February Stuff

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Time keeps rolling along here at Twin Oaks!

I am sure it is the same for you all.

I have been in the habit for years now to count our blessings – daily!

It just gives you the right heart and attitude – one of contentment!

Gratitude is an attitude!!!

I’ve been thinking about this habit the last few days, even though it comes naturally to me now after years of practice.

So – let’s walk through some photos from February so you can praise the Lord with us for all the blessings He allows!!

First up – an abundance of good food – such a constant blessing here.

I also have an abundance of food photos, ha, ha!


Well, now I’m hungry!!

We are constantly blessed with good fellowship with good friends!!

I don’t usually take photos when friends are here or when we are with friends, but this friend is moving away in two weeks and we wanted a photo together.

Going to miss this girl and her crew!!


We are blessed with friends that know how to make great food too!!


We are blessed with a daughter who knows how to make good food as well, and a son-in-law who makes amazing lattes whenever you ask for them!!


We sure were counting our blessings when Lane saw that our huge chest freezer light was not on.

We realized quickly it was not working anymore!

Praise the Lord the food was still frozen.

Amongst other things, there are about 50 whole organic chickens in that freezer!

Thankful Grant had a freezer we could plug in and then we took the rest of the food down to Addie’s work for a few days till we got the new freezers to replace the old one.


I started Kombucha in February!

Thankful for Kayla’s encouragement in so many things like this!

It goes without saying what a blessing our oldest daughter is!!


Speaking of daughters – Eliza is growing and changing by the second.

She has the SWEETEST heart, which is such a blessing to us!

From loving on her nieces and nephews…


To sitting completely still under the bird feeder for over an hour just to watch the birds eat…


To being super brave at appointments for her teeth…


To sitting in her little Asian squat that just makes my heart sing!!


From going with her mama and big sisters to a women’s meeting at church…


To loving paper and pencils and reading so much…


To taking naps when you know you need them!


Her smile brightens any room!


She is a JOY to spend time with!


And she is growing like a weed!


Eliza Claire, you are such a sweet, sweet blessing!


We are constantly praising the Lord that He made these two siblings.

They are always better together!

Such a blessing!


Thankful for this trio of ours as well!!


Tate is a bright light that we still do not know how we ever lived without!


I always count our blessings when I see the big kiddos pouring into the younger ones.

They work at keeping their relationships strong and that is such a good thing!


The littles love read aloud time!


Thankful for a hubby who knows how to do pretty much anything – from filing taxes to rigging up a toilet until he could pick up new parts for it!


Glad we have cuddly puppies too!

They are SO loved!


Well, that was a pile of photos!

Such sweet, sweet memories!

February was wonderful!

Looking forward to counting many more blessings in the months to come!

A Cold and Snowy February

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We had the most beautiful February!

Yes, it was dangerously bitter cold for a couple of weeks, but we also had days with milder temperatures.

And there was a lot of snow!


This snow blower was from the time we lived in Holmen, which was many years ago and before we lived on the farm.

We gave it to one of Blake’s co-workers when we moved to the farm.

He got a bigger one several years later, and brought it back to Blake at work.

It was sitting in one of the shops there!

Blake brought it back home and the guys worked on it and got it running again!

We are glad to have it for the bigger snow storms.


One Saturday Blake and Lane scooped all of the snow off of the deck.

It was getting heavy!


On the milder days, all of this snow made for many hours of outside play for my trio!

They literally would be outside for hours on end.

They built an amazing sledding hill off of our electrical box in our side yard.

I would either find them sledding or building forts most days!


The Lord blessed us with SO many beautiful sunrises and sunsets during those cold days!

If you feel like the Lord is not near to you, just look at the sky.

It ALWAYS takes my breath away!


Another blessing that the cold and snow brought was SO many customers to our bird restaurant!

We joked that we were going to need a loan to keep feeding them.

They take my breath away too.

I cannot even express with words how big God felt to me when we had over ten red cardinals visiting our feeder every single day!

Look very closely at this first photo – I tried to get as many of them in one photo as I could!


