Faith walked around all day yesterday with our digital camera and these are some of the pics she came back with.

Keep in mind that she'll be 5 next month.

She says that she LOVES taking pictures! Definately a possibility of a talent   ( or just a hobby?) to nurture. At the very least, they'll make for interesting writing prompts!

Hey everyone!

 Elijah walks...

well, he CAN walk... he's still crawling as his preferred method of transportation, but he's choosing to walk a bit more each day without coaxing!

I just put the January tape into our video recorder, so I will catch some footage and post it as soon as possible!

I have  13 movie tape things that go into the recorder and they are each labeled with a month of the year. At the end of the month, I dump those contents into imovie to be edited when I have time ( which I haven't had for 3 months!), rewind the tape and put it back in to the movie tape drawer to be used the following year. Why do I have 13 and not just 12?

 Because I need an extra one for Christmas!

If I want my life to work, I need to get off my duff and go mop the floor and fold some laundry--gotta keep up with Something around here!

Well this entry is not going on the mailing list because it's not really about our family but I want it out "there" anyway! It's being hosted by Tia whose blog is:Sagerat Scribbles
There are a number of things that I am supposed to do here that I'm not sure if I'll do correctly--techie stuff!
We'll see. If I win, I get a popcorn set (whoo hoo!) and if I don't....well, not sure that my ENTIRE life will crumble to pieces!

You do have to read all my answers though because I mention some pretty amazing people that I know and I wish you knew them too!
             Here are the questions and answers!

First of all, Welcome to all those who received our newsletter, either by post or by (blushing) email. If you received it by email, that's only because I could not remember where I put your card that you just sent us---I think someone was "decluttering" my fruit basket, whickh was where I was keeping those return addresses that I was going to need. The other reason, you may have gotten an email style newsletter is because you live too far away for me to get the Christmas card there before Christmas! Have any of you ( anyone???) started putting away Christmas stuff? I don;'t like to say "putting away Christmas"...I have to add the word "STUFF" because to say it the other way just makes it sound like one is putting away Christ. Homeschooling phonics puzzle here: Why is "Christ" spoken with a long i sound, but "Christmas" has a short vowel sound for i? I have not started the physical work of it, but am mentally preparing for it! I need to make labels for my bannister lights to remind me next year how I figured it out this year. We had a Charlie Brown Christmas tree this year, which makes the clean up easier---no sweeping up pine needles and vacuuming! I am also mentally preparing for next year so that I can spend December not doing Christmas STUFF, but making Christmas memories with My family... so I can be outside with the video camera watching them do snow angels instead of last minute shopping or addressing envelopes! Anybody else start back to school this week? I am having Faith do some Math, but pretty much, it is a "gung ho, let's get everything in order before we officially start next Monday" kind of week. This includes out from under her bed, getting all the laundry done, so that nothing is piled 10 feet up come next Monday, re-organizing toys and clothes....Pat is off this week, so I need to get it all done while he is still available to entertain kids somewhat... I also am hoping that my shelves get done sometime soon...so that I can organize the closet in the homeschool room...I sort of feel like I cannot advance with any further projects until that is done...mostly because I can't reach the items I need without taking everything out of the closet first! Time for Bed now..no pics this time!

FROM FAITH:
  Elijah was hollering something--not crying , hollering, but just to put in his .02- and Faith came in and mentioned that he sounded bold. "Maybe we could rename him Caleb" was her suggestion.

(For those who don't know, the name Caleb means bold and that WAS on our list of baby names...)

FROM ISAIAH:
   I'm a mom.. I have lots on my mind...and it was apparently coming out my mouth in muttered tones the other day as I walked into the kitchen.
Isaiah: Are you talking to yourself?
Me: what? Oh, um, yeah I am
Isaiah: Okay, I'll talk to myself too!

And then he did.

Another one from Faith:
 "We'll have an exciting day in 15 sleeps! We're going to Grandma and Grandpa's! Excited Mark!"
 
