Preparing for Christmas!

We were going to go ahead and continue with school this week, but we decided to take this week off of school to prepare for Christmas and enjoy some fun together.

We shopped for all the food yesterday so hopefully if all goes well....we will not have to go into any of the crazy stores the rest of this week.  For the past two years we have decided to just enjoy Christmas.  No big meal that keeps anyone in the kitchen all day long.  We are going to have all different kinds of appetizers and desserts....yum! 

Today Daniel took Bob Nandell to lunch to thank him for all the camera things and all the time he has spent teaching Daniel about photography.  They had a great time together and then Bob had a surprise for Daniel today too....a digital camera.  He was so surprised and is so excited to be able to take digital pictures on Christmas.  He will continue to use the film camera and it is currently loaded with black and white film.  Bob...what a blessing you have been...words can not express our gratitude to you.

The kids are all excited because on Friday morning they are headed out with some friends of ours for the day...they have lots of fun things planned!  And John and I get to spend some time together....yeah!  Thank you for this GREAT present, April and Dylan.

We are looking forward to such enjoyable time together as a family.  God has truly blessed us with wonderful children and has blessed our family so much.  We celebrate Christmas for it's true meaning....the birth of our Savior....and we are looking forward to a fun weekend and even the following week together.

Christmas is coming quickly....

Last night John and I went out for a few minutes and got a couple gifts for the kids for Christmas.  We have always stuck to a three gift total for the kids.  We want them to focus on Christ...the true meaning of Christmas.  We also are teaching them that it is better to give than receive....and this is really coming into play this year.  Their list of family and friends that they want to get presents for is just amazing.  I am loving seeing their creativity in their gift giving.  Thank you Lord for their giving little hearts!

Today I wrapped everything up....I really don't like to wrap presents.  I am not good at it, but I have to be honest the kid don't really care what the wrapping looks like. :)

School went well today.  We are for sure going to make it through the rest of this week.  Then next week we may only do a day or two....then it is off to have time to enjoy each other and Christmas together.

Also, update on the paper delivery.  John went with the kids and I on Sunday.  We had a bad storm on Saturday into Sunday and the streets were not good.  Thank you John for driving!!  Also, we didn't just have the snow, but the weather was around 0 with a windchill around -25.....we were bundled up.  Wow, it was cold.  We are set to have cold weather for a little bit longer and then it is supposed to warm up a little bit.

What Are We Up To?

This week has been a busy one.  On Monday we added another route for our paper delivery, but the route doesn't seem to be something that will work for the kids and I.  We will not be making that permanent...we will just stick with the two routes that we have and enjoy doing!

We spent the day at church on Wednesday as we normally do.  Daniel loves Wednesday afternoon because he has a photo lesson each week with Bob.  He really does like taking pictures.  He has a roll of black and white film that he can not wait to use when there is ice and snow to take pictures of.

Today we went to get Carhart bibs for the snow.  The boys like them...and well I got some too, but I am not sure that I like them too much...they make you look HUGE.  However, I do know that we will using this before the end of the weekend as we are supposed to get snow and it is supposed to be very cold.

We haven't decided on our day to stop school to enjoy Christmas and all the fun that comes with it.  We have been enjoying the time when we are caught up on school and we just take the day off to do other things....we so love the flexibility of home school.

Wow...I am behind on posting!

Thanksgiving Day was GREAT!  It started out with the newspaper delivery.  John went with us so that we had an extra hand because of the size of the paper.  We delivered about 230 papers and then went back home to go to bed.  We knew that papers were big, but when we got home Daniel went over to the scale to weigh the paper.  This years Thanksgiving paper was 5 pounds.  Wow, that is heavy!

After some sleep we got up and made some pies and corn casserole to take over to my parents house.  We made a pumpkin and a dutch apple from scratch....Nattalie did such an awesome job.  I took some pictures that I will have to upload later.  So early afternoon we headed to my parents and had an enjoyable Thanksgiving day.  After dinner we headed to my Grandma's to decorate her door for Christmas.  That was fun....wow it was so cold outside, but inside there was like a heat wave.

