Derby Races . . . Go Ephraim!

Ephraim is excited to be involved in CSB (Christian Service Brigade) at church. It is a boys club for ages K-8. Seth is a counselor. It is very similar to the traditional Cadet program in many Christian Reformed churches. Anyway, pine wood derby cars are a long-standing tradition. Ephraim decided early on that he wanted his car to be a shark. And we actually accomplished that! Here is a photo of Ephraim painting his car (with a little help from a jealous brother).

The finished product:

Off to the races:

Ephraim's car is on the left.

There were many younger onlookers.

Racing again.

The photo finish judges ;)

And Ephraim's two cheerleaders

The contestants. Ephraim got a trophy for 4th place. He was quite pleased with that, regardless of the fact that there were only 4 in his racing class.

Showing off his car and trophy.

Another project was a toolbox. Here he is showing it off to Grandpa.

There is another BIG race on Saturday at the mall and I've heard that there could be 200-250 kids there. Yikes! Not sure how we'll fare at that one, but Ephraim is excited to go.

Random . . . Random . . .

Heading out to check out the cows and new calves.

Eliza was looking pretty cute in the boys' old mud boots.
Can you see, Eden?

Seth trying to get close to our first calf! But, no such luck. Momma was a little to protective.

More calves! We ended up getting all five of our calves in less than a week. One on Monday, the 15th, 2 on the 18th and 2 on the 19th. Two of the calves have white faces. The kids think they are the cutest.

Checking out the livestock.

More viewing time.

We celebrated Seth's birthday, Arlin & Donna's 36th anniversary, Tom & Michelle's 12th anniversary and our 10th anniversary at our house on the 14th. Here is the festive cake by Michelle.

Here are the cousins playing legos. This is kind of a good picture to show you how I've organized our legos. We've got several drawers for each type of lego (wheels, people, lights, special misc pieces, flat pieces and the thicker pieces). The kids play with their legos now that they are organized and they've been keeping them organized.

And a picture of something Seth was building without instructions. . . a Semi.

When friends come to play . . .

Supper Swappers! I love it! It is a group I started of gals who make freezer meals at home and then we swap them with each other. We all get the benefit of having meals in the freezer. This month, I was making Taco Soup. I decided to start making it after the kids when to bed. But as you can see in the picture, that didn't go as planned. So, I had two little helpers for a while. Here are the ingredients to make 10 batches of Taco Soup. Notice the calculator on the cookbook. Yes, things get a little complicated when you're making that much.

That big bowl wasn't even big enough. Had to mix it up in several smaller ones, too. As soon as the girls started stirring the soup in the bowl filled to the brim, I decided they needed to go to bed so they didn't spill it all.

The girls like to go to bed with a few of their favorite things (from the day). On this particular day, Eden was attached to her new garden gloves and insisted on wearing them to bed. Notice also the Thomas backpack, baby doll and her Pinkalicious book. I didn't get a picture of Eliza, but her favorite thing from another day was the 2010 Consumer Reports Annual book. Hmmm, not sure if there are any conclusions to draw from all of this or not.

Anyway, that's just a glimpse of our daily life on the farm and at home.

One last story. I was excited about getting some free toothpaste at Target the other day. It was regularly $1.99, now on sale for $1.49. I had a Target coupon for $1 off and a manufacturer coupon for $.50 off. That means that Target owed me $.01. I come home and I'm getting supper ready. The kids are playing quiet. Too quiet. I check in the bathroom and Eliza has managed to squeeze out half of the free toothpaste onto the counter and herself. Oh well, at least it was free . . . and my mom was here to help clean up the mess.

Reading

I've had the chance this winter to actually do some reading for myself. Yes, I'm not sure how I've found the time, but most of the books have been pretty easy reading. It all started with House Calls and Hitching Posts, a book about a modern-day doctor in Ohio among the Amish and Mennonite. Very good!

