• Sep. 23, 2008
30-Day Husband Encouragement Challenge

This is a great challenge for us as wives to honor our husbands. If you are interested visit www.reviveourhearts.com   I found this right after dh had told me the guys in his class at church are going to hold each other accountable weekly for things they should be doing to encourage their wives.  I thought it only right to do the same for him.  I'm on day two.

Day 2
Today, find some way that your husband is serving you or your family. Does he help around the house? Take care of the car? Fix things that are broken? If your budget allows, give him a new, small tool with a big bow attached. But make sure he doesn't think it's part of a "Honey Do" list!

Maybe your husband is not a handyman, but does he run errands for you? Take care of you when you are sick? Help you make decisions? Praise him for his willingness to serve others. Let him know that you see his unique service as a great strength.

* * * * * * *

This was an easy one for me today! My hubby was already busy trying to fix the screen door this morning!

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• Sep. 2, 2008
Canning Peaches

Yesterday our family managed to preserve 56 quarts of peaches!  Let me just say that I cannot believe my 4 year old son worked with us the entire 4 1/2 hours, but he did and he worked hard.  Here were our assigned jobs:  Sweetie Boy was to peel the peaches.  dh was to pit and slice them.  Punkin' was to put the slices in the fruit fresh water and then into the jars.  I did everything else...boil the peaches for peeling, put the sugar water in the jars and seal them up for processing and make sure everyone had the supplies they needed.  It was a great day and we're going to enjoy those peaches this winter!  We also chose to call this a good Home Ec class for the kids.

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• Aug. 30, 2008
Crazy Busy Week Ahead

Tomorrow Punkin' begins her schoolwork for the year.  She managed to make it through 3 weeks of break time!  Didn't know if she would so I had it all ready for last week.  So tomorrow we will begin breaking her into the schedule and switching up Sweetie Boy's turn with his preschool.  He has done fine doing it all at once, but now I will break his up into two different times and then he'll join Punkin' for "together school."  (KONOS)  Honestly I am not ready for "together school" so may delay that a day or two.  I've got a few books, but I don't have the things I need for the hands-on stuff yet.  And today I couldn't get the laptop to acknowledge the network printer so no lesson plans in my hands either!

We use Horizons right now for Math, Reading, Writing and Spelling for Punkin' and she simply loves it.  I went ahead and bought their preschool materials for Sweetie Boy and it truly is built for use in a preschool.  So much stuff and very fun!  I enjoy that the Bible is taught with it along with character building.

So to make sure our week is crazier.... Punkin's ballet begins again on Tuesday evening.  She will be going at 4:30-5:15 so it is later this year.  I will continue to do my exercise at the gym while she's in class.  That helps!  She is hoping some of the friends she made last year will be in class again.  I hope so too as 90% of the class was homeschool kids.

To complicate the first night of ballet, I have my monthly Mom's Night (with our Friday School group) so need to be out of the house no later than 6:30.  That just means I have to be very prepared with dinner so I'm thinking a pot of vegetable soup on the stove all day sounds like a winner!

Wednesday all of our activities at church start up again with the exception of the music classes both kids will be participating in.  Those start up two weeks later.  I'm happy about that as we will be needing to leave home by 5:45 at the latest now on those days.  I am looking forward to my ladies Bible study starting up again though.

Oh...and did I mention that I need to can 4 bushels of peaches and 1 bushel of pears in and around all of this?  Hmmmm

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• Aug. 26, 2008
Our Little Guy is 4

Well, technically not until Friday, but close enough as the party has drawn to a close.  We celebrated on Saturday night since his grandma and auntie were in town this past weekend.  We now let the kids choose what they will have for their birthday supper and Sweetie Boy chose Hebrew National hotdogs and hamburgers.  Made for an easy meal for mom!  The weather was so nice that day we decided to set up out on the back patio so the picnic atmosphere made it quite fun.  After supper he opened his presents and then we had cake.  He had requested a monster truck cake and that was very easy to create.  So another birthday down!

