Jun. 30, 2006 - This is the life
We are at the end of our week in KY and even though I dreaded making the trek it has been a huge blessing. Aunt Rose has been wonderful and we've just stayed around the house and relaxed all week. No worries about cleaning, meals that appear at mealtime without my intervention, hours by the heated swimming pool, tv (a luxury that we don't have at home), and Ralph has really been good about watching the kids while I've rested. So basically I've been feeling 100% better this week. I'll begin my 12th week in a couple of days, so hopefully the worst is over now for good. Woo Hoo!
I'm getting a baby belly already and my clothes are getting tight, so we're going to have to go shopping for maternity clothes before long. Everything I have is winter, and with the weather in TX I don't think I'll have much need for them most of the time, even though the baby isn't due until the end of January. So time to stock up on capris and short sleeved shirts.
On to the big news of the week. Looks like the stork is going to be making a second stop in our family! My sister Rachel is PrEgNaNt!!!! This is her first and I'm so excited. We are 6 weeks apart, so that should keep mom busy instead of dwelling on the fact that we're gone for the year. Yippee!
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Jun. 24, 2006 - Heading out again
I had my first ob appointment this week and all seems to be fine thus far. They weren't able to pick up a heartbeat yet, but said that was normal for only 9 1/2 weeks. I'm going back on July 11th for another checkup and ultrasound.
We'll be heading out to KY tomorrow for a week. We're staying with Ralph's aunt and then ministering in WV next Sunday. This will be the first time I've had to be on the road in a couple of months. Ralph has assured me that he will be in charge of the kids for the week and I can just take it easy. 
That's my falling over in hysterical laughter now and 
passing out from the shock of it later if it actually happens. At least I don't have to worry about cleaning or cooking for the week.
M and M are both up blogging now so we can all keep up with family from far away. Technology is nice.
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Jun. 16, 2006 - Ugh... Hanging in there
Things on the blog have been a bit quiet lately. I'm basically on survival mode here with the unbelievable exhaustion and fatigue. Thankfully the nausea still isn't too bad, but it's still hard to function. Katie's been a big help and Ralph is pitching in more than usual, so I'm just letting it all go for the next few weeks. I'll be 9 weeks on Sunday, and I'm usually back to normal by week 13, so the end is hopefully in sight now!
The girls have had VBS at a local baptist church this week, so that has been a nice break for me and given them a chance to get out a bit. They all had a great time and made some new friends. It's been nice being off the road for the past couple of months, even if I had to be miserable to accomplish it. The move to TX is looking likely, but Ralph wants to wait until my first dr. apt. on Wednesday to make sure all is well with me and the baby before making a final decision.
We were able to clear out some of our unused homeschooling materials last week to get some store credit to help purchase some items from my wish list for the coming year. Ralph took the stuff over and got $36 credit, then with my little punch card earned another $20 off by spending $86, so we got a pretty good deal. Here's a list of what we've got so far, as best as I can remember...
Apologia Elementary Science: Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day (I'm SOOOO pleased with this!)
Big Truths for Little Kids (Another winner!)
Explode the Code 7
Writing Strands 3
Reason for Handwriting F and Transition
Building Thinking Skills 2
Reading Detective 1A
We still have to get our Abeka Math and Rod and Staff English, and I promised Emily the Rod and Staff preschool curriculum, but we've got a good head start on our list which is a relief. Katie even decided to begin working on some of her new books to get a head start on the year. To let you know how miserable I've been... I didn't even really pour over the new materials. They just got tucked away in a closet. Now that's BAD!
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May. 24, 2006 - Lazy days of summer...
Well, so far I'm 5 weeks along in the pregnancy and I'm SOOOO glad it's summer and we are finished with our official school work for the year! I haven't had any real morning sickness yet, but I'm unbelievably sleepy all the time, which is just par for the course I know. 
I'm just so thankful that the girls can play outside and work on their own projects without me having to get school work accomplished on top of everything else.
I did manage to get our end of the year summary written up for Katie, and it will be easily modified for Faith and Madison as well, so that's one major job completed. Katie has misplaced her notebook containing ALL of her writing for the entire year, so that's got to be found in order for me to pull work samples out for her portfolio for the year. 
She did a really good biographical report on Laura Ingalls Wilder a couple of months ago that I really want to include, so I hope it turns up quickly as we begin cleaning out in order to move.
