We acquired a goat on Friday and she is a cutie.  She is very shy right now and I hope she comes around to us.  We saved her life actually, she was going to be someone's dinner.   Now Aaron has his animal to take care of.  We are still looking for a Jersey calf to raise up.

Below are a few pictures of what God has blessed us with:

Ben and one of his Jersey Giant chicks

Our new goat with no name - I like Daisy

Jersey Giant chick

Our new farmhouse!

My 2400 sq Ft veggie garden.  It really looks better than this, it didn't photograph well

One of our barns.  This is the original one made of wood.

We are loving it here and getting use to a schedule.  It is difficult to choose a new church, but we are taking our time in finding a new church home.  Even though we are in a pretty remote area, we are blessed with many options. I was hoping to find a church that has AWANA for older children, but that doesn't seem to be the case around here.  I probably will have to drop that idea and the boys are disappointed in that part, although they said it would be okay if our new church doesn't offer it.  Maybe this is what the Lord may want us to do?  Start a Trek AWANA?  I guess we'll see!

I decided that since we moved to a farm in Illinois instead of moving to Tennessee, I better replace my template with something more appropriate.  This reminds me of our red barn we have and although we have an old tractor, ours is orange and NOT American made.  Hey, it does the trick.  This is more of what it look like around here.  We have a John Deere tractor dealer down the road from us, so we get to look at all the cool machinery.

Our pool is finally up and running.  Today it's pretty clear even after my big mistake yesterday.  This job is for me and the boys to take care of, but the machinery is to be mine and since I don't know much about them, I'm learning very quickly what NOT to do .  Yesterday I decided to clean out the skimmer basket due to there being lots of bugs and such in there.  Not a problem, so I accomplished that.  Then there's this basket in the pump area also full of beetles so I thought I would just unplug the pump and unscrew the cap and empty the filter.  Well to my surprise mega water came out at me !  I was able to get the cap back on thankfully (the beetles were flushed out by now as you can imagine) and replug in the filter.  Just as I did that, my older son said "OOhhhhh that's gross!!!"  so I ask what and he says "Mom!  LOok what's going into the pool!!!!!  Well it was all the nastly water from the filter and it was backwashing into the pool !!!!!  Oh Brother!!!   I've read the instructions on this equipment, albeit very limited and it doesn't say anything about this happening or what I did wrong.  Well my hubby came home and said to check for valves on both ends of the pool lines to shut off the water coming out of the pool (which we don't have) and the valve for the water going back into (I think this is on the filter)  That would at least stop the outpouring of water.  It doesnt' explain the nasty water that ended up back in the pool.  At least this morning it looks much better again.  Probably will swim in it tomorrow.  I think this was an America's Funniest Home Video moment! 

We are managing 2 days a week for lessons.  My hubby has been taking alot of Fridays off and that messes up our days.  Oh well.  I love our new piano teacher.  She seems to be able to connect with the boys really well.  Yesterday she taught them how to make oragami birds! (after lessons of course)  I also love the fact she comes to our house.  Really love that.  I've been loving this pace for us and I hope we can get into a better groove in the fall.  When I think of all the things I want to do, I have to remember what it is that God wants us to do.  He has such a way of changing plans.  

We are learning so much every day about our surroundings and things that I don't necessarily want a lesson in (the pool) but they are lessons none the less.  Aaron is learning about the different plants Japanese beetles like/love (he gets one cent for every beetle caught), where the praying mantises are, how to best climb every trees we have, managing money, and learning to use small tools to build things out in the barn, how to care for the cattle and hopefully soon he will have a goat to mind.  Ben is learning all about chickens, how to look up info on the computer about them and take care of them, building things in the barn with Aaron (he bought himself a hammer yesterday) he's loves medieval things (hence the building of weapons ei swords, shields, daggars out of wood in the barn) and both of them are learning alot about responsibility.  We have a lot to take care of now and we all need to really pitch in.

Tomrrow the hubby is taking the day off and we are going to our local fair.  People around are upset because I guess this year there are no rides.  I don't know why they don't have them but I don't mind and the kids haven't said anything.  I believe it should be this way since it is a true country fair.  We are looking forward to going regardless.  Who knows what we'll drag home!

I love this farm life!! God has so blessed us.

Well we've been on the new homestead for three and a half weeks now and we are lovin it!  There's lots to do for work and the boys are usually very busy with some chore or another.  I've been busy cleaning out gardens (slow process, they are very bad), planted a new veggie garden of 2400 sq ft! Yikes! and just putting the house together.  In a few weeks the kitchen will be torn apart for a remodel job.  Lots going on all the time and never a dull moment.

I've decided to put Weaver on hold until fall maybe.  I gave the boys a month off for the move and now I just have them doing math, devotions, and a simple geography workbook I found at Sam's and piano 3 days a week to keep their minds engaged.  I am looking forward to getting on some schedule and we are getting there slowly. I'm not even sure about fall since I got my garden in so late, I figure I'll be behind schedule for canning and such.  Have to play it by ear.  I did manage to find all my homeschool books and have found a good spot for them, at least for now.  Boy was everyone complaining about having to move all my books!!!

We got our baby chicks last Friday and are they cute!  We are now hoping to find a bottle calf Jersey milking cow, too and maybe a goat.  In the spring we will be getting a couple of piglets and some cattle for the freezer.

Gee, all this talk of the farm.  Maybe I should be on the homesteading blog site instead?  Naw.  This is learning at its best as far as I'm concerned.  It's good to get our noses out of the books and learn what is real.

