Granny Miller Challenge--Food and Water

Food

We ate well during the weekend. I think, the main reason we did, was that we menu-planned to the nth degree--kind of like we would have if we were taking a trip. It helped us to stay focused and organized to already have the decisions made. I wonder how that would work in any sort of a long term situation, because I know that I am often hit or miss on meal planning on a day to day kind of a basis. (Note to us: work on being more consistent with menu planning, so the habit is there when the need is.)

For dinner Friday evening, we had planned Vegetable Beef (venison) Stew. Plan A was to cook it in wood-fire coals, but Owen worked with a neighbor off the farm and it rained, so we cooked inside on the propane cooktop instead. We all became fans of the long butane lighters over the weekend and laughed at ourselves for turning off burners and trying to light them by the knobs, without any flame.

Saturday morning, we had planned coconut flour pancakes and homemade, homegrown pork sausage with eggs. We thought it would be handy to use an old-fashioned hand-powered hand mixer to mix the pancakes, but it turned out the whisk was much more effective with a batter. The sausage was easier to make than I thought it would be (I used this family favorite recipe from Alton Brown, and used 2 and a half pounds of already-ground pork.) I used an old cookbook holder from the farmers' market box and really learned to appreciate how much easier it is to read from a cookbook or recipe binder that is propped up in a holder and lit with a lamp on the counter. We cooked the pancakes and sausage over the coals outside. Owen and Becca set up the awning to protect us from rain and Owen's Boy Scout fire-making experience kept us in plenty of hot coals. It was hard work to bend and cook over fire just a foot off the ground. The cook cooks just as much as the food does! We decided to leave off the eggs. The pancakes were egg-y enough and plenty filling with the sausage.

We wondered aloud if homemakers of bygone days wore a towel over their shoulder with 'designated spots' for different 'messes'. Perhaps they wet one end and used one corner to wipe their hot, cooked face, and the other wet corner to wipe off dirty hands. Maybe they saved the dry end for wiping only what was clean, like washed hands. We decided that cooking over the fire is almost too difficult and time consuming for everyday meal preparation. We will be improving our dutch oven cooking skills, learning and trying pit-roasting, looking into making and using a solar oven. In the long run, we'd like to build an outdoor stove and wood-fired oven that will allow us to cook in a more upright position without our faces directly over the fire.

Saturday lunch was more of a snack... rice cakes on hand with hummus or egg salad or pb. It made for a nice break in the day and we visited at the table as no one was distracted.

Saturday supper Hannah and Owen worked together over the fire again. We had pork ribs--they had already par-cooked so they warmed over the fire mopped with sauce, foil-wrapped potatoes cooked in the coals, we had sauerkraut that had fermented in our crock (as a side note, the kraut we have made with homegrown cabbage has been much more flavorful to us than that which was made with boughten cabbage), and broccoli steamed on the stove inside. Dessert was dutch oven-baked applesauce hung over the fire.

Sunday breakfast was home-made yogurt, apples or bananas. The yogurt had already been made using a heating pad for incubating. We talked about options for making homemade yogurt without power. One idea would be to place the yogurt in jars in a cooler and adding some jars of warm water to keep the cooler warm. Perhaps this could be done in an oven as well.

Sunday 'lunch', after church was eggs, bacon, refried beans, corn tortillas, salsa, avocado, lettuce. We cooked inside on the propane cooktop (and wondered how many butane lighters or boxes of matches we should keep on hand).

Sunday supper was our celebration meal. We hand-churned coconut milk ice cream, and popped popcorn on the stove. We agreed we had survived the weekend very well, indeed.

The next post will be about Water. I think it will take longer than I originally thought...

A new hobby...

Last weekend we did the Granny Miller challenge. It was a great weekend for us. We learned a great deal and agree with Granny Miller that everyone learns so much more from a hands on experience. We sure did.

It seems that some level of preparation has always been important to us. I grew up in a home that had a stocked pantry (even though we didn't grow our own food, my mom always had the next boxes of cereal, bottles of catsup, cans of tuna and bars of soap in a closet in our hall bathroom). Vern grew up in Minnesota and his mom always had extras in a closet in case they were stuck at home after a snow storm. We have generally carried that with us and expanded on it some. In our first country home in Minnesota, we expanded on the idea more. Since we have moved to our current country place, we are sometimes overwhelmed with how much more we seem to need to expand our skill set.

