Memorial Day Weekend

Hope everyone had a lovely Memorial Day!  We had a relaxed weekend at home.  Tim had foot surgery a couple of weeks ago and is still healing so we are unable to do anything too strenuous.  We had loads of sunshine, a beautiful breeze, temps in the 80's and it so it was really very nice here.  Tim was able to grill steaks and hot dogs much to his pleasure and everyone else too.  The boys played on the trampoline and the swings.  Lucy soaked in all the attention of everyone being home.  I cherished the time to watch the birds and squirrels play by the feeders that Tim gave to me for Mothers Day, to stare at the blossoms on the tree out my front window, to bake tons of chocolate chip cookies, and most of all to enjoy the family God has so graciously allowed me to be part of.  Though flawed as it is I am still so grateful to remember that I live in this country that I love.  I am without words to express my appreciation for the sacrifices that have been made so that I can enjoy the freedoms I do!

Pictures from our Memorial Day (in no particular order) :)

Geocaching

We enjoyed what I think is officially our new favorite family pastime today.  Have you ever tried geocaching?  It is a lot of fun!  For those of you who are unfamiliar with geocaching it is like a treasure hunt with a GPS to guide you to your destination.  It is played outdoors and is enjoyed all around the world.   According to geocaching.com there are 1,031,429 active geocaches around the world. Geocaches are hidden boxes that contain a log with which you can sign in and tell others that you found the cache.  There are also small treasures in the box.  You can take a treasure and leave one behind for someone else.  You can register for free on geocaching.com and locate caches in your area.  They are also sorted by difficulty and several other factors such as child friendliness.  You can also maintain a log of your finds there and share your experiences with others! 
We chose some caches in our area today that were located close together.  I was really surprised to see how many caches there are in our city alone.  It is kind of fun to think of all these hidden boxes out there that you never even knew about.  Anyways we drove over to this great park by the river that we didn't even know existed.  Incidentally I think that another great aspect of geocaching is exploring new places you haven't been to before.  We used the GPS to find the location of the first cache but we never actually found the cache itself.  I was feeling a bit discouraged as this particular cache was rated as easy.  We tried the second one which was also at the same park and found it very quickly.  I was really excited!  I have always liked mysteries.

 Our first cache. :)

Tyler enjoyed opening up the cache with Tim and signing into the logbook.  He had brought a bag of small treasure with him and they left a small pirate scope in the cache.  He took out a small plastic cross.

There are a couple more caches in the area where we were but we decided to save those for another day.  We are pretty proud of the one we found for today.  We enjoyed the family time together and exploring the park.  If you have never been geocaching before I encourage you to try it out.  I know we will be doing a lot more of it in the future.

Before I go I wanted to share this sign with you.  We were amused by it.  Last time we checked ducks were birds.  Hmm?

Update on a little of everything! :)

Life here has not been overly exciting  lately.  We have been working hard at school trying to take advantage of this time of the year when there is not a lot else going on to distract.  We also have standardized testing coming up in a couple of weeks as we live in a state that requires it each year.  I am trying hard to make sure we are at a good stopping point in our subjects as testing and Easter approaches.
I spent last week enjoying the Heart of the Matter Online Conference.  That was a great pick me up.  I was reminded of lots of things and learned some new tips as well.  Heather Laurie's presentation was a good reminder of keeping up a good sensory diet around here.  I think we are pretty good about that but was reminded of certain areas we haven't worked on in awhile.  I also walked away with a bunch of great tips on organizing my days after listening to Maggie Hogan.  I loved her idea of grocery shopping twice a month.  I hate grocery shopping to begin with so it is on the top of my list to strive for.
Last week was my week to sit down and ponder next year for our homeschool and start to think a bit about high school planning for Tyler. (yikes!)  He will be in the 8th grade, technically speaking, this next year although he really is above and below that in certain subjects.  The whole thought of homeschooling through high school still scares me a bit.  I don't want to screw it up but we still feel like that is the way God is leading us.  We have decided to go with Tapestry of Grace for him next year.  I ordered the download version and I love what I have seen so far.
Christian and I have been working on his communication.  We have been working with the Educational Insights Smart Talk system.  He loves to push buttons and we have tried different communicators in the past.  This is great because it has cards with big pictures of one thing and when you press the first button it names what is in the picture, the second uses it in a sentence, and the third button asks you what it is.  We are working on a set of about ten cards at a time.

