Career Decisions

Grant and I had the following conversation on the way to his flag football game this morning~

Grant: "Mom, I'm having a debate with myself. I can't decide if I want to be a t.v. news reporter or a policeman."

Me: "Mmmm. Why do you think you might like to be a policeman?"

Grant: "Because they catch criminals. I want to jump on them!"

Me: "I see. And, why would you like to be a news reporter?"

Grant: "I think it would be fun to be on t.v.!"

Me: "I see."

Grant: "I think I'll be a reporter because I really just want to be on t.v. all day."

And then, after a slight pause: "Or, maybe I can be the king of England!"

Kids in Action

Close...But No Tornado

The kids were sleeping while the wind was blowing. A storm was coming. Then the warning siren went off. We checked the television to see if there was really danger of a tornado in our area. The meteorologist drew a triangle on the map around the area where the storm was most intense and where there was the most likelihood of a tornado. I stared at the screen. He had drawn the triangle right around our neighborhood!

So, we woke up the kids and headed downstairs to wait it out. It was a little bit scary, but kind of an adventure. Finally, the danger passed. No tornado had developed. Kids tucked safely back in bed. :-) It rained and rained and we all slept soundly.

Today the news reported that a tornado touched down less than ten miles from our home. It was headed this direction but died down before it got this far.

Let's Go Fly A Kite

We just got back from the soccer field at the local high school where we went to fly a kite! It is a cool and breezy evening~perfect weather for sending Grant's alligator kite with the spinning eyes soaring into the sky. Everyone took their turn at flying the kite and then the kids tried to jump and grab the tail as Dave kept it just out of reach. The kids are tuckered out and will sleep well tonight! :-)

Co-op

Today was the first day of classes for our homeschool co-op. The kids and I look forward to this time with other homeschooling families. Grant and Katie especially enjoy the chance to play and hang out with their friends.

This year Katie is in first grade and is in three classes at co-op: Health, Five In A Row and P.E.. Grant is in second grade and the classes he is taking are Music, Art and P.E.. I am teaching the Five In a Row class, along with another mom. Today we read the story, Blueberries For Sal. The mom that I teach with brought in a bear skull and a bearskin rug for our study of bears. Next time we will read the same story again and bake a blueberry pie! :-)

First Day Of School

We started the school year today. It was definitely an adjustment to get up earlier and have more of a schedule after our summer break! We got a bit of a late start, but I'm sure we'll get going sooner tomorrow.

I wrote out three chores for each child to do before we started our schoolwork. They loved that! It was fun to see them take on the responsibility of getting those chores done and checked off. Throughout the day they would make comments like, "I wonder what our chores will be tomorrow!" :-)

We hung out our flag and took our traditional first-day-of-school-in-front-of-the-flag-pictures. I gave them a new book and read it to them and we read a few chapters in our history book. That is one of my favorite things about homeschooling ~ the three of us snuggled on the couch reading together. :-) I worked individually with each of them and they each did some writing...and then the day was about over! All in all, it was a good first day of school.

This is the curriculum we are using this year~

Reading, Writing, Spelling: The Writing Road To Reading, Reading Works

Math: Math-U-See

History and Geography: The Story Of The World, Volume 2: The Middle Ages and library books

Science: Using ideas from The Well-Trained Mind as a guide for studying astronomy, the human body and earth science.

Art: I Can Do All Things by How Great Thou Art publications

Music: Co-op classes, Color The Classics (Hymns) and singing along with tapes and cd’s from the library.

P.E.: Co-op classes, community sports teams and swimming lessons.

Family Bike Ride

Since Katie got the training wheels taken off of her bike last spring, we thought she would be ready to ride with us on her bike, instead of in the bike trailer, the next time we went on a family bike ride. We found a nice paved trail at a state park and tried it out recently. Katie did great and we all had a fun time.

