4-H Achievement Days 2012

Monday, June 25, 2012.  Officially known as 4-H Prep Day in our household.  It’s the day on which ALL the baking is done and many last minute tasks are completed.  We make sure all the small animals are clipped and primped.  Tack and food for the big animals is readied.  Clothing is laid out for the next day’s static exhibit showing/interview judging.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012.  Early in the morning, garden produce was picked, cleaned and set up for display.  Static exhibits (no animals today for our family) were loaded up.  Dash and I were assigned to be judges’ helpers, so we left for town early.

I sat at the sewing/needlework table, enabling me to hear Zach’s response to the judge when he was asked if he ‘liked his sewing project’.  His reply?  “No.”  Silly kiddo!  He didn’t complain at all during the project and he did really well.  The judges encouraged him to keep sewing!

Our kids’ projects for 2012:

Dash: Cooking/Baking – Pear Streusel Pie, Lemon Blueberry Quick Bread; Aerospace – 2 rockets; Crop Production – 2 grain samples; Welding – Snowmobile stand, Butterfly garden stake; Gardening – rhubarb; Poultry – rooster, hen; Rabbits – Senior Doe; Swine – barrow, gilt; Sheep – Mkt. Wether

Angelina: Cooking/Baking – Maple Pecan Cornbread, Double Chocolate Chip Cookies; Food Preservation – Bing Cherry Sauce; Sewing – dress, lace trimmed skirt, pillowcase; Crop Production – 2 grain samples; Gardening – potted flowers; Pottery – Hand formed name plaque; Poultry – hen; Rabbits – Senior Buck; Swine – barrow, gilt; Sheep – Mkt. Wether

Zeke (first year as ‘true’ 4-H member): Cooking/Baking – Brownies, Make Your Own Cocoa Mix; Aerospace – 2 rockets; Sewing – drawstring swim tote with front pocket; Woodworking – cutting board; Crop Production – 2 grain samples; Gardening – potted flowers; Poultry – hen; Rabbits – Senior Doe; Swine – barrow, gilt; Sheep – Mkt. Ewe

Graham (first year as Cloverbud): Cloverbud projects – 2 rockets, potted flowers; Rabbits – Senior Buck

After lunch, I went home with Louis!  It was definitely time for a nap.  Eric stayed behind to get the kids (Dash, Angelina and Zeke) to the Consumer Choices contest.  Dash placed 2nd in the Sr. Division, Angelina placed 1st (and was the only entrant) in the Jr. Division, and Zeke won the beginner division.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012.  Small animal (rabbit & poultry) showing began at 9:30am.  Dash, Angelina and Zeke showed poultry this year.  Dash won overall poultry with the Buff Orpington rooster and was also awarded overall poultry showman.  Angelina showed a bantam hen, while Dash & Zeke showed Ameraucana hens.  They were the only entrants in poultry.

Dash, Angelina, Zeke and Graham (his first year!) showed rabbits.  Our county had a large group of rabbits this year, making it quite a bit of fun!  Angelina was named overall rabbit showman.

A few families went together to order pizza for lunch.  We have such a fun group!  The Tractor Driving Contest began at noon.  Dash won the Sr. division this year.  It seemed to be particularly difficult for our senior entrants this year.  Plenty of stakes were bent, broke or knocked over by all.  They drove a large tractor and a trailer large enough to carry two snowmobiles.

Zeke and Angelina both competed in the Jr. division.  Lots of fun trying to maneuver the lawn mower tractor and trailer around cones and then back it into ‘storage’.

The swine show started at 3pm.  Dash, Angelina, and Zeke each showed a barrow and a gilt.  Zeke won both the barrow and gilt class – he was ALL smiles!  Angelina was awarded the overall swine showman.

In the sheep show, Angelina and Dash showed market wethers and Zeke showed a market ewe.  Dash won the overall sheep showman award.

Dash also won the overall showman award.  He, Angelina and another 4-H member competed in beef, swine and sheep (the only large animals exhibited at our Achievement Days). 

On to the ND State Fair at the end of July, 2012!!

Still here…

all of the kids have been gone – at the same time – for a portion of this week, allowing me to get quite a bit done.  The oldest two are home now, and working on 4-H or goofing off (‘said child’).  I’m not quite sure why I expect ‘said child’ to come home changed; seventy times seven and I must have a mean positive streak.

Anyway, some of the accomplishments:

1. Cleaned the school room thoroughly and re-arranged furniture.  Well, almost thoroughly cleaned.  Still need to dust the wood blinds – my least favorite task.

2. Made copies and organized more of the lessons and supplies for the coming year.

3. Planted and weeded in two flower beds.

4. Met for DRE training.  My head was practically swimming and I’m sure I left with a glazed look on my face.  I think the reality (unplanned, of course) of the baby arriving right when all the RE scheduling for the new year begins has finally hit.

