In which I lament my unaccomplished-ness in the arena of music

I'm not sure Pride and Prejudice is good for me. It makes me want certain things....I'm not only talking about wishing I had a hero...though that can happen at times.

I'm talking about other more random things....

I long to have a real British accent...

I long to wear a Regency-era dress every day...

And it makes me wish I was accomplished, like Miss Elizabeth Bennet.

"All young women are so accomplished these days! They sing, paint, speak French and Italian, embroider, write poetry, and I know not what!" ;)

Mr. Bingley is so easy to please. But of course we'd all rather impress Mr. Darcy who has deeper ideas of the subject.

"I am no longer surprised at you only knowing six accomplished women, Mr. Darcy...I rather wonder at you knowing any!"

I can hold my own in many of these areas, but I regret that I am not much of a musician myself, though, to quote Lady Catherine DeBourgh, "I should have been quite proficient if I had ever cared to learn." ;)

It seems silly that I don't know how to play anything beyond a recorder (and can plastic be considered an instrument?) since both my parents are musicians. The Gentleman from Virginia plays the guitar extremely well, and even Sarah and Leah are becoming quite adept at the playing of the piano.

My voice is my only instrument, albeit a very portable one, and I do love to sing. I just don't know how good I am at it. :P I'd be afraid to spend an evening "entertaining" company with my songs. I think my voice takes after Katie's in the Doris Day Calamity Jane:

"I've heard you. Very nice for choirs and weddings, but I doubt that your voice would ever reach beyond the footlights." :P

Anyway, I love music very well. And I would love to learn how to play a bit on the piano.

"Do you play, Miss Bennet?"

"A little ma'am, and very ill."

Indeed, if I sat down to entertain people on the piano they would have to suffer through a halting "Mary had a Little Lamb" and someone would probably come over, put a hand on my shoulder and say, "There, there you do very well child. Now let some of the other young ladies have a chance to exhibit!" ;)

And I never hope to have this sort of a compliment payed:

"You are perfectly right, Miss Bennet. You have employed your time better. No one admitted to the privilege of hearing you play could think anything wanting."

I do love to listen to the girls play duets on the piano, or Daniel playing his guitar. All except one song the girls play. It's not their fault, but Sarah's part sounds like a fat hippo trying to dance. Seriously. It gives me the willies every time I hear it. :D

Mama says that she will teach me piano this fall, if I'd like. :) I think I'll take her up on that. I would like to advance past the "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and onto something more accomplished. ;)

I shall make that a goal, dear blogging friends. To get past nursery-rhyme songs...maybe I'll even make it as far as "My Mother bid me Bind my Hair"...I bet Mary Bennet could teach me a thing or two on that note. ;) ~Rachel

Our Home-Grown Diva ;)

Well, I guess it was bound to happen at some point. After all...she *has* been the youngest child, and a girl for that matter, for almost 5 years now.
Our Gracie is about the sweetest thing running, and has the personality of...of I don't know what. Something huge.
Something famous.
Something mighty extraordinary.
Something utterly huggable.

She's like...Shirley Temple with the wit of an Elizabeth Bennett, the drama of Eloise, and the sense of style that belongs to...and I guess here I come to my confession....

I'm afraid we've raised just a little bit of a diva.

Witness her quotes in the past two days:

"Oh most honored one, you can turn on a movie for me."

*Gives me a hug* "I love you. Now you can bow down."

"Umm...I think I'm gonna go in the pool and float around with my glasses." (purple-tinted shades. Oh yeah. ;)

*Sigh*...oh little baby-who's-coming-soon, you've got a Persian Princess on your hands. ;) ~Rachel

So Little Time, So Much To Do.

Well...the title says it all! :D This is the list I compiled while putting Gracie to bed:

The List of "If I were to have all the time and enough money to do as I pleased with my first graduated fall I would:"

• Direct and put on a play, including scenery, costumes, and that sort of thing. Preferably a musical.
• Teach an art class for the younger kids
• Run a weekly field day and teach a nature class for the younger kids
• Illustrate a whole children's book, as well as write it.
• Make a movie-costume reproduction. (i.e. Meg March's forget-me-not blue dress, Queen Victoria's rose and gold ballgown, Emma Woodhouse's red coat [2009], Lizzy Bennet's dark blue Spencer jacket, Ann Shirley's charity-ball gown, etc.)
• Design and make my own dress
• Get to the point of no return in writing Puddleby Lane. (at least 1/2-way through)
• Buy a pair of red shoes and wear them out
• Start our Sweet Alyssum Etsy Shop
• Read at least one more Dickens book
• Make a hundred-point bucket list....maybe even 101 to even it out. ;)
• Go out and paint with my field-case
• Go to the Beauty and the Beast Broadway show, Josh Groban concert, or an opera.
• Outfit a writing corner for myself....probably in the Reading Nook.

See? Dear me...I wish I wasn't so ambitious at times like this. ;) ~Rachel

Heat Wave

Okay. We are officially hot around here....

