Mother's Day Tea

I think part of being a good mother is instilling in your children a desire to serve others, no matter what the situation is. It can be difficult to show the importance of this to them at times, especially since our very nature from birth is rather selfish. Especially as a Christian it is imperative that we learn to look to make others happy, as that is one of the most important attributes of Christ, and the one He most emphasized in his teaching to "Love God and love your neighbors".

 

I thought a fun way to start helping my girls learn this, along with my lovely sister in law and her girls, was to host a Mother's Day Low Tea for our mothers, sisters, and grandmothers. For these early years Auntie S and I will be doing a lot of helping, but the eventual goal is to have the girls take over as they get older.

 

 Now, you may be asking "Low tea?", as most folks think a high tea is a fancy gathering of English ladies in big hats. Since we are homeschoolers, we had to make sure we were going about things correctly, and found that, in fact, high tea is more of a commoners' tea. It is called such since it was served later in the evening after folks got off of work for the day, at high tables in pubs with a menu consisting of traditional British fare like bubble and squeak, sausages, meat pies, and ale. Low tea or afternoon tea, on the other hand, was started by the Duchess of Bedford when she found herself peckish around 4 in the afternoon. Her desire for a dainty meal and tea started a trend in high society, and thus you have your fancy ladies in pretty dresses and hats drinking tea with their pinkies in the air and snacking on strawberries with clotted cream and scones. 

 

This was so, so much fun! It took some work and coordination, and as the years progress will get a little fancier and better organized, but we managed to host one lovely tea party Mother's Day. The girls learned about entertaining, house keeping, cooking, and propriety all while working towards developing a servant's heart and sense of respect for those who have spent so much time raising us to who we have become.

 

 We aimed to try to make our tea authentic, yet manageable. I brought a selection of my most friendly teas (those even non-tea drinkers would enjoy, and they did!) as well as my linens, and we let the girls set up most of the scene. We used heirloom china and dishes, which made it all the more special, talking about whose piece was whose. There were fresh flowers Pony Gal had picked from our flower beds, cloth napkins, classical music playing-it was very pleasant.

 The gals learned a lot in the kitchen, as well, as they went about making 10 different varieties of tea sandwiches, two different kinds of scones, and whipping up fresh whipped cream to accompany the strawberries and peaches.

We had a great turnout and are excited to see what next year brings. The plan is to alternate houses so no one is left doing too much cleaning each year, as well as just a nice change of scenery. It was beautiful this year, and we can only hope for as nice weather next year, as we may have to host on the patio next time. So, so glad that Auntie S and I were able to start such a fun, new tradition!

Thanksgiving with Dad's Family

We celebrated Thanksgiving with Dad's family at my brother-in-law and sister-in-law's home. This happened on Thanksgiving, though you can't tell because I fell behind with my blogging :) Also the pictures in the next few posts haven't been edited; they uploaded before I got my new laptop and could spend time doing so, so sorry for the blinding light and overly dark photos.

 

You can't see him, but Dad is kidding with Pony Gal. And she is believing it...

 

Cousin D

 

Mmmm, pickle roll

 

Cousin S

 

This was just one table of folks. There were two others full of family in other rooms.

Independence Day, 2011

We spent the July Fourth weekend mostly at home this year. After being in the basement for so long, we have really been relishing our time at home upstairs. The Reids joined us overnight Saturday, trying out their new tent in the backyard, Sunday we did a little work on the house, getting Pony Gal's bed put back in her room and the air vents around the house replaced. Monday we attended the parade in my hometown, came home to make curtains for the master bedroom so the nightlight wouldn't be shining on the bed in its new home and then went back to town to hang out with my bil and sil and watch fireworks in their yard. It was a fairly laid back weekend, with lots of time to reflect on the liberty that we hold dear and the sacrifices made by those who came before and those who still serve that make it possible.

 

I am not a big fan of sparklers due to the massive amount of heat they put off, so we went pretty low key with our at home celebration and just purchased a few boxes of the snakes. That was enough for the kids, as we did watch some larger scale fireworks shows throughout the weekend.

 

 

 

We got Pony Gal's bed back from her grandma's house and reassembled in her room. Gram had been borrowing it while we needed to store it to help her rehab after a broken pelvis. She was done for it and we were ready for it, so it worked out pretty well, and Pony Gal is happy to have her room coming back together.

 The Independence Day parade in Carlisle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(I should also note, that as I am loading these, I can see that my camera and lens are in desperate need of cleaning. I haven't been able to load pictures while we were downstairs, so now that I can see them on the computer screen, YEESH!)

Camping at Pine Lake with the Fam

Whew...what a long couple months with all this house improvement business. We are still nowhere near finished, but the floors ARE, and we are slowly creeping things back upstairs. Hoping  a lot of purging happens along the way. In the meantime, I was able to load some pics this morning from waaaay back in the first weekend in May when we joined my brother in law and sister in law camping at Pine Lake near Eldora. The kids had a lot of fun and it was a beautiful first camping weekend for 2011.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Change and Age

You know, through the years I have always enjoyed change. I like to change paint colors, change arrangements in the garden, change recipes and menus, change places we camp. That was then, though. Apparently as I get older (I am not getting old by any means, just getting older or growing up a bit), I find that I am changing, and my stance on change has changed. Now, it seems I am not so fond of it, which is news to me.