God has so blessed us for this move.  It was difficult and a bit messy but we made it and we are having a ball.  I will have pictures soon. 

Today Aaron found baby praying mantises.  We have a lot of them to find, too.  The egg sacs are all over the place.  Very cool.  God's creation is all around us and it's fun to explore and learn about it.

We are nine days away from finally moving to the farm. It is not the farm below, but it is just as wonderful.  We are all excited and eager to get going.  Our packing is going well and the house is half empty.

God is so good and His timing is perfect.  It was hair raising at times, I'm not going to lie, but I tried to keep my faith that the Lord would carry us through and give us great things.  It was definately a test of waiting on the Lord. Whew! 

We started our break for about a month so I can focus on finishing packing and such and then of course the move and getting use to our new surroundings.  I figure after about a month, we'll find some little things to keep us engaged, math, science projects, just something to keep us fresh.

I'll be out of service for  awhile so I hope to have some pictures when I get back,

God Bless

Greetings!

It's been awhile and for good reason.  We've been trying to get moved and it is not going very well.  Our house has sold twice since I last wrote and we are suppose to close May 29th.  Now the pretty little farm below has been nothing but a bummer since the beginning.  So we don't know if we will end up there or not.  We also have started looking elsewhere and found another wonderful place in a different area.  I'd say we are running out of time here, but the Lord knows when the time will be.  I have complete faith that God will take care of us and plant us well.

In the middle of all this, I've continued to do lessons most days.  We are now in Vol 2 Chapter 8 with the focus on God's protection.  I ended up redoing the schedule for this one.  It just didn't initially flow for me.  So instead God decided we should break out each body system we are suppose to learn about and do a lapbook.  These have been fun.  I have to applaude being able to purchase lapbooks from either Currclick.com or Knowledgebox.com.  You can purchase ebooks for lapbooks, print them off on neat paper, and cut them out.  You still fill them in yourself and do the research but everything is right there for you.  Some ladies are awesome at lapbooks and spending the time coming up with ideas, well I'm just not good at that and I thank the Lord for these companies I can get materials from.  It's nice to break up things once in a while.

We finished our heart lapbooks and are continuing to gather our little books for the entire human body.  This one won't be finished for a while until we hit all the diffferent body systems.  We are adding to it with the entire cardiovascular system and the nervous system plus the brain.  I remember something in having to do with the eyes also.  I smell an eye dissection coming up!  Below are the pictures of the lapbooks.  I will add the heart my one son decided to make out of clay another day.  He's not finished yet painting it.

There is another page but this will not let me upload it.  Says I dont' have enough space whatever that means.  Maybe I need to clean out my picture folder.

Today we went to a park with a lake and did our lessons outside today.  It was a beautiful day early on.  Then the guys spent about an hour poking around to see what they could find in the water.  I wish I had more thought when I started to pack and not have put all my field guides away.  I did that since I thought we were ending up in a certain place.  Now I'm regretting that.  Oh well. 

Over the next two weeks we will continue to work on this chapter.  Next week will be the nervous system and the brain.  For our final week well will be doing the weaponry (catapults and such)  Sounds like fun.  This will put us a week and a half away from moving and I can concentrate on that then.

Please pray for us and that we continue to have faith in God's timing for everything.  We believe we are in God's will, but struggling with the timing. 

Yesterday we went to a Native American Indian museum for our field trip on the Volume 2 chapter7 study on Indians.  It was a great exhibit and hopefully the boys were able to get a glimpse of what life was like for them.  I was particulary interested in them knowing about the Indians that lived in our area.  I guess it's sort of difficult depending on what time period.  It seems there was a lot of pushing and pulling with the different tribes.

The boys have started to build a diorama of an Indian homeplace.  They both have tepees, but the Indians from our area lived in wigwams.  I guess we need to rethink that one!   Today, we'll focus on crafts and maybe food that they ate.  This museum was great in that it showed all of this stuff.  There was even a life sized wigwam and some 3rd grade kids had built a wigwam model for 6-10 family groups to live in.  Personally, I don't see how 3rd graders could have built these without a ton of adult intervention just having raised three of my own.  It was a wonderful project though and very detailed.

We also have been looking at the holidays and their orgins.  Each holiday I get hung up on something.  (see below for Christmas!)  For Easter, it's the timing of it.  Why do we follow the solar calendar for Easter and not the lunar?  I would think it should line up with the Hebrew calendar since Christ was crucified at Passover.  It just makes more sense to me and makes me realize how messed up we have become.  Seeing eggs all over the place and bunnies and such.  Ugh!  For Sunday school, my hubby and I did a Messianic Passover meal with the kids.  I went to the store to find a lamb made out of candy or anything that was a lamb to be in place of the real thing.  Do you think I could find any?  NOOOO! But there were sure lots of chicks, bunnies and eggs to choose from.

The boys also made bread and unleavened bread.  It turned out fabulous but they thought the unleavened was horrible.  We follow the recipe in the Weaver book and it wasn't very good at all.  I was thinking more along the lines of a tortilla but this was different.  Their bread turned out just great though.  It was fun playing with the yeast and watching it sponge.  I learned quite a bit about yeast I never knew before.  It amazes me how many things we take for granted and know nothing about!  I love homeschooling  I get smarter everyday!  I just hope my audience is too!

