What Periodicals We've Read…
We didn't catch up on the others this past month, from when we got behind over the summer, because we've read so many other things. We got through September.
What We've Louped and Microscoped…
Various mosses, leaves, dried grasses and spearmint, snail shells, fern. The moss was my personal favorite to loupe.
What We've Eaten…
From top left to bottom right: Fajitas (we've had both beef and venison); chicken and dressing; taco salad (with various greens); pecan pie (Nathan's Sabbath pick one week); chili with beef and pinto beans and rice (pintos, because we have a huge store of them, and the rice turned out as a delicious addition); cheese pizza and salad; French-fried potatoes, salad, and baked macaroni and cheese (perhaps not the most healthful meal, but I do fry in organic coconut oil); and chocolate mousse (my Sabbath pick). Should have taken a picture of that delicious meal we had of deer steak, mashed potatoes, white gravy, and green beans. Nathan loves when I fix that.
Can you tell I've been craving Mexican food? And chocolate. But, when do I not want chocolate? LOL
What We've Watched Outside From Window…
Elizabeth watched the first snowfall while holding her deer toy.
Oh, he's a blur! I looked outside to check on Jaden William as he restocked the back deck with wood, using his old wagon. He's an excellent helper, and he's well-compensated for his wood stacking work.
The kids and I enjoyed watching a doe and its fawn from the girls' window one morning. These deer got to eat in peace, as Nathan had already shot two deer, and I like the ones in our yard to be safe visitors.
I took a lot of pictures of these beautiful animals. I absolutely love watching wildlife.
What We've Done Outside…
Elizabeth got to go play in the snow! If I remember correctly, she didn't go out to play in any snow last year. I carried he out in it and talked about it, but I don't think I ever set her down then.
As you can see, she loved it at first. I knew she'd eventually start crying, but I wondered how long it would take. Just a few minutes, and sure enough, the joy and happiness abruptly vanished, and she started squalling. I knew it'd happen, because I've seen it before! ;-) Little ones that age just can't take that for long.
Before Elizabeth lost her joy and broke down, I was able to snap some pictures of all the children. Love these babies! (Since Olivia wasn't wearing her suit, Elizabeth is wearing it.)
All the kids are wearing their camo attire that their Daddy has bought them over the years, in these pictures. Nathan and the three oldest threw snowballs at each other. I just enjoyed watching. My Love and I are posed in front of the creek.
There's always plenty of chicken-catching going on here. Plenty of exploring. Jaden William is going down the creek in the woods, as Elizabeth, Olivia, and I watch. Trusten stayed behind at the house to play a video game. But I got a couple great pictures of him another day running across the snow. Elizabeth got a new wool penguin hat, a gift from my beloved Canadian friend Meg.
We got a new dog! We've considered a dog for awhile, though over the years while we've had kids, they've never worked out. I didn't want to train a dog when I've got kids to train. I wanted a dog who could eat the baby's food that falls (or is intentionally dropped) to the floor, and I wanted a dog that would go in the woods to dump its waste. I also wanted a dog that is easygoing and good around kids.
Well, lately we haven't really looked for a dog that is already trained, because we figured we can't afford one. But our friend's daughter and husband could no longer keep their dog, and her father-in-law was keeping the dog and took him to the pound. He had to be rescued, or else he was going to soon euthanized. So our friend actually paid to get the dog neutered and chipped for us, and we are happy with him! His name is Atlas, which is ironic, because it's the name of a Greek god, and the last dog I loved, whom I trained myself, was a female boxer whom I'd named Artemis, which is the name of a Greek goddess. LOL We're keeping his name as it is.
He's a great dog. He immediately went across the road in the grown-up pasture to do his business, and he is great around the kids, very quiet and obedient. He doesn't jump all around when he's inside, nor does he try to hop on the furniture (a no-no in my book). He runs like crazy with the kids outside. He's just the kind of dog we'd wanted!
What Else We've Done...
Jaden William helped his daddy skin two deer, and he also ground up meat himself so that he could make jerky. He cut out all the little rib pieces himself to contribute to jerky meat. There he is flattening pieces in the dehydrator. We've had two batches of jerky, and it's been good!
This is Jaden William's doing. He set these places up in his weather on his iPod. These were the closest things he found for all our names. He calls Elizabeth "Fizzy Chicken," supposedly because Fizzy rhymes with Lizzy (which we usually don't even call her), and she is "sweet like a chicken." Hahahaha! Anyway...Fizi Territory is in the Dominican Republic, according to William. He said, "I typed in 'Fizi Chicken,' but that's all I got that popped up in the search results."
Jaden mixing up flour, salt, and coloring to make a salt map of Israel.
He labeled places we studied, like the Masada and Qumram.
Land brown, bodies of water blue.
Two of his glazed pottery pieces he made in art class, that were glazed before they were supposed to be, as he was still working on details. I like them a lot, except the paint could be better, but I honestly don't know how well I could even do that myself free-hand. He uses these these for food and drink. He's got more things coming, once they're glazed and we get called to pick them up.
Two relatives gave us money, and the girls got more, because they were getting birthday money. Besides a few things, the above shows what I picked out for Elizabeth. I got her a different wooden stacker, since she likes the other so well (and she loves this one, too) and a wooden shape sorter. I got her some neat wooden puzzle boards (five two-sided boards for ten puzzles in all) that use colored shapes to fill in parts of the pictures, a chunky wooden insect puzzle (so cute!), a wooden airplane, a real natural biodegradable rubber frog without any hole (which means no nasty mildew), an Audubon bird that can be pressed to emit the real bird's sound (I chose a red pileated woodpecker, but the choice was difficult!), some books (the ones shown, plus two more), and a drawstring bag of soft colored "shape" bean bags (not pictured). Elizabeth LOVES birds like her momma does, so hence the bird, airplane, and insect things (because my guess is that she'll love flying machines in general, just like her momma).
I chose several neat books for Olivia, too, including a horse sticker book, the Snowflake Bentley we used with our snow theme, and some nursing books and a book about mothers carrying their babies (since she's so very into mothers and babies). She also got the ebook Are You My Mother? by Dr. Seuss. I got her a rubber duck like Elizabeth's frog (not pictured). Then, since she really didn't need any more toys, I bought her spring and summer wardrobe, minus shoes.
So blessed to have been able to get more books for our library (I write the children's names in their books, so they'll have them to pass on to their children), because I'd cleared out around fifty books back in the summer that I no longer wanted, and we were overcrowded. And so blessed to be able to get Elizabeth those nice educational toys and Olivia's future clothes. I had cleared out so many neat wooden toys of the boys' a few years ago, because they never cared much for toys, except blocks. Liv is into toys now but wasn't in earlier years. Elizabeth is really the first one to seriously sit down and want to use stacking toys and such. All the others just wanted to jump all around and get into my stuff, especially the middle two! Actually, William would sit quietly and play, but it was more often with my pots and pans and such than it was his own toys.
Anyway...that's all I'm posting this time! I had forgotten to add my scripture verses that I used with the kids for the "Snow and Babies" post, but I did go back and add those.
Until next time...
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