Hot Cross Buns! :)

"Hot cross buns!
Hot cross buns!
One a penny, two a penny
Hot cross buns!
If you have no daughters
Give them to your sons.
One a penny, two a penny
Hot cross buns!"

Gracie and I made Hot Cross Buns today! :) I read that they were a traditional Good Friday treat, and so I made them today....on Saturday. :P You can read about their history HERE. It's really quite interesting! :) The recipe I used is below....
Buns:
7 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. each of nutmeg and cloves
pinch of salt
1 cup chopped raisins, craisins, currants, etc.
2/3 c. diced, candied orange peel (I just peeled two oranges, diced up the peel, and tossed it in sugar, since I didn't have real candied peel)
2 eggs
7 tablespoons butter melted
4 1/2 tsp. yeast
1 1/2 c. milk, warmed

Crosses:
4 tablespoons cold butter
1 cup flour
Cold water

Step One: Mix together flour, sugar, spices, salt, raisins, and orange peel.
Step Two: Make a well in the center and add melted butter and the eggs. Mix well
Step Three: Mix yeast in the milk with a pinch of sugar and proof a couple of minutes, then add to flour mixture.
Step Four: Form 2 dozen buns from the dough, and put on cookie sheets.
Step Five: With hands squish butter into flour until crumbly, add water to make a pie-crust-like dough. Roll out into strips and lay on top of buns in cross shape.
Step Six: Cover and let rise 30 minutes while you preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Step Seven: When baked, bring out of oven and while warm, brush on a glaze of milk and powdered sugar boiled together until sugar is dissolved.
Enjoy these scone-like buns! :)

Candid Shots- family pictures, large-family style :)

For some people, the most cherished family pictures are the ones that show them to advantage...the ones that capture the adorable moments in the lives of their children, and where everybody has a clean face, clean clothes, and everyone's smiling.

But I love to look at the not-so-good pictures and find the funny, large-family moments therein :) I don't recall a single "this is our family" picture that we would dare send anyone who didn't already love us! ;)

A candid picture of my dear Abby with the garden hose in her mouth...and yes...this is an everyday, and usually multiple-times-a-day
happening :)

Gracie in a wild get-up. This too is merely a sampling of her typical dress-up outfit, and her typical face when she wants us to laugh at her....

The cousins provide plenty of funny shots too- Bekah obviously enjoyed her....whatever it was she had been eating! :P

Umm....I'm pretty sure Benj and Abby just got the news that the South lost the War. :P

I don't always have the most well-behaved subjects when I preside over the tea-table ;)

The little ones took their responsibility to bury the poor lame chick rather "gravely" :P Ahem.
So what do you think? Aren't these more fun that the usual family pictures? :)
~Rachel

How To Choke, Cry, and Laugh Simultaneously: Otherwise known as "The Name Game"

If you want to laugh harder than you have for a long time...
If you want to prove that sisterly minds think alike.....
If you want to play a game that doesn't involve finding dice or a deck of cards with four whole suits....
Or if you simply are tired of all the games you generally play, this game is for you! :)

It has an innocent title that scarcely belies it's hilarious propensity: The Name Game

Here are the rules:

• Divide all the players into two teams- if you have two different families, it's hilarious to put siblings on the same team. We communicate with almost a different language, and the points really rack up :D
• Each player takes four (or more) different slips of paper and writes a different name on each- These can be names of friends, famous people, people from history, well-known characters from books or movies, etc.
• Put all the names into a bowl
• First Round starts- Choose which team goes first. A player on the opposite team has a stopwatch, egg-timer, etc. Set for one minute.
  The team going first chooses one player to start. That player takes the bowl of names and picks a slip of paper, and once the timer starts, begins to describe the person on the slip of paper. They cannot use any part of the person's name. When the teammates guess correctly, the player picks up another piece of paper and continues.
  This goes on until the time is up. Save out your pieces of paper- they're important! :)
  Play moves on to Team Two. Keep playing this way until all the scraps of paper are used up.
  When the bowl is empty, count your slips of paper- these are you points. Replace slips of paper in bowl and get ready for Round Two! :)
• Second Round starts- In this round, the rules are the same as charades. You have to get your teammates to guess the name on the slip of paper without using any words, sounds, or props.
  Play continues with same rules as first round, until the bowl is empty. Tally points again. Replace slips of paper in bowl and prepare for the last and Final Round! :)
• Third and Final Round starts- In this round, you play the same general rules as former rounds, only this time you have to get your team to guess the names by saying one word. Example: (I draw a slip of paper that says "Collin Firth" and I could say "Darcy", hoping my teammates would understand.) Once more, play till the bowl is empty. Tally up points, and whichever team has the highest score, wins! :)

