Apple Orchard Fun

What a gorgeous day we had to go to the apple orchard on a field trip. And it was loaded with fun! We got there early to take pictures and get a head start on the fun. A couple years ago we came here, and I remembered the children weren't really interested in watching the video that they have playing in a little barn, so I planned for them to watch that before the other children got there.
We had so much fun. The sun was shining perfectly and it was a nearly perfect day.

Alegra really wanted a picture with Benaiah as the farmer. So, she held him, but since she thought it was so funny, she spent most the time laughing behind the scenes so I was surpised his face wasn't all blurry from her bouncing. It turned out pretty cute anyways.

Here are all four of my children watching the video, learning about apples, cider making, and the health benefits that apples give to our bodies.

When the rest of the group got there, we took a hay ride out to the corn maze. Benaiah fell asleep during the ride and slept peacefully through most of the ride and walk through the maze.

Was short and sweet with some corny jokes along the way.

Here is Mrs. Apple teaching the children how to pick an apple properly. They all did great as you can see from the following pictures.

Josiah picking a red delicious. Alegra picking. Diella posing after her picking.

They got to pick a gourd from the gourd patch. There were so many to choose from, but I must say they all did a great job with their picks. Now we will let them dry to make shaker instruments out of them.

After we were done picking, we all had some cider and the children were given coloring books. Here is Celia, the organizer of this field trip (great job heading it up!) and Benaiah. He had such a good time and always is good for a smile.

The whole group of children that participated. We were missing a few families due to sickness, but despite some not making it, the rest of us enjoyed the amazing warm and sunny day. I guess that was our last fix of sunshine for this year. Are we ready for winter now? Ready or not, here it comes.

Story Time

I am finding more and more that it is truly a blessing to teach children when they are young to enjoy books. We had an appointment a couple weeks ago trying to get things cleared up with my hospital bills and had to sit in a very small cubicle to talk with a lady. We had all 4 children with us and the lady had a treasure basket in the only empty corner of the sitting area. It was a plain basket but it was filled with books! They crawled under our chairs and each sat on the floor looking through this basket of books. What a blessing to have children that don't need all the bells and whistles in toys but can sit quietly and enjoy a book. The lady was quite surprised and said usually the children are trying to get free from the cubicle. We know we are blessed with our children and are so thankful.

This night we sat down to read The Little Engine That Could (even Benaiah enjoyed it). We are studying transportation in school right now, so it went along with it. Today we made some train cars to put their beannie babies in like in the book. It will make its grand appearance at the grandparent's party we have every year. We are making plans for that and looking forward to it.

So here's my encouraging word for the day....read to your children. Their love of books comes in really handy when you need them to sit still and quiet. Do you read to your children? What books do you enjoy? I am always interested in books suggested by others. Comment on your favorites. We'd love to check them out!

The Final Day of the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot)

The fun filled week of rejoicing is over. Thankful that we aren't limited to rejoicing just during this week. We have so much to rejoice about during the whole year, but this week is especially meant for rejoicing and considering tabernacling. We finished off the week with a meal together at our church and lots of games for everybody.

The children had a wonderful time in the big open space playing with jump ropes, bowling pins, a parachute, boxes, and hopscotch. What a great time for them to play with their friends!

Even the big people enjoyed themselves. Or were you, Matt and Melanie? Can't really tell here.

On the far left of the below picture is corn hole, then ladder ball, then a Wii bowling tournament (on the big screen), then the area for the children to play in. Something for everyone and everyone had a ball! Jonathon and I partnered up for ladder ball. We won one game and then lost. The coloring in there is so yellow and since I haven't been wearing my contacts with being on the meds, I couldn't see distance too well, so that's my reasoning we didn't become the champions at ladder ball. Hahaha!

The best part was just sitting around visiting with each other and enjoying one another's fellowship. The love that we all share is amazing in our church family and was clearly shown to us during our time in the hospital. What a sweet thing we have in our fellowship. Unlike any other church we have experienced. What a blessing!

Here is Benaiah and Sarah hanging out. He sure doesn't get ignored at church. I think he was passed from lady to girl, to lady and back to girl again. He sure is loved! What's not to love about him?

