Our new nephew!!! He was born August 29th. We are excited that we have a new healthy nephew. It completely slipped my mind when updating this afternoon. His name is Hudson Benaiah. You can check him out and learn all about his new name by going to their blog (click on the link on the title). We haven’t got to meet him yet but are praying for an opportunity around Thanksgiving or Christmas.
We are sooo blessed to have three fruit trees on our property. Now these are usual fruit trees. They’re rather unusual and they produce lots of fruit. We have one pomegranate tree. And two quince trees. We’ve been fighting black rot with our two quince trees for several years, and I’m hopeful that we’ll have some decent fruit this year. I believe we’ve lost one of our quince trees to the fungus though.
So what’s a quince? It’s in the apple family but it’s definitely nothing like an apple. It’s so hard that you can throw it at a window, break the window, and the quince would never have a scratch on it. It’s very very tart but if you cook it, it gets very soft and very sweet. It’s full of pectin and does not require extra for jams or marmalades.
Pomegranates are wonderful fruits. The seeds are very sweet and where all the juice is. I remember learning about pomegranates when doing a mythology study with my mom. You can read the story of Persephone and Hades here.
I’ve made pomegranate jelly before, but haven’t done so in awhile because of time and kids. But, Zoe is at such a great age to enjoy seeing fruit turn into something else and I can’t bare to see another season of fruit go unused, so we made some jelly today. The first time I made jelly with the pomegranates, we scooped the seeds out with our fingers, processed them in a blender, and then strained the seeds out…not this time! I read that you could use a citrus juicer (which we have…and it’s electric). So Zoe was able to juice the pomegranates on her own. She loved the pomegranate seeds and chomped on them while we were making juice. I think we’ll have enough pomegranates to make one more batch of jelly. I’m also going to try some pomegranate syrup to use with pancakes (our weekend treats when we’re home). Here are some pictuers of Zoe helping with the jelly. Ace was not interested one bit and Liam just hung out by our feet while we worked.
What a pomegranate looks like!
The inside of the pomegranate. The red is the seeds/juice.
Zoe getting the yummy juice. Pomegranates are very healthy and people all over purchase pomegranate juice for it’s health benefits! It’s very, very expensive to purchase…but we get it in seconds for free!
We were able to attend my (Abbie’s) dad’s first football game for the 2006 season. Ace was beside himself to say the least. He was soooo excited about football. Zoe and Ace sat spellbound during the halftime shows.
We attended Powers Crossroads on Sunday. Ace got a sword and did not put it down for a long time. I took the time to explain to Ace that knights protect princesses and that he should do the same for Zoe, his sister. Not sure he quite got it since he hit her with the sword on the way home but we’re working on it! Zoe got a sweet princess hat and princess scepter/wand. She decided she was a fairy godmother princess and went about making things right with her wand. She’s looking forward to wearing it to ballet at the end of the month.
For some crazy reason, I got up yesterday and decided it was time for Ace to potty train…and on physical therapy day as well! So, we started off doing really good. He got the idea after having an accident in superman undies and made it through two successful trips to the bathroom. We survived pt with one accident (on my couch no less) and then I was making lunch. I put him on the little potty to try and go while I finished up lunch. Zoe decided she had to go too and went to use the big potty in their bathroom. She kept trying to tell me that Ace was doing something, but I refuse to listen to tattletelling (should’ve listened this time) and then the toilet flushed. When I walked in to the bathroom, I discovered that the “pee” guard (not sure of the proper name for it) was missing on the little potty. Zoe walks in and announces that Ace just flushed it down the toilet. I do a quick search of the bathroom (easy to do…it’s small) and discover that it’s not there. So I had to call Mark because the pee guard had disappeared down the potty. Unbelievably, the pee guard did not stop up the toilet and is now somewhere happily floating down the sewage treatment plant! I wonder if the plant sees a lot of those floating by as they’re working!
Believe it or not, I did not lose my temper until Ace dumped out all of Zoe’s ponytail holders in the bathroom (choking hazzard for our little belly crawler). At that point, I was beyond yelling and just sent him to his room to play before I lost my temper completely.
Welcome to the Character house!!!
