a beautiful wedding

One of these little girl kittens need a home!

playing with mama

Skylar & Bailey
Don't you want one???

Better late than never... Independence Day

Yesterday

Ry found the only thing that helped his misery was holding a kitten... He is all better today as evidenced by the super animated soccer kick in the post below!

Soccer!

A new sport to try out and they LOVE it already.

Hopefully practices and games in the rain and cold this Fall won't curb their enthusiasm!

T~Bella

One for the family scrapbook... Above and below is a sweet fairy princess. She told me that she likes when I call her "T______ Bella" because it makes her feel like I love her and that she really truly IS a princess! When one of our ornery boys said "but why would a name make you feel like a princess?" she said "Because the way she says it makes me feel like a real princess."

Makes perfect sense.

Ready for the next school year!

Everything I need for the next school year has arrived, along with positive attitudes in myself and all my boys! We decided on My Father's World : Adventures in My Father's World for Bible, US History, Geography, Science, Music and Art for Aidan with Ethan and Ryland participating in many of the activities. I like this program because next year we'll start Exploring Countries and Cultures for 3rd-6th Graders (and 2nd graders with older sibling in the program). It features a 5 year cycle so that all the boys (and perhaps T~Bella?) being able to be taught mostly together. For spelling we're doing Avco Sequential Spelling and for Math we're doing Singapore math. For handwriting we're using Handwriting without Tears. And lastly we'll add Language Arts lessons from a wonderful book recommended by MFW. I love that these materials work well with a Charlotte Mason approach to learning. There are many great websites you can check out about Charlotte Mason. A couple of my favorites are here and here.

For Ethan and Ryland the Bob books have been wonderful for building confidence in reading. They start out quite easy for very new readers and get progressively more difficult. The kids write their name and put a sticker in the front of each book after they finish it, so they always know where they are. It will be fun to see their writing years from now when Hope and Halle read them too (there will be five names in the front eventually~maybe more?). I was surprised to see how T~Bella's signature has changed so much already.

I laid out most of the curriculum for a couple pics, then tucked everything away in a different cupboard, one for Aidan, one for Ethan, T~Bella and Ryland, one for science, one for crafts, one for the workbooks we're finishing up this summer.

We're doing school Mon-Thurs even through the summer, with some days missed here and there for appointments, and then Fridays off for field trips. I think we'll try to continue that during for the whole year and try to read every day. The only glitch may be the Bible study I am hosting starting in August on Wed ams. Hopefully we'll be able to get into a good regular routine starting in mid-August so if there are any changes to be made we'll know early enough to be doing well by September. Can you tell I'm excited! :o)

Indoors

with a sick boy is no fun anytime but when it's 80 and beautiful out, it is especially painful.

Ethan has been sick since Sunday but got worse today. 103-104 fever but no other major symptoms. A doctor came to our home today (I love Microsoft!) so I didn't have to expose the other kids to emergency room germs. She thought it was strep but the test came back negative.

Poor sweetie, at one point he was nearly 105 and I was wipping him down with cold washclothes and he said "Mom, I'm freezing! Stop being mean to me!" The things we have to do to be a good mom!

On a happier note, Charity is home! Hip-hip-horray!

We love you Charity!!!

Another cutie-pie

Cutie Pie

Towards the middle of this video is a cute little bum-wiggle from Hopey.

:: A w e d A d o r a t i o n ::

"The life of true holiness is rooted
in the soil of awed adoration.
It does not grow elsewhere.
That which grows elsewhere
is not true holiness, whatever else it is.
No blend of zeal, passion, self-denial,
discipline, orthodoxy, and effort
adds up to holiness where
:: praise :: is lacking."
~ J.I. Packer

I am at peace, completely, no matter what rather large decisions need to be made *right now* or what teensy tiny parts of the daily grind must have happened 10 min's ago but did not. I look out at the window at gorgeous array of beautiful clouds meandering across our hill and I ached to be out on the trampoline with the boys, trying to find dragons, hippos and curious George's. I am just feeling so loved by my God. So in awe. So in adoration. Awed Adoration. There were so many blue jays searching for more seed on our deck. The rooster cocka-doodle-dooing was getting a bit old, but even he just made me even more grateful to God for all our blessings.

The fact that I have work to do thrills me because He knows I can do it! He's counting on me do it and do it well, and I will. He has entrusted me with all these children for a few seasons, and I will do it well. I absolutely LOVE taking care of my family and the fact that it honors God to have a clean home, it honors God when I have a meal ready for my husband when he gets home, it honors God when I am dedicated to my children. And in all these things I strive to do well, I have a heart of gratitude, because I am so happy to have the family He has given me to care for. I am thrilled! I adore my God and I am in awe of the way He has shown us His love! On a side note, does pizza delivery count for having a meal ready?

Okay back to my point, alas I had work to do to get ready to rush off to spend the day at Silver Lake with our fun homeschooling friends. Was I crazy and just plain stupid to take 6 kids to a lake, with actual plans to swim, or am just brave and strong, and organized enough to pull it off??? Most days the trip ends up proving me the prior but today, today was the latter. Yay! We remembered everything! All 7 of us were in the water, and playing on the playground and eating a yummy picnic lunch. We brought home enough sand to prove everyone had fun. ;o)

My three nearly 1st graders were ornery but good, never going out of my sight, my nearly 3rd grader was my helper and super sweet the whole day. And my tiny two, well they did fine. Halle wanted Halle's bed, right THEN! I put her on my back in my mai tai and she just could settle in. So I tried the water again an then we were able to help her find her second wind so the rest of us could stay and enjoy our beach time. Hope would have NOTHING to do with water. She looked up at me with a look of "You have got to be KIDDING me here mom." and that look accompanied yells and yells and more yells. So I didn't try anymore. Shirlena and I took turns holding the babies, and Lena was rewarded with sweet cuddles by Hope, who is very particular recently, and she was also able to chase her toddler who thinks it okay for her to become a big girl, and a brave big girl at that! She was adorable! Fearless.

Fun was had by all. But after that I decided to scrapbook from 6pm to 12 am and I got home at 1. Did I hop right into bed? No. I had to find that quote I'd had on my mind the whole time I was scrapping. I just LOVE it. "The life of true holiness is rooted in the soil of awed adoration.It does not grow elsewhere." I love that. Just a great reminder to mind our roots and our soil.