I read a blog adequately named PJAcademy and that fits us to a "T". Here it is, Wed. morning at 11 AM and we are all still in jammies. Yesterday, Rebecca never got dressed. I know others have their preconceived notions of what homeschoolers look like. I'm proud to announce that we're the ones sitting in the school room wearing jammies unless I'm babysitting or we have co-op. I will get a shower and get dressed after I finish this post. I am taking a much needed and much dreaded trip to Walmart. (groan)

Here is a photo of Emily on her first day of kindergarten. She's doing a very simple paper. Actually, she did lessons 1-5 on the first day. Today is the third day and she's completed lesson 9. We're not skipping anything, it's just too easy.

Emily has known the letters and each sound that they make for some time now. She can also distinguish what letter a word begins with. This week, we are working on what vowel is in simple words. On Monday, she had a tough go at it but by today, she knows how to break the words apart and is awesome!

Time to take that shower and encourage Rebecca to finish her school for today.

Here are a couple photos from Emily's birthday sleepover. The girls had fun, at least mine did! They were exhausted Saturday and Sunday. Does that mean anything?

Here are the girls at Chick-fil-a waiting patiently for their food. Emily is the one in the back on the right side.
Here's a group photo taken after they ate. I knew it would be busy on a Friday night but wanted to chance it anyways. We get there and there is a school night from the Christian school my sweet H. is going to. The girls ate first and then played in the tubes. I stood underneath of them to listen to them in making their "girl's club". Then the unexpected happened. Two older boys, maybe 9 or 10, came down the slide talking about those girls who were being mean. Not MY girls, I'm sure! So, I asked him what was going on and he said they were punching, kicking, slapping, and blocking the way so they couldn't go through. My girls have always been the ones to complain about the rough older boys in the play area and now they (the whole lot of them) were being the bullies. After a little chat they were fine... Until the boys wanted to get by again. They had had enough so we all decided it was time for ice cream. A good decision that was.

And the goofy girls on the way home. I need to share this story with you, too. Christine had the idea to play a "wheel of fortune" type game. She gave a clue and they needed to guess the letters to figure out the word. The clue was "cute animal". After they guessed a bunch of wrong letters, I said "D". Yes, finally, knowing that the word has to be dog. Becca excitedly said "I know! I know! Deer!!!" What? No Becca a cute animal. She responds by saying, "yeah, a deer. It's cute and starts with a d." I love how her mind works!!!
So, after dinner, they watched part of a movie, opened presents, ate cake, colored and played, and was in bed by 10:15. After lots of giggles turned into Emily crying, I laid down on the air mattress with Bec and Emi and everyone was asleep by 11:30.
Glad that day was over and done with! I know I just had 5 girls here and they were all very well behaved but I got my fill of sleepovers for quite awhile.
Until next Friday...possibly. I did promise Emily she could have another one with H. since she was unable to come to this one.

Praise!

I just wanted to share a praise with you and give God all the glory for taking care of my grandma. She is 84 years old and lives by herself. She is unsaved and we pray for her daily. I won't go into her full history as I think that would be an invasion of privacy but I wanted to share a short story that happened to her.

The other day, she was carrying 2 loads of laundry back to her apartment when she saw a suspicious looking man sitting at the bus stop across the street from her apartment. She said that that area by the bus stop had been rumored to be a drug area. (She doesn't live in a bad area but bad things happen all around.) She had noticed him before and was getting scared. She saw him get up and start walking towards her. This frightened her greatly. She ended up falling down 2 concrete steps and getting tangled up with the railing. He was continually walking to her but she was over come with pain and fright that she couldn't do anything, including yell for help. He came over to her, untangled her hands from the railing, put his arm around her waist and helped her inside her home. All she could say to him was God bless. He then left.

That could have turned out to be very scary and possibly deadly on many accounts. The reason for the man to walk towards her in the first place is unknown and I'm unbelievably thankful that he didn't hurt her. Second of all, the fall could have proven fatal. She has issues with her bones and for her to not have broken anything is a miracle in and of itself.

I'm rejoicing that she is only bruised and banged up. Please help us in praying for her salvation, her health and her safety. I was thinking on my recent prayers in that I have begged God not to allow her to leave this earth without the acceptance of our Lord and Saviour. Thank You for answered prayer as she has another day here that I can witness to her.

I'll post more later on Emily's first day of kindergarten and her 5th birthday celebration.

Whew!!! It is HOT out there. Ok, maybe I'm reconsidering my desire to move to Florida. How about a winter home there? It's 93 degrees with he heat factor making it feel like 100. And the humidity... After running a few errands, who would know that I just took a shower before we left.

