What a Week!

Busy Hands Busy Minds is really an excellent title for my blog....We are always busy...even without leaving our home!

This week we finished our study of New England. My goal was for the children to do some fiction and non-fiction reading about New England to get a feel for the region, explore the geography through learning the capitals and location of each state, and sample some typical foods for the region. This week we will cover the mid-Atlantic states of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware. Our studies will mainly focus on New York and Pennsylvania and our cooking will be mainly Amish. I love reading about the Amish. It is so easy to romanticize their lifestyle, though. I know they do not live easy lives, but how blessed it would be to simply shut the world out at times.

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Caedmon turned four months old Friday and is wearing 9-12 months clothes. I think he is a little bigger than the other three boys at this age! He is so very precious, rarely fusses and gets lots of love from his parents and ALL of his siblings.





Look at those chunky legs!! We don't get to see them much because it has been so cold. Can't wait for it to warm up so he can go without pants and socks. Love those precious little toes.

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This weekend was incredibly busy. Devin was in Memphis all day Saturday. Jeff and the middles worked outside cleaning out some flower beds and just looking around. Jackson picked two crocuses for me. It's hard to believe that just the week before we were in 9 or more inches of snow, while here at home we are expecting 70 degree weather today!

While they were all outside, I baked....and baked.....and baked some more! I baked three loaves of bread, five pans of rolls, two buttermilk cakes, one recipe of buttermilk cookies, and several dozen applesauce muffins. And baked a 13 pound roast and made turkey salad. Delicious and now I have lots of food prepared for the week.

Here is a picture of bread rising. If you have never made your own bread you are missing out on a blessing. I love seeing a countertop of rising bread or bread freshly pulled from the oven. And it smells heavenly!!!




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James has an out-of-town trip again, so Lauren and Chase are heading up here this morning. She has five weeks left until her due date and seems to be doing well. She is getting antsy to get everything ready for the baby. Their church blessed them with a new stroller/car seat combo yesterday along with a few other items. She was very excited. Devin and Kaelan are going down to her home later this week to help her get some things completed before the new baby arrives. Pray for her to continue to be healthy and to have an uncomplicated delivery. Her asthma has not been as bad with this pregnancy, praise the Lord. After delivering Chase without an epidural she is making sure that she has one this time. I pray that her delivery goes as easy as my last one!

Everyone is busy with chores, so I need to get busy as well. Hope to have more time to post this week.