Update on the Trailblazing

We've managed to spend some more time trying to tame our part of nature. We cut down an additional 40 - 50 trees, most pretty small, cleared some more briars, and have begun raking up the decades of leaves in varying degrees of decompostion. Hopefully, we'll get a couple more rounds in before growing season kicks into gear and the briars and undergrowth start fighting back.
Things we have left to do before the end of April: Cut up and burn all those trees, take a dozen or so trips to the landfill to get rid of the briars and other brush we don't want to burn, get all those annoying little stumps ground up so kids can run free without impaling themselves (never a good thing).

Wish us luck! Or better yet, let us know a weekend you'll be sitting around wishing you had something to.

We have snow in NC!!!!!

Okay, it's snow but not the kind you are thinking of - but to the kids it was snow. Today's forecast was cold and rainy so what is a mom to do? Playdate time!! We invited the Forwards over for a visit. The kids had a great time playing in the castle (thanks Jenny) and soon wanted a boat. Creativity of mothers around me rubbed off and before you know it I found a box for the kids to sit in. Only later would I realized that I had not thought things through carefully.

Here's the boat for the kids to sit in. Looks so innocent right!?!

Here's Judah pushing the boat or trying to with all the weight.

Here's where it started to "SNOW". The bottom of the box was covered in white foam that if little kids tore off would breakdown into hundreds of little white pieces of snow. Of course the kids discovered that small detail that mommy didn't notice and began to screaming it's snowing as they threw hundreds of little pieces of snow all over the place. Here are the wonderful pictures.

Here's the aftermath which demolished the boat and took me 45 minutes to clean my house. Kids had it from one end to the other and all over themselves. Too funny and what a wonderful rainy day.

2008 Going Great

Man we are off to a great start for 2008. Each year Paul and I set out goals that we want to accomplish for the year - financial, personal, spiritual and homefront. So far we have spent the last 3 weekends (the first 3 in 08) working on the homefront goals. Usually that's the set of goals which we never complete. We've worked on the other goals too it's just the homefront never gets done. Anyway below are the pictures of what we've done thus far.

Goal: To claim our land. Only 2/3 of our land was cleared when building our house. The remaining portion was left wooded. Somewhere at the back of our lot was our creek. Not a big one but a creek nonetheless. This was a 2007 goal never accomplished. We only made a path in 07. This year we've spent 2 Saturdays clearing land and one Saturday I spent 7 hours burning all that we cleared. We had a blast. Of course I have to thank my wonderful husband for building me my fire pit. Not sure how many women out there want a fire pit but I was one of them.

Before pictures

After pictures

My Firepit

Our Creek that we cleaned

Today's project was to get rid of the popcorn ceiling in our master bedroom. We were expecting snow and sleet so we thought it was a good inside project. We expected it to take 2 days but got the whole thing done in 1. Way to go Jenkins family.

Before pictures

After pictures

Please pray!!

I'm asking everyone to please pray for this family that we've never met. In some ways Paul and I feel so connected to them in what they are going through b/c of what we went through with Judah.

The short story [copied from other blogs] is Tricia was born w/Cystic Fibrosis & has spent her life in & out of hospitals. Lately she's gotten worse and needed to be placed on the double lung transplant list. Instead Tricia and Nate find themselves pregnant and chose not to abort but to put their trust in God (sound familiar anyone). Anyway, Tricia ended up having her daughter at 24 weeks (I think). This family needs our prayer for Tricia, the mom, so she can get better and have her lung transplant and Gwyneth, the daugther, b/c she's a premie. Check out Nate's websit for details. CFHusband.Blogspot.Com

The Quilt/Comforter is Done!!!!!

Hooray the comforter is done! Last Saturday Brandy helped me bind what I thought was a quilt but understood later to be a comforter. I apparantly had WAY too much batting to qualify it to be a quilt. We spent lots of hours trying to fit my "quilt" slash comforter under Brandy's awesome sewing machine (I'm so jealous of her machine). Anyway, Rebekah loves the end result. Below is the work in progress and the finished product. Please ignore the hair as it was a long day for Brandy and I. A big thanks to Dana and Brandy for their time, advice and help.

The Leaves have Fallen

We waited forever for the weather to change and the leaves to drop. Finally the day came where it was time...... to JUMP in the leaves that Daddy raked.














In the end Mommy and Daddy all jumped in the leaves together.

Christmas came early for the Jenkins

Well Christmas came early at our house. The kittens came home today. They are now ours to keep. Judah and Rebekah were even counting the days down until they arrived. Look how cute they are.

The first picture is Anastasia. The second and third are of Ariel. Yes we did have one named Hercules but he died so we adopted Ariel instead.

The Quilt is going

I know you guys have all been waiting to see how I'm doing on Rebekah's quilt so here goes. I know I'm behind due to work deadlines but I've made HUGE progress this weekend. Here is a picture of the first row and another one of the first 4 rows - not too bad. Only 1 more row to go and then sew the rows together.

Trick or Treat

It's that time of year again, and while Judah was a little under the weather before the main event, he pulled it together in time to grab some loot.

State Fair

Of course it's that time of year again - the State Fair. This was a fun year for me (Angela) b/c Judah wanted to ride ALL the fun and scary rides. In fact we had to hold him back on a few that I thought would scare him. Our daredevil of a child named Rebekah turned out to be the one afraid. Wonder where she gets that from hmmmmmm. Here are some of our pictures.