We had another birthday today!  B is 10 years old!  Here are a few pictures of my cutie pie.

Brand new.  How 'bout that hair!:

8 months:

3 years old, camping in Yosemite:

Age 3 years:

6 years old:

7 years old:

Ten years old!  Getting a Build a Bear puppy whom he named Dusty: 

Our youngest got baptized today!  She is 7 years old, and she decided to follow Jesus in August.  Almost right away she asked about being baptized all on her own.  So when our church announced the first baptism day since then, we signed her up.  She went to a class to make sure she understood that it wasn't being baptized that saves you, only Jesus can do that.  But it is an outward symbol of becoming a Christian, and obedience to God.  So here are a couple of pictures.

Going down....

 Coming up, a new beginning!

I have been a Mom for over 14 years now.  A young mom recently asked me if it gets easier.  It  made me realize just how much my family has changed.  In the first 7 years, I had 5 babies. By the time our youngest was born, the children were 7, 5, 3, & 2.  I changed diapers constantly for almost 10 years.  I was either nursing or pregnant for 10 years!  We started our homeschool. 

2002:

Look at that mischievous face! Still the same after all these years!

In the next 7 years, we moved to another area.  We bought our first house.  We have 5 kids in school.  We have a highschooler!  The kids are now 14, 13 (there have been a few birthdays), 11, 9 & 7.  Wow. They are a huge help around the house. They are becoming more independent and are learning a lot.  And they love the Lord. We all still have a lot to learn, but we are learning together.

 In 7 more years, they will be 14 - 21!  So I am going to enjoy them more than ever.  When they are young, it feels like we will be a mom of littles forever.  Even now, I can't imagine life without them in my home.  But the time will come when they move on and get their own homes and families.  I can hardly bear the thought.  But with God's help, I will continue to train and prepare them for that time, so that they are strong in the Lord and ready for what God has for them.

Here they are last summer, 2009:

My 9yo son has low muscle tone.  For the past few years, he has received hippotherapy, that is, therapy on horseback.  This year he has graduated to "vaulting".  Vaulting is when they do various moves while the horse is moving.  It is really neat to watch a trained vaulter!  Here are some pictures of my son.  He is just beginning, and a bit scared, but he is getting more used to it every time.

Turning around:

Tadaa!:

We went to the beach in August.  It was cold and foggy, but oh so nice to get out of this heat (it was 101 on the first day of fall).  We stayed three nights and each night my 9yos wanted to go to the beach to see the sunset. But we knew that with the fog  we would not get much of a show.  On the last night, he asked again.  And it happened to be 5 minutes before sunset according to our handy dandy tide book.  Everyone thought it would be too foggy, so just my two youngest and I went.  And this is what we saw.

Chase

Our newest addition to our family.  Chase is a Tibetan Terrier, probably mix.  We expect his hair to grow long, though we won't know for awhile.  We got Chase at the SPCA a few weeks ago.  He had had a hair cut, but we took him to the groomers to get it professionally done and he looks great.  He could really use some training, as he has been chewing on certain clothing items! 

After a trip to the groomer:

A new school year has begun!  We started on August 3.  People ask me why we started so early.  Let me explain.  We live in a not so big city that gets very hot in the summer.  Like over 100 degrees for at least a month.  We took 7 weeks off for our summer break.  We don't have a pool, but we did go swimming at a friend's house several times.  Being that we have moved here from the mild climate of the Bay Area in No. California, the heat is hard to get used to. I get so drained just being out there for 10 minutes!  So we spend a lot of time indoors.  We did go camping, and plan to again next week, to the cool beach, and a few other fun things.  But after awhile, the kids start to go stir crazy and need more structure.  But the biggest reason is that I want to take plenty of time off in the cooler months.  Maybe we will actually go hiking in the mountains, or go for a bike ride.  We school for about 36 weeks, that leaves 17 weeks off in the year.  We plan to take 2 weeks off in Oct, 1 in Nov, 3 in Dec, 2 in Feb/Mar, 2 in Apr.  Then another 6  in the summer again. 

We also changed our daily schedule a bit.  Instead of doing math right after Bible, we are doing spelling, then English, then history or science.  We do math and the other subjects after lunch.  This is a great change and it's so nice to be able to mix things up again to keep it interesting!  We also changed up our school room.  We got rid of the too slow kids' computer and gave that desk to our new high schooler.  She loves having her own place for her books and studies.  Here are a few pics of our first day.

I decluttered the tops of the bookcases using those baskets I got from the .99 store and it is so much better now.  I just have to remember to dust up there now and then!

