Basketball - Family Style

Basketball Video taken by Rowen from the garage roof on 10/1/08

We enjoyed playing basketball together tonight (9/30) and last night (9/29).

Last night Jeff and I only got in on the last 10 minutes, but we were all there the whole time tonight.

We began with warmup-everyone shooting randomly from all places to get prepared.

Then we played a new version of "Around the World": We marked 16 places on the cement, stood in every-other place (there's 6 of us, but we adjusted the every-other-person as necessary). Each of us would shoot twice from whichever number we were on - if we missed we had a mercy extra 1 or 2. After everyone shot twice from their spots, we rotated. We did this almost all of the way around the driveway.

Then we started playing a real game. Dad, Mother, and Jeff, against Jason, Emily, and I. It was a hard fought game. Both teams were good... but the younger beat 22-16!
Through this basketball playing we accomplished several things: exercise, enjoying each other's company, and winning (whether in attitude, or in points, or both.)

WE HAD FUN!

Beth 15th Birthday Celebration and Activity

This week we celebrated Beth's 15th birthday.  Her birthday was Friday, the 26th.  We always allow birthday people to choose their dessert or cake and other meal entrees on the day we are celebrating.  Beth wanted Dirt Cake this year.  It is very yummy, made with oreo cookies, french vanilla pudding, cream cheese and cool whip.

Beth was serving everyone; she was pretending to take that big bite!

For her birthday gifts, Beth got the new turtle neck shirt, dressmaker scissors, a Kodak pocket knife, 2 Hershey candy bars, fuzzy house shoes, some money,  and an mp3 player.  She also got a jumper which is featured in a post on her blog: 

The birthday activity was to go to a Living History presentation in Arvada, CO.  It was presented by a church group that has a lot of homeschoolers in it who are interested in history. There was a play first, then eight different stations we went to, to learn about different parts of colonial life during the time period right before and the starting of the Revolutionary War.  At several stations, the characters gave a short lesson of comfort from the Bible "for these perilous times."  We couldn't help but think how appropriate it was for "our perilous times" as well.

In this picture, Beth was being a "camp follower", washing clothes for the soldiers of the militia.

These were other people in our group, doing what we had just done, but were not able to take pictures of ourselves doing:  filling straw tick mattresses for the soldiers to sleep on.  

While we "women" were being "camp followers", the men and boys were becoming part of the militia.  Here Jason and Jeffrey are getting some training by the officers.  Our friend, Mathew Hinkle is the French officer on the left, dressed in white.  He explained to all why the French were interested and involved in the colonies' struggle for independence from England.

This picture is similar to the one above, but Rowen is also in it.  He took a half day vacation to go on this outing with us.  We were so glad to have him with us, even though he doesn't appear in many pictures!  It appears that Jason either doesn't want to be in these pictures or there is something else distracting him!

We were at an agricultural station, learning about animals and crops the colonists grew.  We also learned about indentured servants, as there was one who told us all about it!

These girls played some beautiful string music for us in the music tent.

This is a girl who explained how to make candles.

Emily took turns with a line of smaller children who dipped candles.

At a woodworking station Jeffrey and Jason helped the town by cutting firewood.

Emily also helped out by cutting firewood.

This was the clothing and education station where we learned about the schooling methods in colonial times and the different articles of clothing worn by the colonists.

One of the stations was games the colonial children played.  All the games were made from readily available resources.  This video is of our group moving a hoop made of twisted vines all around the circle while we were holding hands.

The one station we did not get a picture of was the longhunter camp.  The word longhunter is not about the very long gun used, but means hunting for a long time period--two or three months at a time.  We saw lead bullets being made there and visited with the longhunter.

At the end of the afternoon, there was a trial for a traitor who was in the camp!  It was conducted by the mayor of the Virginian town,  on the right, and the town attorney, on the left. We were supposed to collect clues about who the traitor could be throughout the afternoon.  The traitor was supposedly stirring up the Indians against the settlers, thereby furthering the British cause.  Lots of the children present brought accusations against several individuals as the traitor.

The boy on the right was determined to be the traitor.

A jury was chosen to determine his guilt and sworn in.  Jeffrey was chosen to be part of this jury who found the young man guilty.

We didn't get pictures of it, but the young man was put in stocks for "24 hours" and pelted with Virginian tomatoes!  (water balloons!)  Emily got to throw a water balloon at him.  It was too crowded to see or get a picture, but Emily told us he got drenched and muddy from the breaking water balloons.  He was in stocks on the dusty ground.

