Baseball: The first season

This year Nehemiah and Noah were blessed with the opportunity to join the Keystone Recreation Association's youth baseball team. The team did well, and closed the season with a .500 average . Nehemiah primarily played center field and left, but was able to pitch for a few innings. Noah played right-field, left-field and spent some time at shortstop. Both boys were selected to be lead-off batters in different games. Nehemiah's first base hit was an 2 RBI triple to right-field. Noah had several hard hits as well. Both were able make catches in the outfield.

Noah is shown (middle) on the home-field bench, while waiting for their turn to field. Since the team had more than 9 players, some spent time on the bench.
Nehemiah is shown above waiting outside the batting cages. Nehemiah's best catch came during an away game at Middleburg. Keystone was leading 7-6, and it was the bottom of the last inning. There were two outs, and a man on second. The Middleburg batter hit a deep fly to center field, and most everyone thought it would be a base hit. If the ball got past the fielder, both runs would likely score, and the game would be lost. Nehemiah (center fielder) saw the ball coming, and backed up as fast as he could. Leaping into the air, he managed to snag the ball for the last out! Needless to say, we were all proud of him, especially considering his catch won the game! It was the first game, and one of the best.

We were all able to enjoy Nehemiah and Noah's games, as we all made friends and learned much from the coaches. Baseball has been an exciting part of this year!

Note: A big thanks goes to Mr. and Mrs. G for providing the excellent pictures!

Reformation Day 2010

A view of Martin Luther's Study room in Wartburg Germany.
*Above picture taken from Sacred-Destinations.com

This year, we are once again celebrating Reformation Day, on Sunday October 31st. We will meet at Friendship Bible Church at 6:00. A brief lecture by Dan Cook, on various Reformers, will be followed by refreshments, games, and crafts in the fellowship hall. We hope to see you there for a great time of fellowship and learning!

Medieval Fair

Yesterday we had a great turnout for the Medieval fair. Over 50 people were on hand! We had a great time fencing, jousting, practicing archery, running footraces, and various other games and just enjoying each others company. Below are a few pictures we have received from Mrs. Smoak. I will be sure to post more when I receive them, and put them up on Snapfish.

One of two Merry men, "Daniel O'Dale"

Anne teaching some children Croquet

Ezra and Knight Elijah

Thanks for reading. We'll be sure to post more pictures as soon as possible!

Cocoa Beach Trip

Last weekend, (18-19) we were able to visit Papa in Cocoa Beach. He is currently doing several courses, over a four week span. The weekend we visited him, preceded his last week in Cocoa. We were able to swim in the pool, and at the beach, and spend a lot of time together.

I was preparing to take a picture of the rest of the family (right before we left) when some men from Papa's work (who were also taking a class) pulled into the parking lot, and offered to take a group photo. It was great timing!

This is just part of the view of the beach we enjoyed from Papa's room. He had a large window!

Abigail enjoyed looking out the hotel window for cars.

Sunsets in Cocoa are beautiful--especially from our vantage point on the 6th story of the Hilton. Sunsets like this one remind me of how great God is.

Mummified Apples

Last week, we unburied our mummified apple out of the baking-soda/salt mixture. Our camera was not working at the time, so I sketched pictures of what the apples looked like. When we dumped out the mixture, our mummified apple had to be "excavated"! The inner baking-soda and salt had hardened to form a shell around the apple, and when tapped with a butter knife, fell apart. It was colored a dull yellow inside. When we compared the two apples, this is what we found.

The "mummified" apple was considerably shrunken--about the same size as our control apple. (The apple that just sat out) However, the marked difference was that the mummy-apple was dry, firm, and light-colored. It had a dry section of peel still intact around it's stem.

The control apple was bruised, smelly, and darkly colored. It also had a small section of peel around the stem, but it was wet and floppy.

Somehow, the baking soda and salt preserved the apple and kept it dryer, although it shrunk. The other apple would have eventually wasted into nothing, while attracting lots of bugs. This experiment from our Anatomy book showed us that certain mixtures of chemicals can preserve things. (Like the Egyptians did to corpses)