When we read about the Granny Miller Challenge Weekend, we pretty much all agreed that we should give it a try and test out just how prepared we are for a power outage. We altered the plan a little to suit our family.

For our first challenge weekend, we intentionally chose a weekend that would likely be neither too hot nor too cold. We left the power running to the fridge and the freezers. We also used power to process 18 roosters that have been needing to be culled. We used power to run the well pump for water and the plucker. We do know how to process chickens by hand, and realistically, if we had no power for freezing, we would not process 18 chickens at a time anyway.

In general, we would all say that the Granny Miller Challenge weekend for us was like having all the benefits of camping (reduced stress, time together, minimal interruptions, quiet...) without the negatives (we weren't in a leaking tent when it rained, we slept in our own beds, we didn't have to haul a flash light down to the bath house for a middle of the night run.)

Over the next several posts, I plan to cover more specifics in the areas Granny Miller recommends:

1. Food and Water
2. Shelter
3. Clothing/linens/laundry
4. Hygiene/toilet
5. Recreation/communication
6. Miscellaneous
7. Review/what next?

If you have any general questions, please comment and I will try to address them as I work through the list. Please feel free to share your own helpful tips!

I kissed shampoo (and conditioner) good-bye!

(with apologies to Josh Harris)

If you don't already think I am nuts, you probably will soon.

I gave up shampoo. And conditioner. I haven't bought any for myself in over three months. And it is summer in Georgia.

I had read a number of things about shampoo and conditioner replacements and about how toxic commercial hair care products can be. And I thought I should do something. BUT, I live in Georgia, for goodness sake, and people SWEAT here. AND I have frizzy curly hair. HOW would I EVER make it without CONDITIONER. I was sure I would be one big, permanent, oily frizz ball.

Then my friend, Millie, mentioned her no 'poo method. And that she has frizzy hair--or did, before she kissed shampoo and conditioner good-bye. And I was convinced that I at least needed to give this a chance.

So, I took my empty tight-wad, unhealthy shampoo and conditioner bottles and rinse them with warm to hot water until I was sure nothing was left.

I filled my shampoo bottle 1/8th full of baking soda, added warm water, replaced the squirt top and shook to dissolve the soda. (Some like to add some essential oil or herbs for fragrance, but the next step makes that moot for me, so I just do the soda and water).

I filled my conditioner bottle 1/3 full of real apple cider vinegar, then added water to fill. No need to shake, but be sure to put the squirt top back on. It will be handy in the shower.

When I shower, I wash my face and neck first, especially if I've been doing 'dirty work'. Then I squirt the Soda wash all over my head and hair. I rub in around in my scalp with my fingertips, just like it was shampoo. Some say it sort of suds for them. I haven't seen or felt any suds. I wash down my hair with my fingers and then rinse... rubbing with my fingertips. The AMAZING thing is that my hair squeaks! and feels clean. One time, after a particular sweaty and dirty garden work day, I had to wash a second time. I knew this because after rinsing, my hair didn't have the squeaky clean feel like it should.

After rinsing the wash out, I squirt the hair rinse (water and vinegar) all over my hair. You don't want this in your eyes! I rub it around in my hair and then let it sit while I wash up and do whatever I need to do! When I am all done washing up, I rinse my hair thoroughly.

Only one time did I think I smelled like vinegar, but Vern said he didn't smell it.

My hair is softer than it's ever been. I can actually brush through it, which I usually cannot do because it is so thick, coarse and frizzy.

I always have baking soda and apple cider vinegar on hand, so it is easy to make up... and it is very inexpensive. I'm also confident that I'm not adding any extra toxins to my body.

Now if I can just win over the rest of the family!

(Notes: I did read somewhere that if you use henna, the vinegar is not compatible with that.)

Do you have any budget-friendly, natural ingredient recipes for hair care products that can be made at home?

An herbal giveaway

Much to the chagrin of the doctors who work with James, and think that my daughter, Hannah, should go to medical school (or, at the very least, nursing school), Hannah would rather take a class about herbs... and maybe be an herbalist.

This giveaway could help her move in that direction!

What country children do when they don't have a swingset

Earlier this year, Vern got a nice hoist so we can pull up our own hogs and cows when we process them. We had, at Christmas time, done our first hog all ourselves and found it nearly impossible to lift it up to scrape and gut. So now we are ready for the next time.

Vern and Owen like to think ahead (or so they say :*), I think they just like to play with their new toys!) so they hung the hoist in the carport to practice with.

