I always feel refreshed after I hang with my home school moms. We understand each other very, very (did I say very?) well. A few nights ago a dozen or so of my favorite home school moms joined me for a Christmas party. We chatted, and ate, and chatted, and ate. And toward the end of the evening, we shared some music and prayed for one another. What a tremendous blessing, full of encouragement. Thank you, God for this wonderful group of women!

My little guy hit the jackpot on his birthday.

We stumbled upon cake and punch when we stopped into the library.

We nearly had a private showing of Astro Boy at the local movie theater.

We even let him put his feet up to get comfy. (BIG treat.)

When we arrived at Friendly’s, our favorite entertainer (Applejohn) was there making snowman balloons, and Friendly’s had just rolled out their winter Snowman Sundae.

To top it all off, the new movie he’d been waiting for, The Dog Who Saved Christmas, was on television. We couldn’t have planned the day more perfectly if we’d tried.

Happy 6th Birthday, Brian!!

Brian had a bunch of puppies over to celebrate his sixth birthday.

They played all the games puppies like to play:

Tug of War

Scooby Says

And greeting other puppies.

They also built prototypes for doggie  parks, doggy hospitals, and doggy obstacle courses.

For kibbles and bits, they scarfed up puppy-paw cupcakes and ice cream…

out of real doggie bowls.

We didn’t have time to post the fire hydrant on the bathroom door or pretend to pee on trees. Well, maybe we had time, but Mama censored things a bit. But these little puppies are all worn out and ready for their warm, soft puppy beds.

Sometimes my Sabbath Sweet is figuratively sweet, sometimes literally. This week I gave a new recipe a try. Andrea at The Train to Crazy posted her recipe for Peanut Butter Balls. Oh, sweets, where have you been my whole life?

We hadn’t yet dipped them in chocolate when we snapped this photo. But we were too busy bickering over who got to lick the bowl by then. TeeHee.

I struggle with dinner. I don’t mind breakfast, which is typically cold cereal, or lunch, which is often some type of sandwich. I suppose I don’t mind those much because my children make their own. But I just can’t seem to muster up excitement about the meal that’s supposed to bring us closer together as a family. I  just can’t stomach preparing the meal that will burn itself into our memories for eternity. The meal that comes at the end of a full day of home schooling, cleaning, errand-running, dog-managing, and trying to find some little piece of quiet for something that brings me peace and joy.

Ugh. Dinner.

A meat and a veggie. Maybe a bread. Sometimes a side salad. And a glass of Country Time Lemonade. Nothing spectacular, but a necessity.

Needing a little inspiration, recenlty I borrowed a dozen cookbooks from the library and found two I really liked. I ordered them on Amazon and they arrived today.

I’ve already chosen next week’s meals! (I sure hope this kind of enthusiasm sticks.) I chose recipes that looked interesting and included meats I have in my freezer.

• Fri: Pizza Night
• Sat: North Woods Wild Rice Soup
• Sun: Leftovers
• Mon: Cranberry Chicken
• Tue: French Steak
• Wed: Honey Pork Chops
• Thu: Penne with Chicken, Broccoli and Cheese

If you know me in real life, hold me accountable. Ask me how my kids liked the soup or the chicken. Make me tell you the details of putting together the meal. Don’t let me snow you.

If you know me from blogland or facebook, comment on here to let me know you’re waiting for an update. Maybe a little peer pressure will help.

For pete’s sake, something has to help…my kids can’t eat many more dinners of homemade waffles or scrambled eggs. And I can’t stand anymore pizza! (Well, except for Friday Pizza Night.)

My friend Kathy made this for our homeschool mom get-together last year, and I made some for our Cowboy Campfire last night. The recipe is from good ‘ole Martha, and you can watch her making it online, which I think is hilarious. I don’t want to take the time to watch her when I can be getting it done in my own kitchen. But if you like to watch cooking, go for it.

Warm Apple Pie Spiced Cider

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 quarts apple cider
• 3 tablespoons firmly packed light-brown sugar
• 1 whole cinnamon stick, plus 6 for garnish
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• Pinch of ground cloves
• Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup Calvados or other brandy (optional)

Directions

In a medium saucepan, whisk together cider, sugar, spices, and salt. Bring to a simmer over medium-low heat. Remove from heat; pour in brandy, if desired. Remove cinnamon stick and transfer cider to a pitcher. Serve immediately, garnished with cinnamon sticks.

Yum yum yum yum yum! By the way, I’ve never used the brandy and it’s quite tasty!

(Serves 6…and yes, it’s okay to triple everything. Two cinnamon sticks might do in that case.)

