Isn't this a beautiful picture? My friend, Heather, painted this during an all-day artfest in her kitchen. It had been a rainy couple days, so Heather decided her homeschooled children would like to spend the day doing art class. We've done that, too! Anyhow, I thought this picture was beautiful. I hope Heather puts a white matt around it inside a white picture frame. Wouldn't it look nice on the front of a notecard? Thanks for letting me share this, Heather.

Mike is teaching my youngest three children morse code. Here he is practicing with Ruthie. I guess Mike hasn't given up his dream of having his children share his love of ham radio.Mike has this noisy little thing to practice with. You can also go to this website and learn. (Actually, there are many good websites that teach it.) In an effort to please Mike, Sarah and I took a ham radio class 10+ years ago...and totally flunked it. We just couldn't understand the technical stuff...and it didn't help that we had terrible teachers.

We couldn't even do the morse code. The teacher would give us a sentence in morse code, then we'd have to write it down. Then we had to read out loud what we wrote. Yikes! I remember one time Sarah and I both got the same answer..."The tent walked up the hill." We still laugh over that one.

This is the Morse Code chart:

A . - di-dah

B - . . . dah-di-di-dit

C - . - . dah-di-dah-dit

D - . . dah-di-dit

E . dit

F . . - . di-di-dah-dit

G - - . dah-dah-dit

H . . . . di-di-di-dit

I . . di-dit

J . - - - di-dah-dah-dah

K - . - dah-di-dah

L . - . . di-dah-di-dit

M - - dah-dah

N - . dah-dit

O - - - dah-dah-dah

P . - - . di-dah-dah-dit

Q - - . - dah-dah-di-dah

R . - . di-dah-dit

S . . . di-di-dit

T - dah

U . . - di-di-dah

V . . . - di-di-di-dah

W . - - di-dah-dah

X - . . - dah-di-di-dah

Y - . - - dah-di-dah-dah

Z - - . . dah-dah-di-dit

This is one of Lizzie's two muscovy ducks. I am having a hard time with her (the duck) being on my porch. She's making a mess of it. I don't know how to train her to roost in the trees like she's supposed to.

This Sunday, my Dad's Virginia church is collecting donations to take to the two local indian reservations. These two tribes are the Mattaponi and Pamunkey, and are the oldest reservations in this country. So tomorrow, Dad is coming to take my children shopping since Dad signed up for the only thing left on the list...underclothes for all ages. We've been joking about "unmentionables" ever since:-) Dad figures my children would know more about buying such things.

Dad's church will be having a special speaker, Sharon Suneagle to come and share with the congregation. Should be exciting!

Tonight we had thunderstorms for the second night in a row. We even got a call from the local government to warn us of the severity of the storms. Wow!

Enjoy the season. Many blessings ~ Kathie