She has been reminding me every 20 minutes TODAY of this countdown and again tonight at dinner, she informed me again and said explicitly, "NOT a period. AN EXCITED MARK!!!"

Oh, and Elijah said Papa! He is currently saying "bah-bah" for bye- bye in context also!

So, I guess you are all wanting to see a picture, so here is one that perfectly fits the personality of our "Mr. Man":
That's it!
 Goodnight and God bless all of you!

Here is something that Faith dictated to me. She saw an experiment on her school video of the teacher putting different gingerbread cookies (named Ted, Kit, and Ken) into a glass of water and then we (Mom prompting...) wrote what happened and what she learned.  I am not sure if you can read the text. I can maybe go back and fix it if you can't. I wish I knew how to make the image larger if you run the mouse over it or click it. Anyway, I will try to add more of her writings here and if I can perhaps learn how to make gingerbread, maybe we can try this...would a graham cracker be cheating? Look below cookie paper to better see what it says:

These pics MAY offend some...primarily those who are against homeschooling in general and those who are more of an "unschooling breed", but hey... it keeps my kitchen cleaner!

VIDEO WALL!

CRAFT TABLE IS TO THE RIGHT...

THIS SHELF WILL HOPEFULLY BE FILLED WITH FUN ACTIVITIES FROM THE BOOK IN THE NEXT PICTURE...
(the little table in the forefront is where those activities may or may not take place....might end up being a writing or copywork table)

THAT BOOK I MENTIONED

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL SHOT OF MAMA'S CORNER...HEY, WHERE'S MY JAVA?

I was tagged by Suzanne, so I need to write out 6 random things about myself!

1) Right now, I finished my milk before my last oreo. arghhh!!

2) Our baby was uncommonly happy and downright giggly at church today...he can be somewhat of a "crumudgeon" sometimes

3) My hot chocolate at  Starbucks last night was NOT sweet enough for me

4) I forgot to get a carpet square from the flooring store last week for Faith's Bible lesson.

5) I  was very excited when on of the young ladies at church offered to come over and help with cleaning just as a ministry. Some of the young ladies are wanting to help the Moms with many littles in areas like this. I'm looking forward to pairing one of them up with Faith so that she can help. These young woman are the most wonderful role models!

First of all, don't forget that the post below has pics of Isaiah to celebrate his birthday and sweet little lifeI

Okay I had to get this in before handing the mac back to Pat!

Here are some pics of the room in the process of painting. I have some touch-ups to do but we decided to do it with natural daylight helping.

 I will take more pics later (as the ceiling is now done)..won't be sharing the carpet cleaning... that's just boring! But hopefully by the end of next week, we'll have the furniture in place and hopefully everything ready to go!



The above three pics are the more accurate color, but a few pics turned out orange-y!

ISAIAH IS THREE!
(Click above to see slideshow)

Just wanted everyone to know that my first little man is the big three! My goodness! Last year, he wasn't even talking and now is full blast--which actually just happened about 6 months ago.

So, do I laugh, cry, what??? Whatever I do, I am making sure that I love on him "extra much" (yes, I did just now make up that phrase!)!!!

Here they are! The homeschool rebuild pics room in progress.

Going back in time--->
Faith sitting at her little table in '05.


The other side of the room was Isaiah's nursery before we got rid of the seldom used guest room.

And until 2 weeks ago, it was also Elijah's nursery!

The computer wall as it has been for 4 years now...
 
TIME TO MAKE SOME CHANGES... LET'S GO!
Compare the walls...is something missing? You figure it out...

Here's a little hint...

The kids are enjoying the process!!!

WOW! A brand new look!
Bye bye borders and white walls!
( I took the picture today- October 3, but forgot to change the month...about a million other things on my mind...)


And that old computer wall?

Being replaced...
It's coming along...

So, on a good day, if I am up to date on my laundry in the afternoon and the kids are napping, this is how it looked so far....until...

Pat hauled up the painting supplies to finish the room, and I brought in the truck mat to give Isaiah something to do..

