Laurel wreath

March 18, 2015 | Stacy

Marie made this laurel wreath on Monday and has been wearing it ever since. All day long.
I love her so much. She’s a jewel.

* note * as I am entering this weeks later I can note that she wore this to stores, doctor’s appointments, and everywhere else we went. It finally tore. I hope she makes another one. ♥

Saint Patrick’s Day Shakes

March 17, 2015 | Stacy

Nan brought the goodies for St. Patrick’s Day milkshakes, mint extract and all. Nan also made some soda bread with Johanna and Tabitha. This was, um, lunch. Really. I don’t think we ate anything else.

This is really funny. The boys have been practicing at the Charles Finney school for the upcoming production of The Sound of Music. They’ve made some new friends and reconnected with some formerly homeschooled boys they used to know. One of their new friends often inquires about homeschooling. One day they took the iPod with them to take photos of themselves in the costumes. Nigel decided to mess with their new friend C. and showed him this picture, stating, “This is what it’s like to homeschool.”
C gaped and opined how lucky Nigel is.
Then one of the former homeschooler boys looked over C’s shoulder and said emphatically, “THAT is not what homeschooling is like!”

Busted.

Ice Skating

March 10, 2015 | Stacy

For as long as I can remember, there has been an offering of homeschool ice skating in our area.
I first remember it being offered in Greece on Tuesday mornings. I wasn’t going to drive to Greece.
Then I remember it being offered downtown on Tuesday mornings. I wasn’t going to drive downtown.
This year it was offered about 7 miles from my house.
Okay – while it isn’t the CLOSEST rink to my house, it is pretty close. 😉
So I signed up Marie and Tabitha.

Tabitha was eager; Marie was reluctant.
But by the time the first lesson was over they were both asking if Dad could build a rink in our yard.

There were a few spills that first day.

But before long they were happily gliding.

Within a month I let them doff the helmets.

I did not sign up the boys because our Spanish tutor comes on Tuesday afternoons, and the time away from home for the 1 hour skating is just minutes more than 2 hours. They weren’t comfortable taking that much time away from their school work.

But on the last day they had family open skate. Stewart eagerly jumped at the opportunity. Nigel was a bit more concerned about the time away from his work. I mentioned I could waive English grammar for the day and he jumped into action!

Guess who else put on a pair of skates?

I was fun. I skated about 20 minutes and was relieved that I did not fall. I DID get a NASTY blood blister on my HAND from doing up 5 pair of skates as tightly as I could! LOL.

Just before we left Nigel took a face plant and it was terrible to look at. (If you are his Mama.) But he handled it like a champ.

And both boys would like to do skating next year if we can make it work out!

Time and tacos

March 1, 2015 | Stacy

Marie and I had a rare chance to go shopping together. We looked for, and found, bathing suits. (Another provision of Jesus.)
We went to Taco Bell. She’d never been there and we had fun trying to figure out what might be yummy on the menu.

We had a fun time together. I’m so blessed.

Mining for jewels

February 12, 2015 | Stacy

Marie dug into her last unexplored Christmas present today. She unearthed 11 jewels.

Without ever leaving home.
SHE is a jewel.

Zechariah 9:16
On that day the Lord their God will save them,
as the flock of his people;
for like the jewels of a crown
they shall shine on his land.

Wild Wings and Bird Song Trail 2015

February 9, 2015 | Stacy

I’m not one for field trips. They interrupt the school day.
I’m especially not one for outdoor field trips in the winter. They are outdoors

But – as this one was one we hadn’t done in four years, and the day was already being interrupted for a WCC for Katriel, I decided I’d take the three older girls to this one. I do like raptors and we’d just read the book, Poppy, by Avi.

I’d wondered if I should take Johanna, but she was super-animated and enjoyed herself tremendously.

Marie and Tab got to dissect owl pellets.

While the girls looked for what the owls had had for lunch, Hanny played with giant plastic bugs…

I wanted nothing more than to leave once we were done. But we’d come with sunflower seeds, and 16 inches of snow was not about to deter my daughters. Even the one whose legs are only a little more than 16 inches!

Before we even had gotten ready to feed the birds they started zooming at us. As Tab simply POINTED to something a bird dove toward her hand. We were all delighted and excited.

It was COLD. While I was never fast enough to grab a great picture of a bird in Marie’s hand, she was very good at standing still and they visited her often.

Sweet Johanna stood as still as she could, but as birds landed on her hand, she often startled and dropped her seed to the ground…
After we’d been out a bit, I asked her if her hand was cold. She gushed, “YES!” so we put her mittens back on.

That seemed to do the trick.

Cardinals joined in the fun.

Tab had her share of birds, as well.

Matthew 6:25-26<sup class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-23308A" data-link="(A)”>“Therefore I tell you, <sup class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-23308B" data-link="(B)”>do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. <sup class="crossreference" data-cr="#cen-ESV-23309D" data-link="(D)”>Are you not of more value than they?

Once bitten, twice blessed.

January 23, 2015 | Stacy

Marie needed a tooth extraction for some time. After a false start with a whack-a-doo dentist back in December, and an accidentally missed appointment in early January, we finally met our new dentist, and she had these teeth extracted.

It was a difficult extraction. But God’s hand was in this situation so clearly. Although our first dentist had gone absolutely bonkers on us, and we left his office in shock and dismay, we can now see that the whole strange and ugly situation was for GOOD. This new dentist is a born-again Christian. He shared his testimony with me, no less! He and his assistant were so loving and gentle. Marie had a hard time with the procedure. But as we drove home and as she retold the story to friends and family, she kept saying that the doctor and helper were, “so kind.”

Do you see the size of those things?

Yowsers.

Princess Marie

January 12, 2015 | Stacy

YUM!

Friendly competition

December 29, 2014 | Stacy

With no major project slated for the two-week break we took over the holidays (um, the kitchen update left us too broke to take on our pending master bedroom project), we had to come up with other ways to entertain ourselves.
Somewhere along the line we though up Monopoly…
We started our first game ever that first night around 7 PM. Next thing I knew John was excusing himself at 8:15 PM to put Hanny and Katriel to bed. THEN the next thing I knew it was 10:20 PM! For! Real! I decided that we’d have to just end the game at 11 PM, because, well, do I really NEED a because???

Tabby was the first to go out… but she played well against these vultures.

We played multiple times over the course of the second week of vacation. It was mostly fun. Mostly.
How did we manage this with our two too-young-for-Monopoly-girlies?
Well, we tried to do it during Katriel’s naptime. And Johanna would just play dolls near us.