A type of homeschooling?

Only in my house would this happen. This morning after breakfast I tell chick #1 to go and take a shower so that we can do our errands. After I finished getting Chick #4 dressed down to the shoes, I begin to look for the ever famous Chick #3. I have to brush out her hair and make sure that she actually has socks on her feet. Low and behold I find her in the bathroom and she holding the children's encyclopedia for Chick#1 so that she can learn about plants while she is in the shower. What! Now reading books is all well and good but I must draw the line at trying to read books in the shower. Another thing I am pondering is the fact that Chick #3 is an accomplice in this. Is she Chick#1's lady in waiting? It is just so funny to witness the things that these little Chicks do.

More visitors

Mark, Gina and John came for a clinic appt. with John's doctors in our area. I was more than excited to have them stay here at the Hen house for a few days. The chicks were all very excited to play with John again and visit with this kind family. They will be back in a few weeks for more appointment so we will be together once again. John kept the table entertained during breakfast by hiding under the table cloth or place mat. As soon as he got the chicks laughing he would ham it up a little more. Last night we had a little looper gathering with 8 adults and 16 children at Diane's house, 14 of the kids were 11 or under. As you can imagine there was a lot of activity in the house. Diane took picture and I might get to post a few of them later on.

A Week With Parents

My Mom and Dad came to spend the week with us over Thanksgiving. It is always so wonderful to have family staying at our house. The house just seems warmer and I love preparing food for more people. While they were here, we went to a pancake feed to help a seminary in Russia.
This was an ultimate pancake feed with fruit topping and whipped cream. My father is the man with the beard in the red and my mother is sitting next to him in the blue. You may also recognize the red headed pastor from some of the Higher Things conferences. He goes over to Russia and teaches in the seminary every few years.

My Dad was busy working on some questions for a lay leadership course he is taking. Little chick #4 wanted to do work on a laptop just like his PaPa.

NaNa, the Chicks and I went for a lovely walk on Monday. The weather was beautiful with a high of about 73. It is not often that one can go for a walk in November without a coat on. We are shown here walking on our local bike trail. I simply love these trails and have seen them change all year long.

Then on Thanksgiving we had a lovely dinner! It was very wonderful to have such good company and good food again! On Thanksgiving Eve I had to miss church because Chick #3 was felling a bit under the weather. She felt so bad that she could not go to church with every one else, but after I explained to her that we did not want anyone at church to get sick too she seemed to understand. I held her and talked to her while we watched a movie. Then I read a few bible stories to her while she rested.

Later that night we made a gingerbread house. My mom had never made one before and she and PaPa had a lot of fun decorating it with the four little chicks.

During the week there was one unwelcome guest at our house. A pesky little stomach bug made the round from chick to chick. My Mother was a great help and did a lot of my laundry from the week. I washed my fair share of sheets this week too. I think that it is now gone through all of the chicks and is over. I am feeling a little under the weather today but it is not anything that I can not live with. Chick #1 was the last to fight with the bug and today she is back to her old self. She helped clean a lot of the house by wiping things down with disinfectant wipes. Those sure do come in handy when you are cleaning bathrooms a few times a day. Hopeful tomorrow all will be well in the Hen house again.

Ahhhh!

I have found myself, this afternoon in a completely quiet house. This happens to me every now and then. If I were to put a number on it I would have to say maybe 6 or 8 times a year. The Rooster had to run and errand this afternoon and took the older three chicks with him. I am home the the littlest chick who is taken a much needed nap. At times when I am here alone (almost) I wonder what my life will be like when these little chicks have flown away. Will my days still be spent at home making a nice place for The Rooster and me? Will I maybe find a job outside the home? Will all of my little chicks stay close by and I will be baking cookies from them to munch on. Meanwhile I will enjoy my little bit of solitude and then vacuum the house. After all, my parents are coming to visit for of whole week this evening. It will be a wonderful week.

Italy, here I come baby

I like the boots plus the food would not be to bad either.

Your Inner European is Italian!

Passionate and colorful. You show the world what culture really is.

Who's Your Inner European?

