Christmas Picture

I do have other Christmas pictures, but stumbled upon this one tonight while editing the Dear Jane blocks. It made me laugh. :) Unfortunately, I can't get it to enlarge due to being linked from photobucket. Anyway... in the picture Naomi has her tongue out - just ready to TASTE her present!

I'm not sure if I have a picture of all three girls in their matching jumpers and bows. They looked SO darling! In this picture Charlotte (12) is handing Naomi (8 months) her Christmas present.

Dear Jane - First Day!

I started on my Dear Jane quilt today. The ladies usually give their quilts a clever name, that'll have to wait for a day when I feel clever! lol. I'm thinking of "A Season for Jane". Lately I've really noticed how life goes in seasons. One day I'll be out of this season and into the one of having adult children and grandchildren. I'm doing my quilt in fabrics I have on hand (way too practical to spend money on new) so perhaps I should call it "A Practical Season for Jane" or .. hmm.. I dunno. I'll keep working on it.

This season (new babies, homeschooling, etc) is supposed to be SO busy and full that I have NO time for myself. Well, I do. I love having conversations with the children while sewing, sharing projects with friends, listening to sermons or podcasts as the sewing machine hums, and so on. This Season is busy, but I still have time for my Dear Jane. Maybe I won't get around to -quilting- it til the next season in life. lol. (Hopefully I have lots of quilting friends, daughters, and granddaughters to pitch in!). It is the perfect season because it forces me to slow down, think about life, and really enjoy it... plus make sure I have my priorities in line. For me, I really have time to focus on my faith during quiet times. I can't do that while zipping everywhere and doing everything.

The girls worked on Uncle Homer (A6).

Btw, if you go to http://www.dearjane.com/ you can see the original quilt. To find Uncle Home look at the first row of blocks (not triangles). That is row A. Count over 6. There is A6. Down is letters, across is numbers.

Here are the blocks I finished:

A6: Uncle Homer

A8: Florence Nightengale

B4: Chris's Soccer Field (Jim's favorite block)

B13: Four Corner Press

D13: Field of Dreams

D6: Challenge

M12: Hopscotch

I am using the software to print out the paper-piecing patterns. The book, a gift from Jim for Christmas, has also been VERY helpful. I love seeing the pieces up close. I also enjoyed reading about Jane, Vermont during the Civil War, and all of the tips.

p.s. I am labelling all of my Dear Jane posts with "DearJane" to make them easier to find. I'll try to keep family stuff in seperate posts. :)

Puppy Videos

Puppy Count:

Girls: Tansy,going to P's home.
Blossom, renamed "Isis", is going to J's - although we'll be watching her off and on as they prepare for a military move.

Boys: Sage, the biggest guy, is going to A's home.
Snapdragon, Yarrow, and Cedar still need homes. (Cedar has been a favorite of the girls. He's the runt of the litter although not that much smaller than the others at this point).

The puppies will be ready for new homes around January 20th. The mom is a brittany. The boys' dad is a black lab mix. All of the puppies get a lot of love and attention. They actively seek out the children during playtime. On Thursdays, our quilting day, they're held and loved by a variety of children of all ages! For those considering one of the puppies you can be sure they'll be fine with a noisy household with littles. The cats still ignore the puppies.. I'm guessing soon the puppies will learn that ignoring the cats is the best plan. Sugar, Charlotte's cat, doesn't put up with a lot of nonsense. The names given are just ones we used so we wouldn't have to say "that puppy". For the ones being renamed we're calling them their new names. They're using the paper and being raised indoors.

This is Tansy. The girls took her outside for some playtime. It is *very* warm here so it's not the typical December weather. Tansy is the most outgoing of the litter. She was the first to bark, first to go after toys, and always wants to play. The girls' dad is a rottie.

This is Snapdragon. He's one looking for a home for late January. The puppies *all* adore the humans in the house and they're very sweet. They often fall asleep in a person's arms (even the little people). We need to get a video of them in brighter light. Unfortunately it is raining today so no sunshine to be found!

My Journal

This is the year when busy moms start talking about setting up their household journal.

I have seen numerous ebooks, websites, and more. Mine is a mix of various sources and due to be overhauled this holiday weekend. I think I'll start by thinking up a clever name for it later!

