Awana Night 2

Last week was CRAZY.  And I've been a little concerned wondering how the year was going to go and just what happened to my sweet boys to make them lose their minds.  But this week??  WOW what a change!  My sweeties are back.  They were quiet, well behaved, and ready to work.  I was so blessed and told them over and over again.

This week we prayed for Cole's hamster's broken leg and Squirtle the turtle who dried up and died. 

Everyone was working through their start zones and passing off Verses left and right. 

Look who's back!!  He didn't come last week and I was really hoping he hadn't moved again.  I tell ya, this kid is special. 

And girls!  Hey, maybe that's why my boys were so good.(?) 

And my 2nd grade class was precious.  My new girl, Desiree, is so excited about church and coming to Awana.   She's like a sponge soaking up all she's learning. 

Tonight we had an extra treat.  My man led worship for everyone before we got started.   Of course I love to hear him play and sing. 

It's going to be a great year! 

Miscellaneous Monday

RAIN!!  Glorious rain!  And thunder and lightening to go with it.  That's my kinda night!

~One time Amy posted about cleaner and it kinda inspired me (even though I forgot to tell her).  Cleaning is my thing.  Sometimes.  At least I should say that doing dishes is my best talent even if Bekah won't let me enter the show with it.  Anyhow, I made myself some vinegar cleaner for the bathroom and LOVE it. 

I even love the smell.  Cause I like anything vinegar-y.  It's helped me to keep with my Flylady swishing and swiping routine in the morning even. 

So after everyone who wants to use my toothbrush has exited my bathroom then I pull out the cleaner and spray away.  All over the sink and counter.  Then I go to the pot and spray all over that.  When all that is wiped up, then I unscrew the lid and pour a little into the potty water and swish it around.  Ta Da!  And everything sparkles. 

~Our ice maker rebelled.  Water on the floor and sheets of ice in the freezer.  Mess. 
So today we had to unplug and empty out the whole thing.  Which required cleaning out the fridge and freezer in the garage to make room and pulling out all the rice cakes and cookies that really didn't need to be in the freezer anyway.  It's been a huge job. 

But the biggest part was the cleaning it all up.  In 2 years we've never moved the fridge to clean behind there. Ewwww!!!  I gave that job to my son telling him that anything that gross has to be a man job.  We took out every shelf, every drawer, every everything and cleaned it all up.  But that part wasn't so bad.  And now it's like a brand new fridge. 

A brand new fridge with a busted ice maker that is.  But maybe not.  We're still trying to figure it out.  Maybe someone just put it in wrong.  Time will tell. 

In any case it looks like sandwiches are on the menu tonight b/c the kitchen has been torn apart all day. 

~We got to babysit Little Man James today and visit with the grandparents.  I don't know what my kids will do when we go back to a 5 day school week. 

Here's a Verse that caught my eye recently that I've been mulling over...
"So Jotham became mighty, b/c he ordered his ways before the Lord his God."  2 Chron 27:6

Ordering my ways before the Lord, seeking first the Kingdom, acknowledging Him in all things.... I wanna be a Jotham! 

A Good Habit

On school days we have it in our schedule to be ready for breakfast at 7:30am.   Being "ready for breakfast" means making your bed, cleaning your room, and being dressed.  For the most part the kids hit it pretty regularly. 

But me?  Well sometimes.  Sometimes not.  And I always have a good excuse of course.  Like I spent too much time on the computer I didn't sleep well the night before, I'm not finished with my Bible time, I don't feel well.  In any case, I'm being a bad example to my kids.  I should be the one that is ready first. 

I read somewhere that it takes about 30 days to establish a habit.  So for the month of September I've decided to make it my goal to be out of my room (roomed and groomed) on time.  Or earlier than on time.  With my room clean.  And bed made.  Bible time finished.  And dressed for the day. 

I was hoping that there would be some others that might want to join me and start a new habit or goal for September.  It can be anything...big or small.  Like finish the book you started, take your vitamins, don't yell at anybody, exercise, whatever.  What do you think?  You have 2 more days to pray about some area that needs improvement.   And if you're in, just leave a comment and tell me about it and we can help keep each other accountable.

Any takers? 

PS.  If your last name is the same as mine, I expect you to participate!

Colossians 1:19-21

 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Colossians 1:19-21

A New Realization

A slight tragedy happened in TaeKwonDo class this week. 

