Our Garden 2013

Our garden is in full swing.  We have had beets, green beans, kale, cucumbers and blackberries!  I used organic chicken manure this year and it has worked!  We are waiting on strawberries and zuchinni now.  I even had so many cucumbers that I made pickles.  We will taste them in a few days.  We feel so blessed to have fresh produce without pesticides!

Hangar 18

Well, Seth turned 12 this year and to celebrate we went to an indoor climbing gym called Hangar 18. The boys got hooked up with harnesses and shoes and dad got the rundown on belaying his monkeys. They were off and up! Seth enjoyed himself and thought the place rocked! He made it to the top by the end of the day, but said he liked going up better than coming down. That made him a bit queasy. Channing was a little Spiderman and couldn't get enough of the place. Chase and Drew weren't far behind their older brothers. Levi and I enjoyed playing with his Spiderman and Batman set while we watched and recorded the sites. I'm sure this wont be the last we see of the place. Save your allowance, boys!

Rainy soccer saturday

chan and everyone else got pretty soaked at soccer today.

Labor Day weekend frolics

Great weekend. Took Gina to see some bands on Friday night. Yes we still like doing that. On Saturday I took everyone to the beach. The surf was down and the water was unseasonably chilly at about 59 degrees, and there was thick fog until about 1:30, but it was great fun. We built sand castles, some of the boys teamed up with random strangers to dig a big hole. The usual. Hit In and Out for dinner after and let's face it there's nothing better than In and Out after a day in the sand.

Sun Gina had to stay home from church with the bottom three (they had coughs, rules of etiquette prevent taking coughy kids to places of worship) but Seth and Chan and I went. I played in the service as part of my once-a-month guitar duties. Chan and Seth each got "promoted" to the next grade so that was kind of a big deal. Seth now goes to a different building, so hey watch out world here he comes, huh.

Yesterday (Monday) was Labor Day, so I did everything I could to avoid all labor. Loaded up the canoe and took the boys fishing over at Bonelli. That's a lot of fun. Met up with my buds Matt and Brian, so between the three of us we had too many fishing children to count. Everyone survived. Including the fish - Bonelli's not exactly the most active fishing hole in the world. We got blanked. Completely shut out. But still - a great time.

Andrew rocks!

Well, after about two years of work, Launch Day has finally launched! Yes, pun intended. God has brought a great group of guys to join this adventure and they had their first gig on Channing's 9th birthday at the O.C. Tavern down in San Clemente. Two joyous occasions will forever be burned in my mind. My little boy is growing up and my man is on stage again where he belongs. I was nervous, he was not. I believe it's because that is what God made him to do...play music! The show was fabulous and they sounded stellar. He looked mighty sexy up there too, I have to add. I can't wait to see what ride God is sending us on. I have been on a high ever since.

Big Bear Camping July 2010

Can we pack any more gear?! On this camping trip we decided to take our canoe with us, since we were going to Big Bear Lake. I'm so glad we did! It was a little hotter than we had expected, so mountain biking and hiking weren't quite as much fun. We did, however, manage an interpretive hike the first day that got us aquainted with the trees and flowers in the area. If there is something like this in a campground you stay at, I highly recommend it. It's so much more interesting listening to your family point out the names of trees and plants they see as you go about your day. For example, we staked our tents under a huge Western Juniper tree and had plenty of Jeffery Pines at our site. When the sun warms up their bark, they smell like vanilla. Who would have thought to sniff the bark of a tree? Go on the interpretive hike! Chase would run from tree to tree sniffing and exclaiming, "I love these trees! I'm going to marry one!" Mountain Mahogany or ironwood, as it is commonly called, is one of the hardest woods around There was also rabbitbrush, Indian paintbrush, and Mountain Buglers scattered about for our enjoyment.

The canoe was a definite highlight! Seth got experienced at helping Andrew load and unload the beast. This canoe is so big that we were able to fit all seven of us in it at one time! It was an amazing experience rowing along a pristine lake watching fish jump and ducklings swim by. We spent a lot of time at the lake to take refuge from the heat.

Another highlight was a night hike hosted by the ranger. The boys thought it was pretty cool watching bats hunting at twilight. Andrew loved the boys enthusiasm at pointing out the surrounding trees and asking questions of the ranger.

I loved the free hot showers and electricity for a hairdryer! I'm now convinced that it's perfectly acceptable to look beautiful while camping! If they have these perks, use them! It felt soooo good! Can't wait for our next trip. Andrew was already planning another one before we were even down the hill!

Carpinteria July 2010

Well, this is our second camping trip this summer and boy do I love Carpinteria! After some confusion with the loops in the campground, we found out that we booked our site in the more "RV" area of the campground. These sites are super tiny; I mean SUPER TINY! God was gracious and gave us the end of a row, so we could overflow onto the median. Unfortunately, we did have to move to one of these tiny spots the last night in order to stay longer. By then, we had watched other tenters put up many a tent in these tight spots. What an experience! Make sure you look closely at the details when booking campgrounds!

Back to Carpinteria! The weather was cool, which made it spectacular for riding bikes along the bluffs at the beach. We even found some single track trails along the railroad tracks. What fun! The boys enjoyed the tidepools and tar covered cliffs. They, of course, wanted to bring ALL their treasures home, even the lobster shell. Hmmm. The dutch oven continued to perform spectacularly, as well as the smokey joe. We have taken meals to a new high while camping. We even got vanilla ice cream for our peach cobbler this time due to downtown being right behind us. Yum! A highlight for Andrew was seeing Rincon, a famous surfing spot. One downside of this campground was the train. The first night it went by three times and scared Andrew and I half to death! Fortunately, the kids slept through all of it. How they did this was beyond me! It felt like the thing was roaring right through our tent! Even so, I loved this quaint spot in the world and hope to return again!

