We are in the swing of summer now.  The school year ended with not much hoopla.  We just sort of . . . ended.  The little chickens are getting bigger and I think by August 1st we will be able to move them to the coop with the others.  We have officially ended our baseball season.  Last night was round two of Zach's baseball team championship games.  We lost to a very good team.  They had all very good hitters and very good runners.  It was a very nice season as the coaches were all very nice and not over zealous to live vicariously through their boys.  There was cheering and all that, but not to the point of making it drudgery to go to a game.  Our coach is a youth pastor at a local Alliance church which was neat.  Then last night we found out he is going on a mission trip and his group of kids are leaving Saturday.  Well, funny thing is, he is going on the same mission trip Rodger and Josh are leaving for on Friday.  They are going to Trujillo, Peru.  They will be gone till the 16th of July.  There are about 160 people going on this trip.  It is a district wide youth trip to Peru.  I am excited for them and especially for Josh because it will be a wonderful opportunity for him to see another country and the poverty that is prevelant in so many places (not that I am happy others are living in poverty, but to see what others go through will hopefully grow a heart of compassion in him). 

I have missed out on my blog, but I have sort of taken a break from it for the summer.  Since I am not making money off of this thing, I don't feel so pressured to keep it going full tilt.  We just are so active and I forget I haven't been here and then "poof", where did that whole month go?

One of our ducks thinks she is going to hatch an egg or two.  She is sitting down on her nest all the time.  I am thinking that we will not have any chicks.  This is the year they are to prove their worth.  According to the books I have read the ducks LOVE to eat japanese beetles.  I'm hoping so because we have quite a few of those buggers floating around our property.  They start to eat all the garden foods and then they go for the fruit trees and then the bushes and so it goes.  

We just picked 1 1/3 gallons of black raspberries this morning.  I am going to make jam out of these and then with all the other bounty we get we will make cobblers and freeze them.  It was our first pick of the season.  One little funny moment from this morning was when Sophie had her bucket almost full and she tripped over a log and fell a little.  What do you think came out of my mouth first?  Was it, "are you o.k.?"  NO.  Was it, "did you hurt your foot/leg/face?"  Nope.  It was more along the lines of, "did you save the berries?"  Yep.  I am shamefull.  Hey, this season only comes once a year.   One does what one must do.

On another note, some books I am reading/have read lately.  Uncle Tom's Cabin has been finished.  Highly recommend it if you have not read it.

Reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  Good book worth a read.

Reading "Saddam's Secrets"  by Gen. Georges Sada.  He was a very close person in Saddam's regime.  Mr. Sada just spoke at our church this past week and he shared lots of neat things concerning the wars and being under such a dictator.  Again, highly recommend it.

So there is our summer in a nutshell so far.  I am sure I am missing something though.  Maybe that will give me something to write about.  I hope you all are doing well and hopefully I will be able to get around to your sites here soon.

Most sincerely, Tammy

We have sucessfully navigated through one of the busiest months of the year for us.  I thought a few times I would loose my sanity.  Mostly on Tuesdays.  I think all four of our kids had to be somewhere at the same exact time almost every Tuesday.  On opposite ends of the county and into the next county.  It was kind of crazy for a while.  We are now at the bitter-sweet end of it all.  The culmination will be in two weekends when Sophie and Chloe have their spring concert for ballet.  I watched one of the dances last night and it is so good.  I can't wait to see the rest of the ballet and the modern and jazz pieces.  I will be soooo glad when we are done and we can relax a little and not have to be anywhere.  Ahhh, summer.

