Black and Blue

Hullo Folks! This morning we all woke up with a start at 6:30, scrambled around getting younger children dressed and prepared to load up in the van. Benjamin manned the toaster and toasted something for us all, I cut cheese and cantalope, and put some water in jars, and then joined the van full of half-asleep people. Actually, it wasn't too bad, and in less than half-an-hour after waking up, we were on the road to Drewry Blueberry Farm. We met the T. family there, and picked thornless blackberries (for sissies) and blueberries. There is something so old-fashioned about berry-picking. We were saying that we've always wanted to dress in white dresses and pretty hats and go picking, but that is decidedly impractical! It was alot of fun! Blueberry bushes are so beautiful! I love the coloring of the berries in different stages- they are the prettiest shades of pink and purplish, and finally light blue, until you rub the bloom off, and then they are such a lovely midnight color! :) We hope to make jam at some point, and I hope to make a blueberry crisp for dessert! :P Oh the summertime is SO great! Berry-picking is one of my favorite things to do! The only real way to do blackberries is to pick them in the wild, become lacerated by dozens of thorns, and come home hot, sticky, and purple with berries! :) Yay! I thought of the scene is Wives and Daughters when Molly Gibson is picking berries- you see her eat one, but when she comes home, she is absolutely covered in juice! :) Do you all like picking berries? What are your favorite kinds? Leave a comment if you love berries! :) -Rachel

He's Gone :(

Let us now observe a moment of silence in honor of Daniel who has gone the way of.. *breaks down* (whispering) iGovern camp.

*SILENCE*

Yes, Daniel is gone. He left around 8:30 this morning, and is now on his way up to Patrick Henry College as a counselor for iGovern. It is a camp basically where Generation Joshua members go and learn to be congressmen (and women) for the week. They hold elections, vote on things, have challenges to do, etc. Very cool. I've never been, but it sounds great! We'll miss having Daniel around! No more escapades this week. No late-night trips to the Royal Intersection for Dairy Queen.....no going over on the spur of the moment to the T.'s house for volleyball......no taking walks in the dark and being saved by him from the evil dogs that come to attack us....*drops a big tear*. By the way. The Royal Intersection (that's what it is called by the "locals" ;) is an intersection in town, (the main one) which has a Dairy Queen, a Burger King, and North Prince Blvd. :) And what are we going to do in church on Sunday? Our singing will sound awful! Daniel always leads worship with his guitar and keeps us on track! Well, I guess Uncle David will have to do it! We really will miss Daniel! I mean, he has been so busy the past couple of weeks with working with Dad and everything else that I have barely seen him! Well, we'll just have to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, I'll have to assume the position of oldest child, and not just oldest daughter, and we'll have to go from there! :'( Have fun Daniel! (There really is no good way to spell what we always call him: "Danj" or something like that. :)

The Gentleman From Virginia's Own Utterly "Desolated",
Rachel

Answers To The Movie Quiz

Okay! Here are the movie-quote quiz results!

First Place Goes To: The Most Honorable "Gentleman From Virginia" with 20 points!!! *Yay*
Second Place Goes To: Mistress Mary Quite Contrary (A.K.A Abigail! ;) With 14 points!
Third Place Goes To: Stephanie with 8 points! (And by the way, thanks for following! :)
Fourth Place Goes To: Nana with 7 points!
Fifth Place Goes To: Leia with 2 points!

Thanks everyone for entering! Below are the quotes and their answers!

1. "We could use a distress flag!" "Anyone who sees a ship wrecked on the rocks will assume it is in trouble!" (Answer: The Swiss Family Robinson- Ernst and his Father)

2. "Are you going to stay here and let a little boy show you up?" (Answer: Betty Muxworthy in Lorna Doone)

3. "I've come to get an Alfred David!" *whispers* "I think he means an affidavit- no, my friend doesn't do affidavits either." (Answer: Our Mutual Friend, Eugene Wrayburn and Roger Riderhood)

4. "Harry's great-grandfather went to Sandhurst, Harry's grandfather went to Sandhurst, Harry's father went to Sandhurst.." "And so I, *snort-snort* went to Sandhurst!" (Answer: Miss Potter, Harry and his mother)

5. "Let's name the species, the species, the species, let's name the species that live in the sea!" (Answer: Mr. Ray in Finding Nemo)

6. "DEATH COMES UNEXPECTEDLY!!!!" (Answer: Pollyanna, Reverend Ford)

7. "Is that all your hair?" (Anne of Avonlea, Mrs. Harris)

8. "Do you know the expression: `His name is Mud'?" "Of course" "But do you know where it came from?" "Does...anyone but you?" (Answer: National Treasure 2, Ben and Riley)

