365Project.2016 | Week 44

 

Welcome back! We continue to be amazed by the beautiful fall colors in our area this year! Every day seems like a new page in God's coloring book.

Day 304. Chris has been squeezing in programming time at all sorts of random hours of day and night, and reached a major milestone in his fleet maintenance program Monday morning. So. Thankful! What an encouragement to see implementation benefits even within the first couple days! :)

 

Day 305. I am so proud of these kids! We were missing a few this week, but these are the older students from our homeschool group. It's been so exciting to see them learning and growing in their abilities as they prepare for our Harvest Praise concert!

Eeeee! So exciting! I hosted my first in-home Essential Oils 101 class this week. ♥ What a joy to be able to share how these oils have blessed our family, and to be able to teach others how to use them practically to do the same. ♥

 

 Day 306. My little lady loves to color. With markers. All. the markers.

Day 307. These kiddos are so fun! They've been thoroughly enjoying the regular use of chopsticks for lunch this last week or so. Interestingly ... chopsticks take more concentration, so lunches have been a bit, eh-hem, quieter during that time. ;)

 Thursday evening Chris came home with a smile and asked me to take a look at what he got that morning ...

My jaw dropped. 

And when I found out that he captured it on the trail across from our home, I started making plans. 

Day 308. Christmas pictures, here we come! :) 

Along with capturing some real life, fun ones like this ...

 And some cute ones of the girls ...

 And the boys ...

I also got beautiful individuals photos of each and a group shot of the four of them. ♥ But those, my friends, will have to wait for Christmas. We wouldn't want to spoil the surprise for the grandparents. ;)

I was also blessed to be able to shop our local thrift store's half-off sale, and I got Chris a dozen work and dress shirts for just $30! So. Thankful!!!

Day 309. Abby-girl had a BLAST in the leaves!! ♥

 

Day 310. And then, we decided it might be nice if Chris and I could actually be on our family Christmas card as well ... ♥

 

And just a few more pictures of the beautiful fall colors. I'm not sure it's ever going to grow old. I spent 15+ years living in an area where we had to make a very. special. trip. to see scenery like this. Now I'm blessed to enjoy it every time I leave my home. ♥

 

 

 

365 Project | Week 34

Praise the Lord! No "emergencies" this week (unless you include a twisted pair of eye glasses, but hey, no ER involved there!) :) The days march on, and I am starting to believe that we've actually settled into cooler weather for the season. It's wonderful to wake up to temperatures in the upper-60's, low-70's! :)

 

Week 2 was better (easier, less stressful) than week 1 of homeschooling, and I've hopes that week 3 will be better yet. We're slowly tweaking our routine, and starting to figure out what works and what doesn't. I'm blessed with good students who catch on quickly, so that definitely makes the teacher's job easier. :) I personally am loving teaching my munchkins. :) It's such a blessing to be HOME and focusing my efforts on these precious souls the Lord has entrusted to us.

 

Day 232. I was quite excited to discover a purple mushroom in our yard--I had never seen one quite that color before, and it spurred a photo session. Peter and I tramped all over the yard in our Sunday clothes, photographing the rainbow in mushrooms. Lots of fun, and a special memory with my young man! :)

 

Day 233. Somehow it seems that no matter how hard Mommy tries, Daddy can always give bigger and better pushes. ;) We enjoyed having him home for some evening fun in the yard.

Day 234. Miss Hannah-bug lost her seventh tooth this week! And when tasked with using her imagination to draw herself in a special place, she chose the top of a tree. She dreams of being able to go as high as the squirrels and the birds. :) For this same project, Peter drew himself in an army helicopter. :)

Day 235. Speaking of airplanes, Peter and Matthew spent the better part of an hour this week enjoying Daddy's album of airshow pictures.

Day 236. 8:12 a.m. as Mommy is preparing breakfast: "Mommy! You have got to come outside. I have a surprise for you! And bring. your. camera." Who can resist an invitation like that? :) Not this Mommy. :)

Peter had discovered a cool yellow mushroom and knew that I would be excited to see it. What he doesn't know is how much more Mommy enjoyed the fact that he had found something special and wanted to share it with me. :)

For those who are interested though, the underside of this mushroom was amazingly bright! And no, we did not add it to breakfast. ;)

Day 237. Waving good-bye to Daddy as he heads off to work ...

