Quiet Thursday?

Surprisingly, we had a quiet day at home today.  I know some people think we run around too much so I thought I would go ahead and post today just so you know we DO slow down from time to time.

In fact, I thought I would take the time to talk about how we do our school along with our busy schedule.  I have always felt like school should not interfere with our daily lives.  Sound odd?  Well, what I mean is that what we do with our life must go on and this is a part of learning.  The name of our school says it all...we are life long learners!  We do not stop our learning when the books close!    So the children learn the basics of reading and writing...the early years are critical!  However, once this happens...the doors open up and they have the world as their textbook!

Also, knowledge is not always about information gained from a textbook.  I would much rather have an adult who has learned to worship the Lord, help their neighbor, and have common sense...than being able to diagram a sentence and be able to solve the unsolvable equation.  Although those things would be awesome too!

At the end of the week, the lessons are learned and the workbook pages have been filled in.  We manage to get in school assignments at all hours of the day.  I think it is funny when people ask my children if they are doing homework.  The children have just learned to nod their heads in agreement...after all, isn't all of their school work really homework?

So, today we read from Luke 16:19-31 in our religion class.  I am always amazed when people say there is no such thing as Hell.  Jesus could not make it any more clear!  Of course, He WANTS us to be with Him in Heaven and He is merciful, BUT as we see in this parable He shows that Hell does still exist and there is no return from this abysmal place.  I praise God that we have been given a Savior...I pray that we do not squander this gift for the love of this world and lose the next!

We finished school work and even got around to give the house a little deeper cleaning.  The only school work that we did not complete for the day was science!  Believe it or not we were not able to do the science experiment needed to understand the lesson because we did not have any ICE!  I know...of all things...ice kept us from doing a science experiment.  If you read a couple of days ago, we lost a lot of food in our freezer because the door was left open.  Well, one of the things we lost was ice and I had not had time to make any new ice...so we will need to try to finish that tomorrow!

We had guests this afternoon.  A postponed welcome for Zaira from our good friends Lorraine and Krista!  Zaira took to Lorraine quickly...and proceeded to sit up on her several times.  She then decided she was in a comfortable position and fell asleep!  She slept so hard that she snored!  It was a nice visit!  We were even able to share some homemade cookies fresh out of the oven!  The boys were happy to share because it meant they had an opportunity to sneak one (or more) for themselves as well!

We also snuck in a photo session with Zaira in an outfit made by one of our 4H friends.  You might have seen her in this outfit before but she was a little too small to fit it well.  So, I had to get another photo of Zaira wearing this outfit to send to our friend.  The crocheted hat and flip flops just make this outfit too cute!

We did go into town later in the evening.  We had to meet the last of our 4H members to complete a mock contest we had set up in anticipation for the real contest next week.  We grabbed some Subway sandwiches and had a picnic dinner.  Then we made our way to the monthly beekeeper's meeting.

OK...so this is where the fun began.  First the business portion of the meeting took place.  At the very end the group was asked who would volunteer to bring refreshments to the next meeting.  Sean quickly volunteered us for this duty.  I figured it was as good a time as any to do this so I agreed.

Then the speaker for the evening was introduced.  I was sitting there enjoying the talk by Ms. Sheila about making soap with honey and beeswax.  Zaira politely grunted and looked at me sweetly (I really mean this...no joke!).  She needed one of those doozy (sp?) of a diaper changes that just cannot wait.  So I asked one of the boys to get the diaper bag, which kindly proceeded to do.  But low and behold I had used the last of her diapers in the earlier part of the evening!  I thought about it for a minute and decided since this was probably going to be the only diaper change until we got home, I could use one of the larger diapers kept just in case Brendan needed them.

All was going well, and I got to listen to the rest of the talk.  It was very interesting to hear all the ways lye soap could be made.  Ms. Sheila was sure a great speaker, and as she stated from the beginning, she "spoke from her heart."  She passed around samples of her soap and it was so lovely.  She also talked about the benefits of using 'real' soap, especially used to avoid dry skin and for locking in the much needed moisture.  Not to mention that it just had a beautiful fragrance.

After the talk, an announcement about recently donated items (used hive equipment) would be auctioned off after refreshments were served.  I thought this would be a good opportunity to gain an extra hive box set for use next spring when we plan to split our hive.  So we stayed and bid on a few items.  There were several items that would have been useful but we ended up spending a small amount to obtain a deep box and a medium super, along with a hive top, a queen excluder, and a comb scraper.  I was pleased with this 'purchase,' and we began to prepare to leave.

I looked down and in the process of concentrating on the bid, I did not notice that Zaira had another messy diaper...so much more than the first one and now in a very large diaper that did not hold so well!  Oh my we were both a mess!

Can you believe one of the women actually wanted to hold Zaira that way?!  "Just wrap a blanket around her and she will be fine!"  Wow!  What a kind and doting woman...and Zaira loved it!  Good thing because here comes Henry and Sean excited about the idea of becoming 'swarm chasers!'

They were told that a man was going to collect a swarm of bees from a fallen tree and wanted some help!  Not only that but we could keep the swarm!  I was a little nervous at the thought but the boys were so excited and we had hoped to gain another hive soon, so I agreed.  The only problem was the fact that we would need a full set of hive boxes by Saturday.

There happened to be a man who sold used supplies at the meeting so we spoke and he is going to set us up with the remaining supplies needed.

I can honestly say that I think we are crazy to do this, but it will be an experience not soon forgotten.  Say a prayer for us now...we will need those prayers come Saturday evening!  St. Ambrose, pray for us!

Oh! Zaira did get home to take a bath and was perfectly content in the process.  She did not like the car ride home but that is normal...so all was good and all are in bed now!  Praise God!