What a weekend me and my son had. We went to an Answers in Genesis Creation Seminar. We met Ken Ham and Buddy Davis. What a blessing it was to hear Ken and his new associate Jason speak on proof that God made the universe and to hear Buddy sing about it. If you have never been to a creation seminar for AiG you need to find and go. I learned so much this weekend. Not just Biblical but science wise to. Ken explained One Race not the many people think we have. Jason spoke on the universe and the vastness of God's creation. We talked about dinosaurs and how they are mentioned in the Bible. They are called behemoth and monster because the word dinosaur was not made until 1841. We spoke of how all living things before sin eat vegetation and nuts not meat. Therefore it was not a problem for dinosaurs and man to be living together. Once Adam sinned and everything was cursed then we had meat eaters where they once we all vegetarians. How neat to think about. And then the flood of Noah came. You might ask how did Noah get dinosaurs on the ark? Well he did not have to take full grown ones for this trip. Babies and teenagers would work just fine. After all some the biggest dinosaurs came from the smallest eggs. And why was the ark so big? Because there was room for other people too. Noah stayed with the ark door open for a week and no one else came. So God closed the door and the flood came. We learned about genetics and the color of our skin and the color of Adam and Eve's skin. It was so neat. I could never tell you all I learned. You have to experience it for yourself.

The Creation Musuem is opening next year. Everyone should plan on going. It is a days drive from 2/3rds of the country and days flight from 80%. Go to www.answersingenesis.org to check out everything and see if a seminar is coming near you. I just cannot say enough how much of a blessing it was for me and my son at this seminar. They had a free session for the kids and also a pay workshop to keep them occupied. But my son also did the regular seminars and gleaned much from them. He really loved the stars and planets that Jason spoke of. The pictures were great. And Buddy Davis. Oh how we love to hear him sing. I love the Platapus song and Soar and Daniel and the Lion's Den.  Well I must close for now. I hope if you get the chance to go to a seminar or the museum next year you will go. Blessings to all.

Even though I do not know who wrote this originally I surely do like it. On Tuesday I had a eye appointment. I need bi-focals. But anyway when it said occupation on the form I wrote SAHHSM. It caught the doctor's eye. He had to ask. So I told him what it stood for. He seemed impressed we had an acromnym for it. LOL Just thought I would share that little story. Enjoy the story below. I am sure most of us read it before.   This ladies we can add to our new resumes going out ...  Just A Mom ?  A woman, renewing her driver's license at the  Motor Vehicle's office, was asked by the clerk to  state her occupation.  She hesitated, uncertain how to classify  herself. "What I mean is," explained the clerk, "do  you have a job or are you just a...?"  "Of course I have a job," snapped the woman.  "I'm a Mom."  "We don't list 'Mom' as an occupation,  'housewife' covers it," said the clerk emphatically.  I forgot all about her story until one day I  found myself in the same situation, this time at our  own Town Hall.  The Clerk was obviously a career woman,  poised, efficient and possessed of a high sounding  title like, "Official Interrogator" or "Town  Registrar."  "What is your occupation?" she probed.  What made me say it? I do not know. The words  simply popped out.  "I'm a Research Associate in the field of  Child Development and Human Relations.  The clerk paused, ball-point pen frozen in  midair and looked up as though she had not heard  right. I repeated the title slowly emphasizing the  most significant words.  Then I stared with wonder as my pronouncement  was written in bold, black ink on the official  questionnaire.  "Might I ask," said the clerk with new  interest,"just what you do in your field?"  Coolly, without any trace of fluster in my  voice, I heard myself reply, "I have a continuing  program of research, (what mother doesn't) in the  laboratory and in the field,(normally I would have  said indoors and out).  I'm working for my Masters, (the whole darned  family) and already have four credits (all  daughters). Of course, the job is one of the most  demanding in the humanities, (any mother care to  disagree?) and I often work 14 hours a day (24 is  more like it).  But the job is more challenging than most run-of-the-mill  careers and the rewards are more of a satisfaction rather than just  money."  There was an increasing note of respect in the  clerk's voice as she completed the form, stood up  and personally ushered me to the door.  As I drove into our driveway, buoyed up by my  glamorous new career, I was greeted by my lab  assistants -- ages 13, 7, and 3.  Upstairs I could hear our new experimental  model, (a 6 month old baby) in the child development  program, testing out a new vocal pattern.  I felt I had scored a beat on bureaucracy! And  I had gone on the official records as someone more distinguished and  indispensable to mankind than "just another Mom."  Motherhood! What a glorious career! Especially  when there's a title on the door.  Does this make grandmothers "Senior Research  associates in the field of Child Development and  Human Relations" and great grandmothers "Executive  Senior Research Associates"?  I think so!!!! I also think it makes Aunts  "Associate Research Assistants."  Please send this to another Mom, Grandmother,  Aunt, and other friends you know.  May your troubles be less, your blessings be  more and nothing but happiness come to you.

