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Hi all! It is a great day in the Lord ! Roosie,Hoopy and I are in Kentucky with our ChristianSchool for Student Convention. Pray for all the competitors today. I miss my DH and BabyGirl and Tman but we head home to Tennessee tomorrow so that makes me happy. I cant seem to get used to time "falling back" this year. For nearly a week now I have been waking up about 4am. Today was no exception. Its only 6:41 am but I am already starting to get sleepy again. No job yet for Toodles but God is being ever faithful. Our needs are met so truly, what else could we ask for? When the right job comes along then Toodles will get it. School has been going great. We are having a really good year so far. We will be doing more special things around the holidays. Stuff like lapbooking or notebooking. We enjoy doing stuff like that. I have not really been able to work much on the free printables I'm making but maybe after convention I can. We have had a hectic pace trying to get ready for that. I'm looking forward to the Homeschool Blog Awards this year. I am eager to see if the blogs I nominated get listed. You are some great bloggers out there :) I may not comment much at times but trust me, I read :) Well I gotta go. We have to get ready for convention. I will update later.
Hey everyone! We are back! Our crew brought home 17 medals today. Hoopy and Roosie both got several first place medals. Hoopy has 5 medals total and Roosie has 7. They all did a tremendous job and I am so proud of them. Well it is late and I am tired so goodnight all! Blessings! ~ Nikki
Now I have to tell you six things you might not know about me.
1. I randomly speak in movies quotes with my family.
2. I grew up a certified countrified farm girl and I miss it too.
3. I know what it is like to carry your drinking water from the spring. My maternal Grandparents and Great Grandmother did not have running water (unless you count the current in the spring LOL)
4. I have met Mrs. Dolly Parton several times. (And yes she is a veeeery distant cousin lol). I even got to watch her film a Christmas movie at a local covered bridge that was 300 feet from my house.
5. White Christmas is one of my all time fave Christmas movies and has been since my teen years when my cousin Noo and I would get together and watch it each year.
6. I love walking in the rain. Always have and hopefully always will.
Now I must give this award to six of my blogger buddies.
It has been a while... a lot of things have been going on here. We have been going and going and going, kinda like the energizer bunny ...minus the energy LOL Anyway, we had our Fall festival at church yesterday and had a great time.We raised some money for our youth and ate some great food.Our county sheriff volunteered to be arrested to help us raise money. He was great so thanks Hoss. Last week I went to a Third Day concert with DD,DS and a friend. It was an amazing worship service.. Look forward to seeing them again. Our drama team has been busy practicing. We have two performances coming up and we are very excited. Our local paper came by the festival yesterday and talked to our youth group and took some pictures. They liked that :) We had an amazing service this morning at church. I would love to be there tonight to see all the baptisms (6) but both DDs are down with the sniffles. So at least I have found the chance to sit and blog. School has been going great. This past week we gathered some leaves. The color has been amazing here again this year. I have found that I prefer laminating the leaves instead of ironing them with the wax paper. When you laminate them you can hang them up on windows and get a stained glass effect. It is very pretty. It is also time for the Homeschool Blog Awards again. I have to do my nominations tonight. There are so many great ones out there that it is hard to decide. On the other hand if anyone would like to nominate me (shameless begging I know!) that would be nice. Not sure what I could be nominated for ..but I have to at least be good for a laugh every now and then . Right? Anyway, looking forward to getting settled back into the quiet side of life for a bit and hopefully doing some blogging and getting some free stuff uploaded to HSlaunch. Blessings! ~ Nikki
Time does seems to be flying by here at our humble abode. August saw many busy weeks for us. We had VBS in August this year. It was awesome! DD BabyGirl turned 16! I don't know where the years are going. I turned 35. I have earned every wrinkle and silver hair. I'm proud of them. I had to go to the Dr. to discuss possible surgery for my bladder and to have several tests done. Instead of surgery I will be having meds and PT. This is day two of the medication and it has done some great things for me. Had I known years ago that it would help this much I would have taken it sooner. We are preparing for school to begin week after next. DS Tman will be returning to the Christian school at our church this year.He wants to have some interaction with his friends this year so we are going to give it a shot. I help out several times throughout the year and they allow our kids to attend the conventions with them . We have decided to go with all PACES because frankly, I feel like having a "lazy" year. BabyGirl will graduate in Spring of 2010 and we have a lot to plan for that so we want to take it easy on the lesson planning. I'm sure we will do some mini units and lapbooks together but our mainstay will be PACES.
Today is my Big Brothers birthday so "Happy Birthday Brotherman!" I love Ya! We have spent the day finishing up our Fair projects. I still have some things to do but I will finish them up later tonight. The county Fair starts on Monday. The kids enjoy the rides and Toodles and I enjoy looking at the exhibits.
