Blessed Woman - Homeschool Blogger

Just an update........

Mon, 3 Dec 2007 16:30:00 -0600

You can find me at http://blessedfamilyblog.blogspot.com

We have adopted two little girls from Ethiopia and are in the process to adopt two more.

Started my nineteenth year of home schooling this year!

Changing blog sites

Tue, 8 May 2007 09:36:00 -0500

For my few faithful readers/friends I wanted to let you know that my new blog address is http://blessedfamilyblog.blogspot.com Please join me there!

I am Two-Face!

Sun, 29 Apr 2007 18:49:00 -0500

Your results:
You are Two-Face

Two-Face		56%
Dark Phoenix		39%
Apocalypse		38%
Mr. Freeze		35%
Juggernaut		32%
Mystique		32%
Green Goblin		32%
Venom		30%
Catwoman		28%
Dr. Doom		28%
The Joker		25%
Magneto		25%
Poison Ivy		23%
Kingpin		23%
Lex Luthor		18%
Riddler		0%

You make impulsive decisions at the flip of a coin.

Click here to take the "Which Super Villain are you?" quiz...

and Superman!

Sun, 29 Apr 2007 18:46:00 -0500

You are Superman

Superman		80%
Wonder Woman		80%
Hulk		65%
Supergirl		60%
Green Lantern		50%
Spider-Man		45%
Robin		45%
Batman		40%
The Flash		30%
Iron Man		30%
Catwoman		20%

You are mild-mannered, good,
strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the "Which Superhero are you?" quiz...

Bowling

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 10:45:00 -0500

Yesterday afternoon we went bowling! We picked up Joe's friend on the way. I had five boys ages 6-13 with me. We paid for three games and we were so glad when the end of the third game was near! We were there for about two and half hours or slightly longer. The boys loved playing and it got them exercising without realizing they were exercising!

My boys are in a bowling league on Monday afternoons. They play in three man teams so Joe & James play on a team with another boy older than them, and John and Joel play on a team with a little boy that is right between their ages. They also get tokens for the Boardwalk which is an attached building that sports video games and rides. After their ten week league ends they get a pizza party. They also get a free game of bowling everyday which is one reason we went yesterday. We did spend some $$ though to play three games, shoe rentals, nachos, drinks, etc.....

We were all tired last night, but the boys didn't realize it was because of the bowling. I'm sore today around the middle and I slept well too! With ten frames a game, and unless you bowl a strike you're bowling two times a frame, so it comes out to about sixty times each bending your body and aiming for those pins. I have decided it's great eye-hand coordination too! I've been trying to teach them to look at the pin way down there and focus on that when they bowl. It works!

Now my six-year old has his own style of bowling. He uses the two hand method, where you take this giant ball and kind of throw it like an underhanded shot-put. It works! Many times he doesn't even hit the bumper, but seems to be able to keep the ball in the middle of the lane.

Well I better go, my boys are wrestling each other instead of wrestling their minds at school.

Please read this to me mom

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 09:50:00 -0500

Yesterday afternoon Steve came home with a plastic bag that contained two books. My sil had sent two books from her deceased mother's bookcase. The bookcases were emptied and are now sitting in my garage since they know I love books. Anyways, one book was Yankee Magazine's Church Suppers & Potluck Dinners CookBook and the other was a paperback NIV Bible.

My eight year old happened to be standing near me when I opened the bag and wanted to know whose Bible that was. I told him it didn't belong to anyone that Aunt Joni has just given it to us. He asked if he could have and I told him he could. Last night he brings it to me and wants me to read it to him starting on the first page. So, we read the first few chapters of Genesis and then stop for the evening. Today while I was knitting he brought it to me and told me to stop knitting, turn off the tv and read to him. (Yes, sir!) I did. We read Genesis 3,4 and part of 5. I'm told that we'll read the rest of Genesis 5, 6 and more tonight.

I love it! I'm convinced he's going to be the President of something someday. He's very personable and loves women of all ages. What a great foundation~The Word of God. I need to go and help him with his math. He's working on multiplication~that's not high on his enjoyment list.

April 20

Fri, 20 Apr 2007 09:39:00 -0500

Yesterday was Class Day. We had a great time with all the other home schoolers that come together twice a month for classes. The teacher sign-up sheets were out for the 2007-2008 school year. I swore I wasn't going to go, but they (the coordinators) just tempt me so. They tempt me with wonderful classes!! A Christian lawyer and his wife are teaching American Government and another godly man and his wife are teaching Economics. I think it would really benefit Jesse and Sarah to take these courses from these specific people.

I was able to sign-up for nursery duty. If I have our babies home by then I'll be able to hunker down with them and visit with my friend Heide. Heide just had her seventh baby and is just a jewel. I will have a low key year with no teaching. The last three years I have taught Kindergarten, Art 1-3, and Science 1-3. I have enjoyed and been challenged with each class.

The first day I worked in the Kindergarten class I understood why teachers recommend little boys for ritalin or suggest they have ADD/ADHD. it was pure chaos and to get a grip on the situation something had to be done. I have seven boys. I acted as though I were at home and started shouting orders, corrections, and suggestions. It worked! Those same boys are still in my classes to this day and I'm very fond of them.

I hear grumbling from my teens that they really don't want to go to classes, but I think they should in this instance. I figured out that if Sarah takes Algebra 1, US History, American Govt., and Economics she can graduate next year; then both Jesse and Sarah will graduate together. Jesse plans on going to either San Diego Christian College or Pt. Loma Nazarene University and pursuse a degree in music. Sarah might go to our local junior college and take their Culinary course. My oldest son took the course and it was a real benefit to him. He has taught me the proper way to cut different fruits, and offers to cut veggies anytime he's around since he can do it so fast. He has even made our Thanksgiving and Christmas meals before. One Thanksgiivng I wasn't feeling well, and he was seventeen or eighteen; he made our whole meal. It was so good too!

