First Day of School

The girls wanted to knock on the front door this morning for their first day back to school. They were excited because I told them they could call me, Mrs. Wakefield. Buddy had to join them, of course.
A friend from church helped me clean out my garage and arrange the furniture for a classroom. This last week I unpacked a million boxes and set up our first real classroom. The kids love the room but not too excited about school.
I found this idea to make lunch much more fun on-line recently. It was a major hit.

Faux Zoo

We wanted to take the kids and my parents to the zoo today. The baby elephant and the fact that it is Labor day made it impossible to find a space. So we went to Washington Park and looked at all the beautiful roses. It was one of those days where no one wanted to pose for a picture but I just took them anyway. So this ended up being our faux zoo trip. We saw one strange squirrel and one humming bird but millions of gorgeous roses and plants.

Faux Camping

Our old church has a camping trip every year outside of Kelso/Longview in the boonies. I charged my camera batteries so I could take a ton of pictures. Unfortunately, they were old batteries and they didn't hold a charge. Anywho, we went up to visit them for a short bit. These were the few pictures I was able to get.

Peaches are done!!!

I finally finished with the peaches! Because I haven't been feeling well I had to modify what I did with them. I ended up freezing all of them, well what we didn't eat and make into crisps and cobblers. I think I have 7 or 8 quart bags in the freezer. Peaches are way more work than blueberries but we ate the blueberries so fast that none of them ever made it into the freezer. I am so glad that we will have something for a while.

Today my mom, sister, all the kids, and I went blackberry picking. They were small and kind of squishy so we didn't pick much. I picked just enough for a crisp. I really have enjoyed the fresh produce this summer and would like to learn to can next summer. I have been saying that for a good 6 or 7 years though. It is a lot of work but man it feels good to have non processed food around. It really appeals to the pioneer women in me.

Jason's parent got a side of organic beef recently. It was the most wonderful tasting meat I can remember having since I was a kid. We had t-bone steaks with her garden fresh broccoli and french green beans, and a peach crisp that I brought. We all truly relished that meal. Jason and I would really like to buy a side of beef, too.

Peaches, Peaches, and More Peaches

I went with my Mom down to Firestone Farm yesterday and bought 'B' peaches. This means they have bruises and blemishes. So they are great for baking and cooking. Since I enjoyed the blueberries so much I decided to try peaches. We will see if I was too ambitious in a few days, most of them need a bit of ripening.

Quote of the Day

I ran across this quote today while researching something on the internet. I identify with this.

Derric Johnson in his book, Excellence is Never An Accident said, "Stress is what happens when your gut says 'NO' but your mouth says, 'Of course, I'll be glad to.'"

I would go a step farther to stay stress happens when we aren't listening to the Lord but listening selfish motives or others.

Olympics Inspired!

So our girls our finally enrolled in a sport. They will be taking swimming lessons but they don't start for 3 more weeks. But you wouldn't know it by looking at them now!