It is already November. Where does the time go? Anyway, this is DL writing today. I’m not really sure what to post about. The holidays are coming up fast. Halloween is past and we had a wonderful Harvest Party to celebrate our big harvest. Thanksgiving is coming quickly. We have already slaughtered our 34 turkeys. If you can believe it or not, all of the 34 turkeys were killed, plucked, gutted and frozen in 1 day. Christmas will be here before we know it. Now, I mentioned some things that we as a family have experienced since being here at the Mansion in my last post but I’m going to tell you some things that I personally have learned.

I have how to….. make coffee cake for 60 people.

-how to ice skate on a pond that has not been run over with a Zamboni or that has any railings.

-how to more easily accept change, although I don’t always like it.

-how to learn to love and enjoy people even if they leave tomorrow or in 6 months.

-how to do Tae Kwon Do.

-how to have the confidence to break a board. Kea!

-how to accept the decisions from authority without question.

-how to shovel snow off of our sidewalk.

-how to make croutons and brown sugar.

-how to take care of my rabbit, Lizzy. I’m still learning.

-how to plan ahead for the future. Still learning this as well.

-how to think about others and not just myself. Also, work in progress.

-how to help others while being able to laugh and have fun together.

-how to meet new people and try to get to know them.

-how to obey and listen even when I really don’t want to [I'm talking about Tae Kwon Do but especially with my parents]

-how to think about what I’m doing and saying. WIP (work in progress)

-how to manage my free time.

-how to make apple cider and applesauce.

-how to make a snowboard jump by the pond.

-how to make new friends and trying new activities such as youth group and Teen CBS [Community Bible Study].

-how to survive in New Hampshire. Not kidding.

-how to survive through a bad ice storm.

-how to be grateful for what we have and thankful for what God has given us. WIP

-how to live on a farm in New Hampshire.

-how to be domestic “missionaries” and what it means.

This is Dog Lover, the 13 year old kid. I’m trying to post at least once a month. Just to give y’all an update on what’s going on in our lives. So here’s April’s.

According to the title, April does seem timeless. It seems as if April won’t go by fast enough, same with March. In March, you’re waiting for winter to end, at least in New England, that’s what we’re waiting for. April comes along with spring. You’re itching for school to end. Just a couple more months and then FREEDOM. Ask almost any kid right now, that’s probably what they’ll tell you. Seriously! If you live in a rainy place, like Portland, it just seems like rain, rain and more rain. Nothing is happening, life is going on, school’s still around and I’m waiting for no more school and some sunshine! Yet even though April feels timeless, it’s still going, one day at a time. It’s already past the half way mark. We can start to see the end of the tunnel.

Hello, DL here. Sorry that I haven’t posted in a while. I still have a draft from April that hasn’t been put up yet. Life has been quite busy as you can see from the title. I’m thinking about starting my own blog, separate from this one. I’m not sure.

June has been a hectic month for our family and for the Mansion. Our family returned from a 3 week trip to the Pacific Northwest at the end of May. We worked to get school done and Memorial Day rolled around. June started and we had our June HCC course coming up. HCC stands for Healing in the Context of Community. It’s a one week course where people can come in and learn more about our ministry. If you wish to know more about HCC, contact my dad. We had 25+ people enter the hill on June 12-13th and they stayed for a week. It was a busy week for everyone. The hill had no time to pause for as soon as the HCC folks left, we had a work group arrive from Florida. And for the next week, we had 3 different work groups on the hill at once. Someone didn’t schedule that quite right. Team Connecticut, Team Florida and Team Maine. The work groups have since left and we are allowed to take a breath. But not for long as the 4th of July weekend looms ahead of us.

We finished school on June 15th. Yay! Mom has said that we have to do some summer school. About an hour of school a day. Not too bad. We’ve been doing some deep cleaning and organizing over the weekend. The basement looks absolutely amazing. It hasn’t looked that clean in a long time. Our school room is also very neat. Floors have been mopped, the house vacuumed and bathrooms cleaned as normal chores. So the house looks quite presentable at the moment. You should drop by for a visit now! No, just kidding. We have relatives coming for the 4th of July weekend. My dad’s parents and his sister and her family. My birthday is on Saturday and the special 4th of July picnic is a week from today. What else is going on…. We sent out our newsletter this month! Hopefully many people have received by now. If you would like to be on our newsletter list, then contact my dad and he can put your name down.

Summer is going well here. Lots of sun and some rain for the gardens. Children playing outside. Birds chirping. The sound of lawn mowers. A picnic table outside. Bicycles on the grass. Green leaves. A slight breeze. Ah, the joys of summer. That’s all for now. Signing off. -DL