Box Day!!

One of the best days of our whole homeschool year is Box Day!! AKA the day our new books arrive from Sonlight. For people who don't homeschool this may strike you as a little weird but for us it has become a tradition that we all look forward to, especially me. I don't know what it is about getting new books that makes my heart so happy but boy does it ever. Probably because I'm the biggest bibliophile known to man. This year was not disappointing. We are going to be studying Core 5 this year which is Eastern Hemisphere. Much of the year will be devoted to studying countries in the 10/40 window which is one of the most unreached parts of the world for Christ. Going through the curriculum this afternoon was a bit overwhelming and I'm glad I got it early because it is going to take some studying to prepare a schedule and figure out how to accomplish all that I hope to this year. As the children will soon find out this core is a huge step up from what we have been doing in recent years and will require a lot more effort on their part. As their dad put it...playtime is officially over.

I'm excited though to study a new section of the world and know that I am learning so much right along with my five children. What a blessing homeschooling truly is. As I pray for this new year I'm excited to see what the Lord will do in my children this 2009/2010 school year and I look forward to the many new nuggets of wisdom that we all gain in the process.

My math wiz James is excited to start his new math program. As am I, it will be more self directed and all the lessons are right there for him on the computer!
Books...books...and more books

Peter was eager to get the books out of the box so that he could cut it apart to make the castle. Who ever said you need expensive toys to keep children occupied??

Projects, Projects, Projects

Summer projects abound at our house this year. We are using the time to build and create new things and finish projects that have been in the works for quite some time. The weather here this summer has been ideal and so much cooler than normal. The Lord has blessed us with early summer rains that have made the landscape greener than our typical brown. It blesses my heart to see His hands at work all around us.

Peter has been doing what he loves most this summer and building all things crafty. He created a garage of his own using popcicle sticks and a lot of glue. It took him several days of hard work but the result is quite good and very sturdy too. It is a joy to watch his mind work to create fun art. So very unlike myself I marval at the creative side of my children and their passion for artsy things.

My project along with some help from Miss Emma has been to get some more flowers growing in our front flower bed. We are working on growing some begonias as well as moss roses and a couple other new types of flowers. We were pleased to see that even after the cold winter many of our annuals were still alive and kicking which is very rare indeed especially for us!! The snapdragons and even some of the petunias are still going strong. We are still not master gardeners by any stretch but we are enjoying the color of the flowers and the process of keeping them flourishing.

Robert's garage is continuing to take shape. The outside is ready for paint and the inside is completely finished yippee!! The last major thing to do will be to get power to the building which will require taking our small shed down and moving all the contents into the new garage so that the wire can be run to the panel on the house. We also still have to string new fence around the building and take down our now quite dilapidated temporary fence. It has been a long hard struggle and we have learned a lot about ourselves and working together through this project. I can't deny that I will rejoice when it is finally complete and we can move on to other things. But as I look at it I realize how much has been accomplished in its building. Not only the building itself but the relationships involved while creating it. What a blessing to have summer days to be fruitful but in a more relaxed way than during the hectic months of the school year.

Summer Renovations

Well I finally was able to get a couple of photos to load on my blog!! I don't know what I did or why it worked but thank you Lord for making it work!! A few weeks ago we decided to go to Ikea to get some bookshelves for the living room. Robert heard my heart and helped me figure out a way to get a small library together until we can get our garage converted to a room which I hope to then have one whole wall devoted to shelves for all my books. But this is a wonderful fix for the moment. We were able to move all of the books out of the kid's rooms and bring them all to one place in the living room. We are all loving it so much. I was also able to leave a shelf open for my next Sonlight Core which will be arriving very soon for the fall. I love the fact that we use a curriculum that allows us to have such a wonderful library. But it is also very frusterating not to have the space to have them all out where the children can actually get to them!! So this is our solution for now, what a blessing.

While we were browsing Ikea we decided to look at some new dressers for the kid's rooms. They were within the budget so we ended up getting two for the girl's room and two for the boy's room. They were all in need of new ones that have a larger capacity than what we had. Funny how as kids grow so do their clothes :). The girls also decided that they wanted to split their bunk beds apart and so the next day we set about revamp the rooms. The result was just perfect. The girls are so thrilled with the way the room looks and the space that they have for their things. I'm thrilled because it looks more homey and not so junky. I will also say they have done a remarkable job keeping it clean and neat and it is such a nice place to be. The boys have two new dressers and their clothes actually fit in the drawers and the drawers even close now! Mom is a happy camper. Funny how small changes can change the whole mood of a house. We have become masters at working with small spaces!

I would love to share some more pics but these are the only two that would load for now. Hopefully I can get some of our other adventures to load in future posts!!

A Decade Old

How can it be that my sweet daugher Emma is already ten?? She had this momentous birthday back in April and I think that part of me didn't blog about it back then because I still couldn't quite get my head around it. I know that I have two children older than she is but because they came into our family when they were nine and almost eight I guess it doesn't seem the same. But with Emma I can't quite figure out where the time went. Why just a minute ago I was feeding her baby food with a tiny spoon and chasing after her as she was toddling around getting into mischief. Now she is wearing a size seven ladies shoe and teaching her younger brother and sister about Christ as well as reading all the books I read to her to them. She is independant and stubborn at times and I see my faults in her so clearly sometimes. But two of the most amazing things about her are her simple love for Jesus and what an amazing big sister she has turned out to be. I was watching her the other day at the YMCA pool. She spent most of her time in the small activity pool with Daniel and Ana playing and playing with them. Either helping to teach Daniel to not fear the water or following Ana down the slide laughing and giggling with glee. She is still a little girl at heart but I see a maturity in her that sometimes scares me. I know that there are so many things that will happen with her in the next ten years and part of me just wants to slow down time just a little so that I don't miss any of it.

