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Blogging with my Daughters ...

Posted on May. 12, 2008 at 4:04 PM

My two oldest daughters and I have decided to join all our blogs into one family blog. With three of us posting, hopefully we can avoid long blogging breaks! :) Please come visit us at:

Do Not Grow Weary

~ Rachelle

Rambling Thoughts on a Tuesday …

Posted on Oct. 16, 2007 at 5:59 PM

This weekend we spent quite a bit of time trying to tame the remains of a six cubic square yard pile of dirt but I will not write about that here since I am supposed to be posting about those things on my poor lonely homestead blog! Our yard work did bring us two interesting finds … another real live scorpion and a scorpion skin. The real live scorpion was hiding in the crack at the base of the house under the front door mat. I was in the house and did not get to see this one but I did hear loud shouts from out front. My six year old daughter was the one who found it walking across the patio. It is getting a little cold here for scorpions to be active (yay!!!). My family told me this one was moving very, very slowly. We did not choose to keep this one as a temporary pet … he/she met their end with several thuds of a shovel at Bethany’s hand! A little later we found a scorpion skin in the garage. Scorpions shed their skins as they grow and leave behind evidence that they were indeed in that spot! Soooo, since we found a skin, we know there is at least one more hiding … somewhere in the garage.

Today after many months of putting it off … I finally tuned the harp. And I taught Bethany how to do it. Passing along the job of harp tuning … yay! She has been asking me to tune it for a long while. I kept forgetting and often when I did remember, the house was much too noisy. I tune with an electronic tuner and it must be somewhat quiet so it can pick up the string sound. I can hardly wait until Bethany masters the harp and can play songs. I love harp music.

I started MUS with my littles today. It was fun and easy … I hope it stays that way! :)

Sourdough bread … we are on a search for a new starter. I may just have to start my own. Our last starter did not have a nice taste. It was not sour but rather sweet.

We recently had another temporary pet … a Carolina Sphinx Moth. My husband found it at work. We only kept it one night because it was so unhappy living in a gallon jar (I do not blame it one bit!). Homeschooling up close and personal is such fun. A much better way to learn than studying drawings or photographs in some book.

My sweet husband is on his way home and I want to get this posted before he arrives.

~ Rachelle

Rambling Thoughts on a Friday …

Posted on Oct. 5, 2007 at 10:15 AM

- October  -

How did it get to be October already? Where did the rest of the year go? I am loving the cooler weather. It is still hot but better. :)

- Scorpion -  

I am sad to report that our “pet” scorpion … who we named Exodus because that is what he was soon to do …has died. We are not good scorpion keepers! It was very interesting to watch him for several days. We gave him a cricket to eat but all they did was wonder around and jump at and away from each other. And I can say that crickets are defiantly not vegetarians … the cricket was caught feasting on Exodus dead remains!

- Gardening -  

We have finally begun working on our Fall yard and garden to do list … more on my homestead blog …

- Cooking -  

Our newest adventure ... sourdough.

- Silly things –

Is it really October or maybe it is December?! Here at our house we are having a temporary December. We listened to Christmas music yesterday, started making lists of projects/gifts we need to start working on and even watched a Christmas movie last night!!! More Christmas music today and then back to October we will go.

~ Rachelle

Birthday Roses and Blogging News

Posted on Sep. 6, 2007 at 8:48 AM

My sweet husband gave me these for my birthday. :)

I know that I wrote I was back to blogging about a month or so ago but have only posted four times! I am sorry about that. I am hopefully truly back now.

I have decided to re-open my Homestead Blogger blog and to start posting most of my gardening and kitchen posts there. Fall is coming and that means it is time to start gardening again. I love sharing pictures of my garden and it just seems like more of a homestead topic. :) Here is the link in case you would like to come visit me over there:

My Homestead Blogger Blog

~ Rachelle

I am back! :)

Posted on Jul. 31, 2007 at 11:10 AM

Hello. I am back. :) I decided to come back early from my blogging Summer Vacation. I have missed blogging, I have missed sharing pictures of my garden and things around my home. Since I kept having those … “ I should blog about this” thoughts I decided I would just come back and blog.

I can hardly believe that this is the last day of July. Summer is already half over. Amazing! I am trying to embrace Summer but find myself longing for Fall. We have had some cooler weather the last week or so that has only increased my desire for the end of Summer.

One of my goals for this Summer was to teach my daughters to swim. Not one of them could swim. I have wanted to teach them but never had the opportunity when I was able. Sooo, this Summer we bought an above ground pool. It is only 15 x 4 but it is big enough and deep enough to learn to swim. I now have three swimmers and my youngest has become very comfortable with the water and does swim with a floaty suit on. I hope to have her swimming without the floaty suit by the end of Summer.

