I have been blessed! Micah is the son who loves books but hates to read (or be read to). His favorite books are field guides and encyclopedia's. This weekend he found a book that he LOVES... The Adventures of Tom Sawyer! We have already read the first 4 chapters and he would have gone for another one if his brother had not fallen asleep this evening, lol. Who would have ever thought?

We spent this weekend hanging out at home for the most part. Isaac has been sick and my car was broke down for a day. Papa J fixed it this morning so I was able to go visit Nana and Papa for a couple of hours. Yesterday we washed the car and did some schoolwork. The boys were not to thrilled about having schoolwork on Saturday - but life goes on.

I am trying to plan out our school for the summer. We have a lot going on and trying to figure out a schedule has been a little frustrating to say the least. i have faith it will all work out and that we will accomplish all that we need to and have lots of fun in the process. The boys on the other hand do not see how we can have that much fun if we are doing school. The poor little things - having to do school in the summer. Not like they don't take 1/2 the winter off, lol.

Tomorrow is the "End of the Year" party at The One Room Schoolhouse. So we will be hitting the store on the way for a couple of things we are suppose to bring. Then we have violin & piano lessons that evening only to leave the lessons and head straight to scouts. Only 2 more weeks of scouts left, thank goodness. I am so tired of scouts and unless scouts in other areas are different they will not be continuing at all. Micah is not thrilled about that but he understands that we will do what is best for him and his brother.

Anyways, I will try to post some pictures soon. Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Book Junkie

Mistake #1 - going to a used curriculum sale
Mistake #2 - taking money with me
Mistake #3 - not having enough money
Blessing #1 - finding a few things I was fixing to order online
Blessing #2 - getting some good deals
Blessing #3 - not having more money

Today was the used curriculum sale here in town. Woo-hoo! I could have spent SO much money but unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) I only went with a certain amount of money on me. oh to have gone by an ATM...

I was blessed to find some of the books and items I wanted for the summer and upcoming school year. Here is what I managed to pick up:

Apologia's General Science book - $30 (brand new/older edition)
Learning English with the Bible Text & Diagram book - $1
Remembering God's Awesome Acts - $5 (Teacher & Student)
Winston Grammar Basic - $10
Saxon Phonics Intervention - $20
Handbook of Nature Study - $10
CLP Nature Reader 5 - $1
Christian Kids Explore Biology & Chemistry - FREE

I am so thrilled about my purchases, especially since I was going to order all of these online at full price. So I saved lots of money and that is priceless :-)

Laminin

This is so awesome! My mom in law saw it at Sunday School the other day and found the video online and sent it to me. I just had to share :-) Amazing - this Laminin.
Psalm 139:13
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.

Thursday's Happenings

Today was laundry day, I did all of our bedding and a couple of loads of clothes. We aired out the pillows and sprayed Lysol on the mattresses. We have been passing this same cold around for what seems like weeks so maybe this will help.

This evening Micah and Xavier crushed a few of the remaining cans in the bin and loaded up the bags of aluminum cans into Granny's truck. Then they helped her load some motorcycle parts for tomorrow's trip to the recycle place. They plan on going sometime in the morning to turn in all their loot. The boys are already hoping for $$ especially Micah since he is broke. He spent all of his allowance (I did not tell them that payday is tomorrow, lol). So they will be surprised to find out they get more money.

Today has been a pretty uneventful day overall... cleaning, cooking and trying to comfort an irritable Isaac for most of the day. I have been waiting for a couple of packages 1 for my mom and 1 for me. Well my mommy called me and she got the present I sent her (YAY) now I am praying that I get mine tomorrow. I ordered SOW and I can not wait to get my hands on it!

Verse of the Moment

1 Peter 1:13-16
Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”

Update

We have been pretty busy lately. Xavier started violin lessons last Monday and Micah starts piano lessons this coming Monday. I was able to schedule both of their lessons at the same time which is a real blessing because Monday's are busy days for us. The boys are still going to the One Room Schoolhouse for spelling and poetry. There are only a couple of classes left but during the summer they will be taking a painting class and solar cooking class at the Schoolhouse.

Joel called this morning and we should know where we will be going within 1 week. It is down to 2 places. Both have pros and cons, so let the Lord's will be done. he is not getting out of the army for the time being. He tried to follow protocol to get out 3 times and each time was blocked but something or another. So... We will continue being an Army family for the time being.

The boys are back on a chore schedule (Praise God). We were just doing chores by memory but that was not working out to well. They do so much better when they can look at a chart and see what is expected each day. They also get up and do their chores without being told and take more pleasure in the doing their work when the chart is used.

Isaac has taken up screaming. How does one stop that??? It is driving me batty. Oh well, we will figure it out. I was given a crib to use for him. He has never been in one but I am tired of him sleeping with me so I thought I would give it a shot - HA! It might as well be taken down and given to someone else. He will not have anything to do with it and I am tired of fighting him on this. He will scream for an hour in the crib but put him on the bed and he goes to sleep in minutes.

Other than that, we have been catching crickets and grasshoppers, playing on the trampoline, hanging out with family and doing school. Life has been pretty much the same old - same old. Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Arbor Day Photos

Arbor Day

Maitland Art Center

Thought I would share some of the pictures I took of the actual place we went today. It was really interesting looking at all of the statues and carvings. I would like to go back and take more pictures.

