I bought a belt...

...a belt for one of our lawnmowers, that is. I purchased it in town, before heading to work at the nursing home, and that was about the most interesting part of this day!

The only other thing of interest I can think of off hand is that Mom and I picked all our chamomile this morning and plan to dry it down and then mail it to her brother for his birthday present, as he's turning 60 years old in just a couple days and he LOVES chamomile tea. :)

Outside of that, we all worked and now we're tired and ready for sleeping (actually, some of us are already doing that very thing.)

If you all would pray for my dad, that would be great, as he has a really bad backache now and bouncing around in the tractors all day long really does not help matters any! Thank you so much. Please let me know how I can pray for you/your family too... ~

Oh, there was one more interesting matter I just remembered, that being that we learned our 2nd cousin, Hristiyan just started his own blog. You can visit him at "Man of Camo." Enjoy~

My brother inspired me...

It's been so long since I've done a poll on my blog that I'd forgotten about them. That is, I'd forgotten until I saw my brother Jacob's poll on his blog. I thought it would be fun to see where the majority of the people who read my blog are from, so please "Vote" sometime in the following week.

Another thing I've not thought of doing in a while is a mystery picture. What's your opinion? Should I post mystery pictures more often? Do you enjoy guessing them?

How about recipes? Would you like to see more of those?

Or poems?

Or humorous tidbits that come in e-mails?

Or pictures of our home life?

Or, do you have other suggestions?

Thinking,
~Cora

Hooray and hooray!

I just got back from working in town and see that my brother, Andrew has posted, so I have decided to direct you to his blog for an update on things around here (that's one hooray). Then I saw that my mom has posted about their flight and their first day in San Bruno, (that's the second hooray!) and you can read that here. They weren't able to go on the whale-seeing tour today, as there was a bad storm that came up, but they did find many other interesting things to do--things of which I will let Mother tell you about as she has time, as she has the pictures. :)

And next on the agenda for the day: Get some sleep! Hooray (for the third time...)

Guess...?

Something BIG (for the farm) came on a delivery truck yesterday.

Want to guess what it was?

Here's a little clue: It's mostly red, but has some black on it too.


~Also:

Do you love animals--especially goats?
Do you like pictures of animals?
Do you appreciate homeschooling?
And...
Do you also like blond haired young people?

Well, then you'll want to visit our neighbor girl, Olivia's new blog:
http://livsfarm-olivia.blogspot.com!
Please skip on over there and leave her a comment to say "HI". I know she'd love hearing from you. :)

Last day~

This is the last day of my giveaway, so there's still time to enter! Just scroll down aways until you see the post about my "Blogiversary" and leave a comment there if you'd like to have your name in the hat. :)

My 300th post!

I was so surprised to see, upon logging in to my account here, that this is my 300th post!!! It sure doesn't seem like I've posted that many times, but I'm sure the computer's kept better track than I have over the last 7 months... I feel so blessed to have met so many new friends through blogging already (and to be able to keep up with what former friends are up to..) and look forward to getting to know you all better in the days, weeks, months and years ahead!

One of the results of one of my blogging friendships is that I've learned how to make Mozzarella cheese! (Thank you Grace for all of your helpful advice, pictures, and for your recipe...) I made my second batch of cheese today and it turned out MUCH better than the first batch I made. I was so excited!!! It's so nice to be able to make a cheese that melts. I put most of this:

...on the homemade pizza I made for the guys' supper tonight and it browned really nicely. I did save a little cheese back though so that, come Sunday (when Mom and I get off of the Master Cleanse,) I can taste some. :)

Another of my projects today was to make 3 batches of ice cream from the cream we separated the other day. We won't be eating it until Jacobs' birthday (Nov. 5th) and the boys' birthday party (Nov. 14th), but I wanted to make it and get it in the freezer now before the cream soured...

Most of my afternoon was spent in changing my summer and winter clothes around--always a big project... Mother did hers the other day, so now we can focus on the guys' things next...

