Just at the end of the block, opposite to our house, lives a couple with one boy.  He is right inbetween my middle kids in age, and they have always played together.  His Mom took him out of school about a month ago, after a mild heart problem, and now he plays after school with my kids.  Problem is, he has grown more and more aggressive with my youngest boy, 7 year old Timmy.  Monday he pushed his head into the cement so hard he made Tim bleed.  Yesterday I just stayed outside the whole time to watch, but that is not practical sometimes.  And I couldn't sleep last night thinking about it all, worried about what will be next.  So today I have decided to do something I hate to, but I have to for my peace of mind.  I am going to tell him he can't play with my kids anymore.   I feel rather sorry for him, my kids are all the friends he has, but I have to protect my kids.  I might not have decided this, except I found out he told one of the other kids he did it because 'he felt like it'.   Wow.   That did it.  Pray that God helps me in what to say, to hold my tongue if I start to get too upset.

We are finishing up the chopping down, chopping up,  and burning the little stuff in the back of the property.  And although I tried to be careful, the poison ivy was pretty thick in some spots, and I ended up with a bad case, along with my 7 year old son.  Poor little guy, he loves to help with the yard work so much,  and he's covered with the rash from head to toe.  Tomorrow he and I will go to the Dr. to get shots.  The good news there was a lot of wild grape vines to cut out, and I made a huge grape vine wreath to hang somewhere outside.   We didn't have school, so I had my seven, plus two I was babysitting.  Tomorrow I will force myself to sit and read for a little while to recouperate.  It would be so much easier if I would get the book I ordered on making cheese!

Here in Southeastern Kansas we have a huge celebration in nearby Independence called Neewollah.  It now spands almost the whole month.  Downtown they have a outdoor stage set up, and several different people playing every night and Saturday, an 'adult' parade on Thurs evening, a kids parade on Fri afternoon and a HUGE parade on Sat.  They have vendors, rides, a pagent, a broadway type show and this year the Oakridge Boys came, and I had the pleasure of going to the Marine Band on Friday night.  I don't get out much, but my Mom had two tickets, and I am so glad I got to go!  We don't spend money on rides or food, but the kids loved the kiddie and big parade.

Sunday, out of the blue, my hubby decided to start chainsawing the small forest in the very far back of the yard.  Needless to say, the family is going to spend much of the week stacking firewood as he finishes sawing it up.  Wow, what a difference.  The trees were far too close, so there is not much worth saving, as it is all 'straight up'.  After we get the drainage problem fixed, I would love to plant a couple of pecan trees back there. 

I got up on the roof of the garage and took some pictures of my back yard, now all I have to do is figure out how to get them posted for you!

Monday I had to go back to Kansas City ( four hour trip there ) and pick up my 16 yo.  I had just got on the highway, was going 65, and I passed something in the middle of the road, almost getting run over by a truck.  I immediately knew it was a mum, and turned around and rescued it.  I thought my day was off to a good start.  His plane arrived at 6 pm,  and he didn't get off.  He missed his plane!  I have an aunt who lives a little over an hour out of KC, so I stayed with her ( she got the mum )  and drove back up to the airport and got him before dawn the next day and drove home.  Needless to say, I am just now recouperating from that.  But I did something I regret.  I told my Mom a little about my visit with my aunt ( including the bad )  and she told others and it got back to my aunt, and I got a very nasty email.  Apparently this is not the first time my Mom has done this to me.  I feel really bad, not only should I have known better than to gossip, I HATE it when people do it  to me.  But I really hate that it was my Mom.  I thought I could trust her.  But again, what I said was absolutely none of my business, and I guess this was the lesson God needed me to learn.  I had gotten careless, thinking 'it's only my Mom'.  And even if it is my Mom, its still gossip.  If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. 

This last weekend we actually went on vacation.  Wow!  We went to Branson and to Silver Dollar City.  I have family near there, so we didn't have to pay for a hotel, which is part of the reason we got to go.  We had the youngest five, and it rained all day Sat. at the park, but we had such a good time anyway.  My 16yo is working now, he is a cook at a fast food place here in town.  He just started last week, and asking for his first weekend off just didn't seem right to him.  I have not done anything in the yard lately, I'm desperately trying to get the kids' rooms gone through, and with a toddler, I don't get anything done fast anymore.  The kids' rooms are over-run with toys right now.  I'd say a garage sale is in order.      Yesterday I had to run errands, and by the time I finished it was just past noon, and 19mo was HUNGRY.  Once home, I hurried to make her lunch, and she ran into the dining room.  Thinking nothing of it, I kept going, and all of the sudden I realized what she was doing.  She had her high chair by two legs and was pulling it into the kitchen!  Did I mention she was HUNGRY?  It was so funny looking, a tiny little girl dragging this huge high chair!  Well, little one just fell asleep, I'd better hurry to the boys' room if I plan to get something done while she is sleeping.