Our first day of school was Monday! Zoe was so excited. Friday, Mark was off, so he took us all to get “school” outfits. Of course, practical me, chose clothes that they could wear through the fall/winter time. Zoe got up Monday and just had to wear her new outfit, despite that it was long sleeve…
We had a lot of fun. And lest anyone thinks I am pushing my kids academically…their curriculum is geared towards children and lasts a grand total of 30 minutes a day! I’m planning on adding some things as the weeks go by (especially some science things). In the meantime, when Zoe is begging for more, I get out a workbook that I had purchased and run off copies for them to work on which they both enjoy. I like this curriculum (Little Hands to Heaven) because it introduces the letters and the sounds they make…focusing on the short vowel sounds…each week. So, she is getting a more concentrated, and planned out introduction to letters and numbers. I am planning on using it again with Ace next year and then moving into using Interlock with Zoe next year (I think I’ve mentioned that in a previous post). Mark has been participating by recording their Bible story for each day. They love hearing daddy’s voice during the day.
We had a fun weekend traveling to Rock Hill, South Carolina to visit with two of Mark’s college roommates and their wives. One of them moved to Rock Hill in January and the other moved to Raleigh, NC this summer. It was a lot of fun and we hope to do it again. Ryan and Mandi (the North Carolinians) are expecting their first baby in December and Mike and Carrie are expecting their first baby in January. Mark and I loved fielding questions about bringing home a newborn and all the essentials (and non-essentials) that go with raising a baby. Carrie & Mandi both were interested in clothe diapering (see I’m not totally crazy) and we got to talk more and I was able to demonstrate them more for them. Above, you will see the creative cup tower as brought on by Carrie. Enjoy the rest of the pictures!!
And for those who just need to know…Mike & Carrie are waiting to find out whether they are having a boy or girl and Ryan & Mandi are having a boy (Jacob Ryan).
Zoe started Ballet this week! I don’t believe she stopped smiling the entire class. Ace, Liam and I were able to watch her through a one way mirror in her classroom. I already love where she is taking. It is a Christian couple who owns it and the wife of the team is the one teaching Zoe’s class. She wasted no time in practicing basic steps/warmup with them. Zoe stuck as close to her teacher as she could…grinning from ear to ear. She is showing off her “uniform” that they are required to wear. I thought she just looked adorable. As we left the class, Ace said, “Zoe do ballet??” He so enjoyed watching his sister have fun and dance.
Monday, we had our first MOPS meeting. This has been over a year in planning! We had about 29 moms come. I don’t remember all of it because I was running around so much but I think all of the moms enjoyed it. I enjoyed meeting the women who are now a part of our group. Some of the women had been corresponding with me since we got our charter a year ago…so now we all finally got to get together. Mark and I and the whole leadership team are praying that we are able to touch moms lives and help them to grow closer or even to get to know Jesus!
We played Survivor Motherhood: Outwit, Outlast, Outplay…We had the discussion groups split up into “tribes” and compete in different areas (passing a lifesaver straw to straw using two fingers not including your thumb, diaper relay, gummi worm eating contest). We didn’t get to the individual relays. We’ll continue those on at the next meeting. I’m looking forward to a fun and fulfilling year.
Zoe has been asking to have a wedding for the past two days. So, after supper tonight we had a wedding. She married Ace but we were quick to point out we were pretending. I don’t think Ace realized that he was getting married anyways. I was a witness (in the dress I’m wearing to my 10 year reunion) and Mark was the officiant. After the wedding we got to dance (always a treat in our house)! Before we started to dance, Zoe told me that she wanted to get married so she could have a baby (thank goodness she has this whole thing in order). She said that when mommies have babies they have to go to bed (“Like you do mom?!”). “I’m Sleepy Bear’s mom,” she told me as we were discussing babies. (Side note: Sleepy Bear is her cuddly she’s had since she was about 6 months old)
So tonight, I’m tucking her in bed and she said that the baby wasn’t ready to come out that she had “to wait a long, long, long time.” I asked her if she wanted another baby brother or sister and she said that she wanted to have 7 babies…well, she couldn’t make up her mind between 7 and 1 but finally settled on 7. “I’m going to be a mommy and Ace is going to be a daddy,” she announced. Then we had to talk about how were pretending because Ace was her brother, etc! We also discussed having another baby brother and sister and that she needed to pray to God (and go to sleep) for that to happen!
Just had to share that cute story about my MIT (Mommy in Training), Zoe.