Mom sent this snowman. She told me it was a Christmas decoration but she didn't have room to store it any longer. She knows that I LOVE snowmen and I leave them out all "winter". Yes, that earned me lots of comments HERE as I refused to take them down until spring/Feb. . . even it was 80* outside. LOL This guy will be cute next winter. Stacia loved playing with him....

Eventually, as always, she discovered the BOX was the REAL TOY!!!!

Attack of the Dinosaurs.... Nolan and Zander have been spending a lot of time lining up all the rubber animals and having big wars....they are armed with bowling pins. {G}

JUNE in Retrospect

Books Read (Several non-fiction in process - time to finish one or two of them in July)
The Crepes of Wrath – Tamar Myers
The Lazarus Trap – Davis Bunn
Rejuvenate your Life: Recipes for Energy by Serene Allison
Jan Karon’s Mitford Cookbook and Kitchen Reader – Jan Karon
Life Management for Busy Women - Elizabeth George
Murder at Five Finger Light - Sue Henry
Woman First, Family Always - Kathryn Sansone
Something Beyond the Sky – Siri L. Mitchell

Goals -
Did fairly well - and even though I didn't meet all goals I certainly got more done in June for having the goals. LOL

Bike riding goal is seriously derailed with the loss of the use of my bike. I'm going to really have to CRANK to finish all 500 miles by the end of July. It may not be a realistic goal any longer.

I did NOT get the boy's portfolio completed so that will be a goal now to finish before we go on vacation.

We are slowly making progress on deep cleaning our home and school and playing....

The Chicken Farm

I’ve been hearing for several months about this farm. I had heard that it was an “artist’s community”. Melody, local friend spouse of the NCOIC at the chapel, mentioned earlier in the week that they were going to First Saturday and I asked more questions.

Mike wasn’t totally sure about visiting the Chicken Farm. I told him that I’ve been meaning to try it for months and as First Saturday only happened once a month – THIS was the day. I suggested that I take Stacia and Arielle and go. Awww….he said he’d not spent much time with me this week and would like to bring all along. Off we went.

The Chicken Farm is an old 3 acre chicken farm – now an art community. There are art galleries, a bed and breakfast, a restaurant and more on the farm these days. On First Saturday they bring in some “ole pickers” who set up their chairs, grab their gi – tars and fiddles and entertain with instruments and vocal talents. My favorite was a lady who sang along with her dog. :::snort::: First Saturdays also feature a variety of vendors.

I forgot the camera!!!! ARGH. Oh well – this means we have to repeat the day another time. {G} OK I didn’t FORGET the camera….I forgot the card for the camera.

The day renewed my desire to give tie dying a hand. I love the bright vivid colors.

They had a huge clay outdoor oven in the shape of a chicken….they were cooking pizzas over a wood fire in this oven.

Another highlight was the clay table. At this point the kids could create and then they will fire their creations and we can pick up the product in a couple of weeks. All for free. Arielle made a tea cup and has plans to return monthly to make more cups and saucers. Nolan made several faces. Zander made a whale and a big round blob of something.

A blacksmith entertained us. The young man (high school student) is from a small TX town and we enjoyed asking him questions and visiting while he worked on knives. He then asked the kids if they’d like to make a knife. Jared did. He discovered it was more work than he expected. Mike used the opportunity to promote the need for a belt sander at home. Jared made a fine knife out of a railroad tie. I’ll get a picture to upload later.

We did run into John and Melody. They had showed up a couple of hours earlier than we did….obviously cooler in the early morning or the “winter” months. At one gallery a lady was so impressed by how “calm” we were that she gave me tons of info on being a family day care provider on the base. She said that they are desperate for “mature moms” to take in infants and mentor young moms. She wanted me to take 3 infants. GOOD GRIEF! That would certainly blow my calm, mature mom persona. She explained that the moms would pay, the AF would pay and we could get USDA help. She explained that this would be wonderful and fit right in with homeschooling. It was sad to me. They are desperate for good places for infants.

I fell in love with some wonderful pottery plates/bowls/cups/platters. Unfortunately, they are EXPENSIVE and cost way more than my china….I think they would be awesome every day plates…so bright and cheerful. I do have a hutch now and may be able to collect a few pieces for special occasions. Click here and SCROLL DOWN past the ladies in the sun and you’ll see them. I like the turquoise, amethyst, maroon color scheme…or the yellow, green, brown….Mike commented that this would be a good spot to buy REBECCA gifts….I explained very patiently and submissively that it would also be a good place to buy ME gifts. LOL

Jared and Nolan were expecting CHICKENS at the Chicken Farm – but soon got over their disappointment. Jared said he expected it to be another boring thing (WHAT?) that I took them too – but that it was a lot of fun. Mike said that he knew I’d find the hippies and this seems to be hippie hang out of TX (sorta hard to find actually LOL).

All in all it was a wonderful day – and free! We’ll do this again. Probably when the girls are here for a few weeks at the end of summer!!!

Family Movie Night

We have no Netflix movie here that the older boys won’t want to see when they get home. Mike sent them into our video closet to pull out a movie…but then he put his pick on “Chitty, Chitty Bang Bang”. I do like the music in this movie. I do like the start of this movie. However, I’m totally lost when they get to all this fantasy stuff…even ZANDER gets it and I’m totally lost and thinking it’s plain crazy. I can’t figure the point of the movie out. I can’t figure out if it is supposed to tell me something. I can’t follow the plot at all at this point…and I’ve watched this movie for over 15 years now…since the first time Mike set Bre and Krista down to watch it. I wonder if I missed something crucial in this stage of my development by being in the Jungles of Liberia where we did not have Mother Goose, and movies like this…….:::snort::::

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STRANGE AFTERNOON

After our free game of bowling we thought we’d go swimming at China Beach. I had visions of some cool pictures…but alas…the command post called and closed the pool due to lightening. I’ve yet to see lots of lightening but we left the base before the storm would have hit the base. We decided to go on over to a park for an hour – and that was fun. The wind did pick up, the sky got dark, a few lightening flashes flashed…but still no real big storm. We’ll see.
I thought I was having company tonight so headed home to get ready…but now we aren’t having company so we plan to veg out as a “small family”. We miss the 4 world travelers…looking forward to hearing more from AK soon.