Tonight is Emily's first sleep over. I had a thought earlier today. Rebecca had her first "real" sleepover for her 7th birthday. Emily is getting her's for her 5th birthday. Rebecca got her ears pierced for her 5th b-day. Emily had her ears pierced on her 3rd birthday. The list can go on and on. How long do you think it'll be before Becca realizes this and says, "That's not fair!" I think my reasoning is that I'm not ready for Becca to grow and do certain things that are considered for "older children". And with Emily, it's like, "Go ahead, if your sister can do it, so can you." Of course they have 2 totally different personalities and we have to factor that in as well.

We're going casual for Em's birthday this year. I think I had mentioned some plans in an earlier post but a couple details have changed. She's having her friend Megan come over as well as her older sister and another friend of hers and Becca's. The ages of the children are turning 5, 5 1/2, 7, 7 1/2, and 8 1/2. So much for keeping it 5 and under. It'll go well, I'm sure. I will probably have to remind bossy Becca that they are here for Emily, not her. It's Emily's day!!!

We are going to go to Chick-fil-a for dinner and then come back here for cake and presents. My BIG present for Emily fell through so I don't know what I'll give her tonight. I have a couple of things socked away for her actual b-day on Sunday. Maybe I'll give her the $$ for the gift and she can buy it herself when it comes out in a month.

I'm all excited that I don't have to clean and feed a bunch of adults. I know that sounds bad but I'm not in the mood to entertain and get my house clean just to be destroyed by 15 children. I'm not sure where Rebecca's b-day party will be held but I can pretty much guarantee that it won't be here. If you know us well enough, we plan our parties at least 6 months in advance. Becca wants a soccer party but I don't think any of her friends want to go to an indoor soccer party. Two said they wanted her to do a gymnastics one again. She bowed up and said,, I'll just invite my soccer team then. We have 4 months to decide...

I'll take pictures of the party tonight and post them as soon as I can.

Good morning! I wanted to post last night but blogger was down so I'll do what I can as I sit here waiting on B. Today is H's first full day of Kindergarten. I'll have to call her tonight and see how it went. Today sure is going to be weird without her.

Friday was my 31st birthday and it was a nice one. The girls went to my sister's for the evening and spent the night. They were so excited. She's been married for a year now and they've been waiting about that long! Emily woke up Thurs. morning, got out her suit case and packed. They didn't go over until Friday afternoon, mind you!

I went shopping and bought Emily almost everything for her birthday on Sunday and bought myself a bunch of clothes. Jay and I went out to dinner at Flemmings. We came home and watched Wild Hogs. That movie was hilarious. It was better than going out to the movies and I had a great day.

Saturday, we went out for breakfast with Misty and my girls. We had a birthday party to go to for our nephew an hour and a half away so rushed there. Afterwards, we went to Jay's mom and step dad's house for swimming and fellowship. She has an above ground pool in her back yard and the girls were excited to go swimming. Rebecca learned in one afternoon to swim under water, above water, touch the bottom of the pool, back float and snorkel. Emily learned to jump in on her own and kick back up to the surface. Usually she would just stay at the bottom under water! All of that was topped off with pizza! We got home late as usual and were exhausted for church on Sunday.

B. is here so I should go now. Thanks for all of the feedback on the dresses for Disney. The girls check out the poll daily to see what you like best.

NIV BIBLE QUIZ -- use http://www.biblegateway.com/ if you need NIV or KJB to compare.


INTRUCTIONS: Using the New International Version Bible (NIV), answer the following questions. Do not rely on your memory. As the Bible is the final authority, you must take the answer from the NIV Bible verse (Not from footnotes but from the text. Footnotes are not the Bible.).


1. Fill in the missing words in Matthew 5:44. "Love your enemies, ________ them that curse you, _____________ to them that hate you, and pray for them that __________ and persecute you."

2. According to Matthew 17:21, what two things are required to cast out this type of devil?

3. According to Matthew 18:11, why did Jesus come to earth?

4. According to Matthew 27:2, what was Pilate's first name?

5. In Matthew 27:35, when the wicked soldiers parted His garments, they were fulfilling the words of the prophet. Copy what the prophet said in Matthew 27:35 from the NIV.

6. In Mark 3:15, Jesus gave the apostles power to cast out devils and to:

7. According to Mark 7:16, what does a man need to be able to hear?

8. According to Luke 7:28, what was John? (teacher, prophet, carpenter, etc.). What is his title or last name?

9. In Luke 9:55, what did the disciples not know?

10. In Luke 9:56, what did the Son of man not come to do? According to this verse, what did He come to do?

11. In Luke 22:14, how many apostles were with Jesus?

12. According to Luke 23:38, in what three languages was the superscription written?

13. In Luke 24:42, what did they give Jesus to eat with His fish?

14. John 3:13 is a very important verse, proving the deity of Christ. According to this verse (as Jesus spoke), where is the Son of man?

