Lewis/Hall Vacation... Historic Village Time

If there is a historical village in the area, the Lewis family will be there!

 and since the children were literally climbing the walls... off we went...

 Seven of the nine Hall and Lewis kids!  Missing Will Hall and Seven Lewis.

 I'm a sucker for a pretty garden

 The General Store

 Required picture of a spinning wheel for Grandma Lewis

Required outhouse picture 

 Aren't you all glad we don't all have to live in only one room?

Trapper's cabin

 Church cemetery

Neither Bill nor Will Hall thought this grave marker very funny.  Six year old Will asked his dad..."Am I dead?"

 The little church

 Would make a cute little wedding place

 Bill and Heather keeping their marriage healthy

 It was very hot and humid

 I want this garden

 The raspberries were so good and the corn tall

Relaxing in the shade

Lewis/Hall Camping Vacation!

Three teens and a tween playing cards

Deep in the woods

Oh, the things you can do with rocks

I don't go anywhere without my sippy cup

Dutch oven meat loaf cooking

Morning fresh

Second Generation Soap Makers

Autumn Hall (left) with Andi and Seven at the Jenison Farmer's Market (Reagan and

Taylor in the background)

 

 

I'm venturing back to the blogging world and with exciting news! My girls are now second generation soap makers. They have learned the craft and are selling their wares at a little local market! They call themselves Bamboo Falls Soap Co. (because Mom and Dad already had a great logo for them to use) and make lavender, mint, and bamboo soap. They may branch out to others if these sell well. So if you are looking for a great handcrafted soap, drop me a comment to ask for a sample and some info. They are working on getting literature, business cards, etc. together.

 

 

I'm hoping they do well as Seven has decided (for the time being) that she wants to attend Bob Jones University in Greenville, SC to major in clothing and textile design/arts. That is a hefty bit of money to come up with since we've suggested heavily not to go the debt route with loans.

 

 

Andi at this point doesn't desire any higher education after high school but she can save her earnings for (Mom hopes) a future wedding. She is also naturally gifted with drawing ability so I hope she will chose to get some additional art training in after high school.

 

 

Regardless of the future it is a good entreprenurial training experience.

Pictures and videos for the grandmas

Taylor in Birthday outfit from Grandma Schuh!

God's Plan For Us

1 Thessalonians 4:11-12

Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.

This is one of my favorite verses!

Where I've been

Sand dune riding!

Spending time with visting Grandparents

Fighting disgusting tomato hornworms!


Doing ropes courses

Rock hounding

Camping

River swimming

Between vacation, my parents visiting, and regular day-to-day stuff my time has been occupied. We also had computer issues- I'm typing on a new lap top and the kids are currently playing on a new desk top- two new computers are OUCH on the budget. So that's where I've been. (I've been playing hookie this summer and just having fun.)

But now I'm getting back to normal life. The kids are starting homeschool on Monday and I'm back to homestead activities. (Read: cooking from scratch, prepping and planting for fall gardening, u-picking fruit etc. and preserving it and numerous other projects.)

My DH and I took a break from weight loss from the end of May to the end of July so we are starting back up on that. Back to daily exercise and kicking out the junk food. The good news is that during our "break", we didn't gain any weight- we just didn't lose any. (It's all that summer ice cream!) Expect blog posts on our progress.

Also on a back road country bike ride we found a very nice property that is up for sale. We would love to purchase it but we currently have too much debt to make the purchase. The good news on that is... it has kicked us in the rear end to get ourselves out of debt once and for all. Even the kids said they would stop "wanting" stuff if it means we could get into that or some like it. They and the DH and I are willing to cut way, way back and get frugal. So expect some blog posts on this effort.

Frugality is great but to hasten the mission of getting out of debt, the kids and I are going to be trying to make some $$ from home. So lots of posts about this are going to be coming soon too. I've got lots of ideas but right now I'm praying and seeing where the Lord leads in this regard.

So that's where I've been and where the Lewis clan will be heading. Barring any unforseen

happenings (which happen frequently when you five children) I hope to get back to daily posting. Comments really motivate me so please "talk" to me!

Earaches and Antibiotics

My son has gotten himself a monster of an ear infection. We are living on a Motrin/Tylenol mix and I wish antibiotics but it turns out the doc wrote a script for horsepills of the non-chewable nature. My son doesn't do pills. So tomorrow I get to call the doc back and ask for a new script of liquid antibiotics. I really wished I had made sure at the office that I was getting liquid but I never thought he'd give a nine-year old horsepills.

I certainly hope tonight and tomorrow are better then the previous night and today. Crazy! Okay, I have to go try and get some sleep.