Last but not least...

My "allergies" were giving me a terrible time yesterday evening. I went from coughing to having a sore throat. Then after having a hard time sleeping last night, I woke up with a headache. Then I started sneezing and finally succumbed to taking my temperature today. I am now taking my turn with a fever. Needless to say, I'm not too happy about it. Everyone else is feeling fine, why can't I? Oh well, I'm going to try being as gracious as possible, and rest as much as the kids will let me. Maybe tomorrow will be another pretty day.

A Beautiful Day

Today, is a beautiful day for everyone to be feeling better. Right now all four of my darlings are outside playing. Scott went back to work today, and all is good. I took the kids' temperatures just now and they were all normal. Which they were very excited, since I would now let them go outside.

Scott planted a couple of Blueberry bushes today, and a couple of strawberry plants. It will be really neat to have fresh fruit growing in our own front yard. I plan on starting a garden in the backyard soon as well. I already have a bean plant started in a butter dish. I will transplant it as soon as we have the garden spot prepared.

Spring is right around the corner. I'm looking forward to the warmer days ahead. Of course, come summer time, I'll be looking forward to the cooler days. At least there is always something to look forward to.

To Be or Not to Be Sick...

I have found in the course of this week that there are different ways that people endure their illnesses.

First there is the Groan and Moan sufferer. You definitely know that this person is not feeling well. You can hear his groans and moans clear across the house, and all you can do is pray that everyone gets feeling better, SOON!

Then there is the Royal Treatment sufferer. This person thinks that since he is sick that he should get everything that he wants. He requests to watch movies and eat cake, when asked if he feels like eating anything.

Then there is the Silent Sufferer, who doesn't say much but endures the illness with as much grace as possible. You can only tell that she is sick by her silence and the fact that she is shivering while everyone else finds the room a comfortable temperature.

Then there is the I want the Royal Treatment even though I'm not sick anymore child. The attitude for this "sufferer" is if they get their temperature taken, I need mine taken. If they get medicine, I want medicine. If they get to lay on the couch, I want to lay on the couch. You might can guess which of my young'uns that might be. :)

Then of course the baby just wants to be held the whole time he feels bad. The baby doesn't know why he feels the way he does, but he feels like he is being totally rejected if you set him down for even one minute to help someone else.

Then there is the Denial Sufferer. I'm not sick! I'm not going to get sick! I can't get sick! I'm not even going to take my temperature, because there is no way I can get sick! I have too much to do to get sick! I'm only coughing because of allergies. Never mind that everyone else is coughing in the house! I have to be immune!

So there we have it folks! There are six family members in our home and those of you who know us well, can probably guess which one of my descriptions is which.

Scott is doing better now, besides his congestion. Joshua and Ruth were running a very low grade fever this morning, and should be completely well in a day or two. Hannah is feeling quite fine and not sick after resting a couple days. Jonathan also is back to his old chipper self.

And as for me, well, I CAN'T get sick! I can't afford to get sick! I REFUSE to get sick! *Cough, Cough* Sorry, my allergies again! I better go check on the kids.

Be careful of what you ask for!

I planned to give an update on everyone's health sooner, but I allowed myself to get busy and not get around to blogging these past couple of days. Even now I should be sleeping, but had to tell this story first.

On our way to feed the horses and gather the eggs for our neighbors, Joshua was all excited. He said, "Maybe the rooster will attack me this time. " Thursday, I had taken Ruth by herself and Joshua offered to stay behind and help watch Jonathan, who was sick. When we got back Ruth told Joshua about the rooster attacking her. Thankfully it hit her boot and not directly on her leg. Joshua was intrigued for some reason by her story and was saying that he wanted the rooster to attack him today. I told him, "Joshua, you better be careful what you ask for. You might just get it." Joshua wasn't too concerned and for some reason I knew he would get attacked. I wasn't worried about it though, I figured he might learn a valuable lesson.

Sure enough, the main rooster was in no mood to be trifled with. I had to use a shovel to get into the chicken pen. The rooster attacked the shovel three times before I could get in to throw the feed to it. The feed I threw out was the only thing that kept him from attacking the shovel a 4th time. Now if I hadn't had that shovel that would have been my leg attacked that many times. I thought Joshua would have been less excited when he saw that, but it only seemed to excite him more. He said, "Wow, I saw his neck feathers get all raised!" The rooster finally left the pen while I gathered the eggs. I turned and saw him challenging Joshua. Or was it Joshua challenging the rooster, it was hard to tell. Joshua was trying to scare the rooster away from him but was only angering him all the more. So the rooster attacked him, and I heard Joshua say, "Ow! Hey!" The reason for these exclamations were because he expected the rooster to quit after he showed the rooster that he wasn't scared. So he wound up running from the rooster. Meanwhile, Hannah is in a panic over every chicken in the yard. I had her standing safely out of the way but she was still in a panic. I explained that it was only the rooster, she had to watch out for but in her mind every chicken was the same. So I armed her with a stick and told her to hold the stick and the chickens would leave her alone.

After we fed the horses we called the chickens all back to their pen. This time Joshua was a little more respectful of the rooster's position in the yard.

Now for a health update. Scott, is feeling quite a bit better, except for some congestion that hasn't completely left him yet. Jonathan was feeling better by Friday evening. Hannah just has a tired look, but never ran much fever. Ruth threw up Saturday morning, and that evening was running 103 degree fever. I gave her some medicine and sent her to bed. Then Saturday night before bedtime, Joshua was running a fever as well, his was 102 degrees.

Sadly, I think we will be missing church Sunday morning. This will be the first service for me to miss, since Jonathan was born. He was born on a Sunday morning. I don't remember missing a Sunday, since. We will see tomorrow how everyone is feeling. I just don't want the kids to get everyone at church sick and I don't want to leave them by themselves while they aren't feeling well. I plan on having them rest and do a small devotional lesson with them. I may even let them watch St. John in Exile performed by Dean Jones. I'm hoping they start feeling better soon. So far, thankfully, I have not gotten sick yet. I told Scott that a mother can't afford to get sick. I have no intention of getting sick if I can at all help it. Of course, if Scott realized how late I'm staying up in order to write all these thoughts down, he might think I were asking for it. So I better be careful what I ask for and get some sleep, so that I not get sick myself.

I'll try to write more tomorrow.

A Substitute for the Substitute...

Scott finally took my advice and called the school he substitutes for to let them know he was sick. I couldn't stand seeing him go into school not feeling well and then come home feeling worse. I also have to thank my Dad for suggesting that it might be the flu. Something about the word flu makes it seem a little scarier and the fact that if he doesn't take care of himself he might be feeling like this for ten days made him realize that he should stay home. It's hard for him to admit he's sick but to have to be this way for that long sounded like misery.

I think Hannah has finally decided that she likes being a girl. This morning she had watched a Strawberry Shortcake movie and said that she wanted to be Blueberry Muffin who is a boy. She gave me the normal because she never got to be a boy before. Then I suggested, "Why don't you want to be the kitty, you never got to be a kitty before either."
This of course was an exciting idea. She said, "I can be Pupcake. I never got to be a puppy before either."

Now she may want to be a Puppy or a Kitty when she grows up but at least she likes being a girl again. I tried to read her the story of Deborah out of her Picture Bible. I told her that she would probably like Deborah because she led an army into Battle. She decided that she didn't want me to read that one though, because she didn't like the blood from the battle. So thankfully, Hannah won't be a Joan of Arc. And she is still proud that her finger nail polish is still on her fingers. So I think I've convinced her to enjoy being my little girl.

Of course, Joshua dropped his guard over Jonathan today. Ruth had dressed Jonathan up in her pink sweater. When Joshua found out he shook his head and requested, kindly of course, that it be removed. I asked Joshua if he was glad that he was the oldest and didn't have older sisters dressing him up like a live Baby doll. He is definitely glad.

