home

We drove all day Sunday - 6am to 6pm - and finally made it home. Well, actually I went to my mom and dad's and stayed the night Sunday night. Monday I went with my sister to take her oldest to the doctor and got to hold my sweet nephew all day. Tuesday I went and spent the afternoon with my mother in law. Today I planted a few flowers and visited with my sister and now I'm at my maw in law's again.

It's good to be home, but it's not the same without Rod here. I miss him terribly, and don't see myself staying much longer. It's good to visit with everybody, but it's not right for families to be apart. He misses us too! We're going to Missouri next, probably, instead of Georgia.

I can't wait to go to church tonight and see my pastor and his wife and all my church friends. It will be good to be at my home church.

We are through schooling for now. We're going to continue to read and do vocabulary some, but it's almost summer and I'm whooped! Mikaela's ready for a break and I need to regroup and plan for next year. I'll be doing a preschool and a 1st grade. Not sure what curriculum I'm going to use, probably just a mixture of whatever I like. If anybody has any they really like, let me know so I can check it out.

Blessings to everybody. Pray for us and my sweet hubby as he's alone up there!!

going home

Well tomorrow morning, bright and early, we are headed home to Louisiana for a few weeks. I hate to leave my sweet husband, but the grandparents are going to have a fit if I don't bring home the precious cargo soon!! Plus I have some business at the bank Monday morning. That's the only reason Rod's letting me leave, believe me! I'm dreading the loooooong drive home, but I know it will be over tomorrow night.

We rode out to the right of way where Rod and their crew is working today. They were lowering in some pipe and he wanted the kids to watch. They loved watching it, and the weather is really nice today. Warm with a breeze, about 80 degress or so. I bet it's hot in LA, and I'm actually kind of excited about that! I realized I don't like the cold weather as much as I thought I did...lol.

Rod's getting off work early today and I'm not sure what we're going to do, but we're going to do something before we leave. I'm really going to miss him. And I know it's harder on him than on us, because we'll be together with our families, and he'll be all alone up here...

Pray for our drive home and our saftey and my sanity!!

beautiful weather, park pictures

Mercie going down the slide. Whee!


Mikaela climbing



Eli climbing




Mercie eating a cupcake at our picnic lunch.


Me and the kids on the bridge.

We've been having a great time enjoying the beautiful weather lately.

more pictures

Mercie enjoying the outdoors.


Rod came home with some baby chickens the other day. 30 something to be exact. We have a cage on the side of the trailer with a heating lamp and food and water and Rod built a little pen behind the trailer where we can let them out to play when it's warm. Rod's brother Cole joked, "Rod, you've got a wife, 3 kids, a travel trailer, and 35 chickens." LOL.
Eli and "Boney" his baby chicken.



Mikaela and "Whitey", her baby chick.


Eli playing outside.


The kids playing in the play area at the mall.






I figured I'd post a few pictures of the trailer, so everybody can see how we're living for now.

This is going into the kid's bunk room, the bathroom is on the left, the pantry is on the right. I didn't get a good picture of the bunk room. There is a set of bunks on the right, Mikaela sleeps on top, Eli on bottom. There is also a top bunk on the left, and Mercie's playpen goes under that where the bottom bunk used to be. I have tubs of toys, books, and art supplies stacked on the top bunk. There's a closet in the middle of the bunks and a closet rod behing Mercie's bunk.



This is the dining area, and the kitchen is directly across from it, complete with 5 cabinets and 2 drawers! LOL. A double sink, a microwave/convection oven, which I am still trying to figure out how to cook in without burning the top and leaving the bottom soggy, and a refrigerator.



This is a view of the living room. Those doors go into Rod and my bedroom.



This is the bathroom, with a huge jacuzzi style tub. I Wish!! The tub is so small, and we only have a 5 gallon hot water heater. So long relaxing baths? Out of the question.

more updates and finally some pictures

Just a few pictures...I'll post some of the trailer later.

This is Rod and the kids before church one Sunday.




