Trying to Catch Up

We went strawberry picking! It was foggy on the mountains, but oh, the scenery was beautiful. The kids had a blast and got thoroughly yucky. Next year - wellies. Nathaniel also thought it was pretty fun to squish the strawberries after picking them. Jackson thought he would help one of the ladies from church by picking strawberries for her, too. Then I noticed that if he got a strawberry with a green end, he would bite off the end and put the strawberry in her basket!!! Yuck. He said he was helping her because he didn't want her to have the bad ends. We came home with two flats - about 20 pounds of strawberries! I made my first-ever strawberry pie, and the girls loved it. I was going to make jam with a lady from church, but we've actually eaten too many strawberries to leave enough for jam. We love strawberries. The ladies in our church are serious about their picking seasons - they go for blueberries, peaches/nectarines, and then apples in the fall. We plan to join them on all their outings.

The last two pictures are random shots. Jackson has a new stuffed companion named Beau from the Bubba and Beau books. He likes the books as much as Abigail did when we lived in Florida. I was going to be all fancy and link to a post from February of 2006, but it didn't work, so here's the quotation:

The following story is also for Daniel (who is following daily life through short phone calls every day and through this blog) but I'll explain it for everyone else. All three girls love these books by Kathy Appelt focusing on characters named Bubba and Beau. Bubba is a baby and Beau is his hound puppy. Daniel recorded one of the books, Bubba and Beau Go Night-Night, onto an audiotape along with many others so that they could listen to them at night in bed. Abigail can now quote the book in its entirety - in a redneck accent- because she loves it so much.She came to me with a plea the other day before dinner, "Mommy, please put on Bubba and Beau because - Sister, those napkins came in handy," and then she walked off laughing hysterically. Bubba and Beau had made an awful mess with some raspberry swirl ice cream cones and the author was informing the reader that those napkins did indeed come in handy. I don't really know how Abigail's mind works, but I think it's pretty funny. Some kids are quoting Shakespeare by the time they are three, but it takes a special talent to be able to deliver a line like that with a redneck accent. I love this child. I just hope she passes one standardized test in her homeschool career.

The next picture shows Nathaniel hard at work coloring. Cora took the picture. It looks like he's going to be a lefty! (He gets that from his daddy. :) ) The picture is not the greatest, but it does show his cute profile.

Lastly, we haven't done a video in awhile, so I thought I'd take one of Adah singing her Kreyol "dokte" song before she forgets it. As far as I can tell, it's a song about preparing to go to the doctor, and there's something in it about being sick and getting a shot. She usually giggles through it, so I can't make out all the words. The two lost front teeth don't really help. :)

Off to start our day. We're signing up for the homeschooling co-op today, and I'm hoping the rain lets up before we venture out. Six kids plus pouring rain = happy kids, sad mama.

I have pictures from our wonderful trip to the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton on Saturday, but I'll have to post them on another post. Shiloh took most of the pictures, and there are a plethora. She did a great job, though - she was a very thorough and enthusiastic photographer.

Love, Casey