they made it!

Got word yesterday that Jessica and Emily made it safe and sound to Wyoming.

Jessica leaves today

Please pray for Jessica our 19 year old daughter. She is leaving in a few hours to go to Wyoming. She will be there until Sept. then come back for a visit and then go back to Wyoming til Dec. She and three other girls will be driving the 10 hrs today. They plan to stop tonight and then press on tomorrow morning arriving sometime around mid-day. The other three girls will be heading back home here on Tuesday by plane. Pray for safety in travel.

pray for the Fox family!

Lastnight this family's 8 yr old son was electrocuted and killed instantly, when he ran through a mud puddle that had some exposed electrical wires in it. That is all the details that I have for now.

Fancy Nancy Explorer Extraordinaire

Lastnight (Friday) I took the little girls to Rockford (in a terrible rain storm) to a bookstore called Wonderland Books and Gifts. It is a fabulous place, we love it. The newest Fancy Nancy book came out recently and they were having a special party because of it. We arrived a few minutes late after travelling on flooded roads to get there. I thought we would need a boat to get through the last couple blocks LOL! We left our shoes at the door as they were full of puddles, then the girls sat on the floor and enjoyed the newest Fancy Nancy story. After the story they had craft stations. They made glitter explorerer notebooks, then decorated clay pots, they then made fancy headband crowns, and then finally a lovely flower coursage. To complete the evening they have delicious pink cupcakes! Of course Savannah took the dark pink one and had pink lips and teeth well after we arrived home LOL! They received little gift bags with Fancy Nancy stickers, two hand fans two pairs of Fancy Nancy binoculars and all kinds of fun stuff. The drive home was much more pleasant than the ride down, but it was well worth it. We arrived home around nine, just in time to wind down and then head to bed. So fun to have lots of little girls!!

silly girl and new floor

Here are a few random pictures. Two are of Olivia trying to fit several starburst candies into her mouth at one time. She only got to six and after that they all started to fall out. We also got some new flooring in our kitchen last week. It looks wonderful. In the picture the appliances and trim are not in yet but those things are in now and it looks like a whole new place.

sewing

The past several months I have been teaching Olivia-8 and Abigail-7 to sew. First by hand, and now with the machine. Both girls are coming along nicely and will have completed clothing projects by the end of the week if they perservere. The next project will be another skirt, but it will be accompanied by a field trip to the fabric store. I am very fortunate to have a machine that has a speed control, as first time seamstresses usually like to put the pedal to the medal LOL!

Here are a few pictures of both girls at various points in their projects.

Wordless Wednesday!

update!

This is a quick update on my mom. After an 8 hr surgery last Wednesday she is coming home tomorrow!! She has had an amazing recovery! Thank you all for your prayers I know that God has answered them!

update/mom

Another update on my mom! She is now in her own room and has been for a couple days now. She is up and walking around without any IV's tubes or other "connections" to machinery. Her progress is remarkable and it is very encouraging. She probably won't be home for over a week yet, but at least she is on the mend. She is in very good spirits, and more like herself. Praise the Lord!!!

Happy children

Happy children are so hard to come by. My brother works at a public school and sees young five year old children that are ill mannered and disrespectful. How did they get that way? Well lets look. He says he knows many of the parents history and most of these young ones come from homes where there may be a mother that has never married but is having babies left and right, changing men as fast as a jackrabbit on a date! Many of the siblings have different fathers, there may even be some that she doesn't know who the father is!! Yes folks it is happening to our youngest children in our own public school systems! This is not a movie of the week!! Happy children come from loving supportive homes with lots to do and rules and standards. They have high expectations and often live up to each and every one of them. They are not concerned with dressing immodestly as they get enough attention in there loving homes that they don't even think of drawing attention to themselves. This will also illiminate this "freak" looking youth.

So the next time someone stops in the grocery store to admire your well behaved modestly dressed happy children just smile and say "thank you" and give all the glory to God!