Here is our little kid table being used as an up and away place to keep the paint supplies from baby hands..

And the little scholars are doing so well in the midst...

Okay, here's a little funny about Isaiah...he watches an extra DVD ( one that she's already seen ) if he wants to, and then says "I'm done." after 5 -10 min., so i excuse him to go play. BUT... he doesn't want to go play...he wants to see what's on the middle TV!! he hasn't quite figured out that I am the controller of the content... not the TV itself!!

SO THERE YOU ARE, SO FAR!
I will be adding more as we add more to the room... so far, we are awaiting a chalkboard and a vintage schoolroom clock! There were a couple of ebay items that we lost bids on, so ...will have to keep searching...

The rest of my life?
This weekend, Pat is camping, so I've got a small list of things to accomplish starting as soon as I am done writing. For the sake of accountiblity, I will list them here and let you know how it went!

1** change the laundry and start Faith's stuff because I want it all done by tomorrow night at the latest!

2**(while laundry is churning away) Use super footstool to forage through top two shelves in pantry to find the lid to the blender because I really, really want to make some orange julius'. I know it is up there somewhere!

3**Get bread mixed.. going to try doubling the yeast because last two times, it did NOT rise enough!
We are new at making bread...and trying to use up this Amish mix stuff which is proving to be a bit stubborn in the rising dept.

4**Make bar cookies for friends from church that recently moved closer to us.. a little snack while unpacking or perhaps a reward for getting it done!

5**Change the rat's cage ( may save that until tomorrow or they mayl escape if I try it tonight!)

6** I promised Faith we could make a pumpkin pie! From a real pumpkin---not a can! This could be something I never want to try again....

7**Peel off the tiny left-behind bits of wallpaper backing off the wall in the schoolroom.



That's all I am going to try to do.. and in the midst of it all, keep a quiet and gentle heart with the littles! Why overdo it?...um, did I mention that I need to get the bathrooms done as well as start on Faith's chore packs?

Just a little reminder for y'all to check out my blog this coming Saturday. I plan to stay up later and post pics of us changing our "schoolroom" into a schoolroom...Bought a chalkboard online and everything. This laptop is running out of juice... so I need to stop and yes...going to bed too! Oh and I finally got contacts again today after wearing glasses since July. I feel like my face has been freed.

Here are a few pics from our fire station tour. I didn't put all of them because most had our friends' kids too  and I wouldn't put their pics up without permission.


Here is a door that was in a fire. It separated the living room from a bedroom. The fire was on the living room side.



And here is the side of the door that was on the bedroom side.

Having the door shut saved the life of the man that was in the bedroom.
My kids next to a firefighter all gussied up in his fire duds. If you call a Policeman "officer", What do you call a firefighter (if he's not the captain or the chief?)

This pic was difficult to take because of the reflective stripes!


Here is Faith listening
And, finally back into the van as Jr. firefighters.
We are planning some more field trips. We are not an official Co-op or even homeschool support group, just 3 moms who want to do fun stuff with our kids and each other!

DID I MENTION WE ARE REDOING OUR SCHOOL ROOM?
I'll be including some before and after pics! Tonight, Pat went out and bought 3 TV's with built in DVD players and you bet I had labels made before the remotes were even out of the plastic! We are talking about getting a magnetic white board where I can hang my pocket chart calendar and write out our schedule. I LOVE pocket charts! I think it's one of those die hard things of former classroom teachers who homeschool their own kids! Gotta have the blue pocket charts!

UPDATE ON THE ROOMIES!
Okay, this was Isaiah tonight before bed! He is slightly less than thrilled to share a room with baby brother because he says the baby wakes him up. The great thing was that the tears only lasted 5 minutes, did not increase, and baby brother did not seem at all bothered!

We bunked the boys together tonight.

After getting settled ( some hollering and panic, etc....) all went well for a good few hours, then about 1:15 am while I was playing on my laptop here, I heard giggling.