And our country children put the hoist to work, giving carnival-like rides to anyone in the family that wanted one!

The wall, part 1

Since we moved into our house--just about 2 years and 2 months ago--we have had one big wall that is still studs. Our hope, when we built, was to cover the wall with some sort of stained wood and build bookshelves on most of it.

Thanks to a very generous Christmas gift, we finally started! Vern wanted to put insulation in the wall between the living room and bedroom to dampen the sound.

Pictures below show the first steps. (I'll put up more once we get them downloaded from the camera.) I really enjoyed watching and listening to Vern and Owen work together. My heart longs for the day when they can work together all the time!

Wordless Wednesday

Nuts and leaves

Last year, we raked up a good bit of leaves from a friends place. They have pecan trees and leaves are plentiful. We thought we had nearly gathered a lifetime supply of leaves, but it turns out we could have used four or five times as many as we collected.

A cousin in Minnesota has the richest garden soil we have ever seen. She attributes her fine soil to the addition of large amounts of leaf and leaf mold over the winter. The leaves degrade and become great soil and the leaves on top are mulch, keeping in moisture and keeping out weeds.

Since our goal is ultimately for our garden to be like Cousin Marian's, we started implementing the leaf plan. We noticed a difference in our soil this year and bugs were not near the problem they were last year!

So, we set out this fall to collecting as many leaves as we could. We were filling lawn and leaf bags, but decided it was more efficient to use a friend's trailer. We've raked hauled and spread more than 40 leaf bags and six trailer loads of leaves!

We also found nuts (heart nuts and acorns) which we shared with our hogs.

The flower bed is in need of pine straw. So I guess we'll be looking to rake up a trailer load of that soon, too!

Glorious eggs!

Eggs have been in really short supply around here. In the fall, as the daylight time gets shorter, the hens slow down their egg production. We didn't even talk about supplementing them with light this year. We completely forgot about it.

In addition to shorter daylight, the hens go into a moult--they shed their feathers and grow new ones. Feathers are made of protein, so when the hens are growing more feathers, there isn't enough protein to make many eggs on top of new feathers.

This year egg production dropped a lot more than I was anticipating and we have only been getting one or two eggs a day! For a while, a dozen eggs was costing about $7 in feed!!! Recently, egg-laying got better (we think they are finished growing out their new feathers) and we are getting three to four eggs a day. We were able to save up enough eggs to have them for dinner. What a wonderful treat!

Katie made several batches of Mexican Roasted Potatoes (these have become a real family favorite) and we cooked up a big batch of homemade bacon from our homegrown pork. Most of us had poached eggs. Vern prefers his fried and I got this photo of these wonderful looking egg yolks!

We're already talking about what kind of egg meal we'd like to have when we've saved up enough eggs for another one!

Preserving the Harvest: Okra

The first time I remember eating okra was when we stayed with the Clayton family. Mrs. Julie pan-fried breaded okra and it was really good! On Sunday, Momma and Daddy went to see our neighbors down the road (who have a beautiful garden!). While Momma and Daddy were there, the Dominy's gave them a grocery bag of okra. I wasn't sure at first how I wanted to freeze it. In the end, I just sliced it, blanched it and froze it on a tray in the freezer. I kinda regretted slicing the okra before I blanched it because it was, in the words of a friend, 'mucous-y'! But it broke up okay in the gallon bag. Now we have a gallon of okra to use this winter and I'm looking forward to using the okra in soups and casseroles.

Hannah

The Lone (St)ranger

James got a toy gun, holster, cowboy hat and mask for Christmas (the children got together with Daddy to make this work).. Becca donated one of her bandanas. The pony came from neighbors awhile back. Then he would only sit on the horse if it were inside a large box. Now he'll climb on the horse to watch his favorite cowboy shows.

For Christmas, the little three got a wagon. James is learning to pull it around. Becca is helping him out.

Notice the shorts, short-sleeved shirt and sock-free outfits... This is December. It did get colder in January.

Love, Stephanie

A funny thing

Today we took two pounds of jalapeno peppers we harvested from our garden and made nearly 100 Jalapeno Poppers. We had read several stories about the importance of wearing gloves while seeding jalapeno peppers and so we heeded that advice.

After seeding the peppers, we saved them in a small bowl to rinse them off in the sink before proceeding with the next recipe step. When I rinsed the peppers, I was looking intently to be sure I rinsed away ALL the seeds. Then I felt a vapor come over my face and inside my nose and the back of my throat began to burn.