There have been so many blessings that have come from adopting our children from Russia. But one of the most unexpected ones is the person that Emma has become because of her brothers and her sister. She is much more adventurous than I believe she would have been with no brothers and she is far more giving and compassionate. God has blessed us so greatly with this loving and faithful daughter and I am one thankful mom to have her in my life.

Snow Adventures, Puppy Adventures, Zoo, Garage and Grand Adventures

Time flies when you are having so many adventures!! We have had our share over the past couple of months. In February we had our first real snow since the boys have been home. Wouldn't you know it, it was when Robert was in Phoenix for a conference so he missed all the fun. But it was a doozie of a storm that left us with more than a couple inches of snow and enough for even us homeschoolers to call a snow day. The kids had a blast playing and throwing snow balls. Then they joined me inside for a relaxing day of movies and hot chocolate...no school allowed.

James was especially thrilled. He has been waiting for a good snow since he arrived from Siberia three years ago. This is his wonderful snow man that he worked all morning to get just right. He was so proud and was sad to watch him melt which happened before days end. Such is life in Arizona where the snow doesn't stay long!!

Our next adventure began around the same time as the snow. This is our precious new chocolate lab Hershey. He is curious, fun loving and all puppy for sure. And he loves to give Hershey kisses :) He joined the gang in February as well and has become part of the family very quickly. One thing about having five pairs of eyes to watch over a puppy he doesn't get away with much. He has trained very quickly and loves all his people. The only down fall to this dog so far is that he is a morning dog. When the sun comes up he thinks it is time to PLAY! Which doesn't go over so well with this non-morning girl. But we are working on it!! Hopefully I can get him to come around to my way of thinking...sleeping in is good Hershey!!

The beginning of March found us off to the Phoenix Zoo on a homeschool field trip. Our dear friends hopped in the silver streak with us and we made a day of it. The kiddos had a blast and us moms got some exercise. We even took a side trip out for an awesome lunch and a trip to Fashion Square. Why waste a perfectly good trip to Phoenix I say!!

My man has been hard at work on his adventure in his new garage. In the last few months he has put on the trusses (thank you friends that helped), had our friend from church roof it (in a day...yippee), get all the electrical done, and hang almost all the drywall on the ceiling. He has done an awesome job and I'm so proud of him. The boys have been fantastic helpers as well and are learning so much from their dad.

Our latest adventure was truly Grand!! Our friends who we visited in Virginia last year and who will be moving there permanently this week invited us to tour the Grand Canyon with them. It was a special day to celebrate their son's birthday and just have sweet fellowship. We will miss them terribly when they go but are looking forward to future adventures with them. Who knows all the things we have yet to see!!

As spring approaches we realize once again how blessed we are. The Lord has allowed us to have so much fun together in 2009, enjoying the beauty of His creation.

Eleven Already!!

There are times that I can still hardly believe that I have an eleven year old son...not to mention a 12 year old son!!! When you get them already half grown it seems like time passes all the more quickly and you have to be careful to catch the moments quick because you blink and three years have passed. I am posting these photos of Mr. Peter's birthday several weeks late but I wanted to share some of the fun we had during his party. Having your birthday on December 28th has its challenges. Especially when you are the mom :) but we did our best this year to let Peter know he is loved and such a special part of our family. Peter is my little imp, we knew from the moment we saw his photo that this would be his personality. He is so very creative, loves anything to do with the military, can build just about anything and is a budding artist. He keeps me on my toes everyday but his smile makes my heart melt. His theme this year was Army stuff and between Christmas and his birthday he managed to get just about everything a boy could want or need to "do battle" including a real Army phone, a full camo outfit, army shovel and ruck sack. He loves to suit up in all of it and head to the back yard to dig trenches and battle with his brothers. Here are some of the photos from his party at the Hampton Inn. We had fun having "camo" cake and then heading to the indoor pool for fun swimming with friends.

The Whole Gang after swimming...they all slept well
I think this picture says it all!

Mr. Peter with his camo cake!

My Little Imp!!

P.S. When I first posted this the photos didn't load right and this time they are not in the right order, but I'm choosing to just leave them and move on :)

Yesterday, Tomorrow, and Today

Sunday after everyone left and we had returned from Church I headed out for a little breather to the Christian Bookstore to browse around a little by myself :) I decided to purchase a new devotional for the New Year so I picked out Oswald Chamber's My Utmost For His Highest. It is one that I had looked at before but never bought. I have read it the last few days and have already been blessed by these words written so many years ago but even so they seem like they were written just for me.

Today's was entitled Yesterday...as we finish 2008 and embark on the adventures of 2009 I want to share what Chambers has to say and hopefully it will strike you as it struck me.

"You shall not go out with haste...for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard" Isaiah 52:12

"Security from Yesterday. "God requires an account of what is past" (Ecclesiastes 3:15). At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise when we remember our yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God's grace tends to be lessened by the memory of yesterday's sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual growth for our future. God reminds us of the past to protect us from a very shallow security in the present."

"Security for Tomorrow. "...the Lord will go before you..." This is a gracious revelation-that God will send His forces out where we have failed to do so. He will keep watch so that we will not be tripped up again by the same failures, as would undoubtedly happen if He were not our "rear guard." And God's hand reaches back to the past, settling all the claims against our conscience."

"Security for Today. "You shall not go out with haste..." As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in haste of impetuous, forgetful delight, nor with the quickness of impulsive thoughtlessness. But let us go out with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. It is true that we have lost opportunities that will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past rest, but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ. Leave the broken, irreversible past in His hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him."

I love that He is my rear guard as well as the one that goes before me. I know as I look back on 2008 I have made my share of mistakes and blunders but I also know that I'm forgiven...I take heart in this as 2009 begins! Happy New Year!!