School....Schoool.....School.....and more school.

When you homeschool it's not uncommon for that to be all you get done. This year there are 21 subjects over 4 grade levels, and then there is German (for Allan), Spanish (for Daniel), music, piano, art, and PE. So though my house is rarely in the shape I'd lik,e and laundry is not always washed, dried, and put away all in the same day - at least school is going well.

One of their favorite science experiments this month was growing bacteria on agar slides. If I had it to do over again, I'd double check to be sure that the person who washed their hands used soap and warm water. From the amount of bacteria on the handwashing slides we came to the conclusion a lesson in proper handwashing technique was in order......eewwwww.......

 We made our annual trip to the KY Wool Festival again this year and the boys chose to get a funnel cake instead of cotton candy - they were very impressed!

 You'd think Allan was already on the sugar high!

When not in school or otherwise occupied with practice or study - it's REALLY important that boys be outside expending their energy. They asked if they could dig a hole in the garden, ...I said yes...I didn't realize they were going to dig a bunker. 

But that's okay....as long as they fill it back in. 

Sometimes when I get my camera back I realize they occasionally do things that I don't want to know about. 

Stephen has entered the world of eyeglasses and patches but he's done really well and I'm thankful. He also lost another tooth......that we got to keep this time. The front tooth missing in this picture had to be removed by the dentist.....which is a whole other story that still makes me cringe every time I think about it. 

Our chickens began doing their molting thing when the days started getting shorter so egg production dropped way off. I got the light working in their coop and now production this week has reached 10 eggs a day so we're on the right track (chickens need 14 hours of daylight to sustain egg production). When they started back up they laid some really funky eggs, like this one: 

That had to have hurt! 

This week one day we heard the chickens making an awful commotion while we were doing school and we discovered a hawk was sitting on the gate to the run (at first we thought it was an owl). They were pitching an absolute fit! 

Philip was busy this week with the HLC accreditation for the grad program visit, Aldersgate Forum and now this morning he's speaking at Youth Convention. We're ready to settle into the slower pace of fall....my body is already wanting to start into hibernation with the early evenings! 

Oh tell me where you've been Billy Boy, Billy Boy.......

Waking this morning to autumnal temperatures, listening to the thrumming of the cicadas, and overseeing schoolwork, lets me know that we're coming to the end of a crazy full and busy summer. Most of it was a good busy...

Gardening changes every year - some years you win some, and every year you lose some. The rain drowned some things while others thrived but overall this year's production was much more than I had hoped for.

 

We did do a quick camping trip at Kindaid Lake State park which is about an hour from us. It was horribly hot and we all decided we'd rather be camping when it's snowing than when it's hot. Notice all the footwear on top of the fenceposts. This was on a road between our house and the camp site.

 The boys did some canoeing. I was the "drop off/pick up" person. 

 There was a lot of wildlife and the deer were plentiful.

To celebrate my in-laws anniversary we had an Indian staff member (here at GBSC)  cook a traditional Indian meal for us. It was so very good......Butter Chicken, Saag Paneer, and Basmati rice. I love Indian food......too much!

Though it was super busy, there were times of relaxation and reading on the front porch (and a nap or two).

 Gramme Brown found this shirt for Allan at WalMart this summer.

Allan helped me to process 40 pounds of chicken from Zaycon.

We made a trip to Loveland Castle.

Lots and lots of swimming in Gramme's pool and Pop-pop's hot tub.

The Lego Americana Road Show stopped in Cincinnati. I'm going to do a separate post for this one. But if it's anywhere near you - go! It's fantastic!  Yes, all of these historic landmark buildings are made of Legos.

Took advantage of quite a few free/almost free food offers.

Took our yearly trek to Hillcrest Orchard for peaches but the boys' favorite stop is always the chocolate factory.

 

We started school in July part time and full time in August. Here's Stephen with one of his illustrated math problems. He spends more time illustrating than doing math.....but as long as he gets all of his work done, I don't mind. 

Went to visit the LST 325 that was on Omaha Beach on D-Day. I'll probably do a separate post on this also.

Goodness.....just doing that short trip through the pictures made me tired! Philip worked for GBSC this summer doing the grunt-work that's necessary for starting the graduate school. That's exciting but also very labor intensive. The evaluation team from the Higher Learning Commission will be here in a little over a month so continued prayers for that project would be appreciated.

Now our focus is on school and the pace has slowed considerably. I really do look forward to slowing down. As much as one can when when the mother of three boys.

April Update

 The only way I can remember what we've been doing is pull out the camera but in the last month we've been too busy to take pictures. Here's just a snippet of what's been happening.

The month started with the stomach virus and everyone but Philip took their turn.

Easter arrived this year and the boys took a challenge to recreate scenes from the Easter account in Lego form. They used what they had on hand and did the photography themselves. This was the triumphal entry:

The Crucifixion:

The burial:

 And the Empty Tomb - I like seeing the dropped spears and soldiers running away:

We went camping over the Easter weekend (thankfully this year we didn't get snowed on! It was great!) but I forgot to take my camera. This was one snapped by Mrs. Welch.

Allan celebrated birthday #11! He ordered stromboli, Doritos, Cream Soda, and pecan pie.

Daniel bought him a present this year and was almost more excited to give it than Allan was to receive it.

And this part of spring arrived too early for my liking - the count is now at 11. Seriously, at a $1/snake these boys are going to have me broke by the end of summer. It's kind of gross but the chickens eat them......

The garden is started, mowing the lawn has begun, and we're working on wrapping up schoolwork for this year. May is usually the busiest month of the year for us - particularly for Philip - but it's such a happy time of year!

Winds of Spring in Cincinnati

Last Wednesday night we enjoyed watching another several inches of snow make everything looks fresh and clean again. Last night - the boys were rollerblading in 62 degree weather. It's what I call the stirrings of spring - it's not here yet but we're heading that way.

My boys were actually upset for a little bit when it started getting warm - one morning they were sledding and by that afternoon the snow on their track had melted. I didn't get many snow pictures this year.

But I did shoot a lot of video of sledding at our place, out at my in-laws, and tubing at Perfect North.

This one I took but the sled left before I was ready, went in a direction I didn't want to go and I almost mowed Allan over.

I know this shouldn't make me laugh like it does but Daniel takes the prize for having the most unfortunate things happen to him. If he lives to adulthood it will be a miracle!

Both Allan and Daniel worked on snowboarding this year.

Through this winter our chickens have done great.....sometimes too great.

But then February hit with snow on the ground and subzero temperatures. I began running a heat lamp for them and put a heater on their water to keep from freezing. But then one morning I opened their side door to let them out - the first guy looked out, stepped back - the second one looked out and then stepped back and they all looked at me like, "You've got to be kidding! We are not going out there." And they didn't - for almost 4 weeks. Egg production dropped and the quality dropped (had one egg laid that didn't have a shell.....just the yolk and white in the membrane). This week they've been outside every day and production is back up. I'm very thankful they didn't get sick or have a lot of frostbite issues - we had some but not much.

I got my cauliflower, broccoli, geraniums (none of the begonias germinated) started in February.

Today I hope to move them to bigger individual pots and get my tomatoes, peppers, and other vegetables started (little behind on them this year).

Then there's all the baking, cooking, homeschooling, cleaning, administering tests (for the Christian Academy here at GBS),  listening........if you're in ministry you know that much of your time is spent listening...which also leads to a lot of praying. There's been a lot of that going on this semester.

I also started a little business venture which will probably get it's own blog post soon. But that's what's been happening around here. It's soon going to be time to kick it into high gear......for whatever reason I don't feel like coming out of hibernation yet!