My Pretty Baby

Some Sepia

Becky is quite a gifted photographer it seems. She found Daddy's broken old camera, fixed it, and had been photographing and video taping ever since.

Here is some sepia she took today.

Envelope Contest

Here are Laura's and Katie's entries for Practical Homeschooling's http://practicalhomeschooling.com/ envelope art contest.

Cross your fingers for them because the competition's stiff!

School and life are moving along steadily and happily on Providence Farm.

Becky's missing from our family circle since she's helping out family friends who are busy with mom recovering from surgery and moving to a new house simultaneously.

She is sorely missed at home. All of our games and private jokes are just a little lonelier without our big sister. I think big sisters are the most awesome siblings in a family, actually.

But while she's been away, the rest of us have been busy just the right amount. I've been reading the book "Margin" by Richard Swenson, which has caused me to deliberately slow our schedule down and give us plenty of time to do each thing we want to do. The results have been phenomenal! I feel like I have so much more time, now that our days are more deliberate.

The fall weather is hot this year but still enjoyable- at least in the mornings and evenings! The smell of the planted pine wafts past me while I hang out my laundry, and at night, the stars seem so close and bright.

Becky's Apple Pie

Looky what I woke up to late this morning!

Becky had made a Dutch Apple Pie. It is unbelievably delicious.

Wild Pony Round-Up

This is for people who like to imagine themselves the owner of a farm full of fun livestock bought cheaply from Craigslist.

I realize it's not a good video, but the video I took while galloping got erased and this was the only evidence left on the camera of today's wild rumpus in the field.

Little JoJo absolutely loves when people ride. She frolicks and rears alongside the big horse, wishing (I think) that she could be ridden around the big field.

Chicken Coop Revisited

Being tired of eggs hidden anywhere and everywhere around the farm, and chicken poop on my porches, I hired a chicken pen built.

The coop was already there, but alas, nobody would use it for shelter or egg laying.

After the prison yard was finished and predator proof (unless the predator is determined) Becky got motivated to clean out the old shavings and replace them with new. So it even smells half decent in the coop now.

I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but this fence is 6' high.

Horse Play

There were lots of videos and photos on the camera when the kids came in with it last night, but it was dark so early that they weren't very good.

Here's a little sample of the neighborhood having a great time in the new pen with horses.

All the children and all the horses ended up being involved in riding. It's interesting how having a secure pen can give all the kiddos confidence to ride. That was a good investment!

Sisters

Plural possessives are more fun with two, don't ya think?

If you're a facebook friend of mine, you've heard me rave about BJU Press curriculum.

The whole grade shows up mere days after your order is made, and it's many, many boxes of books and videos. The excitement of unloading the UPS truck in itself is worth the astronomical price I think.

Most of the teachers are excellent and the course material is interestingly presented.

I was hoping that I could have nothing to do with their school since I paid for the pros to come in and do it all for me, but it's still a full day's work as an administrator for me. Nowhere near the work of teaching though.

Katie is using the hard drive, Becky is using DVDs which are the only option for high school, and Laura is using textbooks only this year.

Next year Laura will get 8th grade on hard drive.

I hope that they start to provide high school on hard drive since it's cheaper and easier to keep track of.

If I could start over, I would use the whole grade solutions from the beginnning with the girls.

http://http://www.bjupress.com/page/Home

Gratuitous Goat Photo

The triplets are getting even more adorable. Now they hop around and play so friskily! I'll try to catch a video so you can enjoy too.

Fun Toy

Are you excited yet?
This is for two children who will get to ride their very own pony for the first time in not too long from now.
We're getting very excited about the big adventure.
I wish I had had a really cool pony saddle with barbed wire decoration on the suede.

All the Pretty Ponies

Just pictures of ponies for your viewing pleasure.

Hiking with Horses

Technically this should read, "Hiking with Ponies." But where's the fun without alliteration?

We had so much fun walking the fence line with these two opposite pony girls. JoJo insisted that her shy momma come with us. Vidalia came along, but she just can't understand why anyone would intentionally go near one of those dangerous humans.

Church Fashion

"Well, that sure wasn't a very nice thing to say!" said Katie angrily, as she pulled on her white patent leather shoes.

"What wasn't?" I asked her.

"Laura told me that I couldn't wear my crown at church because it's too fancy!"

And she didn't. I couldn't convince her that a crown is perfectly acceptable church attire.

And yes, this is the self-same Katie who builds tree houses and out plays boys at sports.

Big Kid, Little Pet. Little Kid, Big Pet

Green Grass

The western field is now securely fenced so everyone can eat the good green grass. When I put Danny's cows in before the tight fence, they would leave this lovely meadow to wander the woods behind my neighbor's house. Why do they think that the grass is always greener? Clearly it doesn't get greener than this.

Couch Goat

Leeli is the name of the runt. She got her name from a book the girls are reading called, "On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness" by Andrew Peterson.

She spends a lot of time in people's arms, which is fine with her and also with her mother.

Some Fences

Taken from the red gate over by Dorothie's.

I forgot to take some of the big support posts down at the shooting range, but they look good.

Californian Animals

Here I am being mauled in many ways by my brother's family's animals.

Snowflake is demanding pets while JoJo eats my pony tail.

Now my ponytail has a hard, pointed end to it from the pony slobber.

Oh, Possum

Yesterday morning we heard the dogs baying hysterically down in the woods. Becky ran down to the commotion after we realized that this was no ordinary deer chase. She found that Joe Houndog had treed a possum, in a sense.

Here is the poor little guy in his tree. You can see where Joe has scratched up the bark and also slobbered all over the entrance to the possum's hiding place.

I'll bet that was scary!

*No possums or dogs were harmed during the filming of this blog post.