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! 

Happy Meals and Girls

Two interesting conversations I've had lately:
Stephen was behind me in the van and since it was just him, he was taking the opportunity to pour out all the deep thoughts he had been thinking. The conversation went something like this.....

Stephen: Mom, I have a brilliant idea! Do you have the phone number for McDonalds?
Me: No, I've never called McDonalds. Why do you need to call McDonalds?
Stephen: I need to call them and tell them that when I have a boy - and I'm just going to have one boy because if you have one boy they can't fight but if you have more than one boy then they can fight so I'm just going to have one - I am going to take my boy to McDonald's every day and we're going to order two Happy Meals - one for him and one for me. I want them to know they need to have two Happy Meals ready every day at lunchtime. Doesn't that sound like a great idea?

There will come a time when he will understand why we don't go to McDonalds every day and why we don't buy Happy Meals.

Another son whose name I will not disclose - I was telling him  that just that morning I'd been praying for his future wife. That God would be protecting her, that she'd be developing a love for God and preparing to work in His kingdom. That she would love him and be a wonderful helper and mother.

He was quiet for a little while and then said, "Mom, do I have to get married?" I told him absolutely not - he should only get married if God wants him to marry. He breathed a sigh of relief and said, "That's good...because I like about 20 girls right now." Now that I wasn't expecting.

Snapshots of the boys

Our friend, Amit Dutta, asked me one Friday evening to get the boys in their dress clothes so that he could take a few snapshots of them. Though they weren't impressed to be in suits on a family night - I thought they still turned out well.

The three musketeers.

 Daniel

Stephen 

                                                                                Allan

Well, well.......

Just sitting here going through my pictures and see that my boys got a hold of the camera at some point and decided to try their hand a photography. They particularly like the "fish- eye" function.

This would be Stephen.

Allan's first "selfie". This may come back to haunt him!

Trip to the Zoo

We joined a homeschool group from THINK (Teaching Homes In Northern Kentucky) to have a Cincinnati Zoo field trip. I used to be able to go to places and within two hours my guys were done and we'd come home. Now we're having to come home because mommy is done!

Picture with the resident Sumatran Rhinoceros.

Allan with a Takin.

 Daniel with a camel.

I think this is what did it - we took four rides in a row and my stomach just whirled afterwards.....ugghhhhhh.

 Mr. Manatee came right up to the window.

Spring Break = Camping in Hocking Hills State Park

The last week of March was Philip's Spring Break so we took off school that week also and used the time to catch up on some housework (when you homeschool that's something that only gets a "lick and a promise" during the school year) and took a camping trip.

This was our first time to go camping when it was really and truly cold. There have been other times I thought that I was cold.....but this trip proved that I only thought I was cold those other times. It was 20 degrees one night and 23 the second. That would not have made for a great camping trip except that the days were very nice - somewhere in the high 50's which is perfect hiking weather. And we learned that cold can be remedied if you have the right equipment (which we worked on and will continue to do so).

Camp all set up and ready to go.

Probably the favorite part of camping is the boys getting the privilege to "hack" to their hearts content. This time we invested in a small axe for each of them to have as their own strictly for camping trips (otherwise all trees in our neighborhood would be in danger).

 Gathering firewood is a close second favorite......probably because it includes elements of hacking.

This trip Darnell Wilson, one of my husband's students, joined us.We enjoyed having him along and he was a wonderful help to Philip.

We took two different hikes - one to Old Man's Cave and the other to Ash Cave. Both were beautiful and where such a clear reminder of God's handiwork. What the earth was like before the Fall must have been magnificent.....what we have in a fallen world is incredible.

 Devil's Bathtub - and area that created a natural whirlpool but the sides were so smooth and slick they say if you ever get in it's very difficult to get out.

 Upper Falls

 Old Man's Cave

 Lower Falls

 The walk to Ash cave was handicap accessible which meant a really nice paved path - even then, Stephen preferred riding on Darnell's shoulders.

 It was incredibly large and beautiful!

We were able to do almost all of our camp cooking over a fire this time (which I prefer) and that was handy particularly cooking breakfast on those chilly mornings.

Daniel managed to cut down a little sapling during the two days we were there using his ax and was quite proud of himself.

One of my concerns as a mother has been that no one get lost - so we bought each of us whistles so that if anyone gets lost they can use it to signal for help. So far, no one has had to use them so I became a little lax. As we were getting ready to go on one of our walks this time I told the boys they didn't need them since we were all going on the hike together......mistake #1. Thankfully, Daniel knew what to do (though he gave our home telephone number and no one could get a signal out of the gorge) and within 30 minutes we were reunited. Lesson learned: children wear whistles at all times.

Another has been that we keep all digits and appendages.......mommy was the only one hurt on this trip. Lesson learned: Mommy needs to be more careful to follow her own advise.

My favorite part of camping besides the quiet and solitude are the stars.......they are magnificent! But getting a picture of them doesn't do them justice.

That was spring break in a nutshell. Now we're back and finishing achievement tests and buckling in to finish the fourth quarter - hard to believe another school year will soon be over.

Now I Know

In the 7th grade in public school, I had to take a test that would give the guidance counselors information to help them determine my areas of interest and strengths so that they could guide me in taking the classes and acquire the information I would need for my future career. When I was called into the office to go over the results of my test, they were a bit uncertain of how to "guide" me. I told them I wanted to be a missionary, perhaps a missionary pilot.  The results of my test? "Is mechanically minded but should not operate heavy equipment." I don't remember that the conversation was very helpful other than encouraging me to take a foreign language. But I do remember thinking, "Mechanically minded? How helpful is that to a girl?" It just hit me after coming through the Christmas season! God knew that I would have three boys and that I'd spend several years of my life reading Lego© manuals!