Christmas Letter 2009

December 13, 2009
Dear Friends and Family,
This year, as others in the recent past, has been extremely busy for us. We’ll let each girl write a bit about their respective year.

painting the bathroom wall

Camille: This year has been a good bit more fulfilling than most for me. In the absence of formal school and college classes, I have been free to pursue my own personal interests, and I have done a lot of that. Chief among my interests has been working on a novel I have been writing. I began in January of this year, and have completed the (lengthy) first draft, and now am working on the revision. Other things I have been doing this year are: art class, gardening, cooking, helping out with church events, and generally taking care of and improving the farm. Another thing my new schedule leaves me free to do is work for my Grandparents’ Commercial Laundry business in Wichita, which I have done quite frequently in the past months. I also bought my first sewing machine this year, which is an exciting thing for me.

debating friends on the computer

Erica: This year the Lord has been working a lot in my life to refine my character and cause me to mature. He has helped me to step outside my comfort zone and deal with uncertainty and discomfort in more ways than one. He also undertook the task of teaching me a long and laborious lesson on loving heavenly treasures more than earthly ones. This lesson I took with tears and pleadings as He took six of my precious goats from this earth one by one; but I did learn, and now that it’s over I am actually thankful for it. Next, Jesus began to teach me about submission – pointing out references and sources, one on top of another, until I took the hint, and He showed me how to deal with it. From this lesson I have found a significant drop in conflict with family, and all the embarrassment that goes with it. God has also had me practicing more domestic arts, through the encouragement of Mommy, and He’s beginning to suggest to me that perhaps my prayer life is next on the list of improvements to make – that it really could be more dedicated than it has been. I find these personal transformations fascinating to behold (though sometimes painful), for the hand of the Lord has been very busy in my life.

on Post-ConLaw

Noelle: This year, I took a Constitutional Law course through HSLDA. I enjoyed the course (though I didn’t figure I would when Mommy signed me up), but I think my favorite part was meeting and making friends with other home schooled students from all over the U.S. on the student forum, and debating about any and all controversial subjects that popped up. A few of the other students really loved computers and liked to work with them, and they created another forum where we continue to talk together, and I’ve “dragged” Erica, Calista and another friend in on it. In May, Erica and I went to a Science and Computer Camp at the Hesston College. This was my first time there, and it was interesting taking a class taught by the same person who taught Mommy while she was there! In June, I took Driver’s Ed, which I kind of enjoyed, though I got a little tired of it after a couple weeks of it. It’s nice to be able to drive, now, and I can’t wait till I’m 16! Over the summer, I read aloud The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings to Calista… and Camille, who would sit just outside the room and correct my pronunciation every now and then. I am in 10th grade, now, and it’s hard to think that in just a couple years I’ll be graduating! One thing that I’ve been enjoying recently is Matthias found out that it’s fun to sit on someone’s lap and shoot robots when they play Descent. I’m learning to play it at the same time. Just the other day, I hooked up an older computer and played the older Descent game with Calista. It was fun zooming through the mines remembering sitting on Daddy’s lap shooting all the robots for him.

writing on her book

Calista: This year has been a very productive one for me. Early this year I spent a few days in Topeka with Daddy and Noelle, and got to meet another representative’s daughter, who has become a good friend of ours. I worked on quite a few projects (eg. Drawings, paintings, jewelry, wooden crafts, crocheting, etc.) for the Stafford County fair, and won several prizes for them. Over the summer, I’ve also had time to work on the novel I’m writing, in between helping around the house, entertaining Matthias, babysitting for a friend with Noelle, and such.

looks happy, doesn't he?

Matthias turned 4 years old this past September. It seems like he’s been in the family a lot longer than that! He loves cars, trucks, and machinery. He likes to visit his grandparents in Sedgwick, partly because they live near a train track and he gets to watch the trains. He enjoys watching DVDs of the “Thunderbirds”, which is a series that his Daddy loved to watch back in the ‘60s. (It has spaceships, explosions and adventure.) He loves our dog, Clover, and our 5 farm cats. It’s quite obvious that he, like his sisters, loves music.

Michelle stays home most of the time Mitch is in Topeka except for a week now and then when I go up with him and tag along and enjoy the receptions or sit in on his committee meetings. My main jobs at home seems to be organizing schedules, delegating jobs, making sure they get done (reminding everyone), making sure we don’t overbook our number of vehicles at any time and generally keeping things running somewhat smoothly. I have found a bit of time to do some sewing and reading, especially since Camille and Erica have taken over planning and cooking more of the evening meals.

playin' guitar!

