Pumpkin Carving

Who can't resist a pumpkin carving party?  This afternoon, we all went over to Amber and Dante's house to  carve pumpkins. 

Everyone got involved.  The kids couldn't wait to sink their knife into their pumpkin to cut it open and gut it out.

Bonnie helped Alexus cut open her pumpkin and carve a funny face on hers.  The stencils they have available today are pretty awesome.  Amber had several stencils for us to pick from.  Bonnie and Bryce decided to use one of them while Brian and Alexus came up with their own design.

Bryce chose the skeleton, Brian made a funny/scared face,and Bonnie's is a two-faced mask.

Pretty cool. 

Tid Bits

While looking at the hutch next to the dining room table the other day, Brian pulled out the middle drawer which revealed a wine glass rack.  He asked me, "Did the Heaths use this?" At which time I replied that I didn't know if they did or not.  He looked at it again and said, "You know, if they are short enough, we could store bats in here."  HuH?

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Bonnie is on her first paid babysitting job!!  Downstairs she is watching 4 year old Alexus for the day while Alexus's parents are up in the mountains cutting down trees for firewood.  Bonnie is so excited.  We had quite the talk with her about this being a ministry as well as a money making opportunity.  It is important that she charge a fair amount so that the family not only can afford it, but will also be willing to ask her to babysit again in the future.  She has all kinds of things planned for her & Alexus to do, so I am staying out of the way and letting her be in charge.  I am very proud of her.

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Todd is in the mountains today getting firewood.  He left with a gentleman who gets my father in laws wood and they plan to be gone all day.  I know Todd is having the time of his life.  He would have taken the boys with him except they are expected at a pumpkin carving party later this afternoon.

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I am still canning. I managed to put up a batch of apple jelly on Thursday and I made 8 apple pies to freeze.  I still have three large bags of apples to put up. I am debating as to whether I want to make apple sauce or more jelly.  I will probably do both.  Todd also brought home eight pumpkins yesterday.  Four of them we will use for jack-o-lanterns but the rest I will freeze for pumpkin bread later on.  Yum! 

Now to clean house and work on Bryce's costume - He is going to be a dragon slayer this year. 

Wednesday

You know, earlier I talked about my typical and not-so-typical days.   Well, I think my typical day is really my not-so-typical day and my not-so-typical day is my typical day.   Did you get that?

Today, we started off at the computer watching a video on Yom Kippur.  Our focus of study Biblically and historically is based out of Leviticus as we look at the Jewish holy days.  Since I am not Jewish and do not really feel like an expert on all of their practices that God established after freeing them from Egypt I went to my go-to-guide i.e. youtube.  Yesterday, we watched a very informative video on Rosh Hashanah and today we watched a few on Yom Kippur. 

After our video we worked on spelling and math and then headed over to my in laws to help my father in law stack wood.  It is that time of year that everyone is busily cutting wood and stacking it up for the winter.  Todd and the boys have been doing all that they can to help Don and today the boys, Bonnie, and I went over to help stack the last load.  Bonnie and I also walked to the library to return some books and run a few errands while the boys stacked but then returned to help finish the job.  By that time it was lunch and time to head home to feed everyone.

Once lunch was over we grabbed our science books and headed to the bathroom.  What?  You don't do science in the bathroom?

The kids are really enjoying science this year.  We are looking at how to conduct experiments in this module.  Terms like variables and constants are now in our vocabulary.  Today we were floating cardboard boats in the bathtub with different "motors" to see which one worked best.

Once we observed that one "motor" worked better than the others we then experimented to see why.  We spent a good hour on science and had a lot of fun.

Finally, everyone finished all their work and it was time to get ready for Awana.  Tonight's theme was "Pumpkin Patch" night.  The kids were to dress in pumpkin colors or like a pumpkin.  Brian is really not into dressing up or drawing attention to himself but fortunately for me Bryce loves to go all out for things like this.

Bryce wrapped two pillows around him and put Todd's orange football shirt on, a little orange face paint, and an orange hat with leaves attached to it completed his outfit.  Everyone got a kick out of it but he soon got too hot and shedded the pillows. 

We are back home from church now, the kids are in bed, and Todd is in the garage playing foozball with a fellow from church.  Me....well, I think I am going to find something interesting to watch on TV and settle down for the night.

Good night all.

Green Tomatoes

I am still learning lots about gardening.  I always hated it when my neighbors back east called me a farmer.  I am anything but.  I know so little but I am willing to learn.

Case in point, green tomatoes.  I always left my green tomatoes on the vine and if they didn't ripen before the first frost then they became compost.  This year I learned that all of  those green tomatoes can be saved. 