Owning a pool, even a small one, comes with a big new chore … cleaning it! And this is the land of Monsoon season and that means dust storms. I do admit that we have not had a usual season, we have only had a few days with dust blowing. BUT those few days filled our pool with much dirt that I am still trying to get out! Temporary above ground pools come with these tiny little pumps and teeny little filters that fill up and need to be changed/rinsed very often when you are trying to remove lots of dirt from the pool! AND those little filters are very expensive considering what they are made of. We have been doing a lot of filter rinsing. :)

Our garden is still in pretty good shape this year. The red tomatoes stopped producing but the little yellow pear tomatoes are still growing. We have peppers on the Anaheim green chili plant while the jalepeno and bell pepper plants are taking a pepper producing rest. Our volunteer trees and palm trees are doing great. Big, beautiful and so very green! I will miss all that bushy greenness when we finally remove them. I had planned to take them out when they were still small and grow them in pots but time got away from us and now they are too big to transplant. Why do we have all these volunteer trees? I think it is because of the birds, especially the Grackles, bring the seeds to our garden when the bubblers are on to soak them in the water. They also bring dog food from the neighbors houses. Silly birds … or is that smart birds?! :)

I do appreciate the volunteer lantana plants that somehow got into my garden. They are a very pretty white variety that I really like. Other fun volunteers are the Tobacco Trees. They grow very tall and when they bloom they are covered with pretty yellow flowers. We have one growing in our dog’s potty yard right now. The poor thing is bending over terribly, it got knocked over in a dust storm.

Another volunteer …

We went to our state’s homeschool convention a couple weeks ago. I love the curriculum hall … so many wonderful books, curriculum and other fun things. We mostly bought fun things this year since we already have most of the curriculum we need for now. One of our favorite buys was several lamplighter books. My oldest loves those books, well, I think all my girls do but she gets such pleasure and joy from reading that a new stack books makes her very happy. We are planning to start American History in September and found a game that is a great accent for our studies, it is called Way Back When In History. Various books, cds and videos also somehow made it home with us from the convention.

We had a wonderful time eating lunch with several families from our church on the first day of the convention. We went to a Mexican food restaurant not far from the convention center. I am so blessed by my church family!

Well, this has gotten long so I will end it now. I have more to say but will save it for another post!

Have a blessed wonderful day!

Rachelle

Summer Vacation

Posted on Jun. 9, 2007 at 12:14 PM

Hi! I justed wanted to let you all know that I am putting my blog on Summer Vacation. I am not sure if I will be posting a little or not at all. There are sooo many things I want to do with my family this Summer that I am planning to drastically reduce the amount of time I spend on the internet.

Have a wonderful blessed Summer everyone!

~ Rachelle

Rambling Thoughts On A Tuesday

Posted on May. 15, 2007 at 11:27 AM

~ Have you heard about Vision Forum’s Jamestown 400 treasure Hunt? My family and I have been working on it since last November. Today is finally the last day! I am soooo relieved!! It has been fun but has truly taken over our life many a day. I am soooo ready for order and faithful adherence to a simple schedule.

~ We really need to make a meal menu for this week and a grocery list. And then I guess going to buy groceries would be in order. It seems the older I get the more organized, scheduled and planned I like my life to be. I am not a hyper scheduler by any means but a little order sure makes for more pleasant days. : )

~ I had a wonderful and not so wonderful weekend. On Saturday I was violently ill … it was awful. I felt much better on Sunday but spent much of the day sleeping and regaining my strength. My sweet husband was off on Monday and we had a nice, slow, relaxing day lazing about for the most part. My older girls did not have such a stressless day … working on those clues for the treasure hunt is not exactly relaxing though it is fun.

~ I really missed getting to go to church on Sunday and we had to reschedule celebrating Mother’s Day with my mom. It is strange how quickly plans can be abandoned for sickness!

~ We have lost a few of the lovely flowers we planted a few weeks ago to the heat. I can hardly believe how hot it is already. It seems, which is amazing to me, that I forget each year how hot 100* is. How can that be? : )

~ I think my rambling is about rambled out! Have a wonderful blessed day everyone!!

~ Rachelle

Wednesday 3-7-07

Posted on Mar. 7, 2007 at 7:51 AM

I haven’t blogged much lately and thought I should at least write something instead of just posting pictures. :)

- This past weekend we worked in our garage. It was a mess and unable to house a car. We had started cleaning it out a while ago but never finished. We had sorted and made specific piles all over … and they were still all over. Also, anything that is no longer wanted in the house is sent to the garage and my sweet children just pile it anywhere that is open.

Soooo, we sorted, stacked, arranged and even got rid a van full of stuff. AND now, the van fits in the garage with room to spare. Once we find a new home for a couch and loveseat that are out there, we will have even more room. Yay for cleaned out garages! And Yay for my older daughters who worked sooo hard in the garage and my younger ones who were so sweet and good while the rest of us worked.

- Monday and Tuesday … I spent those days in recovery from working in the garage. I really over did it in the garage and paid the price for it. I am still struggling a bit today. Having a chronic illness is a hard thing to live with but I thank the Lord that I am at a place right now that I was indeed able to help work in the garage.

Today … We are having homemade chicken soup for lunch. I love it when a meal is already made and just needs to be warmed up. This soup was supposed to be last night’s dinner but it was not done on time. We will probably have yeasted kefir bread with butter as a side.

