Here are some photos of Cate at 4 months

 and with a funny grin

We'll start with my concussion --  the offending gate . . .

Now, for Sam's stitches

And some Atlanta snow photos!

Jac & Autumn's first attempt at a snowman

Now it's a Seal --

And then our neighbors let us use their snow to make big snowmen!

Oh, yes, and we actually did celebrate Christmas

Well, it's February and I haven't blogged since the end of November - wow!

We survived Christmas and then actually had 2 days of real snow in Atlanta - it had been FOUR years!

Then we had 2 exciting trips to the ER -- one for me (concussion) and one for Sam (stitches).

I have photos of these exciting events, but I haven't gotten them uploaed yet. So a quick story will have to do.

On a Wednesday afternoon in early January, the UPS guy brought me 3 new geography puzzles. I took a peek and then proceeded to take them to put on the school book shelves in the dining room. As I made my way in there, I tried to step over the baby gate. I caught my toe on the top and went tumbling down. I tried to turn to my side to cushion the fall and not hit my face, but the next thing I knew I was waking up and it was all dark. Yep, knocked myself out! After noticing some slurring of my words, Kurt dropped me at the ER and drove around for 2 hours (with all 7 kids in the car) so I could get a CT scan in peace.

And then poor Sam -- 26 months now -- tipped his entire high chair over and hit Jac's chair corner with his FACE. A nice slice on the forehead had to be stitched up and now he and Josh have matching 3mm scars.

I have been absent from blogging for a few weeks since I have been in Elisabeth Elliot mode . . . "Just Do the Next Thing."  That was her recommendation for moms when things get so hairy that you don't know what to do. It's been HORRIBLY busy around here this month, but I'm hoping we are turning a corner.

Just as I was finally getting a groove in our homeschooling schedule with a new baby, we are taking a 5 week break from "formal" school. In other words, we will do a few hours a week of school, mostly in the morning, but not any of the dreaded subjects! Of course, when I announced this plan, the kids told me that we COULDN'T stop math, science, geography, spelling, history or copywork . . . who knew that homeschooled kids would think vacations from school were BAD!

So here's a photo of our kids and a link to an interesting article --

http://dexios.info/video_page.html

This website has video testimonials of homeschooling parents and children.

Here's the photo from our trip to the North Georgia mountains. We went to Reece's Apple Farm to pick apples like we did last year, but when we arrived, the trees were bare!!!!

We are using Mystery of History, Vol. 1 to study ancient history. Here's our mummy wrapping . . .

I read this article today from Crosswalk and thought that it was quite appropriate for my current situation -- yelling at the kids and getting impatient too often. It was encouraging and humbling at the same time . . .

The Art of Gentling

Timothy Palla, Contributing Writer

 read the rest at    http://www.crosswalk.com/homeschool/11556015/

Here are some photos of the boys being good brothers -- you're supposed to catch 'em being good, right?

Today I read a "rant" by radio talk show host, Neal Boortz, where he quotes C.S. Lewis on education. Neal Boortz is quite a wild guy, so be careful if you go to his website, but here's the Lewis quote he discusses . . .

"What I want to fix your attention on is the vast overall movement towards the discrediting, and finally the elimination, of every kind of human excellence -- moral, cultural, social or intellectual. And is it not pretty to notice how 'democracy' (in the incantatory sense) is now doing for us the work that was once done by the most ancient dictatorships, and by the same methods? The basic proposal of the new education is to be that dunces and idlers must not be made to feel inferior to intelligent and industrious pupils. That would be 'undemocratic.' Children who are fit to proceed may be artificially kept back, because the others would get a trauma by being left behind. The bright pupil thus remains democratically fettered to his own age group throughout his school career, and a boy who would be capable of tackling Aeschylus or Dante sits listening to his coeval's [of the same age] attempts to spell out A CAT SAT ON A MAT. We may reasonably hope for the virtual abolition of education when 'I'm as good as you' has fully had its way. All incentives to learn and all penalties for not learning will vanish. The few who might want to learn will be prevented; who are they to overtop their fellows? And anyway, the teachers -- or should I say nurses? -- will be far too busy reassuring the dunces and patting them on the back to waste any time on real teaching. We shall no longer have to plan and toil to spread imperturbable conceit and incurable ignorance among men." C. S. Lewis

And a cute picture of the kids doing the ASL sign for "rhino" in front of the Rhino exhibit at a zoo in Georgia.

I thought this was particularly interesting for those of us in big cities and the "rich" suburbs. Here in north Atlanta, the pressure to put your child into a preschool by age 3 is HUGE!!!!!!!

What Your Preschooler Really Needs

By Susan Lemons

The world has a lot to say about parenting nowadays. From Dr. Spock to Dr. Phil, from the Super Nanny to our own families, a plethora of “experts” scold us with a never-ending barrage of advice—most of it conflicting. The newspapers and magazines scream at us about the “needs” of children and the latest “unbiased study,” while the publishing companies profit from the confusion by churning out numerous books on parenting every year. Slick ad campaigns report that parents need only buy the latest “educational” toy, or enroll their innocents in the newest “educational” program to guarantee academic success and future happiness for their children.

