Home is where you start from: July 2007

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

It's fairly obvious

I loved these chickens! Next time we are in the market for hens, I want one of these!

Just a reminder to not be unequally yoked. They looked uncomfortable and really not in a good mood. Just saying. It's in the Bible for a good reason.

See the results? - He doesn't talk anymore, and she has let herself go...it's pretty obvious. Read your Bible.

No sweetie, we can't take it home.

So. Ca freeways...it's every man for himself out here in the mean OC.

This is part 2 of our day at the fair...see part 1 *here*

Labels: family, field-trips

posted at 9:51 AM
7 comments

Monday, July 30, 2007

Fair perspectives

Took the family to the fair last week, it's become a tradition. And yes, we pretty much go for the food. Sigh.

Sadly, here is an example of what happens when a group of young sheep hang out together too much, unsupervised and directionless; they go baaad.

Notice the hooded robes. They are known as the uuu clan. It's alarming and disappointing.
And saaa

d.

Ewe talking to me??
yeah, I've got your number, "fluffy"....

Dad's the fun one. Nobody wants to walk with mommy anymore.
But, it's all fun and games- until somebody gets hurt...then they come running to me...

-this is part 1 of our day at the fair, see part 2 *here*

Labels: family, field-trips

posted at 9:08 AM
4 comments

Winners! Winners! We have Winners!!

We have the two winners for the Dog days of Summer bloggy giveaway!!

The winner of the Glory Revealed cd is

Susanne at Living to tell the story

and the winner of the 1 year subscription to Homeschooling Today magazine is

Jennmoninva of Jennifer's Blog over at Vox

Congratulations!!

posted at 1:04 AM
2 comments

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Carnival of Homeschooling 82nd edition

Just FYI: The 82nd edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling is up over at Tami's Blog.
Lots of great links to other homeschool blogs about many different subjects. A few that caught my eye are; Principled Discovery writes about "Building a reflective homeschool: Unanswered questions (did you every wonder what fireflys eat?) The common room writes about "My quibbles with Charlotte Mason"..because she loves CM and would never disagree outright, only quibble...(at least that is my guess...) :) and Janice Campbell writes about "Socialization...again".

Head on over to the carnival, there are many more great posts to read, this was just a very small sample.

Labels: Carnivals, homeschool

posted at 5:23 PM
0 comments

Monday, July 23, 2007

Dog Days of Summer Bloggy Giveaway

Everyone in blog-ville must know about Shannon's bloggy giveaway par-tay, go on over to her place to see the Mr. Linkey and have fun visiting all the other giveaways!
(just click the cute doggy button)

But, come back- y'all...and check out what I am giving away. I have 2 giveaways going, the first is for the CD- "Glory revealed". It can best be described as scripture set to music in an 'americana' style, featuring various artists. I am giving away 1 brand-new, unopened cd. International friends are invited to enter this one.

Giveaway #2 is for a 1-year subscription to Homeschooling Today magazine. I know the interest in this prize will be a little narrower than the cd..so just let me know in the comments if you are interested in giveaway #1, #2 or put *both if you want to enter for both.

*Sorry, but I have to limit the subscription prize to United States addresses only.

Enter in the comments section, you don't have to be a blogger, but leave me a way to contact you..or check back to see if you won and contact me!

Let me know if you are entering for prize #1, prize #2 or *both

Contest Ends Friday at 11pm pacific standard time. This will be a random, slips in a hat drawing..first name drawn gets prize #1, you get the idea...

I will post the winners Saturday or Sunday.

posted at 12:26 AM
126 comments

Friday, July 20, 2007

Most events

Most events in life can be
categorized in one of
two ways:

a good time,
or
a good story.

I saw this little quote in a catalog, and thought that sums up this whole blogging thing, doesn't it?

So, what is happening here at home? Oh, just lots of little things to keep me busy and distracted... Meg has School of Truth this week, that keeps me busy driving her to and fro and picking her up. I am so pleased she is attending, and I am really impressed with the biblical truths being imparted to our young people- I sat in one evening and got to see what they are doing. Tonight in the car, I asked Meg about the meeting and what parts she enjoyed or learned the most from. She shared with me a hymn they had sung, and we discussed the words, meaning and bible passages behind it. Then, she went on to define for me the concepts of justification, redemption and reconciliation. Wow. She told me that she felt like she didn't have a total grasp on justification and redemption, I told her I was glad that she had the definitions and Bible references memorized-that there would be days when she would be able to take the concept out -so to speak, and mull over the definition now stored up inside her, and part of it would 'click' and she would understand a little bit more. The young people and their zeal to run after the Lord really knock my socks off most days.

We went swimming with the OC Sitcom gang. We had a lovely time. I forgot my camera!! So no proof that I actually know them...

