I haven't written in over a week...

...because I've just been too tired, and had nothing to write about. Well, that's not really totally true. The being-too-tired part is, but not the nothing-to-write-about thing. I have so many things that race through my mind each day, but finding time to sit down and actually address them in writing is nearly impossible. I would say I've had nothing to write about when I've had the five or ten minutes to sit down and stare at the "New Post" screen. There's honesty.

This week I'm going to try just writing a little bit each day.

Yesterday I was out of the house for most of the day, which I don't like to do on a Saturday. I really need to clean the house! From 8:30 to 12:30 Mary and I were gone to an American Heritage Girls event. We got home, ate lunch, and then I had to go get a few groceries to last until tomorrow afternoon when I can do a big grocery shopping trip. At 2:30 we had to leave to go down to the Historic District so Mary could participate in a scavenger hunt with our homeschool support group's high school group. The mom who organized it used a local company that sets up scavenger hunts in one area of the Historic District. There were about 16 kids there, and they all had a blast. Mary wound up on a team with 3 teens she didn't know, but that didn't phase her. She made three new friends, and their team won!

During the scavenger hunt my friend Cindy, (whose son Aaron is Mary's age and also went on the scavenger hunt) and I went to Panera and hung out having a cinnamon crunch bagel with honey-walnut cream cheese, chai tea, and excellent conversation. She's always so much fun to be around, and we talk about everything together. I usually talk to her on the phone every couple of days, anyway, but it was nice to have about an hour and a half to just sit, have a yummy snack, and discuss life. The weather was gorgeous, there were tourists everywhere, and I was impressed again with what a blessing it is to live in such a beautiful city.

Once Mary and I got home I had to make supper, clean up from supper, and then prepare to make food this morning for our fellowship.

Tonight I still have to write up Mary and Bobby's schedule of lessons for the week.  So off I go.

We Survived Camping!

Mary and I got back about an hour and a half ago from our camping trip. It was a great weekend, but I'm looking forward to sleeping in my own comfortable bed tonight instead of in a sleeping bag on a tent floor. I've been unpacking and putting things away ever since we got home, and still have a few loads of laundry to do, but I decided to take a break and write. Here is how the weekend went:

We left immediately after our homeschool co-op on Friday, which gets out at 2:30, and came home to finish packing the van. Our goal was to leave the house at 4:00, and we pulled out at 4:03.  Yay.
We had Mary's friend Kylynn with us, who is also part of the AHG troop. Another young lady was supposed to be with us, but she was sick. We stopped for gasoline and snacks, then hit the road. At about 5:45 we arrived at Black Creek Scout Reservation, the local Boy Scout council's camping area. It's a beautiful facility that is still under development and construction. It has a small lake, tent camping areas, and a swimming area that is still not finished (and in any case, it wasn't warm enough to swim yet.) It even has an excellent bathroom building with 12 individual bathrooms with toilet, sink, and shower! All the comforts of home, which we don't always get on AHG campouts. (Sometimes we have to use pit toilet/outhouse things...)

We set up our tents and kitchen gear, and got acquainted with the campsite. By the way, scout rules are that a parent cannot sleep in a tent with a child who is not related to them, so we had to take two tents. Mary, Kylynn, and a couple of other girls who had come with their dads all slept in our family's big tent, and I slept in our little tent by myself. A perfect setup, in my opinion! The girls were a huge help setting up the tents since by now they are old hands at it.

We went on to have a wonderful time. The weather was perfect; it was in the 70s during the day and down into the 50s at night. It didn't rain at all, there was a nice breeze, and it was sunny and warm enough that some of us got pink on our noses and cheeks! We did a lot of walking around the lake, exploring, cooking yummy meals, hanging out with friends (I had several homeschool-mom-friends who were there) and sitting around campfires. The girls made s'mores each night; well, actually, Mary doesn't eat s'mores but she hung out with all the girls while they made them. She and her friends also spent hours playing games and laughing.  I got to meet several homeschool moms I had never met before because along with our American Heritage troop, the Boy Scout troop and Cub Scout pack were camping, too, and I didn't know some of the moms. There were about 75 people, total, so it was a large group!

I love everything about camping except the sleeping bag part. And before you ask, yes, we own an air mattress, but #1) it's a double-bed size and won't fit in our little tent, and #2) it has a leak and you wind up on the ground anyway. This time I took two foam mats and an extra sleeping bag, but still had trouble with back and hip pain each morning. Also, I tend to sleep on my stomach with one knee up, or on my side, rolling back and forth during the night; both are nearly impossible in a sleeping bag.

