The Green Band-aid

My love for herbs has definitely increased since Saturday.

On Saturday morning, I woke up with a terrrible pain in my left wrist. I guess I must have done something to it in the night because it hurt a lot and was hot to the touch.

But luckily we had the right herbs around. :)

I quickly made a hot poultice of Plantain, Comfrey and Slippery Elm and with Emily's help bound it snugly to my wrist. It was amazing, there was instant relief from the pain and after I took it off (I left it on for 45 minutes) my wrist felt 100% better!

Why those herbs, you may ask?

Plantain gives relief from pain, burns, stings, bites etc. Comfrey is a deep healer, my wrist never completely healed from when I broke it so the comfrey helped mend tissues and the slippery Elm was to give added relief. :)

Today, I accidentally touched a very hot griddle which caused an immediate blister and of course, lots of pain. I kept an ice pack on the burn but the relif was only temporary. So I went outside (with the ice pack with me!) and picked a couple Plantain leaves. Mom gave me a little coffee grinder for my herbs, so all I had to do was plop the leaves in there and grind it to a pulp. I put my "green band-aid" on and "aaaah", once again, instant relief.

It is so amazing how the Lord created such wonderful "weeds" to grow so abundantly in our backyards. Plantain grows all over North America and loves poor soils (although it does grow well in good soils too). Here is a picture of Broadleaf Plantain. It's latin name is Plantago major. It is in the Plantaginacaea family.

The plant itself is very low growing and can be easy to miss. The leaves are broad and oval shaped with deep ridges on the back side of the leaf.

~Caitlyn

Pop Quiz

Anyone up for a challenge? See how many of these you can answer, and you can leave your answers in the comments. I'll give you a week of so, then I'll go back over this post and put up the answers. Good luck!

1. If I could go back into time, which era would I choose?
a. Edwardian
b. Middles Ages
c. Colonial
Answer; a. I'm sorry, I think I meant to say Victorian era instead of Edwardian. Please excuse the mistake. Not the answer you thought it would be, huh?

2. My favorite narnian characters are;
a. Lucy and Tumnus
b. Aslan and Peter
c. Susan and the beavers
d. Lucy and Orius
Answer; d. Those two are great!

3. I am most afraid of;
a. Rodents
b. Spiders
c. Heights
Answer; b. Too many legs. Ugghh!

4. My favorite shcool subject is;
a. History
b. Latin
c. Science
Answer; b. I have no idea why, I just love it.

5. The missionary who inspires me the most is;
a. Gladys Aylward
b. Mary Slessor
c. Hudson Taylor
d. Mary McLeod Bethune
Answer; a. Look what Gladys did through courage and prayer.

6. If I could go anywhere, I would go to;
a. Disneyland
b. Peru
c. Europe
d. None of the above
Answer; c. Ya'll knew that one through the '21 Facts You Probably Never Knew About Us' post, didn't you? :P

7. My favorite author is;
a. Lucy Maud Montgomery
b. Walter Farley
c. G.A. Henty
d. Peter Marshall and David Elliot
Answer; d. These guys wrote one of my favorite books ,The Light and The Glory. It's a great book!

8. Someday I would like to;
a. Ride the world's tallest roller coaster
b. Go skiing
c. Try eating squid
d. Take a boat trip down the Amazon river
Answer; b. No, I do not want to eat squid.

9. The historical figure I most admire is;
a. George Washington
b. Amelia Earheart
c. Joan of Arc
d. William Wallace
Answer; c. Standing up for a cause you believe in, even if you're a peasant girl.
That's all for now!

~Megan

Praise the Lord, for his mercies endure forever!

God is so good.

Today he blessed our family by sparing my dad's life.

This morning at around 6:30 am, we got a phone call from someone, telling us that our dad had just been in a vehicle accident and was being taken to the hospital. What had happened was that one of the wheels on a semi truck, heading towards dad, suddenly shredded into huge, heavy pieces. Dad saw a large piece of tire rubber flying towards him and the tire piece slammed into his windshield, shattering the whole thing, and then still more, it broke the back windshield. Dad said that the piece literally flew right past him and had it been just a tiny bit closer, it probably would have hit him and killed him. :-/

Fragments of glass flew everywhere, badly cutting dad's face. Thankfully, a friend of dad's happened to be driving past at the same time. He saw what happened, called 911 and then contacted us to let us know what was happening.

Dad is home now. The Lord was good and no bones were broken, and now we get to spend another day with dad! :)

The truck, amazingly, doesn't look too bad. Other than the two shattered windshields, there is just a dent in the hood.