I'm afraid Jonathan may be catching a little bit of what Scott has though. He has been acting tired all day. I am hoping a good nights sleep will help him feel better. I hate it when Babies get sick. They can't really talk to tell you what hurts. They just want to be held all day long, and all you want to do is hold them. Ruth and Joshua have been a big help with Jonathan on that though. If I need to do something, I can pass Jonathan to one of them and they will rock him for me. They are such big helpers.

I'll try to blog more tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll have better news on everyone's health.

I want to end this blog with a thought I find interesting about Deborah. It's relating to the verse which states.

The inhabitants of the villages ceased, they ceased in Israel, until that that I Deborah arose, that I arose a mother in Israel.
(Judges 5:7)

She specifically mentions herself as a mother in Israel, not a soldier, not a judge but a mother. Of all the amazing things God allowed her to do, she still sees herself as primarily a mother in Israel, that God used for his honor and glory.

God can do amazing things even with someone as simple and humble as a mother.

Ride a little Horsey!

I finally have some videos for everyone. Yesterday, the kids had an opportunity to ride a horse. They actually will be getting to ride horses quite a bit. We have a couple that have been coming to our church that train and raise horses to sell. They offered to let the kids come out anytime to do a few odd jobs around the place and feed the horses. This is great for the kids, since Ruth has always loved horses and has wanted one for a long time. It reminds me of when I was her age and wanted a horse. I love seeing the kids get to fulfill some of their dreams.

The first picture is of Ruth and Hannah riding on Daisy, a Tenessee Walking Horse.

This one is Ruth riding by herself. The lady that works with these horses says that Ruth took to riding so naturally. Of course Hannah didn't realize that the video was being taken and is talking the whole time.

This last one is of Joshua riding Daisy. He is learning to be a little more natural. He is doing real well for his second time riding.

I'm so glad that they are getting this opportunity to learn to ride. This will be a great experience for them as they get older.

Thank you, Ms. Laura for putting these videos on youtube!

I have to end with one last video, since I don't know when I'll get this chance again. This one is of Joshua unmounting. We had a good laugh. After this video was taken he had said, "Well, at least I tried it." It was so cute!

You're never too old nor too young, to reach for your dreams! Find what God has given you an opportunity to do and go for it!

When I grow up...

Today, Hannah and I were having another one of our detailed conversation about what people like to do. I can't remember everything we talked about, but she asked me if Papa and Nana liked to do something like walk. I told her they both liked whatever it was she was asking about. She said, "I want to be Papa when I grow up."
I told her, "Nana likes that, too, why don't you want to be Nana?"
Her reply was, "But I never got to be a boy before!"

I then tried to explain the advantages she had being a girl. "I thought you wanted to be a Mommy with milk when you gr0w up."

She said, "I do, but I want to be a boy first and then be a Mommy with milk!"

She was sure she found the perfect solution. I think she thinks being a boy is as simple as a haircut. So I tell her, "How about if we give you a hair trim so that your hair still looks like a pretty girl's hair and then paint your finger nails. Boys don't get to paint their fingernails."

To which she responds, "Ok, I'll be a girl then. Can we paint Jonathan's fingernails, too?"

That girl could make a good lawyer.

When Ruth was her age, she wanted to be a Princess. It's neat seeing all four of their different personalities. It definitely keeps life interesting.

And thanks to big brother, little Jonathan doesn't have pink finger nails like his sister right now.

A Blog A Day...

Well, my Dad blogs everyday. My brother at least blogs once a week. Me... well... I have to admit I've been a bit remiss. But sometimes I feel like I spend way too much time on the computer when I go online. It takes me a while to load pictures, since I have dial-up.

Then there is checking e'mail, which might not take me so long if I actually checked it everyday. But alas, I've not checked my e'mail in a while either. So here I am checking my e'mail and checking up on my Dad's and Brother's blogs. You wouldn't believe how many of my Dad's blogs I've missed. I've only missed 2 of my brothers, which makes me feel better. Of course last time I checked my Brother's blog I didn't blog that day either.

I love to write, in fact I'm taking a writing course from the Institute of Children's Literature. However, I hate waiting on computers to load stuff. I often feel guilty about spending too much time on it. Even if I'm only doing basic stuff like checking and answering e'mail, cleaning out my inbox, and reading blogs. It just winds up taking so much time.

O.k. So here is what I have decided. I'm going to blog a little more often, however without as many pictures, since that is what takes me so long to do. I will try to blog tomorrow. I may even put at least one picture on tomorrow. We'll see. I just have to plan it.

But without pictures I'll be able to write more often. I was just trying to get a picture in every blog before.

Uh oh, better go chase Jonathan down again and get the others back on track with their school work. They are working on their Multiplication right now. At least, they better be.

I'll write more tomorrow.

Happy New Year

A lot has happened over the past two months. If anyone is still out there checking on my blog occassionally, I'm sorry that I hadn't updated in such a long time. I know my sister has been asking about my blog.

December was a great month. We had snow! This was the first snow Hannah remembers. It was a Wednesday night and as we were walking out of the church building, Hannah started hollering and wanting to be held. She was afraid of the snow. Then her brave big brother went out there and jumped around in it to show her that it was o.k. Then she slowly made her way down the steps and into the snow. Then she started laughing about it.


The snow lasted all that night and a little ways into the next day. I have a couple of pictures of it. The first one is of Scott cleaning the car before going to work that morning.

The second is of Ruth with her snowman that she made. I really thought this picture was funny. What seems out of place in this picture?

If you said the snowman in the middle of the green grass, your right. It just doesn't seem right for a snowman to be standing on a bright sunshiney day in the middle of the green grass. But he held up for at least that day and part of the next. He was a pretty tough snowman.


We enjoyed our Christmas with my parents. We spent Christmas Eve with them and then had our Christmas at their house. I think this was probably one of our best Christmases. I liked it because it was simple. We kept it pretty laid back. The kids weren't all in a rush to open presents. We slept late, I even took a shower and ate breakfast before we opened them at about 11 o'clock. It was nice not having the day focused on presents.


My Dad had made an excellent dinner of Roast Beef, with Salad and other side dishes. Then my Sister and her husband came over and we enjoyed getting to just visit. My Dad even took the kids to his church to play in their gymnasium. It was so quiet around the house at that point. Then we played a game of Clue with my sister and her husband. We had a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to our next visit with my sister and brother-in-law. Hopefully we will learn to use those new rod and reels they gave us for Christmas.


I have so many things I plan on doing this new year. I want to go visit my Mom for her Birthday and actually go on a shopping spree with her. I am saving a little bit of money aside to enjoy a good shopping trip with her. I intend that she finds something for herself, however she already has been talking about finding something for me. But that is just the way my Mom is, for her it is more fun to find something for her kids than for herself. I plan on finding something that she likes during it all though.


In my next blog, I plan to write about my goals for this New Year. So don't give completely up on me and keep checking back. I'll try not to let another Month and a half go by before writing again. :)

Homeschool Always in Session...

I took this picture a couple of weeks ago of the kids sitting at their desks ready for a lesson. After they are done with their lessons we fold up their desks and put them up against the wall and clean the floor of all toys, DVD, tapes, games, etc. that gets scattered during lessons. At around 3:30 I let the kids take a snack, usually an orange outside and they play.

This second picture is of Hannah "washing" her hair in a puddle, one of the days they were outside playing. She can be quite interesting actually. Everyone says she's our character, and that she is. She is always asking people for gum, a habit she has that I wish I could figure out how to break. The problem is that she always asks so sweetly that everyone wants to give it to her. They then promise to bring her gum in the future. Now how do I convince her to quit asking for gum when she gets it so easily. Well, that's a problem I've been talking to her about. I may have to ban gum altogether until we get the problem solved. Of course then she'll find something else to ask for.

