The post went with the letters...2 Chronicles 30:6

We went up to the post office yesterday afternoon for our passports. The Man was delayed and the postal employee told me last week we'd have to be there by 3:00 p.m., so the kids and I went on up to get the paperwork started.

I'd downloaded all the forms, filled them out, taken the pictures and had them developed last week. They would have done the pictures at the post office, but, frankly, some passport pictures I've seen kind of resemble a deer in the headlights. By doing them myself I had some control over the picture that will be on my passport for the next 10 years. Oh, and for about 2 hours of my time messing with the lighting, fiddling with the picture size, taking pictures, and doing it all over again when it didn't do right the first time, I saved over $70. It would have cost $75 total for the post office to take the pictures. It was slightly over $2 for developing at the one-hour lab. I went in prepared to pay the $ for the post office to do them if the ones I had weren't suitable, but the postmaster said they were great.

The postmaster was impressed. Not only with my well-organized folder, but also with the children who had been given the "no running, no pushing, stand still, be quiet, we're going to be here for a long time" talk before we got out of the van. The postmaster took his time with our applications because we were waiting for The Man to come and sign them also. By the time he had done all he could do and I wrote out the six checks (ouch), one with each application to the Department of State and one to the postmaster, The Man was still not there. Postmaster had already figured out that we were homeschoolers and offered to give us a tour of the facility while we were waiting. Cool! We love impromptu field trips, especially since I rarely get around to scheduling any.

Just as the postmaster came around to the door to let us in the back, The Man arrived. He quickly signed and gave his info to the postmaster then we all got to go on the official tour. But first, postmaster made all the kids raise their right hands and promise not to touch any mail.

The kids enjoyed the tour and peeking inside an official mail truck. We don't have mail trucks in our little town. Postmaster told the kids that the mail trucks don't have a radio or air conditioning so they'd better stay in school!

I was sure to point out to the kids that the postmaster probably wouldn't have invited us in the back if they hadn't behaved themselves while in the front. It is the little things.

Let us not be weary in well doing...Galatians 6:9

Just another quick post to catch up on our busy-filled-to-the-brim life here over the past month.

We started school on August 20, planning to ease into the school year gradually. I don't think we're all the way there yet (we've been way too busy with other things), but it is coming along.

Church has been eventful with a funeral, evangelistic meetings, and 2 more baptisms in addition to all the other "regular" church-related items.

Travels: The thought of going anywhere after our summer full of go-go-go almost makes me shudder. However, we are planning on visiting some friends next month while The Man takes a certification course. We are also kicking around the idea of a weekend trip in November. Today we are all planning on going up to the city to get the paperwork moving on passports. The Man already has his, but he will have to sign for the kids'. We don't have immediate plans to need them, but we thought we'd get them now since we heard the rates are going up next year.

I'm sure there is some stuff I've left out, but I need to go read with A now...I told The Man the other day that it felt like I was holding down at least 2 full-time jobs. He said he knew how I felt.

Dust thou art...Genesis 3:19

Our church had a booth at the county fair again this year. We had another good year and lots of great conversations with people. Fortunately, the VeggieTales people weren't right next to us this time.

Grandma came and stayed with the kids for the week. She even brought them over to the fair so they could make some dirt babies for her to take home.

Here is A posing with her baby:
S:

J, notice the headgear:

Speaking of headgear...The orthodontist was very impressed with his progress at the last visit. He now only wears it 12 hours a day (rather than 20). He puts it on right after supper and takes it off before breakfast. The orthodontist also put brackets on his upper 4 front teeth so he has braces now also.

Dwell in the wilderness...Psalm 72:9

9/17: Wow! I came to make a post and found that I never actually published these pictures from July & August. Here they are:

The day after M's baptism we took a pack trip up in the mountains with family (13 of us in all) and the Dog.

The Man knows a man who for various reasons isn't doing professional packing this season, but wanted to keep his animals in shape. So, he offered to take our stuff up in the mountains for us.

Here are that man and his brother packing our stuff into the bags (don't they look like authentic mountain men?)
Here is the mountain man riding and leading two of the pack animals up the trail.

Here's the third animal following along behind.
He left our stuff beside this quiet little lake. For the next 3 days we didn't see any other people.

With the Dog along, we didn't see many other creatures either. We did find some fresh evidence of bear.

We also found a few yellow jackets. S found the most. He now knows that jumping up and down on top of a yellow jacket nest is not a good way to get them to stop stinging. The Man made him some charcoal poultice and that made life a bit better.

