The sunshine room...

Have you ever heard of Dr. Mercola's Sunsplash tanning machine(s)? Well, my Mom has read a lot about the health benefits of them (you can get Vit. D in the Winter months too and stay happy and healthy!) and decided a couple months ago (when she'd saved up her money!) to order 2 of the standing machines: 1 for here at home for us all to use if we so desire and 1 for up in the room she's renting that she used to have her office in. (It's just across the hall from her current office.)



Our guys mounted 1 of the units a while back, but not many people have used it yet, as the room isn't really set up...



(The sign in the hallway window. :) )

We frequently find good deals on BisManOnline and yesterday, my dad found a really good buy on some used office cubicles. They ended up being located only a few blocks away from where my mom's office is, so we didn't even have to haul them very far.



Today, while Mom was doing sessions in the other room, the fellas and I assembled about half of the pieces of "Wall" to make a separate area in the back of the room for people to use the SunSplash in. We're not sure what we'll use the rest of the material for...?



Several of the pieces are very tall!



Dad, holding the wall section in place while Andrew Alan-wrenches it together. :)

And TA-DAAA~

This picture:

...reminds me of THIS SONG!

Here is a picture of Mother in her office with the portable wall we built in the background. This side of the wall is the waiting room side and the other side is where she does her BT sessions. There is a really pretty cream colored rose pattern on the other side, but I didn't get a picture of that today for some reason....

While Mom was busy with clients, the rest of us ran all over town doing errands. We went to the library for a while; Dad got some tax forums; the guys wanted to stop at Precision Small Engines to check on how much a new motor for our big lawn mower would cost (and it costs WAY too much, so they'll look at getting a used one!); we went to NAPA for some parts; also to another mechanical sort of place that I can't remember the name of right now; the guys took me to KT Animal Supply so I could buy 5 fish for my aquarium; we went to an auto sales/workshop place so Andrew could ask advice for some pickup problems he was having, which proved to just be a bad design on the part of Dodge; Dad met up with a guy named Dave (another BisMan deal) and bought a stronger compressor for the shop air compressor (is that what it's called, guys?); we went to Sams for a few items; also to Staples for labels for our grains; and then we picked Mom back up and she took us out to the Texas Roadhouse for supper, as she'd been wanting to do that for a few months now as a thank you for what we've done to help her get her office set up. We were all SO FULL when we left there, and yet, when we got home and Mom was washing up for milking, I began to think of what I should make for supper, as it's just such a habit to do so. :)

That was our busy day! I hope you all had a productive 24 hours as well.

A giveaway--and choir music...

I wanted to let my readers know of a blog giveaway that a relatively new friend of mine is doing over at her blog, "Girlish Musings". She is giving away a very cute apron that she sewed--an apron with a beautiful bow! You can visit her blog HERE and enter for a chance to win, but you'll have to hurry, as the drawing ends in just a couple days...

A package came in the mail today, a package containing music for 2 songs that are going to be sung by home school students/young adults at the home school convention in March. Andrew will be the only young person in our family who's able to participate, as he and my mom are planning to leave a day earlier than the rest of us to take in the events of Thursday, and then he'll be able to practice with the other members of the choir. I saw this cute video of a song my brothers and I grew up listening to on "WeKids", and as it also has something to do with a choir, I thought I'd post it here...

On second thought, HERE is a link to the song, seeing as my computer won't let me post it for some reason.

My dad drove over to our hayfields by Hazelton to get a sample of our Organic alfalfa hay this afternoon. He will mail the samples to a place where they test the quality of hay, then we will know what we have to work with. My dad has talked to a potential buyer already, an Amish man whom another Organic farmer friend of ours recommended. How exciting this will be if it all works out---our dream of selling Organic hay will finally come true!

Dad has also talked to buyers for grains and has sold some of our corn and wheat recently. Our goal is to sell directly to consumers, but until we are all set up and have enough people buying from us, we need to sell our grains to the "Middle men".......

