V.B.S.

This week has been a long and tiring one for me and it's not quite over either! Our church is doing V.B.S. (Vacation Bible School) and I'm one of the helpers. I was a group leader for the 10-12 age group, but I switched to helping Emily in her group of little kids. Our group is averaged fifteen little kids. Yeah, I'm sleeping good tonight! It can get a little chaotic at times but I love every minute of even still! Little kids are so funny and cute and there's never a dull moment with them, that's for sure!

Here's a couple pics from the week.

Kenny the Clown was there to make sure the snack break didn't get too dull. ;D

Kenny's sidekick maybe? Yeah, he is a little weird. The little kid in the white shirt seems to be saying, "Stay away from me, you creepy fiend!"

Object lesson class; Boys...

Against girls. I won't say who won though. :P

Snack time, mess hall style! I think this was my favorite part. :D All the leaders got cookies. Alright! :

Crafts. Hmmm... Fifteen little kids and bottles of glue. Not a good idea. We went through a good deal of paper towels that day. :D

Game time, freeze tag!

Is this some apparition I see before me!?"

One of my favorite little girls, Breanna (with a sucker in her mouth). She's the cutest thing!

Ah, another one of my favorites, Trey. He's the kind of kid who's found the secret to perpetual movement and has passion for making mischeif. Yup, that's Trey!

I love working with these little guys. One sweet little girl named Sophia asked me if I would be leading her group again tomorrow. "Yes," I replied cautiously. "Do you want me to?" "Yes!" was the emphatic answer. During crafts one of the boys needed help with his project. My helper went to assist him but he specifically asked for me to help him. It's funny the way kids'll latch onto certain people like that. In another case, Breanna drew a picture of two stick people hugging each other and presented it to Emily (who is also in my group) and said, "This person is you and the other is me."

I'll be kind of sad when V.B.S ends, but then I think of my bed which is just waiting to be slept in on. V.B.S. ends this Friday, so I'll be sleeping like a brick Saturday morning and no amount of poking, pulling or pummeling with pillows will wake me (hint, hint Em). :P

~Megan

Before I forget

Before I forget the whole thing, I wanted to copy down a funny story that was told at church on Father's Day. Poor Emily was laughing so hard that she began crying. Here we go....



Why Parents Go Gray...
The boss of a big company who needed to call one of his employees about an urgent problem with one of the main computers, dialed the employee's home phone number and was greeted with a child's whisper,

"Hello."

"Is your daddy home?" he asked.

"Yes," whispered the small voice.

"May I talk with him?"

The child whispered, "No."

Surprised, and wanting to talk with an adult, the boss asked, "Is your mommy? there?"

"Yes."

"May I talk with her?"

Again the small voice whispered, "No."

Hoping there was somebody with whom he could leave a message, the boss asked,

"Is anybody else there?"

"Yes," whispered the child, "a policeman."

Wondering what a cop would be doing at his employee's home, the boss asked, "May I speak with the policeman?"

"No, he's busy", whispered the child.

"Busy doing what?"

"Talking to Daddy and Mommy and the Fireman", came the whispered answer.

Growing concerned and even worried as he heard what sounded like a helicopter through the earpiece on the phone the boss asked, "What is that noise?"

"A hello-copper" answered the whispering voice.

"What is going on there?" asked the boss, now alarmed.

In an awed whispering voice the child answered, "The search team just landed the hello-copper."

Alarmed, concerned, and even more then just a little frustrated the boss asked, "What are they searching for?"

Still whispering, the young voice replied along with a muffled giggle:

"ME"

Father's day....

My whole family had so much fun celebrating father's day! This year we suprised my dad with a fishing tackle box and a fishing liscense. Then we all went fishing at the St. Louis fishing ponds (*note*: Everyone fished except me, mom, Carver and the wee babe). And oh joy! I got to bring Copper with me! Although the poor dog would get so excited every time we stopped because he thought he was finally going to get out. ;) The weather was super great and, while we didn't manage to catch any fish, we all had a lot of fun.....


It was soooo quiet and peaceful there....



Makes ya' just want to sit still and rest awhile...

Or stand and wait for a silly fish to bite your hook. (personally I think the fish have wised up and know that there is no such thing as a free lunch)

Father and daughter...

