Friday update

Here are the kids after our moonlit walk out in the pasture. The moon was so full this night that you could see well enough to take a hike. Scott and the kids painted their faces like Indians and had a great time!


Here is a nightly ritual at our house - Scott and the little ones playing bull.
Scott is the bull and they all try to ride the bucking bull. He trys to gore them.
Great fun with Daddy! I don't think they will remember most of what we do but I think they will remember stuff like this!



I think Ben has got the bull in this one!

We have also had another funny bug story. Our house must be a magnet for strange and weird bugs!! Ben came running in the den screaming that there was a strange insect next to the garbage can in the kitchen. He said he thought it was a queen ant. The head looked like an ant head and there were no visible wings. Anyway he scooped it up and put it on the counter for me to look at it more closely. I called brother Jerry , the entomologist, and he said to take a pic and email it to him. So I did. He said it is a blister beetle and I sure do hope you all did not touch it. Well as I was taking a pic I touched it to turn it over. He said well send me pics; you will be in my next book!! I started screaming HORRORS!! He said the blister beetle oozes out a substance that causes terrible blisters and that I would have them on wherever this ooze touched. I had touched the bug and rubbed my eyes and who knows what else!!!!! I was horrified. We scrubbed the children's hands and waited for the blisters. Thankfully, I must not have touched the bug ooze because the next morning I had NO blisters!!

I had no idea such bugs even lived in Mississippi. SO, beware of any bug that looks like this one.

Our coop for today was cancelled due to illness. Several of our 13 families doing this unit had sickness this week, so we decided to spend some more time on the Midwest states.

I am glad because there was SO much to cover in this section. With my group we are doing a 4 week project on Lewis and Clark. We are writing a script together. I gave them an outline of a script with 10 scenes pertaining to the expedition and we are going to fill in the blanks with information they learn at home and then film the scenes at coop. I think they are excited about this project. We are also planning to cook pioneer recipes and make butter in a real old fashioned churn. We plan to top off the day by making a possible bag like the pioneers used. I will post pictures of these next week.

I am hoping to do some organizing this weekend and have a huge list of things to get at Kroger and Walgreens. I am hoping to use some of the tips Penny and Anita gave us last week at a great homeschool meeting where these wise ladies shared how they are saving money.

I will post some of my bargains. Be sure to check out Penny's blog( tupelodeals.blogspot.com)

She always has some great deals. I have also been going to some blogs from her blog list and finding some good info.

new life on the farm!!

This morning Scott told us to bundle up and go out to the barn for a surprise. When we went in- there it was- the cutest little baby goat you have ever seen!! Solid white with blue eyes!

How fun. Claire, even though she has a cough, is still in the stall and wants to stay out there all day!

Our chickens have also become proficient layers! We are getting 9 eggs a day. Let me know if you want some farm fresh eggs!

coop fun

Here is group 1 at the Johnson's sand box recreating the Erie canal!!



They had to figure out how to make a lock system for their tiny boat and pull team to go through.



Here is group two's effort.




There was some difficulty once the water was added.





Can you see the little yellow boat?






Group 2's lock worked fairly well.







Oh well, the Erie canal wasn't built in a day, but I think they had fun trying!
Anna, Laura, Ryan and Julie

The other project we did today was to simulate a factory assembly line. Our factory was K and A's Pillow Factory. I interviewed them to see which jobs they were best suited to, told them their quota and set them up in the assembly line.

MacKenzie was the head of the line and she traced he pattern onto the fabric. As the foreman of the line, I must say they all did fine jobs!

Next, Margaret cut out the fabric. She was very efficient but almost had the carpal tunnel after 8 pillows!

Laura came next and had to have "on the job training" of how to pin the material together!!:)

She was a quick learner and did a great job.

Anna sewed the pillow together and Julie took out the pins and ironed it well.

Next, Noah turned the pillow right side out and Ryan stuffed it!

The final step was Olivia, who sewed up by hand the hole!

Here is our first pillow ever from K and A's Pillow Factory!

That was easy!!!

They make their quota (8 pillows in 30 minutes) and were paid nicely in ice cream!!

We are also doing a 4 week project on Lewis and Clark and I think this group is excited about it - we are going to do a DVD of various scenes from their expedition and have a narrator (MacKenzie) tell her daughter (Julie) about it from the daughter of William Clark's perspective.

Auto museum

The auto museum had a cool display of tractors too!


Here is Claire in front of a 1967 Mercedes. When Scott's not so reliant Reliant K broke down he had to drive a Mercedes like this one to MSU. It certainly did not look this good!



The kids loved this car. They got to play in it!




Here is Aaron and Jaden crusin'



Anna and MacKensie are in front of Canoe's car from That Darn Cat







Anita and Caedmon are in front of the 1984 car that cost $150,000 way back then!!

John liked the old cars.

Ben in front of a golden oldie.

Claire and Kaelan had a fun day.

We are studying the Great Lake states this week and in honor of Michigan we took a field trip to the car museum. I had never been there before and it was very interesting. They had cars from every decade. Some of them brought back some memories of yesteryear!

Thankful heart

Reflecting back over the weekend, I remember on Saturday night as we were all gathered around the "fancy eatin' table" as Jethro called it, looking at the faces of my precious hubby and 4 children, I was overwhelmed with a deep sense of gratitude to God. What a precious gift to be put in a loving family. I am so glad God allowed me to be a wife and mom and how truly satisfying it is.

