fruit, friends and moving forward

Now that we've made it through the rainy weather this week it's about time for the new season. I just love Fall. I get out my big bins full of fall decor and begin to place it around the house and eagerly look forward to the brisk, coolness in the air ahead when I can sit out on my front porch and read in the morning. With a hot cup of tea. Mmmm...I just know we're moving into a new season in many ways.

This week the boys have been a little sick. I took them to our family doctor and they had bronchitis and a sinus infection, plus Garrett had some kind of intestinal virus...ick! But after a few days of bed rest, they are both much better now.

Since eating didn't sound like a super idea to them, I decided to get some fresh fruit to tempt them into eating a bit. So, for breakfast this week we enjoyed fruit, homemade bread and hot tea or OJ. I had the tea and they had the OJ.The watermelon was especially delicious this year. We found one at a good price and ended up eating all of it in 2 days. The cantaloupe was sweet and the apples were crisp. I think this helped the boys to feel better.

These photos were taken a couple of weeks ago...Micaylah with her friend Caila. They were having pizza and enjoying a time of fun playing dolls.

Brookelyn and Micaylah are making homemade wheat bread together. I asked Micaylah if she would make some bread and Brookelyn came into the kitchen and said, "I want to make some bread too! " So they spent the afternoon baking AND eating fresh, hot bread. Friends are like flowers...they are homegrown! Silly girls, 'tricks are for kids!!!' Remember that old cereal advertisement! Austin and Nathan are having a great time slip-n-slidin'. One day a few weeks ago, Bridget came over and we canned tomatoes. She brought Nathan and he and Austin had a great afternoon. Tanner, Trevor, Jody and Garrett are having a real bad time of it, with basketball. You never know what they will grow up to become. They are great with the younger guys! Thanks!

Well, we've covered the friends and the fruit...what about the moving forward? It's a new season and we know that all things work together for the good to them who are the called according to his purpose. Sometimes things happen and we know exactly why. Isn't that a nice feeling? And thank God we don't have to live in our feeling "world". It's not always that we have good feelings. We would be in bondage! Then, at other times things happen and we have absolutely no idea why. Our feelings betray us and we have to remember that God has been where we are. We must look to him. We must move forward and press toward the mark of the high calling. Moving on, moving up and moving forward into our new season.

Seize the Moment!

>>...these boys are learning how to take aim and hit the target. They really like to practice shooting. Check out the 'authentic' looking attire..whew-hoo! These two are pretty much inseparable. You won't usually find one brother without the other. Unless they are cleaning their rooms. >>Garrett has just moved into his own room. This was a big thing for us. And for him. Now, he has his very own room and has to take good care of it and show that he is a 'good steward' of what God has given him. Austin is learning the same since he now has no one to share his room with. They both have to keep it clean and tidy. They're learning that, it wasn't the other one who made all the mess in there. Ha Ha! >>These boys really like to go outside. I think it is their favorite thing to do. Especially when it's time to do school. (not really all the time) They like to build things with wood and hammer anything they can get their hands on. They are also very good helpers around the house. They help with yard work, take out the trash, clean their own bathroom, help with laundry and the dishes too. It really doesn't take that long to help them learn to be responsible around our house. I try to motivate them by giving them opportunities to do all the fun things they like to do. That usually works good for us all, doesn't it! >>The other day when their Daddy came home, the first thing they wanted was to go outdoors and do some target practice. Here is a couple of photos of them... Since our yard is fenced, they can practice shooting toward the fence where the target is posted. They have a jug and some bull's eyes to shoot at. They can really hit that target!! I'm impressed because that target is pretty far away from them. Maybe one day they could learn archery too. I think that's a great skill for a boy to have. How 'bout that jin-ew-wine coon skin hat?! While they were practicing, they were talking. Their Daddy was telling them about how important it is to have a target to shoot at. He said it was important to have that target in your focus. And that the main target that we should have is Jesus Christ. The boys learned more than shooting practice that afternoon. They learned that they have an awesome Lord and Savior! And that they have THEE most wonderful Daddy ever!! He looked at me and said, "This is why we're doing what we're doing!" >>Carpe' Diem<<

[spot] light on...

