• Dec. 5, 2009
Twitter

I'm now on Twitter.....

If you wanna follow me, send me an email / message on here and I'll give you my screenname or whatever you call it! LOL!

I feel so old and out of the loop..... :{

Guess this is one way to see who of my friends reads this! HA!

:)

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• Dec. 5, 2009
Update on G Man

I'll just post and update on each of my beautiful children individually! 

So, my little guy.... he will be 8 in just a few days (Dec. 20). So hard to believe.  This is my baby boy... he's always been a little on the small side so for many years he felt 4-5 for the longest time. Now as I look at him he is actually looking his age and acting it too.  With his hearing loss, his verbal skills were low as well, which helped my perception of his youth!  Not so much anymore.  He's talking so much better and using bigger words too. 

So the week before Thanksgiving, he was running/playing in a tubes area in our church and fell.  He landed palm down on his left hand.  He always cries pretty intently when he gets hurt, so I've learned to not over react.  So of course, when I saw him crying I went over and was like "you'll be ok".  Well he kept crying so I encouraged dad to love on him and I walked away.  This was right before church service was to start.  My hubby kept kinda eyeing me like something isn't right.  I was like sure he is..... thinking "you've been out of town, he's just looking for added sympathy!"  But when my dh gently touched his wrist and he dropped to his knees, I thought, hmmm...maybe he's not ok, but can we just wait to see how he is later!   Can you say I was feeling a bit selfish?  Well, dh was pretty insistinent that we take him to the ER.  So off we went, missing church!  Still feeling selfish... :(  Low and behold we get in there and they Xray it... it's fractured!! OMG!  So they give him a splint and send us on our way.  He's now in a cast until Dec. 15.  Then he'll be splinted for another few weeks after that.  AND we were in the middle of taking gymnastics.  Not anymore!  He'll be good to go back to gymnastics about mid-January!  The cast has NOT, I repeat, NOT slowed him down one bit!  He is still running, jumping, playing rough and if you don't watch him, you'll get swatted with that cast!  It hurts!

We had Thanksgiving and then he lost a tooth!  He now looks like a major snaggle tooth.  His other front tooth is also loose but because the other one has come out, it seems to have moved over, almost in the middle of where his two front teeth are... I'll have to post a pic. 

His school studies are going good....we were doing REALLY good on handwritting till the broken wrist came along (he's a lefty).  So he is getting a break on only that.  But his reading is going great!  His math isn't too bad either.  I'm working on getting him to be more independant.  Like I can now say 'go get your math book and do the next worksheet!!'  Yeah!!!  I think he is retaining most things we read about.  I notice if it is read too fast to him, he doesn't comprehend it.  It has to be small, small bites of info.  But hey, I'm like that too! 

Well, I think that is it on him for now.... I'll be back later!

C~

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• Dec. 5, 2009
Blog Hiatus.....

Ok, so I've taken a hiatus from blog thing.... I guess feeling a little "woe is me"... like who reads this anyway and what's the point...but a sweet girlfriend of mine very sweetly said "I read it!"  So guess I need to just keep plugging away...

I guess there really has been a lot that has happened over the last month plus and I've missed oppotunities to keep record of it! 

I'll end with this for now and back track in my mind to see what else I should post! 

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• Oct. 28, 2009
Update on Mom in Tubes

I'm happy to share that Sunday evening I got an unexpected phone call to work in the childcare at church.   When I got there this event was not even on my mind.  After my dd and I finished watching babies, she asked if she could go pick up her brother.  She quickly returned saying that the woman was at the end of the line and she refused to go get him.  So I asked her to show me who this woman was, she was very reluctant, but she pointed her out to me.  So I kinda followed her for a few minutes, until she went back into the sanctuary and sat down.  I almost just left and was gonna wait until next week, but it was as if God said no don't wait.  So I walked up to her and introduced myself to her.  I began to tell her what I thought had happened the night before and about my daughter.  For a split second, she started to say how my dd was following her child around the area and telling him to stop, then she paused and said "but I could have responded differently to her".  She then asked if my dd was here and if she could talk to her, she wanted to apologize!!  We walked to where my dd was and my poor dd was so nervous she didn't want to come to me, but I coaxed her over and they talked, she told her how sorry she was and that she had a bad day, but should not have responded to her that way!  She asked if they could be friends!!  Also told her to please, please forgive her and to say hi to her when she sees her at church!  It was a precious forgiveness!!   God is SO good.... my dd totally sees God in this situation!  How cool is that for an 11 year old.  It was painful, but he made it beautiful!