I hadn't been online in so long that I felt I just had to get these pictures on here and update everyone. Later I will try to put more pictures on here and tell about Thanksgiving and our Christmas and New Year plans.

Happy Birthday!

We celebrated Jonathan's first Birthday a few days ago. We didn't really do a big party but we had a few friends over and baked a chocolate cake for the occassion. It was Jonathan's first time to have chocolate cake. That is a tradition we have had for each of our children, on their first birthday they get their first taste of chocolate cake. It is also fun for pictures.

The kids and I spent his birthday making a few gifts. Joshua learned how to use the sewing machine. Meanwhile, Ruth wanted to sew her gift by hand. I helped cut out a Zebra shape for Joshua, and helped cut out a circle pillow for Ruth. The circle turned out looking more egg shape but it still turned out well. The material Ruth used for the pillow she made had dinosaurs all over it. The zebra Joshua made was made of black and white striped material. I made a dinosaur out of the same material Ruth used. We decided that the pillow she made could be the dinosaur's egg.

Scott also bought him a toy that has about 5 rings that stack in order over a cone. Our guests gave Jonathan a car that has popping balls inside of it. He really likes pushing it down the hallway. I will post a few pictures that I know everyone is wanting to see. I will try to post a few more later on as well.

New Glasses and Learning Lessons...

It has been almost a month since I've blogged. I have a lot of catching up to do. Since I've last written Joshua and Ruth both have new glasses.

Joshua does not have to wear his all the time but Ruth does. Of course Joshua has to put them on, when I insist that he gets his glasses instead of guessing at the writing on the white board or the T.V. screen.

Ruth has astigmatism, which the optometrist said she will need to wear her glasses all the time. She doesn't seem to mind though, especially since we made sure she picked a pair of glasses that she likes and look nice on her. She really wanted her glasses to be pink like mine.

Their lessons have actually shown some improvement since we've gotten their glasses. Whenever I see Joshua staring at something funny, I just send him to get his glasses and he seems to not have such a problem. It has helped him with the tired look that he often would get in his eyes.

Of course we "had" to get Hannah a pair of sun glasses as well. She went with us to Ruth's eye appointment. She felt like she needed her eyes checked also. So after Ruth picked out her glasses, we took Hannah over to the sunglasses section of Wal-mart and found her a pair of lightly tinted glasses. They look like sunglasses but they are not as dark as real sunglasses would be. They just have a pink tint to them. She was real proud of them. Jonathan just seems happy that he has so many people to pull glasses off of now. Whenever he gets a hold of Hannah's sunglasses he tries to put them on his head. He loves to copy.

Jonathan is getting big. He is almost walking. He will stand up in the middle of the floor without holding on to anything. We haven't been able to get him to take a first step, but I just know he will soon. I took a wonderful video of him playing with the his older siblings. Hannah was throwing a soft toy around the room and all of us would tell him, "Go get it!" He crawled across the floor grab the toy that she threw and then threw it for her to catch. Whenever he didn't see where she threw it, we would point to it and tell him, "It's over there." He learned a new word. As soon as she would throw it, he pointed and said "Tha" for "There." It's hard to believe that he is growing so fast. He will be a year old soon. It doesn't seem like a year has had time to pass. So much has happened this past year. I guess we've been so busy.

Hannah has been learning lessons as well. Her biggest lesson which I think she has finally begun to learn is to not lie. One of her incidences where we caught her in a lie, involved a chair that she obviously wrote on. I asked her "Hannah did you write on this chair?" She said "No." When I asked her "Who did?" She said, "Them in France did it." Hmmm... Her cousins sure would have

had to travel an awful long way to write on one of our chairs.

That is one of the lessons we try to teach our children at an early age. They get in far worse trouble for lying about a deed than they would have if they had told the truth. Hannah has figured that out and almost always tells the truth instantly now. Of course, now she tells the truth almost as if she were proud of the fact that she did it. But she gets into far less trouble that way.

He that speaketh truth sheweth forth righteousness: but a false witness deceit. There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health. The lip of truth shall be established for ever: but a lying tongue is but for a moment. Deceit is in the heart of them that imagine evil: but to the counsellors of peace is joy. There shall no evil happen to the just: but the wicked shall be filled with mischief. Lying lips are abomination to the LORD: but they that deal truly are his delight.
(Proverbs 12:17-22)

Aftermath of Ike

Here is a picture as promised of some of the damage caused by Hurricane Ike. In this picture you can see a tree down, the church's steeple twisted and moved, the power line is down, and there was a stick impressively harpooned into the ground. Yes, those are the trees roots you see. It's amazing how much damage can be done by a hurricane. We have other more detailed pictures of some of the damages but I thought this one made an impressive over all view of the damages.

We stayed with my parents for 2 weeks. When we arrived home we had to find a way to park in our front yard. The entire yard was covered with branches. We came home expecting the power to be out for only a couple of days, it turned out being closer to a week and a half. We were really happy when the electric company finally showed up in our front yard. It's funny how much you appreciate something after you have been without it for awhile. We really appreciate electricity having gone that long without it.

The kids are doing well. We were doing our lessons over at the church during the week that we didn't have electricity. We would go over there for breakfast and then I would get the older involved with a lesson, while I figured out what to do with the younger two. It was fine but it is a lot easier to keep them out of trouble in our own house.

It amazes me how much there was for my 3 year old to displace. I walked into a room to get something and saw a large stack of books where she cleared the bottom two bookshelves that she could reach. I, of course, commanded that she put those back on the shelf neatly. Later I found half the church sign numbers moved and set messily on another table. I told her to put those back and she said, "O.k. I'll put my money back." Then on another occasion she had pulled all the coffee cup holders out of one of the kitchen cabinets and piled them on a table. I first turned it into a lesson for her by having her separate the cups by colors and then count how many cups of each color there were. Then I had her put them back. That was only some of the things she found to unorganized.

Now that we are able to do lessons here again, I feel like I'm able to keep a better eye on all the children. At least, here I know what she could possibly be doing in another room. There aren't as many surprises. I can also keep a better eye on Jonathan this way as well.

I have a lot to do this month. I plan to put some of the things the kids are doing in homeschool next time I write. We've been pretty busy. I'll try to get some pictures of them doing some of their lessons. Until then...

Cause and Effect...

As promised, I'm adding a couple more videos to my blog. I entitled my blog today "Cause and Effect." See if you can figure out why.



I don't know if I will have time to post again before we leave. We will be back home this weekend but we're not sure what the conditions of our home will be. We should have water and phones. However we are not sure if we will have electricity when we get there.

Hopefully we will be able to get any problems repaired. I know that we will have a tree down in our yard. It's a pecan tree and I do not know which one it is. So I'm looking forward to getting back home and seeing first hand what the damages consist of at our house. I'll try to get some pictures and post them as soon as possible.

Two's Company...

This video is of Hannah. She ran into the my parents living room announcing, "I stood on the clock and I weighed 30 feet inches!" So we had to get this video so everyone else could hear her. She is so funny.

We talked to some of our church members and found that electricity is gradually coming back to our area. We were planning to make a short trip there and then come back to my parents, but now we are planning to go ahead and pack up and go back this week. I'm not sure which day. We may have to go a couple of days without electricity but it's not as bad as two weeks.

My parents have graciously shared their home with us these two weeks. Two weeks is a long visit. Two's company but eight can be a crowd when your used to two. So I'm sure they will enjoy getting their house and their routine back. I know I'm ready to get back to a routine again. I'm sure it will be quiet around here.

