Sand

Here are some picture of our sand and the kids playing on it. :D

I'm standing one pile, and from there you can see the seven other piles, all the way back towards the street. :D

Trenches that the kids made while acting out the war between the states. (It's a lot deeper then it looks).

The girls eating lunch while the boys play.

The only problem with all this sand is that it was all dumped between the house and the Dairy, so to get to the dairy we either have to walk over it or around it, all the while dodging sand balls. lol

Swede Farm Happenings

>We're getting EIGHT dump truck loads of sand (yes you read that correctly eight truck loads.) The kids think it's the best thing since seeing over a foot of snow in Virginia five years ago. lol If you remember I posted some about this back in April when we go three loads worth. Well they think that this is better than that. :D

They are sharing two kids per pile right now, before they started sand art it was sliding down the SAND hill on a shovel. Remember the scene from "It's A Wonderful Life", when they are sliding down the ice on shovels? Same thing, except here it’s sand and heat. All the lines and everything were included as well. lol They are having the time of their lives, but I'm don't look forward to the laundry that I will have to be washing today, tomorrow, this week, and next week!! lol

>Today is cheese, chocolate milk, and room cleaning day. I am ashamed to say that my room has taken a back seat to other things these past few weeks, and the pile of books, papers, laundry, and toys is proving that. Even though I don't share a room with a sibling (as in they don't have a bed in there) I seem to share it with the entire family! The olders go in there all the time for books, while the youngers go in there to jump on my bed (it's the only bed in the house that is not a bunk bed besides my parent's and mom's bed is WAY off limits). Not to mention, they love reading the hunting, tanning, gun, and history books that I am always borrowing from the library.

So, with my room being a mini family room it needs constant cleaning and I've had to push it off for more than one reason in the past few days. Yesterday I had had it and made a point to work on it. Though, it seemed that the little that I got cleaned was messed up by a few toddlers. Now today it's looking much better and will hopefully be cleaned by the end of the day.

>Last night was family night--Pizza and ice cream in front of a movie--It happened that we ended up watching a kid movie. And truthfully it really was a kid movie. "The Adventures of Milo and Otis", a movie that I remember watching when I was Liberty and Timothy's age (It sounds weird hearing that come from my mouth!!). All about a cat that accidently leaves its farm home and the dog that follows it to rescue it. It had Emma on down in fits of laughter through the entire thing, while Linnea on up sat there either laughing at the antics of the toddlers or deciding if what they said about farm life was true.

Tonight we are planning on another family night with a movie for the older kids--Jimmy Stewart's "Bend of the River"--Maybe--It's also the first night of the NLCS, which I would like to watch, but I will have to wait and see which we do. :D

>I think that's all that's all that is going on here except for the normal--Milking, markets, processing, school, Dr. Appointments, church, etc.. Life here at Swede Farm is NEVER dull!! :D

Sand, Baseball, and Markets

Sand:
Well, we just got another load of dirt. And of course the kids are ALL over it. :D Noah and Judah wanted to know why he was back again, but when they saw all that lovely sand, they didn't ask again. :D Right now I sit here listening to Noah, Judah, and Liberty laughing as they play all over it.







Baseball:
For the past six years or so dad and I have been buying MLB.tv. With MLB.tv we get all Major League Games, except for those played in Texas. Which is fine with us, since we get those games on TV we mainly got it to be able to watch the Boston Red Sox. And any other game when we feel like it (Cubs, Cards, Rays, etc.). Normal I pay for at least half of it. (sometimes more, depending on how much money I get) though out the baseball season, I guess I need to sell some soaps. lol

Well, last night dad accidental upgraded. And honestly we have both watched it since then and we both agree we like the upgrade! lol And dad has said if I pay for the upgrade he will pay for the rest and we can keep it! I am so excited! Right now I am watching 4 games. As an add comes on I switch to the next game, so I don't have to listen to adds. This is to cool!

Market:
Mom, Grace, Seth and birthday girl Emma are on their way to the Brazos Valley farmer's market for our first time as vendors, making this a grand total of FOUR this week alone! It used to take three weeks for that. :D

That's it for an update right now. :D

Something New

One of my jobs in helping the family is that I teach the youngers. I teach them until the are ten years old or until the start sassing back, which ever comes first. lol Right now I have Liberty (6), Noah (4), and Judah (2) in my "class".

And when I say that I mean each morning for about 30 minutes we sit down and work on a hymn, a catechism question, colors, shapes, 1-10, ABC's, some sort of game, and a fun song (do you ears hang low?, the wheels on the bus, etc.) And they love it, now Libby might not be to happy to do her 1-10 or ABC's but after about five minutes she comes around. :D

Where we do "school" depends on the weather, if it's as nice as it has been lately, we do it on the deck where we might add counting sticks and chickens to the programme. lol

Well, this morning around 9 o'clock we had a truck load of sand dumped right in between the house and the dairy to help cut down on the mud. (I LOVE the sand piles, oh so cool, better then a beach any day!! lol). Thirty minutes later when I called them to go do some school on the deck I had a revolt for the first time ever from this "class". I was just a bit shocked, since this is the group that has woken me up at least three days out of the week wanting to do school. It was only when they started yelling about a dirt hill did I realize why.

Thanks to a very thoughtful and fun mom we got that problem fixed. For the first time ever I taught school from a top a dirt hill. Drawing letters in the sand and counting to see who could make the most dirt balls or throw the most in the puddle three feet away. I must admit, I loved it. (Once I got over the fact that I would have sand in my hair and down my shirt!)

Yet another first for me. :D Teaching from a top a 'dirt' hill. lol

(In this picture about 1/4 of the sand has already been moved to the puddle, it's just so much fun to sit there and throw it, that it's hard to tell the kids not to. Not to mention they have been using their little shovels as well. :D )