9. "Right then!...Where are we going?" (Answer: Pippin in The Fellowship O.T.R)

10. "Fried Chicken! Good. Cuz' I was gettin' awful sick of pan--" (Missy in Love Comes Softly)

11. "Oh...you two have all the luck- was he terribly romantic?" "Not in the slightest!" (Answer: Little Women, Amy and Jo)

12. "Really ___, it would be better to be without wits than to apply them as you do!" (Answer: Mr. Knightley in the 2009 Emma)


Great job people! Would you like us to do any more of these sometime? This was a pretty difficult one! :) -Rachel and Sarah

Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder - Pig in a Pen

Hey Everyone! Matthew had loaded this fun song onto his iPod and we've been listening to it in the truck while going to work recently, so I thought I'd show you this video! :) We can't believe how incredibly fast the guitarist and mandolin player go! Hope you enjoy it!

-Sarah

Random Things, including dried frogs, and a cucumber named Alfred

I learned a lesson at lunch: Never be watching an educational video about caves with super good photography while eating. They were detailing a 100 meter-high mound of bat guano covered in cockroaches, and explaining the immense part this food chain plays, and I suddenly totally lost my appetite. The mound was absolutely swarming with cockroaches. I don't know what it is about me and crawly bugs. I love frogs, toads, snakes, and lizards, unlike most girls, but I squash every bug I see. On the same d.v.d. they were also showing glowworms threading out their little sticky threads.....Ew! I don't want to be a girl about it but...I am. But on the other side, today while folding laundry we found a dried up frog that must have run through the wash in someone's pocket, and I wasn't scared or disgusted by him....we all have our limits! :)But isn't God's creation wonderful? I mean, even the bugs, I must admit, play a huge part in creation, and we'd be entirely lost without them. I once read a little rhyme by Ogden Nash that said,

"The Lord in His goodness made the fly

And then forgot to tell us why."

But have you ever stopped to consider that a fly really helps decompose stuff? I don't know...I'm trying to look on the bright side of "bug-dom"! :) So some other things that are going on are that we made strawberry goat's milk icecream! Yum! It is super good! It should have been though! We used 10 egg yolks in it! Also, Gracie decided to "adopt" a cucumber, and named it Alfred. I haven't the foggiest idea where she got that name, but...any-who! That's what's been going on in our life recently! Oh! Tomorrow we are going to have a whole family of girls and their mom spend the night, and we are going to watch "Wives and Daughters"! I am soooooo excited! YAY! When Mama asked Dad he thought about it a moment and said, 'It's free, and it's fun- Let's do it!" :) If you haven't yet, pretty please enter our movie quote contest below! :) -Rachel

Spur-Of-The-Moment Movie Quotes Quiz

Hello! How are you all doing? I am doing well. We haven't been doing anything decidedly remarkable recently....except we went fishing for Father's Day, and went to a graduation on weekend! Mostly we've been out in our garden. I am sure you all are tired of hearing about that, so let's play a game... I'll do a movie quote quiz. I love these things, so I hope you do to! Please try to answer some of the quotes, even if you don't know them all! So all you have to do is recognize the quote, give me the movie it came from, and for extra points, tell me who said it! Okay! Have fun!

1. " `We could use a distress flag!' `Anyone who sees a ship wrecked upon the rocks would assume it was in trouble.' "

2. "Are you going to stay here and let a little boy show you up?"

3. " `I've come to get an Alfred David.' *whispers* `I believe he means an affidavit. No, my friend does not do affidavits either."

4. " `Harry's great-grandfather went to Sandhurst, Harry's grandfather went to Sandhurst, Harry's father went to Sandhurst...' `And so I, *snort-snort* went to Sandhurst!' "

5. "Let's name the species, the species, the species, let's name the species that live in the sea!"

6. "DEATH COMES UNEXPECTEDLY!!!!!!"

7. "Is that all your hair?"

8. " `Do you know the expression: His name is Mud?' `Of course.' `But do you know where it came from?' `...Does...anyone but you?' "

9. "Right then!....Where are we going?"

10. "Fried chicken! Good. Cuz' I was getting awful sick of pan--"

11. " `Oh...you two have all the luck. Was he terribly romantic?' `Not in the slightest!' "

12. "Really (name), it would be better to be without wits, than to apply them as you do!"


