WEIGHT TRAINING

Weight training has hit our home in a big way. It’s been fun to watch and listen to the boys training program. The older three alternate running and lifting.

Of course, Nolan and Zander are very interested in this. The weight set is in the garage. There is a window in our laundry room that looks into the garage. This is the spectator gallery.



The little boys are allowed to watch through the window but not to be out near the weights when they are in use. Here Zander watches and dreams.


Last night Zander and Nolan followed the boys out to the garage. I got a kick out of watching Zander lift the “big weight”.

The boys then conspired to make the little tiger feel totally macho….. and then he commented, “Mom! I lift the HUGE weights!” I think he’ll be perplexed the next time he tries this on his own.

School Highlights

We are back into the full swing of our school schedule. We continue to enjoy using Tapestry of Grace (see sidebar link). We have two weeks left of Unit 2. This week we delved into the Westward Expansion – specifically the OR Trail. This has led to quite some dreaming and discussion about us driving the OR Trail this summer. The younger two and I read “Little House in the Big Woods” and girrrrlllls….they ASKED me to read the NEXT BOOK! {Inside joke being that I LOVED the Little House book and could never get any of my older 5 children to listen to them!} I’m currently searching for journals of those who traveled the trails, the kids are pouring over atlases and we’re scheming. Living in the lower 48 it has occurred to us that we could drive this alone and Mike could meet us in WA….because he probably will never get the time away from the office for this project.

We began a new science book. I was a bit skeptical of this choice but we let Jared pick it. He chose the text on Zoology from Apologia’s elementary science course (see sidebar link). One of the first things we did was come up with a mnemonic phrase to help us remember the classification system. In keeping with our Narnia theme we came up with “King Peter Chases Over Fields, Grass and Streams” (Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus and Species). Unfortunately, I did NOT have all the items I needed for us to do our experiments on lift and drag – so we’ll try to get that done yet this weekend or early next week. I hate it when *I* slow down the kids’ study – but it’s a fact of life. I remind myself we aren’t sprinting here but in a marathon and in the long run….two days late for an experiment is not going to mess anyone up for life. Ah a funny during science. I promised not to name names. I had spent some time reading and discussing the material in this book. It’s a bit over a 1st and 2nd grader’s level so I don’t expect mastery - aiming for familiarity and we’ll cycle through them again before they hit Jr High. I asked what the word “instinct” means. They answered “instructions that God gives an animal for survival”…WooHoo – a very good answer. Then, pronouncing very carefully so they would hear the difference, I hopefully asked “What does EX…tinct mean? Someone answered “an animal with no stink”. :::snort::: As I thought of it later it does seem an o.k. definition.

The older boys finished “Les Miserables”. The famous three and I finished “On to OR” and the youngest two students and I are tearing through various OR trail books and the Little House series (Chris are you still my friend?). Jared finished”Moccasin Trail”.

RACEWAY CHAMP

Arielle has hit a milestone this week that 4 of her older brothers and sisters have hit before her. She completed her phonics program – signifying that she knows how to “read”. BreAnne learned to read with Abeka.

We use a program called Sing Spell Read and Write. It is laid out as a raceway track. The children go around the first time and learn the sounds of the alphabet. The second time through there is 36 steps to complete (learning short vowels, digraphs, long vowels etc). This took Arielle a bit more time than typical but hey….it proves once again my theory that when children are ready to learn – they learn quickly. She began to really catch on to the mechanics of reading at the end of the summer. In the past 16 weeks she has zipped through the steps. One of my children finished the program at 6, one at 9 ½ and Arielle at 8 ½….truthfully all the older ones read well and love to read regardless of the age that they learned the skill. {Grin}Yesterday I assigned a book titled “Wagon Wheels” for her to read on her own. I meant for it to take several days…it’s a short chapter book. She read it all in one day. She’s on her way!

We celebrated by having a Raceway Party last night. She doesn’t care for cake so we made from Scratch *Moosewood Brownies and frosted them. We also gave her a trophy that says “Phonics Champ – Arielle G... – 2006”. She chose dinner (Pizza) and after she blew out her candles was prodded to make a speech. She looked right at ME, blushed bright red and said, “Thank you for teaching me”! It was one of those homeschooling moments a mom lives for.

*The kids weren’t all that thrilled with the brownies…real butter, unsweetened chocolate, 5 eggs….he suspects that Duncan Hines has ruined them for life. I plan to make these again with Semi-Sweet chocolate and see if they’ll like them better….I LOVE these brownies, myself…bad combination they don’t – I do.

Uncle Bill's Amaryllis

When we lived in Hardin, MT my Uncle Bill would give us an Amaryllis bulb early each December. He loved to watch the children’s excitement as they watched the bulb send out shoots and slowly bud. It was his way of sharing the Christmas season with us.

I found myself missing my Grams and Uncle Bill quite a bit this season (possibly because it’s been a quieter season than many in our recent history). I found this surprising as they've been gone for 9 and 8 years respectively.

Early in December, I hit upon the idea of sending bulbs to a few of our loved ones. It was our way of being part of their Christmas celebrations. I bought a pot for us and we’ve had a blast watching the tiny shoots and then the promise of buds and now…look at this! I can’t believe how many blooms we have.

