Today, as soon as we got things squared away at our house, Paul, Hannah, and I loaded into our van and headed up to Gail’s house to try to help her for the day.  As usual, the kids had a blast.  The Gator battery needed some charging, so Bobby pulled Paul around in the tractors wagon until the Gator was charged enough for one of them to ride.

Our main focus for the day was corn and beans.  As soon as lunch was cleaned up and the kids were down for their naps, Gail and I headed to the garden.  She pulled corn off the stalks, and then pulled up the stalks that were done.  I crawled along on my knees or squatted down on my haunches and picked beans off two long rows.  They were about to the end, so I only got about a 6-gallon bucket of beans off of them.  Paul and Hannah woke up a little before we were done and I brought them down to the garden with us.  (In these next two pictures, they were not cooperating with Mom the photographer very well!)  Paul was supposed to be picking up ears of corn and putting them in a bucket.

Here’s Hannah at the garden cart.

Paul was putting green beans in this loader.

Paul snapping beans.

Paul & Bobby snapping beans.

Hannah tried to help us with the corn.

Isn’t she soooooo beautiful?

Finally, around 7:00 p.m., we were done husking all the corn.  We brought it all inside and started making grilled cheese and baloney sandwiches for supper.  Bobby and Paul went back to his room to relax, as you can see.

I brought home some tired, happy, and dirty little children to get in the bathtub tonight.  We all had a great time.

Here are some photos I snapped yesterday with our new Canon camera.  It shows some of the neat things I caught our kids doing.

Hannah actually plays the harmonica, even though

she doesn’t have it in her mouth correctly here.

Hannah was giving the rocking chair a work-out!

Guess what we were up to 1:00 a.m. doing last night?  This!  Andrew’s new treadmill was delivered yesterday, and he was so excited!  (I wouldn’t get that excited about a machine that is going to work me to the brink of death each morning, but hey, if he can get that excited, then go ahead!)  Andrew put most of it together, I just held a few pieces while he put the screws in for the last steps.

Here’s Andrew trying it out, with the

heart monitor.

O.k, so not to many words in this post, but you have some neat pictures to look at!

That “training” is being given to Hannah in big doses.  As she grows and develops, we have used different creative ways to try to keep her quiet during church.  Sometimes it worked o.k., and occasionally we had to get up and walk with her.  Andrew has been strongly suggesting to me that I teach her how to be quiet.

With Paul, I took a week and each morning I sat him on the couch, him with his book, me with my Bible, and I told him “do not talk”.  If he talked, I repeated the instruction, and if he continued to talk, I “snapped” his cheek.  By the end of the week, he knew what “do not talk” meant, and in church, if he started talking, we could tell him “Do no talk” and he would stop.

Well, Hannah is a different person.  First off, getting her to sit on the couch without me holding her would be an item, second, when she has a book, she is talking about what she sees in the book, pointing out and saying, “ball”, “apple”, “balloon”, etc.  Paul just didn’t talk that soon.  I was wracking my brain.  I decided that we would require her to not talk during our evening devotion time with Paul and Hannah.  We started that this week.  Of course, it is replete with her starting to talk, us telling her “Do not talk” and so on.  It makes for a bumpy devotion time.
Let me back up and say that this past Sunday evening was the deciding factor for me.  At the Sunday evening service, she wanted to talk at her books, she didn’t want any snacks, and she didn’t want any water, and she was just purposely doing exactly what I didn’t want her to do.  It was very obvious she was determined to be in control and really thought she was–until she and I took a trip to the office.  I decided I had to figure out someway to teach her to be quiet in church.

So, tonight, on the way to our Wednesday evening service, I outlined the plan to Andrew on the way.  Paul had brought along a book he had picked out to read during church.  I had a bag with some books in for Hannah.  They had eaten before we left, so there was no need for snacks, and it only lasted an hour, so they didn’t need any drinks.  Andrew was going to take care of Paul (who usually is not much trouble), and I was going to focus on Hannah.  I was going to do the same thing we’ve done in our evening devotion time here.  And you know, it worked pretty well!  I was very much surprised.  I only had to take her out once (because she cried once after I snapped her cheek), and I was soon able to rejoin the group.  I had to frequently remind her not to talk, but at no point was she in control, and at no point did she try to get the upper hand.  She looked at books some, but at least half the time she just sat there, and either sucked her thumb or played with the strap on Andrew’s Bible.

