A Lot of Planned...A Little Unplanned...Madness

Posted by OfWoodandEarth September 23, 2026

A Lot of Planned...A Little Unplanned...Madness

(Looks like I forgot to put the circle on Mena's blanket, but she was 7 months old around this time!)

This August, we started off celebrating Rylee finishing second grade and William finishing kindergarten! We went to Cracker Barrel (the kids' favorite) for dinner, and Father Edwin, Nene, and Heiki were able to join us. After we ordered, the food took FOR.EV.ER. to get to us. The manager came out and explained that there was only one person in the kitchen at the moment, so they gave everyone in the restaurant half off for the wait. While we waited, we tried to recall our origami skills and made hats for the kids:) They were hungry, but we still had a great time!

We normally start August out with the 127 yard sale. You know, the GIANT yardsale that is always the first full Thurs-Sunday in August that spans 6 states? For the past few years, mom and I have set up a booth at Fort Harrod. Anyone in the family that wants to put stuff in the sale gets assigned a color (we currently have 9 different families, I believe). We bring like 5 or 6 pop ups and every folding table we can find, plus however many folding tables the church will lend us. Sam and I even bring the camper to the fort. The first two years, we camped at the fort in the camper, but the last two years Mom has stayed with Ankaye or with Dad. (It's not a great sleep. It's right by the road so there's a lot of noise, and the homeless community usually walks through the fort at all hours of the night. They are super nice, but it still means you are on edge all night long). We usually start setting up on Wednesday so that we can sell Thursday-Sunday and then either pack up Sunday or Monday.

We were lucky this year in that it didn't rain Wednesday-Thursday with sprinkles throughout the weekend. We had a few sprinkles, and it did rain Wednesday morning/early afternoon, but really the weather was great. Other than being ridiculously hot. But that's to be expected of August Kentucky weather.

This year was a little much, so we will probably scale back next year, but for the most part we have a great time talking with everyone, seeing what kind of junk they end up buying, AND getting rid of our own junk. I don't know about the others, but I spend all year adding stuff to the attic that I want to get rid of. Then when the yard sale comes, I price it and take it. I have a lot more success doing it this way than trying to sell on Facebook consignment groups for some reason.

We always try really hard to have everything organized, clean, priced, and the customers APPRECIATE it. We've been told so many times that ours is the best in the area and we have people that come back year after year. My job is the organization, so I tell everyone where to put stuff, how to organize it, and I set up the clothes. We separate all the clothes by gender and size, so it usually takes me a full day just to do the clothes. We also put a changing room up in the corner--not that people use it, but it does make people appreciate our section and it makes them feel a lot less weird about buying clothes at a yardsale (the changing room is just a shower camping tent in case you are curious). I usually end up making $200-400 depending on what I've put in, so it's a nice little chunk of change I usually put towards purchasing the kids' homeschool books.

The baby stays with me, and the other kids get pedaled off to various family members on Thursday and Friday before hanging out with Daddy all day on Saturday and Sunday. Mom, Ankaye, and I ran the sale almost everyday from 7am to dark. It's a full family effort, and we appreciate everyone that helps out! This year we did sign ups for dinner so people working the sale didn't have to leave to go get food (and cut into our profits), and it worked out really great! We will probably do it like that again next year!

One night when I went home after the sale, I saw this little cute juvenile Screech Owl just hanging out on our fence (photo credit to Rita Ballard).

We ended the busy weekend by going to the hot air balloon festival in Danville! That means we didn't get to finish taking up everything on Sunday, but we were able to finish Monday (with a lot of help from Daddy, Fr. Edwin, and Uncle Travis.)

The next weekend was William's 6th birthday party but per my over achiever-ness, I took the kids to CC's house the following Tuesday or Wednesday to pick grapes.

We ended up picking about 2 five gallon buckets of grapes which once picked and separated (thanks Mrs. Tasha, Abigail and Little Will for coming over to help process!), ended up being 6 gallons of purple grapes. I froze the grapes and did my best to get the house ready for the birthday party.

You can watch a very sweet video of the kids helping me pick grapes here.

Will's request for his cake this year was an icecream cake with moms and dinosaurs on it! I found a wonderful recipe that was working so well! EXCEPT our giant upright freezer couldn't freeze it fast enough or cold enough, so when I took it out and went to put the whipped topping icecream on it, the cake fell apart much like the cake in Sleeping Beautify. Thanks to Heiki, I was able to scoop the cake straight into a bowl, drizzle chocolate fudge on top, and put the dinosaurs on the top. Now, I know what you are probably thinking based on how it looks.....but let me tell you....of all the years I have made cakes....this cake had NO LEFTOVERS. Everyone loved it!

Pippa and Pap Pap got William a bug bed set for his birthday and very serendipitously, Auntie Em and Uncle Aaron picked THE SAME sheets. Which was perfect because 1) William goes through a lot of sheets since he's a heavy sleeper and 2) the bed set Pap Pap got had like star sheets that matched the underside of the comforter. Uncle Aaron and Auntie Em's sheets were actually the giant bug ones that matched the comforter. So it worked out perfectly! And he was so excited!