We ended up staying at my parents until Midnight to hit some of the sales at Walmart.  My mom, Nattalie, and Daniel went with me.  We got there a little early to know where our items were.  The sale started at midnight and everything was covered in black plastic.  I was caught trying to peek and I got in trouble.  :)  So at 12:01 everything was uncovered.  Mom and Nattalie were in charge of some and then Daniel and I got the rest.  Dan and I were picking out our last item when we got a text they were in line.  We checked out and we in the car headed home at 12:12....now that is some power shopping.

We enjoyed the rest of that weekend with some family time, small group, and church.

This week John is off!  It has been nice having him at home.  The kids were a little side tracked with him there and didn't want to get started with school on Monday, but we got it all done.  Then we headed to my parents that night....my Mom's birthday is on December 1st so we went to wish her Happy Birthday.  Couldn't do it on her birthday because she headed out to Arizona for a few days.

Then Tuesday came and we had some plans so no school that day....well not book work.  Nattalie and Daniel went with me to the Mall and they checked out the Live Wolves that they have at Merle Hay....interesting and educating!  Then we went to Carlise for a tour of the water plant.  We have a great friend from church that works there and he gave the kids a great tour.  We started that the wells that pump the water to the water station.  Then at the station he explained all the process the water went through so that it was drinkable and usable for us.  Then we also did some tests on the water to check chlorine levels.  Then after the drinking water he also explained the process of the waste water... the kids didn't think that sounded like too much fun!   They learned a lot and I am so grateful that Dylan took the time to explain it all to the kids.  Then off to Dylan and April's for dinner that night....GREAT dinner April!  Thank you!

Wednesday, the kids had a hard time with school.  They worked on math the entire day.  They all seemed to be stuck on the new concepts they were learning and we going very slow.  After school we headed to church for AWANA.

Now, today!  The kids worked very hard today.  Math didn't seem to be such a time consuming task for them today...yeah!  This is typically their best subject.  Then we had some make up work from Tuesday and Wednesday to add to today.  We worked hard and we are all caught up....good job you guys.

It has been awesome having John home with week.  When the kids have had trouble with math he has been able to help out and it is good to have someone else come in and teach something with a different spin on it....wow, they kinda learn like their dad! :)

Nattalie and I have cooking class tonight....it is chicken.  Nattalie is really beginning to cook... but I think that she is turning out a lot like me....she likes to bake things more than cook.  Watch out John....we are going to have a lot of desserts to eat!

Busy Week....but very Thankful for family and all that God has blessed us with!

Sorry that it has been so long since the last update.  Funny I was getting on here to report how it went making 24 pies with Jan this week.  The youth did a great job helping, but I have to tell you it was awesome watching all three of my kids working so hard.  They truly enjoy baking and working in the kitchen.

Nattalie is getting really good at rolling out the pie crust....I am so proud of her.

Johnathan also did a great job at following the directions and rolling out a crust or two....but wow he got a lot more flour on him than Nattalie did. :)

Daniel was feeling left out since this was a youth function so Jan made sure that he got a chance to try to roll out a crust.  The crust that he rolled out is the top for the pie that Grammie and Pop bought and he cannot wait for them to see it tomorrow.  He has such a soft heart....I love it.

The kids and I have been at the church most of this week, but we have also worked hard on school.  They are doing so good.

Tomorrow is the big day for the newspaper....it has all the Black Friday ads.  The paper is always bigger than a normal Sunday paper and they add extra people to the route with a free paper to entice them to sign up for the paper.  We are dragging John with us in the morning to put the papers together....Thanks John for being willing to come with us!

Off to head to bed and we will update later on how paper delivery goes in the morning and of course about our family Thanksgiving.

Pie Baking with Jan Douglas

Nattalie and I got a private lesson tonight with Jan in pie baking.  She will be helping our youth department with a fundraiser this coming week and wanted to make sure how the ovens at the church baked.

We enjoyed to one on one time with Jan on how to make the crust and the pie.  We made a cherry and a pumpkin pie.  John tasted a piece of the cherry tonight and said that it was great.  Tomorrow the kids and I will have a piece of pumpkin for breakfast.  I know that it is not the best breakfast in the world, but every now and then it is time to break rules and enjoy something fun together.

Here is a picture of both of the pies that we baked tonight....

