~Wedding Day~

We were invited to a wedding... you know, the kind of wedding you are so excited to attend.  It isn't just any old acquaintance, it is a wedding for one of the sweetest young couples you are ecstatic to see married!!!  These two will be greatly missed at church, but they have big plans... God sized plans.  Their mission field is Texas/Mexico and sometimes Arizona.  He will be working on buses, vehicles, machinery... you know, mechanic stuff.  But he has a heart to serve, it isn't just mechanics.  I have seen Trevor serve in so many ways with one of the best servant hearts!  She will be serving by her husbands side doing whatever is asked with a sweet spirit, because that is what Olivia does best.  She can also do amazing chalk drawings!  

How they got to the reception

In the church lobby... they were hoping for an outdoor wedding, but it rained the day before... bummer.

My handsome escorts

My little buddy

My Princess

The front of the church

I didn't have my camera battery with me (grrrr) so these were taken with a phone... poor quality but you use what you got!

The brides family

 The grooms family

 The new family ♥

Kiersten took this picture!

The reception was in a barn... with a rope swing... how cool is that!

(and yes, of course I tried it!)

It was a great day of celebration.  Their wedding was two weeks ago... my how time flies!  They should be settling in their new home by now.  I can't wait to see the real wedding picts!

~Prairie Primer ~ Prairie ~ Week 1~

We moved on to our next book!

We have been reading about their trip out to the prairie ~ crossing frozen lakes and deep rivers.

Pa traded his horses for mustangs along the journey so we learned about horses.

Pa was building their house so we learned about levers.  I gave the six boys each a knex project to build.  We learned about the three parts to a lever and the three classes.  Eric actually caught onto the classes quickly!

I also had each boy make a covered wagon out of something of their choice.  Aaron chose legos.

Poor Ma sprained her ankle so we learned about sprains and blood.  The blood project was so much fun!  I really enjoy the hands on learning!  The plasma was corn syrup, red blood cells were cinnamon candies, white blood cells were Lima beans, and the platelets were lentils.  Three days later Nathan could still tell me the main parts of blood!  Success!!!  We got the idea from here.

We finally met Mr Edwards and so we learned about chewing tobacco ☺

We haven't meet any Indians yet, but we learned how careful they were in the use of their resources (buffalo for example).

Ma wanted to send a letter home, but the nearest post office was 40 miles away.  We took some time to look at the Pony Express and the US Postal Service.

Wow, what another great week!

~Hunting Adventure Continues~

Since Jared passed his hunting course he has been anxious to get out and hunt.  He is always able to find time to target shoot too. A friend of ours from church volunteered to take him out for a practice run with his dog for rabbit hunting.  Unfortunately, it rained that day.  The next day they could get together was this past Saturday.  Brent went deer hunting in the morning and said he could take Jared out to practice shoot in the afternoon.  Jared tried out three different guns.

Brent said he did a very good job!  Gregg was able to go along and watch.

Afterward, Gregg took Jared out shopping for some gear.  He got some boots, brush pants, a shirt, a hat and a vest!  Another friend of ours knew we were looking for hunting clothes and found a nice jacket with tags at a yard sale!!!  Whoohooo!  He looks like a real hunter!

~Prairie Primer ~ Big Woods ~ Week 4~

Field trip!!!

We were supposed to be studying about the gold rush this week... we were still playing catch up from last week (and life just kinda ran away from me the last two weeks).  Study time or no, we learned about coal mining in PA since there isn't much gold around here ☺  The boys will be reading about the gold rush as they get a chance, but the field trip wouldn't wait!

It was a rainy cool day so our picnic lunch had to be moved indoors.  We also had a very bad tour guide... he mumbled his script... grrrr.   We did have a fun time and learned a lot anyway.

Jordan was spent the day in a computer class with Gregg... it was perfect timing for him to be gone. He isn't studying with us and I hated for him to lose a school day for this.  It was also perfect because without Jordan, Christina and her kids could ride with us!

~Doughnuts~

It all started with this blog post I found through Pinterest.  I never knew you could bake doughnuts!!! I never before saw a doughnut pan!  I promptly found a pan on Amazon to put on my wish list.  Last week, I noticed the pans dropped in price by $4.00!!!  Whoo hooo!  Ship 'em!

I made the Butter Rum first...  The guys loved them.

Then I made the Chocolate Crumb... who wouldn't love Chocolate Crumb!

Different guys voted for different favorites, but they all decided they loved my new obsession... there will be many more doughnuts baked around here!  I found a lot of recipes to try out on Pinterest :-)

~Prairie Primer - Big Woods - Week 3~

We finished The Big Woods this week!

We learned about the moon, poison ivy, cheese, honey, weaving and "crying wolf"

Our project day on Thursday was filled!  

We took a trip to a local cheese maker, September Farms.  It is a family owned business!  We could watch some of the process but it really wasn't that interesting.  They were stirring and heating milk and taking the cheese out of their molds.  There was no real tour, just a big window.  The country store, however, was a lot of fun!  There were samples of so much yumminess!  Dip, salsa, mustard, cheeses... wow!  That part was really fun!  I never thought I'd enjoy fruit in my cheese, but yes I do, it's good stuff!