This was taken at our Passover meal. The kids loved the unleavened bread.




These pictures were taken at Chuck E Cheese. Rod got rained out for several days, so we went and played!!










This is a picture of the kids in their Passover clothes. We went dress shopping last week, and Rod and I were joking about Passover dresses instead of Easter dresses in the car. We were in Sears and a lady asked if we were Easter dress shopping, and Mikaela chimed in, 'Actually, Passover dresses." LOL. They are beautiful, but I couldn't get a good full shot of them, because none of them would cooporate at the same time.

updates

Last week, a guy working on the pipeline up here got killed. It was a freak accident, and wasn't anybody's fault, but it still makes me kind of nervous for Rod and all the guys up here we know. Remember the man's family in your prayers.

That day, everybody got off work early, and we took the kids to Kid Zone, which is like ChuckECheese. It's got pizza, games, tokens, and bouncy slides and things. They had a blast, and I'll have to say so did Rod. He was playing just as hard as the kids were! LOL.

I got a new camera the other day, a Kodak easy share. It's blue and really cute. It takes good pictures too and I'll post some soon. Promise.

We found a better playground, and that made the kids really happy. The weather was really nice the other day, it got up to 78 degrees or so and we played for a while outside. I can't wait until it stays warm outside!

Homeschooling is going good. We are going to start on marking vowels next week. If anyone has any tips for teaching how t mark long and short vowel sounds please let me know. We just finished our Season's book today. We are going to be learning about God's plan for seeds and plants next week. If anyone has any tips for that, actitives or whatever, let me know. We are going to plant some seeds and nurture them until they grow and draw pictures of each stage for our books. I have a great science book from Abeka 'God's World'. It's really neat and I love it. They love it, too, but I didn't buy the teacher's guide, so I have to be creative, lol!

Keep all of us in your prayers. It's hard being away from home. I went yesterday and bought pictures, plants and flowers to decorate the trailer. It made it feel more homey, and that helps a little. Even the kids seemed to be a little more happy. I bought a picture that says 'Home is where the heart is'. That's true, and my heart is with Rod and the kids, so I just thank God that we are together. BTW, if you've never been to Big Lots they have some really cute home decorating things. Check it out.

One more note: Passover is coming up!! I'm excited, trying to get ready for our first Passover. We won't be drinking wine, we'll be drinking sparkling grape juice, because I don't like wine. Yuck!! And we are doing our seder a little different from traditional Jews. We'll be reading the story from Exodus, eat our meal complete with unleavened bread and grape juice' and then we'll read the story of the ressurection of Jesus, and have dessert and pray. We're not doing the traditional prayers, blessings, readings, etc. Short and simple.

Sawyer Is Here!

My sister had her baby this afternoon!! I wish I could be there to see the lil fella. He's in the NICU because he was having trouble breathing. Please pray for him, and Ashlie. She's upset because Bryton was in the NICU for the same reasons, and it's hard. She doesn't get to hold him, nurse him, or anything. I am so proud of my lil sister and miss her like crazy. It's killing me, not getting to be there with and for her.

Now. I know it's been a while since I've posted, and I hate not having my own computer. I'm going to get one soon, I just hate to spend that big hunk of money. I'm a tight wad! Our main goal for pipelining is to pay off all all all of our debt and save as much $$$ as possible so we can go home, stay home, and start a business and let my sweet hubby farm sweet potatoes. That's his dream. He loves to farm. We farmed for 3 years, but it wasn't very profitable because of circumstances beyond our control. We also want to farm off our own money and not a loan. We also want to start some kind of business, not sure what yet, and we're praying about it.

Everything is going good up here. The weather is nice today and I hope it continues to stay that way. We ran some errands this morning and now we're just sitting around while a big pot of homemade vegetable beef soup is simmering on the stove. I miss home, but I feel blessed to be able to be with Rod. Alot of familes have to be separated, and that would be devestating to me.

