It has been weeks since I have felt caught up enough to post here.  Life is still busy but our school is done for the day, the boys are outside building what I hope to be their last snowfort of the season. Supper is on the stove, the fire is roaring and the taxes and FAFSA forms are done. FIRST LEGO League season is over and the boys did well on the 7th of Feb. at the county 4-H judging for Robotics LEGO project. Whew!!!! And I am finally healthy again. The boys and I had about 2 weeks of cold and sinus sickness. Jasmine got it first at college and she is finally all better also.

         The winter months has been hard on my body for 5 years now. I am in a chronic illness support group at church called HopeKeepers. Last Sunday, we were introducing ourselves to each other and saw a pattern that almost all of us struggle with severe muscle pain during the winter months. My first bout with Vertigo and severe torso muscle pain was in March 2004, upon returning from our 20th anniversary Carribean cruise. It has been a long road, but the LORD was faithful to help all of us along the way. I am beginning to write all the scriptures that have helped me along into one journal and one day I will share them here.

        Dinner is almost done! I was interrupted several times in writing this. So much for 15 mins. of solitude to write. UPS man came with a package for Kenny,  who had a great 9th birthday last month too. I need to post some photos and journal about his day!  :) Ben came inside to get ready for Youth Group tonight. Kenny wanted the garage door opened for shovels to dig in the snow. Darin and I talked via phone, too. The polish sausage had to get transferred to the skillet too. Just ordinary life but I am blessed to be home with my boys and having a good day health-wise. There is always much to be thankful for.

        The boys are in several other 4-H projects. Kenny is in Woodworking, Fishing, photgraphy and collections. This is his first year out of Cloverbuds. In Cloverbuds, he would do any 3 entries as his project. As a regular 4-H'er, he chose his projects and he is able to put in 3-10 entries per project. So we have lots more opportunities to learn new skills with our very active boy.

        Ben is in Bicycle, Rocketry, Mechanical Science, Collections, Art, Books on the Move and Quilting. He is working on a Japanese watercolor picture, clay flower bouquet and he will be doing an Impressionist acrylic painting in the next few weeks. He has several new patches to sew on his messenger bag for his on-going collection. We went shopping yesterday for all the green fabrics for his new throw pillow quilt project and the wallhanging quilt we are starting for 2010's fair.

Well, I didn't get as much written here as I have to say so until next time-

Much love and blessings-

Sarah

      We began our week accomplishing all of our bookwork in a timely manner, which was encouraging as we were fresh from our 3 week Christmas break. Our afternoon school is our History/Church History/Literature curriculum called Tapestry of Grace. We are beginning our 3rd unit of the 1800's era. The topic of this week is Japan and China's progress and changes.

       Unbeknownst to me months ago when I created our school schedule, our local 4-H club's officers had recently decided to make our Awards Banquet theme, Beijing, China. We attended this award banquet on Tuesday evening,where we ate Chinese fortune cookies, crab ragoon, chicken stir fry, rice and sweet and sour chicken and I didn't even have to cook. The Fairest of the Fair of W. County Fair spoke to our club and shared her personal experience about her visit to Hong Kong and China.

The next day we were able to study and write our names in Chinese, thanks to the  guys in Shanghai who Dad visited last January for business.

Since the boys were using permanent black paint, K took off his nice sweatshirt to keep it safe. He should have been really cold as it was only 16 degrees outside, but he wasn't.

         We studied Chinese numbers, the flags of China, Hong Kong and N. and South Korea. We colored and studied a Chinese map which showed us that it is surrounded by 14 other countries.

          As we studied the Chinese calendar, we learned that D and S are in the Year of the Snake-ugk! J was born in the Year of the Horse, B came to us in the Year of the Pig and K was born at the beginning of the Year of the Dragon. This current year is the Year of the Rat, which will change in February.  

