Where Do I Begin?

Weeks have flown by and I have lost all sense of time.

There’s so much I could share.  So much in my mind and on my heart. I would love to sit down and pour it all out into written word.

But, the hours seem short and the days shorter.  I’ve had to set my writing aside….for now.

I do want to share with you a bit of what I’ve been doing.

A couple weeks ago we had a family gathering to celebrate my niece’s high school graduation.  We were having a wonderful time eating, chatting, and laughing and then before we knew it we were doing this…

 

 

Yep, we set up an impromptu race right down the middle of the road.  I love that about where we live!  Very little traffic means we have free reign of the road.  Everyone who wanted could race and before we said go I made sure they all had their best racing face on.

 

 

Some ran with big smiles like it was a walk in the park.

 

Others were a bit more intense!

 

Some struck up a conversation as they traversed the “track”

 

And then there was the combination of intense determination and extreme happiness in the youngest two girls.

 

This is why I love my family! We are easily entertained! Often you will find the adults playing capture the flag or sardines right along with the kids.  It makes for a lot of laughter and good memories.

 

On another note we started school this week.

It is going good, but I am seeing as each school day passes that we are going to be doing school longer this year.  It is definitely more intense teaching high school and then through in an 8th, 5th, and 1st grader and it makes for one busy momma.

I am also needing to adjust to the fact that when we are in the middle of school my days are jam packed full and my neatly organized life and home gets thrown into upheaval.

Most days my floors are covered with books and more.

 

And my table and counters aren’t much better.

This was at lunch the other day… YIKES!

Then you throw in the canning and freezing and watch out.

There’s moments when I think I’ll never wade through it all, but then I see things like this….

And my heart soars.

All the effort, the book strewn floors, crazy long days, they don’t matter any more.

I watched him for a bit. My baby growing big and independent and tapping away at the keyboard, writing!

It’s working!  We’re learning, growing, thriving.

And my heart melts.

The Lord has blessed me beyond measure and this week.  He has showed me time after time that this homeschooling momma is right where He wants me to be.

At home, teaching, ministering, loving, molding, and leading by example.

And what caught my heart this week were all the instances of my children desiring to learn in their own ways. 

One moment one boy with video camera in hand making a film. His siblings his star players.

The next one with a book snuggled into the couch.

Or an eager girl ready to learn and learn and learn.

God Your are SO GOOD!

Scavenger Hunt~ 08/19

This Weeks Items:  Forest, Morning Light, Touch, Newspaper, Coffee or Tea

I am feeling very uninspired lately.  I almost didn’t do Scavenger Hunt this week, but I pulled it together at the last moment. 

 

Forest

I wanted to do a really cool shot in the woods behind our house the trees and trails there are gorgeous, but I didn’t have the time to walk across the field and back this week.  So, I took my daughter to the smaller woods that are on the edge of our yard. She has a “fort” there where she likes to play. 

 

 

Morning Light

Okay this is actually evening light, but I was lazy this week.  I slept in most mornings, the others it rained or was overcast.  I was trying desperately to get in a few relaxing mornings before we start our 11th year of homeschool on Monday.

 

 

Touch

I love the texture on these berries that grow on a bush on my yard. I don’t know what it is called, but I love the way they feel all bumpy.

 

 

Newspaper

Super uncreative for this shot, but I was hurrying to get this done.  We live in a VERY rural community and often the articles in the paper deal with agriculture.

 

 

Coffee or Tea

MMMM…. on a hot day after working in the garden… tea is SO refreshing!

 

 

Linked up with Ashley:

Scavenger Hunt~ 08/12

This Weeks Items: Mobile (phone photos), Hanging By a Thread, Collage, Always Look on the Bright Side, Home

 

Mobile

I don’t own a phone that is capable of taking pictures.  We still have jumped on the cell phone band wagon.  We do have a cell phone but we only use it when we absolutely need to.  So, I had to go a WHOLE different route with this item! The other day this bee was very mobile in this pumpkin blossom.  So much so, that it was difficult to get a picture without a bunch of blur.

 

 

 

Hanging By a Thread

These Thistle seeds where just hanging by a thread the day I walked through the field.

 

 

Collage

 

 

New Storyboard from Rita @ The CoffeeShop Blog 

 

 

Always Look On the Bright Side

With the drought this country has been facing rain is definitely a bright spot in our days.

 

 

 

Home

Nothing says home like fresh homemade bread!

 

Linked up with: Ashley

Torn Ligaments, Tomatoes, and Day Packed Full of Homemaking

Not much is going down here.

Just some torn ligaments.

 

A little over a week ago he slid into 3rd base, his foot caught and he heard a loud pop.  At first I seriously, thought it was broken.  It was distorted and SO swollen. The ER sent us home with a fashionable walking boot and instructions to see an orthopedic surgeon.   After a visit to the orthopedic surgeon we found out he had torn the ligaments around his ankle.  We were thankful that it wasn’t broken, but it has been painful.

I personally think he has these accidents because he likes it when I play nurse!

He was supposed to have at least 3 weeks off with 4 weeks of therapy 3 days a week.  He has been off 1 week and 1 day.  He went back to work today, because he doesn’t want to lose his vacation days.  The company he works for will take away his vacation days first before anything else.  UGH!  So, today he went back.  I’m praying my heart out for him.  I’m not sure how he is going to stand all day and walk where he needs to, when he still is dealing with so much soreness and pain. 

But, he is my strong one!  This guy amazes me and he is VERY tenacious.  So, I know that God will strengthen him and help him push through.

 

On a totally different subject….

We are starting to get some tomatoes.

 

I planted Brandywine this year, an heirloom tomato.  They don’t have the most beautiful outsides, BUT they have the most WONDERFUL flavor and gorgeous flesh.  I think I found my favorite tomato!  After 10 years of battling Septoria Leaf Spot (a fungus that attacks tomatoes) we finally put in raised beds just for our tomatoes. We filled it with all the manure from our rabbits and mixed in peat moss.  I have never had such happy tomato plants!  And for me these Brandywine tomatoes are what I have been looking for for a long time.  I’m definitely doing a happy dance this year…. can you tell! Lunch today was tomato slices on toasted homemade Focaccia bread.  So simple, yet one of my all time summer favorites! Lunch tomorrow will be a tomato repeat, and the day after that, and the day after that.  I have to get my fresh garden tomato fix while they are sitting in my garden just waiting for the taking.

 

The down side is that the Roma’s that I planted for my sauces have blossom rot. However, I am now watering them with a water/Epsom salt mixture. This should solve the problem. I will have to keep in mind next year that my beds are probably lacking calcium and take measures to fix that.

 

My day has been full and busy. It’s 3:45 PM and a whopping 65 degrees, I’m loving it.  The skies have been dumping rain off and on all day and there was no way I could get into the garden today.  It has been a nice change of pace.  This day just begged for a solid round of homemaking.

 

 

Laundry has been done…of course!  That is never ending. Bathroom cleaning and general picking up accomplished.

 

 

And with the color temps., bread baking!

 

Next on the list is a down home, absolutely man loving, comfort food, meal for my hard working invalid.  I haven’t seem his handsome face, nor been able to talk to him yet today, so I don’t know how he is doing.  I’m going to cook him up a meal I know he’ll love.  Venison burger and gravy over mashed potatoes, Corn on the cob (that I thankfully picked yesterday), sliced tomatoes and homemade bread.  To top it all off I’m going to make him an Apple Danish.  It’s the least I can do.

There’s nothing like a good solid day of making my home.  I LOVE it!