http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/floridamomto4/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Sat, 10 Jan 2009 10:30:00 -0600 Sat, 10 Jan 2009 10:30:00 -0600 Elizabeth has been asking for an apron lately, and this morning I found the time to make one for her.  As soon as I handed it to her she said, "Can we make something?"   So, of course, we made muffins!  I have a yummy recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip muffins that everyone loves.  Enjoy the pics of the girls at work and the new apron. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/floridamomto4/643677/ Sat, 10 Jan 2009 10:30:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/floridamomto4/643677/ The sky is a brilliant, cloudless expanse of blue.  The sun is shining intensely.  The breeze is blowing across my feet as I type, and my wacky children are swimming in the pool!  More like jumping in, screaming at each other about how cold it is, and then jumping out.  But they have been doing this for several minutes now.  We may not have the acreage we dream about.  We have to deal with neighborhood bylaws that we don't like.  But we have a sweet little piece of paradise right here.  I'll take it! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/floridamomto4/637345/ Sun, 28 Dec 2008 15:02:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/floridamomto4/637345/ Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.  We had an excellent day with our local family.  Mark's parents are in North Carolina, but we'll see them at Christmastime.  My sister and her husband were a gracious hosts and we had a blast hanging out together.  Their two sons, their wives, and two grandchildren were there along with my parents and our family of six.  The weather was perfect, the company awesome, and the food plentiful and delicious.  We always have much to be thankful for, but this year was made a little more precious to me after my cancer scare in the Fall.  Everything is just a little sweeter now   Enjoy some pictures of the day: My Sister and I Some cousins with Grandmom at the sandbox. The rest of my pictures won't upload for some reason, but I"ll work on it!  Happy Thanksgiving from our home to yours. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/floridamomto4/625710/ Sat, 29 Nov 2008 10:04:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/floridamomto4/625710/ Here is a fun survey I copied from Jen's blog.  1. Wrapping paper or gift bags?  Wrapping paper, but I can't put the gifts out until Christmas eve or the cat will eat through the paper. 2. Real tree or Artificial?  Artificial - I can't keep anything green very long.  We went over to the "dark side" after having to take all the ornaments off of two trees one year because they lost all their needles before Christmas day.   3. When do you put up the tree? Day after Thanksgiving   5. Do you like eggnog?  No.  Totally disgusting.   6. Favorite gift received as a child?  Baby Alive - loved this doll.   7. Hardest person to buy for?  Teenage nephew   8. Easiest person to buy for?  My girls - they still love everything   9. Do you have a nativity scene?  Several   10. Mail or email Christmas cards?  Snail mail a photo card   11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received?  A vacuum cleaner that I actually asked for.  Be careful what you wish for...   12. Favorite Christmas Movie?  Elf.  I broke my own "not before Thanksgiving rule" and  watched it two nights ago. 13. When do you start shopping? October   14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present?  Recycled? No.  Donated to charity?  You bet. 15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas?  Um - do I have to pick?  Probably some kind of cookie.   16. Lights on the tree?  Yes - now we have a pre-lit tree.  Best invention ever.   17. Favorite Christmas song?  Silent Night.   18.Travel at Christmas or stay home?   Stay home.   19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer’s?  Of course, but only if I sing it.   20. Angel on the tree top or a star?  Love our angel, but the fake tree won't hold her weight so now it is a foil star. 21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning?   Morning   22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year The fact that stores start marketing in August   23. Favorite ornament theme or color?  Homemade tacky kids' ornaments   24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Turkey and stuffing.   25. What do you want for Christmas this year?  Already got it - a clean bill of health and the best family around.   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/floridamomto4/622526/ Fri, 21 Nov 2008 20:00:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/floridamomto4/622526/ May 24.  A proud mom and dad with the happy graduate. On our way north.  No, we didn't let them ride that way all the way to DC! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/floridamomto4/567813/ Wed, 30 Jul 2008 20:05:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/floridamomto4/567813/ College Orientation:  Two days designed to cram into your brain all of the information that you will need to know about the next four years of your child's life.  Well, school-wise anyway.  Whom to pay, how much to pay them, and exactly how to do it.  Did you know that a student ID can serve as a room key, debit card, credit card, meal plan ticket, vending machine token, and your ID?  Don't want to lose that puppy.  In my last post I mentioned that our oldest will be heading off to university in the Fall.  He and I attended orientation a week and a half ago and were overwhelmed by the whole thing.  He was able to meet with some helpful advisors and one not so helpful advisor.  Fortunately the helpful ones were later in the day and he ended up with a fantastic schedule.  He got the honors classes he wanted, and was able to sign up for a mandatory introductory class for his major.  It's all good...  By the way, kids are so spoiled at college these days.  I'm a little bit envious of all the perks he'll be getting, but I don't want to go back and do all the hard work over again just so I can play at a top notch fitness center, have meals prepared for me three times a day,  and get maid service.  Well,  maybe I'd better think that one over... On to the next ation - Last week was an awesome week of vacation bible school at our church.  We are in a huge growth mode and had to spread our VBS out over 3 campuses: preschool in one building, elementary down the road, and the 5th - 7th graders were at a neighboring church that was kind enough to lend us their youth building for the week.  I love it when God's people work together for His glory and cross church/denominational lines! Anyway, I was snack lady for the elementary group.  We fed between 90 and 100 hungry little people in five shifts throughout the morning.  