Burned boy

See, he can still squeak out a little smile. Actually, he has laughed many times since Thursday and has been enjoying the extra attention. After 2-3 weeks of healing, his chubby little leg will have skin as good as new...we look forward to that...thank you God!

You won't believe this...

We are now a family of FOUR 4-wheelers! Remember how I said this place was just too perfect for 4-wheeling not to have two big ones - a Mama one and a Papa one? Now there is one for brother bear and one for sister bear. See for yourselves...

Benaiah either sits and watches or I pull him around on this wagon or he rides with me on the big 4-wheeler. Why the long faces?, you ask...well, Benaiah got second degree burns on his leg and toes after going into the brush fire-pit the day after it had a fire in it. The hot coals were hiding under the ashes and Benaiah managed to find them...painfully. This happened Thursday and with on and off Motrin or Tylonol with codeine he makes through the mornings when the skin starts to tighten and it hurts to move it and through the painful wound-clinic visits (2-3 more weeks of those).

He is doing amazingly well for a little guy...still as active, just careful not to put pressure on the leg with the burns. I could post pictures of the burns that Max took while at the wound clinic, but they're a little too "owey" to share with everyone. If you would like to see them, I can e-mail you the pics. God is healing him though...and has given me the strength to forgive myself for not watching him more closely while still learning a lesson the very hard way. Anyway, why this rambling is in the middle of a 4-wheeler post, I'm not sure, but now you know the story.

Back to 4-wheeling...
So far JB and Gloria are just riding in front on the gravel driveway and JB rides on the paths that Max has made in the circular area in the middle of the round driveway. JB has already gotten good at handling his little 4-wheeler and Gloria is getting more confident too although her little electric 4-wheeler needs a new battery if she's going to make it up the hill more than 4 or 5 times. This is why I am towing her up the hill...going down is a breeze and a lot of fun for her, but the poor battery doesn't keep much charge (we are in the process of getting a new one from the company).

The weather is still perfect for being outside...50s and 60s.

Give a little prayer for the Benny boy...thanks.

Pecan Picking

I'm part of a couple of Prattville Homeschooling "Yahoo Groups" from which I get a lot of e-mails of what's going on from other homeschooling families. One of the homeschooling mom's parents own a bunch of pecan trees that have produced an abundance of pecans this year. Amazingly, we got to have the fun and experience of picking pecans and keeping half of them for free! Yes, we did some of their work of picking pecans, but I'd say it worked out for both parties involved. We were very grateful to come away with 11 lbs of fresh pecans almost right off of the tree!

Why are the pecans more tasty when you have to go through the work of cracking and prying open the shell? Or maybe they just are more fresh than store bought and therefore better-tasting. Cami, any ideas?:0)

Pioneer Couple

This is at the bottom of the hill that the house is on...actually it is a ravine that has a hill on either side. We are not lacking in firewood!

Fall house pictures

Max and I have been very impressed with the fall around here. Not as vibrant as New England or some other areas of the country, but for being in the deep South, I think the colors are beautiful plus the fall is nice and long! Kansas and North Dakota, two other places we have lived, mostly just had yellow leaves. I believe it is due to the lack of trees in both Kansas and North Dakota and the abundance of trees in places like New England and the South East.

One thing Max has done that has made this place even more beautiful is thin out the trees in the backyard where we have the swings. There are still plenty of trees, but it looks a lot neater and more intentional. We can now see over to the other hill, which has a beautiful big oak tree on it. Now that it's fall we can look out the windows and see the different colored leaves as well as leaves falling with the breeze and it's just beautiful. Last night there was more wind than usual and some rain, so we about doubled the leaves that were on the ground and the deck over night. The only place we feel the need to clear the leaves away is on the porch and the deck. Acorns rain down all over too.

Sometimes is sounds as though an army of squirrels is attacking the house with acorns!