The kids are all excited about the summer reading program that got underway this week, and Katie is reading books as fast as we get them checked out. I'm really hoping that Faith's reading will improve with some additional reading time this summer. The incentives of keeping up with Katie and getting the cool prizes should add some motivation. I've also checked out an armload of picture books for Madison and Emily for us to read aloud so that they can participate as well. For family read aloud I've gotten Pippi Longstocking, which we read a couple of years ago and loved, and the only two books by Lois Lensky left at the library that we haven't read yet... Houseboat Girl and Ocean Born Mary. We so enjoy her books, and it looks like she has quite a list that our library doesn't have, so we may have to delve into the interlibrary loan system this summer to dig up some others. 
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May. 19, 2006 - Expecting # 8!
Things have been pretty slow around here since we've been off the road the past couple of weeks. We found out one week ago that we're expecting our 8th little blessing. Now with 7 girls already will this one be a 
or 
????? We'll see. Too bad they haven't invented a pregnancy test that comes out pink or blue yet! Actually, maybe they have... all of mine have always had two pink lines, so I wouldn't know the difference! 
Our due date is January 21, 2007.
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May. 11, 2006 - Home from West Virginia
My last entry was while we were still on the road for our northern trip. We were only home for 3 days and then left for West Virginia for another 4. We ministered on Friday night and then met with the pastors of a couple of large churches who are going to be supporting us as we go to language school in TX in August for a year. It was a nice trip and everyone was very kind, and again the Lord really supplied our financial needs for the month when we weren't even expecting it.
While we were in West Virginia we did manage to throw in a few side trips. We stopped by the New River Gorge visitor center and saw the gorge, went through the interpretive center explaining how it was formed and about coal mining in the area, and crossed the bridge over it- the longest arch bridge in the western hemisphere. It was HIGH! Then on the way back we stopped by the New River Gorge National River visitor center. We went through the visitor center which was very environmentalist/recycling focused in it's educational presentations. We watched a video about the watershed region which was nice, and also learned that the legend of John Henry was based on a true incident in this area. We picked up a brochure and read more about John Henry, which the girls enjoyed because they had seen a video about him awhile back. The girls were also given a Junior Ranger workbook to complete and send in to earn a Junior Ranger patch, so they'll work on that this week.
Since we got home late Monday night things have been very busy. Melody finished with college this week and we had a dinner with the whole family to say goodbye as she headed to Colorado for the year. It was very hard on all the girls to say goodbye. The little ones all look up to their big sisters so much and love having them nearby. Miriam finished up her finals this week and we will be attending graduation activities at Toccoa Falls College for her for the next couple of days. Two college graduates in a week! We've been really blessed, and as we all go our seperate ways during the next couple of months I pray that our relationships will only be strengthened by the distance and new experiences, and that in God's time we will be brought back together again.
Here on the homefront I've been trying to manage the chaos that the house has become with all of our recent travels. I've been working on the unending laundry, and we're also trying to really clear out a lot of our accumulated "stuff" in preparation for our move in a couple of months. I got rid of two trash bags of toys from Madison and Emily's room, and Katie and Faith are working on their room. I'm also trying to narrow down all the children's clothes we have stored in the basement. I've gotten most of it down to several categories and labeled in bags... baby clothes (in case we have another girl), clothes to give away, clothes to trash, clothes to store away while we are gone, and clothes to take with us to Texas. The rest of May we will be home quite a bit so I really have to tackle most of the projects now, because a lot of June and July will be on the road again. One thing at a time... Whew!
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Apr. 30, 2006 - Landcaster, PA
We are almost at the end of our journey, and it's been a wonderful week and a half. Thursday we drove into Reading, Pennsylvania for a ministerial conference that Ralph attended. The girls and I spent most of our time in the hotel, but it was a nice, restful break. We got some homeschooling done and watched way too much tv- a novelty for us.
Saturday we headed out of Reading and did some sight seeing in Landcaster County, which is the heart of Amish country. This was our fourth trip there, but it was probably the best. We got a little lost trying to get to Intercourse and found an auction for miniature horses. There were tons of Amish and "English" alike so we decided to stop and check it out. It was SO cool to see the Amish life as it really is... people wandering around, riding in their carts, kids eating hotdogs and fries and listening to the Amish auctioner. The horses were adorable as well and we really loved getting a closer look at them. Most were only 2 or 3 feet tall. One woman told us that some people use them like seeing eye dogs and they live in the house! We had seen a video of Amish life before our trip last year and it showed an auction, so this was so neat to get an up close and personal taste of it ourselves!
