VBS Crafts in the Kitchen

One of the elements I like about this VBS is that they have planned the craft time for learning things in the kitchen. So far we have made fruit creations, peanut butter in a champion juicer after shelling the peanuts ourselves, and today they made bread in a bag. I was quite involved helping the kids with the bread today so I didn't get pictures, but here are some other pictures. They are also learning about sprouting!

Vacation Bible School

It's VBS this week at one of the churches that we pastor. It's much more relaxed than many that I've been too and I like it. My kids are having a wonderful time too! The outdoor favorites so far have definitely been the bubbles and the little frogs! They couldn't get enough of these frogs!



I'm in charge of the bible lesson and craft/activity time for the kindergarden age kids. There have only been about 5 each day so it's pretty low key and fun. Here are the boys in the group with their lions after we talked about Daniel in the lions den.

Garden Update

Here are my "red" peppers just waiting to get red! I'm thrilled with my two pepper plants. They seem to be doing quite well this year. Just gotta get them red now... :)


Of my eight tomato plants (1 roma, 2 yellow, 1 cherry, and 4 early girls) here is my first prospect of a red tomato!! I'm getting quite excited and can't wait to pick this little beauty! All the tomato plants are doing well so I'm just sure that all of a sudden (probably next week when I'm gone for 4 days!) they will all break loose with vibrant color!!

Bikin' Around

One of our summer pasttimes has been bike riding. Last summer I invested in a bike trailer that I found at a garage sale and it's been wonderful!! Today we even headed off to the Asian store where I get tofu and the discount bread store. There is a storage cubby in the back of the trailer so it was perfect. We got some errands accomplished and a three mile bike ride on a beautiful day!

Good to the Last Bite!

If there is one thing my kids would never turn down, it's fruit! They LOVE fruit. And they enjoy it to the very last bite!! Dillon is knawing on a mango pit trying to get the very last little bit of fruit he can.

So Glad to Have Him Home!

David got home Monday and we are thrilled to have him back with us! For table time that day, we made a welcome home banner for him. The kids put a lot of time and effort in to it. It's full of stickers, markers, glitter glue, and plenty of love!

Abstract Art A.K.A. Fingerpainting

I've decided to institute more structure into our day. One of the things we'll be doing each morning is "table time." Today that activity was fingerpainting! Wow! That was a hit. It was the first time that Dillon has attempted this art. Chaeli knew what fun it would be. They had lots and lots of messy fun making creations on their paper plates. As you can see, the art kept evolving.

Beach Fun

90 degrees was telling us it was time to head to the beach!! There isn't much else you can do to help cool you off when it's that hot! And lucky for us, we have a wonderful little beach inside a state park that is 15 minutes from us. So we slathered on the sunscreen and had quite an enjoyable time playing in the water and the sand!


This is the kids little sand castle. They worked really hard on this little project, mote and all.

Chaeli's favorite thing was go way "deep" in the water. She would squeal with delight for me to look at her each time she did! And she desperately wants to go back soon....like right now!

Below is Dillon trying to catch the fish that were swimming about in schools. There were minnows all over the place and Dillon found great pleasure in chasing after them!

Blueberries, Blueberries, Blueberries

We love bluberries and it's that time of year again! I just went and bought 80lbs of blueberries from a local farm. Picking is fun but for me with two little kids, paying the 25 cents per pound difference in price is worth my time and effort. About 75 of those pounds, I froze because we love eating them all winter long! The other 5 we've been eating fresh and making/baking various delicacies! :)

This breakfast cake was very yummy, but I think I put a bit too much applesauce in to replace the egg. I think next time I'll try flaxseed "egg" as the replacer.

Please Pray

David has been in California for about a week and a half now. As I write this He is driving to Boring, Oregon, where his grandparents live. He got word last night that his grandpa has only a couple short weeks to live. He has been fighting cancer for a few months now with no progress, only decline. It seems that the cancer is spreading faster than the chemo is killing it. What a blessing that David was out on the west coast already and is able to make it to see them. The Lord definitely worked it out for him. It should have cost over $500 including changing flight fees and the sold out rental car. But Praise the Lord, the airline waived the change fee and it's only costing $91 plus gas for the "unavailable" rental car! Please pray for David and his family during this very hard time!

