We LOVE School

This morning Josiah was up early, before 5:30. To keep him busy I let him start his school work for the day. He is always begging to do school - even on Saturdays and Sundays. Soon Abby woke up and joined him, and Beth wanted to be part of it, too. I wanted to keep them busy and quiet while I read my Bible. It worked for a little while. They were too cute. I had to take their pictures. How many kids want to do school the first thing after they wake up?!? All the schools around us are on Christmas break, but I can't convince them to take a long break. Plus the weather is not good for playing outside. Who wants four kids under five running around the house all day? My yard is muddy, and the sky looks like it could rain again. School work gives them something to fill up some of their time indoors. We also been baking cookies, and playing learning games.

Ultrasound results...

There is one baby not twins, and looks like a girl. The kids are sad. They wanted a boy. The due date has been moved to the middle of March. Could be a birthday present for one of the others. All looks good for going ahead with the plans for a home birth.

Birthdays and ages

My kids enjoy discussing birthdays and how old they are. I often hear questions like, "If I am six (or seven, eight...) how old will Josiah and Beth be?" It is a good way to practice adding or subtracting by twos. The other day Robert asked Josiah, “How old are you going to be on your next birthday?” Josiah held up 4 fingers, and Robert replied, “That’s right. How old do you want to be?” Josiah quickly answered, “69”.

Baby update

Wednesday I had an appointment with my midwife. I am at 20 weeks and things are going well. I did measure quite a bit bigger than what I should be. This has raised the question again of "Is it twins?" I have an ultra sound scheduled in a few weeks that will settle that question. I would welcome another set of twins, but it would make it difficult to have a home birth. One thing I really want to avoid is a c-section.
I am a bit short on sleep. Getting up in the middle of the night with kids will do that. So it is off to bed for me. Good night all.

Sweet pictures

Church was a little long, and they had no nap. They were too cute sleeping side by side.

My princesses!!

Beth's hair is finally long enough to put piggy tails in it. Her hair is very light and fine compared to the others. Even though it is cold here she still runs around bare foot. I can't keep socks on her!

Pretending

My kids love to pretend. I don't know many who don't. I took these photos of them pretending to have church. Robert preached, Josiah led the singing, and Abby sang a special song she made up for the occasion.

Gardening

I have enjoyed our garden. I do every year. It gives me an excuse to get out of the house, enjoy playing in the dirt, and get some vitamin D from the sun. It also is great to feed my family with the home grown, organic, fresh produce from my own garden. I miss it over the winter. If I could find a way to have a green house without spending a lot of money, I would do it. I expanded my gardening area and had even more this year.
The kids got involved as usual. They love playing in the dirt, and the youngest usually eats some of the dirt, too. They each had their favorite vegetables they wanted to plant. Abby's favorite is peas, while Robert likes carrots. Josiah is still learning about what grows and what doesn't, so he asked to plant spam this year. Now I did plant the potatoes which combined with spam makes a favorite dish for Navajos.
We tried some new things this year. Broccoli worked great, but cauliflower did nothing. I also tried the wall-o-water this year and really liked the results. The night temperatures really drop here and makes it hard to start plants. The wall-o-water helped even out the temperature fluctuations and we enjoyed some beautiful tomatoes and jalapeno much earlier than usual. Here are some of our gardening photos.Josiah is very proud of his tomato plant, which is bigger than him!We planted broccoli, cauliflower, peas, onions, beets, potatoes, corn, tomatoes, green chillies, jalapenos, bell peppers, cantaloupe, watermelon, and cucumbers.

Let me dress myself, please!

Beth loves to dress herself. After I dress her, she uses her own clothes or other family members clothes to add to what we have already done. Her own clothes are still a challenge for her so she usually raids her brothers' and sister's things

Dad's shorts on upside down.

Brother's t-shirts on. I think she has two on.

Next she added sister's skirt and brother's underwear (upside down under the skirt).

The skirt is inside out, but she is enjoying her outfit.

Witnessing

Today we had a deaf mother of a bus girl come to church with her daughter. My friend, Delight, interpreted morning church. Then they both came back for evening church. I interpreted the service for them and then afterwards got to witness to both of them. They trusted Jesus!!! This is the first time I ever witnessed to a deaf person. I have been doing a lot of witnessing at church and I am shocked by how many people come to our church, but do not know they are going to heaven. Some even think that coming to our church will get them to heaven. If you are reading this and do not know for sure you are going to heaven, please watch this. I am very excited, but I need to try to get some sleep. There is a baby growing inside me and he or she takes a lot of my energy.

Summer Fun

We have had some wonderful opportunities to spend some great family time. Here are a few.
This past weekend we went camping near Prescott, AZ. We got there Thursday and set up our tent in the rain. It rained and drizzled most of the time we were there, but we still had fun, especially the kids. They played at a lake.Then we played in the puddles.Climbed the trees.And had a good time with friends.We have a source for raw milk. My s enjoy helping make butter out of the cream.We went to a waterfall in Colorado and let the kids play in the water. They had a great time. Abby really loves to get wet.
Another weekend we went to the Bisti and helped Grandma round up cows and did some branding. Grandma gave us a two cows for helping. The kids watched the round up from a safe location.
The cows waiting their turn.
The kids loved climbing the fence.
All the kids love animals. Beth managed to catch this hen as it was wondering around the yard. The hens I have right now are very gentle and friendly. Some days are too much fun to wait for nap time.
Another hike we took in Colorado, just north of Dolores. It is very beautiful and green. I love all the green. Abby took our picture.
Robert keeps rocks with him to throw in the water any chance he gets.
Girls playing in a little stream.
Beth did some walking in between riding on our shoulders.
This summer we celebrated six years of marriage. We found out this past week that I am expecting again. I am tired a lot, and soon expect morning sickness to set in. We are excited and look forward to another home birth.

Delight

When I first started teaching, I taught at a church school in Florida. This past week one of those students from my very first class has moved out here. It has been over 11 years since I was in Florida. My former student, Delight, has moved here to teach in our church's school. I am enjoying having her here. I spent time with her family when I lived in Florida.
Today Delight helped visit bus route and soul win today. I had two saved. She wants to learn how I soul win because she doesn't like the "1, 2, 3 repeat after me" kind of soul winning. I am so happy to be able to help train someone, and to have a partner to go with other than my husband. I do love going with my husband, but I feel I should be training others as well. Not just going with my family.
That is all I have time to write for now. Just really excited and wanted to share it with everyone who will listen or read it! :-)

New Door

My parents were here for a visit during the month of May. I love to have my dad come visit because he loves to fix and build things. This year we had him remove the kitchen window, put in a door and build a porch. He and my husband started Monday morning and by that evening the door was hung. Tuesday they finished the outside. Wednesday they trimmed the inside and started the porch, by Thursday most all of it was done. Friday Dad helped me with my gardening. I would like to share some about my garden on another post.

Beth looking out window that we took out.The outside Monday evening.The kids enjoy the new porch. One thing I like is they can play with the water table and not make mud!

We all enjoy the new door. I think it gets used more than any other door right now.

Grandpa also brought a bunk bed that he had built a few years ago for my nieces.

Did you know...

...that a pencil will make marks under water on a porcelain surface? Elisabeth proved this to us just the other day.

The artist...


The artwork...


Fortunately it came off with a simply cleaning. :)

School update

School is going great. One of the reasons I haven't blogged much is I have been working hard on putting together things for the kids to do. I haven't found a curriculum that I can stick to. I have been piecing different things together. When something isn't working or I find a problem with it, I look for something different.
I started something kind of like work boxes, which seems to be big among homeschoolers. I just couldn't see us having 12 boxes on a rolling shelf for each child setting around my school area. I used supplies that I already had and created a file system for each child. We do six folders for each in one box. The folders are color coded. Any work that we all do together goes at the front of my box. Josiah is all excited about doing his folders each day. I let him go first each day because he will not stop asking until we do it. He usually begs to do it on weekends, also. Each evening (usually after kids are in bed) I put the papers, books, flashcards, or projects in their folders for the next day. I find that I am getting more done with it organized this way. Before I would just write down on a paper what I wanted to do, but half the time I would loose the paper or still forget something.
We do Bible together first thing in the morning. We sing a few hymns. (It is great to hear my kids singing hymns while playing or in the restroom.) They each have a favorite hymn. We then read from the Bible. We are reading through Genesis right now. I usually do half a chapter a day since they don't sit quiet very long. Abby and Robert help do some of the reading. Then we work on our Bible memory. We are memorizing Ecclesiastes chapter one. Even Josiah is getting in on it this time. He surprises me with how much he can say.
After breakfast and chores, Josiah does his school time with mom. He is learning the sounds of the alphabet and starting to blend two letters together. I am currently using The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. I found it at the library. I love the library it is my favorite place to go in town. We use blocks with abc's on the for him to "build" words. In math he is working on counting and recognizing numbers.
For our second all together time we are using Five in a Row (FIAR). FIAR takes a book such as Peter Rabbit and uses that story to teach math, language, art, science, history for the week. We do one suggested activity or lesson each day after reading the story. The library is my may source of books for this curriculum. I found the FIAR manuels there and the books. I have started buying a few books used that the library didn't have.
Late morning and after lunch I work with Abby and Robert individually. Both reading well above normal for their age, doing simple addition and subtraction, and learning to write neatly. With the warm weather they have not been doing much of their individual work, but have been enjoying playing outside and learning to ride their bikes without training wheels.
Rueben is almost halfway done with his last year of school. Not sure what his plans are after he is done, but we are encouraging him to date, and talk to girls.

Phoenix Trip

This past weekend we visited friends in Phoenix. We left early Saturday morning - a miracle with little children, and were in Phoenix area by lunchtime.
We took the kids to the McCormick-Stillman Railway Park. They loved it! Especially since they had been sitting in the car for many hours. The whole weekend they kept asking to go back again. After lunch we let them play at the play ground.

Then we rode the train around the park. The kids rode in the boxcar and we rode in the car in front of them.Next we rode the carousel. Abby loved it, and Robert was a bit nervous about the horses. Josiah played it safe and sat with mommy and Beth.

Sunday Morning we got to go to Faithful Word Baptist Church and hear some great Bible preaching. After a good lunch my husband went soul winning with the men of the church, and I got to spend time with the pastor's wife. Our kids had fun playing together while we talked. Later we went soul winning while the dads watched their kids.

They loved dressing up. I need to find them more costumes.

The trip home was good. After a good breakfast at Cracker Barrel - thanks to Grandma who met us there, we did some shoppingt at hrift stores and survey stores (for my husband). I bought mostly books for the kids to read.

The ride home started like this.

And then looked like this. I enjoyed this rare moment of all kids sleeping at on time during the day.