       This week, we also studied Japan's map, famous artists, origami, and the unique animals from that chain of islands. The four main islands and over 3000 small islands are really the summits of the Pacific Ocean's underwater mountains. I am sure I knew this before, but still find it amazing to think of the buildings and population that reside in the summit and valley of those mts. Ben is reading a book about a fishing boy who was shipwreaked, rescued by an American whaling ship. The ship eventually  took him to Farihaven, Massachusetts, where he learned about American way of life and actually participated in the Gold Rush in CA. The Japanese law prohibited him from ever coming home again under penalty of death in order to maintain the country's isolation. Commodore Perry changed all that with his treaty with the Shoguns of Japan in 1854. We really enjoyed reading about Commodore Perry and the traditions & customs of the Japanese culture. B is working on a writing assignment about samaria warriors.

      K and I are working thru our science book, studying the animals of the 5th day of creation. This week we are exploring sea lions, walruses, true seals, eared seals and manatees. Last January, we visited the Mote Aquarium in Sarasota, FL and it really stirred up his curiousity about aquatic animals so that prompted our current focus.

      J is still on her college break. She has a sweet friend.Lauren, visiting us for the week before they return to their college studies. It is like wonderful having females in the house again- I am enjoying having two daughters this week.

      D returned back to work after a restful first week and a very productive second week. He is on-call this week so it is a tough way to come from vacation.

    Til next week-   Sarah

May the JOY of HIS season fill you with PEACE and JOY all throughout 2009!

As we look back over 2008, this blog gives a reflection of some of our year under LINKS: ARCHIVES

Darin in CHINA

Jasmine's Prom and Graduation

College Beginnings

Sarah's new job

Trip to Canada

FLL days

Other highlights are:

             Darin has stocked our freezer with wonderfully delicious bass, trout, crappie, bluegill and lots of Coho and Chinook Salmon. He is perfecting his smoker skills and we enjoy his delicious experiments on ribs, roasts, bacon, and soon a turkey.

             Sarah received a long-awaited answer to prayer. She was diagnosed with TMD in March and received a retainer/splint in April. There has been no vertigo and very few migraines since she began wearing it daily. She is feeling almost back to normal most days. The Thoraxic Outlet Syndrome still bothers her if she stresses too much or overdoes the heavy lifting. She still struggles with insomnia at times.

             Jasmine's milestones were life changing this year. Colleges classes, prom, graduation, getting accepted to colleges, receiving a scholarship to her favorite one, moving away from home plus balancing friends, extra curriculars, and 17 college credits while maintaining a high GPA.

             Ben got his braces off, grew taller than Mom and sister, shaved for the first time, and started piano lessons. He is writing his own music too. He still loves to draw but he now loves to read novels. He really enjoys his time with FLL - FIRST LEGO League (www.firstlegoleague.org). His team won the TEAM SPIRIT award at regional tournament in Nov. Darin and I are the team coaches so it was a family sport every week from Sept. 5 through Nov. 16th.

             Kenny is our new no-stop talker now that Jas has moved away. He is always in motion - his feet and his mouth.   He joined the FLL team this year and did a great job in the research presentation, but decided at the end of the season, that FLL is not "his" thing. He loves Star Wars of every kind and shape. He could watch the 6 videos every day if we let him. This summer with Mom working, he matured into becoming a big help around the house.

           Our church just celebrated 20 years and it was wonderful to remember all of GOD's goodness and blessings. HE is Jehovah Jireh - our provider and HIS grace is sufficient for all of us each day.

            As I review this year, I remember all of GOD's blessings that HE has so graciously given to us. Even the difficult times give us pause to acknowledge our great need for HIM and His grace and love. May you find HIS love to be real in your hearts this year. HE is the reason we celebrate this season.

Blessings to you from the 5K's.

      D and B have spent hours outside shoveling, snowblowing and clearing the car in the carport. Our mantel has gloves, socks and snowpants hanging from the Christmas stocking hooks.

    The apartment building didn't have enough room to put all their snow so D gave them permission to plow some of it into our yard. So we have an 8 ft snowbank in our front yard. The backyard fort is 5 feet tall by 8 feet long. B has an "L" shape tunnel thru it and we had to make a rule that no one can be on top of the fort while Ben is inside. Common sense, right? Not with boys!

