Happy 8th Birthday Joshua!

Today is Joshua's eighth birthday. It really is amazing how quickly they grow!

We will be celebrating with a quiet dinner at home. I am making Joshua's favorite dinner - corned beef! We will have it with leek champ, carrots, turnips, cabbage, horseradish cream, & corn bread. For dessert: chocolate cupcakes & chocolate chip cookies.

I am thankful to God for His giving us Joshua. He is a loving, adventurous, thoughtful, and mischievous child! I pray that the Lord will give Jason and I wisdom and grace to raise a God-honoring son.

Cider Pressing!

This year, was the first time that we tried pressing our own cider. We think the cider tasted better, because we had to work so hard before we enjoyed it.

Joshua and Jason had the hard work of turning the wheel to smash the apples through the grinder.

Mercy and I had the easy job of putting the apple in the grinder.

After the apples were grinded, we had to turn the press to squeeze all the juice out of the apples. And then the cider is poured into a gallon bottle after going through a filter to take out any large pieces and bees that fell into the vat.

We had a wonderful morning in Oak Glen. Breakfast, apple picking, and cider pressing! We can't wait until next year!

Oak Glen

Last month we took our annual trip to Oak Glen. We woke up early to get there in time for breakfast. We ate at Law's Cafe, where they serve a buffet breakfast. It was delicious! I highly recommend it, but if you go get there early. We got there a couple of minutes before the buffet started, and the dining room was almost full of people waiting to eat. By the time we got up to get in line at the buffet, there was a line of people waiting outside to get in. But it is worth it! Yummy!

After breakfast, we headed over to Willowbrook Apple Farm for apple picking and cider pressing. It is a small family run farm. The children were able to feed and pet Duke, the horse, again. This year they had a new pot bellied pig, she was so cute and excited to meet us.

Cute little apple pickers!

It was a beautiful, crisp, clear morning.

I tried to get Jason to take a picture with the children. It is almost impossible to get that man to smile!

But after some work, I was able to coax a smile out of him!

I had to help Mercy pick apples. It was only the second weekend that Willowbrook was open, so there were plenty of apples that were low for the children to pick.

Reformation Night

As we do not observe Halloween, each year we look for ways to avoid the celebration of it. I find it increasingly hard as the children grow older to keep them from the holiday. Everywhere we go there are reminders of it. We couldn't go to any store without seeing decorations and people would ask the children what they were going to dress up as. I am so happy that that is over with for the year!

This past Friday, we went to our church's Refomation Night. October 31st is Reformation Day, a holiday in rememberance of the reformation. It is celebrated on the anniversary of the day in 1517 that Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on the church door in Wittenberg, Germany.

RBCR had games and activities for the children to learn about the reformation and have fun.

This is Joshua getting ready to throw relics in the river.

Mercy and Joshua listen to Robyn tell how to spin the wheel to learn about the life of reformer John Calvin.

This is the St. Giles bowling game.

The children were able to make graham cracker churches, and decorate them with candy.

Joshua and I had trouble getting his church to stay standing.

At the Diet of Worms booth, the children had to knock down the books that were not written by Luther.

At this booth the children throw papal bulls into the fire.

Here is Mercy painting a picture of a famous reformer.

The children received tickets at the booths and then were able to trade them in for prizes!
I have to say that Melissa (pictured above behind the prize table) did an awesome job putting that night all together. Thank you Melissa for all the time, imagination, and hard work that you put in to give our family a memorable night!

I Voted. Did You?

We bundled up against the rain this morning to be at our polling place at 7 am when it opened. We arrived at the Calvary Chapel a little after voting started, and only had to wait about 30 minutes to cast our vote. I was happy about this because I was afraid we would have a long wait, which wouldn't be fun with two children.

I talked to both Joshua & Mercy about a possible long wait, and that I didn't want to hear complaining or whining. I forgot to have the same talk with Jason! And if you know my husband and his views about politics & government in general (not to mention his dry sense of humor), then you know what I had to listen to for that 1/2 hr. wait. Such as: "Where are all these people at all the other elections." "They only come out to vote for a presidential election." "It's not like our votes are even going to be counted correctly." "This is all a government racket!"

As I was waiting to vote, I heard the polling place workers talking about some complaints they were getting about a giant "Yes on 8" sign outside the window. The woman in charge of the polling location said that as long as it was 100 feet away it was legal.

This is a picture of the Calvary Chapel. Just inside that big window is where voting was taking place, so we all had a clear view of the sign while we cast our vote. I thought it was funny because it looks like this is a "Yes on 8 Polling Station."

I know that whatever the outcome of the elections, God is in control. We should not fret, but instead, trust in Him and his providences.