Grandma

We always enjoy when Grandma comes over to our house. The younger children love when she reads stories to them. Here they are gathered together for a reading of "Blueberries for Sal". Thank-you, Grandma!

A Day with the Bontrager Family in November`

Hello! This is just a quick glimpse into our lives in this season of harvest. On most days we (everyone except Marlin & Mitchell-they spend almost every waking hour in the field) spend the mornings doing the "book" part of school and the afternoons running errands, riding in the combine or tractor, and doing various other farm and household chores.

Elizabeth: Vacuuming

Chelsy & Rebecca: Wiping the kitchen floor

Taylor: Piano practice

Denver: Learning how to type

Joshua: Working in his Language Arts workbook

Carson: Tackling Algebra I with the help of a teacher on cd

Chelsy and Rebecca: Packing lunches for the men in the field

Marlin: Combining corn

Mitchell: Hauling the wagons full of corn to the grain elevator

Hudson: Riding in the tractor or combine, usually all day.

"Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." I Corinthians 10:31

Labor Day Photos

This is VERY overdue......but if anybody wants to see photos from Labor Day 2009, just hop on over to the Turning Hearts blog and enjoy!

http://www.turningheartscelebration.blogspot.com/

Doughnuts

It's that time of year........time to make doughnuts to eat with fresh, locally pressed apple cider. It was a family affair. Chelsy mixed the whole wheat dough and then began the rolling out process. Her siblings joined her to help with cutting out, frying, and dipping these hot doughnuts in powdered sugar. Okay, this is not what I would recommend as a health food, but it was a delicious treat.

Elizabeth loved this job of dipping the doughtnuts in sugar.

Yummy!

Homeschool Family Camp 2009

Once again, we have returned from family camp refreshed, spiritually filled, and rejoicing at our Father's hand at work in the lives of each family unit that was present. Our theme for camp this year was Ephesians 5:15-20, "See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."

I will let the pictures tell the story.....

::SCRIPTURE MEMORY::

::FATHER/SON TIME::

The fathers/sons made rockets as their hands-on activity. The first day they were completely on their own with no instructions. This resulted in rockets that didn't fly very far, due to not being properly made. The next time they made the rockets, they were given instructions. This is the same way it is with our lives. If we want to win this Spiritual Battle we are in, we have to understand our enemy and his tactics. If we don't understand and are not prepared, we will not be effective for the Kingdom of God and our "rockets" will not shoot far and straight. 

::ROCKET LAUNCHING::

::MOTHER/DAUGHTER TIME::

::SKITS::

There are children everywhere at camp! What a blessing to enjoy fellowship with families who are obedient to the Word of God in regard to the blessing of children!

::FAMILY MUSIC::

::EVENING MESSAGES::

What a blessing it was to sit under powerful teaching from God's Word each night! Mr. Wissmann based his messages off our theme verses for the week, Eph. 5:15-20, and we were greatly  encouraged and blessed each evening as he expounded on what we had been talking about during the day during our father/son and mother/daughter times.

As some of you know, my brother Joshua is notorious for his ability to quietly sneak up on unsuspecting individuals and tie them to their chairs. :) Here a few of the other guys got back at him and tied him to the park bench.

::FRIENDS::

Everyone needed their faces painted in team color (red or blue) for "the game". (see below) Rebecca thought she was missing out, so I painted her cheeks for fun. :)

::MIGHTY MIGHTY SCOOP NOODLE CHALLENGE::

::PONY RIDES::

Where Have We Been/What Have We Been Doing?

I know that it has been a month since we posted on this blog. The days have been flying by, full of life. Here is a quick recap of the past month:

Grandpa & Grandma (my parents), my nephew and his wife, and another nephew came for a 4 day visit. While they were here we (along with Marlin's mother) knotted a comforter that my mother helped Allison put together.

We also had a blessing ceremony for Allison & Carson. This is a special ceremony that we have had for each of our children as they enter adulthood. It is a time to recognize who God is calling them to be and to bless them in it. Each of the guests in addition to the grandparents, had the opportunity to read/share a blessing for Allison & Carson. Grandma read her blessing for them.

Grandpa & Grandma Stoltzfus each shared a blessing.

Reading a blessing for both Allison and Carson was time for remembering what all God has done in their lives and also for blessing them in what He will do in the future.

What a privilege it is for our children to have a father who has a vison for raising godly children who will follow God wholeheartedly.

We gave Allison a hope chest and Carson a tool chest as a special gift for this occasion.

We ended the evening with a meal.

We had 2 sessions of cutting corn and putting it in the freezer. The large crew of huskers made short work of 30 dozen ears of corn.

Good job, girls!!

My mother is one of the fastest "corn cutters" in the world!

Two weeks after my parent's visit, 7 of my nieces and nephews from NY came out to IA for a wedding. We loved having them visit, even if it was so short!

