Friends from afar who visited us here

Our friends Rob and Stacey and their kids moved away about 3 years ago but we have always kept in touch and kept a close friendship with them. They now live about a 7-8 hour drive away which makes it hard to see each other too often. Thankfully their families still live near here so they try to make it back 'home' a few times a year. We always enjoy seeing them and spending time together.

Their kids are: Hannah (about 9 months older than H), Nick (about 4 months older than J) and Abby (almost one year old). The kids always have so much fun together, it's like they were never apart! J doesn't usually like to play with boys, but for some reason she has always loved playing with Nick, they are like two peas in a pod! And of course Hannah and H love being together too.

They were here to visit a couple of weeks ago. We had them over to swim one day, then went with them to the beach the following day.
Here are the kids on our deck enjoying their popsicles (Nick, J, Abby & Hannah)
Stacey and I.
Miss Abby at the beach, she's such a cutie pie!!
Eating M&M's at the beach.
We miss them so much and wish they still lived nearby ... maybe one day they will move back?! =)

Home School Curriculum Plans 08-09

I have spent the last month searching the Internet, talking with other home school Moms, researching curriculum, checking prices, re-checking prices, etc ... and I have FINALLY made my decisions and ordered all of my curriculum for the coming school year. Whew! It's been a little crazy, it's been one of the biggest tasks I've taken on in awhile, but I'm happy about our choices and feel confident that we are going to have a great year.

I'm going to try my best to outline our plans ... hopefully it will come across as organized and easy to understand.

For J - Kindergarten

I purchased (for $4) a book called "Making the Grade, everything your kindergartner needs to know" - in the book they outline literacy, math, science and social studies. This will provide me with some basic guidelines for 'covering all the bases' for kindergarten.

Spectrum workbooks by Mercer Mayer - with those super cute 'Little Critter' characters ... I purchased four workbooks:
{Reading}
{Beginning Phonics}
{Language}
{Math}

{Handwriting} - Abeka writing with Phonics K

I want to keep kindergarten fun and easygoing. J is my one who doesn't like to sit still and I really want her learning experience to be fun and not be filled with too much busy work. The workbooks I purchased are cute and funny and lighthearted. I think they will be the perfect thing for J. (And I pinky swear that I won't high pressure her to finish every page!) =)

We will also spend LOTS of time reading, as this is key in learning to read. And she will join H and I in several other subjects ... you'll read more about that later.

For H - Second Grade

Another great $4 find was "What Your Second Grader Needs to Know". This book covers language, geography, fine arts, math and natural sciences. Once again I will use (some) of this book to help me cover the bases. I also like some of the poetry that is included in this book so I may use some of that.

{Math} - Horizons
{Language Reading and Phonics} - Abeka (we're gonna stick with what we know for language. I thought they did a great job with their language program and we decided to stick with them.)
{Spelling} - Abeka
{Writing} - Abeka writing with Phonics - cursive (our book from last year, we chose not to do cursive for first grade so we'll start that this year.)

Combined subjects:

{History} - The Story of the World (we will also do a group project with our co-op friends once a month)

{Geography} - Children's Atlas of the 50 states
- Fabulous Facts about the 50 states {learning and exploring more about our great country!}
- Children Around the World (we will choose one country per week to learn about and focus on.)

{Bible} - God and Me 2 Devotions for Girls ages 6-9

{Spanish} - Play and Learn Spanish Book and CD {ALL of us will be learning this together since I never took Spanish ... we're just starting off kind of easy.}

{Science} - CO-OP!! YAY, this year we plan to take part in a science co-op. We'll meet once a week with about 8-10 other homeschoolers for a hands on science lesson. We've chosen 9 topics to study for the year which gives us a whole month (or about 4 lessons) to focus on each subject. A few of the subjects are: plants, animals, weather, the universe, light, sound, bugs, etc...
Various Books will be used as all the Moms will take turns with the teaching. A few books that I purchased and will use are:
Let's Read and Find out Science Books
Magic School Bus
Play and Find out About Science
Fascinating Science Projects

{Art} - we will do LOTS of arts and crafts projects at home. The girls will also have more formal art lessons with Grandpa just like they did last year. And will visit a few local art museums too.

{Music} - ??? This is one area that I have no experience. I'm still up in the air about what to do for music.

{Phys. Ed.} - Family hikes, bikes, swims, etc ...
- soccer for Haley in the fall
- swimming lessons for both in the winter and spring
- possibly use some indoor DVD's for winter time?

