Franklin on Ice

Last weekend, we took the boys up to Franklin for their annual ice sculptures in the park. This year's theme was "The Arts" and they were beautiful. I did for get my camera, but I had my phone which worked for 1 photo because it was dark, but they were beautiful!! There was a full size ballerina, a trumpet, A carriage, a painters palette, saxophones, , I don't remember the rest, but they added color changing lights this year. They were so cool!!! Another great job by Franklin  on Ice!

Garrett's Baby Goats

Today was the day - the arrival of Garrett's baby goats. His goat had twins. They arrived sometime between 1pm and 3pm, as when I went to check on her on my way to pick-up Andrew off the bus, low and behold there were 2 little kids needing taken care of. So I quickly went to work cleaning them up and taking care of them and their mother. Then off to get Andrew. Then back to take care of little ones and wait for the bus for Garrett to come home so he could see his little ones. IT is so neat to be able to enjoy God at work when there is a birth.

Beginning of Indoor Soccer season

Garrett is playing indoor soccer this winter and we are now 2 games into the season. He is still learning the game but has a great time playing. This year he is the blue tie dyed team and has orange shoestrings.

Robert's 12th birthday

Well you can tell that Robert is getting older and involved, because he wasn't even home for his birthday. He celebrated his 12th birthday with the Boy Scouts at the Klondike derby- which it sounds like he had a blast at.  So today we had his birthday lunch and he got to open a few gifts, but some are being held until we can get family together. But overall, I think he had a good fun birthday! Happy Birthday Robert - love you!

Well I am finally getting pictures posted of Robert's birthday! We were able to get some of the family together for pizza and cake and ice cream a few days after his birthday. Amazing how kids grow so quickly.

1st Pinewood Derby

This weekend was an exciting one here. This was the first time that Garrett got to participate in the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. He has been working on his car for a couple of weeks. He learned how to use a coping saw, a wood file, and a wood chisel. He found out that he really likes 800 grit sandpaper and that painting details can be tricky (he had more details than there was space on the car). Saturday morning he was up early and he isn't a morning person, but he was ready to go. With his car in hand and Dad by his side they went to the weigh-ins. He was 5.1oz so they had to drill out a little bit more wood. Then he patiently waited and checked out the competition. 54 cars were entered in the race this year. When his car was up to race he stood at the end of the track. If he won you could hear "YES" and if he lost he quietly took his car back to the table to await the next race. He won 6 races and lost 4. His car ran well, but there were a LOT of fast cars this year. Twice he had to rerace it because the lights didn't go off and the judges couldn't tell who won - so some very close calls.

Frozen "Marbles"

Okay, with the extreme cold that we have had recently , it seemed like a great time to try the "Frozen Marbles" that I have seen on Pintrest. Well yesterday morning, the boys had a little time and we grabbed the balloons and food coloring. I hadn't shown them what the outcome was, just said that we were doing a science experiment while they were are school. We actually tried this 2 different ways. First we filled the balloon and then added the food coloring. Worked great for balloon number 1, but number 2- well let's say we had blue water EVERYWHERE! So we then put the food coloring into the balloon and then added water- this seemed to work a bit better.

The boys sat them on the porch swing in the "deep Freeze" at temperatures barely reaching 15 degrees yesterday. When they came home, they were very excited to check them out. But when they went to pick them up- they weren't completely frozen. So we waited over night and this morning they were solid.  We picked them up and peeled the balloon off of them. They are so pretty at this drab, cold time of year that they look very "cheery". So you might want to find ways to use the cold rather than hide from it.

Things that you might want to try:
Have you ever blown bubbles in freezing temperatures? Sometimes it is really cool!
How about which freezes ice cubes faster- the freezer or outdoors?

So how do you use the outdoor cold for fun?

Snowflake Children's sermon

I was having problems with this post, so I will try it again, but I'm sure it won't be exactly as I first wrote it. sorry if you have seen this earlier and it's not the same.

This is a children's sermon I did a few years back, but it is always fun. So I begin "so have you been enjoying the snow? (Assuming that you have snow- it's a good lesson for a wintry weekend) Have you been sledding? Snowman building? How about just checking out snowflakes? What do you know about a snowflake? Did you know that is starts as a speck of dirt? Did you know that snowflakes grow? They all have 6 sides but did you know that they all are unique? What does that word mean? Unique! Well that means that each 1 is different, there isn't any 1 snowflake exactly the same.  Here let me show you. I have asked a couple of adults to help me today, if they would stand. Now they have NO idea what they have agreed to, but I need to ask them to agree to the following rules. First rule- you won't look at what the other adults are doing- please do your own work. Second- You can't ask any questions. And finally that they will do their best to follow the directions. (Once the adults have agreed to this they each receive a square piece of paper like what you would cut snowflakes out of)

Okay adults here we go- (make sure that the children can easily watch the adults) Please fold your paper in half and then in half again. Now tear the top right corner off.