As belt testing approaches, stripe testing becomes very important.  You must have 5 stripes in order to test.
Thursday was stripe testing for forms.  Our class is a funny mixture of laid back yet strict.  Mr. T is serious, yet fun and stripe testing was both of those. 

But when testing was over I saw Mr. T swat down to talk to Josh.  And while every other kid was visiting with each other, doing their own thing and oblivious to what was going on there, every one of my kids was paying full attention to Mr. T and Josh.  It didn't take long to figure out what was being said.  My kids' desperate glances over to me, Josh's head in his hands, the arms around him, and the sad faces gave it away. 

He didn't get his stripe. 

In the car on the way home, my kids were talking about how unfair they felt it was.  How Josh's form was good and how stripes were issued to those less athletically inclined.  It didn't make sense to any of them and they all felt the injustice.  I learned later that 2 of my kids declined their own stripes so Josh would not have to line up alone since they line up by rank. 

Days have passed since then and I'm still thinking about it.  But the thing that sticks out the most is the love that my kids poured out on their brother.....including Efum who heard about it later but is very familiar with Josh's form.   It was as serious to each of them as if it were themselves who did not get the stripe.  And while I'm sure Josh will not see the good of this for a long time, my momma heart rejoices at this opportunity of failure where his whole family rallied around him to love on him.  It's such a tiny insignificant thing, but someday when he faces a real loss or failure I hope he remembers what a support he has in all of us.

Belt testing is still a couple weeks away and he will have another chance to earn his stripe.  I can almost hear the the cheering of 9 loving siblings.

Bean Burger Recipe

(Try this one Amy!)
My family was having burgers and hot dogs for supper so I thought I'd try yet another bean or veggie burger recipe.  Usually these don't turn out so well for me.  But THIS one is a keeper!  And it has no egg.  Bonus!

1/2 chopped onion (I used red.)
3/4 C. chopped mushrooms
1 garlic clove minced
3 green onions (I left these out)
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp parsley
1 tsp salt/pepper
1/4 C. ground flax seed
1 can pinto beans, drained (I used chili beans.)

Saute veggies in a little olive oil.  In a bowl, mash the beans and add the spices and flax.  Add the veggies.  Form into patties.  It said to let them sit awhile to let the flax absorb moisture and help them hold together better.  I didn't have time to do this and they held together perfectly.  In fact, they are supposed to be pan fried but I thought I'd take a chance and put them on the grill with the real burgers.  I even forgot to ask Honey to be careful with them but they did not fall apart at all!

1st Night Of Awana

Here's my new class of 3rd graders.  7 boys that grew up SOOOO much during the summer!  Really I can't believe the difference in them in only a few months.  And as you can see it was a bit wild and crazy.  But I think that's mostly b/c it was the first night.  I don't think it will take us long at all to find our new groove.  Everybody's working out of new books, earning totally different awards, and learning new stuff. 

And wow!  there is such a different dynamic.  My head was spinning a bit by the end of the night.  And it was easy to see that what used to work for my 2nd graders will not fly for these (same) 3rd graders.  But that's ok.  It's good for me to grow and adjust and I'm looking forward to being stretched. 

I had one newbie that fit right in and said the best part of his whole day was meeting 2 new friends that were in class.  Huh, that was my best part of the day too. 

Nick was back.  :-D  But not BigBoy or Shadiamond.  :-( 

The thought occurred to me of how blessed I am to be privileged to watch God work this year.  I'm so thankful to be a part of it.

Dinner!  And have I mentioned before that there's always enough?  Even though you never know how many will come?  Ms. Joy told me tonight that they were NOT expecting that many.  But there was still more than plenty. 

One of my new faves.  (Is it ok if I say that?)  Hayden is in my little 2nd grade class this year.  His brother is in my 3rd grade one.  There are 4 cutsie 2nd graders including 2 princess girls.  GIRLS?  In MY class??  Love it. 

There were so many kids tonight.  Lots of new kids in every class it seemed.  New workers even! 

My oldest son has 4 little bitties in his PreK class and loved it.  Meg is working with the youth.  Lane is in games with E.  LB is all over the place helping out wherever she's needed. 

I think it'll be a great year!

LOOK!!

I can wear my RINGS!!

Babysitting J

We had the fun of babysitting a friend's baby today. 

Cooking up some pizza!

J is fun for everybody.  I love the opportunity for my younger kids to be around babies.  And J is sooo easy to babysit.  He never cries...at least with us.  He smiles all the time and is just an all-around pleasant fella.