Hanging out and having fun with little ones. Except AnnMarie....put your chemistry away and have some fun girl! :)

The children played with so many different toys and used their imaginations well. So much for those who say that homeschooled children aren't socialized. I think we have that area covered with our children.

Some of the ladies conversing and sharing a great memory together.

The last stop for me before heading down to clean up then nurse a baby. This was Benaiah's last stop for the night too before he finally got to be with his momma a little before heading home. A little laughter, a little sharing, a little playing, a little eating, a little conversing, a little competeing, a little relaxing, and a lot of love!

Feast of Tabernacles Week

This week we have been celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles in our home. The tent was set up and we prepared to have some friends camp along with us. I took the easy road after the first night of Benaiah puking on me at 6:30am and slept in my own bed. However we didn't start a fire in the woodstove in the evenings, so I probably was colder than the ones in tents with heaters. Nonetheless, the week was filled with wind and rain which makes for some interesting camping weather and took away nice evening sitting around the camp fire.

Here is one of our friends who camped out in our yard with his babe and mine. We had so much planned for the week that we didn't get most of it done, but were pretty happy with what we did get done. I guess I should say we didn't get the typical camping things done, but some other things that we will enjoy through the winter.

Monday evening we went and picked grapes and here is some our work with the grapes. I froze some and then the rest we canned to juice. What a late night job, but we got it done and it's actually pretty good. This was a first time doing juice for me. I have learned a lot this year about canning just by doing it. After grape picking we went to some friend's for a campfire and fun. Was pretty chilly, so we didn't stay real late. Did have some good roasted hot dogs over the fire, and the children had fun on the trails there.

Tuesday was the grape juice day then Wednesday was applesauce day.....

We had 3 bushel so split between 3 families and worked like crazies getting it all done. Here is Casie washing some dishes after our process of preparing, canning and then cleaning up.

Wedensday evening Jonathon and I had signed up at church to man the Corn School booth that our church has every year. We pass out free water and coffee to those who pass by. Also, every night we pass out homemade soup and bread to the vendors there. It's a great ministry and blesses a lot of people and shows others in a real way of God's love for them. It's interesting how nobody else there (even other churches) gives away what they offer. People are always baffled by our generosity. We enjoy doing it! The above picture is one of the younger girls from church riding the ride that was infront of our booth. You wouldn't catch me on that thing that's for sure.

Here is Jonathon and Jamin with Benaiah in the stroller. What a blessing it is to serve the community in this way.

Thursday, Casie and I went to the outlet mall in Fremont then I had a massage to give in the afternoon, then we had supper with our friends and they headed home. Rain caused them to pack up early, which was good for clean tent packing conditions, but bad for fellowship time.

Today I have been doing laundry and more laundry and more laundry. Also, cleaned my room from the children hanging out there most of the week and catching up on here. Jonathon is hauling wood up to the house preparing for the cold to set in and with the changing of seasons comes a change of chores in our house. The garden is pretty much done except for getting some carrots out and harvesting the beans that we have left out there to turn to seed. I also have lots of flowers to get seeds from for next year. I'll wait for a dryer day to do that.

Tomorrow is Sabbath and church gathering. Then Sunday is the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles. We will gather at church once more for a meal and fun and games in the evening. I will take pictures. We did last Sunday also with lots of fun for everybody, but I didn't have my camera. I will have to remember it this time. That ends out this post. This week was full of work and some play. Always more fun with friends even if it is work. The rain is coming down and has been all day, but my men are out working in it being good servants. Josiah is loving helping his daddy carry wood. So much for getting caught up on the laundry...oh well. Time to start supper and fix food for gathering tomorrow at church. Blessings to you all!

The life of Benaiah

Well, it seems time just doesn't stand still. I was over visiting one of our friend's homesteading websites, checking in on their family life, and realized that it had been awhile since I had reported about my own family life for all of you (whoever you are that read this). :)

Anyways, days with Benaiah are getting so much fun. His laughter would make anybody smile, his spit on his chin would make anybody...well...wipe off his chin, and his stories, oh boy, he's got some grand ones. His family does love him oodles! Below is a picture of one of his sister's head bands placed on his head by none other than his dad. What???? I didn't think his dad liked him in girly things. Well, honestly it makes him look more like a jogger with a sweat band. Cute anyways.
This is a picture of him laying in Josiah's bottom bunk bed. Diella was in charge for a little bit (she loves that role), and I guess she thought he needed to go to bed, and was obviously right. This is where he ended up and sound asleep. I am trying to get her to put him farther up on the couch beds, but she just isn't getting it. Thankfully he isn't rolling or moving that much....YET.

