These are the ramblings and musings of a very blessed woman, wife and mother of 5. Come join us on our porch. Bring a mug of herbal coffee, some comfy slippers and a big wrap around blanket. I hope we can get to know one another as we share stories of this incredible journey we are on. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/theancientpath/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:01:00 -0500 Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:01:00 -0500 Oh where, oh where has our little friend gone? Oh where, oh where has she been? It's not everyday that I sing to my blogging friends!  You should be impressed! I checked and the last time I posted was April!! YIKES!! I am so sorry everyone!!  I  have been sooooooooo busy with life that it all just got away with me.  I  hope to be more faithful to get on here more often. So much has taken place since April!! Without boring you with all the details I will list out the important events in our lives since my last entry. May 09  Left to see my Marine son graduate the School of Infantry. June 09-August 09 Re-established life in a cold Michigan.  Came home to 10 acres of cut grass, 1 acre of VERY TALL GRASS......ABOUT 4 FEET TALL!  Had to bush-hog 4 times and rake and pick up soggy loads of cut grass.  It took us about three 8 hour days.  We looked like scarecrows when we were done....grass coming out of every known and unknown place!!! Began all of our entertainment in the preschools and libraries around the state.  Lots of smiles and miles added to our line-up. Saw our Marine son 2 times and loved every minute of it! Had a surprise 50th birthday for my husband.  Did the tire tracks in the 10 acre yard give it away?  Yes.....but he pretended not to notice:(.  Here are some pics. Took him to Ohio for some paragliding.  He has always wanted to do this....he has had dreams of flying since he was a child.  His dreams came true this weekend.  Our fellowship collected the money and sent us on our way!  It was incredible!   That's Capt. Kurt on the right giving Steve instructions.  That's Sherri, Kurt's wife, on the left also giving instructions. Starting take-off Almost up above the trees! And he will soar as with wings like eagles. Look  honey, no hands! He wanted to FEEL the power behind the motor....had to brace himself on the van. OHHHHHH!!! UUUGGGHHH!!!! I stayed up late last night putting ALLL kinds of pictures on here and then hit the wrong button and LOST IT ALL!! INCLUDING MY MIND!!!! I am posting this for now and then when time permits will post ALL those other pics and stories to go along with them.  UUUGGGHHH!!!! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/theancientpath/731697/ Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:01:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/theancientpath/731697/ Matzah Ball Soup, haroset, horseradish, and the Passover.  These all speak of a season that I love.  We just finished our Passover Seder.  This is the first year that we have spent Passover in Florida! We have been attending a wonderful Messianic Fellowship in Boynton Beach, Fl and they put on a "Messiah in the Passover Seder" for 91 people.  The tables were set with burgandy attire.  The candles were lit by the mother at each table.  Then the lights were dimmed and I along with 5 other dancers entered in with the Candle Dance. This is a beautiful dance where we hold winie glasses with gold beaded votive candles lit within.  The room was dark except for the candles on the tables and the candles that we were holding.  Here is a picture of that dance. As this dance ended the lights were turned back on and the ceremony of Passover began. Intermingled throughout the night were readings about Messiah in the Passover. My husband and my son both spent time reading Scripture and the Passover story to the listeners. This is my son, Jordan, reading from the Haggadah. We concluded the night with a dance that I choreographed about 19 years ago.  It's an interpretive dance performed to the song, Watch the Lamb, by Ray Boltz. This was a very moving dance about a father and  his two small sons going up to Jerusalem to sacrafice their lamb.  The two small boys were to "watch the lamb."  As the story proceeds the crowd becomes unruly hollering, "Crucify Him!" The dance depicts the father having to carry His cross. The children weeping and the oldest saying, "Father please forgive us. The lamb ran away."  He tells his boys to turn and face the cross and "Watch the Lamb". Very powerful and moving! Oh, next year in Jerusalem.....this is my hope! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/theancientpath/678269/ Sat, 11 Apr 2009 17:01:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/theancientpath/678269/ December 17th....D-day for us.  We watched as our son was wisked away in a Marine transport vehicle (a van with a Marines sticker on the side)....just sounded better....hee-hee.....to become a Marine. My husband and I walked upstairs and cried and cried and cried.  We didn't stop crying for two days.  Not that we were sad to see him go into the Marines...but we knew he was no longer ours.  He now belonged to the USMC.  I couldn't protect him anymore...except through prayer. We have waited 3 long months to see and talk with our son.  The day finally came.  