So this past month we have had a lot going on.  Anissa and I took the three older kids (her two and one of mine) to Cincinnati for a major field trip.  We went to the National Underground Railroad Museum.  Highly recommended for a self guided tour.  We had a tour guide and he was very zealous about his job.  Also, we did not think he was going to let us leave!  We went from there over to the Cincinnati Aquarium for a trip.  While it was fun to see all the things they had and it was nice, I have to confess that it paled in comparison to the Ripley's Aquarium in Myrtle Beach.  Now that place rocked.  After being unable to find the Aquarium, we finally got out of Cincinnati and headed south west to Hebron, Kentucky.  We went to the Creation Museum the next day.  We had a lovely nights stay in a hotel with a pool which the boys all loved.  We got up the next morning and zipped over to the Creation Museum.  The planetarium video was so awesome.  Anissa leaned over to me mid way through and said, "I don't know what they are talking about."  Now, lest you think she is ignorant, lets just say myresponse to her was,"blah, blah, blah."  We both got kind of lost in translation somewhere along the way.  Maybe it was when they started getting a little technical.  A little to technical for us.  Then Anissa was all, " look at the pretty light show!"  It was really cool to see all that God has made and how tiny we are compared to his creation.  I personally think it is interesting to note that the same stars I gaze upon in the evenings are the same stars that were in the sky so many years ago when the patriarchs were looking in the sky.  Surely there is some miracle in that.

The museum was done 100% professionally.  They really went all out to do a fantastic job.  I highly recommend a trip there if you can.  My favorite was the Flood exhibit.  There was a video of what it could have been like for the earth to burst open and the waters to come over the earth.  Wow.  It really put into pictures what we read all the time and gave a visual.  That works for me.  Seems to have more of an impact.

On another note, we bought more baby chicks.  This time around we bought some Barred Rock chickens.  Only hens.  I think one rooster is enough for our family!  The Barred Rocks are in the same family as the Partridge Rocks we already have.  A different color scheme going on. 

Josh had his 13th birthday on May 3rd.  We have yet to have a friend party.  I am hoping to do that in the next couple of weeks.  We knew it would not float on his birthday because of all the soccer going on.  He was good with waiting.  He has been milking the whole, "It is my birthday.  My 13th birthday!" thing.  You would think turning 13 was some right of passage or something (chuckle, chuckle)?  I mean we only have three more years till we are looking at a license!  I'm voting for a moped for him.  Better on gas. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week and your school year is coming to a close.  We are trying to get through till the end of the year.  No one wants to do anything - especially the mom! 

Blessings, Tammy

I am not really complaining about my lack of time to come and blog, but more just stating the facts!  We are in the thick of the crazy time and I have rarely been on this blog.  I do hope everyone is well.  We are doing well here.  We have actually had weather in the 70's.  I even have some serious weeds popping up!  You know, those pesky, pokie kind.  The apple trees are getting their leaves, as are the blueberry bushes and the peach/cherry trees!  We are getting our eggs from the little hens like clockwork.  They are so cute.  And that rooster - we call him Rambo, he is still quite feisty.  Although he has not attacked anyone lately.  My friend Lori was attacked by one of her roosters though and he poked a hole in her leg that oozed for 24 hours.  Lets just say that her roosters went to live down the road with someone else who wanted them.  They will probably become fox dinner, as the lady who wanted them said she wanted them because her roosters were taken away by some pesky fox.  By the time Lori was bleeding from the leg in two spots, she was all, "So when do you want them?"  I digress.

We are trying to wrap up the school year here soon.  We have our testing next week and the kids are just giddy with excitement (hahahaha).  It is always so hard to do school after testing.  We all seem to just fade away.  Do you know what my consolation package to myself is?  "Well, kids that are in school are having field trips by the droves, field day, movies in class, class parties, help the teacher clean out the room, etc . . .*"  I know some of you must surely do that too?  Right? 

*I know this to be true because Josh was in school for first grade and also the second half of his 6th grade year.  Believe me, it happens.  I am not trying to be mean, just stating the facts.

We received our two books in the mail, Why Gender Matters, by Dr. Leonard Sax, and The Underground History of American Education, by John Taylor Gatto.  Really great books.  Rodger is reading Gatto's book right now and I am reading Sax's book.  Wow is all we can say.  Get them for yourselves and give them a good read.  You'll not regret it.  I am still amazed at the amount of physiological differences between boys and girls.  Truly amazed.  I never learned any of this stuff in nursing school.  Let alone the owners manual I got with Josh at the hospital after birth!

