Williamsburg (part 1)

The middle of March we decided to take a last minute mini-vacation. Since we are studying US History this year we decided to travel to Williamsburg.

The first day we visited Colonial Williamsburg. Here is one shop we visited. It was neat to learn about the different kinds of things they had during that time period. We were surprised to see some very familiar games and candies.

The Magazine, which is in the middle of Williamsburg, was a storage place for many important items. Some of which were guns, powder, tents, tools and even cooking utensils.

Here, Seth is learning a new game. It's called hoop rolling or hoop trundling. You use the stick to roll the hoop as far as you can without letting the hoop fall over.

I think he did pretty well for his first time.

Next we visited the church. This is a great picture of Mike and the boys standing beneath a gigantic tree.

I love these windows!

Here is the front of the church. This church dates back to 1715 and according to the website still has an active congregation.

I spotted this sign hanging outside of one of the merchant shops. I thought it was really interesting, but I have no idea what it means.

We noticed that it wasn't just the people who were friendly around there. The squirrels would practically come up and shake hands with you. This guy was peeking over the fence at us as we walked by. We were able to get pretty close to him.

Our first day in Williamsburg was really nice. The weather was fantastic! Tomorrow it's off to Jamestown Settlement.

Oh, Another Trip to Braces"ville"!

Well we find ourselves at Braces"ville" once again. To read about our first journey go here.

On Tuesday Joshua got his braces on. He is slowly adjusting to a mouth full of metal. Joshua chose Carolina blue for his bands. I am so thankful that we can do this for our boys and can't wait to see the end results. I am praying that we won't have to take a third trip to Braces"ville"... we will just have to wait and see.

Breakfast smoothie

Recently, Mike asked me to start writing down some of my recipes. He said, "Ya know, if something happened to you I wouldn't know how to cook anything healthy." So I've been thinking about posting a few recipes here and there. My friend asked me a few days ago to give her my smoothie recipe. We love to have this smoothie for breakfast. It's great for Mike because he can grab it as he runs out the door in the morning and drink it on the way to work. (Full recipe will be at the end of the post)

 

1 banana (this one is frozen, because I bought some bananas in bulk and had to freeze them before they went bad.)

1 cup of yogurt (I used vanilla yogurt sweetened with honey, but you can use plain too. The yogurt is homemade...maybe later I will post that recipe too.)

  1-2 carrots rough chopped (I used two here because they were kind of skinny.)

1 handful of spinach ( looks like I put the spinach in before the carrots, but it doesn't really matter the order)

  

1 cup fruit of choice (I made this one with blueberries because I was out of strawberries. I have also used peaches. My favorite is to use 1/2 cup strawberries and 1/2 cup blueberries)

1 T. milled flax seed... 1 T. coconut oil... 1-2 T. honey... 1 t. pure vanilla... a few dashes of cinnamon . I also add 1/2 cup of heavy cream (you can substitute milk, but it will not be as thick and creamy) Last but not least I add 2 raw farm fresh eggs. ( I do NOT recommend adding raw eggs if they are store bought, even organic ones. The way they are processed for wholesale weakens the shell and may leave the eggs susceptible to bacteria. You can read more about that here.)

Here it is all layered together just waiting to be blended. I have a vitamix, but you can use any blender that you have. ( I highly recommend the vitamix. It is quite an investment, but I use mine just about everyday. You can make everything from ice-cream to boiling hot soup in the thing in a matter of minutes. I love it!!) 

Make sure you blend well. Sometimes it takes a little longer because of the spinach. You don't want to have any spinach visible or your husband kids will refuse to drink it. Make it smooth!

 

 Tadaa! This is what it should look like. Purple-ly goodness!


Breakfast Smoothie

1 cup yogurt
1 banana
1 T. milled flax seed
handful of spinach
1-2 carrots (rough chopped)
1 T. coconut oil
1-2 honey
1 t. vanilla
1-2 dashes of cinnamon
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 raw FARM eggs

He Got it!

Joshua received some mail today.

You know he's been watching the mailbox, like a hawk, for days now.

 And today was the day. His license came!

A Valentines I Won't Soon Forget

Valentines Day is a great day to give a little extra attention to the ones you love. And there's no better way to say I LOVE YOU than with CHOCOLATE!!!

We discovered a new store (well not really new... just new to us), that sells wonderful German chocolate. I thought these chocolate Hippos were funny. Perfect for Joshua.

These are some kind of chocolate covered cookie cones. They looked really yummy. Since they didn't have nuts in them and were not chewy or sticky they would be just right for Seth. Orthodontist approved! ;o)

And for Noah, chocolate covered sunflower seeds. One of his favorites. We have had these before from Trader Joe's. Another yummy choice!

Mike received some German mint chocolate squares. I also got him some of this coffee that's made  in Italy. He has been eying it for a while now.

What happened next was the scariest thing that has happened to me ever!...

 

Take a close look at the picture above... do you see it? Yep, that's my van leaving my street...

 

And this one was right before that when it was going by my house...

And here its leaving my driveway...

Okay... do you see it now? Someone is in MY van getting ready to drive away!!!!

Can you make them out now?...

Yea, you guessed it, it's Joshua. He got his drivers license on Friday. This is the first time he is going out alone.   

He was not happy about me taking all these pictures. He will get over it soon enough! Not only is he going out without me or his daddy, he is taking his brothers with him. Mike had arranged for the boys to go to a friends house for the evening so we could have some alone time. He stopped at Whole Foods on the way home and grabbed dinner so I wouldn't have to cook. It was great! I didn't have to do a thing. He also gave me a present which was a DVD copy of my favorite movie, Pride and Prejudice. We had a relaxing dinner while watching Mr. Darcy win Lizzie's heart AGAIN! It was most agreeable!