So, one service down on the new program, and many, many more to go.  It will be more interesting on Sunday mornings when there is both Sunday school and the church service to be quiet through.  But, diligence paid off tremendously with Paul, and I expect it will with Hannah also.

If any of the rest of you have experience and tips to share, please do!  I want to learn how to do it well.

I think there are three main highlights of our days around here this summer.  Oh, maybe four, now that I think of it.  One of the things we have enjoyed is fresh green beans from our garden.  Thanks to two rows of peas being nearly non-existant, I planted two rows of beans there.  That means we had beans before a fall crop.  (I planted the bulk of them when the peas came off, and then are not near the bearing stage yet.)  Paul likes to stand beside me with a Wal-Mart bag in the garden while I pick them.  I hand him the beans as I pull them off, and he says, “Hack-ooo” (interpreted as thank-you) after each bean or handful of beans, and puts them in the bag.  Hannah has gotten to where she comes along too, and she says, “Bean, bean, bean” until we give her a bean.  Then, she tries her best to break it in two, then she leaves it on the ground and asks for another one.  When I get tired of Paul having, ahem, “sharing issues” over letting Hannah have a bean, and tired of picking up the bean pieces off the ground, then I exile them from bean-picking area while I finish picking the beans alone.

Paul and I like to sit in the shade together and snap the beans.

Although, if I ask Paul if he helped snap the beans, he says, “No, not snap, I DOED the beans!”  He does beans, he doesn’t snap them.  He breaks each bean in half.  Then, I go through and pinch off the stem end and break it in smaller pieces if necessary.

As you can tell, we are not dealing with great quantities of beans here.  Just about 2 quart at a time, and this last time, maybe a little less.

Another thing we have enjoyed over here is having four neighbor children over last Tuesday and again today while their mother sells stuff at the Harrisonburg Farmer’s Market.  They are ages 2, 4, 5, and 8 years old.  Their mom brings them at 6:00 a.m., and she picks them up sometime between 2 and 3:00 p.m.  Paul and Hannah have a grand time playing with them.  The younger kids love riding Paul’s tractor, and the older ones especially love for me to read books to them.  My mouth gets so dry!  When they first get here, we read stories until Paul and Hannah get up,

and then we have breakfast.  After I have breakfast all cleaned up, then we do other fun things until lunch.  They love watching a DVD of kids singing on the computer.

Today that was taking everyone to Oakdale Park in Bridgewater.  Boy, did we all ever have a good time there!  After lunch is all cleaned up, then we take a stack of books outside and sit in the shade and read stories.

Some of them play other things, but there is always several (and always Paul) sitting there avidly listening.  We go outside a little before 2:00 p.m. because that is when Andrew has a meeting with a client over the phone, and it has to be quiet inside.  Granted, at times we have a veritable zoo, sometimes a few tears, but all in all, we all enjoy it.

Here are some pictures from when we were at the park today.

Another thing we are enjoying is “going to Bobby’s house”, which is my sister Gail’s house.  Usually about one day out of the week we plan to go up there and help her with whatever is the most important thing that needs done.  We’ve helped her pick and snap big loads of green beans, and this last time we helped her wash the jars of beans and carry them to her basement, and then while the kids were napping, I helped her with her computer.  Paul and Hannah just love to go to Bobby’s house, and he enjoys playing with them too.

Hannah talking to a kitty-cat.

