Holland Happenings

Jonathan and school

2012-01-26T06:57:00.002-05:00

I've given updates on my other two school boys. Today is Jonathan's turn for an update. I started Jonathan last August in Kindergarten. He was doing beautifully. He was strong in math concepts, super strong at learning to read, and did beautifully with handwriting. His weaknesses became obvious very quickly. He struggled with listening to read alouds. This is not surprising to me at all. This will be an area we really need to work on as Jonathan gets older. We pressed on through a few weeks of school and I was encouraged at his progress except for one thing.
I noticed that Jonathan was melting down over the smallest details. It was incredibly disruptive to our flow each day. I told Jonathan that the "tantrums" were not acceptable school behavior. Now granted, we did have a fairly rough start to our school year considering my Mom's accident and spending so many weeks in Virginia. I thought that maybe Jonathan just needed a break, and that once we got home and back into our routine, the meltdowns would fade away. That's not exactly what happened, though. After giving it much thought, I sat him down and told him that we did no even have to be doing school this year, and that he could have the rest of this year to play with Rosalie each morning. He thought about it for a minute and then calmly agreed with me that we should wait a while.
I am very happy with this decision. Jonathan is a smart little boy. There are two things about him that have been working against him instead of for him. First, he is incredibly strong willed. Second, he is a perfectionist. If he didn't get something perfect the very first time he would try it ... he would melt into a puddle on the floor. He not only wants to do things well ... he is not satisfied with just so-so ... he wants it to be perfect, and anything less just would not do. I love this about him. I really do! However, he needs to mature a little bit, so that his frustrations do not end in a tantrum.
I was completely on the fence with starting him anyway. So, I am not sorry that we gave it up for this year. I am all for starting a child later. (especially boys!)
I also got to thinking that if I start him a year later (he will still be 5 when we start ... but almost 6), I will be able to combine Jonathan and Rosalie in the history spine,science, Bible, and all the extras! Combining has just not worked for me with any of my other children. Since Jonathan (with the fall birthday), is the older of the two, it should work out well to combine them once J is in 1st grade and R in K. It will require that I start Rosalie a little early - but she's showing signs of being a lot like Aaron was at his age. Heart of Dakota is so easy to tailor to the specific child and gives extension possibilities for the older child. I am excited at the possibility of combining a couple of my children. Of course, they will still be in their own math and language arts levels, but the other concepts can be combined easily. Combining children has advantages and disadvantages, so the only thing I can do is try it and see if I can make it work.
Jonathan is my biggest helper during school hours. He completely occupies Rosalie for me. I am able to get through most of Martin and Aaron's lessons without very many interruptions by noon almost every day. (my part takes about 3 hours between the two of them)
So, in August, we will start K again with Jonathan and I look forward to it!
For now, I spend time with Jonathan several days a week doing the normal Cubbies handbook, and his extra Cubbies workbook. We memorize scriptures, color, and do special projects. He loves it and we enjoy that special time together. (Rosalie almost always does it with us too!)

Playing Angry Birds the Jonathan and Rosalie way...

2012-01-25T06:00:00.000-05:00

Recently, the children have been watching Rich play angry birds on our television. Even though this game has been around awhile ... it's new to us. When I walked into the living room the other night, I found Jonathan stacking pillows all around Rosalie ... and heard him telling her that she was the pig.

He got her all set up and then he positioned himself ... you might have guess it already ... yep, Jonathan was the angry bird.

He went flying through air toward Rosalie to knock the pillows and her down. It was one of the funniest sights I'd ever seen.
I do love to watch those two play together. They come up with all sorts of creative and fun schemes!

Beyond Little Hearts For His Glory - Aaron

2012-01-24T06:00:00.000-05:00

Aaron is almost half way through the 2nd grade. We are doing Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory . (written for ages 6-8 years old, so Aaron falls into early to mid range of the guide) The History spine is American History. He does 2-3 days worth of Science each week, and Art and Geography once per week. He does History,Math, English, Spelling, Copywork, Poetry, Reading and Bible daily.
Aaron is finishing up Singapore Math 2A and is about to start Singapore Math 2B. He has been learning multiplication and division and he has picked it up with such great ease that it amazes me. He will tell you that he does not like math, and I am certain that is true ... however, he's quite good at it.
(I am convinced that what he doesn't like about it is that he actually has to think a little bit to get the right answer and Aaron is so used to everything coming easily to him that any work that he has to put into it frustrates him ... yep, he's a little lazy)
Another reason that I love Heart of Dakota is that the guides are written for an age range not for a grade level, which means that it can be tailored specifically to meet the child where he is - and for Aaron, I've had to beef it up. I added Grade 2 English Rod and Staff, and Drawn into the Heart of Reading(Level 2/3 for the independent reader). The Beyond Little Hearts guide does provide light grammar lessons 1 day per week. I did all of those plans with Aaron last year when I was taking him through the previous guide.
Aaron has absolutely soared with his reading this year. His reading level is off the charts for an early 7 year old. I've had to choose level 4/5 books for him to read while doing the level 2/3 written work from the Reading curriculum. Level 2/3 books are far too easy for him. I am constantly buying books for him to read. . . I have a hard time keeping up with the demand. I even had to make a rule that he can only read 1 chapter a day for his Drawn into the Heart of Reading (DITHOR) book. (because if he reads the whole book in one sitting ... like he did one day a couple months back ... he's not able to do a lot of the written work that goes a long with it that require him to make predictions, etc.You can't really predict if you have already read the entire book.) When he read an entire DITHOR book in one sitting, I made the 1 chapter a day rule and began selecting more difficult books. DITHOR is another excellent program that you can tailor exactly for the child. I teach the DITHOR lessons to both Martin and Aaron at the same time ... and give them assignments for their specific levels.
Aaron absolutely loves English. We do most of it orally, with a little bit of written work. He has a spelling list that he works on each day and he does a spelling test at the end of the week. He will begin studied dictation next year.
Copywork is handwriting. Aaron copies scripture for copywork. He will copy his school memory verse on Monday, and the other days of the week, he copies memory verses from Awana. (The Beyond guide book suggests copying excerpts from the Poem that he studies each week ... I decided that I would prefer that he copy scripture verses that he is memorizing instead.)
His handwriting has improved this year by leaps and bounds, and can even say that his copy work is excellent this year!
The read alouds that we have been reading this year do not correspond with History, however, they cover the many genre's of literature. The read aloud is the same genre he happens to be working on in DITHOR.
I love how exciting learning is in our home. I am thankful that we have found such a rich and rewarding curriculum!
I am already in hunt and gather mode for our next school year!

The Search for Affordable and Healthy Water

2012-01-23T06:00:00.000-05:00

We have been trying to figure out what to do about water for a long time now. We used the Zero Water Filter System for a time. It worked very well and we were pleased with the results, however, it was expensive and time consuming. Zero Water type would work well for 1 or 2 people, but it just wasn't practical for a family of 6. We also bought bottled water for a while. We found that it cost about the same as it was costing us to use the Zero Water Filter System, but it was less time consuming for us.

However, $.79 per gallon adds up after a while ... especially when there are six people in a family who, for the most part, only drink water.

I also prefer to use filtered water for all of my baking and cooking ... including the simple task of boiling water for pasta. It was very important to us to find and excellent filtering system that would also cost us much less than $.79 per gallon!
EDIT: The initial start-up costs for the model we bought was $325. We will get about 6000 gallons before we need to change filters, so that breaks down to $0.054 (5.4 cents) per gallon. A set of replacement filters costs about $110, and will last another 6000 gallons ... making it less than 2 cents a gallon.

Our friends, The Ingraldi Family, bought a Crown Berkey Water Filtering System. We were able to see it in person, drink the water it filters, and learn about how affordable it makes filtered water!

We decided many months ago that the Berkey, was definitely the system we wanted, but it took us a while to finally purchase it. We've now had it for about 3 weeks, and we love it. I love the convenience of it, and the peace of mind that it is filtering so many things out of our water that I don't want any of us to be drinking.

If you are looking for an affordable way to effectively filter/purify your water, I highly recommend the Berkey Water Filtering System.

Preparing Hearts for His Glory - Martin

2012-01-20T06:00:00.000-05:00

It was just yesterday that Martin was a baby. Well, maybe not yesterday ... but sometimes it seems that way!

Now, Martin is almost half way through the 4th grade. I haven't taken many pictures this year of school projects, but I did want to take a few minutes to share about our school year. I am using Heart of Dakota's Preparing Hearts for His Glory guide with Martin. It is a guide written for 8-10 year old children with extensions written for 11-12 year old children. The history spine for this guide is World History. Martin and I are both thoroughly enjoying reading the fabulous books that are walking us through chronologically. Our studies began with Biblical History and has woven in the great Ancient civilizations chronologically with what is going on in Biblical History. We have been able to enjoy historical documentaries that coincide with our history studies. Right now we are watching a series of documentaries on Ancient Greece.
The read a-louds that we are using this year all correspond with the History readings and they have been fantastic. Martin loves to read and has for quite some time - however - I am convinced that if he didn't love to read ... that he would by the time he was done with this school year! The books are interesting and captivating!
Once per week he does Geography, Vocabulary, Research, and Timeline. Each of those activities correspond with his History readings for that week. He especially enjoys studying the modern day globe and comparing it to the maps of the Ancient World on his geography day.
Martin is studying several of the Psalms this year in the Bible Study portion of the plans. He is learning how to have his own quiet time, and learning how to study the Bible.
Science is mostly independent this year. He is working on a Science notebook, while reading through about 8 different Science books.
He has truly excelled in oral narration and while he still orally narrates several things to me each week, he has made an excellent transition to written narration. Bigger Hearts for His Glory really prepared Martin well to make that transition. As we travel up through the HOD guides, I am seeing how each guide prepares him for the next guide. The skills that he acquired from going through BHFHG has made him more than adequately prepared for Preparing Hearts for His Glory.
Martin is starting Singapore Mathematics 4B next week. He has been doing all sorts of fun things in math this year with protractors and set squares. He has LOVED it.
Martin enjoys Rod and Staff English grade 4. He is quite good at English, enjoys it, and can do some pretty mean sentence diagramming! He does studied dictation for his spelling curriculum.
We are using Drawn into the Heart of Reading for our reading curriculum. I teach a lesson to both Martin and Aaron at the same time and their assignment is tailored to their specific levels. We read lots of wonderful books using this curriculum. It takes us through the many genre's of literature, and we do several assignments that help the children become independent thinkers.
He is studying the poetry of Robert Louis Stevenson, and has started doing some creative writing along with the study of Stevenson's poetry. He doesn't like it. He will read just about any book you put in his hand, but has little interest in any sort of creative writing.
And if that isn't enough ... I went ahead and bought all of the self-study extension readers for older students. Martin loves to read so much and they all looked so interesting to me, that I went ahead and bought them. They also correspond with the units of History. He has thoroughly enjoyed reading those books as well.
Martin's school day usually takes about 4 hours to complete from start to finish as long as he doesn't get distracted. He tries to get all of his written work done before lunch and he does a lot of his independent reading after lunch. We still read all of the history books together. (I read them aloud to him and I also read most of his read aloud books as well)
This curriculum is amazing. It is rich, thorough, fascinating, and complete. I am already excited about what next year may hold. It keeps getting better each year!
I am so thankful that Martin and I are in this thing together. I wouldn't trade all of the precious bonding moments over reading books, math problems, science experiments, and narrations for anything in the world!

Look what I found at Rest Time!

