Chicken Feathers

Blogging....I LOVE it! I still chuckle over that as I hate to write. Lately though, we have been far too busy living to blog. We have had fun-filled, busy days. Labor Day was especially enjoyable. (I will post pictures of that soon.) And I have been scrambling getting school off of the ground. I ordered curriculum later than normal this year (Never again!!) and it takes most of my spare moments to get it organized to where I like it to be.

All that to say, I have taken lots of pictures and jotted down on scrap paper several memories with the hope that in the near future I may actually catch up my small piece of the world wide web. :) But for now, I had a quick, quiet moment (I got up at 4:30--so unlike me!!) and thought I would post some pictures I had previously uploaded here, but not published.


Zack left for college two weeks ago and I took pictures of him with our kids before he left. The kids miss him a lot. He sought out ways throughout the summer to spend time with them. My oldest boys really look up to this young man. He is hard-working and thoughtful. We love you, Zack!!



Ricky did this train on our little Etch-A-Sketch and I was impressed. I spent a fair amount of time with an Etch-A-Sketch growing up, but never produced much on it. Ryan recently did one that made our jaws drop, but that is for a later post. Good job, Ricky!



Ryan is our resident artist. :) He loves to draw, and we love to be impressed with the final product. His siblings often go to him for help with projects. This recent drawing I especially loved and thought Grandma and Aunt Sarah might enjoy seeing. I love the detail and thought he puts into his work. His drawings are especially enjoyable to me as I cannot draw anything at all. That is not a talent this child got from me!



I want to praise God yet again for a working washing machine!!! I love this appliance and do not like living without this convenience. I would not ever want the "good old days" as this machine is one of the things I would have to live without and what is so "good" about that? ;)



Maine saw AMAZING amounts of rain this summer! It has been THE topic of conversation over the last three months. The rain stopped a few weeks ago, but it was too late for much of the garden produce to survive for many of us Mainers. Not much survived in the garden, but the potatoes did! And God knows that if I could only pick one crop to survive our personal garden this is the one I would choose. We harvested a lot of potatoes over two days and we think they taste great. Thank you, Lord!



And one last thing to share for now...when we returned from RI and walked into our house we were greeted with chicken feathers. Our entire kitchen was filled with them...EVERYWHERE! If you have read our post very long you know there is a "chicken" that gets loose from time to time around our church and makes an appearance. The chicken is never seen, but the evidence of his visits always are.

When we arrived home it was literally minutes before church had to start and we rushed in, dropped off our stuff and headed out the door to go to church and re-unite campers with their parents. I never took pictures of the kitchen as we first saw it as there was far too much confusion to think of such things. The next day as we were still finding and tossing feathers I finally remembered to grab my camera and get a few shots...







And this is the sign we found on our door when we got home...



Beware "chicken"... we know who you are and we know where you live!!!

Hope you have a wonderful day! I am off to go read my favorite blogs and then plunge into my busy day ahead. I look forward to spending my day with the ones I love to serve.

And besides--my quick, quiet moment is over. By 5:30 I have two kiddos up already!

Thanks for stopping by,

Changes At Our House...

It is hard to believe that September is here! We are enjoying some changes as we go into this month of change. Fall is a beautiful season and I look forward to the changing of leaves. We have done some decorating for Autumn. We also made some changes in our school curriculum for the year and we are anxiously awaiting for everything to arrive. We are doing school review while we wait which is always a good way to get back on track in the first few weeks of school.

We also rearranged a room. If you know me then you know that is big news. This picture is not the best, but will be appreciated by those who have visited my home as they will see a big difference. The posters on the couch are waiting to be hung, but I wanted to get a picture while the room was clean. (Translated: kids are in bed.). I am anxious to get our school things on the walls and make it look fun and educational. The kids are excited, too.



And the biggest change in our home....(Drum roll, please!!)....Rachel has bangs!

This decision has been a long time in coming, but today at the home of our favorite hairdresser Rachel took the plunge.




It makes her look older...(Daddy has mixed emotions about that!) (And thank you, Jaynee, as your blog post about your girls was very much enjoyed by my daughter.)







I actually teared up as this was snipped. Is that normal?



And that is all for now...



And now I must needs be on my way! ;) My sister said I could not do something that I want to do tonight until she saw pictures of her niece. (Who looks so much like Sarah did at this age!)

Thanks for stopping by,

Cause For Celebration!

(Special note to Amy at the end.)



Hello to all my blog friends! I miss being on here daily, but am getting school up and running. I won't go into how amazingly and overwhelmingly busy we have been as most of you have "super-schedules" of your own and do not need to hear of my own busyness. My free time is much more sparse, but I will not complain as it is a temporary problem. I look forward to being on here more regularly soon.

