Week 14 Sabbath Week

We were so ready for this Sabbath week! We all really needed a break from the normal! 

Monday Savannah made a blueberry pie.  The girls also made their covered wagons we had not yet had time to make.  I worked on finishing unpacking boxes in my room that were still there from when we moved.  Logan rested and played some video games and read a little, it was his turn to not feel good.  All the children finished their coloring contest pages.  Monday evening the children all went to Meme and Papa's for music.

Tuesday Lillian made banana bread.  The children went on a mushroom hunt since we studied about mushrooms last week.  I started cleaning out books from our classroom.  I got rid of about 100 books that we have outgrown.  It was kinda sad, those books all had good memories of laughter tied to them.  However, we are growing and changing so I had to make room for the new.

Wednesday we started getting things ready for a trip.  We also went to the library and turned in our coloring contest pages.  Savannah and Lillian went to Kid's Club, they are both loving it!  Logan still was not feeling great, so he stayed with me.  With November already slipping by and thoughts of Thanksgiving and Christmas I wanted to start a new bible study.  I chose this one...

Thursday we got up and gave all the animals a good feeding and made sure everyone had plenty of water. Then we packed up and Meme and Papa came and picked up me and the kids and we started our trip to....

Yes, to the mountains!  I love the mountains.  I always have.  I don't know why, I just feel so at peace looking out at the mountain views and landscape.  I love the people, they still love Jesus in the mountains, and they are not afraid to pray in public, or tell you they love Jesus. If given the choice to go to the ocean or the mountains, I would always choose mountains, even though I love the water too! We went to the Ozark Folk Center for our first day.  First we settled into our cabins, went and grabbed some supper and then headed over to the Bluegrass Festival Gospel Night.  Such talent!  The Festival was fabulous, and almost sold out(it was sold out for the 2nd night).  We fell in love with some new bands and we got to see a band Logan has liked for a long time, The Farm Hands.  Just by coincidence, the dear lady that got Logan interested in Bluegrass Gospel music, by giving him a CD of The Farm Hands, was there that night too!  I did not get many good photos of the bands, but Shane got a few once he got there (he drove up after he got off work).

Friday morning we got up and ate breakfast and discovered that nothing in Mountain View opens until 10am.  So, we packed up and then watched some Andy Griffith until about 9:30.  We then went and checked out of our cabins and headed over to the Ozark Folk Center Craft Village.  The children got to watch demonstrations on candle making, jewelry making, broom making, corn husk crafts, mountain art, watch a blacksmith, visit a schoolroom and root cellar, and learn a little about using herbs.  The children also got to learn about the world's first fidget spinner(a button and string toy).

 After we finished at the Village we went to Blanchard Springs Caverns.   I was told when I called that we could tour the caves whenever we got there until closing time.  However, once we arrived, that proved to not be true.  All the tours for the day were booked up.  However the lady was exceptionally nice and took us down to see the main cavern.  We were so thankful!  It was huge! Honestly, we might not have wanted to do the entire tour anyway after seeing how steep and slick it was!  The cavern was so beautiful.  It is simply amazing what God can do.  We also got to watch a video on cave formations and cave critters.  After the caverns we started our trip home.

The trip was really great.  Everything worked out in the end.  If I had to do it again, I would schedule at least 3 days for the trip and not try to travel and sight see on the same days.

Saturday we all slept in and then the children and I got up and headed to a local quilt fair.  We have never been to one before and thought it might be neat since we all like to sew.  We are also planning on each trying to make a small quilt to enter into the county fair next year.  I was so glad we went.  It was quite amazing to look at all the craftsmanship.  We also found some really good prices on some quilt panels, much much cheaper than I have been able to find.  I will try to remember that and save up some money for next year. I figure I can buy all the material we would need for a years worth of projects there for much better prices.  All the ladies showered us with candy and good wishes.  We got to do some quilt judging by each of us picking out our favorites from each category.  Some of the categories were antique, machine, hand, applique, first quilt, and a couple of others I can't remember right now.

After we got home we had lunch then Lillian started raking leaves.  She had fun making patters, before long Savannah joined in and they burned the piles later.  I cleaned some more in the classroom, getting ready to start back to traditional school Monday, and worked on a couple of post.

We had a good week.  I am thankful to get to spend these precious years watching my children grow up and to enjoy time with them. 

Here are a couple of pictures of the girls with their cousin from the family shoot out.  They had fun with AJ's phone while we were all busy shooting!

I hope you all had a great week!