Birthday Raincheck

Thirteen years ago, I gave birth to a tiny human of 6 lbs. 12 oz.  Today (well, yesterday was her actual birthday), we celebrate the young woman  she is becoming.  She's spirited, feisty, carefree and confident.  She doesn't take much too seriously and loves to laugh...especially at herself for doing silly things.  She's a social butterfly and fun to be around.  She's adventurous, always looking for fun and excitement.  In other words, my opposite (ha!).

Her 13th birthday is one we are sure to remember.  Not just because of the age but her toothless circumstances.  We didn't plan for it to happen this way, but she ended up having oral surgery 3 days before her birthday.  She had ten teeth extracted!  (Eleven, counting the one she lost the day before surgery).  My kids are so stubborn they don't want to lose their teeth and they have tiny mouths.  X-rays show 3 teeth trying to fit into one spot under her gums.  We waited almost 3 years for change to come and for her to lose teeth naturally, but that didn't happen.

To make a long story short, we met the surgeon for a consultation on Thursday.  For insurance reasons we needed the surgery done by the end of the month (husband's contract is changing hands which means new insurance, which means a pre-existing condition, etc.) and the surgeon was booked until the end of June, aside from the one cancellation he happened to have for the next day, Friday.  So I took it. They assured me she'd be eating regular foods the next day.  I don't think any of them have ever had 10 teeth extracted at once.

Needless to say, she's been pretty uncomfortable for the past few days and has eaten more tapioca pudding and mashed potatoes than she has her whole life!  She's got quite a few stitches and a lot of gums! Her requested steak birthday dinner at her Mimi & Poppy's had to be re-scheduled for a later date and instead we had (as per her request) chili and cornbread.  And for her birthday dessert, strawberry shortcake.

Happy 13th Birthday, Jenna!

Wrapping Up

We're coming down the home stretch of another successful home school year! I can hardly believe how quickly this school year came and went. 

One of the definite highlights of our year were the wonderful pieces of literature we read in our condensed year of American history put together by Sonlight.  It was my intention upfront of buying this core and reselling it, which I still plan to do, however, I wasn't prepared for us to become attached to many of these books! 

What a great way to learn about our US history through living books, where we laugh and cry along with the characters that seem to come to life, as opposed to reading a dry, boring history textbook!

Some of our top faves were Johnny Tremain, The Witch of Blackbird Pond, By the Great Horn Spoon, Cheaper By the Dozen (minus the language),  Little Britches, and The Wright Brothers. I have promised Jared to keep our favorites and add them to our home library.

Another one of our favorites was In Search of the Source.  If you haven't read this book, I highly recommend it!

This is the story of the Wycliffe Bible Translators (Neil Anderson and Hyatt Moore), who take the Word of God to Papua New Guinea.  What an adventure, as these men not only translate the Word to the Folopa people but they also must become accustomed to their culture in order to properly translate and bring understanding of the Word. 

One of the most touching parts of this story for me was when they worked their way through the gospels, explaining the death and crucifixion of Jesus. As this had never been taught to the people, they really had no understanding of what took place. The concept of being crucified is something they were totally unfamiliar with.

After the translating of the book of Luke they decided to show them a film of the gospel story, to give them more of an understanding.  As they watched the film they came to the part where Jesus was nailed to the cross. The Folopa women "erupted into excruciating wailing".  They never understood that he was still alive while being nailed to the cross and, furthermore, how He could possibly say "Father, forgive them.  For they know not what they do."

Get yourself a copy of this one! :)

Now, it's time to finish planning what curriculum to use for next year.  I'm already looking forward to digging into the stack of reading books I've selected (Sonlight's Core G of World History).

I hope everyone had a great school year...

This Weekend in Color

Squishy Wars

Keyboard



New Water Color Pencils

The Artist

 

Jared's New Book Series

(He read two this weekend and is hooked)

Bleeding Heart

Hosta

Peony... Almost

Lastly, a random foot photo (a little out of focus)

Have you ever found your child sleeping like this?

Me either...which is why I had to snap this one.

Click.

Oops.

Good Morning, Jared!



