General Assembly

I had the privilege of joining the Mennonite World Conference General Assembly two evenings last week.

FREE Hershy bar

Since our scheduled Mennonite World Conference guest never arrived,
I'm offering her welcome gift to our next out-of-State house guest.

Will you be the winner?!?

Availability is limited, so please call Sara, Susanna, Sharon, or Julie ASAP to reserve your stay. 

note: the Hershey bar (there is only one...) will be distributed on the first-come-first-awarded basis.

second note: Hershey bar is slightly melted due to recent high temperatures in central Pennsylvania.

2 a.m.

The glass globe on my bedroom light fixture crashed to the floor around two o'clock the other morning. 

The incident was loud and... 

a bit earth shattering...

Zam-Bash

A little bit of Zambia dropped into my life mid-July as Zambian friends started trickling into Pennsylvania to attend Mennonite World Conference.

Last Sunday, the Spurriers hosted a Zam-Bash-- a fellowship event for Zambians and friends of Zambia.

There were around 100 in attendance. Many of the guests live locally (or within a couple hour radius), but some traveled from Ontario and Michigan, and of course Zambia!

Oh what fun it's been to spend time with amazing Zambian friends these past many days.

Run. (for orphans... and chocolate milk)

I ran my second ever 5k this morning down in East Berlin.

The run was a benefit for Abogar International Ministries and sponsored by Apple Valley Creamery.

Sharon and I participated in the run, though we didn't run together as she is much faster than I am.

I was so happy to run the entire course (even though I was probably once again the slowest runner of the crew), and quite pleased to have completed the run in 3 minutes less than my first 5k time.

Oh- and the Chocolate Milk...

If you have never tasted Apple Valley Creamery chocolate milk, I hope that one day you will have the privilege of tasting this smooth, sweet, chocolate-y goodness, which actually quite resembles liquid chocolate ice cream... 

DE.licious.

warm toes...

...are happy toes :)

(my first visit to the ocean)

ps- I even saw some dolphins!

Saturdays are for making yoghurt...

not my photo-- I didn't carry my camera
this was our view at Flat Rock, though

and shopping at farmers' market

and sweeping the floor

and organizing

and baking

and for taking a hike between rain showers :)

make way!

I couldn't really do a post about the Croc, without a follow up post about Brian's latest farm toy...

hauling water balloons!

A John Deere Gator!

The Gator's purchase story would make Grandpa once again proud of his auction-savvy grandsons :)

Breakfast of Champions II

An American version of my Zambian Breakfast of Champions.

In a parfait glass

layer fresh blueberries

homemade yoghurt and

homemade granola

I recently discovered this amazing granola recipe, which I highly recommend for parfaits.

The granola is sweetened with maple syrup (and it is definitely sweet!) and bursting with almonds. I used Michigan maple syrup that Logan and Libby cooked down this spring.

Yum! Yum! Yum!

ps- I just love parfait glasses-- the ordinary becomes extraordinary when served in a lovely glass. Thanks to Mom for this parfait glass, which I have enjoyed using many times since she gave it to me in April.

The CROC

Some 15 or 20 years ago, the original Croc was born out of a junky Wheel Horse lawn tractor 

that was collecting rust on the farm.

It was a hobble-dy, cobble-dy, ridiculous machine in desperate need of a muffler. 

The Croc was customized for fun, and

engineered with the excuse of being a helpful mode of farm transportation

(hauling hay to the animals and sweet corn to the road, etc.).

If the Croc had an odometer, I would definitely want to know how many miles it roamed that first year...

Many years and a few overhauls later, the Croc continues to rock (er, Roll) on.

Of course, the Croc was an integral part of this year's camping holiday--

carting all sorts of items to and from the house,

giving Austin a few MORE opportunities to ride something (anything!),

and... serving as a table for the July 4th ice cream cranking.

the Croc is super-multi-purpose

In case you're curious about the Croc's name,

we named it in an affectionate, distant (very distant), relational way... 

-Ever heard of the John Deere Gator?-

two kinds of ice cream!!! huzzah!

something fun

Naomi wanted to do something fun last Monday,

so we (Mom, Betsy, Libby, Naomi, and I) went kayaking.

We had lots of fun.

wealth

You aren't wealthy until you have something money can't buy.

                                                            ~Garth Brooks

the sibs-- in age order

lil' darlin'

Camp of the Cooklings

a few of the tents in our little village

It was a super great treat to spend a couple days camping in Michigan.

Every day started and ended on the hard, cold ground :)

But- in between, life was full of sunshine, Dad's perfect pancakes (breakfast was so good I wasn't hungry for lunch!), baling hay, fun outings, eating ice cream, friends, playing badminton and volleyball, tractors, mosquito bites, lying in the hammock, and just being together...

most important place of all... the kitchen tent and fire pit ;)

Charlie came camping too

Grandpa and Grandma even have a wee picnic table!

so many fun times

visits with friends

and... of course the house is only a close walk away

Grandma even had a little beach back in the sand!

so many tasty treats...

see what I mean??
I hear Austin quickly memorized the snack tub...

quirky? yeah.
amazing? YEAH!

Zucchini Bread

One of my absolute favorite treats is zucchini bread.

I used this basic zucchini bread recipe with minor tweaking.

Of course I added chocolate too :)

whoot whoot

(Google image)

Toot the horns,

Blast the fireworks,

Sing some happy tunes...

I'm going home for the 4th of July!

and I CAN'T WAIT!!!

:)

(first time to join our family's annual vacation since 2012)