Cake, Campfire fun, and Kickin' Back

Don't you just love it when you week totally runs off with your schedule, calling over its shoulder, "Ha, ha! Catch me if you can!".

That's what I felt like last week.  It was Girls' Adventure week at camp, and yes, I made a cake.  My commitment for the week grew from bringing a cake and helping to lifeguard while at the lake on Thursday to being at the camp everyday for one thing or another.  Monday and Tuesday nights the twins sang and I played piano, then Wednesday I substituted while one of the counselors had to run for a doctor's appointment in the morning.  Thursday was lunch at beautiful Rim Rock, then swimming in Kinzua Lake.  Friday I was also called upon to help out while another counselor, who is also a pastor's wife, had to go help with a funeral they were having at their church.  I ended up staying all day and for the bonfire at night.  Saturday the girls and I helped clean the cabins, church, and kitchen. Whew.  Oh, I also had schoolwork all week and a paper due on Sunday.  I decided the Lord was teaching me to trust HIM with my schedule, and not rely on my own understanding of time management.  In the end, I got everything done, with a day to spare.

(Notice how shiny the fondant is.  That means that it was wicked humid.  The edible marker I used was quite unhappy performing on such a slippery and damp platform. ) 

Overlook at Rim Rock, PA

(I put little dots around the cake for fun.  I think it looks cute.)

                                            

In that spare day, Sunday, I took everyone who wanted to go to Lyman Lake between church services.  It was a lazy afternoon.  Absolutely wonderful.  

EPP project while chillaxin' a the lake.  Hey, sometimes you have to quilt when and where you can!

Chicken fight!

Practicing Japanese

Yummy!  Fresh, piping-hot fries.

Hi Mom!

We had a youth activity the first Saturday in July up at the pavilion.  The campfire was cozy, and we roasted marshmallows and the kids ate a lot of junk food.  Dale did devotions.  During the devotions the sky opened up and rain down, pelting the tin roof on the pavilion so vigorously that we could barely hear what Dale was saying.  The sky right before the rain hit was gorgeous.  My dinky little camera doesn't handle such shots well, but I did make an effort. 

Random pic of my hastas, finally blooming.

 There is much more to show and tell, but that will have to be another post.  I will say that I have a new quilting project I'm starting, so I'll be posting pics of that.

Have blessed day,
Lisa

TADAAAA!!!!!

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

Oh yes, oh yes... today was our official last day of school! We are taking a well deserved break. I have some finishing paperwork to do, and the three olders will be taking their standardized tests when they arrive in the mail. But we are DONE!

Formal schooling may be finished for now, but certianly not the projects we are involved in. Today was a very busy day, to say the least. This morning we did some indoor tasks. Jerusha helped me make some Amish friendship cake. She was a sweet little helper and did a good job stirring while I added ingredients.



Here is the finished cake. Boy it smelled good baking!



We also made some cupcakes for the birthday bash tomorrow. The countdown is on! The children have figured out how many hours and minutes. Too bad they aren't excited about it!

We also finished up our planting. We planted broccoli, lettuce, potatoes, onions, more peas, and some sunflowers. Benjamin has done so much to help me in the garden. I am proud of my son and his willingness to do so much of the grunt work and bending over for me.



We also had the laundry lines full of clothes and freshly washed diapers, and some towels. The laundry was folded before supper while I was mowing, and Dale was putting up the freshly painted flagpole with the new flag. He also put up the patriotic swags at church, and the girls watered flowers for me.



One of the things I like about the flag pole is the cross on the top.



I had to take a little break from mowing to feed Isaac, and while I was doing that Jerusha climbed on the mower (which had the blades disengaged and was off anyway) and started singing the theme song to "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang".



After some fiddling around, Dale got the weed whacker going and spent about 45 minutes doing some trimming before it got too dark. He also fixed the long ago broken door handle to the front door. Benjamin had rigged a temporary fix, but it was time for a real handle. I'm thankful for my guys and their talents and inginuity!

It wasn't all work today. We did have some play. My friend and her daughter were over for our weekly tea time, and the kids later had a water balloon fight. Also, during naptime I was able to finish piecing the top to a wall hanging I started making a while ago. It is one of those projects I work on inbetween other stuff and I have nothing pressing to work on. You can guess how often that happens. The outter border is made from seminole piecing.





Well, Isaac is ready for his nite-nite feeding, and I am exhausted, needing a shower, and hungry. Have a blessed weekend and Happy Memorial Day!

