The Christmas Story.

This morning before opening gifts our family has the tradition of reading the Christmas story together. Because of a sore throat I was not able to read it outloud myself. So I had the pleasure of just listening, and pondering the words of Luke. I think sometimes we almost forget what Christmas is really about. It's not just about: gifts, Christmas trees, cookies, decorating, but about God's son entering the world as a baby. And I don't want to come across as Miss Perfect Christian, because I also find myself dragged away from the real meaning. I am also not saying that Christmas trees, cookies, gifts, and decorating are all bad things. I think that those are some of the things that make Christmas so exciting! So what I guess I am trying to say is during the hustle and bustle of the season and of life, taking time to read God's word is what really matters. If you haven't already read the the scripture yourself, I have included the Christmas Story in my post. And if you have already maybe take a moment and read it again and really take in the miraculous story. I know it was helpful for me to read it again. I don't think you can ever read the story too much.

Luke 2:1-20 (New International Version)

The Birth of Jesus

1In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3And everyone went to his own town to register.
4So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

The Shepherds and the Angels
8And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ[a] the Lord. 12This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
13Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."
15When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."
16So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
Courtesy of: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+2%3A1-20&version=NIV

Merry Christmas!!

Walking In a Winter Wonderland!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow!!

Have fun in the snow!! Be Safe!

Take Care,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ME!

Yes, Today December 15th in the year 1995 I was born at the University of Michigan Medical Center. I won't share the whole story of my birth, but I will say that it is a miracle I am here today. Here are some pics of my birthday day:

Here is my peppermint ice-cream cake with an E on it. SO YUMMY!

For lunch, my sister and I had a tea party. Here I am sitting at our little table full of goodies. Since my parents had lunch with my mom's staff we had our own little party at home. What a great birthday so far!! Tonight I am planning to open gifts and then go out for supper. I LOVE BIRTHDAYS!! 10 days till Christmas!

Take Care,

SNOW!

SNOW!

Yesterday morning on the morning news the weather guy said there was an 80% chance for snow today. So I woke up this morning and looked out my window and found myself looking at a white blanket of snow on the ground. YEA! So I hopped out of bed and put on my coat and went outside into the winter wonderland. I took my dog out since she LOVES snow. As soon as I was outside I heard the goats "ma ma ma." I think they were a little wacked beacuse they have never seen snow before. Here are some pics from this mornings  snow:

Hope all the Harrisonburg folks who are reading this have fun in the snow!! And to all the rest of you, Take Care.

Butchering Chickens

Remember these?

Well, if not about 10 weeks ago I posted a post about these peeps. Well now this is what they look like...

All grown up!! And today my family butchered 10 of them.

 We use a traffic cone for the killing tool. My dad is in charge of the killing part. He puts the chicken in the cone and its head pops out the bottom of the cone. My dad then cuts the head off and lets it bleed.

After dipping them in 140 degree water then comes the plucking part. Kate likes plucking!!

This is what a fully plucked chicken looks like.

The coolest part of all is the gutting! You get to see all the intestines, fun!

Hope you enjoyed getting a glimpse of what happens here on the farm. I would love to here your comments about this post whether you liked it or not.

Take Care,

Decorating

As you can see from my new blog design I love decorating for Christmas. This morning my sisters and I put our "fake" Christmas tree together. In my family our tradition is to decorate for Christmas right after Thanksgiving. Another tradition we have is that my sisters and I usually are the ones who decorate. My parents don't get to excited about decorating so they leave to my sisters and I. As we near Christmas let us remember the real meaning of Christmas, and why we celebrate it.

Take Care,

The Chesapeake Bay

This is a picture of a sunset right off the island we stayed at in the Cheaspeake Bay.

On November 18th at 5am my sister, dad, myself and a bus full of 22 Juniors and Seniors from EMHS left for what would be a 6.5 hour trip to the Chesapeake Bay. Since my dad drives bus for EMHS Myron the biology teacher at EMHS asked him if he could drive for this trip. My dad said yes and asked if my sister and I could come along too, Myron said that would be fine. So on our trip there the directions happened to take us right through downtown Washington DC. The best part was our timing sent us through DC during morning rush hour, mix those two things together and it's going to be stop and go for miles. We finally got to the dock where our boat was to pick us up and take us to Port Isobel at 12:30pm. We formed an assembly line and loaded all of our luggage onto the boat. Then it was a 45 minute boat ride to Port Isobel where we would be staying for the 3 days while we were there. When we reached the island our leaders Willy, Foster, and Deidra showed us our rooms and we unpacked. 

