Fall Colors and an Update on Hannah

No one went to church yesterday as to avoid catching any germs that could be passed on to Hannah.

So Brian got up early on Sunday morning and took Abby and Jacob on a hike in the park.

They went on a four mile trail they had never taken before.

Brian said his goal is to walk every trail at least once...

all on the same day.

I let him know he'd be alone on this hike- probably thirty miles over rocky terrain. My knees hurt just thinking about that.


As for Hannah, her strength is getting better and she is eating more, but the severe ear pain continues. A heating pad helps, but please continue to pray that she will get well and that the pain will go away soon.

Prayer Request:

Although I try to keep things light around here on the windswept plains, today I am asking my dear friends and family to pray for Hannah. Last winter she caught the flu which weakened her immune system even further. She has struggled all this year for energy and strength.

Last week she developed a sore throat. After the birthday party, she developed an ear infection (hasn't had one of those since she was a baby). She hasn't been eating this week due to nausea and vomiting, so on her way to get a drink of water two nights ago, she fainted, the glass she was carrying shattered on the floor around her but thankfully she did not get hurt from that.

Please pray that her immune system will rally and that she will be able to fight off the infection. Please pray that the pain will go away and she will be able to eat again. She had a bad reaction the last time she took antibiotics, so we are doing everything we can to avoid those.

Thank you!

The girls filled pumpkins with flowers as one of the party activities. Now we will have cute fall decorations this week!

The girls had a wonderful time at the birthday party. They said the birthday girl was dressed from the colonial era, one girl from the victorian era, and another girl came dressed as a pirate. I'll have to ask what the other two girls wore as I think there were seven girls total. (I just used the word "girl" seven times in those last sentences!)

Dresses Finished, On To The Party!

Front View

Back View

The girls are at the party right now. I hope they are having a good time!

Skirt sewn, Bodice halfway done...

Abby needs to sew in the lining, then buttonholes and hemming the sleeves.

Next, sew on the skirt and hem it, make a longer belt and add the rick rack trim.

Whew!

Cutting The Dress Out

Friends from church loaned us their sewing machine for the week! Hopefully this dress *won't* be hand-sewn after all!

Sewing for a Birthday Party

Hannah and Abby are planning to attend a birthday party next weekend. The dress is "historical", so the girls have chosen to dress in a 1940's theme. They searched for reproduction feedsack fabric to be as accurate as possible. We could only get 4 1/2 yards of the above fabric for Abby, so we will need to cut carefully. It always boggles my mind just how much fabric these vintage dresses take- the skirts were so full.

To make this project even more fun, the sewing machine died after my last quilting experience, so we are hoping to get it fixed in time (we found our former repair shop had closed and now need to find another). This may end up being a hand-sewn dress (oh please, no).

When the fabric arrived in the mail it included a hand written note from the woman who runs the quilt shop- so friendly and sweet. I have always commented to the girls that the women who work in fabric stores are the nicest people ever.

Fall

Because of our altitude (and other unique factors), our trees start changing later than trees just 30 minutes away. It shouldn't be long until our trees are fully showing their fall colors.

Jacob's Saturday Morning...

...has consisted of playing with the backyard wildlife.

I am still too much of a city girl, however, as the mere sight of these photos sends a chill down my spine.

Years ago, I picked up this book in hopes of finding a good way to teach the history of how the Bible came to be to my children. I was also hoping to educate myself on this topic. However, while this book did discuss the writers of the books and some information on the life and times of Biblical writers, it never did clearly answer my questions. Hannah also said she didn't find this book helpful.

I read this book last night and was so excited to read a concise, clear and logical progression of how the books in the Bible were chosen and why (depending on one's religious tradition- Catholic, Protestant, etc.). The author is careful not to include a sectarian or theological slant, so it is appropriate for all people interested in Bible history.It also includes a chapter about Bible translations throughout the years. This book came from papers found after the death of Charles Merrill Smith, who was writing to answer questions from his teenage granddaughter.

The only place I felt the book was weak was on the last page, when the author was explaining how modern Bible translations seek to help readers today to understand the author's original intent. I felt the wording was poorly chosen even though the point was a good one.

I look forward to sharing this book with my kiddos this week. This may be a book to buy for our library since it it so very well written.

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

65 years ago you were born! Happy Birthday!

Uno

Enjoying the waning days of summer- growing so quickly!

Another reason why my children need their father...

Because I am *not* the person to teach them how to drive. Much weeping and wailing would ensue if I were the parent in the passenger seat.

Fortunately, they have a father who has much patience and energy for this task.

And in about another year, maybe I'll get in the car with them, too.

Really Old Fairy Tales

In group reading today we were continuing our study of ancient Egyptian history. The book "The Ancient Egyptian World" from "The World in Ancient Times" series detailed a story very similar to our present day Cinderella story that was being told in 63 BC! I knew that fairy tale was old, but I had no idea *how* old it was!

Little "Uno"

"Uno" is the newest furry creature at our house. While we were at the wedding, the "bunny lady"/ breeder we work with bred two of our bunnies. Based on previous gestations, we expected we would end up with around ten babies total from these two mamas. However, we ended up with just one baby.