Sleeping difficulties aside, I love being out in the fresh air (as long as I've taken my allergy meds,) cooking on a camp stove or over a fire, sitting around with friends talking and laughing, walking in the woods or around a lake, playing games, singing, and everything else that goes along with camping. This morning our Pioneer/Patriot unit (the girls I help lead) assisted in leading the whole group in "Holy, Holy, Holy," "Amazing Grace," and "And, Can it Be?" during the worship time.

So we had a nice weekend, although we missed Eric, Caroline, and Bobby. We're glad to be home!

Time for Bed

I got almost everything done today. Things actually went very well all day long, thanks to the Lord's wonderful grace and mercy, and the blessings He has given me in my husband and kids. The only thing I didn't manage to do yet is pack my clothing; I can do that in the morning before co-op. Cooking, cleaning, schooling, teaching lessons, grocery shopping, loading up the van with camping gear, packing food and cooking gear, and even the laundry are all completed. Eric and the kids helped a lot. Oh, and I prepared to teach tomorrow, too.

I just remembered another thing I didn't have time to do: write up next week's lesson plans. Not a big deal; I got all of their lessons from today graded, so I'll just do the plans Sunday evening or better yet, early Monday morning.

Please pray for me, if you read this, as I drive to the camping area tomorrow and set up two tents. It's not my favorite thing to do.

If any of you prayed for Caroline, thank you. She is starting to feel better.

Off to bed.

Too Many Things to Do

Yesterday was a much better day weather-wise here in Savannah. It was sunny and breezy, and fairly warm. Last night it went down into the 30s and today is supposed to be cooler, but still sunny.  I can handle this sort of weather!

I really want to make a habit of writing something every day, but it doesn't seem like a realistic goal. I simply have too many things to do each day to be able to carve out the time to sit down and write. Even now, I should be doing other things which I am neglecting to be able to write this. I need to figure out how to have guilt-free blogging time.

Today my to-do list is extensive since Mary and I are going camping this weekend with her American Heritage Girls troop. Here's my list:

1. Homeschool Mary and Bobby, making sure they are prepared for all their co-op classes tomorrow. Grade all of their daily work today, and write lesson plans for next week. I could put off the lesson-planning until Sunday night, but I'll probably be too tired.
2. Prepare to teach my two classes at the co-op tomorrow. This one is mostly done already!
3. Keep the house clean.
4. Cook meals. Assign clean-up duties in the kitchen.
5. Teach piano for two and a half hours.
6. Go shopping for the all the food for the campout, as well as easy-to-fix food for the rest of the family to eat while we are gone.
7. Laundry. (that's an every-day thing!)
8. Get all the camping gear out of the shed and load it in the van.
9. Pack up the food and all other needed items for camping in big Rubbermaid containers.
10. Pack my own clothing, etc. for camping; be sure Mary packs hers.

I hope I haven't forgotten anything. Also, let me admit that my children will help with a lot of these, and Eric will help with the camping gear when he gets home from work. I'm not a one-woman show; my family is wonderfully willing to assist in all these duties. But I'm the organizer and director, so I have to keep the list in mind.

One other thing: my oldest is suffering with a bad head cold. If you read this please pray for her. She's pretty miserable.

Off I go. I'll write later about how it all worked out.

Embracing Middle Age, or When did I get this old?

About ten years ago asked my mother (or my mother-in-law, I can't remember which, and that's part of the point of this whole post) When do I have to start taking a bunch of different pills each day? The answer was vague: Some time in your 40s.....

I will be 46 next month, and I'm already at the pile-of-pills stage. Allergy meds, thyroid hormone, vitamins, fish oil, herbal remedies for pre-menopausal issues....Oh yes, I take them all.

I also have started having to write things down in order to remember them. This is because I'm juggling homeschooling two teenagers, teaching ten piano/voice students, teaching two classes of Spanish each Friday at our homeschool co-op, and co-leading Mary's unit at American Heritage Girls. Oh, and tutoring two teens in English/writing. There are just too many people and too many subjects to keep straight in my head. Ten years ago I could do it.

