Chores and Creek Fun

Well, last night at 10:45 or so I decided it was too late to put together a post. So today is a mishmosh of yesterday's and today's pictures.

Our oregano plant is currently blooming, and the bumblebees seem to be loving it! See the pollen pouch on his leg? There is more coating the inside of at least one of his other legs, too, but I couldn't get a picture of it.

When I went out to take some pictures last night, I caught the boys mid-chore time, so here are a couple pictures of that. They have a lot of birds; I'm not sure anymore exactly how many, but there are a lot out there!

Little sis helped with chores, too.

We currently have hollyhocks blooming!

This evening, they wanted to show me their dugouts in the clay mound in one corner of our property, so I got a couple pictures of that.

I didn't go inside--he asked for the camera. Reminds me of the pictures of Jesus' tomb.

Then we migrated to the creek, where big brother took little sis boating, and one of the other brothers took the dare to try to ride his bike across a 2×4 across the creek. The results were hilarious!

Surprisingly, he didn't actually get very wet!

Later, Mom was picking peas for a friend, and little sis decided she needed a pea as well. The problem was that she couldn't get it to come off the vine! Problem solved: eat pea while still attached to the vine!

We have hebe (?) flowers around our place, too--so pretty!

How was your day?
–Esther

Sunflowers and a Flooded Creek

I put this together last night, but decided to wait until this morning to post it because it was getting late.

We got about 1 ¼ in. rain overnight; praise the Lord! We sure need it. The creek has now risen—apparently higher than it has been in the past.

This morning, Mom informed me that there was a very upset turkey outside. I went to take a picture, and discovered the poor fellow sitting on the turkey’s usual night roost, in the rain, making pitiful sounds. Yet he wouldn’t jump off to go join the other turkeys and get under shelter! Silly thing.

This is a cone flower, I believe—isn’t it pretty?

One of my brothers has several sunflower plants growing in his garden—they are beautiful! And the bumblebees sure seem to like them!

As I said earlier, the creek is pretty high. Usually there is 2–2 ½ ft. of space between the bottom of the wooden bridge and the creek bed. Can you see the spurt of water coming out from the pipe that goes through the boys’ dam? We’ll be watering the garden with the water behind the dam.

The boys had fun showing me how deep it was, exclaiming at the cold, and then continuing to wade!

The boys have made dugouts in the clay bank here, and currently they’re working on improving the drainage, so their dugouts don’t get quite so much water trapped inside when it rains!

How has your day been?
–Esther

Rain and Blessing

I had a bit of a rough start this morning, but praise the Lord He got me through, and this afternoon I was able to get quite a bit done in a too-long neglected science textbook that I really enjoy! This evening, I suddenly remembered the photo challenge, and so I went out to snap a couple pictures. It was still raining, and I enjoyed the challenge of trying to catch pictures of the raindrops.

The pear tree is loaded this year. I don’t remember eating these pears last year, so hopefully they’ll be good!

The lilies are beautiful this year. I keep trying to get pictures of them, but it’s proving to be difficult. This one ended up okay, though. We have yellow ones as well, and perhaps some white ones—but I prefer these pinky red ones!

I’m sure I should be able to remember the name for these flowers, but I can’t. In the rain, they’re even more beautiful with their pale lavender color!

I’ll close with a favorite passage of mine, from Psalm 145:

“The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that be bowed down. The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.” — Psalm 145:14–16 (emphasis mine; the rest of the chapter is beautiful, too—the Lord is so good to us!)

How has your day treated you? Got a lot done?

– Esther

Outing With My Brothers

Last week, some friends came up to spend the day—a rare treat! I decided to take them out to have fish ‘n chips, and since I really enjoyed the food, and realized it wasn’t all that expensive, I decided to take my little brothers out as well eventually.

So we did that today, and they seemed to enjoy their time immensely. Afterward, we played tag and other games on the local school playground until they were ready to head home.

On the way home, one of the boys who is currently collecting old discarded cans to melt down and turn into aluminum ingots found lots of cans on the roadside. He had fun smashing them and adding them to the ever-growing stash in his arms. Eventually he got too many, so he gave some to his younger brothers.

As we were nearing our road, out came my oldest brother carrying little sister. He was headed to town to get some vinegar for Mom—we often walk in, since it’s only a 5–10 min. walk. We all enjoy walking, and apparently baby sis really enjoys going into town, too!

The second youngest boy gave me a twig of roses this morning! I didn’t have time to find something to put it in before we left, so they’re looking a bit sad now. They’re still very pretty!

How is your day treating you?

-Esther

Flower and Bible Study Thoughts

I decided to give myself a little challenge this week: Take a picture each day of something, and share it on this blog. I’m trying to go with the theme “beauty”, but seeing as there aren’t many flowers blooming right now I think I’ll have to get creative.

This is currently blooming outside my house—isn’t it beautiful!

I was reading in Genesis 38 – 40 this morning, and had an interesting time comparing Judah’s response to Tamar and Joseph’s response to Potiphar’s wife. Judah and Joseph were both raised by the same man, and both had the chance to learn all they needed to learn about God from him.

Yet when faced with temptation, Judah accepted and Joseph refused. Judah had nothing to lose by refusing, but Joseph had a job—possibly even his life!—to lose by refusing. Also, Joseph said “how can I do this and sin against God?”—not even counting in how he’d be sinning against Potiphar, Potiphar’s wife, or his own conscience! Obviously, he loved and wanted to serve God with everything.

Yesterday at church Dad was sharing about the new year, and mentioned how the new year is like a field of fresh snow. We all have to walk in it, but we must choose how we will step—and every step will show. Joseph, obviously, chose to walk with pure steps, even though the cost was high.

In closing, here’s a beautiful verse from Proverbs that could easily apply to Joseph’s story.

“Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.” — Proverbs 30:5

Where have you been reading in the Word lately?

-Esther

Plum Picking

One of our family traditions is to pick whatever’s currently ripe on Sunday afternoons on the way home from church. Since we’re nearing the end of January, some of the plum trees are already done—we missed the first trees due to cherry picking and overall busyness, but today we had our first major plum picking!



It’s always fun to get outside and work together to strip a tree, especially remembering that we will enjoy these plums come winter!







Little sister stayed in the van for a while, so we could pick without having to always chase her off the road. After several of us picked ourselves out of a job, we took turns watching her.



The hills in the distance were gorgeous—pictures can’t do them justice.



I had a cicada land on me! Sadly, I wasn’t able to see it very well because it was on my back, but it did serenade me for a little bit.



There were some wild mint plants growing beside the roadside—so pretty!



What do your Sunday afternoons usually look like?

-Esther