Hello everyone!

I managed to live through my ACT on Saturday. I think it went fairly well.

Yesterday, Martha, Mark and I practiced a song we're going to be playing at my orchestra concert on the 30th. That went well. This is me, playing Mark's mandolin. Mandolin's are almost EXACTLY like violins. They have the same strings and everything. Its just that mandolin's have 8 strings whereas violin has 4. :)

Oliver and Mark, jamming, or something.

Oh my, Oliver kept sitting on Daniel's lap to annoy him. All boyfriends, fiance's, or husbands of my four sisters has had to put up with this kind of behavior. The poor guys. :) Mark, Daniel and Ryan all have different ways of dealing with Oliver though. Ryan will pummel Ollie, Mark just ignores him, and sometimes Daniel will fight him, sometimes he'll cream him, I guess it depends on what mood he's in. :) Anyway, so that's Oliver in a mild form...Usually he and Daniel are punching each other, or something.



This is a 40lb. block of cheese we had ordered. I was chopping it up into smaller blocks. :)

And this is a video of me playing "Mary Had a Little Lamb" on Mark's mandolin. That's one song that I can probably play on every instrument. :)

ACT

Ah yes, its almost the DREADED time! :)

I took my practice ACT yesterday and now I'm officially scared. This is my first time taking the ACT, so I'm hoping that I'll do well.

I just wanted to ask you all to pray for me tomorrow! It comforts me when I know that there are people out there saying prayers for me.

Thanks! And I'll keep you posted on how it goes!

Planting

Hello!

This is a picture of some of my kids in Nursery on Sunday. They all got in the toy box and were pretending that it was a car....:)

On Tuesday, I went outside and planted all afternoon and evening.

These are the Lettuce plants which we were transferring from the greenhouse to out in the garden.
Daddy did the row on the right, mine is on the left. It doesn't look like much, but it was about 750 plants (There was a third row which I didn't get a picture of).

Anyway so that's what I've been keeping busy with. Today I'm taking my practice ACT test, and on Saturday I'm taking the ACT. So we can all hope that goes well!!!! :)

Random stuff

Ah, I just finished cleaning the house...:)

Ok, Most of these pictures are pretty random.

This is Oliver...I guess reading for more than an hour starts getting to him....:)

Daddy, planting tomatoes and listening to his MP3 Player.
Today I cleaned out our Hot Tub. It was filthy.

This is the "schoolroom." I guess you can see why..:)

This is the family room

and the living room..Most of our rooms have hardwood floors. People who visit our house always exclaim over this room, because the floor isn't even. :) When I was little we used to play bowling and it was IMPOSSIBLE to play in this room, because the floor is so uneven. Also, our ceiling was slowly falling down, so we took it down completely. My mom liked the look of the rafters so much that she just decided to leave them. :) It does look kind of neat.

This is a picture I found of Sarah, Me and Martha. Stuart's in the background.

And also, I just HAD to post this! I LOVE this movie! Its hilarious ( I think). If your home schooled or have been, you'll get it. And even if you haven't been, its still funny I think!

And that's all for now! :) Until something exciting (or not) happens!

This is a movie I watched with my family not too long ago. I just thought I'd share the trailer for you! ts a really good movie, and I fully recommend it!
Its called "Time Changer"

Farming :)

Well, its finally Spring!!! Even though it doesn't feel quite like Spring, its encouraging to know that its here!

I've been keeping busy with planting and stuff. Yesterday Daddy, Oliver and I planted three rows of Onions.

In case some of you didn't know, I live on a small farm. We have five acres, but I find amazing how much we actually plant on those five acres!!! We have about 300 Apple, Peach, Nectarine, Pear, Cherry and Apricot trees...(did I forget any?) Ha ha.

We have TONS of Raspberries too! That's one of our bug products. We have Red, black, pink, yellow, and purple raspberries. :) Seriously.

Anyway, just for those of you who didn't know that I live on a farmette...:)

These are the lovely rows of onions which we planted.

This is looking toward the back of the property.
I took a picture of The Keckler homestead. Our old Pine Tree is still lying on the ground, waiting to be sawed up. The one to the right we had De-limbed.
This is really only half of the house. but for those who have never seen it, there you go!



So I really didn't have too much to say, other than stuff about the farm.
:)
I'd like to just write this brief excerpt from an adapted version of Pilgrim's Progress. I thought this was really pretty.

'The Pilgrims heard the boy sing:

He who is down, need fear no fall;
He who is low, no pride.
He who is humble, ever shall
Have God to be his guide.
I am content with what i have,
Be it little or much:
And, Lord, yet more content I crave,
because You save such.
Fullness to those, is all a blight,
Who go on pilgrimage:
Her little, and after delight,
Is best from age to age." '

Family Seminar

Today was fun! We had a Family Seminar at our church. We haven't had one for three years, so this was a big event!

We started out by having all of the speakers get up and introduce they're topics, and tell a little bit about what they were going to speak about.

This is my Dad :)

I was in the Teen group. For the first session, we (the girls) went to a tea party prepared by Mrs. Rosenberger. It was really fun! They're aren't many girls in this picture! Some showed up later! :)
At 12, we took a break for lunch. :)

I was working behind the drink counter, and I took this picture of Mrs. Martinez and Kyle. :)

Mark is SO unsanitary! :) Licking out dirty dishes!

I was working with Mr. Edinger. :) I had a blast!

I was getting hungry!!! :)Hot Dogs here I come!

Now that's just gross!!! ha ha:)

Mark with Oliver

I got this video of us pouring the leftover coffee down the drain. :) It smelled SO bad!

Anyway, I had a wonderful day, and I learned a lot in the sessions! All of the speakers were Excellent!