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!

Family Picture Day!

The kids and I got up a little earlier than we normally do today so that we could get school done nice and early.  The kids did a great job.  Still the kids are not liking the homonym words, but they are gaining understand so I just know that by the end of the week we will succeed.

John came back and got us to head to the church for pictures.  Bob did such and awesome job.  The leaves and trees just made the pictures!  The kids even did pictures with their instruments and I can not wait to see how those actually turned out.  Bob, thank you so much for taking the time to shoot pictures of our family.  Then, we enjoyed a fun lunch together at Culver's...yum ice cream again!

Of course we all had practice with our instruments today.  The kids are doing such a great job.  I can not wait until they are all at the point that they can work together and create some amazing music and lead others in worship.

Good day, but busy!  We are all tired and ready to call it a night as we all know how Wednesdays are long days as well.  When I have the pictures I will post some, but I won't post them all as I am sure that we will use some of them for Christmas card pictures. :)

Monday, here we are!

We got up and hit it this morning.  Instead of starting with school we stared with picking up the house.  Then we hit the books hard.  The kids are really excited because we are doing an experiment to hopefully make some crystals.  We will see if it works.

Our new list of words for spelling are homonyms this week.  Daniel is not excited about this week.  No one did very good at the on today's test, but I am sure that we will improve as the week goes on.

After all the school work we headed to the store for some grocery.  I am sure that I have posted before that I am not a big fan of going shopping!  But praise the Lord it is done, at least for this week.

Tomorrow we are excited to be doing some family pictures in the afternoon.  I really enjoy having our pictures taken, but John is not a big fan.

The Weekend....

The weekend has gone by quickly.  Friday night was a great time with our small group.  We hadn't gone through the study for four weeks so we had a lot to go over, but it was great!  Then we all went and enjoyed some dessert at Culver's....yum! 

Saturday I went to my first meeting with SHEEPS homeschool group.  I am hoping to get involved in more things for the kids.  Last year we chose not to join a group so that we could work together and get a grasp on our homeschooling.  This year I am wanting to get the kids involved in more things.  In the afternoon we went to Daniel's soccer game.  He had another awesome game!  The score was 7 to 1 and Daniel scored 4 of the points.  :)  April was able to join us and Daniel loved having a cheering section.

Sunday, we had a great day at church.  After church we always come home and enjoy a family nap and now we are just chilling out together. 

I have looked at my lesson plans for the week so that I am prepared for the coming school week tomorrow.  Next week we will label week 6, but it is actually the start of week 7.  Last week we took time to make sure that we were on track with all our subjects so that we weren't feeling behind on things.  At this point we have truly finished 32 days of school.  I know that this year we will more than likely be well over our 148 day requirement.  We have completed our first review of the year and will have two of these each quarter.  This year our reviews are a little different as John is our supervising teacher.

New school week....here we come!

Friday!!

Well, today was the last of the make up week.  Not much on the lines of school work today.  Tonight Nattalie will go to a concert with friends and then spend the night.  She is so excited.  John and I are a little nervous about her going to the concert.  One thing that is making it better is that we will be at small group at church and the concert is at Hope Church right next door.

The boys are excited because after a while we are going to Cici's with Dylan and April.  Our fun way to say thanks to Dylan for all the help with the trees yesterday.

Thursday.....one we shall label work day

When we got up this morning we starting working outside.  We helped Pop clean the lawn mower and also get more mud off the Rhino.  Wow, even though it was cleaned once there was still a ton of mud!

Then we worked on an oil change for the lawn mower and then onto yard work.  We worked on the yard so that as things die off we don't have as much work to do.  Then we had some great help from Dylan and a chain saw.  We got a ton of branches off the pine tree and then we tried to work on one branch from another tree, but it is just too high.  Dylan even helped load it all up and take it away today.  What a blessing you were today, Dylan.  Also, thanks Dad, for trying to help with the tall branch using the wench on the Rhino.  We will have to come up with a way to get that branch down!

And, no picture becuase I was so nervous with all the branches and the height that John was up in the tree! :)

Now, movie with the family before bed time.

Visit to Bob Nandell's

This afternoon the kids and I went to Bob Nandell's for a history lesson in Navy Ships and Union Pacific Railroad.  The model ships and then train sets are just amazing.  The kids and I spent more than two hours there. 

