Snow Day!

The snow we have been waiting for all winter finally came! I took this photo in the afternoon, but the snow hasn't stopped yet. It shows a good 13 inches of snow! Which all fell at one time. Thank you God! It was the most awesome snowfall ever!

My new victim mentee (is that a word?) Justine spent the night last night and spent the day with us today. So after whiling the day away doing school (because my kids don't get snow days) and other things, we just had to go outside and play.

So all this snow definitely needed to be molded into the most amazing snow forts ever built. It was practically begging us to do it. The snow was whispering to us to play. What else could we do but listen? So, we all got building, girls against boys. Including Hunky Hubby and Megan. Of course Hunky Hubby felt it was necessary to help the boys make their fort although they were making good headway on their own.

Personally I think the girls fort was better, but you could say I'm biased. After all, I spent over an hour making snow bricks with a bucket to form the walls. The pictures really don't do the forts justice. There are parts you can't really see and because it's all white snow, the camera doesn't pick up the details either. At least not with me behind the lens.

Apparently Hunky Hubby also thought it was necessary to make the great wall of China out of snow for the boys fort. So of course the girls felt the need to improve on their original design. Consequently we have now taken over the back yard with forts and unfortunately used up all the snow that was supposed to be on the sledding hill. It couldn't be helped. It had to be sacrificed for the sake of the snow fortress and ensuing battle.

The sad news is that the girls got slaughtered during the snow ball battle. Maybe massacred is a better word. In fact, I'm not sure why the boys even spent time building a fort since they didn't stay in it! Plus, they didn't just throw snowballs (not to mention that Troy throws harder and further than all of us girls combined) they used a snow shovel to throw scoops full of snow! Next time we will have a discussion of the rules before we engage in war.

The best part though, is that these forts will be sticking around for a little while. The boys will be able to get some more battles out of them.

Honestly,  I can't remember making forts like this as a kid. We'd get a row done and give up because it was so much work. This makes me really happy to have this memory to share with my boys. It was a great way to spend a great afternoon after the best snowfall we've had all year. We'll be talking about it for many winters to come.

The Big Reveal!

So here it is folks! The big reveal of Lone Star! I hope you enjoy it. I also hope you have an opportunity to stay in the cabin sometime and take a shower in that bathroom. I can speak from experience, it is amazing!

                              The boys are listening to an Odyssey c.d. during our overnight stay.

We got to be the first people to stay in Lone Star! We were also the first people to clean Lone Star!

I helped to clean too, but nobody took my picture. The boys worked hard all day.

So I took my own picture with my hardworking boys. What do you think about mine and Tate's baby blues?

Here we have hand-made bunk beds. Full on bottom, twin on the top. The door here leads to the common bathroom area. There are two identical rooms to this cabin.

See that shower head? Ahhh, it's delightful.

This is the handwashing sink in the common bathroom area.

Then in each of the rooms are matching sink areas. So that people can get ready outside of the bathroom. These are the coolest parts of the whole cabin.

Oh, here is a picture of the "porch' area. It can also have extra bunks put in to house more people if necessary.

So, what do you think? My husband did a pretty nice job, in my opinion. All his loyal helpers too. Oh, by the way, I got to install all of the door knobs myself. So, if you ever get locked in, or out, or they don't work for some reason, I'll be the one to blame. But they're pretty sweet door knobs. (We got them from the Jeske Company. Did you know I used to work there? Just a little trivia info for you.)
Come on up and see it for yourselves. Then plan to stay awhile. You won't regret it.

Pintsperation Strikes Again!

Yesterday and today I had the opportunity to try two of the ideas I've seen on Pinterest.
The first one is hair chalking. What's that you say? Well, it's a really simple and easy way to put temporary colors on the ends of your hair. I've seen some pictures of permanent hair colors and I like the look but didn't want to make that kind of commitment. I feel a little too old to be sporting colorful hair full time. But, to have some colors for a day? Sure! Sign me up.
I used regular chalk yesterday because I didn't take the time to look into what kind of chalk you should really use. You should use pastel chalk which can be found in the artist department of a crafts store. My regular old chalk turned out OK but not as vibrant as I would have liked.