We will continue by having you fold your paper again in half and again tearing off the top right hand corner. And we need to do that one more time- fold your paper in half and tear off the top right corner. (now have the adults open their snowflakes)

 

What they aren't all the same?!? What happened? Did the adults follow the directions? They did? Oh I get it  this is how God works, we are all different.  You are just like the snowflakes- you are each unique and if we look into God's word in Psalms 139:14 it says "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well."  So you see that we have been told in the Bible that no matter what others may have said or told you, you are perfect just the way God made you. Just like the snowflake- you are unique exactly the way God wanted you to be.

 

With that we closed in prayer.

 

Daily Bible Readings

Did you know that there is a Proverb per day of the month? Each day for 1 month you can read 1 chapter from the book of Proverbs. There are 31 chapters and it is full of wisdom. Amazingly if you read it more than one month, you will find other things that you missed the month before or things that may apply today that didn't apply last month. The Proverbs are written by King Solomon - the wisest man , so there HAS to be something there for each of us! Take a minute and look into the Proverbs and see if it applies to your life.

The Christmas Story with a Twist

Well this year, I decided that I wanted to share the Christmas Story in an interactive way. But how? After a couple of days of thinking and several readings of the Biblical story, I arrived at the following family gift. I typed out the Christmas Story from Luke2:1-20 when there was a word that linked to a gift I put a number in parenthesis. I had gifts wrapped and numbered, most were 1 gift per family member but a few were family gifts. So it looked like this:

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a degree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman World (This was the first census that took place while Quirinus was Governor of Syria) and everyone went to his own town to be taxed (#1) Here they opened gold dollars - 1 per family member

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem to the town of David, (#2) Here they opened an atlas which I had gone through and put stickers where everyone lived. because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there the time came for the baby to be born and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger (#3) Here they received a feed bucket because there was no room for them in the Inn.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks (#4) everyone received a pair of wool socks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them , and the glory of the Lord shone (#5) each received a LED flashlight around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you; his Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you; you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying (#6) Here we added a Praise Cd for them to listen to during the Christmas season
"Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another "let's go to Bethlehem  and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."
So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word, (#7) Here we added the movie "The Nativity Story" concerning what had been told them about this child and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. (#8) Here we added one more family movie "Christmas with a Capital C"

Ice Cream Christmas Tree

This year, we cut back on the number of gifts that we made and actually bought a few more gifts than usual. This somehow opened up a little bit of time for me and I was able to be a little creative on a couple of gifts. One that turned out very nicely was the Ice Cream Christmas Tree.

I started with a 5 quart bucket of ice cream this I wrapped in aluminum foil. Then on top of the bucket I sat jars of toppings: hot fudge, butterscotch, sprinkles and a jar of cherries. In the middle I added a can of Reddi -whip.

 I wrapped the toppings and whipped cream in green tissue paper. I then had a clear basket bag that I sat all of this in and tied it at the top.

I then wrapped the outside of the basket bag with wire garland. It came out looking better than what I thought it was going to but a great gift to share! Now looking at it, the next time I will find a star to top it off with.

Family trip to Kranyak's

Robert with Rudolph

Garrett with Rudolph

Christmas vintage - Coke and Pepsi trees

Gingerbread and baking were the decorations on these trees

The Outdoors and Primitive decorations on these trees

We usually get the opportunity to travel to Sharon to visit Kranyak's to see their Christmas display. This year we managed to squeeze the trip in once again. On Saturday night we went and joined the crowd standing outside to get into the display, but it wasn't too cold, and it wasn't raining so the wait wasn't too bad! The trees were beautiful, but boy was it crowded!

Fort Faithful Christmas Play/Musical

Okay it has been a while since I've had time to post much, but maybe this will explain. Our church children presented the musical "Fort Faithful- Operation Christmas Child" on Sunday evening. Both of the boys were main characters and I was one of the 3 directors. Yep life's been a bit hectic. Robert played the role of Private Elvis Presby and Garrett played the role of Private Gomer Pyle. This was the story of a unit that was asked to find the Christmas Child. But who and where is their mission. Throughout the play they learn that there is an organization that operates "Operation Christmas Child" and that they can help deliver shoe boxes to children in need. They can also help build the shoe boxes too. The group of kids did a fantastic job and I couldn't be prouder!!!

There is still time to help Operation Christmas Child by building a box online -
https://www.samaritanspurse.org/giving/buildabox/

The Cast of the Musical

Robert as "Elvis" with his solo

Garrett & Robert as Gomer and Elvis

Live Nativity

Old Zion Church's Live Nativity was this past Sunday night. We all helped once again to help kick off the Christmas Season.