2012-01-19T06:00:00.000-05:00

I sent the children upstairs for rest time the other day, while I worked on a few things downstairs. The entire house was very quiet, so I assumed everyone went to their places to rest. Once I finally made it upstairs, the above picture is what I found. (Yep, I raced downstairs to grab my camera to capture this adorable memory) What is underneath those covers?

Why it was Jonathan and Rosalie playing the Vsmile! Jonathan and Rosalie are the best of buddies. They stick closely together throughout the day - especially when I am schooling the other two. They play together and help each other. Separating them for rest time ... isn't always an easy thing to do. It's a pretty common occurrence for me to come upstairs to check on everyone and find Rosalie and Jonathan ... playing (Oh So Quietly) in the same room.
We have days when it seems as though it's just one argument after the other and I feel as though I am going to go out of my mind ... but for the most part, they are the best of friends.
I instituted rest time to give each one of us a break from each other. We are together 24/7. Sometimes we need alone time - and Rest Time provides that. I do treasure the days when the children can't seem to bear being apart even for just one hour!

The School Room/Multi-Purpose Room

2012-01-18T06:00:00.001-05:00

Most of the work in the school room is done. The picture above is the view from the door. I haven't put anything up on the walls yet ... I am not good with walls - I must admit. However, the furniture is in place and the room is super functional! I need about 2 more tall bookshelves, because I do still have a couple of large tubs of books stored away of other grade levels. I'd love to have all of our books stored on shelves where I can access them easily.

This view is from the opposite side of the room from the door. This room will serve mostly as the school room and some as a guest room.

This a view from the door of the new desk and shelves that Rich built in between the two closets. We moved our old television upstairs and hooked up the wii. We have netflix streaming through the wii as well. Just yesterday Martin and I were able to watch a documentary on Ancient Greek Civilization upstairs in our school room while the other children were having rest time!

Here is a closeup of Rich's handiwork! We love the new set up!

Jonathan's Cubbies Projects

2012-01-17T06:00:00.000-05:00

Jonathan had to make a crown and glue jewels on it. Of course, Rosalie needed to make one too!

Then he made placemats for each person in our family. He chose their favorite colors and tried to make them special according to what each of us like.

Rosalie and Jonathan tend to be inseparable ... so she was right by his side the entire time ... "helping."

Jonathan colors in his Cubbies book.

The table is set and ready with special placemats made by Jonathan!

Grocery Budgets

2012-01-16T06:00:00.000-05:00

The topic of grocery budgets is a hot one for just about everyone! Everyone wants to save money, and cut the budget in any way possible. It's just not easy to do these days. The price of just about everything has gone up ... a lot! Many of you who know our family, may know that both Rich and I are savers. We don't like to spend money. We look for ways to save in every area of life. We have found, however, that saving in the area of groceries is just not the easiest thing to do. We use many specialty items that are just not available at a typical grocery store.

I get emails and messages often from people who ask me the question:

"How are you able to afford to buy healthy food?"

I am devoting this blog post to answering that question.

First, we use Amazon for items such as organic coffee beans, organic popcorn kernels, unsweetened coconut, baking ingredients (for our homemade bread), organic cereal, organic peanut butter, and a few other misc. items.

We use a local grain co-op or The Grain Mill, Wake Forest to purchase our grain for fresh home milling. I prefer to support local businesses as much as possible and highly recommend The Grain Mill. They have excellent customer service and many healthy specialty items.

We are members of the local buying club BJ's located in North Raleigh. From them, we purchase organic butter, eggs (sometimes, we also get eggs from a local farmer), organic ketchup, Rumsford Baking Powder, King Arthur white flour, Organic Sugar, and whole wheat pasta, cheeses, organic vegetables, honey, agave nectar, and a few other misc. items.

We use Vitacost for organic teas, vitamins, herbal supplements, immune boosting supplements, essential oils, probiotics, shampoos, and toothpaste, as well as a few other misc. items.

We also buy many food items from Trader Joes. Trader Joes is not close to us at all, so we have to plan our trips to Trader Joes around other trips that we need to make to Raleigh. From Trader Joes, we buy produce, tortillas (for the occasions that I don't make them homemade), organic meats, organic sour cream, organic plain yogurt, cereals, granola bars, children's vitamin C, nuts, grape seed oil, olive oil, whole wheat pasta, lunch meats, cheeses, eggs, organic butter, frozen vegetables, frozen fruit, and on occasion a special ice cream snack for the children. Trader Joes is reasonably priced, uses high quality ingredients, and does not use any food items that have been genetically modified. If Trader Joes was closer to home, we would do most of our shopping at that store.

We also use local grocery stores for several items.

We buy our organic milk from a local dairy.

Our main meat source is deer.

As you can see, in order for us to eat the way we do, we can't just go to one grocery store. We gather our items from several different places. So, how do we afford to eat healthy?

First, we hold to the philosophy that we can't afford not to. Our health depends on excellent nutrition.

Second, we never eat out at restaurants. Eating out even once a week with a family of 6, significantly increases the food budget. On the occasion that we do go out, it's almost always because we are using a gift card. There may be some healthy choices at some restaurants, but let's be honest: when we go out, we eat overpriced junk food. Last, (with a few minor exceptions) we avoid highly processed convenience foods. (you would be surprised at how much these foods increase the grocery budget)

Many people have also asked me about coupons. I rarely use coupons. If I can find a coupon for a food item that is on my list of items to buy, I wouldn't hesitate to use it. I have found that it is rare to find a coupon for items that we buy. On average, for our family of 6 (keeping in mind that we eat every meal at home), we spend between $115-$150 per week on our grocery budget. We tend to stock up on certain food items, so there are weeks that we spend much less than budget and weeks that we may spend more. We also use cloth napkins and regular kitchen towels instead of paper napkins and paper towels. It may seem small, but over time, the cost of those items add up. (especially with 4 young and messy children!)

I hope that this post will help dispel the myth that healthy food is just too expensive. It most definitely can be difficult to reach for the $4 per pound organic butter ... when you can get the regular for only $2.50 per pound ... however, when you make cuts in other areas, the healthier options can become attainable.

If you haven't watched the documentary film, Food, Inc., I highly recommend it. If you have netflix for streaming you can watch it right here.

No more training wheels for Jonathan!

2012-01-13T06:00:00.000-05:00

Just like I did with Aaron, we encouraged Jonathan to learn how to ride a 2-wheeled scooter before we took the training wheels off. Once he mastered balance on the scooter, I took off the training wheels and off he went. Aaron learned the 2-wheeled bike at not quite 4 1/2 - but he's not nearly as cautious as Jonathan. I had already decided that I wouldn't push the issue of removing the training wheels. I would just wait until he asked. Once he asked, I was more than happy to remove them!

Off came the wheels ... and off he went without looking back!

It was easy for him! He had no difficulties and quite obviously had the balance part down!

The only thing he struggled with was getting started, but he has since mastered that as well! A little more practice on this bike ... and it will be time for the next size up!

Jesus Loves Me

2012-01-12T06:00:00.000-05:00

The Star

2012-01-10T07:03:00.001-05:00

Last week, I went out by myself. On the surface, this may not seem like such a big deal. But let me assure you...it was. It was a gift. I left home mid-afternoon and didn't return until after 9 PM. I went to stores that I wouldn't ordinarily visit. I took my time walking around the stores. I even sat in Panera Bread, sipped some coffee, ate a salad, and blogged on my computer. I spent precious time at a used bookstore pouring over books that I knew my children would love to read. It was renewal time for me. I am so thankful that I was able to do it!

The children were okay about me leaving the house without them, but they weren't super excited about it. Jonathan assured me that he would love to go visit home stores with me, and that it wouldn't be boring at all. He went on to tell me that all he had to do was put his shoes on and he'd be ready to go. (oh, how I adore him!) Rich had other plans for the children, though. He took them out for dinner (a pretty rare occasion for our children) and bought them a snack that I would have never bought them and they had a fantastic time with him. When I got home, he told me that the children were so well behaved and that they had a really great time. He went on to say, that the reason he enjoyed it so much was that he got to be the star. What an interesting concept! Usually, when we all go somewhere, it's all about me. The children fight over who gets to sit next to me, and they are all over me the whole time. Since, I wasn't there it was all about him. He liked that a lot! It was a win-win situation all the way around. I was so relieved that everyone had a good night. I was especially glad for Rich that he was able to bond with the children and enjoy himself in a way that (although unintended), is usually reserved for me.
I am a thankful woman...on so many levels.
...thankful that my husband works so hard
...thankful that my children love him so
...thankful that our family is together 90% of the time
...thankful that even when I don't get to steal away for a few hours that I can still say that I am richly blessed.

Confessions of a Mom ...

2012-01-09T06:00:00.000-05:00

It's possible that you may not know that Jonathan rarely stops talking. At first glance, he is not the most obvious choice of the non-stop talker. He's not the most outgoing, nor the most intellectual, nor is he the most cuddly of my 4 children ... however ... he is the most energetic of the 4. Perhaps that is why he talks so much. He stays in his room each morning until he hears me rattling around in the kitchen, and his talking starts before he is even half-way down the stairs. I am convinced that he starts thinking about what he is going to say long before he sees me, and he starts talking to me as soon as he sees me. It's probably worthwhile to mention that he was almost 2 years old before he said his first word. We used to wonder if he was ever going to talk. Now, it's quite the opposite.

So, here is my confession.
I often think to myself: "Jonathan, please stop talking. You have said 2000 more words than you needed to say" - and then I think more emphatically - "JUST STOP TALKING - I CAN'T TAKE IT ONE MORE SECOND!"
Then, when I hear Rich chuckling in the background, I realize that ... I actually said it out loud.

Consider this sentence: I need water. It's short, concise, and it's all you need to know, right? Jonathan may mean that he needs water, but 3 words is not enough for him. He will say that very same thing using about 100 words. Once he gets to the end of whatever it is he is saying ... I most often don't have any idea what he means anymore. The danger that I fall into is that I can easily become disengaged and not hear him at all anymore. Jonathan loves to talk. He loves to be heard. I have to make special time for him to be heard. I need to teach him to talk and be heard appropriately. It may seem to me and others that I am always in the "training room". Well, indeed I am always in that "training room" in this season of my life!

I imagine that I am not alone in this. In fact, I think it's more common than one would think. I bet that you have a talker like this in your family. If you don't, I am sure you have a confession of another sort that I would love to hear. So, this is your chance to leave me with your confession in the comment section of this post and I will pray for you. Being a Mom is hard work. Being a Mom who desires more than anything else to capture my child's heart for Jesus and point them to a fully devoted relationship with the Lord and Savior can at times seem insurmountable ... especially in light of my own lack of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control that creeps up at times. My desire is to be a woman who encourages other moms with the following scripture:
Galations 6:9
⁹ And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.

How can I pray for you?

Some pictures that Aaron took ...

2012-01-06T06:00:00.000-05:00

You'll have to ignore the date on the pictures ... we haven't gotten that quite right yet. Aaron got a new camera for his birthday. He is having so much fun taking pictures with it!

I LOVE that I have another picture taking member in our family!

I love this shot of Martin and Jonathan!

Now that someone else has a camera (besides me), it's possible that a picture of me might get taken every once in a while. I've always wondered if the children would look back at our pictures and wonder why I am not in very many of them!

Love this picture of my Mom, Rosalie, and me!

Finally, Aaron gets in a picture!

