In pastures green he leadeth me, the quiet waters by. A weblog about my journey homeschooling two of my four children. Learning to lean on God and trust him with my whole heart. A search for green pastures where my entire focus is learning to love my Lord like he would want me to. Update: In my search for green pastures God led me into the middle of thousands of acres of wheatfields. A place where I found true peace! (the avitar is Carolyn and her sweet grandpa who went home to be with God last Christmas Eve.) http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Dutchy/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Thu, 9 Oct 2008 11:16:00 -0500 Thu, 9 Oct 2008 11:16:00 -0500 Wow, It totally amazes me at how fast time fly's.  We have started homeschool, finally.  It has taken us a while to get up and running. Mostly due to finances.  We are using paces for our youngest son that our oldest son didn't use.  He went on to bigger and better things. He is going to a tech college later this year. Currently he is working, GED etc.  He had a lot of unused curriculum. (a blessing in disguise.  I bought our youngest two books to give her a month of brushing up and then we will (Lord willing) Get her into her 8th grade curriculum.  The brush up has been good for her. Our oldest daughter is getting married. She has met a wonderful preacher from PA.  They will be married on March 21.  We are so thankful to God for bringing Joshua into our lives. He has been preaching for his congregation for almost two years.  So I joke about it....but we will be taking donations for the wedding.:)  Our daughter started the wedding planning with a smaller budget, that she grew and grew and grew and then she came to her senses and scaled it back again. :)  Wow, anyone who has planned a wedding knows how quickly it can get out of hand.  Stay tuned....we haven't spent a dime yet....we will see. :) Hope homeschool is going well for all of you. Renee http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Dutchy/602243/ Thu, 9 Oct 2008 11:16:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Dutchy/602243/ Life has been crazy around here as usual.  The summer has almost run it's course.  We hit 105 yesterday on the heat!  Yikes. I have been working extra, which is good because vacations take a lot out of the budget. Dave and Tim are planning their hunting trip for mid September.  We have an unexpected surprise added to our life!  My daughter is getting married next June.  She has met a wonderful preacher and they are so in love. Thank you God! It's time to buy our curriculum again.  This year we only have to buy for the youngest two.  That will be weird. Our oldest son is working on getting his GED.  He will have it by winter, if all goes well. He is nervous, but I am sure he will do fine. He is brushing up on his math skills. Starting this week I will be working a lot less!  YIPEE!  I have tons of projects around the house and also plan on doing more with the kiddo's.  :) Hope you are all having a great summer! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Dutchy/576078/ Sun, 17 Aug 2008 09:04:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Dutchy/576078/ This was fun.  The other morning we got to watching the shadows on the wall. The kids were amazed at how fast the earth was revolving.  (at this point I was a little freaked out-my kids are in their teens) Then I got to thinking....we have never lived in a place that has sun!   Seattle is cloudy an average of 226 days per year. The normal average annual precipitation total for Seattle is 37.19 inches (between 35-39 according to most sites). Snowfall, however, seems to be only about 10-12 inches a year, on average.  Add to that the days that it isn't raining but is over cast....move your house closer to the mountain which adds more rain and more clouds.....add to that the days when the sun was at a different angle and didn't cast adequate shadows and there you have it folks.....Shadows in their mid to late teens. We now live in Eastern Washington which gets 265 (or more) days of sunshine!! With an average of 10 inches rainfall. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Dutchy/550505/ Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:05:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Dutchy/550505/ A few weeks ago I started this blog called One Der Mom.  Since I enjoy blogging so much I thought...Why not? It would have tips....ideas...a recipe or two...things to help the busy mom get through her day. ONLY THING IS....I have been so busy that I haven't had time to blog.   DER! Ok, for some good news.  My youngest daughter never, ever, ever wants to play games.  We talk her into it sometimes.  Well she has discovered that she likes games.  And now we can't get her to stop.  PRAISE THE LORD!!!!! That is enough to make me happy this week. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Dutchy/532186/ Wed, 14 May 2008 12:52:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Dutchy/532186/ My son did it again.  Yesterday we discovered that someone had taken a bolt out of our lawnmower and the handle was falling off. (we assumed that someone had done this since both of our backyard gates had been kicked in and a few bottles of vodka-small bottles- were strewn on the lawn) But I asked him to find something that would help us keep it together so we could mow.  He entered the shed...less than thirty seconds later he came out with one of the bolts from our Christmas tree stands.  It fit, it worked, we will keep it there until we buy a new bolt.  