We blinked and another week flew by!

Yep, a broken arm. Rip-stick riding can be dangerous. Don't be so sad, Josiah. Just four more weeks with the cast...

The Girl helped Teresa make jelly this past week. They are quite tasty. That's better. A little smile from Josiah. He's on the way to the Post Office to pick up his new "babies".

A nervous daddy pacing the floor...

Aaah, the delivery went just fine, thanks. Now home with the new additions...

Let's put them here in the back.

Nope, they'll be cozier here in the front with me.

In their new home...

We attended the monthly homeschool meeting Friday morning. Everyone had a great time with the activities.

Poppins dropped by unexpectedly to surprise the boys. He's such a great father.

The boys enjoyed a game of football with their friends. Watch that cast, Josiah!

The girls entertained the little ones with fun games and silly challenges.

ChubChub wanted to play football, too, but he's a wee bit too small.

The kids watched a series of DVD clips discussing 3 American artists and their worldview. We were surprised at how attentive and interested they all were, even the little ones.

The little ones huddled around a laminated print in search of hidden objects that the artist may have painted in.

Whoa! What happened? Mean Ol' Mama started out this morning with 9 kids (3 borrowed) and came home with 10 kids (4 borrowed, not the 3 from this morning)! Neat trick!

Happiness a' Happening

ChubChub loves his school books. He colors, traces, works with a few numbers, and generally keeps a happy-go-lucky outlook on life, love, and learnin'.

Stennes was kind enough to humor Mean Ol' Mama and cover a wall with chalkboard paint. Best thing we've done yet in ye olde hoose. The kids could hardly wait for the paint to dry. The Girl doesn't normally dress so "fancy" for chalk sketchings; we were about to leave for a large performance, which was #3 performance on Tuesday alone. Lotsa folks and lotsa good comments.

Even ChubChub had to share his interpretation of Mean Ol' Mama. Say, she does look mean, doesn't she? [If only her legs were as thin, too...sigh...]

Poppins perked the kids right up the other morning with exercises to get the ol' blood flowing. See the reflectors on his shirt? He really "shines" in our eyes...

Interesting photo title: Raggedy Boy Parses Koine Greek

New title: Raggedy Boy Sharpens Pencil with Ye Olde Fashioned Pocketknife

Yet another title: Happy Raggedy Boy Indicates He is Finished with This Number of Pages

What? Another title? Raggedy Boy Tries to Avoid his Math Lesson by Reading a Book

Stennes has been busy this past week making a bird house and a bird feeder for a local school. These were left unfinished so the classes could sand and paint them (hands-on time, ya know) and auction them off to the parents of the classes in a fundraiser. He's quite a talented young man. Now, if he could only finish his chapter on the First Aorist tense in Greek...[...sigh...]

The Girl was inspired to add a special verse to our family wall. Yep, good idea...

Stennes fixed a broken leg on Josiah's Pig Nose bass amp. He removed one of the legs and turned a matching leg on the wood lathe. Handy.

Josiah, Anders, and Poppins have been working on the chicken pen. Gotta be ready for those 50 roosters by Friday. Time's tickin'...

Branch wanted to show all our faithful blog-followers what life is really like here in our home. Sweep, sweep, sweep. Such is life with boys/gardens/boys/animals/boys/shop projects, and did we mention...boys?

Just look at these sweeties blessing Mean Ol' Mama by scrubbing the floor by hand. Gotta love it, and gotta love them!

The world rushes by...

The big boys had weekly band practice in Tallahassee this past week, and Mean Ol' Mama gave them a ride. Teresa usually takes them, but she had to be out of town. It was fun to see all of the new faces.

The boys gave a quick "bluegrass" demonstration for a visiting student from China. She really enjoyed the little show. ChubChub was partially buried in the ground. Yikes! What's happening here? Oh, he found a post hole that Josiah had just dug for his new chicken pen.

And now he's up a tree! This four-year-old boy is quicker than a monkey and cuter than...well, than a monkey!

Lost in the jungles of south Georgia? Nope, they're just enjoying the goat-pen-that-doesn't-have-any-goats. It's a long story.

Poppins and the boys are working on expanding the storage shed and enclosing a chicken pen. Josiah has 50 roosters on their way within the next 2 weeks, so they're trying to secure a place quickly.

Josiah also got a holding pen from Pop that isn't being used any more, so he's ready for business. We hope...

We're still here (somewhere!!!!)

We have been busy, busy, busy these past 3 weeks. Every day has been a new adventure, some more exciting than others. We have had numerous visitors (surprise!!) and quite a few families interested in beginning homeschooling (surprise!!) and many unexpected drop-ins (surprise!!).
ChubChub celebrated his 4th birthday and received quite a bit of loot at the rate of $1.00 per sibling. He was a happy little guy for a few hours.

Mean Ol' Mama cooked up a greasy, sugary, delicious batch of funnel cakes to celebrate...ummm, well, to celebrate all of our recent surprises. Yeah, that's why...

The boys have been planting some in their gardens. The weather has been mild so far, and the afternoons are very comfortable for sitting outside, being lazy. Not that we ever do that, of course...[ahem...].Well, this isn't quite the same as gardening, but it's productive in its own fashion...

Stennes made Mean Ol' Mama a throne, and this beautiful chair won First Place at the Georgia National Fair. We will post pictures of Josiah's shelf at a later date.

Mean Ol' Mama finished teaching her class at the College last week. They were a nice bunch of students. We had a special performance and treats for them on the last night, before their final big test.

A special friend from our days in the Philippines/Mexico/Texas/and other places came for a weekend visit from Oklahoma. He is such a dear friend. We had a cook-out and singing time during the cool afternoon.

Is this how aunts are supposed to treat their nephews? Itchy, itchy straw for a handsome scarecrow...

The three older boys recently participated in the Cotton Boll/Consumer Judging competition. They each gave 30-second cotton promotion "commercials". Aren't they cuties?

Busy Days Again

Poppins and ChubChub at the Beach...We really love those two fellows. Look what Josiah caught! He's quite a fisherman.

Anders loaned his pole to a friend who met us at the beach. He's a really nice man from Colombia, with a lot of not-so-common-these-days sense.

His wife is from Peru. Mean Ol' Mama had a really nice time with her, discussing politics, sofrito, and many interesting topics.

The view from the back door...

What's up with ChubChub's lip? He fell asleep just a little on the pouty side...

We wrote contact information on his arm this past weekend at the GA National Fair. Thankfully, he stuck close to us...

Josiah did an excellent job on speech #1. He memorized 7 minutes' worth of information on 4H and marketing the club. He placed 2nd, which was great for his first time in this competition.

Now he's ready for speech #3, which was a 30-second "commercial" advertising cotton. He did a great job and also placed 2nd. He changed into nice clothes between these two presentations for speech #2, a flawless, 4-minute, heavy-applause, motivational discourse on thinking positively in a negative world. He placed 3rd in that one, probably because he mentioned the dreaded word "God". Keep on mentioning His beautiful name, buddy! Shout it out!!!

Is that tasty, ChubChub?

Clowning with the clown...

Now, which one is the real clown?

Josiah bought a 12-gauge with some of the money he won at the Fair. He's quite proud of his new gun. He'll be taking the Hunter Safety Course soon.

Anders placed 4th in his speech competition and 2nd for his mini-booth, Stennes placed 1st with the chair he made and 5th in his mini-booth project, Josiah placed 2nd, 2nd, 3rd, Honorable for his shelf, and 4th for his mini-booth. Decatur County did very well this year.

And a final shot from the beach...swimming into the sunset...

Quick Update

We have been busy busy busy this past week. After helping friends move into their new home in Thomasville last Saturday, we came back and had a good time with visitors next door. The kids helped pick peanuts off the plants for boiling. Yummy! Our visiting friends treated the kids to Zaxby Wings before we went preaching. What a treat! We visited two camps, one Haitian and the other Hispanic. We had very good meetings at both, and one of the Mexican men came up afterward, crying and asking for prayer and a new life in Christ. Makes it all worth while...

The Girl and ChubChub spent time on the picnic table "cooking" salt dough goodies. They really enjoyed using a mini-baking set for imaginary baked goods.

We attended the local homeschool group meeting for the first time in a few months. The children made bird feeders from pine cones, peanut butter, and bird seed. ChubChub enjoyed having his big brother helping him.

Branch had help from the 4H leader in tying on a ribbon for hanging. She's such a great lady.

All of the children enjoyed a presentation of History through Art presented so well by one of the mothers. They were learning more about Native Americans through 4 large pieces of art on display.

What are these two silly guys doing? Listening to the lunchtime story on CD as they form pictures in their minds...

What a mess! We were busy finishing up mini-booth projects for the GA Fair. They were due this past Thursday, and it was down to the wire (of course!) when they were finally finished. We had many unexpected happenings during the glue-down time (of course!).

The Girl and Paul Bunyan were kind enough to entertain ChubChub during this time. He didn't cause too much damage with all the glue, markers, paper cutter, pencils, stencils, etc...

Stennes quickly welded this nice bench as a surprise for Mean Ol' Mama. It's quite comfortable and will soon be painted and added to a collection of seats back by the picnic table. We hope to build a nice fire ring for cozy times once the weather cools down a bit.

And look! He can make cookies, too, to help out Mean Ol' Mama's running-in-circles supper.

The guys have been busy shucking dried corn to put through the hand grinder for animal feed. It's quite a job, but we're blessed enough to have the corn and grinder, so we can't complain.

Poppins Has a Birthday

We shared a delicious meal and a fun time of Pin the Tail on the Donkey.

The Girl enjoyed taking her turn after three spins around.

Anders gave Branch last-minute advice on how to play the game well.

Pretty close, Branch!

Don't tell Anders, but Josiah turned the donkey on his side while Anders was taking his three spins around. Kind of throws off the game, ya know?

Now Josiah is suspicious about what the boys have done on his turn.

Even Poppins gave it a whirl. The boys turned the chair backwards, though, and he wasn't quite sure what was going on.

Now he had it figured out!

They really enojoyed this special time with their Daddy, and he was such a good sport through it all. Happy Birthday, Poppins! You're the best husband and father ever!

This is the donkey that Stennes quickly sketched, that everyone poked and prodded, that stood patiently and without complaint, that grinned happily through it all, that gave the kids such fun in the house that Poppins built.