I sent the boys out to get the mail, and when they brought it in, what should I see wrapped around the envelopes, but a brand new catalog from Magic Cabin!  Score!  Mom always gets first dibbs. LOL.  I take my time, immersing myself in the world of make believe - drooling over the endless variety of natural wood and wool - Waldorfian styled - timeless playthings.  Bringing back memories of sweet childhood and Montessori school.  All part of that ethereal fairy land life that I want for my children and somehow can't seem to grasp.  I cringe at the prices, yet think - this time, just this once, I'm going to go ahead and get something - maybe. :)

Then the catalog gets passed on to the children, taking turns - well mostly - perhaps an occassional snatch while the current owner is in the bathroom.  The cries, "Mom, did you see this?!"  "Oh, isn't that sweet?!"  "Hey, Mom, do think I could ever save up enough for this?!" 

It will be days and days before I find the catalog plopped in a corner, forgotten, cover half ripped off, well loved.  And then I'll pick it up and dust it off and start all over dreaming through it again. :)

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Mike and the boys made a "potato cannon" last evening.  They used lengths of pvc pipe in 2 inch and 3 inch diameters.  An adapter connects the smaller pipe to the larger one and a screw on cap with a hole drilled in it goes on the back end. 

Then they spray hairspray into the large back end and quickly screw the cap on.  A lighter is inserted into the hole and used to ignite the hairspray.  Talk about crazy! LOL

The explosion forces the missle (in this case snow) out of the cannon and into the air.

This and other fun ideas can be found in a book called Backyard Ballistics.

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Snow upon snow

The world makes no sound

In the frozen landscape

We wake to find we're snowbound

The fir boughs are bowed

right down to the ground

forming secret chambers,

treasures waiting to be found.

No plows have plowed

our country road

No way to get out -

a cozy, quiet day at home.

Light a fire in the woodstove.

Light some candles all around.

Let the wind blow all about us

We'll be snuggled in, snowbound

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Good Morn to ye!  So were my daughters greeted this morning by a woman calling herself Goodwife Smith. ;)  (aka Mom)  They were then led upon a journey through a time machine to the time of the pilgrims  A closet filled with belongings and quite a few people gave a bit of understanding to the experience upon the Mayflower.  We talked of the darkness below decks, the seasickness, the lack of showers, oh my!, the time when the great beam cracked and God provided a way to keep the ship in one piece through a great printing press screw brought by one of the men.

Next we made our way through the time machine to just a few years into the future.  Enough so that we were past the difficult times of starving and sickness, though we talked about how God had taken care of us even in those times.  Now we had good safe homes and the children were invited to join us in breaking fast.  The manservants, Terran, Micha, and Jeremiah had put together a lovely repast.  We had johnny cakes and dressed eggs.  While the children ate, Goodwife Smith read to them from a book that had come through the time machine with them - a "Landmark" book about the pilgrims at Plymoth.

Terran starting the fire

Lissa stirring the soup

As the day continued, we entered a sort of twilight zone of living half in the 1600's and half in 2007. :)  I had a violin lesson to teach, then fed the baby and then we decided to learn how to knit.  Since the girls had never knit before and the boys had not tried in years, we started with finger knitting.  They had so much fun and were so proud of their accomplishments.

A lesson from a hornbook and reading from the Good Book (King James version of course) brought us up to lunch time which was a simple meal of bread and cheese.  We had learned that the real pilgrims would probably have had their big meal then, but we wanted to save the big meal for when Daddy would be home.

Naptime is over and the girls are jumping into some more finger knitting and hand sewing.  I hope to pick the book back up and finish it before we have to get super busy with supper preparations.  We have beefsteak pie, sweetpotatoes and apples, sally lunn bread, and almond tarts planned for our menu.

