Foiled again

A perfectly good lazy/rainy day turned sunny.

You can barely tell that it poured this morning.

Only one puddle in the road left as proof.

But it did leave us with this horrible humidity.

I guess we can go out to run our errands now and stay dry.

sigh...

The Perfect Jammy Day

I love listening to the rain hit the sky lights. It reminds me on my childhood summers spent at the river listening to the rain hit the tin roof. It's so relaxing. Now, if we didn't have school today and I could veg out on the couch with a good book...

In other news, Rebecca hurt her foot yesterday at gymnastics. She ran and hit her pinkie toe just so on the spring board. She finished the class like a champ but the tears came later. I'm not sure if it's broke or not. It's not too badly bruised but it sure is swollen.

I'm thinking she'll get the evening off tonight but will still have to sit there while Emily has her class.

*UPDATE*

Rebecca's toe and surrounding area is very bruised and swollen. It's definetly broke.

With our vacation in 10 days, I think it's time to take a break from gymnastics. What do you think?

The innocence

I love my children! They have such a sweet innocence about the things of the world. Some people think that we shelter our girls from the world too much. I have to wholeheartedly disagree. Try as I might, we can't shelter them enough from the wickedness of this ol' world. This is a conversation we had on the way home from church Wed. night.

*Names changed to protect the accused*
Rebecca: Mommy, John* was being really bad tonight.
Emily: Yeah, he kept calling people names.
Me: Did Mr. Larry know?
Rebecca: No, we were in the gym.
Me: What did he do? (Knowing how disrespectful this child really is, nothing shocks me.)
Rebecca: He kept calling people bad names. He called me the "s" word.
Emily:Yeah, he kept calling me the "b" word.
Rebecca: And David* is his best friend. He likes him a lot. He kept calling him the "d" word.
Me: Well, you should have told Mr. Larry.
Rebecca: He fussed at him in class and told him that if he didn't behave, he'd have to stay in the classroom while we went in the gym.
Emily: Yeah, he was good then. But then he started to call people names after class.

In my 8 and 6 year old children's language, the "b" word was butt. The "s" word is stupid and the "d" word is dumb. They have absolutely no clue that there are other words out there that people use that is more foul than those 3 words there. Oh, except for the "c" word --crap-- I like it that was. Even when we are out in public and they might hear the occasional foul word from a stranger, they don't have a clue as to what it might be. It is simply not in their vocabulary. Ya know, I like it like that.

A few more pictures from Family Fun Day

Rebecca playing volleyball with the boys (and a mom)
Yummy snow cones
Emily can't hit the target for nothing
no matter how close she got to the target

She cheated... She tried so hard to soak the youth pastor, Bro. Dan but couldn't unless she cheated. She really didn't want to but finally caved into the pressure with both Tiffany and Mr. Jeff telling her to.

I'm putting together the slide show but will get to that later.

Children's Choir Sunday morning

Video of the day

Today was Family Fun Day at church.

There was plenty for the children to do.

One of those fun things included hitting a bulls eye to pop a balloon on some one's head.

Many will try, few will win.

Here is a quick one of someone soaking the Preacher.

Keep looking out:

More pictures of the day to come.

Visit to Grandma's

Here's a (dark) video of the girls playing at their grandma's.

Do you think she keeps enough toys for the grandkids?

This was sent to me by email and thought it was too neat not to share.

Colonial Williamsburg

Colonial Williamsburg held it's semi annual Home Educators week this past week. Actually, I believe it was a 2 week long thing. They offered homeschoolers a discounted rate to enter Colonial Williamsburg, which has a rate of $37 a person per day. We already had annual passes to get in but were told of all the extra things offered during this time. Umm. no. It was the same as usual but we got to see a few different things that were closed the last time we went.

Before the day was over, we ran into a couple of friends and got to spend some time with them.

It was a great day. The weather was perfect. It was in the mid 70's with plenty of sunshine.

Rebecca and Emily made a new friend while there. The little girl is on my soccer team. Yes, my soccer team. The girls are taking a season off of their regular league soccer to play with homeschoolers for an hour one day a week. It's much cheaper and doesn't involve Saturdays. For some reason, I volunteered myself to be an assistant coach. Me of all people! I'm a spectator. But it's turning out to be a blessing. I'm with girls ages 7-9 but Rebecca isn't on my team. She was bumped up an age group and is not only with a couple friends but is challenged a bit more than the 7-9 age group. I'm not claiming to say that she is a soccer star by any means but she does enjoy the sport and plays to win. She would have been bored with her age group. Emily is on the next field over with the 5-6 year olds (co-ed) and is enjoying also. Since I'm not with either of my girls, I will have to make an extra effort to try to get some photos of the girls.

Here are some of the pictures taken from Col. Williamsburg:

The girls sitting on a cellar doorM. Dubois Grocer Would have been a nice photo if it weren't for those passes we had to wear!