Pumpkin

Cherry

Nattalie was so excited at how the pies turned out.  I know that Grammie and Pop have asked for a homemade pumpkin for Thanksgiving since they knew that we were getting this lesson tonight.  It will be fun for Nattalie and I next week to make a pie by ourselves....hopefully it turns out as nice as these ones!

Pictures....

We got Daniel's first two rolls of film developed and it looks like he has a knack for taking pictures.  He still does have a lot to learn, but he is doing good.  Here are some of those pictures.

Fantastic posed picture!

Johnathan and his guitar

Nice picture of Nattalie

Another picture of that photogenic guitar

Outdoors fall play....nice shot of Johnathan in mid air

These next pictures are from his lesson today with a wide angle lens.  Daniel is so loving photography!

Johnathan on Carl's trailer as he was helping load branches from church clean up day

Picture of the church with the wide angle lens

As always school at church.  Before we finished the boys saw Carl Jackson out loading his trailer with the branches left at the church after clean up day.  They went out and helped him the rest of the day.  After their load was full they rode with Carl back to his house to unload.  And of course they started burning it right away and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows for dinner.  Then they came back to church for AWANA.  They are tired tonight!!

Monday is Here Again!

Friday night we had small group and really enjoyed it!  We have been doing a simple study of reading one chapter of the Bible per day and then answer some questions you have about that chapter.  Then we meet every two weeks and go over the chapters that were for that week.  This study takes great discipline, but it going GREAT!  We will be finishing up on the book of Acts in two weeks.

We got right on school this morning and it went good.  Working on having the kids read aloud.  They are not big fans of reading out loud and when they do they either leave out a word here and there or they add words here and there.  Being able to read aloud is a skill that is very important so we will be doing more and more of this for the rest of the school year.

Then on to one of my least favorite chores....the kids and I went to the grocery store.

Now, it is house chore time....and laundry is definitely on that list.  The kids are matching socks and can not wait to be done.  The boys cleaned outside a little bit.....those leaves still keep falling.

Thursday...nice Fall day before the weather is supposed to change

Nice day.  The kids worked hard....main focus today was Math and Art.  They did a great job.

John and I enjoyed a great lunch with Carl and Becky Jackson....thank you so much for inviting us.  We had a great time!!

Then the kids went out and raked up all the leaves...they are finally falling off our trees.  Here are some pictures of there fun!

Johnathan and I sitting in the leaves!

Johnathan and Daniel just jumped it...this was one tall pile of leaves.

I wasn't out there for this one, but it looks like Daniel may have hit hit head on this one.

Johnthan loves jumping in the leaves!

Nattalie decided to go out and join in the fun

After all this Nattalie had tons of leaves in her hair.....long shower for her!

Another picture of the boys together!

Wednesday!

Went to church as normal this morning.  The kids worked really hard on their school.  I am enjoying the progress they are making with the English that we have been working on.  We have been working hard on creating outlines from different paragraphs.  Then after some days away from the original paragraph the kids write a new paragraph using their outline.  Now we are adding more things to the paragraphs...using at least one "ly" word and a which/who clause and then we have what are called banned words.  At this point in all writing they can not use the word see/saw, go/went, and say/said.  I am loving how it is changing their writing so much.

After school today Bob Nandell meet us at the church.  Daniel has been very excited about taking pictures for a while now.  Bob brought him a nice Nikon camera.  This camera is amazing and will be a great teaching tool for Daniel as he explores photography.  This camera is a film camera and has an nice lens on it.  I have a feeling that we will be spending a small fortune in film and development to his rolls.  He got the camera early this afternoon and we have already went through and entire roll of film. 

Daniel is so excited that Bob has offered to teach him about the camera and about taking pictures.  John and I are happy to see that Daniel so excited about something and pray that he works hard and studies photography.

Church went well and now we are home relaxing before bed.

Monday is here again!

Last night Johnathan went over to spend the night at Grammmie and Pop's so that he could work with Pop on the Rhino....or as Grammie calls it the "Hippo".  Their goals was to work on things like changing the oil and just standard maintenance.  Johnathan was excited to get to do this. 

So, this morning we were one shy when we went to do the paper route.  Nattalie and Daniel did a great job without Johnathan!