It was lots of fun, and I love being in the snack room.  I get to feed kids fun and junky snacks, so I am at an advantage when they walk in the door!  No problem winning this crowd over- the food speaks for itself!  We got to share God's love with them all, and even spoke about a fantastic mission we support in Haiti. (of course we supported the main lesson each day, but I especially liked drawing Haiti into the lesson) I even met Amy from over at Humble musings .  Great week, met some wonderful people, and got to love on lots of children.  Couldn't have gone better. Final ation of this strange post series:  Facebook nation During the above mentioned college orientation, we quickly realized that ours is a facebook nation.  Many groups and organizations from the university communicate through Facebook.  DS#1 needed to open a facebook page, so I signed up for one just to be involved on that front.  I am amazed at the number of "old" people like me who have pages!  I have connected with a couple of friends from high school and keep "running into" new people all the time.  I am still wary of the whole concept, but am also discovering some positive things that come from it.  The fact that I have to completely disable our internet filter to access Facebook sends a BIG red flag up for me.  There are safeguards in place, though, and you have to go looking for the bad to find it.  It's definitely out there, but if kids use the program responsibly I think it will be a good communication tool for them.  Raise them up, send them out, and then trust their judgement.  Hard life lessons... There you have it.  No posts for a month and then two in one day.  Hope your Sunday was blessed and your week ahead is a great one! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/floridamomto4/566382/ Sun, 27 Jul 2008 20:04:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/floridamomto4/566382/ High School Graduation Summer Vacation College Orientation Bible School -ization It's a Facebook nation Well, I was on a roll and couldn't stop.  Things have been quite busy around here.  Who ever said that summer is a slow time of year didn't live around my house.  Sharky and I were talking the other day and decided that we are ready for the routine of school-time to begin again.   I am having a hard time with my back to school shopping this year.  For the first time in 10 years we will be sending one of our children "off" to school.  We are very, very proud of all of his accomplishments.  He is an outstanding academic scholar (with the scholarships to prove it!) and is a young man who desires to do his best for God's Kingdom here on Earth.  In fact, right now he is in the middle of a two week camp that Summit Ministries is hosting at Bryan College in TN.  He is loving it!  I'm anxious to hear how yesterday's caving expedition went.  Yes, my son is now a spelunker!    But I digress... Back to school shopping...   My youngest and I were in Target yesterday, and then later Walmart, picking up bargain notebooks and folders for our upcoming year.  That was the purpose, but it looked more like this:  put a folder in the cart, go buy sheets to send off with #1...get a pack of notebooks, buy a stapler, tape, paper clips, trash can, desk organizer, and pencil caddy for #1's dorm room... look for notebook paper,  try not to cry over the scissors I'm buying because #1 can't just come to the kitchen to borrow ours.   It was an emotional trip to the store :-)   He doesn't leave for another month and I'm already a wreck.  It's the way God designs it, but the letting go part is SO HARD on moms!  Dad will realize it later, like as we are driving up to the dorms, but I've been processing this for at least 6 months and it is not getting any easier! We had an awesome family vacation in Washington DC in early June.  We tied it in with #1's Odyssey of the Mind World Championship competition.  We did lots of OM activities but stayed after the closing ceremonies and visited relatives in Maryland.  We also toured Amish Country in PA and headed back into DC for one more touring day.  It was an excellent vacation with only one drawback.  Our #2 son brought home a very unwanted souvenir:  Lyme Disease.  We stayed in our pop-up camper in a great campground in College Park, MD.  Evidently one of the lovely ticks from the woods there traveled partway home with us.  #2 found it on him in the hotel we stayed in on the way home.  I told him to watch for a rash and sure enough, a week to the day later, he came out of his room showing me a classic bullseye rash.  We were off to the doctor's office where we created quite a stir.  Lyme Disease is quite rare here in Florida, and the Dr. had only seen two cases before.  She had all of the providers in the office tour through and take a look at M's lovely rash.  Poor boy was a live science experiment!  He is just finishing up his course of antibiotics and we hope to never see another trace of Lyme. I didn't make it through my "ation" list, but it's time for church.  I'll continue on my next entry which will hopefully not be 3 months away. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/floridamomto4/566196/ Sun, 27 Jul 2008 08:31:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/floridamomto4/566196/ If any of you have been looking for an inspirational, Godly, and extremely funny blogger friend who appeared to fall off the face of the blogging world, search no longer!   JenIg is now at www.jeneralities.com Happy reading! P.S.  Jen's running a fun contest right now, too.  Swing by and check it out. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/floridamomto4/549304/ Wed, 18 Jun 2008 09:12:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/floridamomto4/549304/ Many of you may have heard by now, but the Steven Curtis Chapman family needs our prayers.  A tragic accident yesterday took the life of the youngest Chapman.  Maria was 5 years old.  The fact that her older brother was driving the car that hit her compounds the tragedy.  This family is such an inspiration to so many families, and they are champions for adoption around the world.  Please lift them up in prayer today and in the future. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/floridamomto4/536210/ Thu, 22 May 2008 07:52:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/floridamomto4/536210/ Seven years ago today, a woman in far-off China gave birth to a healthy baby girl.  She loved this child enough to place her in a safe spot.  This child was soon found and given excellent care while she waited for her forever family to travel around the world and bring her home.  Happy Birthday, Rebecca.  You are God's gift to us, and I am so happy to be your mommy! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/floridamomto4/534982/ Tue, 20 May 2008 07:31:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/floridamomto4/534982/