Home baked goodies for sale.

Well not yet, but now it is legal in Michigan!


I looked into the kitchen thing when we were doign the design work of finishing the basement. It appeared to be too much bother and cast to put a certified kitchen in so when I saw this bill was in committee I changed my basement plans hoping, praying and even writing an email that it would pass. I see that it has!!!! Yeah. The girls can sell cookies and pies from our own kitchen.

Here is the scoop.

Update via my Super Blogger

J's blog Has all the latest.

She has time to take some amazing photos. I have been putting out fires, getting things ready for the county fair and being a mommy.

The cute ducks went back home to the neighbor's. I think they were driven away by our dog who keeps digging out of his kennel. Tonight Todd installed some cement board around the base of the kennel so hopefully that will help.

July has been busy so far and will only crescendo until the County Fair the last week of July. We have something on the calendar almost everyday. 75% of it is 4-H related.

Jemima and Jeremy

Friday our neighbor stopped by. We started talking about the power outage we had earlier in the week. He was surprised that we did not have a generator. he had a second one that he wasn't using and told us we could have it for a good deal. Todd checked it out. Turns out that the generator came with 2 ducks.
I guess these 2 ducks were not getting along with another two he had and he wanted to separate them. At their original home they used to live with chickens, the chickens left (to our freezer) and the ducks took over the hen house. They had never been on the pond. They loved it.


Now they are free to roam. They have stayed pretty close to the pond. They are eating all the time. Hopefully, they are eating things we don't want. Like weeds, algae and bugs in the pond. They also like the grass.

It turns out that Todd was told that I wanted ducks. I don't remember telling anyone that. I did think it would be fun to watch ducks on the pond, and it is. Watch what you think out load around your children. Now the three little ones are fighting over whose ducks they actually are. The ducks do not go near anyone so I am not sure why any particular child would want to "own" them. They don't cuddle, they even swim the other way when you get close. Oh well.

Sticking with our literary theme I named the girl (we are assuming they are a male female pair) Jemima from Beatrix Potter stories. Jeremy just goes with Jemima. I can't tell them apart and we just call them "the ducks". But it is fun to give them names.

I hope I can get one of the children to build them at little lean-to. They didn't like the hard rain we had Sunday.

Father's Day Weekend

We had a very busy weekend last weekend. I was planning to blog the whole thing, but J beat me to it. It is amazing how a young lady can find time for that kind of stuff while the mom of many can't fit it in. (Plus I'd rather be sewing) She swiped some of my photos so I will swipe her posts. (Just click on the pink letters to see the pictures.)

Friday evening our church community group had a potluck. We always eat very well.

Saturday our 4-H club sponsored a horse show and we helped.

Sunday the oldest son of a dear family got married. It was a small wedding and we were honored to have been invited. We met this family when they were a small family of 6. I remember saying after knowing them for less than a year: "I will never have 4 children and I will NEVER homeschool, they are nuts". Well, now It seems kind of funny that I thought that. We have 6 children now and they have 9. The mom is still my hero in all that she gets done with a quiet and gentle spirit. So as we start the season of witnessing young people we have seen grow up I think I will cry more and more, tears of blessing. I teared up as Dustin stood beaming as he saw his new bride walk down the aisle. In my eyes he will be 10 years old (the age he was when we met) forever.

Eight of the nine children in this family have participated in restored to Glory Dance Ministry. The youngest is still too young. So it fit that there was dancing at the reception, this is unusual for the weddings we have been to within our church family. The children did most of the dancing, but Todd and I danced one dance and I got our on the floor with the children for a few. The host family has quite the collection of moves. The poor Norris children are not rhythmically gifted in the same way, but they kept up in effort if not grace. Unfortunately the flash on our camera is being weird and very few of the pictures turned out well . But I did get some pictures for documentation: The father of the groom and one of our pastors were both caught on film (wait it's digital, so how does that go?) I also have blurry pictures the groom's brother J.P. dancing with little T (he is on his knees). The younger boys were also bustin' some moves were to fast for my camera.and the mother of the groom participating in the last line dance. J.P. also lead a sort of Conga lineBride's Maids', flower girls and TIn the background here you can see a couple of the groomsmen This is the youngest of the family. She was adorable, but ready for this whole wedding business to be over.Finally J got out on the dance floor. She made this Sense and Sensibility Dress for the occasion. The bride shares my love for sewing. It just happened that all of the girls (including me) except one were wearing homemade dresses. And many of the men just couldn't miss the golf thing....I understand it was a big one. I am not sure why Todd, who hates golf, was there. He claimed something about bonding.

