More Pictures from Today

Time to wash and store all the winter gear.

The last pile of (dirty) snow.

Beautiful skies.

Beautiful smiles.

Building Garden Beds

First we put together some simple frames four feet wide by about seven feet long. We just used "scrap" lumber that's been in the garage. We found enough to make three beds to start with.


We opened up paper grocery bags, wet them, and used them to cover the grass inside the frame. Then we started digging around the outside of the frame, putting this grassy-side down inside to cover the paper.


Mary stayed with us to keep an eye on things.

A garden's best friends- earthworms! We found dozens of them as we turned the sod over.

We only got one bed filled in like this today; luckily the weather will be okay again tomorrow!
Our work for the day earned Mary's approval!

snow

Hard to believe that April is almost over and we woke up to snow this morning. Thankfully it has melted off and we are back down to those last stubborn piles. It's even sunny right now!

Chuck has been home since the 18th, but he has to catch the early flight tomorrow morning. He'll be heading down to Texas, and as always we're not sure how long he'll be gone this time. We always appreciate prayers for his safety!

So tomorrow we will do what we always do the first day Chuck is gone- clean house. Then, assuming the weather cooperates, we will work on building some raised beds for our garden. I'm determined to have one this year, even if it isn't pretty and we don't get anything but weeds from it. Just in case, I'm studying up on edible weeds, too!

I hope all of you have a blessed week!

Twins!

Cocoa had twins today! They are boy and girl, and the kids named them Jack and Jill.

Yesterday our other ewe, Sugar, had twin boys that both died. Keeping sheep sure has its ups and downs... I am thankful that these two are doing so well!

God bless!

Companion Blog

I have set up another blog to keep track of outdoor observations.

my weather log

Feel free to visit! :-)

Mary Mae Anyway!

She loves to pose for the camera!

This is the silly face that always cracks Joseph up... she sucks on her upper lip!

Mary Mae was 7 months old on Saturday!

You can see why at our house it's "All Mary, All The Time"! :-D

God bless!

Daniel's First Communion

It was an absolutely beautiful weekend. The Mass for Daniel's 1st Communion went so well! Chuck put up some pictures over at his blog. click here At bedtime that evening Daniel told me he couldn't wait until next weekend, so he could receive his second communion. What precious faith!

It must be spring!

How do I know it is really, finally spring?

Because the kids went outside to play in the mud puddles created by the melting snow- barefoot!

The mother in me wanted to tell them to come inside right now and get dry socks and put on galoshes for goodness' sake before you catch a cold and what must the neighbors think of us as they drive by and see all these barefoot kids running amok down the driveway.

The part of me that still remembers being a child, however, understands that the only way to properly greet the unofficial first day of spring is with mud between your toes. The fashion of the day is pants that are splattered at least up to the knee. Jackets are optional.

As Thomas put it, "My feet are cold but I'm not cold!" A day like this, a beautiful day that ends with homemade bread fresh from the oven smothered in real peanut butter, can only make you feel warm inside. He doesn't even know the best news yet.

We go to pick up Daddy tomorrow!

God bless!

Happy Birthday, Papa Ben!!

In honor of our Holy Father's 81st birthday, here is a link to a YouTube video of the song "Happy Birthday" in German.

Alles gute zum Geburtstag! Gott segnen Sie!

So far so good....

Thomas didn't sleep well last night, but he took a long nap this morning and woke up hungry but cheerful, so that's good. Daniel was still feeling achy and tired, but his stomach is not hurting and he's held down food today, so that's good, too.

So far nobody else is showing any signs of illness, and that's great!

Thanks for the prayers!

Sick Kids

It's the dread of every mother- one or more kids throwing up. Our day started off well enough- we went to Mass this morning and everyone seemed fine. But both Thomas and Daniel were sick this afternoon.

Naturally, that leads to paranoia among the non-sick family members, including myself. It really makes me think twice about what to feed everyone else for dinner. Definitely not anything with carrots. Or macaroni. You just never know.

Please pray that everyone sleeps well tonight and that we have no further sickies.

God bless!

We're fitting right in....

It's another sure sign that we are acclimating to our new home. I not only bought two rutabagas, but I figured out how to turn them into a really simple but really good soup. And the kids and I love them.

But I suppose we're not official Yoopers until we learn how to grow them!

If you want to try my "recipe" this is what I did. Peel rutabagas and cut into bite size chunks. Scrub a bunch of carrots and cut into bite size chunks. Cut an onion into pieces. Potatoes would be good, too. Maybe peas or string beans or something green- broccoli perhaps. Cover in water (stock would be much better if you have it) and cook until veggies are tender. Add salt, pepper, and parsley or other herbs to taste. This was a thin soup, but the vegetables are delish. If anybody knows how to improve this soup please leave a comment!

