Stopping to pick blueberries on our way to the wedding in Michgan was so much fun that we decided to stop at another U-Pick farm on our way home. This time, we got to ride on a hay wagon to a huge orchard of peach trees!

Asa, the teenager, ate more than he picked. I think he couldn’t help it.

Oh my, he’s still eating.

Now he’s got his brother in on the act. (Malachi may not have wanted me to take this picure, what do you think?)

We couldn’t resist having all the men stick their heads into the fruits/vegetables for a picture. I was laughing so hard I could hardly hold the camera still to take the picture. Something about seeing a corn cob with a goatee gave me the giggles.

That apparently wasn’t funny enough…so we had to throw in silly faces.

Good grief. Now the teenager is eating the watermelon made of wood. Wait Asa! Really, honey. Mama will get you something else to eat.

We came away from this farm with a lovely basket of peaches…most of which are just now becoming ripe enough to eat!! Yes, I can be seen frequently standing at my kitchen sink with peach juice running down my chin. 

So, let’s review. We went to a U-Pick Blueberry Farm. Then we went to a U-Pick Peach Farm.

Next up…a U-Pick Chocolate Farm?!  :)

Several weeks ago I asked you to pray about a major change going on at our house…and then  I was heartless enough to NOT tell you about it until almost a month later. Many of the details still needed to be ironed out and we had to “get all our ducks in a row”. Ever tried to line up a bunch of ducks? It’s kind of like trying to get your kids and their cousins to all stand still and smile AT THE SAME TIME so you can take a picture. 

Now that everything is all official and stuff…I can tell you about the new job my husband is taking on.

If you’ve been reading this blog for a long time, you might know how we’ve dabbled a little bit in “food service” work. Last summer we experimented with a Shaved Ice business…we purchased a trailer and have sold concessions at auctions and other events…we’ve sold food at our farmer’s market. 

All of these ideas have worked fairly well, but have been difficult to carry out since Matt needed to still work full time at construction, coach soccer, and work these businesses on the side as he could. Ultimately, Matt had a desire to open a restaurant some day. One that would serve good food. One that might serve locally grown food.

But of course…in order to carry out an idea like this you need two major things:  time and money. So, the restaurant idea was kind of placed on the back burner as a “maybe someday” kind of an idea.

In mid-July, a man from church (who somehow knew of Matt’s desire to run a restaurant) approached us with an opportunity. He planned to open a brand new restaurant in town…and would Matt like to help him run it?

Um, well let’s see. Matt would get to do what he’s been wanting to do, yet we wouldn’t have to back this plan financially? And he would be receiving a salary? With benefits?

Sounds like a no-brainer.

Except that it wasn’t. Matt  has worked HARD the past two years building up his construction business. It was just starting to really take off and jobs were rolling in quite consistently. He’d already committed to doing several jobs for people and was behind on the ones he was currently working on. Was he just supposed to stop all of that mid paint brush stroke and move on? 

And what about coaching soccer? Giving that up would be difficult. Would he have to give up coaching?

Long story short…all of the ducks got into their row. God has a way of helping ducks along. If it’s something God wants for you…all the details fall into place, don’t they?

Matt officially started his new job two weeks ago. The restaurant hasn’t opened yet. Right now he and the other manager, along with the owner, are working on ALL the details (lots and lots of ducks). Opening date is set for November 1st.

Matt will be the “morning guy”, which means that we’ll all be learning how to go to bed really early so that Daddy can get up and off to work by 5 am. Then he’ll be home around 2pm after the lunch rush. (Okay, except we all know restaurant managers work crazy hours sometimes, so we won’t count on this being a consistent schedule.)

But just imagine it…Daddy coming home from work most afternoons just about the time we finish with school for the day? What in the world might THAT be like? 

And…he’ll still be able to help coach soccer because most of that takes place after 2 pm.

So there you go. That’s the news. 

The boys and I got to go take a tour of the restaurant yesterday. Be still my heart, I got to walk through the BIGGEST commercial kitchen in town. Somebody hand me an apron.

