We Have Horses!

Several years ago, the girls saw an ad in the paper offering horse riding lessons in exchange for work. I believe the deal was two hours of work around the barn/farm for one hour of riding. They loved the idea and went to work.

After awhile, the kind folks giving the lessons decided that the girls were beyond just lessons and offered them an even better deal. Continue working, and the hours would be applied to the cost of buying one of the horses. Wow!

So after a couple years (they only work a few hours a week at most), both girls earned a horse. Trouble was, we didn't have fence around our place fixed up to contain them. So they continued working to pay for room and board.

Well, finally, after years of blood, sweat and tears (mostly just sweat), the product of the girls' labors has arrived. In fact, the kind folks behind all this even fixed up one part of our fence down by the creek for us. How great are these people?!

So, welcome to the family our two newest members: Taz (short for Phantasm) and Koda'sha (Sioux for "red friend").

Some Really Cool Birds!!!

Over the summer we went to St. Louis and we were able to visit the wild bird sanctuary. It was so cool. I love just about any kind of bird but I especially love birds of prey or "Raptors".

Here just a few of the many pictures that I took.

Here are some more pictures I've taken. I have not been able to take to many recently because at this time of year there is not as many birds for one. I hope to soon have a picture of a deer up here (with me and my bow beside it!)

These are of a sunrise that dad and I saw while deer hunting in november.

And then just some of the birds that are still around.

We're Still Here

This page has been neglected for some time. Not sure if anyone cares or notices, but thought I'd at least post something so that folks know we're still alive. We recently went down to College of the Ozarks to spend the day with our oldest. Here are just a few pics of the day.

Our girls. So glad they love each other so much
Nathanael just loves posing for pictures (not!)
Kenaniah wants to be one of those lion statues, so here he is in front of the chapel...
This has been dubbed "Weldon Heaven..."
Running over to Branson, the boys got to check out the General Lee

I'm hoping we can get back into the swing of things: more pics from Nathanael, more writings from the girls, more thoughts from all of us. In the meantime, hope all is well where you are.

No Longer a Teenager!

Life's milestones come at you fast! As of today, our oldest is no longer a "teenager," hitting the 20 year marker. Guess we're all getting old. Unfortunately, we couldn't see her today, being at college and all. But at least we did get to spend the day with her on Saturday.What a blessing children are, and what a "curse" to have to let them go. I know it's part of life, but that doesn't make it easier. So to make me feel better, here's one of our favorite stories about LoriAnn, often repeated, and even submitted to a magazine or two over the years:

KIDS HEAR MORE THAN WE THINK!

When our oldest daughter, LoriAnn was just a baby, we were in the process of trying to "wean" her from her bottle. Regardless of the actual contents of the bottle, she always called them "juice." After weeks of effort we had her down to one "juice" a week: during church while Daddy preached so she would stay quiet. Eventually we even tried to do without this one unless absolutely necessaryAll was well until one Sunday when I was talking about God's people during the sermon. LoriAnn was going along without any thought of her bottle...until I said, "And the Jews..." LoriAnn jumped straight up in the pew and started screaming "Juice, Juice, Juice." Which just goes to show that no matter how young they are, kids listen to a lot more than we give them credit for.

P.S. For a long time after that, I never referred to the Jews during my sermons, only the Israelites. Which also explains why through three other children our code word for a "bottle" was "Israelite." As in "How many Israelites did she drink today?"

We Love You, Sunshine! Have a happy birthday.

One Night at the Ballgame

Minor League Baseball. This is the story of Fans, Freebies, Photos and a Foul to the Face. In fact, I wanted to give that as the title, but knew it was way too long. This is how it goes.

Last Sunday night, a man from our church came in and said that he had come into a large clump of tickets for the Springfield Cardinals game on Tuesday. So a bunch of us got together and headed to the game. (Springfield is the AA affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals)Before the game, they were giving out packs of team cards, and the boys and I even got several of our favorite players to sign them.In addition to the signed card, I even got a photo op with one of my favorites, Jim Rapoport.

Louie the mascot even got in on the autograph session.

Things were good until about the seventh inning. That’s when the visiting team hit a foul ball, right into our section. Our youngest had been begging to catch a fly ball all night. And he did. Right in the face.
Well, as you can see, the damage was very minimal, other than a little bloody nose and a very minor bruise and swelling. We did have a couple of scary moments there, though, as he first got hit and started screaming, holding his face. The stadium staff was quick to respond; a medic showed up, checked him out, packed him in ice, and all was well. He was fine in no time, and in fact was first in line to run the bases after the game.

After the game, Kenaniah wanted to have his ball signed by the visiting player who hit it. We couldn't find him, but a semi-local guy who plays for the Northwest Arkansas Naturals was kind enough to do the signing. (Buddy Baumann is from Billings, MO. Great picture of his face, huh?)
To top it all off, one of the aforementioned players, Zach Cox, hit one of his two home runs in the “designated inning” and we all got to have a $1 sundae from Andy’s Frozen Custard on the way home. All in all a pretty good night at the game.

Boy That Makes Me Angry!

I tried to check my email today and found a VERY inappropriate and upsetting, anti-military, pro terrorist page instead. I was so angry I almost threw the chair!