Together we can all look forward to the time when "God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." Rev 21:4

We Miss Papa!

All we get of Papa lately is phone calls...precious phone calls. Usually they're pretty short, too, so we take turns talking to him. :) He's in California right now working with and training some magabook teams. He's been gone since last Sunday, the 6th, so we're definitely ready for him to come home!!! He'll be back this Thursday so we're counting down the hours and keeping busy until then!

First Fruits

Yum! Yum! Here is the first produce from our garden this year!! This squash plants looks like it has potential to be super productive so we're looking forward to plenty more! Actually, we gave away our first two squash to our neighbors today. It's kind of like how the Israelites gave a tithe on their firstfruits. I'm not exactly sure how that would work for us, but we are grateful, nonetheless, for the garden God is growing for us!!

Fun on the 4th

In a town not too far away they have what they call the "Pet and Bike Parade." It's for kids ages 3-12 and you can bring a pet, ride a bike, or decorate a wagon and be in this parade. It's kind of chaotic, but fun for the kids. We only watched this year and had a lot of fun. They also have live band music, free ice cream sundaes, and a flag raising. Quite a festive event.

On our way back to the car, we came across the fire engines that were out ready for kids to explore. This was probably the highlight of the day for Dillon. He was pretty excited about it!

Then we ended at the park for a picnic. Twas lots of fun. We ate and then played to our hearts content...okay, actually till it was definitely time for a nap!

As Chaeli calls it, we had a fun "red, white, and blue day."

The Storm

A short, but very strong storm, came through our area last night. This morning we found there was lots of damage done. The largest amount of damage was done by fallen trees. We currently have a neighbors tree on our back shed. But many others have it much worse than we do. As I drove to the store earlier today I saw so many trees down, some on cars, some on fences, etc. Below are pictures from just across the street from us...he lost a car and a fence.



It's now Thursday evening at 10:10pm and we've been WITHOUT power for about 28 hours! And we've been told that we won't have electricity until Saturday night at 11pm! We're praying that it happens sooner! (are you wondering how I have a computer with internet access??)

Here are the blessings through it all....

1. we have a generator powerful enough to run our two refrigerators plus a couple other small things.

2. the weather is cool so we aren't suffocating in a hot house

3. we're safe and sound and we didn't lose a thing

4. our hot water heater heats water without electricity!!

Picnic and Play

Picnics are always fun! We had friends here visiting us all week and Tuesday night we decided to have a picnic at my mom's house. Even had a hotdog and corn roast. There is nothing like food cooked over a fire! Plus potato salad and baked beans. Add watermelon, blueberries and strawberries to that and you have a feast!


Above is Brenner who desperately wanted to wear these sunglasses! And he did a fine job putting them on himself!

One of Dillon's very favorite things to do is play ball! Any kind of ball actually, but baseball is tops. He's doing quite well and even has a pretty good stance!

All the kids had a pretty good time with the balls. We played baseball, soccerball, and velcro catch.
Holding babies is a fun pasttime as well! Baby Caelum never lacks for someone to hold him!

More Campmeeting

Our first campmeeting experience was a tiring, yet good, experience. I have to say that the weather was exceptional (except for the tornado that came through the last Friday night!! No one was hurt.). That last sentence really sounds like a contradition, but truly, it was a pretty mild campmeeting from what I hear. We saw lots of friends and had lots of fun.

As you can see from the picture below, it was also a very tiring campmeeting! The kids were worn out most days and were ready to come home after 10 days!



For the most part, I was blessed and took the kids to a bathtub to bathe them, but one night I didn't have the energy to walk to this house where our friends were staying so I ventured to the bathhouse with both kids. I gave them a shower in the handicapped stall. It worked out pretty well actually.

A major highlight of campmeeting was the meetings for the kids! They loved going to hear the stories, do the activities and crafts, and sing songs. It was like having Sabbath school everyday!

I would have pictures of David on here too, however, he worked with the teens and we didn't see much of him. He came back with many memories though...two of the most memorable are the tornado literally jumping over the occupied teen tent and the cracked rib he is living with!