Well, we have school to do, grades to turn in, work to check, and beds to make. I better get to it!

Vikki

April 19

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 09:25:00 -0500

Life goes on as usual here, nothing earth shattering or newsworthy. I wil try and pick my brain to fill you in on what's been going on though.

Saturday, April 14, we had a family work party. Steve and Jesse put together a new play system/jungle gym from Costco. Joe and I mowed our four acres. Sarah fed us and helped clear our bank of dead, burned ice plant. The other three boys had fun playing on the trampoline, new swingset and helping mom whenever she barked orders. I also learned how to use an electric drill!

We go every Wednesday night to watch Jesse (17) and Jacob (22) play indoor soccer together. All the guys on the team are guys that my oldest boys have grown up with. I get to sit in the stands and visit with Mariah! She is a young lady that is now twenty-three, teaches science to junior-highers, and grew up with my oldest two boys.

On Monday I dropped ten pounds of frozen chicken on one of my toes. You know the whole packaged chickens from Costco that come two to a package? I had some laundry in right hand and tried to pick up the chicken in my left hand. Didn't work. It flew straight down to my toe. My little boys thought I was going to have a baby because I was using that breathing that ladies use at that time. I was trying not to cry and get past the pain. My toe is now a dark maroon color between the first bone and the toenail. I've tried to take it easy and stay off my feet late in the afternoon and into the evening.

I was able to use my Easter ham bones yesterday. I made red beans & rice. I LOVE meals like that. Our friends make a bean/rice dish that is made in Brazil, but I can't make it like they can. I think I need a personalized cooking lesson!!

I finished reading Sexual Predators in the Church. The author recommends taking your children to the bathroom if they need to go during the service instead of just allowing them to go on their own. We usually have our boys go before the service, but sometimes mom/dad get caught up in a conversation with someone and can't break away for a reminder.

We're still waiting on a referral for our adoption. I'm almost done reading The Seed From the East. After watching John & Kate plus eight and reading this book I have a new appreciation for those parents who have so many little ones at one time. If you haven't seen John & Kate plus 8 it's a show on TLC about a family who has twins and then had sextuplets. The first show the sextuplets were one and the second show they were two. The parents do a wonderful job of keeping their family a priority.

Planning our last quarter of school. I like planners from www.donnayoung.org. Found out Sarah needs Algebra 1 before she can graduate. She wants to graduate a year early so we need to figure out exactly what she needs to complete next year to do that. Algebra 1 didn't use to be a requirement and since 2003-2004 school year here in California it is a requirement. I have no idea what those people who are learning disabled will do. I know my second son would not have passed. He has a short term memory and the concepts would have escaped him.

Pretty boring stuff, I know.

April 5

Thu, 5 Apr 2007 16:15:00 -0500

We have been enjoying our Easter break this week. Although Joel has strep throat with an ear infection and I have something going on; we have been using this week to rest and not work. I did manage to clean some kitchen cupboards earlier in the week and throw out old food and things that take up space like pimientos (if I use them they just get picked out of the food), cream of wheat (which no one but me will eat), expired food and such. We had three good storage bags for the trash dumpster!

I'm making some photo booklets for our new children. We still don't know who they are yet, but I just had some pictures printed, and I found a file on the Yahoo Ethiopia Adopt forum of words for photo lableing in Amharic and English. Our dossier is in Ethiopia now and we are just wating to find out who the Lord wants to bring into our family!

Yesterday at the doctors I had one those moments. A moment when you realize you're looking at somebody that you will be like. When I was pregnant with Sarah and in my last week, I had a sonogram. The tech thought it was 95% assured we were having a girl. All that week I walked around and stared at little girls thinking to myself, "I'm going to have one of those! That is a whole new realm of spending money." After three boys I could buy barrettes, tights, cute shoes, headbands, rufflly panties, etc... So yesterday in the wating room at Kaiser a white lady came in with a very dark little girl, it was obvious the little girl was not of mixed race, in a sling attached to her. Within a few minutes I mustered up the courage to ask her if the little one was adopted. She said, "Yes!" It was the first time since we've been in the adoption process that I have actually met someone in person who is a white lady with a black child. I know they exist all over the place and that I'll run into them more often since I'm on the "lookout" now. It was one of those "I'm going to look like that" moments.

Jesse, Sarah and Joe are all down in Ensenada, Mexico, this week building a house for a family. They'll also spend time with families that they've built for in past years and maybe even evangelizing. They come home Saturday afternoon/evening. I hear they're having a great time!

Well I better go and get on those pictures! Have a great day!

Trophy Photojourney

Fri, 30 Mar 2007 10:55:00 -0500

My husband is in a fantasy football league with other men from our church. His team is the Griese (pronounced greasy) Pigskins, and came in first place for the 2006 football season. As the winner he won a nice big trophy and bragging rights for the next year. There has been smack talkin' on both sides so we played this up this last weekend and took the trophy on a little journey.

We decide to go to breakfast at IHOP and the trophy gets the front seat.

Breakfast at IHOP-Notice the trophy in the booster seat?

We headed down to Qualcomm Stadium where the Chargers play.

When Steve heads to the restroom I decide I've had enough!!

He sees me and rescues his baby, telling it, "It's okay buddy, mama didn't mean it."

Playing at the park

Now you know just how twisted we really are. We spent a whole Saturday traveling with this trophy around San Diego taking pictures.