5. Cleaned the basement guest bedroom, again.  And to think that the kids aren’t supposed to be in there, much less eat in the room!  Why should a mom have to find sticky ice cream sandwich wrappers, candy wrappers, and cups with dried chocolate milk tipped on their sides stuffed under the bed, dressers and wherever??

6. Planned the menu for next week.

7.  Finished sewing a summer maternity shirt.  I’m getting bigger, which means I’m growing out of some of my tops…and bottoms.  And, knit material is quite warm!  Time for some light-weight cotton.

I’ll leave you with a few pics of the youngest three.  They were up visiting Grandma & Grandpa Golden Acres for the week.  Graham and Zeke attended CVBS (Catholic Vacation Bible School) with cousins and Louis was along for the visit.

Louis, left, and Cousin, Mr. M.

I asked my mom if she’d mind, if she had time, helping Graham (above) and Zeke finish up one of their 4-H projects.  There is a very nice greenhouse located in my hometown, so the boys had fun picking out flowers.  My mom made it a fun project for them.  They’ve had a great week filled with CVBS, swimming, playing with cousins, and playing baseball with Grandpa.  The boys have also been helping with clean-up projects around the farm.  It’s always best to keep busy!

Nephew’s Baptism

The first Miller Grandbaby of 2012 was baptized on Father’s Day Sunday – June 17, 2012.  We traveled to Lowry, MN for the weekend and enjoyed the visit with my sister, Julianne, her husband, Ben, their kids and quite a few extended family members. 

My sister & her husband on the left.  My brother Pat and his wife, Anna, on the right are baby's Godparents.  BTW, Anna is due a couple weeks before me in August and it’s their first!

Grandpa Dave is a grandkid magnet.  There’s always a treat in his pocket or some other distraction to keep the kids entertained.

They are members at St. John Nepomuk.  This is a picture that is displayed in the church.  It’s a beautiful and old, but well taken care of, country church.  MN has many such churches, I’m told.

4-H Communication Arts

Angelina, Zeke and Graham competed in the County Communication Arts Contest in early June.  I didn’t attend, but stayed home with Louis.  I knew I’d be taking a few kids to the District Communication Arts…and I was correct.  (Our county is small, therefore, most kids are given the choice to go to District.  We’ve always taken the kids to District if they’re eligible.) 

Angelina and Zeke were both eligible to go to the District competition on June 13, Zeke for the first year.  Angelina competed in the Pre-Teen Demonstration.  Her demo was titled Biscuits for Bella and she demonstrated how to make homemade dog biscuits.  I did manage to snap a few pics during her demonstration because I knew she wouldn’t be distracted and because it’s longer than 3 minutes and I wouldn’t ‘miss’ anything.

 

She really did a nice job, reflecting the amount of practice time she put in to prepare.

 

Angelina won the Pre-Teen Demonstration division.  Zeke was recognized for his Serious Interpretation of “The Village Blacksmith” – one of my favorite poems.  He also did a very nice job.  It was his first year competing at this level and though he was a little nervous, he didn’t let it show too much.

 

Thankful Thursday

I’m thankful for the following beauties, which remind me of God.

Yellow Siberian Iris (top) and Bearded Purple Iris (below).

I want to say this is a Sunrise Rose, but am not certain.  And, the beans are up!!

I cannot remember the name of this hardy rose.  There are two planted about 5 feet apart and they will hopefully be trained to grow up and around the arbor to be installed this summer.  The arbor is constructed (by Dash) and has been in our garage all winter, just waiting to make it’s appearance at the entrance to our garden.

Blueberry bush (above – there is fruit, but it’s hard to see) and my simple Mary garden for this year.  Gerbera Daisy with Wandering Jew.

MN Homeschool Conference

It was homeschool conference time again this past weekend.  As always, there is a funny or silly story to go with each and every attendance (more on that later!). 

Sarah G., her daughter and my God-daughter, Miss J, and I left around 9am on Friday, June 1 from Fargo.  Our plan was to visit good friend, Jamie, and take time to eat lunch and let Miss J get a little exercise.  We did sort-of crash a six-year-olds birthday party, but we did not come empty handed.  Those kiddos are sure blessed because Jamie can whip together one very cool themed birthday party (this one was a Fish theme).  Cannot say I have EVER done that in my life!  It was hard to leave, but onward to St.Paul and St. Thomas University we were drawn.