Meg doesn't get home from School of Truth until almost 10 every night...and we have a new season of Monk in the house from netflix. It's been a marathon of late nights, I am sooo tired. And nothing to show for it, not even some good, relevant blogging or anything. Just watching our show. Finished it up tonight. Sigh. Now we have to wait another whole nother year to get our Monk fix.

My Tapestry of Grace order came today. Sadly, it was only the curriculum..I am waiting for the book list before I begin ordering books, takes half the fun out of the whole buying-with- abandon-experience. I wasn't even here when the ups guy delivered it. Again, missed out on half the fun. Book packages are like Christmas for me. And oh, the suspense when the big truck rumbles down our street and stops dead smack in the middle of the street. And nothing happens for a few seconds. And you wait, watching...wondering if you are getting a package, or your neighbor across the street. And oh, bliss, you are special! It's for you!
Yeah, it's for sure the little things in life for this homeschool mom.

And my house stinks. Started 2 days ago. I hate stink. We think it is the wood floor in the kid's bathroom. It's been sinking this past year, rotting away-we suspected. I guess the smell confirms it. We live in an old house, these things happen.

Demolition begins Saturday.
I am really glad that hubby is such a handy guy.
I am really glad I get a new, remodeled bathroom out of this.
I sure hope this is the origin of the stink.
It would be a shame to rip out an entire bathroom and the subfloor and still have stink.
Just saying...

Lastly, on the mac front- we don't get to see our apple guru until next week. So, I still don't know what I am doing. I had to flee back to firefox just to function. Still love my mini-mac.
I heart my mini-mac. My heart goes pitter-patter when I think of all the wonderful things we will do in photoshop togther. And i movies...it's the big time internets, big time.

So, how was your week?

posted at 1:57 AM
4 comments

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Squirrel Nutkin

We have a regular visitor to our yard, we've named him squirrel Nutkin, because he had a rather nasty encounter with our cat and lost part of his tail. After it happened, I was so afraid he had crawled away to die somewhere and I kept watching for a tail-less squirrel. I think this is the one, his tail is much less "plume-y" then the other squirrels...

Here is Nutkin at the squirrel feeder we put up to hopefully save our bird feeders for the ..birds.

Today we spotted Nutkin perched on one of our sunflowers, eating the seeds. Exactly what we had in mind for those...

"But Nutkin was excessively impertinent in his manners. ...Nutkin danced up and down like a sunbeam; ...This looks like the end of the story, but it isn't...Nutkin pulled so very hard that his tail broke in two, and he dashed up the staircase and escaped out of the attic window. ...And to this day, if you meet Nutkin up a tree and ask him a riddle, he will throw sticks at you, and stamp his feet and scold, and shout- 'cuck-cuck-cuck-cur-r-r-cuck-k-k!'. The End. "

Labels: nature

posted at 10:43 AM
0 comments

Monday, July 16, 2007

abundant living

Last night we enjoyed a family dinner outside on
th

e front patio. The crowning touch to the meal
was our home-grown corn-on-the-cob.

Sky has had a garden each Spring for
several years, and the harvest is usually only
one or two plants each year..the rest a scene of deadly dryness and disappointment.

This year was the best year ever, great success with many plants. We've had several salads from different lettuces he has planted, a bumper crop of tomatoes-different kinds, even green
tomatoes;great for saute-ing with olive oil and putting on blt sandwiches. We've got onions for fresh salsa, our own garlic, asparagus, artichokes,

green beans (the little kids like them raw),
strawberries, raspberries, squash, pumpkins
and of course corn.

We decided last night that
we need to find more space for more corn....

I am truly amazed out how much food we got this year from our little garden. We are thinking that next year, if we stagger plantings, we can get
much more. And it all tastes so wonderful, even
the lettuce was better. I felt like Ma Ingalls, going out to the garden to cut lettuce for our salad.

Labels: family

posted at 11:23 PM
4 comments

His banner over me is love

I know my husband loves me, and that he sacrifices for me and our family all the time. His life is one of giving his all to his family. I know that he would lay down his life physically for us. I know this, but to really know this- as a concrete fact laid out before you..it is stunning and humbling.

Tonight I went for a walk through our neighborhood, I do this often. Tonight, Sky decided to go with me-which does not happen often, and we were attacked by two big dogs. We came out of it without a scratch, just very scared and jittery- I am just so proud of how my husband acted.

