Pine Mountain Gold Museum

I coordinate the field trips for our homeschool group. My youngest son loves gold and anything that is shiny. He asked to go to this museum several times. I am glad that we finally went. It was a lovely place. One of the kids said that it was the best field trip ever! 

 http://www.pinemountaingoldmuseum.com/

 Inside the museum is a Coke display. These volunteers were telling us all about it.

 The kids got to pan for gems.

 They also got to pan for gold. Each child found about 5 tiny gold pieces!

 Madison found a big one!

 Panning for gold is a really hard thing to do. Much harder than one would think!

 All 3 of my kiddos!

 Grist Mill

 entrance to a gold mine

group shot :) 

Thanks for visiting!

Cassie

DIY: House Siding Part 1

My husband was on vacation last week and he decided it was the perfect time to work on our siding. Our home is 20+ years old and still has the class action lawsuit pressed paper siding on it. In most places, it still looks good, in others it needs work. We are slowly replacing the old siding with new cement siding. We started on the side of our house and moved on to the garage. We replaced all the boards and waited on the board and batten. The smooth panels were on a crazy markdown at Home Depot last week, like half off. Jason couldn't resist. I had my doubts as last week was also our youngest son's 8th birthday. We had 2 parties to get ready for! We made it work somehow :)

All prepped for the new siding. You can see the new cement boards on the front of the garage.

Here you can see the old siding on the top level. This will look like the garage one day.

These panels are heavy. It took my husband, our oldest son and me to get them up there. We also used the ladder to secure the board in place. We borrowed a nail gun from my in-laws. That was a huge help!

3 boards done!

Trim pieces going up! The panels will be painted the same color as the trim after all the caulk cures.

The house is looking great and we couldn't be happier with the results. If you have a question about how we did it, please ask and I'll try my best to answer :)

Cassie

 

http://www.houseofhepworths.com/

Gluten Free Musings

    We've been gluten free for about 3 months. Our reasons are varied but mainly due to our youngest son. Being gluten free has helped him immensely already. He has gained about 2 pounds, grown a half inch and his attitude has improved.

photo credit and gluten free info: gluten free   

The cooking hasn't really been a problem. I find all kinds of recipes on Pinterest. Pie crust has proven to be difficult, but I'm confident that I'll figure that out. The main issue is just having enough food. I have a very tall and still growing, almost 13 year old boy. He eats a lot. He's very active with swimming and running. I can't keep him or his younger brother full. Since going gluten free, Andrew (our youngest) is always hungry, which is great since he needs to gain weight. I am just really tired of hearing, "I'm hungry." ALL THE TIME! Any ideas!! I would love to hear them. I just went to the grocery store today. I bought the whole store. When I came home my husband said, "Now we have food for 2 days!" No joke! I meal planned and it should be enough food for a week, but I am sure that it won't last. I honestly don't know if it's the gluten free food or just growing boys. Has anyone else noticed an increase in hunger since going gluten free?