Musicale

by Mom with help from Tori & Kate

Musicale - musicale (myu zi kal), n. a program of music forming part of a social occasion

Upstairs preparation – he was changing a lightbulb I think. I wasn’t watching this.

Basement preparation – these two goons decided to move the piano just because they could.  (It was Jake’s idea.) Worked for me because I got some deep cleaning done!

Then Jacob decided we needed a can light above the piano with its very own switch.

So away he went!

Thanks Jacob!

I thoroughly enjoyed the 4th annual Musicale and hope all attendees did also. Truly a blessed evening.

Cleo (age 97.75) playing Where the Roses Never Fade.

The Spiritual Conflict

He also sang a solo, The Savior To Me.

Charity played her own version of Canon in D which was amazing.

Josiah singing and playing Give Me Jesus.

Koch Cousins sang In Christ Alone.

Rassi siblings played Silent NIght and Psalm of Praise on thier accordions and harmonica.

Lucy, Katy, Bethany, and Megan sang Where Could I Go.

Another group of girls sang What a Day That Will Be.

Kaiser kids sang Let the Lower Lights be Burning.

TMB (minus Gabe) did Keep on the Sunnyside and Come Unto Me.

All the girls sang What a Friend.

All the guys sang Farther Along.

And we finished up with the whole TYG singing several songs, ending with the usual When All of God’s Singers Get Home and Our God is Alive.

Blessed again to have a full house.

Cleo gave a little presentation about his Mom’s comb and wax paper - their only instrument when he was a boy.

After the Musicale – more music -

and more music - -

and still more music - - -

Once again we praise God for a blessed evening. Thanks to each one who shared their talents!

 

Thus all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the LORD with shouting, and with sound of the cornet, and with trumpets, and with cymbals, making a noise with psalteries and harps.

I Chronicles 15:28

Last Swim

 

Learning all about neature.

 

 

One more swim at the pond - last Wednesday. Since then the water has been really cool.

 

 

Last fishing for awhile. Bugs are too bad.

 

 

Sunday night we had a houseful of friends - love how this chair is well-loved!

 

 

End-of-summer clean-up.

Life Lately

by Sarah

We got to keep these two cuties last Wednesday.

This little guy was pretty sure he wasn’t going to smile and hold still at the same time. Cute anyway.

Thursday evening - Jacob making a eartag for one of the two new calves.

Snuggle time with Joe!

What a friendly cat!

Jacob now trying to blowtorch dry the eartag.

Grandpa and Grandma K. stopped by for ice cream.

The latest kick around here has been jogging. Like the plaid against plaid Jacob!

Care to guess what happens when you shake the barbeque container and the lid is not screwed on?

The three older kids went to Oregon for a young group Labor Day invite. They and a few others drove to St. Louis Friday. From there they flew to Oregon.

Friday night we did brats for supper. It was a nice night. Saturday morning Josh got the fire going again. Good job Josh.

Mom and Grandma have been working on this cool music quilt. Grandma is quilting it for Mom, but Mom did a little quilting too.

Rascal and the cow having a faceoff.

We have two calves that I know of. Here’s one of them.

Saturday night we took a walk down in the pasture to check on the calves. Still pretty muddy from the rains though.

Mama cow was pretty tame and didn’t mind Ben petting her calf.

The deer enjoyed this field.

Looking at something. Probably the sunset.

Pretty.

Walking home. Kaitlyn and I trying to catch corn in our mouths.

Rebuilding the fire. Kinda smokey.

     

Fire’s going good now.

Kate wants to make sure it’s on the record that Ben did that.

Fire fun.

And more fire fun.

Josh set up this road on the patio. Had to use toy semis to hold it up.

Somebody took this picture of, I think, an eagle (or a hawk?). Not sure what.

Welcome September

…and farewell August with all your rain and humidity. You won’t be missed.

Last time I blogged, I had enjoyed a little get-away to Shipshewana, IN, with Grandma Kaiser and most of my Kaiser sistersinlaw.  We had just finished the dock, got it on Dave’s pond, and had enjoyed it once or twice.

So since then, where have I been??

Well, all of a sudden like *blink* it was time for school to start up. And, since Dad & I had not gone to the convention last spring, I had not given much thought at all to curriculum this year. Which isn’t that big of a deal, since we’ve done this a time or three; but there were still assignment sheets, schedules, and syllabuses to prepare. Job charts to re-do. Spelling lists to find and print out. Notebooks to make ready. Textbooks to get out. Pencils to sharpen. Etc. Nothing huge or big but all put together = busy.

And since the weather was hot & muggy and hot & muggy and did I mention rainy & humid and hot & muggy?, many afternoons, after kids were done with their schoolwork and I had some prep work done for other subjects (we’ve never started school all in one day – gotta ease into it kinda gradual-like you know), we’d spend a couple hours on the dock. Fun times.

And.

Did I mention the Really Neat stores we went to in Shipshewana? One happened to be a fabric store with this beautiful music-themed fabric. Bluegrass instruments plus a harp plus a few brass instruments. Another fabric with music staves on it. Plus a beautiful grayish fabric with cool words on it like sonata, opera, allegro, and forte.  I was pretty quickly convinced by Grandma and my sistersinlaw that I needed to make this fabric into a decorative quilt wallhanging (seeings that before we left on the trip, everyone had given advice/opinions on proposed similarly-themed decor for our greatroom)(which is now, after four short years, finished)(!). With Grandma and A. Sandy’s invaluable help picking out  coordinating fabrics and correct amounts of each one, AND, with Grandma’s promise of help on said project, I took the plunge and bought the fabrics.

Well. Since my sewing closet was chock full of patching, altering, towels to be hooded, and other such projects, I of course could not start this new quilt project before all the other projects were complete.

Which means it’s been a busy couple of weeks. But very productive weeks, I might add!

This was Friday - - -

 

And this was yesterday afternoon before we packed up for the day.

Stay tuned for more project progress - - -

and hopefully a little more blogging once the quilt is done - - -

 

I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart. Psalm 40:8