God bless!

April Showers Bring May Flowers

That's what they say. But I don't think it works quite the same for snow showers!

Ah, well, nevermind. It is beautiful, although still a bit windy, outside now. This last storm dumped only about a foot of snow so it could have been worse. Our wonderful neighbor plowed the driveway this morning and it is melting off pretty quickly in the 45-degree, sunny weather. The next few days are supposed to be beautiful, with rain moving in at the end of the week.

Chuck has been in Alabama for the last week, but it looks like he's being sent up to Wyoming. Daniel's First Communion is next week (the 20th) so he's definitely planning to be home before then!

That's just a little update on us. God bless!

This has been on my mind...

Ever since I posted yesterday I've had this nagging question. Does a person go to lay down, or is it lie down?

It bugs me to no end that I'm not absolutely sure. Blame it on my schooling (I'm probably one of only a handful of people in the world who actually enjoyed diagramming sentances) but I was always something of a grammar snob. Just ask Chuck! I find it particularly irritating when somebody types "there" instead of "their" or "they're" or confuses "its" and "it's". But I have been guilty of confusing "lay" with "lie". Thanks to Google, I now have (probably) hundreds of thousands of pages of grammar rules at my fingertips.

Since I'm still feeling poorly, I'm going to lay down my keyboard and go lie down.

God bless!

Blah

That's a good summary of how I feel today. I managed to get through the entire winter without getting sick, and now I have a cold. I'm sure I'll get over it quickly, but it sure isn't much fun in the meantime.

The kids are so good to me, though. Robert finished up breakfast and even dished me up a small bowl of oatmeal. Raechel has been helping with Mary. Daniel is very affectionate and attentive, and the little boys are trying harder than usual to get along peacefully.

I've been supervising, by which I mean issuing occasional orders from my computer desk chair while sipping a cup of coffee and wondering why this video I posted last night apparently isn't working. After a vigorous morning routine such as this, I'll deserve a nap... don't you think?

A note about the video, I'm getting an error message when I click on it, but I'm not sure if it's just me and I have no idea what to do about it. If you can't get to it by clicking below, try this link. And if that doesn't work, well, I'm all out of ideas.

I'm going to lay down now. ;-) God bless!

Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3....

This is my first attempt at uploading my own video to YouTube. The kids were playing with Mary for some time before I thought to get my camera. She wasn't as "into" it by this time, but the resulting videos were still pretty cute. This was the best of the three I took. I hope this works!

Embedded Video

Blogged with Flock

Scrapbook

Here are some random pictures taken recently. God bless!

Gorgeous!

That's the only word for a day like today. It's early April and the birds are returning. Bugs are waking up, there's some bare patches of earth peeking from under the snow, and the kids are building mud "dams" in the runoff in the driveway.

Maybe, just maybe, it will soon be spring! There's still way too much snow for it to be official yet, but even the potential is exciting. And yes, I am intentionally ignoring the fact that we have a possibility of snow in the forecast for the next two days!

Chuck and I went to the auto parts store in Bruce Crossing this morning, and on the way home we saw a wolf standing out in a field. He would be the second wolf that I've actually seen myself in the last year. The first one we saw on the train tracks less than two miles from our house. That's plenty close enough, thank you. This one was just standing in the field about 300 feet from the road almost as if he was appreciating the warm sun and the gentle breeze; he, too, was convinced for that moment that the long dark winter is almost over.

Thank you, Lord, for the beauty and promise of spring!

Introducing Glory!

Here she is. Her name is Glory but I think Thomas has renamed her "Gloria". She's a black lab mix- smaller, softer, and calmer than most labs. We just brought her home today; we've adopted her from some friends who had too many dogs and not enough space.

Mary has been close to crawling for a while now. She's not staying all the way up, but she definitely manages to get around. (Pay no mind to the spaghetti sauce on her outfit... that's just what happens when I try to feed her and myself at the same time!)

As you can see I've been having too much fun with my new camera. (Thank you, Sweetie!) Mary makes a very willing and adorable model!

I'll work on putting up some pictures of the other children tomorrow.

God bless!

It's Spring!!

APRIL FOOL'S!!!

If you want to see some pictures...

Head on over to Chuck's blog. When you do, be sure to take a look at his new profile picture to the right. :-)

He cashed in some Holiday Inn points to get me a new digital camera, so I'll be able to put pictures up again. I just have to figure out how to use it!

God bless!