New Chicks in the House

Our new chickens: Tawny and Pepper (for obvious reasons!)

The limb that fell off the tree next door. Can you see the hollow inside?

Silas and Micah in front of our tent.

No, not actually in the house. But we were given some chicks - 6 week old ones. We don't know yet if they are hens or roosters. We have been talking about whether or not to get some chickens. Last Monday, a lady from church called us and said she didn't want her two chickens, and asked if we wanted them. So here we are. Our plan now is to get a few more when Jeremy builds a bigger coop. Two chickens won't provide enough eggs for our family - especially if one ends up being a rooster!

I had some more pictures I wanted to share with you. We camped one night on the way to our conference last month, and really enjoyed ourselves. By the time we got into the campground and set up the tent, we didn't have time to build the fire and let the boys roast marshmallows like we had promised, so we did it after breakfast the next morning. Nothing like a lot of sweet early in the morning!

Our church will be having VBS in July starting on the 13th. We are getting ready for that. We are doing Son Rock camp (I think that's what it's called). We might even set up our tent for decoration. So far, we have enough workers that I won't need to be involved. I don't mind helping, but trying to lead or teach is difficult when I have so many little ones that can't go. But I think we have all of the teachers we need.

We are planning a big 4th of July picnic here at the church this year. Jeremy has been making big plans, and from what I hear everyone is excited about it! It will start at 10 am with a ping pong tournament inside the fellowship hall. Around noon, there will be a BBQ/potluck. The church is providing the meat and buns with the church family bringing sides, etc. During the afternoon, Jeremy is planning on having lots of different games available for people to play - like croquet, kick ball, frisbee golf, etc. Then in the evening, they will be showing a movie outside (with the movie being projected up on the outside wall of the building). I think they will show WallE or something like that. We are hoping for a big turnout of church people, and hopefully they will personally invite their friends to come as well.

Jeremy's mom and sister came to visit us a couple of weeks ago. We really enjoyed our time together. On Jeremy's day off while they were here, we took a hike behind the park in Eureka (Robby ended up with a tick), and then we walked around old town Eureka. We had a good time. The day before they left, part of a tree right in front of the business next door cracked and crashed to the ground. It was quite an interesting sound. We are grateful that it didn't hit the church or our house and that no one was hurt. When we went over to investigate, we saw that the inside of the tree was completely hollow.

Annalee has gotten her first tooth. I can't believe how time flies. I don't know that it's ever easier to see how quickly time flies than when you have a newborn baby. It seems like she was born just yesterday! She is not crawling yet, but rocking back and forth on her hands and knees. And she loves her homemade baby cereal. We started making her cereal out of brown rice flour and white bean flour. We mix them together, then cook them in a dry pot until slightly brown. Then we keep it in the freezer. It cooks in just a minute in the microwave, then we add fruit. Not only does Anna really enjoy it, but also Micah and Zeke. They are constantly asking Dad if they can have some, too.

I posted a recipe for dishwasher soap a while ago and mentioned that I also had a recipe for laundry soap. Well, I had someone email me and ask me for the recipe, so I thought I would post it for anyone else that might want it. I have been using this laundry soap for 4 years now.

Laundry Soap

1 bar Fels Naptha

1 cup washing soda (not baking soda)

1 cup Borax

Grate the Fels Naptha soap into a pan; add 4 cups of water. Cook over medium (or low) heat until soap is dissolved. Pour into a 5 gallon bucket and add 3 gallons of hot tap water. Stir in washing soda and Borax. Stir until well mixed. Let set up over night. This only takes about 1/3 cup or so per load. I don't measure it - I just use an old laundry scoop. I find Fels Naptha, washing soda and Borax at WinCo (can also be ordered online).

