Meteor Showers

Ok...this is something I've been wanting to blog about for a couple of weeks now. On Sunday night, August 12th, we read that there was going to be a magnificent meteor shower, but the best viewing time was between 2 am and sunrise. Beth was leaving for camp the next morning, and, of course, Neal had to work, but we decided it would be a great experience and memory maker for the kids. So we went to bed a little early that evening, and set the clock for 2:30 am.

We got the kids up and grabbed blankets, pillows and ....
POPCORN...of course!

And headed on outside at 2:41 am!

Neal layed these tarps and blankets out on the damp grass, and then we laid down and watched God's dazzling display! We probably saw about one a minute. A couple of times we saw two shooting stars (or meteors) at once. It was so beautiful!
We came in at 4:10.
The kids were pretty tired by this time. So we went on to bed. 6:30 came kinda early, but it was worth it to build these precious memories with our kids!

First Day of School

We started back to school on Tuesday. We've had a pretty good week. I'm looking forward to this school year! It's hard to believe that my kids are already in 4th and 7th grade(s). Where has the time gone???

Camping Trip

We forgot to bring Ben's fishing pole with us, so he improvised and found a stick and a string. He also happened to find some bait...I think he had more fun fishing with this stick than he ever did with his real pole!
Here was our set-up for this trip. This was our first time using our screen tent over the table. It was a bit flimsy, but I sure was thankful for it after some of the rains we had!
Here's Beth canoeing with one of the other dads. I don't think she was very confident in her canoeing ability, but she had fun!
Here's Ben with his best friend Carlee and her parents. He really enjoyed his canoe ride with them!
What started out as some "rock hopping" as our kids call it, turned into some water drenching! In case you want to feel sorry for Beth in this picture, you should know that she dumped a Mountain Dew on this young man's head earlier in the day. Can you say PAYBACK!
And last, and in this case, certainly least, is my dear hubby! What do you expect when all you've done all day is sit around and eat and talk. A guy's gotta have some fun! I sure hope he washed his hands before he made my s'more!

Life

No, I did not float into outer space because gravity stopped working in VA. I'm still here. I was going to say that I didn't fall off the end of the earth, but since I was being philisophical and that didn't make sense, I decided to come up with the gravity theory. Anyway, I'm still here and everyone is fine. We're just extremely busy.

I have so much I want to blog about -- with pictures -- and no time to do it. I feel very overwhelmed at the moment. Hopefully, soon, I will be able to blog to my heart's content.

In the meantime, this is it!

We had a great time camping. Lots of heat and some rain. I stayed more dry when it was raining than I did in the heat. (I'll let you think about that one for a minute)

I ran out of wheat last week, but thankfully my co-op order from Bread Beckers came in this week and I was able to pick up wheat on Tuesday. We had to drive to Charlottesville to get it, so while we were there we went to the Whole Foods store. I wish we had one of those near us! Anyway, they have wheat, as well. It's a bit cheaper to buy it in bulk from Bread Beckers, but in a pinch I could drive to C'ville and get it. The kids had fun eating all the fun snacks I bought them on the way home.

My Mom bought a new car yesterday! We went car shopping and she traded in her 1998 Buick LeSabre for a 2007 Pontiac Vibe. I love that car! That's the car Neal and I wanted when we shopped around last year, but we got a better deal on our Cobalt. So I guess this is the best deal for me, since I can drive Mom around in her car from time to time and not have to make the payments! :o)

Well, gotta run. I'm making supper for a couple in our Sunday school class who just had a baby. Ben has a birthday party from 4 to 6, and Beth has a sleepover that starts at 6:00. I just returned from a 2 hour shopping trip to Walmart (YUCK!), so this was my treat. Now back to the real world!

A few updates

Some of you have asked about the little girl who's finger was cut off at church. I talked to her mom on Sunday and she said they may have saved about 25% of it. The end is still attached, however it is "dying." I saw her leaving for camp on Monday and she doesn't seem to be bothered by it at all!

Canning update: 80 pints of regular salsa were made, and now we've also made 20 pints (I think) of fresh salsa. We've canned 62 qts of green beans...we'd like to have one more canning of 7 qts.

The movie I mentioned, just in case someone didn't know what it was, was Tombstone. I would suggest watching the TV version or use a TV Guardian...the language is pretty rough.