The bike trail wound through beautiful woods and ended at a beach and playground area. We found it was important to keep moving, though, so the mosquitos didn't have time to surround us! We think we might try it again in the fall, so we won't have to worry about that! :-)

Golf Ball ~ Sized Hail!

We recently had a thunderstorm that produced hail. The kids were excited to hear it tapping on the roof. Then the tapping sound changed and it actually sounded like someone was hurling golf balls at our house! Huge balls of hail were bouncing as they landed in the grass in our yard.

When it ended, the kids ran outside to collect the evidence before it melted! We put the pieces of hail on a cookie sheet and put it in the freezer. They have pulled the hail balls out a few times to impress their friends, who usually want to touch and then eat them! :-)

Pictures From Homeschool Camping Trip

Boys and their light sabers. :-)

Fun at the playground.

Every year the kids make a special t-shirt.

Homeschool Co-op Camping Trip

Every year several families in the co-op we are a part of go camping at a small privately-owned campground about an hour away. This tradition has been going on for the past seven years. Our family has joined the group three times now and it has become the highlight of the summer for my kids.

Since the campground is small, most of the people camping there are from our group. It is kind of like a little city of campers where the kids can safely run around. There is a playground, a baseball field, a private lake with a swimming area and some canoes and paddle boats you can take out on the lake. The area is surrounded with woods. The kids play ALL DAY long and at night they play, "night games," in which the older kids hide and the little kids try to find them and then they switch and the big kids hide. The younger kids have a harder time finding the big kids! :-) Everyone wears dark clothing and runs around with flashights and has a BLAST!

While the night games are going on, the adults gather at picnic tables in a shelter and play games. The last couple of years the game of choice was, "Settlers Of Catan," which I finally learned how to play this year. It is pretty fun.

The first couple of years that we went camping with the co-op, we camped in our tent. This year we borrowed some friends' tent-trailer camper and now we are spoiled forever! :-) It was so nice staying in the camper!

We just got home last night from the homeschool campout and now I am facing all the laundry that needs to be done! It is hard to believe that summer is coming to an end soon and school will be starting in a couple of weeks!

Body Worlds

Yesterday Dave and I and the kids went to see the Body Worlds exhibition that is in town. Wow. It is an exhibition of real human bodies preserved through a process called, "plastination." Some of the bodies show mostly muscles and others emphasize the nervous system or various organs. It is fascinating. There is a separate room that has babies in various stages of growth, starting at a few weeks and going all the way to birth. (A sign states that all of the babies died through accidents or natural causes.)

Body Worlds is like an amazing anatomy class. We were in awe of the intricacy and detail of all the systems of the body and how they work together. God is so creative! Seeing more of His creation up close causes wonder and awe to well up inside me. It causes me to worship God and give Him glory.

Check out Body Worlds and see if it is coming to your town!

Swimming Lessons

Grant and Kate had a great two weeks of swimming lessons at the local pool! They both had great instructors who made the lessons fun while helping them learn. Now we need to give them opportunities to practice the things they've learned with some trips to the swimming pool and maybe some days at a lake before summer ends. :-)

August

Is it really already August?! Wow, the summer is flying by! Tomorrow is the kids' last day of swimming lessons and then we do not have any more regular activities scheduled for the rest of the summer! Of course, summer is almost over. :-( But, don't tell my kids that. We are just finishing up school this week and they are excited that they will have four whole weeks off for summer vacation! :-)

VBS

Well, it's been over a week now, so I guess it's time for a new post! :-) Soccer ended on Saturday with a special day of soccer games and activities. It was extremely hot and humid, but we kept the kids cool by squirting them with water and making them drink a lot of water. A fire truck came and sprayed all the kids down, which they all enjoyed! Now that we don't have to rush out to the soccer field every night, we have our evenings free! Soccer was great for the kids, but it is kind of nice now to have a more relaxed schedule.