The other middle-age thing I'm experiencing is the need for bifocals and/or reading glasses. This actually happened in the fall of 2011, but I'm still in denial. I had to get bifocals. I tried doing the bifocal contact lens thing, where you wear a lens in one eye for distance and in the other for reading, but my brain just couldn't make it work. So when I wear my contacts I have to use reading glasses. When I got my bifocal glasses, the lower half (the reading part) was a +1.5 and so I used reading glasses of that strength when I wore my contacts. I have now had to increase my reading glasses to +2.00, so the lower part of my regular glasses isn't strong enough anymore. Occasionally I do the really old-lady-ish thing of putting on my reading glasses in front of my regular glasses. Mostly I just wear my contacts and keep a pair of reading glasses on my head, holding my hair back like a headband. Then I forget where my reading glasses are. I think it's time for another trip to the eye doctor...

I keep wondering when did I get this old? How did this happen? Then I realize that my eldest child is 19, and I have two other teenagers. My hair is starting to go gray around the temples. My joints occasionally ache for no apparent reason. I am not "cool" anymore and don't care. Yup, I'm middle-aged.

Now, I'm not complaining, you know. There are definite perks to middle age. My children are fairly self-sufficient and are good at getting their schoolwork done and helping with chores around the house. They are also really fun to hang out with. My marriage is wonderful, going on twenty-two years now, and my husband is my best friend. I don't have a lot of drama in my life and I like it that way. I am blessed with good parents, parents-in-law, in-laws in general, and friends. God is good, even though He didn't stop my aging process at 29. 

Father's Day: Lessons I've Learned

     On Mother's Day I wrote about my wonderful mom and mother-in-law and the things I have learned from them over the years. Today I would like to write about my father, John Putney, and my father-in-law, Vic Carpenter. Both have been wonderful blessings to me!

     I remember, when I was little, seeing Dad on his knees in his study praying. That image is burned into my mind; I never had to ask where my father got his guidance and wisdom. He led our family in daily devotions, and stressed the reading of the Word, the memorizing of verses, sharing of prayer needs, and praying together as a family. When I was little I took this all for granted; surely everyone had a family like this! But now that I'm older and wiser I realize how unusual it was, and thank God for it. Even now, my dad and mom pray for all of us kids, and all of our kids, every day. If I have any prayer request, from the most trivial thing to the highly urgent, I know that I can call my parents and ask them to pray.
    I learned many other things from my dad.  My dad taught us to work hard (one of these days I'll blog about the Chore List) and yet imbued our lives with a sense of fun, too.  He sang silly songs in the car (do you still do that, Dad?) as we drove along. My teenagers still enjoy "Mareseatoats" and other crazy songs. Dad made sure that we went to the beach together as a family for breakfast on the beach every once in a while (thanks, Mom, for all your work in that, too.)  We saw the beautiful sights of Puerto Rico along with living the daily grind of school, work, housework, and church activities.  Trips to El Yunque and Luquillo Beach were day-long adventures of fun; as an adult I now realize just how much work went into planning those trips, and it inspires me to do the same sort of things with my children.
     Dad taught all of us the importance of consistent, loving discipline. I will never forget being in his study, having been disciplined for some naughtiness or other, and Dad giving me a huge bear hug, telling me that he loved me very much and wanted me to be a grown-up who loves the Lord and lives to please Him. Through his loving discipline I learned self-control and self-discipline.
     I thank God every day for Dad, and realize just how blessed I am to have him as my daddy.
     When I met and married Eric, I gained another dad, Vic, my father-in-law. God has blessed me greatly through him, as well! Who knew, back in 1985 when I took French 1 at Houghton College, that my French professor would one day be my father-in-law? Vic has a great sense of humor, and has endured much goofing-off on my part over the years. He can make a pun out of nearly anything, much to the we're-groaning-but-we-love-it dismay of the kids. He and I can make cross-lingual jokes out of things, and while I help him learn Spanish, he can continue to help me learn French. Vic inspires me to keep learning throughout life; he has learned multiple languages as an adult and continues to both take and teach classes at a local senior center. He shares his knowledge with others and maintains a personal quest to learn more all the time. He plays tennis as his life-time sport, continuing to play despite having both hips replaced about fifteen years ago.

TO SUM UP:  I have been greatly blessed through my own parents, John and Ruth, and Eric's parents, Vic and Char. They have taught Eric and me by their example how to have a good marriage, how to raise our kids, how to manage our finances, and how to serve the Lord and keep Him first in our lives. I don't deserve any of these blessings; I consider them unmerited favor, or grace if you will.  I praise the Lord for His enduring kindness.

