Near Disaster

Cente got into a bottle of Nan's nail polish and in 60 seconds made a horrible mess that took 4 hours to clean up. Aggghhhhhhh! And it wasn't in our home. It was at my cousin's/aunt and uncle's beautiful cabin in Sunriver.

Girls Weekend

Nan and I had a nice weekend away while a sick Todd and boys stayed home.

Playing Big Sister

Natalie has always wanted a little sister. For one afternoon, she got to play big sister with a friend's foster girl. THey did their nails and made cookies.

Fun at the Tulip Festival

Getting ready for to go to baseball practice

That's my boy...

Ethan and Natalie go to the junior high youth group at our church. I am not sure they are learning anything but they have fun. Last night they came home and Nan was bragging on her brother. During a group question and answer time he spoke up twice which is something. I think he is usually pretty quiet. Evidently there was some discussion about creation and the timing of things and whether 7 day creation is literal or not. Some of the kids were saying days could really be millions of years and Ethan spoke up to say that he thought it was 7 days because of the order God created...plants on the third day and the sun on the fourth.

The another question was asked about why God allowed Christian martyrs to die and Ethan again spoke up and said "Because it brings God glory and because, as someone has said, "The blood of the martyrs in the seed of the church." My son...quoting Tertullian in youth group.

A couple of things at our house...

A possum has been eating anything left outside...compost stuff and cat food. We know he is there because he chews so loudly and he isn't afraid of us if we walk right up to the sliding glass window only inches from his face. I better make sure the chickens are secure when I start keeping them outside.
I was given a blueberry bush and heard that blueberry bushes need to be in at least "2"s so I bought another one yesterday and will have the boys plant it today.
We are planting some dry beans along one of our fences just to see how well they grow. It is part of our plant unit for science.

How we've spent the last day or so...

Here's Nan reading with Cente this morning before he goes outside and becomes covered in dirt. He loves the yard and I don't think there is an inch of his body that doesn't get wet or dirty. He loves the garden and we have to watch him like a hawk to make sure he doesn't pull anything up.
Are 12 tomato plants enough?
Homemade strawberry ice cream. Delicious.

The weather has been beautiful, and while we have done some school, we've also enjoyed the sun in our backyard. Today we did our history on the deck. I hope our neighbors couldn't hear us. We discussed the 19th century and the ideas introduced by Charles Darwin and Karl Marx. We also read about socialism, communism, and capitalism which led to questions about how our country functions and whether or not our president is a socialist. Ethan asked the question...(humanist question by our lesson's definition) "Does it make any difference to me in my day to day life whether whether our president and politicians are socialists or not?" Which eventually led to me getting on a soapbox and telling them that God chose this very moment in history to have them live and come into adulthood and that they are in a great place and a great time to be faithful Christians. At which point their eyes glazed over, and they begged to do their math and piano lessons. (Ha... actually, they just started to glance at each other and raise their eyebrows and rolled their eyes at their crazy homeschooling mom.) Which encouraged me even more...I pulled out a book I had checked out on Russia and the last Tzar, and we talked about Lenin and the evil done by both the Tzar (to his people and the Jews) and then by Lenin and Stalin. I digressed by mentioning the movie "Fiddler on the Roof" and which point Ethan said he thought it took place in Germany...so he gets to watch it for school now to get the context correct...

Anyway they got a lengthy...fact packed history session in today. Like I said, I hope the neighbors weren't listening.

Poultry Pets

Rosie the Bantum
Daisy the Bardrock
Mercury the Aracana
Ivy the Aracana

Photos from Firday's Blazer Game

High Fiving Greg Oden

Lamarcus Aldridge

Trailblazer Excitement

Todd and the boys are going to the Blazer game tonight. They are playing the Lakers. The boys get to go onto the edge of the court to see the Blazers close up when they are shooting before the game to warm up. At halftime they are supposed to be down courtside again to slap the players hands as the run onto the court. The boys are excited but I think maybe Todd is even more excited. (The adults are actually not allowed down by the players...but hopefully Todd can be where he can get a photo of the boys.) If you watch the game on TV, see if you can catch a glipse of them at halftime, otherwise they will be up in their nosebleed seats for the rest of the game.

Good Friday Service

We will attend the Good Friday Service this evening at Grace Bible Church which is pastored by our friend Ken. (Actually Todd and the boys went to the noon service, since this evening they will be at a Trailblazer game. Natalie, Cente, me, and Todd's mom will be at the 7:00 service.)

Ten Grands

We were able to go to a concert this morning for students called "Ten Grands." Held at Arlene Schnitzer, it featured a stage with 10 grand pianos, 7 of them played by youths, the youngest being 11 years old. The state was beautiful and the piano playing impressive.

Six months until fresh eggs

After a trip that included stops at 3 feed stores today, we have our new batch of chickens. Now to decide on names. I picked out "Daisy" for Cente's chick; the other kids are still going around and around with names for theirs.

Sheep Shearing

We went to a friend's house Tuesday to watch their three sheep be sheered. The sheep were all named for characters from the book Ivanhoe. I drove home with the kids trying to figure out how we could possible move to the country where we could have our own sheep. Ethan finally just decided there was only one way we could buy a house in the country. "We need someone to give us a lot of money, mom." I laughed and told him to just pray about it.

Dog Pile on the Trampoline

The kids have been spending lots of time on the trampoline now that the weather is dryer. It was warm outside tpday and Cente had gotten wet with the hose while we were gardening and so we had just removed his shorts and shirt thus he is only in his diaper.

First Aid

Cente gets splinters from the bark dust outside. Todd is pretty good at removing them and Cente will let him without any fuss.

Trip to the Feed Store

Chicks
Ducks
Geese

Thank you for the treat Grandma and Grandpa

Snickers Blizzard!
Cookie Dough Blizzard! (Cente had his own spoon and got to share with everyone.)
Oreo Blizzard!

Today's Chore

Power-washing the deck in preparation for a new coat of stain.

Waiting for new occupants...

Our chicken coop awaits its next residents who should be arriving shortly. This time we hope not to get a rooster.

Sweet smelling Jasmine

My mom bought me this plant Saturday and it smells heavenly.

Strawberry Patch

I have wanted strawberries for a long time and on Saturday I found a great deal. (10 plant starts for $1.99.) So today I planted 80 plants. I hope they grow!

Some of the Edibles in Our Yard

Strawberries
Onions
Blueberry Bush which will be planted when I get some peat moss.
Cherry Tree

Our Backyard In Bloom

Our yard is usually in full bloom by Easter. I think we are a little behind this year though. Our dogwood trees are still bare. They have a week to pop.