As we continued to drive through Landcaster we just loved the rolling hills and beautiful farms. It was a perfect day for everyone to be out and about. We even stopped at one Amish farm for a yard sale! Admittedly it was more to get a closer look at the homelife (we are such tourists
), but it was really neat and we had one big thing in common- our large families! They loved the fact that we had 7 daughters and one of the young fathers said he had 8 sisters, but there were three boys so at least he wasn't completely alone! We looked around a bit and I loved to see the Amish clothes on the line drying and the adorable little children in their caps and aprons or black overalls and hats. We bought some homemade sticky buns and homemade rootbeer before leaving and heading on into Intercourse.
This is the big tourist section of Amish country. It's neat being able to buy all the "stuff", but I much prefer the realistic opportunity we had to experience this unique culture. I did remember that I had seen the Pathways readers at a bookstore there last time, and so my goal was to pick up the More Days Gone By book. This was the first book that Katie ever read by herself, and she finished it in 9 days when a friend let her borrow it. Since I'm now at that point with Faith, really trying to encourage independent reading, I decided it would be a good purchase. These books are just wonderful, sweet stories about plain farm life (I believe they are Mennonite based). I love it that my price sticker on the book says that we got it in Intercourse, PA! Talk about the real thing!
After leaving Landcaster County we had one last stop to make. We wanted to get our National Parks Passport stamped for Gettysburg. We've been to the battlefield a couple of times, but this time we went to the visitor center and through the battlefields. We got a good picture of the memorial where Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address and then drove by the battlefields again as we headed out of town.
We finally got into Tennessee last night at midnight. We are staying with Ralph's cousins Don and Kathy again for two nights. Tonight Ralph is ministering at his church, and then tomorrow morning we will leave for home! Wow, it seems like we've been gone forever, but what a wonderful trip chocked full of new experiences! By ministering along the way we did a little better than breaking even with our expenses. God is so faithful to meet our needs. Even though we have been worn out by the travels, we feel so blessed to be able to be together as a family, minister to so many people, and give our children so many lifelong memories!
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Apr. 26, 2006 - Endwell, NY
Well, we've have had a nice quiet day for the first time in a while.
Monday we drove to Philadelphia and had a wonderful day of sight seeing. We toured the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Congress Hall, and Benjamin Franklin's museum. We also saw Betsy Ross's house, Christ Church, Benjamin Franklin's grave, and several other sights. It was a very full day and the kids had a terrific time. Because they've watched the movie National Treasure many times they really recognized what they were seeing and were so excited. Katie was just shaking when she saw the REAL LIFE Liberty Bell! We bought a bunch of postcards and even a replica of the Declaration of Independence, and at the Benjamin Franklin museum we watched Disney's "Ben and Me", which we were going to read when we got back home to learn more about him. We finished up there around 3:30 and for once we were glad to get back in the car for a rest, but we weren't finished yet...
We drove to New Jersey to Liberty Park and got a great view of the Statue of Liberty. The kids were thrilled to see it so close and see the Manhattan skyline. Then we had dinner at a cute little diner before heading into the big city! The girls were SO excited about actually getting to see New York City. It was dark by the time we got across the tunnel and the roads were just a mess with one way streets and massive construction and road work. We finally found our way to downtown and Ralph parked at a parking garage and we walked with the kids around Times Square at 10:00 at night! Wow!
It was like daylight out there with all the lights and people and tv screens everywhere. Overwhelming and amazing!
We held on to the girls for dear life and walked around for about an hour. They all got I 
NY shirts and lots of post cards and had the time of their life! We also saw Ground Zero before we left, but there's really nothing to see but a big construction fence around a bare area. You can't see in there at all, but we did want to see where it actually happened. We left NYC around midnight and drove into Connecticut to get a hotel around 1:30 in the morning. We were hoping to find something less expensive by getting out of the area, but we still paid $112 for a pretty old Howard Johnson. Oh well...
