A Summer Evening

Walking to town.



Waiting to cross the street.



Warming up.



Waiting.





Time to sing.

Fairie House

Finally got around to constructing it although its not finished yet. Let me know what you think.

We obviously need a front but then I couldn't take pictures.

Here is the inside without the roof on.

Its located at the base of a tree that leans toward the Northeast. After our first try at building at this site, a thunderstorm with heavy rain and large gusts of wind blew through and we thought it was ruined. Nope. Completely intact and only one side was a little damp.

Kyle's Birthday

July 24th!

For breakfast, fresh blueberry pancakes and bacon. Yum!

For dinner, out to eat for Pizza!

Back home for cake and ice cream.

He's 14. What can I say? He likes to eat ;)

We'll celebrate with friends and family August 2nd as well.

Bargains for Scrapbooking

I read through those scrapbooking books from the library and one of them had an interesting idea for paper storage. I didn't think much more about it after that. Well, I was yard saling during our community yard sales and ended up finding the materials I needed, as well as a brand new scrapbook for $5. Seems like someone is trying to tell me something ;)

I've decided it will take me a while to gather all the supplies needed for scrapbooking so I will be waiting until winter to start. Unless it snows and I can go cross country skiing what else am I going to do?!

Here's a picture of my new scrap booking storage unit.

Did I mention that I got all the materials except the cable ties ($1) for free?

There are more wire squares and I only have 3 connectors left but I found the connectors online for $0.20 a piece.

I'm going to make some storage units for the kids because they really need them, there are no closets in their rooms. I really scored with this find as the wire cube units (6 cubes) sell for $35 a set.

My Transportation

My bicycle tires went kaput about a week and a half ago (can we say dry rot?). Kirk offered to buy me a new bike (my Schwinn was 16 years old) but I told him to just buy me some new tires and inter tubes. Well, a couple days later he came home with what I asked for but the valves on the inter tubes were like nothing I had seen before. So onto the Internet I went to search them out. There are two different types of valve stems; shrader and presta, mine were presta and I needed an adapter to inflate them.

While I was waiting for all that I needed to get my bike back on the road again, Kyle let me ride his mountain bike. Wow, it needed constant peddling to get anywhere so I have been getting a real workout using it.

Today, with the help of Bicycle Tutor, I put my bike back together! Boy does it feel good to be able to coast again ;)

Praise Dance

Our dance team Praise in Action was part of a local festival Ministerium Night last night. The band Unforsaken was playing as well and made room for us on stage. They worked it out for us to dance during their breaks from playing and to give us a break before our next dance. It was a real blessing and we appreciated all that they did. They even announced us before each dance :)

The road to last night was not an easy one. When we were initially asked to do this (February), I was so excited for the opportunity and so were the other dancers. A new dance was found for us to work on in May and then people's schedules, dislikes, fears, and a pregnancy came into play and it was beginning to look like there wouldn't be enough dancers to fulfill our obligation. I was plagued by nightmares, doubts, and fears that made me wonder if the request should have been accepted in the first place. I hadn't been having these kind of struggles with our dancing before, so where was all this coming from?

Looking back on it all now, I believe it was a spiritual attack. The new dance was a dance of spiritual warfare, something new for us. When we take a stand against darkness, it tries to convince us that we are not worthy and will put whatever stumbling blocks in our way that it can. I also believe God allowed it to happen so that I would learn to trust Him even more.

Last night was testimony to perserverence and trusting God. My daughter stepped up and filled a spot in the first dance, two dancers that initially didn't plan on dancing were in the last two dances (we'd done these ones in the past), we received many affirming comments afterwards, and the band leader even joked that one of their members was leaving the band to join our dance team ;)





Note: We did three dances to the songs "Till the Walls Fall" by Martha Munizzi, "Shackles" by Mary Mary, and "Sovereign" by The Parachute Band. (All these dances, and more, are available here.)

Busy, Busy!

Our church joined with another church to do Power Lab VBS this week. On day one we had 53 kids! I don't know what the count was last night but it was much much more than day 1. I have been busy taking pictures. Some of these were placed into a slideshow each day to be played for the kids at closing (there is a really neat software that helps you do this easily) and I have been told the kids look forward to these :)

We've had practices for our upcoming dance, July 16th......

A meeting for our homeschool co-op........

Getting Noelle to play practices on bicycle............

Running errands on bicycle............

Today I'm running more errands with the van (I can't haul my friend's yard sale stuff out of storage on my bike).............

Community yard sales are tomorrow..............

Sunday is our family reunion.....................

I also have all my household chores to do...........

I thought Summer was supposed to be a time to relax?!?!

A Gift

GRACE

G - God's

R - riches

A - at

C - Christ's

E - Expense


I heard this the other day and wanted to write it down before I fogot :)

Independence Day

Well, our 4th of July didn't have much celebrating, Kirk was sick all day and went to bed early. The kids and I were able to walk around the neighborhood and see the neighbors' fireworks before heading to bed, so it wasn't completely eventless ;)

Hope everyone else has/had a great 4th!!!

Homemade Waffles

Whole-Wheat Cinnamon Waffles

We made these yesterday morning for breakfast. They are our favorite and very healthy!

The Plunge

I'm excited and a little apprehensive about building our homeschool co-ops website over the next two months. I hope to make this a very viable and informative site for new homeschoolers and to help "veteran" homeschoolers to lighten up a little and stop over complying with the school district. Pray for me.

I know other's have different views than me on compliance, so it will be a little difficult for me to place incorrect information on the site without a fight, er, serious discussion ;)

Anyone know any good forums to join for website building newbies? I plan on using a WYSIWYG editor so I am not too worried, I just want to be able to get direct answers to my questions if I run into problems.

Okay, I like this one

I'm a Ford Mustang!

You're an American classic -- fast, strong, and bold. You're not snobby or pretentious, but you have what it takes to give anyone a run for their money.

"Take the Which Sports Car Are You? quiz.

Its my favorite car, well the classic 69 convertible is.

Hhmm....Really??

I'm a Talent!

You're a risk-taker, and you follow your passions. You're determined to take on the world and succeed on your own terms. Whether in the arts, science, engineering, business, or politics, you fearlessly express your own vision of the world. You're not afraid of a fight, and you're not afraid to bet your future on your own abilities. If you find a job boring or stifling, you're already preparing your resume. You believe in doing what you love, and you're not willing to settle for an ordinary life.

Talent: 56%
Lifer: 46%
Mandarin: 44%

Take the Talent, Lifer, or Mandarin quiz.

Interesting quiz Stephanie.