We packed up our camels, loaded them down with all the goods from our tents and crept our way to Parris Island, SC to watch our son strut his stuff across the Parade Deck with his uniform on and his cover pulled low.  He was so handsome. We arrived at the island at 6:30am and stood under this sign.  We were told that they would come and run under here and we would see him.  We made a sign that glowed in the dark the said, "WE LOVE YOU AUSTIN      PLT 3020".  We stood there and could here the platoons chanting their "joeys" in the background.  We heard them take off from the Parade Deck area and then they were "supposed" to come and run under this sign.  WELL.......2 hours later that hadn't run under....we couldn't figure out why. I went into the visitor's center to check out the status of this and found out that we were given erroneous information and we missed him.  UUUGGGHH!!! A mama that hasn't seen her son in 3 months is not one you want to give erroneous information to!!! BEWARE!!! Well, dejected and  a little miffed we headed over to the All Weather Building.  We watched them parade in and get introduced.  The main honcho(can't remember who he was) said some words then we were able to go see our new Marine! I cried, laughed, held him, you name it!!  I couldn't believe how grown up he looked, so distinguished in his uniform.  :) We spent the day being led around by our new man and he showed us everyplace where all his torturing took place.  :) This is the sand pit where they did "motovational" PT.  Ya, know...the kind were you end up looking and feeling like a sugar cookie when you are done? The Barracks.  This is where they slept, wrote letters, shined their shoes, guns and pressed their uniforms.  They did every unimaginable thing under the sun here.  Too many to even write about!!  Can you say..."I, sir?!"  That is all you were permitted to say for 3 months! The infamous Marine group shower hold.  They had 64 naked recruits in here at one time....they had 300 seconds to shower and shave and be by their bunks ready to get dressed.  (They could only get dressed if the DI said they could).  The rest of my family experiencing the Yellow Footprints......eeekkkss!! Now a Marine...he can smirk at his DI.  I shudder to think of what they would have done to him had he done this as a recruit.  Actually, he told us some pretty scary stories of things they did to him and others when they broke silence.  :( Where did my curly headed little boy go?  He is now a US Marine! There he is #4 from the left.  Struttin' his stuff! We had a welcome home dinner.....he loved it! His Uncle Chris (a former Marine) and Austin singing the Marines National Anthem.  Very emotional evening. We gathered around him and shared how it was for us as parents that survived boot camp.  We listened to him tell us stories of his experiences while on the island.  It was a wonderful reunion. We are headed back to civilian life with our son.  He has 24 days with us then he is off to the School of Infantry.  He will be stationed in North Carolina at Camp Geiger.  He is there for 52 days then off to more schooling....then off to Afghanistan. Pray for our son.  He is fulfillling his calling and defending our freedom.  We are so incredibly proud of him! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/theancientpath/668742/ Sat, 14 Mar 2009 16:02:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/theancientpath/668742/ Well, we had our infamous garage sale! After countless hours of work moving boxes, organizing "stuff" and staging everything to look like a showroom we finally opened.  Zoe was soooo anxious that we weren't open at 8 am like the signs said.  But, I reminded her that we hadn't posted the signs yet so no one even knew that we were having a sale.  She wasn't buying it! We spent the day exchanging our long kept trinkets for a whopping total of $900.00!!! Woo hoo!! My mom had some big ticket items so that helped. We are hoping she will take us to the water-park with the dividends!!! Now that the garage sale is over we have all the "keeping" garage pile in the living room.  Remember that picture on the previous blog?  Well, we are STILL living in that mess and it will be added to as my husband is preparing to completely gut the garage and put in cabinets and shelves.  Yes, I will post  before and after pics for you visual people! :) Off like a herd of turtles today.....going to practice for a performance that we hope to do soon then to the resource library....I will have to tell you guys about this incredible find.....then off to the regular library.  Kids are staying home with daddy this morning to get their schooling done then off with me for the afternoon. TTFN! ps. I want to post about a great "chore" card system I developed and see what you guys think.  So, come back and check on me! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/theancientpath/664581/ Tue, 3 Mar 2009 08:33:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/theancientpath/664581/ It's been sooo busy around here.  My girls and I spent all day Friday unloading my mom's garage.  You have never seen my mom's garage.....so I am posting a pic below.  This is the pic of what we pulled out of part of the garage...... This is all in the living room now....of which today my mom went through and created a garage sale pile. There is still debris all over the place....but we are on our way to organization! We plan on having a garage sale with just about everything here!!!  