F is for Flood

Yep, I missed E.  E was for exhausted.  Catching up from vacation was surprisingly hard!!!  But, I'm back for F.

Yesterday, we took a field trip down to the Mighty Mississippi River.  We had a crazy storm last week that dumped anywhere from 2-7 inches of rain in about 12 hours time!!  EVERYONE had water in their basements, and our road had all kinds of new ruts in it!  Well, all that water dumped QUICKLY into the river.

Last week it was normal or below normal levels.  But, yesterday it was more then 11 feet above flood stage!!  It rose that quickly in just 3 days time!  The kids weren't really all that thrilled, but we had to go see history being made.  I think it was the first flood on the Mississippi they had ever seen.  2 summers ago we were able to see a bunch of flooding on the Missouri, so I guess flooding isn't completely new to them.

To be fair, I have read of some crazy amounts of flooding going on in other parts of the Midwest.  Ours didn't cause any damage that people aren't used to.  While the flooding doesn't come up this high very often (they say this was the 5th highest in recorded history) these are still areas that are 'used' to or at least have preparation measures for floods.  The levees have all done what they are supposed to.  But, it's still very neat to see!

The river does not have a levee here, so there is a lot of ground underwater!  Maybe a mile or two.

The only house we saw under water, but as you can see it was built up.  

Road closed :).

The Mighty Mississippi.  Looks a lot different then it did last year!

The old bridge.  It was closed, but it used to be the only way to get across here!

They have since built the bigger bridge that I was on while taking the photo.  They had traffic going both ways on what is usually a one way bridge.

The riverfront.  Looks a little different normally!

What the farmers do with their equipment during a flood.

This is our good friend's field. I guess it will be a bit before he gets to plant!!

I know that the kids weren't too excited about this Sunday drive to look at water, but it will be nice to have a frame of reference when we study floods or talk about them in our learning.

To see what other people found for letter F, be sure to check out the weekly link up at Ben and Me.  Feel free to join us, too!

Thanks for stopping by!!

God Bless,

Lisa

D is for Dairy Farm

On our trip to South Dakota to visit Grandma for her 90th birthday celebration, we had the opportunity to visit my husband's cousin's house.  He married an amazing girl who is a dairy farmer!  Yes, I said SHE is a dairy farmer.  He has joined her in running the dairy at their home, but the dairy was her idea and she is the one in charge!

It's always lovely when you can count a trip to your relative's house as a field trip :).  We had a really fun time getting to see all the goings on at a small home dairy.

I think the kids had more fun playing with the dog and cat.   

These little ones were soooo cute!!!  I would have taken one home if they didn't get any bigger...which of course they do!

The pet sheep!  They had names, I think they were Boris and Delores.  They were so funny!

Milking!

It was a really neat experience to see all the cows lined up for milking.  DH's cousin and his wife are the only two working there and they work very hard!  I don't think it would be something I would want to do, but they truly enjoy doing it and it was fun to watch!

Be sure to check out what other bloggers wrote about for the letter D at Ben and Me.  

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!!

C is for Celebration!

I guess that I really should start with B is for Bad Blogger who missed the letter B!  But, I will skip that and move right on to letter C :).

This last weekend we went on vacation.  True, some would not consider packing 4 little children in a mini-van and driving over 500 miles to somewhere cold and in the middle of nowhere a vacation, but I would :).  You see, it wasn't where we were going, it was why.  And, most importantly, who we would see.

Saturday, my husband's grandmother-my children's great-grandmother.  Turned 90 YEARS OLD!!!  Now that's something to celebrate!!  And celebrate, we did!!

Let me tell you a little bit about Grandma.  She lives in the same house that she moved into with her husband about 65 years ago.  She still lives there WITH her husband!!  Yes, Grandpa is still alive at 88-marrying a younger man has it's advantages.  She is one of if not THE sweetest, most inspiring, women I have ever met-and you would say the same if you met her.  Everyone does!

She has 9 children (8 living), 33 grandchildren, 21 great-grandchildren and one on the way.  She has made a quilt for EVERY.SINGLE.ONE OF THEM.  She makes baby quilts when they are born (though she didn't start that until after my DH was born, so he doesn't have a baby quilt) and makes them a quilt for their bed when they are married.  Between the children and DH, we have 5 quilts made by her.  

She cooks and gardens and keeps a warm and friendly house.  Always willing to pour a cup of coffee-caffeinated, even at 10 at night.  She writes the funniest poems and has the best sense of humor.  And, she genuinely wants to listen to what you have been doing in your life.