It's all good

Nothing can be better than an evening filled with good company and good food. A fellow MartinLooper came to my neck of the woods for some shopping with her Mother. She wanted to know if I wanted to meet her and visit for a while. I, of course, jump at the chance to get out of the house and spend some times with friends. So I sprang to action and called fellow loopers and planned an evening. Diane, a good friend came along and then we drove to pick up Gina and John. Diane and I had never been to the Cheesecake Factory. So we suggested it as a meeting place. Wow! The restaurant was amazing! The decor was breathtaking and food was divine. It took our group of ladies quite a while to decide what to order. We giggled and laughed while reading through the menu. Finally, the orders were placed and lively conversation ensued while we waited for the meal. John was all smiles the whole time and kept everyone entertained. When the food was brought out to our table we gasped at the enormous size of the plates and portions. I really believe that my salad could have fed a third world country. OK, I may be exaggerating but it really was a huge plate of salad. I ate about a third of it and then enjoyed the rest for lunch today. Her I am with the gigantic salad!

John is one of the most patient little three year old boys I have ever seen. He sat so well during our two hours visit. Here he is with Gina lovely plate of pasta.

After a while he did want to move around a little so the little guy sat between Gina and me. I have spent a lot of time with him over the past month but usually the Chicks are playing with him while Gina and I talk. I did not get into the act of playing with him so often. Last night he really was teasing me. He wanted to sword fight with the butter knifes and I had to defend myself. Then he would giggle and carry on. He wanted me to tickle him with my long hair then he would pretend to cut it with his butter knife. Tiger, his semi famous stuffed toy, had to get in on the act too. I made a Kleenex cape for him and he flew over the table. I tryed to get John to eat one of the little madarin oranges that were in my salad. But he thought it was more fun to squish them up and try to feed them to Tiger.
We could not go the The Cheesecake Factory with out ordering cheese cake could we. The menu of cheesecakes was just as overwhelming to me as the entree menu. After we finally ordered and the cakes were brought out, John knew just what to go for. The whipped cream! It was good to seem him enjoy it. Notice his round little cheeks? We can only pray that they will become rounder with time. Gina just called me after lunch today and told me that they are going home today. This is a time of rejoicing and sadness. I am so glad that John is now strong enough to return home but I will miss getting to see my new found friend. John will have to be coming back up to the hospital here is a few weeks and Gina, Mark and John will be staying at The Hen House. It will be good to see her again. During that visit we will be having another Looper close by so there will be more laughter with Wendy and her lost boys.

When it rains it pours

Just ask my husband and he will tell you that it is true. It never fails, that if one thing break in our house there will soon be another thing to follow it. Lets go back to last Saturday. My trusty kitchen aid mixer was kneading my bread dough and I walked away to check on one of the little chicks. Suddenly, The Rooster came up to me and told me that he turned off my mixer because it stopped. WHAT? I was trying to wrap my chicken brain around what he was telling me. How does a mixer just stop? Maybe he was trying to say that he turned it off? I always set my timer to beep when the mixer has kneaded the dough for the right amount of time. It usually takes about 6 min. for the dough to turn out right. I asked The Rooster, "You mean that you turned it off, right?" "No", he said. "It shut off so I turned the switch off". Now my mind was racing, could my mixer be broken? Oh the horror, I use this thing all of the time. It was the The Roosters idea to buy me this heavy duty mixer after I kept burning up hand held ones. The model we bought was a reconditioned model because we could have never afforded to but a 6 quart mixer any other way. The Rooster and I established that, yes, the mix was broke. I then look at my husband with pleading eyes. "Dear", I say, "You are able to repair presses that are as big as our house, surly you can fix this little mixer." The Rooster then took apart my mixer, that I am secretly in love with, and figured out that the motor is going bad. Good! We just need to get a motor. Well that statement is easier typed than done. Now the Internet is a wonderful thing and after much surfing and a phone call to acquire and differ part number, he was able to locate a company that sells the motors for these mixers. Mean while, in the hen house, that left me to do manual labor.

Poor Poor mixer!
Notice the bulging muscles from kneaded dough for 6 minutes. Just joking! Let me tell you that those women of the past must have had wrists and elbows of steel. Mine began to hurt after only a few minutes.