What a way to start the day.....

~Caitlyn

Life is never easy is it?

Why can't life be easy? Or at least, why can't some of our problems be easy to solve?

I am working on starting spinning classes and am hoping to be ready by mid-August or early September. One would think it easy enough to just start but it doesn't seem to be working that way.... :-/

My Ashford Traditional, while a good wheel, isn't very beginner friendly so I tried calling Woodland Woolworks to see how much they would offer for it. They do wheel trades, and I was really hoping that I would be able to trade it in for a better wheel. Alas, they only offered $175 for my wheel and the one I am wanting is $495. Ouch.

So I am kind of between a rock and a hard place. I wouldn't feel ready to teach without a wheel, as some students may graduate from the drop spindle faster than others. But I can't afford a new wheel until I earn money from spinning lessons!! I'm making myself dizzy.

I think what I may try and do, is take my wheel to a professional spinning wheel repair man and see if there is anthing he could do to make my wheel run easier, and then I would just have to teach with my Ashford until I can afford a better one. But we'll see if that works....

The other biggie is trying to figure out how to do the lessons. Mom and I agreed that $5 a lesson would be a good price (Sarah, You get your lessons free since you asked for some waaay before I ever thought about teaching) but the rest has been a bit more ticklish. Mom wants me to teach my students in a group, all at the same time. But I would prefer to do private lessons. I had my first lessons in group style and I didn't like it. The teacher was always elsewhere and you had to just hope that you were doing everything correctly, because it would take to much time if she helped everyone individually. I can see how it would be better this way though; my weeks would be free-er and we could meet somewhere for the group get together, like our church.

But with private lessons, I could be sure that my student understands what he/she is doing and why he/she is doing it that way. It would be one on one so they would be getting more for their money and they would progress faster. On the flip side, it could very easily make my weeks suddenly become busy and hectic and my students would probably have to come out here.

So why am I telling you poor readers all this?

I dunno'.

There has been a lot of prayer throughout this ordeal, making sure that this is the Lord's Will and not just my own selfish wants. I have a lot of people who want me to teach them, I just need to figure out those little, but important, details....

Your prayers and advice would be greatly appreciated! Right now I am really just needing wisdom on what my next step should be....


~Caitlyn

aren't they cute!

No, unfortunately this little guy doesn't belong to us. :(



Some friends of ours have a German Shepherd/Rottweiler/Labrador/? cross dog that just had a litter of nine puppies. Yesterday we went over to their house to pick blueberries, and to see the, now four week old, puppies!

So you know what the mom is, but you'll never guess what the dad is!

At first the family was afraid that the sire was a coyote, but their neighbor quelled their worries by telling them that his dog was the sire. And what breed was he, you ask?

The dad is a Red Wolf/ Alaskan Malamute cross!!

Yup, he is HUGE!!

All the puppies were sooooo adorable! It was neat seeing the differences in them, stemming from the different genetic traits of so many varying breeds. All the pups were black with tan coloring on them, like a German Shepherd; but they each had their own differences. One pup was really fluffy and had the Malamute tail curled over it's back (that one was Megan's Favorite), while another was wiry haired and had a little bit of a curl. Some had the longer bodies of a shepherd and some were lanky, like a wolf. My personal favorite was a submissive little male that looked more wolf-like than any of the others. Instead of having tan markings, he had gray and his ears stood up (well, most of the time ;D), he was so sweet.

~Caitlyn

"It's a good thing that we're not a big family"

A few weeks ago, while riding in our fifteen seater van, Jacob began counting all the seats.

Upon finishing he looked up, smiled and said to everyone:

"It's a good thing that we aren't a big family, or else we wouldn't all be able to fit in the van!"

He's right. And it's a good thing that we are only a small family of ten. ;D

~Caitlyn

The Latest Project

I thought I'd made up my mind to make Lucy's blue narnian dress from 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'. But, amateur sewer that I am, I decided that Lu's dress might be a bit difficult for me. So armed with my sketchbook and patterns I nabbed Em and made her help me design my own dress.