Okay! There you go! Have fun! -Rachel

A Variety of Thoughts

I am doing a quick post right before going out to garden. Tomorrow's s'posed to be 100 degrees! :( I swear, our garden can be a bane and a blessing all rolled into one- it's like having a very fractious, needy, fussy, roaring, but useful 9th child! :)

The past couple of days I've been reading out of "My Utmost For His Highest" by Oswald Chambers. I love it! After reading Oswald Chambers's biography, I have a better understanding of that man. Each day I've read out of it, there has been some nugget that I take with me. Here are some of the quotes that stuck out:



(June 16th) "Has the Lord ever asked you, "Willl you lay down your life for My sake? It is much easier to die than to lay down your life day in and day out with the sense of the high calling of God. We are not made for the bright shining moments of life, but we have to walk in the light of them in our everyday ways."
(Now I am back after 2 hours of gardening) Anyway, I think as Christians we assume that the only time we can really be "having a relationship" with the Lord, is when the lightbulb is really going off, and we are having a mountaintop experience. I think the Lord's most perfect work in us occurs when we are in the valley. I read on someone's blog one time the reflection that one of the names of Jesus is "The Lily of the Valley". Where does a lily of the valley grow? In the valley or course. There are some attributes of the Lord's character that we would not see unless we were willing to go down into the low places, and keep our spiritual eyes open at the same time. Really, I believe that the times of mundane plodding can be just as useful and glorious in the end, as the times when we see so very clearly all that we might be doing, and have done.
Then today's reading had a wonderfully freeing message in it:
"If you debate for even one second when God has spoken, it is all over for you. Never start to say, "Well, I wonder if He really did speak to me?" Be reckless immediately--- totally unrestrained and willing to risk everything---by casting your all upon Him. You do not know when His voice will come to you, but whenever the realization of God comes, even in the faintest way imaginable, be determined to recklessly abandon yourself, surrendering everything to Him. It is only through abandonment of yourself and your circumstances that you will recognize Him. You will only recognize His voice more clearly through recklessness---being willing to risk your all."
Isn't that lovely? Don't stop to consider what may happen when the Lord calls you. If the founding fathers had really stopped to consider the gravity of declaring war with England, would we have America? If Moses had stopped to consider the "impossibility" of getting millions of people across an ocean, would he ever have raised his staff and parted the Red Sea? If missionaries stopped to think of all the trials they may have to face on the mission field, would the Gospel ever be so widely spread? Be reckless in your abandonment to God- He'll take you on a glorious adventure! -Rachel

Our Latest Enemies

Living in Virginia Beach there were city-type trials. Things were easily stolen if you left them out. There were some creepy people round-about. Living in Ocean view we had inner-city type trials- things were routinely stolen from someplace or another. Pretty much one out of every 2 people you met were creepy. We saw drug deals and other sad things like that. Potential danger was....everywhere. But now living out in the country.....we have new problems. Real enemies. There is an army encamped on our land, and they are out to get us. No, they arent people, and the only way to battle them is to squish them. They are the Bugs! These creeps are everywhere! We spend hours in the garden picking them off plants. Then when we come inside, there are flies everywhere. I seldom come in from gardening without later finding a tick on me. The beetles and moths congregate on our porch, waiting for a chance to come inside. Maybe it is because of the porch-lights, but I feel they have personal designs upon our sanity! :) I am not a "girl" about snakes or lizards or frogs. I like picking them up. But when it comes to disgusting little bugs that you don't notice until they are ON you, I draw the line. Bugs I recognize are not so bad, unless they happen to be clingy Japanese beetles, or potato-bug larvae, or daddy-long-legs. But we have weird bugs out here. There is one that looked like a shrimp. Another one looks like it has an elephant trunk. We have 4-inch long wasps, and multiple kinds of ticks. Not to mention stinkbugs and gigantic tomato horn-worms. *shivers*
Not all the bugs are gross though- we have some of the reddest ladybugs I've ever seen, plenty of butterflies, (who lay the catipillars we have to squish!) these beautiful golden beetles, and fireflies that make Matthew and I laugh because they look like they are either shorting out, or hyperventilating! :) I am not sure why I departed on this strange little bug discussion, but it might be because I feel something crawling on my shoulder right now that I've been trying to ignore. These creatures have no concept of the fact that a house is made to keep them out!
-Rachel

A Comedic Tragedy, In One Part

In any life, however dull it may seem, you can find bits of humor. And in our life, and our family, and our....experiences..(hem) we seem to have more than our share! :) Take today. I almost thought I was watching an episode of "I Love Lucy". It all started out normally. I shall write it out as a screenplay, and then you can see just what I mean:

