It's YOUR Friend

Remember that little "play sign?" The door bell has continued to ring an average of 3x a day. 


TODAY, however it only rang once!


Stacia opened the door said something and shut the door!

"Mom, it's not my friend! It's one of your friends!"

I ran to the door and it was Christie here to pick up Arielle to baby-sit!

Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Laminating Diva

Over the years I threatened to buy a flashing neon open/closed sign for our front window...but our budget hasn't allowed such fancies.  We really haven't had the  "problem" of  lots of kids wanting to play at all hours for several years....but we have been blessed with lots of families in our current neighborhood and many kids who want to play - at all hours.

I thought about the sign some friends had in TX...but my children thought this would be rude. After a particularly "busy" couple of weeks  (we've been interpreted at least once - often multiple times - every day for over a week) it seems good for ALL if I make that sign.....so I did. (After checking on Facebook to see if adults thought this would be rude).

I found some online but thought I could make something "prettier". These aren't  perfect,but they're printed and laminated.....Zander suggested the green and red backgrounds.

I've also created an "early morning" visual chart for Zander and Stacia which is working great. Proving once again that a laminator is a mom's best friend.::snort:: 

Um.....Guess I need to do a bit of training with my mini-sign hanging team. ::snort:: 

Note the only place to hang these is up high - so I'll take over this job and I doubt they can easily be flipped.   These are simple word files.  

Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Tuesday.....

Five kids and I  left the house at 7:45 a.m. (after a LATE night on Monday with PYOC and PWOC). LOL

Jared and Michael went to the airport to say goodbye to one of our graduates who is entering Navy Boot camp. Hard day for our dear friends. Brian is their first to leave home...a whole new season of family life. Please pray for the M family as they adjust to a new normal. Some of you KNOW how hard it is to have your first child move out - imagine "college" was a continent away.

My Bible study class brought breakfast for the rest of PWOC this a.m. Christina provided a great devo. My care group ROCKS.

Arielle and Nolan were in charge of the homeschool room today. Zander and Stacia were warned if they presented trouble they'd sit in Mom's class with the grown up ladies.

Jared and Michael helped me load PWOC library books onto shelves.

Arielle went to two babysitting jobs.

Nolan, Jared, Stacia Michael and I went to to the terminal to visit and say goodbye to Kyle and Erika....yes of the fish and Tokyo adventures and so much more. It's an emotionally hard day for us when there are two precious goodbyes in one day. ::sigh:: But they Go with God. I'm wearing my "Yokota been there done that" sweatshirt....a bit of gallows humor for the three of us on that trip. I find it odd to be the only one still here who was on that trip.

We were met at home with a bunch of kids waiting to play with the kids. I'm the mean block mom - someone has to be. I told all they would be out when we were done with couch school. They got table school done at PWOC.  We read a bit of Genesis, read Pink and Yellow (or Yellow and Pink?), read some history and then cut out all these booklets ready to work on tomorrow. We aren't sure if we'll make a lapbook or notebooking pages with them.....

Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Shipwreck Saturday

Saturday is usually a bit of a bust around here. We sleep in - but most often Michael needs to go to the office to prepare for Sunday. Try as he does, with manning as it is, there just aren't enough hours most week to get done before Saturday.

THIS Saturday was different. Ch. S was completing a series.  It was nice to have us all together. We took Jared to his SAT test. When we picked him up we had several boxes of tissues, a cooler of food and ourselves....and we headed to Shipwreck beach.

In Michael's walk last time, he'd discovered a new access to the beach......off we went to explore.

Road was fairly typical for our adventures

We could drive right into Mutsu Bay 

Nolan found a float....but it was broken....shoot. 

We aren't sure WHY they spent so much time building up this area....but when it began to pour....

We were glad they had. LOL 

We love this area....and it always reminds me of such good friends who told me I had to keep trying until I found it....took me three tries to find it. LOL 


Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Making VA seem closer!

Sunday's off to a great start.....Susane caught me on Skype....and the world seems smaller again. LOL 

Friendships can take effort....but wow are they one of God's best gifts for the heart of a woman. Love you, Susane.  BTW, I love the color of your wall is that your dining room, office, living room? 


 Now to get ready for chapel. ::snort:: 


Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

TGIF!!!!

Friday! Woot! Pizza and a movie. I think we'll watch Prince of Egypt tonight. It seems a fitting conclusion to week 3 of TOG Ancient World.  I'm sad that I've been sick and we've not gotten our lapbook or pharaoh masks done....but I'm a bit surprised with me feeling so lousy all week   - only schooling 2 days  - that the younger ones got a full week of school in. This makes me think  when all else is stripped out of our schedules homeschooling is a piece of cake. I will think about much more AFTER November. ::snort::  Maybe I'll have enough time after the "regional gig" (as some are prone to call it) is up to start an enrichment co-op for the kids.....something that I wish we had here. 


Today we all worked on our Japanese or "Akiko San" homework. We were to open this darling bag of panda snacks....

....and write down every emotion we see on the Panda's faces....guess what words we'll be working on next week???? ::grin:: We found 8 - Akiko San said we'd find 9. The poor thing was in love, scared, happy, sad, surprised....you get the idea. 

They tasted good too - if you're local - go buy yourself a bag in the name of education. LOL

My flu seems to be gone except the ache...and a bit of dizziness. The Cold has moved from my head/ears/throat to my chest....and I am not appreciative.... I AM taking lots of rest time....and I'm trusting I'll get into full conference swing next week.  Things really are moving along fine...I don't need to kill myself....I need to rest so I can go 100% next week. . . or so my family keeps telling me.

I'm taking advantage of being DOWN to read (click covers for links).

I'm reading this.... before I put it in the PWOC library....

and this....book 3 in the PWOC Book club selection series

And this... anyone local reading this and want to meet to discuss it? 

Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...

Operating at 40%

I got up did a full day of school, tried to do a bit of work on Conference, had a quick regional Skype, got dinner in the crock pot, let the kids loose in the hood and collapsed on the couch. I got up in time to set the table, cut some watermelon (a treat for us over here) and serve dinner. 


Akiko San came tonight. She spoke of goodbyes and that made me sad. 


Other thoughts or insights from the day:

• Emergen C and Airborne are now my drinks of choice
• Does anyone else have a child  who picks up a book and starts working anywhere...this causes confusion when mom is suffering with flu induced mania
• Stacia asked to "work out". I shortly heard - huffing, gasping and singing at the top of her lungs "God is GREAT, he Is AWESOME." I guess that's not TOO terrible of an impression for a middle aged mom to leave with her youngest. ::snort:: 
• I'm really tired. Going to bed and hoping to feel 50 or 60% tomorrow. 

Choosing Joy!
©2011 D.R.G.
~Coram Deo~
Living all of life before the face of God...