Some 30th Birthday Pictures...

Here's some pictures...I survived turning 30, it was touch and go for a while and we didn't think I was going to make it. :)

Notice my new necklace, that was a birthday present. THANK YOU HERB & MOM!
(Jewelry is a natural healing agent right?!~Well it helps with the turning 30 blues,
placebo or not!)

This was yummy...
One of my buds...
SCC...Snake catching crew
Alanah stealing the guests shoes...good taste Alanah, that would have been the ones I picked! :)
Cowboy Grandpa and his little property buddy, Alanah.

Uncle Mike & Aunt Babs...Thanks for the Mineral Make-up!! LOVE IT!!
This is me opening up my birthday bling, bling.
Cowboy Cadillac...Grandpa was giving all the kids rides around the property, this was a big hit. Last head count was 10 kids!!
Cute picture of Grandma and Kaianah
The kids were having so much fun!!!!!

Mr. & Mrs. Bestest Realtor...Thanks for the present, LOVE IT!! You guys are great...
T & K...Thanks for the yummy soap!! (Yeah, she's super talented and MADE me goat milk soap)

Yeah, so these two model for "Couples Magazine" j/k Cute picture A&T
This is my Uncle Rob & Aunt Alice...Thanks for coming and for gift card & tea kettle replacement. (Tea kettle is a long story for a different time. :) I was glad you were here!!
K&J....(they look familiar from the chicken butchering posting, backpacking posting etc.) Thanks for coming guys and for the Moxie Java card. You guys are awesome friends!!

Me with the mug the Potter's sent, THANKS GUYS!!
US...
CHOW TIME!! Thanks for all the food everyone, it was great!! This is Sean, then Jon to the left, Ashley in the back, and Steph & Jill on the bench.
Steph & Jill with little Lauren in front...
I needed help opening the presents...that's where Alanah comes in.

THANK YOU to a few of you that sent items in the mail...You were missed!!

Grandma & Grandpa C.

The Barba's

Gran AKA Linda Davis

My brother Kevin & Lindsay (soon to be sister in law June '09)
The Potters

Jed & Ruth

Nana & Papa D

Thanks for all the Happy Birthday emails, text messages and calls, you all made me feel very loved!

Portrait of a Godly Woman

A wife of noble character who can find?

She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value.

She brings him good, not harm all the days of her life.

She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands.

She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar.

She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family and portions for her servant girls.

She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.

She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks.

She sees that her trading is profitable and her lamp does not go out at night.

In her hands she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers.

She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy.

When it snows, she has no fear for her household, for all of them are clothed in scarlet.

She makes coverings for her bed; she is clothed in fine linen and purple.

Her husband is respected at the city gate, where he takes his seat amoung the elders of the land.

She makes linen garments and sells them, and supplies the merchants with sashes.

She is clothed with strength and dignity, she can laugh at the days to come.

She speaks with wisdom and faithful instruction is on her tongue.

She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.

Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her:

Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

Give her the reward she has earned and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

Proverbs 31:10-31

Open & Candid (for me)

My sad reality is I'm turning 30 this weekend, I thought I could handle this birthday with class and dignity and the truth of the matter is I can't...the girl inside me wants to throw and fit and say "Because, I don't want to!" Over the last month or so I've heard lots of people say, "Well, at least you aren't turning ___ like me." Just so you know, THAT DOESN'T HELP!! :)

I now have one of these in my house...yep, no getting around it now. I have a mug that says "30" on it. This was sent from Joe & Melanie. THANK YOU JOE & MEL! (Joe is like Dusty's brother...they grew up together and are best friends.)

As I get ready to say good bye to my 20s I would like to recap just some of what the 20s represent for me...

~We got married in my 20s
~We bought our first tiny condo in California in my 20s
~I made lasting, true friends of a lifetime in my 20s
~We moved from California to Idaho in my 20s
~We built a house on land in my 20s
~We started our more natural lifestyle in my 20s
~Learned how to garden, raise chickens, cows, harvest, perserve food etc.
~Learned and are still learning how to rely on God, how to look to Him for everything and how to have peace that passes all understanding.
~I learned so much in my 20s that it's hard to imagine learning more in my 30s

Believe me, my 20s weren't all good, we definitely had our rough moments...

