My Favorite Time of the Day and other thoughts

So today I started my insanity work out hehe.  The kids wanted to join in, which is a good thing, because all this rain has kept them more cooped up than normal.  So the kids and I started our first insanity work out.  Everyone feels like their bodies are made of jelly.  lol.  But in my youngest Son's own words, "Its a good kind of Jelly!"

On to my favorite time of Day.................................It's reading time.  I love seeing my kids curled up with their books.  I love reading the summary they write about what they've read each day.  I love love love that we are past that hard part, where I felt that Reading time meant WAR between mom and 4 kids.  ahhh they are learning to love this time as much as me and after a hard workout to get our blood pumping great this was a fabulous time to take a break with a book, for mind and body!

You know what I also love.....?  That I can start snapping pix in the middle of this quietest of times and my kids find it totally normal and don't even look up anymore, like what are you doing, or to pose.  here are the pix I caught just a few minutes ago.

Grateful For Hills

 It Rained, and Rained, and RAINED and RAINED and RAINED and RAINED and RAINED some more yesterday!!!

 This was a driveway, I hope our neighbors were already home before this happened. 

 The small bridge I cross on my way home

 James River looking South

 James River before the bridge, it's not suppose to be there!!!!!!

 James River looking North

Today I'm very grateful we live on a huge hill.  Last night we were suppose to go to a friends house for our FHE (family home evening, we do this every Monday) lesson, but it had rained all day and we have a low bridge to cross so I canceled for fear of not making it back home.   But the kids and I wanted to see just how high the creeks and rivers were.  So we took a little drive and these pix are a result of what we saw.  I took these pix with my phone so please excuse the quality.  ;)

The Shepherd of The Hills BOOK!!

At the request of my friend Stephanie, who hosts the book club I attend each month, I read the book "The Shepherd of The Hills" by Harold Bell Wright.   I recommend it to everyone.  What a good story.  I loved it!!  So if you have a desire to read a good story you should go and read it.  Thanks Stephanie that was a wonderful adventure!  I laughed, I cried, I worried, and I loved.  I also learned a lot from this book about finding myself and staying true to me and how important that is.  Our family has had some interesting experiences this past week on repentance and this book ended with the importance of that. Thanks again.

Silver Dollar City Photo Shoot

I got an email a couple weeks ago asking if our family would be interested in participating in a photo shoot for Silver Dollar City's 2011 commercials.  If we wanted to then we would each get a free pass to Silver Dollar City.  So we loaded up and went last Tuesday.  The kids had a blast.  We road Thunderation, Wildfire, Powder Keg and the Lost River, over and over and over until they got the video they needed.  We arrived at 9 am and didn't leave until 6:30.  But the kids met a lot of people and watched how they videoed the rides.  There was a lot of hurry up and waiting.  So the kids enjoyed playing games and making up fun stuff to occupy themselves with others while waiting.  But my kids seem to be really good at staying busy and having fun. 

Garden

 My cool weather plants are looking beautiful!

Now for my Chicken Coop

That's right,  I have a chicken coop!!!  hehe.  I mentioned that I have been wanting one.  My reasoning is I would like to have the experience and the fresh eggs and the extra responsibilities for the kids.  Well the original thought was just get full grown chickens at the swap-meets in little surrounding towns, then we got excited and ended up buying some little chicks from the farm store.  They were cute last week. lol  they are not as cute now but hopefully we will do everything correctly and have beautiful chickens in about a year.   Yep a year.  But they are suppose to start laying eggs @ about 6 months old.  We shall see how they do.   My amazing husband (as I love to call him) recently completed a job where someone was getting rid of their shed.  So to my surprise he pulls up after work with this building on his trailer.  Saying it's going to be the chicken coop.!  Not exactally what I was hoping for, I was hoping that my boys could build one for me, the dream house of chicken coops.  LOL  I had been taking pix of them collecting ideas from the internet and had a special folder on my computer for this purpose.  ;)  But I am very please with my coop.  Our neighbor tells us that's not a coop it's a chicken mansion.  I hope the chickens think so and produce a wealth of eggs!!!!!!!!!  We have 4 chickens and 1 Rooster so far.  Plus 6 little chicks.  LET THE FUN BEGIN!!!!!!

Wow its been a while....

Hope your all ready for a load of posts.  LOL  I've been way Super busy.  When weather warms up life gets packed.  So here is my latest and greatest adventures.
First of all baby plants don't like the direct SUN and especially don't like crazy windy days in the sun.  :(  I lost a few of my plants after placing them outside that one day, I also learned my lesson.  However this is what I have left. 

 Remember the baby Cucumbers?  Look at them grow.  They have grown the fastest and the biggest.

 The tomatoes have proven quite a bit harder to grow.  I've stunted their growth a few times by putting them outside.  The kids knocking the cups over.  Them setting them in a window with direct sunlight and drying them out on accident.  But they are still growing and have new leafs finally that have given me hope for some wonderful fruit this year. 

 

Do you remember the little seeds hidden in the dirt that I kept imagining I could see....?  Well they finally poked through the dirt and have taken off at a wonderful rate.  I'm very pleased with this.  Some of them are from seeds I saved from my garden last year.