Honk for the Lovebirds

December 11, 2021 is a very special date for my brother and his girl, Natasha. It was their wedding day. The day they vowed never to leave each other for as long as they both shall live. Another addition to our big happy family!

What a flurry of excitement we were all in as we rushed around doing a last-minute touch here and there. They had a small wedding, but even then, it is a lot of work. Steaming dresses, fixing hair, we were busy.

The time soon came to stand in line in preparation to walk down the aisle to stand up for my sister-in-law-to-be, Natasha.  All four of my brothers looked sharp in their charcoal tuxedos.  Before my sister gave the cue to walk out, I turned around and saw the bride, Natasha, and her dad walk up behind us. She smiled and looked lovely.  Music started, cues were given, everything was just right, and all went smoothly. 

It was a nice wedding, small, thirty-one people, as only immediate family on both sides were in attendance. Trey was best-man, and Jonah and Samuel were groomsmen. Shiloh, Natasha’s sister was maid-of-honor, while Halayah and I were bridesmaids. Our brother-in-law married them, sisters played piano, gave entering cues, cut cake, set up food tables, and passed out bubbles. Nephews and another brother opened doors, seated people, and were ring bearers. Nieces were flower girls, and big helpers. Mama’s lit candles, and of course helped everyone with everything.

So, another one of my siblings are married. That is four down and six to go. Big families are so exciting. Our family is growing all the time and I hope it never stops! To God be the glory!

~Jayla

A Shower Of Blessings

The fellowship hall was adorned with fall décor. It was the day of Natasha’s bridal shower. In a corner, a few gifts graced a table, along with signs specifically for the occasion. Round tables set about the room, awaited guests.

Arriving early, we assembled the two charcuterie boards we brought. There were also cookies, cupcakes, and also small candies. Slowly the guests began to arrive. When everyone was assembled, we all had fun playing games and snacking. My personal favorite was the challenge, Name That Couple. On paper, there was listed the names of famous couples, such as, Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett, Amy March and Theodore Lawrence, Romeo and Juliet, etc. It was obvious that our family are lovers of the Classics. Every one of us won.

The games completed, Natasha made her way to the heaped-up pile of gifts. The unwrapping began! What a ‘shower of blessings’ was lavished on Natasha and Jeremiah! I made them a sign bearing her and Jeremiah’s names, the date of the wedding, and a big opaque letter M for McDaniel in the background. Jayla had crocheted them a beautiful large doily.

All told, we had a wonderful afternoon. I was reminded of God’s promise in Ezekiel 34:26 “And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessings.”

 

As everyone prepared to return home, Natasha was “drenched” with well-wishes, and hugs. Soon, she will be married to our brother Jeremiah. We are excited for the big event!

~Halayah

Birthday Diversity

This year's birthday celebration was full of diversity.  While not really planned for my birthday, we bought a new to us 2010 Chevy Suburban. 

Since I worked the night before and then with sleeping in the morning,  we then went to look at the car and then purchased it! We had been keeping our eyes peeled for the right car.  We were blessed to find one nearby. 

After sleeping, purchasing the car and getting the title and license, a large part of October 13th had passed. I had originally thought that I would take the children to a ball diamond and play a little baseball with them. Since time had slipped away, we opted for delicious cheese-sticks from Huck's and a movie about baseball!

We watched the 1950 Jackie Robinson Story, where he played himself and Babe Ruth did as well. After viewing the movie, I believe that Rhonda has a new favorite baseball player.  

We capped off the evening with nice gifts, notes, and my favorite traditional Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake with Penuche Icing! Life is good at fifty eight!

~Mark

Marigold Mayhem

This spring, I once again set about designing our vegetable garden.  Since it is primarily raised beds, I penciled in the details on the graph that I designed specifically for the task.  It helps me to keep track of the what was planted in which box the previous year and how many plants or seeds we need to accomplish our goals of feeding our family. 

This year,  I had a novel idea! I adore the old fashioned beauty and long lasting color of the simple marigold. Some eschew the marigold's strong scent, but I find it a pleasing reminder of simple times and self sufficiency. 

I planted the humble flower from seeds harvested in prior years. Each corner and middle of each box in the garden got its pinch of these companion planting nematode warriors! I could envision the autumn ablaze with the orange, rust, and yellow frost resistant blossoms. They would outshine the traditional chrysanthemums in lasting radiance. And they have! 

The main problem,  is that they totally overtook practically every tomato and pepper plant that we tried to grow! No nematodes! Only weak sun starved spindles of a plant! The marigolds thrived and overshadowed the others! 

Needless to say, we do have a beautiful garden. Did you guess that we didn't have enough tomato crop to can juice, sauce, or salsa? By the time we noticed, they were too big to pull out without harming the vegetables. 

I suppose that there's always next year.  But you can bet that the marigold mayhem will be limited to the perimeter of our garden!

