Jan. 9, 2009 - Village icons...for Katy
Managed to dig these up:)
there ya go, thanks to whoever made these!
onedaymore2
Dec. 26, 2008 - Would you like to hear the good news...
or the bad news first?
The bad news is that I'm no longer going to be posting on homeschool blogger. The good news? We have a new family blog with lots of new posts, pictures and everything! If you're interested in stopping by our new blog, please send me a message and I'll get right back to you with our new web address.
Thanks and the Lord bless you!
Maggie
Thursday, November 6, 2008 -
Hey Guys, this is for school work. My mom wanted me to take pictures outside and write about them, for writing. I'll probably have to do this every week, maybe every two weeks. So here it is, it's not very good though.
Picture 1:
Picture 1, is of a lake, the neighbours lake. Of course I didn't go in to take this picture, it was taken from the road. As you can see, it's surrounded by the woods. They use the lake to go fishing in, I don't see them go down there as much as they used to. If I had a lake, I'd keep it clean and swim in it!
Picture 2:
Picture 2 is of hills and trees. It's much prettier in person though. My Aunt Deedy has a camper in our woods, which is where I took the picture. I'm in the camper right now. It's very nice
(I'm not really in the camper, but I was whenever I wrote that).
Picture 3:
Picture 3, is a picture of a Pepsi can lying on the ground. It's in our woods, but I didn't put it there. Whoever put it on the ground should've out it in a recycle bin, or at least thrown it away! I would have. This picture, represents littering.
Picture 4:
Picture 4, is again in our woods! It's actually a small area. I think it'd be nice to go camping there. I like camping. This place is flat, and surrounded by trees. I like the way the sun's shining through. It makes the picture very pretty.
Picture 5:
Picture 5 is a picture of my Aunt Deedy's camper. I like to go down there to the camper and listen to music and other things. It's nice down there, very quiet though. Sometimes I spend the night down there. I like doing that.
Alright so, my assignment is now done!!! :D But I'll probably post later, maybe later on tonight, or maybe tomorrow. Sorry if I don't by the way......
Kelsey
Monday, September 29, 2008 - Hopeful Farm Foundation
Hey Guys! So this is important, we know these people who are doing a thing called Hopeful Farm Foundation, which, I think this post will pretty well explain this. It's actually someone else's email that I want to copy and paste so I can show you guys this. It hasn't quite gotten completely started yet, we have to raise $74,000 dollars or more.......So if anyone wants to make a donation that'd be great! I've already made a donation by the way, it was $75 dollars, it's not much, but it will help, any little bit helps. :) So here's the post:
Dear Friends,
I would like to take a moment this morning to invite you and your children to participate in a very special event that is going on this week - something your family is just going to love to be a part of!
Many of you are familiar with our company publishing company Remembrance Press, home of the The Gift of Family Writing and The Girlhood Home Companion. This summer we began a new chapter in our lives with the founding of Hopeful Farm, a non-profit organization based in
The vision for Hopeful Farm was planted in our hearts ten years ago, after the birth and death of their fourth child, Nicholas, who was born with a genetic syndrome. Now, Hopeful Farm is finally becoming a reality.
The mission of Hopeful Farm is truly unique and much needed as it seeks to provide an all-access environment in which families impacted by special needs may find time to focus on each other, build relationships, and gain refreshment and renewal in an escape from the exhausting grind of everyday life.
This is the first time Hopeful Farm has held a benefit of this magnitude, and you will not believe the resources that are being donated as a thank you for your participation. If you have been wanting some of my writing or drawing products to enrich your home school curriculum, not to mention our resources for mothers and daughters, this is something you have to see! www.hopefulfarmfoundation.org/benefit.htm
Not only that, but my publishing friends have donated some incredible resources as well, as a way to bless you for becoming involved in this very important work. Your family can have a direct impact on families with children with special needs - and in return, your own family will receive a blessing from all of the wonderful companies that have offered their products in support of Hopeful Farm.
If you would like to hear what Hopeful Farm is all about, you can access an online interview by Cindy Rushton with my daughter Claire and I at www.hopefulfarmfoundation.org/interview.html
This benefit will run for one week only until Sunday, October 5th, so take a look now...and please tell a friend or three or four about it!
Thank you and God bless,
Jill Novak
www.remembrancepress.com
www.hopefulfarmfoundation.org
I did read this by the way, and I'll be doing a lot more Sign Language, and I'll also be teaching some to the family who's doing it (even though I don't know it all the way lol). If you guys can donate that's great, if not, that's fine to. :) Well, I guess I'll just end my post, so bye.
Kelsey
Sep. 21, 2008 - I should be in bed...
but...
here I am anyway;) I really will head to bed in a minute, but I wanted to refer you to the blog of my lovely daughter, Grace. Once again, she's way ahead of me in all things technical and has posted some cute pictures and even a couple of videos of Sammy. It's hard to believe that our handsome little fellow will be ten months this week. My, how time flies when you're having fun!
