Sprinkler fun

Picture post

My sweet Ty who woke up this morning at 10:45 sleepy boy.

Mischevious Cale

Our sprinkler obsessed doggy

Me, me, picture me mama!

Still messing with my camera love the accent on the freckles and hair.

What's new we're busy!

We had a fairly productive weekend, Don was home every night last week which was awesome except for Friday night which turned into most of Saturday also. His work has given him a kind of promotion into a truck with more responsibility and danger much to my chagrin. He will be driving a steer logger which can haul super long things and sounds rather scary to me but also to know they trust him is a big deal. Anything for more job security is good right now! There isn't a pay raise unless he hauls long loads but I think after doing the job for so long it will end some of the boredom at least for a little while. Anyhow, he spent a majority of the day Saturday moving his stuff from one truck to the other and cleaning out the "new" truck of all the junk the previous driver left behind, annoying. The kids and I did a little garage saleing, we didn't find many good deals until I happened upon two, yes 2, you read that corrrect, two free rototillers. They both need a little work which Don has much experience in! I had to make two trips in the van to get them and was so excited with the surprise but when Don got home before I could even show him Cale says you have two new rototillers, ugh, he's such a turd sometimes! We are planning this next year to expand the garden and add corn, potatoes, carrots, and beets and who knows what else and the rototillers will help a lot. Don is also hoping to do a little rototilling for money this spring, we'll see. Hmm what else, oh we have a completely sprinkler obsessed dog which makes watering anything especially the garden almost impossible so my darling hubby bought two sprinkler heads, some tubing and other plumbing items and constructed a sprinkler system for the garden, all I have to do is connect the hose to one end and voila watering heaven. We are contemplating carrying it even further to encompass the rest of the yard, I told him whatever makes watering easier for me makes it more likely that it will happen. The yard I grew up with was sprinkler he-double toothpick (sorry Mom) you had to move the sprinkler tons of times and it was a huge yard, oh and guess what they got after I moved out, a sprinkler system, dorks!!!! Anyhow, we've been busy, have a somewhat lighter week on the daycare front so hoping to do some berry picking on either Wednesday or Friday, so posts about that to come soon.

I love this new hat I found for Morgan at Target $2.50

Playing with my camera again, no my leaves are not grey, lol!

Feeding the ducks

A friend of mine came by on Tuesday morning and we all walked over to the park near our house to feed the ducks and play on the equipment there. I totally needed to get out of the house and any chance I get for adult conversation I'm on it! I must say nine kids and two adults I felt a little overwhelmed but I think everyone had a great time and the ducks ended up with full tummies!

Morgan and Hudson in a rare moment actually getting along.

New garden pics

I love seeing other peoples gardens in progress so thought I would post some of my own.

Pepper plants and my beautiful pink and green ivy.

More peppers.

Tomatoes and basil

More tomatoes and cucumbers.

My most hated butterfly bush, I hate it, it won't quit taking over the beds but it attracts hummingbirds. Along the fence are our snap peas and on the left is our broccoli.

Our choice to Homeschool

I was reading a blog the other day and they commented on the negative aspects of homeschooling, including keeping your kids in a bubble, feeling morally superior to parents who did not, and trying to raise perfect children. First of all if I have made anyone feel like my choice is better than theirs, I apologize. We chose for our own family to homeschool and after our first year I am so thankful that we did. We did not have good experiences in public school and honestly coming from a private school upbringing myself I didn't see much difference between the private and public school settings. My daugher was being physically bullied at her school and the staff did nothing to protect her. My children were not being challenged which left them bored and hating school. AND I have felt since we had our first child that God had called me to homeschool them. I would hope that any parent that homeschools in a Christian home would pray and know without question that God called them to teach their children at home. I realize this choice is not for everyone and it shouldn't be. But please don't look down on me for my choice either. I have happier, more content and intelligent children and if that changes so may our decision but for now God has them where they are supposed to be. As I do not judge you for how you educate your children, please do not judge me either.

Sweet sleep

The boys have not been sleeping alone for the past couple weeks . I think it's so sweet. Cale used to sleep on the bottom bunk with Ty but now Ty is climbing up top. I don't know how they both fit with all the extra blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals!

Pretty, pretty Ty

Here's that promised pictures of Ty isn't he a beauty?

