Hubby and I stole a little time to ourselves the other night and attended a concert - My Mom had the boys and we went out to eat (spent a lot of time talking about what the boys were doing) and did not have to get up to take anyone to the bathroom or cut anyone's meat for them - we ate our food while it was hot and did not have to share any bites off our plate!  Kinda nice!  We then went to see Michael W Smith and Steven Curtis Chapman in concert.  They are like our dream team!  MWS was hubby's first Christian music hero and SCC was mine - we love them and have enjoyed growing with them over the years!  It was a great concert - they had so much fun with each other - made fun of each others style choices from the past and sang each others old songs - they spent a great deal of time with each other on stage, but did do their own seperate bits.  We sang our hearts out along with the rest of the audience and it felt like the most awesome praise time you could experience!  We had been lucky enough to see them at Ichthus in years past, but they were not together - I think that made it much more dynamic!  One of the most touching parts of the concert was hearing SCC talk about his daughter that died not quite a year ago - he talked about the dark place he was in for a time after that - questioning God, etc and then he remembered a conversation he had with his dtr (age 5) a few weeks before she died.  She asked her Mom if God really had a big, big house with lots and lots of rooms waiting for her in heaven - Mom said yes - does it have a big, big table with lots and lots of food? - Mom yes - And Mom added - I bet there is a big, big yard where you can play football - her dtr said how did you know that.  We all know that this is the "big house" song, but the dtr was so impressed that her mom knew this - she ended up telling her Dad that she could not wait to go to the big house where she could stay forever.....Their dtr was adopted from China - as it turns out SCC and his charity organization are completing a 6 story facility for special needs orphans in China and SCC will be performing Christian songs at the opening ceromony in communist China - way cool - guess what the name of the facility will be?  Maria's Big House of Hope - I just loved that - Don't we often get slammed with the unbearable - what a great testimony of turning a tragedy around to show God off - If we could all be this blessed! 

I have been trying to make more time for myself to do a little reading before I go to bed..the down side is once I start, I can't stop!  The two books that I have just finished reading  - well, awesome does not describe them.  They have challenged me to think and evaluate.  The first one is "90 Minutes in Heaven".  It is written by Don Piper.   He is a minister that was in a car wreck and pronounced dead on scene...he spent 90 minutes in heaven...he was then discovered to be alive and is telling his story of his time in heaven.  What sticks with me about this book is his inability to find "human/earthly" words to describe heaven.  He said many times that we do not have words that do what he experienced justice!  This book makes you want to call everyone you know and say, "Do you believe?"  It makes you want to make sure that nobody would miss out on this forever that the Bible promises!  I won't tell you more (don't want to ruin it for you if you read it), but would encourage you to pick up a copy.  Way cool!

The second book is "The Shack" by Wm Paul Young.  It is a fiction book and under the title says "where tragedy meets eternity".  I will share that this man, Mack, goes through an experience that would be a nightmare to each of us and begins his spiritual journey for answers.  This book addresses rules vs relationships...what is love.....why does God let this happen?...what is faith...How do God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit work...and so much more.  It breaks the sterotypes that we are often taught (by people) about who our God is - Really enjoyed this book.  The end result is that God never created this world to be full of independence, pain and suffering, evil.  We were created to be in perfect union and we chose/choose to map our own quest instead of enjoying where our relationship with God can take us.  Grace is readily available and the Holy Spirit is always ready, but we often deny it in our independence.  Would love to see what you thought of these books if you read them....if you haven't...it would be a blessing for you..take it!

We went to church tonight and had a wonderful Easter service - I love this time of year - it is symbolic of so many things- plus more sunshine, flowers and green things are never bad!  It is nice to be reminded of our physical birth and our spiritual birth and to know that The price was paid for our eternity.  I am so thankful that my parents put me on a path to follow God.  And I am equally as thankful that I have a husband that works so hard so that the boys and I can homeschool and have God be a part of our every lesson! 

We have a friend that has been having an Easter party the weekend before Easter for as long as our boys could walk and carry a basket and this year was wonderful.  The weather cooperated and we and so much fun in sack races, bunny hop, kite flying, egg hunting. 