The End.

I hope everyone had a nice weekend!

Walk on the Canal

We took a stroll down the C & O Canal on Saturday, minus one child.  (She has a broken toe/broken toes and is wearing a boot that she didn't want to get dirty! Someone please tell me how to wrap my children in bubble wrap to avoid all these injuries?).

I'm so glad we got outside to soak in the sunshine this weekend before all this cold, rainy weather rolled in!  It was a very relaxing walk...except for the part when I stepped on a baby snake!

Lock House #28

Check out this creepazoid millipede!

After our walk we rewarded ourselves with ice cream from the new creamery in town.  It was so good!  I wasn't able to get a clear shot of this next picture because we were driving down the road.  This is through my windshield and the dog was turning his head constantly.

If you can't see- he has goggles on.  Only in the country...

Quick Art Project

Follow through is not one of my strengths.  I have good intentions on getting things done but, unfortunately, I have a lot of unfinished projects around.  Such as, the scarf I started knitting this winter and walls that I never finished painting. 

So when we started our art curriculum this year I fully intended on sticking with it until the end.  But...we fizzled out of it.  We chose a drawing course and we completed a few nice projects and learned some new techiniques like shading, texture, lines, etc.  We also learned how to draw one point perspective:

Jenna~

Jared~

Now that we don't have a curriculum to follow I was scrambling at the last minute to come up with an art project the other day.  I did a quick search and found instructions and templates for making comics.  It turned out to be a fun activity and Jared plans to continue making more. 

In case you can't see it, it says:

Hi, my name is Jared.

This is pretty much what I do most of the day. (Kid laying in bed, relaxing)

(Running) Yep, you heard me, 'most of the day'.  I said that because I'm homeschoo--

(Bang! Crashes into trashcan.) ...Uh...---schooled.

I found the templates and lots of other ideas at donnayoung.org and instructions and ideas for coming up with a story here.  Or, if you do a search in Google you can find lots of ideas.

Discovery Sighting in DC

Yesterday the kids, my mom, brother and me went to DC to watch for the Discovery to fly by.  The pilot graciously flew 3 laps around the Mall which allowed for lots of picture taking.  This was a really neat experience for the kids and I'm glad we took the time to go see it.  They were especially glad to have a field trip day!

Here are a few of my favorites (I took 100, so I'll spare you the rest!).

This was lap #1

Lap #2

Lap #3

It was quite a sight to behold!  And not only that, I found out there still are caring human beings around:

At the end of our day, as we stepped off the metro and the train started to pull away I instantly realized I'd left my Nikon camera on that train.  I felt sick.  As soon as I called out "My camera!"  There was a metro lady walking right past me (which had to have been the hand of God) and she instructed me to go to the station manager. The station workers were so helpful and called immediately to the next station.  They told me to ride the next train and it would be there at that station.  But, when I got there they said no one had turned in a camera and to check back with 'Lost and Found' later that day.  My heart sank.  And I was thinking 'Yeah, right. No one is going to "turn in" a nice camera'.  As I was having my negative thinking pity party a gentlemen walks up with my camera bag in his hand.  I wanted to hug and kiss him!

I have to give glory to God because it was only by His grace that I got that camera back!

My First Homeschool Convention~Greenville, SC

I just returned from my first homeschool convention in Greenville, SC.  This was truly a life changing event for me, and in turn, my family.

I am blown away how God answered so many of my spoken and unspoken prayers, giving me new direction and purpose. It's like He strategically placed me in each of the workshops that I needed to be in.  I feel like I just gathered up arm loads full of precious golden nuggets and gems that are spilling out and overflowing.  As my friend at The Anderson Bunch put it after leaving one of our workshops- my cup runneth over!  I am overwhelmed by His goodness and so excited for what's ahead for us throughout the remainder of this year and in the years to come.

Besides the workshops, the vendor hall presented a bunch of new curriculum that I can't wait to try.  There are things I plan to order for the remainder of this year and I know the changes I'd like to make for next year. 

I'm thankful for my homeschool mom friends that I was able to share the experience with.  It's refreshing to be with like-minded women of God!