We were at Christina's house today.  We sent the kids out to search for poison ivy, oak, and sumac.  We only found ivy... I think!  I'm not very good with plants.  Oak and Sumac are difficult for me to find. 

Christina prepared a meal of venison, baked beans and johnny cake (something Laura would have eaten).  My boys loved the venison (duh, it was meat!). The kids didn't like the Johnny cake until we put some maple syrup on top.  I brought different kids of cheese to sample.  Christina made pumpkin pie too!  

We really enjoy food ☺

We ruined one whole gallon of milk trying to make mozzarella cheese.  We got it right the 2nd time!  It took one gallon of milk to make this much mozzarella!  Thankfully we didn't have to use the real lining of a calves stomach... we had rennet tablets on hand.  I have a lot of whey to use up!

We brought the kids in a few times to see the cheese process.  We let them do a little kneading.

Cheese for supper!  We got to try our homemade mozzarella and several of these cheeses from the cheese maker.  I enjoyed them all!

Can't wait to see what we learn this week!

~Scarves~

I found this yarn while I was out...

Makes a quick, beautiful, warm, fuzzy scarf☺(maybe 90 minutes) I also got a cranberry color!

I wasn't planning on making any of these this year... but Kiersten loved these colors.

I also tried some arm knitting.

The cast on was confusing, but the rest went quickly.  It took me about 45 minutes to complete a 30 min scarf.  Here is the video tutorial.

This is going to be my favorite winter scarf!!!

I also wanted to try one of the pom pom scarves...

I got half way and realized I used the perfect number of cast on stitches to create a pattern... pink and green on one side and blue and green on the other.  I ripped it all out and started over.  Now the colors are all mixed together!

It was fun to complete six scarves in two weeks after spending several months on some big projects.  I really enjoy having something to do when Nathan is doing school.  I have to sit with him the whole time, but if my hands are busy I don't mind.

I did promise to make Nathan the next scarf... I even let him pick his own colors.  Once I get all these ends tied in I'll get started☺

~Sleeping Beauty~

She insisted on wearing her princess bed for her quiet time☺

~Bible Quizzing~

I did not grow up in a church that participated in Bible Quizzing.  Last year, I tried to help the youth study for their quizzing but didn't really know what to expect.  This year I studied the book of Ephesians with them and wrote out over 80 questions to be better prepared.  I was also able to Coach one of the teams... all three teams and coaches worked and studied together.  We only really split up for the actual quizzing.

Friday night was Quiz Night at our church, our first year hosting!  Our church had three teams, the church that normally hosts had three teams and a smaller church had one team (their first year participating).

We ended up coming in 1st, 2nd and 3rd.  In fact, the only time we lost was to ourselves!  These teens put a lot of time and energy into this!  I am amazed at their recall!

I was a coach for team one... and had to appeal twice!  UGH!  Not my favorite thing of the night! I was so nervous!  I listened to the question with my nose in my bible making sure it was judged correctly.  I was also keeping track of right and wrong answers.  The first appeal was in regard to an incomplete answer.  Even after my appeal it was voted incomplete.  The second appeal I knew I had more ground to stand on, but I was battling the idea of just letting it go. I had to be sure of the question and sure of my appeal in about 30 seconds before they moved on to the next question. Our substitute was sitting next to me egging me on.  haha!  While they were thinking through the appeal I had several give me thumbs up.  Yes!  We won that appeal!

All three of our teems did an amazing job!

I was challenged by my study time in the book of Ephesians.  The first three chapters are filled with what we have and who we are in Christ.  Wow!  What a great list of things to remember!  The last three chapters are filled with how we should walk.  It only makes sense to walk this walk when I have truly seen who I am and what I have and that it is only by Him.

~Prairie Primer - Big Woods - Week 2~

This week we read chapters 5-9 in The Big Woods.  We learned about maple syrup, maple sugar, animal tracks, dances, whittling, and their observance of Sunday.  We also did some lungs because we ran out of time last week to do it.

We taste tested maple flavored syrup with pure. maple syrup.  One couldn't tell the different, most liked the fake sugar stuff.  Two of mine actually preferred the real deal.

We made maple syrup candy.  Instead of using snow, I had the kids get crushed ice out of the fridge.  We watched a video on how they made syrup, candy and sugar so we kind of knew what we were doing.

I like maple syrup, but this candy was much yummier than I expected!!!  The kids loved it!

I let the rest of it sit out for a day or two and the rest of the liquid drained out. Now we also have maple sugar!  I can't imagine having do to all that work ever year for my supply of sugar!

We also tried whittling with soap.  Some of them understood the difference between whittling and cutting, some of them didn't☺  Some of them got very fancy!  We decided to make boats to race in the bathtub.  The only problem was the soap sunk right to the bottom! haha!  It was a whittling exercise not a boat making one, so I guess it wasn't a total fail!

Aaron's Boat

Luke's Boat

Another fun and yummy week of learning! I am thrilled with the books.  I can not believe I never read this series when I was a girl!  There is so much detail of their pioneer life, we can't help but learn without trying too!