My "Surprise?" Birthday Party

I had not planned on having a party for myself.  I just wanted to invite some friends over for Sabbath.  Well...at church I received a few gifts and my friends brought me a gift so it turned into a birthday celebration for me.  I even made my own cake!  It was fun.


But first here is a picture from one of our days of school last week.

Just to say, it isn't my birthday until Wednesday.  But a celebration is a good thing especially when it is shared.  This is a gift I received from my "secret sister" at church.  She is the one who prays daily for me but I won't know who she is until she will be revealed this fall.  I have enjoyed wonderful gifts all year long and look forward to thanking her.

These are gifts from my dear friend, Carla.  I can't wait to try out my new deep dish pizza baker as well as the neat pampered chef items from above.

I got this beautiful wind chime and tea light from my cousin, Terri.  I am going to hang the chime by my kitchen window on the inside as I don't want the wind to break it outside.

I had made an angel food cake, cut it horizontally into three pieces, put strawberry ice cream between the layers of cake, frosted it with whipped cream, and served it with fresh strawberries.  It was delicious.

Before the cake we had a meal of spaghetti and meatballs, garlic toast, fresh zucchini salad, and lime slush.  This is my family that was present yesterday.

The two desperadoes...

My beautiful Whitney...

Her necklace that she received from her husband awhile back...

And surprise on me...my husband got me this diamond necklace for my birthday.

It was such a lovely day.  But today I need to get busy.

Two more days have gone by...

...since we have started our official school year.  I think the children have enjoyed getting back into a routine.  Since we are easing into the work it hasn't been too laborious for them.

In Leah's school she has learned about the creation days 2 and 3.  She is very good at cutting out her numbers.

I like seeing what Daniel comes up with to do while Leah is working.  And I like that he is hearing the Bible portion each day.  We will go over it again when he starts Creation to the Greeks , the first year of our four year history study, in a few weeks.

While we do some of these activities we listen to classical music. 

One day each child put this puzzle together while the other was working. 

Leah is taking care as she colors her number 3.

It is helping to reinforce what God created on each day.

We have also been doing some simple oral math problems using the number each day.

Then she glues the number on her poster that is behind Daniel.

While we were in town yesterday we went to the library.  I had my lists printed out from the library's website organized according to the call numbers.  It makes my trip so much easier.  The children enjoy the library and usually are not ready to leave when I am.  So they find things to do while I am looking for the books.  I used my new rolling cart.  It was stuffed.  Daniel and Leah ended up carrying a few books.  I hope the cart holds up as it is much nicer than carrying all those books.

Once we are finished studying creation we will begin a study of each letter of the alphabet.  The first letter will be Ss.  When we study each letter and the sound it makes we will study something in science that begins with that letter.  For Ss it will be the sun.  So I found lots of fiction stories about the sun as well as a couple informative books.  These will all go into the book basket.  When Leah has book basket time she will look at these books and I will read some to her that she picks out. 

When Daniel starts his first week of CtG he will be studying light in science.  So I found some books with experiments in them.  I didn't find many fiction story books.  But many of Leah's will pertain to his study as well.  He can look at them and do some experiments if he wants to.  That is how book basket works.  It is a voluntary thing.  They don't have to read them but they do have to spend time looking through them.  We have Genesis For Kids that we will be using this year as one of Daniel's science books.  It is full of fun experiments that we will do.

While we were shopping in WalMart someone came up behind us in the frozen aisle and started to carry Daniel away.  It was Brandon, my older son, who lives and works in town.  He had just got off work and was looking for some new work boots.  He had seen my car in the parking lot and decided to surprise us.  It was good to see him and we enjoyed visiting with him for awhile.

It is always so nice to get home.  Once we got everything put away we were able to relax, eat supper, and play with Ellyana, our puppy,  before it was time for bed.  She has so much energy.  I love watching the children playing with her.  It's nice as they all get rid of their energy.  We have been enjoying some evening walks, too, before bedtime.

Life is good.

First Day of School

On Monday I started Leah's school.  As you probably know we are using My Father's World From A to Z   which is a kindergarten curriculum.  She was pretty excited to start and we had a great first day.


On Sunday the school room and the other upstairs rooms got a thorough cleaning.  Then I finished the last few things I needed to do to feel ready for school.  After I covered them with clear contact paper I cut out the ABC Bingo cards with my handy dandy cutter.

Then I cut out the ABC cards.

Monday morning Leah couldn't wait for me to come up to the school room and had already started working in one of her preschool books she has that she loves.

She was all dressed up.

After we studied about the 1st day of creation, made the first page of her creation book, and cut out the number 1 and glued it onto the poster she is making we played an ABC game.  Leah knew all the names of her letters and even said, "This is capital B.  This is lowercase b."  She remembered the sounds of the letters, too.

While Leah was learning Daniel had to play quietly.  They both enjoyed the change.  Here he is doing an alphabet page with the wooden blocks.

Then he did a cursive handwriting page.  I had him do the addition math facts page.  He got 100% on that.  And he read to us a portion from his Bible.

While he was doing that Leah was having fun making a flower out of the wooden blocks.