And Then There Were Two....

In May our oldest child graduated from home schooling. Yes, home schooling can be done successfully all the way through high school. She is currently doing quite well in college, majoring in English just as I did. The nine years I had with her at home, teaching her and watching her grow, are so precious to me now! She's off on her own, although still living at home, forging her own way on the collegiate scene. One advantage she has discovered in living at home is that she has a live-in proofreader and discussion partner for her papers. So in a way the home schooling continues.

So I have two children still attending Salt & Light Christian School full-time. It seems odd to only have to keep track of two kids and all their work. As I have done in the past, here is a summary of what we are doing this year for their schooling.

Mary is in 9th grade this year. Through our co-op she's taking Physical Science, Spanish 1, Art-Mixed Media, and Art-Drawing. She currently has an "A" in every class. At home she also studies Geometry, Geography, Health, and Language Arts.  For Language Arts this year she is doing Easy Grammar 9 and four Progeny Press Literature Guides (A Christmas Carol, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Fahrenheit 451.) She has completed the first two so far.  The Progeny Press guides cover reading comprehension, vocabulary, literary terminology, literary interpretation and criticism, and writing everything from short answers to long research papers. In addition to the assigned books, Mary is constantly reading books from the library, and about 90% of her Christmas wish-list consisted of books. Mary is also still working on writing left-handed; she can already print very neatly and is starting to learn cursive. I never knew that someone could decide to be ambidextrous!

Bobby is in 7th grade. At co-op he's taking Art-2-D (taught by a former home schooler who is a junior at SCAD,) Critical Thinking, and a middle-school level Human Anatomy & Physiology. At home he adds to these: Pre-Algebra, Sonlight World History and Literature (what used to be Core 6 and is now Core G,) Jump-In Writing, and Daily Grams 7. The literature in the Sonlight Core G is not really challenging him this year, so we are supplementing with lots of books from the library.

I asked the two of them recently what they would like to be doing more of, or learning, that we are not already doing. Mary said that she would like to be doing more community service (at the Humane Society and America's 2nd Harvest,) and Bobby said he would like to study Middle English. Their personalities, likes, and dislikes are so different! Mary's request is pretty easy; we can just schedule in time to do that.  Bobby's seemed a little daunting until I discovered that you can study Middle English online. He has always loved all things Medieval, and now he can learn to read Chaucer in the original. How about that!

Next post: what I'm reading in all my spare time!

Wii and Peaches-and-Cream

First, I said I would write more about the Wii game system we bought.  I have been using it (Wii Fit Plus) to exercise, and the whole family has enjoyed the Wii Fit and the Wii Sports.  The Wii Sports has baseball, tennis, bowling, golf, and boxing.  The Wii Fit has TONS of fitness activities:  hula-hoop, rhythm kung-fu, step aerobics, running, cycling, and so forth.  It also has fun games like Snowball Fight, Segway Circuite, and many more.  Eric and Bobby like to play doubles tennis, and last night I bowled a 277!  Woohoo, I'm a pro.  But perhaps the most fun part of the Wii is the little Mii characters that we can make.  Each of us in our family has made one, and we've made several others just for fun.
Here I am as a Mii:

And here are some we made for fun.  Do you recognize them?

Second, Mary's sweet little dwarf hamster, Lizzie, died yesterday.  I wrote about her when we first got her a year and a half ago.  She was a great little pet and we loved her, even though she bit me a few times.  God showed Mary yesterday that He even cares about her desire for a pet.  Before we even knew that Lizzie had died, (in fact, she was running on her little wheel in the morning,) we got an e-mail from some friends letting people know that they wanted to give away their guinea pig, Peaches-and-Cream, to a good home.  She is a 3-year-old guinea pig, very sweet and really beautiful.  I immediately called to talk to the mom of their family, my friend Cindy.  I discussed guinea pig care with her, and why they wanted to give her away (Cindy's boys have had guinea pigs for years and are just tired of taking care of them) and I mentioned to Cindy that I was afraid Lizzie was going to die any day because she was getting old for a dwarf hamster.  I arranged to adopt Peaches, which made Cindy and her boys happy.  A few minutes later I went to check on Lizzie.....and she was dead in her little cage.  How sad!  Mary was upset, but at the same time she was excited to be getting Peaches as a new pet.  We buried Lizzie in the back yard and thanked God for providing a new pet for Mary at just the right time.

