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It has been pretty busy 'round here. This past week we were trying to finish up school for the rest of this semester. (Long story short...we take six weeks off during the winter and a shorter summer break.) Andrew will have to work on school next week because he didn't finish it last week. We are all ready for a break. So, no more school until after New Year's. Yeah! Friday we had homeschool co-op day. We won't be having it again until after New Year's. I'll miss it, but it'll be nice to have a break. After co-op David and I went home with Jaime. Elijah and Simon wanted David to come home with them. So, I started acting like it wasn't fair that he was getting to go with them....I was teasing Jaime and Mom (b/c that is the way David acts whenever I go somewhere). I hope they didn't think I was reallly acting that way...I was just playing around. Anyway Jaime then says, "Well come on." So, I said okay. (Actually the whole time I was thinking..."Oh, I really don't want to go, but I don't want to hurt her feelings." Ha-Ha! Just kidding, Jaime!) So David and I went home with her and I tried my best to help her out in any way I could because we were gettting ready to go over to her sister's house. She had to make broccoli soup to take over there, but every time I asked to do something she was like no, no...I don't need any help...go play with the baby. Finally she let me unload the dishwasher and load it back up, I helped best I could with the soup, and of course I tried to keep the baby out of her way...who could turn him down? Elijah and Simon had a great time with David and he had a great time too. I bet you're thinking, "Is she done yet?!" Not yet, but almost. Okay so then we go over to Robin's house for a family night. (It is something that they are going to do once a month.) Oh I had a great time! We ate chili and broccoli soup, chocolate cupcakes, and chocolate covered rice krispie balls. Yum! After supper we played Capture the Flag outside. It was dark outside, so some of the little kids were scared. The game was a lot of fun...even if every one didn't know how to play. We played board games, talked, ate again and again...just had a great time. It turned out to be just us, JD, Jaime, and their kids, Robin and Anthony's family, and one other family from church. Can't wait until next time! And I meant to take pictures ,but I was having so much fun I just completely forgot about it. Oh well! Today we're just being lazy. Dad isn't feeling too good and oh yeah, David sprained his ankle last night while playing Capture the Flag. It looks like a big goose egg on the side of his ankle. So, he has been laid up on the couch all day. We watched the Alabama game. They won, of course! This week we'll be getting ready for Thanksgiving. MawMaw is spending this holiday with us again. Can't wait until Wednesday when she gets here. Tuesday we're going to Elijah's 6th birthday party. It's a bowling party. We've been wanting to go bowling for forever. I'm going to take my camera and get pictures. Okay, I am officially done now. Have a great Thanksgiving, everyone! |
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Here are some pictures that I've been meaning to put up for some time. It's just been pretty busy 'round here. These are from when Jaime, JD, and their three boys came over one Sunday for dinner. They brought their pony and cart for the kids to ride. What a great time we had! It was a beautiful day out and riding the pony was fun...except when he wouldn't move for me, so I finally gave up and got off. Dad and Andrew built a fire, so it was nice to sit 'round it, Morgan and I had fun watching Titus, Mom and Jaime went for a walk 'round the place, ate good food...Great times, great times...
Andrew and Elijah
Simon, Elijah, and David getting ready to go for a ride
Patches
Daddy--doesn't he look hilarious riding that small cart and pony!
Titus-- isn't he adorable!
David
Titus exploring the chicken house *Sorry I have no pictures of Morgan. She didn't want her picture taken that day and you'll never get to see me because I'm always the one behind the camera. |
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What if the armies of the Lord, Picked up and dusted off their swords, Vowed to set the captives free, And not let satan have one more What if the church, for heaven's sake, Finally stepped up to the plate, Took a stand upon God's promise, And stormed hell's rusty gates What if His people prayed, And those who bare His name, Would humbly seek His face, And turn from their own way And what would happen if we prayed, For those raised up to lead the way, Then maybe kids in school could pray, And unborn children see light of day What if the life that we pursue, Came from a hunger for the truth, What if the family turned to Jesus, Stopped asking Oprah what to do What if His people prayed, And those who bare His name, Would humbly seek His face, And turn from their own way He said that they would hear, His promise has been made, He'll answer loud and clear, If only we would pray If My people called by My name, If they'll humble themselves and pray, If My people called by My name, If they'll humble themselves and pray What if His people prayed
Pray....do you do that every day? I will admit I do not always. We just started attending a small group Bible study and a few weeks ago JD gave everyone a self-examination checklist. I must say...it was really convicting. It got me to thinking about my walk with God. Do I pray every day? I do not pray enough. Seems like a lot of times we pray only when we need something and when we sit down to eat a meal. Maybe it is just me who does that...I don't know...but we get so caught up in life that we don't take the time to do the things we should be doing. Like...reading your Bible every day...not read a chapter or two real quick and then be done...when you read the Bible, do you give it time to speak to you? Anyway, all this has been on my mind and while I was thinking about all of these things this song came to my mind. It's one of Casting Crowns' songs. "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14 |
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Here are some pictures from a couple of weekends ago at JD and Jaime's house. They have three little boys, Elijah, Simon, and Titus.