The vacuum then decided that it would try to copy the mixer buy busting a plastic piece that holds that tubes together that are used with the beater brush. Duck tape temporarily fixed that break down so I could vacuum the filth and live with the way the floor looked. Hopefully, both of these parts will find their way through the postal system and end up on my door step soon.

cooking and baking and chopping

Yesterday I had a busy day at home. In the morning while chick #3 was at dance lessons I took the older chicks out for nice bike ride. The weather was a little cool and Chick #2 and I really enjoyed the ride. Chick #1 is not a girl up for challenges so she did not have as much fun as we did. But at least we made it home safe. Then I was to spend the rest of my day in the kitchen. I had to make a potato salad for our soup supper at church. Then I finished up the bread that I had soaked the day before. I made green chili for lunch and garlic chicken for supper. The green chili was an accidental dish that I was forced into making because we did not have any canned tomatoes. That is really a bummer when you have your heart set on something and then a key ingredient is missing. I recalled that I had heard you can make green chili using green tomatoes, so I gave that a try. After I perfect the recipe a little I might blog about that and then you can try it. We all agreed that it was good enough and everyone liked it. I then decided to freeze some of our many green tomatoes. If you read this blog often you remember that this is not a good year for tomatoes here. This is me whining about it.

Here are some of the green tomatoes that Chick #1 went and picked for me. I figured I should try them in something because there are just so many of them. I know that the Ugly duckling has been snacking on them because I have found them laying around in the yard.

Chick #3 helped with the washing and the taking off the tops. She talked for the tomatoes the whole time she helped me.

Then I did the chopping.

They look pretty don't they.

Then the little guys were stuffed in bags. Chick #3 thought that this looked liked the best part and, of course, the best job. She had to try her hand at this too. But the tomatoes got a little to excited in the ride they had in the spoon from the bowl to the bag. Every time she would have about five pieces end up on the floor and just could not figure out why. I figure that I now have enough for three batches of green chili. The next time I make some I will share that adventure with you.

Holidays

Happy Halloween and Happy Reformation from the Lutheran Hen! May the chocolate harvest commence!

Birthdays

This is a picture of chick #1 when she was a wee little babe. Today is celebrating her 10th birthday. She is very excited to be growing up and learning more new things.
We had her party on Saturday with three of her friends plus the other chicks. There was rollerskating in the morning followed by lunch and then cake and ice cream. She still has that beautiful dark hair that she was born with. I gave her a special gift since she is turning ten and is now a pre-teen. She received a girly bag this morning with the American Girl book about growing up in it. I added person care items, lip gloss, a little training bra, a cute little bag, body spray and shower gel. She is looking forward to all of the new changes that will soon be happening to her.

She also received this dress from her Godparents and their daughter and son-in-law. It matched one of my skirts so well that we thought we would dress the same for Church on Sunday. Chick #2 took the picture of us because the Rooster stayed at church for the voters meeting. I thought I would add this picture of myself because it is my birthday today also.

Tagged again

I have been tagged with this item once before so maybe I should come up with seven new things. Oh the turmoil of trying to think of seven things that my readers do not know about me. That is a little hard because three of my most faithful readers are very close to me. My mother, sister and life long friend. Well I will discount them because that would just be to hard. If you want to see my answers from last time click here
So now, thank you Laura for tagging me.

Here are the rules.
1. Link the person who has tagged you.
2. Tell seven true things about yourself.
3. Tag seven new people.
4. Leave a message with the person you have tagged so they know about it.

Seven truths
1. I am short only 5'2". I maybe little but I am feisty, not really ;)

2. I sing soprano and I am a diva!

3. I like to wear a single silver toe ring in the summer.

4. I have taken oven 700 pictures since January! Holy Moly

5. Holy Moly is my new favorite saying! I say it really loud and stretch out. The chicks think that it is a hoot.

6. Evey time I try to scrapbook I become so guilt ridden that I can not stand to do it. Chick #1's book is only done until she is 8 months old. She is now almost 10 years old and I will not even bring up the other chick's books. Poor me! Just think how far behind I am with having taken 700 pictures in 10 months. Oh! I can not even think about it. Quick I need to change the subject.

7. Last but not least, ummm! well! Oh darn what should I say now. Can it be about the Rooster and I both? Well, here it is, when we go out to do anything we are both very undeceive. We can never decide what to do, where to go, and what to eat. We always want the other to have what they want so we can never decide on anything.

Now who should I tag? I think that just about everyone has done this. Well I will tag Caroline ,Gina ,Ree, hey, I can dream that she may someday look at my little blog can't I. And The Funny Farm

Ok, I think that I have used way to many brain cells for a Friday night. I give up at four. Of course if anyone would want to tell more unknowns about yourself go ahead!

School???

