Mission Work, Birthdays, and Canning!

Greetings again fellow bloggers
  It has been crazy around here with all of our activities. Next time someone asks how my sister stays socialized as a homeschooler, I think I will challenge them to come live a week in our house and see how busy we stay with social activities. :-P
  So much has happened since my last post. We closed on our property to build our new house. Momma and Daddy hired someone to go out and brush hog it, the rain had really made the grass grow tall. Daddy has also been working on finalizing the house plans. I am getting so excited!

  My little sister turned 17 last month! Ok, so she's 17, maybe she's not so little anymore. But she is in my mind. She's been driving me around town, which is really hard to get used to. For her birthday, we ate lunch out with friends and then she requested homemade spaghetti alfredo for dinner. A few days later, she had some friends over to spend the night. On the night of her birthday, I took her out for a fun photo shoot. Here are some of my favorites

 

I also love this one of us together

 

A year ago April, we attended a family camp in Arkansas, Fort Rock Family Camp. We had a blast and I felt like God was calling me to go back and volunteer. We visited with the family that owns it and they said that would be great. I went for the first time about a month ago. They asked me back at the end of July. The Forsyth family is such a blessing and their ministry is so wonderful! Each time I go, I feel blessed beyond all measure. I have also made many new friends there. Here are some pictures of my adventures:

From Left to Right

Margreet (my friend from Holland, Me, Miss Lana Nelson (of the Larry Nelson band)

 

Meagan, Lydia, Me

Jessica

Miss Roxanne

Friends! Austin and Peter decided to photo bomb our photo

   
  Yesterday was Daddy's birthday. Momma made chocolate gravy for breakfast. Then we made spaghetti and meatballs for his dinner with chocolate meringue pie for dessert! He got a new Bible for a gift, and I made him a sign that will go lovely in our new home when it gets built :-)







  God has really blessed our garden this year. Our cucumbers have been producing tons of cucumbers, and you know what that means....PICKLES!! We have put up so many dill and bread & butter pickles, we are running out of room! It has been wonderful.

 

Speaking of gardening. Our dear friends loaned us a film called Back to Eden. They kept telling us it would change our entire perspective on gardening, well they were so right. I can't even describe what a blessing this video is. I recommend everyone watch it. you can even watch it for free online here.

 

I think that's enough of my ramblings for one day. I hope everyone is enjoying their summer. I would love for everyone to share their summer adventures. It's always interesting to see what everyone else is up to.

Have a blessed weekend

Erin



Fort Rock Family Camp 2012

Wow have we had a fun past few days!! We went to a Raising Entrepreneurs camp at Fort Rock Family Camp in Combs, Arkansas. It was a blast. The camp lasted 3 nights and 4 days. While we were there, I turned 21-what a way to spend a birthday! We spent our time zip lining on the longest zip line in Arkansas, trail riding on horseback through the Ozarks, shooting bow and arrows, and shooting at the rifle range. I can't imagine a better way to have spent that special day. It was out in the mountains, so we had no phone service, which made it easy to just sit back and relax and smell the fresh mountain air. Here are a few pictures. I couldn't post them all, or it would take forever, but here are just a few highlights of our trip.

 Most of the time, I was turned around backwards while riding, trying to get a pic of us riding. I couldn't really get a picture of myself, so this is the closest I got haha

 This a photo of all of the families that attended

Trail Riding through the Ozarks

 Daddy zip lining

 They were nice enough to make me a birthday cake

Momma and Daddy

Trail Riding

-Erin