Marvellous

I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.

Psalm 139:14

Reading!

Josh has had to work really hard to learn to read, a lot harder than most of our other students. This is rewarding when he chooses to read on his own! Of course he’s still at a pretty basic level, but that’s where it starts. Way to go Josh; keep up the good work!

Sunday

Great to have Tim & Trish come spend a day with us. After church and a snack, we headed to the pond for a bit.

Kids pulled up dock anchors so it would float to the shore where it will be anchored for winter.

Some time at the South Grove – that’s Ben up there. He simply climbed up the boards that older siblings put up in previous years.

Carissa had to try it too!

Then home for some volleyball before supper.

Beautiful evening for a wiener roast.

How To Turn Hotdogs On A Pitchfork Without Getting Burned

 

That’s it.

This ‘n’ That

Huge egg – last Thursday.

Which was also a special day… happy birthday, Jesse! Good choice: cookie monsters .

3.5” egg had another soft-shelled egg inside it. Wierd. I didn’t like the looks of the whole thing so the cats got that one.

Last week (or so. I forget when.) I got Dad’s Christmas present (gotta get it when it’s on clearance and when we can use it, right?!!). We love it!

Levi picked up Josh one day for a truss delivery. What a great big brother!

A few of Josh’s many harvest pictures on the kids’ camera.

That’s it.

South Grove

Kids spent a few days last week working on their South Grove projects since it’s finally cool enough to be down there!

Hard at play work.

Fort decor.

This is a fort. Really.

And so is this.

And this is a fence.

Extra fun to have Gloria come help one day.

 

That’s it.

Monkey Bread

This has long been a favorite of ours; but I usually only make it with soup which means it is a fall/winter food. After a summer without it, kids are scarfing it when I’ve made it this fall. No leftovers yet! We can easily polish off two pans which means each pan serves about five or six. Hmm. That means the servings are HUGE though. Well yes we do need a little self-control, now, don’t we?

Well, so buy a bag of frozen bread dough from Kroger (couldn’t find it at W-mart last time I looked); thaw 1.5 loaves as per package directions (I really don’t know how to thaw 1.5 loaves; we always do two pans of Monkey Bread which is three loaves. Maybe you could partially thaw it and then cut it? Or bake the extra half loaf as a small loaf of bread? Make two pans and freeze one? Or, best idea yet: make the double batch and take the extra pan to a neighbor. They’ll love you forever).

Anyway.

About an hour and a half before supper time, make caramel and grease two bundt or angel food pans well.

For caramel for one pan, mix the followig:

¼ cup cook-n-serve vanilla pudding powder

¾ cup margarine

¾ cup brown sugar

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon milk/water

Melt in microwave for 45-60 seconds. Don’t let it boil or it will become stiff! For two pans, do two separate batches.

To assemble, layer 1/3 of the caramel, 1/2 bread loaf (cut into bite-size pieces), 1/3 of the caramel, 1/2 bread loaf, 1/3 of the caramel, and end with 1/2 of a bread loaf. Let rise until ~double, about 30-45 minutes. This might sound complicated but it’s really not; it’s very simple!

Bake 20-30 minutes at 350. Invert onto plate. Enjoy hot & fresh!

Ready to rise -

Ready to eat.

YUMMMMMM!

Beautiful Weekend

by Jewel and Mom

Saturday morning we girls had a list of kitchen projects which were finished in record time because it was really nice outside. Dad was at work and Jesse was studying, so Jacob then took a crew to the cow pasture to cut up a massive tree that had gotten lodged in the creek and majorly messed up the floodgates. I stayed back to do laundry and finish baking cookies and sent my camera along, hoping for some pictures of said massive tree. Ha. Didn’t happen. Somehow the message didn’t get to the photographer, so the camera only captured a few fun pictures of the kids. Oh well! Next time I’ll shut off the oven and head down to enjoy the fun myself. Sounded like I missed a great time!

Jewel helped on this post – her comments are not italicized.

Saturday we went down to the big creek with the big kids to haul out a big tree with the tractor. Josh and I started to build a dam and the big kids said they could tell the water rose. We hadn’t dressed for playing in the creek since it was a little cool still. We got quite wet. Lots of twigs and logs were floating down so we kicked out the dam and helped guide them through the “rapids.” This big log went down, and it took it about twenty minutes to get down the “rapids.” Jacob had to ram it with the green four-wheeler a bunch and the big kids had to push together to get it into the deep water. Then we went back up and then put on lake shorts and came back with Dad, Kaitlyn, Tori, and Ben to put in the floodgates. There was a three foot by three foot hole that was about up to my chest. It’s hard to swim in rubber boots. We went down to the aquaducts to slide down the part where it slopes downward. Saturday night we sat around the fire burner and made clay marbles and bowls. Sunday we went to church, came home and Gabe and Mary and Josiah came over to practice with the boys. Sunday night we went to a wiener roast at David and Jenna’s house. They’ve got a really awesome house. It’s got a lot of doors it seems like, just leading in circles. We played Kick the Can once it got dark enough. Eric and Leann were there too. Jacob held Henry and he’d come racing in to kick the can and Henry just hung on for the ride and said “Again, again!” After that we played Courthouse.

A few weekend pictures -

Building a dam.

Coming home from pulling out some trees at of the creek. Note that Ben is pretty soaking wet – he wasn’t building dams either. He was in the creek working on that ol’ tree. Thankfully it was a relatively warm day!

After Dad got home from work, Jesse headed to combine for U. Randy and Jacob grabbed a mower, so that left Dad with Ben and the girls to put in the floodgates.

Putting in the floodgates. See the two tree trunks at the lower middle of the picture – that was the big tree (trees?) that fell. That whole area looked like the other side of the floodgate which isn’t Kaiser land so we don’t worry about it.

Littles managed to find yet more creek fun at the aquaduct.

Ha ha Kaitlyn! (somehow Jake got out of helping with the whole floodgate project) As I explained above – Jacob and Ben did their wet nasty part of the job earlier! All that gunk that Kate is wading through is debris which floated free from the tree as they cut it up.

It was a buggery job getting all those tangled up barbed wires and bent fence posts out. Ever tried to untangle barbed wire? They were all tangled and matted into the bank from when they went out in our last big rain. Doesn’t look like a fun job to me but they’re troopers, they are!

And yes, it was a beautiful day which helped sweeten the job. Same job with colder temperatures is a REALLY grouchy time.

If play is the work of childhood, these three were working plenty hard! That’s the clay bank which has supplied kids with clay for many years. Marbles, pots, and bowls abound now.

Workin’ hard. Of course Ben was helping – he just got to do the dry jobs since he had his turn in the creek earlier!

Nice hair Josh! Sunday morning before church, Josh combed his own hair.

Can’t really tell, but those calves are pretty cute.

What a huge hedgeapple!

And that was our weekend. Busy and blessed!

The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.

Psalm 28:7