The dogs looked part St. Barnard, they were pretty big. They came running fast, out of a house and rushed us-barking and growling. I fully expected them to stop half-way across the street, as I have seen aggressive-type dogs do before, we were across the street on a sidewalk infront of another house. It happened so very fast, faster then I could have ever imagined. As they rushed at us, we began backing away-fully expecting them to stop or slow down when they saw we were not approaching their "territory", but they kept coming. Sky headed for the next street (we were at a corner house)..I guess his logical mind looked for the quickest route out of there, I at first turned my back as I moved away-thinking to show them I was not challenging them or a threat. I was moving towards a house and thinking of climbing onto a car in the driveway-but it was all happening so fast and I suddenly realized I had no time to do anything. The dogs were now within reach, I had turned to face them now..telling myself not to run...and I realized that I was helpless and that I was going to be bitten. I started screaming, I so surprised myself, I had always wondered if I would be able to scream in an emergency moment..I am really a quiet person. As I started screaming, Sky came running in front of me and started kicking the dogs. He was wearing shorts, I screamed louder in panic because I knew he was going to be hurt. The owner came running and calling after my first scream, as Sky started kicking- the dogs sort of froze in surprise when I screamed, and then they ran home when the owner called them.

I have never been so scared and helpless before. I always thought I could handle a situation like this. There was nothing I could do, they moved so fast..no place of safety to get to, no weapon.

I was so proud of my husband. He didn't even hesitate to come to my defense.
My husband is awesome.
I was going to title this "Army of one" because that is how he came blazing in to my rescue. But I think the bible verse sums it up best.

He's the man.

Labels: family

posted at 1:33 AM
10 comments

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Funtimes my friends, funtimes...

ahh, homeschool book ordering is in the air... I love to order stuff.

Last night I hit the "order" button for Tapestry of Grace- year 1. The hard part was ordering just that...no bonus bundle, no lapbooks, wrting aids or good old plain fun reading books. So very hard, especially when you get free shipping on orders over $250, it would have been so easy to add things to my cart and go over that amount...so very easy.

My sober-minded plan is to order the curriculum and then look over the reading lists in a casual and orderly manner- thoughtfully researching what I need to order from them, what I can get at the library, and what I can find used or on sale elswehere. Sober-minded, but no fun. I like to order books. I like to get a package from UPS and open it, and find little gems of possibility between carboard covers. I love books. A box with a curriculum/course of study minus the books is only half the fun. Can you tell that I am already repenting of not ordering any books at all?

I also ordered some Abeka; a phonics workbook and handwriting workbook for Amie and handwriting for Demi-Sky.
Again, lacking in the imaginitive/fun department.

I'll be back in a little while, internets...going to go browse Amazon for some kicks...

(sorry, no links..I have to figure out how to open two windows on my mac..sorry)

Labels: homeschool

posted at 9:52 AM
5 comments

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

New toy

look what hubby got me!

We've had so much trouble with our computer crashing, I've been wanting a mac for a while- but didn't think I would actually get one anytime soon.

It's just beautiful- the desktop is stunning. Never owning a mac before, the learning curve seems to be a little steep. I'm going to go to those weekly classes they offer too- I think I will need it, I can barely navigate my way around here...

Sky told me that when he walked into the apple store and was shown the computer- the "mini mac", he pointed to the little shiny box and asked if it was the router. Umm, no...it was the computer. Wow.

The best part so far,

I turn it on...and it works!! Wow. And it is fast.

posted at 9:26 AM
10 comments

Monday, July 09, 2007

It's the fumes...

So, anyone up for the rest of my camp week story?

How can I top my last story of driving to camp the wrong day?? -chronicled *here* in painful detail...I'll wait till you get back, really....

I'm going to try to make this short and sweet, since it still pains me.

I drove almost 3 hours, part-way up a mountain, with 3 kids in the backseat-and my logical/linear/near-perfect/engineering husband....

and ran out of gas.

We were on our way for the last day of camp- "show-deo", intent on getting there in time-at the unmentionable ghastly hour of 9 a.m (which meant we had to leave by 6 a.m.)...and about 20 minutes past the last city, the "low on fuel" light came on. I had meant to stop and get gas, but forgot. I was afraid to tell Sky, and so I drove on, thinking that we would run into one of those small, lonely gas stations. We didn't. It got worse and worse. Finally, when the road began the assent, and I knew we would in no-way make it, I told Sky we were out of gas. As in, "I tried all I could think of, now fix it please." (isn't our spiritual life like this, we try on our own efforts to be good or to attain holiness- and then once we've made a complete muddle of it, and our circumstances seem hopeless-we look to God to fix it, somehow?)

Sky actually took it very well-though I could tell he was near panic mode. He had me turn around and head back for the city. It was hopeless, we would never make it back at that point-and we would miss the show and disappoint Meg- I felt physically ill.

We got to a certain point near an Indian casino, where I had looked for a filling station in vain- on the way up..and as we waited at a light and debated trying to take a side road to look for a station, Sky pointed and said, " a station!!"

...the light turned green

and the car died.

