Blueberry Picking Time

Once again, it is time for another Jonas family tradition - blueberry picking!

Blueberries are not nearly as messy as some of the other fruits we pick - such as strawberries or raspberries. See, you can hardly tell that Jade has been gorging herself on blueberries.

Of course, when we picked her up out of the stroller, her butt was blue from all the ones she dropped and subsequently sat on!

We didn't put up any blueberries. We ate them all fresh - we may have to go back one more time to get some to freeze for winter pancakes. :D

PJ

Recent Soaps

The following soaps are inspired by the season:

Blueberry

Strawberries and Cream

They're curing now and the bedrooms smell of berries...

PJ

The Royal Family

My children have very active imaginations.

This is a photo of the royal family wearing their capes and sitting on their throne - King Greyden and Queen Bean flanked by Prince Hewitt and Prince Fletcher. They entertained themselves for hours. :D

PJ

My Purple Flower Story

Our last home in New Jersey was in inner-city Trenton. It was not a very nice neighborhood. Nor was it very safe. But Jim was teaching at a charter school for challenged inner-city kids, and it was close to work.

On my front porch I had hanging baskets with purple petunias in them. They always made me happy and made me smile. One morning I went out and one of the baskets was gone!! Someone had stolen it right off the screw that was attached to the porch. So Jim closed the screws so that the baskets couldn't be removed. Two days later, I woke up and somebody had stolen the rest of the hanging baskets - screws and all!

It was very depressing.

So when we moved to Indiana, I again tried hanging baskets with purple petunias in them. They're still here. And they still make me smile everytime I see them. They also remind me how thankful I am to be living in the country.

PJ

Guess What's Being Raised on Our Goat Milk!

A rescue deer! Isn't it adorable?

No - it isn't ours. Its mother and twin were killed by dogs when it was 1 or 2 days old. This one was saved just in time and taken to a rescue place.

It's a girl. Her name is... Cookie Dough. Get it?? Dough. Doe. Get it?? I thought that was pretty creative and got a chuckle out of it.

PJ

Learning to Draw

All of our children love to draw, but Emery is our budding artist. For Christmas, he received a Drawing curriculum that has a DVD portion. We made use of Jim's most recent gleaning to have a drawing lesson. Here are the children watching the DVD portion ofthe curriculum:

Jim took this following photo b/c he wanted to show you that even Jade is doing school and filling her "PE" requirement. If you look on the right side of the photo, you can see Jade bouncing in her jumper. She bounces herself forward, picks up her feet, and swings as long as she can.

People always ask me how I manage to homeschool 8 children - this is how! :D

PJ

More gleanings

It's been a while since I posted about any garbage gleanings. (Don't worry, they still arrive daily, they just aren't very noteworthy.) Jim did happen to find a good one the other day, that I need to tell you about.

The children have been listening to an audio ancient history book. They've really been enjoying it and learning a lot. Because it's been so successful, I've been wanting to get an audio version of the Bible to play for them. Always frugal, I didn't want to spend the money, so I mentioned it to Jim.

A few minutes later, Jim had this set up in the dining room:

Yep, he got it out of the garbage. It is a portable DVD player that works perfectly. I had ignored the fact that we already owned an MP3 audio version of the Bible because we don't have an MP3 player. But this little gem plays DVDs AND MP3s. :D

Alas, the previous owners neglected to throw out the remote control with the unit. Never fear! Jim (who can't bear to throw anything away - it is so ironic he is a garbage man) raced upstairs and fetched an extra universal remote. Two hours and much detective work later, he discovered the code for this unit and had the new remote programmed!

As much as I complain about all the stuff he brings home from the garbage, sometimes, he really finds something good!

PJ

PS - Jim says I need to tell everybody that the Philips Universal Remote code for a jWIN DVD player (model JD-TV108) is 744.

Black Bean Bonanza

We were enjoying a baked potato feast with lots of different toppings.

Jade, however, decided to forego the potato in favor of just the black beans:

Makes you just want to give her a big hug and kiss, doesn't it?

PJ

Bread from Heaven

It's getting hot. Since I'm always trying to keep things cool (and save money) I've been minimizing the use of the oven. So, when the family needs bread, what's a Mom to do?

Break out the sun oven, of course! I can just hear many of you thinking, "What's a sun oven?" Well - I just happen to have a photo of ours all set up:

Here is the bread baking inside (at just over 300 degrees):

And tada! A finished loaf:

It's a little poofy b/c I let it rise too much before putting it in the sun oven. Why is there just one loaf? Well, we had already eaten the other one before remembering to get the camera. And it was yummy!

PJ

A Rare Photo of Me

I am so glad I started writing this blog. I started it to capture some of my memories - but it has turned into a family affair. When things happen, somebody is sure to remind me, "You have to blog about that." And off they run to get the camera.



Even Jim is a part of it. He's the one that took that photo of Colter weed wacking. I couldn't, because I was working hard in the greenhouse:





It was a good day. :D

PJ

A New Accomplishment

Colter has learned a new skill - weed wacking. It started out with him helping me start the weed wacker. Then he started it all by himself.

I finally let him spread his wings and fly... And now he weed wacks everything in sight.

