Cherry Pie Filling

The girls and I spent part of the 4th making cherry pie filling.  We had a huge box of cherries that needed to be pitted and our 13 year old son offered to do the job of pitting for a soda.  Hello........ of course I'll take him up on that offer.   After the pitting was finished the girls and I did the rest of it.  It turned out yummy.  Here is the recipe.

2 cups cherries

1/2 c. water

cook cherries and water for 10 minutes and add the following until thick.

1/2 c. sugar

2 T. corn starch

we added some cinnamon to ours.  The recipe above is for one batch.  Not sure how much that would make but we kept doubling until we were done with cherries.  We ended up with 12 pints.  After putting hot filling in pint jars, seal and put in boiling water bath for 20 minutes.

And the Winner~~~~~s Are

EVERYONE~~Isn't that great.  Look what I have.  After reading about the give away on my blog my father in law informed me he was so pleased that he would send us a whole box of them.  We have 32 in all.  So for those of you still interested just email me your addy and let me know if you want more than one.  So if you can think of others who may be interested we would love to pass them on.  We do only have 32 though but will try to do what we can to get them distributed!!  My email is vpsmith14@yahoo.com or the link can be found in my profile.

A Fresh Perspective

A young couple moves into a new neighborhood. 
The next morning while they are eating breakfast, 
The young woman sees her neighbor hanging the wash outside. 

"That laundry is not very clean", she said. 
"She doesn't know how to wash correctly. 
Perhaps she needs better laundry soap.." 

Her husband looked on, but remained silent. 

Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, 
The young woman would make the same comments. 

About one month later, the woman was surprised to see a 
Nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband: 
"Look, she has learned how to wash correctly. 
I wonder who taught her this.." 

The husband said, "I got up early this morning and 
Cleaned our windows." 

And so it is with life. What we see when watching others 
Depends on the purity of the window through which we look.

Happy Birthday Christie

Christie is our 2nd. June birthday turning 19 on the 23rd.  Christie is a lovely young woman who loves the Lord and doing all within her power to do what is right.  She is our 5th child and has been a complete joy ever since she was first placed in my arms.  She got 4 wisdom teeth pulled on Monday (day before her birthday) so she hasn't been up to celebrating much.  The younger ones are getting a little impatient as they wait for her to heal so they can have cake and ice cream.  Not a day has passed yet that they haven't been pestering her with "when are you getting better?"

Splashing Around in the Heat of the Day

This isn't the world's largest pool but it keeps hot little kids cool.

They could spend all day splashing around in it.

Especially as the temps have been in the upper 90's.

Cap and Trade is WHAT?

HERE is a link to sign the petition if you haven't done so already or if you are 

interested in doing so.

The Marxist Attack on the Middle Class--Free Give Away

This wonderful, informative little booklet was written by my father-in-law G. Vance Smith and his good friend Tom Gow.  He sent a few copies to us and I finished reading it today.  I am amazed at how packed it was with extremely beneficial information.  I am offering one of these in a give away here on my blog.  Simply leave a comment about this post to enter.  Drawing will be one week from today, June 29th.  For more information on this booklet or to learn more on how to defend our freedoms check out the Freedom First Society.

A massive, poorly recognized attack threatens to destroy America’s vital middle class.

•   Discover the origins and objectives of a multi-pronged attack on the middle class.

•   Discover some of the deceptive tactics and strategies used in this attack, such as use of crises, controlled opposition, and revolutionary parliamentarianism.
  
•   Find out why normal methods of public resistance to this attack don’t work.

•   Find out what needs to be done to “Save the American Middle Class.”

Happy Father's Day Love

This pretty much sums up my loving husband and the father to our children!!  

Love you Babe.

Work while you work, play while you play.

That is the way to be cheerful all day.

All that you do, do with your might.

Things done by halves are never done right.

One thing each time and that done well

is a very good rule as many can tell.

Moments are useless trifled away; so

work while you work and play while you play.

So fun if you have the music to go with it.  Push play under the show.

MySpace Playlist at MixPod.com

The Men I Love

Our 3 sons enjoying a fun pose with daddy.

Camera dates are off again!

Seems like I've seen this pose in a movie or something. Or, maybe it's just my

"BIG BAD" boys!!

A Great Visit

Here are some of my favorite pics from our week long visit from our son Vance Jr., his wife Heather and baby Gemma.  We started to miss them before they even boarded the plane to go home!!

