Wordless Wednesday

One of our favorite things to watch while homeschooling ... hummingbirds at our planter boxes on our back decks.

Time to Ride

Lexi has taken it upon herself to teach Ava Mae how to ride a big girl bike. So today, she got out our tool kit and put training wheels back on her own bike.

Ava Mae was scared at first but, before long, with some coaxing by Lexi, she was having a great time riding in the driveway on the "Big Girl Bike".

Weekly Wrap Up

Our 4th week of homeschooling is behind us and ... what a crazy week it was, weather wise. Devin and Lexi have been enjoying their Science Class at Timothy where the area of study has been, of all things, Weather. With 8 days of rain followed by, what experts are calling, a 500 year flood, we had a lot to talk about. We were lucky, our home suffered no damage from water either leak wise or flood wise. So many of our neighbors and homeschool friends were not so fortunate and we have been praying for quick drying in their homes.

The homework assignment this week from Science Class was to chart the weather each day. They were given a thermometer and asked to record the results in Celsius, being our digital weather station reports in Fahrenheit, there was no cheating. :)

Core Subjects continued to progress well, other than Devin's occasional griping about the number of math problems he had or the fact that Language was requiring so much writing. We did not get around to Spanish this week (Rosetta Stone) but, we did accomplish to make it through all of our Early American History Reading plus, we added in a nature study on weather and we planted pumpkin seeds. All and all I consider this week a success!


Ava Mae loves her Rod and Staff Workbooks but, she also really enjoys sorting and counting. Each day I find something new for her to sort and then count, this keeps her occupied for at least an hour at our school table. Ava Mae also loves writing, so she does not complain at all when the kids have to do Copywork. She pulls out her paper and copies right along.

All three kids are learning the poem "The Swing" by Robert Louis Stevenson and I think so far, Ava Mae has everyone beat on how well she can recite, without help.

Health wise, I appreciate all of your prayers! I am finally adjusting to this new level of medication dosage. Cardiac Rehab begins next week, part of me is looking forward to the program while another part is dreading it. Giving it all to God in prayer ...

Lexi turns 7

Yesterday Lexi turned 7 years old! Has it really been seven years since I was a Mom of a 13 month old and a newborn? That was a crazy time. Sometimes I wonder how we made it through, most of those days seem like a blur.

On Saturday night we had a family party, we cooked Lexi's favorite dinner (steak) and made her favorite cake (Death by Chocolate).


Yesterday, we celebrated with a few of Lexi's homeschool friends at a famous local diner. Our plan had also been to have an afternoon of craft projects back at our home but, Ava Mae had run a fever the night before and we did not want to take the chance of spreading any germs to anyone. The girls all had a great time at the Diner and we loved listening to their giggles and the excitement level when it was time to open presents. A couple of the sweet waitresses at the diner even gave Lexi cash for her birthday, which we have decided to use to purchase food for MUST Ministries.


Lexi we are so proud of the smart, beautiful and talented young lady you have become. Many days I feel like you are wise beyond your years. Since a young age you have been a little mom. I remember when you were just 4 years old you would get Ava Mae out of her crib change her diaper and bring her to me in the morning. Remember to use all those talents that God has given you for his honor. Happy Birthday Lexi ... we love you so much and are blessed by the gift God has given us!!!

Weekly Wrap Up

Week 3 is done and we are finally joining in the Weekly Wrap Up. Though we have not had an easy start to our school year, we have survived. Finding out yesterday I will have to be at a Cardiac Rehab Center 3x a week for the next 12 weeks threw another wrench into my well laid plans but, I can see areas we can let go for awhile and pick back up again as time allows. Pictured above are our daily companions at our school table, Smokin and Tigger.

This week, Devin and Lexi sailed through their core studies (Bible, Math, Language/Phonics, Handwriting and Reading). We are using Winter Promise (Early American History) this year for History and that is one area we have struggled with since school began. There is alot of read aloud time and the literature book we are reading right now is not easy. We have to read a Chapter a day in the book "The Birch Bark House" which can be as much as 12 pages and the Native American words in the book are hard for me to pronounce and sometimes even figure out what the word means. I can see why it is hard for my 8 and 7 year old to narrate back to me. The other living books which we are reading right now have some great illustrations and we have been studying Vikings this week which the kids have enjoyed.

My husband helped with homeschooling one of the days this week and a friend helped yesterday while I was at the doctor. It did not leave alot of extra time for projects such as creating a diorama of an Indian Village but, I did get two of the videos ordered through Blockbuster for the time period we are studying.

We also were able to spend some time remembering 9/11 on this past Monday. We read the book "Fireboat", which I highly recommend it is such a sweet story, and we discussed the process of rebuilding that is going on in New York City at the site of the WTC.

Ava Mae continues to love her Rod and Staff Preschool Workbooks she is working through. She also enjoys spending lots of time counting and sorting things like beads and seashells.

We have not had time to start our Nature Journals for this year. I am hoping as I feel better we will get to that at least once a week, especially as we head into the Fall Season and nice weather.

The kids just wrapped up Week 2 of Timothy classes. Both, Devin and Lexi are loving Science and their other classes while Ava Mae, continues to enjoy PreSchool and PE. Lexi though says one of her favorite things about Timothy is lunch bunch, as seen in the picture below.

Time For Change

The kids and I enjoyed changing over some of our Summer decor for Fall decor today. Changes like these are always fun and even exciting as we approach a new season.

Changes like bowing out of commitments per your cardiologists orders are not always easy but, I am embracing this change also. As a planner by nature I want to plan my down time I am being forced into and have to keep catching myself and remembering I need to turn this "season" over to God and let him show me what I need to be doing and what I need to let go of.

¹ The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. ² He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, ³ he restores my soul ... Psalm 23:1 - 3

Foto Friday

The kids heading off to their first day of Timothy ...

My Homeschool Post Swap Sister

This past month I have had the pleasure of getting to know Amanda over at The Daily Planet. Amanda is the sweetest most mature 19 year old I have met in quite awhile. I have really enjoyed getting to know her this past month through her emails, Facebook updates and blog.

These pictures are of the awesome package I received from Amanda today. Both of the items just made my day, a candle in one of my favorite scents and a notebook she created for me as a place to keep favorite recipes I run across and as a bonus she wrote some of her favorite recipes in the book. What is so ironic is that since being on bedrest for the last week I have been clipping recipes out of the newspapers and magazines I have been reading.

Thanks to the Homeschool Post for hosting this fun swap and thanks to Amanda for being a great Swap Sister!!

Following a Different Plan

Today ends our first week of school ... not the first week I had so carefully planned but, the first week none the less. (Pictured above Ava Mae on our official first day of school - Lexi snapped this picture of her trying to figure out a Kinex Set.) Below are the pictures I had planned to post on our first day ... the kids wanted their official school pictures to be ones from the beach this year.

As I was explaining to a dear friend last night when she dropped off dinner for our family, it is not that I don't respect that God is in control. It is just that it is so hard for me, my personality is to plan everything out and when that plan goes awry and God steps in to show me his plan I get a little disappointed. I know that is not the correct response to have but, it can be so hard to always just put on a happy face and go with it. I am working hard on that.

So today, in hopes of changing my attitude a little, I am looking back on all the good things God has given me in this past month ... He gave our family a beautiful week long vacation with perfect health for myself and the kids. God gave my husband and I a wonderful day to celebrate our 19th wedding anniversary. He gave us a day in which to celebrate our oldest child turning 8!

And in the storm we are going through now ... God has given us friends who have cleaned our home, watched our children, fixed us dinners, grocery shopped for us, homeschooled our children, run errands and prayed diligently for my quick recovery.

I love the verse in a card my dear friend Renee gave me yesterday ... "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

Wishing ...

Wishing I was back here rather than stuck at home wearing a heart monitor ...

but, knowing God is in control.