Peaches is a lot smarter than Lizzie was.  She's also big enough to hold and pet---did you know guinea pigs purr?  I also learned that guinea pigs can get scurvy if they don't eat enough Vitamin C, so we have to feed her lots of leafy greens and broccoli in addition to her regular food.  While we are sad that Lizzie is gone, we are happy to have Peaches.  She's so cute!

On How Our School Year is Going...

It has been an eventful August and September, and October is already shaping up to be busy as well.  I love the new planner I bought.  It has helped Mary and Bobby be a lot more self-directed in their work.  We've (I've) also done a lot better staying organized this year, and keeping up with all the corrections and grading I need to do.  Here is our each of us are doing:


I am still teaching all three kids at home.  I also teach piano two afternoons a week, and have more people interested, so that may increase to three afternoons a week.  In addition, I'm teaching two classes on Fridays at our home school co-operative, Kingdom Builders.  The two classes are Expository Writing and Biology; I have a dozen students in each class.   I challenge anyone who thinks home schooling isn't a full-time job to come spend a week with us!


Caroline is working about 15 hours a week now (Chick-Fil-A) in addition to doing her Senior year. At home she's taking Pre-Calculus, Advanced Chemistry, Health, and Literature/Language Arts/Grammar.  Through the co-op she's taking my writing class to supplement her language arts at home, Art, and Yearbook/Advanced Photography.  She is a very busy girl!  She will graduate from high school next May, and is already in the process of college applications.


Mary is an 8th grader this year.  At home she's studying Algebra I, Sonlight Core 7 World History and Literature, Human Anatomy, BJU Grammar & Writing;  through the co-op she's taking Geography, Cooking, and Art.  She's also teaching herself to write left-handed this year by using an elementary-level handwriting book to make herself write left-handed every day.  She draws ALL the time, too.  She has also just joined a local American Heritage Girls troop, and will begin to work on badges for that.


Bobby is in the 6th grade, and he's realizing that school doesn't get any easier as you get older.  He's taking Geography, American History, and Art through the co-op; at home he's doing Math 7, Zoology (Land Animals,) Handwriting, BJU Grammar & Writing, and for Literature (the pièce de résistance) he is doing Literary Lessons from Lord of the Rings.  It's a great curriculum that incorporates Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and Shakespeare as well as the LOTR trilogy.  Right up his alley.  He is also a Tenderfoot rank scout in Troop 47 and is working on merit badges for scouts.


Obviously, we are all pretty busy.  Our other current events:


#1    My sweet husband will be stepping down as pastor of our current church at the end of October.  He has explained this over at his blog, in the post I linked and in another called "Reasons for Resigning."  We love the people at Chevis Oaks!  We will continue to be friends with them and I hope we'll continue to sharpen and edify one another as Christians.


#2   We were able to buy a nice four-year-old van a couple of weeks ago, thanks to the incredible generosity of my in-laws as well as the dogged efforts of our friend Rickey Tyre, who found the van for us at an auction.  It's such a relief to have an newer vehicle and not be worried about breakdowns, A/C not cooling well, etc. The van is a Dodge Grand Caravan SXT.  Nice.


#3    Bobby is the Honored Hero for the Savannah Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Light the Night Walk on October 15th.  Our family has a team, creatively named Team Carpenter, and we'll be walking that night along with hundreds of other Savannahians who are trying to raise money for people with various blood cancers.  Our team page is here.


#4    A month ago we bought a Wii, with Wii Fit Plus.  I'll write a longer post about it later, but we are all loving getting off the couch and playing sports as well as other fitness games together.  I have started to lose weight and tone up, and I feel so much better.  More soon on that.

Homeschool Organization for This Year

We have started our 2010-2011 school year, and things are going really well.  I'm doing something different this year for planning and organization.  In the past I have kept all our lesson plans/schedules on the computer, and then printed each child out a weekly form with their assignments.  This has worked okay, except they would lose the paper, or I would not get it printed out in time for them, and there was a separate sheet for each child.  I also felt like we were wasting paper, and the time to type it all in each week was excessive.