Mitch is in his 3rd term as a state representative. The 2009 legislative session (last winter) was extremely difficult with all the budget cuts that had to be made. In the fall, he taught remedial English and some computer classes at Pratt Community College. His favorite class has been a computer programming course. He lost track of the time consistently while teaching his students how to program a game involving spaceships. He drills with the KS Air National Guard the first weekend of each month at McConnell AFB in Wichita. For stress relief, he likes to cut firewood from our groves of Black Locust and Mulberry. This year he took out about 80 trees in order to build a new fence for our goats. His eBay music store (Thunder Grove Music) has taken a lot of time when he’s “not busy” with other things.

So....... to catch up now...

I haven't posted for too long. Now to catch up... again...

I'm posting this using Firefox for the first time, and it also looks like the last time, too... I just now discovered that I can't rearrange the pictures that were uploaded in the wrong order! Arg. So, you'll just kinda have to bear with me...
Several weeks ago, I don't remember how long, Camille and I went to Grandma and Grandpa Asher's house to help with their Open House. The above picture is Grandpa and someone else (not sure who he was) giving a presentation.

Mommy and Grandma (Mommy came for the Open House, but didn't stay overnight at Grandma and Grandpa's house like Camille and I did) made popcorn for everyone. If you look, you can see some falling in the popcorn maker.

Before the open house, we had an Asher birthdays get together, which is when we were dropped off.

Uncle Daniel with his present, which I wrapped. Below is him unwrapping it. Mommy had me wrap it as I have a reputation for doing: lots of layers! Later I learned that Uncle Daniel is their businesses shipping person and he told me, "I pack things better than you do!", referring to how I had wrapped his present. I rather doubt that. I'm Daddy's shipping person, and I do pack them pretty well...



Aunt Amy had requested Mommy's Litterbox Cake for the get together, and everyone loved it. The younger kids kept asking "When do we get to eat the cat poop?". It's a good thing we made sure there were lots of them in there!



Hmm... Think she's his daughter?

Heidi was trying to get me to make a face, but I didn't hold it long enough to get a picture taken. Oh well, makes for a pretty natural picture there.

The kids were playing a game (and I played too, though I'm NOT posting the pictures of me) where you are shot and have to think of a creative way to die. Here are a few pics.

Splat!


Heidi "dying."

We almost always have Nepali food at out Asher gatherings, and here it is! lol


Recently, we've butchered a couple goats. I took pictures the first time. You can see Daddy pointing the pistol at Alfie's head there, but that wasn't when he actually shot him. It was funny to watch them, they would struggle around for a while, then when he was in the right position, Daddy would pull the trigger and *click*... "bother, now we have to do it all over again!" I won't give you any more details on the actual killing...


Yes, Matthias was in on it, too. He enjoyed watching and commenting.

Skinning.

All done. Now how do we open him?

The stomachs. Can you tell he had been out grazing just before?

There're the lungs.


Camille blew then up for us.

They felt really strange, and yet so familiar. Kind of like foam and kind of like sponge. It looks just like it felt.

Camille and Erica cut open one of the eyes to expose the pretty blue at the back (which is why a goat's eyes reflect blue when you shine a light into them).

Working on this years Christmas Pageant for the church. All squished around Erica's computer in the little tiny space.


Working in the kitchen the night before. Camille was working on sewing a dress while helping.


Matthias has been learning to read using the same book we girls used. It's kinda fun to read the stories and look at the pictures. Brings back memories from 10 years ago.

A while back I walked into the kitchen to see this. The picture doesn't do it justice. Mommy had just moved the plant up there and had the light on, and it has a nice effect, especially with the uh... thingy (what's it called anyway) at the top of the window, over the shade.

Squished into the music room to practice together. Daddy, Calista, and I are planning on playing the Drummer Boy for the Christmas program.

A while back, Mommy sent Matthias to go find some pants and put them on. He did, and ended up with half-shorts!

On Saturday, all of us except Daddy and Camille (and everyone asked where they were) went to Aunt Renae's 50th birthday party in Hesston. I took the camera along... but left it in the car. It was fun. Probably the only reason I ever got around to posting this is because Grandma Holmes asked me while we were there if I had posted recently, and I had to say no. Anyway, we won one of these little "ice cream sodas" (that's what I think of when you say soda, Eli) for traveling the second farthest to get there, then two other people who sat at out table gave their to us as we were leaving. I only have a picture of two, because the other got kind of... squished... on the way home. Amy made them.

Yesterday evening, Calista and I had a pillow fight (literally!). We tied Mommy's shawls around two pillows, one each, for shields, and fought with two others, and used those two boxes for "helmets" (they actually hurt worse than they protected when they were hit, and mine got hit a lot!).


View from inside a helmet.

Soldier #1

Soldier #2

No, this isn't fighting, I know. We decided to dance to the music in the middle of fighting. ;)

Later, we decided to borrow Camille's sword for pictures.

Those helmets are so funny!

We decided to try to video out fighting, since taking pictures was so hard. We made four attempts at it, but the first got deleted, since all you could see was Calista swinging her pillow at me, but no me. So here are the three.