I sure thought he had a fishing pole in his hands for this shot.

Megan, the world champion, um, er, pondweed catcher. ;D But at least she has proved that there is more than one use for a fishing pole.

The land was studded with Hawthorns, black willows, lombardies, quaking aspens and cottonwood trees (LOTS of cotton woods!)

I love my dog. He was such a good boy the whole time and had a blast. There were signs all over the place saying that dogs had to be leashed. I followed the rules very carefully and never once did I remove that leash. But the rules never said that the leash had to be in your hands. Gotta love those loopholes. ;D

A future fisherman?

Did I already say that I love my dog?

After fishing, we went home and watched 'Journey to the center of the earth' (the old version). Dad didn't know that we had rented it, so he was pleasantly suprised.

Happy father's day to all the fathers out there!!

~Caitlyn

The revealing....

If at first you fail your deed... Erase all evidence of ever trying.....

And then try sheep instead of goats.

Being the moderately sensible person that I am, I decided to take my own advice, and try sheep instead of goats.

After the whole goat episode we were at a loss at to what to do about our pasture since our mower can't fit through the gate. Then a very good friend of mine asked if we would be interested in borrowing three of her sheep until our grass was sufficiently "mowed". We said YES! immediately, and our new additions to Mennagerie farm are contentedly munching their way through the pasture now.

Ladies and gentlemen, please meet: Gabby, Sable and Freckles. (from left to right is Gabby, Freckles and Sable)

Wait a minute, they look like goats!

Suprise! These are Katahdins and they shed their wool naturally (no shearing!!) so in the spring and summer they do resemble goats.

I have to admit that Freckles is my favorite. She is so sweet and shy; and she has the most adorable doll face. :)

I would have blogged about them yesterday, but I wanted to make sure that they were actually staying, not like what happened with the goat.

So all I have left on my "need to try raising list" now is a: cow, pig, some pigeons and an emu. ;D

~Caitlyn

The new arrivals....

We got something new out here.....

Actually, we got three new somethings out here.....

What could they be, I wonder?

Tee, hee, I'm going to be mean and keep all my readers in suspense! ;)

Don't worry, I won't keep y'all wondering too long.

Check back tomorrow to find out what on earth I am talking about....

What could it be, oh, what could it be......?

~Caitlyn ;D

Some of you probably remember this picture....

But I just had to put it up again. ;D

The bees are everywhere on our property nowadays, owing to the vast plethora of blossoming plants. :) I keep telling myself as I watch them outside: "Maybe next year..... Maybe next year you'll have your own hives...." ;D

Who knows? Maybe I will....

~Caitlyn

I need help from my readers!

Something is wrong with two of our lavender plants and I can't find anything anywhere about what to do. within the week, the blossoms on both plants have drooped and then withered away. The plants have been looking amazing all spring, and then, boom!, they began to "ker-flop". ;)


This is a not-good-at-all picture of what the lavender looks like:


I'm sure you can tell by the poor quality of the picture, that I took it and not Emily. :-/

One plant is a four year old 'English', and the other is a one year old 'Provence'. They are no where near each other and none of our other lavender plants that are near them look droopy (yet).

Any suggestions or ideas?

~Caitlyn

This, Lord, is my prayer....

Lord, please grant me......

the willingness of Mary of Nazareth...

the obedience of Ruth...

the devotion of Esther...

the serving spirit of Martha...

the listening ear of Mary...

the hospitality of Lydia...

the faithfulness of Lois and Eunice...

the leadership of Deborah...

the trust of Hannah...

the searching heart of the Queen of Sheba...

the boldness of Priscilla...

the humility of Abigail...

This Lord, is my prayer....



I don't know who the author of this is, but I can relate to every word of it!



~Caitlyn

Little brothers are so fun.....

Little boys, ages 1 thru 3 are so FUN! Everyday is a new adventure with Carver who is now a year and a half. :D He can now say everyone's names to some extent; saying mama, daddy, bubby (big brother Chris) and baby are easy enough for a little guy but it takes it bit more talent to say everyone else names. So for now, Emily is "Elmee", Megan is "Mee Mee", Jacob and Jessie are "Jaybub and Shessie" and as always, I am "Sissy". ;)


"Elmee" ;D has been having fun with her camera of the late (no suprise there) and Carver is only too willing to be her model.


