Giving Works

Snow pics!

"Lovely white snowflakes, Swirl through the night air, Kissing the waiting earth. Caressing the ground, The snow brings the gifts, Of silence and peace." --Karen Bateman, excert from her poem, "Snowed In."

Beautiful Snowflakes You Can Make

I was playing catch-up, reading a friend's blog, I've been missing out on lately, and saw the most beautiful snowflakes her children had made as Christmas decorations. Thankfully, being the kind of woman she is, she graciously shared the how-tos with her readers. Now following her lead, I am sharing them with all of you. Whoever reads my blog deserves something, right? :-)

And here is another pattern to printout, http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/dstredulinsky/SnowPat/snow2000_13.htm

I can't wait to share these with my kids!

Snow and the Snowflake Man

Before our Christmas break, I had decided to do a unit on William Bentley, the Snowflake Man. Imagine my delight as snow began falling on January 4th, the first day we started our new unit! God always seems to do neat stuff like that to remind me that He is in charge of everything in our lives. Nothing is too big or too small for Him to care about. Now you may be thinking that snow in January is not that unusual, but it is here in the Deep South. It is also being one of the coldest weeks we've ever had, and snowed even more today. I'll have some pics of the snow, and the kids fun in it later.

For our unit we are using the book, Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin and Mary Azarian, along with the Five in Row, fiarhq.com, unit study on Snowflake Bentley by Jane Lambert.

I found the following videos on YouTube to share with my children,

There are many more videos about William Bentley available on YouTube, if you wish to see more.

I also found this website that looks interesting, snowflakebentley.com

"Because I do this I can show these lovely things to people who never would have seen them without my help. They will get their daily quart of milk, all right. Other farmers will attend to that. But I think I am giving them something which is just as important." William Bentley, the Snowflake Man

The Christmas Secret

If you read this blog, I think you deserve to be let in on the secret...my youngest daughter is getting a horse for Christmas! But not just any horse. Blaze is a very special horse that she fell in love with. I think I now realize why she loves him so. He loves her. Blaze is a rescue horse.

He first appeared in our neighbor's fields this fall. My kids name all the horses, donkeys and mules that our neighbor keeps with his cattle. The description they gave me of Blaze surprised me. He was in rough shape, had a large gash on his shoulder, etc. This did not sound at all like the horses our neighbor keeps. His horses are always purebred and flashy.

The kids visited Blaze every day, taking him apples and carrots, etc. Since they took such an interest, I went with them one afternoon to see Blaze too. He was not what I expected a rescued horse to be. He was very calm, soaking up all of my children's attentions. They wanted me to pet him too. I imagined he'd not trust me, an adult, and would leave the fence. To my surprise, he enjoyed my attentions just as much as theirs. I was enchanted with him just like my children were.

Most of the horses in the field near us either ignore my kids or come take their treat offerings and then return to munching their grass. Not Blaze. He would stand near the fence as long as they would pet him.

Privately, I told my husband that he should see this horse too. He did. He also was impressed with him and learned that although our neigbor pastured the horse, he belonged to someone else. His owner had saved this young horse from being turned into dogfood. She needed a good home for him, because she already had too many horses at her home. Blaze had now found a home with us. He will be our youngest daughter's dream come true.

The lady who rescued him agreed to also complete his training, and for an extra charge she will train our kids with him after Christmas. Although I grew up with horses, that was a long time ago, and I know this lady is very experienced. She recently started his training. After working with him, she decided since that all went so well, she would try putting a blanket on him. He didn't mind, so she tried a saddle. He didn't mind the saddle either, so she tried riding him. He took her everywhere she wanted to go with only a saddle and a halter. Even she was surprised. She told us, "I think the horse is just so grateful to finally be loved."

Please don't spoil our Christmas surprise; keep the secret, okay? Do you want to see him?

Merry Christmas!
 

Pumpkins and a Pool

What do these two things have in common? My kids.

Last fall, our kids made a jack-o-lantern. This spring some of the seeds from that pumpkin sprouted. I decided to leave them. A few free pumpkins would be great this fall. Everyone who noticed them, mentioned how BIG pumpkin vines get with a  note of warning in their voice. I have plenty of room I thought to myself. This is just one of the vines. Its companion is growing on the other side of the steps.

 

You will notice that I didn't even get all of it in the frame! However, it is making pumpkins. Here is one.

 

Here are three of my cuties in the pool today.

 

It was a pretty busy day of swimming, cookie baking and checker playing. I am getting way to old to play checkers with these kids...they are ruthless!

4-H National Shooting Competition

My oldest daughter competed this summer in the 4-H National Shooting Competition. We were there about a week for the competition. Here she is shooting during the final day of competition,

 

Here she is with her team and her Dad (my handsome husband!)

 

Their team won 4th place! Okay, technically they tied NE for third, but lost by a couple of points in the tie-breaker. Our daughter is the first youth from our county to compete in the National Shooting Competition and while other girls around our state qualified, she was the only female shooter at Nationals from our state. We just loved this team and made good friends with their familes as well. We are missing you guys! We were blown away each day by the character displayed by all the 4-Hers at this event, and the spirit of helpfulness amongst everyone there, participates, leaders, and their families.

We stopped by Silver Dollar City in Branson on the way home, so the kids could have some fun. Here we are, all soaked like rats. They put me on at least three water rides, so just excuse the hair. I do not do things that go fast or high. These lovely people you see had me fooled into thinking the first ride was a nice, relaxing water ride. I found out later the name of it was Thunderation. Not only was that ride very, very fast, it went high, tilted, and blinded me with water about half-way through the ride. The ride involves a raft of three people and a half-tube with running water, high in the air, like a giant slide. Our raft tilted so far up the sides I was sure we were going to go over the edges to our deaths, but of course I couldn't see for the blinding sprays of water in my face. I made certain I knew what they were putting me on from there on out, the Sneaks!