Fun at Forest Falls

Well, we have had quite the adventure as of late...the Santa Ana winds rolled through. On day one we had steady 28mph winds, day two brought 38mph winds, and day three brought 48mph winds, (and these were not the gusts, which were much stronger). One day when we got out of the car to go to the store, a gust came and knocked Em back three or four steps before she caught her balance.  Yes, she got mad at me.  Like I make the wind.  Thankfully on day four it went back down to 38mph. :-) The weirdest part was not the wind, we have a LOT of that here and it just gets annoying and destroys everything, but the day it disappeared, that was eerie. It had been howling for days and suddenly it was calm. Nothing. I mean, I even went for a run pushing the stroller.

Fires always start in these winds and one even rolled right down the street a block over. They must have had it under control because they didn't even bother to tell us about it. I was making lunch, looked out the window and saw flames. Interesting day.

The day of the calm, I went out to survey the damage to my veggies. The wind took out about half of my peas and maybe one of my artichokes but I have high hopes...I secured them all back up on day two and will water them til they either recover or die.  I was so impressed with this little pea stalk that I had to take his picture...he was a good four or five inches away form the support and he was whipping about, swinging completely around, but he had secured himself in such a way as to blow in the wind but not break.  He sent out extra feelers and secured himself with a desperate grasp, secure yet not too stiff.  I know there is a sermon illustration in here...my strongest stems were in the middle, near all the support.  They broke in half because they hadn't attached themselves to the framework I had placed in the garden for them.  Yet, this smaller one, on the end, secured itself firmly to the one wire available to it and when the storm came, he weathered it like a pro.  When the winds of life come to blow you right out of the garden, what will you cling to?  If you cling to the truth, weathering the storm is a surety.

You can see that I even secured the framework to the girls' playhouse.  This broke every day and every day I redid it.  Yes, the roof was blown off the playhouse and in fact the entire house was in four pieces when I came out one morning.  Many of the leaves on our plants and trees look like grasshoppers rolled through.  They just got that beat up by the constant harsh wind.  My tomatoes and peppers and basil acted like nothing happened so next year I am planting all my veggies along the other fence...except maybe the artichokes, they don't seem to mind.

These were all the feelers that pea sent out.  Look at the tangled mess!  It was like the wind started and he knew he needed to hold on tight to his support and it didn't matter what it looked like as long as it got there.

We went for a hike the other day in Forest Falls. This is one of our favorite places to go because the girls are really too big to carry anymore and too small to make it on a long hike.  This place has a very short hike and lots of streams to play in.  Great for the kids and we still feel like we got out, though not for a hike.  :-)

River jumping.  Go, Em, Go!

And all the rock climbing a girl's heart could ever desire!  We take the hardest route everywhere we go just so the girls can climb up rocks and over boulders rather than follow a boring old trail.  And don't worry, we aren't ruining the local vegetation, there isn't any.

I guess I am re-impressed with nature these days.  Trees, plants, they are all just amazing!  Trees CAN grow in rocky soil!

Look at that mop!  You have to trust me, we are getting there with her hair. It is almost long enough to swing and tuck behind the ears, it's just that her mom needs to get used to the idea that she actually has to DO her daughter's hair until then.

Look at those faces!  My girls!

They went into the 'cave'.  They were pretty excited...Em got scared because it was too loud.

Our hike did finally deteriorate into walking in the water in our shoes...what good hike doesn't?  These water levels are normal for August.  I am a bit nervous since it is spring and this should actually look like a creek.

I just love that rock on the side.

Yep, it just got worse and worse.  I mean, better and better.  :-)

It was nice to have a whole day just to ourselves, doing something we love, free of technology, free of pressure from anywhere.  Family days are more rare than I would like and I need to make them more of a priority, even if it means saying 'no' more often to others around me.  I hope your day is fantabulous!  God Bless!

New Computer...Finally!!