Tuesday morning we spent on the road making our way to Endwell, New York where we are ministering at our friend's church this evening. We had a leisurely drive through Connecticut and stopped at a park by the ocean to collect sea shells and play on the playground. It was a nice break and the kids found some really cool shells that we'll have to figure out how to identify! The area was really beautiful as we drove through the Catskills. I was surprised at how rustic and isolated it felt, but it was a wonderful drive. The weather had been pretty nice thus far, but as we drove through the mountains it was continually dropping until it was a very cold 43 degrees! Yikes! It was only 45 degrees when we made it into Endwell at 6:00, but thankfully it warmed up nicely today. Last night was spent visiting with our friends who we are staying with. The girls got a good night's sleep, and of course the grown ups stayed up WAY too late chatting and catching up.
Today the girls have been coloring a Dover coloring book about the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island that I picked up and we'll get our math done and write postcards and update our travel journals... voila- homeschooling! We've gotten some wonderful down time and caught up on our sleep today, and my old college roomate Allyson visited for a couple of hours with her adorable little boy. It was wonderful to see them again and catch up on everything. Tonight we're ministering, and then tomorrow we'll be driving about 4 hours to our conference near Landcaster, Pennsylvania. It's hard to believe we've been gone as long as we have, but we've sure packed in an incredible amount of history and sight seeing and met some very nice people along the way. Only 5 more days to go! 
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Apr. 23, 2006 - Baltimore, MD
Wow, the end of a very busy day.
Yesterday we drove from TN through VA to MD. This was supposed to take about 7 hours. We detoured to see Washington DC again, but the weather was bad so we just drove through and saw a few sights. After that we continued on to Baltimore, about 30 minutes away. We drove around for an hour just trying to find a place to get some dinner. Every exit we took either had only fast food or nicer restaurants that were beyond our budgets. FINALLY we found an Old Country Buffet around 7:30. By then we were starving and very tired... but the adventure had only begun.
We planned to find an inexpensive hotel since we were paying for it. We didn't want to stop on the exit where the inner city church was that we were preaching at on Sunday, so we continued on a little further. Good grief, Baltimore is like a lybrinth of crazy exits that make it impossible to just get off and then immediately get back on. We checked numerous hotels, and either they were $150 a night or booked for the weekend or both. As impossible as it seems we drove around Baltimore taking every imaginable exit, driving every conceivable street, seeing every possible area for 3 hours 
before finally going to the hotel where the church was supposed to already have us booked for Sunday night. We got checked in around 10:30 at night, got the kids bathed and got a good night's sleep.
The church we were preaching at this morning was in the GHETTO... as in, "Honey, don't leave me standing outside alone." It was very scary at first parking and getting out on this really rough street and finding that half of the congregation was homeless or drunk. The girls were pretty uncomfortable, but it was a wonderful opportunity to explain to them that these are the people that Jesus reached out to. If church only meant nice dresses and comfortable pews in nice areas then how would these people ever know that God loves them? They realized the truth of that and were comfortable by the end of the service. I stayed with them the entire time in the nursery, so they were very safe... and we used A LOT of hand sanitizer! There were about 100 people in the congregation and we were very well received, both my music and Ralph's preaching. He had a prophetic word about one old man, saying he had a problem with his stomach. The man had stomach cancer. There were many instances like that where people were touched. After the meeting they handed out tickets to the people who attended service so that they could get lunch at the soup kitchen downstairs. It was a really neat ministry.
We had lunch (Old Country Buffet again) with the associate pastor and his girlfriend. They were both extremely nice and very cool people. They were telling us all kinds of stories about their inner city work at the church. One night during a youth meeting there was a shoot out right in front of the church and the police locked down the church building (it's just part of a long line of row houses). The people in the church were in lockdown while police sharpshooters staked out on the roof top until 1:30 in the morning. 
But the really neat thing is that the drug dealers all really respect their ministry. The associate pastor lives right in that neighborhood near the church and I asked if he's every had a problem with breakins. He said that he's got the best protection of all because the top drug dealers won't let anyone touch him!
After lunch we went to Fort McHenry and saw the harbor and walked around outside the fort. This was where The Star Spangeled Banner was written. The girls liked the bay area and the huge boats. There was a civil war enactor who was loading up his car as we pulled in the parking lot. We stopped him and he explained about the uniform (Lisa, he was a YANKEE! 
) and military gear he carried for the enactment. He then kindly let the girls get their picture made with him, so that was neat.
By the time we got lost on the crazy Baltimore interstate system several more times and then stuck in traffic for another good 45 minutes, we only had time for Ralph to change shirts before we had to leave for the next service. Luckily this was close to the hotel.