Hey Everyone,

How is your Thursday going/ Mine is great so far. I have finished my Awana work for this week. And my son is finishing up his bible study on Joseph God's Superhero. We will start a new study on Monday. And will be doing our first chemistry experiments today. We are going to make Physllium slime. Oh what fun.

Any way I found the neatest gadget the other day at Barnes and Noble. We were getting ready to check out. You know all the good stuff is by the check outs. Well any way I looked down on the book mark rack and saw a timer book mark that is so simple to use a child could do it. So I bought one in green for my son. Now he can time his own reading without using the stove timer and mark his place too. What will they come up with next? I love a good gadget. It is my down fall. They call this thing the Digital Book Mark. Says it all don't you think.

Well that is my thoughts for this really great Thursday. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Tanya

Hello out there in blog land.

I thought I would jot down a few lines of upcoming events. We are going to be so busy the few months. We of course will be doing school that is a give me. He is doing so well. And I am so proud of him. Sometimes I worry because some things seem to come to him so easily. Then I go over board trying to make sure he has it and he has it of course. One day I might lighten up as my dh says to me. But I worry with our world out there becoming more and more competitive that he will have what he needs to succeed in what he wants to be. Enough on that. Our schedule is full and fun. We of course have bowling twice a week. That is great fun. Last Friday I bowled 132--156--141. I was very pleased with myself. Ds bowled a 78--84--83 all his games were good but could have been better. His average is 98. It will be a pin to two lower next week. Our homeschool group this week is Geo Caching. That is so fun. If  you have not tried it yet check it out. www.geocaching.com We have had a blast doing this as a group outing. On the 28th of Jan I have a bowling tournament and ds has a TnT Sleep over at the church. TnT is the Awana group for boys in the 3-6 grades. TnT stands for Truth n Training. He loves Awana and learning about God. He is looking forward to this guys party at the church. I hope he really enjoys himself. In Feb we going to a Ken Ham seminar in Rocky Mt NC. I love his seminars. If you are not familar with Ken Ham you can check him out at www.AiG.org That is Answers in Gensis. He is a creationist. And they are building a creation museum in Kentucky. shoudl b open in 2007 I think. I cannot wait to go. And if you go the site be sure to check out Buddy Davis. I love his songs and singing. He is great with the kids. Then after that we are going to visit the Grandparents. That is are winter treat. This year we will be able to do minimal book schooling and really enjoy the museums and tour spots in Florida and South Carolina. Oh the fun I see us having.

That covers us for the next few months. Hope eveyone is enjoying the New Year. May yours be a blessing to you and yours.

Tanya

    Well it was just last year the last time I blogged. Happy New Year everyone. ihope you Christmas was a great one. Ours was nice, however we both wish Dad could have come home. He was in Hong Kong taking supplies back and forth to Kuwait for the soldiers.

    With this being a new year I have made a few changes to our schooling. I have adjusted my son's studies a little. He is doing a neat little book for spelling to fill in the rest of the school year. It is put out by Publications International. It is called Spelling Made Easy. When he finishes this one he will do one called Punctuation Made Easy. That should finish our year out for spelling. I bought both of them a few months back at Wal-Mart. I think he will like not having a spellling test all the time. But next year we will begin in Aug with our usual spelling. This way we can end at the end of the year instead of the middle. We will also be doing a few different lap book subjects. I found some by Hands of a Child I am looking forward to doing them with him. We will start with the one for Narnia. It looks like great fun. I hope to start it next week.

    I had  my grandson for a few days over the holiday. That was great. I just found out that he thinks I do a lot of school work. He has done school with us when PS was closed and he was here. He no longer thinks my son (his uncle) does not go to real school. I am not sure if he thought we just played all day or what but he no longer thinks that. He knows that Steven does real school work. It is so funny when other kids realize that homeschool is school not playing or watching TV all day. He is also very proud of himself because in one afternoon he mastered telling time on a clock with hands. He could do it on LED clocks but not analog. He had to show off to mom when she came to get him. And that day he learned to do money word problems. He is so proud that he can do it. What a joy that was to see. Now if we could just get him to sit still for 2 minutes.HAHA. He is off to a new building today. It is a nice looking building with a gym. The kids should love the newness of it for the rest of the year. I will get to see it up close tomorrow when I take him to school.

