Father Son Retreat 2008

This deer was at the gate of the Crooked Creek Ranch where the Vision Forum 2008 Father Son Retreat was held. Yes, all my men want to move out there now! We do have deer here in Maine of course, but they seem to be elusive. :)

Now if your kids are into horses..................................and you would like to combine their interest with God's Word......................

You need to check out Sermon On The Mount. The web address is http://www.sermononthemount.org/ . Lew Sterret surprised everyone there. He treated everyone to a show. Lew Sterret takes horses that have never been ridden before, or some that have, or some that have bad attitudes, and uses the training process to show Biblical life applications, and principals. It is absolutely incredible. We purchased "Capturing The Heart" and "The Principles of Life Series" They are amazing! My kids love them.

My men had a great time of fellowship and learning and came home with a renewed zeal for God. It was a very refreshing time for them. They met some new friends, and caught up with friends they made last year. This was their second time going to the Father Son Retreat and hopefully won't be the last.

I would have liked to post several more pictures, but my horse loving, hunting boy only took horse and deer pictures! ;) He did a great job though and I love the pictures and stories they came home with.

Blessings, Kerri

COYOTES!!

Coyote, South Rim of Grand Canyon National Park, AZ
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This has been my alarm clock for the past 3 nights!!! It's 4:30 am and I've been up listening to them since 4:00! They go off at all hours of the night. I guess at least I was able to sleep through the night last night! Usually it's 11:00pm, 12:30am, 2:15am you get the idea. I can honestly say living on a farm............I hate these things. The other night during Bible study in our home we could hear a loud screaming........it was 7:30pm........we went out on the deck and they sounded like they were on our back lawn! They weren't , but they were in the next field over, and my goats were frantic. Scott got a gun, and I ran to the goat barn to put the goats in and do some reassuring. I have had it with these things.

On a different note..........I have the batteries for my camera and my Easy Share software is not working so.........I have to fix that. :)

Our UPS man arrived yesterday afternoon bearing gifts........like Math and Biology. ;0 Acelia did 3 lessons and I made her stop! I use Teaching Textbooks, and let me just say, honestly and sincerely, Thank you Lord for that program. My kids love every aspect of it. Dean was actually looking over his Algebra II (instead of a hunting magazine), then came up stairs and told me it looked good!! :0 The Biology 101 is a DVD course. (I am not a science person to begin with and Apologia is just overwhelming to me ) If any of you get the CBD Homeschool catalog the Anderola's did a review of it. We did the first DVD and when Scott got home the two older boys told him if he needed a good movie, to watch that. Then proceeded to tell him about the world of plants. Did you know that in the first 6 days of creation taxonomy was already present? Our God is so amazing!! I love this kind of learning!! I love the Charlotte Mason way :) So the only things I am lacking here for school is our History books for the boys. I keep looking for the "little brown van" :)

I was very inspired after visiting Home But Not Alone and reading her blog post on the Reading Roundabout that she does in her church. So, I picked up the closest book near to me that I hadn't finished reading, and determined to finish it. Then I'll give you all a review :) It is Love and Respect by Dr. Emerson Eggerichs. I love the book! I read the first 3 chapters in one sitting. I was floored! Then I got busy.......it sat there on my night stand.........and you know how it is. I'm back at it though :) It is based on Eph 5:33 and has challenged me to take a look at my relationship with my husband and my son's. It's a marriage book, but it is alot more than that. It really looks at how men and women are wired so differently and has caused me to see things in my boys as well as my husband, daughter and myself. So I made it through chapter 4 and 1/2 way through 5 last night. :)

Well I'm off to do a little reading and then get some breakfast ready. I think I'm going to need alot of coffee today and a nap!!

Have a great day!

It's Coming!!

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Guess what is coming!! I went into town yesterday and could not believe how many of the trees are changing. We have had some cool nights for about a week. The kids are dressing for their chores in the morning. The barn is cold until the sun gets up there and warms it up. I'm not looking forward to carrying water to all the animals in the winter! If we are still here next year we will be installing water and electricity to the barn.

