What's happening...

...at the Normoyles?
Posted by: Patience


Well, a lot!!:) This whole last week was devoted to doing business and garden (with the exception of a few math lessons and other little school items;). I was telling my sisters that next week when we do school will feel more like a break than this "off school" week! We had a lot of fun, so here are some pictures!

I think all of us have realized now that God doesn't intend to send any more snow our way. After a big day of work, our arms look like we tried to put blush on them (we should have used sun screen:).

Happy birthday to Luke. Happy birthday to Luke. Happy birthday sweet brother! Happy birthday to Luke!

Ooooh, yum!! This birthday boy is never tired of cake, especially on his birthday!!;)

The cake is cut...

...and Luke is happy!! We had fun surprising him with the presence of a dear friend. Daddy picked up Andreas at his house. Later at our house, Daddy got the mail at the end of our driveway while Andreas snuck into the trunk and hid underneath a blacket! Sounds sneaky!:) Conveinently, Daddy had picked up some honey products from Andreas' house, so he needed a big helper. That would be none else than Luke, the birhday boy! So Luke picked up a box full of beeswax and after a small pause, he was delighted to hear a big "Surprie!!" and see a small head peek out from underneath a blanket. Luke couldn't hardly stop laughing. He told Andreas, "That was a good one!"

Our friends the Staddons encouraged us to pray for our mulch. Lo and behold, after calling numerous tree companies, the Lord blessed us with a company that dumped two of the above sized loads and is willing to dump more!! God is so faithful. 

This is the main reason for red arms;).  Our garden looks better than it ever has before. Forget the expensiveness of straw for garden mulching, now we have wood chips! Praise the Lord!!! Thank you Staddons for sharing your mulch stories with us:)! 

There is so much to say, yet so little time to tell of it. So I'll  retire for the evening and thank God for such a wonderful week He gave us.

Psalms 113:2-3 & 5-6

"

Blessed be the name of the LORD from this time forth and for evermore. From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same the LORD'S name is to be praised...who is like unto the LORD our God, who dwelleth on high, who humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and in the earth!"



Light Bulb Trouble

posted by: TaliJoy

A few months ago Patience was haveing trouble with the lighting at her desk. She was positioned in a dark corner so we brought in some lights that would go on the wall. The letter she had wrote is the reason  I am posting

Much beloved Daddy,                                                                                          9/14/1621
There is a perdicament to your concern transpiring in the room where I abide from 8am to 3pm. It is an object of particular concern to you, given that you have the materials perresquisite for the mending thereof. There is a item having to do wiht the subject of light hanging on the wall over my desk. From time to time when I attempt to banish the light for a session, it cascades down the wall, bounding off the desk and comending to the floor. Suck a manner of procedurs has befallen me twice of late and once the light bulb had an internal injury! I would be impressively gratifies if you aquire a hammer and nail to keep it in its dwelling; after some manner of time.

                                            Gratefully your daughter,
                                                Patience Daria Quilea Bach
                                                   ( short for P.D.Q.Bach)*
                                                        P.S. I love you!!!
*PDQ Bach was the last and strangest of Yohann Sebastian Bach's 18 children. Well, to be honest, he never really existed. He was made up by a music professor in the U.S. and (supposedly) wrote songs such as "Pop goes the Weasel". So P.D.Q. Bach was a fake name, that is what Patience was trying to imitate. :)


Whoops! :(

Well I guess all tell Daddy!

A empty light bulb. :(

 

Daddy didn't find the letter tell today. What a long time [1621-2013] :) Just joking! And well a guess Patience has been "rescued"!

 

Matthew 5:16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
 



 

Our first DEW!

Posted by: Patience


A couple months ago, our friends, the Staddons, kindly invited us to their home for a family-on-family DEW conference (i.e. a Discipleship Encouragement Weekend)! We were  excited, blessed, honored and  privileged all at the same time to have the opportunity to go and visit with them just the other weekend! The purpose of our weekend was two fold: (1) For the parents to study what it means to be disciple makers and (2) for the children to enjoy working on their small farm.

We started out packing (of course;). For a large family, packing for a weekend may look more like clothes for a two week trip!

Arial view of our luggage...

 

 

Alright Staddons, here we come!!

The trip to their house was very picturesque. Mountains, rivers, and lakes graced the entire trip to and fro.

 

When we got there, Mrs. Staddon served us a delicious supper. We greatly enjoyed the fellowship over the meal. The next morning after breakfast, we had a thorough farm tour and an in-depth gardening lesson  followed by a little hike to Poo Bear's house (a tree house in the woods and up the hill:). They have plenty of bees and a dog, but otherwise, they just have plants and trees. We thought I thought they had ginnie pigs for a while, but I soon found out that we were the ginny pigs! (We attended their very first DEW:)

Pooh Bear Treehouse

"Careful please! Don't fall!!"

 

We were excited to help Micheal and family build bee hives! It was like a carpentry class, except there was less testing I'm sure ;).The only prerequisites for this class was good eye sight, hand-eye coordination, the ability to read and measure, and two hands to glue with, along with  a heart that is excited to learn new things.



Analyzing the next move....




                               

The product of our labors!!

The beautiful Staddon creek (is that its name?:).

