Life Lately

We have enjoyed heading here to pick blackberries lately. Ben's parents own a farm in Abbeville.

Recently, we had a Lemonade Stand in front of Bellamia. The boys worked so hard in spite of the heat to raise money for a church in Haiti.



We actually flagged cars down on Westgate. A humbling experience, if you've never tried it before. :)

There were a few "sample" cups for the workers. :)

Luke and Amanda were flagging here. She was a cheerleader in high school, a helpful skill for times such as this.

Benjamin and Joseph also had a lemonade stand in front of our house for Haiti.

They worked for a couple of hours. Diligently and selflessly.

With treats like frozen yogurt to help the day feel cooler.

This is a picture of brotherly love. They may have been wrestling immediately after the shot, but here is a glimpse of their hearts.

Luke and my dad are playing golf. Dad is an awesome golfer and is giving Luke lessons. Thanks Dad! We love you.

We'll Be Here Friday Night!

I would love for you to join us!

Gaucho Farms

Meet George and Suzanne-again. They are good friends of ours. You may remember our day at their farm with the lambs. I am proud to say they are participating in the Poplar Head Farmers Market. I hope you get a chance this weekend to go by and visit their award winning booth!








Here is information about what will be found this weekend at the Gaucho Farms booth!


Our Mix-n-Match Vegetable Baskets were a big hit, so we’ll be offering those again this week.
Choose whatever you’d like from our selection of pesticide and herbicide-free vegetables grown from organic seed. The idea is that you can have a better assortment of the items you like best. Pile as much as you can in the basket for only $3. Be sure to wedge in a bunch of fresh herbs, too.

As the garden peaks, we’ll have a good selection including:
Three varieties of squash,
Three varieties of snap beans,
Three varieties of peppers, including pesticide-free bell peppers!
Eggplant,
Cucumbers,
Okra!

Free Bush Scallop (Pattypan) Squash Recipes
These little round squash are a delicious summer squash. They are really great stuffed – similar to a stuffed pepper. Pick some up this week, along with a free recipe card with three great recipes.

Baked Goods – We’ll have samples!
Super-healthy Banana/Blueberry Nut Bread – no white flour in this one, and sweetened with honey and raw sugar
Pineapple Sage Poundcake – moist and satisfying with the refreshing flavor of pineapple
Dark-Chocolate Brownies

Jams and Jellies
Did you know that we pick and can the same day? That’s why our jams and jellies taste so fresh and flavorful.
We’re adding super fresh Very Blueberry Jam to our Just Peachy Jam, Strawberry Jams and Pepper Jelly.
Add a cellophane bag and a little raffia, and our jams and jellies make a great gift.

Meats and Poultry – Order Soon to Guarantee Availability
We’ve had great response to our 100% grass-fed beef and lamb and pastured poultry.
I hope some of you have had an opportunity to try it! Those who have ordered chickens can pick them up this Saturday or next Saturday at the market.

Many of you have mentioned that you plan to order bulk beef, lamb, or holiday turkeys.
I just want to let you know that we have 3 steers left for this season. We have 8 lambs left. The next opportunity for bulk beef won’t be until December or January. And the next opportunity for lamb will be next September. We ordered a total of 50 turkeys for Thanksgiving and 25 for Christmas. We expect to have some losses as turkey poults are challenging to get started.

If you are interested in bulk beef, lamb or turkey, we encourage you to order soon, as orders will be filled first-come, first-serve.

Heirloom Tomato Plants
It’s not too late to plant some heirloom tomato plants in a large container or in your garden. These old-variety tomatoes like Brandywine, Cherokee Purple and Abraham Lincoln won’t disappoint when it comes to flavor. This week buy 2 for $6 or 4 for $10.

We appreciate your support so much, and please feel free to call with any questions.
Best regards,
Suzanne Wright Sanchez
Gaucho Farms
Slocomb, AL
334-886-9736

A thought for today...

andi.

"Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee."

St. Augustine

Sundays and Adventures

I know if you are a parent, you will understand when I say, " Often, training a child in church is exhausting." YOU know what I mean!!!! We are bringing David into big church and it is going okay. Not great, but okay. It isn't just my three year old that tries me, but my older ones too. But I know there is a promise; God's word does not return void. We are commanded to train up our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We love worship. We love involving our children in worship. THEY just don't always love it. Not yet. So until then, boys, mama and daddy are doing our best to love you and teach you to worship, not to be perfect, but to worship. It isn't about being perfect, 'cause I am certainly not that in the pew myself(I may not be wiggling, talking or drawing on my brother), but I have sin issues. I just hope for you to experience true worship. The reverence, the beauty, the freedom to be who you are and come before the Lord of all and worship.

We would love to take a family mini vacation. So, I am going to try to plan a weekend trip for July. Ben and I have tossed around some ideas for an adventure, but would love some ideas for fun get-aways that your families have done. I can't wait to hear some of the fun places you've found! :)

Ben's Birthday Night

Not to brag, but my husband is HOT and an awesome ball player. I have a hard time typing the word softball in connection with Ben. I guess it's sort of funny that this guy doesn't play baseball, but softball. He played on our church league this spring. That was interesting to be honest. There were occasionally heated words from my end since we were trying to juggle two OTHER ball teams (Ben also helped coach one) and The Ball Field MONSTER (David). I'll be frank, I wasn't always the smiling happy wife sending her champion off for a great game of ball. The Three Musketeers, The Three Amigos, or The Three Stooges (whichever you call them) often wanted to go cheer on their Daddy, but instead of watching, they would do this:

Therefore, we limited our spectating. When I talked to the boys about running around when we were supposed to be watching the game Luke replied cooly,"You don't really mind. You must like it (running) because you take pictures of us." OOOOOOPs. My BAD!