     With Christmas only days away, I should be shopping for gifts and Christmas fancy outfits. But no we were out today with everyone else in the town, only we were shopping for new snowboots for B, new snowgloves for K and J. Our Christmas gift shopping is done but our shopping for J a fancy dress for a family wedding on the 27th was delayed. There was a long line on the street just to get into the mall.

     We picked J's car up from mechanic. The emergency brake light would not turn off, turns out the brake lines needed flushing. Then we mailed a WI Badgers car flag to D's brother in FL. The FL Seminoles are playing WI Badgers on the 27th and he wants to represent both teams on his truck ,which is decked out in Seminole colors and decals, etc.  Then we delivered a meal to our Children's Minstiry leader who had an ER appendictis surgery this week.

      Then it was time to find snowboots and gloves for the kids! Finding a parking place was the first hurdle.So many of the parking places were filled with snowbanks. We drove thru the parking lot twice looking to an empty spot. Finally some shoppers got in their car so that challenge defeated. Now to find a good price on really warm, dry boots. Success was accomplished when we didn't look at the price tag.

    Final stop was the library!  Our favorite spot for books, movies and music.

    B's current book is "Man of the Family" by Moody. I have several Karen Kingsbury books in my possession now and J has to read "All the Presidents' Men" and Ben Bradley biography over her break. K is reading up to 6-8 pages in his "reader" as he is motivated to finish it by the end of 2008.Just last month I had a hard time getting him to read 3 pages. He is improving his speed and proficiency every day.

      The movies we have watched recently are: ELF- D's favorite. A CHRISTMAS STORY- another of D's favorites. LIBRARIAN- the quest for Judas' Chalise. Godfather and Christmas with the Kranks are the ones that are next on the list.

      We have had a pretty healthy week and we are just days from Christmas. Usually someone is sick at this time of year so this has me very hopeful.

       Stay tuned for the next volume about snow because it is snowing and they are predicting 3-5 inches more plus horrid winds making us about -20 wind chill. We are greeters tomorrow and have an important powerpoint celebrating the 20th anniversary of the beginning of our church.

      Blessings and love-

Sarah

I hosted 6 friends this week for my first Cookie Exchange. I served mini egg rolls, mini broccoli and cheese quiches and BBQ meatballs, a chocolate covered strawberry dip with crackers. We each brought six dozen cookies so everyone went home with a different variety of six dozen than they brought.

           We had Mexican Wedding Cookies, Very good cookies (yes that is the name of them), Yuletide Kisses, Hidden Kisses, Star studded cookies, Peanut Butter tarts filled with chocolate stars and a delicious Orange/Cranberry/Almond Chex mix for entertaining.

         I could not decide which cookie to make so I made the peanut butter tarts, Tiger Butter candy and Peppermint Creams to share. I cut out 8 dozen butter cookies and we had a hilarious time decorating the butter cookies. I had visions of the beautful cookies we would create without children distracting us and with expensive toppings and royal icing. My two cookies were in the shape of a Moose for my Canadian loving man. My first one looked like a shaggy puppy so the next one I made very plain so you could still tell it was a Moose! We all had a very good laugh at my  not so pretty decorated Moose. But K ate it today- and he called it a dog cookie!

         Now we are starting to make up our Christmas platters that go out to the Youth Group leader, piano teacher and neighbors. They are looking pretty but just needed something more. A dear friend of mine had told me early in the year that Aldi sells Truffles at Christmas time. So today I stopped by and got a few boxes- it was just the right touch to finish our platters. Soon our cookie exchange cookies will be gone!!!! . . .  J comes home in 5 days and we will begin baking again with her. Fudge and reese candy and no bake cookies are calling to me . . . can you hear them? . . .

I really thought I would have time to update this blog more often but the days are full! Since I last wrote here . . .

         We celebrated Christmas with G/G Kojis over a delicious breakfast. It was so great to just sit and talk, share many of the little things one doesn't over the phone. The boys enjoyed choosing their own breakfast meal. K had 2 pancakes, bacon and sunnyside up egg. B and Gpa chose Kiebasa sausage, eggs. D and I had omelets. Gma had the healthiest meal of granola, yogurt and dried fruit. It looked good!