Okay here are some pictures!

Morgan just hanging out!

I often get this look from Cale, glad to finally get it on film!

Beautiful girl!

Morgan said to put this in here, because my eyes look scary, I think my hair does!

Brock and Abby, I was messing with some features on my camera!

More features!

Ty was obviously not outside during my photo frenzy, I will try and get some of him today!

What is it?

Don and I bought two tomatillo plant starts and one has grown to be what it is supposed to be while the other has become a completely different something. Does anyone know what it is? It is flowering like it's getting ready to grow something but we aren't patient enough to wait to see what it will be, haha! Oh it's about three feet tall now and yes I was watering when I took the picture.

Hmm, can't think of a title.

My camera seems to have been hibernating in my kitchen pantry this past week so i finally took a picture with it this morning. In the past week I have had to say goodbye to two different families in the daycare both because school got out, one will return this fall while the other won't. It's bittersweet, on one hand I am glad they get to be home with their families while on the other hand I will miss them, too. God has been constantly providing in the daycare area and amazingly I found out one of the mom's is going back to work after being laid off for a few months along with her also giving my name to her hairdresser who needs me occasionally. I am learning not to worry as God is giving us what we need and before I even get that worrywart hat out.

I haven't taken any pictures of the kids, I would right now but they are still in bed maybe later when they are running through the sprinkler with Ben again! Anyhow, I found these bar stools at a garage sale this weekend, they are Samsonite and the lady I got them from said she bought them in the 40's when her five kids were younger and they held up, haha! They are southwest style in the fabric but I can look past it because hey there's four, they were cheap, and they're what we've been looking for for almost a year now! Oh and I got an sack that was used for flake butter? It held 100 pounds so that might give you an idea of the size. I would love to do some sort of craft thing with it but am drawing a blank. Oh its a creamy color, oh forget it let me take a picture. It's 40 inches wide when it's opened all the way and 33 inches high. Any ideas? Oh I only paid 50 cents for it too so not a huge investment!

Oregon zoo

We have been quite busy lately with all my new posts I see. We went to the zoo yesterday for $2 Tuesday along with the other half of the civilized world. We had a great time but I am looking forward to going in the fall when school is back in session so we can take our time and not have to fight for position to see a glimpse of an animal. I am so excited for picking season to start, I am thinking we may pick strawberries next week then it will be blueberries, and boysenberries, woohoo then apples, my dehydrator and canning supplies are calling my name!

Hatfield Aquarium

Don got home at midnight Sunday morning and then had to head to Toledo to unload at 2 so we followed along in the van and after he unloaded we all headed over to the free aquarium in Newport. I got some cool pictures of the octopus, it was very active along with a starfish moving along the glass. I will try and upload some videos. We always tease Ty that there is an octopus under his bed so it was funny to see one moving around so much.

Gorgeous sunset

We had a pretty nasty storm go through here last week and the sunset that night was beautiful.

Gorgeous hiking again at McDowell Creek

Another day another hike it seems. The kids and I decided to skip the free Home Depot kids workshop today because it looked kind of lame and instead go on a hike. We went to McDowell Creek again but took the long route this time and let me tell you it was amazingly beautiful. I didn't take my camera this time, just my phone and took one measly picture and a cool video that I texted to Don who is on his way home as I type this.I can't figure out how to send the video from my phone to my computer oh well, at least I got one picture. The pollen seems to be dying down here a bit so it was nice to get outdoors again! Hope you are having a great weekend. I've got cinnamon rolls in the oven baking for our breakfast in the morning, yummy!

Success

With 28 square feet of drying area, it had all twelve racks done in four hours. We ended up with three containers full of chips. I am out of things to dry right now, think the local nursery or picking patch is calling my name!

Maiden voyage

My new dehydrator came today from my beloved Cabela's. Don and I have been dreaming and saving and drooling for over a year now over my dehydrator. I cut up 10 apples tonight and filled my twelve shelves to make apple chips. It was a big difference loading it up as opposed to my old one. It took me half an hour to fully load it and that didn't include cutting or treating them in lemon juice. I will let you know tomorrow how it all went. Needless to say we are all excited to see how it worked and to begin our new journey into super sized dehydrating! Can't wait to try jerky, we'll do strawberries in the next couple weeks along with who knows what!