NDHSA annual Christian Home Educators Convention pictures!---and helpful links?

As I mentioned in a previous post, the convention was once again wonderful this year!

 

 Mr. Phil Downer was the main speaker, and his son, Paul also spoke.

 I borrowed Andrew's camera for a while and took some pictures, as he was "Stuck" behind a booth helping out most of the 2 days we were there.  I found my mom while walking through the vendor hall...  :)

She volunteered to sit in a booth called "Mentoring Moms", where new home schoolers could come and ask questions of veteran home schoolers.

 Andrew's Project Appleseed booth...

 Mr. Downer's booth...

 Andrew once again volunteered to run the NDHSA booth for selling recordings of any/all the workshop sessions.  He's such a blessing to them, I can see, as there were many other things he did as well for other vendors who needed technical help...

Jacob was glad to meet some old friends and meet new ones, and get to be better friends with both.  It had been a couple years since he'd attended a convention, so I was glad he came along!

 My friend, Hannah K. took a lot of great pictures and made a video with them.  I'll share that at the end of this portion of the post....

 My mom helped run the Appleseed booth from time to time.  I did a little too, as did our new friend, Emmy, who is the kind of person who loves to jump in and help wherever needed.  :)  We weren't trying to sell things really, but were more there to make people aware of the program and to encourage them to attend a shoot.  We were glad to get many e-mail addresses of families that are interested in coming to a shoot!!

 Andrew also ran the Appleseed booth when none of the rest of us were there to do so.  This picture must have been during one of the workshops, as this place was usually buzzing with activity!

 This is where I volunteered to help!  :)

 The G. family (that's Miranda's family---although she wasn't there, as she was enjoying the sunny beaches of Cancun!) has done the meals for NDHSA almost every year that the convention is held in Jamestown.  My mom came in (that's her and I on one side and Mrs. G on the other) and helped this one morning (we sliced up about 30 blocks of cheese for the hot sandwiches we assembled later in the morning).

 The S. girls, M. girls, and Emmy also helped in here...  We had such a good crew!  (That's me at the end of the line, dividing up a large pan of Harvest Hotdish into 19 servings...)  We made up approx. 200 lunches each day.

 Friday evening's entertainment (a man who was very good with doing illusions)...

 My brother again... 

 The next 3 pictures are courtesy of my new friend, Emmy...  She went with us to the Pizza Ranch fund-raiser Friday evening, so it was nice to get to know her better there!

 Andrew snapped this picture of us--for us.  :)

 I'm so glad she took this picture (although I didn't know she did until she sent it to me!).  :)  Here I'm talking to my friend, Jordan who was in that accident with a train a couple weeks back...  (That's Jordan's mom talking to the baby she's holding.)   She's doing pretty well, considering...

After we had everything cleaned up Saturday evening (both booths), we went over to join many families at the Gladstone Inn for fellowship and food.  We pulled in our driveway around 10:00pm that night.

I LOVE going to the convention!  I've gone most of my life and, even though I'm not home schooling and won't have any siblings being home schooled after this year, I'll probably still attend to help out and to spend time with friends we only see once or twice a year, and to be encouraged/inspired by the messages God gives the speakers to share with everyone...


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Please be in prayer for 2 young men from 2 different home schooling families that we know.  Both of them work out in the oil-fields of ND and both of them took a bad fall within the last week, one of them breaking bones and the other hitting his head and being in a coma and needing surgery...
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And what's happening on the farm these days---and with life in general?

Well.......................

Any day now, we're expecting the calves to start arriving!  So glad most of the snow is gone.

The guys are getting their grain-cleaning rigs all ready to go!

I started giving our seedlings chamomile tea, as a friend told me that's what they do to strengthen them.

Dad and Andrew went to a farm nearby on Monday and bought some peas for our laying hens.  They then set up a small mill that I can use to grind the peas...  Hopefully with the extra protein, they'll start laying more than 1 egg a day soon!  Thankfully, we only lost 2 hens over the cold winter.

I ordered a 5 lb bag of Erythritol sweetener (THM approved) and started experimenting with it by making a batch of chocolate peanut butter cookies.  I liked them quite well and, when I got home last night, they were all gone, so apparently others found them tasty too. :)

With the sale of my calves, I am now completely OUT OF DEBT for the first time in 7 years!!!!!!!  To celebrate, I bought my family some ice cream---and also purchased some expensive, very high-quality cod liver oil and butter oil for myself (from "Green Pasture": http://www.greenpasture.org/public/Home/index.cfm ).  Ha ha!  :) 

Oh yes, and I also placed a large order of freeze-dried food through our friend, Virginia with the company, "Thrive Life" (http://www.thrivelife.com/).   I REALLY like their strawberries in our homemade yogurt!!!!  I'm considering hosting a Thrive Life party for Virginia, so if anybody is interested in attending, please let me know (corabeth87@gmail.com).

ALSO, my childhood friend, Kjersti has started selling truly natural skin/health care products through a company called, "Radiantly You" and I've been experimenting with some of the products for the past few weeks.  You may wish to check it out at: http://www.radiantlyyou.com/common/clientCustom.asp?UID=1000&SectionID=1&guid=C842D46E-F3C6-4628-A236-4DD198EE4AB5.

Yesterday, I babysat most of the day; then got to see/visit with Paula when she came home; then went over to Lauretta's for milk and ended up staying for supper and visiting with her and her siblings late into the evening.  It's so wonderful having friends so close to home!

A friend of mine recently shared with me the music of Abigail Miller...  If you have the time to listen to some encouraging Christian music, you can listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUWps6IzAls&list=PL450113B08000520E.

I also wanted to share about a book I've started reading.  It's called, "Wrestling Prayer" (http://www.christianbook.com/wrestling-prayer-passionate-communion-with-god/eric-ludy/9780736921657/pd/921657).   So far, it looks like just the book I've been praying for!!!  ;)

And now, dear friends, I have bread baking and yogurt making on my to-do list, so I'd best get to it! 

May the Lord bless and guide you all.~