How our Keepers Group came to be
Our Year in Review
Sign Language
Miniatures
Latch Hook

Keepers Of the Faith
Leslie's KOF
Susan's KOF
Donna's KOF

Caroline 3/28/02
Alexandra 5-14-00
Rebecca 5-25-01
Anna 7-19-99
Elizabeth 8-13-00
Rachel 9-8-99
Hannah 9-26-99
Ally 10-7-99
Emily 10-22-97
Sammie 11-23-99

Hannah
Sammie
Elizabeth
Anna
Emily
Rebecca
Rachel
Kylie
Annika
Jamie

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People often ask me about our Keepers group.  How it was started, how we organize and run it, etc.  Since we've had new families join our group this past year and another family joining in the fall, I thought I'd share the story of how our group came to be again. :)

Back when Emily was 5ish and we were starting her Kindergarten year, I joined a wonderful homeschool support group in our town in Ohio.  It was there that I first heard of Keepers of the Faith and the group, Keepers of the Home.  The woman who was sharing about Keepers was a veteran homeschooler.  Her daughter was hitting junior high age and this Mom spent a lot of time encouraging and mentoring us newbie homeschoolers.  She was talking about how important it is, as homeschooling moms, to find your community.  Find a group of like minded people and make it a priority to form friendships with them.  We get so wrapped up in schooling our kids and running them around to various activities that we neglect a vital part of our homeschool, our own personal relationships.  She then talked about Keepers and how when her daughter was 8 she started a group that turned into the most wonderful group far beyond anything she could have imagined.  Through the years these girls formed and strenghtened their friendships, as did the moms.  These were the Moms that were there for her when her husband had a heart attack.  They took care of her, prayed for her and with her, brought meals, stood vigil.  They were her tangible proof that God was right there beside her loving on her and helping her through an incredibly painful time.  When her husband had a second heart attack, those friends were right there again offering the same comfort and support.  In short, they were there for each other through all of lifes ups and downs, joys and sorrows and it all started through her forming a small Keepers group. 

As a new homeschooler amongst a bevy of friends who weren't homeschooling, I was all over that!  I couldn't wait for Emily to be old enough to start our own group.  Well, I blinked and when I opened my eyes after a split second, there she was, an eight year old. :)  We were now living in  Phoenix and I had met some people through Eastside but mainly they were moms of boys.  Not exactly the demographics I was hoping for.  

I prayed about starting a Keepers group and felt led to put some feelers out there.  I sent out an email to the support group to find moms of daughters in the approximate age range of 7+ to see if they were interested in 1.  a Mother/Daughter bookclub 2.  starting a Keepers group or 3.  Both.  I had a pretty decent response to the bookclub, a mediocre response to Keepers and a couple who were gung-ho for both.  My thoughts were to start with the bookclub and see where it progressed from there.  (as a side note, we've been meeting now for 4 straight years! :) ). 

God's timing is always perfect whether we are aware of it or not.  Shortly after I sent out those emails I became pregnant with Jacob.  Most of you lived through my last pregnancy w/ Katherine (some of you lucky ones got to experience both Jacob and Katherine!) and know I get really, really, really sick when I'm pregnant.  There was no way I could have started a Keepers group with all that was going on during my pregnancy.

I shelved the Keepers idea putting it aside but not entirely out of reach.   Our bookclub group in the meantime was doing really well.  The girls were making friends, I was adjusting to a newborn and all was good. 

Fast forward to Spring of 2007.  I started praying again about forming a Keepers group.  My 5 year old was now going to be 10 and I really wanted to give this a try.  I put out emails again through the two support groups, Eastside and Cornerstone, to see what the interest was in starting a Keepers group for girls ages 7+. 

Again I say that God's timing is impeccable.  The response was incredible!  I had two separate informational meetings where the moms came, I explained about the program and what my hopes were for the group.  From those two meetings there would be over 20 girls participating!  I will be honest and say, that made me nervous! LOL  I had never started or led anything like this before.  It was all new territory and I knew I was going to be learning as we went along.  With all meetings held in my home, the majority of badge work being taught by me, I would be lying if I said I wasn't a bit intimidated. 