Tunnel Vision Hazard

More planting was completed yesterday. We planted flowers at church, put down more mulch in the beds, my friend Mary gave me some rhubarb plants to start so Benjamin helped me put those in. We also planted zucchini, yellow squash and 10 rows of corn, and replanted the peppers closer together (I found out I had them too far apart. Apparently peppers like close fellowship.. same with the corn). We also planted the brussel sprout and watermelon plants. There was the usual run of laundry, chores, and schoolwork for those who still have it.

In the afternoon a gentleman from our church dropped off a box from the food pantry that he helps with. He has been doing this weekly for a while, and we appreciate his thoughtfulness. The kids were excited about the gooey, sweet donuts, and I was excited about about 5 lbs of black dried beans, and 5 lbs. of red kidney beans! Today is going to be pretty hot, so I won't do anything with them today, but as soon as possible I am going to cook them all up and freeze or can them for easy, quick use in the near future. There are lots of things to do with dried beans! They are good for you too, and cheap.. especially when you get them for free! LOL There was also bread, some cookies and some lettuce, a few tomatoes and cucumber in the box. For several weeks we had been getting macaroni elbow, tuna fish, canned sauces and veggies, a little bit of this and that, and ultimately a HUGE cabbage. It's like a mystery gift whenever he drops off a box full of food.

As I said, today is going to be hot, possibly hit 90 from what I saw. Most of the kids are sporting colds right now, too. I decided that we would wait until this evening when it cools off some to do any more planting. Meanwhile today, we are washing bedding, clothes, doing school work (to those to which it applies), I need to finalize our Rod and Staff book order, catch up on some desk work, catch up on some folding that I have been ignoring because of all the outdoor work, start the crock pot for supper, make cornbread, and get some ironing done. I *might* even start cutting out for my neice's quilt for her wedding. I washed and ironed all the fabric, so I can just slap down the cutting mat, get out the rotary cutter, ruler and directions and go at it.

My mind has been so focused on "the garden" that I was put into a panic last night while I was getting ready for church. I suddenly realized, I had plotted and planned everyday this week in such a way to cover the outdoor work, and hopefully finishing planting by this weekend before the birthday bash. Great! Fabulous... but I forgot something. Ummm... cleaning the INSIDE so our guests won't run away in fear! LOL. Also, we will be making cupcakes instead of a big cake. We do a D-I-Y decorating cupcakes. The kids love that. As far as presents go... well, that is a secret. We have something very special planned. Those of you that can't make it (nudging grandparents and absentee uncles and aunts here) you'll have to wait until after this weekend to find out. If you listen carefully, you may even hear the kids scream when they find out.

So, with that bit of suspense, I am going to rotate laundry and start delegating some chores.

So Much for That Assumption!

I assumed as things winded down for school that our days would be freed up. Honestly, that hasn't happened! It seems that as soon as a block of time is free, we fill it with something else. This past weekend was wicked busy. We aren't usually quite as busy, well, actually we are. I used to get a kick out of certain young wives (and some older ones) that used to brag in a forum I was in. They would write a thread about housekeeping saying on a Friday evening "Oh, everything is done so all day Saturday and Sunday can be family time." I could just see them puffing out their ruffle-aproned chests with a big badge that said "Ain't I so holy?" on it.

Wellll... for us Saturdays and Sundays are busy. See, my husband does this thing called work. In fact, he has two jobs. He is a pastor of a church, and he works another job to help pay the bills. That leaves very little time for blowing a whole day on "nothing" but "family time".

We have family time, but it is all of us working together to get ready for the week ahead. Saturdays usually finds me doing piano lessons. My husband and one of the older children are out on visitation. By the time they get back around lunch time, piano lessons are finished, and hopefully some cleaning done. Saturdays are our usual cleaning days during school weeks. Thankfully, now that things are not so busy, we can work on it Fridays so that helps free up Saturdays. Well, there's the rub, because now that the weather is springy, there is a whole new category of "things to do."

Outdoor work, for example. Usually we have gardens to weed, the flower beds at church to weed, the church to clean, and the grounds for church and parsonage to mow and keep up as best we can. At any rate, God created six days for work, and one for rest.

But I digress....