After all that fun and learning, we found a park in Arvada to eat our picnic supper.  It was a beautiful day.

This was a bridge over a canal or stream in the park.

We had a fun day celebrating Beth's birthday.  We are thankful to have her in our family.  She is a blessing to all of us every day!

My Mother's family at the Smith Family Reunion

On August 30, most of my Smith aunts, uncles, cousins, and their descendants got together at my cousin, Ron's ranch near Bolivar, MO. Our family couldn't go, except for our married sons who live in MO, but the reports we got sounded like a good time was had by all. This picture is of my mother and daddy and my siblings, nieces, and nephews, and sons' families who got to go. My mother is the oldest of the Smith siblings. From the left, standing up: Leah Owens, Andrew Owens, Brenda Owens, Charles Owens, Mandy Scoles, Tim Wampler, Sherry Wampler, Joy Albertson, Randy Albertson, Tim Albertson, Brenda Albertson, Scott DeOrnellis, Marlene DeOrnellis. Sitting from left: Austin Scoles, Caleb Wampler, Wanda Scoles, Quil Albertson, Rex Scoles, Tasha Wampler, Rebekah Owens, Cody DeOrnellis.

Austin Scoles, Marlene DeOrnellis, Wanda and Rex Scoles



Rebekah, Leah, and Andrew Owens with Quil

Leah monitoring Quil as he watched the chickens.

Recent pictures of Quil

Our daughters-in-law very industriously picked all these apples last week.  Now they are busy making them into applesauce, apple butter, and apple pie filling and canning everything.  Quil was very intrigued by the apples and had a hard time leaving them alone.


Here Quil was helping his mother sort through some fabrics.

I call this picture, "Quil writing a letter to his favorite Grandma!"

Joy and Quil, taken on 9-19-08

It looks like he is finally getting some hair, even though it is very blond!

We are anxious to see him again a month from now when we go to MO to celebrate our 25th anniversary, Oct. 21-27.  Our anniversary is Oct. 22.

We Love Janet's Krautburgers!

Janet mentioned on facebook.com that she was making krautburgers for her family one night this past week, and got several interested and perplexed responses, so we decided to document the event and blog about it - during this gorgeous but monotonous time of year.

Recipe:  Krautburgers (or called Cabbage burgers in Ukraine)

1 lb. hamburger

1 small head of cabbage, chopped

1 med. onion, finely chopped

salt and pepper to taste  (lots of pepper is yummy)

Roll dough (your receipe or 1 package of hot roll mix).

Lightly brown hamburger; add onion, cabbage, and 1 cup of water.  Cook until liquid is gone.

Drain meat and vegetables.  Let dough riase 1 hour.  Roll out dough and cut into squares.  Place a scoop of meat mixture in center of dough square and pinch corners of dough together to seal seams. (or wrap it up as you want.)

Place on greased cookie sheet and let rise 30-40 minutes.  Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 min. or until lightly browned.

Scoop it up... out of the skillet...  (I don't drain the liquid, but have my skillet on a "tilt".  The liquid is yummy to drink afterwards!)


Pile it on...




Fold it up...


Ready for the oven...

Yummy! Let's eat! I like to cut a hole and add a bit of butter or margerine while it is still steamy..

Our Reiff Family Supper Guests

We were priviledged this evening to have my Uncle Alvin Gafford, cousin Katie Gafford, and cousin Dr. Glen Reiff join us for supper!  Glen has recently 'retired' and moved to Cincinnati, OH where his wife Helen works at GBS, as my nephew Aaron Profitt also does.  Glen is 73 years old, but after having several major health problems in the past and present, he looked pretty well!  It is always a highlight to be with Uncle Alvin (85) and Katie.

We serve a Great God!

This week in our local paper, there are reports of a controversy going on at a large meat packing plant. Over 100 Somalian refugees who work there have been fired because they walked off the job when they couldn't break for prayer times when they wanted to, here in their month of Ramadan.

Muslim employees of Greeley’s JBS Swift & Co. meatpacking plant congregate Monday at Lincoln Park, 10th Avenue and 9th Street in Greeley, to hear the compromise reached by the Somali Muslim community leaders and the executives at Swift. The workers are asking the company to allow them to have their break at 7:30 p.m. to break their fast of Ramadan.