Homeschooling is not always easy, actually it is really hard sometimes. You know the times, the children all gathered at your feet, coloring lovely pictures while you read great literature to them. Then something happens to this wonderful picture, it is disturbed and the focus is totally lost. The dog wants to be the center of attention and is walking around with a box on his nose. He prances, he shows off, he takes it off and then quickly put it back on his nose all for the sake of a laugh. I hope you enjoy the show.

Tapping chicks

This is for NaNa and PaPa because one video just would not be enough. Chick #1 is getting a little tuckered out by this time but I would too after an hour of dancing.

Dancing chicks

Last night chick #1 had her visitors night at the dance studio. Chick#3 wanted to dance with her big sister so she put on her dance clothes tried to keep up the whole lesson. As you can see Chick #1 legs are not long enough to completely reach the bar, but little chick #3 finally got her leg up there too. The teacher was even laughing at that. Chick #1 is the youngest in her class but this year she really seems to be paying better attention. Never once does she complain about going to lessons. On Saturday it will be chick #3 turn for visitors day and we will get to see what she learned this year.


I added this picture of dancing chicks just to be funny.

I hope you enjoy the video of the girls doing ballet warm ups.


on

A Little Boy

Yesterday my brood and I travel to visit with John and his Mother in the hospital. I enjoy these visits just as much as they do and we seem to enjoy each others company. John took great joy in watch Chick #2 try to juggle and then tease Chick #3. I think we might have wore the little guy out because he sat in his stroller for quite a while. He started to become uncomfortable so his Mother moved him back to bed. Between the stroller and all of the i.v.s and tubes he became a little tangled so I helped out. I had never held John before and his little boy's body is so light and frail. Yet, even in this state, he can smile and bring joy to the people around him. He was showing the nurses the signs for different letters and they marveled over him. After he was settled in bed and received his meds he took a well deserved nap. His Mother is ever at his side and is strong for him. When he is in pain she coos words of comfort to him in a way only a Mother could. I watched, before me, feminism in it best term. A mother sacrificing everything for her child. God has made women for a reason, to raise children and help the man that is married to her. It is not a coincidence that we were made second after man. God did for a reason. It is his order. He has given all women a vocation as helper. John's Mother has taken on this role in a way that none of us could ever understand. She is the ever vigilant Mother by her sons side. "You go girl!" Now that, in all good cases is, "I am woman hear me roar!"

Posts

It seemed that the topic of apples was very well enjoyed be everyone. I was surprised over how many comments had been posted on the topic. Sorry to say, but I will not be baking with apples again any time soon. I did make some delicious pumpkin bread on this past Saturday. I guessed I should have blogged about that as well.

Standing at the sink

Before next apple season I need to make a purchase. I spent way to much time standing in front of my kitchen sink peeling apples with a knife. Many interesting things happen while a mother is so occupied with fruit. Chick #3 pick up a Bob book and started to read it by herself. My oldest daughter, Chick #1 watch me a long time and thought that it looked to be the funnest thing in the world. She was amazed that the knife could touch my thumb with every cut and not injure me. She thought that maybe she should try but I am not ready to have my oldest daughter cutting apples with really sharp knives. I do not know what it is with mothers but we are always trying to hold that first child back. "Oh, they are not old enough yet", we tell ourselves. Then we have a third and fourth and they show us how wrong we were and how capable and inventive they can be. My poor hand started to ache from pealing and cutting up so many apples.


I made one really nice batch of applesauce and it tasted just wonderful. Never have I tasted applesauce with such flavor. Well. once when I was at my friends house, she served us some of her applesauce and it was very tasty. I figured that this year I would make it down to the apple orchard and buy a mess of apples so I could try it for myself. I kept that sauce as natural as possible by only adding a little cinnamon and brown sugar after the apples had cooked down.
Then I placed the sauce in jars and gave them a nice hot water bath. Don't the jars look so beautiful? I do not know what it is with food in canning jars, it just make me feel all warm inside. Oh, wait I am all warm inside because I had to do all of the hard work to get the scrumptious food in those pretty jars.
Of course a bunch of apples could not survive in my house with finding their way into a pie. I have a goal in my life to make a perfect looking apple pie that also tastes wonderful. I was close yet again but have not yet mastered it. I simply loved the way that my pie looked after it was done. The crust worked well for me while I was rolling it and placing it in the pan. But when I cut open the cooked pie is was hollow on the top. The apples had cooked down and the crust had stayed in its place. I am not sure how to fix this problem. I pressed the apples firmly down into the pie plate. Maybe it was the egg wash that I put onto the crust. Could it be that it got to firm and then the crust could not settle down onto the apples? I do not know. It sure does taste good with ice cream! Yum!