15. What happened each year as told in John 5:4?

16. In John 7:50, what time of day did Nicodemus come to Jesus?

17. In Acts 8:37, what is the one requirement for baptism?

18. What did Saul ask Jesus in Acts 9:6?

19. Write the name of the man mentioned in Acts 15:34.

20. Study Acts 24:6-8. What would the Jew have done with Paul? What was the chief captain's name? What did the chief captain command?

21. Copy Romans 16:24 word for word from the NIV.

22. First Timothy 3:16 is perhaps the greatest verse in the New Testament concerning the deity of Christ. In this verse, who was manifested in the flesh?

23. In the second part of First Peter 4:14, how do [they] speak of Christ? And, what do we Christians do?

24. Who are the three Persons of the Trinity in First John 5:7?

25. Revelation 1:11 is another very important verse that proves the deity of Christ. In the first part of this verse Jesus said, "I am the A__________ and O___________ , the _________ and the _______:"

Conclusion: Little space is provided for your answers, but it's much more than needed. If you followed the instructions above, you not only failed the test, you receive a big goose egg. So now what do you think of your "accurate, easy-to-understand, up-to-date Bible"?If you would like to improve your score, and in fact score 100%, you can take this test using the Authorized (King James) Bible .

NIV Reader: Do you have enough confidence in the NIV to... tell God, OUT LOUD,that the NIV is correct in deleting these words & phrases?If not, you need to get a King James Bibleso you can have some confidence.

Cast your vote

Ok, we're going through a dress dilema. What do you think the girls look best in to have breakfast with the princesses?

Cast your vote on the poll to the right side of the blog! Thanks

Dress #1

Dress #2
Cinderella

Aurora- Sleeping Beauty

Ariel- The Little Mermaid

Tinker Bell

Only 31 more days until we leave for Florida!!!! I'm so excited! I always start shopping a month before hand. Last night we bought the girls a new pin (was that for Jay???) and costumes. We've been 3 times to WDW and haven't dined with the characters yet! Can you believe that?

We are going to have breakfast with the princesses and told the girls that they can dress up for that. Emily got a little Tinkerbell outfit. It's a little short so I think I'll add a layer to the bottom to make it longer. Rebecca is insistent on being Belle. That is her absolute favorite character. The only Belle dress was a size 4-6 and a bit on the small side. Jay said to go ahead and buy it just in case I can't find another. I can always return the one I bought. Actually I did find another dress of excellent quality but it was $59.99. Ummm, a bit too much for a costume! Keep your eyes out and let me know if you see one of a desent price/ quality!

Well, going to take the children outside while the weather is nice.

Rebecca did a good job of summarizing our weekend on her blog so I won't repeat everything. The girls had a great weekend. They both got their hair trimmed. Emily's was only cut 1/4 of an inch. She doesn't have much to spare! Jay cleaned up the bathroom some and primed a part of it. Halley's party was a blast. They had it all going on. Horse rides, pools, trampoline, a small moon walk, water slide, pizza, cake, ice cream... We had made plans for dinner and had to leave after 3 hours. Emily was upset that they had to miss the water balloon games and "piano" which translates to pinata. Here's a cute picture of the girls on a horse for the very first time.

Emily said she was so brave that she didn't even shake.
After dinner, we played miniature golf with friends and even though it was late, the girls had a blast. I only came in 2 strokes behind Jay!
I am working on a special project that has to be done by Wed. night so I really need to get busy. I've procrastinated long enough!

One of my favorite things to do on the computer is read other blogs, especially those of other christian homeschoolers. When I came across one of a little six year old boy, I thought it would be a great idea for Rebecca. She spends much of her day writing during the schooling hours and writes her pen pals in her free time. She loved the idea of journaling online.

I put the link on the top right hand side of my blog. Please check hers out often. Any comments will greatly boost her spirit. She came up with the title and color formatting on her own. She is very independent with her typing with only minimal help from me. However, I showed her how to use the spell check and she relies on it a bit too much. It's not complete though. She wants to put pictures on there when we get time.

It's already 11 p.m. Where has the day gone? We were able to spend a few hours with my grandma again today. My sister Misty went with us since she was sick when we went last week. I love spending time with her... well, both her and my grandma! I've realized how lonely my grandma is. I wish she lived closer! She asked if I could come back next Friday but I have plans already with it being my birthday and all. So, she said that she expects us to be there the Friday after that! Yes Ma'am!

