Lake Mary

Madison and Kent both got the hang of the kneeboard this weekend. Last time we went to the lake, Chad got into the water with them to help them balance. This time they did everything by themselves, including getting a 360 on their first try

Today during before we started reading our history for the day, I was quizzing Kent and Maddie about what we had studied last week. The question was where was the area known as Mesopotamia located and it was directed to Madison. She said it was between the Tigris and ... she couldn't think of the other river. Kent was standing on his head to keep from shouting out the answer, when all of a sudden "Euphrates" comes from over in the corner. Avery, being very busy brushing her horse's hair, thought she would help her sister out. After she gave her answer, she went back to whatever it was she was doing. It's times like this that I wonder what is really going on in her little head. I have no doubt that one day she will surprise us all, even though most of the time, you're not real sure if she even cares!

Bargain Hunting

Yesterday my 3 girls and myself went shopping with my mom and grandmother. First, you have to understand that I do not shop unless I have a distinct purpose. I must have something particular I am looking for or there must be a Great sale. This is something that has been passed down from my grandmother, to my mom, and on to me. There is just nothing like knowing that you got a great deal on something! We are all bargain hunters and proud of it! As we were browsing through one of the stores, Madison heard the lady telling about the sale they were having that particular day. It involved finding the tags that were red and getting 1/2 off the second red tag. Being a virtual clone of me, she begins telling me about how good the sale was and how to get 1/2 off. Then she starts pointing out the red tags she finds. It was a proud moment to know that we were raising a 4th generation bargain hunter!

2009-08-21

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Earthly Treasures?

The past 2 weeks have been busy but pretty routine. School is rolling along as it should and everyone seems to be falling into a pretty good schedule. Gabby had her first ear infection this past week, and hopefully this is not the beginning of more to come (everyone else has had at least 1 set of tubes!).
Last week, we had gone out to dinner, and as we walked up to the car, we noticed that my license plate on the front had been taken off. It was just a license plate, probably costing around $10, but my first impulse was to blast the person that took it. As I looked at the kids, I was reminded of some of the things we had been talking about in our family devos. One of the verses that we have really drilled home is "Do not store up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust destroy, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy and thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" Matt. 6:19-21. God has blessed us with lots of nice and pretty material things. I want our kids to know that He can also take that away. It's very easy to teach your kids to hold onto their things lightly, but it's a different thing to show them that YOU hold onto YOUR things lightly! It was no coincidence that my license plate was stolen while we were talking about our "treasure". It's only by God's grace that it was ONLY a license plate. I am thankful that He is not finished with me yet, and that He is still patiently working on my heart. My prayer is that as a family, we will truly learn to focus on our eternal treasure. God is good ALL of the time... I pray that I would internalize that so that I can live it!

Tonight as we were walking through Sam's Club trying to quickly pick up all that we need, Avery spotted a case of those little barrel drinks. I've never read the label, but I'm pretty sure that they are about 90% sugar dissolved into water and food coloring. Since it was Sam's, you had to buy about 50 at a time. My kids know that I don't usually buy things like that. As Avery started to beg for the drinks, this conversation took place between the girls:
Maddie: Those drinks aren't very good for us. Mama let us get some a long time ago just for fun.
Avery: She only let you get them because she didn't know that they weren't healthy. Right Mama, you've been learning a lot about all of the things that are bad for us. It's ok. You just didn't know those were bad!

What a strange thing to hear my kids say! I guess it does show me that they are listening to something I say, and they know that I'm still learning lots too!

First Day of School

Our first day of school started off pretty good. Kent, Maddie, and Avery came downstairs at 6:30 dressed and ready to start math with Daddy. Then it was time for breakfast. All seemed to be rolling along pretty well. Gabby woke up and, we realized that she had a bad dirty diaper. No big deal. I changed her, fed her, and got her ready for the day. Then, in the middle of doing Bible for the day, she had another bad diaper. I stop what I'm doing and take care of it. Meanwhile, I'm already losing everyone else! So we finish Bible and move on to the next subject. Grammar, handwriting, and spelling pass by pretty smoothly and we get ready to go outside to do nature study. This is one of the kid's favorite things to do! The kids spend about 20 minutes studying and drawing something in God's creation. Then we come inside and discuss what they've found. They later paint their drawings and put them into nature notebooks. As profound as this may sound (and I would like this to be), it never works out to be! Off they go to collect their specimens, while I get a few minutes to put Gabby to sleep. When I go to call them in, Kent has found a huge banana spider, Maddie has found a pretty red zinnia, and Avery has found a STICK! Not exactly what I had in mind, but if that's what she found, she can discuss that. They go into the study to paint their findings and Avery proceeds to paint her stick (not on paper but on the stick). It is too brown she told me. So now she has a purple and green stick to put into her nature notebook. Next is lunch then Avery gets to rest. After about 30 minutes, I hear whispers coming from her room. As I go in to check on her, she has all 20 of her bows stuck somewhere in her hair! We take them out, and she lays down for another 30 minutes. Kent, Madison, and I work for another few hours to finish up our day. Gabby stopped having runny diapers by about 1:00. At 3:30, I threw in the towel and called it a day. Then I started doing the laundry from the weekend and getting supper ready. I only hope the rest of the school year gets better from here - I'm not sure I can handle too many days in a row like this. The kids are optimistic and said they had a great day, so I guess it's worth it. Finding joy in everything is sometimes tough. I'm just trying to stay focused on the task at hand, and hopefully, by the grace of God, I will accomplish His will, without losing my mind!

pine cove

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Gabby

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This week we are gearing up for the start of a new school year. The kids are in need of a schedule and a routine, so in many ways, I am looking forward to starting. The uncertainty of how things will flow this year is something I've been concerned about. We now have chickens, 2 goats, and a very active, mobile 9 month old. That is definitely enough to distract even the most focused of us (and most of "us" are not very focused!). This first 9 weeks, Kent and Madison both have some hands on projects. Madison is going to be working on a sewing project with MeMe. Avery has decided that she would like to sew too. She has told us several times that she would like to make herself a wedding dress. She knows that both Chad and I pray for their future husbands/wife so she wants to be ready! This will be her first year doing "real" schoolwork. That presents another challenge with this new school year - keeping her actively engaged! Thank goodness there is no dress code here. She rarely goes a day without wearing some sort of princess dress at some point throughout the day!
Our focus for this school year will also be a little different than previous years. Although our focus in homeschooling has always been to train our children in the ways of the Lord, I don't feel we have kept that focus as well as we should. It is very easy to loose sight of your primary goal in the midst of all of the everyday distractions that present themselves. While academics is very important and we should be diligent to do our very best to gain knowledge, this cannot be our focus. All things must be secondary to imparting a Biblical worldview to our kids. God can be brought into all things through the school day, if we take the time to point them out. He was the creator of math/numbers (look at His perfect symetry throughout creation!). He was the creator of science. Aside from all of that, He gave us amazing minds to search out all wisdom! These are the things that must be central to all instruction, along with lots of prayer that God would grab their tiny hearts and make them His own!

2009-07-03

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First Blog

This is our first attempt to start blogging.  With a new school year starting, I thought it would be a good time to start!  Hopefully this will make it easier to record all of the things that go on in our family through the year.