October 2009

What a month! We were busy with school,of course. I really should take some pictures of the Lambies at work, shouldn't I?

We harvested the remainder of the tomatoes and tore them out. Our friend Tammy blessed us with plenty of her pet llamas manure to enrich the soil for our winter garden. We plan to have carrots, lots of varieties of greens, garlic and maybe some peas.

GirlofGod and Trixie went camping with Daddy and Grandpa. Sadly, Daddy forgot to take any pictures.

Trixie broke her arm (you can go to her blog for more about that; she'll blog soon).

Getting costumes ready for Halloween took the rest of the month.

I'm hoping November will allow more time at home. I love the Thanksgiving season!!

ETA: This is an old post I moved over here. November did turn out to be restful until the end. Polly (the bride on the right in the above photo) was hospitalized Thanksgiving evening in the Childrens Hospital, ending up in surgery and staying there a week. It was a LONG week! Praise the Lord for healing and family & friends.

To The Forest!

(originally posted on my other blog 9-23-09)

I love day-trips! Very little planning and preparation and a wonderful day ensues. We are blessed only have to drive less than an hour to get to this glorious place, full of new spots to explore every time we go.

Do you see what we saw?

Look at those studious Jr. Rangers.

Wading about was fun!

Why does he always look like BigFoot?

Daddy and Troubles during an apple break.

I hope to get up for another trip or two before the snow starts falling up there.

Hiking Together

(originally posted on my other blog 7-15-09)

We love hiking! We took a day and went on a new trail above Hospital Rock. We parked, then walked a mile or so to the trailhead (whew!). We met a couple of Rangers and they gave us an impromptu lesson on forest safety, the jobs and responsibilities of rangers, and plant identification.


We hiked for a while and found this beautiful grotto. The Lambies begged to wade around in the cool water. We let them remove their shoes and go for it. It was beautiful. If we come here again, we will add watershoes to our backpacks. A few people (including me) got scrapes and scratches on their feet. Tenderfoots!

Here's a pretty shot of the trail we followed.


We eventually got to a lovely place at the top of the river. My Honey took all the pictures there, though, so I have none. We relaxed on the rocks in the middle of the river for an hour or so, snacking and enjoying the beauty of our surroundings. There were so many water skippers! The Lambies had fun watching them and trying to catch them.

The hike back down sure seemed to go faster that the hike up! Poppa cooked up a picnic lunch for us at Hospital Rock. Some time to play around, relax a little more (see Missy in the background?) and then our wonderful day drew to a close.


I love having this lovely forest so close! We hope to hike Moro Rock in the next couple of weeks.

Farmer's Market Bounty

(originally posted on my other blog 6-27-09)

I have three extra kids today, and had to wait for them to arrive, so I got a late start on my Saturday plans. I went first to get my eggs and milk from my friend, Tammy. She has such a nice little farm! We spent a couple of hours there seeing all the animals (for the sake of the visitors. My kids have seen them often). We came home to potty up, put away the food and then left for the Farmer's Market and plum picking.

It was noon, and the farmer's market was closing up for the day. There were only a few vendors still there. I ran to the first one, and swooped on the remaining green beans. She asked $13 for the table full. Of course I'll take that!

Then down the way, another man had a wide variety of fruits and veggies. I asked how much the corn was. He said 10 for $1. I asked how much for the whole basket (LOTS). He said, give me $5 you can have them all. Then he loaded me up with all sorts of other goodies.

He also said that if I came at closing time every week he'd make me the same deals. WOO HOO! I gave him another $5 (that's all I had) and got all of this for $23:


In fact, I forgot to add another full bag of corn to the picture. The kids all had two or three ears raw with lunch and that bag had been forgotten on the counter.

We also were able to get the two buckets of plums from a tree in a friend of a friend's elderly mother's home for free.

We got to see Tammy twice today. I asked her to share in the bounty. So I have been doubly blessed!

Praise Jehovah-Jirah!

A Trip to The Dunes

(originally posted on my other blog 6-10-09)

We've had great weather lately. It's been in the low 80's for a week! In JUNE! Well, that means we have to get out and do some fun things. Today, I took the Lambies to The Dunes. It's around the block from our house, where they started building houses, but never finished. All the dirt piled around has been fashioned into some mighty fun jumps.


All the kids got into the action:


Troubles was scared this first time, but climbed up over and over to ride down again.