I told my mom to have no mercy on this pile!!! It took my girls and I about 3 hours to unload this  pile and I rewarded them with icecream...I know....dairy.....don't usually do this, but my mom had bought some and there really wasn't anything else that was like a treat to give.  So, I ":poisoned" my kids....yikes!! They thought it was great! So, now we are off like a herd of turtles to get this mountain cleaned up and ready for the ULTIMATE GARAGE SALE! My girls are hoping to make some vintage pet collars to also sell.  If they succeed in getting these made I will post a picture. Steve and my mom are out looking for a new car for her today.  Her lease is up on March 8th so he is trying to find her a good, dependable used car.  Looks like she will be getting a convertible Toyota Solaro. Much to my husband's delight....he will get to drive it!! TTFN! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/theancientpath/661084/ Sun, 22 Feb 2009 09:22:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/theancientpath/661084/ Am I boring you yet about the warm weather?  Well, we just had our son's friend with us for 3 weeks...Zach.  He came down from Michigan with us and stayed at my mom's house with us for the last 3 weeks.    We had a wonderful time of laughter, silliness (with two 15 year old boys), swimming, snorkeling, blogging, and eating.  Man can boys eat!  He says that Grandma  speaks his food language....it's called Jiffy peanut butter, cheese, and milk.   Well, we have had amazing weather and now Zach is back in Michigan freezing! He called my son, Jordan, today and said, "Man, you gotta get me outa here!"  He is in the cold, grey weather again and having a hard time with  re-entry.  It's always hard to go back after you've tasted sunshine and warm weather!   We have all been busy remodeling my mom's kitchen.  She now has a breakfast bar with drawers that self close, new counter tops, new sink and faucet (with a great faucet that curves way up).  A new fridge and stove were delivered today and I think we might be cooking in style !   Steve, may have earned the respect of other homeowners around here and may have some other work to do in the neighborhood. We are really hoping for this as it will help us out financially.   My girls are lovin' life here.  Swimming everyday, trampoline everyday, outside in the sun everyday!     http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/theancientpath/658992/ Mon, 16 Feb 2009 19:59:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/theancientpath/658992/ We went to McArthur State Beach today.  The temps weren't the best....70* and cloudy and windy.  The tram guy....probably in his late 70's looked at us with disbelief.  There were 7 of us carrying snorkles and fins, beach bags, lunch boxes, chairs, towels, clean clothes with shampoo and conditioner, sand toys, book bags and the like.  We looked like that movie "Vacation" with Chevy Chase! The tram guy said, "You guys going to the beach? (he looked like he couldn't believe his eyes!)  He was probably thinking....."they must be Northerners!" Well, we all piled onto the tram.....stuff, kids and all.  He drove us over this very long boardwalk that takes you to the beach.  The boardwalk runs over the essuary.  The essuary is a mangrove of trees and water.  In this beautiful grove area lives all kinds of sea life.  You can see fish, horseshoe crabs, lobsters, birds, crabs, and the best find of all.......a live starfish.  We were so excited to see this starfish.  Zoe, our 11 yr old precocious daughter, says.... "I need to get down there and get that so we can bring it home."  "No, honey, you can't bring home wildlife, ' I say, "wildlife needs to stay in it's original habitat." "But Mom, I can at least get down there to lift it up for everyone to see!" says Zoe. It didn't take two seconds and she had figured out a way to get herself off that boardwalk and down into that water to get a closer peek. After much coaxing she picked up the starfish for all to see.  Jordan, our 15 yr old son, monkey hung over the side of the boardwalk and grabbed the beautiful find and brought it closer.  It was truly amazing! It was salmon colored and the spines were quite pricky. We took a pic of it on my cell phone......and if I figure out how to get it from there to here I will post a picture. Jordan handed our prized possession back to Zoe who gently returned him to his wet home.  On the way back out of the mangrove Zoe saw a horshoe crab and a lobster....of which she commenced on screaming and running in the opposite direction!  Go figure! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/theancientpath/655744/ Sat, 7 Feb 2009 18:35:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/theancientpath/655744/ I wrote a very long blog the other day.  Full of antedotes and humerous stories about our time here in Florida.....only to have the entire thing go flying off into cyberspace with the push of an involuntary finger stroke!! I laid my head in my hands and decided that maybe I wasn't supposed to be writing at that time...or maybe I just needed a lesson is safe blogging............it's called "write it in Word then copy and paste!"  