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.

Bad weekend, good week-beginning!

Well, I would like to say that I had a good weekend, but I did have a great week beginning. Scott was sick last week and had to come home from work and stay home the next day. He was feeling better by Wednesday night. He went back to work Thursday. He fell better by then and I took the kids to a Planetarium and an art museum with a homeschool group. That night I drank some water from Scott's bottle thinking he wasn't contagious anymore. Well, I guess he was.

I got sick Friday. Ugh! I felt horrible and thought I wasn't going to make it to y sister's shower that my cousins and I had worked hard to plan. After a broken nights sleep, I felt somewhat better but very tired. So I went ahead and went to the shower. I just wasn't going to get too close to anyone. Ok, that might have been a mistake. We did have fun though and I was feeling better. I did go home tired and with a horrible headache but I knew we would be driving for a while and would get some sleep. That seems to be the trick with that virus, sleep.

I felt so much better after I was able to eat the best tasting burger I had eaten in a while. The reason it tasted so good was that my appetite was back! Sunday I was back to normal without even a headache. My husband accepted the call to the church that we visited. And everyone was feeling great. But it looks like my dad may have caught it! Oops! Sorry, Dad! I hope no one is sick on Saturday or my sister may never forgive me!