I write you sitting comfortably in my home - although that may not sound surprising - I have been without use of my pc/internet access for what seems like forever.  But tonight, it is working again, and I am sitting on my couch with my laptop, watching The Sound of Music with my family at the same time.  I do hope to visit with all my friends, but before I go around and visit, I wanted to at least finish my post of Biltmore Estate.

Have you ever visited the Biltmore Estate in Ashville, North Carolina?  If not, it is worth the effort if ever given the chance to visit it.    The house covers 4 acres, totaling 175,000 square feet. It consists of 250 rooms and  includes 35 guest and family rooms, 43 bathrooms, 65 fireplaces, and three kitchens.  The old fashioned kitchens are my favorite rooms in the house.  In fact, I love everything in the basement - the 70,00 gallon indoor pool, the old fashioned laundry rooms, and the multiple pantrys.  I wish I had pictures to share of all this, but you are not allowed to take pictures once in the house.  Also in the basement is a gymnsasium and a bowling alley. 

.A favorite room of my children and husband is the two story library.  This is an amazing room filled with old books and beautiful woodwork.   

Upstairs on the third floor, in addition to more bedrooms, are areas where guests once
played parlor games and took afternoon tea, as well as rooms formerly occupied by ladies’
maidservants.

.

Fully electric and centrally heated, Biltmore House, at the time of its completion, was
considered one of the most technologically advanced structures ever built.  It used some of Thomas Edison’s first lightbulbs, elaborate indoor plumbing for all 34 bedrooms and even had several elevators (that still work today.)

So that's it - now I'm going to see if I can come by and visit and say hi!

From the Heart:

I'm loving being with my kids.  Every moment that I get with them fills my heart.  It is so wonderful to hold my son in my arms and hear him say, "I wuv you, Mommy. You're adorable!"  I also love watching and experiencing the moments that my five year old studies her first words and reads them.  Each day she makes so much progress.  My 10 and 12 year olds amaze me with how they are growing into young ladies more each day and becoming individuals.  Life as a Mom is good.

The little ones like to snuggle in the rocking chair after their bath near the wood stove. 

I just finished looking over my blog from a year ago.  I am so glad that I am not in that place any longer!  A year ago my Snow Crystal was having concentration problems, abdominal pain, seizures, weakness, and looked like a little holocaust survivor.  She was depressed and talking about suicide.  I praise God for all my friends who so faithfully prayed, and for the cure of becoming gluten-free again, and avoiding artificial additives.  She is my healthy, happy, seizure-free young lady again.  No more of any of those things, and her school work has improved dramatically this year.  I am so grateful to the Lord!

In the School Room:

Mountain Princess, 12, and Snow Crystal, 10:  Abraham Lincoln was shot again this week (we learned it a few weeks ago, but readressed the reasons this week).  The aftermath of the civil war was anything but nice.  Andrew Johnson may have had Abraham's roots, but he lacked some of Abe's other successful political prowess.  Matter can be in the form of a solid, a liquid, a gas, and plasma.  Old Yeller is my 10 year old's first school book to be taken on without my help, and she's doing a good job.  She even stated that this is her favorite reader ever.   Caddie Woodlawn continues to be a spunky little thing.  Tall tales are fun because they exaggerate a story and hyperboles are perfect to put in them.  Mountain Princess finished up decimals, fractions and percentages, and moved on to tesselations. (Did I learn about these in school?  They are fun.)   Snow Crystal is working on fractions now.

Bubbies, 5, learned about the clothing and culture of the French in the period just before Napoleon's time and about the French revolution.  Birds have feathers, lay eggs, are warm-blooded, and most eat other animals.  We examined an old robin's nest and found an unhatched egg.  Robin nests are made of mud, twigs and grass.  Numbers higher than ten are made with groups of ten and units.  She finished the week by writing her numbers between twenty and thirty.

Little Critter, 3,  is beginning to take himself to the potty and we are having much fewer peeing accidents.  On the other hand, yesterday he pooped in the bathtub again.  Good thing sister wasn't with him this time!