You will have no lost work that way. So, I will be writing in Word when the blog is significantly long and hopefully all of my blogging friends will be able to enjoy Florida with us! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/theancientpath/655738/ Sat, 7 Feb 2009 18:29:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/theancientpath/655738/ "Saddle up your horses, We gotta trail to blaze We have saddled up the 31 ft. horse, or house I should say,  and we are blazing a trail to Florida Good-bye snow, sleet and below freezing temps.  We have sunshine to soak up, palm trees to sit under, and sandy beaches to play in.  Can you feel the 81 degree weather yet?  I can!  We are about 30 minutes outside of our destination and we are VERY ready. We've been driving for 4 separate days....about 8-10 hours a day.  Lots of pit stops and this horse is soooo slow! But...whose in a hurry? We will enjoy the journey. We spent the last 3 days with my dad and his family in Georgia.  We had a wonderful visit with my extended brothers and sister.   We played Risk, watched the Duggers on TLC, and went to the park...outside!!! The weather was so nice!!!  But can you believe I didn't get one picture?  What was I thinking?  We will be staying at my mom's house for the next few months.  She has a garage that she wants turned into a rental apartment.  Then we plan to do some upgrades to her house. We also have an opportunity to perform some dramas in the churches and  schools in the area.  We have a Treasure Box Tour that speaks of the message that where your heart is there your treasure is also.  We are excited to be working with another couple on this endeavor and hope to expand our horizons with more dramas that will teach biblical truths to children in a fun and interactive way. Our hope is to someday have enough of these interactive dramas that we can take them all over the country to all different types of venues. Plug here: If any of you would like to have us come to your church....let us know and we will see about bringing these dramas to you! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/theancientpath/651073/ Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:47:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/theancientpath/651073/ Anai is turning 10! She decided to have a few friends over for a glamour slumber party. It was early in the morning when my 3 little girls came running into my room to remind me that I told them they could decorate today.  Well, schooling will have to wait! Creativity is on the way! Down the steps they fly as they start a flurry of preparations for the big day.  On the way down I overheard my 11 ydd say something about hanging our party parachute from the ceiling.  "Oh, brother", this will be a sight to see!  The basement is finished except for the ceiling.  It has the rafters still......this becomes our chin up area, our swing until we drop area and now a parachute hanging area! Well, the girls were gone for 1 1/2 hours....I almost forgot about what they were doing until I heard......"Mom come and look!" Sooooo, I peel myself away from figuring this years taxes....uuugghhh!....and skip down 2 flights of stairs. "Wait! Wait!," they yell.  "Don't come down yet.....we have to put on some music!" Music is on and I open the basement door to find my husband has screwed down an outdoor woopdeedoo slide to the stairs!  So, down the slide I go.......why can we feel all our bones when we do that? I slide into a pile of pillows! FUN!!! To my right the poles are decorated with pink and purple crepe paper.....they look like candy canes. Next to the poles is the birthday table, dressed in pink.  It has a light pink table cloth with my sparkle pink face painting table cloth on top.  Then there are wrapped presents and furry glamour hats placed strategically around the table. To my left is my party glamour box fitted with boas, glasses and strings of beads all spilling out in a decorative fashion. Next to this is about 6 blow-up guitars and shiny pom-poms decorating the floor.  To the left of all this is a "Glamour Table"....outfitted with boas, glasses, nail-polish, a glamour mirror and little notepads as give-aways. Now for the best thing of all!  They managed to hoist that HUGE parachute up to the ceiling with bright pink string.  It is hoisted by all the handles on the parachute. Tied to the handles are my party scarves, hanging down in a very pretty fashion.  Then they managed to make an intricate, but pretty pully system to let down two sides of the parachute.  Out spill balls,  and balloons on top of the party table!  Do I have party decoraters in the making or what? We plan on having games, treats, face painting, dancing, karioke, movies, nail polishing, late nite stories, and very little sleep! My girls are so excited that they can hardly contain themselves! Who said homeschooling was boring...or routine...or outdated.....or less than educational....or without flair,....or lacking in creativity!  Not ours!!! The party was a huge success! As you can see by the pictures below.  Even the big boys got into the action....guns and all! LOL Did they have fun or what?  Ahh,,,,,until next year! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/theancientpath/643285/ Fri, 9 Jan 2009 11:12:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/theancientpath/643285/