July 8, 2008 Charlie's Birthday
Charlie turned 14 last week. His birthday is surrounded by our country's birthday, so is always a fun time.
We took him to Music Road Hotel in Pigeon Forge for the day before his birthday, and NASCAR Speedpark for his birthday (where else?) We had a great time!
 And now we're back to school for year 14. As usual, we start back the first full week of July so that we can finish by April. So technically we have 'spring break' and not 'summer break'.
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April 30, 2008 Done for the year!
We finished up our lessons on Friday and I got my documentation finished up and sent out today! Year 13 down and in the books!
and just because I like to post pictures, here are the boys learning the mechanics of their bikes. Education in progress!
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April 4, 2008 Ready for racing March 14, 2008 Time for Spring!
I have been so lax in keeping up my blog. I just noticed that I still had the summer time "Cornflowers" up as my header! I totally didn't change to my beautiful harvest header nor my holly winter header. So here we are ready for spring so I've put up my Flowering Dogwood.
I certainly hope our Dogwood tree blooms this year. Two years ago it didn't bloom at all. Last year we had a great frost (rare around here) just as the blossoms were budding and they all died. I took my header picture almost three years ago, and that was the last time I've seen those pretty pink blossoms on our tree!
Our boys have motorcycles now. I can't believe that I allowed that! Well, they're just dirt-bikes, so if they wreck it's not on the gravel or pavement, right? Still could break your neck I guess. I try not to think about it.
 This is Charlie giving Traveling Sadie a ride on his Honda. My boys are so sweet.
Anyone else raising only boys? Don't you sometimes feel like you need another female in the house? I do sometimes. My husband indulges me with American Girl dolls. They are my daughters I never mothered. They don't grow up and leave me either! And they don't argue about their clothing. Actually I really enjoy my 'girls' as I call them. I have lots of their accessories and even a beautiful 8 feet wide by 8 feet tall Dolls' House that my dh built me so they could all stay together.
 This is a picture of four of the rooms in my 6 room Dolls' House. Disregard the circled girl; I made this picture so someone could pick out which doll I was talking about. (It's Corde, if you must know)
I hope you are all ready for a beautiful spring! Enjoy Life!
~Betsy
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February 7, 2008 Winter 2007/08 TOS
I just received my The Old Schoolhouse magazine and this issue sure is a great one! It has all the Convention news as well as an entire section devoted to FREEBIES! You can read about the Freebies at this link.
Do you have a favorite article from this issue? My favorite article has to be "Following the Iditarod" by Dena Wood. It begins on page 134. We have been reading about sled dog racing, Siberian Huskies and plan on following this year's Iditarod. Lots of good, educational fun!
Oh, and you can meet me and my family on pages 40-41! YEAH FOR TOS!!
~Betsy
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January 23, 2008 Moving on up
My children are growing up. It seems like just yesterday they were crawling around on the floor (well, Harold was...Charlie never crawled...he got up and walked at just barely 9 months old) pulling items off of the school shelves to 'work with'.
Now the school shelves are full of science equipment, art supplies and less and less manipulatives. Just this week, we finally moved the school desks out of the room and put in more book shelves instead. The boys would much rather do their school work on their beds, or the floor, or the sofa, than sit at their desks and 'work'. They never really did like that. They mainly used their desks for art projects (and clutter keepers.) But even then, the kitchen table was so much bigger!
So another phase of our school is gone. First it was all those colorful blocks, letter learning cubes, shape sorters and other pre-school learning apparatus, now it's the desks themselves. Soon I'll be working myself out of a job. But isn't that what mothering is about? Training our little charges to be soldiers in the army for the Kingdom of the Lord? Now they are about to be out there serving Him. One already is. The joys of motherhood *sniff*.
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December 21, 2007 Christmas at our house
Someone asked last year at this time what our Christmas Traditions were. This post today has some of that post from last year and a few new tidbits.
First, we usually put up our tree on December 1st (or the first Saturday in December). We have had this miniature tree for going on 20 years with its miniature toys and gifts on it. (see center of mantel for our miniature tree)
As you can see in this picture, we have those little golden, engraved ornaments for our children for each year that they have had a Christmas. We have them on a ribbon for easy display. They get a new ornament each year. We gave the oldest son his ribbon of ornaments for his first Christmas with his wife. This year they are celebrating in their first home (non-apartment) together. We wish them blessed happiness.
We also have a golden ornament for each of the children we have had that went directly to Jesus' waiting arms instead of ours. There are five of these blessings in Heaven. We have a golden, engraved ornament for our foster daughter, too…wherever she may be now. "Lord bless her and keep her safe."
We don't have a Christmas tree anymore, we have a "Nativity Tree".
DH has constructed us a corner shelf (where the shelves remove and the sides fold for easy storage) that we can display all of our Nativity sets on. This year we have 12. The bottom shelf sits 18 inches off of the floor so that we can nestle the gifts under the Nativity Tree. As you can also see in this picture, we wrap all our gifts in brown paper and tied with a piece of colorful material or twine. Trying to keep the focus off of the gifts and onto the Giver.
