Old Fashioned Chocolate Soda

From the Tasha Tudor Cookbook

2 Tablespoons Hershey's chocolate syrup
Club soda, chilled (we don't usually chill it, but that would probably be even better- we can never wait that long)
2 scoops chocolate ice cream (we use Breyer's)

In a tall glass combine the chocolate syrup with a bit of the club soda. Add the ice cream. Then fill the rest of the glass with the club soda and stir gently. Drink!

One of the best parts of summer is a chocolate soda on a warm day...

Thank Goodness for Google!

Jacob asked today, "Do cats have belly buttons?"

I assumed so, but it never hurts to look things up in a time of uncertainty.

The site I checked when I Googled "Do cats have belly buttons?" assured me that ALL mammals have belly buttons, but on some dogs and cats they have healed so well and are covered with hair so they may be difficult to find.

Now that that problem is taken care of, we can go back to our regular scheduled programming!

Jackson at Three Weeks

World's cutest newborn nephew is now three weeks old!

The strawberries from the grocery store have been wonderful lately. The past two nights we have enjoyed them with homemade yogurt and whipped cream (and possibly a little chocolate sauce). Yum!

April showers bring...

May flowers!

A Quilt for Hope

Pressing the applique pieces over the freezer paper

Fabric starched and ready for the iron

Quilt laid out and ready for sewing. The green "melon" pieces are just placed on the quilt for now- hopefully I can start sewing them on tomorrow and have the quilt top ready for quilting next week. I have never done applique before and when I saw this quilt on display at the quilt store, I thought, "That doesn't look too hard." 150 applique pieces later, I am regretting those hasty (and naive) thoughts! But really, what is life without a challenge?

Teach me your way, O Lord,
and I will walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart,
that I may fear your name.
I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart;
I will glorify your name forever.
Psalm 86:11-12

Jon, Christy, Jackson and Dad on Mother's Day. Jackson was dedicated during the morning church service.

Abby in her Easter dress. These pictures are here so I can upload them to a sewing forum. Feel free to ignore them! :)

You Know It's Time To Dust When...

Your children use your furniture to practice their penmanship.

Five Weeks Old

This "batch" of bunnies has been a lot of fun- very sweet and playful. They are socializing well and should make wonderful class pets!

Summer Projects

Trims bought at the fabric store on Friday. The rick rack and yellow and white trims are all cotton from Wright's new "vintage" line. I was thrilled to find it since most rick rack is all poly and the cotton felt so nice. I just hope the color stays true after it's been washed! The ribbons at the top are for hair ribbons. They looked too pretty to pass up.

I bought some white pima cotton to make up this blouse for myself. I'm thinking of making the slim skirt later, but I haven't looked for fabric yet.

I found some nice blue shirting fabric to make the sleeveless blouse for Abby. I hope to make the white skirt and pink cumberbund, but didn't get fabric for it this week. Abby wants the red and white checked outfit, but we'll start with the blue and see how it goes.

I found this flannel for $1 a yard, so I bought 4 1/2 yards for jammies in the fall. The buttons- some I need for projects right now, the red ones on the end just because they are so cute and I know I'll use them!

Tea Party Ideas

This site looks like a fun place to spend some time on. They have wonderful looking cakes and ideas for an English tea. I think I'll download a few recipes for future use!

English Tea Party Recepies

As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O God.
Psalm 42:1

Family Celebrates End of School Year!

Our family tradition is to start and end the school year with a visit to a favorite restaurant.
The grounds are so beautiful and we love to walk around and appreciate the scenery.

We stopped by to see the beautiful peacocks.

I'm not sure what kind of bird this is but he sure is impressive!

Local farmyard animals...

We enjoyed listening to bluegrass music. They even played a Johnny Cash song.

A quiet moment.

Sliding down the "pig chute".

Most of us ordered the turkey, but Jacob had the fried chicken. Coleslaw, beets, cottage cheese and corn fritters come standard with every meal.

The goats would initially come over to you but once they assessed that you didn't have food, they wanted nothing more to do with you! So we gave in and bought two handfulls of overpriced animal feed from the nearby dispenser. The things we do to make our children happy...

In the restaurant there is a display of old sleighs and buggies. It looks like a romantic way to travel, but I'm sure that wasn't the case most of the time!

All Jackson, All the Time...

Another picture of the cutest newborn nephew in the world.
Jackson at home gazing at his mother with love.

As an aside, Dad, Linda thinks Jackson looks like YOU! (poor child!)

Isn't this just the sweetest picture?

In the Classroom

We finished "Across Five Aprils" last week and that has led to a review of the Civil War. We have several wonderful children's books on the subject and we have rented again a video from the library that was informative. With Hannah and Jacob being avid readers and Abby being an auditory (and often visual) learner, it is important to cover all the bases when teaching this subject!

Hannah felt that "Across Five Aprils" started out slow and the first two chapters did not seem to be sparking any interest. However, by the middle of the book things were off and running and we were all sad to come to the end of the book. I think our study of the Civil War will be more meaningful now that we have "met" the Creighton family and read through their experience of the war.

This is our last week of school, with testing coming on Friday. We pick up again in earnest in late July/early August, with various projects throughout the summer months. We've had a great school year and we are looking forward to the summer break!

Psalm 127

Unless the Lord builds the house,
its builders labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
the watchmen stand guard in vain.
In vain you rise early and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat-
for he grants sleep to those he loves.

Sons are a heritage from the Lord,
children a reward from him.
Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are the sons born in one's youth.
Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
when they contend with their enemies in the gate.

It's a Boy!

Beautiful baby Jackson! Welcome to the world! Congratulations Jon and Christy!