• I just realized as I saved this post as a draft that I have not blogged in exactly one month. Not surprising though- totally been in a funk. Not only is this my first post in a month but I finally got out my camera last week and it was the first time I'd done that in a month too- for those of you who know me, you already know that's a long time. Still am not quite myself but I think I'm starting to pull out of it.
• I've starting planning and pulling books for next school year. Something about the first of the year gets me in the mood for school planning. Alek will be doing Sonlight's core 100, Gabe & Gracie core 4 (I haven't done either of those cores yet- fun!) and Millie & Josiah will do core 1. Julianna will continue to be the cute little troublemaker and room destroyer that she is. The older 3 will continue with Total Language Plus workbooks for language arts. They've enjoyed those and have learned a lot! I'm amazed at some of the vocabulary words they've learned and their spelling words are challenging- except for Alek- I think only college level words would challenge that child. He got his first word OF THE YEAR wrong yesterday. I couldn't believe it. He was not pleased.
  
• Did I tell you about my hair loss? Yeah. In some spots it feels like I've lost 80% of my hair. I feel like an old lady that needs Women's Rogaine (and yes, I will admit that I even looked into that). It's mostly on the top of my head. My bangs are see-through. I can see and feel my scalp more than I have my entire life. Just lovely. Another hormone fluctuation and here we go again- another shedding phase. Hoping the new hair grows in quickly. My failure-of-a-body has disappointed me a lot lately.
• I will be the mother of a teena young adult in one month and three days. Where has the time gone? I just gave birth to this curious perfectionist child! His arms are longer than mine, feet are bigger than mine and he's just a couple of inches away from being taller than I. And we're not going to talk about whether he's smarter than I am or not. I think he, his dad and his two grandpas (my dad and Kenton's- just have to clarify in this day and age) are going to go away for a couple of nights and have a men's-only pow-wow. Or something like that. Alek loved the idea. He is my child who at basketball games can be found in intense conversation with an adult he has never met. You know- those *shy* homeschooled kids. So anyway, a couple nights away with the most important men in his life is a dream to him.
• The ads at the bottom of this page are distracting me and I am feeling the need to check out Latin Alive now- you know, being in that school planning mode and all. So I will end this short post with a picture of two of my sweet girlies cuddled up on the couch with a book.

• Our pastor and his wife left our church. They were the only reason we were still attending. They could use some prayers for healing in their marriage. We are now attending a home fellowship we sure enjoy.
• We've been spending lots of time with some precious friends. We started hanging out with them in July (?). If a week goes by and we haven't done anything with them, we both hear it from our children. We are so thankful for them! We have a ton in common with them and every child has a buddy.
• We finished up soccer in the fall and basketball season has begun. I kind of liked our Saturdays being free and not spending the day attending games- I think I enjoy watching my children play soccer more than basketball.
  
• Millie turned 7 today.
• The children will be singing in their second Christmas program tonight and have one more to go. Josiah's the youngest one up there. He said a verse he has memorized in front of everyone last time and says he wants to do it again.
• Our Christmas tree resembles the Charlie Brown Christmas tree. Gabe and Gracie chopped it down in our yard. It's a western red cedar and has about 7 branches, one of which Kenton had to tape back to the trunk. I love it.
• My camera is gathering dust.
• I still haven't finished Christmas shopping.
• I didn't get Christmas cards out this year.
• I haven't gotten a picture to use for December on the calendars I'm making as gifts. 
• We've been on field trips to a fish hatchery, gone on an underground tour of our town, and to a paint-your-own pottery store where the children made some cute mugs. They fire and glaze them. They look really nice!
• We are on Christmas break for 3 weeks!
• I would like to start blogging more again.
• I hang out on Facebook far too much.

 

Theme: "At The Beach"

I love this picture of my 3 girlies taken at Lapush (or is it La Push or LaPush) beach in Forks, WA. It was my baby girl's first time @ the Pacific Ocean and she was concentrating on walking in that sand much to my older girls' amusement.

My parents had taken my oldest 5 children overnight for a couple of nights, leaving just hubby & I and our sweet baby girl to ourselves. We enjoyed the time we had together but missed the older children lots! As soon as my parents brought the children home we took off for the beach. That was the longest the girls had been away from their baby sister and they sure missed her (and she them!). They made up for lost time hanging out and playing with her on the beach.

We were a little disappointed that we left a warm, sunny home to end up at a cold, foggy beach, but I sure love the ethereal look it gave the photos. (more below)