HARVEST TIME! Homeschool Challenge..

See this picture? This means its HARVEST TIME!! The soybeans are READY!

I'm just amazed by the gorgeous beans inside the pods & they taste good too! Truly God's handiwork.
There's The Captain off in the distance-bean dust rolling!

Here go the beans into our new old truck & then OFF to the elevator.Of course The Captain has his usual "appendage" WyWy.This boy prays for tractors & combines & anything John Deere daily.The only thing to break down "so far" this harvest is WyWy's 4 wheeler.

He actually rode it from our house out to the field to find The Captain about a mile away. Farming is in his blood!The only thing I find challenging this year is keeping my 4 preschoolers busy during the homeschool day. It is tiring to say the least. We try several different ways of doing things. They are very distracting to the older kids & I haven't quite found the perfect schedule or balance to keep things running smoothly. Any advice/ideas would be appreciated! AND YES-we do school in leotards & underwear at times! Whatever works right?

LOG CABIN FEVER!

We ran out of chicken feed this morning-SO, we made the 14 mile trek INTO TOWN to get more. I ran in and got the bag while the 6 littles watched Tinkerbell. Then-dropped a box of HEALTHY CHOCOLATE off to a friend. We haven't been out of the house since SATURDAY! It has been raining since Sunday making it entirely TOO MUDDY to play outside. NO, I DO NOT LET MY KIDS PLAY IN THE MUD-my minuscule brain doesn't even like to think such things

Then to THE DREADED WALLY WORLD! They ALL begged to go in, so in we went. What was I thinking? Just picture THE DYSFUNCTIONAL BRADY BUNCH in your head. That's what people probably thought when they saw us. WHY? I broke all of my "taking my kids out in public rules." Here are the VIOLATIONS-

1. Cowboy boots with sweats (what on earth?)
2. My girls hair not put up to my standards and 1 even had her hair down(gasp)
3. No ones hair combed
4. All in not matching clothes
5. Bit Buts shirt so short his baby muffin top was out...
6. Dried up, crusty boogers on the nose
7. Frosting caked on faces from cinnamon rolls this a.m.

That's just to name a few. They were all very well behaved. I ran into 2 friends-OF COURSE-just what you hope DOESN'T happen when you take your unkempt tribe out.

We looked at the FISH for about 30 minutes and then Wy Wy spotted this...

Ever since Wy Wy and Bit But moved in their big boy room and big boy beds-we have been searching for cute, affordable bedding for their beds. WHICH IS TOUGH because it was already painted as a guest room and the bunk beds are blue. One side has animals on it and the other side is a forest-ADORABLE.

It came with comforter, acorn & animal paw print sheets, pillow case & pillow sham all for $45 a set. CHA CHING! And, it's all made out of organic cotton-BONUS! Plus it DOES have some John Deere Green on it-whoopee!! With a large family-we are ALWAYS looking for a bargain!

Of course they had to JUMP RIGHT IN and try it out.Isn't it SO CUTE???So today I thank God & Wally World for the entertainment, the bedding and THE JOHN DEERE GREEN GOGURTS!

FUN Times!

We SO enjoyed having The Captain home an extra day this weekend! He was able to get some farm work done and still have time to play with the kids. Here are him and the girls on the small JD tractor-done working for the day!Couldn't resist this one of BIT BUT pouting. Why you ask? Because daddy wouldn't carry him. He sat here for a long time pouting & refusing to get up.Saturday we enjoyed Bean and T's piano recital. Both sets of grandparents came and that was a joy. T played "Twinkle Twinkle" and "Praise Him, Praise Him."Bean played "Amazing Grace" and "Red River Valley."Then our parents and our family enjoyed The Captains FAMOUS SANDWICHES. My yummy spinach salad and some easy chocolate chip bar cookies. We visited and drank coffee. I am so thankful for both sets of our parents. The Captain left for work EARLY Sunday morning.It rained ALL DAY yesterday and most of the night which for me signals one thing...SLEEP OVER PARTY in my room! We ALL love this cuddly, bonding time together.The boys.....
Us Girls... After singing songs & saying prayers, all members of THE TRIBE were fast asleep by 10pm. Life is good!

Lesson on Layering & Chicks

Here's WyWy...John Deere Shirt, shorts and flip flops. Looks innocent enough right? I am no longer shocked at his oddities. YES PEOPLE...He's still wearing his plastic John Deere yellow bandaid.I mean layering has been in for a while right?

LAYER 1

LAYER 2
LAYER 3My JOHN DEERE OBSESSED boy also had a "run in" with his bedroom door today-see his one sweet tear under his right eye? I was actually shocked that green blood didn't squirt out & green tears didn't fall.

I ask you one thing..
SHOULD WE SEEK COUNSELING?These are the chicks at 1 week old-they have gotten so big huh?!

The Captain is out on the tractor-all kids are clean & asleep.

The smell of clean children makes me smile!

Autopsy, Guests & Easter!