Going, Going, Gone

Going

Going

GONE. Here is our son Vance cuddling with his baby Gemma. He picked her up in the living room and by the time he got to the kitchen she was 

almost done for. I suppose her many Aunts and Uncles wiped her out

from giving her an unceasing amount of attention.

Waiting For The Light To Shine

This is such a cute song. Christie and Cindy had a great time singing it together. Cindy is a mother of 8 children. One of which is Christie's voice teacher.

Raising A Bunch of Feds!!

We had too much fun last week when our eldest son came to visit.  I'm afraid he had quite an influence on the younger children!!!  They loved "pretending" to be a Fed. Agent by using all of his 'toys' that he brought along with him.

Target practice at the local shooting range

Aaron and Gregg in "punk form"

Emma has become one of our many "pretend" Drug Enforcement Agents  (DEA)

Kaydee 'arresting' Janai for who knows what!!!

Our twins handcuffed themselves together and had quite a bit of fun doing it until Vance JR. informed them that he left the keys to unlock the cuffs back in Arizona.  After a couple hours though he owned up to having them in his suitcase!!  Darn, I kind of liked it this way.  They'll get into less trouble.

Happy Birthday Makenzie

Our first birthday in June.  Makenzie turned 9 on the 13th.  She was so happy to celebrate too since her brother, sister in law, and niece were visiting from AZ.  Makenzie is our 10th child, daughter number 7.  She is sweet, gentle, humorous, fun loving, and an all out great kid.  We love you bunches Kenz and are so very thankful you are in our family.  

Herb Garden

The girls love to have their own plants and tend to them for the summer.  This year they chose mostly herbs and each have studied up on their particular herb so they are familiar with how to plant it, tend to it, and in due time harvest it and use it.   So our meals by the end of summer should be quite tasty and our home smelling sweet.   The herbs chosen were chamomile, peppermint, lemon verbena, lavender, chives, lovage, and pineapple mint.  

Who Says a 2 Year Old Can't Share??

See the cookie on her tummy?  Our little 2 year old grandson Beckham woke up from his nap first and was enjoying his cookie snack when he snuck into his sister Aubryn's room to leave one for her.  How sweet is that?

A Look Into My Backyard

These flowers in my back yard are in full bloom right now. I thought

I better grab a shot of them before the girls get to them!!! Any day

they will end up in a vase on my table!!

Homeschooling in America

Anyone who knows me KNOWS that I am very much pro-homeschooling and I love to read articles and such on the subject.  And of course I feel the need to share with those around me as well.  Here is an article I found on The Well Trained Mind forums that I thought was really good.  I chose from the article the section I liked the best but you can read the full article HERE

if you're a fan of numbers and statistics!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Homeschooling is now a major force in American education, and Christian parents have been in the vanguard of this movement.  For many Christian parents, homeschooling represents the fulfillment of the biblical mandate for parents to teach their children.  These parents deserve our respect, our support, our advocacy, and our prayers.  This movement is a sign of hope on our educational horizon, and a phenomenon that can no longer be dismissed as a fringe movement.

As president of a seminary and college, I can attest to the fact that questions about the educational aptitude of homeschooled students are now settled.  These students can hold their own as compared to students from all other educational backgrounds.  One other fact speaks loudly to me concerning their education.  Most of the homeschooled students I meet at the college and graduate levels indicate an eager determination to homeschool their own children when that time comes.

Education cannot be reduced to statistics, but the trends revealed in this new report from the Department of Education deserve close attention.  In our day, education represents a clash of worldviews.  Increasingly toxic approaches to education (or what is called education) drive many schools and many school systems.  In that light, the fact that so many Christian parents are taking education into their own hands is a sign of hope.  As this new report makes clear, we should expect homeschooling to be a growth industry in years ahead.

Gregg Riding a "big guy" Motorcycle

Daddy teaching Gregg to ride a 'big guy' motorcycle.  Our boys LOVE it when our [almost] yearly trip to Colorado comes around.  They spend hours upon hours dirt biking.  The dust and dirt is endless for days.

Absolutely OUTRAGEOUS and UNCONSTITUTIONAL

San Diego county officials shut down home Bible study

County official interrogates pastor and his wife

A San Diego pastor and his wife have been told they cannot have a Bible study in their home. The couple says they were interrogated by a San Diego County official, then threatened with ever increasing fines if they refuse to stop the Bible study.  Read full article here.  To sign a petition go HERE.