Baby Titus
Isn't he cute!
Elijah and Simon
Titus And here are some pictures of Croix and Jacqui's three kids, Lilli, Lane, and Lijah. I watched them one day last week while Mom and Jacqui went grocery shopping together. I had a great time watching them. They are all such sweet and well-behaved kids!
Lilli
Lilli
Lane
Lane
Baby Lijah
Lijah
Lijah--he had so much fun playing in the leaves |
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Monday was my eighteenth birthday. I had a great, great day! I woke up around six am...which is rare for me...so I came downstairs to go ahead and get my shower. The first thing I saw was all of my presents on the table. And this is what I saw...
All of my presents were wrapped in this monkey wrapping paper! I couldn't keep from laughing...it was so cute. I decided to go to Cracker Barrel in Corydon for breakfast. It actually ended up being lunch, but some of us still chose to have breakfast. After that we went to the Red Barn Antique Mall. We had never been there before and I thought it would be fun to look at all the antiques. I love that place! They had so much stuff...I wanted to buy at least one thing, but I couldn't make my mind up. Mom bought herself a brown, antique pottery crock and she also bought a smaller creme-colored one, which wound up being one of my presents. (I just thought she was buying it for herself.) Then we went down to the square to walk around it and go in some of the shops down there. I did wind up buying me something from another antique store (pic is below). Oh, and then we went to one of our all time favorite stores...can you guess?...Tractor Supply! They are starting to get their home decor again, so that is what Mom and I look at. I had a great time. I love walking around the square during the fall because the trees are so pretty and the leaves are all over the ground....it is just so pretty. Before we left town, I called the house to see if anyone had left any messages and there was a message from a florist saying they had a delivery for Lauren and they needed directions to our house. The whole time I was thinking ,"Who on earth would be sending me flowers?! I have no boyfriend, who would be sending me flowers!" So, we called the florist and the shop happened to be across the street from where we were, so I went and picked them up. They wound up being from Jay and Angie, my aunt and uncle! The flowers are so pretty. So, we came home and I opened all my presents from Momma and Daddy. I got a lot of stuff for my hope chest. They also got me two books, Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens ( I love his books) and Unafraid by Francine Rivers. Unafraid is about Jesus' mother, Mary, and it is the last of the Lineage of Grace Series. The first four were about Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba. In the back of each book there is a six-part Bible study on each woman that you can do. I love all four books. Now I have the complete series! And Morgan, Andrew, and David got me the movie Love Takes Wing. It is the seventh movie of the series, Love Comes Softly. They are based upon the series of books, Love Comes Softly, by Janette Oke. MawMaw also got me an umbrella with the Alabama football team's logo on it, but I don't have a picture of it. Can't wait to use it! =) Here is what all I got to go in my hope chest --
sifter-- I could never get a good picture b/c every time I took a picture you could see the flash reflecting on the sifter. So, I cropped this out of another picture.
antique wooden recipe box
here is the box opened up
wooden rolling pin
wooden biscuit cutter
antique pottery crocks--the one on the right was the one she found on the day of my birthday. It's an exact match, just smaller.
oval platter that goes with my dishes--she found this at an antique mall and it is from when they were still making the dishes in the USA. I couldn't get a good shot of the platter, so I decided to use this one. I have no idea why I was making that face!
salt and pepper shakers--Mammie bought me these
set of 3 wooden candle stick holders--this is what I bought myself at the one antique shop And here is my pretty, yummy yellow cake with chocolate icing
What a great 18th birthday I had. Thank you, Momma and Daddy, for putting up with me for all these years! I love you both so much. Andrew, Morgan, and David...I love you guys to death! Thank you all for all my presents. I am so grateful to God for these wonderful eighteen years he has given me and I pray for many, many more. He has blessed me so much and I just praise him. **Mom has also put up a post about my birthday. Go look at pictures of me growing up... www.homeschooblogger.com/simplify |
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Okay, so in case you haven't noticed, the pictures on my blog and Mom's are showing up again. Yeah! We were having some difficulties with photobucket, but now every thing is back to normal (hopefully). I have pictures from my birthday, so I'll be working on that post. Have a great day! |
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So, in case you haven't noticed the pictures on my blog are not showing up. We are having some difficulities with photobucket...hopefully we can get them back up soon! Not much going on today...just being lazy...good day to just rest. Friday we had some friends over for dinner. We had a great time! There were two babies, Titus and Lijah, and I had a great time watching them. I tried to watch both of them the whole night so that all the parents could talk...I think I managed prettty good. We had a ton of food and we still had leftovers. I mixed up a batch of chocolate chip cookies to bake, but we had so much dessert I didn't even get to cook 'em. That was okay though...we had plenty of desserts. Saturday we watched football all day. Alabama almost didn't win, but Cody saved them! Mom was gone for a lot of the day...she went out with a friend. Sounds like she had a good time. I cleaned the house back up from Friday, played games with Morgan and David, baked those cookies. We had plenty of leftovers from Friday, so that is what we had for lunch and dinner. Tomorrow is my 18th birthday...yeah! Still not sure as to what we are going to do. I think we may go out to eat for breakfast at Cracker Barrel, but I haven't decided yet. Well, the chili is ready to eat, so I am gettting off of here. |
