Friday, April 24, 2009



Hi again, all two of you who still read my blog!!

This is Lucie, my booger woman, at three months old. The top pic was created by Emily, and I want all of you to go over to her blog and tell her how much you love her work and how talented she is, because you can't help but realize that already if you have eyes in your head! I'm so privileged to call Emily my friend, and I'm exceedingly, abundantly blessed to have children that people want to photograph. I have so much to be thankful for, and believe me, I am, in the most intense, deepest way possible. Thank You, my Father, for the loan of this family!

It's a beautiful day here in Washington! The sky is robin's egg blue, the grass is vibrantly green, and the sun is warmly shining on our faces as we play outside. The sunshine is such a welcome friend after being so fickle for so long this spring. My kids are really enjoying themselves outside today while I do some stuff inside. The front door is open, so I can see outside and the sparkling air really feels like a cool, sweet drink of water to my parched soul.

One of my biggest struggles is consistency, in anything, but most of all, in schooling the kids every day. I know this is my struggle, and I have set out to remedy it. I've asked God to help me, and I've put my mind and my strength to "doing school" every day. Today I got online on Dave's computer and googled worksheets that I can print out for each of the girls' grade levels. Boy, did my search yield a veritable gold mine of goodies! So I printed each of the four older girls out a packet. One of my favorite sites I found was SchoolFamily.com. I couldn't make copies fast enough! Of course, that was just one of several sites I found, and I had to limit myself so that the trusty copy machine didn't run out of ink!!! But I'm so proud of myself for "doing school" today, with worksheets and the whole bit! We've even had recess, and my kids are so much happier when we stick to a good, tight schedule. That makes me happy too, and Dave will be so proud of me when he gets home and sees what we have accomplished today!

I also made banana butterscotch muffins this morning. I've been using the same recipe for years, and it never fails. Maybe some day I'll give it to you two readers!!

I've been feeling impressed with helping my girls to excel in the arts of homemaking, including sewing, knitting, crocheting, baking, and pie making. So, the other day I went online to Youtube and looked up Paula Deen (one of our faves), and I found her helping a gal, step by step, to make an apple pie. I watched it first, then had my Hannah (almost 12) watch it next and, without any help at all from me, she proceeded to make her very-most-firstest apple pie ever!! I didn't tell Dave I was going to do that, and we just made it a part of her school day, and he was so excited when he got home and saw it, complete with lattice top and all! The family had it for dessert that night, and even the ones who don't usually like pie ate it up and declared it scrumptious. Of course, we had to share it with Hannah's Grandma, who is a pie expert, and she said she couldn't have done it better. Hannah was super proud and the lesson went really far to boost her confidence level!

As for Lucie, well, she's having a fussy day today. Her schedule is all wonky, and you know how tiny babies get when their schedule wonks out! She will celebrate three months on Sunday, and she's already sitting herself up and she sleeps from 10:30 pm to 4 am almost every single night!! Can I hear a big cheer for Lucie??!!

I'll finish out this post by asking you guys to go over to Dave's facebook and look at all the absolutely gorgeous pics that Emily took of our kids. Gorgeous isn't even the right or adequate word for her work with my kids. In fact, I don't think there's a word in the English language to describe her work. Go on over and look, then go on over to her site and leave her an encouraging comment, would ya??

Have a great day!!

9 comments:

Renata said...

Thanks for sharing the homeschool link. I was just sitting here thinking I should get some work together for the kids for Tuesday - when we officially start homeschooling (before our "proper" workbooks arrive) & now I'm going to follow your link.

Christine said...

Lucie is an absolute doll!!! :)
I love the pics of the kids in your sidebar. I guess that's a nice preview of what we might find at Dave's facebook page? Btw, I looked for his page and couldn't find him. I'll try again.
Blessings my dear friend. :)

Duckygirl said...

Cute Lucie pie! I love all the pictures of the kids, they're adorable!

(oh, and I thought I should let ya know the link doesn't go to Emily's site...you need to add blogspot to the address or it takes you to some go daddy site)

I'm so glad you're enjoying some nice weather, it just makes for great moods, it's hard to be grumpy when the sun is shining...don't you think? :)

-Laura

EEEEMommy said...

It sounds like you're keeping busy! The apple pie sounds fabulous (and I don't even like apple pie!), and that baby is so yummy I could eat her up!
Thanks for popping in to update us!

Anonymous said...

It is so good to see you updating:) The kids pictures on your blog look really nice. I will check back again soon.
:>Michelle
http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/seekingjesusnteachingkids

Duckygirl said...

Nice new background...I love it! :)

Rebeca said...

Thanks for the pics of your sweet little Lucie! I'm so happy for you! And reading the update was nice too. So glad things are going well. Blessings!

Static Brain said...

Those are some really cute kids you have. And they are lucky to have a mom who home schools them. I home schooled mine for a while when they were smaller. I wish I had stuck with it longer. It's good for them. Mmm apple pie sounds so good to me, right now. I can almost smell it, hot from the oven, with a chunk of vanilla ice cream. My mouth is watering. Thanks for making me hungry. LOL. And by the way, it looks like you have more than two readers LOL. I found you by your article on Tide and septic tanks. I am researching what is and isn't safe for septics and your article came up on Google.

MarshaMarshaMarsha said...

Hooray for Hannah and her pie! Woohooo!!! Quite an accomplishment!

I have been determined with our lessons as well. My problem is saying no to travelling and just getting it done-- even if it's only half a day. After all, two half days is the same as one whole day!

Please share your recipe. Or if you prefer, you can send me samples of your muffins in the mail. But make sure the bananas are really blended in there since they make me itchy.

LYLAS!