After unpacking we were shown the bakery which was a different building used for a dining area and lounging place. Then after having an session on some of the rules and expectations we got back on the boat for our first adventure. Our first fun experience was baiting and setting crab pots. Crab pots are the most common tool to catch crabs with. We baited them with a fish callled menhaden. Before putting the fish in the pots we had to kiss them goodbye and brake them in half. I had a hard time kissing my fish, but it wasn't that bad after it was all done. When we were done we headed back to the island and ate supper. After supper the high schoolers went on a night hike but Kate, my dad, and I chose to go to bed. 

The next morning after breakfast was all done we headed off to our next adventure, MARSH MUCKING! Doesn't it sound like fun? Well it was a lot of fun. Lets just say we got muddy and gross. Though we didn't get as muddy as the high schoolers we still had our share of fun. After we got into some cleaner clothes we ate some snacks and got on the boat for our next experience. This time we were going to the neighboring island which was called Tangier Island. The island has a population of about 580 residents. Our boat captain, Captain Charles lives on Tangier Island. There we got to explore the island and see how the lifestyle of the Tangier people was different from ours. There is quite a dramatic difference from the two. While there my dad, sister, and I got to enjoy and share a crab cake. So Delicious!! After exploring we headed back to the island and had lunch. Next, we got back on the boat and gathered our crab pots. And on the way back I got to drive the boat, pretty big job but of course I could handle it :) haha. We recieved little over 30 crads but we could only keep 28. So for supper we had striped bass which Captain Charles and Foster had caught during the day our crabs we got. 

The next day which was our last day we had breakfast and then we went scraping. Scraping is where you take the boat out to a shallow area and drag a box like thing with holes alongside the boat. After about 5 minutes you take it out of the water and dump all the stuff out of it. And what you find is amazing, sea horses, crabs, shrimp, and all sorts of macro-invertebrates. We then put the creatures into jugs and took them back to the island. When we got back to the island we dumped all the creatures into a bigger tank that already had fish and sea horses in it. We then started to pack and clean up. After the 45 minute boat ride to where the bus was we ate lunch and said our goodbyes and we were on our way back to Harrisonburg. We got back home at around 8:30pm. What a fun fun trip and I am so thankful I got to be apart of it.

Have a very Happy Thanksgiving! Don't eat too much:)     

Busy, Busy, Busy

Those of you reading this are probably saying "Where has she been?." Yes I have been busy, busy, busy. As we are nearing the holiday and for me birthday season I think at least 1-2 post(s) a week is going to be all I can do. Thanks to all of you who read my blog, I really appreciate it. This week my main post will be about a 3 day field trip I had with my sister and dad last week. We travled with about 22 high-schoolers from EMHS down to an island in the Chesapeake Bay. So be looking forward to that post I will have by the end of the week.

Take Care,

Making Jello Cake on A Rainy Day

Each Wednesday my youth group takes turns making supper for everyone. Tonight it was my turn. I planned out my menu and got started this afternoon. My menu included taco soup, applesauce, bread, and JELLO CAKE!! If you have never had jello cake before you are really missing out. First you bake white cake mix in a pan for 30 minutes. Get the cake out and let it cool for 10 minutes. Then after 10 minutes you poke holes in the cake with a fork. Now this is the fun part, you pour the jello liquid over top of the cake. Then the liquid seeps into the holes, yummm. After that, you frost it with in my case a thick layer of whipped topping. Doesn't it just make your mouth water!? Hopefully my youth group likes it.

Take Care,

Test Post

Hey everyone, just testing out Emily's new design! What do you think? She got a header, background, blog button, footer and signature. Hope you like it Em! You can delete this post if you want too... :)

~Emily Joy
www.rainydayblogdesign.blogspot.com

My Dream

This week my dad assigned Kate and I an essay that we were to have done by Friday. We had to fill in the blank of this sentence: If I could live anywhere and do anything I would.................So here is my essay:

My Dream

If I could live anywhere and do anything, I would live in Florida right on the coast and own a bed n breakfast. For me that would be the ideal life. Since I enjoy designing and entertaining people, a bed n breakfast would be the perfect way to nourish that trait of mine. The theme of the bed and breakfast would revolve around the ocean. There would be huge glass windows to portray a lovely ocean view for the guests. A deck would be used as a dining area for guests to enjoy the ocean breeze and gaze at the majestic coast view. The guests would also be able to bask in the sun at the private beach area. The rooms would be decorated with plants and shells. The only light source in the evening would be candles.