We came up with several different ideas, but none of them looked quite right. I went to http://costumes.narniaweb.com/ and looked at all sorts of narnian costumes. This website is great, by the way. It has info on the costumes from both 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' and 'Prince Caspian'. I found this pic of Susan from 'Prince Caspian' and I really liked the style of her dress, though it's kinda hard to tell what is the dress and what is armor. :P

After studying the picture a bit I came up with a design that I liked. I decided to use my favorite pattern, Butterick 4827, see the pic below. So, I'm going to modify the neckline as a shallow v-neck then add the triangular notch in the front like Susan's green archery dress. The sleeves will be about elbow length, maybe a bit longer, and slightly flared at the bottom. Over those sleeves will be a wider sleeve, slightly shorter than the under sleeves, made a gauzy material, maybe sheer or something similar. I'd also like to do the slits in the skirt (like Susan's red dress above) with a skirt underneath.

Anyway, that's just an idea. I may or may not do the notch in the front. We'll see. First I have to save up enough money to even buy the fabric, so I probably shouldn't be counting my chicks before they hatch. :P

This was a pattern I bought yesterday. Jo-Ann's is having a sale, 99 cents for a Butterick pattern. So of course I had to buy a one. :D This pattern has directions for a belt, two different styles of pouches, two corsets and two different wrist bracers.

I saw the wrist bracers. That was it. I had to buy that pattern! So I did! The only problem was that I forgot to look at the size and I bought a size XL through Xxxl. Whoops! Lucky for me, I think you can at least exchange it for a different size.

I'd like to make the belt, the pouch at the top and one of the wrist bracers (by the way, sorry about the bad pics). The longer wrist bracer is the men's bracer with the studs and buckles, and the lower bracer is the ladie's bracer which laces up on the bottom and has a charm thingy on the other side. I haven't decided which one I like better. :P

Well, that's all for now! I'll try to keep ya'll updated on the dress, though it'll be a while before I can afford it. :D

~Megan

Me!? 17!?

It is official.

I am 17 years old.

I remember, back when I about 9 or 10 years old; I looked upon the 16 through 18 year olds with awe. How good and wise and patient they must be! And I couldn't wait until it was my turn to become "good and wise and patient". But now here I am, little me, just the same as always. The scales have fallen and I see now that becoming a "good" person doesn't just happen when you turn a certain age, but rather, it is a continual striving to be what you want to be. I still get impatient with my siblings, I still do silly things like putting the wrong kind of soap into the dishwasher and I am still striving to live like, and for, my Saviour, Christ Jesus. Thankfully, I serve a God who gives grace and mercy, freely and generously. So everyday is another chance to do better.

When mom asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday this year, I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted. I decided to not have any friends over this time; I would have felt bad only having some friends over and having to exclude others, as I have so many. Not to mention, if I had invited all of them, we would've needed to rent a football field for the day, and football fields are rather scarce up here in the hills. ;D

So instead, mom, Megan, Emily, a close family friend named Katie, and I all had a girls day out and visited all the antique stores around Yamhill County. I am a history nut, I love learning about how we lived waaaaay back when, and going through an antique store is like walking through a museum, only in this kind of museum you can buy the "artifacts!". ;) There were many things that I would have liked to purchase, but in the end I decided on an old book that was written in 1898.

After our excursion, we came home, had cake and did presents and then for a grand finale, we watched Pride and Prejudice.

It was a very good day. :D

~Caitlyn

Here's a Tip

I have a very useful tip for my readers.

Don't EVER try putting liquid soap in your dishwasher instead of the proper gel/powder stuff that you buy especially for it.

IT DOESN'T WORK!

Ahem, today, my lunch chore was to load up the lunch dishes and then begin the wash cycle. So I absent mindedly loaded everything up, put the "soap" in and then started the wash cycle. about forty five minutes later we smelled the most horrendous smell coming from.... Bet you can't guess where!

The dishwasher.

Upon opening it, we saw......

BUBBLES! Millions of bubbles EVERYWHERE! The whole bottom of the dishwasher was covered with a thick, foaming, ever-growing, pile of soap bubbles. :-/

Mom and dad asked me what soap I used, and I thought for sure I had picked up the right bottle (they both looked similar!) but it seems I didn't.

The scene got even better when bubbles began leaking out the sides of the dishwasher in a relentless stream.

Ooops.

There was only one thing to do! Keep running it until ALL those bubbles finally went down the drain. We ran it over....And over.... and over....

I will say one thing though. I have never seen such squeaky clean dishes! ;)

But, I have learned my lesson. From now on I will read the label to see what kind of soap it is, and I will save the daydreaming for later. ;D

~Caitlyn

Of Friends and Flowers

Saturday, July 11th, was Yamhill County's annual Lavender Festival. During this time, all the local lavender farms open up to the public, selling their goods and showing off their beautiful lavender. This year, Emily and I went along with two good friends of ours, as mom was not able to come with us. :( It was a day filled with bliss (and lavender!) and I am so thankful to have a photographer for a sister! Because now I can share with my readers what our day looked like....