I may be writing more on this subject in the months to come.

inspired by God!

update/mom

My mom's surgery went well. It was from 9:05 am to about 4pm. Very long. She was having some trouble waking up and breathing well so they left the breathing tube in and sedated her. They took out a very hard gallbladder, part of the intestine, and parts of other organs as well. She was packed full of gall stones which made surgery a little tricky for the surgeon. Our family would appreciate your continued prayers for her recovery, as she will be in the hospital for 10-14 days. I will update further when I know a little bit more.

PRAY!

Please pray for my mom. Shirley. She is going in for surgery tomorrow for bile duct cancer. She will also have her gallbladder removed. Her surgery is called the whipple surgery, you can look it up on webmd.com
Thanks

Menu Monday!

Hot dogs, Salad, fruit, and dessert of some form

Sloppy Joes, Mac and Cheese(from scratch) and green beans

porcupine meatballs, mashed potatoes, and peas

leftovers

BBQ drumsticks, french fries, and salad

Lawry's chicken, mashed cheesy potatoes, and broccoli

Quesedillas, salad, and chips

Mac and cheese from scratch with tomatoes and green olives in it, salad, and fruit.

Happenings here!

Good morning all!

Yesterday (Saturday) we all piled into the van and went to the circus. Our children have never experienced the circus so we thought it would be a wonderful diversion from our normal Saturday happenings. It started at 4:00 and we arrived there at 3:59! We had pretty good seats, and the excitement was wonderful! I didn't get alot of pictures of the actual show because of lighting issues, but I have a few of the children enjoying popcorn and cotton candy. It was almost 3 hrs long. It was great! However about 15 minutes before the last act came on little Lily began to throw up! Yup right there at the circus! At first she got herself and the side of my dress, and then I gave her the empty popcorn box to use. Then I ushered her to the bathroom to get somewhat cleaned up. By the time we were headed back to our seats the crowd was leaving the building so Ihad to make my way through the crowd going the wrong way with a 2 yr old and a sick 5 yr old. I got to our seats and Steve had everything gathered up so we joined the crowd and began our trek back to our van. We did stop to get t-shirts for all the girls, and had a clown sign them. It was quite windy and cold when we were walking back to our van and the girls were very cold but so excited that they hardly noticed, except Lily. We made it within 2 blocks of our house when Lily began to "blow" again. We stopped at the gas station and Steve grabbed several paper towels and gave them to me. I found a plastic bag that had the t-shirts in and threw them on the floor and gave the empty bag to Lily, but it was too late! She already emptied her stomach over the side of her booster seat between the seat and side of the van. She didn't want to vomit into the seat beside her because she said there was a library book sitting there! LOL!

Anyway, except for sickness it was a wonderful time at the circus. Now I have to get back to my three ring circus! Until another time!

Frugal Fridays

Sewing!

God's word should be applied to all we do including sewing. We teach through principles as well as character traits and Godly examples from the Scriptures.

Don't throw that garment away due to a missing button, broken hem, or mending issues. Sewing will teach you important skills you will use throughout your lifetime.

Sewing allows the teacher to use any or all of the different learning styles. It strengthens the relationship between parent and child.

Transferable skills are gained in the sewing process, and these can be applied to many areas of an adult's life. If a child learns to read a pattern, he should be able to transfer these skills to reading a blueprint when he is older. (yes boys should learn to sew as well as girls!!)

Much of the sewing process utilizes mathematics, measurement, and monetary skills.

Sewing encourages creativity and builds independent thinking skills through pattern selection and color choices.

And last of all proficiency in sewing allows you to select your own clothing styles and make garments you are comfortable wearing. And the rewards don't stop there; sewing is a skill that once learned will spill over positively into other areas of life. Sewing is a benefit to homeschool families because it can be a starting place to introduce many other subjects.

Taken from The Old Schoolhouse magazine.

Wordless Wednesday!