Mine has:

Schedules - in the front is the chore list of what dailies each child is expected to do. Now that Joseph and Noah are older we need to re-evaluate this list and bring them into the fold. Noah loves to be a helper and empty things (sometimes useful things!). We do not rotate chores. If I see a pile of shoes in the hallway I know Joseph didn't do it. If the living room looks like a tornado rushed through.. Charlotte got sidetracked. It makes my life, and theirs, easier.

Flylady Routines. Yes, yes, I know most people dislike her crazy overflow of emails. I don't use her emails. I printed out the lists, altered them to fit my life, and threw out the rest that didn't fit. www.flylady.com is her URL. She likes to play mom and armchair psychologist. I already have a mom so I'm all set there. I don't think I need a psychologist. lol. I don't have an 'inner brat' - I just have a house that needs routine. So, I have her routines behind a tab labeled (wait for it..) "Routines". hehe. The main perk are her zone detailed cleaning lists. Things like "flip mattress" are on her bedroom lists and it makes life easier. I don't have to remember it, I just read the list. Plus, the kids are able to pitch in because they can read the list too.

I like her Master grocery list, but those never seem to work for me. Meal plans I do as a matter of habit, but we're switching more to whole foods (again!) so I hope to simplify my shopping. I'm blessed with a husband that will eat pancakes for dinner which saves my sanity and grocery budget.

After that I have tabs for 1-31. I use these for days of the month. This system wouldn't work for everyone, but it works for me. Our master calendar hangs on the wall so I don't keep a private calendar for myself. But some things I make notes for and it just helps to have it stored in my notebook. I also like PlanPlus (through Outlook) for that.

The back has holepunched recipes I've printed, meal plan ideas, and a spiral notebook for jotting down things. Oh.. and there is one more tab for homeschool planning. I would like to keep a Master checklist in there for what needs finished for each grade level. We'll see how that works!

Hopefully this weekend I will get it all sorted out. It really does help to have a Plan Book for the home for those juggling homeschooling with homemaking.

www.donnayoung.net is another great place to get all kinds of forms. We will be getting the children's school notebooks ready for the second half of the year and using some of her items. It is a free site.

Trying out Video

Trying this out, I didn't edit the video so I'm not sure how it will work.

Merry Christmas!

This cute couple came to us from Dorothy in England. It was part of an ornament exchange. We love them! They look adorable on the Christmas tree and the children enjoyed showing their friends. We sent a log cabin quilt square ornament for our recipient. I learned a valuable thing - I'll never make a whole quilt out of tiny log cabin squares! That requires way more patience than I have at this stage in my life. :)

We are not sending out Christmas Cards this year.

I feel a little guilty, but life is busy and we're cheap. lol. We love all of you dearly and I know family does read our blog. For those who miss the Christmas Letter here is a condensed version..

Charlotte.. now 12. She still stays up all hours to read. Now she's started this thing called "Sleeping In". We're hoping this will rub off on all of the other children. She's still attached to her violin and it's not surprising to hear fiddling coming from her room at various hours. She likes to try new things and is into crafty stuff. Her recent accomplishment has been making a hunter elf costume. I'll try to get a picture of her.

Bethany.. now 9. (soon to be 10). She talks a LOT. For those who are convinced she's my quiet child, well, I don't think so. The quiet child is Naomi, simply because she's limited to a few words. Her best friend in the whole world is a 7yo friend that comes over every Thursday. They have a lot in common. I have a picture on the blog of her showing him some cello music. They're a military family and relocating in the spring. She is also very crafty and likes designing new games.

Both girls adore their little sister. She's spoiled SO much. For those that think the 6th child is lacking in attention.. well.. you haven't seen our home. It's a blessing that for each new child there is a new sibling to give attention.

Naomi.. now 8 months is a cutey-bug. She still has her blue eyes and has quite a few quirks. One quirk is she doesn't like to be held while you're sitting. She will *scream* like she's dying and as soon as you stand up - silence. Charlotte claims they're not going to spoil the 'next baby'. Um. We'll see. It's so fun to have a pink bundle of baby, the novelty still hasn't worn off. (No, there isn't a 'next baby' yet, we'll keep y'all <-- see my southern speak? informed)

James.. now 7 (8 in Feb) has grown so much! He's still Bethany's size. He has a snap circuit set and has enjoyed learning about it. He's also our Bible digger in the family. He's enjoyed the Good and Evil book. It has brought up a lot of great questions. His copy is almost worn out and we'll have to replace it soon. He's also great at making Naomi giggle.

