Homeschool Update

We have just finished our third week of school this year and we are really enjoying our new curriculum. I thought I should start keeping a digital record of all that we are learning and doing.
We'll just see if I can keep up with the updates or if my next blog doesn't come until November :-)

We our using a new curriculum this year from Heart of Dakota Publishers. It is a Christ centered, history based curriculum. It is very organized which I love because it is less work for me.
Since Bounce is a little young age wise for this book, we are taking it half-speed, so we'll take 2 years to complete the lessons rather than one.
Despite working at half-speed, our days are full since we're also adding in Apologia science and Calico Spanish. The science curriculum is creation based and we study one day of creation for an entire year. This year our focus is astronomy. I am so grateful that we are able to bring everything back to God. For example, we were learning how God uses the stars as signs (ex. star of Bethlehem) and then we looked at the whirlpool galaxy online.


Ketchup was so excited about the cross that God put in the heavens that she wanted to print out a picture of it to show her friends.
Spanish has also been a lot of fun. Calico Spanish is a brand new immersion based Spanish curriculum. It incorporates a lot of music which the kids love. They walk around the house singing the songs. Daddy is really impressed with what they have already learned in these few weeks. I am glad that when I say "Nino y nina escuchenme. Ahora es la hora de espanol (Kids, listen. It's Spanish time)," they squeal with delight.

I also like this Spanish because it has a script for me to read so that I am saying everything in Spanish and as a result my Spanish has improved as well. Above is our bulletin board that we use; everything came ready to just put up and use - Mommy/Teacher likes!!

We are studying the colonial time period and also learned about Christopher Columbus. The kids are enjoying the texts so much that they are disappointed when I stop reading. Below are their portraits of Christopher Columbus (with 2 objects representing his importance in history: a ship and the Atlantic Ocean) and their blue water paintings with fish that we completed in Spanish class following my instructions completely in spanish.

Another of our favorite activities we have done was something we called "geography jump." We taped the outline of the earth and it's continents on the floor and jumped from continent to continent. We used it several times to mark Columbus' journeys and then the kids also wanted to put their stuffed animals in the continents in which they live.

Finally, we were able to join our homeschool group for a field trip to the Dallas Museum of Art. One of the paintings we saw was by Pissaro and used what I believe the guide called "pointallism" which is the technique of using small dots of color instead of strokes of paint. The day after our field trip, the kids' assignment was to paint a picture based on the poem we had been studying. The poem was "The Storm" by Sara Colerdige and talks about a storm with its rain, lightning and thunder (I'm reciting it in my mind as I'm typing, but I'll spare you the recitation) and then the sun starts to peek out. Here are their paintings: Bounce focused on the lightning, and I was especially impressed with Ketchup's use of pointallism with no prompting from mom.


Note that the kids are still in their pajamas which is how we often are dressed as we learn. It seems as if every day there is one reminder of why I am so glad that we are blessed with the freedom and opportunity to homeschool from pajamas and sleeping in to being able to truly see how God has created all and holds everything together. Looking forward to the rest of a fun year!

Relaxing Vacation

We were blessed to spend two weeks in beautiful Arizona last month. Our time was filled with lots of animals: newborn baby bunny, swarms of hummingbirds (there were literally 15-20 hummingbirds at one feeder at one time) , tarantula, fish, frogs, tadpoles, dogs, horses and cows. Here are some of those pictures.
We also experienced a few firsts:

Ketchup caught her first fish (I guess it counts!)
Bounce caught his first fish (what a great look of amazement!)
Bounce rode a bike without training wheels for the first time. The dirt and rocks were the ultimate motivators to get him to take off those crutches.
The kids saw their first "shooting stars" and meteor showers as we were blessed to enjoy true stargazing outside of city lights. These have really meant more as we began to study astronomy in homeschool this week.

The kids experienced their first cave at Kartchner Caverns and were able to see science in action as the drips of water cause amazing formations underground.
They also had their first ride on a rowboat and had their turn at the oars - resulting in lots of circles in the water :-)

My parents blessed their grandkids by getting them an inflatable waterslide. Ketchup and Bounce spent a lot of time on this and we enjoyed watching their re-enactments of "Wipeout."
I enjoyed running in the mountains and chasing off longhorn cattle and deer.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures (as if you wanted even more):




Every evening God painted the sky for us. We are thankful that we were able to enjoy so much of His amazing creation!

Benjamin's surprise for Daddy!

Look Daddy

Our Spring in Pictures

Wow, has it really been 2 months since I blogged last. Time flies!! Here are a few pics of what has kept us busy. The kids have left soccer and moved on to new athletic endeavors (Bounce - tball and Ketchup - gymnastics).









My parents bought the kids some Mexican attire at a Mariachi conference in Arizona, so the kids posed for pictures. The other day we found a sombrero at Target's dollar spot, so Bounce was thrilled to bring it home and wear it with his pancho. As he modeled for me, he said "I FEEL MEXICAN!"


We are still attempting to garden although we don't get enough sun in our shady backyard to be very fruitful. Our lettuce is doing OK, so we may just have a lettuce garden next year. I did learn that in partial sun that plants where you don't eat the fruit or the root do best.