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This morning after breakfast, we gathered the family around the livingroom as usual and Mike led us in worship.  We are working our way through the Bible studying the topic of faith presently, and actually have been for some time.  (There's a LOT in the Bible about faith!)  Mike asks each of the children to read at least one of the verses and then briefly expounds upon each.  Often there are words to explain as we use the King James Version for Sunday worship time.  It's been interesting noting how most of the old testament verses on faith talked about trusting God to save from physical dangers and enemies whereas now that we're in the new testament they're mostly about believing in Jesus for Salvation.  When we think of sin, spiritual death, and the devil as our ultimate enemies though, there isn't such a disparity.  Just as the old testament believers were encouraged to be still and wait upon the Lord - the battle belonged to God - so we are reminded as new testament believers that we don't have to struggle and strive.  The work is the Lord's and has already been done!

After our Bible study, Mike reads aloud the book we've been sharing - Ken Davis's "Sheep Tales".  Today we started the story of Jonah.  Ken Davis tells the story from "Glubber's" (the fish's) point of view, and we listen also to the story from the NIV bible on cd that the boys got for Christmas.

Then comes our time of praise and worship.  Each of the children chooses a song for us to sing, from Manda who goes back and forth between "This Little Gospel Light" and "This Is The Day" up to Micha who chooses with a little more variety.  Finally Mike asks for any prayer requests and closes our little service with prayer.

It may not be fancy - no pews, no organs, no pastor in a black robe - but it is church and it is the way God has led our family through Mike (our family's head) to worship since 1999.  We may not do it this way forever, but we are open to the Lord's leading in that.  We have not given up fellowship with other Christians, it just happens separately from worship time, and God has blessed us with a great deal of good Christian fellowship for which we are very thankful.  For me, I have seen that the Lord has used this time to grow our family in a way that could not happen in a corporate setting.

Worshipping in a church body does not have to be a bad thing.  But for many it is too easy to rely on someone else to spoonfeed them and their children.  Just as when we homeschool rather than using the school system, we are forced to be searching God's word for ourselves and our families all the time, and God blesses that. 

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Today was a pretty typical Saturday.  We slept in - which means I got up at 6 instead of 5:30.  LOL.  Emi was stuffy with the cold we've got going around our house, so I spent the first bit of the morning trying to use the nasal aspirator on her without waking up the rest of the household with her fighting.  By the time I'd finally sucked out enough to quiet her breathing, a few of the children were awake.  Before I knew it, cartoons were turned on.  I switch the channel from Jimmy Neutron to the do it yourself network hoping to minimize the effect on their poor little brains. 

Usually one weekend morning dh takes over making breakfast.  So this morning he made corn bread and rice pudding.  We're so spoiled.  :)  Kitchen cleanup got done in typical Saturday fashion aka slowly with many distractions.  We decided to head to town and go to Walmart for some needed items, so after dh and the boys take the trash to the dump, we get everyone organized and bundled up and off we go.

Walmart was insane.  It's been a long time since we went all together on a weekend.  Walking through the aisles with two carts - the 4mo and her car seat in one, the 2yo in the seat of the other and six other children 15 down to 5 milling around in between, you feel like you're always in the way of someone.  I don't think we'll be doing that again soon.  They didn't even have the fabric I needed.

Realizing it was already close to noon, we decided to have a "chicken feast" for lunch.  That's what the kids call it when we go to Walmart's deli and get 2 of their 8 piece deals with rolls and sides (mac and cheese and potato salad today).  So we came home, had our chicken feast, and I put the girls down for nap.  Our read aloud book is The Bobbsey Twins at Whitesail Harbor right now.  It's fun sharing my childhood favorite characters with my children.  Considering they'd fallen asleep in the van I was surprised that they actually fell asleep for nap, but I was thankful.

Our friends stopped by in the afternoon just for a bit.  It was so nice to visit!  To be honest, I have no idea what happened to the rest of the afternoon.  The next thing I knew it was time to make supper.  A light supper of sandwiches, a quick clean up, and a quiet nursing of Emi, and it was time to put the girls to bed.  They go off in pairs to brush teeth and get ready for bed and give Daddy hugs and kisses, then I go in to tuck them in and say prayers.  "Now I Lay Me", "God Bless ..." and then we sing the German prayer

Mude bin ich geht zu ruh

Schliesse meinen Auglein zu

Vater lass die Augen dein

Uber meine Bette sein.

