Homestead Happenings - Nov 2016

Off to a Boy Scout flag raising ceremony at a local assisted living center on Veterans Day. God bless the amazing veterans of this country!

Visiting the elderly with our Boy Scout family. We loved hearing the stories of how these people and/or their family members served their country. They even fed the Boy Scouts and their families after the flag ceremony. Was very nice! They loved seeing the boys in uniform and of course Rina and Hailey charmed them, too

How does a homeschool Mom get a foot rub from her children? Get them hooked on a good book and tell them you'll read the next chapter IF they rub your feet. It worked for me!

The Boy Scouts helped pack Operation Christmas Child boxes this year.

Our little cookie-making helper.

Hailey made the perfect Anne Shirley when she went to the Anne of Green Gables tea party at the local library with friends. Fun times! Josiah wanted to dye her hair green but she wasn't going for it.

One of Josiah's friends and a couple of the cousins came over for a visit. They all had a great time working on Josiah's fort and even made a really safe fire pit in the side of the bank. Good "clean" fun! Seriously worth the dirt coming inside the house to see the kids playing, creating and being productive outside. 

I kept thinking of that Paul Overstreet song, "They Were Sowin' Love", as I watched Michael teach Rina how to toss the grass seed in our pasture. Such precious moments indeed!

Thanksgiving was a simple this year. We ate turkey, homemade cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, rolls, salad, pumpkin roll and sweet potato souffle made with sucanat instead of brown sugar. Delicious!  We even ate off paper plates. I'm in survival mode right now. Michael's folks joined us for the holiday. It was great to have them visit.

Our friends, Jeni and George and their kids, Gracia and Naomi also joined us for the feast and brought a wonderful cauliflower dish and the homemade cranberry sauce. They are foodies, too, so we always get excited about trying new recipes on each other.

Kids played monopoly while we played Mexican Train dominoes. Gotta play games on holidays. It's tradition!

So proud of my nephews, Josh and Marcus, and all their hard work with helping the Dufur Rangers get to the A1 state championship. They won!!!! Probably one of the most intense football games I've ever watched. Won it by a last minute touchdown and conversion that put them 4 points ahead. A huge round of applause to Crane who played extremely well and made Dufur work for it! Excellent game.

Snapped this picture of Rina riding the horse in the nursery. She is getting better about going into the nursery. We usually keep her in during the worship time and then if she gets restless during the sermon, we take her into the nursery. It's getting easier!

Hailey taught Rina how to pray. Here is a cute little video of it:

We started bringing out the Christmas decorations right after Thanksgiving. It's been awhile since I've had a kid old enough to ride the reindeer. She promptly got bucked off right after I snapped this picture. Little ones bring such joy and help us to switch things up as we were unable to put half our Christmas decorations out because we just don't have very many high places to put things. Made it much easier to clean up though!