Ben's Birthday Pictures

Earlier this month I took Ben’s birthday pictures. He was dying for an opportunity to wear his suit and tie. The weather turned out very nice and cool the day of his photos. He had been quite worried about wearing his suit if the temperatures were in the 90’s! But the temperature was 75 and sunny, great for being outdoors.

For every smiling photo I have of Ben, I have an equally serious/thoughtful photo. He’s becoming a young man right before our eyes!

This was one of our favorite poses. Ben was such a good sport; I made him walk in the wet leaves and tall grass to get this photo. J

I have been blessed with very photogenic siblings. They are very easy to photograph.

Not all of Ben’s photos turned out serious though! This was his “Mr. Bean pose.” J

I loved all the pictures we took!

*Do you have a favorite photo from this post? Please vote for your favorite in the comments!*

Bianca's Birthday

Earlier this month I celebrated my birthday! In the morning we went to a park day with some homeschooling friends despite the 100+ degree temperatures outside. It’s kind of ironic, because the day I came home from the hospital after I was born, the temperatures were also in the 100’s, which was unusually warm for southern Indiana.

I was pleasantly surprised when Daddy came home early on my birthday afternoon. The temperatures had gotten so warm that his office building had gone on level 2 energy curtailment due to an order from the power company. They turned off all the lights and air-conditioning and told everyone to go home!

Despite the heat, Mom lovingly made my favorite birthday dinner: tomato soup with double-decker grilled cheese sandwiches. We had a delightful time eating together as a family.

Photo Credit: Roma.

After that hot meal, we enjoyed a nice cool birthday cake. Mom made a white chocolate cake filled with strawberry preserves and frosted with whipped cream. It was rich and refreshing!

Photo Credit: Roma.

After dinner I opened gifts. I received lots of great books (which I will hopefully be able to review once I’ve read them), including two missionary biographies on Ann Hasseltine Judson and Jim Elliot, some perfume, a music CD, a CD geared towards firstborn children, and some money to put in savings.

Photo Credit: Betsy.

I’m so thankful for all of the wonderful years God has blessed me with! I look forward to spending many more years in service to Him and enjoying my family!

Still Waters



Photo credit: Roma

“He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:

He leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul:

He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake.”

Psalm 23:2-3

 ~ posted by Betsy

Recipe--Garlic Mashed Potatoes

One of our long-time family recipes is garlic mashed potatoes. It may seem odd posting about them in the middle of the summer, but it’s been on my list of recipes to post for quite awhile now. These potatoes make an appearance at nearly every holiday and several birthdays every year.

As a note, sometimes we like to make this recipe with red potatoes and leave the skins on. It adds texture and some color to the dish. The garlic makes the potatoes seem sophisticated and special. This recipe is so good that you really don’t need butter or gravy with the potatoes; they have enough flavor of their own!

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

2 ½ lbs potatoes, peeled, quartered and cooked

1 package (3 ounces) cream cheese, softened

½ to ¾ cup sour cream

¼ cup butter, softened

½ teaspoon garlic salt

Salt and pepper to taste

Paprika

In a large bowl, mash the cooked potatoes. Add the cream cheese, sour cream, butter, garlic salt, salt and pepper; mix until smooth. Transfer to a greased 1 ½ quart baking dish. Sprinkle with paprika if desired. Bake, uncovered at 350°F for 30 minutes or until heated through. Yield: 6-8 servings.

Michigan Winters

I realize it’s the middle of summer, but I’ve been thinking about winter lately! J It didn’t feel like we really had much of a winter this past year. We only had substantial snow two or three times.

But growing up in Michigan has afforded lots of opportunities for playing in the snow. We loved building snow forts across the driveway so that we could have snowball fights. We also loved to pull each other on the toboggan.

Another favorite activity—that we still love—is sledding! The feeling of racing down the hill with your face inches from the spraying snow cannot be replaced by anything else.

We love the snow and all its beauty so much! We’re blessed to have so much of it during the winter months.

Summer Food Challenge: Pomegranates



Photo Credit: Roma.

As part of our summer food challenge, Mom brought home a pomegranate from one of her grocery shopping trips. Now the first thing you should know about pomegranates is NOT to bite into one. Thankfully, we learned that before anyone in our family tried it.

We did some research online to find out how to eat/use a pomegranate. Inside a round pomegranate are about 6 sections of seeds. You slice the pomegranate into sections and then gently scrape the seeds away from the white pith. I rinsed the seeds in a colander afterward to make sure that I didn’t leave behind any of the bitter pith.

Several of us tried eating the pomegranate seeds straight up. They were different. The little seeds are crunchy with a tiny sac of red juice around them. The juice is slightly tart. We weren’t exactly sure what to do with them and did some more research online.

We were eating salad that night, so we sprinkled some on top for some crunch and flavor. I liked them much better in something than by themselves. We’ll probably look for some other ways to use them up.

*Have you ever tried pomegranates? How do you like to eat them? Please share in the comments!*

"Biblical Economics in Comics" Book Review

One of my goals during our summer vacation was to read the book “Biblical Economics in Comics” by Vic Lockman from start to finish. It’s not a long or difficult book, so I was able to finish it by reading about 15 pages per day.

