Happy New Year

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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. 🙂

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Homeschool Always in Session…

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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.

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Happy Birthday!

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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.
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New Glasses and Learning Lessons…

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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)
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Aftermath of Ike

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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…

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Saying Bye Bye

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We will be leaving in a few hours to head back home. I just wanted to put another video up before we head out. Jonathan is growing so fast. This one Joshua recorded.

I’m ready to get back home. I will miss high speed internet though. My next blog will have pictures of the damages. So be sure and check back soon. But for now…

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Cause and Effect…

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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.

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Two’s Company…

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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!

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Waiting…

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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.

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Baby in a Pot

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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.
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