I have so much I want to blog about right now, but no time!!! We're going camping tomorrow and we're starting back to school next week. One thing I will blog about soon (I hope) is this past Sunday night. We got the kids up in the middle of the night to watch the meteor shower. It was spectacular! More later....

Be Still...

And know that I am God.

I just read a wonderful post on my friend Gwen's blog. She talked about letting God be the main voice we listen to, instead of listening to all the other voices out there...radio, television, internet, etc. I don't know about you, but sometimes I feel overwhelmed with all of the varying opinions I hear all day long. I need to take the time more often to ask God to reveal to me what His opinion is for my life. How many times do I have actual "quiet?" Not often enough, I know that.

This morning I was outside picking green beans before 7:00. I enjoyed that quiet. My plan was to wake the kids up at 7:30 to have them come out and pick their rows. Around 7:15 Neal looked out and saw that I was out picking by myself and woke up the kids and sent them out. He was being helpful...not knowing how much I was enjoying the solitude. The problem with the kids picking with me is that they complain and bicker about all sorts of things. Ben was the first one out and right away I hear this big sigh, and then the first complaint spewed out of his mouth. I immediately said "Ben, I was out here by myself because I didn't want to hear any complaining." He replied with an "oh," and quietly picked beans. Beth came out and just started picking without talking (I think she was half asleep). It was the most enjoyable time I'd had with them in the garden all summer!

Remember to "Be still, and know that He is God!"

Mom/Daughter Movie Night

We had a fun night tonight at our friend Heather's house. She had a few of us moms and daughters over tonight for a movie night. We watched "The Last Sin Eater." In case you haven't seen it, it is a very good movie. It takes place in the 1800's in what is probably the Appalachian mountains. A group of people came from Wales and settled there and they have what is called a "sin eater." When someone dies, they lay them out at the cemetary and put bread and wine on top of them. The sin eater comes and eats the bread and drinks the wine and then he absolves them of their sin. We, of course, know that this is not possible, and when the "man of God" comes to their land he tells them the same thing. It's a very interesting, thought provoking movie. I have to say though, that the book is better (of course). It has the same title, and the author's name is Francine Rivers. But it's pretty good for a movie that was made from a book. We, of course, also had good snacks. :o) I took some chips and salsa, and then Heather had some kind of wonderful chocolate lava cake or something and vanilla ice cream, raisin cookies, and popcorn.

Yesterday a few of us moms and daughters (and Ben) went to the dollar theater to see the Nancy Drew movie. Surprisingly I liked it. It's a modern day Nancy Drew movie, but Nancy is still pretty squeaky clean and she likes to dress "retro." Her only fault is that she disobeys her Dad...sleuthing when she promised him she wouldn't. But hey, it wouldn't be Nancy Drew if she didn't solve mysteries, now would it?

We spent about 3 1/2 hours at the pool today. I had only planned on stay 2 hours, but about 20 minutes before we had to leave some of our friends showed up and I didn 't really have a good reason why I had to go home. :o) So we enjoyed our visit. Tomorrow I'm watching a friends daughters, so we'll go to the pool again. We paid for a summer membership and we only have three weeks left....better get our money's worth!

One more thing

I forgot that Mom and I went yard saling this morning. We left a little before 7:00 and went to about 8 or 9 yard sales before I had to get back home. I spent $15.00...not too bad for all I got. Let's see if I can remember...

Brand new, never before opened, battery operated light saber (the blue one). This will be a birthday gift or Christmas gift for Ben -- PLEASE do not tell him! ;o)

Three Karen Kingsbury books that I promptly put on Ebay for resale. I got them for .50 each and I started bidding at $2.50 each. We'll see!

A boxed set of Tracie Peterson books...which are also now on Ebay.

Another book called "Ain't No River" by Sharon Ewell Foster.

Two oversized I Spy books.

One I Spy computer game.

A boxed set of Little Rascals vhs movies

A pool frisbee and some diving sticks

25 Highlights magazines that have not been marked in!

A bag of Sharpies

The book Dreamer

A Cranium game

A Pirate game

A 5-candle candler holder

A book on teaching teens about finances by Larry Burkette

Hmmm...it seems like there's more, but I can't think of anything else right now. I think Mom's best deal was a quilt that still had the tags on it. It was purchased at Cracker Barrel (which means it was pretty expensive), and she paid $4.00 for it!