Joseph.. now 4 loves to learn new songs. His favorites are Veggie Tales. His favorite food is peanut butter toast. He's my picky-eater.. he could survive on peanut butter and bread indefinitely! He also loves his stuffed teddy bear. When all else fails.. he loves to pick on his little brother. The two of them! Geesh. One day I'm sure they'll be great friends. If they both survive to 'one day'.

Noah.. now 2 loves new songs too. His favorites are fingerplays like itsy bitsy spider and patty-cake. He will request endless ENDLESS singing of those songs. He's convinced he can count and read. He loves ladybugs (he alternates between squishing them and letting them out). We're trying to transition him into sharing a room with the boys.. preferably before he's 10.

Both Joseph and Noah adore Naomi. We do have to watch to make sure she doesn't get squished. Sometimes it turns into a battle of which brother can be closest to the baby.. and ... well.. the battles almost always end bad.

All of the children are anxious to hit the dollar tree to shop for each other. Charlotte has the boy's presents done already, so she has just her sisters. We usually wait until really close to Christmas to minimize the suspense. :)

Currently we're taking a stab at unschooling. Bethany and James worked on a project about the solar system. Charlotte is writing more on her book. After the holidays we'll return to our traditional method. I'm sure Puppy101 counts for something too!

Oh.. the pet count. Someone asked me the other day about them.

We have:

3 cats - Sugar (Charli's older cat), Peppermint (Bethany's under 1 cat), and Tuna (James's under 1 cat). Joseph wants a cat, we told him he has to share. Bethany offered him co-ownership of Peppermint.

1 dog - Meadow. This is my dog.

1 lizard -she's a mali uromastyx. She hibernates when her light needs replaced. It'd be nice if cats would hibernate with the click of a switch. :)

I keep waiting on the random chicken to wander up. Jim has nixed chicken ownership *unless* a stray chicken wanders onto the property (hint to friends... hehehe).

---

6 puppies - these are temporary, we're not really counting them as 'our' pets, although they're adorable and a lot of fun!!

Puppy pictures update

Hurray! I can do pictures again. It's a little bit of a pain because Jim has to upload them to photobucket first, but at least I can put things online. Here is a picture of Meadow with one of her babies. This is the largest boy. He's like a roly-poly bear cub! All of the puppies are up and walking, but they haven't made it out of the box yet.
The puppies are three weeks old and ready to start some solid food. They took to it great yesterday with all of them eating some. Today we start in a routine of feeding them so Meadow can finish weaning. The girls get a little yappy during feeding time! One of the boys quickly figured out Charlotte had the food and came over to get it. We had them on a blanket in the living room with the whole family surrounding them. I have more pictures and will pu them up later. I know our guests are going to really enjoy the puppies tomorrow!
Here is a close-up of one of the girls. The boys have their teeth, the girls don't have them yet. I'm guessing they're a little younger than the boys. It's become pretty obvious they have different paternal figures! :) All of the puppies have blue eyes right now.


Here is a pile of puppies. All six are in the picture, but only the bottom of one is showing (on the far left). The girls are on the right (they have brown on them). The boys are so beautiful with the dark shiny fur (they look like velvet) and bright blue eyes. They're all seeking attention now and love having the children pet them. They'll even climb into laps! The cats are still avoiding them. Pretty soon we'll move them into the little room off of the kitchen, with baby gate, so they'll have more room.

They should be ready for new homes by the end of January.

Testing

Okay, can you see the picture? :) I'm trying to use the direct link from photobucket.

Happy Saturday!

The Great Cat War.. Peace Negotiated by Mommy.

Last year Sugar, Charlotte's cat, had no competition for the prized location known as Spot Under The Tree. SUTT was hers and she liked it this way.

During the year we adopted Peppermint, Bethany's cat, and later adoped Tuna, James's cat. Peppermint is about twenty pounds of fluff and bulk. He's very cute, but oh-so-spoiled. He loves to sprawl behind my sewing machine to get pet in between seams. He also prefers sleeping in a bed. Well, when the tree went up he decided to give the SUTT at try. He started walking towards the SUTT and Sugar, the cat that never shows emotion, zipped after him - swatting and hissing as she went. Tuna heard this commotion, a few rooms away, and went flying. He didn't know what was going on, but heard angry cat noises and scooted. Peppermint, now missing some fur, slinked off to mend his pride somewhere else. Sugar pretended she didn't want the SUTT... until we stopped watching and then she merrily went over to take a snooze.