Grant and Katie are attending VBS this week at our church. They are both excited that friends from the homeschool co-op are in each of their classes. Yesterday they played for an hour with their friends while the moms talked! :-) So, we planned a picnic and playtime at a park for today after VBS. That way the kids can keep playing and we can keep talking! :-)

In Christ Alone

Whenever I hear this song, it touches something deep in my spirit and I get chills. It just really says it all. So, here it is:

In Christ Alone
In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand

In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save
'Til on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life's first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
'Til He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I'll stand

A Visit From Grandma

My Mom came from Arizona for a visit and we just took her to the airport and said good-bye last night. It was fun having her here and we were all sad to see her go. The kids had so much fun with Grandma here! She listened to all their chatter, played games with them and took them to the toy department for a shopping spree! We all wish she didn't live so far away!!!

Dance Recital

Grant and Katie danced in their dance recital last night and again this afternoon. The rehearsal was Friday night, so they have performed their dances three times now. It was fun to watch all of the dance numbers and especially fun for Dave and I when Grant and Katie danced. God blessed us with the gift of dance classes this year through Katie winning a year of free dance classes in a drawing. (And, boys dance for free at this studio.) What a blessing! We think it was a geat experience for our kids.

California Wedding

Grant, the candlelighter.


Beautiful flower girls.


The wedding party.


Grant and Katie.


Katie and Daddy dancing at the reception.


This is the lovely bride, Misty, and I at her wedding reception. God has given her a wonderful, godly husband in Reid. It was such a joy to celebrate with them!

We're back!

We just got back from California last night. Our flight arrived at midnight, so we slept late today and we're all still pretty tired. But we had such a fun time!

We left last Thursday afternoon. The kids were so excited about the trip and had been anticipating it for what probably seemed like forever to them! :-) When we got to the place where we parked our car while we were gone,(about a 25 minute drive from home), Grant said in wide-eyed wonder, "Are we in San Diego now?" Dave and I laughed so hard!

It was fun to fly together as a family and the kids did very well on the flight. We arrived in San Diego around 6:00pm, checked into our hotel and went out to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. (We all LOVE Mexican food! :-)) By the way, we got a GREAT deal on a nice hotel through priceline. I would highly recommend doing the "choose your own price" option. It worked out great for us.

The next two days were filled with wedding activities. Grant took his job as candlelighter very seriously and he did a great job. Katie and the other little flower girl became instant friends and had a blast together. They did a great job, also. After the wedding the two little girls were playing (and sitting and rolling) in the rose petals, so they both got red stains on their white dresses. That happened after the photos were taken, so it was okay! :-) It was a beautiful wedding and it was very meaningful for all of us to be involved in helping the couple celebrate their wedding day.

On Sunday we spent some time at the beach, which was so fun and so relaxing. We also visited Coronado and Seaport Village, which is an old haunt for me. That evening we had dinner with some friends who are currently living by Mission Beach, which is another old haunt for me! :-) It was nice to be back in San Diego and really great to catch up with old friends. This friend, Michelle, was a high school student when I first met her many years ago when I worked in San Diego. Now she and her husband and two kids are foreign missionaries home on furlough. We had a wonderful evening with them.

The San Diego Zoo was our last stop on Monday before heading home that evening. We enjoyed the zoo, but we were all a bit "fried" from all our fun in the sun and late night fellowship with friends! As we watched San Diego get smaller and smaller out of the plane window, Grant cried and Katie turned to me and said, "Mommy, when I grow up I'm going to live in San Diego!" :-)

We're still here!

We are just chugging along with most of the same things I wrote about in the last post... Katie and Grant are enjoying soccer and they are just about ready for their big dance recital coming up soon! We finally got all of the wedding clothes pulled together and are looking forward to our dear friend's wedding celebration, also coming up soon! :-)

We recently got some new neighbors and it turned out to be a bonanza for the kids! The new family has four kids all close to my kids' ages, so Grant and Kate are having a blast getting to know them. Anytime we are home they want to go play with the new neighbors! :-) The new kids are adorable and very nice. I'm happy for my kids to have more friends in the neighborhood. :-)