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.

Birds, Emaw, Shoes

Today was a fun day. The kids and I went to WalMart this morning to buy diapers for Mercie and pick up a few craft supplies for the hummingbird craft I found online. In the craft section they had some wooden bird houses that you could paint for $2.62 a piece. They were pretty nice sized, and I already had lots of paint at home. The kids had a ball painting them and they turned out really cute. Eli wanted to mix his paint together, and he was so proud of his finished project. Mikaela wanted hers to be for hummingbirds, so she painted it red and yellow. They love to do arts and crafts. I really need to incorporate it in more fun ways, like today. When Eli was through, we washed his hands and he looked up at me and smiled and said, "Thanks for letting me paint, Mama. Your the best!" That just makes everything worth it.

Rod's grandmother, Emaw, is in the hospital. Pray for her. The kids and I went to see her today, and prayed for her, and took her some candy and a flowers. The kids were really calm and quiet in the hospital, which kind of surprised me. Here lately, they have been like different children. Not to say that they weren't "good" before, but they are much better behaved and much calmer. It's so refreshing. Mikaela is much more relaxed and happy now that she's home. Eli just loves having her home. We're still trying to figure out a good homeschool routine and curriculum, but we're getting there. She likes it, though. Just sitting at the table, working in her workbooks, coloring, cutting and gluing. Right up her ally. Eli wanted to be right up the middle of her schoolwork today. He's not too terribly interested in his workbooks, because they are a little advanced for him, but he wants to do exactly what she's doing!

I'm taking Mercie to the doctor tomorrow morning. She's got a terrible rash on her back that's getting bigger and she's been tugging on her ears and putting her finger in them. The kids are going with me, and I'm looking forward to it. I really think they'll behave. Then we have to go get Mercie some new shoes. She's down to one pair of Keds, that were Mikaela's!, and her poor little (I mean chubby) foot is just bulging out every side! She needs a pair of dress shoes and a pair of tennis shoes, so we're probably going to Payless first. They might have BOGO going on, Buy One Get One half off. They have really cute shoes, too. I'd like her to have some more Keds, but I'm going to look at Payless first.

Rod is missing us terribly. And we are missing him even more. I hate when he's gone. I can't wait to see him. Mikaela prayed tonight that he'd be home in time for Valentine's Day. I hated to tell her he wasn't.

Yesterday went well...

Our first full day of homeschooling went really well yesterday. We went to the library, and would you know, there was only 1 book on hummingbirds that wasn't checked out?! We got it, but I couldn't help but wonder...how many people are interested in hummingbirds?! Oh well...we're going back later to see if the rest are available yet. The kids were excellent in the library...quiet, calm, still. We came home, did some reading, some playing, some chores. My sister took us out to eat pizza last night, and we came home and took baths, read books, went to bed. It was a very peaceful day. It's amazing how when you get in God's will and do what you know He wants you to do, how peaceful your life gets. Not to say that there wasn't a single moment of chaos or arguing, but overall, it was more peaceful than usual.
We've already done our morning school work today, and Mikaela did great and didn't complain at all. She wrote in her journal, "I love to pray. Do you love to pray?" I can sense a pattern about to start...but since she's only 6, I don't expect too much out of her journal yet. I didn't have to spell anything for her. She told me she wants to make a hummingbird today, so I'm trying to figure that one out. Her and Eli have been getting along great all morning. She's fixing him a drink right now, without me even asking her to. I love when they help each other. It just warms my heart! Well I'm going to post more later. I've been trying out Peaceful Parenting, and I'm going to post about that during naptime. We're about to go play outside for a bit.

First Homeschool Day

Well, today we started our homeschool. It went really well, although we still have reading and Bible time to cover, which we will do this afternoon. I'm doing this very different this time. We sat at the dining room table while Eli and Mercie ran around playing. She loves workbooks, so I'm incorporating alot of them, as long as she likes to do them. We did several pages in her Abeka Letter and Numbers books (which I had from before). I had bought her a Strawberry Shortcake workbook on Time and a Scooby Doo workbook on Addition and Subtraction from the Dollar Tree for $1 a piece! We did a few pages in each of those. I also bought a primary writing tablet for $1, and for writing, she wrote her Bible verse for this week (Colossians 3:17). Then we reviewed her sight word flash cards (which I made out of index cards), and she wrote those, too. For her journal time, she gets to write at least one sentence about anything she wants. She wrote "I love princesses. Do you like princesses?" I had to spell princesses, but she did well. It took about 1 hour, and it went by really fast. We are going to have reading time each afternoon, and she's going to read her little Abeka readers aloud to me for 20 minutes. Then if she wants to pick a book from their collection of about 100+ books and try to read aloud, then we will do that. Bible time will be at night for her and Eli and Mercie together. Just reading the Bible and talking about it. We are going to the library when Mercie wakes up to get books on hummingbirds. I'm letting them pick 1 animal each week (taking turns, her and Eli) and we're going to read and learn all we can about it and do art projects, etc. She picked hummingbirds. We will probably just do this "science" as I'm calling it, whenever during the day.

I am taking this approach instead of the formal, classroom setting approach I tried with the Abeka. She didn't like that, and I didn't either. It didn't work for us. She learns by doing and writing and workbooks work well for her. Art projects, reading, and writing we do anyway, so we're just incorporating those into learning. I'm letting Eli be in on part of it, and my sister has some Thomas the Train workbooks for PreK she's going to give to Eli today, so tomorrow if he wants to, he'll have some workbooks to work in. Nothing formal or set in stone for him, he's only 3 1/2. Just learning if he wants, when he wants, until he's 5. However, he'll have Bible time and science time with us. That's a family thing, I guess you could say.

Mikaela enjoyed herself this morning, and she's watching Barbie Island Princess while waiting for Mercie to wake up so we can go to the library. She's been excited about it all day. Oops, I think I hear Mercie! Gotta go.

Homeschool

Well, I have decided to homeschool. Again. I started homeschooling Mikaela the beginning of this year. However, it quickly got frusterating for me, and she missed her friends, and on a whim one morning, I put her back in school. That was the worst decision I've ever made. I made it without even praying about it. I know that homeschooling is what God wants me to do. So I've decided to do it, and quitting is not even an option. If I get frustrated, I'll take a 3 day break or something. But it's something I desire to do, and it's something I feel like I need to do. So as of next week, we will be homeschooling from now on.

I abosolutely cannot believe Mercie will be 1 Friday! For her birthday I bought her a cute little plush purse with a plush phone, wallet, credit card, and keys. It is so adorable, and I think she's going to love it. She loves anything that you dig in and take stuff out of!

Today we were in the play room and Mercie was of course trying to play with the puzzle that Eli (3) was playing with. He gets very frusterated easily, and he was steaming. I heard him say, "I hate you" not very loud, but loud enough where I could hear. I said, "Eli! What did you just say?!" He looked at me with wide eyes, and said so seriously, "I don't want to tell you." I said, "Eli tell me what you just told Mercie." He said, "Um..um..I said I love you." He got a spanking for lying, and then he told me what he said. Then he got a spanking for telling her he hated her, even though she's only 1 and doesn't understand, that is NOT something we're going to say in our home to our family members. Hmmm. 3 is a tough age.

Actual sentences said the past few days in our home:
"You will not put boogers in any part of her body!"
"Do not stick your hand in the VCR!"
"Do not stick that knife in the toaster!"
"We do not throw Mercie!"
"You cannot eat Peanut Butter Crunch for every single meal."
"I'm too tired to eat/clean/play/walk/bathe" (Eli)