Blanket Ride

Remember trying to keep yourself busy after church while you parents were talking, and talking, and talking?  Well, I do, and apparently my kids know the exact same feeling.  But, they are pretty adept at keeping themselves occupied. 

Here is Melody getting a blanket ride from Elizabeth while Hannah video tapes.  Very cute and the clothes and blanket even came clean!  

Being Together



Joel - Kindergarten



Hannah -4th Grade



Elizabeth - 6th Grade




David - 8th Grade

We are now in our second week of school for this year.  Thankfully, it has started off pretty well.  But, having the kids gone more than they were during the summer always makes me think.  You see, many parents can't wait to send their kids off to school.  Honestly, I miss them.  Joel and Hannah are only at the Learning Center one day each week, but it is sure different without them home.  

David and Elizabeth are at school 3 day each week and complete home study on the other two.  As our children grow up we raise them in growing independence and know that being away from Mom and Dad is part of that process.  It is healthy for them.

However, I believe it is even more healthy to spend lots of time with your family and your parents.  I don't feel like I have enough time as it is to enjoy my kids and to train them.  Training takes a lot of time.  We are not to yell up our kids, or just let our kids grow up, but to train them.  Training is a process of showing and modeling to our kids how to live.  It takes a  lot of time and patience.  Sometimes I have it, and sometimes God is working on me, too. 

As I being this school year I find myself greatful for all the time together that homeschooling allows us.  It is truly a gift to be able to invest large amounts of time into our kids.  What a blessing!

Trick or Treating

Halloween is such a fun time of year. As our costume box is in storage, we had to come up with all new costumes and try to do so fairly inexpensively. I think we spent under $20 for all 5 kids, so I think we did pretty well. We had a Winter Fairy A Sniper (against my better judgement) Oh, and this picture is taken AFTER I shrank his sniper hat to Melody size, so he looks less imposing than originally intended. That is the down side of having a youth group party a couple days before Halloween.

A pirate, though we have a pirate a lot of the time. He was making "pirate faces" for me and I rather like this one.

I still get to choose one costume, thus our adorable little Mermaid. I found the costume idea online and Elizabeth's keen eye for fashion located the fin fabric leotard at the thrift store. Melody even won 2nd place for her costume at Kevin's office Halloween party. She looks forward to spending her gift certificate.

Daddy and his little Mermaid

And to finish it off we had a Barbie. She created her own costume and originally was supposed to be a "Sparkle Princess." Then for school they had to dress as a book character AND bring the book. So... thus the Barbie Princess which we had the book for. I think the costume was really just an excuse to wear eye shadow loudly and proudly for a few days. One of the best Halloween choices we made was to attend the Halloween party at Daddy's office where there was a pumpkin carving contest. We didn't "win" any prizes, but the fact that our girls got to carve pumpkins and I didn't have to buy them or clean up the mess was a win! They boys had no desire to get creative or messy.

The worst Halloween decision we made was to try and go to The Grove church's Trunk n' Treat event. We live a stone's throw from there and the kids had been seeing the signs for a month, so they wanted to check it out. I have heard there was over 10,000 people there and I was underimpressed with the organization. It was basically mass chaos for very little candy. But, we have given the kids a very vivid demonstration of why we will avoid it in the future.

The other best decision we made was to go Trick or Treating with our friends in their neighborhood. Several other friends also joined in. The kids were hyped so we walked over there and Daddy met us there with the van so we didn't need to walk home. The kids had a great time with friends, brought home way too much candy and we all had a great time with our friends.

August Adventures

Hannah invented a "board game" which Mommy & the Melody belly are playing with her. The books all over the floor are the path.



Hannah's swollen neck from the cyst. This is what she looked like last Saturday. Continue to pray for her as the cyst appears bigger again this morning. That is not good after 7 days of antibiotics.



Elizabeth's new camera. This was her birthday present. It goes with her everywhere and she uses it all the time.

Joel jumps into the pool. He still protests, but he jumps.

Joel and Hannah at swimming lessons.

Hannah jumping into the pool. This is nothing short of miraculous. She now loves swim lessons and can swim across the short width of the pool by herself.

Elizabeth and David practicing the backstroke.