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• Aug. 15, 2008
Portraits of the Kids

Had some new pictures done of the kids this week so thought I'd share a few.  I only go to a studio once a year and as a family we chose August so we could call these our "school pictures."

 

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• Jul. 28, 2008
Sometimes life is just one big field trip

Today we went to Joe's Sporting Goods to buy some patching material for the wading pool floaties and tent air mattresses.  While I was looking at my options the kids went across the aisle and proceeded to check out the 4-wheelers and sand buggies.  They were just having a ball and saying "what a fun park!"  Had to capture it on my cell phone.

This one is going to be sent to his Auntie as a joke about "what I want for my birthday."

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• Jul. 24, 2008
County Fair Day

Today is the first day of the County Fair and we have made a tradition of going for a few hours to see the animals and then allowing the kids to go on the Kiddie Rides for a little while.  We then stop for a drink or cotton candy and head home.  It's a nice day as the rest of the carnival rides do not open until two hours later so not so many big kids running around.  One of these days maybe Punkin will want to take some flowers or even her rabbit to display/show.  I really need to look into 4-H stuff more!

In other news, Punkin got her cast off on Monday.  We were invited to a pool party on Tuesday so I simply phoned to ask about waterproofing it as it was coming off Wednesday.  The nurse had me bring her in and they took it off and did the follow-up x-ray.  The doctor said there was one spot some might say was a slight fracture, but he did not feel there was enough new bone around that area to agree.  We're going with a very bad sprain.  The time in the pool really helped her work the stiffness out on Tuesday.

The vegetable garden is doing very well this year.  I had Punkin get out with me this morning to transplant some of the flowers he had planted as the giant pumpkin vine is taking over one side of the garden.  We got about 10 plants moved to the other side and hopefully they will survive their move as they are so pretty.  I didn't pull up my cucumbers, but they are going to be overtaken soon but I figured they are a vine too so they will probably still be okay.  I did pull up the zucchini to make room for the flowers.  We've had several already so no big loss.  (The picture below shows a very small vine.  It has tripled in size I would say.)

I'd love to share something fun and exciting about Sweetie Boy but he hasn't really been living up to that nickname this week.  He is Trying Boy this week!  I get tired of the constant discipline, but that's what it requires.  It was reassuring to know it wasn't just geared at me as dh found the same issues after he was home for the evening.  He's still pushing limits today but not as steadily so I think we're on the downhill side of this go around!  Well, okay...he is loving the Thomas the Train table that friends from church gave to us as their boys were done with it.  There's a fun thing about Sweetie Boy!

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• Jul. 18, 2008
Surviving VBS

This week has been all about VBS.  The daytime finds me needing to entertain more which is so tiring.  I'm sure it is because the kids are tired after little over two hours a night being fully entertained.  They have been enjoying "Custom Garage" very much.  I'm helping with Punkin's group (K-1st grade) which is good since she's been concerned about games with her arm (especially when water is involved) and I can help her a bit more with crafts as needed.  She had a couple meltdowns last night when her arm got tugged too much during a game and again during story time for some reason.  Sweetie Boy gets my attention right before it begins as I have to remind him of four things: 1) do not chew on your name tag, 2) do not jump on the pews and 3) don't follow your friends when they are choosing bad behavior and 4) listen to your teachers.  I save that one for last as typically he only hears the last thing we say.  LOL

Anyway, since I'm the entertainment director at home I've been getting creative with paints and chalks.  Today we drew white crayon pictures on white paper and they painted with water colors.  That was fun.  I'm going to start our Summer Olympic lapbook study on Monday.  That way we have a couple of weeks before they actually begin and we can watch a few of the events.  I've really had to simplify it down to their level, but we'll have fun running our own games such as the 100 yard dash, javelin throw, trampoline, and long jump.  I'll post pictures when I have some!

And before I forget...Punkin's special friend this week at VBS was a sweet little guy that has also been in our Sunday School class.  I know they are just friends and they always hang out together when 'the guys" aren't there (he didn't know any of the boys in our group this week and he is shy about making new ones) but it was cute to watch.  Made me zoom forward many years to when she is at courtship age.  Just a sweet, fun memory.