~Finding out I had skin cancer and undergoing surgery (awake because they couldn't put me under while I was pregnant & didn't feel we could wait until the baby was born)
~Finding out 3 of us had Lyme Disease & the intense treatment.
~Death of my Grandpa & Dusty's Grandpa
~Dusty being unemployed for 1.5 months when we moved to Idaho.
~Unexpected pregnancies (blessings now but a little rough in the beginning, for me, not Dusty, he's always been very excited)
~My brother serving in Iraq
~Dusty attending a live-in "school" for 10 weeks while I'm at home with all the little ones.
~Finding out my Mom had breast cancer.

With this time of reflection does come with the thoughts of all the things I didn't do and the goals and hopes for the future. I'll spare you the "coulda, shoulda, woulda" partly for your sake but mostly for mine...GOOD BYE 20s and WELCOME 30s

Off-Grid For A Day

In an attempt to teach the little ones about electricity and the value of a dollar the Davis house went semi off-grid yesterday. Of course I didn't think of this until after my morning coffee and email check. *wink, wink* (How convenient) It was cold cereal for breakfast...sandwiches & melons from the garden for lunch. Fruit leathers that we made the day before for snacks.
We taped all the light switches in the house. (Since 60% of turning on a light is habit)
No school DVD's today so they are doing school all together at the kitchen table. Yes kids, the laptop runs on electricity so no computer for mom today~yes the same applies for Bionicle.com

Alanah was feeling left out so she is doing her "school" at the little table. Coloring 101 is the class she is taking...very advanced course from Davis University.
We took things a step further and implemented the saying "if it's yellow keep it mellow, if it's brown flush it down" (for your benefit I didn't take a picture of this) ha,ha The kids woke up this morning and asked if they can flush the toilet today. We heated all of Kaianah's bottles from hot water in a thermos. (I couldn't get away with anything with Austin near by all day) Austin caught me using the electric dust pan that links to the central vac system and he "called" me on it. "Mom, aren't you using electricity right now!"

All in all it was a fun experiment.

Angels in Idaho

This is going out to 3 different families within our family, you know who you are! (In case you aren't sure if I'm talking to you, here are the initials of the names I'm talking about.

(JF & HF~~ JC & MC~~ JD & RD)

Thank you for doing the things you do...

You always lend a helping hand

Your generosity is so much appreciated.

You guys have given us a special gift. We are eternally grateful, and cannot say thank you enough.

The two little words "Thank You" truly aren't enough and we hope to one day be able to give back to you like you do for us.

We don't have the adequate words to express the appreciation and gratitude,

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

We are so, so, so blessed to have all of you and can't wait to see everyone very soon! :)

Love,

Dusty & Leia

Fruit Leathers~~YUMMY!!

Today we made Peach Fruit Leathers, AKA Fruit Roll-Up's. It's soooo easy, that I can't believe we buy these! First, cut the peaches in half and remove the pit. Throw about 7 peaches into the Vita Mix and mix them up until they are liquid.

Looks like this...yes, peel and all.
Next, spread the peaches onto the dehydrator sheet...
We have the Lexus of the dehydrators (thanks to Dusty's mom) The Excalibur
We set the temperature for 115 degrees (to preserve the nutrients and not cook all the good stuff out of the peaches, it's actually considered RAW) About 12 hours later it looks like this and peels right off the sheet just perfectly. If these lasted longer than a day in our house we might put them into food saver bags, but they don't, the kids eat them up right away! It's a BIG hit around here. If you didn't want the raw version, these would have been ready in about 3 hours and you would have set the temp for 134-145 degrees. (Not as healthy as raw but much healthier than anything in the store!) People will tell you that you need to add lemon to prevent it from turning colors but we don't and never have, it's just plain fruit. This works for apples, pears, peaches etc.

MASS PEACHES!!

We have peaches coming out our ears! My mom and I spent most of yesterday processing peaches. By the end of the day it didn't really look like we had even dented the pile of peaches.
We peeled, sliced, and diced peaches then used the food saver and sealed them up in preparation for the "Big Freeze". The peaches new home is now in the freezer in the garage. This is a picture of my mom and I at her house. The sprayer bottle sitting on the counter contains lemon juice to help with the peaches NOT turning brown. We also made about 4 cobblers this week, and peach syrup (that was SOOO good, we drizzled over the top of one of the cobblers)
Then we made freezer jam...until we ran out of jars. We also dehydrated the peaches, yummy!
Then we made baby food for when Kaianah is ready to start on fruits. (or any food for that matter!) It really helps having all the kitchen appliances to make the process easier...our little helpers were the Vita Mix, Champion Juicer, Excalibur Food Dehydrator & The Food Saver, we couldn't have done without you guys!! :)