Emily signing her name with a quill pen at the Printing and Post office.

The printing press

Shopping for caps at the Market.The Blacksmith

Rebecca could have stayed here all day.

Outside the MagazineInside the Magazine

Emily, Sabree and Rebecca watching the reinactment of a speech with Fife and Drums.

Yesterday was my little sister's birthday. Well, since she now towers over me, I should say "my younger sister". My, how she's grown into a beautiful young woman with a great love for the Lord.

Happy 24th Birthday Misty!

Last night's full moon

taken with night shot

I love how the clouds give it that hazy spooky look.
Sunset-- this was to the west taken at same time as photo above

Voting

Very well put Ginger!

Click here to read.


Have a great Friday everyone! After school, we are off to the Science Museum.

Where were you?

Where were you 7 years ago today when the towers fell?
Did you know anyone in the towers or planes?

Remember all the lives lost.
Remember that day.
Remember how it felt.
Remember the shock.
Remember the sorrow.
Remember

30 day mark

In 30 days, we will head south. We have waited for this vacation for soooo long. Emily has already started packing her bags. Like the rest of us, except Rebecca, if we could, we'd stay and not come back. Only one month and we'll be on our way to a great Disney vacation followed by a Disney cruise on the Magic. We can't wait! It's the only thing keeping Jay going from day to day. He has this trip planned out to a T. Character meals, which day at which park, which park to hit first and so on. As for the cruise... we will need it after an Orlando vacation with him. He runs us ragged. I look forward to relaxing on the ship.
WAHOO!!! Can't wait. I'm doin' a little happy dance over here!

Interesting Fact

You hear so many wives tales and quick fixes over the years that you either become immune to them or really just forget about them. One of the cures I was told about was that peanut butter cures hiccups. After going years without the hiccups, I just had them while driving home. I was reminded by the girls to eat a spoon full of p.b. when we got home. Guess what! I ate a teaspoon sized amount and the hiccups went away immediately.

Just goofing off

I love playing with the features on my camera. Yesterday, another family at church bought the same camera as mine so I was showing her some of the features that she was not aware of. The men started to be giant hams. They wanted picture after picture of them taken.

One of the features is to take a face without a smile and stretch their mouth to imitate a smile.

This first pic is Jay and Bro. Dan, our youth minister. We were playing with another smile feature that the camera won't take a photo unless those in the photo are smiling. It has this thing on the side that I call a "smile-o-meter" and literally will NOT take a pic unless the people are smiling. It's great for young children.

The girls felt left out and had to have their pics taken too.


Here's the "before" pic of the non-smiling Brian ( a guy from church)and Bro. Dan.
And here is what it looks like when I turn their mean face to a smile.
They thought it was hilarious and had to do it again.
Love it!

Once upon a Time Shop

The girls were in a summer play titled "Once Upon a Time Shop". It was an Annie type of play set in 1910 in an orphanage. The mean Ms. Curmudgeon, runs a clock making shop and has the little orphans doing the dirty work. Like a clock, if something doesn't work on the inside, it'll show through on the outside. Mrs. C didn't have Christ in her heart and it showed on the outside. Grandfather clock showed the children that they needed to pray for Ms. C and show her the Way. In the end, she prays and accepts Christ.

They have practiced every week since June. This isn't a professional job but the children always seem to put it together and do a great job. Thanks Mrs. Melissa, Mrs. Susan, and Mrs, Theresa who spent endless hours preparing and directing this little musical for the children. And a special thanks to Michael who played the piano.

Rebecca, the one who likes to be in the spot light, wasn't given a part this time. We're already praying she gets one in the Christmas play! Emily had a small part as Rachel, the "baby". She was so cute. I didn't get a good video of it at all because someone had their head in my way and I didn't use a tripod...but I did get a few snippets of the play. I stayed out of all the practices so it would be a surprise to me. I missed videoing 2 or 3 of Em's lines due to that. Note to self, if the girls have a line or solo in the play, I should watch a practice so I'll know when it's coming up!

Back to school

I put a detailed post on my homeschool blog of how our first week back to school was. The link is over to the right titled Homeschooling At A Glance. If you'd like to view it and can't please let me know.

Overall, we have had a great week. Teaching both fourth grade and first grade is going to be a rewarding challenge. Being here to see these girls grow, mature, and become wiser as well as more knowledgeable is such an unbelievable blessing that I can't describe.

Heather's Homemade Cassics

http://heathershomemadeclassics.com/

If you are looking for homemade candles, soap, body mist, or lotions, look no further. Check out Heather's Homemade Classics. She is a country homeschooling momma of 3 who likes to make handmade goodies out of her home. Please take a moment to look at her site. They make great gifts and Christmas isn't too far around the corner.