Benaiah Strikes Again

Then Benaiah...went down and killed a lion in the middle of a pit on a snowy day....These things Benaiah the son of Jehoida did, and had a name as well as the three mighty men...David appointed him over his guard.

2 Samuel 20-23 (parts)

We are raising another "Benaiah"

Gloria's Clean-up Song

homeschooling

Notice Benaiah in the back trying to get even closer to the action!

Even Spiderman has to learn his "M"s.

Princesses too!

This is the dining room/homeschooling room/sewing room

Orphan Kitty

Little Prisoner

His face was criminally dirty.

She Sprouted Wings!

Stream Time

On a hot day, it so refreshing to wade in the stream just down the hill from this Alabama rental (sounds like a housing listing). It's strange to think that it is mid-September and still hot both during the day (90s) and at night (70s).

JB and Gloria collect chunks of clay from the stream.

Max usually gets in the stream on hot days especially after chain-sawing brush and trees and clearing them away, but he didn't bring his wading clothes down with him and was planning on continuing his outdoor work, so he watched longingly.

Benaiah loves to wade.

4-Wheelin' Mama

This picture was taken after zooming around for a while. As you can tell, the kids hated it!:)

It's perfect having a circle driveway. All the better to scare the kids going around turns...

JB only looks like he's going to fall off. He's actually "seat-belted" in with a bungee cord and hangin' on for dear life...you should see how scared they look with their Dad driving!

Actually, the 4-wheeler has a very humble purpose, the main reason we bought it...trash hauling...are you buying it? I get to....uh, I mean have to take the trash up to the curb twice a week and retrieve the trailer twice a week... yes, it's a chore.

Note: not Honda approved use of ATV

Swingin' in the trees

We start by jumping off of this tree stump left in the perfect spot after Max chopped down a dead tree.

Can you see Tamsey in these pictures? I'm in the trees!

Zip Line

This is a zip line Max found on the property, not too far from the house. He found it about a month and a half ago but today was the first day we had a camera with us on our "nature hike".

Two Beauties

JB and Gloria found a Luna Moth, which is the prettiest moth I've ever seen. Normally I hate moths, but I'm intrigued by this one and so were the kids. This one couldn't fly for some reason and really wanted to stay on the stick, so we were able to get a really good look at it. Another insect to add to our wildlife journal picture collection...

Pioneer Baby

"tree hugger"

Can you find JB in this picture?
This is a tree that Max eventually had to cut down because it was a danger to the swingers. We also eventually got JB unstuck from the tree.

Tropical storm Fay...fun?

Gloria with her pink princess "berella".

It kind of defeats the purpose of rain boots when you fill them with water from the pool and dump them on your head.

Although I'm sure we didn't see the ugliest side of Fay (like Florida did), we sure are getting a lot of rain from the tropical storm and yesterday some tornado activity that didn't quite make it to Prattville...whew...although we did spend some time in the storage-area basement. No escaping tornadoes even after leaving KS!

Sand tent

We are using the old collapsible pool as the sandbox. Max bought lots of bags of sand from a home improvement store and JB helped poke holes in the bottom of the (former) pool so that the water would drain through...should water "happen" to get in there. We bought the tent to keep out some of the water, some of the bugs, and most of the leaves that fall from the many trees. Isn't my husband resourceful and creative? I think so.