We enjoy him so much that one of my kids asked, "What will we do when he grows up?" 

Good thing his momma is expecting another one.  Then we'll get to play with two!

Mrs. Coffman

Last night my son was scooping ice cream.  We have a really nice ice cream scoop and one of his siblings was commenting on it.  Years ago it was given to us by our sweet neighbor, Mrs. Coffman, along with a huge sack of ice cream.  It was a pretty common occurrence.  Mrs. Coffman would randomly bring us a big cookie cake or fancy Easter baskets or thoughtful presents for Christmas. 

She hired my kids for watering and mail pick up and paid them WAYYY too much.  She was sweet and precious and when she passed away a few years ago it was a very sad day over here.  A big loss.

As we were talking about her last night my son said, "She was one of my favorite people in the whole world."  Several of us agreed. 

And I thought about what it takes to be someone's favorite person.  Mrs. Coffman certainly had it figured out. 

This morning I was reading in 2 Chron 21.  It says that when Jehoram died, "he departed with no one's regret."  (v. 20)  He was a self-serving, power hungry, God hater.  Nobody mourned his passing.

Mrs. Coffman was exactly the opposite of Jehoram.  And even years later we still miss her. 

Hard Thoughts To Reconcile

~My son read us a story about an Arab and a camel.  The camel was cold outside the tent and asked his master if he could just stick his head inside to warm up.  The Arab agreed.  The camel then asked if it would be ok if he put his neck in too.  The Arab agreed.  It was an awkward position for the camel so he asked permission to bring his front legs in too.  The Arab said "ok".  And since he was holding the door open and letting the cold in he asked if he could just come all the way in. 

But the tent was small and now way too crowded for both of them.   The camel told the Arab that since he was smaller it would be a good idea for him to stay outside the tent and let the camel have the whole thing!

The point of the story was how sin very slowly creeps into our lives. 
I've been thinking about this the last couple of days.  And how things start out small but grow huge and become such a habit that it seems impossible to break.  For me, I'd say it is impatient words/looks/attitude.
I catch myself getting irritated over tiny things that really don't matter. 

~As I was walking tonight I was noticing how beautiful my neighborhood is.  The lawns are manicured just so.  There are some huge fancy houses.  Big cars.  Nothing out of place or ugly.  Perfect looking on the outside I suppose.  Spoiled people living cushy lives.  That's me. 

But if I had it to do all over again it would not look like this.  I would've started out as a career missionary in a very poor country.  Married my same Tall, Dark, and Handsome and had all our 9 kids living far different lives than they do now. 

And yes, we are involved in ministry here.  But it's clean and neat.  And I kinda prefer messy. 
I'd miss my hot showers, my netbook, my iPhone, and 2-ply toilet paper but somehow I feel like life would be so FULL.  A world where there were fewer choices and nobody wasted good drinking water on grass. 

So I wonder...how do I bring the messy into my neat and perfect?   Or how do I give up the pristine for the cluttered?  How do you give up the American dream that most folks view as an entitlement?   That "entitlement" that could be better described as an entanglement.  The entanglement keeps feeding me lies that say it can't be done.  But I'm pretty sure it can.  I just don't know how yet. 

~Awana starts in only 4 more days.  Count them.  FOUR!  And I smile every time I think about it.  I wonder if I'll have any girls this time?   I wonder if Nick will come back this year?  And oh Lord, PLEASE bring the Moody kids back.   My girls will be with me again and I'm watching to see what my son's involvement might be. 

And just in case you forgot....here's a couple of my cuties.  Smart, funny, rowdy, and occasionally naughty.  Just the way I like 'em!

Precious souls entrusted to me for a short time.  And I'm praying for a way to impact them for eternity. 

The Survivor

A strange thing happened in our gold fish pond.  All of a sudden our fish started dying.  We've had these same 5 goldfish for maybe close to a year now.  They lived through the winter when the ice was so thick you couldn't break it with your shoe.  They lived even though we never fed them.  They started out little ...just feeder fish that cost about sixteen cents each.  But grew pretty big. 

I guess maybe it was the intense heat.   Or maybe it was the other (ugly) fish my son caught at the park and put in there.  Who knows. 

But we decided to rescue this guy before it was too late.  He has always been the fave.  Bigger than the rest and white.  We caught him and put him in a goldfish bowl in my daughters' room.  He looks huge in there and doesn't have much room to swim.  But he's awfully pretty with the white rocks. 

