A Day in the Life

It's Memorial Day . . .

Happy Birthday, Aaron!

It's been awhile, so I'll update

How time flies!  It's hard to believe that May is 2/3rds over with!  So here's what's been happening.

Well, we've finished up our school year!  We hurried up to get all we needed to complete.  I was so ready for a break.  The kids were ready too.  Aaron did very well with his end of the year tests.  He accomplished alot this past year!  Katrina, Ben and Nathan also had a productive year.  It feels good to know what we have done.

My parent's came for a visit.  It was so nice to see them and the kids enjoyed having them around.  The love playing games and cards.  The visit ended all too soon.

We finally got some rain!  We are under water restrictions (only can water the grass or wash the car Sat. morning between 4am and 8am).  Like I'm getting up to do that!  So the much needed rain was very nice! 

As you know, Florida has so many fires right now.  The rains also got rid of the awful smoke that lingered for days in the air.  Unfortunately some of the fires are still going on.

This year we were following American Idol.  Melinda Doolittle is a Belmont graduate (where Rebecca's going) and we enjoyed watching her.  She had such a great testimony and so humble.  We were so disappointed to see her not make it to the final two!  She was really good.  I'm sure she will do well anyway!

We are going to enjoy our summer!  We will be busy preparing for college.  Rebecca has to go to Belmont for Freshman Orientation the end of June.  So we are trying to decided whether we will all go or just Rebecca and me.  Then in the middle of August we drop her off! 

Tour of the USS Ponce

Today Dad took the two older boys (Aaron and Ben) to see the USS Ponce.  It’s Fleet Week at the Air and Sea Show in South Florida.  They all had a great time touring all the aspect of the ship.  They sat in a Tank and a Hummer.  They got to hold the machine guns (not loaded of course).  And saw many types of guns, torpedoes and all the stuff boys just love.  They came back very excited about their day.

Roadschooling Anyone?

Have you ever just wanted to sell everything and become a gypsy?  Does the merry-go-round of life have you so dizzy that you can’t see straight?  Have you ever wanted to downsize and make life simpler?  I am at that point in my life.  I am so tired of our rat race.  I have had this great dream for so many years, but circumstances of life have kept the dream from becoming reality.  Well, no more.  We’re ready to make our dream come true.

The first step of our plan is to sell our home.  Anyone want to buy a great home in South Florida?  It’s for sale and we are praying that someone buys it.  While the house is for sale, I will be giving away, throwing away and selling our stuff (and boy do we have some stuff). 

Then after the house is sold, we want to buy a travel trailer and travel across the US.  I don’t know the specifics of everything yet. But the are many options.  Like we could workamp across the US and go from job to job.  That might be a possibility because we would have to earn a small income.

Call us crazy, but I think we’d like it.  Our oldest will be attending college in Nashville.  We will just have our 3 boys and our one daughter.  They would love the adventure (and boy would it be an adventure).

Roadschooling!  I like it!

Florida Governor Proclaims April 1 - 7, 2007 Home Education Week

School year is coming to an end

Well, our school year is coming to an end in a month or so.  We have a few more lessons of math and language arts to finish and then we will take a break.  The kids have accomplished so much this year and I'm so proud of their hard work!

Aaron has really done well this year.   At the beginning of the year I could not have imagined how far he would go.  He's reading books with over 150 pages and actually enjoying them!  His list is rather long.  I showed what he had read this year and he was surprised!  He will have completed two years in Language Arts and three years in Math!  He learned cursive and does pretty good with that!  He learned how to write paragraphs and wrote his first essay.  During the summer, he has agreed to read lots of books, do 5 math problems 3 times a week and 5 grammar sentences 2 times a week along with keeping a journal each day of at least one paragraph (and in cursive).  I assured him that this would not take much of his free time and he will have plenty of time for fun.  He will be 12 in May and he will be able to stay up 30 minutes longer if he reads. 

Katrina has improved alot in many areas including her writing and reading.  Her speech has also improved.  She colors so good now too (this is an accomplishment to stay inside the lines).  She colors a page everyday.

Ben learned to read this year and is on book 9 in Sing Spell Read and write.  He reads a chapter a day and will continue doing this through the summer.  He doesn't think of it as hard and enjoys reading.  He wants to start reading chapter books so I told him that when he completes all of the books he will be ready (he's got 8 left).  I figure that by the end of the summer he should be finished with them.  He does Reason for Writing everyday.  Next year we might start math as he already can add and subtract in his head.

