books...

Can I just say I love Sonlight? They have picked the absolute best library of books ever. We read entire novels, you know. Well, w/two in core 1 and one in core 5 we're reading some great stuff. For our read aloud, I'm reading to Carter and Roger "Charlotte's Web". I know, standard fare, but hey...when's the last time YOU read it?? I think I was probably 8 or 9. I am LOVING it!!! it's even better than I remember. It's great. The boys even love it!!! We just finished "Mr. Popper's Penguins" ( a bit early) because Carter got it for Christmas (how cool is that/? My Mom didn't even know it was a school book!). That was really cool and I'd never even read that one before. Penguins are a family favorite, so the book was an instant hit.

Now with Branche, he does his own reader (novels), I read aloud to him (more novels) and history is FULL of great historical novels. Needless to say, it's much easier to discuss these books if I've read them too...so...I have to read a lot. i feel like my education is improving daily!!! But, today I finished his current reader..."Water Sky". Oh man. I cried. It's about Eskimos and whaling. I cried for the seals, I cried for the boy, I cried for the girl, I cried for the whale!!! I HATE books that make me cry!!!! But I loved this book!!! Our read aloud is also a cloud burst waiting to happen "The House of Sixty Fathers". Man. Little boy lost w/his lucky pig. I'm just waiting. I already had to stop and pull myself together once!!! It's awesome. Oh--and did you know, that in public school I never studied Ghenghis Khan and the Mongol Horde????? That is the title of the most WONDERFUL book. And I just read that...and readlized I knew absolutely NOTHING about him!!! I devoured the book (Thank you John Holzmann!!!). Man. What a hole in my education!!! How cool is that??? (Not the hole, but that kids won't have that problem!) I LOVE homeschooling.

Oh did I mention Carter is reading??? I told him today, "Write hat" and gave him a wipeoff marker and white board and he said as he wrote, "H, A, T. HAT!" I almost cried then too! LOL!!! Yea!!! Roger was doing great too--I had written hat, sat, cat on the board and he read them, and I erased the 'c' from cat and said, "what if he was 'fat', how would you spell that?" and he said, "I'd put an 'f'!" and he did!!! We went through every 'at' word I could come up with and could NOT trip him up!!! YEA!!! We're loving it!!!

Ok.....we're still waiting on the church...hoping for news by Tuesday. Not sweating it,...more like excitement.


Not sure what God's doing to me...but, I've started watching "Adoption Stories" just for personal torture. Gotta stop it. Making me cry. LOL!! Doing enough of that w/o the show!!!!


Love you guys...keep praying for us and we'll pray for you!!!
J

Just Stuff....

Ok. So. I'm really slack about posting here. I'm sorry to the two or maybe three people who like to read what I blather about on here. : ) I'll try to do better. Anyway, we're anxiously awaiting Sunday. I feel like the countdown has begun. Of course, often when you're doing something to serve or honor God in a new way, or making a move in the right direction....KAWHAM! Here comes a spiritual attack. So, our latest attack is on the heat at church. Since Sunday is terribly important to us....committee coming and all...the heater at the church works everywhere BUT the sanctuary. So. We'll see what God and our Pastor work out. : ) I have great faith in both of them! I know it is relatively unimportant...we'll still have the service, they'll still come, the Word will still be preached...but wouldn't it have been nice for it all to come off w/o a hitch?? Oh well! You know, Bill Gaither wrote a really cool song about this kinda thing....it's called "Through". It talks about all the trials that come, and we expect God to just remove them, but sometimes we have to rely on Him to just carry us through the pain, or challenge, or whatever. I'm gonna put the lyrics over there----> in the box i use for quotes, read them they're really cool and can occasionally make me cry.I guess that's why we have prayer, right? Any of you who would like to join me in praying for God's will and praying for a great Sunday and praying for our future...please do!

So, on facebook I've been finding tons of friends I had lost years ago...high school friends, college friends, weird. Really weird to so easily be back in touch. It's nice. I can instantly chat w/someone I haven't seen or spoken to in literally 10-15 yrs or more. Weird. What a world we live in!!! Anyway, I'm having fun over there, but it's probably to my detriment, in that there are really cool word games to play and I LOVE word games!!! It's causing me to be behind in my seminary reading. Not good. Well, that's not the only thing, but it's certainly not helping. I've posted a bunch of photos over there if you're wondering why not here...well, they seem to load quicker over there and they're slow in both places...so any minute or 5 I can save is good! <<>>>

WEll . Have a great weekend, have a great evening....and feel free to "follow" this blog if you like...the button is over there=====> :)
J

baby's here!

Beth had the baby...YEA! After a week long off and on labor---She's delivered! Baby Katie is here, has dark curly hair and I can NOT wait to see her! I got to sit on her six kids and my 3 yesterday. If you ever wondered if you could manage a business...try that on for size. We cleaned and cleaned and cleaned trying to make the house nice for mom to come home. I am worn out just from trying to keep 5 kids on task and one 2 1/2 yo out of trouble! Anyway, man. Oh--keep praying for Katie, she's having strange bouts of breathing issues, probably just still clearing out fluid, probably no big deal, but pray for quick resolution so mom and baby can come on home.

