Back to School-shots for the grandparents!

4th grade and loving it!

He was so anxious for it to start that he was shaking.  He came out of school saying, "That was super cool!"  Thank you God!  And thank you everyone who prayed for him!

2nd grade and cute as he can be!

Zaddie was reunited with a friend from preschool today!  He was all smiles.

6th grade.  Don't even get me started.

She cannot be this grown.  She had a great day and talked all about choir!

Sweet peas!

I am so proud of you all!

Oh no.  Here we go!  That is more like it.

Sisters.   They LOVE each other!  So blessed.

The girls...and guys.

This is what we have been waiting for!  Tiny and perfect.  These first eggs are treasured for their deep color and small size.  We just think they are precious.  :)

Here is my favorite girl, Ninja.  She is HUGE and feisty.  I don't think she is laying yet but I know she will be a good mama one day.

Here is Magooster.  He is our rooster.  We got 2 bantam chicks.  He is the bigger one and a very tender fellow.  He takes good care of his girls, calling them when he finds a good treat or chasing off a cat if it gets too close. 

Here we have our second bantam.  We called it Mama Banny because she was smaller than our big boy.  But one morning I looked out to see our Mama Banny crowing at the rising sun.  So she is now Mini Man.  And poor guy, he has little-man syndrome. 
 

Soon we will have enough eggs to meet our needs.  In total we have 13 layers who should give us a dozen eggs a day for a year or two.  They are the best tasting eggs!  We feel blessed to have these girls.

 

Next spring we are hoping to raise some chickens to butcher.  I love the idea of being a good steward of the food that we raise to eat.  Being there for every step seems right. 

 

 If we are going to eat it, we should be able to raise it and butcher it ourselves.  We will see if I am still so brave after the first slaughter.    

The last weeks of summer.

There are always mixed emotions in the last weeks of summer.
 

 

There has been lots of fun, swimming, gardening, bee watching, cousins, and more.

 

 

 

But we just don't quite feel ready to give up our lazy days.  We want to hold on to the quiet mornings and evenings outside.

 

This year has been so beautiful!  The Lord has blessed us abundantly with rain, produce and lots of growth.
 

 

Still, there is an excitement in the undercurrent of our household.  There are new shoes still in boxes in the closet.  There are backpacks that hold fresh spirals and boxes of Kleenex.  There are nervous tummies that wonder who will be in their classes or what the teachers will be like.
 

We are not ready yet.  Still a few more turns on the swing and a few more dives into the pool and a few more veggies to harvest.
 

 

Soon enough will be the coolness of school mornings and the sound of the marching band.  Before we know it, we will have homework and school nights.  My babies have been all mine for weeks.  Now they crave adventure with a little side of routine.  

 

I am thankful to the Creator of all things that he as allowed me to be a mama.  To be home, to watch them grow, to discipline and help to form them.  It is exciting to see the little people they are becoming.  With His hand, they will navigate this year.  I pray for the protection of their hearts and minds.  I pray for solid Christ-centered relationships.  I pray for teachers who can meet their educational needs.  And I pray for wisdom for Matt and I as we go along with them in this.  My prayers are for all of you letting go this month.  

 

May the Lord bless you and keep you, may he make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you.  May the Lord grant you Peace.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

How many bees does it take to change a light bulb?

I don't know.  I haven't actually trained them to do that yet.  They are too busy building their own little home!  The bees are really doing great.  Lots of brood means more bees to help gather and produce. 

 It is so fun to watch their progression.  They seem to be happy here.  The recent blessing of rain has brought out more forage.  More forage means more opportunity for growth of the colony! 

Here is a quick photo update...(you might be able to see them better if you click on the first photo and look at them that way)

The Golden Girls building comb!

We have a good queen.  Fresh comb with tiny little eggs in the bottom.  They look like grains of rice.  They are laid standing on end.  By day three, they lay down and become a little curled larva.

Here is a peek through a brood frame.  Beautiful busy girls!

This is a close-up of brood comb.  You can see in the center there is a fat larva curled up like a C.  By the time this baby is 8 days old, it will be capped.  It will take about 13-14 more days to transform into an adult bee.  The rest are empty and capped cells. 

