Egg Decorating

This year our egg decorating party included some of the girls from NBI.
It was so much fun! 
Most of us were old egg dying pro's, but one of us had never dyed an Easter egg before in her life!
I won't tell you who it was, but I don't think this will be her last time. 

Because I am a bit thoughtless, I forgot to take a picture of the boys dying eggs too. We were all in this together, even Hunky Hubby.

We really get into our egg dying around here. We made our own dye with food coloring and Vinegar.

We use wax, glue, and crayons to put designs on our eggs.

We dye them once, and then again, and sometimes a third time! 

It's hard to know when to stop.

Dying things is addictive.

Anyway, I love it when the girls come around. 

The boys don't mind it either.

Don't let them convince you otherwise.

God didn't give me a daughter of my own, 

but each year I get one, or a few, to enjoy.

There is always a lot of laughter and fun when these girls are around. And best of all, they are sweet young women who love God and want to serve Him. 

Plus they do their own dishes! 

It doesn't get much better than that.

Fresh Pickin's

Hunky Hubby and the maintenance boys drove through Clintonville yesterday. On their way through, they saw a sign letting them know that the strawberries were ripe for the picking. 

So of course, being the good maintenance boys that they are, they stopped and picked.

It just so happens that we had invited the maintenance crew over for dinner that night.

Lucky them. 

They were able to eat the fruits of their labors.  (o.k., that was a lame joke)

Mmmm, the first strawberries of the season were sooooo good. 

Sweet, juicy and so very strawberry tasting.  Nothing in the store can compare to berries picked warm out of the field. 

  We wanted to have the maintenance boys over for dinner before the summer got too busy and we didn't do it at all.

These are the guys that will work with Dan and Troy on a daily basis for the whole summer.

First we have Josh:

He has actually been Troys intern all year.  He also grew up at camp, his dad is the Dean of Students for N.B.I.

Then there is Ben:

This picture isn't a very good representation of Ben.  he's usually quite happy.  I think he was just hungry when I was taking this picture.  He did get to dinner a little late.

And then there is Harry:

Harry is probably the biggest country boy that was born and raised in the city that I've ever met.

Of course, don't forget their fearless leader, a.k.a. Hunky Hubby:

I don't think the guys liked having their picture taken, what do you think?

Of course they've got Dan the maintenance man on their team too, but he didn't make it to dinner so I don't have a picture of him.  But if you've ever been to SBR, you know who Dan is.

These guys will be taking care of all things maintenance around camp this summer.

So they deserved a good home cooked meal.

They have some of the most unglamorous jobs on camp. 

I believe the other day Hunky Hubby came home and told me he had spent the afternoon cleaning out the septic tank. 

Yep.

I said septic tank.

Would you want to do that?

Me neither.

We also enjoyed our first batch of corn on the cob that night.

It was sweet and good!  I'm sure it was shipped from some southern state as our WI corn is only about 3 inches high.  But we still enjoyed it!

I followed a tip off of Pinterest to cook it.  It was so easy!

You bake it in a 350 degree oven with the husks on for 25-30 minutes. 

The husks peel off easily when it's done and it steams beautifully.

Thanks Pinterest, I'll be using that trick again.

So, if you see these maintenance guys around camp this summer, be sure to say hi and thank them for all their hard work.

 

Thanks for stopping by!

I Think It's Finally Here!

Yes, I think we may be able to say it.
Finally.
Are you ready?

Summer is Here!

The last few days have been completely, wonderfully, beautiful.
Absolutely Perfect.

I LOVE summer.

Yesterday I hung my laundry on the clothesline to dry in the breeze.
This morning I was able to eat my breakfast out on the deck.
That makes my heart happy.

In the summertime we spend a lot of time outside.
We spend a lot of time at SBR.
We spend a lot of time swimming at the lake.
Well, the kids swim. 
I just work on my tan. When you are as pale as I am, it takes a lot of effort to look tan.

Yesterday, we went over to SBR and met some friends. 



Sitting and chatting around the mandatory campfire.



playing at the park



After playing together at the park for a while, it was so warm, the kids wanted to go down to the beach.

So we did!

The kids had soooooooooooo (yes, that much) fun playing in the kayaks and paddle boats down at the lake.  They splashed and played and paddled and laughed for more than two hours.  Long enough for me to get a sun burn.  7 kids, happy as clams, playing in the green algae infested water.
Meanwhile, while they were splashing and having such a good time, I was able to have some good girl-time with the momma of all these cute blond kiddo's and my friend Caiti and her sister.
One of my favorite ways to while away an afternoon. 
Happy kids and sweet fellowship. 
Doesn't get much better than that.

We'll be doing a lot more of this kinda thing this summer.
How about joining us?

How do you plan on spending your summer days?
I'd love some ideas!

Now go outside and enjoy this weather!

The New Addition

For all of you SBR lovers who happen to follow along here at No Ordinary Sparrow, I enjoy filling you in on the latest news at camp when I can.

We all recognize spring as a time of new life.
This is never more evident than when you have farm animals. 
God has designed animals to give birth in the spring when there will be warm temperatures and fresh food in abundance.
The North Star stable has it's own new addition this spring.
Let me introduce you to Jedediah, our brand new, mini-mule.

Awwwww!! Isn't he cute? 
Now for those of you out there who aren't farmiliar with the unique breeding of a mule, let me fill you in.  You get a mule when you breed a mare horse with a stud donkey.  Not the other way around.  According to my friend Caiti, whose husband runs the barn at SBR, when you breed a stud horse with a mare donkey you can sometimes get a Hinny.  But it's rare. Mule's are much easier to come by. Why are they different? You'd have to ask a much smarter person than I am. 
Or you could Google it. 
For now, you can just rest easy knowing that they are.
Different.
Our mule is unique because we bred a mini-donkey to a mini-horse so now we have a mini-mule! He's only about the size of a labrador retriever (only with much smaller feet).  In fact the biggest thing on him is his head!
Kinda like people babies.

He's a cute addition to the barn yard. 
Come on up and see him, and all the other things we''ve got going on at SBR this summer.
We'd love to see you.

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.