The evening before, Aunt Christy, Mama, and everyone else harvested a comically shocking load of cucumbers. They somehow stuffed them into the collective refridgerators, and waited till the next day when they could pickle them. (Camera pans around the sleeping gardeners, and new scene begins in the morning) Mama comes into the older girls' room and wakes them up. She asks, "Are you awake?" One big groan from Rachel. A muffled, and slightly-less-awake groan from Sarah. The morning progresses. Rachel lugs a huge black pot out to turkey-frier-burner thing on the back deck. Dad has rigged it up so that the burner is connected to the gas line for the grill which is connected to the gas line for the house. Rachel fills the huge pot with water, and waits for it to boil, naively assuming it will take 1 hour. She is confident in her pickling abilities. After all, she hadn't pickled 120 quarts last summer for nothing. But Rachel forgets that time erases such little irritations such as how long it really takes for a huge pot of water to boil. Meanwhile everyone hacks through the enormous pile of cucumbers. (Two and a half hours later) Rachel informs Mama that the pot is boiling. They head outside on the deck, and with Aunt Christy's help, Rachel fills the jars with slices of cucumber, packing them tightly, and dolloping the garlic and dill seed liberally. She adds the brine. They screw the lids on. They lower them into the steaming pot that has stopped boiling due to the absence of its lid. They hear a few little pops. Rachel goes inside. She is hot. She is sticky. She sets the buzzer for 15 minutes. She goes outside at the end of the time. (Dramatic camera close-up on Rachel's face) Upon lifting the jars out with the tongs, 2 of them are busted open, and the contents slide merrily into the pot! Rachel wails dismally, and quickly fetches the remaining jars out. Not wishing to waste time boiling new water, Rachel skims out the cucumbers, dill-seeds, and garlic, hoping that a bit of vinegar and salt won't hurt the processing of the other jars. Rachel returns inside. She and Aunt Christy and Mama decide the jars were probably too cold. She fills more jars with hot water. When it is time for this batch, she dumps out the water, repeating the process of filling. She dubiously lowers the jars into the water. It is not quite boiling, but that shouldn't matter. Rachel claps the lid onto the pot, and sets the timer to 20 minutes.....(Twenty minutes later) Rachel steps out onto the back deck. She lifts the jars out and to her great chagrin, another jar is busted! Obviously it was not a problem of the jars being hot enough. Rachel groans, and reports inside to the fellow pickle-makers who are still slicing cucumbers. She eats lunch while google-searching why her jars are busting. She finds an answer. She decides to give this one more try. (Camera pans to the burner outside.) Rachel walks up. She lifts the lid. The water is not close to boiling, and the lid has been on for at least a half-hour! What is wrong? Rachel peers closely at the burner. There is no flame! She turns off the gas at the grill, and enters the house. "Mama, is there a reason why the flame would have burned out?"
Mama peers at her over the pots on the stove, which are simultaneously being used to blanch green beans. "That's not good." she answers levelly. Rachel trys to use logic. She comes around to the front of the stove. "Well, the burner is tapped into the house gas-line, and these stove burners are....NOT ON!!!!!" (Dramatic music!) Everyone realizes that pickle-making is obviously not the golden task it seems. The one day of the year the family most needs the gas-line, and they have used up both their gas tanks. Rachel melancholily (?) cleans up the pickle making things and loads them up in the van to take to Aunt Christy's house. She tries to be cheerful. "We are one 12th of the way through what we made last year!" she says. Aunt Christy looks at her blankly. "That means we are 1 24th of the way through what we need to make this year." (Credit roll begins, and the Comic/Tragedy ends)

*Thank you! Thank you* I know it is brilliant! ;) Yep. That was my day. Foiled in the desperate attempt at putting away the comical amount of pickling cucumbers. Wow. I got exhausted replaying all that in my mind! It was second only to Meg March's jam misshap! :) Well, hope it amused you at least! :) -Rachel

Robin Mark - Be Unto Your Name

Hey guys! This is a song we sang in church on Sunday that I really like. One of my favorite versions is this one, (below) done by an Irish worship leader named Robin Mark. I also really love his version of Days of Elijah. You can get to that here: Enjoy the video! :) -Rachel

In Which I am Employed As an Unconventional Model :)