Since we will be going back this week and leaving fast speed internet behind, I will have another blog tomorrow with a few more videos. So check back later on this week for some more cute videos.

For now enjoy the above video and this video of Hannah and Ruth playing on Nana's piano. You will notice that Hannah is chewing bubble gum in this video. She had bought the gum with her own money that she was saving for a piano like Nana's. Obviously she has a little ways to go to have saving and spending figured out. Enjoy the videos!

Waiting...

I wanted to post a couple of videos since I have access to faster internet. Yes, we are one of many Texas families that evacuated due to hurricane Ike. It is hard to wait sometimes.

I try not to get impatient, as I wait. I try to be adaptable but I like routine as well. It seems like all the different places we have lived over the years, one thing I try to maintain is some sort of routine. It takes me a while to adjust to change, however after a few weeks I get the kids used to a routine and then we are doing well again. We finally started the first week of our new KONOS curriculum when hurricane Ike came through. Now I'm trying to decide whether or not to come up with an "at grandparents house" routine. If we were to go back to our home, we would not have electricity and possibly no water. The sheriffs department there suggested we wait a few days. So by the time I finally got some semblance of a routine going here, we'd be leaving again. For now I plan to work on basic reading, writing, and math with the kids. When we get back home we'll return to our Unit Study. I plan to take pictures of different activities we do as we go along. Which I will be able to post on here to show some of what the kids are learning.

I hope all is well at our church and our home. I imagine that we will find a lot of trees down when we do get back. Some of our church members were planning to go back earlier today to assess the damage. I hope they find all in order and we will be able to get back as soon as the electricity is turned back on. In the mean time we will just have to wait.

(Psalms 27:14) Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

Baby in a Pot

I had to post this picture of Jonathan in a big pot. This was a pot Scott had bought when Joshua was just a baby. He liked it's size, because you could cook a lot of food in it. It was funny when he bought it, since Joshua was just a baby he joked that he would fit in it. Of course, we would never really cook our children.

Scott and I had a real good discussion on that subject before we were married. He had studied Deuteronomy 28:56-58 in seminary, also 2 Kings 6:28-29. It is funny to look at that conversation that we had 12 years ago. I remember it started when we both saw a teenager steal a cookie from the bakery of the grocery store we both worked at. I was shocked to see him do such a thing in plain sight, and just before I let the words out, Scott said, "Don't say you wouldn't do that." I was even more shocked that he would think, I would be low enough to steal a cookie. That of course got into a big discourse over the fact that I would not steal a cookie. He then told me about the women in the Bible that were so hungry that they ate their own children. I was shocked to even have that brought up, I told him that I would never eat my children. I would give my own fingers and toes rather than eat any of my own children. The funny thing is we both agreed, but we saw things in a different way. He thought I was saying that I wasn't capable of sin. I thought he was saying that I can't say I wouldn't do anything like that. I firmly believed that if you follow the Bible and stay within those guidelines and you will never have to eat your children, because God will provide all your needs. After the strangest argument we have ever had, we both agreed that we were sinners and that we didn't have to eat our children.

Of course, we still have to joke about our first argument, and when he bought that large pot, I just shook my head and reassured Joshua at the time that we would never eat our children. Of course, now Jonathan fits in it and thinks it's the funnest toy around. His brother and sisters all had him in there and were adding toys and pushing him around the carpet like he were in a car. He just loves it. Hannah uses that pot to pretend she is cooking noodles.

I love my family. It's amazing how much, we have all grown these past 12 years. God has really been good to us. I'm glad that he has provided for our every need, spiritual and physical.

Thankyou, Lord for all your blessings, especially my wonderful, precious family.

Back Online!

I'm finally back online again. We have finally moved into our new home. We still have a few things that we need to pick up from our previous home, but for the most part we're here now. Our kids really like it here. We have been a lot more organized. It's nice not to be constantly driving on the weekends. We are now able to settle down and start a routine of sorts.

At this point, we have been trying to get the house organized. I've been giving Joshua and Ruth worksheets to complete and writing assignments. I have been giving Hannah little assignments as well. She wants to do everything the other two are doing. Scott has gotten their computers set up. When I first started homeschooling the children, I never dreamed that one day we would have 5 computers. Scott spent quite a bit of last week getting 2 of those computers set up for the children.

Alas, it is very late. I must go to bed for now. But I did want to give a little update to let everyone know that we're back online. I'll be able to update more often as we get going. I'll try to add pictures soon as well. So keep checking back!

What Do You Want to Be?

We spent a whole week in our new home. Scott's back gave out on him while he was at work the week before last week. After seeing the chiropractor he took Friday, August 8, off and then after an achy weekend he called his boss and decided to take the rest of that next week to rest his back.

Monday night, last week, Hannah suffered a little bit of homesickness. We had rocked her world by not going back to our old house. She wanted her blanket that Mamaw made. My explaining that we would get it when we went back the next week didn't help any. She was better the next morning, but still wanted her blanket. I did find another blanket that was hers when she was a baby.

I went to the store Tuesday, while Scott stayed home with the kids. He had asked them what they all wanted to be when they grew up. Joshua wants to be a zoo keeper, Ruth wants to be a veterinarian, and Hannah wants to be a Mommy with milk, and to eat chocolate cheesecake when she grows up. Whenever Daddy, gives me something that they do not get, he says it's becuse I'm mommy. So Hannah has decided that being a Mommy is the best job in the world.

She was watching me give Jonathan a bath and she asked if she could help wash his hair. He was very happy and I did not want him to get shampoo or water in his face so I told not right now. So she watched a little while then she asked me, "When I get to be a mommy, will I get to give Jonathan a bath?" I explained that when she gets to be a mommy she'll get to give her own babies baths. She was quite concerned and asked, "So I won't get to give Jonathan a bath?!" I tried to explain that Jonathan will be big by then and would be giving himself baths. She can't imagine him being grown, she thinks he will always be a baby. After finally conceding that argument she asked me, "Well will you get to give my babies baths." I told her that that was another nice thing. When she gets to be a mommy, I will get to be a grandma and sometimes I will get to help give her babies baths. Another new concept.

"So will I get to be a grandma?" she asked. I explained that she had to be a mommy before she was a grandma. She then decided she would rather be a grandma and give Jonathan baths. As I've told the kids many times, sometimes you just can't win an argument with a 3 year old.

I feel like I must be doing something right for Hannah to want to be a Mommy when she grows up. Of course it may just be all the special "privileges" she thinks mommies have. Of course she does not "see" the work. Right now, washing dishes in a sink looks like playing in a sink full of bubbles. Vaccuuming is fun. She especially wants to be allowed to mop, or rather sling water all over the kitchen floor with a big wet wig. I asked why their was a mop in the girls bedroom, they had been pretending that it was hair. I asked that when they were through pretending that they return the mop back to it's rightful spot. Yep, being a mom, is a lot of fun. There is never a dull moment.

I've been working on my lesson plans for the upcoming school year. I'll actually be starting the kids classes Sept. 1. I wanted one extra week after we move to get organized, before we actually start our lessons. I have a lot of work to do this week. We will be moving the last of our stuff.

Scott plans to substitute teach, while I am homeschooling the kids. Things should go well. I'm pretty sure he will get enough calls to supplement the income the church will be giving us and to pay the bills. We really don't need much. We are pretty good at pinching pennies sometimes. We may have to pinch quite a few, but you can actually live pretty well on very little. I'm just glad that we were able to have enough money this summer to get some curriculum and a copy machine for homeschooling. That will help me a lot this year. We're pretty much all set.

We haven't got a phone line, nor internet access set up at the new house yet. I will get that sorted out as soon as possible. I may have to blog from the library a few times. I'll try not to get too behind on my blogs.