I found really good and clearly written information on this website The Beauty Department. You can click on the link and it should take you directly to the blog post. Now I am better informed for next time I chalk my hair, because there will be a next time.

Here's how my hair turned out. Like I said, I used regular chalk which was not as vivid. Also, I was going to wear a black sweater that day but I noticed that as the chalk dried it did leave chalk dust behind. So I switched to grey. It didn't ruin my clothes or anything like that.

I had my son Tate take the pictures for me. He did a pretty good job don't you think?

I can't wait to get my hands on the right kind of chalk. I definitely want to try this again. Next time I want to try and see if I can keep the colored strands pieced together more. That way they would stand out a little bit better. I think this look is fun and not too over the top. I saw some pictures of hair that had been chalked in an up-do or braid and that looked pretty cool too.

I decided to add a couple more colors to my hair before I went to my Zumba class. (That's why I've got the bandana. It's not my normal style accesory. But when your moving and sweating and dancing, I don't want hair in my face. So this works pretty well. Plus it makes me look tough. ;)

The next Pinterest inspired project I tackled today was to fix the hole in my son's sweat pants.  This kid LOVES his sweats. So even though he has a couple of other pairs, I still didn't want to pitch these ones. However, the pair with the biggest hole is usually the one he'll pick to wear for the day, especially if we plan on leaving the house. I'm not a huge fan of that, so when I saw this idea on Pinterest I knew I had to do it. It's a perfect, fun, and creative fix for my little guys pants. The original idea comes from a Dutch blog called bymiek.blogspot.com. If you are using Google, they have a translator for you. It's not perfect, but you'll get the idea. If you click on her tutorials heading you can scroll down until you find monster knie (yes that's how it's spelled there) She did hers on a pair of jeans which is also cute. I would share the original photo but it seems she wants me to ask permission first and I don't have time for that.

Here's what I did using scraps I had lying around.

This is the offending pair of sweat pants. They are from Old Navy which is a brand that usually last us awhile. The really sad part is, I bought these new for Wyat. They aren't even hand-me-downs. So either they aren't making pants like they used to, or my little man is just really into playing on his knees, hard core.  Maybe it's both?

Here's a little close-up of the holey knee before the fix-er-upper.

And here it is after the fixer-upper! Isn't it cute? And funny? Ha! I think it's great. I did it all by hand sewing. No sliding a sewing machine in that little pant leg for me. No worries, it didn't take long at all (and involved  almost no finger pricking). I was able to do it while sitting in the school room, working on some worksheets with Wyat.

When all was done, Wyat was pretty impressed with my skills. He's going to enjoy wearing these pants around town. Plus I already have a request from Seth to do this to his next pair of pants that get a hole in them. I had to make sure he understood that the hole better not show up with any 'help' from him. :)
Maybe this technique should be used for all those jeans that are being sold with the holes already in them. People would look better with these little monsters on their legs than with their thighs poking through the holes. :)
That's all I have for now.  Gonna have to go look and see what I can do/make next.
What about you? Do you have any crafty ideas that have been sitting on the back burner in your brain for too long?
Make today the day you pull them off the burner and make them a reality.
Happy Wednesday!

What do you do up there in the middle of nowhere?

This is a question that people have asked us. It's also a question that I know a lot of people who live in the city have been thinking, even if they haven't actually asked it out loud. If you live in the city, or even near the city, or even in a small town, then you all think we live in the middle of nowhere. The boonies. The sticks. No man's land. Whatever you call it, be honest, you don't think it's possible to have fun in a place that has more wild animals per mile than people.  But you're wrong. Just so you know how much fun country living can be I thought I'd give you a little looky-loo into an average weekend for the Beabers. I wasn't able to capture a photo for all the activities that we did this weekend, but I think I got enough to give you a good mental picture.
Our weekend started on Saturday morning with farm fresh eggs from our chickens, and toast. Mmmmmm good.
After breakfast, the boys and Troy and Alexa played a game at the dining room table while listening to the kids radio programs on 102.7.
Meanwhile I snuck upstairs to post my picture for this weeks theme in my f/b group 52 a year - love.