Conference at Graeagle

We're home! We had such a wonderful time at conference this week! It all started Sunday when we tried to leave around 3:30 pm to find out that our battery was dead! I had plugged in our cooler (in the van) before church so that it would be cool for us to put food in by the time we were ready to go. Combined with the boys leaving the doors open the whole time we were trying to pack, we ended up with a dead battery when we were finally ready to leave. So we ended up having two board members come over to help us jump the van. So we didn't really get to leave until around 5 pm. We drove to Redding and camped just outside of Redding on Sunday night (the little town was actually called Whiskeytown). We got there too late to have a fire and roast marshmallows like we had promised the boys. By the time we set up the tent and got everyone ready for bed, it was around 9:30pm. So we let the boys roast marshmallows the next morning after breakfast. Monday morning, we left Redding around 10:30 am, and arrived in Graeagle around 3:00pm. Lots of driving - however, the drive was beautiful. I love the rugged beauty of the Sierras! We stayed in a hotel for the week (as did many other VM families), but instead of a hotel room, we had a little cabin. That was wonderful! We didn't have to worry about waking up those underneath us, etc. Tuesday after the morning session, Jeremy had the opportunity to shoot a round of golf. He loved it, and said the course was amazing! They normally charge $130 per round, but allowed those that wanted to golf, to do so for free! What a blessing! The kids and I spent the afternoon in the green grassy area behind our cabin with the wives and kids of 3 other VM pastors. We had a great time of fellowship while we sat around and watched the kids play. Wednesday after lunch, our family drove into Portola and looked around downtown (very cute and quaint) before driving back to the cabin and letting the older boys go swimming in the pool. We decided to leave Thursday afternoon and miss the barbeque so that we could get home and get things ready for Jeremy's mom and sister coming on Saturday. We're so glad we did. The grass really needed to be mowed, the house cleaned, the van emptied, and the boys' hair all needed cutting.
Back to conference, the messages were great! Instead of having a speaker come in, it was set up so a different VM pastor spoke at all of the sessions about different topics. One was about vision in ministry (which I also felt could be applied to vision in family as well), pain in ministry, longevity in ministry. Jeremy and I both really enjoyed the speaking, and it was really neat to hear the difference in preaching styles. We are already looking forward to next year's conference - if they are able to get one together. We appreciate all of your prayers for our safety and refreshing. God answered mightily!

Wonderful Days of Summer

On our way down to the tide pools at Patrick Point State Park. It was quite a climb!

A pulley that Jeremy and the boys rigged up in our backyard. The boys all love it!

Micah after watching a family movie. We thought this looked like he had been shot down, and had to take a picture!

I wrote the title tongue in cheek. We have had a break from the heat for the last few days, yesterday and today actually being cloudy. This afternoon, the sky broke open with a hailstorm - pretty good-sized hail, too. And it was really loud on the roof. Silas told me today that he doesn't like storms. I told him that God is showing us how powerful He is! It must have stuck a little, because he told his older brothers about it later.

Next week, we are going to a conference in Graeagle, CA. We will leave Sunday afternoon, and spend the night in Redding, before heading down on Monday. We are all excited! It gets over on Friday, and then we will be heading home. Jeremy's mom and sister are coming down for a visit on Saturday. So the next couple of weeks will be a whirlwind of activity, but we are very excited - both about the conference, and about our company.

I got a recipe from my mother-in-law for dishwashing soap. It has been so much fun to find all of these homemade recipes, and to see how we end up buying less and less from the actual grocery store! We have started making homemade laundry soap, dishwashing soap, cereal, granola, baby food; I still have recipes for different kinds of crackers, but just haven't tried making them yet. I thought I would start posting some of these recipes just in case someone else is interested in saving money, and making things from home.

Dishwashing Soap:

1 cup borax

1 cup washing soda

1/4 cup citric acid

I found the borax and washing soda at WinCo. The citric acid we found at the health food store, but is a little pricey - $7.99 a pound. But with the little bit we use for the soap, it is still at least comparative if not cheaper than what you can buy at the store. My mother-in-law just told me to put vinegar in for the RinseAid.

Grow, Baby, Grow

By the time I got Anna to smile, everyone else had decided to look away!

All by herself! Isn't she getting big?

I just have a quick minute to update you, dear reader, on the growth of baby Annalee. I hope soon to be able to have some time to update about all the boys, too, but right now, it's Anna. She is growing like a weed. Jeremy weighed her on the scale the other day, and we estimate that she is about 16 pounds. She can sit up by herself when we put her in that position. And she looks pretty cute doing it, too. She is also getting up on her hands and knees and rocking back and forth. I think she'll be trying to crawl really soon. She also likes to gnaw on anything she can get her hands on. I don't feel anything teeth coming in yet, but probably pretty soon. We started her on baby cereal about a week ago. Homemade baby cereal consisting of brown rice flour mixed with white bean flour, and then some applesauce or bananas added. She really enjoys it. We feed her cereal right before she goes to bed for the night, and it helps her sleep a lot longer, too. Last night, she slept from around 11 pm until about 10 am.

We are really looking forward to the conference here in California at the beginning of June. The SW district rep and his wife are putting together a Summer Connection in lieu of Village Missions conference. It is June 8-12, and will have something for all of the kids as well. We are very excited.

Sweet baby Annalee

Annalee enjoying some noses with her Daddy. Isn't she sweet?

I am going to try this again for the third time. I have tried to update this blog twice now, and something has happened both times. Jeremy finally got his new laptop, so I am using his old one, and I think there are too many programs on here. He is going to take the time to delete a bunch of his files, and things, but he hasn't yet. Anyways, all this to say, I've tried twice, and had it fail, so we will try again.

Anna is such a cute, cuddly baby. She loves to snuggle - at least with mom and dad. We have been giving her noses (nonees as we used to call them with the boys), but she will just sit there. It really is so cute. I got a picture of it a few nights ago, and got one picture before she was more interested in the camera than giving daddy noses. We also started her on some baby food a few nights ago. We have been making our own baby cereal, and she seems to really like it.