I'm heading into town today and getting new batteries for my camera so I can take some pictures of all the projects we have accomplished around here. My previous computer was struck by lightning this summer, so all my pictures were lost. I wont be able to have a comparing picture to show with my new ones. :(

Well things went really well at the yard sale this weekend. We sold a lot of stuff and are able to pay for our trip to North Carolina. Scott and I are getting away for a few days. We are going to a Church Planting Symposium in Wakeforest. I am looking forward to it.

I added a few blogs that I have found recently. Check them out! :) I have been making a lot of the recepies off of http://heritageschoolhouse.blogspot.com/ they come out great!

I hope everyone has a great school day (for those that have started:) We have a full day of lessons and then into town for piano lessons.

Blessings

Kerri

Saturday

Evening Sun

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Can you tell I have discovered allposters.com ? Well we are having a Yard Sale today! Actually Scott and the kids are having one. I am freezing beans, doing laundry and cleaning the house. School is going well. The kids really like the Beautiful Feet curriculum I am using this year. I am still waiting on a few things to come in the mail.

I have been holding off on posting our "News"but now I can. We are selling our home! We are moving. Where? That I cant say right now. My husbands feels the Lord is leading our family in a new direction. It is an exciting time and an unsure one right now. I know who has plans for our future and am leaning on him continually. Please pray for us.

I am in the process of sprucing up my blog. Please excuse anything that is out of place and doesn't make sense. With dial up it takes me awhile. I can only do a little at a time. :) I hope to have some pictures of what we have been up to all summer to post soon.

Have a great weekend!

Back To School

Winnie The Pooh - Autumn Leaves
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Well it's that time of year again! It's been in the 50's here and I have contemplated starting a fire in the fireplace in the mornings. When I step out on the porch with my coffee and wearing my fleece jacket on I know Autumn is on the way. ( The weather man tells me that warmer weather is coming for the rest of the week.) I get that urge inside for the smell of sharpened pencils, new books, and clean white paper. We started school yesterday. Here is a look at our year.


Dean:
Beautiful Feet History


Rosetta Stone Spanish I


Teaching Textbooks Algebra II


Biology 101


Geography and You Book II


Typing Instructor Dlx.


CQLA


Bible Reading about Missionaries





Timothy:
Beautiful Feet History


Rosetta Stone Spanish I


Teaching Textbooks Algebra I


Biology 101


Geography and You Book I


Typing Instructor Dlx.


CQLA


1/2 Year of Maine Studies


Bible reading / Personal Help For Boys





David :
Beautiful Feet History


Rosetta Stone Spanish I


Teaching Textbooks Pre Algebra


Answers For Kids/ Johnathan Park (Creation Science)


Geography Beautiful Feet


Typing Instructor Dlx.


CQLA


1/2 Year of Maine Studies


Bible reading / Practical Happiness by Bob Shultz





Acelia:
Beautiful Feet History


Rosetta Stone Spanish


Teaching Textbooks 5th grade


Thorton Burgess Book of Animals / Nature Notebooking


Geography Beautiful Feet


CQLA


Pearables Home Ec. Book I


Personal Help For Girls


Typing Instructor Dlx.


Beautiful Feet Character Study





We are currently going through Proverbs doing the Balancing the Sword study with Scott guiding us through. That makes up our school year.

If you've read a great book this summer please share it with me! :)
Have a blessed day!

I'm Back !!

Well after several tries I'm back on Blogger. I will be around to visit :) I thought I would post some pictures of the Father Daughter Retreat from this year. Acelia and Scott went to visit a farm and had a great time.

They loved this goat and his rock climbing abilities. This structure gave us some ideas for our own goat pen.

This picture and the next is so cute. I have no idea what kind of goat that is on the horses back. I think it may be a dwarf pygmy goat or something.