Last night I was employed in a way I never expected to be: modeling! ;) Well, sort of. You see, our good friends the Tates, are making a documentary for the Parental Rights Amendment, (Daniel will be doing a full post on the project later) and Mr. George Escobar of Advent Film Group (Come What May) has generously lended the Tates some of his film-making equipment for a month or so! Exciting! So Daniel took Sarah and I over to the Tate's house, to figure out all the equipment with Grace, and Daniel (Who da' Gaffer? :) Tate. The lighting was the thing that took the longest. They set up key lighting, fill lighting, backlighting, and every other kind of lighting you could think of. I was employed as a model. My job was to sit in a rocking chair in the corner and look nice and pretty while they adjusted the lighting, took pictures of me, scruntinized the light upon my face, (all of them in a row staring at me!) and inspected me through the camera. It was interesting! Especially all the stressful handling of this expensive and borrowed equipment!!!! :) For instance, you can't handle the lightbulbs without gloves because they might explode from the oil on your hands, you must weight down the tripods so they don't tip over...etc. It was really neat, and alot of fun! And easy for me. Like I said, I had the life of it over there in my corner, simply turning my face different directions while they tilted the lamps to get rid of shadows....ahhhh... :D You know, I felt quite famous! Daniel T. was the sound man, and the gaffer, and held a boom mic toward me while my Daniel manned the camera, Sarah was employed as the clack-board lady. (I got to hold up the whitecard! :) and I was instructed to talk toward Grace. It is harder than you would imagine not to look at the camera while being interviewed! We were laughing at how many real names for jobs they have on set, and were trying to figure out what my job was! I think we decided on "lighting model", so as not to have to pay the actors to sit under such bright lights for so long! We wrapped it up around 10:30, and left. As we jumped into the car, Grace apologetically informed us that she just discovered a dimmer for the fill-light. We had it on full-blast as high as it could go right into my face! Oh well! It had a sunlight bulb in it, so maybe I'll just end up with a nice tan! ;) But really, seeing all that real movie-making stuff and knowing that it was what the "real people" use, was really really cool!!! :) I'm sure Daniel was in hog-heaven, since he is an aficianado of fim-making! :) -Rachel

The Story of My Life This Week

Here is the story of our life this week in very short installments. Ahem:

Weed

Hoe

Weed

Hoe

Iced-tea

weed

Hoe

Thankful for a/c

weed

hoe

weed

hoe

turnips

peel

blanch

freeze

grate

weed

hoe

weed

hoe

paint picture of

weeding

hoeing

sisters

weed

hoe

lemonade/ popcorn

weed

hoe

iced tea

Read Proverbs 10 and decide I'd better watch it

weed

hoe

weed

hoe

get sprayed by hose by Aunt Christy

weed

hoe

iced tea/popcorn

Banana smoothies

blog! :) -Rachel

Proverbs 10:4-5, 26

"He who has a slack hand becomes poor,

But the hand of the diligent makes rich.

He who gathers in summer is a wise son,

He who sleeps in harvest is a son who causes shame...

As vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes,

So is the lazy man to those who send him." :D

In Which I Discourse Upon One Of Women's Foolish Little Pastimes, In Hopes Of Becoming a More Genteel Lady. ;)

Can anybody tell me where this classic match-making line came from?

"Let us cheer ourselves up: Let us think of superior men!"

Or this one? "But the last match she brought was bald! He had no hair!" "What does that matter? Men are not to look at! Men are to get!"

Or this one? "Providence matched them two up since they were children, that's what!"

Why is it that for as long as there have been women, we have liked to make matches? It is a silly pastime, and yet....it is entertaining. I mean really, have you ever thought in your mind, "those two people would be perfect for eachother!"? I know I have. I am not positive, but I have a sneaking presentiment that Mothers matchmake their three-year olds, and do not stop at three-year-olds. ;) But I have made a resolution that I shall try not to matchmake....much. I have promised Daniel I won't match him up with anyone. Once I found myself thinking of someone, "Wait! She can't marry that person! I had her matched up with so-and-so!" It is a ridiculous business really. Although, I only make matches in my head. I do not matchmake for myself, nor do I do anything to bring the matches about. I laugh when I think of how many times I have tried to figure out God's plan, and how wonderfully different His plan ended up being. I'm not saying that making a match is a sin at all. I mean, all throughout the Bible there were arranged marriages! But I am only saying that it is not a very profitable business, and God is the ultimate Matchmaker! :) God has all his plans for me set up from before time! And He knows who each of us will marry! (If it is His will for us to be wed!) So I am just presenting the idea that perhaps, although it is amusing, (and a very silly, womanly, innocent sort of amusement) we are messing in an area that is a tad risky....(Although, it's so interesting!)One of my all-time favorite books dealing in this subject is Jane Austen's "Emma". The story is so delicately crafted, and shows the dangers and humorous side of matchmaking, and how in the end, it doesn't turn out quite so great! "Emma" had me laughing all through the tale as I totally related to Emma Woodhouse's desire to make matches, and how it backfired on her! :) I bet the Lord would like to say to me, in the same spirit Emma said it to Mrs. Weston, "My dear Rachel, do not take to matchmaking. You do it very ill." :D
I have now probably disgusted any young men reading this, so just ignore it if you will. But I plan to cure myself of match-making (often) once and for all. It is silly and foolish, and....common, you know. So I shall now leave you with a quote from Mr. Knightley, and if we all wish to marry a man like him, we should heed this warning! ;)

"Men of sense, whatever you may choose to say, do not want silly wives!"

