Catching Butterflies

I have a major fascination with butterflies and several times while picking raspberries I have been attempting to entice them to land on me and eat a raspberry out of my hand. On a particularly sunny day last week I took it to the next level, butterfly chasing in the back of the orchard where there were tons of them flitting around the trees. This is a game of patience...


I discovered several methods which do not work. Take for example this method, of kneeling beside a low branch holding the raspberry a few inches from the butterfly. Not tempting enough.

Or this method, of standing on my tiptoes and reaching the raspberry out into the leaves a few inches away from the butterfly. Also not tempting enough.

Or this method which included wandering about, holding the raspberry up towards the fluttering beauties. Apparently not tempting at all.

Finally I found a method that worked! Spread out on the ground, kneeling on a clump of suckers from the tree, arm fully extended... Finally, tempting enough for the butterfly to desert the rotten apple it was enjoying in favor of the now quite juicy raspberry. It was well worth the wait.

He ate for a while, long enough to get lots of pictures and soak in God's gorgeous creation. Thank you, Lord, for this special treat!

The best accessory

Last night the kids spontaneously decided to make it crazy hair night. It is said that your hair is your greatest accessory and they made good use of it. My apologies about the darkness in some of these pictures, I am still trying to figure out how to work lighting into my pictures!

Getting ready. Or, helping each other get ready I guess.

Tada!! Timothy was going for the George Mcfly look, which is why his head is bent so you can see his awesome part...

Trina called her hairdo "You are not a very nice old man!" from Enchanted.

Leah's hair started the whole thing. We all thought it actually looked pretty cute. I am not sure what Becca's hair was called, maybe abstract...

John is modeling one of my headbands. He got such a kick out of it he wanted to wear it to bed! I think it is safe to say they all got themselves accessorized!

Cooking with Rosie

At the library last week Rosie discovered a kid's cookbook. We brought it home with intentions to find a few recipes for her to try. We quickly discovered kid's recipes call for ingredients not generally on our shopping list and the project had to be postponed until after we did our shopping on Sunday. The cooking itch had been scratched though, and Rosie wanted to help cook anything, not just what was in the book.

We made French bread together while we were waiting to get ingredients. She really worked the dough over.

She thoroughly enjoyed herself as well...

The next project, from the kid's cookbook this time, was banana smoothies. Aside from being a tad on the thin side, I personally liked them.

Rosie really enjoyed running the blender. Yes, she got her apron dirty, a sign of a good cook!

Becca taught the most recent cooking lesson, gingersnaps. They followed the recipe closely, even letting the cookie dough sit in the fridge for an hour. Talk about a long hour!

Roll the balls of dough in sugar? You bet!

The proud cooks with their creation. Lessons learned from using the kid's cookbook:

1. Just because it is in a cookbook for kids does not mean it is simple.

2. Learning to cook from familiar recipes is a good idea.

Final lesson learned, trying something new is worth the experience, even if we all decide we don't like the taste of molasses.

The "not a potato" gun

The boys spent several after school hours in the shop this week making an amazing firing device. I thought it was a potato gun, but I was informed it was in fact not because instead of shooting a potato, it shoots a specifically created wooden peg with a streamer on the end so they can find it after each firing. I think the thing is pretty cool personally.

It takes two to shoot it. One to point to barrel and one to pump the air.

Timothy taking careful aim.

Benjamin, running the plunger. He noted that it looked like he was detonating dynamite. :D

In which Emily gives the gun a shot... :D

In which Rosie shoots the amazing gun. Or aims I guess I should say. Benjamin set it specially for her with lower pressure, but it still made a great noise!

Before I took pictures of the gun, I was picking raspberries in the orchard and John showed me that he in fact knows how to climb trees. Here he climbs one side of the recently deceased apple tree in the orchard.

Here he climbs the other side of the tree. He bounced up and down on this branch for a while telling me I needed to take the next picture...

Here he demonstrates his adept abilities at jumping out of the said tree and landing on all fours. Yep, looks like he is pretty good at it!

Running in the Rain, almost

When I saw it raining this morning I thought I was going to get a nice long walk in the rain when I went out to exercise. I envisioned myself in my favorite Seattle hoody and mud boots getting my two miles in nice and slowly. But it warmed up, the rain quit, and by mid-afternoon when I was ready to go all that was left of the storm was a cloud cover. So I doned my traditional running outfit (running shorts and a tank-top) and set out. I decided to walk a lot of the way so I would have more time to pray, but when I started back towards the house I saw the rain hanging down out of the clouds. I ran the rest of the way home, and just as I hit the top of the driveway it started to rain.

