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.

Saturday at Albrquerque Aquarium

Last Friday my husband suggested that we go to the Albuquerque Aquarium Saturday and do some shopping. I am not one to make sudden plans, but I liked the idea and set to work getting things ready. We left home at 6am – a small miracle for a family with four young ones! We got to the Aquarium by 10am and spent a few hours looking at the fish and taking photos. It was fun to listen to the comment of the kids. It is amazing what they come up with. Abby told me that the mouth of the rays looks like a zipper.

After the Aquarium we went to the Botanical Garden which had an area for kids. It had normal garden items made extra large so you felt like an ant walking through the area. The kids were slightly scared at first. There was a dragon statue at the entrance and a large bee that buzzed when you passed it. But they soon got over their fear and were climbing on everything.

Beth had fun running around. The wheel on my stroller broke so we didn’t have a stroller to keep her strapped in. She loved the freedom.

After that we went to a surveyor’s store for my husband, then on to thrift stores to get clothes and books. We also stopped at a used bookstore, but I didn’t buy anything.

Birthday

It is hard to believe how quickly a year passes. My little baby has turned one! She is not little anymore and she loves to be down to explore. She still snuggles with me in bed at night, but is busy keeping up with the bigger kids during the day. Here are recent photos of her and the family party we had Saturday.

First Egg

I was very excited to find a fresh brown egg in the nest box this morning. I have missed fresh eggs ever since the dogs killed my hens. My chicks are now old enough to lay!!
We used it today to make cupcakes, and it had a double yoke - twins! Now I need a rooster.

The Egg

The Hens - they look too much alike to name them all, but a few do have names.Their home that my talented husband built