I got up yesterday morning with a mission.  We had not trimmed trees all season, and I was tired of trying to dodge the too-low branches while mowing or walking.  The bases aroung the trees needed trimmed, in some cases.  So my family and I did clean up Saturday morning, and I weeded strawberries and watered all afternoon.  My strawberry bed isn't really a 'bed', though.  I tilled up a very large oblong shape in the yard, and planted my strawberries in the center and down to the front.  Down both sides I planted gooseberries and currants, and in the back I planted blueberries.  I put a stone path right down the middle of the strawberries, and just behind the strawberries I planted one climbing rose and made a stone bench.  I put in a large pole for the rose to climb on, and next year I hope to get a bird house on top.  I really need to learn to post pictures, it would help.  But you'll just have to trust me, it is very pretty, even this year.  I spent a very long time watering, but I use buckets on all the trees and bushes.  I take a five gallon bucket and punch three holes in the bottom near the edge, and fill the bucket up.  That way the tree or bush gets the water, and it doesn't run off everywhere.  I usually cook big and homemade, but I worked outside too long, so dinner was one I don't make often, but the kids adore.  Take plain toast, put in the bottom of a cookie sheet, spoon pizza sauce on top of each one. top with toppings, and cheese, and stick in the oven for a few minutes to melt the cheese.  Pepperoni is the easiest topping, but sometimes I get a bunch of different ones, and let the kids make their own 'pizzas'.  It is really quick and easy.  The other day I made sausage lentil stew,  I will have to post the website I got it off of,  it was wonderful! 

On Tuesday a friend and I drove two and a half hours to central Kansas, to a town that has a Mennonite dress shop.  Other Mennonite women give the dresses they no longer want, and the shop sells them, and the money goes to the Missions.  The dresses are so pretty, and reasonably priced, and I bought enough to get me started, as I don't have near enough time to sew as much as I would like.  So now I am wearing my Mennonite dresses full time.  I will admit, it has taken a few prayerful moments before walking into a place that I know someone who won't think anything of making a remark.   But I do get the nicest smiles from older people who remember when all women dressed so lady-like.  And I definitly feel this is what the Lord wants of me.

It is supposed to  be so nice this weekend, I hope to get so much done outside.  I have spent the morning cleaning, and would love to go outside this afternoon.  The flower beds need weeded, and the garden, at least the parts that are 'done', need tilled.  I still have tomatoes(a few), okra, peppers,and watermelon.  I had planned on planting spinach,broccoli, lettuce, and cabbage for fall crops, but I simply did not have the time to get the seed in the ground.    We have a stand of trees on the other side of the garden that are going to come down this fall, and I would love to get more ground tilled for corn next year.  I figure, the more I grow, the less we have to buy.  Sometime this fall I need to get someone in to plow the entire garden, I have been told it would help the soil a lot.

I had planned on writing yesterday, but just didn't get the chance.  What a week.  One day I spent the better part of the morning trying to get my 16 yo car key replaced.  He only had one set here, the other set he forgot in Indiana.  He let a friend run out and get something out of his trunk, and the friend somehow broke the ignition key in half.  So I got to drive back and forth the fourteen blocks between the school and the hardware store six times to get it fixed.  It is not exactly what I had planned for the morning, but thats okay.  Just that morning I was thinking how I would like to get out of the house!  Strawberries will have to wait til this next week to get weeded.  My husband put new shelves up in my sewing room, so I had to take everything out, then put it all back.  What an eye opener.  I had forgotten I had some of that stuff.  Isn't that the way it goes?  But the good new is, I found I have plenty of dress fabric to make each of the girls several new dresses (when I get the chance).  I did take a little break out on the back porch when I was done, and the roses are starting to bloom again.  I need to learn how to post pictures, so that next spring I can post pictures every week, showing the progress from spring to fall.  This year I started 3-4 different kinds of marigolds, not reading the package too well, I guess.  One variety grew to be three feet tall!  I was very surprised.  It looks rather funny, I planted them in front because I assumed they would be the shorter ones.  And my moon flowers are looking rather sad, a have taken off three fat tomato worms this week.  Every time I go past them I try to look, and I have a plastic bucket I left there.  Funny, the tomato worms always start at my moon flowers, then move to the tomatoes.  I just have to catch them in the flowers, before they make it to the tomatoes.  Well, better go, I have to get ready for church!  Have a great day, everyone.