I’ll try to keep you updated as time goes on. Thanks for your prayers during this transition. Change can be hard for me…even good change. Ah, but we’re trusting the One who never changes. The One who can always line up the ducks.

Ooh, I think some pictures are in order, huh?

Here are a few highlights I’d like to share from my time visiting family and friends in Kansas this week. 

Monday…

Here’s Malachi taking a turn holding his cousin Austin. 
He only dropped him off the couch once. 
(Don’t worry…I caught him.)

Here’s my niece Renee. 
She looks a LOT like I did as a little girl. 
And yes, that is Elias attacking Malachi on the couch. 
Glad I could capture that on film for you.

Here is a shot of my dad’s yard and our memorial day picnic. 

Tuesday…

I was privileged to be able to meet Amy and Crystal for a visit. 
Wish you all could have been there!

I told Amy I would play Rock-Paper-Scissors with her to see who got to hold Silas first…but it wasn’t long before Amy had to take care of a kid with a bloody nose, so I snatched the opportunity to grab him up (first). :)  Look how sweet he is.

Here are Amy’s kids…Crystal’s girls…and my boys all sitting around the table eating a picnic lunch. Amy and Crystal were so happy to tease me, the “Heavenly-Homemaker-I-only-eat-whole-foods”, since I was feeding my kids frozen pizza for the picnic. HEY. There was NOTHING else at my dad’s house to fix. Sometimes, you just have to resort to frozen pizza, you know?

Malachi wanted a turn with Silas too. 
Malachi could never remember what Amy’s little girl’s name
was and kept saying, “Where did that girl go?”

Wednesday…

I met a few friends, as well as my SIL Michele and her kids at the park on Wednesday. The weather took a sudden turn toward coldness and we all froze since I hadn’t packed warm clothes! After playing (freezing) at the park, we met my dad at a pizza place. (yes, more pizza)  My dad’s wife Tacy couldn’t meet us during that time, so that was a bummer. I would have loved for her to be in this picture too.

Here we are waiting for our pizza to arrive. 
I wanted a pic with Austin, and of course Malachi had to get in on it too.

Wednesday night after church, we went to see my niece and nephew play baseball. I ran into Amy again (and forgot to watch the rest of the ball games).

Thursday morning we headed home.

Everything about my week…definitely finer things. 

Being back home with Matt…the finest thing of all. 

This post is linked to Finer Things Friday.

Ah, the month of May. I love, love, LOVE it! 

Here’s what our Thursday looked like:

Our morning began with a nice round of light saber wars. Check out that ninja in the background with the purple light saber. 

My living room is alive with this type of “violence” on a regular basis. 

We spent time outside planting okra (yes I know that wasn’t on my original list, but I had a little extra space and Matt loves okra). I also put the boys to work pulling out a bunch of “sticky weed” (I’m sure that’s the official name for it) around the garden. They pulled it out and stuck it all over themselves. It was loads of fun…until the itchiness set in. 

Asa with his sticky beard is the main feature of this picture…but if you would like to take a peek behind him at one of our garden areas, I can show off my little potato plants to you! And way in the back protected by milk cartons are our little broccoli plants. So far, they’ve all survived!

Here’s how our potato container looks now! Isn’t that SO EXCITING?!?!?!? Okay, maybe you aren’t a garden geek like I am…but little green plants growing out of soil makes me giddy. I added more soil from our compost area so that the “growing potatoes in a container” project could work. Notice that last time I showed you pictures of our container, it was the left side handle that was missing and this time it’s the right side handle. How did that happen?

After our time in the yard, we went in and cooked up lunch.

Here’s Chef Justus. Is that hat the greatest or what?! Here he is stirring our mac and cheese. Notice he changed out of his sticky (turned itchy) clothes after pulling weeds. 

Malachi couldn’t wait for lunch. This little guy has been HUNGRY lately. I mean, more than normal.

Our last soccer games of the season were tonight, and Asa wanted a treat for his teammates. We baked these cookies into bars and put them into baggies to share.

Here we are on the way to our last games of the season. Justus decided to sit in a booster seat, which is why he’s so high up on his chair there. Silly kid!

