Happy Fourth of July!

Yes, I know...it's not the fourth, but here's some pictures from our fun day!

Swimming pool time!

So thankful the Lord provided something for the kids to cool off in!

Shopping at the Columbus market while the kids played games at the School with the precious people from Crossroads!

Love my farmer friends!

Dad and the blueberry man:-) oh, and his squash "wilson" that a farmer gave him...they even drew a face and hair on him and Dad brings him to market every week! LOL!

JD having fun on the rides!

Audrey, Adalyn, and their friend, Emmalyn "swinging" around!

Adalyn and Karrington are getting ready for the fireworks in Mooresboro!

Late Night = unhappy baby:-)

Enjoying being "mommied" by Kylie - our little mother to all the babies:-)

Mommy and her baby!

Daddy and Caleb sleeping while the fireworks were exploding overhead...men can sleep anywhere, anytime!!

We had a great time and enjoyed getting to have our good friends, The Elliott kids, join us for the day while their parents were out of town celebrating their anniversary! Such a fine bunch of kids and they were such a help and blessing that day! We truly have a great country and I'm looking forwards to studying American History this year with both girls in school using this awesome curriculum https://www.thelearningparent.com/products.asp?cat=27&product=22 called "The Mighty Works of God - Divine Providence, Liberty and Justice for All, and Self-Government". This is something that I can do with both girls and I'm very happy about that!! They will also be using Presidential Penmanship from this same site together as well and I think that they will enjoy learning about their Presidents and Country while perfecting their handwriting skills.

It is mind-boggling to realize that it is July 9th and that our school is is quickly approaching AGAIN! We're going to do things a little differently this year with our school calendar. We're going to revolve it around the Harvest/putting up food season this year to make it a little easier for Momma to do both:-) We'll start school in August and go straight through until March and then stop for Mar. April, and May to do planting and take any little trips that we can before the spring butchering comes. Then start school again in June and go till August when all the tomatoes and stuff come in, resume in September, and then go from there! Just something a little different this year, so we'll see how it goes! Caleb is a little more flexible now that he is walking everywhere so he's more content to entertain himself than before:-)

Speaking of July, it's now "CHRISTMAS IN JULY" in this house! We start listening to our favorite Christmas CD's (which my husband so sweetly loaded into Media player so that I can listen all day!!) and planning our Christmas Cards and making our lists to begin working on our Christmas gifts! I know people think it's CRAZY to think about Christmas in July, but when it's been nearly 100 degrees all of June and all of July so far, thinking about Christmas just makes you feel cooler, SO I DO! LOL! September through January are my absolute most favorite months of the year! I LOVE winter!

I hope you all had a great time of fellowship together this Fourth of July and we must not take that privilege lightly! Our current Administration has shown quite well that it is against anything that promotes "Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness" and we must NOT take what we have for Granted! My husband and I spent time reading the Declaration of Independence and thanked our God for those men who were willing to pledge their lives, families, and fortunes for freedom for ALL men, even freedom for men to oppose their beliefs. All but two of those men died penniless and many of them lost their entire families as well. Such sacrifice! I am thankful for them and I hope and pray that if the time comes again for such sacrifice that we, as Americans, will have the same courage to do the same! God Bless America!