I have more I could write, but it's getting late and I must get up earlier than usual to milk the goats tomorrow morning, as we have plans for an outing tomorrow. :)

Home again...

I just got home from working in town again and am glad to have 2 whole days at home ahead of me! :)

Not much happened around here this morning before I left. Mom went to Bismarck, and Jacob got his entry (for the Teen Safety Driving video contest) ready for me to mail in town. That's about all I know of the day here, as everyone else is in bed sleeping already.......... I think I'll join them!

Delicious blueberry muffins!

The original recipe is called "To die for blueberry muffins", but as I don't think any food is worth dying for, I'll just call them Delicious Blueberry muffins. :)


Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar (or half this amount honey)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 cup fresh blueberries
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup butter, cubed
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions:
1.Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.
2.Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.
3.To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking. (NOTE: If your muffin tins are regular sized, like ours, then you can just 3/4 the topping recipe and still have plenty!)
4.Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

Serve with butter for a wonderful treat!

I baked a double batch of these muffins this morning before heading for work in town and was glad to see a few left when I returned. ;)

My dad just got home too, as he was over by Linton, helping an Organic farming friend of ours load up the 3 semis that came this evening for the farmers' organic oats.

Have a good nights sleep and, to all my Northern friends, stay warm!

Who said they would do it???

(Another tidbit that I found while cleaning... I receited this somewhat confusing story as a young girl of 8 or 9 at the home school convention and have remembered it ever since. :) )

This is a story about 4 people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.

There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because, after all, it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Anybody wouldn't do it.

SO, it ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done!

Redneck medical terms...

I found the following while cleaning house yesterday and thought I'd share it here to hopefully bring a smile to your face, even though, I know, it's quite silly! :)

Artery.............the study of paintings
Benign.............what you be after you be eight
Bacteria...........back door to cafeteria
Barium............what doctors do when patients die
Cesarean section........a neighborhood in Rome
Catscan............searching for kitty
Cauterize........made eye contact with her
Colic................a sheep dog
Coma..............a punctuation mark
Fester.............quicker than someone else
Fibula.............a small lie (is there such a thing?)
Hangnail........what you hang your coat on
Labor pain............getting hurt at work
Medical staff........a doctor's cane
Morbid..........a higher offer than I bid
Nitrates.........cheaper than day rates
Node..............I knew it!
Outpatient..........a person who has fainted
Recovery room.........a place to do upholstery
Seizure..........Roman emperor
Tablet............small table
Terminal illness........getting sick at the airport
Tumor............more than one
Varicose.........near by/close by

There's your lesson in medical terms for the day.

Have a great week!

2011 Home school day at the capitol...

We had a truly wonderful time at the capitol yesterday, spending time with our legislators; some of us took the tour of the capitol; and we all visited with old friends and even made some new ones!

The following picture is of our friend of many years, Jackie (we used to get together for field trips and support group meetings when we lived over by Linton). She could not believe how tall and "Old" Jacob was and asked him to prove that he could drive by showing her his permit. :) She's a busy home school mother of 5 boys...

Here, Jacob was about to show the 30 second video he made for the ND Teen Traffic Safety contest he's entering. In order for his video to be entered in the contest, he had to give a public talk on some traffic safety facts, so he did that up in front of a bunch of home schoolers. :)

~You did a great job with your video (and speech), Jacob, and I hope you win one of the prizes!~

Oh yes.... I was so pleased to see my friend, Miranda, there, even though she couldn't stay for very long due to a previous engagement. :(

Here Jacob and David Bartlett were visiting about movie-making, Morgan horses, and other things, I'm sure..... :)

We were pleasantly surprised to see that our Beachy friends made the long, long journey to come to the home school event! These are the same friends that my parents stayed with a couple weeks ago when they made that long wedding-cake delivery journey up North...