Mom and Martin

Working on the school room

2012-01-05T06:00:00.000-05:00

This is a picture of our school room ... before ...
There is a space between the two closets where I kept the bookshelf with all of our school books. The school room also serves as a guest room, so I had a bed set up in there as well. Against the back wall is a table for the children to do their school work. (can't see it in this picture)

Now between the two closets is a desk, and a shelf that Rich is building. We will use the desk for our school computer, and the shelf above it will be used for a television. (to be used for anything educational that we may need ... and for the wii system) This is truly becoming a multipurpose room!

I am so thankful for Rich ... this man can do anything!

It's not quite done yet ... but it will be done by the end of the week. I will post pictures of the room in it's completed form next week. I also bought a futon for this room and moved the twin bed out. Getting our house the way we want it is a very slow process ... but it's coming along. I am so thankful that my husband is so handy and can fix, build, or repair just about anything!

New Years Eve

2012-01-04T06:00:00.000-05:00

Every New Years Eve I make a spread of appetizers for us to eat. This year we had 7 layer mexican dip, veggies, pretzels, and potato chip with dip, pepperoni rolls, and a stromboli type thing that Rich prepared using the dough that I made, thinly sliced pepperoni, and provolone cheese.

We filled up our plates and ate our yummy appetizers while watching a movie called Dolphin Tale.

That's right ... had to get a close up of this little girl ... too cute that she had a plate of food in front of her and she was laying on her side.
We love this tradition so much and look forward to it each year. As the children get older, it's so much fun to listen to them talk about the traditions that we are setting and get excited about them! Rosalie and Jonathan were sleeping soundly by 8 PM. The rest of us played wii sports resort and settled down for another movie to watch. Martin and Aaron really seemed to have it in them to make it until midnight ... but Rich and I couldn't manage it. So, we all headed to bed at about 11:15PM. That's okay, we'll try again next year!

Happy 2012!

2012-01-01T06:00:00.000-05:00

A recap of 2011

*Rich celebrated his 40th birthday*

*Rosalie entered her terrific 2s*

*Martin turned 9 entering his last year of the single digits*

*Martin and Aaron completed 1st and 3rd grade*

*Jonathan started school and turned a WHOLE HAND*

*We got to spend lots of time with family in VA this year*

*We got to spend some time with family in PA - and got to spend lots of time with Rich's sister Lisa and our niece and nephew this year*

*We went on a wonderful trip to Disney World and made lots of happy memories*

*Rich had plenty of work to keep him busy and provide for us*

*Aaron turned 7*

*Rich finished his book that will be published and available summer of '12*

*Rich took a 2 week hunting trip to PA*

*Larissa and the children took a 1 week trip to Nashville*

We have had a really great year. We have had ups and downs just like every other family does. We are thankful for the blessings of children, family, friends, work, and home.

Fall 2010

Fall 2011 - Look at how much they've grown!

We are grateful for a year full of growth in loving God, loving each other, and loving others. We look forward to another year of growing in Christ, and growing in our love toward others. Happy 2012!

A Joy That Will Be For All People

2011-12-25T07:44:00.000-05:00

Luke 2:8-14

⁸ And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. ⁹ An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

¹³ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

Aaron's Birthday Party

2011-12-19T06:00:00.000-05:00

I made pre-made a personal pizza crust for each of the children.

Each of the children had a turn at making their pizza exactly the way they wanted it. I provided the sauce, cheese, and toppings and they built their pizzas. Once they were finished, I baked them and they were able to eat!

They sat around the table and ate their pizzas.

I loved having these precious kiddos in my home. They are so special - each one of them - to my children and to me!

Aaron opened presents!

I put a candle in Aaron's cupcake...

...and after he blew it out ... each child chose a cupcake and devoured them in no time flat! I sent each of them home with some home-made butter toffee popcorn with peanuts. The children were with us for a few hours and I purposely planned it in a way that allowed for lots of flexibility. I wanted them to do whatever they wanted to do. (play upstair with the toys, play the wii, etc.) It was a fun afternoon/evening with very special friends!

Last post on Nashville ... I promise!

2011-12-16T16:13:00.001-05:00

I don't have any pictures to share of the Sunday that we spent in Nashville, but I sure wish that I did. On Sunday, we went to Grace Community Church. I was a member of that church during my 4 years in Nashville. When I started going there, it was a brand new church. It was meeting on the campus of Belmont. I loved everything about that church and met some wonderful people during my 4 years there. One of the saddest parts about graduating from Belmont and leaving Nashville was leaving my church. Since it's beginning in 1992, it has grown to a rather large church. They now have 800 members and have also sent off people from their church to start 2 other churches in surrounding areas.

So, on the Sunday of our trip, I took my 4 children to Grace Community Church to worship. It was wonderful to be back among the people of Grace. It was wonderful to see so many familiar faces. I am so thankful that I was able to visit and see how they have grown and worship in their new building. (new to me)

After the service, we went to lunch with my friend, Katie. (I posted about her earlier) She has been a member of Grace, from almost the very beginning! We enjoyed a nice lunch and as much chatting as we could do with the children around to chat along with us!

After lunch, Rosalie fell asleep in the van, while we made our way to our next stop. We went to a church on the other side of Nashville for a performance of Handel's Messiah. I was so excited to hear from some Nashville friends of mine and fellow music majors from Belmont, that my former Chorale director would be conducting this performance. 2 of the people that I sang with in Chorale were in the performance, and the guest soloist was another fellow Belmont School of Music graduate. (who is now a Professor of Voice at the University of South Carolina)

It was rather ambitious of me take my 4 children to this performance by myself. No back up. Believe me, I had knots in my stomach over it. My desire to expose my children to this wonderful music ... and my desire to see all of these wonderful people won out, though. I felt confident that my children would do well at a performance such as this one. However, we had just gotten through sitting quietly in church for an hour and a half that morning. I just wasn't sure how they would do stacking it up like that ... and without Rich around to help them remember to be still and quiet.

They far exceeded my expectations once again. Martin and Aaron rather enjoyed the performance - the beautiful orchestra and choir and soloists. Jonathan struggled. I have to be real here. He looked up at me once and very quietly said, "I am not a quiet boy!" (through tears!) He desperately wanted to run around and be loud. Once I started giving him a countdown ... and he realized that it was not going to go on forever, he was great! (I would say, just 6 more songs ... now 5, etc.)

Rosalie, stayed asleep when I took her out of the van, and slept through part of the performance and watched the rest of it. She loved the music!

Although, I was very thankful to be listening to the glorious music, my stomach did remain in knots for most of the performance. I didn't have a very easy escape, if I should have needed to take a child out ... and I couldn't leave some of the children there without me. I am so thankful that we were able to sit and enjoy the entire performance without needing to exit.

A nice lady(whose husband was in the choir) approached me after the concert , and said the nicest thing to me. Those of you who have children know how much a mother's heart needs encouragement, so her words were precious to me! She said, "I just want to tell you that you have a lovely family. I was watching you during the performance. I was so impressed that your children were sitting quietly and listening to the music without having to be entertained by something electronic"

I know she did not realize that I spent the entire concert being nervous about the "what ifs", however, her words meant a lot to me. She certainly didn't have to take the time to say anything at all. It has helped me, though, to remember to offer words of encouragement to others.

If you have been following our trip to Nashville, thanks for reading. It was a fun trip for us ... and I am thankful to have reconnected with so many wonderful friends!

The Pancake Pantry

2011-12-14T09:04:00.001-05:00

A trip to Nashville just isn't complete without a visit to The Pancake Pantry. It is located just down the road from Belmont, and is most definitely a Nashville tradition! If you ever take a trip to Nashville ... make sure you hit this local place ... you won't regret it!

My rule for this special meal ... there are no rules! I let the children choose whatever they wanted. Martin chose pancakes with chocolate chips and powdered sugar.

Rosalie had regular pancakes and an omelet with green peppers and cheese. (we shared our meal)

Jonathan chose a burger with chips. (I guess he didn't get the memo about how good their pancakes are!) It was pouring down rain outside ... and we had to walk quite a ways to get inside the restaurant. I must have looked quite the sight corralling 4 children around the streets of Nashville to get to the Pancake Pantry. (in the pouring rain) All four of them were beautifully behaved, super flexible, and happy to walk through the pouring rain to eat at this fun place! I am so thankful for how well the children did on this trip for me. I spoke to several people about making the 560 mile trip - by myself - with the children. Most people that I spoke to had major reservations ... (as did I ... and it was important to hear those reservations to think through it properly). One of my friends, though, didn't hesitate to say ...YES, YOU NEED TO DO THIS. You will be fine, your children will amaze you. You CAN DO THIS! Wow, I needed to hear someone say that! The other thing I needed to hear was from my husband. I needed to hear him say, "I want you to make this trip, because I know how important it is to you." I didn't tell him I needed to hear that, but incredibly enough, he said it to me. It was exactly what I needed to hear! My children were fine, and they did amaze me.

Visiting with Aimee Joy

2011-12-13T06:00:00.000-05:00

Lily and Rosalie

Larissa and Aimee Joy

Group shot of the children

Sweet Lily! She was a little mother to Rosalie!

Love this silly shot!

Max is a ham!

My visit with Aimee Joy and her children (except her oldest son, Chase) was a wonderful time. AJ and I were very similar way back when we met in '92 ... if possible ... even after all of these years we are even more similar. It was so much fun to be with her even though our time was way too short. Aimee Joy's entire family is in the greater Nashville area. I didn't get to see all of them this time around, but I am so thankful for the time I got to spend with her. Her family completely took me under their wing my first semester of college. I spent a lot of weekends at their house and got to know all of them.
Since this post is dedicated to Aimee ... I MUST mention some projects that they have going on. Her brother Scott just released his first solo album. You can listen to some samples of his album, Biography and you can purchase it for download. He is an incredibly talented musician and is candid and transparent about his walk with the Lord. It is apparent in his music. Some of you may have sung some of Dave Williamson's arrangements at church on Sunday Morning's or one of his cantata arrangements. My Dad just told me last night that his church is doing one of Dave's cantata arrangements this year for their Christmas program. They are a special family with loads of talent!
You can also listen and purchase the music of Three Strand (Aimee Joy, Kara, and Scott). I am most definitely biased because I know and love them.
Row Upon Row
Angels from the Realms of Glory

I am so thankful for Aimee Joy ... so thankful that I was able to meet Lily and see Max again. (last time I saw him he was only 6 months old!)

Happy Birthday, dear Aaron!

2011-12-11T10:38:00.001-05:00

Our 2nd born newborn son, December 2004

1 year old

2 years old

3 years old

4 years old

5 years old

6 years old

7 years old, with Papaw

Aaron, I cannot believe you are 7 years old. You are an absolute delight to us! You are intuitive, perceptive, tender, and loving. You care deeply about others. You desire to make good choices and are intensely sorry when you do anything wrong ... even if by accident. Even as a new baby you were always laughing and smiling. My heart rejoices with you on your birthday and I love you more than you will ever know!

Science Center with Duffy and her children

2011-12-08T11:37:00.001-05:00

Rosalie, Jonathan, and Anabel playing in the water. This display actually mimics the red and white blood cells and their movement through arteries. Not sure they knew that, though. :)

Rosalie and Anabel ... these two girls became fast friends! It was a joy to watch them play together.

Duffy and her 2nd daughter, Courtney.

Precious!

Aaron and Courtney

Aaron and Courtney are within a few months of being the same age. Martin and Natalie are also fairly close in age. (Martin is a year older) You may be thinking to yourself ... hmmm ... Courtney (at only 6 yo) is taller than Martin. You are exactly right. Duffy and Mike are growing super humans! Really, though, Martin and Aaron are small for their age and Courtney and Natalie are quite tall for their age.

