As the end of the summer draws near.....

It's amazing how fast time goes before I get another post on here. There has been so much happening it seems.

Melissa's family was here for about 10 days and we did a lot during their time here. They sewed for Tara and Sharayah, helped tie a comforter top I had made for Tara's b-day (it just needs the binding now), helped with some homeschool planning and they painted our living room (I'll try to put pics in sometime).....and lots more that the guys did that I don't know about. It was such a blessing and encouragement to have them here. Thanks so much for all you did!

The top of Tara's quilt, before tying.
I have been trying to get some home school details planned for the school year before we go down to Phoenix for the home school conference this coming weekend. It has been quite a struggle to get that done. It seems each time I set aside for focusing on that, there is a ministry opportunity at the door or in our house. I'm beginning to think I will just have to get what I think I need at the conference and work out the school details when we are in IN in August. (Much as I was hoping to do that now) As I am learning lately, my ideas are not always God's plan. Am I willing to be yielded to His plan for my day?
If all the details work out it looks like we will be schooling 3 children from the village this year as well as our own. Melissa and their mother will be helping out with that too. It will be a challenge to be sure, but I am really excited about the opportunity to immerse these children in the Word of God.

Currently the annual Hopi Camp Meetings are going on. We have been there last night and tonight and will probably go the remaining 2 nights as well.


I have been trying to catch this very smart mouse for over a month now. We tried regular wooden mouse traps- always licked them clean, 2 different kinds of live traps- never bothered going in to get the bait, several sticky traps-he got caught in twice, but always managed to wiggle out, leaving lots of hair behind, a homemade trap using a bucket for him to fall in when getting the bait-he stopped short of the bait, homemade mouse bait with dry cement in it and water nearby- he wouldn't eat it. It was really annoying. We found droppings in various places, including on our dining room table. Yuck! Well, after some research online I got one of these traps. We checked the trap 2 hours after setting it and we had caught the culprit. My tip for the day is to use these for those mice that think they're smarter than you, it seems to work.

It seems that we have had stray dogs living here off and on this summer. Most of the time they are very thin and a little skittish. Back in April there was a puppy that stayed here that seemed to be getting weaker by the day. So we fed it and Jim said if it stayed around we could keep it.
We called her Nutmeg.
A couple days later she disappeared. It was really disappointing for our kids, but they have since grown used to "short term" dogs over the summer months, even though it is still hard sometimes. Another skinny dog showed up last night and has hung around most of today. (although she could be gone again even as I write this) Just this afternoon we figured out it was actually Nutmeg. She looks so different that we didn't notice at first.
















She has far too many ticks to count and you can tell she has had to fight for every scrap of food she got. Maybe we'll have the opportunity to change that.

In the meantime I should retire for the night.