Jay doesn't have anywhere to go tomorrow until dinner time. It's the first Sat. since he tore up the girl's bathroom. Hopefully, after sleeping in, he will get at least the ceiling painted. I haven't posted any updates because all there is is a big mess. He pulled the towel rods and toilet paper holder off and has spackled and sanded. The lights have been pulled off the wall as well as the shower rod and shower head. * The girls have shared a bathroom with us since then and it's getting quite old! So, hopefully I can later post that the ceiling and skylight area has been painted. *You may ask why I don't just do it myself and save him the trouble? I've been instructed to stay out of there!*

Ok, enough, I'm headed to bed. Until next time...

We had a great time visiting Grandma this weekend. She seems to be doing better even though I can tell she is in a lot of pain. It really lifts her spirits to be around the girls. We actually get a lot done when visiting her. As a child, I always called her my "shopping grandma". At 84, she still takes her great granddaughters to the mall!

Rebecca has been looking forward to play store with her for a very long time. She brought a credit card (used gift card) with her and emptied grandma's pantry. It really makes grandma laugh and I love to watch! Here is grandma buying some grapes and a potato- all of which cost her $15 so she had to charge it.
Below, grandma is signing the receipt for her purchase.

It was a long but fun day for all. I was thrilled when she asked me to come back on Friday. I'd move mountains to see her more often! I just hope that she doesn't start feeling too bad and postpones the visit.

Hello everyone! Thanks for all of the feedback on my e-mail to see who looks at this blog. My mom is the only one I knew of that actually looks at it and even though she is worth it, I was thinking that I was doing this for almost nothing. So, I'll keep on blogging...

This week is becoming the norm for us- busy. Rebecca did a week long gymnastics summer camp. It completely wore her out. Emily and I spent Monday, Wednesday and today running errands so she was tired on those days as well.

On Wed., we had signed up for a program a the library to see John Smith, Hero and Villain. I knew it would be educational and something worth our time so I made Rebecca go. She was very tired after camp that she cried the whole way home from camp. She was fine once she ate lunch and was glad to go to the program in the end.

Thursday, when I picked her up, she complained of a headache. I gave her some Tylenol and it barely dulled it for her. After getting aggravated with the other children playing and several attempts to get them to play the quiet game, I made her go to her bed. She said the light and all the noise that Emily, H. and B. were making were "bothering her". Migraine??? I'll have to keep an eye on that. So, I had her lay down in my room (with B's little sister who was napping)where it was very dark and the fan was on to drown out the noise. She slept for about 2 hours. She still had a headache once she got up but it was bearable. Needless to say, she went to bed early but was still awake at 10:30 when I went to bed.

Today, she was happy and feeling great. After camp, we went out for lunch at Chick-fil-a and a friend of hers was there. They got to play together and eat ice cream together so she was very happy.

We haven't done school since Tues. because she is in a great need of a break. I'll play it by ear as to if we do any formal schooling next week. Emily is so ready to start kindergarten and told me she wants to do it every day! Oh how eager they start out to be. We recieved her K5 curriculum this week so I may start her on Monday.

This morning, Emi and I went to Walmart and took advantage of the tax free weekend. It only saved me 5% and I got there early enough that it wasn't a mad house (yet). She was so excited to get supplies for co-op starting in a couple of weeks. She walked around Walmart with her new book bag and was proud of it. She's growing up way too fast. I couldn't imagine putting her on a bus and sending her to school! I'm so thankful I have a gracious God and husband who allows me to stay home and homeschool. Many think it's a chore and that they couldn't do it. Maybe they are right. But they really don't know what they are missing! I had a blast with her this week.

Oh, something I thought was a bit funny... On the way home from lunch I told Rebecca all the new things I bought her today, including a new book bag, she asked, "What for?" She's 7 and a half and has never seen the need for a book bag. So, she's using to tomorrow to take all her stuff to my grandma's for a visit. Emily has all her school supplies in hers.

We are doing a co-op this school year and I'm a bit nervous over all that is involved. Thankfully, I'm holding the position of preschool helper the whole year so I can be with B. We were invited to do it last year but there were some complications to it so I had to back out at the last minute. Becca and Emi are going to be taking a government class the entire year. Maybe I should take that class too! They are taking 6 weeks of art, 6 weeks or art appreciation, 6 weeks of music appreciation, and 6 weeks of theatre- more of learning the basics as opposed to actual skits or plays. I think it was described as a public speaking class. We are also going to be involved in a book club. Between that, the other co-op we participate in twice a month, babysitting still and all our other activities, our schedule is quite full! Fitting everything in for both Rebecca and Emily is going to be a challenge. I'm going to have to learn to micro-manage my time a lot better.

Well, my brother in law is here and they are going to go out in a bit -all work, very little play- so I need to go start cleaning out my SUV before our trip to grandma's tomorrow.