Playing "Church"!

Lately the kids have been 'playing' church. Right down to looking for the tape :) LOL. (In our home church we constantly have to go looking for the tape and or tape player because no one remembers where it was put last!! And since we move house to house week after week it's rarely in the same spot twice) One of the kids starts out with a prayer and they all close their eyes and fold their hands, then they all go get 'song' books. Which is any book they pull off the shelf. Then they sing. Often themed songs from their children's books. (Tonight one was CARS) Then they 'find' a tape and a player. Anything can be a tape or player. The other day the player was L's dump truck and the tape was a car! Then they sit for a minute and listen to fuzz. (one or all of them making the noise) Then they get another tape. LOL. (Believe it or not this very rarely happens in our church, but it must have made an impression because it happens every time in theirs) This one may or may not work and when they find one that works they sit for a bit. Then they are done. They never do pray or discuss the tape at the end as we do in house church nor do they 'pot luck' afterwards.

But that's their 'church' and they stick to it!!

Late Night Jam Session!!

You shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace.

The mountain and the hills will break forth before you.

There will be shouts of joy.

And all the trees of the fields will clap, will clap their hands.

And all the trees of the field will clap their hands (clap, clap)

The trees of the field will their hands.(clap, clap)

The trees of the field will clap their hands, (clap, clap)

as you go out with joy!

This is a favorite song in our household. You have to start out fairly slow then go faster and faster as you sing it over and over!! The kids never can get the clapping but J taps pretty nicely on his guitar. (A stunt learned from Papa) The kids request it every time Papa pulls out his guitar and tonight it was a duo!! Papa and J twanged it out with great power.. or J did anyway. Papa was playing normally. Papa showed him the chords needed and off they went. In all they played 5 or 6 songs together. And J practiced several new fingerings and we all enjoyed their music!!

More of J's Birthday Pic's

Here is J with his favorite birthday gift.

It is a kids digital camera. He loves it and takes tons of pictures.

Here is J making his birthday cake. I helped a bit but mostly he did it.

The little pink arm is E who was very excited about cake!!

And yes those are eggs from my hens :)

Here are the kids in J's spider man masks.

You can also see pretty much my whole kitchen!!

Our little Model!!

Princess R in her Christmas outfit from Grandma and Grandpa F!!

What a little Doll!!

A L funny for you.

Today L and I were talking at the lunch table and he pipes up with a question about God. He's been doing this daily, it's the same question he just wants to make sure it's the same answer. Anyway after I answered it he said something else about God. Something like "God for us... something something." Anyway a adult would have used the word 'to' instead of the word 'for' in L's sentence. So I asked him "to God or for God?" He thinks about this for a quick second and says "ONE GOD. Mommy there is only one God!!!"

The Eagle!!

This big fellow was sitting and watching me do chores this morning. Every once and a while he'd call out. When I was calling Bindy I'd yell "BINDY" and she'd start to come. Then he'd call out and she'd stop! Crazy cow. This is one of the birds that is cleaning up the entrails by the lagoon. So far the bird count is pretty small but I can defiantly see a difference in bird numbers since butchering day. Last time we counted 4 eagles and this time there has so far only been this one. I've also seen a raven and heard several smaller birds calling between the trees. I carried both boys out to see it after chores but when they went out to play later in the day he was gone. The trees have been covered in frost like this for about a week. Very pretty, but very gray as the sun has not come out at all!!

Bug Eyed and the attacking Pig!!!

This was taken the same day as "Snow Throw". Bindy with her 'OH CRAP' look. Papa was throwing snow at her and you can see he got her at least once!! She just couldn't believe it!! It was really funny. If you look in the pig pen you can see he threw snow at them as well. This was a very bad idea and came back to bite us. The weather was nice and warm and everything was melting. The pigs had mud 6 inches deep.... and we had to butcher 2 the next day. FOUL!!! They were gross!!! We had to wash (Read soak and brush, scrub and rinse and brush again) them before strip skinning. YUCK. We hauled a bunch of leftover hay to the rest of the pigs the same day we took the 2 out and they now have a nice pen again. But they were NASTY. 6 white pigs turned brown overnight!! On the other hand the snow had to go and it was either there or walk half way across the roof to throw it off the end. Note: the blue wheel barrow is placed just so where we normally milk... so Bindy can't make a mess where we have to sit!! She no longer has this area as she no longer needs it.

Another cow funny happened to me the other day. It was actually funny and I really couldn't blame her even though I really wanted too. After it happened I couldn't stop chuckling. But it was NOT funny while it happened. I milk on the right side. Papa milks on the left. This started because I was pregnant with Baby R when we got Bindy and I refused to be stuck between the cow and the fence to milk. Bindy has always been really good about it. Anyway. Because he milks on the fence side he never has any pig problems. I get them all. He's between the cow and the pigs. When I milk she often shifts right to the fence and so the pigs are right there. Well one morning she shifted over to the fence and I moved over and kept on milking. Half asleep as per normal. ALL OF A SUDDEN Bindy lifts off. I swear she picked up her whole body and levitated up and over a good foot. Now that's pretty funny all by it's self. Without remembering that I was milking on that side. She went up and practically landed on me!!! I couldn't get up off my stool fast enough (I had no warning and it's a pretty low stool) and slid off backwards about 2 feet into the shavings. Landed hard on my butt and eagle spread. She kicked a few times and moved around a bit. She managed to spill about 1/3 of the milk in the bucket, which is not bad considering her scare. Right then I almost lost it, I just about got mad. Then I realized WHY!!! Poor Bindy. Then I laughed. One pigs liked to walk along the fence and grunt at me while I was milking. Sometimes he'd squeal and in general make a pest of himself. Well on this day he just about gave both Bindy and I a heart attack. He jumped up on the short wood fence and his front feet LANDED on Bindy's back. The pig in the picture with it's head over the fence is in about the right spot. With Bindy standing right next to that fence they can nose at her but this is the 1st time one attacked. It took Bindy and I a few minutes to get her moved over towards me, were the pig couldn't reach her, the stool placed and the milking resumed... but our hearts were racing for several minutes after that!!! Needless to say we were both rather jumpy for the next couple of mornings. And I didn't get much milk that morning!! Poor old Bindy!!! Now can you really blame her for getting super excited on pig butchering day??? I'm sure I saw her give me a disappointed look when we stopped at 2!! But I did make sure that the 'squealer' was 1 of the 2. Squealer was also known as Wilbur!! Good riddance Pig!!

Oh and when Papa heard about it he laughed so hard he had tears in his eyes and fell over!!! Then he tried to convince me to switch sides. Pregnant or not I am not being stuck between a fence and a COW!!! LOL. I just make sure she doesn't try and lean on the fence while I'm milking...Oh and I'm finding it hard to doze and milk these days.

Tired Baby!!

The other day during pig butchering while the boys were having their science lesson E and Baby R were inside. While we were out there Baby R missed nap time. When we came back in, we checked on them about every 5 minutes and we could hear them as we were right outside, Baby R had fallen asleep on the floor right by inside door. E was still playing and hadn't even noticed!!

One more butchering picture!!