Then I read Amish Grace-How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy. A very good book about the Pennsylvania Amish School shooting several years ago. It is partly a story about the incident and partly about forgiveness, not just how it pertains to this event. Again, a very good book.

I just finished Let's Roll! by Lisa Beamer. Her husband was on Flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania on September 11. A very moving book!


My current reading list contains:
Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover and Financial Peace Revisited
Both are great books about being financially smart, planning, budgeting, saving, etc.

Bill Hybel's Too Busy Not to Pray
A great book about getting your prayer life back on track.

and The Mentoring Mom, 11 Ways to Model Christ for Your Child by Jackie Kendall. So far, it's an excellent book about the examples we can be for our kids and the images we leave them with.

I'm also halfway through Mitten Strings for God by Katrina Kenison. It's a great book about slowing down, focusing on quiet, peace and family. It is a lot of what we've been doing in the past couple of years. Stripping down the schedule, turning off the TV and just having fun as a family with other family members and friends.

Our week!

This was my first week of part-time! Starting now, I'm only working Mondays and Tuesdays. Yes, we lose the health insurance (but we're opening a HSA) but we also lose the day care bill. And we gain more time at home . . . on the farm.

Sunday started with Seth's birthday. He's 31 now. We enjoyed a great lunch with his Grandparents Elmer and Elizabeth. His present was a few days late getting here, but he's enjoying the 6th season of Mythbusters on DVD.

This week I still had the kids signed up for a few days of day care since we had to turn in our schedules prior to knowing what my situation would be. I took advantage of that and headed to an outlet mall an hour away. Got some great bargains. Christmas dresses for the girls for $2.99. I got several good buys to pack away for birthdays and next winter.

Thursday brought the dreaded dermatology appointments for the girls. Yes, they have molluscum, too. Emmet was lucky enough to get to ride in the semi with daddy!


Look away if you're queasy. The picture on the left is Eliza's chest with molluscum before our appointment. On the right is the evening after the appointment. Each spot needs treated and then blisters, then pops and heals. It's a painful process. Eden's molluscum spots are on her bottom. Not fun!

I'll sum up this post with a quote from Emmet. He comes into the kitchen to tell me this. Keep in mind that the girls can have some pretty good shouting/babbling matches.
"Mom, the girls are makin' me a headache."

Tweet, Tweet!

Our newest venture began on Friday when we picked up four baby chicks from the feed store. The kids were beyond excited! They could hardly talk right. We picked our four chicks who will hopefully lay eggs by Labor Day. Seth is working on our CHICKEN HOOP, not a chicken coop. I'll post pictures when it's done.

Eliza on the left loves the chicks. Eden was terrified at the store and is still warming up to the idea of them. She was glued to me at the store . . . just petrified.


Who needs reality TV? Not us. We've got our own reality in a box. And it was entertaining for the kids for quite some time.

Emmet has taken on the task of naming them. However, the names seem to change by the day, er, I mean hour. When we settle on a name, I'll let you know.

What are you looking at? Will those squawkers (i.e. kids) ever be quiet?

Huddled together. Left to right, they are the Buff Orpington, Rhode Island Red, the black one is the Silver Laced Wynadotte, and the striped one is the Americana.

Embracing winter

We enjoy spending some of our Sunday afternoons with our parents. Last Sunday we went to my parents' house. We filled the back of the van with sleds, snowpants, hats, mittens, boots, etc. Knowing that if we packed them, we'd have to use them.
Playing on the mountain of snow.

Eliza carrying her own sled.

This is the only close-up picture of Eden. She went inside with Grandma shortly after coming outside.

Daddy pulling Ephraim and Ephraim pulling Eliza.

Ephraim pulling Emmet and Eliza with their ropes around his feet.

Three in the train. Emmet, Ephraim and Eliza. Grandpa's got the reigns.

Who knew that going back and forth on the driveway could be so fun?

Whoa!! Looks like the boys switched places with Grandpa. The switch didn't last long.

Future snowboarders??