Counting Stars with The Captains Courageous

Oddly, I don't know if the appropriate title for this band is, "Andrew Peterson and The Captains Courageous." Or simply, "The Captains Courageous."
You would think with all the time I spend stalking these three guys, I would know off by heart that bit of trivia.
Because of the dark room, these images are blurry and poor quality, but I thought that publishing them in spite of that would be worth it just to illicit a covetous response in a certain pastor's wife.
Ben Shive is the piano player. I picked the seats near him at the concert because Ben Shive is to fat old housewife Mollie as Shaun Cassidy was to pretty little pre-teen Mollie. It's ok, Big Dan knows all about the crush I have on Ben's lyrics and he even pre-bought Ben's next album, The Cymbal Crashing Clouds, for my Christmas present.
Andrew Peterson is in the middle of the stage. We love everything about him.
He writes, he sings, he tells stories that make you pee your pants laughing. (Well, maybe that only applies if you've had large babies.) Your life will be better if you read his books, "On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness" and "North! Or Be Eaten." Coming in May is the new book in that series, "Monster in the Hollows."
On the far side of the stage is Andy Gullahorn, who is the funniest man on the planet.
We saw this concert Sunday night in North Carolina. It was definitely worth the drive for us groupies.

Piano Virtuoso

Laura has had two months of piano lessons with her teacher Laura York. Not only has she come so far so fast in piano, but she's taking voice from Mrs. York every other week instead of piano, so she's improving this rapidly with only two lessons a month.

Ah, Ah, Achoo!

Hay fever is all the rage this week. First I had it, now Becky.
All day long and then overnight, Debbie the cat sensed Becky's illness, and decided to stay with her. On her, mostly. It was pretty comical. At one point, Becky went to my bed for a back massage and Debbie immediately jumped up and planted herself firmly in the center of Becky's back.
Thank you, Florence Nightingale of kitties.

Gardening

Here is a pictorial journal of the day the garden was prepared by Danny and the tractor.
The plow.
The disc.
The disc with three girls on top.
The disc with two girls on top.
The finished product.
My favorite part of the day was me doing no hard work.

Tractor Ride

Here's for you city folk, so you can enjoy a simulated farm experience.

Becky, Laura, and Katie are riding on top of the disc to give it more weight.

Planting Trees

Because I didn't think that Danny had enough work to do around here, I bought 8 very large maple trees which needed planting immediately.
We rented a mini-excavator and Dan spent all day planting trees and cleaning up around the barn.
And that is why we haven't been calling our relatives.

Spring Things

On her pictorial tour of Providence Farm this morning, Katie found beautiful peach blossoms.
Two animals are sleeping on two different round things. The goatling is on her throne, which is a garbage can lid. The horse is in the center of her favorite stuff- hay.
The lambs still have their tails at this time of the day.
Later, however, they got their tetanus shots and lost their little tails.
This was our first tail docking experience. Q-Tip got lucky last year because I had a pinched nerve in my neck and couldn't do much of anything when her tail was due for docking.

Sleepy Rabbit

Coal got woken up for his photo shoot by Katie.
This poor guy looks like he could use a cup of strong coffee!

Tonight's Soccer Practice

Yeah, I know. These are pictures of cows and flowers. Not soccer.

I took a walk while Laura practiced, and this is what surrounded the field.

When I was incarcerated in suburban public school, I would have given a lot in order to have cows near our athletic fields.
Lucky country people.

These tiny white looking flowers are the same breed as the ones in my backyard, near my clothesline. I'm not sure if all Bluets turn pale at night, but these did!

BJU, I Love You!

Here are two of the three monkeys working on school.
I'm becoming completely and utterly dependent on BJU Press's distance learning. With them, I get teachers in every subjet, plus all the books and teacher's editions.
Now I wonder how I ever homeschooled without their help.

Scenes from a Spring Day

Ha. Our very own blossoms. Take that, Sunny California!
See the goats in the background? I need to get them penned up before our pretty apple blossoms are no more.



These pretty little purple flowers tempted me to lie down and take a photo that included them.

And when you lie down in the yard on Providence Farm, you attract friendly, curious animals...

and more animals.

Now Becky's a Photographer Too

First Laura became a better photographer than I am. Now Becky turns out to be gifted as well. Here's her picture of her sister's feet on a scooter.

Another Good Picture

Becky's horse photo.

Lambs

And... They're Off!

Psalm 23:6 Sheep Family

Here are Shirley's newborn lambs, Goodness and Mercy.
Goodness is a healthy, strapping fellow with an adorable black spot on one hock.
Mercy is a weak little girl with a limp on her front right leg.
We were surprised by the new additions this evening. I like this kind of surprise!

First, The Flood

The result of Thursday's rain...

Weeds vs. Crops

These pictures were both taken today. Look at the difference in development between the fruit tree and the weed patch.

Thus begins the season-long battle of trying to destroy the hardy undesirables, while encouraging the timid, planted things to thrive.

In the background of the fruit tree picture, people from sunny California can see the start of green grass in the field.