Bases loaded in the bottom of the 9th with 2 outs; Cheese-making; Gardening; Memorial Day

Time for an update! This picture is of Joel at bat during his first baseball game. Believe it or not, the bases were loaded, with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning (but they were losing 13-1, so there wasn't as much drama as it may seem :-). Joel made good contact, but the opposing team got a force out on one of the runners. However, in the next game he got a good solid hit and eventually scored. I've been real pleased with the way that he plays ball. With 9-10 year old boys, there are more strike-outs and walks than hits. Oh the memories of years gone by.


This is what is left of a two pound block of cheese that we made (one of the families in the church have very productive cows from whom we get milk to make cheese). Two gallons of milk make two pounds of cheese. It is about like mozzarella. Every now and then I'll add liquid smoke to a batch as I make it. Mom always gets some smoked cheese for a Christmas gift and I love it, I thought I would try to do the same thing with the cheese that we make. All of us like cheese and so this is a fun project - and quick and pretty easy!


Our garden is all in, above is an emerged row of green beans.


I was surprised to see the little sprig of corn that popped out today. It wasn't out yesterday afternoon.


Above is one of the hills of cucumbers. I also have yellow squash and zucchini, but the squash has not emerged yet.


Along the fence is our row of tomatoes; to the right of the tomatoes are broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower plants. I've got a rope tied all around the garden about a foot high; with all of the little Deatricks running around, it is necessary to have some kind of a barrier.


Today was our annual Memorial Day parade. It is rather contradictory for me to be dressed as a Union soldier and have a four year old son dressed up as "Johnny Reb!" I guess the Civil War was known to have divided some families and for having some very young soldiers - I'm thankful we didn't have to experience what some of those families did 145 years ago.

You can barely see the cannon muzzle under Joel's left arm and poking over Laura's right shoulder, but it is fired every year as a part of the salute to the soldiers. The children all eagerly anticipate the firing of it - but with a little trepidation because of the sound.


This picture also includes the Foster's and another man from their Civil War group. Russel actually made all of the outfits that we are wearing; in fact, he made John's outfit just last week since it is the first year that he marched in the parade.

This is just before we left home.


F.Y.I. I will be posting pictures of our new church building in the near future. Closing date for the loan is Wednesday morning. After that, the next couple of weeks will be filled with moving and settling in - we will have services there this coming Sunday.

Carol is due with #7, Gardner Luke, about any time. Her official date is June 11th, but she is certainly ready to be delivered. You can be sure there will be pictures of him on here as soon as I can get them. The hospital has WI-FI, so they'll be current pictures!

Until next time (whenever that me be) . . .

Levi

Easter photos, dental trip

Here are some pictures from Easter Sunday.




Remember, active boys don't always wear suits very well for very long. John started with his shirt tucked in and a tie; Josiah also had a tie and jacket at some point.


Today (4/8/2010) was one of our regular trips to Alton, IL to the dental school. I had an exam first, then, while Carol was getting her cleaning done, I took the kids to this little park that we frequent. It is located about 50 feet from the Mississippi.

This picture was of all of them watching the tugboat and barge go by. The tug was called The City of Natchez.


Grant and John . . .


Laura had to be stopped for just a moment; she LOVES to run and move!


Joel is not yet too big to enjoy the park. By the way, the ground underneath of him is ground-up rubber (not pavement), so it's quite soft.


Kara is generally quite happy, even today, when she took a tumble on the sidewalk and scraped her knee, she didn't cry, just an "ouch" and "my leg!" John just happened to get caught running right behind her as I took the picture.


Josiah is growing up very quickly. He thinks that if a coat has a hood - it must be worn; if it has a zipper - it must be zipped!


While at the park today, a tugboat and barge went up the Mississippi. The kids all waved at him and he blew his whistle and waved back at the kids before I got the video going.


One final note, we ate lunch at Burger King - Joel at 3 junior whoppers!

Garden work

April 1st, the temperature is around 80 degrees. The ground is working very well, and I'm enjoying being out and working in the garden. Still not ready to plant anything (we could still get a frost), but needed to work the compost in a little more as well as some of the grass that was not garden last year.




John and Kara are much alike; both have the same smile, the same good nature, and both are left handed.

Spring is here!