Back to last weekend. Friday we had tea with my friend and her daughter. All the boys played outside. Saturday we had spring cleaning at the church in the morning, followed by a barbeque. Then the deacon and his wife and our family did our yearly trek to a popular farm and bought flowers for the flower boxes and walkway at church. I also got some stuff for our Memorial garden and vegetable garden. It was our plan to plant the church flowers when we got back, but we were scared off by torrential rains, thunderstorms, and a tornado warning. Weren't we wimpy? Before going to bed I made a huge crockpot full of spanish rice, and a cherry pie.



Sunday was the usual. We had sunday School, morning service, and our monthly fellowship dinner. Monday was a "blah" day for me, but I managed to wade my way through all the laundry, did the usual meal planning and grocery list making for the week, and supervised chores and what little schoolwork there was to do.

Today was a beautiful day! 70's, a nice breeze, and just perfect for being outside. It has been a productive day, and a very enjoyable one. This morning after breakfast and morning chores were done I hung out the laundry. Then we tackled a bunch of things on our outdoor "to do" list. Benjamin was a wonderful help to me today! His schoolwork for this term is completed, so he has been very eager to help with the garden. This morning he pulled the grass up around the fruit trees down to the soil, with Josiah's help. Then they spread manure around the bottoms, and mulched. The girls watered the trees well.

Then I went on to put in the flowers in the memorial garden. I put in a new lavendar bush. It is small now, but is supposed to grow to be about 3 feet wide. Here are some pics. The first one has the lavendar plant to the right of the pic.



The "blank" area to the top left of the garden is where I planted the gladiolas the other day. I hope they come up! They will be so pretty there as an accent flower.



Here is a center shot of the garden. I think it came out very pretty!



I had that all tidied up for about.. oh 5 hours when we got a load of wood delivered. He dumped it right next to the garden, barely missing my new lavendar plant. Elizabeth measured and she said the wood was about an inch from the plant. Yikes!

After I was done with the Memorial Garden we started planting in the big veggie garden. So far we have 12 tomato plants, 12 pepper plants, and four rows of peas. Next will be corn, then the green beans, Benjamin's watermelons, and then whatever I have room for. I have discovered that I bought way too many seeds for the size of our garden. Hopefully the ones I don't use will hold over until next year.

For lunch we had an impromptu picnic outside. Isaac had fallen asleep in the stroller and slept a really long time. I ate next to the stroller, but the kids ate in their tree house. I am rather proud of that tree house as my oldest designed and built it pretty much himself. Jerusha's spot of choice was in one of the swings.






I was pleased to see the little herb container I started in the kitchen sprouting up. I planted the seeds about two weeks ago. Here they are growing nicely:



I just love watching a Daddy with a baby! My favorite pics of Dale is when he is napping with the baby. Just melts my heart! In this pic only one of them is napping.


I have finished all the immediate sewing list for this summer. The girls helped by making their slips. I used a simple A-ling type pattern from McCalls Ruffle and Lace series. I had to alter the pattern up to fit the girls, as the sizing only went up to an 8. The twins are in about 12's. The "Need it NOW!" being caught up, I have been working on a block for the fancy quilt I have been gradually making over the last couple years. This is just the center block for the Carpenter's Wheel. I am awaiting directions to complete the block from a friend online. Then there is only one block left, and I can start piecing the top! I can't wait!



This evening Elizabeth and I went for a 45 minute walk, then I went for a short bike ride with all the older children.

The rest of this week is packed. I am hoping to finish the planting by this weekend. Also, Dale has been working on repainting the flag pole. He also fixed the weed whacker so I can get some trimmming done after mowing later this week. Saturday will be our annual May birthday bash. I was going to do an "end of the year" recital for school, but decided that due to the lack of attendence, we'd just skip it and enjoy the day.

Whew... there is the update for the last couple days. Is anyone else as tired as I am? Goodnight and God bless!

Garden Frustrations

I have to say that while I am thankful for what produce we got out of the garden this year, that overall I am disappointed and frustrated. We were able to get a goodly amount of green beans, and a few squash, but basically everything else was a failure.

The last three summers have been like that (since we moved). Our old garden was half the size, but we got at least twice as much produce out of it. Things grew very well. Not so with this garden! The soil is lacking nutrients, from what I can tell. I had hoped after a couple years we'd start seeing improvement. Well, this fall we are spreading compost and manure, letting it settle in, then adding another layer of manure in the spring (hopefully), before plowing. We tried some store bought fertilizer and that didn't do a thing.

All that time wasted is so frustrating! I could have been cleaning the basement, or repapering the kitchen, or redoing the living room, etc. Right now I am ready to say "forget it!" for next year, but I know come spring, I'll try again. If all the manure and compost doesn't work then I may very well give up except for peas, grean beans, and potatoes, which all usually grow well enough.