She has 5 groups of photos.  One of all her children, one of all her children's wedding photos, one of all her grand kids that are single, one of each grand kid and their spouse when they get married, and one table full of all her great-grand kids.  

She gave the children's story at church most weeks until just recently.  She and Grandpa were Gideon's and have a passion for reaching people with the Word of God.

We aren't exactly sure how she has lived so long. The funny thing is that she would rather not be here, lol!

She told me that when she heard about the party, she told her children not to plan it because she wasn't going to be here!  But, that was the night before her party.  I pointed out that we were glad she had made it and she is so blessed to be alive.  She looked and me and said, yes, but there is a better place then this, and I'm ready to go there :).  She is right.  There are so many wonderful things in this world, but the BEST is yet to come!!!

But, she made it to the party, so here are some photos from the wonderful day!

Some of the over 200 people that came to celebrate with us!

A Proverbs 31 woman for sure!!

She got a decree from the Governor!!

Our little family with Grandma and Grandpa.

After the party, we had a fireworks show!!  Evidently, one of her children promised fireworks if she made it to her 90th birthday.  And WOW were they some great fireworks!  The town she lives in was so dry last summer that they were unable to put on their annual fireworks display.  Well, one of her children was able to BUY them from the city at a steep discount, so we all watched the CITY fireworks display at her farm for her birthday!!!  It was really, really, cool.  Of course now everyone else wants fireworks for their 90th birthday-which could get expensive!!!

We had a great time visiting, celebrating, and then attending Easter services with our extended family.  Do you know how wonderful it is to look over and see SIX rows of people all related to you sitting in church?  Blessed.  I felt so blessed!!!  

Oh, and we also got to visit a dairy farm, which I will post about next week for the letter D :).  To see what other bloggers found for letter C, check out the linky at Ben and Me.

Hope you had a wonderful and blessed Easter!!

God Bless,

Lisa

A is for Astronomy and Space

Ever since I heard about Blogging through the Alphabet at Ben and Me, I have wanted to join in the fun!  Well, if I do it THIS week, I can start at A and {hopefully} get all the way through!!!  So, wish me luck, here we go {you can join in the fun, not too late!}.

Thanks to a review product {a lapbook from A Journey Through Learning} we have been learning about Astronomy and Space.  This is NOT the review-come back in a couple weeks for that.  This is just the-wow we are having so much fun I want to blog about it NOW post :).

The way that the lapbook is set up, is that you read a bit and then answer some questions.  It's really great, because it gives me just enough info to get the kids interested in a topic.  Then, I use my creativity {AKA web-surfing skills} to come up with some great Montessori extensions!

So far, we have covered Creation {Biblical Creation}, Solar System, and the Constellations.  And there we are currently stuck.  The kids do not want to move forward, they are LOVING the study of the stars!!

I actually made up a Pinterest board of the activities we are using, or plan to use as we go through this study. You can find it here.

These free Solar System Nomenclature cards come from The Helpful Garden.

I enjoyed seeing Mustang helping Mini Cooper on these!

Charger has had all kinds of questions since we started this unit.  

And these great Constellation Nomenclature cards are from Montessori For Everyone-also free!  Scroll down to constellation.pdf on that page.

This was my attempt to recreate the constellation building that What Did We Do All Day?  had on her blog.  The little girls wanted to count stars instead.   

Charger *kinda* got it, but not really.  He liked making up his own instead.

Also from What Did We Do All Day? I got the recommendation for this book:  

Find the Constellations by H.A. Rey.  AWESOME book!!!  And, Mustang has just poured over it.  She doesn't want to do the extensions, or move on to the other cool things we have planned for this unit.  All she wants to do is read the book.  AND she is retaining the information!  

One night, she asked if she could go out and observe the stars.  Those were her words!  She drug me out and told me what she thought all the different constellations were (I need to read the book, I guess, because I had no clue).  She was also able to tell me how they went together, the North Star, and more.  I was impressed!  So, yes, buy the book :)-not the Kindle version, either!

I have lots more fun ideas to come with this unit, but I will have to wait until they are ready to move on!! 

Check out what others did with the letter A at Ben and Me :).  Next week....letter B!

Thanks for stopping by and God Bless!

Lisa

*We did receive the unit lesson from A Journey Through Learning free, but this is not my review :).  Also, the Amazon link is NOT an affiliate link.