Lilly's Broken Leg

Thanksgiving morning Lilly suffered a spiral fracture to the left front tibia. If I'd had been using my camera, you could have seen that our family was spending Thanksgiving in a beautiful campground near the Sequoia National Forest. We'd spent the previous day hiking, and all Lilly wanted to do this Thanksgiving morning was ride bikes with her cousin Kelsey!I've narrowed the accident down to three reasons:

1. Lilly is an inexperienced bike rider

2. The ground was wet, it had rained the previous day and night.

3. Her competitive nature! She admitted to me on the way home that she was trying to beat Kelsey. I asked her if it was a race, she said "No. I just wanted to beat her."

After a trip to the ER, we enjoyed a beautiful Thanksgiving dinner which Emily prepared all by herself :(! Wish I could have helped, she did a great job running between our trailers cooking everything. She even went to the store to buy more sweet potatoes, because I dumped mine in the trash before we left for the ER. Sadly, we decided the best thing to do for Lilly (and her parents) was to end our trip early. Lilly has been much more comfortable at home.

Grandma has a tradition of buying each grandchild a stuffed animal when they have a major trauma! Unfortunately, three of my children have received stuffed animals from Grandma now! And this is the second one Grandma had to buy this year!

Lilly enjoys visitors.


She also enjoys playing on the laptop.

Well, this has been a big weekend. Despite the circumstances, I've been able to rejoice in much. Please pray for Lilly. This is hard for her. Thankfully, we were able to get her pain under control yesterday. It hurts very much for us to move her, we only do so when she needs to use the "facilities". We have a referral for an orthopedic doctor. Please pray that she can be seen on Monday and casted. We know now that it's best not to break a bone on a holiday weekend, as doctors like to have a vacation too! Still, we're thankful for everything the ER did for us. We're trusting the Lord to lead us through the rest of this journey. Your prayers are needed and felt!

Happy Thanksgiving

Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; For His lovingkindness is everlasting. Psalm 118:1

History in the Making

November 20th was our school's annual "History Night". Our theme this year was "History in the Making" The event, person, invention, etc. had to have taken place in the last 60 years. Our family is currently deep in study of the Revolutionary War, so we had some thinking to do...

Garret chose to write on Legos. Lego, a Danish toy company was founded well before World War II. The name means "play well" in Danish. With the invention of plastic, Lego began manufacturing plastic toys, eventually copying an American style of blocks. The owner's son perfected the block style so that each piece fit perfectly with any other. There you have it. I wonder how many engineers today, used to play with Legos? By the way, in Latin the meaning of Lego is "put together". Good job Garret!

Twoallbeefpattiesspecialsaucelettucecheesepicklesonionsonasesameseedbun! Bret wrote his paper on McDonalds. A very interesting company, their "Speedee" service revolutionized the restaurant industry. A lot of Bret's information was very current - did you know that McDonalds will test over 1800 menu ideas to come up with one or two menu items! It's been while since we've had McDonalds, but Wade's been talking about Quarter Pounders the last few days! Good job Bret!

Here's a few of my favorites:

Munich Massacre - 1972 Olympics. We hear from a news reporter, Israeli Olympic Coach, Terrorist and a Sniper (Security Guard). The latter three let us know how they felt, their frustrations, and what moved them to action.

A compelling performance. A reenactment of a Post World War II court scene. A German is put on trial for war crimes, but we soon recognize he is not the only one to blame.

"The Angie Griffith Show"

In this episode Bonnie buys an old jalopy of a Model T. Ever so proud she decides to take the gang - Angie, Thelma Lou, Gomar, Opal, and Aunt Bee for a ride. Rachel stars as Opal and is responsible for telling us the history of the Model T.
Things don't go as expected! Thelma Lou steers, Bonnie pouts and the rest of the gang get out and push the old jalopy!

Bonnie discovers she was conned into buying a piece of junk! She thwarts the bad guys and saves the day!

We were privileged to hear other children talk about Ronald Reagan, Laura Bush, Neil Armstrong, and other characters and events in our not so long ago history.

We closed the evening with the hymn, "Our God, Our Help in Ages Past". A reminder of what history is, "His story".

Motorcycle Mama ...and Papa

So, this is my mom and dad this morning! Looks like fun, huh? I think we're reversing our roles. It's time for me to start worrying about them! Truly, they gave up the bike because of me (responsible parenting) - so I've guess since I've reached adulthood they have the right to have it back again!


Here's hoping they had a fun day! Wade's counting on hearing the rumble tomorrow morning at church! We'll see!

It's a Little Nutty Around Here!

We have the most beautiful walnut tree right outside our back door! It's also the biggest mess maker we have in the yard! The boys and I arrived home from an ortho. appointment and I could stand it no longer. I told the boys we have to speed up the process of this nut dropping! They were happy to oblige. With helmets to protect their heads from falling nuts and "long sticks" they batted away at the tree and managed to get all of the low nuts off! We picked up three bags full of nuts and swept up two wagon loads full of leaves! Wade assures me that a strong wind will do the rest :)! However with temperatures in the 70's, I'm not sure when that strong wind is going to come! Armed and ready!
This is fun!

Watch out for falling nuts!

Every evening we've been cracking a few. Bret is the pro nut cracker in the house!

We're so happy to have a walnut tree!!

This is the reward my boys earned! Persimmon cookies with walnuts! This was Mae Crew's recipe. Quite tasty! We found out we have a persimmon tree too! Makes it handy - since I would never pay $1.00 a piece for them in the store!

Floral Arranging

Last month Rachel spent the afternoon with other home schooled girls learning the art of floral arranging!

Here's the finished product. Much of it from our own yard! Thanks Mary!