Lost Maples State Park

Of all the things we've done this fall that have kept us hoppin', one of my favorites by far was going to visit Lost Maples State Park. Someone in our Classical Conversations group put together a field trip for their class, and our family tagged along. Michael took the day off and we went up together. Turns out it's just about an hour and a half from our house, but it feels like like Ozarks or something! It was beautiful. We were about a week past peak, but it was still a WONDERFUL time!! The weather was cool, but not cold. Just right for spending a day outside hiking. We took the hiking trail that was just about 5 miles round trip. A couple of times Josiah said "I've changed my mind, this isn't fun like I thought" but then he would see something cool and bound off with his brothers forgetting all about those aching legs. It was so much fun!

Here are some photos from the trip.

Isn't that cute!!!

We were so glad we made the trip. We'll be back!!

A-maizing fun

A couple of weeks ago we met some friends out at the South Texas Corn Maze (also called the Corn Maize...don't exactly know the reason for the different spellings b/c it's NOT maize....it's corn) We went on homeschool day and it was so much fun. Here's the boys at the entrance. Jeremy's standing on the right, Jonathan is the cow, Jeffrey is the horse and Josiah is the goat.

The maze was fun and they even had places where you could text if you got lost. Talk about up to date! We didn't get lost, though. Thankfullly!

In addition to the maze, there were bales of hay to play on...

And a HUGE air pillow called "The corn popper"...this was the highlight of the trip I think.

See those pumpkins on the ground, they had them for sale since it was close to the end of the season, I got three big ones from a different spot on the ground for $1 each! More about what I did with that in a later post.

Fun fun fun!!

And now...it's off to basketball!

With barely a time for a breath, we move on from football to basketball. Our season officially started Nov 6-7 with the Patriots playing in a tournament in, of all places, College Station! What fun! I mean it was more convenient for us to play in Bryan/College Station than it would have been even to play a tournament at FEAST. Mom and Dad's house was just about 10 min away from where the boys played. Which, BTW was ON CAMPUS at Texas A&M! Ok, it wasn't Reed Arena, but it sure was nice and fun! One great thing was that Michael's dad was able to drive up and see the game and Lacy (Michael's sister) was able to see all the games! AND Lacy took pictures...good ones! She should do it for a living! Wait...she does! To top the fun all off, Jonathan and Jeremy's team (they're on JV this year!) played in the Championship game and just lost by a few points to the team that won state last year! Way to go Patriots!!

In the pictures....Jonathan is #25, Jeremy is #12

Just had to stick in this super cute one of Grandpa and Josiah

Broken ankle??? What broken ankle???

Isn't that a great one?!?!

Basketball is fast and furious at this point, mostly with scrimmages, but will start "for real" tonight. Stay tuned for reports from Jeffrey's team soon. He's old enough to play this year and he's PUMPED!!

The end of an era

The middle school football era. What a fun year it was! Michael did a FABULOUS job coaching, Jonathan did a wonderful job at quarterback and Jeremy did a great job all around...we were so thankful he even got to play! The Patriots made it to the championship game for their league. They were the first FEAST middle school team to make it to the championship game EVER! Unfortunately, the game didn't turn out in the Patriots' favor. :-( The final score was 40-13, but it was a great game and a fun time! I tried to find some more pictures of the boys playing football, but I couldn't get the CD to open that a mom made, so you just get one picture of Jonathan playing. But we have video! Just ask....I'm sure the boys would LOVE to show you one! In the team picture, you can see Michael, Jeffrey, Josiah, Jeremy #24, on the back row and Jonathan #12, on the back row all the way to the right. Too bad there's no cheerleaders or twirlers or flag corp, then I could have been in the picture! :-)

Lost and found

The boys and I got home from College Station late on Sunday night to find this little guy waiting around on our back porch for us.....

We thought it was VERY strange. We've never seen this little guy before and he ran off as soon as we got home. But funny thing is...he shows up now every night at like 12:30 am. Jackson whimpers and sometimes even barks out loud at him. Talk about middle of the night heart attacks! Nothing like a dog barking to wake you up with a heart beating out of your chest! So this morning, the dog was still around. Curled up on a towel on our back porch. Jonathan picked him up and feeling his ribs and skinny tail, took it upon himself to feed little poochy. Uh oh! So, I did the only responsible thing to do.... I passed the buck! Call your dad and ask him what to do. So Michael says "It's ok to feed it" (Whew!) "But make a sign that says 'FOUND' and put it by the mailboxes. If no one calls, we'll take it to the pound". Well, needless to say the boys were heartbroken about the pound. They felt that was just like signing a death warrant for the little guy. But after reminding them that we would NOT keep this dog in the house anyway, I told them that he's cute and sweet and would probably be adopted quickly and would avoid the "trip through the one way door". But in the mean time, Jeffrey retrieved a cat house from up on our loft. It's just the right size. So now, in our back yard, we have a precious little long haired dachshund eating, drinking, and making himself at home! Jeffrey and Josiah wanted to name him. I strongly advised against it saying, "Don't name the dog! We're NOT keeping him!!" but the bleeding hearts won out, so "Doc" it is.

Isn't he cute!!??!!

And in other animal news, Wave (the faithful trusty ultra low maintenance Beta fish) has a new roommate next door....

Welcome to Phillip. Jeffrey used his money a couple of weeks ago and brought him to the farmily.

Now if all pets were as easy and painless as Betas, we'd have a houseful!

Preparedness pays off

The night before last I met "face to foot" with a lovely (NOT!) little baby scorpion. Yep, I stepped on the wee one barefooted...with my laptop in hand, even! At first I thought I had stepped on a chard of glass (like I had done two days earlier...shoes, Jennie, shoes!!), but as the sharp pain turned to a crazy stinging burning pain I knew it must have been something else. Because I still had my laptop in my hand, I couldn't get a good look at the underside of my foot to tell what it was and at first I couldn't see anything on the floor either. I started shaking my foot (think hokey pokey) and saying in a not so calm voice, "Is it off???!!! Is it off??!!" By now after my one hundred repeats of "OW! OW! OW! OW!" all the boys and Michael were in the hallway to see what was going on. Finally, Michael had the presence of mind to take the laptop out of my hand, although I have to say it must have been an impressive sight seeing me dance like that on one foot with one up in the air so someone can examine the bottom of my foot WITH a laptop in hand!! :-) It was then that I saw the little scorpion. And it was tiny. We've seen some big ones in the house off and on over the last several months. This one was probably only 1/4 the size of some of the big ones we've seen. I guess I'm glad it was little. I didn't need to add the disgusting "CRUNCH" of an arthopod feeling on my bare feet added to the intense burning. And in my own defense I do NORMALLY wear shoes around the house, especially in the evenings b/c we have seen so many scoripions around, but Jeffrey had just worn my outside to close the chicken coop and they were wet. I'd asked him to just leave them outside and I'd carried on barefooted. Guess what...I haven't been barefooted since Wednesday night!!!!

So how is this a story about preparedness, Jennie? You didn't sound prepared at all? Well, I'm glad you asked. A few months ago I had read about and purchased from Beeyoutiful a product called Activated Charcoal Powder. In the article I read, it was touted as being fabulous for helping to heal spider bites. It supposedly draws the poison out of the blood and out of your system. You can take it internally or make a poltice externally. The stories were amazing of what it could do, so since I was ordering some other things anyway, I tacked some onto my order. And put it on our medicine shelf. Well, about four days ago, Michael said "I've been meaning to ask you, what is that black stuff on the shelf?" So I told him about the charcoal powder supposedly being great for stings and bites to draw out poison. Well, my quick thinking husband on Wednesday night remembered about the charcoal and asked if I wanted to get it. Brilliant! I love that man! So, I had Jonathan fetch me the Beeyoutiful magazine and Michael followed the directions to make a politice.

Here's my foot on Thursday morning after sleeping with the politce on all night.

Here's my foot wrapped in the poltice w/ a moist paper towel and saran wrap (to keep the paper towel from coming off and then the charcoal getting all over my sheets. THAT would have been a mess!!

Here's the charcoal paste that we used as poltice. Looks like black tempra paint. Thankfully, it didn't smell badly. Not much of a smell at all really.

The product of the day!

I put an ice pack on my foot while Michael was making the poltice. Then we wrapped the poltice around the spot on my foot that was hurting. I couldn't ever really see exactly where it stung me. It was somewhere between toe #4 and pinky. But that whole part of my foot was throbbing. After we put on the poltice, we wrapped the ice pack around it for a few more minutes, and then I went to bed (w/out the ice pack). I wasn't sure what to expect pain wise the next day. I've never been stung by a scorpion, but I was thinking it would be like a bee or wasp sting. So maybe a little red at the site and tender for a could of days. Well, guess what?? When I washed off the charcoal, I couldn't even see where it was red and there was NO pain. None. It was like I hadn't been stung at all. Amazing! My two thumbs up for prayers and charcoal!! And being prepared!

The fall garden

A little over a month ago, I put Jonathan and Jeremy to work earning a gardening badge for Boy Scouts. It just so happens that for a gardening badge one of the things that you have to do is start six plants from seed....hmmm....I wanted to start a fall garden, all I had was seeds, boys need to start plants from seed.....no brainer! Get to work boys!

And now after lots of lovely rain and cooler weather, here's what we have...

romaine lettuce...

beets...

pumpkin..

here's our jalapeno tree that has really taken off since there's no cucumber vines smothering it....canned jalapenos are on their way!

swiss chard...and finally spaghetti squash...can't find the photo. We also have basil and cilantro and sugar snap peas that are growing. I'm so thrilled with how well things are growing! Hopefully, we'll have some good harvest. At least we'll have some good leaves to eat if nothing else goes well! :-)