We're all fine here. We'll round out our first quarter of school this week. Next week begins a series of holidays here in Israel. The New Year (Rosh ha Shana) , Feast of Booths (Succot) and Yom Kippur (day of atonement) are all on the horizon. We'll also have some company next week, too, so it will be a nice time for a school break. Since we are looking at moving in February with pack-out dates in January, I'm really thankful I was able to get a head start on school this year.
I hope that you all are enjoying school with your children and cherishing the freedom we have to teach our little (and not so little) ones at home. Good night from Israel!
Lovingly,
Maggie
P.S. Grace's blog can be found on my sidebar or you can click here .
Sep. 2, 2008 - Tuesday Afternoon Greetings
Hello there! I'm sitting at the kitchen table, keeping my precious little kindergardener company while he writes his letters. We're using Phonics Museum this year from Veritas Press and WE LOVE IT!!! My little boy is having such a good time learning his letters with such a lovely and fun curriculum. My other children all wish we had discovered it earlier, but such is life. We do fun and creative weekly crafts (that I'd never think to do on my own) and the illustrations are rich and beautiful. Of course, on days like today when my little five-year-old has a terrible case of the squirms, I'm not sure Spiderman himself could fully hold his attention!! A moment ago, he just read the word "am". (I'm so proud!!- What a great little reader!!!!.) He promptly wanted to use his newly read word in a sentence. He proudly asked me, "Am you a boy?" Hmmm...so tomorrow we'll tackle grammar and anatomy:) On a completely different subject, I mentioned that we'd be moving in the Spring to NC. Last week, Darren called me one afternoon and asked me, "Are you sitting down?" (Words that threaten to strike fear in a wife's heart.) He went on to tell me that due to the training that we need for the command billet, we need to head back in February. I called my parents and told them that for Valentines Day this year they were getting a daughter, six grandkids, a dog and a cat!! We'll stay with them for a week before this children go to stay with my sweet friend,, Lyntoria for the week and I head to the commander's course with my Lover. Then, the kids and I will head back to my parent's house until Darren finishes turning over the reigns in Israel. Hopefully, we can then take some leave together as a family before starting yet another season. Hope you all will have a blessed week:) Maggie
Sunday, August 17, 2008 - Slideshow of my Family
Here are some pictures of my older sister Jennifer (26) and her husband and my nieces and nephews. My newest niece was born on the 4th of July this year.
Aug. 16, 2008 - Inspired by Melody
Hello! Darren and I made it home, safe and sound, from Germany this morning around 5. We're both a bit tired, but we had a WONDERUL time. I'll have to try to post later and fill you in, but for now, my wonderful cousin Melody sent me this little list of trivial questions and I thought I'd share my answers with you. Feel free to answer them yourselves but be sure to let me know if you do so I can read your responses.
1. Do you like blue cheese? Not by itself. In salad dressing or Southern Living's Baby Blue Salad, yes!
2. Have you ever smoked heroin? NO!
3. Do you own a gun? My husband does, and I do like to shoot...does that count;)
.4. What flavor do you add to your drink at Sonic? I haven't been to a Sonic in a year and a half. They haven't arrived in the Middle East. If I were to stop off at a Sonic tonight (perhaps in a random dream or something) I'd choose an orange cream slushy.
5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? Depends on the doctor;)
6. What do you think of hot dogs? I like them once a year or so and NOT the ones you can get over here. My favorite in the States is Hebrew National, which oddly enough isn't available in the "Hebrew Nation"...hmmm
7. Favorite Christmas movie? White Christmas
8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Must have coffee -Nescafe is what I drink here, unless Darren and I go out for a Latte, know here as Cafe ha Fooch (a guteral k not ch as in church)
9. Can you do push-ups? Yes, but not pull-ups!
10. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? My wedding and engagement ring, of course. I also enjoy wearing Roman glass jewelry.
11. Favorite Hobby? Hanging out with my hubby and kids. I also love to read good books and cook.
12. Do you have A.D.D.? Nope, if I do I don't know it;)
13. What's one trait you hate about yourself? I bite my nails when I get stressed. Oh, and I just can't ever be totally organized.
14. Middle name? Virginia
15. Name 3 things you bought yesterday. Souvenirs from Germany: a bear for my mommy, jammies for Grace and a postcard of Nueschwanstein Castle.
16. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink? Coffee, water and one glass of O.J. in the morning
17. Current hate right now? Not being able to come up with pithy answers:)
18. Current worry? What am I going to serve next week for the dinner party we're hosting. (Any suggestions for a fairly casual meal for 4 couples for a game night?? I'm not feeling very creative.)
