectile.
When we stopped for gas, I got Liam out of his seat, cleaned the blood and then tried to get witch hazel on it (to help keep it from bruising). It was quite beyond witch hazel help though and he still got a black eye.
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Wear that shiner with pride my son! |
That very same afternoon. I’m not kidding it was that afternoon! The kids were all playing in the boys’ room while I got supper ready. Ceili Rain decided she wanted something down from the very top of the boys’ dresser and pulled and pulled. And she continued to pull until she pulled a ceramic piggy bank down. The best we can figure is that Zoe broke the banks fall causing it to smash into pieces and one of the pieces cut and hit Ceili Rain. On the eye. The opposite eye of Liam. I was praising God that she didn’t get a piece in her eye.
And Josiah, well, his finger is healing wonderfully! He lost some of his fingernail but not much. The day of the black eyes, I decided to give the kids a bath and to keep Josiah from getting it wet, we did this:
He wanted to take a picture to show Daddy. Daddy was so proud.
Now, I didn’t get a picture of our last black eye, but will tell that Bryant has had his first black eye recently. Last week, he was in the living room and I was listening out for him while working on the computer. I apparently wasn’t fast enough because when I heard him at the steps, then he was on the floor of the bonus room. This is why I’m very grateful we live in a ranch house with two steps down into the bonus room. Somehow he hit his eye and got a nice shiner on the way down. Needless to say, we are all much more cautious about the steps with Mr. Bry. As we should be…that kid can climb up on toilets, stepstools, and whatever else he finds. The trouble is he can’t get down.
We’re all praying for an accident free July!
Our pastor’s wife planned a trip to a local blueberry patch and when the owners said the more kids the merrier, we signed up! Some of the local u-pick places do not like having children running through their land (understandably). But these people didn’t mind. And they didn’t seem to mind after we finished picking and eating blueberries and making multiple trips to their toilet and drinking up all their water.
I apologize, in advance for all these sideways photos. I’m not sure what is up with blogger. I have checked, and double checked, and I have rotated the pictures and saved them but some how they flip when I upload them. So, just turn your head.
A beautiful pond, and because they have 16 grandchildren, there is a nice big fence all the way around the pond! Woohoo for grandparents!
She actually did pick more than that…but she was amazed at how well she did at the start!
Yes, I made them wear the yellow shirts…even though our group was the only ones there. I never had trouble spotting them.
All their hard work earned great rewards though. We got one large bucket of blueberries and about half a bucket of blackberries. And they were all yummy too! And still are. I froze most of the blueberries and we take out as needed!
And here’s our zucchini! Now, don’t think I actually grew this giant. A friend did. She grew this and more and more and more and more! She grew so much that she sent out a plea on facebook for homes for her massive zucchini. So, knowing how my kids love some zucchini bread, zucchini muffins, and zucchini pancakes, I sacrificed and said I’d adopt some. After another friend grabbed her share, we wound up with four zucchini.
This is what it looked like after we shredded all four.
That’s not a small bowl either! To start off, we made four loaves zucchini bread and one batch of zucchini brownies. I still had enough zucchini to freeze to make four more loaves of zucchini bread and two batches of zucchini pancakes.
And I think I deserve an award for putting the most z’s in one post!
Zoe decided she wanted to try dance again this year. A few years ago, she took from a great ballet studio here. We were going to sign her up for that when we got an email about a dance camp at a different studio. This studio is fairly small, works primarily with homeschoolers, and does only praise/worship dance. Something different but the more we prayed and talked about it, Mark and I both realized that she probably was not going to be a professional ballerina but that our primary goal was for her to learn how to worship through dance.
So, after Zoe watched videos of the instructor doing praise dance, she was hooked! She took a dance camp recently and is looking forward to starting up on a weekly basis in the fall!
And the boys enjoy climbing all over the studio!