There! It's an easy game, and absolutely hilarious! :) By the third round it's pretty easy because you are simply recycling the same names through all the rounds. :)
If you are anything like our family, you will find yourselves yelling and shouting out answers, and looking ridiculous! The charades round is definitely the funniest. Let's just say we were crying we were laughing so hard when we played it this afternoon! :)
At the beginning I mentioned that playing with siblings on a team is the most fun. It is also a disadvantage to other players, because especially with the one-word round, you have associations with people that might afford you a quick way out and other players wouldn't understand! :D
Example: One time the name on my slip of paper was "Doug Philips". Earlier in the game someone had misheard the name and thought it was "Bug so-and-so", so that by the third round all I had to say was "bug" and Sarah could guess correctly! :)

Going On A Date ;)

Saturday night The Gentleman From Virginia took Sarah and I out to see "Tangled" (the new Rapunzel movie) at Cinema Cafe. Waiting till it came there is worth it, because it's only $3.75 to see it! :)
I really enjoyed the movie, and especially the music in it, even though we missed the first five or ten minutes. :) It's always fun to go on a "date" with him! :)
Afterward, since the movie theater was in the mall, we went into Macy's and tried on all the huge Sunday hats! :) Sarah looks great in the cute little caps and cloches and things like that, while I looked better in the wide, floppy brimmed hats :) It was a lot of fun and Daniel took pictures of us with his cell phone. It's funny to hear what people think of a guy taking girls out! :) We were at the gas station and I had a funny conversation with the guy in line behind me:

Me: at the register paying for candy
Man in line behind me: "If he's takin' you out, he's supposed to pay for everything!"
Me: "Oh, well he pays for a lot of stuff a lot of the time so I'm buying my own candy."
Man: smiles pityingly ;) "If he's takin' you out, he's supposed to pay for everything. Everything."

:D If he only knew the many debts I owe to my most obliging Gentleman From Virginia, he'd soon rest quietly on that subject of treating us to a movie! :D Anyway, that was our fun evening!
~Rachel

The Scare of The Century, As Told By Rachel

I have been comissioned by Abigail Taylor to relate to you the story of the way Matthew gave Sarah the scare of the century. So settle back, and enjoy a simple tale of a little wit, a tad of quick-thinking, and a dash...funniness! :) Meet the Villain of the story:

Well, three of him. Could you ask for a better creep? Long claws, buggy eyes, whirring wings... *shiver* It all began yesterday evening. Like the good girls we are, after chores, Sarah, Leah, Anna, and I all went out on the porch in the cool of the dusk to shell these:

Only it was not so glamorous and pretty-looking. Our version is more like piles of this:

We quietly shelled the lima beans, singing as we went. That is when the Villain first came onstage. With a whirr of wings, he hit a shutter of the house, then fell to the ground. I screeched, I confess, and tucked my skirt tightly around my ankles. I do not get an overly loving feeling over praying mantises! :) We stood up to do something, and as I prepared to sit down, I saw little Manty, clinging to the back of my rocking chair. This would not do. So we girls took turns shying shoes and baseball mitts at all three of the creepy insects. (there were 3 at this point in time) My goal was to knock them off the house and chair. Anna's goal was to clock them. She hit the biggest guy, (twice the size of the picture of there) and he fell to the porch with one menacing wing sticking out funny. I ran off the porch, thoroughly disgusted. The third one persisted in staying on the house. I took the baseball mitt, and chucked it at him, hitting him off the siding, and causing him to fly through the air, chasing me the whole length of our front porch! :P That excitement being over, we returned to shelling Limas, thinking that the Villains had been vanquished for sure and certain.

Enter Matthew Walker. Good cousin, he. But mischevious lad at times. He sits on the porch, talking to us, and watching his good, house-keeping cousins shell the beans. He declines the offer of helping, and prefers to watch our deft fingers do it. Scrapes a pile of beans off his lap that Leah put there, and continues to chat about many things. He laughs over our praying mantis story. We girls continue to sing.

♫ "Some bright morning when this life is o'er

I'll fly away

To a home on God's celestial shore,

I'll fly away...." ♫

Sarah utters a little squeal, and ducks her head, for one Villain, the poor injured one who had meanwhile climbed up the front door, hits a porch post near her vicinity, and falls into the flower bed. While she is shuddering over the thought of that nasty creature coming anywhere close, Matthew the Brilliant, Matthew the Quick, Matthew the Witty, takes a lima bean shell, aims, and quietly throws it, hitting her chest perfectly on time. Her eyes take on an expression like this:

And she utters the loudest scream I think I've ever heard coming from her mouth! "AGGGHHHH!!!!!!!!" She falls back into her chair, and continues writhing about, looking as if she is in the depths of an apoplectic fit while we all collapse in laughter. The joke is explained. She is relieved. They repair to a movie inside, while I brave the Villains, and sweep up all the shells. And that, dear readers, is the tale I have to tell! :) -Rachel

Thar' She Blows! :)

