I'm participating in The Hopeful Farm Foundation Benefit.

Well - I have a long way to go before I can support my family off my bloggging! Hahahaha.
I keep hearing about folks who have super-popular blogs and so many people read them that advertisers pay big bucks to be on their blog. That's not the case with me. Yet. I may be there someday. Then all of you faithful readers can say, "I knew her blog when...."

I've been a busy beaver, trying to promote our publications through various new avenues. Success is slow, but I am being rewarded for my endeavors.

One of the places I was able to promote our business through was for a great cause. I donated use of one of our unit studies to this benefit. Please read all about it below:

The Hopeful Farm Foundation is for special needs children and their families. They have an awesome ministry, with horses, a farm, and all kinds of really cool activities and buildings perfect for retreats. The benefit is to raise money for this foundation to be used for the special needs children and their families. The benefit ends in just a few days - October 5th. I'd encourage you to follow the links listed below.

Please consider blessing a family impacted by special needs by making a donation – and in return, you’ll receive some of the best products the homeschool community has to offer.
If you would like to hear what Hopeful Farm is all about, you can access an online interview by Cindy Rushton with Claire and Jill Novak at www.hopefulfarmfoundation.org/interview.html
You can find all the details here:
www.hopefulfarmfoundation.org/benefit.htm

Where Have We Been

Oh brother - it's been forever since a post! But actually, I WAS blogging - just doing it in secret...

We were on vacation for 4 weeks. Even though we had someone staying at the house, I tend toward not wanting to hang a sign out for would-be robbers, so I didn't want to post out here that we were gone.

To see a daily blog of all our adventures for four weeks, go to trip.kapandpen.com and you'll be able to read all about the neat stuff we got to see and do.

Now that we are back home, we are gearing up for our busiest time of year - the pre-Christmas printing season.

Whew!

Puppies began selling on the 27th, and there are only 2 left. We are hoping they find a good home soon. The eight we sold went pretty fast and only one person tried negotiating us down, so Elly made a fair amount of money this time around, even if we don't make much on these last two. It will help her with her expenses for quite a while.

Oh - such a lot to do around here. We are thinking of getting a professional appraisal on our home. Then we'll know once and for all what it really is worth, and then we can go from there. We've had agents who wanted to list it for more than I thought it was worth, a few who want to sell it for a lot less than we think it's worth, and few in the middle. Perhaps we aren't supposed to sell it after all. We've thought about just buying land ... who knows!

I don't know what to do about all the stuff we've packed away everywhere....part of me thinks we ought to dig it all back out this fall and go through it....give some away, sell some on ebay. Most of it is going to be in decent condition since we sorted stuff once before we even packed it up!

In the meantime, book sales have been on the up around here! I advertised in Homeschool Enrichment and I started selling stuff on ebay again, and I'm drawing some new business. That's pretty exciting!

CJ has been keeping very busy with lawn jobs. Yesterday he helped run barbed wire for a new fence. He's been blessed to find several people within 6 miles of the house who want him to do work for them.

Susan is still engaged, for all you who might be wondering. And the date is still set for December 14. What she's doing with the trailer remains to be seen. She's got a couple feelers out, letting people know that it will be available for sale soon. I don't know where she's going to put all her stuff though!

I've got a ton of stuff to do, and I'm highly unmotivated - why does that happen that way? I need motivation! But it's so much more fun to sit here and type......

Well, here we are, inundated with hungry little mouths and wagging little tails! But everyone loves puppies and we are sure to see some sold soon!
Already, Elly has had several phone calls and some retainer money
so we know they will all be gone soon!








Here's my mother-in-law, MaryLou Kappenman, missionary to San Luis Potosi, Mexico, playing with puppies and grandchildren! What a combo! Isaiah, Phoebe, and Gideon are in this photo.







Here's one of Gideon trying his best to pick one up!

We'll have to post some new photos of the backyard once we burn off our HUGE burn pile! The woods behind us sold a few months back, and now we have a house....no woods. So everyone driving up and down the road can see all the junk we have been storing behind the barn! We've been busily cleaning out the junk and burning the excess, the rotted, the no-longer-going-to use, and the underbrush, the poison ivy, the poison oak....pretty much anything that will burn. It looks much better!

itscamptimeagain

Oh brother! When it's Summer Bible Camp Time around here, there is nothing else to talk about.

The kids run their sentences together. Something like the title of this blog. "Oh!Mama!Ican'tbelievecampisalmostherecanyoufixmyculottes?" It's absurd - but lots of fun! I'm so glad the children have this opportunity.

If you ever want to check out a really great camp, look up Harvest Time Bible Camp. It's located near Shelby, NC. They have horseback riding, campfires, beautiful cabins, swimming, crafts, preaching 2x's a day, 3 meals a day, a snack shack, lots of games and competitions, fishing, boating on their pond...just a lot of fun! And, get this, it's only $50 for Monday-Friday! The kids check in about 10:00 a.m. on Monday morning, and the leave just before lunchtime on Friday morning. Most families can barely feed a teenager for $50 a week - this is a great deal!

Jo's puppies are already receiving phone calls - we are very pleased. I hope they will all sell quickly again for her. They're so cute - Jo just got done remulching their yard so they have lots of clean-smelling mulch to run around in.

My mother-in-law is here for a visit! We are so happy to have her stay with us. I have the coolest mom-in-law on the planet! We can't wait til later this summer - we are still planning our trip out west, and mom is coming with us, camping all the way! Yay!