We also had a red tail hawk soaring around our land for many days.

I had a hard time getting a good photo of him.

He was so huge and majestic!!


As I am typing this I am listening to the pouring rain on our steel roof.

The beginning of March brought spring like weather to Twin Oaks, and all that snow is almost gone!

Isn’t the saying “In like a lamb, out like a lion?”

Yikes!

I don’t think these temperatures are here to stay just yet, but time will tell.

We are enjoying them while they last!

Snow storms, hats, mittens, and boots seem like a distant memory already.

Can’t wait to see what the Lord brings for the month of March!

Happy March, everyone!

My Little Chefs

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You all already know how much time I spend in our beautiful kitchen!

But I am here to tell you how much more fun it is when I have two little chefs helping me!

And they love to help!


We can get a lot done very quickly when we work together!

Tate and Eliza both are becoming very skilled in cooking and baking.


This day we were working on snack foods!

Things like pans of rice krispy and granola bars, ginger snap cookies, and whipped cream for those cookies!


We always make a huge mess in the kitchen, but my helpers are good helping with that too!

Have you ever seen two cuter chefs?

Me neither!!

Thankful for this dynamic duo and how much they like to be with their Mama! (that’s me!)

Here’s to many more days cooking and baking together!

I love you so much Zi and Tator tot!!!

February School Days

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The month of February had many days of below zero temperatures and dangerous wind chills.

It made for a great month to focus on school, since we literally were hardly ever outside!

I shared a lot about our school rhythm here.

I enjoy taking photos of our school days!

It is the ordinary photos like these that we love to look back on the most!

We had a friend staying with us for a couple of weeks at the end of January and beginning of February, and the school room became a guest room.

That meant that the master bedroom became the school room!

One of the many homeschooling perks is that you can really do school any where and any time!


Ruby likes to be with us where ever we are!

She loved when we did school on the bed so she could be with us and watch out the window too.


We studied Europe for awhile.

One day when we read about this Turkish drink we decided to give it a try!

It was gross!!

But fun to try!


We learned about impressionism while studying Europe, which is a specific type of painting that was done by artists in the 19th century.

We watched several videos about it, and then decided to give it a try!

The kiddos love art day – which is usually Thursdays.

I even do art with them!


We do a lot of drawing in school as well, as the children do illustrations almost daily.


After our Europe study was done, we headed to Kenya and are now studying it and Africa.

It is fascinating!!


I still get cute notes on their cursive practice pages.

They make me smile.


This is Tate’s concentrating face, and I love it!


Lane has always been my student that I find in ALL kinds of places and positions!

Another perk of homeschooling!

Whatever works!!


I read aloud to the children almost every day.

Sometimes they are keeping their hands busy with other things, and sometimes they are just listening.

I LOVE to read to them!


While all of this is going on, Chad is working on his school at the kitchen table.


The pups will hang with Chad some days too, especially if there is sun streaming through the door!


Chad is at work all day on Mondays, so we use the main area more when he is not there.

We are very distracting when he is home trying to work on school!


Of course we are still starting our mornings with Bible time and chores – a rhythm that I have been using for over twenty years now!


On this particular day Eliza was struggling to get moving, so Tate did all of her chores!

He found her to tell her so, and then added “I haven’t done ice for you yet, but come on, Eliza, I will help you!”

I hope they always look out for each other.

It is just so sweet!!


All of that school work comes with a lot of grading for me to do!

I usually set aside an afternoon to work on it, but sometimes it has to wait to the weekend because it is just so busy!


The weather is warming up, although there is no guarantee that it will stick around!

We are enjoying it though!

Except for the fact that my children’s brains are outside the minute they wake up!

They have been having an outside time by 11:30 most days lately – and usually playing soccer on the deck because it is so muddy from all the melting snow.

Whatever gets their wiggles out and gets them out in the fresh air and sunshine works for me!

Well, next up on my agenda is to order some library books – so I better get after it!

Running this little school of ours and being these kiddos teacher is so much fun for me!!

Looking forward to many more days in our school room before we break for summer.

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