I chose not to stop it. Pat went in and told Isaiah to be quiet. I wanted him to deal with it as Elijah would get upset that Mama's in the room and NOT coddling (ahem,...cuddling ) him.

I told Pat that I figured that it was a "brotherhood" thing not to interuppted by Mama.
Hey! I did it!
Here are the "big" kids watching "Farm Math" for school!
We are going to redo the school room tomorrow (Sat) and they will each have their own TV/DVD player combo in there---It's amazing how much they fight over the angle of the screen so that they can each see better!

I'm headed off to dreamland now, but I had to post this next pic! I am immediately reminded of an old 60's girl goup that sang, "....Mama said there'd be days like this..."

Oh and we went to the fire station today... will post pics later! Faith was disappointed that they did not have Dalmation puppies, but I think she enjoyed the field tip anyway.
Note to me: Choose direct link option in photoucket, choose picture at top. paste URL, Click "insert image"
Because I know that I will forget how I got these pics in!

"The hen sits"

Faith: I can't read that.
 me: yes, you can. You've read every word before.
 Fatih tries again, gets stuck on sits.
me: ( covering the last s) try this.
Faith: sit. I uncover the last s
Faith: The hen ... sits.
me: Great job

Faith frowns. "The hen can't sit. It can't lay any more eggs. God has already given it all the eggs it needs."

me: Well, maybe she isn't trying to lay eggs. Maybe she's been chasing her chicks around all day and just needs a rest like people moms.

 Faith looks at me like I'm quite the cluck myself and she's obviously not buying that but at least being courteous. Yesterday, she had trouble with the /e/ sound in "eggs" because we don't SAY '/e/ggs'. We say '/a/ggs" (with a long a sound). We skipped the eggs and used the elephant picture as our standard for the day. The things mom's need to say to get over those learning bumps.

Click the link Below to see Elijah's first year!

Happy birthday Elijah

Hope this worked! I can never remember which code to put in! If you don't see it. revisit in a few days and I'll try to have it up then.

Newest Gems:

Isaiah is becoming more and more expressive and loves watching "FARM MATH" as we call it.(Our math lessons have a farm theme.) He is having great fun comparing EVERYTHING and uses his best teacher voice!:
"Doooo these match?.....Nooooooooo"
You have to imagine his little dimpled smile as he does this!

A couple of weeks ago, he picked up the term, "Not quite". We were sitting with the baby and the bottle in the big brown chair, and he asked (again, in his best teacher voice):
" Is baby a tough guy?...Noooot quite!"

Elijah is still screeching when he wants us to bow to his every whim...ahem...not happening here!
I managed to teach him the sign for "please" and now he has to use it if he wants something. Right now, it's limited to the meal table, but that's a start! He's sooo happy with himself when he does it too!

We have another Gem from Faith this week.
Our church has started a prayer time for the younger crowd revolving around missions. I thought it was for kids 14 and up, but learned yesterday that anyone who wants to participate in leadership for this needs to be at least 14, but the learning and prayer time is for any age.

I had let her go outside to the playground with some bigger girls and when I was ready to go home, I went out to find her...she was around the corner with all the kids in the missions lesson.
When I told her it was time to go, her little bottom lip quivered and she said, "but I have to stay and learn about our missionaries!!!" 
Of course, I couldn't drag her away from that!
On the way home, she expressed concern about 3 twenty-somethings in our church who have gone to Taiwan to teach English: "I'm so sad! When they come back, they won't remember how to speak like us!!"
I assured her that people don't forget how to speak the language they have spoken since they were babies! Especially if they are teaching it to others.

HOMESCHOOLING NEWS:
I am presently ( now, at this very moment) burning DVD's off my hard drive that our satellite classes beam down to . I am getting quite proficient at techno mulit-tasking.. whew!  I am so glad that Pat has offered to do all the canning this season! I can tell from the timer upstairs in the kitchen that he's about ready!

