During my "alone" time last night, Philip and the kids were out doing fun stuff. Well in the midst of a "bet I can vertical jump higher than you" contest between father and son on a BRICK wall, my poor baby had an accident.......

Blue is seriously considering a Facebook account.

We had to make a trip to Wilmington in February to attend the funeral of my closest friend Trish's father. Clyde was saved, Praise the Lord and had served in our armed forces. It really was nice to see the honors given to a veteran of our military. Please pray for Trish as she is also losing her mother Dulah to cancer. Dulah also knows the Lord, so even though they will be missed on earth, we know they will be rejoicing in Heaven with our Saviour.



Our trip to Wilmington, at Johnny Mercer's pier.

The Polar Plunge at Carolina Beach, NC

The lifeguard at the Polar Plunge, I just think this is the coolest picture!

Melting chocolate for science, what a waste of good chocolate:)

McKinley Monument

McKinley Monument

Sooo, here I am again wondering why I take such long breaks from posting here. I know part of the problem is my new found friends on Facebook:) That is a definite time stealer ~~without careful consideration of how much time is actually passing!!

It us no doubt time to update some video and pictures of what we have been doing around here at our home school and just life in general.

We are so thankful for the new arrival of warm, sunny days. What a great relief from the long, cold winter we have had. I am sure it isn't over. But a day like today, 65 and sunny, is a sign of hope. Which is exactly what spring is, especially for the child of God. Spring is a great reminder of what our Saviour has done for us. With Easter coming, I can't help but wonder why we don't celebrate it with the same enthusiasm as Christmas. Knowing what this season represents, the resurrection of Christ, the seal of our salvation, death conquered, hope eternal, Jesus Lives!!! We should be buzzing around with the same joy and excitement over the Easter holiday as we do the Christmas holiday, in my humble opinion, of course.....

Now, on to school stuff.

We are sincerely enjoying this school year. It has been a challenge with alot of "life" happening and me trying desperately to stick to a schedule. I am by nature a fly by the seat of my pants sort of person, I love to just wing it. Now, I always want to know everyone elses schedule, because of course that helps me to be able to be flexible with mine. ( I know, I need to work on this:) ) But, honestly being nailed to a time, makes me a little antsy. Not sure why????

This year we took on a new curriculum, and with that came alot more accountability. Being away from the video learning and me doing more hands on, has helped me to know my children on a much deeper level. I know we have all heard of the "thrill" teachers get when they see a child "get it". Well magnify that by many, many times, when it is your own child you see "get it"!

So, without further babbling... I will post some pictures and video and hope someone views it:)

Maggie at her spelling bee, she placed runner up:)

Valentine Boxes...cute, huh?

We have our Valentine/craft -service project- party tomorrow with our homeschool group and here are the boxes the kiddos did. DS actually did this one a few years back and it was still in the garage!!!! He isn't real crazy about doing Valentines this year, but the rest are so, I said just go with it. Caught between still having fun and being mature...no place I want to return to (or did I ever leave??). I am looking forward to delivering our craft next week to a care facility. We did this at Christmas and I missed the delivery and caroling as I was the designated pizza picker upper:)

Weird Science :)

Here is our first science experiment with our new Apologia Science. Looks like it is going to be a more interesting study for us. We have been using the Bob Jones, but it was a little dry, a lot of reading and a test......... I think this is amped up just enough for them to enjoy science and mom not to dread doing it.
The neccessary supplies

Adding the first ingredient......

Hey thats cool!!

DS adding the ummmm Maple syrup.. had to move along before he drank!!!! Experiment complete, good job guys!!!!!!!!
Now on to the notebook to record the findings from our experiment with Density in Nature.

Love is in the air............

With Valentines Day fast approaching and the big 40 for me (:}) I really wanted something "lovey, gushy like " to put on my table. I am by no means a decorator, but I do have a flair for being a little different and I love color. Usually bright color, but occasionaly I will go for the muted tones. Well...like you don't know what is coming, I stopped into Hannah's Candles downtown and found the perfect "centerpiece" for my table for the month of February. I thought I would just buy myself a little something he he he..... And it was 50% off, who can resist that? And of course I took a picture to share with those who care.

As far as school goes, we are finishing up Greece and heading back to the promised land. Tapestry of Grace has done a "Map of the Humanities" and it is available to look at at their website. WOW is it cool. Hopefully I will have a little extra this month to get one to hang in the home. It begins with Year 1 (the biblical account of time beginning) and follows all the history, literature, bible history, geography, philosophy, art and government through today. In a 4 year time span, learning at the levels of lower grammar, upper grammar, dialectic and rhetoric. This map was surely a labor of love and will be much appreciated by many. I hope you will take the time to go to http://www.tapestryofgrace.com/ and check it out. Well...... off to the evening service as both DC are singing for their childrens choir program tonight.