Speaking of the guys, Jacob was busy with schoolwork today, but Dad and Andrew worked on cleaning out the lot across the road and spreading the "Fertilizer" on the old alfalfa field--the one that someone here will be breaking come Springtime. It is so nice to have 2 spreaders that work now--and 2 fellows to run them!

As I close post #300, I thought I'd share a poem I found just now... When I read it, I realized how it happened that I reached this numerical obtainment: Just by posting one post at a time!

ONE BY ONE

"One step and then another,

And the longest walk is ended;

One stitch and then another,

And the largest rent is mended.

One brick upon another,

And the highest wall is made;

One flake upon another,

And the deepest snow is laid.

Then do not look disheartened

On the work you have to do,

And say that such a mighty task

You never can get through;

But just endeavor day by day

Another point to gain,

And soon the mountain which you feared

Will prove to be a plain."

May all your mountains prove to be plains--with God's help on the journey, of course!

Lovely blogs~

Two sisters recently started leaving comments here and, as I enjoy reading their blogs, I thought I'd point them out to you so that you may enjoy them too. :)

Meet Grace here: http://marillahillbilly.blogspot.com/

& Hannah here: http://upnorthhannah.blogspot.com/.

Enjoy~

More friends blogging...

Within the last week or so, two friends of our family have started up their own blogs! I thought I'd share the links here so that you can "Meet" them too. :)

Visit our neighbor, Tamera's blog at: http://tamerasvanes.blogspot.com/

and visit our friend, Kimberly's blog at: http://kimberly-quietmysoul.blogspot.com/.

It is so neat to be able to go to your blogs, ladies and see what's happening in your lives now!!! Keep up the good work...

New blogs~

Since I've started blogging (tomorrow it will be a whole month!), I've added 4 people to my Favorite-Blogs-list who have now started their own blogs... I'm sure they'd love it if you'd pay them a visit!
Meet~
My brother, Jacob at: http://underhiswings-jacob.blogspot.com/. He posted an interesting video yesterday about fishing--using a rather unusual method...;
My cousin, Tessa at: http://ligonfamilyx5.blogspot.com/, who enjoys writing about her life with her husband and 3 boys;
My cousin, Kylie at: http://kyliesueb.blogspot.com/, who is exactly 40 days older than me and is a real sweetheart; :)
and my cousin, Raine at: http://raineree.blogspot.com/, who has lots of "Interesting" things happen to her...

Mom and I are almost done with the thank-you notes and were amazed at the realization that last week at this time, we were just glad to be getting Andrew's graduation invitations finished up. We had no idea at that time that we'd be writing funeral-thank-yous out this week... Remember to treasure your loved ones today!

~On the twelfth day of blogging....~

~On-the-twelfth-day-of-blogging, my-conscience-said-to-me,


"Will you keep on blogging???


Praise God for his gift,


This is the life!


You almost missed posting...


Wow, what a sunburn!


You've got to hurry,


Post something practical...


You--are--so--blessed!


Will you share God's peace?


Can you share God's joy?


Are you waisting time,


And can you blog-and do it hum-bl-y?"


This is my 12th-day-of-blogging anniversary, you know. Hooray! What do you think...? Should I continue blogging?

In honor of this special day, I thought I'd post another variation of "The 12 days of Christmas" that our family enjoys and that inspired me in my posting here... This little video is about common questions that get asked of a home-schooler. If you home school or were home schooled, I think you'll really like this, and if you aren't familiar with home schooling, perhaps this will help to answer some of your questions and concerns? I really enjoyed being home schooled and, if I'm ever blessed with a family of my own, I'd like to home school my children too. Here is the movie:

By the way, thanks to everyone who voted on cheesecake toppings! It looks like cherries took the lead, with "Other" coming in close behind. Now I'm curious, what else do people put on cheesecake? Strawberries, peaches, caramel??? One of my brothers tried putting peanut butter on top, but informed us that it was better without!

Well, I'd best get the day started. I hear my dad started the tractor already....