Campmeeting Update

We've had a lot of fun at campmeeting so far, despite all the lost hours of sleep! I'm thinking that life gets a bit easier on these type of "adventures" when one of the kids is not 2 years old! The kids and I are home for a 24 hour stop over. Gotta mow the lawn, weed the garden, do laundry, and pick up a few things.

Our favorite play things at campmeeting: sticks, dirt, trees, bark, sand, water, nest building, and the like. I'm not use to having such filthy kids at the end of the day! :)

As far as a campsite goes, we do have a nice one. We're up on a small hill with another family close by. It's shaded by the trees and uphill in case of great rainfall (We've been so fortunate in this area so far)!!

The kids could ride this shuttle forever and ever and ever if we let them! Everytime we hear one go by, we hear them LOUDLY exclaim, "tractor tram! tractor tram!" It's has produced quite the excitement!!

Campmeeting

David is already up at campmeeting for camp pitch. Not really being ready because of the garage sale on Friday, the kids and I stayed back for a few extra days. But today is the day. We're headed up there as soon as Dillon wakes up from his nap. It's been a long time since I've been to campmeeting. I do remember loving it as a kid. We would stay the entire 10 days and it was a blast. So I'm sure that although this time around it will be in a tent (!!), campmeeting will be just an enjoyable. I'll probably be home for a day next week in order to mow the lawn and weed the garden. I'll post a little update then as well. Have a great weekend!

Pedaling Along on His Automobile

Learning to pedal....now that is freedom to a 2 year old! Today is the day that Dillon gained this new freedom!

A New Favorite

GRANOLA

7 C whole oats

1 C shredded coconut

1 C wheat germ

1 C sliced almonds

Stir the above together in mixing bowl.

Stir together the following:

1 1/2 C water

1/2 C oil

1/4 C maple syrup

1/4 C honey

3 T vanilla

Add wet ingredients to the dry and stir well.

Divide into two baking dishes and put into a 350 oven. Stir every 10 minutes. Bake until dry and golden. This really depends on your taste. I usually bake it about 45 minutes.

I got this recipe a while back and after tweaking it just a bit (just added the maple syrup and honey and one cup of oats) and it has become my husbands favorite granola....the rest of us like it too! :)

Milestones

Two great milestones this weekend at our house!!! Here are pictures of the first!

Bye-bye crib!

Dillon has a big boy bed!! Yeah! He thinks it's pretty neat and he likes the fact that Chaeli gets to sleep in the same room with him now also! I've been wanting to put them in the same room for a while now so that the other room can be a play room. So this last garage sale was in hopes that I would make enough to buy bunkbeds. They also come apart and can be twin beds so that when the time is right, they can go back to having rooms and beds of their own.

The second milestone was the potty! Dillon really hasn't had much interest in using the potty at all, but tonight that all changed! He was in the bathtub and I had to run up and get his jammies. When I came back down he was standing in the bathtub saying, "I have to go poo-poo. I have to go poo-poo." He had already let a little out in the tub. Yuck, I know. But I was actually excited about that because since so little was in the tub I know he has control and awareness about letting it out. The minute I put him on the potty he pushed the rest right out. What excitement!!! :) He got lots of praise and even a "treat." He was so excited about that treat that he just kept wanting to go over and over and over. He'd tell me every five minutes that he had to potty....and he really did! In about an hour and a half, he went poo poo three times and pee twice! I could get use to this milestone! Hopefully the enthusiasm for it will still be here in the morning!

Another Miracle

....and another garage sale... You'd think I'd be out of stuff for another garage sale, but between the two that I've had this summer, David and I made the BIG decision to not intentionally have any more kids. ...sigh... I say intentionally because I know so many people who have an extra kid after making that decision! :) Not that we wouldn't like anymore, but we feel it's the best decision for us. It's rather sad ending the baby phase of our lives. With a 2 year old and an almost 5 year old, they aren't babies anymore. And I'll miss it... It's also very hard wanting to sell the clothes and the baby items that have memories attached... But common sense tells me that I won't need it without any babies around. And yes, I can always use the money instead!

Having made this decision, I decided we better start getting rid of our 5 year collection of clothes and equipment! So Friday we had another garage sale. End of the story....we did very well. Beginning of the story...rain storms threatened again! Our sale started IN our livingroom and on our front porch. Quite crammed and chaotic, but that's the way it had to be. The rain made for a slow start, but it actually turned into a beautiful day and we moved everything outdoors. God is so good! It didn't start raining again until about 3ish when I was going to end the garage sale anyway! In my next blog you'll see the purchase made from my garage sale earnings.

Gardening Update

Only a week later than the last garden post and it's grown so much!! It's amazing what rain and hot air will do!!


Above is big pile of potatoes! They did so well last year that we tripled the area and are hoping for a good bunch this year as well. It's hay on top of the stack...we use it to keep the moisture in.

Fresh dill! I can't wait to make my dill dip recipe using this!

Tomato plants! They've grown so much and I can't tell that the squirrels have bothered them anymore so I'm quite pleased about that.

This is either squash or cucumbers (I think it's cucumber). I keep forgetting which side of the garden I planted what. But it's growing quite nicely. There is 3-4 of growth difference so that all the fruit doesn't produce at one time! I could hardly keep up last year!

And this is my little garden helper! She loved using that big rake! Each time we mow the lawn we collect the grass and spread it over the garden. It helps keep the weeds down somewhat and helps put nitrogen back in the soil.