Blessings to each of you!! :)

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• Oct. 25, 2009
A mom in the tubes!

My ds had a friend spend the night last night and around midnight I decided to go upstairs and help get beds together for them.  As I was digging in the closet, I  heard "How was church tonight?"  I immediatley walked over to my daughter and just asked her that question.  The look on her face would make any mother's heart sink!  I could immediately tell something wasn't right!  She said, well, can we talk in my room?  So we walked into her room and she began to cry and tell me what had happened prior to church service.    We have a "tubes" area in  our church for the kids to climb on and play before and after services.  Kinda like a McDonald's play place!  Only kids 10 and under are allowed to play in the tubes.  My dd loves to sit in there on the couches and interact with the younger kids, especially 3 and under.  They have a small section cornered off for the crawlers jus so the big kiddos don't trample them!  :)  She was sitting over in this section drawing, reading when she noticed a boy about 7-9 swinging some large foam blocks in a very aggressive manner. She kindly asked him to stop, he kept on.  She told him that he would hurt a small baby if one were there and he really should stop.  He continued.  He then gave a long glance towards what was his mom (my dd had no idea his mom was in there).  She then very sternly, snapped at my daughter and said "well then YOU leave".  So my precious dd left w/o questioning her.  She said she wanted to question her but because she was an adult she just left.

My daughter is sobbing like I've never heard while she is telling me this last night and my heart is just breaking that this mom would be so mean to my daughter.  I asked her why she didn't come tell me, she said she didn't know how and she sat on it to try and figure out the lesson from God.  But all through her service, she couldn't figure it out.  While we were both crying and talking about it she said that now she thinks the lesson was for  her to depend more on me and tell me more things.  I reassured her that I didn't ever want her to be scared / timid to tell me something regardless of how big, small it is.  This is such a critical age and I hope that even in this hard lesson we can keep our door of communication open! 

I'm planning on trying to find the woman who spoke to my daughter that way and simply ask her why she responded in that way.  I'm praying that she will feel convicted and offer an apology before we have an opportunity to seek her out.  I'm not 100% on who she is, but I think I know....

This whole thing just floored me that a mom would respond so snippetly towards another child who was trying to do good.   On the other hand, I'm SO thankful that I heard the Holy Spirit tell me to ask my dd about church, cause I had no inclination that somehting was wrong and probably wouldn't have asked..... THANK YOU GOD!!!

I pray everyone would be a Christ like example to everyone you are around!!

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• Oct. 20, 2009
Our God Moment for Today

Yesterday was my mom's birthday, while we didn't have a chance to connect with her yesterday, we thought we'd surprise her today.  We stopped by her house when we thought she'd be home from work--she wasn't there.  While sitting there waiting, Gentry began to tell me that he wanted to be baptized.  So I told him, he needed to accept Christ into his heart first.  He asked what that meant.  So I explained it meant to believe God was in your heart and that he was Lord and Savior of his life.  He said I do believe that.  He said he wanted to go home and be "bathtized" in my bathroom!  I said, no we do that at church and we'll have to talk to the Children's Pastors about that!  :)  He really kept wanting to talk about how it was that he accepted Christ into his heart.  I asked several times if he really believed it or was he just repeating me?  He said he really believed that God was in his heart and he would help him to make right choices and he'd ask him to forgive him if he had sin!  We talked for about 5 or so minutes about it. 

I can't believe I was able to lead my son to Christ!!!  Unbelievable!!

Amen!!

Blessings!!
Christy :)

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• Oct. 13, 2009
Where has the time gone......

Where has the time gone... I can't believe it has been three weeks since I have blogged.  Gees......It's not that nothing has happened.... plenty has taken place in our home the last few weeks....

The kids are great!  Homeschooling is still going very well!  I'm seeing some progress in my ds.  We've been working through "teach your child to read in 100 lessons".... we're on about lesson 23, not too bad for only 9 weeks into it! ;) I think!!   He's now reading the short stories on the lessons, doing well on sounding out words too!  It interjects handwritting at almost every lesson.  He does pretty good with that.  Some days he acts all put out and tired and just exhausted at the fact of having to write something !!  But I remind him, I need his very BEST then he can go have free time and play!  He generally perks right up and digs in.  Working with him every day, I'm able to recognize when he is having problems in math.  So instead of moving on in the book, I've been kinda stalling with him on skip counting, missing numbers.  I think he is a bit restless since we've spent a little more than a full week on the same stuff.... but I want to make sure he "gets it" and doesn't bite him later on!  He missed so much last year not being able to hear the teacher!  So even though he is on 2nd grade level, we're doing 1st grade math and PK reading.... gotta love hearing loss... but I think it frustrates him cause it seems SO easy but some of it just doesn't make sense to him cause he simply missed it last year and prior years....we'll get caught up.

