Strawberry jam

So after our strawberry picking day I wanted to try making strawberry jam again. Although unlike the kind I have done in the past, full of sugar, I tried an all fruit recipe. We have yet to try it since we are using up the other jam we have in the fridge, but it looked like it jelled nicely and it was fairly easy too. I had 6 cups of blended berries, 2 cups of white grape juice concentrate, some pectin and calcium powder. I cooked everything first to a boil. After I got it in the pint jars, I water bathed them for 5 minutes. And done. It was a lot faster then I thought. Maybe an hour from beginning to end. We love jam on toast or biscuits and of course the old stand by, p.b.j. But we don't go through a ton of it so we will see how long 5 jars gets us. I might do some peach jelly too. We received some as a gift once and boy did the kids love that.

Yummmm!

The kids and I packed up early this morning and went down the road to Unger Farms to go strawberry picking.

 We met my mom, sister, Christie and her daughter Addie there. It is a newer farm and we have really enjoyed it. This year was their first year for u pick berries. And we got there just in time, cause they are at the end of the season. We did pretty good though for having young ones help. My mom helped out with the littles so Chris and I could pick a lot. Mom got a little picking in when Addie was walking the aisles. Addie was the strawberry thief. If you left a bucket unattended she would get to it. She really enjoyed them. So did everyone else. I tried to prep the kids, eat one, put 3 in the bucket. Well, I think the boys took that to heart, mostly. Sweet Mia got maybe a few handfuls in her bucket and the rest she enjoyed immensely.  Lily Mae spent her time in the shade of the stroller. She is such a trooper. We were there for about 1.5 hours. And came home with an abundance of strawberries. We are looking forward to homemade strawberry ice cream, some on oatmeal, and some just to eat. The others we will freeze. Yummmm!

Tillamook

So Saturday we decided that it would be fun to take a day trip to Tillamook just as a family. We have been wanting to do a few things there with the kids and since the weather looked nice and it was a 3 day weekend we took a day off from working the homestead to enjoy the day and each other. We started our morning early by leaving the house at 7:15 ish and went to Maggie's Buns, a fun little restaurant that has these really big and tasty cinnamon buns. It is in Forest Grove about 5 minutes from our house. To our surprise there was no one sitting inside so we decided to sit there and eat. Usually it is crowded. It sounds like we go there a lot but we haven't really. Maybe 4 times in the last 1.5 years. From there it took about 1 hour to get to Tillmook, OR. We got to the Tillamook Cheese Factory shortly after it opened and started the tour. They were actually making Colby Jack cheese at that time. We didn't see them making the curds but we saw how it all goes from the curds to the big 41 pound blocks of cheese and then how it gets packaged and stored in the warehouse to age it. Then on the other side they were taking the aged cheeses and cutting the big blocks and making the small blocks of cheese. It was all very interesting and we spent a lot of time looking, reading and talking about it all. Lily was just mooing the whole time since there was a life size cow statue there.
After the self guided tour we got in line to try all the different kinds of cheeses. That was fun and they finally got to try the squeaky cheese that we had been telling them all about. We bought some for a snack later in the day and then ended our time there with waffle cones for Ethan's birthday treat. Man or man were we glad to have just ordered singles. They were huge. !!!! All the kids really enjoyed the cones but I think Lily did the most. Once she got her hands around my cone she had a death grip on in and wouldn't let go. She was very sweet though and kept letting me have a very, very quick lick.  I had to help her out though with all the drips. Many people got some good laughs as well as all of us. We were all very full afterwards and didn't need lunch for a long time.

 We went to the Blue heron petting farm after that which was just down the street and they had some rather large goats, some with horns. WOW They were big. They had  some llamas and an Emu, as well as chickens. That was fun but we didn't stick around to long for that. After the petting farm we went into town, just a few minutes away and parked on the street across from the Pioneer Museum. We had read about it from the Tillamook Cheese Factory website. It looked very fascinating and the kids are all into Pioneer stuff right now. It was just $4 for adults and the kids are free. Can't beat that. We were there for a few hours actually. We all had fun looking at all the of

 the old things that it had. There were three floors of items. The main floor had the Tillamook Pioneers and some of their things, a military room which the boys loved, a pioneer room and a workshop/barn room and everything like a plow, bear trap, wheel hoe, all kinds of equipment, an inside of a house with a second story like an old bed. There was so much to look at. So much detail to everything. The upper floor was a rock room, an old Victorian room, and a whole room with all these stuffed animals, from a Polar bear to the tiniest eggs. That was cool. The bottom floor had the earliest automobiles, including a wagon and sleigh, an old fashioned kitchen, the first cameras, the
first laundry machines (a wash board) and so on. Again it was all so fascinating and the kids loved it all.

