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Blessings Undreamt Of
Dec. 8, 2009
I really am still here!
I just wanted to check in. Things have been so chaotic around here for the past month or so. I haven't had much time for anything...especially blogging. I do have so much to tell though, so I hope to give you all a real update soon.
Here is a brief overview:
Our guests are no longer with us. LOTS of their belonging s still are.
My hubby is getting more hours at work! Thank you JESUS!
The boys are reading now! YAY!
Sam is growing so fast. She's babbling and grabbing at things. She has been eating cereal from a spoon since 2 months old...it helped a LOT with the reflux. Her appetite is GROWING everyday...and so is she!
Jacob is ALMOST potty trained...but will go stinky in his bedroom floor when he's upset at us.  
There is SO much more. I hope to update you soon!
In Christ,
Shirley
"Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer."(Psalms 19:14) |
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Dec. 7, 2009
Family Advent Activity 7
We had mickey mouse waffles for dinner. It wasn't as easy as it looks though. We all have the flu and mom and dad in particular are feeling pretty ucky. It's really in the chest and the throat. But, Alex has the advent calendar memorized and when I woke up he reminded me that we were having waffles for dinner. Robby stepped up though and made it special for him. As you can see he really likes waffles and enjoyed it immensely. I made the advent calendar about a month ago and I knew some arranging would have to be done and I was right. There was a lot of eating out on there, so I had to change one night and we couldn't make smores because they didn't have graham crackers at Panda. And, since we're sick we'll have to change our riding rides in the mall to a different day this week. It's all part of the fun, right?!!
Next year I would like to do two more different advent calendars. One is called advent with a bite. It's where every day you put money in a jar for things that you have that poor people don't. I think that it will really help the boys appreciate what they have. Especially since they have seen it first hand in India. An example of this is here. I liked another one that encouraged them to do nice little things every day; like give compliments or tell someone thank you. It is a good time for them to reinforce good habits. I this would be a good thing to implement during advent, lent, ramadan, or anytime of the year when you feel like the kids need to appreciate things more. |
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Dec. 6, 2009
Still Waiting
| Still waiting for Grace to make her way into the world. I keep thinking that she's just waiting for me to be able to finish paying the bills, or to get my grocery shopping and laundry done, but nope! Apparently she has her own to-do list to take care of and it has nothing to do with mine. :-) So we wait. In my control-freak-kinda-way, it wears on me because I hate surprises. I want to know exactly when she's coming, so the waiting is killing me! But God is good all the time. He knows what's best for Grace and me. But the next person who tells me that I look like I'm about to pop.......... ;-) |
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Dec. 6, 2009
Advent Activity 6- Writing Letters to Santa
St. Nick came this morning and left candy in all their shoes. They are all still reeling from that and it's almost 10 o'clock at night now. They studied about John the Baptist and learned that he ate locusts with honey and wore clothes with camel hair. It's neat imagining him in the environment we are in. We ate gummy worms and crackers with honey in his honor. We talked about how John the Baptist paved the way for Jesus and how we need to think about how we're going to pave our path to Heaven. We are working on getting along with our brothers better. I have realized that I have hurt the boys by not showing enough enthusiasm for things that they do. I'm definitely going to work on this. I spent some extra time with Justin tonight. He needed the individual attention. We watched the Prince and the Pauper together on Disney. Then, we wrote our Santa Letters. Rob and Robby were doing Aikido, so it was just me and three younger guys. They did a good job on their letters. Connor is a little perfectionist though. he gets quite upset when his letters aren't perfect.
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Dec. 5, 2009
Family Advent Activity 5- McDonald's
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Webcam Willies
Posted By diamondsintherough
Do you know what this is? It belongs to my daughter. It is your window into my world. My un-styled hair, my un-made-up face, the piles on my desk, the mess in my family room, the squabble between sisters in the room beyond. It is the reason why we are now moving the furniture. 
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Dec. 4, 2009
Family Advent Activity- Aikido
Dec. 4, 2009
Alex's Fun Day
Alex has recently found a really good friend. His name is Samir. Samir has lived her for a year, but he doesn't speak very much English. I think that the Halloween Party helped them to get to know each other a little better and now they are inseparable. It is so cute because their personalities are very much alike. Wednesday night Alex told us that Samir was having a birthday party the next day. This was the first time that Alex got to go to a party alone. He felt like a very big boy.
  
He also got to ride a new ride with his brothers at the mall: 
We've also been having fun with our advent calendar. I have had to hide them at times though because I realize we don't have the supplies or we just can't do that certain activity. No one has noticed so far though. We're having a lot of fun. Wednesday we went to the Pizza Company and watched Charlie Brown's Christmas. Yesterday, we looked at the stars, ate oreos, and had hot cocoa. It's a fun time. |
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Friday, December 4, 2009
November in Review
Here it is almost the fourth day of December already as I type. How ever did this week go by without me even thinking of my end of the month post?? Hang on tight, here we go!