Wife Song

This video was sent to me from a friend, it's pretty funny. It will definitely bring a smile to your face or make you laugh. My husband is guilty of a few of these and my grandma told me a story of my grandpa giving her a gym membership as an anniversary gift once. Pretty funny stuff... :) **Remember to turn off the music at the bottom of the blog**

Early Birthday Present

I got an early birthday present from my mother-in-law and I have to say, she did GREAT this year!! She got me a 2 year subscription to Backwoods Home Magazine, plus a book on raising chickens. I've been really, really been wanting this...THANK YOU SOOO MUCH LINDA!!!
The magazine is full of practical ideas for self-reliant living, they cover in "how to" style topics like gardening, making bread, canning, food storing, sensible energy solutions, homemade cloth diapers and the list goes on and on. At the risk of sounding like a child of the 80's it's a totally awesome magazine!! :)

A Game of Chance & A Chance to Socialize

Tonight kicked off the start of another Bunco season. This is my third year playing Bunco and I love it! It's my once a month escape to get together with 12 other homeschooling moms. It's a dozen women playing a simple dice game each month, mindlessly rolling while we chat about family, kids, homeschooling, vacation plans and whatever else we end up talking about plus food, everyone brings a dish to share. Basically, it's a game of fellowship and I love that!!

What about socializing?

We had a homeschoolers park day about a week ago. The kids just love these, most of our kid's friends attend. It's fun for me to because I get to hangout and visit with my friends and don't have to worry about entertaining the kids, providing snacks or cleaning my house, it's a nice break! :) I actually remembered my camera for this park day...
This is my friend Kathy and her son Thad with Alanah in front of them.
Just to the side of the park is this area, AKA "Boy Fun Land". It's loaded full of SBT's, which is short for the 3 basics of a fun park day...Sticks, Bugs & Trees! Austin is the one kneeling down with the dark pants on.

Alanah with her wild and crazy hair.
This is Alanah's little buddy, his name is Thad. The two of them are only 9 weeks apart in age. When Alanah is looking for Thad she says "Where's MY Thad?" (It's hilarious)
Siah coming down the slide.

Noah being silly, as usual. That is his favorite shirt, he always wants to wear it. I'm not sure why he's drawn to it...is it the bright red, the dalmation dog on the front or what?? It was passed down to us from a friend up here.

Idaho Beaches

We've really been enjoying our Idaho beaches this year. Our favorite spot is along the Payette River. We headed up this last weekend with some friends. We just can't get enough of this place!! Here's some pictures...
Do you see that guy in the background on the rock? The kids thought he was a pirate because of the bandanna on the head. Funny huh?
Dusty & Kaianah just kickin' it.
Jim isn't practicing his karate moves, he's in the middle of telling us a story! HIYAH!!

Kari & Kyle just hangin' out

This is a funny video on homeschoolers...we got rid of our white van! :) Before you push the arrow AKA the play button, you'll have to go down to the bottom of the blog and push the "stop" button on the play list or the music will play over the video.

Blessing Sale

We had a very successful garage sale today. Especially since we sold the majority of the "big" items during the week. Today was successful but not without stress. I joked around about how funny it would be to watch me try to pull off a garage sale alone and juggling 5 kids, well I should have known better than to joke about that because it happened! Dusty got called into work and I had to put on the garage sale on without him. Lucky for me a friend came over and lent a hand, if it wasn't for her the day could have ended in tears...but instead it ended in counting our cash!! :) We made $348.00 today, and we truly believe that God brought in all those buyers. We had a garage sale one other time and made less than $100.00
Here's a little idea of what we had going on today...I couldn't get back far enough to get it all in the picture.

SELLING OUR HOUSE!!

We are selling the house! No, not really, just kidding, but we are selling a ton of things in the house, no, not the kids...Dusty and I are preparing for a massive garage sale next Saturday.

Usually Dusty works on Saturdays but he took the day off, because, well, I truly can't do the sale by myself with 5 kids to watch at the same time! It might be funny to see me try...hee,hee

We've been on a selling role around here for the last couple weeks. We sold our big van, our camping trailer, a dresser, table, big framed mirror & some kid stuff. God has blessed us with providing buyers for these items, we sold a few things on Craigslist, but the big stuff was word of mouth. Wish us luck on the garage sale, and if you are local friend, PLEASE COME on Saturday!! Special deals for friends!! :)