Dining room project--part one!

What kind of people put carpet in the dining room? People who don't have small children I believe! Have you ever tried getting rice out of carpet? yuck. After 16 years of griping about carpet in the dining room, we are doing something about it. Here is our progress so far. . .

This is the "before" picture. . . .

Having pulled up the carpet, we found a sandbox near the back door--yuck! I couldn't believe how much dirt/sand was just sitting there!



Rolling back the carpet, the padding just fell apart.

Emily was a huge help getting it pulled up and vacuumed out.

Another "helper" on the scene, ready for work.

Carpet all pulled up and ready to be removed!

Victory over the carpet! Not bad for us non-professionals!

Learning new things

It's hard to learn something new, when you have no familiarity with the concept. Like my 5 yr old trying to learn to recite the books of the Bible for AWANA club tonight. He's heard plenty of the Bible, learned lots of verses, and can tell you a thing or two about God, faith and eternal life. He even surprizes me from time to time with his little insights. All of that yes, books of the Bible in order, not so much.


Today we were learning from Galatians through Titus. We hopped back and forth, trying to make a rhyme, we broke it down into sections, found cute little things to help trigger memory, all the "tricks" we could think of. I thought he was well prepared.

On the way through the parking lot, we were practicing one more time. . . . .

". . . . . first and second Timothy. . " I prompted him. . .

"TYPHUS!" he exclaims happily

um, Typhus? "Yeah Mom, you know, like that sickness" How in the world did this boy hear about Typhus, and WHY would he relate it to the books of the Bible?!?


I noticed that section of his book was signed off when he arrived at home tonight. Wonder what all was said in his classroom tonight!

A Dream come True

One of Hannah's loves is horses. She has always loved playing with horse toys and has more than one stable, and a whole collection of horses from plastic to stuffed. Up to now, she has dreamed of horseback riding lessons, owning her own horse etc. Christmas brought those wishes to fulfillment.





A sweet friend of ours contacted me a few days before Christmas and told me she wanted to bless Hannah with a trail ride at the ranch where she works. We wrapped a plastic pony for Hannah and gave her the news when she unwrapped it.

She was a little excited.

Of course, on the big day, she was ready about 2 hours before time to go. She ended up spending 8 hours at the ranch, caring for the horses, meeting the baby bunnies, and of course, riding a horse. She had the time of her life. I realized when she returned home that she has never actually ridden a horse, outside the pony rides at the fair! What an exciting day for her.

Even more exciting, is the fact that our friend wants her back : ) She tells me Hannah has lots of "horse sense" and common sense, and is a very hard worker. Hannah has been to the ranch a total of 3 times now, and is looking forward to making this a regular thing. She has new jeans, her own boots and we are in search of small sized gloves too.

Up next on Hannah's agenda, is bringing home a bunny to have here, as a pet. Maybe. Thank goodness there is now a place she can go visit the horses, cause we know there isn't room for one here!