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• Jul. 10, 2008
Gotta Love Quick Care

We've had a fun week.  Sunday night Punkin fell while chasing the bunny in the yard and by Tuesday the elbow and wrist were still way too sore to the touch so we headed to quick care.  They took pictures and put a splint on until we could get to the orthopedic guy.

Today we saw him and thankfully he said there could be a tear in the cartilage or some small fracture, but it won't show up for a week or two in the x-rays.  There was still enough swelling and tenderness that he chose to put a full cast on for two weeks.  She chose a lovely shade of purple so she would match Grandma's lavender field.  (Looks a bit blue in the photo.)

She's been a trooper through all of this and I for one am thankful it wasn't worse and she should still be able to make her swimming lessons the first of August.  Whew!

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• Jul. 4, 2008
Happy July!

To kick off the month of July the kids received a huge box from their Aunt and Uncle in Tennessee.  Always such fun!  It arrived just in time as it has been so hot and they were really needing something to jump start them with some inside activities.  Here are a few of the pictures I took to record the event.

Can't go wrong with Thomas the Train engines!

Sun in the Fun Barbies...they even came with a swimming pool.

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• Jun. 30, 2008
And Then Followed Joy

Just as I mentioned in my previous post the joy did follow.  I just kept praying and peace has been there so I know I've made the right decisions.  The joy that came was a couple good conversations with this same friend since Friday so I'm thinking we'll be okay, but it won't be the same since we'll be distancing ourselves from certain gatherings.  That's okay.  As Belinda reminded me, some friendships have a season so I'll just keep looking to see what God fills this up with over time.

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• Jun. 27, 2008
Choices that can cause sadness

Choosing to homeschool creates choices that sometimes filter down into other areas of life and today I'm just feeling sadness from one of those choices although I do not regret for a second what caused this moment.  To catch you up we have to go back to October of 2007.  We were at a birthday party for some kids that have been part of our kids' lives forever...so 6 1/2 years.  At this party we once again encountered "the neighbor factor" i.e., very disrespectful children from across the street.   We dealt with this about 9 months prior at another birthday event with this family too.  So the decision was made that our children would no longer be attending events where those neighbor kids were present and my friend took it very hard.  She initially went through some anger and felt we were being critical of her children also.  Her right to feel that way and quite understandable although it had nothing to do with the decision.  We eventually agreed to disagree and life has continued much as before.  Well today when she dropped my daughter off from VBS she looked uncomfortable so I asked her what was wrong.  She finally told me that she was dealing with the October thing again and having a hard time with the whole thing.  She then told me that they would no longer be doing the birthday thing anymore.  I told her that was just fine because we were moving to just family birthdays.  That seemed to relieve her anxiety a little.  She is struggling about what to tell her kids when it came time to invite and she knew we wouldn't accept.  I know what I'd say, but that's another story.  She's also in a different place about the whole "salt and light" concept.  I think about Lot parking himself on the outside of Sodom and Gomorrah and how he got sucked in and needed rescuing.  She believes they need to be in Sodom showing God's light.  I stand firm saying I don't want their light extinguished or dimmed by the Sodomites.  So today we left it there and I am allowing this friendship to diminish and will pray and listen about what to do with all of this.  I am prayerfully allowing Him to remove this friendship if it is necessary.  I'll miss it, but I will be obedient.  So for today....sadness.  For the morning...joy will come.  Thank you for listening.

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• Jun. 16, 2008
Father's Day

Isn't making a project using Kwik-set cement everyone's idea for a father's day gift?  Since dh was gone on a business trip last week the kids and I set out on this fun journey.  Unfortunately no photos of the cement fun, but I captured a few of the painting.  dh still has no idea what he'll do with these stepping stones, but will come up with something!  Still need to spray with acrylic sealant before they can be outside.

Sweetie Boy's turned out tan only because he spread every color right over the previous one.  It was quite humorous to watch, but goodness did he have fun!