Ozzie has been building the kids a playhouse in the backyard. They have been able to "move in" and enjoy playing back there.

Both kids had end of the year choir concerts and AWANA ceremonies. I am always amazed at how quickly the time goes by. I know it was just May 1st yesterday wasn't it??

Ketchup had a big day May 9th as she was baptized and lost her first tooth!


We are nearly finished with school for the year. Both kids have drastically improved on their reading and math and it's encouraging as their "teacher" to see progress. We'll be using Heart of Dakota next year (mostly anyways), so I'm looking forward to less planning on my part, but having everything revolve around the TRUTH (the Bible).

Hopefully it won't be September before my next post!

Our New Backyard

This is the before picture of our backyard. A failed attempt at grass seed, untrimmed trees and nothing of "beauty."
Here are the afters taken after a week of pulling weeds, laying sod, planting a garden and some "beauty" in the form of rose bushes. Hard work, but it's no nice to see green grass instead of brown dirt. Our dog also enjoys not having to have her feet wiped for 10 minutes before coming into the house.
Also, I had been checking craigslist for the past couple of weeks looking for a patio set since we have more than dirt to admire and as I was chasing our kids down the street on their bikes, our neighbor had a rattan set sitting out to give away and kindly passed it on to us. A nice surprise blessing!

My 33rd Birthday!

I won't forget where I was when I woke up on my 33rd birthday because I was in ICU. The day before I had a scheduled hysterectomy that did not go quite as scheduled.
Monday morning I had a successful surgery done by scope so that pain and recovery was minimal. The calls and e-mail updates went out that I was doing great. As the afternoon rolled on the nurse remarked several times that my vitals didn't look quite right and wanted to order blood work just to be sure. About 6:30 pm she came back in and said her guess was right, I was bleeding internally and my doctor was on his way to take me back to the operating room to find and stop the bleeding. Within 20 minutes my doctor was back and you could tell he was worried. He told us "this never happens to me," and he would probably have to make a large incision to find the bleeding. He also said I would need a blood transfusion. Everything was happening really quickly.
Within several minutes, there were 3 new nurses in the room starting a new IV for the blood and they were followed by the anaesthiologist and the surgical nurse. I vividly remember the concerned looks on everyone's faces especially Ozzie. I have to say I was concerned but also felt God's incredible peace and knew that I had the easy job of being put back to sleep while Ozzie had to wait. As I was being rolled out of the room, I heard the nurses tell Ozzie that he would need to take our stuff because I was going to ICU after the surgery.
That is where I woke up later that night. I'm not sure what time it was, but I remember the ICU nurse telling Ozzie that I was going to have another blood test at 4am to make sure everything was OK.
So I laid there awake for most of the night, by myself (there wasn't a bed for Ozzie in the room so he went to the waiting room to sleep a little), unable to see the clock or really move because I was hooked up to things from my nose to my toes. It was a long, long night yet I was glad to be awake and alive - it was a very special birthday.
I know God knew what was going to happen and He was in control the whole time. Looking back, He was taking care of me by having the hematologist decide against putting me on blood thinners (another story in itself) prior to the surgery because if I had been on them the bleeding would have been much more critical. He also kept me from vomiting even one time after the second surgery. We think my inability to stop vomiting after the first surgery is what caused the bleeding to begin with. I have never NOT vomited after anesthesia until this time.
He blessed my nurse with wisdom and knowledge to be on her toes so the bleeding did not get any worse. I was amazed as I saw prayers for the doctors and nurses wisdom being answered right before my eyes. These are just a few of the ways God was working. I cannot go into every detail for lack of time and space and I probably don't even know all the details God was working out in this situation.
I do know that God was in complete control the entire time and throughout my recovery. Yesterday I was able to jog for the first time not only after the surgery, but even before due to pain. If felt so good to be back to "normal."
"Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His unfailing love endures forever." Ps. 118:1

The first "have-to" haircut

Ketchup sat in the worship service with us on Sat. night and I saw her playing with her hair. I noticed something white in it, and told myself it's just glue since she had done a craft during her class right before the service. I had forgotten all about it until I was showering her last night. That is when I asked how she got the glue in her hair and then I heard those dreaded words, "It's not glue, it's gum." Since I had completely forgotten about her hair and let her sleep on it already, there was no using ice or peanut butter solutions for this one. Only one thing would work, the scissors. At least I didn't have to cut her hair up to her ears. She kept saying that she wanted her hair short anyways. Needless to say, only Mommy and Daddy will be enjoying gum for a long time to come around here.

I'm Back!

Today is the best I've felt in a long time. Very little pain and well-behaved kids made for a great day, so I'm able to finally blog again. I will have to blog about the whole surgery experience, but there's not enough time today.
I will say that Ketchup's reading has taken off and she also begs to do math (she is so unlike me in that way). Bounce has also started reading and seems to be catching on well.
Last week we studied kangaroos and I could overhear them playing for a while not quite sure what the game was. But when I saw all the reading flashcards scattered all over the floor, I had to ask. They said they were kangaroos and Ketchup was the mommy kangaroo who was teaching her joey (Bounce) how to read human words. That is definitely a fun way to learn!!

