It's been awhile...

...since I have posted.  Sorry about that.  It seems I either didn't have much to say or I was too busy to say it.  We have been gone for a few days.  But I will write about that later.  Here's some pictures of things that have been going on around here.

In school we have been busy studying about creation (Daniel's) and the sun (Leah's).  Here we made a sun dial.  It got cloudy and sprinkled some while we were doing this but I think the children got the idea.

Leah made raisins in the sun.  This is one of the beginning days.  She made a chart showing the different stages.

One day the children and I (and Elly) dug all the potatoes.  We washed them before we put them in the basement.  I was just rinsing mine but Daniel wanted to scrub his.  He got tired of that after half a bucket.

After we washed them well we laid them out on this old sheet.  Once they were dry I put them back in the cleaned buckets and carried them downstairs.

We haven't been all work and no play.  Tim took this week off from work.  On Sunday at Fort Ransom they had Sodbuster Days.  We have gone many times with the older children but Leah was pretty little the last time we went and didn't remember it.  She was so excited about all the horses.  Here we are on a ride from the parking area to the main area.

Everything was so interesting.

We passed the other wagon going the opposite direction.

Here they were hooking up the horses so they could dig potatoes.  People were welcome to get a bag and pick up the potatoes to take home after they were dug.  I thought how much easier it looked to use this method than the one I used to dig my potatoes.

I didn't get a picture of them digging but the potatoes were sure flying over the back of this digger.  It didn't take long for a row to be dug.

One of the things I enjoy the most is the good food.  You can walk around to the different areas and get samples of whatever they are making.  There were muffins, fried bread dough, ice cream, rommegrat(spell check didn't know this word and I don't have time to find the correct spelling), and apple cider...mmmm it was so good.

We took a little break and sat to enjoy these singers and players.

It is such a beautiful location.  In a few weeks those trees will be showing some great color.

Here were some ladies spinning.  Their two sheep were in the shade behind them.

On the way home from Sodbuster Days Tim and I decided to take the camper down to Aberdeen.  We have been wanting to camp at Wylie Park all summer but every weekend was full.  It was a fun few days and I will post pictures I took on our trip tomorrow if I get a chance.

I came back to ripe tomatoes.  I've got a big stockpot full of tomato soup that I need to go put into jars and process. 

Growing crystals

Yesterday while getting the paints for Leah so she could paint a sun as part of her school work I found a bag I had hidden away for Daniel.  When we were at the Science Museum in Bemidji last June I bought him a couple things and thought I would just save them for his birthday.  One was a submarine that you put baking powder inside and it is supposed to dive and come to the surface repeatedly.  That did not work.  We will have to try again as we might have put too much baking powder in it.  Another gift was this "Mystical Garden."  It was kind of hard to set up as the grass, trees, and mountain kept wanting to tip over.  But we finally got it.  Then we poured some solution in the tray.  Day 1 looks like this.

It started growing right away.  This morning it looked like this.

Someone must have knocked some of the pink blossoms off the tree.  I think it is so pretty.

Today has been busy.  Remind me to not try to do salsa on a school day.  I started early, by 7:00, on my tomatoes.  But it took me 3 hours to get the tomatoes ready, cut up all the vegetables, and clean up the kitchen.  That put me 2 hours behind schedule. 

While the salsa cooked down we did Leah's school.  Then we did vision therapy.  The children had already eaten so they played outside while I got the first jars into the canner.  In between times we worked at Daniel's school.  That is not how I like to do school!  But it worked and it didn't bother anyone but me.

Now I am glad that I have the salsa all processed and my kitchen clean.  School is finished, too.  And none of us are worse for the wear.  I did pray that God would "quiet my soul" before we started school.  I didn't want to be impatient with my children.  And we had a good day of learning.  I am pleased to report I am finished making salsa for the year.  The tomato sauce will be much easier to do.

One thing we did in kindergarten today is make a sundial.  I had never done this before.  We took a piece of cardboard, stuck a pencil in some clay, and took it all outside.  We weighted down the cardboard and put the pencil and clay in the middle.  We noted the starting position of the shadow and were to go out every hour and mark where the pencil's shadow was.  Of course today wasn't the best day to do that as it started to storm shortly after we did this.  We even saw some snowflakes!  But we did get some times recorded.  The shadows are in the same positions as the corresponding times on a clock for some of the times.  Neat!

Daniel has been going through the days of creation this week.  I was happy to see that Leah remembered what was created on each day.  She studied creation two weeks ago.  I have noticed that Daniel is reading better.  He reads his Bible portion so well each day.  He is also reading out loud from another book later in the day.  He said that the words don't move around as much as they used to.  That is good news.

This year in Creation to the Greeks, Daniel's curriculum, we will be studying and celebrating the Feasts of the LORD.  The first feast we will have will be Shabbat which happens every week.  The children each made a covering for the Challah bread that we will bake tomorrow.  We have the candles and the wine (sparkling grape juice) and plan to set the table with our best dishes and glasses.  We already appreciate the Sabbath each week but it will be even more special to celebrate it each Friday night.

We had best go out and check that sundial again.