Here are some of her pictures that she captured....

I love the last two shots. They definitely make you smile. :D

~Caitlyn

Thoughtful thinking.....

~Caitlyn

The life of a field daisy

Unfurling its snowy petals to the sun's warm rays, the daisy begins its life cycle.....


It waits for neighboring bees to visit....

It nods and curtsies to the breezes....

It can't help but flaunt its beauty just a little bit.

And then, all alone, it watches the sun set in a brilliant pool of amethyst, ruby and gold....

I don't think I would mind being a daisy myself. ;D

~Caitlyn

Getting big....

Little Conner is now three months old.... How fast time has gone!

~Caitlyn

Did you know?

Did you know that there are actually two verses to our National Anthem? I myself just learned it a couple months ago. :)

Saturday, June 6th, was the 65th anniversary of D-Day. Our brave men fought hard and long for their homes, family and freedom. Many lost their lives, but they knew that they were not dying for nothing.

I thought that this would be a good opportunity to write both verses of our National Anthem....


O say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,

Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?

And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there.

O say does that star spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

Verse #2

O thus be it ever when free men shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation;

Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserved us a nation!

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just;
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust!"

And the star spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.


~Caitlyn

Just a note to say....

Just a note to say that I took off all the Proverbs 31 graphics that I had on my sidebar. More than once I have scrolled down on my blog only to find that the gal who had created them had either changed the picture or changed the words. For a while I just continued switching the graphics but she has now completely changed her Bible version and almost all the verses are scripturally inaccurate! Some were still accurate but I didn't like the new pictures, so I reluctantly took then off. :(

So now I need to find new pictures to put in their places....

~Caitlyn

Reflections

These are a couple of semi-wild ducks at our local fishing pond. I liked the way that Emily caught the reflections so sharply.

~Caitlyn

I always did like those Orpingtons....

I've always liked the Buff Orpington chickens. They're pretty, they lay lots of eggs all year around and have gentle temperaments. What more could one want in a bird?

Haha! I found another reason to like them!

They obviously have very good taste in music, for, earlier I had a Josh Groban CD playing on the computer and, lo and behold, one of our Orpington hens hopped onto our side porch and began listening curiously!

Ahem, our house is ranch style so one has to turn the music up quite loud in order to hear it at the other end. I guess it was loud enough to rouse the curiosity of a escapee bird outside.

She was funny to watch; she would take a step, then cock her head while listening to the italian words. She stood there for the whole song, before slowly ambling away in search of bugs. :D

I'll have to add that to my "future reference list". It looks something like this:

Orpingtons:

Lays eggs in winter,

gentle,

pretty,

good meat birds,

likes Josh Groban music.

Maybe I should play some Vivaldi music and see who shows up next..... ;D

~Caity

He WAS here anyway...

I have to laugh at myself as I type this.

The goat is gone.

No, he didn't run away or anything like that. We just took him back. In all, I think he stayed about three hours.

I'm going to take it for granted that you want a little more info, huh? ;D

All seemed to be going well at first (except for his constant crying) but then, like all goats, he saw how the grass was obviously greener on the other side and promptly stuck his head through the fencing. The problem? He has horns. And horned goats can't back out of fencing. So, 8 TIMES I had to shove his head back through. Not fun; with goats, if you push then they push back and they are stronger than me!

But wait! There's more! After maybe the fifth time to get him un-stuck he pulled a new stunt.

A friend of ours was over and happened to glance over at my herb garden. Curious, She asked if the goat was supposed to be in the garden. Sure enough, that horned fiend was casually stomping his way through my baby seedlings.

PANIC!!! "Somebody grab him!"

Ugh, fifteen minutes after putting him back in, he was out again.

Back when we still boarded horses, the owners never put up the electric fence that they continously promised that they would; so the horses un-mercifully pushed the fence lower, which was how the goat was jumping it so easily.

Needless to say, we were all fed up with Whisper. So we hauled him back to the people who had been keeping him (they were happy to have him back).