19. Favorite place to be? Curled up next to my Lover whose gone on to bed, so I'd best hurry.
20. How did you bring in the New Year? I can't remember. Must not have seemed too eventful. Maybe a party? Maybe we slept. That's sad!
21. Where would you like to go? I'd like to go back to Garmisch, Germany with the kids. They'd love it there!
22. Name three people who will complete this: Since I'm posting the answers on my blog, I'm not even asking anyone. Feel free if you wish!
23. Do you own slippers? Yes, Darren bought them several years ago from the States. They are terry flip-flops.
24. What shirt are you wearing? A cozy tank with my jammy bottoms.
25. What year would you go back in time to? I'm happy as a clam right here!
26. Can u whistle? Yes, but I'd never win a contest or anything:)
27. Favorite color? That's hard to say, but tonight it would a nice, deep red.
28. Would you be a pirate? Uh, no. We watched Pirates of the Caribbean III this afternoon and I wasn't inspired to change my career track.
29. What songs do you sing in the shower? Praise songs, although I don't sing too often in the shower.
30. Favorite girl's name? Grace, Sara, Abigail or Lydia
31. Favorite boy's name? Joshua, Caleb, Nathan and Samuel.
32. What's in your pocket right now? Don't have pockets in my jammies
33. Last thing that made you laugh? The above-mentioned movie, even though it wasn't my favorite.
34. Best Halloween costume? I'm not really into Halloween at this juncture in life. Many, many years ago I was a Rubics cube. It was a little bulky, but hey, I was in the 5th grade.
35. Worst injury you've ever had? I sprained my ankle at Christmas a couple years ago. That was not fun.
36. Do you love where you live? Sure do, as long as my peeps are with me! I'm beginning to dream about how I'll decorate our next house in NC, however. It's always fun to dream of such things.
37. How many TVs do you have in your house? 2. A tiny one in our bedroom for news and one in the basement.
38. Who is your loudest friend? My adorable daughter Sara has a loud voice when she wants to be. Samuel is amazingly loud at times, as well.
39. How many animals do you have? A dog and a cat.
40. Does someone have a crush on you? Yes, and he's sleeping in my bed;)
41. What is your favorite candy? Twizzlers and dark chocolate.
42. Favorite Sports Team? I guess Navy football.
43. Your favorite meal? Too numerous...
44. What were you doing at 12 AM? Sitting in Zurich, Switzerland, waiting for my flight back here.
45. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? Going to bed at 5 a.m. and getting up at 10 a.m. is just not enough sleep!
And with that, I'm heading to bed!
Good night, all!
Aug. 10, 2008 - Exciting News and One of Those Days...
So, dear friends, guess what?? NO, I'm not expecting a baby!! (This is the most common reason for exciting news in our household, but not this time;) My most wonderful and amazing husband was selected last week for command! For those of you outside the military culture, this means that he will be in charge of group of Marines in his case, a battalion. This is quite an honor and certainly not something we assumed would be in our future. It's an amazing responsibility and greatly humbling to think of such a thing. I have full confidence in my Love and know that he'll do a great job. This also means that I'll be in a position of leadership among the spouses. It's important to make sure that everyone is doing well and being cared for, especially as their husbands (and sometimes wives, as the case may be) are called to be far away from home. This is a totally new role for me as well, and I'm just trusting in the Lord's wisdom and care to be able to be the person I need to be. Now, the best news in all this, is that come this spring, we will be moving back to North Carolina where we will reunite with family and friends, church and wonderful fellowship. We are thrilled at the prospect!! It was the first time that when we told the children we were moving, that they felt like they were going home. As a parent of military "brats" (one of whom has moved 8 times in 15 years), it's great to let them put down roots. It's also wonderful to be close to my mom and dad and a drivable distance from Darren's parents.