Hab ich Unrecht Heute getan

Sieh es lieber Gott nicht an

Deine Gnad und Christe Blut

Macht ja alles Schaden gut

Now the effects of a decent nap on top of a van snooze became evident.  It's after 10 now and I *think* Manda is finally staying in her own bed.  Praise the Lord!

As I said, it's after ten and I'm fading fast.  Tomorrow comes early.  Praising God for another slow-paced Saturday.

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I've been terrible about keeping up at blogging.  Life just always seems to be so busy.  I know most people would say that's a given with eight children, homeschooling, running a home business, and just trying to keep up with homemaking, but then there are the people who seem to do it all anyway.  I've learned more and more about organization and time management over the years, but have so much more to learn.

Anyway, other than having more than our share of running around to do in the last couple of weeks, I've been working on my forever project again.  Maybe someday I'll actually get it done.  It's like that afghan that some people knit and they take it out every once in a while and then put it away again and half forget about it.  Years and years later they just might finish it - maybe.  This is that kind of project. 

I got the idea a few years ago to add a feature to my website that would allow the customer to pick out exactly the kind of dress they wanted made - this sleeve style, that bodice style, this type of skirt - the same process I go through when designing a dress basically.  I thought I'd pretty much have to design a computer paper doll program to do it, so it went on the back burner.   Then I pulled it out again and looked into getting a programmer to put it together for me.  The cost was very prohibitive.  I figured I could learn the programming language and do it myself - so I fiddled at it - and didn't get very far.  I just didn't have the time to spend on it. 

Then my son got better at game programming, so I asked him to take a stab at it.  He started, and then lost all his work on it when his computer died recently.  So, I got to thinking.  There was a way I could do it.  It just would take a very long time, but probably no longer than waiting for someone else to do it for me.  So I started. :)

I'm using html only and creating images for each and every possibility - so it's a long process,  especially with our 28k connection! - but it's coming along.  I got a lot of it done and uploaded a few weekends ago.  Now I'm working on going through all the possibilities and finding where I have broken links.  Then I need to put in the charts with prices for each size for all the final dress combinations and link those to the shopping cart.  I'd like to add a photo example of each style too.  I also have another skirt style which I'd thought I'd put in - although that means pretty much every possibility I have there already all over again and I haven't even *started* the images for those.  And there are other options I'd really like to add someday - maybe even figure out how to make it fill in colors or patterns of fabric.  But I suppose that may have to wait for programming.  Html just doesn't cut it.

Would you like to see my afghan project in progress?

It's at http://www.daddys-little-princess.com/visionstart.html

Does that make up for not having done much blogging lately?

Hopefully someday I'll be able to say it's done - unlike the real knitting projects I've tried so far. ;)

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When I was little, one of my friends had a playhouse that her dad had built in the backyard.  It was adorable, just like a little house - not the silly little tikes plastic things they have now - but a real house with shingles and siding and shutters and a real kitchen and a real livingroom with little potbelly stove inside that once in a while her dad would build a real fire inside.  What a fun place to play!  To have your own little place just for you.

We didn't have a play house at our house, but that didn't stop us from playing in much the same way.  We would often take blankets and built "huts" laying them over chairs and tables, and then exploring all the nooks and crannies created underneath.  The area under the folding table might be labled the livingroom while the area created by these three chairs was "the kitchen".  We loved having a place just our size, just for us.  It didn't matter that it wasn't beautiful or that you had to crawl in flat on your belly to get into the bedroom.  It was little and it was ours.

Now my children are hut builders too.  I wish I could shrink myself down and crawl through the tunnels of that magical world of imagination once more without feeling like the intruder that I am.  But I have my own home to take care of, and as I look around, I realize that my Daddy in heaven has given me a real play house just my size with a real kitchen and a real livingroom and even sometimes a real fire in the woodstove!

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It is absolutely frigid here in central Wisconsin!  Wind chills of 30 below have done away utterly with our "mild" winter.  Brr!  These are the times when the van needs to warm up at least ten minutes before it's time to go and extra blankets get tucked under the seats just in case.  These are the times when the air feels crisp and new just before it sucks your breath away completely.  These are the times when I am SO very thankful that the dryer did get fixed and I'm not having to go out and hang clothes on the line anymore!  The door gets opened just long enough to grab a few more logs for the fire, and we are happy to stay home as much as possible. 

