Blue Ridge Mountains Trip - Day 1

Posted by Gabrielle

Early Monday morning, June 6th, we started out for a three-day camping trip in the Blue Ridge Mountains. This was our second trip to the area and we prepared with much anticipation.

Our happy little camper, complete with his lamb, Zadok, and a beloved animal cracker.

A new use for rest-stop picnic benches - pushups!

Our campsite by the lake

A view of the lake from our campsite

Christianna enjoying the quiet beauty of the lake

Timothy and Elliot, with Jedidiah standing by, setting up the tents

Mommy, Benaiah, and Elliot enjoying the lake

Ambushed by guerilla fighters!

Benaiah climbing trees and enjoying the view

After setting up camp, and it being late afternoon with not a lot to do there, we headed down to the beautiful little park in the nearby town of Blowing Rock. It's a quaint little town with it's streets lined with small shops where people walk to their shopping instead of driving, but they have the funnest park, as we discovered last time.

Blowing Rock, the quaint little mountain town we stayed at.

The little gazebo on the pond

Watching the ducks and fish in the pond

The fountain

First, there was just one duck

Then, we noticed three others on the opposite shore who soon took to the water like...

well...ducks! :)

Elliot, Christianna, Timothy, and Jedidiah playing horseshoes

And we all played tennis!

Jedidiah and

Tobias enjoyed the bars!

And I think Benaiah enjoyed having the sandbox to himself

Resting and Talking

Day 2 coming soon...

Baking day....

Posted by Arianne

Yesterday I got inspired to do some baking. I made a loaf of whole wheat oatmeal bread. I had tried it once before at a friend's house, but it didn't rise. So I was very pleased to see that it rose this time.

While I was waiting for my bread to rise I made cinnamon rolls. I had never tried them before so it was all new to me. But it was a lot of fun! I did a chocolate frosting on top instead of the usual sugar frosting. They turned out quite nicely considering it was my first try. Here is another picture of the scrumptious frosting dripping down the side...Yum!

A Sign of the Times

Posted by Gabrielle

We have a plump little bunny living around our house. We're not sure exactly where he lives, but he loves hiding out in the bushes and nibbling greens and dandelion stalks around our yard.

This evening, several family members were discussing around the dinner table whether this bunny is male or female, and some were rather opinionated.

Benaiah chimed in with his own vote. "I think it's 'email'!"

It is definitely a sign of the times when the word email is part of a three-year-old's vocabulary!

Thou Great I AM

by Mama H.

... from "The Valley of Vision" .... Choices:

.... Thou hast done for me all things well,
hast remembered, distinguished, indulged me.
All my desires have not been gratified,
but thy love denied them to me
when fulfillment of my wishes would have proved my ruin
or injury.
My trials have been fewer than my sins,
and when I have kissed the rod it has fallen from thy hands.
Thou has often wiped away my tears,
restored peace to my mourning heart,
chastened me for my profit.
All thy work for me is perfect, and I praise thee.

Natural Plant Sprays

Posted by Gabrielle

I was researching inexpensive, natural plant sprays for this summer, especially for my tomatoes that seem to get attacked by tomato horn-worms and came across the following advice which I think some of our readers may find amusing as well:

1) Combine one teaspoon of hot pepper or Tabasco sauce, 4 cloves of garlic and a quart of water. Blend well in a blender and strain, with cheesecloth or nylon mesh before placing in your sprayer. This will repel many insects including whiteflies, aphids, spidermites and caterpillars.

2) Mix 1/8-1/4 cup of hydrated lime with one quart of water. This creates an effective spray against many insects, especially spidermites. Add a drop of non-detergent soap to act as a sticking agent and insecticide. Lime can cause serious harm to plants if you use too much, so always spray a test plant first and watch it for a few days, to check for any adverse effects on plants.

3) Take one ounce of tomato leaves and add to one quart of water and blend thoroughly. Strain the resulting liquid and use to repel insects. This works well on white cabbage butterflies too.

4) Take a copious amount (as many as you can collect) of the insect you wish to repel and grind their corpses up into a powder. Mix the resulting powder with one quart of water and, spray as a repellent for the insect that you ground up for the powder.

Painting day

by Mama H.
It was a picture perfect day in NC today, and to take a break from chores and lessons, Christianna, Elliot, Jedidiah, Tobais and Benaiah decided to do some painting. While Gabrielle, Timothy and Arianne participated in our local Walk for Life event this morning, we brought out the water colors and "hair pencils" (as Benaiah likes to call them.... he's been reading about Benjamin West!) and set to it.

Benaiah and Tobias comparing notes (strokes?)
(Mama Grinch likes painting outside. )
The whole group
Mixing colors....

Benaiah contemplating his work....

Christianna concentrating.....

Elliot and Jedidiah both bent over their creations...

" Oooops! I have green fingers!"

And the results :

Jedidiah and his "For Rent Sign House, at night, with Chimney Smoke"; and "The Tornado."

Tobias : "Angus and Toasty" and "Tornado in the Cactus" (hmmm, I detect a theme, here!)

Christianna : "The Treed Cat"

Elliot : " Walk for Life"

Benaiah : "A Three-year-old paint Sampler" (I've seen "modern art" that hardly rivals this one for action and color!)
It's so much fun to paint. Perhaps we'll have another paint day soon.

Birthday Adventures

Posted by Gabrielle

A couple weekends ago, we celebrated Timothy's 18th birthday! Most birthdays in our family have been fairly uneventful, but this was one birthday which will be long remembered.

On the afternoon of April 16th, a tornado passed through our area with high winds and pouring buckets of rain. Shortly before we were to put the birthday dinner in the oven around 4:00, the power went out and did not come back on until shortly after 8.

Seeing that birthday dinner was already out on the counter, and parts of it were in the oven, we decided to go ahead and have a "midnight feast".

Christianna read to the little boys while Mommy and we older ones prepared dinner

The sumptuous birthday fare spread and ready to be eaten

And guess what? Dinner was done in less than an hour and the microwave clock read 8:52 pm as we sat down to dinner.

18 candles and a wonderful smile!

Little Brother's Lofty Ambitions

Posted by Gabrielle

My little brothers have very lofty ambitions in life as was evidenced in a conversation Mommy overheard between Benaiah and Christianna this morning.

C: How old will you be this year, Benaiah?

B: Hmm...I'll be 4!

C: Yes, then how old will you be next year?

B: 5!

C: That's right. And then how old?

< long pause... >

Six...teen!

What I've Been Busy With Lately...

Posted by Gabrielle

I do have a number of posts in the works and I shall be trying to blog more consistently, but in the meantime, do check out the latest post on my blog to see what I've been busy with lately!

See you there!

Cowboy turned Colonial Gentleman

Posted by Gabrielle

For his 3rd birthday last year, Benaiah was given a handsome cowboy hat. He loves hats, especially this one and his 'workerman hat.'

It seems that after our recent trip to Colonial Williamsburg, Benaiah was smitten with the tri-cornered hats as he wasted no time in asking a sibling to bend his cowboy hat into a tri-cornered hat!

~pictures by Arianne~