A Picture is worth......

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, right?  Well how about a few collages?  Will they make up for my hiatus from the blog!?  SORRY!  It's been so crazy hectic around here.  I truly just haven't had time or motivation to blog until now.  I hope these picture collages will help you understand why I've been so busy and catch you up on the happenings at our "Blessed Little Quiver."

This is our trip to the Brushy Mountain Apple Festival and then up the Blue Ridge Parkway for a day visit!  It was a beautiful day to enjoy God's creation, as is any day!  This was a great family day.  We started the day with 2 soccer games, good food, apple festival fun, a nice drive, hiking and great pictures. I just love spending time together as a family....one of my favorite things.

This is our recent trip to the Creation Museum!  If you haven't been, GO....if you are thinking about it, GO.....it is money well spent!  I wish I could have recorded my Youngest girl arrows reaction to Adam and Eve's joy as they walked in fellowship with God and then after the fall, their sadness.  She was so overcome with their sadness, she started to understand the magnitude of "sin" and what it really means for us.   Precious moments!  We were also blessed to share this experience with our Best friends that recently moved to Indiana.  We will cherish these memories for a lifetime!

 This is the Creation Petting Zoo.  The kids really loved feeding and petting all the animals.  Even little man fed a few animals, but his favorite was the camel.  My oldest arrow doesn't show favor towards anyone and enjoyed feeding all the animals, especially the zebra/horse.

These are our dearest friends that we spent the week with in Indiana.  My heart longs to be with them.  It's so amazing to me how God puts people in our lives that we need at just the right time, my how I needed them and still do.  We have only known them for a few short years, but it feels like we have known them a lifetime!  We truly are more like family than friends. 

The kids are just as close to each other as us parents!  This was a Great "old fashioned," meaning like when I was a kid, park.  They had a merry go round, metal slide, see saws, swings, big rope tree swing, cool train where we rang the bell, and a little boat play set too.  It was a beautiful fall day at the park....a wonderful last day to our short trip.  We spent every waking moment together doing something fun, games, corn hole, outings, shopped the "Rural King," Creation Museum field trip, step classes, zumba, and late night laughter (my favorite).

We returned home on a rainy, stormy day only to unpack the car and lose power for the night and most of the next day.  Things are cleaned up from the storms, power is back on, school is in session and life is just as it normally is, BUSY.

Reformation Day was this past week and the kids enjoyed some dress up fun.  We hosted home fellowship in our home on this evening, so the kids loved showing off their costumes.  As you can see we had "Woody" from Toy Story, "Jessie" from Toy Story, "Astrid" from How to train a dragon, "Mean, Old Neighbor Lady," "Tooth fairy Princess," a Black Eyed  "P" and Daddy's One of a kind....NO costume t shirt.

So there you go, you are now caught up on the happenings in our quiver!  See you around!

Super Fun Field Trip!

Whew....we had the best time in Jamestown, Yorktown and Williamsburg.  I don't know that my oldest 3 arrows have ever walked that much, but wow it was great!  I learned so much while we were there and I pray that my girls did too.  It was a great effort to get us all there, but God was gracious in our travels, we arrived safely and had a wonderful time while learning so much about our country and exactly how this "new world" all got started.  If you ever have a chance to go, I must say, TAKE IT!  It is definately a must see kind of place.  To be there and see, touch, feel, walk and talk all where our founding fathers did was amazing!  Words just can't describe it.  Breath Taking!  I can't even begin to sum it up for you, but I will leave you with a slideshow of our trip.  We took over 300 pictures, but I downsized to the best of the best for you all.  ENJOY!  I will be back to my regular blogging this week.  I needed a few days to recover from such a wonderful trip.

The pictures start in Jamestown, then go to Yorktown and end in Williamsburg.  ENJOY!

Toooo exhausted....

I am just tooo tired to fill you in on this past week, but oh so much has happened!  I will try to fit in a blog post tomorrow after my womens "coffee and conversation" at church.  I had school to teach, children to get to soccer, some had to babysit away from home, go to the store, catch up the laundry, prepare for an all day field trip for today, more laundry for an impromtu trip to WILLIAMSBURG, VA!!  We are overflowing with JOY over this one.  I will fill you tomorrow!!  Oh yeah, and pictures!!   Lots of pictures to come too from our trip today!

Apples and Fall

Yesterday was our Apple Orchard Field trip....we had so much fun!  I can't explain to you the amount of fun, so I dedided to let the pictures do the talking for me today....ENJOY!!!

 Pink Lady Apples

Arkansas Black Apples

My Blessed Arrows

Yummy Apple!!!

Her first taste of apple cider.

Our Homeschool Group that attended with us.  We were also the first tour of the season for this orchard....they got a late start this year due to a hail storm earlier in the year.  It was an honor to be the first and so much fun too!

Beautiful Sunfowers surrounded us in the maze.

A Sunflower maze.....this was a first for me.  FUN!

He was happy to find the end!!

Our picnic lunch with friends!  After lunch the kids played on the playground for an hour!  Then we packed up and went shopping in the little store they had there.  We got some yummy treats to try, apples for cooking, blackberry jam, apple butter and a few mums for outside.  All in all it was a wonderful day.  It was such lovely weather...we really felt like Fall had finally arrived.

Old Salem Field Trip

Thankfully by Friday last week I was feeling better due to an antibiotic and much rest. We were able to keep our field trip plans to Old Salem in Winston Salem, NC. They were offering a "homeschool days" for homeschoolers at a discounted price, so took advantage of the opportunity. The kids had a wonderful time and we learned so many things while there. It was so fun to see, touch, hear and smell history! I was really amazed at all they had to offer and we didn't even get to do everything! I can't wait to go back and take the kids again. Here's a slide show of some of our fun! THANKS to my Mother In Love that went with me too!!! We had a WONDERFUL day, busy, lots of walking, tiring day, but it was FUN!

Fall Fun....

Today we went to the farm!! The last 2 days have been very windy and cold, but today was just the perfect Fall day. It was nice and warm in the sun, not too hot, not too cold. I just love fall weather, leaves changing colors, the rustle of the leaves in the trees, the crisp smell in the air, a warm bowl of soup or chili, and occasionally a nice hot chocolate to warm me up. So, today was the perfect field trip weather day!!

Tomorrow the kids are looking forward to going to a friends house, they live in a neighborhood that kids often visit for trick or treating. We do not trick or treat, but the kids would like to outreach to others, so we are going somewhere else to make a difference. We don't have many kids in our neighborhood and we live out in the middle of nowhere, so not many trick or treaters.

We are carving our pumpkins tonight with Daddy's help. My oldest arrow wants to carve or chisel a cross on her pumpkin and the others want to make a "christian pumpkin." If you don't know what that is, it is when you cut hearts for the eyes, a cross for the nose and a fish for the mouth. There is a sweet little poem that goes with it and a story of how our light shines for Christ, and when you scoop the pumpkin seeds out, that's like what Christ did for us, scooping out all of our sin. It is very sweet! So, we should have a little bit of LOVE for Jesus going out tomorrow night. While our pumpkins shine we will pass out treat bags of candy with bible verses on them too.

Be Safe Everyone! Happy Fall Y'all!!!