We coasted on down the highway, Sky yelling "steer!", crossed the highway into on-coming traffic, coasted up into the driveway and then came to a dead stop. Sky pushed the van the final 5 feet or so.

He filled the tank while I burst into tears.

yes, it was the crowning touch to my rough week..almost.

The next day on the way to Lord's day meeting, I locked my son in the van and walked away.
It was his frantic pounding that alerted me to the, ahem, 'oversight'.

that brought me to tears too, in the meeting as I confessed to Sky my latest escapade.

It was really, only the second time in my whole life that I had run out of gas. Really.

***I'm going to add this on, several months after this post, I was diagnosed as being very, very anemic...one of the symptoms is 'fuzzy thinking'...it was a relief to find out I wasn't losing my mind, the crowning point was me asking Sky nightly, 3 or 4 times in a row if he had locked up our hens for the night, he would tell me yes, I would nod, satisfied and then 10 minutes later ask him again, and then again...

Labels: Jen's world

posted at 9:33 PM
6 comments

Saturday, July 07, 2007

The grackle, the bluebird

This short piece in Christianity Today Magazine struck a chord with me a few months ago, I thought I would link it *here*

"...Not long ago, I came across a comment by G.K. Chesterton-...
"Idolatry is committed," Chesterton warned, "not merely by setting up false gods, but also by setting up false devils." A nice way of putting it, I thought to myself. But not as memorable as Walter Martin's story of the bluebirds and grackles."
- Richard J. Mouw

Labels: devotional

posted at 4:01 PM
2 comments

Friday, July 06, 2007

blogger at large

I've been a little scarce this week in blogland, not that I don't love you all, bloggerfriends...but we really have a crazy house-ful/busy week going on. This week is the Summer Training, which is like a bible conference. It's pretty intense, the meetings starting at 4pm and usually not ending till after 9pm. We have 5 people staying at our house right now, plus an extra 7 or so people for lunch or breakfast, or both..it kind of swings up and down. After breakfast every morning we have a study time to enjoy the messages given the night before and to answer the study questions we were given on our way out of the meeting. We then have lunch, and then take a short nap if we can manage one..four kids running around, it doesn't always happen...and then we make sandwiches for dinner and head out to the meeting. It's kind of like running a race.

The topic this year is "The Epistles of John", which cover the gospel of John, the 3 epistles and some of the book of Revelations. Sky and I take turns going everynight, one of us stays home with the kids. Last night one of the messages was on "Abiding in Christ", I am so bummed I missed it-my turn to stay home...

I'll be back to posting when it is all over. I will have alot of blog-reading to catch up on too.
Stay cool bloggy-friends.

posted at 1:42 PM
1 comments

Sunday, July 01, 2007

Am I in sync?

Camp week was a rough week for me;- Intellectually.
Actually, the unsettled-ness followed me for a week or two after... It wasn't really all my fault. It was a cosmic, I-have-kids/ Jenny's world- collision- sort of week. And, Sky was out of town; the linear half of our partnership.

The first photo here is from my van, on my way

to drop Meg off at horse camp. Saturday afternoon we ran into a roadblock before heading up the mountain.

See the water-dropping helicopter in-between the trees-center of the photo?

Here is a shot of the fire-trucks lined up on the side of the road. Not bad photos, taken one-handed, while driving and trying to follow the nice police-man's directions...

We were detoured off the highway onto a side-road, in an area I am not familiar with.

I pulled over, once at a safe-ish spot, to call the camp and get alternate directions.

Had a nice discussion about camp- which was starting on Sunday afternoon. Did I mention I took these photos on Saturday?

Yes, I drove 2 hrs. one way and endured a wild-fire roadblock..just to turn around and drive 2 hrs. back. And then I had to drive the 3hrs each way on Sunday.

Not totally my fault. 3 things conspired against me, besides my Jenny-ness ...

1. The handy wipe/off wall calendar I bought, and had installed on the wall, so I could be better organized. The wipe/off wall calendar my kids took over and began taking turns filling out every month. The wall calendar that my kids had filled out wrong on 2 other prior occasions, not counting this notorious instance.

2. Sky cleaned out our "important papers" spot next to the microwave before he left on his trip. The spot where we scientifically jam things we will need soon, but don't want to take time to put away somewhere. He put them away somewhere and I couldn't find them. This included the camp registration information- which included the time we needed to be there, and oh, the date. I called Sky a few days before camp to ask him where the papers were so I could check what time we needed to be there. He couldn't remember where he put them. I didn't question the day though, it had been on the calendar all month.

3. I checked the camp site on-line to get directions and check the times, the times and dates were not listed, but I printed out a nice map.

4. It's just a Jenny thing.

I have more, it gets way more entertaining. It just took some time for the sting to go away...

to be continued...

Labels: Jen's world

posted at 12:11 AM
10 comments

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