It was a great day!  I had to take a few pictures of the boys with the baby animals.  I had grand visions of little goats, bunnies and chicks all around - apparently the chicks and the bunnies did not get the memo that today was picture day - they did not cooperate - lots of pictures had half an ear or a couple of feathers, so we gave up on them, but the goats did pretty well.  Hope you have a great day of reflection on the price that has been paid and the promise of heaven!  Happy Easter!

A very exciting day indeed!  A little history first - My brother is getting married in May and the boys are in the wedding - so the engaged couple wanted to give the boys something that would be special. but pratical at the same time - we were planning to get some calves this spring for the boys to bottle feed, so we thought that might be a great present - they could sell the cows and put the money in their accounts and then do this again next year, on and on and on to see their money grow - and it would all have started from the wedding.  So we searched for calves and ended up going to the stock yard and instead of getting 2 we ended up with 4 - you know the price was right!?  They have been lovingly named Oreo, Brownie, Coal, and Unkie Chad -my brother now has someone to carry on his name - a heifer named after him - thanks to T for picking out the cow that should carry that name!  The brown cow standing is Unkie Chad - lovely, don't you think?

In addition to the calves - our goat, Delilah, started showing some signs of early labor the night before we went to get the cows - I was up til 3 in the morning checking on her - no changes - next morning she looked no closer to having the babies, so we left - I said, " you know now that we've left she'll have them?"  Well when we pulled in the driveway with the cows the boys went running down and started yelling," we have babies" - she was still cleaning them up - we just missed it!  She ended up having 3 kids- 2 girls and 1 boy - 1 girl is named Patch - she's easy to spot - she is the runt but the most fiesty - Snowflake is the other girl and Butterball is the boy.  They are the sweetest things!  Momma's doing a great job taking care of them!

A fellow that hubby works with has a liter of puppies he is giving away - I could end the story there, right?  Well, T has wanted a puppy of his own for sometime and his Dad told him when the weather was nicer he could get one - what  a timely turn of events - So needless to say our family has a new addition - Cocoa is part Lab, part German Shepherd and has become best friends with Duma (our other dog) - they are having a ball wearing each other out - which is the part I like! :)  Our cat was in seclusion for a little over a week living on E's bunk bed and only coming out to eat and use the liter box.  She has finally decided that this may not be so bad and now has a new friend too.

We are still waiting, not so patiently, for the birth of our baby goats - we're so excited!  We had a litter of bunnies born 4 weeks ago - 6 survived.  Winter is not kind to these little guys.  They are adorable now.  I'll tell more about her in a minute. 

The boys and I were able to steal a few days in Knoxville with my Mom, she went with her job.  Just mention hotel, indoor pool and we'll follow you anywhere!  We took in a childrens musuem, science and energy musuem and the UT arboretum.  It rained the whole time we were at the arboretum, but we had fun hiking around and exploring - and it was not crowded, at all, nobody there!  We did lots of swimming and T is now able to swim a great distance by himself.  He can jump in and get to the edge and I don't feel like I have to be right on top of him.  I would say that he will be a skilled swimmer by the end of the summer.

Now back to the bunnies....while we were on our trip we received a call from Daddy - "Guess what?....What?....We have 10 new babies!.....WHAT???......The bunny had 10 new babies......WHAT?"  Shock, that's what I was in.  Our Momma bunny had her liter of 6 four weeks ago and as soon as we realized she had them we took her out of the chicken pen - I guess not quick enough!  So 16 baby bunnies right now - loving it!  This is the 4 week old baby beside a newborn - they grow fast, huh? 

We've completed our astronomy book and are moving on to some chemistry and physics experiments...much more fun!  The boys both have goggles and are enjoying the idea of blowing things up, well not really, but they keep hoping that will happen.  Now that the grass is green and the bugs are coming out we will do more nature walks and some collecting too.  We've moved on to a new math book and E is doing great in it.  He can reason things out in math much better than I could at his age.  T is doing made up math.  That just means I'm making stuff up so he has math too.  We lay out crayons or animal figures and he counts, I add some and he "adds" them, I take some away and he "subtracts".  I have most enjoyed our reading time.  E is moving right along and he loves to help T with his school, almost to a fault - like telling him the answers!  The other day T and I were reading an "a" book and were doing cards with the alphabet - E said, " I can't do my work now, Mom, do you hear how good T is doing?  I've got to watch!"  Way cool!  So were plugging along and again this spring trying to balance school with life outside - garden to plow, animals to love and a swingset that calls our names!