For school today we did more life lesson type things instead of the standard books and lessons.  The kids like these days, but also realize that they end up being a lot of work.

Then this afternoon, even though the weather outside is nice, we put the plastic on the windows.  This really helps with the electricity bill in the winter months.  The first year we did not do it and then we have done it ever since and we see a huge difference from the first year in a bill....well worth it.  I am glad that it is worth it because it takes such a long time to put it up....but we are DONE!

Late night for John at the church and I think easy dinner is in the plans....frozen pizza. :)

The Birthday Party

Everyone had a great time at the birthday party.  They started out with pizza for dinner.  After done eating everyone started to share little tricks that they could do.  I have to say that Kallie won.  Here is a picture, but you really have to see it.

Kallie McMurphy and her silly "human" trick

Then it was games and cake....and after that they made bracelets.  Their bracelets turned out GREAT!

Happy Birthday Nattalie!

All the girls making bracelets

The bracelets completed!

Now making anklet friendship bracelets

Thank you Grammie and Poppie!

And again...thank you Grammie and Poppie!

Thank you Knudsen family...and thank you for the pizza you brought over too!!

 

Thank you Kline Family!

Thank you McMurphy Family!

Everyone was out by about 1:00AM....and so Mom is very tired today!

Now here are some pictures of the boys....they had fun raking up some leaves and playing in them on Thursday!  At least those leaves are good for something!

Brothers having a great time playing outside!

Busy Week and More to Come

We finished our school early today and the kids are busy picking up the house.  Nattalie is very excited because she is having 3 friends come over to a little sleepover birthday party.  We have lots of fun planned.  The cake just came out of the oven and wow it smells yummy!

We will be picking up the girls later this afternoon and then stopping off to get pizza for dinner.  Pizza....the perfect party dinner.  I think Nattalie has a movie, games and jewelery making planned.  Hopefully bed time won't be too late :)

The boys are not too excited about extra girls being at the house.....I think we will quarantine them to a room to watch movies and stay away from the girls!

John will be headed to a visitation this evening and then to a funeral tomorrow.  Please pray with us for this family in their time of loss.

Will post pictures of all our fun later on!

Tuesday...at home today!

We surprised Nattalie with a movie last night.  She and I went together and had a fun girls time watching a movie just the two of us for her Birthday.

We got up as normal to deliver our papers.  And yes this is the day that the kids really don't like since all the people that do not subscribe to the paper end up getting a free smaller paper.  It is a lot of work.  Half way through delivering them Daniel said that we was not feeling good.  His head was hot, then his head hurt, and then he said he felt sick to his stomach and his face started to turn very pale.  We were almost home when he ended up getting sick.  So glad that we had an extra newspaper bag in the car...it was great to help keep the car clean in this fun ordeal.

When we got home I had them all go back to bed.  I then waited for Daniel to fall asleep to make sure that he wasn't going to get sick again.  I then sent out messages to everyone to cancel our normal Tuesday music stuff.

After we all got up Daniel was feeling ok, but his head still is hurting.  We did finish school and he was a trooper!  Now Daniel is resting again on the couch, Johnathan is practicing guitar and Nattalie is helping however she can for Dan today!

John is on his way home to pick me up so that we can both go and vote!  Then I will head of to second service worship practice.  While I am gone I think that John will enjoy a movie with the kids!

Monday Again!

This weekend was a busy one.  Friday night we went to our small group fellowship.  Saturday we left the house a beggars time and met the McCarl's at Chuck E. Cheese.  The kids had a good time playing games together.  And we even have tokens left to go back another time. The kids are happy about that!  Then Sunday we went to church of course, but we ended up staying there until 5pm.  After service we ate a quick lunch and then back to church to prepare jar gifts for youth fundraiser for summer camp.  I know that summer is far off, but we have a significant about of funds to help our students raise.  Also from 3-5 John participated in a a pray for our upcoming election. 

By the way....don't forget to vote on Tuesday!  If you live in Warren county don't forget to vote for Kent Sorenson.

Today we worked hard on school.  Talked about the story of Abraham and Issac.  What obedience Abraham showed to God.  I pray that I could have even a portion of this obedience to God.  The kids have heard this story, but we talked alot about total faith and trust in God.

