The Walnut Acre Daily - Moving, Gathering Eggs, Model Building and More

What a long day!

The weather today was beautiful and according to the forecast it looks like we're going to see a big cool down starting tomorrow. I took this picture standing in front of our garage looking across our back yard toward the mountains. On the left you can see a little of our house.

We started off this morning by going to help a friend who is getting ready to move. Since she's going to be moving to a smaller place she needed to clear out a lot of things. We loaded two trailer loads of things, most of which went to the landfill. We also did some cleaning while we were there. CJ and Amanda both worked hard and were a great help. Amanda helped go through the two little girls rooms and get things sorted and organized. CJ helped to carry things out to the trailer to haul away and also did a lot of sweeping in the basement. We got there around 10:00 this morning and we got back home around 3:00 this afternoon. We ate a big breakfast this morning and didn't stop for lunch, so on my way home I stopped at McDonald's and got a big bag of burgers, chicken sandwiches and fries for us to eat when we got home. I knew everyone would be hungry and I really didn't feel like trying to cook another big meal. 

After we got home and relaxed a little Amanda, CJ, Michael and I went down to my parents house and Amanda gathered the eggs and fed the cat. My parents have been on vacation this week so Amanda has been taking care of the animals for them.

Michael and Doug spent some time working on the little wooden garage they are building for Michael's toy cars and trucks.

CJ made himself a set of shelves from cardboard boxes to store his papers on. He's letting it dry overnight and planning to test it tomorrow to see if it's strong enough for what he wants.

And now it's time to get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a pretty full day. Church in the morning and it will be my first Sunday teaching a class. It's grades 3-5 and it should be interesting. I've taught before but most of the time it's been the PreK/K class. I'm looking forward to it. Then tomorrow afternoon is choir practice. It will be this season's first practice of our Christmas music and it should be fun. Tomorrow evening there is a prayer meeting. So it will be a full day!

The Walnut Acre Daily - Tuesday May 8, 2012

Walking With the King

Now we ask you brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:12, 13

MORE HERE

We Are Learning

We are continuing with the Pretty Bugs theme as we will all week and possibly next week as well. We read our stories, songs and reviewed our memory verse that goes with this theme and then played a Pretty Bugs memory game.

We also worked on our Bb worksheets from here.

We Are Reading

Two of the books the kids chose for me to read to them today are 

One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss 

and Read to Your Bunny by Rosemary Wells.

Homemaking Joys

Once again not much to report here. So far this week I'm barely keeping up with the basics. In fact, this evening Doug cleaned up the playroom for me because I just couldn't seem to get to the end of the work. Thank you, Dear.

And my kitchen still needs help. I should run another load of dishes in the dishwasher. But I'm too tired and it's not going to happen. And it's okay, they'll still be there in the morning.

In the Kitchen

We had pizza bread and fruit for lunch.

For dinner I made baked chicken with cheese sauce

salad with lettuce and radishes from the garden

 boiled radishes with butter

and macaroni and cheese. 

The boiled radishes were a new dish for us and both Doug and I really liked them. I had read a suggestion that putting a little lemon juice in the water when I boil them would help them keep their color but I forgot to do it. I simply boiled them with water and a little salt until they were tender. After I drained the water I added some butter and let it melt before I served them. This simple recipe is one I will definitely be making again. 

In the Garden

I finally got to work in the garden again today. 

I cut some of the lettuce that is growing like crazy.

I also pulled a LOT of radishes and also thinned out two rows of radishes that are coming along.

Now if I can just get to some of the weeds that are growing almost as fast as the lettuce and radishes I'll be glad. 

On Our Nature Walk

We continued our bug theme today on our nature walk. Khristian picked up several rocks that had interesting ant nurseries underneath them. We watched them for awhile and then carefully placed the rock back over them so they would be safe. It was interesting to watch the ants scurry to carry the larva somewhere safe as soon as the rock was moved.

We also found a spot we hadn't explored before and had fun finding the little "secret clearing" and "secret doorways" in it.

Other Outdoor Fun

We had a lot of other fun outside today as well.

Like climbing trees . . .

. . . finding caterpillars . . .

. . . and robin's egg shells . . .

. . . and just simply running as hard and fast as possible.

Doug even had the "fun" of changing the oil in all three vehicles this evening after he got home from work. He has recently become an AMSOIL dealer and since the vehicles were due for oil changes he ordered AMSOIL.

Out and About

Since my parents are on vacation this week they asked if I would gather the eggs while they are gone. This morning Amanda and I took the little kids down there and let them watch the chickens and play while I gathered eggs.

Oh, and Amanda told me that she'd better not be in any of these pictures so, like any good mother would, I took one while she yelled at me to stop!

Here are the eggs I gathered today. The six in the top row are duck eggs. We've never had duck eggs before and I'm looking forward to trying them.

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