         K got the camera and took very conceivable angle and people combination. He was a complete ham behind and in front of the camera. Our breakfast lasted way past lunch time!

        We proceeded to a shopping center to Christmas shop with all 4 of us. What an interesting time that was- I knew exactly where to find my guys- either the fishing isle or the boy toy section!!! LOL!

        Our church's Womens' Outreach "NIght of Wonder" was Sat. evening. The church was beautifully decorated with silver painted real tree branches with a multitude of silver stars hanging from them. A local Christian High School Choir came to lead us in a choral of wonderful worship songs.  We had 16 tables of 8 and I was doing double duty as photographer and table hostess. I have to remember to only be photographer next year. Elizabeth M from a local large church gave us a message about Looking but not being able to see because the World is in the way. Very powerful and pertinent message for all us every day. How like King Herod we can be try to be our own self-savior or like the wise men in Herod's temple who knew where the Christ child would come from but were too busy with controlling their own environment to leave to go find the Messiah.    

        Sunday at 2am B came to our bedroom complaining that he was in pain from itching his scalp. As I dragged myself out of bed, I saw that his whole scalp and neck was inflammed with hives. As I checked out the rest of him, his abdomen was covered wih large hives but he said those didn't hurt like the ones on his head. So I gave him Benedryl and Ibrophen and sent him back to bed. I have had insomnia the last week and was so tired. As soon as I laid my head on the pillow, the LORD convicted me to get back up and call the pharmacy. When the pharmacist heard that the hives were on his head, he told me to get B to the ER right away. Since the allergist reaction was manifesting itself in the head already, it could easily move to the throat area which could cause B's airways to be minimized. So off to the ER we went and he was given Prednisone, hooked up to monitoring machines and watched for several hours. Within the hour, B was sound asleep and resting peacefully on the hospital bed. He is fine, no action in his airways and each day the rashes and hives are less and less. He is experiencing muscle fatigue last night and today- this is his last day of Prednisone. We believe the cause for all this drama was a new acne medication he was taking.

       I  got a few deep hours of sleep from 7-11am and then off we trekked to G/G Ryer's house for Gpa's 70th birthday party. We all had a delightful time with family. My brother and his kids had an awesome surprise for Gpa when it got dark. They had set up sparkles in the snow in the shape of "70". Unfortunately it was sooooo cold outside the candles, flick a flames would not stay lite so the beginning sparkles were burned out by the time the rest of them got lite but it was such a great idea! Gpa loved it!

       Monday was a good school day and I was busy preparing for my first Cookie Exchange that night. Then the winter storm approached and it was not safe for anyone to be out driving so we postponed the party to Wed. night. Tuesday was a Snow Day because D stayed home and worked remotely. We started reading about the California Gold Rush and the Pony Express Riders. Just great Boy adventures!

        I will update another day- maybe tomorrow and I have lots more to share . . .

Love-Sarah

A fellow homeschool Mom and user of Tapestry of Grace curriculum, Molly at http://www.counterculturalmom.blogspot.com/ is hosting a blog carnival this month.

She also offers excellent podcasts about "Preparing your heart for Christmas". I enjoyed it tremendously and it challenged me to take a deeper look at my Advent activities, which led me to start the Inductive Bible study.

Her emphasis for this week's blog is Christmas books and music. I already posted about our Advent studies and our miscellanous activities so now I will share our other favorites.

Since D loves the trumpet, Kenny G's Miracles Christmas album gets top billing here. I have all of my Christmas albums saved onto the computer and the one album that gets played by me is All-Time Christmas Favorites, vol. 4. My all time favorite song is Silent Night.

We just finished listening to "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens last week as our Literature selection. Then I got the video from the library, unfortuately there are many versions of this classic and it was the newest animated version from the viewpoint of a pair of mice. So off to the library I went again and got the correct one. It is on the calendar to watch it this weekend.

We are almost done listening to Laura Ingalls Wilder's The Long Winter and it is teaches about Christmas' and blizzards of days long past. The last time we studied this time period we did a Laura Ingalls Christmas party with our TOG coop.