You all know we live near Oatman, an old gold mining ghost town. Oatman is right on Route 66, which has a cult following that I don't understand, and there are touristy-type businesses there -- leatherwear shops for motorcycle dudes (and dudesses), junk souvenir shops, old timey general store, etc. Some you don't want your kids going into. Clark Gable and Carol Lombard spent their honeymoon in the local motel, which now boasts a "real" ghost. Behind Oatman is a big quartz rock called the Elephant's Tooth, which was a sure sign to those old gold and silver miners that there was "gold in them thar hills". (And there was! Lots of it! There probably still is.)
Down the hill from Oatman is the home of some good homeschooling friends. They have all sorts of knowledge about fossils, rocks, dinosaur bones, and other interesting inanimate objects, and we were invited to come out and explore the desert floor for quartz crystals (probably the babies of the Elephant's Tooth) and other treasures. Wish I'd taken some photos of the crystals. The "keepers" are cool -- clear hexagonal finger-like things. Word has it that there are also opals and other gemstones, but we only know what they look like in their polished forms. Gemstone identification books aren't too helpful that way. 
The girls watched some Moody science DVD's. ( Please Mom? They're educational!) We aren't big on movies, but we have a select few: Picture Proverbs, The Lone Ranger, and just recently, Time Changer. That's a good one! A long while ago I ordered the VHS format Moody science series from LES, because they were so cheap -- $2 each! -- I could not pass them up. Even though we don't have a TV or a video-tape player. Was that a dumb impulse buy or what? Could you pass them up for that price? These DVD's were on loan from a generous friend.
We were invited to a Pampered Chef party. I coveted, but I didn't buy anything. I had to go for two reasons: one, because I love my friend who held the party. And two, because Amy loves anything to do with cooking! She got to try her hand at making baklava. It turned out soooo good!  Thanks, Sarah!
We acquired some tennis racquets and hit some balls. (Look at that. Try using two "cqu" words in the same sentence! Am I a homeschooler or what?)
Amy got up at dawn to photograph the sunrise, and settled for the moon-set instead.
We ate some really good food!
The girls made some beautiful music. Alison practices, but the rest of them don't. Amy plays, but she doesn't practice. I would say she fiddles around, but that would be a better pun for a violin player, hee hee. Just think what she could do if she would work at it! Actually, these are Alie's hands. I don't have any pics of her this month. She must have been busy with NaNo.
I sewed a wild nightie for Amy.
We played in the park with some fun cousins.
We had a fun family Thanksgiving with more cousins, and pasta in the park. (It's a lot easier to do than a turkey!)  We got home on Thursday, but my turkey was still frozen. So we had our own immediate family celebration on Friday. We keep a book of remembrance, in which we write each year the things we are thankful for during the previous year. My devotional reading that day had to do with the nine lepers who didn't return to thank the Lord Jesus for healing them, and I realized I am like them! I sure do enjoy the blessings of the Lord, as I am sure those lepers enjoyed their new cleanness. I even remember to mention them in our book. But did I actually thank the Lord for those blessings? Ah, yet another revelation of my own shortcomings. Thanking God (literally) for his longsuffering.
Monocogman climbed the mountain. Here is a little piece of his artwork.
Kind of makes me think of this:
Kind of creepy, don't you think? *shudders*
Otherwise this month it was school as usual... on the days we did school... why don't I just officially declare myself an unschooler and be done with the pressure? lol! PlainJane introduced us to Your Business Math Series, which has been a very nice break in the math routine for my two hands-on kids. We have a book store and a pet store, both of which are making a nice profit for their student owners. Also, finally admitting to myself that I am NOT organized enough at this time in my life to put together my own first grade curriculum for Emily, I ordered math, reading, social studies, and science Light Units from CLP. MUCH better. She also acquired a new tutor, her big sister, Alison. Emily has decided school is fun after all. Thank the Lord for sweet big sisters and for CLP!
I was asked to write a review for SpellQuizzer, which I am currently testing on Emily. She loves it. That review will be forthcoming.
OH, one last thing, I figured out how to make lots of money blogging. I'll have to up the rate to about $5 an hour, though. My kids have more money than I do. 
Okay, all done with "November With Amy". I'll have to highlight one of my other kids next time!
O give thanks unto the LORD;
for he is good:
because his mercy endureth for ever.
Psalm 118:1
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Dec. 3, 2009
Holiday lessons
Posted By Debbie
For the 3 weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas we decided to make a bit of a change in what we were learning. Typically we focus strongly on basics but miss art and history. Kids have been doing lots of Christmas art projects, and we have been focusing on family, biblical, and US History. The kids really enjoyed the family history projects as they got to send homework to their grandparents. For Biblical history we focused on putting several important stories in timeline order. We are currently working on US history. It has been interesting to me that both of my older kids know about the same stuff. It is evident that we have learned together. Tomorrow we will be going to the library for more books. I love what we learn through stories.
I am sure the librarian cringes when we get to the checkout desk with 30 or 40 books every two weeks, but reading those books is such an important part of our routine. It is so neat to see my kids love reading.
One of our bedtime stories tonight was D.W.'s Guide to Perfect Manners. I am not particularly fond of D.W. in the Arthur series, but this book was a good behavior reminder. Kids were quick to point out what they were doing well on and what they struggled with. I may have to have them memorize the book. |
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