We are staying busy these days and getting geared up for winter. Blah!!! But in this neck of the woods, has to be done. Well, I have another post to write then to the kitchen to fix some supper. We are studying transportation right now, so I think after supper we will make a train. Maybe a post will be added about that later on.

Nature Study Time

Nature Study

This year we are doing some things a little different in school. Diella is much more into art and learns a lot differently than Alegra. So, we are doing some nature study. Yesterday we went to Maple Wood Nature Center to hear the meteorologist from WNDU talk about the weather. It was a little more than the children could understand, but I enjoyed it and it is good for them to have to sit and listen to an adult speak. After that we stuck around the nature center and learned about foxes. We brought a book with us and our writing paper. The nature center has a stuffed fox, so the children drew a picture of that (they did a mighty fine job too), then we read about foxes. watched a video that the naturalist, Scott Beam had recorded of two fox pups in Maple Woods, and then Alegra's reading book for that day was about a fox. It was fun and relaxing and a different setting for school.

Today, though after work was done, I sent them out to find something they wanted to draw. The girls both chose this lovely marigold in the garden. They took their clipboards and set out to drawing. The sun was quite bright as you can tell from Diella's shield, but the day has been just beautiful to not be outside.

Here is Diella working diligently on her drawing.

Josiah also wanted to be out there but he didn't want to draw. So, he got his little shovel and worked in the garden. Not sure that his "work" is always helpful, but he sure loves digging in the dirt.

We do enjoy the outdoors and all that it has to teach us and feed us. :) Well, I am off to give a massage while Jonathon plays ball with the children. Trying to enjoy and take advantage of this weather while we can. Soon we will be building fires and drinking hot cocoa. I do love that too, but prefer the cool breezes and warm sun.

Bonneyville Mill Celebration

We had a fun family outting to the Bonneyville Mill Celebration. It was a small group of us, but grew later as the afternoon went on with two other couples from church. It turned out to be a beautiful day, though a little on the hot side. But we sure enjoyed it!

We arrived there close to the same time as another family from church and had planned to eat a sack lunch before heading to the big event. After lunch was eaten, we walked over the hill and through the woods to where the horses were hitched to wagons for a wagon ride to the mill valley. Everybody loved the wagon ride!

The above picture and the one below are happy moments for my husband. :D The children loved seeing the old tractors and sitting on them, but he loved wandering through all the old tractors and cars. He was especially fond of this CASE somethingorother. I know that isn't really a word, but I really don't know what it was, but I do know how excited he was when requesting for the camera to take a picture of it.

Jonathon would have been happy to have had our day be finished right there, but alas, there was much more fun to be had by me and the children.

This garden was full of the largest dahlias that I have ever seen. What a beautiful garden just outside of the mill. A beautiful setting!

Inside the mill we learned a little about the milling process, but I'm not sure how much we really got out of that part. The children did learn that they used water to make things work. That's second grade terms for you. :)

Some of the group looking out of the mill onto the pick up location where there was a trio of ladies setting up their instruments to play music.

See the worm on Josiah's right arm. A wooly worm. The children all had fun finding him and holding him.

In the children's area they had lots of old fashioned games. We all had fun trying them out and seeing how things worked. Here is Alegra trying her hand at the peg game.

More games/toys. Checkers, some twirly carousel toys, a ladder game (never did figure that one out), the dancing man on the wood board that you sit on, and many others.

Our family enjoying the day. Josiah was hiding behind the toy that the little vegetable would zig zag down, and Benaiah was enjoying the day from the stroller, taking great rides and trying to stay out of the sun.

This is Alegra trying out the stilts. Was a task that did not get completed very well.

And Diella trying her hand at it. Again, not very good at stilt walking. We didn't get any pictures but we also tried the game or toy where you take a metal round piece and push it with a stick to make it keep going. Alegra and I tried it and did pretty well with that. Children in the olden days sure didn't go without fun things to do. They just didn't have video games.