One of my favorite Christmas books is actually a series by Karen Kingsbury called the Red Gloves series: Hannah's Hope; Sarah's song; Gideon's Gift; Maggie's Miracle.

Since I have little ones in the house for so many years-- some of our favorite books are kids books.

Who is coming to our House? by Joseph Slate

The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado

Mary's First Christmas by Walter Wangerin Jr.

Praying you are all finding ways to celebrate the CHRIST season-

Advent began on Sunday. For years, we have enjoyed reading a Family Advent story series by Arnold Ytreeide. The first book in the series is Jothan's Journey, which we read last year for the third time. J and B knew the story quite well but it was all new to K's memory.

This year is the next book in the series called Bartholomew's Passage. So far the story is seen his village destroyed by Roman soldiers, separated from his entire family, his long walk as a prisoner to Caesarea, sold as a slave to a foul Roman, where through his grief ,he makes a mistake causing the master to order his hands to be cut off.  There is always a cliffhanger each night and a short essay about God's plan of us in times of trouble or distress.
Each night, the boys light the purple candle in the Advent wreath on the coffee table. This week's candle is the Hope candle. Then we read the story and off to bed they go.

The last 2 days of school we have done an Inductive Bible study on the Advent. The first day was on the  prophecy of Jesus being born in the village of King David, Bethlehem. I could see the benefit for K immediately as we read the Scripture verses several times looking for the key words to highlight, circle or draw a symbol around them. There are questions about the verses that we need to search for the answers.

Today, I had both boys do it together and K was teaching B the different symbols to use and special colors for each symbol. It showed me how much he had recalled. We read from 1Samuel 16:1-13 today about the anointing of David and how the LORD chooses not by outward appearance but from the person's thoughts and intentions. Good discussion followed about what GOD considers important.

We have the Playmobil manger scene out for Kenny to re-enact with it. The ceramic manger scene will be set up next week with a new piece finding it's way to the stable each day.

We only have 6 more days of regular school work. Starting on the 15th, we will be studying the meaning of our favorite Christmas Carols in addition to our Advent study.

Last year we played the 12 days of Christmas with our best friend's family. K, S and D have best friends' in their family so each day we would deliver a 12 days of Christmas ornament to their house with a real symbol of that specific day. Like a can of pears with the Partridge in the Pear tree ornament- it got more challenging as the days progressed.

 It was so much fun to try to keep our identity a secret. So we would go at different times of the day and hang it on the backdoor. Only one time, the Dad was home in the middle of the day so we hung it from the side mirrors of his van. WHEW- we almost got caught that time. The 11th day was Christmas Eve and we found out they would not be home Christmas day so we followed them to their car after the Christmas Eve service and sang a few Christmas carols to them- they are better singers than we are so we all sang together. It was a great memory and the boys are asking if we are doing to again-- only we need a new family to surprise!

J will return home from college on the 18th. We will take in the Christmas lights downtown and take photos of all the pretty lights.We will make a Gingerbread House like we did at Aunt Stephanie's house in FL in January. We had never made one before and all of us enjoyed decorating it very much, but not as much as we delighted in eating it.  

We have our puzzle started for the winter season. It is inside of a large school display board, which is easy to move on and off the table for meal times. G/G Ryer started us on this tradition and we love to work on it as a family.

I always bake many dozen cookies. I like a great variety of cookies so bake them all. Last year was my first time making fudge and I have watched several episodes of the "The Food Network" when they were teaching about making fudge. Mine should be better this year. J is our candymaker, she learned how to make it at a homeschool conference and entered candy several years in the Fair.

I am hosting my first cookie exchange in 4 days and I am excited to see my friends for a Ladies Night out. Years ago, when I was the leader of our homeschool support group, we always had a Christmas party and then after that group ended, it was the Tapestry of Grace Coop Christmas party. I like to party with my friends so now we will exchange cookies as an excuse to get to see each other and have fun!

Hope you have learned a little about our CHRISTmas plans!

J and I did the annual Jo-ann Fabric shopping trip today. She got great wool yarn for a beautiful sweater, some beads for her Gospel Choir concert outfit.

We are enjoying the Christmas tree lights! I am glad that we got to put it up all together yesterday.