Being up here has made me realize how much I miss my church!! We have been attending a church the past 3 weeks that we like. The kids have fun in Sunday School, and we really enjoy the service. They have communion every week, which I really like. Also, on Easter Sunday they are having a Living Lord's Supper, where we will participate and watch in the Lord's Last Passover. Since we are going to be observing Passover instead of Easter I am doubley excited.
I miss our church so much. I have so many fresh ideas and am so full of enthusiasm. I can't wait to get back into the grooooove of things.

Homeschooling is going great. We've been making subject books. We did one on the senses and one on weather, and we're working on one on the seasons. I just buy 3 prong folders (about .74 each) and we fill them with papers and activite sheets and drawings on whatever subject we're on. They love it. It is a lot of fun, for me, too.

For Bible we read 1 chapter in Genesis, and Mikaela writes out one verse. I dictate it to her. Then she draws an illustration.

We do Abeka phonics, numbers and social studies. We also do numerous other workbooks for all the other skills.

I love my children, love my husband and love my Lord.

Happy Birthday Sawyer Blaine Huffty.

It's early, but I have a busy mind!

It is not even 7:00 yet, but I have been up since 5:00. Went to the gym this morning. Whew. I'm whooped! I didn't realize just how out of shape I was until this morning. I did the eliptical (sp.) for 5 minutes, walked on the treadmill on an incline of 4 at a speed of 3.5 for 10 minutes, and then got back on the eliptical for another excruciating 5 minutes. (BTW, 5 minutes is a loooong time on a piece of excercise equipment!! LOL.) I felt like a limp noodle afterward, but I know it will get easier and I can work out for the 45 minutes I'd planned on doing. I laid in the tanning bed next. Can't wait to see my tan. I am so so pale! I really am glad I went, and plan on going at least 5 times a week.

Thanks for the comments on the Bible. I do love to highlight and take notes as well. I had to buy a new Bible about 8 months ago because almost every verse word or phrase was highlighted, underlined, circled or taken note of in the margin. I love to go back and look at all the notes I took! But it got hard to get anything new out of a verse or even to read the verse! So I got a new Bible and it's filling up pretty fast! LOL.

I love the OT. Most people find it 'boring' or 'hard to read' or 'not for US today'. But I love to read it. It's full of adventurous stories, amazing people of God, wonderful proverbs and poetry, and it's also full of God. God's works, God's power, God's grace, God's wrath, God's anger, God's compassion, God's love, God's words, God's heart. I just love it!

I love the NT too. Don't get me wrong. Several years ago, before I had ever read the entire Bible or even wanted to, all I read was Paul and Peter's letters. LOL. The encouragement, the 'feel good' verses. And I still do love to read the letters to the churches, but I read through the entire Bible and did a study on each book, and I just fell in love with the OT. That's also when I started studying the Feasts of the Lord, and the Torah and started asking questions. "Why don't we celebrate these feasts anymore? God never said to stop! He said it was to be an everlasting ordinace, for all the generations to come." and "Why don't we follow all the law? If we follow the Ten Commandments, why don't we follow every law of the Lord? Why do we pick and choose what to follow?" And it got me into some really in depth study. About a year of studying! I felt really close to the Lord when I was studying His Law, closer than I have ever felt. My prayer life was off the chain! (excuse the expression! it's all I could think of) I was praying for hours each day, crying to the Lord on behalf of others, spread out on my face in the living room because I could feel His presence in there with me and i couldn't get up, I could feel God talking to me, I could feel Him with me all day long. My marriage was strengthening, Rod was also studying the Law with me, and experienced the same prayer life. He was praying in the Spirit every day, just reading the Word constantly, taking His Bible to work with Him. We both just experienced a burst of spiritual growth. I have been contemplating that lately, and wondering, was there anything to that? When we were both basically forced to accept that everybody told us we were not Jewish, blah blah, and the Law is Void (BTW, get a Jewish translation Bible...the KJV and NIV are anti semitic in translations....) and we just stopped studying the Law, still studying, but not the Law, we didn't experience the same thing. I know, it's not about feelings all the time. But prayer should always be explosive, I think. IMHO. Just thinking out loud...

