Free tunes

I'm a fan of Sarah Groves. Love, love, love her music! Just thought I'd let you all know that iTunes chose a song off of her newest CD to offer for free this week. Follow this link if you're interested in downloading "When the Saints". This link will take you to her Myspace web page with lots of information.

Challenge to myself

I'm 32 years old (if I recall correctly). I challenge myself to decide who I'm going to vote for in the next presidential election without checking out the bumper stickers on my dad's truck. Can I do it? We'll see . . .

I feel like a giggle

I don't claim to really be a die hard watcher of any TV show lately. BUT, I just sat down for a rare opportunity to flip channels (boys are in bed and EH is gone for the evening) and I could just giggle (really, I know that sounds ridiculous but it's true!) I just found out that one of my all time favorite TVs shows of the last 10 years is showing re-runs. Sue Thomas FB Eye! I love sign language and I like trying to catch signs that I know, the main character is deaf. Plus the characters are all wholesome and adorable. I think I'll have to set the VCR to record them for me (or more likely ask EH to do it - my electronic hero!) Anyway, just wanted to share my joy!

War Paint

Trusting your brother with face paint . . .










I call it . . . war paint!

My favorite pirate

Arrrrr! Make way for Blue Face Scar Face.

Praying for Aunt J

I have been meaning to blog about this for sometime but I wasn't sure where to start. In some ways this all happened so suddenly that it took some time to absorb it. Now so much has happened I'm not sure where to start.

EH's Aunt Judi has been battling cancer. Sometime in the last couple of months an opportunity arose for her to be the recipiant of some cutting edge medical treatments. EH's mom was a perfect match (Praise God!) for the stem cell transplant so things were set in motion for "Ga" to go to Texas. She has been there now (to donate stem cells and now to care for Judi) for almost two months and will be with Judi off and on for the next couple of months. After a couple more weeks at the hospital, both will stay at a hotel near the hospital so they can monitor her progress. Here is a link to Aunti Judi's blog where she is keeping us posted.

Aunt Judi

Please pray for both Ga and Aunt Judi as they are away from family for extended periods of time and especially for Judi's health.

Referral Lost

Many of you know that my brother and his wife in ID were waiting for the "go ahead" to go pick up their adoptive girls from Liberia. Recently they found out that both referrals were lost.

The parents of the 4 year old twin girls had changed their minds about putting them up for adoption after they had heard some "unfavorable" things about adoption. The parents of the 14 year old girl revealed that they are not dead (as they had led all to believe) and want their daughter back.

I believe S & M are trusting that God will care for those girls who were becoming a part of their hearts and will lead them to some other children for them to share their love with. Please keep them in your prayers as they learn about new children and how God would lead them.

Homeschool Update

Here we are at week six in our curriculum. So much for a daily school time. It has become more like twice a week school time. I'm picking and choosing things from our curriculum, careful not to leave out any play acting with stuffed animals, phonics finger plays, or painting projects (H's favorite). I'm not making him memorize the verses in our ABC devotional since he's already memorizing for AWANA. With Sunday school, AWANA, Bible story and craft time during my church MOM's get together and our own school time, I think he has enough structure and lessons. One of my favorite "school" type books to read with H is this one.


It has a little sampling of so many great things to teach kids . . . days of the week, months of the year, telling time, and SO much more. All in a light-hearted Richard Scarry way.






My goals for September were to make homemade pretzels, teach about dental hygiene and go to an apple orchard (see previous post).

H loved (and I survived) the trip to the pediatric dentist. While H got to enjoy wearing sunglasses and go for a ride in the dental chair I got another lecture from modern medicine. I didn't want them take an X-ray of his teeth or use flouride. I guess I don't have huge issues with X-rays but he's only FOUR years old! And I've already expressed my views about flouride. So apparently we are not welcome back unless I agree to have them take X-rays. For those of you who know me, I'm not an aggressive sort of person, I'm really quite passive, so I'm not sure how I ended up with an ultimatum from the dentist. Apparently we'll be taking the "highway" rather than their way.

October school goals:
* Play lots of make believe and dress up using this book:
* Find ways to impress All Saints Day upon H's heart rather than Halloween. We'll be dressing up for the big night, I just want him to know the flip side. I love the book "Redeeming Halloween" that Focus on the Family promotes. It's full of fun alternative ideas.

Acorn Caps

Have you ever seen acorn caps like these before? All fuzzy 'round the edges like that? This was apparently a novelty to our neck of the woods cause my mom was so delighted by them that she collected some to show-and-tell about.

Apple Orchard

A couple of weeks ago the boys and I joined our neighbor and her boys for a journey to the best apple orchard/petting farm I could have imagined. The boys dove into huge bins of corn kernels to bury each other and do "corn" angels.


We had a tractor wagon ride through the corn field where we got to pick dried ears of corn and gourds, we pet baby goats, chicks, and fed the cows.


And what would a trip to the orchard be without a hike through the apple trees, honeycrisp here we come!

Love ya' Handsome

11 years of wedded bliss, 15 year together . . . . xoxox

Knights and their gear

Because every home
where brave knights
reside needs a place
to store their swords.

Architect

H is learning all about how houses are built from a movie I picked up at the library. The movie begins with how houses start with architects designing them and drawing up the blue prints. I mentioned that Uncle S is an architect and that he knows how to design parks. PARKS!! His eyes were as big as soccer balls and he quickly added being a park architect to his list of what he wants to be when he grows up. I'll see if I can get my hands on a picture of a park that Uncle S has designed.

Chasin' a Train

My boys (all three of them) love trains. The bigger the better. Just over a week ago EH and H (and their buddies - one for papa and one for H) chased a double head steam engine excursion on its trip just south of the boarder - built in 1930 and 1943 respectively. It was a day of racing to beat the train to its destination and then hurry up to wait for it to come 'round the bend. The gleam in their eyes lasted for days after their all day adventure. I'll let EH post his favorite pictures here. I'm sure there were over a few hundred taken. Great work EH!