And I'm guessing it's like a resort to him now b/c he's actually getting fed!

Less Is More...In Their Opinion

Aren't they adorable??  They both lost a tooth on the same day so we got to go on a double tooth fairy date.  That's 2 in the same week!  Not only that, but since G'ma is in town she's passing out big bucks for these lost teeth.  Bonus. 

See the guy behind them?  When I turned the phone around to show them their picture they erupted with laughter and said, "MOM, you got the guy in the back!!" 

I love the things they think are funny. 

2 More Days Until Forever

In 2 more days public school starts in my town.  If we didn't homeschool I would only have 2 more days with this beautiful princess of a girl at home.  I can't even imagine!!  And she would only have 2 more days to play and work with her brothers and sisters and momma all day.  And only 2 more days of lunches with Daddy.  Perish the thought!! 

And for that matter I guess it would be 2 more days with this rascal too since he's big enough for PreK. 
But yet so little! 

So you wanna see what these guys are doing this year instead?
They are only 18 months apart so I can do so much of their stuff together. 

Reading -
ZBoy is going through 100 Easy Lessons Book.  He listened in on Mally doing it last year so he's very familiar with it.
Mally is reading her children's Bible.  She finished the 100 Lessons plus the Bob books.  After her Bible we'll move on to some nature stories.

Math -
We use the calendar to learn about the days, weeks, numbers, odd days, even days, seasons
100 chart for skip counting, odd/even numbers
Money (their favorite!) I have a tupperware container full of dollars and coins.  They grab out a handful and count what they have.  They learn value, the names of each one, how to substitute.  Then we put everyone's money together and count that. 
Flash Cards for adding and subtracting. 
They are about to start Saxon Math 1.  Zboy in the beginning of the book and Mally further back. 
Rods for adding and subtracting

Writing -
Mally loves spelling!  Her handwriting is not so great so we do lots of coloring together.  ZBoy does NOT like to color. 
Copy work.  Just letters and numbers. 
Later in the year I will have her start Bible copy work like the rest of her siblings. 
I'm not too concerned with ZBoy's writing at this point. 

All this takes me about an hour.  It's scheduled while the rest of my kids are working on math.  They are in the dining room, we are in the living room.  Everyone is relatively quiet. 

And usually eating popcorn.  That helps!

Thank you God for the freedom to homeschool and be home with my kiddos forever. Or at least until God tells us to do something else.

This Weekend

Another tooth out!  The tooth fairy took him to McDonalds.  I think I'm drawing the line on the tooth fairy dates.  No more McDonalds.  Too dirty.   But (and I loved this!) Jess noticed it was dirty and I didn't even say anything!  Good boy. 

Jess is such a friendly kid.  He makes friends wherever he goes.  McDonalds was no different.  But whyyyyy does this keep happening to him?  And just him??  He meets a kid at the park and the kid will challenge him to a fight.  And weird as it sounds, it's sorta done good naturedly.  Everybody's smiling.  Nobody's mad.  Just wondering if you want to try to beat me up kinda thing.  And Jes is always willing (still good naturedly) but then the game is changed to something else.  I would tend to think that it's just boys talking smack but this sorta thing never happens to his 4 brothers.  Only him.  And he's the friendliest, smilingest one of the bunch! 

~The family is in town!!  We've been waiting and waiting all summer and FINALLY they're here!  Lots of G'ma fun going on. 

~10 more days until Awana!!  And I'm on the edge of my seat!  I can't wait to meet my new kids and see my old ones.  Love Love Love.  And then I will bore you every week with pure goodness. 

~I just invited my first guest to Lane's graduation this spring.  Jumping the gun?  We're hoping for some CO peeps!  I do miss those sweet friends. 

~Football on TV is a comforting sound.  I'm not interested in football.  At all!  But everybody's happy.  Nobody cares what I'm doing.   People can help themselves to snacks.  Everyone's good. 

And since nobody cares what I'm doing, I'm thinking on some scrapbooking.  Except my bed isn't made.  And I always tell my girls, "The fun is more fun when the work is all done."  So I guess I better go make my bed.

We had a break from the intense heat with a beautiful morning!  And since public school hasn't started yet, we walked over to the playground for some park time. 

Mally learned to swing herself!

By watching the expert.

"Come on, I'll help you!"

Coaching her little brother and teaching him to swing himself.