A tiger lily that The Man liked...

Wednesday morning we packed up our stuff and the mountain man returned to pick up our things. Here he is weighing the packs. The animals like it if their load is evenly balanced. Maybe that is a good lesson for all of us.
It was good to return home. Some of us would like to live in the wilderness forever, but some of us enjoy an occasional warm shower and clean clothes.

Repent, and be baptized...Acts 2:38

Sabbath afternoon, July 28 (no, I'm not late...today is the one month anniversary!) was a very special time for our family. M decided quite some time ago that he wished to be baptized. He wanted to be baptized outside rather than the church baptistry, so one of our church members offered the use of his pond.


The Man baptized him in front of quite a gathering of friends and relatives who were there to witness his commitment to Jesus.

Here are some of M's favorite hymns he chose to have sung at the baptism:
A Mighty Fortress
Stand Up! Stand Up for Jesus! (this is the one he played on the antique piano mentioned in the last post)
O Brother, Be Faithful (words at the bottom of this post)

The geese were also there on the pond.


J enjoyed collecting the feathers for his headgear headdress.

********

I'm almost done catching up on the month of July, but we really must do some school today. Stay tuned!

O Brother, Be Faithful by Uriah Smith, 1853

O brother, be faithful! soon Jesus will come,

For whom we have waited so long;

O soon we shall enter our glorious home,

And join in the conqueror’s song.

O brother, be faithful! for why should we prove

Unfaithful to Him who hath shown

Such deep, such unbounded and infinite love—

Who died to redeem us His own.

O brother, be faithful! the city of gold,

Prepared for the good and the blest,

Is waiting its portals of pearl to unfold,

And welcome thee into thy rest.

Then, brother, prove faithful! not long shall we stay

In weariness here, and forlorn,

Time’s dark night of sorrow is wearing away,

We haste to the glorious morn.

O brother, be faithful! He soon will descend,

Creation’s omnipotent King,

While legions of angels His chariot attend

And palm wreaths, of victory bring.

O brother, be faithful! and soon shalt thou hear

Thy Savior pronounce the glad word,

Well done, faithful servant, thy title is clear,

To enter the joy of thy Lord.

O brother, be faithful! eternity’s years

Shall tell for thy faithfulness now,

When bright smiles of gladness shall scatter thy tears,

A coronet gleam on thy brow.

O brother, be faithful! the promise is sure,

That waits for the faithful and tried;

To reign with the ransomed, immortal and pure,

And ever with Jesus abide.

They that deal truly are His delight...Proverbs 12:22

I haven't blogged lately because whenever I think of it, I ask myself, "Should I blog or feed the kids?" or "Should I blog or pay the bills?" or "Should I blog or take a shower?" Fortunately for those around me, blogging is near the bottom of my priorities. I do have a bit of time right now while the kids are assembling a K'Nex roller coaster we found last week at the Goodwill for $10 so I think I should give an update on our trip last month while I can still remember the details! Warning: This turned into a long post!

Our flight didn't leave from Sacramento until the afternoon, so we were able to get up at a reasonable hour and drive down to the airport. We made it to the airport in plenty of time for our flight. While checking in with the airline famous for its cheap fares and unassigned seating, I noticed our boarding cards said we were in the 3rd boarding group. All the previous times we have flown as a family we've pre-boarded due to having young children with us. Since Sacagawea celebrated her 5th birthday since the last time we flew the friendly skies, I asked about the current policy.

"Families flying with children 4 and under get to pre-board." Seeing my dejected look, the employee asked Sacagawea's age. I told her she was five. "Oh, I didn't tell you to do this, but when you get to the boarding gate, just tell them she is four so you can pre-board." Then, turning to Sacagawea, she said, "Honey, you are four today. Okay?"

"No, I'm five!" stated Sacagawea. That's my girl. I restated Sacagawea's correct age and off we went to our gate to stand in line with the rest of the folks assigned to group C. While I do appreciate her willingness to "help" us, I wasn't impressed with her trying to get my daughter (and me) to tell a lie.