Aaron is all harnessed up for the moon walk.

Courtney and Aaron did the moonwalk attraction together.

Natalie

Martin

Of course, I had to snap a picture of a portion of the Nashville skyline that we were able to see out the windows of the Science Center. In the center of the picture is what we affectionately call the Batman Building. (it's actually the AT&T building) The children talked about this building all week long as we drove by the city many times throughout the week.

A little history:
Duffy and I were roommates our last year of college. She was a bridesmaid in my wedding, and I sang in her wedding. We have been watching our children grow up through pictures for many years now. While sitting across from Natalie one day, I was just overcome with emotion because I have been seeing her in pictures for the last 8 1/2 years! I am so thankful that I got to meet her children and get to know them. They are precious young ladies!

It was a joy to watch our children connect so easily and become friends in such a short time. I am so thankful that I got over my fears of making a 10 hour drive (without another adult backup) with my 4 children. It was worth it. The children will tell you the long drive was worth it too. They had a wonderful time. Duffy was her usual "wonderful hostess" self. Taking in 5 people for a week is quite a task ... I am sure we turned her household upside down. She is and always has been one of the most hospitable people that I know. I hope that we will have the chance to have her family in our home one day!

Visiting Bryson

2011-12-07T22:00:00.001-05:00

I met Bryson my first year at Belmont and we remained good friends the entire time I was there. One of the nights that we were visiting in TN, 11 of us bombarded Bryson and his wife, Heather's home. Duffy and her family went along with the 5 of us. We took a picture of (almost) all the children while we were there. We shared a delicious meal and tried to catch up the best we could. Our children loudly played together while we were trying to catch up! It was a fun night and I'm thankful that we had the opportunity to spend time with Bryson's family. (Duffy and her husband, Mike are on the left, Bryson and his wife are on the right)

This is a picture from September of '93. We went home with Bryson and spent some time hiking down to a waterfall. I am the one in the pink shorts ... and Bryson is in the black shirt.

It's hard to believe that was almost 20 years ago! 20 years and 10 children later ...

Visiting Belmont

2011-12-07T06:00:00.000-05:00

There is no way that I could make the 10 hour trip to Nashville and not pay a visit to the very place where I met all of these wonderful friends! Duffy and I ventured out to our alma mater and were stunned at how different it is today than it was then. It has grown by leaps and bounds. We were thankful, though that the middle of campus still had the same familiar look. Building upon buildings have been added to our campus. The improvements are amazing!

We had all of our children (plus Duffy's niece) lined up on the steps of our college, and commented on how we never could have imagined that we would be back almost 20 years later with this many children between the 2 of us!

Duffy and I stopped here at these steps to pose for a picture ... the same exact place we posed so many years ago. (I'll have to try and dig that picture up for a comparison!)

Visiting Christy

2011-12-05T06:00:00.000-05:00

Pictured above is my friend, Christy with Jonathan. The children and I went to her home for dinner and we all had an amazing time. The children adored Miss Christy! She won them all over before we'd been there 30 minutes. I am so thankful that we were able to spend time with Christy on this trip.

Jonathan told me that he was going to live with Miss Christy, but that he would miss me. It was so much fun catching up with her.

I am so thankful that I made this trip to see so many of my dear college friends ... it made me miss them so much more!

Visiting Katie

2011-12-03T22:17:00.001-05:00

Katie and I almost 20 years ago.

Katie and I now!
Katie was another room mate of mine while I was in college. Katie taught me how to loosen up a little and encouraged me to wear jeans and ball caps. (which is very convenient when you wake up at 7:50 AM for an 8:00 AM class!)

This is Katie's mom, who we all affectionately called, "Mrs. T". I was so thankful to be able to spend a day with Katie, her two children, and her Mom and Dad. Mrs. T is reading a book to the children ... and Rosalie had no trouble crawling up into her lap and joining in on the fun!

I am so thankful that I was able to spend the day with these very special people.

After almost 12 years ...

2011-11-29T23:26:00.001-05:00

Fall 1993

Fall 1995

Spring 1999

...I am sitting in the same room as my college room mate. I am planning to take current pictures, but for now, the past will have to do!

A Performance for your viewing pleasure ...

2011-11-16T06:00:00.000-05:00

All four of my children came bounding down the stairs on Monday morning gleefully shouting that they wanted to show me something. Just imagine my delight when they had CD player in hand and most of them had guitars in their hands! As soon as I realized what was happening, I knew that I needed a video of it, so quickly grabbed my camera!

Fire Department Field Trip

2011-11-15T06:00:00.000-05:00

Last week we went on a field trip to the Stony Hill Fire Department. I am so glad that we did this. The hardworking men of this fire department were warm, welcoming, and did a fantastic job talking to the children! We toured the facility and one of the men put all of his fire gear on to acquaint the children with the equipment and what they would look like if they ever needed to enter the home and rescue one of them.

You might imagine that this field trip was especially exciting for Jonathan! He was absolutely enthralled with every bit of it.

I had never considered how scary a fireman could look with all their gear on to a child. It's important for children to see them this way, so that if he/she needs to be saved she won't run away from him!

The children were carefully watching him suit up ... he even put on his oxygen mask and tank.

Rosalie was watching intently. Once all of his gear was on, he wanted each of the children to shake his hand. Rosalie was completely afraid of him and wouldn't go near him. (even after seeing him put it all on right in front of her) We've had several talks about it since and keep telling her she doesn't have to be afraid of the fireman ... he helps people!

Rosalie and Samantha on the back of the firetruck.
After he put all of his gear on, they let the children get into the firetruck and climb on the back of it.

Nathan and Jonathan

Rosalie loved getting in the firetruck ... so much that she threw a fit when it was time to get out.

Aaron's turn in the firetruck!

Jonathan was in heaven!! He LOVES trucks ... especially firetrucks!

They gave each of the children fire hats!

Oh so cute!

Just before leaving we got a group shot next to the rescue boat. It was a super fun field trip and I'm glad we did it!
Now ... off to develop a fire rescue plan for our home! :)

My Kitchen Helper

2011-11-14T06:00:00.000-05:00

Last week, tacos were on the menu, so I set out to make some whole wheat flour tortillas.
Aaron absolutely loves to help me in the kitchen, so I put him to work pressing out the tortillas.
He worked hard using the tortilla press!

He told me that it was more fun than playing video games! Now that is something that this Mom likes to hear!

He would do the first pressing, and then I would roll them out even more with a rolling pin ... and then I put them in the skillet to cook for a few seconds. They were the best tortillas ever! I love how much he loves to help me. I never have to be lonely in the kitchen when Aaron's around!

Spotlight is on...

2011-11-11T00:00:00.000-05:00

Rosalie!
Rosalie weighs 35 pounds,(90th percentile) and is 36 inches tall(40th percentile).

Favorite Subject in School: Not yet

Favorite Color: pink

Favorite thing to do in my free time: Play outside

Favorite Show: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

Favorite Food: chicken and bow tie soup

Favorite Dessert: Ice Cream

Favorite Book: Princess Joy's Birthday Blessing

Favorite Cookie: Toasted coconut chocolate chip

Favorite Vacation Spot: Disney World

Favorite Bible Verse: Genesis 1:1 "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth"

Favorite Restaurant: Olive Garden

Favorite Activity: Definitely Awana Puggles

Favorite thing to wear: Dresses

My Hobby: Singing

What I want to be when I grow up: A Mommy

Rosalie is an absolute joy! She is sweet, expressive, fun, opinionated, sassy, and so much more! She can hold her own with her brothers and frequently is being catered to by them. She loves books. She will sit and listen to me read her books all day long. She loves to cuddle and gives the biggest ... tightest hugs you could imagine! Rosalie, like Aaron, loves to be around people. She loves to be outside and spends most afternoons outside with her neighbor friend, Hannah. She and Hannah play with their baby dolls together. I am so blessed by Rosalie. She brings joy to all of us. Her smile lights up a room. My favorite thing about my girl is that she LOVES to sing. I love to hear her sing, and I love that she sings all at the time. I am so thankful that God gave us a daughter!

My prayer for Rosalie is: Galatians 5:22-23

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

Spotlight is on ...

2011-11-10T06:59:00.002-05:00

Jonathan!
Jonathan weighs 42 3/4 pounds (59th percentile) and he is 42 3/4 inches tall.(45th percentile)

Favorite Subject in School: Math

Favorite Color: orange

Favorite thing to do in my free time: Play outside

Favorite Show: Superhero Squad

Favorite Food: Chicken, Rice and Broccoli stir fry

Favorite Dessert: Ice Cream

Favorite Book: Animal Book

Favorite Cookie: Chocolate Chip with toasted coconut

Favorite Vacation Spot: Disney World

Favorite Bible Verse: Psalm 1 (the entire chapter!)

Favorite Restaurant: Mexican

Favorite Activity: Awana - especially games!

Favorite thing to wear: pajamas

My Hobby: Legos

What I want to be when I grow up: The boss of the builders

Jonathan is an intense little boy. I have described him that way since he was a tiny baby. More than anything, he wants to be in charge ... which is not very easy for him, since he was not only born 3rd in the family ... he is the third boy. He tries to be in charge of everyone ... when that doesn't work ... he tries to be in charge of Rosalie. That usually doesn't work either because that little girl has a mind of her own! This leaves my poor Jonathan very frustrated. I am convinced, however, that one day he will be in charge of something ... and he will be the very best at it! He is extraordinarily strong willed. My biggest challenge is trying to figure out how to channel his strong will into something that will flourish and be honoring to God. It's a daily struggle for me and can be exhausting. He is truly all boy. He would spend entire days outside if I would let him. He is rough and tumble - the knees in his jeans don't have a chance! He has been known to fall asleep most anywhere if he sits down long enough. He plays hard and sleep hards.

I am enormously grateful for this boy. He does everything with all of his heart ... if he's writing letters, numbers, reading, or playing with sticks he is going to do it to the very best of his ability. (yes, he's a perfectionist ... which often leads to melting down if he doesn't get it perfectly on the first time ... we are working on that!)

My prayer for Jonathan:

¹⁰ Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. ¹¹ Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. ¹² For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age,^[a] against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. ¹³ Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
¹⁴ Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, ¹⁵ and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; ¹⁶ above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. ¹⁷ And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; ¹⁸ praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—

Spotlight is on ...

2011-11-09T00:00:00.000-05:00

Aaron!

Aaron is 6 years and 11 months old. He is 47 inches tall. (34th percentile) He weighs 52 pounds.(57th percentile) He is in the 2nd grade.

Favorite Subject in School: English

Favorite Color: Red

Favorite thing to do in my free time: Read Books

Favorite Movie: Cars 2

Favorite Food: Pasta with Sauce and Meatballs

Favorite Dessert: Brownies with ice cream

Favorite Book: DragonKeeper Series

Favorite Cookie: chocolate cookies with toasted coconut and almonds

Favorite Vacation Spot: Disney World

Favorite Bible Verse: John 3:16

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life."

Favorite Restaurant: Los Tres Magueyes

Favorite Activity: Awana - especially saying his verses!

