Melinda Beth: August 2008

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Sunday, August 31, 2008

We Say Goodbyes

Day 11

Thursday

August 21st

This morning we drove past the house I grew up in from birth to age 8 1/2. It looks pretty much the same, except our brown Pinto has been replaced by a Honda Accord and the front door isn't red anymore. That's sad. I wonder if the multi-colored pink shag rug is still in my bedroom? Fat chance, but perhaps the family room still has its fake wood paneling.

I loved rainbows when I was younger and this was always my favorite landmark in town. I was so happy to see that it still exists. It's a little girl's dream garage. I wonder what's parked inside? Probably either life-sized My Little Ponies and Care Bears, or Barbie's red Ferrari.

We stopped by my cousin's house to play. The kids ate Flavor Ice. Another childhood memory of mine. The purple ones always made me cough.

My boys like wearing helmets.

After lunch, we went to the cemetery. This poor guy only has a remnant of a tombstone. How does 88% of a tombstone get lost?

There were different levels and quality of tombstones:

One of my ancestors chose a tall, erect tombstone. This is not the tombstone of my ancestor John with the 18 kids.

Most opted for short, shiny granite.

Some selected from the value menu. I admire the Chikes (not related) for thinking outside the bun and ordering a rock and street sign.

After the cemetery we went to the park and abided by all the rules. We are obedient people.

We ate pizza for dinner and attempted a photo with my grandmother and her great-grandchildren. This is the only photo from my camera with all the children pictured. I had to set my camera down and duck behind my grandmother while Jason sat on my head. My sister-in-law has those pics on her camera. My brother's kids were very cooperative.

This was the night I cried. My mom thought it was sweet that Emily was crying too. However, she was only crying because there was no time left to go to the hotel pool. Tomorrow we leave. It's been a great trip!

Friday, August 29, 2008

The Strong Museum

Day 10

Wednesday

August 20th

Today we went to the Strong Museum. The term "museum" indicates learning and I wasn't in the mood to learn today. But the full title is actually The Strong National Museum of Play. Ok. Let's check it out. It was AWESOME!! The kids absolutely loved it. We were only planning to spend a few hours, but ended up spending the whole day. They have a whole lot to do there, I can't begin to name it all. It's 282,000 square feet of fun. Here is a sampling:

Jason pressed his face against the play Sesame Street taxi window.

They had a pretend grocery store. It had kid sized carts and check out stands. How awesome is that? That is so dreamy for a little girl. Sarah shopped for cabbage, tapioca, kiwi, celery and watermelon.

Wendy purchased 2 pumpkins, diapers ("for Rachel"), ice cream, Brie cheese and sour cream. She has not learned the art of filling a grocery cart yet. (She's pushing the red cart behind Sarah.)

Emily patiently waiting in line.

Sarah was so proud of her checker skills. The girls loved the grocery store so much, they did it twice.

There was an old fashioned kitchen. Emily joined some other girls and made stew.

There was a butterfly atrium. You had 20 minutes to walk around and view the approximately 800 butterflies. David caught one with his finger.

Bradley and Sarah played Pitfall.

That's just a fraction of what we did. The kids were begging to go back the next day. The day reminded me of one of the reasons why we choose to homeschool. Playing so important for development. Children these days are at risk of being overscheduled with school and other scheduled activities. Recess and PE are being reduced at some schools. Standardized testing is becoming too much of a focus. It is my job as a parent to make sure my children get enough free play so they develop and learn. Click here to read more about the benefits of play. We are going to do a whole lot more playing in school this year!

That evening we went to a place called Schaller's for dinner. They have excellent hot dogs, hamburgers, and frozen custard. Then we went to the hotel pool. We went in the "cold pool"...

...and the "hot pool." The kids preferred the hot tub when the jets were off. Sarah said she didn't like going in the hot pool when the water was boiling.

Does this vacation ever end?

Thursday, August 28, 2008

A Day of Rest?

Day 9

Tuesday

August 19th

After breakfast we went back to our hotel room. While we spent some time finishing getting ready, Jason crashed on the floor and fell sound asleep amongst his bowl of fruit loops.

