house fire

our neighbors house burned to the ground last night, it was such a horrible, horrific thing, I don;t ever want to see that again ever. It was such a hot fast fire, it was almost surreal. My children are very nervous and anxious now. and Doug everytime the wind blows or he hears a siren he is up. The house is maybe 20 feet away from us so flames touched our house also, our siding,windows,roof, are damamged we have smoke smell in our house, the outside air is saturated with the smell of burned metal. We could see the flames just engulfing our house as the wind blew them over. Thanks god it had rained as hard as it did the night before, and also the home was made of cinder block, which kept the fire contained in the house and not letting it just go wild. our prayers are with the neighbor, and a firemen who was hurt fighting the fire.

And the talk is she set the fire, which I pray is not true, how horrible is that. I mean that would intentionaly be risking all our lives and the neighbors on her other side as well-who also have major damage to their homes- ,not to mention the fear in my kids-Adam won;t leave my side, Madeline has a stomache ache, Grace is very chatty and loud, .And like I said Doug is a wreck, My throat huris from smoke, and my nerves are shot.

lots of carved pumpkins

we spent last night carving pumpkins with the kids in the additon which is not completed yet, but is a great place for a messy family activity and its warm and cozy. The kids had a great time carving, we carved a lot of pumpkins we have 12 of them:-)we even lit them and turned off the lights to get a look, and they are quite the spectacle to see:-)

This was a great family night great way to burn off energy and just be together.We have really been focusing on doing stuff with the family, and just being together. I guess Doug said it best Madeline is 13 we have maybe 4 more years with her, wanting to be with us most of the time. Then she willbe working, dating-agggh-, volunteering, college etc.., and her time willnot be so family focused anymore. And I plan to enjoy the time we do have to the fullest we can.

Our children are our greatest blessings and our time is short with them , lets make the most of it, sing and dance, read books, cuddle together, marvel at the wonders around us,, bake cookies, and build gingerbread houses, and paint birdfeeders, go fishing, hiking, biking, camping, bowling,skating laser tagging. Play board games, and make funny faces, walk the dog, and laugh, just love being with them and guiding them and watching them become the people god wants them to be. It is such a gift to be here day after day helping them grow and put down strong roots in the lord and the family, giving them the knowledge to go out and change the world and the courage to not let anyone or anything get in their way.

pumpkin patch

Today was Madeline's 13th birthday:-) And we spent the morning/afternoon at Hubers picking pumpkins and going thorugh the corn maize, we do this every year on her birhtday ,visit a farm, it varies, and get our pumpkins and just enjoy the day. It ws a very brisk morning, and we bundled up good-) We found four very unique pumpkins fo rour yard, and we got a lot for pumpkin carving day on saturday at my moms. It was a fun time, the corn and milo mazes where fun, Grace and Adam found a huge dead garter snake- of course- he seemed to have found the wrong end of a tractor. But he was very interesting to look at. WE also found some baby eggplants and little green peppers int he fields. Adam brought home a couple ears of the dried up corn off the husks to feed the sguirrels and to keep some seeds to try and plant in the spring ourselves.
This is one family traditon I hope we always do no matter how old the kids get, I can see us taking our grandkids to the patch ot get pumpkins and work our way through a maize and just having a fun time togehter.

party pictures

birthday surprise

Madeline's party was a success, she was so surprised:-) And she had a wonderful time with her friends and family.Its amazing the number of friends she has, she has kids of all ages and grown-up friends as well- our pastor. the mom she helps with games for sunday school, the neighbors, -she had friends from homeschooling- alot of them- sunday school, girlscouts, the neighborhood, softball, and she had dear frineds she grew-up with there.So much for the unsocialized homeschoolers:-) And as far as folks saying she seems shy and with drawn and has a hard time being around others to them I will send the picture of her doing her cake with fifty kids gathered around her:-0 Anyhow it was an awesome day for an awesome girls

lost in the corn maize

last night we went ot a corn maize with Madeline's teen group- a group of homeschooled teens and tweens- at Brads Produce in Churchville. It was a fun night, the boys and I played in a straw maize, and went on a hayride while the girls went with their friends into the huge maize. It was at night so it was done with flashlights, the kids found the way through it pretty well about an hour or so . Not bad really.

Madeline's friends are so nice her one friend Sophia gave Grace a piggy back ride through the maize, and they just stuck together and had a fun time. One of the fellows- Joesph- fell in a hole and sprained his ankle, and the other boys carried him out. This is such an amazing group of kids and they are awesome to know. and if you watch them with ps teens you can see the subtle differences in them. Like boys and girls being friends and not quite worried about all the dating drama yet. They all just like hanging out. And theres not a lot of clique behavior or the pressure of having to look or dress a certain way they are free to be individuals and are accepted for that . It is refreshing to see. I realize some teen drama will happen,but, these kids seem to have a hold on who they are and where they are going with life. None of them are rude to their parents or think its uncool to have mom hang out with them. They are grounded in their values and most have real compassion for others and for other creatures of the planet not just themselves. Children are accepted for themselves, not judged on color, speech, religion, handicaps ecc, they are seen as equal human beings and all are welcome to hang out together.
homeschooling is such a blessing and it really shows as the kids get older and start to spread their wings and become individual in their thinking.

big surprise

today is Madelines surprise 13th birthday party, and she has no idea:-) I can;t wait to sruprise her and for her to see all her friends and family there to clebrate with her on her big day. She thinks we are going to a fall festival and we are doing her cake next week at my moms while we carve pumpkins:-) Can't wait.

a refreshing time of year

Autumn has to be the best time of the year. or at least its my favorite. When else does a huge roasting turkey smell so good, or pumpkin and sweet potato pies. It is a wonderful season o need for the heat or air.The kids can be outside from morning to night- mine usually are-and then be out at night dancing under the harvest moon.

And theres lots of orange around which is my favorite color.Looking across the fields the leaves are now beginning to slowly change and put on their wonderful show of color. Soon we will be raking them and jumping in huge piles of them.:-) Time for the annual photo of the kids in the leaves.

I always feel energized and refreshed this time of year. In the same note, I also love to cook comfy meals and gather close to read stories and do craft projects, and talk. I also love taking long hikes in the fields to see the hand of god at work. What wondrous sites await.This is also the time to gather bags of pinecones for wreaths for Christmas. I quess we can do that soon, we usually go on Thanksgiving morning and gather then come home and go to my moms for dinner. It is a fun tradition we really love.

Apple Adventures

we began our day by baking an apple pie together, everyone helped, Madeline and I peeled and sliced the apples, Grace stirred them with the lemon juice and spices, and Adam helped with the crust. It really turned out yummy and so pretty.What a fun project.

This is my favortie time of year, when it is coo out and cozy inside, its fun to play int he crisp air then come in for a cozy evening with hot coco and snuggle on the blankets and watch the holiday movies- we love Hocus Pocus- , We look forward to RAVEN Football on sundays and love throwing the football in the yard with the kids.

And everything smells so good, cinnamony,oatmealy, and spicy fires at night and gooey marshmellows . Fall leavs are so colorful and a witness to all of the lords glory, as he gives us a firey show on the trees.

Happy Fall:
-_)

we are back on line finally

whew we finally got our system back, it crashed a few weeks agao and the harddrive had to be completely replaced. And during that time the cars transmission went up so we are down to one vehicle. When it rains it pours:-) It was like the stoneages here, I don;t know how we survived 20 years ago without all this technical stuff to work with. :-)