Why do I have the dream of living in Florida and owning a bed n breakfast? This dream of mine has its pros and cons. First of all the, one of the pros is that I would be content and be able to share my creative side. The way I am and the gifts I have would be used to fulfill this dream. I love to be a leader, decorate, design, use my creativity, and organize. Having children is not a part of my future so all my energy could be put into my job.

My ideal life also has its defects. Living in Florida cannot always be the greatest at times. Temperatures reaching in the triple digits, hurricane season, and some harmful animals make Florida a not so welcoming place to settle. Owning a business has its challenges too, with questionable income and the costs of keeping the place up can be a hardship at times. With all the cons I still think that over all my dream life would be quite an exciting lifestyle.

Some may think I am crazy for having a dream such as this, but it is just a dream. Everyone has their own dream and this is mine, and hey maybe someday it will come true:)

By: Emily Kauffman

The First Day of November

Wow time flies by fast, seems like just yesterday it was the first of October. Today at my church it was Youth Sunday, which we have twice a year. I was the worship leader in the service. I love having the chance to be involved in the church service. It also has its bonus points, after the service you get the reward of people coming up to you afterwords. They thank you and tell you what a wonderful job you did.

All those butterflies are worth the compliments.

Take Care,

A Short Visit.

On Sunday evening my Kauffman grandparents arrived after a 10 hour long trip to visit my family and I. They live in Goshen, Indiana and my grandpa is an associate pastor in Archbold, Ohio. He has an apartment that he stays in half the week and then he travels back to Goshen to spend time with grandma. My grandma occasionally works at a nursing home as a nurse. They are my dad's parents and they have one other daughter Shana (my aunt) who lives in Minnesota with 3 kids the ages of my sisters and I.

They stayed here 3 nights and left this morning around 10am. During their stay here my grandpa, Kate, and I put together two desks my grandpa bought on sale. It took effort and time, but we managed to get them both done while he was here to help us. The two desks are now Kate and my school desks. We also took my grandpa disc golfing. Since he loves to play golf with clubs and golfballs we thought it would be fun to take him golfing with a disc instead. He actually did pretty well for the first time, he came in second place. My dad came in first, I came in third, and Kate in fourth.

While we were out disc golfing my grandma stayed home and made applesauce and dried apple slices. Later in the day Kate and I interviewed our grandparents about their lives. I interviewed my grandma and Kate got grandpa. We had both come up with a sheet of questions. It was very fun to hear about my grandma's life and realized she is a lot like me in several ways.

It was fun to have them here, after not seeing them for a while. I have a couple friends who either their grandparents have died from cancer or have cancer and are not able to spend the quality time with them anymore. I realize how lucky I am to have healthy grandparents on both sides of my family.

Take Care,

Mouse in the House

On Wednesday night after arriving home from youth group we discovered an unpleasent visitor in our house. Kate and I were in my room when all of a sudden Kate screams,  "AHHHH, It's a mouse, Emily look." We frantically jumped up on my bed and were screaming our heads off. I was too late and did not catch a glimpse of the disgusting creature. We called my dad and he came upstairs to see what was the matter. He then stuck a trap where Kate said she had saw it run into. So guess where that was.......right outside my room under some boxes!!

That night I ended up in my sister Anya's room to sleep. When I woke up in the morning we had not caught the mouse unfortunetly. I was so scared to go into my room I had to get my cat and let him go and search my room first. He didn't find anything so I finally got the courage to go in. The only plus to this experience is that my cat Neighbor (outside cat) got to stay in the house at night. Last night I slept in my own bed again and this morning I learned we had caught the mouse. YEA!! What an experience! I bet all you mice lovers who are reading this are like "What a wimp." Hey, we are all differnent:)
Take Care,   

My Poem Fall

Fall

Fall is my favorite season of all.

Fall is a time when the vibrant colors of leaves,

start to show on the trees.

Fall has arrived when warm clothes are worn,

treats made of peanuts and candy corn.

Thanksgiving occurs, the bounty of God's goodness remembered,

Family and Friends

Shelter and Clothing

Food and Water

Fall is my favorite season of all.

By: Emily Kauffman

Back to Home Sweet Home

We arrived home at about 5:00pm last night. I am glad to be home and being able to take Anya out to the bus this morning. I really enjoyed my week in Pennsylvania. Kate and I have encouraged my dad to incorporate some of the things we did in PA into school here at home. So today we made a list of some things we could change or begin to do at home. Its good to be home!