This book was partly assigned reading, partly pleasure reading. This past school year Ben and I studied government and economics in depth using several books. BEC (Biblical Economics in Comics) was a simple comic book explaining the general principles of economics according to the Bible.

I really enjoyed a lot of things about this book. The presentation was very visually fun to read and the explanations were short and concise. The first section of the book is on the market. The author was very good at explaining cause-and-effect when it comes to a market system. He brings up many common scenarios and what most people’s answer would be to such problems. But then he shows the consequences of an unbiblical market system. He explains things very simply, and I learned a lot of things that I hadn’t understood very well before.

The book also has sections on government, law, money and taxes, the Bible, and the Biblical view of usury. This book is really a must-read for anyone desiring to understand what the Bible truly says about economics. It is great to bring along on a road trip, or just for some light summer reading. Vic Lockman has a way of explaining economics that gives you that “aha!” moment of understanding. I would heartily recommend this book for 15-years old and up.

July Nature Pictures

Those of you reading internationally may not know this, but the United States has been suffering from a terrible drought this summer. Temperature highs have set records, and there has been hardly any rain across the country.

In the whole month of July we’ve had 3 days of rain. On Wednesday July 18^th, we had a thunderstorm and delightfully steady rain. We were so thankful to finally have water! I couldn’t resist going out afterward to smell the freshness and snap some photos of the still-wet flowers and leaves.

Mom planted a pot of begonias that are blossoming beautifully in one of our gardens.

It was so good to see rain dripping from the leaves. How I’ve missed the sound of rain on the roof!

“Ask the Lord for rain in the springtime; it is the Lord who makes the storm clouds. He gives showers of rain to men, and plants of the field to everyone.” Zechariah 10:1

The zinnias I planted in my garden are finally blooming! They really brighten up the garden with their colorful heads.

Moss growing on a wet tree. Until next month!

Park Day

Earlier this month we had the opportunity to go to a park day with some of our homeschooling friends. Somehow it always seems like the days we pick for park days turn out to be some of the hottest days of the summer!

The day we went, the temperature hit 100, making it quite warm out. The kids didn’t do as much running around as normal due to the extreme temperatures.

The moms stayed in the shade to chat and escape the heat at least for a little while.

We enjoyed catching up with a lot of friends who came to the park despite the forecasted heat. We had lunch together with lots of friends, and we were a bit disappointed that our day came to an end a little early, since most people wanted to escape the afternoon heat.

But on the way home Mom stopped and bought us all smoothies (keeping up with our new tradition of buying special drinks when the temperatures go over 100.) It was a fun day and we look forward to another park day next month!

Wood, Hay, Straw

“For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work.”

1 Corinthians 3:11-13

 ~ posted by Betsy

Recipe--Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie

One of the blogs I skim through a couple of times a week is the Tasty Kitchen Blog. I’m always keeping my eye out for good-looking recipes to try! A couple of months ago, a recipe for a Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie was posted. As soon as I saw it, I knew I had to try it. We had all the ingredients, AND it was Friday, one of two weekly dessert nights at our house. How could I possibly say no?

The cookie was everything I had dreamed of! It’s very simple to make and it’s all the deliciousness of a cookie only without the mess (and it’s deep-dish!) It is perfect warm paired with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream. You can find the original recipe—and a great step-by-step photo guide to the recipe—by clicking here. I hope you love this recipe as much as I do!

Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie

1 ½ sticks butter (12 Tablespoons)

¾ cups sugar

¾ cups brown sugar

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

1 ½ eggs (I used one egg, plus ½ a Tablespoon of soy flour. You could probably get away with just using two small eggs.)

2 ¼ cups flour

¾ teaspoons baking soda

1/3 teaspoon salt

1 ½ cups semi-sweet chocolate, cut in chunks (I used a mix of chocolate chunks and semi-sweet chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Melt butter in a 10 inch cast iron skillet set over medium-low heat. (If you don’t have the appropriate sized skillet, you can look at the Tasty Kitchen website link to this recipe and scroll down through the comments. Some of the other readers mentioned adjustments for different size pans.)

Stir in sugars and vanilla and remove from heat. Let rest until pan is warm, but no longer very hot, about 5 to 10 minutes.

Crack the eggs into the butter and sugar mixture, and use a fork to whisk it into the mixture. Place flour, baking soda, and salt on top, and very carefully stir into the mixture until smooth and well-mixed.

Stir in chocolate chunks. Bake in the oven for 15-25 minutes, or until starting to turn golden on the top and around the edges, but still soft in the center. Serve with vanilla ice cream Makes 8 to 10 servings.

Dig in! J

Creative Fun

Living in a family that rarely watched TV, didn’t own video games, enforced a 15-minute limit on computer games, and had a one-movie-per-day limit, we children learned to be creative when it came to games. We have so many fond memories of all the fun games we made up and the things we built when we were younger!