~Rhonda

Knit One, Purl One, Repeat

The house smelled of holiday spices and pine as our family settled into the living room at Christmastime. In one of the many brightly wrapped packages under the tree, I received a book entitled Whimsical Hats to Knit, Wear, and Love. Inside it was filled with pictures and patterns of fun and cute hats for atop children’s heads. I imagined what perfect gifts they would be for my ever-growing number of nieces and nephews! I could already picture them snug and warm in the winter, cozy in the hat I would make them. Little did I realize that the sheer volume of projects was to be the beginning of many interesting, challenging, and frustrating hours of knitting for me. Oblivious, I could hardly wait to get started!

Towards the end of January, the first birthday was fast approaching. As it was time to start knitting, I settled on the couch with supplies and the pattern book on my lap. What was I going to make? Every hat was adorable, but none seemed to just be the right one for Justus, my ten-year-old nephew. The days before his birthday quickly slipped by until I only had five days left to create something for him. Finally, I found a pattern for a great winter cap, and then clack, clack, clack, went my knitting needles. My how I knitted! It ended up being finished in time, but I learned a lesson, start early next time.

It would seem that I was not destined to have an easy time creating hats for my dear little relatives. The next hat, I started on in plenty of time, but now horrors! It was going to be too small; I was sure. Mama assured me that it looked like it was going to be the perfect size, but I fretted about it the whole time. Guess who was right as always? Mama, of course. During all my time of knitting, Mama was a great encourager and helper. She helped me understand the patterns sometimes and encouraged me as I worked. I definitely could not have made it without her.

The “pattern” continued. . . On one hat, was I running late, and the next one gave me some technical difficulties.  It also got sort of monotonous knitting one, purling one, for what seemed like 987 rows!  I kind of fretted a little, thinking of how many nieces and nephews I have!  “Focus!  Only think about the hat I am working on!”  Those were the words I told myself frequently. 

So many hats were knitted during a movie, or I should say several movies. Sometimes, I listened to Spanish while I worked earflaps, other times I listened to audio books while I cabled a border. Jayla was kind enough to read Plymouth Adventure to me while I crafted a fox hat. I soon learned to balance a book and turn its pages while I worked. I read through a couple of G.A. Henty’s novels, turning a page here, while kitting a bumblebee, turning a page there, while creating an American flag! In short, I became very innovative.

My adventure of hats is now winding down as the year comes to a close.  I have only a few more hats to knit. To tell the truth, I’m two hats behind right now. Which reminds me, I had better get back to knitting again!  Just keep knitting!  Until next time, bye bye!

~Halayah

Home Made Bread- Worth the Endeavor!

Most homes today are not fortunate enough to enjoy homemade whole wheat bread. Not so here! Indeed, it does take a little extra effort, but I feel that it is worth the endeavor! Here at our house, the smell of freshly baked bread wafts through the air about once a week. I remember my older sister making the bread for our family. Once she was married, I got to wear the apron!

 

We start out by grinding the wheat into flour in our Nutrimill. While that is going on, I measure out the warm water to dissolve the yeast. Then the salt, gluten, oil, honey, and half the amount of the freshly ground flour is mixed in. We proof the dough or let it rest, to make sure the yeast will do its job of making the bread rise. Tiny bubbles assure us that it is indeed alive. After this, the rest of the fresh flour is mixed in and kneaded in the Bosch mixer for five minutes or so. Kneading the dough stretches the fibers and helps produce gluten which forms when certain proteins in the flour are moistened. The word gluten comes from a Latin word meaning glue. The yeast in the dough produces carbon dioxide gas and the gluten from the wheat traps it in. This allows the bread to inflate or rise.

During the five minutes of kneading, I busy myself oiling the eight bread pans and getting the supplies needed for the next step... forming the loaves.

The dough gets transferred from the mixer to the lightly oiled tabletop and cut into eight equal parts.

One by one, I slam each piece down on the table a few times to remove any unwanted trapped air bubbles. If these remain, your loaf of finished bread will have large hollow air pockets inside. Ask me how I know!

 

Then, the each piece of dough is flattened with the rolling pin into a long oval shape and rolled up tightly as a scroll. I say tightly because that is another way that large pockets of air can get trapped inside.

 

The ends are now pinched and folded over onto the loaf.

Now it is flipped right side up, tucked around, shaped just so, and placed into its loaf pan. It takes me about ten minutes to get all eight loaves formed.

Then, covered to keep them from drying out, they rise for one last time before going into the pre-heated oven.

 

After spritzing some water into the oven to increase the humidity, thus keeping the tops flexible and allowing each loaf to spring, the timer is set for twenty minutes. This is when the lovely aroma makes its way about the house.

 

Once the beautiful golden loaves come out of the oven, they are carefully taken out of their pans and placed on a cooling rack. After cooling a while, into the bread bag they go. They are then stored in the freezer for freshness until we need them.

Fresh, warm, whole-wheat bread is so delicious. So much so, that occasionally, as a special treat, we take a loaf fresh from the oven, break off a hunk, butter it, and oh. . . simply enjoy! Home made bread. Mmm!

~Jayla McDaniel

Extending the Deck

On Saturday, October 16, 2021, while the girls were at Natasha’s wedding shower, we boys went to town and got some wooden posts.   We have been wanting to build onto the back porch for some time, and we bought these to use get that project started.