One last event to end our evening…

Malachi has been shy about playing on the field with his teammates (he’s a little four year old guy out there with four, five and six year olds), so most of the time he just sits on the bench and shakes his head no at his coach when asked if he’s ready to go in. I REALLY wanted his season to end on a good note. Soooo…I asked Malachi, “If Mama goes onto the field with you, will you play?” And he said yes.  And so I did.

There I was on the field with a bunch of little people running after a soccer ball. I was trying to stay out of the way, yet trying to push Malachi over to get the ball (which he really didn’t want to do). Other parents were waving and smiling their teasing encouragement (probably very happy that it was me and not them).

Malachi finally had a chance to kick the ball twice and had big grins on his face and we went and sat down again. Oh the things a mother must do (and where in the world was the daddy?) (at Justus’ game…so he had a good excuse).

I’m so sorry to report that I don’t have a picture of this part of our evening…I guess you’ll just have to picture that little event in your head.

On Tuesday, Matt’s Grandpa Coppinger finally got to meet the One he’s been living for the past 90 years. It’s bittersweet for us of course. We’re going to miss him. But oh are we excited that he’s received his reward. 

Grandpa loved the Lord and loved his family. He spent years working with World Bible School, a program that reached people all over the world for Christ. He took many, many trips to Ghana, West Africa to teach people about Jesus.

Fifteen years ago, on what was Grandpa’s last trip to Africa…Matt took his first trip to Africa. He’s so glad they were able to travel and work there together. 

You know one of the sweetest things about Grandpa? His kids still called him “Daddy”. Some of his kids are senior citizens themselves…calling their father, “Daddy”. I always loved that.

Here are some pictures taken at Christmas time with Grandma and Grandpa: 

Here’s Grandma and Grandpa with most of their grandkids and their spouses.

Here they are surrounded by most of their great-grandchildren.

We’re so thankful that we had one last chance in December to hug his neck, to kiss his cheek and to tell him we loved him. And to tell him goodbye.

We’re gonna miss you, Grandpa.

Just a few hours before take off…I THINK I have everything under control. We’ll see.

Before I go, I want to tell you a few things.

First…I’ll be sort of taking a blogging break while I’m on “vacation”. However, I enjoy being in touch with you too much to stay away entirely. I’ve pre-written several posts and time stamped them. Plus, Matt’s sister has internet and I’ll probably pop on now and then and check in. Most of the posts I’ve pre-written are the kind that help you get to know me a bit better. I’ve started writing an autobiography of sorts (emphasis on the “of sorts” part). Stay tuned if you want to hear all about my shoe size in the eighth grade and other exciting stories from my past. ;)

Second…I’ve been making a few Christmas time menu planners for you and am finally getting around to tell you about it. You can find them here…go help yourself!

Third…Malachi (my baby) is turning 4 on Saturday while we’re on our trip. I’ve been in denial about the fact that my baby could possibly be four…and I apologize in advance that I will probably whine about this to you everytime his birthday rolls around for the next 63 years. It’s just that how could my baby possibly be foooouuur? Anyway…the latest cutest thing he’s been doing is that ever since he learned to say the “th” sound (instead of telling people that he’s “free years old”) he’s overdoing it by putting the “th” sound on words that really do need the “f” sound. Like…he’ll tell me that it’s “threezing outside” and that he loves his “thriends”. So, I guess he’ll also be turning “thour” on Saturday. 

Thourth, I mean Fourth…Since I’m leaving and trying to do all kinds of things to prepare for the trip, I’m disappointed that I’m unable to keep participating in Amy’s Bloggy Progressive Dinner…but if you’re able to…go check it out and take part in it. AND…if you go over to Amy’s blog and check out this post…you just might win a free Heavenly Homemakers EBOOK!!! Ooh, I love giveaways!!

Last…THANK YOU for being a part of my life and blogging community. I pray that you and your families have a wonderful Christmas together full of all the wonderful things Christmas time brings.

Here it is! 

I think this is the sweetest picture of Austin 
showing his quilt to his mommy and daddy.