As a late birthday gift for Luke, Pippa and Pap Pap also bought Luke monster truck bed sheets. He was so excited he set it up in the dining room floor before everyone went home and claimed he was sleeping there!

We convinced him to let us put them his bed. Look at this cutie!

Now, the weekend before, Pap Pap told me a wonderful friend at his work had a pear tree that was loaded, and she wanted to offer them to us. We were too busy that weekend with the 127 yard sale, and we were too busy the week up to the yard sale to go. So we made plans to go Sunday after church. We had to drive an hour away, but the tree was indeed loaded, and we came home with 2 or 3 five gallon buckets (I can't quite remember how many exactly).

Unfortunately, as soon as we got there, the kids and I went to the tree to look at the fruit, and didn't pay close enough attention to the bees and wasps on the ground eating the fallen fruit. Luke got stung on the ear by a wasp, and we ALMOST left. I convinced Sam to give it a go, we put the kids a safe distance, and I started picking. When we figured out we wouldn't get stung if we didn't go directly under the tree and step on the fruit, we decided to stay and keep picking. Most of the fruit on the bottom branches had fallen or been picked, so Sam strapped the extension ladder to the a-frame ladder on the top of my car for me to climb. I REALLY want to know what was going through the heads of the people that drove past while we were doing this, haha.

I spent nearly the rest of the week trying to find time to can pears. I was hoping we were going to get a lot and even went so far as to apply for the certification to be able to sell them legally at craft fairs (UK never got me the invoice they were supposed to... that's a different can of worms), but the pears ripened faster than I was able to process, so I got fewer cans than I was hoping. I think we ended up with like 17 quarts of canned pears and two half pints of pear butter. I sent a jar or two back to the lady from Dad's work but kept the rest for the kids. It's been two years since we were able to can pears, and the kids LOVE them. So I didn't want to sell any in case we have to go another few years. We were supposed to get a great crop from the neighbor down the street, but all of her pears fell from the tree way too early for us to salvage (due to the extreme hot and rainy weather we had in July).

Some tips about canning pears (click on the image):

and more tips (click on the image):

While all of this was going on, we discovered not one...but two baby raccoons! They had both fallen into the pool/pond. One made its way out, and we were able to scoop it up before it disappeared. The other Sam and Rylee were about to reach and rescue.

The bigger one was too squirmy and bite-y to let the kids hold, but the smaller of the two still enjoyed cuddles.

Based on their coloring and markings, we put their ages right at 8 weeks which is the threshold for when they should be able to survive independently. We tested it out by putting food and water in their cage, and they both ate freely.

We didn't have a local rescue group that was able to come get them, but we were able to relocate them safely to a new place far from a farm where they might be re-caught and exterminated. We did give it a few days to see if we could find the momma, but we never did see her on the game cams we had set up in the exact area they came from.

Believe it or not, we had a little down time in between Sam's farm and house projects, so Sam spent a few hours refinishing the duck coop so we can finally get them out of the peacock pen. We still aren't done (this being mid September now), BUT all we have to do is build a couple doors, and then they can be moved out. Given the amount of raccoons we've caught on the game came over the last month and a half, it's probably been for the best that we haven't moved them out yet.

On the family side of things, Pippa had her shoulder surgery. She ended up with two rotator cuff tears and a biceps tear (go big or go home, right?). Since she had to be 4-6 weeks with her arm in a brace (still not quite off yet), we've been Red Rovering the older two over a few times to help her out with household tasks. The kids really enjoy getting to help out!

And lastly....drum roll....we got our first shipment in of ABC: Where is Mary? from New Hope Publications! The kids, Nene and I drove to New Hope, Ky, (about an hour fifteen away), and picked up 100 paperback copies of ABC: Where is Mary? They were super nice, and we learned a little about the Order living there and working the publication company. Mrs. Ann Brown was wonderful. She let us invade her office so I could feed the kids some snacks, and she even took the kids on a tour of their printing facility. The kids got to see some GIANT printers they were pretty happy about.

Around the first of September, my illustrator advertised to her friends and family and believe it or not, we have sold over 60 copies of ABC: Where is Mary? since then. Just last week I had to put in a purchase for another 50 copies (anticipating a few markets we have coming up and the samples we will soon be shipping to book stores across the country). We've also made enough back for the company (GravissiMum), that Sam and I feel we can afford to order a hardback copy of the book. We are currently speaking with Edge Book Printing Solutions about getting 100 hardback books printed. I had posted the ABC: Where is Mary? book to a Catholic Homeschool group I'm a part of on Facebook, and I had lots of people inquire if we would be getting a hardback book. Keep praying for me and for GravissiMum as we try and share Mary with the world.

We finished the month off with a wedding shower Trulee through for my cousin Reece Lanham and his fiancé (now wife) Taylor Warren. Trulee did such a good job with the decorations, the food, and the games! I think Reece and Taylor really liked it--I know we did!

As always, cute pictures of the kids!

The other kids get to take turns driving the car down the driveway. Mena decided she didn't want to miss out on the fun and has been riding in Daddy's lap when it's her turn!