Meanwhile, parents are stressed and confused. According to CBS News, 54% of parents with 2-5 year olds admit to feeling worried about their children’s academic progress, and more than 90% think that starting “early” is the key to success. Parents are enrolling toddlers into rigorous academic tutorial programs in record numbers, and routinely over-schedule their youngsters with play-dates, lessons, sports, and classes, all in hopes of giving their children some sort of “advantage.” Whatever happened to childhood?

Homeschoolers are not immune to these phenomena, either. . .

Read the rest at   http://www.crosswalk.com/homeschool/11541408/

And recently at my house we created "Painted brother"  . . .

Catherine (Cate) Virginia Carlson arrived on September 19 at 1:33pm. She was 5lbs. 11 oz. and 19 inches. It was an easy delivery after a difficult pregnancy!

Big sibs Josh (9), Autumn (8), Jac (6.5), Elisabeth (5), Pete (3) and Sam (22 months) are thrilled that she is here to hold.

Well, my friend Kelly says I just can't let a week go by without having some sort of crazy thing happen at my house. So last week was my oldest son, Josh's turn to go to the Emergency Room.

He was exhibiting every, single sign of appendicitis and so my husband took him to the pediatrician. Then the doc examined him and recommended that we run, not walk, to the Children's Hospital. Of course I will add that the entire day I had been having contractions, and mind you, at 27 weeks this is NOT a good thing!

But the good news is that after spending 6 hours in the ER and getting all sorts of tests run, Josh ended up having a NON-surgical type of appendicitis. I won't bore you with the details, but it was the lymph tissue inside his appendix that was inflamed, not his actual appendix. Needless to say, this is a rarity and in the past, most kids would've just been put under the knife anyway.

And we've started this week off with a BANG too! At church this morning, I started having contractions 2 minutes apart. And since we are currently meeting in an elementary school, there was no sofa or other comfortable place to lay down. So I found a lunchroom bench that turned out to be the perfect solution -- all I needed was to put up my feet and the contractions immediately stopped. Wow! If only the other problems in my life were so easy to solve!

Now some fun news . . . Josh (9), Autumn (7 1/2) and Jac (6 1/2) tried out for parts today in the upcoming musical they will be doing, called Acorns to Oaks. They all got one! Josh gets to sing and be a scarecrow, Autumn will be a crow named Maggie and Jac has a solo!

Here's a link to a very interesting article I read this week by Steve Maxwell. It was actually in the Dads section of the newsletter, but for some reason I decided to read that part this month. Note his comments in paragraph 3 about how today's churches and Christians want fish to jump into their boat instead of going out into the water (the world) to preach the gospel. Quite a neat way to look at it, IMO!

http://titus2.com/corners/7-07-d.htm

I am currently reading Steve's book about Raising Sons and finding it so far to be very encouraging and challenging. Although I think it was meant to be read mostly by Dads, I've enjoyed finding out what he recommends too.

Lastly, we've signed up to go to a Family Camp over Labor Day weekend (the last day my midwife will let me travel) in North Carolina. It will  be at a place called The Wilds. They come very highly recommended and we are really looking forward to it! You can't beat the price either, so check it out at

http://www.wilds.org

Being pregnant with number 7 has brought out many comments about large families. From folks using the term "poppin' them out" to the look of disgust when they are told that I already have six, it's not really fun hearing what people think about having more than the typical 1.9 children.

So I decided to read some articles that would encourage me to keep walking the path of letting God be in charge of this (and every) area of my life.

Here are the links to some of my favorites:

The Case for the Large Family  http://www.heartsforfamily.com/TheCasefortheLargeFamily.html

A Wake-up Call to the Christian Church
http://www.heartsforfamily.com/wakeupcall.html

The Christian’s Duty to Love Children
http://www.heartsforfamily.com/TheChristiansDutytoLoveChildren.html

I read this Abraham Lincoln quote today:

“The philosophy of the classroom in this generation will be the philosophy of politics, government and life in the next.”

So if famous men of the past have said these things over and over (remember Martin Luther's similar quote?), then how have Christians conveniently forgotten that it is of the utmost importance to give their children a  thoroughly Christian education?

Lately I have been very disturbed by the hypocrisy I see in Christian leaders -- church elders, missionaries, pastors and the like -- they tell their congregations that the youth pastor and the senior pastor and any missionary that wants to go overseas, must have several years of Bible training and a seminary degree. So why don't they require their little children to have similar training before they are sent off as "missionaries" to be salt and light in the public school?

Certainly, Jesus spoke the salt and light passage and the "go into all the world" message to his disciples -- fully trained ADULTS! There is never a Biblical declaration that children should have any other role than that of being protected and trained by their parents. What are people thinking??!!

Well, off to bed for me. Here are some links to recent articles that I've enjoyed:

http://www.kevinswanson.com:80/Articles/WhattheWorldWasCryingOutFor/Index.html

A 40 Year Journey

http://www.summit.org/resource/tc/archive/0307/     Thinking "Worldviewishly"

http://exploringhomeschooling.com/     Exploring Homeschooling

http://www.onenewsnow.com/2007/05/sbc_leader_family_suffers_when.php   

Family suffers when women choose career over children

I wanted to say that I am almost 23 weeks pregnant and that everything is going well with me and with the baby. Yes, we found out that we are having a girl! Her name will be Cate, since Kurt has been wanting to use that name from the beginning. He has been very patient, waiting through 2 other girls until now!