And, then the chatting began.  IF, I’d have paid a little better attention to the signs enroute, I wouldn’t have missed the correct place to merge and thus get us to campus by our intended 4pm time frame.  No, instead, Sarah and I were chatting and didn’t catch that we’d missed the proper place to merge until quite a bit later.  Needless to say, we arrived at campus much later (6:15pm) and missed out on the first half of the Used Book Sale (which Sarah very much wanted to peruse).  Thankfully Miss J was a good little traveler and put up just fine with our extended entrapment in the suburban.

We parked, checked into the room, then headed to the sale.  Though late, we both managed to find a few steals at the sale and catch up with a few friends.  After the sale’s closing, we headed back to the room (a very nice college apt/dorm with four bedrooms and 2 baths).  We ordered pizza and the rest of the FMCHE group arrived to visit.  I miss these ladies!  I and Mary N. did stay up ‘till 1am (I set my alarm because I knew we’d need at least some sleep!!) talking about kids and other such topics.  It was GOOD.

Saturday morn began with Mass, celebrated by Fr. Michael Keating. His homily was excellent. It's always difficult to get up and at'em (staying up to late to chat, laugh and cry with friends), but so worth it every time. I'm sure his talks will be just as wonderful. He is soft-spoken and his message heart-felt.

I attended two talks by Marcel LeJuene, the campus ministry administrator at Texas A&M.  Marcel was excellent. I purchased both books sold at his booth and am looking forward to listening to the remaining talks he gave at the conference once the CD set arrives. (I always purchase the CD set so I can listen again and share with my husband). Marcel is a dynamic speaker and I regret that I didn't have time to ask him a few questions after his talks or at his table. His first keynote on Friday was for Fathers, so I plan to listen to that particular talk with Eric.

There were other talks I would have enjoyed, but my theory is that I can listen to the talks later, while driving, and I only have this time to shop the vendor hall.  Truly, the vendor hall was excellent this year. I'd looked through the vendors before going, visited some of their websites (yes, my friends gently heckled me about my preparedness!!) and had marked specific booths to visit. My favorites were:

**Shirley's Prepackaged Crafts: http://shirleysprepackagedcrafts.com
For someone like me, who has a hard time getting organized for crafts, this is ideal. The kits include 12 crafts and can be ordered separately or as a school year package. She also sells the CD's, if you are so inclined to do all the work yourself and save the money. Eva has already done the couple crafts from the convention package with Louis and Graham. It's a hit.  With baby on the way, I am considering this option for the school year.

**Remember Me:
While the final printing has not been completed, the paperback mock-up of this book is enough to judge the finished product.  It is a beautiful book for recording deaths in your family or among your friends. Each month has a place to record the name and a pocket to keep the funeral or prayer card for the person. In the back are more detailed entries where you can enter further details about the person. I picked up a set of the following:  Holy Mass Intentions/Remembering You Cards, Holy Hour Meditation/Praying Always postcards, Holy Hour Repose/Never Forgotten postcards, and With Special Prayer postcards.  The postcards are similar spiritual bouquets.  They are beautiful. The vendor talked about how the idea of offering Mass for our dead is becoming 'forgotten' and she's right. This is her way of educating. I knew my mom would love the whole idea behind her book, so I split the cards and postcards with her.

**St. George Books: Going out of business sale in their homeschool store...huge discounts. Check out their website to find 10-60% off many items.  Great deals!!

**Faith Folders for Catholics:  We've done a few supplementary lapbooks and the kids enjoy them. These lapbooks are ALL Catholic and focus on sacraments, the liturgical year, or other themes related to Catholicism. They are reasonably priced and excellent. The other item she had for sale was a Children's Adoration Guidebook. I didn't purchase, but am still considering it.

**Sewing with Grandma:
THIS IS SOOO COOL! She sold kits that included 12 projects. Each project has pre-cut fabric and most of the notions necessary to complete the entire project. I purchased the basic kit at the conference special price, but she also has kits geared toward boys or girls.  Each of the projects would work for 4-H and she has demo videos on her website (you can download any for $1 each).  Angelina has already completed the pillowcase and the she hopes to sew the skirt tomorrow.

Thank goodness the trip home was much more uneventful…almost.  Didn’t miss my turn and it didn’t make me ‘angry’.  The whole FMCHE crew stopped at Applebee’s in St. Cloud for supper.  It was a very late night.  I arrived at the hotel around 12:30am, but I slept all night which is more than I can say for most nights at home lately.  Mass in the morning at St. Mary’s and visiting with good friends capped off this trip.  Anyway, that's my take on conference. I'm so glad I went; it truly was a needed respite.

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Roomies for Convention – and this photo proves that I’m no good at the arm-length photos!   Mary N., Me, Sarah G.  Miss J, below, is looking at us like were nuts.  She’s probably right.

 

The whole crew from FMCHE!  Thanks, ladies, for making this such a great trip.