Another random thought:  two gals at church had babies about a month ago and so I was out getting baby gifts for them.  Can I tell you it makes me want the have like, 10 more kids everytime I go to the Carters store or Children's Place.  Or OshKosh B'Gosh! 

Well, Rodger seemed to think I had tons of blogging fodder, but I might be in the midst of a writers cramp since being away for so long.  Hopefully I will get it all back.  Soon.

I'm just closing with the above photo of yours truly.  I took this of myself whilst coming home from MB last October.  You might not be able to see all the frekles up close, but the original is quite apparent.  Meanwhile, after a long vitamin d (sun) deprivation from our long winter I looked in the mirror.  Wow.  I am the embodiement of whiteness.  I was thinking I would get some sun here soon, and low and behold, I was burned just the other day.  Apparently this Ohio sun is quite fierce.  Or maybe I am just to pale. 

Well, have a wonderful week and hopefully you are getting some nice weather wherever you are. 

Blessings, Tammy

I had a lovely entry earlier that detailed what we have been doing.  Apparently it did not enter?  Sometimes I love the cyberworld!  A Lot! 

I had done such a quick entry that I can't even remember what I had written.

Oh, yea, it was about how our lives have entered the twilight zone.  Meaning, it is soccer season!  We will see the light of day in a calm way in about a month. We have games for three kids and two kids are doing ballet.  One child is doing soccer and ballet - Chloe.  For all of the craziness that goes on, I do enjoy soccer.  It is good to see the kids get out and play.  I enjoy getting to see moms that have been holed up in their homes all winter.  It is good catch up time. 

This week we had a fellow come over and clear about 1/2 an acre of land.  While he was pushing trees over, Rodger was using the chainsaw to chop them up.  Note to chainsaw users:  Always use safety helmet you REQUESTED for Christmas.  Why?  Because sometimes when you are sawing a tree you might hit an area of high tension and get a little kickback reaction.  Translated:  you might almost cut your entire head off!  Yes, that happened to Rodger this week.  He was sawing a tree branch off and the aforementioned tension occured and his saw kicked back on him and knocked him over.  Fortunately his Echo chainsaw has a device that turns the chain off when this occurs.  What was Rodgers reward?  Only a slight knick on his forehead.  Lets just say that he was looking for his safety helmet post-haste.  We are giving thanks to God for watching over him and for keeping his guardian angels on duty that day.  He was pretty sure he cut his head off before he realized that all was still intact.

I am now off to finish up some housework.  My lot in life - laundry.  I won't know what to do with myself when there is only Rodger and I left to do laundry for.  Maybe I will offer to go to some tired moms house and do her laundry because I will miss it so much!!  HA!

Blessings for your week, Tammy

*I am in need of some direction on why my links to all my highlighted areas are not working.  What on earth am I doing wrong?  Apparently I missed the memo that I am not doing it correctly.  So PLEASE leave me a little memo as to what I am doing incorrectly.  Thanks, Tammy

How does one manage to go to a homeschool conference and miss tons of opportunities to take pictures with a camera?  The camera I took specifically to get some pictures of us at the conference.  But, alas, I managed to forget the camera in the hotel room every single time we went out.  

The conference itself was good.  We heard Todd Wilson from Family Man Ministries.  Terrific sense of humor with very encouraging message for wives and husbands.  Andrew Pudewa

We heard of Institute for Excellence In Writing.  Again, a very powerful speaker.  He had an excellent session on "Teaching boys and other children who would rather make forts all day."  I am still processing what he said and infact, I bought the cd of that session to listen to again.  He recommended three books to read.  Go to your death $5,000.00 in debt if you have to just to get these books and read them (tongue in cheek)!  #1, a one Dr. Sax.  Don't remember the title to his book, but it is a good description of the boy/girl differences (addendum: Peduwa does not believe/agree with everything that is in this book, but nonetheless, it is an excellent book).

#2, John Taylor Gattos book called, The Underground History of Education.  Now, you should probably be willing to go $10,000.00 in debt to add this book to your collection (again, tongue in cheek).  But READ IT.  You will be a better person and definately depressed about the lack of hope of the institution of public school.