Should a grown person be as excited as her kids at the thought of a new bunny, guilty!  My birthday present this year - a black bunny - so sweet - I love black, so she's perfect!  We had her in a box in the house for a while, because it is so cold outside and she's used to being inside - the cat was ever curious - look at this--

I'm very tired of turning on the news to hear, "Ice Storm '09" - I guess that is what this is, but could no other title be thought of???  KY has been slammed - we have been fortunate that our electric was only off for awhile - I had the fireplace roaring, camping stove out, lanterns, generator and every board game we own out.....then thankfully the lights came back on!  I was outside loading wood when it came back on and heard the joyful screams of the kids, "we have electricity!!!!!!!"  Would we have made it back in the day?  I guess if we knew no better.  Today is the 7th day we have been home - is it sad that we have cabin fever?  Hubby will be home from work tomorrow and we have informed him that we are going out in public!!  E asked me 2 days ago why we don't have a horse - I said, "Why, do we need one"...He said, "If we had a horse and a buggy we could go to town, we would not have to worry about our car being stuck."  I said, "It would be awful cold and take a long time to ride to town."  He said, "If we can stay out for hours and play in the snow, we can make it to town without freezing!."  Good point!  There has been plenty of opportunity to perfect the sledding/snowboarding techniques.  We've had fun, but I'm a little ready to see that ugly brown grass!  It looks like more snow is headed our way Monday - at most 8-10 inches, at least 2-4 - I guess they are not sure at this point!  It is beautiful - looks like Narnia T said.  We've watched lots of movies, played lots of games and enjoyed our time together.  Here's what we're been looking at.....

This next picture is of the netting that we have over the turkey coop - there were a zillion little points of ice - it looked so much cooler than this picture shows..

Here are the boys playing with army guys - E is my super organized player - every man has his place and the other one, well, he was happy to play with a few guys and the garbage can lid!   This is what happens when you're cooped up too long!  And , yes, I did wash the lid before he played with it!

My, my I've been a slacker at the blogging thing.  Hope you had a wonderful Christmas - we did - hubby's parents were able to come up, and my family lives right around here, so we all had fun being together.  We are a family of pranks and have gifts that show themselves year after year - we have to creatively figure out ways to "stick" people with them and this year was no different.  I will not go into all the details, but we did enough laughing to last all of 2009!!  Most of it at my Dad's expense - he was a great sport! 

I always try to allow extra time off from school during the weeks leading up to Christmas - that way I'm not stressing about the things that need to be done and barking at the kids to hurry with their work - learned that the hard way a couple of years ago - not pretty and very unproductive for all of us!  So we go  little longer in the summer to make up with it and it works.  We've been back in the swing of things since New Years and I'm glad to have our routine back.  E is still working in the same books and moving along nicely.  T is learning to read (using 100 Easy Lessons) and is so excited that he can read a few words - like me and see...

I've been looking through seed catlogs planning this years garden - I'm excited to do some things differently and try to grow different things.  We've sold both of our litters of rabbits and now are back to 4 adults - betting there will be babies again soon!  Our chickens are doing well, as is the turkey.  The goats are hating all the rain we've been getting over the last month - I look out back to 3 heads sticking out of their barn hoping that not 1 drop of rain will get on them!  Delilah is blossoming - we're hoping for babies at earliest the end of March, but more likely April.

At church this last week the sermon was on resolutions - most of them fail, but we keep making them - lose weight, exercise, read my Bible more, .....the list goes on.  He put a nice spin on the resolution idea - we can do nothing on our own (that is hard to swallow at times) and unless we're looking to God we can make resolutions until the cows come home and they won't stick - we may get 1 right, but for how long.  The resolution we can make - 2 words - "Follow Him"!  If we do that the pieces of our life will pull together - strength will be given and we will make it on Gods terms.  just thought it was a good reminder for myself that my priorities may be different than His.

A little over a week ago we had our annual Thanksgiving Feast at our coop.  Each year there is a theme and this year it was Little House on the Prairie.  The parents set up different stations that will teach the kids about something from that time period.  The learned to make butter, applesauce, grind corn, what a school house would be like, how home life was, what crafts or games may have been played....the kids traveled in "families" - the Ingalls, Olsens...Older kids are paired with younger ones so they can help one another.  Following the 2 hour station rotation we had a potluck lunch and a program to salute our military.  The kids did a great job.  We are so blessed to have a great group of Christian families at our coop.  Great friendships for the kids and myself!