Favorite thing to wear: sleeveless shirts and shorts

My Hobby: Riding my bike and scooter, playing piano

What I want to be when I grow up: Musician

Aaron is not easy to explain in a paragraph. He continually amazes me with what he is able to grasp (conceptually) at such a young age. He never seems to need to be taught how to do anything. He just can. One of the things that I love about Aaron is how remorseful he is whenever he does something wrong. I never have to tell him that he should be sorry. He is compassionate and thoughtful. Aaron loves people! He thrives in large groups and easily makes friends. His most special friend is Katie. He started playing with her when he was only 2 years old when we lived at the Seminary. He and Katie are still special friends. Aaron is creative, dramatic, artistic, and playful. He is extremely focused when he does his school work. Oddly enough, he is extremely antsy and has a hard time sitting still in most other situations. I am so thankful for this boy. Since he was a tiny baby he has always brought me so much joy with all of his smiles and laughs. He was a terrible sleeper as a baby ... but I can remember saying over and over again ... how thankful I was that even though he never slept more than 2 or 3 hours in a row (until he was 2 years old) ... that I could always count on the fact that he would spend the entire day smiling and laughing. JOY! He still brings us all so much joy! Aaron loves Awana and is incredibly hard working at memorizing scripture. At this point, Aaron's weakness would be that he is not as patient as he should be with his younger brother. My prayer for Aaron is Proverbs 3:5-6.
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths."

Spotlight is on ...

2011-11-08T00:00:00.000-05:00

Martin!
Martin is 9 1/2 years old. He is 50.75 inches tall.(11th percentile) He weighs 63 pounds(36th percentile) He is in the 4th grade.
Favorite Subject in School: Independent History Study, which includes Draw and Write Through History as well as several History reading books.
Favorite Color: Green
Favorite thing to do in my free time: Play Video Games on the Wii
Favorite Movie: Cars 2
Favorite Food: Fettucine Alfredo
Favorite Dessert: Sweet Potato Pie with whipped cream
Favorite Book: Prince Caspian (The Chronicles of Narnia)
Favorite Cookie: chocolate chip
Favorite Vacation Spot: Disney World
Favorite Bible Verse: John 3:16
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life."
Favorite Restaurant: Olive Garden
Favorite thing to wear: Jeans
My Hobby: Building Legos and hunting with Daddy
What I want to be when I grow up: Not sure yet

Notes from Mom:I am so thankful for Martin! We had an incredibly tough start to his 4th grade school year. He and I were struggling to figure out a good routine that would work for both of us. He was obstinate and unwilling to be flexible. We cried, we fought, we struggled, and we persevered. The results of those several weeks of struggle - and perhaps a little refining fire - have been worth the struggle! Martin is producing outstanding work each day - and his attitude about it is outstanding. I couldn't ask for anything better than what he is giving me. Martin's attitude tends to trickle down to the rest of the children, so I am thankful that he has consistently maintained an excellent attitude. He has always been an excellent helper to me and continues to be that for me. His biggest weakness is his temper. He has a quick and hot temper. One of his strengths, though, is that he quickly recognizes when he loses self control. Martin is an introvert. He is not comfortable in large groups of people. He is excellent one on one, however. He is tenderhearted and loving. I don't know what Martin will do when he grows up, but my prayer has always been and continues to be that he will love the Lord with all if his heart, soul, and mind - and love others as himself.

Tea Party

2011-11-07T00:00:00.000-05:00

Last week when Ryan and Nicole spent a couple of days with us, I took the girls out for a tea party! It was so much fun for all of us and a very special treat!

Rosalie LOVED putting the sugar cube in the tea!

She also loved stirring her tea!

It a very special afternoon of fun, food, and yummy tea!

Here are the special girls in front of the tea room! I love tea parties!

Ryan shot his first deer!

2011-11-04T00:00:00.000-04:00

Last weekend our family came for a weekend visit! Since they came during hunting season, Rich took Ryan, (nephew) hunting. They had a fantastic time and it resulted in Ryan getting his first deer. They were both so excited ... we all were! We are all so happy that Ryan and Rich were able to go hunting together!

All of the children were super excited to see the Ryan's deer when they came home that night!

Rosalie fell asleep while eating!

2011-11-02T00:00:00.000-04:00

We went to my friend, Angela's house to play. Her children and mine ran and played the entire afternoon. I went home and made smoothies and popcorn for us to eat ... a few minutes into our family show ... we looked down and saw that Rosalie was fast asleep!

Reading!

2011-11-01T00:00:00.000-04:00

This is what I caught the boys doing one afternoon during outside play time.
I love how much they love to read!

Jonathan's Birthday Lunch!

2011-10-31T00:00:00.000-04:00

Rich started a special tradition with our children. Each year on their birthday he takes them out for a special birthday lunch. (and they get to choose the restaurant!) It is a much anticipated event ... I often hear conversations between the children about which restaurant they will choose when it's their turn!!
Jonathan was so excited to go out for his lunch he could hardly stand it! He chose to eat at a mexican restaurant. I took this picture of the two of them before they left for their special outing!
I still can't believe my boy is 5!

Our trip to Hillridge Farms

2011-10-29T06:00:00.000-04:00

Last week I took the children to Hillridge Farms. We go to Hillridge Farms every year. This tradition started when Martin was only 2 years old! They started by running through the maze!

Then we headed for the corn house!

Then we headed up the giant hill to slide down the giant slide!

Add caption

Rosalie LOVED it. She slid down with me ... and a little later went down with big brother Martin!

Next we headed to the duck races! So much fun!

We stopped for a quick picture at the Indian Tent!

Then we went on the hayride!

Posing for a picture in the field of pumpkins!

Next we went to jump on the huge jumping pillow! They absolutely LOVED doing this. It was new to Hillridge Farms this year and a total hit!

Rosalie loved it too!

We went for a ride on the train.

Then we spent a ton more time back in the corn house.

Soup anyone?

Then we headed back to the slide ... and at this point, Martin took over for me and started sliding down with Rosalie. He loved taking care of her on the slide and didn't want to slide by himself anymore after that!

He's such a sweet big brother!

...and of course, we had to ride the train again ... this time on the caboose!


We also jumped in the jump house, jumped a few more times on the jumping pillow, and we did the gemstone panning. I wish that I had gotten a picture of them finding their gems ... but I was too busy helping Rosalie. This was the first year they went panning for gems, and they all LOVED it and kept saying thank you over and over again for letting them do it! We usually go each year with my Mom, and she wasn't able to come this year. We are looking forward to our visit next year when my Mom will be able to join us. The one thing that was different for us this year, was that we didn't have to rush off for anyone to take a nap. So, we got to the farm at 10:00 AM and we didn't leave until 4:00 PM. It was so much fun to spend most of the day there! We also went on a day that wasn't very crowded, so we didn't have to wait in any lines.

Zoo Trip

2011-10-28T00:00:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago (or so), we went to the zoo with our dear friends, the Dew family!
It's hard to believe there are 8 children among our two families!

I tried to get a shot of them looking at the camera, but it didn't quite work out. I like how it turned out anyway!
I especially love Nathan's sweet smile in this picture!

My carefree girl!

What is she thinking?

Love this sweet picture of Aaron!

Monkey see ... Monkey do!

Martin was helping this fellow to read a map!

Rosalie is patting Samantha!! LOVE this!

I love this sweet picture of Rosalie, Natalie, Jonathan, and Nathan holding hands!

Ta-da!

I love this shot of Rosalie and Natalie trying their hardest to keep up with the boys!

Aaron with his favorite animal!!
We had a wonderful time checking out all the animals at the zoo while also spending some time with our friends! We stayed a little bit longer than our friends did ... and took the children to the play area ...

Having a little fun in the playground area at the zoo!

Rosalie loves having her picture taken!

Can ya tell?

My boys are caught in a spider web!

Hanging on a bug's leg!

Weeeeee!!

Jonathan's Birthday

2011-10-27T00:00:00.002-04:00

Oh, how I love to take a look back at how my babies have grown! Here is my special boy a few days after he was born in '06.

This is the first group shot after Jonathan was born!

Look how little they all were! Aaron was not even 2 yet...Martin was only 4 1/2!

Here he is on his 1st birthday!!

2 years old

3 years old

4 years old

And now he's 5!!!

Happy Birthday, my sweet Jonathan. As I am typing this, I hear your loud, shouting play voice trying to keep up (or be louder than) your brothers. I love your enthusiasm and energy. I love how you are so playful all the time! I love how hard you work and hard you play. I love that you would spend entire days outside if I'd let you! You are an amazing blessing to our family! I know that one day, no matter what you do, you will be the best you can be at it!

We love you, Jonathan and are so thankful for you!

Family Day at the Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-26T09:12:00.004-04:00

We went to Dean's Farm a few weeks ago ... (you may have noticed that I am having a hard time keeping up with the blog!)

I love this look on Jonathan's face!

Rosalie picked her pumpkin!

Sliding down on the belly!

We love pumpkin patches and the fall!

More Butterfly Fun

2011-10-20T06:00:00.000-04:00

When the next round of butterflies emerged ... we went out to set them free ... and one of them landed on Rosalie's toe. She was thrilled to death! She was ever so still and watched it carefully.

You can see that she is pointing to the butterfly in the picture above.

It slowly began to make it's way up her leg.

Eventually it was on her shirt.

She proceeded to get it on her finger ...

I absolutely LOVE the facial expressions that I caught of Martin as he held the butterfly!

Aaron got his turn ...

and Jonathan held it too!

Enjoying the Butterflies

2011-10-19T06:00:00.000-04:00

Do you see the butterfly in the picture above?

All the children wanted to touch them and hold them ... and they eventually did.

Aaron is holding one of the butterflies!

I am pretty certain that Rosalie is pouting in this picture because she wanted to hold the butterfly herself! (and she gets her chance too ... I'll share another day ... in another post)

... and I got Jonathan pouting in this one ... because he too wanted a turn!

He finally gets his turn ... and yep ... all smiles now.

I love how closely he is observing in this picture!

Our Butterflies

2011-10-18T06:00:00.001-04:00

We were so excited several days ago, when 3 of our butterflies emerged! There were 5 caterpillars in each cup, and we had more success with one cup than the other. All 5 of the caterpillars formed a chrysalis in the cup pictured above. However, in the other cup, 1 caterpillar died before forming a chrysalis, 2 of them started forming one and died before it was complete, and the other 2 did form a chrysalis.
We took them out to our deck, and prepared to let them go.

All 4 of the children were mesmerized at the transformation that had taken place!

Even though we all knew (most of us, anyway), that the caterpillars would form a chrysalis, and would emerge many days later as a butterfly ... we were still all amazed at the transformation that happened right before our eyes.
I'll be sharing more pictures throughout the week of each of the children holding and experiencing the butterflies!

Who is making him laugh?

2011-10-17T06:00:00.001-04:00

After we had lunch the other day, I sent each of the children to their rest time space. I sat down to have my own quiet time when I kept hearing cackling coming from my bedroom. (Aaron's rest time space) I thought for sure that Martin had come downstairs and they were in their cutting up together. I quietly peaked into the room, and saw that the cackling coming from Aaron was because of a book he was reading.
I ran and grabbed my camera as quickly and quietly as possible ... and shot a quick video of him.
He was reading an Amelia Bedilia book. I love how much he loves to read. I love how much he just seems to "get" things. I LOVE to hear my children laugh!

Our Butterflies have emerged ... and not so random thoughts...

2011-10-13T09:14:00.003-04:00

... I'll have the pictures or our butterflies up later.