Children's Art Festival

We went down to Maitland for the Children's Art Festival today. The boys had a wonderful time. Of course there was art to be made but the most impressive thing was seeing the Birds of Prey from the local Audubon Birds of Prey Sanctuary. We went down there a few years ago and remembered Picasso the red tail hawk and Trouble the bald eagle. The boys are begging to go back and visit the Sanctuary again (Micah would like to go tomorrow, lol). Both Micah and Xavier enjoyed trying out a few instruments. Xavier now wants to learn to play the violin or the trombone. Micah is looking at me like ?do I have to?. Although, he did have fun with the clarinet, violin and the drums thanks to the Orlando Philharmonic. After visiting the different exhibits and seeing different animals, reptiles and bugs we decided to grab something to eat and head back to the house. Now everyone is relaxing and playing on the computer.

Let me out!


Freedom!


Let's Make Music!

This Week's Events

It is amazing how time can sometimes fly by you without you realizing it. The past week or two have been like that for us. In some ways it is good but in others I still haven't accomplished all that I had planned. I will have to post some photos over the weekend of things we have been up to :-)

The boys are taking a spelling class and a poetry class now. The first week they were not to thrilled with poetry at all! By the second week - they love it! Which is really neat and as for the spelling they are doing quite well. I am very proud of them. They have not quite found their place among the other students but they are getting there. Sometimes it is hard being the new kids ;-)

Tuesday I came down with the beginning of a sinus infection and by Wed. morning I was dying from pain. Some pain pills took care of it long enough for the boys and I to hit the farmer's market that morning. We bought all kinds of veggies: kohlrabi, tomatoes, onions, green beans, red potatoes, and other things. Yummy! We ate some of the kohlrabi that night with the chicken noodle soup Granny made. Granny has a cold and between her cold and my sinus issue she figured it would be good for us. I came home from the market and slept off and on, you know the dozing of a mother who is totally crashed but can hear the instant the little one is into trouble. Big brothers did help out some and even did some school work on their own (I think they are becoming ill, lol).

Thursday - I am dying from pain still and lying on the floor. My dear little peanut decided to throw a fit and head butt me in the face. I now have a black eye. It is amazing how people look at you when you walk around the store with a black eye. You know they are thinking some horrible things but I forgot it was black until people started looking at me. See how much I pay attention to my own face. Note to self - buy makeup for emergency reasons.

Friday - Arbor Day! We headed down to city hall to join in on the festivities. Micah answered the question "Who started Arbor Day?" correctly and got to pick out a plant to take home (he picked a Canna). I got some hedge plant and we all got long leaf pine trees to plant. After visiting booths, planting wildflowers in a pot to take home and eating free popcorn, the boys joined some other homeschool students on stage to play djembe drums. They had fun and helped other kids who were with a daycare play. Afterwards we took our new plants/trees home and then headed over to doggy sit at my Momma's house. Not sure what is on our agenda for the weekend yet, I am sure we will find something fun to do...

Sermons on Modesty

I am in love with sermonaudio.com, pick a subject, person and you can listen to sermons to your heart's content. My latest listening pleasure has been Pastor Jeff Pollard and his sermons on Christian Modesty. You can listen to them here, if interested. It does not replace his book "Christian Modesty and the Public Undressing of America" but it has been very helpful in studying about modesty.

Friday Fun

Isaac asks "hear airplane?"


Xavier slaying a dragon with his little cousin


Micah introduced me to "Bob & Jill"

Thrifty Thursday

Isaiah 55:2 Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
And let your soul delight itself in abundance.

How much money do we waste each day, week, month on things that we think will make us happy? No matter what we buy it will never satisfy our soul. The one thing that will fill us up we can not buy - Jesus Christ.

I spent the week re-examining what we waste our money on and how much we throw out the window each day. We are fountain drink junkies! So this week we cut down our daily fountain drink from the gas station down to only once this week. It was not as hard as I thought it would be. To make it even better we have not had fast food this week either (which we normally eat once or twice a week). We will continue our fountain drink and fast food ban for the rest of the month.

On another note... I read Dave Ramsey's book and am totally psyched about putting it in action. Joel and I talked about starting a budget and have been figuring out how much $$ is needed. So I should have it all worked out this weekend. As for "Baby Step 1" - we are $100 dollars away from our emergency fund being full and will be able to start on "Baby Step 2" - Snowball our Debt real soon! Oh to be free... We have even gotten the boys on board and we will be having a no more credit card ceremony this weekend. I will be honest it is kind of hard to imagine not having them to "fall back on" but then I also know that if they are there, there is a good chance they will be used. So tomorrow we will celebrate a new way of life!

Wordless Wednesday

Kisses...

Tuesday's Miracles

First thing I saw this morning when I opened my eyes was a naked butt. I looked up and yep, the diaper has been discarded in the middle of the bedroom floor and Isaac is sound asleep beside me. As cute as he looked, I know better than to leave him like that, lol. The boys had let me sleep in so it was already 8:20 when I woke up. Before I even left the bedroom I could hear the vacuum running. They had already had breakfast and were doing their chores! The first miracle of the day! I grabbed up the school books and started setting up the table with supplies they would need today. The second miracle of the day - they did not argue or even make a face and they quickly set to work! It was a glorious day for chores and school.

This afternoon we played around outside for a little bit. Micah decided he would "keep an eye" on Isaac (as you can see he got away).


Seems he was to busy reading the new "Home Science Tools" magazine that came in the mail today.


Meanwhile Xavier was examining a leaf bug they caught.

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