By the way, we stayed at the Hampton Inn. Hampton Inns rock (except for the high speed Internet.) Our hotel was newly remodeled so it didn't bother me so much that he was lying? laying? (I can never get that word right) on the floor. Hampton Inn did away with polyester bedspreads and now offer white down comforters. The mattresses were new and comfortable. The free continental breakfasts were very good too! They actually have food and hot food. At the hotel we stayed in at Richmond, the "Free Continental Breakfast" consisted of four miniature chocolate donuts in a Sterilte container. I'm not kidding. It was one of those plastic containers you buy for your craft items or a dorm room that has drawers, a small one about 12 inches high. I totally would've taken a picture, but I was trying to stay under the radar for exceeding our maximum capacity for the room. I was tempted to go to the front desk to ask them to break out another box of Hostess, but I didn't. We ate some granola bars instead. Howard Johnson is so stingy!

We took the kids to the indoor hotel pool in the morning. No pics. Sorry! That afternoon we went to Nani's for dinner. She was thrilled to be able to cook us a baked rotini. It was nice having a home cooked meal.

The girls played farm animals.

Emily and Bradley played to checkers. Bradley looks as if he is actually strategizing.

Rachel hung out.

We celebrated my sister's birthday with cake and lots of candles. I won't expose how old she is. You can count the candles.

The kids also put on several skits for the adults. I have several videos, but I'll spare you the childish humor.

The girls played princess hair salon at 10:30 PM at the hotel.

A rather slow day. But nice.

Niagara Falls

Day 8

Monday

August 18th

Tradition has it in my family that you don't rest while on vacation. You go nonstop until you go home. So after our big day yesterday at the reunion, we decided to go to Niagara Falls the next day. It's about a 70 mile and 1 1/2 hour trip. Here is how we traveled:

That's my grandmother's head in the bottom left-hand corner. Normally she would have stayed home to rest after such a big event yesterday, but we guilted her into coming with us to Niagara Falls because it was my sister's birthday. We had a wheelchair for her to make the trip easy. My brother and his family traveled with my dad in their car.

Wendy by the Falls.

Emily and Sarah by the Falls.

Rachel hung out.

Emily doesn't read signs.

Bradley by the Falls.

Jason by the Falls. Its the best picture I got of him.

We journeyed behind the falls, including Nani...

and Rachel.

Journeying behind the falls basically means you dress up like a giant banana and walk through some tunnels and look at a loud white wall of water.

I did the journey many many years ago. I had anticipated a really cool walk behind the entire length of the horsehoe. I was a little disappointed that it was mostly tunnels that plop you out at this look out point for you to view a huge cloud of mist. Nonetheless, it's a pretty spectacular view. Thankfully my camera survived the moisture.

A rainbow. It's real. Not Photoshopped.

Is it too much to ask for kids to look at the camera? I'm not quite sure why Emily thought she should eat her sister's arm.

The day was fun. On our way back home we had to show our US citizenship. We arrived at the border and this is the conversation:

Patrol: Where are you going?

David: New York.

Patrol: Why are you going there?

David: We are going home.

Patrol: How many people are traveling in the vehicle?

David: 11

Patrol: How many children and how many adults?

David: 5 adults and 6 children.

Patrol: Who do the children belong to?

David: Myself and my wife.

Patrol: All of them?

David: Yes.

Patrol: Why did you travel to Canada?

David: To see the falls.

Patrol: How long were you here?

David: Several hours.

Patrol: Did you buy anything?

David: No. Just food.

Patrol: No souvenirs?

David: No. We spent all our money getting here.

Patrol: May I see your proof of citizenship?

We handed him a stack of 10 birth certificates, 5 licenses and one passport.

Patrol: Out of 11 people only one person has a passport?

Me: Yes. Passports are expensive!

He looks at the documents and passes them back.

Patrol: Thank you.

Our hotel false alarm fire at 2:30 AM. As I looked around at the other hotel guests who evacuated, I realized that I probably had time to get dressed. I was more concerned about grabbing my purse and camera to document the event.

Bradley wasn't too happy about it.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

The Reunion

Day 7

Sunday

August 17th

So we've reached the climax of the trip - The 100th Anniversary Reunion.

We went to church in the morning dressed like this and I am most positive that members of that ward remained with unanswered questions because of our abrupt departure after Sacrament meeting. They either thought 1) we are Irish cloggers, 2) have no fashion sense, or 3) are just plain dorky. # 2 and #3 are true.

The day began with some cousin flirting.

It ended up she just wanted to pet his fuzzy noggin. How can you resist?

The kids played games. The older ones did a 3-legged race, potato sack, and wheelbarrow race. That's Emily with her cousin.