I just thank the Lord for His Perfect Law, Words, Love, and Grace.

And I found a Biographical study of the people of the Bible. One person a day. I started with Adam yesterday. I am keeping anotebook and keeping notes about each person as I come across information. It should be a good resource when I get finished!

i joined a gym...

Well...as the title of my blog says...I joined a gym today! I have been losing weight, and still have about 15 - 20 pounds to go, but I'm kind of stuck. So I joined the anytime fitness gym which is about 2 miles from the trailer, and I'm going to start waking up at 5 or 5:30 and going to work out and then tan (at the gym). Rod doesn't leave for work until 6:45 or so, so that will give me plenty of time each morning. I'm excited!! I bought some new tennis shoes and work out clothes today since I didn't bring my own from home, and I can't wait to get started in the morning. I've never worked out at a gym before, but I'm going to give it all I got! Hopefully I will be looking gooood by bathing suit time!! LOL.

The kids are doing good. Mercie is walking around with a blanket on her head, Mikaela and Eli are watching Arthur on PBS. They love "PBS Kids dot org" as Mikaela calls it....LOL.

Rod's good, he likes his job as good as he can. Life is pretty good up here in Indiana. It's not home, but we're all together. I miss my sweet mother, my sweet mother in law, my sweet sisters, my sweet maemae and my sweet dad. And especially my sweet little nephew Bryton. I miss his sweet face. My sister is due any time now, and I'm sad that I'm not going to be there for the birth of Sawyer. But I'm going to go see that little man as soon as I can.

I'm having a little difficulty with my Bible reading, and I'm not quite sure why. I just sort of leaf through it reading a verse here and there and mostly reading the commentary and devotions! I haven't had trouble like this in a loooong time, usually I devour the scriptures like I'm starving. I'm googling Bible reading plans (not the read through in year...done that!)If anybody has any interesting or enveloping reading plans or ideas...please let me know! I would like any input. I need to get back in the Word, because I can tell a difference in myself. Not anything bad...just not what I need to be.

wow!!

I cannot believe how much time has gone by that I haven't posted!! I have been super busy though...the kids and I left Saturday, Feb. 28 and it was a loooooong drive. 12 hours. It was alot longer and harder than I thought it would be. Mercie got car sick, had diareah 7 times and puked 2 times. Fun. We finally made it, got our travel trailer, set it up, went and bought everything we needed for it, and have been settling in ever since. The kids and I have a pretty good routine now, as much of a routine as you can call it. Tuesdays is story hour at the library. Monday, Thursday, Saturday is laundry day where we go to the laundry mat. That's a whole post in itself, so I won't elaborate on that today. We found a church we like, and have decided to start attending it. Mikaela and Eli loved it, and it had lots of kids around their age. We do our school during Mercie's nap, usually around 11 or so. School's been going great. The kids love it, which is helpful. They love to learn, and are always coming up with ideas.

Life in a travel trailer isn't that bad so far. They all share a room, and that's working out pretty good. They go to sleep good, but Eli has been waking up alot crying and coughing. I think his allergies are bothering him. I got him and Mercie some claritan, she's been coughing, too. Hopefully it will start working pretty quickly. They don't have a lot lot of playing room, and I haven't found a good "park" yet. But I am just so blessed that we can all be together as a family, and not split up across the country.

Well, I am going to post more later, I am on my brother in law's computer. He leaves it here during the day, so I will start using it until I get me a laptop. He's working up here too with Rod.

Bye!!