We had a great time! (okay...now I'm off to bed and my book!)

No Tax Weekend

For the second year in a row, we've had a "no tax weekend" here in Virginia. It's, of course, only on certain items such as school supplies and clothes, but hey...I'll take what I can get! Ben needed some clothes and shoes, so today was the perfect day to get them. We found him two pairs of casual dress pants at KMart and a pair of shorts there. I got him a pair of cargo pants at Old Navy. I love Old Navy when they have sales! His pants were regularly over $20 and I got them for $8.59! Beth and I picked up a couple of pairs of flip flops -- 2 for $5.00. I'm not a big "flip-flops" fan, but I needed a pair for camping and slipping on to go outside. After Old Navy, we went to Walmart, and I found Ben a pair of penny loafers for church and a new pair of tennis shoes. I really like the Shaq brand. That's what he had last year and we found him another style this year. They were on sale as well. I got them for $13 instead of $20. Not too bad.

Tonight we canned 30 more pints of salsa. That puts us at 80 pints! Our goal is 90. I think this is the best batch yet. Neal and I made it last night and then canned it today. Yummy!

We went to our friend's graduation party today. The name tags were cute. They were big band-aids that said: My friend is a doctor (for friends), My Mom is a Doctor (for her kids), My Wife is a Doctor, My Sister is a Doctor, you get the picture. Very cute!

Well, I'd better get to bed. I still need to do my reading for Sunday School. Not a good time to try to read something and retain it!

Feast or Famine

It's either feast or famine with the TV. I rarely watch TV, but sometimes I enjoy sitting down and watching a movie or some good show. Usually there isn't anything on. Today two of my favorite movies were on back to back. I didn't get to sit down and watch them from start to finish, but I did get to go in the living room occasionally and watch favorite parts. :o) Neal was stringing beans, so he told me when the good parts were on.

The first movie was "Remember the Titans." I love that movie! It's funny, I came in at the part where one of the characters was in a bad car accident. I hadn't even been watching it prior to that scene, and I started crying. Neal just shook his head. :o)

The second movie was ... nope...I'm going to see if you can guess the movie. Here are some of my favorite lines:

"Johnny, I apologize, I forgot you were there; you may go now."

"Does this mean we're not friends anymore?"

"I have two guns...one for each of you."

"How are you feeling today? 'I'm dying, how are you?"

"Why Johnny Ringo, you look like somebody just walked over your grave."

"Poor soul, he was so high strung. I'm afraid the strain was more than he could bear."

and my all time favorite line from this movie:

"I'm your Huckleberry."

What's the movie?

It's Friday!

Yaah! I love Fridays! So, what's on the agenda for today? Swimming, baby! ;o) Neal and I got up again this morning at 6:30 and walked and then worked out down in our gym. I made breakfast for all of us while the kids picked green beans. Now I just finished eating here at the computer, so I'm going to write this and get off of here! We have to leave at 9:45 to take Suzi and Shadow to the vet. Suzi needs her kennel cough shot, and Shadow needs rabies and feline leukemia (I think). I was scheduled to watch my friends kids today from 2 to 6, but we wanted to go to the pool early, so their mom is going to drop them off at 11:00. We'll pack a lunch and stay at the pool for several hours. We're meeting up with four other families. It should be a great day. Hopefully I'll get some pictures today. I took the camera yesterday and forgot to use it! I got to caught up in talking. :o)

Tonight we're making salsa again. Yum! Tomorrow we have a graduation party to go to. An old friend of ours just received her medical degree, so we're going to celebrate with her and her family and friends!

Judgement House starts on Sunday at our church. We helped by handing out prayer bands at church the last couple of weeks. We wear a prayer band to remind us to pray for the person who's name was written on our band. I say "was" because it doesn't take long for the name to wear off. We pray for our person every day and cannot take off the band until the end of Judgement House. I think there were around 90 people saved last year at JH. It's a great ministry. Ben was saved last year on September 11th after he had gone through JH the night before. He didn't even go through the "scarier" scenes. He just wanted to make sure that he knew for certain that he would go to heaven when he died. What a blessing!

Okay, I'm outta here. Have a great weekend!