The younger ones dropped clothespins into a jar. Bradley was pretty disappointed he didn't qualify as an older kid yet. I told him he could join the 6-8 year olds, but David successfully convinced him that he is better off being the oldest kid in the group because he'll win all the games.

They had a scavenger hunt.

They raced with wet cotton balls on plastic spoons.

However, David's convincing was short-lived because Bradley was disappointed that he didn't get a water gun like Emily's. Occassionally parents have some backfires.

The paparazzi took pictures of the kids.

Rachel hung out as usual.

We took a group family photo.

Let me explain a little bit. This is a reunion of the line of my maternal grandmother's great-grandfather. He immigrated from Germany in 1872. He had 8 children. This is where the color coding comes in. Each of the 8 original children are represented by a color. Our ancestor, John, is represented by green. John had 18 total children, 4 from his first wife. He married his second wife, who is my ancestor, shortly after his first wife died in childbirth along with the baby. He got lucky with his new wife and she was evidently fertile and produced him 14 children. Of his total 18 children, 15 lived into adulthood and 14 produced offspring. Needless to say, there are a lot of descendents. When it was time to take the John family picture, the photographer commented, "We know what John was doing at night." Of course the sea of green laughed and we took our panoramic picture. The reuion was for all 8 lines. There were about 800 in attendance. 3 hundred and something are from the John line. Go Green! Procreation rocks!

Another family photo.

Meine Mama ließ mich diese lederhosen tragen.
(My mom made me wear these lederhosen.)

Ich muss zugeben, dass ich süß ziemlich verdammt bin!
(I'll have to admit, I'm pretty darn cute!)

The band played polkas.

The girls improvised a maypole.

The family history boards. That's only about a third of them. There was also a bunch of other family history stuff on display such as old photos and such. I guess I will also mention here that there was a raffle for a bunch of theme baskets that people donated. I won one! I was very excited because I don't win much. But I won a hand crocheted baby blanket. I'll have to take a picture of it. That was very exciting!

"All this cuteness makes me thristy."

That was our day!
Auf wiedersehen!

A Paternal Family Reunion

Day 6

Saturday

August 16th

Today we slept in from our big day yesterday.

For lunch the kids ate Happy Meals at Nani's and the adults ate sub sandwiches. Then we went to a park/farm called Springdale Farm for a mini family reunion with my dad's side of the family. It was a cake and soda picnic.

There was a playground. Bradley went down the slide.

Emily did the monkey bars.

The little ones liked the swings. "No hands!"

Sarah looks like she swinging in Microsoft wallpaper.

Jason too.

I love having daughters, but the worst part about it is taking them to the restroom in public places. The restrooms at Springdale Farm looked cute. Everytime we visited a potty on our trip Wendy would ask, "Mommy, is this a little potty or a big potty?" I would always answer her, "It's a little potty." She's used to using a cushy kid's potty seat at home and is always a little hestitant to try new bathrooms. Telling her a potty is little seems to calm her nerves about sitting on a foreign piece of porcelein. This time she asked her common question, but what's a mother to say when you're greeted with a commode that leads to a big dark abyss?

"Sweetie, that's a big potty that leads to hell. I'll be sure to hold you so you don't fall in." Amazingly, all 3 girls survived the potty stop.

The petting farm attraction was closed but we looked at the animals from the fence. Wendy was so excited to see all the dog feathers.

The family photo.

It's a motely crew. My kids were complaining about the sun being in their eyes, therefore Sarah is hiding behind my cousin Jimmy, the skinny guy with the beard. My dad is the youngest of six children. His oldest brother is 16 years older than him and he is sitting in the front with the cane and his wife is in the blue jacket. One of his older sisters is in the red shirt next to his brother. His other older brother is with his wife and is standing behind the sister in the red shirt. My dad also has two other sisters. One lives in Florida and the other lives in Nebraska. The rest of the people are cousins besides my brother and his wife who are on the far left.

On my dad's side of the family I have 26 cousins. I am the youngest of all of them. I am also the youngest cousin on my mom's side. I am truly the baby of the family. That's probably why I desire to have so many children. My whole life I was deprived of people to boss around.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Seabreeze

Day 5
Friday
August 15th

Our Day At

They rode boats.

They fished.

They won prizes.

They rode cars.

They rode fighter planes. Notice the 7 year old Chalie's Angel in the red plane.

They rode swings.

Rachel hung out while we ate burgers.