And....yes today is Nattalie's Birthday.  She is 12!  We will be having a favorite dinner of hers tonight.  Then she will be having some friends spend the night on Friday.  I know for sure that they plan to play games, watch a movie, make some braclets and of course I am sure that they will be staying up late. :)

Friday Fall Clean Up

Delivering the newspapers this morning was cold!  We are starting to wear our thick jackets and making sure to have hats and gloves on.  Here in the next couple of weeks we will be getting the kids the overall type coveralls so that they will stay warm from head to toe.  Also we are looking at those "Yak Traks" for the ice.  I know that throughout the winter our apartments will be our favorite to deliver. :)

Today I sent the boys out to start working on the fall clean up.  Our trees still have a tons of leaves, but they were able to rack up what has already fallen.  They did fill the yard waste trash can.  I am sure that next week we will be able to fill the can again.

Nattalie and I are baking cookies and making pumpkin dip for our small group tonight.  We are looking forward to a fun fellowship night.  And of course what goes better with fellowship than food. 

Thursday

So we always use this day to catch up on sleep and just be together.  Actually we stayed up so late after church last night that we ended up sleeping until Noon today.  Thank you John for letting us all sleep in after the paper route!!

Now we are just spending time together taking it easy.  I should be heading to the store to go grocery shopping, but I am going to push it off until John gets off work tomorrow afternoon.

Also, it is getting cold out there!  I think that our warm weather is finally gone for the season....bummer!  Glad that we had our family vacation last weekend before the weather got so cold.

Now that it is colder it is time to pull out my crochet to work on...it covers up my legs and keeps me warm!  The kids really want me to work on Daniel's blanket because when I finish this one then all the kids get their blankets that I started to make them just after they were born.  These are their big ones that will fit on their beds now.  I have completed lots of projects in between, but I hope to finish this soon.

Also for a little bit this afternoon we have been watching boys movies....I think soon we will have to pull a Mom and Nattalie card to watch a girl movie! :)

Busy Wednesday!

Today we took our school to church as usual.  We had fun with Science....we are learning about air and that air takes space.  On fun experiment today was the vacuum that a straw creates when you drink and then if you poke holes in the straw it allows air in and the vacuum is not as good.  It was funny watching the kids drink from the straws with holes in them. :)

After school with the books....then it was time for real life stuff.  We are starting a fundraiser for the youth at church so the kids and I went to the store to get all the ingredients for the Jar Gifts.  We had lots of conversions to do to make sure that we were buying the right amount of flour, sugar and all that.

Today Nattalie and I put together two of the gifts....homemade hot chocolate and then Bean Soup Mix in a Jar.  On Sunday we will have all the youth that are wanting to go to camp this coming summer to come and help put all the jars together.  Then it is time to sell, sell, sell.

After that was AWANA....harvest party night.  Not a lot of verses done when it is harvest party night, but there is a lot of candy that comes home. :)  This year since Johnathan is in the youth he was a helper with the games and he did a great job working with the little ones.  Nattalie and Daniel still enjoyed the fun time of games and candy.

So here are some pictures of the kids.......

Johnathan our little nerd

Nattalie our little baker

 This is the apron that we worked on with Dava on Monday.....Nattalie just loves it and she got tons of compliments on it!

Daniel (and his buddy Dominic) twin paper boys

Funny man Dan

Johnathan having a good time helping with the games

Nattalie playing the games hoping for more candy

Busy day, but all went great.  Ended the evening with time with our friends Kris and Liz at McDonald's.  Not the best restaurant, but nice to be able to spend time together.  Thanks for joining us guys!!

Getting back on track after our vacation....

Well yesterday Nattalie and I had fun working on a "home making" project.  Dava, a good friend from church, had bought some really fun material and book for patterns for aprons.  So we went over to make an apron for Nattalie.  She is going to where this apron at the Harvest party at church tomorrow night.  She is so smart...she knows that mom does not like to spend money on any "costume" type thing.

We had a great time watching and working with Dava on the apron.  Then later she called and we headed back over and made a hat to go with it.  It is so cute.  I will make sure to take pictures tomorrow and post them.