Today we went down to Portage to check on things at the house there.  (Our relatives ended up moving this weekend.  The Lord opened up a wonderful door for them.)  It turned out the furnace decided to shut itself off last night.  Fortunately it was only two pipes under the kitchen sink that froze and burst and it looks like my husband and my cousin's husband will be able to fix it.  Praise the Lord!

One thing that I've ended up liking about having "dish" tv, even though I wasn't excited about getting it, has been the DIY network.  I now look at that house and get so many neat ideas.  Maybe it is empty again now so that we can do some of those things and they will be able to help the house sell.  Who knows?  I do know that God is in control, and He has someone perfect planned for that house in His perfect timing.

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Just a quick note and a picture today.  This week is crazy with three days of dental checkups.  Micha and Lissa were Monday, Terran and Abi are today, (Jeremi and Juli had theirs last month), and I'm on Friday.  whew!  So far only two have to go back for fillings, and hopefully that will be it.

My little Emi is getting huge :)  3 1/2 months already.  I love this smily phase, talking in her little gurgly baby language and only just thinking about the possibility of starting to become mobile.  Soon enough, little girl!

Emilie is wearing her Christmas dress - my first successful attempt at smocking. :)  I've tried a few times before, but not having a pleater, I was trying to machine sew even lines of basting stitches or picking up dots by hand, and my attempts were not completely satisfactory.  This time I splurged on a ready to smock garment from Sew Beautiful.  I did the smocking around the yoke, adapting patterns from my stash of old Sew Beautiful magazines.  I took out the pleating on the sleeves as I wanted just a simple elastic edge with a ribbon rosette.  The hand crotcheted lace that I added to the bottom edge was made by my friend at www.prairiebugs.com   I think I'm hooked and will be saving up for a pleater of my own. :)

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Yesterday after worship and a nap, I spent the rest of the afternoon helping my 13 year old son practice for his first paying chef's gig. ;)  Terran's passion is cooking and boy, is he good at it!  As I write this morning, he is blessing us by preparing our daily bread.

 Terran started his "restaurant" called Chez Terran'  (pronounced Shay Tare-Rahn') almost 2 years ago by creating a gorgeous four course meal for my husband and me.  As we told our family and friends about it, he has slowly had more and more opportunities to cook for extended family.  We started researching the feasibility of letting him start his own personal chef business and decided to move forward in that direction.  And this week he got his first phone call from someone we've never met before, asking him to come and be their chef for Valentine's Day! 

So yesterday we went back over some of the recipes for the menu they've chosen, streamlining some of the steps, deciding what tools he wants to bring along and what parts of the process he'd like me to do.  (And which of those Lissa could handle if I'm unable to due to a fussy baby.) 

Sometime this week we hope to visit with the clients and tour their kitchen - just to get a feel for the layout, decide if he needs to bring pans, where to set up the dining area, is the stove gas or electric, etc.

And on Feb. 14th, Chef Terran and his kitchen staff (a.k.a. his chauffer/sous chef - me,  and his server - Lissa, and his mascot LOL - baby Emilie) will spend the evening creating Coconut Shrimp with three dipping sauces, Creamy Potato Soup in Fresh Bread Bowls, Savory Pork Roast with Apple Stuffing and Bacon Wrapped Asparagus, and a Chocolate Pecan Lattice Tart for dessert.  Yum!

He's not getting paid much yet - just a smidge over his operating costs as it's mostly for experience, but he's enjoying the experience very much.  And maybe someday this venture could even pay for tuition at Le Cordon Bleu. :)

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Blessed be the name of the Lord!

It just never ends, does it?   The Lord decided not to sell our house in town, and it turned out that He had plans for it, for us to be able to help out family.  Each month has been an adventure in trusting the Lord to pay each bill, but God is good and He always provides. 

My husband's car had a small crack in the windshield.  Last week the ice expanded the crack and we will have to replace the whole windshield.  I don't know when or how.