Take Care,

My Pottery Experience.

Today I had a fun and new experience. My sister and I got to have a private pottery lesson taught by my uncle's friend Dennis. He works with clay for a living and has his own studio. We had a chance to work on a pottery wheel and each make a bowl. Neither of us had ever created something on a wheel before. The experience was amazing. I loved the feeling of the clay while it was spinning on the wheel. Being able to shape the clay was so cool. I am so glad I could do it. Dennis was a great teacher and his art is amazing. Thank You Dennis!!

Take Care.

I GOT MY EARS PIERCED!!!

Hello All, Today was a special day for me. I got my ears pierced at a salon in New Holland, Pennslyvania. I was so very nervous about it, but it went better then I thought it would. Everything went well, expect for my sister almost lost her hand from me squezzing it so hard. Just kidding, but I did squezze it pretty hard. The lady who did it for me was very nice so that made it all the better. I will have to have the studs in for 6 weeks, after that I will be able to put other earrings in. 
Here is a pic of me today getting the second ear pierced.

A week In Pennsylvania

This week Kate and I are spending a week in Pennsylvania at my Aunt Kandace and Uncle Jerry's House. The nice thing about homeschooling is that you can travel. Don't worry we took our school work so we aren't all the way on vacation. While my uncle is at work my aunt is our "teacher". It is more laid back than at home, but we still have schoolwork. So far we have learned some Portuguese since my aunt lived in Brazil for about a year. We have also done some art, cooking, reflections on some movies we've watched. One of the movies we are watching and discussing is Ghandi. I am really enjoying it so far. What a courageous and good man! If you haven't watched it before I would recommend it. I will try to keep you posted throughout the week. 

Take Care, 

Seneca Rocks Camping Trip

On Thursday October 8th my dad, my sister Kate and I left for what would be a one night camping trip at a campground called Seneca Shadows. Our campsite gave us a clear view of Seneca Rocks. We left at 10am and arrived at the campground at around 11:30am. We first ate lunch and then set up our tent. After getting everything set up we headed out to our first adventure, hiking up to Seneca Rocks. The hike was 1.5 miles up and it took us about an hour to get to the top. It was quite steep, but we managed to reach the top. When we reached the top what a magnificent view it was. Because of the season looking down was an assortment of deep reds, yellows, oranges, greens, and browns. How beautiful!

When we reached the top you could either go to a safe platform and take a rest. Or you could go farther and reach a sign. The sign said "STOP, You alone are responsible for your safety." Since 1971, 15 people have died from Seneca Rocks falls. That didn't stop us, even though it was steep and risky we took the risk. Nothing happened we are all alive:)


After the hike we went back to our campsite and started supper. We had pizza pie irons! yum! That night it rained the whole night. We woke up and our tent was soaked. Some parts of our sleeping bags and tent pads were wet too. For breakfast we had cinnamon rolls in the dutch oven. My favorite recipe in dutch ovens! At about 10am we left to go to Spruce Nob which was 5 minutes from the campgrounds. It was a beautiful ride up to the lookout. Because of the season the trees were turning gorgeous colors. After the drive we headed home tired. Though I did have a great time bonding with my dad and sister. 


Take Care.

Biking To The Farmers Market

Yesterday at around 10am we left for what would be a 10 mile bike ride to the Farmers Market. At first, I was a little worried about the distance and all the hills, but it turned out that it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. It was pretty windy and very cold. I had on sweatpants with shorts underneath, long warm socks, and a jacket which kept me on the warm side the whole trip. On the way there the wind was pushing us along, but on the way back a whole differnent story. When we got to the Farmers Market tables were set up with all kinds of produce and homemade goodies on them.

 During this season things like squash, pumpkins, eggplant, and corn were popular. There was also bread, eggs, homemade soaps and jewlry, some meat, and lots more. We almost were going to buy some goat meat, but the gentlemen selling it did not have any available at the time. I have never had goat meat before so it would've been a treat for me. Since we have goats and are contemplating if we will ever decide to butcher I wanted to do a little taste testing to see if its worth it. :) After browsing a little more we ended up with a bag of broccoli and $2 worth of molasses cookies (which by the way, were delicious) we then started back home. In the end I was very proud of myself and could easily do it again.

Peeps!

Thought you might like to see the newest members of the farm. These are our peeps, they are meat chickens and we will butcher them in the winter sometime. Aren't they adorable! We picked them up from the post office on Thursday of last week. So not quite a week old.