Nobody loves this dog like Wyat does. And she loves him too.
Afterwards I began the 'BIG project' - oragnizing and cleaning out the boys clothing bins. This was not a project for the faint of heart. It required time and commitment.
That was a lot of work. But . . . I got it all done. I weeded through some things, tossed some things, passed on some things, and got everything into a bin and labeled. Yay! All with enough time left in the day for some fun!
Although for me, that was kinda fun.
After lunch Troy took Wyat ice fishing. While I finished up the clothes project, Tate and Seth worked on the school they missed on Friday.
Then, I took the two boys to camp where we took advantage of the beautiful weather and snow and went cross country skiing. These boys are big enough now that they have no problem keeping up with me. I'm pretty sure next year they'll be passing me up. After a grueling ski (we went up Widow maker trail, which should have been closed from lack of snow, but since Seth wanted to be first, I didn't figure this out till too late) we came back to camp and enjoyed a hot meal without haveing to cook it or clean it up. Thanks cooking staff at SBR!

Troy and Wyat came in from ice fishing in time to eat a bite and then Troy took the boys home so I could stay at camp and play animal ball with my girl, Justine and all the other students. If you don't know what animal ball is, that's too bad. It is so much fun! You need ice and enough people to form two teams. It's a vigorous, wild, sometimes violent(although not intentionally) and fun game. This was only the second time I have played and we had a long game, about 1 1/2 hours. It's a great workout with all the running and sliding on your knees and getting up after you fall, and wrestling the ball away from your opponent. You always get sweaty and hot and have a jolly good time. My team didn't win, but that's ok., whp's really counting.  By the time animal ball was over and after Alexa and I went to the kitchen with Brook for a yummy cranberry muffin, it was time for bed.
On Sunday morning I woke up and had to remind myself that I really did have a lot of fun the night before because the muscles in my legs were so sore I thought I might fall getting out of bed. Oh the pain of playing.
We had pancakes, went to church, ran our errands, and came home in time for lunch before our Community Group (a.k.a Bible study). The sun was shining brilliantly, it was a lovely drive home. Sometimes I feel sad for people who never have an opportunity to drive through the countryside.  Or even people who only have a 5 minute drive to everywhere they want to go. Sometimes driving is so enjoyable. Admittedly, sometimes it's not.  After our Bible study, it was time to go get wood to fill the wood room. We heat our house with wood, for those of you who didn't know that.

Here are the two oldest boys slaving away helping to fill the trailer. We all try and pitch in and help around here. Even Alexa helps when she's here to visit. Since we were down at the barn (some of you will be surprised to learn this piece of information since you can't see it from the house) Troy decided to get a couple of the 'toys' running to keep them in good working condition.

Here's a picture of the barn. It's not really a barn, since we have no animals. It's really a large storage shed. It came with the property when we bought the house and it does come in handy. Especially for keeping the wood nice and dry under the lean-to on the other side.

We've kinda been storing this little 4-wheeler for camp. Since we have it, we might as well keep it in good running order. Wyat rides it like a pro especially for being only 5 years old.

Oh look, here's Troy and I. Aren't we cute?

Alexa thought it would be fun to take the mini bike for a spin.

Look at the good job the boys did filling that trailer! We helped them of course. We wouldn't make them do all that by themselves .  . . yet.

And Annie did what dogs love to do. Run around and chew on sticks.

And get snow baths from one of her favorite boys.

The best part of the afternoon is that the fun didn't end here. After enjoying some time outside on what really was a beautiful day, we ate dinner and then had some more company come over! Justine and Ben (who are NBI students) and Ben's brother B.J. and their friend Dalton, all came over to play games. We sipped on tea (tried at least 4 different flavors), played Spot It, Jenga (by the way, boys cheat!), wii golf, and Bananagrams. We teased each other, we laughed, and we had a fun night. By the time they all left, I was exhausted.  Wouldn't it just figure that Alexa thought it was a good time to wrestle? What a girl. Instead I fell into bed for a good nights sleep, ready to get back to the work of home managment and schooling my kiddo's in the morning. 

