Chippy's taste of freedom

We picked pecans again today. It was 60 degrees and sunny, so we decided to bring Chippy out to the tree with us. This was risky, we knew, but we did it anyway. We tied up the dog, and put the cats in a cage first. Chippy loved it. Daddy had to climb a ladder to get him out when we were done, though. Chippy didn't want to come down. Here is Chippy with C in a small tree, and the other pic is of the big pecan tree.

You won't miss the prom

Your poor, homeschooled daughter will miss the prom. Every girl should have a chance to dress up formal and go to a dance their senior year.
Do you think so?
Well, God can even provide a formal dance for homeschooled teens. Mine attended one last week and was even escorted by a young man (to whom she was not related). She had a ball... pun intended. Here she is just before leaving for the dance.

Bedtime Snack

We still have Chippy the squirrel. He is old enough to be released now, but he took a bad jump and injured his leg, so we will continue to look after him for now. Here is a video of him with C that I call "Bedtime Snack".

Indian Spring pt.2

Today it was cloudy, windy, and 73 degrees! Dad took the kids out to fly a kite. Then we picked up bushels of pecans off our lawn. We have the largest pecan tree in KY in our yard and this year we had a bumper crop. Dad estimates we've harvested a hundred pounds so far. My squirrel will not go hungry this winter.

Gingerbread Houses

We used graham crackers instead of gingerbread, and I let the little girls do it all by themselves. All I did was mix up some icing for mortar and snow. Cute, huh?

Indian Spring

You've heard the term 'Indian Summer'; now I propose 'Indian Spring'. It's what we had yesterday when it was 68 degrees and sunny. It felt like Spring, only in a creepy, dead sort of way. There were few birds or insects out, and the plant life was not awakening. Chippy (our squirrel) seemed really excited to smell the outdoors when we opened all the windows in the house. What a nice break from the dark, cold winter we've been having. Thank you, God.

Low-budget Christmas Pageant

Last night our church attempted a Christmas pageant. This is the first time we have done this, according to my memory, and I will just say that it was very cute and a lot of fun. Children way out-number adults at our church, so this show was all about the kids. The costumes were quite a hoot! You can see in the pics that the "wise men" wore cheesy beards and burger king crowns. The sheep were... well.... scarry? And our pastor, who was supposed to be King Herod...

Abraham Lincoln was a tyrant.

What?! I responded when my 14 year-old made this suggestion. "Where did you get that idea?" Not from the Bob Jones history book you are studying this year?"
"No, from ____(a friend of his)" he replied.
"Well don't take ____ as an authority on that. Lincoln kept the Union together. Otherwise we would be living in the 'Divided States of America' And we would say our pledge like this:
I pledge allegiance to the flags of the Divided States of America and to the republics for which they stand, two nations, under God, divisible, with liberty and justice for some."

Covenant College

Today we received an acceptance letter from Covenant College. We expected that Kate would be accepted, yet it was still exciting to formally receive the letter. Now the really challenging part-- how on Earth do we come up with the money? God owns "the cattle on a thousand hills"... If it is His will for her to attend there, He will make a way for her without a mountain of debt. We do not want her to be burdened for many, many years with student loan debt the way her father and I were. So we will apply, apply, apply, for aid and pray.

Pigs, Goats, and Angels

This lady just drove up to our house to tell us that a large black pig, and a huge red goat are tearin' up her place, and did we know who they belonged to? She heard we had goats. Well, years ago we had some goats, but none now, and I draw the line at pigs. I'm looking to buy a milk goat, and as she was leaving I thought to ask her if it was the milking type, maybe we could catch it. I told Ricky to run out to her and ask her if it was a milk goat. He said, how would she know that? I said to ask her if it has an udder. He started laughing so hard at the thought of asking that, that she got away before he could catch her. Oh well, if you know of one for sale....

Here's the Christmas angel