The kids also enjoyed playing with the two dogs, Jpeg and Pixel.  Bob is a retired photographer.  Don't you just love the names of his dogs!

Bob has been a wonderful blessing to the family and we truly enjoy him!  Thank you for sharing with us today, Bob!!

Now, here are some pictures to share from our fun afternoon

Daniel loved to run the train!

Nattalie had a great time!  And the scarf was a gift from Bob...she loves it!

Bob explains all the parts to the kids

This ship Bob built on his own, not from a kit at all.

WWII Naval Ship

The top gun in a WWII riffle and the bottom gun is an 1852 riffle

Part of the many cities around the railroad.

Johnathan had an awesome time with Pixel and Jpeg

Yeah...John comes home tonight!

Today we worked on some more stuff that we needed to catch up on.  I am glad that we choose to work on this rather than forging ahead and always feeling behind.

We went to church for mandolin, guitar and electric guitar practice.  The kids are doing well with their instruments.  Nattalie is really liking the mandolin; it fits her well.  After that I had practice for 2nd service worship.  We have two new songs this week...they are great songs.  Praying for a great and worshipful service on Sunday!

John should be home around 11pm.  The kids and I will head back to the church to pick him up.  They are very excited that dad is coming home (me too).

Monday, Monday, Monday!

Wow, this past weekend went by way too fast for all the projects that we wanted to accomplish.  We did miss John, but the days flew by.  We did get our work done! :)

We will label this week make up week for school.  We have some odds and ends from last week that we didn't finish.  So this week we will buckle down and get everything caught back up. 

Today we cleaned house and did so grocery shopping.  Why do I dislike the grocery store so much?

The kids are ready for John to come home tomorrow night! :)

WOW....super busy Saturday!

We started with paper route.  The kids are getting really good and getting the delivery done in an hour.  It is awesome.  I think that we will be able to get the Sunday done in an hour and a half if the boys are up to the running.  It was cold this morning and I know that tomorrow is supposed to be cold too.  We are prepared with hats, gloves, and jackets.

After we woke up we got right on the garage.  We did complete it...yeah!  We made a handful of trips to the Good Will and then also set aside some things for some of the younger kids at the church.  We worked so hard on the garage that we almost didn't get ready in time to go to soccer....but we made it!

Daniel had a great time at soccer.  He is doing awesome!  The score was 5 to 2.  Daniel's team won and he scored 3 of those points.  He is loving playing.  Nattalie, Johnathan and I thought that we were going to freeze.  It was so windy that it made it feel a lot colder than it was.  This was a really long hour and a half.

Here are some pictures:  Daniel is the white shirt and blue sports pants.

After soccer we put our center sections of the Sunday Paper together and then we headed to the house for a little bit.  Then we enjoyed some dinner with Dava and Josie.  We had a good time!  Also, yeah for coupons.  On our way over we stopped at the store to get drinks.  Hyvee had some great one day sales.  With our coupons from last Sundays paper I was able to get sausage for $.45 a lb..GREAT DEAL!!

Then....home to get ready for bed and church in the morning.  The kids were able to end there night talking to dad about their day.  Dad is still having fun 4-wheeling in the Smokey Mountains.

Busy Friday......

We, of course, started off with the paper delivery nice and early.  Then home and back to sleep.  We got up a little later and finished up on school for the week.

Then we headed to the hospital to take my dad home.  Praise the Lord that he is home and doing much better.  When we got there they still needed to take out the IV.  The nurse took it out and then went on to show the kids how it worked.  It was so funny because she got a little water to wash through it and ended up squirting it all over my dad....we all laughed so hard!  Then we got dad home and told him it was time for rest.

Then we headed home and started to work on our garage.  We have needed to work on that garage for a LONG time.  We made a lot of progress, but we still have to finish tomorrow.  It will feel nice when that project is done.  I knew we were done for today when I started looking at all of it and just couldn't figure out what to do with any of it.

Then off to the store to redeem some cans.  We used our can money for some ice cream as a treat for our hard work in the garage.  We made sure that we got enough ice cream so that we can treat ourselves tomorrow after more hard work out there.

Daniel is excited to play soccer tomorrow.  I will try to remember the camera to take some pictures. 

Good day in all and we miss John, but know that he is having a great time!