Through the whole process I prayed and turned our group over to the Lord.  I told Him, this is not MY group, it's Your group.  I prayed that He would put the girls in our group together in only the way He can.  I was nervous with that large number but if that was what God wanted, I was willing to go along with it.  Within a couple of days of turning everything over in prayer about half of the people interested decided to start their own group.  They all lived further north and thought it would be better that way. 

There was a part of me that was disappointed as these were great moms and girls that I would have loved to have gotten to know better but another part of me sighed a big sigh of relief and said a huge "thank you Lord!"  ;)

When our group first gathered it was special from the begining.  The girls are all just incredible kids.  I was blessed our first year and blessed again our past year and I'm expecting to be blessed some more this coming year.

As we prepare for our next year and are planning on coming together to discuss what we're doing, I'm again in prayer that the Lord will bless us beyond belief this year.  My prayer is that friendships with the girls will blossom as well as the friendships between the moms.  I know some of you are pretty close, it's my hope that everyone will feel that same closeness.  That this group is a group of moms you can call on if you need anything, from a soup recipe to a shoulder to cry on.  For encouraging words when our homeschool days get long and you swear the kids are using their knowledge of world history to form a coup as well as a sympathetic ear to listen as we all begin to enter new stages of motherhood as our kids enter the exciting yet challenging years of adolescence. 

It is exciting to see what has become of that little spark of excitement I had so many years ago when I sat in the basement of Fairhaven Church in Dayton, Ohio listening to a mom talk.  I fully believe that our group has been carefully knit together and I'm excited to see what all God has in store for us through the years.

That's the story of how this group came to be.  Through a testimony and lots of prayer and waiting on God's perfect timing.  Those are the best ingredients to any new beginning, lots of prayer and patience waiting for it all to fall into place according to His plans. :)

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I hope you enjoy looking back at our past year! See you in August.

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Suzanne led our last meeting of the month, Sign Language.  What a fun and informative meeting.  Suzanne worked as an Audiologist before kids and had studied sign language for many years.  She did an awesome job teaching all of us not only the history of sign language but how to sign John 3:16, Jesus Loves Me and we all learned the alphabet.  What has been so cool is since our meeting we have witnessed sign language on several occasions now out in the real world.  Such a beautiful language.

Thanks Suzanne!  It was an awesome way to wrap up another year.

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Tonight Jeni taught the girls how to make miniature scenes out of clay.  Again, I wasn't there for the night and if anyone wants to add what happened, please do so!  :)

Jen graciously sent me a couple of pictures from Elizabeth's project.  Thanks Jen and Elizabeth. :)  I also have a picture of Anna's creation with the extra clay.

Thanks Jenni for hosting.  The girls had a lot of fun creating w/ clay.

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Here are pictures from our night of latch hooking.  Since I wasn't able to stick around, I can't share any more details than these pictures.  Anyone who was there want to add anything?  Please do so!

Opening:

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For our second get together in January, Jen sent out an invitation to any who could make it to come and paint their pieces.  A few of the girls were able to attend  Again, I couldn't make it so I can't talk about it (anyone want to share, please feel free to :) ) but Jenni graciously offered to take my girls so they didn't miss out!  They came home on cloud nine so I could tell they thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

We were able to pick up our pieces after they fired them again this past week.  I wish I had my camera with me so I could have snapped a shot of everyone's pieces, they were really, really good!

When you all go to pick up your pieces, make sure to take some pictures and send them to me and I'll add them here. :)

Pictures!!

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Tonights meeting was organized by Jen.  Jen organized a lesson on a potters wheel at a local ceramic studio.  The girls all got a chance to throw some pottery and to make clay creations.  I wasn't able to attend but from the excitement in my girls when they came home, they had a lot of fun!  If anyone else wants to share about this evening, please do so! :)  I'll post pictures of the event as they come in from the gals who attended.

Thanks Jen for organizing this fun outing!

Here are the pictures from Jen.  If anyone wants to add anything, let me know. :)

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Lori led our meeting tonight where we learned about hosting a proper tea party.  The table was beautifully set when we all arrived with all sorts of scrumptious looking treats to tempt us all. 