This was a big high light- the corn eating contest. Everybody wanted to join in, but Josiah decided last minute it wasn't for him. He did get to eat his corn though.

Here they all are in action. Good little corn eaters we had, but there was a boy that tore up his corn (not in our group) causing our little eaters not to win. Oh well, they all got a little something for playing along and that was just great!

After getting some cotton candy and kettle corn, we headed up to the old schoolhouse to hear what is called shape note singing. We had never heard this kind of singing before, and found it to be very interesting. Caused my ears to hear and my mind to really think about what I was hearing. If you ever get a chance, it's worth a listen to at least once.

From there we headed back down to the wagon pick up and off we went riding through the woods to the parking lot. The children wanted to stop at the playground to play while us adults were just ready to get out of the sun. Do I even remember having all that energy as a child? Well, all 4 of ours fell asleep on the way home leaving two tired parents to converse about the lovely day. Okay, so those two tired parents fell asleep as soon as we got home, but we had to to be able to function the rest of the evening.

A good day was had. Good fun. Good fellowship. Good fresh air. Good friends! Good field trip.

Letterboxing Excursion in Somerset Center, MI

My parents wanted to take me out for a meal for my birthday that was a little while back. Well, with it being Labor Day the place we picked wasn't open, so we ended up going to a little, small town restaurant. Then I had a letterboxing adventure planned out at a park in the same town. It was a park that had been donated by a man who owned a cement company. The uniqueness about this park is that it contains 17 bridges that all look like they were made of wood/logs, when in fact they were all made of cement. What a neat place to visit. The park contained 7 letterboxes but we found only 1. It was a slight bummer, but the park was so enjoyable that it didn't really matter that we only found one.

Following the clue up to the top of the hill where the tall trees and the historical marker were.

These two tall trees were the chimneys of a building that was underground below us. The trees are made of cement. So amazing!

Our little family on one of the bridges. Don't those look like real logs?

On one of the trails that Jonathon and the children went on (the stroller didn't go too well on some of them, so we took the trail more heavily traveled with the stroller), there was a little mud hole at the end of the trail. Alegra neglected to see it when she got to it and stepped right in it. Yep, mud spattered all over her leg. Oh no! But she was a decent sport about it. Notice Jonathon now directing Diella carefully around the hole. Ha!

Especially once we convinced her to get into the creek to clean the mud off. This little creek was so delightful. It was chilly, but I can just imagine this being a hot spot for families on warm summer days. We loved it....once we found an area where there weren't any bugs and the water was nice and clean. Alegra wasn't real sure about it until I got in first to show her it was just fine.

Another one of the bridges. My dad was fascinated with this park as he used to work for a cement company. It was a little more intrigueing to him than the rest of us. But we all enjoyed it a lot.

The guys found the only box, nestled nicely outside and very close to the poison ivy vine. Yahoo, we found one!!! They hand carved their stamp that was a fish and glued it onto a small piece of ruler. Very clever. My mom continued on reading the clue to find out where the next one was while we did all of our stamping and writing in our books.

We sat on this bridge and listened to my mom read the next clue. All seven clues were in story format and interesting but kind of hard to follow, obviously since we only found one. This turned out to be a great picture with everyone included.

Here is a picture of that bridge from a distance. The guys tried to find the one near this bridge, but again poison ivy won and they decided to pass digging too deep into it. Aren't the details of this bridge amazing. He ropes (actually cement) even have knots in them. There was also a covered bridge at the park, but I didn't get a picture as there were other people sitting on it when we were by it. It was quite amazing though!

It began raining and everyone else was looking for a letterbox when I decided to get just one more picture. After clicking this one, we darted up the hill to get out of the rain and see if the others found the last one. Nope, it remained to be unfound. But we all did have a wonderful time enjoying this little unknown park. I highly recommen everyone checking it out if you are ever in the area of Somerset Center, MI. It is on the corner of US 12 and Jackson. Let me know if you go visit and what you think about it. Or if you go letterboxing and where you went. There's always an adventure out there with letterboxing.

We then headed to my brother's to visit with them and see how their twins were doing. They are growing and seem to be doing well. Still quite small but what a blessing doubly!