Going to Indiana

We bought a travel trailer! Well, I'm actually going to sign the papers today, so we haven't actually bought it, but we are in the process of buying it. It's nice, it's an 04 Salem, 31 foot with a 12 foot slide out. It's got a bunk room with 3 bunks and a space for the playpen for Mercie. It's got a queen bed for me and Rod. It even comes with 2 nice flat screen tv's. The layout is perfect. The kids and I are probably leaving early next week to go to Indiana to be with Rod. We are all very excited, sad about leaving family and friends, but excited that we will get to be together as a family, as God intended. Rod's been gone almost 3 weeks, and it is killing us, all of us, to be apart. I am so excited, and running around almost frantically, trying to pack, then deciding to wait to pack, wanting to clean, but deciding to wait to clean, and etc! My house is a bit chaotic right now, with a few plastic tubs full of toys, homeschool material, and the like, scattered around. I've been running around town the past several days, going to the bank alot, trying to take care of all the loose ends, and make sure I don't leave without taking care of everything. I'm a little frazzled feeling. Don't really know what to do...I know what I need to do, but I don't know when or how!! LOL.

We are taking a break from homeschool until we get settled in up there in Indiana. About a week or 2. That's why I went ahead and packed all that. I don't know how everything is going to fit in my Tahoe, but I'm gonna have to make it work!!

Things I Forgot to Mention...

These days, I have "Mommy Brain" more and more. Here a few random things I forgot to mention about the past week or so...

Mikaela lost another tooth! This time, Eli knocked it out on accident. They were wrestling on the couch, and my sister in law to be was over here. All of a sudden, Mikaela goes, "My tooth! Eli just pulled my tooth with his knee!!" She was bleeding, and I couldn't find the tooth! I took her to the bathroom, and got her gums to stop bleeding, worried that she had swallowed it! (she has really really small teeth) Then Abby yelled, "Found it!" And so we found the tooth. They thought it was really funny that Eli "pulled it".

Wednesday, the kids and I packed up as soon as we got through with our morning bookwork, and headed to Monroe (about 1 and 1/2 hours away from my house). I discovered the hard way that Mercie didn't have any "in between" clothes. Meaning, she had winter stuff that is getting to small, and some really summery stuff that it's too cool for. She had no short sleeve/pants outfits except 1!! So we went to Toys R Us and Old Navy and got her some cute stuff. I couldn't resist though, and got Mikaela and Eli something too! Although they won't need anything for another month or so. I love shopping for my babies!! All 3 of them.

My nephew is having his 2nd birthday party tommorow! Bryton will be 2 Sunday, but his party is tommorow. He's having a John Deere Tractor party, and I get the honors of making the cake. I love making cakes! It's turning out pretty cute, but I'm not quite through with it. Happy Birthday Bryton!! We love you, sweet boy.

Rod is still in Indiana..suffering away from us until we can join him. Hopefully it won't be too long.

Homeschooling is still going great. Today we did our book work in the morning, and after lunch we made some "Y" books, because that was our letter this week. This afternoon, we took our paints and paper outside and painted a lion, because that was our animal this week. We read 1 chapter of Wizard of Oz tonight. The kids are really enjoying it, and retaining alot of the story. It's kind of...wizardy and witchy and fairy talish...I didn't realize, because I've never read the book or seen the movie! I guess the title, "The wizard of oz" should have gave it away...oh well. The kids like it, and they know that sort of thing is just pretend. Next chapter book will be preread by ME! Ha, ha.

Creation Lapbook

Today, we made our first ever lapbook. It was loads of fun, the kids were really creative, and they had a blast. We went really simple this time, simple fold, simple topic (creation), and simple content.

On the cover, we glued a picture of the creation and the memory verse for this week (Genesis 1:1), and then they stuck foam stickers all over the cover. I picked up about 8 bags of these from the Dollar Tree for $1 a bag of about 100-150 each, different themes, like animals, sea animals, letters, stars and moons, shapes, etc.

For the inside, I had some Bible coloring and activity books (which were also $1 a piece!). The first pages were the days of creation, with big numbers for each day and pictures of what was created that day in the number, and the verse at the bottom of each page. We tore those out of the coloring book, stapled them together to make a little book, and colored them. I stapled them inside the folder.

I also found a creation matching game, which I printed and cut apart, and the kids glued an envelope inside the folder and put the game pieces inside the envelope. Then they used more stickers and markers to decorate the inside.