They played Whack-a-Mole. (Or actually Nana played Whack-a-Mole.)

David played 2 buckets full of rings on ring toss ($10 worth.) He was determined to win a giant stuffed prized. But seriously, what are you going to do with a life-sized Spiderman? Thank goodness he didn't win. Not even close.

They rode cars. I think each kid got to ride in each color car. It's totally the most awesome ride ever!

We rode the train.

I forced Emily to ride the big roller coaster. It's mandatory once you reach 48 inches.

We ate ice cream.

Jason played on the oversized rocking chairs.

It was a good day!

And top it off with a good video of Jason eating ice cream. A little bit of Heaven on Earth. It was originally my ice cream cone, but his death grip would not return it to me. I guess he is officially a big kid now.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Park, Friendly's, Walmart

Day 4

Thursday

August 14th

Today we took it kind of easy.

In the morning the kids played "climb the moutain" on the hotel mattress.

We took them to a park with some fountains. The younger kids had fun.

But the older ones with their warm Southern blood couldn't handle the cold northern water.

We went to Friendly's for dinner and took up almost half the restaurant.

We ate some ice cream.

We went to Walmart to get me some shoes that don't hurt my feet and bottled water. What's up with Rochester Walmart Shopping carts? I have never been to a Walmart where an infant seat does not fit in the cart. It was like shopping at the dollar store. I think Sam Walton would be very disappointed. The bigger the cart, the more stuff you might buy. Northerners! It's just too cold up here for them to think straight.

Church History, Hunger, and Back Pain

Day 3

Wednesday

August 13th

We got our money's worth of continental breakfast. The guy at the front desk flashed me a dirty look when I walked past him with the stash as I went to our room.

Arrive at Hill Cumorah Visitor's Center 12:45 PM.

A picture by the beautiful flowers.

Calculating a plan to avoid the Hill Cumorah Sprinklers.

A family photo by the Moroni statue. A little off center, I know. Thank goodness for cropping. I'm just too lazy to crop right now.

The statue at the top of Hill Cumorah.

Enjoying the view while Jason gets stung 4 times by a swarm of yellow jackets. Thankfully the Visitor's Center had a bee sting kit. We now know that Jason is not allergic to bee stings and will not have to carry an EpiPen.

The beginning of the path to the Sacred Grove. Notice the hunger-pained husband.

The Sacred Grove and the sacred puddles Jason wanted to play in.

The meadow portion of the Sacred Grove path. Notice the still hunger-pained husband. I need to remember to pack snacks for husband.

The Chiropractor on Main Street in Palmyra that David visited to help fix the pulled muscle in his back from struggling with Jason in the Sacred Grove.

While I sat in the van waiting for David, I had this view of the Book of Mormon Historic Publication Site and a pot-bellied man wanting to let the town of Palmyra know about the 9/11 cover-up. I think he appreciated me taking pictures of him. It helps spread his publicity.

We arrive in Hilton, NY at 6:00 PM and Rachel gets to meet her 88 year old great-grandmother, "Nani."

A much appreciated home-cooked meal of Spanish Rice, corn on the cob, chicken and biscuits, and cantalope. Thanks, Nani! It sure beats Wendy's!

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Washington ABC

Day 2

Tuesday
August 12

According to Wendy, we went to Washington ABC today. Here is how you travel the city with six kids ages 7 and under.

Go to Arlington Cemetery and take family picture by grandfather and grandmother's tombstone. Use adjacent tombstone to prop camera for self timer. It's David's maternal grandparents.

Put 4 year old in charge of pushing 3 year old in small stroller.

Carefully hold double stroller while riding escalator to Metro.

Take picture of daughter on Metro while holding stroller and making sure no kids jump out at stops.

Visit Natural History Museum (it's free.) Take picture of fake giraffe eating tree.

Have a random person take picture of family sitting against Washington Monument.

Point out White House to kids. Binoculars are recommended. I wish I had mine.

Point out Capitol to kids. No need to walk to these attractions because young kids are slightly less than thrilled to see them.

Take picture of daughter against Washington Monument.

Pack five kids into one double stroller and one sleeping kid into small stroller and prepare for trek back to Metro station. Can you find all six kids?

Scoff at IRS building.

This can all be done in a matter of several hours. I recommend not wearing new leather thong sandals. Your toes will be very sore by end of the day.

Then we drove several hours and stopped in a town in southern NY for the night.

