Bowling for a Birthday

West turned seven this week.  It's a hard thing for me to imagine, not that it seems to be hard "on" me, it is just hard to believe.  On his birthday we went out for supper and came home for some chocolate cake and some presents, on Friday The Rooster and I took cupcakes up to the school so he could share some with his class, and today we went bowling.  He invited a few friends, we all loaded up in the car and headed down to the bowling alley here on post.  I was surprisingly pleased with it actually.  We were there for 2 hours which isn't exceedingly long and we got a HUGE pizza and a never-ending pitcher of soda.  There were 6 kids playing and they all did very well; it's hard to take a large ball (some bigger than your own head) and launch it down the alley, not so gracefully most of the time, and try to knock as many of those elusive pins over clear down at the other end.  West managed to win the first round and there was cheering all around.  In fact there was cheering by everyone on almost every turn.  They all got really into it and spent a lot of time watching to see how many pins had actually fallen over.  For the most part they all sat and waited for their turn and cheered when pins fell and oood and awwwd when they didn't.  West even got a strike on one of them!  Towards the end (after 2 pitchers of soda had been drank) they were starting to run around and get kind of crazy, I thought maybe we were going to have to take them across the street and run them around the track a couple of times before we took them home (ha).  We didn't though, we just piled back into the car and dropped kids off and came in for a sleep over with one little boy.  Ruby also got a friend to spend the night so fun was had by all into the wee hours of the morning...
Tomorrow I will have to ask West if he feels any older yet, after almost a week of celebrating he should!

Road to War

The first bag is gone, the uniform has changed, our living room has exploded at least three times... but amongst it all we are still managing to find some peace to drink some coffee and enjoy each other before the day actually arrives.

Not quite there yet but getting close

Sprouts

About 2 days in

About 3 days in

Laying out to dry

We have sprouts!

I have wanted to try growing sprouts for a long time, in fact I received 3 bags of sprouts to start for Christmas LAST year.  Then life got in the way and they got put in the back corner and just here recently I discovered them again.  I looked online how to grow sprouts (you know? youtubed it!)  and I have to say I was a bit intimidated.  Everyone seemed to have their own way of doing it, some say you have to soak them this long or this long, some say you have to rinse them this amount of times per day or not...
I felt overwhelmed, not really sure where to start really.  I knew it was easy, I just had to get past that first step.
So I shut off the internet and walked away.  I knew I needed a jar and I needed a screen of some sort to keep in the top of the jar for easy rinsing and draining.  I have seen jars and kits for sale at the local Health Food's Store (for upwards of $20) and knew what I needed and also knew I could make it for less at home if I could just find the right stuff.  I looked around at Lowe's, thought maybe I could get a screen patch and use that but didn't want to spend that much money.  I came home and thought about it for a few days.  I looked one more time on the internet looking for benefits of eating sprouts, how to eat them and recipes and things.  I remembered I had cheese cloth from making yogurt cheese awhile ago and thought that would work perfectly!  I was right.  I have the jars, I have the round part of the lid and so I just cut a square big enough to cover the top of the jar and put the lid on!  I looked at the front of the bag the sprouts came in and there were directions right there telling me how long to soak them for, how many times to rinse them in a day, and how long until they are ready.
I did all three of the ones got: Adzuki Beans, Broccoli, and a Spice Mix from Territorial Seeds.
This one just happens to be the ones that sprouted the fastest.  This one is the Spicy Mix.
They are pretty cool, they start as this little tiny bit in the bottom of the jar and over the course of a soaking, a few days of rinsing and draining and letting them sit they start to FILL the jar.
I am currently waiting for the other 2 to be ready to eat, they are coming along but need a couple more days.

Adzuki Beans

Broccoli 

Can't wait to try these too!

WORMS!!!

We have worms!

Or to be more precise, we have Red Wigglers.  These little wiggly things are working hard turning my compost into wonderful plant growing dirt.
Or that's the idea and the hope in any case!

We have never done this before so we are definitely still learning, but it is a lot of fun to say the least.  Even the kids are having fun doing it.  We are keeping them in the shed for now until it really starts to warm up and we can get a lid for our container so the neighborhood cats don't get into it.

We started them off in the bucket on the left, but by the time we got some food for them to eat on, some sand to help them digest, and some dirt to help keep them warm while they are working the bucket was already half full.  We thought maybe they needed some more room to spread out.  There are 100 of them in there after all.

So a friend of mine happened to have the container on the right she needed to get rid of so we took it off her hands!

Much better if I do say so myself!  I just hope they worms like it!

Man Work

The Rooster and West have been doing Man Work!! 

Nothing I love better than men doing Man Work!  Seriously, who doesn't love it?
They are doing a pretty dang good job too if I do say so.

Barquentine Peacemaker

This ship has been docked in Savannah since October sometime.  They offer free tours and we finally were able to catch them when they were open.
What a fun and amazing thing to experience.  The people who run the ship actually live on it as well.  The Peacemaker is their home and their money-maker.  You can check out their web-site to see their story and see all the places they have been and why they are doing what they are doing.
They are currently docked in Savannah for the winter I believe which means we will get to see this beauty whenever we head downtown.
This is another one of those things we would not be able to see or do without the Army having sent us here, one more reason to be thankful for this venture we are one at the moment.

Verse of the Week

As I go through my week I want to be reminded of where I need to be, and where I need to be headed.  This weekly verse is my way of looking in that direction.

"I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditation on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious -- the best not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse."  Philippians 4:8 (The Message)