-Rachel

Hints From A Homemaker

Here are some random kitchen tips that I decided to post. (My mind is currently bent kitchenward, since I have been doing dishes and tucking cinnamon rolls into a pan while singing "Bonnie Dundee" with Sarah, after gardening all the ding-dong day! Whew! Run on sentence!)
Anyway, without further ado:

1. When you make cinnamon rolls, cut them with dental floss. Really! Take a long piece, tuck it under the edge of the long roll, bring the ends up over the top, and cross, pulling tight. Voila! This way you can see the swirl super well! :)

2. Zucchini takes on the flavor of whatever it is cooked with, so use it to stretch things like spaghetti sauce, ground beef for tacos, etc. Supposedly, you can't even taste it! :]

3. ALWAYS WEAR AN APRON!!!!

4. Wash your feet before doing much in the kitchen. This sounds silly and strange, but if you have been gardening all day (as I was) and then you walk through a puddle of water on the floor, you will be mopping later. :) Ahem.

5. Wash you dishes while you go. I am sure you all already know this one, but seriously, it is important to avoid dish-overwhelm at the end!

6. Forsake the mixer now and then, and experience making something by hand for real! And use a wooden spoon! Nothing is quite so sturdy and comfortable as that! If you seek a real challenge, try whipping egg whites till they are stiff and glossy using elbow grease and a whisk. I did it the other day, and it wasn't all that bad!

7. Do things by hand. No, this is not a repeat of the tip above. I mean, doing things literally with your hand. Like when I make my cinnamon rolls, I rub butter on the dough with my hands. Then I scrub the cinnamon and sugar in with my hands like I'm scouring the floor. It helps the flavor really sink in! :)

8. Always bribe siblings with tastes. ;) This worked on Leah when I begged her to go upstairs and get me the dental floss for cutting my rolls!

9. Sing some random song and laugh if you hit the high notes wrong. This helps keep you from getting stressed, and makes anyone smile who walks into the kitchen! ;) Singing while you work is an art that goes by the wayside far too much!

10. Spatulas are handy tools for smacking over-eager hands that reach into the cookie dough too many times! ;)

So, these are some things that aren't as helpful, maybe, as you'd expect, but I hope they make you laugh, and realize once more how much fun being a homemaker is! :) -Rachel

Some Encouraging Lyrics

Hey! I thought I'd post these lyrics to the chorus and bridge of a song I heard the other day. I really like the words to this song:

"I hear you say,'My love is over. It's underneath.
It's inside. It's inbetween.
The times you doubt Me, when you can't feel.
The times that you question, "Is this for real?"
The times you're broken. The times that you mend.
The times that you hate Me. The times that you bend.
Well, My love is over,it's underneath.
It's inside, it's inbetween.
These times when you're healing, and when your heart breaks.
The times you feel like you're falling from grace.
The times you're hurting. The times that you heal.
The times that you go hungry, and are tempted to steal.
The times of confusion, in chaos and pain.
I'm there in your sorrow, under the weight of your shame.
I'm there through your heartache.
I'm there in the storm.
My love I will keep you, by My pow'r alone.
I don't care where you fall, where you have been.
I'll never forsake you, My love never ends.
It never ends."

I love these words, because we all need to remember that He'll never leave us. No matter where we go or how sinful we are, He's always there with us!:) Well, I've gotta go!
-Sarah

A Tale Of Lorna and Nicholas ;) (Otherwise known as, who'll finish first?)

