Update

Went to the dentist at 8:20.

Almost had a panic attack in the waiting room.

Dentist agreed with me that tooth needed to be pulled.

He looked in my mouth and poked and prodded. I didn't realize he was numbing the area.

Never felt the shots.

Tooth was pulled quickly- I was surprised.

Next week, another appointment, another tooth pulled.

Sigh. Glad that's over with, at least for a week.

Ugh

Note to self: A toothache does not go away; it gets worse. So if your tooth hurts, do something about it. Quickly. While it's not that painful. You'll be glad you did.

Please pray for me tomorrow. I'm hoping to get into the dentist first thing. My tooth has been hurting me on and off for a while now, and it's to the point that I can't ignore it any more. It's screaming now.

I'm not looking forward to it. But, it's like childbirth. You do get to the point where you welcome the pain because of the result. My result? NO MORE TOOTHACHE. I hope.

Good Night, Sweet Ben

A good night drink.

A good night kiss.

A good night smile.

Good night, sweet boy.

Good night.

All Things Bright and Beautiful

All things bright and beautiful,

All creatures great and small,

All things wise and wonderful,

The Lord God made them all.

Each little flower that opens,

Each little bird that sings,

He made their glowing colors,

He made their tiny wings.

The purple-headed mountain,

The river running by,

The sunset, and the morning,

That brightens up the sky;

The cold wind in the winter,

The pleasant summer sun,

The ripe fruits in the garden,

He made them every one.

He gave us eyes to see them,

And lips that we might tell,

How great is God Almighty,

Who has made all things well.

Benjamin at 18 Months

Benjamin turned eighteen months old last Saturday. How is that possible? He is a character, is onery, loves to dance, loves to eat and loves to get wild.

He is talking a bit more, although most of it is still in his own language. He can say all our names, all of the dogs names and the names of several toys and, of course, cookie.

He is a joy! And a bundle of energy from the time he wakes up to the time he goes to bed. He keeps us busy running after him, but we love the little guy.

He reminds us so much of his big brother Zack. Benjamin, we love you and pray God continues to bless you!

Random Thoughts

• I was very pleased with our first week of school. Everything went very smoothly (well, everything related to school, not EVERYthing)
• The schedule I followed helped tremendously. Makes me wonder why I've been so STUBBORN in not following one the past 13 years...
• If you didn't catch that, we are now beginning our thirteenth year of homeschooling.
• I've got 17 more to go.
• I won't be done homeschooling until I'm 60.
• I'm depressing myself. (Just kidding!)
• We found out that our dog Trigger (click here to read Trigger's story) fathered puppies. They look just like him! We want one so badly; however, we already have THREE dogs. Adding one more would be too much. Wouldn't it???
• Paul Jr. started his second semester of college this week. I can't get over the price of his textbooks. One of them cost $200 and another cost $300. That is beyond overpriced- it's taking advantage. He did find one online for much less, and found another at Goodwill for $2. Gotta love Goodwill!

Good Night!

2009-2010 School Year

Zachary 12th Grade

Anna 8th GradeEllie 5th Grade

Samuel Preschool

Benjamin Baby Destructo

"Enough with the pictures!!"

My Students

The entire school

Preschool Field Trip

I took my preschool class (um, that would be Sam and Ben) on a field trip to feed the ducks down at the lake. As soon as we pulled in, here they came. Some even decided to fly in.

These are not the best pictures. I was on the dock with both boys, holding onto Ben with one hand, while trying to break up the bread and hand it to the boys and take pictures. I just knew Ben was going in, but thank God, he didn't.

Sam loved it!

So did Ben. And Ben also loved eating the bread.

Whenever the ducks would quack, Ben would quack right back at them.

Ben Dancing

Benjamin was born with an innate need to dance, much like his brother Zack. If he hears any kind of upbeat music, he is dancing to it. His favorite song to dance to is "The Ten Commandment Boogie" and all I have to do is start singing it, and he takes off. His dance moves are hilarious and I find myself wondering where he learned them from. He goes up and down, around and does funny things with his fingers. We love to watch him dance!

First Day of School

Today was our first day of school.

It went pretty well.

My hardest student was Ben. (no kidding!)

I have actually written out a schedule for this year. First time ever.

We did everything I set out to do today.

We'll see how tomorrow goes.

Pictures tomorrow.