Well, I had some things to post two days in a row! I stepped outside to watch the kids for a little while and thought everyone might enjoy the coming of spring at the Deatrick residence. Just think, for the last 4 months, most of this energy has been expended inside . . .

Kara isn't usually allowed in the front yard, but since I was out there, she took full advantage of the opportunity; she's my little sweet-heart. Notice Grant uses the light post to brake; unfortunately, Laura has a bruised chin from using the light post to stop a day or two ago.


Joel has done really well with the pogo stick. I've counted more than 130 bounces before; now he can go until he runs out of breath (or into the mud :-) - think "Tigger" from Winnie-the-Pooh :-). John feels safe with only one roller blade one.

An update, we are working through "Truman" by David McCullough; it's a good history, especially if you're a Missourian as I am.

I'm also reading in The Journals of Lewis & Clark by Bernard DeVoto, The Memoirs of John Mason Peck (second reading), and Things To Come and Thy Kingdom Come by Dwight Pentecost, and a good visual resource is Charting the End Times by Tim Lahaye and Thomas Ice.

Enjoy,

Levi

Number #7 is a boy!

Well, it has been a little while since I put an update out for the Deatrick family; much has happened since the last time I posted anything.

First things first, we found out today that #7 will be another boy; that will be 5 boys and 2 girls. I'll be adding a middle bunk in the boys room next year some time, so we'll have five bunk beds in one corner that will begin to rival those of a submarine.

If you look at the first ultrasound picture, the face is quite clear, it even appears as though one of his eyes is open. Due to his round face, we are guessing that he will be a John look alike. The other photo is a very clear shot of his foot. The due date is anywhere between June 5th and June 11th.


The kids have been doing quite well in their schooling. We have been pushing them a little harder this year as we want to get them through the final quarter before the baby is born.

I have slowly been doing things to the house. We painted the kitchen an indigo blue a couple of weeks ago. I just finished putting up the (faux) oak trim on Monday evening. We were very pleased with the appearance; it matches the cabinets and counter-top quite well. I have other little jobs to do all the time on the house, but won't bore anyone with my "to-do list."

I had previously finished my little office upstairs. I don't think I ever posted any pictures of it. It now has a wood floor (look alike), an aloe colored paint and white book-shelving. It has a real pleasant atmosphere, but since my new laptop has a wireless modem and the battery is good, I've been spending more time downstairs working than up in the office. If we end up moving into a new church building (more about that below), I'll move my books and such to an office there and end up using the little office upstairs to make more space for the children.

I finally bought a new tiller; I've always had someone else do it for me. The weather has been nice enough to get out and play with it a little bit. I added about 4 feet to the length of the garden and about 10 feet to the width of it. I know it is too early to plant anything (it rained today and the low is supposed to get down to 25 tonight), but I had some compost and sod that I needed to work under, so I did that last weekend and will let it set for about a month before we really start doing much planting.

We're planning to let Joel play little league baseball in Paxton this year. He has a new glove and we have played catch quite a bit. I took him to the park last week and spent some time working with a real bat and ball. He missed about the first 10 pitches, but due to a good sense of timing and hand - eye coordination, it didn't take long before he was consistently smacking line drives out of the infield. I was a good fielder and base runner, but only a moderate hitter when playing baseball; I think because of his size and natural strength he'll do pretty well as a hitter. I started throwing the balls pretty hard across the plate because the boys who'll pitch to him in a game will be throwing as hard as they can. He didn't seem to have any fear of getting hit with the ball (that may change the first time he gets hit with one :-).

One of the men who comes to our church coaches one of the leagues and Joel is hopeful of getting to be on his team. I am looking forward to meeting more people from the community in this opportunity.
The hospital building that we have used for our church meeting place has a contract to be sold; the closing date is early June. We are considering the purchase of another building in town. The building was built around 1950 as a roller skating rink but is currently and hair and tanning salon as well as antique store; it has been well maintained and would suit our purposes well. It has rooms that could immediately be used for offices, nursery, S.S. rooms, kitchen, and fellowship areas. It also has a 2 bedroom apartment that could be used as a prophet's chamber. The building is a total of 7,000 square feet sitting on three acres; it is right on the N/S highway going through Paxton. It will need one new bathroom as it currently only has one. I'll post pictures and more information should the LORD see fit to make the deal go through.

Better go for now.