Everyone expects heat in the summertime. That's a granted. But truly....120 degree heat indexes? Don't you think it's a little bit much? We step outside and are suddenly *terribly* grateful for the A/C waiting for us inside when we're done with all the gardening...

Yes, I just said "done" in the same sentence as "gardening". They don't belong together, but at least we can plea a potentially dangerous condition (heat exhaustion) as a reason to take a break. :)

Anyway, just thought I'd share that with you. :) I peep out the window each morning and think,

"Here comes the smoulder!"

Just In Case You Wondered....

WE'RE ALIVE!!!!!

I know it has been far too long since we've done a blog post! But I do have good reasons, if you'd like to hear some excuses:

#1. A market-garden leaves pinched time for blogging
#2. Blogger has been acting up--I had a post all set with pictures and everything, but it posted it funny and I had to take it off. It wouldn't work no matter what! :P
#3. Nasty little voles are eating our potatoes
#4. It's been rather hot--very counter-productive to inspiration. :D

So that's my sorry little apology. Let's be friends now, okay? ;) Wow! So I realized that it's been a long time since we've posted about ourselves. So you all must be wondering, "What on earth have they been up to? Rachel never even posted the second part of her farm blog posts, and no hair tutorials have come up." Or else you've ceased wondering about us and have taken us off your sidebar. Please put us back. We're sorry. ;)
*ANY*way. I first off wanted to share the very exciting news with you that we have launched the website for Taste and See Family Farm! It all feels so official and tidy now! Thanks Matthew and Uncle David! :) Go check it out! It's really cool! :) *Exciting!*
I won't go into details right now, but as far as our day-to-day life goes, we've been rather "Nose to the grindstone" on account of the garden popping and having deadlines for co-ops and farmers markets and everything else! :) Extremely busy--I'd appreciate your prayers for Mama, because as tired as we are at the end of the day, she's ten times more so since she's eight months pregnant! We are trying to spare her the heaviest work, but she's still working harder than most women at this point in their pregnancies! Baby will have a good work ethic from the start, I guess! :D I talked about our schedule a little bit in the Large Family Logistics post awhile back...

But enough about the garden. At nearly 10 p.m. we've all payed our dues for the day! Benji and I were harvesting a huge laundry basket full of potatoes for the market today and were dismayed to find we had to throw out 30 of the hugest ones because voles had gotten to them. I think it's time for an outside cat--what say you? :P

On a lighter note, Gracie said something really funny the other day:
I was in the other room and heard her calling me.

*Grace*: "Raaachel!"
*Me*: "Yeah?"
*Grace*: "Guess who I'm gonna marry--him!" *points to a picture of Michael W. Smith on a flier*
*Me*: "Why would you want to marry him?"
*Grace, with a charming smile*: "Because he's handsome and he doesn't smell like tuna-fish."

Randomness is hilarious. Especially when it comes from a 4 year-old. :D
Also, my graduation is set for July 16th and I am informed I have to give a speech.
Me....and a speech...
Me...in front of 200+ people.....
*dies of embarassment* So could ya'll pray for peace of mind for me? I think I'll faint. I'm planning on it. And Abigail promises she'll drag me over the the rain barrel and dunk me in to revive me, and then I can go on and read my speech anyway. What a good friend. ;)
So.....hope this caught you guys up on everything going on! Have a great night! :) <3 ~Rachel

P.S. Blogger is still acting up and won't let me upload pictures! Or let me off of italic after I've pushed it... >:[ Anybody have any advice on this? :/

Goateo and Crueliet- an operatic farm-drama. :P

These are the Villains in this Drama:

Meet Daisy....


(Notice the dastardly-looking lack of ears? :P LaManchas are all so....sly looking as adults. :P

Next is Chocolate Chip (So glad we didn't name him Mr. Darcy- the vagabond!)


And the innocent [ ;) ] Miss Elizabeth Bennet (Lizzie)



It all began on a warm, beautiful, ideal early-May day in our corner of Virginia...

We spent the morning working in the garden planting more flowers for cutting. Then we got in the car, went to choir, and, in the odd hour between choir and Matthew's baseball game, we decided to go strawberry picking.



Buy two baskets, get the third free.
We finished picking 15 baskets in about 40 minutes. :)

Then off to the ball-game, and home to make dinner.

*Cue dramatic music*

♫"Woe are we- we gurgle our throats
Over our evil, dastardly goats...."♫

Um. Never mind the singing part. Skip ahead.

As we drove up the drive a astonishing and angering sight met our eyes. Every swinging one of those blasted goats were out and gallivanting around the garden. Ahem.

There was a chase through my newly planted flower bed as Leah rode Chip...

A dash through the peas after Daisy...(yes, I fit through the trellis without ruining any peas myself. :P)

And finally we caught them. Oh the fiendish animals!
♫"If I ate meat like a Blackamoor, We'd have a barbeque, But since I don't, I'll sigh some more Until those goats are through!"♫

Ahem. Proceed.

The worst of it was not over. Those measly, pitiful, awful animals chomped down on our baby blackberry bushes and nibbled our eight prized, adored baby blueberry bushes to nubbins. And they were even getting berries!