He lost his first tooth last week.  I have a hillarious video of me pulling it out.  I've been trying to post it on YouTube.... but no luck yet... i'll get it posted somewhere, somehow!  He is now a snaggle tooth!! ;)

My dd is enjoying her readings very much.  We sat today as she shared with me what she has been reading about in "Age of Fable".  I've even heard her share pieces from other books she is reading like "Heidi" when we have our daily devotional time.  Or even when she is talking to friends, she'll say "oh, I read something about that in.... "  She's trying her hand at crocheting.  She wants to make a blanket for a friend's baby.... I've never made a blanket!!  

Guess I just wanted to let who ever reads this (LOL) that we are still going strong and doing well....

Blessings to you and your families!! :)

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• Sep. 28, 2009
Homemade Fondant and Cake...

I'm giving a girlfriend of mine a baby shower this week so my dd wanted to make the cake.  Originally when she asked I thought a basic cake, 9x13, icing a few decorations on teh top!  Not a big deal!  Well she drew up a design on a piece of paper.  It was a 3 tier cake with fondant!  I've NEVER made fondant or even a cake that fancy!  But we decided to give it a try!

Since the pre-packaged stuff was $10 for 1 lb and only covered an 8x8!  I found a recipe online to make it.  There were a lot of different receipes, but this one was what looked like to be the easiest and less ingredients!  It was easy to make/mix, but a little challenging to get it to the right consistency....

Once we got it a little less sticky, we began rolling it out.  It really didn't get to the right consistency until we just kept messing with it, rolling it, shaping it and kneading it!  The next day, she began experimenting with coloring the fondant.  Then she started making her pieces, shapes for the cake!!

Here's a corner of the cake, with a duck and bubbles!  And the roses!! All from fondant!

Here's the final cake.  Each layer looks like a baby blanket....

I have to say I'm quite proud of her!!  Not too bad for a first cake!  I know my first cake wouldn't look like this!

Blessings!

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• Sep. 23, 2009
God Moment....

Tonight was interesting! 

My son had a little friend over this evening to play for a bit.  We began walking him home and once we got to his house, his mom was talking to her neighbor!  We all chit-chatted a bit while all the kids played together.  At some point in our conversation, the topic of her kids being in the local public school came up.  She mentioned that this was their first year in the school.  I began sharing about us pulling the kids from that school.  So of course, she wanted to know what had happened.  I shared but in a very modest way, best I could.  But the ultimate story is my family following what God wanted for us to do and how much peace we have now that we made the decission.  She shared how she just "doesn't have the patience" to teach her children!  That just amazes me that as mom's we (they) don't have the confidence to teach/raise our kids.  (I use to be there, so I'm not throwing stones here).  It breaks my heart.  Any way, we ended up having a great conversation about the different curriculums that are out there and then the one we use (Charlotte Mason).  She said that she has had to get VERY involved in his school day with each (all 5) teachers plus all the extra curricular ones to help them recognize his triggers (he has a form of autism).  Plus to help them teach him a different way..... the way the mom knows works.  We left the conversation with her going, "hmm...maybe I should homeschool him, maybe I can.... "

I wish every mom had the joy and desire to love, teach their kids just the same as the day they brought them home from the hospital! 

So, I pray that she will feel and listen to the calling on her and her son's education! 

What a God moment... hope HE keeps giving them to me! 

Blessings!

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• Sep. 16, 2009
Wacky Wednesday....

Today my ds started gymnastics!  It is a class just for homeschool kiddos and there are only 5 kids!  The teacher seems really energetic and great wtih the kids! 

He got to push around a block mat, front summer-saults (sp?), tried head stands, ran sprints, climbed a rope, jumped off into a foam pit, and jumped on the trampoline.  He came out of the classroom saying "YES!" You would have thought he just scored a touchdown or something!! He truly enjoyed it and is ready to go back tomorrow!!  Too bad he has to wait till next week.  We'll go every Wednesday until mid-December!

RUN!!!

Trying to do a head stand!

I'm watching, I'm listening, ready.....

What am I supposed to do??

MAN!  I'm tired!!!