Smart boy...that one! If we don't get around to fixing it....will we remember where that bolt is when our tree is leaning ever so far over to the left?? http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Dutchy/518834/ Sat, 19 Apr 2008 10:24:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Dutchy/518834/ I was trying to be a good steward of my time yesterday. I was extremely tired after my quick trip to the coast and back on Sunday. It would have been easy to just come home and take a long long nap before I headed to my afternoon job. Here is how the morning went. Work from 6:30-8:30 am Quick shopping trip for milk and a few other essentials to get us through the next couple of days. Mostly cleaning supplies....since I do most of the deep cleaning on Monday mornings. Cleaned both bathrooms, a couple of rug spots, two loads of laundry, dusting and cleaned the kitchen. Went to the pool with Carolyn to swim our laps. Here is where the blog title... Move over Martha Stewart comes into play. We got home from the pool at 12:25 to find that my mother had just stopped by and was going to be back with my aunt and my step dad for lunch. Yikes I hadn't done any major grocery shopping...so this was going to be interesting. Quickly I went to grab the bread to make chicken salad ....drats no bread...no mayo. Thoughts of tuna melts crossed my mind, convert it to chicken melts and you have a plan....except for the fact that I was out of cheese. I opened the two cans of chicken and chopped it up and added BBQ sauce. Plopping the hamburger buns I found under the broiler and placing the chicken in the micro on two minutes....I had just enough time to open a can of mandarin oranges, cut up a few bannana's, add some frozen blueberries and a can of pears...we had a pretty fruit salad. Just enough chips left over in a bag to fill up a small bowl and a plate with lovely sliced dill pickles and we had a nice little lunch. I didn't even break a sweat! Scooping the chicken onto the toasted buns took seconds. I served them on a platter. They came for a nice little lunch that looked like I planned it. Yummy! Couldn't have been better if I had planned it. I took a two hour nap then headed off to work. After work we watched a movie and I called it a night. :) Do I hear super hero music playing here??? LOL! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Dutchy/517420/ Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:56:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Dutchy/517420/ We took a spring break this week.  My 18 year old son's girlfriend from the coast came to visit us for a week. We have really enjoyed having her here.  But as you know....it's time to hit the books again on Monday. Back to routine. Have I mentioned lately how blessed I am with my job?  I work from 6:30-8:30 am and then I work from 4:30-8:30 pm.  This gives me most of the day with my kids.  I have to try to fit in a short nap now and then. We have been swimming at the Y.  Which has been so good for our bodies!  I don't know how to say this....except that our life has been so crazy for so long that swimming during the day is a dream come true. Tim went fishing this week with 4 "older" guys from church.  The retired kind!  He brought home 4 beautiful trout. Tim and his Dad are out on the raft, fishing this morning.  Another big blessing....we were just able to buy those fishing licenses this year....it has been hard in the past few years for us to even do that. It looks like David might be getting two weeks of on call pay per month......if this is the case I will probably drop my morning shifts and just work the evening. Please keep this in your prayers. Well....have a blessed Saturday with your babies...they grow up so quickly! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Dutchy/515058/ Sat, 12 Apr 2008 09:02:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Dutchy/515058/ Yesterday I took the kids to one of those golf/frisbee parks.  We didn't spend a lot of money. The frisbee's were $1.oo a piece at Wal-Mart. Each player had their own color to throw!  We played on a nine hole course.  I printed the map out from the computer and my boys navigated for us. The wind blew our lite weight frisbee's in all sorts of directions. Occasionally a kid had to duck to avoid getting hit in the head. My kids added the scores, navigated and had a wonderful time.  I know my kids are older, but younger kids would enjoy this sport. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Dutchy/514591/ Fri, 11 Apr 2008 11:54:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Dutchy/514591/ If you have ever seen your children's brains in action...you will understand why I was so proud! Sitting on the living room floor last night...we needed to blow up an air mattress for a guest we had staying at our house. It was dark and I didn't want the kids going through boxes in the shed. My youngest son suggested that he could use the blow dryer, set on cool air to blow it up. Only the connection was all wrong. The blow dryer nozzle wasn't going to fit in that  hole...no matter how hard it was pushed. He said..."I know I'll take that pop bottle use the top part to fit in the nozzle and cut off the bottom of it to fit the blow dryer in." Fashioning his minor invention took seconds and with a little assistance from some duct tape...he had that mattress blown up in less than 5 minutes. Go KID! The fact that he used DUCT TAPE....does frighten me somewhat! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Dutchy/511445/ Sun, 6 Apr 2008 09:52:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Dutchy/511445/ Several months ago when we were looking for a church in our new home town....we chose a smaller church because we wanted more opportunities for our children to learn to serve. (I know that there are ways to serve in a large church too....no judgment here!  It was just our choice!) Our two sons gave the sermon again on Sunday night. This is their second time. Our oldest son did a sermon on 1Timothy and and letting no-one having a chance to look down on your youth.  He talked about purity in speech, faith, love...etc.  Very well put together. Our second son spoke on faith and used three scripture references pertaining to the birth of Jesus and how Mary had to have faith, how the wise men had faith and how the magi had to have faith. He did such a good job. It was interesting to see how their individual personalities handled their talks.  I am so proud of them. Of coarse this counts as speech class. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Dutchy/508796/ Tue, 1 Apr 2008 17:11:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/Dutchy/508796/