I'm wanting to finish off this chapter by the end of the week. Next week we'll take a spring break.  I'll need to figure out if I want to start the next chapter or not.  It's 25 days long and it would take us into May since we do co-op on Fridays.  Maybe we'll put Weaver away until after we move in May or until fall.  I was wanting to get to the tabernacle project for the summer and do the American History in the fall.  Not sure if it will work out that way.  I"ll need to look more closely at the next chapter and see if I can squash it into 16 days.  Then again, I would love to take the summer off and enjoy our new home. Decisions, decisions.

The purchase of the new place and the sale of ours seems to be rolling along just fine so far.  I've started packing and the boxes are piling up.  My hubby says I'll have it all done in the next week!  I doubt that, but I do want to pack at my leisure and not have to just throw things in boxes because I've run out of time.  I want to know what's in the boxes so I can find stuff at the other end.  My plan is to unpack on rainy days this summer and not focus too much on it.  Of course we have different needs at the new house.  Here, our computer station is built into a closet, so we'll need to come up with a compter area.  Here we have a couple of built in bookshelves, there we'll need to get more shelving put up.  I'll also need to set up our homeschool area.  Here we have a nice room with counter tops to do projects on and cabinets to store supplies and curriculum.  There, well I'm not sure what I will do. I have ideas though. 

One thing that I like but will be interesting is that the rooms have lots of windows.  We have them here too but I still have lots of wall space.  There, there isn't as much wall space to work with, especially in the bedrooms.  I may get my wish and the kids will just have to get rid of a lot of their stuff since there won't be much room to store it. Besides, they'll be too busy taking care of all the animals! 

We just started Volume 2 chapter 7 this week.  Again, due to the upcoming move, I seem very disjointed.  I did create a schedule for myself and it is working for the most part.  There is occassionally a disruption but really it's not so bad.

Today we were suppose to learn about yeast and bake bread and unleavened bread but we didn't get to it.  Tomorrow is the day. 

We have been using SWR for the last month and a half.  Boy is there a learning curve on this.  I really like it and I'm learning so much about our language and the boys are catching on to it also, but it does require me to spend a bit of time preparing for it.  It's worse and Weaver!  I love to plan Weaver, but this is hard to do.  The planning is easy, but it's implimenting it that is hard for me.  We 've been so relaxed over the past couple of years about spelling and such and now I know it's time to get moving on it.  It seems to help with waiting so you aren't reteaching the same thing over and over.  It seems that they catch on fast now.  There is automatic review built into the program which I like.  It's just sitting down to learn the next chapter before I teach it to them.  They are also at different levels so that makes it harder.  I do like the program though.

I've ordered the boxes for moving so I guess it's really happening!  I decided to buy boxes instead of running around looking for used ones at grocery stores.  I do not want to invest the time into that so I chose to buy them.  It's really not too bad if you do some research.  They should be here tomorrow.

Here's the new house

The newer barn

The old barn

I can't wait to spend time on the porch!

And how about hanging out at the pool!

And finally, a swing out by the pond overlooking the fields

God has been busy at our house lately.  His goodness is overflowing and wonderful.  This road we are travelling hasn't been without trials, but He has said we are to work for all good things.  This new life is a blessing from above.  May 30th is the big day.  I'll keep you posted as time goes along.

I can't believe it, we're moving onto our dream farm!  The Lord has been busy at our home lately and has sold our house in 6 days, and a contract on a beautiful farm in the country.  We'll have 16 acres, a large pond, an old farmhouse that's been redone (it's a peach!), a big pole barn with the old barn still standing.  It also has many mature fruit trees and vines and brambles that crank out produce.   There's eleven acres in alfalfa and fescue for baling.  We are soooo excited.  I'm not looking forward to packing up 14 years worth of stuff though 

Because of all of this craziness, our homeschool has suffered academically.  It has been hit or miss and I've been basically dumping their work on them saying, "Here, get'er done!"  This is not my style as I like to be very involved in the learning process.  So starting today, I have created a schedule for myself (horrors!) to keep myself on track the next 3 months until moving day.  I've been letting every little thing get ahead of my usual priorities of being with my boys.  No house stuff until after 1:30!  My mornings are dedicated to the boys and that's final! (Although tomorrow we do have to evacuate for the home inspection, but we'll just go to the library for our studies instead, sigh)  It would be a great museum day, but I'm broke until Friday. Oh well.

We are in the home stretch of Volume 2 chapter 6.  We'll be done with this one on Monday.  I've liked it well enough, but like I said, the house stuff really put a crimp in our days lately.  I feel disjointed so I need to get off of the computer and move on to my next activity to stay on track.

Pray for smooth sailing with all this house stuff.

I finally managed a family picture minus my daughter.  It's not very good so bear with me as I slowly learn how to do all this techy stuff.

My dd is home now and I'm so thankful for this.  It's great having her back.  She is enrolled in the local college and is trying to find a better job.  Besides wanting her own business, I've turned her on to possibly dog breeding.  So now she will be researching what breed to have and all the work and costs involved.  I'm actually excited about this since I love dogs so much.  This is only one business item she wants to do. She will look into other things and hopefully get a few things going.  I'm hoping we can come up with a family business together.  I feel she can thrive now and grow into young womanhood.  Now we just need to get the boyfriend back to college so she can have more focus

We will be starting back with Weaver on Monday and I can't wait.  I know we all need a break from our normal duties but I don't like it very much.  I didn't mind it last week but this week has been too long.