Well, as we speak, Hurricane Earl makes it's way toward us. Oh boy! I love a good hurricane if it doesn't do any damage! Actually, I prefer Nor'easter, but oh well! I am not picky! I warn people in case we lose our power and I get to read Bleak House and write letters by candlelight, and convince Daniel to take a walk in the middle of it around Friday or so! :D Well, perhaps we wouldn't walk in the middle of the worst of it, but perhaps in the eye of it! :) I love powerful weather! It reminds me of the Lord's might, and His power over all He has made! So while a hurricane behaves itself, I welcome a cosy night or two! Now, when you begin talking hurricanes like Katrina, and others that leave considerable death and destruction in their wake, I waive my compliments of the magnificence of an ordinary hurricane! :)

Now, I would ask for prayer in a certain area- if the hurricane is bad enough and comes over the Outer Banks, our friends the Travers, with their 11 kids, (13 and down) will be staying in our home as a storm shelter. So we could use prayer that our power won't go out, because 24 people living off of one generator would be quite something! Not impossible, but not quite comfortable! either!:)

We went with the Walkers and some of the T. family to see Toy Story 3 today! It was very good, and my favorite of the trilogy. (I did not like 1 or 2 of that series! :) And I do admit, it made me cry. Because I thought up how sad they could make the ending and my own fancies brought the tears! :D Oh well. At least I haven't a heart of stone! ;)

So this was just a little post to let you know about the amazing show of God's power I hope to witness soonish, and about the rare movie-going trip we took as a family this afternoon :D

p.s. The picture is just some hurricane, not our's! :D

-Rachel

"The Ballet of The Faun" You've got to see this! :P

Question: What do Rachel and Sarah do with a broken pinata, and a camera?
Answer: Well, you will soon see.
Now I have two disclaimers:
1. Daniel needs to come home. Our humor is becoming cheaper than ever. Not so witty. More....like this video! ;) I'm teasing- we are having good times, and we all thought this was pretty funny! :)
2. The singing- I, Rachel, am the star of this film. I did the dancing, and the singing too. You must understand that I was half-choking with laughter and I forgot the tune to some of the last song, so it sounds naturally...funny! So don't take this as a sample of my singing voice PLEASE! :D Sarah did the filming, so she has all the credit for the second half of the title. The stage, by-the-by,was Daisy's milking stand. The lovely green curtain was my blouse. :)

Now sit back, and enjoy this video entitled: "The Ballet of The Faun: Viewed from eye-level with the stage" ;)

Well, there you have our brief masterpiece. Pretty entertaining for a spur-of-the-moment show, don't you agree? :) -Rachel

Black and Blue

Hullo Folks! This morning we all woke up with a start at 6:30, scrambled around getting younger children dressed and prepared to load up in the van. Benjamin manned the toaster and toasted something for us all, I cut cheese and cantalope, and put some water in jars, and then joined the van full of half-asleep people. Actually, it wasn't too bad, and in less than half-an-hour after waking up, we were on the road to Drewry Blueberry Farm. We met the T. family there, and picked thornless blackberries (for sissies) and blueberries. There is something so old-fashioned about berry-picking. We were saying that we've always wanted to dress in white dresses and pretty hats and go picking, but that is decidedly impractical! It was alot of fun! Blueberry bushes are so beautiful! I love the coloring of the berries in different stages- they are the prettiest shades of pink and purplish, and finally light blue, until you rub the bloom off, and then they are such a lovely midnight color! :) We hope to make jam at some point, and I hope to make a blueberry crisp for dessert! :P Oh the summertime is SO great! Berry-picking is one of my favorite things to do! The only real way to do blackberries is to pick them in the wild, become lacerated by dozens of thorns, and come home hot, sticky, and purple with berries! :) Yay! I thought of the scene is Wives and Daughters when Molly Gibson is picking berries- you see her eat one, but when she comes home, she is absolutely covered in juice! :) Do you all like picking berries? What are your favorite kinds? Leave a comment if you love berries! :) -Rachel

Random Things, including dried frogs, and a cucumber named Alfred

I learned a lesson at lunch: Never be watching an educational video about caves with super good photography while eating. They were detailing a 100 meter-high mound of bat guano covered in cockroaches, and explaining the immense part this food chain plays, and I suddenly totally lost my appetite. The mound was absolutely swarming with cockroaches. I don't know what it is about me and crawly bugs. I love frogs, toads, snakes, and lizards, unlike most girls, but I squash every bug I see. On the same d.v.d. they were also showing glowworms threading out their little sticky threads.....Ew! I don't want to be a girl about it but...I am. But on the other side, today while folding laundry we found a dried up frog that must have run through the wash in someone's pocket, and I wasn't scared or disgusted by him....we all have our limits! :)But isn't God's creation wonderful? I mean, even the bugs, I must admit, play a huge part in creation, and we'd be entirely lost without them. I once read a little rhyme by Ogden Nash that said,

"The Lord in His goodness made the fly

And then forgot to tell us why."