I am hoping to sew. My older girls created some Capri pajama bottoms patterns in some really neat sewing software that I bought some time ago. (PatternMaster) Their first pairs are going to be made out of cream colored muslin … they are our tester pants! The girls cut out the patterns and I am going to sew them up. If they fit well we will make some out of flannel. I also need to finish cutting out another pair of pajama bottoms for my littler ones too. Of course then I need to sew them too.

I have a praise … last night I slept well! I slept over six hours and only remember waking up briefly once. I did not get up to go to the bathroom or wake and stay awake. It was wonderful! I do not remember the last time I slept that long.

I just remembered something else I need to do … make a grocery list. A meal menu would be a good thing too. And a basics list for our buying group order.

“To do” lists never end, do they? :)

Have  blessed day!

Rachelle

Ramblings Thoughts On A Friday

Posted on Feb. 23, 2007 at 4:18 PM

Wednesday -

A longtime friend came over for lunch. She is such a good friend and loves my children dearly. She is always gifting us with sweet treasures or lending us educational dvds (Answers in Genesis) to watch. She was the very first, in real life, person I met who homeschooled and she encouraged me to do the same. That was … oh, probably about 14 years ago! We ate yummy Mexican food for lunch (my first really yummy and juicy oven grilled chicken breasts ever!) and talked the afternoon away. She forgot her Bible when left for home so she, and her husband, came by that night to pick it up. We had a nice time visiting for about an hour with both of them.

Thursday -

The dishwasher repair man was supposed to come … again. We were given a very broad time frame, 8-5, for his arrival. He did not make it. We bought this dishwasher last July and it has had problems every since. It is a two drawer dishwasher and I really like the concept but the bottom drawer has never worked correctly. We have run maybe 12-15 complete loads in that drawer since last July. Three different service technicians have been out to fix it and it is still broken. One time we had to wait two months for a part. We were getting a little bit frustrated. My sweet husband called and talked with the company that we bought it from again today. A nice woman took his information and told him someone would get back to him. A couple hours later a nice man called and he said we had been more than patient. He offered us continued repair or replacement. Of course my sweet husband opted for replacement. We have an appointment on Sunday afternoon to pick out a new dishwasher. We can get one just like the one we have or any thing else we want. We are going with something different and I already found what I want online. It matches our range and refrigerator (the brand, style and handles) so that will be nice. I can hardly wait to have a fully working dishwasher and I know my daughters can hardly wait either! :)

My second oldest washed and hung our new Hummingbird feeder. I have really missed seeing the Hummingbirds up close and am so glad to have a feeder again.

Friday –

Hummingbirds!! We have had visitors to the feeder several times today. It does help that the feeder hangs on a rod iron hanger that is very close to our lemon tree. The Hummingbirds do love lemon blossoms. The nice thing about the feeder is that it brings the Hummingbirds close to patio and in view of the bay windows in the sitting area in our kitchen. Yay for Hummingbirds!

My older girls helped me sort through a mountain of mail. I am terrible about going through the mail. It all get piled instead of filed in the trash or a place where I can find the things I need quickly. I really need to get some filing cabinets and get more organized in this area. I am soo thankful for my daughters who are willing to help with projects like this.

It rained for a while today and since I really enjoy rainy days … it was most welcome. Right now the sun is shining but I am hopeful that those dark clouds in the distance mean more is on the way.

Right now my two youngest are looking at Nature Friend magazines and my two oldest are finishing up some work. My oldest has sneezed alllllll day long. Literally. Her eyes are all red and swollen. It is has been windy and yesterday we had the back door open all day. I think that something came in on the wind that she is allergic too. Since spring has already begun here in Arizona, it could be any number of blooming things. Poor girl. I hope it lets up soon.

~ Rachelle

Monday

Posted on Feb. 12, 2007 at 8:24 AM

Wow. It has been almost a week since I have posted! I had a very busy week last week and now I am in recovery. :)

~ We went to a tea party with some friends on Wednesday. We had such a wonderful time and ended up staying for dinner too. My older girls and I came home to make a salad, and pick up my sweet husband, as our contribution to dinner.

My girls finished (mostly) their dresses just in time for the tea party. They are a little big but lovely. They are going to add a strip of fabric at the neckline since it turned out a little low. (Because of being big. I think it would be fine in a smaller size.) They also need to finish the hem. They wore them to tea with the edge just serged. Once they are completely finished I plan to post a picture.

~ We did some much needed yard work last week and there is still much to do. We also have some things to plant! I have been wanting to plant berry bushes for several years. We found some at Lowe’s and they were even 50% off. We bought two blackberry bushes and one raspberry. Also, one each green and purple grapes. Yay!! I love growing things.

We bought some alyssum for the front flower beds. Stocks, pansies, geraniums, another artichoke and cilantro for the back garden. There are soooo many empty spaces in the garden these few planted will hardly make a dent. I can hardly wait for it to be filled with plants again. We also bought some new seeds as many of the ones I planted last year did not seem to sprout. We did have an over abundance of roly polys that kept eating things so maybe they did sprout and were a bug’s breakfast before I got to see them!