We had a wonderful Christmas and it was relaxing and meaningful.  No stress at all.  Loved it!  Christmas Eve we went to church to sing songs and worship the Lord, then we went for Chinese food that was totally delicious.  We came home and opened our gifts and had dessert.  Lovely.  Christmas morning was our stocking exchange.  This went really well.  All these years I've filled the stockings and nobody ever did mine so I bought my own stuff.  Well I decided that enough was enough and we drew names for the stockings.  It worked out very well and the kids had a ball at the dollar store to fill their persons stocking.  After this my dad came over and we had brunch and hung out at our house until evening.  I had cooked a roast in the crock pot to take over to my grandmas house for dinner since she doesn't drive anymore and lives a bit far to drive her back and forth.  It truly was a devine Christmas.

My picture is of us horsebackriging in the Blue Ridge Mountains in Georgia after Thanksgiving.  We had a grand time.  The image came out a bit weird in the trasfer so I need to get better at this.  Hopefully you'll see more of us in the future.

Happy New Year and may God Bless you in it.

I haven't been able to figure out how to bring in a photo.  I may try to do it the old fashioned way and click and drag it.  We did a family Christmas letter this year, the first greeting we have sent out in years.  I wanted to include photos on our letter and make it look really cool and have them be tilted and overlap and just have it look very nice.  Well, it's not that simple, at least for me, so we ended up with 2 photos at the end of out letter, side by side.  Kinda boring but at least for those who haven't heard from us for a while can see how the children have grown.  Maybe someday I will actually learn how to do all these cool things.

Lots has changed over the past few weeks.  My grandmas went home.  She didn't want to live wtih us AT ALL!  I was great having her for the time being and I think my boys and myself learned a great deal about servanthood.  No sooner did we ask her to stay and her declining our offer that I recieve a call from my DD.  She wants to come home from college to stay!!  YiPPPEEEEE!  The Lord does answer prayers.  So as of Friday she is now home, enrolled in the local college and will be looking for better emplyment.  She wants to try her hand at her own business.  I'm pretty excited about this for her.  Pray that she comes to know the Lord, has success in what she decides to do and stay close to the family.  Amen

We finished Vol 2 chapter 4 last week on inventors and inventions.  I kind of liked that chapter and I now see that it warms us up for the next chapter on leaders.  We will be looking at leaders from other countries, art, and writing.  We will also be learning about the plagues in Egypt during Moses' time.  I've decided that this feels like a notebook project, albeit a small one.  We'll even get to finish our lapbooks on Egypt since it was that plagues that were left to put in.  So after the first of the year, we'll dive into that one.

I've started a new spelling program called Spell, to Write and Read.  I'm really liking this so far.  It requires more from me but I love to teach my kids and this is one thing that we do one on one with.  I've already seen improvement in their cursive.  I've got them writing the phonograms in cursive as they are learning them.  My ds2 has really lagged behind in his spelling and I also see now that is why he doesn't like to read so much and his choice in reading levels is low.(around second grade)  I'm embarrassed to say that he tested at the beginning of 2nd grade level in spelling.  He's 10!  My other son tested right where he needed to be at the 6th grade level.  So it is clear to me now why ds2 is having trouble in other areas.  The kid can't sound out words very well, has been a poor speller and only enjoys reading at a low level.  I've prayed over this and the Lord has shown me what to do. Praise God.  I've felt like such a failure not being able to figure out what was wrong.  I've tried different spelling programs in workbook fashion and they were so rote and boring for all involved.  Plus I never saw improvement with him.  I figured that he never learned his phonics very well when he was in school in the first and early second grade before we pulled him out of school three years ago.  I've been trying to bide time and doing a more relaxed approach, which is more our style, but I'm seeing now that it just isn't working for him.  Trying to get him to read more complicated books and such is just frustrating him.  He has excellent speech, but the mechanics are awful.   Right now we are learning the phonograms and after the first of the year, we'll get into the actuall spelling part.  So far so great with both of them.

Math U See is going wonderful.  I really love this program.  Both boys are not in a comfort zone so that's good.  It means we've come to completely new concepts.  I'm hoping to finish their books in January to start the next one.

I guess I'm pretty much ready for Christmas.  I think my shopping is done (love the internet!) decorations are up, Christmas letter mailed, giving tree project completed, and tonight, I think we'll be doing our sugar cookies.  This year I think I've been pretty clever in gifts for the elderly on my list.  I gave them charitable donations to World Vision.  One grandpa got the one for clothing and necessities for children in America.  The other one got a donation for four chickens.  How fun is that?  I'm interested in seeing and hearing the reaction to this one.  In my previous blog, as you know, I'm sort of opposed to all this extra stuff at Christmastime.  I also don't like buying gifts for people I normally wouldn't be buying gifts for.  We don't exchange gifts any other time of the year, so why now?  It's so hard to buy a gift for someone you don't know very well.  So you end up buying a token gift hoping they like it.  Usually, the older people dont' need anything or really want anything for that matter.  So the donation idea seems a perfect solution for people who have everything and you don't know what to get them anyway, plus you're helping out a needy person. Can anyone explain to me the gift exchange part of Christmas?  I feel like I'm not on the same page as the rest of the world on this matter.  HELP!

Ok, i'm off my soap box for the time being.  I want to wish you all a very blessed Christmas.

This is how I feel about all the shopping going on and people complaining about too much to do and not enough time.  We have totally lost the focus here!! 

I hope I don't get in trouble for using this.  I think I copied all the credit that is due to the author.  I do love it and hope it helps to remind somebody of the meaning of this holiday.