The really weird thing is that I then got laryngitis. Now my voice is pretty much gone.

Never heard of that one before!

The popper recipe turned out pretty well... We found that one recipe of filling actually stuffs two pounds of jalapenos. It's worth the extra effort for triple dipping, but we thought the peppers were a little too crunchy. To test: 1)will freezing and warming the poppers in the oven sufficiently soften the peppers?; or 2) should we blanch the peppers before filling?

Stay tuned.

Fried eggplant

Our eggplant in the garden have been incredibly productive this year. It's a good thing we like eggplant!

In preparation for Hannah's birthday celebration, we made fried eggplant.




Eggplant in the garden basket. This is a Japanese eggplant. I had wanted to get seeds for the bigger Italian eggplant, but they weren't available when I needed them. In the end, we were glad for the smaller eggplant...it just takes more.




Slice 1/2" thick.





Dip in milk, then in a mixture of flour, salt and pepper.




Dip in egg, then seasoned breadcrumbs. We made ours.




Fry in oil. Drain on paper towel. Salt, if desired. Serve on a platter with Marinara Sauce and pretend you are at the Olive Garden--only it's better and cheaper! :*)


We will freeze some to have on hand for 'special meals' as an appetizer.

Country living

Tomorrow Vern and Owen are planning to do some burning and work on re-clearing the line, Lord willing. A bulldozer comes in handy for that kind of work. Especially when you can borrow it from a neighbor. In order to save time, Owen and I walked over to the neighbor's to pick up the bulldozer this afternoon. The walk over was reasonable. The walk and ride back took more than twice as long.

When we picked up the 'dozer, we also picked up Owen's tricycle--Carrie has been asking for it. The tricycle rode back in the bulldozer bucket.

On the way home, our neighbor, Quincy, stopped us and said, "That's a mighty expensive piece of equipment to use to carry a tricycle."

Life around here-a visual

Back in July, our neighbor loaned us her spare camera. The children went crazy taking pictures of life and things around our little homestead.

Yesterday, I was finally able to upload some test photos to Picasa--our online photo sharing server. So I uploaded the photos the children took into an album for your viewing pleasure.

You can see them here if you like.

The trouble with the church

This evening while we were getting ready for supper and welcoming Vern home, we looked outside to see a couple of the hens poised, like they were either ready for a fight or finishing one up. One of the hens was a White Rock, the other was a golden-colored Buff Orpington. It was a tense moment and they were maintaining the pecking order.

Then one of the children said, "Momma, the chickens are fighting...or they were... they're done now... they were different denominations."

Grateful

We have had a very busy and blessed month this June. We have so many BIG things to be grateful for in addition to all the little, everyday things.

James...
...continues to do well. His counts continue to be good, but not too good, and the side effects from his chemo seem to be relatively minimal. Developmentally, he is moving along in a number of ways. He LOVES to help and he seems to really like order (not that he is always orderly, but he seems to prefer things to be more orderly rather that more chaotic!). His two favorite things to help with are laundry and emptying the dishwasher. He is really good at putting away the serving forks and spoons and the forks and knives. He does get confused with the spoons. We think this is because there are two places for spoons--they are separated by teaspoons and soup spoons--and he doesn't yet have a concept of the difference between 'big' spoons and 'little' spoons. He also likes to help put laundry into the washer (it's a front loader--yes, we really like it) and to take it out and put it in a basket to go out to the clothesline.

A few days ago, I was working in the livingroom and needed something from the diningroom. I was on my knees on the floor, so I looked around to see who was close by that could bring me what I needed with less effort than would be required to get up and get it myself (in other words, I was being lazy). James was the only child nearby and I was so glad to see a positive teaching opportunity! (then I didn't feel so bad about being lazy). I told James what I needed and asked him if he could get it for me. He said, "Mm," with a quick nod and swaggered off with purpose. He went straight for the item in need, picked up and swaggered back, delivering it with a definite pride and sense of purpose! I was tickled. He never ceases to amaze and he is such a delight to watch. I love to see him discover things that I wondered if he would ever do or notice.

