Thursday, December 22, 2011

I'm Always Thinking

I'm always thinking. Always.

I think God must have put me here in this home. And he is working on me here. Even when I don't quite like how everything is. I've wanted to not live here, mainly so I could be closer to town or more like most of the people I met. But, now, I like it further from town and I think, no matter what, I'd really never be like all the people I meet. Hopefully, I can just meet a few people who appreciate me for who I am. That would be a true blessing.

God's been working on me a lot with contentment and with being more full of encouragement to others.

Jon and I were watching the Duggars here recently. Now, when we share this with most people, it's like they just disconnect. No, we don't want to be just like the Duggars. Some of their rules just aren't for us. And, really when you read the New Testament, it's really clear that if we put our faith in rules for salvation or for a means to blessing, that we are seriously deceived. By grace alone, through faith, but that faith not of yourselves...that's something I've been learning.

Anyhow, I was encouraged by watching the Duggars just how positive and encouraging they are. Really, to me, they aren't legalistic in the slightest. Sure they have a lot of rules more than I would have, but they are so positive about them and never do they use those rules to make themselves more important.

This is one thing I got from the show, but from God speaking to my heart too:

"Teach the why and the how, not just the what. And...praise should be lavish and public, correction should be quiet, thoughtful, and private."

Good stuff. Oh, that I could just do that...be that...with everyone I meet.

Friday, November 11, 2011

Bath Time Shots

A couple of cute bath time shots of my little ones. It's fun having little ones around.

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abigail_bath

Sunday, October 30, 2011

A Visitor

We had a visitor this morning.

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4 Year Old Day

It's my four year old's birthday. I cannot believe she is 4. Time definitely flies. She is my precocious, baby envious, total cutie, sweet, energetic, huggable, little girl. What's not to love?

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Three Years Old

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Two Years Old

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One Year Old

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Newborn

Friday, October 28, 2011

My Munchkins

Just a few sweet pictures of my munchkins. They mean the world to me. My littlest munchkin is getting a little mischevious. Can you imagine? And, my three, almost four year old, was a little under the weather this last week.

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Sunday, October 16, 2011

New Seasons

Summer flew by and we are deep into the Fall season. My little man has gotten big and is starting to be a lot of trouble. ;) He climbs, opens, turns, escapes, etc. much earlier than his sisters did. He is also good at climbing down and seems to have pretty good balance. We are having a little bit of an Indian Summer here...although it rained for about the last two weeks. Yet, it's been warm and for the next few days we have some partly sunny days in the forcast. That's quite something for those of us here in the Northwest, during the Fall season.

Here are some recent shots this Fall.

These are from a day at the zoo.

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zoo_polar_bear

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Here is a picture of my little sweeping man. (He loves brooms.)

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And, a couple of pictures of my two little ones in their pajamas.

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How has your Fall been so far?

Saturday, September 10, 2011

A New Year

We are headed into a new school year. Much is staying the same. I'll be using the same combination of Charlotte Mason and Robinson in my schooling.

I'm adding a grammar program - Daily Grams. And I've discovered two fonts on Donna Young's website, which you can use in Word to make your own handwriting worksheets. I have one girl that desperately needs work on her handwriting beyond copywork. Then I have another that needs to solidify her knowledge of cursive. I think cursive is becoming more passe in general in this day, but I think it still a good skill to have down.

I've driven myself CRAZY trying to figure out what activities we are going to do this year (out of the house). Our state tightened it's funding, so what they were helping to pay for last year, they aren't this year. We were paying the full expense for dance and also for my oldest daughter's private violin lesson. Orchestra and art were mostly paid for by our homeschooling program. And, my younger (middle) daughter is moving up in dance (makes her dance more expensive) and my youngest daughter has been wanting to start dance. Obviously, it wasn't doable to pay for Orchestra, Private Violin, Art Class, and Dance.

My oldest thrives at art and I really wanted to keep that. Somehow I wanted to keep my kids playing an instrument. But, in the end, for this year, I sided with dance. The girls all love it and the youngest hasn't gotten a chance to do it. I also signed up for a few local classes for homeschoolers that are close to our home and that are free through our homeschooling program (and we retain our homeschooling status). So the two older girls are taking Drama and my oldest is taking Choir and all three girls are taking Dance. We'll see about an instrument. If Grandma can pay for lessons, we might do that too (just the lessons, not the Orchestra class). But, honestly, I think that may be stretching us too thin this year. Yet, I'd like to see them stay with an instrument.

Pray for me to just settle into what the Lord has directed me to do this year. I'm going to have a chance to work at our business too, a little too with the activities I picked for the girls. My husband can take the littles home and I can work while they take their classes, since work is very close to their classes. I'm also praying for my heart to be stirred for the lost and the hurting. Always, I guess. But, sometimes, as a homeschooling Mom, I think it becomes easy to be focused only on your kids and not on the needs of this world. I pray that this year I'd learn to pray, even in my busy-ness.

Right now, this weekend, my husband is gone with my 10 year old and 8 year old girls and my step-daughter on a camping trip. They are hiking and picking huckleberries. It's a great experience for them. I'm home with the 3 year old and the 1 year old. The one year old seems a little sick, but I'm thinking it's possible it could be a bad case of teething. He has a fever and no appetite. It's also VERY hot outside here (hot for us anyhow). It's September 10 and it was 91 degrees here today and tomorrow is supposed to be just as hot. Then, it is supposed to cool down. As far as I'm concerned heat like this is meant for spending time by the water.

It was never that hot here in the Summer part of Summer, so I suppose it's right that it's hot now. At least our corn is growing. We gave up on a lot of vegetables around here because when we planted them, the seeds rotted in the ground from the wet and the cold, and we planted our plants late. Everything I did in my 8' x 6' greenhouse did great. I really want a great big greenhouse. Nothing fancy, but I really think it could pay for itself as we could extend our seasons and even grow some things year round. That's a big project for my husband though. ;)

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Olympic Peninsula Vacation #4 - Hoh Rainforest

Here is the last installment of our vacation. That vacation wore me out! So, here it is 3 weeks later and I'm just now putting up the last of the photos. I hope to do some other type of outing this year (like going to the beach), but doing outings with a new one year old is hard. He just wants to eat rocks and not always big ones either.

We've had a mild summer here and enjoyed a time at the fair. We also got a new calf which we are bottle feeding. I hope to have a tame steer out of the deal. I'm in charge of feeding him! My little baby also turned one. It's all going by so fast, as it's been really hectic, but I hope to put up what pictures I have of that soon. Yesterday, it finally turned hot. It was 95 degrees here yesterday and we went to the river. The girls wades and arranged rocks, but we should have brought our swimming suits. I actually enjoy that kind of weather, as long as I have a cool house to come home to. I hope all of you are having a good summer.

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hoh_rainforest

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hoh_josiah_rock

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Olympic Peninsula Vacation #3 - Kalaloch Beach & Beach 4

Here is the next leg of our vacation. After visiting Hurricane Hill, Sol Duc Falls, Lake Crescent, and Salt Creek, we headed around the Olympic Peninsula to the Ocean. We stayed at Kalaloch Campground, which I highly recommend. The beach is wonderful and the campground is good too. There are numerous other highly beautiful beaches surrounding Kalaloch. This trip we went to Beach 4. Isn't that a funny name for a beach? This beach is known for its tide pools. But, this year, the low tide during the day was positive 3, so there wasn't much to see even at low tide. We went there several years ago and saw tons of tide pool life. This is highly recommended. But, check your tide schedule. Even without a low tide, this beach is beautiful. And probably because of the lack of low tide, it was totally isolated. We had a great day.

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My middle girl. At our campground.

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About to go down to the beach by our campground. Kalaloch Beach.

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The water is cold on the Olympic Peninsula.

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Someone fell in the water.

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Beach 4 - Olympic Peninsula

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Sand Castle Building was in order.

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The 3 year old's sand castle. (Her Daddy actually made it.)

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Watching and waiting.

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Incoming Tide - Beach 4 - Olympic Peninsula

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Waves - Beach 4 - Olympic Peninsula

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The demise of the sand castles