I digress: the first fundraiser of the year is called the Ducky Derby and the whole town gets involved. People buy rubber duckies from the kids of the local schools and then they drop them all into the river. All of the proceeds go to the schools and the first three ducks to cross the finish line down stream get some pretty sweet prizes.
There are so many ducks that they have to use a crane and storage container to drop them in the river.
We definitely stood in the wrong spot but somewhere between the bridges would have been awesome!
Yep, thousands of little duckies floating down the river.
We were also able to see the eclipse. It was pretty neat if you missed it, I'm sorry. M got these shots.
My favorite part was when it started to reflect the sunlight again - it was SO bright! Such a contrast to the dim moon we had seen for the past couple hours. And such a perfect analogy to Christians and how sin can block the love of Christ from shinning on us. We are still there but so dim. Yet as soon as Christ removes that sin, the light/love is so bright, everyone around can see!
A week ago, M and I were able to get away for two days to Lake Tahoe. Well, he was working but at least we left the ranch for multiple hours in a row! :-)
This was the view from our hotel room. It was a very nice room and really was a nice stay.
But, you see, this is the view out my window at home...it's pretty hard to beat! I'm really grateful for our view, every day!
Crazy kiddo lost her other front tooth. Now we call her toothless and tease her about asking for her two front teeth for Christmas.
Poppy L had his birthday and we were all Sully from Monsters Inc.
So, while I was trying to figure out exactly what it is I have been doing for the past couple of weeks, I consulted my phone and thought these pictures would do a swell job of telling the story of the fun craziness that is the variety in our lives these days.
On the ranch, I have had a conflict between my workers who hate filling hay bags (as they are a pain in the rear) and my owners who don't want their horses eating off the dirt, getting sand in their gut, since I arrived. Recently, we found this easy solution online from a 1960's ranch book that was so old it had yellow pages and the picture was blurry, so naturally we decided to give it a go. You know you're a redneck when...you use a trashcan, bungy cords and zip ties to make a horse feeder and you are proud of yourself! I didn't move to the north state for nothing!
The very next picture was sent ten minutes later to my teacher in charge of the home school because I needed some supplies for the science classes I teach once a week and she didn't know what I was talking about.
Picture three was sent to my sister-in-law to find out if they even have some of the foods I can eat for when we go on vacation. Vacation? Did I say vacation? Why, yes. A real one. Leaving the ranch for almost three weeks! Now that my parents have moved in, we have someone here to look after things and we can start leaving again. I'm so relieved! Although I must admit, I am a little nervous. I find it odd that the less you leave, the less you think you can leave. There is always something that needs to be done and it is time we just leave. If it falls apart, God will still take care of us.
And then of course there is a timeline of world history...why not? We needed this to answer several questions we have had from the youth about where the Bible actually fits into the history they are learning in class. They were so excited when we put the stories about Babylon and what the Bible says about Babylon in context with what they learned in school, that we decided we ought to do that with all the major stories in the Bible. Never thought I would be so excited to find a timeline of history that I would take a picture and share it with everyone I know!
Never to be forgotten, the never ending saga of home schooling. Em is actually a really good student and she does real well in all her studies, except when it comes to memorizing. Sight words are a nightmare and counting takes a long time to learn. SO, when counting backwards started last week, oh boy. I must have tried about ten different ideas - and we are still working on it! Believe it or not, I actually really enjoy teaching Emily. She takes longer to learn everything but she has such a good sense of humor and is so willing to laugh (and not be serious, like other members of our family) :-) that it is fun to teach her.
This picture was to let M know that something else had broken and he was going to get to use another one of his days off to fix it (or two since it turned out to be all rotten)...because his list of things to do is not long enough already.
As we get ready for the winter and the much prayed for rain, we find ourselves putting down new gravel and sand all over the place. It's a lot of work and unfortunately, it might all just wash away. We do live on the side of a hill. :-)
The last photo in my phone was a blurry one of K's last cross country race. Yes, her season just came to an end, which I am quite relieved about! Both girls are at a point where they are missing each other and wishing K wasn't in school every day. I have to agree. I am having trouble with the commitment as well. K barely sees her Dad and when she does, it is his first day off and he is tired. The girls only get to play for a couple of hours each day and they spend some of it readjusting to each other before they fall into their groove. They just miss each other. K was in tears about it last night and Em this morning. Good thing we have vacation soon!
K is so funny - she might be able to run forever for a kid, but she doesn't have a competitive bone in her body! She just gets out to run and is happy when she finishes. I didn't want to steal any of that from her since we spend the rest of their lives trying to convince them that doing their best is all we need, and winning isn't everything. Plus, since I lived for so long under the pressure to always win, it warms my heart to see her live free from that pressure.
But then near the end of the season, I felt like she was no longer doing her best and that she could go faster if she wanted to. So I asked her if she felt like she could go faster than she had been going and she said yes but that she was scared she would get too tired and have to walk. So then we talked about speeding up at the end and knowing she was going faster because she would catch a couple girls in front of her before they hit the finish line. She said she understood. And, I am proud to say that I managed that entire talk without putting any pressure on her to compete with others AND the last two races she was passing a lot of girls in the last 200m. That was fun to see - both for her and for me. :-) At her last race she was the third runner on the second stick and she is still convinced she got third. She is so cute!
Well, that's it in a nutshell. Getting ready for a winter we are praying for even though we are still in the midst of summer-like weather, teaching at school and at church, dealing with horse owners and actually starting to find a groove in it all - a little over a year later. Hmmm. Some day I will look back and think this wasn't too terribly long to feel out of sync. I hope.
Em has her big tri-annual IEP this Monday so prayers for honest assessment and help that she needs are more than welcome!
God Bless!!
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