Haptoon

We will be finishing our Thanksgiving unit study tomorrow and I will say it went quite well.  I purchased the unit study from Knowledge Box Central and it was worth it. I really like the idea of being able to download something like this and just print off what I need and for however many children it's for instead of having to make copies at the library.  This went very well even though we do not have a color printer anymore.  The boys just colored in the picures to liven it up!

It's fun to randomly ask them questions and to actually hear a correct answer.  I do believe lapbooking is beneficial, but I dont' think these guys necessarily appreciate it.  I guess they are not the artsy fartsy type like their mom.  I would have loved doing things like this as a kid. 

Some days we struggled to get through things and other days went smoothly.  We'll evaluate when we're done to see if I want to ever do any more of these.  I love how they turn out and they are so clever even though it's not their origianal work.  I envy those moms that can put together a lapbook project and find all these pictures and items to use and then decide what fold to do and where everything should go.  Whew!  I love how each book comes out differently.  My guy's books look similar because they used the same materials, the difference being in the coloring choices and what got written in each book.  When I figure out how to download a photo I will.

Tomorrow will be our wrap up and then we'll take a break through next week.  I've planned for us to go to the Chicago Art Museum and maybe skating at Millennium Park during our break.

For December we're using that web site that I mentioned in my last post.  I can't wait to start and have been trying to pull materials together for this.  I'm frustrated though because I can't get a hold of a lot of the books used in the study. I especially want Jotham's Journey and have found that it's out of print and I'm finding crazy people paying a ridiculous price for it on Ebay.  I'll wait for it to get republished, thank you.  So I guess I'll punt for book resources in the meantime.

What's so strange is that I go off on these little study tangents and in the back of my mind I can't wait to get back to Weaver.  I feel that strongly about it and it being God's calling for our family.  I have my days of doubt, but I'm led right back to it.  Praise God in all His wisdom for us.  He is sooo good.

I've been using my own abilities to decide what to do for my ds2 math.  He is almost finished with last year's program and I've toyed with switching him to a different book.  Now he is in Lifepac and I'm thinking of Horizons for him.  The Lord has instructed me to be quiet and wait.  Ok.  We'll see what happens.  I would love to hear from anyone regarding the two programs or anything else you use.  I know Horizons is aggressive and I've already tested him for this and know where to place him.  But for some reason I need to wait.  I'm also thinking of using the Saxon 5/4 for him that I started with my other son last year and he hated it.  Now he is in MUS and doing well and moving right along.  Any input would be great.

Have a Blessed Thanksgiving.

Today we will be starting our Thanksgiving unit study.  I'm using a lapbook package for each boy to fill out and make.  I purchased it from Knowledge Box Central (I think).  I am really starting to like getting Ebook type things so I can download them, save them and print off what and when I like.  At first I thought it would be too much for our printer, but now that we went totally black and white on the printer (laser) it's much better.  The kids can color in the pictures themselves.  So we'll work on that and read lots of books on people from that time.  I found in our own personal library these in particular:

Boys and Girls of Colonial Days by Carolyn Bailey

Dear America-A Journey to the New World, The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple

Squanto Friend of the Pilgrims by Clyde Robert Bulla

My Name is America-the Journal of Jasper Jonathan Pierce

Stranded at Plimoth Plantation 1626 by Gary Bowen

The Pilgrims of Plimoth by Marcia Sewall

Squanto's Journey by Joseph Bruchac

Stories of the Pilgrims by Margaret Pumphrey

then I can also pull things from:

A child's Story of America

In God We Trust

America's Providential History

Thanksgiving by Amanda Bennet

At this point I quit looking on our shelves.  I know I probably won't get through some of these, but at least I have a better grasp on what I actually have on hand.  Maybe next year we can do a lengthy study starting earlier in the season.  I've also got lesson plans from Beautiful Feet that I thought about using, but it's too long and I have other plans for December.  I'll save that for next year.

I made a lapbook of the boys insect study we did this summer.  They turned out pretty neat and when I take pictures, I'll try to figure out how to get them on here!  I'm not very savvy with the computer.

If anyone is looking for a neat Advent site check out www.teachingmom.com and go to the advent site.  I'm going to use this for the month of December as our study tool.  I wanted something to keep us grounded in the Lord over the Christmas season.  There is so much to do at that site and sure to keep all busy.  Someone passed this site along to me last year but it was on the late side and I couldn't get my act together soon enough to deal with it, but I'm excited this year and ready to go.

We finished our animal unit in Weaver yesterday and that went well.  We did a lot of field trips with this one.  I feel the only way to get to learn about animals is to see and touch them.  We are fortunate to have many historical farms around us although I would've loved to have gone to a dairy.  I don't know if there's one around here.  I decided that I want to find a cheese factory.  I remember these as a kid as we would go to Wisconsin.  They sure were stinky! But it left an impression on me forever.

It's been awhile since I've been here so I guess I'll give ya'll a catching up.

We had a terrific summer.  Our insect unit study went very well with God providing so many specimens and we didn't even have to kill any.  We hatched many different kinds of pupas, watched ants and observed monarch caterpillars in our prairie all summer.  Well summer is over and so are the insects, for now anyway.  With two boys, the insects keep on coming!

We started back with our Weaver studies after Labor Day.  I was definately itching to get back to it.  My boys had a different feeling since I had to deal with rebellious hearts the first week.  They were use to ouir lazy summer days of insect hunting and doing just math, that going back to our old routine just got off to a slow start.  Then to make matters worse, my ds2 crushed one of his fingers on his right hand.  That slowed us down for a little while.  He's doing fine now and we have to go to physical therapy 2xs a week for the next 4 weeks. Ugh!

