To See A Play

Susan, from Fruit Basket Turnover, invited our second to fifth grade homeschoolers to come see her daughter, Ally, play the white rabbit in a musical production of Alice in Wonderland. There was an extra seat or two left so Hannah was able to join us. We had a really good time. I didn't want to use my flash for all of the pictures, so some of them are a tad blury.



Eagerly awaiting for the play to begin.


Alice is bored as her sister reads to her, eventually falling asleep and dreaming herself into Wonderland. Well, you know the story!


Alice is talking to the door.


She ate the cookie and grew big.


She drank the drink and became small.


Ate some more cookie and became normal again. Here she is meeting Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.


Alice talking to the White Rabbit.


Alice took another bite of that cookie and grew too big for the house!


Alice meets the snooty flowers.


Alice at the Mad Hatter's tea party.


The White Rabbit is still running late!!!!



The playing cards are painting the Queen's roses red.



Alice is in court before the Queen orders her head be cut off.


The closing finale.


Here's the White Rabbits big entrance.


Thank you, Mrs. Susan and Ally, for inviting us. It was a terrific play and we had a really good time!

School, Blessings, Pets, and My Book

We got off to another slow start this morning, but was still able to finish school and get lunch cooked before Bruce had to leave for work.

While I was cooking lunch, the Lord lifted a heavy burden off of my dear husband and he had a very happy afternoon. So I must give the Lord praise for that!! Thank you, Lord \o/. More blessings await in 2008!

Every time I would walk by Hannah's room today, Yogi would start squeaking loudly as if to say he wanted someone to pay him attention. So Hannah brought him out with her for a little bit while she did her school work.


He sat on her school books while eating a big piece of green pepper I cut for him. He LOVES green peppers and apples.


I've been meaning to show you, for weeks now, the book my friend, Kellie, gave me for Christmas. I had my Christmas gifts from friends in a corner of my room to be put away and while I was putting them away one day, I flipped through the book reading a paragraph here and a paragraph there. Next thing I know I'm sitting in the floor and I've read 3/4 of the book. I finished it the next day and I have to tell you it is so good and so sweet.
The title of the book is Secrets of Wisdom from Mother's Heart, by Joe Aldrich. He is one of nine children whose mother, Doris Coffin Aldrich, wrote a column called "Out of the Mixing Bowl" for Moody magazine. The book is a collection of articles that were written by her.

Here is an excerpt from the Foreword....

During my senior year of high school, my mother, Doris Coffin Aldrich, was killed in an automobile accident. Mother was an extremely intelligent, highly educated woman. She studied at the University of Washington and graduated from Biola College. Married at thirty-one to Willard Aldrich (the President of Multnomah Bible College and Biblical Seminary for thirty-five years), she bore nine children. Her clearly stated mission was to raise a godly family.
As mom's life so clearly demonstrated, the high and holy calling of motherhood is one of the most challenging assignments on the face of the earth. It is a sacred trust, a commitment to use every means possible to help each child grow up loving Jesus and embracing His agenda for life.

A godly mother counteracts the influences of contemporary culture by structuring an environment where beauty reigns. Our threadbare sofas, sagging springs, and frayed carpets did not deter us from the beauty of God's handiwork that surrounded us. Although well-used, our home was truly that - a home, not a house. Sweaty, sloppy boys fought with glee in it. Oil leaked from the oil-stove, bathtubs overflowed, food frequently ended up on the floor, tricycles clogged doorways or blocked traffic in the kitchen. More often that not, beds were left unmade. Most mornings there were wet sheets and pajamas to attend to, not to mention all the other clothes that needed to be washed and washed and washed again.
But in the midst of what I'm sure seemed like chaos, there was beauty....

Isn't that good? I'll share one of her articles tomorrow.

December 13, International Day

We had our International Day today for our co-op meeting. The kids were supposed to do a display. That's ours on the left, the flag of India and the pictures of India on it. Beside it is a map and flag of of France with a French Bible in front of it. This was Caleb and Nicole's country. And next to France is the display for China that the Howell's brought. You can tell that they're missionaries, huh?



We begin our co-op meeting with chapel service.


Followed by craft time. The smaller children made these sweet little jingle bells from egg cartons, bells, and yarn. They painted them red and green, aren't they sweet?

The older children worked on the Gingerbread house scenes.

This is Mrs. Kim's. Her little girl wanted to make the house a church. Didn't it turn out just beautiful?

We all brought something international for our buffet lunch. There was so much food there and it was all so flavorful.

I bought sparkler candles for the birthday cake, but they didn't wow us like I had hoped. OH well...maybe next time.

There was a great deal more to the day, but I'm too tired to post any more. For my homeschool friends, I'll post the rest of our pictures on our homeschool blog later and send you a message when they're there.

