Avery is now not only crawling, but she can sit up from her crawl. But not only that our little superstar girl can pull herself up on stuff which she absolutely loves to do. It’s amazing to see her doing these things so early. She is definitely a strong, strong girl. I’m anticipating that she will be walking much sooner than normal. Which is crazy to think about, but its wonderful to see her grow and learn so many new things.

It rained most of the weekend so that also assisted us along in doing nothing. Usually we spend a lot of time out by the camp fire, but this time not so much since it was rainy and muggy when it wasn’t raining. Rain or no rain the cabin is always a wonderful, wonderful time.

And what would a cabin trip be without doing some good old fashioned charcoal grilling?!! On Saturday night we had some steaks and on Sunday we had hamburgers. The burgers were delicious, but the steaks were so so. They were organic grass beef and the fat has more omega 3’s in them so it tends to taste a bit fishy. Its really, really good for us, but the flavor was not what we were used to. We also did my famous corn on the grill. If you want the recipe here it is. Simply take the corn run it under water and put it on the grill. It’s GREAT stuff and very easy to do. The water in it helps it steam as well it keeps the husks from burning.

Below you’ll see a video of the layout of our cabin on Lake Minnewawa in McGregor, MN and what the outside looks like.

Powered by Twitter Tools.

Powered by Twitter Tools.

Powered by Twitter Tools.

Powered by Twitter Tools.

Amy and I made the decision to live frugally because it was our highest priority to have her at home with our children starting immediately once Avery was born. This cut our income down quite a bit, but then I also ended up losing my job and then found a temporary job making even less. I never thought that it would be possible on the amount we are making to have Amy at home with our kids, but by the grace of God we are able to do it. He always provides for us and comes through in even the most difficult circumstances.

Another point to living frugalling is being a good steward of the money that God gives to you. If you go out to eat or buy things without giving thought to the cost of it you are misusing God’s money. I say God’s money because He owns EVERYTHING! Plus, I have to be honest, its fun living frugally.

One of my first tips on savings money is in regards to water. If you don’t like to drink tap water because of all the chemicals in it and the taste is not so good then you probably buy water. Whether that be by the gallon at the grocery store or buying a case of water bottles there is a cost associated.

What Amy and I did was we have several five gallon water jugs and we go to a local spring owned by the city of Eden Prairie to fill up. It is completely free. The only cost associated with it is buying the water jugs, but once you have done that its free.

Check with the city or the county to find out if there is a spring that offers free water in your area. If you need to have portable water in smaller amounts just buy yourself a camelback water bottle or a nalgene.

If you live in the western Twin Cities I can tell you how to get to the Frederick Miller Spring.

Most tips to come!

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/otl/news/story?id=4371874

Enjoy!

We went camping July 30th through August 1st in honor of my father-in-law’s birthday. Don and Mary stayed at the Cliff Dweller just north of Tofte, but spent the whole day with us while we were camping at Lamb’s Resort which is south of Tofte in Schroeder. Lamb’s Resort was a very busy place this weekend. It was packed with campers and with mobile homers. Amy, Avery and I went with all of Amy’s family. We had two sites right off of the lake and two sites just up from the sites on the lake.

Of course we spent most of our time in the campsites on the lake. There’s nothing like sitting on Lake Superior with a camp fire and good friends, 16 of us in all.

We arrived Thursday afternoon and to basically sum Thursday afternoon and evening up was it rained for a few minutes and then stopped for an hour or so and then rained for a few minutes. Only once was it a real down pour. Fortunately Peter Snow and Nate Morris brought up some tarps that we hung from trees over our picnic tables so that we and our food could stay dry. Great idea guys!

In the above picture you see Avery taking a little nap in daddy’s arms with Charity my sister-in-law looking on.

This was Avery’s first camping trip and she did really well. She didn’t get any good long naps, but she still was not a fussy baby. She just had short naps here in there in our arms and even a nap when she was in the Baby Bjorn while we were taking a hike on the Superior Hiking Trail.

On Thursday night she woke up a few different times and mommy was quick to get up and get her back to sleep. Friday night was daddy’s night to get up with Avery and she didn’t wake up the entire night, even once. She slept like a rock. She was tired, but it probably didn’t hurt that the waves were crashing in on the shore and the rain was hitting the top of our tent.

On Friday we went to Grand Marais after our hike and headed straight for Sven & Oles. Amy and I absolutely love the UffdaZah that is basically an everything on it pizza. It’s some of the best pizza in the world. There was a big festival in Grand Marais so it was very busy, but thankfully we came at just the right time to get a few spots to sit.

After that we went out and Amy need to satisfy her several week craving for mini-donuts. Then we walked over to watch the lumberjack competition which was quite loud, but fun to watch.

Here is the view I had when I was doing my devotions in the morning.

Of course each morning we had the Hoffman’s version of “camping eggs” which is scrambled eggs combined with cut up sausage and cheese, delicious. On Saturday morning we had Mary’s famous carmel rolls. We then packed up and did some more relaxing and we finished it up with a short hike on the Lamb’s Resort property. You can watch a few of the videos I took where the Cross River flows into Lake Superior.

I will be doing all within my power to live that way. As the old saying goes, the measure of a man is not in how big his muscles are but in the bags that are in his trousers showing how much he has been on his knees in prayer. The path to living a life of character is prayer to an Almighty God.