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