All of a sudden I was reminded of when I only had little kids.   I was busy and tired, yet had so much more time than I realized.  It was nice to step away from school and the harder things of the day and just enjoy the giggles and wonder of the little ones.  It was a sweet morning with this 2nd generation of littles. 

Right before it was time to leave I see 2 of my older sons coming up on their ripsticks.   The older kids always add a new element of fun!

Shiny!

I hardly ever, like almost never wear makeup. 

But today Eldest was ordering some Avon stuff and I ordered some lip gloss. 

3 of them to be exact.

Do you know how long its been since I've had anything Avon? 

And I'm so excited about it! 

 

Girl Time

I gotta start the post with this picture b/c I sooo love it.  These guys are great friends and it makes my momma heart smile.

But that's not what this post is about so on to business...

My mom invited me for a girls' weekend last weekend with some out-of-town relatives.  Who could resist? 

I was especially looking forward to spending some time with my grandmother and her 2 sisters.  My grandmother is 80yo and the baby of 3 girls.  When they get together they have so much fun and I didn't wanna miss it.  Unfortunately, neither of my aunts could make it.  :(

Isn't my grandmother beautiful?

This is Auntie B from California.  She has always been a fave with CT since he was a little boy.

My mom, grandmother, aunt, and me!  Does my hair really look like that?

We drove to Tyler to play around in those stores since the big town of Quitman has practically nothing.   Shopping with Grandmother is a blast!  I spent most of the time with her looking at the stuff she wanted to look at.  She's never liked shopping alone.  We looked at phones, and played with all the GPSes.  When Best Buy lost its luster, we called mom (somewhere in the store) and told her we were moving on to the next one.  We tried on shoes and looked at all kinds of junk we'd never buy. 

Lunch at Olive Garden.  Thanks Mom! 

Then back home for lots of marble games.  I even won once I think.  

I didn't get any pix of PawPaw this time so I'll just tell you a story instead. 
We were sitting at the table and PawPaw had a big full Sonic drink.  He picked it up and stuck his thumb right through the styrofoam making a big hole with drink pouring out the side!  He tried to block the hole and make his way to the sink but I guess he squeezed it too hard and it was coming out the top and through the straw!  Huge mess all over his clothes, all over the floor, all over everywhere! 

His reaction was priceless.  "Now look what I done!" 

We ended the day with me teaching them my favorite card game...baseball.  Ever play it?  It's fun. 

Thank you Mom, Grandmother, and Auntie B.  I love you!!

Fun At The Farm

Lane, CT, and I just got home from a weekend trip to TX to visit my parents.  Lane and CT were on their own for some of the time while I went shopping with the ladies of the family.  They LOVED it.  They hijacked the golf cart and explored all over the place, finding animal skeletons, rummaging the creek bed, looking at fish, raiding the fridge, eating ice cream, visiting with Gram.  They they started all over again. 

Sunday morning Dad was home and we went fishing in this little bitty pond that's about to dry up.  They were supposed to catch the fish and move them to the big lake. 

Not the biggest catch of the day, but pretty cute.

This is Lane's biggest.  See CT in the back with the one that got away?  His line snapped.

Meet Roscoe.  Isn't he just adorable?  I got to feed him his food pellets and let him slobber all over me.  He's almost like a puppy.

Oh yeah.  See him?  I named him Smokey.  I wish he would stay this tiny and precious.  But by the next time we visit he'll be a real cat.  Wild, not letting you play with him, only wanting food.  He'll still be my favorite though. 

We didn't get to see much of Nana this time b/c she had to work.  Sad. 

I called Honey about 1/2 way home during a bathroom break and mentioned that we could've stayed a couple more days.  CT corrected me by saying he could've stayed a LOT more days.  Honey's answer was something like "Well you could've.  We would be ok around here. "   At that point the kids were begging me to turn around!

Things I'm Thinking About...

I find myself sometimes too tired to pray.  Or too mad.  Or too distracted.  Or too.....fill in the blank. 

"But I say, walk by the Spirit."  Gal 5:16

And if my mind is too preoccupied by the concerns of this world then I am certain that I am not keeping in step with the Spirit.  

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control."  Gal 5:22-23

And you can be sure my attitude is not characterized by any of the above!  

Another thing.  I've discovered I get too busy taking care of things that I neglect the people.  Messy closets, dirty ovens, dinner to cook, school to plan.  Things with no eternal value.  I need fewer things.