Jason was excited to watch TV at 2:15 AM.

Our Trip in Pictures

I want to document my trip so I thought I'd post a couple days at a time.

Day 1
Monday
August 11th

Car packed. Neat and Clean. 4:00 PM. 6 hours of driving ahead.

2 hours into the trip we break out the fruit snacks and teddy grahams.

Stop at Wendy's for dinner at 7:30 PM.

Check into hotel at 12:30 AM and arrange a bed for Rachel on floor (hotel out of cribs) with our own blanket. She's happy.

Cram 4 kids into a full size bed and Jason sleeps with mom and dad. All to save $60.

Friday, August 22, 2008

Headed Home

Boo hoo! It's time to head home and face reality. I bawled my eyes out tonight saying goodbye to my 89 year old grandmother. She made the comment that in 10 years it would be a totally different picture with all of our kids 10 years older. I told her, "Yes, and you will be 99." I hope she makes it to the Today show Smucker's jar and gets her name read by Willard Scott as a centenarian in 2019. We visited the cemetery today. My grandmother bought 8 plots many years ago. They were on sale or something. So far only 2 of them are used by my grandfather and uncle. I laid down on one of the empty plots to test it out. I think it suited me well, but give me at least 5 more decades. Pictures to come soon.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Still Vacationing

We are still here in beautiful Rochester, NY. The family reunion on Sunday was a success. We attended church at 9:30 am clad in Kelly green, not because we are Irish, but because my family is color coded and we are decendents of the line that is represented by the color green. The girls wore their German dresses and pigtails, Bradley wore a green polo shirt, and Jason wore his green lederhosen. I really wish I could post some pictures, the hotel still has a screwy Internet connection though. People at church thought we were a little strange, but gave us a warm welcome and nicknamed us a the "green family."

Yesterday we went to Niagara Falls. It was a little stressful keeping track of 6 kids and making sure they didn't take a plunge over the falls. We managed well with the help of my parents, my sister, and my sister-in-law. It was a great Family Home Evening activity.

Now today we are taking a breather and doing some laundry, perhaps a little swimming. I want to go to the cemetery where my ancestors are buried and take some pictures. Laundry and cemeteries - a great morbid combination.

Last night the fire alarm went off in the hotel at 2:30 AM. We had the excitement of getting all the children up for the walk down 4 flights of stairs to stand in the rain and wait for the firemen to tell us it was a false alarm. Rachel slept through the whole ordeal and I'm glad David's computer didn't burn because my all my pictures from the first half of our trip are on there.

Friday, August 15, 2008

A Day of Amusement

Today we took the kids to a small local amusement park called Seabreeze. They had a great time of course. Who doesn't like amusement parks? Emily has graduated to the world of 48 inches. I forced her to go on the Sea Dragon, the pirate ship that goes up really high. She hated it. I forced her to go on the Jack Rabbit, a wooden roller coasted. She hated it. I'm just trying to condition her to love roller coasters. She's my only hope. Bradley refused to ride a horse on the carousel because he was scared. It was even a boring stationary one. He prefers to ride the "old people's" bench. However, by the end of the evening we had him riding the up and down horse and he even tried it side saddle. Emily hates leaving amusement parks. She cried. We left 45 minutes before the park closed which is normally taboo in our family. You must ride to the very end!

Yesterday we took the kids to a park that had some water fountains for them to run around in wearing their bathing suits. The fun lasted about 10 minutes before they began complaining that the water was too cold. They're spoiled Southerners.

People here have crazy accents. I tried my hardest to imitate it but I "jist can't dew it."

Rochester, NY

Ok. So we're in Rochester - the home of my roots. The hotel is very nice, but the high speed Internet connection isn't so high speed. In other words, the hotel is not very blogger friendly. So I am making do with the lobby's computer at 8:30 in the morning while the kids sleep upstairs. I wish I could post some pictures. For now just imagine my husband with a constant grimace on his face because of the pain from the muscle he pulled in his back in the Sacred Grove wrestling with Jason trying to get him not to sit in the mud. My Sacred Grove experience wasn't quite the spiritual experience I was hoping for. It also probably wasn't the smartest idea to walk through it during a thunderstorm. Thankfully nobody was struck by lightning, just back pain. Oh, how lovely was the morning!

