Swimming at the DeLille's Pool

"After him Nehemiah the son of Azbuk, leader of half the district of Beth Zur, made repairs as far as the place in front of the tombs of David, to the man-made pool, and as far as the House of the Mighty."

Nehemiah 3:16

After a week of gardening, canning, etc. Daddy and Mama took us to the DeLille's pool after church on Sunday. The DeLilles (some friends - http://www.blogger.com/www.delillefamilyupdates.blogspot.com) were gone on vacation and invited us to come swim in their pool whenever we wanted while they were gone.

Daddy and Mama bought us some really good pizza from Papa John's! :)

We enjoyed swimming around in the pool and didn't leave until around 5 pm.

Lydia and I (Kimber).

Lydia wasn't too excited to be in the cold pool! :)

A shark!!!

Having fun with Mama.




Eden





Seth jumping in.



(Lexi asked me to take the picture of him jumping in because she wanted to see if I could catch him in mid-air...making it look like Seth could walk on water! :)






Josiah running around.



Please excuse the flower-floaty! :-D







Caleb and Seth

Hannah

Precious little Lydia! :)

Eden and Josiah aboard the "Mama Caboose."

Caleb

If you can't tell from his lips, he was shivering in the picture! :)

Daddy jumping in on Josiah and Mama.

Maybe that's what Mama thought was funny...

Josiah having fun with Daddy!

As we drove home we stopped by the Polegreen Historic Church. Those of you who live around the Mechanicsville area will probably know what I'm talking about but those that don't...go to this link: http://www.blogger.com/www.historicpolegreen.org to learn more about it.

It was really neat stopping by and walking along the brick sidewalk and reading the history of religious freedom that was engraved in stone along the walkway. The church wasn't too much to see because it was just the frame with windows. After all the church is just a building until the Body of Christ joins together, fellowshiping and worshiping our Lord.

All for Jesus,

Kimber

Pictures of Some Sunflowers and our Family During a Walk

"Then he carved all the walls of the temple all around, both the inner and outer sanctuaries, with carved figures of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers."

1 Kings 6:29

We've had some sunflowers sprout up all over the yard from seeds we planted a couple of years ago. A couple of the sunflowers are right outside our kitchen window so we watch birds come and peck out the seeds during meals and while we work in the kitchen. One of my favorite birds has been the daddy Goldfinch.

Flowers are just so beautiful! :)


Some of our lavender flowers.

A flower along the road as we walked Tuesday night.

We love to go for family walks along our country road and visit the culdesac and horse farm within easy walking distance. Some of us ride bikes, others walk, and others push strollers or hold babies! :)

Lydia smelling a flower.

I (Kimber) illustrated for her a couple of months ago how to "smell," which consisted of me going "smell, smell" and then sniffing as LOUD as possible so she gets the idea of "sniffing." She caught on after awhile but most of the time she just sticks her nose right in the pollen, draws away, and rubs her nose with her hand. At least she gets the point (sort of! :).

Another view.

That's the reaction we normally get after she "sniffs."

Letting Hannah take a whiff.

Well, the pollen finally got to her! :)

The sun setting over our neighbors' (the Townsends) field.

The country way of getting around #2.

Daddy did Josiah first but he rode on the part where Mama's feet are (he had a towel wrapped around it so it wasn't so hard). Then I went on, then Hannah, and finally Mama. It's actually pretty fun! :) And, no, there were no accidents...Daddy's a great driver! ;)

Bye!

Hannah burning some rubber.

Well, not really, those marks were just in the road. I'm working on getting different angles when I take pictures, so I got down on the ground and took some pictures (including the one above).

Our domicile.

All for Jesus,

Kimber

THE Corn Process

"He who gathers in summer is a wise son; He who sleeps in harvest is a son who causes shame."

Proverbs 10:5

Two of our neighbors planted some sweet corn and invited us to take as many as we would like. (Like I've said before, we're extremely blessed with the neighbors we have!) Of course, that means A LOT of corn for our family...because if we don't use all of them, someone else we know will! We've shared the corn (we had too much) with people at church and with family. We've also canned and frozen lots of it! :)

Here's an idea of how the process of picking, preparing, and canning goes (illustrated with pictures of course!):

The country way of getting around...kidding, but seriously the little ones love riding in the wheelbarrow (I do too! :)

We could walk to our neighbors' patch, so we are very conveniently placed in between our neighbors fields. The wheelbarrow in the above picture was filled with corn when we were done...and that's the biggest wheelbarrow I've EVER seen.

Daddy found a process of picking and dumping that worked great!

He would pick the fat cobs and throw them behind him in between the rows and then one of us would go behind him and pick them up and put them in a 6-gallon bucket.