Second try. It worked a little better, but not quite good enough. For the third, we moved down to my room where we had more room to move farther away from the camera, so we could be seen better. Too bad it's so dark.

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have a ton of things I need to post about, and it's been over a month since I posted last (though I did start one in between then and now), but I can't post everything I want to until it's not approaching bed time. So, just to hold you by...

Oktoberfest

Every first Saturday in October Stafford has an Oktoberfest. This year we girls decided to dress up for the fun of it. Just about everyone we came in close encounter with asked us if we were in the parade or some special program. In church this morning we got a few comments, as well. It was kind of fun to walk around and notice all the people staring at us. ;)



Three of us wore the outfits we wore to the Homesteaders Tea a couple years ago. I've grown quite a lot since I last wore my dress; now a couple inches of my legs show where at first the hem covered the tops of my shoes. ;)



It was fairly cold at first (we got our coats out to do chores!), so Camille and I wore shawls, and Erica's dress was plenty warm. Calista stuck her hands under her apron to keep them warm.



There were several groups of people who graduated from Stafford High School in the parade. Grandpa was in the class of '59. The class was fairly large, and some of them walked (Grandpa included, which is what the picture is). I don't think they all fit on the float.

Daddy was in the parade in his PT Cruiser.

There were some old cars in the parade. I was kind of wishing Grandpa Holmes was there to tell me what kind they were and from what year. :)

Some demolition derby cars.

Here's a fancy modern-ish car. Yes, in case you haven't noticed, I have developed an interest in cars and especially how they work.

This was an interesting thing, a bale stacker, if I remember correctly.

And, of course, the horses.

After the parade, we went to a book sale at the Methodist church with the Hildebrands and got a few books. We lost Daddy for a while, since he left before we were done, so we ate lunch with Great Grandma and G'ma and G'pa Asher.

After lunch, there were several performances, and a wiener dog race. :) My favorite group that played was the Wrinkle Box Players; five ladies playing accordions. They played a lot of songs that made you want to jump up and dance, even if you didn't know how.

At the Ashers

Last Friday, Calista and I stayed overnight at Uncle Daniel and Aunt Amy's house with their kids, while they went to marriage conference thing with Mommy and Daddy and G'ma and G'pa Asher. I think they really enjoyed it, from what we heard about it.

Calista and I enjoyed ourselves, as well.

Goofing around in the bedroom waiting for bedtime.

The Little Ballerina.

The next morning, I played around with the camera a lot, using my ever active subjects. All of the pictures here are "edited" on the camera.

I thought this plant looked nice like this.




They have a keyboard in their basement, and we played on it a little bit, or Calista played on it a little bit, I played on it a lot bit, while the others were upstairs watching a video.

Somehow I managed to get a satisfactory picture of myself!

After lunch before Uncle Daniel and aunt Amy had got back, we went over to the nearby park (with permission). I didn't really get any pictures, except the one below, because the batteries decided to go dead, but they worked for quite a while, afterward for Abby. She took a bunch of goofy pictures. She discovered the video setting and *surprise* videoed us. We deleted the one of me right away, but the one of Calista is funny and kept that, though I'm not posting it, since the last two posts already have videos.

September 26... er 23

Matthias's birthday is September 26, but we celebrated it on the 23rd, since Great Grandma was going to be in Texas with Aunt Barbara and Uncle Jerry over the 26th.

He surprised us all by wanting a pink(!) cake. As you can see in the picture, he turned 4. It's hard to think he's that's old, but it seems like he's been here forever.

I only got one picture, because the batteries were getting low on the camera, but it worked out okay and they lasted longer than I expected.

Yes, I know this is the second video in a row, but I wanted to show an example of what I have a reputation for. ;)

He got through almost all the layers, then asked Mommy to finish opening it for him, shortly after the memory card on the camera got full (which is why he doesn't actually finish unwrapping it in the video).

Barn Cleaning

Last Saturday we cleaned out the floor in the goat pens. We rented a skid loader for the job, and I'm pretty sure Daddy really enjoyed driving it around. We also smoothed out the driveway with it, while it was here, but I don't have pics of it. The middle of the floor in the goat pen was about 2 feet above the floor outside the pen. Daddy dug down to the dirt, which ended up being around 2 ft. or more on the edges and a lot more in the middle.

This is the pile of "barn floor", with Calista and Matthias to model it.

The pile got so huge that he had to pile more on top of the pile from last time.

Skid loaders really spin their wheels a lot, and really tore up the ground. Believe it or not, the ground here was very green, covered with knee high weeds and grass when we started.

I discovered that taking pictures in the barn is a little difficult; the dust reflects the flash!

Calista and Matthias got to ride with Daddy (one at a time ;).

Does he look happy, or what?

Here's a video of scooping. It's the first video I've posted so far, so it's also a little bit of an experiment (I love experimenting with computers and cameras :).