Punkin's took a bit more time.  She worked hard on getting the colors "just right." 

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• Jun. 10, 2008
Gardening Fun

We are finally seeing some growth in our vegetable garden.  Before it was ready to plant it was Sweetie Boy's favorite dirt pile.  He did his part though when he hooked the fertilizer up to his tricycle.  It was so funny!

After we finally got the soil prepared and the weed shield down, Punkin and I spent about three hours planting vegetables and flowers.  She was so excited when she saw things sprouting.  This year we have three different types of tomatoes, giant pumpkins, cucumbers, zucchini, carrots, parsley and corn.  The watermelon already wilted.  I usually put some green peppers in but nobody else eats them so I gave Maegann that ground for her bunny food.

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• May. 30, 2008
This and That

We've had another busy week.  A trip to the zoo to help celebrate a birthday, an end of year program at church and a dance recital.  Doesn't sound like much but throw in a regular dance class, a dress rehearsal and a homeschool group meeting into the mix and it increases.

Punkin's showing how many things she'd checked off of her chart.  The kids were all given a chart to find different things while wandering through the zoo.  Made it quite fun!  Gotta love homeschool mom's!

Getting ready for lunch and cupcakes.

The "Wee Kidz" Kindergarten girls receiving their graduation trophies and candy.  They will now be singing with the "big kids." 

Time to perform!  Sweetie boy sang "ABC's" and I have to tell you...he really did have the best musicality of anyone who sang.  He's always had the music in him so this isn't surprising.  Can't wait to get those long fingers learning the piano.  He is excited about it too.

All dressed and ready to go to the dress rehearsal.

Being instructed as to where they will be once on stage for the performance.

The dance recital was held at a local park and we did have some rain.  Thankfully not a downpour!  I thought this was such a cute picture of Punkin's ballet class all huddled underneath her princess umbrella.

And just because this has been so funny during school this week I had to share a shot of Thumper on my desk.  She loves to lie down right behind the laptop and sleep.  That is when she isn't checking everything out on the desk!

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• May. 18, 2008
Summer Fun Has Begun!

We have been having a heat wave so out came the Slip 'n Slide and the wading pool.  As much fun as the kids have playing in the water, I'm really thankful the forecast is saying we'll have clouds and some rain along with more normal temperatures within a few more days.  Our normal is closer to 65-70 and we've been at 90+.

 

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• May. 5, 2008
Viva Las Vegas!

Just got home this evening for a quick trip to Las Vegas.  dh was heading there for a tradeshow (starts tomorrow) and he surprised me on Saturday morning with the news that I was flying there with him on Sunday morning and returning home Monday evening.  He'd made arrangements for the kids to be at grandma's, for my Sunday School class and friends to take care of all the animals while I was gone.  He was going to be staying at a timeshare with our friend John from Arizona and I learned that his wife was driving there with him and would also be flying home today.  We hadn't met her so that was nice.

We spent from 1-10:30 walking the strip with about a 90 minute break in there for dinner.  We were all exhausted and our feet and hips were killing us.  We're not as young as we used to be!

We enjoyed this tropical rainforest area so much.  Very peaceful.

New York City!  A lot quicker sight seeing trip than the one we took years ago.

The musical fountain show at the Mirage.  They played "God Bless the USA."

Gay ol' Paris and the Eiffel Tower.  Beautiful.

One of many gorgeous real flower displays in the Ballagio Conservatory.  Amazingly beautiful.

So a fun getaway although...... we still don't understand why anyone can say this is a family vacation place.  To us it just made us think of what Sodom and Gomorrah must have been like.  Satan's playground.  There were several things I wanted to photograph to show the kids but I couldn't make myself take the picture because of the billboards or things that would appear.  Before I went to sleep last night I just laid there and prayed for the children that I saw throughout the day that were being exposed to all this stuff and for the parents who did not see anything wrong with exposing them.  I prayed that somehow the Holy Spirit would find a way to work in that city.

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