What We've Been Up To...

Wow! I can't believe its February already. After the hustle and bustle of Christmas we have finally settled back into somewhat of a normal routine again. The past month has been filled with many good things like...

 

Training our new puppy, Phinehas. He has been a great addition to our family. As you can see even our first born (canine), Mordecai, has grown to love him too. Don't let the above photo fool you though... Mordecai is still the top dog around here and he's not about to let some little scrappy puppy come in and steal his place. He reminds Phinehas of this quite often!

In January, Joshua and Seth started attending Civil Air Patrol meetings. (You can check out their website here.)They have decided to join CAP and I am so excited. CAP is like military for kids. They teach leadership skills along with many other important skills. The boys go to a meeting once a week and practice drills, learn new skills, have PT (physical training). They will be entering as cadet airman basic, but have the opportunity to move up the ranks by passing written and PT tests. As they progress ranks they have more and more leadership responsibilities.

CAP is actually affiliated with the Air-force and can in some situations be sent on real life missions. If they so desire they can start learning to fly at age 14. The CAP cadets run the local air-show that comes to town once a year. They plan and run everything! Adults are there to supervise and for safety reasons, but the cadets pretty much do it all.

The boys have already had the opportunity to take a class on first aid and blood born pathogens. They are going to learn soooo much. I wish we had discovered this years ago. The boys have officially joined and are waiting to receive their id numbers. They have purchased their BDU'S (battle dress uniform) and are learning how to wear them and how to press them. This is no joke...the pockets have to be pressed completely flat and the coat and pants should have no wrinkles.

Joshua wouldn't let me get a picture of him ironing... so this is what I got. He was being silly. Along with signing up for CAP Joshua has decided to take some classes at our local community college. They have a program specifically designed for homeschoolers that want to earn some dual enrollment credits before they graduate high school. He has taken the placement test and is looking into the EMS program. We are still waiting to hear when he can actually begin classes. We found out that through CAP he can earn credits also for EMS training. They have an EMS division within CAP. I know the skills and knowledge they obtain through CAP will help them now and in the future.

Sometimes as moms we can worry about our children who seem to have not found their direction, but then it just happens. The Lord brings it all together. One of our favorite verses in the bible is... And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28) Now that doesn't mean that we wont have bad things happen to us or that we only experience GOOD things. What it does mean is that we can have confidence that whatever IS happening to us is in God's hand and He is working ALL of it for our ultimate good. Our number one goal is to live a life that brings glory to Him no matter what we are going through. So we continue to draw near to Him and trust His plan for our lives.

A Great Christmas and a Happy New Year

We had a great Christmas this year. Life was busy and the time flew by. This year we celebrated Christmas a little bit different than years past.

Usually we travel to a tree farm every year to purchase our Christmas tree, but because of a family member being in the hospital, me getting sick with a bad cold, and Mike working extra holiday hours we were not able to squeeze in a day trip. So... we went to a local tree stand and pick out our tree.

can you believe it was warm enough for the boys to wear short sleeves?!

While I did some Christmas baking the boys decided to put together a gingerbread house. Seth got the mixer out and was fixing it because the bowl had stopped spinning. He's the one I call on whenever I need something worked on.

It was quite a job, but they finally got it together and decorated. The icing ended up being a little runny, but they made it work. As soon as they were done they wanted to know when they could eat it. I told them not until Christmas Eve.

Seth constructed this cute centerpiece for our table. He really enjoys seeing what he can make using only things found around the house.

On Christmas Eve we were so busy with family and friends that the boys forgot to eat the gingerbread house. At some point on Christmas Day they remembered and dove right in. This is what it looked like when they had finished.

Here is the tree all decorated and ready for Christmas morning.

We celebrated Christmas with Mike's family a week early, so we celebrated Christmas Eve a little differently than normal. One thing we always do on Christmas Eve is to open our stockings. We each have a designated stocking, which gets filled with unique gifts that we would normally not purchase throughout the year.

Mom and dad were coming and we thought it would be nice to invite a few friends. So everyone brought their stocking and we had a great time together.

Zeah opening her stocking...



Ezra opening hers...

Looks like Joshua got something he was excited about in his stocking, red licorice from the Fresh Market...

Silas, Sabina, and Annalena going through their stocking. Oh, Sabina got some German chocolate. Yum!...

Along with many other things, Seth found a reindeer pez in his stocking...



Christmas morning was a lot of fun. The boys opened up their presents from us before church.



Noah found a really lite box and was struggling to open it because SOME one taped it real good!

Noah's favorite presents were a pair of wool socks for skiing and this hoodie he is wearing. He is opening the last present. Looks like there is a note in side...

Seth really liked his wool socks too...

who knew it could be that easy to please boys!

He also is opening his last gift... and guess what?... it has a note inside too.



Joshua loved his new hoodie also and his new study bible.

and of course the socks too!

You guessed it. He too had a final present to open which included a note inside.

Each note described the official rules to a few fun games...

They finally figured them out and ran downstairs to find a new ping-pong and pool table. We have had smaller tables before, but never one close to official size. It's just not the same trying to play on one of those little tables. I'm sure we all will have fun with this one.

Somehow, I forgot to get a picture of all the Christmas cards sent to us this year. Here they are after I took them down to put on our kitchen table. It is our tradition, at least for a few months, to pray for each family that sent us a Christmas card. During dinner we pull one card off the top of the pile and then after praying we put that card on the bottom of the pile. We end up rotating through the cards several times throughout the next few months. It's nice to remember and pray for the families that thought of us.

We are so grateful to have spent the holidays with loved ones... family is sooo important. we have been richly blessed by the Lord!