We have also been doing the Fall cleaning around the "homestead ". I will post more about that on my Homestead blog. You can come on over and check it out if you like. There are some amazing recipes and stuff on all the blogs over there. Just click on the "Dreamin' of the Farm" pic on the right sidebar and visit my blog. Then you can check out the other blogs by either clicking on the Front Porch link or using the Random Blog link. Well Tman is making some homemade chili for supper tonight, Momma taught him:) so I'm going to post on my other blog and then check out what is going on in the kitchen.Have a great weekend! Blessings ! ~ Nikki
Ok, no way did I anticipate that I would be so busy this summer. It seems like we have been on a constant go go go. Well at least this is turning out to be a cool summer. I can't believe the weather we have been having. I guess I will update and let everyone know what we have been up to . That is if anyone is still reading my blog ...are you? Are you there? Hellooooooooooooooo? Well anyway , here is the story... (imagine a movie narrator's voice..)
When last our blog writer left us she had intended to keep up with her blog posting but time seemed to slip away much faster than she anticipated. One week was spent in Bible study with her youth group in order to prepare their hearts for worship at the Casting Crowns concert. Truly it was an amazing week...watching God speak to the hearts of the youth (and adults too) was awesome. The concert was awesome too. The crowd was pleasantly surprised when special guest John Waller took the stage (ok our blog writer was extremely happy ...she loves his music). Mark Hall and the Crowns are some of the most humble people on the planet and they have such amazing talent. It was more than a concert it was a worship service. (pictures to come later).
Next for our blog writer came the July 4th holiday. A wondeful time spent with family and eating all that awesome July 4th food fare. A pleasnat evening was had by all as fireworks exploded in the night sky creating vibrant splashes of color against the inky blackness. (pictures to come later)
Then came the birth of our blog writers BFF's lovely (much anticipated and teeny tiny) preemie baby girl. Both Momma and Baby are home and doing fine. Visit Shirley at MyThr33Sons and check out the story (with cute baby pics).
Later , our blog writer and family got to travel to Chattanooga and celebrate the 70th birthday of her lovely MIL.
Next for our blog writer and her handsome hubby came an unexpected oppurtunity to travel. They enjoyed a lovely trip through Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia and Virginia. Their favorite part was having some playtime at Lake Erie. Lovely cannot describe it. Pictures will definetly be posted later!
And last but not least our blog writer has been preparing for her and her DH 10th wedding anniversary tomorrow. They will be renewing their vows amongst a gathering of family and friends.Stay tuned for the next installment...
OK, was that funny? Did it make it more interesting? Did you smile? At least a little bit? Let me know if you are still here ... leave me a comment... go ahead ...I'm begging...I'm making puppy dog eyes at you right now...Blessings~ Nikki
It has been a while since I posted. I would like to say thanks to all who were praying for my requests.There has been a lot of improvement for all. We enjoyed our camping trip. We had almost 40 ... count 'em ... 40 black bear sightings. One Momma bear had four cubs with her which is unusual for our area. Of course this year we are having an increased black bear population. I have lived here all my life and have only seen about 10 to 12 black bear in Cades Cove , so seeing this many this year was very exciting. So if you want to see black bear and you are near the GSMNP then you should check out Cades Cove.
Tonight we had a tornado warning issued for our area. We were watching some rotating clouds over our house . It was such a weird sight. The storms passed us over though and for that I am thankful. The garden is growing and I have been harvesting some cucumbers and grape tomatoes. Pickle time!! I will be posting about my garden and canning exploits on my Homestead blog. There is a link on my right side bar. Its called "Dreamin' of the Farm"
I have a family of bluebirds hanging around my yard but can't find where they have nested. Not that I am complaining. I love bluebirds. We have a lot of young wildlife in our yard this year. We have several baby rabbits and squirrels.
I am trying to get some school plans going but for some reason I just can't seem to concentrate on them. We found some great deals at the annual library book sale this year. I purchased the Hooked on Phonics program for $ 1 . Yep ! $1. The only thing wrong with it is that tape number 6 is missing but I hope that I can find a copy somewhere. I'm going to have my youngest use it for review this summer as she still has some reading struggles. My youngest son struggled with reading too and he hated to even try to read. PTL though now he loves to read. It just took some time for him to find his rhythm. So if you have a child who struggles with reading, don't give up hope. It will come. Sometimes it just takes time. Well I am going to post on my Homestead blog. I hope to be back on schedule with my regular posts. Blessings! ~ Nikki
Here is a photo I took on landscape setting of a storm coming in over the Cove.