It would be a very long blog post if I told you all of the games we made up. One thing we did quite often was build forts, either inside or in our woods. We would gather up as many blankets and chairs as possible and make ourselves a cozy little house somewhere in the basement. Or if we built our fort outdoors, we would muster as many sticks as we could, and even tried to “transplant” some of the wild grass growing in our woods into the “yard” of our homemade forts.

We also loved to put on concerts for our stuffed animals. We would patiently set them all up on block bleachers and chairs and then one of us would play music on the stereo for all the gathered animals.

Quite often, Mom would come down to the basement after we had disappeared for a few hours, only to find a Barbie and Ken neighborhood under construction. J We loved to build them houses on top of our tables, complete with furniture, food, and bedding. Sometimes we played Barbie games during the pioneer era. In the photo above, I had built a “General Store” filled with bolts of cloth, clothing, shoes, and wood for purchase.

One of our most elaborate set-ups involved the building of the White House. You can see the front entry way, the kitchen to the left, the parlor in the middle, the bathroom (enclosed by colored bricks), the living room, and some of the bedrooms.

We even went so far as to create a genealogy for all of our Barbies and how they were related to each other. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. We had so much more fun making up games than we ever would have playing video games and watching TV like so many other kids our age do.

*What sort of “pretend” games did you like to play? What kind of things did you like to build as a child? Please leave us a comment with your story!*

Garden Update

It’s high time for a garden update! Despite temperatures in the 90’s with heat indexes into the 100’s, my garden is doing quite well so far. The dry weather has seemed to actually help with keeping disease and some of the bugs at bay.

I took this photo on June 30^th, the day we left on vacation.

When I came back home a week later, everything had doubled in size! I was shocked!

In the bed on the right I am growing cucumbers (on the trellis), lettuce, 3 types of tomatoes, and chocolate mint (in the pot.) At the very bottom of the photo you can see my pot of Thyme. What you can’t see to the right of the photo is my spearmint, sweet mint, rosemary, and dianthus. In the path to the right I have a catnip plant, and in the center of the garden I have an heirloom tomato plant (in the pot.) The round bowl in the left path is the one we made at Keeper’s Coop. Behind that pot I am growing marigolds.

This bed contains spinach, collard greens, cabbage, Bell peppers, Jalapeno peppers, zucchini, catnip, and nasturtiums.

This bed has summer squash, nasturtiums, and behind all that, cantaloupe, lemon balm (in the large pot) and cilantro (the small pot.)

And finally, I have zinnias which are starting to bloom now, as well as chives, oregano, and parsley in the pot.

So far I have harvested lettuce, spinach, collard greens, 2 tiny grape tomatoes, and plenty of herbs. I can hardly wait until the produce really starts to roll in! *What are you harvesting from your garden right now? I’d love to know!*

Vacation Bible School

Earlier this month our family helped at our church’s annual Vacation Bible School. It’s always a highlight of our year; in fact, I don’t know who has more fun, the staff or the kids attending! J

The theme this year was “The Adventurers” after the movie “The Avengers.” Our church auditorium was decorated to look like New York City. Here, Ben and his buddy J wait for the bus. J

At the opening each night, the kids would play some kind of game. Here they are trying to arrange themselves according to their age. It was a challenge and required good organizational skills!

They would also do a penny drive each night. The team that wins the penny drive (donates the most pennies) wins points and earns prizes at the end of the week. All of the money from the penny drive—which usually amounts to somewhere near $300—will go towards our missions team to pay the travel costs for several suitcases filled with toys to take to the children in Haiti.

The kids also had the opportunity to say their memory verses on stage. Some of the younger ones were a bit shy! J

Then they would sing several songs. Some of the songs are still playing through my mind after singing them every night. J

After the opening, the kids split up into groups to go to the different stations. One station was the Bible lesson. Each night there was some kind of skit leading into the Bible story for the night. In the above photo, Jack Lumber was telling the kids about facing giants. They then discussed the story of David and Goliath and facing our own giants every day.

Another night they had a shadow skit about the story of Baalam. It was quite comical, and the kids learned about controlling their anger.

Another station was craft and snack. The kids made lots of simple crafts related to the story of that evening.

The favorite snack of the week was ice cream night! We were very thankful for good weather all week, though it was a bit warm some days.

The games station was another favorite. Ben worked out here all week with some of the other young men in the church. One night they had a relay race that involved kicking a soccer ball through a bunch of cones.

Another fun game was tug-of-war. Despite lots of rope burn, this is a game that comes back year after year.

The preschool group had their own outdoor games in a fenced-in area. Roma and Rubia had a blast serving as shepherds for this group.

They had even set up a mini bounce-house for the kids to use throughout the week.

Friday night was “Dress like your favorite Super Hero” night. We had lots of Captain America’s (above), Black Widows, Batmans, and other heroes.

On Sunday morning, the kids had a big finale for their parents in church. They sang some of the songs they had learned during the week, had another penny drive, and recited their memory verses.

After church, everyone was rewarded with a picnic! It was a nice celebration to end a very busy week.

A couple in our church own a bounce house and set it up for the kids to use during the picnic. They really enjoyed it

Photo Credit: Roma.

And that was our week! We look forward to next year!