***Those of you who follow my blog and keep up with all of our day to day happenings ... thank you for keeping up with us. Please keep the Seneri and Perrott families in your prayers as they grieve the loss of their precious son, brother, nephew, cousin, and grandchild. We are witness to a family who is experiencing unimaginable pain in letting go of Paxton ... and at the same time their faith in God is unshakeable. They are a living testimony to God's love, mercy, grace, and power. Christi(Paxton's Mommy) spoke these words on Facebook ... and her words truly resounded with me:

"We feel your prayers. God's grace is sufficient, no matter what the circumstances. This is as difficult as one would imagine, and then multiply that by about a million. But... what power, what beauty that is coming out of this... The pain is temporary, but the fruit growing from this is eternal."

The Butterfly Field Trip

2011-10-10T06:00:00.000-04:00

Last week we went on a field trip and did a fun class with The Butterfly Lady. It was such a fun field trip for us. The boys LOVED it! We bought two sets of caterpillars from her, so that we could continue our education at home and watch the chrysalis form, and eventually see butterflies emerge. We have had so much fun watching the changes occur! I highly recommend trying to catch one of these classes or organizing a class if you are in the area. It's a well done presentation that is well worth your time!

Aaron loses another tooth!

2011-10-07T06:00:00.000-04:00

I didn't think this tooth would ever come out! It's amazing how long those teeth can be loose before finally falling out. Aaron came running to me after his shower a couple nights ago and told me he pulled it out himself. I sent Aaron on the Tooth Treasure Hunt, and when he found the last clue that contained his tooth, he went to Daddy to exchange it for $1. I love how much these children love this tradition! It's so much fun to watch them search for the clues!

Working around the house

2011-10-06T10:53:00.003-04:00

This is a picture of our house before we moved in in Oct. 2010.

This is a close up of the house right before I put down new mulch. While I was away in Virginia, our bermuda grass grew aggressively into the flower bed until the flower bed actually looked like it needed to be mowed. I am not exaggerating. Thanks to the help of my wonderful neighbor ... I dug into the flowerbed area and pulled all the grass out by it's root. The above picture is the after picture of all the weed and grass pulling. Strange as it may sound ... I really enjoyed it.

I let a week or so go by and waited to see the areas that I would need to do more pulling, and I spent some more time out there pulling up more weeds and grass. What a job! (Notice the house in back of us now ... it used to just be field and forest!)

In the picture above ... do you notice anything that is missing? A tree perhaps?
Rich cut down the tree that was in front of our house. While we liked the tree, it was obvious that the tree was dying. So, it had to come down. With the help of our wonderful neighbor, the tree came down. We plan to have the stump ground out in the spring, and then let the grass grow in the area where the mulch was ... and then we will just have a small circle of mulch around the remaining tree. (notice the house now beside us?)

This past weekend, Rich brought home some new mulch! I never thought new mulch would bring me so much joy. I spent another couple hours pulling up more roots of weeds and grass, and then got busy spreading the mulch. What a difference it makes!

Martin's History Project

2011-10-04T06:00:00.000-04:00

Many of you have heard me speak about Heart of Dakota. You have seen the sidebars that show which curriculum guide that each of my children are using. I love Heart of Dakota! I have been using it for several years now and have no intention of using anything else. It took me a couple years to find a good fit for us ... Heart of Dakota is most definitely that fit!
This week, Martin has been learning about Ancient Egypt and hieroglyphics. His history project this week was to make air-dry clay, press it out into an oval, and then etch a hieroglyphic into the oval. (he copied an example of hieroglyphics from his history book)
We let it dry for 2 days, and then he painted it. It was such a fun project ... and one that is not only etched on the clay tablet ... it's etched in his mind!

Rosalie is potty learned!!

2011-10-03T06:00:00.001-04:00

I have no other choice but to call it potty learned as opposed to potty trained. I've gone through this process now with 4 children. With each child, it felt as though it was the first time I'd ever done it. I always thought that once I went through it with one child ... it would be easier with the next ... since I had experience under my belt. It never really worked out that way for me. Each time, I felt as though it was my first time. With the boys, I had a plan mapped out, a process to follow ... and for the most part the plan went well. Rosalie was an entirely different experience. I knew that it was time to train ... but had no plan in place.

I had just come home from Virginia, and was still trying to adjust to a normal routine, and the only thing I knew for certain ... was that ... while I wanted her to be done with diapers ... I didn't want to spend too much time caring about it.
So, my plan quickly came together. The plan was ... (drum roll) to have no plan. Those of you who know me, have to know that not having a plan is extremely uncharacteristic of me. Amazingly enough, it was the perfect plan for Rosalie. On my end, it didn't really matter to me what she did. If she had successes on the potty ... we threw big parties about it! If she had accidents, we said ... "hey, that's okay, we'll get it next time!" If we needed to go somewhere, I'd put her in a diaper or pull-up, and if she stayed dry, I made a big deal about, if she didn't stay dry ... no big deal! It was amazing to me what I saw happening! She did it all on her own. She started telling me when she needed to go ... I would not make a big deal about it ... I'd just say, "Okay, go on, I'll be right there!" When I had a free minute, I'd go see how she was doing. Within a couple of days, she was going on the potty every single time, staying dry anytime we went anywhere, and staying dry for naps and night time.
I am convinced that the key to success on Rosalie's part was how relaxed and calm her mother was.
The most exciting thing I have to report today about Rosalie is that she is DONE with diapers! Woohoo!!
The most exciting thing I have to report today about me is that I am DONE with diapers after 9 1/2 years of diaper changing! Before you get too excited for me folks ... keep in mind ... it's a little bittersweet! Certainly, it is sweet to be done with diapers. My baby girl is growing up, though...I want to bottle her and all her Rosalie-isms up! She keeps us all smiling! We are blessed!

Jonathan's Birthday

2011-10-03T00:00:00.000-04:00

We started bright and early with presents from the family!

After dinner, aunts and cousins arrived with more presents!

Star Wars Pajamas ... you can see the pure joy on his face!

The Cars 2 spy jet!

Cars that are also walkie talkies - fun!!

We ended the day with a cake and blowing out the candles! The birthday cake said, "Happy Birthday Jonathan and Ryan" Ryan and Jonathan's birthday are only a few days apart!

Rosalie is a PUGGLE!!

2011-09-28T06:00:00.001-04:00

Rosalie is so excited to be an Awana Puggle! Puggles is the Awana club the 2 year old age group. This was the very first thing that Rosalie has ever done apart from me. Yes, I was nervous. We've been talking about it a long time. She already knew that I wouldn't be staying with her. As I started to walk away, she got very nervous and unsure. Mrs. Cindy picked her up and distracted her as I left ... and no tears were shed. She had a great night and has been telling me all about it every day since! She LOVED it. (just as I knew she would)
My sweet girl is super social and loves to be with people ... and will talk anyone's ear off who will listen. I love how much she loved it!

First night of Awana (for us)

2011-09-27T06:00:00.000-04:00

Awana started the week after our Disney trip, so we got a late start this year. This past Wednesday night was our first night of the Awana year. It was a much anticipated night for my children for many reasons:
1. We love Awana!
2. It was Rosalie's first night EVER of Awana!
3. We LOVE Awana!
For the very first time, all of the children got to pile into the van and go to church for Awana. Rosalie was so excited that she was able to go too!

She loved putting on her Awana Puggles shirt!

I love how much our children love Awana! I love how hard they work to memorize the scripture verses each week.
I am a Cubbies leader again this year. I get to listen to the Cubbies (Jonathan's age group 3's, 4's, and some young 5's) say the verses that they work on at home. It's my favorite part about Awana, so I am thankful that I get to do it!

Jonathan started Kindergarten!!

2011-09-26T06:00:00.000-04:00

Here is my big kindergartener in front of our school room.

Here he is walking into his classroom (a.k.a. the school room) the first time as a school boy.

Here he is sitting in what has become known as the "hot seat". The hot seat is where each student sits while I teach them their lessons. Then they go to the table to do independent/seat work.

Jonathan started Kindergarten shortly after our return from our vacation. We did the first official school day at home before we headed to Virginia to help my Mom and Dad. I packed about 4 weeks worth of school books to take with us to Virginia ... not knowing how long we would stay. We ended up needing all 4 weeks worth.

Jonathan is doing very well! He is a hard worker and seems to learn concepts quickly. I am encouraged at how it is going with him. I am thankful that he is an eager learner. He loves school! This makes him easy to teach ... and I love to teach him!

Rosalie meets Minnie Mouse and update

2011-09-24T06:00:00.001-04:00

It's a little hard to believe that it's taken me longer than a month to finish the blog posts on our trip to Disney. The video above is the reason I didn't have very good pictures of Rosalie and Minnie. I wanted to capture the meeting on video. Rosalie was more excited to meet Minnie than any of them, and the wait was worth it!
Our trip to Disney was really fantastic. We are so thankful that we were able to experience it with my parents and sister's family. Rich and I were planning on checking this Disney thing off of our list ... and then moving on to all the other great vacation spots we want to hit ... however, we were only a couple days into the trip when we started talking about returning when Rosalie is of the roller coaster riding size! Whether or not we are able to do that still remains to be seen, but we are thinking about it.

Thanks to all of you who continue to follow my very slow moving blog! Since our trip to Disney, there really hasn't been a "normal" for us. I am sure that normal will resume in time, though. We returned home from Virginia about 8 days ago, and it's taken me that long to get back in the swing of being back home. We spent close to 5 weeks in Virginia to help my Mom through her recovery. Her surgery went very well ... however, her recovery is going to take a very long time. Many of you continue to ask me about how my Mom is doing and I know that many of you are still praying for her. Thank you for that. My Mom is doing as well as she can be doing under the circumstances. She is learning to be left handed and one handed. My sister lives very close to my Mom, so she is helping my Mom to get to all of her doctor appointments and therapy appointments. It will be a long time before she will be able to drive again.
I am thankful that I was able to help as long as I did, but wish that I could be closer to help out on a more on going basis.

Thanks for praying for us over the last several weeks!

Miscellaneous Disney Stuff

2011-09-23T06:00:00.000-04:00

Rosalie was dancing at the concert at tomorrowland in this clip. This girl likes to move!

This is a clip of Lauren speaking with Crush. We loved how he interacted with Lauren and was so quick to grab the Buzz Lightyear toy when Lauren showed him her toy!

Day 6 - Hollywood Studios, Epcot, Magic Kingdom

2011-09-14T15:20:00.008-04:00

All 4 of them in the shark!!

Ever so close to meeting Mickey!!

Rosalie and GraceAnn with Mickey!

...with Pluto

If you look closely, you will see that Donald has Rosalie's Daisy stuffed toy in his arms. She was carrying around her Daisy toy all day at Epcot, and when Donald saw it, he took it away from her.

She played right along with him ... and started laughing her head off at him. Donald did finally return Rosalie's Daisy. And we all had a good laugh!

Meeting Minnie was the absolute best for Rosalie! Right before it was Rosalie's turn to meet her, Minnie had to go powder her nose. So, we had to wait until she returned. As soon as she returned, Rosalie took off running toward her! So sweet!! Rosalie has just about perfected the Minnie stance ... (notice Minnie's left leg), and especially loves to wear dresses so that she can be like Minnie!

Lauren wanted to meet Aurora more than anything else while she was at Epcot. So, we found her and Lauren was a very happy girl!

Rosalie has never seen Sleeping Beauty, but she had to meet her too ...

We especially loved going to see Crush while at Epcot. Aaron was chosen to talk to Crush ... and I got it on video! Lauren was also chosen ... and I'll share that later. Crush was one of our favorite things from the entire week!

Yes, we did all 3 of those parks in one day. We started at Hollywood Studios at 8:30 AM, and made it back to the condo at about 11:30 that night. It was a long day, but so much fun! After we did Epcot, I put the camera away... it can be exhausting pulling the camera out every few minutes!