National 'Turn Off The TV' Week

This week my family and I are chosing to not wach any television THE WHOLE WEEK. I am sorta happy and sorta sad. Here are some interesting facts about TV courtesy of: http://www.turnoffyourtv.com/turnoffweek/TV.turnoff.week.html.

INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT TV

1. Number of 30-second commercials seen in a year by an average child: 20,000

2. Number of minutes per week that parents spend in meaningful conversation with their children: 38.5

3. Number of minutes per week that the average child watches television: 1,680

4. Percentage of children ages 6-17 who have TV's in their bedrooms: 50

5. Percentage of day care centers that use TV during a typical day: 70

6. Hours per year the average American youth spends in school: 900 hours

7. Hours per year the average American youth watches television: 1500

8. Percentage of Americans that regularly watch television while eating dinner: 66

WOW! Maybe you this post will inspire you to either chose not to watch any TV at all this week, or maybe just limit the amount you watch each day. I also encourage you to visit the website I posted above. There are some cool things on it!

Take Care.

God's Creatures Big and Small

These next couple of pictures are of the animals on my farm.

Enjoy!!

These are our chickens. This picture was taken by my sister Kate. Lovely!

HAH! I absolutely love this picture. The picture is of our 5 month old goats. These are the triplets in particular, Taffi, Ty, and Lila

.

These are the twins. Star and Iris. They are also 5 months old.

And this is baby and mama. Ruby (5 months old) the brown one and Sugar the mama. We will sell Sugar this Saturday so we will only have the 6 babies.

Onto the cows, this is Rosie our heifer born in May. She is the baby of Sweet Pea.

This is Sweet Pea the mama of Rosie shown in the picture above. She is a mix between Red Devin and Hereford.

This is our other calf, Rudy. He is the baby of Scarlett. Sorry not a very good picture.

 

This is Scarlett. She is the mama of Rudy and the nicest one of them all.

Now this is MY baby. His name is Neighbor, I know its a little weird. We inherited him when we moved into our house. He is so handsome.

This is my other baby, Lily. We got her when she was just a kitten. She loves this pot. There used to be an alive plant in it???

I saved the best for last. Jesse our beautiful black lab. She is such a sweetie. There is only one thing about her that makes her unique she eats EVERYTHING from watermelon rinds to egg shells.

Thanks for checking out the animals in my life.

Take Care

Hard Work Pays Off

Hard Work Pays Off.

Our afternoon farm project today was making compost bin(s). We started out with taking measurements and putting them on graph paper, and then we started the building process. By the way, this job was done by my sister Kate and I (no parental help), so we felt pretty "cool" after we finished. Our supplies included 21 3ft. bales of straw, 11 metal rods, graph paper and pencil, pitch fork, rake, strength to pick up the bales which of course all came from me. I mean DUH!! :)

The picture above is the proof of our hardwork. Sorry, it is a little blurry.
Take Care.

Remembering September 11, 2001

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:National_Park_Service_9-11_Statue_of_Liberty_and_WTC_fire.jpg
This is a picture of the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, 2001. I am sure all of you who are reading this remember the day of the attacks. This summer I read the book Every Now and Then by Karen Kingsbury. It was about a firefighter that went into the building and risked his life to save others who were still caught inside when the collision occurred. What a sacrifice.

So many questions I have about the whole disaster. What were the terrorists thinking? Though many people have felt hatred and vengeance towards the people that did such a horrible thing. As a Christian, I believe forgiveness is the right thing to do in a situation like that. Even though the loss and hurt we feel is so strong WWJD? (What would Jesus Do?). Another question, What would I do if I had lost someone is the attack? I am sure it would be easier to feel hate towards the terrorists, but like I said before is that right? I would encourage you to pray today for those who are still feeling grief and anger.
Take Care,

Healthcare Debate 2009

This week my dad assigned my sister and I a research project about the current Health care Debate that is making headlines. Let me know what you think. Or maybe you don't really care, I understand I wasn't that pumped about it either when I heard about my assignment. I mean I support Obama all the way, but I am not a true political fanatic. So anyways, give your comments to me let me know what your personal opinion is, and don't get to crazy (SEAN).