I'll do my best to post.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Made it to Somewhere, New York

So we are here in a Days Inn somewhere in New York State. We stopped at about 1:30 am. Our plan was to stop at about 10 pm so that the kids would have some time to settle down and watch some Olympics before falling asleep. However, there weren't as many opportunities for lodging as I had hoped along the way. So for those who think our Earth is becoming overcrowded, I can testify that there is plenty of space and opportunites for growth along Interstate 81 between about York, PA and wherever we are in NY. I'm thinking some more Howard Johnsons, Holiday Inns, and Marriotts would be good. I just wasn't willing to risk putting my family up in The Three Bears Inn. The continental breakfast was likely to be too cold. So here we are about 2 hours away from Palmyra, New York. We are headed to the Sacred Grove and Hill Cumorah this morning. Woo hoo! Go Church History! And I guess I forgot to mention we are on our family vacation up to Rochester, New York to attend a family reunion for my family. I wish I could write more, but I'm limited on the battery life of this laptop because the power cord is in the van. I hope to post some pictures and highlights of the trip when we get to our final destination. You'll see how a family of 8 with six kids ages 7 and under get around Washington, DC. Stay tuned.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Made it to Richmond

We spent a restless night in Richmond, VA. The stressful part is over - checking into one room with 8 people. I thought for sure we would get caught and kicked out. We didn't. Yeah! Jason should've had his own room though because he wandered around until 2 am trying to figure out how to fall asleep outside of a crib.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Still packing....

Saturday, August 09, 2008

New Teeth

Rachel cut her two bottom teeth this weekend. She the youngest yet of all the kids to get her teeth.

Friday, August 08, 2008

I didn't blog yesterday because I had to catch up on my So You Think You Can Dance. I'm still trying to pack for our vacation. It's hard! I don't like packing.

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

A New Skill

Rachel is becoming mobile. She learned how to get on her hands and knees today and lunge forward. She loves it. She can now attempt to find and scoot toward every choking hazard in the room. Wonderful! Barbie is going to have to go barefoot for a couple years.

On our vacation, we are planning to visit Niagara Falls. I asked the kids today what they knew about it. Emily said, "I know it's going to be really loud and I'm going to have to cover my ears!"

Answers

A. Rachel
B. Sarah
C. Wendy
D. Emily

Family Resemblence?

Can you guess which girl is which?
A.

Answers tomorrow.

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Just For Kicks

Sunday, August 03, 2008

Fast Sunday

The first Sunday of the month is what our church calls Fast Sunday and we attend church and have fast and testimony meeting. Basically we skip two meals (usually dinner + breakfast or breakfast + lunch) and members of the congregation voluntarily go to the pulpit and bear their testimony that they know Jesus is the Savior, that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and we have a living prophet. Sometimes people add other things such as how they love their family and their dog, how they had a wonderful time on vacation, or other random stuff. The law of the fast has been practiced since Old Testament times (Isaiah 58:8-11.) and has 3 purposes:

1. It provides assistance to the needy. We pay a fast offering that is equal to or greater than the cost of the two meals that we skip.
2. It is physically beneficial. Science shows that periodic fasting can help promote health and longevity.
3. It is spiritually beneficial. Being hungry makes you humble.

For more info you can read this article.

I'm not very good at fasting because I'm usually either pregnant or nursing which is an automatic exemption from having to abstain from food and drink. It's nice to know there are benefits to being pregnant, but because of that, I am a horrible faster. I get grumpy when I'm hungry and when my blood sugar is low. Sometimes I even get angry. Last night when I realized I wasn't pregnant or nursing anymore I finally figured out why women might choose to nurse their child for five years. When I realized I no longer had an excuse for not fasting I quickly decided to supply one to justify the the bowl of cereal I was planning to eat in the morning. My period. Yes, I have my period. Surely that should account for something. However, I do keep the spirit of the fast which means I can still have a purpose to fast and pray for. I think it also means that my metabolism speeds up and I remain hungry anyway. So I guess it's time for me to get pregnant again. One of these days I will gain a testimony of fasting and quit my grumbling. My vocal grumbling, not the tummy grumbling, and show some faith.

Saturday, August 02, 2008

The Harvest

Today we harvested our small crop of corn. It's been growing for three months and we were excited to have some corn for lunch. However, it wasn't quite the quality we were expecting:

A little dented and deformed

Mmmm. Apparently the corn wasn't pollinated properly.

We ate the best two ears we could find. The only thing was that they were kind of small.

Ok. So we're not the farmers that we aspire to be, but we're trying.

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