This year I actually regressed, technology-wise, and bought a good, old-fashioned paper planner from Home Education Family called "The Well-Planned Day."  Now the kids don't need to worry about keeping their lesson sheet from getting lost.  They can just look in the planner and see what they have to do.  I also changed my planning in this way:  I used to figure out the whole year, roughly, and then only write lesson plans a week at a time.  This meant spending a LOT of time planning.  This year I took a day and planned out six weeks worth of lessons/schedule.  We've done two weeks already, and in about another week or two I'll take several hours and assess how the school year is progressing.  Then I'll plan out another six weeks.  The planner also has report cards that can be used for each child, a gradebook section, and other household planning helps like budget lists, reading lists, tear-out to-do lists, and year-long planning sheets for each child.

Another nice thing this year is that I'm only doing the planning for two of them.  Daughter #1 decided over the summer that she would plan out her own Senior Year, with my help.  Awesome!!!  She sat down and figured out what she has to do each week and day in order to be finished with her school work by her graduation date, which will be May 21, 2011.  She's working now in addition to doing school, so she has to stay organized.  It's so nice to see her becoming a young adult and being responsible!

So far the school year is going well.  This week we'll add a little extra work for each of them, since they are taking classes again through our home school co-op, which starts on Friday.  I'm teaching two classes at the co-op this year: Expository Writing and Biology.  Fun.  I have14 students in each class, so I'll be busy with that!

We never took first day pictures this year.....I'll have to take some "first month" pictures and post them soon.  I love home schooling!

I knew my kids were having an effect on the world.....

It's late at night....

...and I'm still up listening to Caroline and her friends giggle and laugh....but they are having such a good time! I'm going off to bed....

Today I made everyone breakfast, went to co-op, taught British Lit, taught Beginning ASL, helped in Chemistry class/lab, took Caroline and three of her friends to paint pottery and out to eat (late birthday celebration), came home and watched a movie with them, and now am definitely ready for a good night's sleep.  Hope they all go to bed and get a good night's sleep, too.

God is so good.  All day today I've been thinking about how blessed I am to have a Saviour!  And beyond that, to have a great husband and wonderful kids is just icing on the cake.

On Getting Bitten (for the second time) by a Hamster

We got Mary a Russian dwarf hamster like the one pictured above for her birthday on the 15th. It's a cute little thing named Lizzie; only about four inches long fully grown. It bit me the first or second day out of fear, and I forgave it. After all, she was in a new place with strangers, right?

Tonight's incident was a little different. She was running around in her little clear plastic ball while Mary cleaned her cage and changed her food and water. Next thing we know, Mary is saying, "Um...Mom...Lizzie got out of her ball...." WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Sure enough, there in the kitchen was an empty, open hamster ball. What to do.

Eric got a flashlight and quickly located the rodent under the stove. We pulled out the drawer under the stove, and there she was, hiding from us. Now, here is where I should have checked online for how to pick up a scared hamster. I SHOULD have gotten some of her food or a treat, put in in my hand, and then gotten her to climb on my hand. Better yet, I should have made Mary do all of that. But no, I had to be dumb and just reach in there and pick her up. She squeaked bloody murder and bit my thumb. HARD. Blood-drawingly hard. Painfully hard.

Lizzie is now back in her cage, and I have a band-aid on my thumb. We live and learn!

Things For Which I'm Thankful

(This is only a partial list and may be expanded later....)

My salvation. The Holy Spirit. His comfort and peace. His conviction of sin.
My wonderful husband. A good marriage. Laughter. Love.
Having grown up in a Christian home. My excellent parents and their patient wisdom.
My sweet children. Bobby's cancer is still gone. The girls are healthy and beautiful.
My great in-laws. My mother-in-law may very well be the best one ever. (I don't know all the mothers-in-law everywhere, so I shrink from making an absolute statement about how great she is....)
My allergies have abated somewhat, and are under control with Claritin and Flonase.
We have electricity 24/7. My washer and dryer work. We have heat. We can drink water straight from the tap.
Our church. What a blessing!
Good friends.
Chocolate.

In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. I Thess. 5:18

Vacation recovery, VBS, and Vertigo

We came home and spent a week recovering from our trip. Doing laundry, cleaning the house, finally doing my home school curriculum order, and spending some much-needed time with my husband filled the first week back. Then last week we had VBS at our new church. It kicked off on Sunday night and lasted through Thursday night, averaging 200 people each night. I helped in the Craft Shack, and had a blast. It was fun, if exhausting, to work with the children. I also had a great time getting to know the people I was working with. We are blessed to be at a church with a lot of people who have a great sense of humor and who enjoy laughing together.