Day 238. It delighted this Mommy's heart to watch Hannah sweetly and patiently helping Matthew learn how to paint this Saturday. We brought out the paints so that Peter could paint a rock for his snail he had buried earlier in the week, and I was multi-tasking between him and dinner, so supervising Matthew really wasn't feasible. I gave Hannah permission to paint, but realizing how much Matthew wanted to paint as well, she actually spent most of the time helping him. What a joy to see my little lady practice putting others first without being told to do so. ♥

 

Such are the snippets of everyday life in these parts.
I'm thankful for them.
And thankful for Project 365
which is helping me remember and document them.
And thankful for those of you are following me in this journey. :)

365 Project | Week 7

Another whirlwind week gone by ... some days were more challenging than others, but the Lord truly gave grace for each day. It was hard to pick just seven pictures ... so hopefully the extras will appear later this week. ;o)

Day 42. He's a hoot! He spent much of Sunday afternoon wandering around like this ... maybe they read shepherd stories in the nursery? :o) (And yes, Aunt Janie ... he loves your blanket ... it's second only to Blackie.) ;o)

Day 43. Beautiful.
Day 44. My hubby's Valentine's surprise for me!!
Day 45. Long story short ... the Lord provided a mini-stockpile of a much desired seasonal item which went out-of-stock about six weeks earlier than expected!

Day 46. Grandpa's driver in training! :o) Day 47. Our first Daffodil! Later brought in for me by Hannah and Daddy. :o)

Day 48. Mommy and Hannah-bug spent most of Saturday "clowning around." :o) Daddy's old shirt + Mommy's old pants + a stockpile of eyelet ruffle from Mommy's childhood + polkadot ribbon from Hobby Lobby + Saturday = a 1st grade clown outfit! We had a blast (even if we did wear ourselves out!) ;o)

(I'll need to make sure to get a few pictures of Peter next week ... sorry, Buddy!)

365 Project | Week 4

This week has been filled with consignment sale prep ... lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of ironing. Did I mention I've done lots of ironing this week? ;o) I watched all six hours of the Anne of Green Gables movies with an iron in my hand today. That nearly finished the project. :o) Ah well. I am thankful for the energy and strength to do it and the for abundant blessings the Lord's given us that we can now pass on.

As for my 365 project ... I'm loving it! Without further ado, here's the final seven for week 4. (There's lots more where these came from!)

Day 22. Sunday morning package delivery!
Day 23. Lots of rain makes for big puddles. :o)

Day 24. Lots of rain followed by sunshine brings up the daffodils. :o)

Day 25. Peek-a-boo! This little guy's smile just melts my heart! We had so much fun playing peek-a-boo this morning!

Day 26. My young man is preparing a garden. Completely of his own initiative. I think we're going to be planting vegetables whether we "want" to or not! :o) So thankful to see his industrious spirit!

Day 27. "How do ya' do, ma'am?" Celebrating cow(girl) day at school.

Day 28. And then my girl blessed me with her diligent efforts to cut and sort multitudes of consignment tags for me while we enjoyed watching Anne of Green Gables together. It was fun introducing Anne to the next generation. :o)

Thankful for another week with our blessings! And rejoicing in the multitude of smiles He sent our way. :o)

Apple-ation Milestones

We thoroughly enjoyed our annual apple pilgrimage, and I realized afresh how much the kids are growing and changing--it was sort of like time-lapse photography.

We visited a new apple farm--I had a coupon. :o) Yes, even traditions are subject to good deals. :o) We really liked Justus Orchards though--it's a family-owned farm and the people were incredibly friendly. They really seemed glad that we were there. Everything was very clean and fresh. They also have dwarf apple trees which translates into very easy picking for the shorter members (eh-hem) of this family. This little guy was a baby last year ... not so much anymore. :o)

And this young lady is sporting a distinct gap in her upper row of pearly whites. :o) She had yet to lose her first tooth as of last year. We got there about mid-morning (10:30) and were pleasantly surprised by how empty the orchards were. When we left around 1:30, it was very busy and parking was scarce. It was still pretty foggy when we first arrived, but it cleared away soon enough. Another bonus to this orchard--their rows were well-marked, so you knew what apples you were picking.

Everybody took up the invitation to come back to the store with full tummies from the apples we had munched out in the fields.

This little man LOVES apples. He munched an entire apple down to the core as he wandered the fields on Daddy's back.


Yes, we eat while we work.

Hannah and Matthew have obviously grown, but I think the change in Peter struck me most. It was pretty special to watch this young man take over the wagon. It was just a couple years ago that he was the one riding on Daddy's back, and this year he took responsibility for pulling the wagon all over the orchard.

Loaded down with apples it was quite the haul.

Reinforcements came for the hills. :o)

And that was our day.

Thoroughly enjoyed by all.

Particularly by this mommy who is very thankful for the blessings of her crew.