We started wrapping Christmas presents today too.

I made peppermint cream candy and a double batch of butter cookies. I cut the cookies as snowmen, snowflakes, moose shape and stars.

There is a snowstorm coming our way 3-6 inches in the next 24 hours.

We have the woodpiles all covered, ready for snow. The fireplace is keeping up warm and toasty. I made a delicous, homemade cocoa mix which I enjoy each morning.

We will be watching "A Christmas Carol" tomorrow night.

We will be taking our family Christmas photos tomorrow at church.

Just a few updates on our day-

WOW- I didn't realize it was so long since I had written here. There is no way to get caught up on 6 months of life in a few short sentences, but that is usually what a Christmas letter does so in the next few days I will be posting some updates and photos.

We are enjoying having J home with us for 6 days on her college break. She has 5 papers and 2 exams to study for in the next 7 days so she is busy with school work, social time with friends, sleeping in extra long and a babysitting job today and tomorrow afternoon.

We had a wonderfully relaxing Thanksgiving Day. I will share some of our THANKS with you.

K- he was able to eat food this year. Last year he had the stomach flu and didn't eat much of anything.  Friends who came all the time during FLL team meetings. His toys especially Legos. Star Wars movie and Lego Star Wars. His sister being home. Mom feeling better.

B- family, friends and his LEGO team. His LEGOS. A Dr. who knew how to make a retainer that made Mom feel better.

J- family, home. Money to go to college. Her friends that she needs and the friends who need her in their lives.

S- A wonderful husband who cooks a delicious Thanksgiving meal. The privledge of homeschooling. Her job this summer. A warm home. D's job at RA. The WORD of GOD that does not return void, prayers that are answered. Retainers which take the pain away. Life without daily pain!!!!!

D- Job at RA. Family around the table and around the world. Health! The hospital bill from his finger is finally paid in full.

I am very thankful for family who supported me and prayed for me throughout the last four years while I struggled with my health. I am amazed at all I can do in a day now that I am not battling pain. I can concentrate on schooling the boys and the joys of being a wife and mother.

Next week is crammed full of youth group, 4-H meeting, J's college gospel choir concert, Gma and Gpa K flying in to town, RA Christmas party, Women's annual outreach gathering at church and Gpa R's 70th bday party.  The week after that starts with our last week of school for the year and a Cookie Exchange party here at our house, so we need to escape to the kitchen to make cookies too.

I have no plans for tomorrow, Sat or Sun. so we may start the cookie making soon.

We put up the Christmas tree yesterday after our Thanksgiving meal and watching Fiddler on the Roof for J's Old Testament class. She had to write a 4 page paper on the Jewish culture and customs. I look forward to reading it someday. :)

B is reading "Ragweed" by Avi. K is reading 4 pages in his weekly reader. J is writing college papers and reading the New York Times every day. I am reading "Mr. Darcy's Daughters" and in the midst of Beth Moore's bible study "Believing GOD".  We are listening to "The Long Winter" by Laura Ingalls Wilder on audio CD's as we clean and bake.

I got the top of my desk, K's desk all organized and decluttered. K and B sorted thru all their LEGOS and re-organized them into appropriate containers --- again!  I can walk through and around the homeschool room with hurting myself or LEGO creations. 

From Sept. 5- Nov. 15-- we have had 2 weekly FIRST LEGO League meetings here from 1:30-5pm on Tuesdays and 2-5pm and 7-9pm on Fridays. Those were the meetings when 5 families would meet here. M-Th, there were other afternoons or evenings when 1-2 families would come to work on the robot missions. Our competition was Nov. 16th and we scored very well in Technical judging and Teamwork judging. Our presentation went great but our research was weak according to the judges. Our robot did not perform well at all. It was disappointing with all the work that went into the programming but they learned several valuable skills and had fun doing it all together. It was an opportunity to learn and we will be better for it next year. Next year's theme is Transforming Transportation.

Thanks for reading this far and let us know what your prayer concerns you have so we can pray for you!