The one blot on my week was on Tuesday morning when I woke up and the room was spinning. This condition, which is called vertigo, has plagued me a time or two before, and it comes from my having too much fluid in my inner ear canal. I usually take Zyrtec every day, and had forgotten to do so. Twice before vertigo has hit me in the evenings, which is not really a problem since I can just go to bed. This time it hit as soon as I got up. I couldn't keep my eyes open, or walk around without becoming nauseated. I spent the entire morning lying on the couch as perfectly still as I could. I took decongestant as well as Zyrtec, and by about 2 p.m. I could at least get up and walk around slowly, holding my head as steady as possible. I didn't go to VBS that night. On Wednesday I still felt a little dizzy, but by Thursday I was up'n'at'em.

On a very sad note, I read an e-mail today from my friend Denise, to find out that a little boy I've been praying for, Jair, has gone home to be with the Lord. He was fighting cancer and seemed to be doing great when, after the doctors tried an autologous bone marrow transplant, he reacted badly and became very ill. His parents, Teo and Lety, are now grieving the loss of their little boy. This hits me pretty hard. I can imagine their pain.

Also, this last week I tried to e-mail my friend Hilda in Puerto Rico, whose husband passed away in May due to cancer, and have not heard back. Nildi, I tried to write to you--did you get it? I love you!

Who is the extra boy?

I just looked at my previous post and realized that most of you would have no idea who the handsome young man (not Bobby--the other one) in the photos is. No, Eric and I don't have a secret child that we usually hide, and no, Caroline doesn't have a boyfriend who is younger and shorter. That nice young man is my nephew Kevin, who flew up from Texas to be on vacation with us. He's lots of fun, likes to laugh, swims like a dolphin (literally!) and generally keeps us laughing. We are thrilled to have him here with us.

Some scenes from our trip so far....

We've been at the lake for almost a week now, enjoying the water and the beautiful relaxing scenery. The kids have gone tubing, we've had campfires and s'mores, and we went to see the movie "Wall-E." It's been fun so far--and here are some of the pictures we've taken:




On Tuesday we traveled to the Corning Museum of Glass to see the collections there and play in the Innovations exhibit:


These glass fruit are much bigger than they appear--the pear in the middle is about three feet tall:







This was the first reflector cast for the Palomar Observatory. It cracked, and they had to make a new one:
You can take your own picture upside down with the magic of mirrors!
The kids inside the large, black, glass egg at the museum:
Beautiful sky over the lake:

Edible flip-flops....

Here is the promised picture of Mary with her birthday cake. She would rather be wearing flip-flops than any other kind of footwear, so I made her a pair of flip-flops on the beach. The "sand" is graham cracker crumbs, and the straps are made from sour-fruit candy. The polka dots are giant sprinkles. Caroline painstakingly applied all the polka-dots. The cake went over really well, and tasted yummy, too--french vanilla flavor. Her birthday is now over for another year...

I Can't Believe It

My middle child, daughter Mary, turns eleven years old today. It amazes me that it has been that many years since Eric and I first held her in our arms. Then, she weighed 6 pounds and was about 19.5 inches long. Now, she's almost 5'1" and weighs about 86 pounds! In her short life she has survived a cerebral aneurysm repair, (no, it never burst, thank God!) lived in two states and for a few months in another country, and tolerated being the middle child quite admirably. She is very different from her older sister and younger brother in personality, but she's no wallflower. Mary impresses me with her ability to make friends easily and get along with almost everyone. She is kind, loving, and friendly. She really wows me when she gets up early, nearly every day, and gets most of her school work done before her siblings even start theirs. She is extremely self-motivated. She also reads her Bible every morning and every evening, and the fruit of this is evident in her life. She is striving to be more Christ-like each day. This is starting to sound like a college recommendation letter, and that was NOT my intent. I merely wanted to write about Mary today, telling anyone who reads this how very much I love her. I have been blessed beyond belief to have her as my daughter. Here are her last three birthday pictures. After her party on Saturday I'll post a picture of her with this year's cake.
Mary's birthday in 2005:

In 2006 celebrating her birthday at the Old English Tea Room with Caroline, Miranda, and Lindsay:

In 2007 with her Eleanor the Elephant cake:

Kids and Candy...

A few days after Christmas, the kids made candy houses out of graham crackers, frosting, and enough candy for an elephant. They worked on them for three or four hours, on and off, and I think the results were great: Here is Bobby with his creation: And Mary with hers: And here is Caroline with hers: And I just have to add a few close-up pictures: