Happy Birthday, C.!

C. turned 8 yesterday, and out of all the places he had to choose from, he wanted to eat at Taco Bell. I mean he didn't even want to go to a "real" Mexican restaurant. Without trying to sway him, I named every restaurant in our whole town just in case he had forgotten any, and he STILL chose Taco Bell. It was his birthday and his choice, so we all obliged.

I should have started interviews several years ago, but I didn't, so I wanted to go ahead and start doing it this year since children change so much over time. Here are the replies of a certain 8 year old boy:

What is your favorite...
Food? Cheese Pizza
Color? blue...AND green
Song? Jesus Loves Me
TV Show? Phineas and Ferb Why? because they build things like me
Movie? Fireproof
Bible Verse? John 3:16
Toy? Legos and big fire truck
Animal? dog, cat, and lion
Friend? Austin and Aaron
Meat? turkey
Veggie? tomatoes
Ice Cream? chocolate chip cookie dough
Dessert? brownies
Cake? chocolate with chocolate icing and chocolate sprinkles
Drink? green tea
Automobile? blue 4 door Dodge "dually" truck
Game? Wii Baseball
Number? 100 Why? because I might die then and go to Heaven
Sport's team? Carolina Panthers Why? because they're famous and cool
Thing to Wear? "All of my clothes because without them I would be naked."
Sport? baseball
Place to Eat? Pizza Hut
Person You Most Admire? Dad
Thing to Do with Mom? go shopping
Thing to Do with Dad? sit in his lap and watch tv
Thing to Do with S.? build with Legos
Place to Go? Monkey Joe's
Thing to Do at the Beach? play in the ocean on my boogie board
Thing to Do in the Mountains? ride bumper cars at Dollywood

I hope your birthday was great!!! You are becoming such a sweet young man, and I know God has very special plans for your life. You are Truly a miracle!! What a blessing you are to me. I love your hugs and kisses, especially when I don't have to ask for them! :) You will always be my favorite boy, "Harry!" I love you to the moon and back and then some!!! Happy birthday, my sweet son!!

WARNING...Detour Ahead!

Since I began homeschooling my little darlings 4 years ago, we have always used the books in the Little Hearts for His Glory curriculum line...and absolutely LOVED IT!!! This year, however, I had some mixed reviews and reservations about continuing with the same kind of curriculum in the Bigger Hearts for His Glory book. I struggled. I mean I REALLY struggled, but I continued to pray about it and THOUGHT I was doing the right thing by using it, but using a different math. It took me only a couple of days to realize that this was just not going to work for us, but we stuck with it for a week just to see if it would get better for us. I'm sorry to say that it didn't. In my personal opinion this particular book was very different from the first three (which we LOVED). I just felt like it was too much for us. That's the only way I know to describe it.

I researched some other options for history and science, and placed an order with Rainbow Resource. Now we are in a transitional phase as we await our new books!! I'm excited, though. Whenever we receive our order, we will begin using Mystery of History for our social studies portion, Exploring Creation with Zoology 1 for science, and Sequential Spelling 1 for spelling. We will continue using Saxon for math since it is new to us this year and for reading we'll continue to follow the block in the BHFHG book along with our phonics book. I also like how BHFHG does Bible Study, so we'll follow that plan as well. For writing, my eldest little darling will use Cheerul Cursive, and my son will be using Italic Handwriting Book C. Then throughout the year, I'll be working with my little darlings to create some books. I think we're in for a fun year...I'll try to let you know how it goes!

A Piece of My Past...

Raise your hand if you remember this. This was probably my very first electronic toy when I was growing up. It's called "Little Professor," and it's an electronic calculator that was put out by Texas Instruments. It has a copyright of 1976 on it. I used to play with this thing all the time. It's one of the memories from my childhood. When I found it today, I couldn't believe that it still worked!!! I was so excited!! What is it about our favorite childhood toys? They stir up such excitement and emotion. You find something like this, and you become an 8 year old elementary school girl all over again. I hope you enjoyed this trip down "memory lane". I may have to post some of my other childhood memories at another time like my Farah Fawcett doll and my Donnie and Marie Osmond dolls. All of a sudden I feel VERY OLD!!!

Freedom Is Not Free!

There is a price to pay, but most of us are unwilling to pay for our freedom. We leave it in the hands of our Armed Forces. Behind every military uniform is a father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter, grandson, granddaughter, uncle, aunt. Sometimes we forget that. We forget (myself included) that each one leaves behind a family. Let us remember to pray for them and their families.

Those military men and women could not protect us without our Almighty God. He watches over us all, and He is our ultimate Protector! May God bless America...land that I love!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Starting Over

You are looking at alot of hard work, effort, and money.........or what used to be. I have really grown to love our freezer, especially when we have a garden. It comes in so handy! I wish I had taken a picture of it a few days ago, and you would have seen all the garden veggies from last year and the current one. You would have also seen all of our meats, seafood items, as well as some home made bread and a few other various things. I've been trying over the last 2-3 years to be very resourceful and use the freezer to my advantage. Yesterday evening, however, I went to the freezer to get some shrimp to cook for my family, and I walked in the building where the freezer is to find a horrible mess: blood and water that had flowed from inside the freezer to the floor in front of it and beneath it. It smelled...BAD!!! I don't know exactly when it happened, but somehow the door of the freezer had become ajar, and there was all of my hard work and Carl's hard earned paychecks sitting there ruined before my eyes in 100 degree weather!! A knot came to my stomach and a lump formed in my throat. I cried. I couldn't help it - I was so disheartened. That was when God reminded me of how blessed we really are. We have so many blessings - too numerous to count. We had also read in our devotion that morning about how if God clothes the flowers and takes care of the birds, then He will take care of His children.

When I went to take this photo this morning, so many Biblical lessons came to my mind. I realize we're not going to starve, and I realize that there are other people who go to a fridge everyday and see a similar photo and wonder where their next meal is coming from. How can I complain when God was the One who provided it?? It will take some time and more hard work, but with God's help, we'll have things added back to it. As a matter of fact, I have several zucchini that were picked from the garden yesterday morning and need to be cooked and put up. God is AWESOME!!!

A Wet Kind of Day...

I loved the animals that were put together with pots at Dollywood. Here's a snake. No, I'm not calling my son a snake!! LOL



















It was so hot and humid at Dollywood that we chose one day to just ride all water rides... (Well, I didn't!) Hey, someone's got to make pictures!!!



Everyone loved riding River Rampage...the first time. (heh heh heh) Daddy and I didn't ride either time, so we found something more fun to do - we discovered the blasters. The blasters are associated with a colored flag along the "trail" that the boat takes. Well, you put a quarter in the slot right as the boat is coming by that colored flag, and the ones you love the most get "blasted" with water! Timing is everything!!










This is River Battle, and, yes, it is a battle to ride...or not! Let me explain. You see, those of us who are innocently standing by to make pictures of our loved ones can be "shot" with water guns assigned to each person on the boat. Now let me just say, these people that "shoot" you may or may NOT know you. Acquaintance is NO factor in this ride. You can innocently be passing by and get pretty wet! What makes it cool, though, is that those who are on the outside of the ride can "shoot" back if he is standing at one of the "guns" along the outside. It makes for a pretty interesting ride, and one that you have to be prepared for because you will definitely get sopping wet!!! I became highly offended when someone I didn't know "shot" me!!! All I wanted was to get some good shots of my family as they rode this ride!! I ran away and started pouting and sucking my thumb. How dare someone wet me that I didn't even know, and HOW DARE THEY WET MY CAMERA!!!!!!! I was finally able to calculate where I could stand and NOT get myself or my camera wet and just use the zoom feature! LOL This was the last wet ride of our day because you get so wet. You've pretty much had your shower for the day, so you might as well put on fresh, dry clothes and continue on your journey. Or you could pay $3.00 for the family dryer and get dried off!! Ha!

25 Years and Counting...

Dollywood is celebrating 25 years this year, and we always have a blast when we go. This time seemed hotter than any other time we've ever been. It was so very humid, but we still enjoyed it!!


I could eat this boy up, especially when I see those dimples shine through!!!








She loves to ride anything that tickles her tummy! This is one of her favorite rides. See that smile?!?!










What's Dollywood without Dolly? We happened to be there on the first day of the Kids Fest, and she made her way through the park. When she passed by us, it was like she knew I wanted her picture and looked straight at my camera!






What a beautiful sunset God gave us to behold on our way home. It was absolutely breathtaking!!