Friends...



Red Ridge Farms was our first stop. I highly recommend this place!! Everything was beautiful and they have picnicking areas so you can eat amongst the flowers.

So this isn't lavender, but it has the colors at least! ;D

We walked through some lovely knot gardens that day...

I loved this sign!

Lavandula angustifolia....

This year I am having my senior pictures taken... I'm thinking on having them done in a lavender field. What do you think?

A view at Red Ridge Farms...

A wheat and Lavender wreath.

Breathtaking...

Echinacea Purpurea. Purple Coneflower. (fourth favorite herb!)

More Wheat and Lavender. Isn't it pretty?

Three maidens wending their way through a sun dappled path....

Only to find themselves confronted by three different paths to take....

Gros Bleu Lavender next to French Field White Lavender.

A lavender field with a wheat field right behind it! Can life get any better than that?

One of the farms we visited had alpacas. They were soooo cute! They had all been recently shorn, so they looked a little comical.

I miss my alpacas...

Lavender and wheat. Wheat and Lavender. A beautiful combination.

Art...

A young rose in all its blushing glory...

Art...

More art...

It was a lovely day with our friends and I can't wait until they do it again next year! Maybe next year mom can come with us.... I believe that would make everything perfect. :)

~Caitlyn

A sunbeam in plant form

I love Sunflowers, they're so cheerful looking! Whenever I see one, I always smile back. ;)

~Caitlyn

You know you're an herb fanatic when....

. The ceiling in various rooms and closets have holes all over them from hanging so many herbs to dry.

. Your family officially dubs your bedroom closet the "flower graveyard".

. It no longer surprises your family when you come careening into the house with a pathetic looking leafy twig and you are jumping up and down in excitement over your find.

. Nor are they surprised when they open their own closets and find strange looking plants hanging upsidedown from the ceiling.

. It's been said that you sometimes say Latin herb names in your sleep. (*note* I have yet to do this one ;D)

. You and your family are driving on the highway and you suddenly shout "Did you see that!?" Your family turns around, looking for something spectacular. Then you continue to say that you just saw a lovely Canadian Thistle plant in the ditch.

. You drive by a very large and important building often but never actually notice the building. You're too busy admiring the beautiful Lady's Mantle plant in the front and wondering where they got it.

. Your sewing room is beginning to resemble a plant nursery more than a sewing room.

. After church is over you find yourself talking with a friend about magnesium deficiencies in the soil and the various species of pigweed around your property.

. You name your favorite pansy plant. (I admit to this one! Her name is Stella.)

. You are constantly amazed at how perfectly the Lord created everything.


I admit that I can relate to almost every single one of these. Especially the last one....

~Caitlyn

Make hay while the sun shines

Yesterday, we got word that some friends of ours were going to be working on bucking their yearly hay crop after church and that it all had to be stacked and covered before the next day or else the rain would ruin it. So we offered to help them. Methinks we didn't fully realize what we were getting into! ;)

Their crop consisted of 1700 bales of hay in four different fields not on their own property. Each bale ranged from 50 pounds to almost 100 pounds! Our group consisted of only nine people; five girls and four guys. So armed with well worn leather gloves and broad brimmed hats, we began our tasks....( for those who may be wondering, yes, all of us girls bucked hay in skirts)

The first field we went to was about two miles off and had three tons worth of hay bales scattered hither and thither. The guys started on half the field, just picking the bales up and throwing them onto the truck. The girls made their job easier by moving to the second half and creating piles of eight to twelve bales throughout the field. The work went by very quickly, we finished that field in an hour and a half. And I am proud to say that I only broke one hay bale!

Whew! Now that that's done, we have to haul it home and unload it all!

An hour later we were ready to go to the next field. But this time, we split up. The guys stayed behind and worked on gathering hay that was on their property, and all of us girls (accompanied by Mr. H) went to the next field that was a mile up the road.

That field was hard!! The bales were big and heavy (almost 100 pounds each) and the baling twine wasn't tied very tightly. But somehow, we managed to get almost all those bales onto the truck and trailer (*note*: when I say "truck", think logging truck with a flat bed). We took a dinner break at 7:30 thankfully. Riding back home was soooo fun! Since there obviously wasn't enough room in the cab for us all, we just clambered on top of the hay and rode home that way. It was a little scary going around the curves though. :)

We took a one hour dinner break and then went back to work. In all, we bucked hay for seven hours and managed to stack almost a full 8 tons! We started at three o clock and ended at eleven. There was a full moon last night so we were able to continue our work, going solely by moon light.