The eager high schooler!

8th grader:

6th grader:

The 3rd grader:

The eager 2nd grader:

Note: the 3 boys in the middle pics got haircuts today, so they look like boys again! 

We had planted 3 watermelon seedlings in the spring.  We had a few tiny watermelons, but they died before getting very big at all.  We ended up only getting one but it was a good one.  We had no idea when it would be ripe, but it had stopped getting bigger.  The leaves were starting to turn brown/yellow.  So we picked it and it was nice and red and juicy.

The only things left in our garden are tomatoes, mostly cherry, and lots of peppers.  So, lots of salsa for us!

I've been wanting an easel for quite awhile now.  I wanted to be able to prop up books of art like Monet and Van Gogh so the kids can become familiar with them.  I wanted to be able to prop up the white board for demonstrations, or to prop up other educational posters.  I had bought one at the office store.  The legs were made of aluminum, I think.  They were so thin and wobbly.  Clearly, it was meant for a nice calm office with a few calm adults and not a room full of homeschooled kids!  So I took it back before it got broken.  One day last spring, the kids made little table easels at Home Depot in the kids workshop.  I love them!  I can prop up small books on the table now!  Then I went to my friend's house and they had one just like it only bigger!  So I studied it and measured it and bought the supplies.  We finally got it built last weekend!  It wasn't as easy as I thought it would be, a lot of trial and error, but we did it and I love it!  Here it is, being put to good use:

I know I said I wanted to learn or do something new every week.  Ok, so that was a big order.  But, I am doing plenty of firsts this summer, and I will be posting them here. 

The first time I have ever prepared and painted a room! We had to remove the wallpaper, back in March.   Wallpaper Removal

It took a lot more time to scrape off the teeny tiny bits of stubborn wallpaper that you could hardly see, but would mess up a paint job.  I learned about TSP and that helped a lot, getting off more that I hadn't seen!  But, another delay in painting.  Then the taping, buying supplies, picking out paint, and we were finally ready!  Two coats of paint w/ the primer mixed in.  Here are the pictures.  My girls were so happy to get their room back in order.  Their stuff was in the closet for months!

The closet, a little darker shade:

Putting the bed together:

All done!

The purple came out a little darker than I had expected, but they love it.  We will be getting pretty curtains and bedding, and another bed for little sister, too! Probably bunkbeds, as a trundle would take up too much room in there.  It is only about 10 x 7 not counting the closets!

I haven't even posted our Yosemite photos yet, and we are going on another camping trip.  I did make a neat slideshow on Photobucket, and have tried to post it here, on Blogger and Facebook, but it just is not working.  Not only that, but my Nikon is still in the shop.  The good news is, the repair will be covered under the warranty!!  I am soooooo happy about that!  Thankfully, my daughter has a camera so we will at least have that and someday, I'll post pics of this trip.  We are going to Sequoia National Park, our first time ever!  We plan to go see General Sherman, the oldest living Sequoia, about 2000 years old!

I better get to packing, we want to get there before dark!

Last weekend, I went to my first ever homeschool convention.  I can't believe it has taken me nine years since I started homeschooling, to go to one!  It was awesome!  Just being around so many homeschoolers was a great encouragement.  The workshops, with speakers on various topics, were informative, encouraging, funny...  I found some great deals in the used book area.  I got the A Beka Biology set for my high schooler for $12!!  It is about $150 new!  Walking through the vendors was fun and I spent a little more than I had planned, but I pretty much stayed on my list :)  It was very crowded, and  a little difficult maneuvering my small wheeled suitcase around, which  was very helpful in holding all of the books I bought!

What really struck me, was that I had never been with so many homeschoolers before.  And I don't think I  had ever heard speakers talk strictly about homeschooling.  They talked about the trials and joys of homeschooling, and were very encouraging and made me laugh and cry.  If you can ever get to just one homeschool convention, do it! 

Sorry Mom!  :)  I was at my friend L's house last week.  I was watching her make potato salad for her family's camping trip.  When she was done, she offered me a small bowl.  It was sooo good!  For the next several days, I kept thinking about it, practically tasting it. I needed that recipe!!!  So she emailed it to me, and I made it yesterday.  It was a huge bowl of potato salad! DB loved it, too.  We had a little as a midnight snack.  As we were going to bed, he said, "I can't get over that potato salad!" :)   So I thought I'd better share it here.  Sorry, no picture.  You'll just have to make it yourself to see it :)

8-10 red potatoes (medium) or 5-6 russets
Medium onion chopped small  (I used a couple of green onions)
6 hard cooked eggs chopped
6 big dill pickles chopped  (yes, 6! the secret ingredient!)
4-5 stalks celery chopped, small
Squirt around the bowl of mustard J ( approx. 1 Tblsp.)
½ cup mayonnaise or more to make it nice and moist. (I needed more than 1/2 cup)
Salt to taste – start with 2 tsp.  (L used the kind you pick up with your fingers)
Pepper – 1 tsp.
 
