Friday, May 10, 2013

Welcome, spring!

It's been a long time,  and although I do love winter, I am so thankful for sunny, warm days again.
We have wrapped up Classical Conversations (Cycle 1), and are trying to wrap up the remainder of our schoolwork, such as math and language arts.  The boys' testing (national IOWA tests) went great and we are very pleased with their scores, so they will be in 4th and 5th grade next year (although Rabbit does all E's curriculum except math).  I am already excited about starting to plan for fall's Cycle 2 (but I don't think the boys are there yet!!)  For now, we have been enjoying the outside and the animals... 

We still have 22 chickens with no button to turn off!  We are inundated with eggs, now that CC has stopped and I have no regular place to sell them.  So Jill has suggested a couple of breakfast casseroles that require 18 eggs each, so I may be trying some new breakfast casserole recipes!! AND- we no longer have our 4 funny, stinky, silly hogs.  They are now bacon, pork loin, Boston butt and sausage!  And let me tell you, they are delicious (at least Charlie is, the one we kept for ourselves)! We will get more hogs this year since the experiment seemed to go so well...

We are still waiting to see if Molly's pregnant (I wish giant EPT sticks worked on cows, but alas, she has to be loaded up in a trailer, which is loads of fun with a cow who is stubborn and has two horns she likes to wield around!!)  For now, all three are going to need ear tags to repel flies soon, and I won't be the one to put them on Molly, that's for sure.  We'll let the vet take care of that one!

Eric is being kept busy with construction/handyman jobs.  For example, he is (along with one or two others) building a barn for his dad right now.  He has a tile job in town after that, and another barn and house addition coming up.  And we are hoping to start our own mudroom and screen porch addition to the front of our house soon (Yea!!!!!!)

We have joined our s-i-l's and Eric's brother's church's Body Building class, which meets on Tuesday evenings.  So while the kids get to play, we are discussing the Westminster Shorter Catechism book, which is great.  It has cleared up and answered or reaffirmed so many issues about being a true Christian.  It is a great resource and I highly recommend it.  It is sad that so many churches today do not teach from the scripture, and avoid terms like "sinner" and "accepting Jesus as your Savior," trying to be politically correct without offending people, instead of teaching the truth.  So if you have any questions, this book's a great place to start!  I am SO far from where I need to be, but I am so thankful to God for the progress I have made.  Thank you, Jesus.

We will be making a trip to Richmond in June for the HEAV's homeschool convention, the boys have their first camp experience this summer for a week, we have lots of dates planned for get-togethers, book clubs,  meetings for a practicum for CC, tutor training (I "teach" or tutor the 3rd-4th grade class at CC), etc... and the boys will have a relaxed version of school this summer (I can't imagine them playing Legos ALL summer long!!)

We are all healthy, happy and just rollin' along up here on the hill... we pray you are as well! God bless...

Just a few recent photos:
New summer cuts for all!

Spring has sprung...


Gardens ready for summer crops...


Have a good day!