I am glad that we found out about the fencing with him though. Had we went to the trouble to buy a goat, the hay, the feed and everything else, only to find out that we needed new fencing..... Well, it wouldn't have been good. ;)


Most definitely an experience....

~Caitlyn

He's here....

Yup, we finally picked up our old goat 'Whisper'. He's really not that old; only about 14 months. Our Nubian doe had twins last year, one we dubbed 'Starbuck' and the other was named Whisper, because he was just a little slip of a goat; I think we should change his name to 'Ol Yeller or something now... Boy can he holler! We got him back so he could eat down our knee-high pasture grass, and I'm thinking on training him to do some light draft work so he will be a little more useful.

I really do wish we could have gotten at least one more goat, just to keep Whisper company. It's so sad watching him cry for his friends.... But in time he will hopefully get used to being alone.

~Caitlyn

Because I like to share...

Here's my newly invented recipe for an iced-latte-thingy. My critic (aka, Em) didn't like it much, but I loved it!

Dump about 2 cups of fresh-brewed coffee and 2 1/2 to 3 cups of crushed ice into the blender.

Add a splash of milk. (I'm not sure if the milk makes much difference, but just add it anyway) :P

Squirt as much chocolate syrup as your heart desires into the blender. The chocolate syrup is where most of your flavor will come from so don't be stingy with it. :D

Blend until smooth.

Is it sweet enough? If not, add more syrup. Is it thick enough? If not add more ice and blend some more. The longer you blend it, the frothier and thicker it gets.

After blending, if it tastes okay, pour it into a glass, stick a straw in it and enjoy (if you can). :P

Note: Unlike the light-colored, iced mocha things you get the coffee shops, this will most likely be dark, so don't be alarmed if your concotion looks like slushy mud. :P

~Megan

Things that go BUMP! in the night...

Last night was interesting....

Somewhere around midnight mom and dad heard a loud noise coming from our barn; worried that something might be getting our chickens, they both went outside. When they were about half-way to the barn, they heard a terrific WHAM!! against the barn door! They ran back inside and dad grabbed our .22, Chris went back out with him this time. So we girls stayed inside.... waiting....

Dad opened one of the barn doors and peeked inside.... He could hear a low "grrrrrrr" coming from very close by. He closed that door and tried peering through another door. As soon as he opened the door, a chicken came tearing out and ran into the inky night! A few yards away dad could see our barn cat, Olivia, standing with her fur on end, and it was she that was growling. Behind my rabbit cage, in the barn, there is a gate leaning up against the wall; dad shone his light over at the cage and saw.... one green glowing eye staring from behind the gate.... The "thing" moved and there were now two glowing eyes, still staring. Dad had no idea what it was since it was so dark, until the creature moved again and dad was able to see the furry, striped tail that could only belong to a crafty raccoon!


Apparently there was a great big raccoon in our barn chasing our Black Austrolorp hen! But, Olivia, decided that he was too close to her kittens for comfort (oh yeah, I need to blog about her kittens) and got in the way, foiling the masked thief's plan. So the racket mom and dad heard was most likely the raccoon, the hen and the cat thumping and bumping all over the place.

As soon as dad and Chris got into the barn, the coward of a 'coon turned tail and started to run away. He was on top of our hay manger when dad had him in the gun's target, but he didn't shoot, as there wouldn't have been a way to get the raccoon out of the manger if he fell in, because it's so deep. The raccoon slipped out the bottom of one of the other barn doors and ran away.

And what of the hen that escaped the clutches of the masked villain? Well, we looked everywhere for her (Emily and I went out to help look) but there was no trace of her. It was almost kind of comical, we were walking up to the house and dad commented that "There's still some hope", no sooner had he finished saying that, we heard a pack of coyotes wailing, not too far off.

But, there is good news! This morning, after looking everywhere for her I found her in the middle stall in our barn taking a dust bath as nice as you please! As dad would say: "It's always in the last place you look." ;D

All's well that ends well I guess. :)

We are hoping that the raccoon won't come back, but who can say? After all, he knows that there's a whole coop full of sleepy birds here now. Luckily, we will be getting one of our old goats back either tomorrow or on Wednesday, if this guy is anything like his mother was, well, I feel bad for the raccoon if he bumps into the goat.... ;)

What a night...

~Caitlyn