We are mostly learning how to smoothly go through our day:
1. set table for breakfast
2. Eat
3. Clear table (placemats, wipe down with wet cloth and again with dry.
4. Move her booster seat to her school chair ( Papa's supper chair)
5. Get supplies from box for Bible Lesson and go through that.
6.Put away Bible folder and DVD
7. Pull out supplies for Math....(mama has to make sure she has some math manips for Isaiah to play witth too!!) Then take a break while Mama showers. Do math after little break.
8. Put away school supplies and set up for Lunch
9. After eating lunch, reset up school supplies ( DVD player and Reading folders)
10. Play outside
11. Come in and do more school while brothers rest

whew... lots of independent training!

gotta go! time to sleep

Ever since I decided to blog on Thursdays, it seems like it's been any day except Thursdays! Ha!

So here is the latest....

  We are canning ( ummm well Pat is!)
We had a HUGE microburst in our back yard that knocked down a tree-- will post pics later.
  I am continuing my quest for the most efficient use of my time in recording all my classes from BJU

I am still in Psalms in my personal reading and will be joining our women at church in a study on "The 5 aspects of women." I am looking forward to that.

Isaiah got a new school box and we decorated it with monster truck stickers. He is sooo excited to do school with Faith! He loves watching Bible and Math.

Elijah is one loud and fast kid. He is eating dinner with us now at the table and will have nothing to do with the jarred goop while we eat our big people food, but will be happy to partake of it if our yummies are not available to him! The kid loves meat and will eat enough for both him and Isaiah put together (Isaiah is not a big meat guy, by the way!)

It's almost time to edit family videos and send them out again!

Wanted to share a conversation I had with Faith the other evening:
Faith came downstairs the other night and reported that she was having bad thoughts.

I asked her what they were about and she said that they were about falling into the hole where the tree fell down.

I told her that the hole that was left was not very deep--what was troubling her? She said that if she fell in, it might be squishy and she might get dirty.

So after discussing what we would do if she got dirty and squishy--hose her off and then change clothes in the laundry room and put on dry ones, I suggested that she replace those bad thoughts with good ones.

She wanted to know "like what?"

So, since I knew we'd be decorating cupcakes for a school snack, so I suggested that she think about cupcakes so that she'd have sweet dreams.

Here is her reply...

ARE YOU READY FOR THIS??....

"But I want to have serious dreams!"

(and now it's my turn to ask "like what kind of serious dreams?" )

Her answer: "Well, I don't KNOW what the Lord will have me dreaming about."

Motherhood continues to humble me.

The last leg of our curric.(reading) came this week and the classes started broadcasting! Thankfully, the same ones will be broadcasted next week. I am recording up to 6 classes for 6 grade levels! Except handwriting. I think the classes are neat with some fun thematic information, but I think that will just be something we do on our own-the skill itself is not unnecessary, but watching the classes are.


 I am hoping to start Monday. Faith is very excited! My bookshelves are not done, so the stuff is in our bedroom .... lovely. Pat rightly has his mind on some other things that are keeping him from taking care of that which I won't go into.. okay.. if you must know--- millions of hours of canning our upcoming harvest and looking for a new job because HP is laying off again....

Hopefully, we'll get ourselves into  a routine of sorts quickly!

 Elijah will be ONE year old next month!!! WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW!
I think we will make it a tentative ritual that we have ice-cream cones on his birthday because that's what Grandpa and Grandma Nagle were doing when they got the call announcing his birth!

 I hope all is well with all of you who are reading this!

Remember, this is for staying in touch, so please comment or email even just to say Hi!

So, for yet another week, I am not able to do all I want on my blog.
I did want to add something though!
Please pray God's will for Hubby's interview that he had today.
Please pray that we will not be discouraged if it doesn't come through.
 Please pray that we will also repent of our cynicism as well,,,there is nothing wrong with hoping God will say yes, as long as we are putting out trust in God and not Hubby's skills...

Kiddos are finally improving healthwise although Elijah still has serious yuck nose.