Speaking of school, I want to brag on my man!! My husband loves schooling and studying. He is very intelligent and tends to get straight "A"s-nothing that I can relate to!

He has always wanted to get his Master's Degree, but was financially unable to do so. Also, as soon as he graduated from college he went into the pastorate. A few years ago he started researching correspondence colleges. I must admit that I was a bit skeptical at first as I have seen many people do correspondence classes that I was not very impressed with and then claim expertise in an area that was obviously out of their grasp. But my husband decided on a college and ordered his first set of materials-and was I ever surprised! He had to listen to tapes of every class that were recorded live in the actual classes. This was not read and fill-in-the-blank (nothing wrong with those, by the way), but actually listening to all the teaching. He did three quarters of the year that way. Listening to hour upon hour upon hour while seated at our kitchen table with his books spread out before him. I loved those times as I listened and learned as well while I did my housework.

The fourth quarter consisted of one large assignment-a paper. This paper consisted of 20,000 words with 10 resources. That is A LOT of words! My husband likes to write though and his final paper consisted of 30,000 words. It took several months to research, write, edit and have proofread. The paper has been turned in and his Master's Degree came a few days ago. I am so proud of him!!


What a blessing to be married to a man who never stops growing and learning. He is teachable and humble. I am blessed beyond measure to spend my days being treated as ter-Rick-ficly as my husband treats me.


A future goal of ours is to turn his paper into a book. The topic of his paper is the fruits of the Spirit.

Thanks for listening as I bragged on my man!

Hope to chat with you real soon!

Thanks for stopping by,



Special note to Amy:
Thank you SO MUCH for your homeschooling resources blog post! I had not done my order yet and benefited greatly from your wisdom and experience. We are adding a few new ideas to our curriculum this year. Thanks for taking the time to write all that down and to include all the links. And please do not hesitate to give us more! ;) I appreciate you! Love ya!

Rhode Island...

The sunset as viewed from Sarah's back deck...



What a great time we had in Rhode Island! Our family took four kids from our church and headed for Camp Davis. There we dropped off my husband, Ricky, Ryan and our church kids. I took our four younger kids and stayed with my sister and her three cute kiddos. Sarah and I did take all the kids and visit camp one day and thoroughly enjoyed watching some of the activities and eating lunch with everyone before we took the kids home for nap time.

Here is a sampling of pictures from our week...

Loading up early Monday morning...(Ryan loved being on top of the van!)





Buckling everyone in...





Don't forget Jack!!



We had to leave this cute girl behind as she was too young. She came to tell her siblings good-bye. I would have loved to have taken her. She is a joy. (I love you, Cheri!)



My view from the front seat...They were only too happy to pose when I turned around with my camera. ;)







The Maine state line is in the middle of this bridge. It always causes a lot of excitement whenever we cross it.



"Betty the Bug" This is in Providence and seeing it means we are almost there. Rachel named the bug a few trips ago. You can click on it if you want to see it better.



Hana was feeling a bit apprehensive when the buses were loading to depart for camp.
They were separating the girls and the boys and Hana was the only girl from our group. My ter-Rick-fic man ran over there and told her he would be "one of the girls" which set Hana off in a gale of giggles. I love these two shots. (By the way, I was able to introduce Hana to one of the lovely young ladies from Sarah's church and Hana had made several new friends in no time. She makes friends rather quickly wherever she goes.)




The boys lining up...




Playing around at camp...






Whatever happened to camp???? When I was younger (and, yes, I am VERY well aware how long ago that was!) we did things like volleyball, dodgeball and things of that nature. But now camp lingo includes zip lines, rope courses and cat walks. I like my feet solidly on the ground, thank you!

The zip line was one of the favorite activities for everyone. After a person gets harnassed and double-checked they climb a ladder. When the ladder ends they proceed to climb the rungs that are in the tree until they reach a small platform. Once there, another worker checks them again and gives final instructions before pushing the person off. Each person's reaction seems to start with fear and much prayer on the platform...to disbelief as they are pushed off...to exhilaration and pride that they really did it. They really climbed that high and went down the zip line.

Everyone was safe. I know. I was there. But I am VERY afraid of heights. I found it difficult and even "dizzying" (my own word) to look up to take pictures. I was amazed how many people opted to do this activity.

Here is Dylan on the platform...



Ryan helping Ricky prepare...this was taking place while I got over my immense shock that Ricky was going to do this. Ricky is also VERY afraid of heights. I am constantly amazed how he works through his fears to do something anyways.



I missed seeing Ryan doing the zip line which is too bad. He has NO fear of heights. It would have been fun to watch.



