Wednesday- What more can I say?

5-28-08
This past week I have been gone from home a lot. The kids have missed me and everytime I walk out the door it is to very sad faces asking me if I have to go. Well, today I didn't HAVE to go so I cancelled my morning meeting to be with the kids. We did school, continued working on decluttering our home and then had a picnic lunch at the park.
While we were walking to our picnic area J found this huge dandilion.

Here she is with it up against her hand to give you an idea how big it was.

J,C and R all blew it away together. Unfortunately I missed the picture of that one!
We then enjoyed a picnic in the shade.

After lunch we were going to skip rocks in the river but it was too muddy from the rain so we just went for a walk in the park. I love that I can do this with my kids in the middle of the day. It was fun to just be with them.
Well, tomorrow is another day. We will see what it holds.

Day at the Creek with Friends

Sunday 5-25-08
As I mentioned in the previous post we took the kids to the creek Sunday evening. We had a picnic lunch and then went "wading" in the creek. Well, I am sure you are not surprised to find out that they got a little more wet than wading would do, but that is why we planned ahead and put them in swimsuits! LOL
The water was cold and we had a few who were a little reluctant to get in. Here are A and RT as they attempt to get in the creek.


Of course the boys had no problem getting right in!

Here Dad is helping R remember how to swim with his "big arms", his over hand stroke. He is too busy playing to take the time to work on this but we do have Summer Camp (JAM Camp- Jesus and Me) coming up and they swim daily.

The creek is pretty full this year so we have a little area of rapids the kids like to play in. Here they are trying to come back upstream.




RT was nervous about walking in the creek as the current was a little stong. Nothing we worried about but he had never been wading here before so Phillip helped him out.



Once he was in, he loved it!

Everyone had a blast!


Then it was time to head home.

The kids played some more and stayed up until there were signs of exhaustion. They stayed up pretty late and are still asleep now. It is only 7:30am but I don't usually get uninterrupted time to post.
Soon all 6 kids will be awake and they will hit the floor running. How blessed we are!

Don't you just love it.

Well, another week has passed and so a quick update. We did school most days this week. The kids are catching up nicely and we are moving right along. We are going to have to school through the summer but I am looking forward to a more relaxed time of schooling with less activities to take us out of the house.
We have also been doing some late spring cleaning. We are taking it in baby steps and are making quite a bit of progress. I wish I had thought to take some before pictures but maybe I will get some "in progress" pictures and then some "after" pictures later.
5-23-08
Friday after school and some cleaning the kids were quiet while I worked on some school planning. I have our Science planned out for the summer. Woohoo!!! When I finished I went looking for the kids and this is what I found the boys doing.

I love seeing how well my kids get along with each other and how they love to share doing things together.
Saturday we did some more cleaning and the boys then went to a birthday party while the girls stayed home and lazed around. Phillip and I were able to catch a movie. We went to go see the new Indiana Jones movie. We enjoyed it. It is much tamer than the previous three but still had some scenes that were tough to watch.
Sunday we went to worship and then out to eat with some friends. We took their boys home with us and I was able to nap for a short time. The neighborhood pool opened up but since it was the first weekend it was open we were sure it would be crowded and we were right. So we decided to take the kids to the creek. I will post pictures in another post.
All in all a good week.

Hawaiian Falls 5-19-08

Every year the water park "Hawaiian Falls" has a Home School Day. We love to go on this day as it is not crowded and the kids can go on all of the water slides and rides as often as they like. The only bad thing about it is that, since it is so early in the year, the water is ICE COLD!!! It takes a bit to get used to. The kids however didn't mind at all. Here they are in the Wave Pool. It is like the surf coming in on a beach. J and C were in it for sometime. This pool was shallow and so it was warmer.
I caught J and R coming out but they don't look so warm to me.

Here are A and R....well, at least the bottom half of R. LOL!

At one of the pools in the park there is a crossing challenge. They have to cross over several flotation devices in the form of wood and logs. Three of the four gave it a go....
Here is R's attempt. He started out a little slow.

But, then picked it up quite a bit.

Earlier he had done this without batting an eye and was so quick I didn't get a picture!
Here is J's attempt. She did great until the very last step and fell in! But ever the go-getter, she went around and tried again with no problem at all!

Not to be outdone, C went and made it across too!

Where was I during all this excitement? I was lying in an inner tube going round and round on the "Lazy River"!
All in all it was a good day. I only wish we could do it later in the summer. The kids kept saying that you will get used to the cold water and then you won't even notice it. Well, I don't think I got used to it, I think I went numb! LOL!

Piano Recital 5-18-08

R had his end of the year piano recital this past Sunday. He was soooo nervous. He opened the program with his solo and then finished it with his duet of "When the Saints Go Marching In".
He picked out his outfit the night before and made sure he had everything he needed.
(Mom, Dad, Sister-do you recognize the outfit? It is C's outfit from the 50th anniversary!)
When we arrived for the recital he was certain he did not know his solo by memory so his teacher ran upstairs to practice with him. She said he did perfectly. When it came time to start he went right up to the piano and played flawlessly!
Here are a couple of pictures. Sorry they are so blurry. I forgot my camera so these were taken with Phillip's phone.

