The time seemed to fly by. We all had so much fun while working! Covering the hay was probably the best part of all. Because it was such a big stack, we had to use a 60' by 120' tarp. And of course once it's all unfolded on the moonlit ground, somebody is bound to start shaking the tarp to create "waves". ;D After a few minutes of admiring our "rippling pool" we had another idea. Both the dads (my dad and Mr. H) grabbed a corner on the right side of the tarp, while we kids stayed on the left side. The dads began running towards us, still holding on to the tarp. As they ran, the tarp caught the breeze and billowed out like a huge tidal wave, going right over our heads! It was so amazing! We did this again and again and again.
After that, we put the tarp on the hay and the boys went to get some old hay bales to keep the tarp down.

So now all of us girls were alone again. I'm sure I didn't start what happened next, but then who knows how it started! Right behind us was a huge pile of loose hay, from broken bales, just begging to be jumped on. And who were we to refuse such an irresistible temptation! It started out with us just jumping into it. But then it some how turned into a contest to see who could do the most dramatic death act into the fluffy hay. We were all bent double from laughing so hard; and the guys joined our laughter when they caught us goofing off. :D

A very long tale this is, I know. But there was so much to tell! By the time I got in bed it was 12:30, and I woke up this morning with some swollen fingers and everyone's arms are scratched up pretty badly from the hay, but it's a small price to pay for such a fun day.... :)

~Caity

If I can throw a single

ray of light across the darkened

pathway of another;

if I can aid some soul to a clearer

sight of life and duty

and thus bless my brother;

if I can wipe from any human

cheek a tear,

I shall not have lived my life in

vain while here.

Anonymous

World's Greatest (and fastest) Cookie Recipe

I'm going to let my readers in on a little secret: I like chocolate. ;)

And what could be better than three dozen chocolate cookies made in less than twenty minutes?

I can't think of anything.

Today I wanted to share our family's most favorite cookie recipe:


Cake Mix Cookies

These cookies are the absolute best! Especially if you are in a hurry.

Ingredients:

1 Box of cake mix from the grocery store, choose any flavor you want! (we get the boxes that are 98 cents.)

2 eggs

1/2 cup Butter

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together in a mixing bowl. Then spoon 1 inch sized dollops of dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 for 8 minutes.

That's it!!


Our favorite flavors are German Chocolate and Triple Chocolate (with chocolate chips of our own added!) :D

~Caitlyn

It's been a while hasn't it?

I apologize to everyone for not keeping up with everything going on around here. The past two weeks have been unbelievably busy. :-/

As you all know, we had VBS during the last week of June. I pulled out after day one so that I could stay home and help mom. Not that I minded though, this year I was to be a leader for the 10 - 12 year olds. That was interesting. Going into details would take entirely too long, but in a nutshell, I was shocked by the kid's behavior and language. :(

So while everyone else did VBS mom and I helped some friends out with their three day garage sale. One thing I've noticed is that one usually ends up going home with more than you brought.... ;D But you should see my huge new stash of fabric that I got for FREE!!

Saturday was a highlight.... Mom and I were 45 minutes away from home when Megan calls from home saying: "I didn't know if I should call you, but, a car just crashed into our fence in front of the house and broke it."

WHAT!!!!????

We were stuck between a rock and a hard place. It would take us 45 minutes to get home, but we really wanted an adult over there as fast as possible.

BLING! Lightbulb idea! Mom called a family friend who lives at our local Fire Department and asked if she could go check things out. Undeterred by the fact that she didn't have a car, our friend drove over in one of the medics. After checking things out she called the Sheriff.

So what apparently happened was a little white car came screaming down the road that goes right past our house (we live on a corner) and then tried to turn onto our road, but lost control and crashed into our fence. The driver got out, checked his car and then sped away, leaving us with a shattered fence. We don't have a licence number yet but we'll recognize the car next time we see it. This isn't the first time the car has come careening down our road. more then once we've caught him barreling down after doing a hairpin turn at high speeds.

The Sheriff came but said he couldn't do anything until we had a licence number. :(

So the front of our house looks terrible, but at least no one was hurt.....


So, how has your week been? ;D

~Caitlyn