Christine  

What a beautiful day.  I took my 18 mo out with me to pick tomatoes and okra in the garden this morning.  I have discovered she likes to go out there with me.  I leave her beside the cherry tomatoe bush with a bucket, she says uh-o over and over when she sees a red one, and picks it, and sometimes even puts it in the bucket.  Weather like this makes me want to work outside in the strawberry patch, weeding.  Last fall I planted a bunch of plants I ordered from a company in NW Arkansas.  They have really good, large plants and reasonable prices (blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, grapes, blackberries, etc.).  I put some hay over them after planting, and apparently the hay was very seedy, because I have done nothing but weed this year, it has been terrible.  Lesson learned.  But if the weather stays cooler for the weekend, maybe I can get it all caught back up again. 

Christine 

Tonight my mother came over and her and I took the five younger kids to see a friend of hers here in town.  This friend of hers might know I used to attend the Mennonite Church, but definitely does not know I'm attending again.  I was talking about the dress I had just finished for Emily, and my mothers friend's husband asked in a very annoyed voice "it's not one of those long o Mennonite things is it?"  I kindly replied it did go below her knee, and she would have some room to grow.  I'm trying to keep that verse that talks about being blessed while persucuted, but it still hurts.  Everything happens for a reason, and maybe this was to prepare me for what is to come. 

Christine

How very nice, it rained most of the day yesterday.  For the past couple of weeks it has been close to or over 100 degrees.  I have planted a lot of new trees, bushes, etc. and the watering can be quite a task.  I try to break up the watering by breaking the yard into sections and only doing one section a night.  Our house faces North, and I have planted redbuds along the front of the property.  I have two that are larger, as they were bought for me for Mothers Day, and five more I have transplanted from flower beds and a couple from a neighbor.  I can't wait to see it in spring five years from now.

My neighbor gladly gave me the trees she doesn't want, as most any gardener will do, if they know you are interested.  She is a very nice widowed lady, and her husband loved to plant different trees and bushes.  I simply asked if I would get a start off one very pretty bush, and she has given me many more since then.  Just this year I learned how to start roses from clippings, along with other bushes, too.  I took a start of  and even rooted two of the rose bushes she has, and managed to get a start of her honeysuckle bush.  Yes, bush.  It has the tiniest little honeysuckle blooms in spring/early summer.  I encourage anybody who is interested in filling their yard, but doesn't have a lot of money to spend on it to go to the library, read up on propagation, and simply ask your friends and neighbors for cuttings.  It's not hard, and for me it is very rewarding.   Now I get the opportunity to share my plants with others.

I went with my family to the Baptist Church in the morning, and went to the Mennonite Church in the evening.  I took the baby, and three of my other children asked to go.  One of the others wasn't feeling well, and my teenager was at a birthday party for a friend.  I wear dresses, but I haven't started wearing my Mennonite dresses yet.  I guess I am trying to go at it slow, for my familys sake.  If time allows tomorrow, I would love to get my dresses from the box they are stored in and try them on, to see what fits.  It's amazing how a  modest dress can change a woman to a lady.

I had to take my younger two boys to the doctor this morning.  Both have ear infections, and one has a very sore throat to go along with it.  They could use an extra prayer or two.   

Christine

I have been enjoying reading other peoples blogs for a little while now, and just now got the nerve up to write in my own.  I have six children, three girls, three boys, and I am sharing another boy (step-son).  My oldest is sixteen, the youngest is 18 monthes. 

For years I have dreamed of living in the country and having animals and orchards and a huge garden, but at present my husband and I live in a large house in town, that sits on a half block of land.  Thing is, I don't ever want to move, I love it here.  Isn't it funny how God knows exactly what you want, even if you don't?  I may never have cows or pigs, but I have fruit trees, fruit bushes, a big garden, and an extreemly  large English garden style flower bed right out my back door.  And it's still only four minutes to the grocery store.

I am a Christian woman, and I have been attending a Baptist Church for about a year.  For about four-five years before that I attended a Mennonite Church a half hour from here.  God called me to that church, told me that is where he wanted me, and sadly enough things happened, and I quit going.  God was patient enough, he waited til I was subtle and open, and is calling me back there again.  My husband does not go with me to the Mennonite Church, but it is still where I feel spiritually fed.  Do you know how important that is?  I know a lot of people attend Church every week and never get anything for their soul, but I feel there should be one thing you hear every time you attend that makes you think  'I should write this down' .   The Mennonite Church is where I get that.  I'm trying very hard to crucify self, to do exactly  everything God wants me to do.

Please remember me in your prayers.

Christine