Monday the dryer died.  My friend and I actually took it apart and thought we'd fixed it, but now it looks like the motor itself is kaput.  We're hoping to get a repair guy to see if it's worth fixing or if it's time for a new one.

Then yesterday, I drove down to Portage to do a load of laundry at my sister's house and on the way back, the van started making a horrible smell.  I have no idea what's going on there yet!

And just when I thought we could go to bed in peace, the boys' computer died a rather dramatic death.  All my oldests' game programming work is likely gone.

God is so good, isn't He?  Everything gets stripped away until all you can do is throw yourself on His mercies and trust that somehow He'll work it all out for your good.  The pantry is full.  The clothesline is available.  The snow and the woods are so incredibly beautiful and peaceful.  The boys have been bringing in firewood each day so that a lovely roaring fire in the woodstove can get out the last of the ice crystals in the clothes.  My oldest son praised the Lord when his computer died last night and was able to smile, knowing that God is in control.  (Would I have been able to do that as a 15 year old? - not likely!)  I am so incredibly blessed!

Blessed be the name of the Lord!

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Our dryer decided to go to the appliance resting place in the sky this week.  I don't know yet whether it will be able to be repaired or if it's time to look for a new one (or a new to us one).   There's no money for either, so we will have to wait to see how the Lord provides.  In the meantime, the laundry has not stopped piling up.

So, yesterday we began our science experiment in sublimation.  AKA freeze drying the laundry!  Who-da-thunk?

The good news is, it works - pretty well.  Abi's bedding got brought in when it got dark and laid across the back of the couch to warm up and finish drying the last tiny little bit.  Fortunately, it was ready to go back on the bed in time for bedtime.  I may go down to my sister's house tomorrow and run a few loads through their dryer, but as I don't want to spend all day every day there, and a couple of loads is a tiny dent in the mountain of laundry-ness, I will just have to get used to frozen clothes!

The good part is that freeze dried clothes smell wonderful!  And while hanging out the laundry in the winter, you don't have to fight with the bees that like to take up residence in the clothesline pole!

The other big project of yesterday was working on some song recording.  Nothing super fun this time - just putting together a practice cd for some of my voice students.  They're working on some four part harmony and being able to hear the other parts while they practice at home would be a huge plus.  I love the accoustics in our vaulted ceilinged livingroom!  I got everything all set up in a little cart that I can keep in the music corner now, so hopefully that'll make it easier to sit down and get some of my new songs on cd finally.  (And re-record the first cd, now that I know how to get a little better quality out of my equipment).

A friend of mine recently posted a picture on her blog of her little corner where she likes to sit.  Peeking into her house feels like peeking into a little bit of fairy-land and I want so much to just walk in and sit down and have a good talk.  I have to admit, my little music corner doesn't have that kind of feel to it, but I'd love to have a friend pop by for a great jam session anyway!  Anyone play the hammered dulcimer who'd like to come?

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Hello, white January!  We were blessed with about 7 inches (in two storms) this week all of a sudden.  Yesterday, it was truly gorgeous watching the big, heavy flakes of snow filling the air.  There was no wind so it all just came straight down in a mesmerizing curtain of sparkles.  Every now and then the load would become too heavy for the branch of the pine tree it was sitting on, and it would fall with a puff and a lovely cloud within the trees.  I'm hoping to take some pictures of the children soon while we can have the white world through the windows behind them.  Maybe then next year I can photoshop that window view in behind them for their Christmas pictures. LOL

Today we take down the tree.  Maybe the girls and I will do that while the boys are out shoveling the long circular driveway.  Most years it would have been done on Jan. 6th (Epiphany), but we had a second Christmas on Jan. 13th this year as that was when my sister from Minnesota could come down. My sister from Portage came up too and it was a wonderful time of fellowship.  I am so blessed to finally have family on my side somewhat nearby.

Anyways, back to the topic of pictures,  I'll finish with one of the most recent ones I've taken with all the children together.  I made it into a collage for my computer desktop.  And Mom, if you're reading this, yes, your copy's coming.

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