Cover potatoes with water and heat to boil.  Cook for approxx. 20 minutes or until soft, but not mushy all the way through.  Pull out and cool on paper towels.  Peel russets, but don’t have to peel red potatoes.  Cube in bowl.  Add all other chopped ingredients, mix in mayo and mustard well.  Add salt and pepper.

Italics mine.

Today, our beloved country is 233 years old!  Such a very young country, but with so much history!  I was telling my kids last night that I remember when we celebrated the Bicentennial way back in 1976.  I was in 8th grade.  I don't remember much except the special quarters with the patriotic symbols on the back.  Can anyone remember what that was without looking? :)  So then we started talking about the Tricentennial.  One of my dear, smart children  asked when that will be, but we won't talk about that :)  They were figuring out how old they will be, and realized that they could possibly be around to celebrate it!!!  (If the Lord hasn't come by then, of course). My oldest will be 81, then 79 (almost 80), 78, 76, & 74. Makes me shudder thinking about them that old!!

Ok, with that, here is our favorite patriotic picture, taken in Sept 2001, about one week after 9/11, while were camping in Mt. Shasta. The giant flag belonged to the campers across from us. 

is broken :(  We were in the kitchen making zucchini fries.  I took a picture of the giant zucchini we were about to butcher.  I layed the camera on the table to show my daughter how to cut it.  I heard a thump and turned around. My camera was on the floor!  Apparently, I had set it on the recipe book we were using and someone, who shall remain nameless, decided to look at the book.  "Someone" didn't see the camera on it and it went flying off the book and table. I tried to turn it on right away, but nothing happened!  I called Costco yesterday and he tried to help me reset it, but that didn't work.  So I am waiting on a call back from Nikon and will probably have to send it in for repairs, which may or may not be covered.  They said it is about a 2 week turnaround.  So, I won't be taking many pictures for awhile.  My daughter has a camera, so I might borrow hers if I need to.  But I do have lots of catching up to do with the pictures I have in my computer.  Here is one of the last pics I took:

 Oh, and the zucchini fries were pretty good.  Next time, I'll use flavored bread crumbs instead of plain.

Well, my youngest one has lost her two front teeth.  I just love how cute they look without those two teeth.  Hopefully, they will grow in nice and straight!

Two very loose teeth:

One gone!  It came out at the park:

A couple of days later, the other one came out:

And here is one of the rose petal necklace we made.  Notice how her tongue is sticking out of her teeth when she smiles? I used to do that :)

Our garden is growing abundantly!  There is so much growth, we are having a hard time reaching the yummy veggies.  But we have been enjoying zucchini, yellow squash, green beans, cucumbers, and finally, a few tomatoes!  Soon, we should have lots & lots of tomatoes as well as various kinds of peppers.  Here are some pics:

Cherry tomatoes:

I have so much to write about, and pics to post.  I will be doing that soon, after I get rested from a week of VBS!

I am just going to list what we've been doing lately.

We went to Yosemite for a week.

Had our last day of school for the year.

We are hamster-sitting for friends.

We are harvesting our growing garden.

We had VBS for a week.  Two of my kids won little stuffed animals for reciting The Lord's Prayer in front of everyone.

Someone lost her two front teeth.

Someone has grown within an inch of me.

It is hot now.

We are getting  ready for someone to start high school (home schooled, still!)

We joined the library's summer reading program.

We have 6 weeks left of summer vacation. (we will take more time off in the cooler months)

I need a  nap.

My 14yo daughter has beautiful long blond curls.  They can be a lot of work, and very hot in the summer months.  So she asked if she could get it cut.  So I got everything ready.  I had the scissors right in her hair, at about the neck.  Then I stopped, and thought, "I wonder if there are 10" here to donate to Locks of Love".  There was.  So we went to the local salon that cuts for free when you donate your hair.  I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

Right about here, I teared up, but thankfully, composed myself :)

That's her pony tail she is holding:

Finishing touches:

Her new look, we love it:

She said she misses her long hair a little, but now she doesn't have to put  it in a pony tail.  And it will always grow back.

Today: