The birthday...part 2

What do you get when you take 10 eggs, 4 cups of milk, a pound of breakfast sausage, 4 cups of baking mix, a loaf of bread and some strawberries and blueberries??? It's the second phase of Celebrate J&J Day. As we normally do, I gave Jonathan and Jeremy the choice of what to have to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner on their birthday. Since their birthday is on Monday, they asked to have their b'day breakfast this morning since Grandpa, Lois and Daddy could all be around today. And they asked for pancakes, belgian waffles and french toast and sausage for breakfast. So, Michael and I got up and got 'er done. You can kinda see the spread of waffles and french toast in the pictures. There were also pancakes and sausage that I'm not sure if you can see. We had a few waffles left over, but that was it. Yummy!!

Josiah, Lois, Jeffrey, Grandpa, Jeremy (and Michael's hand) waiting for breakfast.

Michael and the boys in front of the goods. Josiah's trying to sneak something!

The birthday begins...

Last night began the celebration of the 14th anniversary of the birth of my two favorite teenage boys. Grandpa and Lois came into town and quickly everyone dashed out to Target to buy birthday presents from Grandpa. (It's funny how quickly everyone loads up for THAT kind of trip to Target! The grocery kind....not so much.) While we were there, Grandpa told the boys to pick out a special dessert to have after dinner tonight. Brownie and Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream (Blue Bell, of course!) got the nod. So after a dinner of lots and lots of tacos, we had the first event celebrating their birthday. There's more to come, so stay tuned.

They wanted me to be sure and tell you that they are NOT standing up, they are on their knees!

On today's epsidoe of Survivor: Homeschool...

The contestants watch tribal rituals and eat insects...

In other words, we went to the symphony and did a cool science/art project. Jeffrey and Josiah and I went to the Young People's Symphony at the San Antonio Symphony. (J1 and J2 were at basketball practice.)This season each symphony shows ways that math relates to music. Very cool idea. I think in years past they've also realted other school subjects to music (like science). This was our first time to go because the other days they've done the symphony we've had company or something else going on.

While we were sitting there listening to the symphony, I was thinking "Why don't we make a point to do this more? This is so nice!" and then we got home and I remembered why. It's SOOOOOO hard to get schoolwork done when it starts at noon and you've had a fun morning out essentially playing around. (Did I mention we stopped off at Panera for free coffee and (not free) bagels?!)

Thankfully, this afternoon, Josiah had a fun science project to do. We made peanut butter playdough (pb, powdered sugar and honey....what's not to love about that!) grasshoppers. His reader, science, and even his history this week has talked about grasshoppers, so this was the activity for today. It was a lot of fun, and made for a nice midafternoon snack. I've decided the English idea of "tea time" is right on the money. Stopping for a bit in the afternoon for a little sweet and some sit down time sounds great.

And the "grasshopper" was great! We added more eyes (i.e.chocolate chips) as we ate up the body which made it even better.

Josiah cutting out the wings.

The finished product. It didn't stand up too well.

Josiah got the first taste, and then was "asked to leave the tribal council area immediately" so he wouldn't OD on the grasshopper!

Give the boy a cupcake!!

Excuse me a moment while I brag. I'm becoming more and more convinced that it's very important to honor the times we see good character developing in our children and praise them for it. Praise them even more for that than when they score a great goal, make 100 on a test, do great feats of athleticism. Not that those things are bad, but they do fade. Character matters and counts from now on. So, here's a story I'm proud to relate to you.

Jeffrey and I went to the breadstore this morning before picking up J&J and Josiah from basketball practice. While we were checking out, I was paying attention to make sure the items rang up correctly and trying to figure out how much cash I needed to pull out of my wallet. Jeffrey noticed that the people next to us had purchased a large amount of large pkgs. of hamburger buns. One of them was a lady about my mom's age, the other was probably her mother. Jeffrey noticed that the younger of the two ladies grabbed two of the large bags of buns and that the older one was struggling to get them both. So, he offered to help. The ladies were pleased at the offer and took him up on it. He even held the door open for them while he walked the buns out to the car. When he got inside, I quietly told him thanks. Then the owner of the store offered for Jeffrey to go choose out a cupcake for himself saying "I like to see kids acting that way!" The look on Jeffrey's face was priceless. He was thrilled! I'm thankful for glimpses that the Lord gives into our lives to remind us that our labor in Godliness is never in vain.

Way to be attentive, Jeffrey!

The farmily welcomes some young 'uns

During our Christmas holiday, Michael, dad and Tony "modified" our chicken coop. Actually, the right way to say it is that its like Alcatraz of the chicken world. It's only missing the search lights. And that's not because the boys didn't think of that! It's because momma has "lights in my eyes when I'm trying to sleep" issues, just ask Michael!

Yeah, it involved power tools!!

My man, hard at work.

My dad adding his bit to the project.

Now that our new coop has a super floor and there's not going to be anything getting in or out of this coop....so, we've added some new chickies. And young cuties they are!

I drove the boys up to Burnet, TX (about 2 hours away) on Thursday to pick up these beauts. We got 5 hens and yep, a rooster. We're hoping as he grows, he'll be a real protector to these gals. The hen that was at the guy's house where we got the chickens was almost the size of a medium size dog, very intimidating. That's what we're going for!

This is our rooster. Jeffrey named him Hawkeye. Not so "big man on campus" yet, but time will change that.

Josiah chose his hen. Her name is Goldie.

Jeffrey choosing Hawkeye.

Aren't they cute!!!!! That's Goldie on the left and Comet (named by Jonathan-the name was chosen because Jonathan says that comets are also called "dirty snowballs"...he just learned that in science...and she looks like a dirty snowball) on the right. We still haven't named the other girls yet. Stay tuned for that. We each get to name one this time. Yeah-mom gets to pick a name!!

The one on the left looks a lot like Sacagawea. We think there's one Rhode Island Red and two that look like Cheetah, one that's probably a little like Dorcas and one cream colored one. They're about 8 weeks old, so it'll be a couple of months before they start laying eggs, but we're just thrilled to have chickens again. One problem this time may be the cats. Last time when we got chickens, the hens were grown and the kittens were small. This time the situation is flipped-the chicks are small and the cats are grown. We're really going to make sure those sweet kitties don't get hungry! That would be horrible!!!!! No chicken dinners, PLEASE!!

First tournament...first place

This weekend we had a first. The boys had their first basketball tournament. It was a round-robin tournament at Pearsall ISD. They played other public school teams. We were wondering how it would be. Well, they won. They won all their games. And they won big. Like by 30 or 40 points each game The Patriots looked great. Lots of great passes to one another. Jonathan and Jeremy have improved in their skills unbelievably. It was great to see. They had a great time.

Jonathan shooting free throws.

Jeremy stealing the ball.

Jeremy on defense.

The winning team. Way to go Patriots!

Close..but no cigar

Well I'm bummed to say it, but the sale of our house didn't go through! The people backed out of the contract last night. We THOUGT that once we signed papers to the relocation company to transfer ownership of our house to them that it wouldn't matter if the buyers backed out or not. Well, we were wrong. So, we STILL own a house Bartlett. We STILL get to pay two mortgages, utilities, etc. and we STILL know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God's got this one under control. We're going to have a great story to tell of how this one worked out! In fact, in the devotional I'm reading, the last few days have all been talking about having faith to believe God can do impossible things. I even read a verse that God had reminded me of when this whole move to Texas thing started about believing that He will do all that He promised- that I WON'T be disappointed. I really really believe that is still true. Regardless of the economy or the housing market, God has someone in place to buy our house at just the right time. And He will continue to provide for us just like he has for the last 16 months. So, stay tuned for a great story to come....hopefully sooner rather than later!!