There was this family of tomatoes taking a walk one day. There was a mommy tomato, a daddy tomato, a big brother tomato, and a baby sister tomato. There were happily walking along and Baby Tomato fell behind. Daddy encouraged Baby to walk faster and keep up with the family. He tried really hard but slowed down after a bit. Mommy Tomato cheered Baby to hurry along. Hurry a long he did. He kept up for a whole five minutes. They were just walking too fast for his little legs to keep up. It was Brother’s turn to encourage Baby. Baby Sister Tomato had fallen so far behind Mommy and Daddy told Brother to run back there and help Sister a long. So Brother scurried back there. With a closed fist slamming on top of Baby Sister’s head, Brother shouted, “KETCHUP!”

This is the way I feel now, like ketchup. The whole month of June has not a single post up, not that June has been uneventful. In fact, life has been so demanding, I wonder where the time has passed.

Our garden is doing great. We have corn 3 feet tall, pumpkins, zucchini, melons, and other squash sprawling about. Lessons have been learned about obeying the first time when it comes to watering. Well, when it comes to turning the water off. The tomatoes were flooded on two separate occasions so bad as to drown them, loose 15 plants and water half an acre outside of the garden!

Animals - We had 12 ducklings hatch! They are so cute. We all are really appreciating the way the flock is protecting the little ones. If any beast comes near the pin, all the adult birds surround the ducklings. A few lessons in life can be learned from them if you watch for the metaphors. I think I just came up with a writing assignment!

We lost Luke’s little goat, Beauty. She was so cute and sweet and everyone’s favorite. He was going to show her at fair. Our plan is for him to show one of Glimmer’s kids. Oh yeah, Karen bought two goats. They are both Boer does (meat breed females). I’ll have to take pics soon. Glimmer is a very nice doe that will kid this month. Miss Priss will be bred this fall.

We have a loaner horse that I am suppose to ride in addition to Kayla. I have not mounted her yet. To be honest, I have been out of the horse loop so long and things are slow in coming back to me. I understand that not a single horseman has arrived just as not a single Christian has arrived either. This weekend is a long weekend for Ray. I’m hoping to go for quite a jaunt with Kayla one morning or evening. May God give me the legs and horse sense that I once knew!

Karen’s Mobile - The water’s good! The ground is graded! Next is the permanent steps and repairs on some piping. Hopefully we can knock some stuff out over the four day weekend.

Children - James has been on a rollercoaster. Each week he receives IV Therapy with a chelation agent and Glutathione. We found out his thyroid is underactive. He is now taking medication daily for it. It has seemed to help him not tire out so quickly. He’s also been on a gluten-free diet. It seems to help. The doc says detoxing the heavy metals can take a year or more. Treatments can stir up some interesting reactions. But the reactions are signs the metals are moving! He also celebrated his 12th birthday fishing with his dad!

Andrew is going to get his own room when Karen’s able to move into her place. The boy is very meticulous with his own stuff. We want to see how he handles his own space.

Kayla sprained her ankle a little while back. She was down for three days solid. She has mended well. Praise God!

Luke is quite the story teller. On more than one occasion I wanted to blog about things he has said or done. He has come up with quite a few inventions too.

Ray was commissioned through Real Man’s Ministry. He went through 9 months of school. It was a process of renewing the mind in Lord.  The read 9 books, did lesson questions, essays and finals on each book. Upon completion the were given a title and a sword!

Ray and I celebrated 16 years of marriage! We’ve been through quite a bit during that time. God always pulls us through!

This is my KETCHup synopsis. Today is a new day. May God bless you and keep you!

Yesterday was Karen’s birthday. We had an Irish sort of them. Corned beef and cabbage, potatoes and carrots, corn bread and an Irish Ale named Sharps. My mother in law loves corned beef. I make my own. I don’t cure it with nitrates or nitrites so it isn’t the traditional “pink” meat. Still, it is quite tastey. This was a quick cake. “No fancies,  just easy” was her request. So be it. I am tired any old way. There has been a lot of miles put on the old van the last few days. And I was the only driver. Good food, good company, and a birthday celebration to boot. Life is just good. Happy Birthday Karen! I hope you enjoyed it.

James has been undergoing chelation therapy. We drive an hour and a half to his appointments every week. In Kennewick, there is an awesome skate park that actually allows bikes too.  The boys really wanted Grandma Norma to see them in action.

Lake Coeur D’Alene, Idaho

James, Norma, Kayla, Luke, and Andrew on the longest floating dock.

That...

We took a scenic drive to see the lake and downtown area. The view reminded my mom of the Lake Tahoe area. The boys found tons of spiderwebs that looked really cool.

Looks like a giant's necklace.

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Post Falls, Idaho

Post Falls, ID Dam

Spilling Down

Down stream it goes…

Next to the dam…

A turtle up for air. I wish I could float like that.

Kinda cute, isn't it?

A muskrat swimming about.

Why is everybody always lookin’ at me?

Which way should I go?

Time for some nourishment.

