More work...

The new tractor is already coming in handy. Here's my dh blading the driveway.

Here's what the driveway looked like before...

And after the blading. It looks better in real life.

Here's the worst part of the driveway before...

... and after. Much more of a difference here.

Why I'm not caught up on my trip pics

This is why I haven't finished putting on our vacation pictures. The peas exploded. Below is 12 pounds of peas. Took me about 3 1/2 hours to pick them all and about that much time for the children to shell them for me. But it will be worth it to have sweet peas in January.

And today I went and picked wild raspberries. I think I might have gotten about 4-5 cups of them. I didn't think they would be worth the picking since we haven't had much rain. But that half inch of rain on Wednesday must have plumped them out.

Our garden is looking very nice now. Everything is green and nothing is past its peak yet.

Trip pictures part 1

We left for our vacation on June 7th and had an uneventful drive down to Illinois. On the way there, we stopped at Vandalia which was the second capital city of Illinois. The statehouse is still preserved and is a fine old building. And as you can see from the sign, Abraham Lincoln was there.


We visited my aunt on Friday during the day and then went to a rodeo with my dh's family that night. David and Dan and their families were able to join us. The children had never seen a rodeo and enjoyed it very much, especially the bareback riding, the barrel riding, and the broncing bulls.



Then the next day we went to David and Mel's house and rode their Tennessee Walker horse. The children really enjoyed getting a ride on a real horse. Nathan rode by himself.

Stephen rode by himself at first but then Aunt Mel got on and made the horse canter which Stephen loved.

Aaron liked it also but I didn't get a good shot of his smile.

And of course, Deb was not be left out either. She showed no fear in getting up on a horse 3 times her size.

Then that afternoon we went with Grandpa to see Fort Chartres on the Mississippi River. The boys just loved the reconstructed wall and gate. They posed as attackers and as defenders on the wall.

Let the Weeding Begin!

We're back from our trip to Illinois and Missouri. And the garden isn't in such bad a shape as I feared. We worked hard to make the garden as weed free as we could before we left and I think it paid off. We did miss the first pea picking, but overall, we're happy with the state of the garden.

This is the lettuce and onion rows before we left (6/6).


Green bean rows (6/6)

And corn rows (6/6)

Here's the corn rows when we got back (6/15).

Green bean rows (6/15)

And the lettuce and onion rows (6/15).

So we've got a lot of those pesky flat weeds that spread out fast, but as I was expecting to see a carpet of weeds, I am thrilled. We started the children right off to hoeing this morning and already things look better.

Water fun at 70 degrees?

It is barely warm enough for sprinkler fun, but I guess barely warm enough is warm enough for boys.

This is the first use of the water Tball this summer season and it is still working well. One of the best water toys I ever bought.

Duct tape even repaired it when it got whacked by the bat the first summer we had it.

A good weekend

Here is a sight to warm any mother's heart. My dh pitching to his oldest son. I had to run outside and take pictures.


We spent a greater portion of the day Saturday at a dear friend's graduation. It is the first time that we've been to a homeschool high school graduation. Wesley looked great and performed well at the ceremony. Then we helped man the food tables at the party afterwards so that Wesley and his family could visit with their guests and not worry whether the chip dip was running low. And the rain held off until the party was over. What more could you ask for?