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For our "extra" meeting this month we made Christmas cookie dough to freeze away for the holidays. YUM.

We made four different doughs, doubling the recipe, if needed, to make sure every family received enough dough for 1 dozen cookies of each type.  All of our dough is now safely frozen away waiting for Christmas time to come around.

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Originally we were scheduled to play croquet tonight.  However, the lack of light and hard ground necessitated a quick change for our badge work.  I had the girls come prepared to talk about a foreign language of their choice.  It was fun listening to them as they attempted to say several phrases and recite John 3;16 in their chosen language.

We opened  our evening going through our verse, purpose, goal and prayer.  We then sang our hymn for the month, Be Thou My Vision.  It was so sweet listening to the girls singing the hymn.  We then did a brief devotional on Patience.  We'll be working through the Keepers character study book on Patience.  Each week we'll do a little more in the book until we're through.  By then we should all have patience in every situation, right??? ;-)

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We had a great night of swimming and fellowship.  I'm looking forward to another exciting year.

We started our meeting off going over the basics for our new girls.  Memorizing the verse, goal and purpose of Keepers.  I also handed out CD's I burned of 7 hymns and the lyrics to go along with them.  We will be learning a new hymn every month and singing them when we get together. :)  Next, I handed out gifts to our birthday girls, Anna and Hannah.  Anna's birthday was over the summer and Hannah's is this month.  Unfortunately, Rachel and Elizabeth, who were also our birthday girls (Elizabeth in Aug., Rachel this month) were unable to be here, but there bags were given to them a day or so after our meeting.

After the general announcements were over, we headed out to the pool where the girls had fun swimming and munching while the moms enjoyed sitting around chatting.  The looming lightening didn't deter the girls as they swam.  Once the wind started to pick up and the lightening seemed a little closer (and lower) we got the girls out of the water.  That didn't stop anyones fun.  The girls just ate and ran around the yard instead, while the moms continued to chat by the pool enjoying the refreshing cool breezes that the storm brought in.

Looking forward to next month where we're back at my house to play a rousing game (or two) of croquet!  Don't forget to work on memorizing your hymn for the month, Be Thou My Vision, as well as the verse, goal and purpose of Keepers (found at the beginning of your book).  Also, make sure you bring your Keepers book to every meeting.

I hope you enjoy the few pictures I was able to snap in between all the jumping and swimming. :)

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We'll be starting our new year this week!  I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again and to welcome some new girls into our group.  Here is our upcoming schedule for the year:

September:  Welcome back swim party


Praying for you all as we begin our new year full of changes, getting to know each other better and making new friends.

Don't forget to check back in here periodically for updates and pictures of what we have been doing.  If you have something to add, let me know.  This is a blog for us all to use. 

Make sure to visit often and leave comments! 

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I hope you enjoy looking back over our past year. :-)

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For our end of the year ceremony we had an Ice Cream Sundae party!!  Siblings, grandparents and all the moms joined in the fun as we celebrated our first year of Keepers coming to an end. 

My girls helped me set our table with various items that represented what we worked on over the past 9 months.  It was fun coming up with something that represented our Ice Skating badge. :)  Emily made an ice rink complete with a paper Zamboni.  I had a fun quiz for the girls to fill out as they arrived and were waiting for everyone else to get there.  The questions went over various things we learned this past year.  The girls looked at the table for clues to help answer some of the questions.  They did a great job filling out the quiz.  One thing that has been fun for me is to watch all their different personalities as they've tackled various assignments.  The quiz was no different.  Some were determined to get that quiz completed!  Every answer filled in.  Others, looked at it, answered a couple of questions and were done.  Both were perfectly acceptable ways to approach this quiz.  We had personalities that varied from more intense, "let's get down to work and finish this task" to more laid back "it'll get done when it gets done" and some in between.   The one thing they all had in common was how incredibly sweet and kind they all were.  They all have such a love of Jesus in their hearts, it's really neat to see.


After everyone was there and quizzes were "graded" we had our ice cream sundaes.  We scooped out the ice cream (or dairy free sorbet) into the bowls and the girls, their siblings and invited guests, took them to the table where they could top it however they liked.  Yum!