The evening service was at a very nice, typical older Assembly of God church near the hotel. The ministry was well received and the girls had a blast because they had classes for them. They came out afterward with tons of crafts they had made and candy. Madison told me that one man had come up and offered her a dollar if she smiled. Needless to say, she got her dollar. Tonight is stormy and we're all tired and ready for some rest. Tomorrow we hope to hit Philadelphia and possibly NYC. They are only and hour or two away from here, so that won't be too bad. A nice easy day of sleeping in and sight seeing.
I have to say that I've felt like I've been in National Lampoon's European vacation as we've driven through Baltimore... the part where they are trying to get into the next lane to get off the exit but never can, so they just keep going round and round and round and round..... 
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Apr. 21, 2006 - Kingsport, TN
It's a rainy day here in TN.
We had our family pictures made yesterday morning before leaving town and hope to get them developed today. I liked the colors we used this time, but Gracyn refused to smile 
so I'm not sure how well they came out.
We drove up to Kingsport a different way yesterday. Usually we go 441 through Gatlinburg and Pidgeon Forge, which I just love. By going through Ashville instead we took the trip from 6 hours to only 3 1/2! Ralph said I could forget seeing Gatlinburg again! 
Actually, to cut that much time off the drive I guess I can live with it.
We're staying with Ralph's cousins Don and Kathy here again tonight. They have a nice big attic space open where the kids sleep and have their own little area, so it's nice for them when we stay here. I guess today will be spent visiting and the kids are glued to the tv. We've gotten our math and travel journals worked on both last night and this morning, so at least something is getting accomplished. We may try to finish the current read aloud we are working on, The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli. It's on so many reading lists that I decided to try it, but I'm not actually enjoying it at all. It's not very thick and we're already halfway through, so I think we'll try to get it finished and see if it gets any better. I also brought along The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, one of the Chronicles of Narnia. I remember liking this one very much then I read through the series.
This afternoon I made homemade playdoh for the girls to give them something to do. As they played I read them the story of Betsy Ross from my American Backgrounds book that I brought along. Then I printed off the diagram for the Betsy Ross 5 pointed star and we practiced making them. This was a pretty cool trick to master and it will make our trip to Philadelphia more meaningful in a few days if they are already familiar with the history of the sights we will be seeing. A few nights ago Ralph watched American Treasure with them again and that really whetted their appetites. Katie is wanted to sneak up the back steps like they did in the movie and touch the Liberty Bell. 
All is well thus far. We'll be leaving tomorrow morning for Baltimore which is where we are ministering on Sunday. It's about a 7 hour drive from here, not too bad, but we'll sure be appreciating those tvs for the car on this trip.
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Apr. 17, 2006 - Preparing for our northern trip
Well, we're getting ready to hit the road again in a couple of days- this time for a week and a half. I wasn't really looking forward to this trip up north until Ralph and I sat down yesterday and discussed the places we were going to be able to visit. It looks like we'll get to spend a day in Philidalphia, a day in New York, and another in Baltimore. The sites we hope to hit are the Liberty Bell, Betsy Ross's house, Ben Franklin's grave, the Statue of Liberty, Ground Zero, the Empire State Building, and Fort McHenry (of the Star Spangled Banner). What great field trip opportunities! I bought Katie a wonderful travel journal for Christmas with this trip in mind, and as we were discussing it last night Faith said she wanted one as well. Since I couldn't go buy her one I decided to look online and found this wonderful printable site.
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/books/vacationmemory/
I printed a book for her with journaling pages for every day of the trip. It's actually much like Katie's as far as content goes, so this will be a great resource for later trips as well. I also printed off some short information pages and activity pages (coloring sheets, word searches, etc) for the places we will be visiting. These will help give some background information and also provide some entertainment on the long car rides. I also dug up a little book called History Stories for Children that someone gave me a while back that has some short stories about Betsy Ross, the Star Spangled Banner, early New York City, and the Liberty Bell. These will be great for including Madison and Emily in on our field trips. By bringing along our math books and keeping these journals we will easily be able to accomplish our schooling... geography, writing, history, etc.
Aside from enjoying this cool vacation, we will be ministering in Tennessee, upstate New York, and twice in Baltimore, and Ralph will be attending a ministerial conference in Pennsylvania. There was a neat science/nature center that we visited last time we were staying with our friends in upstate NY, so we may hit that again if there is time. My old college roomate is now living near there as well, so we hope to be able to visit a bit while we are there. We also LOVE spending time in Landcaster, PA which is very close to where Ralph attends his conference. We've done this for a couple of years in a row and the girls always love the Amish buggies and outfits and beautiful farms. We usually check out several Amish books beforehand to give the girls a feel for the culture. Last year Shoefly Girl by Lois Lensky was our favorite.