We made it through Vol 1 Chpt 6 pretty much on schedule, minus the little setbacks in the first 2 weeks.  We are know finishing up chpt 7 on plants and that will be done by the end of the week.  This chapter took me awhile to get cozy to for some reason.  I'm a horticulturalist and I had trouble, go figure.  Well anyway, I finally got on track and we got our plant experiments going.  Praises for having a heat mat to germinate seeds in a hurry!  It's too cold out now for us to conduct our experiments outside, so we've got a little garden going on in the basement.  Several of the plants have been subjected to our "observations".

Ds1 is doing very well with his Math U See program.  I'm hoping to have him up to speed by December, January at the latest.  He is halfway through the 2nd book (beta?) right now and I figure he'll finish with it by the December or so.

Ds2 is doing fine in his Lifepac math.  He'll finish up last year's grade level in December so we can get him going on something new.  I have to keep on that one to complete his booklets.  He does not like math even though he is good at it.

Both guys are in Awana nad LOVING it!!  I was surprised, but they get right after their verses each day and get the work done.  What a relief!  I'm so happy for this.

They are also in a gym class twice a week so this keeps them busy and piano on Tuesdays.  I'm thankful we aren't any more booked than this.

Weaver is going much better for us this year and I'm much more comfortable with using a unit approach.  When I get stuck I take it to the Lord and He helps me sort it all out, just like He did with this plant study and it ended up going very well.  Sometimes I just need to let Him lead the way(ok, all the time).  Our next unit is animals and this looks like an easy one for us.  I'll keep you posted.

Ok, tomorrow I leave my family to go on a women's  vacation.  I have a wonderful friend who is flying me out to Colorado Springs for the Focus on the Family Truth Project. I'm very excited about going and seeing my friend, she lives in Arizona and I don't get to see her much or my family for that matter.  So I will get 5 fun filled days of R&R and probably plenty of the Word.

My daughter is at a band camp thing at Uof I until Saturday.  She called today saying it was ok, but was wanting to come home. Sniff  Well I told her it will be like this when and if she goes away to college.  She's complaining about the uncomfortable mattresses, the room is very frigid (they can't shut of the AC) and the tiny rooms!  At least she said the food was good.  I guess that could be a bright spot for her.

I want to make clear for those of you wondering, I did not homeschool her.  She will be a senior and has managed to make it through the system.  I've only homeschooled my two boys for the past year and a half and it's gone very fast.  They initially wondered about being pulled from psing, but realized very quickly how much fun we have.  Right now I'm being shown the butterflies that were captured.  Now if she had encountered any trouble I wouldn't hesitate to pull her in a heart beat.  I dont' anticipate any trouble, but you never know.  We may end up moving before her year is out, which I doubt, but if we do, I will homeschool her instead of putting her into a new school.  Most of her classes her senior year are goof off classes anyway!

Our insect study has been going well.  I'm amazed at how much I'm learning about insects and how God created them to be so complex.  We have spider containers around, butterfly containers(short term), we've looked at bug eggs under the digital microscope among other insect things.  DS2 had a fit when we tore the wings off of a dead cricket to find the parts that make them sing. Now keep in mind that only the males sing.  Unfortuately, I decided we had a female since we couldn't find the parts.  DS2 is becoming very sensitive to things like this. I wonder how we are going to get through high school biology?  DS1 and I are going in July to a class for shark disection. This will be so cool. I love this stuff!

We've been doing a lot of fishing and I'm so amazed at how adept the boys have become at baiting their own hook, casting, and taking off the fish by them selves.  It's so wonderful to be able to read on a blanket in the shade and watch them and take pictures of the catch.  DS1 has taken to checking books out at the library on fishing and tackle and bait.  Next month with his allowance he wants to get some lures.

I was pleased today when after we checked out our books, they wanted to go up to the second floor to read. Huh? Ok, who switched my sons and gave me ones that actually want to read?!  We spent a half and hour reading in silence. WOW!  They have been doing the summer reading program at the library so maybe the interest is finally getting into place. I really hope so. I pray that my boys will eventually love to read. Thanks public schools! NOT!

Now we have no church, our pastor and wife have moved away, and now we have no homeschool group.  God is definatley keeping me on my toes.  I have found anther group that looks interesting and they don't seem to be overly busy but yet have some great programs and ideas.  Even our old one is going to try to hang on some by only getting together every other month and make it theme oriented.  This feels much better to me.  I feel bad for the boys not having their weekly time with the other kids, but I know God will provide for them. It's been a strange summer as far as that sort of stuff goes.

Otherwise, I"m loving it all and loving every minute of my time with my kids.  I love homeschooling them and all the ups and downs.  Gotta go pack now!

We had a marvelous day yesterday.  It started off in the usual way with piano practice, Bible devotions, math and then our insect unit study, which we kinda abbreviated to shorten it up.  Well we only cut out one project because it seemed difficult to gather all the pieces to the project. What it was, we were suppose to catch 6 different flying insects and put them in paper cups and then place over the top a piece of wax paper and tie off with a rubber band.   We were to listen and determine which insect's wings moved faster and the different sounds they made.  It sounds like fun, but was intimidated with finding 6 different flying insects.  We have lots of different bees right now and the occassional butterfly, but that's it.  We're not in the thick of summer yet, so we are limited right now.  We'll probably get back to that one at a later date.