Please pray for my cousin Stephi's Daddy, Tommy. He is in the hospital and not looking too good right now. Also pray for our Deacon Randy. He is in the hospital with heart trouble also. Thanks ~ Blessings~ Nikki
Good morning all! Sorry there was no post for Monday's Website of the Week. We have been super busy around here. We spent last week enjoying all the free stuff in our area. It was very nice! We played mini golf, went to the aquarium and some other neat stuff too. School is finished for us for the year. I just have to get grades turned in and stuff filed away. Tman officially becomes a high schooler this year so congrats Tman! We will be having a little celebration for him when we return from vacation. My BIL and his family hired Toodles to pet sit for them while they are on vacation this week. They have invited our whole family to come and enjoy a little mini vacation at their house and go swimming. We look forward to this relaxing time together (thanks BIL and SIL). When we return from Georgia we will be home for a few days. Just long enough really to prepare for our annual family camping trip with my parents. I enjoy this so much! We never went camping as a family when I was young. I started camping in my teen years . So this is nice to get away with my parents, hopefully my Brotherman can come this year too. My parents share their campsite with us so no out of pocket expense for us. So God has really blessed us during Toodle's layoff. We were worried we wouldn't be able to "get away" this year. The lightning bugs will be synchronizing next week in the Cove . It is something to see! We watched it for the first time last year and it took my breath away. If you live near the Smokies you should head to Cades Cove Friday and Saturday of next week to catch the show.
Toodles is still among the ranks of the unemployed. We never thought it would be this long . But God has a plan and knows what He is doing so we will wait. Even though things are kinda tight and we will have to do some rearranging in some areas, I know we will be ok. Of course now I feel really bad about complaining last year that Toodles was working too much and that we never got to see him. This time together as a family has been awesome though. We needed it. So thank you Lord!
Pray for us as we will be doing some traveling.Take care and have a great time over the next couple of weeks. I will try to post while I am at my BIL house so that I can do Blog of the Week. Blessings! ~ Nikki
Here are some pictures for you to enjoy. I never did get those Spring pictures posted on my picture blog and here it is almost summer. But I will get to it! Goofing off in the flash room at Ripley's BION. Mini golfing... one of our fave pastimes. Family portrait in the mirror maze. That was cool. Hanging out in the Lethal Weapons exhibit at the Ripley's aquarium.
Leopard shark
Crown of thorns starfish The jellies!
The octopus. Sorry about the flash. I had to turn it on. You couldn't see him without it.
I had to rescue this little fella. He was learning to fly at the same time a baby cardinal was learning. He ended up in the wrong side of the yard and a fight ensued between the parents of both birds and both babies were being attacked. So I moved him to the back yard where his sibling was waiting. Everything calmed down then and both babies were fine. The sibling.
The baby cardinal.
My parent's blubirds. They have been tenants for several years.
The babies!!
I almost forgot to post about this.
All Ripleys attractions in Sevier County are free til Thursday for those who live in or work in Sevier County. Just have id or check stub and a can of food for each person. All proceeds benefit Sevier County Food Ministry.
This includes:
Ripleys Aquarium of the Smokies
Ripleys House of Mirrors
Old MacDonalds Mini Golf
Davey Crokett Mini Golf
Ripleys Believe It Or Not
Our newer computer is working again! Praise The Lord! I prayed and prayed and felt led to try it again and it has been doing great. I wanted to give that praise report and to share a post with you that I added to my Homesteader blog. There are some pics of our garden in there and even our resident nuthatch. Stop by and say hello. Still no progress with my ear. If anything it seems worse so of course that means I will be going back to the Dr. to find out what is going on. Please continue to pray for me. Thanks and God Bless! ~ Nikki
POST: My Garden Blog
5 Minutes For Mom is having some great Mother's Day giveaways and can you believe it ... they are giving away a Toshiba laptop! I so hope i win this! Our newer computer went down last week and we are having to use our old (clearly unstable) one which may let you online and then again may not (not much posting because of this ). It would be so awesome to have a new laptop. I can't keep the other computer on long enough to get my files and stuff off of it and we can't afford to have Vista reloaded ( the computer tech guy said we now have a windows software corruption) *sigh*. Anyway you have to check out this and all the other great giveaways they are having. You will find the link at the top of my blog. Blessings! ~ Nikki
Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday we helped my parents with their roof. I was way too tired when we got home to blog. Monday night when we got home home I bent over to pick up something and I busted my eardrum.I have had a lot of fluid in my ears and vertigo for several years. Don't know why . I have never had a problem with my eardrum before but I do have a cold now so that may have something to do with it. Anyway I couldn't sleep Monday night because of the severe pain and nausea I was having. Yesterday I felt ok , I just can't hear well out of my left ear (barrel hearing if you know what I mean) but today I have had dizziness every time I stand, look up or close my eyes for a long time. I have had some ringing in the ear too. I didn't feel like making it to church tonight so Toodles took the kids. School is moving along. We are eager to finish our units and math. The weather has been so lovely here that we all want to be outside. As soon as I get new batteries I will post some pictures from our road trip we took earlier this month. My veggie garden is in and growing well. My flowers are blooming and they are lovely. I can't wait to post some pictures. Toodles still hasn't been called back to work but God has never ceased to provide. It is nice having Toodles home so much. Well I'm off to go read some more great posts. If you can remember, pray for me. I read that it could take several weeks for my ear to heal. Thanks and Blessings! ~ Nikki
We had some typical Tennessee weather today. After normal Spring like temps today turned cold with snow showers with some areas getting an inch or more. Spring is supposed to return tomorrow though. After school today we watched the snow fall and did some housework. We had drama practice tonight. I am supposed to do my post for BFS today but I have some more thinking to do over this week's assignment.So basically what I am trying to say is that I do not feel very productive today. It seems like we did a lot but accomplished very little. Ever had a day like that? Blessings! ~ Nikki
The first is about 10 minutes long. It is a video of our hermit crab cleaning out a new shell. I added music to it because while I was filming my phone started ringing and I'm sure you don't want to listen to the ringing phone:) Turn the volume down if you don't want to hear the music. The crab is the interesting thing anyway :)
The second video is of the crab changing shells . It is much shorter. Enjoy! Let me know if you like them. Blessings! ~ Nikki
Well Spring has arrived full force . The redbuds are beautiful this year. I will try to post some pics on my other blog tonight or tomorrow. Flowers are coming up everywhere and we will be planting our garden this weekend. We have grown some things from seed. I will tell you more about my gardening escapades later. Sorry I was late posting the website of the week. I was playing around with Tman and Toodles the other night and Tman kicked my hand on accident and cracked my knuckles on my middle and ring fingers. OUCH! I don't have as much stiffness and pain today so that is good. We are plugging along with school. We had to play catch up since we spent 2 weeks preparing Tman and BabyGirl for competition and then the trip itself. They were gone for a week but God was good and he made time pass quickly for me. They came back with several medals. They both took first in one event each so they were extremely happy. We have been doing our math PACES and learning about biomes in science . Next week we study classification. We are also finishing up our study on the continents . It seems unreal that school will be over for us in about 2 months. I don't know where time went this year. God has been opening up new ideas for me for my Women's Ministry book I am working on. Someday with His grace it will be completed. We have celebrated two birthdays in March , Roosie (9) on the 20th and Tman (14) on the 28th. They are growing up so fast. Tman is as tall as me now but not for long. He seems to grow an inch a day! Toodles is still unemployed technically although God has blessed us in that he has several "jobs" people have asked him to do. We have just been setting back and letting God be God. Toodles has also been doing some woodworking when he can. He made me a lovely garden bench/kneeler that he saw in Birds and Blooms. He hopes to be able to sell them. They are beautiful and practical so I think he will do good. I have been enjoying the spring peepers chorus and the singing of birds over the last few weeks. Butterflies are everywhere in our yard and we have a Momma rabbit and her young one living in our front flower garden. My birdhouses are filling up so I'm sure there will lots of Spring babies to keep a lookout for. Well, I'm begining to ramble so I will go . Blessings! ~ Nikki
Be sure to hop on over to my dear daughter Baby Girl's blog. Today is her 2 year blogaversary and she is giving away some great avatars. She is very talented! If you or your kids are Narnia, LOTR, POTC or Jane Austen fans you will love her avatars! The winner gets to choose which set they like so head on over and comment! ~ Blessings! ~ Nikki
Today my "baby" will be 9. *sigh* Where does the time go? Happy Birthday Beautiful! I love you!
At last Spring is here. I am so ready for warm weather and flowers :) Blessings! ~ Nikki
It is that time of year again ! Spring cleaning time! Yay ! Not! Well it must be done and actually this year I am enjoying getting some of the clutter out. I want more space and to make cleaning easier. For that to happen some things must go. I will also be taking some school books from our overstuffed shelves. I have added a little "Rummage Sale" area to my left sidebar if you would like to check it out. I will post some of our books we are getting rid of there. Right now I don't have time for a big yard sale and I hate to toss out good , usable books so I will offer them here. I will be adding a neat video of a coyote I took in Cades Cove to the Nature Nook if you want to check it out. Well have a great day ! Blessings ! ~ Nikki
Goofing off in the flash room at Ripley's BION.
Mini golfing... one of our fave pastimes.
Family portrait in the mirror maze. That was cool.
Hanging out in the Lethal Weapons exhibit at the Ripley's aquarium.
The jellies!
The sibling.