To prepare for Thanksgiving at home we did a Thanksgiving lapbook and have been reading books about traditions, the first Thanksgiving, and the history of that time.  I had the boys draw a picture of a tree with just branches on a piece of poster board.  We've been adding leaves everyday and on each leaf writing something we're thankful for - family, Jesus, food, pets, water...  They look lovely!  Happy Thanksgiving!

We've become an MSG free house this week.  My friend Cindy has long shared the health problems that MSG causes and once you begin to look - it's in everything!!  It is added to food so that not as much of the real spices, etc need to be added - it "helps" the flavor out - and with it helps you health out - out the window!  So she inspired me and I did it!  Got rid of the taco mixes, hamburger helper kits, the soups.....anything full of MSG.  I searched around on the web and found out  how to make taco and chili seasoning, how to make a hamburger helper starter, my own shake n bake, and cream of whatever soup.  While I was on a roll I went ahead and made up some "starter" for biscuits, cake, waffles, pizza crust...I must confess that I do not like cooking.  I would pick a McDonald's hamburger any day if it meant I did not have to cook, but I kinda like making my own stuff - I feel free - full of cooking power - There is no thrill for me in opening a box of noodles, a jar of spaghetti sauce and browning some meat -  but now that I'm using my own canned tomatoes (if you've ever canned tomatoes you can appreciate the journey there!) and my own special seasoning -I'm the MAC cook - the family might not agree, but that's my take on it!  Regardless, we're eating better and kicking a few more chemicals from our system and I might have discovered something new to enjoy (maybe!).

Well, while we were shaking away these new spices, T left the room and when I went to look for him I was greeted with this sight. 

I said, "What are you doing?"  He said, "WHAT?"  and flashed his grin, "I'll put them back, I just wanted to look at my clothes!"  (I might add that I had just the day before nicely folded and sorted all his clothes in his drawers)!  My job is never done! 

After watching our goats waste enough hay the men in the house went to work on a new project- a hay manger.  They spent several hours developing their plan, measuring, cutting, hammering and the next day we painted - They did a fine job for building it using there own "plans" and had so much fun!  Here are the little woodworkers..

Trick or Treat is over and we are still on the sugar high!  The boys had fun carving pumpkins and dressing up for a day of fun with some friends!  E was a sniper and T was an Army medic.  The town near us has trick or treat downtown from 1-3 - the business' pass out candy - 1 advantage to being homeschooled - doing your candy fun in the daylight while everyone else is in school!!!!  So we met some of our homeschool friends and beat the streets in search of the best candy.  At lunch the boys - ages 4, 9, 9 and 10 had a very intelligent conversation about the upcoming election - luckily they were all for McCain - it could have been ugly otherwise!  As they ran in store front after store front, the other Mom with me realized that the boys had gone into the Obama headquarters to get candy - when they came out she said," Did you see where you just got candy?"  The boys turned around and made the most hideous sounds as they sank their shoulders and said," We can't eat that candy, yuck!!"  It was hilarious!!

R had a work party tonight at a coworkers house.  The kids enjoyed playing football and basketball, the adults corn hole and triva.  We're all sitting around talking and T appears with a kitten in his hands.  It's about 6 weeks old and has taken up residence at the coworkers house, but they didn't really want her.  4 hours later our child has fed this kitten a hamburger, ice for water and has not let the paws touch the ground.  He's sold and ready for her to come home with us.  Our cat was recently hit, so he thought it would be a good replacement, 4 year old logic!  The coworker produced kitten food, feed dish, toys, liter and liter box for T to take his new baby home with...how could we say no after all the love he had given this baby?  She is so gentle and loves the kids messing with her, even the often rough hands of a little man.  T has named her Cheetah.  I'll be calling her kitty, kitty, it's just easy to say!  One day we may have to learn to say "NO" to every little "free" animal that comes our way, but we have been blessed to have so many good experiences with the boys, things that they will never forget.   Hatching chicks from eggs, holding baby bunnies that are just hours old and gobbling at a turkey that always answers...we could be a "priceless" commercial!