Here you get an idea of how it worked

(Caleb is that little blue thing in the picture)

'Siah in the corn!

(Doesn't he have such beautiful eyes?)

Eden found a corn!

A 5 gallon bucket filled-to-overflowing with fresh corn...right off the stalk! :)

We then dumped the buckets into the big wheelbarrow and when that was done Daddy loaded it onto his trailer and we drove/walked/rode bikes home.

We didn't shuck and de-hair the corn (so it would stay fresher longer) but we did get to canning it a few days after.

The way we canned (or froze) it this year was by washing, then blanching the corn. Then we dumped the hot corn into ice-cold water, drained them, and took them over to those who were taking the corn off the cob. Then we (using a knife or a tool especially for taking the corn off the cob) removed the corn from the cob and placed the corn in a bowl and then into clean jars. Then we put hot water over those and then sealed them and hot water bathed them till they were done. For the corn that was frozen we just put the corn into quart or gallon size freezer Ziplocs and stuck them in the freezer for dinners or soups.

Hannah and Caleb showing us their corn-covered hands and workspace.

Some of the beautiful corn.

The corn variety is nicknamed "peaches-n-cream."

The corn cobs that went to the chickens (they love the corn)!

Talk about a sticky mess! :)

Eden and Josiah always play together so well while we're working.

This is a Lincoln Log fort they built.

Anyways, that's our corn process! :)

All for Jesus,

Kimber

P.S - We celebrated my Aunt Stacey's birthday on Saturday with our family. Her birthday was Monday (the 13th)...Happy Birthday, Aunt Stacey!

Oops...Caleb's Emerald Isle Collage

"But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it."

Numbers 14:24

Well, I think I figured out that I missed Caleb's collage. Sorry!

Here it is:

All for Jesus,
Kimber

Trip to Westmoreland Berry Farm and Colonial Beach

"Mountains and all hills;Fruitful trees and all cedars;"

Psalm 148:9

Monday morning we left for Westmoreland Berry Farm and on the way we stopped by George Washington's birthplace, which is 17 minutes away from the farm.

Looking at a diaphragm at George Washington's birthplace.

We didn't do much at his birthplace because we thought it was free but it wasn't...so we didn't go into his re-constructed house (it burnt down) but just wandered around and then left.

A flower at the farm.



An orchid.

Eden

Some more flowers.

We ate lunch at the picnic tables Westmoreland Berry Farm provided and then we picked up our berries and left.

Seth eating a carrot--well sort of.....

We picked up some peaches and blueberries. Sadly the pie cherries didn't come in well this year but the fruit was still the best. I think the blueberries are simply 100% better than any blueberries I've had from different places. I like the big fat ones because they're sweet and juicy.

This is a picture Lexi took of some of the peaches and blueberries.

After we got our $100+ worth of fruit we went to Colonial Beach to swim around for a little bit.

The beach.

A seagull.

'Siah showing Daddy a rock.

(Daddy took almost all of the pictures of people at Colonial Beach because I was in the water)

Mama and Lydia.

Lydia stayed in the sand most of the time.

Lydia and Mama.

5 of us in the water.

Hannah and I (Kimber) took Eden and Josiah out to the deeper part of the water. I called Eden the "clingy egg-beater" because that is what it felt like carrying her. She constantly kicked her feet and clung to you like she was about to drown. Not very relaxing but we eventually got her to trust us and just relax.

Josiah on the other hand liked being held at arms length with us just holding his hands.

Josiah in the water.

The water was the perfect temperature - not too hot, not too cold.

Alexis and Caleb splashing each other.

Eden

The boys swamping Hannah.

Josiah bringing a rock ashore.

Alexis and Caleb got cold and so Seth started making them into sand sculptures.

(this is the hot new suntan lotion)

They were warm to say the least.

Alexis after she emerged from the sand! :)

Seth on his way back to the van.

'Siah all wrapped up!

We left after about 1 1/2 hours of fun!

---

I haven't given an update on what we've been doing lately so, here goes a quick overview!

In short, the gardens are producing like crazy.

(Hopefully I'll update you more in detail - with pictures - soon!)

We've canned around 35 quart jars of green beans and still have lots coming in.

Today we just canned half of our peach stock into jam and preserved slices. And then we canned 14 quarts of corn off the cob (our neighbor gave us free reign to his corn - ours isn't in yet) today too!

So, we've been pretty busy!

Daddy has taken Caleb to work with him every now and then to help mow. Seth and Caleb are gone today with Daddy.

Tomorrow, Daddy and Mama are going to a garden-seminar at the University of VA. We (the kids) have a little bit to do while they're gone.

So, the Wassenberg family is pretty healthy and enjoying the abundant life the Lord has given us!

All for Jesus,

Kimber