Boys, Boys, Boys

Thursday and Friday were full of boys. They finished guitar lessons, headed outside, ran into a friend who had come to spend the night, decided to invite another boy and their cousin, and it was all set: Boys' Bonanza with Poppins and Mean Ol' Mama. When The Girl discovered that the upstairs would be full of boys for the evening, she assumed a "What's-a-Girl-To-Do? " stance. She's quite a gal.

After soccer out in the field and miraculously multiplied chicken and potatoes, it was time for the ultimate boy challenge: Physical Training exercises.

Branch was so eager to participate that he jumped on the table to begin since there was no room on the floor. It sure is nice to have a plastic table when there are lots of boys in the home.

After Hide-and-Go Seek outside (led by Poppins), the boys came in for Bible Sword Drill. You can see ChubChub on the floor still working on his "shups" (push - ups). He calls all form of exercise "shups".

And here's a group photo of the handsome bunch. It's too bad you can't experience the indescribable smell of "Eau de Boy " that Mean Ol' Mama and The Girl were able to enjoy [ahem...].

Poppins played just as hard as the boys did, chasing them and thrilling them as he would pop out unexpectedly in the dark. As you can tell, his hard day of work and play eventually caught up with him.

The kitchen was full of boys first thing Friday morning. Mean Ol' Mama fried up a ton or so of potatoes, sausage, and eggs. They were eager to have a cup of hot chocolate, which Poppins left heated for them before he went to work.

When the girl came out of her room and saw the room full of testosterone, she just sat on the couch to recover. After graciously waiting for the boys to finish eating, she went behind them and cleaned up the bits and pieces that were left. It doesn't take very much to fill such a sweet little bird as she.

Friday finished with a picnic lunch because Mean Ol' Mama was on another baking binge and had the table full. After a day of play, shared supper with everyone, prayer time, and a bit of song, the boys were mellow and ready for a night of sleep without a bunch of giggling, conspiring, wiggling, wrestling, smelly, joking...boys, boys, boys...

How quickly the boy becomes a man. Hold on to these memories...

Tuesday and Wednesday

We went to the FRIENDS homeschool group monthly meeting and enjoyed being with the other families. The local 4H teacher gave the kids an interesting class on plant classification. Two of the moms led the children in folk songs, which was fun for all of us. Branch dressed up a bit for his violin class, but Mean Ol' Mama opted to leave the glasses at home, much to his dismay.

The boys and some of their friends worked on the shooting trench, which is now better classified as a shooting pit. Poppins asked that they fill the hold back in, so Josiah worked on that today until he met up with a stinging hornet. Ouch!

Remember those glasses that Branch couldn't wear to his lesson? ChubChub the Cool found them. Does this kid have style or what?

And just look at what passed in front of our house this morning: a whole entourage of travelers, headed to a local fair. Mule Day will be this Saturday, and these fine folks are apparently going to be there. You just never know what you're going to see if you live in "..a house by the side of the road..".

Sunday and Monday

The boys held a shooting competition out in the yard. First they dug a "trench" in the sandpile, then they lined up to fire upon the unsuspecting enemy. Behold, those vicious paper plates that are being besieged by the boys! Not one of the targets escaped.

Meanwhile, Mean Ol' Mama and The Girl were hungry for bread. These loaves turned out nicely; they stay soft and moist if we bag them while they're warm. Yes, they do "sweat" a bit in the bag, but the bread doesn't last long enough around here to go stale.

Sunday evening we went to a large Hispanic trailer park in Cairo, then over to another camp near Fowlstown. The first meeting went very well, but the second was even more special afterwards when 8 men wanted to talk for a while. The sun was going down when we left the second camp, but an eternal Light was beginning to shine in their hearts.

The Girl was so excited to finish Part 1 of this year's Spanish Bible. "Mira, Mami, ya no hay trabajo en mi libro!" ["Look, Mommy, there isn't any work left in my book!"]

And Branch also finished his English reader this morning. Now the true mark of bilingualism begins for him as he adds English work to his current Spanish books. He's moving on in Latin and Greek slowly but surely.

Photos of the last few days

We have seen a lot of activity lately, so postings have been sparse. Josiah sat down the other morning to work on Algebra, and ChubChub came downstairs, climbed up beside him, and promptly fell asleep again. He loves his "boys", as he calls them. His prayers are truly special: "And peeze help my boys...". The Girl and Branch worked on illustrating their Latin copybooks. Branch is very detail-oriented, so his illustrations are fun to see.

The next photo is awfully blurry, but it's a page of Josiah's Greek translation. We all shared a good laugh when we saw that he had written "o Iasous NON blepei...". He stuck a Latin negation in the middle of his Greek translation. When Mean Ol' Mama told him that he just couldn't do things like that, he remarked that it was "...okay, because everyone in here understands both." Afterwards, Anders added a unique spin to his translation page by throwing in a Spanish word [con] for "with". Any suggestions??

The Girl is composing a little melody in the photo below. She certainly has a piano player's long, thin fingers.

ChubChub entertained himself with a memory game. Now, if only he could remember to put the game away when he's finished...

Friday night was special. After prayer time with all the family and the usual shared meal, Poppins took us to see a trio of Russian folk musicians. They had some very unique instruments and sounds. They invited the children to come up and participate, and as the boys and one of their friends were the only children in the whole audience, they had their moment in the limelight.

The Girl is planning a Tea Party for a few friends. She has had quite a nice time planning the "particulars". We will be mailing out a few invitations tomorrow. She sure wishes her Grandma could be here, too, but Minnesota is far away.

Gotta love a man who does windows (and without whining, too).

Aahh, that's better. Being serenaded adds a touch of je ne sais quoi to ordinary, menial jobs. It's all about ambiance for Mean Ol' Mama.

The boys gallantly climbed out on the porch roof to clean the windows that always get ignored. They've enjoyed the beautiful weather these past few days. It's difficult to get them back inside even with instruments to practice, speeches to write, school books to finish, and on and on. Perhaps if Mean Ol' Mama weren't yearning to sit outside, as well...

And when Poppins goes out to count for Hide-and-Go-Seek, it's almost impossible to resist the call of the great outdoors.

The kids had fun with guests Saturday night: Kick the Can, arm wrestling, races, trampoline jumps, and all of the special games that are a part of childhood.

Finally, a photo of ChubChub just contentedly eating a leftover pancake. Happiness is home, family, a little snack, and a place to "be".

A quick update

We're all busy, busy, busy. Performances are in the works. Food's a-cookin'. Kids are learning. A few changes in our daily to-do's have made juggling quite a bit trickier. We'll share more soon.

Sunday and Monday

Sunday evening we went preaching in Blakely. We had a very good response and even an "Amen!!" corner going on the side. It's always encouraging to know that we were exactly where God wanted us to be, doing what all of us ought to be doing. When we came home, ChubChub played a little hide-and-seek when bedtime was announced. Mean Ol' Mama snapped this photo of the little charmer doing his best to blend into the background.We found him this morning sharing a snooze with The Girl. It was the most peaceful time of their day. Too bad they don't get along this well when they're awake...[sigh...].Monday was also the beginning of Third World Week. The four older boys slept out in pretty cool weather (in the 40s), cooked breakfast, and then headed out to find food for the day. We're doing this for a number of reasons: (1) It encourages appreciation for what we daily take for granted, (2) It prepares the children for whatever lifestyle they may have when they are older, (3) It gives some understanding of how most of the world lives and why we choose to live and eat the way we do.The Girl and ChubChub paid a visit to the site for a little while. The boys will be outside for a week. The mornings are theirs to spend profitably (with a few "must learns" given by Mean Ol' Mama), they will eat breakfast and lunch from their scanty stores and supplement as able, and then they will come inside for afternoon classes.Three of the boys headed out after breakfast in hopes of catching some lunch. Living meal-to-meal really develops an appreciation for basic food supplies that most Americans don't even think about.

Success! Anders caught a fine large-mouth bass for all to share. There were also a few potatoes on the fire.

He cleaned the fish, cut off a branch to sharpen it, impaled the meat, and roasted it. According to him, it was..."the best fish I've ever had."

Stennes prepared a supply of wood for the fire. We encouraged them to keep a small fire going with the awareness that most Third World countries don't have fuel to burn all day long. Little steps, though, one little change at a time.

After the big boys left for band, Branch and The Girl settled down on the sofa for some reading. ChubChub headed to bed, and Mean Ol' Mama read aloud the books in the photo below. Smells of Whole Wheat Pumpkin Chocolate Bread, WW Banana Bread, WW artisan loaves, WW Apple Cinnamon Cake, and WW Apple Walnut Bread filled the air as Mean Ol' Mama baked between books. These books are part of a huge tote to be read in 1st grade. Normally the kids are required to read their "totes" by themselves, but Branch and The Girl's English reading is not quite strong enough yet. We made "snuggle-up" memories, instead.

When we gathered for Bible time in the evening, ChubChub need a "fill'er-up" of Josiah. He missed his brother at bedtime last night, since he and The Girl aren't allowed to sleep outside. He begged Josiah for a Prince Stinkerbug story "...'bout fishing, brother. A BIG BIG fish, peeze." Josiah is helping him reel in that BIG, BIG fish in the photo below. Gotta love it.

Friday and Saturday

Mean Ol' Mama opened the door Friday morning to discover a duo of dogs. Doesn't it look as if they were dancing while lying down?
Guitar practice was a little longer than usual. Josiah was kind enough to help Anders through a difficult measure. No, he isn't wearing a necktie; that's his sax strap. We pulled him out of practice to explain the guitar piece.

We celebrated ChubChub's 3rd birthday Friday evening. He's quite a character. Quite a character. Quite a...well, you get the drift.

Did I mention that he's quite a character? Something as simple as posing with a cuddly blanket from Grandma turned into a face-making competition. He's a charmer.

After his birthday party, we went preaching to the Haitians downtown. We had such a good meeting. Poppins clicked this photo on his way down the street to invite some Hispanics; two of them came, so we ended up singing some in English, some in Spanish, and some in Creole. It would be lovely if we were fluent in Creole, as well.

Saturday was a whimsical adventure at the beach . It was a cool, breezy day, perfect for dreaming under the blue sky and looking for treasures, like the crab hidden within The Girl's shell.

The fellas headed down the beach to try their hand at fishing (of course). They had two cast nets with them, which allowed them to catch smaller bait fish. There was another fisherman not far from us who gave them good advice and showed them a few tricks of his trade.

Branch caught quite a few crabs by digging around the rocks on the shoreline. They were too small to keep and eat, much to Mean Ol' Mama's dismay [ahem...].But not everything was too small to eat. ChubChub had a very good time with this box of goodies.

"...And oceans of discoveries...And rivers of finding joys..."

Lunch was a simple affair: freshly-baked loaves, warm cheddar, a few cookies, apples, and...Sprites???? Yep, gotta treat those kids to a little somethin' special when you can.

There was a little playground nearby where The Girl and ChubChub spent a few fun moments. Then it was back to the water and exploring.

"See the mullet, Daddy? We're going to use him to catch something really, really big!"

Josiah caught a nice mess of fish, but not with Branch's mullet. They gave that little guy to the fisherman who helped them; he soon hooked something so large that his heavy line broke, much to everyone's disappointment. Josiah gave all of his catch to their new friend because he was fishing to feed his family.

So, what happens when your finger comes in contact with a large, angry crab? Just ask The Girl.

And look who we found climbing in the trees like a little coconut. Or monkey. Or like a little charmer. What a doll!

The sun was soon warm enough that The Girl and Branch ventured out of jackets and into swimsuits. Branch showed his glee in a most boyish way. He was head-over-heels in love with the bright, sunny, glorious day.

His ventures, however, ended with a badly scraped leg on the rocks as he was riding his boogie board. He bled pretty freely for a while. Their fisher-friend advised him to stay near the edge of the water, and sure enough, after a little bit of time we had an unwelcome visitor: a small shark.

It was a very good day, even though it ended a bit dramatically. We headed home, full of sun, breeze, and memories.