lots of words sprinkled with lots of photos

my head is swirling with thoughts,

which means I must write....

so here it goes!

we're back out in the camper again...

not that I expect you to keep up with our in's and out's of camper to house. 

with the flooded basement the boys needed to move out

and it was the perfect time to work on the bathroom

so we're locked out for a while.

it's quite a chore to feed the cats around here

we feed them a raw diet of various fish, chicken, raw eggs, vegetables & scraps.

it's not pretty to prepare...

but they sure do love it.

Even the kittens come running now.

Ozzie is still the caterpillar hunter around here,

he will spend an hour or more searching through the garden for them.

This is can't-see-em

...he's quite creative with the names I would say. :)

The girls are going to turn FOUR this weekend. gasp.

...and they are already talking about turning five.

they went and got dressed the other day and came outside to tell me,

I must take their picture.

Then they proceeded to tell me how pretty their dresses were

and their headbands and church shoes and pretty nails.

they are girly alright.

Nolia came in from the swingset today and said...

"mama you don't need to teach me to pump on the swings anymore, 

I can do it, so now you can teach me to read" 

They are usually hot on the tails of anything Ozzie is doing

and he recently made the announcement, at dinner,

that he was ready to read now.

Gavin on the other hand.

He can read.

But he doesn't want to.

so, different from his book worm big brothers.

He would much rather work with his hands.

all.day.long and with a cheerful heart.

they are each so unique and amazing in their own ways

...I pray they never loose sight of the talents and gifts God has given them,

but that they embrace, grow and follow their dreams.

We have been spending a lot of time in the garden lately,

harvesting baskets full of beauty,

weeding, playing, hunting, digging, weeding more

and just being.

I am so thankful for the many willing hands,

and it makes my heart happy that it is more than work to them

...it's a way of life

and so much more.

The littles love to harvest more than weed

and when they aren't harvesting peas and greens and tomatoes,

they are hunting frogs and digging in the dirt.

They big boys are awesome at weeding,

when they aren't making weapons and games out of weeds

and chasing each other through the garden.

Grandma & Grandpa move this week,

the youngest four are going to have a hard time adjusting.

At least we can still see them when we go into town.

It will be a good change though,

a change that we are all ready for.

at least we think...

Some neighbors of ours, well, they live 20ish miles away

but anyway.... they saw a mountain lion in their pasture this week.

We saw one 2 years ago near our farm, but never again.

kinda scary.

And completely unrelated,

the girls and Ozzie keep saying they hear a wild cow in the woods...

and continually talk about how if it's a mama it would be nice,

but if it's a bull it would chase them.

imaginations.running.wild.

the kids have been working on a fort-hide-out-shop-house,

what have you, in the woods for some time now.

They've cleared branches, smoothed out the rough floor,

brought chairs, tables, and most recently lights.

It's a pretty special spot really,

i'll have to get some pictures of it....

this one below is one from a campground recently.

they make forts every.where.we.go.

I had the big boys write out goal cards for themselves recently...

instead of telling them what I want them to do,

 I wanted to know what they wanted to do :: for themselves.

I was pleasantly surprised at what their goals were.

Vance wanted to learn more history and find an animal activist group to get involved in.

He also wanted to spend one-on-one time with each of the littles kids everyday.

That boy has a huge heart and it shows.

Grayson wants to read through the whole bible this year

and his science-tech goals were almost more than I could understand. ha.

they had a lot more goals, those were just a few.

Gavin told me to make his goals for him,

and then he just wanted to copy Vance's goals,

but finally he came up with some of his own.

His favorite one is...

do something nice for everyone in the family each day.

I asked the little kids too, and got responses like this...

sing to the kittens

build legos

play in the dirt

have a baby sister

have a baby brother

play house

paint pictures

love Jesus

eat squash?!

get treats at Grandma's house

fun.fun.

speaking of squash...

the kale chips have been such a hit,

I am making squash and zucchini chips too.

yum.yum.yum.

we roasted zucchini, squash and carrot sticks in the oven,

with coconut oil, sea salt and some with crushed red pepper.

oh they were so good and so easy.

there is a picture on instagram if you want to see...

I am being extremely distracted 

by the bumping and moving around in my belly right now.

It's awesome.

and that's about it friends....