We got to work measuring and digging holes for the posts to go in. Each hole needed to be 32 inches deep, and around 15 inches wide so we would have plenty of room to adjust them once they were in the ground. 

When the first hole we dug was finished, we poured in half a bag of concrete, then lowered in the post. After making some final adjustments, we put the rest of the concrete in the hole then filled it in. While one person held the post in place, the others filled in the hole with dirt and tamped it down. Once a post was set, we started on another. We kept digging until dark, then picked up our tools and went inside.  

The next day after church, Mom and Dad went to Lowe’s to get some decking for the floor of the porch! On Monday, we finished setting all the posts, but just before we could do anything else, it started to rain!  We picked up all the tools we had out, then went inside. We didn’t work on the deck anymore Monday.  

So, we know what the next step is! But we don’t know when it is. Maybe it’s today!

~Samuel

Built to Last

About two years ago I was walking on the porch getting ready to go swimming when I saw a bird fly to the top of the back door. I was thinking that it might have a nest somewhere close by. I looked and saw the nest sitting on the frame of the door. I was excited to see the nest there and I ran in to tell everyone about it. Mama told me that it was a phoebe nest.

I started watching it. The Eastern Phoebe is a flycatcher. It eats grasshoppers, wasps, and any kind of insect. They have short and thin bills which helps them to catch their food. They like to live under bridges and on ledges. I think that is why our phoebe built its nest on the frame of our back door. I watched them land on the tree by the birdfeeder. The phoebe twitches its tail while it sits. I could hear its song. Its song is “fee-bee, fee-bee.” That is where it got its name.

A couple of weeks later, Samuel came running in to tell us that there was a snake trying to get the baby birds! We all raced out to get the snake away from the chicks. There we saw the snake getting closer to the nest. Mama grabbed a broom and tried to flick it off. The snake went into a hole in the house! The baby birds were saved, but it was frightening to think that the snake was in the wall! Soon the baby birds were grown and ready to fly away. One morning they were gone.

It is fall, so the phoebe has already gone south because it is almost winter. They don’t want to be here when it is cold, and the bugs are hibernating. Today, when I go out on the porch, I see the same nest as strong as ever over the back door. Unlike most other birds, phoebes reuse their nests. I don’t know how they did it, but the phoebes built it to last. I wonder if they’ll come back next year.

About sixteen days later Mr. and Mrs. Phoebe started bringing bugs for the three baby birds that had hatched in the nest. It was exciting to watch them feed their family. Phoebes can have up to two litters of hatchlings per year.

~Isaac

Making Our Ball Field

About two weeks ago, I asked Dad if I could mow a spot in the bottom of the field to make a place to play baseball and he said yes! We marked where all the bases were going to go, then I mowed. I had made cardboard bases out of pizza box lids. They were good but they got a little bent up and moved everywhere when you ran around the diamond.

After I got the mowing done, we started working on the seats. We wanted to make the seats for anyone who did not want to play and for whoever wanted to take a break. To make the seats, we took two little logs and laid them on the ground, then we found one big log and laid them on the two little ones. The seats are long enough to hold about five people.

That same day we made the ball field, Ryan, and Amanda and all the kids came to spend a couple of days with us. After they unloaded their things from the van, we went down to show them the field. While we were down at the field, we played a little ball game. We had lots of fun playing. About every day after we made the ball field, we went down to play baseball.

While Ryan and Amanda were here, a box came in the mail and Mom called us in to open it. We opened it and it was bases! Mama got them for a surprise for us! We were all excited! We took them down to the ball field to try them out. The bases worked very well; they did not slide around when you ran on them. We all had fun playing baseball on our new ball field.

 

Draw It Again

In the past few days, I have been enjoying drawing. It is a good activity to do. I like to draw horses they are fun to draw.

We have the Complete Book of Drawing. It has a bunch of pictures in it. I like that book, it is amazing! I tried to draw a unicorn, but it did not turn out. Now I just draw regular horses.

I can also draw people. They are a lot harder than drawing stick people. For now, I just draw heads. I want to get so good at drawing that it looks really good.

Since it’s fall, I decided to draw a pumpkin. I learned how to draw the shadow and the lines on it. For the side, I try to draw leaves. Sometimes it does not turn out well, so instead I draw just a brown stem.

I enjoy just drawing with a regular pencil. It is fun and simple. You have to push harder to make your picture darker or lighter as you want. I like to color and draw. You can use ink, charcoal, crayons, or chalk to draw. Before the United States was here, the color wheel was invented by Sir Isaac Newton.

One time I took a picture and then looked at the picture to draw it. That was entertaining and interesting. That’s what I do for my nature journal. I go outside and find something appealing and sit down to draw it. But there are a few things I cannot draw very well. That is the ocean and big rocks. Those are kind of hard because I can’t get the shape right.

I like to watch Mom draw pictures. She is an amazing artist. Jayla and Halayah are incredible too. I want to get as good as them. I practice all the time so I can become as accomplished as them. Mom said that I am becoming a skilled drawer. I keep the practice up every day.

~Unique