How are the rest of the bulbs doing? Did you get blooms too? I’m wondering how long these will last. Someone told me you can plant these OUTSIDE in Texas….we may have to try that next year.

Hanging Around!

Have ya’all been praying that this little gal would let others hold her???? Sunday she went to Mary Elizabeth for about 40 minutes. She has also settled down for the boys. Mike asked me to try Bible Study again and leave her home with him and she did great!

She does still want to be held. I’ve been trying to figure out how to hold her and cuddle her with my wrists….which get sore in ratio to the hours I hold this bouncing ball of energy…..I remembered the back pack!

Unfortunately, I didn’t remember HOW to put a baby in the pack and had her in it backwards….she loved looking OUT on the world, I enjoyed not getting spit-up down my neck….but shortly before this picture I realized the mistake.

Stacia did enjoy spending hours on my back this week….but this photo is the classic.

New Friends

I’m amazed at how quickly we are starting to make friends since the new year began. All of a sudden we’ve begun putting roots down into our new Texas home. I knew it would happen. However, I’m in awe at HOW it has all started to unfold.

Several of our family walks and geogaching trips took us by a wonderful park on the river called “Kid’s Kingdom”. Nolan asked each time if we could stop and play. I promised him that I would be sure to take him to the park the following day. The day spun out of control with the start of speech therapy and the first day back at school since Christmas. I totally forgot that I’d promised and when Nolan reminded me I said – “let’s write it on the list and I’ll make sure we do it tomorrow”. I forgot that “tomorrow” was 4 Jan – Jared’s birthday. The next day Nolan was not at ALL gracious about letting me out of the promise and I knew that I HAD to keep my word. We headed for the park after school and before Birthday dinner and celebration. I struggled with this. I didn’t want to waste my time at the park. I wanted to be home. I had important things to do. I KNEW that nothing was as important as keeping my word to my son that day and so there we were. Grumpy, but at Kid’s Kingdom, about to experience one of those divine appointments.

When we walked up we noticed a boy playing with some younger kids that looked remarkably like Craig from Alaska. I pointed out to Jamin that the boy over there reminded me of Craig and he told me that he and Josiah had reached the same conclusion. In a few minutes two moms with babies just Stacia’s age came over and sat at the bench beside me. They were in conversation and I quickly realized they were homeschoolers. Somehow I became part of the conversation…not sure if Adrienne (who reminds me of Carleen) included me or if I forged in but we all three spent the rest of the time talking and getting to know each other. In a strange twist of fate it turns out that Adrienne is FROM Eagle River (where my heart still strives to abide) and her husband is also in the military, she homeschools, has 7 kids and the youngest is a month younger than Stacia. The other mom Tricia has a husband, who retired, went to seminary and is now here to be an associate pastor at a local church. Her little daughter was born two days before Stacia. She homeschools has four children and her oldest is out of the house for the first time this year. See the connections???? They graciously invited me to join them at another park the next afternoon. You all know I’m shy. Right? We went anyway. We had a great time with the two families again and with two other families. Yesterday was “homeschool park day” and we went and found all those four families and even more to visit with. Andrew (Craig’s twin) is 17 and he and Josiah had a great time with all the little guys at the park. All the little boys had light sabers and they LOVED playing and ganging up on the two 17 yo boys. It was a great day. Several phone numbers were exchanged and we feel like we are well on our way to seeing that prayer we breathe with every move “God give us at least one family friend that will last a lifetime from this assignment”….fufilled….

I am so humbled when I think that if Nolan hadn’t insisted, we wouldn’t have been at THAT park, at THAT time to meet THOSE new friends. Isn’t God amazing????

In another strange twist…at the homeschool park day were ladies I’d met at speech therapy and Wal-mart….connections are abounding.

Ladies Bible study began on base on the 3rd and I sense friendships there too…..I love making new friends.

Paintball Saga!

8 January 2006

Some of you will remember that a few months back the sport of paint ball entered our home. It found its way in through one of Mike’s squadrons. They had a family paint ball event and invited the Chaplain. Mike thought it a great idea and took the older 3 boys with him. They loved it.

Josiah then asked for a paint ball gun and “stuff” for Christmas. It seems if you own the gun any old field can work for the actual playing. Of course, with only one son OWNING a gun this turned the other boys into what Mike lovingly and teasingly called “target practice.”

Jared remedied this by asking for his own gun and stuff for his birthday. We complied.

Last Saturday Mike and the boys were invited to participate in another a.m. of paint ball fights on base. They had a blast. They asked me to come take pictures. I tried. The one above is of Josiah in gear. When the games began the little ones and I had to step inside the building and couldn’t get pictures.

I found watching this game oddly chilling. Watching my young adult sons in camo gear and my husband in camo gear jump and dodge bullets was far to close to reality for this Air Force spouse. Yep, I cried. I didn’t get photos. The one below is my favorite pose anyway…my youngest princess at rest in the protective arms of her biggest brother….I guess it wasn’t the paint ball picture nor paint ball article that Mike and the boys envisioned on the blog. {grin}

We’ve been having a blast at the park and noted that all the homeschool boys are into “light sabers”; the mock sword fights they have are incredible. I guess this tendency to play act begins young and never leaves. When we first began having boys we said “no guns” and one day we found Josiah with a Barbie….shooting her legs at his stuffed toys…