In His hands!

On Sunday we had an extremely windy day here. It was the kind of wind that would blow you into the person you were walking next to. I know this because it literally happened to me. In the afternoon we went and participated in the local JDRF walk. If you do not know what that acronym stands for it is for Juvenal Diabetes Research Foundation. One of my husbands co-worker's son has diabetes so we walk every year to support them. While on this walk, in 50 mile per hour winds, I bumped into my children a few times. Our stroller would have blown across the parking lot with our son in it if we would not have been holding it. Now, in our front yard we have a young tree. It is probably about 13-16 years old. I really do not know, but the poor thing had a crack right down the middle of the tree. It did not go all the to its base, the crack was only about a foot and a half long. The Rooster and I had been worried about the tree falling apart and we were planning to cut it down as soon as we could. The day before one of the Roosters friends had came over to help in the cutting down of the tree but it did not happen because of the wind that day. We had no way to know were it would fall and you can tell by the picture that there are many power lines close by. So we scraped the idea and watched football. After we came home from the walk on Sunday, God took care of the tree and our children. Chick #4 had fallen asleep on the way home so I had to carry him up to his room when we arrived home. Chick #3 had to use the bathroom so thankfully she was quickly in the house and safe. The older 2 chicks were helping get things in from the car when "Crack", half of the tree fell. Chick #1 was next to the vehicle which was parked up by the house. So she was safe and sound. Chick #2 jumped onto the porch and watched the tree fall. He thought this was all very exciting and the Rooster and I were a little shaken. I told the chicks that God's holy angle was with us and the evil foe had no power over us. So now for the time being we have a crooked tree in our front yard.



Notice that the tree did not hit anything! God can do a much better job at these things that we can.
Here is our poor tree. It will come completely down this next week and then we maybe planting a new one. That issue is currently a topic of discussion at our hen house.

New Friends

I have met a really wonderful new friend. I know that in the past I have spoken about Martin Loopers before and I have had the opportunity to meet yet another one of these amazing people. Her son is in a hospital close to where I live and they are living there until his body is healthy and well again. While she and her son are there they do not have any transportation. I went and pick them both up and brought them to my house for some down time and good cooking. We have had so much fun on these visits and last night we laughed to much during dinner. It is always a good thing to get the giggles. I do not think that this happens enough in our world today. If you would like to check out how my friends son is doing you can check out her blog at http://simuljustisetpecatur.blogspot.com/ Little John is going to be having surgery on Friday so we should all remember to say a pray for him and his family.

I have been AWOL

The past few weeks have been busy in our house. We are now in the full swing of homeschooling. My dear husband is teaching the older two Latin this year so it should be interesting. Our new little homeschooler (chick #3) is doing well. I am teaching her reading and handwriting. Hopefully her numbers will improve soon so that she can start doing more math. The older ones seem to be handling their studies just fine. They are studying Math-u-see Delta and Beta, Christian Liberty Press Handwriting, Spelling Power, Story of the World Three, Apologia Science Zoology 2, English for the thoughtful child 1 and 2, Writing Strands 3, Prima Latin, Catechism work, Piano, plus studying musical composers. Do you now understand why I have not blogged in some time. I am also going to have the older two study some children's Lit. using the study guilds that are put out by Veritas Press. I just want each of them to go through two this year. They will of course be reading other books beside these two.
Chick #1 is reading the Harry Potter books right now. I read them first then I give them to her to read through. The little girl has much more time to read than I do so she is now waiting for me to finish book 3. I want to make sure that there is not anything to scary in them for her to read about. I have been keeping up with all of our laundry and I even got rid of some stuff. Chick #3 had way to much clothes and it would not all fit into her dresser. We have solved that problem by taken a huge bad to Goodwill. The chicks and I also went through toys and got rid of things that never got played with. It was getting just awful with the amount of toys we had tin the house. There was not room for them to be put away. I seem to have to do this every fall so that there will be room for the new things that will come into the house during birthdays and Christmas. I still need to read science to the little chicks so I should get going and do my duties. Hopefully it will not be so long between my posts again.