So today I think we finally got everything back in order at the house.  Then we headed to church for lessons.  They are all still working hard on their instruments.

Also...one of Johnathan's presents was a gift card to Family Christian Bookstore.  He ended up buying a handful of things.  One that he really likes is a purity ring.  What a great present.  We are so glad that we have talked to him about being completely pure for the woman that God has in store for him.

After lots of other meetings and things at church we are home now preparing for our full day at church tomorrow. 

Family Vacation!

We had a fantastic time on vacation.  When we got to Corydon the boys hit the ground running.  It did not take long to start the dirt bikes up and get busy.  Unfortunately we brought my Dad's Rhino with us for Nattalie to use, but it had electrical problems and we didn't even get to use it for a little bit.  Nattalie did do some dirt biking though.

We had a great time with April and Dylan (thank you so much for joining us!) and my mom and dad (thanks for coming!) 

So lets talk about our terrific vacation!  We got to Chariton right about lunch time on Thursday.  The house is GREAT!  John and I had been there once before, but it was 2 years earlier so we forgot about some of the nice things that they had.  We had beds, couches, pool table, ping pong, fuse ball, and course a ton of land for the dirt biking.  And for me (and April and Grammie) there was an awesome kitchen.  They even have two ovens....and we used both for most of the dinners.  Never realized how nice it would be to have two ovens.  The boys spent as much time out on the trails as they could.  Then in the evenings we enjoyed an awesome campfire....Dylan you can build a "mean" campfire.  On Friday we did have a flat tire so that had to get fixed before they could get back to riding, but nothing could keep them down we got that fixed and they were back at it!

Nattalie actually got to get in some riding on Daniel's dirt bike.  She enjoyed it!  And after much begging I actually rode the bike (Daniel's, the little one).  John has mentioned to Nattalie that he will have his eyes out for another bike so that she can have one.

On Sunday Johnathan practiced on a bigger bike and Daniel rode Johnathan's bike.  Daniel's chain came off and it was too loose to get to stay on....so we will have to get that fixed.  Johnathan enjoyed riding the WR250, but wow that looks way too big for him.  Daniel enjoyed riding the 125 and he did a good job!

We are pretty much injury free.  Daniel does have a hurt ankle, but we are praying that he will be on the mend quickly!

I have attached random pictures.....what a GREAT family vacation!  John's phone didn't ring once!! :)

Johnathan in the red sweatshirt and Daniel with the black pressure suti on.

Just a little mud out there!

This is Nattalie....all geared up and ready to go!

There was two times that Nattalie crashed pretty good.  One she said that she was trying to turn and couldn't so she hit the tree and slid under it.  The next time was the same thing again....she couldn't turn and she ran right into the fence!  Both times she hopped up and put her thumbs up and said that she was just fine!

TUESDAY....

We worked hard again at school to prepare for our little vacation at the end of the week.  Today in English we talked about words that are too often used in writing.  So for this point forward three words that are banned from their writings are said/say; went/go; saw/see.  The kids are not sure about this, but I am sure that this will spice up their writing for sure.

Then it was time for lessons.  The kids have been working hard at their instruments and we are so proud of their work.

After all that we went to the grocery store to shop for our trip.  It will be nice to stay in a cabin, but you have to make sure to have everything.  Plate, napkins, cups, forks, spoons, bowls, dish soap, and the list felt like it was never going to end good thing is that the kitchen sink is already there.  :)  I hope that I haven't forgotten anything.  Also, the kids and I got our clothed pack this evening.  So, the only thing that we have left to get ready is John's clothes and the food that is in the fridge. 

And....I am not sure about this....may first born will be 13 tomorrow....I am not ready for a "teenager" :)

MONDAY!

House picked up and laundry is still going!  Wow, I really wish the house would clean itself and the laundry would do itself....life would be so much easier!

We worked hard on school today.  We are doing our best to get a good amount done before we go.  Learning a lot about Abraham, Sarah and Issac.  Also we will be working on memorizing the 10 commandments.  For the most part the kids do have these memorized already so this will be a nice refresher and we will try to work on knowing them in order.

The kids have started to pull out their clothes for our trip on Thursday.  They are so excited to get away and just have FUN!  The weather is only going to be in the high 50's low 60's so it could make it feel cold when riding the dirt bikes and the Rhino.