The boys decided they wanted to go fishing.  So they gathered worms out of their worm bin and I gathered blankets, and books, notebooks and colored pencils, field guides and some food.  We loaded up the truck and away we went.  The weather was perfect, I think around 80 at best with a light breeze.  I set up our blankets under a great shade tree close to the water so I can watch the boys while they fish.  It's great that they can bait their own worms and get the fish off their hooks.  I didn't get my license yet, so I told them I couldnt' do any of it or I'd get arrested! 

I got out my TT&T book (you Weaverettes know what this is) to read the first chapter so I can participate in the summer book club with all of you.  I had my Bible to look up the Scripture for myself on what Becky was writing about.  What a glorious day I was having.  It felt like that painting Sunday in the Park.

The kids caught a couple of fish.  There was tons in the water, even some really huge fish.  But they weren't biting today.  We know it's best to fish in the morning or evening, but hey, they were having a great time too.  One point in time, ds2 got a littel tired of fishing and got out a field guide to see what kind of tiny worms were falling on me under the tree.  I didn't have such a resource but he did find an earthworm experiment to do.  So he got out a worm to try the experiment with and had a ball doing that.

I couldn't talk either of them into notebooking. Oh well.  I think I'm going to have to start it first so they catch on to how fun it can be.

My daughter and I went on Sunday to a friend's house to learn about stamping and making cards.  My daughter is wonderful in making cards and utilizing different paper and baubles to make cards so I thought she would love to create these.  We had a nice time together and learned a lot and became overwhelmed with all the Stuff for this.  I guess this is why I never got into scrapbooking because of all the stuff you can collect to do this hobby.  I doubt I will ever get into scrapbooking, but I do like the card idea and may start with a small starter kit to play with.  What fun!

We were at the library today and the kids are going to participate in the summer reading club.  I hope I can motivate a certain little boy into reading.  The other one is gung ho about it.  They also had to offer a passport to museums book.   Inside is listed all these museums and nature centers and such to visit and you get a stamp for every place you go.  After a certain amount of stamps they get a prize.  I was amazed at all the free places to go.  We like free stuff.   So I think we'll be busy visitiing many of these places.  I figure we could hit one a week.

I'm excited about summer and hopefully we can get around some and learn together.  God Bless to Everyone!

I love it when prayers get answered!  Yesterday, the kids and I were on our way to a garden center, one of many we had been to this week, looking for certain supplies I needed to complete a job yesterday.  I was pretty sick and tired of looking for what to me was a common thing only to find that everyone is out of it already.  (Didn't the planting season JUST start?)  So like I said, we were on our way to the umpteenth store early in the morning.  On the way I prayed that the store would have what I was looking for and that I could complete this job today and not have to make several trips back.  Well, I got to the store and HALLELUJAH (I do not know how to spell that one!) not only did they have what I wanted, they had multitudes of what I was looking for and in many sizes and shapes, etc.  It was like a surplus! I was so excited! So we quickly made our purchases and headed out to the customers house.  The planting of the containers went without a hitch, I had enough plants, planting mix and liners and such, which was a first.  I finished the job and cleaned up just in time for it to start pouring!  We had just got into the truck and the Lord let loose!  WoW!  I just couldn't believe how good the Lord was to me yesterday.  It was so beautiful.

Today we went to see Tom Sawyer which was put on by Christian Youth Theater.  They did a great job and the boys were actually entertained.  In the past they would eventually get bored even at musicals and start to complain.  I don't know, maybe it's a maturity thing that they finally actually enjoyed themselves and clapped along with the music and such.  We had a great time.

This afternoon, we investigated a nest a friend mailed to me from Mississippi.  It is a cardinal nest and it was interesting to see the difference between it and a robin's nest.  DS1 said the main difference was there wasn't any mud used in the construction.  He also found yesterday, a tiny green blue egg which I believe is an Eastern Bluebird egg.  Golden Finches also lay the same egg, but it's not their nesting time.  It's small like a jelly bean.  It's quite cute.  Then after we looked at the nest and how it was built, we took apart 2 owl pellets.  It was fun seeing what was in each one.  We decided there were voles and some other rodents in there.  It was hard to decide what bones belonged to what.  They piled them on top of the chart so we could try to ID the animals the owl ate.  We are waiting on our caterpillars to arrive for our butterfly habitat.

What a weekend.  I helped out our high school youth group with the 30 Hour Famine.  The kids raised over $3000 for World Vision.  What an accomplishment.  This was my first time fasting and I want to share a testimony about it.

When I became involved with the youth, just a few weeks ago, I hadn't even planned on even attending the event.  Then I decided to at least go on Friday evening  and fast from 6pm until the next morning. I thought, hey, why not?  Well, I felt totally led by the Lord to do the whole thing! I started at 12:30pm on Friday and stayed with the kids the whole time. We had a blast and they were great.  We spent a great deal of time worshipping the Lord, small groups, and private devotion time.  Then we played a game called Commandos.  This was great fun for all.  Needless to say the kids wore out, which I couldnt' believe, and they were no trouble to get them to settle down for the night.  The next day we had more of the same as Friday evening with another worship service, small group and private devotions.  Then we headed out to do service projects and random acts of kindness which were wonderful.  I especially loved the random acts of kindness.  This is were each group, I think there were 4, had a special act to do.  Our was to go to a resturant and pay for someone's bill anonymously.  Others bought groceries for the food pantry, paid for someones groceries, and the last one was to go into a restuarant and order water then leave saying you have to go for some reason and leave the server a huge tip.  We met back at the church and had free time and clean up time.  Then we had worhip again with communion and then we ate at 6:01pm.