If you’ve been following my garden this summer, you’ll know it’s our first try and we had high hopes. This is what our garden looks like now:

Tomatoes (see some stevia foreground center)

Pineapple Sage (MmmMmmMmm)

Cucumbers and Pumpkins

What a blessing this summer garden has been. If you look hard, you can even find some dirt under my fingernails. ~gasp~

My favorite part of gardening is harvesting the bounty.

Sweet Brooke emailed Dad to ask if he’d like to go to dinner. Then, she emailed him to tell him what to wear.

[grin]

He did look handsome, though he didn’t take her wardrobe advice.

Daddy taught her to cross her silverware on her plate to signal she was finished eating. She loved it so much, she decided to do it with everything. Silly girl!

What fun memories she’s making with her daddy.

I love living in an agricultural county, yet only 10 minutes from Target. It’s the best of both worlds.  Every July we hop into our ultra-modern Toyota Sienna and drive 20 minutes in order to disappear into old-fashioned, small-town fun.

KIDDIE TENT

PIG RACES

Brad was chosen as a volunteer to cheer on our team:

ANIMAL TENT

These are our friend’s miniature horses.

A cow from our favorite dairy farm and local ice creamery.

OTHER FARM FAIR FUN

Cotton candy and funnel cake at the tractor pull:

Our own tractor pull:

We already can’t wait til next year’s fair. We’re even thinking of entering some photos and cookies for judging. Something to look forward to…

Each summer we go to the rodeo at River Valley Ranch.

This year we went with new friends, and had a great time!

While I didn’t catch any good photos of the real horses, I got this great shot of Chuck the Bull in action.

Yes, Brian stayed on for 7 seconds!

Brea was beat by the heat and chose to relax on her mama.

After a picnic dinner,

the kids enjoyed their absolute favorite part of our annual trek–the creek!

They build dams,

and have some  good old-fashioned water fun.

It’s one of our favorite family trips of the year!

=====================================================================================

On Friday night, August 28, 2009, River Valley Ranch experienced a severe flash flood unlike anything we’ve seen in 35 years. Fortunately, most of our buildings survived, but much around the river area has been lost. These include:

• The brand new suspension bridge
• Covered bridge
• Another bridge
• House of one of our staff members severely damaged (many of their belongings are gone)
• Virtually all our picnic tables lost
• Hundreds of feet of fencing, much of it brand new lost
• The old Chuckwagon & $3800 BBQ grill gone
• Significant damage to roadways around camp
• Speedball (paintball) course gone
• too many more to list

Unfortunately, our insurance company does not cover flood damage so we will have to absorb virtually all these losses.

How you can help:

1) Volunteer in the coming weeks to help rebuild – CLEAN-UP OF THE CAMP IS ALMOST COMPLETE! Thank you so much to all who helped around the clock to help clean up the mess. At this point our real need for volunteers is for people with building skills to help rebuild much of our fencing, bridges and even a staff house in the coming weeks. If you can help to rebuild, please email Laura at lkrebs@rivervalleyranch.com with your name, times you can help, and your specific building skills. At this point, we ask that you not just show up at the Ranch but contact Laura first. Thanks.

2) Donate towards our Flood Relief Fund – Early estimates for the damage upwards of $200,000. Any gift you can give would be very much appreciated. All gifts are tax-deductible.

a) Give Online – Fill out your information and select “Flood Relief Fund” as your designation

b) Mail a gift to:

River Valley Ranch Flood Relief Fund
Peter and John Ministries
Attn: Johnny Iseminger
3600 Georgetown Road
Baltimore, Maryland 21227

3) Donate Supplies – We have a number of items we need to repair what has been damaged.  Since we are rebuilding to last for the future, we would prefer items be new if at all possible.  Here is a list (more to come)

• Washer
• Dryer
• Fridge
• Dishwasher
• Range (gas)
• Carpet (for dorm and house)
• Furniture (bed, table, couches, etc)
• Dressers
• Floor Tile
• Plywood for bunks
• Sink Bowls for bathroom
• Fence posts and boards
• Treated lumber to make picnic tables
• Steam table (buffet table for dining hall)
• Smoker Grill (ours was an 8′ grill from : Big Johns Grills)
• Top soil, stone and millings

If you would like to give a gift to Brad and Megan Maines (the couple who were living in the cabin that was flooded and lost most of their belongings)you can mail a gift to:

Maines’ Relief Fund
River Valley Ranch
4443 Grave Run Rd
Manchester, MD 21102
Note: Since these donations will go towards replacing Brad and Megan’s personal items lost in the flood, they are not tax-deductible (but very much needed). Money given to the RVR Flood Relief fund will be used to rebuild the cabin in which they were living.

Thank you so much for your support and we would appreciate your prayers as we recover from this flood. God bless.