There is a baby bee hatching out near the center!  It has the capping mostly chewed off.  Welcome baby!  There are other cells that have been opened.  See the white partially formed bees in the cells.  Best I can tell, those are drones (males) which are apparently not needed and being removed from the brood comb.  Sorry guys.  Drones are notoriously hard to care for.  They take resources and time away from worker brood, can't even sting and apparently have nothing to offer the colony besides genetics.  Our queen is already mated so the drones are just taking up space and food.  If any do hatch before Fall, they will be kicked out before the cold sets in.  A bee colony is not a man's world. 

This is a beautiful picture of "bee bread" or a fermented pollen and nectar packed into cells.  It is all different colors!  The bees feed this protein meal to their babies.

Here the bees are festooning.  It is thought that they may be measuring to draw more comb.  No one knows for sure.  They hold little bee hands!

Here (the bee with the red dot and long abdomen) is our great queen!  She is a blond Italian.  See, all of her babies are golden like her.  They are following her around waiting to do anything to help produce more brood!

There she goes!  She backs her bottom into a polished cell and lays an egg.  See how intent her nurse bees are.  Amazing!  The rest of them are busy feeding new babies and capping larva.

By the way, I took these pictures while I was in the hive.  I had on shorts, boots and no gloves.  I manipulate the hive and the frames that way.  It makes me more careful.  I have not been stung yet.  In the Fall, when they are a bit more aggressive due to protecting their stores, I will probably glove up. 

 

Right now I can sit next to the hive with no protection on and watch the foragers fly in and out.  They do not care that I am there.  Matt let a bee crawl onto his finger the other day.  She started cleaning herself and was perfectly happy to sit there while she did it. 

 

There have been times while I was looking at a frame that I accidentally placed my finger on a bee.  The worst I got was a buzz and wiggle.  You can be sure I moved my hand fast but I did not get stung.  Bees really do not want to sting!

 

The reason I say this is because many people fear bees.  Yes, bees will sting.  But when they sting, they die.  So this is a last resort.  They have to feel their colony and brood are threatened.  Now, there are some aggressive colonies, some that may be Africanized, and some situations where bees are more irritated than others.  So you have to know your colony and you have to know your circumstances.

 

But generally, if you come across a bee in your yard or one buzzing around your flowers, don't be afraid!  They will not attack you for fun.  If you cut down a tree with a hive in it, then run!  Otherwise, just watch them and appreciate their complicated beauty. 

 

They bring more good than harm to our world.  They are necessary.  Learn the difference between a harmless honey bee and an aggressive wasp.  They will sting for fun.  The meanies.  But honey bees and many other native bees are just trying to do their jobs.  So befriend a bee today! 

 

Thank you from your obsessed beekeeping friend.

Run away. It's reality time folks.

Today I want to run away.  All week actually.  I have seen visions of just walking out the door getting in my car, and driving down the road.  It has been a hard week.

 

 

Nothing in particular is wrong.  Just life, with its stress and frustration times 5.  A house in disarray.  My soul with not one moment to recharge.  It has been non-stop. 

 

 

I feel guilty even writing this.  I am so blessed.  "Too blessed to be stressed!"  I might get violent if someone said that to me right now.  I know that there are circumstances that could make our lives even harder and more stressful.  I know that I am just being a baby.  I feel guilty for having so much yet wanting even more.  I do not handle stress well.

 

 

These children are more important to me than my very life.  Yet, in the moments of daily frenzy, when they are their imperfect little selves (we won't even get into me), we clash. 

 

 

Children are often irrational.  So are grown ups who have been dealing with irrational children all day.  So we have our tugs and shouts and stand-offs.

 

It makes my heart hurt.  My expectations for how this whole parenting thing was supposed to go were way off.  Did you know children have their own wills?  Did you know that they cling to these wills with gusto?  Did you know that that makes me crazier than the craziest crazy person?

 

I am tired.  I am beat.  But I can't let them know that or they will team up and take me down. 

 

And wouldn't you know it?  On the night that I am so needy for peace so hungry for solitude, not one of those stinkers will go to sleep.  They keep wandering downstairs to tattle or complain or have me come look for a spider they just know is in the bed. 