Learning Lessons for Life

It's been about 2 1/2 weeks since I've blogged. A lot has happened in that time, and I've been keeping pretty busy. We had a good week at Church Camp. Scott taught the High School and College classes. He gave them lessons that were very pertinent to what they are going through. He taught on being committed to their future spouses, and to God. Pretty much admonishing them to keep themselves pure from life's temptations.

I taught the 3rd and 4th Grade class. I had good students as well. We learned about the lost sheep in Matthew 18 on Tuesday. Wednesday we made Bracelets and several verses about Salvation and describing the colors of the Bracelet. Black for sin, Red for Christ's blood being shed for our Sins, White showing that we are forgiven and washed clean by His blood, Blue after we are saved we are then able to show the world that we are followers of Christ, Green stands for our Growing in Christ, and Gold stands for the time when we shall meet Jesus in Heaven. Then on Friday, I taught the Lesson on the Mustard seed from Luke 13:18-19. I even brought mustard seed for my class to look at and take home. I had a lot of fun teaching and no one was stung by bees this year!

Last week I took up quilting. I had been wanting to learn for years. I finally asked my Mamaw, if she would teach me how. She agreed. So after Scott gets home, mainly on Tuesday's and Thursdays, I've been going over to her house and visit with her while working on a quilt block. I've completed one block, and will have to put some pictures of it on here. I just hadn't taken time to get any on my computer. As soon as I get some pictures on here though, I'll be sure to post them.

You may have also noticed my Domestically Challenged Corner. I don't know how many people actually read my blog, and I don't know whether your domestically challenged, as I like to term it. However, in my years of working hard reverse my domestically challenged state, I have happened on some hints and tricks to make life and clean-ups easier. So I decided to start my Domestically Challenged Corner where you can see what hint I come up with from time to time. And I have some really basic ones, which some folks might laugh at. But believe it or not I at one time, really didn't know some of the things I'll put on here. It took trial and error many times to figure it out. I mean there was even a time that I didn't realize dishes rinsed in warm water dry faster than those rinsed in cold water. :) Oh well, some of us have to learn it the hard way. But at least we learn. So that was where I came up with that corner of my blog. Check there often for interesting and maybe painfully obvious tidbits that might help someone like me, who may be out there, struggling with how to get that stubborn stain out.

However, for now, I better get busy cleaning before my dear husband gets home. I'll put some pictures of some of my quilting, as soon as I can. I changed the look of my blog a bit and hope everyone likes it. I may play around with it some more, until I like the look of it. Check back often for more Thoughts from Stacie.

No Pictures...

Now I need to catch everyone up since my last blog. Jonathan now has 4 teeth. His fourth tooth which is his other top front tooth, came in last Friday evening. Now we're just waiting to see which tooth will come in next. I'm not sure yet whether it will be a top or a bottom tooth next time. So stayed tuned for more on his teeth.

My Papaw died last Friday morning. My mother called me around 8:00 or so to let us know that he had passed away at 7:20 a.m. I called Scott to tell him. Then when the older two kids woke up before their sister, I told them. Joshua's number one question when he hears that someone has died is whether or not they were saved. Thankfully, I knew for sure that my Grandfather was saved. This made my son feel better, and he said well at least he was saved, that's good.

When Hannah woke up that morning, I knew I would need to be careful in how I explained it to her. I had asked her if she remembered how Papaw was in the hospital. She did. She always asks about shots, when we talk about because she attributes hospitals with shots. (She is actually thinking of the Doctor's office where she has seen Jonathan getting vaccinated.) I explained that Papaw had had some problems with his heart. She might have understood some of that. But then I told her that Papaw had died. She just looked at me blankly. I told her that he went to heaven. That was interesting to her, she asked me if we would go to ___ (name of town where we are moving too, left blank for anonimity.) I realized that she just thought that heaven was just another city or state. Like Texas, Michigan, Florida, California, or even another country like France. So I then explained, "No sweety, Papaw is in Heaven and he gets to see Jesus." That put a big smile on her face. I knew what was coming though. "I want to see Jesus!"

So I explained that one day many, many years from now, she will get to see Jesus. Then I told her, "But do you know what Jesus wants you to do right now?" She looked at me with anticipation. "He wants you to be happy, and do what he says to do, obey me and daddy, and when you get old enough to feel bad about the bad things you do, he will want you to be saved. Then once you are saved you will have Jesus in your heart, too. And when you get older and Jesus is ready for you, you'll get to see Jesus, too." She was fine with that explanation, even though I'm not sure how much she actually retained. I do know that she is excited about the fact that Papaw gets to see Jesus, and one day she will, too.

I think the only thing I regret, is that I did not take more pictures of Papaw and Mamaw with our kids. We've been to their house many times, we've had real enjoyable visits, but I never thought to bring a camera. I don't have pictures of Papaw taking his teeth out for the kids. Nor a picture of them caught in the bear trap, or running from the claw. I do have those memories in my head but they are not in print. I am now determined to take more pictures and to not let those memories just be my memories. I want to be able to pass my memories on to my children as well. So I'm determined to record my memories. I want to record the memories from my childhood and stories that I remember my parents telling me of their childhoods. I also want to record my memories of my grandparents, Parents, Aunts, and Uncles. I want my children to remember our past. Because we can learn from our past, and which will help us shape our future.

My oldest daughter, Ruth just celebrated her 8th birthday this week. I took her and her siblings to a museum. They are getting older now and are actually interested in things that had happened in the past. I still have a little trouble with Hannah, since her attention span is short and her energy level is high. Thankfully she didn't mess with much, and she did sit down for any videos that was available to watch. So I just took the kids through the museum section by section and let them watch the videos, and read the signs that were about different specific items that they wanted to know about. It was very interesting.

Next week is Church Camp. I have been working hard on my camp lessons and since my class size may be more than doubled, I am going to plan to teach at least 50 kids, just in case.

I may not get another chance to post until after camp, however I'll try to post some pictures when we get back.

Tooth Number 3!

Jonathan's 3rd tooth has just come in. It is his top right front incissor. I thought it would come at any time. He had been a bit fussier than usual, and last night he kept whining in his sleep. It was hard for me not worry over him, but since he continued to sleep, I just went back to bed. This morning, he was extra fussy and so I decided to check his teeth. Sure enough it was there peeking through his gums. Ahh!! 3 teeth down and many more to come.

So far I haven't had any trouble nursing him. He has been pretty good about not biting me. Hopefully this will continue now that he has a top tooth. I'm pretty sure his fourth one is real soon to follow. Three teeth with at least 4 more months of nursing to go. I think we can make it.

It's hard to believe he will be a year old in 4 months. This has been a fast year so far. I guess, there has been so much going on that it has just flown by. This will be a busy month as well with Saturdays filling up with activities, Ruth's birthday coming up, and Church Camp. I will try to get in some blogging during it all but if I lag behind this month, I may just be busy. I definitely won't be able to blog during camp. I should be able to blog next week though. So please don't give up on me. :)

Growing Up!

Our firstborn, Joshua, had a birthday about a week ago. He turned 10 years old. It's amazing how time has gone by. On his birthday, I told him stories of his past birthdays. Starting from the day he was born. I remember so many of his milestones. I remember his first laugh, his first tooth. I also remember the first time he road his bike without training wheels. Then this past April, he had driven a four wheeler all by himself.

Today he had another milestone. This was his first time to mow our yard with a powered lawnmower. He had used a reel mower before, but this is his first with the gas powered lawnmower. I had told him in the past, when he begged me to let him mow, that he could mow when he was big enough to crank the mower with the pull string.

Yesterday, I was trying to decide which of the many chores I needed to do while the baby was asleep. Joshua was outside as I was contemplating mowing. He asked me as we were clearing out the large sticks, and toys out of the yard, if he could try to crank the lawnmower again. So I agreed. After making sure there was plenty of gas in the lawnmower, he pulled the cord. After just a couple of pulls it cranked right up.

