It Is A Special Day Here

Our sweet little Rosebud . . .

. . . is growing up so fast.

Hadassah, you are such a blessing to us all.
We love you !

It is a Golden Boy!

We have actually started seeing the fruits of our labor in the garden!

Our first Golden Boy Tomatoes!

We eagerly anticipate trying each new variety of tomato in our garden, as well as the peppers and Kohlrabi Kossak.

Stephenson County Fair

This past week was the Stephenson County Fair. Our family went on Saturday morning. We watched the horse judging for a while, then we meandered around for a bit . . . until we caught sight of the horse pull. All the teams were able to pull 7,000 pounds but a few had to drop out when they hit 8,500. The announcer said that they would go all the way up to 10,000 pounds! We did not stay for the entire pull but it looked like the . . . team was going to win. We also went through the rabbit/poultry barn and the home economics building. Below are some pictures of the day.

One of the many pretty ducks.

A huge draft horse.

Pulling 8,500 pounds.

Of course we must not forget the baby tiger that was there.

There was a whole stand there about saving the wild cats. With it were ( yes, real and alive) tigers, leopards, a black panther, and a mountain lion.

A view of the fair in the misty morning air.

Schneider's Move

Recently we helped the Schneider family move into their new home. The entire afternoon was full of hustle and bustle. The men moved furniture, while the boys/young men carried boxes in, and the ladies/girls cleaned and unpacked. With the combined help of the families there, they were able to get all the boxes off the trucks and into the house in one (rather long :) afternoon. (Yes, it felt like quite the feat. :) With all the running around, though, I only got three pictures. But I think they capture the afternoon well.
So, enjoy . . .

Hannah, helping clean the kitchen.

Abigail and Gabriel bring boxes inside.

Rachel helping me unpack the kitchen.

So Sweet

I found this picture of Hadassah and Isaiah the other day
and thought it was so darling;

I just had to post it.

Willow

Yesterday morning our dog, Willow, died. Willow lived thirteen years and two days short of one month. She was our faithful dog for five of those years. It was hard to lose her, harder on certain ones of us than on others. At least we were expecting it. When we came downstairs that morning, she had a lot of difficulty breathing if she was laying down. Soon, even after standing for a while, it got hard for her to breathe. So, we took her to the vet and there was no way to save her. Here are some pictures of her over the years.


















Hadassah with Willow when we first got her.

















Gabriel and Isaiah loving on her.
















Relaxing with the boys and Hadassah.

Baby Birds

About two weeks ago Gabriel observed that there was a birds' nest in our lilac bush. Later we saw the mama sitting on her eggs. Four days ago we checked the nest and, behold, all the baby cardinals had hatched, much to everyone's delight. On Wednesday the little birds got adventurous and started hopping about the bush under their parents' ever watchful eye. However, one of the little birds hopped right down to the lowest branch possible and decided to perch there. We did not want Henry, our puppy who was out playing, to knock him down. So, Mama got a cloth napkin and put the little fellow back in the nest for the night. Yesterday all of the baby birds were out of sight and the nest is now empty. We enjoyed watching these little birds grow and anticipate the coming year when perhaps there will be more baby birds to enjoy.
















Enjoying a little sunshine.





















He was quite the alert little fellow.






















He really liked this sunny spot.

Tea Anyone . . .

On Friday our family traveled down to Peoria IL. We stayed with the Degenharts that night; then in the morning the Degenhart ladies ( Mrs. Degenhart, Emily, Hannah, Elizabeth, and Geneva ) Jeremy, Mama, Hadassah, and I headed to the Passionate Housewives Tea hosted by Providence Church. We had a wonderful time fellowshipping and listening to the speakers, Mrs. Maggie Erber and Mrs. Stacy McDonald. They had lots of insight and encouragement for the ladies gathered there. It was a real blessing.

