4H Archery

Last weekend the boys participated in our county's 4-H archery shoot. 

Thank goodness we finished before the temps reached the 90's that arrived in the afternoon. 

Checking to make sure we have the right arrows. 

Waiting for each arrow to be scored. 

Saluting Mom and the camera because he's a ham! 

Isn't that green grass gorgeous? Sooo much better than last year. 

Finally, what all the little boys had been waiting for....the 3D shoot! 

Shooting fake animals is so much more fun, and more difficult, than shooting at some boring old target. 

Now...if they'd only get old enough to go hunting for some real wild animals (yum)...this momma would be super happy! 

WATER BOMBS!!

Kansas summer has already arrived in the SW part of our state. The temps have been in the 90's for most of the last week or so. Curses to the heat because our town pool isn't open yet!! 

How to cool off? Even though we've received rain this spring the Ogalalla Aquifer levels have been dropping for the last three years, at least, so I don't want to go wasting a lot of water just to cool off. I've become quite the water miser since living in Kansas. 

I found the instructions here to make these sponge ball water bombs at home from regular old kitchen sponges. All you need are sponges and zip ties! Yip and Yap cut up the sponges for me and I ziptied them all together while they were searching the garage for buckets. All together we had these put together in 10 minutes tops! They're cheap, they're durable and they're LOTS of fun! Best of all we didn't use a whole lot of water while playing with these, two buckets kept us busy for an hour. 

We only had yellow sponges at our little grocery but that didn't detract from the fun! 

Yahoo only wanted to sit in the water while her brothers attacked each other and me! 

Trust me, I was plenty wet after an hour of playing! 

Ha ha! The t-shirts didn't last long. 

Yip kept yelling as he threw the bombs, "Who's the king now?" 

Not sure what that was all about. 

I'm thinking these will be a lot of fun in the pool this summer too! 

Has your summer started yet? How are you cooling off? Or how are you planning to once summer does arrive? 

Marker Monday - Glittery Pop Bottle Bracelet

What little girl, or big girl, couldn't use a bit more bling in her life? 

Yahoo and I made up some glittery bracelets from pop bottles. 

I cut some strips of of plastic from a 7Up bottle and taped it down on a piece of cardboard. Then we used some glittery puffy paint to add designs. 

The puffy paint dried really quickly in just a couple of hours. 

Yahoo was taking a nap so I had to model our gorgeous new jewelry! Ha, ha! 

I had a piece of self stick velcro to the bracelet for a perfect fit. 

Sunday devotions - Samson the strong man and the Jerk

My boys and I have a bedtime routine of reading the Bible not unlike any other parents I'm sure. I especially enjoy our Bible, the Action Bible, the boys received from their grandparents. It's written in a graphic novel style like a comic book complete with Bible characters drawn with superhero characteristics. 


We've already read it all the way through together and we are on our way through a second time. When we started it for the second time I wondered whether the boys would be bored the second time through or if they'd even be able to get anything new out of a second reading right away. 


Nothing to worry about. My boys are always picking up the Bible on their own to thumb through it. Last night we were reading, again, the story of Samson the strong man in the Bible found in the book of Judges.


 In the Action Bible Samson is of course depicted as almost superhuman, well he kinda was, with huge muscles and a pretty attractive personality to two little boys who are obsessed with Xmen and Avenger superheros. Samson is an easy guy to idolize! He had superhuman strength, slaughtered 1000 men with the jawbone of a donkey, wrestled a lion barehanded and destroyed a pagan temple. Wow! Pretty cool guy! 


But really when you read the whole story of Samson he was kind of a jerk! He defied the wishes of his parents by marrying a Philistine woman, gambled at his wedding and killed a dozen men, out of anger, to pay his debt and set a field of grain on fire during a temper tantrum. Samson may have been strong but he sure wasn't perfect! 


I think Samson is a perfect character to teach kids about role models and serving God. First, just because someone looks perfect doesn't mean they are.  The same can be said for people in our society; teachers, celebrities, friends and parents. It's important to get to know the real person before you attach a  heroic persona to them. Second, just because God has given you a job to do doesn't mean you won't make mistakes carrying out His wishes. Do the best you can anyway and ask for forgiveness along the way. 


Nobody's perfect and it's nice to be reminded that God even uses the imperfect, like you and me, to do His will! 


Dear God, Thanks for making me. Thanks for overlooking my imperfections. Thanks for giving me a purpose for You despite my mistakes. Amen! 

A Glorious Growing Green Garden Gives me Grins!

This was my garden a year ago during the worst drought Kansas has ever seen. 

But check it out this year!!! 

Wow, amazing how plants will actually GROW when they have WATER! 

Just take a look at the grass around the sides of my garden! Last year there was no grass. I think we mowed our yard maybe twice all last year and I've already mowed three times this spring! Hey, I don't mind the extra work as long as we keeping getting the rain and Kansas stays green. Ah, how refreshing it's been! 

I've picked Swiss Chard twice already and it could probably be picked again today. That stuff grows great! 

And look at how thick and luscious my peas look! We didn't have any peas grow last year, I'm soooo excited!! 

I'm not sure how many inches of water we've received this spring, maybe 5-6 if I had to guess off the top of my head. I know that sure doesn't sound like a whole lot, especially to everyone back home in Indiana, but after last summer's drought and hardly any rain for a whole year 5 or 6 inches is practically a flood! I just keep praying that the rain keeps coming even if it's only a little bit at a time. A little is sure better than nothing. My photos prove a little rain is FAR better than no rain at all! 

Foody Friday - Hearty Lentil Soup

A friend of mine gave me this recipe a couple weeks ago. She and her husband are on a gluten free, dairy free and sugar free diet (Whew, can you imagine!) and this is a dish they fix quite often. I haven't eaten lentils much but I really enjoyed fixing this soup because the lentils didn't require soaking overnight or a long cooking time. 

Hearty Lentil Soup

2 celery ribs, thinly sliced

1 medium onion, chopped

1 garlic clove

2 T butter

6 cups of water

1 can diced tomatoes

3/4 c. dry lentils, rinsed

3/4 c. pearl barley

2 T chicken bouillon

1/2 t. dried oregano

1/2 dried rosemary

1/4 t. pepper

1 cup thinly sliced carrots

In a soup kettle, saute celery, onion, and garlic in butter until tender. Add water, tomatoes, lentils, barley, bouillon, oregano, rosemary and pepper; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 40 minutes or until lentils and barley are tender. Add carrots, simmer for 15 minutes or until all is tender. 

I couldn't find barley at my little grocery so I doubled up on the lentils. Besides, I've never been a fan of barley soup and it turned out just fine without it. The directions said add the carrots last but I they weren't quite cooked through so next time I'll saute the carrots with the celery. The boys loved the soup, surprisingly! 

What a difference a year (or 11 months) can make!

What a difference a year can make, well 11 months anyway. Last summer Kansas experienced the worst drought ever but I didn't know any better considering it was my first full summer in Kansas. 

These photos were taken the first week of June last summer and I thought all that brown on the hillside was normal! 

(I posted about the drought last summer here, one of many places.) 

I took a photo of the same hill, different viewpoint of course, just yesterday. 

Look how green it is! I can't believe how different the two views are. 

We've had a beautiful wet spring and it's so welcome to see so much green...

....and puddles too! 

Although the rain clouds can look kind of menacing coming in across the prairie...I'm not going to complain if it brings rain!