Once the bowls were licked clean and everyone cleaned up, it was time to hand out the badges.  The girls accomplished so much this year and through it all kept wonderful positive attitudes, even when things were hard. 

When planning our banquet, one of the moms suggested handing out roses to our daughters.  I thought it was a great idea.  I told the moms to be prepared to say something about their daughters as they presented them with their rose.  It was tough keeping our eyes dry as we all took turns telling our daughters what special girls they are and just how much they mean to us.  Our daughters didn't quite understand why we were all teary eyed, but one day they will.
We had a wonderful ending to a wonderful year.  We're all looking forward to September when we will start another fabulous year of learning and growing.

Thanks girls and moms for a fun year!

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At our last meeting we worked on our Health and Fitness badge.   We met on Good Friday, so we started our meeting off, after our opening, talking about what an amazing thing Jesus did for us.  I asked for volunteers to pray to open our meeting and to thank Him for all He did for us.  Three of the girls volunteered and gave the sweetest prayers.  Their hearts are so open and they love Jesus so much.  It is really neat to see.

We got a late start, in order to get everything done we were hopping!  To start our topic off I talked with the girls about nutrition and read Dr. Sears book, Eat Healthy, Feel Great.  We talked about green, yellow and red light foods.  We went over the food pyramid and all the various sections.  We discussed food labels and how to read them to find out what we're really eating.  I reminded them that looks can be deceiving, especially when it comes to bread, and to read those labels to know just what they are getting.

I then told them what our snack was going to be, Green Smoothies!  I cut up some swiss chard, put it in the blender and added some orange juice, bananas , frozen blueberries and frozen mixed berries (strawberries, raspberries and blackberries).  It was fun watching the girls taste their smoothies.  One of the girls told me she didn't think she was going to like it.  I told her, "Well, there's only one way to find out!"  She liked it.


After drinking their smoothies, we went outside to start on our fitness part of our badge.  I had the girls make an obstacle course using the materials laid out in our backyard.  I broke them into two groups and told the groups to make their own course, which would then be added to the other one.  The guidelines I gave them were they needed to be moving.  They needed to jump, crawl, climb, run, twirl, whatever they wanted, as long as they were moving!  They had a blast making their courses, teaching it to the other group, then taking turns running through the course.

After they ran through their course, our time was up.  I gathered the girls together to wrap up our meeting and say goodbye.  We ended our meeting w/ three different girls volunteering to end our meeting in prayer.  It was a sweet way to end our meeting.

To earn the Health and Fitness badge the girls need to:

• Read a book that explains how the different things we eat can affect our health.
• Explain the importance of vitamins and minerals in our diets.
• List five common vitamins our body uses daily.
• Explain how our body benefits from consuming the proper amount of each of these five vitamins.
• List ten "healthy" foods (those rich in vitamins and minerals) that we should have in our diet to keep us healthy and strong.
• List ten common "unhealthy" foods that we should limit in our daily diet.
• In your notebook, keep track of your daily diet every day for one month.  At the end of the month look over your lists. 
  
• Read a book on the benefits of physical exercise.
• Write an essay explaining how physical exercise can improve your health.
• List ten different exercises that you could do on a regular basis.
• Give an explanation of how each exercise listed above will benefit your body.
• Create an exercise routine from your list of exercises that you can perform at least three times a week. 
  
• Explain the benefits of stretching before and after you exercise.
• List five different stretches you can do before exercising.
• Perform your exercise routine with stretching beore and after it three times a week for two months.  Keep a record in your notebook.
• Name three recreational activities that provide a good exercise workout.

Whew!  That's a lot.  You better get busy!

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Today the girls held a lemonade stand to raise money for Alex's Lemonade Stand.

It was a beautiful morning here, the perfect temperature to hold a lemonade stand.  We set up our stand at the garage sale of one of the girls Grandparents, which provided a steady stream of traffic. 

Here's a picture of the girls at the beginning of the morning and then at the end of our two hours.  Notice how the jackets came off as the sun climbed higher in the sky.

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