When we finished upstairs we went outside.  We dug some potatoes for lunch, picked some green beans, ripe tomatoes, yellow zucchini, and lettuce.  I got a meatloaf in the oven and was working on washing the lettuce.  I noticed some hard black things on the leaves.  I was hoping it wasn't butterfly eggs.  It was!  I found 2 caterpillars before I threw all the lettuce out.  I saved this guy as well as his sister and put them with some lettuce into our butterfly garden.  I suspect they will turn into white butterflies.

All in all it was a great day!  Leah is ready to start another one so I had best get ready as well.

I leave you with a short video of Leah.

Not Much

Nothing too exciting going on around here but I will post about it anyway.  We did make it to the pool twice this week, Monday and Wednesday.  It was such good pool weather.  The children enjoyed playing with their friends and have made progress in their water skills.  It's too bad the pool will close this weekend for the season as there is still a lot of summer left.  But the lifeguards are all students that will be going back to school.


Tuesday Daniel had his first double vision therapy session which means we won't have to go back to Fargo for two weeks.  YAY!!!  While we were waiting for him to get done I visited with another mom whose son is doing vision therapy.  She also home educates him.  I appreciated the hints and ideas she gave me on how to make therapy fit into the school day.  They have been doing the therapy since last October they are almost finished.  It was encouraging to me to talk with her.


We ate at the Three Birds Bake Shop that is right there in the building where Dr. Agnes' office is located.  They make all their own bread, soups, and desserts there.  As they are just starting out I wanted to give them my business since it isn't a very good location.  It was a delicious meal.  I had the tomato basil soup and a mushroom swiss burger.  Daniel chose a half sandwich, a grilled roast beef with swiss, and a cup of chicken noodle soup.  Leah had mac n cheese and a burger with no bun because she doesn't "like the hard edges" of a toasted bun.


I had planned to just go to Sam's and then leave for home.  Since it looked stormy outside I didn't want to get caught driving in it again so we went to the mall and walked around a bit.  Daniel had earned a coupon in vision therapy for a free treat from McDonald's.  Before we left the mall he redeemed it for a caramel sundae.  Leah and I both had a vanilla ice cream cone for $0.49 each.


Yesterday we had our air ducts cleaned.  One day this week a woman called offering a special price on duct cleaning.  Since it had been over 8 years when we last had it done Tim and I figured we had best get it done again.  It was such a hot day to have the air off and the south doors open for the hoses.  But now it is clean.


We are planning to start formal school next week.  I will start Leah's K curriculum, MFW first.  Since we will be doing the deluxe package I need to get the ants for our ant farm ordered.  We will need them when we study the sound of the letter A.  Also, I want to look for some butterfly eggs.  Monarches love milkweed.  There is a lot of milkweed around here.  If I can't find any eggs I can order some of those, too.  It is so nice to see these things first hand if possible.


For Daniel I just plan to do some review things next week and not start his curriculum, MFW CtG right away.

It is looking kind of stormy out there.  So I had best get this posted and shut off my computer.  I leave you with a picture of Leah in her new "school" clothes.  (Oh phooey it won't rotate!)

We Went Camping

Every time I go to Fargo I see all these campers driving west or east and I think, "I want to be one of those people going camping!"  We are trying to go camping more this year.  Our first trip was to Itasca.  Then we went to Clausen Springs.  One of our favorite places is Fort Lincoln State Park so this weekend we went there.  It has helped that we take the motor home since I can keep most of the supplies in there.  For the most part I just have to add fresh food in the refrigerator and freezer and clean clothes.

Another thing that has helped encourage us to go more is that our camper has air conditioning!  So it doesn't matter if it is supposed to be hot.  This past weekend's forecast was for some hot weather.  When we got to Fort Lincoln all the electric spots were taken.  We had to camp in the primitive section which is pretty since it is right by the two rivers, the Missouri and the Heart, but it can get hot.  That first afternoon (Friday) and evening we had a nice cooling breeze coming off the river.  And there is a nice paved path that Leah and Daniel could ride their bicycles in our view.  Tim could walk a few feet and cast out his line.  It was a lovely spot.

But Sabbath morning the wind had switched directions and it was really heating up.  Tim rode his bike around to see if anyone was leaving one of the electric spots.  He was diligent and found a nice spot for us right across the road from the playground.  So we moved there, turned on our air, and sat around all day.  It was a nice spot with shade all day.  It really wasn't bad sitting there outside as long as you didn't move around much.  But it was nice to go inside the camper and cool off as needed and the sleep was much nicer.  

Tim and I got some much needed rest even though I didn't sleep too well while we were there.  Rest is something different than sleep.  The children had fun playing and riding their bikes.  It was nice to be there and enjoy time together.

Tim is the griller and I am the filler.  

My sweet Daniel wasn't feeling too well.  His ear was still giving him a little trouble.

Leah was hungry and couldn't wait for her burger to get done.

Ellyana is such a good camper.  She never barks and is getting quite good on the leash.  She didn't want to eat her supper that night.  It looks like she is sticking out her tongue and saying, "Eeew!"

Our lovely little home.

Right across the road is where the playground is located.