But have you ever stopped to consider that a fly really helps decompose stuff? I don't know...I'm trying to look on the bright side of "bug-dom"! :) So some other things that are going on are that we made strawberry goat's milk icecream! Yum! It is super good! It should have been though! We used 10 egg yolks in it! Also, Gracie decided to "adopt" a cucumber, and named it Alfred. I haven't the foggiest idea where she got that name, but...any-who! That's what's been going on in our life recently! Oh! Tomorrow we are going to have a whole family of girls and their mom spend the night, and we are going to watch "Wives and Daughters"! I am soooooo excited! YAY! When Mama asked Dad he thought about it a moment and said, 'It's free, and it's fun- Let's do it!" :) If you haven't yet, pretty please enter our movie quote contest below! :) -Rachel

And So We Part. (A whole 1/6 of a mile!!!)

Hey Everybody! As most of you read below, the Walkers have now moved into their mobile home! It is small, but new and cozy, and I think they'll love having their own space! ;) We have had so much fun together! Here are some of the things we learned to love and do together in a home of 21 people!

Take walks and scare each other in the dark
Put on crazy talent shows
Play midnight volleyball
The proper way to catch a goat
That 21 people really can fit together and live in harmony (mostly. The three yearolds got to eachother's nerves the last couple of weeks)
Stay up WAY too late laughing, and realizing that the Walker sense of humor runs scarily prevelant through us older Heff.s
That an additional older boy (Matthew) is handy as a "Go-fer", an escort, a polka and waltz partner, and for extra laughs
And many more things! I am not adventerous enough to try to link all these topics. Nevertheless, I have written about all of them (?) during the past 10 weeks, so take a look! :)
Here are some surprising calculations;
We have used 4,410 styrofoam plates during meal times, *ducks from enviromentalists*
Jeremiah has single-handedly (almost) washed 13,230 plastic cups
We have used 13,000 plastic utensils
We have drunk over 100 gallons of iced tea (we're southerners. Sorry!)
We have eaten app. 210 different meals together
We have run 490 loads of laundry, and we girls have hung up at least 245 of those loads.
We have collectively eaten 480 hotdogs during this time. (Okay. I didn't eat them every time we had them. But they feed hungry masses of boys pretty well. Now we can all go on a liver detox! ;)
We have bought enough groceries for 4,410 hungry people.

Sound crazy enough? :) Life's good! -Rachel

I Titled This "Untitled" :P

Hey People! ;) How is everything going? I hope you guys are having a great week! Church today was super small. (We missed you Wilson group! :) But it was good, and the last family is just leaving. Our goat, "Houdini" (who we miss-named "Daisy Sofia" ;) got out and it took about 15 of us to corral her back. She had run way back into the field across the street, and we were hoping against hope that she wouldn't get into the woods over there! Thank goodness, she didn't! (But she did narrowly escape getting hit by a car twice!) I got to hold the most fat and delicious baby today! He has cheeks that are absolutely huge, and a dimpled chin, and Sarah can't fit her fingers all the way around his leg! So I sat on the porch and rocked Little John (as I like to call him) and generally had a sweet time! The others played volleyball. I was going to, and began to, but it was bright and confusing and boring out there, so I chose a baby instead. :) He really is the fattest thing! Mr. T. calls him a "Tater bug", and I call him a "Baby Snapping-turtle". :) So tomorrow is Memorial Day! Please remember to pray for our troops, and the families of those who died in protecting our country!
The Wilsons are having their annual picnic! Yay! I am making a mixed-berry pie for the young ladies' pie-making contest. I wish I knew who the judges are..... :) Tomorrow marks two things: first, the anniversary of my snake bite, (Remember that Oliver? :) and the second, THE FIRST OFFICIAL DAY OF BAREFOOT SEASON!!!!!! (according to Dad's rules. We've done some black-market barefooting already! :) I am using way too many exclamation marks and smiley faces, but I am in a happy mood!!!!!!!!! :) :) :) (Okay. That is irritating me.) Sarah is probably going to make a chocolate pie for the contest. We are all looking forward to having a "Garrison Team" made of Walkers and us, to play volleyball! "Move over lil' people! The storm's comin'!"
I am also excited about the music and singing we can do! The Wilson's uncle, (and I hear their new helper: Collin) can play banjo, and we have a veritable orchestra of guitars and some pretty fine singers! Well, have a great day! -Rachel

Who Can Spell Mud? :)