I explained to him how to start with a straight line. I had him mow a straight line towards the window of our house. I then showed him how when he turned the lawnmower around there was a grass line. A line where the grass is tall verses the grass that is short. I showed him how to put the tire right on the outside of that line. He did a perfect job. I was so impressed by his hard work that I took several pictures.

Looking at the picture above you can see how the lawnmower is as big as he is. So just imagine how much work it was for his small body. However when I asked him about half-way through our yard if he needed a break, he said "No, I can do it." So I went and got him a drink, so that he would not get too hot. He mowed the majority of the grass that day. He came in hot and sweaty with a big grin on his face. My little boy, was able to do a man's job. Where has the time gone?

Today, he told me that he had growing pangs, in his arms, legs, and hands. I explained that it was from all the mowing yesterday. He said, "But it feels like growing pangs." I then told him that it was growing pangs. His muscles were growing from all the hard work they did yesterday.

Later on today, he came back to me, while his sisters were playing upstairs, and asked if he could mow the rest of the yard. I said, "Sure." So out he went and I heard the lawnmower crank and start purring away outside.

I may have mown my last yard. From now on, my son will be taking on that roll. It won't be long and his brother will be begging him to let him mow. I can see him telling Jonathan, "When you're old enough to crank the mower, I'll let you mow." It won't be long!

Psalm 144: 11-12 "Rid me, and deliver me from the hand of strange children, whose mouth speaketh vanity, and their right hand is a right hand of falsehood: That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace:

Like Mother, Like Son... Ouch, Painful lesson!

My brother and sister would probably remember the stories my dad used to tell of me and my stubborness as a young child. A few days ago, I was reminded of one of these stories through my youngest child.

My father used to tell how mad I would get when they would put me to bed as a baby. He said that one time, I got so mad that I bit myself. Then I was so mad that it hurt, I bit myself again.

Well, my son only bit himself once but it must have been hard enough for him not to want to do it again. The picture above is the perfect tooth marks of his only two teeth in his hand. At first I wasn't sure what had happened to his hand. I saw the sore on it and thought it was too big for a spider. Then after taking a closer look, I realized that the two marks were the exact position of his bottom two teeth. The reason there are not a matching set above is that he only has the bottom two. So I hope he does not do this again when he gets more teeth. Maybe he learned his lesson with one bite, unlike his mother when I was a baby.

A lesson can be learned from this though. It's always good to learn and grow from your experiences good or bad.

I have a lot more deep thoughts but they will have to wait for another blog. I will leave you to ponder on this lesson first. Check back real soon for more Thoughts from Stacie. :)

Moving!

I'm way overdue for a blog. Sorry all of y'all that have been faithfully checking for updates. I will try not to wait so long before my next post.

I'm looking forward to being completely moved and no longer having to go back and forth between homes. Friday we helped my sister and her husband load some of her things onto their flatbed trailer for them to take to their new home. Then we decided we would just take the car this time ourselves and save on gas mileage. We still have a few things that we will need to take on the trailer but we are almost done with moving. We mostly have little stuff left to organize and pack. I'm looking forward to giving Dad his truck back.

Friday night we arrived at the parsonage at about midnight. We had to stop to get some medicine for the kids' coughing troubles. They have all 4 been pretty congested. So we got them all to bed about midnight or so.

Then Saturday, after sleeping in a little, Scott introduced the kids to the game of Risk. I've played it on the computer before but he had bought the board game. He always wanted to play it when he was a kid but never had any brothers or sisters to play it with. So he had to play it by himself. Joshua and Ruth really enjoyed the game and they felt sorry for their Dad not having siblings to play with when he was a kid.

I liked the game because it gave the kids great practice with their math. They had to count by 10's, 5's, and 1's. They had to add up how many armies they needed. They also had to figure out which countries they were going to put each army. It gave them good practical application for their math skills. Of course, it only takes a homeschooling Mom to see all those benefits to a simple board game.

Anyway, while they were playing that game I went to Wal-mart and bought Father's day gifts. I bought batteried powered fans/flashlights with a clasp to attach it to a belt loop or bag. They were pretty nice. I wanted something different from the normal father's day gifts. I wasn't really wanting to buy pens. I think it turned out to be a good gift. All the father's seemed to appreciate it.

Scott called his 4 fathers' as he likes to say every father's day. :) He called my Dad and his 3 Dads to wish them all a happy father's day. I meant to call my Dad but was afraid of calling at the wrong time. So I called him on Monday.

Monday morning, Joshua woke up at 3 a.m. coughing and wheezing. He was all upset about his congestion. I told him that crying would only make it worse. I gave him some medicine and had him take a hot shower. Then he came back to our room still having problems. He said his throat was hurting so Scott thought maybe if he gargled salt water it might help. Joshua is a lot better at gargling salt water than I am. He said it burned his throat but he gargled salt water several times and said that it helped some. Then he was still having problems with congestion. We decided that the medicine we gave him may not have been the exact thing he needed for his symptoms. The medicine wasn't hurting him but it didn't seem to be helping him either. So Scott at 4 a.m. went to Wal-mart and bought some Equate vapor rub. (The Vick's Vapor Rub wanna be.) He also bought a decongestant/ expectorant. The other medicine we had given him was a nasal decongestant this one was an expectorant as well.

While Scott was gone to the store. He had given Joshua some Chicken noodle soup to eat while he was gone. And I put on School House Rock for him to watch in our room where he wouldn't wake up Jonathan who was sleeping in the living room. Then Scott got back helped Joshua with the Vapor Rub, and sent him on back to bed feeling much better.

Of course Monday we all were tired. Scott was commenting on how tired he felt. It was like he had been driving around town in the middle of the night looking for medicine. I commented on how I had a whole lot of School House Rock songs stuck in my head. Joshua just smiled.

Scott finished filling out his application and I helped him with his Résumé for substitute teaching. It got a little late to turn it in by the time it was all done. However it is ready for next Monday when all he will have to do is turn it in.

And then we arrived back to our other home. Where we are now ready to start another week of back and forth. It's kind of hard right now living in two places. We keep getting to bed too late this way. It's hard to have a normal routine. I pretty much have two routines for the two different locations. Kids need a steady routine. I'm looking forward to getting into an easier one once we've completely moved.

Ok that pretty much catches us up a little bit. I'll have to write more at a later time. For now I'll leave everyone with a picture from our new home. I have a video but that is a little hard to put on here with dialup. So for now a picture will do.

A Date?

Jonathan is doing better with his new tooth. He had a bit of a rough weekend but his tooth is finally through and he has been a lot more like the cheerful baby he was before. However we had a bit of a fussy baby on our hands for a few days. I bought him some cold teethers and kept giving them to him. Those made him happy for a few minutes at least.

Scott had an interview on Monday. He doesn't like being treated like a number and so he picked up some more applications. Then he got a call from the Manager of the store he had his interview at and they wanted him to come back. So he should be going back for another interview with the main manager this time. If not Scott will have the other applications filled out to turn in with his resume.

I took the kids to Vacation Bible School at a church in town. They really had a good time. It was an evening VBS and so Scott was off work. He was home when I drove up and he came over to the car and sat in the passenger seat and we sat there for a half hour trying to decide what we want to do while the kids were gone for 2 hours. It was just us and Jonathan. Then we drove around trying to decide what we wanted to do. Then we decided to go to Herschells and have a snack. Then by the time we did that it was time to get the kids.

When we were all back home, the kids asked what we did. I told them that we mostly sat around and drove around trying to think of what we were going to do without them. So during our nightly prayers Joshua prayed that God would help us think of something to do while they were in Bible school today. After we all finished our prayers, I told Joshua that his prayer was already answered. I told him that we already knew what we would do while they were in Bible School today. We'll be in Church!