Levi

The New Year

I can hardly believe that 09 is finished! Many of you probably received our Christmas letter and family photo. I changed our profile picture to the same picture that was in our Christmas letter.


Carol and I had a wonderful retreat at Camp Joy in November. Attached are a couple of pictures that where taken while we were there. The third picture is my approach to the ground after coming down the sky-glide.



We have had several snows that have added up to about 10 inches for the season. The kids have played in it some, but the last one was very cold and dry - the temperature was in single digits for quite a while - so no playing outside during that time.

I finished another class - Advanced Studies in the Acts of the Apostles. I'm slowly chipping away at them.

We had a Christmas Musicale on the 23rd of December that went very well. Attached is a video of Joel singing a solo and also one of all the children singing.



If you didn't receive our Christmas letter, Carol is expecting number 7 in June! She is well past the morning sickness stage and in the 2nd trimester. So this is the easiest time of the pregnancy for her, although she has been battling a cold this week.

The big news (other than another Deatrick on the way) is that the building in which our church has been meeting has been sold. So, we are actively looking for permanent property upon which to build and a temporary location at which to meet until we can get a building built. We need to be out of our current location by 2/28, so your prayers are appreciated. It is an exciting time for our church as we anticipate what the LORD will do for us in the near future.

The kids have started into the second half of the school year. We are pushing them a little bit as we really must have the school year finished by a couple of weeks before the baby is born.

No guarantees on the next post, but hopefully it won't be too long! :-)

Catching Up!

Contrary to all surmisings, our family still exists!

I believe it has been more than 2 months since I wrote on here, so there is a lot to report.

I finished another class; Advanced Studies in the Gospel of John. It was due the middle of September, so I was quite busy for several weeks finishing all of the writing projects and reading.

Grant turned 6 on the 10th of September. For those of you who remember his premature birth and early health problems, we thank the LORD that he is thriving physically and academically. He is in the first grade this year.

Our gardening concluded quite well for the year. We made a couple dozen quarts of salsa, several jars of spiced cucumbers (think spiced apples if you've never seen them - they are either bright red or green and very sweet). We put up 7 quarts of pears and several pints of pear butter from about a bushel of pears a local man gave to us. Carol and the kids canned more than 30 quarts of grape juice from about a bushel of grapes given to us. We also made about a dozen quarts of tomato juice - very good, but a little spicy for the kids. We froze 48 pounds of sweet corn (think 48 bags of frozen corn from your grocery store - we already had about that many of green beans). All of the gardening has been very rewarding this year; praise the LORD for His bounty.

Carol now has braces on for about a year and a half to make room for the implant. Please pray for her, it was easier for her to have them as a teenager; but she is doing well with them, just very cautious. Carol went to a ladies retreat at Camp Assurance the first part of September with her mom.

After I finished my last class, I moved all of my books and desktop computer to storage at the church so that I could finish remodeling the office upstairs. So, I'm only using my old laptop and selected books until I finish the drywall, painting and flooring. I'll post pictures when I finish the work up there.

As a church, we had a difficult beginning to the month. A young (36) husband and father passed away and our church folks were "burden bearers" for the family.

I just returned about 2 hours ago (10/22/2009 @ 3:30 pm) from Texas. A long story - the building that we use for church services is for sale. There where 15 pews here that have never been used in this building. We offered to give them to my brother-in-law, Matt Shields, for use in their new church building in Mexico. They where happy to have them - another man in our church and I left Monday morning at 4:00 am with a 16X8 foot trailer behind my van; due to the size and weight of the trailer as well as the heat (82 on 10/20) of Texas, we could only drive an average of 55 miles an hour. Since Monday morning, we have traveled 2,836 miles at about 55 miles an hour. We had a good time with the Shields and we did stop at the Alamo in San Antonio on the way home.

Carol's parents took turns staying with her and the kids while I was gone; her dad was here on Tuesday and Wednesday and her mom was here Wednesday through Friday.

In two weeks, Carol and I will spend four much needed days at a Pastor and Wife retreat at Camp Joy. My mom and dad will keep the four younger kids and Carol's folks are keeping the two older ones.

Joel and Laura and Grant have all gotten off to a good start in school this year, they are actually several weeks ahead in their work, relative to the past years.

Well, I'll try not to wait so long before another update.