Katie's drawing of a crayfish

I helped Katie by showing her the different shapes in the crayfish. For example, the body is a rectangle, the head is a triangle and so on. It worked! She did the drawing all by herself.

Edited to say Please Pray for 2 families

A wonderful family from our church has lost their 2nd daughter in a car accident yesterday. She was an absolutely beautiful girl and I can't even imagine their loss. She was 24. I do not know all the details but this is a shock. If you will, please add G and J and their 3 other children into your prayers. Ask for comfort and peace. I'm sure she was saved.

I just read that 'Noah' is not doing well. You can read about him on his mom's blog. www.homeschoolblogger.com/ourquiverfull


I will post later about our trip Ed and I took this past weekend. :0)

Monday

Today wasn't to bad. Thomas got alot of his school work done and math was quite calm today. Katie was bouncing, though. She had sugar this weekend and it really affected her. Becca is really enjoying her volunteer work at a nursing home. She is starting to visit the people and she gives water. Ana, on the other hand, has been very disobedient to say the least. Today she put her hand into a fence with a dog on the other side. No, she didn't get bit but she thought it was funny. She's been kind of a dare devil lately. time to go make dinner. Only sandwiches and hot dogs tonight. :0)

Katie's Swimming Lessons

Katie had her second swim lesson today. All morning she said she was not going and she was not going to get into that pool. I took Becca with me and we both had to pull and push her out of the van. When we got in there the teacher decided that she would teach Katie one on one. That was the best decision. Katie got into the pool with her and did everything she was supposed to. Then, she decided she didn't want to leave! I'd rather have it that way. :)
We will take her once every week besides her regular lessons so this way it will be very consistent.
I'm also going to sign up The others, hopefully soon. Tom knows how to swim under the water but not over. He taught himself because he was so afraid of the water that he wouldn't let anyone teach him. Becca wants to take lessons for lifeguarding. and Ana just needs to learn.
I should take some classes also. Maybe water walking. That would be fun.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY 9/17/08 HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO US!

25 YEARS TODAY!!

Children and string

Does anyone else have a child that does this...many times over???

The weekend

We had a good weekend. We went to a picnic Saturday with quite a few people from church. This was at one of their homes which is a farm. They have cows, chickens, turkeys, etc. It's not real big but definitely nice. Actually, the wife is our friend and evaluator for school. We ate, some went on a hayride, and a few of us played in the creek. Of course I had to come home with a new pet. Here he is:

A CRAYFISH

Now, my husband is not to thrilled but the girls sure are. So far They've scared it and filled up the little tank with iced tea. Yes, that's right, iced tea. Why they did that I have no idea. Just to drive us crazy I guess. We fed our little guy a piece of chicken for dinner and he gobbled it right up. Hopefully he'll be alive in the morning. If he dies I guess we can use him for a science lesson.

He's alot cleaner than our dog. I have been vaccuming hair constantly. In the morning our bedroom floor is cover. Yuck!

PICNIC PICTURES

While I took Katie to her first swim lesson on Saturday, Becca filled the pool for Ana to "swim." She sat in a bucket instead.

Tonight at church pastor talked about faith especially with money. His verse is Jeremiah 33:3 "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not." I checked my bible and sure enough I have that verse marked. I have not been listening to this verse and I think I need to start. I know God can do mightly things and I have seen it but I believe we haven't had much faith lately. I need to get my act together.

Images From The Microscope

Remember this dragon?

Remember this dragon? Well, I have been staring at it alot lately (considering it stares at me every night in our bedroom while it sits on our cedar chest LOL!!) and Tom just stated that he wants me to finish it. Sooo, I put a search on paper mache' dragon and found a site where the man uses old bedsheets for the final covering. That is what I'm going to attempt to do. Now, all I have to do is fix one of the wings that got broken (from the girls trying to ride it like a horse LOL!!...I need smilies... ) and finish the bottom. Then I will use the bedsheets. I was thinking about old white t-shirts but they might soak up the paint. We will see. Oh, I also have to add teeth. This is going to be very interesting. Once I start I'm not going to want to be bothered and the dishes and laundry might get sky high! If you don't see or hear anything about this please tell me to give me a push to finish. Thanks!!

9/11

Well, today is 9/11. I'm sure many of you are thinking about this. Please remember all the families that had their lives changed forever on this day. Actually, I believe all Americans lives changed on that day even if it was for a short time. I started thinking about this day last weekend. Where we were, what we were doing, etc. This actually helped me realize that Jesus was "definitely" my saviour and that I had nothing to worry about.
On that day I didn't even know I was going to have 2 more children. They are now sitting here watching cartoons not even knowing what happened on this day. I'm so glad they were not here to witness it. On the other hand, The other 6 children saw, and watched, and cried.
Enjoy this day today, relax and enjoy your families.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

I have other pictures below...feel free to browse. :0)

OUR WALK TODAY

Grand Prix

Today is the day for the big Bicycle Grand Prix. Riders from all over the world come and compete. Unfortunately it just started to rain...10 minutes before it starts. I pray that all these riders will be safe and the rain will not come down hard.
We are in an excellent spot because they pass our house through out the day and when it comes down to the end you can feel the excitement and see the riders pushing as hard as they can. People have their cow bells and whatever other noise makers to keep the riders going.
I will try and get some pictures.
Katie and Ana are so excited. They keep going in and out of the house checking to see if it started. It starts down the hill but honestly, I do not feel like walking in the rain today. I'm so boring. :0)
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We had an awesome time today! Yes, I ended up in the rain for a few hours but it was worth it. The excitement this bike race brings is totally awesome. Becca, Tom, and Katie were out there jumping in puddles (it poured!) and enjoying every minute of the day. Actually I did also. Not jump in puddles but enjoyed the day. Here are a few pictures. I worked with the pictures so that I did two pictures differently. They probably look weird to you but I had fun.
Oh, and a side note. I had the best 'dark chocolate english toffee coffee' ever for the first time today...yummmmmy!!

***The rider in the blue won...I believe he is from Colorado***

Measles/Autism report

I found this article quite interesting. It actually states that the government knows that vaccines can cause autism...read on... http://www.nationalautismassociation.org/press090308a.php

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

We took this picture of the grasshopper this past weekend. the antenna goes way above the photo. I was amazed at how long it was. I tried to catch it, but using a plastic bag just doesn't work.

The kids used this for their drawings in the post below.

School day #1

Today was not good. Katie did not sit at all (except for one time..shown below). I honestly cried. I want to be able to sit with her and teach her but she just couldn't sit (she was doing very well). We will try again tomorrow. I did introduce a food back into her diet about a week ago. I wonder if that is it? I will give it to her one more time, tomorrow, and if she continues I will not give it to her again.

Tom did great except I forgot math so now that is what he is doing this afternoon!

Becca does everything independently so she was fine. She does go to a math tutor and choir on Wednesday so that gives us a special relaxing day. She was so excited to start that she was talking a mile a minute last night...my mom was here and she was amazed.

Ana colored alot but gets side tracked by another person. She really wants to learn her bible with the bible felts I made.

Here are 3 pictures from today:

I helped Katie by guiding her hand...she picked the colors.

Tom's picture is beautiful...this was drawn from a boy that gets frustrated and thinks he can't do anything, especially drawing.

Ana colored this all by herself. I am so proud of her.

Hope you have a peaceful day/night.

Update: Everyone went out for a soccer game and left Katie and Ana with me. Katie finished her phonics paper and then played a phonics game with me and enjoyed it. She did have a terrible time going to bed though. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

What is Sleep?

I did not plan on getting up this way. It was still dark, maybe 5:30 and the girls were already playing all over us in our bed. Why can't they sleep??? This was a morning I wanted to enjoy because starting tomorrow I have to get up by 6:00/6:30 every day. That is my "plan". I guess they wanted to get me going a day early. No really, they are up many times before the sun. (also the middle of the night) And they are usually getting into trouble. I keep thinking, maybe in another year or two they will realize that sleeping is actually a good thing. No, I don't want to speed up time to get there. I know I want to enjoy every minute of their little lives but just the thought of a whole night's sleep would be a dream come true. :0)