Blessings and prayers-

Sarah

WHEW! I made it through the first full week of working at the ballpark. The learning curve was huge the first 3 games. I worked my own cart one night and sold $140 worth of desserts to the public plus serving 3 suites. It was an exhausting, but fun experience. My $ and cash register receipts worked out perfectly but my inventory didn't match. The paperwork to figure it all out was challenging to say the least. I worked with 3 different ladies for on the job training over the 5 nights and 1 day game. I learned good tips from each of them.  The greatest thing I learned is that all of these ladies have unique challenges in life and are in need of a Savior. Some of them wear their need on the outside, several of them don't show the need until they really start sharing their story. I have gone to bed at night praying for them. They have accepted me as one of the team, most have made me feel welcome. I am trying my best to serve and love them as my Savior would want to do.

Home life is good. The dishes, meals and laundry are being kept up with well. The boys are doing their normal chores and their summer school this week, ie: Bible, Math and Reading. Ben is "Shakespeare's Scribe" right now. Kenny is still reading his Abeka readers and doing well right now.  The hardest adjustment for me- the boys and Darin are in bed asleep when I get home, Darin lets me sleep in since I am not getting home until 11:30-11:45 PM and I don't fall right asleep like he does. So we only saw each other sleeping for 3 days. FInally on Thursday AM, he awoke me thinking that I had to go to work by 7AM, no I need to be there at 10AM. He worked from home that day and I worked at the game from 10-4PM. That would have been a really long day at home for the boys. I will be working on that for the next day game in 2 weeks. :)

Jasmine's graduation photos have been ordered, the invitations will be printed today and she is working on address labels tonight. So that will be a good task completed by tomorrow afternoon.

Darin took the boys fishing 2 different nights this week. The boys and I planted Basil, Zinnia seeds and bought a Fern and a perinnal flower plant to add to our landscaping flowers. We visitied the Domes to complete our Botany science study on Monday.Ben has been jogging twice this week while Kenny rides this bike. Ben caught a 10 inch Bass while trolling but it was smaller than the 14 inch minimum. The boys helped me dust, vaccum and sweep, mop today so we are off this afternoon to see "Prince Caspian" at a matinee showing. Then I have a scrapbooking crop tonight at church. I am looking forward to doing something fun with  my friends tonight.

Ben is making lunch for us, then we off to Walgreens to buy movie candy. :)

Let us know what is going on with your lives this week-

Love-Sarah

Our little girl is no longer little and is a gorgous young lady. She and her handsome Dad attended the Red Carpet Premiere Homeschool Dance on Friday, May 2nd. She looked beautiful in her orange tafetta gown that her Grandma Theo bought her while her parents were in New York City. Jas and Dad went to Mader's downtown for a genuine German dinner.

As a Senior, she was recognized and given a "Star" of honor. They had a wonderful time and took 100+ photos. Yes, homeschoolers know how to socialize and have a great fun evening.

Our next big event is her graduation. We attended the 1st mandatory meeting last night, got her cap and gown, honor tassle and signed her diploma. We have a powerpoint presentation to create for her party on the 8th of June and a display board to decorate for the graduation ceremony on Saturday, the 7th of June. She has invitations to finish, adddress and mail and a new dress she wants to make for graduation and it will also count for the Fair.

She has 2 more weeks of classes. Her most complex speech, a 7-10 minute persuasive speech was Wed. She did great even though she chose a tough topic of  " Persuading her audience that Homeschooling is a viable option for parents to choose for their children's education." She has to critique herself on all her 7 speeches and write an essay about her speeches as her final which is due Monday.

The boys and I have about 3 more weeks of full school left. After June 1st, we will pare it down to Math and Reading each day. Ben has a quilt pillowcase to make, a Fishing educational Display, an art project to finish and his model DC-8 airplane to finalize- it is all glued together, now comes all the finishing touches and decals which we will have to create ourselves. He is creating a NASA DC-8 model. We can't find any NASA decals so we bought decal paper last night and we will have some Math problems to figure out to make it 1-72 scale.

Kenny is progressing on his reading in the last month. He now reads road signs and tries the billboards at times. The boys and I are just finishing our 1.5 year study of Botany!!!! We have one more chapter to read and discuss, then we will go to the Domes on Monday to review all the plants we studied. I will need to take all their drawings and notes and make a book for each of them.

