Fresh Bellpeppers

Nap Time

After playing hard all morning.

Esther and Marriana decided to put themselves down for a nap and share a blanket.

They weren't too sure about the bumping feet part though.

We did put them in their own spots after this.

Haircut

Joel's hair grows very fast. So he was overdue another haircut.
Matthew and Marriana squeezed themselves onto the stool and supported each other from falling off while they watched the grand event.

Joel was almost still.

The hair tickles his nose and then he wiggles.

Baby Bump Pictures

Tim took this a while ago with his cell phone from inside his office. I think I was about 27 weeks here, maybe just past the 26 week.

I've got to get somebody to get a better picture.

I love baby bump pictures - but I'm something of an odd bird in my family, most avoid the camera while pregnant.

This is the last picture taken while pregnant with Kenrda - 35 or 36 weeks. She was born at 37 weeks and 2 days.

That's Vannan. Mom took that on the Saturday before Vannan was born - her due date. She arrived 2 days later on our 7th Anniversary.

And here I am in labor with Joel. My water had broken several hours before. He was only a little past 37 weeks too, 4 or 5 days. And exactly 7 days after my birthday.

7 seems to show up a lot in our family.

Jr. Church Lesson

In a moment of insanity (actually, I enjoy it), I volunteered to teach the preschoolers and kindergartners for Jr. Church,
often they would end up in the nursery, and with several new babies arriving, it was getting quite crowded.

This group is usually the same 4 or 5 boys each week - wiggly, but very smart and they LOVE the interaction and learning of these lessons. And boy can they ask some interesting questions!
Bethie joined us for a while, but has decided she would rather sit with her Daddy and does quite well most days.

We started the summer with Creation and made a hanging mobile for their rooms with each day of creation hung from a paper plate. Joel has his in his room and loves to talk about it.

The was the last day of our second unit. We talked about how Sin entered the world and how God had a Big Plan for our salvation using the 6 colors of the wordless book.
Black = Sin we are born with since Adam
Red = Jesus' Blood from his sacrifice on the cross
White = Clean Heart of Salvation when we accept God's gift
Green = Growing as God's child - Praying, Bible Reading, Church, Obedience, Witnessing...
Purple = Being Adopted into God's Family
Yellow = Our Home in Heaven

Our books were not quite wordless. You can see them hanging over to the right of the chalk board. We put some verses in them and wrote our key words. Joel floored me by copying his from the chalk board all by himself. He had trouble with the longer words - but I was surprised he could do it.

They may look bored - but I assure you they are not. They pop up with questions every few minutes. Good questions too. And I ask them questions. And we REVIEW a lot.

My art work is nothing special. It makes the kids giggle a lot. This is suppose to be a picture of heaven's walls.

At this point Kendra was tackled and the camera taken....

Not really, but they DID all hide from the camera.

She was going to take a picture of the craft, but it got rather hectic and the next thing we knew, we were saying goodbye.

Dump Truck Alarm Clock

The other Sunday morning, we were all still asleep at 7:00, when a dump truck pulled into the driveway and started dumping dirt!

Now I knew Dad had said he had ordered dirt - but not when it was coming.

It sure did a great job of waking us up - but I forgot to take any pictures ... besides, we were all still in our jammies.

So about an hour later - here it comes again. And this time I had Vannan run outside and take some pictures.

That's a lot of dirt.

Papa smoothed out the dirt later with his tractor.

It rained some.

Monday morning, Tim's Dad came up and the two of them mixed in several bags of lime.
and smoothed the dirt some more.

This is one project that has been long overdue.

Dad / Papa says he is thinking about having them dump one more load.

It rained hard after that, and some of the lime washed out, but the red clay did mostly stay where it was put. Much better than the sand that now is packed against the back goat fence and in the pond .... from rains over the last several years.

Car Down Again

Tim was planning a trip home today from his parents house, but didn't get very far before the car stalled again.

It's now sitting at his parents house - and his brother brought him home when he went home. Not exactly on the way, but not SO far out of the way either.

Sigh. Not sure what to do with that car anymore.