Alright. Matthew has been bugging me to write this story on here so I will! ;) Saturday, Daniel, Matthew, Sarah, and I went to Lone Star Park to go hiking. Usually we go on the little trails back in the woods when we host church there sometimes. But that day the usual spot was closed. Having seen a sign for horse trails, we departed in that direction on foot. We first tried to get across into our favorite woods at the boat dock by hopping across some rubbery ground that was all cracked like towers. But Daniel, Matthew, and Sarah began sinking into the black goo so we gave that up. We continued on the gravel road. At each new little road we'd travel down it. One was only about 5 feet wide and went out as a dam in between two lakes. From what I could tell it was made of a bed of gravel and some wooden pallets. Very adventurous. But his led to nowhere unless we desired to tiptoe across a super thin metal wall. Uh-uh. Not a chance of that for us girls! :) There were still no more signs for the horse trails. We trudged on. Daniel tried to convince us girls and Matthew to go down a 15-20 foot perpendicular wall of dirt to the beach on the lake below. That didn't go over. "Matthew," I reasoned with him as he almost agreed to the wild prospect. "We all must die at some point, I know, but please live through this walk!" he just laughed and they abandoned the idea. Still we walked on. It seemed miles. "Where are the horse trails?" we wondered. We finally came to a lovely overlook and gazed into the cool blue water below longingly. We girls sat on a bench to rest. Daniel continued down the road without us. Seeing that there were no horse trails in the near vicinity, we called Daniel on his cell-phone and asked him to come back our way. "Come on back to us." I teased, "We'll be sitting here eating honeysuckle!" (The only form of liquid accesible to our parched tongues! ;) Sarah and I consumed a branch of honeysuckle each, and then Daniel joined us. On the way back down the road we met up with a park ranger. Daniel stopped him, and politely asked where the horse trails were. "Did you see a chain across the path?" he asked, eyeing us gruffly. I had the vague feeling that I personally had reputation as a renegade or an arsonist. I am sure I looked guilty, though perfectly innocent in reality. Turns out even if we had found the horse trails, they were "strictly for horses." Ho-hum. Way to ruin a long hot tramp! ;) But, determined to make some lemonade out of the lemons, we decided to go into some woods by ourselves, seeing a dock in the lake to one side of the path. Daniel charged through the underbrush, we girls in his wake, escorted by Matthew. As he helped us down a slippery hillside we heard a strange noise, seemingly coming from a den-like hole in the hill. Matthew and Sarah convinced themselves it was a bear. I was inclined to think it a bullfrog, but we never found out. We swung ourselves across a ditch, and tiptoed over the mud. It was one of those spots that feels like thin ice. Balance your weight the wrong way, and you'll plunge through. After being scared by numerous Spring Peepers catapulting into the water, we reached the dock. It was so rotten as to be quite dangerous for walking on. It was unanimously decided to return to the main road. Daniel made himself rather a "Legolas" and light-footed over the treacherous mud to the safe terrain on the opposite side. I followed. My leg promptly plunged through the crust up to my knee. I screamed, (almost gleefully. It felt good!) and Daniel yanked me out with a sturdy stick. It was Sarah's turn now. "But where do I walk?!?!" she wailed. Daniel grinned. "Just step where I did!" Well. I suppose Daniel must have weakened the ground, for no sooner did she take a step or two then both her legs plunged in. I helped drag her out, and mine up the shoe that was still stuck. Matthew made it over with a very narrow escape from the mire. There was still the poison ivy on the hill to brave. It felt rather like stepping over laser-beams to avoid triggering an alarm or something. We did a queer little dancing-thing through all the poison ivy (which I am not allergic to) and arrived at the road breathless and bedraggled. "Yuck!" Sarah cried, half in satisfaction an half in dismay, surveying her feet which were now uniformly covered in a layer of black, skunky-smelling mud. "Well, at least both my shoes match now." Daniel fumed about the poison ivy, but still admitted it had been fun. Matthew and I just laughed. "This will be something to blog about!" we both agreed. And so it was! We washed up in the lake and returned home without further incident. Voila. Our little muddy-saga. :)
-Rachel

In Which We Are Wanted In All 13 Colonies for Desertion

Hello! First off, I want to say that Sarah posted our 200th post yesterday! Happy Birthday-ish-sort-of-thingy! :)
Okay. It all began with the reading of a description in a book- a real description from the Revolutionary War about a deserter from the army. It ran something along the lines of "Is prone to say `I'll swear! I'll swear' and spits between his words." and other very random things like that. So today, while on our hands and knees grubbing carpet weeds out of the rows of corn, we incriminated eachother. I mean, what are we to do after singing songs and chatting generally for an hour? So I casually suggested this strange means of entertainment. I began by telling my cohorts about the above-mentioned description. Then I said, "So while we weed, why don't we describe each other?"
Perhaps because it was a good idea, (or more likely because of lack of something better to discuss :) the others agreed to the hare-brained proposition. I (Rachel) led off describing my dear and cheeky sister Sarah- "Wanted, or Missing: A young woman of middle height and stature- blonde hair, golden eyes. Dents nose when bested. (inside joke) When speaking of her witticisms and other's reactions to them is prone to say: "They were cracking up laughing".
Matthew took his turn with me next: "Wanted or Missing: Young lady of brown hair. Uses old English phrases like "Blast!" and "Heavens to Betsy!" and sometimes breaks into fits of craziness or witticisms."
Christopher and Leah did it to each other in turn, and Sarah did it to Matthew. By the end of the time, we had all become deserters of the Continental Army of America, and were wanted in all 13 colonies! ;) Anyway, that might sound a bit odd to you, but it certainly lent a novelty to our tedious row-vacuuming, and if it was "strange saying what" I "imagined" as Leah said, it was something out of the ordinary, and temporarily entertaining! :) Anyway, do we sound like inventive cousins, or do we sound like young lunatics? You decide! ;) -Rachel

Crawdads and Excuses

"You get a line,

I'll get a pole honey!