Friday night was such a blessing-my cousin Mark from North Carolina came to THE RANCH for a visit. It was his first time to meet the 6 littles! They really "roughed him up." He has no kids YET so he was VERY LAID BACK with them!Here we are Me, THE CAPTAIN and MARK :) On our way out to an "ADULT" dinner!Oh, what to say about Jamie! She is an angel! She goes on vacation with us-she's THE BOMB! She lives in Iowa now but when she was in college-the summer I had 4 babies (i was KOO KOO FOR COCOA PUFFS then)-she helped me out on her summer break. She still comes home to visit her family and we were BLESSED THAT SHE OFFERED to watch the kiddos & color eggs with them while we were at dinner!

This is Steve-we'd adopt him if we could-just a great guy ALL AROUND!

He came to assist Jamie with THE TRIBE-they love him!Here are our RESURRECTION COOKIES being removed from the tomb! HE'S ALIVE!Some liked them-some didn't! It was an AWESOME way to celebrate the meaning of Easter!We went to our church egg hunt Saturday-it was a beautiful day!When all eggs were hatched-we had 5 that didn't. The 2 big kids donned their gloves & did autopsies on the eggs and this is what we found inside. The chicks were alive and fully developed but just didn't have the strength to peck out. There are many reasons this could have happened which we studied. It was sad but a good life lesson. I will admit-we all teared up at the sight of this but knew it was God's plan.At just 3 days old-our 12 SURVIVOR PEEPS are already losing their fluff and getting real feathers! God is just so amazing-his creations astound me!Easter morning was fun. We missed The Captain and The Oldest. We didn't however, miss Wy Wy's KOOKY Shananigans. He had slight difficulty opening his basket with his winter gloves on. He did wear them, his bandaid, John Deere Green shorts & John Deere shirt ALL DAY.We had a YUMMY breakfast of home made cinnamon rolls (brought by Mark-made by his mom Mary) and hard boiled eggs. We celebrated THE RISEN SAVIOR at home & then we watched the animated EASTER STORY pretty much all day! We missed The Captain a lot-we are very thankful we got to visit with him on the web cam. I cooked a traditional ham dinner which we all enjoyed! It was a great weekend!

Big News-GAP MERGES WITH JOHN DEERE!

I will be the first to admit my family is a little "off".

It did alarm yet not surprise me as we drove into the parking lot of my Aunts 70th surprise party to see this....... My 64 year old uncle wearing a PRAIRIE HAT. Despite the "NONSENSE" we went ahead and parked the car.It was such a blessing to be with so many of the people I love all at once! We celebrated 5 special birthdays. My uncles, My Mom's, My 2 Cousins and My Aunt's 70th.Me with my brother and Barb!My darling niece with My My.One of the highlights for me BESIDES being with those I love was these.....

Peanut butter and jelly cupcakes with peanut butter frosting-the bomb!Then there was the big belly contest. I think the pregnant girl lost to her dad and my dad.Then there was the "CUZIN" photo shoot-LOVE IT!Then there were these 6 monkeys hanging around...

Then there was an OWIE to AW-Bells sweet knee which my Aunt promptly bandaged-she carries bandaids in her purse-so sweet. The six littles were all super good during dinner and since we WERE in "THE BIG CITY", we had some must needed SHOPPING to attend to. After putting MyMy's white sandals on that morning & noticing her toes were hanging over the edge-that was the priority.

SO began the HUNT FOR WHITE SANDALS FOR MY MY. I went to all the stores in the mall while THE CAPTAIN kept the 6 littles entertained in the play area. I found sandals (and many more un-needed purchases) at the last store-yay!

All was well and we promised them one last ride on the escalator (cause that's what us country folk do fer fun) & headed to the car. See the Captain standing at the bottom? Doesn't he look hot holding that Gap bag? I love the way his bag matches his cowboy boots and wranglers.

We got in the car and THATS WHEN IT HIT-Wy Wy-completely losing his mind with a constant scream. He had APPARENTLY seen some JOHN DEERE sandals (he thinks ANYTHING green or yellow is JD) in The Gap and was in a terrible state because we did not purchase these for him-problem was, we never knew they existed. He screamed for a good mile past the mall when THE CAPTAIN whipped a U E (uturn peeps). What a good daddy.

I ran my rear into The Gap in search of those sandals and there they were... John Deere green & $5.99. When I got back in the party bus-his PIGGYS were a danglin! Just dying to put those babies on. Do you noticed the GLAZED look he has-almost as if JOHN DEERE GREEN is his drug. It was only 35 degrees here today or he would have worn em' to church this morning.Here's the little farmer all decked out today after church in his new shirt & the John Deere yellow plastic bandaid from a Dr. kit he's been wearing for 5 days! His lunchtime prayer was precious. He prayed for the big truck, the combine, the big tractor and the little tractor and of course THE HEADER. He is a trip!

This may be our last photo as a family of 9 (the oldest not pictured). Only 4 more days til' our 17 baby chicks join our crazy nest.

I will be VENTING about adoption soon-just don't have the energy tonight-this post WORE ME OUT!