A four-wheelin' afternoon

Since Max made trails on the property we rent and there are other four-wheeler trails that we can get to from our back yard...miles and miles of them...we just had to get two four-wheelers so that we could 4-wheel as a family. I don't do anything too risky with Benaiah on my back, but I have gotten pretty good at riding, even on hills and slants (depending on the degree of slope). We went out this day to see some of the pretty fall colors...yes, there is quite a beautiful fall here in Prattville, AL.

Benaiah's catch...

...a Daddy Long-Leg spider. He was so proud of himself. He brought it to me smiling and I immediately said "go show Daddy! At least he didn't try to eat it.

Fall Festival (on Halloween night)

Benaiah was a lion and devoured his prey...I mean popcorn.

Sorry, I'm just now putting Halloween pics on my blog. I thought October would be my crazy month, but November has had some challenges of its own...which I may get into later.

Anyway, we've definitely had some great times too, like on Halloween night when our church did a fall festival. Our small group did a "trunk or treat" (I think that's what it is) booth, where trick or treaters can come through and get candy from the trunks of dressed-up cars and people at the church parking lot. Our "trunk" (the back of a pick-up) was decorated like a kitchen counter like in Veggie Tales...I dressed up as Laura Carrot and Max dressed up as a Cucumber who was one of the "Pirates that don't do anything". The kids did their own thing...can you guess what Gloria was...a princess! JB, a pirate, and Benny, a lion.

There were also games to play and inflatable bouncy things for the kids. It's part of the church's outreach to the community. Why stay totally away from Halloween, when maybe we can bring in some people to the church and show them Jesus' love?

More Butterfly Fun

She must be sweet!

Picture with the grandparents and a very wiggly Benaiah.

One of my favorite pictures of JB and Gloria.

Gloria's getting used to being landed on...

Mom, kids, big black butterfly and a leaf...

Butterfly Farm

Benaiah holds his hand out with Uncle Luke to coax a butterfly to land.

Sometimes butterflies would land on us (and sometimes the kids would catch them despite signs saying not to...not being able to really read yet doesn't help).

Benaiah enjoying the flowers and pretending to smell them, saying "oooh, oooh".

In Amherst, where my brothers, Jonathan (with wife Irina) and Luke, attend UMass, we went to a Butterfly Farm. It was a beautiful, serene place where we stayed for at least 1-2 hours...and got some good pictures while enjoying the different butterflies, some miniature quail, as well as lizards and frogs in little tanks.

More to come...BUTTERFLYs

A trip to Amherst and the butterfly farm still to come, but it's getting late and Obama's going to be our next president, so I will go and remind myself continually that God is in control and is much bigger than anything that happens on this earth while still caring for us and loving us intimately...amazing.

This is at Ruggles Baptist Church in the Fenway area of Boston where my Dad pastors (almost 30 years!). It was great meeting some new people at the church and seeing some familiar faces too. It was especially great being there with brothers and sisters and my mom and dad and having JB, Gloria, and Benaiah there this time.

This is where Max and I started our relationship. I thought he thought of me as a younger sister and he thought I thought of him as an older brother eventhough we both had fallen for each other...but that's another story...it involved months of avoiding each other at first, swing dancing, overheads, and lots more I won't get into in this e-mail...sorry, a little reminiscing.

On Sunday afternoon Benaiah took his nap at the house with my mom cooking dinner while the rest of us saw Tyler cheer for a football team. It was a beautiful day and a good time with the fam. Tyler did a good job cheering.

Trip to the North End of Boston

Jonathan and Irina down by the Warf with Gloria and JB.

Mom and the kids! This area was where my family growing up took some memorable pictures.

JB and Gloria really wanted to take a ride on the "T", so I promised them one trip...maybe we would've done more but the T fare went up a lot since I lived there. Benaiah was especially excited about the Ts going by the house and on the way to the playground.

Playing

Sitting with Gramma Lois at the park

Oh so many new toys to explore!