Busy Busy Days

We have received lots of sweet corn from friends and from Stennes' job. The boys have faithfully cut it off the cob to freeze for winter time. Yummy! Mean Ol' Mama has been busy, too, with work from the College. Lots of essays to correct...

Schoolwork has been a bit sporadic these past 2 weeks. Gardens and animals have priority right now, and the kids do their work whenever they can. [The Girl works diligently on her Greek...]

The kids have also been cooking a lot because Mean Ol' Mama is busy-busy-busy. Fried egg sandwiches and fried potatoes make a tasty lunch.

Do you think we have enough potatoes? It's the same with zucchini, cucumbers, peppers, etc. Lots of yummy, fresh food.

What are you drawing, ChubChub?

An airplane!

The Girl has enjoyed making a few crafts.

Our Very Special Cousin has now moved into the Pink House, but she had to store most of her furniture, so the fellows lent a hand... We have had a total of 32 people in the home throughout the past 3 days. It's been fun, and we've eaten/cooked a lot of food!

Poppins gave the boys handgun safety classes. They really enjoyed targed practice!

Stennes attached a lightswitch plate that Mean Ol' Mama bought for 10 cents.

It didn't quite fit, so he had to re-drill the holes. Kind of handy to have a clever boy...

Cute, eh?

On Saturday afternoon, Poppins and Doctor Peter took the boys to a chicken auction. They returned with 159 chickens! Yep, you read that number correctly. Thankfully, 17 have already been sold for a profit, and 4 more were...well, shall we say that those 4 contributed to lunch. Keep reading to see what happened to them...

Our Mexican friends wanted to cook us a "rancho" meal, so they came early Sunday morning to get things rolling.

Levi brought down two huge buckets of zucchini to add to the caldo (soup with chicken, carrot, squash, and potato).

These two roosters were fighting, so Josiah had to separate them from the others.

The Girl helped Doris make a mountain of tortillas.

Gamaliel kindly tended the pot of caldo. They are such kind people.

Lookind foward to another busy week...

Weekend Wrap-Up

Dr. Peter came by to help Branch release his pigeons. A few have returned, and we're hoping that the rest will come home soon...

ChubChub stood by faithfully and watched for escaped birds.

Stennes has been working diligently at the U-Pick. He brought home some cantaloupe, peppers, sweet corn, and...a check for his hours. Mean Ol' Mama was a bit teary-eyed as her firstborn becomes a man.

Josiah purchased this cute bantam pair to augment his flock. He's becoming quite the businessman.

Potatoes from Stennes' garden and lots of fresh produce from his job...

The boys spied a rabbit eating Levi's plants. Sad to say, but that little bunny now resides in our freezer, awaiting another cook-out day in cooler weather.

Anders has been helping Levi put up pickles with all of the cucumbers in the garden. Yummy!

Dr. Peter and his family came for fried fish (a very unexpected gift), cantaloupe (from Stennes' job), and sweet corn (also from Stennes). He and Paul watched a European homing pigeon race.

When they discovered that we were watching them, they began to act more "cool".

And now for a show of muscles to impress the wives....Gotta love these two fellas...

ChubChub helped Stennes dig up almost all the remainder of the potatoes in the garden out back. Guess what we're eating these days? Eggs (from all the chickens), zucchini and yellow squash (from Levi), cherry tomatoes (from our garden), potatoes (from the boys' gardens), and whatever else comes our way from their jobs.

These two good friends came to visit us Sunday morning. We thought the "heart" potato added a touch of romance to their photo.

Josiah sold over $100 worth of chickens this weekend, so he purchased a small incubator. We'll see how it goes (and pray that it goes well).

Sunday evening we went preaching in 3 camps: an apartment complex with Hispanic migrant workers, a Hispanic/Haitian camp, and a Hispanic/Jamaican camp. We had such a good time, although we were a bit hoarse at the end from all the singing and translating...

The woman in the blue shirt came up afterwards weeping, asking for prayer. It was a heart-breaking time for all of us. Please pray for Dorca.

This man and the shirtless man behind him were extremely drunk and "preached" with us the entire time. It's so sad to see how the devil destroys; on the other hand, it's wonderful to see how Christ brings life (and life more abundantly).

This Haitian man knew us from another camp. He ate in our home last year, and we were so excited to see each other again. He and Mean Ol' Mama sang quietly together the Creole song that he taught her last year.

Yes, it was getting dark, but this camp on the way home was packed with men just sitting around, and we couldn't just drive by without stopping to sing for them, share the Word, and hand out free Bibles and candy. They were happy to see us and were so receptive.

Another busy week coming our way...

Much Too Bizzy...Dizzy...Crazy...NOT Lazy!!!

Josiah bought Mean Ol' Mama this beautiful geranium because...well, because she's soooooo mean... Branch and The Girl have been eagerly reading, reading, reading because the local library is sponsoring a summer reading program with incentives (a.k.a. prizes!). They have faithfully recorded every book that each has read in May. Now on to June and July... Poppins purchased an adult-size pedal go-cart for Mean Ol' Mama. The kids have really enjoyed it, and Mean Ol' Mama? Well, she has enjoyed watching the kids...[ahem...]...

Anders bought a new bicycle, and he's quite stylish with his own set of wheels. We're working towards a Family-on-Wheels Night. Stay tuned in the next few days to see what Mean Ol' Mama's going to be riding...

Anders, Josiah, and Pop sold chickens and rabbits Saturday morning. They have nice signs further down the road for advertisement, and it's fun to visit with the people who stop by.

Loading up the animals for sale...

We had 3 wonderful meetings Sunday evening. The first one was in the rain, so we didn't get out all the instruments. This was at a Mexican camp.

Next we visited a Haitian camp where we could be under shelter. They really enjoyed receiving a free French Bible. Such sweet ladies...

And we finished up at another Mexican camp. They were so kind.

Dr. Peter and his family stopped by for a visit. He spent time with Branch discussing a common interest: homing pigeons.

His daughters spent time with The Girl enjoying their common interest: bunnies.

We've had a very, very busy week. Mean Ol' Mama starts teaching again at the College tomorrow, she has a Monday/Wednesday Spanish student, Stennes is working at the U-Pick, the other boys have gardens/animals/boy stuff, and we're juggling minimal amounts of schoolwork. Mean Ol' Mama is waiting on 3 book orders to come in, and the kids are really excited about more schoolwork [...ahem...]. Gotta keep going, though.