We got our box of Sonlight books for reading for 1dd9 (aka Mountain Princess) and 2dd8 (aka Snow Crystal). I put the books together in the order of their schedules.
These books will be Mountain Princess's reading for her language arts. This will by no means be exhaustive. These will be the ones I will assign her. She devours many more books each day! Lately she's been reading the Magic Treehouse books. It takes her about a half hour to read a whole book! She reads all of her sister's books too.
This next picture is the collection of books that 2dd8 will be reading for her second grade year. She's on the second one already. Sonlight recommended a couple more that I didn't order because they didn't seem to be right for us. She is a budding reader, and I'm proud of how far she improved over the last year.
This year I am covering each of the paperback books with contact paper for book covers. It works great and helps to make the books last much longer.
Last Saturday afternoon, our family loaded up the Suburban and the Windstar and headed down the road to see a local site we've never been able to see before. In order to get to this place, one must go cross two creeks over very rocky terrain, and we haven't had a vehicle with enough clearance. We drove the van following the suburban until the first creek crossing because we didn't know whether the suburban would actually make it - we've been stranded in it a few times due to an electrical shortage. We just got the van back from the shop, and we just don't have a lot of faith in it yet. From the first creek, we were all in the suburban and just hoped that we didn't have to walk the two miles or so back - or have to try to tow the suburban back over the creeks! The suburban didn't give us any trouble in this back country, and we were glad!
This first picture is the only marker that there is a waterfall nearby:
After a short little hike we came to the waterfall. It is about 60 or 70 feet high. That is dh and 3dd3 at the bottom of the pictue.
Here is a view that includes my two other little models.
Here are the falls from underneath looking up.
It's not very often we get a picture of our whole family together. Some other folks came up to the waterfall that were willing to help us out. The final two pics are of a plant and its flowers that were in the middle of the creek wedged between some rocks. I thought that they looked so happy and full. Does anyone know what they are?
If you'd like to see what other fun ladies are sharing about today, jump on over to Canadagirl's blog and join the fun.
I've created a photo album of our trip to San Diego. You can see it here: San Diego Trip. Don't feel like you have to look through all 120 pics, unless you are really bored. I couldn't think of anything else to share, and it has taken me all evening to post half of those pics into my photobucket for our family to share. You are welcome to come see too if you want to.
It's that time again. Actually it is one of my favorite times of the week!
Just click on the image above to go to Canadagirl's blog and see who else is posting their own Show and Tells this week. You can join in too, just post whatever you want to share and leave a Mr. Linky at her blog, and see how many new friends you'll make!
Clippers, Pirates, Submarines, Historical Ferries and More!
Last Sunday on our last day in San Diego, our family along with dh's parents visited the maritime museum. We are gearing up to do a unit study on the Explorers in History by Time Travelers and this was such a wonderful way to start it!
Our first ship was this sailing vessel, which is actually one of the oldest active sailing vessels in the world. We climbed aboard and were immediately escorted back into time.
This next one is of the dining area. The table had ridges to help keep the plates in place while eating.
Surrounding this table were the captain's quarters...
...several "staterooms" which were amazingly small...
...the physician's quarters...
...and a dry goods pantry, which was also incredibly small. I didn't get pics of other parts of this ship for some reason, but it was amazing all the ropes that were hanging everywhere, how short the beds were, and how little space there was. It gave me a new appreciation for all the immigrants coming to America. Most of them didn't even get the staterooms. They were put in another area that just had a bunch of crude short bunks without any storage space.
The next ship we boarded was this pirate ship called Surprise. I took the baby from dh, so no pics got taken on this one. It was also neat, but more like a museum with less real lifeness to it. It did have cannons though, and lots of artifacts.
Behind it you can see the submarine we went to next. My inlaws had to get off of the first boat due to seasickness (they are in their 70s and couldn't take even the gentle rocking), and didn't attempt the pirate ship or the submarine.
It is a Russian submarine, and all of the writing was in Russian. It was so cramped inside. The walls were so short that I had to duck most of the way through. There were only three tiny privies for the whole vessel, which carried 78 men. Most of the bunks were strewn here and there in very tight quarters. Again I had the baby, so not many photos were taken. This missile launching room was in one end of the sub, and it had the most room on the whole vessel.
There were three other ships that we visited. One was a huge old ferry, which held most of the maritime museum. I took some pics on it, but they weren't all that interesting. Another was more like a tiny yacht, but it was too small to get any good shots on it, and too close to get any photos of it. One other ship we couldn't board, but just as we arrived it was coming in from a three hour tour, and the pirate ship pretended to shoot off cannons at it - very loudly!
My parting shot is Elly with her grandparents in front of the ferry. If you look close you can see some of the rest of my family coming into the picture from behind.
One thing have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. To behold the beauty, the beauty of the Lord. To inquire in His temple, the temple of the Lord.
This is my everyday thoughts about being a mother to three little ladies (12, 10 and 5) and a three year old son. We serve God full-time, and I am a physician assistant. I have the most awesome husband in the world. I am trying to seek and serve God with all my heart, all my soul, all my mind and all my strength.