When we boarded the plane, the only seats we could find together were at the back...Sacagawea and I sat together, The Man and S sat across the aisle, and M & J sat right behind them in the back row. Inconvenient? Yes, but certainly not worthy of besmirching my character. Wait! What's the big deal? It has since been pointed out to me that many who call themselves Christians wouldn't think twice about telling this little lie. It certainly wouldn't have hurt anybody. Right? Wrong. Nobody at the airline would have cared. The other passengers probably wouldn't have noticed. But I would know. And Sacagawea would know. I'm not going to teach my daughter it is okay to lie, especially just for the sake of convenience. I'm convinced that the problems with many of today's children/future-adults is that their parents don't realize the things they are teaching through their actions. It is the small, everyday actions that build the foundation for the children's future. Okay, off my soapbox.

That flight was just a quick one to Vegas where we entered a very warm airport. Vegas was experiencing a power outage so we stood around in the darkened airport waiting for our connecting flight. There really isn't much to do in Vegas airport when the power is out...except gamble. I did find it sadly humorous that the only things still functioning were the slot machines. They didn't have all the bells and whistles, but there were still people there feeding them money.

We had better seating arrangements for the next flight and arrived safely in Indy sometime after midnight. After a few hours of sleep we set off to the north to visit some family and friends.

We stayed with R's (they don't mind using their names on the net, but for the sake of uniformity...) family and had supper with L and F also. The kids were thrilled to meet new cousins and J was especially glad to finally see Lake Michigan. The next day we went over to L's family's farm to meet T, the cattle and chickens. The kids were glad there was an electric fence between them and the cattle. After picking some super-duper yummy vegetables from the garden (I took pictures, everyone else picked), we went over to check out vegetable packing and the box maker. The field, pickers, washing, sorting, packing, and into the cooler ready for pick-up. Wow! What a field trip! Too bad we were on vacation ;)

Here is the Man getting a tutorial on the intricacies of boxes. We went back over to R's for a lunch with N and then went back down to Indiana for Grandma & Grandpa's 40th anniversary celebration.

It was sorta-kinda a surprise. Well, it would have been...if I hadn't told Mom she needed to take an extra day off work...and if a certain brother hadn't kept asking when V & M were coming. Oh well...at least they didn't know when we were coming. A quick call before we got there and Uncle D (shown below demonstrating for his impressionable nephews the fine art of "popping a wheelie") made sure the basement door was unlocked. The kids exited the vehicle and sneaked in through the basement. Grandma wasn't home. The kids went upstairs to hide and thoroughly enjoyed surprising her a bit later. Thanks for playing along.


M trying out the stilts. Are these the same ones I learned on when I was a youngster?
After more fun times with cousins, aunts and uncles, soon it was time to go back home. But first...we stopped off at Conner Prairie.

It was "1836" when M and S got to play the piano. Here is S playing "Jesus Loves Me" on the antique piano.And J got to pump some water.
We crossed on over the time travel bridge to 1886 to see a Quaker meeting house and go to school.Then we went back to the airport and into our designated "B" line. This time the lovely airline employee at the gate came over and took away our boarding passes. After a few official stamps and signatures we were told to wait in the "A" line. It would have been an uneventful flight to Vegas except The Man answered another "Are there any medical personnel on board?" call. While waiting in the "C" line at the Vegas airport the airline employee at the gate came over and told us to pre-board. We didn't argue. It's not nice to argue.

I've been informed the roller coaster is complete...except for the batteries. SIX C BATTERIES! I'll have to see if The Man can pick some up at the dollar store after he gets off work in the ER in the morning.

I really will try to be more regular with my updates here, but we did start school last week...Should I teach math or blog?

The empty place...Job 26:7

Hello...lo...lo...Anybody here...here...here? It seems kind of empty, doesn't it? I think I'm too busy to keep up with the blog, but, well, here we go again!

Let's see...since I last posted, we made a trip back east, came home just in time to see our birdies leave the nest, M was baptized , we left on a pack trip to the mountains, we came home, and now we are in the midst of taking care of the church booth at the county fair. I'll update on all that when I'm not sleep-deprived...although updates in my current state would be very interesting.

Final barn swallow pictures:
We arrived home at 5 a.m., a week after we left home. They grew up! We only saw two on the nest at a time, but I did see two others flying around as there were two on the nest, so I think all four survived! Yay!

At first I thought these were the adults since they are so different than the little birds that were there when we left. The Man pointed out the little white markings beside their beaks. Those are juveniles!


Two days later they were gone. This is all we have to remember them by now...
Almost all...I already cleaned off the front step. I DID take a picture of the front step before I cleaned it. Something to remember the birds by...and a reminder of what to expect if we allow them to rebuild there next summer. Document, document, document.