We had a table to display some Parental Rights' Amendment information and to take signatures for the cause...

While my family and I were eating our noon meal, the electricity went off and everyone was walking around in the semi-darkness, wondering if the legislative session would be able to go on.... After a few minutes though, the power returned and Jacob even had enough time before the legislative session started to show his video to our Senator and one of our Representatives.

During the session, Andrew stayed in the Great Hall to run our booth, while Jacob went and sat with our Senator, Mr. Robert Erbele; Mother sat with Rep. William Kretschmar; and I got to sit with our other Representative, Mr. Mike Brandenburg.

I had a great time visiting with Rep. Brandenburg, as he's a laid back, great sense of humor, farmer kind of a guy who puts a smile on the face of nearly everyone he meets. I brought up our home schooling bill (#1211) to him and he assured me that he is very much in favor of home schooling. Our Senator is also in favor, and Mother spoke to Rep. Kretschmar and hopefully influenced him...

As the session progressed, Rep. Beadle introduced a bill that would give ND a state insect, that insect being: the ladybug! The bill passed in the House, so if it makes it through the Senate, then we'll have a state bug too. They couldn't have picked a much nicer one. :) According to one article I looked up today, "The ladybug isn’t the first proposed state insect for North Dakota. The honey bee didn’t make it as the state insect in 1989. Some lawmakers have joked the state insect could be a grasshopper."

In the afternoon, we showed "The Child" (a very informative movie in support of the proposed Parental Rights Amendment) to anybody who wanted to watch. Here, several young men were helping set up chairs for the viewing...

We left the capitol around 5:00 and headed to Sams to get some supplies. After going around the edge of an isle, we came face to face with a home school Mom who quickly introduced herself and we began talking. We realized that we saw/met some of their family at Prairie Days a couple years ago and have seen each other at conventions, but just have never gotten to know each other. Mrs. R. said that her daughter has read my blog, which really surprised me! Then some of her family came up the aisle also and I really enjoyed visiting with their 2 oldest girls, Haley and Gwendolyn. (If you young ladies are reading this now, I just want you to know that I'm looking forward to having more time to visit with you at the convention in March!)

`

After all that excitement, it was time to head home. Andrew lost a pipe from under his pickup on the way back and we couldn't find it, so that was a bit sad.

`

I think I told you all that my dad left for the NPSAS convention yesterday morning? Well, he did, and he spent the night in a hotel last night so he could take in more of the convention today. He just got home about 8:00 this evening---just in time for our weekly feast.

`

The rest of us at home spent the day cleaning the house; bedding down the goat barn; moving not-so-little Laura (Andrew's milk cows' calf) out with the bigger calves; cooking and baking; and enjoying the loveliness of a day of sunshine and warmth. (It got up to about 35 degrees ABOVE zero today!)

`

Oh, one more thing... I realized just today that I've now had Lady for over a year! How the time does fly.~

Update on today coming tomorrow!

:)

Looking forward to tomorrow!

If the roads are passable tomorrow morning, Mother, the boys and I are going to go to our state capitol to join home schooling friends in visiting with our Senators and Representatives about the proposed home school bill....

Meanwhile, my dad is planning to head in the opposite direction (to Fargo) for the NPSAS (organic and sustainable agriculture) convention. He plans to take in 2 days worth, which means he won't be home tomorrow night....

All of this means an early morning though and, since I'm tired from working in town again tonight, I think it will be an easy voyage to dreamland tonight!

Good roads!

It truly amazes me the difference that a snowplow can make! :) I had no troubles getting to and from work this day. PTL!

Mother and the boys went to Bismarck to run errands and to attend the home school bill hearing and possibly the midwifery one also? As everyone was in bed when I got home, I do not know what they learned there.... I do know that Dad planned to do paperwork most of the day while the house was quite. :)

And now, it's bedtime, once again. Remember to really bundle up tomorrow, fellow North Dakotans. It's supposed to get COLD!