The fourth thing we are enjoying around here is the long, cool evenings.  After supper, instead of doing the dishes right away, I go outside with Paul and Hannah and give them rides in the little red car or push them on the swing, or when Hannah says ” ’round” I swing her ’round and ’round in circles until we are both really dizzy.  Some evenings, I don’t just push them in the little car, I run and give them “bumpy rides”!  Oh, how they beg for those bumpy rides!  Sometimes the horse runs out of power and says no more bumpy rides!  Then, when it is getting too dark, or the time is getting too late, we have to come inside for baths and bed.  But, then there is always tomorrow evening, at least as long as the summer lasts.

We are enjoying our summer tremendously.  I have recently paused and realized there will never be another summer like this one.  One in which Paul and Hannah are two and one.  One where they will both be small enough to fit in that little red car, where Hannah will ask for “wing, wing” to get pushed in the swing, and where they will both be taking long afternoon naps such that I can put them down for naps at Gail’s and actually get useful things done to help her.  Next summer will bring a whole other set of things to enjoy.  This is the first, and I guess only, summer with these things to enjoy.  I wonder what next summer’s will be like?

I am very tardy on this post.  The official Lake Day of the year was July 10th.  All of my siblings except Lucy were there.  The day before, Gail and I had gathered at the ranch to help wax the boat.  That day I think the high was 65 and it was drizzly and cold.  Gail and I voted to stay home and have a cook-out instead of going to the lake on Friday.  We knew that it would be 10 degrees colder back at Lake Moomaw than it was at home.  (The lake is on top a mountain close to WV).  Since Laura was coming the furtherest, from NC, we decided we would let the final decision be up to her.  She really wanted to go.  So, the next morning, we loaded up with our long sleeves and jackets and headed out.

When we got there, it was really cold.  We ate lunch first, huddling around in our jackets.  One by one the bravest souls ventured into the water and skiied.  Around 3 or 4 o’clock the sun finally came out and it warmed up enough to take off our jackets.  Nearly everyone skiied.   There were a few who weren’t penguin enough to waterski in the cool weather.  But we all had a really good time.  By the way, Andrew and I were among the penguins–we skiied!

Ahhh…there is a story behind this picture.  (My mom and Andrew are taking pictures and videoing in the photo; I was  holding Hannah and took this picture with my free hand.)  Julia and Luke got the bright idea to take off from the dock.  Julia was trying to avoid getting wet.  Now, numerous ones of us have done that in the past, but it has been, oh my!  10 or 15 years ago that we did that!  Julia made it on her second attempt, thus she got wet anyway.  However, in the process, the seat of her swimsuit caught on a bolt on the dock and ripped a huge hole in it.  Thankfully, it had double layers of fabric, so it wasn’t as drastic as it could have been (it only ripped the outer layer).  When Luke went to try taking off from the dock, they put a towel down for him to sit on so his shorts wouldn’t rip on take-off.  Luke tried twice, and he made it the second time, but he wrecked soon afterwards.

Andrew & Hannah floating on the water.

She wasn’t real happy and didn’t stay there too long.

Glen and Bobby on the inntertube.  Andrew is in the water.

Rachel eating tapioca pudding.

Miriam, Laura, & Rachel warming and refueling.

Laura is trying to do some serious warming-up in

between skiing trips.

Luke on one ski.

Andrew & Hannah in the innertube.

Luke on one ski.

Sally & Hannah in the boat.

Here’s another one that I wish had a little better picture of.  If you click on this it should bring it to full-screen size.  Luke is passing in front of Andrew, going under his ski rope.  It doesn’t sound like such a big deal, and it isn’t a big deal for the person in the front who is going under the rope.  It takes a pretty good skiier on the longer rope because those long furrows left in the water are really tricky to navigate and not wreck.  Andrew didn’t wreck!  Yay!

Here’s Andrew during Endurance Moomaw.  Endurance Moomaw started with Katie and Andrew trying to best each other, to see who could last the longest skiing.  This year Luke joined them.  They skiied around the lake without stopping, and they all lasted.  It takes about an hour.  This year, we thought far enough to fill the boat with gas before they started.  Last year, well, they ran out of gas at the other end of the lake.  It was a l-o-n-g time until they came back.  A boat did come along and check on them, and then came and got some gas to take to them.  They didn’t have to row the whole way back.

