Anna and Lizzie picked 6+ cups of raspberries today. Yummy! The yellow raspberries are called KiwiGold raspberries that we bought from Starkbrothers. They have a hint of apricot. Very tasty.

I've been busy getting some projects finished. This black rack used to be outside my kitchen door. It held buckets of birdseed and duck food, leashes, birdhouses, etc. In the winter, when I have parties, I keep my iced tea, sodas, and platters cool on it. Well, it was peeling badly, so I sanded it down and painted it. I liked it so much that I determined to bring it in to my kitchen. This is how it looks. Like it? I'm not sure I do.

I'm the kind of person who rarely changes anything. My living room furniture is the only furniture I move regularly. In the fall I turn all the sofas to face the fireplace. In the spring, I turn the sofas around to maximize my space. So I really surprised everyone when I brought this rack in.

I forgot to take a picture of the cabinet I used to have in this space. This cabinet held all my blue willow, which is why I painted it blue. I found this cabinet in 1989 on the back porch of one of my Dad's houses. It was getting rained on. But I liked the glass fronts, so I sanded and painted it and screwed a bunch of cup holders in the front to hold my teacups.

For some reason I am just tired of it. Besides, it is a big dust collector.
I found this picture of it in my old house. This picture was taken in 1992. Sarah and Maggie were trying on their new Easter dresses I had just sewn. Today I washed my "Fruits of the Spirit" stones. My children made these for me almost 8 years ago. I am always afraid the paint will come off.
One last finished project ~ I sewed a cover for Ruthie's covered wagon lamp. She likes it so much that she wants to unscrew the bulb so she can play with the wagon with her dollhouse toys.

For those of you who live nearby, I am giving away two things. This set of porcelain (4 pieces) has been stored for 25 years and I have never used it. I am offering it to anyone with no strings attached. If you would like to give it away or sell it, that's fine by me. I just don't use it. I am not a porcelain and china gal, more a pottery and stoneware hoarder. This has been taken ~ thanks!

Secondly, I am giving away this pool light for above ground pools. We barely used it one season. We have a problem with bats diving into our pool after sunset, so we get all our swimming done in the daytime. Works wonderfully for our 16x32' pool. Just send me an email if you'd like it. If you go to my church, I will bring it on Sunday. Otherwise it all goes to the thrift shop.

It looks like our picnic this Saturday will be more of an open house with people coming and going all day. Many folks will be party hopping. Fine by me! If you'd like to come by, please do.

Many blessings ~ Kathie

Mud fun! I'm not sure what started this, I just know that my three youngest children had a lot of fun playing in the mud today. It is muggy outside, so I'm sure it feels good. The pool temp is 77...probably the same temp as the water coming from the hose. Sure brought back wonderful memories of the mudhole we had at River Valley Ranch. I wonder if they still have it.

This afternoon we dug up our first 4 cups of fingerlings for dinner ~ yummy! They are just as good as I remember. For dinner we had leftover slaw, leftover salad, leftover stirfried rice and veggies, leftover garlic bread, and fingerlings. Perfect!

Maggie's chiropractor from Texas called and asked us to start Maggie on regular Posture Pump therapy. This is an effort to put the curve back in Maggie's neck bones. So every evening Maggie lies like this while we pray.
Here's the demonstration of how the posture pump works. There are 2 versions, one for lower back and one for neck. Some people use both. I'll let you know how Maggie does with it.

We got 30 seconds of light rain this afternoon. We're hoping to get a little more with the second round later tonight. If you'd like to join my young'uns in their mud fun, come on over. I'm sure they'd welcome you!

Many blessings ~ Kathie

Today was a fun day for us. One of Sarah's friends from work, Chrissy, came to church. Chrissy brought her hubby and two young children. We invited them to stay after church and eat dinner with us. We also invited another family with five children so there would be playmates for everyone. It was so nice to eat dinner with babies!

Of course, in the rush of preparing dinner, I forgot to take pictures. We had the usual...Texas brisket, sourdough rolls, green beans and mashed potatoes. I forgot to take the slaw out of the fridge! For dessert we had chocolate chip cookies and sourdough chocolate cake. Nothing new, just all my old standbys.

Since it was too far to come home before returning for evening church, we played badminton, sang through "Camp Kookawacka," and watched a DVD from the girls' week at camp. It was fun.
Ruthie pulled a pew up to the piano and played through her repertoire.
At some point, most of us went back to the teen room and took a nap.

Here's Sarah. Allen and Mike were playing chess.

When we got home, I made two loaves of sourdough bread in my new cast iron loaf pan. It was delicious. The cast iron made the crust crustier and the inside chewier. Just perfect!

This is our last week of vacation. It's a busy week for Mike...30 hours of teaching. We are back in drought condition. No rain for 2 weeks. We have a slight chance for a light shower tomorrow, then no sign of rain until Thursday. Our raspberries seem to like the drought since they are larger and tastier than usual.

Pastor's sermon today was very thought-provoking. It was about the consequences of a nation that embraces homosexuality. He taught us that Sodom and Gomorah didn't turn wicked overnight.

Many blessings ~ Kathie

The Wilds

Anna and Maggie left very early last Monday morning to go to a Christian camp called The Wilds in the mountains of North Carolina. Our church sent 19 teenagers with 3 adult chaperones, in 2 church vans. They finally downloaded all their pictures, so I'll share a few with you.
The area of Brevard, NC, is beautiful. I always enjoy going to the mountains.