 

After we left there we drove 20 minutes inland and went to the Tillamook Forestry Center. That is cool. We ate our lunch outside at a picnic table and then walked around inside, watched a movie about the Tillamook forest fires which was all so devastating but good in the end, and then the funnest part was going across the bridge and walking down to the river. They had some fun trails and the river felt good on a warm day. We walked up the tall tower that they had used to watch for forest fires which was a good hike up tons of stairs. We closed the place down at 5:00 and headed home which was about 35 minutes. I never realized how close it was to us. We were all exhausted but we had a wonderful day together learning and playing.

Homeschool Christian conference

The 24th and 25th of June we took Ethan and Lily Mae with us to the Homeschool Christian Conference at the Convention Center. Ethan was so excited to go this year as it was his first year to join us. Dave and I have loved going every year for the last 4 years. We have gone by ourselves or with a baby but we finally decided that Ethan was at the age where he would start enjoying it with us. There were even seminars for kids this year on Dinosaurs and creation and how to identify the rocks that he finds and Noah and the flood and so on. He even went to few with Dave and I and came away with some good wisdom and ideas. Of course his favorite probably was playing with the things that Timberdoodle had out on their tables for kids to play with. It not only is a great time to look at things, and spend time talking about our goals for our homeschool but we love the speakers that have been there. We get so encouraged in the whys of homeschooling. 4 years ago Voddie Baucham was one of the main speakers. He touched our hearts and gave us the vision for homeschooling and why we should. In the years between the speakers where good too but the last two years it has been more of spending time in the curriculum area figuring out what our family would like to do and how we want to teach our children. This is our fourth year now and we have finally figured it out for us. We are so at home with Heart of Dakota and have already been loving it. It is such a Christ centered curriculum but very thorough. I can't wait for the next books in the years to come. I have been enjoying the books as much as the kids have been. Our days are so much fun and I am not stressed out any more about what I am missing or if I'm doing enough for the kids. The Lord has taken me on a whirl wind the last few years and I have learned a lot about our children and myself. Anyways, after the conference on Friday night, we took Ethan out for his birthday dinner since we already had him, babysitters for the other two (my parents), and we needed to eat. So he chose Red Robin. Our kids love this place. I'm sure that Dave, Mia and I will be back in a few weeks.

Our beloved ducks

Well, this is more of a tribute to our ducks which we have had for over a year. We woke up Sunday morning, June 26th and after some family worship time (we have had an extremely busy week with Mia at Bible camp and then our conference and then another week ahead of the boys turn at camp we just needed to stay at home and be quiet as a family), a good late breakfast and a lazy morning, Dave went down to care for the ducks and chickens and let them out to roam. He came back up pretty quickly and asked for everyone to come out on the deck. He told us that something got the ducks in the middle of the night. Only later did we find out that something got 5 of our 15 chickens also. At first we thought it was the rats whom we have been fighting with, but after Dave and Ethan examining further, (Ev was down there at first but he couldn't handle it when they were discarding the bodies, poor guy. He was just looking at them crying. The girls and I were up at the house the whole time) we think that it was a raccoon. All the kids cried over them. And even now when we start talking about them, one of them might say, "stop talking please or I'm going to cry." So here are just some fun memories we have had with them.

Happy 9th Birthday Ethan!

 We actually have a 9 year old now. WOW! I just can't believe that it has already been 9 years since we brought you home from the hospital. I can still vividly remember that day. We were so clueless as to how to raise you and what to do. Praise the Lord we had God's Word to go to and seek help from and also other friends and family who guided us when we needed help. The Lord has faithfully walked with us as you have grown and we can see the person that God is making you become. You are so tender and loving and nurturing. Always willing to give hugs. You love the outdoors and are such a hard worker. You self willingly work right along side dad or mom when we are out working in the fields, barn, garden or working on a project.  Your personality is just like Dad's. Funny and you love to play jokes. We love spending time with you and talking about your dreams, like raising pigs, watching your understanding grow of the characteristics of God and the Bible, and your desire to share His love with others. We love you so much Ethan and we pray that God will work in you even more this year as you continue to grow and trust in Him.

Here he is fixing a bathroom door. He just took it upon himself to take care of it. Dave had taken it off to glue it back together. And after 2 days of drying it was ready to put it back to use. So Ethan just got what he needed and I loved watching his face and his mind think about making sure it was on straight and that it worked properly.

This is something that he has been asking for over and over. I loved this one because it actually teaches you all the moves that they can make for each piece. None of us knew how to play so we wanted to be able to learn with him. He read through everything and started playing this morning with Evan. Man they pick up on things so quickly. Now I just want to read up on it and learn to play with them. 

Starting them young!

Lily loves her walker. She cruises around the house now and gets into mischief now. Lots more training is starting to happen. But some days she just loves to walk around and discover things. She loves to sit and watch the washer when it is on. But yesterday the dryer door was open and the towels were waiting to get unloaded. This is what I found her doing.