Oh the Horror! :[

Mama and I were quite put out, and the girls scurried to capture the goats, tie them up so they couldn't repeat the offense, and creep around till our wrathful state subsided a little. *Sigh*
So that's the little drama of the day. We are hoping that the blueberry bushes will miraculously grow back, and that we won't have to construct a veritable Guantanamo Bay to keep them inside and away from our garden. Because right now...it's pretty much Stalag 13 :P


But on the bright side...
*thinking hard*.....

Um.....

Hold on a second.....

Ah!

On the bright side, it gave me....something to blog about? :P -Rachel

Random Bullet Points Post 2

• We are tired, although we don't like to admit it ;)
• We miss Abigail Taylor
• The Scots call potatoes "tatties" and all I could think of when I read that was Tatty-Coram from Little Dorrit
• We watched The Minnesota Cuke tonight....yep. After the little kids were in bed.
• Sherbet ice cream can taste a little like a cardboard box
• There are two philosophies to what it means when smoke of a campfire is going toward a person- one flattering, the other....not so much
• We had a Tangled party without watching Tangled ;)
• Colonial Williamsburg looked really funny before they restored it(some of the historic buildings had been turned into junky 50's gas stations! :P)
  
• One of George Washington's Rules of Civility was: "Do not roll back thine eyes in thine head while taking a drink."
• Rachel needs to hurry up and get her license
• AHHH!!!! Only 4 more choir practices before our recital!!!!!! :O
• We enjoy going on Pity Missions to help the blind and hearing aids. ;)
• We have a little sister with insomnia right now. :P
• It's rather difficult to say "three-toed tree-toad" more than once or twice
• And on that note, Dr. Suess' Fox in Socks is an extremely hard book to read aloud
• It would be nice to have a working sewing machine
• The song that keeps coming up from various topics is "Hello, Young Lovers" from "The King and I"
• Sarah's new volleyball nickname is "Pluffy".
• You have never seen a volleyball serve until you have been the victim of the right-handed Rachel's left-handed "Gullywhomper".
• Reading certain snippets from the end of "Anne of Avonlea" is very appropriate for Rachel today. ;)
• If you have ever meant to "not eat dessert" one day but do despite your Good Intentions, you are what Gracie calls a "Sugar-Bum" :D
  
• 
  

Look Who's Comin' to Town! :)

I am extremely, extremely excited! :) You know why? I bet you can't guess....

No, it's not because I have a dentist appointment at 11:00 tomorrow morning....(I dread it like the plague...)(♫ I've been to the dentist a thousand times so I know the drill....
I smooth my hair, sit back in the chair, and somehow, I still get a chill!♫" ;)

No, it's because this gorgeous gal is going to be here on Friday!! :)
(Um....not the cat- the other one! :D)

Here is Marybelle in all her glory! ;)

And because she is the caretaker of two young boys and we thought it would be nice to extend the invitation to those fellows....HE is coming.


I understand he can be a handful....you can't leave him alone with chocolate covered pomegranate balls for a minute or else....he does THIS :P
We are also trying to convince this character to come.....

But I've heard he prefers sitting at home and smouldering... ;)
Can't wait to see you guys! ~Rachel
P.s. All pictures, save the dentist, are courtesy of Marybelle :)

Admit it- English is strange :)

Have you ever stopped to wonder at the strange language we speak? It's amazingly complex and unstable. No rule is applied the same way twice, and yet we who have spoke English from our birth, have somehow learned it and make shift with all we know. :P Hey, we've even contributed quite a few geniuses who, despite the handicap of the complexities involved, wrote something amazing. ;)

Lewis Carroll added some words into it....

Dickens used it to write his beloved novels....no problems there! :P

Shakespeare concocted many famous sayings, and will go down in history as the most amazing play-wright ever!

But when you really stop to consider the ins and outs of English, you must admit it is a little ridiculous! :P Hee-hee. So here is a funny essay I came across several years ago, and it still makes me laugh! English, is admittedly, ridiculous, but I love it anyway! :P

There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple... English muffins were not invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies, while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.

We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write, but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce, and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So, one moose, 2 meese? So shouldn't the plural of choose be cheese?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

In what language do people recite at a play, and play at a recital?

Ship by truck, and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? Park on driveways and drive on parkways?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

When a house burns up, it burns down. You fill in a form by filling it out, and an alarm clock goes off by going on.

When the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it?

And a few more quotes to make you shake your head and laugh...

"If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur." — Doug Larson

"Not only does the English Language borrow words from other languages, it sometimes chases them down dark alleys, hits them over the head, and goes through their pockets." — Eddy Peters

"The quantity of consonants in the English language is constant. If omitted in one place, they turn up in another. When a Bostonian “pahks” his “cah,” the lost r’s migrate southwest, causing a Texan to “warsh” his car and invest in “erl wells.”

— Author Unknown

"If the English language made any sense, lackadaisical would have something to do with a shortage of flowers." — Doug Larson