Towards evening Tim and Daniel took their poles down to the river.  Leah, Elly, and I walked around the whole camp.  I like to look at all the different campers and the people's camps they make.  I love this view of the Missouri looking toward the north and Bismarck.

Right about here is where our first camp was.  We set our chairs to the left of the path.  This is the Heart River that flows into the Missouri just a little to the right of this picture.

We were looking for the guys and noticed all the people swimming in the Missouri River even though the sign said "No Swimming."

Leah took this picture because she wanted to get a picture of the white dog, an Eskimo, I think, in the upper left corner.

That night Elly was just plain worn out!  She climbed up on the chair and slept by the fire.

Of course Daniel had to have a stick to poke into the fire.

We enjoyed smores and just plain roasted marshmallows both nights. 

We also enjoyed walking up the steps to the Slant Indian Village.  These kids had never seen inside the mounds before so it was a treat for them. 

We could hear the trolley going on the tracks right above up the hill from our campsite.  And we could hear it's little clanging bell announcing that it would take passengers.  Leah doesn't remember riding on it the last time we were there since she was only two years old and really wanted to ride it.  Next time we go we will have to purchase tickets when we pay for our campsite.  The trolley comes every hour from 1:30 - 4:30, takes a scenic path to Mandan, then comes back again.

I could write more about how I had a hard time sleeping the first night because the yard light was shining in my face, Elly was panting, and our neighbors were being loud.  Or I could write about the people camped beside us who were almost constantly yelling at their kids.  But it is enough to say that in spite of all that it was a great weekend of camping!

Tim's question on the way home was, "Where are we going next?"

Corn anyone?

The other day Daniel told me that Ryan told him that he had eaten some fresh corn.  That got me thinking that I had better check my corn.  It was ready!  That night we had corn for supper.  That's it, just corn.  We ate until we were full of it.


It seems early this year.  I know I did plant it early.  But it didn't come up right away.  Maybe it is the heat and humidity we had that made it grow so well.  I don't feel ready to put up all that corn.  But I got some freezer baggies yesterday and plan to go out this morning and pick off all the cobs that are ripe.


I use the freezer method my mother taught me.  It's easy, quick, and what we like.  I blanch the cobs in boiling water for a few minutes, put them into two different cold water baths, cut the corn off the cob, put it in baggies, and then freeze it.  What a delicious addition to those winter meals.


The children are still sleeping.  The house is quiet.  I've been outside with Elly.  We let the chickens out of their coop.  Elly is learning that she can't chase them although she really wants to.  She ran around awhile while I got her breakfast ready.  After I fed Mario I took her bowl out to her fence and she followed. First she wanted to play like we usually do.  But she couldn't find her toys.  I put them as well as her blanket in the washer.  So she went out to eat.  With a full tummy she is content to lay outside watching things.


Daniel has been feeling a little under the weather.  On Tuesday he had an earache.  He stayed home with Tim yesterday while Leah and I went to town.  He hasn't been hungry.  I'm hoping he will feel better when he gets up this morning. 


If I am going to get all my work done today I had best get started.

Nature Studies

Another weekend has come and gone.  Such a nice Sabbath day we had!  Since we were having a husband/wife singing group come in the afternoon we had our monthly 4th Sabbath potluck meal on the 5th Sabbath instead.  They did a nice job and blessed us with their music.


After church we had our friends, the L family, come over to visit and have a light supper with us.  Whitney and Brandon were here as well.  It was a good time of fellowship and laughter. 


On Sunday we went to Fargo (again!!) for a young couple's wedding reception.  They had a "destination" wedding in Dominic Republic a few weeks ago.  The pictures from their wedding looked like something out of a dream...very nice.


Daniel had been mentioning that his shoes were hurting his feet.  After the reception we went shoe shopping.  We found a couple pair with Velcro that were comfortable for him.  Why Velcro when he does know how to tie his shoes?  Because...he isn't taking the time to properly put on his shoes and tie them.  Instead he is bending down the backs and running outside like that.  I'm hoping since the Velcro will speed up the process he won't feel the need to do this with the new shoes.


The stores were only open until 6:00 so I didn't make it to Sam's in time to get more of their delicious peaches.  I still have two left so that leaves me with one for breakfast today and one for tomorrow.  I will be okay but I did want to get some for Brandon as he loves peaches as much as I do.


Yesterday morning I woke to see Brandon sleeping on the couch.  I didn't hear him come in Saturday night but was happy he was here.  He got up early and went to work for the day for my uncle and my cousin's husband at a farm near here.  I'm glad he is willing to earn extra money that way.  He ate breakfast with me.  We both had a peach and an English muffin.


This morning while I was reading Kris blog I noticed a familiar blog on her list.  Then I remembered that I used to read it before my computer crashed.  I had the address saved on my favorites list but all that was gone after the crash.  So I made sure to add it to my blog list this morning.  Barb keeps an online nature journal of their nature studies.  Since we are supposed to do a nature walk each week in our school this helps me get ideas.  We have participated in a few of the nature challenges.  I'm so glad to find her blog again.


I have plenty lined up that I want to accomplish today so I had best get busy doing some of it.