Ah, welcome back? Why, yes. Thank you very much! To say that we have been having some computer troubles is to put it mildly. And since my computer is the only device we have that can download pictures, well, we have been off-line for quite some time. Now I write to you from my brand spanking new computer that is making me furious as I try to learn everything new on a pc these days. I have gotten entirely too used to my ipad I guess. Anyway, I thought I would start to catch up with Easter. Easter is easily my favorite holiday. It celebrates the greatest victory in Christian history and does it without all the stress of presents and, well, I won't go off on Christmas right now. ;-)

Just before Easter, I found a boxing bag at a garage sale.  I am totally loving using it as an alternative cardio to running - these joints need a break and my girls are getting too heavy to push into a Banning wind!

We have also started our new theme in school, rainforests and jungles, and these are some leaf cutter ants headed underground to see their queen.

All right, now Easter.  We headed down to Nana and Poppy's place on Sat and took the night for M and I to go out on a date.  It was nice and relaxing and I actually found some food I could eat.  :-)

This is "I get to eat chocolate!!!" face.

I made "resurrection eggs"...12 symbols that tell the main points in the story of Easter.  The girls collected the eggs, pulled out all the pieces and then I told them the story, using props.  We did this probably four times.  I only did it twice, then K had it down pat and made Em collect the eggs so she could tell her the story.

We are having big troubles with Em's new glasses and her eyes.  She is barely using her right eye, even when we patch and has been consistently looking over her glasses to see.  Something is very wrong with her glasses if she thinks that at -20.5 and -22.5, she can see better without them!

Em showing the crown of thorns.

The associate pastor's family.

IDK why this is out of order, but they are so cute!  We went through the whole house so we could do a garage sale so they were playing with all their old toys.

There are the twins!

There are the almost twins...it's getting worse, not better...everyone asking me if they are twins.  What do I say?  Almost!   But not quite.

K found her own caterpillar and put it in her case.  She was sooooo proud of herself. It even crawled onto a branch and hung itself upside down, but then it died.  I told her we would order a kit online to watch a butterfly form, I just haven't gotten to that yet.  Don't worry, she will remind me.  She never forgets anything for very long but what I love about her is that if I do it when she reminds me, she doesn't care that I forgot.

The day they made a swing out of the exercise bands.

Out on an adventure.  Each time they suddenly make a jump in their creative abilities, I am blown away by the new level of their creativity and I think this is where they will stop, but no, they just keep adding more and more.  This is what I love about being at home, seeing all this, all the time.  Yes, I see all the rest of it too, but these are the rewards.

Yes, she roped me in, hiking pants, hat, bow and arrow, binoculars, backpack and all.  She is nothing if not prepared.

Em, who has suddenly taken an interest in coloring and writing and being at the school table, finally joined us when she realized she could steal my hat and be a t-rex.

I can never get my girls to wear sunhats, so I ordered a book on how to sew your own hats.  I decided to try out the visor first since it looked easier.  The first one, where I followed the instructions was so small it fit K's doll.  So I made the next two bigger.  I'm a little proud of myself, I'm not gonna lie.

Oh, K's patch...one day I decided K needed to have a little sympathy for her sister when she has only one eye to work with so I decided she should develop empathy as well.  She had to wear the patch for two hours.  Boy, was she cranky!  She completely stopped playing and had no idea what to do.  We had a little talk after that about how amazing Emily does with just one eye.  She hasn't said anything since and even steps in to tell Em she will be okay and gives her hugs when I put the patch on.

So I took the patches off so K would stop smiling like that.

Well, the girls are doing great.  We have had quite the adventure the last couple weeks with 40-50mph winds blowing us off the planet and taking out half my garden, Dad taking a boys weekend - and us driving his car (the girls are glad that is over - they like to eat in the car), having our own garage sale, keeping up with school, buying new computers, applying to schools, helping friends with last minute issues and well, just keeping ourselves clean and fed.  My diet is going all right but not great.  I keep trying to get back to a new normal and it seems to backfire each time so I return to my 'safe foods' and try again.  I might just need to accept that I have to make everything...even chips...myself.  

Have a great day and I hope to be 'talking' again to you real soon!  God bless!!