{Social} - Awana
- Girl Scouts
- Sunday School
- Playdates

{For fun in the classroom}

-I ordered two hand puppets (for teaching the lesson, helping keep things fun, etc)
-Spontaneous activity box (more to come about this)
-More hands on experiments and activities
-Less table time -- more variety and changing teaching locations
-Keep it fun!

As I mentioned above my goal for this year is to keep learning fun. Last year I was so uptight about H needing to complete worksheets that I failed to enjoy all the wonderful resources around me. This year we plan to do more field trips, more exploring, more laid back reading, more FUN!! I have some great ideas that I've been picking up here and there from other homeschoolers (on the Internet and in person) so I'll be adding some of those ideas in the coming weeks.

When life gives gives you lemons

How do you handle it? Do you make the best of the situation?? ... make some lemonade?? ... pout, be grumpy, complain??

This is something I've been thinking a lot about lately. In the past couple of months we've been making some home improvements. Things we planned on and had money to pay for. However 3 things have happened that were totally unexpected. Three very large LEMONS.

First, Bob accidentally broke the window in our garage door. Our very old, very much in need of replacing garage door. Something we weren't planning on replacing any time soon, but were sort or forced into doing through circumstances. ($1200)

Second, on my way to work 2 weeks ago my back tire hit some rocks on the side of our road. There is a house that sticks far into the road with a rock wall around it. It's very narrow and you have to go slow through there. I was rushing through and the tire hit. It blew out. Long story short we ended up replacing all 4 tires. We needed new tires, but were not planning on spending that money right now. ($600)

Third, we were finally having our second bathroom put in downstairs (something we planned on) and the guys were doing the work last week. They shut the water off to work on the plumbing and something happened to the water pump that connects to our well. (I don't really understand what all happened so I can't explain it well.) To fix it and get it all done to code we had to hire a guy to come out and fix the whole thing. Something that we needed to do, but didn't plan on doing right now. ($3000)

Three VERY LARGE LEMONS. After all, who has an extra $4800 laying around??

When we were without water for two days I began to have a case of the poor-me attitude. You have no idea how much you rely on running water until you don't have it.

Then later in the week I became aware of the situation with Katie Bloom. (See previous posts if you have no idea what I'm referring to.) It was such a wake up call for me. To see another family go through such a difficult trial and still have the ability to praise God in all circumstances was just what I needed to get me out of my poor-me funk.

I want to share some verses that are posted on Katie's progress blog. They are helping me to remember to pray about everything, to praise God for what He has already done, and to stop focusing on the negative stuff and start focusing on God and on all the wonderful blessings that I already enjoy.

Phil. 4:6-7

"Don't worry about anything; instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need and THANK HIM for what He has already done.

If you do this, you will experience God's peace which is far more wonderful than our mind can understand. His peace will guard your heart and mind as you live IN Christ Jesus."

I have so much to be thankful for. I am blessed beyond words. Sometimes I need a little wake up call. A little reminder that I have no reason to complain. So a few unexpected little money issues come up. So what! What good is money if you don't have life, health, family, friends, God?? What is really important?

So we fixed the things that needed fixing. All seems to be back in order for now. Our house is slowly but surely coming along and we've almost completed all of our projects. {I will post pictures soon.}

My heart and my attitude got a little fixing too. And that feels good. I thank You Lord that You're still working on me!

{{PS. I still have much to update, lots of photos to share, etc ... but this week I need to focus on getting stuff ready for VBS which is coming up WAY too soon! So hang in there, I'll post as soon as I can! And keep praying for the Bloom family, here is the new blog address where you can get current updates ... http://katiebloomprogress.blogspot.com/ }}

Katie Update

Just wanted to pass on more info about Katie's story and how she is doing ... I'm also going to give you a link to her friend's blog. Her friend is updating on her progress as often as the info comes in so that would be the best source if you want to continue following this story and praying specifically for the needs. Here is the link and below that the story from Katie's hubby.


"We had our little Sawyer on Tuesday, the 8th, and were allowed to go home on the 9th because things were going so well. Over the next week things were normal until this last Wednesday. If you know Katie, headaches are a consistent part of life, so when she began to complain of a headache we were not overly concerned. Her doctor prescribed some heavy painkillers for her (over the phone). After these really didn't have much effect, she went in to see him and he prescribed some other pain meds to deal with the increasing pain and stiffness in her neck. As a precaution Dr wanted her to get a CT scan at Methodist. She went in Thursday afternoon and the CT scan came back clear so she went home. I picked up the new meds for her later that afternoon and she began to take them.