I have been putting together the list of things that we will need.  We will be staying in a small cabin style house, but we have to bring all our cooking ware and stuff.  I am afraid that I will forget something.  I guess if I do then we will just have to figure it out. :)

Time to go make a mess in the kitchen and make dinner.

Gearing up for a Fun Week!

Well the weekend always goes by so fast!  Saturday we had all kinds of things to do including soccer for Daniel and a youth event to send Johnathan to (corn maze).  Daniel just loves playing soccer and Johnathan had a great time at the corn maze and bonfire.

Church today was GREAT!  We have spent some time relaxing as a family this afternoon which is always needed after Sunday morning.

We are gearing up for a busy, but fun week.  Tomorrow the kids and I will work really hard on cleaning house, doing laundry, and of course getting lots of school done.  They will also be working hard on Tuesday and Wednesday because we are headed out of town on Thursday for a family vacation.  Fun time for kids to have fun dirt biking and just being outside for 4 whole days.

And, I am feeling old this week.  On Wednesday I will have a teenager....Johnathan turns 13.

Thursday and Friday

We have been working hard on school these days.  We are planning on a mini-vacation for the family mid week next week and we want to get all our work done before we go.  Today we did Friday and Monday work.  It was a lot of work, but the kids did GREAT.  Spelling this week with the homonyms did get better for Johnathan and Nattalie, but Daniel is still having trouble with them.  I think that I will test him tomorrow and Sunday and see if we can get this one all taken care of so that we can move on to new words on Monday.

Thursday night Nattalie had cooking class at the church.  She has fun working with the others girls.  Last night they worked with making yeast breads.  Instead of making regular bread they ended up making bread shapes.  Nattalie made a really cute turtle.  I wasn't able to get a picture of it before she started to eat it. :)

While we were at cooking class the boys went to the gym.  They had a fun time....spent most of the time swimming until we came and picked them up.  Wow, they sure smelled like chlorine when they got in the car, but they did have FUN!

And we received another great blessing yesterday.  John and I have been talking about getting a juicer and juicing to get more vitamins and nutrients into our diet.  I was talking about this with the cooking instructor and she mentioned a friend had a great juicer on her garage sale.  Her girls are in the cooking class too.  So when she got there I asked her about it.  At the end of cooking class she had brought it back with her and just gave it to us.  What a blessing!  Thank you Amanda and Chris!

So, we were so excited about the juicer we stopped off and got some fresh fruits and veggies to try it out.  When we got home we cleaned it all up and started making juice.  Funny story....we didn't have the tool needed to take the blade and mesh net off to clean it up afterwards.  Oh no, what are we going to do?  Got online and ordered the tool for only $8.00, but it will not be mailed out for about 3 weeks.  How are we going to get all the fruit stuff out of there.  Well we used some toothpicks to unlock the blade lock to be able to clean.  Praise the Lord...it's all clean.  Guess we were just to excited to use it that we didn't make sure that we had everything we needed to take care of our new juicer.

Friday has been going by quickly, but we are looking forward to spending the evening with friends. Then we are looking forward to a busy tomorrow with soccer and Johnathan headed off to a corn maze with the youth group.

Wednesday!

We went to church as normal today.  We did our Bible, History, and Science work together.  While I was busy with church stuff the kids did their English and Art.  We always save all the art for Wednesday so they can work on it when I am busy.  Also, we don;t do Math on Wednesday.  The kids normally double up on Tuesday or Thursday.  This schedule has seemed to work great so far this year.

On of the things that I am working on at the church is fundraising for our youth for camp next summer.  We have about 15 that will probably end up going to camp and would like to try to raise about $200.00 for each that are going.  So far we will be collecting soda cans and bottles to return for the deposit.  And we are also going to sell recipes in a jar for gifts.  What are your ideas for fundraisers?

Well, we did get the pictures.  They turned out GREAT!  I will share with you our favorites, but beware you may see them again at a later date.  :)  We are so great for Bob and all that he has done for the family....THANK YOU, Bob!!

So, what do you think of the new pictures?  We love them...and we think that the kids look GREAT with their instruments!