Ben, we are proud of your ability to send the ball out of the ball field!


This little dumpling melts my heart. She wrinkles her little nose when she smiles at you and she ALWAYS seems to greet me with a smile. We were among her VERY FIRST babysitters.

This little gumdrop took a liking to David. He loved it!!!!! They rolled the ball back and forth. Precious!!!! She has just learned to walk.

There were a few dugout kisses.

A few dugout pep talks.

Followed by Molten Cake. It was a party in our mouths.

An email lesson for mom given by Ben who may be the only one with enough patience to teach her to email. No offense mom, we're just proud of you for trying. I don't think she has checked her email since it was set up and her "trial" email sent.

Happy Birthday Ben!

I love sweet little dirty boy feet! These are David's little feet.

If you live in Dothan, AL you are familiar with these bad boys. If you would like to see more of them dead than alive at your house keep reading. I don't like to contract with a pest control company. I do, however, support pest control. A friend of mine, Katherine, gave me THE RECIPE. You don't call it the roach recipe, you put emphasis on THE. :)

1/8 cup sugar

8 ounces Boric Acid (the kind you get in the pharmacy - I've only gotten two 4 oz. bottles - @ $2.50 each)

1/2 cup flour

1/2 of a small onion

1/4 c. bacon grease

Mix up a dough and use a little more bacon grease if you need to. It will be a dry powdery kind of dough that you can make little pea size balls with and stick it everywhere a roach might go or be! Especially get outside - patios, closets, garage etc. and inside get windows, doorframes, under cabinets, fireplaces, etc. Just hide it around. No more roaches!

The boys and I made a trip to the Public Library. The trips to the Library are a bit like releasing bulls in a china cabinet. Not quite that bad, but so close. HOWEVER, this trip was a great one. Benjamin and Luke are involved in summer reading for school. Benjamin is also reading for Bucks For Books. I found this book. A gem of a book if I do say so myself. A diamond in the rough (as in some of the other books). This book has been our delight since the day we brought it home. The boys and I cuddle up, partaking of a time long ago while we glean from it the lessons of cultivating little men. The book is about an orphan who goes to live at a school. It is a precious story of one less fortunate, full of moral tidbits. I am going to implement one of the ideas I read about. A notebook called a Conscience Book. A notebook with a page per week for each child. A page only that child may see, but one that has on it the behavior both good and bad for the child. One day a week(we may do it each evening), the teacher/boarding mother reviews it with the child. They will feel delight over the positive remarks and hopefully agree to focus on the areas of weakness.

Have you heard of Margaret Hillert? She writes books full of sight words. They are great for beginning readers. If you are in Dothan, these books can be found on the first shelf to your left in the Children's Library.

This is an autograph. One that my boys treasure. You may have not heard of Beth. In fact, you probably haven't. She isn't famous. Our church had the children collect autographs from the missionaries during our missions conference. I am humbled and grateful that Beth translates the Bible into other languages and helps create written print from only spoken languages. She has probably never been asked for an autograph before. Beth, thank you for being a hero to my boys, but moreover, a hero of the faith.

This is the story of boyhood. It is everything magnificently simple. It is an understood code in the heart of each boy; it is the training ground for future men.

There is something about Benjamin and Danner playing and looking up at the flag that puts a lump in my throat. It is the idea of the future of our nation, the possibilities of Godly leadership, the reverence for what is good and right; all of this, incapsulated in little hearts. To me that is awe inspiring.

IMG_6155, originally uploaded by ben and andi.

IMG_6156, originally uploaded by ben and andi.

Thoughts about midlife

I am not sure if I am at midlife or not, no one really is since it is a varied age for each person. However, I have a checklist if you are approaching midlife, in the midst of it, or perhaps have kept yourself there. :) enjoy.

1. Use sun damage creme. Spend a lot of money on it.

2. Use a good moisturizer. Spend a lot of money on it too.

3. Try the collagen repair lotion for cellulite. Spend a lot of money on this.

4. Buy a pilates dvd series. Only Windsor Pilates will do, it is a lot of money.

5. Quit wearing long shorts, buy cute short ones. Spend money on these too.

6. If you don't look good in the shorter shorts, don't worry. There are things you can do about that too, but you have to spend a lot of money.

7. Hang around younger people, they keep you young and they like to spend a lot of money because they haven't figured out that money doesn't grow on trees.

8. If you want my personal opinion, midlife just costs a lot of money.

I am not sure what just came over me, but for some reason, I feel the boldness to go ahead and hit publish post button, as I am finding this amusing to even myself.

Happy Birthday Ben!

Happy Birthday Ben!!!!!! I love you so much and am happy to be your wife. :) I am listening to you sing happy birthday (again) to the daddy to yourself with the boys. You make me smile!

I hope you have a wonderful day!

HAPPPPPPPYYYYY BIRTHDAY~