After that, we had lunch and went on a hike up and down the hills of their property. That was *tons* of fun!! Fifty acres of property mostly covered with wooded hills is enough to throw even the best of brains for a loop :)! While we hiked we saw numerous hunting stands, plants, holes Sentry (the dog) dug out, and trees (sounds normal). We also heard a bunch of unusual stories about a hunting from a  blind camouflaged on the inside (not the outside?;) and a prolonged story about the Normolian cat situation from Tali. All together, we had bunches of fun. Right Normoyles and Staddons?

We also went creek jumping. Good jumping, brothers!!

After the Staddons left for Church, the Normoyles went on a small hike before heading home.

 

When we got home, it seemed as if we brought the West Virginia fever back home with us. Look at what happened (below)!!!

 

Well, this is the perspective of the trip from one of the children. Unfortunately, it would not do justice without saying how much my  parents enjoyed about being with Mr. and Mrs. Staddon. Thank you Staddons for your hospitality and all the time and energy all of you put into making our weekend memorable.

Donuts, YUM.

This February our Aunt gave us a Kohl's gift card! Thank You so much. With this card we got some babycake suplies to make donuts with! YUM!

Donut Supplies!

                                                      What a Yummy Breakfast!

                                                                   Lemon Donut holes

       Pumpkin Donuts with Maple Frosting[that did'nt turn out to well, we should of let it cool longer!]

 

 

 

 

We also bought some matching shirts.

Thank you Aunt Nancy!

What have we been doing?

Posted by: Patience

I meant to post this earlier, but oh well, here it is now!

Chia Seed Cereal, a family favorite. Simply chia seeds in milk poured over all sorts of nuts and seeds. Lettuce is good in it too!

Tali is our official label-maker

To the Rescue Salve! Another batch to sell somewhere.

Experimental tea recipes

Yum yum yum!!

Hibiscus Spice Tea in the making

It's so much fun to work together in a family business!

Um...fun?

Posted by: Patience

 

 

 

Giggles and laughter resonated throughout the home as four (well behaved?) people played an exciting game...

Can you guess what game is was???

 You're right! Dutch Blitz! A vonderful goot game...

Easy to learn -exciting to play

For two or three or four.

And this for sure is vone such game,

That ain't gonna be no bore.

(Dutch Blitz Co., 1973)

 

So any way, Daddy, TaliJoy, Grace and I decided to play this game together. Dad added special spice to our time together, for being a beginner, he caught on exceptionally fast!

The beginning of a game...

Shuffling...

 

Now, Daddy was doing just OK. You know, being a beginner and all can be a bit taxing in such a fast-paced game!! Then suddenly, as if a light bulb had turned on, he took off at break-neck speed. Going left, going right, (forgetting to take piles he'd finished off the table!) and in essence, leaving us spellbound as he played on at the speed of lightning.

Well, at the end of the game, we all counted up our cards. In Dutch Blitz, everyone has a certain color and emblem to represent the cards they had played. As we counted all our cards up, the girls and I were left with comparatively few cards to Dad, who was trembling with laughter. Hmmm....something is fishy!

Then Daddy wanted to play with one person and impart his special technique to his children.

The game begins

Grace is prepared for anything...

Daddy, you're not putting your cards down in order!! That's not right!

Wait a second...you're removing stacks that aren't finished yet. Daddy!

Well, I won! (giggle, giggle)

His displacement of the rules left us all in giggles and hysterics. Daddy won by card number, but used a new set of rules.

 His method worked, and his goal was achieved....to get a reaction out of his girls!  But he paid us back with hard work...

 

 His "punishment" was the breakfast dishes and he'll "never do it again"!

This one thing we've learned:

 

Psalm 133:1

 

   "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!"

 

 

Thoughts on the new year...

Posted by: Patience

A new year...
How thought provoking...
Entrusted to us is a whole other year...a total of 365 days to live...but how will we live?

Have you ever asked God what His will is for your life, what makes His heart rejoice over yours the most, what makes God our Father proud of us? I have, and after talking with a godly young lady this week, a verse came to my mind as soon as I hung up the phone. It was Michah 6:8...

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

Driving down the road talking to my mother I verbalized this verse and my thoughts to mother, then I thought aloud, "What a wonderful verse for the new year!" She agreed.

What does God require out of my new year? It is clear to me now. This year, I am to do justly, love mercy, and the one that stood out to me: to walk humbly with my God.

 

A wise young lady once stated, "After I die, I will have a grave stone. On my grave stone will be  two numbers, the date I was born and the date I died. In between will be a tiny dash. That dash reprents my life. If that is all that my life is going to represent, what is on my tomb stone, I think the wisest thing to do would be to dedicate my 'dash' to Jesus." So she did! This young woman realized that, like to the lily the glory and beauty of this life will soon fade. How will we make this year count for eternity?

 

 

2013 will represent a new year in your life. Many have set new year resolutions, many have turned a new leaf. What will you do?
Not long ago, I discovered that everything done with out Christ's help and blessing is meaningless. A life without His Presence is void and barren. Will this nearly invisible part of your 'dash' ( year 2013) be dedicated to Jesus Christ and eternal treasures, or will this year be made full with earthly pleasure and the emptiness that follows?

 

A year that is planned and blessed by Jesus Christ will be the BEST year EVER. I can testify to that.  Ask God to give you a rhema: a special verse from God's word to you! Ask God to direct you and cause you to be pleasing in His sight. Seek the Lord and you will find Him.
God bless!

Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act.He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.

 Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;

Commit your way to the Lord, trust Him, and He will do this: He will make your righteousness shine the the stars, and the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.

Psalm 37:5-7a