Nathan is using the Rod and Staff Preschool workbooks.  He asks to do his "homework" each day (I found out that he basically wants to do it to pick in the prize box).    He can write his name. 

It was strange only teaching 4 this year.  Rebecca worked and was on her own.  It's hard to believe that she will be leaving us in 4 months.    I try not to think about it that much, but I already tear up when I do.  I am excited for her!  But it's hard to let go.  I have spent so much time with her these past 18 years (more than most parents get to spend with their kids).  It's funny just when you start to really enjoy talking with them because they are an adult, they just go and leave!

Spring Fever Anyone?

Is anyone else getting a case of spring fever?  I’m afraid it’s come to our house!  We took a week for spring break and just don’t want to do anymore school!  It’s very nice outside here in Florida.  It’s almost April and we are still having nice weather (no humidity, breezy and sunny).  I know the hot weather is coming soon so we are enjoying the nice weather while it lasts.  The kids love doing school on the patio.  We are studying birds and are they are busy with their nests.

We have 2 months left and then school will be out.  I just hope we can last and get everything done!

Our Disney Trip

Monday we were on our way to Orlando for a “mini-vacation”.  God had blessed us with an opportunity to visit Walt Disney’s Magic Kingdom for free!  Friends of my parents work at Epcot and are able to get 3 people into Disney for free each day, so they wanted our family to come to Disney.  We haven’t been very much (only twice in the last 18 years) and the kids don’t remember it very much.  So needless to say, the kids were thrilled!  We had a free night at a hotel coming to us, so we used that which made the trip even cheaper.

We left home 2 pm on Monday, after Rebecca got home from work and arrived at our hotel around 5 pm.  After checking in we went to Pizza Hut for dinner.  With Pizza Hut Book-its and coupons our family of 7 ate for $20.00 (including tip) and were stuffed and happy.  Then we went on to Downtown Disney to have some fun.  Ben enjoyed the massive Lego store and display (he’s our Lego guy).  We all enjoyed wandering around the huge Disney store and seeing what there was to see.  It was a very pleasant, cool evening and before we knew it, it was 10 pm., so back to the hotel for a good night sleep before a busy day at Disney.

7:15 am came early!  We were meeting our friends at the gate a 9 am.  We quickly dressed, packed and then went down for the complimentary breakfast.  The chain we stay always has a good breakfast assortment (fresh Belgium waffles, bagels, muffins, donuts, cereal, and more).  We ate as much as we could and then it was off to the Magic Kingdom!

We arrived just on time and met up with our friends even before the parking gates.  It took awhile to get over to the park, but it always does.  But we were finally there.  We thanked our friends for their generous gift and we were on our way.  The kid’s eyes were wide and they were having a great time.  We headed for the Pirates of the Caribbean stopping off for a ride on Aladdin’s Magic Carpet (no line).  The wait for Pirates was rather short and we enjoyed seeing Johnny Dep as Captain Jack.  Then off to Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain.  Although it was very crowded (come to find out it was spring break in Orlando) the wait wasn’t that bad (30 minutes).  We went from place to place and enjoyed many of the rides.

After awhile Rebecca and Aaron went on their own to Space Mountain and some of the other rides nearby.  We took the younger kids to some of the Fantasyland rides.  We then met up in Tommorrowland to have something to eat.  I brought lots of granola bars and water to have until dinner.  We did pretty well until about 5 pm and then had to eat something.  We all enjoyed our $47 meal of veggie burger and some fries.  Wow, if we didn’t get in free we would be eating granola bars for dinner too.  J 

We rode on several more rides, got Buzz Lightyear’s autograph (Nathan’s favorite) and everyone but Nathan and I went back to Space Mountain.  Nathan and I rode on the Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin again (this was his favorite ride).  Ben said he liked Space Mountain the best!  Aaron said his favorite was Big Thunder Mountain.  Katrina liked all of the rides that weren’t scary. 

At 10 pm (tired as we all were) we stayed to watch the light parade.  It was a great parade and the kids got to see all the characters that they didn’t see.  I didn’t like that the characters just don’t walk around the park anymore.  Now you have to wait in line for that too. 