Now I know I'm not suppose to talk about these things, but I wanted to share how God led me from not even wanting to go to fasting and being there for the whole event.  (actually I did leave for 2 hours to see my daughters concert, then returned, no I didn't cheat)  I felt so lead to be there and take part in the most disciplined thing a Christian can do to commune with God.  The amazing thing was I didn't feel that hungry, but I had a hard time getting past just wanting to chew on something with flavor.  I wanted one of those Willy Wonka Full Course Meal gums.  I feel so blessed to be able to be with our Lord in such a humbling way.

Today I had to start to purchase plants for customers that I have to do plantings for by the end of the week.  The weather is not going to cooperate very well so I guess I'm going to get wet.  Tomorrow the guys are going fishing with their dad, he took the day off so I can then finish my purchasing and maybe even get some of the planing done.  I have two projects to complete for graduation parties.  Thursday we are going to a play to see Tom Sawyer.  So our week is full.

I let ds2 pick out a cell of annuals he wanted to plant and he chose Crackerjack marigolds.  He actually planted them all by himself and even picked out some seeds and planted those, too.  he even put the little tags next to the plants. He was so cute. I managed this afternoon to do a little weeding and I trimmed the tulips down.  It's so sad when they are done.  I've got a bit of a lull in the gardens now, but not for long!

What a weekend!  Except for Saturday, thank goodness, this house has been full of people.  On Friday, we had our bible study here.  Our group was smaller than usual, but still it requires of me to put the house in order and make food of some type.  Don't get me wrong, I love doing this and hospitality is my spiritual gift.  I love the people in our bible group.  We have really made quite a bond with each other.  I felt bad for our pastor and his wife though. There son started feeling ill so they left and didn' get a half mile down the road when IT happened. So they had to come back to get items for cleanup.  This group is so supportive of one another. If you're having a bad day or need extra support in an area they are there for you. We look forward to our Fridays.

Saturday, we ended up at ds2 karate test.  Since he is testing for a higher belt the testing is different.  I couldn't believe it when the testing ran for 3.5 hours!! I was not informed it woudl take that long.  I ended up sending dh and ds1 home.  The bonus was that afterwards we went and found a Dairy Queen that was open. YEAH!

Sunday was wonderful.. Not only did I get to start my day with the Lord but it just kept getting better.  Our Friday bible study group was a focus group for the week so we had a wonderful spread of food for everyone to eat. What a blessing and I actually got out of that one.  Everyone on Friday turned to me for making food items and I actually said no because of my preparing for a dessert social.  So amazingly enough, people provided.  We had a wonderful guest speaker in church and we sang all my favorite songs. 

 My dd has agreed to do the fasting service project with the youth group. I think she will have a great time.  The kids start fasting at 11:30 on Friday afternoon on March 10 then get together later at a local church and do a sleepover.  They will do activities and service projects adn be supportive of one another. They break the fast at 5:30pm Saturday with communion and then food. I think she will have a blast and I hope she comes to Jesus, too.

After service, my dh and I went out for a quick lunch.  It was very nice to be able to do that with no children in tow.  We do treasure our alone time.  After which, we went home to prepare for our church dessert social.  Actually it wasn't too bad since the house was already clean from Friday and I had made a cake on Saturday.  We had quite a turn out. I was so pleased to see so many come over.  This is geared for new comers with members coming also.  It's our way of getting the new people in the church connected in.  I had great conversations with people I normally don't get to talk to.  The bonus was when the youth leader took my daughter aside.  This was a surprise to me and it seems to be a secret since they wouldn't tell me what was going on after.  They spent a good deal of time together.  I hope and pray for my dd that she will find the Light a lot faster than I did.

After everyone left we ran off to a pack meeting for cub scouts at the YMCA.  They had open gym, swimming, and climbing wall open for us.  The kids had a blast.  We had a fun filled weekend. Now it's time to get back to work. lol

Our library is open today and we are excited to go and see it.  After karate we're heading over there to check it out.  It's been closed all month and we've felt lost without it.  They did a great job filling our homeschool bag with the books we need.  They have this program where you fill out a form with subjects being taught, age levels and any specific titles you want and turn it in.  After four days you pick up your bag.  They did a fantastic job.  I'll be doing that again and it saved me a lot of time.

Also today we have a cub scout meeting at Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.  This should be fun.  They get to see the behind the scenes and dip candies and then get to bring candies home. yum.

I don't know what's going on in my house tonight, but my boys are both really into reading the Bible and asking questions about different stories.  My youngest has opened to Proverbs 24:17 and is copying the verse on the computer and my older son is reading his book on Revelations.  This is kinda weird.  We talk about our Lord all the time and incorporate Him in most of what we do, but this is funny and totally spontaneous The Holy Spirit is at work here tonight.

Another strange thing that has been happening this week is that the younger one has been practicing his piano without any prompting and doing it for a long time each day.  He was so proud of himself when his teacher gave him his sticker today and a job very well done.  His dad asked him how he got the sticker and he said because I practiced a lot.

I just got a note from my son saying they read and copied Revelation 6:1. Ok, this is really strange, but I love it.  Isn't this what I've been striving for? To raise godly sons?  Well I know I have a long way to go but I'll take it!

Anyway, I have to get some children to bed for the night. God Bless