Do any of you belong to families where EVERYBODY likes to read? I coaxed everyone else along in this area, and have pretty much made them as crazy about reading as I am! :) Daniel comes to Sarah and I at night, flops on our bed, or walks slowly over to our shelf and asks what book he should read. I feel like some sort of seller of furs as I exhibit the pros and cons of each book. I have read them all. The hunt for a good book always ends up rather flat, because so has Daniel. Actually, we've read all those books several times. The younger girls ravage my bookshelf continuously. Friends from church have me draw up lists of books for them to read. I think they should start calling me "Marian"! (you know, that librarian from "The Music Man"? ;) Even if you don't like to read, I may just press you with promises of good books. In all fairness though, I should be able to list a whole catalog of good titles- even the Walkers are hard-pressed to find a book in their house that I have not read. Poor Matthew has been subject to taking my recommendations on faith and reading many things such as "To Have and To Hold", and "Pride and Prejudice", that he mayn't have read without a big, encouraging shove into it. Okay, so having a girl for a cousin can injure your reading list. (But I think he enjoyed them!) I also, though, have roped him into reading "The Scarlet Pimpernel" and "Ivanhoe", and Sarah has gotten him to read "the Pickwick Papers" by Dickens, so we aren't all girly about it! Anyway, the point of this post, was to describe a rather amusing scene that happened last night. Sarah and I were both in the last throes of very thick books. Sarah is reading "Nicholas Nickleby" by Charles Dickens, (731 pages) and I was reading "Lorna Doone" by R.D. Blackmore. (400 some odd pages) She is reading her book on credit, because it is really one I took out of the library to read, but let her read it while I was reading the other. We sat together in the living room. She cast a wary eye upon my reading- only about a 1/4 of an inch to go! Her book is longer than mine...will she finish before I swoop down and grab it from her? We are both feverishly reading. Then Mama wanted to watch "I Love Lucy" with us, so we pause. Mama falls asleep, and we both decide to take our reading up again in our beds. I am savouring the last few pages of "Lorna Doone". Suddenly, she is shot at the altar at her wedding by a wicked, wicked cousin of hers! :0 Horrors! I breathlessly read the part aloud to Sarah, in absolute agony! How on earth could an author kill off his title character? Sarah listens patiently, then waves me off. "I've got to keep reading!" she says. I finish my book in peace, once I learn that Lorna is not really dead, and they have a happy life ever-after! I am satisfied. Sarah is still reading. The time draws nigh midnight. Reluctantly, she lays aside her book, and we go to sleep. I am a good sister and I don't claw the novel out of her hands this morning and read it myself! ;) In fact, Miss Sarah is sitting here beside me with only 1/4 inch (or 3 chapters) to go! Hurrah for literature from the old days when thin books were for babies! Our literary tastes go for Sir Walter Scott, Dickens, Austen, Alcott, Twain, and all those solid 4 inch writers! :) I don't find it too bad to boast of one's family, so think that our only crime perhaps in this post comes from the fact that we simply love to read! -Rachel

The First of The Zucchini

Zucchini is a desperately misunderstood vegetable. ;) It exists in most peoples' minds as something their parents made them eat. Katie Wilson and I remember it as something our mother's threw on the grill on the way down to Clayton, GA, and that we ate with plugged noses. (For shame! :) I like it now. But did you know that some people don't even realize it is a vegetable? Abigail insists that the reason we don't like going down to the beach in the summer is because there are lots of immodest ladies walking around in zucchinis. Poor vegetable, it has such a false reputation amongst modest little girls who unbeknowst to themselves, daily tend it in the garden! :D All this to say, I have found two recipes in which even the most picky of eaters would fail to detect the presence of zucchini. The first is something Benjamin begs me to make each year. So yesterday, with the first zucchini from our garden, I made it: May I introduce you to:

Chocolate Zucchini Cake!

2 1/2 c. flour 2 c. sugar

1/2 c. cocoa 3 eggs

2 1/2 tsp. baking powder 2 tsp. vanilla

1 1/2 tsp. baking soda 2 tsp. orange zest

1 tsp. salt 2 cups shredded zucchini

1 tsp. cinnamon 1/2 c. milk

3/4 c. softened butter 1 c. nuts (optional)

Combine dry ingredients. Beat butter and sugar until smooth. Add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla, zest, and zucchini. Alternately add dry mixture and milk. Add nuts. Spoon into greased and floured Bundt pan. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 45 minutes. Frost with Chocolate frosting (recipe follows)

Chocolate Frosting

1/2 c. softened butter

2/3 c. cocoa

vanilla to taste

3 c. powdered sugar

1/3 c. milk

Cream butter and cocoa. Add vanilla. Add milk and sugar, alternating. Beat till smooth.

Sound good? We ate ours with fresh strawberries. Here is a picture. (Isn't that hand most mysterious? I wonder who it belongs to? ;)

And the other, equally great recipe that I don't have a picture of:

Zucchini Spice Bread

2 eggs, beaten

1 1/3 c. sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

3 cups grated zucchini

2/3 cups melted butter

2 tsp. baking soda

1 pinch of salt

2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

1/2 tsp. ginger

1 cup raisins or nuts (optional)

Mix the eggs, sugar, and vanilla together. Add zucchini and butter. Sprinkle the soda and salt over the mixture, and stir well. Add flour, one cup at a time. Add spices, raisins, and nuts. Bake in 2 greased loaf pans at 350 degrees F. for 50 minutes.

Enjoy the recipes! They were super good! We ate the cake last night, and the bread for breakfast this morning! :P -Rachel

And So We Part. (A whole 1/6 of a mile!!!)

Hey Everybody! As most of you read below, the Walkers have now moved into their mobile home! It is small, but new and cozy, and I think they'll love having their own space! ;) We have had so much fun together! Here are some of the things we learned to love and do together in a home of 21 people!