Now Thursday is the day we'll have to figure out. I told Scott since we had short notice on our Tuesday date, maybe we can actually think of something to do for Thursday.

Friday Scott and I will be packing to leave. We'll probably be leaving late on Friday night after picking the kids up from VBS. So another late night will be upon us. Maybe I'll eventually catch up on all the missed sleep.

I have a lot I need to finish today. I better get back to work.

Ouch! New Tooth!

This evening, I felt Jonathan's first tooth. I actually felt it earlier today but did not think as much of it until I told Scott about it. So he got out a flashlight and spent a good bit trying to get him to show his new tooth. Then with a cheerful excited voice he says, "Ahh!! Jonathan has a new tooth!"

My response, "Oh boy, Jonathan has a new tooth. A bit early don't you think?" Which got us discussing our other children. Joshua didn't have a new tooth until he was right at 1 year old. Ruth was about the same at about 1 year old. Hannah, I thought was early at 9 months old or so. However Jonathan has beat them all with a new tooth at 6 months and 3 weeks old, and yes I still intend to finish nursing him until he is 12 months old. Ahh! I hope this will not be a long 6 months!

Actually, he has been fairly good tempered about it. I would have not known he was getting a tooth if it had not been for all his drooling and my feeling it this afternoon. I'm just not exactly excited about the next 6 months of his tooth scratching me when I feed him. However, I'm sure I'll get used to it after a month or so. I hope.

Anyway, I thought everyone would be excited to hear about his new tooth. I'll definitely get a picture as soon as it's big enough to show when he smiles. Right now you have to actually hold his mouth open to see it. So no pictures yet! But just keep checking back. I'm sure I'll get some before too long!

Not Again!

Today has been a pretty good day. I went to bed a bit late last night but I got up with enough time to get Joshua up and ready to go with Papa on their hike. He was real excited. I know they are having a lot of fun right now. I couldn't help but what they are doing through out the day. Right now I am wondering if they are looking for a good spot to put up the tent. They may have 15 minutes to a half hour left of daylight. Of course I'm sure they would be able to put the tent up by flashlights if they had to.

The girls and I have been having quite a bit of fun today. I don't usually let the children watch very many movies. We may put on a movie and watch it about once in a week if that much. There is just so many other better things to do than watch movies. So watching a movie for our kids is a special treat. Ruth was wanting to watch "Princess Diaries 2" and Hannah wanted to watch "Monster's Inc." So this morning we watched "Monster's Inc." and then this afternoon we watched "Princess Diaries 2". I like the second "Princess Diaries" better than the 1st one. Ruth likes the Mattress Slide and the Parade where all the girls get to be Princesses.

I called Scott at my usual time. I usually call him everyday right around the time he might be getting off. Today, I called him around the same time and I asked him how he was doing and he said "Well, I'm alright." Which by the tone of his voice I knew something was up. Can you guess?

If you said, "Car problems again." Then you were right. He was at one job site and noticed red liquid on the ground under our van. He didn't give it too much thought until he saw it at another location he drove to. So he got under the van and looked and sure enough it was leaking transmission fluid. He talked to someone at an automotive store and they said that it could just be leaky valves. The bad news is that it is probably going to be $450 or so to get the transmission pulled out so that they can get to the hoses that need to be sealed. Ugh!

It is actually a little funny in a sad sort of way. We just spent $180 to get our blinker working so that we could get our van inspected just last week. Now it is leaking transmission fluid and we won't be able to drive it without fixing that problem. We are actually talking about selling all but our car and getting ourselves one of those Bikes that hold 6 passengers. They look kind of like a wagon or a little car. It's pretty neat since 4 people can pedal and there is a little seat in the front that can actually hold two small kids. It would be perfect for our needs and we could stay in shape going into town. We would actually save quite a bit of money by not spending so much on gas. We are really leaning that direction. We discussed long trips where we might need a van and we decided with the money we would actually save the rest of the year we could rent a van to go visit family. I don't at this point simplicity sounds good to me. We would keep our 6 passenger car. It won't hold us too good, whenever we have one more child but another child probably won't come for at least another 15 months or so.

I don't know exactly what we will do. Scott is thinking we could either sell the van or give it on to a Mission work in Mexico. It always sounded nice that we have a 15 passenger van but now it's just becoming less and less practical the more we have to fix it. Too much money keeps going into the tank and into repairs. I don't know what else we can do with it at this point.

We may be moving sooner than we were originally thinking. There was a job opening that might be a good opportunity for Scott. It doesn't pay much but he would get to meet a lot of people. He'll be checking into that on Monday.

So that should catch everyone up on most of our activities here. The girls,and I will be scrapbooking with Nana tomorrow. They are excited. They have all the snacks figured out that they want to take with us. I'm sure they will have tons of fun. I just need to go through some of their pictures. Jonathan will be getting a lot of attention as well.

Jonathan has just woke up and I need to get the pizza out of the oven. I'll try to write more later on and let everyone know what we decide on our vehicular troubles. 'Til next time!

Cameras, Hiking, Crawling, and Sitting

I bought Joshua, Ruth, and Hannah their first digital cameras. Of course it was the cheapy $12 camera from Wal-mart but I wasn't about to spend more than that until I see that they can take care of these ones. You can't view the picture from the back of the camera like most of the high dollar kind, so we got some crazy pictures at first. As you can see.

This is a picture of Ruth's nose! They hadn't quite figured out that they can't hold the camera too close to what they are taking a picture of.

This is a picture of Joshua's eye.

And Hannah's Mouth!

They were finally getting the hang of it after a while though and actually took some pretty neat pictures.

Ruth was pretty proud of this picture of the 3 of them, which she took with the 10 second timer. She actually did a good job with this one! Sadly it was on the lower resolution but it still is a nice picture!

Thankfully the newness is starting to wear off and they aren't bringing me their cameras every few minutes wanting me to put their pictures on the computer.

We walked 3.6 miles today. It took us about 2 hours to walk it but we had fun and stopped about 3 times for a break. Of course, we also paused a couple of times to look at two dead snakes along the way and a dead bird. We didn't look too close but the kids were fascinated.

Jonathan is starting to hold himself up on his hands and knees! He started that Sunday. We had him on the floor in the living room and he pushed up onto his hands and knees. He did this several times through out the day. At one point I tried to get him to come to me while he was in this position but he kind of look at the floor like he was trying to figure out how to coordinate all of these parts to move. He wound up tumbling forward, but it's a start. I need to get a picture of him. If I can get to a camera in time! I may have to put the kids up to the challenge of getting his picture.

Today, I was changing his diaper. He likes to try to flip over while I'm changing him. I no longer change him on a changing table. It has become easier to change his diaper on my bed. While I was changing his diaper he sat upright! I was trying to hold his diaper on him when all of a sudden he curled his head upward (like he was doing a crunch) then he rocked his shoulder to the side a bit and with a little bit of help from his right arm he sat up! Now how was I suppose to velcro his diaper like that? So I laid him back down and he was so impressed by this new game that he did it again. I don't know if I'll be able to get him to do that for a camera but we'll have to try. He is getting so big so fast. Sunday, we stopped by a store and I tried letting him sit in the front of the cart instead of in his carseat in the basket part of the cart. He sat there just fine! These kids grow up so fast!

I love my children! I'm so glad that God gave me each of them. They each add so much to our family.

Psalm 127:3 "Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward."

Waiting

This is a picture of my husband and our son Jonathan waiting at my sister's wedding rehearsal. My husband is making use of his time by reading different mission reports on the bulletin board.