Tuna is still in the frisky kitty stage and Peppermint is a little.. well.. he doesn't realize he's twenty pounds of feline. He thinks he's still a kitty too. I figured the tree might survive the littles, but it was not going to survive a cat attack! So, to help the peace, I put a few wrapped presents under the tree.

Now Joseph is asking daily "When is it time for PRESENTS???" It's hard to be four. :)

The puppies are doing great. They're getting BIG! One guy looks like a bear cub, he's so fat and round. The girlies are just adorable. For my local friends.. if you want to pick out a puppy, let me know. Meadow was great with having all of our friends handling her puppies. One little girl, N, repeatedly would gently gather up a puppy to love and carry.. and then swap a few minutes later. Well-socialized is going to be an understatement for these pups! If you're not local, we're in SC and happy to meet folks somewhere to give the puppies a good home. They should be ready to go the end of January. The girls are spoken for, I think, but we have 4 boys available. I believe two boys might have homes...

I'm so excited! The girls and I plan to start the Women of the Bible study/quilt in January. The patterns arrived this week and we enjoyed looking at the names. We found Naomi (of course) and look forward to doing that one. My goal - and I'll use the blog to stay on track! - is one WOB block per week and one Dear Jane block per week. The WOB quilt has 52 blocks. Dear Jane has too many to think about! hehe

My pictures still refuse to load, but hopefully we'll get SOMETHING worked out soon. I'm going to test picasa in the next post.

On the mend.. hopefully!

For whatever reason blogger no longer likes my pictures! Once I figure that out I hope to start posting more.

In other news..

We're trying to recover from a week of yucks. It appears we had two different illnesses going through our family. One was a head cold/etc that we picked up from somewhere. The other was a stomach bug. Almost everyone appears to be on the mend except for Noah. He's running a fever today and tired. The medicine wiped out the fever and he's snoozing next to me. Hopefully he's the last one to get it!

The girls managed to avoid the ick, including Naomi.. hurray for breastfeeding! I've been sick and was hoping I'd passed along more antibodies than germs. :)

This is going to be a creative week for school. We did celebrate Hannukah, in a relaxed manner, and I'll put up pictures of our menorah later. We read a few really good Henry commentaries about being a light to the world. The book we used was The Family Guide to Biblical Holidays. For Christians interested in learning more about holidays I'd recommend it. Although, once you understand the real holidays it does feel a little strange to hang onto the made-up ones! hehe.

Most of our Christmas planning is done. I'm thankful we started early with this bug hitting us. I accidentally opened one of my presents from Jim (yes! it was an accident! hehe). The children are still making lists and its fun to see what things appeal to them this year. The presents to out-of-town relatives (which means ALL relatives) have been mailed. Whew. The children put up the Christmas tree, with the girls doing most of the work.. and they even hung lights in the living room. It looks very pretty.

The puppies eyes have opened!! I'm 99.999% sure the puppies have two fathers. I've seen two dogs lately that match them exactly. The boys have a black lab/retriever mix dad, he's just a bit bigger than Meadow. The girls have a rottie mix dad. There's just no way they have the same fathers with the striking difference in appearance and development - plus seeing the male dogs outside confirmed it. We still have a couple of weeks to go before we see their personalities.

We are taking 'dibs' on puppies and will mark those that are taken.

The quote heard most often in our house:

Joseph, 4: "It's taking SO LONG for presents!" He can't figure out why we put up the tree if we're not going to do presents. Poor guy!

Puppies!

Charlotte came out around 5:45 to tell us that Meadow was "acting like she had to poo and I think she's about to push.." Gotta love the oldest in a large family, she'd make a great midwife. Nothing phases her! We went in and found that,yep, she was having a puppy -- the first arrived at 5:48pm! (The last was born at 8:09pm - goooood Meadow!)

We sprang into action with warm towels, heatlamp, is puppy breathing?, and so on. Everyone pitched in. We kinda knew it'd be soon because she was shivering and panting today.

At three puppies we thought she might be done. I felt her tummy and there was a little kick.. we waited on number 4 to arrive.

Not to be outdone by the six two legged kiddoes.. Meadow gave birth to six four-legged kiddoes of her own! 4 boys, 2 girls. They were all born effortlessly and she's an awesome Momma. She set to work cleaning them and taking care of business. All cleaned up and being sorted while Meadow heads to the potty and eats. They're now all settled in a nice warm box with their Momma.

This is the littlest of the litter. He's got a lot of white and is so cute. He has white from his chin down to his belly button.

This is one of the two little girls. Tomorrow evening I will try to get better individual pics. We took quick snapshots so we could label them. Some have very wrinkled and flat faces, others have long tails, some are almost all black, others have brown legs. I know at least one has white "boots".

Whew.. more tomorrow! We're tuckered now and have a quilting bee to host in the afternoon.

Rag Quilt and Back to School

This was an afternoon project over the weekend. Bethany did a lot of the stitching with me. It is a rag quilt made from baby flannel. The kitty cats alternate with pooh bear and piglet. The result? A bright pink quilt! We think Naomi is going to enjoy this as a Christmas gift. We enjoyed making it. Each of the seams is snipped and then the quilt is washed, giving it the ruffly raggedy result!

It is back to school til the end of December. What we lack in motivation we make up for with procrastination! hehehe Hopefully after this initial monday hump we'll get back to working steadily. We're working today, it's just not pretty.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Naomi celebrated her first Thankgiving (outside of the womb) with sweet potatoes and a little bit of cranberry sauce. She is the baby that usually refuses to eat solid food. Apparantly we just needed to add some butter, corn syrup, and brown sugar to the mix! (can you say 'sixth child doesn't follow the baby book'?). She had a grand time squishing up her food and provided nice entertainment.

I hope our family and friends had a great Thanksgiving. Ours was a lot of fun. We had another family visit and really enjoyed the time together.

The day after Thanksgiving we (older girls & myself) snuck out for some shopping. We desperately needed a toaster and the coffee pot broke last week too! Kohls opened at 4am... so by 3:30am we were OUT the door and at 3:48am we were standing in line. Woohoo! It was COLD. They also left the sprinklers ON! How is that for rolling out the red carpet? "Here, come shop, but we're gonna freeze ya at the same time". We zipped in there, grabbed up a toaster oven and coffeepot.. then chatted for about 15 minutes while waiting to check out. After we went to JCPenneys to get a game that Bethany had her eye on.

The girls have been babysitting, in our home, for baby Elias. They're earning money as "mother's helpers" and have been carefully plotting how to spend it. We ended up going back out yesterday to Michaels. We planned to hit the bookstore, but my frugals decided to go to the library later this week instead. :) Charlotte found watercolor pencils, a new watercolor pad, and is trying a new craft -- model ship building! She's working on a ghostly pirate ship (we'll have pics later). Bethany is trying her hand at latch hook again and it's going beautifully. I plan to start my Dear Jane quilt this week. I'm going to do the sampler while I still decide upon the fabrics I want to use for the main one.

God has been so good to us. I recently posted on MOMYS Digest (Moms of Many Young Siblings) about a blessing that didn't seem like one at the time. Surely our "blessing" this year has been in the vehicle issues. Our lives have slowed down and we're definitely practicing a lot more hospitality. We've really been enjoying our time together as a family, and with getting to know others better. Also - we recently found out a good friend is expecting (yay!) We've met quite a few other families with 5+ children - that's been so fun! Currently we're 'behind' another local family with 7... and now we're tied with 3 others at 6.. hehehe

Jim is enjoying his new project at work. They moved to a different building. I don't know anything about what floor he's on, the folks sitting next to him, or even if the parking is decent.. but I do know they have a great cafeteria with a bunch of nice food ;) He was like a kid on their first day of regular school -- he even sent me his weekly menu. Hurray for good lunch food! hehe.

We're getting closer and closer to Puppy Day. We're thankful that was NOT on Thanksgiving Day, but wondering now when it will happen. I guess if it happens on Thursday (sewing day) we can count it as a homeschool science co-op.

Psalm 100

Shout for joy to the LORD , all the earth.

Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.

Know that the LORD is God.

It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving

and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.

For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations

Unexpected blessings

Over the years I can see where many of my disappointments really turned into blessings instead. This has happened with job changes, moves, and so on. Often I prayed for one thing and got a whole different answer -- yet the blessing is so clear. We prayed to be able to live in the area with our family. God firmly closed that door. Instead He moved us south.. which opened us up to homeschooling, moved us closer to Christ, led to a church where Jim accepted Christ and so on. If I had my way who knows what would have happened?

We've had this over the past year with vehicles. We had a major repair to the van, followed by a major repair to the truck. The trucked died a few weeks later. We sold the truck and felt blessed to get a car - save gas, etc. The car died a few weeks later. We worked like crazy at trying to get another car. Many of you in r/l and on yahoo lists with me remember those prayers in the summer. I desperately wanted to be able to see my family in July. We really wanted to see our family!! It was a daily prayer and we praised God when we found another vehicle. We did make it on the vacation and had a wonderful time. We were able to see grandparents and get closer to my sister's six children -- Joseph *still* talks about his "buddy" Alex!

After the vacation... the car died a few weeks later.

Notice a theme?

We didn't give up, but we did stop for a while. I admit, my pride was a challenge. I knew it meant giving up park day. Our park day has been a vital part of our homeschooling! We have been doing it for almost seven years in various locations. I posted about it weekly, encouraged many moms to attend, and so on. It was (is!!) very important to me. It was upsetting to drop it from the calendar and just pray that someone would take it over. Due to being an 8 member family with a 7 seater minivan we can't share a vehicle.

God is good!! A few moms have KEPT it going - yay! We look forward to joining them again when possible. I'm so thrilled that park day hasn't been dropped... not only that, but it has grown. I know it is a blessing to many, it has always been a blessing to me.

With a great big leap of faith I talked to Jim about doing a weekly open house. Hospitality is not my gift. I know people with the gift of hospitality - they're amazing!

Be hospitable to one another without grumbling. As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 1 Peter 4:9-10

Hospitality: The act or practice of receiving and entertaining strangers or guests without reward, or with kind and generous liberality. American Dictionary of the English Language, Noah Webster, 1830.

After reading that definition I have to wonder if I'm practicing hospitality at all! Maybe not? I know I'm rewarded by it. :) Our reward has been huge! Just today we were rewarded with fun sweet playmates, laughing moms, and yummy food to share.

I'm very humbled that these moms are willing to make the trip to my house weekly. I love sharing one day a week with them. The quilting is fun, but the fellowship is key. The friendships are priceless. I always thought I'd practice hospitality when everything else fell into place - perfect house, landscaped yard, nicely matched dishes, flylady flying, and so on. That was never going to happen. God is good. He found a way for me to get over my hospitality hangups ;)

And just today I learned a brand new family to SC (moving tomorrow!) is coming to our home for Thanksgiving dinner. It won't be Martha Stewart, but it will be our version of hospitality. Would I have ever gotten over this hump if we had two vehicles - or even one that fit everyone? Maybe not. I was really happy with our weekly park day out. I couldn't imagine inviting folks to drive way out in the sticks to my place. Yet, that's exactly what happened. God is good. Have I mentioned that?

This Thanksgiving already feels like a special one. We're thankful for having a home we can open to others. I'm also thankful to be able to return a blessing to another family. When we first moved to SC a family invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner. The mom totally flubbed the turkey (she started from frozen), we couldn't fit all around the table, and dinner was quite late.. but we all had a great time. Maybe because we don't have family in the area we treasure our friendships all the more. We're also missing a church fellowship due to vehicle issues.

So, we're blessed. Even when the world says I should be feeling less than satisfied, I can see where that's so not true. We have six wonderful children - and we're open to God to bless us more! We have a home that will fit extra folks, even when it seems impossible (5 moms and 15 children today!!). We have Jesus who showed us real sacrifice. We have a God that encourages us and equips us for whatever challenge set ahead of us. I'm also thankful to have the maturity to realize that this year isn't what I had planned.. yet His plan was SO much better.

Thank you God for blessing our family. Thank you for our friends. And thank you for the lessons we've learned this year as we remember to let YOUR will be done, not ours.

Babysitting

First of all, we're not responsible for the bruise :) hehe. He's an energetic baby and gets plenty of daredevil scrapes and bruises at his house!

The girls are helping out a friend by babysitting her little guy at our home. He wasn't interested in napping, but desperately needed one.. so Charli popped him into the didymos wrap! (He will be 1 in January and he's a BIG guy!) Within just a few minutes he was snoozing soundly. We unwrapped him gently and put him down for a nap.

Hurray for babywearing! It works even while babysitting. :)

The quilt frame has arrived.. and more!

Snoedels! This has been our project lately. It's been a lot of fun.


This is a picture of Naomi, almost 7 months, sleeping with her Snoedel. He's well-loved. For those wondering, she's snuggled into her amby bed. Daddy was the mean person who took the picture of the sleeping baby! Snoedel, amby, and "fummie" (thumb) are all she needs for a good sleep!
Here is our Naomi with one of the mini-snoedels. It is a strawberry shortcake fabric.

In other news...

The quilt frame arrived! Hurray! We've already started some of the quilting, with Bethany chiming right in. It's so much fun to see the quilt frame ready and waiting in the house. The top picture shows the quilt top that is being worked on. The measuring tape was out to show how there should be 6 stitches per inch for beginner.. and then 10-12 for 'experienced'.


Where is the best place for a cat to snooze in a busy house? Under the quilt frame of course! I'm sure Sugar agrees it was nice of us to build her a little home. Oh.. and the quilt frame *is* made out of PVC. It makes it lightweight and the rails are ultra-snug. This is a great material for a quilting frame! I'll get pictures of the quilting ladies around it next week.

Wow Wednesday!

This is the perfect face for a Wednesday! Once again, this picture was taken by Charlotte. Noah is always a willing subject (unless he is running away...)

We have exciting news soon! Nope, not a baby (not yet anyway!) but exciting anyway. Hopefully we'll share that in the next few days. We're working hard here to get it underway. (It's a project I'm doing with the girls - so don't think outlandish here.. we're not moving, adopting triplets, or other big things).

Charli's Rainbow

We tried to post this yesterday, but blogger wasn't agreeing with us! Here is a gorgeous picture of a rainbow that Charli took a few weeks ago.

Later today we hope to post a FULL update on us! We're in the swing of school and trying to keep to a good schedule. Naomi has her first tooth, but she's still not interested in being adventurous, she's happy to be a lap baby and loved.

Waaaay behind! Pictures by Charli :)

Joseph lost in thought.. thinking his next plan of action!
Naomi.. her eyes are still blue!
Mommy, sewing.. this is what the table looks like during sewing time!
James.. what else can I say?

I have fallen off the blogging wagon! :) Blame it on sports, sports, sports, school and sports!

Both girls are learning how to use Microsoft Movie Maker, hopefully we'll have something to show off soon.

Apron Giveaway!

Dana is giving away one of her ultra-cute aprons. To enter the drawing go here: http://www.xanga.com/Jude1_22/608431804/i-won-now-it-is-your-turn-to-win.html

:)

Tree climbing and waiting on fall

This lovely tree is on the lot where we camped. I believe every child, except the littlest, took a turn at climbing it along with lots "take a picture!" and "look at me!" Here is Joseph showing off his skills. Speaking of Joseph.. the great birthday countdown has begun.

We're gearing up towards fall and the return of schooling. As much as I planned to homeschool this summer it just wasn't happening. Too much other stuff took over. We plan to start again on August 20th - the same day softball/baseball seasons begin! In for a penny, in for a pound, right? :)

We did get a few weeks of 2007-2008 under our belt over the summer. A lot of our curriculum is plotted out along with organizing our notebooks. I'm going through http://www.donnayoung.org/ and printing out forms. One that I printed is the attendance chart. Its very simple, basically has 180 squares where you write in the date. I told them when they fill the chart they finish that grade.

A mom on my local list said: Academics is a means to an end, not the end itself. Academics that does not serve a greater good might be just busy work. I have been thinking about that today as I consider our schooling. The issue with homeschooling isn't a lack of curriculums, its the overwhelming flood of options. Our goals with homeschooling are varied. The big one is definitely to produce young adults who "Love what God loves and hates what God hates". People who can be used by God and whose faith will produce good works. This is why I'm so determined to use things from http://www.cornerstonecurriculum.com/ It might be challenging, it might be tedious, but in the end I think it'll benefit them more than other choices out there.

I also desire to let the children own their lives. I remember sitting on the school bus in the AM thinking "I can't escape". I had a long ride to school, a lot of wasted time in school, then back home. If I would have known about homeschooling I would have left high school. I hated being forced through the motions of the school day. So, for my children I want them to be able to plan a day for themselves.. not just rely on the routine. This is why I simplified a lot of our schooling last year. A lot of things are good, but too much and they easily turn bad -- like smores. lol. One smore is yummy, two is okay, you eat ten and you'll be crying in your tent later! So I gave up my lofty goals of adding in logic, or studying great artists, or any of the other numerous add ons. We went back to basics, including language and music as our extras. It gave them almost the whole afternoon free. Since we do not have kid-friendly TV in the evenings, they also have that time to pursue interests.

Due to switching curriculums mid-year, we didn't finish the curriculum at 36 weeks. We had around 18 weeks of the first curriculum and the rest of the time with the other. So, we'll be starting this school year where we left off. It'll give me time to plot out the purchases I know I want to make and time to save up the funds! :) If Jim would take up "bookshelf making" as a hobby we'd be all set.

In other news, the Pastor at the church we're visiting is offering a Greek class. Jim has been interested in learning Greek and this basically fell into his lap. (Definitely a God-thing!). Charlotte will be taking it with him. It should be interesting. Her 6th grade year is shaping up to be full of different subjects. Joseph also wants to learn how to read and I'm looking forward to teaching him! Teaching the children how to read has been one my coolest moments as a Mom. I *love* that.

And.. another vacation picture.. Naomi will travel anywhere as long as she has her thumb! In this picture she's sleeping under a tree stroller's bassinet position.

Lizards & Bows

The major hint that this picture was not taken in SC in July -- the hooded jacket! :) While looking for some firewood the children ran across this little guy in the woods. We left 3 lizards at home and managed to find a salamandre while on vacation.


Archery at Pipestem. The lessons were a whopping $3 :) I'm very impressed that Pipestem manages to keep their prices reasonable so that each of the children can pick an activity. I'm looking forward to posting the riding pictures soon! (waiting on the new card reader). Here is James during his lesson and Charli posing for the camera. Archery was a big hit! Notice the bare feet and red shirt? This was James's "Vacation Outfit". Next time I will take only two sets of clothes for him - warm & cool. Everyday was the same question of "Hey, James, gonna change your shirt?" with the same answer "not today!".

Brothers anyone?

This all started with "Charli, let me get a picture of you in the jumper.." That was followed by a James running for the camera. He is a wirey fellow when you're wrestling with him. He just likes to do silly moves so its easy to overpower him! hehe.

She's still looking for him...

He's back!
Finally, Charli in the jumper I made for her yesterday. I'm working on a set of matching jumpers today. I'll be SO glad to be through with this stash of fabric! hehe. It is giving me a lot of nice scraps to use in the Quilting Bee quilt blocks!

Please send chickens..

The deal in our home is if a chicken wanders onto our property we can keep it. We can hear roosters crowing in the morning, so somewhere nearby someone has chickens. Yet, seven years later, no chickens have wandered here.

What do we get instead? Puppies. This latest duo arrived on Friday. We came home to yipping and barking as they came out from their hiding spot. I posted on a group to see if someone wanted them (no takers) and we just hoped they'd wander -back- home on their own. Saturday morning they're still there and my oldest is starting to fall in love with them. However, God provides!, on Jim's way to town he came across animal control. They were looking for some other dogs that have been in the area. Jim asked him to stop by and pick up the puppies - and he did.

I'm sure they'll find a new home soon. They were friendly and cute, which is about all you need in a puppy!

Now to wait on chickens...

Lumberjack James

This is why we do not live in a subdivision - or next to Al Gore. :) When we lived in Colorado Springs our home had a gorgeous view, but only a small backyard and one little tree in the front yard. That tree could have never survived my crew today! James and Joseph worked together to get a branch from one of the sweet gum trees. James came running to the door saying "Look what WE did!" and was quite proud -- as you can see in the picture with the big thumbs up. The cat is just wondering where the tree came from.. hehe.

These are not all of the moms, just simply the moms who were at the table at the time. We could probably fit 6 sewing machines if I pulled out the table and had moms at each end. I believe we're up to 9 blocks now.. BUT.. everyone plans to sew, sew, sew before we get together again in August.

These are not all of the children, but in the red is a missing mom. lol. They're all holding still because we just started Peter Pan.


Before everyone arrives Bethany sneaks in a cello session with one of her friends.



They played a short duet together.