Now, on to the other topic of this update. We've all had them. Those days that we can only laugh or else we'd find ourselves in the fetal position hiding in a far corner. I had one of those days, a few weeks back. The day began like most any other day. As a matter of fact, I had been able to pull my bones out of bed early enough to snatch a few minutes in the Word and felt rather refreshed as I descended the stairs from my bedroom. I'd noticed a funky smell in our house, particularly in the garage area the night before but I figured that perhaps something had died near our trash can just outside the garage door. Since Darren was out of the country and the light bulb was out in the garage ceiling, I'd only glanced around the room. Now we don't actually park in the garage since our Suburban doesn't fit, so we use it for storage and have a spare fridge in there as well. I had made sure, on my patrol the previous day, to check that the fridge was in proper working order since my first thought was that the power was off. Everything was fine. In any event, when Grace went to the basement to exercise that morning, she couldn't stand the smell and called for me to check it out. The stench of rotting flesh was over-powering when I opened the door to the garage from the basement. I CANNOT TELL YOU HOW BAD IT SMELLED....I was seriously afraid that I'd find a cadaver of some sort in a corner of the garage. Had someone committed a heinous crime and hid the body in MY garage?? Did we somehow loose one of our pets and it starved to death in the garage? What WAS it? I was disgusted and afraid to find out and yet I HAD TO KNOW what was causing the horrid oder! I opened the door to let the sun guide me in my stinky quest. I almost missed it...there in the stroller (the new, expensive, double jogging stroller) was an unobtrusive little sack. And in the sack was the two kilos of freshly ground beef I had brought four days earlier (4.4 pounds, for my American friends). The ground beef that I assumed had been carefully placed in the freezer. The same beef that I later learned had been dropped off by a little visiting friend who was helping my children put away groceries and who got lost in the task. I won't tell you just how much it was moving when I peered into the sack. Just where those maggots come from is a mystery I don't care to solve. All I know is that my house smelled like a first century tomb (sans spices) and I was one, unhappy mama. I'd like to tell you that I was nonplussed by such a thing, but that would be a big fat lie. I was ticked off every time I took a breath and had a very hard time being the cheerful teaching mommy that I want to always be. Many, many candles, matches and open-windows (in the 90 degree weather) later, and our house was livable again.
Then enter the snake. Well, it was rather small but a snake nonetheless. And the little, slithering body was in my house, in my living room, on the floor under my coo coo clock. I tried to let it be a science lesson of sorts, but I'm not fond of snakes and I didn't like to think of where he came from and what kin might be slithering around looking for him. I directed the older children to catch him and put him in a jar so my grade school kiddos could enjoy seeing him before we let him go.
I then took off to go pick up my "middles" and left the two oldest kids with the two youngest. I heard the baby crying from his room as I was grabbing my purse and asked Grace to go free the little fellow. She called me to let me know that he was locked in the room and the key was no where to be found. (Each door has it's own lock with a key usually hanging outside the door.) To make a long story short, half and hour or so later, the poor little tyke was finally out after the kind services of a neighboring friend and his tool box.
It was quite a day and I was one tired mommy when I climbed into bed that night!!! I was thankful that all had ended well and for the graciousness that the Lord lavished on me during such a crazy day.
Anyway, that's the scoop from our little home. Our last bit of news is that Darren, Samuel and I are heading to Germany tomorrow, for the week. Our housekeeper will be staying here at night and many friends will be helping out and making sure Grace doesn't go nuts:) Pray for us all if you think of it. Traveling like this is all new to me but I'm very excited to get some down time with my sweety. He'll be in a conference during the day, but we'll have the evenings to relax together.
Anyway, I've got to finish packing and get a few more things lined up for school. Hope you all are well and enjoying the final days of summer.
Love,
Maggie
Aug. 4, 2008 - Long flights, late nights and over a month at home
Well, my title just about sums up our past month or so:) We had a WONDERFUL time in America and enjoyed seeing family and friends. Although our time was short (2.5 weeks) we really enjoyed every minute of it. Our first stop was NC, where we visited with my family and Darren did some work at Camp Lejeune. We were able to see some old friends, enjoy several changes-of-command on base and worship with our church family. We also shopped quite a bit and ate at our favorite Mexican restaurant a couple times. After just over a week, we flew to Arkansas and enjoyed a delightful visit with Darren's side of the family. It was so much fun to share our precious Sammy with everyone! He was such an easy and relaxed little traveler. A real pro!! During our time in AR, we took a family vacation to Dallas, TX. Mom and Dad Duke came with us and we all enjoyed time with Darren's brother, Jason. Darren and I took the oldest kids to Six Flags Over TX and the National Boy Scout museum. It was so much fun to go horse around together, with out the typical pressures of our life here. A few days later, Darren, I and the kids (sans Grace) flew back to Israel. Grace stayed with Mom and Dad Duke for two additional weeks and enjoyed lots of one-on-one time with her grandparents.
For all the ease in traveling, Sammy had a terrible time adjusting back to the clock in Israel. As a matter of fact, our first night back we slept a few hours only to have our little tyke keep us up most of the night until all the kids were awake. Darren proposed a jammy run to the local pancake house (the only 24 hour restaurant we know). The kids thought it was great fun to sneak out at 3:30 in the morning and come home again just as the sun was beginning to rise. Thankfully, everyone was ready to sleep with their full little tummies and, with the exception of my sweety who had to work, we all climbed back into our cozy beds until later in the morning. I'm so thankful for a husband with such great and generous ideas! I was beginning to get down-right grumpy but he turned a not so easy experience into a truly precious memory.
I've a number of other adventures to relate to you all, my faithful little band of readers, but they'll have to wait. I'm going to try to get myself to bed at a decent hour tonight!
Hope you all are well and enjoying the last few weeks of summer.
Love,
Maggie
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