Megan Turns Five

Megan has been counting down the days for a long time!  She has been SO excited to turn five.  

Her HUGE disappointment for the day was when she got up and laid out her shoes and socks and asked me where her uniform was.  I asked her what she meant and she said, "You said when I'm five I'll go to school."  She was so very disappointed to realize that it wouldn't be until next school year. 

She soon got over it though - we visit the school often, so she was okay with waiting and just visiting for now. :)

She had a fun day of coloring and talking to family on the phone - both of which she loves to do.

She combed her patient sisters hair - Ashlyn will let her comb her hair forever and seems to enjoy it - Megan loves it!

She wanted to help me make her birthday dinner.

 For her birthday supper, she wanted a tea party

We have the dearest neighbor.  He is an older man, but remembers all of our kids birthdays - and we haven't told him when they are, he just remembers the day they were born.  Every year he brings them a cake.  I usually have made them a cake, too, but I finally decided - this man needs a family to love and we sure don't need TWO cakes, so I'm just going to let him have the joy of being the "cake man" and he just thinks it's the greatest thing. :)  

A couple of weeks ago, he came down and asked Megan what kind of cake she wanted for her birthday. She told him she wanted a rainbow cake, so he ordered this cake and brought it down this week.

(*Side note: The cake did have in purple icing "Happy Birthday Megan" but some sweet little fingers got into the cake before I could get her out of the way, so I tried to fix it with little pearls.)

She got to Skype both Grandma's and meet Grandma's new dog, Ginger. :)

 Her brothers loudly singing "Happy Birthday"

Here's where the rainbow part comes in. :)  She was extremely surprised and excited!!

This is a bit of a rabbit trail:

Megan has a very sincere and trusting heart.  If there is something wrong, it is not uncommon at all to look around and find her off by herself praying.   She talks about Jesus and Heaven almost daily.  Sometimes it's almost like, "Oh yeah, I already talked to God about that....moving on"  She prays about everything.

So I asked her a few weeks ago what she wanted for her birthday dinner and she said "a normal Sunday Dinner"  I knew what she meant, but I was surprised that *she* knew what she was talking about.  Keith LOVES roast and would have it every Sunday if we could!  But we haven't had one in probably a couple of months. Keith has searched our freezer and turned over every piece of meat out there (someone gives us meat every spring so we have quite an assortment at times) but there have been no roasts at all.

He looked at the store and said we couldn't get one right now, so I told Megan that I would pick out the meat and she could pick out everything else.  She said, "Okay, I want mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, carrots and rolls...and you can pick out the meat"

Tuesday, I went out to the freezer to get meat out for supper and there ON TOP of all the meat, laying face up was a package that said "Chuck Roast".  

It wasn't under all the chickens, fruit, veggies we froze from our garden, or the other packages we had in the freezer, it was right there on top and it was packaged like our meat is packaged.

I asked Keith if he had found it and put it there and he said no. 

I got Megan and said, "I just found a roast in the freezer"

She shrugged and said, "I know. Jesus put it there for me"

(Why can't I trust like that?)

I think that was the best tasting roast we have had yet.

She was excited all day - even when she went to bed.  She said, "I can't believe I'm FIVE!"

She has brought five years of JOY to our lives!!

We love you Megan Joy - Happy Birthday!!!!!

New Friends!

There is an Amish community not too far from here and we love going up there.  Each family has a different trade and they will have a small building, or a little extention off of their house that is for their goods that they are selling.

One of them explained that every family HAS to sell something different than the others, so that they aren't competing with each other.

So one family sells seeds and garden starters, while another sells cheese and honey and another baked goods and another dried goods and spices.  There is a man that has a sawmill to sell lumber and another makes cabinets and furniture and yet another has his horses available for breeding. There are signs out of buggy repair,  whole chickens, sheep for sale, quilts and the list goes on.  So it's just a great trip when we go up there.

Just like everybody else in the world, each family is different. Some are friendly to outsiders, some not so much.

Yesterday was our day to go get our flour and oats and seasonings we get from them and we stopped by the carpenter mans house for Keith to talk to him about a table and they were super friendly.

The kids were fascinated with our kids - all staring out the windows. :)

Pretty soon they came and sat under the tree by the suburban and I told our girls they could go sit with them.  They asked their names - Christina and Vera.

Shortly after that, their oldest boy came out and started talking to me.  He was a bright young man with lots of stories to share. :)

Then blazing around the corner of the barn came this tiny pony with two small boys sitting WAY up high on a pile of hay.  I couldn't believe that little thing could pull such a load.

They unloaded their hay in the barn and put the seats in the wagon and rode over to where we were.  The bigger boy asked if our kids would like a ride.

I'll let you guess what their reaction was. :)

The boy (Jacob) drove them around and then got off and handed Kristyn the reins - GASP!!!
I was seeing all kinds of bad things happening, but I just watched and surprisingly she did a great job. :)

Then she dropped the boys (Owen and Jeren) off and the two little girls hopped on and Kristyn took them for another ride.

They don't like their pictures to be taken, but I did manage a few shots with the lens under Ashlyn's arm. :)  I think the flash went off on Ahslyn's shirt, so it made the picture turn out weird, but I still like it.

Kristyn was on cloud nine!!

So now the kids have decided that they want to be Amish......

For whatever reason, Megan was sitting on her coat.  

Aren't they adorable??

After an hour and a half there, we traveled on to get our cheese and honey. :)  I just love their little shops.

 

 So Keith told the kids that tonight we could live like the Amish.  No lights, CD's, computer, or trips in the suburban.  They think it will be just grand.....we'll see.  He told them that as soon as it starts getting dark, they will have to get ready and go to bed, because we can't have candles burning very long and we won't have lights - that's what the Amish do. :D   Haha!!

I'll let you know how it turns out.  We will use the indoor pluming, I can assure you of that. :D

Have a great weekend!!

Baking Day in the Life of a 4 Year Old...

Megan and I made bread this morning. (Thanks, Heather for your yummy recipe)

After it was made, Megan asked if she could make her own bread.

"Sure" I thought "I would have loved something like that when I was 4 years old"

So I said, "Sure" and gave her full run of the kitchen.

I went on with my day (mopping up water in the basement that had leaked through from the floor upstairs) and very soon was greeted with an unusual and VERY strong smell coming from the kitchen.

I went to investigate and found her very happily "baking" bread.

Here is the recipe she used: (I know because I asked) :)
Flour
Heaps of Oregano
Several cloves of Garlic
Small diced Onion
Grated cheese
Several heaping spoons of Dill Seeds
A tad bit of Oil
Sliced Grapes
Water
A variety of Sprinkles

Isn't she darling?

As I was leaving she said, "Oh, Mom, can I use some of this"

One day when she is grown and married and making "real" bread for her family, I'll show her these and we can both have a good laugh. :)

Garden Goodness

We tried something the other night and it was WONDERFUL!!  We made up a marinade, put the meat (the deer Keith shot last year) in it the night before and cut up peppers, (green, yellow, and red) and onions and grilled them.....

Not only were they pretty, they were very tasty!!!!

What have you been enjoying from your garden? I love to hear new recipes. :)

This morning's garden pick...

We would have had a lot more green beans but there was a lot of this going on. :)

The Man of Many Helmets (the kids call them Hemlets)....

I enjoy watching him come up with things to make life interesting.

The fierce leader!

Thanks for all the comments.  They made me smile.  You are a great bunch of friends!

Enjoy your day!!