This is a typical scene.
This is the main lodge. There are 95 steps leading down to the cabins where they stayed. These 95 steps are the butt of many jokes and skits.
Here are the girls with their counselor, Julia.
The lake is beautiful. When I went (30+ years ago), this lake was a neon green because it had just been dug, and the sulfuric content was high. It looks nicer being natural. Okay, I've shown you how beautiful this place is. Now to show you some of the many activities. This is a relatively new slide. The old one allowed you to slide up to 60 mph and ended in a cold, mountain spring. This newer slide is slower and ends more happily.
This is looking straight up the mountain on one of the many hikes.

The Wilds has 4 waterfalls. Those of you who have been here will be sad to know that they finally closed Waterfall #3 because it was deemed too dangerous. I remember all four hikes being perilous...!
The children got to jump off one of the rocks and swim. Anna got nervous one day when there was thunder while they were hiking and swimming.
The bottom of the camp has a large U-shaped creek for tubing. This was one of my favorite memories.

Here's a massive volleyball game.

Here's some of the staff doing western music. Lots of cowboy influence here!

Of course, the skits were fun (and western!).

There were some serious moments, too. Most of the teens from our church made commitments to the Lord. The teens got to hear a lot of good music throughout the week. This picture shows the permanent staff singing. Anna said there was a time when all 141 counselors sang, as well as when the counselors plus all the workers sang. The Wilds is synonymous with good music. One of the new activities this year is the putt putt golf.

Here's the giant swing. This was a favorite for everyone...even the staff.

Brittany enjoyed the arts and crafts shack.

This is Anna on the land trolley (as opposed to the two water trolleys).

Here's archery. This is a picture of the counselor giving water safety instructions.

Here's another skit. Can you tell how much fun this is?!

Two of our church families have already signed up for family camp next year. I'm hoping our family can go to the Music Camp in January 5-9th, 2009.

My girls had fun, and they're glad they went on the trip. They enjoyed the fun activities as well as all the great teaching/preaching. We are thankful to have them back home.

Today I paid $3.54/gallon for gas. Dad paid $3.49 in VA, $3.37 in Texas. Anyone pay cheaper? It sure was nice to get a hefty check from Uncle Sam for being a "large" family. Since all our "rolling stock" is getting old, I have a feeling this check will go towards a new(er) truck and/or commuter car for Mike. We'll see.

I'm glad tomorrow is Friday. It's been a good but busy week. Many blessings ~ Kathie

This morning was Ruthie's violin lesson. She loves this time! Ruthie has also been good about practicing. I only know that her teacher is the best! She never says a negative word. And she gets quite a workout during these first months while teaching poise and position. Thanks so much, Mrs. Adina!
While Lizzie was getting her lesson, Ruthie and I walked down to the end of the street to Leonardtown's newly remodeled wharf.
This is a beautiful waterfront property with lots of seating and scenery...and nice restrooms!

There is a boardwalk that overlooks natural habitat.

Two things that I always enjoy seeing in Leonardtown are flowers, especially our state flower, the Black-eyed Susan.

And plenty of Amish horse and buggies. (I know this is a bad picture, but it's the only one we could get.)

The evenings are unseasonably cool this week, so we're trying to work in an overnighter at our local campground. But it looks like we've got too much going on. We'll see. No rain in sight for almost 2 weeks, according to the weatherman.

Today is the last day of summer vacation for the public school children. My heart goes out to them.

Enjoy your week. Many blessings ~ Kathie

Lately I have been watching eBay sales of cast iron because I'd like to buy a cast iron pie plate like this:and a cast iron loaf pan like this:

I'm willing to wait for a good deal. However, today I had fun watching another auction end.
See this Griswold divided skillet that is 8" wide? How much would you pay for this? I wouldn't pay anything...since I can't figure out why I'd want such a pan. Anyhow, some unlucky winner paid $860.00 plus $13.06 for shipping! So if you have one of these in your cupboards, get it out and list it! Click here for the auction page to see the details.

For a few trivia facts about this auction, the bids were pretty much between 2 buyers, then at the last minute, a third buyer appeared and sniped it. Actually, the buyer posted his winning bid with 3 seconds left! You can read all about it by clicking here to read the bidding history.

Today Ruthie and I had to go to the library and the health food store, so of course we had to go to the nearby thrift shop. We came out with a bagful for 86 cents! See the little crock? It was covered in paint, so I got out my trusty turpentine and cleaned it all off. Not bad...2 crocks in one week! I took a picture of both crocks so you could see how little the new one is (1 pint).

Today on our local website, http://www.somd.com/, someone was giving away baby scorpions! I thought they looked fascinating. So what do you call baby scorpions? Scorplings! Yes, it's true.

Maggie and Anna are due home any moment, so there is a lot of excitement around here.

I am reading the book of Malachi this week. It is really interesting. You know the well-known verse, "And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children..."? Well, that's the last verse of the book of Malachi. I went to my usual commentary website and printed out the concise version (versus the complete version) so that it is handy when I'm reading. Click here to see what I mean.

Have an enjoyable Sunday. Our dinner guests for tomorrow just canceled, so I guess it'll be lowkey around here.

Many blessings ~ Kathie