Ben will start his General Science with Apologia Science in August. Kenny and I are excited to start a new study on all the creatures who were created on the 5th day of creation. I just organized all the notebooking pages last night for that study.

We are finished with our History/Literature/Church History/Geography/Fine Arts for this school year. We will begin studying the 1800's in August, about 2 weeks before Jas leaves for college. Ben listened to the 10+ hours of audiobook "Swiss Family Robinson" over the last few weeks, so Sunday night we watched the Disney version of the movie. After the movie, he and I worked out a compare/contrast worksheet between the movie and the unabridged book. He liked the book much better and we will work on his draft of this paper over the next week or so.

I have to go to work tonight so off to the kitchen I go to make supper at 3:30PM- how strange is that???

Check in again in a few days to see what other interesting things we Kojis' are doing-

Love-Sarah

It is officially gone- the 1998 Oldsmobile Silhouette. It was a great van and we have so many fun memories of vacations taken in that van. It's a luxury vehicle and it was a blessing. But we are in a new season of our lives. Jas is going off to college soon and it will just the 2 boys and I for the majority of the time in the car so we don't "need an 8 passenger van. With the increase in gas prices, she was very costly to fill up each week and being 10 years old- her repairs were getting more and more expensive.

Our goal is to be debt free except the house so we sold her (yes, she is the van) and yesterday bought a used Ford Escort wagon, one year newer than the one we sold last fall to Jasmine. This one is teal green in color, has cruise control, but other than that --this "Jade" is very familiar to us and cost effective in maintenance. We plan to keep this car until we are debt free which makes us smile to think about it.

A gentleman from Watertown bought it the Olds from us this afternoon and we bought "Jade" last night in a huge step of faith that we would sell the Olds today. We got a call on our ad yesterday and 2 this AM before 10AM. By 3:30PM today, we were all amazed and PRAISING the LORD at HIS provision and timing.

Yesterday morning after many phone calls and voice mails, faxes and more phone calls, I got the results of my drug test passed and officially to my new employer. I have new employee training tomorrow night and Thursday night for 4 hours each night. Then a hands-on training meeting and then we are off to the ballgame to work. It is strange to think about working outside of the home after 13 years working in the home but I have a great peace about it and the boys are excited that Mom has a job. They have really gotten into a routine with their chores lately and helping out with meals. This is a new season of life for all of us. My crockpot and I will be best friends very soon. 

The boys did the tree rubbings today- it was so cold outside. We are back to burning wood all day long. They are doing a sketch of our large tree out back in each of the 4 seasons. The buds are already 3 inches long and the green leaves are just barely peeking out.

Thanks for reading this and hope you enjoyed our little update. It's been a very busy 2 days already!

Love,

Sarah

What a wonderous day today has been!!!

I have had a headache, jaw ache, a migraine or Vertigo for the last 24 days since returning from our trip to New York City. I was diagnosed with TMD last week.  Temporomandibular Disorder- otherwise known as TMJ. The pain that I have been experienced for the last 4 years are the same Myofascial trigger points of the head and neck of TMD symptoms. So I have hope in feeling better soon. I am seeing Ben's orthodontist for this condition and have great trust in this man's plan for my treatment.

We worked on our Science study- BOTANY today. We are studying Tree layers and tree identification. Ben commented on how he had studied the heartwood of the logs he split the other night. They will be doing bark rubbings next week. We are enjoying watching the Horsechestnut tree bud this week.

I am enjoying feeling good today so I baked brownies this AM while Kenny did his math online. After lunch, I made dinner roll dough in the bread machine. It will be ready in a few minutes for me to shape into rolls. We are having Salsbury Steak, Squash, Stuffing, carrot sticks and dinner rolls. Should be a good meal.

We have a workday at church tomorrow morning and a dedication of our conference room in honor of the former head of our Missions committee. He passed away about 7 years ago and is greatly missed.

The bread machine just beeped that it is ready for me. So I am back to the kitchen!

Love- Sarah