Can you recognize this little girl?

I don't know this person! :)

Scott and Acelia have never been horseback riding. They thought they would give it a try.

They had a great time. I love this retreat and the things Acelia and Scott learn and bring home to share. I just received the cd's so I am looking forward to listening to them.

Well, we have been very busy trying to get school finished up and out of the way. Some of our subjects we will have to do through the summer, but we don't mind that.

We have had a crew working long hours building our pasture and I can't wait to post pictures of it. Scott and the boys will be building our turkey pen this week. Our 15 baby turkeys will be here on the 27th of May.

Well I'm off to visit some blogs that I haven't been able to leave comments on for weeks!

I was wondering if anyone could help me with a tech question. I would like to put some background prints on the sides of my blog page and in my title. Is this easy to do? How do I do it or where do I go to find out how?

Have a blessed day!

Is it just me?

I have been having a lot of trouble with Google, and I was just wondering if it is my computer or if others out there are experiencing issues too. I can't seem to stay logged on to my Google home page. That isn't a big deal, but I can't sign it to my personal Google home page, which means I can't get to my blog to post. ???? I guess I will just have to deal with the frustration for now.


My family has been busy burning brush, planting, raking, and mulching. We are going to start the goat barn sometime next week.


Dean decided to break up the busy week by falling thru the old barn roof! He caught himself with his hands and drove a roofing nail (an old tar covered roofing nail!!!) through his hand. It hit the joint and usually they do surgery and open the joint to clean it well so no infection will get in it, and cause him problems down the road, but in Deans case they were able to pull the nail out, and flush out the wound really well. We just need to keep it dry and bandaged for awhile. So he is getting caught up on some sleep due to the pain meds, and will hopefully be back in the swing of things soon. We had a late night last night. We thought we were going for surgery, and that meant a hour and a half trip with our son and his nail! God is good and we were able to stay right here and have the nail removed.


Yesterday I spent the day with some help planting 46 asparagus plants. My helpers dug 8, 8 foot trenches, 15 inches deep. Thank goodness that job is done. Now I have to till the regular garden, and get some more peas in, my lettuce, and some kale. I am hoping to go pick some fiddleheads to freeze, and some to eat later next week.


I hope to post some pictures later this week. It's going to rain Thursday so that will mean a nice day inside to relax, and catch up on some things. For now thought it is off to do some laundry, pick up the kitchen and fall into bed.

Hope you are all having a great week.

Our new Goats

Good Morning! We have been right out straight around here. I planted a row of peas Saturday, and the boys and Scott went turkey hunting. Timothy shot a 15 lb turkey. I should have the picture tomorrow. You all would not believe what I have been doing with my children. Let's just say it doesn't take much to make me happy. It involves a barn, a shovel, a truck, and a whole lot of stuff 4 cows left behind :0 My flowers and garden will be very happy this year! I was so happy because my dirt is very poor, and my garden didn't do too well last year.

I am finally posting the pictures of our first and second trip to Mapleshade Farm.


Here I am trying too hard to milk this goat. I did finally catch on after 3 or 4 tries.

Timothy was a natural!!

Acelia had no problem at all!

Dean had no trouble.

David did great!

Scott had no trouble! I guess I was just a little nervous I was going to hurt her. Once I relaxed a little I started to get the hang of it.

These next few pictures were from yesterday!

A little buck kid! Cute as a button!

These are the twins that were born right after our first trip. One of these is for sale.


This is Lance, David's goat. He can not wait to bring him home. We need to spend a lot more time with him, learning all we can before we bring him home so we will both be happy.

This is my goat Paper, she is so sweet. I took her for a little walk yesterday, and she was so good.

This is Ginger Snap, we are going to call her Ginger though. This is Acelia's new baby. I love the black boots she is wearing.

They bonded very nicely. I think Acelia is very excited. We can't wait to go again.

Hope you all have a great day. It's raining here, and I am thankful , I can get some house work done!