During our evening family devotions in December we read part of a Christmas novel out loud. One chapter each evening or however it will work out to last 24 days. We always pre-read the book before reading it out loud. This year we reading "A Midnight Clear - Family Christmas Stories" by Katherine Paterson.
We traditionally have homemade tamales for Christmas Eve supper. This tradition started in Honduras as well. A very yummy tradition. When Christmas morning arrives, we read the Christmas story from Luke 2 and open the gifts all by the light of the fireplace or candles/kerosene lanterns. Also a Honduran tradition since we rarely had electricity there.
That about does it for Christmas traditions. We don't do stockings or Santa (never had…even before we were Christians.) We don't do lists or ask what the child wants for Christmas either. And since we don't watch TV (haven't since 1995) they are not covetous of all the commercialism out there. They are very happy with whatever we have given to them. May the Lord bless you and your family this wonderful Christmas time.
Merry Christmas to you all!
~Betsy
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November 8, 2007 Growing up
Do you ever just sit back and watch your children? I know I used to a lot when they were little and playing on the floor, but now that we have a teen and a pre-teen?
As I sit back and watch these boys now...boy have they grown! They can do many things for themselves now. They handle most all their own school work without many questions. They know things I have no clue about (mainly about cars, engines and dynamics.) And Charlie, the middle son, has grown taller than me now! He's only 13, so I'm not sure how tall he will eventually be. His feet have been bigger than mine for a few years now.
So off we go to get new pants again today. He doesn't wear out his jeans like he used to. These last few pair I bought only two months ago. And they were dragging the ground when I bought them. He still likes to sit on my lap and tell me, "I love my mommy". That's the sad part. He wants to grow up (and drive!) but he wants to stay little and cuddly. It's hard on both of us to have him growing up. I still feel the pain of the oldest (now 24) when he left home years ago. There is a void here in our house where he used to be.
Ah, but one of my favorite sayings can bring me out of the gloom of growing up. "Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional." *grabs my American Girl doll and gives her a big hug*
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October 9, 2007 My Article on Crosswalk.com
I forgot that when TOS publishes one of your articles it may appear in other publications that they are affiliated with. A kind commenter from my post on the Summer 2007 TOS mentioned that she read my article at Crosswalk.com. I just thought I'd link that article here so that others who don't subscribe to TOS or haven't had the chance to read it, could find this article on-line:
Harmonious Homeschool: Ways We Have De-Stressed our Home
I certainly appreciate all those lovely comments that I've been getting. You all don't necessarily have to agree with me, but I really appreciate all your support!
~Betsy
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I love autumn! It's always been my favorite season. I love when the leaves change colors and crunch beneath your feet. When we lived in Honduras, a friend sent me an envelope of fall leaves!! That was so thoughtful because she knew there are no seasons in Central America (unless you count rainy and dry)
So far there hasn't been much of any leaf changes around here. But the weather has gotten cooler and I love it! Maybe it's because I can pull out the sweaters and have less skin exposed! I think I love fall because my first child was due in November and I remember thinking that 'when autumn arrives he or she will be here!" That will be 24 years ago next month. *sigh* Time surely flies!
We went on vacation a couple weeks ago. One of the great things of homeschooling is that we can vacation when others are in school! We went to Florida to the Gulf Coast area. Mainly to visit my m-i-l but also to relax. Here is a picture of Charlie and Harold in the Gulf:
As you can see, we basically had the beach to ourselves. Later in the day a few more people showed up, and there were LOTS of gulls and pelicans, but a wonderful, peaceful day at the beach.
Hope you all are enjoying your fall!
~Betsy
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August 6, 2007 I'm in TOS Summer 2007!!
Hi all! I thought I'd post an updated entry since my first ever article is appearing in the Summer 2007 TOS!! You should be getting that soon around your house, if you don't have it already.
Check out page 92 for my contribution to this great magazine! I hope you find/found something that would help your school be a little less-stressful in my article "Harmonious Homeschool."
If you are visiting my blog for the first time because you just read my article in TOS, THANKS! Please tell me what you thought of it. You may also want to read more about why we live at a Bible College or just look around and see what we've been up to lately.
Sorry, I haven't updated much this summer, but I hope you enjoyed my article and TOS!
~Betsy
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July 26, 2007 Back to School
We have started back to school for year #13. Fun times ahead! Here's a picture of some of the fun times we've had during our break.
Now we have two karts....Charlie is in the red one, Harold in the yellow one. Notice how dry our field is! At least we haven't had to mow it much this summer.
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June 25, 2007 Wisdom of the Aged
We had such a great time helping with the Senior Saints in the Smokies. If you don't know what that entails, visit this post from last year. Here is a picture from this year of Charlie and another teen helper unloading a small church bus.
We love talking with the older folks...they have so much wisdom and are such a delight to be around. Of course, one of the first things they ask the boys are "where do you go to school?" Most of the time we are met with the response of "that's great!".
But this one lady caught me off guard. She must have been in her late 70's or early 80's. When I answered that we home school, she replied, "So did I!" and to my astonishment she also said
"The Lord created families....man made schools" I love that remark. The wisdom of the aged. Keep them home where they belong!
~Betsy
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