Wednesday evening ramblings...

Well, it is late and I have finally sat down for a few minutes. I am waiting on Marc and my oldest two children to come home from their Wednesday evening activities. This is the night that Marc has a men's meeting at church, Matthew has scouts at church and McKenzie quilts with a lady from church. I used to look forward to it until last week when I started having to milk her goat for her. It was a fiasco the first time I did it. The rooster tried to attack me the whole time I was doing it and the goat knocked her food bucket over. It was not a pleasant experience. I discovered that I like watching my children enjoy the farm life more than I like experiencing it myself! :>) Tonight went a little better. I put Malachi to bed at 7:00 and went out to do it. Mariah kept an eye on Myles and Madeline went out with me. She stood guard keeping the rooster away while I milked!

I have had these pictures of Malachi saved since last week and never had a minute to upload them. I thought they really showed his personality. He is such a funny little guy. He gets up in the morning and immediately dresses up. Right now he is on a "Zorro" kick. Matthew was complaining one day when Malachi asked him (probably for the hundredth time!) to help him get his chaps on. I reminded him of another little boy that was always dressing up too. It seems like just yesterday that Matthew was the one running around dressed up as his favorite character. They grow up so fast.

The weather has been just about perfect lately. Malachi asks me every day if he can eat lunch outside. Of course I say yes, because that means I don't have to clean up the crumbs! He always says, "Stank you mommy!"

Working on his baseball skills with daddy. ( Notice he has his chaps on even for baseball!)


Malachi is my child who has humbled me as a mom many times, but he is so much fun! While fixing breakfast this morning he held his gun up and said, "Hands up, before I blow my gun up!" Then he went into the laundry room and hid behind the treadmill and said, "I'm hiding, can you find me? I am in the laundry room!"

My independent spirit!

He hates these pajamas. He has two pair of long pants pajamas that he likes to wear. When I told one of his sisters to go get his "doggy pj's" he said, "No, not the tiny ones!" He meant "shorts".

He plays hard from the time he gets up until the time that we put him to bed at night.

My family just came in. I am off to bed!

Seven months...

of joy!
Little Myles Truth turned 7 months today. He is a very laid back little guy. He loves to sit and watch his brothers and sisters play. Mariah can make him laugh the most. He is at such a cute stage, I wish I could stop time! :>)

I think I am getting old.

I was getting ready to go for a run the other day and McKenzie wanted to run a loop with me. I was slapping the sunscreen on while she was slapping on the suntan oil. Oh... to be young again! :>) I can still outrun both of my teenagers though! :>)

My oldest and my youngest. Where do the years go?

"Kweechy" anyone???

We have been blessed with lots of eggs and now our own goats milk this spring. I have been trying to use them, because each day there are more! One of my sisters always gives me a new calendar for my birthday. I think the tradition started when we were teenagers! It is always fun to see what kind of calendar she gets each year. I think this years is one of my favorites. Each month it has a Bible verse and a recipe. This months recipe was quiche. So, where does my post title "Kweechy anyone??" come in? Well, I took the calendar down so I could use the recipe and one of my children came in and said, "What is kweechy?" It was so funny, because this particular child (whom asked to remain anonymous:>) is a strong reader and speller. I laughed so hard! I bet I have said a hundred times when I am teaching my children phonics, "Q never stands alone. Q always takes U as his partner. QU is pronounced "KW" You just have to love phonics! Then Malachi came in and heard us talking about "Quiche" and said, "I want some peesh!" I am sure "Quiche" will now be "kweechy" or "peesh" at our house!

I don't normally use a recipe when I make quiche, but this one had mayonnaise in it. I decided to try it and everyone loved it. I am sure the fresh eggs and milk made a difference. I also order organic, raw cheese from "Morningland Dairy". If you ever try it, you will never want store bought cheese again!