The parade was over at 10:30 pm and it was a mad dash with the rest of the people to get to the monorail.  We went to the second one that makes a stop at the Polynesian Hotel.  No one was there and we were on the next monorail.  Now waiting for a tram was a different story.  That was a long 30 minute wait with tired kids (and not just ours but everyone elses).  But finally at 11:30 we were at the car and on our way home (well after stopping for gas).  We arrived home at 3 am!  That was the longest 3 hour drive of my life!

Our family had a great time at Walt Disney World!  It was such a great day and the kids will remember it forever! 

Disney Pictures

Becca and Timmon

Nathan, Aaron and Ben with Buzz Lightyear

Katrina in Piglet’s house

On the teacup ride

Happy 8th Birthday to Ben!

Today is Ben's 8th birthday!  It's hard to believe how quickly our boy is growing up!  It just seems like yesterday I was rocking him in my arms and now look how big he has grown!

The day started with our annual birthday breakfast.  The birthday boy chose donuts with sprinkles (what 8 year old doesn't like sprinkles).  It's also our tradition to open presents after breakfast, that way the birthday child gets to spend the day playing with his/her gifts.  We always take the day off from school, since it's a special holiday in our home.

Ben got a Lego star wars kit, a pirates sword, a new Game Cube controller and Lego Star Wars II game for the Game Cube.  He was thrilled with his gifts and the pictures show his excitment very vividly.

The rest of the day he spent putting together his new Lego kit, playing with his brothers and playing his new video game (a real treat since video games are only allowed Friday after school through Saturday).

When Daddy got home, we had the birthday dinner, which consisted of pizza rolls, hash brown casserole, M & M's, potato chips and broccoli (okay mom added the last one for some type of nourishment).  And for dessert Mom's famous Ice Cream Cake.

It was a great day!  We pray God's blessing on our 4th child that He will use Ben for His work in years to come.  We know that God has a special purpose for Ben and we will do our best to guide him to find God's purpose for his life. 

A 5 year old tells how to make pizza

A week in February

The weather in South Florida is really unique!  On Monday we woke up to 38 degrees!  A might chilly for our parts of town.    I enjoy those cold, brisk mornings and bundle up while the windows are open.  We only made it to a high of 62, so that meant sweat shirts and jeans all day long.  By Wednesday we were warming up to 70 and such a bright, blue sky.  The air was light and the breeze was nice.  And Friday we are at a nice 75 and another blue, blue sky.  February is a wonderful month and beautiful in Florida.  Does anyone want to move down here? 

God is so Good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

God is so good!    He constantly is faithful to us!  I don't know why I am surprised when He comes through at just the right time!  After all, it is what He promised, to always provide our every need to those who trust in Him!  So I just want to say "Thank you, God for your love, caring, provisions, peace, grace and so many more awesome things that you provide for us! 

Happy Valentines' Day (a day after)

  Happy Valentines' Day!

Valentine's Day was fun for the kids.  They had a homeschool Valentines' Party that they attended.  We bought the valentines' cards to exchange and made bags for our valentines' and goodlies.  The party was great with crafts, games and lots of food.  It's so nice that they are able to enjoy the fun times like this with their friends.  I think that's what I remembered most from school!  Homeschooling is great!  Our children get a quality, Christ-centered, parent taught education and still get to have parties, field trips, and all sorts of educational opportunities!  I really think it's the best!

As for hubby and I, our babysitter was working, so we stayed home.  Valentines' Day is always so crowded at the restaurants anyway.  One Valentines' Day, we searched for a restaurant without a 2 hour wait and ended up having fast food!  :-)  We will go out sometime this weekend!

The boys had a friend spend the night and they spent Thursday playing revolutionary war all day long!  It's nice to see them play so nicely with their friends.  I don't even know they are around when someone is over.

Accepted to Belmont University

Rebecca has been accepted to Belmont University!    Whoo Hoo!  We are all very excited here!  And especially Rebecca is looking forward to entering college.  This is how her letter started:
    "Congratulations! It is a pleasure to inform you that you have been admitted to Belmont Univerity as a new freshman Theatre and Drama major for the Fall 2007 semester." 

She worked hard for 12 years and now is reaping the the rewards! 

Now we await to see if she will get any scholarships.  We pray that God will provide by way of scholarships.  He always takes care of us, so we will trust in Him.

Nature Walk

Kids at the Park

Our 19th Anniversary

How it all began

This is a picture of us on our wedding day, 19 years ago.