The Shepherds

My  Shepherd

The Angels

The Manger

Little "Boy" Jesus

One of the Kings (he's looking pretty good)

Kings presenting their gfts

Without the Cross there wasn't a reason for the Manger

Kids having Kids!!!

Today was the day!!! My kids were having kids. (I'm not old enough for that!!!) Okay my boys' goat had kids today. We had been watching her since late yesterday and through the night, but this morning we had checked on her around 10AM and nothing, then when Gary went back out at 11:30 there were 2 babies! The boys are very excited that they were home from school for this event. Both bucks seem to be doing fine. One is standard Boer goat colors while the other is a dark brownish/red color. The boys were like "Wow they are little" - I'm not sure what they were expecting. Then came the questions about how all of this happens... it has been an interesting day, but all are well and happy!

Happy Thanksgiving

I have been watching Haylee this week and last weekend, Garrett and Haylee were here together and so we made Indian costumes from brown paper bags. Didn't they turn out adorable?

Have a Happy Thanksgiving from our house to your!

Building a Goat Shed

We have been busy, busy, busy here. We are trying to build a new shed for the goats so that when the new "kids" show up that they have a warm comfy place. But here are a few pictures of the building progress. The shed isn't done yet and the little ones are due on Monday (Ugh)

Robert working on the framing

Garrett working on framing
Framing was about a week ago

Yesterday working on the roofing, the whole crew is here

Robert and Gary in the rafters

The boys want to help with "their barn" so we have been working after school and weekends when we get a chance. It's slower than planned, but the boys are excited about learning how to build and getting to hammer lots of nails.

Election Day

With all the hype of election day around here, I took the opportunity to involve the boys in the election. I knew that yesterday they would be doing their "elections" at school so at breakfast we talked about what they knew about the candidates. Robert had been talking  a lot about the elections and when we discussed this I was surprised what he really did know about them. Without, influencing them about how I was going to vote I asked some questions.

1. So who would you vote for?

2. Why?

3. What do they stand for? (Robert understood this one- Garrett not so much)

4. Does what they stand for and what you believe match up?

To this Robert answered "Doesn't Obama believe that guys and guys and girls and girls can marry?" To which I replied - "yes, why? Do you believe in that?" He looks at me with all seriousness and says "Mom, God says that it is to be a Guy and a Girl, that's not how God wants it!"  (And inside I'm going YEAH!!!!!!! he has it, now to make sure he continues to understand that)

So yesterday afternoon, I picked the boys up at school so we had enough time to let them accompany us to the voting polls. Gary took Garrett and I took Robert with us. They each got a sample ballot to look over too. Then this morning they were up watching the TV for the results (they needed the answer for school), but they were interested in what our government is doing. Even if it is just a little bit of interest, it's a start. For Robert it is part of him learning about our government and where "we the people" fit into the chain of command.

Even if the elections didn't turn out the way I had hoped, at least it was an educational opportunity for the boys. If you get the chance talk to your kids about what they believe!

Halloween Fun Food

Our Witches Fingers

The Red Wiggler sandwich and the spider warts

Okay we usually have a "Halloween Meal" with Andrew each year before the Trick or Treating or the Community Party. Well this year, with crazy schedules, we had it on Saturday afternoon. Sometimes, I make gross looking things and then have to talk them into trying it, other times, I just add weird names. This year, it was a combination. We had "Red Wiggler sandwich", "Spider warts", "Witches fingers",  slices of "frog eyes" and "Bat Bodies" I explained that when witches prepare their brews they had to have unusual ingredients, and that our meal was from their ingredient list.  The red wiggler sandwich - hot dogs sliced length-wise and then cooked with BBQ sauce all served on a burger bun so they kind of fall off the sides. The "spider warts" were just Tater tots. Then the "witches fingers"- cheese sticks with "V" shapes cut in at the knuckle area and then an almond placed in the tip for the finger nail and our "frog eyes" were just grapes sliced across the grape. And finally we had the "Bat Bodies" - these were just Swiss cake rolls that I used M&M's for eyes and a nose at one end of the Swiss cake roll.

Halloween at Our House

Halloween at our house this year was kind of busy and a little sad. As a big 6th grader, Robert's class isn't permitted to dress up at school, with the last flag football game under the lights the same night as the community Halloween Party, Robert choose not to have a costume this year. Which is the sad part as that means he is growing up :( But he was still into a few of the other things that we do with Halloween. Garrett on the other hand, played football, (2 touchdowns and the extra point) and then quickly changed clothes and made it to the Community Party. So we did have Jack o Laterns, and Garrett's costume.

The Sheriff

Carving Pumpkins

Carving...

The Owl

And the Bat