There you have it, basically a typical weekend in the Northwoods. Doesn't sound so boring and wierd afterall, does it? Well, maybe wierd. But really, there's no getting around that.

What did you do this weekend? I'd love to hear about it. I'm already gearing up for next weekend. We'll be off to the water park to spend some time with the family! Have a good week!

Sneak Peek at Lone Star

For those of you who are Silver Birch Ranch or Nicolet Bible Institute fans, this post is for you. Most of you know that one of the cooks cabins, Lone Star, was flattened by a rather huge tree this summer during a crazy summer storm that swept through the area. I can't seem to find a picture of the flattened cabin anywhere, even though I know most of the 300+ people at camp that week took pictures of it. Since this fall, Hunk Hubby and his faithful helpers have been busy, busy, busy rebuilding  the cabin. Here is the outside of the cabin as it looks today:

It's a little bit bigger, and it is facing a different direction than the old cabin.  The inside of the cabin isn't completely done yet, but I thought I would give you a sneak peak into what is going on inside. I'm not going to let you see the big picture until it's complete. However, I'll give you some close ups of the details. I don't want to spoil the fun of the big reveal when it's all done. So, are you ready? Here we go . . .

No, I'm not going to tell you what everything is and where it's at in the cabin. You'll have to wait for the big reveal. You can anticipate some pretty unique and awesome elements in this cabin. We wanted to go all out and make this cabin really unique. I say we, because Hunky Hubby let me help out with choosing some of the decor for the cabin. It should be all put together in about a week or two. It's going to be really cool. So keep watch, I'll post again when it's all done. (except the outside, that won't be finished until this summer)

Maybe you should think about coming up for a visit and seeing it for yourself. The pictures won't do it justice. It'll be much better in person.

Happy Valentine's Day

We celebrate V-day here at the Beaber house. No we don't do chocolate and roses but we do have heart shaped food. Hunky Hubby is the breakfast chef in this house. Mmmm didn't he do a fine job?

This year, even though there were a thousand cute ideas on Pinterest, we restricted the heart shaped food items to pancakes. Which the boys loved. Which is really why celebrating Valentine's Day is so much fun. 
We also usually get the boys a little gift. This year, because the two older boys have been burning through paper on drawing after drawing after drawing, they each got sketch books. Seth has already used up about five pages in his.

 I also made them each a beaded book mark.  I made them from the bead stash of a friend of mine, and in the bead stash I found some little medallions that had owls on them! And there were three of them! And she said I could use them all! Perfect!

Tate noticed the owls right away and pointed it out to his brothers. They all got excited about them. It was fun that Tate looked at his bookmark close enough to notice this small, but special detail without me having to point it out. He is probably the most observant one of the boys. We celebrated the rest of the day with friends that came over for a visit. I wanted to make a cute Valentine's Day banner and decorate (using some of those cute ideas on Pinterest) but I totally dropped the ball on that. And even though we didn't eat anymore heart shaped food, I usually try and keep our lunch special by making as many things red or pink as possible. My friend actually brought over red napkins, plastic silverware, and table cloth. So even though I dropped the ball on decorations, it still worked out and looked festive. Then we let the kids decorate book marks with a valentines theme and make some cards for their friends.
It was a fun day. Plus, I was reminded of what sweet boys I have when they each thanked me and their Dad three or four times for their gifts. It's so much fun to give them things when they have thankful heart attitudes.
Now you are probably asking what I received for V-day. Well this is what my little boys did for me:

Sweetest. Gift. Ever. Needless to say I went for the deluxe. And the foot rub. And the scalp massage.
And they did a great job. I have the sweetest son's.
Hunky Hubby gave me a sweet card (that I will not be sharing with you) and a necklace (not diamond, that's not how I roll). Plus we went out to eat with one of our 'adopted' daughters as a family tonight. After 4 false attempts, we finally found a restaurant that was open and serving (this seems to be a valentines night tradition for us). The sweetest thing was that our 'daughter' treated us to dinner! Nice!
I am greatly blessed. Today was a reminder of how much love surrounds me.
I guess that's why I like to celebrate this silly holiday.