"Vegetable Quiche" (I doubled this recipe and it made three large quiches)
4 eggs
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 tbsp. flour
1/3 cup onions minced
1 package frozen, chopped spinach
8 ounces shredded sharp cheese
salt and pepper to taste
1 unbaked pie shell
Preheat oven to 350
In medium bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, mayonnaise and flour. Add remaining ingredients. Pour mixture into pie shell and bake for 45 to 55 minutes until golden brown.

Whole Wheat Pie Crust: (I did this recipe 1 1/2 times to make three quiches)

2 cups freshly milled flour (hard white)
1 tsp salt
2/3 cups and 2 TBS butter
7 Tbs cold water
Combine flour and salt, cut in butter. Add water and mix. If the dough is too wet add a little more flour. Divide dough in half and roll out on flour surface.

Here is what it looked like when it was done. Once upon a time I would have had left-overs. With a teenage boy in the house those days are over! This did fill him up though!

"...My people shall be satisfied with My goodness, saith the Lord." Jeremiah 31:14

Saturday walk...

Marc and Matthew had a camping trip this weekend with Boy Scouts. McKenzie had a babysitting job all day Saturday. I told Madeline and Mariah if they would get up and help me get everything done early, we would go for a walk. McKenzie and I discovered the neatest place while bike riding one day. Way down our road, off a dirt road, sits an old house in the middle of a huge clearning. The first time I saw it, I thought of Little House on the Prairie! I have been reading through the "Little House" books with Mariah, so she had been begging to go see "The Ingalls" house.

This is an old cemetary down the road from us. Malachi kept screaming, "I want to go see Jesus's cross!" The girls were creeped out, so we didn't go down there.

This is the old house.

Malachi is always dressed up as something. He is on a"Zorro" kick right now. He has on a black cape, mud boots that are at least five sizes too big, his sister's head band (that is Zorro's mask) and his cowboy hat! :>)

This is another old house down the road. It sits on the same property as an old antebellum home. I am assuming it was a slave/servants quarters. I didn't take pictures of the home because someone lives there. :>)

Madeline was fascinated picturing who might have lived there and what their life was like.

Taking a peek inside. Right after this picture we saw a wasp's nest and quickly left!

Cattle farm down the road. We got our beef from him last year. Good grass-fed beef!

Home again, home again....

~Good night~

Easter Fun

Easter is one of my favorite times of the year. Christmas gets so overshadowed with greed and commercialism. It just seems like it is easier to avoid the "worldy stuff" during the time that we celebrate His ressurection. I love spring, flowers, seeing new life! We have several things we do during our Easter season. Marc goes through the Ressurection eggs every year. We have lots of Easter books too that are fun to pull out each year. We try to add a new one each year. This year Myles was the recipient. We got him "The Story of The Easter Robin". We have done "Ressurection Cookies" (some people call them "Empty Tomb" cookies), color eggs and the children get an Easter basket the Saturday before Easter. We usually put little things in it like bubbles, books, scripture book marks and a little bit of chocolate! :>)

Malachi is ALWAYS dressed up as something. In this picture he was "Zorro". He has been on a Zorro kick since someone let us borrow their movies!

Myles was more intersted in eating his basket than seeing his book! :>)

Our little bunny!

This face cracks me up! He does it a lot when we get the camera out. I think he knows it is funny!

McKenzie with Myles on his first Easter morning.

Mariah and Madeline - Poor little Madeline, the pollen has been terrible for her this year. Her eyes stay red and puffy.

It is so hard to get a decent family shot. This was taken in front of our church. The wind was terrible!

We went to my mom and dad's house after church for lunch and to let the cousins play. The boys had lots of fun with this sling shot and water balloons. Matthew is the oldest of the boys and "leads the pack". There are four years between him and the next oldest boy, amazing what growth spurts do! :>)

Levi and Malachi.

Malachi with Pa

We headed down to the edge of the woods to take a picture of all the cousins together.

My crew

"But they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. Then they went in and did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. And it happened, as they were greatly perplexed about this, that behold two men stood by them in shining garments. Then, as they were afraid and bowed their faces to the earth, they said to them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen!" Luke 24:2-6