Camper Dale! He is at Cub Scout day camp this week. He is there from 8:30-5pm! Oh I miss him. I hear that he is having fun, his buddy has a cell phone and called in a report at lunch. I guess it rained this morning and they played games outside in the rain...oh a boy's dream come true; games, and mud!! Our den is made of home school kids and so Dale and a friend I will call Matteo were buddies, it made me feel better that he was teamed up with someone we know and like! I think it gave Matteo's Mother comfort too! This is the longest I have been away from Dale for something like this. To be honest if he tells me he doesn't want to go back I don't know if I will make him...I miss him! As we were leaving this morning it make me so thankful we are homeschooling! I don't know how I would leave him everyday at school! Well Merideth and I better finish up around here before we head out to get our camper Dale!

I will post more later about how camp was...and about our Arkansas trip.

E

We are going to head out of town to go camping...
we will be in Arkansas for about a week and have limited if any cell phone coverage.

We are really looking forward to camping in the pop up again...to say the kids are excited would be an understatement!!

Okay so "talk" with ya'll in a few...

E

Carpet cleaning requires a patience and attention to detail that I do not have. Give me a dirty kitchen or bath and I am able to make it shine. But a dirty carpet, the kind that comes with white carpet and a 3 year old and I run for the hills. Stephen on the other hand is an expert carpet cleaner. He is in Merideth's room right now cleaning her carpet. Cleaning it of poo, pe pee, eggs and only the Lord knows what else! That girl is a whirlwind of mess! So on Father's day my sweet husband and Father to my wonderful kids is cleaning carpets...who says that isn't great!!

Okay so speaking of whirlwinds...Merideth and I read a great book...
"Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind Crockett". It is funny and great, and a little sad. But we laughed at her great feats. You really should read it. We are into Tall Tales right now around here.

Well I better go and fix lunch...

Things are getting better around here...

We bought a mower and I mowed!
I joined a gym, want to go today but I feel like I went to Mexico and drank the water!! So I will wait until this afternoon and see how things work themselves out!!

I have the kids dressed, the beds made, and we need to do some school...

I better run,
E

So I could really use some prayer...
So about a month ago I quit taking my medicine, Dr's advice. Part of taking it was from the post partum depression...BUT it has been 3 years since I had her so I am sure taking it was just a habit, maybe need? Anyway, increasingly I have become more agitated, either I am sleeping way more, or sleeping way less. I am just not predictable, like I fly off the handle if shoes are left out or toothpaste is not cleaned out of the sink. Little things to others but HUGE to me. I want/crave order, it makes me nicer! So now with starting in on school with sweet big brown eyed Dale I just lose it if he doesn't make the "l" perfectly straight! Oh man I am so not nice. Makes me wonder if I should even home school. Then I will just get sad, mad, have headaches. I know that I need to lose weight, really bad. But any remark, however given, sets me off. I am wondering if there is something I could do rather than meds to help. Would working out help that much with the moods? I know it would help health wise...

Okay well the neighbor kids are here so I better go and play! Oh I hope they don't smear toothpaste everywhere!!!

Love, E

Merideth in ALL HER GLORY!! She loves to dress up and sometimes she comes up with these concoctions!! Gotta love a girl with style!!

So I see my friend Katie is back home...hope the wedding was great!

So day 2 down on the home school front. Dale is so funny...he did great today and we actually did the work in the kitchen at the bar. Merideth did not join us today because she te tee's her pants...LONG STORY! Just pray she will start using the potty again!

Well I better finish cooking...

Prayer request...

CC's husband is in the D C area interviewing for the position of a White House Fellow. Collin Powell was one! Anyway pray for him and CC as they are in the final round of interviews!! Yea you guys!!

Okay so we did begin home school today. It went good. We started off with the Bible/Devotion time. Then ate breakfast, then got dressed and made beds etc. Then Merideth comes running in with her purse and crown and says "don't leave me, I am ready for school too." So just out of curiosity I told her to go on and we would meet her there. She went to the school room! I was thinking she thought we were going to church or something! Yea! So we did all the work sheets this morning, instead of breaking up the ALS (American Language Series) and Math. It went good enough. I am not going to pray for patience but I do need some! Anyway I told Stephen I felt like I was teaching a foreign language when Dale would look at the picture of a coffee cup and say "l l l l l coffee cup" It sounded like le coffee cup, so French lesson done too! We were working on the letter "l" by the way. So I figured out to have him just say the picture and then IF any had the "l" sound to X them...worked so much better!!

Well that is our report.

Please pray for my sister and her husband they are now in Hawaii! They will live there for 4 years!! I miss her so much already...there is something about not being able to get into the car and drive to see her that makes it seem so much farther away!!

Love all,
E

So we are off and running on our first "official" day of home school. Right now the kids are eating breakfast. today was Dale's day to pick what we ate, he choose oatmeal with raisins. While it was cooking we did our Bible for the day. Originally I thought we would use the pearables for us all, but what I got is boy specific so we used some of our Rod and Staff books. It was great to see/hear Merideth answer the questions too. So after breakfast we are going to the school room and will do the American Language Series work sheets. Dale will do those and Merideth is going to do another little thing to keep her busy. If it goes as quickly as I think it is going to we will go ahead and do the math, which is Horizons. Merideth will do a puzzle. Well I better finish up my oatmeal...I will update more later!!

Love,
E

This photo was taken before Lauryn's graduation...I like to call it my before photo!! Come on Daddy and Heather Belle let's do WW together!?

So I have a home school dilemma! May sound simple to you guys but for me it is causing a certain amount of stress. So in saying that I want/need prayer and input...

So the Bible I am going to use for Dale is a 30 week program. It is a once a week lesson, we will review it and use the verse as memory. I got it in Atlanta and it is "Lessons in Responsibility for Boys", published by Pearables. From what I have read and seen it is great. So the other stuff is 160 lessons, so does not fit into the 30 like the nice package I am wanting. So I divided, I do math on occasion, and have fretted. If I do a 4 day week it will take 40 weeks ending mid March. A 5 day week would put us at 32 weeks ending in early January. Somehow I came up with a plan to be done end of December but I think that was un-realistic! My goal and desire to home school comes with going at our own pace but I am also a HUGE planner! We are also going on a few trips in the next months. So should I just aim for March, with added in breaks for the bigger trips, or should I just go for it and take the stuff with us and do it on trips, another beauty of home schooling...
So you see the dilemma?! I know I am being a freak! The only criticism I don't want it that I am too worried about a schedule...those who know me know I do best when I have one!
Well I better get ready for church!!
Love,
E

Okay so we were eating supper tonight. I think I outdid myself, we had baked pork chops, new potatoes and green beans. As we were eating Stephen asked me what was different about Kosher salt. I don't know but then he started laughing that we were eating Kosher salt on pork...oh the irony...SORRY for the miss use!!

In the wheat...I will post more later...E

Why...

So why when sweet husband goes on errands and take his cell phone does he not turn it on??

So why when we are getting ready to go and worship, fellowship and grow do the kids, and me for that matter, start acting so awful?

So why do the kids act/play/are sick just before we walk out the door? (I trumped them by telling them they have to stay in their rooms, no visual stimulation today ie TV or video games and NO birthday party that I was looking forward too!)

So why I am I so tired?

Fat?

Okay so enough why questions, I am going to the source and will have some home fellowship with myself...Home group tonight...pray it goes well and I can get all the milk cleaned up off the floor!!

BTW the graduation was great!

Love, E