Tyler has been working on all of his usual subjects and he has been working on a unit study on Russia.  He has also been loving the Sports Store business math program from Simply Charlotte Mason.  He finished his first mock month of business today and was so excited that he had made a profit.  It is his favorite thing we are doing right now.    He is learning a lot too like writing out checks, purchasing inventory, paying bills, and keeping a ledger.

As a final note here I had asked for prayer awhile back for my mom so I wanted to update you all on that too.  She is still not feeling well.  She is having a lot of shortness of breath.  She has had a ton of tests and so far they have determined she has water under her heart, fluid in her lungs, problems with anemia, and today they told her she has an enlarged liver so she will be undergoing more tests for that tomorrow.  There are still no real answers as to why these things are happening.  She is at home and my dad is taking excellent care of her and they hope to have some answers and hopefully some solutions soon.  Thank you for your prayers!  They are much appreciated.

Sorry there are no good pictures in this post and that it is a little choppy.  I am super tired tonight!  My hubby was doing a lot of sleep talking last night as he does when he is thinking a lot about work and I didn't get much sleep.  I am going to bed now and I promise to post something else (with pictures) real soon!

Snow Day

I was truly convinced that we were the only people in the United States this year that weren't going to get snow.  Every time we have seen snow in the forecast this winter we have gotten excited and then just rain.  I think it was around Thursday that they started to forecast that we would get snow this time.  I didn't even tell the kids because it has been such a let down every other time.  But much to my disbelief on Friday night it actually began to snow here and this morning we awoke to what looked much like a scene out of Narnia.

I do believe that today every child on the block was up at the crack of dawn and outside to play in the snow.  I can't blame them however as we are lucky if we get even one snowfall a year here.

Tyler was very excited to see the snow this morning but I was unsure how he would actually feel about it when he got out in it though.  First he went out with his dad and Lucy, our dog.  He had a snowball fight with dad and then played on the snow covered trampoline with Lucy.

 

  

  

Lucy loved the snow too!

 

  

When Tim came in to watch Christian I went out and took a walk through the woods behind our house.  It was spectacular.

 

  

 

I took a lot more pictures than these.  It was so beautiful.  Tyler joined me in the woods after a little while too.

 

After the woods I tried to help him build a snow fort.  It was rather small however because he lost interest in the actual building part quickly.

 

The sun was also starting to heat up by this time and the snow was getting rather slushy so we went in.  It was lots of fun while it lasted though!  Hope everyone else who received unexpected snow this weekend was also able to get out and enjoy it. 

 

Chinese New Years at our house

We decided to celebrate Chinese New Year a couple of days early this year because it falls on the same day as Valentines Day.  We wanted to devote a special day to each.

  Last night I pulled out our Chinese lanterns and hung them from the ceiling.

 

We enjoyed some great stories about China today.  

After reading The Great Race we arranged the animals in the story in order.

Tyler practiced writing some Chinese words.

We practiced using chopsticks by transferring noodles from one plate to another. 

We timed ourselves to see how we did.

 

Tyler did some studying about Chinese life in Material World and Hungry Planet by Peter Menzel and filled out a VENN diagram comparing and contrasting life in China and the USA.

This a really fun Chinese lantern craft we made.  I found it here. 

We also cut up some pretend Chinese money and put in tiger envelopes.

  This activity went well with the story Sam and The Lucky Money. 

