I felt it

I was sitting in the office of the barn around 1:50, when I thought that the office chair was shaking.  I was confused because I wasn't moving it myself.  And then I heard something rattle behind me, but still had no clue.  Then the thought entered my head that it could have been an earthquake, which it turned out to be.  So that was a pretty scary experience.  I think that is the first earthquake that I have ever felt.

It immediately reminded me of a song sung by the band Delirious:

Did you feel the mountains tremble?
Did you hear the oceans roar?
When the people rose to sing of
Jesus Christ the risen one

Did you feel the people tremble?
Did you hear the singers roar?
When the lost began to sing of
Jesus Christ the risen one

And we can see that God you're moving
A mighty river through the nations
And young and old will turn to Jesus
Fling wide your heavenly gates
Prepare the way of the risen Lord

Open up the doors and let the music play
Let the streets resound with singing
Songs that bring your hope
Songs that bring your joy
Dancers who dance upon injustice

Did you feel the darkness tremble?
When all the saints join in one song
And all the streams flow as one river
To wash away our brokeness

And here we see that God you're moving
A time of Jubilee is coming
When young and old return to Jesus
Fling wide your heavenly gates
Prepare the way of the risen Lord

Happy birthdays

Happy 19th birthday to Kristen (Josiah's youngest sister).

And happy actual BIRTHday to Shane Matthew.  My cousin, Duane, and his wife, Vanessa, are the proud new parents of their first child, a cute baby boy.

The happy family

I got to hold him too

He wasn't so happy in this picture, but he soon stopped crying

He's just yawning here

Taco salad

I made taco salad last night using some of the veggies from my garden.  My plate was a lot more colorful than Josiah's, he doesn't like onions or peppers very much.  It was delicious and beautiful!  Fresh vegetables are so good!

what puppy loves

A few weeks ago this yellow, really annoying, squeaky ball appeared around the farm.  Duchess loves it!  Either she stole it from the neighbor or it was an anonymous gift from her secret admirer, because we have no idea where it came from.  She will spend so much time chasing after the ball when you throw it, and then you basically have to tackle her to get it back.  The ball is also too big for her mouth, but she will just sit there proudly with it in her mouth, Josiah was sticking his fingers through her mouth and out the other side, and she didn't mind at all, she was just so proud of her yellow ball.  And she loves to jump up for the ball, she can jump pretty high, it's the landing that is trouble for her.

She is so obsessed that she even peas with the ball in her mouth.

Trying my hand... again

I used to draw in high school and a little bit in college, but haven't for a long time.  But I thought I would try to get back into it again.  I'm not a pro or anything, I just do it for fun.

It's a beginning at least.

Tomato juice

Yesterday I finally made good use of my tomatoes from my garden.  I helped mom and Charise can tomato juice.

We washed the tomatoes.

Cut them into pieces.

I managed to cut something else too, but my finger didn't bleed into the tomatoes or anything.

We cooked the tomatoes.

Then put them through a strainer to get the juice out.

Charise: I'm just so hot.

Then we put the juice into jars and put the jars into a pressure canner thing to make the lids seal.

Beautiful, and tasty too.

Time with Duchess



Such a little lady...



...right.

Back away from the squeaky ball