Marissa (middle) stayed with us for an additional 10 days. After living with us for a month last summer, and now 11 days this summer....she is getting used to our crazy life! :) She was a huge blessing, as always, and spent many hours caring for our little ones, washing dishes, and working with our family.

The gardens have been producing all kinds of good food.......kohlrabbi, radishes, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, carrots, celery, cabbages, cucumbers, and peppers. We are indeed blessed to enjoy all this bounty from the Lord.

For these 3 young children, life is one long concert. When we aren't on the road singing as a family, Taylor, Elizabeth, and Denver are giving their own concerts in our living room.

The girls spent a morning visiting our dear friend, Ruth Hoppe.

We spent 2 days singing at "The Farm Progress Show" at the FCF (Fellowship of Christian Farmers) tent. FCF gives away a walking stick with the colored beads to all who will stop by their tent to hear the story of the Gospel of Jesus. Many people have heard about Jesus through the ministry of FCF.

During a Wal-mart stop we said good-by to our beautiful friend, the monarch butterfly. We kept him in a jar as a caterpillar while he ate HUGE amounts of milkweed leaves then watched over his cocoon for almost 2 weeks until he came out as a butterfly.

This is one of the most amazing processes in the world! How could evolution explain this?

After Farm Progress Show we sang at "Old Threshers Reunion" in Mt. Pleasant, IA for 4 days. This event is all about antiques and how life was 50, 60, 70, 80, and even 100 years ago. The little children loved driving an old putt-putt tractor and also riding a steam powered carousel.

We arrived back home on September 6, just in time to finish our preparations for the "8th Annual Turning Hearts Celebration", which we will post about in the near future.

And now you know why we didn't have time to post recently!!

"O give thanks unto the Lord; call upon His name: make known His deeds among the people. Sing unto Him, sing psalms unto him: talk ye of all His wondrous works." Psalm 105:1 & 2

The Miracle Water-slide Ride

I'm sure most reading this have never thought of water-slides as miracles before. Until last Saturday, I (Chelsy) hadn't either. But because of an experience we had this past week-end, I will never again hear the words "water-slide" without remembering how big our God is and how He cares about the smallest things in our lives!

Now for the story.....

On Saturday our family was spending the day in Des Moines. We planned to visit the Des Moines Farmer's Market in the morning, go out to eat for lunch, and spend the evening with friends at a going-away party for one of the young men (from the church we previously attended) who is leaving to be an intern at Vision Forum. After spending about an hour at the market we took a vote on the lunch options: Pizza Hut vs. Mexican. Between the eligible voters, Pizza Hut got 8 votes and the 3 Mexican lovers resigned themselves to the fate of pizza. On the way to Pizza Hut......we passed Adventure Land. Now for those of you who know the Bontrager children, you know that we are not big into roller coasters, etc. but  that we do dearly love all things connected with water, particularly BIG, FAST water-slides. Because our family has made the decision not to swim at  public pools, we don't often get to enjoy a fast water-slide ride. Most private pools, for some reason, don't have big slides. So it is just one of those things we mostly do without. Anyway, back to the story.....we were driving past Adventure Land, which was crawling with people, and talking about how that is the last place on earth we would want to be! It really didn't look inviting. None of it, that is, except for the amazingly huge water-slides that loomed high in the sky. If there was only some way we could take one of those home with us.......! With these thoughts in mind, I made a comment about how I wished somebody would offer to let our family have a big public pool rent-free all to ourselves for a day. Of course everybody looked at me as though the thought was ridiculous (which it was) and with a last longing thought of rushing down one of those slides on that very hot day...we continued en route to Pizza Hut. We duly arrived, sat down, and began to eat our 4 pizzas. (we had called and ordered ahead of time, so everything was ready when we arrived.) We had just begun eating when Dad's phone rang. As that is no extraordinary occurrence, nobody thought anything of it until he hung up and asked how we would like to ride a 200ft long water-slide on Sunday afternoon. Our neighbor from up the road built a water-slide that runs all the way down their hill, and he had called to invite us to come up and "ride the slide". 

Wow.

Of course we said yes!

And that is what our God did. Call it a little insignificant thing if you want, but it was big for us. We hadn't even prayed about it, and we weren't planning to pray about it in the future either. It was just one of those times we wished for something and knew we couldn't have it, so we hadn't given it anymore thought.....but God did. And He wanted to provide this "little thing" just to show us that He is BIG and that He hears our prayers even before we can ask.

So that is the story of the Miracle Water-slide Ride. And.......it was an amazing ride!!

 

Taylor at the top, ready to fly down!

The "water-train"

top to bottom: Mitchell, Kenyon, Carson, Allison, Katrina, Joshua, Austin, Denver, Taylor, & Emily. 

Thank-you, Yoder family, for sharing your slide with us! It was such fun!