The kids and I decided to go to Seattle and visit the Space Needle. We invited Granny Goo Goo (Karen). She was excited to come along. I had intended on making this a school field trip. I printed out 8 copies of work sheets to do while there, collated them, and asked Kayla to staple them. She had a stack of CDs to bring and put the worksheets with them. There they sat and sat and sat. We were 5 miles out, very, very low  on fuel, so I thought, and running late. I decided not to risk running out for the worksheets. We usually have a full gas can at home because this happens sometimes. It was close to empty between the lawn mower and rototiller. I have to say my van is getting the best mileage it ever has. Praise God! It has over 103,000 miles on it now. I know it doesn’t sound like much for a 2000, Chevy. Anyway, the field trip thing didn’t happen quite the way I planned. We listen to the better part of Artemis Fowl, The Opal Deception by Eoin Colfer during the three hour drive. We made a little detour on the way. We picked up some lady from the Sea-Tac Airport. My mom’s here! The kids flew out of the van to get Grandma Norma. She was looking for us and we had already passed her. The best part was she didn’t see them coming. We “did” the Space Needle then lunch.  Even though we were three hours into it, Mom enjoyed the book about fairies too! It’s great to see her. We get a whole week together! Tomorrow we’re off to Silverwood!!!

Fishing, that is. James spends as much time as he can down fishing. We ate these two. One day he literally was down on the water for 12 hours. He never even came up for lunch. Bass fishing was slow that day. It was really really warm and bright and sunny. So, instead he caught turtles and frogs for quite some time. He released all of them. He really enjoys it. Maybe he’s found a niche. The kicker, he out fishes quite a few of those around him.

Richelle, Jason, Ray, and I set Kayla up for a huge surprise. Richelle asked her to babysit for them while they went to the Third Day concert with Revive and Brandon Heath in Tri-Cities. Kayla agreed. I told her I had to take pictures of her first official babysitting job…

She couldn’t believe that we actually surprised her. Usually, she figures things out pretty easily. She had a blast. And so did we, surprising her.

As many of you know, I have been a long time advocate of reading the book before watching the movie if there are both. Not just any book with the same title, but the original unabridged version is imperative for a complete understanding of the author’s original intentions.

My children have become very passionate about The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo. I heard the movie was coming out last Christmas so I bought the book. It was our family read aloud with yours truly reading. The kids were required to keep a journal throughout. They were able to really remember some details from the book due to this exercise. We all really liked the story, the characters became real to us. “Cripes!” is occasionally exclaimed in this house since then.

For Easter, grandma got them the movie and the book onCD. We were all excited. The kids and I love a good read aloud while on the road.

Movie night came. Within minutes, there was murmurs, “that’s not right.” Within the first half , I was so dismayed I refused to watch and went to sleep. Afterward, the kids spoke of other atrocities that changed the heart of the story. We started the CD with Sigourney Weaver narrating in hopes of the real story coming to life. We were deeply disappointed. It was the movie and not the book.

Days later the topic came up again. Andrew became so animated of the conflicts between the book and the movie I had to take a picture. One of them commented that I should read the book and record it for people to hear the original version. One question that was asked really made me ponder;

Why does the original author allow their story to be changed so dramatically?

We reached the conclusion: The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo and the Univeral Pictures Motion Pictures are two different stories with some similar characters and settings and story lines. Each must be evaluated separately as they do not coincide as The Chronicles of Narnia books and movies. Kayla, James, Andrew, and Luke all strongly urge all  to read the book before viewing the movie but if you’ve already seen it, go back and read it! The book was awesome and fascinating.

We are officially parents

of a teenage  young lady,

precious, self-driven, Kayla.

She has grown so much, not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually. Ray and I are very honored God has entrusted us with her care and upbringing.

We are so very proud of her.

Happy Birthday to you,

Kayla!

Again this year, she wanted to have her party at the Harpers’. They were fine with us imposing so we did.

Last year Kayla refused to tell me what she wanted for a cake. This year was the complete opposite. She came up with a tall order and a challenge to boot. The request was for a banana coconut cake with her horse Doree’s portrait with a sunflower by her ear and an elaborate butterfly.

Mind you, I do not use any artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives. This led to using my imagination (and prayer). Doree is a sorrel color, a red-brown. How to recreate that in frosting? The closest I could come up with, because I forgot to order carmine powder, comprised of triple berry jelly, cocoa powder, molasses, and cream cheese frosting. The butterfly was decorated using scrapbook findings set in chocolate. Turmeric lends itself to wonderful shades of yellow. Her mane is nowhere near the right color but melted chocolate piped on made quick work of it.  Banana cake with banana coconut filling (my own creation), cream cheese frosting and shredded coconut sides was a big tasty success. Most came back for seconds.

All are singing, “Happy Birthday to you…” Now looking at the picture, Kayla and I are both wondering where are the Ramseys? They were there. Next year you will not escape the camera!

Dad missed the party. He was away for Kevin’s wedding. On her birthday, we met at home around 10:15 pm and had another little party. He missed his daughter so. He went shopping while in Lake Tahoe and could not leave without this for his little girl. It’s a metal form that stands 1/2 inch off the wall.

All in all,

I think she had a great 13th birthday!