I think really this has to do with a lot of major changes at once. We found we were expecting in February, we reunited with some family we had previously been estranged from (and were more than happy to be able to do so), we decided to remove all carpeting from the house and install real, hardwood flooring, which involves moving everything from the first floor to the basement and living there for awhile. We usually live down there in the summer to avoid using the air as it maintains an ambient temp all summer long. We do not, though, move everything we own down there. Just clothes, really.

With the advent of baby and moving clothes we are examining what life has been like the last five years and finding lots of changes that will make life easier and help us prepare for baby, but are big changes in the way things are around the house. Different uss for rooms, adding furniture, taking away furniture, painting rooms, moving plans for a library and office around. All that is starting to make me suffer mini-anxiety attacks like I have not dealt with for a very long time-though that is mostly due to the fact that I know my stressors and avoid them. It is just a lot to take in. The worst part is that I really am happy about what we're doing, and will love my "new" house, but in the meantime cannot handle the stress of it all.

On top of that I have my usual pregnancy worries and have been thinking a lot about running the farm at the best of my game, plus keeping a large house and homeschooling kids, plus starting over with another little blessing, and I think we will be making a few changes. I don't like to do things halfway, and I currently feel like that is where I am at with a lot of the farm stuff. I just have to decide how much to change, and any change anymore seems to be a difficult decision.

It will be interesting to see how these next few months play out. I am really looking to the small respites we get from camping every couple weekends. It gives me a chance to clear my head and separate from the chaos that is currently living on the banks of Sugar Creek, as much as I love it here. I need that refreshing...change and I are not getting along all that well these days, yet it is necessary, really, all of it, and it is going to take all the healthy coping skills I can muster to not break down over the summer.

More Spring Busy-ness

I am not getting the chance to post much here lately. We have two ducklings in the laundry room right now. We have 32 chicks in the basement kitchen (see our sister farm's great post on starting your own chicks here along with pics of what the other half of our chicken order looks like). We have flowering fruit trees and seedlings popping up in the vegetable garden all over. We have lambs and goat kids. I am working on my own "kid" which is tiring even if no evidence is apparent yet. That re-organizing bug so common in the spring has caught on and the basement is in pieces as we re-do the storage room, and make plans for new wood floors throughout most of the main floor and built in bookshelves in the master bedroom. Things are just nuts. Things are just the way we like them. :)

Forgiveness

It seems to be such a fickle thing with some people. We try to make the choice to let go of something that someone has done that hurt us, but we still keep up this guard and hide when things start looking sticky again. The thing is, if we are to model ourselves after Christ, when we forgive we have to really move on. That means we may get hurt again. It also means we may not, and we've just re-opened a door for healthy relationships. When we hold hurt or grudges against someone we create barriers in all our relationships. We see small similarities between "that" person and someone we are trying to have a new relationship with and we can never fully enjoy it due to suspicion or hiding some of who we are. It is sad. Unfortunately, I am guilty of this, but really, really try to make a conscious effort to avoid being someone who hangs onto things. And I do have to deal with being hurt repeatedly. Being human wasn't meant to be easy, and being a Christian most certainly not so. We have hope given to us by an Amazing Savior, but that doesn't mean that our earthly relationships will be just as easy. I currently am in a good place-there really isn't anyone that I hold anything against. We ALL make mistakes. I have moved on. The real kicker to moving on, though, is remembering that on top of forgiving and getting past what happened, we are to love each other. There are those that I may not have good relationships with anymore, for whatever reason, but I still keep them in prayer and hope for the best for them and their families. It can be a difficult thing for some people to start doing, but we are called to love. That is one of the main things the Bible tells us, over and over and over again. It is easy to get caught up in single verses telling us that we can and can't do this or that, but in context we are really only called to love-to love God and to love each other, no matter how we may get perturbed with each other. It happens. We are all different and beautiful creations. Like our own children, God loves us for who we are and doesn't want us to be someone else, and we need to love each other for who we are and not try to change each other. Loving someone no matter what means forgiveness and moving on. It means that even though things have changed, you still pray for someone. I wouldn't wish anything harsh on anyone. Why carry that burden? I would much rather know I did my best to ask God to bless them and pray He has the same mercy on me.

Christmas Scenes

Happy girl at our Christmas time with the Reid Family

The Reid's Christmas tree. I love the nook that they put theirs in. I have always loved nooks of this sort.

Our at-home Christmas Eve celebration. Here Pony Gal is opening her stocking.

Though he has a slightly pained look on his face for some reason, Superboy really like this fleece outfit we gave him.

Grandma Brenda's Christmas Tree

Uncle Allen's wrapping is just awesome

Superboy with some Erkel action. His new Batman jammies were just a little big.

Christmas Cookies

Cookies are such a fun way to keep kids busy in the kitchen. 

Here the Reids joined us in making some delicious sugar cookies.