Take walks and scare each other in the dark
Put on crazy talent shows
Play midnight volleyball
The proper way to catch a goat
That 21 people really can fit together and live in harmony (mostly. The three yearolds got to eachother's nerves the last couple of weeks)
Stay up WAY too late laughing, and realizing that the Walker sense of humor runs scarily prevelant through us older Heff.s
That an additional older boy (Matthew) is handy as a "Go-fer", an escort, a polka and waltz partner, and for extra laughs
And many more things! I am not adventerous enough to try to link all these topics. Nevertheless, I have written about all of them (?) during the past 10 weeks, so take a look! :)
Here are some surprising calculations;
We have used 4,410 styrofoam plates during meal times, *ducks from enviromentalists*
Jeremiah has single-handedly (almost) washed 13,230 plastic cups
We have used 13,000 plastic utensils
We have drunk over 100 gallons of iced tea (we're southerners. Sorry!)
We have eaten app. 210 different meals together
We have run 490 loads of laundry, and we girls have hung up at least 245 of those loads.
We have collectively eaten 480 hotdogs during this time. (Okay. I didn't eat them every time we had them. But they feed hungry masses of boys pretty well. Now we can all go on a liver detox! ;)
We have bought enough groceries for 4,410 hungry people.

Sound crazy enough? :) Life's good! -Rachel

Oops!

Hey Everyone! We forgot to post the winner of our contest about a week or so back! Sorry. Here are the results: ( we didn't have alot of people leave answers so...:)
Abigail: 6 wrong
Hannah: 9 wrong
Shaina: 10 wrong
Jo March: 10 wrong

Here are the real answers:
Likes putting honey on her mashed potatoes: Sarah :)
Popularized using the word "blast" in our circles: Rachel
Has had a vacuum cord plugged into the top of her head: Rachel :P
Her nickname in volleyball is CeCe, the Viper Server: Sarah
Thinks that if you name your kid "Chase" or "Hunter" that's what you'll always be doing.(Chasing or hunting for them:) : Rachel
Hates slugs passionately: Sarah
Sings constantly while she works, to the point of irritation to some people: Rachel
Closed her eyes the whole time on the Griffin: Sarah
Screamed the whole time on the Griffin: Rachel
Is not scared of people choking: Sarah
Would rather go barefoot than wear any kind of shoe:Rachel
Is always commanded to sit as a model for a profile for the other sister's drawings: Sarah
Likes the Casting Crowns song "What this World Needs": Sarah
Is the flip-flop queen: Sarah
Can get online and check the comments on blogs in 25 seconds, much to the other sister's glee: Rachel
Cannot for the life of her draw men: Rachel
Can't ever keep a straight face when asked to: Rachel
Used to climb any tree she could get her hands on: Sarah
Thinks ice plants look like lizard tails and wants to squish them: Rachel
Frequently gets charley-horses at night:( or used to ) Sarah

Whew! There you are! So you've learned a few random things about each of us, and yes, honey is very good with mashed potatoes. How did I find out? I was at a friend's house when I was little and we were eating dinner. I saw a bottle of honey and hadn't seen that there were rolls to go with it, so used it on my 'taters! :)
So the Walkers are officialy moved out. Tonight they are sleeping for the 1st time at their own house on their land! Hurray for them!:) But we are gonna miss having them around to stay up late with us and fun around with! :'(
Well, that's all I have for now.
-Sarah

A Few Thoughts

Hello! Recently I have been reading a book called "Preparing To Be A Helpmeet" by Debi Pearl. It has been a great encouragement to me, and renewed my vision for how I will use my single years. One thing that really stuck out to me, was the idea of using these years to learn and store up as many skills and as much information as you possibly can. The author stated that if God has plans for you to be a farmer's wife, you'd better learn how to make cheese and butter, plant a garden, and preserve food. If he has plans for you to be the wife of a man who loves to be hospitable, you had better learn to cook for alot of people on a shoestring budget. And since we don't know God's plans for us, it is advantageous to learn all of these things, for we never know when we might need them. I think of the verse in 2 Tim. 4 where it says "..Be ready in season and out of season." I may not think I'll ever need to know a certain skill I have an opportunity to learn, but you know what? It doesn't hurt to learn it in the "out of season" time, and keep that knowledge for "someday". Another thing that challenged me is this: I desire to marry a man of valour and godliness. A man with a very strong vision for his family and his walk with the Lord, and who is a true man. That is all a very noble idea, but it becomes a bit selfish if I am not now preparing to be the woman that such a man will need. And so that is something I am working on also. It would be dreadful to marry a wonderful man like that and let him discover later that I was ill-prepared for anything useful! (I'm not saying I am that way, but it is just a thought you know.) Even after I technically "graduate", I will focus even more on storing up knowledge. It is an exciting thought! It almost gives me the feeling of a race to see how well I can prepare and how much of a true godly woman I can become before my "Prince" comes to get me! :) -Rachel