Well, got books to put together - lots of orders coming in these days.....

It's Summer Down South

Well, we've finally stopped having the cool, springtime days and we are into a full-fledged summer, complete with heat! Near 100 temps for the past couple days. There are positives and negatives to being in yet another drought - since it is so dry, the humidity is not high, making the heat considerably more bearable. At least for me - I have not found it objectionable yet.

Susan and her beau have set a date already! They certainly didn't waste any time, did they? We are looking forward to a December wedding!

Elly's puppies are growing great - they've moved outside! YEAH! (After a couple weeks of being in the house, it doesn't matter how many baths they get and how many times we disinfect the whelping box, the floor, everything....dog smell is dog smell. I'm thankful they are old enough to be outside now! We posted an ad on the AKC site stating they will be for sale starting June 27 and we've already had a phone call about them. I hope they sell fast!

Curt is doing some side jobs for a friend at church, so he is staying busy. He also has a final paper due this week for one of his classes.

We had a PartyLite party last night - that was fun! I think they have the most beautiful candle holders....it was a LOT of fun to have some of our friends show up - it's nice to just sit and visit!

Elly is planning a spa party this Saturday - complete with foot bath and sea salts and body butters to try out - my house ought to smell WONDERFUL by about 6:00 in the evening!!!

My teens are all looking forward to camp next week. They love going to Harvest Time Bible Camp near Shelby, NC. We will be enjoying a visit with Curt's mom while they are at camp. Think it strange they are going to camp instead of visiting with Gram? Don't fret - they'll be seeing her for 4 weeks this summer, Lord willing!

We are wishing Alyssa a HAPPY BIRTHDAY today - she turned 15! Can you beleive it? Time really flies by around here.

Uh - oh - Isaiah just presented me with a baby in desperate need of a diaper change! Guess that's all for today!!!!

Who Knows What A Day (or a week!) May Bring Forth?

WOW! So much has been happening recently!! Some can be perceived as good news and some as bad, but we prefer to look at everything as simply the Lord's will in our lives....

Where do I begin?

Let's start with Susan. Most of you who will be reading this know Susan Goldberg. You will also recall that she has never been married, though she would like to be. Well, a few months ago, we had some special meetings at our church. Dr. Hughes preached, and his wife was with him for all the services. They happened to be at another church last week, and Mrs. Hughes mentioned to someone that she knew Sue and told them a little about her, etc., and one thing led to another, and a 26-yr old daughter said, "I wonder if she'd like to meet my widowed father." Well, Sue and this man met Saturday. He's a pastor of a very tiny church near Columbia, SC (about two hours from where we live) and they are getting along fabulously! I'm so happy for her!! Perhaps we'll be hearing wedding bells by the end of the year....

Next.....
A few days ago, Curt received word that he qualified for some educational grants that do not have to be repaid!! He has been going back to school at night to get his B.S. He has earned several sought-after computer certifications, but he never actually got his degree. So, he has been working on that. We qualified for student loans, which are really nice because you don't have to start paying them back until after you finish your schooling and they are very willing to make workable payment arrangements. But we were thrilled that the Lord allowed us to qualify for some of the grants - that reduces the amount we will be responsible to pay back. I'm thankful when once in a while our tax dollars come back to us in a small way!

And then...
Yesterday, my niece Marlee came over and told me her sister Carla was at the hospital getting an MRI. Of course, I was surprised and Marlee told me that last weekend, Carla was down for the count with a terrible headache for several hours. When the headache left, she had lost part of her vision out of one eye. They are trying to determine now what happened and what this may be a pre-cursor of, if anything. The vision loss has a strong chance of being permanent. I'm thrilled to say Carla's testimony in all of this was, "It's all in God's hands. I'm not going to worry over it." Praise the Lord she is trusting Him! Our families, of course, appreciate your prayers for her at this time.

Also.....
Some of my readers may know that for quite a while, Curt has had periodic conflicts with the guy at work who is the "middleman/supervisor" for the technicians. Sometimes things have gone well; other times, Curt has been very stressed by the situation.
A job opportunity arose at the district in which Curt could move up and out from under this gentleman. He interviewed for the position last week, and has been waiting word for the outcome. Well, he was brought into a consultation yesterday......and was asked to resign from the district! This supervisor was present. It is apparent to Curt that after he discovered Curt was trying to get out from under him, he simply didn't want Curt working for him any longer.
Personally - I'm glad. Curt has tried so hard to do a good job for this district, and in recent months, it seems in vain. His closed calls were almost always higher than anyone else's, yet they never praised him for it; his supervisor sought only to find fault with him, and I believe that has put a lot of stress on Curt. Because he has all of us at home, I think maybe he didn't feel he had the freedom to quit and look for a less stressful work environment. Well - now he can!!
SO, praise the Lord - God is good, He is in control, and yes, we are still trusting the Lord to provide so we can take the children on the vacation we have been planning. This may even be the Lord's way to provide extra funds for us - if Curt gets employed again quickly, even if it's through a temp agency, we will actually be ahead for awhile, because the district has to pay him all his unused vacation days to date, and the district is three weeks in arrears when it comes to cutting paychecks. So, terminated or retired employees continue to receive paychecks covering three weeks after their last work week. All total, Curt should be receiving a regular check for the next month or so. We appreciate your prayers in God's leading! We are very excited to see what God has in store for Curt - I hope he gets a job he really loves and where there will be little or no stress for him.

Well - guess that's it for this posting - thanks for stopping by!