Day 5 - Dinner and Downtown Disney

2011-09-14T06:00:00.000-04:00

We all met at the Steak and Shake and had a fun meal.

The children were especially excited about the fun hats!

We headed back to Downtown Disney to see more of the stores. We only managed to see the Disney Store and Lego Store on our first trip there. We had to pause for a picture with Mickey and Minnie!

Rosalie likes to dance. She starts moving as soon as she hears music. I caught her on video dancing to some music.

Day 4 - Magic Kingdom

2011-09-09T06:00:00.000-04:00

We were at the park bright and early on what seemed like a bright and sunshine-y day. We started the day by taking a family picture with the castle in the background.

Since we had already done most everything in tomorrowland ... we moved on to the other parts of the park, starting with the cars. All of the boys LOVED this ride! I rode with Aaron on this one ... and it was bumpy to say the least!

Then we headed to the tea cups. (her hair is wet ... not from rain ... but from sweat!)

The rain started to come down when we headed to the Pooh ride, and it was coming down pretty good as we ran toward the Dumbo ride. Rosalie did not like getting wet at all. We headed toward the merry-go-round and dumbo ride, and tried to keep cover. We all put our ponchos on and made the best of it by riding all the indoor rides. We did the Snow White ride, Peter Pan ride, and the 3D movie with Donald Duck.

It's A Small World ride ... was Rosalie's absolute favorite!!

After going to the Haunted Mansion, we stopped and ate our packed lunch ... and froze while we were inside! We were all wet ... and the AC was making us cold! It let up on the rain a little bit ... so we moved on to Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain. All the boys were big enough to ride ... and they all LOVED it!

Rosalie and I had fun taking some pictures while the others were riding Splash Mountain!

She's such a ham!
After we rode several more rides including the Pirates of the Caribbean and The Jungle Safari ride ... it started pouring ... and kept pouring for a couple hours. We took cover, and while we were taking cover Rosalie fell asleep in the stroller. We finally decided to head toward Tomorrowland ... and on our way stopped to take a family picture while in our rain gear ... it is definitely a memory!! You can see Rosalie's little legs peeking out of the stroller ... she was sound asleep! I sat with Rosalie at a table near tomorrowland while Rich took the boys to ride the Buzz Lightyear ride again.

By 5 PM, the rain had cleared and it was a beautiful evening! It was as clear as it could be ... cool and comfortable. We ended up eating dinner in the park, riding some more rides, watching the parade, and fireworks, and staying until it closed.
It was a fantastic day at the Magic Kingdom! We made some very happy memories!

Day 3 - Mom's 60th birthday Dinner and Downtown Disney

2011-09-07T06:00:00.000-04:00

We all met for dinner at the Olive Garden on our 3rd day in Orlando to celebrate my Mom's 60th birthday! We enjoyed a great meal, lots of laughter, and lots of noise coming from the children's side of the table ... and a yummy birthday cake! After dinner, we headed to Downtown Disney to shop! The children were armed with the money that Mamaw and Papaw gave them! We headed straight for the Lego store. Wow ... impressive! Jonathan bought a Mater lego set, and Martin bought a Star Wars lego set and then we moved on to the Disney Store. The Disney store is absolutely massive. My advice on this store is this: Do not enter the store unless you have a phone and the other people in your party have a phone. Do not let go of your children in this store ... you might never see them again! LOL I've never seen anything like it!
Rosalie knew what she wanted the moment she entered the store. She bought a very large stuffed Minnie Mouse with a pink dress. She was and still is thrilled with her purchase! Jonathan had some money left over and he bought a red pirate gun. Aaron bought a Club penguin stuffed toy. (and I forgot to mention that he actually bought a stuffed elephant at Animal Kingdom the day before ... he collects elephants)
Martin also bought a stuffed Mickey Mouse dressed like Obiwankenobi.
It was a fun night for the children ... celebrating Mamaw ... and spending their money! (and just in case you start thinking that your money can go a long way at Disney ... Mommy and Daddy did provide the extra funds the children needed when their fund wouldn't take them as far as they needed. )

Jonathan was proudly handing over his money to buy his lego set!

My boys and my Dad hanging out with the Lego Woody at the Lego store.

This is a shot of the children on the stairs of the town house where we stayed.

Day 2 - Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom

2011-09-06T06:00:00.002-04:00

On Day 2, we started out at the Animal Kingdom. I forgot to bring my camera that day, so I didn't get any pictures. (although Rich has some pictures from that day on his phone)
We thoroughly enjoyed our day at Animal Kingdom! We especially loved the jungle safari ride! We were close enough to a baby giraffe to reach out and touch it. It was so much fun to see all the animals! We had a brief afternoon rain, Rosalie napped in the stroller for 2 hours, we packed our lunch and ate it there. Martin absolutely loved Expedition Everest. Aaron rode it with me, and didn't love it. He said that it was terrifying. The children enjoyed watching the parade in the afternoon. It was a great day at the Animal Kingdom!
We left around dinner time and took about a 2 hour break to eat dinner at the townhouse. Then we headed back to the parks ... this time to the Magic Kingdom!

Once we got to the Magic Kingdom, we headed straight toward Tomorrowland and rode everything that we could ride there ... starting with the Buzz Lightyear ride. Martin loved Space Mountain, Aaron chose not to ride it, Jonathan would have ridden if he'd been tall enough ... so the rest of rode the People Mover. It was a fun night that went by too quickly! We found a place to watch the fireworks and ate some ice cream while we waited.

Rosalie was an absolute trooper! She stayed awake as long as she could to take it all in. She was absolutely amazed by the castle - and shouted with great joy and glee every time it changed color! Her expressions were priceless on this trip! I will never forget her joyful exclamations! Finally, on our way out of the park, (at about 11PM) she could no longer keep her eyes open. She fell asleep hard ... I had to take this sweet picture of her on her Daddy's shoulder.

Another great day at Disney!

A quiet start ...

2011-08-31T15:41:00.003-04:00

...to our school year.
Martin started the 4th grade.
Aaron started the 2nd grade.
Jonathan started Kindergarten.
While we are in Virginia, our school motto is: Be flexible
We don't always start Day 1 on a Monday. We don't always get a unit done in one week.
I have no goals set on how much to get done by what time. We get done what we can get done.
At some point after we get back home, I will take pictures of each of the children with all of their books as I try to do each year.
I am so thankful that our homeschooling lifestyle has permitted us to be helping my Mom when she needs it the most. I most typically run a pretty rigid schedule, which is somewhat contrary to the flexibility the homeschooling life affords. I am thinking that this schedule(or lack of a schedule, rather) is actually growing me. (not growing on me, mind you ... I'm way too structured for that!)
A few discoveries that I've made so far ... I like 4th grade more than I liked 3rd grade. I like 2nd grade more than I like 1st grade, and what is not to love about Kindergarten? This is going to be an excellent year!

Day 1- Walt Disney World - Hollywood Studios

2011-08-26T06:00:00.001-04:00

We arrived bright and early on an already (very) hot day at Hollywood Studios. I cannot begin to describe how excited we were! There were big smiles all around and the heat couldn't even begin to get us down!

Can you imagine the gleeful shout of a 2 year old when she saw Mickey up on the tower and globe?

I absolutely adore this picture of my guys!
(All 4 of my children insisted on wearing the Disney shirts on their first day!)

I think that Rich and the boys just came off the Toy Story ride in this picture! They LOVED it!

Rosalie absolutely loved meeting all the characters ... and to my great surprise and pleasure ... she did not hesitate to go up to any of them. In fact, I usually had to hold her back! (as not to get in front of anyone else who may have been waiting!)

All of the children (except Martin, who had talked Rich into taking him back on the Rockin' Roller Coaster for the 3rd time!)

Love this picture of my Mom holding my girl. We were waiting in line to meet MICKEY!!

We waited in line for about 20 minutes ... and it was worth every minute! All of the children were super excited to meet Mickey.

Aaron and Rosalie got to meet Mr. and Mrs. Incredible ... interestingly enough ... Rosalie has never seen that movie, but she wanted to meet them anyway!

Above is a shot of the Disney Junior show ... and this was (BY FAR), Rosalie's favorite thing! She sang along with all the songs and was so super excited. She loved the bubbles that came from the ceiling and the "gold pieces" that came fluttering down for her to collect. This was a super fun show!!

Green Army Man was fun to meet outside the Toy Story ride!

Jonathan wasn't as sure about meeting the characters as everyone else, but he sure does love soldiers ... and he did manage to get an autograph!

Martin's favorite thing to do at Hollywood Studios was the Rockin' Roller Coaster and Star Tours. Jonathan seemed to love the Toy Story ride the best, Rosalie loved the Disney Junior Show, and Aaron loved the Star Tours the best. We also got to see the Car Stunt show. Jonathan was super excited when Lightening McQueen came out!! It was such a fun day. We did lots more than what I mentioned here, but these are the highlights. Since we planned to go back the next day to Animal Kingdom, we decided to go home at dinner time and get to bed early. The children ate, then swam a little, and then went to bed.

Arriving in Florida - Vacation Day 1

2011-08-25T16:00:00.000-04:00

After leaving our home at 4AM, we arrived in the Orlando area around 3PM. We headed straight over to check into our 3 bedroom townhouse at Windsor Palms, which was only a couple miles from one of the Disney entrances.

We unpacked the van ... and let the children swim in the private pool in the backyard ... and then headed to eat dinner at CiCi's Pizza.

My sister's family and my Mom and Dad came to our townhouse after we ate dinner. (they were staying in their timeshare - also close to another Disney entrance) Above is a picture of all the cousins waiting on a surprise from Mamaw and Papaw!

They each received $20 to spend while they were here in Florida! What a huge treat that was for them! They were so excited about having some spending money.
All of the children swam a little more in our pool, and then everyone went back to their own condos to rest and get ready for our first day at Walt Disney World!

The past week and a half...

