Treasuring the Moments

The Start of My Gorgeous & Fruitful Garden

Elisabeth — Fri, 25 May 2012 20:36:59 +0000

I finally got the garden all planted… well, mostly. All that will probably get done this year. With Zach gone, it fell to me to be the Master Gardener around here. I really should take a lesson from Lily (have you read her blog Bountiful Blessings yet? if not, you should) and get my kids to work with me. Justus & Audrey did for a while but I think it would be better if we did the whole garden all together. I find the garden to be so soothing and I’m hoping it will be rewarding me with bushels of veggies in several weeks. I picture something like Lily’s garden… or the Strite’s garden they have in their greenhouse… Beautiful but sadly, my garden may look like...

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Our 23rd Anniversary Getaway

Elisabeth — Sat, 19 May 2012 15:32:17 +0000

I love celebrating special occasions and I consider my wedding anniversary to be one of those. Last week Russell & I had a little get-away to the high country. I planned it but didn’t tell him where we were going, although he knew it involved water because when we walked out of the house to leave, he saw this… The boys had loaded it for me the night before – late at night when there was no chance of Russ seeing it. Our destination turned out to be Blue Ridge Reservoir. I’ve never identified a duck before! Is this a Red-breasted Merganser? Could this be the male and female Red-breased Merganser? Or perhaps the green headed duck is a Mallard? gorgeous views This Blue Heron...

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What Does a Whisker-Free Celebration Look Like in Our Family?

Elisabeth — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:17:33 +0000

Well, after about 2 years, Serenity convinced Seth to shave his beard! I don’t know how long it will last, because I think he’s already missing it, but we decided throw a little party in his honor anyways. We declared it the “Celebration of Whisker-Free Day” and Wesley has decreed that from henceforth on this day, May 13, all beards should be removed. Hear, Hear! Awww, I’ve embarrassed him… The menu from the Bearded Dragon’s Cafe: Red Bearded Enchiladas Bean Stubble Rice Whiskers Seth didn’t know at first what was going on. He walked into the house, with me sporting a mustache and then out came the others with their various “beards and mustaches”… or squirrel ‘stache, as the case was for Russell. Audrey had quite...

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The Feeding of (Great) Ideas to Our Beloved Children

Elisabeth — Mon, 14 May 2012 17:52:41 +0000

I had so many wonderful comments last post about our bird feeder. I loved the interaction. The general consensus about our “mystery bird” seems to be that it most definitely is a grosbeak because of its beak. That was people’s first clue on what family it was from. Then our ”twitchers” determined that it was a black-headed grosbeak. Now to be honest, when I look in my Birds of Arizona book, the bird doesn’t look quite like the one we have, but when I googled it, the black headed grosbeak images are the very same ones as my bird. Thanks so much everyone. It is so exciting to learn the names of the birds here in our backyard! If you want to be inspired, read the comments left on that post. ...

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Cultivating Enjoyment of Nature

Elisabeth — Thu, 10 May 2012 14:06:45 +0000

A few weeks ago I purchased some bird seed for song birds at Sam’s. I filled up my birdfeeder that had not been used in years and it has been so exciting to watch the many different birds come in to it. “We are all meant to be naturalists, each in his own degree, and it is inexcusable to live in a world so full of the marvels of plant and animal life and to care for none of these things.” Charlotte Mason I have never purchased birdseed for songbirds before because I thought we didn’t really have those birds around. I knew we had blue jays but not much else…. or so I thought. House Finch (Carpodacus mexicanus) These come in small flocks to our...

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A Peacock Themed Wedding and Reception

Elisabeth — Tue, 08 May 2012 14:16:57 +0000

What happens when girls get to be about 20 – give or take a few years? The fall in LoVe. After they fall in love, there’s a wedding. Well that’s where I was this past weekend at another niece’s wedding. Emily’s wedding in March and Kristen’s in May. I didn’t get a lot of great photos but I begged some off of a friend that took some really great ones. The so-so pictures were taken by me and the really good ones were taken by CF Shalom Photography. An invite to a very special day. Little details… The peacock theme started with the invites and continued at the wedding. A very nice touch! A relative of the bride put a few of these large bouquet’s together. I loved...

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Hatching Chicks from Our Incubator

Elisabeth — Sat, 05 May 2012 03:57:23 +0000

We have baby chicks! I mentioned that we (as much time as I have spent researching and checking on those babies, I feel like it’s mine) the kids had purchased an incubator. Here’s a quick synopsis of what happened from the time we put the eggs into the incubator… till they hatched! I placed 10 eggs into the ’bator on April 13 and let the egg turner do its thing which was to rotate the eggs from side to side for the first 18 days. I wrote the date on the eggs but since realized that it was pretty pointless. When the 18 days were up I removed the automatic egg turner and placed the eggs onto the metal screen which is on the bottom of the incubator. After I...

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EXPO 2012 Has Ended

Elisabeth — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 16:30:48 +0000

EXPO’s over. Saturday was a great auction day – beautiful weather and buyers were really generous. The last few years the price’s were lower but this year was really good. Audrey got to be part of the opening ceremonies with the Clover Bud kids from our club. Serenity sold her 2 aprons with matching potholders for $300. Wesley had a great year with some new buyers & some really loyal bidders entering into the bidding process. His pig sold for $5.50/lb. for a total of $1,452. Whoa! He was so excited since it was way more than he was expecting. I made a variety of treat packages. Some for the 4-H leaders, others for kids that it was their last year, and plastic baggies for those...

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And the Award Goes to… Serenity!

Elisabeth — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:19:09 +0000

It was another bad-weather day at EXPO. The weather turned cold and it poured rain. Mud, mud, mud! Thankfully, Justus brought his mud boots because he needed them – but it wasn’t enough to just walk in the mud and smoosh it around, he had to scoop it up in his hands and watch it ooze. No picture, but it was quite a sight. Wesley didn’t place but he did very well. For showmanship he placed 3rd in his class beat by two other girls that are in our club. Wesley and Molly, who’s on the far right, used to always be neck and neck in showmanship and one or the other would win 1st or 2nd place but for the last few years, Molly’s pulled...

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Butterfly the Pig and One Apron for the Gents and Another for the Ladies

Elisabeth — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 04:34:41 +0000

4-H EXPO has officially begun as of today and will end on Saturday after the auction where the kids sell their animals or in Serenity’s case, an item she has sewn. She was raising a lamb if you remember, but sadly that ended abruptly. Wesley spent some time grooming his prize pig. This prize pig is not called Wilbur because it’s a girl. Her name is Butterfly. Awww… That’s exactly what comes to my mind when I look at her – a butterfly. Can’t you see the resemblance? He’s been brushing her the last few days with a brush because they get this scaly dandruff stuff that doesna look so good in the show ring. Judges don’t like to see it. You don’t want to try to brush it all...

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