Baptism on the Beach

Our church held a baptism at the lake in our community yesterday. The weather was perfect! No, it wasn't bright sunshiny, it was overcast. Bright sunshiny would have made it unbearable, but because the sky was overcast, it was cooler and breezy. It threatened rain all morning, but it held off until we were done baptizing and done eating. God is so good!

Ben wonders why we can't have church here every Sunday so he can play in the sand while Daddy preaches.

2 of the boys that got baptized. God brought this family into our church a little over a year ago, and in that year, they have become dear friends.

The Hawaiian Shirt wearing preacher.

Paul's cousins daughter Becky, who believed in Christ at Junior Camp a few weeks ago.

A young 5 year old, who understands and fervently believes in the Gospel.

"Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him all creatures here below. Praise Him above ye Heavenly host; Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen."

It was a wonderful day, as baptisms always are around here. I mentioned to Paul that it would be odd to have a baptism in a baptismal now, after we've done it in the lake for 9 years. It fits our church and it fits us!

Elizabeth Elliott

The routines of housework and of mothering may be seen as a kind of death, and it is appropriate that they should be, for they offer the chance, day after day, to lay down one's life for others. Then they are no longer routines. By being done with love and offered up to God with praise, they are thereby hallowed as the vessels of the tabernacle were hallowed--not because they were different from other vessels in quality or function, but because they were offered to God. A mother's part in sustaining the life of her children and making it pleasant and comfortable is no triviality. It calls for self-sacrifice and humility, but it is the route, as was the humiliation of Jesus, to glory.

To modern mothers I would say "Let Christ himself be your example as to what your attitude should be. For he, who had always been God by nature, did not cling to his prerogatives as God's equal, but stripped himself of all privilege by consenting to be a slave by nature and being born as a mortal man. And, having become man, he humbled himself by living a life of utter obedience, even to the extent of dying, and the death he died was the death of a common criminal. That is why God has now lifted him so high. . ." (Phil. 2:5-11 Phillips).It is a spiritual principle as far removed from what the world tells us as heaven is removed from hell: If you are willing to lose your life, you'll find it.

Anything, if offered to God, can and will become your gateway to joy."

Elisabeth Elliott

I found this little gem on one of the blogs I read and I thought it was perfect to begin the week with. Have a great Monday. We're beginning school tomorrow! Yay!

A Good Read

I think I've found a new favorite author. Her name is Lynn Austin and I read three of her books in the past few weeks. Two of the books were in the Chronicles of the Kings series, about Kings Ahaz and Hezekiah in the Old Testament. I couldn't put them down. They really brought the stories in the Bible to life. I went and read the Bible accounts of the books, and while she took alot of liberty, they were historically accurate.

The other book was historical fiction also, set in the early 1900's and is the story of 3 girls emmigrating to the United States. The name of this books is "Until We Reach Home and it is very well written and interesting. I will be checking out more of her books from the library this week.

Zephaniah 3:17

The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing."

Leftover Thoughts from our Vacation

• Big Canoe is built on a mountain. I have never seen such steep roads in my life. I questioned whether or not a vehicle could actually get up those steep roads, and well, it can! I was very uncomfortable on some of those steep roads, thank you Dad!
• Sam was sick all but one day, and Paul, jr was sick all but 3 days.
• We left a box of cereal and a box of crunch and much. We took (inadvertently) a washcloth.
• It's much cooler in the mountains. Or maybe we just wanted it to be much cooler. Either way, it's been HOT, HOT, HOT since we got home.
• We drove both the van and the car so we could have the luxury of 2 cars while we were there. The first night the brakes started grinding bad on the car (remember the steep roads mentioned earlier??) and we parked the car the entire time we were there. Oh well. With Paul Jr being sick, it really didn't matter.
• A GPS is a wonderful thing...except when you're in the mountains. We followed it the first night and it took us up and down very steep, very winding roads and we ended up just a few miles from where we started.
• If you don't like very steep and very winding roads, avoid roads with the words "ridge" or "view" in them.
• There's no place like home!

Monday

We left our beautiful vacation house and went home today. After some cleaning, packing and more cleaning.

Some of us were more anxious to get home than others.

I don't think Sam was one of those anxious to get home.

One last photo.

Goodbye Big Canoe. Goodbye mountain living. Goodbye rockslide. Goodbye vacation.

Hello Wildwood. Hello dogs. Hello new school year. Hello routine. Hello, life.