I'll make attempts to blog along the way as we travel and hopefully we'll have a memorable, educational, safe next couple of weeks on the road!
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Apr. 12, 2006 - Staying busy
This week is speeding along. My sisters and I have been helping my mom out since she is barely able to move after her foot surgery. We've been going over and doing some housework and cooking and trying to keep her spirits up. Today I wrote out a menu for the next couple of weeks and did the grocery shopping and arranged a schedule for all of us to rotate making them dinner. I made my famous spaghetti carbonara for them tonight before I left. Yum! It's been nice being able to help them out after all that they've done for us over the years. I'm an acts of service person anyway, so this is right in my element!
In spite of being gone every day we've still managed to keep up with the basics in our schoolwork. Luckily Katie has finished up her Explode the Code (phonics) and reading comprehension for the year, so that's two less subjects to worry about. Faith is doing well reading on her own, so now that's just practice practice practice. She's almost finished with her Explode the Code as well for the year. Madison is hopping along with her Adventures in Phonics and new basic skills workbook. All is well. We will continue to work lightly during the summer, after our "official" 180 days are up, to maintain skills and strengthen weak areas before starting up anew in August. It makes it much easier to not stress over slight detours, like helping out with family, when I know that we aren't bound to a rigid school calendar.
I'm doing some final tweaking of my curriculum purchase list for next year. We'll have to be ordering in the next month or so in order to get everything shipped on time before we move. The current plan is...
Emily Pre-K
Rod and Staff preschool workbook set
Before the Code A-C books
Five in a Row
Madison 1st
Abeka math 1
Explode the Code 2 & 3
Helping Your Child with Maps and Globes
Five in a Row
Building Thinking Skills 1
Faith 3rd
Abeka math 3
Explode the Code 6 & 7
Rod and Staff English 3
Writing Strands 3
Spelling Power
Developing Reading Power 3
Building Thinking Skills 1
Katie 5th
Abeka math 5
Rod and Staff English 5
Writing Strands 3
Spelling Power
Developing Reading Power 5
Building Thinking Skills 2
English from the Roots Up
Rod and Staff bible
Katie and Faith together
Complete Book of Maps and Geography
Mystery of History 1
Considering God's Creation
Christian Kids Explore Biology
10 Girls Who... devotional series
Drawing Textbook
This year is looking more textbook oriented than this Charlotte Mason, Ruth Beechick, Raymond Moore lover would like, but each year brings it's own changes and we adapt. Knowing that Ralph and I will be in class for several hours each morning in language school, and that I'll most likely be pregnant during this time, makes using the texts where they can work more independently a real plus. Each year brings it's own changes and challenges, and I love that we can school accordingly.
As I've been looking through their portfolio folders and pulling out work and pictures to include for the year, I'm amazed once again at how much they've seen and done and how far they've come. It's so hard to believe that another year is almost over! I don't think I ever even completed scrapbooking their portfolios for last year! That will be a project to work on while Ralph is in Peru in a few weeks. Every year I keep a folder of work samples and pictures and pamphlets, and then at the end of the year I write up a year end summary and put it all together nicely in their gigantic portfolio notebooks. Katie's is already filled to overflowing, so I don't know how I'll get another year in! I've thought about making a different smaller notebook for each year, but with all our moving coming up they would be much harder to keep up with. I guess we'll just do some tight squeezing... or make an Elementary Years Part 2 volume!
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Apr. 9, 2006 - Good grief! What a day!
Well, Ralph is in Memphis and my supposedly peaceful girls weekend here at home has been about anything BUT! Yesterday I spent the day at my parent's house making some meals for my mom. She's barely able to move around with a walker since her foot surgery, much less cook, so we're trying to help out. It was a nice visit and the kids enjoyed playing outside with everyone. By the time we got home I just threw on some fish sticks for supper and we watched a movie.
After supper Emily began to moan about feeling sick. She ended up throwing up about 10 times during the night, and since I kept her in my room with me that meant I didn't go to sleep until around 4am. 