    I hope everyone finds their new year to filled with blessings and joy. I hope to get over here on a more regular basis for writing. If anyone would like to be friends I would love to have someone to share blogs with. Let me know. Well will write again soon.

Tanya HS mom

   Merry Christmas to all you out in cyber land. I hope your Christmas will be a merry one and filled with family and friends all around you. We will be a little short of family this year but not on love.

   I really have to tell you about the awesome site we saw the other Saturday morning going to bowling. We were traveling down 46 and came across this wonderful example of God gives everything we or the animals need. There in the fields on each side of the road were 1000's of birds. I mean 1000's of birds stopping for a snack. But when we looked up into the sky there were 1000's more flying in a string of a group. It was such a site. And to know that God gave them the know-how to fly south in the winter, where to stop for food and rest and when to continue on. It was so awesome and the string of birds seemed endless in both directions. We were passing by at just the right time to see them. Because a week later they were mostly gone. NO huge flocks of them on the ground or NO huge stream of birds in the sky. But it was so neat that morning.

   I then thought about how God takes care of the birds and how much more he does for us. If we just let go and let God. It reminded me a new song I just heard not to long ago. It talked about "Jesus take the wheel" If we only would just Him take the wheel, the riegns, the pilot seat, the drivers seat what ever way you wish to say it. Just let Him lead how much better things would be for all of us.

   It is so amazing what a lesson a flock of birds can teach.

   I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. May God take the wheel and drive.

Hello Everyone,

   Let me tell you what all we have been doing of late. I have almost finished remodeling our classroom. I only have the window trim left to do do and add curtains of course. We were having school at the kitchen table for a few weeks. What a miss that was after being in a whole room for so long. And my computer at the kitchen counter what fun that was. But we are now back in our room and that is great. Here is what we did. I painted the walls a real pretty yellow. My son picked out the color. It is called Summer Camp. It brights our whole room. I pulled up the carpet and put down peel and stick wood grain flooring with new trim at the base. I took down the closet door to make the room feel more light and not so weighted down. I put up a green curtain today to see what it would do and I think I like it  there. But may change the style not sure on that yet. I put posters all around where my son's desk is at. He has a world map, the brain, the flower parts, measuring, lungs, presidents, periodic table, time line for 1600 to 1850 the years we are studying now,roots, water, air,north america. Alot of things to look at. I also built new shelves for the closet to house all the school books. They turned out great, even if I do say so myself. I will upload pictures of the shelves and the room for everyone to see. I am still trying to figure out exactly where everything will go. Will probably change that 2 or 3 times before I make a final decision. Well enough on the new digs.

 We are getting ready for workshops with our homeschool group. This year is something new and exciting- we are doing seminars of health and safety. We have someone coming in to talk about heart health and diabetes, and water safety, exercise safety, personal safety, police, dental hygeine, and food safety. Our workshops are this week. We are hoping the kids will have a great time.

 Thanksgiving is two weeks away. I thnk this year we will go out to eat. Unless Jim makes it home from Japan. We will have to wait and see on that one. Hope everyone is has great plans with family on Thanksgiving.

Well I am going to get back to my other work. Everyone have a great day.

Tanya

     Thought I would stop by and write a line or two. We just had our Opening Picnic for our homeschool group. We had a light turnout but should have plenty of members sign up via mail. We have great things planned for this year. So I am thinking it will be great fun for all.

      School for us is going great so far. He is learning cursive/penmanship. I am so proud of him. It is coming along so well and it is helping his handwriting tremdeously. I should have done this first.

       We have not found any great critters in our yard. But we also have not really looked of late. Between all his other activities starting up we  have not had time for critter hunting.

        I also have not had a lot of time to write myself. I have so many additional activities myself with this school year. I am ashamed to say I have not had a lot of time to read others on the blog either. I am hoping to do some reading today.

        Thanks for reading this all over the place blog.

Tanya

Hello everyone,

     Thought I would drop a line or two and fill everyone in on my life as of late. Well my oldest stepdaughter married her love on the 6th of Aug. They should be returning from their honeymoon tonight. I pray they have a long and happy life together. She deserves it. My parents were here for it and we had a great visit. The wedding was beautiful.

     Well on Monday we start our school year. I think my son is looking forward to starting school again. And to tell the truth so am I. So this weekend I have been doing some last minute "getting my thoughts together". And printing some things for us to do. We have our first field trip on Thursday, we are going to the zoo for the day. It should be great fun. And then next week we will have a swim day.