On the Mission Field:

One of my favorite speakers, Graeme from Australia, was here speaking on cultural differences.  We had another India - style dinner too.   The students have only two more weeks before they head out on outreach.  They will spend their first month in New Mexico with the Navajo work there, then the final eight weeks in India.  We saw the Lord bring in a bunch of money toward their outreach expenses.  That is always fun to see.

In the Literary Scene:

I am reading Brock and Bodie Thoene's second book in the Galway Series Of Men and of Angels.

Feeding on His Faithfulness,

Carol

If you would like to join me in this theme, just write up your own weekly summary, using mine or your own categories.  Then sign the Mr. Linky below.  I'd love to read your weekly summaries too!    I hope to post mine on each Friday or Saturday.  At the latest it will be on Sunday.  If you get yours done before I do, just leave your link in my cbox or comments from the week before.  Be sure and check last week's Mr. Linky for any new ones who posted before I did!  It is a great way to meet new people.

From the Heart:

My baby boy turned 3 this week.  I guess I am officially past babyhood in the is family.  It is bittersweet, but I don't mind too much.  On his birthday he came up to me in the morning and announced, "I turned big!"  It was adorable.  He is a huge boy, and I've already had to pull out his size 4T clothing.  I'm reluctant to give up his size 3 clothes since they are so cute, but as I see the sleeve-length and leg-length getting shorter and shorter, I am coming to the conclusion that I must let go and move on!

The Lord continues to stir change in me, and yet I do not want to get ahead of Him.  We've put out a fleece of direction, but it still hasn't given any answer for us.  I think it is good to go about making change slowly to give us and our children time to accept it, especially since we like where we are at so much.

This is Little Critter on his 3rd birthday.  Love the brownies on his face? 

On the Homefront:

We are back to winter now.  Everything is white and snowy again since Friday.

Tim (my dh) finished a project he's been working on for the past couple of months.  It is a cigar box guitar.  He loves to express his creativity by making musical instruments.  It sounds pretty good too!  In the past he has also made several kinds of drums and digeridoos.

This is dh with his cigar box guitar.  He's handsome, isn't he?

In the School Room:

I was inspired by Lalaith's school wrapup on her daybook post at Avonlea Academy, so I'm going to try it instead of listing every gory detail:

Mountain Princess, 12, and Snow Crystal, 10:  America is growing in leaps and bounds, with the beginning of department stores.  Batteries in sequence make brighter light than ones that are parallel.  Atoms make up all matter, but did you know that quirks and gluons make up protons and electrons?  Will of Shades of Gray finally decided that good men were on both the Yankee and the Rebel side, and men who chose not to fight were honorable too.  Caddie Woodlawn was a spunky little thing.  To build a fire in the fireplace successfully, one needs a good source of air, kindling, and most importantly, a piece of egg carton.  Poems are funner if you have a pattern to follow when writing one.

Bubbies, 5, learned that coffee and chocolate didn't become popular until the age of exploration.  Until the late colonial years, food was pretty bland and mundane.  Mammals have fur, give milk, and breathe air.  Reading is challenging and rewarding, and gets easier if the same simple book is reviewed each day.  Mathematics includes not only addition, but also taking away.  A triangle has three sides and three corners.  An eight can be made without lifting your pencil.  Copywork is still drudgery.

Little Critter, 3,  found that hitting his sister with a fork will put two pricks just below her eye like a snakebite.  (I'm so glad it didn't get her eye!).  Going to the bathroom is against his idea of a good time.  Wet pants, on the other hand, makes mother unhappy.  The letters each have a sound.  "I" says itchy, itchy chickenpox.

On the Mission Field:

The school had Chris Austin here.  He has been teaching team building and has been helping the students find their strengths and weaknesses. 

In the Literary Scene:

I am still reading Brock and Bodie Thoene's second book in the Galway Series Of Men and of Angels.

Feeding on His Faithfulness,

Carol

If you would like to join me in this theme, just write up your own weekly summary, using mine or your own categories.  Then sign the Mr. Linky below.  I'd love to read your weekly summaries too!    I hope to post mine on each Friday or Saturday.  At the latest it will be on Sunday.  If you get yours done before I do, just leave your link in my cbox or comments from the week before.  Be sure and check last week's Mr. Linky for any new ones who posted before I did!  It is a great way to meet new people.