Just Thursday

Ho, hum. It's Thrusday and I'm just rambling today. We've had a little of a rough week this week. Our family has been under the 'stomach bug'. We've been waking up in the middle of the night to poop and vomit. We've had to change our eating to the B.R.A.T.T. diet (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast and tea) and all things fatty (yep, fries, mac-n-cheese, anything with 'gerth' I guess). It's been lovely. However, every morning that I wake up, I am thankful for our Heavenly Father's provision of a roof over our heads, food on the table and physicians, should we need them. The kiddos have stayed pretty hydrated, given the circumstances.

Rain

We've received a bit of rain here and there which has been nice.

Chickens

Chickens are continuing to lay eggs. We collect anywhere from 4-6 per day. It's halarious where they find places to lay their eggs. We have a bike trailer in the backyard and one hen has made her nest there. Another hen likes to lay her eggs in the shed amongst the bale of hay we keep for their coop. It's too cute.

Caterpillars

We're in the midst of watching the metamorphasis cycle take place with our Monarch caterpillars. We do this every year...buy a few Milkweed plants, place them in our yard for butterflies to lay their eggs and observe them until they are butterflies and are ready to enter the 'big world'. We release them after a few days and look forward to the next May when we get to do it all over again.

Still No Camera

Still no working camera. We have two cameras and neither of them work. It's sad that sometimes, I get 'camera cravings' to snap away at neat exeperiences or happenings around the house/yard, but alas, I remember that I have nothing to capture these memories with. Darn.

United States Unit

Avonlea has really enjoyed learning about the United States for the past few weeks. It's our summer goal to get through all 50 states, learing a little about each one, Mastering The 50 States That Rhyme song (we're almost there!), reading books about our country and creating a 50 States notebook. We're just coloring the states and doing a few odds and ends here and there with it now that she's only 4, but as the years pass, we'll be able to add more to it. Gotta love binders! :)

Here's the song that Avonlea almost has down pat...

Summertime

I've been really contimplating what to do over the summer. I know many fellow homeschooling moms have suggested keeping their little ones 'doing school' over the summer (light, nothing crazy) to keep them in some sort of schedule so that when fall hits, you're not teaching them all over again. I did that last year and we only took a break when we had company. Still contimplating though. We're really pulling for some Brittish company this summer though...hint, hint Drydens! :) Grandma will be here from China NEXT WEEK! Avonlea is already counting down the days. We all know that Grandma LOVES blueberries, so we have some blueberry farms that are local here in which we are planning on visiting. We'll definately be buying some in bulk blueberries to eat and can. Which leads me to my next area of topic...

Canning

I'm so excited to share with you all that I had my first successful canning adventure last week. I found...get this...organic peaches at our local health food store. Organic peaches! You can never find organic peaches!! They're the #1 thing you should always eat organic (the soft skin allows for all pesticide to pretty much enter the fruit) and I can't even find them already in the can at the grocery store. Anyway, I found organic peaches last week and bought 7 pounds of them. I brought them home and started canning. They taste so great and it's one of Avonlea's favorite fruits. Hooray for canning! I can't wait to pick blueberries soon.

Birthdays

Lincoln and Norah's birthdays are coming up next month and I get giddy around birthday time. It's a time when we celebrate not only their birth, but Rob's and my accomplishments as parents. I still can't believe my son will be THREE and my baby girl will be ONE. We've already had their birthday photos taken and if I could just get my scanner to work (see, I think my computer just has this thing against me sharing photos/videos with you all), I would share them with you. Patience, patience.

I know that this is a shlew (my new word) of things all at once, but just thought I'd catch everyone up. There's so much more I want to share, but ahh, never enough time in the day.

I'll leave you with this verse today...

(This verse has kept me going when it got tough this week. Yes, cleaning up poop and vomit!)

"My grace is sufficient for you , for my power is made perfect in weakness."

II Corinthians 12:9