However, around 10pm she woke me up and said something is really wrong. Most of you know, Katie has a very high pain tolerance. I've seen her take a kidney stone before, but this was different. Katie's vision was blurring and she was in intense pain. I rushed her to the ER where they got her in right away and the first thing they did was try to deal with the pain. So basically they started pumping her full of narcotics which did help some with the pain, but did not take it all away.

She started throwing up and her vision continued to blur. In about two hours she slowly drifted off to sleep, which we all assumed was a good thing as she was finally peaceful. An emergency room Dr came to see her after a little while and was concerned that he couldn't get her to wake up. He told me that this is not a drug induced sleep but rather a very deep coma, and he immediately ordered another CT scan. This one was bad. He immediately called in the Neurosurgeon for a consult.

She came in within 30 minutes and after reviewing the CT scan basically gave me two options. 1) let her pass away, 2) do surgery. The Neurosurgeon warned us that even if the surgery was successful in keeping her alive, it would not alter any brain damage that has surly happened. We obviously opted for the surgery which began around 5:30am.

The surgery lasted until about 9:30am and she was then moved to a recovery room as there was no room in the ICU wing. The neurosurgen informed us that the surgery went very well, but still did not give us any hope that she would ultimately recover. However, as Katie began to come out of the anesthetic there was immediately some very good signs. She was responsive to some voice stimulation (i.e.. squeeze my hand Katie, move your toes). In a few hours she was moved to ICU where she is as of now (11:30 Saturday am).

The good news is that Katie continues to advance in all areas. She as said a few words, has kissed my hand, as good strength in her hands and legs (in fact she actually pulled the intubation tubes out of her nose and mouth). She has partially opened her eyes, but that continues to be a concern. The surgeon who initially worked on Katie was in Friday night and was very pleased.

All of this is good, but we still have no real direction regarding the issues in the brain (i.e.. cause of bleeding). However, it really doesn't matter what the issues are as God is at work and is presently healing Katie. Please continue to pray believing prayers as God loves to honor the faith of his children.

Urgent prayer needed

I have much to blog and much to update you all on ... but today my heart is heavy because I heard that a girl I went to college with is in desparate need of prayer. So with that in mind I don't feel comfortable sharing all the good stuff that's going on in our lives until I know more about what is going on with Katie.

Here are the details as posted on Hope's blog ... I will update as I hear. PLEASE PRAY FERVENTLY FOR THIS SWEET YOUNG MOTHER AND HER FAMILY!
Bob and I went to college with Katie and her husband Davey. They are wonderful people with a real heart for the Lord. Davey was one of the recruiters that helped me decide that I wanted to go to Emmaus Bible College. Katie is one year older than me. Her girls are the same age as mine, her baby boy is just 10 days old. These precious kids need their Mama.

This precious mother is gravely ill. She had a brain aneurysm that burst this morning at 5 am. She has undergone surgery but the doctors are still not hopeful about her recovering from this. However, we have the hope of the Lord on our side, so pray, pray and pray some more. Laurel is posting updates at Grace and Glory.

Life seems very fragile, but we know that our Heavenly Father is holding us in His hands every moment. And that never changes.

Tooth Trauma - part Two!

My poor, sweet daughter. Her tooth trauma just continues. Today she was swimming when she started acting up (hitting her sis) so I made her come out of the pool and sit on the steps. She was upset and was crying very hard. Then, she starts crying hysterically and comes over to me to show me her bloody mouth. Her second tooth fell out, but she was screaming because she didn't know where it went. She didn't know when it fell out, she didn't even know if she had swallowed it. All she knew was that she was crying and then the tooth was gone.

We looked for it everywhere. We looked all around the bottom of the pool (with goggles!), we looked all around the ground, we looked everywhere! It was no where to be found. As we all know by now she has a very strong attachment to her lost teeth and she was very upset that it was gone. "I WANT MY TOOTH!!" she started screaming.

I'm not really sure why she has such a strong attachment to her teeth ... but I really did feel bad this time since it was truly lost. (I think she might have swallowed it.)

So, I broke down and told the girls that the tooth fairy isn't real. That's she's just for fun like Santa (they know he's not real already). I wanted J to understand that she would still get something from the 'tooth fairy' because it was actually Mommy and Daddy.

But I still think she'd rather just have that tooth back!
{This photo was much later after a much needed nap.}

Book Barn

I am so excited! I found the coolest place today. Well actually I have seen it there many times, passed right by it in my car, but never thought much about stopping until today. Well, OK, I actually didn't pass it today, it's about a 1/2 drive from my house ... but I purposefully went there today and was so pleased with what I found!!