Today was filled with waiting as well. This morning I had to wait on the kids to get their shoes on and change their clothes for Jonathan's doctor's appointment. Then we got out to the van and drove to get the van inspected. So again, more waiting while the man drove the van in a circle. He told me I needed to get my right blinker fixed and needed to replace my windshield wipers before it would pass inspection.

I then drove to Wal-mart to buy wipers. You would think that would be simple and quick. Nope! The little computer thing that tells you what size wipers your vehicle needs was broken. So I had to wait while the lady behind the counter looked it up. She wasn't completely sure which one it was and had to go into another room to ask one of the other workers there. Finally she came back and told me the size I needed to get. I then grabbed the wipers with the lifetime warranty wondering how long the life of my vehicle will be. I decided the little extra cost to buy the wipers with the lifetime warranty was worth it.

Then we were getting close to the time I wanted to be at Jonathan's appointment so we left Wal-mart and went to the Doctor's office. We were there a half hour early, so there was a little wait but it wasn't too bad. Of course the appointment itself seems to take a while. We were called back to the room and waited for the nurse. Then we waited for the other nurse. Then we waited for the Doctor. Then we waited for the first nurse to come back and give Jonathan his shots.

Now all that waiting at the Doctor's office I thought the kids, especially Hannah would drive me crazy. But the nurse came into the room and told me she wanted to compliment me on how nice my children are. She said she was amazed at how well behaved they are. It's nice when someone tells me that because to me they seemed fidgity, but compared to most children that come there they are extremely well behaved. So I thanked her, and she asked me if we homeschool and I told her we did. She was impressed. I'm proud of my kids.

Then after the Doctor's appointment I tried to get the car inspected at another place. More waiting... They gave it an inspection so that they could tell me exactly what it needs and give an estimate on how much it will cost to fix the part that we needed fixed. $320! So I told them I would check around and get back with them if we decided on that. So I then went to our normal Auto repair place. They have gotten used to seeing us there. They are very sweet and feel bad for all of our car troubles. We just drive worn out vehicles. They have always been good to us and tried to give us better prices than we are usually able to find anywhere else. Which is what they did this time. They were able to fix it for $180. Much better! Except they won't be able to get to it until Monday. But that is o.k. We might try one more place that might inspect it with that minor problem, with the understanding of course that we are getting that part fixed.

Anyway, during these visits my son gets a call on my phone from his Grandfather, "Papa". Of course the antenna would disappear in the middle of the conversation. "Mom! It hung up on us!" So my poor son had to learn a lesson in waiting. Later I was able to get him back on the phone with Papa. Then while I was driving we went into another area where the antenna doesn't work. So another lesson in waiting for my son. Sometimes I think a lot of life is about waiting patiently. Now he is looking forward to his hike with Papa. Of course, I'm going to be hearing about it every day. "Is it time yet?" "How many more days?" He will definitely have the calendar down by the time the hike gets here.

There is definitely a lot of waiting in life. My son is young and will have a lot of waiting ahead of him. It is good for him to learn how to wait patiently at his young age. What better way to teach him how to wait patiently than showing him by example. So everytime I wait for something I need to remember my children are watching and make sure that I'm waiting patiently.

Romans 5:3-5 "And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also; knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us."

James 1:2-5 "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing."

And now for everyone to wait patiently until I get another blog written. :)

Good and Busy Days!

We had a busy week last week. The first part of the week Joshua and Ruth worked on their projects for the Scholar's Exhibit. Then of course Wednesday night we had church services. Then Thursday night was the Scholar's Exhibit and Recognition night. Then Friday night we went to the rehearsal for my Sister's wedding. Then we had the wedding on Saturday. After the wedding we left for the Church of which my husband is now the Pastor.

I am so glad that we will soon be settling down in our new community. Scott is a lot happier fulfilling the calling that God has given him. He does not mind hard work but he prefers the work that God has called him to do as a leader and a shepherd. That is what he went to Seminary for. He has been needing a church to help guide. We do not make very good pew warmers as we like to tell people. We need to be working in the calling that God has given us as a preacher's family. I have a lot of ideas for our small church that we are now a part of. I hope to see the youth in our church doing more and taking an active part in our services. There are not very many members but there are enough and it is a great number to actually work with the children during services. I hope we are blessed with many years serving the Lord there.

Above is a picture of Joshua holding an Anole Lizard. This is one of the pictures we put on Joshua's display.

I hope to get a few pictures of the wedding onto my computer so that I can show some pictures of the girls dressed up in their beautiful dresses and Joshua in his suit. They were really cute!

This week should be a little slower I am imagining. Scott will be moving some building material from a house that we had originally planned to rebuild. But when plans changed we had a few things still sitting over there. So we need to move it before that house gets bull dozed.

Wednesday, Jonathan has a Dr. appointment. I anticipate that it will go well. He has been growing well and seems to have no problems with the Baby food that we have been giving him about once a day. So his appointment should be fairly uneventful, except for maybe some shots.

Thursday, there will be another homeschool event. It is a field day. I don't know what all the events will be but I do know that their will be hay hurdles. So I imagine that the kids will have a great time with that.

Other than that it should be a pretty easy week. I am planning to go to the store sometime this week and buy a few things for the parsonage where we will be living in a couple of months. We will be slowly moving things that direction. This week I want to move some dressers that we have not been using in our present location. I am also thinking of taking a few of our dishes over there. I am looking forward to getting over there full time.

Well, Jonathan is not happy so I must go for now. I need to start putting more Bible verses on here again. I will try to get some passages for next time.

Recognition Night

Our homeschool group had a Scholar's Exhibit and Recognition Night last night. It was a lot of fun. It is really great to see that many homeschooling families and to see the imagination that each of the students put into their Exhibits.

Joshua did his exhibit on different creatures. He has a collection of different bones and skeletons. He has a perfect tree frog skeleton and a coyote's skull. He also has a snake skin, a horn beetle, a turtle shell, and a sea snail shell. It was a really cool display. We even had a picture of him holding an anole lizard. He wrote a paper about the lizard and what it eats and about how it loses it's tail.

Ruth did her display about musical bottles and how you can pour water into them and make different notes. I printed a piano keyboard off for her to write the notes on the keys and on a music cleff. It was really neat as well. Scott helped her with the water pouring and the tuning. She held the tuner as he blew into the bottles so she could see the note on the tuner. She even wrote a paper on how the bottles work and the process used to make the music with them.

We were real proud of both of them. I let them pick what they wanted to do for their displays and I was impressed with what they chose. I probably would not have thought of musical bottles. I kind of figured Joshua would want to do something with his critters as we call them. As they were preparing their exhibits, I wanted them to do the majority of the work. I was just their for consulting and if they found themselves in a bind. But they did real well on their own.

I really like the homeschool group and when we move, I am determined to find another group to join. I like the friendship and encouragement we get from other homeschool families. I also like the opportunities for the kids to do things with other children under the supervision of parents who care about each one of them. I am looking forward to another year of homeschooling. I know that some parents give their children a break for the summer and I usually give them short breaks here and their but I will be continuing to homeschool through the summer months. Of course with plenty of breaks.

Scott bought me a copy machine/ fax/ printer. It is really neat. I am able to make posters from small pictures and everything. In just the one week I have had it, I have been able to do so much more. I was able to print in just seconds a whole pile of worksheets. It was great! I have so many reproducible homeschool workbooks that I have been wanting to use and now it will be easier to use them. Normally it took a whole day to print what I am now able to print in seconds. Yea!

Well, I better get busy. I have quite a bit to get done today before the wedding rehearsal tonight. The kids are all excited that they will be in the wedding tomorrow. They have been asking me about every time we get ready to go in the car somewhere. We'll take lots of pictures and I'll try to put a picture on here of us all dressed up.