Since one of Hannah's bunnies died while we were on vacation, we had promised that she could keep one of the babies. Having just one made for an easy choice.

Uno is related to her favorite bunny Oliver who died in the spring. I have a feeling Uno is going to be special to her, too.

Every Princess Needs A Castle...

Glen Erie, Colorado Springs (on the grounds of the Navigators)

Brian and I stayed in the honeymoon suite here for our tenth anniversary.

Grandma and Grandpa attended a conference here last week.

The kids had fun exploring the castle grounds.

The castle offers programs at Christmastime, which would be wonderful to see.

But just walking around in the summertime is great, too.

Meanwhile, Back on the Windswept Plains...

Downtown Denver- Convention Week

Abby's Handwork

Abby laid out her quilt squares (after a long time of them wallowing in a dark corner of her room...) and has decided to start stitching them together. However, she realized that she will need to sew more yellow and blue squares to be able to complete the next five lines in the quilt.

She has been knitting a skirt from yarns Grandma gave her earlier this summer. However, she also needs to get more of this yarn to finish it. It seems that this is (almost) always the case- running short of materials for a project. Grandma bought the yarn in Alabama- hurray for on-line shopping!

A close up of the skirt. All those different textured yarns make it so interesting. I'm glad leggings are in style again because that would be perfect under the skirt which should come just to the knee.

Hannah's Drawings

Here are three (of several) drawings Hannah has done these past weeks during our group reading time. I think some of these ladies look mad or very concerned. I'll have to ask Hannah what they are thinking!

This week I am attempting to work on quilting this quilt top I bought on ebay about seven years ago. It is impossible to understate how much I *greatly dislike* machine quilting on my machine, so this task is being done because I really, really want another quilt for the family room this winter. We always scramble for the quilts on cold days and we need a few more so everyone will be warm.

My memory quilt top is finished and it turned out bigger than I thought it would. It is a good queen-sized (none of the beds in our house is queen sized, but we'll make it work...). It will probably be years before it is quilted, but in the meantime I will hang it over the upstairs railing and be happy looking at it.

We are into our second week of school. We decided that "A Day No Pigs Would Die" was not a good choice of a book for our family, so we didn't finish it and returned it to the library.

We are enjoying "The World in Ancient Times" history series as a group read-aloud. Jacob is reading "The Mystery of History" and I have checked out another popular homeschooling history book, but for now, "The Ancient Roman World" (and next, "The Ancient Egyptian World") has been great for our history studies.

Finally- wow- what an exciting Olympics! We look forward to evening when we can turn on the tv and cheer for our gymnasics teams and of course, Michael Phelps and the men's (swimming) relay teams. It's always incredible to watch the talent of these athletes from around the world.

School Days

We started school this week even though not all of our curriculum has arrived yet (we are hoping it will come by tomorrow- the company we order from ships its packages by turtle express).

We are enjoying the book "The World in Ancient Times- The Ancient Roman World". It's a very well written history book for elementary/middle school (depending on the child). We are reading it as a group each morning before our other history books come, although we may continue with this series for awhile.

We are also reading "A Day No Pigs Would Die" by Robert Newton Peck. So far it has been good (although needing an edit of a few swear words). Since I haven't read it before, I skimmed over the last few chapters and found them to be on the intense side. I'm not sure how I want to handle those chapters- they deal with death and of course that is a part of life, but this book is pretty blunt in an old-fashioned farmer type way that we are not used to. I need to think about how we'll finish this book. I already know of one chapter we'll be skipping...

We are continuing our math program from last year and it is still going well (Math-U-See).

Looking forward to watching the Olympic Games starting tomorrow...

Place the State

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/states_experiment_drag-drop_Intermed_State15s_500.html

If you cut and paste the above link in your browser, it will take you to the Sheppard Software site where there is a nifty USA "Place the State" game. There is a blank outline of the US and they give you the shape of each state, one by one, for you to drag over its location.

I admit that geography is one of my worst subjects (there are others... geometry being even worse) but playing this game has helped me learn the location of each state more than anything else I've tried thus far. My children also enjoy it and we have had competitions to see who can get the best score in the fastest time.

And best of all- it's free!

Muppet Show- I've Never Harmed An Onion

We like to sing this song while chopping onions! I especially needed to sing it today while I cut into the world's most eye stinging onion ever!

Honey Mustard Salad Dressing

3 Tablespoons cider vinegar
3 Tablespoons honey
6 Tablespoons mayonnaise
1 Tablespoon Dijon Mustard
1 Tablespoon onion, finely minced
1 1/2 Tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped (we used dried parsley because we're not THAT fancy)
Pinch of salt
3/4 cup salad oil (we used canola)

Heat vinegar and honey in a small heavy saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly until honey dissolves. Pour into bowl. Cool. Whisk in all other ingredients except oil. Mix well. Gradually whisk in oil. May be prepared 3 days ahead, covered and refrigerated.


We tried this new salad dressing recipe this week and it was good. It would be especially good on a raw spinach salad- we often eat salads with half leaf lettuce and half spinach, so I think we'll be making this again.