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• Sep. 16, 2009
Made from Clay....

My dd made these adorable clay figurines this past week.  She used Sculpey bakeable clay. 

The pictures are a bit blurry as she took them with my iphone.  But I just had to share!!

We had a garage sale and she was able to sell these!

Small girl with basket of flowers....

Teddy Bear with button eyes....

Family of penguins and an EGG!!

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• Sep. 16, 2009
Mom's Devotional

I just discovered this devotional website for Homeschool moms....

Blessings!

http://homeschoolenrichment.com/members/blog/maribeth/

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• Sep. 16, 2009
Errands ruin your day.....

It's been a while since I've posted.... sorry, I've been busy.   Honestly, before I homeschooled, I never thought hs moms were this busy!!!   God has opened my eyes!!

We are certainly finding our rhythm with our school days.  Of course we had two days last week where I wasn't able to get school in with my ds.  We had one day where it was just supposed to be one dr. appt. in the morning.  Well when we went to that (audiology), she told me that he had an ear infection!  So I had to make an appt. with the Pediatrician for later in the afternoon.  We were running ALL day long! 

I've heard from many other moms that once you leave the house, your day is pretty much gone.  It's hard to get the kids "back" after you get back home!  I'm seeing that first-hand! 

Today my dd had an orthodontic appointment.  I thought we'd do some running around after the appointment.  Not sure how the day got away from us, but literally 5 hours later we got home.  One errand turned into two and two to three....  by the time we did get home, the kids were so irritated with each other I had to institute a 10 minute no talking to anyone!   But once they had some time apart they were back playing with each other --very peacefully!

I'm learning more and more every day.... guess that's why they call it homeschool!! 

Hope you are all having a blessed week at HOME!!

Blessings!

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• Sep. 8, 2009
Can you.....

Tonight was so precious..... 

As I was tucking my ds in bed, we read "Rumplestilskins Daughter" for the 2nd time.... :)  After we prayed, he said "mom, can you...." and I jokingly said "can I love you forever?" "Yes I can".... he said "....can you...." and I said "be your best friend, yes I can." ....he said, mom.... you don't like it when I interrupt you.... :( (so true)  so I let him finish, saying "mom, can you teach me manners?"  SO CUTE!!!! 

OF course I can!!!

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• Sep. 4, 2009
Our Week

A recap of what we accomplished this week!!

Daughter:

• Worked on ratio's, proportions with dh. (3x week)
• Copywork: Shakespeare quote from Mid Summer Nights Dream
• Readings:  
  • Read 2 pages of Mid Summer Nights Dream
  • 1 Chapter of This Country of Ours
  • Chapter 2 of Minn of the Mississippi
  • Chap. 6 of Robinson Crusoe ~ her favorite!!
  • Madam How and Lady Why
  • Plutarch's Lives ~ least favorite
  • 1 Chapter of Trial and Triumph
• Studied Lord Tennyson Poem "The Eagle"
• Also read his biography, discussed
• Our science ~ It Couldn't Just Happen.  Learned about the inner and outter planets.

Son:

• Daily math.  Counting, adding up to 10.  Subtracting. Story problems
• Phoenics ~ a, e, s, m, t sounds.
• Handwritting ~ s, e, m, 2, 3
• Reading:
  • Aesop's Fables ~ his favorite with the "jokes"..as he puts it!
  • 1 chap. Paddle to the Sea
  • 1 chap. Pagoo ~ loving the hermit crab!!
  • Pocahontas
• Our science ~ It Couldn't Just Happen.  Learned about the inner and outter planets.
• Burgess Bird Book: Butcher and a Hummer
• Looking at bird pictures online.

And of course, park time, time with friends and general playing outside!! 

My kids say homeschool is awesome!! To think it took us this long to get here..... but HE got me here!!

Blessings!

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• Sep. 4, 2009
Baby Doves

We discovered this week that we have two baby doves living in our flower beds.  The kids have been crumbling up bread for them and observing them!  They will peak out periodically throughout the day and check on them.

This morning we got a chance to watch momma bird feed her babies. 

I got out the paper, map pencils and white board and gently handed them to the kids. They eagerly sat in the front yard and began sketching the doves!  Their drawings turned out very cool.  The coolest fact was my ds actually sitting their drawing. He has NEVER been one to draw. He says he can't draw as good as his sister! 

I'm seeing such progress in him.  With his words, sentences, effort... all around his confidence is increasing!!