      I am looking forward to our homeschool group meetings this year. We have some really great things planned for outings. We are going to do a think called GeoCash. It should be great fun. And we are going to Jamestown/Yorktown in VA for a field trip in the spring. We will be playing soccer and basketball and field days.

      As for school we get to do chemistry this year. I am looking forward to that. I hope he likes it. We will be making, mixing, and blowing things up with great fun I hope.

     I am going to close for now I have a few more things to get in order for Monday morning. Have a great end of summer everyone.

Tanya

Well Hello Everyone,

  We just finished our week of VBS. It was great. We learned all about Creation and dinosaurs place in the bible and the timeline. Crafts were a big success. I am so happy that things went well and the kids had a blast in crafts. Since this was my first year doing them. We had about 115 kids each morning for VBS. That is grades PK through 6. At night we had about 38 for grades 7-12. What a turn out we had. We are expecting up that by at least 50 kids for the PK -6 for next year and dividing our classes up. That will mean we will be running 2 craft rooms next year. I have already had my mind running for things to do. Our theme next year will be Noah and the Flood.

  My son and grandson had a great time at VBS. They learned alot of stuff. My son told me about the timeline and how Adam an Eve and the dinosaurs all hung out together in the Garden of Eden.He was so excited. My grandson has been evolutionized at school already. So he needs more convincing. I am working on that one with God's help and grace he will see that light also.

  I hope everyone is having great fun this summer. We had a great visit on Monday with some kids visiting from the Ukrane. They are here getting some checkups and getting away from radiation that surrounds their villages. They live near Cherobal. I think they had a great time swimming in the Lake with us. They were towed around on water toys and swam and took in some fun in the sun. What a blessing it was to give them some fun.

  Well that is all for now so I will close. Have a blessed day.

Tanya

Well I just a little scare on the back deck. I went out to check our small pool for tadpoles and on my way decided to clean off a cob web that was there in the corner. And to my surprise was a "thing" on the porch so I wacked it with the mop I was using to clean webs. When I lifted it up I realized it was a baby bat. This thing is only about 2 inches long. I think I killed it when I wacked it though. I called my son out to take a close up look at one. We have only seen pictures. It's fingers were so tiny. And its little face was so small. But it was neat to get to look so close at one. My son just went to look at it and said it had moved it head from the way I put it down so maybe I did not kill it after all. Will have to let you know if it is gone come dusk tonight. I hate to think I hurt it. But I wacked it before I realized what it was.

Oh I was able to see our hawk yesterday. It was perched on my clothes line. So I took a few pictures of it and when I get them developed I will add them to my site. He is not red he is brown with white. But oh so beautiful to see. My favorite bird is hawk. I have always loved them. They are great birds. Well enough for now. Will update the bat live when we find out if it is dead or alive later.

Have a blessed day.

Tanya

PS  The bat died. My son was a little upset that I killed it. I explained to him that was not my intention. I told him there were probably more in the yard somewhere eating up all are mosquitos for us. He seemed okay with that. But still sad that that one died.

Hey Everyone,

We have been so busy as of late. My son had his 8th birthday party on the 18th. What a day we had with family and friends at the lake. He recieved everything he wanted and then some. We ate hot dogs and hamburgers and had cake of  course. Spent about 8 hours at the lake swimming and eating and hanging out together.

We have a new addition to backyard animals. We now have beautiful red colored hawk gracing our yard. I saw him two days ago for  the first time. He is gorgeous. Our hummingbirds are still coming to eat everyday. I am so amazed at how small they are. It is so great to see them in my window everyday.

I must tell you also about our brasen little squirrels. They are now "knocking" on the window when the food is gone. I was walking past the classroom the other day and one of them little gray critters was scratching the window. He looked like he was trying to get in. He had plastered himself up against the window and was looking in as if to say 'feed me'. It was so cute I had to stop what I was going to do and feed them. They are smart little critters.

Our cocoons have not busted out as of yet. But we are watching them with the hope we will be there at the right time. And we have not frog eggs as of yet either. Maybe we put our little pool out to late or we have to wait a little longer. I am not sure which but my son checks often for frog eggs.

Vacation Bible School starts soon. We will be doing the Creation--The First Six Days this year. Our pastor has written all the VBS studies we do. We rotate them, every 7th year we start over again. This is the first one. I can not wait to get to started this year. It is my first year heading up crafts. I am so excited. We will be doing plaster hand prints, painting little wooden men , painting a wooden snake, putting together 2 foam pieces one is Adam and Eve and the apple, the other is a picture frame The Lamb of God. What fun we should have.

Well I will close for now. I have a lot of things to get done and a short time to do in. LOL

Everyone have a blessed day.

Tanya