I think they turned out great! My kids are so creative. I love lapbooks, and will definetly be using these as part of our 'curriculum'! The kids spent about an hour and a half, quietly at the table, using their imagination and creativity, and learning at the same time. Mikaela knows her Verse for this week and last week (Colossians 3:17). Eli, unknowingly to me and him, learned the first part of the verse last week. Mikaela was supposed to be telling it to me, and she said, "And whatever you do in...in..." and Eli jumped in "word or deed!" And she said, "Oh yeah, word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord." And Eli chimed in again, "Colossians 3:17!" I was surprised, because I hadn't worked with him at all on it (shame on me!). I asked him to say it, and he said it almost right! I was so proud, and decided that I don't need to work with him too hard, he retains more knowledge just by observing!

So all in all, homeschooling is going great so far. I'm not putting any pressure on Mikaela or myself, and it's so refreshing that way. We are just learning and living. I'm enjoying it so much.

The past few days...breifly

Yesterday we didn't have school. I had to take Mercie to the doctor. She broke out in a rash all over her body, and I really thought it might be chickenpox. It was spreading like wildfire, and the spot on her back I took her to the doctor for last week, was really looking worse. Well, the rash was only a viral rash, she has an ear infection (I knew it) and the spot on her back? The doctor doesn't know what it is! He said if it doesn't get better in 3 days or so, he's going to refer her to a skin specialist. That child has left me clueless so much in her 1 year of life!

We did have school this morning, and it went well. Mikaela is really good at "math" and phonics, and readiness skills. She loves worksheets. We started learning about creation, and we're going to make our first ever lapbook this week. We are also studying lions, Eli's choice, and we read some books about them and then they drew a picture. Last night, we read the first chapter in the Wizard of Oz, and both of them were queit and paid attention. They answered questions, and wanted to read more! Tonight we may read 2 chapters.

I'm really enjoying homeschooling this time around. I'm not stressed out at all. I'm going at our own pace, using materials that fit our needs, and Mikaela is getting alot more out of it, and enjoying it more too. I try to review at different points in the day (riding in the car, taking a bath, cooking, playing) her Bible verse for the week, her sight words, the letter (Y) of the week, the animal of the week, and so forth. It helps too.

My cleaning schedule is helping soooo much. Things aren't staying spotless all the time, but everything is getting cleaned during the week, I'm not stressed or over whelmed, trying to do it all every day because I know it will get done. The kids have been helping me. I'm just feeling much more at ease and peaceful.

My hubby sent us Valentine presents! He sent me a red bear with Love on it and a card and sent the kids each a stuffed animal and M&M's. He is such a sweetheart. I love him so much.

Happy Anniversay a few days late to my parents. They have been a wonderful example to me, and I know that they are very in love and will share many more anniversaries together. I love you guys!

happy valentines day

Today was a good day. A friend of mine came over and we looked at my abeka homeschooling curriculum. Then we loaded up and went to the library. The kids absolutely love the library. Eli, surprisingly, goes straight to the children's section, grabs a book, sits at the table and flips through the pages. When he's done, he takes it back to the shelf or brings it to me if he wants to take it home, and grabs another. Quietly, I should add. If you don't know Eli, then you won't understand why I just wrote that! Anyways..I grabbed The Wizard of Oz. Mikaela and Eli and I are going to start reading it each day, do some comprehension activites ( like drawing a scene from the book, sequencing, copywork, etc). Then when we're done we're going to rent the movie and watch it. We've never seen it before, so that should be exciting for them, especially Mikaela. It's getting close to time to start planting our garden! That's going to be a good learning opportunity for them. We've had a garden for 3 years now, but they are going to really help me plant, weed, water, and harvest. Tomorrow we have a Valentine party at church at 1. That will be fun. I'm a little sad though. My Valentine is in Indiana. I miss him sooooo much. Keep him in your prayers. Protection and safety and plus he really misses us, too.

Happy Valentines Day!!!