 

I did look for the spider but I am not being very nice.  I am actually behaving a little like a spoiled brat.  I just want some time. 

 

So for everyone who reads this blog, not everything is perfect on the Prairie.  I have these days way more than I want to admit.  Having kids is hard.  It just is.  Trying to figure out the right way to handle each situation, digging for patients when you have none left, putting aside your own need to think or sleep or go to the bathroom, it is all hard.  

 

But these little people that God entrusted to me, they deserve better than my weakness.  So I pray for strength and my husband prays for my strength and my mom and my best friend and my sister-in-law, they all pray for me...

 

Because I need it.  I need that one area of my life to give up.  I need Him to meet that need in me as I meet the needs of so many.  I want to be perfect, I do.  But it is not in me.  

 

I pray they see His strength in my weakness.  I pray my babies see my tired eyes and worn hands and know that behind them lies something greater.  

 

I pray that when I sing Amazing Grace with them at night that those words speak truth to them.  That no matter what we go through during the day, we will always end with that sweet sound.  That there is nothing that can't be repaired with tears and sorrys, nothing that can't be undone with tender songs and hugs. 

 

So I will go into them when they finally fall asleep and I will look at them and weep.  I will touch the softness of their skin and kiss their sleeping eyes and say a prayer of thankfulness  and I will ask for forgiveness for my haste and my anger.  I will pray for a better tomorrow.

 

And He will forgive. 

 

That's my KING.  

 

 

 

Oh and P.S.  To my Mama, I am so very sorry for any trauma I may have caused you at any point in my life.  You may laugh now.  :)  

A day at the lake.

We just love the lake.



So fun to splash and play!

Especially when it is in our own backyard!!

Micah just had to dive in.  The boys headed for the mud!

 

You stinkers!  We sure miss our Jo Kay today!  They are getting lots of rain at church camp too I hear.

What is it with kids and puddles?

  I remember the anticipation of going outside after a rain.  The sweet dampness of the air and the heat from the concrete penetrating the cool of the water.  The thrill of watching the water rush down the curb.  It was the closest thing to a stream we desert, city-kids had.  We would gather up things to float downstream.  Our wrinkled fingers crafted boats from trash and sticks. Gritty feet would seek out any mud we could squish between our toes or if it was stiff enough, make into miniature pottery that we would dry in the approaching sun.  It was fabulous.     

This is amazing!  We have not had rain like this in years!  Our ground was desperate for it.  God is faithful when His children cry out.  We praise you Lord for the blessing of rain!

What a blessing it is!



A fun and wet blessing.

Progress takes forever!

We had so many plans when we moved into this house in October.  But 5 kids, a limited budget and well you know, life, can hamper productivity.  So we have chugged along slowly. 

 

Once we hit spring our house projects stopped.  We would much rather be outside!  Plus, we had a ton to do out there.  But we did manage to get some painting finished. 

 

 I was waiting until we got decorations hung and new curtains to do update pics.  No telling when that will happen so, here they are as they are!  Not all that impressive but at least it is progress.

 

 

 

Our "book nook" upstairs.  This is the before.

This is the color on the walls now.

The cutest little space!  Just needed to make it ours.

We have more work to do like build a stair rail and move a big reading chair in and find a nice rug to put down.  But for now.  I LOVE the color.  It was the color we had in our old dining room.  I had to bring it to the new house.

 

More painting!!!

Yes, son.  More painting. This was the boys room before.  It was a disorganized mess in there.  Plus, the color was just not for me.  These are military dudes.  We had to man up the room.

For our manly men.  Military greenish-brown with cream trim and brown bed spreads. (One was missing, Go figure.)  Please try to envision each headboard painted in the same manly color.

Also try to imagine the antique maps hung on the walls and the old bolt-action rifle mounted over the door, oh and the missing bedspread in place.  It is a cozy place to be!  The three boys love it.

 This is the stairwell to the kids rooms before.

And after!  It is coming along.  Now that the weather is getting hotter, we will be inside and can get even more done!

Well it is supposed to get hotter but this week is just amazing!

Rain and temperatures in the 70's and 80's!  That does not happen here in July!  Praise God for His good gifts!