I am so glad to have a God to serve who allows me to talk to Him any time, any where, in any position, even with my eyes open as I work, without inconveniencing other people or neglecting my duties!  And... He actually hears and answers!  The Lord is worthy of our praise!

Various work and projects

As some of you will remember, last year in October, we posted about our town's annual quilt show. http://johnstownalbertsons.blogspot.com/2007_10_28_archive.html Every year we put up ~8 signs in the area around Johnstown advertising the quilt show. This year we built board frames for the signs, since other means of hanging, stretching, or posting these signs haven't worked as well.
This is Mike Durkee and Jeff working on one...

..while Daddy, Jason, and I worked on another one. I am really "working" by standing on the corner while Daddy screwed the joint together!

In the evening of last Saturday, Emily was mowing while the aforementioned 5 of us were building the last two frames. She's pretty proud of being able and allowed to mow our yard.

As I mentioned in the "Anniversary Party Prep" post we had to "dig" under our stairs (in the storage area) to find some of the decorations. The boys and Daddy enjoyed studying some treasures they found - old pictures Daddy shot and developed ~25 years ago (beautiful pictures) and slide pictures as well.
Here they are studying the slides, surrounded by empty boxes that were stored under the stairs.

Mother found a box full of baby clothes (she thought she had given them all away years ago) and she and Emily enjoyed looking through them. Emily was also looking for clothes to fit John Ethan (her doll).

Anniversary Party Prep

Our family is planning to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Daddy and Mother in Missouri this late October.  We have plans to have a meal and ceremony (renewal of vows and some other activities).  We have retrieved some of the original decorations from different places in our house and will probably take some of them to display at the anniversary party.  

Mother is making herself a dress  and vest of the teal colored fabrics that were used in their wedding.  I will probably wear one of the bridesmaids dresses for the celebration, since it's the right size.

Below is pictured (in a more artistic manner) a single teal rose, surrounded by orange flowers and lace, all of which are around the base of the original unity candle.

Mother sewing on her dress.

These are the decorations we dug under our stairs storage area to find: Mother's bouquet, a heart that was displayed behind the cake at their reception, and leftover rice roses (for flinging rice at the bride and groom---not recommended for future generations-due to the mess) which Dad's nieces passed out at the wedding.  They don't have rice in them anymore, fortunately.

We got the invitations printed this afternoon, and have been working on addressing, stamping, and mailing them.

We bought these cool little stamps today, which I hadn't seen before, because of the nice hearts on them.

School is in session!

It's that time of year again! This year we have Jeffrey in 12th grade, Beth in 10th grade, Jason in 9th grade, and Emily in 5th grade. I pray that this will be a very productive year in all that we learn in school, in character training, and in preparation for the future. We certainly need God's help and wisdom to be students of the Word, as well as our school subjects. We are thankful for the opportunity and privilege of schooling at home yet another year!

Grapes and more grapes

A friend of mine has a neighbor who was willing for us to pick his grapes, if we were willing to give him some jelly. So, Saturday afternoon, we went to Greeley and picked grapes. We had never picked grapes built over a trellis like this before. There was a glider underneath. It was somewhat difficult to pick the grapes from underneath. Rowen and Jeffrey took turns picking on top of the trellis standing on a 6 foot ladder.



Picking above one's head is hazardous to the eyes. We forgot to bring our goggles!

It was a cozy place to pick. We sure appreciate Leroy letting us do it.

We actually picked more grapes than this, but we gave some to Rowen's sister, so she could make jelly too. The grapes we ended up with weighed 40 pounds!

Here you can see how the trellis and glider were situated. Rowen is, of course, taking the picture, as he usually is.

On Labor Day, some of us spent the day in the kitchen making the grapes into jelly. We wore our mp3 players to help pass the time away as we worked. My faithful assistants, Jason and Emily, washed and de-stemmed all the grapes.

I cooked them and made the jelly. Emily did the sieving. I don't re-strain the juice through cheesecloth to make the clear jelly, because I like the pulp--more nutrition in the jelly. Since you have to use so much sugar to make it, I want there to be a redeeming factor. (Just my personal preference. I know it would never win the prize at the fair.)

I think this was the last batch of cleaned grapes. No wonder she looks so happy! It was a long day!

The 40 pints and 5 half-pints of jelly when the day was done.