The Homestead

During the past month, my dad offered to contribute enough to allow us to purchase the siding for the outside of our house (it has been wrapped in various brands of 'Tyvek-type' paper). It wasn't long before the siding was delivered and a local friend/builder sent his crew over to get the first side of the house finished (our friend and my dad have both been concerned about this 'weather' side of the house not being finished). Vern and Owen worked along with David's crew and learned a great deal. They have been able to finish the front porch (it looks GREAT!) They plan to keep working their way around the house doing all they can to get all the siding up. Having siding makes a very pleasant difference in the way the house looks. We are very grateful!

Not long after the siding got started, it was time to slaughter chickens. It's not the prettiest homesteading event of the year, but it is worth it! We really like knowing where and how our food was grown and processed.

Friends came to help and to learn and we were so very grateful they did. We got an early start to the morning and about 2-1/2 hours into the day, Vern sliced his finger sharpening his already-quite-sharp filet knife. It was a pretty deep cut. I had the worst time looking at it. With all we have been through with James, I thought perhaps I could handle it, but, alas, I have not arrived. Once I finally scraped myself up off the bed (thankfully, I didn't hit the floor, though it was close), we decided that we could leave Phillip in charge, with all the children helping and I would take Vern to the Urgent Care clinic. We tried to get into a doctor's office, but no one had space and we considered the ER as well.

The rest of the helpers and learners arrived while we were gone and everyone dove in to help. Vern was out of commission for the rest of the day (with four stitches, and instructions not to get his finger--left index) wet. We had planned to do a record 150 chickens and there was no way we could have made it without all the help! It was a longer day than we had hoped, but ended up being an immersion experience. We are very grateful to have friends who stick by us in a crisis!

My aunt lives just down the road from my mom, about 3 hours north of here. She and her husband have lived the rural life for some 40 years or so and there place is an inspiration. My aunt and my mom are both great with landscaping and if that talent is passed along genetically, you would never know it by looking at the yards we have had over the years. My aunt realized that she very much needed to divide some of her many plants this year and she was planning to toss the divisions into the woods, until she thought of me! (Hallelujah!) She mentioned her intentions of dividing plants to my mom and wondered if I could use them. My mom offered to provide all the 'filler' to complete the project and she provided lattice to provide the 'backdrop' under the front porch, some of the more 'evergreen' shrubs, soaker hose to make watering MUCH easier, some supplemental dirt and pine straw for mulch.

Then they dug up everything, loaded up my aunt's SUV (to the point that my uncle teased that it looked like the lead car in a funeral procession) and drove down to our place. They arrived Wed afternoon, emptied the car and arranged the plants. Early Thursday morning we set to work in the shade and for nearly three and a half hours we dug, planted, watered and mulched. We were all pretty excited to see the transformation and are glad to have some green life in front of the house. Now I have to take really good care of it all (green thumb that I am not). If I pass this test, they said they would bring more cuttings, divisions and volunteers in the Fall!) I am hopeful that they have made it easy enough for me to be successful!

Lord willing, I have the beginnings of a heritage here that I can pass along to my children when they begin their homes. I am grateful for the heritage of beauty I have and for a very thoughtful and generous mom and aunt.

Love, Stephanie

Grateful for your prayers

It seems like forever since I have journaled here, though I have thought about it a lot. Not long ago I was telling my mom that I was just at a point where I could do it or I could write about it. And the obvious choice was doing. So we have been doing a good deal and the Lord has been mercifully blessing.

Thursday Hannah and I took James to Atlanta for his spinal tap with IV methotrexate and vincristine. We are so grateful to all who prayed for us... I know you are still praying and we are very grateful for that too! Several folks let us know they were praying much even though they couldn't sign up for a time slot. The time is not so important as the praying and the goal is just to pray extra and especially fervently to show the Lord we are serious about our desire to see James well. A sacrifice of praise and other things, as it were.

Our drive to Atlanta was pretty uneventful (although we were a little late--they factor that into their schedule and it didn't hold anyone up). There was plenty of parking (a miracle from our view ;*)). And James didn't seem to have any trouble being hungry although he had been NPO (nothing by mouth--no food or drink) since 4 in the morning.

He had some oral versed (a sedative) and his spinal tap was uneventful. We had some trouble getting a good vein for the vincristine--such are the perils of being NPO before a procedure--but finally one of the nurses got a good vein and by then, James was done being horizontal following the spinal tap. This was the first time he didn't fall asleep! James'counts had actually improved since last week--ANC nearly 2200; Hgb 11.9 (maybe due to mild dehydration).