Take Care,

Rainy Day

I woke up this morning to the sound of rain hitting my tin roof. I love rain, especially the sound of it hitting my roof. Today was my first day back into the rountine of school after a 3 day weekend. Last night for supper we had hobo dinners or tin foil dinners. If you are not familiar with what hobo dinners are, here is what they are. First you get a sheet of tin foil and put a couple pieces of cabbage on the piece of tin foil then you can put carrots, potatos, hamburger or sausage, onion, and some salt and pepper on the cabbage. Then put more cabbage on top and wrap the piece of tin foil around the dinner. After you have all that secured tight you put it in the fire and wait about a half n hour. Oh and after its done put some ketchup and mustard on it............yummmy!!! Anyways, sorry about the change of blog templet some many times. I like to try new things! :)

Take Care,

Bye Bye JJ, Buddy, and Biggin!

Today was a fun day that I spent mostly with my dad. At around 10:30 my dad went to get the trailer so we would be able to take our 3 steers to the county sale barn to sell. When he returned we loaded up JJ, Buddy, and Biggin into the trailer. I will give you a little background info about these three steers. After my sisters and I received our stimulus package last year we each decided we would invest in an animal that we would raise and then receive a profit from. My younger sister and I chose to each buy a calf and my other sister bought 20 hens. My dad also purchased a calve too. My calf's name was JJ, (my family teased about about my name choice they would say "JayJay the jet plane that's me from the show, it got on my last nerve at times) my sisters was named Buddy, and my dads was Biggin. My younger sister, dad and I then had to bucket feed our calves with milk supplement that we made up every morning and evening. It took some discipline to wake up every morning at 7am IN THE SUMMER and feed these calves. After our calves were weened off and no longer needed milk we let them out on the pasture to graze till today when they were sold.

As I said earlier we loaded the steers into the trailer and my dad and I set off to the sale barn where later our steers would be sold. After we unloaded them at the sale barn we then waited until they were weighed. After they were weighed we headed back home for lunch. Then at around 1pm we went back to sale barn for the sale. Of course cows are the last ones to sell so it took 1-2 hours before our steers were sold, but while we waited we treated our selves to drinks and french fries. yum yum! I love my dad! At around 3pm our babies were sold. boo hoo! I won't mention the prices, but I will say my dad and I were pleased.
Take Care,

"Oh Happy Day"

What a beautiful day, the weather was what I call P-E-R-F-E-C-T. Not too hot not too cold. A nice breeze and the sun was shining bright the whole day. Amen. Anyways, I thought I would share with you my bible memory verse that I am memorizing for homeschool.
It comes from Matthew 5:1-11:

1When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5 "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6 "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7 "Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
8 "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9 "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10 "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 "Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

What a powerful message that Jesus brought to his disciples. Instead of trying to just memorize this passage I have been studying and digging deeper into what Jesus was saying. I think that is now one of my favorite preachings of Jesus. So I encourage you to open up your bible and read God's word and who knows God might speak to you through what you read.
Take Care,

Cloudy Day

Today was one of those days where you just don't want to get out of bed. Your alarm wakes you up and then you just want to snooze for just another 5 min, and then it becomes another 5 minutes and then your sister comes to your room and pours water on your face (no just kidding about the pouring water part). Anyways, today had was a decent day. It started out with fitness which was running a mile and walking a mile. Fun stuff huh? Though I had to push myself I was really proud of myself at the end of it all. My dad/teacher is making my sister Kate and I do some sort of fitness each day. Whether it be running, jogging, Frisbee golfing, or biking. After fitness/gym we take showers and then get ready for our morning session. Each day we either have math, bible, and vocab or science, history, and reading for our morning session. In the afternoon, we also have a different activity each day. On Mondays, we have whats called "3D Model Work." My dad and sister and I are over the course of the year are going to make a 3D model of our 6.5 acres that we live on. On Tuesdays, we do "Farm Projects" such as building compost bins, greenhouse, or anything else we can find. On Wednesdays, we go to the library to do research, get new books to read, or work on our blogs. Then on Thursdays we also work on "Farm Projects" like on Tuesday. Finally on Fridays, we have a study time where we either read, do projects, or work on our blog. This first week of homeschooling has been a blast. There have been a lot of things to get used to and many changes made, but I loving it all. I am really enjoying this blog thing and I hope everyone who is following my year at home is too.

Take Care,

Fresh Start

This year I am being homeschooled. It is my first year being homeschooled. I am in 8th grade, all I have ever known is public schools and two years of Private school. It is very different, but I am starting to like it. I enjoy more extra free time and less homework :) I will keep you updated throughout my year at home. I will share my struggles, my joys, and learning's. This blog thing is new to me so I hope you enjoy it. I will be updating it once or twice a week. Since we have dial-up it is very slow, I will be able to go to the library once or twice a week that will be my time to post new updates. Take Care!