However, we only saw one baby.  We're not too sure where #2 has gone off to.  We are thinking he may have all ready flown away. But the sadest part was watching mamma walk the flower beds, cooing, looking for him.  It reminded me of Christ and his undying love for us.  Just how much He loves us and is always here.  Even when we tend to fly away....

It was a very cool school day!!!  And this was BEFORE we "officially" got started!! LOL!

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• Sep. 2, 2009
Ox Cart Man

Tonight we read the book called "Ox-Cart Man".  In the book, the man loads the cart with food, candles, wool and items made by his family.  He walks the Ox to the market and sells everything, including the cart and the Ox.  Then begins the cycle all over again for next spring!  My ds was VERY bothered by him selling the Ox.  He was like why did he sell it??  I tried explaining that it was his job and he needed the money.  Once he saw that their was a baby ox, he thought the momma had been taken away from it and it wouldn't get it's special milk any more!! 

He is so compassionate!! 

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• Sep. 2, 2009
Building a Damn in the Street!

One day last week, it was raining pretty heavily!  DH and kids wanted to play in the rain.... I was a bit reluctant... just my nature I guess... anyhow, I eventually went out in the rain!  After the rain subsided, dd wanted to build a boat to float down the street in the water run off. 

The boat led to the building of a ****! 

We had some dirt, rocks in a wheel barrel in the garage. So my wonderful dh shoveled some into the street/curb and the kids jumped right in to build the ****.  Neighbors were driving by looking at us quite funny!! I wanted to yell "we homeschool!!"  My kids think this is FUN!! :)

Then they began to try and break the ****.  They each chose a leaf and set it on its journey down the "river". 

The coolest thing is today we were reading in "Paddle to the Sea" about the brook and the ****!  How Paddle goes through the beavers **** and is set free to go on his way....

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• Aug. 26, 2009
Our School Year

Actually working through all these books daily/weekly it seems so light, but looking at it as a whole, geeesshh, it seems like a LOT!!   And this is just for the first 12 weeks!

**********************************

World History ~ Our Island Story (both)

American History ~ This Country of Ours (dd)

Church History ~ Trial and Triumph (dd)

History ~ Joan of Arc (dd)

Science ~  It Couldn't Just Happen (both)

Geography ~ Paddle to the Sea (ds), Minn of the Mississippi (dd)

Natural History ~ The Burgess Bird Book (both), Pagoo (ds) 

Literature ~ Tales from Shakespeare (dd), Pilgrims Progress(dd),  Parables from Nature (both), Aesop for Children (ds)

Spanish, Poetry, artist study, composer study, nature study ~ We will be meeting with a co-op group to cover this material on a monthly basis.  Then we'll have necessary plans and material for the remainder of the month.

Math ~ Singapore 1 & 6 

Poetry - "A Child's Garden of Verses" (ds)

Copywork ~ Right now dd has chosen to copy out of Revelations.  :)  I'll start introducing other poetry options to copy in the upcoming weeks!

Phoenics ~ DS is doing "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Lessons"

Handwritting ~ DS working on writting his letters perfectly.

Free Reading:  Too many to list, actually.  Here are a few:  Violet Fairy Book, Mr. Popper's Penguins, The Door in the Wall.  DS has a new interest in Sea Shells, so we checked out a LOT of these!

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• Aug. 26, 2009
Her Heart

Since we began homeschooling last Monday, we have been doing a  daily "100 Devotions for Kids on Honesty".  It has been a great time for us as a family to sit together and discuss God's Word.  God has used this time over and over (just in the last 8 days) to show us different things.  But something that happened just this evening that I HAVE to share is..... 

I'm sitting on the couch and my dd comes to me with tears in her eyes.  She begins to tell me that she needs to get somehing off her chest.  She goes on to say that while she was at a girlfriends house a week + ago, they were singing a silly song about "peeing", the other girls mom asked them to quit singing it.  Well, she says that because we've been going over honesty and we are going to see this family tomorrow, she felt she needed to tell me that she had sung this song.  At first I felt like shrugging this off.  But then it was like, "this is between my dd and God, this is God purifying her heart".  She is learning to listen to the Holy Spirit and confess what ever she feels she has done wrong.  As trivial as it may seem to ME.  This is such a huge step for HER.  We talked about this and I reassured her she wasn't in trouble, I loved her and was so proud of her.  We then prayed.  She said it felt like a brick was taken off her chest!  Isn't God amazing.  I sure wish I had learned to listen to the Holy Spirit at 11!!!!

God Bless!!

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