Our green bean plants are dying off, so I don't think we'll be able to get much more out of them. There are a few ears of corn, but not enough to freeze. Other than that, the garden is done. Maybe I should try mostly flowers next time? I know, you can't eat them, but the way our garden has been going, we can't eat most of that either. At least with flowers it will look prettier!

Beans, Anyone?

We are blessed by the Lord with green beans this week! My oldest son went out this morning to pick. We have been playing the gardening equivalent of Dodge Ball in finding a time to pick beans. Then, after some school work was done, and after lunch clean up, we washed all the beans. After school work was completed we went to cutting them, and then I blanched them to put in the freezer. Esther was done with her school work first, so she got to the beans before anyone else.



Thank you Lord!

A Fruitful Day!

Yup... more blueberries. Today we picked 41.4 lbs! I promised the kids I'd make blueberrie smoothies tonight with supper. The rest will go in the freezer.

Another little blessing was that the proprietor was impressed by our childrens' picking and offered them to help pick for wages! Dh and I will talk/pray it over. If we do, it will just be the older three. Whether or not we allow them, it was a nice compliment.

Blueberries!

That would be 25.3 lbs of freshly picked and washed blueberries, minus some, as I allowed all the children to have a small sampling of the fruit if their labors. ;)

Good news on the garden front.. looks like almost all the corn will make a recovery! Now if they will just bear well. We haven't had good success with corn since we moved here. Every year I try a way to enhance the soil. This fall I am taking more desperate measures if the corn fails again.

I am hoping we can pick more blueberries later this week. The bushes looked like they needed some ripening time. Oh, and no, these aren't from our bushes. There is a little farm not too far from us we go to.

Gardens and Yardwork

Guess what? We got our first picking of green beans on Saturday! It wasn't enough to freeze, but enough to make a big green bean salad for our fellowship dinner today at church. I had to wing it, as tomorrow is shopping day, and we are running out of most of the basics like margarine, or sugar, that sort of thing. What I did was wash and cut up the green beans, about 4 carrots, 1 big tomato. The colors looked very appealing (no, I didn't even think of taking a pic!). I marinated it overnight in italian dressing. Gave it a final stir today before serving! There is nothing like fresh, raw, tastey veggies from the garden! I have about 2 1/2 more rows that are still flowering. Most likely they will be ready to pick and freeze the week of VBS. Seems like every year they are!

The tomato plants look healthy, but their growth seems to be stunted right now. I am hoping today's rain will help them and our squash plants.

Speaking of the rain today, it came in the form of a very severe thunderboomer. In fact, we had some very high winds that actually moved our little blow up pool, though there was water in it! Also, it flattened our corn and sunflower plants! Yikes! We are hoping when the sun comes out they might stand again. If they don't, then that may be it for a large portion of our garden. I will have to go out and check it tomorrow.

Dh tried to mow the lawn, which is looking like a meadow, yesterday, but the belt on the rider mower broke. Now we have to wait for that part to come in. Not wanting to not get any of it done, he got out the push mower, but that wasn't working right either. He did manage to get around the church cut nicely, but our yard... well, lets just say if the kids lay down in the grass they totally disappear! It doesn't seem to bother them.

We have some "wild" black caps growing at the back of our property and started picking them. We only got about a cup and half, but we dutifully washed them and put them in the freezer, hoping to add enough to make a batch of jam eventually. There is quite a bit of growth around the bushes, and I am wondering if I can cut it back a bit to allow more sunlight to get in. Maybe they will yeild better next year if I do that.

Meanwhile, the weeds continue to do their thing, and we are trying to keep ahead of them best we can. The memorial garden and walkway at church need some weeding. My strength is limited, but we are doing the best we can. I have hopes that next summer I'll be able to do more. I am already tentatively planning what I want to do with the garden for next year. This fall we are going to haul some manure to spread on the garden, cover it with leaves, and let it mulch down over the fall and winter, and early spring. Our soil just seems to be lacking in nutrients, even though we added some stuff to it when we planted.

Oh, the cardboard we put down was "okay" but I wouldn't do it again. It choked out our potato plants. It did fine between the green beans, carrots and the like, however. However, I have all these wonderful helpers and if we each take a couple rows a day, we can keep up pretty well without the carboard. I would like to try putting in strawberry plants for next year too. Ambitious, aren't I?