Monday: Since we had a social engagement on Father's Day and the blue gill were still biting in Rose City, Todd took Monday off and we spent the day fishing and sleeping and swimming. OK, I did the sleeping and the kids swam and fished a little. J read a book and kept me company while I snored. Todd, with some help, caught 40+ bluegill.

Chickens and young ladies

I snapped these pictures while I had the camera out taking pictures of our new goats. Who by the way have settled down a bit but don't like to be more than a few feet from each other.

This is one of our new Ameracaunas trying to figure out how to get back with the flock.

This is Esmeralda. The day we picked up the chicks she was walking funny and we thought it best to leave her with the 4-H leader and let her deal with the eventuality of her death. Well 2 weeks later she was doing just fine so she got sent home with us. She got picked on when we first put her in with the others. But after a couple days where they could see each other, but not pull her feathers out she go a long much better. She is smaller than the others, but if she lays eggs like the rest we'll be happy.

This is my friend George. Chicks grow and change faster than people babies and remember much less. But she will always have a place in my heart. N has chosen her to be one of her show birds for the county fair.

This is Whitey (G's bird of choice from this group), Phantom (N's bantam), and one of the no-name birds.

N found this outfit at goodwill and has decided that for the costume parade for rabbits and poultry at the fair she will be Elpheba from Wicked (AKA the Wicked Witch from Wizard of Oz) and Zoser/Flops (her bunny) will be a winged monkey. In wicked he has a name,but I can't remember it, you will have to ask my Wicked expert.

Speaking of....

J stuck this silly pose as I walked by:

Then she sat down on a log with the pond in the back ground. I thought it would make a lovely picture. But she wouldn't smile. I asked why and she said she hadn't brushed her teeth and had food in them.

So she did a quick swish and clean her teeth the best she could. I couldn't see anything, but she is conscious of stuff in her braces that she is ready to be rid of.

In the end I got a beautiful picture of my eldest young lady.

Quilt

I made this quilt for my brother and his bride for Christmas. I didn't have a very good picture in my Christmas pictures, so he sent one to me. He said no props were added. The pictures behind the quilt are one that my grandmother had in her house, then hey were in my mom's house. I am glad my brother has them displayed in such a prominent place. I believe the pictures of my mom and her parents were taken in the mid 1960's
Thanks Greg.

Romantic Dresses

A few weeks ago I made M and T each two dresses from Jennie Chancey's Romantic Girls' Dress. I have made this pattern a couple times before. Sensibility patterns are very easy to follow. So I whipped up these dresses in a few days, but I never posted them. So here they are:

Todd has taken the children fishing recently. M thinks it is a great thing...time with Daddy doing what he loves to do. So when Todd thought he'd check on our little fish (we stocked our pond last spring) M was right there to help.

"Yeah, I got one!"

"Keep reelin' M, keep going"

"This is getting hard!"

"He's kind of small."

"Ooops, he swallowed the hook. Don't want that to happen, these fish have to grow to be dinner some day."




So Todd let M and T feed worms to the fish.




All out of worms. Bummer

So we found something else to do.

Dresses made from this particular pattern are very good twirling dresses

I think that was too much twirling for T






Chasing tadpoles and minnows

Last year we didn't have any wildflowers. I was sad. This year we have a ton! The girls love to pick, so we have many bouquets gracing our table. The things that are blooming and thus on our table are a flower that looks like a daisy, but stinks; white yarrow; and various variety of clover, much of which we seeded. Now that they are allowed to pick the wild flowers they are much better about not picking flowers in my gardens.

T had a little trouble with a choice for bunch of flowers. This white yarrow really wanted to stay where it was,

"I love my sister"