Raising Painted Lady Butterflies

One of the most rewarding experiments that the boys and I did this spring was raising Painted Lady Butterflies. We got a kit from Toys R Us, sent in our coupon for our caterpillars and waited. A few weeks later a small jar with five tiny caterpillars arrived in our mailbox. All the food they needed was in this little jar. We watched as the caterpillars grew tremendously each day. They turned from green to a hairy black and got bigger and bigger and bigger. Eventually, they crawled to the top of the jar and hung upside down from the lid. As we watched, they began to harden and turn grey. We transferred the chrysalis's to the mess habitat and waited. After about two weeks week got to watch a butterfly emerge. It was amazing! All five made it and we began feeding them sugar water.
My boys loved them and decided they didn't want to release them. Well, these little critters started mating! The boys watched that too. A little privacy please! They'd say, "Mom, the butterflies are mating again." The females started laying eggs all over the habitat. We decided we had better find out what these guys eat as we would probably have babies soon. After some research, we found out they ate milk thistle and mallow. We knew we had that in the area with the help of some pictures. Off we went in search of food for our pending babies. Sure enough, one morning we awoke to our kitchen counter being covered in tiny black worms. Breakfast anyone? With the use of a credit card, I very carefully, scooped up as many of the babies as I could and put them in a container with some of the leaves we collected.
We had to go on several hunts over the next few weeks to supply our new caterpillars with enough food. I was a caterpillar mommy now, checking on them often. They were eating and growing so fast. One thing we noticed was the amount of poop these little guys can produce. Tons of it!!! Every couple of days we had to clean out the container. Well, we ended up with 21 chrysalis's! Sixteen of them hatched. I made sure the boys released them within a day. No more mating for me! This was a lot of effort on my part to make sure they had enough food. I think we cleaned out the neighborhood of thistle and mallow. This new batch was on its own! I hope this experience is something the boys will never forget. Even Levi would sit with the habitat in front of him admiring the butterflies. God is an amazing God. I'm glad we got to join Him in appreciating part of His creation.

Pt. Mugu Camping June 2010

 











Went camping at Pt Mugu, about 30 miles above Malibu, over Father's Day weekend. Had some camera issues so playing a bit of "catchup" on the family blog here.

Great trip, we all had a blast.

Pt. Mugu is one of those state parks that has a little something for everyone - mountain biking, hiking, and a beach. The campground is located inland from Pacific Coast Highway in a canyon called Sycamore Canyon. From there you can reach anywhere in the park. We'd scramble onto our bikes and ride up the canyon for as far as the littlest legs among us cared to go, which would usually be about an hour. Then it's all downhill coming back.

Plenty of hiking, too. We took a "no bikes allowed" trail that branched off to the south from the "main drag" about a mile up sycamore canyon, and it meandered up another little canyon whose name escapes me. But it was a beautiful hike. The pic of Gina is that hike. We stopped and ate some fennel bushes. We found a stream, dipped our toes. The boys spotted plenty of butterflies, and we learned some new botany of the area. Monkey flowers and lemon bush among them. Also some fuschia.

Chase found something called a "wooly bear caterpillar," which looks a bit like Abe Vegoda's eyebrow with legs.

Also I'd like to point out this was the maiden voyage of the "dutch oven," that big cast iron pot thing in one of the photos above. We cooked an amazing "mountain man scramble" - sausage, hash browns, eggs, cheese. Later we cooked a peach cobbler thing for dessert that was delicious.

The boys befriended a family staying at a nearby campsite, they were delightful to pal around with for the weekend. We are coining a new term - "camp friends." The boys made some more camp friends this last week camping at carpinteria state beach. more on that trip later.

We learned two nights is not enough for the amount of work that goes into putting on one of these camping trips. It's more of an expedition than a trip. This camping trip was the first in a while, and we spent about two days prepping all the gear. We were just getting warmed up there and boom it was time to go home. No good. So we'll stay longer in the future. Had some great rides, great hikes, and "kicked it" on the beach for an afternoon.

Sleeping the first night in Mugu was rough. There was a guy snoring somewhere nearby - deep, jet engine snoring - and Levi was squawking all night, and our air mattress needed some more air. I call it the "equalizer" night -- because the 2nd night, everyone was so exhausted, they all slept like rocks. Things were equalized. There were some pro mountain bikers camping next to us. I know they were pros because they had huge pictures of themselves painted on their fancy biking van. "Lopez #55". Too funny. They had some wicked cool gear.

This was a great trip. We love camping. We haven't been out for a couple of years because we've been busy breeding, so this was our "welcome back" trip and we enjoyed it thoroughly.

Reflections

Seth turned ten years old recently, and as I reflect on this journey as a parent, I am amazed at the family I have. God has truly blessed me with the best boys a mom could ask for. I can remember being a young girl and dreaming of getting married and having two children, a boy and a girl. I never imaginged having five children, let alone all boys. I'm so glad we didn't stop having children. Each one of them is so different. When Andrew and I would consider having another baby, we would ask, "I wonder what this one will be like?" There are days when we feel our family is complete and then there are days where we both wish we were pregnant with another. We've heard all the cliche's of having more children, but people who don't have large families don't know what they are missing and how addicting these little beings can be. Yes, there are challenges - no quiet, no privacy, no money, and lots of toys to step on in the wee hours of the night when you're trying to console a crying baby, but how full and richly blessed this family is. And homeschooling, what an adventure! What a privilege to be able to teach my children at home! To teach your children to read is the most amazing feat. I enjoy learning right along with them. I pray Andrew and I are doing right by them. God's word says that if you commit your ways to the Lord you will succeed. We are committed to doing our best to raise these boys to love the Lord their God, the maker of heaven and earth! I can't wait til the weddings and grandbabies start coming!