It's a place called the Book Barn where they sell thousands and thousands of used books (for cheap!). But it's more than that. It's several old, quaint, rustic barns filled to the brim with books. It's lots and lots of beautiful gardens, fountains, benches, statues, bridges and little ponds. It's a children's playground and play area. It's frog and turtle ponds. It's home to a few goats, 14 cats (who roam about at will) and one dog (who we couldn't seem to find anywhere). It's free coffee, doughnuts and treats that you may use to feed the dog (if you can find him!).

It was wonderful! I got some great bargains and a few things I can use for school next year. I look forward to going back again to look for more school resources. I was so glad that I took the girls along with me. They enjoyed picking out some new books (most of which were $1.00 each) and were already reading them the moment they got back in the car. I think this new favorite place will have to be a monthly field trip for us!

{Playground}
{Goat pen}
{Hello!}
{The girls loved the frogs}
{On a bridge overlooking the frogs}
{Where should we go?}
{A nice cool cup of water - it was SO hot!}

Sandy hand Mosaic craft

I found this idea in Family Fun magazine and knew immediately that I wanted to try it. We love the beach, we love shells and we love crafts ... so what could be better than a Sandy hand Mosaic craft??

Since this was our first time trying it we did run in to some mess ups ... but at least we learned through trial and error so next time we can make them even better!

We made these as part of our family reunion ... the 3 girls made them and I made one for myself - you know, part of that trial and error thing. =) I think because my hand is so much bigger that is why mine turned out better. We still have a lot of plaster of paris left over so we plan to try it again sometime soon.

If you are interested in trying this craft and want the directions feel free to email me or comment here and I will get the directions to you. It's not complicated but I would definitely say that it would work best with older kids, like over 4 years old. We had 4 adults helping and it was great to have the extra helping hands for this project.

The basic idea is they press their hand down into the sand, make a pattern with shells and sea glass, fill in with plaster of paris and let set for about 30 minutes.

More cousin pics

H, Becca and J
{I wish this one wasn't blurry 'cause it's super cute!}

We call this 'cheek to cheek'.
It's so fun for the girls to have a cousin who is their age. Actually, Becca is only one week older than J. The girls always enjoy when Becca comes to visit.

Happy 232nd Birthday America!

This past weekend we had a great time hosting our family reunion / BBQ. It's become a fun family tradition that we started about 4 years ago. Over the past few years we have had as little as 8 people and as many as 25. Either way we enjoy it and have a great time.

This year we greatly missed a few family members who were unable to come due to sickness or vacation plans. Next year we hope that everyone can come!

Since my nephews were sick, it meant we only had three little girls for the party. H, J, and my niece Becca (who is J's age). Those girls were like three peas in a pod and they had a blast all weekend.

On Friday they all swam and played at Grandma S.'s house while Bob and I attended a party at our friend's house. On Saturday they all swam and played at our house, then we BBQ'd that evening and had yummy chicken and corn with strawberry shortcake for dessert.

Then my Mom offered to have the girls spend the night at her house (where my brother Matt and niece Becca were already staying). So they had a sleepover at Grandma's, then went to Sunday school in the morning before coming back home just in time for the family reunion.

It was nice to hang out two nights in a row in the evenings on our deck with my brother in law Aaron and his wife Glenna. Just hanging out, having adult conversation and a couple of drinks and sharing some laughs. It was really nice. (Only problem was that I stayed up WAY too late both nights and was exhausted!)

So anyway, let's get to the pictures ... our yard with flags hung in celebration.
Yahoo for the RED, WHITE and BLUE!!
A family photo. We all dressed in white shirts and tan shorts for a group photo (the whole group photo is a new tradition we started last year)... those are on Matt's camera so I'll have to add those later when I get them. Glenna and AaronH, Becca and JHaving fun! Those are bubble containers!
We played some relay games ... this is J doing the hula hoop part of the race...
H doing the "Happy 4th of July" part of the race ...
Daddy doing the hula hoop ... woohoo, look at that hip action from my honey!!!!
Grandma S does the hula hoop too! The kids swam in the pool after playing a fun pool game ...
Then they showed off their super cool sunglasses that they had decorated ...
J looking very patriotic ...
And H too ...
By the time everyone went home we were all pooped ... even Casey who had chased and played with Aaron and Glenna's dog 'Bette' all weekend long.