I was awake in time for church and I know how much the other girls hate to miss when we are at home, so I got everyone up and ready and we were off. Unfortunately in my haste I locked myself out of the house. Great. 
So we're off to church and I plan to get ahold of our landlord afterward to get a key. On the way to church Emily threw up all over her clothes. Then in the middle of church the children's workers brought Faith to me saying she was feeling sick. Ugh. We had a quick lunch with my sister and brother in law, stopped by the landlord's to pick up a key, and Faith managed to throw up on the way home. 
Thankfully the afternoon has been a bit better. I've done many loads of laundry, including all the bedding from last night. Yuck. I was able to take it easy and read while Gracyn took a nap and the girls watched a movie. Everyone seems to be feeling ok for the moment, so hopefully we've seen the last of this bug. Ralph called this afternoon and said he won't be home until Monday or Tuesday night...coward 
. For the moment I'm glad that at least I don't have to worry about making any big meals. I still haven't had the time to go do our grocery shopping for the week. If the fish sticks were a hit last night, the kids are thrilled about the smoothies that will be gracing the table tonight. 
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Apr. 9, 2006 - 7 Daughters
7 Girls
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Apr. 9, 2006 - Family Picture
Our Family
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Apr. 6, 2006 - Change of plans...
Well, we're still here in the sunshine state! The meetings went very well again last night and the pastor asked us to stay another night. He actually wanted us to continue through Sunday, but Ralph has another committment. As it is now we will drive home tomorrow and he'll drop us off and keep going part of the way to Memphis. The people have been wonderful and we've really enjoyed ourselves and the opportunity to be a part of what God is doing in the lives in this church.
Because of my limited wardrobe I did some quick shopping this morning. For once everything was going my way! I needed a short little black shirt that ties is front to go over a burgandy sleveless dress I have. After much looking at Walmart I found exactly what I was looking for on clearance for $3! Yeah! Then I went over to Goodies to just see what they had. I found an ADORABLE pink floral little dress that I absolutely fell in love with marked down from $36 to $9! I also got a cute little yellow and white sundress for about the same price. It has spaghetti straps, so I'll need to get a little top to go over it, but still a wonderful deal!
Ralph is in the pool with the girls now while I do some laundry here at the hotel. He's got to have clean clothes packed up tonight so that he can leave immediately tomorrow. It's been a busy, full week and it will be nice to get back home, but I'm so glad we got to be here and a part of this.
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Apr. 5, 2006 - Final day in Florida
This is our last day of meetings here in Florida. Our service last night was just amazing. I led worship and then Ralph got up to begin preaching, but people were still just worshiping and praying, so he stepped aside and waited to see what God was doing. After a few minutes I went back up and began worship again. He opened the alters for ministry and that ended up going for another hour or so. When he finally felt a release to begin preaching he just told the story of Amy Charmichael and spoke about abandoning your life to God. It was a powerful service and we have been so blessed to be here and a part of what God is doing this week. Ralph's Aunt Jenny and Uncle Bill drove down for the service and we went out to eat afterward. It wasn't what they expected I'm sure, but they seemed to appreciate the service and we had a nice time of fellowship afterward.
The girls are getting a bit tired and grumpy from all the late nights and change of schedule, but they are having a good time. Last night during the service the children got to go watch the newly released Narnia movie and they really enjoyed that. They'll get to finish that tonight, so they're excited. A family from the church has invited us to their house for a steak dinner before the service. Everyone has been so wonderful to us. Ralph and I have talked so many times about how blessed we are to get to be together as a family, see so much of the country, meet so many wonderful people, do the ministry that we so love, and actually be able to support the family financially through it all!
Tomorrow we'll be hitting the road and it will be nice to be back home. We've gotten at least some of our homeschooling done, so we haven't gotten too behind, and we'll just catch the rest up when we get back. I'm so thankful that I'm free this coming weekend. We'll be getting home Thursday night and Ralph has to leave Friday for Memphis and won't be home until Monday. Whew. The girls and I will go rent a bunch of girl movies and get some fun, easy food and relax! They've really been wanting to see the Felicity American Girl movie and the third installment from the Love Comes Softly series. We also REALLY need to finish up Swiss Family Robinson! When the family celebrated their one year anniversary on the island, Katie said it felt like we'd been reading the book for that long as well. 
Mom had surgery on a broken foot today so we'll also get to go spend some time with her as she recouperates. It should be a nice weekend.
