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

Independence Day at Grandpa & Grandma's

" The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God."

Psalm 9:17

For the past couple years we've went to our Paw-paw and Na-naw's house for Independence Day but this year we decided to go the other grandparents' house.

Daddy took Hannah on down in age to Seth up Friday morning with him and Mama came up later (just in time for dinner) with Josiah, Eden, and Lydia. After Daddy cut a few of his Long & Foster homes he dropped us off at Grandma's house. We were alone for a little bit (Grandma & Aunt Amy were showing a house) but then Grandma arrived and our cousins and their mom soon later.

Aunt Amy and Amanda made dinner for us - some really good lasagna - and Grandma made the bread.

Our cousins, Amanda and Diana spent the night. The 5 oldest girls slept downstairs in the living room (lots of fun!) and everyone else was upstairs. Hannah and I slept on the futon, Alexis on the floor and my cousins on the couch and Grandpa's chair. I (Kimber) slept great!! Grandma made another superb breakfast (she never dissapoints us!) and after breakfast we went to the pool. Then we went home, ate lunch, played, and got ready for the picnic for the 4th of July.

The menu was: cookout! Hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, cold salads/casseroles, etc. Grandpa cooked all the meat for us.

In the line for dinner.

Alexis, my beautiful sister.

Eden eating her dinner.

Zoe, Amanda's pug, eating dinner too! :)

After dinner people relaxed and some rode bikes and played football.

Uncle Greg throwing the football.

Daddy throwing the ball to Diana.

Diana preparing to catch another ball.

The ice cream cake Grandma and I made.

It is the same exact one I made for Hannah's birthday party except we died one cake red and another blue (in the process Grandma got dye all over her fingers!) and decorated the top differently using 2 tubs of icing with blueberries and twizzlers consisting of our flag.

Here you see the layers better.

The fireworks!

OHHHH----AHHHH

Diana and Josiah

Seth watching the fireworks.

Seth, Caleb, Steven, and another boy that came lit the fireworks for us - they did great!

Not to be undone, Daddy and Uncle Greg pronounced the names of the fireworks and prepared them for us.

Thankfully, Daddy was far enough away to avoid any sparks hitting all the fireworks and exploding right beside him.

(If anyone has any tips to share on how to take good firework pictures, please leave a comment or email because I want to get better!)

Anyways, after the fireworks and clean-up of everything we all left for home.

We had a wonderful 4th of July and I hope that we all do not forget the meaning of the day and the sacrifices paid not so long ago on July 4, 1776.

All for Jesus,

Kimber