Well, that’s the lake day.  We left there probably around 8:00 p.m., happy, full of watermelon and hot dogs and s’mores, and ready for a good night’s sleep.

We missed you, Lucy!!

This evening, when the kids got up from their naps, I took them up to Gail’s and we picked green beans.  Well, mostly I picked green beans.  Gail wasn’t home yet when we got there.  Paul just roamed around finding lots of stuff to play with.  I picked green beans and Hannah sat in the grass crying.  I think she was too close to the big cows that were very near the garden (behind a fence, of course).  When I was done picking where the squash plants were right up against the green beans, I moved Hannah to be near me, and she handled it a little better then, especially if she got distracted by picking apart a dry, brown squash leaf.

When Gail came home, she found Paul in the basement riding the little car.  He and Bobby started playing together immediately, riding the ‘Gator, playing in the dirt, and running in circles after each other.

Hannah stayed inside and helped us get supper ready, which capitalized on fresh green beans and fresh fried squash.  Oh, it was all so delicious!  After supper, Hannah stayed inside and I went out and finished picking the green beans.  It was nearly 9:00 when I got done!  I had to hustle to get the kids and stuff loaded so we could get home and get baths so they could go to bed.

Gail said that after supper Hannah stood at the window and watched the cows and kept saying “Big cow”.  She would also say “tractor” whenever James drove by on the tractor as he was mowing the grass with a tiny bush-hog.  As I was coming in from picking the beans, Gail and Hannah were  coming out to feed the kitties.  I got some cute pictures.

Tonight, during her bath, I was talking to Hannah about the big cows, and she says “Big cow” alright!  That’s a new one for her vocabulary!

Well, it is time for me to wash the dishes, clean up the kitchen, and high-tail it to bed.  We all sure had fun at Gail’s house, even though it’s late now.

…The bombs bursting in air….

Guess where we saw the bombs bursting in air?  From a graveyard on a hill!  That’s right!  About dark, we took a stroll after supper (and after the kids’ baths) up to the graveyard across from the Methodist church and watched fireworks.  It was pretty neat.  Not always the best view, but a pretty good view of a couple places.

On the way back, it started to sprinkle.  Andrew had some sparklers that he set off and waved around for Paul and Hannah to watch from their strollers.  He also rigged up a holder for one so Paul could hold one out to the side of his stroller and be “holding” a sparkler as it went off.

We had a great 4th of July picnic in our back yard with Andrew’s parents.  Steak on the grill, scalloped potatoes, rolls, fresh red beets, coleslaw, and watermelon and tapioca pudding for dessert.  So much really good food!

Hey, I need to get off here.  I hope you all had a good 4th.

I think I slept lightly last night.  At some point, awake or asleep I’m not entirely sure, I was thinking about Wendy’s dogs, which are two pit bulls, Harley and Max.  Then, at some point I was dreaming about dogs, possibly Wendy’s, and a dog was chasing me to bite me.  I turned and gave him a mighty kick, aimed right at the nose!  The problem was, I was immediately awakened due to the loud noise of my toes cracking against wood and severe pain in my toes!  I had kicked the side of the waterbed!  I thought of checking to see if my toes were bleeding, but since I didn’t feel anything sticky, I assumed they were not.  Wendy, those dogs are dangerous to me, even this far away!

Here are a few pictures of the evening and night time, just to go along with this post.  I don’t have a picture of the dog chasing me, but I know it happened…in my dream!

Recently, I vacuumed right before I put the kids to bed.  That night, Paul slept with his vacuum.  I was a little surprised when I went to tuck him in to find it right in the bed with him!

Tonight, Andrew took pictures of me putting Hannah to bed.  I usually rock her and sing “Jesus Loves Me”.

Here is Paul waiting on his big bed for me to come and pray with him after I finish rocking Hannah.  He usually doesn’t want to rock and sing any more.  He just likes me to pray for him.