Last weekend, Robby and Josh got to go to a Christian concert at Great America. The board chairman took his son, Rob, Josh and two other boys from church down to San Jose to see Mercy Me, Lincoln Brewster, and two other bands. They really had a good time, and even brought me home a Mercy Me cd for Mother's Day.

Yesterday was the end of the year bowling party for Pioneer Club. We took 20 kids into Eureka to go bowling and have lunch at McDonald's. It was quite a riot! We had 3 cars and 5 adults to oversee everything. I think the kids all had fun, though. We are starting to plan for VBS this summer. It will be in July.

We are going through another heatwave. It's supposed to be around 100 today. Whew! Right now, we are just kind of staying in the house in the middle of the day. Quite a difference from the Alaska summer that we had just last year!

Beach Pictures

Here's a star fish that someone found and showed to our kids. Rob and Josh held it.

The boys and I - and the beautiful ocean.

Jeremy and the kids on a climbing rock at the beach.

The boys all having fun in the warm sand.

After we finished at the beach, we stopped at the marine laboratory (part of the Humboldt State University). We got to see an octopus that tried to attack us, but then realized he couldn't get to us, so he condensed his body back down to fit in his hiding spot, then a few minutes later, he had spots on his body to hide himself and blend into his environment. We also saw a flounder, some eels, and other things. They also had a touch pool where the boys got to touch starfish and sea anemones. We had a great time!

Wonderful Times, Wonderful Friends

What a weekend we have had! Rob and Josh have birthdays that are only 6 days apart, so we usually have their birthday party together. We had a party for them on Saturday. Some friends from Yale, Washington drove down for the party. We have heard that there are those that think they are crazy, but we really enjoyed having them down. They have 4 boys, which our boys love to play with, and had a great time while they were here. They even caught a brown toad while playing outside on the playground by our house. But Mom eventually made them let the toad go...

The party went really well. They also had a few friends from the church come. One girl, and the rest boys. It was quite a party. Jeremy took them over to the church to play games. We had planned to have the games outside, but, as so often is the case with well intentioned plans, it was raining cats and dogs. As for gifts, the boys were added a lot of cash to their savings - they are each trying to save for a hamster, so they were thrilled. Our friends from Washington left Sunday afternoon. Jeremy left for the church to work on his Sunday evening lesson, while the boys and I cleaned house for another carful of company Sunday night. Our friends from The Dalles, Oregon, arrived shortly after evening service started. Today, we took them out to see some of the California Redwoods. If you have never seen them, they are awesome to see. Huge, huge trees! However, it was still pouring down rain today. But we drove through them, anyways, and even stopped at one spot to get out of the van and take pictures next to the Immortal Tree. It is a tree that has survived a fire, two floods, and an axe, and is still growing. Colossal tree. Tried to take a picture, but couldn't even get all of it. Other than the rain, we had a pretty good time. We took all the kids to McDonald's for lunch (and met another homeschool family with a son with Silas' name - first and middle!), stopped for a while and let them play at the playground in the mall in Eureka, and even went to Costco for dinner. We spent less than $20 for dinner for 3 adults and 9 kids (okay, only 8 of them can actually eat, but I still think that was impressive!).

Jeremy finally got his laptop today. Hooray!! Now I get to keep the old one. It will be so nice for him to have his new one for preaching and study. The old one has shut down on him a few times on Sunday mornings - not a good thing. And tonight, I ordered a new set of encyclopedias online at e-bay. I got a 2005 set for $335 with free shipping. It will replace the set we had to leave behind in Galena. God is helping us replace the things that we left in Galena, and teaching us to live with things we didn't need.

The church is staying pretty steady at 80 in attendance. Some weeks we have more, and some less. We are discovering that larger churches are much busier - which is a good thing, but is a new learning curve for us. Galena was a very slow pace of life, which we grew to love while we were there. Now we are learning a more hurried pace, but praying that the Lord will help us not to get too hurried. Pioneer Club is over for the school year. They will have an end of year bowling trip next week. The teacher plans to have a summer service group for the kids. They will serve the elderly in our community with whatever they need to have done. I think it will be good for them to help meet the needs of others.

We went to the beach in Trinidad a couple of weeks ago. The weather was beautiful - a bit breezy, but walking in the hot sand was wonderful. We even got to see a star fish that someone had found - the boys held it a little, and then it was thrown back into the ocean. Such fun. I will try to post some pictures, also.

I don't know how many of you keep up with Village Missions, but they have recently lost $40,000 of monthly support. We have heard of a grass roots idea started by members in two different VM churches. If everyone being served by a VM church/pastor commited to $20 a month support to Village Missions, they would be able to more than make up the $40,000 a month that they have lost. If anyone is interested in becoming a part of that, please contact Village Missions - www.villagemissions.org.