Saturday morning Scott took all the kids to Cracker Barrel for breakfast and let me sleep late in a super quiet house!! It was wonderful and I drifted in and out of dreamland until almost 10 o'clock (obscene, isn't it?!?!?). We piddled around the farm in the afternoon and Ben and I cooked a candlelight suppa (Hyacinth Bucket fans) for the family. It was delightful.

Sunday was a great time of worship and teaching at church and Sun. afternoon we had two precious families from our church over for supper. We had a special time of fellowship and singing and talking about God.

Today, my sister Cathy and her grandson Bailey are here and we have had a good day visiting with them. Mom and Dad came down for lunch also. I am so thankful they are still well enough to travel and get about. We are about to head out to an old country store in Jug Fork. We got Coca-colas and Sprite in a bottle and some junk food. Here are some pics.

Bailey and Claire in front of Anderson's Gro.

Scott takes the kids here quite often and they LOVE it- lots of junk food.

Scott used to ride his horse up to a store very similar to this when he was a little boy and I think that is why he loves this place so much.

This store has everything you could ever need - from oil filters to oreos!

Some of the merchandise is 60 years old! There are concrete floors and concrete block walls.

Anna posing.

Jay loves the coca-cola in the bottle. There are always a group of men sitting around talking.

There were 4 of them in there today.

Claire, Ben, Bailey and Amy

They have bologna and hoop cheese that you cut yourself.

Konos "off" week?

Joshua , cutie pie extraordinaire!!


KB is all smiles.




Cassia had on the cutest Valentine's outfit!




Clay and Ben had bags of candy!?!?!

Ben and Robert and Clay making their cards.

There were over 100 children at the Valentine's party today at Harrisburg.

All my children had a great time.

John is making cards. The children made cards for their parents and for residents of a nursing home.

Cassia, Anna and friends.

Lots of goodies! Allison's cupcakes were especially scrumptious!

Julie and Claire making cards.

Kara Beth, Julie, Ashley, Olivia, Anna and Leah

This was our off week for KONOS. A time, I thought, to really concentrate on the three "Rs".

Well, the week has been so busy, we barely did school at all. Monday started out at the dentist with Anna and Claire. Claire has major loose tooth issues. (She will not brush or even sleep on the side with a loose tooth?!?!) Well, she absolutely had a fit in the dentist chair and he had to hold the gas over her nose and mouth until she nearly went to LA LA land before she would let him touch her loose teeth. In a matter of seconds they were gone. She never knew when they left and had to actually see them in the little container before she would believe they were really gone. Monday night was Keepers and Contenders, our monthly Mother/Daughter and Father/Son night where the girls do activities with their Moms and the boys do activities with their Dads. This month Anna's group learned how to make homemade pie crusts. It turned out to be a delicious evening! Claire's group did storytelling and it was a fun session as well. The guys did chess. Last month they built birdhouses. Our family really enjoys this time of fellowship. We have over one hundred in our group.

I am trying the Popsicle stick idea from Roan's blog this week and most of Monday morning was spent in cleaning zone 1 of our house. Tuesday morning we finished zone 1. I realized I had never taught Claire and Ben how to clean the bathroom properly or how to wash clothes or mop.

So, pretty much all day Tuesday was hands on Home Ec for the whole family.

We did get around to math and grammar.

Wednesday, we spent the morning on zone 3 and a little school. Granny came and we had a great lunch provided by her. Then we loaded up and went to the new Healthworks! museum here in Tupelo. It is an interactive place where the kids learned about the human body by playing games and other activities. We could not find the camera so I do not have a single pic. If any of you decide to go, take your camera. There are quite a few cute photo ops.

Then the girls and I got our hair done, and then to Kroger and Walgreens. Thanks to Penny, I was able to get quite a few free things at Walgreens. My bill was $60 and it went down to $13 counting the Easy Saver rebates!!!! Then to Kroger where coupons saved me about $75 there!

Thursday was a wild day of activity. We left our house about 9:30 and went to the Amish settlement in Pontotoc County. We had been studying the Amish in school and we wanted a first hand look at how they live. We drove up in 4 big vans and were a little worried that we would overwhelm them with all the kids. I got out at each place and asked if it was OK to come look at what they had to sell. Almost every house has signs out front telling what homemade goods they have for sell. We talked to several of them. One older gentleman in particular was very talkative and we learned quite a bit from him. I bought a beautiful handmade basket and several jams and jellies and candles.

On the way home, Scott called and wanted to go mattress shopping! So we shopped until 5:30, rushed in to make a salad, corn, cookies and rolls for our coop family night. We had a great time of fellowship with everyone.

Today we had a Valentine's party at Harrisburg. Clay and Olivia came home with us and Claire went home with Julie. The girls are cooking right now and Clay, Ben and John are outside playing with fire!!?!?!

Clay, Ben and John playing in the brush pile.

Anna and Olivia making pie crust from scratch!

The pie turned out good!

We were talking tonight and Olivia and Anna have a long history of cooking together. One episode that sticks out is their from scratch chocolate cake. Let's just say it was not too tasty!

But, after years of practice they have turned out to be fine cooks.