Anyway, gotta get ready for church. Have a grrrrrrrrrrreat day!
J

Prayer requested...

My buddy Beth still has not had the baby. She is now at the hospital, on pitocin which is not doing any good. They have cranked up the pitocin to try and get labor going, she has been 5 cm dialated for about a day now. Anyway, may wind up w/a c-section if this doesn't work, baby is a good 9 1/2 lbs and her uterus will not contract and maneuver her into position for delivery...hence, pitocin. Anyway. She needs prayer, she is so over this week long off and on labor. She truly needs to be DELIVERED!!! Pray for the safe delivery of baby Katie Ann and for Beth's safety too. J

I don't suffer from insanity...I enjoy every minute of it!



I've been at the birth of a friend's baby all day...and I mean all day. Poor thing STILL has not had it and was at 5 cm this a.m. She's suffering. She's gone to the hospital, was hoping for a home birth. This is her 7th baby, 3rd (?) homebirth...pray for her. Safe delivery for her and baby girl.
J

ever think you could type, hit the "publish" button and realize that you couldn't???


Previous post should've read:

Ever stop to think and forget to START again??????


hahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!

Ever stop to think and forget to stop again?

word of the day....

Consciousness: that annoying time of day between naps.

The problem with life is there's no background music.

hijacking a post

I hijacked the following excerpt from a post of a friend...her link is over in the list as Noodlenest if you want to read the whole post, but here's the excerpt:


Trevor will tell you that my favorite come back for the phrase "That's not fair" is "Do you think it was fair that Jesus had to die on the cross for YOUR sins?"

That usually shuts the offended child down right away.

We don't think that if one child gets ______ (insert toy, food, present, money, praise for something specific, etc.) that the other kids are entitled to get the same.

Entitled is pretty much a dirty word in our family.

I can't stand it.

So, sometimes just for fun one child gets a cookie and the others don't. Or, one gets to go to a party or an outing and the others don't.

Why? Because life doesn't work that way. Just because So&So down the street gets _____(again, insert new bike, scooter, new car, cruise, a big atta boy, etc.) doesn't mean you get one too.




Okay, that is like my favorite post ever. That is SO how I feel!!! As a parent of 3 boys of very different ages, abilities, and personalities....life is often unfair! In fact, no matter what life is no fair! I am planning on not only hi-jacking Jennifer's post, I'm hi-jacking her come-back!
LOL!!
I love friends!

Is it fair Jesus had to die on the cross for YOUR SINS????
Woo! Burn baby burn!!!
Go Jen, go Jen, it's your birthday it's your birthday! <<>>>
Love ya'll.
J

photos

sorry so long!

Okay, I'm not really lazy, just busy!!! I feel like I have still not caught up since Christmas! I did finally get most all of the un-decorating done and actually put in the attic. We have begun a huge clean-up/clean-out. I mean, we are getting rid of so much stuff it's incredible!! Why can't I tell when I walk through the house??? Where was all this stuff living??? It's truly incredible the amount of stuff you accumulate over a few years...we moved here July 2001. Wow. You'd think I never got rid of a thing since then! The entire back of my suburban is full of stuff to donate if I ever get to town. The trash men did NOT love us yesterday due to the huge pile of cast offs not worth donating. I am really gonna use this as a learning experience....I am NOT going to collect this way anymore!!! EEEK! Did I say that???
I have had fun this past week toodling around on Facebook and found a bunch of friends from high school. Pretty cool, found a couple from my badly misspent college years also : ) It's funny....people you assumed you'd know and keep in touch with your whole life....poof! They're gone and years later you have look'em up electronically! Anyway, it's cool.
I just finished reading a cool book, it's one of Branche's readers for school. It's called "Homesick" and it's the real story of a girl whose parents lived in China while running a YMCA sometime in the 20's? 30's? I can't remember, but it's the neatest story and has real photos. I think the author's name is Jean Frisk or something like that. But, she was born in China and didn't come to America until she was like 12. Really neat. Unique life. Good book.
Rob is currently avidly reading Ted Dekker's books. Dekker has like 3 series all connected to each other: Chosen, Infidel, Renegade, Chaos (Branche read these too), then Black, Red, White, then Showdown, Saint, Sinner. There are 3 different series. But, he's a Christian author (his parents were missionaries in...Papua New Guinea [I think] where he and his siblings were born and raised...another good book, by the way "Torches of Joy" written by his Dad) and these books I THINK are kinda scary...that would be why Rob likes them so well! LOL! No, I haven't read them, but Rob loves them and Branche has been enjoying "The Lost Books" series. Worth a read.
Our seminary classes started back yesterday, so I am now delving deeply into the book of Hebrews. I've not purposefully studied it before, so it should be a real learning experience for me. Rob is taking Crisis Counseling...better him than me. : )
Keep us in prayer with our search. Big day coming up. We need your prayer coverage desperately.
Love you guys.
J