Oh, something interesting I wanted to mention: when we were headed in, my mom said to Mrs. Degenhart that she thought she might be the only woman there who had not read the book Passionate Housewives: Desperate For God by Jennie Chancy and Stacy McDonald. Before the speakers came up to speak, they had a few door prizes to hand out: one was for the person who had traveled the farthest to there, who was a lady from Chicago, and the next one was for the person who was the newest home schooler. Both these ladies received a gift certificate, one for a home school magazine and one to a home school supply company. The other prize went to the person who guessed the number closest to the correct number of consecutive years of "housewifery" represented in the room. Mama guessed 657; the correct number was 675 - and Mama won! Her prize was a copy of the book Passionate Housewives: Desperate For God, autographed by both the authors. Isn't that neat!?! Okay, now for some pictures . . .
















Jeremy playing interlude music on the Viola.





















Sweet little Geneva.





















This is Grace McDonald
putting plastic toothpicks that had
jewels on them in Hadassah's hair. :)
Grace had a lot of fun "decorating"
our hair.




















Hadassah peeking through a window
into the kitchen where all the waiters
(young men from the church)
were assembling the meals.




















Hadassah and I.















This group of young ladies and gentlemen
sang some songs for all the ladies gathered there.
One of them was . . .

May The Lord Bless You

May the Lord, Mighty God,
Bless and keep you forever.
Grant you peace, perfect peace
Courage in every endeavor.

Lift up your eyes,
and see God's face,
And God's grace forever.

May the Lord, Mighty God,
Bless and keep you forever!


Set to the tune of Edelweiss.

Pictures by the Ortega ladies.

Scrapbooking

Mama had the idea of making a section in my scrapbook about friendship. So, I decided to ask each of my friends to make two pages for my scrapbook. One about themselves and one about friendship in general. However, the design of the pages had to reflect them. The outcome was exactly what I was looking for. Here are some pictures:


The opening pages ~












































Tara Yen's pages ~










































Kathryn Yen's pages ~










































Kathryn Inyart's pages ~









































Hadassah Ortega's pages ~










































Thank you ladies! You all did a wonderful job!




Note: You can click on the pictures of the pages to make them bigger so that you can read them .
Also, I am still waiting for a few pages I will post them when I get them.

Gardening

Last Friday our family planted some veggies in our garden. We do not have a "green thumb" so we do not now how this is going to work out, but so far everything seems to be going fine. :) We planted three different kinds of tomatoes ( five tomato plants altogether) two pepper plants and two Kohlrabi Kossak. Kohlrabi Kossak are supposed to have the texture of a water chestnut, we had never even heard of them until recently so I cannot speak from experience. :) We also planted some Lambs Ear and transplanted quite a few hostas. Lambs Ear are really neat plants because the leaves feel almost identical to a lambs ear! We had a lot of fun planting everything and look forward to watching it all grow.





















Aunt Ruby's German Green Tomatoes
And in the back are Golden Boy Tomatoes.





















Our "baby" pepper plants.





















The Kohlrabi Kossak had to be planted
in pots so that the bunnies would not eat it.

Update - Part II

Mama's Birthday


For Mama's birthday (May 24th) we decided to visit a park not far from our house that our neighbors had recently told us about. The name of this park is not one you will likely forget - although Mama did forget it while we were driving there; thankfully she remembered it upon seeing the sign - Seward Bluffs. Well, evidently, bluffs is not the only thing this park has to boast about, it has a stream (or crick, some would say) running through it where many a crawdad lives. Yes, you read that right - crawdad. The boys had a delightful time catching these little creatures, while we girls were glad to move onto a less crowded part of the pond.:)















Wading





















Gabriel making use of some driftwood.
















Exploring















Josiah giving Isaiah a helping hand.




















Isaiah heading back to the shallower part.
















Hadassah helping Josiah across? :)




















Hadassah using the " old fashioned" pump.

Papa and Mama talking.



Memorial Day


On Memorial Day we had a relaxing day. However, we did make it out for a walk - albeit it was a warm one :) - at the golf course that afternoon.

Taking a short cut to the bridge.





















Papa and Gabriel look off in the distance.





















Mama





















Isaiah looking for used tees.




Altogether, it was a great weekend.