He did vomit some at the clinic and more on the way home. Thankfully it wasn't a lot and it was only twice, but it surprised all of us--probably James mostly. It was a little disconcerting, but nothing a little I-C-E-C-R-E-A-M couldn't settle. He did finally get a good nap on the way home and once we arrived home, he was still a little loopy and seemed to lack some muscle control.

This morning, however, he was raring to go and hasn't missed much all day today. To me, he still seems just a little off in the muscle control department. But I think it is a mom-thing and not something readily apparent to folks who don't study his motor control!

Stacy, our nurse practitioner, reminded me to take special note of James' mobility during the next while. This is the first vincristine James has had being so active and walking. Vincristine affects the nerve cells and it can often look like it is affecting muscles. She just said to keep an eye on him for his safety and to let them know how it seems to affect him.

James has had three doses of his new steroids (prednisone) and so far is doing just fine. We are keeping a close eye on his g-tube and hoping we won't be making a trip to Atlanta before our next scheduled office visit on June 12th.

In other little news around here: The Mothers' Day storm knocked out our power and we enjoyed a very quiet day at home. Some of the tornadoes hit near here (within 20 miles) and so we had no church. One of the ladies from church had significant damage to her home and barn, but she, her daughter and all their critters are safe. The insurance adjuster comes tomorrow--pray he would deal justly.

While cleaning up from the storm, Vern picked up a whopper poison ivy rash. It is getting better, but something else is coming up behind it... some sort of dermatitis, so we need to get him looked at.

We have kittens--2 mamas, 8 babies. They're really cute and it looks like some will be great, active mousers. Anyone know someone who'd like one (or more). The first batch of 3 will be 8 weeks old June 2. Their momma has already litter box trained them and they can be indoor, outdoor or both.

Vern's last day of school with students was today. Two more days of post-planning next week, then summer break (except for a three-day class). He also finished his first online college course-- a good experience overall.

Our garden is doing well, although with warmer temps come more bugs and some disease, so we are spraying some. We are curious to see how our potatoes fare. We dug up under one plant to get new potatoes and there wasn't much. Maybe we will have all leaves. Some here have had great success with potatoes and others not. The Lord really blessed our cabbage, peas and lettuce. We have agreed we need to plant LOTS more peas and broccoli in fall. We have picked some summer squash and are watching the corn (which is about ankle high), beans, tomatoes, little watermelons, cukes, peppers and eggplants.

The chickens are over on friends' land--150+ meat birds. They have about four weeks til they cool off in the freezer and they are doing MUCH better than last year. The children and I enjoy going over to chore and seeing how quickly we can move, feed and water them. We've also enjoyed picking some wild blackberries when we can. We are looking into alternative feed options to baat rising feed and gas costs.

The weather promises to be warming up here--we've had some wonderfully late cool weather up til now. With the warming weather, we will, more than likely, be spending more quiet time inside staying cool and trying not to make the house too warm! Time to catch up on some academics and some blogging, Lord willing!

Thank you again for praying with us for James. God is good all the time!

Love, Stephanie

Since I last wrote...

.... a lot of things have happened around here! Here is a sample from the last almost-month!

We celebrated Owen's 12th birthday with a work day and all the food (a BIG part of our birthday celebrations) was cooked outside over the fire. For breakfast, we have French Toast, fried eggs, sausage and orange juice to drink. For dinner, we came inside (because of a wind storm), and enjoyed Low Country Boil and Berry Cobbler with Butter Pecan Ice Cream (which was NOT cooked over the fire!).

We burned our HUGE pile of brush, cut and stacked firewood, moved dirt (lost some to a downpour), and done general land improvement.

Our garden has been growing and flourishing and we have eaten lettuce, spinach and a few peas. The broccoli is getting bigger, the cabbage is looking like a small head and the potatoes are growing like weeds! We are looking forward to eating more of 'the fruit of our hands'!

We celebrated the incredible resurrection of the Lord who has walked with us, and at times, carried us through this past year. We are grateful for the abundant life He rose to give us!

We always enjoy making Resurrection Cookies the eve of Resurrection Day. They go into the oven overnight... kind of like Jesus went into the tomb after He was crucified... and they come out as sweet, hollow treats (a reminder of the empty tomb!) in the morning! Making them is a great object lesson devotional and has become a cherished tradition for our family.

After a sweet Resurrection morning service with our church family, we spent the day at home, enjoying a traditional "Easter Sunday" dinner, candy, egg coloring and a Resurrection egg hunt (we have trinkets, representing various events of the Passion Week, that we place in plastic eggs and hide in the yard (weather permitting...and it was a beautiful afternoon for this activity!) I did realize that it is time to find more plastic eggs! They don't last forever!