You get line,

I'll get a pole babe!

You get a line, I'll get a pole

And we'll go fishing in the crawdad hole

Honey, baby mine!"

This morning, ignoring the fact that it is raining, Anna, Leah, and Benjamin crept out of the house, careful not to be followed by everyone and their brother, and went crawdad fishing. Basically, the old gentleman at the feed store, a Mr. Udell Butler told Mama that those tall stacks of mud along the side of ditches are crawdad towers. They dig down in the earth and stop once they find water. I had always assumed that you would catch a crawdad in a creek. But Mr. Butler told us that you take a string, tie a piece of raw meat onto the end, and drop it down the hole. When you feel a tug, you yank the string back up, and in theory, you should have a crawdad. Unfortunately, those wee beasties simply eat the meat and drop off halfway like some natural claw-machine. (those ones that you pay out the nose to use at the grocery store and then it drops the ugly teddy bear right when it gets close to the hole! ;) Nontheless, after unlucky fishing yesterday, the kids went out again this morning and still didn't catch a thing. But Daniel is as excited as any Tom Sawyer to go out and try his luck. He says he is determined to catch one. And when Daniel is determined to do something, it generally works. Too bad he can't debate the crawdad out of his hole, or something equally logic-minded, for then he'd be sure to win! :)

The other day when Matthew was on a walk with me, and we had the two little girls, I was picking a glorious bouquet of swamp honeysuckle and ferns. I LOVE flowers! I fill my hands with them at any chance I get! I cannot thrive very well away from them. And I don't like the hothouse ones. I like the wild ones. Anyway, these ones smelled particularly good. Shame on me. A bit later, Matthew quite politely informed me that I had pollen all over my nose. Blast! I spend half my life with pollen on my nose, because where there are flowers, I must be, and where there are scented flowers, there's my nose, and where there is my nose, there ends up being pollen. Ho-hum. So I wrote this poem as an excuse.

"My Excuse"

By me!

"I have pollen on my nose

From the smelling of a rose

And the sniffing of the honeysuckle bloom.

And a yellow sort of dust

That is transferred on there just

`Cause I stopped to smell the rich perfume.

I was happy as a bee

Buzzing round the apple tree,

And I paused to take a sniff from every bud,

And I really couldn't care

That the branches pulled my hair--

That my toes were sinking quickly in the mud.

Yes, I'm brushed with powdered gold

In a fashion quaintly bold

From the smelling of the flowers in the lane.

And I know I am the type

That forgets her nose to wipe

So my dear, you must remind me o'er again!"

What do you think? -Rachel

Home-grown Talent Show.... :{

So, what is the newest amusement for us around here? What would you say to a talent (or rather, untalent) show? Yep. That is what we girls have been doing in some of our spare moments. It is really not as grand as it sounds- at all. We gather up the Walker girls and ourselves, and head out to the front lawn where everyone does whatever they can think to do.
Really! It is so much fun! I'll give you a peek into one of these shows...
Abby and Bethany stand up and blush, then argue about the words to the "Matchmaker" song. Finally, Bethany begins singing, but Abby stops her, and they start over. Stop again. Start again. Finally, I herd them off the stage and put on the next act: Anna and Emily singing some song. They forget the words and shrink back to their seats. Sarah and I give a despairing smile to the others as we realize that we'll have to carry the show. I get up there and recite "The Highwayman" in a fashion that would make Anne Shirley proud. Sarah and I sing "By the Light of The Moon" ala Fred and Ethel Mertz.
Then Gracie and Bekah get up there. Grace giggles while Bekah runs around singing "Mary Had a Little Lamb" at the top of her lungs. Literally, just those five words. She can't remember the rest. We shoo them off by politely clapping, and then I get back up in front of everyone and sing opera. :) Or at least, my version. It is composed of mostly imitating the lady in Anne of Green Gables, and finished with a warbling "O Promise Me" song, sung purposely to make the little girls crack up. At last we begin to try to be serious. Abby and Bethany take turns jump-roping for us. Then they do a "Virginia Reel" while either Sarah or I sing "The Maid That Sold Her Barley" for accompaniment. Leah may go shyly up and perform a little song, and Anna or Emily will try singing "Come Thou Fount", but get embarassed halfway and go sit down.
Sarah and I are at it again with "Carolina in the Morning" (with a dance) or "The Old Kent Road". Then, our girls sing "Be Thou My Vision" in three part harmony. The only people left to clap by this point are Bekah and Grace who have been yelling the whole way through.
I send Leah to bring the other girls back. We are finally all seated, and Sarah and I finish our little show with "Angel of Music" from "The Phantom of The Opera".
By the end we aren't sure if we have any talent, but we have had fun and have spent a profitable 1/2 hour spending time with each other! -Rachel

Several Things. Just Come Read Them.

