Big Decision

Our sweet boy made a very big decision on Thursday, October 10th 2013 at 3.5 years old.
Here's how it started.... I was in the kitchen canning grape juice and Nicholas was "reading" his bible story book from our home school supplies. When he got to the lesson on the crucifixion he noticed the photo depicting Jesus on the cross. His questions then were.... "momma why is he doing that?" "momma why does he have nails in him?" and, "momma is this a happy picture?". 
WOW this momma was not prepared to have this discussion quite yet.  Sure we have talked about Jesus' death at Easter time and quickly changed the subject to the fact that He rose again which is what we are celebrating.  How do I tell my little love that our beloved Jesus died? The way I pictured this conversation ending? With him in tears over Jesus' death. 

I quickly finished up what I had to at the stove and we grabbed our school book and a couple other of his children's Bibles. Went to his bedroom and read about the Crucifixion and Resurrection  in all of them. Afterwards I asked if he had any questions about what we just read..... oh boy did he! I explained the best I could to a 3.5 year old about why Jesus had to die to save us from our sins, and how this means we get to live in Heaven someday. There were some minor misunderstandings like "mommy will you go to the cross with me?".  But also the sweetest questions like "mommy will you be in heaven too?".  I told him that all he had to do was to ask Jesus into his heart and acknowledge that he died to save us from our sins.  Still not at this point thinking he was understanding much of what all this meant.. To my surprise he said he wanted to do that!!!!! I quickly called daddy at work and he came home so we could pray this together as a family. 

Our baby boy made a very grown up decision and this mommy is so proud of him. I can't begin to say how blessed I feel that I get to be home with our children so that I can teach him about these things and witness firsthand his little heart understanding and coming to know Jesus as his Lord and Savior. Also, that Daddy works right across the street so that he can come home quickly for something as important as this. Finally, thankful that we found (thanks to a friend) an awesome home school curriculum! 

Farm life

Little man takes picking his blueberries quite seriously... He will catch me if I accidentally pick a green one. Momma did you pick this? He will say as he throws it out!

Had to include one of him working with poppy in the barn too. 

Our little garden this year. Finally convinced Kyle I was serious about not having any sprays put on it, other than the couple times I was unable to cover with sheets before the crop duster came over the blueberries behind out house... Obviously had more weeds than normal without the help of the sprays but I don't really mind pulling them any way:)

Enjoying lunch at cranes after picking peaches. We picked just under 50lbs! I puréed and froze most into ice cube trays to pop out and store in ziploc bags for our smoothie obsession. The rest we ate or froze sliced up. Yummy!

Second trip of the year to cranes we picked apples this time. Again picked around 50lbs. Also took home a few of these gourds and a few squash which we enjoyed for supper.

No trip is complete without some cider donuts and fresh cider!

Cutie pies at the pie pantry;)

Prepping the acorn squash for supper 

We made three big batches of applesauce two of them being strawberry:)

Got a total of 24 jars of sauce and hope to do more we love applesauce around here and the best part not all the added sugar!

We went to DeLanges Redberry farm for a church young couples event that I set up... Yeah we just can't get enough of farms :) had fun at the pumpkin patch on an absolutely beautiful fall day. 

Wet home with 2 big and 2 small pumpkins( didn't go overboard knowing we would be back before long) we also picked raspberries which we ate some of and froze the rest for smoothies:) bought strawberries which went into our applesauce and apple cider!

We've also been back to cranes a third time but surprisingly no photos. At least one more time to cranes for more apples!  I just love fall! 

Hubby Turns 30!i!i!

Anyone who knows me knows how much I LOVE to plan and throw parties.... Hubby turned 30 yesterday and of course I had to throw him a party! It was meant to be a surprise party (because I knew if I told him we were having one he wouldn't allow it ;).  During berry season is not a good time for a birthday and I had actually worried he would be late to his own party, but alas he was done early... like 3pm on a Saturday early... Soooo instead of trying to keep the poor guy away from the house which he only spends a few (awake) hours a day at, I decided to let him in on the secret early... :)

A semi-related story before we get into the details of the party.... Anyone who knows our dog knows she has MAJOR food ISSUES! Like will eat anything and everything that could be eaten. She had multiple trips to the emergency vet an hour way.  Her list includes things like 2 packs of sugar free gum (xylitol is poisnous for a dog btw), too much of her own food causing her to be so bloated she was having labored breathing, gummi worms, nerds, chocolate chex mix the list goes on and on, and on and on..... Friday night she managed to get past the baby gate in the pantry in our basement, and kindly unzip the zipper on my Thirty-One cooler to get to some party supplies I had been hiding from kyle.  She consumed close to 1/2lb of salt water taffy wrappers and all and a 7oz bag of red vine licorice. She also managed to find a ring pop open that up and luckily eat just the candy not the wrapper and plastic ring part!! I was up at 12:30am calculating the dose of baby tylenol for her weight to help keep her comfortable...I have and am not afraid to give her hydrogen peroxide to induce vomiting but she was so bloated that I knew there could be risks involved with putting her tummy through that trauma and what she ate wasn't poisonous. She slept fine all night was very weak the next morning we didnt feed her and a few hours later she vomited up 7 times of bright red licorice colored whole pieces of salt water taffy! ugh!!! BUT she is THE MOST AMAZING and tolerable dog with our two boys so we have to take the quirks...