Missy was the second to try this hill. Brave girl!


She bore to the left and avoided that jump. Jack did not. He jumped it quite a few times before the inevitable happened.


He hit his mouth on the handlebars. Poor guy. He got up and did the jump again, though! Here's his poor lip a couple of hours after the bonk.

The Lambies all want to go back again with Dad. I'm glad we found out about this fun spot.

Blog Catch-up

(originally posted on my other blog 6-1-09)

Well, it's HAS been a while since I've blogged, huh? I have been using Facebook too much, I guess. I'll share a few pictures of what we've been up to lately.

This is the beautiful sight I was greeted with on Mother's Day:
My Lambies awoke early and made Applesauce Oat Breakfast cookies and sliced strawberries and OJ. What sweethearts!

We went to the zoo with the cousins. What a great time we had!


We went to the lovely Sequoia National Forest for the day:

We climbed around on the huge rocks near the river:

I guess all the pictures of the river must be on my Honey's camera! I'll try to get some on soon.

I ate the first red cherry tomato today. There are many more reddening up. I hope the recent rain won't lead to blight...we are expecting more thunderstorms on Wednesday. I hope to have bushels and bushels of tomatoes to can this summer.

School is wrapping up. We should be finished next week, if all goes as planned. We'll see!

I've been making lots and lots of jams and jellies. We went to a u-pick cherry orchard and got buckets of Royal Anne cherries. I've been buying strawberries by the flat and freezing the extras for later. There's a berry farms that is u-pick about 30 minutes away. I hope to get there before the season is over.

We participated in the annual homeschool fair. The older Lambies made a big pulley system with Dad, among other things. Look for pics to be added to this post soon. They are also in Dad's camera.

We have birthday parties, family visiting and a used curriculum fair coming up in the next weeks. June is always busy! I hope yours is going well!

Flea Remedy, Anyone?

After reading Rhen's solution to springtime fleas, I thought I'd post what worked for us.

We battled them about a month ago. My poor Troubles was the only one getting bit...but just everywhere! I began adding apple cider vinegar to the cats wet food: 1 tsp per can. That causes them to be an uninviting host, and they didn't seem to mind the new flavor.

Then I sprinkled borax on the carpet, brushed it in with the broom and kept the kids out for an hour or two. A thorough vacuuming later, no fleas! I repeated the carpet treatment the next week after any eggs hatched, and we haven't see one since. Some people use a salt and borax mix on the carpet, to dry the flea eggs and prevent any hatching, but I though the salt might damage my metal vacuum, so I refrained and repeated.

Daddy Time!

(originally posted on my other blog 12-29-08)

We have been blessed to have Daddy home for many of the last days. He has 10 days off in the last 2 weeks of December, and gets paid for all of them! I’m so thankful for his job!

We went to the park last week and all had a great time.


There’s a platform that is perfect for “King of the Hill” playing. Years ago, it used to rock, but now the springs have rusted solid.


It’s sure easier to play this with it solid. It seems, though, that King of the Hill inevitably leads to injuries.


She was all right, though she complained of a headache later in the day. She even played more King of the Hill a little while later. I played with her, and promptly (accidentally!) stuck my finger right into her eye...hard. She has sworn off King of the Hill!

The climbing logs were another popular challenge.



Everyone took a turn, even Missy. I held her hand and suggested where to step when she was stuck.



I love this time of year!

Sad Little Ducky

Do you guys know the "Mother Duck" song? The one where Mother Duck's babies disappear one by one then all reappear at the end of the song?

I was singing it with my 3yos, Troubles, by his request this evening. When I sang the "Sad, Mother Duck" verse, my strong, aggressive, manly little man put his face in my chest a started CRYING!


I stopped singing, of course, and asked him why he was crying. He said "Because that song makes me sad!" I hurried and sang that they all came back and he was still sniffling away, face buried in my shirt. I asked him if he wanted another song...he said "Sing that one again, Momma"

Needless to say, I did not.

(originally posted on my other blog 12-24-08)

How Does He Do That?

(originally posted on my other blog 12-02-08)

My darling little son, Troubles, has a way with words. Really, he is such a thoughtful little thing! Grandpa is visiting today, and Troubles had the courtesy to ask him "how he shaves like that?". He asked Grandpa several times, but Grandpa didn't understand his question. Finally, Troubles touched the top of his head and asked again: "How does he shave like that?"!


What a funny little fellow!