I know it is hard to see the rain in this picture, but I had only been back for a few minutes before it started pouring. Talk about God's perfect timing! :D

In other news, Leah had a major accomplishment in the last few days. Sending off cattle she had raised from birth. She was pretty pleased, as well she should be!

Dad waiting for lunch... It was the best lamb I have had in ages. Trina is getting to be a pretty amazing cook!

This is a random picture of the clouds that I took a few days back. I am not a very good photographer, but Timothy came racing into the house begging me to come and take a picture of the clouds. The clouds were phenomenal, even if I could not capture it very well.

Coming soon... Rosie learns to cook. So far she has made/assisted in making French bread and banana smoothies. Next up, gingersnaps and a blog post with all the pictures!

Let's Hear it for the Boy

In honor of Dancing With The Stars, which started last night, John performed an original dance complete with costume. Well, maybe he just got into the music a little.

He might not make on ABC, but I think he is a star!

Multi-tasking

So, it is a rainy Saturday afternoon and you have a ton of studying to do, ancient toenail polish to remove and a 6-year-old and a 4-year-old who are bouncing off the walls. What to do? Introducing, the world's best pedicurists!

They were so excited about getting to do my toes! I was a little concerned when Rosie requested toothpicks on her list of supplies.

It turned out she really meant q-tips. :D Lucky for me.

They also could not get over my lack of a little toenail. Rosie said, "I just feel so sorry for this one! It keeps getting smaller and smaller!" She would not believe it has been like that my whole life...


John, focusing intently. I now have beautiful clean toenails (well, minus the little ones I guess). I even got some studying done as well!

Last Fling 'till next summer...

We had a great tomato crop this year which was most compliant in regards to coming ripe at the most opportune times. We thought they were all done, until Leah checked on them yesterday and discovered there were enough to can one last time. So, we had a tomato day.

The washing station.

The coring station. Also known as the place where John and Rosie learned what the word 'mutilated' in regard to tomato coring means.

Everyone taking five while waiting for the water to boil.

In the meantime.... Trina, studying to be supervisor. Go, Trina, Go!!

The peeling station. Once the water boiled I dunked the tomatoes and the girls slipped the peels off. They were super fast, I could hardly keep up!

As soon as the tomatoes were peeled, they went to the squishing station, run by this talented crew. Don't worry, they washed their hands first.

After the tomatoes were all squished, we put them in jars. Rosie and John were the jar ferries.

Tada! The finished product! Spaghetti sauce, here we come!

Caroline Adele Hipps

It is said that some moments are just to special for words. It is also said that a picture paints a thousand words. Put those two sayings together and we have this picture.



Please join me in welcoming Caroline Adele Hipps, born September 15th to Michael and Sarah Hipps. There is something really amazing about your big brother/best big brother in the world becomes a father. There is also something really amazing about seeing who your sister-in-law took such good care of the the last 9.5 months... :D That something has brought me a few tears of awe in the past 24 hours.

I can hardly wait to meet her!!

Hanging up the clothes

This morning I was hanging up the laundry and prayed a quick prayer for some wind, even just a breeze, because I had a good deal of laundry to dry today. I could not stop grinning when about halfway through the morning I looked out the window and saw the towels flapping in the breeze. When I was hanging the second load up, I discovered I had company. Company of the worst kind if you feel about spiders the way I do.

He was rather large, and scary, and otherwise, not fit to be hanging around the clothesline!

Timothy is the resident spider disposer, and came to my rescue. He even went so far as to let the spider crawl on his hand when I was trying to get a picture. Okay, maybe that was an accident. The kids inside said they could hear me screaming each time the thing moved...

When I was hanging up the fourth load, another visitor came to see me. He was of the much more appreciated by Emily variety.

Regretfully, in spite of the fact that I greatly enjoy snakes, this one was rather agressive and due to the fact that agressive snakes are not allowed near the house, he had to be taken care of as well. This time it was Benjamin to the rescue. To top it all off, when the fourth load was 2/3 of the way dry it started to rain. I raced out to save my laundry, but ended up throwing it in the dryer anyway. Praise God for the wind I asked for and all the little things that keep life interesting! :)

Grateful

I am grateful for Dad and Benjamin being safe. For pictures click here. I am grateful for other things too. I am also grateful for:

Gigantic pumpkins...

Budding photographers...

Rosie learning to ride a bike...

And big sisters who help us walk on the ceiling!