Pat and Jim (the same ones who let me help butcher their chickens) invited me out to their farm a couple of weeks ago to pick green tomatoes.  Once again I figured never turn down free food and I will find something to do with it.  Pat then told me that if I took a box with newspaper on the bottom, placed a layer of green tomatoes with an apple wedge on the paper, add another sheet of newspaper with a another layer of green tomatoes and another apple wedge and cover them up with newspaper, my green tomatoes will all ripen to a beautiful red.  Ok.  Let's try it.

Guess what? It works.  I now have a whole counter of red tomatoes to be canned.  Which is on the agenda for tonight.  Pat also gave me a recipe for green tomato relish.  She even let me have a taste of her relish and I have to say that it was delicious.  So today, we made some.  I have been eating the little bit that didn't fill up a jar and really like it.  I know it will be good for egg salads and such or even a topping on hamburgers or hotdogs. 

Here is the recipe:

24 green tomatoes (blossom ends and bad spots removed but leave skins on)
8 onions

Grind them all up and put in strainers and strain for 24 hours to get out all the juice.

On the next day add the following to your tomato/onion mixture:
5 green peppers (ground up)
4 cups sugar
4 cups white vinegar
2 T  mustard seeds
1 T celery seeds
1 T canning salt

Heat mixture for 15 minutes.  Add to pint size canning jars and process for 10 minutes (water bath)

The recipe said it made 9 pints but I only got 7 pints out of it.

Chatter Creek

Our church has a few traditions on how to minister to the missionaries when they come to our missions conference. The first tradition is that on Thursday when they come in to town after a long drive we treat them to dinner at an area restaurant.  Since Leavenworth is a tourist town there are all kinds of one-of-a-kind restaurants especially German restaurants.  So we like to let them get a taste of Leavenworth on us. 

The second tradition is to take the missionaries on a hike in the Cascade mountains.  This year Todd chose to take the missionaries up to Chatter Creek.  If you are ever in the area, this is a nice hike to go on.  It is a really nice walk to go on in the woods.  No climbing involved.  In fact, we were able to pull little three year old Elijah in a wagon the whole way.

The kids were really excited to see a beaver dam off the side of the trail. 

Yellow caution tape lined most of the way of the trail due to the fact that loggers were working in the area falling trees or as one sign said "felling trees ahead."

Todd found this huge piece of timber. It would make a great mantle or bench.  On the way back to the trail head he picked it up and carried it all the way back.  If it is still there tomorrow he plans to bring it home.  We will find something creative to do with it.

In case you are lost, go THIS way.

Once we made it to Chatter Creek, the kids had fun skipping/throwing rocks and then we all settled down to eat lunch.

Yep, it really looks like rain is in the forecast.  Actually, if I had turned around the sky was a little grey towards the Seattle side of the mountains.  It did start spitting rain when we got to the trail head but the rain never came until late tonight.

I think the kids had a lot of fun.  After the hike the Hodgsons came over to our house so Elijah could take a nap and the rest of us had fun fellowshipping over cards and food.  I have really enjoyed our time together.

Shattering the Darkness

It's Missions Conference time here at Cascade Mountain Bible Church. 

Nettie who heads up our Missions Committee chose the theme "Shattering the Darkness."  I was excited to help her and the other ladies decorate our church to emphasize the theme.  We covered all the windows in the sanctuary and cut out a starbust at the bottom so that the sunlight can break through.  On every other window we posted scriptures verses that emphasized the darkness of the world and how God's word and His salvation bring light to the darkenend world.  Nettie even put up dark streamers for everyone to walk through whenever they enter into the sanctuary to re-emphasize breaking through the darkness.  The missionaries seem to appreciate all the decorations too.  We were surprised to hear that none of the other churches that they had been to decorated except for maybe a bulletin board.  That really disappointed me.  I really wish the other churches would realize how important it is to show these missionaries how important their ministries are.

This year our missionaries include Tim and Judy Heath, our former pastor, who are going to Malaysia to help start a Grace church and encourage the other missionaries in the area.  Their main focus group will be the Chinese and the Indians in Malaysia.

Jon Marshal and his son, Ben, are also here from Puerto Rico where they run a Christian camp.

Finally, we have Corey and Kim Hodgson with their two children, Naomi and Elijah.  They are missionaries in Tanzania.  We have the opportunity to spend a lot of time with them this weekened.  Bonnie has been great entertaining the children and playing with them.

Today we will be going on a hike with the missionaries.  In fact, I really need to be heading downstairs to make some lunches for us so that we can go.  They have been forcasting rain for the weekend but from my bedroom window there is a lot of blue out there and very few clouds.  I am sure the rain is coming though.  In fact, the forecast is calling for snow in the mountains by tomorrow night.  Woo Hoo!!

The Tabernacle

Our tabernacle model is about three feet by one foot.  It is a nice coffee table size model to build and study.  I am still wanting to make labels and information sheets for each part.