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Apr. 4, 2006 - Unexpected blessing
All is rolling along here in Florida. We're all a little tired, but getting into a bit of a routine. We had breakfast this morning, did most of our school work, went to the pool while Ralph studied for tonight, then back to the room for lunch and Gracyn's nap. I think I'll take the girls back to the pool after I finish working online while the baby is asleep, because chasing her around the pool may be better exercise, but it's not quite as fun as actually getting to swim myself.
The meeting last night went very well. We are having some powerful alter services and people are really being ministered to. The pastor and his wife had dinner for us in the fellowship hall before services... lasagna, salad, garlic bread, and for desert my FAVORITE caramel pie! YUM! I was getting depressed about my limited wardrobe since I lost my weight and everything is too loose. At this rate I might just work my way back in to it all! 
As the pastor's wife and I were discussing homeschooling and curriculum, she mentioned that she began by using Konos, but was now straight Abeka. Since I first started even looking into homeschooling I've wanted to get my hands on a Konos manual because it sounds so cool. Here's their link. www.konos.com Anyway, I asked her if she would bring it for me to look over during our time here. She brought it last night and told me to just keep it! Yahoo! 
I love what we will be using for next year already, but it will be wonderful to supplement with or do a unit here and there for a change of pace. Isn't it cool how God knows our desires and blesses us in ways that we would never expect?
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Apr. 3, 2006 - Meetings in Florida
Greetings from sunny Florida! 
We've had a fabulous trip so far. On Saturday Ralph's Aunt Jenny and Uncle Bill treated us to a really cool field trip to the Okefenokee Swamps! We saw the alligators up close and personal, which the kids just loved.
We did the open train ride through the swamps and then the boat ride. There was even a little baby alligator swimming in front of the boat at one point, not to mention the monsters that we rode right past. Then we saw a reptile show where the girls got to touch live snakes and baby alligators... except Katie who was being a chicken and wouldn't get close to any of them! 
It was a wonderful field trip to add to our portfolio for the year! I took a roll of pictures so I hope we got some good shots.
The meetings here in Florida went very well yesterday and they will continue through Wednesday night. The accomidations have been unbelievable. We're staying at the Country Inn and Suites where we have an indoor pool, hot tub, gym, and today we upgraded to a suite so that the girls even have their own room. Yes! 
The pastor and his family took us to Steak and Shake for dinner last night, so we didn't get back to the hotel until 11:00. We had such a nice time visiting together. They have 4 children and homeschool, so we had a lot in common and really enjoyed fellowshiping with them.
This morning we had breakfast here at the hotel and then I took the girls swimming for about an hour... until I got tired of chasing Gracyn around the pool. Whew. I bought some of those cool little microwavable macaroni and cheese pouches for the kids to eat for lunch, and now that Gracyn is down for a nap we'll get some schooling in before leaving for services this evening.
Madison has broken out in a rash that I think is probably poison ivy or oak since she was playing in the cut grass just before we left home. She's taking benedryl and I'm using Calamine lotion to cut down the itching. It's not too bad most of the time, but I sure don't want to see her spread it all over. I'm hoping the chlorine in the pool will help dry it up quickly.
Oh yeah, you know all those crazy, unrealistic things you fear? Well last night one of them became a freak reality. Ralph was getting out of the car and dropped his keys down the storm drain. 
Luckily I had my set of keys with me. This morning he got some help from some men working outside and they managed to recover them. I have always feared doing that. I even grip my keys extra tightly when crossing over something like that in case they should decide to jump for it. Now I know my fears were not as crazy as they seemed. Hmmmm.... now I wonder if I left the oven on back home....
That's all the news from here at the moment. We've been so blessed already this week and so many people at the church have been ministered to, so I feel like we've got a great week ahead!
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Mar. 31, 2006 - At last! Haircut success!!!!
We set out early this morning and had an uneventful drive down to Valdosta. On the way Ralph informed me that I needed a haircut. Now this means I have hit the dead level bottom of how bad my hair is looking. I NEVER get my hair cut... the last attempt was self inflicted out of desperation at Thanksgiving. So I went and had it cut with Aunt Jenny this afternoon and I can't express my thrill, my joy, my wonder over FINALLY getting a fantastic haircut! I kept the length with lots of short layers cut in. Just thought I share my elation. I'd better record this day for posterity, since with my history the chances of getting a cut this good again are dim. Yippee and happy dance!
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