Not only do I find it wrong because I love what our military does for us, I also feel that it is anti-American.

Another thing, it's a home-school site!! Of all of the web pages out there, to high jack a home school site is immature and (as my dad put it) ignorant!

The final words on it were "Die Uncle Sam, Die".

The person who took credit was a "Mexican Horror". I have two things to say to whoever put that up, "God bless America and it's wonderful, amazing military" and may the Lord of all creation have mercy on you!!!!!!!!!

An Open Letter to My Daughter

This guy says what I want to say to my daughters, and the parenthetical statement in the last paragraph says what I want to say to prospective husbands!

An Open Letter to My Daughter

Belive Me Now Grandpa??

This is Nathanael, here. Did a little fishing in our creek and wanted to prove to my grandpa that there really are fish down there!. Here's a picture of one bass and two different sunfish I caught.
Not to be outdone, Dad took me to a nearby spot on the James River and he caught this monster bass.

First Attempt

Well since I am new to this, I decided just to share a few pictures of mine that I would consider among my favorites. I enjoy just being outside in God's wonderful creation but now I can share some of that stuff with other people.

By Grace Alone: Homeschooler Moment #6

By Grace Alone: Homeschooler Moment #6: "I’m not sure this is really just a homeschooler moment, though I guess it does reflect on the education we are providing. Our family..."

Remembering the Fallen (or...Thanks, Grandpa McGui...

By Grace Alone: Remembering the Fallen (or...Thanks, Grandpa McGui...: "Scott Weldon, the son of Gradie Weldon, husband to Evelyn Froehlich, the daughter of Harold Froehlich, husband to Arline Keeton, daughter of..."

A Note To Some Friends

In light of my rant on my own blog a few days ago regarding the state of marriage in particular, and some specific marriages in our own “realm” of existence, my wife asked me to post this.

This is an old song from one of our favorite Christian bands of days gone by called the Allies. For the last couple weeks, as we’ve seen the struggles in our friends’ lives, Cheryl said this song has been going through her mind. While the song is obviously meant to be addressed to God’s people, an encouragement from our faithful God to not run away from His love, she hopes that the message will also be clearly seen/heard by many as a call to not run away from anything right, including marriage.

Here are the lyrics, and you can listen/watch the link below. I pray this is an encouragement to you today.


Don’t Run Away

I’m givin’ you the answer
Before you ask the question
You say it sounds too easy
Because you’ve heard it all before
It’s a life changing story
That time can never alter
And I can tell that it touched you
Though you’re walkin’ out the door

I keep on sending you those cards and letter
That lay it all out on the lines
I keep on telling you there’s something better
You’ve come too far, to leave it behind

(chorus)
Don’t run away, don’t run away
Don’t run away when someone loves you
Don’t run away, don’t run away
Don’t run away when someone cares for you

Your mind won’t admit it
But your heart would like to listen
And you can tell in your spirit
There’s no greater love around
Now it all seems so strange
You’re afraid you’ll never feel it
Put your faith where your heart is
There’s a treasure to be found

(second chorus)
Don’t run away, don’t run away
Don’t run away when someone loves you
Don’t run away, don’t run away
Don’t run away from where you know you should be
The life that you were meant to lead
Don’t run away from what you know is right

Copyright 1985 Light Records

By Grace Alone: Homeschooler Moment #5

By Grace Alone: Homeschooler Moment #5: "So we're sitting at the table, just enjoying having the oldest home from college for a couple weeks, when the youngest pipes up out of nowhe..."

Thank God for Mothers

Let me keep this very simple. I thank God for my wonderful mother.

And I thank God for the beautiful wife he has given me as a mother to my own children.

God is so good.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY.

Turkey Season 2011

Nathanael and I have already had some fun this turkey season. You can read about here.

By Grace Alone: The Further Adventures of Bubba and Tubba: "Bubba would be me. Tubba would be the tubby tom turkey that’s been taunting and tormenting us for the last two years. Bubba Junior is also i..."

But here are some more of his great pictures of that first morning.

By Grace Alone: Homeschooler Moment #4

By Grace Alone: Homeschooler Moment #4: "This isn't the 'funny' entry that the last couple have been. This time, it's just a proud dad sharing some of his homeschooled kids' stuff...."

Lurching

This blog is rather zombie-like...it lurches back to life every now and again and then falls back into immobility for long periods of time.
So let's lurch again, shall we? LOL
Today is the first day of my second semester here at college--and already, I'm both excited and nervous. Shall I sum up? I shall.
1) I have a lot of classes with friends, so that will be fun.
2) I have what seems to be a lot of cool classes. Classical Ideals of Character and my Grammar class especially look like they'll be fun--though homework intensive.
3) I already have a bunch of homework.
4) I'm the only person with experience on my work station, so I'll be training the newbies. Oooh boy, that oughta be fun. (grimace)
5) Just as a side note--it snowed last night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOVE THE SNOW!!!!!
LOL.
Yeah. So, there's my update. If Katrina and Nathanael ever get their show on the road, this place will stop lurching and come back to something resembling life. Hint, hint, dear siblings. ;)
Love you all,
~LoriAnn