On to the fun stuff!!! I decided to go with a Vintage Baseball theme. We are big into baseball in this house and I knew he would love it!

        ::My awesome little sister made cupcakes for the party! Cherry Cola complete with cherry pie filling in the middle and a chocolate baseball on top. And the birthday boy's fave Red Velvet with fondant baseballs.

                              :: I made the Beer "cake" for him. A few people were sure I bought it made like that lol.

                  :: Like I said I had a bit too much fun planning this! I made the food signs and the "concessions" sign.

                             ::For dinner we had everything you would have a baseball game. Hot Dogs in paper holders(with all the fixins), chips and nacho cheese in the plastic divided containers, Cracker Jacks, Fresh popped popcorn.

                           :: I also made the score board and the team scores are his birthday!

 

                              :: Had to have CocaCola in glass bottles with the paper straws tied to them with twine :) My awesome brother-in-law made a VERY yummy Rum Punch which everyone loved so much he had to make a second batch!

                        ::Whats a baseball game without peanuts and sunflower seeds? Had to have the "baby ruth" candy bars as well :) (no that bucket was not full! I sat a cake pan in the top :)

                        :: everyone seemed to have a great time and we were *blessed* with the most perfect weather!

                  ::I put no children on the invites but our own don't count.... especially since the only people to ever watch my boys were all at the birthday party! :)

                                   ::Yup she had to be tied up because even after her late night candy binge last night she was still trying to get everyones food!

                            :: Me and the most amazing hubby in the world! (the party looked great which meant no time for me to do my hair! oh well....)

                     ::lil man enjoyed scooping popcorn for everyone!

                        ::The Tigers were on and my hubby has a table built into the deck for the t.v... it worked out perfectly to watch the game at our "baseball" party!

                            ::One of the best friends a gal could ask for. Isn't it awesome when you feel so secure you can always be completely honest with someone and know that you will not be judged? Again *Blessed*

                         ::His Tigers Tervis cup :)

Highlights: Again the weather was absolutely perfect!  Everything went off wihtout a hitch! SUPER *blessed* to have had the help of my momma and sisters with help cleaning and setting up for the party. And hubs wonderful grandma who took the boys for an hour long walk (they really needed it they had both been crank all day and baby boy hadn't napped well.... screamed when we put him in the jogger but was out before she hit the sidewalk!  Got to spend the evening with everyone we love! Since the party was at our house we didnt have to leave early to put the boys to bed nor did I have to have a sitter put them to bed...(never has someone other than me, hubs or one of our moms done bedtime and I love that) I just snuck away to do bedtime with lil man then a bit later snuck back in to put baby boy to bed!

Woke up Sunday morning feeling very lazy we decided to forgo church instead spending a relaxing morning together as a family. Picked up from the party got some laundry hung on the line (done with week three!). Then went to a friends house to swim for a few hours, and to my parents for an impromptu supper.  All three of my guys were in bed by 9pm tonite!

Two weeks into no dryer month.

I got a bit excited and started the last few days of June on my bet with the hubs. I bet that I could dry EVERYTHING on our new clothesline he built me. Two weeks in and I haven't turned on my dryer yet.... And you know what? I'm really enjoying it!

Some things I've noticed....

If I fold the clothes as I take them off the line they don't sit in heaping piles waiting to be folded for days on end.

It's actually quite relaxing as long as baby J isn't hanging on my leg screaming for my attention (he's been cutting teeth and extremely attached to mommy lately). 

It's somewhat fulfilling knowing I'm harnessing the suns power to do my work. (Did that sound a bit hippie to you too?).

I can't wait to see July's energy bill to see if this is making a difference at all!

Only downfalls....

Towels get a bit "crispy" but they don't stay that way long.

Japanese beetles are terrible here right now and they seem to really enjoy hanging out on my laundry. Brought a few into the house the first week before I started shaking everything out and double checking for stowaways. 

When it's super humid it will take ALL day and your stuff may still be damp when it's time to bring it in... 

There is no way I will let the hubby win this one!:) 

Want to take on the challenge with me? You can start out small say just a week or two! Let me know if you do!

July goals

Summer is here and although the weather today (rainy and 60 degrees) may not show it I'm getting very excited for the next few months! I have two new goals to try out for this month. Number one is meal planning, with it being our busiest month of the year for blueberries I figure a little less stress could make a big difference. I've tried to meal plan numerous times but always set myself up for failure, trying to stick to a strict regimen just doesn't work for our family. Instead I'm going to actually plan 4 meals each week and it won't matte which night we end up eating it as long as I have the ingredients in the house to make it we are good. I figure we will probably eat at my parents or a cookout somewhere one night each week, have leftovers another and do something easy like order pizza or make pancakes the 7th meal. I do enjoy freezer cooking but I'm bad at using what's in my freezer to its full advantage so if I Plan it out hopefully I will use them more!
Second goal for the month is to not turn on my dryer all month !! Sounds crazy to a lot of you I know! I've always dried the cloth diapers on the line in the summer, but now that my hubby built me a real clothesline I'm loving being able to fit an entire load on the line! I'm excited to take this one more step towards being green. The benefits are many, cheaper electric bills, clothes will last longer, natural fresh scent instead of nasty dryer sheets, who doesn'tove watching clothes blow in the wind I think it's sort of peaceful;) hubby said there's. I way I could do it so you better believe I'm gonna try my hardest to prove him wrong!:)