Our little Angel! She is so sweet and loves to have fun! She can make us laugh and gets so silly that she laughs at herself! It's so cute! She is a very good reader and almost every morning she has quiet reading time and then reads to her little brother who is 16 months younger than her. [she is 8 & her brother is 6]. Since he is becoming more fluent in reading, she spends about 15-20 minutes reading out loud to him and then asks questions about the story, so he can dictate back to her a summary in his own words. [This is how all the children have learned to read on their own-by dictating the story in their own words] Then he chooses a story to read aloud to her [or me]. She enjoys playing housekeeping, baking bread, making cookies, sewing, embroidery and painting. One of her favorite playtime joys is to rearrange her doll house and set up the rooms in different ways. The other day we found her playing quietly, in her room making her doll house look "just right". Here is a photo of what she was doing... ...this is the twins room...see the bunk beds... ...here is the family that lives in her doll house...I think the Grandparents are visiting...She is quite the little baker! She can make a loaf of homemade bread from scratch! She starts by grinding the wheat [whole, fresh wheat grain] into fresh flour. She measures out all the ingredients and places them into a bread kneading machine. The recipe calls for fresh wheat flour, honey, oil, salt, lecithin, gluten, yeast and warm water. She has made some of the most tasty wheat loaves all by herself. After the kneading is finished, she then places the dough into a long loaf pan and allows it to rise at least 45 minutes. After is has risen to double, she places it into the oven and bakes it for 25 minutes and takes it out [with help, because it's hot] and brushes it with butter to make the crust a little soft. Here is the last loaf she made for us...actually, it's only about 1/2 of it. We will need to make more tomorrow before we go to the deli. Our family goes through about 3 loaves per week.We will eat them as toast for breakfast, with peanut butter on it or even just jelly. We use it for sandwiches, garlic bread, grilled cheeses and bread-n-butter with dinner. She loves God with all her heart and has such great faith...today, we had to pick up something at the store and it began to storm. We were stuck inside and she just prayed to the Lord..."Lord, please let it stop storming so all these people can get to their cars and not get wet." All of a sudden the rain began to slow up until it finally stopped. Now, I don't know about you, but that built my faith up. You should have seen her face. "I knew God would do it!" She said. That was all it took for her faith to be built up. So I just wanted to take a moment to share with you some of the precious experiences we have as a family. Blessings Abundantly to you! Kimi

Our 4th of July Family Fun!!

Ok, I sure do hope your 4th of July celebration was fun! Ours was absolutely great! We took a short trip to the mountains nearby and did some camping. It was semi-primitive camping. We put up our tent and got the cooking area settled. You know I have to have a cooking area and it must be orderly. I like it all laid out and a nice pretty table cloth over the cooking table. We then hung lights all around (we brought an extension cord to run some electric for the lights). You know the white Christmas lights? We hung them from the trees and it looked so nice. Everything was lit up softly so that we could see where we were walking. We got all settled in and made a fire. Of course, we brought marshmallows, Hershey's chocolate and graham crackers...for s'mores!! Yea!! We love those. We had roasted hotdogs, pasta salad, and grilled chicken too. We brought lots of veggies and even cereal for breakfast. We had a cooler packed full of yummies! We brought sparklers for the kids to play with and they loved that. Even the 'BIG' kids had fun. They ran around with them and chased the lights that it made. Since it was a state park, no fire works were aloud. But that was ok. We don't usually use loud firecrackers anyway. Since we stayed several days we had the time to do some hiking. We packed a lunch in the cooler and made sure we had lots of drinks for everyone. We went into the mountains. We found a river bed that was dried out and the kids decided to go down into it. It really looked rocky to me. They went so far ahead that we (Grant and I) couldn't find them. We looked and looked and finally we saw them on top of this HUGE rock! Sitting on the top of it--with Autumn, our little Miniature Pinscher. She was a whiz at climbing all those rocks and finding things in there. More coming shortly about our little trip...

Ending our 4th week @ the Deli!

Greetings! Well, we are nearing the end of our 4th week here at the deli. We have met some of the most precious people in our community. So many of them are repeat customers and we are beginning to feel a special closeness to them. We want to make them all feel comfortable here. I think we are starting to get the 'hang' of it. I wasn't sure how long it would take for all of us to become accustomed to our new pace, but as the days go by we are working it out together. We are thankful for all the help that we have been given from some very special people. They have come and given of their time and efforts to assist us in daily routines and general running of a growing business. Everyday we are growing more and more and it seems that as we trust in the Lord he continues to show us the way in which we should go. We honestly don't know from one day to the next how it will be, but remember..we didn't start this whole thing out by what WE knew anyway. We can not live by OUR eyesight, can we? We must walk the walk of faith, for that is what faith is...'the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not yet seen.' We are ever in his PRESENCE and know that so many of our patrons are also. I believe that is what is bonding us together with our community. If you haven't been to see us at the deli, and you live close, we would really like to see you and serve you a great meal and spend a little time with you. Hoping to see you...by faith of course! Kimi