First Egg!

Sunday was such a fun filled day. Not only did we celebrate Mathias' birthday with friends and family, one of my new chicks laid her first egg! The only sad part about this story is that I am not the one who found it. I guess that is okay and it doesn't take away from the excitement of the first egg. I took a picture of it and that reminded me of the time three years ago when I actually took my first egg to Texas to show my in-laws. I can't imagine what it will be like to have 17 chickens laying at the same time!

On another note, we have a thirteen year old! We are so blessed! School is going very well and we're having fun in the process!

Until next time........

Okra and Jenga!

This day was full of okra and Jenga! This morning Tony had a hair appt. and Keegan had a birthday party to attend. While they were gone, I began preparing fresh okra to put in the freezer. I had looked at several different methods and thought I'd give it a try. I breaded a whole gallon ziploc full. It was a little time consuming, but I know the labor will pay off in the end! I also filled another gallon bag full of whole okra. The whole three hours (remember I have a one year old) of preparing this wonderful okra (yes, from our neighbors) Tressa and Mathias played at the kitchen table with Jenga blocks. Three hours straight and nothing but laughter and fun! They set them up in different patterns and then pushed the first one to then cause a chain reaction. I couldn't believe how long this went on. Later in the day I began preparing okra to eat tonight. Yum! It also made at least enough to fill a gallon ziploc and we even had leftovers. So I highly recommend the Jenga game blocks for hours of entertainment and some good ole fried okra. BTW.....Tony just shot a Copperhead snake in our backyard! Yikes!

Good Neighbors

Summer is zooming by and as you can tell, the kids have had fun swimming.
We had a wonderful surprise today. Our neighbors stopped by and blessed us with a large amount of beautiful strawberries! One of their relatives brought them from California. The kids were eating them like candy. I'll be making freezer jam in the morning. If there are any left! : )

OOPS!

I had such grand ideas for our Monday morning. I went to the orchard to get Red Haven peaches and some more blackberries. I came home and started cutting a few slices for the kids. I wanted to try out a cobbler recipe I found in a magazine. Using one of my fairly new Kitchen-aid paring knives, I cut my left index finger. Long story short, four stitches and five hours later, it made for a long day.

Better now

We are all so glad to be over the stomach bug. It's never fun when everyone has something at the same time. When I mention we haven't had a sickness in a long time, we end up having it a few days or weeks later! Why is that?
I have really been enjoying this summer. Just to be home more and not have quite so many things going on (At least away from home) or thinking about where we need to be next has been a nice change of pace. Now don't get me wrong, I still like to take my jots to town!
Today the kids wanted to earn extra spending money. We had quite a day of cleaning going on around here! While they worked like busy bees, I started looking into books for the Fall. I always love this part of homeschooling. I think I got a good start.
For a fun snack......Ritz cracker, peanut butter, then a large marshmallow on top. Broil until the marshmallow browns to your liking. I loved these. Even more after they had cooled. Mine didn't look like the picture. The marshmallow kind of melted instead of just browning. The kids weren't so crazy about them. Neither was Tony. See what you think!

Summertime

Blackberries from an orchard nearby
Very big blackberries!
Sunflowers from the birdfeeder

Besides the heat, it has felt a lot like summer around our house. These are the days to remember.

Family Camp

We had a great weekend at Family camp. Special services, swimming, zip line, Oscar night and some paintball target shooting were some of the highlights. We couldn't have asked for better weather. Here are some pictures from the weekend. I was Beatrix Potter, Keegan was Indiana Jones, Macy and Tressa were Susan and Lucy from Narnia. Keegan loved the Blob and Mathias enjoyed splashing around. Notice Tony and Tressa hanging in mid-air! Again, Macy's blog has more pictures!