 One of the books I read recently was Think Like Jesus by George Barna. Here’s a quote that I thought summed it up nicely . . .

 "A biblical worldview is thinking like Jesus. It is a way of making our faith practical to every situation we face each day.  A biblical worldview is a way of dealing with the world such that we act like Jesus twenty-four hours a day because we think like Jesus."

And lastly, I received another book, Love in the House by Chris and Wendy Jeub, for Mother’s Day. It is written by one of the families that was shown on TLC’s recent series, Families by the Dozen. A lot of the Jeubs’ story was edited out of the TLC show, so this book helps to tell a more full version of what’s happening in their lives.

I really enjoyed the emphasis on making sure your children know that you love them and making sure you stay away from legalism. The practical advice that stuck with me the most is the idea of practicing the behaviors that we want the kids to do . . . like sitting still and quiet in church or behaving politely at the dinner table.

Overall it was a very encouraging read and I’d recommend it to any mom

Yep, I've been absent from posting because I am pregnant -- 7 weeks today. I tried to upload the fuzzy 6-week ultrasound photo, but can't get HSBlogger to work. Oh well. Hopefully my tech support husband can figure it out.

I also wanted to put up a few photos of the kids from Christmas time, but those wouldn't upload either. It looks like it is not meant to be for now.

We go back to the doctor/midwife in a week to do a diagnostic ultrasound. My blood counts were extremely high, so they want to rule out any problems or multiples.

I must say that Zofran is my friend. I'm sure it offends some more natural folks out there, but I do have 6 young children to care for and homeschool while I am pregnant. And drugs seem to be the only way to keep the nausea from taking over.

A book I read last week was a real inspiration to me, as was the movie that I saw. I read a novel called, The Longing Season, by Christine Schaub. It is historical fiction about John Newton and how he came to write the hymn, Amazing Grace. It tells about his time as a slave trader and his interactions with William Wilberforce.  So when I went to see a preview of the new movie, Amazing Grace, I felt like I had a head start on the story. It was really nice timing for someone whose history education was sorely lacking. I would recommend this movie (and book ) to all homeschooling moms. Try to see it on opening weekend (2/23) so that Hollywood will know that good, clean movies really do sell.

Just reading Gena's article gave me encouragement, especially the first line.  She writes, "The more we read and listen, the more Paul and I feel convicted that public schools are simply not an option for Christian kids."  The identical thing has been coming out of my mouth lately, though only to my husband, as I am not quite ready for the pummeling that I'd surely receive if I spouted it in a public forum. Of course, this BLOG is a public forum . . .

Then yesterday I heard a recording of an old Kevin Swanson program where he interviews Mr. Heath. It was music to my ears.  If you want to listen too, go to www.kevinswanson.com and find the December 6, 2006 program. Mr. Heath was also on a show called Issues in Education back in December. They can be heard at www.isssuesineducation.org 

So now, of course, I want to buy his book.  Along with another one that I came across recently by Zan Tyler, author of many homeschool articles at www.crosswalk.com.  My list of books "to buy" is getting reeeaaallllyyy long . . . does anyone else have a list like that? When you get some extra money or if there is free shipping at some site, you flip back to your list to see what book to tack on to your order?

Oh well, enough of that. I think you'll enjoy Millstones and Stumbling Blocks! I'll try to post a review when I finish it.

Here's a book review that I wrote for our homeschool group this week:

I read a book this week (that I got at the Gwinnett Library) that I thought you might enjoy hearing about. And feel free to send out a book review on any book you like!

I substituted in my 4 year old daughter's class the other day. You see we attend a fine arts "hybrid school." It's not a public virtual charter school or anything like that. It is called the Master's Academy of Fine Arts, and it's a one-day per week program for homeschoolers. Their mission is to glorify God through excellence in the arts.

So here I was in the Opal class, watching them learn about Napoleon the Third, Renoir and Debussy. Actually they didn't seem to be learning a whole lot. Most of them were zoning out (including my daughter) and asking when it would be time for their snack.

Certainly what they were being taught was good. And the teacher was warm and enthusiastic. The other children were well behaved. Frankly, it was the best school setting I could possibly image for my children!

But what I kept sensing was that it was not HOME -- these kids were not with their families. Each of them seemed to be telling me, with body language, glances and sometimes words, that they would rather be with Mom.

What I came away thinking was this: young children don't need or want to be away from their families for very long. Preschool, by it's very name, says that it is not "real" school, but rather a preparation time for school. And I can easily do that at home.

Now I don't want anyone to think that I am against the Master's Academy. In fact, it's quite the opposite. That day as a substitute, I decided that we would re-enroll our children for the next school year. BUT, we will not be sending our 3 or 4 year olds anymore.

As much as I enjoyed getting to know those 9 children and teaching them about Renoir's paintings, I can't even begin to come close to caring for them like their mothers can.