Different worlds

I've been meaning to share a funny conversation we had with Ozzie's nephews during our Christmas vacation. We were eating ice cream with them and one of them (ages 7 and 9) told us that they had made up rapper names for themselves. I think they were something like "Funny Bonez" and "Gangsta Boy." We continued talking about rapper names and their bling for several minutes. Bounce then finished off the conversation by telling us why he liked rappers so much, "because they have candy in them."

Is it mean???

Bounce used to have a horn on his bike. He thought he had lost it, but found it in the backyard yesterday. If you were to ask him about it, he would probably looked at you with a puzzled look on his face. That is because he doesn't call it a horn; he calls it a "honk."
Ozzie and I think it's so cute and funny at the same time that he calls it a honk that we find ways of getting him to say "honk" again. Bounce has yet to catch on and we might be mean parents for not correcting him. Someday we will I guess, but if he's 18 and driving and says he had to use his honk in traffic, you'll know what he means.

Christmas Conversations

I was reminded that I'm way past due for a post so this is for you Cara.

We spent Christmas at Ozzie's parents house this year. We arrived on Christmas Eve around dinner time. We had only been in the house about 2 minutes (I'm not exaggerating either) and Bounce asked "Where is the chimney?" I said they didn't have one, not understanding where this was going. He wanted to know how Santa was going to get into the house without a chimney. I assured him that lots of houses don't have chimneys and Santa can also come through the front door. There must have been doubts swirling in their heads because after they had opened their gifts both Bounce and Ketchup continued to state their amazement that Santa actually "got their lists."
A few days later I was privileged to be sitting in the van and waiting for Ozzie and his parents and overhear the kids conversation about Christmas. It went something like this.

The kids were quoting from a Veggietale movie about a kid wanting lots of toys like Billy and Ketchup went on to explain to her brother that the true meaning of Christmas is Jesus.
Ketchup: Christmas is not about presents or candy or lights.
Bounce: Yeah, its not about toys. Its about Jesus Christ.
Ketchup: No, it's about Jesus' birth. You say Jesus Christ at Easter.
Bounce: Oh, okay it's about Jesus' birth.
Ketchup: But remember to say Jesus Christ at Easter. You can say it then.
Bounce: (shouting at the top of his lungs) Jesus Christ is Lord!

Sometimes waiting is such a blessing!!
Here are a few pics from Christmas

I love their excited reactions in these first 2 pictures.
This is Bounce wondering how he actually got this gift because he asked Santa for it. But I had told him I didn't think Santa would get it because it said ages 8 and up. So Bounce said after opening it that "Santa got me what I wanted even though it was too big for me."This is a picture of our complete Jesse Tree (a great type of Advent "calendar" that traces God's plan throughout the Bible leading up to Christ's birth). This was a new tradition for us that we all really enjoyed and learned a lot from. A great picture of the kids and Ozzie's parents.(for those who noticed (i.e. Ozzie) the above descriptions aren't really links, I just can't figure out how to change it and I'm ready to go to bed.)

Disney Dreamin'

Bounce woke me up last night as I was in the middle of a disney dream. I dreamed I was shooting brightly colored sour cream containers with my Buzz Lightyear gun. I almost told him to hold on and let me finish my game, but sanity took over and I realized my dream is showing how my mind is moving from Disneyland - the happiest place on earth- to home - the normalcy of life. So in my dream I combined Bounce's favorite ride with my grocery list for today. Now if grocery shopping were really that fun, I would have no trouble getting the kids to come along and behave better.

Here's a few lessons from Disney:
1.) Wear very comfortable walking shoes and start training for all the walking at least a month beforehand. My thighs were cramping as I walked down Tarzan's treehouse for the 2nd time in a row.
2.) Do not go in the summer if at all possible. I cannot imagine having to wait in line for hours with young kids in tow. We were blessed to be able to go when most kids are in school. We literally walked onto rides like Buzz-astro blasters and Pirates of the Carribean. I remember waiting for hours for Star Tours as a kid and was thrilled to know we only waited 10 minutes for that ride.
3.) Take strollers or set aside a large chunk of change to rent them there. We didn't do this until the 2nd day and it saved us a big headache from kids whining about sore feet and wanting to be carried everywhere.
4.) Most importantly, spend more time looking at your kids' happy faces than at the rides themselves. I got such a kick seeing Ketchup squeal in delight on Star Tours and Mulholland Madness. She is my new rollercoaster buddy. Bounce starts off with fear and by the end is laughing and smiling and wanting to ride again.

Here are a few of the over 500 pictures we took.


Both kids had some one on one time with one of their favorite characters. Buzz and Bounce showed each other their muscles and Ketchup and Minnie went for a little walk. Ketchup couldn't believe she was just walking off with Minnie.

The lights everywhere in the park were amazing. This is right in front of "It's a small world."

The kids squeals and screams at the fireworks were one of my highlights.


Thanks Mickey Mouse for wonderful fun and memories!!