Tonight we enjoyed a delicious meal of Chinese takeout.  Christian wasn't into the Chinese food however so I made him something different.  He liked it last time but wasn't having it tonight.

 Finally this evening we had good family time together watching Kung Fu Panda.  

We had a great day enjoying Chinese New Years.  If you would like to find out what other families are doing to celebrate Jimmie's Collage is hosting a contest and sharing ideas.  Just click on the button below.

Winter Jam 2010

My husband took Tyler to Winter Jam 2010 this weekend in Greensboro. They both love a lot of the same Christian music so it has become a great father son activity for them to attend a few concerts together this last year. Tim enjoys the special time he gets to spend with Tyler and Tyler thinks his dad is super cool for liking his music.
Greensboro is a good distance from where we live so they stayed the night at a hotel and drove back today. They both said that the concert was outstanding. They enjoyed all the bands there. They got to see Newsboys and Third Day which are a couple of their favorites but there were also several other bands that they enjoyed too. Tim was also quite impressed with the message delivered by Tony Nolan there. He would like to see if he can also find his messages on DVD. I have not heard him speak yet but because of Tim's enthusiasm I am anxious to hear him too.
They were able to take some pictures at the concert that I thought I would share here for anyone who likes Christian music. They were fortunate to be in the 5th row so a couple of the pictures turned out pretty well.

 

Tyler waiting for the show to begin

This a newer band named Sidewalk Prophets

The band Revive

Newsong

 

Mac Powell of Third Day

Newsboys 

Michael Tait (lead singer of the Newsboys)

They said the concert was so full that the Winter Jam people decided to record it for the DVD that they will release of Winter Jam 2010.  I can't wait to see if I can see my guys in there when it comes out.  The ticket price for Winter Jam is only $10 which makes it accessible to more people.  Tim said that the performers and Tony Nolan also had a meeting with the youth pastors there so they could talk about reaching the youth.  I was impressed too when they told me that after the concert all the bands and Tony had set up ministry tables so they could meet with the fans and talk with them about Jesus.   I am thankful this is the music my son is into because with all the negative influences in our world these guys do an awesome job of spreading the love of God.  They make great role models because they are modeling themselves after Christ who should be the true role model for us all.

Busy day

We had a really busy day here!  I feel good about the fact that we accomplished a lot but boy am I tired.
We are continuing to learn about winter here.  Today we read about birds during winter which was kind of interesting in a way because the book we were reading from pertains mostly to Canada and the Northern United States and well, yeah, I forgot to check that when I was getting our lesson ready so it was a little off for us here in the south.  It still worked out okay though. :)  After our reading we made pine cone bird feeders because unlike the book we read we have lots of birds here.

We gathered a basketful of pine cones from our yard.  We tied each one with a string so that we could hang them from the trees.

Next, we poured a bag of birdseed into a pan and spread peanut butter over each of our pine cones.

Then we rolled the pine cones in the pan of birdseed until they were covered.

We made a large bunch of them and put them all back in the basket to take outside and ...

hang on the trees!

We can't wait to see if we get some bird visitors tomorrow (probably some squirrels too).

Christian had some winter fun today too.  I was so thrilled to actually get some pictures too.  Usually I am the one that is helping him with things during the day and so I can't take pictures at the same time.  Tonight he decided to do his winter sensory box with his dad and so I was able to get some pictures.  Yippee!  Tyler made him this box for Christmas and he really enjoys it.

He was happy to hang with his dad for awhile and find all the hidden things esp. the snowflake beads.

Tonight Tim and I decorated cookies I had baked earlier today.  It was a good time.  We started off just icing and sprinkling them and then we got more creative.  Parents can have fun too!

Tim is definitely better at cookie decorating than I am.  Mine are mostly the ones to the right.

My favorites are the one he made look like the earth and the one that looks like a game spinner.

It was a silly good time.

We did a lot more than this today but like I said before I am tired so I am off to fill the workboxes and read and hopefully get some sleep.

Goodnight!