A New Day...

So yesterday was Cody's first day of skateboarding. He had a paid half hour lesson, but I think he learned more from his friend who has gotten quite good on the skateboard. They had a blast - Cody fell a bunch, but he did get up and go for the ramps again. By the time we left, he was able to go down a few of the ramps without completely wiping out.
Even though Nathan's 2nd birthday isn't until October, we went ahead and had his pictures done. So cute....and he knows it. He has discovered that he has a voice to be heard and he has learned the word "No." He has many words, but his favorite seems to be "No." He uses it frequently, whether he truly means it or not. It can be funny at times, but for the most part, it's grating on my nerves.

"Nathan, can I have a kiss?"
"No." He laughs...
"Nathan, do you want juice?"
Tee-hee "No."
"Can we change your diaper?"
"No, no, no."

See what I mean about the grating on the nerves part????

What do homeschool parents do with their time????

Tee-hee...I wasn't going to post so soon after the pics were put up...but my thoughts this morning were kind of funny...so I had to share.

So...this morning, while Cody was doing his math homework and Wesley and Andrew were playing Play-Doh, Nathanael got bored - and what did he find to amuse himself with????? No, you're not imagining things, he's playing with frozen turkey. So next time someone wonders what to get for him to play with, just go into the frozen food section of your nearest grocery store.

Now, some of you may be wondering where I was at this point in time - I was doing this: ------------------------------------------------------------------------|
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Some of you may wonder exactly what it is we're doing over here, huh? I promise, this is not some new cocaine or anything like that. This is powdered organic Green Tea and capsule holder so I can make my Green Tea extract capsules that I take everyday. However, what really caught me as being so hilarious is this idea --------If some stranger were to walk into my house at that point in time, they would see an 8 year old doing his homework, two kids playing a normal game with Play-Doh, me playing with powder and empty capsules, AND Nathan fooling around with a frozen turkey. What a sight that would be.

New pictures...

So here are the long awaited family photos....Enjoy...and yes, some of you will get more than just to look at these. Some will have them sent on in hard copy form via snail mail! Love ya!

Here ya go...

So you may look at these and say, "Where are the other kids?" Well....sometimes it's really hard to get pics of them all. So you may just have to wait in between kid pics. Here's one of Nathan though...playing with his favorite school time toy - BEANS. Yes, I'm being literal. He likes to play with a bunch of dried pinto beans in a box. It's so easy to keep him amused sometimes.
There's a band retreat this weekend - well not really a going away retreat....we're just spending time together to become more of a "team." I think there's only so much you can do. We're all such "artsy, fartsy" people with all of our own radical ideas...today should be interesting though as we are able to worship together as a team. I don't know if I'm doing the all day thing....but I would at least like to participate for most of it. I consider most of these people my family and they've been there for me for so long. Granted, right now...it's early...and I just want to crawl back in bed and go to sleep. Haven't been sleeping well again......
And here's the newest pic of our little girl. She's getting big. Last night she was hopping around the house (yes, we let her out and have some free roam at least once per day). She does fairly well, but she always expects lettuce or cantaloupe to snack on. We all have been enjoying her -except for Dan, who doesn't care unless he has to take care of her. Nathan, no matter how many times we tell him that Belle is a bunny - insists that she's a cat. He even meowed at her the other day....poor confused child.
Okay, so the newest game...Nathanael likes to play doctor. Unfortunately, he was trying to listen to Cody's heart while Cody was doing his math homework. It was cute, but it took twice as long for Cody to get his math done. I guess it's all in good fun though - they have to learn to get along. We asked Nathan what he heard in Cody's chest, and he said,
"bum, bum, bum..." - maybe he'll be a doctor....??

Not quite what I intended....

So, being on this healthier diet for your family thing, doesn't quite work the way I think it should...
1. I've actually gained some weight because the homecooked, all natural stuff tastes really good. Unprocessed, pure foods just taste better. Gotta watch my portions.
2. So...I used my grain mill for the first time to turn wheat into flour. Let me tell you...even Dan was excited to use this newest appliance in our home. It looks like this---------------------------->
So, we put the wheat in (I recently received my order of almost 200 lbs. of wheat and oats), turn the switch and "Wallah!" you have flour. It was pretty neat. Dan and I were both impressed. Here's the thing I didn't know. If you want to use whole grains...you need to add something to the bread to make it rise a little more fluffier. Yea, well. I was so proud, used my newly made flour in the bread maker....it cam out....very tasty, but flat. No, I don't mean just flat, I mean like maybe an inch in height. Experiment number one in baking with newly ground wheat....taste - point 1, sandwich capacity - 0. This story will be continued.
3. Everyone I know is going on this health food kick now. No steroids, no hormones, all natural, unprocessed, NO HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, organic, etc... I'm not complaining. The more people who do it, the more the prices might actually come down.
4. Did you know that just about everything out there has high fructose corn syrup in it? Okay...examples: graham crackers, most cereals, syrup, ice creams, sodas, vanilla wafers, Eggo waffles, oh....and that Lipton Onion soup mix that you flavor stuff with...yep...that too. Nasty, nasty stuff that replaces real sugar. We've all been taught that sugar is bad...it isn't, the stuff that they replace it with as an ingredient in most of the foods that we've grown up on - that is the evil stuff.
Okay, I'll get off my soap box for now.....This won't turn into the health food channel...I promise. I'll post more kid pics next post.
Hugs!

Hmmmm...and other thoughts....

So.....where to start this evening. Things are going well. Our major issue today was the sit and spin. Nathanael walked out with it this morning. Apparently, from the time he awakened he wanted to figure out how to get the thing to work. Well....it would've worked out just fine, but the other kids hadn't seen the thing in awhile, so you can well imagine that they all wanted to be on it
----all at once. This pic was taken before the major blow out. Wes and Nathanael were doing okay, and then came Hurricane Andrew. He pushed the baby and back-talked Wesley and it was all over from there. I took the sit and spin and put it on the back porch.

We recently made the yearly trip for...don't hold your breath...FAMILY PICTURES. Yes, it's that time again, folks. As soon as I get them back, they'll be on here...but until then. Let's just say, as usual it was an interesting experience. Let's see, for those mathematicians out there-------

3 children + 1 always been photogenic Mommy + 1 doesn't care what the pics look like as long as Mommy says they're okay Daddy = total chaos????

I suppose it could've been a lot worse. One always refuses to smile, so....we get what we can get and we'll laugh about it later. We can let all of ya'll judge later.

In other news...we had a bunch of trees chopped down around the house. So now, we have an acre of brush around our house - oh, and stumps. We have lots of those. It'll take awhile to get everything ready for planting season next year, but hopefully, now that all those trees are gone - it'll be a lot easier. We actually found a privately owned company who came in to cut down the trees for free. We just have to get rid of the tops, leaves and smaller branches...oh, and again, the stumps. Know of anyone who wants to come chop their own firewood....???? Send them my way!!!