Random photos from the past few months

Blue, dd's puppy eating yogurt!! He is a sneaky
little guy:)

Kiddo's Christmas party they had for their friends.

They had a prize for most festive dress. Notice my

two reindeers :)

Dd's growing nutcracker collection.

Decorating some Christmas cookies.

Our Jesse Tree. A new tradition begun this year.

Dd singing a solo in our Christmas program.

Ds singing a solo in our Christmas program.

Our Christmas tree. Short, but pretty:)

Some woods at the end of our cul-de-sac

Ds doing some night sledding.

Dh, ds and dd doing some night sledding. Had some
great shots, but as you can see the lens kept frosting

over:(

Ds and dd in the snowy woods. Isn't it beautiful?

A great shot by ds our aspiring photographer.

Snow pants and swim suit????

In the midst of the great snow storm.......... The dc came in from the snow and all their snow gear needed dried (snow pants, hats, gloves, scarves....), but of course there is always a load in the dryer. So when I opened the door all I saw were towels and I thought well I can just throw them in with the towels (didn't really want to stop and fold towels at the moment). Later on I go to the laundry room to "rotate" the laundry and pull the stuff out of the dryer and into basket, going on about the whole rotation routine as usual. Well as I get upstairs and begin folding the laundry I just had to crack up!!! Looking outside at nearly a foot of snow, together with the snowpants and towels were our swim suits from the trip to the Y the day before. I don't know why this struck me as so funny, maybe being from the coast of Carolina I have never had snow pants and swim suits in one load of laundry. Maybe I am getting simple due to brain freeze:)
Speaking of the Y, dd and I had a blast taking a water aerobics class together. She was so funny. They do it in the deep end of the pool so you have to wear a flotation device. Well, this particular workout required a noodle.....between the noodle and the FD around her waist she was like a bobber in the water LOLOLOLOL. She didn't weigh enough to keep her body down and do the exercises. We laughed until we almost cried for 45 minutes at her doing this. What a pleasure she is:)
I am so looking forward to what the Lord has in store for me in the next few years with her, I am sad seeing the little girl go....but I love seeing the young lady she is becoming. It is all bittersweet. I know as long as we continue to follow the Lord's leading in guiding our dc, we will see beautiful fruit blossom. I know there will be bumps in the road, but they are needed for growth. Thank you Jesus for the wisdom to look to You.

To blog or not to blog

OK, so, Thanksgiving came and went, Christmas came and went, New Years came and went and alas the inauguration came and went........
Why haven't I written one word or posted a picture or even been to my own blog since November? Was I honestly that busy over the holidays? No way. I have come to the conclusion that to post to a blog is something I must purpose to do. I will think ohhh... I want to post this or that to my blog, but a day goes by and then another and nothing done. Finally I am doing this thing.
I am happy to say the dc and I have set some goals. We have made a list of our spiritual, personal and school *goals* no set time or anything -just some things we know we need to work on. We have adopted the verse Philippians 4:8 for the year 2009---Finally brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
I know if we stick to this verse and renew our minds by the reading of God's word we will no doubt improve on all areas of life that we desire.
This is only our second year of homeschooling and the one thing I have come very aware of is that my dc are the greatest accountability partners I have. They are ALWAYS with me and seeing and hearing everything I do. Hmmmm, a very sobering thought. They are very quick to look at me "funny" when something just isn't right. :) With this in mind, attaining these goals together should be interesting to say the least.
Winter is on is with a vengeance. This is by far the coldest winter we have seen since we moved to the frozen tundra. The dc have a paper route and we deliver Meals on Wheels one Friday a month. We have really learned what it means to "layer". Keeping warm by layering is an art and we are finally getting it down. My dh is a pro, having grown up in the north. He has tried in the past to teach us, but I believe it is a learn by trial and error situation. Too much, too little, easy to remove, comfort in the car, on and on it goes. After delivering papers and meals in -10 we can handle old man winter. But, we sure are ready for some signs of spring.
School is going well. It has it's ups and downs of course. Overall though it is a positive in our home. Getting our schedule back in order after the holidays is no easy task especially while trying to incorporate other things in the week. The hardest thing for me is to stop life (laundry, sweeping,email.....) and do school. I always think I can do this, and that and find that alot of their time is wasted by me, not them. (hence the goals) :)
So.......back to blogging? I hope so. This is something that I really want to do, to share our life with our friends and family and just maybe I will stick to it.