The End of July . . .

Kara and daddy; obviously she can't read, but she'll sit for a while and pretend like she is, jibber-jabber and all. It's rather funny, and since she is such a busy little climber, it keeps her occupied for a while.
I think these made about 20 cucumbers so far, and there seem to be many more on the vines. My family can eat them quickly (three at a meal the other day), but that could get a little old pretty quickly. I need to call and get my Grandma's sweet pickle recipe. That's our first head of cabbage, we have 4 more - I'm beginning to wish we had planted more.

We made a trip to Urbana, IL yesterday (no pictures). Our friends, Paul and Sarah Crow and children were coming through on their way to MN. They came to our services on Wednesday evening and then we had a cook-out together on Thursday. We talked and ate, as did the children, with playing included for them. I can vouch for Bro. Paul's grilling abilities, especially the yellow squash . . . come to think of it, our friendship began in the kitchen at ABC about 13+ years ago. The LORD is good.

Today was our trip to a new orthodontist for Carol. This new dentist is only 45 minutes away, costs MUCH less, and Carol really likes the atmosphere. We rejoice in HIM.

Ice Cream and Cucumbers

We got an electric ice cream maker last time we were in Wheaton, IL (for free). We decided to use it for the first time on my birthday. It was good (vanilla with Heath Toffee bits), it was rich, and we ate the whole gallon. Although, I should have let it freeze a little longer, it wasn't quite as firm as it could have been.

No pictures, but we also picked our first 4 cucumbers today; we ate two of them for lunch along with a couple of our tomatoes on ham sandwiches! :-)
Joel
John
Kara
Laura
Grant

Illustrations, Turtles, and The Holy War

We had a good evening together at church; the children are usually eager to tell me which illustration they liked best. Illustrations are a part of the preaching process at which I have to labor, but being able to help young minds grasp truth is not only immediately rewarding to me, but I'm sure will produce eternal fruit in their lives. So, I'll keep working at illustrating truth. . .

Caleb Stilley, one of the friends of our children, brought a turtle to church and, of course, they all wanted to go see him/her after the service. Living in town, our kids are pretty limited in which animals they get to see - stray cats, stray dogs, rabbits, birds, ubiquitous squirrels, and bugs; so a turtle is a big deal. Little creatures are such an impressive display of God's wisdom; the intricacies of God's biological creations are astounding to me . . . but children just enjoy them.

For my birthday, someone gave me a new copy of The Holy War by the indomitable Baptist author and Pastor, John Bunyon. I read the first chapter to the children tonight after church; it was an immediate favorite with them (except John, he dozed off :-). Bunyon's use of allegory makes some difficult theological concepts easily understood - and even exciting. I'm sure it will be an excellent tool, not only to put things in their minds, but as talking points in our home.

Sunday's activities

We had a good day at church; the highlight of our week. I was pleased that the four older children sat so well on the front row while Carol was in the nursery during the morning service. They are doing better and better all of the time. It is still a little bit of a struggle for John (4) and Grant (5), but with time they are doing better.

We had an enjoyable evening together. For those of you who don't know, we have lunch and then an afternoon service at church, so we are always home by about 3:15 on Sunday afternoons. After supper, I finished reading the epilogue of "The Great Bridge." It was an excellent story; just curious, has anyone every heard the name of Washington Roebling before now? He was the engineer who built the bridge. His name is little known in history, but what he built has endured - and according to the public works department in N.Y., with proper maintenance the bridge could endure for another 100 years, or in their word, "forever." May that be the case with my life and family. The story was also an excellent character study of many people - including some New York and Brooklyn politicians.

We started 1776. I read about the first 10 pages to the kids this evening; it seems as promising as the other McCullough books. I'm also reading John Phillips Exploring John to them - his writing style is not too difficult for the kids to comprehend.

Yard and garden work

Today's pick. The kids will snap these while I read David McCulloughs book "The Great Bridge" to them. It is the epic story of the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. We have about 7 pages left before the epilogue! It has been an excellent book, I recommend it - as well as any other book by McCullough.
First fruit!
Carol and Grant. She has a little "cut flower" garden over in the corner.
18 regular tomato plants, 4 cherry tomato plants, 6 pepper plants, 5 cabbage plants, 5 rows of green beans, and 9 cucumber hills.
Many of you remember when Joel was born! Now he is 9 and helps to mow the yard!

The swing set has certainly seen better days, but it has served the purpose.

Today, we'll pick the green beans again - every other day. The 3 older kids are big enough to help pick; they snap all of the beans before we freeze them. We'll have the first tomatoes and cucumbers in a few days!

Deatrick Family

This is the new blog for the Deatrick family! Periodically, I'll be adding photo's and video's of our growing family and updates on the happenings of our life as a Christian family serving the LORD! This is intended for your edification and it's an expression of our joy!

The picture is a family snapshot taken in May at my brother's wedding in NC. Right to Left (because I love Carol and Hebrew) - Carol, Josiah (2), Levi, Joel (9), John (4), Grant (5), Laura (8), and Kara (1).