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What a crazy, crazy week this has been!! I really should be in the bed right now...seeing how it is one o'clock in the morning...but...I'm not tired...yet! I guess you read Mom's blog ( Rif), so I won't go into what all has gone on this week...but here is a long story short...Dad took van to shop to get worked on (on Monday--got it back Thursday), Morgan has had an awful swimmer's ear infection all week, now Andrew has a runny nose and sore throat, Wednesday Troy and Rhonda called and said they were an hour away from our house, so they were coming out--drop everything we're going to clean the house real quick--then they call back after a while and say they got a load (truck drivers) and weren't going to be able to come! (Sad that they couldn't come...it's been April since we've seen them), then this morning Mom leaves with Dad to get the van and so David came upstairs to wake me up...supposedly...he said he woke me up and I was talking to him, but I don't remember (I'm very hard to get up in the morning)...anyway that was at six thirty, he comes back up at nine and tells me he has to go let the chickens out and feed them and the dogs...okay...he goes out, comes back in and there is a guinea missing! We found several trails of its feathers, but no body. (Eventually we find its body.) And the culprit is...ZEUS!! ( He was the dog out at that time and he killed another guinea a while back.) See, we are supposed to go out between seven and eight and let the chickens out and swap the dogs...because Zeus is only supposed to be out at night...well after David came up at 6:30 he fell back asleep and didn't wake up until 9 when he came back up to get me! So, Zeus was left out with the five guineas, now four. So, now the question is...what are we supposed to do with him? Can't keep him...I feel awful because it was my fault for not waking up this morning, seeing how I am the oldest and was in charge. And tomorrow we have the homeschool co-op and then are going over to some new friend's house to have dinner and hang out--they have three little boys. So, the reason I'm still up is...I don't know why I'm up, I've been watching TV. At least I'm not the only one up...Mom just finished making peanut butter pie (for tomorrow). We're taking chocolate cake too, but I already made that. Anyway...that isn't really a long story short is it? I don't care! It's 1:30 now and I am officially sleepy! Goodnight y'all!!! |
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This past Sunday we had some new friends over for dinner. What a great time we had! They are also homeschoolers. Jacqui is our drama teacher at the homeschool group we are a part of this year. Which, by the way, she is doing a great job with teaching the class. She is a lot of fun and I am having a great time in the class. She and her husband, Croix, have three children. They are all younger than us, but age doesn't matter. I love little kids, we all do! They are such sweet, fun, well behaved children. The youngest is a year old and I had a great time watching him. We have an attic that we turned into a toy room and the two oldest kids, Lily and Lane, loved that. The time flew by so fast...before we knew it is was 4 o'clock and they had to leave. I am looking forward to more chances to get together! I am so thankful to God that we have new friends. And here are some pictures that I took this past weekend. I haven't had many pictures to put up because...I dunno...I haven't had anything to inspire me...is that what I am trying to say?? Taking pictures of chickens over and over can get old and no one in this house likes having their picture taken so...Anyway...here they are...I was walking out in the field and saw these purple flowers all by themselves and thought they were so pretty.
Mae Belle |
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For history I had to write a report on someone famous from the country I had picked for the Nation Project. So, my country being Australia I picked Steve Irwin. I love watching his show, "The Crocodile Hunter," and I thought it would be neat to write about him. Here is just a small summary of my report. I don't feel like typing the thing over again! " I am a proud Australian, a very, very proud Australian." Steve Irwin Steve Irwin was a wildlife expert, conservationist, and TV show host. He was born in 1962 in Victoria, Australia. Both his parents had a deep love for animals, thus where his love for them stemmed off. He caught his first venomous snake at the age of six and wrestled his first crocodile at the age of nine. He married his wife Terri, originally from Oregon, in 1992. Instead of the traditional honeymoon, they went on a trip filming a wildlife documentary, "The Crocodile Hunter." Thus, that is how he got his nickname, 'The Crocodile Hunter.' Steve and Terri had two children, Bindi Sue and Robert Clarence. He named his daughter after two of his favorite animals -- Bindi, a saltwater crocodile, and Sui, his Stafforshirre Bull Terrior. Also, the name Bindi is an Aboriginal word meaning "young girl." Steve and his wife filmed over 150 episodes of "TheCrocodile Hunter" and many other TV shows. He was as enthusiastic about his family as much as he was about his work. The Wildlife Warrior died on September 4, 2006, at the age of 44, while snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef filming a documentary. As he was swimming over a stingray, the stingray felt threatened and pierced him in the chest with its barb. His mission was to save the world's endangered species. Steve Irwin died doing what he loved the most, rescuing and watching animals.
Steve said, "Born a wildlife warrior, die a wildlife warrior."
The Crocodile Hunter
Steve with wife Terri and their two children, Bindi and Robert |