The flower arrangement on the table is all from things on our little homestead that are BLOOMING!

We went to Camp Sunshine Family Camp, a special camp held for children with cancer and their families, at Camp Twin Lakes in Rutledge, GA. We were thoroughly impressed with the camp facilities. Several organizations that assist families with children with special medical needs, and other limitations, came together to start this camp to meet needs that other facilities could not. The whole camp was first class and totally accessible. We had a cabin with plenty of room for our family (it had twelve beds, 2 toilet stalls, 2 showers (one of which was wheelchair accessible) and two sinks. it also had PLENTY of windows to look out, heat (which we didn't use) and air conditioning (which we did use) and places for all James' medical supplies.)

Courtesy of Camp Sunshine, it's staff and volunteers, we did not have to cook a thing. We only bussed our tables, swept the dining area and our cabins and had a wonderful, refreshing time together. We also met some other families facing similar things with their children. The biggest blessing was that we only paid for gas to get there and a small registration fee ($25)! Thanks to the great folks at Camp Sunshine!

We enjoyed early morning fishing (and catching!)

A family hike.

Pedal-boating--we FILLED two boats!

All the children got to shoot a compound bow. Archery has been a family dream and now we know it is do-able.

We played putt-putt--some at a very relaxed pace!

The children enjoyed a rest time pillow fight, since James was all wound up and wouldn't sleep.

Until we went to the dining hall to play BINGO--because it rained.

Since Carrie's birthday was Sunday, she was given some cupcakes, some of which we enjoyed on the ride home!

Carrie Rose, our princess, turned FIVE! She enjoyed her day along with brunch, a dress up tea party (with no reading)and a picnic dinner and movie with a wonderful stacked berry trifle cake!

We celebrated a new addition to the family. For those who didn't know...

our friends, Jarod and Anna (whose wedding we came down for in January 2007) welcomed their first child, a son, named Ezekiel, in December.

Anna came to help us when Becca, Carrie and James were born. She has a special place in our hearts (so do Jarod and Zeke, now) and it was a real pleasure and privilege to have them down for dinner and a visit and to take some of our 'traditional' baby pictures. And one of Jarod's traditional family funny pictures (bottom right, below).

Hannah was a little disappointed we couldn't get the photos before April 1st so we could have done a photo with the children, Zeke and Vern and me for an April Fool's joke. Ah, well.

In addition, we had plenty of unphotographed activities. James had counts and chemo twice--his counts remain good, but not TOO good. Which is good. Vern was home for spring break this past week (which has been wonderful!) and we have gotten a lot of things moving around the homestead. We actually finished a few things!

The girls and I did some sewing for our Camp Sunshine trip. We made three jumpers (one for me, one for Katie and one for Carrie), pantalettes for play and sleeping, pajama pants for Owen and a skirt for Hannah. We are looking forward to doing more.

We also made the trip to Atlanta for James' counts and then toured Your Dekalb Farmers' Market. We hadn't been there since 1998, we think. It was quite the education and we picked up some fun-to-eat treats--including sugar cane and a coconut!

Thanks for thinking of us, for stopping by to check on us and for loving us. We treasure your notes and comments still... your prayers even more.

Have a sweet and blessed week!

Love, Stephanie

A hundred men

Most of us remember Mike Mulligan and his steam shovel. Some of us are still pretty intimately familiar with them! You may recall that Mike Mulligan always claimed that he and Mary Anne could dig in a day what a hundred men could dig in a week.

Well, on Saturday, Mr. Bruce came by to run the engine on the bulldozer and since it needed to run anyway, Mr. Bruce and bulldozer pushed over in about 20 minutes, what a hundred men could have pushed down in....well, I don't think 100 men could have pushed that tree over!

Figuring out the best place to push.
Getting some *umph* under the roots to loosen things up.

This was the exciting part (the back of the bulldozer tracks are up in the air!).

The tree is down and moving to the burn pile.

"Hey, this is kinda fun!"

In the burn pile.
Becca, Carrie Rose and James watch from a safe distance.

Mr. Bruce took the tractor home to do some work and when he brought it back, he smoothed over the dirt we had cleared of roots and pushed over another smaller clump of trees. We are blessed to be in such a generous, helpful community.

Love, Stephanie

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