Well, I uploaded these pictures a couple days ago, so I'll try to caption them--specially for Crystal who will be spending hours in airports on her way home from six weeks in Africa. She emailed yesterday saying they would be starting to travel back from their 4 weeks of Bible selling in Namibia to South Africa.
At home here, the children are enjoying picking lettuce and sometimes beets.
And the boys collect frogs sometimes.
And the girls insisted on making apple pies--with blueberries. Mmm.
We've had lots of corn on the cob, and Crystal will be glad we've done all the work of freezing corn!
Since the nice fountain Jonathan got me last year broke, he bought me another one. And two Saturdays ago the girls and I arranged our deck so that it is pretty now even though it is still unfinished.
I've asked for it to be finished hopefully this summer as I think that eight years unfinished is long enough.
I love this washtub overflowing with flowers.
Jonathan taking a rare turn reading to the younger ones their bedtime story.
Minding the goats who find pasture in the yard sometimes.
One of the goats was having a problem which required an herbal salve which, when I tried to order it, was out of stock. So I found a recipe online and helped Carrie figure out how to make it ourselves.
We decided to use it on both goats, since the second one was limping. (Today the vet couldn't even tell for sure what was wrong, sending Sam home with no answer, just a nearly $50 bill.)
The tricky part was applying it.
Even the chickens were curious.
At least the salve smelled wonderful.
Goat licked my hand!
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And one big project this summer was to try to refinish our poor oak table which was so worn through in places. All of us older ones in the family helped with scraping, sanding, staining, sealing and varnishing.
This is how Carrie did it.
Daddy applying stain to the last corner.
Cat trying to make sure Mom doesn't set him to work, too!
One evening after family worship, Jonathan and I spent a bit of time enjoying this book from the library,
Amish Proverbs.
"A woman's work is not seen unless it's not done."
"Kissing wears out, cooking don't."
"Raising boys is as easy as digesting iron."
"If you let your children have their own way,
you must not complain if they give you trouble."
**
"Teaching children to count is fine,
but teaching them what counts is better."
"The most important things in your home are people."
"If parents don't train their children, the children will train the parents."
"If you think you're too small to make a difference, you haven't been in bed with a mosquito."
And I loved this one: "Be like the teakettle:
when it's up to its neck in hot water,
it sings."
And so we try to take a moment at the end of the day to drink in the beauty of a sunset,
because a woman's work is never done anyway.
So the dirty socks are still in the sink, only half of them scrubbed out;
the dishes are done, and the table is finally back in place after days of being on the deck while the layers of sealer and polyurethane were being applied and dried.
The mopping waits for tomorrow; the dust is still on the piano.
And once again, for a few minutes,
with a daughter on the other side of the world wondering what's going on at home,
Mom blogs.
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