Yesterday the mail man yelled at us that we needed to trim the grass around the mail box. (Not yelled at us like he was mad - yelled out the window of his car at us :D)

Zoooooommmmm - Colter went running for the weed wacker. Soon that grass was flying.

Here he is squeaking out the last little bit of light.

He's such a hard worker!

PJ

My Husband, My Hero

Jim and I have a weekly date night. It involves putting the children to bed and sitting in front of the television watching a television show. I'm not quite ready to admit which show I have become addicted to - but I will tell you that it is on Thursday evenings. I look forward to my guilty pleasure and my time with my husband all week.

Well... on a Thursday a few weeks ago (the week prior to season finales), the power went out! I immediately started to panic as it was already 5:00 and I only had a few hours til date night. I started calling all around and found out that most of our neighbors were also without electricity. A call to the electric company discovered that a transformer had blown and they did not know when it would be fixed.

I called Jim and told him the dreadful news and then set to praying. My show starts at 9:00, but I like to get up to the tv room at 8:00 (ok - I watch that show by myself before Jim joins me for our 9:00 date). Wow - all sorts of confessions for this blog entry.

6:00 - no power.

6:30 - no power.

7:00 - no power.

By this point I'm trying to reach somebody with a VCR to tape it for me - no success. Jim still wasn't home yet.

7:58 - Jim pulls in the driveway.

7:59 - the power comes back on!!!!

I run upstairs, thank God, and sit down in front of the television, a happy person.

The next morning, however, I go outside to discover this:

Yes, that's Jim's truck parked ON my front porch. It turns out that my loving husband had figured out a backup plan. He was going to hook up our small tv to the cigarette lighter in his truck - through our bedroom window so we could still have our date night.

Is that love, or what?

PJ

Dirt Monsters

Remember our dirt pile? It was 10 cubic yards of compost.

The boys have been working on moving it all winter. They finally completed the job. Most of it went to the garden, but some of it ended up on them. Here's the last little bit.

And the boys victorious!

Hmmmm..... Now what should I have them shovel?

PJ

More Potty Pictures

Brett is in charge of Indigo's potty training. She decided that it would be easier to just have Indigo sit on her potty ALL day. So she got her set up...





PJ

Potty Training on the Homestead

I'm just going to let this picture speak for itself...

PJ

Little, Baby Egg

Emery and Indigo came in the other day from collecting eggs. Indigo was cradling something in her arms. When I asked her what it was, she carefully showed me her "little, baby egg."

It was very difficult getting her to surrender her "little, baby egg." But I finally did by promising her I would take a picture of it. So here it is next to a normal sized egg for reference:

For those of you who are curious - it was laid by a full-sized chicken. But when we cracked it open (shhhh - don't tell Indigo), there was no yolk inside. Just egg white.

PJ

Happy Mother's Day!

I adore seafood. Shrimp, fish, scallops, mussels, crab, clams, lobster - you name it, I love it. But what do you expect from a girl who was raised on an island?

Jim detests seafood. Shrimp, fish, scallops, mussels, crab, clams, lobster - you name it, he hates it. But what do you expect from a boy who was raised on a mountain?

Needless to say, being a loving wife (and a frugal one) I don't cook and serve seafood. On the rare occasion we go out to eat, I will order it if it's available, but otherwise I just dream about seafood. Actually, we've had a couple of people give us some fish that they've caught. Fletcher loves it and has declared himself my "fish buddy". :D

So, for Mother's Day, it was an awesome surprise when the children purchased me - SHRIMP and TILAPIA! Wow - I was so excited. But that was just the tip of the iceberg. Jim COOKED it for me! The entire dinner - and he cleaned up. Now THAT is what I call a Mother's Day present. (And yes - Jim is actually quite an accomplished seafood chef - he cooked on the coast of Maine for 2 summers).

So my fish buddy and I enjoyed the tilapia. And I have now acquired a "shrimp buddy". Greyden fell in love with shrimp.

We didn't think to get a photo of the meal before I ate it. But here is a snapshot of the leftover shrimp (which I claimed for lunch the next day).

Wow, my mouth is actually watering just remembering and looking at that picture. How many more days until the next Mother's Day?

PJ

Finally - a Sister!

Brett waited 9 long years to finally get the sister she wanted so much. Let's just say - she's really enjoying it. :D

PJ

When The Cousins Come Visiting

My brother, Adam, and his family came for a short visit on their move from Arkansas to New Jersey. We had a great time visiting and getting to meet my newest nephew - Aiden James. I wish I had taken more pictures, but alas... I didn't.

But Brett remembered to grab the camera to capture this memory:

From left to right: Colter, Ben, Emery, Fletcher, Greyden, Hewitt, Sage. The boys are so excited to have extra singlets to share. No visit with the cousins would be complete without dressing them up and having a mini wrestling match.

Now, here's the fun part of the post (where I get to tease my brother). It is amazing how my brother has grown and changed since having children. With my children in the car he would drive like a maniac. With my children they could all jump on the trampoline despite our "one jumper at a time" rule. Let's just say, he wasn't too concerned about safety.

But the times, they are a'changing. I was flabbergasted to listen to my "macho" brother as he watched his boys wrestle: "oh, watch his arm." "no, be careful." "hey, you'd better not do that." Wait a minute - were those safety concerns???

Oh yeah, Heather says he also drives much more carefully now, too. :D

PJ