Random Pictures Post

I had lunch with my parents today. We made prank calls to our church staff...that was funny. While mom was paying the bill, daddy and I sat at the table and talked. By the time we got to the register, there were several people in line to pay. Two of those people were UPS men. As we walked by them I grabbed daddy's arm and said, "Come on, daddy, we're gonna leave and not pay." So daddy looks up at the UPS men, smiles, and says, "We're gonna leave and not pay." And out the door we went. We were standing in the parking lot laughing when my mother came out. She knew immediately we had done something and asked, "What have you two done now?" So we told her. She began laughing because while she was paying she heard one of the men say, "They just walked right out of here." So she went back in and told them that our meal was certainly paid for. We were all laughing...including the UPS men.

And now for random pics.....

I used to have all different kinds of bath towels. No theme colors or anything. But I got tired of picking towels up off the floor and no one claiming them. So I found these sets at Wal Mart for $10 a set and bought each of my kids their own color. Hannah is pink, Justin brown, and Harrison orange. Each set comes with two bath towels, two hand towels, and two wash cloths.


Justin working in Civics. Specifically testing.


Harrison doing some math.


Hannah was working in her maps and graphs.


A few weeks ago, Harrison fell asleep on the couch and Justin stuck a popcorn in his mouth.


Harley is dreaming of freedom.

He found a new favorite place to rest....on top of my nativity.

Sweet Hannah

My mother-in-law and her boys....Bryan, Bruce, Barry, and Mitch.

Amanda, Celine, Chris, and Carissa walking out of church.

Bruce by the Christmas tree.

Justin got a hold of my camera. He's such a nut.

Morning Schedule

Hannah and Justin are the only students up at 6:30. They've made their beds, gotten dressed, had breakfast and devotions by 7:30. At that time, they are hitting the books. To be more specific, MATH! I like to get that one out of the way. Harrison is up and ready to start school by 8:30. With Justin and Hannah's math out of the way, I can focus solely on Harrison's phonics and math. Those two subjects take two hours to complete, with a break in between.



I've decided to do seatwork at the table this year. I like the family unit aspect. The last few years, they've been confined to the rooms for their lessons and I just think they do better working in a more central area. They have the opportunity to escape the "noise" when they need to concentrate. Hannah has already done that several times the last couple of days. Bless her heart, she can NOT read with noise around her. lol

Hey, can you spot the extra student in this picture below?


And the other night, this brown praying mantis was on our deck. He was quite large! Pretty neat, huh?

End of School Picnic

This week I needed to take a bloggy break because I've worked at the church everyday helping to decorate for the SIGMA banquet, which is this Saturday, and I just haven't had time to blog anything. I can't wait for you to see all the work we've put into the decorations. Mrs. Liz has had some really wonderful ideas and I'm glad I could be a part of it.

Since I do have time to blog tonight, I wanted to post some pictures from Monday. I worked at the church a couple of hours Monday morning and then the kids and I went to an end of school year picnic, hosted by another homeschooling family in our church. Their homeschool invited our homeschool for a picninc in the valley behind their house. It was so WONDERFUL. We had a really good time.

This is the scene from their driveway. It's really breathtaking and I imagine that in fall it's absolutely beautiful.



Harrison picked a flower for me.


This was the little valley we walked down to for our picnic.


My friend, Rebecca.


Hannah is holding a rather large tadpole that we're pretty sure will be a nice big bullfrog. What do you think?


Playing in the creek.


The kids did a little crawdad huntin'. You probably call them crawfish, but down here this way, they're crawdaddies.


There was some splashing each other.


And Rocket, the horse, came down to see us. Click here to see him running down the hill to greet us.





Mrs. Rebecca brought some bread down to feed Rocket. He was so funny. If you had the bread bag, he knew it and would follow you until it was all gone. He was quite the pig to be a horse!


Once Rocket came down, the cows decided they would follow. This cow was licking it's nose. Gross....must have had a cold or something. HA!



The little cow is Annabelle. She was so cute! The cows and horse were comfortable to be around the children...even in the water.


Hannah made friends with this donkey. When he said goodbye, he was very loud.....VERY...loud.


Hannah and Rocket.




Justin and a lizard....do you see it?


OK, all you musicians out there....what is this??? Mrs. Rebecca found it at an antique store. It is NOT an autoharp. I repeat, it is NOT an autoharp.

The sticker on the inside says it's an Oscar Schmidt, but research on their instruments are turning up nothing.

Do you know what it is?


EDA: Mrs. Rebecca did a little more researching from a link that Amy left, and found out that this is a psaltery! YAY!! Thank you Amy for sharing your link....mystery solved!

Brother Ted was at home during our picnic, but stayed back to do some work. However, he had his own little bit of nature to hide behind.


We had a really great time and I'm so glad we were invited to their home. I'm sure we will not soon forget this outing.