New Dress

Serenity’s got a new dress we bought for her on ebay. She was in need of a few dresses. We have been trying to slowly replace the girls clothes with more modest dresses and skirts. They are hard to find at yard sales and such. We found this “Hanna Anderson” dress on ebay. I like the brand and it is a nice blue corduroy. The length and style was just right. She was very happy with it.

She was more than happy to model it with everyone. She likes to have her picture taken as it is, but add in a new dress and she is happy to pose for all the pictures she can get you to take.

It would be nice to stumble on to a batch of jumpers, dresses and skirts this summer, we will be on the look out at all the yard sales, and I will have to get the sewing machine going once we get the garden in. This is a busy time of year to be sure.

Vision Playing And Her Rocking Toy

Vision had a lot of fun playing on this rocking toy of hers. She likes getting in and out of it by her self. She has been walking more steps on her own too. She can walk, we know it, she just needs to know it.

New Clothesline

Our new clothesline we put in has been a project that has been a very welcomed sight to see come to completion. We have hung our clothes on lines inside since we moved here. Last summer was so wet that even if we had an outdoor clothesline we wouldn’t have been able to use it much. We had a backhoe out to our home the other week to do several projects at once. One of these was to put our post in place to hang our clotheslines on.

We were glad to be getting some more hanging space, and glad to have a hoe to do the digging to get it done. The gravel here is very tough. Above you can see the backhoe bringing the pole over and digging the holes. We made the holes four feet deep so it will be a very solid pair of poles. The poles are nine to ten feet long, allowing five to six feet above ground. Jason held them in place while they packed the dirt back in.

When the poles were placed about 25 feet apart, Jason cut notches into the top of the poles to hold a pair of eight foot long 2×4’s. He used his saws-all (reciprocating saw) to cut the notches but he said a small chain saw may have been easier. Once the notches were cut he used several log screws to hold the 2×4’s in place as seen below. Then he used a 3/8 drill bit to drill the holes to thread the lines about twelve inches apart.

Judah helped Dat (Jason) thread the lines. We had enough clothesline already to do most of it but need just a little bit more to get the last two lengths done. When finished we will have eight lines 25 feet long. But for now it is nice to have the six lines.

We got to use it as soon as it was finished. Every one thought it was great fun to help hang clothes on the new lines. Lets hope the excitment doesn’t wear off to soon.

PS~ Judah helped to take a lot of these pictures. He is a good camera helper.

Vision Pooh Bear

Here is a picture collection of Vision O’YHWH in her Pooh Bear out fit. She wasn’t happy with the hood at first, but she finally left it on long enough for a few pictures. She is one year old in these pictures.

New Window

We installed a window into our addition, giving us a lot more light and a better view of the world. When we built our addition we used the former living room window location and header for a door way from the old living room area (now our dinning room) into our  new living room in the addition. We were getting all to close to winter when we were finishing the addition. In fact is was already snowing. So we removed that window at he last moment possible keeping all our heat. A location in the addition had already been picked for the window to be relocated to, but it was now to cold to do so. We framed in the header and window opening and placed insulation in the hole and sheathed over it from the outside, as if there was no window. Then we put the window up for safe keeping. That catches you up to where we are in this post.

We laid the window out on the kitchen table and used our pocket knifes to trim all the spay foam, caulking and wood chips from the edges of the window where it had previously been installed. This took a bit of doing.  Anna, Judah and I all helped trim it all off and Mercy Fire help with the garbage can and picking up.

Next I cut the plastic vapor barrier and removed the insulation from the window opening. With the “Saws-All” reciprocating saw I cut the sheathing revealing our new view for the first time (above). We all had to pose for the picture below as Anna took our picture. The children all thought this was great.

We added a few more nails to the window opening, and tapped them all in real good with hammers so the window would install nice and flush. Judah got to use his hammer and help He love to help build any thing. He will be a good builder before he is grown.

Next we dry fitted the window making sure the window fit well in the opening. Then it was time to caulk the opening and place the window. Anna did a great job climbing the ladder and helping to place the window with me, and holding it in place as I got it secured into place with screws. I am very thankful for help in all of our building projects.

Judah helped staple the vapor barrier (plastic) back into place around the window. Here are a few more picture of the new window from inside and out. There is also a picture of vision crawling around as worked and one of Serenity Rose playing outside. The new window is the one by the ladder, lol.

Pasque Flowers

From the time the snow melted away (two weeks or so ago) until now there have been an abundance of Pasque flowers along the road side. They are very pretty and they are a welcomed sight because they are one of the first signs of life to come popping up through the near frozen ground each year. It is kind of odd how they seem to do so well in such rocky or gravel like areas. Here is a picture of a few Jason picked for me along the road side on our way home the other day. By the time we took a picture they were trying to close, but still pretty.

The Bishop’s Daughter and The Quilter’s Daughter

Time seems to get away from us some times, as we forget to post things like this to our blog. We read the second book in this series and didn’t get it posted until now and already we are on chapter 11 of book three.

We are now reading~

The Bishop’s Daughter

By~ Wanda Brunstetter

Daughters of Lancaster County~ Book 3

Book three deals a lot more with Alcohol abuse than I would like for a family read. But it can be toned down.

We finished reading~

The Quilter’s Daughter

By~ Wanda Brunstetter

Daughters of Lancaster County~ Book 2

Book two was a good match to the first and worth the time to read. Very enjoyable.

~Blessings~

Jason and Vision O’YHWH

Here is a picture of Jason and Vision O’YHWH that he took playing with the camera the other day (on Mothers Day). Vision will turn one year old this week. Hard to believe it is just about a year since we brought her home.

~Blessings~

Happy Mothers Day

We hope all of you who are mothers have a Happy Mothers Day with your family. We here would like to also pass along our happy greeting to all of you on this day. A day when we take time to say, “thank you” to all the wonderful Mothers in our lives.

~Blessings~

Planned Parenthood and Judy Blume

This was sent to us via email, thought I would pass it along.

I heard this on the radio news, but I looked it up on the web to see if it was for sure. It is about a statement made by Judy Blume (author of youth books).

Her suggestion for a Mother’s Day gift is to make a pledge to planned parenthood.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-talk-blumemay09,0,4908644.story

Nice to know where people stand. Sad isn’t it?