2011-08-21T09:00:00.003-04:00

Upon our return from Walt Disney World, I spent about 3 days waiting for the green light to travel to Virginia. Tuesday morning, we packed up the van and the 4 children and made our way to my Mom and Dad's house.
Tuesday: We traveled to Virginia, unpacked and got settled. I took the children to my sister's house, then I went to the hospital. By this time, they had gotten Mom's pain under control, and she was doing pretty well. It was good to see, because up until this point I had only heard of the horrible pain that she had endured. I did not see it first hand. My sister and Dad are the ones who have been by Mom's side through each stage ... and have watched the unspeakable pain that my Mom has been through. I spent a few hours with her, and then came home to put the children in bed.
Wednesday: The children and I got up and had a pretty normal morning. We even had a normal school day. (I brought all of our school stuff and plan to work on it as we have time) Later in the day, I surprised my Mom with a visit from my 4 children. She didn't know that I was bringing them, and she was very happy to see them. I like to think it lifted her spirits a little bit. After the visit, I took the children to my sister's house for dinner. My sister had pretty much run herself ragged all day and was exhausted, but still wanted to go up to the hospital to see Mom. (the hospital is about 40 minutes away - which has been a challenge as well) So, I stayed with all of the children until Wes could get home from church.
The children were up until after 10PM on Tuesday, and up until after 9PM on Wednesday.
Thursday: Surgery Day. I took my children to our dear friends, who live in this area. My sister and I drove to the hospital and waited for the surgery to be done. They began the surgery at about noon, and didn't finish until about 5PM. It was still 4 hours after the surgery before we got to see my Mom. It was a long day. They were having a difficult time getting her pain under control. It was devastating to watch my Mom in that much pain. My sister had been with her every step of the way, but this was the first time I had witnessed it.
I finally got back to the children at about 11PM, and got them home and in bed at about midnight.
Friday: My mom's pain was finally under control. She was able to get out of bed and sit in a chair. I was able to get up to the hospital at about 7PM. The children were at my sister's house. I was encouraged by how well my Mom seemed to be doing.
Saturday: I took the children for a short visit that turned into a long one. We ended up staying for about 4 1/2 hours. She was sitting up in a chair when we got there. She also did not have to use her pain pump at all the entire day. We also found out that they were considering releasing her from the hospital on Sunday!
Today: We got a call from my Mom early to let us know that they were definitely going to release her today. My Dad and I went to the store to buy some items that she would need to wear home, and he went off to the hospital. The children and I are at Mom and Dad's today preparing for her to come home.
There is so much more to say ... those are the bare bones, though about the past week. My Mom has a very long and slow recovery process. She is going to need a great deal of help with even the smallest of tasks. That is why we are here.
My children have been absolute troopers through it all. Most of you know that I am very routinized in how I run our days, and there has been nothing routine about the last 2 weeks. They have risen to the task, though, and are doing well. They are getting a little worn down from the late bedtimes, though, and I am working toward getting them back to a normal routine.
With my Mom at home, it will be easier in some ways to manage that.
I still don't know how long we will be here. One of my Mom's brothers, and her sister are planning a trip here at some point to help her out, and when they come, I plan on going home.
Pray: 1. That my Mom's pain will continue to stay under control as she transitions home.
2. That my children will adjust to the needs of my Mom and that I will be able to manage them and all the help that my Mom will require.
3. That my sister will be able to manage all that's on her plate, while also being the main source of help to my Mom over the next year.
4. My Dad - who has to return to work tomorrow.
5. My children - who are missing their Daddy right now. (Jonathan is having the hardest time of all of them)

Thanks for all the prayers and thoughts up until this point. Our motto in life right now is: Be Flexible!! We are adjusting to our new normal.

Home From Vacation

2011-08-13T11:42:00.003-04:00

We are home from vacation. We went to Florida and spent the week at Walt Disney World. We had an amazing time. It's so hard to describe how incredible our week was. I have some blog posts planned that will chronicle our week at Disney, however, it may be a while before I can get those posted.
Unfortunately, our last night at the parks ... and last night in Florida, my Mom fell and shattered the humerus in her right arm. She is in an unthinkable amount of pain right now and is awaiting surgery to repair her arm. She has a very long road and difficult recovery ahead of her. At this point, we have a lot of questions and few answers. We managed to get her released from the hospital in Florida in time for them to catch their scheduled flight home and we drove and got home to our house late last night, and are trying to figure out the logistics for me to be with my Mom in Virginia. Please pray for my Mom.
I want to be with her right now. The hard part for me to figure out right now is how I can be there, and help care for my mom, while also taking care of my 4 children. Please pray that we can get all the details worked out so that it will be the best for everyone involved.

Day 4 - Family Visit

2011-08-02T06:00:00.002-04:00

Day 4 started with an easy breakfast of homemade granola and milk, a late lunch of some grilled hot dogs, and leftovers from all of the food we'd made all week long, and we had homemade pizza, and grilled deer shish kebob with onions and peppers. For dessert we had homemade spelt chocolate brownies with vanilla ice cream. Ummm ... yes ... we did a lot of eating this week ... and I am still recovering from all of that food!
Lisa was able to meet her college roommate for lunch. (near Greensboro) So, I took the 6 children to have their pictures taken. We got a group shot of them, and then we split them up for brother/sister shots. All of the pictures were so good, it was hard to choose.
Rich asked everyone that night what was more fun ... going out on the boat, or getting their picture taken. All of the boys said the boat ... Nikki said she liked having her picture taken the best!!
We had so much fun this week and hope that they will come back to visit soon. Visits with family really are the best!

Day 3 - Family Visit

2011-08-01T06:00:00.000-04:00

On Day 3, we had a breakfast of homemade waffles and bacon, and then we packed a picnic lunch and drove south to Lake Wheeler. We spent the afternoon on the lake. We all had a super fun time! Ryan had never rowed a boat before and he quickly learned how to maneuver the boat, and get where we needed to go. We got 3 boats and there were 3 people to a boat. Ryan did the rowing in my boat. Rich and Lisa rowed the other two boats.
Aaron said that it was the most fun that he'd had in years! Jonathan was happy because he got to be with Lisa. (he was stuck like glue to her the entire week!) Martin loved having the chance to row the boat. It was fun for all of us. Rosalie was a very good girl and sat still the entire time we were out on the water.
After the fun on the lake, we headed back home and grilled out. We had hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, and pasta salad.
After dinner, Rich, Lisa, Ryan, and Martin went to a mudcats baseball game. It was a very full and fun day!

More of Day 2 - Family Visit

2011-07-31T14:00:00.000-04:00

I cannot forget to mention that on Day 2, we started the day with build your own omelets and toast, sandwiches for lunch, and we had grilled BBQ chicken, fresh corn on the cob, and pasta salad for dinner. Then after dinner, we roasted marshmallows in the fire pit that Rich built and had S'mores for dessert. My children and I had never had them S'mores before ... so it was an exciting first for them. I tasted Aaron's, but one bite was enough for me ... wow ... sickening sweet!!! It was such a fun night for everyone and very exciting too! In case you were wondering where Rosalie was for all of this excitement ... she was already asleep in bed.

Day 2 - Family Visit

2011-07-31T06:00:00.000-04:00

On Day 2 of our visit, we played miniature golf. Rosalie fell asleep on the way there, and slept for the first part of the game.

It was somewhat overcast, but it got to be pretty uncomfortably hot.

The children had so much fun! The last time we did this, Jonathan wasn't even 2 yet!

We played with our own set of rules and we didn't keep score.

This wasn't the easiest miniature golf course ... but everyone had fun!

Rosalie eventually woke up and joined the fun!

Day 1 - Family Visit

2011-07-30T14:04:00.002-04:00

Last week, Aunt Lisa, Ryan, and Nicole came for a visit. We were all excited about the visit ... and the children could hardly sleep the night before they arrived! Day 1 - they arrived in the late afternoon. We ate a meal of pasta, sauce, and meatballs with salad. For dessert, we had chocolate cake, with buttercream frosting. We had a late birthday celebration for Nicole. The birthday cake pictures are the only ones that I took of Day 1. The entire week was so much fun and the memories made were priceless. (and we ate a lot) Rich and I both felt the need to fast for a little while once everyone went home! I'll have more posts coming over the next few days about the things that we did the rest of the week.

Shish Kebob

2011-07-26T06:00:00.001-04:00

We have been having so much fun with our grill! I marinated some stew meat(venison) last week and made shish kebobs for dinner. We all loved how they turned out! Martin said, "There is a party going on in my stomach!"

The Black Widow

2011-07-25T06:52:00.004-04:00

The children told me about a spider and an egg sac that they found in the playset. I didn't think much of it. I even climbed up and looked at it. They were excited about it because they wanted to see the baby spiders come out of the egg sac. Martin and Aaron told me not to touch the egg sac. Rich got up in the playset to work on it a little and he immediately said he thought it was a black widow. So, he sprayed it and put it and the egg sac in a bag. Sure enough there was a red hourglass on it. I was a little stunned that the spider our children had been observing was a black widow. I am beyond thankful that it was identified and dealt with before we had a thousand more black widows in our backyard!

Martin won!

2011-07-22T06:40:00.003-04:00

This summer we have been going to the library once or twice a week to stock up on books. Since I began "rest time" in our home, I have been intentional about taking trips to the library to stock up on books. Martin and Aaron also go to the summer reading program once a week. The summer reading program has an incentive reading program for the children. Each child puts a sticker on the chart for each chapter that he reads. (there are about 50-55 boxes on each chart) Both Martin and Aaron easily fill out one chart per week with all the reading that they do. For each 5 boxes they complete they get their name entered into a drawing. So, they've been getting about 10 entries per week. Martin won the drawing this past week and won a watch!
I am excited that they both love to read. Martin has read just about every space/astronomy book available at our library. He also loves biographies and mysteries. Aaron also likes biographies and mysteries.
Reading(inside a cool home) is the perfect activity for a stifling hot day!

Enjoying our "new to us" grill!

2011-07-21T06:00:00.000-04:00

A friend of Rich's found a grill at the dump that looked as though it had barely been used. He took it home with him and discovered that the starter was broken. He fixed the starter and called Rich to tell him that he had a new grill to give us! We gladly accepted! We have had a grill on our wish list for sometime now, but with everything else on our list it kept being pushed back. I sure can't complain about a free grill!
We have already used it numerous times and are so excited about it! The first time we used it we cooked up some deer tenderloin. I am so glad that I saved the deer tenderloin for the grill. They were delicious! All 6 of us loved them. We've also had BBQ chicken and burgers on the grill.

Big Red

2011-07-20T06:00:00.000-04:00

We see hot air balloons all the time flying in the sky out where we live. It's fun to watch them from a distance. Last week, this particular hot air balloon was flying very low over our neighborhood and then much to our surprise ... landed back behind our house! At first I thought that something had gone terribly wrong, and they needed help. After they landed, we realized that they had to land because the sun was going down. They never know where they will land, they just look for an open space. Another person follows them around using a GPS system to keep track of them. So, it was a matter of minutes before the van was driving up to help them. Our entire neighborhood came out for the event. The people who owned the hot air balloon talked to the crowd, answered questions, and handed out business cards. Then they packed up the balloon and headed out. What a fun night. Rosalie and Jonathan were already asleep in bed ... Martin had just finished his shower ... Aaron was in the shower. Martin got to see the air balloon land. I ran up to pull Aaron out of the shower, so that he could see it too.

Aaron got new glasses!

2011-07-19T18:06:00.002-04:00

Aaron got new glasses this week. He got two new pairs. These are dark brown. The other pair is black. He was so excited to get new glasses. Having worn glasses my entire life ... I know that feeling well. His eyes showed improvement at his last appointment! This is the first sign of improvement that we've seen since we first started on this journey, so we are excited! We will continue to patch him for the foreseeable future. Hopefully, we'll be able to stop patching him around the time he turns 7. (and hopefully we will see more improvement)

A first ...

2011-07-18T06:00:00.000-04:00

Martin and Aaron had their first soft drink. I knew the day would come ... and I actually struggled with the decision. Martin asked several times, and I finally decided to let him have it. You know I had to take a picture of this momentous event! Martin chose to have a caffeine free coke. (okay - so I drew the line at caffeine ... certainly the amount of sugar is good enough to have him bouncing off the walls, right?)

What did Martin think of it? He said that it burned his tongue. He drank about half of it and wanted to be done. He hasn't said another word about it.
Aaron approached me a little later in the day and asked if he could try one as well. So, he chose a Sprite ... and didn't seem to be all that crazy about it. His comment was that it was sour.

So, how does a kid get to be 9 years old without ever tasting a soda? It was only about 2 months ago that he chewed his first piece of gum. It was only a month ago that he ate his first Dorito. Aaron had his first Cheeto. Eventually, my children won't have someone around to make their food choices for them. Hopefully, over the years of being exposed to delicious and nutritious food, they will desire them as they grow older and begin to make their own choices. So far, they are not too impressed with the gum and soft drinks. (although they do think that Doritos and Cheetos are pretty awesome!)