At the end of his program he played his duet without missing a note. We were so proud of him and he was very proud too! Way to go R! Take a bow!

Home to Home School

This week we have had an interrupted week. We have a friend's precious dd in the hospital stuggling with pneumonia. She is a very sick little girl and is in the PICU. Please keep her in your prayers. She has been there for 2 weeks and still has several more weeks in the hospital. My youngest calls her "G". I have been going to go visit her and her mom, but not as much as I would like to.
I have spent a lot of the week getting my house back in order. After healing from surgery physically I realized I was also battling healing from the surgery emotionally. So, I talked with Phillip and asked for help. He, as usual, jumped right in to encourage me and help me get through the "funk" (for lack of a better word) of post-surgical healing.
So, I have stepped up to my place as Keeper of my home. We have a menu plan and groceries, we have begun spring cleaning and putting away fall/winter clothing and getting rid of that which no longer fits. I have made meals most days for most meals. Yeah!!!!
I have caught up with medication orders I needed to make for my kids, appts. scheduled or re-scheduled as needed, ran J and C to the orthodontist, made it to the doctor myself and am generally getting back in the swing of things.
Wednesday- we had our last day of our Ladies Bible Class. It was fun as we simply had fellowship together. We went out to eat and then came and played a great game called....hmmmm....what was it called????? I can't remember! LOL
Well, I need to find out the name because if was such fun and is an excellent game for getting to know each other better. Then I ran to the hospital, then to the library, never made it to the bank and finally home later that evening.
Thursday Ran to the hospital, visited with my accountability partner, came home, cleaned up a bit and had a book study with the ladies from my homeschool co-op. We are going over the book "Lies Homeschooling Moms Believe". I will review the book when we are finished and maybe even try a giveaway! I have not done that before but would like to try.
Friday- Well this was appt. day. We ran from one appt. to the other and then we ran to see "Prince Caspian". We loved it!!!! Since it is so new out I will not say much about it. But, we will be using it to study some biblical principles we saw in the movie in school come Monday. All of us, including Phillip, got to go. We love C.S. Lewis and were very much looking forward to this movie coming out. There are so few movies we can take the kids to without previewing it first. I will say that my kids are older and I would be cautious taking little ones because the battle scenes, though not gory or bloody, are a bit more intense.
Saturday-Today we worked on the house and the garage after sleeping in and having a late breakfast. We are now enjoying the fruit of our labor and just generally relaxing as we wait for friend to join us for dinner tonight.
Not much exciting in the Martin household but it has been a good week.

What are little boys made of....

Can you see it?


"What?", you may ask, "is this?".
Well, it started off with a distraught young man coming to me to tell me he was NOT doing what he was supposed to do. He confessed that he was throwing a screwdriver like a knife and......well.....he missed his intended target and got, you guessed it, the wall.
What you see is a nice hole in the wall put there by an errant screwdriver. LOL!
I assured him that I understood it was a mistake but that his father would need to be told.
His father laughed first and said, "it is in the nature of boys to use things as knives". However, he also said that "if a boy was going to succumb to his nature then he was also going to be repairing the wall!".
However, the story continued to unfold. When the young man's sister heard the story she told him, "You were supposed to be throwing it at the cardboard box!" Then she proceeded to explain how she had been throwing it at the box and not missing. When I realized she could have been the example my son followed I immediately asked who put the first hole in the box to begin with. Both the oldest son and the youngest daughter pointed in opposite directions directly at their little brother who was in the middle of them! LOL!
When said son realized he was being accused he exclaimed "All I did was poke it, I didn't throw it at the box!"
So there you have it. A day in the life....Kids, you gotta love 'em!

Happy Mother's Day!!!!!

Mother’s Day 5-11-08

Mother’s Day was an absolutely wonderful, relaxing day for me. This is what greeted me before worship.

It is always so much fun seeing what they pick out for me!


R picked this out himself. He just knew I would love it and he was right!

Mother’s Day is not the day to go out and eat. So, we opted to get some fried chicken and go to the park with some friends. The weather was great for a picnic.

The kids had a great time climbing trees, sword fighting, taking pictures and just playing around.


Da Boys!

After a long relaxing lunch, we went for a walk to the creek.

It was a great day. I was able to call Mom and wish her and my sister’s a Happy Mother’s Day. Then we went home. God is good.

Home School Day at Six Flags

5-08-08

Last Thursday was Homeschool Days at Six Flags. This is our favorite day of the year to go. It is never crowded and the weather is usually beautiful. We missed last year so we did NOT want to miss this year.

We always start out on the Carousel.

A and R pose for the picture

J and C (my hams!)

Mom

We rode ride after ride after ride.



The end of a long, fun day!

Another Birthday Party

Lest I forget....

We have young adult living in our home. I have know her since before she was born. We celebrated her birthday at Cafe Brazil. Here are some highlights.
Smile Everyone

The candles completely covered her pancakes

We didn’t think about the pancakes being hot. The candles melted into her pancakes. oops!

















Bethany being the “dancing type”, her card played “Everybody do that Conga!”

Here she is opening her gifts. Does she look surprised? What fun this was giving it to her.












Group Picture

Bethany Dancing the Conga, or not! LOL


















Everyone decided to help her out

Happy Birthday Bethany!
5-03-08