Hey guys! I had such fun doing the last post! Who would have thought that I'd be correct on most of the ones! (At least, the people that answered!) We may have to change our background for Mr. Alexander who feels he cannot be caught reading a blog decked out in flowers! ;)
Thanks for telling me if I was right or not! I really just guessed random things about each person, though for a couple like Anna's, it was an educated guess. (She takes such great pictures)
Okay. So. Does anyone, at some point, want to read the plot of my mystery novel I had been writing? I am under a solemn oath to finish it for Sarah, Daniel, and Alaina, but haven't picked it back up.
Yesterday after church, the new time got the better of us, and three families stayed till 7:00!! Gasp! We had alot of fun though! We did some Civil War dances, and the Virginia Reel. (All without music mind you!) I am afraid it was more like gallumphing than dancing!
Okay. So here is the verse the Lord showed me last night to take to heart for the week:

Psalm 27:13-14 " I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord. Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord!"

I just loved the victorious sound of those words, and the promise that goes with them. Isn't that what we all want? For Jesus to strengthen our hearts? That is what I want. And that is what my Lord has promised me! -Rachel

Greetings from Niskayuna!!!

Hey guys! This is Rachel and Sarah here in NY! Sorry we can't post pictures right now, but this isn't our computer and we don't have the right camera...etc. hopefully pictures to come when we get home! Okay! So anyway, the flights went uneventfully Friday. I (Rach) sat with Matthew and a guy who had an awful cough (a nice rendevouz with Germ-Ex ensued) and another guy who looked precisely like Despereaux Tilling's dad. Strange that I see people oddly. Friday night we went to a NY cousin's basketball game at a Christian school. They won. We stayed up late watching the opening ceremony of the Olympics. The next morning we slept in and didn't eat breakfast till 11:30. Yikes! That messes me up. Sarah and I successfully survived a guitar store with all sorts of strange spiky guys wearing nails and black and red clothes, and piercings all over. (We hid in the acoustic room which felt like a rainforest it was so humid.) There we all met an elderly man named "Roger" who showed a very..... interesting... song he had written! We stayed up late again talking and watching the Olympics! USA did really well in the women's mogul! Sarah is gonna tell you about today! We missed everyone and our family at church! :( :( :(

Hey Mama and everyone at home by the way! Did you get my message this morning! Sarah is fussing at me so I'd better go! ;)

Hello!! We've had a great weekend as Rachel has already explained. So today we woke up, ate, got ready and went to Grace Fellowship(the laundry fairies' church) and that was really good. They have a nice worship band and the speaker was good, too. Afterwards, we went to a local Italian bakery called Bella Napoli and bought some delicious pastries. Matthew and I got Triple Chocolate Mousse cake!!!! I still have a bit of it left, after 2 servings, but Matthew ate all of his in one sitting!;)

We came home and played Scattergories, and then ate lunch. Then we went to Saratoga Springs to walk around the old part of downtown and go to the military museum. On our way we saw the Mohawk River all jammed up with ice that had broken apart up river in the thaw, and made it's way down, to get frozen, yet again. It was really interesting to see. So the museum had displays on New Yorks participation in the 4 bigger wars. It's always fun to learn more about those times.

Well, Matthew needs to post as well, so I should probably wrap it up! I hope everyone had a good time at church today! See you soon!

-Sarah

p.s. We got really great hot chocolate at Borders, and I chose my souvenier from this trip: two books. I am a renowned bookworm! I bought Ivanhoe, (an awesome book!!!) and "When We Were Very Young" by A.A. Milne. It is a hilarious collection of his poetry! Sarah bought "Rose In Bloom" (Alcott) and a Jane Austen trivia book. Watch out Thompsons, here we come! :)

-Rachel

"I Am Blanking Out On A Title For This Post "

Dear Blogging People: How are you?
By the way, does anyone else have trouble finding ways to open up a post? I do not seem quite able to master the art of an enthralling first word. Maybe if I started out something like, "It was a dark and stormy night..." and the rest would soon follow, "and Rachel sat typing at the keyboard." Not gonna cut it is it? Here is something that you will soon hear about if you talk with me about poetry: I do not in any way, shape or form like un-rhyming poetry. (generally.) That being said, I shall post a couple of poems that Sarah and I made up simply to disgust ourselves by pretending to be Mr. Carl Sandburg who is characterized by calling fog "cat feet" and all a manner of other things strange:

"The jaguar moves on silent feet-
Velvety feet through the jungle.
Where is he going?
Only he knows.
On velvet feet he steps across a log--
A dead, moss-covered log.
Startling a bird
He pauses- velvet
Paw held in the air.
Dark mists hide
Him
Where is he going?
Only his velvet feet know."

Now, if that weren't disgusting enough, here's one more:

"Drifting in endless columns
From the
Chimney where it came,
Choking columns float toward the sun,
Like a form of night,
Paled by the sun.
Gray smoke cloaks the
Lone pine from
My watching eyes.
I think- what is
Smoke?
A nightmare in
cloud-form?
A rain-cloud gone
Astray or perhaps
Just the cloud rising from
The logs on the
Hearth. I wonder, and
Watch the lone pine
Disappear in the
Smoke."