*editors note: I realize that there are many good teachers in public schools, and in fact, there are some really good schools out there, but that does not mean that there is not an agenda.  There is.  Go here to see what is happening in bigger cities and will be coming to a school near you soon.

#4, To round off your reading and to bring you back to the light, finish off your reading of #2 with, "A Thomas Jefferson Education".  It is not just about Thomas Jefferson, but more about he and his contemporaries' education.  More of a classical bent to the book.  If any of you have used the IEW program, drop me a note and give me your opinions.  Before I decide to use this program, I would like to get some feedback from others who have been in the trenches with it.  Thanks in advance for any feedback

Oh, when going to a conference of this magnitude, one hopes to be encouraged and refreshed.  Not to mention a small platter of guilt.  Anissa and I knew it was a success when we walked out of one of the sessions and we had guilt!

Seriously, there was some conviction about being nice to other peoples' kids but not our own.  Ouch!  A really good reminder that because my kids "know" I love them, it does not mean I get a free license to be a booger-head to them.  Because if the truth were to be told, I am hard on them at times.  Harder than I need to be. 

One of the highlights of being there was the vendor hall.  So, Anissa and I prepared ourselves for this overwhelming joy/excitement/nirvanah like experience by having our own paper bag ready.  Last year it was ugly!  We both walked in and BOOM!  It was all there.  LampLighter books, Rainbow Resource(my favorite), Peace Hill Press, Sonlight (which, by the way, as we were pulling out of our driveway, Rodger grabbed the mail and there it was!  My new catalog!), IEW, Memoria Press(not that we actually did  our latin).  And many more.  Check out the website of the convention to see all the vendors.  Indeed, it is an experience to behold. 

Jeannie Fulbright was there, but I did not get to hear her speak.

Jessie Wise was there, but I did not get to hear her speak either.  Or rather, I chose not to go to her because she had titles that made me think she might just be repeating what the book already says (Susan did that last year). 

I have to confess, that last years line up was a little better than this years, but overall it was still wonderful.

We had THREE dinners without any children!  The hotel we were at was the "Not so Comfortable Inn".  We had St. Mary's LaCrosse team with us the first night.  They took their fish nets out in the hall at 1/2/3 am and were practicing for the next days big game.  Oh, that was after the NCAA basketball game was over.  How do we know that an NCAA b-ball game was on you might be wondering?  Well, those little morsels were right under us and we heard it all!  Then, last night we had a Detroit Basketball team with us.  They were out till 2/3 am yelling around the hallway area.  So really, it was just like home with all the lack of sleep.  The pillows rocked though!  They were so cozy! 

We had another couple from our church who were there without their three littles and they lead us to a fine dining experience of ecclectic Italian.  The restaurant was somewhere in Cincinnati.  We then stopped at Graeters Ice Cream shop across the street to end the night.  Ahhhh, living in non-reality was fun for a few days .  So now we are back home and the kids are still with aunt and uncle for the night.  They will be back tomorrow sometime.

Shhh, don't tell Anissa I told you so, but her husband took us to Dayton on the "way" to Cincinnati.  Apparently he was in the midst of such stimulating conversation that he missed his turn. We all had a good chuckle about it.  I mean, it was only 48 miles out of the way.  Really, it is a non-issue.  Just don't tell her I told you! 

O.K. here are some of the pictures I said I would get posted:

 This is Monty, the "Barrel around the neck" dog.  He is a friends dog.

Here are two pictures of the kids doing eggs.

Chloe's Opus Magnum. . .

Josh.  What else can I say?  I know God has got great plans for this boy!

So, we went, we saw, we conquered.  I shopped for a few things, although I am not exactly sure of everything we are doing next year.  I need to finish this year first.  We joined HSLDA for the first time ever.  Gary DeMar spoke and just listening to him makes me want to give him my money.  In the form of a book purchase, of course! 

I will probably pull out snippets of the weeks happenings as I process it all.  Hopefully I will not forget everything I heard. 

Have a wonderful week and feel free to leave a comment on the IEW  program.

Blessings, Tammy