Climbing the tree. This is where Mom starts to cry. Not out of fear mind you, but out of pride. (Well, okay, a little fear, too.)







"I did it!!" (And his Mom's heart can beat at a normal rate once again...)


My brother-in-law/Uncle Paul/Pastor Chapman/Uncle Stinky/Pink Fairy did it, too. Can't let the kids have all the "fun"!




Rick wanted in on the action, too. (Hope that life insurance policy is paid up!) I live very happily with my feet planted firmly on the ground....why can't everyone else??

The ironic thing is....Sarah wanted to do it! Physically she is not able to now, but she loves this kind of stuff! I will let her carry the adventurous spirit for the both of us. (Thanks, Sis!)





Walking away triumphant..



Did I really go all the way up there?!?



This is a wonderful lady from Sarah's church. She went up for Sarah. I guess she had gone before we came and Sarah really wanted to see it. This lady was scared to death, but went up again anyway. (I do not know if I love Sarah that much!)

Mentally preparing...




Praying....



One last look....



And letting out the loudest yell I have heard in a very long time...(The look on her face is priceless! Click on it to get a better look.)



My very busy Joshua...he was everywhere!



Cute Katie. And how fun to hear her talk! She's a smart one!



Stacey declaring that she is 6. (She is only 4, but she was standing on something. Since she was taller she figured she must be older! If this is true, I will never stand on anything again!! LOL)




Jonathan found something even taller so he decalred he was 7! Silly kids! ;)



My very handsome nephew! He is my little Buddy! We make lots of plans when Mommy isn't listening. So fun! I cannot believe he is starting school next week...he is growing up so fast.



Busily building...



Amos getting ready for lunch...



Jonathan (I am telling you this kid has more faces than all my other children combined.)



A hot, tired and sweaty Joshua...he had played hard! He just wants his hot dog and chips. That is perfect camp food, by the way!



The cat walk was a log high up in the trees. Again, everyone was securely harnassed. Many kids said it was scarier than the zip line as you are slowly walking across a high log. They would walk the length of the log, touch the other side, turn around, walk back to the middle of the log and stop. At the signal, they would jump and they would be let down slowly.

Here is Alex...








All done!



Ryan's turn...




I think Ryan's favorite part was getting to flip upside down on the way down. He sure made it look like fun!






AAAAAHHHHH...Frog ice cream. As I recall Sarah and Rachel had purchased ice cream for everyone at home to enjoy. They picked out Rachel's favorite which is mint chocolate chip. Sarah expressed some concern when we went to serve the children that her kids might not like that flavor as they had not had it before.

So I proceeded to tell an "Aunt Jennie story" of frogs and sore throats and how the best cure in all the world for a sore throat is this frog ice cream that we were having that afternoon. Furthermore, I instructed the children that any time in the future they had a sore throat they should request this very special cure. (And for all you "healthy people"-- do not get upset with me. I am the "aunt" and am therefore granted liberties in the fun department. I watched my sister LOVE being an aunt for several years before I got my turn. I need to make up for lost time!)

In case you are wondering, not only did they love the ice cream....there were constant complaints of "sore throats" for the remainder of my visit! (We had more "cure" the next day...)

And if you do not think this "cure" works, check out these happy patients...









I admire my sister for more reasons than I can list here, but just one of those reasons is how she makes being a Mommy so much fun! Sarah cannot spend much time outdoors due to her health, so others help to make sure the children get to do that. But Sarah wants the inside to be fun, too! They have a large main living area and the kids have "indoor-only" bikes. My kids think this is so great! I mean, really...how many Moms allow bike riding in the living room? Mrs. Marlene Evans would be so proud! This is one Mom who has her priorities straight. (Of course it doesn't hurt to have a large space with hardwood floors, either. LOL)




Stacey playing the piano...



Jonathan got A LOT of clothes from Paul that he had outgrown. Here are just two of his many, many favorites. (Thank you, Paul, for sharing your clothes! You were so generous and sharing with all of your toys. I am very proud of you!)




Missy-one of my daughter's favorite reasons to go to Aunt Sarah's house.



The campers made crafts at camp. My husband joined in the fun and made one for me! How fun to pick up the campers and get this from my ter-Rick-fic man! And, yes, I know that the "L" is backwards...but they were making painting molds and he forgot to turn that letter around. But to me, that just adds to the charm. I love that man!! (No comments, Sarah!)



And then, just for fun, I inverted a few pictures. Looks like I have some gravity-defying spidermen! ;)





Thank you to the Chapmans and there wonderful church for a great week! We had a great time!

And thank you, God, that I have a working washing machine again!!!!!!! So glad to get those camp clothes clean!!

Thanks for stopping by,