Okay. Bear with me. We were laughing so hard because people get famous from writing stuff like that. Who can call such things poetry? I am incredulous at some of those sorts of things. They are the most boring scribblings in the world I think. Here is a rhyming poem that I wrote about the subject:

"Analogies"

Like a truffle without chocolate

Like an apple without peel,

Like a mouth without a smile

Like a letter without seal,

Like a ring without a diamond

Like a watch without the time,

Like a fountain without water

Is a poem without rhyme.

Okay. And just for you Joanna, (and someone better comment or I'll never post poetry again) here is the one about our forest in the snow:

"Snow Lace"

The finest kind of lace I know

Is what the trees wear in the snow:

Their barren arms are covered quite

With snowy lace of dazzling white,

And glad I am to finally see

Them traced in silver-filigree.

The trimming on a wedding dress

May never fail you to impress.

And yet, a costly bridal veil

Beside the snow is coarse and pale.

More shimm'ring than the milk-weed down

Can be the greenwood's marriage gown--

And lo, the roots are even shod

In lace spun by Almighty God.

Okay. Hope you enjoyed that someone. And please believe me when I say that Sarah and I do not think the first two poems were good! They are impeccably revolting! :) -Rachel

Aaahhhhh, SNOW!!!!!!!!!

This is sweet little Gracie in her first snow (or at least that she remembers:)

Here we are enjoying the snow time.

Here are some tracks we found. I wonder what they belong to?;)

What shall I say except that hoped for and delightful word: SNOW!!!!

Yep. That's right! We have 4 inches on the ground right now and it hasn't stopped snowing. We figure it's been getting an inch deeper every hour or so!!! This morning I was awakened by delighted screams of the younger ones as they looked out the windows to see if "the bald weatherman" ;) was right!!! We had set out our snow gear last night and got all bundled up right away. Rachel and I played around as if we were children frolicking and romping in the snow. It's a very dry snow, which isn't that good for snowman and balls, but we still find ways to get each other thoroughly covered in that fluffy white stuff! We had a little trouble finding the newspaper for Grandma June at the end of the driveway. But hey! What can be better than coming into the warm house, shedding your snowy clothes after romping around for 45 minutes, and getting a steamy mug of homemade hot cocoa???!! Well, I should go now, because everybody else is having a snowball fight and I can't miss any of the fun!!! I hope everybody else is having as much fun as we are!!!

-Sarah

I Spy Something White and Fluffy and 12 Inches Deep! (I hope)

Hey guys! You already know the thought first and foremost on our family's mind today! (SNOW!!!!) Yes, finally, us poor Southeastern Virginians will get snow! They are saying the most we've had since 1989! Whoopie-doodle! I will echo Daniel and Abigail's sentiments that I am looking forward to being childish and undignified! I will play with the rest of them and sled with the best of them, and generally act much younger than my 17 years. Snow! Snow! Glorious, fluffy, white, snow! I am quite giddy as you can see! There is really nothing quite as white as snow! Aren't you glad that Jesus makes us as white as the whitest sort of snowfall you've ever seen? I certainly am! "Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow"
When it comes to rare snow, I am not at all a Robert Frost who wants to quietly watch his neighbor's woods fill up with snow with his little pony who thinks he's strange. So, what sort of things do I look forward to in the snow? Let me tell you: Iceskating crazily with the girls on puddles, plunging through and getting muddy, seeing a spot that is totally innocent of footprints, and after thinking about how awful it is to mess it up, purposly plunge my feet into it and make a snow angel, playing fox and geese with a freshly tramped wagon-wheel shape, making a snowman that is round for pity's sake, getting at least one snowball in my face, and having a grand snowball fight with Daniel who always wins, stripping off my wet outdoor accoutrements and tossing them in the drier to dry while I thaw by the woodstove and drink hot cocoa, making ginger cookies that warm you from the inside out with their spicy goodness, cuddling up with a thick old volume of the next three Scarlet Pimpernel books, (pure bliss!) writing a letter in reply to someone elses (if I receive any letters today) guessing what animals make tracks in the snow and where they lead, everyone having extra-rosy cheeks, thinking about how I wish I could be sledding on our old hill, but having lots of fun just the same, watching a movie as a family, and last of all, winkling Daniel into taking a moonlight-snowy walk with me, and enjoying a world transformed by both! (pretty please dearie Daniel? :)
Well, gotta go make lunch, and believe me, I will be on a rampage tomorrow and the weathermen shall know the chill, cruel wrath of Rachel on their little bald heads if they are wrong and the ground is just frozen and bleak tomorrow! I am getting worked up already! I might have to temporarily label them "Provoking toads" if they are wrong! (just kidding! I wouldn't say that to any person.... I might think it for a split second though!) -Rachel

p.s. the picture above is NOT our house:) Just some clip art. -Sarah